Eren took the last glass Hange pour and did sip on it but after an hour or so he was in the bathroom heaving up the drinks and what he had for breakfast. "Damn I didn't think it would happen this fast." Muttering into the toilet bowl Eren did another dry heave; Hange just left him a moment ago saying something about being in trouble but Eren didn't care he just wanted the world to stop spinning on him. He fell back to sit on the floor he could feel vomit running slightly down the side of his mouth but had no strength to move.
"What the fuck happened Hange? I told you not to let any stupid drunks in till its opening time; did you forget to lock the door again?" Levi's voice washed over Eren as the bathroom door opened. "Well yes I did forget to lock the door but they're not our normal drunks…" Hange said but fell quite as if they were watching something. Eren took the moment to open his eyes not realizing he closed them. Knelling before him was Levi; the man's face was so neutral that Eren was swearing it was a painting. But moments later Levi turned looking toward the door.
"Hange get me a wet towel, a bucket and lots of water with aspirin or something stronger." Levi moved to Eren's side and slowly moved him so he was resting against Levi's shoulder. "I'm going to lift you up if you have to throw up try and hold it till we're in the office." Then Eren felt an arm under his legs as well under his arms, soon the floor wasn't under him as Levi slowly moved him out of the bathroom into the upstairs hall.
"I'll try to be gentle going up but it will be hard it is a tight space." Levi moved to he was climbing the stairs sideways it went smoothly that Eren didn't even really notice the ascent. "Hey brushy brow get your ass up I'm taking the couch." Eren closed his eyes again not even caring who Levi was talking to and let himself being laid onto the couch. "Levi I got everything you asked." Hange's loud voice made his head hurt and he let out a groan.
"Shut it loud mouth, or I'll put you next on my list." Levi's voice snapped but something wet was softly rubbing his face and felt wonderful that Eren didn't care. "Yes those two wasn't on the list from the last time I check when did you add them Levi." another male's voice softly spoke up letting Eren place it as the person called bushy brow. "When I heard the mother fucker talk trash about what's mine as he fucked the other in an alley way of all places, how fucking disgusting." Eren felt his shirt and vest being unbutton as the washcloth wiped down his chest, soon thou an arm lifted him slightly and fully pulled off the articles and moved his head to lean on a shoulder.
"Hey beautiful can you open your eyes for me just a moment?" Eren did ask Levi asked and found a cup of water in Hange's hands and Levi holding two white pills. "I want you to try and take these, trust me it will help you later." Given a nod Eren reached for one and placed it into his mouth then took the cup from Hange and swallowed the pill. It didn't go down far when Eren felt it come back up.
"Bucket now." Levi noticed and grabbed the bucket placing it in front of Eren just in time for him to throw up the pill and water. "Shit, it seems we just have to wait, your stomach not going to take anything." Slowly laying Eren back down Levi placed the bucket on the floor and took a wet towel from Hange and wiped his face once more. "Rest we see if you can take the other pill after you settled down from vomiting." Eren nodded and closed his eyes.
"Hange go make sure the fucking door is locked. I'm willing to deal with a drunken Eren but as in fucking hell I'm going to deal with anyone else." Hange must have nodded since Eren didn't hear them say a thing, just footsteps down the stairs. "Should we continue our talk later, Levi?"
"No, we're done; I heard you loud and clear. No, going and killing bystander because I fucking feel like it."
"Good, our next shipment coming in soon I want the delivery person quiet. Mike told me that the man been antsy as of late."
"Got it, me and my team will make sure he doesn't sing." Another set of foot step moved but stopped. "Oh Levi, has Pixis placed him under watch?"
"Yea, found a tracker in his phone after I took him home; got rid of it thou. Like in hell I'll let that blond coconut know where he is." Eren heard footsteps again then a door close. "Like I let anyone have a beauty like you, you're mine. I'd kill anyone who stands in my way." A press of lips on his forehead felt nice they were cold thou there was soft warmth to them, that Eren couldn't help a soft moan.
"Don't do that baby I don't want to kiss your disgusting vomit mouth." But there was a soft kiss on his lips anyways, Eren opened his eyes to see Levi's finger softly brush the few strand of hair that fell into his eyes. "Do you want to tell me what happened? Or do I have to torture Hange for the answers?" Eren felt Levi's finger softly crested down the side of his face and along his jaw. "It's been hard, I can't handle it."
"Alright I understand. But you must understand I'm in charge I love you free spirt but let's kept it in the bedroom. I do have an appearance to uphold and you just heard what I told Erwin I can't go killing willy-nilly now." "I don't want to be broken, I want freedom." Levi leaned in and kissed Eren's lips once more. "There still is plenty of freedom in a cage beautiful all you have to do is sing real sweetly." Levi whispered as he pulled away. Eren closed his eyes once more; his head hurt and he was tired, so it didn't take long afterwards for sleep to come.
