One-shots & Short Stories [Levi | Reader]

Levi x Squad Leader! Reader ~ Paperwork Overdose

Paperwork. A dreaded word. A loathed word. Paperwork to be done. Even worse.

Paperwork everywhere. On the desk, on the chair, in the drawers, in front of Levi. Everywhere.

What paperwork you ask?

Bills and sum up of the damage on the 3DMG after the last expedition. Check.

Report to Commander Bushy Brows regarding the condition of his squad and the overall situation that was to be handed over. Check.

Complain regarding shitty glasses's outrageous and overly annoying experiments that were to cease their existance as soon as possible. Check.

List of those who were disabled or heavily injured. Check.

Notes that excuse every single one of those very same disabled or heavily injured soldiers from duties and future expeditions until their condition gets better. Check.

Official announcal of a meeting this very same night on the side, about to be signed and handed over to the next superior whose presence was required. Check.

Complains from soldiers standing on his desk, about to be read and answered separately then announced and returned to the sender. Check.

A sigh left Levi's lips. All documents stood on his desk, but how many of them were finished?

Barely half. No - even less. Analogically he'd have to finish the easy ones first and then proceed with the ones that would take more time. Maybe he could skip dinner. Well, he was doing it for the second night in a roll, but the documents were due a certain date that he had to cover, and even more percisely - until tomorrow noon. By then he should finish the report, the damage sum up, the list and the complain otherwise it wouldn't be taken in. Erwin had his own things to take care of, so if something came late he would simply reject considering it in account. And Levi couldn't take that.

The notes considering the excusals of the injured soldiers could be handed a day - two at most - later than the lists with their names and the cadets' complains could wait just a little more. If his report wasn't returned to him due to any mistakes in calculations or proper grammar he could handle them all at once, but it was always good to consider everything in account rather than receive an unexpected guest at your desk waiting to be rewritten when your hands are already full.

Levi sighed again, taking the official announcal of the meeting this evening and put it in front of himself, reading over the names of the people that were to attend. His eyebrows furrowed in displeasure with the conclusion that the list consisted of almost all superiors in the Survey Corps. Well, shit. That could only mean one thing - Erwin was having a grand meeting - they've had a major number of loses after the expedition.

Levi took in a sharp breath, just thinking of everything that's happened in the last expedition, his exhale coming out tired and worn out, before he pinched the bridge of his nose between his pale fingers and took his pen in hand, quickly and swiftly applying his signature on the paper opposite his name. He checked the next person in the list - coincidentally enough the last one that had to sign it - and sighed, knowing he'd have to bring the paper to the person himself.

He got up from his chair, the wooden legs screeching against the polished floor of the office, making Levi's eyes narrow as he stretched his tired muscles and exhaled slowly, then took the paper from his desk and headed for the office of the woman that had to sign it. A few seconds passed before he could knock at the door after he arrived. He did consider the thought of giving the paper to some passing cadet and order him to get inside and hand it over instead of him, but in the end that would be just a waste of energy if he came here himself and didn't even had the damn courage to face her after what happened on the expedition.

With a deep intake of breath, the raven's eyes settled on the door knob before he knocked twice and heard one ever so monotone voice give a curt reply from the inside: "Name and business. If it's for the unanswered complains, get the fuck away before I throw a chair at your face."

Is this how I sound when I reply from my office?

Levi asked himself with small surprise, finding her answer just as disinterested and cold as his own usual one. Levi wasn't fazed by her coldness just as much, but he was indeed already being able to see the difficulty with which they would lead a normal conversation. He had to be curt and quick and he'd get away fast.

"Unfortunately enough, the complain I'm filling up isn't to be handed over to you, (Y/N)." Levi opened the door and entered inside, being met with her cold and tired eyes. Unfortunately enough that would be the state of most superiors at the meeting. They'd be lucky if half didn't faint throughout some of Erwin's explanations.

"Such a coincidence, Lance Corporal. Are we both filling in complains regarding one another?" Her humour was never on a better level than his, but right now it had possibly grown worse.

"Unfortunately, mine is regarding shitty glasses." Before he said that her eyes were back down towards the desk and pinned onto the list she herself was filling in. When he approached her desk he witnessed her paperwork was a smaller amount than his was, but most of it was almost done. Well, the raven didn't even doubt it would be done, the woman had closed herself in her office since they came back from the expedition, all she could do was paperwork since then, no wonder it was almost done.

"Good. What did you come here for? Apologize again?" She questioned when he was already rounding her desk, looking at the paper in front of her. A list of the dead people in the right, left and front formation from the expedition. Next to it stood all the letters that were to be written towards the families of the dead ones and on the couch to the side stood the uniforms of said dead soldiers that were to be send along with the letters.

