Strip club:
Dad had been drinking again, and by the look on my sisters face it was quite evident that he didn't plan on going straight to sleep this time. Mikasa and I were perched tensely on the sofa, and I could tell even she was on edge. Mikasa had put on a movie I could care less about, with the volume cranked up as high as it could go, trying to drown out the noise our good-for-nothing father was making by stumbling around in the kitchen, probably looking for more beer. The tv had managed to distract us from whatever was happening in the next room, until a loud crash managed to break the sound barrier of our crappy television set. I looked to Mikasa who was sitting close to me on my right, and she looked hesitant, but I knew she was going to try and make the situation less dangerous for us.
"We don't have any more booze, dad!" She called to the kitchen after putting the movie on pause. Mikasa always seemed to be reasonable when it came to talking to him. Almost too reasonable.
"Shut up, bitch!" Our dad slurred back. I winced at the words that Mikasa was way to used to, and I despised knowing they didn't faze her anymore. I hated how she heard him call her that on a regular basis, and there had been countless occasions where I almost swung for him, but just like the sister she was, Mikasa always managed to stop me before I fucked things up for us.
"Mikasa," My voice, I'd just realised, was shaking with rage and I talked through my teeth "You should go upstairs." My sister rolled her eyes, almost like this was a rehearsed play she had seen a hundred times and already new the ending to. My sister knew me too well to know I would try and get him out of the apartment. Although Mikasa treated me like a precious egg that needed to be incubated until hatched, I had the same protectiveness over her. Maybe that was the main reason we both decided it would be worth staying here until she was in university, and I was... Well, I hadn't made that decision yet.
"Don't be an idiot, Eren. Violence won't solve anything, and in this case it will just make things worse." She rested her hand on mine to calm me down.
"Yeah, I know." I said, remembering we had a damn good reason to put up with this crap. I guess I still had a tempered expression, because Mikasa squeezed my hand gently. I had always been hot headed for as long as I can remember, and even though Mikasa was a Black-Belt-Badass, she still always kept the same cool expression which only wavered when something bad happened. I couldn't say the same for myself. "Don't worry, I won't screw up your chances at that scholarship." When I said that, I didn't mean for it to sound like jealousy, or like I was guilting her into believing that I thought her education was the only reason we stayed here, because It wasn't, I just really did want her to succeed in life. Mikasa stood up and sighed, brushing the cookie crumbs off of her jeans from the snacks we'd eaten before dad got home. We hadn't moved from that spot on the sofa since he came tumbling through the front door of our apartment.
"It's Sunday tomorrow, and it looks like dad won't be able to make it to his AA meeting." Almost as if on cue, we heard another smash. Dad wouldn't be able to sober up enough to go anywhere, let alone drive.
"What are we going to tell his probation officer..." I wondered aloud, looking down at my bitten fingernails.
"Don't worry, I'll figure something out, okay?" Mikasa, although only being a few months older than me, managed to keep our family under control better than dad ever did. She sort of took on the role of a parent since our mom died two years ago, and our dad went down the route of alcoholism. I guess that's why I'm dreading the day she goes off to college and I'm still stuck here, getting sucky grades and dealing with that piece of shit. I'm also happy for her, though.
That night, I fell asleep quickly, and woke up the same way. I remember having a dirty dream and being turned on by it, but not what it was about. I always found it hard to take care of things when I managed to get one up; nothing excited me specifically. I looked down to were my dick was poking up at my blanket, and touched the tip over the fabric of my covers. Something must have really turned me on in my dream to get me like this. Just as I was about to touch myself, I heard a knock on my door. Shit, Mikasa.
"Eren!" Her tone was impatient, but also cheerful.
"H-hang on!" It's not that I was embarrassed about this kind of stuff, considering we were pretty close and could normally talk about anything, but I just didn't want to have to deal with her laughing at me this early in the morning.
"I'm coming in." She shouted, and I hastily grabbed my pillow and stuffed it on top of my crotch as casually as I could. Mikasa entered my room and her eyes darted straight to the area I had concealed.
"That's not making anything less obvious y'know, Eren." She said in a non-chalant Manor. Although being asexual, Mikasa seemed pretty comfortable with talking about stuff like that.
"Yeah, shut up. What do you want?" I moaned, showing annoyance in my tone.
"You need to get dressed."
"Why, it's Sunday!" I looked to my alarm clock, which displayed that it was half past ten in the morning. Still too early for a Sunday.
"I called dad's probation officer, and he said if he's going to miss his AA meeting then one of us has to go in his place and take notes." I sighed, realising that that was a good enough reason to wake me up. If dad got in trouble with the law, or defied his court orders then he could go to prison, and we'd be in care. It's a good job his probation officer is a cool guy and cuts him a lot of slack.
"So I'm going?" I asked. Mikasa leaned on my door frame and tried to suppress a smile.
