October 1998

Hanji was sitting in the cafeteria with her three friends before class when Furlan and a bunch of his teammates walked through. He hadn't had a chance to talk to her since she and Levi had hung out last week. He watched as the boy across from her got hit in the head with a balled up breakfast sandwich wrapper Floch had just thrown at him. Hanji scowls at Floch and his friends as Floch was laughing with Nile and Boris about it. Furlan broke off from his teammates and made his way over to Hanji and her friends. He caught the next wrapper Nile threw and threw it back at him. He sat down next to that snot nose kid Levi had pushed the other day, and across from Hanji. "Hey." She said, smiling at him. "How you doing?"

He shrugged. "Pretty good. Got that big game coming up. I'm excited about that."

"Against St. Maria right?"

"Yeah big rivalry game." The other three weren't looking at him. He didn't know any of them and could feel the kid next to him discomfort. The other girl he knew was from his history class last year, he thought her name was Kelsey or Cenzie or something. "I'm Furlan by the way." He introduced himself to the others.

"Oh yeah sorry. Furlan, this is Cenzie, Abel and Moblit." They all mumbled a hello clearly not comfortable with him there.

"You mind walking me to class? I got something I want to ask you." He said not wanting the others around or to make them even more uncomfortable.

"Sure."

He waited until they were in a quiet hallway near the computer lab to ask her. "So how was the mall?"

She sighed. "I don't know." She admitted. "He was, well, Levi but also weird. I don't know."

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad."

"I wish he'd just tell me cause he was cold for some of it but then when it was just the two of us he was like normal, like we were friends. But he won't talk to me unless I force him to but I don't know." She fiddled with her glasses.

"Don't take it personally, Hanji." Furlan said he meant to say more but the bell rang.

"I gotta go, Mr. Shadis hates when we're late." Hanji said apologetically. "But I'll see you at lunch and I'm going to go to your game!" She promised.

"Okay see you Hanji."

It took Furlan until the end of the day to corner Levi. "Hey," He said evenly as he came up to the shorter guy.

"Tch." Was all the response he got out of the shorter guy.

"Look Levi, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about me and Hanji hung out. I know you care about her."

"I don't–"

"You do! You get mad at me if I hang out with her, you say I'm not good for her. All of that means you care about her Levi."

Levi shot him a withering look and went to leave, but Furlan stopped him. "Fine, you don't care for her. Then you'll have no problem just being a man and telling her to her face that you don't want to be friends with her like you were when you were kids. You'll have a perfect opportunity at the football game. Don't lead her on cause you're right, she does deserve better."

"Levi, let's sit up there!" Isabel points to the top of the stands in the far corner.

He opens his mouth to say, 'yeah sure' but looks up in time to stop himself as he follows her finger to find Hanji, Moblit and Cenzie sitting there. Of course, they would be sitting there, he groaned internally. "I don't know Isabel what about–Hey!"

Isabel had already gone up the stands to where she had wanted to sit. He gritted his teeth and reluctantly followed her.

"Hey," Hanji said to him as he sighed, sitting down a seat or two away from her. "I didn't know you were going to be here."

He shrugged. "Furlan made me," he said shortly.

Isabel peered at Hanji from around Levi, "Hi," She said.

"Hey, I'm Hanji."

"I'm Isabel, you know big bro?"

Hanji's eyes went questioningly to Levi. "Yep." She said, popping her p.

"Furlan's little sister." Levi offered with a grunt folding his arms and wishing the game would just start already. Hopefully that would give him a reason to ignore her and he would be saved from intrusive questions from both Hanji and Isabel.

"Ahh, I'm Furlan's friend too." She told the twelve year old.

Levi saw Isabel's eyes light up. He had never introduced her to anyone anytime he took her to watch her older brother play and Furlan didn't introduce her to many friends. He slumped down against the chain link backing of the bleachers and pulled his hood up against the cold October air. This was going to be awful. Why did he have to agree to take Isabel to watch Furlan play? He should have just said no, no to bringing her and no to coming at all.

