Do You Still Love Me

Issue at School

They walked into the school and headed to Levi's class. The kids set their bags down on Eren's desk since that's what Eren told them to do. They weren't sure what was about to happen, but Eren seemed to be warning them of something that he knew was coming.

The kids listened and they soon understood Eren's warnings, and why they left the house so early. "If those douchebags moved any of my shit, or left any damn smudges I will hunt them down and make them fucking pay," Levi mumbled grabbing the cleaning supplies out of a cabinet in the back of class before looking at Eren. "This classroom is filthy, no one's cleaned it in days," Levi said asking Eren for help. Levi never did like substitutes.

Eren walked over to where Levi was to get instructions on what he should do. "What should we do?" The kids asked.

A little while later Erwin had walked a little surprised that the kids had returned. He knew Eren and Levi were coming back to work today, but he through the kids would have stayed home, or went with their father. It was too early to be back, especially since what happened over the weekend. But here they were helping Levi clean his class.

"You guys could have had some more days to rest," Erwin told the kids as he avoided touching anything to prevent Levi from unleashing his wrath on him.

"Yeah, I know, but I thought getting back into things was the best," TJ shrugged. "I was getting too antsy just sitting at the house," he said.

"Alright, well, if you need any more time don't hesitate to come and ask me," Erwin said before he was going to start heading back to work. That was before the campus security guard came running in the class.

"Sir," he said catching his breath for a moment, "there's an issue at the front of the school." He said and Erwin followed him out shooting Levi a look for back up for whatever they were getting into.

Where Levi goes Eren follows usually so he went with them. The kids followed behind them, but Eren told them that he would stay with them in the school, and they wouldn't come out unless they knew it was safe.

Erwin and Levi had walked out of the door and Eren was waiting for an okay that it was safe for them to come out.

Levi and Erwin saw Thomas, but some people had a tight grip on his arm while Ash yelled at them. After listening for a moment Levi pieced together what was happening and gave Eren a nod. They all walked out and saw what was happening.

"You can't just take him away," a woman yelled, "you kidnapped him," she raised her voice even louder.

"You didn't even notice he was gone," Ash yelled back, "he's been living with me for a while now, and you wouldn't have even noticed if you didn't come back to get the camera charger," she snarled.

"Do you know how many times he broke his arm, or leg trying to get into his damn window because you didn't even bother to give him a damn key," she said getting in their face.

"Don't you talk to your mother that way!" The man yelled shoving Ash backward to get her out of the woman's face.

"My mother? My mother?" she said sarcastically, "as far as I'm concerned my mother died with the false ideals I had of her, as did my father."

"Excuse me," the man spoke up, "who's the one who ran away to go join the service? Who's the one who left without saying goodbye? Who's the one who decided to cut ties with who?" He said getting in Ash's face, but she pushed back and hard with a stern and steady voice.

"I left to get away from you, I left without saying goodbye because you hadn't been home for weeks, From the time that I enlisted to the time I shipped out you guys were gone. My only regret is leaving Thomas with you cunts. I cut ties because you guys mean nothing to me because I mean less than that to you. You never cared about me, and you never cared about Thomas. The only thing you care about is your money," she said before ripping the woman's arm off of Thomas.

"He's still my son you have no right to take him. I'll report you for kidnapping," the mother threatened.

"Do it," Ash challenged her, "I'm not afraid to take this to court. You and I both know that I would win the custody battle, and not only that, but I will make sure you have no such visiting rights. You would never be able to see Thomas again, so go ahead call child services, the only person who will be affected is the two of you."

Silence fell over them and they stared at her in silence before Ash spoke up again. Besides if this got taken to court you would have to get a good lawyer, which costs money," she said looking them dead in the eyes.

They looked at each other and just stood there in silence. "Well, I think that answers that," Ash growled. She escorted Thomas past them, "If you need me I'll be doing your jobs, by taking care of my brother better than you ever could." She walked into the school leaving the two of them standing there until they eventually left without another word. Everyone had followed her inside as she walked Thomas to class.

"Sorry you had to hear all that," Ash said as they stopped in front of the class. "You okay?" She said putting a had on his shoulder.

"Yeah," he shrugged, "I'm fine. I've stopped caring about them ages ago when I realized the only real family I ever had was you," he mumbled before looking up at her, "thanks for always having my back," he smiled.

"Of course," she smiled back, "damn right I'm always going to have your back," she said ruffling his hair. "Now have fun at school little brother." She said giving him a kiss on the cheek before heading out, first apologizing to Erwin, Levi, and Eren about the outburst at the front of the school. "I can guarantee with 90% certainty that it won't happen again."

They said goodbye and walked back in the class as Erwin made his way back to his office. TJ and Alex were already there next to Thomas. TJ's hand had found its way to Thomas's and their fingers intertwined together. "You okay?" TJ had asked.

"Yeah," Thomas nodded, "I don't care about them anymore," Thomas shrugged, " looking at them today was looking at two total strangers. I didn't even recognize them when they first approached us," he said lost in thought.

A phone started to ring and Thomas knew it was his. He answered the unsaved number only to hear the same woman's voice. "Honey we're going to get you back don't you worry," she said to him.

"Don't you get it," huffed angrily, "I don't want you too," he said.

"That's not you talking sweetie, that's your whore of a sister Ashley tal-." She didn't even get to finish her sentence.

"Shut the fuck up," Thomas yelled, "don't you talk that way about her. You have no right to even speak her name. All my life you have done nothing but ignore me, and the one time I want you to is when you don't. Well, it's too late," he hissed.

"Please sweetheart, just give me second chance-" she went to say.

"A second chance," Thomas scoffed, "You've had hundreds of chances each time you failed me. I'm done giving chances to people who don't deserve them."

"Sweetie," she tried to say only to be cut off once again.

"Don't you sweetie me," he growled, "when I tried to get you to pay attention to me you used to call me an annoyance. When I called the first time I broke something climbing in the window you called me stupid. When I asked if I could come with you on one of your vacations you called me conceited. When I told you I had a crush on a guy you called me confused. So don't you try and call me sweetie, or honey, or sweetheart. You can shove all those names up your ass." He snarled.

She tried to hide her gasp but cleared her throat to overlook the comment. "But you were being all those things at the time," she tried to argue.

"You're wrong," Thomas said now calm and composed. "Especially about the last one. I'm not confused, I know damn well that I'm gay, and my boyfriend and I are going to have a happy life without you. Now don't call again or I will forward your call to Ash. Thanks, bye," he said the last part sarcastically. His mom was on the other end of the line yelling her head off about how he's confused and he's not gay because gay is wrong when the phone clicked off on her.

Thomas shut off his phone and looked around the room at all the faces staring back at him. "What?" he asked. TJ just answered him by kissing him. He didn't know what he did to get a response like that, but he wasn't complaining.