Chapter Text
“Levi, he’ll be fine,” Erwin assured, resting his hand on Levi’s shoulder.
“I know he’ll be fine.”
It was the first day of preschool, and both of them were rightfully nervous. They’d already had to fight tooth and nail with the school to allow Eren into the school in the first place. The fact that his parents were two men already made the school nervous about accepting the child. His small problem with getting into fights with other children from his previous two daycares made them even more reluctant but, through a lot of meetings with administration, teachers and more than a couple prayers, Eren had been accepted.
“Daddy! Papa! I think ‘m ready!” their child called from the top of the stairs.
Both men heard the loud thud as he jumped from the top step to the next step down, and Levi’s eye twitched, already rushing over to the staircase.
“Eren Michael Smith, if you jump down another one of those steps, I swear I’ll--!”
“Sorry, Papa!” Eren shouted, carefully climbing down the next six or seven.
The four year old was so much of a mess, it was laughable. Dinosaur shirt inside out and backwards, hair sticking up at science fiction angles, the velcro undone on his shoes, and his backpack hung wide open, dropping pencils and crayons here and there. Erwin chuckled, having to cover his mouth with a hand to hide the grin on his face. The glare he received for doing so from Levi was astonishingly venomous.
“Well, you did let him get himself ready,” he remarked cheekily, knowing that he was walking on eggshells and not particularly caring.
Levi rolled his eyes, forcing his own smile back as he worked on fixing Eren up. It was couple minutes, with a lot of squirming and struggling on Eren’s part, and a lot of fussing and orders to sit still on Levi’s part, before Eren was presentable. Erwin, in the meanwhile, had been preparing breakfast, setting out the plates piled with bacon, scrambled eggs and toast. This had caused some slight complications while Levi had been turning Eren’s shirt right side out, as Eren had almost taken off to eat, and had to be grabbed by the back of his pants and dragged back in front of his Papa.
Once everything was in place, Levi took Eren’s backpack with one arm, and ushered the child to his spot at the table with the other. Eren didn’t need to be told twice, almost tripping over his own two feet as he tried to run on the slick hardwood. When he reached the chair, he was upset to discover that he couldn’t climb onto it on his own. After futilely attempting to climb and jump up multiple times, he looked at Levi pleadingly.
“Up!”
Levi raised an eyebrow.
“Manners, Eren.”
It took the child a moment, and he furrowed his brows, lower lip jutting out into a pout. Once he remembered what he had to do, his eyes lit up, a huge smile spreading across his mouth.
“Up, please?”
Levi couldn’t help his own smile from appearing. Eren’s smiles were always infectious.
“Good job,” he said, grabbing Eren under the armpits and setting him into the booster seat, pushing the chair in. Eren quickly grabbed his plastic utensils, digging into his food.
Their breakfast was relatively quiet and mess free, with the exception of Eren’s eggs constantly falling off of his fork. Levi silently thanked whatever gods existed for the invention of the spill-free sippy cups they had bought for Eren, as he had a habit of knocking his over and sometimes banging it on the table. When everyone finished, Levi went about cleaning off the table and taking the dishes to the dishwasher while Erwin focused on quickly wiping up Eren’s face and hands.
“Are you excited, Eren?” he asked as he wiped down the boy’s fingers.
“Mm-mm! I can...can’t wait to see people! ‘s Armin gonna be there?”
After a gentle reminder from Erwin to sit still, he answered the boys question.
“I believe Mr. and Mrs. Arlert have decided to enroll him in the school, but you’ll find out when they get there. I know Mikasa will be there.”
Eren’s nose wrinkled.
“Ew. Girls are icky!”
Both Erwin and Levi busted out laughing at the boys words, while said child struggled to maintain a grumpy look on his face. After Erwin had gone off to grab his suit coat, Levi grabbed Eren from his booster seat, having to hold him up with both arms, as he didn’t have a hip to balance the him on.
“I think girls are icky too,” Levi said.
“Really? Is that why you’re with Daddy?”
Levi smiled, shaking his head.
“No, I’m with your Daddy because I love him a lot.”
“Do you love him infinity?”
Despite the fact that it didn’t even make sense, Levi nodded. This made Eren’s eyes light up, and a huge smile spread across his face.
“But wait, I’ll let you in on a little secret,” Levi said in a quiet voice.
“Oooooh, tell me, tell me!”
“You have to promise not to tell anyone. Not even Daddy.”
“I promise!”
“Cross your heart?”
“Mm-mm!” With Levi’s help, Eren made an ‘x’ over his heart. “Now, tell me!”
Levi leaned in, his lips next to Eren’s ear as he whispered, “I love you even more than I love Daddy.”
Eren gasped, hands coming up to cover his mouth.
