Eren liked to think of himself as a teacher students could relate to.
At least, he pretends as best as possible when he's driving into the student parking lot with three coffees, Fall Out Boy blasting with the bass cranked all the way up (he'd added a subwoofer to his truck, no big deal) and it's Homecoming week. Six thirty A.M made him feel like absolute hell, but hey, it's his first homecoming as a teacher at Rose High School and he was desperate to slack off a bit. There weren't even any tests being given out, hell yeah he was going to teach his students about pirates.
"But we are alive, here in Death Valley!" He sang, tapping his fingers to the drum beat. When the truck pulled into his usual spot and turned off the ignition. Tanned hands attempted to balance his bag and coffees, finally huffing a sigh when he balanced the three warm cups and the bag on his shoulders.
"Still living in early 2000's, I see," A low and tired voice drawled, making Eren's head snap around behind him to see Levi leaning on his 2013 Elantra.
"For your information, that album was just released this year," Eren stuck his tongue out, fixing the large hipster glasses he'd worn since the theme was Fashion through the Decades.
"Oh, excuse me," Levi rolled his eyes, taking a sip of his own coffee and rolling his bag to the front of the building. The usual early kids were lounging around, sleeping on benches or the concrete as they waited for the school doors to open. A few who were wide awake with their own caffeinated drinks giggled as they walked by together, Levi holding the door open for Eren as he rushed a thank you and kept walking.
The history hallway they were located in was upstairs, so Eren laughed as the shorter of the two had to pick up his bag and trudge it up a flight of stairs. They didn't speak for a few minutes, walking into their respective rooms and setting up for the day. Eren was finally a little uncomfortable silence, speaking up and trying to break the awkwardness.
"So, decade?" He called from the World History classroom.
"Guess," Levi stepped into view, letting Eren look at the torn jeans and all black, completed with dog chains and—were those tattoos real? Is that snake bite piercings and a septum piercing? He even had on a shirt that had some band on it, he thinks it read Suicide Silence but he wasn't quite so sure.
"That's not a decade," The brunet laughed. "Are those tattoos real?"
"Yeah, I've had an ink sleeve for a while. That's why I wear all long sleeved shirts," he shrugged in response. "I've got a piece on my back too, but I'm not taking off my shirt just to let you see, yet."
The younger of the teachers was about to retaliate until he heard the first bell ring, signaling the students being allowed into the school. He bit his snarky response away, making up the excuse that some students were coming in for tutorials. The ones who did come in were amused by his appearance, skinny tie with a collared shirt and blue cardigan, old skinny jeans from his sophomore year of college paired with some steel toed boots he found. They did notice the bit of distraction in his eyes, how they kept flickering to Levi's classroom. He was pretty sure all of the piercing were real—the snakebites, gauges, septum piercing, even an eyebrow. The sleeves on the shirt were cut off, and it was way too big on him, and the shoes he were just an old pair of black vans.
It was actually kinda hot.
Well, Eren had always just been attracted to guys who looked fed up with those around him, but no there was no attraction growing towards Levi. Maybe back when he was a senior, sure, but they're co-workers now. If anything were to happen, it would become very, very awkward. Levi probably didn't even want to acknowledge Eren that way, so what was the point?
The sound of the bell ringing triggered him back out of his thoughts, and he watched as the first period class he had trickled in. The last to enter was Annie, his student aid, and she simply just looked tired and annoyed. She had on a poodle skirt and a ruffled blouse, hair tied back neatly and painted on makeup. The signal of first period beginning came over head one last time, and after the announcements Eren finally stood up from his desk when he finished attendance.
"I'm not sure what time period we're in anymore," he laughed, giving a scan over the students.
"Maybe," Annie piped up, twirling a red pen, "Time is relative, and we're slowly collapsing in on ourselves in the form of the past."
"I come in to you discussing time as a theory and not the Xin dynasty," Levi leaned against the door frame with his coffee. "You've disappointed me, Jaeger."
"Just because your first period is your off period does not mean you can come terrorize my class," Eren stuck his tongue out, and a few students giggled.
"So you can terrorize mine? That's just so rude," Levi reached in his pocket for something, pulling out a small necklace and handing it to Eren. "You dropped this in the hall."
"Oh sweet, my dog tags!" He took the chain, noticing the leather gloves his superior was wearing.
"You're welcome," The raven-haired male replied, adjusting his septum piercing. The students laughed a little more, whispering to each other.
"Yeah, okay, thanks," He teased. "Now let me teach my students."
"About the Xin dynasty I hope?" Levi poked, frowning.
"Pirates. It's Homecoming week, I don't need actual work."
The student's expressions as they walked into their third period class to find Levi in his natural way of dressing was almost too hilarious. They all looked terrified, despite seeing glances over the past three or four years, but knowing him and seeing it now set them off. The gauges in his ears, the loose muscle tee he wore, and how old were those converse? Jean, dressed to match Marco as they were from the seventies, looked terrified at the normally stoic teacher writing at his desk with Suicide Silence quietly coming from the speakers.
"Mr. Rivaille? Is that you?" Christa asked, horrified and wide-eyed.
"I should keep a tally for how often that's asked to me today," he mused, tapping the pen. The bell rang, and students ran to sit down in their seats.
