France, 1944. As the Allies land on the shores of Normandy, an unlikely friendship strikes up between Levi Ackerman, a widowed French Jew, and Eren Jäger, a deeply-in-the-closet lieutenant in the German Wehrmacht. The two deal with love, loss, digni...
"This is truly amazing," Eren cried out, feeling like he could melt in bliss from the moistness of the cake. He looked across the table. "How is yours?"
Levi had been quiet, sipping his tea and daintily eating his scones. Eren wanted to be certain he was enjoying this.
Then he remembered why Levi was not speaking. For one, he and the shopkeeper were speaking in German. Levi had no idea what either of them were saying. But most importantly, he could not hint at his gender.
Still, Levi turned his eyes up to the portly woman and said in a high, soft voice, "C'est le meilleur gâteau que j'aie jamais mangé." This is the best cake I have ever eaten. Levi then looked across the table, took Eren's hand, and rubbed across the wedding ring with his own silver ring. "Merci, cher mari." Thank you, dear husband.
Now it was Eren's turn to wonder what Levi just said, and Levi's turn to smugly keep him in the dark.
They lingered in the café, wishing that life could be just like this, full of hot drinks, the smell of tea and flowers, the clatter of fine china, and the two of them enjoying their time together. Eren waited until Lisa had gone back into the kitchen before whispering in English.
"One day, you will own a shop like this."
Levi rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't want so many frills and lace."
"You will be free to design it in any way you like. I can't wait to see what a Levi Ackerman tea shop would look like."
Levi reached across again, and their hands held on tightly. "You have some nice dreams, takhshet."
His fingers squeezed. "When they're dreams of you, they are always nice."
Levi scoffed and shook his head, but he knew his cheeks were warming up.
* * *
Finally, they could linger no longer without it being an annoyance to the owner. Eren paid, and they went back out into the rain. Floch was playing cards in the front seat, and he jolted up as they came forward. Eren tossed him a bag of scones he had purchased.
"You deserve a medal for finding that place. It was perfect."
"I'm so glad to hear that, sir. I asked a local while you were away, and he told me about a good store for that traveling bag you mentioned."
"You talked to a local?" Eren muttered in curiosity, but he set that aside as Floch started up the car.
Floch drove them to a store that had camping and farming gear. The supplies were scant, but Eren was honestly shocked that they had anything left at all. So many city folks must have made a run on stores like this, buying whatever would help as they fled into the countryside to seek refuge before the battle began.
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(mid-20th century French camping backpack)
Although quite expensive, they found a camping rucksack made of waterproofed canvas and leather, so it would be durable enough to hold a heavy load and waterproof to protect spare clothes and Levi's book. Eren eyeballed the size of the bag, taking into account how crammed Levi's current bag was, and how much more stuff would be in this one. It could not be outrageously large and weigh Levi down, but it needed to be a size that fit his gear.
