Levi here. Since coming to this time and place, Eren and I have (obviously) become competent working with computers. Eren prefers to skype and play games. I have found an outlet for my creative tendencies through role playing. I recently started an interesting scenario with someone calling themselves "Punk!Refuses to get close to people! Hanji Zoe (HS au levihan?)". Clearly, they were looking for something very specific, which can be annoying, but in this case I decided to give it a shot. This is the result. If you were on the other end of this chat, please let me know so I can give credit where it is due.

I have edited the role play into a more story-friendly format, as well as correcting spelling and grammatical errors. I also took a few liberties with the other party's bits, to make it flow better. She used the Hanji spelling, but I changed it to Hange because I believe that is how she spelled it when I knew her (see our profile for clarification). Other than these changes, whatever you see Hange doing, saying and thinking, that was not my writing. Whatever you see Levi (and Erwin and Petra, for that matter) doing, saying and thinking, that was my writing.

In Plain Sight

Levi sat in his corner of the cafeteria with Erwin as usual, staring over all the other students, not seeming to really see any of them. As his eyes passed over each student, he had some thought about them - geek, coward, prep - it was involuntary. But when he came to Hanji, the reading was... undetermined...

Hange sighed, running a hand through her hair as she sat down by herself with earbuds in. She didn't pay attention to anyone around her, not caring about the weird looks she'd get from others. She took a drink from her water bottle and sighed, her eyes shifting to Levi, raising an eyebrow when she saw him looking at her.

He stared back, not giving a damn that she'd caught him.

"Hardly anyone reads the school paper anymore," Erwin was saying. "We need to get someone new on staff. Someone who doesn't worry about conformity, you know? Fresh ideas."

"You're absolutely right," Levi said, monotone. "I'll find someone." He got up.

"Hey, hang on... there's a soccer game coming up. We need to talk strategy. We're going up against the Titans again, and you're team captain."

"Tch. I'll mow the field with them. It's all under control, Mister Student Body President." He walked away... toward Hange's table.

Hange Had looked away a while ago, tapping her pen on her journal to the beat of her music with her eyes closed, unable to hear anything else over her music. She sighed, opening her eyes as she pulled out her phone to change the song, just then noticing Levi walking over, but pretending not to.

He'd wondered long enough what made this girl tick; time to find out if it was anything useful. Levi sat down across from Hange and pointed at his ear so she would know he wanted her to remove her earbuds.

She stared at him for moment, then paused her music before taking her earbuds out. "What do you want from me, 'Mister Perfect'?" She asked, her voice dripping sarcasm as she looked him straight in the eyes, raising an eyebrow.

Unfazed, Levi asked flatly, "Do you write?" To himself, he wondered, Mister Perfect, huh? Wonder who started that one... my stupid fan club or my rivals... no telling at this school.

"Yeah... Why?" She stared for a moment before taking another sip of her water, tapping her pen absentmindedly against her journal again.

It was a start, but he couldn't just offer her the job. "Are you any good?" He moved his hand minutely toward the journal in front of her, not actually trying to grab it, but making it clear that he wanted to see it.

She moved the journal out of his reach as she searched his eyes in an attempt to guess his intention before handing the journal to him. "You tell me. You'd be the first to see my writings."

This was sure to be interesting, if nothing else. He didn't get his hopes up. No doubt it would be full of spelling and grammatical errors, not to mention ridiculous subject matter... he opened the journal and turned to the first entry.

She put an earbud back in, playing her music as she watched him intently. She was still confused but she didn't want to ask what he really wanted; she tended to mind her own business.

He noted the date at the top of the entry. She'd been using this journal since the school year began. It was not your typical "This is the first day of school..." drivel. On the contrary, Hange had dived right in with a social commentary on her teachers, assessing their suitability for teaching their respective classes. It was bold... almost rebellious. Levi's eyes narrowed. They would have to be very careful, but this could work...

He flipped to a couple more entries, seeing more of the same bold style. Whatever Hange was thinking about from day to day, she considered it head-on without a hint of hesitation.

"Well?" Hange asked him after a moment, reaching to grab the journal back after becoming a little self-conscious. She didn't let her nervousness show, even though her mind was screaming for her to take the journal back because she had never let anyone at all read it.

