Work Text:
Levi stirred his coffee, finger moving clockwise as the spoon spun beneath, mixing what little he had in it as he started on a new chapter of his physics book. The shop was familiar, one he visited often after college classes.
Life with the mundanes was tiring but unfortunately necessary. After all, they did have the better schools and provided many goods that couldn't be acquired in the wizarding world. It didn't hurt that he was more interested in science than what wizard did this and what alchemist did that in the long, often boring history of their world. He had gotten more than his fill of that in his middle and high school days of Hogwarts, a place for the magically inclined children who needed to tame their abilities - in other words, all of them.
Levi ceased his stirring and sipped at the coffee, releasing a satisfied hum at it. Not bad. Better than the last cup he had. Deviating from the norm was not pleasant in the slightest.
Levi glanced up, pausing in his reading for a moment to look around the shop, carefully inspecting the inhabitants. He vaguely recognized a few of them, regulars like him and one that might have worked with him. He wasn't sure. It was a bit of a hassle to pay attention to things like that, almost as much as talking to people. Too bad both were necessary.
Levi smoothed his hair back and buried his nose back into his book, scanning over the text and absorbing very little of it. His mind wasn't exactly into it and it wasn't like there was a test coming up. He was more or less reading it for enjoyment at that point, looking for new information to cram into his brain.
Despite the crass language and awkward, stilted conversations he carried more often than not, he was quite intelligent, surprisingly so. It made up for the lack of height, that and his phenomenal grasp of magic. He didn't flaunt either, not really. Doing so attracted too much attention, the very thing he didn't want.
There had been enough of of that already when his classmates at Hogwarts and the university had seen his aptitude for whatever they did. Sometimes it led to fights. Sometimes to little followings of people who begged him to teach them. Jealousy, envy, hate, admiration. It came with the territory he supposed. Levi flipped another page in his book, soaking in all that it said about string theory when a clearing of the throat brought his gaze up.
A young man stood at his table, his dark brown hair messy and wild, a veritable forest for the pastel blue flowers that encircled his head. The rest of his outfit was pastel to match, his too-large sweater a soft pink with a few bones - the ribcage, spine, radius, and ulna - printed on it and beneath that, a pale blue skirt with little black bones on it. His nails were painted a light, coral pink with baby blue stripes delicately laid overtop. There was jewelry with it, a two-string leather necklace with silvery beads and teal feathers on it, silvery bangles on his left wrist, small pearl studs in his ears. What a... strange outfit.
The boy straightened up, a brilliant and definitely not cute smile spreading across his face as he leaned a little closer, a faint but sweet fruity scent wafting off him. "Hi! I'm Eren Yeager, an eleventh year student at Hogwarts! I'm suppose to- oh..."
Levi froze with him, their eyes falling as a soft golden glow filled the air, growing stronger by the second as they stared at each other's chests where the light emanated from. Oh fuck. He knew that light. He had seen it and heard about it far too many times to not. When two - or on the very rare occasion, three - people came together, something within the depths of their beings resounded, coming together and reacting, producing a bright golden light that everyone knew the meaning of.
Soul mates.
Not everyone had one and not everyone found their's early in life but it was more likely than not to find one. But Levi didn't want one, not even close. He despised the thought of being bound to someone from the very depths of his soul. But there was no denying the golden light oozing from his chest, the warmth filling him as his body, his essence recognized that yes, that boy was his other half. The one destined for him. He felt his mouth part, close, then part again but no words came out, even as the light dimmed and faded from their chests.
The boy - Eren - blushed, his cheeks burning with a dark tint as he shuffled his feet awkwardly before glancing up, those bright green - blue eyes wide with uncertainty and shock, then determination. "I-I'm Eren! Eren Y-Yeager! An eleventh year student at Hogwarts! I'm gender fluid and identifying as male today so please respect my pronouns! I'm pansexual! I also really, really like pastels!"
Levi stared at him, unsure of what to say to Eren's words, let alone his abrupt outburst in general. He scratched at his undercut, shifting awkwardly in his seat as Eren beamed at him though that smile started to dim after a minute as Levi continued to stare at him, grappling frantically for something, anything to say. A full lower lip trembled and Levi realized that there was a thin coating of lip gloss on it, a stupid thing to notice considering Eren was about to burst into tears.
His hand shot out and he caught a slender, deeply tanned wrist before Eren could make a move to flee. "Levi. I'm Levi Ackerman. Ah..." Those beautiful eyes brightened and Levi had to force his gaze away from it, fighting for focus and control. He didn't like the instinctive draw towards Eren, the gravitation that acted upon him, but he couldn't do a damn thing about it. All he could do was choke out the basics, just like Eren had done. "Asexual. Graduate of Hogwarts. Going to university for science. Of course. Pastels are cool? I dunno on that. Um... I-"
He broke off as Eren beamed at him once more, the panic and terror long gone from his eyes. He leaned forward, thought better of it, and slid into the booth beside Levi. He should have minded it, really, he should have, but he didn't. Not really. Not with his instincts urging him to bask in it, to relish in the close quarters. He'd heard that such was the immediate reaction after finding a soul mate more often than not, a reflexive thing to help them bond and grow close as soon as possible.
