A/N: Watch out for profanities and some violence; Levi's mouth needs to be introduced to mouthwash, and Eren's got some issues...
I should also mention that this world is a little different to the one that the SnK cast normally live in, along with the one that we inhabit. Picture a somewhat futuristic place like that in the Heisei Project, where peace seemingly abounds but where murders and other crimes run rampant (and, sadly, where the emotions felt by the victims/bystanders of such crimes are rarely, if ever, dealt with or consoled properly). Since that's out of the way, I now present the second chapter in this story~
Beta'd by AutumnCadenza and Stately Demented
~ Chapter Two [Encountering] ~
The two men sat in their opposing seats and stared at each other, as thoughtful grey eyes bored into fidgety green ones. Between them sat two steaming mugs ─some sort of green tea for the man and plain coffee for Eren─ but neither were touched by their respective drinkers. If anything, the only indication of their existence was the opaque cloud of steam that hovered between their tenuously connected gazes and the faint aroma that they emitted into the air.
When Eren had rushed home from his lecture and opted out on his full day of studying, his original intention had been to sit in his apartment and lose himself in the cracks running through his home's old walls. Instead, he had come home to a stranger knocking upon his door and muttering the odd profanity under his breath, and he had been obliged to show the man indoors, because he happened to be his new neighbour. Actually, now that he thought about the situation a little more…
"When did you move here?" Eren asked pleasantly, yet the suspicion he had tried to hide from his new neighbour crept out unbidden through his deceptively simple question.
"I just got here an hour or more ago, brat," the man responded just as pleasantly, though the slight crease in between his eyebrows spoke of the irritation rankling at his innards. "I've been waiting for a damn replacement ever since my old one found itself squashed by some stupid wrecking ball…"
"I'm not a brat, dammit…and you do realize that the former owner of your apartment was murdered in there a few hours ago, right?" Eren cautiously questioned, but the derisive snort that same from the person opposite him rendered his caution to be absolutely ineffective.
"Didn't you understand me when I said that I'd been waiting for a damn replacement for fucking ages now, brat?" his new neighbour huffed indignantly, before he added as an afterthought, "I've got no intention of moving just because you want to mourn for whomever the hell used to live there, so go and complain to someone that actually cares for a change."
"I'm not complaining, and my name's Eren, not brat!" the college student abruptly blurted, but the other man hadn't really been startled by his explosive denial.
"Well, whatever floats your boat, Eren…" he muttered under his breath, but he immediately covered up his discontent with a nod towards the covered plate he'd brought inside with him. "But before I take on the role of your damn therapist or whatever they make you talk to these days, do you want to eat the food before it decomposes, or would you rather eat mould instead?"
The indignant huff that Eren tried to hide didn't go unnoticed by the other man, if the slight smirk dancing along the edges of his lips was any indication of that… so, in a bid to cover up his annoyance, Eren reached for the flimsy cloth and threw it off in a jerky movement. As the man cursed at his crumpled cloth and bent down to straighten the fabric out and fold it neatly by his side, the college student found himself salivating at the aroma that had wafted into his nose. If the man had looked up from his fastidious folding and caught a glimpse of the boy opposite him at that exact moment in time, he might've wondered whether the other had been fed in the past century or not.
In any case, when he did finally look up, Eren was still immersed in his hungered paroxysm.
"What, you've never seen macaroons before in your life?" the man snapped irritably, before Eren's confused look registered in his mind. "My god, you must be fucking deprived…"
Although his neighbour refrained from making other smart comments about him after that, Eren refused to make any sort of eye contact with his guest as he dug into the baked goods lying before him on the platter. The first few bites nearly made his eyes roll to the back of his head from the sheer pleasure it gave to his tastebuds but, by the time he was done acclimatising to the sweet flavour of the macaroons, he found his gaze continuously wandering back to the man… who had most probably baked them in some bid to impress his new neighbour.
He supposed he was lucky to get this man as his neighbour then, even if he was a little snarky around the edges.
