Less of a long wait this time =) quite excited about that myself. Srry for the lack off an updating schedule, but I'm quite a chaotic person =/ But I'll do my best from now on to post a little faster =DThnq Numa10 for editing my work, I CAN'T THANK YOU ENOUGH 3
And oh, there is something in this chapter some of you have been waiting for~ HAHAHA
Enjoy the 29th instalmentttttt
The Mad Titans and the World of Tomorrow
Chapter 29
It was the third unofficial day of the tour and Levi still hadn't told Eren a single part of his plan. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and it actually still did; every day they thought of an excuse for Eren to go to 'Levi's room' if they happened to encounter people who weren't aware about the two of them. It was nerve wracking, and, some might call Levi old, he was growing tired of it.
As if the tour hadn't been energy consuming enough this, this sucked up the last bit of vigor he had left.
Everyday he woke up early only to find Eren already gone. The kid had to wake up at ungodly hours to prepare their breakfast, their breakfast. Levi almost felt sorry for eating, but then Hanji would scold him, saying things like: "He made this with love for you," and, "You'll break his heart if you don't eat it." And because it drove him to the brink of insanity he ate each and every meal like a good boy, even if he wasn't hungry. It was kind of sad really.
The worst part of it all was when he came back to their hotel room, and Eren would already be asleep because it was past midnight. Sure he could still see Eren and touch him in a way, but it left him with a nagging feeling that tugged unpleasantly his heart, and it hurt. He wanted to talk to him, he wanted to hold him, he wanted Eren to return his little caresses and touch back. Even though they weren't actually separated, Levi missed Eren in his life. How was he going to do this when they had separate rooms?
It all seemed so much easier in his head. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, trapped in his fairly depressing train of thought.
"Earth to space invader," Hanji poked Levi square in the cheek. "Hey, I'm talking to you air head!"
"What!" Levi snapped, swatting the offending finger away.
"You owe me an apology," The brunette eyed him, her glasses sliding down her nose a bit allowing her to stare over them, adding dramatic flare. "Big time. Big apology, everything big!" she rattled on, heaving her arms above her head and waving them from side to side. It didn't help to strengthen her dialogue; it only made her look like a crazy lady.
Levi sighed. She was right though, she did save both Eren's and his ass, probably multiple times only he never noticed until now.
"Was it that bad?" he chuckled, actually feeling sorry for her.
"Was it that bad? Oh, I'm sorry do birds fly? YES!" she shot back sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Pfff, I don't know how I'm still alive. I had to think of things to keep her entertained, yeah? I made her a freaking beanie in one evening and watched a movie with her." She paused to let that sink in. "A very bad movie…" it came out as a whisper. "Ahhhh!" She suddenly grunted out loud.
Levi's head snapped toward Hanji, startled by her odd behaviour. His scowl deepened as he scolded her, "What the fuck. Get a hold of yourself woman!"
"Don't tell me what to do!" She whined, "You have no right!"
"Alright, alright. Calm down four-eyes. Okay, listen, and listen well. I am only going to say this once." He motioned her to come closer, and she did with wide eyes. This was so unlike Levi. "I am sorry, alright." This was. So. Unlike. Levi. Who the hell was this guy?
For a brief moment Hanji didn't know what to say. "Uhh…thanks? That was unexpected," She paused, not sure how to react. "Pleasant, but unexpected." She said, running fingers over her chin as she thought of something. "It seems Eren is rubbing off on you." She laughed, realizing her unintended joke only when Levi raised his brows. He looked miffed but also stupefied.
"Excuse me?"
"Hmmm…and you don't even seem to notice. Ahhh, that's so sweet! Gah! So sweet I could die!" She squealed. "How is he, by the way?"
"Who, Eren?" Levi asked, still taken back by her previous remark.
"No, my freaking foot! Of course Eren you dork!"
"Hm, I guess he's fine." He huffed, an annoyed look working its way to his face.
"You guess? How so?"
"Well, we don't get to see each other much. Every time I get up, he's already gone and by the time I get back, he's already fast asleep. I guess," He contemplated, "We're just too busy."
Hanji held her breath. For the first time she experienced an expression she'd never seen Levi wear before. Could he be, dare she say, lonely? "Are you alright?" It escaped her lips before she could stop it, and, unlike Hanji, Levi didn't try to stop the glare he shot her. Well Shit. I guess he feels good enough to hate the world.She smirked, but still worry held her heart. "Just wondering." She stared at him.
