hagamode-deactivated20160824:

I made it more a habit of the past if that’s okay?

“You’re closer now,“ Erwin said right into
the busy silence that occupied the air around them as they cleaned themselves.

“What does that mean now?” Levi asked and
scrubbed his upper body clean. There were some silvery shining scars here and
there that destroyed some kind of illusion Erwin had built up over time for
some unknown reason. For him Levi’s skin was always spotless when he imagined
it.

“You used to keep quite the distance to me
at the beginning. I remember you’d hardly agree to standing right next to me.”

“Ah, that,” Levi said now and suddenly
seemed to be a lot busier than before. He turned around and scrubbed his legs
while Erwin dumped another bucked of water over him. It wasn’t exactly cold but
not comfortably warm either. Levi sucked in some air to get used to the splash.

“I always thought you were either getting
ready to still kill me or afraid I would kill you.”

“Nothing like that,” Levi sneered a bit
evasive.

“Give that soap to me. I’ve got some
reports to finish after this and I don’t want to sit there until the middle of
the night. I’m not you.”

Ignoring what Levi just said, Erwin stood
there, hands on his hips. He hoped waiting for a more detailed answer would
maybe loosen Levi’s unusually restricted mouth. It wasn’t in his nature to be
so reserved when it came to words. Not many knew, or assumed, Levi actually
couldn’t stop talking a lot of times.

He turned around with a raised eyebrow to
check why Erwin hadn’t given him the soap yet and sighed when he saw the man
standing behind him waiting.

“Alright, I was too conscious of my height,
okay? Now give me the soap.”

“Wait, you were conscious about your
height? That’s why you avoided standing next to me?” Erwin almost chuckled when
he heard that, but knew if he’d actually dare, Levi would give him a death
glare and refuse to talk for the next few hours.

“Yeah. Anything wrong with that?”

“Not at all,” Erwin admitted and raised his
hands after he had handed Levi the soap.

“It’s just surprising.”

“Why?”

“Well, you seem very confident most of the
times. I know quite a few dislike being short but you never showed any signs it
applied to you too.”

“That’s because you have no idea which
signs I give when I’m conscious about it.”

For a moment Erwin was dumbfounded by what
Levi said and realized that he was absolutely right. He could examine Levi all
he wanted but ultimately would only get to know all the intrinsic details when
Levi chose to tell him. Something about that realization excited him in a way
an unread book did.

“Stop staring like a creep and help me get
ready.”

“Sorry,” Erwin said and got to it with a
small grin on his lips.