~! #~! #~! #
Opening his eyes, Eren noticed that there was music playing loudly down below but he only noticed it because of the thumping sound had a beat. Sitting up he noticed a blanket fall down slightly from his body and pulled it off completely. The room was dark the only light to help see was the desk lamp and it was making sure Eren noticed the note and box under it. Getting up Eren felt a little wobbly but he made it to the desk there was cup of water and Advil bottle too but just out of the light's bright reach.
Grabbing the bottle and opening it Eren swallowed a pill and downed the water quickly in hopes to stop the headache he felt. Turning his attention to note he picked it up and opened it.
'Don't take it off again or I'll punish you.' The hand writing was neat and Eren didn't need a name to know who it was from. Looking at the box he placed the letter down and opened it, there inside lying on a blue cloth was a black collar, his cage and the tag that readied who held the cage's doors shut.
Levi
Picking the collar up gently Eren noticed the leather was softer but at the same time, a lot stronger then the last one. Unlooping the buckle Eren slowly placed it around his neck and fastens it. The weight was familiar that Eren didn't take a second thought to it and looked for his shirt and vest. It didn't take long, both were clean and folded on the stand next to the couch as Eren went of them he heard the music go a little louder and people screaming and shouting like fans of some famous singer. Make up his mind quickly, only grabbed the vest and placed it on buttoning only the top two button. Then looked down to see his shoe also been taken off and set near the stand and quickly placed them on before heading down the stairs he slowly opened the door and looked out to see there was a lot of people crowding around but they all seem focused on the stage.
"Wow it's a lot louder then it sounded upstairs." He could physically feel the music play, as he step out of the stair case and closed the door. Moving slowly toward the bar he could see that a singer was on stage some woman but he didn't bother much after that once he made it to the side of the bar. People were crowding around trying to yell over the music to have Hange and Mike make their drinks. Both looked at easy grabbing glasses and pouring drinks, but Hange did stumble a little when someone tried to pay.
"Excuse me." Moved past the crowded near the end and made it inside the bar, he noticed Hange's head jerk towards him but watched as he took the person's money and asked what they order was. It was hard to hear but Eren got it and moved to the register and found it had all the drinks listed and found the person's and rang it out. Turning to give the person change he found them gone and just drop the money into a jar near the register before going to the next person trying to pay.
~! #~! #
"Thank you, sweet pie. I couldn't believe how swamped we got." Hange pulled him into a hug after they finished locking the door, it was way past four in the morning and Eren had a bigger headache even with the Advil he been taking all night. "Your welcome, but you're lucky the register had a drink menu that I could understand or you would have been screwed." Hange let go and nodded. "Yea Levi yelled at me to make it simple so he could understand it. He said something about not wanting to learn my fuck up terms for drinks."
Eren gave a nod and sat down on one of the stools and laid his head down. "Gods why did you have the music so loud thou I have a bigger headache then before." Eren missed the look Hange gave Mike but waved it off. "Can I have a wet towel please?" Hange moved behind the counter and got the towel just as they wet it Eren heard it. It was soft, muffled almost if there was any music play Eren may have mistaken it for a player problem but in the quiet of the bar it sounded like a person's scream.
"Is Levi working right now?" Eren couldn't believe how calm he was when he said it, but Hange gave a nod and handed him the wet towel he asked for. Taken the towel Eren wiped his face and the back of his neck before folding it and leaning back to place the towel over his eyes. He listen to Hange and Mike clean up the bar, Mike's soft voice constantly telling Hange their doing it wrong and Hange nagging back. They both grew quiet thou when a muffled scream could be heard, Eren could feel their eyes on him almost as if they were asking Eren if he was alright.
"How much longer will this take? I would like to go home but I don't think I can make it on my own." Eren broke the quiet after what seemed like the twelfth scream. "I'll take you home now, Hange make sure you do it right I don't want to hear Levi complain." Mike said and set down the towel and spray bottle he was holding. Eren nodded letting the wet towel drop on top of the counter and stood up; quickly patting down his pant pockets he made sure he had his phone, wallet and keys since he felt them there when he first woke and went to the front door. Mike wasn't even a second behind Eren and opened the door letting them out the morning was quiet and the latest muffled scream was all but silenced by Mike closing the bar door.
"My car is this way." Mike moved towards the parking lot and up to a blue van. "Thanks for the ride." They got in and Eren told Mike where he lived the ride from there they didn't say a word, not even after they got to his apartment and got out. Eren noticed Mike waited till he was inside before driving away, but didn't worry anymore about it as he went up to his apartment to fall asleep.
~! #~! #~! #
Waking up wasn't as bad as the first time since the headache was gone and he had soft classical music playing but he didn't feel as if he got any sleep; the sound of a muffled scream just kept recurring in his head as he slept. Getting up and looking towards his clock he realized it was past three in evening almost four and groaned. "Well at least I don't have to worry about going to work today." Reaching over to grab his phone he noticed he had a missed call one from Krista and another from an unknown. There was only one voice message alert thou.
