Chapter Text
"Is that all for today?" Levi mumbled tiredly, typing the customer's order onto the screen.
"Nah, I'll have a drink... um... can I have a diet water?"
Levi wasn't sure if his exhaustion was taking a tole on his hearing or if the stunningly handsome brunet before him really asked him that. "A what?"
"A diet water? Trying to cut down on all the junk food, you know?"
Levi reviewed his order of an entire box of donuts and three cinnamon muffins. "With an order like that, it doesn't seem like it."
The stranger shrugged. "Hey, one step at a time, right?" He laughed.
It was a pretty pathetic step, but Levi couldn't exactly argue. "Um... well, diet water doesn't exist... I'm pretty sure. I don't think you can even get better than plain water."
"No, it exists. I've seen it." The man said nonchalantly.
Levi just stared at him. "... Right. Is that all for today?"
"Uh..." The man took a ridiculously long moment to think over his answer, pulling a face of frustration as if it was a hard question. "Yeah. Wait- no, yeah, I'm good."
Levi finished calculating the total before anything else could be added on. "Okay, your total is $14.56."
The man brought up his leg, hopping on one foot and pulled a credit card out of his shoe. "Lost my wallet," was the only explanation he gave.
Levi grimaced, accepting the card reluctantly, glancing at the name 'Eren,' and sliding it through. "Don't you have pockets you could put this in?"
Eren looked at him blankly. "... That's a good idea."
Levi handed him his card back and fetched him everything he ordered. And soon, the stranger was out the door with his donuts and regular water. Levi just stared in his wake trying to figure out how someone could be that... clueless.
His manager, Hanji, stepped up behind him, having witnessed the exchange. "He's so stupid, it's almost endearing."
"Don't call him stupid."
"He asked for a fucking diet water, Levi. You can't get much more stupid than that."
"What I wanna know is where the hell he supposedly saw one before," Levi mumbled.
~
Levi stared back at the customer who'd recently become a regular, absolutely perplexed. "You... you want... we don't sell ice cream."
Eren snorted, rolling his eyes. "Then how do you make your smoothies?"
"... We just use fruit blends, ice, and cream."
"Okay, then can't you just put the ice and the cream together?" Eren asked as if it was the obvious solution.
"That's not how that works." Levi could hear his coworkers stifling their laughter behind him. "Do you want a smoothie?"
"No, I asked for ice cream. I can wait, I'm not in a hurry." Eren wasn't being rude or demanding, just... really clueless.
Levi had to do something, this man couldn't be argued with. He had no idea why he made the decision he did, but he chose to go the difficult route for him. "Okay, that'll be five dollars."
Eren gladly handed over the money and Levi excused himself to get his order. He went in the back to find Hanji, and after locating them, he sighed frustratedly. "Here's five bucks, please go to the convenience store next door and get an ice cream, any ice cream."
Hanji scoffed at him. "Get your own ice cream on your own time."
"Eren ordered it and he really wants it."
Hanji groaned. "He's back?"
"Of course he is, he's been coming here for weeks. Please do this for me."
Hanji rubbed their temples. "Fine. Whatever. As long as he doesn't make a scene."
Levi helped other customers while Eren waited patiently by the side after being told that they were 'checking the back.' Hanji came around ten minutes later, walking behind Levi and discreetly handing him a small tub of ice cream. Levi pretended to fetch it from the other room and came back to hand it to Eren. "Here's your ice cream."
"Awesome! Dude, thank you so much. It's even my favorite flavor," Eren beamed. He looked up at Levi, reaching into his pocket and giving him a few bills. "This is like the best customer service I've ever gotten. Usually people just tell me to get out if they think they don't have something I ordered."
Levi waved his hands dismissively at the money. "Um, we're really not supposed to accept tips directly—"
"But you deserve it! You work so hard and you got me my favorite flavor, go ahead, take it!"
Levi checked around to be sure his boss wasn't near and hesitantly took the money. They were supposed accept tips in the jar then split them at the end of the day. "You really don't have to do that."
Eren shrugged. "I know. And you don't have to be nice to me, but you are."
Levi neglected to tell him that forcing himself to be nice was part of the job. But he did have extra patience with him. He wasn't sure why.
"I love it here, I'm gonna come here everyday."
Levi didn't know if he was annoyed or happy to hear that.
~
Sure enough, Eren came everyday for the next two weeks. And every day it was some new hurdle with him. One day, he needed to break a hundred just to buy a water, which made Levi wonder how he even got that bill. Another day, he asked for every drink on the menu, reasoning that he wanted to know which one was his favorite. And the most irritating by far, he paid for a twenty dollar order in change. As bizarre as all the employees found him, they were also amused at his antics. They'd all place bets to see what weird request or action he'd make.
