Cherishing You

Genre: Drama | Romance | AU | Incest | Modern Days

Rating: M

Pairing: (mainly) Rivaille x Eren, some other pairings which will be added in later chapters.

Summary: Having separated from his brother ever since he was a baby, Eren didn't remember the face of his older brother aside from his baby photos. He soon found himself slowly attached to the new guy who appeared in his family's bakery during the first day of his moving.

Disclaimer: I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin, but this fanfiction is mine. ©AsakuraHannah

A/N: I make a couple of change for you to imagine:

- I can't stop imagine Levi taller than Eren in this fic ;v

- Mikasa have a long hair (Just like before she cut it in episode 3)

Chapter 03: The Cause

Erwin Smith jolted in surprise right after a big plastic bag almost crashed into his face as soon as he looked up. The grumpy man threw Erwin an annoyed look as he took the bag with a slight chuckle.

"Thanks, as always, Levi. Their breads are delicious." Erwin muttered right after he took the bag full of breads from his assistant.

"I can't believe how you can eat those almost every day."

"You said you liked their bread as soon as you took a bite during your welcome party on the other day, Levi. You even picked some that wasn't too sweet for your liking." The shorter man huffed and rolled his eyes.

"Those breads are good, but having them everyday… I don't know, I might end up getting bored, Erwin." He was about to walk away from the desk when Erwin stopped him.

"Have you finished the report I gave you?" Levi shook his head.

"Not yet, my co-workers are so slow with their work. I might offer some help, but they'd instantly cling to me. Remind me again why I wanted to be a doctor?" Erwin chuckled and shook his head.

"You could have helped them and be their reluctant hero. By the way, if you're going to the lab, can you bring these blood samples to Hanji? I need her to check their DNA." The raven nodded and snatched the blood samples. Erwin's eyes followed him until he noticed Levi was holding a jacket in his other hand. He raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar cloth the man brought with him. He was left to wonder who the jacket belonged to until a nurse broke his train of thoughts.

Levi's eyes scanned the corridor as many patients and a few doctors walked past him. He saw some of the patients crying over some accident which had happened a few hours before. Some parents looked relieved as they hugged their children. He watched the scene in silence, his heart clenching at the sight before his eyes. He was once one of those wounded children, waiting for his parent to pick him up. His parents had never come. He knew he should force himself out, but the nurse wouldn't let him go anywhere. His parents could have searched for him, but they didn't even go inside the room where he waited. He was sure there must have be some mistake on the 'student's injured' list, but he had never heard any news or words from a family searching for their son. There was once a single parent searching for her missing son from that field-trip accident, but the name was not him. He was sure it's not his name, because the sound was very different from what he'd remembered. Even the photo shown in the news was not him.

Since then, Levi decided to bury his feeling of hope. He'd followed Erwin right after the man had picked him up like a stray cat. Levi swore to his heart that he'd be a doctor so that he could save those children which needed help, who had been separated from their parents' right after an accident. Erwin knew his motive and he wouldn't let the opportunity slip off, letting him take medical courses so that he could save lives.

Levi's eyes stared at the doorknob, his mind having wandered around while his feet brought him to the front lab faster than he thought. He was about to open the door when it almost crashed into him from the side.

"Oops, sorry- oh Levi!" His brow twitched at the high-pitch tone coming from the crazy scientist. She grinned widely at him as her eyes glistened full of calculations.

"What brings you here? To who does that jacket belong to?" She almost squealed when she looked down on what he was holding. Levi groaned and quickly walked inside the lab to prevent her from causing a scene.

"I'm only here because Erwin told me to bring these blood samples to check the DNA, Hanji. Quit it, this jacket has nothing to do with my business here. I need to go to the locker before I start." Levi quickly set the samples down on her PC. Hanji gave him a pout before walking back to her desk.

"I was about to go have lunch, you know! By the way, you are late! Your friends have been searching for you for half an hour." Levi shrugged at her.

"You can have lunch when you want to, I don't care. Those guys are not my friends, and they need to learn to work by themselves and not to depend on me too much. And I'm late because a green eyed boy knocked down the coffee I bought. … Why the hell am I even telling you this…" He scoffed and walked, quickly waving at her while walking away.

"What? Tell me the details!" She pulled on the jacket he was holding, preventing him from going. Levi hissed at her.

"Stop it, Hanji! You'll ruin it!"

"What's with that boy? Is this his jacket? Wait, is this a school uniform?" Hanji gasped at her own imagination. His eye twitched at the sparkles of enthusiasm in her eyes beneath those glasses.

"It's none of your business!" He slapped her hand away and ran out before she could catch him. Hanji growled after the door slammed close.

"This is big news…!" She squealed and crossed her arms.

