Late October 1998

Levi was shifting awkwardly next to her as they neared Hanji's bus stop. He recognized the neighborhood still after all of these years. The Zoe's had bought a new house a few blocks further than their last house had been. It was a normal suburban development of two story single family homes. He hadn't been to a neighborhood like this since two months before his mother had died when she had finally stopped working or more accurately could no longer do it. As they walked up to her house he got progressively more nervous for no reason. It wasn't like he'd never come over when they were little. He knew her family, he had just seen her father. There was nothing to be nervous about.

They stepped inside the foyer and the house was nice and clean but instead of calming him down like a neat room normally would, he felt worse. He didn't have the nativity he did as 6 year old Levi stepping foot into Hangi's house for the first time. Everything in him told him he shouldn't be here.

"Come here I want to show you something." Hanji said, leading him through the kitchen and into the dinning room. On the far wall was a massive fish tank.

"You upgraded from Ruby." Levi said remembering Hanji's goldfish she had when they were kids.

"Yeah! This is me and my dad's baby, we got clownfish, nemo themed names of course, royal gramma, tang…"

He began to relax as she ranted to him about her fish. What species they were, how old were they, if they were technically edible etc.

"Anyway so we decided that it would be funny to go with fish food related names for the rest of them. So the Tang is Sushi and the royal gramma is Fish sticks and the small one is called Fish filet." She explained, smiling maniacally.

"Crazy ass four eyes." He laughed in spite of himself.

"See! It's funny! Mom says it's messed up, but me and dad like it." Her dad was a mechanical engineer with a strange flair for eccentricity like she had.

"Oh it's definitely messed up." Levi agreed. She shrugged unbothered. He eyed the large Lego sets on the shelf in the living room. "Upgraded the Legos too."

"Yeah, I still love them and they're fun to build. My mom puts up with it as long as we keep it contained."

He remembered the only time he got Lego as a kid was as a birthday/Christmas present from the Zoe's. Her dad, ever the engineer, loved them and would buy Hanji them often. He and Hanji had spent hours building and playing with Fire trucks and police cruisers as kids.

"I've got the candy story and pet shop. The Eiffel tower is dad's." She explained. "I've got some others in my room." She wandered into the kitchen, "You want a snack?"

"Sure."

"Oreos good?" It wasn't really a question she was already getting them but he agreed anyway.

They began doing their homework. Levi had never actually done his homework unless he was utterly bored during in school suspension. The football coach who watched them would purposefully drop a stack of old textbooks on the desk if he caught them sleeping. Leaving him bored out of his mind enough to try his school work. He wasn't very good at any of it mostly because he didn't care enough to pay attention in all of his classes. Hanji had started making him pay attention in English though, she would talk to him during classes about whatever they were doing and he would make sarcastic remarks to make her laugh and subsequently get them both in trouble. It had also started to let him understand at least what they were doing now. A Month ago he wouldn't have been able to tell you what book they were reading, now he at least knew it was Romeo and Juliet.

He smacked her hand away as it inched towards the last oreo sitting on his plate. "Don't even think about it, you might be blind but I'm not."

"Fine." She sighs dramatically at him. They both go back to the math homework she had been doing and he had been failing at.

She reaches for it again, fast this time, grabbing it. He lunges at her, grabbing her wrist and pushing her down off the couch. She struggles but he's stronger and pins her underneath him pulling the cookie out of her hand and smirking down at her triumphantly. She stared up at him a little bit surprised he had tackled her off the couch over it. It was then he realized the position they were in. He was hyper aware he was straddling her and suddenly felt very uncomfortable about it. "Shithead." He scowled at her, jumping off of her quickly and eating his Oreo trying to cover up his discomfort.

She laughed awkwardly as she got up. "Um, well, for how much Furlan teases you I thought a neat freak like you wouldn't just spill crumbs everywhere."

"It's all your fault." He muttered but did sweep up their mess the best he could with a napkin.

-November 1998

"Hey freckles." Floch called out to Moblit sitting with Hanji and Nifa at their lunch table. It had been a great day until Floch had stomped over to annoy them."What the hell man? I only got a 72 on that math assignment."

"Sorry I'm not in that class." Moblit mumbled.

Floch slapped the sandwich out of Moblit's hand and crushed it on the table."Well its your fucking problem cause I'm in that class."

"Oh come on Floch if anything he did you a favor, no ones' going to believe you got above a 72." Hanji said losing her cool. She was tired of him being a bully to her friend. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Levi get up from the table he had been sitting with Furlan who was two steps behind him.

"Stay out of it bitch." he snapped at her before turning back to Moblit. "You need to do better on my math work. And Your nerd ass and your dyke friend need to watch your mouth."

Levi hadn't seen it start. His back had been to Hanji's table, but Furlan stopped mid sentence to focus on whatever had happened behind his back. He turned his head to see what Furlan had been watching and saw Floch standing over the Snot-nosed kid and Hanji glaring over at him. Floch wouldn't back down and Hanji was done with him bullying her friend, he knew it. He was on his feet moving toward the table. Hanji was telling Floch to fuck off, just by the way he was looking at her Levi had already decided he was punching him even without the next words out of his mouth.

