A/N: Hi~ Everyone~! :D Here is the latest chapter! I know it's a bit slow right now, but I have a method to my madness, I promise. I'd like to take a moment to explain a few things. I know you guys are a little turned off by how protective Mikasa is, but I promise that I have a reason. ^^ There will be lots of development between all of the characters to come. :3 And as for the question, is it a book store or a library... You know, I don't really know anymore. XD I wanted it to be a bookstore, so it was, but then I needed to give Eren a reason to come back, so it became a library. I don't even know. It's both, how's that? Together, we can make this happen. XD

-Misty

Song of the day: Hotaru

By: Fujita Maiko

The Change You Wish to See

(Original summary, but screw the stupid character limits) Levi's never put much care into things. He doesn't put much care into things at all. Nothing ever peaks his interest. Well, that's until he meets Eren Jaeger. Levi isn't sure what it is that's so interesting about him, and it irritates him to feel these feelings he's never felt before. Regardless, he goes to talk to the boy. When he doesn't receive an answer, he just thinks that the boy is rude; however, he understands why when Eren doesn't answer him. Eren is deaf.

Rated M for sexual content, adult language, some violence, mile character death
Main pairing: Riren with some side pairs
Anime: Shingeki No Kyojin (Attack on Titan)

Chapter Three: We Meet Again

Levi didn't see the brunette for two weeks after that. It was completely unsettling, the quiet and how dense it was. All that was there to occupy his time were books and Hanji, and he could only handle so much of Hanji for so long. Well, he could only handle so much of books for a certain amount of time too, but at least those could occupy his mind quietly.

Sometimes the blond kid came in, the one named Armin. He came in once or twice a week, saying that coming to the store to sit and read was a great way to relax after school and work.

Apparently Armin had a real love for books, a love for them that outmatched Eren's, which Levi came to find out that Eren really didn't like books. Armin especially loved ones about nature or places to vacation at. They weren't normal vacation places either. He, much like Eren, liked to explore. He liked the idea of the world around them, not the one surrounding them called a city. Levi would agree that the world was beautiful, but with his pay, that was as close to him as a pipe dream. However, hearing the kid talk about it made it seem like even someone worse off than Levi could still do it.

He was incredibly convincing, and Levi found that a rather admirable quality in him. He reminded him much of an old "friend," and he used that term loosely.

He asked once if Eren was like that. Armin said that Eren was just like him in that aspect, if not then maybe a little worse. He said it was most likely where he got it from, considering he was a recluse for the better part of his childhood until he met him; however, Eren was just too straight forward to be tactful about it. Levi wasn't sure why he bothered asking, but it did something to fill up his time, and without the kid to annoy him, he was at a loss.

He didn't talk to Armin much though. He asked if Eren was okay every now and again, Armin would say yes, and Levi would leave it at that. Sometimes he would ask about Mikasa to make sure the blond wouldn't get suspicious. He didn't want to make it seem like he was showing interest in the kid, but he couldn't help it. He was intrigued, and he wasn't sure why. Something about the kid was different. Maybe it was his bravery for taking on someone like Levi, or maybe it was something simple like the color of his eyes; those big, golden eyes of his. He wasn't sure.

He just knew that he was fond of the kid.

So, when Eren came back two weeks later, he was no less than surprised and slightly grateful by it. The brunette looked lost and embarrassed while tugging the books along with him. Levi was then reminded that today was indeed the twenty-eighth, and he had brought them back just in time. He didn't bother with a formal greeting, knowing Eren couldn't hear him, so he just waited until the kid could see him before waving a hand at him.

"Hey," The kid was deaf, not blind, so he knew what it was Levi was implying just by the wave of his hand. Eren smiled his way, a boyish smile that still had a teenage charm to it. Levi distantly wondered how Eren kept all of the girls off of him with a smile like that.

"Hi," It was a simple word, one Levi knew Eren could handle without his hearing. He set the books down on the counter and instantly went for the notebook in his backpack, but Levi stopped him. He already had a notepad handy, along with a cup of pencils and pens not too far off. He held out both to Eren, and the boy nodded his in thanks. "Thank you," He wrote down on the paper. He then handed Levi the notepad, who set it down on the counter to write on.

"You brought these back just in time." He wrote down on the pad.

"Armin told me when to bring them in." The brunette wrote down. Levi nodded his head and did the usual routine of scanning the books back into the computers. When he was done, he set them aside so he could continue to talk to the boy.

