Why? She didn't know. Maybe she was stupid, or crazy, or maybe a bit of both. Here she was though. Walking down the corridor toward the Captain's room.

Hael hadn't slept a wink last night, between the crying over her bed and fighting with herself over if she should go back to his room or not. Why should she even go? He didn't want her there and it wasn't like it was her room. And yet Hael was still marching down the hall.

She stopped at the door, hand hovering over it, should she knock or just go in? Smith never knocked, but that was when Levi was still obviously unconscious. He might be awake now, so Hael knocked. A few moments later, when there was no answer, Hael took a deep breath and stepped inside. She let out that breath when she saw a pile of blankets covering a sleeping Levi. Then, she sucked that breath back in when she noticed his bear shoulder and leg sticking out of the blankets. She knew it was stupid, only the back of his shoulder and his leg from just above his knee. But still, it was more than she'd ever seen on her high-collar Captain.

Fighting back a strange and unwelcome urge to look a bit further, she grabbed the book she'd left here yesterday and sat in her wooden chair. There she waited and waited, but Levi wasn't waking up. She was hungry and tired, so Hael stumbled off to the mess hall for some food.

Truth be told, Levi was awake. He had been awakened by a sharp rap on the door, and when he heard soft footsteps sweep in and the slight squeaking of his wooden chair, Captain Levi smiled. He wasn't sure when the last time he smiled was, but something about this little brat made him grin. Not that he would ever let her know that of course. Why had she come back? He wasn't upset in the least, but where was the logic in coming back? Maybe there was none. His head was spinning, which seemed to be a normal occurance ever since he injured it, so, as Hael left, he let himself drift off again.

Hael dragged herself out of the mess hall, looking back and forth between the direction her soft bed was in, and the direction of her infuriating obsession with Captain Levi. As always, Levi won and ten minutes later, she was asleep on her cot in his room.

It was midnight when Levi awoke, sleeping quietly on the opposite side of the room was Hael. The moonlight turned her hair a gorgeous auburn, and her skin the color and texture of porcelain. Her loose gray shirt hung off her arm, exposing her shoulder. Why the hell did he care about her shoulder? He-- Suddenly, like someone smashed his head with the hilt of their sword, Levi's world was spinning, more than it ever had before. He groaned and clutched at his head, waking up Hael.

Hael blinked in the moonlight to see Levi curled on the bed, clutching his head in one hand and the edge of the bed in the other. She hurried over to him, asking what was wrong. The reply she got went something like, "You... Spinning... World... Hand... Spinning.... World is... Is... Spinning." It took Hael a moment to sort through that, but she came to the conclusion that Levi was really dizzy. So she took his hand.

She took his hand. Everything was swirling and spinning, but that hand, the warmth of it on his, cut through the maddness like a knife. Oh, everything was still spinning, but that hand was the only solid thing he knew. So Levi tried to move that hand to his shoulder and ended up missing. Missing his own shoulder. Pathetic. Fortunately, the cadet got the idea and placed the hand on his shoulder, then slipped onto the bed beside him, sliding a hand around his waist. The places she touched him, the places he could feel her warm skin were like anchors to him.

Levi was curling himself around her like some sort of pathetic cat. Hael was sure as hell blushing at his almost-naked body touching her, and at this moment of weakness from her stoic Captain. She did the only thing that felt natural then and there, the same feeling she'd had in the wagon; Hael wrapped her arms around him and laid down on his bed, Levi in her arms.

They spent the night together there, and something bloomed within them, through the embarrassment, there was some little seed on longing. Longing to feel the touch of each other's skin again. To feel it in a better situation, when they were both healthy, to chose each other. And Hael knew right then that she chose Levi.

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