Chapter 11 – The Visit - Part 1

"-ren? Eren? Hello, earth to Eren?" Armin waved a hand in his friend's face, in an attempt to pull her out of her daze.

"Huh?" Eren looked up at her friend, smiling sheepishly when she realized her thoughts had taken her attention away from their small get-together. "Sorry, what was that?"

Armin sighed and shook his head, smiling as he plopped down next to her on the couch in his dorm's common room.

"I was trying to ask if you wanted to do anything while we wait for the others to come. Mikasa's tied up for another hour because she's helping out with the Judo classes that start next week, and the rest of the guys are still in or just getting out of practice."

"Oh," was all Eren said in response, her thoughts drifting back to earlier in the day when Levi took her out for coffee, and asked her to be his girlfriend, and then kissed her… well, kissed her cheek, but still, it was a kiss and Eren just couldn't stop thinking about it. She'd never dated anyone before; she'd never had time, nor really cared enough to bother with all the drama involved. Sure, in high school she'd had a few dates to the dances, but she spent most of her younger years either working or hanging out with Armin and Mikasa, much like she did now.

"Eren?"

"Hmm…yes, what's up?" She turned and saw Armin with a questioning look on his face.

"Alright, care to tell me what's got your mind so preoccupied?" Armin pulled his feet up and sat against the arm of the sofa, settling himself into a comfortable position and facing Eren.

Eren mimicked him, only, she let her legs stretch out to take up the unoccupied space on the sofa that lay in between them. She grabbed one of the throw pillows and squeezed it to her chest, burying her face in it for a moment before looking up to meet Armin's gaze.

"I don't really know if I can honestly…" Eren trailed off as she remembered one of Levi's conditions, 'Let's give this a week to settle in,' she sighed and then decided she wouldn't mention specifics. 'I've known Armin almost all my life, he'd never do or say anything that would hurt me or the people I care about.' The thought was enough to calm her nerves and she began again, "Armin, do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Of course, you can talk to me about anything Eren, you know that," he offered her a reassuring smile as she readjusted and settled the pillow into her lap.

"Have you ever dated anyone before? I mean, like serious, all exclusive dated?"

"No, not exactly. I mean, I would have told you if I ever found anyone serious."

"O-oh…you're right, sorry that was a silly thing to ask." Eren directed her nervous energy to the pillow, as she squeezed and released it repeatedly.

"Why do you ask?" Armin continued on, "Is there someone you're interested in?"

The question caused Eren to look back up at him with a wide eyed and somewhat pleading look. "Well, you could say that…" she trailed off and looked back down at the pillow.

"Is it anyone I know?" Armin's interest peeked. At Eren's reluctance to answer he began to run through a list of possibilities, "…Reiner?"

"No, no," Eren shook her head, "he's hot, but definitely not my type, besides, aren't he and Annie dating?"

Armin chuckled, "Is it Marco?"

Eren smiled and shook her head, "Wrong again, next."

Armin smiled and tried again, "Bert?"

Eren scrunched her nose and tried to think about who 'Bert' could be.

"Bertolt. The tall, dark, and handsome one who is always sweating from practice." Armin clarified for his confused friend. "I think it's safe to assume he's a no too?"

Eren laughed at him and nodded.

"What about…Jean?" Armin bit his lip to hold back his laughter at the look of disgust that passed over Eren's face.

"Hell no!" she shouted a bit louder than necessary. "How could you even think that?" She puffed out her cheeks and pulled her legs up to curl up around the pillow and hide her pouting face.

Armin lost his composure and burst out laughing, barely able to speak out "S-sorry I couldn't help it!"

Eren glared up at him playfully from behind her pillow and took advantage of the moment. She bounced over to the opposite end of the sofa and started to tickle Armin as punishment for his ridiculous implication. Armin's laughter grew louder and Eren's joined in with his as the two friends tickled each other in a childish competition between young adults.

Armin finally stopped his attacks and held up his hands defensively, yielding the win to Eren as they both came down off of their giggle induced high. He wiped the tears that formed in his eyes and stared over to Eren who was doing the same.

"Oh no…it can't be…is it me?!" He asked playfully.

Eren looked at him with wide eyes and placed both of her hands on her cheeks, making an exaggerated 'O' with her mouth.

