CHAPTER 3: Getting Closer - Acquaintances and Nothing More?
//“I keep getting the feeling that you’re so familiar. I just want to ask; have I seen you somewhere before?” //
~*~
“Bye, Levi!~”
Hanji waved happily as she watched Levi walk out of his office and toward the elevator. Usually she enjoyed staying back longer at the office so it was normal for her to say goodbye to him. But today, she had seen something really interesting.
“Send my regards to Eren for me!” she laughed, making the man visibly twitch with irritancy. But eventually, he opted to ignore her and just went down with a dry reply: “We’re just acquaintances and nothing more.”
The elevator doors slid open and he stepped out with the same bored expression. He turned his head around as the office slowly switched to the dimmer fluorescent lights. The sun was slowly setting outside the office and he could already imagine the uneventful evening awaiting him. But, he forgot that for the time being, it would be a little different with Eren’s presence.
That’s why he didn’t expect it when he saw the teen standing outside the doors, obviously waiting for him to dock off from work. And though it was almost invisible, his lips quirked slightly at the thought of Eren waiting without himself noticing. He strode over and opened the glass doors and approaching Eren with a brow raised again.
“What are you doing here, Eren? You could have just gone home first.” He asked in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Oh Levi!” the teen turned to him.
“Well… I had an idea while I was in school!” he grinned widely. “As a sign of gratitude that you…err… saved me and helped me…more than once,” he coughed a little awkwardly, “…why not I cook for you during this short period of me living with you? It would be healthier and saves costs a little too- compared to you eating out.”
Levi looked surprised for once.
“That’s not really necessary.” Levi sighed, “Besides, are you so sure that I like your food to begin with?”
“I really want to!” he stayed firm on his idea. “And… it’s true that I don’t, so I’ll ask you right now then. Did you like your lunch?” Levi noted the way his eyes shone with a challenge at the question; as if he was sure Levi would say that he liked it. He sure had some spirit, Levi could conclude.
“Hmph… You’re pretty confident in your cooking skills aren’t you?”
“To be honest, I am- for Mikasa and Armin, but not you. I don’t know your tastes yet. So I really want to know whether you like it?” he asked again.
Levi turned away from the boy and pulled his coat tighter around him. Alright, so he honestly did like Eren’s cooking, but he found… difficulties to admit it straight. With his hands buried into his coat pocket, he started walking ahead with a mumble: “Let’s go home then.” Well, it was an indirect way to answer Eren’s question.
Eren lit up, trailing behind him and feeling pretty happy about it.
“Ah!” he paused suddenly, “Wait, Levi! Let’s go buy some groceries!”
“…What?” Levi asked dryly and turned. “You’ve seen my refrigerator right? You should know that we have enough—“
“Well… I kinda used a lot of it to prepare your lunch box. And,” he pointed out, “…you didn’t have many vegetables to begin with.”
“Well yeah, I don’t cook.” Levi muttered. He thought about it for a moment, with his stare fixated on the boy.
“Fine. Nothing wrong with stocking up on the ingredients anyway. Let’s go then, if you’re so excited about it.”
“Yes!”
~*~
…
Levi watched Eren push the trolley around the supermarket with a shadowed reaction. The trolley was already unbelievably full with the things Eren decided to dump into it, but he kept going. His gaze followed the boy as he ran left. Then right- then left again. Each time he would come back to dump something new into the trolley.
A tick mark popped on his head.
“Oi, brat!” Levi growled.
“How much are you intending to buy?! We don’t need these many things!”
Eren stopped…and winced; he didn’t really notice how much he was buying till he looked back at the trolley properly. His hand went up to scratch the back of his neck a little, “Ahah… Sorry, Levi. I’ll go put back some of the unnecessary things!”
~*~
“Woah! That was a good discount!” he smiled as they exited the supermarket, both carrying the bags of groceries.
“It’s not like you paid for it, anyway.” Levi closed his eyes calmly with a sigh.
Eren grinned at the shorter male; he was getting used to Levi’s way of talking at this point, and he felt quite comfortable with it now.
The walk back to the parking lot was quite silent, but it wasn’t a bad sort of silence. Levi turned his head and looked around for a moment. He caught sight of a few men- probably just some thugs or drug addicts hanging around the alleyways. Hmph, he thought, these areas were always swarming with thugs like those. The city isn’t safe at night at all…
“Levi… this is too dangerous! Don’t be one of these useless thugs in the streets anymore!
“This is what I chose to be. Just leave me alone.”
“...Levi?”
Eren’s voice drew him back from the flashes going on in his mind. He sighed again.
“What’s wrong?”
“… Nothing in particular.”
The two of them failed to notice the movement in the shadows of the alleyways as they left. Had Levi looked around longer, he most probably would have realized that the thugs he saw around the area all had their gaze trained on the taller brunette he was walking with.
With Levi’s car leaving the lot, one of the thugs stepped up from within the shadows. He wore sunglasses and a scarf that effectively covered his features from everyone. His hand produced a cellphone from the pocket of the thick coat. A few buttons were punched in and then followed by a short beep.
He tugged his coat and motioned for the rest of them to leave with him.
~*~
“What would you like for dinner?” Eren eyed the bags of food they bought.
The sleek elevator door slid open, allowing the two of them out. Levi cast a short glance at Eren.
“You still bought too much.”
“Eh… But I think this will be enough until I get to go back to my own apartment.”
They rounded at the corner of the corridor leading to Levi’s with Eren still enthusiastic as always. He continued on talking to Levi about the menu- until Levi suddenly stopped in his tracks with a questioning look pointed straight ahead.
Eren paused, was something wrong? He stopped walking too and slowly turned his head in the direction Levi was looking.
“?!” A gasp left his lips when he saw the girl with raven hair standing in front of his (unusable) apartment. Even if her hair was covering her face from the side, he could recognize that red scarf she was wearing any day. That was—
The girl turned with a look of relief and surprise plastered on her face when she noticed their presence.
“Eren! There you are!” she called.
“—Mikasa?!”
~*~
TO BE CONTINUED…