“Come on, you piece of shit. Wake up.”

The covers were pulled off immediately after that cold voice I’ve grown so used to, leaving me completely exposed to the sunlight coming through that undraped window once again. Somebody seriously has to put some curtains on that thing. I squinted my eyes shut and attempted to cover them with my hands as the bright light invaded my entire vision of the room.  Everything was so bright; it took me a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the light level.

“What… what time is it?” I murmured sleepily at the short figure standing beside my bed.

“Idiot, it’s already 10.” Levi snapped back as he threw the bed sheets over me, his face secured with that same grim expression everyone had to put up with every day. I really wished he didn’t have to pin on an insult to everything he says.

“What? It’s already 10?!” I coughed in the most alert voice I can pull on, slowly kicking off those stupid clingy covers like I was awake when really, I was just stalling time and trying to get my last few minutes of sleep.

“What did you think?”

I screwed my face up, half surprised and half confused. Levi, surprisingly today, didn’t wake me up at freakin 7 in the morning for so-called work, which if you were wondering: was just more plain boring report writing. I would have been happy he gave me an extra 3 hours today, but that fact bothered me as well. Nothing good ever comes from Levi. He doesn’t just suddenly go Oh! I’m feeling golly today, I shall let all those lazy asses sleep for another 3 hours! And I can NEVER imagine him like that. I would go call an exorcist if something like that ever came up one day.

“What? Did you sleep in too?” I laughed.

Levi crossed his arms and looked down at me, obviously giving me the indication that he wasn’t amused by my comment. “Don’t mix me together with your level of indolence,” using the big word for laziness, “Now move it.”

He turned away and started walking out of the room, muttering under his breath about some lazy pathetic shit or something.

-----------

I dropped the stack of heavy report papers onto the table, paying no attention to the toppling heap and the white sheets that covered the wooden floorings of the room.  I’ve finished today’s work with the report writing and I’m outta here. Stretching and straightening my back, I strolled out of the small little office and headed out the main corridor.

The thick eyebrows of Erwin caught my attention as I saw his tall well-built figure walking towards me. He had another big pile of paper tucked under his arm and I immediately knew more work was coming my way.

I quickly turned around and strolled hurriedly to the other direction. The entire day was spent on writing reports today; I didn’t even know where all this work was coming from. A firm grip was place on my shoulder, stopping me from my little getaway.

“Hazel.” I turned my attention to Erwin behind me. His big blue eyes stared down at mine.

“What is it?”

I watched him helplessly as he reached for the pile of papers tucked under his arm.

“Here. These reports were specifically set aside for you.”

I let out a reluctant sigh as I reached for the stack which he held out to me. My liveliness immediately dropped as I quickly scanned through the pile, which was even thicker than the one I just finished a while ago.

“Erwin,” I gripped tightly onto the pile, “Why is there so much work? Did a whole group of people just resign from their duties?”

He remained calm to my enquiry, his usual expression unchanged. Erwin pointed at the pile of papers in my grasp.

“Just get though those papers, we’ll talk in my office later.” I was quite unsatisfied with his answer, since it didn’t really answer my question at all. But who dares to question the Erwin? I do.

“Can I at least shift these for Hanji or Levi?” I tried.

“No.”

“By the way, where are those two? It’s not fair that I have to do all the work here.”

Erwin rubbed his temples as I bombarded my questions at him, until the commander himself bent down and placed his hands on my shoulders.

“How does a promotion sound to you… hmm?”

“No, it’ll mean more work.” I crossed my arms, displeased.

The tall man straightened up and cleared his throat, resuming back to his usual strict persona.

“Just get those papers filled out and hand them back to me when you’re finished. Before tonight perhaps.”

I groaned as Erwin stated. There was actually a time limit to these? So this is what Levi does, he pretty much has no life then.

“Fine.” I huffed as I reshuffled the papers, hugging them to my chest. He watched as I turned my back to him and headed back to my room. I rotated around to face Erwin once more.

“You sure you don’t know where Levi and Hanji are? Are they out on a date or something?”