"It's so weird—you can even kind of see the back piece you have," Jean commented, stretching his neck to get a small look. Levi rolled his eyes, turning around and picking up the marker to begin writing the warm-up on the board. Explain the significance of your fashion choice today he wrote, and the students laughed as they began writing down or trying to text under their desks.
After finishing one last song from the album, Levi finally let the students share their answers with him. Ymir commented saying she did it to match with Christa, going back to renaissance times and being dressed as a prince while the blonde was a princess. Reiner and Bertl were obviously matching with Annie, as they all sat together in the back of the class with Reiner looking like a jock, Bertholdt the tall and awkward boy, and Annie in her poodle skirt.
"So, why did you dress like that Mr. Rivaille?" Sasha asked, bangles dangling on her wrist as she was matching with Connie in nineties style.
He shrugged, giving a subtle glance towards the open door, giving a clear view across the hall to Eren's class. "No reason, it's usually what I wear at home or in public."
"It's not really from an era, though," Connie interjected.
"I'm sorry, have you seen some of the kids walk around here? Their gauges are bigger than mine," he said in a matter-of-factly tone. His gauges were only 6G, anyways; most kids walked around with nearly inch diameters.
"That's not even answering the question," Ymir raised her eyebrows. "Could you perhaps be trying to impress someone?"
"Who do I have to impress?" He asked, glancing away from the door.
"There's a rumor going around that you and Mr. Jaeger are dating," Reiner added nonchalantly, doodling in the margins of his notebook.
"I've known him for a month, that's a bit quick," He quirked an eyebrow down, frowning. Eren looked up from his spot where he was grading papers that Annie hadn't finished, and leaned over to view the classroom.
It couldn't hurt to go mess with him for a few minutes.
He stood up, adjusting his cardigan and the skinny tie, walking straight over to the Euro-History classroom. The students went a little quiet when they saw him walk in, and Annie rolled her eyes mouthing something to Reiner and snickering a little.
"So you get on my ass about not teaching, yet here you are," he mused, poking fun at the short teacher.
"For your information, I was getting ready to tell about my tattoos, asshole," Levi shot a glare, furrowing his brows. Young teachers can be annoying, sometimes.
"No, we were talking about—" Ymir was cut off by Christa placing a hand over her mouth, motioning to shut up and let them talk. She finally got the message by laughing a little, pushing the hand off.
"Whatever, Ymir. Anyways," Levi held up his right arm, motioning to the ink sleeve. They all observed at the monochromatic scheme, splotches of red and white filling it occasionally. It took them to realize it was a bit of a bone and muscle design, with bits of burnt flesh being inked in a precise and delicate manner.
"I got this when I was twenty, I won't really go into the story besides the basics. It was more or less based off of one of my favorite book series that hit home rather hard, and it's more or less of a representation of how the further you go into someone's past, the more damaged it becomes." He motioned about how the bone was more cracked and burned than other parts of muscle and flesh, and the students stared in awe.
He walked over to shut the door and cover it for a moment, making sure Erwin wasn't going to walk by anytime soon. When it was clear, he pulled off the shirt he was wearing and turned around. His back had one white wing, and one blue one, elegantly place on the shoulder blades and coming down to swoop across his back. In calligraphy near his waist, it wrote 'Ailes de la liberté' lined with white and written in black.
Eren couldn't stop staring.
In fact, he looked between the class and Levi, waiting for the explanation. The teacher sighed, and went on. "This also comes from the same book, as I said it hits home rather hard. The logo doesn't actually look like two legitimate pairs of wings, unlike these, and the French on the bottom reads 'Wings of Freedom.' I chose for it to be in French rather than German, because I liked the sound a bit better."
He threw the shirt back on, leaving Eren slightly disappointed at not seeing the art anymore. His eyes shifted down when Levi bent over to roll up the pants leg on his left, revealing a few butterflies flying on his ankle.
"And this," he propped the leg up on a chair, "is just because I think butterflies are nice."
The class and world history teacher couldn't help but to laugh at the sudden mood switch, earning a small smirk from Levi. He rolled the pants back down, adjusting them a bit and finally standing up straight once again. Gray eyes met teal ones, and they held stares until Hanji strolled in with a few papers.
"Hey, yo, I've got a few papers from Erwin for Homecoming game chaperones—why are all the students laughing?" She cut herself off, looking at them. She was dressed from the nineties as well, modeling more off the Spice Girls than anything, since it was so unlike her usual self.
"We saw Mr. Rivaille's ink," Sasha laughed.
"Oh! I missed the tattoo show off?" She frowned. "Did you see the butterflies?"
"Yeah, yeah, they saw the butterflies," he waved his hand over to the desk, Eren and Hanji following directly after. Although, when both left and Levi began to teach the lesson, he couldn't help but to feel like he had a bit more excitement. Eren had been staring at the tattoos, and—
No, he was not looking for the brat's attention. They only work together; maybe they're friends if they hung out more outside of school, but nothing more and nothing less. At least, that's what he hoped.
im probs gonna have too much fun writing this, i love the idea of levi being really metal but having to cover up all the ink for school. oh, and having to take out the piercings. and punk eren is really funny ok. this wILL BE A CUTE AND FLUFFY FIC TO THE END THIS I SWEAR.