7.15am.
The alarm went off.
Levi opened his eyes with a grunt, immediately covering his face to shield himself from the light of the morning. With the other hand, he patted the nightstand next to the bed, looking for his pack of cigarettes and his lighter. He sneaked a fag out, holding it between his index and his middle finger while holding the bright pink lighter with the rest of his fingers. That wasn't his lighter, he had probably nicked it from someone the night before. He wrapped his lips around the butt of the cigarettes and lit it up, taking in a deep drag. The smoke tickled his lungs and tasted awful in his dry mouth. It was a bad habit of his, smoking first thing in the morning before he had even showered. He smoked way too much, Levi knew it perfectly well.
He reached out for his phone that was lying next to him on the bed and checked his messages. A few Whatsapp notifications, mostly from his work group chats. He scrolled through them and groaned a little. The ice machine was broken again. The manager asking if someone could come in earlier.
"No fucking way."
He moved onto his emails, some were about his attendance being too low and daily notifications from the university. Levi quickly deleted them, then he opened Instagram. As he scrolled through his feeds, he came across a picture posted by the official account of the bar he worked at. It was a photo of him, pouring a cocktail. He had expressed several times that he was categorically against his face being used for the bar's advertising purposes, but as per fucking usual, his opinion hadn't even been taken into account. Hange said it was good for business, his face attracted customers, they said. Bollocks, he thought as he killed the cigarette in the ashtray. He kicked the duvet off his body and finally got up. As he stretched out, his body crackled a little bit. He felt like shit, he had barely slept, but that was regular routine.
As he got out of his room, his nose was hit by the smell of bacon and eggs. Fucking Erwin was probably already dressed and ready to start his day, whilst Levi was already done with that day. He opened the door of the bathroom, thanking every god in the sky that it wasn't occupied by Furlan. He quickly locked the door behind him and stripped off his boxers. He turned the shower on and jumped in. As the hot jet of water hit his body, Levi let out a little sigh. He loved hot showers in the morning. He scrubbed his body thoroughly and washed his hair. As he got out, the cold air of the bathroom made him hiss as he rushed to grab a towel. Looking at himself in the mirror, he deemed he looked like shit. His eye bags were deep and dark, and he looked more tired than usual. After brushing his teeth and washing his face, he headed back out, bumping into Erwin.
"Coffee?" The blond man asked like every morning. Levi nodded. He hated coffee with a burning passion, he had always preferred a nice hot tea instead. That being said, Erwin had purchased a fancy espresso machine two years prior, and Levi wasn't entirely against that. At least it didn't taste like dirty water, and it definitely woke him up in the morning.
He quickly got into his room, dropping the towel on the floor and opening his drawer to recover a fresh pair of boxers. After he got dressed into a pair of skinny black jeans and a black Motörhead t-shirt, he headed to the kitchen barefoot. Erwin was waiting for him, a small white cup in his hand.
"Thanks, dipshit", Levi said as he took the cup from his friend's hand and sat at the kitchen table. As he pulled out another cigarette, Erwin frowned.
"You know I hate when you smoke in the kitchen."
Levi rolled his eyes as he lit it up, taking a drag and blowing the smoke in Erwin's direction.
"You expect me to smoke outside in mid-November, at eight in the fucking morning? Piss off."
The blond guy shrugged and took a sip of his coffee.
"Or you could just quit, you know. If you don't like going outside in the cold."
Levi snorted, letting the cigarette hang loosely between his lips.
"As if."
Erwin shook his head. He and Levi had been friends since sixth form, and since Erwin could remember, Levi had always been a heavy smoker. It made absolutely no sense in his eyes, since his friend was also the biggest obsessive cleaner. Despite his scrappy demeanour, Levi's room was always spotless, his clothes perfectly folded. Levi hated dirty dishes, dusty floors and people who walked around the house with their shoes on. Then again, Erwin thought, Levi had a bit of an addictive personality.
Erwin quickly finished his coffee.
"Right, I'm heading to uni. I'll be back at around 5pm. Are you going to be around tonight? Me, Gunther, Eld, Oluo and Petra were thinking of getting drinks tonight if you want to join us."
Levi snorted in response at the mention of Erwin's friends from med school.
"I'd rather jump off a bridge. Besides, I'm on a double today. I won't be done till past midnight."
"I see. Maybe we'll swing by the bar, then."
