The Visit -Part 2
Levi stood at his kitchen sink, rinsing off the last of the dishes used for dinner. His parents stayed to catch up with him for a few hours before they left to return to their hotel. Once they'd gone, Levi put Claire to bed and got started on the cleanup.
As he set the dishes on the drying rack, he thought back to the first time Eren had come over. He smiled thinking, 'I bet she would be right here drying them for me.' While he waited for the dishes to drip dry, he started to wipe down the counter tops then moved to clean the kitchen table. He straightened out his living room then returned to the kitchen to put the dried dishes away.
Once he was satisfied with the condition of his apartment, he returned to his bedroom and readied himself for bed. After he showered, brushed his teeth, then dressed in his night clothes, Levi walked over to his bed and pulled back the dark gray satin duvet along with his freshly washed white bed sheets, he sat down on the edge of his bed and reached for his phone.
He double checked to make sure it was properly plugged and charging, then opened his alarm app to change the settings. Claire's presence would disrupt his usual schedule, so he had to adjust for it. He set the alarm to wake him up at 8 AM, a few hours later than when he normally would rise.
As he exited the app, he noticed that he had a message and clicked on the icon to open it.
[Received 10:46 PM] Eren: Lunch was delicious, thanks for having me over. Sleep well Levi.
He chuckled as he read Eren's message, thinking back to earlier in the day. It had been an exceptionally fine day.
[Sent 11:50 PM] You're welcome. It was fun. Do you work tomorrow?
He typed back his reply and turned his attention to his bed, removing the decorative pillows and placing them at the foot of his luxurious king-sized bed. Once he'd cleared the space enough to make it comfortable enough for him sleep, he moved back up and slid under the covers. As soon as his head hit the pillow, a buzzing noise alerted him of a new message.
[Received 11:54 PM] Eren: Yes, it was. :] I work at the café all day tomorrow. Why?
He let out a long sigh at how much younger she seemed through her texts as he sent his response.
[Sent 11:55 PM] No reason. Good night Eren, sleep well.
He moved into a more comfortable position and then closed his eyes, welcoming sleep to take him.
"Welcome, how may I serve you today miss?" Eren cheerfully asked her next guest.
Business had picked lately at the café, so much so, that Eren was scheduled to work every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Ian even asked if she could come on Mondays and Fridays for the next several weeks. She'd reluctantly agreed to the extra shifts, it meant that her check would be that much larger, but she was still worried that it would cut too much into her study and personal time. Ian reassured her that it was only going to be for a month or so, but his reassurance did little to calm her unease about the added workload.
"Yes, I'd like a mocha with a double shot of espresso, a Berry Medley Waffle with the yogurt on the side, and a chocolate croissant."
Eren nodded and entered the order into the register. "Yes ma'am, your total is 14.98."
The guest pulled out a twenty dollar bill and handed it to Eren. She rang in the sell and then gave the guest her change. She then coded the sensor and handed it to the guest, thanking her, and then turning her attention to the next guest in line. After repeating this process four more times, Eren was finally able to get started on the orders.
Sasha had taken vacation to visit her parents, leaving only Eren and Connie as the 'senior' workers. The boss hired several temporary employees, but they were young, inexperienced, and slow to pick up on all the details and quality expected of the Café's standards. Connie wasn't scheduled to come in until later in the afternoon, and Eren was the only one who showed up to work that morning. The temp that was scheduled to help Eren had yet to show his face and she was quickly becoming overwhelmed with the workload. She had to take the orders, make them and get them to the guests in a timely manner all by herself. The boss had been held up in his office since Eren clocked in that morning, so he was no help to her either.
After nearly an hour of taking and filling orders without reprieve had passed, Eren finally had the chance to sneak into the back and ask Ian if he could call someone in to help her for the next four hours until Connie showed up. As she approached his office, she heard him talking.
