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Armin and Annie are engaged.
It’s not that Eren isn’t happy for them. Of course he is! Armin is his best friend, and Annie could probably kick his ass (she has that look in her eyes), but she seems like a sweet girl.
Cold, but sweet.
“Like a popsicle,” Eren mutters as he buries his face into his pillow.
Yes, Eren is happy. But he is also pissed.
Armin had met Annie three months ago. Three months! They moved in after one month only. Armin was gaga over her from the start, but Annie always seemed so unnervingly apathetic whenever they went on double dates. Which, granted, was just that one time. They agreed it should definitely never happen again after that.
“What did you just say?”
Eren feels a hand brush through his hair (whether its intent is to comb or to soothe, he’s never sure, but it feels nice either way).
“Armin and Annie got engaged yesterday,” Eren proclaims as he turns his face to the left so that his voice is no longer muffled. He raises his eyes to gaze at the man in bed next to him.
Levi never has bedhead. Eren wonders bitterly if it’s a superpower or something. His silky, ink black undercut is always neatly in place, even after the…roughest of nights.
“Yippee,” Levi drawls unenthusiastically, letting out a small yawn in the process.
“Levi,” Eren scolds. Levi still hasn’t stopped carding his hand through Eren’s hair, despite his reprimand.
His boyfriend snorts. “So why do you sound upset?”
“It’s just…” Eren begins, his voice trailing off as he frowns.
It’s just, Eren and Levi have been dating for seven years. It’s just, they met each other ten years ago, when Levi was hired as his high school math tutor.
It’s just, Eren really, really, really wants to get married to Levi, because he really, really, really loves him.
Even though he’s a grumpy asshole 87% of the time, Eren would do anything for him.
“You love me, right?” Eren asks softly, looking back at Levi with his brows slightly furrowed.
Something crosses Levi’s gaze, and he scoffs. “I wouldn’t live with you and deal with your mess if I didn’t love you, Eren.”
Eren knows half of that statement’s definitely a lie, because he’s been almost as much of a clean freak as Levi ever since they began officially dating. He takes Levi’s hand and regards him seriously with tired eyes.
“Levi. Are we going to get married? Ever?” He says, shifting his gaze so he isn’t disappointed by the expression that crosses Levi's face before he even says anything.
It’s silent for a moment. Eren's fingers dig into the bed sheets.
“Sure,” Levi says easily, as if Eren has just asked him if he wanted to watch CSI later. Eren whips his head around to look at Levi.
Levi hops out of bed all in one motion and walks out of the bedroom.
“Eggs or French toast?” He calls from the kitchen as Eren gapes after him.
- - -
It’s been a week. Eren hasn’t had the heart to mention their bedroom exchange again, even though it’s been killing him. What the hell had Levi’s reaction even meant?
Sure, Levi doesn’t really get angry unless it’s an emergency. He remembers the time he caught pneumonia two years ago and Levi screamed at all those folks in the emergency room so that he could be seen sooner. He’d never seen Levi like that before—so scared, almost panicked.
It’s not like Levi shows that many emotions. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t have them; Eren’s explained to Mikasa countless times that Levi is one of the most gentle and kind people he knows—and he knows a lot of really great people.
Levi just hows kindness in less obvious ways. He showed it by proofreading Eren’s papers while he finished up undergrad. He showed it by taking off work to sit on the couch and watch old Disney movies with Eren when he was sick a few months ago.
Tonight, he shows it by reminding Eren that he’ll make dinner tomorrow because Eren doesn’t get off of work until eight.
Levi places the three bags of groceries on the ground and kneels down to dig through them as Eren unloads the dishwasher.
“Mashed or roasted potatoes tomorrow?” Levi asks, rifling through the foodstuffs he bought.
“Mmm, what kind of meat?” Eren replies with a question of his own.
“Chicken.”
“Mashed. No, wait. Roasted.” Eren answers after a brief moment of indecisiveness.
All of a sudden, the sounds of paper bags being crinkled stop.
“Eren.” Levi begins, and the seriousness in his tone strikes a chord in Eren’s chest.
“Yeah?” Eren asks nervously. Why is he nervous all of a sudden?
He turns around to see Levi bent on one knee, looking up at him under his bangs. He looks a little shy, a little unsure.
Oh my god, Eren thinks. Oh my god, is he—
“Eren. Will you mar—”
Yes yes yes yes yES YES YESYESYES—
Levi coughs and clears his throat several times. Eren’s staring at him with wide, hopeful eyes.
“Sorry. Will you marinate the chicken for me? I need to do the laundry.”
Eren’s mouth drops. Levi gets up and pats Eren on the shoulder as he brushes past him.
“Thanks.”
- - -
Eren is sitting up in bed. It’s three in the morning. Surprisingly, Levi is asleep.
It’s surprising because Levi never sleeps soundly. He’s had insomnia since long before he and Eren even met, apparently.
Yet here is, snoring a little bit, his back turned away from Eren. He’s hugging a pillow close to himself.
It’d be adorable if Eren wasn’t so fucking irate.
It’s a complete role reversal, he thinks. Usually Levi is the one who gets pissed at him. Eren knows he has a tendency to do things that push Levi out of his comfort zone. He knows he can be spacey and naïve and easily excitable.
