Levi moving into the house with Erwin went well. Levi had only his two bags and his sewing machine. Erwin set his sewing machine on the dining room table. "Use as much space as you need," he had said, kissing Levi warmly.

Erwin had not told Eren as he'd promised Levi but, as he predicted, he was not unhappy about it.

Eren, as it was, was beside himself and danced around the room on his crutches singing "I got a Pops! I got a Pops!" until Erwin swatted him with a flip flop and he crutched off, laughing maniacally.

"Crazy boy!" Erwin said fondly.

Levi's brows were drawn.

"Are you OK?" Erwin asked, sobering up immediately. Had he messed this up already?

"He knows I'm not staying, right?"

Erwin took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I thought maybe … maybe we could cross that bridge wh—"

"I don't like to be painted into a corner, Erwin."

Erwin threw his hands up placatingly. "I don't mean to do that! I just thought that we don't have to think about it right now. That's all."

Levi relaxed minutely. "OK … that's fair."

"Eren is young. He's just hopeful. I'll talk to him."

Levi's frown reappeared. "No, don't yell at him." (Erwin had never yelled at Eren in his 19 years.)

"OK."

Levi rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I'm just nervous I guess. I've never done this before. So where am I staying? Do I have my own bed or …"

Erwin looked rather panicky. "I thought … I thought you'd, uh, stay with me. In my room. Our room."

"Are you sure you're OK with that? Anyone who comes in the house will know when they realize that there's only two occupied bedrooms."

Erwin contemplated that, brows knit, then made a decision. "No-one I don't trust comes in this house."

Levi shrugged. "OK by me. I don't care who knows I'm fucking pounding your sweet ass every night."

Erwin went cherry red and led him into their new bedroom.

The next day, Monday, Eren was in the kitchen rummaging in the fridge and Levi was in the living room sweeping the part of the floor not covered by the rug. He had been on a cleaning frenzy all day since very early. Eren had just accepted it with a shrug. They were having a conversation through the open door of the kitchen.

"Dude, you don't know how to drive?" Eren said from the other room.

Levi shrugged. "Never needed to learn growing up in The City."

"How do people get around?"

"Take a cab. Or an Uber, or the bus, or the subway. You guys have a terrible public transportation system down here."

"Hey, we don't have huge cities in South Carolina. You can drive from one side of Columbia to the other in ten minutes! And we've got buses!"

Levi, sensing that he was beginning to anger Eren over his adopted state, shrugged again. "Fair enough."

Eren, his humor restored, wandered into the living room eating out of a bag of grapes

"So who's gonna take me to PT if you can't drive?"

"PT?"

"Physical therapy."

"Oh, yeah, you're a cripple."

Eren shied a grape at him and Levi deftly caught it, throwing it into his mouth. Eren laughed delightedly.

"I can't swim either," Levi said with a smirk.

"Dude!"

"What's going on in here?" Erwin asked, coming in the door.

"Levi can't swim!"

"Your son's a cripple."

"Hey!" Eren flung three grapes at him and Levi caught them all and popped one in his mouth.

"Wow!" Eren said. "Can I bring you to show and tell?"

"Fuck off."

Eren giggled.

Erwin sighed dramatically. "It's like having two kids in the house."

"Oh, I'll show you I'm not a kid tonight."

Eren stuffed his fingers in his ears "Ew, ew, ew! TMI!"

Erwin shook his head.