Ugh, you people are so NICE. I can't not keep writing, now. Anyway, thanks to those of you who reviewed, followed, or favorited. Much obliged. Here, have some Levi and Hange (but only a little). Also, Hange is non-binary in this. Sorry if the pronouns get confusing, but I've never actually written a non-binary character before.
Also, I noticed some typos in the last chapter. There will probably be more in this chapter. And all the ones following. I apologize for them, and I'll try to catch more of them this time, but they're gonna slip through, and I'm probably never going to fix them. Because I am lazy and the interface of this site scared me a little because I'm dumb. So if they bug you, I dunno, just laugh at me to ease your sorrow or something. It's all going to be okay.
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Eren swallowed as he stared at the man before him. Three things were immediately evident:
1) The man was painfully short. He held himself proudly, but even standing tall, Eren doubted the man was higher than his shoulder. It was true that Eren was slightly taller than average, but even sitting down, he could tell that the man before him was extremely lacking in the height department.
2) The man was painfully angry. His eyes were flashing silver, his mouth set in a tight scowl. Eren got the distinct feeling that this man could (and possibly would) beat him senseless, despite being a head shorter.
3) The man was Eren's soulmate. Eren's mark was gone and there were no other suspects, so this short, angry man was guilty as charged.
It was these three things that hit Eren immediately, stinging against his senses like a slap to the face, but in the moments that followed, Eren noticed countless other things. Small things, like the way the man's grey eyes had subtle tints of blue. The way his black hair was styled in a carefully maintained undercut. The way Eren couldn't tell how old he was, but knew that he was older (late 20s, early 30s?). The way his suit fell in impeccably straight lines. Eren noted, with complete detachment, that one of the man's eyebrows arched slightly higher than the other, but Eren couldn't tell if it was part of the man's (completely disgusted) expression, or if it was just a natural imbalance in his features.
Eren stared for longer than was probably polite, completely overwhelmed by the big issues and small details alike. Disbelief and confusion made his ears ring. Blinking himself out of his near catatonic state, Eren scrambled to stand. The man's scowl deepened as Eren stood,and he had to tilt his head back to retain some semblance of eye contact. The younger man was, in fact, a head taller, the stranger being approximately eye level with Eren's shoulder.
Stillness prevailed for a long moment, filled with the buzz of awkward eye contact, but it shattered abruptly when the man stumbled a step forward. Eren caught him by the elbow, shocked at the action which somehow seemed completely out of character, even to Eren, who knew next to nothing about the man. The stranger ripped his arm from Eren's grasp, spinning to face a companion Eren hadn't even noticed. Shifting his gaze, Eren jumped slightly upon meeting the gleeful eyes of his biology teacher.
The professor leaned forward eagerly, brown hair held in a fly-away ponytail, chunky goggle-like glasses flashing. Eren couldn't remember their name, and hadn't attended one of their classes in over a week, but he did remember their adamant insistence that binary genders were ridiculous and they be referred to with gender neutral pronouns only. Their lips twitched as they stifled their laughter, staring at Eren with unabashed excitement and fascination.
"O-Oh this is too good," they giggled, pressing a hand to their mouth. "Just wait until I tell Erwin and - oh God, Petra!" They doubled over for a moment, and Eren wondered how they could take the glare the stranger was giving them without keeling over. Straightening up, Eren's teacher grabbed his arm in one hand and the man's arm in the other.
"Okay! Let me introduce you. This-" they said, jerking roughly on the man's arm, eliciting a violent hiss, "-is Levi. He's kind of a dick, but he's sort of a lovable dick, so it's all okay. I'm his friend, and I can tell you that it takes some getting used to, but-"
"You're not my friend, shitty glasses," the man - Levi - interrupted. His voice was flat, but threatening. Every time Eren wondered if the glare plastered on the man's face could possibly get worse, Levi immediately turned it up a notch. Eren wondered how his teacher could possibly still be alive, if they were exposed to that on a regular basis.
"Levi," the professor replied, shaking the short man's arm again, "I am your best friend. You love me, and you would be devastated if I disappeared, so shut up and be pretty for your soulmate. Look at him, Levi. He's adorable. You obviously need to try harder."
Eren squirmed slightly, growing distinctly more uncomfortable as time wore on. His maniac teacher turned to him then, pulling him closer.
"This is Eren. He's a student of mine, when he bothers to come to class - which has been never, recently. I don't know all that much about him, really, besides that he's adorable. And, I mean, come on, that's all you need to know when a person has a face like this." Eren squirmed again, reaching with his unrestrained hand to disentangle himself. He didn't really know what was going on, but he was seriously considering punching this person in the face, teacher or not.
"I'm Hange," they told Eren, finally releasing their hold on Levi as well. "I'm sure you've forgotten, since you're never in class, and Levi could probably use a reminder, too. I'm pretty sure he sometimes tries to forget. I'll never understand why, since I am obviously the best friend and matchmaker in the Universe. I mean, I just introduced you to your soulmate. That's kind of a big deal."
"Hange," Levi growled, grabbing his friend (?) roughly by the wrist. "Did you not hear the same conversation I did? Leave the brat alone. We have shit to do, anyway." He brushed past Eren, pulling along Hange, who flashed Eren an apologetic grin.
"If you ever want his number, you can just come find me," they offered. "We should really all hang out some time, get to know each other."
"Shut the fuck up, glasses."
Eren watched them go, feeling as if his throat was stuffed with cotton. That had not gone according to plan.
