Work Text:
Dirty Windows.
It was becoming increasingly difficult to concentrate on his work with the chatter happening behind him, especially since he didn’t want to be working right now. If he could just tune them out, even for just a few minutes, he would be able to get this finished and could finally go and have lunch.
Eren Jaeger glanced up at his neighbour and saw the other looking back at him. They both sighed in unison before returning to their work. The chatter behind them wasn’t anything new, and working in a department as small as theirs, not to mention the close quarters, made it hard to ignore the girls when they began to babble like they were now.
Their desks were arranged almost like cubicles, except instead of everyone having a high cubicle wall between each desk, the walls were cut off at about waist height. It made it so that Eren and his neighbour faced one another, their screens actually sitting higher than their separators. He appreciated the easy access to his co-worker, as it allowed them to bounce ideas off one another.
The low separators, however, also meant easy access for the two girls behind them to giggle and babble incessantly for the whole workday, which he appreciated less. His neighbour, a blond man who looked much younger than he truly was, was one of the only other truly hardworking people in their department of six, splitting the department perfectly in half between the useless chatterboxes and the work-oriented go-getters. The blond man’s name was Armin Arlert, and he and Eren had hit it off right away upon his arrival, mostly due to the fact that they were the only two men in their area.
There were two girls behind them—Sasha Braus and Ymir—who spent more time joking and laughing than actually working. Sasha had an obsession with looking up food, and Ymir was a fond believer in browsing the internet, most notably Facebook.
To Eren’s right were the last two girls in the department, one seated in front of the other. There was a small aisle between their rows to allow free movement, and a wall on their other side, but otherwise their desks were identical to Eren and his three neighbours. His adoptive sister Mikasa Ackerman sat at the front, beside Eren, and the girl behind her was named Christa Lenz. They were both fairly quiet for the most part, but if the girls behind Eren got talking about something of interest, it turned into a huge conversation that made him and Armin want to bang their heads repeatedly against their desks.
Well, maybe not so much Armin, he seemed pretty chill, but Eren often wanted to scream and rip his hair out and yell at them to shut up and work. His job was hard enough to feel motivated to do without people distracting him at every second of the day.
Sasha and Ymir had decided to talk about what they would do should a fire ever break out in the building, the conversation stemming from the article on the front page of the paper that day. A hotel had caught fire and someone had apparently leapt from the roof after having been trapped. Of course, this immediately started a conversation about how to survive a fire in their office, something which—unfortunately—Christa was interested in enough to join the conversation. At least Mikasa had stayed out of it.
“I would jump,” Ymir insisted. “Grab a chair, smash the window and leap out.”
“But we’re so high!” Christa insisted, almost horrified. “You’d die!”
“We’re on the third floor,” Ymir countered, waving one hand in dismissal.
“The atrium is the height of two floors,” Mikasa commented, eyes still on her screen. “In theory, we’re on the fifth floor. We would die.”
So much for Mikasa staying out of it.
“I’d leap for the trees,” Sasha insisted, turning to look out the window behind her, where numerous trees could be seen. “They’re close enough that we could make it. Just climb down to the sidewalk and we’d be golden.”
“What about the cabinets?” Christa asked, motioning the wall of in-built cabinets on Armin and Ymir’s other side. “They look like they could be fireproof. If we took the drawers out of them, we could fit two people in each cabinet, easy.”
“True,” Sasha contemplated, stroking her chin. “We would survive, but only if the fire got put out quickly. I’m still gonna jump for a tree if the places catches fire.”
“You realize,” Eren said in annoyance, “that you’re talking about our office building catching on fire, right?” He turned to glare at Ymir and Sasha, irritated they’d started this stupid conversation. “If the building catches fire, we’re on the second occupied floor. Chances are it won’t happen in the atrium, so unless it occurred on the floor below us, we’d be fine to take the stairs.”
“Preparation is the key to survival,” Christa argued, though she thankfully took a seat once more, returning to her work.
Ymir and Sasha didn’t take the hint and continued to chatter, talking about roasting to death and making inappropriate jokes about it that really pissed Eren off.
When he glanced up at Armin, his neighbour motioned for him to just breathe and, with a deep sigh, Eren did his best to tune them out.
Hunkering down, he got to work on finishing his assigned task, stomach growling uncomfortably from the ache of hunger. Thankfully, he was almost done, and after another fifteen minutes—Sasha and Ymir were still talking—he finally finished.
Letting out a slow sigh and leaning back in his chair, relieved at now being able to head to lunch, he jumped when a loud bang sounded from behind him. Sasha choked on her coffee and he saw Mikasa tense, everyone clearly startled.
They all turned to see what the sound had been and found a window washer outside their little area, bringing a brush up and washing one half of the large window. The sound had obviously been the bang of the suction cup he was using to stay in place hitting the window.
“I would never have enough courage to be a window washer,” Armin commented.
“Yeah,” Christa agreed, the six of them watching the man work. He’d washed and squeegeed off the water within seconds, shifting to the side and slamming his suction cup into the window again to stay in place.
