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The second Levi is through the door, he can feel the surprised stares of his friends and co-workers on the back of his neck and regrets every decision he’s made that has led him to this moment.
(Then he remembers why he’s here, and begrudgingly decides that that’s not entirely true.)
“Getting, ah, in touch with your youth, Levi?” Erwin’s voice is frustratingly polite, and Levi glares at him over his shoulder.
“Go the fuck away.”
“So this is why you’ve been so sneaky about that mysterious boyfriend of yours?” Hanji muses, eyes scanning the crowd appraisingly. “How old are these kids? College? Oh look!” They point to a man just off to the side, checking IDs of the 20-somethings streaming past where they’ve all blocked the doorway. “They’re handing out wristbands to the people who can drink. Oh, I’m feeling nostalgic. Do you guys remember those days?”
Levi presses his thumb and index finger to the bridge of his nose, and when he looks at them, he wonders if he looks as exhausted as he suddenly feels.
They aren’t supposed to be here. If Levi hadn’t been so distracted when they’d invited him for drinks after work, they wouldn’t be. If only Eren hadn’t been texting him...
Opportunely, his phone buzzes in his back pocket, and Levi drags it out with a soft sigh.
“Oh, the boyfriend is texting again.”
“Who’d have thought you’d be so attentive, Levi.”
“Fuck you guys,” Levi mumbles, the words nearly swallowed up by the noise of the crowded bar around them, fingers tapping more rapidly against the screen of his phone than they once had. Dating Eren has made him a much more adept texter than he’s ever been.
“What’s your loverboy saying?” Hanji croons, and Levi almost tells them Eren’s actual name so that they’ll stop using epithets to talk about him.
(Like hell is he doing that.)
“That he got me a table.” Up front, too. Levi knows this whole thing is weirdly important to Eren, that’s why he’s even there, but a table right by that haphazardly constructed stage? Isn’t that going to be crowded? “So you fuckers better leave or find somewhere else to sit.” Far, far away from wherever Levi is going to be.
Eren Jaeger:
look for armin! he’ll show u where to go :)
Well, that shouldn’t be particularly difficult, considering Eren’s overly-blond best friend is like a beacon in most crowds—it’s not hard to spot him at all, especially when Levi knows to look near the front.
His phone buzzes again.
Eren Jaeger:
i’m so excited!!!!!!!
i can’t wait for u to see it :)
i’m so happy u came <3
“The boyfriend must have said something nice, he’s smiling.”
“Or maybe something not-so-nice, because he’s scowling now.”
Levi shoves his phone into his back pocket and pushes into the crowd without warning. At least his stature makes it easier for him to navigate his way through throngs of people, although the permanent glare on his face generally has people getting the fuck out of his way, anyway.
Armin sees him long after Levi has already started in his direction, and thankfully doesn’t do something stupid like yell out Levi’s name.
“Good, you’re here.” Armin looks immensely relieved, like maybe he didn’t expect Levi to show at all. Then his eyes slide past Levi and he looks suddenly and immensely surprised. “Oh. I didn’t know you were bringing people with you.”
Levi’s entire countenance changes, his shoulders going tense as he turns around to find Erwin, Hanji, and Mike directly behind him. The only consolation is they look a little bit less put together than they had before, no doubt in their attempt to follow him through the crowd.
“Neither did I,” Levi comments dryly, the withered look in his eyes doing nothing to dim the manic expression on Hanji’s face.
“You couldn’t lose us driving here, you weren’t going to lose us that easily!” They declare, and Levi lets out a long suffering sigh. “Is this him?” Their eyes immediately lock onto Armin, who shifts nervously under the attention.
“Uh—”
“No.” Better to stop that train of thought before things either get uncomfortable or Armin lets something unnecessary slip.
“He could be lying.”
“Wouldn’t put it past him.”
“Uh—” Armin says again, and then smiles tightly at Levi. “This table should be big enough for all of you, just.” He pats the back of one of the chairs. “Be sure to sit here. Eren was pretty insistent.”
Levi closes his eyes as Armin excuses himself quickly, something about going to get ready that gets drowned out by the idiots he is going to beat the shit out of after this is all over.
