Key to a Caged Heart

Why

The song is by Jason Aldean. Thank you to anyone who is still reading this!

Eren didn't want to go home. Not only because Petra might be there, but he also had to tell Levi that he broke up with Thomas. The truth would be known eventually so there was no point putting it off.

It was all for nothing. Eren didn't stop caring for Levi by dating Thomas, and dating Thomas didn't make Levi realize he wanted to be with Eren. Why didn't he ever listen to Armin when he said a plan was stupid?

Was there a point in telling Levi about the breakup? It's not like Levi has been waiting for this moment so he could swoop in himself. He doubted Levi even cared. Levi was with Petra. He wasn't waiting for Eren to come home. He was waiting for Eren to move out.

Fuck. This whole time, he was giving Levi more space to court Petra. He gave his best effort to stay out of Levi's way, thinking that would make Levi regret living with him less. Instead, all he did was clear the way for Petra to move in. That bitch.

Armin passed Eren the crab rangoons. He took one and chomped on it bitterly.

He knew he wasn't being fair to Petra. She had never been anything but nice to him. And so had Levi. For Levi's sake, he would be on his best behavior around Petra. He would smile kindly and chat politely with her. He would eat dinner with them if they asked, but he wouldn't go out of his way to spend time with them either. If he had to spend prolonged periods of time in the lovebirds' presence, his heart would surely shatter.

He hated feeling like this. Having a crush was bad, but he was pretty damn sure he had surpassed the stage of crushing on Levi a while ago. Now his mind was always thinking about Levi. He would be drinking from a water bottle and his mind would wonder if Levi preferred Poland Springs or Dasani bottled water. His mind wondered about the dumbest shit.

To deal with his tumultuous emotions, Eren smoked weed. Ever since that first time at Reiner's house, Eren smoked once a day whenever he could get away with it. He knew he couldn't continue this unhealthy path of smoking his feelings away. He promised himself that it was just for this week. After this hellish week, he would smoke maybe once a month. Or whenever Reiner and Bert wanted to, he wasn't too set on creating rules for himself.

"Thanks for having me over for dinner Grandpa Arlert," Eren yelled at the hearing-impaired old man, who nodded his head and smiled.

"Don't forget your fortune cookie." Armin picked a cookie out of the take-out bag and handed it to Eren as they walked outside to Armin's car.

Once he put his seatbelt on, Eren broke open the fortune.

You lose all the opportunities you never take.

Fuck you, fortune cookie. You don't know me. You don't know my life. You don't know what I've been through.

Eren ate the cookie and tossed the fortune out the car window. If only he received the advice a month ago.

                                                                                                 ***

"I don't fucking know what's wrong, Hanji. The brat won't tell me anything," Levi griped.

"Hmm. I'm sure he'll tell you when he's ready."

Levi scoffed as he put his coat on. "And when will that be? He's been acting strange for weeks, ever since he started dating Thom-ass."

"Don't be mean. You haven't even conversed with the guy."

"I don't need to talk to him. He probably thinks he has Eren all figured out when he knows jack-shit about him."