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“No. I will not feed on a Titan, Four Eyes.”
“I’m not asking you to do it right now, silly!” is the angle Hange chooses to defend their idea, which is as infuriating as it was predictable. “It’s not like I have one laying around the grounds. I’m just saying that the day we manage to catch one of them and bring it back here where I can study it, it could be interesting to—
“What if it kills me? What if its blood fucks me up and turns me into a Titan, and I kill you?”
“Well, obviously, those are possibilities we’ll need to take precautions against, yes.”
Levi frowns at the casual seriousness in their voice.
“You’ve thought of them, and you still want to try?”
“I’m a scientist, Levi, of course I’ve thought of all possible outcomes! Which is why I’d need to take a Titan’s blood sample and analyze it first, if it was even possible to do so without having it evaporate immediately, to see how different it is from ours and estimate how risky it would be for you… But come on, aren’t you a little bit curious how it would taste? What if it’s better than human blood?”
Levi makes a face at the suggestion.
“It won’t be. Doesn’t sound appealing at all.”
“Oh, right, you’ve never felt hungry while near Titans like it happens around humans or animals. That’s an interesting fact too…”
“Not really, since you always give me blood before expeditions.”
“That would be a confounding factor. Hey, Levi…”
“No,” he interrupts again. “I’m not going outside the Walls on an empty stomach.”
“You’re right, that was a bad idea. You wouldn’t be at the best of your abilities, and you might get sidetracked especially with humans bleeding left and right at the first unlucky Titan encounter.”
Levi hums in agreement, although he knows he would still have sharper reflexes than any human —Mike Zacharias comes close, but he’ll never admit that to him— even when he hasn’t fed in a while, and he’s got enough self control that he likely wouldn’t hurt his comrades on a mission unless he had starved himself into madness.
The other reason that he thinks there’s no point to that experiment, is that ever since Hange found out about his secret and offered their own blood in exchange of letting them study him, no one else has ever managed to smell nearly as enticing to him. Of course, he doesn’t see how that would be relevant to their research, which is why he doesn’t mention it —that, and the fact that he’s not stupid enough not to know just how bad that would sound.
“Alright, so that’s a no on fasting before missions, and a maybe on tasting captured Titans’ blood then,” Hange recaps, writing it down in their little book while Levi rolls his eyes and doesn’t bother correcting —it’s not like it’s likely they’ll ever be successful in convincing their Commander to allow them to try bringing a Titan back within the Walls, anyway.
“Are we almost done here, Shitty Glasses? I have other things to do than be your lab rat all day.”
He doesn’t, really, because he’d mostly planned on hanging out with the horses later so as to make sure they still tolerate his presence around —the special breed the Scouts raise seem to have less issues with his non-human nature than other animals, but he figures it’s better safe than sorry.
“Sure, let me check your arm!” Hange replies excitedly, flipping pages to get back to the day’s experiment and taking a look at the wound they inflicted earlier.
They’ve recently switched from assessing how heavy a load he can carry at once without tiring —answer: two fallen gigantic trees from that forest near the Maria Wall will start to take a toll— to study his healing abilities, that Levi knows have long fascinated Hange although they surprisingly waited a while before suggesting moving on to those kind of tests.
“Truly remarkable,” Hange says, checking their watch and admiring the nearly closed cut with so much awe Levi feels a stupidly inappropriate sense of pride swelling in his chest. “How are we on the pain? Did that dosage of morphine from earlier change anything?”
“Nope, the usual.”
“I’m sorry, I’ll increase it again next time,” Hange sighs, the genuine worry and kindness he can read in their eyes stealing breaths he doesn’t need to take for a second.
“Whatever, I can handle it.”
He does have a higher resistance to pain than humans, but that doesn’t mean he’s completely numb, and Hange had made a deep enough injury that he had to physically stop himself from hissing at the sting –not to mention the scarring process, as quick as it is, isn’t exactly a walk in the park either.
“Alright then, that’s it for today, thank you again!” They declare when any trace of the wound has gone, closing their notebook and hopping to the old couch in the far corner of their office. “Come and collect your reward, my little blood-sucking test subject!”
Levi glares at them, which only widens their grin and prompts them to signal at him to come hither, making what he knows they think is a ridiculous parody of a flirty gesture with their finger —he has another opinion on the effect of that move coming from them, but that’s something else he’ll keep to himself.
“You’re just as weird as those Titans you love,” he says instead.
He still moves quickly to sit beside them, knowing there’s no use in hiding his own eagerness when Hange looks even more excited about this than they did their little project from earlier.
Neither of them comments on the fact that however weird he finds them, he still feeds directly from them instead of the blood bags they initially used —and still do before expeditions, so he doesn’t drain them of the energy they’ll need while beyond the security of Maria. Hange probably bought Levi’s claims that fresh blood directly from their veins tastes much better than the one in the anticoagulant-covered bags.
And if that’s only partially true and Levi finds himself craving their close proximity almost as much as he does the content of their red cells, he thinks as he sinks his fangs quickly into the faded mark over their jugular and immediately starts to suck to lessen the painful sensation for Hange, then Levi figures it’s no one’s business but his own.
