Chapter Thirteen – A Year in Time, pt. 2
Levi really was looking forward to training Quinn with her blades, but a certain someone had conveniently started to go missing.
He isn't sure if it's because of the colder temperatures, or if it was out of some looming sense of embarrassment. She still didn't seem to grasp the fact that Levi had zero intentions of mentioning that drawing to her — at least, not until he gets the chance to look at it for himself. It was obvious that it was a drawing of him, but he has no idea in what context.
He intends on finding that out.
Levi had told himself that he would hunt Quinn down if she went missing again yesterday, and low and behold, she was nowhere to be found. So now, it was time to start hunting.
He should've just waited around her room and followed her from there, but damn it, he didn't think it would be this hard to track her down. The most likely places were quickly checked off of his list, and now Levi was left grasping at straws. He had checked nearly every square inch of the headquarters, and was now lurking through the vast underground storage rooms as a last resort. He's about to call his search off as a loss, when he hears a soft grunt echo from his left.
Levi is dead silent as he makes his way deeper into the room, and at first he doesn't see anything, until he glances up above. Hanging from one of the support beams is none other than his target, facing away from him, blissfully unaware of his presence and doing… pull ups?
"Seriously? This is what you've been skipping out on your training for?"
With a familiar yelp, Quinn drops to the floor in surprise, scrambling to balance herself to avoid falling flat on her ass. It's only when she starts to straighten up that Levi notices that for once, he had found her training out of uniform.
She wasn't wearing anything worth noting, really. Just a gray set of thermal underwear that she had repurposed as an athletic outfit (which wasn't surprising, given her relationship with the cold).
But it was… snug. For lack of a better word.
Now, despite her petite size overall, Quinn wasn't exactly rail thin. She was a highly skiled soldier, and was built rightfully so, with a flattering silhouette of muscle framing her arms and legs. Most of that muscle was centered in her thighs, providing her with her unwavering core strength. The pants she's wearing aren't much tighter than the ones of their uniforms, but the material is softer, lighter, clingier. Levi can see little details that would normally be hidden away by leather belts and frumpy uniform jackets. The soft dips on her side where her waist meets her hips, the smooth arch of her back that holds his attention in a damn vice grip, coaxing his eyes further down—
His brain fucking short circuits.
Just when Levi is right at the precipice of coming to his senses, Quinn turns to face him, and he notices that her shirt is just a hair too short. It offers him only the smallest glimpse of the delicate lines that defined her abdomen, and fuck his mouth is going dry.
It's only when Levi's eyes urge him to look up even further, to paint himself a greedy greedy full picture, that he finally snaps the fuck out of it.
He'd punch himself in the face right now if it wouldn't make him look batshit insane.
Levi's eyes dart to the floor, face turning beet red as he (tries to) casually turn his attention to something else. The floor, the walls, the crates — anything else but her. He had just gotten real fucking lucky that he managed to turn away before Quinn realized that he was staring.
Levi was not a man who ogled at women like that. He knew that he liked women, but he's always admired them almost like a piece of art more than a desire. He's seen plenty of pretty women before, but he's never felt compelled to look.
He was just caught off guard. He's always been an overly observant person — his eyes had just taken in too many little details before he even had the time to think about it.
"What the hell is it with you and sneaking up on me?"
Levi forces himself to shut off every thought in his head — resetting himself back to his default state.
He's not about to let that depraved little corner of his brain paint her in that sort of light, intentional or not.
"You didn't answer my question."
Quinn has a guarded look in her eyes, shifting her attention between him and the floor with her arms crossed. "I sneak down here in the winter. Too damn cold outside."
"So why didn't you tell me?"
"We never actually talked about setting a schedule for the ODM training."
The hint of attitude in Levi's voice seems to have riled Quinn up a bit. She's just mouthing off to mouth off at this point — she knows damn well that they'd established a routine weeks ago. She also knows that doesn't change just because the training was supposed to shift from maneuvering to combat.
Little brat.
"You sure this doesn't have anything to do with that little drawing in your book?"
That's when Quinn's mask starts to crack. The bluntness of Levi's question causes her mouth to part slightly, stuttering a bit before she formulates a response. "What drawing?"
