So it’s come to my attention that @ask-your-captain-levi has been having a less-than-stellar 2017 so far and we’re only two days in :( I whipped up a little something to try and help cheer them up. Hopefully this makes your 2017 just a teensy bit brighter :) <3
The little shits had been more frustrating than usual today, and he didn’t understand why.
First there was Sasha bringing over a pot of the most disgusting-tasting tea Levi had ever had the misfortune of tasting.
Then there was Armin attempting to saddle his horse for him despite knowing Levi much preferred doing it himself.
Why someone had thought it would be a good idea to delegate Jean and Connie for lunch duty was beyond his understanding, but he said nothing about it.
Even when Mikasa had cleaned up his office and moved all of his shit around, he still made sure not to say anything.
All he could assume was that they had all done something wrong and were trying to placate him before he found out what it was.
The final straw of the day was when he walked into his bedroom and found Eren on his hands and knees scrubbing the floor. The entire room smelled like disinfectant, which normally didn’t bother Levi, except that he usually didn’t go to bed immediately after having cleaned his room.
Not to mention it looked like Eren had tried to remake his bed, and while the shit had gotten better at cleaning of late, he was no expert at making beds. Not to mention he’d laid out Levi’s clothes for the next day on a chair, which Levi specifically left in his closet so they didn’t get wrinkled, and he was clearly only half-done with the room, which meant Levi would have to wait for him to finish before going to bed.
“What the fuck is this shit?” he demanded, making Eren jump and look up, rag still held in his hands.
“I’m cleaning your room.”
“Are you implying my room is dirty?”
Eren didn’t seem to have considered that his cleaning could be construed as believing that and he paled. “I—no. I just thought—”
“Is that what that burning smell is?” Levi asked coldly. “You attempting to think?”
The brunet bowed his head, and Levi could see the faintest hint of pink colouring his ears. Either he was embarrassed, or he was mad. As long as he didn’t Titan-out right in the middle of Levi’s bedroom, he could be as mad as he wanted.
“Sorry. I was just trying to do something nice.” Eren got to his feet and started to brush past him but Levi shifted in front of the door, stopping him from disappearing.
“You’ve been acting weird today,” Levi commented, eying the teen. Eren was avoiding his eye, looking away at something across the room. “All of you. Jean being an idiot is one thing, him I’m used to. What’s with the rest of you?”
Eren hesitated, but he seemed to realize he wasn’t going to escape the room without answering him, so he just slumped his shoulders in defeat.
“We were just trying to do something nice for you.”
“Because we appreciate you, and you’ve seemed a little... moodier than usual lately. We figured something had upset you, so we wanted to try and cheer you up.”
Levi stared at him, wondering if he looked as surprised as he felt. Everything that had happened that day, from the horrible tea, to the shitty saddling, and the disgusting food. Everything they’d done, they had all done for him? Because they’d been trying to be nice?
It was a weird feeling, realizing that all the unusual events of the day had happened because of people trying to be kind. They’d all failed abysmally, but he supposed that wasn’t the point. The point was that they had tried. They had tried to do something nice to cheer him up.
And even better: they had noticed he was upset. Levi prided himself in being very good at hiding his emotions, so for them to have even realized something was wrong meant they were paying attention.
He felt more inclined to believe it was Eren who’d noticed, given he’d been around the longest, but the fact that all of them had agreed to try and help... that felt really nice.
Levi turned back to his room, eying the half-finished cleaning job. He knew Eren hated cleaning, but he’d been here, on his hands and knees, scrubbing at the floor in an attempt to make Levi happy. The corners of his mouth quirked upwards for the briefest of moments.
Eren turned back to him, startled. “What?”
“Are you deaf? Get another rag and let’s finish this job you half-assed.” He snatched the rag out of Eren’s hand and went to crouch down where the other had stopped working, beginning to scrub at the floor once more.
He heard footsteps disappear down the corridor, but they returned moments later and Eren was on his knees beside him, not looking at him but smiling a little.
Levi allowed himself a small smile of his own.
His little shits might be incompetent at menial things, but at least they cared enough to try.
He supposed he really had gotten the best group of cadets he could’ve hoped for.