“Speaking of, do you have a theory about where they came from? Like, do you think they were like a lab experiment that went wrong and took over the world? Or that we use to live in peace with them until they started attacking us over something trivial that got blown out of proportions?”
Levi tries to ignore their rant, knowing they’re not really asking him anyway and just like to theorize out loud.
He almost succeeds in letting his mind drown in the mix of the thick, balanced taste of healthy blood with the unique, intoxicating old parchment, grass and a hint of sweat scent of Hange’s skin under his flaring nostrils; their deep and rich voice resonating pleasantly in his ears and only enhancing the experience anyway.
Until their slight chuckle turns into a full bout of laughter, and Levi has to use more force than he usually likes to keep them in place so his teeth don’t accidentally bite into the carotid artery right beneath the vessel he’s feeding from now.
He growls at the sound and movement, loud and hostile enough that he feels goosebumps rising all over their uncovered skin —instincts have a tendency to take over when he’s feeding.
“Sorry, sorry,” Hange rushes, covering the hand he put on their shoulder and patting it reassuringly. “I was just picturing humans arguing about market prices with Titans. How ridiculous would that be, right?”
Levi sighs, his more civilized reflexes kicking in as he lets go of the bite for a moment.
“No more ridiculous than me being Humanity’s Strongest when I’m not even human,” he pitches in. “Now shut the fuck up, will you? I’m trying to eat here.”
“I can’t talk while you feed on me?” They ask, half-pouting, half-curious.
“Not if you’re going to make yourself laugh. It makes your throat move, transmits into the vein and into my fangs as well. I could accidentally kill you.”
“You mean, more than you already could considering what’s happening here?”
He only replies with a glare, hating the daring tone of their voice here when that’s a risk he hates he has to make them take for his own selfish survival.
“Fine, I’ll be still and quiet,” they grant, rolling their eyes at his grumpy silence.
But they really do follow his request for an impressive amount of time after that, closing their eyes and lightly humming a drunkard song the Scouts make a habit of screaming at the top of their intoxicated lungs during unofficial celebrations in the mess hall, and Levi quickly —almost too quickly, he thinks as he reluctantly lets go for good— reaches satiety.
He licks at the puncture wounds he left behind, ensuring they instantly close —a process Hange finds so interesting he’s surprised they haven’t showed up at his door with an open cut to ask him to spit on it yet. Hange blinks their eyes open slowly, looking as half-asleep and disoriented as they usually do in those moments.
He helps them lay down on their side, settling in the same position facing them as he hugs them loosely and gets ready to wait for their dizzy grogginess to wear off. It’s a tacit argument that he always stays with them after a feeding, considering Hange’s physical vulnerability and his own urge to stay near them and protect his source of vital energy whose skin looks a little paler than he likes right now.
He sees Hange’s lips stretching wider, their gorgeous, tired eyes twinkling with something he doesn’t recognize.
“What are you looking at, Four Eyes?” he asks softly.
“Nothing. Your mouth,” they reply almost shyly, and Levi’s almost certain they would blush if he hadn’t just deprived them of the milliliters of blood necessary for that.
“Shit, do I have blood stains?”
His sharpest teeth do take a while to retract after he’s done drinking which can get a little messy, and that's another reason he has to stay hidden with them after a session —so no one else figures out what kind of a monster he really is.
“It’s not that, Neat Freak,” they chuckle. “You’re smiling. That doesn’t happen unless I’ve told you a really good poop joke, or sometimes when you’re done feeding. It’s a rare sight.”
“You and your obsession with my fangs,” he grumbles, turning his face into a more neutral expression and trying to hide his shame that he hadn't noticed he was smiling.
“It’s not just that, Levi!”
“Okay, then what is it?”
He can tell they’re stopping themself from saying something, which is definitely not Hange’s usual behavior. It freaks him out, really.
“Well, it’s… You’re pretty,” they say bluntly.
He freezes, arms tensing around them. Hange pretends not to notice, teasing the tip of one of his fangs with their finger.
“What?” he croaks out, almost in spite of himself.
“You’re pretty when you smile,” they say again with a shrug, like they’re commenting on the weather and not saying the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard —and that is saying something, considering this is Hange he’s thinking about.
Levi takes a minute to think about it and decides to shake it off, blaming their nonsense word on their drunk-like state. He still tucks their face into his neck, if only so they stop staring up at him with that openly affectionate look that does more things to him than he cares to admit.
“And you call me a freak.”
Hange giggles then, and Levi feels their hot breath fanning over the warmer-than-usual skin on his own neck, his senses sharpened by the recent feeding.
“Guess we’re each other’s freak then,” they singsong against him.
Then, in a move they’ve never done before and he’s never dared imagine, they curl a hand over his nape and tug gently, until their mouth makes contact with the skin right above his collar.
The kiss is short, their lips cracked and rugged against his sensitive nerve endings. But the meaning of the place they chose to bless with that caress is not lost on either of them, not with their words and when it perfectly mirrors the bite he regularly leaves on their own body.