High school football games were fun. Hanji liked to hangout with her friends and the games were entertaining. She had watched Furlan play before but this was the first time she had seen Levi at the games or met Isabel. Isabel was adorable. She was so sweet to talk to and it made Levi grumpy which was just as entertaining to her. But that wasn't what mood she wanted Levi in when she cornered him tonight. Her stomach turned, she was nervous about talking to him. She knew that was stupid because it was Levi. But she had to, she knew it would be best just to get it out of the way and move on in whatever way they could.

"Levi, come get some hot chocolates with me." Hanji told him, at the end of the third quarter.

He gave her a look and started to shake his head.

"Oo big bro can you bring me back one?" Isabel of course asked immediately, watching her brother run back onto the field intensely.

Levi glared daggers at Hanji telling her silently to take it back. She only cocked an eyebrow meeting his challenge with one of her own. He scowled and opened his mouth to respond in the negative when Hanji slid her foot over to touch his own. He looked over at her carefully.

"You and I are going to talk at some point tonight." She whispered to him. "We can do it with an audience if you want."

"Fine." He grumbled and left Isabel with Hanji's friends to go get the fucking hot chocolate.

They walked over the concession stand near the school gym. Hanji pulled him in between to shipping containers that were used as storage. It gave them privacy but he was not thrilled about being this close to her suddenly feeling trapped by the walls and her. "Look, I don't know if I'm reading you right and you want to be friends or if you don't want to be friends." She said plainly, wasting no time.

"Hanji…"

"Since when are you evasive? You're always blunt Levi. I like that about you." She said irritatedly spreading her arms. "Just tell me what you want here." She told him.

Levi didn't know why he couldn't say anything right now he just froze, numbly stuck there staring at the wall slightly to the left of her, trying to formulate a response. The words stuck lodge in his throat.

She sighed. "Furlan didn't say it but he hinted that you don't think I should be your friend for," He's able to pick up the awkward beat before she finished, "for some reason."

"You shouldn't." He finally said.

"What? Why?"

He looked down. "Cause I'm not the same kid you were friends with."

"Well duh, neither am I."

"It's different, Hanji." His eyes flicked up to hers for a moment.

"Why? cause you had a difficult life since I last saw you? Cause you get in fights? Moblit told me that." She pressed.

He cringed and was silent for a long moment."Did he tell you that it was me who hit him?"

"What?"

"Yeah, that day we met again. I was called to the office because I shoved him into the lockers." He kicked lamely at a small rock near him.

"Why?" Her big warm brown eyes are soft trying to understand.

"Doesn't matter." He half turned away from her not wanting to see the pity or disdain in her eyes.

"Yes it does." She shoves him in the shoulder forcing him to look at her again. He goes silent again almost against his will. There is a part of him that desperately wants to tell her, tell her everything but the more logical part of his brain knows it's not worth it. She wouldn't like him or forgive him.

"Levi!" She grabbed his shoulders. "Talk to me."

"Hanji just let it be." He said tiredly.

"No, I'm not going to let this go until you tell me why you hit Moblit and Why you don't want to be my friend." She persists stubbornly.

"Fine. Furlan is right, Moblit is right. I don't think it's a good idea for you to be my friend. Cause I shoved Moblit for no reason other than he was there and this– you and I being friends won't end well. So let's just not okay." He half snapped at her.

"What if I don't care, cause you're an idiot and I don't believe you. There is a reason. There has to be." She crossed her arms. "Look, You were my best friend. I hated that we lost contact after your mom died. I hate that you had to go through that alone. I want to be your friend. Because frankly I don't think you've changed that much."

"You've always been the smartest dumb person on the planet." He scoffs. "You're crazy if you think that's true."

"You know what I think? I think you caring what it means to me, proves that you're still the quiet guy who cares way more than he lets on." Hanji's way to close to him all of the sudden. He can feel the heat radiating off her body and he wants to pull away and step closer at the same time. They're nose to nose and he can't look away from her eyes.

"You're crazy."

"Yep, but crazy enough to be your friend." They stared at each other for a long moment. His brain just couldn't function. "Just say yes, Levi."

"Fine Glasses." Levi gave in.

"Yes!" She hugs him and he stiffens. "I'm so glad we got that out of the way." She grabbed his arm and pulled him along. "Come on, we gotta get hot chocolate now!"