In Another Life | Levi x Reader/OC

Falling

"You're not supposed to eat the leaves, dumbass," Levi remarked.

"I wasn't going to," you retorted, using your fingers to take out the small leaf from your mouth. One of the tea leaves nearly got swallowed in your throat when you had taken a sip of your tea. "The tea I poured for myself had leaves in it."

"You're not supposed to do that."

"Obviously. Why do you think I nearly spit it out?"

He leaned over the counter to peer down your cup. "How the hell did you end up pouring that many leaves in your tea?"

You cast your eyes down, embarrassed to meet his gaze. "...I forgot the sieve for a second," you replied sheepishly. He huffed, sitting back down in his seat across from you.

"I step away for two seconds and you nearly gave yourself stomach poisoning from tea leaves."

You rolled your eyes. "You're so dramatic. Swallowing a few tea leaves wouldn't kill me. I'm pretty sure some people eat them."

"Some are harmless but some can make you sick. We're not sure what kind these leaves are."

"Well, that's why I spit it out and didn't eat it," you replied, rising from your chair. "I'm gonna grab another cup."

Levi grabbed his cup from the rim to take a sip of his tea while watching you get a hold of a new teacup to replace the old one. You grabbed the sieve and began pouring the liquid through it from the old cup into the new one, separating the leaves.

"We should save these leaves. We could probably reuse them," you told him, situating yourself back on the stool. "My mom used to collect them."

"Really?"

"Mhm," you replied, lifting the cup to your mouth. "She had a whole drawer full of them. Our house wasn't big enough to display it anywhere."

"What kind of tea leaves?"

"I can't remember. I'm sure she had a mixture of different flavors though." You reached over the counter to grab the container with the remaining tea leaves. "You should get into collecting these. Sounds like something you'd do."

"I used to," he replied, staring down at his cup. "But now that we're always on the move, I was never able to get back into it the way I wanted to."

"I see. That makes sense," you replied. "You didn't throw them out though, did you?"

"Hell no. That'd be a waste. I keep them in my office in the headquarters."

"I bet it's on a neat display on your bookshelf or something, probably beside your duster or handkerchief collection-"

"Shut up," he grumbled. You laughed quietly, resting your chin on the palm of your hand as you watched him take another sip of his tea.

"Can I ask you something?" you asked.

"You just did."

You chuckled. "Wow, so you've got jokes now. Who knew?"

He rolled his eyes, a hint of a smile on his face. "What's your question?"

"Why do you hold your cup from the rim like that?"

Levi gazed at the cup in his hand, inspecting the way he held it. The look in his eyes turned solemn.

"I don't want it to break," he said, setting it back down on the counter. "When I was a kid, I saved up to buy this really nice, prestigious cup in the Underground, and right when I held the cup by its handle, it snapped and broke."

You gaped at him. "Oh my gosh."

"Shit traumatized me, so I don't trust holding any cup by its handle."