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Levi first realised he had a complete weirdo for a neighbour when, as the boy passed in front of his house one chilly winter morning, a potato fell from his pocket and landed softly in the snow on his walkway. Levi had been scraping the ice from the window of his shitty Buick but paused when the boy had slammed the door of his house loud enough to startle him and then had run past in a hurry, his forest-green cape jacket billowing behind him. The kid obviously didn’t notice the item tumbling from his pocket so Levi, with a small huff, called out to him.
“Hey, kid,” he walked over to the item the boy had dropped and looked down at it, “you dropped your…potato…” Levi sighed loudly. It was too early for this shit.
The boy in question stopped abruptly and turned to Levi with a bashful half-smile. His cheeks were rosy from the cold and his eyelashes sparkled with frost around his large green eyes.
“Oh…um, thank you,” he said, reaching a hand up to scratch the back of his neck as he walked over to grab it, eyes cast downward.
“Wait just a minute, kid,” Levi said as the boy kneeled in the snow to grab it. Levi noticed his nails were painted a shimmery white. “What’s your name?” He had meant to ask why he had a potato in his pocket, but decided at the last second he didn’t want to know.
The boy looked up at him from the ground, potato in hand. “I’m Eren,” he said, with wide eyes, probably surprised he wasn’t being interrogated about the root vegetable that had fallen from his pocket.
Levi nodded once, then walked back to his car, not offering his own name. “Try not to drop any more potatoes on my sidewalk, Eren,” he called as he opened the door and got in.
“It’s to ward off winter colds!” Eren called, too late. Levi was already backing up down the drive.
Levi saw Eren around more often as the months passed and the thick blanket of snow began to melt, giving way to fresh spring grass and bluer skies.
He wondered how he never noticed the kid before, scurrying to and from the house next to his, always in a hurry, always toting a leather satchel strapped across his chest, always with a pleasant (if slightly embarrassed) smile towards Levi if he saw him as he passed. Levi always nodded grimly in return. The satchel wearing had only, as far as he knew, started after the Potato Incident, and he always found himself wondering vaguely what the boy was carrying around in that bag of his.
One particularly miserable afternoon, after a morning of sniffling and coughing dryly up and down the walkway, shovelling snow, Eren morphed up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Shit! Fuck!” Levi jumped and spun, slipping on the ice and ultimately landing on his ass.
“I’m sorry!” Eren shouted, too loud, his hands up and mouth opened wide. “I didn’t mean to startle you!”
Levi glared at him. “You didn’t! Damn it,” he muttered a string of curses under his breath as he stood up, ignoring the hand Eren reached out to help him up. “What do you think you’re doing, anyways? Lurking around behind me like a – like a brat.”
Eren’s face flushed with emotion, first anger, then annoyance, and finally settling on a vaguely chastised expression, his eyebrows drawn together and his lips pouting in a small frown.
“I noticed you sounded like you had a cold. And you were shovelling my path too, so, I – uh – ”
Levi nodded in understanding. “You were gonna offer to do it instead.”
“No I wasn’t!”
Levi stared at him dully.
“I was just – um – I brought you a little po – er – tea mixture to help you feel better. If you want it, that is…” he trailed off, fishing out a small burlap packet from his pocket and offering it to Levi, his head bowed. Levi sneezed.
“What’s in it?” he asked with a scowl as he pulled a tissue from his own pocket to wipe at his nose.
“Lavender, chamomile, lemon rind, a bit of thyme… some rose petals…it’ll taste really good with some honey and milk.”
Levi couldn’t help notice how the kid’s eyes lit up when he explained. He slowly reached out and took the packet from Eren and the kid smiled sweetly, his cheeky rosy, as they usually seemed to be. He felt his own cheeks start to colour and he coughed briefly.
“So you’re not gonna help shovel, then?” he asked, just to be rude.
Eren straightened up and looked down at Levi. It made him feel even shorter than usual and he crossed his arms in annoyance. The smile hadn’t left his face.
“Okay, I’ll do it!” He declared proudly after a moment, and pulled the shovel away from Levi. Levi didn’t let it go.
“I was kidding, brat, go back to your… whatever it is that you do,” he finished lamely.
“I’m a writer,” he said softly, casting his eyes to the side. And fuck if it wasn’t oddly endearing.
