Title: Falling

Author: ELLE

Pairings/Warnings: Levi/Eren, modern day AU, fluffy fluffy fluff and basically fluff, mild explicit language

Eren hated this awkward time in his life that lead him to living with his parents again at twenty-fucking-two – but nevertheless, here he was, pulling up to the brick-front five-four-and-a-door that his parents had owned since he was in middle school after another failed interview. He cursed himself in the driveway. It was fucking October – what the hell was he doing wrong? Why did no one want to hire him? Did he reek of desperation?

He shrugged out of the uncomfortable suit jacket as soon as he got out of the car, throwing it in the front seat to be reclaimed later when he took it to be dry cleaned. At least he knew there would be his favorite chocolate chip cookies waiting for him inside, courtesy of his mother, just like after every interview.

The aroma hit him as soon as he walked in the front door and while there were times he hated that damn smell because it was beginning to smell like failure, right now he wanted the comfort it provided. Eren went upstairs to change into a big baggy shirt and some sweatpants emblazoned with his alma mater – to his personal chagrin – before he headed back down to pour himself a big glass of milk. Then he took the whole plate over to the bay window in the library where he used to sit for hours as a kid, reading or drawing or just watching the leaves fall.

Honestly as much as he resented living here, it was gorgeous. His parents' property backed up to a pond through a thick grove of trees and as the leaves fell you could make out the sun glittering on the water. Plus autumn was his favorite time of year. He loved everything about it – the weather, the festivities, the way the leaves changed. And this year was a good year for foliage. The leaves were finally starting to fall en masse but they had a great showing and it was nice to sit there and watch the birds hop through his favorite trees the way he had as a kid.

Eren noticed his neighbor – Levi, he'd thought, sure his mom said his name was something old-school like that – raking up the leaves in his backyard. He frowned. Lucky bastard had some kind of work from home job because he was always out doing something on his lunch break. Sometimes he'd bring his laptop out onto his back porch and work or he'd go for a run in these tight spandex shorts... Not that Eren was paying any particular attention. Levi had to be in his thirties after all and he lived alone in a huge house. But Eren was also bored and lonely and sometimes he'd considered fabricating an excuse to go out into his yard and make conversation but he always chickened out at the last minute.

The guy was so damn methodical about everything though that Eren watched in amusement. He had divided the yard up into quadrants and raked all the leaves to the center. It seemed ridiculous to Eren, there were sure to be more leaves soon, but he was happy to munch his cookies and observe the habits of the 30-year-old single suburban male.

And then, just as Eren thought his show was over and the guy was going to get those ubiquitous brown paper bags to bag up the leaves, something unexpected happened. Levi turned and took a running leap right into the leaves. Eren stared in shock as he landed among the perfectly gathered pile, leaves flying out in every direction, completely destroying it.

He hardly noticed as his nose touched the glass, watching in awe as this guy proceeded to roll in them, turning over on his back and pillowing his head in his hands so that his sweater rode up, exposing his abs and the way his jeans lay low on his hips, the waistband of his briefs and that delicious line of hair working up to his navel blatantly displayed for Eren to see, a rare smile on his typically stoic face.

'Oh fuck – he's hot,' Eren thought, his face burning but he couldn't drop his eyes. What was wrong with him? He'd obviously be in suburbia too long, that was for damn sure. Drank the Koolaid and now he was finding his parent's yuppie neighbors sexy. Christ – he had to get a job. And an apartment in the city.

Levi lay there for a good few minutes, just staring up at the sky, but then, before Eren even realized it, he was standing, brushing the leaves off his clothes, and all of a sudden their eyes met.

Eren immediately turned away from the window as his mind screamed a litany of 'oh fucks' at him. His heart pounded and his hands shook as he rushed to take the plate of cookies and the empty glass back to the kitchen. They rattled as they hit the marble countertop and Eren exhaled a weak laugh. What the hell was he getting so bent out of shape for? So what – he'd watched an older guy do something very juvenile and he got caught in the act. Levi had to be embarrassed he was caught. It wasn't like he was going to walk over and give Eren shit about it. And even if he did – so what?

