The Ereri Project!

Gym (Senior!Eren)

"Wouldn't you prefer to do something less terrifying?" Levi says, making sure to keep both his hands under the bar Eren is lifting.

"I have no fear," Eren replies, doing one last rep before resting it on the stand above his head. "I've been doing this my entire life, I only need a spotter in case I spontaneously dislocate a joint."

Levi blinks at the old man as he sits up. "Does that happen a lot?"

Eren shrugs. "Not since I was lifting competitively and even then it only happened once 'cause I was pushing myself too hard'."

Levi folds his arms. "I thought you were a professor."

"Everyone needs hobbies," Eren smiles. "Mine happened to include cross fit and eating one-hundred-percent vegan for about fifteen years."

"You used to eat vegan?"

"I'm still vegetarian if you've noticed what I've been eating."

"I just don't imagine vegans and bodybuilders in the same category."

Eren shakes his head, watching Levi as he paces. "One, I lifted competitively, I was not a bodybuilder. And two, if you know the right things to eat, eating vegan can actually be a pretty high protein diet."

"Oh," Levi says, looking around the gym to avoid the way Eren's eyes are leering at him. "As you can tell, I'm not a Nutritionist, I'd have to send you to Doctor Smith if you wanted to talk proper diets."

Eren chuckles, getting up to move to a machine to work on his legs. Levi watches with interest. "Like what you see?" Eren asks.

Levi's ears go pink. "I was just wondering what you must have looked like as a competitive lifter."

Eren smirks. "I can show you pictures if you'd like."

"Hm," is Levi's only reply but Eren thinks he really does want to see.

Eren looks at Levi and stands, stretching. "I think that's enough for today."

"I'll walk you back to your room," Levi says.

"I have to show you those old pictures anyway," Eren replies. "Tell whoever needs to be told that we need a pull-up bar in here, by the way. I need to be more of a show-off."

Levi laughs and Eren's jaw drops. He actually got the stiff to laugh! Score!

He has a bit of a spring in his step on their walk back to his room. Once inside, he opens the photo box he keeps on his coffee table and stares at Levi until the younger man sits down.

Eren holds the pictures between them. "I was about thirty-five here," he says. "Those two are a pair of kids who I'd started training. The girl could lift more than her brother if you can believe it."

Levi's eyes bulge. "But she's so tiny."

"Looks can be deceiving. Especially when it comes to muscle on women, I've discovered. As long as they don't use steroids they can usually stay pretty small."

Eren hands Levi the stack of photos for him to thumb through. "You used to have brown hair," Levi says quietly. "It was nice."

"Yeah," Eren says, running his fingers through his now white, silver, and grey locks. "I didn't feel like paying to have it dyed all the time. That felt a little too metrosexual for me."

Levi smiles. "You don't look much different otherwise, more wrinkles and you're not as big I think, but you haven't changed much."

"Thank you," Eren replies. "I try."

Levi looks at Eren and, for a moment, the once-brunette man considers leaning in to kiss his nurse. He thinks that might ruin the moment until Levi does it for him, nearly knocking over the coffee table as he stumbles to get up. "I'm so sorry!" he says, rushing to the door.

Eren just stares behind the raven as he leaves the room. "He'll be back," Eren tells himself, leaning back into his couch.

Levi accidentally took the pictures with him, after all.