As Thursday grew to a close, the sun glimmering as it waved the horizon a final goodbye, I saw Petra's little prius pull up to my driveway, parking beside Mikasa's car, that had been for the both of us, but as Mikasa got older, she tended to monopolize it. I watched Levi exit the driver's side, dressed in casually monochromatic clothing and ambling towards the front door of my house, taking a hit of his e-cigarette before slipping it back into his pocket and stepping onto the front stoop. I sprinted from my bedroom, jumping and sliding down the banister of the staircase just in time to hear his fist come gently down on the door.
"Hi," I breathed, pulling open the front door for him and pulling him into a soft hug. Before pulling away, I pressed my lips to his cheek. "How are you?"
"I'm alright," my fiancee hummed, stepping into the well lit foyer. "Where is everybody?"
"Where were you? They left a day early. Petra's with em, but my mom's in her office, and Poppy went to bed early," I asked, thinking that he would have known if Petra had left the apartment, especially going early on a several day trip with my sister.
"I was with Dominic," Levi muttered quietly, a wry smile playing his lips.
"What about Rivaille?"
"He's been with you all day," Levi said softly, patting my shoulder.
My eyes widened in the shock that coupled with that revelation. I hadn't even seen anybody that looked remotely related to Levi. "He has?"
"He's doing his job well, I assume. I told him not to interfere unless necessary, and I think he got the message. You haven't seen him at all?"
I shook my head slowly, still eyeing Levi while my body continued to jolt itself to life with the numbness of shock. I wasn't upset, only surprised.
"He didn't even introduce himself?"
I shook my head again and Levi let out a small chuckle at the dumbstruck look on my face.
"Christ, Eren you look like you've seen a ghost. I thought we were saving the paranormal for later."
"Oh whatever," I muttered, beginning to compose myself again.
"So we have to be there at seven thirty. Would you wanna go meet Dom and Riva right now? We wouldn't have an exorbitant amount of time to chit chat, but certainly enough to allow you to get a feel for em." Levi adjusted his black bomber jacket, pulling the hood of the hoodie he was wearing beneath it through the back of the jacket, so that it was no longer stuffed into the back of the jacket.
"Sure, that sounds good," I nodded, feeling relief at the safety Levi, and by extension, his cousins, were able to provide. "How long are they here for?"
"As long as we need them, but at least until I go back to school, if they haven't gotten involved with their shipments out here. If they start focusing on their income, they may be out here for quite some time." As I listened to him talking more, I began to notice the utter lack of emotion that oozed from his every word. He seemed to be burying himself in some sort of apathy.
"I see," I nodded while my mom rounded the corner, and entered the foyer. "Hey, Mom," I smiled while she approached Levi, wrapping her arms around him.
"Hi Sweetie," my mother said to Levi, pulling back and turning to me again. "And you," she said, raising a thin, dark eyebrow at me and pointing at me with her index finger.
"Uh oh, somebody's in trouble," Levi said, in a gentle singsong voice while his lips curled into a happy smirk.
"What did I do this time?" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up at my mother who only rolled her eyes.
"The fact that you had to say "this time" at the end of your question speaks volumes," My mother said. "Look, I don't know what kind of maid I am, but I'm certainly not yours. Your bedroom is atrocious. Don't go around expecting me to pick up after you, Eren."
"Eren, seriously?" Levi snapped. "You know how I feel when your bedroom is messy."
"That's cuz you would literally marry a pack of clorox wipes before you married me, stupid. And my room literally isn't that bad."
"Oh really?" My mother laughed, folding her arms at me. "Then why don't we show Levi? See what he thinks about it, hm?"
"How about we don't do that?" I muttered, looking at my feet, intently studying my shoelaces.
"Eren, let's go clean it real quick," Levi suggested. "So I'm not laying in bed and thinking about it tonight."
"You both are conspiring against me," I sighed, rolling my eyes and turning to walk upstairs.
"Conspiring my ass," Levi laughed bitterly as he began to trail me back up the stairs.
"Yeah, really," my mother snickered as she fell into line behind Levi. "More like, we collectively don't approve of you living in squalor."
"Thank you, Carla," Levi smiled, patting her shoulder while we ascended the staircase towards my bedroom. I opened my door, and heard a quiet gasp from Levi as he eyed the bedroom from behind me.
"What the fuck, Eren? I mean, seriously, what the actual fuck?" Levi snapped, walking past me and immediately putting himself to work. I could see the vein in his forehead beginning to show itself. He was capital "P" Pissed.
"Okay, listen-"
"No, you listen to me, young man, you're not about to go out with me with a room that looks like this. God damn, I'm sorry Carla."
"Hey, you're not the one that made the mess and then left it there," my mother laughed. "Eren you need to go help him."