 “No Hazel. Levi really would kill you if he heard you say that.” Erwin’s serious expression softened into a light smile.

I scoffed in an annoyed tone as I headed back with more work in my hands.

Promotion my ass.

----------

“Hazel!”

That energetic voice of Hanji’s echoed behind me as she suddenly popped up, scaring the living daylights out of me. She threw herself onto me in a friendly hug and grabbed onto my wrist, half-leading half-dragging me out of my room and down the corridor. Her eyes gleamed with excitement as she peered through her rectangular spectacles.

“Did you miss me?” She teased and poked my cheek when she saw my sour expression.

“Is this another experiment again?” I groaned, face-palming myself in the head.

Hanji continue dragging me down the hallways. Although we’ve passed many halls and offices, she didn’t look like she was about to stop anytime soon.

I tugged her back a little, beckoning her to slow down. But she kept moving hurriedly.

“Hanji, where have you been all day? Where’s Levi?” I interrogated at the eager scientist.

“So you did miss us, mainly me of course!” She kidded whole-heartedly, which still didn’t answer my question.

“Can you at least tell me where we’re going?”

“You’ll see.” She winked at me as she continued dragging me along.

*****

 “Now it ain’t a surprise if you can see everything.” Hanji thrust her hands over my eyes as she came to a halt.  I hesitated as I was blindfolded by her sultry hands, reaching out in case I walked into a wall or something. The sound of the door swinging open as she kicked it clashed into my eardrums.

“Ok, out with it. What is this?” I asked in a serious expression. I have a feeling Hanji was gonna shove something completely horrid and peculiar in my face, like a titan eyeball or possibly a mouldy cheese sample. Possibilities were unless when it comes to Hanji, which really scared me.

Hanji pushed me into a seat and finally pulled her hands away from my eyes.

The room was dark, and the only light in the room was radiating off … candles.

Candles… on a cake.

I lower my head and peered closer at the flickering flames, reading the dark letters imprinted on the slab.

Happy birthday Hazel :)

My heart skipped a beat for a second there. It was… my birthday? Which I had forgotten?

And yes, there was a smiley face imprinted after my name, I didn’t read that wrong.

I felt my fingers entwined tightly under the table as I unexpectedly stared at the cake. When was the last time I had something for an occasion like this?

“Are you gonna eat it? Or continue staring at it like a dumb dog?”

I took my glance off the cake and laid my eyes on the sickening corporal across the table.

“Oh you.” I coughed up faintly, returning my attention at Hanji, who took a seat at the side nodding her head over-excitedly as she handed over a knife.

I hesitantly took the knife in my hands and gazed down at the cake again, admiring its detailed patterns. There were layers of frosting on the top, all piped in a surprisingly accurate way. The writing on the chocolate piece was definitely all piped in one long stroke. And the smiley face? It was amazingly round. Perfectly round.

This cake looked … flawless.

I slowly cut into the dessert, responding in awe as it revealed another layer of cream and strawberries in-between the sponges.  My mind was screaming and jerking for my hands to hurry up so I can taste this masterly crafted cake, resulting to my hand to tremble slightly.

 I bit the inside of my cheeks and forced my blade entirely through the creation. It hurts my heart so much to cut this cake, it’s just too beautiful. I just wanted to sit here and look at it forever and ever.

 I finally spooned a mouthful and it was purely taste bud orgasm. I had to sit for a while and ask myself if this was actually happening, if the taste in my mouth isn’t just some fancy dream I couldn’t wake up from.

“Well?” Hanji asked excitedly as she propped her head in her hands, “How is it?”

Perfect.

I put the cutlery down and swallowed.

“It’s shit.”

Hanji’s jaw dropped to my response.

“What?! No way! Did you know how much time it took Levi to-”

I jerked and my set of cutlery beside my plate jerked as the table violently shifted for a second. Hanji immediately cried out in pain and rubbed her leg underneath her table, and I redirected my attention at Levi, who I assume kicked her under the table?

“It’s pink.” I said in utter disgust. “Pink…”

“See Levi? I told you she hates…” Hanji started but was cut off by Levi.