"I'm just tired 's all."
"Of course you are." Her stare intensified, searching for a hint of emotion that she wouldn't recognize. "Oh, by the way, Eren likes green right?"
"Yeah, he does." He answered, narrowing his eyes at her, returning the stare. "Beanie business?"
"Yes it is. I'm looking for the perfect colour! I'm going to ask Petra if she can get me some kickass wool soon so I can get started ASAP!" She clapped her hands together. "Oh, and if you see Mina with her new beanie, tell her it's adorable. I did my best okay, but I didn't really have nice wool or any inspiration. It's not my best creation you see. It's not like I think: 'Hey, I'm going on a tour, I'm a rock star, so now I'm gonna use all my free time on beanies!' I'm not that hopeless." Levi smirked.
"Don't you dare say it," Hanji growled the moment she saw his smirk.
"Yet." He couldn't resist.
"Asshole." By now she was grinning too.
"Well, I can see you two are at it again." Came a low and commanding voice from behind them as Erwin walked over to the two. "Don't you guys ever get tired of insulting one another?"
They both grinned and said in unison, "Never."
The tour was nothing Eren had expected. He had hoped he'd be able to see Levi and the rest of the band, but so far the only thing he'd seen was the kitchen and the back alley when he took out the trash.
He sighed once, twice. This was going to be a long day and the clock proved his awful thought right. It was only six in the evening which meant dinner was about to be prepared and he was far from seeing Levi. Actually, he only saw the sleeping figure of said man when he woke up in the morning. Chances of speaking were lower than zero, and honestly it pissed him the fuck off.
The team worked effectively, each member showing off his or her own special skill set. Sasha always had some weird obsession with potatoes, making her special potato pot-pie. Connie seemed to have his way around meat, and was a barbeque master, too bad he couldn't show off those skills today, but his steaks were killer too.
Marco was an all-around; he could turn anything into everything. Eren thanked whoever lived above the clouds for bestowing that gift on someone he knew. And Jean, Jean was everything Eren did not expect.
"Are you serious? I mean, you're not shitting me in any way possible are you?" Eren choked, stifling a giggle by clearing his throat.
"Shut up! Yes I am. I am serious. Super serious. Excuse me, do you see me laughing?" Jean argued, raising his voice, anger slowly flickering through.
Connie groaned; he wasn't good in these kinds of situations. Marco shared that same sentiment and looked troubled as the two hot-headed men began their never ending cycles of disputes.
Eren's arms were wrapped around his stomach, laughter escaping his mouth, tears springing to his eyes as he doubled over. One of his hands shot to a kitchen counter for support.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" More laugher erupted from the brunette. "But…but, I can't…I can't stop laughing!" He said between bursts of glee.
"Shut up! I get it, I get it!" Jean crossed his arms over his chest, clearly reaching his boiling point. "I love baking cakes and shit! Get over it!"
"Oh, I just died and went to heaven." Eren croaked out as tears stung his eyes, the laughing hard of his throat. He caught Jean's death glare and tried to sit up. "All right, all right," Eren began, trying to sound as serious as possible, and cleared his throat loudly. "I want you to…" Eren rubbed his hands together, contemplating.
"Ah, come on!" Jean threw his hands up in defeat as he sensed what Eren was going to say.
"Bake a super pink and most, um, mega cute cake, with loads of flowers and stuff. Loads of pink, loads of flowers, loads of…ah, everything horrible, er, adorable. Yes. Do it! That's an order." He said through a smile.
"I hate you. Heart and soul. Through and through. Green-eyed demon." He hissed, knowing he had no choice but to obey. "Just you wait and see. You'll be baffled."
Eren simply wiggled his brows at him, all smiles. "Aw, come on. I'll even help you."
"Seriously?"
"Yep." He clapped his hands together enthusiastically. "Let's bake a girly cake, the most girly you've ever seen."
"You do realize this is for a rock band." Jean helped to remind his boss, realizing he was serious.
Eren nodded. "Of course."
"You guys are hopeless." Connie wiped his hands over his baldhead. "Hopeless. With a capital H."
"What do you think they'll say when they see such a, uh, cake?" Marco mumbled.
"I bet Hanji will love it!" Sasha tried, bringing Marco to higher spirits. She never really cared when Eren and Jean got into an argument, if anything they came up with retarded ideas like this – and she liked retarded ideas, a lot! "Connie, don't be such a baby! You baldy!" She stuck out her tongue to her boyfriend.