“What do you write?” Levi asked, wondering why he hadn’t dropped this conversation yet. He squeezed the burlap packet Eren had given him, it’s weight felt nice in his hand.
“Uhhh,” he laughed awkwardly, “romance novels, mostly. Sometimes I do an advice column in a couple magazines, when money’s tight.” He was rubbing the back of his neck again, just above the collar of his baggy grey knit. His eyes slowly wondered back to Levi’s own. “I use a pseudonym,” he added.
Levi found his lips turning up a bit at the corners. He’d never tell anyone, but he was a sucker for a good romance. He turned his almost-smile into a smirk.
“Well, better get back to writing shitty harlequins then, Eren,” he said. “Thanks for the tea.”
When he had finished shovelling, both his and Eren’s walkways, he brewed up the tea mixture Eren had given him. It was delicious. The next day, his cold was gone and he caught himself smiling over in the direction of Eren’s house more than once. He resolutely decided to stay inside. His cold may have perished, but something was definitely wrong with him.
A few weeks after that, Levi had gone over to Eren’s door, knocking briefly and then asking if he could buy more of that tea mixture off of him. Eren had smiled and went to retrieve some, presumably from his kitchen, while Levi waited on the porch, refusing Eren’s offer to come inside.
Eren’s house was lively in all the ways that a house shouldn’t be – according to Levi – and frankly, it creeped him out a bit. The first warning was the odd bundle of dried dill hanging above the doorway, and the thorny branches piled beside the quaint porch-swing. From his limited view inside, Levi could easily spot close to fifty candles in various states of melting – a few were still burning, hot wax dripping languidly down their sides. The air inside drifted out, covering him in its hazy perfume of incense – was that sandalwood? There were lots of things from what he could see, in addition to the candles; dried flowers and potpourri; stacks of haggard-looking books; little vials of herbs and salts; rows of crystal rock formations; chimes hanging haphazardly around the room. Dust particles danced in the dim light that was being emitted from the tacky lamp in the corner. Despite all this, and the way the mess made Levi’s skin crawl, he felt oddly compelled to go inside and just live in the weird comfort of it all. When Eren returned, he was carrying a fat cat in addition to a large pouch of the tea. The big orange thing hissed at Levi.
“I hope you washed your hands, kid,” Levi said.
Eren gave him the tea for free. “It’s a new mixture, you get to be my test dummy,” he said.
Ginseng; rose petals; orange rind; jasmine, and lavender – it was even better than the last one, Levi thought as he sprawled out on his bed that night, his skin tingling and his eyes hazy, his third mug steaming lazily beside him.
It was when spring had fully settled that Eren started to get out of hand. Levi had a bit of a green thumb, and now that the ground had defrosted, most of his days were spent outside, tending to his garden. It was always a point of pride to him, and that’s why he didn’t mind the longing looks that Eren would send over the fence at it from where he sat perched on his porch-swing. What he did mind was when he caught him, scissors in hand, skulking around the aster bush.
“Oi, brat, what the hell do you think you’re doing!?” He stormed out of his door and down into the garden, towards Eren.
Eren looked up, eyes wide, and dropped his scissors, stepping back, and right onto a cluster of bluebells. Levi gasped and pounced on him, grabbing his collar and tossing him out of the garden, to the safety of the grass. He had no time to mourn the bluebells before he jumped on Eren’s torso where he had landed, pinning him to the ground. “You better damn well explain yourself or I swear to god Eren, I will kill you,” he said lowly. In the back of his mind he wondered why he hadn’t already.
“I…” Eren stopped.
“Well!?”
“I really have no excuse, I just wanted some aster flowers for a salad?” he said quickly, then scrunched up his face in anticipation of the punch he was sure would come. “Please don’t hit me too hard, I bruise easily.”
Seconds passed and when no punch came Eren tentatively opened his eyes to the view of Levi covering his mouth with one hand, shoulder’s shaking in silent laughter.
“You…are such… a shit!” he said between breaths. He sighed deeply and pulled himself off of Eren. A glance down at him revealed the boy looking halfway between relived and confused. “You gonna lay there all day?” he asked after he regained his composure.
Eren sat up and stared at Levi with his big eyes, still looking confused, and a lit bit constipated. “I didn’t know you could laugh,” he said finally.
