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“You’ve got to be joking.”
Levi stared at the red tissue paper lining the box and carefully pulled out the gift.
“Really?” he asked Hanji in disbelief. “You’re ‘Rear Window’-ing me?”
Hanji’s peal of laughter at his scowl only deepened the lines between his brows. They crossed the room and wrapped their arms around his shoulders and dropping their chin to rest on his neatly parted hair.
“Oh Levi, you’ve been out in the trenches for so long. I know you miss the action, but just take some time to appreciate the intricacies of normal, everyday life. Look, right out your window, there’s a whole world of people. Some are getting ready for the day, some are just coming home from working the night shift, some are feeding their kids, walking the dog, brushing their teeth—“
“Minding their own business, which is what I should be doing,” Levi interrupted.
“Or…” Hanji said, bringing over his laptop. “You could work on your blog.”
“I don’t have a blog.”
“Yes,” they said, pursing their lips. “You do. We all do. Remember? The paper insisted on it. And yours—“
They toggled a few keys, typing in an unfamiliar domain.
“—is relatively barren. The last post you have is a review of Lake House, starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves from 2006. Do you know what you said?”
“No,” Levi replied truthfully.
“’By far the least exciting of the Speed trilogy,’” Hanji read.
“I stand by that review.”
“The point is I know you’re angry and I know you’re frustrated, but this could be a whole new chapter for you.”
Levi grunted.
“Just…write it for me? I promise I’ll read it.”
<*>
Hanji was right. There was a whole world. A whole world of Levi watching Spanish-language soaps through the window of his neighbor’s apartment. Pobre Laura, she deserved so much better than the Count can give her.
Levi didn’t own a television. He had never stayed in his apartment for longer than a month at a time so he never saw the point. Hanji suggested Hulu or Netflix, but Levi had no idea what those were. He felt a great deal like some alien, like a foreigner in his own land. Strange what living abroad and hopping from country to country, living out of a rucksack will do. He knew he had the whole internet in front of him on his laptop, but he couldn’t be bothered. He’d never had time to peruse TMZ, not when he was busy following up on a murderous warlord or another drone strike. There had been so much of everything and now there was…this.
Petra let herself in with Levi’s spare keys, rescuing Levi from utter boredom.
“Hello! How are we feeling today, Mr. Ackerman?” she asked pleasantly.
Levi grunted out a small, “Fine.”
“Ready to get to work?”
She crossed over to wheel him around and stopped when she saw the binoculars sitting on the table next to him.
“Mr. Ackerman,” she said in a scandalized voice. “Are you peeping on your neighbors?”
“No!” Levi protested. “My friend Hanji got them for me. I’m not trying to watch my neighbors undress. Except for the ‘Dowager Countess’ there, the saucy minx, she likes it.”
She had, in fact, walked past the window several times with her pendulous breasts on full display, growing increasingly frustrated when Levi trained his binoculars on some pigeons instead of her.
“Isn’t that the plot to some Hitchcock film?” Petra asked, picking up the binoculars.
“Yeah. I think Hanji thinks that makes them Grace Kelly, but between you and me, there is no way they are Grace Kelly.”
“Well, I’m no Grace Kelly either, but if you do witness a murder, call me first because I want in on the action. Let’s see what the neighborhood is up to…” Petra pressed the lenses to her eyes and then let out a little, “Oh!”
“What?”
“Nothing!” she said, setting them down. “It’s just your neighbor is…wow.”
“What?” Levi asked, picking them up and trying to find the window she had been looking into.
“Nothing!” she called in a perky voice, wheeling him away from the window.
After PT, Petra helped Levi bathe and then he was freshly clean and exhausted from their work and she left for the day. Levi fell asleep in front of the window, binoculars in his lap.
When he woke, it was under the rudest of circumstances.
“Oh fuck. Oh fuck me, fuck, fuck, yeah, oh!” someone’s moans filtered through his open window.