"Yeah, if that's okay. I have a date." My eyes snapped up to hers, but she glared at me, probably because I looked too surprised.
"What's his name?" I leaned back on my arms, showing I was interested.
"It's actually a girl." When she said those words I almost choked on my saliva.
"You didn't tell me you liked girls!" Damn, now Armin won't have an excuse to talk to boys he'd think are cute when he'd try and set Mikasa up with them.
"I don't like girls specifically; people are people." I furrowed my brows, sort of understanding what she meant by that. Armin had come out to me just last month, and it was safe to say I kind of guessed it anyway. It was funny watching him drool over male teachers when they bent down to help a student with their work, but I never asked Armin about it, wanting him to tell me when he felt he was ready.
"Oh, well what's her name?"
"Sasha. You don't have a problem with it?" I chuckled and sat up straight.
"Why would I?" Mikasa smiled lovingly and began to make her way over to hug me, but stopped halfway.
"Uh, you might want to take a cold shower first." She said, pointing down at my lap pillow.
"Shit, yeah." We both laughed, and Mikasa left my room after patting me on the head. I spent the time I needed taking a shower and getting dressed, but not being able to take care of my erection properly, I was still incredibly frustrated. In fact, I've been sexually frustrated since I hit puberty.
Mikasa had already left for her date in the car, so I would have to take a cab to Alcoholics Anonymous.
"Were are you going." Just as I was about to leave the apartment, I heard my dad walking stumbling up behind me.
"To your meeting." I turned around to see my dad still wearing last nights clothes. His glasses were placed messily on his face and his long hair was tangled in knots.
"Did you call Tony?" He said whilst throwing himself on to the sofa like a Snorlax.
"Mikasa did, he said one of us would have to go in your place and take notes if you couldn't make it."
"Okay, good." I waited at the door for him to say anything else, like an apology or an 'I love you', but he didn't talk again and I instead heard him start to snore, backing up my perfect simile even more. Dad was always much kinder when he was sober, but those precious moments only lasted for as long as he could keep his hands off a bottle. I mentally kicked myself whenever I expected something loving from him.
When I got to the AA meeting, I felt so out of place. I was obviously the youngest there, and I kept getting funny looks along with people asking 'How can you become an alcoholic at 17'. I decided to just go along with their idea that I was here for myself, instead of having to bother explaining my current situation. When we all sat in chairs In a circle, I was able to look at everyone. You had your typical alcoholics that looked like my dad; scruffy and hopeless. Then you had the other extreme type which were people who probably had a lot of money and just couldn't control themselves when it came to drinking. I guess I stood out, what with dressing like an average high school boy. My notepad and paper were sat on my lap, ready to be scrawled on with my unreadable handwriting.
"Now everyone, why don't we have today's new comers introduce themselves!" I gulped, realising that that would include me. I wondered who else was new, until a man who was dressed all in black and looked just as disgusted to be here as me, caught my eye. "Come one we haven't got all day you two." The group leader chimed and gestured to both of us, talking like a pre-school teacher would to little kids. I didn't want to have to speak first, so I stayed silent, but so did the other guy. In fact, he shot me arrows with his eyes as to say 'If you don't speak first, you're dead.'.
"Okay, you first then Levi" The group leader said, pointing at the lion who looked at me like meat. I saw him mouth a curse as he sat up from his slouch. It was then that I realised how short he was, but it didn't make him look any less cool. Levi folded one leg over the other elegantly, which I found to be quite impressive considering the tightness of his jeans, and how they hugged his thighs perfectly. My stomach started to get warm, and I realised I was checking this dude out. What the fuck.
"I'm Levi."
"Hey Levi." Everyone said in unison, except me. Levi looked at me again and frowned at the fact I didn't greet him as well.
"What else do you want to tell us?" The group leader said in a condescending tone, trying to intimidate Levi. The short man sighed, but then smiled with his mouth, and only his mouth.
"That I have a 6 inch dick and I'm open to anal." I almost gagged, but then I realised he must have picked up on the group leaders controlling manner and wanted to piss him off. The rest of the AA participants either made a disgusted expression, or seemed way to interested in what he just said. I think I'm the only one who took it as a joke whether or not it was one.
"Right, um, thank you for sharing Levi..." The GL seemed to have been taken down a peg, even more so after Levi winked at him.
"Eren!" I was startled when he said my name loudly.
"Yeah?"
"Introduce yourself to the group." I ran my fingers through my brown hair, obviously making myself look nervous.
"Hi, I'm Eren..." The group seemed uninterested and only responded with the same generic reply, all except Levi. So he was the spiteful type.
"Go on, tell us why you're here."
"Oh, im not here for my-"
"Hurry the fuck up!" A rowdy woman shouted at me from across the circle. She looked desperate for a fix of something, and I new what that looked like, unfortunately.