Yes, Eren knows Levi and he knows their relationship and he knows their dynamic.
He is pretty damn sure that Levi is actively fucking with him at this point.
Yesterday, Levi kissed him goodbye as he was running out the door to go to work. Levi never kisses him goodbye. He’s literally the most unromantic person in the world. For their first anniversary he bought Eren a Swiffer, and he actually thought that was a meaningful gift.
Eren wasn’t mad because he knew the sentiment was there. Like Hanji, he knows Levi well enough at this point that he can speak his language.
But this is a new level of oblivious.
After he kissed him goodbye, Levi looked right in Eren’s eyes. Eren thinks they must have gazed at each other for a good minute. Levi still had his hand on his shoulder the whole time. Even if they hadn’t been the only two people in the room, it probably still would have felt like they were the only two people in the room. It was fucking romantic.
And then Levi bent down, watching Eren the entire time.
There he was, on one knee, gazing up at Eren.
“Sorry,” Levi said, shaking his head. “My shoes are untied.”
Eren had wanted to punch a hole in the wall.
A heartbeat later, Levi had tied his shoe, hopped back up, patted Eren on the shoulder, and walked out the door.
Eren turns to look at his peacefully sleeping partner once more, fury swimming in his green eyes.
He was trying so damn hard not to be mad. A large part of him wanted to believe that Levi was, in fact, that oblivious, but after that conversation about marriage, how could he not think Levi was doing this just to piss him off?
What did Levi have to gain from this, though? Nothing. It’s not like Levi didn’t like to mess with Eren—he certainly did, and he always has—but this was taking it to a whole new, twisted level.
So Eren became the disgruntled insomniac, watching Levi drool onto his pillow.
- - -
On Wednesday, Levi declared that they should go out to dinner on Friday. That was the first red flag for Eren; Levi rarely suggested they go to a restaurant for any meal. Levi was quick to express his distrust of the preparation methods and the lackluster cleanliness of most every public eatery.
Eren had finally given up asking to go out, for the most part. Levi did agree sometimes, but he made his distaste for eating out very apparent the whole time they were there, so it was never all that enjoyable.
“Eren,” Levi begins as he slows to a stop in front of the diner. He turns to Eren and cracks a rare small smile before taking Eren’s hand in his own.
This is it, Eren thinks hazily, here it comes. His heart begins beating rapidly, more rapidly than the last two cop-outs.
There’s something about this moment, the way Levi’s looking at him.
“This is the disgusting diner I took you to the first time we went out on a date ten years ago when I bet you wouldn’t get a B+ on your statistics test. I probably fell in love with you before then, but you were a little brat, so I obviously didn’t see it. But now you’re a big brat and you still like me for reasons I cannot comprehend, so I can say with certainty that I love you, too.” Levi speaks evenly, frankly. His speech isn’t full of overt warmth, but Levi isn’t like that, so Eren reads fondness into his voice anyway.
Eren waits, eagerness lining his features.
Levi just stares back at him.
Eren’s face falls.
Levi’s eyebrows raise ever so slightly.
It dawns on him, then: Levi’s waiting for him to say something.
“…Okay?” Eren manages after a moment, voice strained. He watches Levi, mentally cursing him, begging him not to fuck this up by not even asking—
“Okay.” Satisfied, Levi turns to open the door of the diner.
Eren resists the urge to tackle his boyfriend to the ground and break his nose.
- - -
Eren says little at dinner, but Levi doesn’t seem to detect his disappointment. Levi doesn’t talk much, anyway, content to just sit in silence most of the time. He does take part in conversation readily when Eren instigates it, but otherwise it’s just in his nature to be quiet.
They get home an hour and a half later. Levi goes to take a shower and Eren strips off his clothing, exchanging his jeans for warm flannel pajama bottoms. He slips into bed, not feeling up to much of anything but sleeping off his anger at Levi.
Is it even humanly possible to be so oblivious?
Eren doesn’t understand. He knows Levi is shit at romance—he’s gotten better at reading the moment, but he still misses a lot of cues.
But Eren does love that part of him. Loves when he does kiss Eren of his own free will, because Eren knows Levi needs him right then, for whatever reason. Loves when Levi listens to him as he rants about what upsets him and offers him objective advice, tells him to stop acting childishly and think.
Hates that he’s angry at Levi when he’s not obligated to propose to him.
But that still doesn’t excuse the way he brushed him off so easily when he implied that he wanted this. Wanted this for them.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Levi asks, and Eren realizes that Levi must have been standing there by the bed for a while now, because he has on his pajama bottoms and he’s brushing a towel against his short hair. He’s looking at Eren with a questioning look.
Eren blinks, notices that his eyebrows were scrunched together thanks to equal parts confusion and frustration.
No, not confusion.
He knows anger, and this is definitely anger.
He scowls, turns to Levi, glaring accusingly at him as he nonchalantly rubs at the back of his neck with an expensive towel.
“What’s wrong?” he asks coolly, his hidden anger finally rising to the surface. “What’s wrong?!”