“He’s really quick,” Ymir commented, somewhat surprised. They had seen many a window washer in their time working in that office, and this one was by far the fastest.
“He’s actually pretty good looking,” Eren said without meaning to. It wasn’t that his being into men was a secret, but he tended not to talk about his attraction to others in front of his coworkers. The words had just slipped out.
“Yeah, he’s kinda cute,” Christa agreed, standing and leaning forward against Sasha’s desk, all six parties in the office staring at the man outside.
He had an impressive-looking build, and while he didn’t seem tall, his arms were muscled and it was clear how toned he was, even through the thick sweater he wore. His hair was jet black and tucked beneath a toque and a hard-hat, the former most likely because of the cold weather outside. His dark eyes were focussed on the task at hand, and whenever he finished using the squeegee, he would wipe the water off it with a towel hanging from his waist.
The window washer looked up then, eyes focussed beyond the window itself and into the office.
“I accidentally made eye contact,” Armin insisted, turning to Eren and looking embarrassed. “It’s so awkward!”
“He’s probably wondering why we’re all staring at him,” Ymir insisted with a grin, turning to Eren. “Tell him he’s cute! Grab a post-it and write your number!”
“Oh my God, could you imagine?!” Sasha began to laugh, motioning for Eren to do it. “Come on, Eren! Give him your number!”
“What?” He could feel his ears warming, embarrassment steadily rising. “No way!”
“Oh my God, Armin should do it!” Ymir insisted. “Just slap the post-it on the window with your number and wink saucily!”
“Do it with your left hand!” Sasha slammed both hands on her desk, standing up. “Oh my God, Armin! Do it with your left hand and make sure you flash your ring!”
“Oh, I’m so married,” Ymir held one hand to her forehead dramatically, “but you’re so attractive, I couldn’t help myself!”
Even Eren began to laugh, the group of them actually getting along for once while they spoke about the attractive window washer outside.
“If a fire broke out right now, we’d be set,” Mikasa commented thoughtfully. “We could just break the window and then use his ropes to get down to the ground.”
“I’d rather jump out the window and right into his arms,” Eren insisted honestly. “Look at them, they’re huge.”
“I bet he gives good bear hugs,” Christa agreed.
The window washer had moved further along the window, glancing through it every now and then and seeing them all still watching him. He had started right behind Ymir, but was now behind Sasha, the suction cup and mechanism at the top of the building holding the ropes allowing him to easily move to the side to clean all the windows on the left side of their wall.
“It’s like a movie,” Ymir whispered. “He’s like the screen and we’re the audience.”
“Tales of the sexy window washer man!” Sasha proclaimed, hands spreading through the air, as if motioning a sign. “The one Eren wants to bang!”
“You know, I probably would bang him,” Eren agreed, watching the other man finish up with the window on that side.
He started fiddling with his ropes after setting his washer and squeegee back in their respective places, but before he lowered himself, he hung in mid-air on the ropes, pulling out his cell phone and beginning to type on it.
“Aw, maybe sexy window washer man is texting his girlfriend,” Sasha insisted.
“Sorry Eren, no sex for you today,” Ymir teased, turning to grin at him.
He just shrugged one shoulder, his arms crossed, and pivoted his chair from side to side, the six of them still watching the man beyond the window.
After a few seconds, the window washer grabbed the handle of his suction cup, which was still against the window, and pulled himself closer to it, turning his phone and aiming the words into the office.
“Oh my God! Maybe he’s asking for someone’s number!” Sasha exclaimed, quickly rushing closer to the window since she was the closest to it.
“Or telling us to get back to work,” Mikasa said, beginning to sound annoyed despite the fact that she was watching the man just like everyone else.
“What’s it say?” Ymir asked, leaning as far over the partition as she could, but still not seeing anything.
Sasha hadn’t spoken, instead remaining frozen at the window, so Eren stood and moved up behind her. The window washer was watching him approach, and Eren could’ve sworn he saw the hint of a smile forming on his face.
Ignoring this, he leaned closer to the window to see the message, and the second he read it, he instantly froze, feeling all the blood drain from his face before immediately re-invading it, turning him a brilliant shade of bright red.
Much as I like being known as “Sexy Window Washer Man,” my given name is Levi.
The windows are dirty, not soundproof.
Green eyes shot back up to the window washer’s face, the other not even trying to hide the smirk anymore. Pulling away, he replaced his phone and yanked the suction cup off the window. He offered Eren a smarmy look, made a big show of winking at him, and then released the rope he held in his other hand, causing him to plummet downwards to the floor below.
“What happened? What did it say?” Ymir demanded, trying to reach over the partition to grab at one of the other two. “What happened?! Why does Eren look like a tomato?!”
It was then that Eren realized there was another set of windows behind Christa’s desk, on the right side of their wall, which meant the sexy window washer man was going to be back at some point later in the day.
And Eren was going to ensure he was anywhere but at his desk.
The one time he joined in on a conversation, and it blew up in his face. He had never been so fucking embarrassed in his life.
Eren wanted to die.
The windows were dirty... not soundproof.
END.