“I can’t,” Levi deadpanned, “I had all my emotions removed as a child. All that remains is my bitterness.”
Eren tilted his head to the side.
“You’re really dense, kid,” he said. “Are you ever going to stand up, or do you need help?”
Eren blushed and hustled to his feet. He glanced over at the aster bush. “I, uh, dropped my scissors.”
Levi rolled his eyes and went to grab them.
“You know,” he said, “you could have just asked to have some, rather than steal them. I guess that would be too strenuous for you, though.”
“You’re not exactly the most approachable person,” he said to Levi’s back. “I don’t – I don’t even know your name,” he finished hastily. Levi could practically feel the kid blushing.
“It’s Levi.”
“Le-vi,” Eren repeated, tasting the name on his tongue. “Levi.”
“You could’ve asked for my name a million times, by the way. You’re inability to carry a conversation rests on your own shoulders, not mine.” He handed the scissors back to Eren. “I should destroy these, and maybe chop off your thieving hand while I’m at it.”
“Every other sentence you say is a threat! It’s intimidating!”
Levi smirked and looked over to his garden again. “If you want some plants to cook with, you’ll have to give me some more tea.”
“Really? You’ll let me have some?”
He sounded so goddamn earnest it embarrassed him. He even felt his cheeks begin to heat. “Yeah, whatever.” A flash of orange fur atop the fence caught Levi’s attention. “By the way, Eren, my niceties don’t extend to that fat-ass cat of yours. Keep that beast out of my garden.”
The cat paused on the fence as if it heard him and turned its squashed-looking face to stare at him with disdain.
“Titan is a sweetheart,” Eren said, looking over at the cat that was now licking its paw daintily. “You’re a good boy, Mr. Titan, aren’t you? Such a sweet, good, kitty cat,” he cooed at it. “And he isn’t fat, he just had big bones,” he said under his breath.
“Just watch your fat cat, kid, I’ve got catnip growing in here.”
Two days later Titan got into the catnip. Unfortunately for the cat, the plant was situated next to a blackberry bush. The cat, high off its ass, was rolling itself up against the bush when Levi spotted it, it’s thick fur matted with brambles. Levi huffed indignantly and grabbed the creature by the scruff of its’ neck, dodging the claws it swiped out at him.
Levi trudged his way over to Eren’s door and knocked loudly. He vaguely noted that the door was now adorned with a wreath made up of pliable twigs interwoven with baby’s breath and cornflowers. Weaved through the center in hemp string was a pentagram.
“What…”
The door opened suddenly and Eren was there, smiling at Levi. His messy brown hair was pinned back from his eyes with little pastel green clips that matched the soft thin sweater he wore. Over that he had a white apron that declared in elegantly stitched scrawl, “HOCUS POCUS” with a picture of a bubbling caldron beneath it. Having taken in his outfit, Levi’s eyes flicked back up to Eren’s face. His cheeks were dusted with flour.
“I found this in my garden, next to the catnip.”
Eren gasped and pulled the cat into his arms. “Naughty kitty!”
Levi watched for a minute as Eren babied the cat while it tried to roll around in his arms, still high as a kite.
“It was rolling in brambles, you’re probably going to have to wash it.”
Eren’s face fell. “You’re probably right,” he sighed. “He’s almost impossible to wash by myself… normally I have Mikasa around to help me…”
Levi wondered vaguely who this Mikasa person was and how they were acquainted with Eren. His stomach turned a bit, probably because of the heady incense smell wafting from Eren’s house as usual, he told himself. He shook his head to clear it.
“I could help,” he offered, cursing himself internally and hoping Eren would refuse.
“Really!?” The kid lit up like a beacon. Levi swore his eyes literally fucking sparkled.
“I guess. But you owe me, brat,” he sighed and followed Eren reluctantly into his home.
“I was actually just baking something for you,” he said conversationally as they passed from the entrance room to the kitchen.
“You were – what?”
Eren gestured to the small wooden island in the middle of the kitchen, where a few mixing bowls and a small back dish sat. One bowl was filled with a lump of dough, and the other some sort of bright red berry concoction that dripped over the sides. Flour coated the island and powdered the floor. Levi looked at Eren blankly.
“It’s, um, a thank you, for the other day.”
It was Levi’s turn to rub the back of his neck. “You don’t need to bake a cake to thank me, kid. You already gave me more tea.”
