Looking around him, Eren smiled, this room was beginning to feel more homely. Actually, the correct phrasing would be, it was beginning to feel more like him. Because, his room at home was rather devoid of personality, and the contents reflected the person he was trying to be and not the person he was. If he even attempted to paint his room this colour at home he would have been shut down immediately.
It made him feel like he had made the right decision, well actually he didn't get to decide as such, his father kicked him out after all, but he had decided to not go grovelling back.
He did not want to study to become a doctor, he did not want to marry young and settle down with a woman, and he wanted to openly proud of who he was and the fact that he was gay.
This seemed like the start of that, the start of him finally living as he chose and not as anyone else had dictated he should do so.
He frowned at the window, he saw no point in re-hanging the old curtains as they did not match, yet, he had no replacement for them. He glanced down at his clothes, should he change before he headed to buy some new curtains or a blind? He had paint splattered all over his dungarees and they weren't exactly the height of fashion, but they were comfy and he looked cute in them, or so he thought at least. Sod it, if he was coming back to do more DIY there was no use changing into his better clothes. He had not brought many with him from home and would not want to ruin them.
Grabbing his wallet and the keys to the flat, he ran down the stairs and out the back door, avoiding cutting through the coffee shop.
He searched his phone and discovered he had multiple options for his shopping destination. Picking one at random he headed to the shop, the closing time was not until late, he had plenty of time to browse.
The shop was fantastic, he spent over two hours there just looking, and spent most of the remaining wages on a blind, bed covers, pictures and decorations, and even some plants. With his hands full and his wallet empty, he happily left the store.
Eren spent the rest of the evening moving his furniture back into place and putting up his pictures, blind and placing the plant and decorations. He was beyond happy with the end result. Petra poked her head in around 11 pm and told him she ordered an extra pizza for him just in case he had not eaten. He was thankful for her kindness. She smiled as she took in the room.
"I hope you don't mind?" Eren asked, thinking he probably should have checked with her first, he was such an idiot.
"Why would I?" she replied, "It's your room do with it what you will."
Overwhelmed with her acceptance and kindness, he hugged her briefly, "Thank you,"
She eyed him carefully, "Don't thank me," she eventually said, she turned to leave adding, "It's Levi you should be hugging, he suggested I take you on as an employee." She smiled at his blush, knowing the poor lamb was blushing at the thought of hugging Levi.
Three days passed since they had their...their paint flirt moment...fuck Eren was doubting himself every new day. Did he read too much into what happened?
He often found his mind wander to thoughts of Levi, especially during a lull in the busy periods. He knew now that not seeing Levi for days at a time was normal, that according to Petra and the others that worked here, it could be weeks and occasionally months before he showed up again. When he voiced his concern about this, Petra touched his arm soothingly and told him that she or someone would phone Levi daily just to make sure he was alright, but they knew that leaving him alone was best for him.
Well, it was reassuring to know that someone was always checking in on Levi, but he had no idea why he felt stung by Levi avoiding him. Was he avoiding him, though? Not particularly he had to keep telling himself that, Levi was avoiding the outside world, not him specifically. He could tie his stomach in knots and give himself a headache overthinking things. He wiped the tables, shooting his head up every time the chime on the door went to indicate the arrival of a new customer, shoving down the new disappointment within him when he realised it was not Levi.
The shop bell dining did not cause him to look up this time, he was fed up with being disappointed. With his head tilted down, his hands filling up a sugar shaker, he almost dropped it when he heard a deep voice say, "What does a guy have to do to get service around here?"
Eren spun around and there in front of him, casually leaning against the counter was Levi. A small smirk playing around his lips, and his eyes fixed on him.
Eren was flooded with relief. If he was being honest only a part of him hated Levi being gone for long periods was due to the concern for Levi and his health. The most part, he simply missed Levi and wanted him to be around.
Levi ducked his head, his hair falling in front of his eyes. Eren stared for a few seconds, before remembering he should be taking Levi's order. He walked around the counter and automatically began to make Levi's favourite tea.
