Erwin Smith, even the busy man that he is, has never been the type to multitask while driving. He doesn't read mails or take any calls. It's the kind of task where there's too much at stake to ever take a risk like that. Don't drive distracted.
Levi makes it really, really difficult.
He is utterly silent, almost unmoving, and he's not even facing Erwin. But this only invites more stolen glances. Especially given the way the last rays of dusk hit his high cheekbones, or later, how the city lights illuminate his usually dark eyes.
"So there's this thing called peripheral fucking vision," Levi groans after half an hour.
Erwin smiles, completely unashamed. "I have mentioned that you're particularly interesting, haven't I?"
Levi sharply turns to him. Erwin instinctively looks back at the road. Levi does the same, only for Erwin to tilt his head a bit towards him again. When Levi tries to catch him looking, he snaps his stare forward. It's completely childish, but Erwin can't help but do it again and again.
"Someone is about to end up crashing the car, and if you don't die from that, you will by my hand," Levi barks at him, his patience at an end.
"We're stuck in traffic," Erwin counters with a snicker.
"You've spent the whole damn ride exhibiting your pervy voyeurism skills to me," Levi huffs, crossing his arms. "I'm sure I can figure out a way to destroy you without the help of rushing vehicles."
"If you tell me something about you, I'm sure my brimming curiosity would be sated enough for me to stop," Erwin relents.
Levi looks totally unconvinced, to his credit. It's not exactly a smooth move, but Erwin doesn't think his usual suave persuasions would work at the face of Levi's candor.
"Did you talk back to Keith?" Erwin starts, eyes on the road. "Missed your shift? Broke some furniture? Was it because you cleaned my office?"
"You asked around for me," Levi states flatly. "I was gone six days and your briefs were in a twist."
"Boxers, actually," Erwin amends with an innocent expression. "Hmm. Were you fired for groping some higher up?"
"Not all of us are perverted geezers like you," Levi says, rolling his eyes.
"I have cause to consider that possibility," Erwin reasons, playful smile fading. "I believe I wasn't the only one stealing glances."
"Put two and two together, dumb blonde," Levi says, defiant. "You know how you look, and I think daily facial cumshot makes it obvious enough."
"Dumb blonde? Where's the sir?" Erwin admonishes him in good humor. "You know how you look too."
Levi turns his full attention to him, considering him wordlessly until Erwin parallel parks at the pet shop. Erwin's face remains a blank mask, and he wishes he could fool himself into believing that's how he is inside. There is something about those eyes—molten steel. Erwin recognizes it without doubt. After all, he is used to being the object of desire, and accepts it with all graciousness.
He doesn't want to accept this with any graciousness at all. Courtesy isn't the thing that comes to mind when he has Levi in his car, small frame buried in his scarf, the center of his rapt attention.
Erwin knows a lot of things, but he is a stranger to this—the desire to possess.
"Welcome to Maria's Cuddle Buddies! I'm Marco, how could I help you?"
The tall, freckled teen seems like he's exactly where he's designed to be, all smiles and positively glowing. Erwin is amused by how he's such a contrast to Levi with his permanent scowl.
"Bird," Levi says abruptly. "Small. White and brown."
"Do you happen to know its specific breed name?" Marco asks kindly.
Levi looks around the shop, looking uncomfortable. "No."
Marco offers to collect all the birds in the shop that match his description, and suggests that for the meantime, they check out the other pets as well.
Levi turns his attention back to Erwin, who has one knee on the floor and is getting his face licked by a golden retriever.
"If it bites your head off, that would be amusing."
Erwin laughs, stroking the dog's shiny fur. When he stares back at Levi, there's that unreadable expression on his face again, where the knot between his brows is slightly looser but his face is otherwise blank.
"Don't be so charmed by me," Erwin cheerfully remarks, guiding the dog back to a long-faced teen who looks like the antithesis to Marco's this-is-my-place-on-earth look. With a grunt, he puts the dog back in its cage.
When Erwin stands, Levi squirts disinfectant on his face.
"You're so stiff," Erwin continues with a laugh in his voice. He takes a night black cat from a cage nearby, handing it over to his unwilling companion. The feline squirms away from Erwin but settles comfortably in Levi's arms.
