Work Text:
Eren Jaegar hated his job with a burning passion that rivaled a thousand million suns. He hated it so much, in fact, that after receiving a blessed call from the hands of God himself (or just a higher ranked company with better pay and added dental), he decided that quitting was too easy. His boss was a dick and after five years of slaving over ridiculous piles of paperwork Eren was just fucking done.
He knew he was being dumb when he stayed late to ‘get a head start on his new stack of authorizations’ but he was quitting tomorrow and by then the point would be moot. So he sat at his desk giggling manically to himself while the janitor eye-balled him suspiciously, not caring enough to actually do anything about it. He finished sweeping the boss’s office and hunched over his little cart of cleaning supplies, leaving through the double glass doors.
This was really uncharacteristic of Eren, but he was high on life and maybe a bit of pot the guy sitting next to him on the subway had been smoking.
He slinked around the corner, in spite of the knowledge that the floor was empty. He didn’t care. He felt like some kind of protagonist that spent his whole life fighting giant human-eating monsters in order to escape from the metaphorical walls he’d been trapped inside for his entire pitiful existence.
Or maybe that was the pot speaking.
His great master plan wasn’t that great and masterful when he stood holding a lukewarm gallon of coffee over the man’s desk. He had been incredibly spiteful at the time, spiteful to the point that every coffee run his boss had ever sent him on deserved some form of atonement. He wasn’t some dumbass college intern that needed to be bossed around.
It was a ridiculous amount of liquid caffeine he was holding in an old plastic milk jug, but the load became lighter as he accidentally dropped it mid internal struggle over whether he should actually dump the thing. The coffee seemed to solve the problem for him as it spread itself over some important looking paperwork. Eren made a grab for the carton, only succeeding in knocking it further around the desk. It was funny, in a weird way, and even though it was stupid it made Eren feel better somehow. His hands were sticky and disgusting, but his heart felt cleaner. Jean probably would have punched him in the face for that metaphor but Jean was an asshole so he probably would have punched him the face anyway.
Once the job was done, there was enough coffee left to fill a small mug so he poured it in a styrofoam cup and cradled it close to his chest as he made his way out of the building with a suspicious eye on his surroundings. He was an assassin creeping out into the dark of night. An assassin who realized he forgot his car keys on his desk. He spun around right back into the lobby and with an apologetic nod at the security guard, he headed back towards the staircase dejectedly. The elevators weren’t on this late at night in order to conserve power. A good idea that became the equivalent of cranky Eren.
He pressed both hands against the door a pushed. It seemed harder to open than it had before, so he threw his weight against it a little to swing it in.
“What the fuck.”
Eren looked at the security guard. The man hadn’t said a word.
“Oh my God.” Eren whispered as he jumped back from the door as if it had been doused in lava. “Shit.”
He stared in fear as the door slowly opened. And revealed within was an angry, wet, small man with a blossoming welt on his forehead. Eren would have thought the sight comical if his collar wasn’t being viciously ensnared by the angry, wet, small man’s hand and if the breath hadn’t flown right out of his lungs as his back made friends with a concrete wall. The most furious face he had ever seen in his entire life moved right up next to his.
“What the fuck.”
Eren wasn’t sure how to respond to this, despite all of his infinite knowledge that he believed he had, but apparently his mouth wanted to anyway. He was an idiot, but he was clever enough not to say anything rude or insincere like, “You look like a drowning cat.”
Except Eren wasn’t clever at all so those were the exact words that came out of his mouth.
The other man ruffled his fur and seemed as if he was deciding whether or not to get any angrier. Eren hoped for not, since he really wasn’t in the mood to get the shit beaten out of him by a midget when he was in such high spirits. Thankfully he regained his personal space as short and slanty eyes backed off. His grip loosened on the cup of cold coffee he had miraculously been able to save.
Eren didn’t realize how tense he was until he was finally able to breathe again.
“Hey thanks. And I’m really-”
Eren was stopped mid-sentence as a curled fist slammed into his stomach, none too lightly, might he add. Another hand fisted in his shoulder but immediately released as Eren slumped closer to the ground.
“That was for you hitting me with the fucking door, you shitty brat.”
“Shitty… brat?” Eren gasped out as he clutched his tummy defensively. His attacker was hovering impassively over him with his arms crossed casually, not even caring that Eren was currently trying not to vomit up the chicken salad he’d stolen from the company fridge not but an hour ago. “I’m… twenty-three asshole.”
He looked up just in time to catch the end of a surprised smirk.
“I’m twenty-eight which means I’m your elder.” Eren watched as he stooped down low to pick up a suit jacket lying crumpled on the floor that Eren hadn’t even noticed was there. As his breathing even out, he saw that the other man was in fact, soaked to the bone with what appeared to be, ironically enough, coffee. “You should respect your elders.”
With that, he grabbed his own discarded cup and exited the stairwell, leaving Eren slightly breathless and a tad bit guilty. He stared at the ground, unconsciously rubbing small circles against his abdomen. Eren wasn’t completely sure as to exactly what had happened just now, and it already felt like a fading dream. As he crouched there against the cold concrete wall, he realized two things.
He still needed to get his goddamn car keys.
The second was that he didn’t even know that angry small guy’s name, which he was beginning to understand he really wanted to know.
Eren stood up abruptly, a bit too abruptly as a small wave of nausea hit him, but he was fine. Eren pushed open the door just in time to see the man he accidentally drowned in caffeine about to exit the building. Eren briefly considered how bad that security guard was at his job before he called out.
“Hey wait!”
The man had his right hand locked onto the handle of yet another glass door. There were a ridiculous amount of those in this building, but that didn’t particularly matter as a pair of relatively emotionless dark eyes turned towards him in the most passive way he had ever seen.
