After a little more convincing, Levi also agreed that enrolling Eren in daycare would be a good thing. Tomorrow morning Levi would call the local daycare and get Eren properly enrolled. Erwin and Levi thought that he could go Monday to Thursday, which were the same days that the bookstore was open. This way Levi wouldn't have to struggle between watching Eren and running the store, especially if they got busy. Erwin and Levi were glad that their little boy was going to be able to make friends and have some fun. They knew that Eren was just going to love daycare.
It was Sunday night and all weekend long the only thing Eren talked about was daycare. The little boy must have asked Levi and Erwin nearly a hundred questions about what it would be like. "Is it time for daycare yet?" "Do they have blocks at daycare?" "Are there gonna be lots of kids?" "Does daycare have swings on the playground?" It was getting to the point where the two men couldn't handle any more of Eren's questions.
"Eren, I don't know what they have at daycare." Levi sighed. Eren had always been and inquisitive boy ever since he learned how to talk. Normally Levi could tolerate Eren's constant question asking, but if he heard the word daycare one more time he was sure he was going to snap.
"Oh." Eren said. "Papa do you know what daycare has?"
"No Eren I don't know either." Erwin said causing Eren to pout a little. "But tomorrow is your first day so you will be able to see what they have when daddy takes you there." Eren seemed satisfied with that answer for now and went back to eating his dinner. Once Eren was finished eating his dinner he said good night to Erwin and went with Levi to get ready for bed.
After Levi got him into his pajamas Levi picked the little boy up and tucked him in. He ruffled Eren's hair and was just about to leave the room when he felt a tiny hand grab hold of his shirt sleeve. Levi turned toward Eren to see what he wanted.
"I wanna sleep in daddy and papa's bed." Eren said using his best pouty face. Levi sighed.
"Not tonight brat. Tomorrow is your first day at daycare and you need to get a good nights sleep." Levi said. He wasn't willing to give into Eren's puppy dog eyes this time. Eren had developed a new habit of wanting to sleep in Levi and Erwin's bed.
This started when he was about three and a half, Eren had had a pretty bad dream and a result he refused to sleep by himself. At first Levi and Erwin let their frightened little boy sleep in their bed, mostly because they were sure it was a phase that he would grow out of. However after almost three months of having Eren sleep in their bed, Levi and Erwin decided that they needed to start breaking him of this new habit. When it was time for bed they would wait until Eren was completely asleep then one of them would carefully pick Eren up and tuck him into his own bed. Lately Eren had been much better about sleep in his own bed, but every now and the he would put up a fuss and beg to sleep with daddy and papa.
"Please! I wanna sleep with you and papa." Eren whined. "Pleeeassse!"
"Eren. I said not tonight. Now be good and go to sleep." Levi said as he readjusted Eren's blankets before leaving the room. Eren laid in bed pouting. He really wanted to sleep in daddy and papa's bed, but he knew that when daddy said his name like that it meant that he was getting mad; and Eren didn't like it when daddy got mad at him.
A few hours later after Erwin and Levi had gone to bed, Erwin was awoken by a small hand tugging on his shirt sleeve.
"Papa." Eren whispered as he kept tugging on Erwin's sleeve . "Papa wake up."
"Eren what are you doing up? You should be asleep." Erwin whispered. Eren was quiet for a moment then looked down at the floor.
"I had a bad dream." Erwin knew that Eren didn't really have a bad dream because if he did he would have been crying and calling for daddy or papa so he wouldn't have to leave his room. Erwin knew that what Eren really wanted was to sleep in their bed even though Levi had already told him that he couldn't. Eren stood their pouting in the hopes that papa would let him have his way. Luckily for Eren, Erwin happened to be a big softy when it came to the people he cared about; despite his Captain American tough guy appearance.
"Come here." Erwin said as he lifted Eren up into their bed. "Go right to sleep ok, we don't want to wake daddy up." He whispered.
"Ok. Night papa." Eren whispered as he snuggled up to Erwin.
The alarm went off at 6:30 just like it did everyday during the week. Levi reached out and turned it off then laid back down for a minute to try to adjust to being awake. He was just about to get up when Eren jumped excitedly on top of him, causing Levi to groan.
"Daddy daddy it's daycare day! Get up get up." Eren said as he continued to bounce up and down on Levi's chest. Without a word Levi sat up and carried the excited brunette to the kitchen to have breakfast, Erwin following them chuckling slightly. The happy little family of three sat down and had breakfast together, and once they were finished Erwin said goodbye and headed off to work; while Levi got Eren dressed and ready to go to daycare. Levi locked the door to their apartment then carried Eren down the stairs. Since Eren could be accident prone Levi decided that he or Erwin should carry the four year old down the steep steps to avoid any injuries. Levi continued to carry Eren once they reached the bottom of the steps, until the little boy caught sight of Farlen at the front desk of the bookstore.
"Farlen!" Eren called as he wiggled his way out of Levi's arms. He ran over to Farlen and started tugging on his pant leg. "Farlen guess what."
"What Eren?" Farlen asked as he ruffled the little boy's already messy brown hair.
"I'm gonna go to daycare today!" Eren said excitedly.
"Well now, doesn't that sound like fun." Eren nodded his head yes, then took hold of Levi's hand and began insistently saying lets go.
"I'll be back after I drop Eren off at daycare." Levi said as the two of them headed out the door.
Since the daycare was only about a ten minute walk from the bookstore Levi that he and Eren would walk instead of taking the car. Levi and Eren's hand as they went down the street, the little boy chattered the whole time about how it was daycare day and how much fun it was going to be.
