Levi made a note to self: It was never a good idea to let Erwin Smith anywhere near his neck, or, at the very least, not to let the man anywhere near his neck until the weather cooled down enough to justify wearing a scarf to work. He'd never gotten so many smirks on the subway before, and he'd made it a point to stare at the grimy grey tiles that adorned the carriage floor and wonder just who'd left that still-smoking cigarette butt in a carriage that was clearly designated 'For Non-Smokers only.' His smoking days were behind him, and though he'd never been one to be opposed to running them down to the filters and tasting the tar thick in the back of his throat, but it just seemed downright rude to drop them all over the place where other people who didn't approve of one's lifestyle might be forced to breathe in the smoky air.
And it was just downright rude for the other subway goers to gape openmouthed at him and smirk at him and the string of raspberry bruises trailing up and down his neck and collarbone. He considered taking up smoking again for a brief moment in between stations when a particularly irritating woman with a hairstyle that probably dated back to 2002 smiled and nudged her friend, whispering in her ear and arching an eyebrow at Levi.
That particular morning, Zöe was far too busy marking up some timetables for her precious prokaryotes' feeding schedules, or something else horrifyingly scientific, and only gave him the briefest of acknowledgements when he walked in.
However, that particular afternoon was not quite as uneventful.
"You've been attacked by a beast," were Mikasa's first words to him from behind a red scarf that Levi swore she might have been wearing just to spite him that particular day. She had come through the door, toting a book and that fawning turquoise-eyed boy whose name, as Levi quickly learned, was Eren, who just also so happened to be the movie-synopses-are-really-university-level-essays writer. "It's left marks all over your neck."
Eren peeked out from over Mikasa's shoulder just long enough for Levi to register a few things about him:
1. He clearly was not in the habit of combing his hair; tufts of brown hair stuck out all over his head and fell over his eyes, and Levi for the life of him really could not see what Mikasa saw in the boy.
2. He was gaping at Levi in awe and perhaps a bit of fascination.
3. He was taller than Levi.
"You have hickeys!" Eren crowed triumphantly, and Levi would have reached over the counter to smack the brat's head down had Erwin not chosen that moment to come in and set the bells above the door jingling merrily. Eren whirled around to confront the new arrival, falling back like a kicked puppy upon laying eyes on Erwin. Clearly, his paper grade had come in significantly less than he'd been hoping, and Levi derived a savage sort of pleasure from this. If the boy were to be held back a semester or two for graduation, that would settle in perfectly with Levi's perception of him as a person.
Erwin just took a glance out of the corner of his eye at Eren, who pouted and skulked off to the corner, shoulders hunched, to examine the tins of chai spice. He reached out a hand to touch it, and Levi felt his heart start to palpitate furiously, when Erwin cleared his throat and he jumped a good foot or so back. Erwin wasn't even looking at him, and in fact was staring up at the chalkboard menu, but Eren meekly retreated to a corner table far away from the chai spice, and Levi felt the knot in his throat relax.
"Feel alright?" Erwin asked, looking pointedly at the hickeys dotting his neck. Levi scowled at him and tried to yank the collar of his dress shirt up higher in a vain attempt to hide the marks. Eren was positively goggle-eyed at his table in the corner, gaping at the proceedings that were going on.
"What'll you be having?" Levi asked him, rather rudely, if an observer were to say so. Said observer would also say that Erwin had the nature of a saint, as he was smiling patiently at Levi.
"Well, I've got quite a lot to do tonight, so if it wouldn't bother you too much, I'd like an Espresso Ristretto, please."
Levi rolled his eyes, frowning and slapping the cash register with the flat of his palm when it refused to open. After a few well placed attacks and quite a lot of stifled giggles from the corner table, the register chinged open, hitting Levi squarely in the abdomen with the drawer. He frowned deeply, closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to refrain from strangling the nearest inanimate object, and looked up to accept Erwin's (hopefully non-defaced) currency only to find the man's face mere centimeters from his own. He jumped back with a little gasp, as though he'd just been confronted with some long dead Japanese ghost that he'd seen on the television once.
