#yeeeeeahhhhh

he blinks and the girl flushes and stammers out a long convoluted reply that doesn’t make sense until he realises the flowers are for him and that it’s a way for her to introduce herself to her new neighbours. 

mutely, Levi looks around his parlour that has a minimalist black and white coloured scheme. with the exception of the sample sketches and generic designs of tattoos displayed on the walls, the flowers and her are the only splash of colour in the room.

he would have turned it down with a curt response except the hopeful look in her amber eyes and her bright smile makes him hesitate.

later, he ignores Oruo and Eld’s incessant questions and teasing about the bouquet of flowers that is practically half his height sitting on the corner of their cashier counter.

however, the cheerful greeting she grants him the next day is worth it. her honey-coloured eyes are sparkling and the way she says his name as she bounds up to him with a smaller handful of flowers—daisies, this breed of plants he recognises—and all he gives in response is a nod of acknowledgement and a grunt of her name, “Petra.”

he thinks the girl—Petra—is the literal embodiment of goddamn sunshine with the way she beams and is so damn fucking cheerful that it makes him feel like a fucking asshole. Even more so when she gets along well with his team like a house on fire and Levi is the water from the firetruck that ends their fun. The fucking joy.

Eld and Gunther treats Petra like the baby sister they never had, while Oruo has descended on her like a vulture who has caught its sights on a prey. With Oruo’s pick-up lines getting progressively lewder and stupider, Levi doesn’t understand the odd urge that near-overtakes him (on more than one occasion) to jab a needle into Oruo’s mouth to shut him up. Hopefully permanently.

but that disappears when one day, they are finally alone and Petra turns those wide eyes in his direction and bites on her lower lip and asks him out for a coffee.

he should say no. Petra doesn’t need someone like him, older and grumpier and a general fucking asshole to pull her down to his level. his crime-littered past is something she doesn’t need to be burdened with and the idea of her knowing about Kenny and his mother and the symbolism of the dual wings inked into his chest makes him want to hurl but—

Levi has never been one to be selfless. No. He’s greedy and selfish. He’s uncouth and a fucking unsociable asshole and yet, he wants Petra and her smiles and her laughter. He wants her loyalty and devotion. He wants everything from her.

So he shrugs and nods. “Okay. I have an opening at three.”

The look Petra gives him is something so ethereal that all the breath in his lungs are knocked out in one swoop.

“Okay, three it is,” she breathes out and laughs giddily.