Whenever Eren had imagined the confrontation with his soulmate, he imagined meeting a pretty girl who would be so excited to finally meet him. He imagined that he would have to choke out a rejection (because he didn't want to be with his soulmate, but he didn't want to hurt them either). He thought that she would cry, and he would have to awkwardly try to comfort her without accidentally leading her on. Maybe, if she was feistier, more like Eren himself, she would get angry and they would end up fighting. Either way, it would end with Eren walking away, returning to Mikasa, and living out the rest of his life without ever thinking of it again.
He never considered that maybe his soulmate would be a short, grumpy man with a permanent scowl. He'd never imagine that his rejection would be in the form of a very loud and very public over-the-phone argument with his girlfriend. He had never pictured his soulmate having the most obnoxious friend in existence, who would be all too willing to make Eren completely uncomfortable. And he had definitely never imagined that his soulmate would be the one to walk away from him.
And frankly, he was pissed about it.
Eren was a catch, God damn it. He was attractive, and interesting, and he had his talents. From what he had seen, Levi was nothing but a grumpy, short bastard who treated his "friends" like shit. A guy like that would be lucky to land a guy like Eren. It didn't matter if Eren was straight. It didn't matter if Eren was taken. It didn't matter if Eren's interest was absolutely zero. It was the principle of the thing, and Eren was fucking offended.
Who did Levi think he was, to just walk away? Sure, he had overheard Eren's conversation, but he could have let Eren explain. He could have given Eren a chance to do things properly. If he was going to be an asshole and reject his soulmate, Eren at least wanted to be a gentleman about it. But no, Levi just up and walked away, like Eren wasn't even worth his time. Now, Eren could put up with a lot of crap - his roommate was Jean Kirstein, for fuck's sake - but being ignored wasn't on the list. A part of him wanted to track Levi down, punch him in the face, and force him to at least acknowledge Eren. He also realized that it would be counterproductive to actually follow through.
He glared in the direction Levi had gone, fists clenched and chest heaving. Someone came up to ask if he was okay, and of course he was fucking okay, what the fuck else would he be? Idiot. He took a deep breath, trying to calm down, but oxygen only fueled his fire. He snatched his bag from the ground, slinging it over his shoulder, and trudged his way back to Mikasa's dorm.
The walk calmed him slightly, and Mikasa's face when she opened the door at his knock calmed him more. She let him inside, and he dumped his bag by her bed before he flopped down onto it. Mikasa nudged him over slightly with her knee before settling beside him.
"God, you guys are gross," Annie, Mikasa's roommate, groaned as she collected stuff from her desk.
"We're not even doing anything, Annie," Eren growled in return. The blonde girl wasn't all bad, but she was cold and guarded. She and Eren had also seen far more of each other than they would have liked, since Eren spent most of his time in her dorm room. It led to an awkward tension whenever they were both in the dorm. They got along pretty well if they saw each other outside of it, but Annie rarely went out with their group of friends, preferring to stay inside.
"I'm going to stay with Reiner and Bert," she said, shoving some things into her bag before pulling on a white hoodie. "Don't still be naked when I get back in the morning."
She left the room, door clicking as she locked it behind her. Mikasa curled into Eren's side, resting her head against his chest. They lay in silence for a moment, resting comfortably, and Eren reveled in the peace of the moment. All his confusion and fear and doubt and anger drained out of him. Here he was, with his girlfriend who he loved. Levi didn't matter. It didn't matter that he had found his soulmate; it didn't matter that his soulmate was a guy; it didn't matter that Levi was his soulmate. The mark was gone now, as if he had never had one. As he wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, his breathing evened out completely for the first time since the phone call.
"I'm sorry I upset you," Mikasa murmured, leaning up to press a kiss to Eren's neck. He ran a hand through her hair.
"I'm sorry I yelled."
"You always yell," she laughed, propping herself up on her elbow so she could look at him. "It's just a part of who you are. I'm used to it by now."
"Doesn't mean I can't be sorry about it." He gripped her neck, pulling her down into a sweet kiss. They parted, but she lingered above him, black hair falling across his face, tickling his neck. Her grey eyes shone with emotions that they rarely revealed.
Eren's chest swelled with his feelings for her, and he wondered for a brief moment how he could contain it all. He loved her so much - so much that sometimes it terrified him. He honestly had no idea what he would do without her. Everything he was hinged on her being there. She was the only reason he kept functioning, the only thing that kept the pieces of him together. He would fall apart without her, and sometimes that honest-to-God terrified him. He was terrified that one day she would move on, find someone better - more intelligent, more talented, more driven. It wouldn't be a hard thing to do. As much as Mikasa loved him (and he had no doubt that she did), she didn't depend on him in quite the same way.
He pulled her into another kiss, this one harder, more passionate. He flipped them over, hanging above her, but her fingers landed on his wrist before he could kiss her again. She gripped him with enough force to make him lean back, and when he did, she sat up. Her eyes were cold as her fingers clenched, nails digging into his skin.
"Eren," she said, voice sharp. "Where did your mark go?"
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Gross, kissing
So, I have this whole story planned out (more or less). When I saw that there were a few people who actually liked it, I decided I should not be a complete jerk, and should at least try to finish it. If everything goes according to plan, it shouldn't be too complex, with this being my first fanfic and all. It should be right around 20 chapters (I'm thinking 21). I'm posting this now because I'm going out of state tomorrow (which is actually today, because it's past midnight here) and I won't have wifi where I'm going. I'm getting back on Friday, so I might post chapter three over the weekend, I don't know.
Anyway, that's it - that's it
