Painting Monochrome ||Ereri/Riren||

Decisions, Decisions

In the month of December, shit hit the fan and pretty much exploded. Think of it as this: you pull the pin from the grenade and it explodes. But instead of shrapnel and death, you get a mixture of fire and rainbows.

Let me back up a little. In the month of November, things in the house got a little more tense than normal. Jean started hanging around the house more than I liked because of Armin, which often resulted in fighting. Jean still blamed me for what happened to Marco, and he would take advantage of every opportunity he had to throw it in my face.

Not to mention that Levi hung around more because of me. In order for us to get more time together, I switched to an 8am to 5pm shift. Now, let me make something very clear: Levi did not, under any circumstances, like Jean. I'm pretty positive that he hated his guts because of the simple fact that Jean went out of his way to make me feel like shit. Jean and Levi argued...a lot. The tension between the two of them soon trickled down into Armin and my friendship. Although we didn't argue on a scale as large as Jean and Levi, we began to bicker about small things. Someone left the dishes in the sink, the trash wasn't taken to the chute, the living room was a mess, etc. It got to the point where I didn't want to stay there because of Jean's shit and Armin's nagging.

So that brings us to December. In early December, I started staying with Levi more instead of vice versa. Soon I had clothes over there, a spot in the driveway, and space for my stuff in the bathroom. By the second week of December, Levi sat me down in the living room and we finally had the talk I anticipated.

"Eren, you know I love you, right?" He started. I nodded but kept my mouth closed. "Well here you go."

He opened my hand and dropped the small silver object into my palm. My eyes widened slightly as I looked from my hand to him and then back to my hand. In the center of my palm lay a key. I furrowed my brows a little and opened my mouth to speak but stopped once he held a hand up, signaling that he wasn't done speaking.

"We've been spending a lot of time together, and well... you deserve it. So here's a key to both my places. The key opens both front and back doors. As long as I'm on the subject of my living spaces...I'd like to ask you to stay with me, Eren....for good."

"L-like...live here?" I squeaked, feeling my face heat up and turn red. He chuckled and nodded.

"Yes, Eren. Live here. You don't have to answer now, just think about it."

The next day, I was back at the apartment with Armin, talking about our living situations. He expressed that he was going to tell Jean yes, who had asked him to move in only two days before Levi asked me. And so, we decided to sell the apartment that we bought together. Towards the end of December, he and I had packed our belongings and moved to our separate locations.

December 25th rolled around quicker than I expected. What was special about that day? Easy. It was Christmas and my boyfriend's birthday. That previous night, he fussed at me because he didn't want all our friends in the house, fearing that they would make a mess. I offered to take him out instead, but of course, his response was:

"Too many germs and too many people. I'll pass."

So we settled on the Birthmas Day party. After bringing him to work that morning, I returned to our house and got started on the decorations. Less than an hour later, Armin, Jean, Mikasa, and Annie (Mikasa's girlfriend) had arrived. Once the decorations and the tree were up, Armin and Mikasa got started on dinner while I went to the store in search of the perfect Birthmas Day cake.

Back at the house, Petra, followed by Erwin and Mike, we're the next to arrive. I found out that after the incident, Levi's assistant, Petra, had begun dating Erwin, and thus, he was everywhere she was. I put the past behind me anyways, so it didn't really matter.