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Levi questioned his life choices as he laid there, face smashed against the floor and 140 pounds of Eren Jaeger on top of him.
“Fuck! Shitty brat, wake the fuck up and get off me!”
The younger man just grunted slightly and flipped over to wrap his arms around Levi’s torso, clearly drifting in and out of consciousness. “Don’ wanna…” He mumbled, burying his face into the back of Levi’s sweater.
For the first time in his life, Levi was happy it was winter; if it weren’t, he would mostly likely have been wearing a tank top and boxers to bed rather than the oversized, thick sweater he currently had on. He was pretty sure the amount of skin contact with the currently shirtless Eren he would have had while wearing a tank top would’ve immediately shut down his brain and given him a permanent boner.
“Eren!” He yelled, trying to twist around to shove the almost-passed out brunette off of him.
When the brat squeezed his abdomen tighter, Levi silently cursed the stupid ass horse face who was Eren’s roommate. Fuck Eren and his shitty roommate. Fuck Eren and his shitty friends.
This was all Hanji’s fault, Levi just knew it. It was bad enough that he had to put up with their shenanigans during the week, but now the loudmouth brunette was dropping off practically blackout drunk packages at impossible hours of the morning at Levi’s doorstep.
He glanced at the male who was happily nuzzling his back.
Ugh. If he’d had an ounce of sense, he would’ve told the group of drunken boys and Hanji to kindly fuck off when they’d knocked on his front door. Just because he lived in the same apartment building as Eren didn’t make him the brat’s fucking nurse when he was drunk. Sadly, any shred of logic or sensibility he normally possessed always disappeared in the presence of a certain bright-eyed brat.
“Fucking Hanji,” Levi snarled as he struggled to flip onto his back with Eren holding him so tightly. “Fucking glasses, and fucking horse face.”
How the fuck does one lose a loud and obnoxious guy like Jean in the first place? Also, which person came up with the genius idea to give that idiot the only copy of his and Eren’s key to the apartment? Didn’t the fact that he had fucking two-toned hair tell people anything about the state of his brains?
Finally, Levi successfully maneuvered himself so that he was face-to-face with Eren. Somehow, during his wiggling and twisting, Eren had crawled his way up Levi’s torso and was now hugging Levi around the neck, smashing Levi’s nose into his collarbone.
“Oi, Eren,” Levi said, turning his face so his nose was no longer being crushed. “I need you to kindly wake the fuck up before—what the fuck, brat?!”
One of Eren’s hands had traveled down from Levi’s neck to reach under his sweater, his fingers tracing over the divots of Levi’s back muscles. Levi shuddered as every touch sent little shocks of pleasure through his gut as Eren’s hand started traveling up to his shoulder blades.
“Seriously?” Levi bit his lip hard, the pain making his hazy mind focus. He braced a hand against Eren’s chest and the other hand against his abdomen (so sue him, he had to push somewhere) and shoved up as hard as he could, effectively tossing the drunken brat off of him.
“Ow!”
Eren landed backwards on his ass and blinked blearily, looking around, a small frown slowly appearing on his face.
“Wha—?”
“Have you finally gotten your shit together enough to respond to me?” Levi growled, climbing to his feet.
“Levi? What are you doing in my apartment? And when did you get taller?” Eren squinted at Levi and then pouted. “Noooooooo, you can’t get taller! You’re the perfect cuddle size for meeeeeee.”
“You’re in my apartment, you little fuck. And no, I did not get taller, thank you for pointing that out.” Levi reached down to offer the confused boy a hand. “Get off my floor.”
Eren ignored the offered hand and stood up, swaying on his feet. “Okay, okay, where is Jean? What happened?”
“Secretariat is cantering somewhere on campus right now, enjoying the breeze flowing through his two-toned mane,” Levi deadpanned. “Of course one of the idiots in your group decided to saddle him with the only fucking key to your apartment so shitty glasses decided to drop your sorry ass off at my place for no fucking reason.”
