Confrontational Drunk- An Ereri Fic

Confrontational Drunk

Author's Note: There's some lines where they're talking about homosexuality and I want to clarify that I was trying to emulate how people were back in that day. From my understanding, they didn't have a word for gay, which is part of Eren's guilt. He feels this way, but it isn't even a named thing.

  It was dark and all the people in the castle had gone on a 4-day mission. By "all the people", I only mean everyone but Eren and Levi. The only reason Levi didn't go on the mission was because he had  sworn to take responsibility for Eren. How can he take responsibility for his actions if he can't monitor them? Anyways, it's day 2 of the mission and Eren was about to explode with anxiousness. For the whole 2 days they've exchanged no words. It's obvious to Eren that Levi doesn't want to talk.
But why? Even thought to himself as we meandered the dark castle halls. He couldn't sleep with that question itching his brain. Of course we don't get along... but he hasn't even scolded me. In fact, the only time we might've interacted was when...
Eren recalled an odd event that had taken place on the first night alone together. It had been about 8 PM and Eren decided to make tea. He hadn't thought to ask Levi if he wanted any, though. He just assumed he did. When the tea was finished brewing, he poured 2 cups.
Funny thing is, Eren had little to no idea how to make tea. He gave his cup a sip and he nearly spat it out. Why..? I did it the same way Captain did... Was it that Eren was bad at making tea, or that Levi just had strange tastes, Eren would find out.
Now that he recalls the moment, Eren wonders why he didn't just throw the tea out. He didn't have to give it to him if he didn't want to. It's not like he was instructed to bring Captain tea. Ah, hindsight, Eren thought to himself.
He slowly walked to Captain's room. Levi's office was kept in the same room as his bed, which was always made tight. As he had gone down the hallway, his hand shaking ever so slightly, he wondered how captain would react. "Ah, my nasty tea, just how I like it," or "What did you do to my sacred drink!?". Maybe he'd just kick him in the nards.
Knock knock knock
"Come in." A low voice mumbled.
Eren apprehensively pushes the door open and walked in with a cup. "I made tea, sir. I was wondering if y-you'd want any?" Eren felt his face go red in embarrassment from stuttering. He reached his hand out to Levi.
Levi was sitting on his desk mulling over some papers. He barely looked up to see Eren, but his eyes sure did linger. He took hold of the cup in that weird way he likes to hold them, and steadily brought it to his lips. As soon as he tilted the cup towards his face and the tea hit his tongue he froze. He sat frigid, almost as if he was a cartoon, glitching on the television screen. He lowered the cup, gulped the tea that was in his mouth, and slowly turned to Eren.
Ah, I'm gonna get it now. Eren thought, already bracing himself for a hard blow. "W-was it to your liking? I tried to use the t-tea that you like. I'm not v-very good, though..." If anyone could see his face they'd think he'd done the worst thing imaginable.
As Levi set the cup down, he was looking dead at Eren. "You made this? With the normal tea I use?"
"Yes sir. I'm sorry if you don't like it..." Eren's eyes practically begged for mercy.
It seemed like the stare was never going to end. Like Eren would spend the rest of eternity under Levi's cold suspenseful stare. Eren had always respected Levi. When he was a little kid, he would always watch as his heroes came home from their adventures. As he watched Levi travel, never changing his face, he would cheer him and his squad on, even as many criticized them. To his once childlike mind, Levi was a super cool fighter who killed all the titans. He knew from an early age that he would want to one day become the same. But after meeting Levi face-to-face, idolization turned to intimidation. The constant wariness about whether or not he was gonna punch you, or just do that "tch" thing and move on, was always a dreadful mystery. But even though he can be rude, Eren can't help but admire and respect him for his strength, intelligence and cunning. He always knew what to say and didn't mind what the public thought of him. All in all, Eren figured Levi to be a good man deserving the right to have an attitude.
Anyways, back to the scary tea flashback. After some moments of complete silence, Levi suddenly reanimated. "Thank you for the thought. Now why don't you spend the rest of the day cleaning the upper floors. They're dirty."
