Treat you better...
Tags: Modern AU Levi, established relationship, fem reader, reigniting the spark, low key anxious Levi, argument, overthinking, jealousy, OOC or IC Levi? 😭idk Please reblog and follow if you like this content!
Edit: you can use extensions, or apps to replace y/n with the name of your choice. I personally use interactivefics extensions, but let me know if you know others!
The darkness blankets the sky, the neighborhood quiet with muffled noises of a party some walks away. Having just parked his car in the garage he get's out taking a bag of take outs for dinner.
Walking up to the porch of his and your door, he unlocks the door with ease. Keys clanking as he fiddles with them with a tired sigh. Work is well work as usual. It's not the mundane challenges of work he's sighing for. Likely it's the increasing monotonous routine he goes with it at the office everyday. It doesn't help that his relationship with you is reflecting how gray and dull his everyday work is.
Opening the door, the living space welcomes him. Not you, you're not at home yet. You're at the office, either working overtime or being asked out by your friends for a night out. He drops his briefcase on the sofa, as he takes off his coat. Hanging it on the coat rack beside the now locked door.
Now loosening up his tie, he picks up his phone to check the time, it's nearly 10 pm. "It's Friday...then it must be her hanging out with co-workers tonight." He says to particularly no one but himself. His gaze frowning at the screen of his phone. "Or her damn boss," He grumbles.
And that's the problem. Your relationship with him either progressively turns to dull and gray because of his increasing workload, or if it's dull and gray because of your increasing workload and constant late night parties.
But Levi understands you better.
The parties were to distract you from this monotonous routine of your evenings with him. Can be a bad or good habit depending on the act you entertain yourself with. And Levi knew better than to push you to ask when you're in this phase of taking a sort of break.
Or it could also be he's afraid that he'd make things worse and drive a deeper wedge between you two. It's likely the latter.
And that's precisely why he discreetly asked two of his female coworkers for advice. Hange and Petra. Hange had advised to open a table with you for discussion. Basically sit and talk. Meanwhile Petra, advised you to go an extra mile to know what a woman wants. For starters, read a book.
A romance book for example. And she had just the perfect recommendation in hand.
Levi sets the reheated take outs, then preparing a plate of rice—his favorite, on the table. He then walks to the sofa, picking up his briefcase to find a certain book from Petra this morning.
"Huh," Levi could not even read the title, his eyes scanning the book. "Damn, sappy shit." He flips the cover to read a random chapter and sees a specific sentence that nearly killed him from cringe.
But if it would help him get tips on how to reignite this spark between you two, he'd grit his teeth through the cringe. Pick out the good ones, and yeet out the overly cringe ones.
With the book in his hand, he walks back to the dinner table, sitting down to a meal while he takes a spoonful of a bite or two.
After eating, he continued to wait for you at the living room, sitting with his arm resting on the armrest, his other hand propping up the book he's reading close to his steel blue gaze.
The hours tick and you're not home still. It's already 1 am, and you're still not at home. It was then that he finally decides to check his phone. And oh, he finds a message from you in his notifications.
Clicking it, it reads,
"I'm sorry love, I'll be home in a few. Just a 'lil late."
Sent at 11:45 pm. He sighs, texting back,
"Do you need me to fetch you?"
He sends it and returned to reading the book.
He'd hate to admit it, but it became a bit more tolerable for his eyes to read the book after a few chapters. He's mind whirrs at the kind of man most women would want.
Crossing out the unrealistic standards, there are things he might find worthy of taking note. Like getting a little more creative with giving you flowers, or how he should better care for you for when you have period cramps. Basically just be there for you more. Levi had thought he was doing just fine, doing everything to be there for you. But now basing some things he may have missed in comparison to a 'what would most women want,' is that he may have appeared a little too distant or cold. Especially when he's at work.
He sighs, deciding to find a way to strike a proper balance between work and his personal life.
You're an amazing woman, flawed may be, but you're the woman he loves to see everyday.
Sighing, he flips open the book again to continue reading, "Hoh, what do we have here?" He smirks, immersed in his reading although he'd deny that he is.