And Levi was always on the receiving end. Even when the line was longer for his register, Eren jumped in that line, having a preference for Levi over the other employees, though he could never understand why. But he wasn't complaining either.
Then, one day, Eren came in a little later during a particularly busy part of the day. The line for both registers was ridiculously long, but he waited anyways.
Levi was beyond stressed with so many orders coming in so fast, each one being different and annoyingly specific. He'd gotten several orders wrong by now, but luckily no one was throwing a fit yet. He hated Saturdays.
The line kept getting longer, people were endlessly impatient, but fortunately not rude. Everyone had somewhere to be or was on a strict schedule. Eren just lingered in the line, vaguely swaying and waiting to get up to Levi.
Then there was only one person ahead of him, making him even more eager to speak to Levi. And even though Levi was taking a little longer with this customer than everyone before him, he wasn't bothered.
Eren could see the bags under his eyes and how frustrated he was getting, typing then retyping the order several times. The customer checked his watch every few seconds, huffing out agitated breath needlessly loud, specifically so Levi would hear.
"I've got places to be, you know?" The customer grumbled.
"I'm sorry, we're a bit backed up today," Levi said in a rehearsed tone, having said it multiple times to other people.
The customer sighed in annoyance, rolling his eyes. Levi finished recording his order and started rushing around to get together the man's donuts and coffee. With noise coming from all directions, he couldn't help but get distracted as he worked, but he went as fast as he could to get the line moving.
"Here you go, sir," Levi said, setting everything down before the customer.
The man didn't even thank him. He just took his things, checking the bag of donuts and looked up exasperatedly at Levi. "This is not what I ordered."
Levi checked the receipt and briefly looked into the bag, realizing his error. "I'm sorry sir, I'll get you your order. Just one minute—"
"Are you kidding me?" The man groaned. "This is ridiculous, do you have any idea how long I've been waiting here? I don't have time for this!"
"I'm sorry," Levi repeated for what felt like the millionth time. "I'll go get what you ordered now."
Levi left and the customer was only getting more annoyed by the second. When Levi took a little longer than he had when he first tried to retrieve the order, his mind too jumbled after the long day, the man muttered under his breath, "Jesus Christ." Eren didn't think the man had the right to be so rude. Of course he understood the stranger had somewhere to be, but Levi was doing all he could.
Levi brought back a bag, handing it over. "Here you go, I'm so sorry about the wait—"
"What the hell, do you want me to be late?"
"Sir—"
"How many times does it take for you to get an order right? I should be on the road right now, I should've had my order the first time."
"Calm down, he's doing his best," Eren said.
Both Levi and the customer looked back at him in surprise. Levi didn't have time to thank him or acknowledge his comment, he just needed to get that man out of there. So he excused himself and went to retrieve the order again. The man scanned him skeptically, but turned back around without a word.
The stranger shook his head. "This is not good. You'd be fired by now if you were working for me."
"So, I'm guessing you don't let the people who work for you make little mistakes?" Eren questioned. "You must always be short staffed. Or have no one to work for you at all."
Levi smirked, overhearing Eren while trying to get the food together. He couldn't talk to a customer like that, but another customer sure as hell could.
The man faced Eren. "I'm sorry, but haven't you seen how many times he's gotten my order wrong? This shouldn't be acceptable."
"Yeah, well... considering your nasty attitude I can see why anyone would take so long. Just give him a break, he's working hard and the world doesn't revolve around you, you can wait a couple more minutes."
"I'm going to be late for my job if this keeps up. Are you saying there isn't a problem with that?"
Eren frowned, looking down at him. "There are worse things that can happen. We're all late sometimes, you'll live."
The man started fuming. "Forget it!" He shouted at Levi, taking his drink and walking out the door.
Eren shuffled forward, beaming at Levi.
"If he'd waited two more seconds, he'd have his food," Levi said, holding up the bag. "Do you want this? He already paid for it."
"Sure, I'll take it."
Levi let out a sigh, absolutely exhausted. "Thank you for sticking up for me. What can I get for you today, Eren?"
"It wasn't a problem. And just a water. I already have that guys food."
"That's all?"
"Yup."
"Bless you," Levi said, walking to get a bottled water out of the fridge. That was the simplest order he had all day.
Eren paid with a few bills. "Keep the change." He offered Levi another warm smile and went to leave.
Levi tended to the next customer. Had he not been busy, he would've noticed Eren stop at the door, contemplating something, then deciding on getting back in line.