When he placed the pot, and a cup and saucer in front of Levi, Levi was looking up once more.
"Quiet," Levi remarked and Eren was not sure if he was referring to how empty the cafe was, or how speechless Eren was.
Levi had taken him off guard, after three days of scanning the cafe for Levi, for checking the door and glancing up at every new customer, Eren had finally resigned himself to the fact that Levi may stay away for a long time. Then the fucker had the nerve to sneak in when he was not expecting it.
Eren hummed in response, struggling with the sudden emotions that flooded through him upon Levi's re-appearance.
Levi sipped his tea in silence, eyeing Eren over the rim of his cup.
"You the only one working?" Levi asked after a short period. Fuck, what was wrong with him, he usually relished silences and hated small talk, yet here he was trying to encourage the brat to talk to him.
Eren shrugged, "It's not food serving time, only the cakes and things that in the display are available. No cooks needed, and well as you can see no use having more than one server today."
It was Levi's turn to hum in response.
Why were things slightly awkward between them?
"Look..." they both said at the exact same time.
Eren huffed out a laugh and indicated for Levi to go first, "Go on," he encouraged.
"It's nothing, I was just.." he paused and ducked his head again, "It's good to see you." Levi managed to say, as he looked back up into Eren's eyes.
The smile that broke out on Eren's face would have made Levi stumble if he was not sitting down. The sheer joy not only emanating from his features and his eyes, but the emotions that he could detect coming off of Eren were that of pure happiness.
"It's good to see you, too," Eren said around a grin.
Suddenly the atmosphere was no longer awkward. The silence was nice and not weird and uncomfortable.
That was enough, to return Eren back to his usual self, he began rambling about everyday nuisances and funny things that had transpired in the last three days. Levi listened to every word, making eye contact and the odd grunt or hum in response. It was nice. Sitting here, sipping his tea, listening to Eren and feeling the warmth of being close to Eren. To not feel numb, or agitated because of the anticipation of a possible emotional attack from strangers. He could sit here all day and listen to Eren ramble about accidentally tripping and spilling coffee all over a poor customer.
And he did. He sat there most of the afternoon listening to Eren. Eren only pausing to serve the occasional customer.
When he was alone with Eren and he had no one else messing with his emotions, he felt normal, he felt happy, he felt. Simply put he felt his own emotions for once.
The arrival of Sasha and Marco broke their tranquil afternoon. Marco was getting ready for evening service, and Sasha was there to help Eren when the cafe got busy. They did not serve overly complicated dishes, it was simple food, but it was popular, and therefore it soon started to fill up, and the moments between him and Eren had reduced to the odd glance or apologetic smile from Eren. It did not take long, for Levi to develop a headache from being in a room full of people and their emotions. He nodded his goodbye to Eren, slipping out of the cafe before he lost the feeling of his good mood.
Watching Levi go was disheartening, but he had a job to do, so he sucked it up and carried on. He was not quite brave enough to ask Levi to spend time with him on his day off. The room painting incident was Levi coming to him and offering his help. Eren was not sure what he classed their relationship as, were they, server and regular customer, friends, rescuer and wayward lost soul? He did not know and would feel stupid asking.
After a very busy evening, the place was finally looking clean and ready for opening time tomorrow. Eren climbed the stairs leading to the flat, he showered, and completed some paperwork, leaving a note for Petra about how the shift went, and what stock needed to be ordered.
He flopped down on his bed, laying on his back and staring up at the ceiling. He wasn't sure why he missed Levi so much. He had thought more of Levi since his time here than he had thought of his friends and Mikasa. A wave of guilt shot through him. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and composed some texts, one to Mikasa, one to Armin and one to his mum. He sent the first two but deleted the one to his mum.
The rest of the evening was spent in group chat with his friend and sister. A small weight had lifted off his shoulders, his friends were fine. Mikasa had not experienced too much backlash after he left, at Armin was pleased because Eren was not homeless and safe. That was enough for them for now. Eventually, he told them he will get them to come to the cafe and they can chat in person. He fell asleep early, a long and eventually busy shift took it out of him.