Levi enters the council office that looks suspiciously like an airport and smells like a hospital, wearing his fabric grey joggers and a matching hoodie which mostly conceals his green top. He'd ended up sleeping for five hours last night. Was that a record? For him, probably. He hadn't slept like a baby since… well, since he was a baby, simply put. He is well on time for the appointment as the clock on the wall tells him.
Levi sees Eren already slouching in a seat in the cold waiting area, and finds that the view is hypnotic. His bright green eyes compliment his red t-shirt and blue denim jeans hug his legs just right. Eren turns to Levi, perfect mouth forming a smile until he notices something and his expression darkens. At least he isn't running away…
Levi wanders up to him, sitting beside him and casually reaching his arm across the back of Eren's chair.
"Hey. Y'alright?" he asks politely.
Levi crosses his legs. Eren looks back at him with a determined frown and hunches his shoulders away from Levi's arm. Eren's cheeks are too cute and pink and round to let Levi look away. His lips are supple looking and angrily pursed like a bristling kitten-
Eren clicks his tongue. "Levi, I didn't know you supportedCeltic." That's a greeting Levi's never heard before, that's for sure.
There's a trail of Goosebumps making their way up Levi's arm at Eren's aggressive tone.
Levi shuffles in his seat. "Your eyes are greener than my top. That's actually impressive."
There's a pause as Eren's eyebrows twitch in confusion and his mouth opens slightly, only to close again.
Levi continues, "At first, I just thought, okay so both are pretty green but yours are really, really green. I'm not sure how many levels of green there are, but your colour of green is at the top. Really high up, you know? Speaking of which, there's a newspaper over there on that stand. Could you grab it for me?" Levi points to the stand where newspapers are placed in the shelf near the top.
He could've gotten the newspaper himself, but it's worth the puzzled look on Eren's face and the glimpse of his tan ass crack when Eren reaches out to get said newspaper.
And it sure beats football sectarianism in the middle of a council building. Levi had had to deal with that more times that he would've liked back in high school. He'd even been separated from Ranger's supporters because of his shirt. The teachers had gone as far as putting conflicting supporters into different classes. There'd been a whole law banning strips in schools too, and in prisons.
Levi shuffles the flimsy paper in his hands. He frowns as he flicks through it, skipping the dodgy, pornographic pictures that you always get on page three in the Northern Scot Newspaper.
The first time he saw the naked, woman with heaving chebs on that page at the tender age of eleven; he knew for sure that he was gay.
"Someone took the job and entertainment section. All I'm left with is some shitty story about the new school that's going to be built in Elgin, the Commonwealth games and Referendum crap. Independence… What's your take on it, Ere-"
"Yes. I'm voting yes. Scotland has to become independent." Eren stares him down, emerald eyes suddenly burning with fearsome beauty.
So Eren is pro-independence, huh? Not bad, not bad at all kid. Levi doesn't really know about politics, but he can tell that Eren probably does. And since Eren can be smart, his take on the referendum is probably an informed choice.
There are little dots of yellow dotting the green and a ring of dark blue around his iris that Levi never noticed before. Huh. The yellow reminds Levi of a lemon ice-lolly. Especially with Eren's intense gaze making the inside of his mouth dry up and his body tense from the close attention. Zesty. He slowly licks his lips and Eren looks away with redness burning on the apples of his cheeks.
"We need to be more individual, have more freedom, you know? People say Scotland's an annoying teenager and England is the big parent. 's what it feels like anyway. They're caging us in like livestock and letting us have the canny Conservatives rule the U.K, even though we voted for Labour and the S.N.P."
Levi shrugs his shoulders and looks towards the reception. Eren's views remind him of Hanji's drunken rambles and furniture throwing habits when he rants about the Northern Irish. "That's just life, pal."
Levi's name is called out by a middle aged woman beside the reception after a few minutes of silence. She even looks like a councillor, with glasses and a tidy, neat bun and a pencil skirt. How sad must that be, to have your life be told instantly, just by how you look? Levi hopes his appearance doesn't say much about him.
Levi jolts and he's thrown out his thoughts when Eren taps his shoulder. He's been staring at Eren. (Eh. He's probably used to it by now anyway).
They walk along the hallway, and then make themselves comfortable in the little office; sitting on two crappy plastic chairs while the woman gets a comfy swivel chair.
Levi turns green at the unorganized mess of papers on the desk. And on the shelves and even on the goddamn floor. After a little while of introductions, Levi has learnt that the councillor's name is Claire.