"Wonder what Krista called me about." Not bothering with the voice message Eren called Krista directly figuring it was from her anyways. "EREN!" Krista's happy voice made him smile. "Hey you called? I didn't check my voice message so surprise me."
"… I didn't leave a message; I figure you were at work or enjoying some nightly pleasures when you didn't pick up. But any ways I was wonder if you want to go shopping with me next weekend; also catch a movie, that new movie we been hearing about comes out this weekend." Eren tried to remember what movie he wanted to see that was coming out but couldn't remember. "Yea I'm free next weekend… hell I'm free all this weekend and week."
"Hun? Don't you have work… don't tell me your playing hokey for that hot stuff what's his name Levi?" Eren gave a soft chuckle. "No the day before yesterday I ended up in jail for attacking a police officer and work didn't like it so I got fired." He heard Krista gasp over the line but just turned too laid on his back and stared at his ceiling. "Oh my god! Way did you attack an officer for Eren?"
"Armin got to close for my liking."
"How badly did you hurt him?"
"He's in the hospital from what I was told."
"Good boy, that's how you do it." Eren laughed out loud he figured Krista would approve if he said who he attacked. "But that sucks you lost your job… I guess shopping and movies are on me?" Eren laugher died down a little. "No you know I have money saved up for in case of emergencies. So I can lay out for a week or two before needing to go job hunting."
"Hey you can also go to unemployment since you worked there for so long." Eren shook his head and made a disagreement sound in his throat. "I'm not going that way; No thank you. Once I figure out when we're going to meet up and take the rest of today off I'll plan my job hunt." He heard Krista give a sigh and mutter about him being a work-alcoholic. "Hey I'm just have a year before I can start an internship, so soon I'll be a work-alcoholic with my dream job." Krista's laugh made Eren smile. "Okay, you got me there whatever, but next Saturday at 11 o'clock you know I hate going to movies when they first come out everyone so pushy."
"You got it; tell Ymir it's a date." They both laugh before saying goodbye. Looking at the unknown caller then the voicemail Eren sighed and listened to it.
"Good morning Eren, This is Erwin Smith. I know you overheard both me and Levi's conversation yesterday, and I'm apologies for Levi bringing you into this type of world but I'm sure Levi is not sorry. But Mike and Hange told both me and Levi what you did with helping out at the bar and Hange mentioned you lost your other job. So if you could handle being around Levi, you are more than welcome to come and work at Wings of Freedom. Just come in and walk behind the bar if you accept and a schedule and pay will be worked out after that." Replaying the message twice just to make sure he heard right Eren deleted it and thought what just happened.
"Not even fucking trying… wow…" Eren looking towards his clock it was getting closed to five, "Can I do it?" Getting up and head towards the shower he washed quickly before coming back to his room and looked at clothes in his closet. "I need to do some laundry." Figuring since Mike and Hange dress somewhat nice he pulled out a pair of black jeans that seemed to hug his ass and a white button up leaving the two buttons undo so everyone could see his collar.
"Wallet, keys, phone." Grabbing everything and put on his old work shoes since they were slip resistant before heading out the door. Locking the door Eren turned to see Hannes, a blond hair man that does minor repair to the apartment. "Hey Hannes, I haven't thanked you for fixing my door from the other day." Hannes looked up from the painting he was doing. "Oh Eren, your welcome; It was my pleasure. But bad timing I say for you, but that blond man had it coming if you asked me." Hannes placed his brush down into his paint jar.
"What are you talking about?"
"I remember seen the man that got taken out of your room hanging around here for months; at first I thought he moved in nearby since we're all filled here. But then he been asking about you, for about two week to anyone that comes in or out; I told him if he didn't stop I'd call the cops on him." Hannes made some hand motion as he talked but Eren tried to keep a straight face when Hannes said he was going to call the cops on Armin.
"Yea I thought he was being awfully nice. But thanks again for fixing my door so quickly." Hannes smiled and puffed out his chest slightly. "It was my pleasure. But may I ask are you going on a date? You're looking really nice." Eren shook his head. "No got a new job I'm going to be working at a bar." Hannes nodded. "If you asked me you should have stayed with that coffee shop much nicer people. But I can see the lore of all those big tips those drunks give out. So please be careful."
"I will thanks again." Eren smiled and waved goodbye as he headed down the stairs. Once outside it didn't take long to get to the bar in fact it was a shorter walk then his old job, walking in he could see Hange was already helping out a few early bar hoppers and Mike was cleaning some cups. Walking up to the side of the bar Eren took a deep breath before walking behind it and up to Mike.
"Welcome back. Today going to be like yesterday so I hope you're ready since you'll be manning the registers."
