Chapter Text
“Alright, I’m heading out.”
“Cool. Have a good night, Mikasa.”
Mikasa leaves the Tattooery, leaving Levi alone in the store. It’s 6:07 pm and the Tattooery has just closed, but someone scheduled an appointment with Levi for 7 pm, so he has to stick around afterwards until that time.
It’s a very boring Thursday so far for Levi. A few walk-ins, one other scheduled appointment that day, and not much else has done little to soak up the time. Now hanging out at reception alone, Levi is feeling perfectly neutral. Solitude and quiet in a normally-person-infested space makes for an odd sense of security. The last thing in the world Levi is expecting in this moment is an ambush of any sort.
That’s when he gets a text from an unsaved number that says: Hey Levi, it’s Auruo. You busy?
Levi scowls at his phone. Auruo is a friend of Levi’s girlfriend, Petra. What the hell is he doing texting him? It’s conceivable that he got Levi’s phone number at some point over the past five-ish months, but there’s no reason to Levi’s mind that this guy should be contacting him out of the blue. He responds: Not busy. Why?
Auruo: Can I call you?
Levi: No.
Auruo: It’s important.
Levi rolls his eyes. You don’t need to call me. I’m sure that whatever it is can be texted just like anything else in the whole fucking world.
Auruo: Okay.
Auruo: Not sure how to say this…
Auruo: Petra’s cheating on you.
Levi’s heart plunges into his stomach. He stares at the text for a few moments, then calls Auruo. When the other end picks up, Levi immediately says, “What are you talking about?”
“I wasn’t sure that I should tell you but… I don’t know. I would want to know.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Right. Yeah, um… This actually happened kind of a while ago. Like, a few weeks. I didn’t say anything… But I’m saying it now. She mentioned this other guy to me. But I knew she was with you, so I asked, and she said it wasn’t a big deal. It was just drinks, or something. And I dropped it because she’s my friend and I really don’t want to step on her toes, but yesterday after I got lunch with her she asked me to drop her off at his place. Well, she didn’t say that. She just gave me an address, so I asked who lived there, and then she said. I was so conflicted about telling you, but I felt like ultimately-”
“I’m not interested in your thought process. I…” Levi doesn’t want to believe it. “I don’t believe you.”
“I can prove it.”
“Oh, you can prove it, can you?”
“Yeah. When I dropped her off at his house he came to the door to let her in. I took a picture. I can send it to you.”
“No. Don’t do that. I… Fuck. Alright, whatever. Thanks.”
“Are you s-”
Levi hangs up the phone. What now? There are two possible courses of action: he could either confront her, or he could leave it alone; out of those choices, he is obviously going to confront her. And if he’s going to confront her, he reasons, it’s better to do it sooner rather than later.
Plus, maybe it’s not true. Levi doesn’t really know Auruo. He could be lying. He could be making it up, and the picture he said he had could end up being something taken out of context, or something from a long time ago. Using this logic to steady his nerves, Levi looks up Petra’s contact and calls her cell phone.
She picks up pretty quickly. “Hey, babe. It’s not a good time. Can I call you back?”
“Are you cheating on me?”
Petra hesitates for several seconds. “What are you talking about?”
“Auruo just texted me and said that you’re cheating on me with some guy. Have been for at least a few weeks, sounds like.” There’s no reason for Levi to protect his informant. “Any idea why he would say such a thing?”
“...No. None.”
“You’re a fucking liar.”
“No, I’m not! How dare you talk to me like that?”
“ He said that you told him about some guy you were getting drinks with that wasn’t me. And that he dropped you off at the guy’s house yesterday. He said he has a picture of it that he could send me, but I said no. Are you calling him a liar?”
“Yes. Levi, he’s just trying to break us up; he’s just jealous. He’s always been into me. He thinks that if he gets under your skin, that you’ll end things with me.” Petra scoffs. “I guess he was right, huh?”
“But… He said that he’d been grappling with whether or not to tell me. That he was conflicted about betraying you, but that he would rather I know. Why would he say all of that?”
“He’s an amazing liar. He would say anything to get you to believe him. I can’t believe you believed him! You really think I would do something like that? How little you must think of me…”
“So… it’s not true? Auruo made it up?”
“Yes.” Petra sighs into the receiver. “I’m so hurt that you would think I’d do that. What kind of person do you take me for? You should have defended me. You’re being really shitty to me, Levi.”
“I’m sorry. I… I don’t know why I believed him.”