Not wanting to interrupt his conversation, she paused outside his slightly cracked door. After a minute or so had passed without hearing Ian's voice, she deemed it safe enough to knock on his door. She lifted her hand and knocked lightly, then slowly pushed the already cracked door open.
"Ah, Eren perfect timing!" Ian cheerfully exclaimed. "I found some temporary help for you on the weekends, since it seems the other boy I scheduled you with, has no intention of ever returning to work here."
Eren's mood lifted at the start of the news, "Really sir? That's great, thank you."
"Of course, I can't just leave you alone out there. I couldn't ask Connie to come in earlier because he has another job he works on the weekends, and the rest of the temps are obviously not trained well enough to be of much help to you right now, so I called my nephew and asked him to put in a few hours a week for me."
Eren nodded in agreement with his reasoning, and then questioned, "Your nephew sir?"
"Yes, he's a good kid, though he can be a bit obnoxious. He goes to the same school as you too, so you might actually know him."
"Oh, it's possible. What's his name?" she asked earnestly.
"Yes, it's-" Ian cut off mid sentence and directed his gaze over Eren's shoulder, "Ah, Jean you're here already, that was fast."
Eren's eyes widened in shock, she tensed and buried the urge she had to turn around. 'No…no…no, this isn't real…is this a joke, is God just playing a huge, crappy joke on me, surely there are other 'Jeans' at Rose U. there have to be…oh God.'
Ian extended his hand, inviting Eren to turn around and greet the newcomer, "Eren, this is Jean, he'll be working with you during your extra shifts the next few weeks, I hope you two get along well."
Eren released a shallow sigh, then closed her eyes and forced the fakest smile she could onto her face as she he turned and then opened her eyes.
"Hi Jean." She offered him a small wave then turned to speak over her shoulder, "Sir, I'm going to go back out and check on the guests. Thank you for…finding me help." She gave Jean a warning look and strode past him; back out into the front of the café.
"W-wait, I'll go with you," he stammered out.
"Not just yet Jean," Ian cut in, "I need you to fill out a few papers and then you need to go change into your uniform. It still fits right?"
"Right, I almost forgot. And yea, it fits fine."
"Great. Here, since you've worked here before there's not much for you to fill out, but because it's been a while and you're only going to be temporary, there is an additional set you have to fill out, it shouldn't take more than ten minutes though."
Jean nodded and sat down; he grabbed a pen off of his uncle's desk and then began to fill out the papers.
"So, you two know each other?"
Jean looked up from his chicken scrawl and nodded, "Yea, we met at Dr. Pixis' holiday party. We were set up as each other's date for the night."
"And?" Ian leaned forward in his chair, urging his nephew to go on.
"Uh, well we don't really talk much in school, we don't have any classes together or anything, but she's always around the same group of people I hang with so we run into each other pretty often. She doesn't seem to like me much though."
"So you like her then?"
Jean's face turned a shade redder as he stuttered out, "N-no, well not, no, but not like either…I don't know. She's cute I guess."
"She is pretty adorable, I'm so lucky that she applied. She's a hard worker, the customers love her, and she looks great in the uniform."
"Y-yea she does…" Ian's quirked brow pulled Jean out of his short fantasy, "I-I mean, yea, it looks good on her."
"Alright, finish up. I have a few calls to make and Eren's out there all alone."
Jean nodded and quickly finished the forms, handed them in and then dismissed himself to change into the uniform.
When he went out to help Eren, he stood, shocked for a moment, while he took in the scene. There was a line of people that stretched nearly to the entrance and the guest that Eren was currently helping seemed to be dissatisfied with something, and had he no problem taking it out on Eren.
Jean walked over and stood firmly next to her, "Is there a problem here?"
Eren looked up to him, and he could see how flustered and frustrated she was, her face red and her eyes glossy. Before Eren could explain the situation, the customer cut in, "Yes there is, I ordered the brunch but this girl here," the man pointed to Eren, "is saying that she won't make it for me."