"Although, I would really rather like to have you instead," Erwin murmured, and Levi forced himself to take another deep breath and extract himself from the oceanic blue of Erwin's eyes.
He didn't even have to lean over the counter to slap Erwin over the head, and he muttered to himself that he would make it the bitterest thing Erwin had ever tasted, his cheeks flaming, as he turned to make the drink.
"What the flaming hell was that about?!" Levi snapped at him once Mikasa had left, her white latte in one hand and Eren hanging off the other. She had set the bells jingling, had turned to acknowledge Levi with a little nod, and had tugged at her scarf almost as if to irritate him even more. Levi thought he might have to revise his opinion of the girl; she was turning out to be rather quite sadistic, and enjoyed taking perverse pleasure in other people's embarrassment. "We're not even a, a thing!" he sputtered, as Erwin was currently towering over him and making him feel quite (enjoyably, though Levi would never admit it) small. Just like a certain actor whose picture was lying somewhere on the floor of Erwin's Toyota might have, if Levi had been even a blip on his radar.
If Levi was reading the signals right, he was practically the Titanic on Erwin's scope. Or perhaps the iceberg. But the iceberg had remained unnoticed until the boat crashed into it? He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, it was getting far too complicated an analogy for him, and felt Erwin's fingers grasping his chin and tilting his head upwards.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure we're a thing," Erwin told him, his eyes twinkling. "I don't usually have intimate relations with people with whom I am not a thing. And you do carry that picture of me around in your wallet, so clearly you've already thought somewhere in this odd mind of yours that we are, in fact, a thing."
"We're not!" Levi protested, but Erwin was pouting at him like he'd just been told his dog of fourteen years had passed away in the night, and Levi hastened to place an addendum at the end of the sentence: "It's not that I'm opposed to the idea, it's just -"
Erwin's hand pressed gently over his mouth.
"I have no desire to hear your objections at the present moment, Mr. Ackerman," he said, and Levi felt a delicious shiver running up his spine, ticking off each individual vertebra along the way, at the deep rumble of Erwin's voice. "It's only polite to give the defence some time to formulate their argument. And, unfortunately, I do not have sufficient time today with which to do so."
Levi pushed his hand away. "So you said," he muttered, turning away from Erwin to wipe down the counters and straighten out the currency in the cash register. "You've got quite a lot to do tonight."
"Indeed I do," Erwin said, with a sweet smile that Levi felt could probably turn milk into custard. "I'll be taking this," - he took the ristretto, now almost cold, knocked it back in one fluid shot and a grimace - "and I will be on my way."
Levi pouted after his back, although he'd never admit that he'd been pouting, not over his dead body. Even the allure of the green-and-silver tin of chai spice held no appeal for him at the present moment, and he rubbed absentmindedly at his neck, tracing absentmindedly over each tender splotch and wondering if perhaps it might not be so bad to be a thing with Erwin Smith.
Three and a half hours and one terrifying subway ride later (terrifying in the sense that Levi had gotten caught in the evening crowd, all businessmen with huge briefcases that banged into Levi's knees and stomach whenever anyone so much as breathed, and he couldn't help but think of all the germs and communicable diseases that he might be catching at that very moment), Levi trudged past the receptionist and into the lift, watching the floor numbers tick away in little orange lights.
The hallway before his flat smelled really quite nice, someone roasting some sort of meat, and it was truly unfortunate that that roasty, herby scent was overlaid with the smell of something burning quite badly. He was about to slot his key into the door when he noted that it was just the slightest bit open and that if he just laid a hand on the door and pushed in with a bit of effort, it would swing open.
He reached into his messenger bag for something, anything, that he might be able to use as a potential weapon against the intruders that were in his flat. He came up with a few neatly folded receipts, a few pens which had run out of ink, and a packet of gum that had been unopened. He grasped his keys firmly in his hand, all the better for raking down someone's face, or taking off a few select body parts if applied with enough force and determination, and pushed open the door.
The entryway and living room appeared to be untouched, but Levi had watched enough television and Netflix movies to know that the would-be killer was most likely hiding in the bathroom or the shower (or, in one case, the oven, but that was highly unlikely, Levi's oven was rather small and probably growing cobwebs inside from how often it was used), and he crept carefully, quietly, towards the kitchen, from which said delicious (and horrifying) smells were emanating.
