The Devious Maid

The One With The Late Night Talks

'Hand me those button mushrooms, brat.'

'What do we need button mushrooms for?'

'I'm making pasta for dinner.'

'And how do you even know I like mushrooms?'

'Well do you?'

'Yes.'

'Exactly now shut up and put them in the damn cart.' Levi sighed in frustration as he scanned the piece of paper on his list looking for a specific item.

'You know you're extremely bossy for a maid.'

Levi shot me a glare at that and pushed the shopping cart down towards the end of the isle and round the corner. We had been in here for what felt like a whole day but really it had only been 15 minutes. And in that 15 minutes we had argued twice, Levi in a rage almost knocked out a poor old lady with the cart and had a fight with a man over the last piece of good roast ham. It was totally going well. I hummed to myself as I picked up a few things I knew I needed and placed them in the cart after all it was me who was going to have to pay for all of this anyways. I watched as Levi glanced over his list and picked up a few things and wandered down the next isle. I had to keep from pissing my pants with laughter. The cleaning isle. Levi's eyes widened as he looked over all the fancy products and cleaning props.

'Didn't you say we needed bleach?' I choked out between my laughter and put a hand on my hip dramatically.

'Shitty brat just what are you laughing at?' He asked sternly and turned to face me awaiting an answer.

'Oh nothing. Lets just get what we have to and go okay? I don't feel like spending all day in the store.'

Levi grumbled to himself and picked up just about every kind of cleaning product you could think of and piled it into the cart which by now was getting pretty full. I noticed a new mop and bucket in their too. After the state the last mop got into I'd say we definitely need a new one. Levi works hard and the way my apartment looks now shows it.

'Alright kid we're good to go here.'

'Are you sure we have everything?'

'Yes now you better get your wallet out.'

Once the groceries were paid for we hailed a cab and headed back to my apartment to put the stuff away. I made a start on my paper finally and Levi cleaned pretty much everywhere before he decided to make a start on his pasta. It amazed me how he would clean up as he went along while making dinner instead of waiting until he was done. Half way through my paper Levi called to me to let me know the pasta was done. Now's my chance! I can finally ask him some questions about himself.

'So Levi..' I asked as I sat down at the table and looked over at him. 'How did you end up working a job as a maid?'

'Well like I said, I had no proper male figures in my life and my mother didn't exactly care about me so what was I meant to do? I had no money, no education, no nothing. I had been kicked out of school for fighting and I couldn't exactly afford college. No one was willing to hire a dead beat like me so I used the only thing I actually enjoy to get me a job; My love of cleaning. So does that answer your question, brat?'

'Well yeah.. But did you want to go to college? Couldn't you have gotten a loan or something?'

'Look, I tried all the shit you could think of and none of it worked so here I am. Saving up my hard earned cash so I can get out of here.'

'Am I really that awful..?' I asked quickly and scooped up some pasta with my fork. 'You don't have to stay if you don't want to..'

'Did I say you were awful? No. So stop talking like that. I want out of this job. As much as I love cleaning this isn't exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life.' Levi continued as he looked up from his pasta to me. 'Enough about me. What about you? Why do you go to college? What are you trying to be?'

'Well uh.. My Fathers a specialist doctor and a very good one too.. So i'm studying to be a doctor so I can follow in his footsteps..' I said softly and sighed a little looking down.

'You don't sound so sure about that? Is that really what you want to do? Become a doctor I mean yeah great i'm all for saving lives, but, kid you're about as clumsy as an untrained zoo animal how do you expect to do well when you constantly spill shit and injure yourself?'

I frowned at the thought of the small bruise still on the side of my forehead from when I sleepy walked into the door frame the other morning in my rush out of my room so I wouldn't be late for my class. It still hurt a little but it was slowly fading to the point it was barely noticeable now. There was just a slight yellowish mark where a once huge purple one had been.

'No..' I whispered out and wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to continue this conversation. 'I never wanted to be a doctor. Truth is I never really knew what I wanted to be until recently.. I want to be a Musician. I entered one of my songs into a contest and it won first place.. I really wasn't expecting it but it felt good to say I had achieved something on my own..'

Levi and I continued talking for the rest of the night until we both retired to our rooms to get some sleep. It felt strange talking to someone about my life other than Hanji and Erwin. They were the only ones who knew what I really wanted to do with my life and in telling Levi I felt like I had just ripped the band-Aid from my old wound which I had been dealing with. The thoughts of how much I hated college and how much I didn't want to be a doctor flooded my mind and now I knew I was just going to spend the rest of my night in bed crying over how unhappy I am with life. Levi didn't need to know any of this. As far as he is aware i'm just waiting for the right moment to leave and finally do what I want to do just like he is but for now, I'm stuck here and so is he.