A/N: Wrote this using prompts, hence the drabble-like style.
The day that he first met Levi, Eren had been doodling on his notebook, which he should have not been doing because that wasn't exactly his notebook, but Armin's. He borrowed it from the blonde to copy notes, but somewhere between the homey smell of bread and coffee, and the boring task of writing stuff down, Eren started to space out, all the while drawing random things on a blank page of Armin's notebook. Upon realizing this, he promptly snapped out of his trance and blinked a few times, his eyes focusing on a familiar-looking raven-haired man, whom he apparently had been staring at.
Eren dropped his gaze to the borrowed notebook, noting that the way the stranger looked at him wasn't exactly what Eren would call friendly. He cursed under his breath, hating how he just made himself look like an utter creep who randomly stares at people, and cursed himself some more when he ripped out a sheet from Armin's notebook. He hoped his best friend wouldn't notice, but knowing Armin…
He resumed his task of writing notes, scribbling on his own notebook, when he felt someone's stare on him. Looking up, he once again met eyes with the same guy he had been subconsciously having a staring contest with. He blinked once, twice, but the stranger did not look away. He looked behind, on both sides, to check if the raven was actually looking at someone else, only to see empty tables. When he looked back at the stranger, he was still staring at Eren.
Eren almost wanted to stand up and ask what the matter was, but the raven-haired man beat him to that, already standing up and making his way towards the brunet. When he was standing in front of Eren's table, he picked up a table napkin and pressed it to Eren's lips.
Much to Eren's surprise, it stuck there. He realized two things: one, he had cream on his lips and; two, he had seen this guy from somewhere around campus.
"Wipe that silly look off your face, Jaeger. It's creepy."
Before Eren could wonder how on earth this guy knew his name, he first thought about how steely his grey eyes were, and how Eren though that they were rather beautiful.
The first time Levi texted him, Eren had been wide awake, working on some last minute revisions on a paper that was due that very day. Unfortunately for him, it was also for his first class, which was in 3 hours, more or less.
He looked at the screen and would have put the phone down if it had been any other name.
It had been over a week since he had exchanged numbers with Levi, and that was a week after Hanji had introduced them to each other, not knowing that the two men had already 'bumped' into one another beforehand. Eren still didn't know how Levi had already known his name.
He slid his thumb across the screen to unlock it, and was greeted with a rather normal text message, only it had been sent at 5:39 in the morning, when people should still be sleeping if they hadn't been lazy asses and did their work earlier so as not to be working their asses off in the morning before their first class.
Levi: Hey, what's up?
Nothing much. I'm surprised you're already awake. He erased it, thinking he sounded too formal.
Eren: Working on my paper :) it's a pain in the ass :( why up so early?
There, much better.
Levi: Wouldn't be a pain in the ass if you worked on it sooner. Couldn't sleep.
Eren wondered why Levi had trouble sleeping, and if he'd been having this problem lately. Deciding that Levi had already told him and it was pretty much safe to ask, he texted back with a "why can't you sleep? Insomnia?"
He felt the phone vibrate in his hands within a minute, and realized that he had been waiting for Levi to reply without doing anything productive, such as working on his paper.
Levi: No. It happens to everyone, kid. With or without insomnia.
Before Eren could tap on the small space so he could reply, his phone vibrated again, and a new message from Levi popped out.
Levi: I sure as hell hope that you're properly working on that paper. Tell me if I'm bothering you.
They exchanged a few more messages, before Levi finally told Eren to finish his paper because he was going to take a bath. It was weird that Levi was going to take a bath as early as 6, but Eren didn't question him.
He looked out his window, and noticed that it was already dawn, and the sun was starting to show up. Before resuming his work on his laptop, Eren mused about how Levi's texts were so simple and so direct, and how it was so Levi.
The first time Eren had gone to Levi's apartment, it was raining hard. They were already on their way to Levi's when tiny drops of rain landed on Eren's face, which turned into an all-out shower in a matter of minutes. They ran the remaining steps, and got in Levi's apartment just before the first sounds of thunder boomed in the air, immediately followed by a crackle of lightning in the sky. Levi threw him a towel, and Eren patted his hair dry.
"Do you need a shirt or something?"
Eren looked down at his clothes, contemplating the odds of getting sick again because of it. He decided it was wet enough to make him catch a cold if he stayed in it longer, so he gave a sheepish nod. Levi came back with a fresh new t-shirt that looked big enough for Eren.
"Thanks," Eren said, pulling off his wet shirt and handing it to Levi. He patted his body dry with the towel and slid on the new shirt, and then the smell hit him. It was nice scent, Eren decided. A very nice scent.
It was a bit baggy for Eren, but it was surely comfortable. When Levi returned, probably from putting Eren's wet shirt in the laundry, he raised an eyebrow at Eren.
"You like the shirt?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. It's comfy," the brunet replied, worried that he might have been caught sniffing the shirt.
"Comfy, huh? You can have it."
