The steady drizzle of rain served as a quiet lullaby for Levi, urging him to snuggle deeper into the covers of his bed and feel the heat of the other occupant—
Other occupant? How the hell is there an 'other bed occupant'?
And since when did the grey-eyed man ever use the word snuggle?
He snapped his eyes open, but the deep-sleep-induced headache made him close them again. He groaned and got up into a sitting position, starting to remember the things that happened before he passed out last night. If his memory didn't fail him, he should see a head of chocolate brown, and a pair of annoyingly green eyes (how could something be so bright and green and not be an emerald, or a jade, or the ocean itself?).
Sure enough, he was sitting next to a sleeping brunet. He remembered the face of the boy Hanji had brought over, a week after Levi had reluctantly agreed to be the baby-sitter of her 19-year old nephew. He also remembered showing said boy his temporary room as his idiot of an aunt went to who-knows-where with her equally-idiotic boyfriend, which brought up the previous question: how the hell is there another person lying on his bed?
"Eren," he called, only half-sure of the boy's name, and nudged said boy's shoulder. "Get up."
"Hmm?" The boy fluttered one eye open, groggily looking at Levi.
"Don't hmm me. What are you doing in my room, sleeping on my bed? Actually, don't answer that. Just get out. I want to sleep in."
"S'freezing outside," the boy mumbled, closing his eye once again.
Levi sure as hell hoped that the brunet didn't mean outside the house, because he was going to smack the sarcasm (or the genuine stupidity) out of him.
"I gave you a room yesterday, brat. There's a heater there—. "
"Doesn't work."
"You broke my fucking heater?"
"T'wasn't working when I tried turning it on the first time."
Now that he thought about it, Levi did vaguely remember that he had to check on something once he was done with his work-overload…
He groaned for the second time that morning, cursing his luck. "Still, get your lazy ass up. If I'm not sleeping in, you aren't either."
Eren answered with his own groan, moving so he was facing away from Levi, lying on his stomach. "Five more minutes. No, make that ten."
Levi almost felt a vein comically pop out his forehead. He took a deep breath, not wanting to explode on the kid on their first day. He hoped that Eren wouldn't be this annoying all day, or during the length of his whole stay, for that matter. "You have ten seconds to get your ass out of my bed before I kick you out of this house. I don't care if your aunt threatens to kill me, so help me god, Eren."
"Jesus christ," the boy answered. "I'm up, I'm up." He sat up and started to rub sleep off his eyes. "M'sorry for intruding, was just really cold last night. Sorry, Levi."
Levi sighed. At least the kid was trying to be polite. "Yeah, well we'll just have to see and get that heater fixed so you won't be creeping up here again. Now, out."
Levi busied himself with pouring coffee for both him and Eren, giving the kid the liberty to add his desired amount of coffee and creamer. He took a sip from his steaming mug, pulling out his phone to check for messages.
"Must be nice, how it rains almost every day here," Eren said, after he thanked Levi for the coffee.
"Well, this is the—."
"Rainiest place in the whole United Stated of goddamn America, I know. That's one of the reasons why I agreed to move in with Hanji."
Choosing to ignore the fact that it had been the second time today that Eren had cut him off mid-sentence, he decided to be a genius by pointing out the obvious, "You must really like the rain, then." No harm in trying to make small-talk with a cute boy who he had to live with for a couple of weeks.
"I love it."
Levi hummed in acknowledgement. "Quite the opposite of your aunt. She hates this place."
"Yeah, I heard. Makes me wonder why she doesn't just move back in to California if she hates the rain so much."
"Hanji's stubborn, if you haven't noticed yet. And she likes her job enough to bear with the constant rain and cold, but not enough to drop her complaints and rants. Plus, Moblit, the blondie you probably met before going here, is going to stay here until he dies, which gives Hanji another reason to lag back and do the same."
Eren looked at him with a weird look, to which Levi raised a questioning eyebrow.
"What? If you have something to say, spit it out, brat."
"For one, I'm curious as to why you think that Moblit and Hanji are going to be together that long," Eren stated, stirring his coffee.
"I never said that," Levi disagreed.
"But you did imply it, intentionally or not."
"Actually, that could just be you reading too much into it," the older man countered, crossing his arms on the table. "Hanji's not one to move out of her house just because of a simple break-up, so it might as well be considered a reason. A temporary reason, if you may."
Eren frowned, and gave Levi another one of those weird looks. "You talk a lot when it's about Hanji."
To this, Levi snorted. "You sound like some sort of psychologist, or maybe a psychiatrist, whatever. You tell me, brat."
"I major in psychology, actually. Also, please stop calling me a brat."
Levi shook his head. 'Of course he's a psychology student, what did I expect from a relative of Hanji Zoe?' "My house, my name calling. Also, me and Hanji dated. You might as well know, just so we can get over the awkward you-dated-my-aunt stage before lunch."
