As Levi took his seat, so did the rest of the crew; At their designated areas, of course.

"Now, our deadline is exactly two weeks from now, and I'm sure you all are familiar with the importance of this publishing; It's been highly demanded of, and highly anticipated for, for the past 6 months. No screw ups!", Levi explained. "Okay, there are eight of us and 112 pages in the first volume. So, therefore, everyone is responsible for 14 whole pages. Simple, right? Solely 14 flawless pages."

The room's atmosphere was stern as everyone kept eyes on Levi and nodded. Everyone seemed to know what was going on...everyone but me.

"Alright, I'll assign everyone their parts and hand you the sketched prints. You all know how this works, but as a refresher for some,", Levi eyed me, "You'll be given your rough sketches, and you'll need to perfect them accordingly.", I replied by putting my lips in a thin line.
"Alright, let's get this started."

Levi grabbed a pile of papers off his desk, they were each all clipped in pairs, assumably the '14 for each person'.
Passing them out to everybody, he finally stopped and handed me my share; Joy.
"Eren, if you have any questions, feel free to ask any of us for help.", Levi explained.
I nodded.
"Even if they're the dumbest, most simple questions that honestly anyone should know...I'm obliged by law to assist you.", He sighed and turned away.
"H-hey!", I shouted. Even though Levi was turned around, I could feel that asshole smirking.

I removed the clip binding the papers and flipped through them. The papers consisted of: a classroom scene, class going on, then class ending; Then gym class. Suddenly a girl, the main character I assume, falls down and scratches her knee. Then, a boy who she socialized with earlier in the classroom, probably her lovey-dovey soon-to-be boyfriend, volunteers to take her to the school's infirmary.

I rubbed my temples, I did not feel like continuing this stupid, cheesy story.

Blah, blah blah, empty conversation while sitting in the nurse's office while the two wait for the nurse to find her antiseptics. There becomes an awkward silence and a dramatic scene of the girl clutching her chest and her heart thumping, and the boy fiddles with his thumbs while averting the girl's eyes in any way possible.
Blah, blah, blah, I love you, I've always loved you, let's make out, oops, nurse walks in and starts giggling like a little schoolgirl while saying "Oh, I'm sorry, was I interrupting something?"; Yeah, you were interrupting us sucking each other's faces and drowning in each other's saliva.

I think Levi purposely gave me this scene out of all of the other ones available; Ugh.

I understood what he meant by rough sketches; in most of the scenes the faces were blank and you could still see extraneous lines and shapes for proportion...this was going to be fun.


The weeks were really as terrible as everyone made it out to be. Most of the drawings I attempted weren't "satisfactory enough", so I had to re-do them. I would ask Levi for help, frequently, and any time he would give his so-called "help", he would start off by saying: "This is so elementary, my goodness Eren, what even can you do if you can't understand and illustrate such simple matters?"

2 weeks of constant sleepless nights and caffeine over-dosage. 2 weeks of everyone in the office yelling at each other and sobbing. 2 weeks of Hanji exclaiming "Holy shit, this would be a perfect BL scene!".
Why am I even still here? I can quit, can't I? Oh yeah, I was already in a slight debt of $100 on the apartment, in debt so I could move close enough to my dream job. My dream job which was out of reach. Dream job which constantly mocked me because it was the floor under mine.

It was the last day before the alleged due date Levi assigned two weeks back.

This day, luckily, was actually more calm. We had most of our assignments completed, we just went over them a few more times, making any needed last minute changes.

"Ugh!", Hanji groaned. "Just one more hour and we can finally turn this in and get it over with!"
"I don't think I'm ever going to draw again!", Connie whined.
"Connie, you say that every time.", Sasha sighed as she furiously chomped on a potato; For some reason, she always seemed to have an endless supply of them...
"At least we can rest for two weeks after this.", Petra smiled.
"That is until the two weeks after that are hell all over again.", Jean grumbled
"Thanks for the pessimism, jack-ass.", Mikasa rolled her eyes, causing Jean to release a light 'hmph!' and cross his eyes like a stubborn child.

I lay my head on my desk sideways, so I could flip through my completed pages one last time while having to shoulder less weight.
Suddenly, the papers were snatched from my hand, I groaned.
"Came to insult me some more, Levi?"
"Only if needed.", he replied, flipping through the snatched papers.
"Isn't it always needed from you?", I lifted my head, stretching my neck to rid it of any kinks.
"Masochistic now, are we, Jaeger?"
"Maybe in your eyes, sadist."

Levi continued flipping through the papers and we remained silent.

"I see you've gotten better at the kissing scene.", Levi said, tone holding amusement.

Here we go again. I'm honestly nothing more than some entertainment for him. Jeez, an old man who's bored with his life and has nothing better to do than harass his employees, he's the pathetic one here, not me.
No way was I going to let him get away with this, I'll show him who he's messing with.

"Must have been that lesson you gave me", I retorted, swiveling my chair to face him, smirking. He raised his eyebrows and finished looking through the papers to change his eyes to meet mine. Ha, weren't expecting that, now were you, Levi?
"Oh~?"
, he chimed, "A few more and you could improve significantly.", He smirked, placing the papers back onto my desk.
"Tch!", I could feel myself reddening from embarrassment, to which Levi took to his pleasure and chuckled. I wanted to get away from him.
"If you would be so kind to excuse me.", I said, sarcastically. I stood up from my desk and walked over to the others. "Hey guys..", I said.

