Levi x Reader Oneshots 2

Burnout (Levi x Reader Modern AU)

You stared at the email on your laptop, feeling your eyes tear up and your chest constrict.

For the past several months, you'd been disengaged and unmotivated at your corporate office job, which had led to you make mistakes, not pay attention in meetings, and generally devote less effort than you probably should. Additionally, you'd been having trouble sleeping, which left you exhausted and made it even harder to focus on your job. Now, you found yourself irritated or upset by every little thing, and you frequently thought about quitting. Yet, that would bring a whole new set of stressors, so you tried to stick it out. But you didn't know how much more you could take.

Your coworkers and bosses had definitely noticed your decline in productivity, and although they hadn't said anything outright, you sensed a great deal of subtext coming from them. They were disgruntled with your lack of focus, and some of them probably wished you'd either quit or get fired. However, management wouldn't dare to do the latter, and everyone in the office knew why. You could see it in their eyes – the accusation that you only had this job because your husband was a vice president at the company.

Normally, you were confident in your job performance. But with your recent disengagement, with all the mistakes you'd made, you felt like a failure. You hated yourself for it, and yet, you didn't have the energy to do better. You could only watch as you looked like a complete slacker in front of your coworkers yet again, could only try to endure their subtext and glares without falling apart in the middle of the office. You'd already had one mental breakdown because of your job – at home, thankfully, while your husband had been away on a business trip. You really didn't want to have another.

But as you sat on your couch at home, laptop resting on your thighs while you read and reread that email from your boss, the screen becoming blurrier each time...

You bit down on a sob, practically slamming the laptop shut and tossing it on the couch as you rushed to your bedroom. You just barely had time to close the door before your knees gave out, and you collapsed into a heap on the carpet. There, you could only gasp for shallow breath after shallow breath while you cried uncontrollably, unable to think of anything besides the fact that you were an utterly worthless failure.

A minute later, you heard your husband call your name from the hallway, and your breathing stopped for a terrifying moment. You didn't want him to see you like this – sobbing pathetically on your bedroom floor, makeup ruined, a complete mess of snot and tears. You didn't want him to know about your trouble with work, or about the mental strain. He had enough to deal with already, and you were afraid he'd try to intervene with your manager, which would only make the rumors about you worse. But now, there was no way to hide...

Levi opened the door as soon as he reached it, not bothering to wait for an answer from you. His face was etched with worry while his eyes searched the room before quickly locating you on the floor – hunched over, your head in your hands, desperately trying to hold yourself together. He breathed your name, equal parts frantic and heartbroken as he dropped to his knees at your side and pulled you into his arms.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his gaze quickly sweeping over your body as he checked for any physical injury. Then his eyes returned to your face, looking more worried than ever. "Shh, shh," he murmured. "Sweetheart, c'mon. Tell me what's wrong."

You opened your mouth, but all that came out was a wail, followed by a series of gasps as your lungs fought for air. How could you even begin to explain everything that was going on, all the ways you'd fallen short, when you couldn't justify it to yourself? How could you tell your perfect, successful husband he had married a failure?

Seeing that you were incapable of speech, Levi hugged you a little tighter, his fingers beginning to rub soothing strokes along your spine. "Okay, okay, shh," he cooed. "Just focus on breathing. Okay, sweetheart? Breathe, and let it all out. I've got you."