It took a decent amount of time before Eren got back to the front, especially since he kept letting new customers get in front of him. But by the time he got back to the front, the rush was over and he was the last one in line.
"Finally decide on getting something else?" Levi asked.
Eren shook his head, reaching into his pocket, taking out a ten dollar bill. "Nah, it's just... you had a real rough day, with so many customers and especially after that one guy. You don't deserve to be treated like that, so here." He placed the bill on the counter. "You deserve a nice tip."
Levi shook his head. "Eren, that's really kind of you, but you don't need to do that. We get a lot of customers like that, it's fine."
"All the more reason to give it to you, you guys shouldn't have to put up with rude people," Eren reasoned. "Besides, you're like... my favorite employee, you work so hard and you're always so nice to me."
No one really talked to Levi like that. He couldn't understand the man very well, but one thing he did understand was that he was genuine and honest. This guy was just so weird, and even though his antics could be a pain, he got excited seeing him walk through the door everyday.
Levi couldn't believe he was gonna do this, he could get in trouble if the wrong coworker found out. He eyed his coworker dealing with two customers beside them and just thought 'fuck it.'
"How about this?" Levi prompted, handing the bill back to Eren. "You keep this..." He then took a scrap piece of receipt paper and wrote on the back of it, sliding it across the counter. "And you take this."
Eren picked up the paper, studying it. "... What is this?"
Levi looked tiredly back at him. Eren would be the death of him. "... That would be my number."
Eren nodded. "Oh... Oh!" He looked up delightedly, a light blush spreading across his cheeks. "This... this is for—"
"Yeah."
"Wow... thank you- I mean... you know," Eren chuckled.
Levi nodded. "I know."
Eren stumbled over a few more words that sorta made sense as he left. Levi just shook his head after he went out the door. "What an idiot."
~
Levi's chest felt heavy. Eren hadn't shown up in two days and he hadn't contacted him at all. He was showing up everyday for weeks, perhaps he scared him off by giving him his number. He hoped that wasn't the case.
Hanji finished helping a customer and sighed. "Slow day, huh?"
"Guess so," Levi mumbled.
"Are you bummed because he hasn't showed up?"
Levi shrugged.
"Levi, it's storming out, maybe he just doesn't wanna come out in this weather."
"He didn't show up yesterday either."
"That doesn't mean anything, he comes here everyday. He's gotta skip sometime. Maybe he's out of town, or it was his mother's birthday or something."
Levi didn't mention that he'd given him his number, and he couldn't help but think he was the reason Eren hadn't come in.
"If he doesn't come in again, it's probably for the best," Hanji added. "Yeah, he gave us a laugh, but damn, did he add a level of chaos to the work environment."
Levi didn't want to hear that, he wanted Eren to always come in.
It was like the universe was listening to his thoughts, because right then, a drenched Eren came walking through the door, his teeth chattering, and walked right up to the counter. It would've been comical to see him so soaking wet if it weren't for the fact he looked so crestfallen.
Levi stared at him wide eyed. "Ere—?"
"Levi, I lost it. I'm so sorry!"
Levi and Hanji watched him, both baffled. "Wait, lost what?" Levi asked.
Eren sniffled. "Your number! I put it in my pocket, and then I washed my jeans, and I was looking for it everywhere, and I couldn't find it, then I found it in my pocket, but it was all wrinkly, and the letters were smudged—" Levi noted that he meant numbers but didn't say anything. "— and I called like 17 people because I thought I could make out what it said, but I couldn't and... and... can I have your number again?" He held up a rose, trying to hand it to Levi. He looked at it and cringed, seeing all the petals demolished, some barely hanging on. "Sorry, uh... the rain kinda messed up the flower."
Levi stared, his mouth hanging open. He couldn't believe this moron was so sweet and committed enough (and stupid enough) to go out in the terrible storm just to give him a rose and ask for his number again. Who could be heartless enough to say 'no' to this guy?
Levi gently took the rose, wincing when a petal fell off. "Eren, don't worry about it, and of course you can have it, just a sec." He glanced at Hanji, hoping they weren't going to scold him for interacting with a customer like this, but they just looked entertained. He scribbled down his number and handed it to Eren.
Eren grinned widely, his teeth still chattering. "Thank you, and... could I get a hot chocolate? I'm freezing."
Levi typed up his order. "Eren, you can have anything you want."
Levi took care of Eren's order and watched that poor sucker leave, walking straight back into the pouring rain. He smiled down at his rose, then turned to face Hanji, who had a shit-eating grin. "Don't say anyth—"
"So you got a thing for stupid guys, hu—?"
"Leave me alone!"