Over the next few days, Hange and Levi finished all their assignments, and with Hange's part-time job bringing the two of them a source of income, they could finally afford a second-hand sofa. Mrs Sato helped them bring it up the stairs and into their apartment, where they put it in their living room. Levi helped Hange carry the clunky TV into there, too, plugging it in so they didn't have to lounge in each other's rooms so often.

"Levi~."
"What?"
"I'm bored."
"Okay...and?"
"I wanna do something fun."
"Shall we...clean?"

Hange threw him a playful glare.
"I was joking, four-eyes. What about...guess the animal, but you have to make the sound for the animal."
"I wouldn't expect you to come up with that," she scoffed.
"I played it with Suga in the library. We were bored and I guess that was...kinda fun."
"Okay, okay...can I go first?"
"Sure." 

She pulled a face, then crouched down and crossed her arms.
"i'M a NeAT FrEak WhO sWEaRS ToO mUcH," she groaned, deepening her voice and furrowing her eyebrows.
Levi's face turned dark.
"You asshole," he said, a light smirk creeping on his face as he lunged towards Hange and tackled her form to the floor.
Giggling, Hange gripped onto Levi's arm and slung her leg over his waist, pushing him down as she hovered over him. She entwined her fingers with his as they both play fought. Their arms mingled in the air, both of them exerting force on the other person, eventually Hange's arms buckled and she allowed herself to fall, being slammed against the carpet.
At this moment, she was chuckling so much that she forgot she was in fact losing the fight to Levi who was above her, so she decided to play a bit...differently - she tugged on his hair.

"Ouch, not my hair, four-eyes!"
"I never said I wasn't gonna fight dirty."

With one hand messing up his hair and the other attempting to tickle his abdomen, Hange began squirming around, trying to get out of his grasp. 

"You look like a constipated fish, four-eyes."
"And you're just pissed off that I ruined your hair."
"Tsk, this ends now four-eyes."
"Um, you started this, shorty."
"Shh," he said in an attempt to hush her, while he tried to grapple her.

She broke out of his grasp, quickly running to her bedroom, but he was faster. She jumped in her bed, the two of them struggling in combat, until Levi finally fell off the bed. He took Hange with him and they were both lying side by side on the floor. Hange was in hysterics, wiping her tears of laughter and Levi's messy hair was sprawled on the ground as he huffed friskily.

"I won that four-eyes, you ran away from a fight."
"Not technically," she said, climbing onto his knees with her own. He balanced her form there and gripped her arms from her elbows, so she didn't fall.

"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah. I could still totally drool on you."
"Do that and I will bury you in your own shit."

Unintentionally, she tilted forward, their noses brushing against each other, their eyes almost piercing the other's soul. The two of them felt a heat flush in their cheeks as their orbs widened. They scrambled away from each other, sitting up on the carpet. Both could hear their heart flickering in their ears and an odd sensation wash over them.

Their stomachs felt fluttery and Hange felt shivers along her arms. Well, she was wearing a short sleeve t-shirt, but...there was something Hange couldn't quite pinpoint. That same old clench in her chest that had usually bothered her only when she was with Levi. It was very annoying, but it was somewhat always there when he was around
Levi felt that same tug on the strings of his heart that he had when he had carried her back to the orphanage on his back while she slept. The very same feeling when they had a run-in at the library.

The feeling wasn't painful...but it wasn't so nice either. They both wanted to push it away, forget about it, but it pestered them and what else could they do about it, other than hide it?

Levi cleared his throat.

"I'll...go put dinner on," he said, scratching the back of his head and looking down.
"I'll go... feed Nike," Hange said, pushing herself up to find the kitten.

When the two of them had eaten dinner, conversation had run dry and neither of them really knew what to say.
"That tasted really good, Rivi."
"It was nothing really, just throwing stuff together."
"Well, if I was the one who just 'threw stuff together', you'd get food poisoning."
He chuckled humourlessly, while the two of them sat down on the sofa to watch TV.

Well into the evening, the two were cooped up in their bedrooms with the doors shut, studying for exams. Setting down his pen, Levi ran a hand through his hair,

Hange was huddled on her bed, with a blanket over her shoulders, Nike lying in her lap, while he watched her work, curiously. He put his small paw over her equations, making her chuckle. She stroked his silky fur, scratching behind his ear in affection.
Hange checked her alarm clock - it was way past midnight and she had school in a couple of hours.

An awkward feeling swirled within her. She pondered the annoying feeling which had pestered her many a time...what could it be? It definitely isn't normal to feel like this when you think about your best friend. She thought she ought to talk it over with him, but he might think she was weird. She pulled on a hoodie and laid Nike in her bedside drawer, making sure it was comfy and cosy for him.

Grabbing the pillow from her bed, she clambered over to the door and headed over to Levi's room. Levi's bedroom door wasn't open, so she slowly pressed the handle down.

"Levi? You awake?" she whispered.
He was curled up on the mattress, his hair messy, his assignments neatly piled on his bedside table. Hange smiled softly, then had an idea. She quickly ran to her bedroom and grabbed the Polaroid out of her wardrobe and snapped a picture of him.

'Hilarious,' she thought, biting down on her lip smugly.

Putting her Polaroid down on the floor, she made her way to Levi's bed and climbed in. She was about to drift off to sleep when Levi began to stir.
"Mmurgh...four-eyes...is that you?" he mumbled sleepily, his eyes closed, and his palm underneath his cheek.
"Yeah, it's me. Hope you don't mind, shorty."
"Don't..." he yawned mid-sentence, "Don't forget to take off your glasses."

*****
A/N: I still can't believe that this story was #1 in LeviHan on 07/01/2021!
Hope everyone's staying safe out there :) As always, feel free to vote and comment!

Also, I just wanted to encourage anyone who was thinking of publishing, to believe in yourself - you can do it.