Eventually, Levi is asked to tell Claire why he's homeless.
But see, he won't just be telling Claire, because Eren's in the room as well and that worries him a lot more than he thought. Apparently his apprehension shows, because Eren shifts on his seat timidly.
"Ah, um. I can leave if you want, Levi. Everything you say will be confidential with Claire, right?" Claire agrees with him.
A film strip of recollections filters through Levi's mind; memories of the day when he'd taken Eren into the shop, and afterwards Eren had been annoyed that Levi had talked about his life.
Maybe rambling non-stop for three minutes solid hadn't been the best attempt of an equal conversation. Yeah. Over eager doesn't even begin to describe how he felt that day, talking about everything he could. He doesn't really like telling people about his past because there's not much to it. But ironically, when you get Levi talking about it; he just doesn't stop.
He swallows slowly, remembering the month after that day, spent trying to find Eren in the pub and out on the streets of Trost. He remembers how Eren had leapt and actually ran away when he'd seen Levi again.
"You don't… have to stay. I know you don't like hearing about my life. It's fine." He kinda wants to tell Eren about his life though, since Eren told him about his. It's fair.
Eren's eyes widen in sympathy. "Hey, what makes you think that?"
Levi mimes reading the words in thin air, pointing at it with a finger as he reads in deadpan, "'I swear he was trying to tell me his whole life story and I didn't even know his name. Hell, he didn't even know his own name.' Sound familiar by any chance?"
Does Levi sound uptight? Probably.
Eren's eyes flicker to the table with a flash of dread and his adam's apple bobs thickly. "I wasn't aware that you heard that." Then as an after thought he adds, "Sorry."
Levi hums in reply, staring Eren down with a glare, then catches himself fantasizing inappropriate things, including "proper apologies" in the bedroom, and shakes his head.
"Whatever." Eren's hands are visibly shaking in his lap. He rests a hand over them with his eyebrows quirking in surprise. "I told you, it's fine."
When he lifts his hand away, after a moment too long of lingering in Eren's warmth and Eren squirms, he digs his nails into his own palm to see if that'll numb the electric tingling sensation. Nope. Still tingling, the same way the aftertaste of lemon prickles the inside of your mouth. Levi eats lemons when he gets the chance, and takes pride in the fact that his face doesn't screw up.
"Okay folks; story time." he starts abruptly so that Eren will be distracted. Are they ready? Sit tight, boys and girls.
"I was born in Glasgow, Calton, raised there by my mum's friend since mum died when I was born. My dad had been a one night stand, and had dropped off the face of the earth; so being looked after by Kenny it was. He wasn't so bad at first, taught me to talk and gave me food, shit like that. But he started neglecting me when I was about fourteen. Went out to work or got drunk with his pals, whatever. I don't know."
Levi doesn't know and he doesn't care; but he still really hates that man for giving him an early adulthood on top of the shitty, poverty stricken environment they'd lived in.
Kenny clearly got a steady income; seeing as he was renown for always having a fully loaded revolver in his back pocket and dealt similar weapons. That part has nothing to do with Levi though. He's made sure of that.
Eren looks interested, that's good. Better than good.
"I messed around on the streets, pick pocketing rich people with a gang that I was apparently the leader of. I made friends with the lady down the street from mine who took pity on me after I tried to mug her. Erwin's mum."
He looks pointedly at Eren, smirking slightly since he'd met the idiot and Eren smiled at him, apparently relieved at his change of tune.
"Since Kenny was never home, I let her baby me from time to time. Then Erwin decided he'd look after me when he got old enough and tried to adopt me."
He almost laughs at the memory of Erwin begging him to let him adopt him, saying he'd be the best adopted familyever and started spouting about how they could get a dog and a picket fence like in the movies. Then Levi had told him that adoption was how gay people got married, and Erwin stopped harassing him about it. For a while.
"When that didn't work, Erwin got himself on the housing list and went to college. I did my jobs and started living by myself in my old house. Then Erwin got this brilliant idea when he got his house and left school. He packed one plastic Tesco bag with everything I owned and dumped me in the back of his car.
When we got there he told me 'Hey Levi, you're living with me now'. And by that, he meant sleeping on his couch. Three months in, and my relationship with that couch is still going strong. We're living not-so-happily ever after. The end."
Levi can't help but roll his eyes in exasperation. "Who's up for the epilogue? Better yet, the sequel?"