“Yes.” Levi finally spoke from across the table, “It was a cheap store bought cake which didn’t cost anything at all. I only had to go with her because I didn’t want her spending too much money on a spoilt brat like you.” He calmly rested his chin on his hands, hiding his lips and furrowing his brow.

Hanji’s sour expression turned to me.

“Hazel?”

“I don’t like it,” I said as I split the cake into another few sections, adding an additional huge chunk onto my own platter.

I love it so very much and I wished I could take the whole cake back to my room, but of course I’m gonna feel guilty and shit, so I’m saving the rest of the cake for you guys.

“I don’t like it at all…”

I got up from my seat and headed back to my own room with my plate, leaving the speechless Hanji and the stoic corporal behind.

******

It has been a few hours since I finished my chunks of cake. After I finished all the paperwork and handed them back to Erwin, who just happened to also have a slice of my cake on his desk, I went back to the dark room Hanji originally introduced me to for seconds… I mean thirds, or fourths.

I was so relieved to see just one final piece of cake left on the cardboard base, and I wanted so badly to just take that whole thing and run back to my room… until I noticed the corporal.

He was still rooted in his spot from before, with a cup of tea in front of him.

“Hey…” I took a seat next to him this time. He still sat there in his seat motionless, only his dark eyes silently shifted at my direction in greeting.

“…”

I reached over and pulled the board of cake over, taking the knife to scrape off the last piece onto a spare plate on the table.

“Cheap cake huh?” I sneered, placing the cake upright on the plate and looked at it admiringly.

This could never have been a store bought one. I know Levi well enough to recognize that he doesn’t trust people with his food, or food around him. His standards were way too high. No matter if it was a store-bought cake or if it was from a gourmet dessert chef, it could have never been this precise… this perfect. This was Levi standard, which I can confidently say, is pretty much God standard.

I heaved a low sigh and slid the plate across to the corporal, who watched the plate unexpectedly. That was a huge sacrifice; I can hear my heart slowly cracking. I wanted to snatch the plate back immediately. This simple piece of cake could start a war between two countries for generations.

“Here.” I shakily handed a fork to him, awaiting his acceptance.

He moved his hand over the table and took a sip from his cup of tea, still ignoring my fork held in mid-air.

“Levi,” I started softly, “This was more than… anyone has done for me, even my own parents. Like, the best I could expect were a few rat droppings here and there.” I let out a mocking laugh at myself. My face was heating up as I was spitting out these OOC statements.

“And … I really appreciate it.” I finished and nodded to my final words with more buoyancy, “I do.”

His eyes looked over at me after I had finished, and finally he quickly snatched the fork out of my hand.

“And plus, that sickening pink colour must be really hard to make.” I added, rolling my eyes. “It just had to be pink, couldn’t be anything else… could it?”

Levi snickered at my comment. “You hate pink. I knew that.”

I rubbed my arms as I slouched back in my seat, looking at Levi as he nodded to his piece of cake acceptably.

It was when I took a closer look at the remains of the cake board base that I realized that there was a pattern on it. I quickly reached out and seized the board as Levi was looking at me, still quietly chewing on his cake. They weren’t patterns, they were writings.

I traced my fingers along the words, quietly smiling at myself in the dark room beside him.

This was what I expected from the corporal himself. Nothing less, nothing more... just plain blunt and open. And I’m not totally bothered by it at all.

Happy fucking birthday, brat.  Now go do your work and stop slacking off.

________________________

[A/N]

Hi everyone. Hoep you enjoyed this little update. I legit JUST finished this chapter and immediately uploaded it, only running few spell checks. So I'll have to go back and fix any grammar errors. 

I was really pleased with this chapter when I wrote it. It's just happy fluff. 

AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY READER-CHAN, whenever it is, I love you all! Read this on your birthday or something :) 

I wanna thank you for the votes and reads and everything, means quite a lot to me * and I'm not writing this because I want more, I genuinely mean it from the very depths of my heart damn this is getting cheesy

I have a few tests and exams coming up soon, so that might delay my publishing and updates so yeah

Heads up and have a good day!

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