aruka

because listen, this happens on the second Christmas day Levi spends above ground, and the first one after Hange unfortunately found out it's also his birth date (they confessed earlier today that Nanaba helped them break into Shadis' office to find Levi's record, and that is all they could dig up about him) and made, as he was afraid they would, a huge deal of it.

except he's starting to regret (yes, Levi is starting to regret something. no, he doesn't understand how it's happening either) thinking that was such a bad thing, because Hange has now spent the entire day with him (as in, took an actual break from their research and experiments), walked into town with him and took him to a tea shop that wasn't as fancy as he always feared those places would be (which probably has to do with how warmly the old lady behind the counter greeted Hange when they got in, but he's not going to pry about that.. yet) and discreetly bought and offered him the kind he liked best when they left.

and yeah, Levi's probably going to lose it when he realizes it was Hange's mission to lure him away from HQ today just so everyone could put together a surprise birthday party for him (and watch his reaction from afar instead of standing in a dark room and yelling out "SURPRISE" as Humanity's Strongest enters because, contrary to civilian belief, they are not a bunch of suicidal fools), and it will no doubt create yet another frustrating misunderstanding between them when he thinks that's all there was to Hange's behavior, but right now he doesn't know that...

no. right now, Levi's too drunk on the aftertaste of delicious tea, on confusingly comforting feelings about this day he hadn't associated with anything joyful since his mother died, and on Hange's insufferably irresistible kindness, to have noticed everyone lurking behind them

and right now, he's holding onto Hange's elbow to stop them from falling (because of course they had to walk backwards down those stairs so they could stare back at him as they excitedly ranted about who knows what and couldn't watch where they were going instead) and they're laughing off their own clumsiness and playfully mocking him like "hey, look at you on your higher step there, standing taller than me! this is so weird, i've never seen you that way before!"

and they keep yapping away, but his mind is stuck on that phrasing, and Levi gets so fucking... annoyed. annoyed at their teasing yet beautiful grin, at the deep brown of their scarf that so poorly compares to that of their eyes, at everything they've come to mean to him in the amount of time he's gotten to know them

and so, in a fit of insanity he'll blame on the magnetic pull they have on him even right now with their fogged-up askew glasses, he takes a deep breath, thinks what the hell

and goes with "well, here's another new way to look at me, shitty glasses"

There's so many more I wanted to add but I'm restricted to 10 GIFs per post. But this is enough to show how much Levi cared for Hange.