He let her take it back, staring at her bespectacled eyes with his usual lack of expression. "You don't suck," he said. "Ever think of writing for the school paper?"

"I did until I found out it was run by you, 'Mister Perfect', and that ass Erwin Smith," she replied, holding the journal somewhat close to her as she stared at him. "Look, if you're asking me to write for the paper, sure. Just don't expect me to appeal to your cheery, happy group of fangirls. That's not me."

It took a lot to ruffle him, but Levi couldn't help taking offense to her insinuations. "Those 'cheery, happy fangirls' aren't the only ones who voted Erwin for president. If you think he's an ass, you have no clue what you're talking about. And no, I'm not expecting you to appeal to the airheads around here. You think I'd be over here talking to you if that were the case?"

In his peripheral vision he could see heads tilting, he could hear chatter dying down to whispers, and he knew exactly what the topic was: why is he talking to her?

"That's not why I called him an ass. Forget it. And fine, I'll join the paper, but you can't hover over me all the time, got it? Now, I would go back if I were you - don't want to get caught sitting with a freak," she muttered, uncomfortable that almost everyone was staring. She wasn't used to people noticing her, not even at home, so she felt panicked and awkward.

She put up a tough front, but it was clear that the attention was getting to her. "If any 'freak' does sit next to me, I'll deal with it when it happens," he quipped, shoving his chair back. "Come to the paper office after school. We'll get you set up for a trial run."

She nodded and stared down at the table. She shook her head after a moment and got up, throwing her empty water bottle away before walking out of the cafeteria. In the hall on her way to her last free period, she was staring downward when someone tripped her. She glared but quickly got up, walking into her class with a sigh.

Levi found it a little difficult to concentrate in biology lab... he kept thinking back to Hange's journal and what sort of reporter he thought she could make. He also wondered what made her want to stay so closed off from everyone. He liked his privacy and didn't care much for most of his fellow students, but at least he had Erwin and Petra and a couple others that weren't total idiots to rely on. She didn't seem to have anyone.

When he went to turn in his petri dish at the end of class, Petra leaned over to him and whispered, "Heads up: I heard there's a few new kids transferring in next week from Titan High. They say one of them was actually on the soccer team for a while."

He nodded, not answering. That news could be good or bad... but he just couldn't worry about it right now. School was almost done for the day. Almost time to introduce Hange to the paper staff.

Hange spent most of the hour writing and forcing herself not to be bothered by what she heard a few people say about her. When the bell rang she got up and went to her locker, grabbing her bag before she started off to the news room. When she got there, she knocked on the door. "Hello?"

Petra opened the door. "Hello! You must be Hange. I'm Petra. I'm sort of the gopher around here. I also set type."

"She's joking," Erwin said, coming forward. "We have computers and printers... no one 'sets type' anymore."

Petra put out her lower lip, pouting. "Let me haze her a little, will ya? Anyway, this is Erwin, obviously. Senior editor and production overseer and basically the guy who's gonna kick your butt if you don't make your deadline."

"Tch. He usually delegates that delightful task to me," Levi muttered, leaning back on a desk.

Hange started a little but no one seemed to notice as she looked awkwardly at anything except for Erwin. She avoided looking in his direction at all... "Right..." She muttered, holding her bag over one shoulder. "So uh, is that all? Just introducing yourselves or is there more..?" She asked, quite ready to leave already for two reasons... Petra's overly cheerful attitude and not wanting to be around Erwin any longer than necessary.

"There are more members of staff, believe it or not," Petra said. "Ilse and Mike are our reporters, but they collaborate. Ilse's great at fact-checking and info-gathering, but she's not much of a storyteller. Mike can give it the spin, but he's not a people-person, so together they're ok, but we're really hoping to find someone who's got the whole package - that's where you come in."

"Petra does formatting," Levi put in. "I make sure things run smoothly."

"Levi's our junior editor and pioneer of controversial topics," Erwin added. "What we want you to do for us is to jump right in and find a relevant topic and write a piece on it. It doesn't have to be long; just show us what you've got. If you can do better than the Ilse-Mike team, you've got the job."