"I passed that stage already. I hope you did so as well with the self-loathe stage." He added as an answer to her previous question. Levi did feel the urge to apologize to her, but he couldn't. He already did a lot of times and that never really helped anyone. He should stop with the guilt. And she should stop with the self-hatred. Her eyes were dead as she looked up at him to send him a glare, but he didn't pay attention to it and placed the announcal in front of her instead. "This is what I came for."

"Major loses, huh? Erwin's surely getting desperate." Her tone was drained from all kind of amusement after she skimmed the page, but from knowing her for long Levi could easily deduce she was having slight fun by mocking their commander. Probably that's all she had left at the moment.

"Only a quarter of the superiors aren't required at the meeting." Levi added before she could even start counting the names on the paper.

"Because half of them are dead?"

"... Yes."

"Anyways." She quickly took her pen in hand and signed opposite her own name and title, hurrying to shoo the Lance Corporal away from her office so she could continue her work. "Here, it's ready." Apparently she was expecting him to bring it back to the Commander. What did she think he was? Some courier boy? With a frown as his smoky hues stayed pinned to the purplish crescents underneath her droopy eyes, he sighed inaudibly and took the paper back from her hand, going for the exit.

"... Levi." Just as he was to open the door she called him warily, making him hum without facing her as a sign for her to continue. "You... you're missing dinner again, aren't you?"

"Implication?"

"... None." Even though he was more than certain there was one. With a nod, knowing she had something to say but his silent hostility and her own too-big-to-be-tamed pride were holding her back, Levi left the room closing the door behind himself and giving out another sigh - probably the hundredth for today.

He visited Erwin's office on a short notice and left the signed document with him, saluting curtly before leaving the room and heading for his own office with the intent of finishing off some more paperwork and then heading directly for the meeting. It was already dinner time, but there was no reason for him to attend. He went back to his office and sat behind his desk, thoughts racing his mind for a short period of time until he was finally able to shake them off and grab the pen back in hand, about to start writing before a knock at his door interrupted the simple course of action.

"Name and business." He stated shortly, awaiting to see who was the little fuck deciding to skip dinner and interrupt him just as he was to start doing the tons of paperwork left to finish.

"I don't think they're needed, Levi." That voice. Of course, for her name and business were always unneeded if she was knocking on his office door.

"Enter (Y/N)." The woman complied and entered the office of her higher-up, gaze immeditely pinning itself to the pile of paperwork on his desk. Just when she closed the door behind herself did he notice she'd been handling a tray with her other hand. Fortunately she was expirienced enough by now with that task, so she didn't spill anything and the tray was neatly placed on the only free spot on his desk a few seconds later after the sounds of the soles of her boots stopped right in front of him.

"In short, I think you need some tea even though you aren't going to eat."

"Hm." He only hummed in appreciation. In reality he could've been a gentleman and said "How very thoughtful of you" or "Thank you very much", but he never even intended to be a gentleman, (Y/N) would probably think he'd been poisoned and those were his very last moments on Earth if he ever thanked her for a such a thing.

"Well, I think that's really all I can do right now. Thanks for being the courier boy for a first, Levi." She was going to take her leave, but even though her comment made his eyes narrow, he stopped her before she could touch the door knob.

"Stay."

Without questioning the significantly cold and short request, the woman made her way back to his side, taking a seat onto the couch that luckily was pristine clean and free of any kinds of objects.

"You had something to tell me." He pointed out, making her fiddle with her fingers as she faced him and collected the proper words in her mind.

"It went hard on both of us. The expedition I mean. But in contrast with me you continued to be you and I grew all depressed and shit. I know you don't like that. And I'm sorry... for breaking away from you." Well, it was true she had forbid anyone really to enter her office since they came back. She was quite broken after what happened. But somewhat banning even Levi from her personal space was something he wouldn't have expected to come his way. After a day he spend all alone though, he came to realize that she needed her time. She was gonna come to him at one point. Looks like, this point had reached them both.

"Hm..." He hummed again, taking his teacup by the rim in a claw-like grip and lifting it to his lips as she continued to talk, knowing fully well he was listening to her. Paperwork coud wait for a little right now.

"I acted like a stupid high-school girl, honestly. I know you wouldn't want to maintain a relationship with a reckless and emotional person like me, but I wanted to apologize for it nonetheless. I do hope our... how do I say this... companionship wouldn't stop, though. I won't want your affection, but I do enjoy the talks we have and I wish for them not to cease." Her words were pronounced with a well-known to her lightness as if finally a burden's been lifted from her shoulders. Levi knew that sometimes people just needed someone to listen to them and (Y/N) was a no exception from that. He himself wasn't. But it looked like she was making decisions all on her own... once again.

"I don't see the point." His voice broke the small silence and her face grew pale, he could detect with his peripheral vision. The point in what? In writing a letter to apologize to your own parents for letting your sister die and being unable to protect her from her fate? For closing yourself in after she died? For avoiding interaction in the following days of your existence as if you could make up for her death by almost killing yourself from starvation or sleep deprivation? There was no point in those things. Levi could see no point in those things. But now he meant something else by those words.