A grin didn't even have time to form on Eren's face before the doorbell was ringing and it was wiped right back off again. He stared at the door down the hallway in horror. His mom was at some book club and his dad wouldn't be home for hours. He was well and truly fucked. No escape. And the guy knew he was in here, he couldn't exactly pretend he wasn't. Could he?

Eren cursed himself. What was he acting like such a pussy for? He was an adult, he could handle this. He wasn't the one jumping in giant piles of leaves like a damn six year old.

The bell rang again and Eren steeled himself for the confrontation. Really – what was the guy going to say? You caught me? Eren would just deny the whole thing.

Levi had given up on the doorbell and taken to knocking by the time Eren swung the door open. Eren's mouth went dry but he did his best not to blush, the cool air and exertion pinking the cheeks of the other man, a look that was incredibly appealing on his pale skin. Up close he could also see his clear grey eyes, which were unusual, enigmatic, and distracted Eren from the glare on his face.

"H-hi?" Eren offered, scratching nervously at the back of his neck.

"You saw me."

Straight and to the point, huh? What was it that he said he would do again?

"I – what?"

'Deny, Eren, deny it all the way,' he told himself, doing his best to look down at the shorter man in confusion.

"Are you going to deny it?" The scowl on Levi's face told Eren he clearly wasn't impressed.

'Why yes, of course I am,' Eren thought bitterly, unsure of why anyone would even want to have this kind of confrontation. Courteous people ignored the awkward things other people did when they saw them – didn't this guy ever learn that?

"I don't know what you're talking about it."

Levi heaved a sigh and crossed his arms over his chest. "You're a shitty voyeur, you know."

"I – I'm not!" Now Eren couldn't help but blush. Sure, maybe he spent a couple minutes thinking the guy was hot, but he wasn't a – a voyeur.

"You watch me every day," Levi accused.

"No!" Eren argued back, not particularly well. Surely it wasn't every day. Was it? He was just bored, really bored and lonely and maybe a little depressed but –

"Yes, you do. I've watched you watching me." Levi didn't look very happy but then –

"Isn't that just as bad?" Eren allowed himself a momentary swelling of pride at putting the other guy on the defensive – but it didn't last long.

Levi glanced down at his sweatpants with the name of his university running up the side and then cocked a brow as his eyes returned to Eren's face.

"Don't you have anything better to do than watch me, you overgrown baby?"

"Excuse me?" Eren was shocked at the rude accusation, eyes going wide, wondering if he could just punch the guy or something and get this awkward conversation over with. He was already pretty damn sure he was going to be TP'ing this guy's house for Halloween.

"You moved back in here with mommy and daddy at what, twenty-one?"

"Twenty-two and you're one to talk," Eren shot back. "You just rolled around in a pile of leaves!"

It was like everything was in slow motion then. He'd tried to catch himself on the last few words but they fell out of his mouth before his brain could stop them. Then his mouth just hung open in shock for a moment before he clanked his teeth together so hard they hurt. What a fucking moron.

"So you did see me?"

"I – I," Eren floundered hopelessly, unable to just admit that yes, he had seen him, he had seen him and he had laughed about it.

"When was the last time you jumped in a pile of leaves?"

Eren was perfectly poised to stutter through some non-reply when he blinked and replayed what Levi had just said back through his mind. Instead, he came out with the particularly articulate –

"Huh?"

Levi's frown only deepened, clearly not wanting to repeat himself – for obvious reasons.

"I – I don't know, like, probably when I was six?"

Levi sighed. "Come on."

He started heading off the porch but Eren just stared after him in confusion, cemented in place. Levi turned though and looked back at him from the top step, expectation written across his face. Eren stared down at his tacky outfit with uncertainty but moved to slip on his dad's house-shoes that were sitting by the front door and followed Levi over to his backyard anyway.