"The one you have of me that you tried to hide that night during the expedition." Levi crosses his arms and cocks his head slightly. "You've never been embarrassed about drawing people before, what makes this so different?"
"I-" Quinn is at a loss for words. Her eyes shift to the side. "I'm not embarrassed about it."
"So then what is it?"
"It's just… cheesy."
"Cheesy?"
Quinn goes from having her arms crossed, to gripping the side of one nervously. "The picture you saw, it is of you. Smiling."
That alone is almost enough for Levi to crack the fuck up then and there. She can't be serious.
"Do you think I've got an aversion to anything remotely happy or something?"
"No! It's just… it can feel a bit awkward when the person I drew is actually looking at it in front of me. Not a lot of my subjects are exactly alive."
Quinn tries to make the last part sound lighthearted, but her shoulders stiffen up ever so slightly.
She's lying.
"Can I see it?"
That question causes Quinn to clam up even further. He sees her swallow a lump in her throat as she glances over to a bag sitting nearby — one that she had probably packed with whatever she might need down here.
He knows damn that book is one of those items.
Levi doesn't have to say anything — Quinn is already walking over to retrieve the bag. When she bends over to pick it up. Levi glues his eyes to the floor and makes sure they fucking stay there.
When Quinn hands her journal out to him, she's already got a page bookmarked with her thumb. "Just go easy with the jokes." she mumbles, trying her best to avoid looking him in the eye.
Levi takes the book and opens it, and he wasn't sure what his initial reaction would be, but he wasn't expecting to be… confused.
It's a drawing of him from a side perspective, the silhouette of the picture of Furlan and Isabel in his hands. It was very obviously him, but Levi didn't recognize himself. She made him look...
Softer.
His eyebrows are more relaxed, and his mouth isn't frozen in a straight line like it is any other time he's seen himself. He's never exactly smiled in the mirror before, but he can't possibly believe that it makes him look this different.
Levi notices Quinn examining his conflicted expression out of the corner of his eye, and how it makes her confidence plummet. He speaks up before she has the chance to say anything.
"Stop. It's not like that."
"Then what is it?"
He really isn't sure how to say it. "You made me look… different. "
Quinn is speechless for a moment, his response obviously unexpected. "Well, I just drew what I saw."
This was how she saw him that night?
Levi's eyes switch from the book, to Quinn, then back to the book. The drawing didn't resemble most of the sketches in her journal — it was more like the one she had made when she took him to that waterfall.
She was careful with this. She spent a lot of time on it.
To be the inspiration of an artist's work was something he didn't think he was capable of.
"I'm sorry if I made you look ba-"
"Shut up. I like it."
There's a complete look of shock on Quinn's face when Levi hands the book back to her, one that only intensifies when she notices that he is, once again, smiling.
"Well — good, then." she stutters out and tucks her journal back under her arm, avoiding his eyes as her cheeks fade a light pink.
"Now stop acting so damn weird."
Quinn forces out an exhale and tries to loosen her up posture. "I'm sorry. I really didn't think you'd care all that much about me skipping out."
Levi tuts and crosses his arms. "I told you before that I value my time."
"I know." Quinn grimaces apologetically. "I'm sorry."
He doesn't give her a verbal response, instead reaching out and messing up her hair, shoving her head back a bit. Quinn lets the smallest smile slip across her face.
Fucking finally.
"So what, you come down here, do five pull ups, and call it a day?"
Quinn taps the side of his leg with her foot — softer than usual, given she's not wearing her uniform boots. "Try fifty."
"That's cute."
"Well how many can you do?"
Levi snorts. "I have no idea. I don't have that kind of time."
"Riiight." Quinn rolls her eyes and struts back over to her bag to return her book.
Levi's eyes go straight back to the floor.
"You really think doing a few basic exercises in some filthy basement is gonna supplement actual training?"
She crosses her arms and glares at him like she's offended. "It's worked fine for me so far these past few years."
Levi hums doubtfully, then decides to put her words to the test. With one smooth motion, Levi kicks one of his legs and swoops both of Quinn's out from under her. She doesn't even come close to reacting in time, landing flat on her ass.
"That wasn't even that fast. You're slow."