The pacing of the story just got to a sensual, lightly steamy part. And he couldn't help but think, 'Is this too what most women want?' He ponders, 'I guess not too different to what most men wants, except this has more steps in this. More foreplay it seems,'
His eyes scan the forbidden text, his mind wandering if it could be him and you. Or what could be your reaction had you be reading this instead? Levi imagined you reading this with a flustered expression made him think of other forbidden things he'd do to you.
Flipping the page, he continues, still sure he's reading to get insights on how he should treat you than for the story of the text he's reading.
Then as if he was stricken with lightning, he hears a warm breathy whisper right behind his ear, "Oh? What you reading?" Your playful tone snaps him from his deep thoughts.
"Oh, you're here," His face momentarily stiffens, lips opening slightly, before returning to his nonchalant expression. He then adds, "And you're late," His gaze now frowning. "Sorry," You scratch the back of your head, "We just finished overtime and my boss thought to bring all of us to a short late snack at a cafe." You explain, studying his narrowed blue-gray gaze, before your eyes landing on a specific book. "Didn't know you'd be reading this genre though, Levi." You reply in a teasing manner. His hands swiftly, and casually moving the book away from your view as a response, "Your boss?" One of his eyebrow arches, his expression remaining nonchalant yet the undercurrent of his threatening tone betrays the calm exterior he maintains. "That stupid blond bastard again?" He grumbles, now standing up to meet your eyes, the book still in his hand.
'Stupid, and bastard. Well that's rare,' You smile, Levi adding two insults in a single sentence for the same person speaks just how much this is pissing him off.
"Listen, we need to talk," He then takes your bag placing it on the table before holding your shoulders down to have you sit.
"Levi," You say with a flat and tired expression, "There's nothing to talk about—" Before he cuts you off, "Oh yea we do. Don't think I didn't noticed how you're avoiding me the whole month, and how I see you're spending more time with your work friends and that stupid boss of yours. Again."
Then it's your turn to cut him off, "Levi, you're not jealous are you?" "Fucking no." He says flatly, he then combs his hair back before talking again, "Look, it's just. We're both busy recently and I'm sorry I couldn't be there to listen how your day went or that I couldn't pay attention to you more. But that doesn't mean you should entertain yourself with people outside the problem of our relationship." He then mutters the last bit, "Especially not with your boss." And that's where you stop him, "What are you talking about? Are you saying I'm upset at you because you're busy?" You scoff.
"Yes?" His expression, suddenly forming a puzzled look. His face became even more puzzled after hears you laugh, "And that's why you're reading that book hm?" You tease him, "What-fuck, no." He then places the book behind him. You already know that it's a romance book, and with the few pages you saw of it earlier, it has some smut scenes.
"C'mon, let's see what's it about." You quip, your hands reaching for it, but he's faster and was able to keep it off your grasp.
"Forget it, so you're saying that you're not upset at all?" He asks you, his narrow, blue-gray irises gazing deep into yours. "No, I'm not," You reply with a smile, "Why would you think that?" He then looks down on the table, his gaze falling to your bag on the coffee table as he searches his own mind. "I don't know...maybe it's just because I miss you." He sighs, "Yeah, maybe it's that. You think it's because of that?" He replies more like a sentence of him just rambling and asking the truth he already knows.
You gave a light chuckle before pulling him to a hug. "Gosh you're so adorable," You mumble to his neck, appreciative of his efforts and his feelings. He momentarily stiffens, before accepting the embrace. "Shut it," He rejects the compliment, but you feel his heart beating warm and fast against yours, his hands wrapping around you in return. Embracing you back.
"I miss you too," You whisper to him and you just feel him nudge his face to your own neck. As if hiding his face from view by deepening the embrace.
You pull away, and you give him a light kiss on his lips, his lips lingering for a moment before reluctantly pulling away. Maybe it's because his heart was beating too fast, that you also feel it pump blood to the lower half of his body. A something else entirely beating against your warm body as he tells you in a low gruff voice. His breath hot against your lips, his arms pulling you closer in place. "More,"
