Modern AU — 3349 Words

It wouldn't have been worth it to cancel the honeymoon reservations, is what Levi had told Hanji when he asked her to come with him to Puget Sound. It had been three months since his fiancée called off the marriage, and Hanji still wasn't completely sure if he had healed from the hurt. She'd spent the past weeks occupying his time, watching him endure her company, and making sure he didn't dissolve from malnutrition and neglect. So Hanji had been everything short of surprised when he'd revealed that he hadn't cancelled the reservations for his honeymoon.

"I'll pay for the extra room," Levi offered, not even looking up from his phone on the subway. "My treat." She could tell, despite his apparent indifference, that this was hard for him to ask her. After his fiancée got cold feet—months before the wedding, but also months after all the reservations had been made—Levi seemed to be filled with this unshakeable sense of doubt. She could see it in the way he phrased questions, or in the ways he reacted when she went to his apartment with Erwin (uninvited). She had expected it to make him only perhaps slightly more irritable, more inclined to flick her or scowl at Erwin, but somehow, he had almost become fragile.

"Give it time," Erwin had said when the two of them were sitting at their couch. "He hasn't dated a lot of people before, so this was a lot for him. It'll probably be a while before he can date someone again."

Hanji had nodded. Sometimes she forgot that Erwin had known Levi longer. "Our angry little baby got his heart broken," Hanji sighed, taking a sip from her glass of wine. Sitting there, her legs on Erwin's lap, the tv playing an episode of Westworld, Hanji wondered if this was what it had been like with Levi and his girlfriend. They hadn't seen much of her, in fact, when Levi had started dating her, they didn't see much of him either. It was almost as if by her coming into his life, he had been erased from theirs. But as much as it had bothered Hanji, she couldn't find it in herself to intervene, to feel anything but happiness for their friend when he casually told them that he was going to get married and if Erwin could be his best man and Hanji there for support.

"Did he love her?" Hanji had asked.

Erwin looked over at her. "Maybe."

Now, on the subway ride from Chelsea, Hanji listened to Levi finally ask something of her—ask for help, for the first time since the wedding had been cancelled, and quite possibly the first time ever. For once, despite the apparent difficulty in asking, she could tell that he was certain about asking this.

"I thought we'd need a wedding before a honeymoon," Hanji said, smiling. "And of course I'd need to tell Erwin."

"I tried to just ask one thing, Shitty Glasses." Levi rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath, only to be smothered by Hanji's overwhelming hug.

Stepping in to the entrance of the cottage inn, having hauled their luggages out of the taxi from the Seattle airport after their six hour flight from New York, Hanji began to wonder if this had been a bad idea. Levi looked almost immediately vexed when they entered the place, quickly hiding it behind his apathetic mask, but she hadn't missed what was probably him thinking about his ex-girlfriend.

"So rustic," Hanji cooed, admiring the memorabilia hanging around the walls of the cottage. "I always thought you were a city slicker," Hanji added, laughing at his scowl. "Nothing like your style."

"She liked whales," Levi said softly, and for a second, Hanji wished, for not the first time in her life, to have more of a filter on what she said. When Hanji looked over at him though, she didn't find the vaguely hurt expression that marred his face when he thought of her anymore. And stepping up to the desk to check-in, Hanji knew it had been the right choice to come here, and that Levi had already begun the slow process of healing.

As Levi went up to handle the reservations, Hanji settled herself into one of the stiff looking armchairs, gazing out at the water through the windows. She was surprised when she thought about how little she had really known about Levi's girlfriend. She never would've guessed that this was her perfect honeymoon spot. Glancing back at Levi, Hanji nearly fell out of her chair.

He was talking. To the pretty strawberry blonde receptionist. And not being a total dick. He was even making her smile, genuinely smile, and if she listened closely… it almost sounded like he was flirting. Hanji resisted the urge to immediately stand up and tackle him from excitement, and instead, she whipped out her phone, furiously texting Erwin about the first woman he was talking to in months.

"You were eyeing the receptionist," Hanji whispered in excitement, leaping up from her chair once he had pulled away from the desk, holding the keys and the ghost of a smile gracing his lips. She glanced back at Petra, the receptionist, only to receive a warm smile. "You were totally looking at her, that receptionist lady—

"—daughter of the innkeeper," Levi corrected.

"Whatever, but you were totally staring into those gorgeous, hazel eyes of hers."

"Fuck off," Levi replied back curtly, rolling his eyes. He started up the stairs, and when the two of them got to their respective rooms, he flipped the bird at her just to reaffirm his annoyance. But Hanji could tell that he was lacking his usual sting.

"No offense," Petra said, taking a seat next from him on the deck, overlooking the water. "But Puget Sound? For a honeymoon?"

"How'd you know?" Levi asked, glancing over at her.

"Hanji told me," she replied back, folding her shoeless feet under herself.

Levi had learned not to feel defensive or pitiful anymore when people found out that he'd almost been left waiting at the altar. He was surprised by the lack of pity tingeing Petra's voice and he decided to humor her. "Well what," Levi said with a sigh, staring blankly back at her. "You disturb my peaceful dusk viewing of the water and you don't appreciate our business?"

