The next morning, Levi was walking across the living room heading toward the kitchen when he realized there was someone on one of the stools at the island. He stopped. It was a young man but it wasn't Jean.
"What the hell is this? Grand Central Station?"
The person turned and smiled hesitantly. He had dark brown hair and an adorable smattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks. His gaze swept down Levi's body—as usual clad just in boxer briefs—and he blushed cherry red and averted his eyes.
Levi went into the kitchen and began making coffee. "So … I'm Levi. Who are you?"
"I'm Jean's and Eren's friend, Marco. Marco Bodt." He held his hand out to Levi who regarded it warily.
"I'm sorry. Not much of a hand shaker. So are you here to see Eren?"
Marco dropped his hand slowly. "Yes. He's getting dressed."
Levi grunted.
"Coffee? Is this about Jean?"
"Yes and yes," Marco said.
Levi poured the coffee and set the cream and sugar on the island. "Please don't tell me you're here to confess to Eren. If you say that I'm gonna go be a monk somewhere."
Marco laughed easily. "No! Not Eren, Jean."
"So Jean wants Eren and you want Jean? This is like daytime TV." Levi set the kettle on the stove and reached for a tea mug for himself.
Again the laugh from Marco. He had a nice laugh.
Eren came bouncing out of his room just then. "Is that coffee I smell?!"
"I make it every morning, brat," Levi said, "Why do you always act like it's some goddamn Christmas miracle?"
"Because I love my dad but he makes terrible coffee," Eren said in a stage whisper and kissed Levi on the cheek.
Eren had just got sat down on a stool when a knock sounded on the door.
"For fuck's sake!" Levi said, slinging the dishtowel over his shoulder. "Is it always like this around here?" He stomped to the door and flung it wide open. If there were any female or gay male folks up that early, they got quite an eyeful.
"Jean."
"Le-levi"
Levi stood silent in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Uh," said Jean. "Is Marco Bodt here? That's his car and …"
Levi took the young man by the collar and hauled him into the house. "Get in here!"
Jean scurried to the kitchen island and grabbed a stool next to Marco.
Levi leaned against the wall in the foyer, listening.
They were speaking too low for Levi to hear but finally Jean cried out, "Of course I will!"
When a smirking Levi came back into the kitchen, Jean and Marco were kissing shyly.
"Wow you've got a boyfriend, Jean!" Eren said. "And shit he's cute! Bro how did you score such a cute guy?"
Jean laughed. "Fuck you, dude. Hey, you wanna play League later today?"
***Erwin was lounging on the couch, watching a documentary. Eren had walked by a few times (he had been playing League with his boys) and had finished and was scrounging up himself something to eat. As he walked through he paused and patted his dad's shoulder. "What are you watching?"
"Documentary about adoption."
"Cool. Is it good?"
"Fascinating."
"Should I watch it?"
"It's really good."
Eren considered. He really needed to study. "I'll catch it later."
"Fair enough."
Eren started to walk out of the room.
"Would you …?"
Eren stopped. "Yeah?"
Erwin hesitated. "How would you feel if I … if I adopted?"
"Like, more kids?"
Erwin had turned bright red. He looked gravely at the remote in his hands. "If I were to … get with a man …"
Eren smiled broadly. "Yeah? You got a man in mind?"
Erwin stayed silent, clearly embarrassed.
"C'mon, dad!"
"Maybe …"
"So you are thinking of adopting with this mystery guy who shares your bed?! That's great!"
Erwin stared at his son. "You wouldn't be angry at me?"
"Not at all! Do what makes you happy! I'm an adult, I'm gonna move on at some point. You're young!"
Erwin was overwhelmed with love. He truly loved his son. He was a fine man. How had he managed to raise such a fine man? He gave the credit to his late wife.
Erwin took Levi to one of his favourite spots; a 140 year old farmstead that was now open to the public.
"This orchard was planted over 100 years ago."
"Huh." Levi said. "It's weird to think that some guy, who's dead now, carefully put out these as seedlings. Isn't that what you call baby trees? Seedlings?"
"Yep. Some man planted these before the great depression. That's amazing to think about."
They walked through the trees and it was tranquil and calm. The sunlight sliced through the foliage and made shifting patterns on the ground and the air was surprisingly cool. Levi reached for Erwin's hand and they held hands, gently swinging them between them.
"What kind of trees are these?" Levi asked.