Levi’s eyes fluttered open and he struggled to find the owner of the voice. He trained his binoculars until he found a poorly lit window. He could barely see the two shapes writhing there, but one of them was loud. With a final shout, their tryst ended and they two shapes lay there. Then one got up and flicked on a light, getting dressed. His partner sat up and said something, but the other left.
Rude.
Levi’s neighbor must have thought so as well because he grabbed a half-full wine glass and hurled it at the wall where it shattered. He lay on the couch, clearly distraught with his arm over his eyes. Levi felt uncomfortable. He’d clearly witnessed something he wasn’t meant to. Besides that, he was clearly perving on two people going at it. Fuck, he was bored. Levi tried to put it out of his mind and set the binoculars aside.
“You have too much power,” he told them. “I won’t use this ability for evil.”
He was talking to inanimate objects. Goddamnit.
He was woken up again by the same neighbor blasting music as he worked on some large mural on his wall, covering up the wine stain with paint. Using that red spot as something to build on. He drank from the bottle as he painted, dancing around in bare feet. That wasn’t a good idea. Did he clean up all of the glass?
The stranger jumped in pain, giving a little hop, checking the sole of his foot.
Yeah, that’s right. That’s what happens when you break wine glasses, you dumbass.
Levi drifted off to sleep somehow and when he woke, it was morning and his neighbor had passed out on the couch. The mural was beautiful in its sheer scope and color. Levi wanted to take a picture, but there was no way he could get the level of detail he wanted with his phone. So he grabbed his laptop and wrote down what it looked like. Or rather what it felt like. Or rather what he felt while looking at it.
The man woke up from his cellphone ringing out an alarm and staggered awake, still shirtless and wearing jeans that were sliding down his lean hips.
“Pepper!” he called sleepily, shaking a bowl of kibble. “Here girl. Pepper!”
A sleek grey and white cat crawled up the fire escape and happily ate her breakfast. Huh. Levi clacked away on his keyboard.
<*>
“I liked that piece you wrote,” Hanji said over speakerphone.
“What piece?” Levi asked.
“About your neighbor. The one who paints.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Levi watched him paint over the wall a few days later, rendering his canvas blank again. It was the start of a ritual that would become far too familiar to Levi. His neighbor would come home exhausted, nap, eat, and then try to go back to bed. Often he couldn’t sleep, so he started painting. Other times he was out all night, slinking home in the early light and feeding the cat.
Where do you go? Levi wondered. Who do you meet?
As always when he had a question he couldn’t answer, he wrote it down.
<*>
“Pepper! Pepper! Where are you?”
This was the third day in a row Levi had been woken up by his neighbor calling for his cat. But Pepper never showed and the bowl remained empty. The man looked down the fire escape for any sign of the grey and white cat, but she was nowhere to be seen. He sighed and put his hand in his hair, surveying the landscape. His eyes landed on Levi and, in panic, Levi backed his wheelchair up, hiding in the shadows. When Levi dared edge closer to the window, the man was gone, the bowl of food still there.
<*>
“Hanji, what is this?”
“What is what?”
“I got some kind of…notice. An email. From Jillian. Jillian said she hopes John finds his cat. Who is Jillian? Is she in legal?”
“…What?”
“I got an email saying, ‘You have a comment on your post from Jillian.’ Who is she?”
“Oh,” Hanji’s laughter crackled through the speakers on his cellphone. “She’s just commenting on the piece.”
“Oh hey! I got another one! From Greg. Well, hello there, Greg.”
The comments filtered in slowly throughout the week. Hanji suggested Levi create a Twitter account. The fuck is a Twitter?
<*>
“John” as Levi had dubbed his muse was screaming at his partner. Insults were exchanged. None of them were comprehensible. Just loud angry voices.
[Twitter][@LeviAckerman:] John is in a fight with his boyfriend. They’re getting loud. I might call the cops.
