Listen and Save! [AoT X Sabrina Fair]

Love in Parentheses

"...Don't you?"

"Well, not exactly. Is that so bad?"

Of course it wasn't; what was she doing? What had Zeke done to her? "No," the photographer amended with a smile.

Eren matched it in turn. "We can talk about all that later, can't we?"

"Yes... but tomorrow. I really think you should rest now."

He conceded with a small sigh, lifting her hand to press a sweet kiss to her knuckles. "Okay."

Unbeknownst to them, watching over by the garden gate, was Zeke.

You could tell nothing from his expression, but inside, the dam had fallen. She and Eren were still in love. Out poured the floodwaters, destroying his carefully crafted composure and laying wreck to everything he'd built. He'd been a fool in the haze of Rissani, but with the water came panic, and with panic, decision.

Zeke would not lose the merger now (wouldn't lose her). He refused.

"Goodnight, Eren," said the photographer. And then that was where they parted ways for the night.

<>

Come morning, Zeke donned his officewear and marched into his skyscraper. The buzz of New York and the complaints of investors were nothing but a faint ringing in his ear. A billion dollars hung in the balance (along with his heart's desire), he would not let it slip away on the passing whim of a silly chauffeur's girl and a playboy.

"Good morning, sir," greeted Pieck pleasantly. "How was the theatre?"

He sped right into his office. "Come in, Pieck."

"...That bad, huh?"

He discarded his briefcase haphazardly. "I want you to get me two tickets on AirFrance to Paris. One in my name and the other in Miss Fairchild's. That's it."

Pieck put aside her bewilderment. "...What day are we flying?"

"Tomorrow."

He wouldn't suffer one more evening of Eren making goo-goo eyes (at his girl) and wrecking the merger's prospects. He couldn't. If he was a businessman worth his salt (if she felt anything for him at all), Zeke would make one final play to finalise the merger (to win her back).

Pieck nodded and was halfway to the door when she doubled back. "Oh! I almost forgot; the Ackermans are here waiting."

Fuck.

"...Did we have an appointment?"

"It's not in my book; they showed up. I put them in Eren's office."

He willed the floodwater down. "Is my stepmother in yet?"

<>

"I got the same thing with my nephew at first," Kenny Ackerman was saying. "I gave him a huge office, and he was never there either. So we used it for lunches."

Levi rolled his eyes. "These are the invitations. Mikasa wanted to use recycled paper— why does it always look dirty?"

As Kenny and Carla went on to debate the exact shade of the tablecloth, Zeke moved in to try to quell the unrest before it spiralled out of control. "What's the problem, Levi?"

"No problem from our point of view," he droned. "I feel like a... what's that word for when a lot of guys are after you?"

"Whore?"