Hey! I'm going crazy typing up everything I've written in the past few months now that school is done and I finally have time, if you're waiting for any of my other updates, please be patient a bit longer! Anyway, enjoy the story and don't forget to tell me what you think. :)
Throughout Eren's current life he's made an effort to be selfless; to him, it seemed pointless to wish for things he didn't have when he was blessed to have already been given so much. He was content with his life, but every so often, particularly after waking up drenched in sweat in fear of monsters that no longer existed; he wondered what it would be like to know someone who remembered, someone who understood.
So seeing his former Corporal, Levi Ackerman, walk into the front of his Calculus room floored the brunette. He was younger now—much younger—but his eyes held the pain and experience of many more years than his physical makeup, as well as his 'I don't give a fuck' attitude. He was dressed in loose fitting clothes of dull colors, a grey jacket, a soft red t-shirt, and a pair of faded blue jeans. He looked a bit goofy with his backpack turtling his small figure—not that Eren would dare tell him that. The raven stood in the front of the room with Eren's calculus teacher as she waited for the rest of the class to take their seats.
"Ladies and gentleman, this is Levi Church, he is new to the area so I expect you will all make him feel welcome," Mrs. Parker introduced Levi as he scanned the room with a bored expression, "Levi there is a seat available next to Eren for you, Eren would you raise your hand please?"
As instructed, Eren raised his hand. Levi's eyes met the brunettes and Eren searched for any indication that the other remembered, that he understood, that maybe Eren was not alone, however no such indication was granted and the brunette deflated a bit. Levi calmly walked down the narrow isle between the rows of desks and took his seat beside Eren in the back of the room. He removed a pencil and a black spiral notebook from his bag and set them quietly on the desk.
Mrs. Parker began her lesson on the determinant of a square matrix and Eren tried to pay attention—really, he did—but his mind wandered elsewhere as he stared at the side of Levi's face as the raven frivolously took notes on the lecture. The brunette was still trying to determine if there was any chance that his formal Corporal remembered being just that, if he remembered his old squad, or Squad Leader Hanji, or Commander Erwin, or maybe even Eren. But maybe he really didn't remember, just like Eren's parents, who didn't remember a thing.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" Levi's harsh whisper pulled Eren out of his head and he noticed the raven had turned his head to look straight at him.
"Huh?" Was the brunette's intelligent response, "Wha-, oh, sorry, uh I was just lost in thought I guess, sorry."
"Whatever," he shrugged and looked down at his notebook to work on the problem Mrs. Parker had written on the board.
"So how old are you?" Eren blurted out.
"Excuse me?" Levi raised an eyebrow at him.
"Sorry, you just seem young and I was trying to make conversation, but I wasn't sure what to ask you so I figured I would ask your age since I already know your name," Eren rambled nervously, face flushed slightly with embarrassment.
The raven stared at him for a few moments, blinking slowly, before turning his attention back down at the problem in his notebook, Eren sighed cursing himself for being so stupid, who just asks people's ages out of the blue? No one. Because it's weird.
"I'm sixteen," Levi mumbled, "if you laugh I swear I will shove my foot up your ass with so much force you won't be able to shit for a week brat."
Brat. Levi called him brat. Eren's heart fluttered happily as his face broke out into a blinding grin, "I'm hardly a brat, I'm older than you, and I'll be eighteen in a few months, so why don't we stick to first names. Besides it'd be weird if an upperclassman went around calling a sixteen year old 'sir', don't you think?"
Levi's hand froze and his muscles tensed before he relaxed and allowed his mouth to twitch into a small, almost pleased, smirk before continuing the problem once more, "I suppose it would be," he paused, "Eren."
The period went on smoothly, the two didn't say anything else to each other, but they did glance over at the other when they thought the other wasn't looking. Their eyes met once and Eren had flushed awkwardly and shoved his face into his arms on the desk for the remainder of the period. Levi smirked at this reaction and continued on with his class work until the period ended.
