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To be frank, Levi was no idiot. He prided himself on the fact.
When his stupid, idiotic freshman boyfriend started avoiding him, Levi wasn't sure if Eren thought he wasn't going to pick up on it, or that Levi wouldn't pick up on it. He didn't know if Eren planned on avoiding him forever, so that he never got the chance to question him, but either way, Eren was surprisingly good at hiding. Levi wouldn't have pegged him to be able to; after all, the boy thrived in chaos. Everything he did, no matter the intention, ended in chaos. Untied shoelaces were nightmares waiting to happen - despite his natural athleticism, his fairly healthy and well-kept state, Eren was an idiot. There was no other way to describe him. He was unpredictable, too, in his idiocy.
Levi liked it.
He liked the way he didn't always know what Eren was thinking, the way he was shyly glancing towards Levi's hand as if he couldn't decide if he was allowed to take it, but the next moment, he was vibrating with anger directed towards his classmate, Jean. One moment, he was ranting about his last test grade, and the next moment, he was gushing about how well he'd done in the last match and how proud he was of the team.
What he didn't like, however, was when Eren tried to hide from him. Eren had the habit of displaying his emotions on his face most of the time, too; particularly in his eyes. When Eren refused to meet Levi's eyes (and not out of bashfulness when Levi ran a hand through his soft brown hair), Levi found himself unhappy. Snapping at underclassmen had become even more commonplace than usual, and the most frequent of his targets had been Eren's poor blonde-headed friend, whose big blue eyes had shimmered with tears as he looked down to his Oceanography textbook.
It had to stop. He would shake Eren for a solid minute if it was what it took to jostle whatever the hell was wrong with him out into the open. With that in mind, he waited like he always did at the doorway of their school, car keys dangling from his right hand while his left was tucked into the pocket of his worn out leather jacket. He could hear Eren's voice from a mile away - why he had fallen for him? A mystery, as far as Levi could explain it. The other boy's voice was louder than anyone else's he'd ever heard, but there was something about that joyful, energetic timbre that went straight into Levi's brain and settled there.
As soon as Eren walked out the door and saw him, however, the boy froze, gaze wide and unsure.
"L-Levi, I.. er.. I have a test! To make up!" Eren blurted immediately, although he stammered part-way through as Levi watched the cogs of his brain try to work out a plausible excuse.
Sighing, Levi took a step towards him.
"You made that test up last Tuesday. And proceeded to get an, ah... 82 on it? Either way, let's get in my car. We're going out to eat."
Eren looked like Levi had just asked him to marry him, with the way that his face began to flush. Steam would've poured out of his ears if he tried to think any harder; he couldn't believe he'd been caught like this. He couldn't face Levi; not right now, not ever, actually. If he faced Levi now, and he wasn't prepared... He would mess it all up. He'd been trying to plan the whole thing out in his head for what felt like years now, and Eren didn't plan. He just didn't do thinks like that. Levi's job was to plan, and Eren's was to dive in head-first and contemplate how a plan might have helped after everything was said and done with. Yet and still, Eren had decided to go on this flight solo, and he was deeply regretting it.
"Eren's not going anywhere with you if he doesn't want to."
Levi's brows furrowed and he resisted the urge to scowl at the sound of Mikasa, Eren's adopted sister. Eren, on the other hand, looked like he'd just been rescued from some sort of death mission against murderous, giant creatures. Something like that, at least.
"He wants to." Levi replied sourly, but before it could go much further, Eren squeaked,
"Bus is here!"
With that, the younger sprinted to the yellow monstrosity, backpack half-unzipped, and Mikasa followed with hasty strides. Armin wasn't with them - probably tutoring after school. Levi took a deep breath to calm himself down (to be honest, as well, being around Eren so little had started to fray at his nerves, even though he always told himself that Eren would end his life early) and turned back to the school just as a curious scene unfolded before his narrowed eyes.
"WILL YOU GO TO PROM WITH ME!" A boy with a closely-shaven head shouted, holding out a basket of fruits and what looked like candies from here, and it was as the boy's hands quivered anxiously and his expression twisted into one that Levi had recently become acquainted with on the face of his young boyfriend that things clicked into place.
Oh, Levi could find the patience to wait this one out.
---
As it turned out, Levi didn't have to wait for very long.
