Levi awoke the next day in his bed with a splitting headache and awful stomach cramps. On the bedside cabinet was a pint of water and some asprin, and a note from Eren saying not to worry about the night before, he did nothing and said nothing to embarrass himself. Levi figured that if that were true there would have been no need to write it. He groaned, sitting up to down the medicine before dragging himself to the bathroom to relieve his aching bowels.

After frying up all the meat and eggs in his fridge, he sat crosslegged on his sofa to watch some tv. With tired, dark eyes he munched his breakfast almost mechanically, waiting for the thumping in his brain to subside. He was trying not to think about what he could remember from last night. He was confused though, he could have sworn Mikasa was there, and the thought made him rub his ribcage, where a discoloured bruise had appeared. He shoveled more eggs into his mouth as he watched a commercial for bug spray, and thought about dragonflies.

He felt a sickening jolt in his stomach then, he'd been talking about Hanji the night before. He rubbed his face with a groan, he knew he'd made a comment about their ass. Levi's appetite had disappeared, so he dropped his plate on the coffee table and lay down on the sofa to whine to himself about his own stupidity.

He ended up falling asleep after fifteen minutes, and was only awoken by the sound of his phone ringing. Irate from being woken, he got up to sluggishly walk to his bedroom and fish in his pockets for his phone. He didn't recognize the number calling, but answered anyway with a rather harsh "what?"

"Yoooo! Levi!"

He felt the room shift under him as Hanji's giddy voice yelled in his ear. "What do you want?" he asked rudely, feeling his face heat up as he sat on his bed. "I wanted to thank you for yesterday! My friends and family were watching the interview and they all called which they don't do often and it was really cool and they're sending me a recorded copy of it and-"

"Yeah, super, ok, whatever," Levi sighed, rubbing his temple with his free hand. The headache was starting to come back, "I'm hanging up now."

"Ok then! Have a nice day, I'm gonna go down and take some notes at the egg site and see how those babies are growing, it's gonna be so cool when they all hatch there has to be a good few hundred eggs from what I've seen which means there's probably even more all over the place and-"

Levi hung up the phone and dropped it on the bed, before putting his burning face in his hands, lying back and curling up on his side with a frustrated sound.

Two weeks later, Levi was being driven to work, and was looking at a picture he had found in his bag. It was the same photo of Hanji Zoe that had been in their file, and he had decided to keep it for reasons unknown to even him. He was telling himself it was a warning to never take on any form of field work ever again. Eren had caught him looking at it twice now and was making comments that were earning him smacks. He had no interest in this damn goofball, they were filthy and loud and had weirdly large hands. Nevertheless, his cheeks grew rosy whenever they were mentioned.

At the studio, he went straight to Erwin's office to tidy up the mess he knew would be waiting there. The blonde giant was waiting for him when he entered the office, to Levi's surprise. "What're you doing here so early, Erwin?" he asked as he approached the desk. "Gunther came back with a few new idols so we're having a Special tomorrow for them," the man said as he focused on the paperwork in front of him. Levi worked around him, cleaning up files and pens and mugs, "that mean I have tomorrow off?" he asked as he threw wrappers and scraps of paper into the trash. "No, no, you'll be recording out in Dauper again, the dragonfly larvae are going to hatch and the Network wants a follow-up," Erwin replied as if it were no big deal. Levi dropped the mug he was holding, and it shattered on the floor. Erwin looked up from his work as if seeing Levi for the first time, "are you ill? You're bright red."

"I am not going back to that shitty place with those shitty bugs and that fucking shitty goggles Hanji!" Levi protested, he damn near stamped his foot like a child. Erwin had no reaction to this, "Ackerman and Jaeger have been briefed on this already, they'll be over to get you at dawn," the man shot Levi a sultry smile, "wear something old, you're gonna get dirty."

For the rest of the day people tended to avoid Levi. Even Mikasa was on her best behaviour despite being one of the few people who could talk back to him and insult him. Levi was on the warpath and was having a very difficult time maintaining his calm, suave personality on air, though when their celebrity chef, a young woman named Braus, fixed him a special herbal tea in their on-set kitchen, he seemed to calm down straight away and was almost giggly for the remaining hour.

"The secret is pot," Chef Braus shrugged when the cameras were off, and she slipped Eren a small bag before she left. He was glad Mikasa had not seen, he would have to convince her to let him try it later