dandelions || Levi x Reader

9. gossiping: bad for the soul, good for team morale

XO I love you guys!!

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Levi has made mistakes before.

Who hasn't? He's come out of exams knowing he botched a question or two. He's said something and seen the reaction on someone's face and known immediately that it was the wrong thing to say. He's had things he should've done that he now regrets not doing and those, he considers mistakes.

This case would fall into that last category. And somehow, it feels like the worst mistake he's ever made.

It haunts him, like a voice in the back of his head that keeps hissing you fucked up you fucked up you fucked up. He barely touches the dinner he makes when he gets home. He barely sleeps that night. The next morning, he feels like even tea won't fix this.

You haven't texted him. He hasn't texted you. But god, he wants to.

He can't even try and see you in person either, because now it's Wednesday and you're closed today. He'd much rather try and talk about it with you in person, because he hates texting for anything important and this definitely qualifies. He would never get the right emotions or sentiment across.

When he enters the office, he can feel Hange's eyes on him on his way to his desk. The usual teasing ensues, but Hange doesn't take much part in it, and it dies out very quickly.

He tries to concentrate. He can't. Fuck's sake.

Levi glances at his phone. No text from you.

It's 9:07. He's been here for all of seven minutes.

With a sigh, Levi slowly wheels his way over to Hange's desk. The office feels much too quiet (usually not a problem that the office ever has) and when he pulls up to Hange's partition, he murmurs, "Hange."

Hange's head shoots out from their cubicle. "How'd it go?!"

"Shut up," Levi whisper-shouts, glancing behind him. Oh, fuck's sake- he can see Mike's eyes shifting over here and Gunther whistling innocently. They're trying to listen in. He looks back to Hange. "I fucked up," he whispers.

Hange straightens up. "What? I can't hear you."

At this rate, he's going to drag them out into the hallway to have this conversation, but he almost doesn't want to know what kind of gossip his coworkers would get up to with him and Hange out of the room. Rumors would fly, and...

Fine. "I fucked up," Levi announces.

Immediately, the sounds of wheels rolling across tile fill his ears as several of his coworkers that had been politely pretending not to listen in on his conversation wheel themselves over. A chorus of shocked gasps accompany the rolling chairs and there's a multitude of murmurs that Levi can't differentiate. He resists the urge to smack his head off of the wall.

Hange's shriek of despair is, however, quite distinguishable. "You did not! What did you do?"

"Oh my god, he probably insulted her," Oluo says.

Gunther shakes his head. "Come on, Levi. You're better than that."

"You told all of them?" Levi asks dryly, frowning at Hange. "Seriously?"

Hange raises their hands. "You didn't swear me to secrecy!"

"You're literally HR."

"So?"

"It's scary you don't know what that implies."

"Did she reject you?" Petra whisper-shouts.

There's a chorus of hums. "Better luck next time, man," Mike says, patting him on the shoulder. "We've all been there."