AIN'T TALKIN' 'BOUT LOVE

CHAPTER 33 - HOW'S IT GOING TO BE by THIRD EYE BLIND (HANGE & LEVI PT. 2)

Hange and Levi will have 3 parts. They had so much to say that all I had to do was sit down and go. I love their relationship so much, because in essence, they're both so incredibly odd, and yet so wonderfully loveable. I think they're relationship is so powerful because neither has any true judgement of the other. Once you're safe like that, the sky is the limit. With that, please be kind to yourself and love yourself. You are the most precious thing, and I love you.

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Hange lay in the bushes, hidden by the olive trees surrounding the lab building. She didn't have that much farther to go before she made it to the front door, but it hurt so bad to move. She must have broken a rib, and one of her eyes was swollen shut.

She couldn't miss Levi tonight. In the last two months, his Wednesday night visits were all she lived for. It started with him coming in and out with only the perfunctory conversation, a comment about her new hair style and hesitant, prodding questions from both.

She'd learned that he was on a math and accounting scholarship and that he was desperately poor. He would never say that, but his eyes held an earnestness that well-fed people didn't have.

She could have food if she wanted it, but she'd have to go home, and it just wasn't worth it. But she decided it was worth it for Levi, so she'd sneak in at night after her father had gone to bed. The kitchen staff, whose love had fed her since she was small and motherless, would make her a picnic basket to last her a couple of days. She kept a small fridge for herself at the lab. Thank god her father had forgotten to take her lab key, otherwise she'd be in the bushes full time.

Levi was kind to her in a backward way. He cussed at her and he would sneer at her in irritation and frustration, but she saw the concern and the sweetness in his eyes. Their nights together gave her hope that she might turn into the girl that people wanted to be around. Levi didn't seem to mind her weirdness. Maybe it wasn't as bad as she thought it was.

So, they would eat the picnic lunch after Levi quickly completed his lab, and they would talk. Her habit of drumming her pencils or chopsticks on the counter never seemed to bother him like it did others. Sometimes he'd be able to guess what song she was playing, and she would smile so wide, and he'd just shake his head. It made her feel complete.

Other nights, he'd come, and Hange wouldn't speak because the little man was so furious. She'd just move around him and clean up behind him. She could see his hands shaking and the ever so slight shimmer of tears in the corner of his eyes. On those nights, it usually had something to do with his mother. If he talked, Hange would listen.

She learned peripheral information about Kuchel, his mother, Farlan, his brother and Kenny, his uncle. She filed it all away for a point in the future when she might be able to help. Eventually, he'd shake his head and apologize. ''Why do you let me talk on like this?' She'd smile and hand him another sandwich half.

She never ate as much as she did when she was with him. She thought it might be because she felt safe with them. As it was, she could see her hip bones sticking out and she walked around in a sluggish pall, but on Wednesday nights she feasted.

When she was cold, he'd let her wrap up in his dark green sweater, yelling and swearing that if she got anything on it, he'd take her nails off with a plier. He was always colorful when he threatened her. He said the sweater was his most important thing that he owned. That she should be fucking grateful he was letting her wear it. She was grateful. She wondered who gave it to him, running her knobby fingers over it.

She felt the wet ground soaking through her lab coat. She tried to move to her side, in spite of the piercing pain. She didn't want to get her coat dirty. She wanted to impress Levi. He'd told her that she needed to wash her clothes. "Don't you have another set of clothes at home you could wear while you wash these?" Apparently there was mustard, hardened residues and various other mysterious liquids that had stained the coat.