Blue and White - Levi Fanfiction

Ch. 62 - The Warmest of Welcomes

We returned to the house - our house, by the way - by mid-afternoon when the sun was just preparing to set. We left that little bar at a good time because by then, people would be getting out of work and heading to the bars to start their weekends off with a drink or two or three... or seven. We'd done what we needed to, so there was no reason to hang around there, anyway. After apologizing to the bar's owner, then having a quick bite to eat, we headed out.

So not only did we miss the crowds that were sure to pour in, but leaving at the time we had also left enough time for us to get ready for the company we'd be having tonight because I had, since I hadn't anticipated the trip taking long which it hadn't, invited the scouts to have dinner at our house tonight.

Goddesses, it was still so weird to be able to say that.

Levi hadn't exactly been thrilled to find out that I'd invited them all over, but I'd argued that well, what was the point in having a house if we couldn't show it off? After Hange and a few of the others had helped bring the furniture we'd bought in and set it roughly where they would remain and left, Levi and I had spent the afternoon and evening decorating, organizing, and finalizing where we wanted our furniture, among other things. We had our bedroom set up, the kitchen roughly sorted, and our bathroom almost entirely unpacked.

We'd fill it more with things for the baby with time and decorate it more as we went on. We certainly didn't have to do it all in one day, and besides, it was ours now, so we could take all the time we needed to.

...though I couldn't quite escape the rather maternal urge to set the baby's nursery up now, but my doctor had told me on our most recent visit that feelings like that would be normal and this instinct to build and reorganize my "nest" would only increase the closer we got to the child's delivery.

So, I had that to look forward to.

If they adhered to the plan they set, then after leaving our house yesterday, Hange would have met up with the rest of the scouts to get caught up on the daily chores and Hange at least would have helped pack the rest of our personal effects away. Our office at the base, only a short ride away, would remain our office, but most of the personal effects from our bedroom would be brought here.

Actually, interestingly enough, those that had helped Hange and Levi with the heavy lifting were Floch and Jean. Jean was a rather no-brainer for me, but Floch at least... Well, it was awkward considering the comments he'd made about Levi at the medal ceremony, but the boy was a black sheep among us, so I'd made sure to keep the boy involved.

I knew at the very least that he was trying his hardest for us, and I wanted to help him feel at home among the scouts. As the only living re-enlisted scout, a volunteer, I knew he felt like an outcast among the rest of us. I only wanted to make him feel more comfortable around us. If we were to be comrades moving forward, we would have to; and especially considering the fact that as commanding officers, the whole subordinate-officer relationship relied on a sense of trust, we had to start somewhere.

Right now, I was working on baking a set of pies for dessert, and Levi was preparing meat to roast - rather cheap, inexpensive cuts, but meat all the same. Together we worked in relative quiet, only offering hushed words when reaching around the other to get something.

When the meat was ready, Levi put it in to cook and stepped towards the sink to wash his hands. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbow, his bangs fell into his face as he bent over the sink, and he lathered his hands and arms with so much intensity and focus it was almost funny to think he was just washing his hands.

...and it was even funnier to think that I thought that he was incredibly attractive like this, with the sharp contours of his face basking in the sunlight streaming in through the window with his sleeves rolled just so and his steely eyes focused so intently...