"I'm not bald!" He defended, running his hand over his buzz cut rather than what could be his long wavy hair with a hurt expression.
Eren laughed at the troubled look on Connie's face. He was thankful he worked with such amazing people, it made being separated from Levi bearable.
"Okay, guys. After we serve dinner, we will start cleaning. Then we'll take a break, serve desert, and clean the rest of the kitchen. Sasha, you and I will discuss tomorrows breakfast and then…we are done for today!" 'We?' You guys are… he finished in thought. He still had to inspect the kitchen to make sure it was truly clean, check the ingredients, and then order new stock for the tomorrow. Pixis had given him a special number for a food company that took orders after closing time. But. All of that didn't matter, because when he got back, Levi still wouldn't be there.
By the time it was all done he would just go back to his room and fall asleep. He had tried to stay awake most nights, but failed every single time. He was just too tired. There was only so much of 'skipping sleep' his body could take and apparently Eren needed a lot of sleep, because as soon as his head hit the soft pillows he would be off to dreamland.
"Eren," Sasha called from the other side of the kitchen. "There is someone here to see you."
"Who?" He wondered aloud.
Sasha shrugged and heaved her shoulders. "I don't know, he didn't give his name. I've never seen him before. He's short, blond, can't really miss him. He has this nerd aura about him." She nodded, agreeing with herself. "Yeah…nerdy kid."
"Did anyone ever tell you that you're so bold I'm almost, almost embarrassed to be your boyfriend?" Connie snickered.
"Shut it, baldy!"
"I'm not bald!"
"Guys!" Eren warned sternly, yes he had a rather mature side too, much to his own surprise. "How about you serve dinner and I'll go talk to this blond and geeky stranger. Okay?"
"Deal, cap!" Connie answered while saluting.
"Now go, shoo!" he said as he made his way to the door to meet whoever this person was. He sighed deeply. As long as it wasn't going to take long he was fine with it.
He stepped outside of the kitchen into the hallway and was greeted by a short blond male, just like Sasha had described. Eren cocked his head slightly. He does look a bit geeky. And snorted.
"Hey, I heard you were looking for me, is that correct?" Eren walked up to him and extended his hand for a proper greeting. "My name is Eren Jaeger, and you are?"
The blond boy took his hand and nodded meekly. "Good day Mr. Jaeger, My name is Armin Artlette and I am Pixis' new intern. I am in charge of the tour schedule as of today, and would like to make my acquaintance with everyone."
"Just call me Eren, really." Eren laughed. It was weird to be called Mr. Jaeger, something he'd never get used too.
"Are you sure?" The blond boy seemed surprised.
"Yeah. Pretty sure." Eren assured him. "So new intern, huh?"
"Yes." Armin nodded politely. "Mr. Pixis asked if I could start as of immediate. Who am I to say no to such a great man."
"Hm…" Eren hummed as he relived some of Pixis' finest –cough– moments. "Can't say I share the same opinion as you, but I can sure say he's an interesting dude."
"An interesting dude…" Armin repeated softly, he seemed almost shocked Eren would say something like that out loud. "Anyway, I'd also like to go over tomorrow's schedule with you."
"Ah, alright. Tomorrow's the first show right? I figured there'd be some changes."
"Is this your first time catering during a tour?"
"Yep, spot on!" Eren laughed. "I'm kinda like you, new to all this." He said as he motioned all around him. "But it's cool really."
"Yes, it is." Armin agreed, a smile finding his lips. "So for tomorrow," he commenced, pulling out a giant binder.
Where the fuck did that come from? Eren's eyes widened and he swallowed hard.
Armin put on some reading glasses and opened the giant binder, somehow reminding Eren of Harry Potter and some weird book of spells, but he bit his tongue, not wanting to make the small kid cry on his first day. That seemed kind of cruel.
"Holy shit," Eren breathed out slowly, unable to not say at least that. "What the hell is that?"
"Don't worry. I just like to record everything so I won't make mistakes."
"Okay," Eren laughed, "Just saying that even my recipe book isn't that massive…hmm, now that I think about it I don't think I have one at all."
"What? You don't?" Armin's eyes were wide as saucers, his voice sounding strangled. "But…how? How did you even get hired without a portfolio?"
He raised his shoulders nonchalantly and said, "As I said before, Pixis is an interesting dude."
"Wow, that's amazing. I bet you're really good. Now I'm kind of curious myself." Armin sounded rather exited. He fiddled with some papers for a short while and handed Eren something that looked somewhat of a timetable.
