Listen and Save! [AoT X Sabrina Fair]

Love in Parentheses

The drive back to the estate was silent and tension-ridden. Neither Zeke nor the photographer spoke of what had passed wordlessly between them. Their thoughts and desires stayed married, but tonight, though they were separated by only an armrest, they were worlds apart.

Neither of them had ever been very good at talking about the hard stuff.

As they passed under the wrought iron gates, the headlights of Zeke's Bentley revealed Eren in the driveway. Eren, still in his pyjamas with a dressing gown over the top and... using a cane. Zeke suppressed a grin at his brother's dramatics.

The photographer had been worried he'd be mad at her, but as soon as she exited the car and saw his easy smile, her worries fell away.

"Hi," Eren exclaimed with a grin, walking over as his cane went tap-tap against the paving stones.

"Eren," she greeted. "How are you feeling?"

"Great! Just felt like getting out of bed for a while. Pieck says you guys went to the theatre?"

"Just dinner," corrected Zeke.

"Moroccan— on the floor. Lots of cinnamon."

"What's the word from the doctor?"

"I'm healing fast," Eren replied before turning coyly to the photographer. "I just can't eat on the floor yet."

What had before made her blush and giggle like a schoolgirl tonight made her feel uneasy and out-of-place. Eren was just the same— the same, easy, Meditteranean eyes; was it her that changed?

Ignorant of her change of heart, Zeke swallowed his jealousy and said, "Well, it was good. Thanks."

"You heading back to the city?" asked Eren.

"No, it's getting kinda late. I think I'll sleep out here." Their eyes met then for the first time since she'd broken his heart. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Zeke."

Zeke walked off into the darkness of the garden, and her thoughts went with him. Would she see him again? Was this it? Would they now fade out into strangers? She had known him so quickly and so intensely; it had barely been a few days, and yet-

"So," Eren was saying, taking her hand in his with that handsome grin. "You... I've been thinking about you."

"...Have you?" The photographer glanced once more after Zeke. "What were you thinking?"

"I think we never had that drink in the solarium."

She'd forgotten. By God, she'd forgotten. "We never did. You sent Zeke."

"Ah."

She tried to turn her confused heart back to him— back to fairytale princes and thoughtless romance. "Are you sure you should be walking around?"

"Hey-"

But it all seemed so childish now, so long ago. What once had been charming and dreamy in Eren was now silly and careless. She was suddenly hyper-aware that she, that this, was just an amusement to him. "Eren, what's going to happen?"

"Well, I could probably scare us up some champagne, a couple of dixie cups— I'm through with glasses." Oh, Eren, lovely, thoughtless Eren. "We could hobble down to the solarium and pick right back up where-"

"No. I meant after that."

Eren didn't live in after-thats. He lived in stolen moments without consequence, and so she took no surprise in his repeated, "After that?" as though it were an outlandish query. She nodded once. "Well, shucks," he blundered. "Whatever— I don't know."