Levi just looks at him, expression unchanged, his face a blank slate of apathy.
“What’s wrong is that you said ‘sure’ when I asked about marriage. You sounded like it didn’t matter at all, even though you know it matters to me. Then you proceeded to psych me out THREE TIMES just to internally chortle at my reaction, I’m sure, when every time I felt like I was going to die of happiness only to have it ripped away at the last minute.”
Levi is still looking at him blankly.
Eren clenches his fists and turns away, closing his eyes a few times as he tries to collect himself.
“I love you, Levi, but I don’t want to be around you right now. I’m going to go sleep on the couch,” he says stiffly.
Eren slides off the bed, grabs his pillow, and brushes past Levi. “’Night,” he mutters, lingering in the doorway for just a moment before walking through the kitchen to reach their tiny living room.
He grabs a blanket off the back of the couch and unfolds it to create a makeshift bed. The couch is way too small for his 5’8” figure, but he lets his feet hang off the end and settles down on it anyway.
He reaches behind him to turn off the light before resting his head back on the pillow.
“Ow,” he remarks, surprised. He shuffles around uncomfortably on that too-small couch, before noticing that the source of his discomfort is his pillow. Something’s jabbing him in the back of his head.
“Ow. Fucking pillow,” he growls, shifting into a sitting position. He grabs his pillow in a fit of anger and shakes it like a madman, hoping the offending object will escape out the side of the pillowcase so he can be on his merry way to Dreamland.
Something clatters out—something far too large to be a button or a similarly small object, for sure.
Eren blinks in the darkness a few times before reaching over to flip the switch on the lamp on.
Eren’s eyes scour the floor until they fall upon the object.
A small black box is sitting on the hardwood floor a few feet away.
Eying it, he feels his heart stop.
“Gotcha,” Levi declares softly.
Eren’s head whips around from his position on the couch to find Levi standing in the doorway, watching him with an odd smile on his face.
“W-wha—”
Eren’s eyes trail back to the floor.
He swallows hard despite his suddenly very dry mouth.
Lying on the floor is, very obviously, a ring box.
“You have to admit, it’s going to make a damn good story for our kids,” Levi is saying as he steps around the back of the couch to pick up the box.
Eren feels himself start crying, even though a smile is tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I swear to fucking god if this is another joke, you fucking asshole, you absolute jerk, I’m going to—”
“Eren,” Levi says, cutting him off. He’s finally made his way over to Eren’s makeshift bed on the couch, and he’s bending down on one knee right in front of him.
“Of course you’re doing this now, when I have bedhead and I look like a mess, of fucking course—”
“I’m doing this because of all that. I’m the only one who gets to see you like this; I better realize what I’m getting into,” Levi says with a low chuckle, gazing at Eren softly.
“Looking disaster right in the eye as you sign off your soul.”
“You’re the one who called me a ‘soulless math demon’ when we first met.”
“I should say no,” Eren says, glaring.
Levi shrugs. “Probably.”
Eren sighs, shaking his head. Then, he looks at Levi. Levi fumbles a bit as he clicks open the box, a tell that he’s as nervous as Eren had always hoped he would be. Inside is a simple gold ring. It’s not flashy at all, but it’s very Levi and very them and Eren loves it.
“I’m sorry for getting mad,” Eren says guiltily, because the ring is beautiful and it is going to make a great story, despite all the nonsense he had to go through.
“I’ve had it for four years,” Levi mumbles, avoiding Eren’s gaze.
Eren jumps to his feet and yelps. “What?!”
“I was going to propose on your twenty-first birthday, but then you got wasted, and we ended up in the hospital, which would be the worst place in the world to be proposed to ever. You wouldn’t have been able to wear it anyway because of the arm cast.”
“Oh my god.”
“Yeah," Levi says, frowning a little bit, probably feeling guilty. "After that I just kind of dropped the ball and never got around to it. I didn’t know it bothered you so much, so that’s my bad."
He shrugs off his uncertainty, then looks up at Eren, an eyebrow raised.
“So, Eren. What’ll it be?” He asks, smirking a bit.
“Ask correctly!” Eren demands, gesturing madly.
“Ugh, fine.” Levi scowls. “Will you marry me?”
“What’s the magic word?” Eren sings, a malicious smile on his lips.
“Are you serious?” Levi snaps.
“It’s okay babe, you’re on the right track,” Eren says soothingly, reaching down to pat him on the shoulder.
“You little shit,” Levi says disbelievingly.
“C’mon, let’s hear it! ‘Eren, light of my life, I have loved you from the moment your mother introduced us and waved your report card in my face. Please, will you do me the honor of marrying my grumpy ass?’”
“Eren,” Levi begins murderously. “Marry me.”
Eren sighs, then throws his hands up in the air in a show of mock disappointment. “Fine, I guess!”
“Final answer?” Levi huffs, feeling slighted.
Eren finally smiles softly, genuinely.
He gets down as well, and takes Levi’s face in his hands. He kisses him, and it’s like their first kiss all over again, and their second, and their fiftieth, because every time he kisses Levi, he feels shivers up and down his spine and all he wants to do is pull him even closer.
They break apart and Eren laughs.
“Yes.”