Chapter Text
The sun shone through the window and assaulted Levi’s eyes. He could have sworn he had shut those drapes before he went to sleep. He sighed and slung his legs over the side of the bed. The hard wood floor was cold beneath his feet as he made his way toward the bathroom to take a shower. When he finished showering he ate breakfast, took his vitamins, and packed himself a lunch in a brown paper bag to take to work with him. This was his morning routine. Something he had done almost every morning for a very long time.
He walks to work. Almost every day unless it’s too cold. It makes him feel like he got exercise that day which he has been told is a good thing even though he doesn’t really care one way or the other. He’s definitely not as fit as he was in high school, that’s for damn sure.
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He barely ate half of his lunch at work that day. His coworkers asked if he was alright and he just gave each of them a noncommittal noise or gesture. Just to make them leave him alone.
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He tapped away at his keyboard in his office, the sun streaming in from the window at the back and making it incredibly hard to see the screen. It was a small office and he couldn't help thinking how poorly it had been designed, your back was either to the large window or to the door making it so that you either had your back to whomever came in or you were susceptible to having the light of the sun glare across your computer screen at any given time…. Maybe he should invest in some blinds…
He sighs.
He runs his finger across the fine silver of a picture frame on his desk. He doesn’t want to smudge the glass. He already spends too much of his time cleaning the damn thing. The harsh glare of the sun made it almost impossible to see the picture within the frame but it didn’t really matter, he knew every curve and color of the image by heart anyway. Nevertheless he picked it up and brought it closer to himself away from the suns blinding brightness.
In the photo was a young couple. It was autumn and they seemed to be in a park, the trees in the background were red and orange and the dirt path was littered with fallen leaves. The woman in the photo was beautiful. She had flawless skin that was bright and healthy; her eyes were the color of honey, ringed at the edges with a slight hint of green. Her hair was shoulder length, strawberry blonde and lovely. She was standing with a man. He was slightly below average height with black, tidy hair, steely narrowed eyes, and a small smile curving his thin lips. Their faces were painted with a blush from both the obvious chill that had been in the air and from the contentment and delight that was still plain in their expressions, they had both obviously just been laughing. The man in the picture looked strikingly similar to Levi in almost every way, but… if you knew what you were looking for the differences were almost shocking. This man’s face was fuller, cheeks not so gaunt and sunken. The eyes were wrinkled with smile lines at the corners and shone brightly in happiness. His skin wasn’t nearly so pale. His hair was glossy and healthy instead of dull and brittle. There weren’t shadows around his eyes. Levi imagined that there was too much joy there to make room for shadows…
There was, quite suddenly and without warning, a burst of energy assaulting Levi’s office space, having exploded through his door which slammed loudly against the wall hard enough that he wouldn’t be surprised had it left a dent. He jumped and very nearly dropped the picture. Through the entryway stepped a very excitable brunette person, a ponytail tying their unruly hair that fanned out unkemptly in all directions.
“LEVIIII!!”
He sighed and set the frame down gently in its place on the corner of his desk before facing the bespectacled person that had startlingly invaded his space.
“Hello Hanji, how may I help you so I can thusly get you the hell out of my office”
“Oh Levi, you’re so funny! Such a joker!” they laughed raucously, hand on their stomach, and Levi was almost positive that it could not be THAT funny.
“What do you want Hanji?”
They wiped a tear from their eye and looked as if they had come to a sudden realization.
“Ah! Yes! I came in here for a reason! –
“Well good, otherwise I’d have to kick you right in your neck.”
-- Do you have those files I asked you for yesterday?”
Levi sighed and brought two fingers up to pinch the bridge of his nose.
“No Hanji, I don’t have them, as I gave them to you yesterday.”
For a moment they looked confused. “Wha-…. Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’m sure. Check with your secretary, you probably gave them to him. You would lose your head without that boy.”
“OH! I bet you’re right! I didn’t even think of that! Thank you so much Levi!”
They had seemed to come to a resolution to their problem… so why were they still standing in his office?
“Do you…. Need something else?”