“It’s a pie,” he said quickly, “chocolate strawberry.”
Levi glanced around at kitchen at the mess of dried herb bundles and succulents that cluttered the windowsills, the books stacked haphazardly, the dishes piled in the sink, and the peppering of sugar or salt dirtying the counters. His hands twitched at his sides with the urge to clean.
“…We should wash your cat,” he said finally.
Eren nodded in agreement, and they exited the other end of the kitchen down a short hallway that led to two doors. Eren opened the one on the right to the bathroom – the other presumably led to his bedroom.
The bathroom, thankfully, was less of a mess than the kitchen, though it was just as cluttered with a random assortment of colourful soaps and mason jars of pearlescent liquids. Along the small shelf beside the sink were more half-burned candles and chunks of rose quartz and amethyst rocks.
“You sure have a lot of things,” Levi said, thinking over how austere his own décor was in comparison.
“Yeah,” Eren said, placing Titan in the claw-foot tub with one hand and pulling his apron off with the other. “I don’t like to go shopping too often, so I get the things I know I’ll need in bulk.”
“Right…” Levi wondered who on earth really needed the things that Eren had in bulk.
When he turned the knob on the tub, Levi realised why Eren needed help with bathing the cat. Titan hissed loudly and writhed in Eren’s grip, clawing desperately at his arms. Levi rolled up the sleeves of his black shirt and kneeled beside Eren, reaching out to grab the fat thing as it’s hissing increased tenfold.
By the time they had finished picking out all the burs and scrubbing the dirt from Titan’s fur, the two were soaked from the hips upward and Eren couldn’t stop giggling at the sight Levi made – with his hair plastered to his forehead and an annoyed furrow in his brow, he didn’t look that far off from Titan. He held the miserable cat up (towel-wrapped) next to Levi for comparison and it had him wheezing so hard he lost his grip on Titan, who scurried away frantically.
“Hey – come – back – here –” He called half-heartedly between breaths.
Levi couldn’t help himself when he reached out a hand to tussle Eren’s wet hair. Just like a dog, he thought, and his hand lingered until Eren had calmed down enough to look at him with those dazzling big eyes. The moment stretched between them and Eren leaned minutely into his hand. Levi’s eyes flicked down to his lips and he inadvertently flicked his tongue over his own. When Eren started to lean forwards, tilting his head slightly, Levi began to mirror him. Then, realising that he was about to actually kiss the kid he pulled back and stiffened with a jolt. What was he doing? Eren, blessedly, only blinked once in confusion and didn’t say anything.
Levi was ace. He knew absolutely that he has not ever wanted to do anything more than hug or hold hands with a person, and even then, only if he knew them at an intimately emotional level. He had come to terms with this years ago, maybe at the age (he mentally cringed) that Eren was now. His girlfriend at the time, Petra, had sat him down and asked him straight up if he was asexual. He had never even heard of the term. She explained it briefly and in few words: ‘It’s someone who doesn’t feel sexual attraction… but can still want a relationship or find someone cute and stuff.’ He felt relieved that this was apparently a thing, and despite the easy explanation she offered, he felt comfortable saying that yes, absolutely, that was him. She stuck with him for a few months after that, before she admitted that she didn’t think she could be the person he needed her to be. They remained friends, but at the time Levi had been heartbroken. And now, suddenly, here was this kid that he barely knew, and he felt this strong pull telling him to press his lips against his. ‘And stuff’… did that stuff include kissing? He didn’t know about doing anything else, didn’t want to think about it after this revelation, but he knew that what he did want to do was already causing a wave of anxiety to settle over him. It was disquieting to have your identity stricken from you so abruptly. But he had always been good at acting like everything was fine.
Levi stood up as Eren fiddled with a towel, and he squeezed some of the excess water from his shirt with a scowl as the material clung to him. Seeing it was useless, he pulled the shirt off completely.
“You got a drier I can use, brat?” He asked, looking down at Eren who was staring up at him with wide eyes and a red face. His voice only wavered a little bit.
“I – uh – hm..?”
Levi raised his eyebrows. “Enjoying the view?” He was a bit flattered.
“Yes! I mean, yes, I have a drier, obviously. Here, I’ll – ” he dropped the towel and scurried to his feet to grab the shirt from Levi, “Make yourself at home, I’ll just go, uh, dry this. Yeah.” He all but ran from the room. He was cute, Levi thought.
