Everyone has had those fantasies before. You know the ones, don't you? The fantasies where you finally muster up the courage to fight back and punch the school's biggest bully right in the face. You send him running off into the shadows, wailing and sobbing just as you were forced to do within the shadows of your bedroom. Or what about your boss? We've all had horrible bosses, right? Haven't you ever imagined being able to snap back and point your finger at them just as they've done to you? It's an empowering feeling - just the thought of it - but you know you'd never act on it. Why?

You're smart enough to know that simple fantasies aren't enough to protect you from broken noses or pink slips.

And while I had neither broken nose, nor pink slip to worry about in the case of my fantastic little fantasy, I knew that causing a scene in the middle of the coffee shop wouldn't have been the best idea. Oh, but believe you me, I'd definitely thought about it. What I wouldn't have given to strangle the life out of that piece of trendy trash...

As he thanklessly grabbed his coffee cup, eyeing me in a side sort of glance as he strolled toward the main door, I almost said something. I almost opened my mouth and I almost let him hear of the sorrows that I had seen. The tear-stained face I had to sooth. The shaking shoulders I had to calm. The broken heart I had to mend. I almost opened my mouth - but I didn't and I'm glad.

Talking down to Jean wouldn't have made the pain he'd caused Eren magically disappear. Telling him how despicable of a human being he was wouldn't have changed him for the better. And dumping bitter coffee all over his horse-shaped head - not matter how hilarious - wouldn't have guaranteed me a sweeter satisfaction.

Life goes on. Stuff happens. Oh well.

I watched him exit the coffee shop, and as a sigh of relief seemed to be the most appropriate response, I'd felt even more relieved when my name was finally called.

Heading up to the pick-up counter, I grabbed my coffee mug, minding how it was filled to its absolute brim with a dark roast blend, and snaked my way around the still-forming line in an effort to find a seat in the back of the shop. For a place to meet up with an old friend whom I'd hadn't seen in a long while, this definitely wouldn't have been my top choice pick.

Drowning out the sounds of busy chatter and the classic 80's rock music that was playing over the shop's faulty speaker system, I sat down at the table that was the furthest in the back and scoffed as it wobbled under the weight of my elbows. It must have been made to have uneven legs, or something. Just how in the Hell was this coffee shop Erwin's favourite? I mean, it was decent, but if I'd said it once, I'd say it again: I was completely biased.

I took a sip from my coffee mug - a tolerable taste, but nothing extraordinary - and wedged my hand between the back of the chair and my back pocket to pull out my cell phone. I'd wanted to see if I'd gotten any more text messages from Erwin. When I hadn't, I still started up my phone's messaging application regardless. Tapping my finger to Hanji's contact information, I wrote her the following message:

'You'll never guess who I just saw.'

Saturdays were some of our busiest days at the shop, so I hadn't expected Hanji to reply to my text as quickly as she had. In fact, I was a bit disconcerted by how fast my phone had lit up with a response. That was never a good sign for business.

'What? What? Who did you see? Erwin?'

For an out-of-the-box thinker like Hanji, she really wasn't utilizing her thinking skills to the best of their abilities. Sighing as I took another sip from my mug, I popped my phone back into my hands and typed out another message.

'No. Erwin's stuck in traffic. Take another guess.'

It had taken a bit longer for me to receive a message in return from Hanji this time around, but that most likely wasn't due to a customer, and was more likely because she was actually trying to take a legitimate guess.

When my phone finally buzzed and I'd picked it up to see what she'd said, I couldn't help but laugh.

'I don't know. Isabel?'

Isabel was an ex-girlfriend of mine who I'd dated for no more than a month back in high school. Hanji had never met Isabel personally, but I'd told her enough silly stories about her for the name to have stuck in her head. And don't get me wrong, Isabel was a nice enough girl, but our relationship was pretty much destined to end from the moment it'd started.

'Nah, but good guess, I suppose.'

I wondered if I should have made Hanji take one more guess or just tell her flat out who I'd seen. Knowing that Erwin would probably show up at any minute, I decided to just tell her.

'I saw Jean.'

At first, Hanji had simply sent me an array of key-smashed letters that were incoherent, yet legible enough to understand her confused excitement. Her next message was much more expected.

'WHAT THE HELL?! HOW DO YOU KNOW IT WAS HIM?!'

Calling her would have been so much simpler, but Hanji would just have to handle a half-assed explanation over text for now. I could fill her in with more of the heavy details later.

'I was in line with him at this coffee shop that I'm waiting for Erwin at. I didn't know it was him at first. He didn't start talking to me, until he'd noticed my tattoos. Plus, he was weirdly obsessed with talking to me about his 'ex' and how they had tattoos just like me, or whatever. Anyway, when his name was called up to go and get his coffee, the barista pronounced his name wrong and he ended up correcting her, just like Eren said he loved to do.'