"Sir, I simply said that we did not have all the ingredients necessary to make the complete brunch. Our shipment of lettuce has yet to arrive so we don't have any to make the salad. I never said that wouldn't make it for you, I just wanted to let you know that I could not make the salad part."
Jean looked down at Eren's upset face and then back to the man, "Sir, is there something that you'd like to substitute for the salad, perhaps an extra waffle or cut fruit perhaps?"
The man turned his attention from Eren and then looked to Jean, "I want the brunch. If you can't make it, then don't advertise it."
Jean put a reassuring hand on Eren's shoulder as he spoke to her, "Eren, go into the back and get the manager." She looked up at him for a moment with slightly narrowed, suspicious eyes, then nodded and darted towards the back.
Jean turned his attention back to the difficult customer, "Sir, if you wouldn't mind stepping to the side and waiting while my partner brings out our manager. I apologize for this, but there is a line of people behind you waiting to be served. We will try and make up for our mistake."
The man narrowed his eyes, but stepped to the side nonetheless. Jean thanked him then took the orders of the rest of the guests in line. After he'd gone through three people, Eren returned to the front, following closely behind Ian. She directed him to the difficult customer and left Ian to try and satisfy him. She returned to Jean's side and started to fill the orders that had just been made while he continued to take more.
After another thirty minutes had passed, all the orders were finally taken and filled. Ian ended up offering a free meal certificate to the angry man who'd caused the line to backup, then asked Eren to make him a waffle and mocha on the house.
She'd just finished dressing the waffle and the set his drink on the tray when she spotted him sitting right next to the entrance.
"Here you are sir, I hope you enjoy it." She said as she set the tray down on the table in front of him.
"It took you damn long enough. I don't know why they let airheads like you work in places like this, it gives them a bad name."
"E-excuse me sir?"
"You heard me, unless you didn't finish high school either. Is that why you work here, cause you can't find anywhere else to hire your dumbass?"
Eren felt the anger and frustration from earlier returning. She knew she needed to walk away. She just needed to swallow her pride and walk away. First rule of customer service, the customer is always right. She was so focused on trying not to go off on the man that she didn't notice when the familiar and not so familiar faces of Levi and Claire walked into the Café.
"What, you suddenly can't speak now? Women like you make me sick, you think just because you have a pretty face and a nice body that you can just be rude and get away with whatever the hell you want." He stopped and took a drink of the free mocha, "and this tastes like shit. Bring me something else." To make his point, he removed the lid and poured the steaming drink onto the floor, drenching Eren's feet with the hot coffee and splashing the scalding liquid onto her legs.
Eren screamed and jumped back when the hot coffee hit her flesh. She slipped on the wet floor and fell backwards towards the standing menu near the entrance. The idle chatter of the entire café stopped and all attention was directed to her.
Levi awoke to an array of tones and beats arranged together to make his alarm's sound. He clicked the dismiss option to shut the alarm off and rolled back over to rest a moment longer before deciding to leave his soft, warm sheets.
He stretched and stood from his bed. He went to his bathroom to rinse his face and brush his teeth, then returned, after he felt refreshed, to make his bed and finish getting ready for the day. He scrolled through his agenda on his phone and noted that he had to finish reading through the course introductory questionnaires he gave out to every student in his classes. He left his bedroom and wandered to the guest bedroom. Claire still slept soundly, so he decided to just make himself a cup of coffee and take the opportunity to read through the remaining questionnaires.
A couple hours later, he heard the door to the guest bedroom creak open followed by light padding noises as his niece wandered out of the room.
He finished the third to last paper in his hand and then turned to greet his still half-asleep niece. "Good morning Claire, sleep well?"
All he got was a sluggish nod and quiet, "mhmm," which was shortly followed by a yawn.
"Are you hungry?" Levi asked her. She nodded again and walked over to him; he pushed his chair out and let her crawl into his lap. When she was settled snugly, she turned and looked at the papers he had in neat stacks on the table.
