When the movie finished, Levi didn't move his arm. She stayed close to his body, tucked to his chest even as he put on another movie.
The movie he put on this time was Star Wars, something she'd seen a hundred times before and did not require the protective warmth of Levi. But he kept her there, closing to his thumping heart.
Hours passed as the movie finished. They watched the movies quietly, neither moving. Her stomach grumbled as dinner time rolled around. She swallowed thickly, pulling away from him and sitting up to face him.
"Would you like to stay for dinner?"
"Sure," he says, stretching his arms. "Want to order something?"
"I can cook," she answers quickly. She immediately becomes self conscious. "If you want. I don't know if I'm any good. I usually just cook for myself."
He shrugs, titling his head at her. "Alright. What are you going to make?"
She pulls herself off of the couch, going through her fridge and biting her lip. She hadn't gone seriously food shopping in a week, and was left with mostly things she'd picked up from the deli on the way home from work the other day. "I could make pasta," she says, seeing the box of fettuccine in her pantry. "Is fettuccine alfredo with chicken okay?"
"That's fine. Do you need help?"
"Nope."
She was cooking quietly, conscious of the fact that Levi would glance into the kitchen from his place on the couch occasionally. She usually never cooked for anyone else; at home her parents always made dinner and when she was with friends Sasha, the chef of the group, always handled the cooking.
Levi came into the kitchen just as she was finishing up cooking the chicken, offering to set the table for the two of them. She was embarrassed by the mess on her kitchen table, covered in her medical reference books and various stacks of study notes. Levi didn't seem to mind, stacking them up and putting them on the kitchen counter before taking a quick look at the pile.
"You study a lot, don't you?"
"I have to."
"No, you don't."
"Yes, I do," she says with an awkward laugh. "I'm not you, Levi. I have to study so I can stay on the top of my game."
"You're right, you're not me," he says with a sigh, coming behind her to reach for the tea in front of her. He lingered, arms surrounding her and face close to hers, eyes meeting. "I could never do what you do. You're more involved with patients than I could ever be. You're not me. You're you. You're good at what you do, so don't keel over from studying so much."
Her cheeks heated up, so she ducked her head to slice the chicken and put the pasta into bowls. He never encouraged her like that, so she was extremely taken off guard. "Thanks," she mumbles quietly, hiding her eyes behind her hair as he moved to sit at the table.
"You're welcome," he says flatly, dropping a teabag into each of their mugs. The smell of black tea reaches her nose as brings the bowls of pasta over to the table. She hesitantly twirled her pasta around her fork as she waited for him to try it, becoming more self conscious by the second of her cooking ability. "It's good," he finally says, taking another bite. "Really good. I like it."
She exhales a breath that she didn't know she was holding in, smiling to herself before taking a bite of the pasta. It was average tasting at best, just plain old fettuccine alfredo that anyone could make. It wasn't nearly as good as the pasta they'd gotten a few weeks ago for lunch, but Levi still ate it with what she'd consider a smile.
"Thanks, I don't cook much so I'm glad you like it."
"I don't eat home cooked that much." He says, sipping his tea.
"It's nothing special," she says with a laugh.
"I'd rather eat home cooked food rather than always eating out."
"Come over for dinner more, then," she answers quickly. Levi narrows his eyes at her. "If you want," she adds. "I don't mind. It'll make me start cooking more, instead of always eating take out."
"Okay."
They finished eating in silence, Marley nervously twirling her pasta around her fork before taking a bite.
"Are you a Game of Thrones fan?" he asks suddenly, putting his fork down on his empty plate.
"Yeah, why?"
"I noticed the miniature Iron Throne you had sitting on your bookshelf."
"I started watching last year. It took me a while to marathon but, yeah, I like it a lot."
"Are you working on Sunday?"
"Until 4 at the cafe."
He takes a sip of his tea, steel eyes fitting towards the small throne replica on her shelf. "I'll pick you up, then. We can watch Thrones together at my house."
"Alright."
After dinner she washed the dishes as the two of them talked about Game of Thrones, smiling as she heard the ever bitter Dr. Levi Ackerman excitedly talk about the King of the North. After finishing the cleanup she wiped her hands on the front of her shorts. The day had felt long and she was tired, but the thought of being alone after being with him for so many hours felt lonely.
"Do you like sweets?" he asks suddenly. He was leaning against the counter, hands tucked into his sweatpants.
