Levi x Reader [There and Back] AU ch 2

    Author's note: This is an AU where Levi is transported to our universe.
    
    As you sat behind the wheel of your battered, secondhand Volkswagen, driving through the streets of the city you knew so well, breathing in the scent of traffic and car, you could for a moment pretend as though it was only a normal thursday afternoon. As  a red light brought you to a stop, you could close your eyes and imagine that you were about to go home, eat something, and attempt to finish that stupid essay before wrapping yourself in some blankets and reading fanfiction, or watching an episode of your favorite tv-show. However, as you heard the honking of the cars behind you, you forced your eyes open once more and pressed a foot to the accelerator.     
    And as the car shuddered into motion, you stole a glance in the review mirror to glare at a particularly persistent driver (Sir, honking your horn like that is certainly not going to make my wreck of a car start faster, so either pass me the money for a new one or shut the f*** up) and as your (e/c) eyes slid to the backseat, the realization slowly sank in, bringing with it a mixture of fear, excitement and straightout confusion.
    It was not a normal day. In fact, as your eyes fixed on the figure in the back seat, you wondered if you would ever experience a normal day again in a long time.
    Lance corporal Levi Ackerman sat in the back of your car, arms and legs crossed, feigning boredom. However, you could see his steel grey eyes repeatedly being drawn towards the landscape flashing by: you saw his eyes widening as he took in the skyscrapers and the traffic. Honestly, you couldn't blame him for being curious. Even though you didn't know how he got to your universe from the Attack on Titan one, it clearly had not prepared him for what he would see here.
    You were so immersed in studying his very threedimensional expression when you suddenly realized his eyes had left the surroundings and were trailing on yours. You involuntarily blushed, then cursed yourself as the corporal cocked one eyebrow.
    "Unless this thing runs by itself, you may want to keep your eyes on the road." You shifted your gaze to the license plate of the car in front of you, shooting the short man a dirty look through the review mirror as you did so.
    "So," you asked in an airy voice, careful to keep your attention on the intersection in front of you, "what's your name, anyway?" 
    If you were going to pretend as though you had no idea who he was or where he came from, you were going to have to be very careful.
    Narrowed grey eyes bored into yours, and you reflexively shrank into your seat. Then you remembered that a) you were not a cadet, b) he wasn't a corporal now and c) even though this short man was intimidating you were trying to help him, and certainly was not going to take any shit from him as you did so. So you straightened up, and glared back with as much innocence as you could muster. The struggle played out across your face, contorting your features into a lopsided grimace.
    "You look as though you need to shit really badly." You couldn't help but roll your eyes. Even threedimensional, he's just as short, intimidating and prone to make comments about feces. 
    "Anyway," you tried to gracefully continue despite the somewhat awkward shit reference, "Am I really expected to let a guy who for all I know could be a mass murderer live in my house?"
    "How would knowing my name help you if I really were a mass murderer?"
    "Um." Cursing yourself, you slammed the brakes as the car came to a screeching stop, inches from the car in front of you.
    "Tch. You're going to kill us both."
    "Shut up."
    You tapped your foot impatiently against the gas pedal, glancing around you slightly nervously. If someone recognized Levi... 
    "It's Levi." You blinked, and twisted back to look at the short man, who was facing out the window. For a moment, you thought he was speaking to the air.
    "Now you know my name, it might make killing me seem like a bigger deal." You turned quickly to face the road again, gripping the steering wheel tightly with both hands. As you slowly nudged the car back into motion, a small smile appeared on your face. You turned your head to look out at a passing pedestrian, so Levi wouldn't see.
    Naturally, he did.
    "It's a pleasure to meet you, Levi. I'm (f/n) (l/n)." 
    A brief silence followed.
    "Nice to meet you too."
    As you rounded a corner, you couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, this would work out somehow.
                                                                                        ...
    Naturally, that cheerful train of thought was brought to a screeching halt as soon as you had arrived at your apartment.
    First there was the unforseen difficulty of walking the short distance between parking space and apartment building door. The passing people kept stopping to look at Levi's odd clothing, a fact that was not helped by the corporal glaring at them. You almost had to drag Levi off when a tall guy yelled 
    "It's not pajama day today, shorty!"
    After a few very demanding minutes you arrived at the apartment building. Deciding not to risk any further unpleasant surprises, you climbed the stairs, followed closely by the corporal.
    Who naturally was compelled to remark at every single detail of what seemed to be every square inch of stairwell.
    "That wallpaper is peeling."
    "That's because the building is old."
    "Why the fuck are these stairs so dirty.
    Wait until you see my apartment.
    "Because that's what happens when a surface comes in contact with the bottom of shoes as much as stairs do. Also management doesn't bother cleaning them.
    "This place smells weird."
    After a very demanding minute or so of this, you arrived at the fifth floor, where you took out your keys, panting slightly, and stuck them violently into the keyhole. By this point, all you wanted was to sit down and mull things over, but naturally there were more things to do. As you twisted the key, the lock clicking satisfactorily, a realization dawned on you, filling you with cold dread. You froze, one hand awkwardly braced against the door while the other gripped the keys.
    "Um. Levi?"
    "What." His gaze bored into your back.
    "Do you mind standing here for a minute or so?"
    "Wh-" Not letting him finish his question, you yanked the door open, sprang inside, and slammed it in his face.
    Then you proceeded kick off your shoes, throw down your bag (laptop or not) and run through your tiny apartment, picking up every other item you came across in a frenzy. 