"Yea. Are you still working?" she leaned over and started to inspect the papers, as if she was a school teacher grading an essay.
"Just about to finish up," he said, patting her unruly bed head. "Go get cleaned up and dressed while I finish this. When you're done I'll take you to a nice place. How's that sound?"
"Okay! But I like Uncle Levi's cooking…," she slid out of the chair and then started walking towards the guest room, "Can you make dinner again?"
Levi chuckled and turned to face her, "Yes, I'll make dinner again, what would you like?"
"I'll eat anything you make! You cook way better than my mom…but don't tell her I said that…she'll get mad."
"Alright then, I won't say anything."
"Do you promise? You have to pinky promise." Claire hurried back over to him and extended her slender pinky, looking at Levi expectantly.
He smiled locked her pinky with his and said, "I pinky promise." He released her pinky then lightly tapped her on the head, "Now go change and brush your hair, don't forget to brush your teeth too."
"Okay!" she ran towards the bedroom and started on her tasks while Levi turned to complete his. Once he'd finished and filed all the papers away, he returned to his own bathroom and looked himself over in the mirror. 'Maybe I should change too.'
He decided on a black pair of loosely fitting skinny jeans, a white v-neck t-shirt and a dark gray sweater. He completed the look with sleek leather loafers. He grabbed a dark blue scarf and wrapped it loosely around his neck, then went out to check on Claire. She'd dressed herself in a matching pink tracksuit that had a little gray bunny design on her chest. Levi chuckled at how cute she looked and then made sure she put her shoes on properly and was wrapped up snuggly in her jacket.
They made their way down to his car and he buckled her into the back seat before settling himself in. A ten minute drive later, and he was parked outside Eren's off campus job.
He helped Claire out of the car and walked with her, while firmly holding her hand, to the entrance. Through the glass doors he was both surprised and happy to see Eren out from behind the counter and serving a customer at his table. As he stepped through the door, his smile fell when he heard the viciousness in the customer's lowered voice.
"- suddenly can't speak now? Women like you make me sick, you think just because you have a pretty face and a nice body that you can just be rude and get away with whatever the hell you want… and this tastes like shit. Bring me something else."
Levi's eyes widened as he watched the man pour the steaming liquid onto Eren. He released Claire's hand and jumped behind her to catch her falling form and prevent her from hitting her head on the standing menu directly behind her.
"What the fuck is your problem asshole?" he shouted at the man, momentarily forgetting that he had a 9 year old girl with him. He pulled Eren up and held her shaking form close to him. Within a few seconds another worker was on the man, pulling him up by the collar and throwing him out of the café.
"Don't you dare show your sorry ass around here again." The worker shouted at the stunned man when his ass hit the cold pavement. He returned inside and tried to take Eren from Levi's arms. "I'm sorry about that sir, here let me help."
Levi's hold on Eren only tightened and he stared at Jean with a questioning look, "Kirstein?"
"Professor Ackerman?"
The two locked each other with a look, both challenging each other to dare and make another move. Eren stirred in between, disrupting their silent competition.
"L-Levi what are you..?" She pulled his arms off of her body and then pushed Jean's away, "Thank you, I-I'm fine, sorry for making a scene. I need to get this cleaned up."
Ian rushed out from behind the counter to see Eren moving away from the two worried looking men, he watched as she took a step on a coffee drenched foot and flinched. "Eren, are you okay? What happened here?"
"Sorry, sir it's my fault. I'll clean everything up." She lowered her head and tried to walk past him.
"You're hurt, go sit down," he directed her to a table a short distance away and despite her protesting, helped her sit. He turned back to the men, "Jean, get this cleaned up." Jean nodded and darted towards the back to get the mop and bucket. Ian turned his attention to Levi, who'd gone and pulled a scared and upset Claire back towards him to try and calm her down, "I'm sorry you had to see that sir, is there anything I can do to make up for it?"
Levi looked up at the man and said, "Yes actually, you could let her off early so I can take her home. She's in no condition to work."