"Sorry... I'm just here in place of someone else." I finally said. I noticed how self conscious I was suddenly being as Levi was still looking at me with his hooded eyes. I watched him as he swapped legs and put his left over his right. The rest of the meeting went on smoothly, and I wrote down parts of people's sob stories and problems. It all seemed pretty petty to me, I didn't like telling people my problems because I always felt like I was just being a whiney little fuck. The GL announced that we had to pair up for the next part of the meeting, and I felt even worse than I did at school when I was in a lesson without Armin or Mikasa. I guess I'm sort of an unlikable guy. I watched as everyone paired off, and I stayed sat in my seat. What's funny is Levi did the same.
"Hey." I called across to him.
"What." He had quite a soothing voice which would probably make him more appealing if It weren't for his stoic demeanour.
"I'll be your partner if you want?"
"Do I have a choice, kid?" He let out a throaty chuckle and it made me feel less tense. The GL had said all we had to do was talk to eachother about our problems, but that wasn't something I could be bothered to do. Levi got up and walked over to the drinks stand.
"Hot chocolate." He confirmed to himself as he grabbed one of the cups and began to sip. I made my way over, deciding that if I didn't want to seem like a wimpy kid, I would have to give any sass I received, right back.
"You should have a drink. It's not to my personal standards, but it's decent." The drinks in front of me, although being served to a bunch of low lives, looked amazing. I suppose whoever made them wanted to satisfy the need for any other type of beverage with chocolate delight.
"What's your personal standard for hot chocolate?" I challenged, making it obvious that I thought he was probably a stuck up bastard. Levi still kept an expression I could only explain as completely neutral and said,
"Hot chocolate that tastes like it came from gods ass, that's what." I didn't hide the discomfort on my face, and I swear I saw him smirk.
"I can't imagine that tasting too great."
"You'd be surprised." Levi and I were in a comfortable silence, until I realised how thirsty I actually was. I reached for a cup of hot chocolate, brought it up to my mouth and took a sip. That was the first mistake of the day. My tongue stung sharply from the burn, and I let the cup fall and the scolding drink splash over my pants.
"Ouch, ouch!" Levi looked up from the drink he was nursing, and gave me an uninterested look.
"Looks like you picked up one of the freshly made ones." He stated whilst I began fanning at my crotch. Levi still stood around two feet away with one arm tucked under the other as he drank
"Fuck, these were my favourite jeans!" I whined, mourning over the loss of my favourite of the few clothes I owned. Levi made a disgusted noise.
"That fashion monstrosity is your favourite piece of clothing?" He was still only glancing at me through his black, undercut hair.
"Yeah, well we can't all be wealthy pompous assholes!" I scoffed.
"Who said I'm rich?" Levi retorted. I felt the redness fade from my cheeks as the heat from my drink cooled down, until there was only an awkward looking wet patch left.
"Your branded clothes. Who even wears all black anyway."
"I do." Is all he said. My tone made it sound like I didn't think what he was wearing looked good. It was the opposite, and I couldn't keep my eyes off of him.
"Stop staring at me, kid.". I felt my throat catch when he caught my eyes lingering on his face.
"Ha, I'm not staring." I said, like it was the most absurd accusation anyone could ever make. I decided to steer the conversation somewhere else.
"So, why are you here?" I said that sounding a lot more nervous than I intended, and I could only hope he didn't find amusement in that. I was wrong.
"Im here for research, kid." Levi breathed with a slight curl of his mouth.
"Research for what?" Any traces of a smile disappeared from his face, replaced by a scowl.
"Jesus fuck, what is this, twenty questions?" Neither of us said anything after that, and I figured I should just lean against the wall and wait for this meeting to be over. Surely enough, after 10 awkward minutes of trying to glance at Levi's ass without him noticing, it was time to leave.
It was around lunch when I walked out of the AA building and into the car park. After a quick glance around all the cars, I remembered that I came here in a cab and needed to get home in one as well.
"You look like you've pissed yourself." A familiar low voice approached behind me, and my stomach twisted up when I noticed that how he spoke was attractive as well. I pulled at the strings of my hoodie until he walked in front of me. "You ignoring me, brat?"
"No! I-it's just there's not exactly any way I can speed dry myself right now is there!" I snapped, a little embarrassed. I was eager to get away from the man who managed to set a spark in me, and I shoved my hand in my jeans pocket only to pull out a crumpled mush of dollars that looked to have been bathed in hot chocolate. "Shit!" I cursed to myself, knowing that money was my only way of getting home.
"What are your panties in a twist for?" I was suddenly aware of Levi's gaze as he stood in front of me with his hand on one hip.
"Nothing!" I tried to avoid his eyes as my cheeks flushed crimson.
"Well then you little shit, why are you just standing around and not scurrying off home to your mom?"
