The Ereri Project (#2)

Thanksgiving (Blind)

"How many people are going to be there again?" Eren asks nervously.

"Less than you'd expect but more than you'd hope."

"Levi~" Eren whines, elbowing his boyfriend.

Levi chuckles. "I'm sorry, I just don't remember, okay? It's just our friends that either don't have families to eat with or don't want to go too far to eat with them."

"So just people you work with?"

"Mostly, yeah."

"Doesn't sound too bad."

"I should probably warn you, though," Levi says after a moment. "One of my ex's is going to be there, which is one of the reasons why I asked you to come with me."

Eren makes a face. "And here I thought you just wanted to be with me on Thanksgiving."

"Does that mean you're okay with that?"

"As long as you aren't going to wander off with them for most of the night and leave me by myself I don't care."

"So I can wander off with other people for most of the night and leave you by yourself?"

Eren can't help cracking a smile at that as he elbows Levi again. "You're being very sassy today."

"Not really, I'm feeling festive. Petra and her husband are coming and those two make the actual greatest ham you've ever tasted, we pick names for our Pollyanna, and after dinner we always sit and sing old music together."

"Sounds nice, dinner with my family usually just has shitty turkey and then someone starts a fight and Mikasa and I leave early."

Levi cocks an eyebrow as they pull up to Hanji's house. "Oh yeah? You definitely needed Thanksgiving with us then, its usually pretty fun."

They get out of the car and Eren tenses up from the cold. "I keep forgetting it's below freezing out today."

Levi takes his hand. "Let's hurry to get in the house then."

"May I take your coats?" the maid asks when they get inside.

Eren, mildly confused, hurries to pull his jacket and gloves off and hand them over. When Levi starts guiding Eren away from the door he asks, "Who was that?"

"The maid," Levi replies.

"I thought you said we were going to Hanji's house."

"We are, her husband's loaded though so they have a maid."

Eren is about to add something when apparently they walk into a room because several people shout, "Levi!"

"Hey guys," Levi says, holding onto Eren's hand. "Make some room, my boyfriend needs a seat."

"So this is the infamous Eren," a woman's voice says.

Levi speaks ups again. "For those of you I forgot to tell, can you please introduce yourself when you speak so Eren knows who's who."

The same woman pipes up again. "Sorry, I'm Petra," she says. "I should be pretty easy to pick out, there aren't going to be many women tonight." Eren hears some shuffling around. "Alright, you two come sit with me."

Levi leads Eren over to sit with Petra. "Who else is here?" Eren asks once they're seated.

The others in the room introduce themselves: Auruo, Erd, Gunter, Erwin, Mika, and Nanaba. "Where's Hanji?" Eren asks.

"She usually supervises in the kitchen until it's time to eat so we have cocktail hour without her," Erwin says.

"Cocktails?"

Levi gets up. "I forgot to ask, do you want a drink?"

"Yes please, what do you have?"

"Virtually everything you can think of."

Petra pats Eren's knee. "Just be careful, sweetheart, it wouldn't be the first time one of us got completely sloshed before the end of the night but I don't suppose you'd like to be drunk before dinner."

"I'll keep that in mind," Eren says.

"Just get him Cuba Libre like the rest of us," Erd tells Levi, who standing at the bar with no idea what to bring back.

"Do you even like rum?" Levi asks Eren.

"I don't know, I haven't tried it."

Levi comes back over and hands a glass to Eren. "Try that."

Eren sips it while the others watch. "It's good," he says with a surprised lilt to his voice.

"Good, you're one of us then," Petra giggles.

Ten or fifteen minutes of chit-chat later, Hanji finally comes in. "Alright everyone, abandon your glasses, we're having wine with dinner. Follow me!"

Levi sets both of their glasses on the table and leads Eren to the dining room with the others.

Dinner is fantastic and not stressful and Eren thinks it's actually pretty easy to get along with Levi's friends.

After dinner, while they're still at the table, Hanji gets up. "Alright everyone, time to pick names for the Pollyanna!"

Eren is suddenly a little nervous, usually you have to pick names out of a hat for those things but it goes without saying that he can't read so– "Are you going to participate with us, Eren?" Petra asks.

"If he's coming to the Christmas party he has to," Hanji says. "We're going with the same rules as usual: you can't spend less than twenty dollars but no more than fifty and you can't get a present for the other half of your couple since you're going to give them a present anyway. However, we're changing the way we pick names a little bit this year. Since I knew Eren was coming I gave a list of attendees to my maid and we're going to do this all verbally."

"How?" Erwin asks.

"If you shush, I can tell you. Starting with me we'll go clockwise around the table and each pick a number, when you pick your number the maid will come around and tell you who you got and a suggested item for that person. The added challenge here is that it's against the rules to write down who you have to buy for or what they want so you better have good memory or buy early, okay?"

Eren smiles and feels his chest go warm, glad for the extra consideration Hanji gave him. As they go around the table, everyone gets their name and Eren picked Erwin, who wants new coffee mugs.

After dinner they go back to the room they had cocktail hour in and Hanji turns on music. "What will we listen to this year?" she asks.

"Queen!" Petra says excitedly.

"Hell yeah," Hanji says, putting a CD in. "Bohemian Rhapsody first or last."

"Both," Nanaba says with a smile.

They drink more and sing and dance and talk and overall, Eren is very glad he came.

He's also very tipsy when they leave and tries to seduce Levi while he's driving.