"Eren, you have to find something to motivate you to bake. Don't you have some kind of goal while baking something?" Ten years old Eren shook his head while he stared at the dough his father had made. He was curious though of what it was like to bake something delicious just like his Dad.

"Can't I make it because I like it?" Grisha laughed at him.

"No, I won't let you touch anything until you know what you want to do." Much to Eren's disappointment, his father shooed him out from the kitchen and just told him to bring fresh bread to be put into the shelf. He never let him make pastries because there had to be a reason to make them. Eren scowled every time he tried to help out but always drove away. It felt like his Dad didn't even trust him with his shop.

Eren squinted his eyes when a ball of paper hit him on his forehead. His hand clenched his pencil, the force enough to snap it into two. They were in a cooking class before lunch and Eren had spoiled the dough before they had even started baking. Jean who was put in the same team as Eren was overly pissed off. Armin nudged his arm with his elbow, shaking his head in full of alertness when Eren raised his head to snap at him. Another paper hit him on the head, this time a plane folded piece of paper. A snicker could be heard in front of him, a whispered scolding following after. Marco was obviously not pleased.

"What do you want, horse-face?" Eren finally decided to speak up. The snickers were getting louder.

"Have you ever thought why you are so overly unpopular, virgin? You need to do something with that temper of yours." Eren gritted his teeth; he felt his vein might split because of trying to hold his anger down.

"Not when someone like you keeps throwing paper on my head- Stop it!" He shouted when another ball of paper attacked his nose. He threw him a hateful look as Armin groaned beside him.

"Seriously, you two. Stop it." Armin hissed at the two rivals, already seeing the teacher glaring in their direction.

"What the hell is your problem?!" Eren slammed his fist onto the table, glaring daggers at Jean who stood across him with only a table separating the two.

"You might want to tone it down a little, idiot. People are staring."

"Says the one who started it, asshole!"

"I was just curious as to why your Dad is able to be very successful while you are nothing but a loser."

"My Dad's business has nothing to do with me, don't bring that up! If you got a problem, then say it right to my Dad, not me!"

"You are just a loser who can't even bake properly!"

"Shut it! You are not much better during class!"

"You are the one who spoiled the dough, Jaeger! What have you done to our mark?!" Eren was about to snap back until their teacher came close to them.

"ENOUGH!" A shout stopped both of them from killing each other, Nile Dawk, their teacher was glaring at the two of them.

"Now I want you two to behave and stand quietly outside, until the lesson ends. Understand?" Eren and Jean didn't even try to cover their groan. Leaving the two of them alone wasn't a very good idea though. It wasn't long until the teachers had to pull them of off each other, Eren was satisfied that he had managed to bruise Jean's face with several punches. His own nose was bleeding, but that still didn't stop him from trying to lurch towards the taller teen. Armin only shook his head, wondering what Mikasa might do the time she found out that Eren was suspended for three days.

"You really should stop fighting with him."

"He's the one who keeps bringing that up! So what if my Dad is more skillful in the kitchen!" Armin cocked his eyebrow, looking at his best friend surprised.

"You've never taken those things seriously before… Why now?" Eren bit his lip as he paced faster to the school gate.

"I'm just a loser, after all…" Eren's fists clenched, not noticing that Armin had stopped following him. It wasn't until a few steps away that Eren noticed Armin was no longer behind him that he spun around to check.

"Armin?"

"If you feel like you can do much better, then why don't you practice?" Armin offered with a small smile. Eren hesitated to answer.

"I don't know why I should do that…" The brunet shrugged.

"But you said…"

"I need an objective to bake. Dad won't let me come near the kitchen if I don't have a motive to start making fresh breads from my heart. It's pretty silly don't you think?" Armin stayed silent, not knowing how to respond to him. They stared at each other before Eren gave a terse smile and turned around to walk back to his house.

Mikasa was horrified when she heard her brother's explanation, including the bruise on his cheek and battered nose including the letter from school. Armin sighed and patted Eren good luck before turning around to leave. His eyes met with teal gray ones as soon as he walked outside the store. Their eyes met for a second. Armin giving a hesitant nod at and walked past the taller man. After hearing the door close behind him, Armin wondered if that was the guy Eren had been talking about in the past few days. Judging from those beady eyes, he couldn't be wrong.

"He looked a bit familiar though…" Armin frowned in thought.

The raven haired man stepped into the warm and welcoming bakery when he spotted Eren , who was being pulled inside by his sister. She looked murderous as she dragged her brother inside. He noticed the cause as soon as he inspected his face closely.

"Wow, nice marks." Eren rolled his eyes when he heard the man giving him praise.

"Welcome to Jaeger's Bakery." He muttered before turning around to walk inside his house. He wasn't allowed to be around the shop with that kind of face, especially with a big band-aid on his left cheek.