She laughed lightly, and he was almost surprised that his curtness didn't send her running off. "Something about you sitting here just looked so sad," Petra poked, grinning at him. "I couldn't just watch you sit here alone like you're some ninety year old woman remembering her glory days."

Levi listened to her laugh, and he discovered it was something he liked making her do. Petra smiled back at him again. "Don't be stupid. I just meant, don't people usually… I don't know. Go to Paris? Or Rome? Or Hawaii?"

"I get it," he rolled his eyes. "Unconventional."

Petra let out an mm-hm, and went back to her tea, enjoying the scowl that had graced his face in annoyance. It was almost sort of attractive, the way the deeply set lines complemented his face.

"Why didn't you get married," Petra asked, staring back at him, trying to gauge his reaction. From what Hanji had told her the other night, it had seemed like a pretty rough time, but she couldn't help herself from asking. Something about him, something about the way she was drawn to him, made her need to ask.

"I think the way she put it was that," Levi began, talking with surprisingly little to no resentment, "Was that I 'was too much a part of the urban machine that had swept her up and stalled her from doing what she really wanted to do.'"

"Harsh," Petra said, visibly wincing.

"Yeah, well, she kind of was too." Levi was surprised himself that he'd openly admitted that, and thinking back on it, he recalled all the times he had gone to Erwin, on the verge of revealing the violent verbal fights that went on in their apartment after dinners and in the mornings when they woke up. It felt relieving to finally hear the words come out of his mouth. He knew Hanji, as annoying as she was, would've been proud to have heard him talk about it.

"And when you need marriage counseling before you get married," Levi added more softly, "You realize that maybe things aren't going to work out."

He turned towards her, caught by the way she stared at him with something he couldn't quite make out, and he wondered what it was about her that had immediately drawn him to her.

"It wasn't meant to be," he added finally, swallowing thickly, quickly turning his face back towards the water and the horizon in front of them.

"Yeah." Petra replied back, looking ahead.

One week in to their three week stay, Levi had befriended the bright girl who worked at the inn. A few years out of college, after abandoning her job as a copyeditor at a publishing house in Portland, she'd come back North to stay and work with her father at his inn as he got older.

"I dated the guy who used to come and bring packages here," she admitted to Levi over breakfast one morning. "Pickings get to be kind of slim around here." She smiled, as if recalling the memory fondly, and she sipped from her tea.

Petra had made it a habit of sitting with Levi while he took breakfast. He always seemed to time out when he would roll out of bed and stumble into the dining room for breakfast. Either long before or right after the morning rush, when most of the cold nipped tourists would settle in to have eggs benedict and some toast, hunched over their cups of hot coffee. He would come down at a time just convenient enough so that Petra wouldn't have to give an extra hand anywhere else in the inn so that she could sit across from him, and relish in a warm cup of tea on a brisk February morning.

Guests came in and out of the inn, as was expected. Students, sometimes, from Seattle, who would come for the weekend. Elderly couples. But Levi and Hanji were stuck at the inn longer than anyone else because of the long honeymoon reservations (the honeymoon part which he'd told the inn would no longer be happening).

"It's all part of the job," Petra said, smiling. "We don't always get a lot of young people around my age, so, it suck sometimes. But old people, young people, families—they're always fun."

"Count me as a friend around your age then, Ral?" Levi asked, raising a brow over his breakfast plate.

"In the same way that I would count my grandmother a friend," Petra replied cheekily.

"Tch," Levi scoffed. "You wish you had a grandmother as cool as me."

Petra laughed, and Levi watched the way her smile transformed her entire face, making it even brighter than usual. He got distracted by her expression of pure joy, he didn't notice the stocky guys who had come up by their table. Petra talked with them, acting just as friendly and welcoming with them as she was with Levi, and he felt a gnawing sense of annoyance the longer the conversation went on. She chatted, flirting occasionally—or maybe that's just how she always was—but he could tell she had charmed the two guys and it made him want to do something stupid when they finally walked away.

"Finally some young people around your age?" Levi asked mockingly, repeating her words from before.

"You're just upset that I'm getting more attention," Petra said, grinning wickedly as she sipped from her mug. Levi rolled his eyes, refusing to admit that maybe he was jealous that those guys had come up to them and flirted with Petra.

"Be quiet," he shot back, his tone lacking any of the usual venom he reserved for Hanji and Erwin.

"Make me."

Levi glanced back at her, wondering how livid she would be if he kissed her. But instead, he rolled his eyes, running his hand through his hair. "I'm a paying guest at this establishment," Levi responded back. "I'd like not to be bothered during my breakfast, lest I complain to the innkeeper," then, pointedly Levi added, "Your boss."

"Oh my god you're such a prick," Petra tried to hide her smile, leaning towards him from across the table. "Maybe you really are like an old person. Should I make you oatmeal instead? With peaches?"

"Are you trying to berate oatmeal?"