“No!”
“Yes,” Levi insisted, kissing the boy on the forehead. “You promised not to tell, so you better keep that promise.”
Setting the boy down, he grabbed his backpack off of the back of the chair, helping him put the straps around his shoulders. The moment Levi gotten it on him, he was scrambling around, looking up the stairs for Erwin, and running between the front and back doors, bumping into tables, cabinets and counters at every turn.
“He’s going to hurt himself one day,” Erwin commented after nearly tripping over him on his way downstairs.
Levi shrugged, waiting for Erwin to walk over so he could adjust his tie for him.
“Maybe we should get one of those kid leashes.”
“Levi.”
“What?” he said, crossing his arms. He sounded almost indignant. “It’s a good solution.”
Erwin sighed, rolling his eyes.
“We are not buying a kid leash!”
Levi hummed, obviously not having listened to nor cared about his protestation. Pressing a kiss to Erwin’s lips, he wished him good luck on the day before turning on his heel and walking off, calling for Eren as he did so.
“Levi, we’re not getting Eren a kid leash.”
“Get your underwear out of your ass, Erwin,” he replied dryly, holding his hand out for Eren to grab. Erwin’s warning about cussing in front of the kid was cut off as the door slammed behind Levi. Thankfully, strapping Eren into the carseat was little to no problem, as he finally managed to stop his squirming for more than ten seconds. Erwin came out to the car not long after, kissing Eren on the forehead and telling him to have a good day at school.
“I will, Daddy! Have fun at work!”
Erwin smiled and nodded, promising he would. Once the door was closed, he sighed, a weary look crossing his face.
“I…” He stopped, giving Levi an apologetic look.
“I’m sorry I can’t go with.”
Levi’s expression went cold at the reminder that Erwin couldn’t be with them to see their child off for his first day of school.
“You boss is such an asshole, Erwin. Are you sure there’s no way you can come?”
Erwin sighed.
“You know I can’t, Levi. I already have strikes on me for staying home when Eren had pneumonia.”
If anything, Levi’s look grew more sour.
“Ah, yes, the business monkeys were so upset about you staying home with your child and husband when your kid could’ve died. Fucking perfect.”
Erwin looked as if he wanted to say more, but he knew there was no way to soothe Levi’s anger. Kissing where his brows furrowed, he gave Levi another look that said “I’m sorry” more than his words could, before walking off to his own car. Huffing, Levi crawled into the driver’s seat of the car, immediately being assaulted with questions by Eren.
It was going to be a long day.
Eren gripped Levi’s hand tightly, eyes wide as they walked through the doors of Maria Private Preschool. Kids rushed through the halls, parents trailing behind them as they rushed up to their groups of friends, socializing with ease. Levi patted the boy’s head, looking down at him sympathetically. Eren had never been around this many kids his age. Adding the stress of it being his first day in school, he was surprised the kid hadn’t shit his pants yet.
Once they found Eren’s classroom, Room #104, he and Eren waited patiently outside for the teacher to open the door. Out of the corner of his eye, Levi caught a head of long, blonde hair, and sighed in relief. Kneeling down, he tapped Eren’s shoulder, turning him so he could see.
“Look who’s over there, Eren.”
Both boys seemed to notice each other at the same time. Armin’s eyes went wide, and Eren smiled widely, rushing over and hugging him.
“Armin! I haven’ seen you since Miss Maggie.”
Armin just blinked at him, smiling a moment later. Grabbing Eren’s hand, he tugged the boy through the crowd over to another two kids. From what Levi could see, one of them had dark hair with freckles all over his face, and the other had short brown hair that slowly turned to a dark brown the closer it was to the back of his head and neck. The four of them chatted happily with each other, and Levi couldn’t help but smiling. Maybe there wasn’t anything to worry about.
He heard the clack of the teacher’s high heels before he saw her enter the doorway, a woman with dark brown hair, tied back in a high ponytail. A pair of glasses rested low on the bridge of her nose, and she pushed them up with her finger before she spoke, her voice carrying as much happiness and energy as her eyes.
“Welcome, everyone! I’m sure most of the parents have met me, but to those who haven’t, I’m Miss Zoe, and I’ll be your children’s teacher for the year.”
She gave a warm smile to all the parents before looking down at the crowd of kids that had surrounded the door. Stepping aside, she let each of them in, pointing to the cubbies where they could put their backpacks, and telling them what they needed from them.
“Go and sit on the alphabet rug in a circle, kids, and I’ll be in in just a moment.”
Turning back to the parents, she sucked in a quick breath, clasping her hands together.
“Pick up time is at 11:30. Please don’t be late, we don’t have any kind of latchkey for the first few days. You should all get an email later tonight with what we went over in class, along with the daily schedule, what’s expected to be done within the year, and daily updates on your childs progress and behavior. You all are free to go.”