As Erwin headed out of the door, Levi groaned. He didn't exactly have something against Erwin's friends. They were all well-off posh students who didn't have to work their way through university because their parents provided for them. Erwin wasn't different, he came from a pretty wealthy family, unlike Levi. But Erwin was Erwin, they had been friends forever, and he was pretty humble about his privileges. Eld and Gunther were too pretentious for Levi's taste, always looking down on him because he worked as a bartender and was studying criminology, while they were on their way to becoming famous cardiologists and surgeons just like their daddies. Oluo was an absolute pain in the ass, always talking too much and yet, somehow, not saying anything meaningful. Petra was alright. However, she had a thing for him. He knew that because one time at a house party, she had kissed him and they had made out for a bit in one of the bedrooms. When she had offered to touch him, however, he had politely declined and left the party. It wasn't that Levi disliked women. They were alright, kind of there. With or without them, Levi was fine. That should have been it, students made out with each other on a daily basis and then moved on to the next party. However, since that night, every time Petra saw him, she tried to chat him up, making her voice pitcher and playing with her hair. It was exhausting, but she was kind, and Levi didn't have the heart to be rude and tell her to back the whole thing off. So he endured passively.
Looking at the clock, he realised he should have left ten minutes before. He quickly finished his cigarette and drank his coffee, before shooting out of the house in his leather jacket and his black Dr Martens.
The Tube was packed as usual during rush hour, and Levi tried to squeeze himself between all those sweaty bodies, scrunching his nose as he found a pole to hang onto.
"Fucking animals, wash your goddamn armpits", he muttered to himself. Luckily, his commute was only a twenty-minute ride, and Levi arrived in front of the bar with two minutes to spare. He could definitely smoke a cigarette in that time. Besides, if he was going to be able to deal with that day, he needed his nicotine.
Walking in, he could already tell that something was wrong. Hange was freaking out behind the bar, trying to get the ice machine to work.
"You alright there, Four-Eyes?" Levi said as he walked past them.
Hange lifted their head up and sighed in relief.
"Levi, thank god you're here. It's broken again! The engineer was here three days ago, and it's broken again!"
Levi sighed. He headed towards the changing rooms to leave his jacket in one of the lockers, before heading downstairs again to deal with that infernal machine.
"Mr Pixis should really get a new one", Hange said as they moved away to let Levi have a go at the machine.
"When is that drunk fuck ever here? He doesn't care."
Levi kicked the ice machine a couple of times on the side.
"Levi!"
The ice machine made a rumbling noise before starting to function again. Levi crossed his arms and shrugged.
"Just gotta rough it up a little, innit."
Hange laughed, shaking their head. They quickly moved back to cutting the fruit that had been abandoned on the counter, while Levi started organising the delivery.
"Do you know who's working tonight?" Levi asked. They had recently hired some new bartenders, and they were the fucking worst, lazy, unorganised and annoying. And as per usual, it was Levi's and Hange's job to train them. Levi did not have the patience to deal with brats like that.
"Marco is working in the afternoon, and Jean is working tonight, and he's closing with you."
Levi groaned.
"God. That kid is so going to slow down closing. Any chance you'd stick around after 10pm?"
Hange scoffed and kicked him in the shins not so lightly, making Levi growl a little.
"No, thank you. I'm going to my beloved bed with Sawney and Bean, and you can have fun with the newbie."
Levi sighed defeatedly. He was already craving a cigarette.
Despite everything, the shift went on pretty smoothly during the day. They had few customers, and although Marco was slow with drinks, he was dedicated, and Levi didn't tell him off that much. However, they got swamped during the evening, and Jean was barely keeping up. Levi had made so many Pornstar Martinis and Strawberry Daiquiris, he was done already. They got many students around there, being so close to the university and having fairly low prices. Levi hated the students, always so loud and drinking garbage cocktails, either trying to flirt with him or mocking him for his height. Not that Levi had any problems professionally putting customers in their place, he certainly didn't hold back with the sarcasm. He knew he couldn't be outright rude towards them, but he knew how to insult them without them even realising. It was his very own special skill.
"Fucking twats", Levi mumbled after a bunch students from the rugby team left the bar, beers in hand and way too drunk to be here. Levi was already planning a way to throw them out.
"I'm going to have a fag. Don't fuck it up", Levi said, turning to Jean, who seemed to be mildly panicking.
As soon as Levi stepped out, a cold wind hit him in the face. He hated London's shitty winters. He stood on the side, pulling a cigarette out of his pack and trying to lit it up despite his cold hands. As soon as he took the first drag, the headache he had been having for the past hour slowly started disappearing. The bitter taste of his Chesterfield Blue was just what he needed at that moment. All of a sudden, he heard a bunch of loud voices approaching the bar. As he looked around, he noticed some students who were clearly heading towards the bar. He couldn't help but roll his eyes at the thought of serving more brats. For that reason, he took his sweet time before heading back inside.
