Stoke The Fire (Levi X Reader)

5.

Levi POV

My eyes dropped down as (Name) opened the door for me, taking in her appearance from her shoes all the way up to the way her hair was put up. She looked beautiful like that. I offered her my hand when she stepped out of the house and locked her door behind her, putting her key into her purse. She smiled slightly and took it, letting me lead her down the porch steps and out to my car that was parked in her driveway. I helped her into the passenger seat and then got in on the driver's side, starting the car. "Did you have a place in mind?" I asked her, not sure how much of this she had actually planned out. She'd sounded a bit nervous on the phone as if it had been a spur of the moment thing, which was fine with me. I was plenty happy to just go on a date with her. I didn't care where we went. She shook her head and looked down awkwardly.

"Then I'll choose if that's alright? You still like Thai, right?" I asked her, pulling out of her driveway and onto the street. I had a place in mind that we'd gone to a couple of times before in our senior year of high school with a couple of her other friends. Once for her birthday and the other times were other occasions I couldn't recall. "Yeah That's fine and yeah, I do." She fell silent for most of the drive to downtown. "So, uh, Levi, how was work today? You got out really early." She broke the silence, finally finding something to talk about even though the silence hadn't really been all that awkward. I glanced over at her for a short second then back to the road to continue driving. "It was fine. Pretty slow today. Erwin and I weren't on call so we just had desk work." I saw her nod from the corner of my vision and turn to look out the window at the orange sky from the setting sun. 

~~~~

Dinner was eerily quiet, neither of us really knowing what to say but despite the odd silence, the food was good, and we both left the restaurant feeling satisfied. Or at least I assumed she felt that way since I caught her smiling as we made our way back to my car. I had never been the kind for lots of small talk and she knew that so it hadn't been as awkward as I had thought it would be. When we got into the car and I started the engine though, she finally spoke up. "Levi, I know it was only supposed to be dinner, but do you think we could maybe go to Nite Lyfe for a little while? I think it could be fun." She suggested and I raised an eyebrow at her, not so sure about that. But if it would make her enjoy our date then who was I to say no? "Sure. We can go. I don't mind."

And with that, I pulled out of the parking lot and drove to the club a couple of streets over, parking out front. I got out and walked (Name) to the door, our arms linked together. We stood in line for a few minutes until it was our turn and I pulled out the money to get in, handing it to the bouncer who nodded and opened the door to let us inside. The loud music hit me like a wall and I inwardly winced at the noise. This wasn't my idea of fun but as long as I was with (Name), hopefully, it would be fine.

She took my hand and pulled me along to the bar where we each got a drink, a beer for me and a shot of fireball whiskey for her. As long as she didn't get too drunk, I wasn't about to stop her from enjoying herself. She waited patiently for me to drink my beer before grabbing my hand and dragging me out to the main dance floor that was packed with other drunken young people. I sighed and rolled my eyes, not much for dancing like this but I'd indulge her whims to make sure she had a nice first date with me. If there was one thing I wanted, it was for this to work out. I was finally getting the chance I'd wanted all through high school and I'd be damned if I was going to fuck it up on the first date.

Reader POV

I smiled as I saw Levi roll his eyes, weaving our way to the middle of the dancing crowd before I stopped and turned around to face Levi. I allowed myself to just feel the beat of the music that was nothing like what I normally liked to listen to, swaying and slightly bouncing along with it. It may not be my type of music but it definitely made for good dance music in a setting such as this, that was for sure. Levi was stiff, not really the dancing type, that much was obvious, but I did notice him tapping his foot as he watched me have fun.

I didn't let him stay that way though, grabbing his hands and lifting them to move his arms with mine as I danced and he was forced to follow along and get a little closer to be able to keep up. I laughed a little when he finally gave in and actually let his body move to the music with me. It was actually much more fun than I'd thought it would be and even Levi now seemed to be having a good time. His face didn't show it very well but he just looked more relaxed and more into what we were doing so I assumed he was enjoying himself.

To tell the truth, I just didn't want to be alone all night so coming here had been a delay to going home and ending the date. I wasn't sure how ready I was to go headfirst into another serious relationship but seeing Levi again that first time had brought back feelings I had thought I'd buried long ago when we lost contact after high school. I'd been head over heels for him back then and with Reiner out of the picture for good now that he was in jail for a while and it was very clear we were over... Those feelings were free to bubble up from the depths of my heart and show themselves. It was scary after that incident last month, but Levi had come in like a knight in shining armor just before it could go too far and ruin me forever mentally.

I liked Levi and I really wanted this date to go well so that maybe we could have another and at the same time, I didn't want it to end. I wanted to stay with him and move forward. How fast that would happen, I wasn't sure... But I was sure that I'd be willing to go through much more with Levi than if it was someone else.