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Eren jolted awake in the middle of the night. He’d just woken from a series of nightmares and decided that going back to sleep was not an option. A glance at his phone revealed that it was only 1:30am. With any luck, one of Eren’s flat mates was still awake and would be able to provide some much needed distraction.
Levi was in the middle of his midnight cleaning routine, when he heard a sharp yell from one of the bedrooms, either Zeke’s or Eren’s. For a second, the thought of checking on them crossed his mind, but a) he hadn’t really gotten to know them well enough since moving in two weeks ago, and b) he didn’t really give a fuck. So, with no consecutive worrying sounds appearing, he resumed to clean every nook and cranny of the filthy kitchen.
It was a good thing that both Eren and Zeke had such different schedules to Levi’s, since that meant Levi could do his household chores in peace when no one else was awake. He wasn’t really sure what Annie’s schedule was like, but she was rarely home anyway. Levi had just started cleaning the toaster, when he heard one of the bedroom doors open and heavy feet scuffling about, the sound nearing the kitchen. That meant only one thing, he thought. The pleasant part of his night had been over. Under his breath, he cursed Hanji for persuading him to move into a shared flat, but if he was completely honest, he knew it was the only option with the state of finances he was currently in.
Eren was surprised to see the lights on when he walked up to the kitchen. Who would be awake at this hour? Was it the new roommate perhaps? Levi, that’s his name, Erens sleepy brain provided. Maybe this was a good opportunity to get to know the guy better. They had barely spoken three sentences since Levi had moved in a couple weeks ago.
Entering the kitchen, Eren was even more surprised to see Levi standing there all dressed up, with an apron and cleaning gloves on. Even his hair had been tied back with a bandana. Was he cleaning at this time of night? Eren said hey and took a seat at the kitchen table.
“Hey yourself,” Levi answered with a raised eyebrow and continued on with his task.
“I had a nightmare,” Eren provided, one hand moving up into his neck to scratch the tingling away.
“I heard,” Levi replied. “Why didn’t you go back to sleep?”
“I would have, if I wasn’t as awake as an angry sea lion.”
Levi involuntarily chuckled at the randomness of that comment. Eren noticed and smiled. He blamed it on half of his brain still being asleep.
“So that was the sound I heard earlier,” Levi teased. “What the hell was so terrifying that turned you into a yelping sea mammal?”
"I don’t know. All I remember is that I was looking for the coconut and forgot about what happened after,” Eren admitted.
How odd, Levi thought to himself, but didn’t bother saying that out loud.
“I have a question, too,” the kid said, “why are you cleaning at half two in the morning?”
Levi allowed himself a moment to think about answering truthfully or sarcastically. Shrugging, he decided that half two was a time for truths to be spoken. “Calms me down after my late shift.”
“What was your work again? Zeke told me but my sea mammal brain only ever remembers half of what goes in.”
“Now that’s an insult, sea mammals are actually quite smart. Probably twice as smart as you.”
“Hey!” Eren protested, whereas Levi only shrugged.
“I’m a crime scene cleaner.”
“I can see how that shoe fits,” Eren replied, nodding over to the stove that had been a mess from Zeke’s cooking just hours before and was now spotless thanks to Levi’s efforts.
He didn’t know why, but that short conversation hadn’t bothered Levi as much as he thought it would. It was actually quite entertaining to talk with Zeke’s younger brother, even though (or precisely because) most of the things coming out of the kid’s mouth were random bullshit.
“Were there any leftovers? I’m kinda hungry,” Eren put a hand to his growling stomach.
“Got an appetite like a sea lion, too, huh?” Levi teased. “Zeke left nothing but some sorry-ass excuse of tomato sauce. I discarded it.”
“Ah damn. Sometimes snacking helps me go back to sleep faster.”
Levi sensed his chance to get rid of the kid. “However, I grabbed some Chinese on my way home, and there’s still some orange chicken left. Yours if you want it.” Levi grabbed the plastic bag from Xiang-Shan’s from the counter and placed it on the dining table.
