A/N: all i have to say is that i had a lot of fun writing this chapter. I hope you all enjoy it!~
Almost every Saturday night was unofficially announced as being raid night for their guild. The guild always took suggestions beforehand of what they all wanted to do and they would take a vote on it. They had their own vent so if any guild members or new members did not know the mechanics for each fight or the basic concept of the raid or instance, either Levi, Hanji, or Erwin would explain the details and just pray they listened well, and if they didn't have vent, Erwin was put on typing and warning duty; Eren was one of the few that did in fact not listen the majority of the time even though he had both vent and chat, automatically deeming himself to suffer the wrath of the short man near him. But of course, he has his glorious moments at times and does the job exceptionally well when he does in fact listen, surprising many guildies both new and old, but today was not one of those days.
"Hey, hey - hey, Levi." Eren said over the dramatized sounds of his undead priest dying - which he really shouldn't sound as happy as he did because him being one of the healers dying, provoked sorrowed cries and mixed anger within the raid chat from the guildies. They became especially more angry when they heard he wasn't even sorry about it through vent.
"What do you want." Levi sighed and refused to take in and acknowledge the fact that he has to slightly pick up his healing from the mishaps of Eren dying. Poor guildies that chose to heal tonight probably feel the exact same way.
"Wanna' hear a joke?"
"No." Levi doesn't even want to try to remember the last time he asked that question. The whole day revolved around him trying to annoyingly make Levi crack a smile and once he gave in and said yes, go for it, he said "How do you know someone has been playing since Vanilla? Don't worry, they'll tell you." Needless to say, it was so accurate and actually to the point of being a bit funny enough that he had to close his eyes and take a few labored breaths just so he wouldn't let the boy triumph over the little feat. Eren took his heavy breathing as a sign of reaching almost the top bar of Levi's anger so he shut up the rest of the day to save his own skin.
"Don't be so stingy. Let the boy have his fun." Erwin added through vent, finishing his sentence with a slight chuckle.
"I'd personally love to hear it also - "
"Yeah you probably would, Hanji. When don't you ever?"
"C'mon it's funny." Eren whined, turning around in his wheely chair with his headset still on to face Levi who had his back turned to him.
"I dont care -"
"Good, I knew you wanted to hear it. Okay, okay, so how does Yogg-Saron know your birthday?"
If Levi had his hands free, he would have began to rub his temples. But since he was too busy picking up Eren's failed heal attempts, he forced the aggravation to be shown in his words."Oh god not another one of these -"
"Oh oh oh! I don't know , how - " Hanji started to say excitedly but Levi interjected, cutting her off.
"Don't tempt him further."
"He asks how Ulduar. Ahhh, isn't it funny?" Eren started cackling from his own joke and Levi could hear the vibrant laughter from behind him.
Levi laughed unhumorously. "... Why am I not surprised?"
Eren calmed himself down to try to reply steadily to him. "Just laugh for real at my jokes for once, Levi. They are one of a kind." More like you are, Levi thought tenderly. But of course, persistent as he is to keep up the facade, he mentally kicked himself in the face with what he said next.
"Blizzard should just ban your account for your immense stupidity."
"They would never get rid of such an amazing player as me." Eren countered confidently. Levi could almost see him waving his hands around his personal space flamboyantly, as if trying to prove something that was blatantly obvious.
"Ho-ho-ho. Yes, retaliation against the grump! Love it." Rang a sarcastically lively voice from the guild vent chat. Levi decided to ignore Hanji's sardonic comment and proceeded with lecturing the guy who got himself killed not even five minutes in of starting the boss encounter. He swears only with Eren was this possible.
"Is that why you're laying there dead at General Vezax's feet 'cause you didn't follow directions and went gung ho with spending your mana even after I told you to watch it? It doesn't help that after you did, you refused to step near us so we could heal your ass."