"Alright... Doesn't sound difficult. I'll bring it by tomorrow." She shot Erwin a glare before looking at Petra then glancing at Levi, her glance lasting for half a moment longer than the rest before looking away. "Is that all? I should probably get going..."

"That's it," said Levi. What was that look for? Do they have some sort of history...? "Do you have a ride home?" he asked.

"No. I'll walk," Hange replied, turning on her heel to exit the building.

"Well, she's a pistol," Petra noted. "I've got to get these files to the printer... see you tomorrow."

The others told her goodbye and Levi turned to Erwin. "What the hell did you do to her?"

Erwin blinked in surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"She freaking hates you. Did you dump her freshman year or something?"

The senior looked down sheepishly. "To be fair... I dumped a lot of girls freshman year..."

Levi snorted. "Yeah, OK. Stupid question. Look I know you're not the jerk you used to be, but she seems to have some real dirt on you. And until it gets settled, I'm not sure it's the best idea to have her on staff here after all..."

"It was your idea to ask her in the first place," Erwin reminded him.

"Yeah... that was before I knew she had it in for you. Whatever... we'll figure it out." He grabbed his shoulder bag off the desk.

"Hey, don't forget about the game. We need to plan."

"I'm on it. Text me." He hurried down the hall and out to the parking lot where his little black four-wheel-drive was waiting. It was cloudy out... rain was probably on the way. Sure enough, he'd gone only a couple of miles when his automatic windshield wipers came on.

Hange had started off towards her house. It was quite a long walk, but she didn't exactly mind. She was nearly halfway home when it started raining. "Great... Just my luck." She continued walking, clutching her bag closer to herself, squinting her eyes since it was hard for her to see. She was pretty sure that she had ended up getting herself lost by not paying attention.

The rain came down harder by the second. Soon, there was a thick curtain of water and Levi had to slow his pace to be sure of avoiding accidents. He hated being delayed, even when there was nothing to be in a hurry for. He passed a pedestrian on the sidewalk... it was a girl... with a bag... It looked like she had long hair, pulled back, and glasses. He stopped the car. Hange had said she would walk. "Moron," he muttered. He put the car in reverse and rolled back a few yards, putting the passenger side window down. "Hey, four-eyes," he called. "Planning to swim the rest of the way or what?"

"What's it to you?" she shouted over the rain as she stopped walking to look at him. She crossed her arms with a sigh as she started shivering from the rain which had now completely soaked her.

It looked like her glasses were even harder to see through than his windshield. She couldn't possibly walk far in these conditions, not to mention she was bound to get sick even if she succeeded. She was going to totally flood his interior... He groaned quietly and leaned over to pop open the door. "Get in, dumbass."

She stared for a moment, then sighed and got into his car. "Sorry..." she muttered and closed the door before taking her glasses off, wiping at the makeup that had been smudged by the rain and then trying to wipe all the water off of her glasses. "My house is just up the street." She looked at him before opening her bag to get her keys out. "Dammit, where are they...?" she muttered to herself.

Levi put the window up and kept one careful eye on the road while glancing at Hange from time to time. It would be a major pain to dry out the car, but there was no point in complaining about it. "What's your house number?" he asked, putting the heat on to start the drying process and possibly prevent her from catching cold.

"It's the one on the end..." She felt herself beginning to freak out. "Ugh..." She pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh, closing her bag.

It would be silly to waste this opportunity and have to wait until tomorrow for answers... "So, care to tell me why you hate Erwin's guts? You don't have to worry about shocking me; I know he's got a past. Hell, so have I."

She sighed and glanced over at him. "We used to be childhood friends - I guess you could call it that. Anyway, we didn't talk much for five years because he moved to where he lives now and my parents started hating his family for some reason. We dated from the end of junior high into his freshman year of high school, and I was going through quite a hard time with my dad dying, so I didn't spend much time with him, and when I did... He tried a few times to get me to do some crazy things that he thought would be 'harmless'... When I refused, he told me to die and left." She stared at him and fell silent, not expecting a response.

Levi clenched his jaw, determined not to let his emotions show. This was the one... Erwin had alluded to the incident on occasion, but never given the details, and Levi hadn't asked him. If it were anyone else, he'd know what to do: go kick some ass. But Erwin was different now. No one knew that better than Levi himself.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," he said at last. "There's no excuse for his treating you that way. I don't expect you to be happy about working with him, but he's not the same guy he was three years ago."

