Blue and White - Levi Fanfiction

Ch. 11 - My Brother's Sins

In the end, we didn't head back home right away. Perhaps it was becoming a habit for us to walk the city together whenever we got the chance. Habit or not, I wasn't complaining about it, of course I wasn't - why would I? 

On this evening in particular, we walked through the city on foot, but not to the cave to see the sky, nor even to the pub we frequented with Farlan for a warm meal and drinks and the occasional game of cards.

Actually, we walked the city together in winding paths through neighborhoods and around blocks in a pattern that surely didn't make sense and certainly wasn't an efficient way to get anywhere. All of this to say, we wandered. We wandered until he seemed to get an idea for an actual destination, and so he took my hand and started leading me on with purpose now, and not with the nonchalance and ease that came with just wandering.

"Levi," I said with a laugh after he took my hand, calling his attention to me right away, "your hands are always cold!"

"The hell am I supposed to do about that?"

It was clear that he was embarrassed, but I was less concerned about that and more excited by the fact that I could elicit such an emotion from him and that I was lucky enough to see his flustered expression. 

"I don't know," I said teasingly, hoping to keep that pretty little blush on his face. "Maybe let me hold them more?"

"Don't say embarrassing shit," Levi muttered.

"But it's so fun," I said, my voice nearly a whine. "How am I supposed to have fun, if I don't embarrass you like this?"

Levi did not answer, not for a while, and we walked in companionable, comfortable silence. It was certainly strange how comfortable I was holding his hand now. No longer was I nervous, and no longer was it awkward; it just felt natural, almost like breathing. It was easy and it was comfortable, and well, it kept him close to my side so I didn't mind it. Not at all.

"Oh," I said when at last I recognized the street we were walking on. It was one I used to traverse often, very often, but not anymore. No, it had admittedly been a long while since I had been anywhere near here. And yet it was a familiar sight to see a familiar figure sitting against a familiar building playing a familiar tune.

"Feel like singing tonight, do you?"

"No," Levi said with an accompanying click of his tongue. "No, this is for you, brat."

I nudged him lightly with my shoulder. "Despite calling me a brat all the time, you're sweet."

"Please," he mumbled, clearly not convinced. "Spare me."

"As much as I'd love to catch up with Mason, if you wanted to hear me sing you could have just asked."

"Shut up."

I decided, for now at least, to stop teasing him. I let go of his hand to cross the final new paces between us and Mason. He was sitting with his shoulders slumped, his head down, and his hat on the ground before him - empty. I reached into my back pocket, slipping from it a few loose coins. When I was standing only precious feet before him, I stopped, hesitating to toss the coins into his hat.

Admittedly, it'd been a long time since I had even visited him, if not to sing, then at least to chat. We had become good friends in our time performing together. It was just... hard to find the time now, I suppose.

It was shitty of me, wasn't it? I always assured him that I would come back and sing but since working with Levi and Farlan, it was busy, it was hectic, and I was left always exhausted by the end of the day.

What kind of friend was I?

Mason's eyes remained downcast, his shaggy hair shaggier than it was when I had last seen him. He was strumming the chords of a tune I knew well, but it sounded strange without his melodic voice accompanying it.