Mike shoved Levi down the corridor towards the mess hall. The smaller man didn't like having the taller man behind him, hands firmly gripping his narrow shoulders and firmly pushing him forward. The reluctance was more than obvious: one hand clawed into the air as one hand clenched at the sleeve of Mike's decorated jacket.

"Just try it," Mike growled low in his chest, "Just walk up to the woman and tell her, politely, 'Ma'am, I enjoy tea a lot. Would you like a to know one of my tricks for brew-'"

"It's not one trick," Levi ground out, sounds emitting from just as low in his chest. "Everything she does is wrong. Every. Damned. Thing. She can't even get the water temperature right."

It was almost a month after the incident in Erwin's office. Levi's food tactic changed overnight: now he only brought food when Erwin was alone and always before the lunch and dinner hours so as to avoid the officers who met in Erwin's office to share those meals.

I'm providing Erwin with food. I'm not feeding the rest of you.

This lead to a discussion of the incident which lead to none of them knowing exactly what they said wrong. Levi's obvious strategic switchup meant something had gotten though. Erwin and Mike agreed the message they'd sent to Levi wasn't well received. Nanaba pointed out that it didn't matter: Levi was the low man on this Titan pole and could go over the Walls if he didn't like it. Hanji, as usual, was either somewhere in between or just orbiting in scientific observation: they suggested Levi needed to be taught proper communication skills. Skills that don't involve glaring, demanding, growling, or scent marking the room with his displeasure.

Nanaba drew the short straw for who got to be the first to try. Mike and Hanji laughed and hid behind the hay barn as Nanaba, astride her horse, approached Levi on a sunny afternoon near the end of an equine training class. The dark haired man saw her coming and the giddy smile she plastered all over her face widened his eyes. Either he was in trouble or the squad leader wanted a favor. Or to talk about Erwin. Or to warn him away from Mike. Or...

"Levihi. Howareyoutoday?"

"Suddenly constipated." He angled his horse away and kicked it into a trot, headed for the stables.

Nanaba arched both eyebrows, a determined set to her chin as she raced after him. Her brown warpony easily paced up to Levi's black nighmare of a mare.

"So I hear you've had some trouble out of Nigel. You know you can talk to the officers about your problems, right? We're here to listen."

"Pass." Rejected.

Hanji held their hands over their mouth so hard they were sure it was leaving bruises. Mike threw them down on their butt so they wouldn't be seen bent over laughing.

"Levi. You haven't caused any troubles in this class since you've been here. It's clear you like your horse and don't want to lose your riding privileges. Issues you have with other soldiers, even if it's just them having issues with you, need to be addressed or problems arise."

Levi pulled his horse to a halt and gazed at her as if they equals. "Understand this, Squad Leader Nanaba, I'm no snitch. When I have problems I deal with them. You'll never need to worry about whether or not anyone is getting along with me. Either they are, or they soon will be."

With that he took off for the stables again. Nanaba didn't know what to say to that, rooted in place where they'd stopped. The implication that Levi was quietly dealing with issues that arose around him filled her with a sense of foreboding and at once deep pleasure. Erwin was right about this one: he could handle himself. She signed, not wanting that sour puss' attitude to ruin her day. Let someone else try to get through to him. After taking care of her horse she passed the proverbial reins off to Hanji.

Hanji's drew the second shortest straw, followed by Mike and then Erwin. Hanji almost blew their chance though: Levi suddenly showed up at their lab to relay a message. When he saw the state of the place he lapsed into silence. It lasted till Hanji got inches from his face and poked his forehead. They were curious to know what could freeze the body of a man whom she'd seen taking down Titans like it were spear fishing in a barrel.

"Yoo-hoo. Levi. Levi. Levi."

"This place. This disgusting place. This fitly place. Is. This is where you spend all of your time?" Abruptly the man turned and spun out, hurrying with an urgency that bespoke a deep unease. Almost panic.

Hanji looked around their office wondering what the problem was. The piles of stuff were organized by category. The blankets in the corner where they slept sometimes had been washed just last week. You couldn't even see the dust on the windows because of the new curtains Erwin approved. These were fire resistant, even! What was the issue?

They chased Levi down the corridor and found him braced against the wall around the corner from the basement lab and wheezing for breath.

"Are you ok?" Hanji asked, startled to see the man in such a state.

"I am certainly not ok!" He snarled, grabbing Hanji by the harness strap across their chest and shoving them back into the wall in a move that abruptly switched their places. "You're a filthy animal. Even people in the Underground keep cleaner quarters than that!"

Hanji's face blanked for a second taking in what the angry man said. Normally the scientist would defend the state of their lab, pointing out the strategic locations of each and every single thing. Most of them were on the floor, or scattered around the table. Why put them on a shelf if you needed it often? That's what tables are for! But this, Hanji determined, was a prime opportunity to teach Levi some communication skills.