"Ah, you're a cat person," Erwin says. He bets if he comments on how adorable Levi looks, slightly leaning against the already possessive cat, he'd burst into flames.
"Stop with the googly-eyed shitface look," Levi commands in the voice of death while stroking the cat, who purrs appreciatively. "Or I'd gouge those baby bullshit blues out."
Erwin has never been much for pets. He's capable of taking care of one, and he's reasonably well-loved by animals, but he never understood their charm. Now he thinks he does.
"I kicked some bigshot in the ass," Levi says flatly.
Erwin blinks. "What?"
"He kept whistling at my ass every morning, and when he had the gall to squeeze it, I decided to violate his own," Levi relates without flinching.
"I understand his impulse," Erwin nods thoughtfully. "But that was completely inappropriate."
Levi raises an eyebrow. "Stop flirting like a bitch in heat."
"Stop flirting like a tsundere."
"Stop flirting like a chu-what?"
As they leave the shop, Erwin catches the ash-blonde boy grunting along the lines of "A white and brown bird! There's a thousand of those, asswipe" and "I need my Mikasa fix". Apparently Levi hears it too.
"Teenagers," he says with an eye roll. "I have a halfway-decent job, I'd shut my goddamn trap."
Erwin decides not to pry too much into it, instead lightheartedly jostling him. "A pity. You were quite the exceptional janitor."
Levi takes it as it is, whereas most people would probably be offended. "It's what I do best. If this country was communist, that's probably what I'd get assigned to do."
Erwin feels a swell of admiration at how proud Levi seems to be in his occupation, lowly as society deems it to be.
"I could think of another prospect, though," he says, a wicked smirk creeping on his face.
"I will skin you," Levi says with a look that could spontaneously freeze a continent into a new Siberia. "Then I will wear your skin as boots so I can step on your shitty being every goddamn day."
"You are being of great help, I assure you," Erwin says with a straight face, prolonging the moment by thoroughly examining the dress he's holding up against Levi's body. "Hmm, navy suits you. Now, some dotted tights…"
"We're shopping for your niece," Levi says with gritted teeth, shoving the dress aside.
"And you are helping me," Erwin adds smoothly. "Your lithe frame is currently proving very advantageous."
"I'd really rather be a janitor than a model for girls' wear," Levi growls at him. "Or an AV actor for a bigass fucking pervert like you."
"There are real kids here, you know," grunts the bored-looking saleslady beside them. "Sir," she belatedly tacks in.
She looks completely out of her depth in the store, a tall, brooding, muscled girl wearing a pink dress and white knee-high socks. Her sour attitude only adds icing to the cake. Beside her, another saleslady nervously laughs.
"What she meant, sir, is that we'd really be thankful if we could keep some conversations down, please," the petite, pretty blonde says.
"I'd try to rein him in." Erwin's name drops to her nametag. "I hope we're not being too much of a nuisance, Krista."
"Ah, not at all sir!" Krista hurriedly says. "If you need any more assistance, please call us."
"Do that one more time, and I'd destroy this shop," Levi warns darkly. Erwin decides to keep his mouth shut for the sake of the children.
Hands stuffed in his old coat and wrapped snugly in Erwin's scarf, lights dancing on his skin, Levi's diminutive figure is just one of the millions bustling downtown today. And yet, he also seems completely removed, a lone pale wolf with snow on his hair and a chill in his eyes. They're standing only a few feet apart and yet…
Erwin is not a very poetic person, but he's been discovering many things about himself since he's met Levi.
"This store stinks of illegal activity."
Erwin looks away from him, turning to the shop. He takes a deep breath. "You are talking to a respectable lawyer."
A kindly blonde boy stands near the doorway, warmly welcoming them into the store and greeting Erwin by name. Erwin smiles at him and tells him the name of the book he's looking for. He enthusiastically makes his way up the stairs to look for it.
"Isn't child labor illegal anymore?" Levi comments, looking at the assistant scurrying off.
"He's twenty, I think," Erwin explains, looking around the place and nodding at the girl on the register. "Armin's always had a baby face, though his looks are inversely proportional to how he actually thinks and acts."