>[Twitter][@Jillian:] @LeviAckerman oh no! :((((
[Twitter][@LeviAckerman:] Fight’s over. The boyfriend left. I think they’re done.
That night “John” called for Pepper but she didn’t show.
“I feel for him,” Levi typed. “He’s like some country song protagonist who has lost his dog and his wife. He paints his anguish. Each night he paints a beautiful kaleidoscope of color only to paint over it in white the next morning like Penelope unraveling her weaving. Sometimes he sits out on the fire escape, playing his guitar. The words are swallowed up by the city, but I can imagine their meaning. A modern day Holly Golightly singing Moon River looking up at the sky. I feel his melancholy. I carry it with me like a love letter, tucked in my breast pocket. His loneliness is mine own.”
<*>
Something happened after Levi’s most recent post about John and his cat Pepper: Hanji. It was always Hanji. They had taken his blog post to their editor and he had greenlit it to be “featured” on their main page. All week. It was featured all. fucking. week. He gained well over a thousand Twitter followers. Then two thousand. Then ten thousand. The comments on his blog were well over a few thousand. Everyone wanted to know about sexy John and his lost cat. People had started posting signs for a grey and white cat named Pepper. They didn’t have a photo so there was some artistic license. Everyone wanted to know about Levi and he was starting to regret ever using his real name. Thank god he didn’t name the street that divided them! They wanted to know if he was in love with John. Levi didn’t have an answer for that. Fans of his blog had started posting Craigslist ads trying to find John.
He was basking in late afternoon sun, as was “John” when John got up to answer the door. It was his female friend, the Asian one. Levi assumed friend and not lover because they watched tv together and sometimes he’d put his arm around her, but they never did more than that. At least, as far as Levi could see, which was admittedly not much.
The woman marched in and was shouting something at John who looked sleepy and confused. She looked out and pointed across in Levi’s direction and Levi rolled back quickly. She pulled the shades and their conversation continued out of Levi’s eye.
When the shade were pulled back again, John was looking out, his other friend—the blond one—there as well.
He knows, Levi thought in panic.
Levi drew his shades and hid.
<*>
“WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?” said commenter John Lastname on Levi’s blog. “YOURE FUCKING SPYING ON ME? WHAT KIND OF SICK FUCK DOES THAT?”
The comments from “John Lastname” came quickly, an assault from Twitter as well as on his blog.
>[Twitter][@JohnLastname:] @LeviAckerman FUCK YOU.
>[Twitter][@JohnLastname:] @LeviAckerman YOU PERVERT.
>[Twitter][@JohnLastname:] @LeviAckerman I’m calling the cops!
>[Twitter][@JohnLastname:] @LeviAckerman you had no right to invade my privacy like that!
>[Twitter][@JohnLastname:] @LeviAckerman fuck my ex has read that post. now he knows all about my painting tantrum. you fucking humiliated me.
The abuse kept coming, but Levi couldn’t bring himself to block him.
His response to @JohnLastname was brief.
[DM][Twitter][@LeviAckerman:] @JohnLastname I’m really sorry. It wasn’t my intention to post your personal business. I was keeping my blog like a journal and my editor made the call to post it.
>[Twitter][@JohnLastname:] @LeviAckerman i’ve contact a lawyer about it. expect to hear from him.
<*>
When Petra came by, Levi still had the shades drawn.
“Ready?” she asked enthusiastically, pulling the shades to let the light in.
She looked out at the building across the way.
“Which one is his?”
“Whose?” Levi asked, his stomach churning.
“John!” she said. “Everyone is calling it this modern love story.”
“Get away from there,” Levi said pulling her back.
“Why?” she asked.
“They are looking for me,” Levi said, his eyes darting back and forth.
Sure enough, John had called over all of his friends. They all had binoculars and one had an impressive telescope they used to scan the buildings.
“I’m worried they might sue me,” Levi said. “Or that the police will come for me.”