"Ok," Hanji said, "that's a fair assessment. Why don't you tell me the exact problem you have with the state of my lab."

Levi didn't expect that. He let go of Hanji abruptly and took a step back. Someone who wasn't being threatening, someone who wasn't cowing and listening, didn't need to be restrained against a wall.

"I just told you the problem," he said, "Is there as much clutter between your ears as there is in that fucking dirty room?"

"Well, then. What now?"

"Clean the fucking place up!"

"Try that again. This time without the insubordination."

Levi's white teeth clicked shut. He took another step back sensing a trap. Hanji had never scolded Levi for insubordination, had never pointed out even once that anything Levi ever did was wrong, or bad, or …

This must be Erwin's work. The though of giving the giant blonde a reason to narrow those cold blue eyes at him made him hesitate.

"Don't stop now," Hanji encouraged, "You're doing really well."

After a solid thirty seconds of not saying anything he finally took three deep breaths and said, "Clean your fucking lab or I will."

Hanji's smile instantly melted. The thought of someone touching their laboratory supplies, rearranging it into a nonsensical order, brought forth a kind of panic that wild Titans didn't. By the Walls, what if Levi got into my lab while I'm not there and threw anything away?

"Oh, yes," Levi said with a self-congratulatory expression, "I was sent to tell you that Erwin won't be having dinner in his office tonight. He's dining in the mess hall with the newest batch of Titan chow. Would you like to spend dinner in your lab again? I can be back in less than five minutes with all the cleaning supplies we'll need."

Levi being helpful is more scary than Titans.

Hanju leaned against the wall rooted in place. "On second though," the scientist said, not at all liking the feeling of Levi turning the tables as easily as he had, "I think I'll dine in the mess hall with Erwin. You know, the officers could spend more time with the recruits." They swallowed hard. "Will you be joining us?"

"No."

Levi strode away at once irritated at not being allowed to clean the lab, and relieved that Hanji wasn't about to belt him once again for not understanding those arbitrary 'insubordination' rules. He was fairly good at playing along most of the time – they key seemed to be acting like he had no individuality whatsoever – but when it came to cleaning he'd risk everything but being grounded or losing riding privileges to right a mess.

Insufferable, disgusting Surface dwelling louts.

A few days latter Levi found himself head to head with the tallest of the insufferable louts. Levi ventured into the mess hall for his daily ration of overbrewed tea. He found Mike waiting for him beside the almost untouched canister of hot brew and hesitated, wondering if Hanji had tattled on him after all. He'd never gotten in trouble for anything he'd ever said or done to that one, but maybe the lab was that one's weak spot and he'd inadvertently pushed the button. If anyone understood not wanting to have their territory messed with it was Levi.

"Levi, you like tea, don't you?" Mike threw a scent into the air which indicated an attempt at friendly conversation.

Wary, the dark-eyed man stopped short of the canister. Mike had spoken maybe five words to him in five months. Most of them were trying to get him not to kill Erwin when the psychic backlash of his pack-bonded friend's deaths nearly drove him insane. The memory of being in such close proximity to the two, of blood and steam, and all those anguished pheromones made Levi tremble inside. The outside stayed perfectly still. Mike showed no interest in things which didn't interest Erwin or Nanaba. Nanaba put whiskey in damn near everything, so her beverage of choice was either coffee or more whiskey. Which meant Erwin. Buy why was Erwin suddenly interested in the tea? He never showed a penchant for it before.

"Yes."

When nothing else was forthcoming Levi turned to leave, opting to not risk insulting the significantly larger man and risk loosing mess hall privileges again. Though Mike's body language was very relaxed and not at all territorial, it still set Levi on edge that he chose to park himself so close to something Levi wanted. He did it because Levi wanted it.

Mike followed. "I noticed you make a face every time you drink it. As if you're surprised by how badly it tastes. Why do you drink tea if you don't like it?"

Levi scoffed, "What that woman does is abuse of perfectly good tea leaves. It's a waste." Mike nodded. Levi often went on tangents about how wasteful things on the Surface were. In the Underground you can believe that people learned to do things properly the first time because wasting anything got you smacked, burned, or deported in pieces.

"So... you like tea. Just now how she makes it?"

Mike's attempt at conversation was about as bad as Levi ever attempted. In the back of Levi's mind he

4th month – communication – tea making

5th month – Blade trust and territoriality

6th month - clothes making and reading skills

7th month – Oranges sharing and friends

8th month – Injury and community

9th month – Horndog and obiedience

… and two weeks- inadvertant leadership skills

Next time on: AoT Omegaverse

Naming bets

nesting behavior

terriritoriality of the base, x10

"How can you work in that environment? How do you not set yourself on fire? I sleep in this building. What happens if you shitty experiments catch fire and all that