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There was nothing Marley could show Levi that he hadn't already seen. It was a dangerous change of scenery, sure, but nothing more than that. The tea still tastes the same. The sun comes and goes, just as the rain and the wind command. It’s only through Hange’s hopeful eyes that he can see more than just an impossible expanse of endless threats.
When Eren suddenly leaves, he takes no pleasure in his own suspicious nature being proven right.
“You know, Levi,” Hange sidles up to him at their shared countertop table at an inconspicuous café, “nobody here knows who we are.”
Funny, Levi bitterly thinks, that it’s only on the unfamiliar streets of Marley that they’d ever have such a "freedom", right up until the moment they were discovered to be of Eldian birth. Even though they'd come in an earnest attempt to understand a world that spat on their existence, it meant enduring the boldfaced fact that they were up against the entire world. Levi tries to discard the thought but, when he looks back at Hange, she frowns as if thinking the same thing. Despite all the wonder and awe this fresh world brought, her burdens remained just as heavy.
“You’re still you,” Levi starts, swirling his rapidly emptying cup of tea around, “no matter where you go.”
“I know.” Hange admits with a voice of resignation and her head hung in shame. Her teacup is full, but her heart is not. "I... don't think Eren is coming back."
Levi scowls. The letter had come in only days ago and its contents shattered everyone's hopes in one fell swoop. They saw it as a betrayal, through and through- an indictment of everything the Scout Regiment had been fighting for. Levi himself had come to terms with the fact that Eren had changed, but that didn't mean he had no regrets about it. Everyone did.
“Just for now,” Hange trails off, a deep blush coloring her face, “can we pretend... as though it was just the two of us?”
“What are you-“ Levi raises his eyebrow, mouth hung open as he tries and fails to gathers his words, only to be abruptly startled by a bubbly young woman armed only with an apron and a teapot of piping hot Earl Grey.
“Are Mr. and Mrs. enjoying themselves over here?” The overly familiar café waitress chirps as she refills Levi’s teacup. Hange jumps at the question, begins to nervously laugh, fumbling for an answer. She desperately looks to him for help.
“Yes.” Levi responds curtly, before drinking from his newly filled cup of tea. Thankfully, the waitress seems to get the message and leaves them be. Hange sighs in relief as her hands curl around her teacup, likely lukewarm by now.
“The others… they’ll probably be back from the search soon. I hope Mikasa is holding up.”
Hange had opted to stay behind with Levi when he suggested the unlikely possibility of Eren returning to the estate. He too was absolutely sure that Eren wouldn't return, but Armin and Mikasa especially couldn't let it go. At worst, such a futile search would leave the brats even more demoralized. At best, with Sasha robbing everyone blind begging for a taste of every new food that crossed their paths.
After an extended silence, Hange stands up from her seat. At the somber look on her face, he feels the compulsive urge to make her lips tug back up into a smile, even though he was as good at lifting others spirits as he was at polite conversation. He grabs at her bony wrist, but the words don't come.
“I’m going to the bathroom.” Hange laughs, but doesn’t pull away from his grasp. “You wanna watch?
Levi lets his grasp go a little more lax, but he holds onto her still. Maybe the new world had nothing new to show him, but Hange always did.
“Levi?”
He makes a point to look her directly in the eyes when he stands up to face her. “It’s a husband's job to protect his partner." Levi mumbles under his breath, standing up on his toes just slightly so he can press his forehead to the radiating heat of her forehead. “Stay near me.”
This close, he can see so clearly see the wide range of Hange's emotions: her quirked eyebrows, the crooked smile she tries to suppress, the glitter of her eyes. Just a little longer, and he could easily pretend this is how things always were. How they were meant to be.
Laughing breathlessly, Hange tilts her head slightly and her eyes flutter closed. She leans in just so, and it’s alarmingly easy to cross that distance and press his lips to hers. It’s a slow meeting of chapped lips that evolves into open mouths, shuddered breaths through their noses, and tongues sliding past the other, warming him all over. His hands come to cup her face, sliding into her messy hair, while her hands clumsily loop behind his neck. He sinks into her embrace, an ease in feeling her this close for the very first time, in the place where no one knows their names.
“Levi…” Hange pants against his mouth, her breath of Earl Grey dances on his own waiting lips. He tangles his hands in her hair further, teasing his finger underneath the strap of her eyepatch.
“So, um,” the waitress announces herself by clearing of her throat, and a beet red face, “anyone interested in dessert?”
With a burning neck, Levi whips around and busies himself with his tea long gone cold. Hange leans back against the counter and yelps when she accidentally bumps her teacup, spilling it some.
“Well,” Hange chuckles, fidgeting with her glasses as she elbows Levi in desperation for an assist, “maybe one of those, um, little cakes- ah, what were they? The yellow ones?”
“Madeleines.” He answers from behind the rim of his teacup.
“Yep!” Hange squawks, straightening herself up. "That... thing!"
“One madeleine, alright." The frazzled waitress exhales as she jots down the simple order. "Anything else?”
“Make that five.” Levi interjects, and he swivels around to rescue a keyed up Hange, his partner- in every sense of the word, no matter where they went. “For our kids.”
Hange’s shoulders sag in relief just as her face flushes even darker. The waitress pockets her notepad and shuffles away while averting her gaze, but in his eyes, she may as well have disappeared off the face of the world.
The sum of Levi's world stands before him in a crumpled suit and lopsided glasses. When he reaches out to entwine his hand with hers, rubbing his calloused thumbs over her scarred knuckles, he makes a wordless vow to see this through with her, to the very end. One day, maybe, the idea of living- just the two of them, would be more than a fantasy in a faraway world.