Ereri Fanfic: Changes

Turn Around Time

The awkwardness was down-right suffocating.

Eren almost dreaded going back into the office, choosing instead to hover around his car with a folder full of papers to deliver back to Rivaille. He leaned back against the hood, eyes gazing up at what little he could see of the sky between the sky-scrapers.

This was probably his fault.

At first, the quiet in the office had been pleasantly peaceful. Initially he thought it was because there was a meeting that day. Everyone seemed wrapped up in their own little world. Eren ran errands, took notes, avoided talking about any sort of culinary schools. There was no boisterous laughter from sales, no angry yelling about bets between the interns. It was kind of nice.

At first.

But one day day of silence dragged into two days, and now it would be the three and things still weren't back to normal.

The office was too close-knit for this. It was almost like a chain reaction - if one person was off, the entire office was off and suddenly work production decreased. It wasn't just an employee problem, though. Hanji was less playful than usual, even Rivaille's dry sense of humor was lacking. The tense atmosphere in the office had spread through like a wildfire, and Eren was almost positive it had to do with him and Rivaille.

Suddenly, all those companies that had a no-relationships policy made a lot of sense.

But it sure as hell wasn't all his fault. No matter how Eren looked at it, Rivaille had tried to force the school onto him. He wanted a lover, not a dad.

Still. He had almost gotten into a lot of trouble that night. He knew he owed his life - or at least a few unbroken bones and maybe a not-black eye - to Rivaille, but expressing gratitude to someone that would hardly talk to him was harder than he'd thought.

Running his hand through his hair, Eren paused when the back of his neck prickled. His eyes instinctively snapped up to the top of the building, the exact spot where Rivaille's office was. The tinted windows were impossible to see through, but Eren was pretty sure Rivaille's gaze could pierce through metal if it wanted to. He had felt those eyes on him too many times before to not recognize the sensation.

Sighing, he grabbed the folder and raised up from off his red car hood.

He could really use a drink.

x

"Who the hell told that brat he could go home early today?"

Grumbling under his breath as he pulled into his driveway, Rivaille glared at Eren's parked car. He had had left without so much as a word, under the premise that he was going to the bathroom.

Well, that must have been one mighty long shit.

Slamming his car door harder than was probably necessary, he stomped up to the front door and swung it open, not surprised that it was unlocked. Dumb as he might be at times, Eren was always pretty thoughtful.

Except for today, apparently.

"Jaeger!" he instinctively walked toward the kitchen, knowing exactly where the brown-haired kid would be. Predictable to a fault.

"Rivailleee."

That was not the response he was expecting.

He almost didn't see Eren, sitting at the island and grinning at him. Grinning. Eren hadn't said three full sentences to him in almost half a week and he was smiling like nothing was wrong at all.

It took about 30 seconds for Rivaille's brain to click together the scene. The empty shotglass next to Eren, the Jägermeister bottle in front of him-