Hi there! This is my very first fanfiction, so any comments/concerns or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

The small quote (which will be different each chapter) is NOT mine, I simply found it on the web and all credit goes to the original writer of the quote.

Summary: Modern AU. Eren is a college student, studying music. Levi owns a coffee shop that doubles as a bookstore.

This is slow building relationship, I intend to complete this, not sure how long it will be but I don't want to leave anyone hanging.

Third person but will switch between Levi and Eren, mostly. But a few chapters will be about other pairings

Note: I do not own Attack on Titan or any of the characters belonging thusly.

Not all storms come to disrupt your life,

Some come to clear your path.

Eren

Eren bolted up, his alarm had been going off for some time now but he just kept pushing snooze. But when 10:20 in neon orange started to burn his eyes, he panicked. Shit. Shit. Shit.

"Fucking shit!" When he jumped out of bed, he tripped on some textbooks then proceeded to step on a game controller, he will admit it, his room was a mess. He took the shortest shower of his life and brushed his teeth just as quick, but then proceeded to eat a half piece of pizza that could not have been fresh.

Oh well, a man has got to eat.

He grabbed one of his cleaner shirts from the pile on his floor, gave it a quick sniff before deciding it was going to have to work. He thought that since he scheduled this class later, he would be able to be there on time, but of course, Eren was a dumbass.

I am going to be so late. Mikasa is going to yell at me then kill me and if she doesn't Armin will swiftly finish me off.

He threw his textbooks into his backpack, grabbed his dorm keys, ran out the door and locked it. It wasn't until he was halfway down the hall that he realized he wasn't wearing any shoes.

For fuck's sake.

By the time he got his shoes and left the dorm building, his phone said 10:29. Probably a personal best for getting ready but still – he was dead. He ran across the quad that laid in the middle of the University of Shiganshina, towards the English building. The early winter air burnt his lungs as he ran, of course he forgot his jacket in his dorm, but it was too late now. He could see his adoptive sister and best friend impatiently waiting for him when he arrived.

Great I'm going to be late and I am dragging them down with me, I will never hear the end of this. "Wh-what's up g-guys?" Eren gasped trying to catch his breath, he may be a regular at the gym but that did not mean he should be running at break neck speed across such a huge university. "Sorry, slept in." He managed to choke out without gasping this time.

"Eren, how many times have we told you to get your act together?" Mikasa's eyes narrowed, her usually emotionless, grey eyes held a mix of anger and amusement. "I mean seriously, this is our first semester here and-".

She was cut off by Armin as he dragged them through the large glass doors, "English lecture now, Mikasa lecture later". They ran up two flights of stairs and burst through the heavy wooden door into their lecture hall. The door hit the wall with a loud thud, cutting off the professor mid-sentence. Icy blue eyes narrowed on the three freshmen, and for probably the hundredth time today, Eren thought shit.

"Thank you for joining us, Jeager. Ackerman. Arlert". His eyes meeting each of theirs' in turn. All eyes in the room turned towards the, now very red, students.

"I'm sorry professor Smith, we-"

"Just sit down".

"Yes, sir". The three of them said in unison as they took the three seats at the back. Nope, I was wrong, Mikasa won't kill me. But Armin will. It was a well-known fact in their friend group that Armin had a huge thing for Erwin Smith, the head of the English department and their current teacher. Armin would constantly stay after class to ask questions of the older man, he insisted it was simply to help him understand the things he was confused on. However, it was another well-known fact that Armin was a genius. Another thing that didn't help his case was that his friend couldn't stop talking about the blonde, and when he did, he turned bright red.

Well, maybe he wasn't that mad… But from the glare he felt Armin was giving him, Eren knew he would not soon be forgiven for this.

"Look what you did now, Eren! Armin and Smith are having a lovers spat". Mikasa whispered to him, Eren could hear the smile in her voice.