“Is that them there?” Petra pointed and Levi pulled her hand down.
“Probably, yes.”
Petra looked out and then she waved at them. She fucking waved. They waved back.
>[Twitter][@JohnLastname:] @LeviAckerman HA! I see you now you bastard.
“Oh god,” Levi said, putting his hand to his temple.
John stormed from his apartment and then Levi could see him walking purposefully across the street. Thank god Levi’s building had a security guard and desk clerk. Levi had alerted them to the possibility of John’s arrival. John walked into the middle of the empty street and flipped Levi the bird.
“He looks mad,” Petra observed.
That night the group of people at John’s had a party where they blared Moon River on full blast until 3AM.
<*>
“Hi, my friend directed me to your blog post! My name is Karen and I think we found Pepper. My daughter found her after she’d been hit by a car and we took her to the vet and now she’s Princess Buttercup the Third (there are no Princess Buttercups 1-2, my daughter is precocious that way). She wasn’t chipped so we thought it was okay. Have you been in contact with the owner? Do you know how I could get in contact with him to see if Buttercup is his? My husband is terribly allergic to cats so this is actually a blessing. And Gracie has shown she’s so responsible with Buttercup that we’re thinking of getting a dog anyways.
Sincerely,
Karen.”
Attached were several photos of a cat that could have been Pepper wearing a pink cast on her leg and a crown, sitting at tea with a fairy princess 9-yr-old.
[Twitter][@LeviAckerman:] @JohnLastname I think someone found Pepper.
>[Twitter][JohnLastname:] @LeviAckerman really???
Levi sent him Karen’s email address over DM.
Levi didn’t hear anything back so he assumed it wasn’t the same cat. But then one day he looked out the window and John was standing there holding Pepper. When he saw Levi’s shadow watching them he made her wave at him.
There were several comments on Levi’s blog post that night. Most of JohnLastname posting pics of Pepper with the comment, “Getting her chipped this week so I don’t lose her again.”
<*>
>[DM][Twitter][@JohnLastname:] @LeviAckerman are you up?
>[DM][Twitter][@JohnLastname:] @LeviAckerman I can see your light on.
>[DM][Twitter][@JohnLastname:] @LeviAckerman I just wanted to say thanks.
>[DM][Twitter][@JohnLastname:] @LeviAckerman my name is Eren by the way.
>[DM][Twitter][@JohnLastname:] @LeviAckerman this twitter thing is hard. Do you have a skype? Mine is johnlastname1990.
Levi didn’t respond. He looked over across the way. Eren was setting down his phone and starting on a new piece. Levi watched him for a bit, but fell asleep, his head lolling against his shoulder.
When he woke, the wall mural was finished.
It was a detailed portrait of the view from Eren’s window including a dark shadow that Levi recognized as himself, a lone, dark silhouette against a bright cityscape.
<*>
Levi added him.
[Eren:] Hi.
[Eren:] My name isn’t John, obviously. It’s Eren.
[Eren:] but I told you that already.
[Eren:] Yours is Levi, right?
[Levi:] Yes.
[Eren:] I googled you but couldn’t find anything
[Eren:] Well I did find a few really gross pictures of bombing victims from articles you(?) wrote.
[Levi:] Yeah, those are mine.
[Eren:] Oh wow. You’ve written a lot. It sounds like you’ve been everywhere. But not a single picture of your face anywhere. I couldn’t find you on Facebook either.
[Levi:] I’m not on Facebook.
[Eren:] You’re not missing much.
There was a lull. Levi was great in his articles, his editor said he was crisp and concise and that his op-eds had a biting wit. But he was terrible in person. And chatting on messenger wasn’t much better. His articles flowed. His conversations were short and stilted and littered with inappropriate shit jokes.
[Eren:] Did you know there’s a Reddit group dedicated to us?
[Eren:] They ship us.
[Levi:] What’s “ship”?