"No. He's not allowed to touch it. He's gonna do it wrong."
"Then teach him how to do it right. I can't keep walking into a pigsty. You have a laundry hamper for a reason. It's to make sure your room doesn't end up like this, ya know."
"But, my clean clothes are in the hamper," I defended, rolling my eyes at the way the two were jumping down my throat on the matter.
"Then put the clean clothes away, bitch," Levi snapped, stripping the sheets from my bed and replacing them faster than I had ever seen somebody do that before. He tucked in the corners of the blankets, continuing to tuck until my entire bed was more pristine looking than a bunk in boot camp. "You're not allowed to do this to Carla anymore. If I was her, I wouldn't ever let you leave the house." He said as he squeezed past the both of us and dragged the vacuum from the hallway closet and into the bedroom as well as a package of disinfectant wipes. He sped around the bedroom with a furious vigor, wiping down every surface imaginable, and attacking the baseboards until they shone like they had a fresh coat of paint.
"Seriously?!" I groaned, slumping my shoulders in defeat.
Levi only nodded as he replaced my pillowcases, all but one. I let out a sigh of relief when he lifted it and then quickly placed it back onto my bed, turning to me with a raised eyebrow while he moved resolutely towards the piles of clothes on my floor. "I was here two days ago, Eren, how did you get it this bad?"
"Okay enough of your judgement, Sir. I've been distracted."
"You weren't even here the night before last. What the fuck? You know that when we get married, I'm not allowing us to live like this, right? I will be getting on you ten times more than your poor mother has." Levi was folding clothing in rapid fire and then once he had finished, he dumped my dirty laundry into the hamper and deftly whipped out a bottle of hand sanitizer from his pocket.
"Oh my God, you're not my dad, Levi!" I yelled at him, frustrated at his scolding.
"No, I'm Daddy," Levi smirked, speaking in a quiet enough voice that only I would have heard his response. I felt my face heat up while my hands flew to my face, covering my cheeks with my hands while I felt my body flush.
"You are my savior, Levi," my mother grinned. "I could just kiss you," she sighed while she observed the young man lathering his hands and forearms with the disinfectant.
"I do what I can," Levi scoffed, plugging in the vacuum cleaner and switching it on, racing around the room and thoroughly sweeping every square inch of exposed carpet. He switched it off again and let out a sigh. "Not perfect, but it'll do."
"That's the cleanest I've seen this place in forever," my mother grinned. "Thanks, hun," she said, pulling my fiancee into a warm tight hug and kissing the top of his head. "Please instill some of that into my son, yeah?"
"I'm trying, Carla," Levi said, faking a sob.
"Ugh, can you guys suck each other's dicks some other time? Levi and I have places to be," I snapped, crossing my arms and glaring at the two people standing before me.
"Eren James Jeager!" my mother hissed. "We are having a moment. This boy is my son, too, as far as I'm concerned, and I'm allowed to appreciate his cleanliness. And please, clean up your language."
"Mom! You let Levi say shit like this all the time," I argued.
"Don't bring me into this," Levi laughed. "This is a thing between you two."
"Levi's a grown adult, Eren, and isn't living under my roof, last time I checked."
"Ugh, so am I mom. I'm basically an adult, too."
"Look, boy, I brought you into this world and-"
"And you can take me out, yeah I know," I muttered, rolling my eyes at my mother's antics, and the fact that Levi was going right along with them.
"Sorry, to interrupt, Carla, but, if we're gonna go meet with my cousins before we head to Christa's place, then we're gonna have to leave now," Levi said quietly, holding a hand up to try and pause the conversation. "If that's still alright with you."
That respectful motherfucker. I rolled my eyes again while my mother opened her mouth to respond. "Yeah, have fun tonight you guys, but Eren, you've lost the privilege to sleep at the apartment. You'll be spending the rest of the week sleeping here until you can clean up your act a little bit."
"Okay, fine," I huffed, taking Levi's hand and practically dragging him out of the house. Once we were in the car, I snapped my head in his direction. "The fuck was that? You got me in trouble!"
"You were already in trouble, Jaeger. I was simply holding you accountable," Levi said. "And you'll live. She said you couldn't leave, but she never said that I couldn't come over."
"I hate you," I hissed, dragging a hand through my hair and letting out a long sigh.
"You'll really appreciate us clean freaks a little later in life for smaking some sense up that round, perfect, totally fuckable ass of yours," Levi smirked, squeezing my thigh as he started the engine.
"Oh whatever," I muttered, settling into silence while Levi began to drive.
"So a dildo in the pillowcase, huh?" Levi said finally, letting out a soft chuckle at his previous discovery while cleaning my bedroom. "That's kinda hot."
I couldn't find adequate words to respond with, and so I remained silent, totally flustered, but excited for the night to come.