"Ah, y-yes Captain!!" Eren did salute, and turned around to go. But as he turned the corner he stopped to peak his head back in. "Thank you, Sir!"
Levi stared at him a bit. "Tch, idiot mignon." Levi mumbled under his breadth some other French terms and went back to his work.
Phew, Eren thought as he ran upstairs to begin cleaning. He was called an idiot, and told to clean several floors, but at the time that was way better than getting beat up.
However this encounter only became weird when Eren found an English to French dictionary in the castle library, and looked for the phrase Levi had used the next day. "Mignon...mignon...mignon... Aha!" Eren read the dictionary entry in his head.
'Mignon- Adj. Definition: Cute... adorable'..? He called me a cute idiot? Something about that gave Eren the chills. No, I must've heard him wrong, right? I mean, I messed up his tea for God's sake. Even if that is what he said, maybe it's a mistranslation, or 'cute' has different context in French. Yeah, that's probably it! Eren tried to rationalize this as best he could, but it was still strange.
Up until now Eren had tried forgetting about it. As Eren continued walking around the castle corridors, he thought of nothing, because not thinking was the only way to get his mind off of it.
"Pfft," I'm probably being over dramatic. There's no way... Eren figured he could probably get his mind to calm down with a little drink. Just a small one wouldn't hurt. Besides before everyone left Hange had chatted with him about drinking.
"Feel free to have a sip of the good ol' stuff to calm your nerves if Levi gives you the spooks, or if you're looking for an excuse to... you know..." she burst out laughing like some sort of maniac and ran off after that. Eren can still remember how startled he was when her whispers erupted into cackling.
He went to the cellars to grab a case of beer. Or barrel. Whatever they used to store alcohol back in the day. He decided to light a candle and stay in the cellars so he could be alone. Not that he wasn't constantly alone in in the castle lately, it's just much more comforting to know that Levi's less likely to walk in on him. As the cliches go, one drink turned into three, and three turned into too many to count. By then he was wobbling around, trying hard not to crash into anything.
"I should go-" He belched, "-upstairs..." he mumbled to himself. He figured he wouldn't crash into so much stuff up there. He began meandering the halls again. What time was it..? Too late to bother sleeping. You'd just end up waking mid-afternoon. "What's with him anywho..?" Eren mumbled, referring to Levi. "ignorin' me like I'm garbage. Callin' me cute..." When Eren got drunk, he said things as they were. He was a confrontational  drunk. When there's something bothering him and he's drunk, he'll be completely open about it, no matter how much he tries to hide it when he's sober, even if it makes him cry to talk about it. "I mean, some hero he is!!", Eren yelled. "Bein' all straight faced, and sassy, and handsome, and perfect, and..." Eren couldn't believe what he was hearing from his own mouth. "Ah, dang..." Eren leaned against the walls next to one of the doors in the hallway. "What kinda troop am I? Thinking this sort of way, I can't believe it. Wh-what's wrong with me? He's my Captain. And a male!! If anyone were to find out I'd be abolished and Levi would probably be punished, too..." Eren sat silently with himself for a few minutes. Just thinking about everything. His Titan powers, everyone's fear, his friends- How would they react if they could read his mind right now? If they knew, what he was thinking, what he's been suppressing. His mom- God, my mother. What would she think..?. He curled his knees up to his chest and rested his head in them. Everyone would be so... disgusted.
Eren broke into sobs, pressing his face down. After all, Eren's a confrontational drunk. It felt like hours of light sobs, basking in his guilt, until he heard the door next to him open. He nearly jumped out of his skin. He fell to his side and looked up to see who'd open the door. Obviously, the answer was Levi. Eren scrambled to his feet, or at least tried to. He staggered and almost would've fallen, if Levi hadn't caught him midway. He had leaped for Eren and had one arm wrapped around him, holding him by his lower back.
  "Ah, C-Captain, what are you doing here..?" Eren, still drunk and unable to connect the dots, wondered.
  "What am I doing here? You're the one crying outside my room."