"The point... ?" After her small and insecure voice, giving out clearly her bewilderment, the clink of Levi's teacup was clearly heard as he left it down on the tray again and tapped his finger impatiently on the edge of his desk. For a few seconds there was silence and only the sounds of the man getting up from his chair and moving around were heard, until he finally decided to speak seeing as (Y/N) wasn't going to.

"What's the point in me not wanting to maintain a fucking relationship with you? Do you want to make me mad here? Is that your point?" With his currently significantly taller form he loomed over the woman on the couch, his presence dark and intimidating towards her small figure while his hands were trapping her inbetween them, pinned down at both sides of her head on the wall instead on the couch's back. "I understand she was your family and I knew it was hard for you, but I hoped you'd get it through your thick skull that you weren't the one at fault and that with time everything would be back to normal, but looks like you couldn't get my point there, could you Squad Leader? The meaning behind that was that no matter when the shit of an emotion called depression was gonna leave you nothing was going to change. Neither the paperwork we'd be forced to do, neither the routines of every single soldier in this department, neither the fact that you and I are staying together. Looks like you need a direct spit to the face of that fact in order to understand it."

She could only stare at his eyes for a few moments, her (e/c) orbs processing all of the information he gave her. "Fucking shit, (Y/N). I thought you were way smarter than that." Levi cursed and released her form, his anger subsiding as he sighed and turned back to his desk.

All of a sudden there were two hands wrapping themselves around his torso in a tight embrace, a face was buried between his shoulder blades and he could only hear her muffled words as she said: "Looks like I am dumb after all."

He could only sigh at that, his shoulders slumping down and his hands standing limp by his sides as she hugged him and took deep breaths as to calm herself down. Possibly he'd finally made her feel a little better. She was a total idiot for thinking he'd leave her just because she distanced herself from him for a few days. No such thing was happening. "We have a meeting to attend to." He stated after a small silence filled with an air of comfort and she broke the hug, her hands leaving his body and going back by her own sides as she nodded and took a deep breath while looking at his face when he turned around.

"Which do you still have to finish?" She wasn't that particular in her question, but he knew perfectly well what was she talking about.

"Don't even fucking think about it." He said before she could say her next sentence, but (Y/N) only smiled and he could feel his insides gurgle with a warm feeling. Butterflies in the stomach... or whatever shitty glasses had called them a few times.

"Come on." She insisted and he sighed, knowing she wouldn't give up even if he ordered her to.

"I'll do my own report. The list of the injured is done, the announcal of the meeting was handed over and I've already written down the damage on the resourses regarding my personal squad."

"Then I'll do the calculations and start writing the excusals later on, okay?" She asked and he nodded, knowing she was indeed going to be of help. His pride could stop him right there, but he just sighed and nodded weakly to her.

"... Fine." She smiled in return just briefly, because she was still getting accustomed to smiling once again after more than a week and stated:

"In return I'm going to write my own report and you'll help me sort out the belongings and letters after I fill them out." He crossed his arms and stood in front of her, his face twisting in a small frown as she waited for the remark to leave his lips.

"My office I assume?"

"Indeed. And I think we should go." She turned around, heading for the door, her boots were heard as she walked but Levi never followed her.

"Stop there." Just as she was to spin the door knob, his voice stopped her and she turned around with the intent to face him. His frown was clearly seenable and in a sudden he started walking towards her.

"What is it?" She asked slightly startled at his quick pace and when he stopped right in front of her he commanded:

"Close your eyes." Her eyes widened at first, but gradually she closed them, trying to maintain composure. Exactly what was happening?

"Don't tell me it's a bug. I've been in my office for the last week, no wonder if one've gotten on me." She felt nothing else but Levi's peppermint and tea breath on her face, he wasn't doing anything as to get the bug off of her or kill it (if there was a bug at all), probably he was concerned it would dirty his shining floor. "What are you waiting for Levi? Get it away from me already." He could see she was getting slightly nervous and impatient, but as much as he wanted to smirk in that moment when seeing her face - he didn't, keeping his voice low and leaning in towards her with the words:

"It's not a fucking bug, you dumbass."

He pressed her to the door and his lips claimed hers, their breaths mixing together when they opened their mouths, he didn't know he was that excited to be able to kiss her again. Even if they were just small pecks - on her lips, on her nose, her cheeks, her forehead - anywhere he could get to. The meeting could wait for a second, the paperwork could wait - those letters, those reports, those lists and bills - it wasn't like they were going to kill them, right? Not literally anyway. This here was more important. And an overdose of his lover's kisses was definetely a better way to get high instead of with paperwork.

Paperwork. A dreaded word. One that everyone loathed. But for Levi it was what kept him and her together.