Grabbing an umbrella that he'd never even removed from its sheath, he carefully tiptoed towards his kitchen, handle clutched firmly in hand and ready to fend off any would be assailants who had not already had their hands burnt to a crisp by his demon of a toaster. He held his breath as he hid behind the corner of the wall, mentally steeling his nerves to leap out and defend his livelihood, and took a deep breath before taking a peek into his kitchen.
He momentarily thought for a moment that perhaps he'd willed Chris Evans into existence in his kitchen, but the man muttered a curse and turned so his face was just the slightest in profile, and Levi would have been lying if he said he was disappointed it was actually Erwin.
His grasp on the umbrella handle relaxed, and he quietly tiptoed back to the entryway to set the umbrella in its stand, and silently opened the front door and walked out. He rested his forehead against the white wood of the door, looking at the perfectly polished numbers set into the door, and counted to fifteen, taking deep, calming breaths. He slotted his key into the keyhole, turning it and opening the door, so Erwin might have a few moments to finish preparing.
He slammed the door behind him [something he almost never did, but he wasn't sure if Erwin would hear anything else], and stood in the entryway for a few moments, toeing off his shoes and taking a good thirty seconds to arrange them just so, lined up toe to toe with a seam in the wood floor, before clearing his throat loudly, shrugging out of his jacket and hanging it up on the hook beside the door, and walking to the kitchen.
Even though he'd known Erwin was there beforehand, it was no less surprising to him to come upon him in the kitchen, strands of blonde hair sticking to his forehead as he furiously mixed something in a bowl. Blue eyes met grey ones from across the kitchen, and Levi wondered absentmindedly what exactly the proper protocol for this sort of situation was. Erwin's hands appeared relatively unscathed, although the toaster's face was glowing an alarming red and Levi sincerely hoped that Erwin had some form of health insurance in the case of an unprecedented explosion.
"What are you doing in my house?" he asked after a few moments, during which Erwin managed to splatter some thick brown stuff onto his shirt. "I thought you had a lot to do today?"
"I do. I did," Erwin said, still holding Levi's gaze as more of the thick brown sludge spilled over onto Levi's tile floor. "I was making dinner."
"It looks like you're spilling dinner on the floor instead of actually making it," Levi pointed out, edging past the rapidly growing puddle towards the pantry, where Sally was fully charged and ready to clean up whatever messes might be made that day. "And how did you get in?"
"I copied your key when you were still asleep last night."
Levi stopped, stared up at Erwin, who'd somehow managed to get some of the brown stuff in his hair. "That's a crime, you know," he said after a short moment. "I could report you to the police for such infractions."
Erwin smirked a bit, leaning back against the counter. "I suppose you'd like seeing me in cuffs?" he asked, arching a questioning eyebrow at Levi, whose mouth went dry at the very thought, and he turned back to the task at hand, swishing Sally in neat lines across the floor.
"Why are you here?" he asked, as Erwin rooted through his cabinets, reaching up into a top shelf and pulling out two ramekins that Levi hadn't seen in probably decades, or at the very least not since he'd moved into the flat. Levi watched with fascination as he poured the contents of the stainless steel bowl into the ramekins and set them in the fridge. "Surely you've got papers to be grading, or something like that."
"Your toaster burnt them," Erwin said cheerfully, pushing the ramekins into the fridge. "I set them down on the counter to read while I was making the roast, and I looked back and they were in flames." He indicated a pile of ash that Levi had not previously noted, sitting in the sink. "It's not a big deal, I'm sure Eren was just summarizing movies again or something of the like. The boy's not the brightest."
Levi smirked in satisfaction.
"I thought it was obvious; I'm here to defend my thesis," Erwin said, his voice practically a purr, and Levi's eyes followed Erwin's hand as it went up to his throat to loosen the knot of his tie. The effect would have been manyfold stronger, had Erwin's tie not been spattered with the ganache he'd been making.
