Levi x Reader - Patience

9

These past few months were nothing short of amazing. You had quickly gotten a liking to Hange and became close friends right away. She would invite you to her lab and you would gladly accept, as you let her talk her head off about her theories and experiments. Sometimes it would be just the 2 of you and sometimes Moblit, Hange's second in command and assistant would be there along with Jean who was there just for your company. Hange truly admired you as a friend, you seemed to be the only one who didn't mind her endless talking. You even grew excited every time she herself grew excited even if it was over small news or improvements to her theories/ experiments. The day Hange's precious Sawney and Bean passed away unexpectedly, she came crying to you and you only. You understood her emotional attachment to the creatures and held her. For a whole month she refused to see anyone and only allowed you or Moblit into her room. She would ask you to take her paperwork to Erwin and Levi for her, during those times which you kindly accepted and every time you entered Erwins office, a smile never failed to appear on his face. He was always glad to see you, he would even invite you to chat and have a tea ready for you and you would stay until you had to excuse yourself. Levi on the other hand was the same old. He always looked annoyed, when you came in. You couldn't tell if he was annoyed at the fact that you were the one bugging him now or the fact that you came to stack him with more work to do. But neither less he should be happy he's catching a break from loud Hange, because you wouldn't even talk to him unless it was absolutely necessary.

One day you couldn't help, but feel bad for Hange seeing how awful she had gotten. She was being harsh on herself and had little to no motivation to continue, believing all her work and energy is just a simple waste of time. You were upset to see her in this state of mind and you were even more upset over the fact that almost no one ever recognizes Hange's amazing work. She would spend countless days working nonstop with no sleep and yet, no one celebrated her accomplishments nor patted her back and told her she was doing a good job if it wasn't you or Moblit. You were more so disappointed in both the commander and the other captains for never congratulating her or thanking her for all her hard work. She always went the extra mile and you wanted her to see that. Staring at a quiet Hange you knew what you had to do. You told her you had to go drop off paperwork to Erwin and headed out to his office. Knocking on the door, you were allowed entry. Entering the room you see both the Commander and Captain Levi discussing something. As soon as Erwin saw you, his face lit up.

"Why hello, L/N ! What brings you here? I have no papers for Hange today" 

The fact that Erwin nor Levi didn't even ask if Hange was feeling any better upset you.

"Commander Erwin, Captain Levi. With all due respect I find it quite rude that you've never once have asked for a check up on Hange nor the fact that you've never celebrated her success for all she's help accomplish for the Survey Corps thanks to her amazing brain and experiments. I think it's high time you get up your asses and give her at least a pat on the back or a good job. Hange is down in dumps and both of you can care less, how can you both be so selfish" you said, holding down your attitude for these were your superiors and you had no place to speak to them like this in the first place. You quickly huffed and looked down waiting for their response.

Erwin was startled by what you said, he didn't feel mad. He actually thought about it and came to the realization that you were right. He had never fully acknowledge Hange nor all the hard work she's put in. He simply placed his head in between his locked hands that were held up by his elbows that were set on his desk and went into thinking mode. Levi on the other hand did not take it well, who the fuck were you to be speaking to him with such disrespect. He grabbed a fist full of your hair and drag you down to the ground where he believed you belonged, with the dirt.

"WHO TF DO YOU THINK YOUR TALKING TO LIKE THAT BRAT!" 

you didn't respond.

"OI! IM FUCKEN TALKING TO YOU! ANSWER ME YOU PIECE OF SHIT"

You looked up at him in fear, but you were not gonna take back what you said. It was the truth. Instead you looked down and accepted the beating that was coming to you. In a swift moment you felt his foot connect to your side and felt the immense pain of the full kick. Then another one, followed by a next one. You groaned in pain holding your side, you felt tears running down your face with black mascara marks running down your cheeks. Levi swung his foot as back as he could to get a good high power kick, but felt himself be shoved away. He turned to see Erwin who told him to stop. He looked so concerned for Y/N it made him almost sick, he's never seen him in such a caring state. This was the man who was not afraid to sacrifice soldiers lives including his own for humanity, yet here he was comforting Y/N, picking her and pulling her into his chest and wiping her tears away not caring if the black streaks or the chunks of her mascara stained his shirt.

"Levi, she has a point. We've done nothing, but nag over Hange and her experiments, but we've never truly stopped to think of all the benefits we've gained thanks to her. We haven't even asked how she was doing this whole time, we just left her alone to deal with her own sorrow"

Levi didn't respond. If we're gonna celebrate Hange's stupid success then what about his? After all he is humanities strongest. His train of thought broke as he heard Erwin ask Y/N what she had in mind to celebrate Hange. Soon her quivering lips turned to a small smile. Oh, how Levi wanted to do nothing but push your head down to the dirt and suffocate the shit out of you. Who were you to control Erwin's actions and decisions.

"...Well at first I thought of a  little mini surprise party" you sniffed and continued, "but she's done so much for us that's practically nothing compared to what she's done for all of us. Also as I think about it, she's not the only one who's success is never recognized....."

You turned to look at Levi. 

"Humanities strongest is never truly celebrated"

Levi stared at you with an unamused look, but deep down was surprised  you even took him into account especially after that harsh beating. 

You then looked up to stare into Erwin's eyes

"We haven't celebrated the Hope of Humanity either"

Erwin squeezed your shoulder as a thank you to the kind words.

"and I think everyone else should also have a place to be celebrated, high rank official or not. We all do a lot out here and it never goes noticed. So why not make an annual "Survey Appreciation Day" where we can celebrate one another. We can have a MVP award every year. but I think we all know who it goes to this year" you said with a bit of a quiet chuckle.

"Even if we did do that, where the fuck are we gonna get the money to throw a celebration like that and annually? Out of our ass?" said an annoyed Levi.

"....Actually I'd like to pay all the expenses myself" you said.

The two men's eyes shot up to look at you. 

" Where would you get such money L/N?!" said Erwin. 

"Oh, well actually my dad's side is heir to a company and it's passed down to me...so yeah. I would appreciate it if we however didn't disclose this information out. I would hate to be viewed different over a stupid status"

Erwin was seriously in such awe. How could you be rolling in filth of riches and yet still continue to be so kind and caring. He was over the moon to hear that you choose to join the Survey Corps when you had no hardships that would lead you here, you just did this voluntarily out of your own will, for the sake of humanity. To Levi it made sense why you had such a nasty attitude, you were just another privileged spoiled brat who escaped from her world to come play make believe. 

"Well then...." started Erwin 

"What day are we thinking?"