Sweet Dreams, Tennessee

Reckless Serenade

"For fucks' sake, no. You sound like those damned interviewers." He snapped, "I'm competing with someone. Please, can we just leave it at that?"

"And competing with someone would automatically translate to you changing your entire personality?" You placed Luna on the floor as you folded your arms, eyes narrowed and locked onto Levi's grey orbs. It annoyed you that Levi was trying to be someone different and you wanted to at least understand the reason for the sudden change.

"No. Do I really seem that different to you?"

"I don't know." You bit your lip, you couldn't exactly tell him that you actually preferred it if he didn't try so hard to be like someone else. You liked him perfectly for who he is, flaws and all. "Who are you even competing against?"

"Jean, damn it." He hissed in frustration, averting your questioning gaze.

Your anger dissipated and was replaced by pure confusion, "What? Is this about the argument you had with him the other day?"

"Probably."

"Didn't you guys have it resolved?" You pinched the bridge of your nose and let out a loud sigh, "Listen, I can't have my friends fighting like this any longer. Can you please just tell me what happened?"

"It's nothing you should know about." He hissed, still looking away from you.

You stood up to grab your phone that was on the coffee table, "Fine, then maybe I should call Jean and ask him what's up since you're such a stubborn prick."

Levi widened his eyes in alarm as he grabbed onto your wrist, "Don't."

You tried pulling your wrist back but his grip was strong, "Then tell me." You said softly when you saw the conflict in his eyes.

Frustrated, he stood up from the sofa with your wrist still in his grasp as he neared you, making sure his grey eyes looked straight into yours, "You know what? You're right, I've changed. I don't even recognise this pathetic dumbass that you've turned me into."

You took some time to process his words in your brain. It couldn't be that he was about to confess, could it? It can't be. He had that whole mystery girl he was telling you about. 

Could it be that he was referring to you this entire time? You blinked a few times, trying to stop yourself from thinking too far ahead. It was to no avail, however, as you felt yourself trembling and your knees going weak as you opened your mouth to speak, only to be met with silence. Your chest was now in pure chaos as thoughts of Levi confessing his feelings to you flashed in your mind.

He released his hold on your wrist, lowering it down slowly to intertwine his calloused fingers with yours. His face grew closer as his voice lowered into a whisper, "When I... When I hear you laugh, God, it's so sweet. It's like a fucking stun gun; so fucking mesmerising yet calming that it can actually help put me to sleep instantly."

"I've always been aloof to everyone else but since I met you, but recently it feels like everyone else is just even more of a dick without you around, as if I need your presence to actually calm me down. I've been trying to figure out exactly what this feeling is for the longest time, I've tried to reason with myself but I'm not getting anywhere. How the fuck can I be capable of having feelings for someone else?"

For the first time, he smiled softly at you, "I have never loved anything until I loved you. It's ridiculous."

The chaos in your chest only grew worse with every word that came out from his mouth, your lips trembled as you tried to hide a smile, "W-what?" You let out only to be met with his lips crashing onto yours. He tightened his grip on your hand as if to make sure you're real as he held the back of your head gently with his other hand.

You closed your eyes as you returned the kiss, allowing yourself to melt into the embrace of Levi Ackerman. You breathed in the all too familiar and intoxicating scent of nicotine. You could tell he was a nervous mess as he kissed you, your teeth colliding into his. He lifted his hand to your jaw, tilting your head slightly upwards to deepen the kiss, making sure that he wouldn't accidentally hit your teeth again.

After what felt like forever, you felt your lips met with a chill as Levi pulled away from you. "That was fucking reckless of me," He mumbled as he let go of your hand, walking towards his helmet that was on your kitchen island. "You don't have to give me an answer right now." He said as he picked up his helmet and left your apartment, never turning back to look at you.

"What was that?" You whispered to yourself as you felt Luna rubbing her head against your legs. You stood there, a hand reaching to your lips as you tried to blink away the giddiness that was in your head.

***

"What?!" Nanaba exclaimed as her eyes shot wide open. You placed a mug onto your coffee table for her as you plopped down on your sofa next to her. She decided to drop by your place since she was in town for the week. It's been almost a year since you've met her since she was busy travelling all the time for her job as a runway model.

"Yeaaaah, that kind of happened." You dragged your words out as you laid your head on her lap.

Nanaba leaned back on your sofa, playing with the few strands of your hair. Her short, blonde hair reflected the sun in your room that made her seem to glow. Her blue eyes were equally as bright and she always seemed to light up the room no matter where she went.

Though you looked nothing like her, people were always mistaking the two of you as sisters, since you practically grew up with her and the fact that your dad also had the same shade of hair and eye colour certainly did not help.

"So did you say anything to him yet?" She asked, twirling a strand of my hair with her finger.

"No, I mean, it literally just happened and I haven't had any shifts with him yet." I looked up at her from her lap.

"What about Jean? Does he know?"

You let out a small sigh, "He's one of the few issues I have. Knowing Jean, that was probably the cause of their fight during the music festival. So yeah, I think he knows that Levi has feelings for me. But not the kiss, he doesn't know about that yet."

"Are you going to tell him?"

You groaned, "But that's why you're hereeee, you're supposed to tell me what to do because honestly, I don't know!" You pouted as you threw a little fit with your body, causing Nanaba to chuckle.

"You're such a baby. Tell me how you said everyone thinks of you as the mom of the band again?" You continued pouting and folded your arms. Nanaba had always been such a mother figure towards you and you couldn't help but want to be like her. She flicked your forehead, "Well, what I think you should do is to think about your feelings. Do you really like this Levi guy?" You pondered and nodded your head. 

"So what's stopping you?"

"I don't want it to affect how we are as friends." You mumbled as you stared at the ceiling, taking note of the tiny specks of dust that were sticking to it. You should start cleaning soon...

"Aaaand?" She probed further.

You bit your lip, you hated how she could always see right through you. "I don't want to hurt Jean."

Nanaba cackled, "You're exactly like your dad. You care too much about how others feel. Jean's a big boy, I'm sure he can take it." Her slender fingers reached out to your face as she slowly trailed your forehead to the bridge of your nose lightly, "You can't be so selfless all the time. Isn't that what happened to you and Jean? You stayed because you didn't want to hurt him."

Her fingers eventually reached the tip of your nose, "Talk to Jean, dummy." She flicked your nose.

Your hands flew to your nose as you shot up from her lap, "What the hell, Nanaba?!"

"You love me for it." She smirked.