"Right," Levi murmured, clearing his throat and looking anywhere but at Erwin. Nothing of the sort had ever happened before in his life; it was like something in one of those chick-flick movies that Levi would never tell a soul that he secretly enjoyed watching on Netflix. A past boyfriend had ridiculed him for that exact thing, when he'd discovered piles of DVDs with pastel covers hidden in shoeboxes underneath Levi's bed. After that, Levi had discovered the joys of Netflix and had even gone so far as to make an alternate account for the little sister he didn't have, who just so happened to be infatuated with chick flicks and romantic comedies.
"Go sit down or something," Erwin said, nudging him out of his own kitchen. "Dinner will be ready in a bit."
Levi would never claim to be a wine-drinker, but he did like the taste of it mellowing in his mouth, tucked high into the corners of his cheeks against the flavour of the roast which was, much to Levi's surprise, quite good. He'd never pegged Erwin for the type that could actually cook anything fairly decent.
It was quite a lovely dinner, very unlike their first dinner, and Levi found himself easing into laughter at Erwin's anecdotes about Eren and his antics, and the rest of his students. Though it wasn't quite like the romantic meals in the movies, complete with lace tablecloth and rose petals and candlelight, Levi found the edges of his vision softening and colouring rosy, found smiles easier and more comfortable.
He wasn't quite sure, it might have been the wine, or the absolutely phenomenal ganache that Erwin insisted on feeding him spoonful by spoonful, but he thought that perhaps it might be perfectly suitable to be a 'thing' with him.
"Wait," Levi murmured, his voice quivering dangerously on the side of a moan as Erwin gently pressed nibbles into the side of his neck. "You're going to leave mar - ah - ks."
"No more than the ones that are already there, I'm sure," Erwin breathed, but he acquiesced and pulled away from Levi's neck to press a kiss to his mouth, his tongue stroking and twirling rather elegantly around Levi's, pressing itself into the crevices of his mouth, tasting chocolate and wine, and swallowing Levi's moans. He pulled away, leaving Levi gasping for breath, and studied him with eyes that had darkened with desire. "I suppose I'll just have to leave them in other places, won't I?" he said, his gaze predatory as it travelled the length of Levi's body, lingering on his cock, which had already started to stiffen and flush rosy.
"Wait," Levi whispered, pleading, as strands of Erwin's blonde hair tickled at his stomach as Erwin lowered himself to press kisses to the flushed head of Levi's cock. He grasped handfuls of Erwin's hair, tugging, trying to ground himself as Erwin opened his mouth and took him in, tongue tracing wickedly delicious circles around the tip, dipping lightly into the slit, tasting bitterness and Levi, and Levi was absolutely sure that he was hallucinating, there was no way those whimpers were coming from him, surely not -
He tossed his head back into his pillows, worrying his lower lip between his teeth, his hips arching beneath Erwin's ministrations, and tried to think of something, anything, to distract him, numbers, Zöe's weapons of biological warfare, how many milliseconds it took to steam milk perfectly, trying desperately not to come, not just yet, it was too perfect of a moment and Levi wished he could stay suspended in time at this particular instance.
He didn't notice Erwin's thick fingers slotting into him and stretching gently until the tip of Erwin's middle finger brushed against his prostate. He gasped, a shudder racking its way up his spine, and twisted his fingers into Erwin's hair even harder, tugging at the roots.
"Oh my God," he murmured, "God, I think I'm going to come..."
"Well," Erwin said, his voice garbled from around Levi's aching flesh, and Levi risked a glance downwards to see Erwin's mouth stretched wide across his skin, deep blue eyes staring up at him, hands pressing his hips down into the covers, thumbs skirting along the hollows of skin stretched taut across his hipbones. He almost came from the sight alone. "You can just call me Erwin," Erwin said, his eyes teasing, and Levi wanted to slap him, but at that moment he did something particularly dexterous with his tongue and pressed a third finger into Levi, and Levi cried out, his voice breaking as his hips struggled up against Erwin's hands, spilling into his mouth.
When he opened his eyes again, his vision hazy, he looked down to find Erwin, lips smudged silvery, trailing kisses up his inner thighs, worrying milky skin between his teeth and pulling off with soft sucking pops that were sure to leave red circles.