Instead of avoiding looking at him, Eren kept sneaking furtive glances at him; they walked in silence in the hallways, and Eren kept opening his mouth as if he were going to say something, but he didn't. He looked rather like a fish, Levi thought with amusement to himself, the corners of his lips tilted in slight amusement. Eren had something in a bag; it was a paper shopping bag, and when Levi has asked, Eren had defensively replied that it was his lunch. Levi had the feeling it was something else, and as they reached the courtyard for lunch, he heard Eren take a deep breath, so deep that he could see his chest expand in his peripheral vision.
Levi settled precariously on the edge of the bench, primarily because these benches were disgusting and he didn't like sitting on them at all. He made exceptions for Eren, like always. Setting his elbows on the table's edge as well, he leaned forward and supported his chin on his hands, watching Eren fidget as he set his backpack down on the cement. Levi glanced down and wrinkled his nose, then looked back to Eren with a half-smile, waiting, because he knew what was coming.
He didn't expect Eren to be so blunt, but looking back on it, he definitely should have known. It was so typical of his stupid freshman brat to suddenly exclaim, with no lack of volume,
"Please let me go to prom with you!"
Not the wording Levi expected, but considering that he was the senior and would technically be taking Eren to prom (he had just planned on renting Eren's tuxedo and taking him without much ado over it, but this was also great), it made sense for him to say that. The please was nice, too, considering how often Eren boldly requested things without much pleasantry (not that Levi could speak for his own manners, which were passable on his best days).
With that declaration, Eren reached into his 'lunch' bag and pulled out a paper craft. Eren was in art classes and rarely let Levi see any of his projects, but he had been particularly defensive about his latest work. Now, Levi could see why. Out of newspaper, Eren had crafted delicate papier-mâché wings - the theme of their prom this year was 'Take Flight!', and although Levi had thought it cheesy, he found himself with a new appreciation for the bird-themed posters that hung around their hallways and for the corny slogans he'd been hearing the class officers spout. The headlines of the newspapers were folded just so, so that the biggest, boldest letters aligned to spell out 'Levi', 'Prom', and 'Eren'.
Eren's hands were shaking as he held them, and Levi huffed quietly, stepping forward to take them.
"Of course. These are wondrous, Eren." He complimented him, voice low, and despite the fact that Eren had height on him (even as a stupid freshman), he felt as if Eren was still quivering in front of him, a ball of nerves.
Right he was, considering how Eren's heart was hammering. He'd slaved over these wings for weeks, antagonizing over how exactly he should ask - he hadn't meant to blurt it out like that, but he supposed it was fine, since Levi had said ---
"You will?" Eren suddenly asked aloud, shocked because he hadn't entirely caught up with the situation yet. His racing pulse rushed in his ears, and he'd been so concerned with Levi liking the wings that he hadn't thought much further than that. It was a miracle he'd even thought this far, really, and in the dark, slanted eyes of his boyfriend, he thought he could see the glimpses of that miracle reflected back at him.
Eren's gaze fell to Levi's mouth, small and slightly parted, and then flickered back to meet his gaze with his own.
"We'll buy tickets tomorrow." Levi said, and that was enough for Eren, who visibly relaxed, letting go of the tension and worry that had kept him weird and high-strung for days now. He couldn't believe it had worked. Well, Levi didn't often say no to him (to say he was a little spoiled was an understatement), but still - to ask your older boyfriend to prom was a frightening ordeal.
Slipping the wings gently into the paper bag, Levi wrapped Eren in a hug. For Eren's additional height on Levi, Levi was broader; his short stature did not mean he was necessarily fragile, with fairly broad shoulders and a penchant for the gym when he couldn't sleep at night. It was stupid to think of the hug, which didn't really envelop Eren, as a blanket of comfort, but it was.
With that, there were only a few things left to do. Tickets, and tuxedos.
---
Tuxedos, check.
Levi hadn't really thought - at any time in his high school career - that he'd be waiting in the line at lunch to purchase prom tickets. He had gone to homecoming once his freshman year, and that had been enough for him; now, he was waiting, impatiently tapping one foot as he watched the person in front of him (he was so close to the front, so close)try to lie their way out of being on the debt list. If you owed debt to the school, you couldn't go to the dance. It was fucking simple, and if they didn't figure it out in approximately two more minutes, Levi was going to lose the last shreds of patience he was holding onto at the moment.
Finally, the kid surrendered to the librarian handling the debt list, and Levi stepped forward, money in hand.