"Here you go." Armin said. "That's the schedule for the next couple of days. The three shows are marked by the blue-ish colour, and everything green are the days in between, consider them sound-check days, and the single yellow one is the day after. You know, when we pack our bags and go." His finger ran along the paper pointing out the colors and days to go along with his explanation.
"Wow. It's perfectly clear." Eren nodded as he checked the schedule. Armin had done his best to make it as easy to understand as possible. "Thank you."
Armin smiled. "It's nothing really. Just some randomness in Excel."
"Well, I never learned how to use that, so I'm still amazed."
The blond boy's face returned to disbelief, obviously baffled at such a statement. "Never learned? But these are basics in high school…" He trailed off.
This made Eren laugh "Ah high school…I kinda dropped out." A cheeky grin found its way onto his face. "But I'm still young, I bet I can have someone teach me later on." He hinted.
Before Armin could ask his next question the kitchen door opened.
"Heya Chef," Jean had appeared. "The band requests dessert and I'm sure as hell not gonna give them that cake. You can do that yourself."
"You're such a sore loser Jean, but fine, I'll do it." He didn't really mind. It was a good excuse to see Levi again and with that in mind he excused himself from the still dumbstruck Armin.
The band, the stylists, and several more people had just finished up dinner and were already demanding desert. The food was amazing. They never had something like this before. Even if they ate and were full, they wanted more.
"I'm gonna end up fat." Hanji hiccupped as she wiped her mouth with a tissue. "But damn, that kid can cook!" She threw the soiled tissue on her empty plate and rubbed her stuffed tummy. "This is the life."
"Disturbing creature you are." Levi huffed. "Besides everyone's full, why do they demand dessert? It's not like they can finish it." He said, not noticing the desert was already there.
"Oh." Hanji's expression brightened even more as impossible as that was. "I think you'll be up for a dessert too, if you know what I mean." She giggled, wiggling her eyebrows as she nudged Levi playfully.
"Wha-?" he began, annoyed, but his voice died down when he caught sight of Eren. "Oh." He swatted Hanji on her head, earning a fit of giggles from the woman.
"Ahhh, you're so easy to tease." She wheezed and got support from Petra who sat across them with a thumbs-up.
"You guys are unbelievable." Levi mumbled, distracted.
"Oh, my goodness!" Petra gleamed, choosing to ignore Levi. "It looks so cute!"
Some of the men's smiles faded, complaints beginning to form about the 'girly look' of the cake.
"Shut up Gunther!" Eren shot him a glare. "You haven't even tried it yet!" He picked up a knife and started to cut the cake, one piece for everyone. Petra got up and helped Eren put them on plates.
When Eren gave Levi his share the man couldn't help but say, "It looks like the insides of a dead unicorn."
"Well, eat up." Eren smiled brightly, not really caring what Levi thought, and besides he knew the man was going to eat it regardless. He sat down next to Levi.
"Come on. Try it. Or are you afraid you'll turn into a fairy." The boy snickered, Hanji joining in from the other side of Levi.
"It's really good Eren." Hanji cried clinging to Levi's arm to prove her point somehow.
"Let me go." He simply said. "Fine! I'll try!" He gave in as Hanji proved she wasn't going to move until he did. She simply smiled and returned to eating her slice.
Instead of eating the damned cake he actually wanted to talk with Eren, but with both Hanji and the kid in question pushing him to eat, things seemed impossible.
So, he ate the pink cake…and it was good. Really good. He blinked a couple of times to get that through his system and stared at Eren who wore a bright grin.
"Told you." He said playfully.
"Brat." Levi huffed but couldn't help but crack a smile at his adorable brat.
"What time are you off?" he continued.
"Hmm, soon I guess. I'd say an hour or so, maybe two. I hope."
Levi nodded. "I'll try to be back early tonight."
"Promise?"
The raven haired nodded. "Promise." He assured the kid. With that, Eren got up with a smile and got back to work.
Levi turned back to Hanji who was being too quiet for comfort. She was definitely thinking something stupid. He was met by a broad smile and sparkling eyes.
"You guys are so fucking adorable!"
"I hate you so much."
"I promise…" Hanji sang in a dreamy tone. "Promise…naaah so cute!"
"Hanji," Levi warned dangerously.
"Yes dear?" She blinked at him lovingly, batting her lashes as she did.
"You are so dead."
"And you are so adorable…"
"Hanji!"