Eren flushed when she heard Levi's words, feeling both embarrassed and a little ashamed at herself for causing her boss more trouble.
Ian turned towards to Eren and asked, "Do you know him?"
She quickly nodded and stuttered out, "Y-yes sir…he's my boyfriend." Eren quickly slapped her hand over mouth when she realized what she'd said out loud. She looked over to the soiled area and felt her stomach fall when she saw Jean pause his cleaning to stare at her with a wide mouth, if he opened his mouth any wider his jaw might have actually hit the floor. She shot Levi an apologetic face and lowered her gaze down to her, now itching foot.
"Alright then, Eren, you can leave whenever you're ready. I'm so sorry that this happened. I'll make sure that that man never sets foot in this establishment again."
She nodded and then let out a quiet, "Thank you Ian." He smiled at her then turned to the guests that filled the café, he offered them all a free a drink coupon for their next visit, as an apology for the disturbance.
An hour later, Eren was laid out on Levi's chaise, her foot elevated on two plush pillows and draped in his oversized white throw cover.
Claire, as Eren later found out was the girl's name, was sitting on the sofa next to where Eren laid, attention focused on the cartoon playing on the TV in front of her. Levi was in the kitchen preparing lunch for all three of them.
"Lunch is ready," he stated, setting the last dish on top of the glass table top.
Claire bounced up from her seat and raced to the kitchen table. She plopped down into her seat and Levi helped her serve her plate. He chuckled when she scrunched her nose in disgust when placed a few sprigs of asparagus on her plate. "Do I have to eat all of it?" she whined out.
Levi nodded, "At least eat half of it, otherwise, no dessert."
By the time he finished preparing Claire's plate; Eren had made her way to the table and pulled out a chair to sit down. He handed her a plate and let her serve herself.
"This looks great," she smiled.
"Tastes even better," he said, sitting down next to her and filling his own plate.
"I bet," she smirked.
Once Levi finished serving himself, all three dug into their meal and silence fell over the table. Soon satisfied sighs and noises filled the room as they finished off the food. Claire had cleaned her plate by the time Eren was halfway through her second serving.
Once they'd all filled themselves, Levi cleared the table and brought out three servings of chocolate mousse. They were in little glass dishes, topped with whipped cream, dark chocolate shavings, and raspberries.
Eren stared down at her dish in awe and then watched as Claire dug into her own serving, quickly finishing it and handing the empty dish to Levi. He stood from his seat and helped her clean up, then let her return to watching her cartoon in the living room while he returned to his dessert and to Eren.
Levi raised a brow at Eren, who continued to stare at the dessert, admiring its look. "You know, you're usually supposed to eat desserts, not stare at them." He sent her a playful smirk; she puffed her cheeks and picked up the dessert spoon.
"Well excuse me," she sent her own sly smile back to him, "I thought it was just too pretty to eat." She broke the surface with her spoon and lifted a hefty serving of the dish to her lips. She wet her lips with her tongue and smirked when she noticed Levi staring intently at her mouth, 'I'm going to have with this,' she thought to herself.
Instead of just opening her mouth to stick the spoon in, she stuck her tongue out, and turned the contents of the spoon onto it, then gradually slid the spoon further into her mouth as she closed her lips around it. She removed the spoon slowly, letting it slide past her loosely closed lips and then licked it once more before she started for another spoonful.
After finishing nearly half of the dessert in this manner, she looked over to see Levi's reaction. She had to bite her lip to keep the laughter from erupting when she saw his mouth slightly agape and his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed. She set the spoon down and reached over to his face, lightly placing one finger under his chin and pressing up to shut his jaw.
She let her finger linger on his jaw line for a moment then she slowly retracted her hand and went back to enjoying her dessert.
"You know," she started, looking up from her nearly finished dish, "you're usually supposed to eat your own dessert, not stare at someone else eating theirs."