Upon closer perusal, though, Eren noticed that this man had the strangest pair of silver eyes that he had ever seen on any other person. Of course, he hadn't seen many light-coloured eyes in his life, especially since everyone he knew usually had black or brown pupils, but that didn't detract from the man in any way. The clarity in his heavy gaze, whenever he had directed it in exasperation at his being, had merely accentuated the light that danced within his pupils, and his long lashes did nothing to detract from their sheen either. If he had smiled or even smirked, Eren guessed that those eyes would brighten up even more than they already were—
"Oi, kid," the man dryly snapped, and his harsh tone forcefully tugged the college student from his entranced reverie, "take a picture, why don't you? It'll last a damn sight longer and it won't drill a hole in my head while you're at it."
The brown-haired youth nervously gulped down his mouthful of macaroon as a blush flared across his cheeks. "I-I didn't mean to stare—"
"Relax already. Besides, I don't give a shit anyway," the other man said, before he fastidiously wiped at the crumbs scattered across his fingers and cast a dead look at the empty platter in front of him. "But unless you plan to stare some more at my apartment, you'll just have to wait until next time."
"Why… wait, where do you need to go?" Eren enquired through the abrupt and discomforting blur that threatened to overwhelm his vision.
"I have to unpack, obviously, and scrub the entire apartment clean before I go to sleep," his guest replied in a matter-of-factly tone, even as he collected up his plate and rose to his feet, "because the shitty police wouldn't have cleaned up the god-awful mess that that fucking corpse left behind. Those bastards never clean up after themselves."
Before Eren could hope to chew through his last bite of the pastry or get up from his position from his sofa, the man had noiselessly opened his front door and was already halfway out. However, before he shut the door behind him, he cast a final look back at the furiously chewing student and frowned slightly.
"Kids these days…" he grumbled under his breath, and shut the door in Eren's startled face.
The only indication of his presence was the lingering smell of the man's cold green tea and his homemade macaroons, and the cursive 'Levi' that was stuck onto the youth's front door.
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The sticky-note that sat before Eren on his coffee table taunted him with the singular word that the college student could make neither head nor tail of, so the boy opted to let his green eyes roam over the mess that now littered the rest of his unfortunate piece of furniture instead. A light layer of dust, which was only broken by the circular indents that had been made by his used mugs and the platter, lay before him on the table and was further accentuated by the odd macaroon crumb that was scattered across its surface. As his eyes roved everywhere around the table and avoided the pristine yellow paper that sat atop his coffee table, he sighed once more, before he got up to dust it.
Cleanliness was a habit that was advocated all throughout the city that Eren lived in, but the college student hardly cared for the large springtime festivities that accompanied his apartment's communal cleaning sessions. Rather than participate in the odd culture that seemed to be rampant amongst his neighbours and most other people in the city, he preferred to clean things when his sneezes became too frequent or when certain pieces of furniture had become oddly grey in colour. This had earnt him the occasional dirty look from one of his friends on the rare occasions that he'd invited them to his flat, along with overly bright smiles and hasty apologies from fleeing visitors, but Eren didn't mind having a lack of company at times.
At least it gave him the opportunity to deflect any curious people from making themselves far too comfortable in his home.
With that thought, his mind wandered back to the topic he had been so studiously avoiding, and the college student sighed anew as the odd silver eyes of his newest neighbour floated to the forefront of his mind. He had no idea as to why, of all the strange eye colours he had seen, he would choose to linger on this particular person's steely eyes, but Eren had long since given up on the illogical nature of his musing.
Instead, as thoughts chased each other around his head and a tell-tale sign of overthinking manifested itself in a throbbing headache that attempted to consume his mind, the boy continued to sweep his duster robotically across the coffee table, over and over again. He continued to swipe at it, even when his glazed mind tried to inform him of the fact that he could already see his reflection in it, and by the time he'd regained his mind he had almost rubbed the varnish off the poor thing.
He never stood a chance of seeing his neighbour observe him from outside his window, really, not even when he passed by it to tuck his duster in some forgotten corner of his apartment. His thoughts were simply too tumultuous to acknowledge the thoughtful gaze that lingered on his form for a few fleeting moments.
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Doorbells were things that Eren had found just a touch irritating at times –they tended to herald the arrival of unwanted people or intrude into the relative quiet that often settled over his sweaty form as he exercised in his living room– and this was one of those ill-fated times. The young adult had just strapped on his boxing gloves in preparation for a round with his punching bag when the generic screech of an imminent intrusion rang throughout his apartment. Although he rolled his eyes at the unannounced visitor, he hastily unstrapped his gloves and padded to the front door as quickly as he could. Despite his dislike for visitors, he knew enough manners to realize that ignoring them would probably be discourteous on his part.