“Oh, uh, not really. There was just something I… uh I mean not just me, it’s just that I happen to be… here and—“
“Just spit it out!”
“Well Erwin and I, and, I mean pretty much everybody, Mike and Erd too and… well; we’re kind of worried about you.”
“… Whyyyy?”
“BECAUSE! You’re just! You know!... you’re… not okay.”
“I’m fucking FINE Hanji and you can tell everybody that.”
“No Levi, you’re really not! And obviously we all expected that at first but, well… it’s been two years Levi.”
Oh, now he was angry. he could feel his blood boil and a pressure start to build behind his eyes. This was all just- it was jus- it was too fucking much!
“I know how fucking long it’s been Hanji! I am perfectly capable of keeping track of time, no matter how incompetent you and everybody else apparently think I am!” by this point he was standing out of his chair and he could feel the enraged scowl on his own face.
“Levi! You know that none of us think that!”
“Really!? Cause it seems like that’s what you’re trying to tell me right now!”
“No, that is NOT what I’m saying.”
“That is what it sounds like!”
“Levi, no, I didn’t-- that’s not--” they sighed and averted their eyes.
He sighed.
“Maybe just go.” He said, suddenly much calmer
They looked as if they wanted to say more- he was sure they wanted to say more- but after a moment they seemed to resign themselves.
“Yeah. Okay.”
They opened the door and walked out with significantly less enthusiasm than when they had come through it.
Levi sighed. He hadn’t meant to yell like that. Hanji hadn’t deserved that. They were just… worried about him. They were all worried about him. Hell HE was worried about him.
He didn’t used to be this snappish. He was usually pretty stoic and kind of an asshole, he could admit that… but he had never been one to lose his temper like that. And now all the anger was burned out and he felt so… empty.
He sighed.
He just… couldn’t wait for this day to be over. He just wanted to go home…
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By the time he walked out of his office building it was pouring. He grumbled agitatedly and half-heartedly tried to cover his head with his hand for the first few minutes before giving up with a sigh and wondering where the fuck the nice weather from this morning had gone.
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There was a kid sitting on a bench in the children’s playground. Obviously he was alone because no parent was stupid enough to bring their child out to play in the pouring rain. He wore ragged dirty old jeans and a forest-camo hoodie that looked to be made of good dense material but was way too big for him. The hood was intentionally too big, a style that Levi never fully understood because it only covered the very top of a person’s head and the rest of them, face, neck, collar bones, ears, were left open to the cold and the rain. Curiosity got the best of him and he found himself wandering over. The kid looked up as he heard him approach.
He couldn’t be more than sixteen or seventeen years old with long, almost shoulder length brunet hair and striking blue-green eyes that demanded attention.
For one quiet, solitary moment they considered each other. The kid’s hood was soaked through but he hadn’t bothered to remove it and water trickled from his too-long bangs in steady crystalline droplets. His gaze was cold and level. Then the moment was gone.
“The fuck do you want?” The kid said. His voice was calm… no… not calm, Levi realized; monotone… numb and without emotion.
“Don’t talk to me like that; you’re the idiot who’s sitting in a child’s playground in the rain. What, did your mommy leave you here on accident? Go the fuck home.”
“Don’t tell me what to do. You’re the one who’s taking actual time out of their day to stand here staring at the idiot sitting in the rain.”
For once in a very long time Levi had no come back. The kid was right. Why the fuck had he come over here anyway? He turned to go but paused after a few steps and, almost as an afterthought, reached down into his messenger bag and pulled out the remainder of his lunch. The brown bag was already almost soaked through by the time he turned and tossed it into the kids lap. He just stared down at it for a moment and Levi knew he probably wouldn’t open it until he left, probably still feeling defensive. He could respect that so he turned and kept walking.
By the time he got home he was soaked through but didn’t feel much worse for it.
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The next morning he woke up late. His alarm hadn’t gone off so he rushed to get everything done. He just had his phone set to wake him, he didn’t have any proper alarm clock and sometimes they were just unreliable. It barely ever happened but it wasn’t unheard of. Regardless he definitely didn’t have time to walk to work now and caught the next bus.