He found himself wondering back into the kitchen with a look on his face that was halfway between a smile and a frown and his mind on overdrive. Walking back into the mess, though, had a scowl back on his face in an instant.
“Disgusting…”
He walked towards the sink, intent on finding some cleaning supplies for a quick once-over, when the open leather-bound book sitting next to the baking sheets caught his eye. The page it was open to had a large symbol he had never seen before at the head of the page, underneath which was written “Sweet Strawberry Sigil Pie for a Lover” followed by the recipe. Levi felt his face flush with embarrassment, for both himself and for Eren. This kid is so weird. He ignored the happy little turn his stomach did. Sigil, though? Curious, he checked the cover of the book:
The House Witch: Everyday Spells and Potions for a Happy Home
Oh… Levi thought. Oh. And then it all made sense to him. Well, far from all of it, but he didn’t really want to know the details that went into being a witch. He thought back to the teas Eren had gifted him with and how they made him act weirdly unlike himself, and the strange tingling that would churn his stomach when the boy smiled at him, and how he let the brat get away with way too much without thinking too much about it – how he had almost kissed him. He scowled at the book and pushed it away from himself with a choked noise.
“…Levi?”
Eren looked tentatively from him to the book and back again. He had changed out of his sweater and into an oversized black hoodie – his hands were stuffed in the pockets and he was all slouched in on himself. The seconds ticked by without either of them saying a word.
“So you’re a witch, then?” Levi asked bluntly, staring at a point over Eren’s shoulder.
“I – I would’ve – it’s not something that comes up in everyday conver– ”
“—Save it.” Levi’s scowl deepened. “You’ve been…poisoning me.” He ran a hand over his face and felt suddenly so exhausted. The weird attraction he had towards Eren; the fluttering in his stomach when they spoke; his strange need to placate the boy constantly – all of it, Levi realised, was only the result of all this… hocus pocus bullshit.
“What – no!”
Levi brushed past Eren and headed for the front door. “I don’t really care to hear what you call it – tricking, hexing, whatever – it’s all the damn same.”
“Levi – please – wait a minute!”
“Don’t let me catch you on my property again,” was all he said as he stepped outside, looking back at Eren one last time and wishing he hadn’t.
The kid had no right to look that miserable and goddamn broken, with his eyes bubbling over with tears and his soft mouth hanging open slightly in some facsimile of shock. All at once Levi felt an overload of conflicting emotions. Probably just the residual effects of the sorcery he’s been feeding me, he decided with a grimace. He left the door open behind him.
His hands were shaking when he opened the door to his own home – not nearly as far away as he wanted to be at that moment – and he chalked it up to anger. He pointedly ignored the quivering of his lips and the wetness in his eyes.
His house was laid out the same as Eren’s, but it seemed larger because of the lack of decorations. His furniture was sleek and light coloured (better to see dirt on) and other than a few large potted plants in each room, it was pretty much bare. Levi headed straight to his bedroom and sprawled himself out on top of his comforter (white, patterned with cartoon honey pots and bees – a gift from Hanji that he’d never admit to using as frequently as he does). He let out a long-suffering sigh and toed his socks off, letting them slip to the floor.
A witch, though – an honest to god, potion-brewing, spell-casting witch. And he was his neighbour. But wouldn’t him being a guy make him a wizard? A slightly hysterical giggle hiccupped from his throat and he slapped a hand over his mouth. All things considered, Levi was actually a lot less upset about Eren being a witch than he had a right to be. What did make his blood boil was that the kid had been spelling his way into his heart with… what, exactly? Tea magic. Probably some sort of messed up incantations and blood rituals performed with plants stolen from his garden under the full moon. That’s what witches normally did, right? Levi fell asleep imagining the possibilities.
He awoke hours later with the image of Eren flying around on a broomstick wearing a pointed hat imprinted in his mind. He slipped off his bed and straightened the sheets in the dull orange light seeping in through the window. He had slept straight through to sunset. After, he made his way to his kitchen, flicking a couple of lights on on the way. Before he had realised what he was doing he had the latest pouch of tea from Eren open on his counter and the kettle whistling at a boil.