Hanji had to have been in the middle of hammering out her response to that one, but unfortunately, her message would have to be left unread for now.

"You've sure taken a liking to technology, haven't you?"

It wasn't just the sound of that familiar voice that had snagged my attention, but also the motion of the stagnant, opposing chair as it was pulled back to happily seat its new occupant. Sending the table into a bit of a tizzy when he'd settled his arms on its surface, the glint of his Rolex and the glimmer in his cerulean gaze almost had me rolling my eyes.

Huh. Another almost. It would seem that I was very in control of my actions that day. Well, so far, at least.

"No, not really," I spoke with a sigh. Setting my cell phone down and replacing its absence with my coffee mug, I eyed my new company inquisitively as I asked, "You'd get bored, too, if you sat here waiting for someone for nearly thirty minutes, wouldn't you?"

Holding his hands up in his defense, he nodded his head in agreement. "Point taken, point taken. Anyway, how have you been, Levi? It's good to finally see you again."

For someone who could probably fill ten swimming pools with his life savings, Erwin had always been a very modest man. Save for that shiny hunk of clockwork that he wore around his wrist, every time I saw him, he was always wearing something affordable; sweaters in the winter and t-shirts in the summer. Nothing fancy, nothing uncommon.

Today was no different. He was simply wearing an argyle v-neck with a pair of tan slacks. No one but myself would have thought for a second that this was a man made of millions, and I'm more than positive that's the way he wanted it to be - for as I'd previously mentioned, Erwin had always been a very modest man.

"I've been alright," I replied easily, taking another small sip from my coffee mug. "You? Hanji told me that you just recently got engaged."

"Ah, yes," Erwin nodded, wearing a bashful, yet boastful smile. "That's right. As you know, we've been dating for a couple of years now, so I figured marriage would be the next best step for the both of us."

"And obviously she must have felt the same way," I said, speaking against the smooth lip of my mug.

I was genuinely happy for Erwin, I really was, but I had always found the whole thrill of an engagement to be kind of pointless. It's like, if you're in the right relationship, the two of you are most likely already talking in abstracts about the idea of marriage, so what's the big surprise? Oh, and don't even get me started on the rings. I know how happy a girl gets when she has a huge rock on her fourth finger, but I can't help from feeling like owning an object that's worth far more than it needs to be to symbolize something so simple places the focus on the material over the marriage.

Hell, but who am I to judge? Engagements are taking place all over the world as we speak, and rings are probably being purchased just as frequently. And for his lady's sake, I sure hope Erwin bought her something in the sparkly, six-zero range.

I was a bit surprised that we hadn't stayed on the subject of Erwin's marriage for all that long. He'd off-handedly mentioned something about their wedding taking place in the autumn months of the following year, but that was it. No engagement stories, nothing about housing plans, just a simple "I hope you and Hanji will be able to make it to the wedding."

Nearly finished with my cup of coffee by the time I'd realized Erwin hadn't purchased anything for himself, I said, "You know, it's kind of pointless to be sitting in a coffee shop if you're not going to drink any coffee. They might kick you out."

"Hmm," he hummed thoughtfully. "You're right about that. I'll go up and get something right now, then. Oh! By the way, how much did your coffee cost? I said I'd pay for it, wouldn't I?"

I lifted an eyebrow at him. "And you honestly thought I would accept that kind of offer? Give me a break and go get yourself a cup of coffee already."

I took pride in being able to make Erwin scoff at that. He was fairly easy to amuse, but what he found truly humorous tended to be very limited. Although, I was pretty lucky with him. I could get away with saying a lot of the things that he wouldn't dare let others say to him; even Hanji.

And speaking of Hanji, when Erwin had stepped away from our table to join the long line of awaiting customers, promising a hopefully quick return, I'd turned my attention back to my phone, flipping it on to see what she had said. Her message made me want to laugh.

Aside from the plethora of exclamation points and scattered gibberish, she'd replied, 'Of all people to run into, it just had to be him. Damn.'

Feeling very much the same way, I responded shortly, saying only, 'I know, right?'

Hanji's speedy replies hadn't begun to bother me until that very moment, because it wasn't until that very moment that she'd made me think. And God, did she make me think hard.

'Did you already tell Eren?'

The question itself had been innocent and honest, but that's probably what pissed me off the most about it. My first instinct? Yeah, it sure as Hell had been to tell Eren all about this, but with the more time I'd been given to ponder on the whole thing, I began to wonder if telling him would have even been worth the while. Just the mere thought of Jean tore Eren up inside, and after having to deal with that stupid phone call with him, I could only imagine that he'd probably never even want to hear his name again, let alone the fact that I'd seen him, interacted with him, and had listened to him go on and on about an old ex as if he were still pining. Eren didn't need that mental image in his life, and quite frankly, neither did I.