He quickly washed his hands in the sink before heading back to the counter. He immediately noticed that Jean was talking with the students that had just walked in, and he frowned.
"So this is where you work then? Not bad", a blond guy was saying as he looked around the bar.
"Yeah, it's alright. The pay is shit, but it's a job", Jean was saying. As soon as he met Levi's glare, he jumped a little and shut up.
"Oi. Stop chatting shit, I can see the line of orders from here. Fucking hell."
Jean stuttered a little, and Levi couldn't even make out what he was trying to say. He was well aware the guy was scared of him.
"S-sorry, Levi… These are my friends from uni. They've come to see me working."
Levi rolled his eyes.
"Then, fucking work."
Levi heard one of the guys in the group giggling a little, and he turned towards that sound. A tall skinny guy was laughing against his hand. He had his hair tied up in a man bun, and he was wearing a nice green shirt, along with some white jeans. A bold choice, Levi thought. Not that he looked bad in them, Levi could clearly see that the long legs were slightly muscly and toned. As he realised he was staring a little, Levi moved his gaze to the guy's face, meeting a pair of bright green eyes and long eyelashes. The stranger had defined features, and yet his cheeks looked puffy and soft like the ones of a little kid. He was astonishingly beautiful, for sure.
The gorgeous stranger was now looking at him with a gentle smile.
"I'm sorry, we didn't mean to interrupt your work. We just wanted to see how this Horse Face was doing at his new job. He has been bragging about how he is going to get all the girls now that he can make cocktails."
The guy's voice was low, yet soft. He was so incredibly poised as he leaned against the bar.
"Oi!" Jean protested, but Levi wasn't paying attention to him anymore.
Levi looked at the guy for a brief second in stoic silence before looking at the rest of the kids. They were all well dressed for a bunch of students. However, they weren't dressed like Erwin's friends, all branded and flashy. No, these guys were certainly not struggling with money, but they weren't obvious about it. Probably little hipsters, Levi silently decreed.
"So. Were you going to order?" Levi asked deadpan serious. That kind of attitude would have put anyone off, but not the green-eyed guy. The stranger kept smiling as he nodded a little.
"Yeah, these guys wanted to try the Caipirinha, and could I have a dry Martini please?"
Levi sighed and made a sign to Jean to get started on the cocktails since the guy didn't know how to make a Martini yet. It wasn't on the menu, but occasionally customers asked for it. Levi reached for a bottle of vodka, but he got interrupted by the guy's voice.
"With gin, please", the guy said as his smile grew a little.
Levi raised an eyebrow.
"Oh. Old style, huh."
He didn't even remember the last time someone had asked him for a gin Martini, but he was happy to oblige.
"Yeah, that's how my dad drinks it. None of that James Bond's bullshit."
Levi noticed that the guy's accent was a little different. He definitely sounded British, but he didn't seem to have any regional accent. He spoke a flawless British English with no inclinations, on the contrary of Levi, who spoke with a strong cockney accent. At first glance, the guy could have just been very well-spoken, but his way of talking was simply too perfect, almost academic.
"Where are you from, kid?" Levi couldn't help but ask as he placed the drink in front of the guy.
The guy seemed slightly surprised by the question, but he smiled nonetheless as he tried his drink and hummed in approval.
"Germany."
"You don't sound German."
The guy laughed beautifully and bit his bottom lip a little. Levi tightened his jaw a little at that sight. It wasn't like him to chat up customers.
"My mum is actually British, my dad is German. I was born in San Francisco, that's where they met, but we moved back to Munich when I was three."
Levi noticed how the guy said Munich in a very German way, looking absolutely adorable doing so.
"My mum always spoke English in the house, though. So I picked it up, I guess."
Levi nodded in understanding. He should have got back to his work instead of talking, but for some mysterious reasons, he couldn't just yet.
"So why are you in London?"
The guy sipped his drink a little before replying.
"For university. I moved here in September with Mikasa and Armin. They're old family friends from the UK, we used to visit them every year during the Christmas holidays. That's when I fell in love with this city, and why I decided to move here to study."
Levi titled his head a little and lowered his gaze on the shaker he had started cleaning to keep his hands busy.
"What you studying?"
"English Literature."
Levi rolled his eyes a little and cracked a small smile.
"Of course you do."