"Couple tickets for Jaeger, Eren, and me." He handed his ID over to the woman, who glanced over the portrait of him in that stupid black tuxedo that all seniors had to wear for their photos, and then she glanced to her student name list. She paused, and looked back up to him with a perplexed expression.
"I can't sell couple tickets to two boys."
In that moment, Levi swore that he saw red. He stiffened, fingers clenching into fists, and leaned in. The woman leaned back, eyes a little wide, and Levi resisted the urge to snarl at her.
"I will be attending prom with my boyfriend," he practically spat the word at her, "and I would like to purchase couple tickets."
He could still get tickets. It wasn't a big deal - he'd have to pay more for two individuals than a couple set, but that wasn't the point, here. The woman seemed to be rather frightened, and she stammered out some bullshit about it being policy. Levi figured she wasn't going to budge, and despite the fact that he was radiating fury, he managed to grit out in an eerily flat voice,
"Two individual tickets, then." He reached for his wallet as he spoke, and the lady balked at him.
"Two boys can't go to prom together." She mumbled, and Levi swore he was two seconds away from climbing the goddamn folding table she sat at and strangling her when a heavy hand fell on his shoulder. Levi froze for a split second before whipping around to face the offender.
"Levi, it's not worth it."
Erwin, his stupid best friend, stood in all his calm douchebaggery looming above Levi. Levi's eyes narrowed and he glared up at the other,
"Not worth it? Fuck, Eren spent all that time figuring out how we could go to prom, and it's not worth it? Don't you fuc--" His rant was broken by Erwin reaching past him, grabbing his ID from the shocked lady, and then pushing him in the back to guide him away from the table. Despite digging the heels of his shoes into the ground, there was no way Levi was going to be able to keep Erwin from budging him some, and so he stumbled furiously towards the alcove beneath the stairs where Erwin was guiding him.
Before he could open his mouth to snap out another thing, Erwin shook his head, and beat him to it,
"We'll figure out how to get you into prom."
The bell for the end of lunch rang, and Erwin handed him his ID, telling him to wait up after English, and that he'd talk to him then.
Levi skipped his last two blocks and went home instead.
---
Eren knew that Levi felt bad about it. Mikasa had always told him that Levi was unreadable, hard to understand, but Eren knew better than that. He had't been entirely sure why Levi had been avoiding him; he thought they'd gotten over that whole thing, now that Eren had asked him and stopped hiding the whole secret. He'd heard from Erwin that Levi had apparently gone home after lunch, and when Eren had texted him, he'd gotten no response. Eren wished desperately at times like this that he could drive - if only he was a couple years older, the gap between Levi and him would be smaller, and he would be able to drive a car of his own over to see his boyfriend. As he was now, however, that was not an option. So he settled for texting Levi again. And again. And once more, and then he called, and Levi still didn't pick up.
He waited five minutes, called again, and finally, Levi picked up.
"What?"
Levi's voice sounded strangely hoarse, and the tension in his tone was out of place; of course, Levi was already pretty uptight, but this sound was different.
"Are you okay?" Eren began, adding on after a few moments, "Erwin told me you left early, but he wouldn't tell me why."
After he spoke, there was mere silence between them; Eren leaned into the phone, listening to the sound of Levi's breathing. It was more erratic than usual; typically, Levi's breathing was always soft and controlled, but now, like his voice, it seemed, well, out of sorts.
"Levi?" Eren asked tentatively again, wondering if he should have just decided not to call at all.
He didn't expect what came next.
"I... I couldn't get us prom tickets." Levi left the next part unspoken, the quiet, sacred 'I'm sorry' hovering just out of earshot for Eren. Levi felt like a failure. He, the upperclassman, didn't ask his boyfriend to prom. He, the uppperclassman, couldn't get a prom ticket for his boyfriend. Not even an individual one. You had to be a junior or a senior to buy one for prom, unless your couple member was an underclassman. How was he going to get Eren into prom? God, Eren had put all of that effort into asking him - the wings, displayed on a shelf above his desk, were proof of that - and he had seemed so excited. The doe-eyed idiot practically vibrated with sheer energy every single time something even prom-related came up in conversation.
"Levi... are you still there?"
Shit, had Eren been saying something?
"Yeah, sorry." Levi apologized quietly, aloud this time, and he could practically see Eren's half-smile on the other end as he responded,
"It's okay. I was just saying, we'll figure it out, right?"