Quinn's jaw drops as she stares up at him in shock, her surprise quickly turning into outrage. "What the hell, Levi?!"
She tries to stand up and make a dive for his legs, but Levi avoids her with ease. Quinn ends up diving straight back into the floor, landing on her chest with a grunt. Levi kneels and plants a knee firmly into the arch of her back, holding one of her arms by her wrist and twisting it behind her.
"You probably think you're in tip top shape, don't you? I bet you're awfully happy with your performance, given no one else has been around to actually challenge it."
He's got her fully subdued — at least, under normal circumstances. But, with a force that would easily snap the wrist of a regular person, Quinn pulls her arm out of his hold and uses it to knock him back just enough for her to squirm out from under him. Shockingly, she manages to find her bearings before Levi can pull her back down. He stands up across from her, the smallest glint of amusement in his eyes.
"Don't back down now. You almost actually learned something."
Levi is well aware that he's taunting her, but Quinn has a habit of making it way too easy. She isn't used to losing, and he knows for a fact that she's got an ego that she buries deep down inside herself.
He's not above prodding at it if it gets her to actually work with him.
Quinn huffs and swings her right arm, which Levi catches firmly in his hand. He turns her around and hooks both of his arms under hers, pulling them behind her and rendering them useless. His head is just behind hers, his mouth closer to her ear. "Not even your oh-so virtuous commanders can fully subdue you, can they? But I can."
Quinn pulls and jerks herself around, trying to free herself with desperate grunts. Levi tightens his arms even further to fight against her efforts.
"Do you actually think that anybody weaker than you could teach you a goddamn thing? You came to me for help, and now you're trading it so you can hide in some basement."
Quinn starts to kick her feet back against his legs, hammering her heel into the front of his calf over and over again. Levi responds by kicking her feet out from under her, forcing her to hang from his hold.
"You aren't gonna die on me because you got soft over the winter. This isn't fucking recess. Now, fucking listen to me for once and tap out."
She resorts to trying to use her own body weight to pull Levi down with her. It's useless, but she tries anyway.
"Stubborn."
Quinn lets out a couple more frustrated grunts before she finally stops moving. "Okay," she groans out. "I give."
Levi releases her from his arms instantly, and she collapses forward onto her knees, her chest heaving.
"Are you okay?"
Despite being out of breath, Quinn still somehow manages to huff out a laugh. "Ironic of you to ask after that whole display."
"I don't want to hurt you. Discipline is essential in any form of training, and you and I both know you weren't going to listen to me without it."
He pauses and walks around her slowly, pressing a finger to her forehead and tilting her head up to look at him.
"You and I both know you can do better. So, I'm giving you two options. Either you suck it up and start taking your ass back outside, or I come down here with you and maybe I can teach you how to stay on your feet."
There's nothing but compliance in her eyes, gentle pools of soft green reflecting back up at him. She looks like she's genuinely considering her options.
Then she lunges for his legs again.
Levi stumbles backwards, almost losing his balance before he kicks her off of him in one swift movement. He can feel his boot dig into her abdomen, launching her back a few feet. Quinn lands on her side and curls into herself, clutching her stomach with a groan. Levi stomps over to her and kneels down, this time grabbing her by her hair and pulling her head up so they're face to face. That smug look he had was long gone, instead now filled with concern. Angry, pissed off concern, but concern nonetheless.
"You damn idiot. I said I don't want to hurt you."
Quinn's mouth is parted slightly, huffing as she tries to suck the oxygen back into her lungs. "I choose down here. I'm not going back outside."
"You're fucking unbelievable."
*︎**
Quinn's hand to hand training seemed to go just as well as her ODM training did. She was the perfect student — efficient, receptive, and quick to pick up on things.
It still wasn't possible for her to get a hand up on Levi, but he could tell she was progressively getting stronger, faster.
They did get a bit less productive after a while, but that could be partially due to the fact that it was becoming ridiculously easy for Quinn to get caught up talking. It's a lot easier to stay on task when you're actively flying through the air than it is on the ground, and Quinn always seemed to be buzzing. They'd end up sitting around on the wooden crates while she rambled instead of on the floor being productive.