The light was steadily dimming outside as the evening smoothly faded into the relative darkness of the night, but Eren could still make out the glossy pitch of his sister's dark hair and her usual bright red scarf. As she entered his apartment with a slight nod of her head, he stepped outside to swing the door shut behind them and thought he'd caught sight of a flash of white in his periphery, but he dismissed the curiosity that had begun to rise in him when Mikasa called to him from within. After all, his foster sister was more important than a trick his mind might've played and, even though she was just a little too overprotective at times, she was still his family and more tangible than his thoughts.
Although it had been uncomfortable for Eren to live with his sister, he didn't mind her frequent visits as much as he'd minded her near-constant intrusion on his privacy, so there was rarely ever any ill will directed towards her when she dropped in. There were still times when Mikasa would ask if he'd wanted company in his empty rooms (and, if the truth was to be told, Eren wished she'd stop asking about his supposed loneliness) but today was, thankfully, not one of those times.
However, if he'd known the reason for her visit, he might've preferred her nagging over what she had to say to him.
"Eren," Mikasa started warmly, as her aforementioned brother took a seat next to her on the couch, "Are you okay? I heard from Jean that something happened earlier today…"
Eren's eyes darkened slightly as his mind flashed back to the pitying gaze that Jean had cast him as he'd surged out of his seat and barrelled through the lecture doors, but he softened his gaze when he faintly noted his foster sister's palpable worry. He had been stupid to think that the two-toned bastard wouldn't go and blab about his meltdown to Mikasa; after all, it was clear to everyone except his sister that Armin's irritating neighbour was completely infatuated with her. It would only be natural for him to tell her about his problem in class… though, of course, the fact did nothing to make him like the guy any more than he already did.
"Nothing's wrong, Mikasa," Eren sighed in response, but his foster sibling's worry continued to flow unchecked from her unnaturally still figure.
"It isn't 'nothing' when you miss the day's lectures, Eren," Mikasa murmured quietly, while her gaze became more worried by the second, "especially when you've been looking forward to that forensics one for the past week…"
He had honestly forgotten all about the in-class examination of well-known 'cold cases' –which were quite rare, if their ever-vigilant government was to be believed– but Mikasa's words had jogged his mind once more about the issue. As Eren groaned aloud and dropped his head into his hands at the missed opportunity, the college student heard his foster sister breathe a sigh that sounded just a little bit ragged to his ears.
"See what I mean?" his sister pressed on, much to Eren's burgeoning chagrin. "Normally, you'd be talking over Armin's rants about some random cold case and some other alleged criminal, but you've been awfully quiet today. It's not like you to forget these things, Eren."
"Well, I'm sorry for forgetting, Mikasa!" The snappy retort that leapt out of his mouth and through his intertwined hands sounded foreign and distant, even to himself, but the long silence that followed his words was even less comforting to his ears.
"There's no need to act like that." A rustle of fabric alerted him to unexpected movement and, startled out of his position, Eren raised his head with a rapid motion that nearly caused his neck to crack in protest. "If you really don't want to talk about it then you could've just said so."
"Mikasa…" Eren started contritely, but his foster sister merely fixed him with a hard look that nearly made him cower in his hunched position.
"Save it, Eren," Mikasa said in a tone that Eren could only describe as uncharacteristically cold. "You might as well go see the correctional counsellor tomorrow morning if you're that wound up; they might be able to talk more sense into you more than I can right now."
She arrested his sudden attempt to get off the couch and open the door in her stead with a slightly empty smile, before she wrapped her thick scarf around her lower face and disappeared outside into the relative gloom of the night. Her footsteps faded as she quickly strode away from his apartment and began to make her way back to her own lodgings, which was a rather substantial distance from where he lived.
On most normal days, he would've offered to walk her home or even make a conscious effort to visit her home, but the topic of visiting her shared apartment might bring his own loneliness into question, along with even more nagging on her part. There was a reason why he'd moved away from his foster sister's extreme concern for him, after all… but even then, a small corner of his mind berated him for allowing Mikasa to walk back alone.