"Dad." I corrected, looking him in the eyes. I know he couldn't possibly have any idea that my mom died, but anyone mentioning her in a negative way almost always set me off. With this guy I was holding back, mainly because he intimidated the shit out of me.
"Oh, that soggy crumpled mess in your pocket wasn't your bus fair was it?" I snarled at his smile.
"Something like that." It would suck having to walk such a far distance to get home, especially since I was so tired from Mikasa and I being kept up late because of our drunken father.
"You can ride with me, kid." His tone was so husky and low when he said that, I almost creamed my pants then and there. This was a confusing day for me. I decide to play it out and see if he was serious.
"I'm not supposed to get in cars with strangers."
"What are you, 12?" He chuckled.
"17!" I defended.
"Tch, same thing" my throat made a growling noise, and he could tell he was getting under my skin. For some reason it seemed like he was loving it.
"How are you legally allowed to drive anyway, being that small." I smirked, thinking I had just made the ultimate comeback, but Levi didn't seem at all offended.
"Oh, I make up for my height in other ways." There I went again, feeling lust for someone I had just met. On top of that it was a man. "Are you getting in with me, or are you walking home in the rain? Because to be honest I couldn't care either way." I glanced up to see clouds forming above us which suggested that if I walked home, I wouldn't have to worry about anyone thinking my pants were wet from wetting myself. When I looked back down, Levi was already walking towards a sleek black car.
"How do I know you're not going to kill me?" I jokingly suggested as I walked over.
"Because murder is a messy job, kid. I don't like getting dirty," The serious answer left me a little more than uneasy, but I chose to let him take me home. Levi left me to climb in the car by myself and waited until I was In the passenger seat until he continued, "not in that way, anyway."
It must have been because I was half asleep, but I forgot to tell Levi where it was that I lived. None the less, he had pulled up right outside my apartment building.
"How do you you know where I live?" I mumbled whilst rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Levi made an annoyed sigh as he took his keys out of the ignition.
"I saw you leave from here this morning." He said, swinging his short legs to the side as he stepped out into the rain. I followed suit with an angry look on my face.
"You're stalking me?" I half shouted. Levi was making his way through the lobby doors.
"I was going to ask you the same thing when I saw you show up at that AA meeting!" He replied. I followed as he walked to the elevator. His leather jacket was dripping with rain, and his longer hair had been pushed back and secured by wetness. I ran and jammed my hand in between the elevator doors before it could close.
"You're eager to be near me aren't you." Levi smirked. My cheeks turned a light pink colour as I detected a hint of amusement In his voice.
"I live 23 floors up so I'm not taking the stairs." I said in a matter-of-fact manner. There was one horrible week sometime last year when the elevator broke down, and the only way I could get to and from school was to sprint up 23 flights of stairs. I was pretty toned after all of those harsh workouts, and my body managed to keep the sleek abdomen muscles I had gained. I looked to Levi, who was standing silently beside me with one hand on his hip. With his hair out of the way, I could now see how pretty he was.
"Quite ogling me brat, I know I'm irresistible but it's starting to creep me out." As quickly as I could, I snapped my attention away from his face
"Your eye make-up is smudged." I stated, trying to excuse my wandering eyes. The shorter man groaned, turning to look in the mirror behind me. When he saw the black streaks running down his face, he took out a cloth from his left pocket and began to wipe. "Are you visiting someone here?" I asked non-chalant ly. Levi turned back around to face the elevator door, and I saw that even when his black eyeliner was gone, his eyes still had an incredible depth.
"Do I look like a prostitute, kid?" I was about to apologise and say that he didn't, but I wasn't sure if that was the truth. Instead I decided to give him some trouble an rattle his chains.
"To be honest, yes you do." I didn't realise I had mimicked his tone until he shot me daggers with his eyes. Levi tutted, leaning his arms back to grab the railing.
"You aren't far off from the truth there, I'll admit." I opened my mouth to ask him what he meant by that, when the elevator chimed, signalling we were at my floor. "This is you, right?" I almost didn't want to get off. I almost wanted to stay in this small space with him and talk for longer, but I knew that would be weird. Levi probably wasn't even gay. Wait, am I even gay?
"Right, yeah," I smiled nervously at Levi and just about walked out of the elevator without stumbling. "Thanks for the ride!" The smaller man leaned back further, making his hips shift forward as he did so. He could tell it made me flustered.
"Next time you ride with me we won't be in a vehicle." And that was it. The elevator doors closed and I was left standing In the hallway like a like a drooling mess.
When I made it into my apartment, neither dad or Mikasa were home. I figured I should sleep until I woke up, and then get something to eat. My mind drifted off as I lay in my bed clutching the pillow like a person. The last thing I thought about until I fell into a deep slumber was that rude-ass gnome, who somehow had an effect on me. I wouldn't think about it until I woke up, though.