“I don’t know why either. I mean, have I ever done anything to you? Anything that would make you think I would cheat on you?”
“I guess not…”
“You guess? ”
“No. No, you haven’t. Fuck, I’m sorry, Petra. You’re right; I should have trusted you.”
“Yeah, you should’ve. You know, I’m really pissed at you right now.”
“I’m really sorry. Please forgive me.”
“I don’t know if I can, Levi. But you know what? I have to go.”
“Okay. I’m sorry. Please call me later.”
“Whatever.” Click.
Reeling from the fight, Levi leans back in the swiveling office chair that belongs to the reception desk. He fucked up-- that’s what he’s thinking. He let some random guy get in between him and his girlfriend. Yeah, he really screwed the pooch this time. Now, Petra’s never going to trust him. That’s always why she says she doesn’t want to stay over after they hook up, or why she doesn’t want to move in together, or why she doesn’t want Levi to meet her family or for him to meet hers-- she has trouble trusting people. That’s always the card she plays when Levi tries to talk to her about it.
Levi doesn’t know how to deal with these feelings. He orders a mountain of tacos from Taco Bell on Doordash, and his head keeps spinning while he waits for them and eats them.
There’s always so much room for doubt. That’s what’s rattling around in Levi’s head right now-- doubt, doubt, doubt. He’s a doubter-- that’s what he’s thinking. Nobody’s ever going to want to settle down with him if he always doubts the person he’s with. To have a good relationship, you have to trust the other person completely-- blindly, even. That’s what makes things work. One thing is for sure: if Levi had just trusted Petra, he wouldn’t have just gotten into that fight with her.
But… Something doesn’t add up. Auruo sounded so upset, so certain on the phone. It seemed so real. He really didn’t seem like he was making it up.
No. Trust Petra. Expose your cracks, and love will fill them. Even though that love thing is something that Petra still won’t say…
There’s no harm in being sure. Petra will never find out if Levi just texts Auruo and gets that picture. Yes-- if Levi could see the picture that Auruo was talking about, he could really be sure. As Levi finishes up with taco number three, he fires off the following text to Auruo: Send me the picture. Timestamped.
Yes. This will work. Either the picture will be clearly taken out of context and nothing to worry about, or the timestamp won’t line up with Auruo’s story, or he won’t send the picture because he knows the lie is falling apart. Or, on the other hand…
Levi’s phone buzzes, and right away he clicks on the image he just received from Auruo. As requested, it’s a screenshot that shows the time the photo was taken. Yesterday at 2:37. And the photo shows, clear as day, Petra on the doorstep of some smallish house Levi has never seen before. It’s a little unfocused, but she is very clearly in the arms of some tall blond guy with a scruffy beard. And it is very clearly not platonic.
Levi laughs crazily to himself. Of course it’s true. Petra has never wanted to commit. Why would Auruo have lied about it? Levi copies the image and sends it back to his girlfriend with the caption: We’re done, Petra.
There’s a reply right away. Petra texts him frantically:
That’s not real.
It’s photoshopped. It must be.
Then there’s a long pause, followed by a barrage of texts:
I made a mistake.
I’m sorry. We can fix this.
Please don’t leave.
It’s just so hard to trust you. I have such a hard time…
I’m just broken. I need you around to fix me.
You can’t abandon me like this. It’s not fair.
This is the only mistake I’ve made.
If you really love me like you said you do, you’ll stay with me.
Levi watches as the texts roll in and tears prick at the corners of his eyes. Then, Petra tries to call him. He doesn’t even decline the call. He stands up, then throws the phone hard across the room. It hits the opposite wall with a loud thud and hits the ground. The phone keeps ringing. Of course it does-- Levi’s phone case is indestructible.
Levi folds his arms down on the desk and leans his forehead into the shielded part of the desk the fold creates. The ringing stops. In the quiet, among only the soft humming of the air conditioning, Levi breathes quietly for a moment, closing his eyes.
The ringing starts again and his eyes snap open. Levi shakes his head. Reluctantly, he crosses to the other side of the room, picks up his phone, turns it off, then puts it down on a nearby counter. He goes back to reception and sits down.
Numbness comes quickly to Levi, and after a few minutes, he decides that it’s time for him to go get a drink. He throws away the Taco Bell wrappers and picks up the remaining two tacos, then heads for the door.
Wait. There’s a reason he’s here this late. He has an appointment. He can’t just leave and go to a bar.
