An Ereri Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

Eren's been in love with Levi for as long as he can remember.

Since the first time he can remember walking the streets with their mothers in a Ninja Turtle costume, going from door to door and receiving a large assortment of candy that he wasn't allowed to have more than two pieces of a day of until it was gone. Since the time he was stung by a bee right between his shoulder blades when he was six and had a near deadly allergic reaction. Since the two of them sped down the street on their tricycles, and then bicycles with training wheels, and then wobbling across the driveway once the training wheels were removed and both of them ended up with scrapes and scabs on their knees and palms. Since the first time he remembered being dazzled by the multicolored twinkling lights on the tall white tree in the corner of their living room, when they would sit betwixt it and the fireplace wrapped in blankets with cups of cocoa, the marshmallows long since dissolved, and his mother reading The Night Before Christmas, and then going to bed together but not being able to sleep for a long while as they waited excitedly, impatiently for St. Nicholas to bring the presents they'd tear into the next morning.

Since he watched Levi's plane take off at the airport on a hot summer afternoon when they were seven, bound for somewhere far across the country and never to return...

Of course, he may not have been in love, but Eren knew he'd always loved his dark-haired childhood companion more than words could ever do justice. Until the moment his plane departed, Levi had been part of Eren's life every day; he remembers their mothers joking about how they were 'joined at the hip'. They'd played together, gone to school together, done virtually everything together. And then Levi moved away, and Eren was heartbroken.

It's been thirteen years since then...

~

"Hey Eren! Welcome to Frantically Study for Finals Club. What can I get you?"

Eren snorts and rolls his eyes at the joke. "Hey, Marco. Just a Peppermint Mocha will do," he says. "Grande."

"Comin' right up," says the freckle-face as he slides the red paper cup from the stack and sharpies Eren's name and the order across it before taking payment. "So, you here to study like everybody else?"

"Yeah," Eren sighs, leaning a hip against the granite countertop. As usual for this time of year, the little cafe is filled with college students with their noses in books, fingers pecking away at keyboards, and absently sipping at hot drinks. "Finals are brutal."

"Tell me about it." Marco gets to work making the drink. "At least you've got the time to study. I'm stuck working here and have to cram after I get off."

"Ah, that sucks," Eren says with a rueful smile.

"Yeah, but I'll manage. Gotta make the bucks, y'know? Help support my family and all." Marco speaks as he mixes the drink. Eren watches as he squirts a perfect dollop of whipped cream and sprinkles the little peppermint chocolate pieces Eren likes so much on top. Call him cliche, but he practically lives for Peppermint Mochas around the holidays. "Here ya go," says Marco as he places the drink on the counter in front of his brunette friend.

"Thanks. And good luck."

"You too, Eren." Marco's departing gesture is a lively smile and a small salute before Eren turns away with his coffee to find a vacant seat to occupy. To his fortune, there's an open table near the wall opposite the door. He slides into the booth with a tired sigh and begins pulling his study materials out of his bag - one of the largest textbooks he'd ever had the displeasure of carting around on his back daily and a notebook about half its thickness, already halfway filled with loads of notes from endless lectures and studying, studying, studying. But when you're a sophomore in college majoring in the medical field, hours and hours lost to studying is inevitable.