Levi can feel the spot tingling with the memory of that touch even after it’s gone, like his skin craves to feel it again, and he can’t stop a quiet hum from escaping him.
Before he has time to feel ashamed for it, it seems to effectively convey what he would never dare to ask aloud, and Hange pushes their glasses to the top of their head so they can dive back in place. Their nose tickles him as they cover his skin it with one, two, then a dozen more kisses that make him feel warmer than even drinking directly from their veins ever has. He lets himself get engulfed in that newfound, comforting cocoon, every one of his muscles relaxing against Hange’s body and under their playful, gentle kisses and the soothing strokes of their callous fingers on his scalp.
Until he hears a sudden sound and feels an odd vibration around them, that startle him right back into reality.
“What the fuck is that? What did you do?”
“Huh… Nothing? I have no idea what that is,” Hange admits, looking as puzzled as he feels.
Levi sits up a little, regretfully dislodging them and halfheartedly trying to extricate himself from the sweet torpor he’d been slipping into. He concentrates on his superhuman senses of smell and hearing, searching for the source of the noise and weird pulsating sensation he can still feel thrumming under his skin.
When he doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary in their surroundings or the hallways around, he goes to stand up from the couch and investigate more fully.
Hange’s hand on his chest stops him in his track.
“Wait, Levi. I think it’s coming from you.”
He stares at them and is about to ask what the fuck they mean, when he realizes he can feel the sensation more sharply right under the light pressure of their palm against his sternum.
They grab a stethoscope that’s laying around with their free hand, making the useless effort to swipe it clean on their shirt for his benefit, he knows, before listening to his chest for a few seconds.
“Yep, it’s you! You’re making that sound,” they declare, face lighting up with their own special brand of bottomless curiosity that Levi’s quickly learned to dread. “I think you’re purring, like cats do!”
“Purring… I can’t… What the hell does it mean?”
“I don’t have a clue!”
They sound a lot more thrilled about that than Levi feels, and he doesn’t know if he’s more upset at their positive reaction or the unusual panic he can feel rising in himself.
“What do you mean you don’t have a clue?” he goes for instead, annoyance winning for a second there.
“Well, you’re the vampire,” they point out with a failed attempt at winking, “so you tell me! Has this ever happened before?”
“Hey, you’re the vampire expert! And no, it’s never happened before! Not once in my life.”
Hange smiles at that, and he can tell they’re controlling themself so they don’t laugh at him. He’ll appreciate the effort later, when he’s not busy losing his shit over something new his cursed body has decided to come up with of fucking nowhere.
“Yeah and as far as I know, I’m the only one of those around, and you’ve been my only subject of study. I’m just as confused as you are here,” they rationalize, and their more reasonable tone helps him settle down some. “Cats can purr when they’re in distress or pain, as a way to reassure themselves, and I did hurt you before during the experiment. Most of the time though, it’s more of a way to show they’re happy and feel safe. Like, remember Scalpel, the stray I found who’d littered in the far corner of the South stables?”
“You mean the hellish beast who hissed its heart out at me that one time I followed your stench and found you out there in the middle of the night? Yes, I remember it.”
“Well, she would purr like crazy when I would bring her dinner and stay to pet her for a bit, when there was no nosy vampire coming by with a forced-bathing project in mind,” they push through, arching an eyebrow at him like they’re angry about it even though they’d laughed their way through the whole ordeal back then. “My point is, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Maybe you just felt… comfortable, and your body expressed it that way.”
There’s a moment of silence where Levi reflects on that. He guesses that’s one way of putting it, and besides, he won’t admit it aloud but the sound and vibration both stopped by now and he almost misses them.
Hange’s staring at him with an absent, far away look in their eyes, and he can’t tell if they’re still thinking about this new discovery or minutes away from passing out from the unexpected excitement in their impaired state.
“Whatever. You need rest, Four Eyes,” he says as he takes the stethoscope’s ear tube away from their neck, snapping them out of it. “Come back here.”
They don’t fight him off, which is their way to silently admit they’re not feeling so good in Levi’s book. They simply curl back against him, resuming their earlier position.
He feels them nuzzling against the base of his neck and wordlessly glides a hand into their hair, tentatively bringing them closer and swallowing around the lump of anxious nerves in his throat. Soon enough, he feels their lips against his skin again, and the noise picks up almost exactly then.
“Wall’s sake,” he swears under his breath, torn between the instinct to shut that noise down and the amazing combined feeling of Hange’s mouth brushing along the column of his vibrating throat.
“Shh, don’t ruin it,” Hange demands. “I love it. It’s very soothing.”
“Well, I live to serve,” he sarcastically replies.
They chuckle around a yawn, and he forces himself to pull their face lower against his chest so they can get some sleep instead of wasting their energy showering him in affection he doesn't deserve.
However after a handful of minutes, he notices their breathing still hasn’t slowed down to the calm, regular melody of their sleep that his ears have come to know by heart.
“Tch, let me guess. You’re not going to get any rest until I bring your notebook so you can write this all down first, are you?"
Hange draws back far enough to beam up at him with huge pleading eyes.
Levi sighs, and rushes to his feet before he gets lost in them.