Days until opening night: 4
Petra stared at the temperamental boy who was trying his absolute best not to punch the freshman in the face. She'd heard a loud scream come from the closed doors of the control booth as soon as the freshmen had broken the microphone they'd finally gotten to work after three hours, and that's around the point where Jean had said "There goes the Jaeger bomb."
Mikasa was holding Eren back without having to put forth much effort, but she was obviously growing more tired of the thrashing and loud swears coming from her adoptive brother. Armin stood from the back with Ymir and Christa, grimacing when Eren's voice cracked to accompany the screaming.
Erwin stood between the two students, holding Eren's shoulders and calmly explaining "We can either fix it or go buy a new one, it's no problem," as reassurance. This did not help, as Eren screamed out "We wouldn't have to fix or buy it if he hadn't broken it!"
Hanji stood next to Levi, laughing as Mikasa slowly stepped back as Eren started thrashing more and more, and Levi just flat out ignored the entire situation since he was too busy making swatches.
"Well, Eren, just be glad they didn't wipe out your sound library," Reiner commented, sitting on a stool watching the situation. As fate would have it for a poor, unfortunate soul, another freshman had walked up in that moment. Nervously, he walked over to the group, and told Eren, "Uh, the sound library had been wiped when I was searching on your computer…"
"You fucking what?!" Eren screamed, breaking from Mikasa's grip entirely and marching over to the freshman. Stopping right in front of him, taking a deep breath in, and exhaling, he waved his hand.
"You're banished to sorting screws."
"I-I'm sorry, what? I'm on props!"
"Jean?" Eren turned to the boy who was next to Marco and organizing the props table. Jean glanced at the freshman and shrugged, nodding, "Banned to sorting."
"U-Um…Eren, sir, what about me?" The other freshman had asked, backing away slowly. Eren glanced at him, glaring.
"Where are you now?"
"Uh, set," They replied.
"Banned to props," He replied, flicking his wrist and walking past the upset boy.
Mikasa snickered a bit when the freshman looked to her for reassurance, but all she replied with was, "No one mourns the wicked."
Eren walked out the back door exit, motioning for Levi to come along with a pack of smokes. Levi shook his head in response, pointing to the swatches he was fixing up for organizational reasons. Eren clicked his tongue and exaggeratedly waved his arms to show Levi that they seriously needed to go outside, and Levi begrudgingly set down his eye shadow and threw on his lettermen, following Eren outside the auditorium.
Making their way down to the 'Smoking area' and scaring any of the art students away from their spots, Levi took out his cigarettes and handed one to Eren and took one for himself. Eren grabbed the lighter from Levi's pocket and let the joint up, leaning over to light Levi's as well.
"Let's change the bet up," Eren says, blowing the smoke out and tapping his foot.
"Only if you get me my next pack of cigarettes," Levi replied, blowing the smoke out in rings.
"Fine," Eren stated simply, leaning a shoulder against the wall. "I wanna change the rules."
"Oh hoh? What should my end be now?"
"You have to take in five freshmen and not scare them off. Five freshmen from anybody in any of the crews," Eren stated, flicking the ashes from the end of the stick and taking it into his mouth.
Levi gaped a bit, trying to search for words. They're four days from opening night, and he doesn't quite know how they'll grasp quick changes or be able to assist in that short amount of time. Although, he could just have them go on supply runs instead…fuck, fine, Eren.
"Alright, I'll bite," He stated, inhaling once again. "That means you get yours changed, too," Exhaling the smoke and shoving his hands in the pocket of the lettermen, Levi continued. "We also change the prize."
"Okay, shoot," Eren dared.
"You can have my old end of the bet. You can't get pissy at anyone, you have to control your temper. If I win, you and me can go watch a movie and you can pay. If you win, I'll pay," He said, holding the joint between his thumb and index finger now.
"Sounds agreeable, I overheard Erwin saying he was going to try to make Legally Blonde our last production anyways," Eren said, smoldering the cigarette out. Levi followed these actions, and held out his hand for an agreement shake. Eren smirked at this motion, and spit in his own hand and was about the grab Levi's before the shorter male had snapped his hand away.
"Wash your hands before you touch anything in the auditorium, Jaegershnitzel," Levi said, walking with him to go open the door and head back inside.
Levi hated the situations he managed to crawl with his (rather nice) ass into.
Five freshmen girls stood before him, nervous and twiddling their thumbs. Levi observed them, thinking of what he could possibly make them do to make it seem like they're actively participating. Pulling open a drawer of unsorted colors of various eye shadows, lipsticks, eyeliners, and more, he looked back at them.
"Which of you understands how to make swatches?"
One girl raised her hand, smiling a little. "I usually do it for fun at home, so…" She trailed off, shifting her stance a little bit. Levi observed her, walking closer and critiquing her make up in his head.
"Alright, you can swatch these for me," He said, letting her over to the drawer. She sighed with relief, and he turned to the other four.