My fingers tapped aimlessly against the lettered keys on my phone, trying to put what I'd wanted to say into words that wouldn't make it sound like I was keeping some sort of dirty secret from him. "Eren doesn't need to know" and "I don't want to tell him" were easy options; they got to the point that I was trying to make, but they both sounded downright Godawful.

Deciding that 'I'd rather just forget that the whole thing even happened,' was probably my best bet, I typed out my reply and set down my cell phone just in time to see Erwin walking back over to our table, a cup of coffee in one hand, and a cheese danish in the other.

"With the way you're constantly texting like that," Erwin began to say, as he moved the chair back to sit down, "you're making me wonder if you've got yourself a little lover, Levi."

Reaching over to pluck off a piece of Erwin's danish and pop it into my mouth, I gave him a shrug of my shoulders and a nod of my head. "Well, if you consider Hanji to be a 'little lover' of mine, then by all means, be my guest. She's the person I've been texting."

"I see, I see. My mistake, then." Taking a piece of the danish himself and breaking it off bit by bit before taking his first bite, Erwin felt the need to ask, "And how is Hanji doing these days?"

I shrugged again. "The same, I guess. Annoying, loud, irreplaceable. She and Mike keep having the same, on-and-off sort of fling, so I'm not even going to try to decode her current relationship status."

Erwin nodded knowingly. Just as Hanji had never met Isabel, Erwin had never met Mike, yet he'd heard enough about him to know what I was getting at by saying that.

"What about you, Levi?" Erwin questioned, mimicking my unique cup-hold as he brought his mug to his lips to give his coffee a gentle blow. "Have you gotten yourself involved in any relationships lately?"

I sighed. That question had been inevitable, and I'd known that from the start, but I'd been hoping that maybe, just maybe, we would have been able to hold off on the whole story of my love life until we'd gotten ourselves more reacquainted with one another. Oh, well. I suppose it couldn't be helped.

Listening to the delicate chime pf the ceramic as my fingernails rapped rhythmically against the edge of my coffee mug, I gave in with a small nod. Damn it, here we go. "I, uh...well, yeah. I have...and am."

But of course, Erwin had been genuinely surprised to learn that I had found someone willing enough to deal with my stand-offish attitude and my overly artistic behaviors. He wasn't the only one who was surprised, though; I was pretty surprised, too.

"Wow, I would have never guessed!" Hearing him say that left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. Maybe it was my rags against his riches, but some of the things he said had a tendency to sound just a bit too condescending. "Who's the lucky lady?"

"I'm dating a guy."

"Oh." Yeah. Oh.

It wasn't new knowledge to Erwin that I was pretty flexible with who I liked hang around with, but for a blatant heterosexual like himself, he sometimes forgot about how open I was with my relationships. Now was the perfect opportunity for a little refresher course.

After a silence that was a bit too uncomfortable for my tastes, Erwin finally asked, "Well, what's his name?"

"Eren," I answered plainly. Nothing more, nothing less; then again, you can't really give less than someone's name.

"Eren, huh?" he repeated for some reason. "What does he do, this Eren?"

In no more than a minute, we'd gone from two friends having a casual conversation over coffee, to sounding like a parent and their child. I had honestly always pictured someone like Erwin to be the perfect father-figure, but that didn't mean that I wanted him to be my father-figure.

Taking the last sip of my coffee, coffee that had already become disgustingly cold, I answered, "He doesn't do much of anything. He's still a student." I regretted that answer. While it was true to most of its degree, I almost felt like I was degrading all of the work that Eren put into his photography by saying that he hardly did anything. I wished that I could have taken that back, but it was already too late. Erwin was speaking up again.

"Well, that's...that's a bit surprising. I'd never pinned you to be the type of person to date someone so much younger than you, Levi."

I shrugged for the umpteenth time that afternoon and shoved my coffee mug aside. "Yeah, me either. But, you know, whatever."

Obviously still trying to wrap his head around my relationship with Eren, Erwin asked another important question. Furthermore, the one I'd been dreading the most. "How did you two meet? I doubt it was on his college campus."

Well, he was definitely right about that.

With a roll of my shoulders, stiff from so much shrugging, I prepared myself for the worst, when I'd said, "We met at the tattoo shop."

Erwin bit off another piece of his danish, before uttering a soft chuckle. "You know, Levi, you're being pretty cryptic about this whole thing. You've got me interested and I want to hear more details. So, you met at your shop. Was he a customer of yours, or something?"

A customer? He was much more than that now. "He was..." I answered slowly, "...and still is."

