Chasing Stars {Ereri/Riren}

19. Kingdom Come

{Video: [Shingeki no Kyojin] Guren no Yumiya by Umidori san. Not really Ereri, but AoT related and hella cool. Umidori has done different anime violin covers, such as Tokyo Ghoul, Your Lie in April, and Sword Art Online}

Nothing. Not one damn thing after that from him. I moaned, fisting hands into my hair as I hunched over a table. Why wouldn't anyone just explain? Was I excluded from some elite club or something? I still had the slip of paper. April tenth. Study hall. Ten p.m. IPS.

It was too late in the calendar for the date to mean this year. Unless that note hadn't been intended for me. That didn't make sense- it would have fallen out of the textbook sooner, for crying out loud. Someone from this thing called IPS- the Illustration Perpetuation System, Armin had called it- must have snuck it in the book after I forgot in Professor Leonhart's room and before Levi retrieved it. If Levi wasn't a part of it. But wasn't he?

"Ugh, this is so frustrating!" I cried in irritation. Someone nearby shushed angrily, and I winced.

At this hour of around seven post meridian, the university library was quite empty. Various composition and mathematics books lay sprawled on the table. Professor Bott sure loved homework on the first day, messing up the accuracy of his age estimate one more.

Somewhere close, a guy was typing on a sort of Word document. His name was like Bertolt; called Bert by his friends. The guy who couldn't stop sweating to save his man card.

My eyes watched with half-lidded attention as tan fingers traced patterns on the mahogany table. Levi ain't much, Eren. He's a lot less complicated than he looks. I recalled Sasha's words with an ominous jerk in my gut. Ah, this Levi. I hadn't allotted much thinking time for the mystifying figure- ever.

First of all and foremost, how did the fearsomely hated, allegedly cold hearted bully of everyone's happiness become my next date? What's that one line everyone repeats about love? That it comes in mysterious forms. Could I even call this love? A move made whilst in the fiery depths of desire, probably.

No; I wouldn't call this love just so soon, I declared. For one, it'd been two entire days since the session in the apartment. Also, I was head over heels with a stranger- and, all of a sudden, I was gay. But, oh, right- you didn't just become gay as much as you didn't just become straight. Maybe that damn raven triggered the realization full over.

Ha! Now that I thought about it, hadn't it nagged at me about Levi getting revenge for interrupting his punchbag time with Armin? So many things had sprouted from that one moment way back when. The tipping domino among thousands perched upright.

I gulped. Goodness. Mikasa. Armin. How would they respond, if they found out about Levi and I? Surely Mikasa would pop many a blood vessel in anger. But Armin... You could just see the betrayal in his eyes already. I would have turned away the wan reminder of the threat Levi had posed to him in hoped of- what would appear to seem as to Armin- something better.

Speaking of informing people, Grisha wouldn't be a problem. Still in Tokyo for perhaps another week, I could put of notifying him for ages. Even when I did, he'd simply pat me on the back, hand me long unwanted cash for the month, and send me on my way, going back to his work without wasting a single action or word more than deemed necessary.

Sometimes I honestly thought he cared and wanted to be a parental figure. But Grisha's job and his obsession with the good of mankind overwhelmingly consumed his mentality and every thought.

And so, you learned to let him be, lest he immerse his entirety into bettering you for the goodness of humanity, with surgeries and experiments. Levi mentioned his family. Something about them being dead or uncaring. So it's decided, I concluded. I won't speak of us or my preferences for now.

Secondly, the knowledge that Levi and me "happened" to commonly run into each other was disturbing. Coincidence or intentional? If the first, our run-ins were freaky. And what about the latter?

If such were true, who would be to blame? Me, unknowing, or Levi, with the emotionless mask? It made me angry to have so many questions and much less answers. There had to be some way to figure at least a minuscule portion of this puzzle out, putting IPS aside. And then it clicked. A date this weekend! I'd need to get to know him better, wouldn't I? It couldn't hurt to mingle with the infamous Levi Ackerman.

Could it?

Gosh, I needed a watch. The library didn't have any clocks within seeing distance, and it was frightening how dark the windows appeared. Guess I'd have to use the bus tonight. But to know when I would get picked up...

I shut my eyes tight and groaned reluctantly before leaning over to Bertolt. "Er, do you have the time?"

He jumped and whirled. So it was Bertle the Turtle. "Y-yeah," he stuttered, perspiration shining on his temples. "It's almost nine."

I gasped with a grin. "Yes! I'll catch the nine-o-clock!" My hands grabbed upu the scattered and unused books, and I blew a kiss to the startled male with my free hand as I bounded away. "Forever in your debt!" I ululated, and he hissed nervously for me to be silent once more.

As I made my way out of the building, I pondered about how slap-happy I was- and how strange it was to be sleep deprived at nine p.m. on a Monday, as a college student nevertheless. I truly needed to get to sleep and stop jerking off every time hormones overcame me. Maybe Ni-Quil would help. Or a cough medicine overdose.

By God, intervening between Levi and Armin on that day was going to deteriorate me to kingdom come.