The Good Captain | Levi x Reader

Chapter Twenty-Five

The sun was high up in the sky warming your body as you rode through the plains, forests, and hills on the way to Headquarters. The ride was long and peaceful, and you let your mind wander to land on several random memories of Levi.

-

"Here." The man set down a teacup in front of you as you hurriedly plugged away at some work. You looked up at him.

"Oh, thanks." You took the handle and lifted the steaming liquid up to your face.

"Oi, it's hot. Don't burn yourself, idiot." He chastised. You set the cup back down and looked back at your paper, sighing. He cleared his throat. "It's late. You can stop working on that now."

You blinked a few times and looked back up at the man, who was reclining in his office chair. You pushed aside the paper and closed your eyes for a minute. You peeked one open to witness him holding his cup in the strange way he always does, from the top instead of the handle.

"Levi." You said. His eyes darted up to meet your gaze. "Why do you always hold your teacups so funny?"

"Tch. Are you making fun of me?" He said.

"No, I'm just curious. Isn't it harder to drink that way instead of just using the handle?"

"I don't trust handles."

You laughed. "What do you mean, you don't trust them?"

"If you hold the cup by the handle, and it breaks off, you'll have a giant mess on your hands. If you hold it the way I do, there's much less risk." He explained as if this were common practice for people.

"Cups like this are made to be used by the handle. I doubt handles just fall off of cups enough for that to even matter." You said.

"It happened to me once..." He said, his eyes clouding as if he were having some kind of flashback. After a few moments he spoke again. "Never again."

"Whatever you say, clean freak." You sighed.

"Don't call me that." He spat.

You raised your eyebrows. "And why not? It's true."

"Because I don't like it and I said so." He huffed.

"Yes, Captain." You said in an overly sarcastic manner.

He groaned. "How many times do I have to tell you to not call me Captain when we're alone?"

You giggled. "You're so picky about what I call you."

"So what? It shows respect."

"But there's so many different things to call you. 'Humanity's strongest soldier,' 'Captain,' 'clean freak,' 'Mr. Grumpy,' 'overlord.'" You counted on your fingers. "Oh, and Shorty." You said with a smirk.

He glared at you with piercing gray eyes. "NEVER call me that."

"Hanji says it all the time!" You protested. You thought of most days where Hanji would tease the man, calling him short. It always got him riled up. It was like he didn't want to admit his vertically challenge body.

"Yeah, and I kick her every time. Do you want me to beat you up too?"

You pouted. "No..."

"Then don't call me those incessant nicknames. Overlord is fine, though." He said, crossing his arms.

"Okay..." You drew out your words. "Then... you can't call me 'idiot' or 'brat' anymore. You must call me....Empress." You said, talking with your hands. He rolled his eyes.