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That day at lunch he ate out in the main lobby of his office building as he very often did. He liked the large window that made up most of the front of the building. He liked being able to see outside and he liked the constant stream of people in and out. It made him feel less alone than if he ate by himself in his own small office.
He looked down at his food that he had packed himself. Well, sort of. He had actually just been zoning out for the past few minutes and just happened to be looking down at it. He was just… thinking. Not about one thing in particular, just thinking. He thought about strawberry blonde hair and the perfect shade of lipstick coated thinly and evenly against plush, smiling lips, framed by two rosy cheeks. He thought about perfectly manicured nails and warm honey colored eyes edged just slightly in a beautiful emerald green…. God, such warm eyes….
To his right someone, who Levi recognized as Moblit, Hanji’s secretary, dropped a thick three ringed black binder full of papers and snapped him out of his musings.
He looked back down at his lunch sitting in his lap, which he hadn’t even taken a bite of, and sighed. He just wasn’t hungry today. He wrapped the sandwich back up in the cellophane wrap and shoved it back into the brown bag.
He stood to go only to be pushed back onto the plush ottoman-like bench which was similar to several others that littered the main lobby.
“Sit.” said Erwin
Oh. Well then. Guess he was fucking sitting instead. Not like he had a job to get back to or anything.
“What?” Levi said, only slightly snappish at having been interrupted in getting back so he could lock himself away in his office.
Erwin was Levi’s boss. He wasn’t CEO or anything but he was at least pretty up there. None of that really mattered though because all three of them, him Erwin and Hanji, had all been friends since college. So basically it didn’t matter how much higher up the food chain than him either of them got, he would still treat them exactly the same as he always had, and vice versa.
“I just wanna talk to you. Your lunch break isn’t going to be over for another twenty minutes anyway.”
“And how the fuck do you know that? You stalking me or some shit?”
“You’ve only been sitting here for ten minutes Levi, lunch break is thirty.”
Levi narrowed his eyes at Erwin. “So is that a yes?”
Erwin just sighed and ignored his question. He looked down to Levi’s lunch bag in his lap. “Have you eaten today?”
“Yeah, I ate corn flakes for breakfast.”
“You KNOW that’s not what I mean Levi.” He sighed “did you eat ANY of your lunch at all?”
“I’m not fucking hungry, why is it any of your business.”
“Levi… I’m just…. We’re all just worr—“
“Oh no, Erwin. Stop. Not you too.”
“We just care about you Levi.”
“As my friend I am asking you to stop this NOW.”
“As your friend it is my job to say this. You’re not doing well Levi. I just… I think maybe it’s time to find someone else. Get back out there and find someone who makes you happy. We all loved Petra very much Levi, but it’s been two years since the accident and—“
“No. Don’t you dare. Don’t you DARE try to tell me that ANYBODY loved her as much as I did!-
That familiar pressure was back behind his eyes and his voice was beginning to tremble.
-This conversation is over and you tell everyone else to leave me alone too!”
He got up and left before Erwin had a chance to grab his arm and he knew that Erwin wouldn’t call out to him in the middle of the lobby. He had only raised his voice slightly at the end there but people still stared after him. He just gave them dark glares as he passed until everyone eventually looked away. He walked quickly back to his office and slammed the door shut.
Once inside he locked the door and sat back at his desk. He turned on his computer and stared blankly at it for a few moments, but the words and figures on screen remained gibberish to him as it became no easier to focus. He placed one hand over his eyes and sighed.
----------
When he walked home that afternoon it was fairly sunny out. A chill had been creeping in to the air for weeks now and it was only getting worse. The trees that lined the pathways in the park were losing their foliage at a hurried pace now and they crunched under his feet as he stepped.
He passed by the children’s playground and noted that again there was nobody playing there. It was still wet from yesterday’s torrential downpour. Then he glanced over to one particular bench. Well… somebody was there…. Sure enough that kid was still there in just about the exact same spot. God, had he even moved since yesterday?
“Have you even moved since yesterday?” he asked when he’d gotten over there.
