Call Me Yours (ERERI) *DISCONTINUED*

Chapter 16

Levi's POV

Today was Eren's 24th birthday and it took way too much convincing for Eren not to come over my home until tonight because I was planning a surprise birthday dinner. He insisted that we didn't need to celebrate and that being in each other's arms and hardcore sex would be the best celebration ever, but I begged to differ. Mikasa and Armin had already made plans to hangout with Eren for his birthday and that would give me enough time to set everything up in preparation for his birthday. It was already 2:30pm when I had just finished deep cleaning every inch of my apartment because everything wouldn't go perfect unless my house was tidied.

Hange was in the middle of decorating my living room with cream colored balloons that she had filled up with helium and attached strings to the ends. Erwin was setting up the ingredients to make our five course meal just for Eren. Everything was going great until I heard a loud 'pop' followed by what sounded like glass breaking causing me and Erwin to turn around to see where the sound came from.

"I'm sorry, Levi! I overfilled one of the balloons and it popped which caused me to jump and I kinda broke something", I saw broken pieces of latex on the floor from the popped balloon and a shattered broken vase. You definitely broke something, Hange! I closed my eyes and pinched my nose bridge while Hange continuously apologized which was already getting annoying. "You are a dumbass", was all that I could say as I walked towards my cleaning closet to hand Hange my vacuum and broom for her to clean up. I walked back to the kitchen and saw Erwin prepping the ingredients while he greeted me with a smile and chuckled.

"What?", I snapped at him as I first started off with creating desserts— salted chocolate cream tart. Every course is vegan based but I am, or Erwin actually, is cooking steak on the side just for Eren to eat with our main course— creamy lentil stuffed butternut squash. Eren never complains that everything I cooked was always vegan and he always enjoyed it, but I know he'd love a good meat served with his main dish. That's what I loved about him, he never complains about anything unless it's me not giving him attention.

"You've changed a lot since you met Eren. Have you noticed?", Erwin looked at me and went back to seasoning the steak with all kinds of spices. Looking at and touching meat has always grossed me out so that's why Erwin was responsible for that. "How so?", I gathered all my ingredients and threw them in my food processor to blend everything up for the crust until it became a dough like texture. With that, I pat it into the pie crust until it look ready to be placed in the fridge while I gathered ingredients for the filling.

"You're more happier, obviously. But, you have that glow that me and Hange have never seen in such a long time", I turned to Erwin with a confused look after placing the pie into the fridge. "A glow? What are you talking about?", Erwin stopped massaging the spices into the uncooked meat and poured everything into a ziplock bag for it to marinate in. I waited until he was done to understand what he was talking about.

"Like a pregnancy glow, but with happiness. Ya know?", he grinned at me but I still couldn't follow and that's when Hange chimed in. "You aren't a moody and a depressed man anymore since Eren came into your life. You're not radiating negativity! That's what we're trying to say, shorty!", she happily said but I scowled at her for calling me such thing.

"You're smiling more, and it's the genuine kind. We haven't seen that smile since the whore you dated, and after her, you just stopped smiling", Hange and I immediately looked at each other from the sudden word that Erwin used to describe Petra. He wasn't the type to call anyone names so it was definitely a surprise to hear him say that.

But it was true. Petra sucked the life and energy out of me when we were together. I fell into such a depressive stage in my life and I've slowly pulled myself out of it. I put up a front every single day to hide how hurt I was and how tired I was.. I didn't want to look vulnerable and I certainly did not want to be caught in such a vulnerable state, especially by Hange and Erwin. At one point, even smiling a fake smile was too much energy so I just stopped overall. It was better to do that anyways.