“Mysterious boyfriend has a name!”
Levi falls into the seat Armin had indicated, wishing he’d had the forethought to grab a large amount of alcohol from the bar before fending his way here. Random bars in college towns don’t generally boast cocktail waitresses.
“So Eren, huh?” Hanji asks fas they fall into the seat beside him. Levi doesn’t respond, focusing more on making sure the small table in front of him is clean enough to rest his arms on.
“Hopefully they announce the names of the performers or we still might miss our chance to meet him,” Erwin points out.
“Performers?”
Erwin holds up a neon piece of paper, clearly mass-printed if the quality is any indication, that declares information about some sort of LIP SYNC EXTRAVAGANZA.
“I got this from the gentleman handing out wristbands.”
Levi can only hope they don’t. Or, if they do, that Eren is going by some stupid, obnoxious monicker. Even then... Levi is essentially sitting at center stage. What’s the chance that Eren won’t do something stupidly obvious to indicate that he knows Levi in some fashion?
Low, he realizes immediately. Immensely low.
“Don’t be assholes,” Levi mutters suddenly, breaking into whatever insightful conversation they’d been having about the LIP SYNC EXTRAVAGANZA. They all turn to look at him, and his eyes dart around the table.
“Don’t worry.” Hanji slings their arm around his shoulder, and Levi immediately shakes it loose. “We won’t embarrass you in front of your Eren.”
“As much as we like to tease you, Levi.” Erwin pauses long enough to look pointedly at their environment, and Levi suppresses a groan. “We do realize that you’ve been happier recently and that this Eren is most likely the cause.” His mouth tips into a smile.
“He’ll probably pass all of their tests,” Mike says, going for assuring but just making Levi feel more alarmed.
“Tests?” He splutters angrily, but before another word can be said, the entire bar goes dark and the crowd starts screaming and cheering, leaving Levi to sit there in his anxiety as lights start flashing around and an unseen MC is announcing the LIP SYNC EXTRAVAGANZA over the sound system.
Fucking fantastic.
*
The first three acts consists of his no-longer-friends bemoaning the fact that the performers are not, in fact, announced. On top of that, they are all performing in groups, which makes it harder to pick out individuals, resulting in a trying-to-guess-who-Eren-is-game that has Levi grinding his teeth. It’s not only obnoxious, but it’s clear that none of them think Levi has any taste.
By the end of the third song, the only feeling that is completely mutual is how out of place they all are.
“Has anyone known any of these songs?” Erwin asks, sounding tired.
“No,” they all concur in unison, and then Hanji laughs.
“When did we all get so old?” They ask, just as the lights dim for the last performance.
It’s Eren’s. Levi knows as him and his friends shuffle onto the stage in the cover of darkness, able to pluck his familiar shape out of the shadows on the stage, and is surprised to find Eren looking at him and smiling him.
Hanji smacks Erwin on the arm eagerly.
“This is it,” they hiss. “Levi is smiling, he’s got to be in this group.”
Fucking shit.
There is a very sudden series of clapping, and the lights go up, and Levi realizes that through the last twenty minutes of musical performances, he didn’t once try to imagine what Eren’s group would be doing.
He is sure, in his imagination, that he never would have imagined this.
Levi doesn’t know all of Eren’s friends—in fact, he knows hardly any of them. But he would bet that almost every guy he knows is up on that stage, dressed in flower-bright colors and lip syncing clearly female ooh-ooh-oohooh’s as they clap-clap-snap in time to the music that plays through the speakers.
The exception being Eren, standing center stage, popping his hip in time to the music. He’s not the only person on stage wearing a flower crown, but his presence is the most eye-catching. Possibly because he seems to be the lead, the rest of the group fanned around him in a semi-circle.
Levi didn’t live through the 60s, but if he had, he’s sure he’d be suffering from some serious flashbacks right in that second.
Then Eren is opening his mouth to sing along to the opening lyrics, and Levi’s heart hits the floor.
“I got the music, you got the moves, I’m still the one that’s in love with you.”
Oh god. Oh shit god no, this is not happening.
