"They were taking bets on you? That bad?"

Eren stared at Armin from across the cheap food-court table, a mixture of awe and horror painted on his friend's face. Mikasa was sitting between the two, eyes blank but lips pulled downward in a frown. Eren nodded.

"When Rivaille found out, he made everyone involved write a 1000 word essay. I guess it's a common problem, but..."

"That still seems harsh." pity was reflected in the blond's eyes. Eren shrugged, picking up his Icee.

"I didn't get punished, so I guess it doesn't really matter to me."

Mikasa's eyes narrowed. "It's not too late for you to quit and come to college. I'm sure we could figure something out-"

"Thanks, but no." Eren cut her off, setting the cup back down on the table. She still looked defiant, so he continued, "You know I'm not cut out for college, Mikasa. We've been over this. Besides, it's not all that bad at the office."

She let out a defeated sigh, looking down at the table. ".. If you really think so."

"How long have you been there again?" Armin spoke up again, and Eren paused to think. A month? No, it had to be longer than a month...

"A month and a couple weeks, I think?" he scratched the back of his head. Armin's eyebrows bunched together in confusion.

"What's even keeping you there? I'm sure there are other jobs that don't run you ragged..."

"I always liked a challenge?" To be honest, Eren wasn't entirely sure how to answer that. Was it the other people that worked there? Was it Rivaille and how good he looked shirtless? Was it a mixture?

The confusion must have been apparent on Eren's face. Armin studied him for a moment, before shrugging.

"I guess you know what's best for you, Eren."

The brunette grinned in response. "You guys worry too much about me. Don't you have... College-people things to be concerned about? Homework?" he laughed. "Let's go to the arcade before we split up again. I don't get to see nearly enough of you guys anymore."

x

Eren never imagined that the reason he'd be on his hands and knees in Rivaille's office would be for cleaning-

That was a lewd thought and he really should stop.

"Eren. Are you almost done cleaning that corner?" he could hear Rivaille from his desk, feel the man's judging gaze on him. "You've been over there for 15 minutes, I've never seen someone take so long to clean up some crumbs. You're not getting off over there, are you, Jaeger?"

Eren sputtered, pausing in his movements. "What?"

"If you are, clean it up. I don't want to see that."

"Why would I-?" Eren jerked his head back, still on the ground. "No! It wouldn't be taking me this long if you'd just let me vacuum instead of pick it up crumb-by-crumb..." trailing off when he saw his boss's face, he turned back around.

"Getting awfully mouthy there, assistant. Vacuums break my concentration."

Grumbling something under his breath, he returned to picking up the little bits from the carpet piece-by-piece. He was going to be here all day at this rate. Sasha had only come in for a few minutes, how did she manage to spread crumbs across the entire office?

"Yo, Rivaille!" a familiar chipper voice called out from the front, and Eren didn't even bother to turn around and look. Hanji was such a common presence, always popping in and out that it barely phased him.

"So I went and paid the electricity bill up, and it actually went down this month- Eren, you have a really nice butt."

He stopped once again, craning his head back to see Hanji standing in front of Rivaille's desk. She looked somewhat impressed. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Uh, thanks?"

"I'm just stating fact. Rivaille, don't you think he has a good-looking ass?"

There was an irritated sigh. "I wasn't looking."

"Really? You should turn around and look. It's really nice. Eren, don't move."

Eren felt a blush creeping up. He wasn't really shy, but he was pretty sure this was wrong on about a thousand different levels.

"If I look, will you leave?"

"Possibly."

Rivaille gave her an indignant grunt, and swiveled around in the chair to face the corner Eren was bent over by. Now he was positive he was red. Eren turned away from the two, hiding his flustered face.

"... It's decent."

Eren scowled. Decent?

"No way! That's a really good butt." she paused. "A lot better than yours."

Rivaille scoffed. "At least I have one."

"Eren!" he jumped at the sudden urgency Hanji's voice. "Who has the better ass?"

Eren turned around at this, gaping. How was he supposed to answer that? Why was this conversation even happening?

"I-"

"His opinion doesn't matter. He just jerked off in the corner of his boss's office. I'm willing to bet he finds all asses attractive."

Hanji almost looked impressed again.

"I did not!" he shot up from the floor, ears burning. "I'm- Going to take a lunch break!"

Rivaille raised an eyebrow at him, but Eren took off for the elevator before anyone could say another word.

Hanji watched his retreating back with an amused look. Once he was out of earshot, she turned back to Rivaille.

"... You know, I'm pretty sure vacuums never bothered you before."

x

Eren's phone had rung a total of 7 times while he was out.