“What do you want? Was hitting me with a solid block of metal not enough for you?”
“Um, no. But yeah I’m pretty sorry about that.” Eren rubbed the back of his neck. “And it wasn’t metal it was wood.” The man’s lips twitched.
“I suppose I over exaggerated a little-“
“What’s your name?” Eren said a bit forcefully. Slanty eyes looked a bit taken aback, but Eren was tired of referring to him as ‘slanty eyes’ and ‘midget’ so.
“It’s Levi.”
“Hi Levi.” Levi narrowed his eyes at Eren. “Oh yeah, my name’s Eren. Nice to meet you.”
“Well I wouldn’t go so far as to describe it as nice, since you did basically just assault me.” Eren blanched.
“Are you going to hold that over me? I did apologize.”
“I could sue for shit like that.” Eren could not tell at all if Levi was joking. He didn’t have enough money for him to not be joking, if he was being honest with himself.
“Well that is completely unnecessary and I would appreciate it if, uh…” He trailed off as Levi gave him the most incredulous look he’d ever seen.
“I was kidding, dumbass.”
“I know.”
“Liar.”
“You work here right?”
“Why the hell else would I be here at night?”
“You could be attempting to sabotage the company with an incredibly intricate well thought out plan of destruction.”
“I’m surprised you know words that big.”
“I came in second place in my middle school spelling bee.”
“Am I supposed to be impressed by this?”
“Yes. It is my greatest accomplishment.”
“That is one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard.” Eren laughed at that. Levi smirked.
Eren glanced at Levi and felt a pang of guilt hit him again when he saw Levi’s poor shirt stained a vicious brown. Eren looked down at the coffee in his hands and back up at Levi, who was watching him expectantly.
“Hey I’m sorry again-“
“Quit apologizing. You sound like a broken record.” Levi shifted his jacket to his other arm. “Besides, I’m over it.”
“Okay well that’s good.” Eren tapped his right shoe against the ground. “Do you want this in your fallen comrade’s stead?” He held out the cup of ice cold coffee towards Levi, who wrinkled his nose in distaste.
“No thank you. That looks absolutely disgusting.” Eren frowned at him and retracted his arm childishly.
“Fine then. Have it your way.”
“… I wouldn’t be against you buying me a new one though.” Eren snapped his head at Levi, who was gazing at him steadily. When their eyes met, Levi smirked again. He seemed to be fond of doing that. “You’d be driving of course.”
“Oh fuck that’s right.”
“What is it?” Eren grimaced.
“I left my keys up on the fifteenth floor.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
Eren glanced at Levi before sighing.
“I’ll go run up and get them if you don’t mind waiting.”
“I do, actually.”
Eren once again was at a loss as to if Levi was actually being serious or not. So instead of having an internal argument over whether or not he was joking, Eren marched up to Levi, placed his hands on his shoulders, and looked right into his eyebrows.
“I swear I will be back in ten minutes and I will buy you a new coffee.”
“Are you staring at my eyebrows.”
“Maybe.”
With that, Eren turned on his heel and sprinted over to the staircase. As he slid inside, he could feel Levi’s eyes boring into his back.
Eren had been staring at Levi’s eyebrows. This was in part to a fear of being reprimanded for getting too close and the fact that if he had looked into Levi’s eyes, he might not have been able to look away.
Eren made it to the fifteenth floor a tad bit sweatier than when he had been in the lobby, but he was eager to get back down just in case Levi decided he didn’t actually want to wait. He’d almost forgotten completely about what he had even been doing there in the first place, but a sharp reminder came in the form of his keys resting in a damp, coffee-scented piece of carpet. Eren grabbed the keys, taking a moment to contemplate his stupidity before darting back down the way he’d come.
He hadn’t known Levi for more than twenty minutes, but he decided that he really wanted to get to know him better. After that, he wasn’t sure.
It was this thought that made the crushing disappointment of Levi not being there waiting for him even greater. Eren clutched the key ring in his hand tighter. Now he was a bit pissed off even though Levi had every right to leave if he didn’t actually want to get coffee with Eren. That didn’t make the displeasure at not seeing him there any less, however.
The security guard glanced up from his magazine long enough to give Eren a knowing smirk before he exited the building. It doesn’t need to be said that Eren didn’t appreciate it.
The cool night air was soothing to both his heated skin and his troubled mind.
It wasn’t a big deal. It’s not like Levi was important to him or anything. The man was a complete stranger. If they’d known each other for a few years, it would have been a different story. But they didn’t so it was no huge loss.
That was what he told himself.
Eren tossed his car keys up in the air and snatched them out again with a deep sigh. He shoved his free hand in his pocket. Eren was about to head to the parking lot when a voice called out to him.
“Where do you think you’re going shithead?”
Eren stopped in his tracks.
“Levi?”
“Who else?”
Eren turned around to see Levi approaching him steadily from where he’d been leaning against the wall. He was flicking a small metal box open and closed.
“Is that a lighter?” Eren asked curiously. Levi looked down at his hand. He shoved said lighter in his pocket.
“Yes it is.”
“Do you smoke?”
“I’m trying to quit.” Levi patted the place where the lighter was currently residing wistfully. “I’ve been trying to drink coffee instead. They’re both horrible addictions, but at least coffee doesn’t damage your lungs.”
“Good for you. It must take a lot of willpower to quit something as influential as that.” Levi glared at him.
“Yeah it does. And my willpower is currently failing me so let’s go get that coffee before I give myself lung cancer.” Eren laughed at that and took Levi’s following eye-narrow as incentive to get to the car.
Coffee was apparently Levi’s favorite flavor of absolutely anything, a sentiment of which Eren shared. But later that night he began to think that maybe the taste of Levi’s lips was just as amazing.