Partners (ereri/riren)

Chapter 23

There's no way Levi could put into words the amount of pride he had in his chest. He sat between a bawling Hanji and a beaming Erwin. Levi struggled himself not to smile. The rest of their friends sat behind him; Erd, Auroro, Petra, and any other idiot that decided to show up. Mikasa and Annie were somewhere too.

He looked to the line of students waiting for their diplomas. Names were called one after another; Jean Kirstein, Marco Bodt, Armin Arlert, Bertholt Hoover, Reiner Braun, et cetera et ceter.a

For each one they cheered from their seats. Ymir was the one to grab her diploma and yell in the mic, "Hell yes I'm out of here bitches!" When Sasha reached the front Hanji sobbed, and Levi couldn't help but laugh.

"Why are you crying?"

"I'm just so happy for them!"

"They're graduating, big whoop."

"Ahh, remember when we graduated?" Erwin laughed, "They were just as excited for us."

She wiped at her nose, "I know but they're our babies Levi! They're all grown up!"

Levi rolled his eyes and looked back up to Eren. He was squirming from his place in line. The brunette reached up and curled a piece of hair behind his ear nervously. It was almost like he could sense Levi's gaze, because he suddenly turned and looked at Levi in the crowd. Levi gave him a reassuring smile and Eren grinned. The younger looked down and thumbed at his engagement ring.

"Eren Jaeger."

Levi and his friends whooped from their seats.

"I'd like to propose a toast!" Hanji stood up and raised an entire Champagne bottle, "Congratulations on freedom!"

The room burst to life; glasses clinked and people laughed and screamed. Levi had a possessive arm around Eren's waist. The younger leaned against him and downed his drink in one swig, "I can't believe it."

"I'm proud of you." Levi nodded.

"Yeah?"

The older gave him a weary look, "What's wrong?"

"Hmm, what?" Eren blinked, "Nothing! I'm ecstatic right now." He grinned. Levi decided to ask again later. Eren looked down thinking what now?

They were all in Erwin's apartment...maybe for the last time. Eren didn't know. But people were throwing streamers and party poppers and music blasted through the rooms. Connie and Sasha were dancing strangely enough to where everyone was watching and laughing.

That was when Eren realized that everything...everyone was still the same. Jean and Marco were still in the corner giggling and tripping over each other drunk as hell. Reiner was doing a line of shots with Ymir and Christa was nursing a bruise on Bertholt's forehead...however that got there. Meanwhile Mikasa and Annie were hammered, running around like idiots. Nothing was different.

Eren felt an immense amount of love for all the people in the room.

The celebration went on- people threw food and tripped and screamed. Eren dragged Levi to dance with him in the kitchen, and a couple people hollered from the other room, watching Erwin turned down the music, everyone settled around the couch, per usual. Four years and they all still huddled around in bean bags and body piles on the floor. They looked to the smallest girl when she spoke;

"Is this..." Christa began to tear up, "Is this the last movie night?"

The room went silent, and everyone exchanged sober glances.

"I never really thought of that..." Armin looked at his shoes.

"Way to trash the mood, "Jean joked.