Petra stopped short of a reply when she spotted Hanji entering the room. Waving happily at her, inviting her over to their table, Petra smiled back at Levi, almost laughing when she noticed his alarmingly vexed expression. "I think these tables are for paying guests of this establishment only," Petra grinned, enjoying the way he looked as if he was on the verge of responding with some dry sarcasm. "I better get going."

She smiled and greeted Hanji as she stood up, offering her her seat, and walked out of the dining room towards the beach outside, Levi's eyes fixed on her the whole time.

"You know," Hanji said, punching him in the shoulder. "Puget Sound isn't the only view here." She let out a low whistle, and Levi resisted the urge to throw a plate at Hanji. So instead, he kicked her under the table.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up!"

Levi snarled into his pillow, wondering what was causing the commotion outside his room, and what could possibly merit getting woken up at the crack of dawn. He heard what sounded like Hanji screaming from the room connected to his, and he knew that she, just like him, was pissed.

Throwing the covers off of the bed, he slipped his sneakers on and went out into the hallway, milling around with the other twenty or so guests rooming at the resort on the coast of the sound.

When Levi got to the dock off the inn's beach, he saw Petra standing alone, watching the water intently. Under his sleepy gaze and muddied thoughts, he was half tempted to go over to her and wrap his arms around her waist as a greeting. She turned around, her hair pulled up in a bun, a jacket thrown hastily over her shirt and sweatpants, and when she spotted him, she grinned madly.

"Come here!" She called out, bounding over to him and pulling him by the arm to the dock, still hopping around. "I can't believe it!" Petra stomped her feet into the dock, clapping wildly, and Levi failed to understand where all of this energy so early in the morning could be coming from.

"What." Levi asked, pulling the drawstrings to his sweatshirt's hood tighter, hoping maybe that it would smother him and passing out would give him an excuse to go back to his room.

"Just," Petra could hardly say any words, and as the other guests surrounded them on the narrow dock, she simply pointed out towards the water. "Just, look."

Her voice dropped to a whisper, and in a brief, still moment of silence, the air was broken by the cresting sound of water and crisp droplets hitting the surface. And Levi watched as three whales broke out of the placid surface of the water, the sound breaking the early morning stillness, and crashing back into the water, as if having announced the beginning of the day and doing away with the peace of the dawn.

"Whales, Levi." she whispered, wrapping her hands tighter around his upper arm. Levi watched in amazement at the place where the whales had just been, none of the guests talking as the group was collectively filled with awe.

"Whales," he repeated, feeling the warmth from her body radiate to him.

"They've never been this close to the docks," she whispered, her excitement mingled with awe.

"It's incredible," she added, letting out a soft, breathy laugh that formed a white cloud in the brisk morning air. And when Levi looked down at Petra, following her line of sight back to the water where she stared with admiration and joy, he found himself placing his hand on the small of her back and pulling him closer to him.

"Yeah," he echoed. "incredible."

They sat on the beach together later that night, watching the way the moon reflected in the water, white rippling stripes. Petra leaned against his shoulder, then, as if changing her mind, she pulled quickly away. He gazed at her lazily as she settled into his lap, with her legs on either side of his body. She leaned into him, her lips brushing against the skin of his neck, and he held her against her, hugging her close. He breathed in the scent of her hair—clean, lemons—and the fresh air of the sound. He was warm, he kept her from feeling cold, and she relished in how firm and sturdy he was, like she was safe from the elements in his arms.

She pulled back so that she could face him, staring at his sharp features. She brushed her button nose against his, her lips ghosting against his, and she closed her eyes when she felt him lean forward and part her lips with his own, soft. Wrapped around him, he held her, and she let herself be held.

"Third wheeling," Hanji said, rolling her suitcase through the sitting area on the first floor. "And here I was," she said, turning and smiling at the sight of Levi and Petra, "thinking I was going to be the replacement on a honeymoon. But I guess honeymoons are a sham."

Levi held Petra closely to him, his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her against him so that there was no space between them. She buried her face into his chest and shoulder, taking in his scent, trying not to forget him.

"You have my number," Levi started quietly, speaking against the shell of her ear. But Petra shook her head softly, not removing her face from his sweater, and he understood what she was trying to say. They couldn't just keep dating while she was in Puget Sound and he was in New York.

But he wanted to so badly. He couldn't remember the last time he had fallen so quickly, heads over heels, for anyone. So he tried to pull her even closer, trying to remember everything about her.

"Then just come to New York," he whispered through her hair.

"Or you could come watch the whales with me in the mornings," Petra whispered against his chest.

He brought his hand up to cradle her head, running his fingers through the strands of her golden hair. "Stay with me," he whispered again, trying to insist. Petra pulled away, looking up to smile at him, to hold his face in her hands and smile at him.

"I want to more than the world." She ran her thumb across his cheek, leaning in to kiss him under his jaw, keeping him close.

"Then call me," he whispered, his gaze soft and full of something Petra couldn't quite describe, or was hesitant to name. She nodded, feeling the soft press of his forehead against her own.

"Okay."