"How ever did you figure that out, braniac." She gently punched him in the shoulder.

Their eyes met and the laughing fest began anew.

After several more minutes of laughter, silence returned to the room as the two tried to regulate their breathing. Armin looked over to Eren and decided to try again.

"Eren," she turned and looked at him, "is everything alright?"

Eren smiled and nodded her head, "Everything's fine Armin, a little confusing but it's fine…I promise, I'll be able to tell you more about it soon, so don't worry."

Armin studied her with a serious look for a moment as he searched her eyes for any indication of lying, "Okay, but I expect a full and detailed report when you're able to talk about it."

"Detailed report on what?" The voice cut in after Armin finished speaking. Jean came into view and walked around the sofa, plopping down next to Eren and placing his arm behind her head on the cushions. "Sharing juicy secrets without me?" He smirked wiggled his brow at Eren.

"No. Actually we were just talking about you…" Eren said, glaring both at him and at his arm, annoyed with the close proximity. She scooted closer to Armin, practically forcing him to move to the corner of the sofa.

"R-really…what about me?" Jean asked excitedly, a slight blush coming to his cheeks. He scooted closer to Eren who instinctively leaned back and heavily into Armin's personal space.

"…about how you and the others were taking your sweet ass time to get here."

Jean's face fell and he moved away from Eren, but only an inch or so. His arm however remained draped over the back of the sofa and close to Eren's head.

"W-whatever, we had practice. It's not like I look this good without putting in some effort." Jean smirked and lifted the arm behind Eren's head to show off his 'good looks' by flexing his biceps.

Eren just rolled her eyes and let out a dramatic sigh. "Wow," she turned to look at Jean, "you should be real proud of that," she pointed to his flexed arm, "I've never seen such a good looking noodle."

Armin had to slap his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing and Eren fixed Jean with her own smirk. "Shut up Yeager." He lowered his arm back to the sofa and scooted closer to Eren, ignoring the icy look she was sending him.

The three were soon joined by the rest of their friends, trickling in one after another. Eren managed to find herself comfortably snuggled up between Mikasa and Armin, while Jean sulked at the other end of the cramped sofa space with Marco comforting him. Reiner and Bertolt sat on the other smaller sofa with Annie fit comfortably in between them.

By the time Eren was ready to go home, they'd watched two movies and gone through 4 large oven-bake pizzas. In a last ditch effort to salvage his hurt pride, Jean offered to drive Eren home since it was nearing the early hours of the morning. She politely declined, sensing that she'd bullied him enough for one night.

Armin ended up driving her home and she was grateful for it. At 2:04 AM, Eren walked into her apartment and made her way to her bedroom to get ready for bed and charge her dead phone. She made sure that it was properly plugged before she moved to her drawers to grab clean night clothes, and then made her way to the bathroom to wash the sweat and dirt that had accumulated throughout the day away.

When she finally laid her head to her pillow, Eren reached over to her nightstand and turned on her phone to set her alarm. After a few seconds of startup and programmed greetings and animations, Eren clicked on her alarm app and set it for 6:50 AM. She was about to set her phone down when the screen quickly re-lit and vibrated a few times.

'Two new messages?' She contemplated just laying the phone down and ignoring the messages until she got up later that morning, but something urged her to click on the message icon.

Both were from Levi.

[Received 8:15 PM] Levi : I know we planned to have dinner again tomorrow evening, but I need to cancel that. Family is coming over. I don't think you're quite ready to meet my parents.

[Received 10:04 PM] Levi : I'm sorry if I upset you, how about we have a late lunch instead? I'll pick you up, let me know when you get off work tomorrow.

Eren giggled to herself and hugged her phone to her chest as she sighed. She quickly typed back her response and then set the phone to rest on her nightstand.

[Sent 2:32 AM] Sorry for the delay, my phone died and I just got home to charge it. Lunch sounds great, I'm supposed to get off at 1 but I'll text you just to make sure. See you tomorrow 3

Eren rolled over in bed, turning to lay on her side. She'd just started to doze off when the violent vibration roused her again.

[Received 2:36 AM] Levi: A little late to just be getting home don't you think? Well, enjoy it while you can. See you later today.

Eren scrunched her nose and huffed. 'Wow, he's even sarcastic over texts.'