Before Eren could protest, Levi was already asking him if he wanted coffee or tea, to which he responded with coffee. Levi came back with two mugs of hot coffee and placed them down on the table by the sofa, which Eren took as his cue to sit down.
Levi let him put his own desired amount of sugar, and even some milk, and in a few minutes, Eren was sitting contentedly on Levi's couch, happily drinking his coffee.
When Levi reached for his laptop, Eren caught a whiff of Levi's scent. It was strongly similar to the scent Eren's new shirt was sporting.
Eren wondered why Levi would wear this shirt, when it would be too big for him. He also ended up thinking that Levi smelled so good, his scent pairing so well with the rainy day, and that his scent was Eren's new favorite scent.
The first time Levi had held Eren's hand, it was when Eren, oh so brilliant Eren, had gotten a paper cut. It wasn't exactly a romantic encounter between their hands, and was more of a 'Wow, I didn't know people could actually get paper cuts' from Eren and an enthusiastic 'I didn't know people of this degree of stupidity existed, don't get blood on my carpet' from Levi.
The older man had gone away to get his first aid kit, and Eren thought that he shouldn't be surprised that Levi even had one. He channeled his thoughts away to avoid messing up Levi's pristine white carpet with his blood, but he then realized that the cut was rather deep and he had to wash the wound before Levi came back.
When he put the cut finger under the flowing water from the faucet, he almost yelped. The water was cold and the wound hurt more than he thought it would. He heard Levi padding his way to him and felt the shorter man by his shoulder.
"I'm surprised that you actually had enough brain cells to figure out that you needed to clean it with water," Levi remarked, sounding dead serious.
Eren gave him a mock laugh and lightly pushed him away.
"Wait," Levi protested. He took the wounded hand and started turning it around in the water, and dried the hand with the towel draped on his shoulder.
The next part was the painful process of disinfecting the wound and bandaging it. After Levi's show of being an expert at dressing paper cuts, he gave Eren's hand a gentle squeeze.
After a few seconds, Eren realized that he was still holding Levi's hand. He pulled their hands up and rubbed his cheek on the back of the smaller hand.
"Comfy," he exclaimed, a playful smile on his face.
"You're one hell of a disgusting brat," Levi responded. He didn't pull his hand away, and Eren marveled at how his hand was surprisingly soft to the touch.
The last time Eren gave his dorm room a look over, it was almost the end of fall, and winter was knocking on their doors.
"Eren, please finish packing up your porn stash so we can get the hell out of here," Levi called, peeking his head through the door. "Or are you actually jacking off? I'll give you a few moments if I wasn't freezing off my balls here while you took your sweet time."
"Fuck off. I was jinxing the room for the new guy, Jean Kirschtein something," Eren told Levi as he left his room for the last time, closing the door behind him.
"Whatever. Let's get out of here."
Eren was thankful that Levi owned a, to quote the owner himself, "perfect, spotless, and big ass" apartment and that the raven had suggested that Eren could move in with him if the latter wanted to. After almost a year and a half of Eren visiting and sleeping over, Levi thought that they might as well live together in a "very non-cheesy way" and that Eren shouldn't "make a big deal out of it".
They were discussing house rules on their way to the apartment when Eren took hold of Levi's free hand, the one that wasn't holding the steering wheel.
"That's cheesy as fuck, Eren."
"You're not pulling away," Eren pointed out, grinning at Levi.
"As I was saying, before you had the sudden urge to grab my hand and acted upon that urge, no used condoms lying around anywhere," Levi deadpanned the last word.
"That's a silly rule. The only person I'm going to be having sex with in that apartment is you, and I really doubt that you're going to let a condom lie around. That is, if we're going to use one." Eren wiggled his eyebrows suggestively when Levi looked at him.
"Just wanted that to be clear. The last time I roomed with someone… never mind, I don't even want to think about it. And I appreciate your sworn loyalty to me, Eren."
"Anything for you, cupcake," Eren cooed.
"Say that again and I will break this hand I'm holding." Grey eyes flashed dangerously at the brunet and Eren couldn't help but tease him some more.
"Aw, but then Doctor Levi wouldn't let his honey bunch have a broken hand now, would he? You'll just have to fix it after breaking it."
"Soon-to-be doctor Levi will use all his medical training up 'till now so he can break every bone in his soon-to-be crippled sweet pea," Levi answered, a trace of a smile gracing his lips.
"You can break me in a different way, sugar plum."
"You're disgusting, lollipop."
"Oh, I have a nice and big lollipop for you." Eren wanted to wink but Levi wouldn't take his eyes off the road.
Levi shook his head, a real smile showing on his face. "Please remind me again just why the fuck I fell in love with you, out of all the perfectly normal and sane people in the world."
"Wow, you're surprisingly cheesy, my love," Eren teased, but he felt a wide grin spread across his face and a pleasant tug in his stomach after hearing Levi's words.
Levi's laughter rang out, straight to Eren's ears, and Eren decided that it was one of the most beautiful things he has ever heard in a long time.