“Why is that your business? I can do whatever I want to.”
Yep, this kid was most definitely a teenager.
“Well God, don’t get all defensive about it.”
“Hey, fuck you, I’m not defensive!”
“Clearly.”
The kid glared at him.
“What the fuck do you want?”
Levi hummed, sometimes he was just in the mood to be an asshole
“Well a better job would be nice, maybe one that makes just a bit more money. World peace I guess seems like something that’s very desirable too, I mean if we’re talking about anything I want.”
The kid just stared at him for a moment in what looked like disbelief before making a noise of extreme frustration. That noise that preteens and teenagers make when they are irritated, that noise that’s kind of like a growl mixed with ‘ugh’ mixed with a yell all at the same time. That one. Then he turned away from Levi, obviously fully intending to ignore him.
He paused.
“Look, I didn’t come here to make your life worse, okay?”
“Wow, really, coulda fooled me!”
Levi sighed.
“Why are you sitting out on a bench in a children’s playground? You know somebody’s going to think you’re a pedophile or something. You could get arrested.”
The shitty brat didn’t even look at him.
“Don’t you have a home; someplace to go? Where did you live before this?”
Silence.
Levi sat down beside him on the bench
“Well I guess this isn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done but… if you need someplace to stay… you could-
The kid cut him off by jumping up from the bench and turned to face him.
“What the fuck?! Are you inviting me home right now? Eew! No, I’ll never be that desperate!”
Now Levi stood too, glaring and raising his hands, palms out, in front of him.
“Whoa, hey! That is not what I was trying to say!”
“You sure? Cause that’s what it fuckin’ sounded like!”
He could feel a headache coming on and pinched the bridge of his nose, his eyes closed for a moment. When he opened them the kid seemed to have taken a few more steps back.
“Fine, whatever, don’t take my help… but… that offer still stands. I would never do something like that to you. You don’t need to be afraid of me and I wouldn’t ask for any favors for letting you sleep on the couch.”
With that he took his lunch from his messenger bag and set it on the bench between them before walking away.
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He woke up the next morning and went about his routine. Took a shower, ate breakfast, swallowed down his vitamins and made his bagged lunch. For reasons he didn’t know, or at least didn’t want to admit to himself, he packed more than he knew he would eat. On the way to work he stopped at a convenience store and picked up a small bag of chips which was a snack that he had never cared for.
But as he neared the park he could see that the bench was empty.
Hm.
Well maybe the kid got smart and went home.
That is assuming he even had a home to go back to.
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That afternoon there were actually children playing in the park. With the sun shining straight through yesterday and into today all of the play equipment was dry and safe to climb on. You could tell which of the kids had an overprotective parent by the way they were dressed. I mean it was plenty chilly but it wasn’t that cold. That one by the slide was practically tripping on their too-long scarf and could barely move in their overstuffed little coat.
He looked over to the bench where the kid was back and sitting staring at the ground, looking deep in thought. He walked up behind the bench, leaning over and folding his arms along the back. The brat didn’t seem to notice.
“So, anybody mistake you for a pedophile yet?”
The kid jumped, surprised, and turned to glare at Levi.
“Fuck off! Creeper! I’ll call the police or something!”
Levi shrugged and began to walk away. “Okay.”
There was a moment’s pause before:
“Hey!”
He turned.
“What?”
“Well you, uuh—don’t you—I mean—“
“Well spit it out!”
“Aagh, nothing! Forget it!” the kid turned his head away defiantly.
Levi smirked; this one was stubborn. He could respect that. He pulled his lunch bag from his satchel and plopped it down on the bench before turning to go.
But first…
“Uh, hey. Where were you this morning?”
The kid shook his head slightly but didn’t turn back
“The fuck are you talking about?” he said.
“Well when i- y-you… agh, never mind.” And with that he turned and left.
This time he heard the crinkle of the bag being opened before he even got back to the path.