How weird of Eren to be the logical one. Maybe Levi was more affected by this than he thought. Or maybe Eren was just rubbing off on him. Stupid freshman.
"... Yeah. Listen, maman is home and I need to help put groceries, I'll text you later, okay?" Levi spoke, hearing the rustling of the plastic bags as his mother came into the house.
"Levi, first.. did you... er... I heard there was a commotion about prom in first lunch..."
"I didn't punch anyone, if that's what you're asking." The sigh of relief on the other end was audible.
"Okay, okay, I'll let you go."
"Do your homework, brat."
"See you tomorrow, short stack."
"Fuck you, I'm not taking you to prom."
"Levi!!"
The soft huff of laughter echoed across the phone line to Eren, and he listened to the gentle click of the call ending with a faint smile on his face.
---
Eren: hey u there?
Levi groaned, turning over on his side. Of course, the moment he actually lays down to go to sleep (with the aid of some sleeping medication, but that was besides the point), he gets a text from Eren. He knows it's Eren before he even rolls over to grab it, because Erwin knows better than to text him after this time, and because if it were Hanji, he would be getting fifty messages at once, rather than just one.
Levi: Am now. You text like a heathen.
Eren: srry king levi
Eren: r u feelin' any better??
Levi frowned as he read the text. He hadn't meant to worry Eren over the whole ordeal. He'd find a way to get them into prom, even if it killed him. He sighed and set the phone against his forehead for a few moments, trying to figure out how to smuggle him into prom for the umpteenth time. He didn't exactly have a ton of people to ask. He could ask Hanji to buy Eren's ticket, considering that she would be able to being a woman and all, but Hanji was trying to smuggle in an underclassman in her psychology class so that they could 'study the teenage interactions of a high-pressure societal function' or something like that. To be honest, Levi had tuned her out, like he usually did. Hanji was a genius, but a long-winded one.
Levi: I'd feel better if I had a solution.
There was a long pause in between the next text from Eren, enough so that Levi wondered if he had dozed off, which was common.
Eren: we'll figure it out we always do.
Eren: i'm sure u can sneak me in a tophat if u want like abe lincoln
eren: except ur hat would have to be a lot taller 4 u to be as tall as him
Levi: Your amazing lack of historical knowledge is astounding.
Eren: someone sounds bitter that abe lincoln was a giant and someone else isn't
Eren: shoot i can hear my mom up and moving
Levi: Go to bed, Eren
Eren: that was a close 1, she stopped by my door
Levi: Bed. We'll talk about this tomorrow.
Eren: night, levi!!!! <3
Levi rolled his eyes, but couldn't stop the faint, fond smile from just barely turning up the corners of his lips, nor could he stop the warm, stupid feeling in his chest, even with the painful ache of today's failure resonating there.
Levi: Goodnight, Eren.
---
As it turned out, by the time Levi got to lunch with Erwin, Eren, and Armin, a solution had already been found.
"You see, I was, uhm, reading over the prom contract and rules and stuff for the county, and technically there isn't anything in there that says anything about couple tickets being only for boys. So that means you could use it as cited proof that you and Eren deserve tickets as well! And also, I was researching some similar cases on the internet, and I saw a story about two boyfriends who got into prom because they made a public scene about it, so you could always try that. Or---"
"Armin!"
The blonde boy flushed as Eren interrupted him, tucking a strand of long blonde hair behind his ear.
"S-sorry, Eren. I'm just trying to help." Armin stammered, embarrassed as he glanced down towards his lunch, a sandwich. Levi's eyes narrowed as he looked over to Eren, who was looking thoroughly scolded by the glares he was getting not only from his boyfriend, but also from Erwin, who was pouring over the papers that Armin had apparently printed off and scanned from the library to bring with him.
"Armin, I think you're making a really good point, here." Erwin praised him, and the younger of the two blondes glanced up with wide eyes.
"You really think so? I was thinking it would work but I wasn't sure, and statistically---" He seemed to realize that he was about to launch back into a tangent again, and he stopped himself abruptly, looking sheepish in that moment. Erwin smiled, one eyebrow cocked, and then reached to the grass the group sat on to pluck one of the flowering daffodils.
