Insomnia

A Tentative Friendship

"Good morning soldier. Or is it still evening? Fuck." He groans, and plops down on the bench across from you.
"Yes."
"Huh? Morning, yes? Or evening, yes?"
"Yes."
He gives a brief chuckle and drops his head on the table, annoyed at how fucking tired he is.

"I'm doing some reading on sleep deprivation and effective sleep techniques. Pretty interesting."
"Yeah?" He asks, curiosity peaked. "What kind of techniques?"
You shrug. "Mostly a collection of folk cures. No one has really come up with a specific sleep medicine as of yet, but I'm toying with the idea of maybe trying these out."
"I'm in."
"Yeah?" You look up in surprise, not expecting that at all.
"Sure. What's the harm? Worse case scenario is I still don't sleep."
"Well let me finish this book first. I want to make sure I've got this all down first."
"Reasonable. If none of these works, we can always try simultaneously knocking each other unconscious." He gets up and leaves, your friendly chuckle following.

"Hey Hanji!" He walks into the lab and looks around. He doesn't see her immediately, so starts wandering around and looking at various test tubes and beakers.
"Over here!" Her head pops up momentarily and he makes his way over. "Don't touch those! Unless you want the lab to explode!"
"What the fuck are you up to now?"
"Chemical compound which when applied to the thunder spears, amplifies their effect."
"Huh. That's actually pretty good. Do you think you could concoct a sleeping aide?"
She looks at him questioningly and he clarifies.
"Not for me, I have a friend and she-"
"YOU have FRIEND? SHE?"
"Acquaintance." He clarifies. "I want-"
"Ah, you want to drug her up and drag her to your man cave?" She teases, giving him a wink.
"No! Fuck Hanj I-"
"Because we both know that's the only way you'd ever get any!" She's rolling with laughter now, and Levi has to suppress the urge to bust her face in.
"Forget it." He turns on his heel and storms to the door.

You're sitting under an apple tree next to the training field reading about an hour later, and he hesitantly sits beside you. Hanji's teasing has effected him a little more than he cares to admit.
"Oh hey." You say distractedly, turning to the next page.
"Hey. How's your reading?"
"Almost done. Did you want to decide on what to try first?"
"What are our options?"
"Chamomile tea, meditation, mantras-"
"What now?"
"Mantras. I'll elaborate when we try it. We also have yoga, massage, getting drunk-"
He snorts laughter at this.
"-and sex. Wow. We can skip that one." You're blushing and so is he. He clears his throat awkwardly and turns away in embarrassment.
"Let's try the tea, shall we?"
You nod in agreement. "When? And where do we conduct our little experiment?"
"My quarters will be fine. And how about tonight?"
"Sounds good." You say, getting up. Levi follows suit. "What time?"
"Ten."
You give a wave as you head to the barracks. "No more black tea for the day, ok?"
He nods in acknowledgment and heads off in the opposite direction.