That's partially Levi's fault too, though. It seemed like Quinn was getting even more comfortable with being herself around him, and that made him happy. So happy that he started to not give a shit about correcting her.
Things at HQ had died down considerably, and with the winter holidays coming up, people were starting to disappear to spend time with their family. Quinn said that she was just going to be gone for the weekend — which was fine.
It's not like she knew.
Aside from the slightly-unnerving emptiness inside the castle, it was another completely uneventful day. Levi actually ended up talking with four-eyes for a very short amount of time. Apparently they didn't have any family to go home to either.
Hange always acted strange, but they seemed a bit extra eccentric today. Levi had no idea why until he got back to the barracks that night and saw two things sitting in front of his door — a paper bag, and a small white box.
He brings both of them inside of his personal room (one of the very few demands he had for staying in the Scouts) and sets them both on his bed. He looks inside the bag first and pulls out three new tins of various kinds of tea. The packaging on the front was neat and intricate — high quality. There's no note or tag included with them, so he moves on to the box. When he opens it, there's a small card sitting at the top, covering something that's wrapped in a soft paper. He picks it up and reads it.
'Sorry I couldn't be there in person, but I'd have my neck wrung by a certain six year old if I missed the holidays.
What, you didn't think I'd find out?
Happy birthday, Levi (:
PS: Thank Hange for the tea!'
She didn't even sign her name, but he knows it's from her. Of course she'd figure out when his birthday is, sneaky little brat. She probably snuck into the records room, just like he did.
He drags his thumb over the small smiley face that she drew next to his name, and mirrors it.
Levi tucks the card neatly next to the bag, and takes the mystery object out of the box. He can tell what it is before he unwraps it — it's a tea cup. That alone makes him more than happy, but when he unwraps it, his heart shoots up his throat.
It's not an exact replica, but it's similar. Very similar. It's porcelain white, with a thin trim around both the rim and the bottom. Winding around the top trim are several tiny leaves and vines. These accents are much smaller and neater than the ones of his mother's, and while those ones were tinted a dark blue, these are a soft gold, light catches the metallic-looking surface ever so slightly.
It takes Levi several tries to swallow down the massive lump in his throat. His eyes drift to the handle of the teacup.
He is never touching that fucking handle.
***︎
Levi cannot believe he's about to go to the single craziest person that he knows for advice.
He really shouldn't need someone to hold his damn hand over this — he should be more than capable of figuring something out on his own – but he just can't help but feel like he wants to play this safe.
Levi finds Hange in their make-shift workshop, barging in unapologetically. Both Hange and Moblit are huddling near a microscope, nearly tipping it over when they jump in surprise. The first thing Levi does is nod his head towards Moblit. "You. Out."
Moblit listens. Most people have learned to listen to Levi by now.
"Alright, alright. Where's the fire?" Hange asks as they set aside their work.
Levi chokes out the words like they're painful to say. "… I need help figuring out a birthday gift for Quinn."
Hange immediately starts cackling — full on belly clenching, knee slapping cackling. Levi grits his teeth and takes a moment to talk himself down from ripping their damn throat out.
"That's what's got you so worked up? You must be desperate, huh?"
"Shut the fuck up. She got me something nice, it's only polite."
He was right, to be fair. He'd look like an asshole if he just ignored her birthday after she went out of her way to get him something. Plus, she had been doing an amazing job with her training lately. Levi dragged Quinn's ass back outside as soon as the last snow melted, and she had retained practically all of the information he had taught her before. She was also already doing extremely well with her blades.
He'd be a mega asshole if he didn't get her something.
"Alright, well are you asking because you want to get her something super duper nice, orrr?"
"Not nice like expensive nice. I just want it to be something she'll actually like."
There's an amused tone to Hange's voice when they respond. "Hmm. Considering how much you two have been up each other's asses lately, I would've thought you would know of something by now."
"Are you gonna keep running your shitty mouth or are you gonna help me?"
Hange presses a finger to their chin as they think. "Well, she's a fairly simple woman, so anything remotely pretty or cute is a safe bet."
"That's too broad. Do I look like I know 'pretty and cute' to you?"
"More than you might think." Hange grumbles under their breath.
"What was that?"