Eren snorted and walked unsteadily to the couch, where he plopped down with a loud thump. “Oh okay. Why did you shove me?”
It took all of Levi’s willpower to keep the flush off his face when he thought back to Eren’s hands traveling up his back and the firmness of his torso when he shoved the boy back. “You lost your balance and fell on top of me and wouldn’t get up.”
“Oh.” He glanced down. “Am I not wearing a shirt?”
Levi sighed. “No, you’re not. Fucking Connie spilled beer down the back of your shirt as he was trying to shove you into my apartment and you decided to strip in the middle of the hallway.”
“Huh. But I kept my pants on right?”
God, the kid needed to shut the fuck up.
“Yes, you’re wearing your fucking pants. Now kindly go the fuck to sleep.”
Again, he ignored part of the response and grinned. “Oh good, I wouldn’t want to forget it if I’d mooned you.”
“Gross, Eren.”
Levi walked over to his kitchen and pulled out a gatorade (He didn’t care for the drink, but Eren downed those things like old people downed pills, so he kept a constant supply in his fridge). “Here.”
“What is this?” Eren took the bottle, squinting again.
“Gatorade, you dumbass.”
“Not a purple rain?”
“You’re such a college brat. No, not purple rain, you’ve probably had enough of those for the night. Drink the damn Gatorade.” Levi pulled a chair from the kitchen table over and straddled the chair back, chin perched on his hand.
“Mmkay.”
Eren opened the bottle and started chugging.
Levi stared, eyes fixed on the brunette’s Adam’s apple as it bobbed with every gulp. Fuck.
The brunette finished off the drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Almost as good as coffee!” He declared with a grin.
“Tch. How dare you? That sugary crap can’t hold a candle to coffee.”
“Because…electrolytes and shit, man.” Eren leaned forward, bracing his hands on the couch and jutting his shoulder up into his chin cutely. “Not everyone is as caffeine dependent as you are.”
“We’re in college, if you’re not drinking coffee, you’re not doing college right.”
It wasn’t a funny statement, but Eren threw his head back and laughed, lost his balance, and plopped down on the couch, his lower half dangling off the couch at an awkward angle.
“If you need caffeine, Diet Coke has the same stuff in it,” he said, voice muffled by the cushion that had fallen on his face.
“Do you know how bad that shit is for your body?” Levi scowled. He couldn’t believe he was having this conversation in the middle of the night, with his drunk, hot-as-fuck neighbor. Who, by the way, was currently sprawled, half-naked, across this couch, the position showing off every muscle in his perfectly toned body.
“You’re drooling.”
Eren’s voice snapped Levi back into reality.
The look on his face made Eren snicker as he sat back up. “Why Levi, I didn’t know you saw me like that.”
“Shut up.” Levi tried and failed to keep the blush off his face. “Don’t get cocky, brat. You’re ten years too early to try to pull shit like that on me.”
Eren’s face fell for a second before his usual, cheerful grin returned. “Well I guess I’ll just have to try harder.”
“I thought you were dating Reiner.”
And there it was, the biggest bane of his existence.
Reiner Braun was one of those bigger-than-life, friendly-with-everyone type of guy. He barreled his way into Eren’s friend group during Eren’s senior year, one of three transfer students to Shigashina High. The attraction was instantaneous. Even Levi, who was in his sophomore year of college at the time, and had only heard about said transfer students from Eren and Hanji (who had decided to take a year off to hang out in Shigashina before starting college), could tell the bright eyed brunette had a thing for the blonde just from the few texts and emails they’d exchanged.
Eren’s entire friend group had ended up going to Trost University, so it was practically inevitable that Eren and Reiner had started dating at the end of their freshman year. Levi still remembered the first time he’d met the guy in junior year. He was helping Eren move into his dorm room when the giant man had come bursting into the room, wearing their school mascot mask and yelling like a maniac. Levi practically had a heart attack, but Eren just whooped as Reiner picked him up, swung him in a circle, then dumped him onto the couch, where he promptly started tickling Eren until the brunette was screaming pleas of mercy. If Levi hadn’t been frozen in shock, he probably would’ve socked the blonde.