Eren raised a brow, mouth covered by his mug. He placed it down and avoided eye contact with Levi for a while before finally raising his shoulders in a shrug. "It'll be awkward if you're still in love with her."
"Never was, actually," Levi casually answered. He opened a text from Hanji, asking about Eren, and replied with a simple, 'He's a fucktard.'
"Ooh, do I smell bitterness?" Eren replied, looking up at Levi again. He had a playful smirk pulling up his lips, making his looks border from a mischievous teenager to a troublesome almost-adult. He reminded Levi of Hanji so much at that moment, it was scary.
Levi made a show of pulling up a disgusted look on his face before rapidly setting it back to its normal, apathetic mode. This earned a quick laugh from Eren.
"I'm kidding, you know it," he said. He took a final drink from his mug and then put his and Levi's in the sink for washing.
"I do. Now, go get a shower or something, whatever you teenagers do these days. I'll figure something out for lunch."
"Okay. Thanks a lot for this, Levi. For letting me stay here, I mean. And for the coffee, as well."
"Don't mention it," the older male replied, feeling his phone vibrate from his pocket. He pulled it out and saw that he got more text messages from Hanji.
"Don't be like that!" one read, with a lot of obnoxious exclamation marks.
"Oh, and Levi?"
"Eren's such a cutie, you'll love him!"
"I'm gay. You might as well know, just so we can get over the awkward I'm-living-with-my-ex's-gay-nephew stage before lunch." With a final wink, Eren disappeared down the hall, probably into his temporary room.
Levi stared after him, then stared down at his phone, at Hanji's last text.
"The kid will rock your world, I swear. I can feel it."
Levi didn't really doubt it, but he would never admit that.
Eren, as it turned out, wasn't as bad as Levi thought he would be. He cleaned after himself to the best he could, which was unsurprisingly not enough to match Levi's standard. After calling him out on it, the kid bluntly asked him if he was a clean freak, or if he had OCD or a mild case of mysophobia. Still, he wasn't as annoying as his aunt, slowly making progress on getting on Levi's good side by following the older man's orders on how to clean up.
"God, I could live here forever," Eren declared, plopping down on the couch after helping Levi clear the table and wash the dishes. "Thanks for the food, Levi. You're a great cook."
"Don't get too used to it, brat," Levi replied. He followed Eren and relaxed on the couch, grabbing the remote and flipping through channels until they settled on HBO. "Tell me how long you've been living with Hanji again."
Eren took a few seconds to answer. "When I moved in, she was already planning the trip with her boyfriend so… a week?"
Levi nodded. "Sure as hell hoped you thought over your decision at least a hundred times before hopping on a plane and moving in with that crazy woman."
The teen chuckled, running a hand through his hair and further making a mess out of it. "I really like Hanji, actually. She's my favorite aunt. Plus, how could I pass up going to Trost University, right?"
Ah, now that he thought about it, Levi did remember Hanji talking about a favorite nephew or something… "How about your parents? Any siblings?"
"They were okay with it," was Eren's short reply. He perked up when he started talking about his sister. "She's adopted, but we were both kids when it happened so we practically grew up together."
"Name?"
"Mikasa," Eren beamed. "She acts like my mom most of the times but I'm probably going to start missing that real soon."
"Don't we all," Levi agreed in a quiet voice, putting a temporary end to their conversation. He resumed by opening up the topic of house rules.
"First and foremost, clean after your shit," Levi started. He pretended not to notice how Eren hid a smile behind his hand. "Second, I don't generally give a fuck about your love or sex life, but you don't bring anyone here. Anyone. Also, we have separate rooms for a reason, brat. I'm not saying that we can't talk or be friends and shit, but don't be clingy or anything, it's creepy."
"Yes, sir," Eren replied, doing a mock salute. "Anything else?"
"They aren't really rules but I work the night shift, so most nights you'll probably have to make dinner yourself, the other meals, I can take care of them. Your aunt promised to pay me for whatever crap you'll need so you don't have to worry about money, unless you've got other shit to buy, like porn or videogames and the lot."
Eren nodded slowly, taking it in. "Okay, I understand." He fiddled with his jacket before moving on to another topic. "Hanji told me you work in a pharmacy, was it?"
"It's actually a hospital pharmacy, yes. My only day off is Sundays and my work hours are 8 PM to 4 AM. Anymore questions?"
"Does that mean that you're going to work later?" the brunet asked, head slightly cocked to one side.
"Yes, Eren. Because of that, I'm going to depend on you to not ruin my house by the time I get back."
Eren chuckled. "Sounds like a task."
Levi almost smirked. "Don't worry yourself too much, kid. You'll be staying here for what, two weeks, at most? Your aunt's gonna be back before you know it." With this, Levi stood up from his place, leaving Eren to his own devices.