Eren twisted his hand in Levi's grasp and slid their hands together, movements tentative before growing bold when Levi didn't push it away as he threaded their fingers together. "Can... can I take you out? F-for dinner. I... uh... wow, I don't know what to say. I'd thought about this for a long time but I never thought it'd actually happen... Or that my soul mate would be so beautiful." His mouth clamped shut too late and he flushed darker, from neck to ear tip as he ducked his head.
Levi shook his head, still partially frozen with astonishment. "I didn't even think I'd have one... But yeah. That'd... that'd be nice. Dinner I mean."
Instantly that oceanic gaze rose to meet his, improbably bright and eager. He was just glad Eren didn't crush their mouths together, though his hand did receive a gentle squeeze. "I can't wait."
And, strangely, neither could Levi. Mainly because he was still reeling on how he of all people had a soul mate and how this kid could possibly be it. He wasn't complaining, not really, he was just baffled. There's no way. No fucking way. He's completely different. I mean… How could we be bound? Then again, he had seen weirder people bound. His parents were one such pair, but…
He wanted to escape, to go hide out in the bathroom and beat his head against one of the filthy stall walls as he wracked his brain for why, why he had a soul mate, something he had never wanted. But there was no denying that the gap he'd felt for years suddenly felt less… empty with Eren beside him, grinning and waiting patiently for him to wrap his head around it.
It took him a few minutes but he finally managed to meet Eren's eyes, fingers twitching against his hand. "Um… can you let go of my hand?"
Those intricate blue-greens flew wide and immediately Eren's hand withdrew, tucking back into his lap as the other rose to awkwardly scrunch in his hair as nervous laughter bubbled out. "Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to be weird but… I just really wanted to hold your hand. I mean, it looked so small and delicate and I really wanted to see how they'd look together and… Oh crap, I'm babbling. Sorry, I can't help it, it just happens when I'm nervous. Ugh, that must have been weird. I mean, we just met and-"
Levi pressed his hand overtop Eren's mouth, effectively silencing the boy as his eyes widened a little longer and his mouth closed. His lips were soft, tickling Levi's hand, but he pushed the sensation back, just like the fact that he had noticed the thin lines of black encircling Eren's eyes or the fact that he had a faint smattering of freckles across his nose. Fuck this.
"I… You're going to be very disappointed. I'm boring. Crass. A clean freak, and I mean that in the way that it's practically fucking neurotic. I'm just… shitty soul mate material. Really. Ask my friends, both of them. They'd agree." Well, he thought that they would. It had never really come up except for when Hanji had found their soul mate - a shy little guy called Moblit Berner - and even then it had been a short discussion, one that Levi had cut off as quickly as he could. Relationships made him uncomfortable. There was a reason he rarely dated anyone.
But Eren didn't look dissuaded by his words. Rather, his smile had expanded more, eyes brightening for some absurd reason. "That's okay! My friends said the same 'cause I'm too 'free spirited', but I think it's more that I just want to see so much and there's so little time that I've absolutely gotta go now. But I have to graduate and legally I'm not old enough to Apparate… Got a few more weeks til that, though I did lose an ear last time… Plus I don't really want to go alone. I want to see the world with someone. 'Kasa and Armin don't wanna though. They've got stuff to do. Hey, Levi!"
Eren leaned closer, so close that Levi could smell the mint on his breath. He leaned back a little, just enough to put some space between them. Enough to see dusting of pink across those tanned cheeks. "Do you… do you wanna travel with me?"
"... I'm still in college."
"Yeah! I mean, I'm still in school too, but… maybe over the summer?"
Levi shrugged and ran his fingers through his hair, unsure of what to say. Thankfully, it came to him quickly. "Two conditions: don't touch me so much. Not right now. I don't really like physical contact. And we need to get each other. Especially since… you know." Since light had come out of their fucking chests.
Eren nodded frantically, beaming at him with brilliant ocean eyes. "So… what was it you came over here to ask originally?"
The brightness dimmed, replaced by confusion before Eren's mouth dropped and he slapped his forehead. "Crud! I was supposed to find someone to interview on how they view life with mundanes and how magic would benefit the entirety of human society. Do you mind if…?"
Levi shook his head. Probably a mistake because that interview took a solid hour and then some, but it gave him a chance to inspect his soul mate, to attempt to understand him a little better. He didn't know what kind of relationship they would have, but he did hope it was a good one. From what he had heard, the only thing worse than soul mates being at odds was having a dead one. He didn't find much out about Eren during the course of the interview, not really. But the dinner they got the next night made up for that.