The worst part was, there was nothing about the guy to dislike. Reiner was genuine, hard working, and very respectful. Hell, if it weren’t for his relationship with Eren, Levi would venture to say he liked the damn kid. Reiner understood boundaries and never pushed into Levi’s personal space, despite the abnormal amount of time the blonde spent in the raven’s presence due to the fact that Eren was constantly hanging around Levi’s apartment.
But god did Levi hate him.
“We’re not actually dating,” Eren muttered, slumping back into the couch.
What?
“Ugh, I can’t believe he’s going to betray me like this,” Eren continued, apparently unaware that Levi was in the room. “We made a fucking promise!”
Seriously, what?
Levi was at a loss for words. He briefly wondered if he was the drunk one and imagining that he and Eren were having this conversation.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
Wow, give him a pat on the back for such an eloquent response.
Eren rubbed his face tiredly, pushing his bangs out of his face. “I told you, we weren’t actually dating!”
“You…weren’t actually dating. For a whole year.” Levi deadpanned. Did the brat hit his head when they fell earlier?
“Ugh, you don’t get it. We weren’t dating, and definitely aren’t now that Bert finally noticed Reiner, but I needed him!”
Oh good.
Count on Eren to spill his unrequited love story to the one guy on earth who held a deep-sated, unrequited love for said boy. Levi briefly wondered if he did something horrible in a past life when Eren threw his arm over his face dramatically and said, “Damn it, I needed him.”
“No you don’t.” The words were out before Levi could stop himself. Well, fuck it. The more Eren bitched and moaned about fucking Reiner, the more pissed Levi got. “You don’t fucking need the giant blonde mountain. Shit happens. You’ll get over it.”
“But who am I going to use to make you jealous now?”
What.
Not for the first time that night, Levi’s brain short-circuited.
What the fuck just happened?
“Did Jean feed you more of his special brownies?” Levi finally asked. “I told you he puts more than weed in that shit!”
Eren scowled. “No brownies.” Suddenly he grinned. “Wait, do you have brownies?”
“Focus, Eren.” Levi resisted the urge to throw something at him. “Did you leave your drink unattended or something?”
“Christ, Levi, I’m not drugged. I’m just wasted.”
“So it’s the alcohol talking.” A heavy, cold feeling settled in Levi’s stomach. He shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up in the first place; he knew how Eren got when he was smashed.
“No it’s not.” He sat up from the couch and leaned towards Levi, his bright cerulean-jade eyes clear, his words articulated for the first time since he walked in. “Reiner and I were never dating. Sure, we were fuck buddies and I cared for him, but most of our so-called ‘dating’ was a ruse because he wanted to make Bert jealous.”
“Eren.” Levi's voice was a whisper and it took so much effort just to get the word out.
“But I never loved him or anything. I just really needed him so that I could show you how great of a boyfriend I could be, but you never even looked at me!”
“Eren, stop.”
He either didn’t hear him or chose to ignore the order and continued. “But the problem was, the more time I spent trying to make you jealous, the more I fell in love with you. I even decided to room with Jean, who I can only barely tolerate, just so I could live in the same apartment complex with you!”
“This isn’t funny anymore, Eren. Fucking stop it!”
“This isn’t a joke!” Eren jumped up from the couch, eyes blazing, and he looked completely sober at this point. “Don’t you get it yet? I’ve been in love with you since…oh I don’t know, the 10th grade when you kicked Jean in the nuts for getting into a fight with me because he tried to hit on Mikasa! Then you left for college so I tried dating other people to get over you but they all dumped me and all I could think was, ‘If these people don’t want me, why would Levi ever want to be with me?’”
Levi’s chest ached.