Levi's eye twitch in slight annoyance and embarrassment from being caught staring so blatantly. He turned and started to eat his own dish thinking, 'she definitely did that on purpose, if Claire was here I'd wipe that smirk right off her face with my…' he paused his thought and tried to shake it out of his head, 'no, no, we definitely aren't there…not yet at least.'
Eren finished her dessert and stood to take her empty dish to kitchen and started working on the dishes. Levi quickly finished his own dish and joined her. He frowned when he saw the slight limp she still had, thinking back to the asshole from earlier in the day.
"Eren, you should go rest, I'll take care of this."
She looked down at the reddened and aggravated skin on her foot and sighed. "Alright."
He helped her lay back down on the chaise, and then wrapped her foot in a cool damp cloth. "Comfortable?" he asked draping the cover over the rest of her body.
"Very, thank you."
"Do want anything to drink? Coffee…maybe tea?"
Eren chuckled at the annoyed expression on his face when he said 'coffee.' "Tea sounds great."
He smiled and turned to head back to the kitchen. He put the kettle to heat on the stove while he finished washing the dishes and cleaning up. Once the countertops were wiped down and the crumbs were all swept and dumped into the trash, he pulled down two ceramic cups and poured fresh, steaming tea into each one. He made his way to the living room and set his own cup on the coffee table. He walked over to Eren to hand the other to her, and then sat down on the sofa next to Claire.
The three of them sat and watched two movies, one was an animated film about a fairy princess and her friends that Claire begged Levi to rent for the day from one of his pay per view channels, the other was a light hearted comedy about family, love, and life.
When dinner time rolled around, Levi asked, "Should I cook something or are you alright with me ordering out?"
"You look tired, I'm fine with anything." Eren said from her comfortable position.
Claire loudly exclaimed, "I love your cooking but Miss Eren is right, you look tired."
He smiled and leaned back into the sofa, "Alright then, delivery it is, what would you like Claire?"
"Pizza!" she shouted excitedly, jumping into his lap and settling herself comfortably.
He laughed as he reached for his phone, "Pizza it is then," he turned to Eren, "Any special requests?"
"Anything is fine, though I'd prefer something with chicken or black olives…or both."
He nodded and then looked down to the young girl clinging to his torso, "And what about you?"
"Lots of cheese!"
He smiled and searched through his contacts for his favorite pizza place; he quickly placed the order then set his phone back down. After another 30 minutes, the chime of his door bell rang through his loft and he grabbed his wallet, paid, and then started to serve their plates.
He helped Eren back to the dining table and they ate again, only this time, with idle chatter and a few jokes to liven their meal time.
"Uncle, is Miss Eren staying over tonight too?"
It was an innocent question, but it was enough to make Levi choke on the bits of pizza that slid down his throat the moment it was asked. He quickly gulped down enough water to clear his throat and then took a few more good swigs for good measure.
"N-no Claire, Eren isn't staying over tonight. What made you think that?"
"Well, she's been with us all day, so I thought she was staying with you this week too."
"She can't exactly stay the night when you're already here, silly girl, you're in the guest bedroom, and I can't let her sleep on the sofa with an injured foot." Levi pat her head and tried his best to avoid Eren's amused gaze.
"But why would Eren have to sleep on the couch when she could sleep with you? You have a big bed Uncle; it's not nice to keep things to yourself, it's better to share."
Levi's eye twitched and Eren's amused face morphed into an embarrassed one. "Sharing beds is a little different when you're an adult, but that's something you should talk to your mother about, not me."
"Oh, okay." She accepted the answer and went back to eating her pizza, as if nothing ever happened.
Once they finished, the cleanup process was repeated and Levi had Claire get herself ready for bed. When she was deemed ready, he tucked her in and left the door slightly ajar so he could hear if she needed anything.
While Levi was changing the wet cloth on Eren's foot again, he spoke, "Just let me know when you're ready for me to take you home."