"Ohh~, my dear Eren!", Hanji stood up from her desk and ran over to place her arms around my neck. "You poor thing! You must be sooo exhausted! I mean, we're used to this 'cycle' but this is the first time you've had to deal with all this chaos, I'm so sorry deary! I sure do hope you're alright!", she talked non-stop; Does she even stop for breath?
"You're such a handsome young man, perfect for our upcoming BL animation voice roles and movie adaptations! Do make sure you sleep and eat well, take care of your health!", she finally finished.
The rest of the gang just looked at my pitifully; C'mon guys, I thought we were all friends here...HELP ME!, I thought as I gave a pained expression.
Thankfully, the blessed-angel Mikasa stood up and pried the sobbing, enervated Hanji off of me. "Hanji, go get some more coffee, you really need it."
Hanji's limbs squiggled like they had no bones and she somehow drifted out of the office to get 'said coffee'.
I hugged Mikasa tightly, "Thank you so much, you're my saviour!"
She smiled, "No problem!"
Jean scoffed. I swear, all he can do is whine and scoff.

The hour went by with small talk between us. We were all discussing of our dreams of what we wish to do when we got home: how we could finally let loose, eat normally, and sleep a little better.

When the wonderful clock turned eight, I noticed how much I adored it; even if my sole attraction to it was the fact that it allowed my release from this accursed place.

Walking out of the office happily, I walked into the oh-so-lovely elevator and pressed the '1' button. As the door was closing, a hand reached in and caused it to re-open
"Hah?", I was shocked.
"Damn brat, no appreciation for your superiors?", Levi barged in, scowling.
"Wh-wh-what?! What are you doing in here?", I exclaimed, shoving myself as far away as I could.
"Going home, what else? And what are you doing? Feeling up the elevator wall?", he retorted, pressing the 'close doors' button.
Shaking off his remark, I remained dumbfounded. "What do you mean, we never get in the elevator at the same time!"
"Because I always either leave before or after you, idiot.", he responded.
The elevator 'dinged' and opened. Levi and I walked out; I did not want to spend extra time with this fiend past my mandatory work hours.

Walking out of the doors of the building, I happily thought "Okay, now this is okay...he's going to go the other way, he's going to take a left and not a ri-", Levi and I walked side by side as we took a right.
Oh my gosh what the fucking hell is going on, this is not funny. Is he stalking me? Kami-sama this is not a funny joke!, I was completely freaking out. I tried to not make it seem obvious, but I kept stealing glances at Levi, who kept silent and remained stoic.

We walked silently to the subway.
Okay, Eren. Levi's going to go on a different train, obviously. There's no possible way we could actually be going to the same destination.

Whack.

Levi and I got onto the same platform...to go to the same place.
"L-levi...", I silently spoke.
"Hmm?", he looked at me.
"A-are...are you following me?", I looked up at him.
"Look, brat, as much as I enjoy putting you through pain, there's no way I would ever go out of my way to actually follow you to harass you, I can already do that every day.", he answered, deadpanned.
My mouth contorted. I hated this.

After the lovely 20 minutes of being crammed next to Satan himself, I was finally able to get out. I rushed to the direction of my apartment.

Please god, please.
Levi was still following behind me.
Please, the complex is right ahead from here, Levi HAS to take a left here, please. There's no way we're going to the same place. I continuously prayed in my mind.

I passed the last available turn away from the complex and looked behind me. Levi wasn't there.
YES!, I cheered in my mind, lips turning into a smile of content.
"Looking for someone, brat?", a voice articulated from my other shoulder.
You're fucking kidding me right now.
"Y-you're not going to the complex right ahead, are you?", I asked, desperately.
"Honestly, have you been stalking me all along?", Levi answered. "Can you not get enough of your masochistic desires~?", Levi chirped into my ear.
"E-excuse me! N-not even in your disgusting fantasies, weirdo!", I shrieked.
"Oh my, are you stalking me in my dreams as well?", he smirked as we both walked into the complex building.

I was completely flushed; Does he hear the things he's saying?!

We walked into yet another elevator together. I obviously love nothing more than being in a tight, enclosed area with the odious Levi Heichou.

Please don't press floor 4, please don't press floor 4.

"Oi, what floor, brat?", Levi knocked me back to reality.
"U-um, four.", I answered.
Levi turned to me and gave me a look of disbelief. "You're seriously not stalking me, are you?, he asked.
I went pale. "Please tell me you're not going to floor four as well..."
Levi rubbed his temples as the elevator ascended. "I can't believe it's been two weeks, and we didn't even know we lived in the same place."

The elevator stopped and released us. I speed-walked to my apartment, room #143.
"Oh, how cruel fate is.", Levi said behind me. He stopped at the room before mine, 142.

I felt weak. I felt as if I could just wither away now rather than sink deeper into this anguish.

I turned to face Levi slowly while he placed a key into the key hole.
"Y-you're just visiting a friend a friend here, y-you don't actually live here, r-right?", I nervously laughed.
Levi unlocked his door and pushed it in. He walked up to me and placed a hand on my face, sliding it down to my chin. "Oh, yes. I'm visiting my best friend.", he stared into my eyes. "Forever.", he smirked.

I forced myself back into my senses and slapped his hand away, scowling, face the colour of ruby.

Levi chuckled and walked into his doorway, "Oy-a-su-mi~" (goodnight), he sang and walked into his room and locked the door.

I just stood there, in front of my door. Why don't you just kill me now...