"Of course."
"There's an old fashioned ice cream shop around here. Want to go?"
She smiles, tucking her hair behind her ear. Spending time with him, even when they didn't talk, was nice. "Let me change, first."
"You're fine. We're fine to go in pajamas." He says, grabbing his keys from the living room table and starting towards the door. Marley could feel the smile reaching her cheeks as she followed after him.
Levi's shiny car looked out of place in front of the small building. The ice cream parlour was only a few minutes drive from her house, tucked behind a shabby looking awning with old looking carnival lettering in the window that said OPEN. The interior had paneling on the wall and candy cane striped stools at the counter. Marley could hear the sound of the homemade ice cream churning in the kitchen as the smell of warm fudge brownies hit her nose.
"I wouldn't have thought that you'd know a place like this," she says, looking down at the menu.
"You've met my friend Isabel, haven't you? The baker that supplies for your cafe. Not surprisingly she loves sweets. She's made me take her here a few times in the past."
"You're close then, aren't you?"
"I've known her and Farlan for years," he shrugs. "The brownies here are good," he comments, putting his menu down on the table and leaning back on his chair.
"Hmm, I guess I'll try one, then."
The waitress came and took their order soon after, and as they waited they continued their heated Game of Thrones discussion. Marley's mouth watered as the waitress put the brownie sundae down in front of her, dripping with hot fudge and a swirl of whipped cream that seemed to touch the sky.
The two of them ate in silence, Marley stealing a spoonful of Levi's coffee ice cream when he turned around. When he realized that she'd taken some, she could've sworn she actually saw him smile.
"I've got to ask you something," Levi finally says, dropping money on the counter for both of them as they began to walk out the door. "It's been bothering me for a while." His voice was as deadpanned as always with steely gray eyes fitted on the ground as he walked.
"Go for it," she says, tucking some of her stray hair behind her ear.
"Why are you so afraid of that annoying friend of yours from high school?" he asks, tucking his fingers under his chin. "What was her name again? Hitch?"
"Yeah, Hitch." The doors click and she quickly enters the car, bringing her knees to her chest.
"Hitch," he echoes. "Why were you so afraid of her?"
"I don't want to talk about it," she says quietly.
"You sure?" She nods, and out of the corner of her eye she can see him shrugging as he puts the key in the ignition. She looks out of the window, seeing his reflection as he looks at her.
His face troubled her. He'd never made that expression in front of her before. He looked concerned albeit a little annoyed.
"I'll tell you eventually, I promise," she finally says.
On Sunday, she wasn't surprised to be serving a packed house of hungry customers. The drink orders were flooding into the counter, and with the help and Jean and Marco she was mixing frappes and layering lattes. She could hear the slight agitation from some of the customers waiting at the counter; in all honesty, she was overwhelmed.
"We haven't been busy like this in a while," Jean comments, bringing over some clean mugs for the never ending line of orders.
"What time is it?" Marley asks, dropping a shot of espresso into the glass with milk and ice. She slides the latte down to Eren, who drizzled some caramel in it before turning to put it onto a tray for Mikasa to bring out to dining room. Marco slid her more cups with ice and milk and she continued to pour in espresso and coffee.
"Only noon." Jean says grimly.
"Noon?!" she asks in disbelief.
"Mhm." He drops off a milkcrate for of clean glasses and mugs on the counter by Marley, exhaling a long sigh. "I better help out in the dining room. Mikasa is amazing and all, but I don't think even she can handle it."
Marley and Marco smile at each other. It was obvious that he liked Mikasa, even if he wouldn't admit it.
"So Jean and I have been wondering," Marco finally says, loading more ground espresso into the machine. "You've been spending a lot of time with that doctor, haven't you?"
"Mm, I guess so," she replies dully, wiping down the counters from the splashed coffee. "We work together a lot so we just seem to hang out after."
"Uh huh," Marco replies, teetering back and forth on both of his feet. "That makes sense and all, but-"
"It's good to have another friend at work. It's not the same environment as over here. Things get hard emotionally sometimes so it's good to have some reliable people as support." She thinks to one of the young boys on dialysis in her wing with a frown. It's hard sometimes to fake a smile as she treated him, knowing full well he wasn't going to get better until he got a donor kidney. It was good having Dr. Levi there. He talked to he after every encounter with the young boy, calming her down.
