Pluviophile | Levi Ackermann × Reader |

|Chapter 25| Caught

Levi was making his squad members clean around the headquarters. He considered it part of the training, and I was standing with him as he scrubbed the floorboards till they sparkled like marble. I was going to ask him to join me for dinner, but he obviously had other plans.

"Are you busy?" He asked, pulling a make-shift mask off of his face that he had tied around himself to prevent dust from wafting up his nose. I felt like I shouldn't have come, already knowing what he was going to make me do. "Since you're here, why don't you help out."

"Oh- I actually-" He stood up and handed me a broom. I groaned.

"Don't think you get a free pass just because I favor you," He said, pulling the mask back up. I felt flustered at what he just said.

He went back to scrubbing.

"You're quite the germophobe," I began sweeping dirt and grime into a pile. I didn't hear a response, so I kept talking. "I wonder what living in a house with you would be like. You'd probably be cleaning so much you wouldn't have time for me."

"I don't clean that much," He responded.

"Sure." I rolled my eyes.

The other members of his squad were in the room with us, the library. Eld, the second in command, was dusting down the windowsills and shelves. And the only other member, Oluo, was grumbling to himself while sweeping the other half of the room.
I put in my part of the work, sighing.

"Oh! Good evening," Petra wandered into the library with a book in hand. "I didn't expect to see the entire Levi Squad in here. Should I go?"

"No," Levi stood. "You help too."

At this point, Levi was just recruiting everyone in order to clean this place up, no matter who they were.

Petra's smile cracked. "You must be joking."

"He's not," I told her apologetically, handing her a mop. She took it with a look of pure disgust. We worked in unison, simultaneously ridding the entire library of anything that Levi would consider filth.

Petra whispered over to me the minute we ventured behind a bookcase, out of Levi's view. "I was going to ask you at some point if you'd put in a good word for me about my expertise in the field, but now I'm not so sure I want to join his squad anymore!"

I looked at her. "You want to join the Levi Squad?" I whispered back.

"Not if it means cleaning all the time like this," She grit her teeth, clutching the handle of the mop until her fingers turned red. "Who does he think he is dragging me into this?!"

"The Captain." I answered her question with a snicker. She didn't like that I was laughing, hitting me with the mop. "I can't wait till you're old and he's making you clean with brittle bones, then you won't be laughing!" Petra barked.

"Oh come on, it's not that big of a deal," I swept through the aisles, leaving the shelter of the bookcases and back into Levi's view. "He might be a clean freak, but I'll take that over someone who's gross." Levi was still scrubbing the corners of the floors and walls, places a mop wouldn't reach. He kept at work with a twitch of his brow.

Petra stomped around the library, swiping the sopping mop side to side in my tracks to freshen up the floor. The tedious work had the young girl in a bad mood, taking her anger out on specks of dust. "Look at you," I said. "You and him will get along just fine, you both clean with that same look in your eye."

Petra didn't even bother to look at me. "Don't press my buttons," She grumbled. "I don't enjoy cleaning the way he does."

"Oh yeah?" I nudged her. "What about fighting? You still want me to put in a word, or have you changed your mind?"