"No shit," Levi says, browsing through the main aisle. "This is one weirdass bookstore."
"My niece loves rare books," Erwin explains. "Which is why the kids here know me by name already."
The doorway chime rings. "There are artworks upstairs!"
Erwin and Levi turn to the direction of the high, animated voice. Standing by the door is a guy in all black, complete with prominent eyeliner and matte black lips.
"Eren," the girl at the register says with the slightest hint of reproach. "They're here to buy books."
"C'mon, Mikasa! I'm a sales guy. I'm just doing my job," Eren argues with a tad too much ardor. "Wanna come?"
Erwin graciously accepts, but as he and Eren are climbing upstairs, he notices that Levi is frozen in place. Before Erwin could ask him if he's not coming, Eren runs back down the stairs and towards Levi.
"We have some great stuff, I promise!" he says fervently, taking Levi's hand without hesitation and pulling him upstairs. Erwin is surprised when Levi doesn't react with more than widened eyes, letting himself be dragged. Eyes shining, Eren leads them on.
The third floor is nothing like an art gallery. Instead, it is an amalgamation of all art media strewn in what seems to Erwin a senseless arrangement.
"The curation is wicked, right?" Eren remarks, not even looking for approval from either of his prospective customers.
But when Erwin glances at Levi, he notices the strange glint in his eye, a slight flush on his face that he's quite sure isn't caused by the dim amber lighting. Eren quickly picks up on Levi's change of expression and drags him to a corner to examine a particular artwork, leaving Erwin behind to fend for himself.
He takes a good look around the area, which looks like an expanded attic more than anything. The place is slightly dusty but looks kept enough, the frames and sculptures gleaming. Erwin never took to art, although he was skilled enough in drawing back in high school. He's more attuned to practical thinking and interactions with actual people.
Uninterested by the creations around him, Erwin turns his attentions to Levi as subtly as he can. Now he's sure he hadn't just imagined the shift in his face. The intense teenager chatters away while Levi is fixated by the art.
Then, Erwin notices how stiff Levi has become, how tight his fists are clenched beside him. In a flash, he's by Levi's side. "Are you alright?"
Eren stops in his ravings and looks worriedly at Levi. "Sir?"
When Levi takes his arm, Erwin is sure he's going to have a bruise the next day. "We're outta here."
Erwin prides himself of being a people person. He's always been good at decoding people within seconds, of measuring the situation in even less. And right now, looking at Levi's tight mouth and tense shoulders, he knows it's not the time to ask about it.
But Levi offers his own explanation, and the moment it comes out, Erwin knows there's definitely more to it. "The place was damn dirty."
"I'll tell them next time I come there," Erwin says, keeping his eyes on the road. The bird chirps from the backseat. "Is it your niece's birthday too?"
Levi looks out the window, and Erwin wonders what face he is making. "Something like that."
Erwin tries for another tactic. "How many nieces do you have?"
"How many questions do you have?" Levi asks in turn. "Do you always ask people you wanna jump how many nieces they have?"
Blunt as ever. "I'd rather ask them if they wanna jump me too, but since we're nearing my niece's party, I'd keep the conversation PG 13."
Levi sharply turns back to him. "I don't remember no party in the itinerary."
"I'm just going to drop off the gifts and make sure that the food is ready," Erwin explains, chuckling at the prospect of Levi at a pre-teen's party. "Then I'm dropping you off and I'm turning round back."
The house is humongous, all white walls and glass panes attached to a greenhouse. Erwin invites Levi inside, and when Levi looks like he's about to refuse, Erwin casually namedrops his excellent tea collection.
A few moments after Erwin presses the intercom button, the imposing steel doors open and a flash of brown streaks out. Before Levi could process what just happened, Erwin is on the ground, a kid straddling him. "Erwin!" the creature bursts out in an excitable, booming voice.
Erwin laughs, ruffling her already ruffled brown hair. "Happy birthday, Hanji."
A/N: HANJI IS IN THE HOUSE YOOO I don't even know what to do with them yet but they're there. Also, goth!Eren because holla. I hope the 104th squad appears more on the next chapters but I'm not sure yet. Whaddya wanna happen because I have no idea whoops.
Till next!