"Really? You play the piano?" Erwin asked, impressed, as we slowly walked down the street that led to the office.

"Yes, I've played it for many years," I confirmed.

"Wow, I didn't know that."

"Actually, no one knows it. I've always kept it secret."

Erwin raised an eyebrow in question, without saying anything. He was so expressive that sometimes he didn't even need words to show how he felt or what he wanted to say.

"... I don't like to be listened to while I play. It's... an intimate moment for me, if you know what I mean," I explained.

"Oh... well, I get it. You should try to play piano in public, though," he suggested "I bet you're really good at it."

"Nah, I'm not," I denied immediately.

"C'mon, don't be so freaking modest, Levi."

"I'm not modest, I'm just saying the truth," I insisted as Erwin shook his head, resigned: "Man... you're stubborn as hell."

"You don't like it, do you?" I asked, feeling sad all of sudden. I would never be good enough for him, I knew it.

"I do, to be honest," he retorted unexpectedly. I sheepishly looked down, trying not to blush again.

Crap, how does he manage to make me react like this? It's so embarrassing.

I noticed a mischievous smile creeping on Erwin's face as he noticed that I was restraining myself from freaking out like a little girl, and my brain ordered me to shove Erwin towards the side of the street.

"Stop it, you... you..." I tried desperately to find a slight insult to hurl at him, but failed miserably as soon as I heard him laugh out loud. My eyes were wide open as I looked at his smile, even more genuine and brighter in the weak springy sunlight. I had managed to make him laugh, and that made me the happiest person in the world.

"Ah, Levi..." he said after a while, still chuckling "You're so cute..."

My heart skipped a beat for the umpteenth time as I processed that compliment, but my thoughts got clouded by the memory of the first time I saw a piano.

It was a cold January day and my mother had taken me to a thrift store. I loved going to shops when I was little, especially antique stores: I loved to pass my hand along the furniture and sense all those years of age on its surface; I loved the familiar scent that soaked the most ancient objects. That day, they had just carried in a huge wooden piano. My eyes sparkled in curiosity as I approached that fascinating instrument, admiring every single dusty tile. I gasped, enraptured, in the exact moment I heard a sound coming from the tile I had pushed with my tiny, skeletal finger. It barely reminded me of the sound of parcel.

"Levi!" I shivered at my mom's reproach as she violently pinched my hand.

"What is it called?" I asked quietly, pointing at the piano.

"Don't touch it!" she hissed with gritted teeth, ignoring my question.

I was about to open my mouth to talk back but she anticipated me, as if she could read my mind: "No, you know we can't afford it."

I sighed in surrender, my hands slipping down the piano, erasing another dream from my imaginative mind.

I had nothing. I couldn't have anything a common child would be given, and that was hurting me more than everything else. We would always frequent a thrift store, yet there were things we couldn't afford.

"Hey, what happened? Cat got your tongue?" asked Erwin, scanning every part of my body like a curious toddler. I could sense the good smell of coffee as he talked, and that gave me even more butterflies in my stomach.

"Oh, no... I was just thinking," I shook my head.

"How's your headache?" he changed subject as we got closer to our office.

"... It's gone," I was ecstatic as I realized that my head could finally rest.

Erwin smiled in tenderness as we took the first step into the office. I felt the urge to take Erwin's hand and saw his face lighten up in surprise as I did so. I didn't like body contact, so my hand had been a little too hesitant and shaky, but I had made it, and Erwin had appreciated it.

"EYEBROWS!!" a high-pitched voice bursted in, making us stop holding hands immediately.

Ymir approached us with heavy steps before waving a colored paper in front of Erwin's face.

"Do you know what this is?" she was so frustrated that her words came out very fast and confusely, tied up all together like a unique word.

"Y- Yes...? That is your presentation for Friday," he answered casually, awkwardly wiping his hand on his suit.

"BEEP! Wrong!" she showed a nervous smile and her eyes got bigger, she honestly looked like a maniac "This is not my presentation for Friday, it's the first page of my presentation for Friday! Remember when I asked you to check on all those papers?"

"Ohhh, yeah," Erwin snapped his fingers in satisfaction when he remembered.

"Fine, I found only one of them! Can you please explain that?" her lips curled into another fake smile as Erwin looked up to think, with the same nonchalance as when he tried to remember what he had got for breakfast.

"Um, I don't know; last time I checked on them they were all on the table."

Ymir violently threw the only paper left on Erwin's face sped away, groaning: "I'll make you get fired one day, you stupid irresponsible dickhead! I swear I'll kill you if I don't find those fucking papers!"

"Wow, you're hopeless," I smirked watching Erwin scrape the back of his neck. He sighed: "I know, right? Plus, she's a hothead. Well, let's look at the bright side: she will never entrust her stuff to me again!"

-

My gaze got lost beyond the window glass while I was sitting silently in my office room, spinning the pen through my fingers. It was still cold but the sunlight was starting to get more intense and warm, which wasn't helping at all: there was no chance to find something else in that city, so I was forced to work in that stinky room for all the time I would stay there. At the same time my wild, active side was telling me to go out and enjoy the springy warmth, to get some fresh air, to run in the grass and take some naps under the trees.

"Still one hour..." I mumbled, gazing at the clock "Fuck this."

I got a stroke of genius as soon as I unstuck myself from the chair: what if I invited Erwin home in the evening?

"Whaaat? No, no; listen, shortie, Historia invited me first, it's unfair!" Ymir protested at my suggestion.

"Well, where's the problem, Ymir?" Historia smiled kindly "We'll be four instead of thr-"

"No way! You know how much I hate that man! He lost my documents, he can't even do his damn job right!" she cut off Historia, gesticulating frantically.

Historia gave the other girl a tough look before speaking.

"Ymir, the apartment is not only mine, it's also Levi's, so if he wants to invite a friend he has all the rights to do it, even if it's Erwin. Besides, Levi never invites people, so I don't see why I shouldn't let him do that. Now stop being this childish just because Erwin has lost your stuff, you've never even trusted him, so you shouldn't have given him your work."

Ymir was left speechless by Historia for the second time in a day and limited herself to say: "Tsk. Fine. Just keep Erwin away from me."

I smiled instinctively at Ymir's unexpected response: "Thank you."

"Enough of this mushy stuff," she roared before grasping Historia's hands and carrying her away.