However, by the time he had resolved to catch up to her and offer to walk her home, he could already see her long scarf trailing in the wind as she walked down his street, alone and unattended.
So all he could do, really, was watch her go while he rained curses down onto his head.
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A lone car inched cautiously down the street and past the floor's communal balcony as it made its way into the depths of the city, and Eren watched it go from where he'd been standing with a listless gaze that clouded his green eyes and made them look almost grey in the dim light of the night. The slightly biting wind stung at his face and his pale fingers began to protest loudly at the chill outside, yet he continued to stay just shy of his apartment's back door. Although it was quite cold in his unsheltered balcony, his apartment's heating system had been closer to a freezer these days and, though it would've been nice to curl up in bed, it was too early for him to sleep.
Besides, his barely broken-in mattress was still a little lumpy and uncomfortable for sitting on.
However, the peace of the night was short lived for Eren; within moments of the car's departure from the streets below, a harsh rattling from someplace to his left caused the college student to whip his head around. Although the abrupt rigidity that he got in his shoulders subsided minutely when green eyes alighted upon familiar grey ones, he only spared Levi a momentary glance before he returned his attention to the dark clouds disfiguring the calm of the sky.
"The fucking heating isn't working inside for you either, is it?" Levi started rather abruptly, and Eren nearly bit his tongue clean off when he choked on a surprised bark of laughter. "I didn't expect anything less of the cheap-ass flat, but an old man can hope a little…"
The man cast his silver eyes down to his beverage –which, much to Eren's surprise, seemed to be housed in some sort of teacup– and took a delicate sip of the drink inside, before he sighed in contentment and cast his gaze over the young adult once more. Unfortunately, the sense of slight amusement that he'd gotten from observing the sky quickly dissipated with the vapour that wafted from the cup when Levi broke the tenuous silence that hung around their lonely forms.
"You sounded pretty pissed when that woman visited you this afternoon…" Levi mused thoughtfully, and this time Eren allowed himself to grind his teeth together rather viciously.
"Who goes around spying on other people in this day and age?" Eren blurted out before he could help himself, but the man beside him seemed to be more amused than annoyed by his unexpected outburst.
"The walls are surprisingly thin in places, brat," the man snorted, as he flicked a dismissive hand towards the thin partition separating their apartments and not their balconies, "you'd be surprised as to what people can hear through them…"
Eren's face was probably registering the exact emotion that was currently dashing his mind asunder, because Levi forewent sipping from his teacup to continue talking. "I didn't hear anything important, if that's what you're worried about, so you can stop staring at me like I'm a fucking floater that you found swimming in your toilet bowl."
The odd mental image that the college student received as a result of his neighbour's words nearly made him both laugh and cringe at the same time, but the inclination to do either disappeared as soon as he felt something warm alight on his hands. It took a while of fingering the soft fabric atop his palms and a great deal of squinting in the dim light to figure out that the thing currently warming his hands appeared to be a pair of gloves… which, if his memory served him right, had been fit rather snugly around Levi's hands the last time he'd seen them.
"What…" Eren started dumbly, as his gaze flickered from the gloves around his hands to Levi's quiet figure, but he was stopped from saying anything else when the elder man turned to re-enter his flat.
"You just looked fucking cold, Eren, so I thought you'd have a better use for them than I would…" Levi said in a low tone that Eren nearly didn't hear, before he added a little louder, "But really, don't stay up for so damn long and get inside before your ass freezes, otherwise it'll be hard for you to take a shit tomorrow."
And, with that charming parting comment, Eren found himself alone on the communal balcony once more.
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He didn't know whether it was because of the gloves wrapped snugly around his hands or the slightly unconventional care that his neighbour had shown him just before he'd left, but Eren found his eyes crinkling upwards ever so slightly. The foreign feeling continued to stay with him, even as he returned his gaze to the drifting clouds in the darkened sky, and the skin around his eyes and on his cheeks hurt when he'd finally given up on smiling like an idiot.
So, when he eventually went off to bed and discarded the petty thoughts in his mind, the only thing he could really focus on was the warmth racing from his fingers to the rest of his body…
…And the faint happiness that was radiating from his heart for the first time during his horrible day.