Levi Ackerman One-Shots

Soft Touch

Y/N winced and turned her eyes back to the food on the floor.

"No, sir. But I'm taking care of it as quickly and efficiently as I can, sir."

Levi pondered a moment before signing once more. He rolled up his sleeves as he made his way over to her, eyes trained on the mess.

"Go fetch some gloves from the storage room. You'll either cut yourself on those shards, or dirty your hands in that shit." he said absentmindedly.

Now that he was closer to her, she could clearly make out the dark circles forming under his eyes, and red veins webbing across the sclera of his eyes. His hair wasn't neatly combed as it always seemed to be, and his clothes were slightly wrinkled.

He didn't wake up on the wrong side of the bed; he never went to bed...

"Yes, sir," Y/N saluted and hurried out of the room. Once she returned as quickly as she could, Levi was already near the table with another scrap bucket and white cloths covering  his head to protect his hair, and over the lower section of his face to shield his nose and mouth. Shaking her head at the undeniably adorable sight, Y/N briskly walked over to him and handed him his gloves.

"Thanks, L/N," he mumbled as he slipped them on.

"Of course, Captain," she nodded.

Suddenly, he sighed deeply once more.
"Captain this, Captain that. It's all I've heard for three straight days. Just Levi, please," he groaned.

Y/N paused as she reached for some bread crusts to throw into the bin. She was at a loss for words and just stared blankly at him.

"Don't make me repeat myself brat, I hate repeating myself."

"Uh, yes sir! Levi, sir." Y/N stuttered.

"Now, let's get this shit cleaned up before another bastard decides to come in here and trip over this or make it worse." Levi grumbled as he tossed scraps into the scrap bin.

Y/N hummed in agreement, too lost in her own thoughts to respond.

He seems a bit more approachable right now...Perhaps now would be a good time to offer him some help?

"Cap- Levi, sir?" she began.

"What." He barely spared her his attention, but she could see he was listening.

"Well...I wondered if you were alright?"

His eyes snapped up to hers in an instant, a slight indent in his brow.
"What do you mean, L/N?"

"I just mean that, you seem on edge today? And I wondered if there was something wrong." Y/N rephrased herself quickly, fearing his reaction.

Levi thought for a moment, studying her face intently. "I'm fine, Y/N. Get back to cleaning."

Just as Levi's hand reached for a half eaten bagel on the floor, Y/N blurted out; "You haven't slept for awhile, have you?"

The look on his face made her immediate regret her boldness.

But instead of saying anything, he just sighed and turned his gaze away.
"Can't seem to. Too much work, too many troubling thoughts."

He went to lower his facial cloth, but forgot his gloved hand had recently been picking through discarded food scraps on the floor. A dark stain was left on his cheek from where the glove had made contact with his face.

"Son of a bitch!" he ripped the cloth off his face and the glove off his hand as he let curses fly. It seems he had finally reached his limits, and his frustrations were now being taken out verbally to the food on the floor, as if it was the cause of all his pains and misfortunes. If he wasn't so down, and she didn't care for him so much, Y/N might have laughed. But instead, she thought of something else.

Impulsively, Y/N took her own gloves off and grabbed a handkerchief from her uniform coat pocket and reached out to wipe the stain away.

When her hand came into contact with his face, Levi flinched, and then stiffened. His mouth hung half open in surprise and his eyes widened almost comically. Taking this opportunity of silence from him, Y/N gently wiped away the gunk before discarding the handkerchief into the scrap bin.
For a moment though, she let her now bare hand trail across his cheek and was amused to see the rising color in his face.

"Levi?" she asked.

"Uh-I...What?" Levi stammered, trying to compose himself.

"Let me help, okay? You're not completely alone here in HQ." Y/N smiled bashfully.

Levi was silent a moment longer, then nodded with yet another tired sigh.
"I....I'd like that, Y/N. Thank you."

And for the first time, Y/N saw Levi crack a small, brief smile of gratitude.
Perhaps she'd get to see his smiles more often now that he was allowing himself to warm up to his cadet a little more.

pls i write this all at 1am cause ✨anxiety✨
it's a little rough around the edges, but one-shot no.1 is complete!
lemme know what you think, and if you wanna request hit up the request page!

~Lynn