"What did you just say?" Levi hisses his voice deathly cold at him from behind.

"What? Fu–" The words aren't even out of Floch's mouth before Levi's hands are on him. He slams him hard into the table behind them.

"Don't ever say a fucking word to her again. Do you understand?" Levi spat at him and let him drop to the ground as the teachers grabbed him, yanking the boys away from each other.

All five of them were herd away into the office. Levi didn't say anything he'd long since given up arguing or defending himself. Naturally all of their parents were called and naturally Kenny was nowhere to be found.

"I think it's best for them all to go home for the day but Floch and Levi are suspended for the week for fighting."

"I didn't even touch him!"

"And use of inappropriate language." The principal continued pointing it towards Floch. "If this happens again the punishment will be more permanent for both of you this isn't your first time Floch you already used up you get out of jail free card. This can't. happen again. Promise me it won't?"

"I won't ma'am." Moblit caved immediately.

"Yes." Nifa agreed.

Hanji, Floch and himself were more stubborn. "I hope it won't." Hanji finally agreed under the principal's glare.

"Yeah." Floch huffed as well.

Levi hadn't looked up from boredly studying the school steal on her desk. "Levi?" The principal prompted.

"As long as he doesn't say anything to Hanji or hell the other two."

Floch scoffed.

"Because if you do, I promise I'll knock your ass out." Levi turned fully towards the other boy.

"Don't push it Mr. Ackerman." The principal warned him harshly. "Go home."

They all started to leave, "Levi, a minute." The principal called to him, so he stayed. Hanji hoovered by the door concerned but eventually left. "This can't keep happening Levi." Principal Altman sighed at him. "You're lucky you were defending your friend otherwise I'm not sure what I can do for you if you get into any more trouble this year. I know you care about her and I know you did the right thing but please think about your own future the next time because you might not be able to stay here next time."

"I won't care." Levi told her simply. She sighed at him but opened the door for him to go.

"You have to wait for your uncle to pick you up." The assistant reminded him.

"My uncle is not going to come." Levi told her.

"I'll give Levi a ride home." Hanji's dad offered.

"I'm sorry sir but–"

"No it's fine this time Faith." Principal Altman told her assistant. "You have to sign some papers and we need a copy of your license but it's fine this time."

She handed Levi a form. "Change the emergency contact." She told him pointedly. She knew he was basically a system kid. She knew he wasn't in a stable home and his uncle really could care less if his nephew did good in school or went to school. Principal Altman, while far from his favorite person, had been more than fair to him over the past two years. He'd been in enough trouble and as such had sat in her office enough days waiting for an uncle who would never show up to know that if Levi, who had a single friend made during his time in foster care, would let someone practically hang off him any time she pleased and tease him ruthlessly and barely get a snarky comment in return was more to him than his current legal guardian.

They went back to Hanji's house. Her dad worked from home the rest of the day, leaving them to watch whatever they wanted. Hanji had insisted on forest gump and making nachos. Levi was busy cleaning up the kitchen while Hanji put the movie on when her father walked in.

"Thank you." He told the teenager squeezing his shoulder as he put his own dirty glass in the sink.

Levi shrugged uncomfortably, talking about it. "It's nothing."

"It's not nothing you know she'll never admit it but it does bother her on some level. So thank you, beyond that it was the right thing to do for the other boy too."

"Levi!" Hanji called him.

"Go on, I'll finish here." He nudged the younger man towards the door.

It wasn't lost on John Zoe that nearly every adult that spoke of Levi never had anything good to say about him. He knew the boy had not grown up in ideal circumstances even before they moved away. But he was a good kid then, quiet, sure, but a good kid. Now no one seemed to think so. Not the principal:

"You know Levi?" Principal Altman had asked when Hanji and Levi had left.

"Yes they were best friends when they were little." He had said.

"Oh, I suppose that makes sense…" She said almost to herself.

There had been something in the way she said it that made him pause. "What do you mean?" She hesitated. "He's a good kid."

"He's not the best at making friends." She said diplomatically. "He's strong and perseverance."

Not an old friend who was a teacher at the school:

"Who did you say your daughter was friends with?"

"Levi Ackerman."

"Oh."

"You know him?"

"Uh Not really." He grimaced. "What teacher did she get?"

Not any of the parents who had been called with him:

"Why were you with him in the first place?"

"Mom, he's the one that helped me and stopped it." Moblit had protested.

"You shouldnt be around people like that, this is what happens."

Yet, whenever Levi came over, which had turned into at least 3 times a week since Hanji had met him again, he was still the same quiet but extremely polite and respectful young man he had met all those years ago. Sure, he wasn't afraid to give Hanji a taste of her own medicine, but he was never mean about teasing her. Above all he knew Levi always had a loyalty streak that ran through him and that was clearly still there for his daughter. He was glad Levi had punched the other boy, not Levi, not Moblit and certainly Hanji deserved to be bullied. Still what had happened to him especially after his mother died.