"If it works, would you want to go to prom with me, Armin?" Erwin asked, charmingly smooth even as Levi punched him in the arm and Eren gasped dramatically in the background. Armin didn't seem to have any words, shocked beyond belief, but those few moments of processing were followed by a fervent, exuberant flurry of nodding.
"Good. Let's make it work, then." Erwin tucked the daffodil behind the same ear that Armin had pushed the strand of hair behind earlier, and stood up with the prom contract in hand.
"Levi and I will handle this."
---
As it turned out, there wasn't exactly a lot of handling that needed to be done.
When Levi and Erwin had marched in there, papers in hand, printed out articles ready to be cycled, phone numbers and emails for the local broadcasters scrawled threateningly down onto the back of the papers, they had expected to have to fight for tickets. Instead, Principal Pixis had listened to their case with his hands calmly clasped on his desk, and then he'd asked who in the whole school had actually told them that they couldn't go to prom as a pair of boys.
The next time that Levi saw that librarian at the circulation desk, with her stupid little military pin on (who the fuck cared that her son was in the military? What right did that give you?), he turned the wall of the circulation desk with the smuggest grin he could muster. Had the wall been breakable, he would've busted it right down, no matter what the hell was on the shelves inside.
He flashed a pair of tickets at her, bared his teeth, and left.
---
Those same tickets were tucked into the pocket of Levi's tuxedo pants this afternoon. It was a good day. After all the shitty luck they'd had trying to get to prom, this was the kind of day Levi wanted it to be; seventy five degrees and breezy, warm but not too warm, sunny but not too sunny, breezy but not enough to messy up anyone's hair (except for Eren's, but it was perpetually messed up, anyways). He'd teased Eren about it when he picked the other male up; his mother had lamented the rat's nest that was her son's hair as she took a few pictures of the pair of them together, and then Levi had felt his palms get a little clammy with his next task. Nerves of steel or not, he'd spent a while picking out this next part, and...
"I don't know how to pin yours on." Eren blurted as he held out a boutonniere towards Levi. Levi hadn't even noticed him pick it up; Eren could be sneaky, occasionally, at least. In the plastic container was a green arrangement of flowers, tied with a white ribbon. Levi's breath caught, and he couldn't help but huff softly with laughter, pulling a boutonniere of his own picking for Eren from behind his back. Baby's breath with a green ribbon tied around the stems. The exact opposite of what Eren had gotten him, really.
"This is great." The younger of the two gushed as Levi pulled it out of the container, pinning it to the other male's lapel with ease. Even if he hadn't necessarily been to prom before, he knew how to pin it, but Eren on the other hand...
"If you stick me, I'll kill you."
"I'm too handsome right now to kill!"
"... Touche. Don't push it."
"I kinda have to push it to get it to stay on."
"I'll kill you."
Eren snorted, breath ghosting hot across Levi's face, and the shorter male shook his head with indulgent exasperation.
"Boys, you'll be late to Armin's for pictures if you don't hurry up!"
Levi wished that Mrs. Jaeger would have captured a picture of Eren's grin as he nearly sprinted to the car with excitement.
---
Pictures were at Armin's because of his grandfather's garden. Beautiful, well-kept, and a bit eclectic, it was a place where taking pictures for prom just seemed appropriate. Hanji was behind the scenes on this one; she hated having her picture taken, despite the fact that she was in their group - she hadn't convinced her underclassman friend to come with them, although she insisted she had begged, bribed, and pleaded, and so she was the solo one in their group.
"Erwin, Armin, the height difference between you two is incredible! Erwin is just a giant, looming over you, and Armin is a petite little croissant---"
"Hanji, shut up."
"A c-croissant?!"
Eren laughed so hard that he had to clutch his sides from falling over, not for the first time that night, and definitely not the last. In fact, it happened only a few moments later, when Hanji teased Levi for not being able to smile properly in pictures. Levi, puffing up like an insulted cat, had quickly assured Hanji that he could smile, he just didn't want to. She'd giggled and taken a few more pictures of Levi pointing angrily at her and Eren laughing. Secretly, Levi hoped they turned out.
(Eren had also lost it when Erwin decided that carrying Armin bridal style would be a better way to get a picture. Sure, it had decreased the height difference, but Levi wasn't entirely sure if Hanji would be able to edit out the redness of Armin's face. Eren insisted that the picture go on Armin's phone background when Hanji gave it to them, through his tears of laughter, and Erwin hadn't exactly looked like he thought that was a bad idea.)
