(in response to your rm fluff prompt post!)
moment(s) between levi and mikasa in the time period where eren went undercover in liberio :’)
He hates that he's no longer the only one awake in the middle of the night. He hates that he can't stop being alert, can't stop noticing the scrape of her boots against the cold, hard ground as she jogs circles around the military camp. Can't stop listening out for her steady footfalls to know she's there even when he wishes she'd shut the hell up.
Most of all, he hates that he understands exactly how she feels: the gnawing, bone-deep restlessness, the constant anxiety. He had that same disquietude inside of him when Erwin was court-martialed, crackling through his bones like lightning. He'd almost prefer it to how he feels now: lost and disconnected, like a marionette with a cut string.
He hopes she'll quit on her own, but after a week of even more restless sleep than usual, he's ready to wring her neck. A part of him is, anyway; as much as she can still frustrate him sometimes, that frustration is tempered by the knowledge that there's some kind of commonality between them, something arcane and unknowable. He can never seem to shake the feeling that she may be the only wreckage left to cling to in this world constantly on the verge of ruin.
He doesn't want to get angry with her, anyway. He's so tired of anger.
With a resigned sigh, he gets out of bed and turns on the light, puttering around his room in a familiar trajectory to fill his kettle with water and ignite his tiny stove. While the water boils, he walks over to the window and shoves it open, leaning halfway out of it.
"Oi! Mikasa!" he calls to her — or at least tries to, the sound coming out like a stage whisper. It takes a few attempts and some rather undignified waving of his arms to get her to notice him but eventually she does, jogging over with that same annoying scrape of leather on earth.
"Am I keeping you up?" she asks, an amused light in her eyes.
"No," he says flatly, and the light dims. "You worried about Eren?"
Her mouth presses into a thin line. She says nothing. Her expression is neutral but guarded, the lines of her body tense like she's waiting for him to surprise her with something terrible.
He tries another tack. "You haven't slept much this week?"
"Barely at all," she admits, quiet and shameful. She knows he knows why.
"Tch," he huffs. "Come in and have some tea with me. It'll help you sleep. I've... I've been where you are before, so I know. The tea will help."
She's silent for a few moments, long enough for him to panic that he has either wildly misconstrued her relative acceptance of him or that he's inadvertently propositioned her.
"Okay," she finally replies, and he's so relieved he honestly thinks about hugging her.