  "Wh-... what..?" Eren wiped the tears off of his face. "I was just walking around, you're the one who came out of no where."
  Levi just stared at him for a moment, still latching on to him, in this awkwardly close position. "You... you're drunk aren't you?"
  "Pfft, whaaat?? I would never..." Eren let out a groan, probably from being in that uncomfortable position. He reached out and hugged Levi by the neck and pulled himself closer to him. "All this crap... it just sucks, ok?" He sniffled a bit, cramming his face into Levi's neck. "Why do I have to feel this way? If I could ignore it I would but..."
  Eren couldn't see it, but Levi's mouth was agape, with a look in his eye so perplexed and dumbfounded by Eren's startling statement. What the hell, Eren? Levi's heart skipped a beat, and begun to pound in his chest. This brat...
Now they were both standing upright, with Eren crying into Levi's shoulder. He'd never felt so trapped, and yet he was letting it out to the one who put him in his prison. He was alone. No one else's brain had screwed up like his. No one could understand his feelings. No one could know the truth and not be disgusted. No one could ever help him . He was completely and utterly alone.
  Then he wasn't.
  He felt arms wrap around his waist, and his cries turned to silent shock. The arms were warm, and understanding, and loving, and comforting. They were someone.
No, he's doing it out of pity. He doesn't mean it that way. He's doing it because you're freaking him out. He's doing it because he's just... just..." Eren was balling at this point. Why'd everything have to be like this? He held onto Levi tight, while he did the same. 
  This went on for a while, after a while they shifted to sitting on the floor. Levi couldn't make heads or tails of the situation. What'd he mean when he said, 'why'd I have to feel this way?', Did he mean..?
  After a while Eren pulled himself away, and wiped his face. "I'm okay now. I'm so sorry, sir. I-"
  "Don't worry about it." Levi wouldn't let him try to apologize. "I don't know what made you get upset, but...." Levi was searching for words to say. "Just, please don't feel bad."
  "Okay." They sat there together, close. It made Eren a little anxious after he got back to his senses.
  "So..." Levi was usually never this awkward. It worried Eren to think that his outburst caused it. "What was all that about?"
  "Oh... Well..." Damn it, I just stopped crying... The guilt of his secret made his heart sting. "I just..." Eren face contorted back into a sob-face, and was about to burst until Levi grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Hey, hey..." His comforting voice made him want to calm down immediately. I hate this. Why does it have to be this way...
"You don't have to tell me anything," Levi must've trusted Eren a lot in that moment, because he revealed his own secret, too, "but I think I know. But don't worry, it's not like I... disagree..."
Eren jumped up. He... knows?
"Don't worry. I think I may know what you're upset about, and..." He chuckles. "And believe me, it's bad. There's always that guilt of, 'oh, it's wrong,' 'oh, it's disgusting", all that. But let me tell you, it's not. It's just you. Well, you and whoever you're with.
"You..." Eren couldn't believe what he was hearing. Levi had the same problem as him? The strange, unexplainable phenomenon that made Eren the way he was? It was unimaginable. "You're like me? Are you sure?"
"Well you do like men, don't you?"
Eren gasped a little bit. I mean he already understood that he knew, but for him to say it out loud like that felt like it was sort of popping a bubble.
"I guess so..." Captain actually feels the same way as I do... I can't believe it. All this time, I figured I was completely alone.
"How'd you figure it out?", Levi asked calmly.
"Oh... well I guess it started when I met..." Eren looked up from the floor they were sitting on and straight to Levi's eyes. He had completely sobered up by now. Levi stared right back at him, his eyes wide and, for the first time Eren could see a little blue in them.
Levi didn't need words to understand what Eren was saying. And he didn't feel like he needed words to express how he felt, too. After a few seconds of starting at each other, lips slightly parted, Levi leaned in and kissed his subordinate, while they sat on the hallway floor.

The End

-all that build up for one little kiss. Hope ya enjoyed. Please let me know what you wanna see! I'd love to try oneshots or some lemony stuff(ha lol) Thank you!!!