"So where have you been?" He questioned on the paper. Eren laughed a little before taking the pen back from Levi.

"My sister grounded me and stuck me in the house. I snuck out to return these." He answered and motioned to the books.

"Won't she notice you're gone?" Levi asked.

"No, she's at school right now with Armin." The teen answered. Somehow this answered Levi's previous questions. Eren always got there at twelve, and he always left at four. This meant that the two were at school at these hours, and the two weren't even aware that he was gone.

"Why aren't you then?" Levi asked.

"I'm home schooled." He replied with a shrug of his shoulders. Levi had a few guesses as to why that was, but he wouldn't voice it. He didn't want to upset the kid at all.

"Ditching your work for today then?" He asked in lieu of his previous questions.

"Just for an hour. I have to get back now." Eren replied. He stepped back, as if preparing to leave, but he stilled. He came right back and began frantically writing on the paper. With the way he was writing, Levi had no choice but to peek, and peek he did. However, Eren's writing was so fast that he was done in seconds, and Levi was left with an explanation.

"I'm sorry for my sister a few weeks ago. She's never rude or anything like that, she was just worried about me. She can get very careless when she's worried about me. If she upset you at all, it wasn't her intention to do it." He read, muttering the words quietly to himself. Eren held the pen out for Levi, but Levi didn't bother with it, instead getting his own to write with.

"It's not a problem. She didn't actually say much, but I knew that she was worried about you." He wrote down. Eren sighed, a small groan leaving him in irritation. Levi couldn't help but to ask more questions, curious behind the two of them and their odd relationship. "Does she keep you in a basement or something? Don't you ever leave the house?"

Eren seemed surprised by the blunt questions, but since when had Levi been tactical? That was something his old coworker didn't pass down to him.

"Eh... Kind of. She lets me out of the house, but only when I'm with her or Armin."

Was he saying kind of to the first or second question?

"So wait, did the two of them come with you before?"

"No, that's why I got in so much trouble. I didn't tell them where I was going. I only told Armin to cover me once, and that was the day she came in. I wanted to stay longer, but apparently Armin sucks at lying more than I thought." Eren frowned after finishing his sentence. "That's why I can't stay long."

"How long do you think you can stay?"

"Hm...?" Eren sounded out after reading the sentence. Levi continued to write, not bothering to meet Eren's golden stare.

"I'm asking how much longer you can stay."

"I don't think very long. Why...?"

"So if I asked you to come get a coffee with me, would you say no?" The words definitely shocked the boy this time. He looked up in surprise, his big eyes even bigger and accentuated by the blush on his tan cheeks. Levi faintly smirked at the sight he'd created on the boy, but not getting an answer on the spot upset him.

"Uhm..." Eren uttered and looked around. He pointed to himself, and Levi nodded his head and pointed to the brunette.

"Yeah you. No one else is in the store besides Hanji, and she's in the back. I'm supposed to take my break in a few minutes anyway, so what do you say?" One little, white lie couldn't hurt, right? He could have laughed at the way the boy's cheeks flushed darker before nodding his head.

"I think a cup of coffee won't take long, right?" He wrote on the paper. Levi nodded before pulling off his apron.

"Hanji!" He called out. There was a small crash in the back, one that Eren didn't hear, but Levi groaned to before the women appeared from the doorway.

"Yes?" She chirped.

"I'm going on my break. See you in an hour." Levi muttered as he walked around the counter to be beside Eren. "Don't let the place catch on fire."

"Oh, are you two going on a date?" Hanji mused with a wide grin. As Levi's reply, he turned his back and raised a middle finger at her before leaving.

"What can I get for you?"

"I'll have one coffee, black with no sugar." Levi said while looking in his wallet. He pulled out a ten and looked over to Eren, who was looking up at the drinks menu. He nudged Eren with his shoulder, spooking him from his quiet thoughts and pulling his attention away from the board. He motioned to the notepad in Eren's hand, and Eren wrote down what it was he wanted. "And one water please."

"Bottle or cup?" The petite women behind the counter asked.

"Bottle," Levi answered for him. "He doesn't need to be spilling stuff on himself." He muttered quietly, but he knew that it didn't matter. Eren couldn't hear him anyway.

The woman got their orders, and the two of them sat down in a booth by the shop window. Levi leaned back into the booth seat and crossed his legs, and old habit he picked up somewhere along the way. As he began drinking his coffee, he noticed the peculiar stare he was getting from the teen. He motioned for the kid to hand him his notebook, and he did, along with his pen.