"Right," Marco rightly quickly, nudging her side. "Hey, what're you doing tonight? Want to watch Thrones with me and Jean?"
"Sorry, I can't tonight." She stretches her arms out behind her back, smiling. "Dr. Levi already asked me."
"I'm not even going to comment," Marco says, holding back a grin. "Too easy."
A few hours later, the rush was dying out and Marley was already starting to clean up. Most of the tables were already empty, and by 3:30 she had almost the entire dining area cleaned. Sundays were always a hard day to work, with insanely large crowds and lots of diners. The ginger haired girl yawned while finishing up the last of the empty tables, polishing the wooden tables.
"Marley! Can you finish up in the back?" Jean calls to her from behind the counter. He usually helped Sasha prep for the next day, but since it was Sunday he and Marco had to do the finances to see the sales for the week.
"Sure!" she says, taking her coffee stained cloths with her and dumping them into the wash bin. Sasha was practically a pro, able to prep for the week quickly at the end of a long Sunday. By the time Marley got back there, Sasha was nearly finished, already on to doing the deep cleaning of the kitchen for the week. Marley decided to help by cleaning down the cooktop, scrubbing the stainless steel until it sparkled. Sasha kept the kitchen fairly clean throughout the day, anyways, so it was easy helping out.
"Hey, Marley, large cafe au lait to stay table 12," Marco calls her.
"Got it!" she replies quickly, smiling even though he can't see. She didn't mind helping with the cleaning, but she really did have fun making delicious coffees.
She didn't even pick her head up to the customer, a bad habit of hers, but rather went out directly to the French press and the milk steamer. Marco and Jean spent hours a day shopping for coffee mugs online, having no two of the same ones. Marley settled on a black mug with scripted writing that said "A Hug in a Mug", pouring the milk over the coffee in a way that did the typical swirly heart latte art.
"Cafe au lait, to stay!" she chirps, smiling despite her tiredness as she delivers the mug to the table. The black haired man looked up from his laptop, looking at her from under his fringe. "Oh, Dr. Levi, I didn't expect to see you here!"
"I decided to just come a bit early. Might as well get some coffee while I'm here."
"I'll be getting out a little after 4. We'll have some cleanup. And since it's Sunday we do a deep cleaning of the place. Well, I mean they get the professional cleaners in here every other Sunday. But Jean and Marco like to make sure the place is super clean."
"That's understandable."
"So right. My point was that I might not be getting out until a little later. I'm sorry. I probably should have warned you."
"That's fine. I was going to buy some ingredients for dinner. I don't usually cook much but I figured I could return the favor."
"You don't have to!"
"It's no problem. I also have the other seasons of Thrones. I was thinking since we'd have some time to kill, we could watch a few episodes beforehand."
"Awesome! There's a few episodes I want to rewatch. Like Hardhome or Blackfire."
"Both good ones."
"And the last few episodes of season 6."
"Sounds good," he says, taking a sip of the cafe au lait. "I was going to pick up some snacks too. Anything you prefer?"
"Anything's fine! Want me to bring anything from here?"
"If you want."
By the time Levi left, it was another 30 minutes until they had all of the chairs flipped and all of the pastry cases emptied. Marley was exhausted, hands tiredly dug into her pockets as she walked out of the door, bag slung over her shoulder.
She wasn't just exhausted from work. She was exhausted from getting questioned by her coworkers the entire time during cleanup, wondering all about Dr. Levi.
No one seemed to believe that she just saw him as a friend. After everything that'd happened to her during high school, she didn't think she'd see any man as anything more than a friend.
But they didn't know her during high school. They may have all graduated college the same year, but they were two years younger than Marley. They didn't know why she took two years off after high school graduation, or what she was doing during that time. She was from Stohess originally, moving to Trost to attend university. Stohess was far enough away that none of her friends now had anyone that could have known anything about the Marlene Quinn from high school.
That was all a story she'd tell them eventually. Possibly. Probably not.
"Have fun on your date today," Jean teases, nudging her side as he said his goodbye. Dr. Levi was waiting with his back to the brick facade, head tilted back to look at the sky, headphones in his ears.
"Hey," she says, tugging on the hem of his shirt to get his attention. "Ready to go?" she asks with a smile.
"Mhm," he replies, pulling his headphones from his ears. "Oh. By the way. Do you want to spend the night tonight?'