Eren stood there feeling pretty weird as Levi quickly raked up the leaves that had been displaced and built the pile up a little. Then he stood to the side and held out his hand in the direction of the leaves, a clear invitation for Eren to jump.

"I dunno man..."

"Do it."

Eren heaved a sigh and made to jump, seeing no way out of this that was easier than just sucking it up and looking like an idiot – but then Levi spoke again.

"And don't half-ass it either," he said, the bored look on his face making this whole thing even more uncomfortable. "Roll around. Act stupid."

Eren rolled his eyes and stared at the pile of leaves with rapidly amplifying hatred. He never should've come out here.

Nevertheless, Eren took a deep breath and launched himself into the pile of leaves. He felt ridiculous as leaves scattered around him, even more ridiculous as he rolled from side to side. But the scent of them intoxicated him, the very smell of October itself, and the sound of them crunching was reminiscent of every time he jumped on them walking down the sidewalk and the feel of them prickling against his skin and through his clothes almost tickled and when he looked up all he could see was the bright blue sky and he realized, all of a sudden, that he was laughing.

The fact that he was laughing made him laugh harder and it wasn't until he was breathing heavily and wiping at his eyes that he realized how much he'd need to laugh like that. It was dumb but –

"Understand?" Levi asked.

Eren turned his head to look at him. Levi had joined him on the ground, laying next to him as he'd laughed, watching him but Eren strangely didn't feel self-conscious about it. There was a look on Levi's face... Like contentment. Amusement. He wasn't outright smiling but it was there, just under the surface of his stoic countenance, a little hint of a curve on his lips.

And Eren felt drawn to him like a magnet in that moment, like his attraction was physically pulling him into Levi, like it was a force larger than himself, a drive he was helpless to obey, and he moved his head in a little closer, really staring into his eyes. He didn't know this guy at all and yet –

"Yeah," Eren sighed, his lips parted just slightly, wanting, hoping, suddenly needing...

And Levi moved his head in closer too, so close their noses were almost touching. His eyes were so intensely focused on him Eren felt like he couldn't breathe under the scrutiny and his heart pounded in his frantically constricting chest so loud he was sure Levi could hear it. But Levi didn't back away and Eren's eyelids dropped as he moved in instead, trembling lips opening just a little more in anticipation and then –

"What the fuck are you doing?"

Leaves were being dumped over his head and Levi was standing and he was left feeling stupid, mouth agape, sputtering as he sat up and tried to pull the leaves from his hair and his mouth. Eren's face was on fire as the absolute horror of what he'd done, what he'd foolishly thought was going to happen, hit him full force.

"Can't lay around all day," Levi was saying, grabbing for the rake as Eren stood, hurrying to dislodge all the leaves that still clung to him and get the hell out of there with whatever scraps of his pride he could gather up.

"I'm sorry, I'll just –" Eren didn't even know why he was trying to say anything, the uncomfortable lump in his throat combined with such an obvious complete lack of any and all mental faculties making it too difficult.

"But maybe, if you want to give this shitty momma's boy crap a break," Levi said, leaning on the rake a minute and looking up but not really at him, more like over his shoulder, his ears slightly pink and for some reason Eren didn't exactly think it was from the cold, "you could come over for dinner sometime."

"I –" Eren bit his lip on an unstoppable grin and looked down at the ground so Levi wouldn't see – though he was sure it didn't matter. "Uh yeah. Sure. Tonight?"

Eren looked up as Levi turned his back to him to reform the pile of leaves for the third time.

"Dinner's at seven."

Levi didn't even look over his shoulder but Eren didn't care. Warmth spread through his chest, filling him with a giddy light-headed sensation as he walked away, smiling to himself as he glanced back at his neighbor's well formed ass as he bent over to gather the last few leaves.

And as Eren walked home to get ready for tonight, he found himself intentionally crunching the leaves in his yard under his feet, grinning with every one.