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The next day when he left work to go home it was evening. He had had to work a little later that day just so he could get his work for the day over with and wouldn’t have to do it tomorrow. He was already behind and had sort of been letting things pile up lately…
it started to rain almost immediately after he walked out of the building. Nothing much, just a light shower, but with temperatures getting colder it was an icy shower. He mumbled to himself about “the fucking rain” as he pulled a small collapsible umbrella from his bag. He continued his walk home with only slightly damp hair.
As he neared the children’s playground he held his umbrella between his shoulder and chin while he dug around in his bag for his uneaten lunch but when he got there, lunch in one hand, umbrella in the other… the bench was empty.
He furrowed his brow slightly and walked closer. Indeed the brat wasn’t on this bench or any of the other benches lining this side of the playground. He looked around himself at the many colored structures and toys for children to play and climb on but didn’t see so much as a hint of a familiar forest-camo hoodie. He was about to turn to go when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Near the back of the pine-chip covered area were three large and cavernous concrete tubes painted brightly in primary colors. From the mouth of the red one he thought he could see a dark shape huddled inside. He hurried over to it and crouched down beside the gaping concrete maw. There, curled into a tight ball on the bottom of the tube was the brat. His eyes were closed and he was breathing slowly and heavily, hoodie pulled tightly around him. Levi stared down at him for a moment before placing the brown bag gently and quietly beside him, then got up and turned to walk the rest of the way to his home.
So that’s where he was in the morning; sleeping. Makes sense.
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“Hey, do you uuh… make two lunches every day or something?”
Levi scoffed at the brat. “Fuck no; I don’t make one specifically for you.”
“Well then what the fuck do you eat, if you give me your lunch every day?!”
“Hey, don’t worry about what I eat; I get enough of that from literally everybody else. I eat fine.”
“Well maybe you get it from everybody fucking else cause you don’t fucking eat!”
“You know what kid; do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”
The brat glowered up at Levi from the bench, not gracing that question with an answer and he decided that he didn’t want to talk about this anymore… but strangely, he also didn’t really wanna go home yet…
He plopped himself down on the bench beside the kid as he tore into a bag of chips from Levi’s lunch.
“So,” he began “what’s your name?”
He stopped devouring the chips for a moment as if contemplating whether or not he would actually say or just ignore the question all together.
“…Eren.”
Levi nodded before offering his hand. “Levi.”
The kid, Eren, took it and they shook.
There were a few moments of silence before Eren shoved a small shiny wrapped package in his face. A granola bar. He took it without question and tore off the shiny foil packaging.
“Thanks, Eren.”
Eren shrugged “It’s your food.”
They sat peacefully for a few minutes more, Eren devouring the contents of the paper bag and Levi chewing his granola bar slowly and contentedly. After about twenty minutes though Levi got up and left. Eren looked after him as he went but they parted ways without a goodbye.
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The next day at work Levi was swamped. There was paperwork to complete, projects he had to finish, files he had to find and it was just… it was a nightmare. He figured it was sort of his own fault because he had just been in a… mood. Not exactly a bad mood, not exactly a good mood but whatever the fuck type of mood it was he had just… sort of been procrastinating… and now everything was due! People wanted things to be done and he was the guy that was supposed to have been doing them. When evening rolled around and he was supposed to have gone home an hour ago he was still there sitting in his office typing away on his keyboard. The only noise he could hear from outside the door was the janitors wheeled cart as they emptied the trash cans and just generally tidied things up. He sighed to himself and
resolved that he was not leaving this office until all of this work was done.
And he didn’t. for the next two days he was at the office catching up on work and when it was done he had more work that he had been assigned while he was catching up. He at the entirety of his lunch bag the first day and for the next lived off of brake room coffee and whatever he could find in the vending machines. He was totally out of pocket change. But on the bright side he had gotten to leave the office at a fairly reasonable hour today (i.e. if he went to sleep right when he got home he might not be exhausted tomorrow).
As he neared the illuminating streetlights on front of the park the light weight of his satchel was noticeably obvious. He had eaten his lunch at work…. He could see Eren from here, sitting on the bench in the park by himself at night like a fucking dumbass…. Well… he didn’t have anything to offer him today. Maybe if he just walked past Eren would keep up his act of not speaking unless spoken to.