---
Dinner was an ordeal between the five of them, primarily because of Hanji. They ate at a small Italian restaurant; Levi thought the food was pretty good, but the conversation was annoying. He wouldn't admit that it was good until much later - that he liked the way Eren's eyes lit up when Hanji asked him about his art, the way he threw himself into conversations and almost everything with gusto. Erwin and Armin sat closer than they had just a week before when Erwin had asked Armin to prom; Levi sent a knowing glance over the table at his best friend, and he received one, accompanied by a wink, in return.
Levi enjoyed himself, even though he had to tuck in a napkin over Eren's neckline to make sure he didn't get fucking spaghetti on his shirt. Five was a crowd for him, but this was a crowd of the good kind, even if the sparkles off of Hanji's dresses blinded him if the light hit them at the right angle.
---
Levi hadn't expected Eren to have a lot of rhythm. That was fine. It was stupidly endearing the way that Eren had to pause whenever the song changed to try and figure out how he was supposed to dance to the newest song; he didn't really know how to move his hips, but that was okay, because it made it even better for Levi when he pressed his back to Eren's and rolled against his hips teasingly. It was amusing to watch Eren try to do the stupid Cupid Shuffle, to watch him catch up his feet when they shifted on the stupid songs, and Levi just hadn't realized how much he liked Eren. God, he loved that boy. The stupid way he charged onto the dance floor when they arrived, how he put his best (even when it wasn't much) into every day, how he grinned wildly and hugged Levi and kissed him on the cheek with a flurry of activity when he got too excited.
When Erwin winked at him and wandered towards the DJ, Levi could only raise an eyebrow in anticipation.
He wasn't disappointed when the music changed over to a slow song, although he did feel a little awkward. Levi could grin all day long; it was sensual, easy, rhythmic. Sure, slow dancing was easy, too, but it was intimate, close quarters, and Levi was the feminine set of the slow dance because of his height. Erwin grinned like he'd caught the canary as he came back to the dance floor, grabbing the hand of a positively flushed Armin and smiling over his head at Levi.
Levi turned to Eren, who was standing puzzled over how he should dance to this song, and offered his hand.
"May I have this dance?"
Eren's red face was the umpteenth moment of the night where Levi wished he had a camera to get a permanent picture of it. Eren's mouth opened and closed a few times before he stammered out,
"D-did you really just say that? It was.. so polite.." Eren smiled, although the expression was a bit anxious.
"Dance with me, you little shit." Levi corrected himself after a clear of the throat, and then pulled Eren out to him, shifting Eren's hands to the appropriate positions. Eren was stiff, and Levi leaned into him, pressing his forehead against Eren's chest.
"It's easy. Count the beat gently. Shift your feet just a little bit, nothing fancy." Levi breathed the instructions quietly, and Eren's brow furrowed with concentration, but he fell into the rhythm with decent enough ease. Levi glanced up and pride flickered in his eyes; Eren beamed back down at him, the epitome of happiness. He couldn't believe he was here, dancing with Levi, at prom his freshman year - to say that he'd imagined this at the beginning of the year was impossible. To say that his incessant begging of the scary looking senior in the corner to help him with math during study hall would have ended up becoming the best thing to ever happen to him seemed improbable, made-up, impossible.
Eren knew it wasn't, and he basked in the realness of Levi beneath his hands, the gentle puffs of Levi's breaths, the way his brow had smoothed out in relaxation as he rest against his chest. He caught Armin's eyes as Erwin moved Armin through a faint spin, and the blonde grinned giddily at him.
He was so glad he'd gathered the courage to ask Levi to prom. It hadn't been easy, but it had been worth it.
---
The second slow dance, later in the night, wasn't as movie-esque as the first time.
Levi had been jokingly try to coax Eren into spinning him, trying to tell him to just "take the lead, you pansy", when he'd heard it. It hadn't been particularly loud, and it hadn't been to his face, but he'd heard it, even over the thrum of the music and the loud chatter of the students all around them on the dance floor.
"Jaeger's a faggot."
The shorter male had whipped his neck around so fast that he nearly gave himself whiplash.
"What the fuck did you just say?" Levi snapped, voice so sharp it cut into the muggy, hot air of the dance floor like a sharpened knife.