[Eren:] Like when you want two people to wind up together, haha.
Levi didn’t know how to respond to that so he didn’t.
<*>
It was 3AM a few days later when Eren contacted him again.
[Eren:] Sorry the shipping thing was too weird wasn’t it?
[Levi:] Why do you paint over your paintings?
[Eren:] Oh
[Eren:] Well it’s just a hobby.
[Levi:] What do you do for a living?
[Eren:] Ha. I’m a painter. But not that kind. The kind that paints rich asshole’s foyers on the East Side.
[Levi:] Oh.
[Eren:] Yeah, it’s not glamorous, but you know. It pays the bills.
That night Levi posted another entry about “John.”
“In a way, he’s a symbol of the difference (and similarities) between Millennials and Gen Yer’s like myself. We both grew up in the shadow of a recession. Massive debt, rents not owns, doesn’t own a car. He paints for a living but he doesn’t really ‘paint.’ He dreams of following his passion, creating art, but instead he’s trapped in the everyday scramble for a paycheck. Instead of painting murals on school buildings, he’s avoiding desperate housewives’ advances while he adds a sponge technique to their bedroom.”
[Eren:] I can’t believe you put in the bit about the sponge shit. LOL.
<*>
[Eren:] You know I feel weird I don’t know anything about you but you know everything about me.
[Eren:] You’re a reporter right?
[Levi:] Yeah. I mostly covered warzones.
[Eren:] Oh. That sounds intense.
[Levi:] It was.
There was another lull.
[Eren:] What are you always drinking? A little nightcap? ;)
[Levi:] Tea.
[Eren:] Who’s the redhead? Your wife?
[Levi:] Nurse.
[Eren:] Oh. Hellooo nurse.
[Eren:] You sick?
Levi didn’t answer.
<*>
[Eren:] You know you write so pretty but you’re not really talkative.
[Levi:] I talk plenty.
[Eren:] Oh.
[Levi:] I have also been told I’m incredibly abrasive and rude and that my jokes are inappropriate. I need the buffer that typing offers.
[Eren:] I wonder what you sound like, you know.
[Levi:] like an asshole.
[Eren:] haha. My sister thinks I have a thing for assholes.
<*>
[Eren:] What’s a big dream of yours? Mine is to get some big commission for a mural for a building downtown. It would be all swanky and business men would walk past it on their cellphones yammering about selling stocks and then there’s my art on the side. Just like some cerebral, bright shit you know? How about you?
[Levi:] I’d like to run again.
[Eren:] :(
[Eren:] Why can’t you run now?
<*>
[Eren:] Are you up?
[Eren:] I can see your light on
[Eren:] I’m really upset and could use someone to talk to. Can I call you?
Levi could see Eren pacing his apartment, Pepper shadowing his steps, holding back tears and wiping at his eyes.
Levi sent Eren his phone number. And Eren dialed immediately.
“Hey,” Eren said, his voice froggy.
“What’s wrong?” Levi asked.
Eren let out a sigh at Levi’s voice, relieved he was actually there.
“Nothing, sorry, I’m stupid.”
Levi could see him putting a hand to his forehead.
“I ran into my ex and it was ugly.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I just—I can’t be alone right now. Can you…can you come over?” Eren asked.
Eren looked over hopefully. Levi felt like they were making eye contact even though Levi had taken to keeping his apartment in complete darkness so Eren couldn’t look in.
“No, sorry,” Levi murmured.
“Why not?” Eren asked, his voice breaking.
“I can’t leave sorry,” Levi said, clutching his wheelchair.
“Are you agoraphobic? Because I can come over!” Eren suggested.
“No. Eren I don’t think—“
But Eren was already scaling down the fire escape and across the street. Levi heard him arguing with the doorman over the phone.
Eren stepped back into the empty street, look up at Levi.
