The Ereri Project (#2)

CD (Teacher/Student)

Levi is grateful his mother isn't an overly nosy woman. Or else suddenly spending so much time away from home might be a problem.

He suspects she's just happy to see him spending some time out of the house for once.

For all his genius, he only really has a few friends and it's not as though he spends a lot of time with them outside of school.

He's usually content to spend time by himself, reading, catching up on TV and movies, browsing Tumblr, or teaching himself to cook.

He's very solitary and he thinks his mom is worried about him for it.

But then, suddenly, he was screwing his English teacher. Then even that morphed into them being sort of like boyfriends.

Whether or not he wants to think of them as dating, Levi definitely considers Eren a good friend and someone he likes to think he can trust.

So it's always interesting when he finds out something new about the older man. "Eren?" He asks one day, going through the brunette's old CDs.

"Yeah?" He replies, walking out of the bathroom after his shower.

Levi holds up the jewel case. "You were into Rocky Horror?"

Eren grins. "Are you kidding? My friends and I dressed up at shows."

Levi's eyes widen. "Seriously?"

Eren takes the cd case with the hand that isn't holding his towel up. "Yeah, my sister dressed up as Columbia and I dressed as the doctor."

Levi's jaw hits the floor. "You dressed like a transvestite?"

Eren nods. "And might I say I pulled it off fabulously." Eren opens the case. "Here's a picture of my sister and I, I saved the picture it here so I'd always know where I left it."

Levi takes the photo and grins. "Who's this little blonde kid who looks like he's about to die of embarrassment?"

"That's Armin, he was - well, is - my best friend. He moved away for school though so I haven't seen him in a while."

"Your sister looks nice."

Eren shrugs. "She has her moments. She usually just tries to act like she's my mother."

Levi chuckles. "Why?"

Eren's expression is less amused as he slides into a seat on the couch.

"Well, both of us lost our parents young. We were lucky we got to stay together at all when we found people to take us in. She never really trusted adults to parent us after that though so she forced herself to grow up fast and took care of the two of us instead of depending on our new parents. They were nice enough people, of course, they loved us, but she didn't want to go through the pain again in case there was another accident."

Levi scoots over on the floor and rests his chin on Eren's knee, kind of unsure what to say. "M-my," he finds himself beginning to say.

"My dad walked out on my mom and I when I was little. It's not the same as having my parents die, I know, but I do what it's like not having my dad around to raise me."

Eren stares back at him and they sit in silence for a few minutes. Eren reaches down to touch Levi's hair. "Thank you," he says.

"For what?" Levi replies.

Eren shrugs. "You didn't have to tell me that but you did."

"Thank you too, then."

Levi thinks, with a slight warmth in his chest, that Eren trusts him too.