"I called your boyfriend a faggot." The boy repeated, chin stubbornly jutting out and held obnoxiously high, "You and that Erwin Smith and even that stupid-ass junior couple with the freckled guy in think you're so cute and hot shit, but you're unnatural and disgusting. Repulsive."
Levi felt like he was standing in front of the librarian again as he took a step towards the other male.
"Open your mouth and spew trash like that one more time about him and I'll ---" Levi didn't even get the chance to finish his heavy-handed threat when the boy interrupted him with another murmured slur. Before Levi even really thought it through all the way, he pulled his arm back and let his right fist fly, catching the male across the nose with a terribly satisfying crunch. The male staggered, and Levi was confident that he was going to get a one-hit KO on this one when the male he'd hit flailed a little bit, catching Levi across the jaw. He shifted his weight a little bit but managed not to stagger or fall.
Even in his constrictive tuxedo pants, Levi lifted one dress shoe, and connected the heel with another fulfilling hit to the boy's stomach, this time. He doubled over and fell to the ground, and Levi sneered, fully aware that the crowd around them had fallen silent, and that Eren had been pulling on his jacket sleeve for a solid two minutes.
Leaning over the curled-up male, Levi mumbled into his ear,
"Look who's repulsive now, you bigot."
Levi gave that broken nose one last gratifying twist before he turned back to Eren, who was staring at him with wide, concerned eyes.
"L-levi, your face!" He nearly shouted, voice flooded with worry, and Levi blinked a few times before he realized the throbbing in his jaw. Oh, so maybe that guy had hit him with more force than he thought... Reaching up, he touched his jaw gently, and flinched at the tenderness he felt there. There was a scrape, too; had the boy's nail caught him? He wasn't entirely sure.
"Let's head to the bathroom." Levi spoke gently, and Eren nodded, snatching up Levi's hand and taking the lead through the crowd. People stepped away to clear a path for them, and out of the corner of his eye, Erwin was standing with Armin, who looked frazzled beyond belief. Levi shrugged his shoulders and grinned, despite the fact that it only increased the pain in his cheek. Shit, he must've been pretty riled up to let someone hit him, he was usually fast enough to escape that kind of retaliation.
From the cheers that the boy with the two-toned hair, standing next to a freckled guy, Levi was reassured once more that what he'd done was right.
---
"Sit!"
"Eren, I got punched, not run over by a train."
"Sit!"
Levi rolled his eyes as he sat down on the bench in the bathroom near the sink. Eren was currently wetting a paper towel, and when he'd finished, he came over and dabbed at the scratch on Levi's cheek tenderly. Levi shuddered, considering the fact that the paper towel was probably not clean, even it was new, but let it slide. Eren, however, took the movement as one of pain, and his eyes widened even more than they had before, as if his eyes weren't already as big as the solar system already.
"Levi, you scared me so much... Why did you..?"
Ah, so he hadn't heard. Levi didn't want him to know, and he was tempted to lie, but Eren beat him to the truth,
"He said something about us, didn't he?"
Levi paused. That wasn't entirely true. He sighed, leaning into Eren's hand a little bit, and furrowed his brow slightly. He wanted Eren to see the world through a happier viewpoint than Levi did; he was negative enough as it was, and he didn't want it rubbing off onto Eren, but he also knew that Eren didn't deserve to be lied to.
"He called you a faggot." He watched Eren's mouth fall open slightly, the flash of hurt, and Levi was about ready to give him the talk about how being gay was nothing to be ashamed of, how Eren was nothing to be ashamed of, and Levi would do it again in a heartbeat if it meant teaching close-minded idiots like that they're place, when Eren spoke up instead.
"Y-you did that for me?" Eren asked, hopeful and gentle and exuberant all at once. Levi nodded, and Eren's face seemed to light up from the inside, even as he shook as head in what might have looked like scolding to anyone else. He leaned in and pressed a kiss to the blooming bruise on Levi's cheek, and before Levi could stop himself, he turned his head and captured Eren's lips gently with his own.
Eren was surprised at first, but then kissed him back gently. It was a chaste, comforting, emotional kiss that said more than Levi thought he'd be able to, especially considering he was never good with words, but he said something, anyways,
"I did it because I love you," He paused, "... idiot."
Eren was shocked for five seconds, and then so happy it hurt. His eyes radiated with some sort of internal magic; his body language screamed joy, and he leaned in this time to initiate the kiss himself, pressing a brief peck to Levi's lips.
"I love you too, Levi."