"Well, in my defense, you know how I am as a healer… " Oh lord, he knew firsthand how Eren was as a healer. The ignorant fool spends mana like a fucking fish out of water thats flopping on the beach, ever so close to the ocean. Always has an inner voice of 'almost there' so he casts four spells because "Just in case, you know!" Levi can understand that type of thinking but it's overkill to keep casting Greater Heal and Circle of Healing when everyone is at full health and also have Renew stacked, which results in honestly too much overhealing. Regardless of what he tells him, he never listens and thus they are always in this predicament where Levi has to pick up his shit, again.
As for dying all the time, Eren has this sort of damnable determination and because of that he thinks he can do anything if he sets his mind to it, which is the cause of almost all of his deaths in-game. Take this for example, he thought he could live through each phase while out of mana and not near anyone that could help him, while that might be adorable to Levi at times, it really draws out the pissy gamer side in him.
"And I admit, my mistake for thinking you would be competent enough to make it through each boss with us. Specifically why I chose to heal alongside you."
"Really, you trusted me for once?!" Levi could practically hear the happiness beaming through within those words without even having to look over at the boy.
"No, I knew this would happen - that's why."
"What a low blow. Getting the boys' hopes up… for shame, Levi." Came a stern voice within the chat. Levi could mentally picture the head shake the man was doing on the other side of the monitor. He just rolled his eyes at Erwins remark, when isn't he taking Eren's side in things?
"I agree, you guy's are like an old married couple." Hanji retorted, causing several comments to come up in the chat saying 'LOL', 'omg I totally agree'', and the other unfortunate souls who didn't have vent that added 'what are you guys talking about, what happened'.
"I'll only accept this if I'm the nice old husband." Levi was so thankful that Eren couldn't see his face because he would have witnessed him turn as scarlet as fucking health potions in the damn game. He hissed at himself inwardly. If he lets himself lament in his own embarrassment and stupid feelings for him then Eren will interpret the silence way too wrong, so he replied the best way he knew how.
"Hell no! I'm not being the old hag." Levi yelled with an added exaggeration of disgust filling his lungs.
"I think that settles it - "
"From this point on your opinion is invalid, Erwin. Same for you Hanji."
"Just hateful… " Hanji replied, trying to sound choked up through the mic.
"As much as we are reluctant to do so, can someone please just fucking use a battle rez on the moron and get this over with quickly?"
About an hour after they finished the raid, they said their goodbyes to their guildies for the night, of course some of them refusing to say bye to Eren after the stunts he pulled during their attempts at Yogg-Saron, and who could blame them? He had this mindset that he could figure things out as he went along, to which several people called him out on trying to be funny and pull a Leeroy Jenkins and after all their hard work for the night, they really weren't in the mood to deal with things getting any more fucked up thanks to him.
"I always love doing Ulduar, hey we should do achievements next week! Ahhhhh it's gonna be so much fun!" Hanji beamed through vent, taking no note of how badly things went today every time Eren decided to be a little shithead like usual and died.
"Correction, it will only be fun after you get your rewards."
"Woo! Rewards!" Eren screamed from behind him. Levi turned and seen him throw his hands up in the air, twirling in his wheely chair with his face in a state of utmost bliss.
"Another correction, it will only be fun if we make it through the raid with no problems even with Eren dying and fucking up all the time - then get the rewards." Levi replied cooly with no indentation of anger, eyeing the brunette who was making a scene in his chair proclaiming his excitement.
"Oh don't worry. I'm sure we'll be just fine." Erwin mentioned.
"I thought I said your opinions are invalid?" Although Levi was being harsh about it all, he didn't actually mean any cold words he said half of the time - anyone that has been friends with him for as long as Erwin and Hanji have, they know this fact as well.
"I know deep down you care about my feelings." Erwin thoughtfully sighed.
"It's like he has a stick up his ass all the - " Hanji being bluntly honest as always, was interrupted by a quickly-becoming-frustrated Levi.
"Shut up both of you." Levi exited out of the chat and shut his laptop, glaring at Eren who was now clutching his stomach and laughing at something Hanji or Erwin was saying. He just sneered and walked away from the sight.