Levi turned to go, anxious to be off to work. He was already stuck behind longer than he’d anticipated, as the teacher had taken her own sweet time before letting the kids in. However, the soft, “Mr. Smith, please stay for a moment,” made him stop.
To the teacher’s credit, she waited until all the other parents had left, and closed the door almost completely before she spoke with him.
“Is there an issue, Miss Zoe?” Levi asked, the annoyance at being held back apparent in his voice.
To Levi’s surprise (and further annoyance), she laughed, shaking her head.
“No where near an issue, Mr. Smith. I was just wondering if you could describe to me Eren’s issues with anger? I read it, in the application and all, but I wasn’t at the meeting with administration to hear about it.”
“Oh.” Levi’s anger slowly calmed, settling back to simple annoyance about this taking longer than necessary.
“We’re not quite sure what sets it off yet. But if you see him having problems, or arguing a lot with other kids, then just try to keep them apart, because he will start fights. And try not to separate him from Armin, the little blonde one. He keeps him calm. If he gets into a fight, watch out for Mikasa, the black haired one, because she’ll try to jump in.”
“Alright. It’ll be a bit of a challenge,” she said with a nod. Then, she broke into another smile.
“I’m very eager to begin working with Eren. Hopefully, with the help of the school counselor, we’ll be able to keep him out of trouble.”
Levi nodded, crossing his arms.
“Well, I’ll be going. Have a good day, Miss Hanji.”
She looked slightly confused.
“Aren’t you picking him up?”
Levi shook his head.
“My husband will be.”
Hanji nodded, biting her lip.
“Alright. You have a good day, Mr. Smith. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
Levi didn’t say anything else, as he was already out the door.
Erwin’s days were usually hectic enough at the office, having to deal with customers, carriers, and his boss all chewing him out for things he did, both right and wrong. With the added worry about how Eren was doing in school, and the fifty email pile up in his inbox, he was a stressed out wreck. At around 10:30, he received a phone call. Thinking it was another customer calling to complain, he almost felt like letting them just leave a message. However, the phone number made him pause, as it wasn’t one he remembered.
Picking it up, he answered with a tired, “Hello? Who is this?”
“Mr. Smith?” a vaguely familiar female voice questioned.
“A-ah, yes, this is Erwin Smith. How can I help you?”
“Oh, well, I’m calling about your son, Eren Smith.”
Erwin’s blood ran cold, mind already filling with possible scenarios of things gone wrong. He got into a fight. He disrespected a teacher. The social worker didn’t deem him fit to be around other children. These thoughts and more filled him with worry, and he barely managed to say, “What happened?”
“Well, Mr. Smith, he got sick and needs to go home. We were just eating lunch and he was playing around just fine with the other children, but stopped and ran into the bathroom. I could hear him retching.”
He let out a sigh of relief. Eren getting sick wasn’t unheard of, especially after lunch, since he ran to the point of exhaustion. He was just glad it wasn’t a fight.
“Yes, Miss. I’ll be at the school in a little while to fetch him. Just keep him sat down and calm while I’m on my way.”
After the affirmation that she would, Erwin hung up and called up his boss. Informing him that he was leaving early, rather than requesting to be let out early, got on the man’s nerves, but he had no choice but to let him go, since his child was sick, and Levi was busy with his own job.
When Erwin did arrive at the school, everyone was napping, with Eren being no exception. He was napping in Miss Zoe’s padded rolling chair, a blanket draped over his shoulders.
“How long has he been out?” Erwin whispered, carefully picking the boy up.
“About fifteen minutes. I set everyone down for nap right after I got off the phone with you, but he took a little longer than the other kids to get to sleep.”
Erwin chuckled, nodding as Eren groaned, adjusting so that his head rested on Erwin’s shoulder.
“He has trouble sitting still. It keeps him awake.”
Hanji laughed quietly.
“I can tell. He definitely needs the rest, though. He couldn’t stop running around and talking with the other children.”
Erwin must have let his relief show on his face, because Hanji’s smile widened.
“He did fine, Mr. Smith. I kept your husbands advice in mind, and he only really had a problem with one of the kids, but their friends, Armin and Marco, defused the situation before I had to intervene.”
“I...Thank you, Miss Zoe. It--It means a lot to me that you’re keeping an eye on him.”
“It’s my job. Plus, he’s a delightful little kid. Now go on and get him home, I’ve gotta wake the kids up soon.”
Erwin nodded, giving his thanks again before hurrying out of the door. Needless to say, when Eren did finally wake up, Erwin had plenty of good stories from the boy to keep himself busy until Levi got home.