Long Time, No See - Levi x Reader (Modern!AU)

04 - Time Passing Us By

It's been somewhere around two and half years since that day. Summer was back, and we were in the worst heat wave of the season so far. It was absolutely dreadful outside. It was a dry heat. Not that I thought humidity would be better, but it would give me something different to complain about.

Since that first holiday season together, many kids have been adopted, and many more had been brought in. Armin, Eren, and Mikasa were still here. There were a few other regulars, all younger than myself, and none quite so close to me as those three. Not for a lack of trying, but there were groups that just tended to keep to themselves. 

And that was fine. I couldn't say I wanted to be friends with everyone, obviously. That would just be exhausting.

But as for Levi and I... well, we were still here.

Other than growing a little taller, getting a little smarter, and growing ever closer and more reliant on each other, little else had changed. He was still Levi, through and through; meticulous with his cleaning, harsh with his words, well-meaning in his actions.

And I was still me. Though I would say that I had grown more mature. Levi would probably disagree, but that was only to get a reaction out of me, I was sure.

Right now, we were up in the attic. In hindsight, it was probably not the best idea, because warm air tended to rise, and we were in the highest part of the house, but we were away from everyone else, which was really why we were here. We could handle the heat, if it meant we could be somewhere a little quieter, somewhere a little less chaotic.

Levi was reading, and I had been reading too, but I'd gotten tired and opted instead to pass the time in a different way. I had a rubber ball in hand, bouncing it off the floor so it'd hit the nearby wall and bounce back to me. It was simple and mindless and even more boring than what I had been doing before. But at least it was something.

The two of us were sitting back-to-back, leaning against each other. For no real reason at all, I rolled my head to the side to bump it with his. In response he lifted one hand and flicked the back of my head all without a single word uttered, making me curse lightly and wince. 

"Ass," I muttered under my breath, with no real heat in my voice. I didn't feel the need to apologize or let him know I was only joking; he knew.

I could hear the voices of the kids outside stream in through the open window that was doing an awful job of letting the fresh air in. Honestly, it might have been nicer to go outside and sit under the shade of one of the trees, but Levi hadn't wanted to do that, and we'd probably have to fight off a bunch of kids to get to the shade, and neither of us were in the mood for that.

Tossing the kids out of the way would be easy enough. Keeping them away - and keeping them quiet - would be the real issue. So we were taking our chances up here.

And besides all that, they were all so damn energetic. I don't even want to know how they had all the energy to run around outside right now, much less be loud about it. It was exhausting to even think about.

Since Levi had come here, we'd grown close. Very close. Barring those first few awkward days, we became friends – real friends – relatively quickly. And after that, despite my pestering and teasing, we really did progress into best friends. 

It wasn't because I'd just pushed that title on him, because things had just naturally progressed into that.  I mean, pickings were slim around here, but it was almost as though we were drawn to each other, in a way.

I just always felt like I was at peace when I was around him. Safe, too. Like nothing could hurt me. I wondered sometimes if he felt the same way. Then again, he never would say that kind of thing out loud, and it wasn't like he ever pushed me away.