In the later hours of the night, Levi was laying down on his stomach on his bed studying some of his class books and going over coursework. Eren claimed he was doing the same thing but Levi would beg to differ because he literally kept rolling over and moaning about how much work he had to do instead of actually picking up his pen or pencil to get started on it. About thirty more minutes of this and Eren eyeing something on the table, the boy called out to him.
"Are you gonna' drink that? It's been sitting there for like the past three hours." He questioned and Levi looked over to the table to see a bottle of bought tea that he set on it earlier, full and unopened.
He contemplated if he still wanted it and decided that it probably didn't taste all that good lukewarm and at room temperature so he figured he would be nice for once and let him have it.
"Well I was planning on it but I doubt it's still cold by now. Why, do you want it?"
"If thats alright with you… " Eren looked longingly at the bottle and Levi couldn't help but giggle at the expression.
"Go for it."
"Thanks. You're a sweetheart, honey." Levi's eyes widened at the nickname. Why had he just called him honey? This completely baffled him and he felt his ears becoming tinged.
"... Excuse me?"
"Hmm?" Eren disregarded his questioning and opened the bottle, releasing a pleased sigh after he took a big sip of the sweetened beverage.
"Don't play stupid. What did you just call me?" Levi lifted himself off of his stomach and swung his legs off the side of the bed, raising his brows questioningly but in no way a type of friendly gesture, and eyed the boy.
"I don't know what you're talking about, dear." Eren simply just shrugged and took another drink.
First it's honey and now it's dear? Why is he calling him these stupid pet names? His heart started to race as he searched his mind for anything that could give him a clue and everything was coming up blank.
… Does he finally feel the same way I feel about him? Is that just wishful thinking? Y-yeah it has to be that because he's way too dense to finally realize my feelings just yet. Unless I haven't been as careful as I thought I have been? Why am I acting like an innocent virgin over this? Wait - Is it because of Hanji's stupid comment from earlier?!
"There you fucking go again - oh, please don't tell me you're trying to be funny and do that stupid nice old husband act. It's gross."
"I think you're acting the part very well." Eren stated and he let out a snigger that sounded much uglier than the beautiful tone Levi is used to.
"What was that? Even after I was nice and gave you my tea." Growing angered at himself at having been ignorant enough to at least for a second believe Eren might have been starting to at least feel something similar to the feelings he had, stormed over to him and grabbed the bottle from his hands, easily slipping into his since Eren kept a light grip on it before, not expecting Levi to grab it from him.
"H-hey… !" Eren looked frantically up at Levi, grasping empty air in a futile attempt to get the tea back somehow. Levi kept pushing him down and smirking at the gangly limbs trying to hurdle their way up to where he was standing.
Screw it, he doesn't care that the tea isn't to his temperature standards at this point in time and takes a large swig of it, relishing in the pain that flashed over Eren's features from drinking his once-was-his-tea-but-now-no-longer.
While fending off the wild beast that kept lunging for the drink and immediately after taking the second sip with the tea resting in his mouth before he swallowed, he realized something that made his face become scorching hot and his ears become ablaze. He completely forgot that Eren was drinking it before so what he just did was like one of those cliche indirect kisses.
What am I, a highschool girl? Before this idiot came along I would have never acted like this!
Getting caught up in his bitter thoughts and continuously growing embarrassed by the minute, he felt as if his throat was unable to swallow the sweet liquid resting in his mouth. While distracted by these thoughts, Eren was finally able to snatch the tea away from him but when he sat up straighter to rejoice his victory face-to-face, Levi spit the drink in the boys' face.
With a slight flinch and a look of pure shock contorting his features and emerald eyes shooting daggers into his soul, Eren did the only rational thing anyone would do in the situation. "Why would you spit it out on me?!"
With his lids growing wide with sudden mortification, without conscious thinking he swiftly turned around and charged out the dorm, roughly wiping at the sweet beverage that was dripping down his chin with the back of his hand