But that theory was quickly discredited.
“Hey where were you the past couple-a days? Did you get sick or something?”
Levi paused. “No. I just never left work. I had a project to complete. Sorry I don’t have anything for you today.”
“Nah, its cool. S’not like I think you’re my personal food bank or somethin’.”
Levi huffed. “Hm, coulda fooled me.” And he continued his walk home past the park.
For the next half of his walk home he was aware of footsteps behind him, quiet and sometimes hesitant as if thinking of just turning back.
Levi made no move to act as if he heard the footsteps following him and after a short while he was stopped by a voice.
“Hey!” Someone called. He turned to find Eren standing several paces behind him looking uncertain.
“What are you, some kind of lost puppy? Come to follow me home?”
The kid ignored the comment and just rolled his eyes. “Hey, is your original offer still open?”
Levi just watched the brat catch his breath for a moment, a contemplative look on his face, before continuing on his way. He didn’t say yes… but… he didn’t say no either. The brat apparently took his unresponsiveness to mean yes as he heard footsteps continue to follow behind him, eventually catching up to be right next to him and they both fell into an easy stride beside each other and were silent for the remaining ten or so minute walk back to Levi’s apartment.
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When they stepped through the door Eren whistled.
Nice place, what did you say you do again?”
“I didn’t say, and it’s none of your business, shitty brat. Now help me set up the pull out bed.”
Levi walked over to the couch and began removing the cushions, when the kid walked over the cushions were set neatly against the couch and Levi was reaching for the handle underneath.
“Uuh, what do I do?”
“You see that hallway?” Levi gestured vaguely with his head but didn’t wait for a reply before continuing. “Open the first door on your right and get a sheet, a blanket, and one of the spare pillows.”
By that time the bed was pulled out from the couch and the crappy mattress lay almost flat on the base. Levi walked down the hallway with Eren but went to the first door that was definitely not on the right. He turned the handle and stopped for a moment looking back at the kid. “There’s the closet right behind you. Get that stuff and dump it by the bed, I’ll be out in a minute.” Then he disappeared into the room but before the door was shut Eren got a glimpse into a sparsely furnished room with a large, soft looking bed with a dresser in front of it. Not even a TV or a nightstand or any other piece of furniture adorned the room and the kid couldn’t help but think that it was similar to the rest of the apartment but that it suited the man fine. He didn’t seem like the type to want too much stuff cluttering up his life. He turned to the closet, retrieved the spare bedding, and went back to the couch to wait after dumping it on the floor as instructed. The man came out soon after dressed in soft looking green and black plaid pajama pants and a white t-shirt. When he picked up the sheet from the floor Eren got the hint and took the other end. They made the bed in relative silence and when they were done Eren was about to crawl in when Levi spoke.
“Okay, you saw where the bedroom was, go on. If you have to take a shit the bathrooms right across from it. I’m sure you’re intelligent enough to realize that it’s the door that is NOT the closet.” And after having spoken he crawled into the now made pull out bed. Eren stared for a moment, just a little confused.
“U-uuh, wait. What? I-I think I missed something.”
Levi sighed as if Eren were the stupidest kid on the planet.
“The bedroom is that way. Go sleep. And don’t go looking through any of my stuff.” He said, pointing in the direction of the hallway.
“Well, I mean I thought- t-that-“
“Before I change. My. Mind.” Levi’s voice was stern and commanding and Eren felt as if he had no choice but to obey. He turned and hurried off to the bedroom.
Levi watched him go, wondering what exactly he had gotten himself into. He stared at the hall that the kid had disappeared down for just a bit longer before laying down flat on the bed on his side and closing his eyes, hoping that sleep would come soon. He was fucking exhausted.
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It was still well before morning and pitch black when Levi was startled mostly-awake by a strange feeling. It took his sleep addled brain a moment before he realized just what it was. It was an odd sensation on the back of his neck. It was warm… and… wet? He was now quite suddenly and very fully awake. He jerked into motion before realizing that there was a pair of arms wrapped tightly around him and a body pressed firmly to the curve of his back.