When they arrived at the daycare Levi opened the front door and they went inside. Levi glared when he saw the spunky red headed girl whose hair was pulled back into pigtails, she appeared to be one of the daycare teachers; Levi would recognize those pigtails anywhere.
"Well look what the cat dragged in, no one told me you were back in town Isabel." Levi said snidely. Isabel gave him a goofy smirk.
"I wanted it to be a surprise so I told everyone not to tell you. Besides you could at least pretend to be happy to see me after so long, god you're such a sourpuss big bro." Isabel said as she stuck her tongue out. Isabel and Levi met when Isabel was in middle school and he was in high school. Isabel was trying to nurse an injured bird back to health and Levi helped her out, ever since then she looked up to him like an older brother.
Eren tugged on Levi's pant leg to get his attention, wanting to know if he could play yet.
"Look at you Eren, you've gotten so big." Isabel said as he squatted down to Eren's level. "I haven't seen you since you were two years old." Isabel was a free spirit and never stuck around town for too long. She was always off on one adventure or another and it was the first time in almost two years that Levi had seen her; but no matter how long she stayed away she always came home. "Do you remember me?" Eren shook his head no. " I'm your daddy's friend Isabel."
"I'm Eren, I'm four." Eren said as he held up four fingers. When ever Eren introduced himself he always said his name and age. It was a quirk that Levi and Erwin found amusing. Isabel smiled at Eren and patted him on the head before standing back up to Levi's level.
"So how long do you plan to grace us with you're presence this time?" Levi asked in his usual cold manner. Before she couple respond, one of the other employees asked her if she could watch the rest of the kids momentarily while she could run to the supply closet.
"Well duty calls. I'll come over for dinner tonight so we can catch up." Isabel said as she headed towards the playroom.
"Tch. Don't invite yourself over."
"I'll be there at 6:30 and you better make something yummy for dinner." She said as she stuck her tongue out at him. Levi sighed then he squatted down to help Eren take off his jacket and hang it on the coat rack with the other children's coats.
"Alright brat be good. I'll be back to get you at 12:30." This daycare offered two options for childcare, half day or full day. Erwin and Levi decided that they would start out with Eren going half days so that it would be easier for him to adjust to this new change.
"No. Daddy stay and play with me." Eren said as he grabbed Levi's hand tightly.
"Daycare is for children Eren. I need to go back to work." Levi said as he pulled his hand away. Eren started to pout.
"I wanna stay with daddy." Eren whined.
"Eren you've been driving me crazy for three days talking about going to daycare. So your going to stay here." Levi said sternly.
"But..." Eren started to say but got distracted when he saw Armin and his grandfather walk through the door. "Armin!" Eren said excitedly as he ran over to the other boy.
"Hi Eren." Armin said quietly. Eren talked a mile a minute as Armin's grandfather help Armin out of his jacket. The little blonde boy smiled the whole time, he was happy because it was the first time another kid wanted to talk to him this much. Being a shy child, Armin only had one other friend. So he was happy that Eren really seemed to want to be his friend. Armin showed Eren the way to the playroom while he kept talking. Levi took this as his opportunity to leave without causing Eren to become upset.
Eren was in awe when he and Armin walked into the playroom. He had never seen so many toys and other kids in the same place before. Eren was used to spending time with Erwin, Levi and their friends; and since none of daddy and papa's friends had kids he never really had an opportunity to play with other children before. Even when Levi and Erwin took Eren to the playground at the park, Eren always played with daddy and papa not the other kids. He was very excited to play with Armin and the other kids.
"Come on Armin, let's play with the blocks." Eren said dragging Armin towards where the blocks were.
"Eren wait." Armin said as he tried to get Eren to stop dragging him.
"You don't want to." Eren said looking confused. Armin shook his head. All of the other kids were playing with toys so Eren didn't understand why Armin didn't want to play too.
"What do you wanna play?" Eren asked.
"I like to read books." Armin said. The little blonde fully expected Eren to laugh at him then go off and play with the other children. Not many of the other children would want to spend time reading; but to Armin's surprise Eren didn't laugh. Instead he seemed to be excited.
"Ok!" Eren said loudly. "Let's read together." Armin smiled and lead Eren over to the bookshelf. Armin picked a book and the two boys sat down together. Eren was amazed by Armin's reading ability, the blonde read almost the entire story out loud by himself. He only had to ask one of the teachers for help on three or four words. Eren also read fairly well for his age. Since Levi did own a bookstore, the two of them spent quite a bit of time reading together. Although Eren was having fun reading he had a pretty short attention span and was starting to get restless.
"Let's play with blocks now." Eren said. He stood up and held his hand out to Armin. Armin seemed hesitant, he usually preferred to read and never really played with other toys. However there was just something about Eren that made Armin want to step out of his own little bubble. He reached out and grabbed Eren's hand and the two of them went over to where the blocks were and started building a tower. The two boys had actually made a pretty decent sized tower and had started building another one next to it when a little girl with long black hair walked up to them.
"I've never seen Armin play with blocks before." She said as she looked at both boys. Armin blushed a little and looked at the floor. Eren stared at her confused.
"Why?" Eren asked.
"He always reads." She said. It was obvious that this girl didn't talk much.
"I'm Eren, I'm four." Eren said as he held up four fingers, just like he always did when he introduced himself.
"Mikasa." She said. Eren smiled at her and asked if she wanted to play with them. Mikasa nodded her head yes and the three of them played with the blocks until they had a whole towns worth of block towers. This little group of three were certainly going to be life long friends, they just didn't know it yet.