[Sent 2:36 AM] I'm young and enjoying my college life, what's your excuse for being up so late Professor?

She kept her phone in her hands this time, knowing that Levi was awake and likely to respond.

[Received 2:38 AM] Levi : I wouldn't be awake right now if someone didn't feel the need to respond to texts at 3 AM. You have work soon Eren, go to bed. Sleep well.

Eren laughed at his chiding and sent her last reply of the night.

[Sent 2:39 AM] I wouldn't still be awake if you didn't reply to my responses you know. :P

Thanks, goodnight.

Eren set her phone down and let her heavy lids shut as sleep finally came to her.

Levi's preparations for his parent's stay as well as for his niece began only one day prior to his confession to Eren. He had planned for them to have a nice cozy dinner and maybe watch a few movies together, however his plans were abruptly changed when he received a call from his younger sister, warning him of their parent's intentions as well as the fact that they had her daughter, since she was stuck in an overseas business trip for another week.

His parents had already planned and paid for a vacation when they received the call from their daughter about babysitting. Caroline, Levi's younger sister, homeschooled her daughter Claire, so missing school wasn't a huge deal when Caroline was occasionally forced to leave her home office and travel. Of course their parents agreed, thinking they would be able to cancel their plans and get a full refund, but they weren't able to.

After Caroline explained the situation, Levi agreed to watch Claire for the next week, allowing both Caroline and their parents to continue their trips. Levi suggested leaving Claire in a boarding child care center, but Caroline was worried about leaving her alone with complete strangers for an entire week.

He'd just finished fixing up the guest bedroom for his niece, changing the sheets to freshly washed ones and fluffing up the pillows. As a finishing touch, he placed the smallest teddy bear that he'd purchased from the bookstore the day before on the freshly fluffed pillow.

After he finished refreshing the room, he moved to the kitchen and began preparations for lunch. He'd decided on a simple, but comforting onion and beef soup that he could cook in the crock-pot since he wasn't positive on what time Eren would be released from work. He prepared the bread slices and wrapped them up and set them into the fridge until he needed them.

Once the lunch was in the works and his loft was up to shape, he slipped on his running shorts and a muscle shirt, and then made his way to the gym to get a quick cardio session in. After an hour on the treadmill, he made his way back to shower and get dressed.

He settled at his desk and started gathering and sorting through his materials for the next week of classes. After about two hours passed, he got up to check the soup and turned the cooker from high to low. He checked his phone and read that he had a message from Eren saying that she was going to be let out a bit late because a new shipment came in. Levi sighed and leaned back into his chair as he sent a reply.

[Sent 11:34 AM] That's fine. What time will you be out?

About thirty minutes passed before his phone buzzed.

[Received 12:03 PM] Eren: Hopefully soon, we're getting through this pretty quickly, it was a small shipment. I'll say 1:30ish? Sorry for the trouble.

He read it over and then quickly responded.

[Sent 12:04 PM] Alright, I'll be in the parking lot at 1:30 then. See you soon.

Another hour and a half passed, and Levi found himself sat in his coupe, leaning back into his heated seats as he waited for Eren to come out. Ten minutes later he felt his phone buzz, and then another two minutes passed before he saw her form hurrying towards his car. The wind was fairly strong, and mussed her already wild brown locks even more as they whipped in the wind.

Eren popped into the heated seat and immediately relaxed into the warm black leather. "This is nice," she breathed out, leaning one of her chilled cheeks onto the heated material.

"Hello to you too." Levi said, raising a brow at her disheveled yet endearing appearance. He reached over and ran his fingers through her hair a few times, detangling it a bit and smoothing it out. Eren let out a winded laugh and leaned into his hand, letting her eyes close while he played with her hair.

"Hi," she opened her eyes and grinned. They shared a short moment of silence, enjoying their little moment of closeness until Eren's stomach growled. She quickly put her hand on her stomach and offered an apologetic smile to Levi, "I'm hungry."

He toyed with her hair a moment longer then pulled his hand away, and placed it on the wheel, "Then let's go eat."

He zipped out of the parking space and a few minutes later, parked in his own familiar space outside his building.

Eren hobbled out of the car, 'You think I'd be used to this by now,' she thought to herself and internally cursed when she saw the amused look on Levi's face, 'he did that on purpose, I know it.'

