Can't Get Along (Levi X Reader)

27. Acceptance

1 Week Later

Jean POV

I shot up in bed late one night, panting and sweaty. I hunched my shoulders and rubbed my face with one hand, knowing I'd just had a pretty bad nightmare but I couldn't remember most of it. Letting out a heavy sigh, I moved from my bed and pulled on a shirt and quietly left my room. I wasn't really sure where I was headed but I just needed to clear my head and calm down. Without any real destination I still somehow found myself standing outside Corporal Levi's office door with my hand poised to knock. Honestly, what the hell was I even doing here? I shouldn't be out of my room at this hour and I certainly shouldn't be coming to Levi for something as stupid as being unable to sleep because of a nightmare. So what did I want? Why was I out here in front of his door at 2 in the morning?

Before I could get my body to turn away, I'd already knocked on the door sharply three times. It opened seconds later and an annoyed Levi stood there glaring but his look quickly softened and he rubbed his forehead. "Come on in but be quiet. I finally got (Name) to fall asleep again just now." He whispered gruffly and stepped aside to let me into his office. I looked around as I closed the door, spotting (Name) curled up on the couch against the wall with a thick blanket covering her to keep her warm. Levi still had his usual uniform on along with his ODM harness... Had he been awake this whole time? It was already the wee hours of the morning and he still hadn't changed? "Why'd you come here?" He asked, pulling my attention back to the situation at hand and I shrugged, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my sweatpants. "I woke up from a nightmare and took a walk to calm down and ended up here. I don't know why." "Well, I guess it doesn't matter what the reason is. You're here. Go sit down, I'll go get something to drink." Levi left the office without waiting for a response and I stared at the door for a moment before walking over to sit on the other end of the couch and wait for my squad captain to come back.

I glanced over at (Name)'s sleeping form and frowned, watching the blanket rise and fall with each of her slow, deep breaths. If she wasn't sleeping in Levi's bed then she must have come here from her own room because she couldn't sleep for some reason. Had she had a nightmare too? The door to the office opened a couple minutes later and Levi walked over, handing me a cup of hot tea. "Thanks." I held the cup in both hands and stared down into the dark liquid as Levi took a seat on the couch between me and (Name), taking a sip of his own cup of tea. "Sir, have you slept at all since yesterday morning?" "You can just call me Levi. And no, I haven't. Don't concern yourself with me. Just drink your tea and try to get some sleep."

I did as I was told, drinking the rest of my tea in silence with Levi and setting my cup down on the small table by the couch. Noticing Levi's cup already on the table, I looked over to him to ask a question but stopped with my mouth just hanging open. In the time it had taken me to finish my cup of tea, Levi had fallen asleep right there on the couch. He looked so different when he was asleep peacefully, his normally furrowed brows relaxed and his lips parted just lightly as he breathed through his mouth instead of his nose. I certainly didn't have any of those kinds of feelings for Levi but I could see the appeal now. He was a lot more gentle than I'd ever thought originally. I carefully stood from the couch and leaned over Levi, unbuckling his harness. I'd fallen asleep in mine before and knew how uncomfortable it could be.

I somehow managed to get all the straps off him without waking him up and set them on the table before heading to his attached bedroom to grab an extra blanket for him to use. With Levi covered up, I sat back down next to him on the couch with a heavy sigh and leaned my head against the back of the couch to stare up at the ceiling, not even flinching when Levi suddenly fell to the side to lean against my shoulder. We'd all had a rough time since the events of last week involving Reiner and Bertholdt, he needed his sleep more than I did. After all, he was a squad leader, Eren's handler, humanity's strongest and on top of all that it was pretty obvious he had insomnia. I only had the occasional nightmare, I'd be fine with losing a few extra hours of sleep but Levi might fall apart if he lost too much more sleep. Eventually, I did manage to fall asleep as well and there were no more nightmares to plague my dreams. Seemed all I needed to get some peaceful sleep after that nightmare was a bit of company to take my mind off everything.

Levi POV

I grumbled, shifting to sit up with a large yawn and stretch my arms up over my head. A soft sigh from my left caught my attention and I opened my eyes to see who it was. Jean? Oh, right, he came here last night. He must have fallen asleep there because I leaned on him. I sighed and pushed myself up from the couch, leaving my office to go and snag something for the three of us to eat for breakfast. "Ah! Good morning Short Stack. You look well rested. Can I borrow Eren for the day? I'd like to run some tests on him." "I suppose so. But you better not push him too hard. He's barely been back a week from that fiasco with those traitors." I told Hanji, too concerned with the hunger pains in my own stomach to really care about her experiments. As long as she didn't harm the brat, I didn't care.

I grabbed a tray and two extra helpings of today's breakfast to bring straight back to my office. Hanji stared after me, I could feel her eyes on my back, but she didn't follow me or say anything. It was unusual for me to bring anyone else their meal but even less so for me to bring two people meals unless one of my subordinates was sick. I pushed open the door to my office to find (Name) and Jean just starting to wake up. "Perfect timing. I brought you both breakfast." I said and two sets of eyes snapped open fully to look at me then the food on the tray as I carried it over to place it on the table. "Thank you, Levi." (Name) said with a happy smile and Jean gave a tired hum of agreement. I took my bowl of plain oatmeal and walked to my desk to eat there and get started on the paperwork I never got to finish last night.

"Um, Levi, about last night... Thank you. I know I had no real reason to come here but just having some company helped me get back to sleep in the end." "I suppose I could say the same." I said, lifting my eyes to catch Jean's. "Oh, yeah. Levi, how's your leg doing? It's been a week, right? Is it healing okay?" (Name) fretted and I nodded shortly, giving her a soft look. "Yes, it's fine. It's thanks to you that minor injury is all I got. Now, stop worrying."  She smiled a bit sadly but nodded at my request for her to stop worrying so much about it.

Looking at the two of them eating their breakfast I couldn't help the slight smile that appeared on my lips and I turned my attention back to the document on my desk with a light sigh, continuing to eat my own oatmeal as I read it over. My mind was somewhere else though. Jean didn't hate me for having to share the girl we both loved and unlike the day I made the choice to let her have both of us, I didn't mind him so much anymore. It had become quite apparent to me over the past week that he loved (Name) unconditionally in the same way that I did. How could I ever have tried to take something like that away from her? It was difficult enough to find love with a single person in this world and she managed to find two. Yes, I couldn't stay upset about having to share when this arrangement made the girl I'd given my heart to so damn happy. She deserved this, all of it. And I was finally allowing my heart to be opened to this more open relationship, accepting it for what it was.