Hange sighed and looked down, shrugging. "If you say so, but I'm not exactly going to attempt to get along with him again. I'll be as nice as I can, but that's it." She looked over at him. "Besides, what's with the curiosity? And your expression... don't get so pissed off about something that happened to me. It's not like you care about me." She looked out the window, seeing that the driveway was empty, which meant that her mom was working late and that she'd have to sit outside for the next few hours since she had lost her keys.

Levi pulled into the driveway and put the car in park. "You may not believe this, but I'm not all about myself like some people think. Yes, I'm friends with the student body president. I'm junior editor of the school paper. I'm captain of the soccer team and president of the mixed martial arts club. But I know damn well those titles don't make me better than anyone else. I don't enjoy hanging out with many people, but everyone that goes to Legion High is my classmate, and I don't want any of them getting bullied. Clear?"

"Yeah, sure. But that's not what I meant. I can tell you're not what everyone thinks but I'm not the kind of girl someone would go out of their way to speak with. I don't understand what makes me suddenly visible," she muttered, continuing to stare down as she started getting out. "Anyway... Thanks for the ride.."

"Hange." His hand darted out almost before the thought crossed his mind, wrapping around her wrist. "It's true I never went out of my way to talk to you before... but you were never invisible to me."

She froze at his touch, a slight blush crossing her cheeks as she stared down. "How?... I'm nothing special, you know."

Why did she think someone had to be "special" before Levi would notice them? He'd been a people-watcher most of his life, and he'd often found the supposedly insignificant people to be the most fascinating to watch. "No? Well... neither am I." He released her wrist and dug an umbrella out from behind his seat. "Hang on; I'll come around."

She grabbed her bag and sat there quietly. She was actually showing that something finally got to her. Her expression was confused but also sad while her eyes showed something different, almost like shock or possibly hope...

She was already wet, but there was no sense in letting her get completely soaked all over again. Levi hurried around the car to hold the umbrella over her head. He walked to the house with her and halted at the door. He could have left then, since the eaves sheltered her, but he waited for her to go inside.

"Thanks again for the ride," she muttered and sat down on the porch quietly, staring at the rain-soaked ground while humming to herself.

"Sure..." He was momentarily puzzled when she sat; then he remembered her searching unsuccessfully for something in her bag. "Lost your keys?" he guessed.

She nodded. "Yep, and my mom won't be home for another four hours." She looked up at him.

Why me, dammit? Levi frowned. He looked at the door and its knob. Knobs were usually better than latches, in his experience, though handles were better. He looked at Hange, then back at his car, then down at Hange again. "Listen, I might be able to help, but... you have to swear not to tell anyone." He crouched in front of her with a solemn expression. "Make the Legion High team spirit salute and swear."

"Uh okay..." She put her left arm behind her, her right fist over her heart, and muttered, "I swear I won't tell..." staring at him in confusion for a moment. "What're you planning on doing?" she asked, running a hand through her hair.

He ignored the question - she would see soon enough. "Wait here." He went back to his car and cut the engine before opening the trunk. Among other things, his soccer and martial arts bags were there, along with a sizable first aid kit. He opened the kit and rummaged around a little until he found what he was looking for: his set of lock picks. He closed the trunk and walked briskly back to the porch, setting the umbrella upside-down in its shelter. He knelt in front of the door and began probing the keyhole with his first pick.

She watched him silently and a little in awe, humming to herself.

He was glad she didn't ask a lot of stupid questions. She wasn't completely silent, but the pattering of the rain helped to cover it. Of course, that meant he couldn't rely heavily on his hearing to help open the lock - he was going almost entirely on touch. Something gave a little and he left the pick in the lock as he selected a second. After a little feeling around, he felt the second pick slide into place. He tried the knob slowly, careful not to dislodge the picks. The door did not open. "How many damn tumblers does this lock have?" he muttered, though he wasn't truly frustrated yet.

That was when we lost connection and the chat ended. I'm willing to continue this story on my own, especially if people show interest in it. You can also make requests or ask questions. ~Capt. Levi A.