“I felt so worthless! So when Reiner proposed the fake dating because he wanted to make Bert jealous, I was desperate enough to say yes. But it’s always been you, Levi, and if I weren’t so fucking drunk I would find some way to prove to you that I am 1000% serious!”
Levi clenched his fists on his knees, and stared at his lap, unable to meet Eren’s blazing eyes anymore. Panic was starting to set in. He couldn’t –wouldn’t –get his hopes up, not when Eren was in this state. Not when he’d been burned before.
“The worst part is, I’ve been imagining the moment when I’d confess and kiss you for years now, but here I am!” Eren laughed, the sound hollow and bitter. “Drunk out of my mind, spilling my guts to you at god knows what time. I probably won’t even remember this conversation tomorrow and by then I’ll have ruined my chances anyway, because why would you love someone who’s such a coward that they need liquid courage just to confess?!”
“Oh my god Eren! Shut the fuck up!”
The taller boy blinked, closed his mouth, and promptly sat back down on the couch.
Levi got up from the chair, heart pounding, arms crossed over his chest. “Now listen here, brat. You’re drunk. You’re not serious. We both know how flirty and joking you get when you’re wasted. So here’s what going to happen. I’m going to get you another Gatorade and you’re going to go the fuck to sleep.”
The look Eren gave him was pleading and desperate. “Look, Levi, don’t push me away tomorrow. I know that you don’t—”
“I don’t?!” Levi’s voice rose, anger bubbling in his stomach. Fuck it, the little shit wasn’t going to remember any of this tomorrow anyway. “You think I don’t love you? Eren, I’ve been in love with you since the time you ran down the hall and tripped and fell when you tried to give me cookies for the first time in 12th grade. Fuck if it wasn’t the most adorable thing I’d ever seen.”
Now it was Eren’s turn to stare, dumbfounded.
“Why you thought it was necessary to date Reiner to make me jealous is beyond me, but fuck, since you’re going to forget this tomorrow anyway, I’ve always loved you, ok?”
A heavy silence hung over them.
Levi’s heart was doing backflips in his chest, and his lungs seemed to have vacated his body. Was it always so hot in here?
Then Eren grinned. “I love you, you know that?”
The heat traveled up Levi’s neck to his face. “Yeah, yeah.”
“I’m serious! It’s not the alcohol talking, it’s the truth! I love you.”
“And you’re practically blackout drunk.”
“Ugh!” He threw his hands up in the air, exasperated. Levi noticed how his abs and back rippled with the motion. “Fine, I’m going to tell you again tomorrow after I’m sober! THEN will you believe me?”
“You won’t remember to do it tomorrow.” Levi smiled as the brunette pouted.
“Well since I won’t remember anything in the morning anyway…” Eren’s voice dropped and octave, the sound going straight to Levi’s gut, and leaned in.
“I’m not having drunk sex with you, brat.”
“Damn it. I mean, I’m shirtless anyway and just available for ravaging. And since I’m drunk right now and possibly just hallucinated you telling me you love me, this fantasy should include some confession sex, shouldn’t it? You could take advantage of me and I wouldn’t hate you or anything. Not that I could, since I love you anyway.”
Now Levi was full on smiling. “You seem pretty sure about that.”
“I am. I’m as sure of that as I am that Erwin’s eyebrows are actual caterpillars that will one day form cocoons and become butterflies.”
“What kind of comparison is that, shitty brat?” Levi was amused in spite of himself.
“Hey Levi?” Eren crossed his legs on the couch, his eyes hopeful. “Did you mean it? Do you really love me?”
He won’t remember anyway, Levi reminded himself for umpteenth time that night. “Yes, Eren. I love you. Always have, always will.”
He smiled, the look so tender, so happy, that Levi’s breath caught in his throat. It took every ounce of his will to not kiss the brunette.
“Can I use your phone?”
“What?”
“Your phone,” Eren gestured impatiently.