    Why, oh why, must I be so messy. And WHAT IN THE WORLD COMPELLED ME TO GET ALL THIS SNK MERCHANDISE
    Weighed down by approximately a dozen manga books, some discarded food containers, a few discs containing the anime, and with you snk cape slung awkwardly over your shoulder, you looked around the miniscule space.
    "Where can I hide this?" You hissed to yourself, hopping on the spot frantically. Running over to a corner of the room, you stuffed the whole empty food boxes into the small blue trashcan, before sticking your entire collection of Attack on Titan things into your underwear drawer, before slamming it shut and bolting to the door, which you flung open once more.
    "Did you just make preparations for my untimely demise?" Levi monotoned, looking calmly at you.
    You giggled falsely, too out of breath to talk much.
    "Hah... just... cleaning... too... messy?" you panted, looking up at his completely unimpressed face from your doubled over position, clutching the door frame with one hand and your abdomen with the other.
    "I solemnly swear to never take the stairs again unless I absolutely have to." you muttered under your breath.
    "What?"
    "Nothing!" You straightened up, evening out your heights and beaming at Levi, who looked at you impassively.
    "Anyway," you stepped from the doorway and made a flourish toward the interior of the apartment, "welcome in!"
    As the corporal stepped inside, removing his shoes as he did so, you saw something glint on the tiny table that served as a desk/dining table, and quickly strode over and palmed the survey corps pin that lay on the wooden surface, sticking it into the pocket of your jeans.
    As Levi closed the door behind him and surveyed the small apartment, you couldn't help but feel a tiny bit self-conscious.
    "Well, it's not big, but it's home." You laughed nervously, then walked past Levi, gesturing and talking at the same time.
    "So as you can see, that is the entrance, and then along this tiny corridor, and this is the rest of the apartment!"
    "How can you possibly live in such a cramped place?"
    "Well, I couldn't exactly afford a bigger one." You cleared your throat. "So anyway, that's the stove in the corner, and the desk right next to it serves as a working space as well as a dining table," you strode over as Levi opened a small door in the hallway and peered in, quickly clearing some space on the cluttered desk, "and in that other corner we have the bed, and above it the tv, and next to that the drawers for clothes, and finally, that door you just stuck your head through is the bathroom."
    While Levi strode over to the tiny television set over your bed and studied it curiously, you left to go pick up the bag you had tossed haphazardly in the hallway, and gently removed the laptop from it, placing it on your desk, among the papers and textbooks scattered across it.
    As you whirled to face Levi, another thought occurred to you, and you reached for the bag again, withdrawing your purse from it.
    "Okay. So here's how this is going to work."
    The corporal moved his gaze from the television to you, scanning your face with his usual bored expression.
    "I can most certainly kill you in a fight." You sighed dramatically.
    "I'm not going to kill you, okay? Anyway, you can't walk around in that maneuv- um, outfit, so I am going out to buy you something normal to wear."
    Walking back over to the door, you opened it and reached under the doormat, withdrawing the spare set of keys you always kept there so you wouldn't lock yourself out. (Which had happened a few times more than you'd like to admit.)
    Levi hadn't moved from the spot and seemed lost in thought, but as you tossed the keys to him his hand shot up at lightning speed, snatching them from the air. He raised a quizzical eyebrow at you.
    "Well, since your going to be living here, you need to be able to get in, right?"
    "How very thoughtful of you." Deciding to ignore the heavy sarcasm in his voice, you strode over to your laptop, logging in and opening Skype, where you typed in your phone number.
    "If you need to reach me for some reason, just press this green button here and you'll reach my cell phone." You pointed at the bulge in your pocket.
    Levi looked at you completely impassively.
    "And you can watch tv if you want just press the little red button on the remote to turn it on and then the arrows to change channels okay don't do anything dumb bye!"
    Turning on your heel, you positively sprinted out of the apartment.
                                                                                            ...
    "Argh! Why did I have to make that so awkward!" You glared at the grey t-shirt you had in a strangling grip.
    "Do you need help, miss?" A Wall-Mart attendant poked his head around the corner, smiling cheesily at you.
    Well let's see there is a person from another universe unguarded in my apartment and I can't even find clothes that are his size here but otherwise no I'm pretty good.
    "Um, do you have any smaller sizes for this shirt?" You lifted the crumpled grey fabric into the air for him to see. The attendant, whose name-tag said Rob, strode over to look at the tag.
    "I'm sorry, miss, but that's as small as they go. Perhaps you want to consider the children's section?"
    You snorted. If he ever found out about that, which you were sure he would, you would die a gruesome death, innocent or not.
    "That's alright. Thanks, Rob."
    You slung the shirt over your arm, on top of the pair of jeans you had picked out, then strode over to the cashier to pay.
                                                                                        ...
    As you pulled into the small street leading to your apartment, your mind was racing. You realized that your discomfort probably stemmed from the fact that you had never had a guy in your apartment before, much less a hot guy, much less been alone with one in such a small space, much less LIVED with said hot guy. The only things you knew about him were the generic facts from the anime: He was really good at fighting, swore a lot and had a bit of a cleaning obsession.
    However, as you pressed the elevator button, you decided that you were going to make this work. You were going to find out how he got here, and help him in this foreign universe.
    Unlocking the door in one swift movement, you entered the small apartment, reaching down to remove your shoes.
    "Levi? I'm, um, home?"
    You barely had time to congratulate yourself on the instant loss of bravado before you registered that something was wrong. Taking the few steps through the short hallway, you found yourself face to face with an empty room.
    "Levi?" A cold trickle of fear settled in the pit of your stomach. You doubled back to check on the bathroom. Empty. You hurried back into the kitchen/bedroom/office, looking under tables and beds. Your desperate gaze and fumbling fingers were met with thin air.
    He was gone.