Eren chuckled and put a hand to his heart and in his most sincere voice, "Alas, I am ever so sorry, perhaps Armin should ask him to give him a good pound-"

"Oh shut it, you two! You know very well we aren't toge-"

"I do apologize, it looks like my lecture interrupted your conversation, shall I continue? Or would you like to?" Mr. Smith said calmly, those icy blue eyes piercing into their very souls. A few snickers echoed through the room, but one in particular made Eren's blood boil. Horseface. Jean Kirstein was holding his mouth to stifle his laughs, his face turning red with the effort. Fucking Horseface is going to get it later. He didn't hate Jean but there was a dislike there. They had known each other since elementary school, actually all their friends had. The fact that they all chose to go to the same university showed how close they really were.

Armin sunk further into his seat, dread written all over his face, enough so that Mikasa and Eren shared a knowing look and decided to drop it there, continuing the class in peace.

An hour later, the class ended and everyone started to pool out, all except Armin. Who was walking towards Mr. Smith's desk, as he did at the end of every class. Eren and Mikasa waited by the doors to the empty class, both of them laughing at their obviously blushing friend. Mikasa started scolding Eren but he was drowning it out, opting to watch his friend.

Armin was profusely apologizing to Erwin, over and over, the older man only laughed, causing his best friend to stare in awe, his not-so-subtle blush turning him into a tomato. He has got it bad. He quickly found himself and went to asking a few questions regarding the book they were currently going over. Eren huffed out a laugh. Armin had already read that book six times and could probably recite most of it from heart.

He felt a sharp pain on the back of his head, "Ow! What the fu-"

"I dare you to finish that sentence", Mikasa snapped. Rubbing his head, Eren gave a small "sorry", earning a glare from his sister. "Eren, I just want you to succeed at this, I know you struggled in high school but now you can study music like you wanted, but I need you to get through the mandatory classes too. So, please try and get to class on time, if not for yourself but for Armin and I".

"I know, I'm sorry, okay? I really didn't mean to sleep in," another glare, "but I will do better next time". Eren finished, he knew his sister was only looking out for him and he didn't want to disappoint her or Armin.

Mikasa gave a small smile, "Okay, I don't mean to nag but you know me, I worry sometimes". Sometimes? How 'bout all the time? But Eren bit his lip to stop himself from saying anything, his head had already been smacked enough today. Just then, Jean joined them by the door, a small smirk still on his face.

"Jaeger".

"Kirstein". Eren dove in and grabbed him in a headlock, "Don't say shit about what happened". A string of curses left Jean's mouth but smile spread on his face, "You are a bastard, Jaeger". "I know, but you love me". Eren laughed, letting go of his friend. Mikasa gave a small laugh at the boys' antics, just as Armin joined them.

"All good?" A nod from his friend sent them on their way to meet for lunch with the others.

….

The cafeteria was booming with rushing students and panicking students Oh right, exams are right around the corner, damn it and their friend group. Yes, there were so many of them that they were one of the reasons the massive common area was extra loud. They sat down at the three tables pushed together, greeted by a chorus of hellos.

"Hey, cuties!" Krista, the petit blonde yelled out. She was currently sitting on her girlfriend's, Ymir's, lap.

"Oh, did someone talk to Erwin today? Look how red you are, Armin". Ymir added with a smirk. Krista playfully slapped her arm, but that just caused Ymir to pinch Krista's butt, the latter gave a small squeak.

They all laughed when Armin turned a deeper red, "No-no that's not it! It's freaking cold outside, that's all! Honest!" His desperate excuses made the group laugh harder.

"Oh, don't tease him, we all know he has Erwin wrapped around his little finger at this point anyways", Marco chimed in, the freckled boy gave Armin's shoulder a small squeeze. He did have a point, as much as Eren knew Erwin wanted to be angry at the three of them for being late, the man just couldn't stay mad at Armin. "Hang in there, bud. He might fuck you soon". Marco finished, his sudden use of such brash language caused the group to go silent before they started to howl with laughter.

"Oh, fuck you, Marco!" Eren's best friend somehow went a darker shade of red, how is that even possible? Jean sat down next to Marco, giving him a small smile as he did his cheeks going slightly red. Another well-known fact within the friend group: Jean was smitten with the brown-haired boy and Marco had no idea.

