Back when Levi first joined the scouts, he was mouthy. Always bordering on insubordination, but never enough to get written up. He was too smart to actually jeopardize his position. This was, after all, the first time in his life he’s had a guaranteed roof over his head and three square meals a day.
And although he’s always prided himself on being a rational man, Erwin’s patience was wearing thin.
He’s always been one to take risks
And one day, when Levi Is being particularly vexing, Erwin makes a split second decision and brings down his hand, open palm, on Levi’s cheek with calm precision.
Levi’s head snaps to the side from the impact. His eyes immediately glaze over, lips slightly parted in shock.
A few second go by in agonizing silence before Erwin’s pulse starts to quicken. He’s miscalculated. He’d assumed someone raised in the harsh environment of the underground could only be bought to heel using some sort of physical violence. Now he suspects he’s just triggered some kind of panic response in someone he’d always suspected had a rough childhood. Idiot.
Erwin is about to sputter out a mortified apology, when Levi’s let’s out a shaky breath. He turns his head, looks at Erwin with hazy eyes, and utters a curt but breathless “sorry sir”, before turning his back and (quickly?) walking away.
Erwin feels terrible. He spends the rest of the day thinking up ways to apologize.
He doesn’t know that when Levi walks away he feels this pulse thrumming under his skin, feels his face flushing, not with humiliation but with a feeling he can’t describe. A feeling that makes his blood run hot.
Later, he traces the faint hand print on his cheek, and finds that he does not dislike how it looks.
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