"Meet me in the front of the parking lot at the end of the day?" Eren asked as the bell rang, "I'd like to catch up."
Levi hesitated and stared up at Eren with questioning eyes, then turned around to exit the classroom.
"Fine," he called over his shoulder before disappearing into the crowded hallway. The brunette watched the empty doorway with a relieved smile, amused with the raven's complacent behavior; he had no doubts that this was his corporal.
Eren stood leaning against the wall outside the school in front of the parking lot as the bell signaling the school day's end rang through the school. Clusters of students piled out of the doors at the schools entrance, some greeted the brunette when they saw him and walked to their cars or buses.
"Jaeger," Levi appeared at Eren's side with his arms crossed, surprising the teen despite the fact that Eren was looking for him in the crowd.
"Hey," he greeted the raven, "Come on, we're going to get coffee."
Then remembered just who he was talking to and stopped walking to quickly amend his previous statement, "I mean or tea… if you prefer, I just thought since its cold we should…"
Levi nodded, cutting off the impending nervous rambling that was rather characteristic of the upperclassman, and followed Eren through the parking lot to a black Camry.
"Uh, my dad sold me his car; he wanted a new one or something so he used me getting my license as an excuse. I used to walk to school, I don't live that far from here," Eren explained.
Levi climbed into the passenger seat and threw his bag into the back, grunting in response.
The car ride was silent and kind of awkward. Levi and Eren hadn't exactly been friends in their past life. They had still cared for and protected each other, sure, but they hadn't really known much about the other—there hadn't been time for that, and neither had thought it necessary; however, Eren had excelled at reading his superior after working with him for many years, so towards the end of their lives, their relationship was more comfortable, despite their lack of closeness. They had respected each other and fought with each other in a way humanity had never seen; they had worked off of each other—like a well-practiced dance that only they knew the steps to.
Eren glanced over at his former corporal, who was leaning against the car door and staring out the window with one cheek resting on the glass as he watched the world pass by.
"I'll never get used to modern transportation," he mumbled, not really caring if Eren heard or not, "after years of horseback or fucking flying attached to some bungee cords with a million straps digging scars into my skin, cars and buses seem too easy, too comfortable."
Eren studied the raven's expression before turning his head back to the road, grunting softly in response. He had never compared the two, for him, the past had always been separate from the present; he had never had a reason to compare the two—other than to calm himself down after he woke up from a nightmare.
Eren pulled into a small shopping center with a small coffee shop that was run by a local owner. Eren parked and led Levi into the small shop—it was warm inside and relaxing with its dim lighting and warm color scheme. The brunette walked up to a small counter in the back of the shop to order, feeling nervous and awkward around the younger teen that had once been his cold and ever-intimidating superior.
"Welcome, what can I get for you two?" A friendly blonde asked them from behind the counter.
"I'll have a cappuccino and," Eren glanced over his shoulder at Levi, who stared back at him expectantly, "an Assam tea, steeped for at least three minutes, with a teaspoon of whole milk, and two teaspoons of wildflower honey, if you have it, please."
"We have it, no worries," the blonde assured him with a smile when she finished jotting down the instructions Eren gave her, "that'll be $6.95."
He handed her a twenty and put the change in the decorated tip jar, the girl smiled gratefully, "you two can go find your seats, and your drinks will be brought out to you as soon as they're done."
Levi and Eren sat down at a booth in the back corner of the shop. Eren bit his lip nervously and Levi fidgeted slightly in his seat, glaring down at the tabletop. They sat in awkward silence, unsure where to start or what to say, until their drinks were set in front of them.
"So this is awkward," Eren finally said, "sorry, I guess I'm not really sure how to act around you."
"I don't know how to act around you either," Levi responded sounding surprisingly defensive, with a miniscule pout on his face, making him look even younger, "I'm not your Corporal anymore, I'm just some sixteen-year-old kid in your calc class."