Hange laughs nervously and scoots right past their snarky comment. "Umm… She likes sweets! Maybe some kind of cake or cookies or something."
"I don't want it to be something that's gonna be eaten and shat out in a day. I want something that'll last."
Hange pauses again and continues searching for ideas, then perks up with excitement. "I've got it! There's this little art store in Trost that she loves to go look at all the time. There's gotta be something there."
Surprisingly, that idea isn't so bad. The only problem is Levi doesn't know a damn thing about art supplies.
"I doubt I'd know what half of the shit in there is used for."
Hange groans dramatically. "I'll go with you! Now are we done? I need to observe these samples before they die off!"
Levi grimaces at the disturbing way Hange says 'samples'. "Yeah, whatever. We're done."
When he leaves the room, he finds Moblit sitting just a little too close to the door, obviously eavesdropping. Levi points a threatening finger at him. "You say anything, and I'll cut your tongue out and feed it to you."
Moblit nods frantically as Levi walks down the hallway.
*︎**
He's just as clueless as he thought he would be. Who knew there were this many different kinds of paper?
Hange isn't being much help, either, and Levi really isn't sure why he thought they would be in the first place. They're just about as knowledgeable as he is about everything here.
"Hey! I think I've seen Quinn use these pencils before!"
"There's gotta be something here that's better than fucking pencils."
"Well I don't see you coming up with any ideas!"
Levi has to nearly bite his tongue off to keep from spitting several obscenities in the middle of the store as he keeps walking, when something unusual looking catches his eye. It's a flat rectangle container with different compartments, each filled with an unknown substance of varying colors. It looks like paint, but no kind of paint he's seen before. The contents of this look to be rock solid.
"Hange," he calls them over as he inspects what he found. "Does Quinn use anything other than pencils?"
Hange rushes over to where Levi is. "Ooooh, you found watercolors!"
Levi stares at Hange with a blank face.
"You use a wet brush on it and it mixes with the water to make paint, basically. They aren't very common, though. I'm surprised they even have this. Paint costs a pretty penny outside of the interior."
Levi glances from the paint palette to the price listed below. It is, indeed, a pretty penny.
But not so pretty that he couldn't afford it.
It's not like he has any big expenses to spend his money on.
"Has Quinn used these before?"
"Not actively," Hange says as they continue to comb through merchandise. "She has talked about it, though. Like I said, it's a rare find."
That was good enough for him.
***︎
Quinn woke up exhausted from the long ride from home.
Her birthday had fallen on a Monday, so she had requested the weekend beforehand to go see her family. She was very quickly regretting not requesting her birthday off too, only having gotten three hours of sleep the night before. She manages to get herself decent enough to drag herself out of her bedroom door, when she nearly trips over something at her feet.
Quinn looks down and finds an inconspicuous unmarked bag. She snatches it up and takes it back into her room.
She can see that there are two different things inside, pulling out the taller and more prominent item first. She recognizes it instantly — a can of tea. It's one that she had seen around once or twice, but never tried personally. She examines the back of the tin where she finds a note attached.
'It's my favorite, so you better like it.
Happy birthday, brat."
The 'brat' alone is enough of a signature for Quinn to know who it's from. A stray butterfly flutters in her stomach as she sets the tea down on her desk and pulls out the second item, a flat rectangle sitting at the bottom. She nearly drops the damn thing when she realizes what it is — a watercolor palette. High quality too, with a sizable arrangement of colors in a beautiful wooden box. On the bottom, she finds another, smaller note attached.
'Make a big deal about it and I'm taking it back.'
Quinn smiles so hard it makes her face hurt.
*︎**
Quinn received one hell of a birthday present that day — and she wasn't just talking about the paint. That day was the day Commander Shadis announced their first expedition of the year, taking place in just one month. And to make things even better, it was the very next day after this year's spring festival.
She could hardly contain her excitement. To finally feel the fresh breeze of the outside world again, and just after what's arguably her favorite celebration of the year. That combined with how successful their last few expeditions had been, she couldn't help but let her heart swell with hope — the hope that they'll finally get one step even closer to finding whatever phenomenon awaits them at the end of the world.
The year 845 was going to be absolutely legendary for the Scout Regiment. She was sure of it.