“Oh my god,” Hanji giggles beside him, clearly thrilled by this turn of events, and Levi is sure he’s going to die right there in that bar.
clap-clap. snap
“I’m like a movie.” Eren flashes his million-dollar-smile and fucking winks, and several girls somewhere in the crowd catcall. “You’re like the news.” The grin turns apologetic and sheepish, and if Levi wasn’t already mortified beyond any kind of reactive expression, he might roll his eyes. “I’m still the one that’s in love with you.”
And then, the choreographed dancing begins.
“This is the best moment of my life,” Hanji says much too loudly to be considered a whisper, although they stress their voice to sound hushed all the same.
clap-clap. snap
“We dance in the living room and—”
Wait. Levi’s wrong. He hadn’t recognized it at first, because he’s never heard the actual song, but he’s heard Eren sing it before.
“—we move to the beating of our blood.”
Dozens and dozens of times. In the car when the lack of anything good makes them turn off the radio, or while he’s washing dishes, or garbled through brushing his teeth. He has even tried to coerce Levi into a waltz around the living room whispering these very same lyrics.
clap-clap. snap
Eren presses his hand to his heart and then gestures right to where Levi was sitting, and if anyone had been dumb to the serenade aspect of this whole ordeal before, they aren’t now.
“You are the one.” He points back at himself, pauses, smiles, the poignancy of the line sitting there like a secret on his lips, and then it’s gone in another beat of the music. “I am the two. I’m still the one that’s in love with you.”
Levi scrubs his hands over his face and hates his fucking boyfriend for doing this to him. Have they not had a conversation about abject humiliation? Probably because Levi didn’t find it necessary.
clap-clap. snap
Even with the rolling waves of embarrassment in his stomach, though, he can still feel the tub of a smile that he’s putting all of his energy into fighting because fuck if he doesn’t love this stupid, ridiculous, sunshine of a person.
you and me
we got the beat
we got the heartbeat
After a horribly choreographed dance break in which nearly all of them fuck up multiple times, the music lulls and the rest of the dancers go still, the entire atmosphere on stage going suddenly sombre and serious. Eren approaches the edge of the stage and, in turn, Levi.
“You saved my life.” A beat. “I’ll save yours, too.” And then the cheesy, boppy pop is back, although Eren stays right where he is, crouching down close to the stage as his back-up dancers sway behind him. “I’m still the one that’s in love with you.”
clap-clap. snap
Eren wonders how much he had to pay Jean to participate in this.
“I’m still the one that’s in love with you.”
He looks vaguely like he might hop off the stage and come right over, and Levi carefully widens his eyes to try and convey that he should, under no circumstances, do that.
“You and me.” Eren gestures unnecessarily between himself and Levi, hands settling over his heart. “We got the beat.” His palms hit a beat against his chest.
clap-clap. snap
“I’m still the one that’s in love with you.”
The music ends so abruptly that Levi isn’t quite expecting it, and the entire bar is shouting and cheering as Eren’s group bows and yells back. It isn’t an overwhelming response—quite the same as how the crowd had reacted to the first three performances, really—and yet, in all the commotion, Eren easily hops of the stage like he’s obviously been longing to do for the last three minutes, and then he’s right there, sweating and beaming and beautiful.
“So?” He asks, sounding slightly breathless as he wipes at his hairline with the back of his head, successfully skewing that ridiculous flower crown so it sits crooked.
Levi blinks, glancing around himself like maybe Mike, Erwin, and Hanji have suddenly disappeared, but they are all sitting right there, leaning eagerly inwards. Hanji’s smile looks positively shark-like.
Eren doesn’t give any of them a second glance, eyes only on Levi. It’s like he doesn’t even seem to realize that Levi isn’t sitting by himself.
Levi opens his mouth to respond, and finds he has nothing to say. What does he say to something like that? He presses his fingers to his mouth, eyebrows furrowing.
Somehow he doesn’t think saying something along the lines of, You’re the most ridiculous, adorable creature I have ever met, and if you ever do that again I will curb stomp you, is quite right.
Eren fidgets nervously, drawing a lip between his teeth. Levi notices that they’re already chapped and reddened from being over-worried.