"What the hell are you staring at?" Levi asked on the paper. Eren's cheeks seemed to flush another pink color, and Levi was wondering if Eren was just easily embarrassed or sick, because it didn't seem natural to change colors so quickly.

"I was just wondering why you held your cup that way." Eren remarked. Levi looked at the cup he was holding, how he was holding it by the paper rim instead of just holding the entire thing. Levi didn't even find this odd. He'd been doing it since he was a child, and it had become such a habit that he did it with everything he drank.

"I don't know. Just a habit, I guess." No, that was a lie. He knew why, he just didn't feel like explaining it.

"Isn't it hard though? Doesn't your hand get in the way?"

"No, not really. I've been doing it for so long that I don't even notice it." Levi wrote down. Eren decided to stop the questions after that. He drank from his water bottle silently, his eyes either looking at the water or the table. His hands were hiding in his lap, and Levi was sure the boy couldn't fidget anymore if he purposely tried to. After minutes of just that, of their quiet exchanges of eye contact and drinking, Levi finally decided to get things moving again.

"Brat, what's on your mind?"

"Nothing is," Eren was a terrible liar, and he didn't need to talk to prove it. His ears turned red just from trying to lie.

"Obviously something is. What're you thinking about that's got you so fidgety?" Eren looked to the floor, and Levi thought the kid would faint if the blood stayed in his head any longer. "If you aren't going to tell me why then at least pretend like it isn't on your mind. You're freaking me out." Eren took the pen back from Levi, but as he began to write, his hand hovered over the paper. Levi looked down at what he wrote, only to find one word written down.

"This..." Levi grabbed Eren's wrist and pushed down, trying to get him to continue. Eren whined quietly before he did. He scratched off the word so he could start again. "... Is this considered a date?"

The words were utterly surprising and left the normally perfectly functioning man to sit wide eyed and mouth slightly agape. He read over the words again, and then once more to make sure he wasn't reading them wrong or misinterpreting them for something else. No, the word was "date," and Eren was asking him if they were on one. Levi cleared his throat, a feeling of onset embarrassment hitting him fast. Well, he could definitely check this off of his bucket list.

Have an outing mistaken for a date by a hearing deficit nineteen year old: Check.

"Do you think it is?" Levi countered with on the paper once the shock wore off. Eren shook his head, an odd sound leaving him that he was sure the brat didn't hear. Eren's hand barely kept still as he wrote, and twice he dropped the pen while writing.

"No, I didn't, but I started thinking that maybe you thought it was a date. I thought you would probably get upset if I thought it was a date, and I wasn't sure-" Eren stopped writing and covered the notebook with a whine of embarrassment. "S-Sorry..." He muttered into his arms.

Levi pulled at his hands, effectively removing his hands from the paper. Levi yanked the pen from Eren's firm grasp and wrote on the paper, but Eren was too afraid to look. Levi pushed the notebook forward, not giving Eren the chance to act like a whining child. Eren knew as well that Levi wouldn't leave him alone until he did anyway.

"Do you want this to be a date?" The words read. Eren couldn't bear the fear of looking up into Levi's eyes, afraid of what he'd see. The voice could be deceiving, but eyes couldn't, and Levi's dark grey eyes told a lot.

"... Maybe. I don't know. I've never been on a date before." Eren dropped the pen to whine some more. Levi noticed the stares they were getting; obviously Eren's whining was annoying them, but how could Eren possibly know that? It's not like he could hear himself doing it. Was he even aware that he was doing it?

"Well..." Levi wrote down. All this did was catch the kid's attention. "How about, for the sake of our comfort and self-pride, this can be just two people going out for coffee?" He asked on the paper. Eren seemed downtrodden by the words and solemnly nodded his head, but this gave Levi the answer he was looking for to a question that wasn't written down. "And..."

Eren's eyes seemed to light up to the continuation of Levi's sentence. Levi noticed Eren's eyes quickly flicker up to him before looking away again, but his eyes fell to the paper, anxiously waiting.

"... Friday we can go out for a date?" Levi left the sentence as is, no add-ons and no implications. This left the floor open for Eren, and this left it up to him to decide whether he was comfortable considering anything else as a date. Levi wouldn't admit it out loud, but he was rather nervous (because he couldn't think of a better word) to what Eren's answer would be.

Of course he didn't want to date a brat like him. He was nineteen, barely legal, and a little shit if he ever saw one, and he had. There was such a big age difference that it was laughable, and Levi couldn't possibly date someone so young. He wouldn't say that he didn't want to date Eren because he was deaf, but wouldn't his lack of hearing be a factor to consider? Wouldn't that just make things difficult?