7 times, as it sat in the corner, vibrating and making a horrendous noise because it was pushed against the wall. He wasn't sure if it had fallen out of the boy's pocket while he was cleaning, or if he placed it there to discreetly text (which was stupid, because the kid didn't know the meaning of discreet), but it didn't change the fact that it was damn irritating. Now, normally, Rivaille would have a policy of not touching other's belongings as per the Golden Rule-

But he'd have to make an exception this time.

He rolled the chair backwards with a sigh, moving towards the offending item. Just as he grabbed it to maybe figure out if he could somehow turn the volume down (or take the battery out, or throw it against the wall, anything to stop the obnoxious buzzing), it started again. He clicked his tongue in annoyance as the name "Mikasa" lit up the screen. Who the hell was that and why had they called 8 times in a row?

He contemplated answering it. Whoever was so desperately trying to get a hold of Eren was calling during his working hours, after all. Maybe he could teach them a lesson about distracting his employees.

He pressed the green button on the screen and held it up to his ear.

"... Oh! Eren, thank God you finally answered. I-"

"This isn't Eren. This is his boss." Rivaille interrupted the female voice on the other end before she revealed something he might not have wanted to know. He picked up the phone to chew someone out, not snoop on his employees life.

There was silence for a moment, and then 'Mikasa' spoke up again. "What are you doing with his phone? Where's Eren?"

Rivaille almost snorted. "He's out running an errand." he lied. "He left his phone here so he won't get distracted."

He could almost hear the girl's anger through the phone. "Excuse me? Look, this is an emergency so if you could tell me where I can talk to him-"

She stopped as there sounds of a scuffle in the background, a boy's muffled voice cutting through in the background. "Did you finally get a hold of him? Oh, Eren, it's awful, I talked to the police but they said that nothing on your floor could be salvaged, the fire's even still burning-"

There were more rustling sounds and a hissed "This isn't Eren, Armin." before the girl's voice came in through the receiver again.

"Please, just tell Eren to call me when he gets back."

"... Alright." and then the line went dead. He set the phone down on his desk, sitting down in the office chair behind it as he thought about what he had heard.

He really probably shouldn't have picked up the phone after all, even if it probably would have come back around to him eventually. He reached for his laptop, pulling up the local news website just to make sure he hadn't misheard anything-

But the live-stream on the screen confirmed his suspicion. Firetrucks and ambulances abound, a news reporter stood in front of a burning apartment building. He clicked out of the site and shut the computer again.

While it didn't really concern him, it did make him concerned. While Rivaille was strict in his rules and just generally gave off an unpleasant vibe, he wasn't a heartless person. He was good at what he did, and what he did kept people in line. He liked Eren. He was the first assistant to stay for as long as he had, and the first to take all of Rivaille's orders without backtalk. Besides the occasional grumble or face he would pull, he was a good worker.

And then there was the fact that he seemed... Oddly passionate about his job. The boy wanted to see the world, that was for sure. The way his eyes lit up whenever he was given a job pertaining any amount of information about different countries was oddly endearing.

And he had a bad, bad feeling about what this fire meant.

Rivaille went back to work, but trying to focus on the paperwork in front of him proved to be a difficult task. Finally, he leaned back in his chair and stretched. It couldn't hurt to take a quick break-

"Are you and Hanji done talking now?"

Impeccable timing. Rivaille quickly composed himself again, making a point to glare at Eren.

"We were done 5 minutes after you left. That was quite the break."

He shuffled more into the room, scowling. "I told you I was taking an early lunch break. Did I leave my phone here?"

Rivaille glanced to where it was sitting on his desk as Eren investigated the corner he had been crouched in before. He sucked in a breath.

"Eren, do you have renter's insurance?"

He didn't miss the confused look he got in return. "... Uh, what exactly is that again?"

Rivaille sighed. That was exactly what he had expected. He pushed the phone forward.

"You should check your phone. Your friend called a couple times."

"My friend?" Eren's brow remained furrowed. "Wait- You're going to let me make a personal call at work?" he looked like an idiot, gaping at his boss. Rivaille ignored the shocked look he was receiving.

"I'll make an exception for this."

"Are you feeling okay?"

"This is an order, Jaeger."

Eren continued to stare at him, a mixture of concern and confusion etched onto his face as he walked towards his phone. He focused on the screen, tapping his fingers across the glass to get to his notifications. Rivaille watched his face drop.

"7 missed calls from Mikasa? And one received- Did you answer my phone?"

His boss raised an eyebrow at the accusing tone of his voice. "I did. I figured it must have been fairly urgent if she called 7 times in a row."

"What's wrong? Is she hurt? Is Armin hurt?" Eren looked horrified, hand shaking as he held his phone and stared Rivaille down. He exhaled sharply through his nose.