"You four can run off and get more fabric for me. Jo Ann's is close by, as you should know," He pointed at the door. "I need more black fabric. I need white, silver, and black thread. I also would like if one of you picked up a Venti cookie crumble from Starbucks, if you would be so kind," Levi fished for his wallet and pulled out a wad of money. "This should be enough to cover it. If not, call me."
The girls nodded and quickly scrambled from him, running out to go get a ride from one of the sophomores who usually were their D.D.
Levi looked more content and walked to sit on a stool next to Hanji, who smiled as he sat next to her.
"You look more relaxed!" She commented, setting down her clip board.
"Eren changed the bet rules, and things turned out in my favor," He propped his his feet on the bar of the stool and crossed his arms. "I had to put five freshmen on costume and make up, so I have one doing swatches and the others out getting me coffee and fabric."
"So what changed for Eren?"
"He has my old end of the stick, since I figured out he's way more temperamental when we get closer to Opening Night," He observed Jean arguing with Connie over where the props were placed last, since 'They're not on the table or in the props room! What the fuck, Connie?'
"Oh? Did anything else change?"
Smirking, Levi raised his eyebrows, "Loser pays for the two of us to go see a movie."
"…Levi, did you trick him into going on a date?" She laughed, lightly punching his arm. "Nice job, so either way you basically won!"
"Essentially, that's what I aimed for," He said, brushing off the spot she'd hit. From the corner of his eye, Levi spotted Petra coming back from the University nearby. Sighing, to climbed on to the stage and gave a smile.
"Mike wanted me to go pick something up from him, sorry for leaving!" She said. Mike was Petra's older brother by about two years, and was in theater for a year of high school, before deciding he would much rather not deal with that ever again.
"Did you at least tell him we all said hi?" Hanji inquired, handing over Petra's script.
"Yes, he said hello. He also says he'll be here to watch us again, so he expects a good performance!" She smiled, taking the script. "I'll go practice with Reiner now, thanks for holding my script," Petra gave a wave and sauntered off to go find Reiner.
Eren sat next to Armin in the control room, waiting impatiently for all his sounds to import. He was lucky that they were backed up on an external drive, or that kid would have been banished from the holy ground. Well, at least that's what he called the control booth, there's only a few people allowed inside.
Armin noticed the frustration that seemed to radiate from his childhood friend, and put a hand on Eren's shoulder. Smiling, he reassured Eren, "You'll be fine, Eren. We had a few people run off and get some more mics from Fry's. "
"Yeah, I know," He huffed. "I'm just more worried about losing the bet. We changed the terms, and I can't lose my temper. Loser pays for a movie."
Armin stared at Eren before snickering, then giggling, then full blown laughing like he knew something Eren had failed to pick up. That wasn't unusual. Eren was oblivious to things sometimes.
"…What? What is it, Armin?" He asked, frowning.
"You seriously—" He had to stop for a moment to laugh again, "—don't get it?"
"It's the movies, Levi and I have gone together plenty of times before, Armin. It's not like that."
"Oh, yes, whatever you say, Eren," Armin replied, turning his chair back to his control panel.
"God you're weird- Oh what the actual flying hell?" Eren clicked on the error message, sighing in annoyance.
It was a bit past midnight when they'd finished rehearsals and made their way to a late night iHop run, pushing tables together so they'd all be in a group. Normal conversations passed by about tests and essays due, how much they're going to regret the lack of sleep in the morning, and typical high school conversations.
Levi say with Erwin and Hanji on his right and left sides respectively, picking away at the pancakes he'd decided to order. Hanji chatted away about how good the production was going, and how everyone was doing so well.
Eren sat with Mikasa and Armin, going on about how his sounds didn't import for two hours before he finally fixed the problem. Levi observed them, listening in to the ranting Eren. Scratch that fake ass lie, he was just paying a bit more attention to Eren than anyone else was, and was finding it oddly charming about how passionate he was about his duty.
When they'd all paid the bill, Levi was walking out to his car when he heard familiar footsteps catch up with him.
"Hey, Costume Captain," Eren called out, placing a hand on Levi's shoulder and looking down at him. "About the bet…"
"Are you seriously changing it again?" Levi asked, fixing his jacket.
"No, no, I just wanted to ask something," Eren shook his head, facing Levi.
"Well, what is it Jaeger 70?"
"Stop with the Jaeger nicknames, it's been eight years. Uh, the movie is just us going as friends, correct?" He asked, a bit wary of the other man before him.
Levi chuckled a bit, and rolled his eyes. Reaching up to Eren's ear, he simply whispered, "It only is if you'd like it that way."
Eren drove with Mikasa and Armin in silence, that night.
AN: you guys are awesome thANKS SO MUCH FOR REVIEWING I WAS SO HAPPY I WROTE THIS AS QUICK AS POSSIBLE. you can also track my process in the shingeki no theater tag on tumblr! thank you guys!