The Feeling's Mutual | Levi x Reader

six - vesta

The turning point in your relationship with Levi, when it goes from forced toleration to a bit more understanding, happens on a Tuesday, midway through November. 

It's another late night of work, and nicely enough, the study hall at your residence is mostly empty. You and Levi are no strangers to late nights of work, especially not with this project in particular. The next deliverable is due on Friday, but your and Levi's silent agreement has been to try and finish up reports a few days in advance to leave a few days for review, which has worked out well for you two so far.

It's mostly work done in silence with intermittent snarky quips, so it's pretty productive. "How much longer do you think we'll be?" Levi asks, clicking through something on his laptop.

You shrug. "Depends. Are we planning on finishing?"

"Ideally."

"Then maybe another... hour, ish?"

"Half an hour of work, and half an hour of you bitching and complaining?" Levi muses.

You roll your eyes. "More like half an hour of work, half an hour of you being an asshole."

"Split the difference, then."

"So half an hour of work, fifteen minutes for you to be a bitch, fifteen minutes for me to be a bitch."

"Sounds about right."

"Works for me." You raise your eyebrows at him. "Why, you got somewhere to be? Weekly trip to the strip club?"

Levi scoffs. "Just want to make sure I don't cut into your beauty sleep, because I'm well aware you need it."

"Oh, go fuck yourself."

"Anatomically, you know that's not possible. I thought you were smarter than this."

"You can find a way, I have faith in you."

Silence falls once again, but it's comfortable silence, like it usually is. You lose yourself in your work, drinking in the information from the journal article you're reading- it's aligned almost exactly with what you're trying to frame in this specific report- and you're in one of those moods where you're typing faster than your brain can keep up, and the words just keep flowing.

You're so in the zone, in fact, that when Levi's phone goes off, you nearly flinch.

His phone is set to vibrate, and the series of buzzes makes the whole desk buzz. Levi picks up his phone, takes one glance at the caller, and you see his expression pinch up. Not necessarily distaste, but... worry? Maybe? Is that even possible for Levi?

He stands up, disregarding everything he has in front of him and marching across the room with his phone to his ear. "Hey," you hear him say. "What?"

Very curt and to the point. You're not surprised.

Is it worth giving him some courtesy and not eavesdropping? You're curious about his conversation, especially considering you've never seen him care about anything other than his grades and making your life miserable. No, you're better than that. You won't listen.

But then, you hear Levi say, "yeah, I'll be there soon," and your interest is piqued. This is affecting you now- this report's due in a few days and he's planning on ditching? It must be for a decent reason.

You cast your eyes back to your laptop as he walks back towards the table. "Who was that?" you ask nonchalantly as you pretend to skim your report.

"I need to go," Levi says curtly, and he starts jamming all of his belongings into his backpack.

You pretend not to care. "Have fun," you say dryly.

He nearly pauses, but then he's back to shoveling notebooks into his backpack. "What, not going to give me shit?" he says, and you meet his eyes. He's glaring at you. "Not going to bitch at me for ditching this? Guilt me into doing shit? Digging into wherever the fuck I'm going?"