Levi only looked at him questioningly, the brat was surely in no mood to take nasty jokes. He shrugged and started wandering around the shop, noticing a couple of costumers chatting and some sitting on the empty seats. Carla was busy on the register while her husband offered their regulars the new pastries. The reason he kept coming was because of Erwin who told him to buy their bread during his way to the hospital. He was slowly getting attached by the surroundings as he came to the shop more often.

Levi walked towards the coffee machine and pushed the button after he placed his paper cup under it. He had already met Eren and Mikasa but he'd rarely seen the parents around the shop before. Maybe because it was during rush hour that he came today, he'd be able to see them. Somehow, watching them made him feel at home. He didn't know what a family meant, but seeing the two welcoming the customers and helping them out with their orders felt oddly refreshing.

'It's like some things never change…'

He stiffened at his own thoughts, wondering where that came from. He brought his hand to his forehead as it started to feel dizzy. A hand on his shoulder made him jolt in surprised; he whipped his head to stare at the concerned look of Carla.

"Are you alright?" She questioned him with concern. Levi stared into her eyes, her eyebrows were very much similar to Eren's. Her golden eyes widened when their eyes met, because of a reason Levi couldn't quite understand.

"You.. you are…"

"I'm sorry, Mam. I'm alright. Thank you for your concern." He quickly said, taking his cup of coffee and quickly walked to the counter.

"Wait, have we met before?" Carla called out to him, making Levi give her an odd look.

"I'm sorry, you must be mistaken me with someone else." He mumbled. Carla stared at him for a moment before sighing.

"That's right, I'm very sorry. It's just that… you look like my son, almost identical to him in a certain way." Levi stared at her for a moment, wondering about the son she was talking about. Maybe Eren had a brother…? He decided to just drop the subject after realizing it would be invading their privacy to ask.

"I'm sorry, you must be wrong." Levi sent her a terse smile and continued to walk to the counter. Carla shook her head and cupped her mouth.

"What am I thinking… It's not possible." She whispered to herself in shame.

"OUCH!" Eren yelped when Mikasa pressed a warm wet cloth on his bruised cheek in a very rough manner.

"I can't believe you are fighting at school, oh my God, Eren! You are lucky that they didn't expel you!" Eren groaned at another reprimand.

"Gosh, Mikasa. I've had enough of those from the teachers, you don't have to start another lecture." He yelped when Mikasa pinched his arm.

"Serves you right for fighting! I knew you always fight with Jean, but it has never been physical violence before! I need to talk with your teacher about this!"

"No, please no. I'm 15, not 10 years old!"

"Yes, I will, Eren! The two of you probably need to be separated. Your rivalry is not healthy anymore! I always let it go because a competitor might boost your study to become better than him, but this… this isn't right anymore!"

"He mocked me because I'm not good at cooking class! I don't like it since he started bringing Dad into the mess just because I spoiled the dough!"

"Then using your fists is a good way to solve it? Very smart, Eren!" Mikasa pressed the new band-aid on his cheek, leaving Eren stuttering with pain. He sighed when his sister finally closed the aid kit, hoping that she'd leave him alone right after she finished.

"I'm not going to have you around the shop with those bruises. You are not going to be free either, Eren. I'll see what Dad will make you do during these 3 days of suspension." Eren groaned at her. The time she was in his room's entrance, Eren spoke up.

"Do you think he'll let me bake something?" Eren mumbled, lips forming a pout when Mikasa gave him a smile.

"Let see about that later."

"But-" He stopped when Mikasa cut him.

"You brother… were at the age of 12 when he found his motive to help Dad baking. He wanted to make people smile while eating his creations, just because he watched people walk out with a smile on their faces right after they bought their bread and pastries. Is that a good clue for you?" Eren stayed silent as he looked down. Mikasa left him alone to think on his own. The brunet sighed.

"I wonder if he likes sweets… He did buy a lot of bread before… He couldn't be eating them all by himself, right…?" Eren closed his eyes, letting his body fall on the bed with his feet dangling on the edge. His eyes snapped opened when he remembered the man had walked in a few minutes ago. He quickly gathered on his feet and ran downstairs to check if Levi was still there. His green eyes scanned the crowd, much to his disappointment, Levi had left. He yelped when Carla found him standing before the door and pinched his cheek.

"What's with these bruises? Explain, Eren!" Her son meeped when she found out about his injuries. He had no choice but to explain to her right away.

TBC

Yep, Carla's mother instinct is working, too bad… ;D I'm sorry it took long enough, I was distracted with making Riren SIMS XDD A friend of mine made Riren sims3 and I want one also, want a handsome Levi LOL

I'll update soon :D Thank you so much for the reviews n.n -hugs all-