“Brat! What the EVER LOVING FUCK are you doing!?”
The kid hummed, seeming perfectly content with the squirming body in his arms, the little shit.
“Nothin’” he drawled lazily. He tugged Levi back to him and pressed himself impossibly closer, spooning him from behind and going back to his previous activities which had apparently been licking the back of Levi’s neck. Levi struggled to get free but the kid only held him tighter, now gently nipping at Levi’s jugular.
“What the fuck are you, a fucking cat? Why are you in my bed?”
“I’m just cuddlin’ you. I got lonely.”
“I don’t fucking care! Get back in the other bed.”
“No.” the kid said petulantly. Levi could hear the pout in his voice, god it was like dealing with a fucking three year old. Then Levi felt… hands. And they were inching their way closer to a place where Levi did NOT want someone’s hands to be at this point in time. He had had quite enough of this. He pulled one of his legs forward before slamming his foot back hard right above the brat’s knee (which was the only place he could reach because, trust him, if he could have gone for the balls he would have) and he released him with a pained yelp.
“Hey! The fuck was that for! I was just gonna give you a hand-y! Jesus.”
Levi glared at him, voice going stern “I thought I had already made this perfectly clear. You don’t have to do anything like that. I am NOT that kind of person. I know you might not have believed me but I wasn’t lying. I’m just letting you stay, I don’t want anything from you in exchange.”
The kid just scoffed
“Well, what the fuck! I don’t know what kind of person you are! The fuck was I supposed to think? After you invited me home!!
“I did not invite you anywhere! You followed me home!”
“Yeah, after you invited me!
“Yeah like a week ago! Before explicitly stating that it was just so you had someplace to go!”
Now Eren looked down dejectedly, feeling thoroughly cowed.
“i-it wasn’t- I mean it wasn’t… that long ago…”
The kid rubbed the back of his neck under the weight of Levi’s glare, head turned slightly to the side. Oh, NOW the brat had the gall to look sheepish.
“…yeah well… okay, so maybe I wanted to….”
Levi just stared at the kid. Maybe this wasn’t happening. Maybe he was just having a weird dream from exhaustion and was still asleep. At Levi’s silence the kid started babbling.
“I mean, like, your pretty fuckin’ hot and, you know, were alone here and shit and I sorta got the impression that you might be okay with guys, I-I mean now that seems sorta stupid and im not really sure where I got that impression from, it was just sorta a feeling or whatever-“
“O-oh my- j-just SHUT UP. God. Like do you even hear yourself speak or is it just sort of a droning in your ears?”
Now Eren was glaring at Levi and rolled his eyes.
“Well, …are you?”
“Am I what?”
He rolled his eyes again, harder this time. God, this kids eyes were just going to fall right out of his head one day.
“Are you okay with guys?”
Levi wasn’t really sure. He never put much thought into whether he liked guys as well as girls. Hell, he never put much thought into whether he even liked anybody who wasn’t Petra. She had literally been his first and last. He had never wanted anybody else, ever. He had never looked at another woman, or man for that matter, and thought them more beautiful and he didn’t think he ever would.
“I… I don’t know.”
“What? How can you NOT know?”
“Because I don’t! Fuck kid, how old even are you?”
“Im old enough! What the fuck does it matter?”
“Okay, redefined question. How old do you think I am?”
“I don’t know, twenty three?”
Levi just stared at him for a moment. Apparently Eren took this to be the negative.
“Uuh… twenty five?
Levi tilted his head and raised his eyebrows in a very unamused fashion.
“Twenty… six?”
“I’m thirty four.”
“What!?”
Levi smirked at the exclamation.
“Still want my dick now, shitty brat?”
“…Yeah… you’re still hot. And you’re actually fuckin’ nice to me an’ shit. You gave me food like every day, even though it was yours. You let me into your apartment so I didn’t have to sleep outside, like for all you know I coulda gone through all your stuff and taken your wallet or something and just left, and you still let me in, and you even made me sleep in your big soft bed…”
He trailed off with a sniffle and Levi could see his eyes glistening brightly and his lip start to tremble… Oh god… No. No no no no. this kid was not about to start crying. No! Abort! Abort mission! Abort mission!