Levi handed him the device and raised an eyebrow. Eren tapped a text on iMessage and then locked the screen.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.” He pulled out his own phone as it buzzed with a new text.
“I can just check my own phone, you know.” He reached for the phone, but Eren shoved both devices behind his back.
“Nope.”
“Brat, give me my phone or tell me what you wrote.”
He grinned. “Make me.”
“Oh? Is that a challenge?” Levi leaned over the boy, a little peeved that even sitting, Eren was only a few inches shorter than himself. He smirked as Eren’s eyes widened, staring up at him.
Levi leaned in and pressed a kiss to the boy’s forehead. “Tell me?”
“No.” Eren was wearing a shit-eating grin now.
Levi smiled, leaned down lower and placed another kiss on the tip of his nose. “Please tell me?”
Eren brought his arms up to wrap them around Levi’s neck. “Like I said, make me.” He whispered into Levi’s ear.
The raven shivered, then lifted Eren’s face a little and pressed his lips down. The other boy’s lips were soft and warm, a little sweet from the Gatorade he’d just drunk. It was a short kiss, but it managed to leave both boys breathless as they broke apart.
“Now will you tell me?”
Eren smiled and pulled out his phone to show him the text alert that displayed on his lock screen.
‘Levi Ackerman 4:32am:
Remember-Levi Ackerman loves you, so find him and tell him you love him when you wake up.’
Fuck he was cute. Levi smiled as he read the words on the screen.
Eren reached up to grip his chin gently and pulled him down for another kiss. This one was just as exhilarating as the first, his lips caressing Levi’s tenderly, almost reverent. His arms snaked around Levi’s waist and pulled the shorter man onto the couch so that he was straddling the brunette on his knees. Levi gave in and wrapped an arm around the other boy’s torso, his other hand came up to cup Eren’s cheek.
They finally broke apart, gasping.
“I love you,” Eren declared, voice firm.
“I know.” Levi stood up and reached for Eren’s hand. “Come on now.”
“Where are we going?”
“Bed.”
“But I thought—”
“Bed and sleep, you perverted brat. Do you know what time it is?” Levi led the still-stumbling boy from the living room to his bedroom. “You seriously need to go the fuck to sleep.”
Eren draped his arms around Levi’s shoulders, resting his chin on top of Levi’s head as he followed him to the bed. “If this is a dream, I don’t ever want to wake up. I’ve never been this happy.”
God the kid was openly honest and cute when he was drunk. Levi smiled as Eren plopped down on his bed, tugging him down into an embrace. He could really get used to this, he thought as Eren nuzzled the nape of his neck.
“Remind me to check my phone,” Eren muttered, his voice heavy with fatigue.
“Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of you finding the message and reminding yourself of tonight’s transgressions?” Levi retorted.
“Leee-viiii,” Eren whined.
Levi sighed and got up. Walking over to his desk, grabbed a sharpie from the drawer and pushed Eren’s hair out of his face.
“What are you doing?” Eren asked, sitting up.
“Making sure you won’t forget anything tomorrow.” Levi pressed the sharpie to Eren’s forehead and started writing.
Eren, being the drunk idiot he was at the time, just sat there and let him do it, a lopsided smile still plastered on his face. Levi stood up to admire his handiwork and capped the Sharpie. “Alright, now go to bed.”
“Wha’d you wri’?” Eren slurred, eyes dropping as he flopped back against the pillows, sprawling across the mattress in an uncoordinated web of limbs.
“Don’t worry about it,” Levi said as he crawled under the covers with the boy.
The brunette was already snoring lightly.
Levi turned to stare at Eren’s sleeping face, admiring how serene and peaceful the boy looked. The tips of his long, dark lashes just caught the last rays of light from the moon, his lips were pressed in a goofy smile, and the words ‘Check your fucking phone’ in big, black letters were scrawled across his forehead.
Levi smiled as he closed his eyes. He had a feeling Eren would definitely remember what happened tonight.