So of course he wouldn't date Eren, but why did he feel this emotional pit in his stomach that felt like it would burst if he said no? Why did the idea of Eren rejecting the date actually upset him?

"Ugh..." Eren uttered and picked up the pen. "It's not good..." He wrote down. Levi felt an odd drop in his heart at the words, but Eren continued. "I spend Friday's with my sister and my friend. Would Thursday be okay instead?"

Was this right? Was this kid actually saying yes? Levi found the idea to be redundant, like it was all a dream, and when he woke up, it'd all be over. However, no matter how much he blinked or no matter how much he tried to shake himself awake, it didn't work. He was awake, and this was really happening.

"I don't get off of work until seven on Thursdays. Is that okay with you?"

And was he really agreeing to this? Was he really going on a date with this kid?

"That's fine," Eren looked away for a moment, a frown on his face. "However, I have to find a way around my sister." The words weren't what Levi wanted to read.

"You can't hide this from your sister." Levi informed.

"Why...? Maybe Armin will cover me again. Or maybe I can just blast music in my room with the door locked and pretend I'm asleep. I've done it before." Eren excused.

"No, don't lie to your sister. You're only giving her a reason not to trust you." Eren's eyes fell into that sad puppy-dog expression and it took a lot to keep Levi convinced that he was right. "Eren, think of it this way. Say we're out, your sister doesn't know where we are, and some bastard comes up and kills us both. She's going to think you're sound asleep in your room, not breathing your last breath in an alleyway."

Levi was aware that his words were harsh, but so was reality, and he needed to make sure that Eren understood. Of course Levi would never allow something like that to happen, but the odds could have been thrown out there at any moment.

What if one of them was hit by a car? What if there was some psycho with a gun shooting up innocent lives? The world was full of shit and shitty people, and he had to make sure Eren understood. Obviously the kid did, but he looked mortified to go with it.

"And besides," Levi continued. "If your sister finds out you're going out on a date with someone, I'd appreciate it if she didn't want to kill me first hand. I'd like to meet her, and then let her decide if she really wants to kill me."

"She might. Mikasa is really protective of me." Eren wrote down.

"It doesn't matter. I want her to know that this is all simple and pure-hearted, not just some creepy, old pervert trying to get into your pants."

"You aren't, right?" Eren chuckled as he met Levi's eyes. The brat was blushing, and Levi rolled his eyes.

"Old or perverted?" Levi retorted.

"Perverted. Wait, how old are you?" Eren asked. Levi felt a smirk spreading his lips as he wrote down his answer.

"How old do I look?"

"... Twenty-six?"

"Add eight to that." Levi replied. Eren had to hold up his fingers to count, but when he got it, the shocked expression that came across his face was priceless.

"Huh?" Eren sounded, followed by a few other sounds as he pointed to the older man. More stares insisted from the people around them, but Levi was too humored by the kid to care. "You're thirty four?"

"Yeah, and I'll be thirty five in December."

"Wow..."

"Okay kid, it's not like I'm one-hundred and one." Levi rolled his eyes. Eren laughed as he continued to write.

"So we know you're old. I must be up against a lot of competition, right?" He questioned.

"Kid, let me tell you something. Ever since high school, every girl looks at me and drools. You probably noticed the girl at the register doing it too. I've never done anything to attract them let alone go out with them, so why would I pick you over a sea of fans who have been following me around like puppies for the better part of twenty years?" It was the truth, because Levi had been chased by many girls, and even a few guys.

He never cared for them, and didn't bother dating. Hanji had convinced him on one or two, and one was not so bad for a while, but the idea of affection from anyone didn't settle right with Levi, and it was broken off in a week. He left the girl devastated, but he assured her that it wasn't her, but him, which was also the truth. He just wasn't the type to date.

"Uh... I'm an easy target?" Eren chided.

"Try again." Levi smirked and sat back. That was the end of their conversation on the topic of their date. It was over and done with, leaving the two to finish their drinks in silence.

However, the question still remained.

Why was Eren unlike the others?

A/N: I'm curious to know if anyone saw the reference. XD

Anyway, I'm saying this again so everyone knows! I'll be in San Francisco from the 11th to the 15th this month for yaoi con! If anyone is going, don't be shy. I'd love to meet you guys. ^_^ This does mean that there probably won't be updates next week, but we'll see. :3

Have an awesome week everyone! :D