“Thanks,” Eren replied, took the unused chopsticks out of the plastic bag the food came in and soon munched on the dish that was still in its takeaway container. While Levi continued to clean, Eren made annoyingly loud chewing sounds that made Levi want to crawl up the walls. Fucking brat, the older one thought.
Just as Levi wanted to scold the kid for chewing too loudly, a piece of chicken slid out of Eren’s chopsticks and landed on the floor with a thud. Levi stepped closer to clean it up, but then Eren did something that made Levi’s skin crawl.
“Three-second-rule!” He exclaimed, bowed down, picked up the piece of chicken that had touched the filthy floor and shoved it into his mouth without a second thought.
“Oh fuck no,” Levi yelled in horror, “that’s disgusting!”
He turned around and some choking noises escaped from his throat. It took a minute for him to regain posture.
“For fucks sake, brat, never make me witness something like that ever again, or I swear to god I’ll be the one giving you nightmares!”
Eren was dumbfounded. “Let me get this straight. You clean crime scenes for a living and that made you squirmy?”
“Oh trust me, crime scenes aren’t nearly as revolting as what you just did,” Levi spat out. “I feel like I need to go wash out my own mouth with bleach.” He shuddered and quickly moved on to cleaning the sink in order to have something else to focus on.
Eren chuckled and resumed eating the rest of the food, glancing over to Levi once in a while. There was something about this guy that Eren liked. Sure, he had a constant scowl and was kind of weird, but he was also unapologetically himself and direct. Qualities Eren appreciated in people.
Once Eren had finished, he grabbed the two fortune cookies that were left in the plastic bag.
“Hey Levi. Wanna know your fortune?”
“Not really, unless it says you are finally going back to your room to let me clean in peace,” he answered truthfully.
“Oh come on. It’ll be fun!”
“Fine,” Levi rolled his eyes, “just get it over with.”
“Me first.” Eren opened one of the two fortune cookies. “Failure is a chance to do better next time,” he read.
Levi snorted. “Spot on for you tonight,” he reviewed.
“Fuck off,” Eren said playfully, “let’s see what yours says, then… You will stumble into the happiness of your life.”
“Deep fucking shit,” Levi commented. Having finished cleaning all the surfaces, he grabbed the bucket and mop. He hadn’t originally planned to do the floor tonight as well, but Eren’s actions and the accompanying sticky spot on the floor left him no choice.
"It's trying its best, don't hate on the fortune cookie!”
“I’m pretty sure it won’t give a shit. Not like there’s a fortunate cookie god watching over us.”
“Excuse me? His lordship is unwavering,” Eren said with a straight face. “May the crumbliness and preservatives last forever in his blissful aura.”
“You’re a weird one, brat,” Levi concluded, unaware of the corners of his mouth twitching upwards.
“So people tell me. Thanks for the food,” Eren scrambled up from his chair, grabbing the empty food container and plastic to throw it away.
“Don’t mention it,” Levi muttered, resuming to mop the floor.
The kitchen was a small space, so Eren tried to squeeze through the bottleneck of a mopping Levi and the kitchen table. He would have succeeded, hadn’t Levi decided to swing the mop around that very second. Eren’s feet stumbled over the mop’s head and he lost his balance. Only having one free hand, Eren grabbed the nearest thing available, which happened to be Levi’s shirt. Everything happened so fast that neither one of them had time to react, and a moment later they crashed to the kitchen floor with Levi landing on top of Eren; their faces inches apart.
The crime scene cleaner couldn’t remember the last time he was this close to another human being, and there Eren was below him, looking at him with these big bright turquoise irises. The split-second they flickered to Levi’s mouth transformed the space between them into a magnetic field.
“Three-second-rule?” Eren nudged Levi’s nose with his own before meeting his lips halfway, two and a half seconds later.