“Let me up, Levi,” Eren begged.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“I tell you everything Levi and you—I know you don’t share much but I feel like I know you. I know you Levi, as much as anyone can know a person. And at first it was nice, looking over and seeing your light on and knowing you couldn’t sleep either. I didn’t feel so alone.”
Levi was silent.
“I know you’re lonely Levi and so am I. And it doesn’t have to be like that. We could be there for each other. Just let me up Levi. We’ll talk. We’ll just talk. I just want to talk to you.”
He paced in the street, looking up.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Eren,” Levi said throat tight.
“Right. Right, sorry. I just…I’m sorry for bothering you.”
<*>
[Levi:] I’m moving.
Levi and Eren had taken to texting each other. Sometimes they chatted online, sometimes it was text. Most days a combination of both.
[Eren:] Ha! Now I’ll finally catch you outside the apartment! ;)
Eren kept making the joke that one of these days they’d run into each other on the street.
[Eren:] When are you moving?
[Levi:] The 8th of June.
[Eren:] I can help carry boxes :D
[Eren:] I’m sad though. I’m going to miss looking over and seeing you.
[Levi:] You can still text me.
[Eren:] Yeah but it won’t be the same. Now I’m going to have to pretend the weird guy with the nunchuk obsession is you.
[Levi:] A vast improvement I assure you.
<*>
On June 1st Levi’s phone exploded.
[Eren:] Are you okay?
[Eren:] I can’t see you? Did you fall over? Should I call a paramedic?
[Eren:] Please answer.
Levi had deliberately told Eren his move date was a week later than it actually was. He thought that would make things easier, but clearly it hadn’t.
[Levi:] I moved a week earlier than I said. Sorry. I thought it would be less awkward.
[Eren:] That’s not cool Levi!
[Levi:] It was just getting to be a little much for me. Plus, I got a new job and my new apartment has a shorter commute.
[Levi:] I just felt trapped there.
[Eren:] I didn’t realize you felt that way.
[Eren:] I never wanted to upset you. I thought since you were responding you liked talking to me.
[Eren:] Fuck. Why didn’t you tell me? I would have backed off.
[Eren:] Was it because I wanted to see you face to face? That’s not an unusual request!
[Eren:] Fuckkkk now I feel like some creepy stalker.
[Eren:] I just wanted to know you. I really care about you Levi.
[Eren:] I never meant to hurt you. I hope you know that.
[Eren:] Right. Well I’ll stop bothering you then. Bye, Levi.
<*>
Months of PT and now Levi was mobile! Well sort of. He was on crutches, but still! People moved around him, grunting impatiently at his slow progress. On the train he received a dirty look from a mother.
“Can you do something about that?” she asked sniffing. “You’re frightening my child.”
Levi looked down at the boy she was pressing into her breast who was looking at him in trepidation. He complied, covering his lap with his coat, too stunned to respond.
“You should have decked her,” Hanji said furiously. “Fuck her.”
The next week two people thanked him for his service.
“Well you did serve,” Petra said, helping him stretch. “So it’s not a lie.”
“I just don’t feel like explaining everything to complete strangers,” Levi said.
“And you don’t have to,” she said in a placating tone. Then to distract him, “Have you heard from Eren?”
“No,” Levi said. “He’s pissed at me. He thinks I moved to get away from him.”
“Did you?” Petra asked.
Levi didn’t know.
<*>
“I don’t mind the stares,” Levi said, limping along next to Erwin. “But the questions. I don’t want to talk to people. I’m not good with that shit. And they want to tell me about their uncle who shot off his toe to avoid going to ‘Nam like I’m supposed to give a fuck.”
Erwin chuckled at that.
“So I started telling them about my morning shit and they’re like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Oh nothing, I thought we were just talking about the first thing that came to mind! How do you deal with it?”
“I make up an exciting story each time,” Erwin said, nodding.
“Fuck off,” Levi laughed.
“Last time it was a shark attack.”
“You’re such an asshole, you know that?”