During the third day of Eren's stay, Levi caught him sleeping on the couch when he got home.
He maneuvered his way through the house without turning on any of the lights, heading to the kitchen to get a drink before passing the living room, intending to drop his keys on the stand next to the couch when he saw Eren, snuggled into himself without any covers or sheets to protect him from the cold except for a thin-looking blanket.
Levi would have walked past him, pretended not to notice that the kid was probably going to catch a cold if he continued sleeping there, but he found himself gently tapping the sleeping brunet on his shoulder, quietly calling his name.
"What?" Eren grumbled. He started to blink his eyes open, letting them adjust to the darkness before finally getting up into a sitting position.
"Oh, you're back. Welcome home, Levi," he said, voice thick with sleep, nose already sounding congested.
Levi refused to acknowledge the fact that he thought the brat might have waited for him. "Don't sleep here, for fuck's sake. I swear, I'm not going to take care of you or anything if you end up catching some sort of cold."
"M'sorry," the teenager slurred, standing up and wrapping the pathetic blanket around his shoulders. He zombie-walked himself up to his room, where he turned and waved Levi a good mornight (which Levi would later learn was a hybrid between morning and night, apparently because he was going to sleep when it was already morning). It was when he was changed into his night clothes, tucked into bed, when Levi realized that he was grinning. He almost slapped himself.
When he woke up a good three hours before noon, he ended up giving the kid pills for his cold, with a hearty "I told you so" look.
"Don't pull that shit again," he repeated for the third time.
"Yes, sir," Eren replied, doing one of his signature mock salutes. With the dishes done and with nothing else to do, they once again ended up watching old movies on HBO while lounging on the couch. On other days, Levi would hate how the time went by without him doing anything productive, but today, he was glad for the extended "day off".
During the ninth day of Eren's stay, when Levi got home at around seven in the morning after an overtime shift at the hospital, the older male slept in, all the way to two in the afternoon. He woke up with a groan, sitting up and feeling as well as hearing his bones crack after a few stretches. He happened to look at himself in the mirror while brushing his teeth and concluded that he looked like a walking corpse, so he quickly rinsed his mouth and pointedly ignored his reflection.
He expected to walk into a quiet living room, but all his dreams were shattered when he heard Eren from the laundry place, a colorful array of "Shit, fuck, I'm dead," sounding off from the room in a muffled version of the teen's voice. Levi had a clue on what he would find there when he opened the door, but he did not expect the amount of bubbles oozing out from his washing machine. Eren stood there, looking horrified while holding the machine's plug.
"What the fuck happened here?" Levi asked, looking from Eren to the machine.
"I don't know, shit," the boy replied. "Did I put too much detergent in there?"
"You tell me. Fuck, Eren. Do you think you broke it?" Levi walked closer on careful feet, inspecting the damage.
"No, I'm fairly sure I didn't. I mean… it doesn't look broken?"
"Fuck. This is why I don't believe you when you say you didn't break the heater."
After that, they scooped out all the bubbles from inside the machine and checked if it was still working. Miraculously, it seemed like Eren was right and that he had just put in too much detergent. Levi ended up helping him with his laundry, and then they cleaned up the place.
"I haven't even had breakfast yet, you little shit," Levi grumbled, stalking out the room once he knew that Eren could take care of the rest. He had watched the teen closely while he did his laundry, not trusting Eren enough to leave him alone after that mishap, and now he was feeling starved.
"It's almost three o'clock, too late for breakfast or even lunch," he heard Eren say from behind him.
"Fuck you and your time issues. If I want to have breakfast at three in the afternoon, I will have breakfast at three in the afternoon," Levi said. He stopped sticking his head inside the fridge and turned to look at Eren. The teenager was putting something inside Levi's microwave.
"What are you doing?" he asked, half cautious that Eren might break another appliance, although he hasn't actually broken anything yet.
"I made spaghetti while you were sleeping," the brunet answered. He shrugged when Levi continued to stare at him. "I figured you would probably want to eat something when you wake up so I wanted to save you the trouble of cooking."
It wasn't a big gesture, to be honest. Something like cooking for the person you live with is completely normal and isn't something that should make someone too happy. If he thought about it, it was just that Levi wasn't used to things like these; things like waking up and having someone heat food for you, or waking up to your washing machine turning into a bubble machine.
"I'm sorry for making a mess there," Eren continued. He rubbed a hand on the back of his head and sent a sheepish smile at Levi's way. "I was trying to impress you but it totally backfired."
He didn't know what to say and how to react so instead of answering, Levi let the beeping sounds from the microwave fill the silence. He watched as Eren pulled out the container and grabbed a plate and a fork. Soon, the table was set with a serving of tasty-looking spaghetti and even a glass of orange juice.
That day, Levi thought that living with Eren really wasn't that bad at all.