Levi stuck out his arms but didn’t actually touch Eren, they just sort of hovered over him as if he wasn’t quite sure what to do with them or how to make this stop.
“Oh my god, no! Don’t cry! Please don’t cry!”
“Im not fucking crying!” he yelled as a tear ran down his cheek.
“Yeah, clearly.”
“Hey, fuck you! I just have something in my fucking eye!”
“You say fuck too much.”
That statement actually seemed to make it worse.
“Ah, oh nonono okay, you know what? This conversation is over. Just… sshhh. Hush now.” He slowly lowered his voice until the ending of the sentence came out in almost a whisper. He reached over for a Kleenex from the box on a small table next to the couch and gently held Eren’s chin as he wiped the tears from his cheeks. The kid’s eyes were still downcast toward the bed.
“It’s time to sleep now, get back to bed.” Levi said quietly.
Now Eren looked at him, glancing up from under his lashes.
“I wasn’t kidding you know. I got lonely…”
“You’re a big boy; I think you’ll be okay. Hell, I’ll even come tuck you in if you really want.”
“…I wanna sleep with you.”
Levi scoffed “Uuh, no.”
Now the kids eyes were turned downward again and he spoke in a near whisper.
“If im all by myself ill get sad and start crying again…”
“Oh that is such bullshit.”
But then Levi watched as the boy’s eyebrows creased, he sniffled and the quiet gasp he drew into his mouth trembled as his chest shuddered with a small sob.
“Okay, Jesus! Fucking fine! Just-
Levi sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with thumb and forefinger.
- just help me put this shit away.”
Then he crawled down from the collapsible couch bed and began tugging at the blanket without even waiting for Eren to get off, though he quickly hopped down and together they folded up the bed coverings and placed them neatly back into Levi’s linen closet.
They crossed the hall into the bedroom and Levi crawled under the comforter as Eren took the opposite side. He faced away from the boy, whom he could feel looking at him.
“Now listen here. You stay on your side. if I wake up to you humping my ass again I’ll make you wish you had stayed in that damn park, you understand me?”
He didn’t wait for an answer before nestling into his pillow and drawing the covers closer around his shoulders. After being so tired from work and the adrenalin having worn off from that little late night encounter, Levi shut his eyes and was asleep almost instantly.
----------
He dreamed that night. Strawberry blonde hair. That was always a big part of his dreams. A big part of his thoughts even. God he loved that color. But… not every dream was like this. This was one of the more rare ones. Most of the time it was just glimpses of smiles, cheeks painted in a happy blush, warm, bright eyes. But this one… fingers were running gently down his side. Just grazing lightly against the more sensitive skin. His sides had always been more ticklish than most parts of him but with the right amount of slowness and gentility… god did that turn him on. He could feel lips against his neck, kissing tenderly. Long eyelashes brushing against his cheeks, soft hair brushed his skin. The touches got slightly rougher, the hand moving down toward his abdomen, pushing his nightshirt out of the way as it went. Fingers splayed against his stomach, a palm pressing with yielding pressure as it moved up and down his torso. A warm body pressed up against his back. The hand on his abdomen moved up to his chest, thumb now making easy circles around his nipple, and the mouth positioned at his neck opened to lave his throat with a slick, warm tongue, the strong muscle applying pressure to a particularly sweet spot below his jaw before sucking and nibbling at it. the others breath was beginning to come harder against his skin and he let out a soft moan, more akin to a sigh and moved his hand up to the others head of silken hair.
“Levi.” They sighed against his neck.
“P-Petra. Ooh.” He breathed
The lips at his throat seemed to hesitate, pulling away slightly; he could still feel the hot breath against his wet skin. The hand stopped rolling his nipple between thumb and forefinger. Everything stopped for a moment before the warmth against his back, and the mouth against his neck, and the hand on his chest all pulled away completely, silken hair sliding out from beneath his fingertips. He sighed again, but not in pleasure. He relaxed and let himself fall into a deeper sleep. All dreams had to end eventually.