"Still is? What do you mean by that?"

Alright. Here we really go.

"If you want more details, then I guess I'd better start off from the beginning, huh?" I said, whilst sighing. "You see, I pretty much hated Eren's guts, when I'd first saw him. He came strolling into my shop right around closing, wearing the most horrendous outfit I had ever seen. But I guess all of that is beside the point, right? Anyway, the only reason he had even come into my shop wasn't because he was looking to get a new tattoo...he was looking to get an old one removed."

It didn't take much to notice the change in Erwin's demeanor, after I'd said that. His jaw had hardened and his fingers had become rather stiff around his mug. "...A tattoo removal?"

The drop in Erwin's voice sent shivers down my spine. That very same voice was the reason why some of the best times I'd spent as his underling had also been some of the worst.

"Yeah, exactly that," I affirmed, continuing on with the rest of my story. It was actually a bit nostalgic to think back like this. Eren was still the same, stupid kid I'd met on that late summer evening, but he was in no way the same in regards to my affections. "I was completely opposed to the idea, at first. I'd told him that we were a tattoo shop, not a removal service, and shooed him out the door...but he came back the next day. I mean, I had to give it to him, the kid had some honest to goodness persistence, but God, was he annoying. He kept saying the same thing over and over again, that he needed to get this stupid tattoo of his removed, so much so that Hanji and I had become legitimately curious as to just what the Hell it was that he wanted to get removed. Ah, but he wouldn't show it to us - not unless we promised to remove it for him."

"Sounds pretty manipulative, if you ask me," Erwin spoke seriously, folding his arms over his chest as he did so. "I hope you didn't give into him, when he'd said that."

And there it was. The part of my story that I had been dreading all along.

But instead of speaking sheepishly, like I was ashamed of accepting Eren's request - his challenge - I folded my arms just as well, resting them against the table. I tried not to pay too much attention to the way I'd caused it to dip in my favor, as I looked at Erwin with a stone-cold stare.

"Actually, I did," I responded honestly. "If he promised to show us the tattoo, I promised to remove it, and you know what, Erwin? It was the best damn deal I have ever made."

Erwin didn't have to voice his disappointment in my decision; I could feel it. "My" morals - his morals - had been so deeply ingrained into my brain that the back of my head began to hurt. But I wasn't going to let that stop me. I wasn't going to let his muted misconceptions make me falter. I kept talking.

"You know, for a kid who can't even keep an honorable fashion sense, he sure has taught more than I was willing to learn. Not only has he taught me how freaking cruel this world can be... Hell, he's also taught me that it can be just as beautiful. So, yeah, I agreed to erase a little inkling of his past. Did it go against everything I stand for? Yeah, it did. Would I ever want to remove anyone else's tattoos? No. Hell, no. But none of that even matters to me. I took a chance on Eren, because I knew that he must have had a damn good reason for wanting to get that ink of his removed, and he did. He damn well did, and I come to realize that more and more every day."

Had I meant to go off on a rant like that? No, I hadn't. But that's how I knew that I really did believe in the justification of my actions. Erwin may have been opposed to change, and he may forever be opposed to change, and that's fine. That's his life to live. My life is a bit different now, and that's because Eren is a part of it. I didn't need anyone else's approval of that very fact but my own.

"...I see." It had taken Erwin longer than I would have liked for him to say that. There was a sense of judgement wafting in the air, thick enough where I could feel it weighing down my shoulders. I'd only begun to feel some relief from that pending pressure when Erwin had spoken up again.

But his question had left me a bit speechless.

"Levi, I've never seen you speak out like that about anyone...well, about anyone before. You're really in love with this guy, aren't you?"

I don't know what exactly had possessed me to look away from Erwin's earnest eyes at that very moment, but whatever it was, it must have been the doings of a higher power. It was inevitable that a coffee shop conversation as intense as ours had grasped the attention of a few of our surrounding tables, but that was far beyond what had mattered to me. There was one person, a person who I'd seen physically leaving the shop, whose attention we had grabbed with a vice, holding him tight and gagging him in his own guilt.

Maybe I'd never be able to dump coffee on his head, point my finger at him and scream and shout, or punch him sweetly in the face, but with my next few words, I'd be getting all of the revenge on Jean that I would ever need.

"You're right, Erwin. I am. I am in love with Eren. And thankfully, he's in love with me, too."

Hi there! Chappy here! :D

I'm sorry that Jean didn't end up getting punched in the face - or killed - like a lot of you had wanted, haha! But I personally think that revenge is a dish best served cold. ;D

I really ramble a lot in these notes, so I'm going to try to keep this one short and sweet! I hope you enjoyed this chapter update, however bittersweet it may have been.

And of course, thank you for taking the time to read!

- Chappy