Levi groans and reluctantly sits back down, then checks the time on the wall clock. 6:57. They’ll be here any minute. Levi spends the next five minutes shoving his feelings below his sternum and compressing them into a black, carbon brick that won’t interfere with him trying to do his job.
He sees you through the transparent doors of the Tattooery and sits up. But you don’t go in; you just stand there and anxiously check your phone every thirty seconds.
Levi watches you with irritated interest. He would really like to get this piercing over with and just go the fuck to a bar, so he wishes that you would just come in already. So why won’t you?
Levi watches you get a text. He can tell that it’s not just you checking your phone again because of the way your face suddenly lights up and you stand up straight. You check your phone and the color drains from your cheeks-- Levi can see the change even from a great distance. Just as quickly as the color vanished, it comes back; your face lights up red and Levi can practically see the steam coming out of your ears. You pace a few times, then kick the outside wall of the store.
Levi raises one eyebrow. If he weren’t in such a shitty mood, he might be amused. You pace a bit more, then shrug your shoulders and shake your head. You shut your eyes, take a deep breath, open your eyes again, then walk into the store.
“(Y/n)?” Levi asks flatly as soon as you cross the threshold.
“Yeah, that’s me.”
He crosses behind the reception desk to sit in the chair. You look around the storefront. “There’s no one else here,” you observe.
“We usually close at six on weeknights,” Levi says flatly. “But since you made an appointment for seven, I got to hang around here for an hour.”
“And then I was late, too. Fuck, I’m so sorry.”
“You weren’t late.”
“What?”
“You weren’t late. You were here on time, and then you stood out there for an extra ten minutes and kicked the outside of my wall.”
Your cheeks take on a slight flush. “You saw me?” He makes no reply, simply glancing in your direction and then back to the computer monitor. You sigh. “I was supposed to meet someone here. We were going to do this and then maybe get dinner, or drinks, and then while I was standing out there, he texted me that he had to cancel. You know, after I’d already arrived. I was just upset and-” Your voice seems to give out. You shake your head and clear your throat. “Whatever. You don’t care. The point is, I’m here, and I’m doing this.”
Now your rage makes sense to Levi. He too was quite enraged not too long ago. There’s something so compelling about you walking in here and being so honest and vulnerable when you don’t even know him. It’s a welcome contrast to the mind-bending riddles that Levi was just forced to decipher-- that he’s been forced to decipher for months.
He looks at you from across the room, holding eye contact with you as he says, “Yes, it’s nice to do something for ourselves when others let us down, isn’t it?”
At one point during the appointment, you ask Levi for advice about how to deal with the guy that stood you up, and it takes a whole lot of effort for Levi not to tell you to be vindictive, even though he really wishes he hadn’t been vindictive with Petra. He wishes he hadn’t gotten overwhelmed. Frankly, he wishes he had your problem and not his own. Yours seems a lot easier to deal with.
You’re a nice presence for Levi-- that much is clear to him before long. The badass, independent energy that you carried with you into the store is filling every cubic inch of the air around you, and Levi finds it undeniably comforting. He feels like a mess; by contrast, even though you’re having a crisis of your own, you’re carrying on and dealing with your shit. He likes it.
It also helps that he finds you pretty cute. All dolled up for a date/not-date/whatever it was supposed to be with the “friend” that stood you up, you were very clearly ready to get someone’s attention tonight. And since that other guy isn’t here, Levi can’t help but feel that all of those attention-grabbers you harbor are now for him to enjoy.
But all good things must come to an end. Before long, the piercing is over, and as soon as you walk back out of the doors, Levi goes back to feeling just as hurt and despondent as he did before you got there. Now, it’s time for a drink.
But he’s going to run into you again at the bar. You’ll be drunk, overly friendly, overly invasive, overly angry. You’ll be erupting with your own hurt, but also with your own loveliness, and it’ll briefly distract Levi from his problems.
What Levi won’t be able to make sense of for a while is the fact that you’ll be so direct. He won’t know what to do with it, and on a different day, he probably would ignore you completely or simply leave the bar. On that night, however, he’ll be so drained from the breakup that he won’t have hardly anything left to give in the way of putting up defenses. He’ll let himself go much more than he normally would with a stranger. He’ll volunteer himself to bring you home and make sure that you’re safe and cared for.
And after all of that, you’ll have given him something else to think about that night when he gets home. Whereas earlier he was going to want to drink himself into oblivion, he’ll instead just be tired, and thoughts of you will compete with the thoughts of Petra.
Levi won’t fall into a downward spiral with booze. He’ll have one drink, and then he’ll go to sleep.