Eren rolled his eyes at the younger teen, beginning to relax; "now we both know that isn't true."
The raven shrugged and looked down, sipping his tea slowly.
"When I said I wanted to catch up, I really meant it, that is, if you're willing to share. I have a bunch of questions but you don't have to answer them if you don't want to, I know we weren't technically friends before but I think we could be now, uh, if you want, that is, I mean, I'd like to be" Eren said.
"Yeah, sure, ask away, I don't care" Levi replied with a shrug looking Eren straight in the eye.
"Do you know anyone else? From the past, that remembers," he clarified.
He nodded and pursed his lips, "My friends from… the underground are my current adoptive parents, they remember everything, and their names are Isabel and Farlan Church."
"So they were married and adopted you, what about your biological parents?" The brunette asked ignoring how clearly unsure Levi was about sharing the fact that he had lived in the underground.
"They died in a car accident when I was eleven," Levi responded, "and no, Izzy and Farlan's relationship is strictly platonic, they're like brother and sister, they only got married legally after they found me so they would have less trouble adopting me."
"Wow," Eren whispered, "So, um, the underground huh? I mean Petra hinted that you were some kind of thug but the underground is… it hadn't ever crossed my mind."
"Yeah, well I didn't exactly brag about it," Levi mumbled and shifted in his seat. The raven took another sip of his tea, grasping the teacup by the top rim, giving Eren flashbacks of an elder, stonier face doing the same thing in a dim, candlelit room.
"What about you? Where's you fan club?" Levi countered, changing the subject.
The brunette teen's lips curled into a small, melancholic half-smile as he rubbed the back of his neck, "ah, I'm not sure, I haven't found them. Or anyone for that matter, I mean my parents, but they don't remember a thing so I don't think they count."
Levi's eyes widened, then furrowed into an almost angry expression, "No one?"
Eren shook his head and sipped at his warm coffee drink.
"Eren," Levi whispered with his icy blue eyes now tinted with concern, "How did you know you weren't batshit crazy with all those fucking nightmares, or flashbacks, or memories, or whatever you call them?"
"Honestly? I didn't. Not until I met you," the older teen smiled shyly at Levi, "and the nightmares got easier to deal with as I became accustomed to them; at least now I wake up in world where I'm safe and have many blessings. There are no monsters roaming the earth eating people alive or walls to keep humanity living like livestock, so it's easy to remind myself that that was the past, that I'm safe now, that everyone's safe now."
Levi leaned back in his seat and put on a very serious expression, which only looked amusing on the young face, "You're not the Eren I knew, are you? You're too… content, too tranquil. My Eren was an angry little shit."
My Eren. Those words didn't escape Eren's notice and warmth rippled through him with a sense of belonging, "Yeah, well, I do yoga now," he jested, "Namaste."
"Brat," Levi chuckled.
Eren held a content smile on his face as his took the last sip of his cappuccino, the foam getting stuck to his upper lip like a child with a milk-mustache. He set his mug down and made a show of licking the foam of his face with his tongue.
"That's fucking disgusting; didn't your mother teach you any manners?" Levi grimaced, setting down his own finished cup.
"Ah, she tried her hardest, however her efforts were in vain, manners were not and never will be my forte," Eren replied.
"I have to get home before Isabel shits herself worrying over me," Levi said standing up and tossing his backpack over his shoulder, Eren following in suit.
"Alright, where do you live? Ill give you a ride," the brunette held the door open for Levi to walk through on their way out of the store.
"No, its fine, I want to walk, get a better layout of the town," Levi said.
"If you sure," Eren questioned warily.
"I am," was Levi's resolute response.
"Then I'll see you tomorrow Levi," Eren smiled.
Sorry it was a bit short, I don't know when the next chapter will be but I'm halfway through writing it so relatively soon. Thank you for reading! 3
~mollie