"Your apartment caught fire. I don't know the details, so call your friend back."

Eren continued to frown at him. Rivaille broke away from his gaze, turning back toward the paperwork on his desk.

After a few more moments, he finally the faint ringing tone from Eren's phone.

"Mikasa?"

There was a beat of silence before he spoke again.

"Yeah it's me- Wait, calm down, what's going on?"

Rivaille glanced back up at him to see his eyes trained on the ground. Eren had an intense look on his face, fingers gripping his phone so hard that they were going white. His eyebrows furrowed more and more as the girl on the other end spoke.

"Are you and Armin okay?"

Rivaille arched an eyebrow at that. He had likely just lost all of his possessions, and he was worried about his friends that sounded fine? He noted the way his face relaxed when she apparently told him they were okay. He was still frowning, but not nearly as intensely.

"Oh, good. Okay. Yeah. No, I'm fine as long as you guys are alright. I'll come check it out soon. Did they get the fire put out? Oh.. But they're positive the top 4 floors are taken out... No, I don't. Yeah, I have enough money for awhile. I'll figure something out. Alright, see you guys later."

He pulled the phone away from his face and stared at it for a few seconds, before pocketing it. He caught Rivaille's stare from the corner of his eye and turned to face him.

"I guess they got everyone out alive. Several people were severely burned, though."

Rivaille said nothing in response to that at first, narrowing his eyes at him. Eren looked away.

"I should probably go check it out though, just to make sure-"

"What about your stuff?" Rivaille interrupted him. Eren frowned.

"There was nothing of value, really. The most expensive things I own are my car and my phone. I just moved in there, and I didn't bring anything from home..."

Tapping his pen against the desk, Rivaille watched Eren carefully. "Are you going to move in with your friends?"

He scratched the back of his head. "They live in dorms, so that's not really an option... I have enough money to live in a cheap hotel for awhile until I figure something out."

"Living at home?"

Eren paused, getting a sad look in his eyes before shaking his head and returning to normal. "My dad's never around, and that would be way too long of a commute everyday." seeing Rivaille's face, he quickly backpedaled. "But I'm not quitting! I'll figure it out, I swear, so please don't fire me."

Rivaille blinked at him a couple times. He couldn't be serious, living in some roach-motel?

"You really have no where to go?"

"Well-"

"Besides a nasty motel." he narrowed his eyes further, lips pursed. Eren swallowed.

"... No."

A near minute passed while they stayed in silence, Eren standing up, phone in hand and Rivaille sitting down behind a desk, twirling a pen. Finally, the older man sighed.

"You can stay with me until you get on your feet."

Eren was taken aback. "Excuse me? Er, sir, I really couldn't-"

Rivaille shut him up with a harsh glare. "I can't have one of my workers coming in everyday smelling like they lived at Motel Sex." he placed his pen at the top of his desk, leaning back in his chair. "I only have a couple rules. No touching my things. I have a guest room so you can sleep there. You'll be cleaning up after your messes, because my house is pristine. No house guests - not Mikasa, or your other friend, or any hookers you pick up at any time."

Eren was speechless, so Rivaille continued. "Other than that, I don't care what you do. I'll get you your own key so you can come and go whenever. If you lose it..." he trailed off, sending dangerous vibes Eren's way. He must have picked up on them, because he pulled a face.

"I won't lose it." Eren dropped his gaze to the ground again, frowning, before looking back up. "... You really don't have a problem with this?"

"Do you have any better ideas, shitty brat?" The older man frowned at him."Oh, I guess we could ask Hanji-"

"I'm good!"

Rivaille smirked.

"That's what I thought."

He still didn't seem totally convinced, but Rivaille knew throwing Hanji in there would solidify it. It wasn't that Eren acted like he disliked her, but he seemed more wary of her than of himself, ironically enough. He didn't blame him. The woman was crazy. At least the kid wasn't totally stupid.

"Now go check out the apartment, figure out what's going on with your friends, and while you're out grab a toothbrush for yourself. Be back here before your hours are over so I can show you where it's at."

Eren nodded, numbly, and left to go do as he was told. Rivaille ran a hand through his hair.

It was going to be a long next few months.

A/N: Sorry for the wait on this one, I struggled with this chapter quite a bit because I wanted it to be fun and humorous, but I also needed to get the plot moving in the direction it needed to go.

Hopefully I'll be able to crank out chapters a little faster now that I definitely have a plan for where this fic is going. And I'm going to have lots of fun with it. I know this chapter is kind of fillerish/information dump, but it's definitely going to get better from here on out, so hold onto your hats!