The stranger didn't seem offended by his remark. That dangerous smile hadn't left his face for one second.
"Got something against William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge?" He asked with a sneaky grin.
Levi shrugged.
"Bit cheesy for my tastes. But you look like you'd be into that kind of stuff. Nothing wrong with that."
Their conversation was cut short when the guy's friends called for him as they had found a table in the busy bar.
"Excuse me, I'm being called. Great Martini, uh…?"
Levi was generally against giving his name to customers. As a matter of fact, he hated when they asked.
"Levi."
The guy hummed.
"Thank you, Levi", he said as he paid with his card.
For some reason, Levi loved the way the stranger pronounced his name. It wasn't completely off, just beautifully different.
He had no idea what the hell had happened there. He didn't really care for cute customers in any shape or form, let alone first-year foreign students. But that guy was so charming and enticing, Levi couldn't help but sneakily look in his direction the entire night, even putting off cigarette breaks. He had been so busy being confused by that guy, he had completely forgotten to ask for his name like a bloody idiot.
When the group of friends got up after an hour, they all headed out of the door. However, the cute stranger seemed to hesitate at the door. He turned around, meeting Levi's eyes and he smiled. He walked back towards the bar and leaned against the counter.
"My name is Eren, by the way."
Levi couldn't help but stare into those big eyes as he repeated that name.
"Eren… That's not English nor German, is it?"
Eren shook his head.
"It's Turkish. Grandpa was from there. It means 'saint'."
Levi raised an eyebrow and grinned as he bit his bottom lip.
"Are you a saint, Eren?"
Eren looked at him with intensity. The flirting was not so subtle anymore.
"Most definitely not."
"That's too bad, carrying a name like that around and being a sinner."
Eren laughed.
"The only difference between saints and sinners is that every saint has a past while every sinner has a future."
Levi recognised the quote, but he didn't say anything about it. Anyone quoting Oscar Wilde to him could fuck right off, but not Eren. For some reasons, it made absolute sense when the guy did.
"Goodnight, Eren."
"Goodnight, Levi."
Eren shot him one last disarming smile before heading for the door, where his friends were waiting for him.
Levi had no idea what had just happened to him that night. He just knew he needed a fucking cigarette.
His mood was temporarily ruined by Jean's absolute ineptitude in cleaning the surfaces of the bar after all the customers left. Because of that, he got home after 1pm, feeling shattered.
As every night after a long shift, he took a long shower before sneaking into bed. As he lit up his last cigarette of the day, he did something he rarely did. He opened Facebook and typed 'Eren' on the search bar. It wasn't easy to find someone without a last name. He typed 'Eren London', but all the profiles that popped up did not belong to the green-eyed creature. He sighed, about to give up. Then he remembered that Jean was friends with Eren. Too fucking bad, he didn't have Jean on Facebook. He had already forgotten his last name. However, he was pretty sure Hange would have him on there, they always added everyone at the first chance they got. As predicted, the name Jean Kirschtein appeared as soon as he typed the first letters of his name. Horse Face, that's how Eren had referred to his friend. The thought made him laugh a little. He tapped on his profile, and then on his friends list. As soon as he typed the guy's name, a profile popped up.
Eren Jaeger.
Levi immediately opened Eren's profile picture. The guy was smiling at the camera, displaying an array of perfectly white teeth as he held a bunch of books in his hand. Utterly beautiful, he was. Levi sighed, debating whether to send a friend request. It was so out of character for him to do stuff like that. Customers flirted with him all the time, hoping to get some form of discount by batting their eyelashes. It hadn't been like that with Eren, though. The guy had been nice to him, but then again, he was from another country. He had no idea about how people behaved in Germany, or whatever. And Eren was from all over the world, with his exotic background and all. Levi was only familiar with the British way. And if Eren's behaviour would have been flirting by British standards, perhaps he wasn't. Levi groaned as he locked his phone and threw it on the mattress. He didn't know what was going through his head at that moment, it shouldn't have been this complicated.
Through the darkness of his room, his phone lit up as a notification made his phone buzz.
"Now what?" Levi muttered as he picked his phone up again.
Eren Jaeger (erenjaeger_) started following you.
Levi swallowed thickly as he opened the profile. He had no idea how Eren had found him on Instagram until he noticed a picture taken that night at his bar. Eren had tagged the bar, which meant he had probably looked it up, and he had probably found the photo where Hange had tagged him. He bit his lip softly as he pressed the follow back button.
"This should be interesting", he murmured as he killed his cigarette and turned his phone off.