“I know it was, kind of a lot, it, uh.” His fingers tap in quick, sporadic patterns across the table. “It was Jean’s idea, but I think he was joking at first, but then I kept thinking about it and I thought, why the fuck not? It’s, it’s a big deal, I wanted to make a big deal out of it, I wanted you to know I thought it was a big deal, I didn’t—”
“Eren,” Levi warns, eyes keeping track of Hanji, who looks somewhere between eating Eren and kidnapping him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Oh Levi.”
“You’re awful.”
“Even I got that message.”
Eren seems to realize their peanut gallery for the first time, eyes rounding like a startled deer as he takes them in before a furrow of confusion settles between his brows.
“Who are you?” Eren sounds slightly offended that whatever moment is happening right now is being intruded on.
“They’re the people I’m going to kill tonight,” Levi deadpans, and Eren actually cracks a smile at that before Erwin clears his throat.
“Actually, we’re Levi’s, ah...” Erwin smiles, looking to the others with one arched eyebrow.
“Coworkers?” Mike volunteers.
“Tormenters?” Hanji suggests, snapping their teeth together.
“Friends,” Erwin settles with.
“You brought your friends?” Eren looks genuinely surprised, and Levi doesn’t blame him. Levi talks about them, sure, but he never brings them anywhere Eren is. Or, to be more accurate, never brings Eren within a five mile radius of them.
“I wouldn’t say brought,” Mike says thoughtfully.
“They followed me here,” Levi adds, point-blank. “Against my wishes.”
“It’s your fault!” Hanji cries, turning towards him and nearly upsetting their chair with the violence of the action. “You’ve been dating someone for two months and we haven’t even seen a picture!” They turn to Eren. “We just wanted to meet you. Levi’s so... Private.”
“I know.” Eren looks at Levi, smiling softly. “And we can do introductions later, but, uh, I’ve sort of been planning this so could you guys just leave us alone for a few minutes?” Eren blinks. “Actually.” He’s around the table in no time, grabbing Levi by the wrist and pulling him up from his chair much to the shock of everyone. “We’ll just go somewhere else.”
“They’ll just follow us,” Levi insists as Eren tugs him towards stage-left.
“Not if they can’t,” Eren sing-songs, and then is immediately pulling Levi behind a black curtain that sections of the backstage area.
Levi can’t help but look impressed—even more so when Eren doesn’t stop, but continues leading Levi down a very narrow, low-lit hallway until they’re exiting in to the cool air of the alley on the other side of the building.
“You’re right, they won’t—”
“I love you.”
Levi stills, turning his head slowly until he’s looking at Eren, who looks more than just flushed from their sudden escape.
“That’s what all of that was about, and I know I probably should have just said it because huge displays of affection are, like, your least favorite thing, especially in public, and oh fuck, I just ruined everything, didn’t I? Is it still too late to pretend tonight never happened? Can I just—”
“Eren,” Levi interjects, not completely successful in keeping the laughter out of his voice. “Shut up.”
“Right.” He wilts, and Levi shakes his head, chuckling at this point, before he gently grabs Eren’s chin between his thumb and forefinger and pulls him into a very soft, very gentle kiss.
“You’re an idiot,” Levi breathes against Eren’s mouth, and he laughs—something short, sweet, and bubbly, much like the song he sang.
“But I’m still the one that’s in love with you,” he sings, voice soft and warm, and Levi finds he doesn’t mind the words at all when Eren is the one actually singing them.
Levi sighs, resisting the urge to hide his face away in Eren’s neck or to turn away completely, and instead fights the battle of speaking around a tongue that suddenly feels huge and swollen.
“I love you, too.” Levi counters the words by rapping gently against Eren’s temple with two knuckles. “You fucking shit.” Even still, Eren’s smile gets so bright and big Levi wonders how there’s any room left on his face for it. “Come on, let’s go.”
“What about your friends?”
“They drove separately.”
Eren laughs, lacing his fingers with Levi and swinging their arms with all the giddiness of a young man newly in love as they head for the mouth of the alley.
Levi, for once, can’t altogether blame him.