Daisy | Levi Ackerman

Chapter 45 - Unspoken Understandings

[Naomi]

I had just finished dinner and I let the five of them enjoy their meals, which they clearly made vocal to me that they did. As always, my friends commended my cooking and told me how much they missed having someone to cook like that around the house.

We interacted like the friends we were again. Though our innocence just a few months ago was bliss, at least after everything we've been through, we were alright and well. Armin was very quiet, though obliging, and we had no direct conversation at all. Perhaps we were both finding it hard to adjust again, but I know we will be, soon.

I excused myself and let them on their own, after I had heard a door open and wind howl. It shut again, followed by a few footsteps and some rustling. That was probably Levi and Eren.

Walking towards the main hallway, I wrapped myself in the warm shoal that Sasha let me borrow, as the place's warm temperature was newly replaced by the cold gust.

I stood at the end of hallway, and saw the frown in Levi's face as he commanded Eren some things. Then Eren came walking towards the hallway, as Levi turned around and took his dark green coat off.

Eren was about to call my name in surprise, when I gave him a finger up my lips, telling him to stay quiet. He mouthed an "Oh," and as he passed by, he said; "Can we talk later?"

I turned to him and nodded with a faint smile. He smiled back, a smile of relief and welcoming; and then he walked away into where the others might be. As I watched him go, my smile faded; being reminded of how things thundered down on me for the past few weeks.

When I looked back on the hallway, now empty with just me and my lover, Levi was just rearranging the messily draped coats over the rack. He paused in a second of fluster as he saw my burgundy cloak just next to his, and immediately checked the buckle at the chest area to see if it had the gold Austerlitz seal, The Dove. 

His head jerked back, confirming that the cloak was mine, and then he turned to the end of the hallway where I stood, opening his mouth to call out to his officers when his startled eyes alighted on me.

I felt my breath shiver as I saw him, unable to know for sure if I could talk to him like I did back then again. He approached me with no more second wasted. "Naomi, how long have you been here?"

Levi stood in front of me in a safe distance, looking down as his eyes began to soften. Fighting hard not to be frozen with olden hurt where I stood, I knew I should make the first move, and so I stepped a few times forward and put my arms around his torso, pressing my cheek into his chest.

"I arrived this afternoon." I answered, as he hugged me back, his hand around my shoulder and the other holding my head close. "I missed you a lot, you don't even know."

"You couldn't have felt it more than I did." Levi answered, sighing in relief. "I'm so glad that you're here now."

I hugged him tighter, and he pulled away, brushing the hair off of my face to look down into me. He smiled faintly as I looked at him in his sullen, gray eyes. "There was a blizzard just a little earlier. Are you alright? Aren't you sick? Have you recovered?"

"You and I..." I began. "We have a lot of things to talk about. But.. Yes, I'm okay now."

When the night fell and everybody retired to their bedrooms, Levi and I stayed back in the drawing room to sit by the fireplace. I suddenly turned solemnly quiet again, unable to untangle my hopeful thoughts from the remnants of my mourning. I sat there on the other end of the couch, my hands twined together and my glossy eyes fixed on the carpeted floor.