Hey, on the bright side, at least he didn't go off topic. That's good enough for him. And it seems to be good enough for Eren, because his shoulders are shaking. Wait. Levi tilts his head to see his face.
That little shit is fucking laughing.
"What's so funny, brat? Does my life amuse you that much?" He's glad though, because Eren's apparent light heartedness is better than him leaving for good.
Eren gasps, trying to contain his laughter, cheeks flushed bright red and eyes shining. "It's… not it's not the story. Just the bitty at the end. I can imagine Erwin saying that." He wipes tears of laughter from his cheeks.
"Oh jeez. Sorry, lass. Didna mean to get so caught up." Eren clamps his mouth together and his lips tremble from hiding giggles.
In the end, Levi gets a form and makes another appointment so he can hand it in again the next day or whenever. He's told that since his case is in fact serious, like Eren predicted, he'll most likely get into a homeless hostel or a bed and breakfast within a week. Eren looks a little stunned by the end of the session.
"You're… you don't act like you're twenty three Levi." That's what he says when Levi tells Claire how old he is. Levi's a nineties kid; hell yeah.
They stand outside the building for a while. Levi doesn't really want to go, and scuffs his feet off the sandstone coloured slabs beneath him. Eren asks him about Kenny, but Levi can't really tell him much more than what he already has.
Eren nods understandingly. "Hmm, that's kind of the same for me and Andrea. I lived with her for like… eight years, and I still barely know a thing about her."
The council building looms over them both, startlingly white against the ancient buildings around them. Buildings like the museum down the road, the gentlemen's club that looks like a castle, the old bike shop just beside it and the houses that were built in the fifties.
It starts to rain, even though the sky had been bright blue earlier. It still is actually. Weird. Levi's caught up thinking about how he doesn't want to go, about how they're lingering outside, almost as if Eren doesn't want to go either. Eren glances up at him with a small smile, looking fair affronted.
He's fucking melting at that smile.
"You know, I actually met Mikasa in a similar way to how I met you. Found her on the streets, or well, she found me and I dumped my scarf on her, told her to come with me, since I'd seen her a couple of times on that same street corner for two days."
"You haver, and say the most random shit, but I reckon I could come across creepier people. Like Jean. He does this face and I swear to god it's the…" Eren shudders and makes a disgusted noise. "No, you know what, I can't even tell ya how bouffin' it is."
Eren's eyes lock on his and Levi has to ignore the heat crawling up his neck. "Give me a call if you need me, yeah? We're cool. And I wouldn't mind hanging out with you again, last time was actually kinda decent. I got free food and who the hell rejects free food? It's a god send!" he flashes his teeth and his eyes crinkle childishly.
Levi looks at the ground, contemplating that and thinking about Hanji's curries. "Hmm. I'll let you know if we cook anything worth mentioning again." Knowing Erwin's pretty eat-the-breid, it might have to depend on Levi's own cooking skills because Erwin will probably try to feed Eren rabbit food.
"I'll help you move out too, I've got boxes if you- Or no, wait, it might be better to get you a food parcel? The hostel should provide stuff like furniture, but it's only temporary. You're gonna need a shit load of stuff when you get a place of your own. Lots of paperwork to fill out and places to go. Oh, and don't be too surprised if they move you out of town. Just take what you can get."
What.
Levi doesn't like it when Eren has to leave but he likes to watch him go.
Actually, no he doesn't.
That ass might be nice, but it isn't quite in focus and that makes it lose its initial appeal. He squints. Still can't see. Damn it. Eren blurs from his vision and disappears.
Great. Now Levi needs to go to an optician. Maybe Eren likes the glasses type. If he doesn't, there are always contacts.
It probably doesn't help his eyesight when he sits on his black couch with only the lamp across the room to help him see. Erwin still hasn't come home. He'll probably come back drunk. Ooh, Levi could clean until he comes back, now that he's not in the way. He usually cleans when he's in a good mood. Or anytime he can.
Levi's bowl of rice that he made is sitting stubbornly on the coffee table and Levi doesn't really want to eat it anymore. It's too rice-y. Bleh.
He writes a short sentence with a ballpoint pen that has already made its mark on his middle finger, and fantasizes about things as he attempts to sleep afterwards.
Those fantasies vary from tracking down Kenny and kissing Eren. Not the most likely combination of thoughts… But… Let's just say there's a lot of ways to spend ten hours when you're not sleeping. (And no, he's not a claw baw)
"We owe it to each other to tell stories… Even if they're just our own."