Eren sat at the dinner table, nursing the glass of water Levi had given her while he finished up preparations for lunch. She'd watched him place some slices of cheese and herb coated bread into the oven to toast and then pull two decent sized bowls from his cupboard. He opened the little pot that was plugged into the wall and then stirred whatever was inside of it, from the smell of it, and the nonstop, highly audible growling of Eren's stomach, it was sure to be delicious. She waited anxiously in her chair for the meal and all but yanked it out of Levi's hands when he gave her the filled bowl.

It took all of Eren's self restraint to wait for Levi to sit down and adjust himself before digging into the delectable stew. She dipped her spoon into the soup and blew on it quickly, then tasted it. 'T-this is delicious…wow…' she looked up at Levi with wide eyes and then focused back on the meal in front of her. After a few more minutes of impatient slurps and hungry lapping, Eren looked up from her meal to see that Levi had yet to start eating.

She raised her brow at him; silently question what was wrong since she currently had a spoonful of delicious beef and onion soup occupying her mouth. She finished that spoonful and took a quick sip of water before addressing Levi's obvious stare.

"What's wrong? Are you not hungry?"

"Nothing's wrong. Your eating habits are actually quite entertaining; I was distracted by the show." He smirked dipped his spoon into the soup, breaking up the soup soaked bread into a few pieces before letting a spoonful of his creation pass his lips. He finished his meal, watching Eren eat the whole time.

When she was finished, she wiped at her lips and took another quick sip of water. She sat and waited for Levi to finish before she took both of their dishes to the sink and began washing them.

Levi was a bit surprised by her offering to take his dishes, but he let her do as she liked. He was pleased that she'd done the dishes immediately and let a small smile rest on his face as he joined her in the kitchen.

"You don't have to wash them you know," he said, reaching into the sink and pulling out the cleaned dishes to dry them.

"I know, just think of it as a thank you for preparing such a delicious meal." She turned to him with a sweet smile on her lips. She rinsed the last dish and handed it to Levi before she rinsed her hands and then dried them. She made her way to living area and sat on the familiar slate colored velvet love seat.

After drying and putting the last dish away, Levi followed Eren to the living room and joined her on the same small sofa. He grabbed the remote and hit the power button to turn his flat screen on. He placed his arm over the back of the small sofa, behind Eren's head as he flipped through the channels. Eren thought back to the previous night when Jean had done a similar thing, but then quickly chased the thought away as she leaned a bit closer to Levi.

"Anything you want to watch?" Levi asked as he scooted a bit closer to Eren, letting his arm wrap behind her head and resting his hand on her shoulder.

"Not really, I saw the two movies I've been dying to see last night with my friends," she tensed a moment when she felt his hand on her shoulder, but then relaxed and leaned her head down to rest on his shoulder, "Re-runs are fine."

With a satisfied smile on his face, Levi fully wrapped his arm around Eren, bringing her closer to him as he flipped to a channel that was showing a marathon of 'Will and Grace.' "Re-runs it is then," he felt a slight shiver from Eren as she rested on his chest, "Are you cold?"

"A bit," Eren said, looking up at him. He lightly tapped her shoulder and she raised herself up. He stood and walked over to the chaise and pulled the oversized white plush blanket off of it, then returned to the seat to drape it over Eren and himself. After readjusting, he returned to his previous position and invited Eren back into his arms.

She shyly smiled at the invitation but scooted close and leaned back onto him anyway, allowing herself to be wrapped with both his strong arm and the fluffy white blanket.

They sat in this position until early evening, when Levi's parents were due and he had to begin to prepare dinner. Eren offered to help him, but he declined the offer, thinking it to be rude to have her help him but then ask to her to leave before she got to eat anything.

He took her home and walked her back to her apartment. As they stood in the doorway saying their goodbyes and making plans for the next week, Eren leaned down and placed a quick, chaste peck on Levi's cheek. She smiled shyly and said one more, speedy goodbye before she closed the door.

She leaned against the door for support while her heart pounded in her chest, while Levi stood in front of her door, his hand over the spot where her lips had just been and a surprised expression on his face. He blinked a few times, then dropped his hand and made his way back to his coupe. He wore a small smile on his way home and throughout the rest of the night as his parents came by for dinner and to drop Claire off.

A/N

This chapter is going to make my next dental visit expensive.