"Anytime is fine, it's getting late, so the sooner the better. You have to be up early don't you?"
Levi shook his head, "No, my first class doesn't start until eleven tomorrow and my office hours are in the afternoon on Mondays."
"Oh." Eren wrapped herself tighter in the blanket.
"Cold?" he smiled when she nodded. "Sit up for me."
Eren quirked her brow, but complied, dropping the cover and pushing her body up and away from the back of the chaise. Levi leaned down on the chaise, then helped her scoot forward a bit so he could lay between her and the back of the chaise. He opened his legs and directed her to lay back; she leaned back into him, letting her head rest against his chest while he wrapped his arms around her torso. He pulled the cover over both of them; careful to avoid her foot, then settled fully into his new position.
"Better?"
"Much." Eren smiled and relaxed into the hold. Let his head rest on top of hers as they sat in a comfortable silence.
After several minutes of soft breathing and stillness, Levi questioned, "What time do you go in tomorrow?"
"Hmm, I'm still scheduled for the bookstore, so eight?"
"You should call and cancel in the morning; you shouldn't be walking more than necessary until your foot is completely healed."
Eren sighed, "How long do you think that'll take?"
"From the looks of it, probably this whole week," Eren groaned, "Hey, it could have been worse; at least it didn't hit your bare skin."
"That's true…" she moved a bit, and Levi loosened his grip to allow her to move freely. She tried to lift herself up a bit higher, and without really thinking about it, she pushed her backside against Levi's opened legs.
It was an innocent adjustment, but the grinding motion of her soft cheeks against his groin caused Levi's body to give an extremely honest reaction. He quickly pushed himself further back into the chaise, feeling his cheeks heat up and a burning feeling in his pelvic region. He coughed and tried to think of unappealing things to rid himself of the unexpected arousal.
Eren felt Levi tense against her, and she pushed off enough to turn and question him, "Levi? What's wrong?" concern evident in her voice. She wasn't expecting to see him avoid her gaze, and she certainly was not expecting to see his cheeks tinted pink.
"It's fine, don't worry about it." He stammered out, "I think it's about time I get you home."
"O-oh, okay."
"Unless you…?"
"Unless I what?"
Levi avoided her eyes, "Unless you wanted to stay here…?"
"Oh. Oh. No, I don't think…at least not…not now." Eren quickly twisted her body back around in an attempt to cover her bright red cheeks.
"R-right. Anyway, I'll go get your shoes, stay here and I'll help you put them on."
Eren nodded and he hurried to the door. After several more minutes, and a failed attempt at putting the shoe on her injured foot, Levi decided to wrap it up for her, to protect it from the cold winter weather. Ten minutes later and they were at the door, Levi supporting Eren as they carefully made their way down to his parked car.
When they arrived to her apartment, he helped her inside and stayed while she got ready for bed, ready to help her if she needed it. Before he left, he told her to call him in the morning when she was ready to leave.
"Until it's completely healed, I'll drive you around." Eren nodded in agreement as she walked him to her front door.
"Thank you so much for everything, I really appreciate it." She smiled, resting her weight on her open door.
He nodded and started down the hallway. Eren bit her lip and quickly called out, "Levi, wait!"
He turned and walked back down to her, "What's wrong? Is it hurting again?"
"N-no, it's not that…" she met his eyes and continued, "it's just that, well, I…" Eren bit her lip and then abruptly leaned down; she closed her eyes and connected their lips in a quick, chaste kiss, and just a quickly straightened up and smiled, "Goodnight."
Levi stared, wide eyed for a few seconds before he collected himself, "Eren…?" he offered her a gentle smile, "Yes, goodnight. Sleep well."
"You too." She closed the door and let out a deep breath. 'I can't believe I just kissed him. I just…I…' her mind ran wild, she felt like a young teenage girl who'd just had her first kiss. She would've skipped if it weren't for her overly sensitive and itchy annoyance of foot. She settled for happily humming as she limped to her bedroom.