After everyone had calmed down from their laughing fit (which turned many heads and actually caused a few students to get up and leave), Reiner, Bertholt, and Annie joined them. Mikasa lifted her bag from the chair she saved for the blonde girl. Eren chuckled, Mikasa insisted there was nothing there but you had to be dumb, blind and deaf to ever believe that bullshit.

His sister rarely showed any emotion but when the icy, blue eyed girl was around there was such tenderness there. Little did the love birds know that there was a bet on when they would tell the rest of the group. Eren thought it would be over Christmas break. The winner got free drinks from everyone for an entire night out. And Eren intended to be the winner.

"Hey, where's Connie and Sasha?" Eren piped in once he realized that the baldy and the food whore weren't there.

"Do you even have to ask?" Reiner jutted a thumb towards the food line, and lo-and-behold there was Connie holding three trays of food, while his girlfriend continued to load up more food. "How the fuck does she eat so much, she's a goddamned twig too!"

"I know, right? That bitch" Krista said with a laugh, as Annie, Mikasa and Ymir all said, "Unfair".

They all laughed as their last two friends joined them, plopping their mountain of food onto the table. Poor Connie was looking at his wallet with what looked like tears in his eyes. Sasha also had tears in her eyes, but for an entirely different reason, "So beautiful!" She gushed as she grabbed a potato and stuffed it in her mouth.

Connie quickly recovered and propped his head on his hand staring at her, "Yeah, beautiful…" He signed, a couple of them made gaging noises. Earning them a confused look from Sasha. Those two were too cute sometimes and it made them sick, they hooked up when they were all in their sophomore year of high school and they never looked back, three years later and they were somehow even more in love.

Eren smiled to himself, his friends and himself had all been together since elementary school and when they all got accepted into the University of Shiganshina (better known as U of S) they had celebrated. Their first term was almost over but over Christmas break all twelve of them would be moving into a giant house they all bought together that was only a few blocks from the school. The place was cheap because of how old it was a needed lots of work, so while that was going on some of them to live in the dorms since September; Eren, Mikasa, Armin and Marco.

He glanced at his watch, "Damn. Jean, Armin. We gotta go, class starts in 10". He grabbed his bag watching as Armin stuffed the rest of his sandwich down his throat and Jean said something to Marco before he got up to leave. "We still going out tonight?" He asked and everyone answered at once, "Fuck yeah!" "Cool, see you guys later!" Then the three of them left their loud friends to head to one of their better classes: science.

….

The day passed fairly quickly, especially since Science ended early because Professor Hanji blew up the lab…again. Hanji was a weirdo but Eren liked their enthusiasm, even if it was over the top sometimes. Then History, but Eren didn't mind, it was his favourite class besides his music courses.

He didn't have any Music classes until tomorrow so he decided to head back to his dorm and grab his sheet music so he could go practice. Thankfully, he remembered to actually grab a jacket this time because the wind picked up and his jeans were doing nothing for him.

The brisk air caused his face to go numb and his breath came as short puffs. The final leaves were falling from the trees, causing Eren to smile. He loved the summertime but this time of year always made him happy because of the brightly coloured leaves.

As Eren walked he did not notice the small man walking towards him; his nose was already buried too deep into his sheet music, thinking about how it would sound when he played.

Reversely, the dark-haired man was too consumed in his book, which was shit by the way, why is the protagonist so fucking dumb, to see the tall brown-haired boy walking straight towards him.

They crashed into one another, Eren cried out as his sheet music went flying and somehow it was the taller of the two who ended up with their ass on the cold ground.

"Oi, brat!" The man growled, Eren's head snapped up, his hand still on his sheet music and his vision was overfilled with the man's eyes.

They rippled like molten silver and waterfalls.

But at some angles they appeared to be the slightly tinted blue.

They reminded Eren of something, but what was it? Oh, right…

Storm Clouds.