"Pecan." Erwin stepped a few feet away and retrieved something off of the ground.
"What's that?"
"It's a pecan."
"It looks old."
"That's the outer shell." Erwin broke off the brown husk and showed Levi the pecan. Levi, who had never seen a pecan nut un-hulled just stared. Erwin picked up another, pulled off the husk, and, gripping the two nuts in his hand, squeezed until one cracked. He handed it to Levi.
"Huh! Can I eat it?"
"Sure. Mind the brown stuff in the crevices of the nut. It's bitter."
Levi carefully extracted and cleaned his nut and very tentatively took a small bite. "Hah! It's just like a pecan from the store!"
Erwin laughed till his side ached.
As they continued to walk, the carefully planted pecans gave way to oaks and a few sycamores. The oaks and sycamores were much more spread out and random, clearly not planted.
Levi retrieved several of the bristly seed pods from the sycamores and looked carefully at them. "These things look like they belong in science fiction."
Erwin abruptly veered off, picking something off of one of the oak tree's bark.
"What is it?"
Erwin held up a delicate brown object. Levi recoiled.
"What the fuck?! Is that a fucking bug?!"
For a second Erwin thought he was going to scramble up the nearest tree. He started laughing at the image.
"What are you laughing at, asshole?"
"You. It's just a cicada shell."
"It looks like a fucking bug."
"It is. Well, it's just the skin. These are the things that make all that noise on hot days."
Levi frowned and leaned in to inspect it. "Huh. How can something so small make such a loud noise?" He bravely poked at the shell with one finger then wiped it on his trousers.
"I ask myself that every day,' Erwin said, straight-faced.
It took Levi a second to get it.
"Hey! Asshole!"
Erwin sprinted off.
"You'd better run, dickcheese! If I catch you you are toast! I might fuck you right here up against a pecan tree!"
"I wondered if you'd like to go fishing."
"Fishing?" Hange said stupidly.
Moblit hesitated as if trying to get his head around someone not understanding fishing.
"You go out on the water and fish? Catch fish?"
"What do you do with the fish?"
"Well, you eat them. Or throw them back if they're too small or not what you want."
Hange contemplated all of this. Like many people, if they didn't think about it. They thought of meat as coming from the grocery store. They knew in some vague ephemeral way that it had to be caught and killed and processed but they never bothered to learn how. It sounded fascinating.
"OK!" They bolted forward to entwine their arm with Moblit's and action that caused the man to redden like a tomato. "Yes! Fishing! How do you tell the fish apart?"
"Well," Moblit scratched the side of his face nervously, "They each look different."
"We're going' fishin'!" Hange crowed. Levi stared, unimpressed. Hange lifted a six-pack of Busch. "There's beer!" they squealed. "Wanna come?"
"Oh fuck no," Levi said decisively. Moblit looked relieved.
They were putting the boat in the water when Moblit just stopped. Hange, calf-deep in the water and trying to help but being incredibly obstructive, looked at him.
"You OK?"
"Hange …"
"Uh, oh … you're breaking up with me, aren't you? Please don't be breaking up with me!"
Moblit looked scandalized. "Breaking up … what? … no! I want you to be my partner."
"What?"
"My partner. Will you be my partner?"
Hange splashed out of the lake and stepped awkwardly over the tongue of the trailer and threw herself into Moblit's arms. "Yes, yes, yes! Can we go fishing all the time?"
"We haven't even been yet! You might hate it."
Hange rested her head on Moblit's chest. "Not if I'm with you."
Epilogue -The rise and fall sound of cicadas vibrated in the hot, still air and Levi was digging second early potatoes. He paused to wipe the sweat off of his face with a pristine white handkerchief and a scream echoed off of the walls of the 90 year old farmhouse.
Levi startled at the ruckus and Sasha, age 14, came around the corner of the farmhouse like a rocket. Following close behind were her brother Eren (21) and her sister Mikasa (16) with pump-action squirt guns. Eren aimed a stream at her back and she shrieked like she was being killed.
"Children!" Levi boomed. "You'll wake up your dad! You know he had a long day yesterday!"
Everyone immediately stopped and looked appropriately abashed. Eren hid his Super Soaker behind his back.
"Sorry, Pops," Eren said.
"Sorry, Papa," the girls echoed
"Tch! Everyone will be here soon for the cookout. Make yourselves useful and tote some of these potatoes."