“Shit…”
Levi turned the stove off and slumped down the counter, tea in hand. He lifted it to his face and inhaled deeply. It smelled most strongly of vanilla and chamomile, with undertones of lavender and rose. He held his breathe and poured a bit out into his hand and examined the loose-leaf mixture. It looked…well…like normal tea. There was no strange glitter or cut up symbols or bird bones like he was half expecting there to be. He dropped the tea back into the pouch and rubbed his eyes. God, I’m an asshole, he thought. It had been months since he first met Eren, and he had done nothing more than lean in to – almost – kiss him. If he was using magic to seduce him, he was doing an awful job of it. He remembered reading up on asexuality when he was younger – all the different forms it could take, the different types of attraction people could feel, and how it was a spectrum. He had thought he fit in a certain category of it, but his lack of experience in matters of relationships meant that he didn’t really know, and the run-in with Eren in his bathroom proved that. Levi knocked his head back against the cupboard with a bit more force than necessary. Why am I so bad at this?
A knock on the door startled him enough to hit his head once more. He groaned and rubbed the bump that was surely forming as he made his way over. When the door swung open, he stepped backwards with a small noise that was nearly a squeak.
Eren stood in the entrance wearing a long green cloak and a pointed black hat. In his hands he held the pie from earlier, now finished and swirling a delicious fragrant scent into the air. He was staring at the pie in his hands with and earnest look on his face. When Levi cleared his throat, he looked up.
“Um…trick or treat?” He winced as he said it.
“It’s July.”
“Yeah,” Eren held out the pie in a consolatory gesture, “Look, Levi, I’m really sorry I never told you that I’m a witch, I just didn’t know how and – and I thought you would freak out… which, well, you did…” He bit at the corner of his lip. “I never used any magic on you, though! I promise you that the tea – and this pie, too – are really not enchanted, I wouldn’t do that – the recipe you saw, I just used the ingredients, I never wrote the sigil on it. I mean – the ingredients together are said to evoke feelings of romance and happiness but their properties aren’t magical, they just – ”
“Eren. Stop.” Levi pried the pie gently from his hands. “I believe you, and I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions like that, I’m the one who should be sorry.”
Eren looked down at him with wide eyes and slightly parted lips.
“Just tell me – why are you dressed like that?”
Eren blushed madly. “I just figured I’d go all-out witch – for the sake of not lying to you anymore and all…” he smiled a bit. “I also – can you wait here for a minute?” He was already backing up on anxious feet. “I’ll be right back!”
Levi stood there, dumbfounded, as Eren ran down his driveway and then up his own where he disappeared out of sight for a moment. Levi’s heart was pounding in his chest. When he returned he was carrying an old straw broomstick.
“Are you shitting me?’
“Levi… would you do me the honour of coming for a ride?” Eren was smiling at him shyly with his head bowed.
“Ah, fuck, I guess I’ve got nothing to lose.” He set the pie down on a shelf near his door and allowed Eren to tug him out gently by the wrist.
The broom was straddled by Eren, who then gestured for Levi to do the same. He mounted behind him a bit awkwardly, hanging his hands down by his side. He couldn’t quite believe this was happening and he felt a little light-headed. Eren glanced back at him over his shoulder with a grin.
“Put your arms around my waist and hold on tight.”
Levi draped his arms loosely around Eren’s waist and Eren kicked off. Suddenly the ground was moving away from him and wind was rushing coolly over his face and sides. He realised he was squeezing Eren too tightly when one of his hands pressed over-top of his own, fingers rubbing circles over it. He let up a little and instead buried his face in the back of Eren’s cloak. It was warm and soft against his skin. Eren flew them higher and higher, until all that was left of the city were little pinpricks of coloured lights miles away. He brought the broom to a hover and reached backwards to tug lightly at a lock of Levi’s hair.
“Hey… you okay?”
Levi looked up at him through his bangs. His cheeks were tinged pink.
“We’re really flying,” he whispered, faintly.
Eren nodded and his own fluffy brown hair tickled Levi’s forehead. He took a deep breath and turned to look at Levi as best he could over his shoulder.
“Hey, Levi?”
“What is it, Eren?” His chest felt about to burst.
“I really like you, y’know?”
Levi allowed his arms to travel further up Eren’s chest and he hugged him closer than before with a smile that he hid against Eren’s shoulder.
“I like you, too,” was his muffled reply.