“Not everyone is going to understand. That’s why it’s good to have people you can talk to. What about you? What happened to Eren?”
Levi shrugged.
“Oh Levi.” Erwin shook his head.
“I just don’t want—he had this weird expectation of what kind of person I was and I just didn’t want him to be disappointed. He deserves—“
“Someone whole?” Erwin guessed.
<*>
The train again. This time there was no seating for Levi so he had to stand. He didn’t mind it once the train got going, but the start and stops made him lurch forward. He was frustrated. He’d made so much progress, but on days like today, it felt like he was stuck back in that apartment watching the entire world spin around him.
“Oh, here, please take my seat,” a man said, getting up.
Levi nearly took it, so relieved finally to sit, until he looked at the strangers face. Levi had often wondered about what it would be like to run into Eren. Would he even recognize him on the street? Apparently, yes. Levi had never seen Eren up close and now he could see how tan his skin was, how green his eyes were, and the way the corners of his eyes crinkled were when he smiled. He was even more handsome up close.
“Uh, no thanks,” Levi said, turning to the side.
“Please,” Eren insisted.
A middle aged woman sat down instead and then glared at both Eren and Levi as if daring them to challenge her.
“Yikes,” Eren said, grabbing a handle.
The train lurched—an extra hard jolt—and Levi fell into Eren.
“Watch it,” Eren said and Levi pushed off of him. “Sorry, I might have gotten some paint on you.”
Levi nodded and then pulled up the collar of his coat so Eren couldn’t see his chin. They stood there in silence as the train rumbled around them and then it stopped with another lurch. This time Levi caught himself, but saw that Eren had put out his arm to catch him. When he caught Levi glaring at the offered hand he tucked it into his pocket instead.
The middle aged woman got off at her stop and Levi took the seat, rubbing at his knees. Eren sat down across from him, peering intently at him.
“You know you look familiar, do I know you?” Eren asked.
“No,” Levi lied.
Eren shrugged and got out his phone and Levi sighed in relief. Then he felt his phone ringing in his pocket. Worried it was the office he pulled it out and froze. Eren pulled the receiver away from his ear slowly. He gave a little wave, the same kind he used to give before he headed for bed at night. Levi’s stomach was churning uncomfortably and the lurching of the train was not helping. Eren’s eyes slipped down to Levi’s legs and Levi shifted in his seat. Fuck, when was his stop?
“Levi?” Eren asked, leaning forward in his seat and Levi closed his eyes, breathing deeply. “It’s me, Eren?”
Fuck fuck fuck.
“Is…” Eren trailed off. “Is this why you never wanted to meet me? Because if you just didn’t want to talk to me anymore, I could deal with that, but…this…If this is the reason Levi, then…”
Levi rubbed furiously at his knees. People around him got up for their stop and Eren jumped across the aisle and sat next to him. Eren was busy examining Levi’s features.
“Well,” Levi said, finally finding his voice. “Now you know.”
“You’re really cute,” Eren blurted out.
Levi wheeled around in surprise at that.
“I can’t believe I’m actually here, right next to you,” Eren said in awe. “Do you want to get coffee? Or—shit—tea?”
Levi nodded slowly.
Eren filled Levi in on what had happened since his sudden departure. He talked about his job and Pepper. He told Levi all about the new tenant who had moved into Levi’s old apartment and how they really liked watching Family Feud.
“I really missed you,” Eren said happily walking next to him, not minding the slow pace.
“I’m being fitted for new prosthetics next week,” Levi said suddenly.
“I—okay,” Eren smiled and nodded. “Cool.”
“You’re so beautiful,” Levi blurted out.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” Eren grinned, looking down at him.
“Uh, one of the uh…problems with these is that I can’t stand on tiptoe,” Levi indicated.
“Oh,” said Eren, leaning forward and bridging the gap. “Is this better?”
“Yes,” said Levi kissing him.