"Surely no one's going to see these," he said, and Levi swallowed roughly. "Just me, hopefully," Erwin continued, looking up at Levi from between his legs, and Levi whined something unintelligible as Erwin pressed a soft kiss to the underside of his now-oversensitive cock. Something nudged against the side of Levi's ankle, something velvety hot, and Levi nudged it back, experimentally, watching as Erwin's eyes fluttered closed for just the quickest of moments before opening again and burning Levi to the core.
"I could...take care of that for you, if you want," Levi murmured, though he'd never been much of a blowjob-giver. He supposed he could let that slide, though, due to extenuating circumstances...
"Can I put it inside?" Erwin asked, his palms flat against Levi's inner thighs and pushing them apart gently.
"You didn't ask the other day," Levi grumbled, but Erwin wasn't waiting for an answer and Levi felt himself slowly stretching open, wider, wider, impossibly wider, until the head slipped in and he lost his breath in a shuddering moan. "Hey, I wasn't read -" His mouth fell open in a silent whine as Erwin slid the rest of the way in, seating himself burning and deep inside Levi, his hips twitching minutely, his jaw clenched as though he was restraining himself to the best of his abilities.
"Christ, you're so hot inside," Erwin murmured, his hips rolling forward and grinding into Levi's prostate. Levi shuddered, his hands reaching up of their own accord and clamping over Erwin's shoulders. "Like a glove."
"This was your plan the whole time," Levi muttered, but he couldn't deny the fact that, with every thrust, with every slow roll of his hips, he was starting to get hard again. He couldn't recall the last time he'd been able to do that; probably some time during his adolescence. "Had a lot of things to do, my ass."
"Well, yes, that was on the list," Erwin said, unfazed, as his hips slammed in particularly deliciously, and Levi choked on a scream. It was hard to believe, but there was a knot of heat sparking in the pit of his stomach again, tightening and tensing and growing in enormity with every thrust. "You're close again."
Levi opened his mouth to snap at him, yes, he was close again, thank you very much, he certainly was quite the observer, wasn't he, but Erwin silenced him by reaching a hand down and wrapping a hand around Levi's cock, thumb worrying at the weeping head, while his other hand took one of Levi's off his shoulders and laced their fingers together, pinning it down to the mattress to Levi's side. Erwin leaned down, his breath ghosting along Levi's lips, and Levi found his free hand unconsciously travelling to the back of Erwin's head, tangling itself in the dark strands there, pressing him down close into a kiss.
Levi could swear Erwin was smiling against his mouth, the bastard, as he rocked his hips forward, once, twice, thrice, and spilled himself into Levi; the blooming warmth inside him and the way Erwin's hand was teasing at the head of his cock had Levi coming within seconds, Erwin swallowing his breathless cry.
Erwin rolled off him a few moments later, resting for a few moments before getting out of bed and puttering about in the bathroom for a few moments while Levi was trying to summon enough energy to stand up and have a shower. His legs felt rather unstable, and he didn't trust them to carry him the short distance to his bathroom without giving out like jelly halfway through. He was just taking another deep breath and trying to muster the stamina for it, when Erwin returned, a damp washcloth in his hand, and began to wipe Levi down, paying special attention to his hips and thighs.
After he'd deemed Levi acceptably clean (Levi personally still felt a bit sticky), he discarded the washcloth on the nightstand and crawled back into bed beside him, his arms casually slipping around Levi's waist and shoulders, and Levi thought that it really did feel quite natural, the way he fit into the hollow of Erwin's body, his head tucked into the crook of Erwin's neck.
"I'll do your sheets later," Erwin yawned, and Levi could feel the syllables rumbling through his chest. "Unless you've got some special ritual for your washing machine, like counting out the soap flakes or whatever for Martha, I'm still confused as to why you give name tags to your appliances, that's really not normal behaviour..."
Erwin's voice trailed off, and Levi smiled sleepily, pressing a tiny kiss to the hollow of Erwin's throat before he, too, fell asleep, thinking that perhaps Erwin's proposal was quite fine indeed.