Superstore (Eremin AU)

trust and off-brand coffee

Erwin is strange person. He is usually stoic, silent and strict. But when he's around Levi or talking about him, he lets himself and his emotions loose.

"I knew you'd ask about it sooner or later. Levi threatened me about it, but I guess now that you know.... I can tell you."

Jean gulped.

"Me and Levi are dating."

Jean gulped even harder.

Erwin chuckled. "I'm gonna give it to you straight. We were... making out in the closet. Eren came in -- I'm not sure why -- and Levi threatened to tell everyone Eren was dating Jean if he told anyone about us. He said that we couldn't tell anyone because of our policy, but you guys understand that, don't you?" He winked at all three of us. Then he shook his head. "The whole thing's kind of a train-wreck if you think about it."

Jean raised his eyebrows at the mention of his name (and the fact it involved Eren and him dating), and he seemed very uncomfortable. I wasn't sure if he hated or loved Eren, or both.

"So... You're gay? So you're accepting of gay relationships?" Marco was basically jumping out of his seat. He glanced at Jean, then attacked him with a hug.

"Uggh-- Marco, not in front of everyone--" his face got red. That I did not expect.

I smiled, a bit awkwardly, as Marco kissed Jean on the nose before regaining his composure and sitting down.

"Yeah..." Erwin replied, a bit creeped out at Marco's public display of affection. "Now get out of my office, I have work to do."

We rushed out of Erwin's office.

"I'm gonna go find Eren," I told Jean and Marco.

"Okay, can I come--" Jean tried pushing Marco off of him. "Marco, just because Erwin knows doesn't mean you can get all PDA on me."

Marco frowns at Jean, his freckles lowering a bit on his cheeks.

"Fine," Jean replied, then quickly stole a kiss on Marco's speckled cheek, "I'm gonna be right back, okay? Go do some work, or you'll be fired," he smiled and followed me to the boxing room.

We walked in silence back to where Eren was. I was very suspicious of how Jean acted with Eren, like he had something to hide. At first I thought it was a crush, but now I wasn't so sure. I wanted to ask him, but I did't think he would answer me. Even if he did want to confide his feelings in me, I'm not sure he even knew his feelings in the first place.

We stepped into the room, and saw that Mikasa was there, but not Eren.

"Jean? Why are you here? Are you trying to flirt with me again?" She asked. It sounded like it would be a joke, but her tone of voice said she was very serious. She hadn't even noticed me.

"Hey Mikasa, where's Eren?" he ignored her question.

"He's in isle three, shelving things," she muttered, then continued doing her job. I could tell she didn't like Jean all that much.

"Thanks, Mikasa." I said, and we walked toward isle three. I decided to ask Jean about Mikasa, if not Eren. "So you flirted with the Master Boxer?" I laughed.

He hit my shoulder a little too hard to not mean "yes".

We found Eren quickly, but I was scared to talk to him, let alone apologize. But I sighed and Jean pushed me forward.

"Hey, Eren... sorry about what I said earlier. I overreacted a bit." I muttered.

He smiled at me, and said, "It's fine. You really don't know me that well, so I understand."

I was hurt at that statement, but that's when I realized we'd only known each other for maybe all of three hours. I sighed to myself.

"You wanna help me shelve things?" he asked, not out of niceness, but excitement. He wanted to get to know me better. I nodded and he turned to Jean. "You can leave, gay horseface. Go kiss your boyfriend or something." I almost laughed. He had meant to make fun of Jean for calling him gay, but that was a big mistake.

"Okay," Jean said before repressing his need to punch Eren in the face and going to find Marco.

"You okay?" I giggled. He rubbed his head, making a disgusted face at where Jean used to be. "This place is really dramatic," I add.

"You'd better get used to it," he groaned.

***
We kept shelving for what felt like forever. We made small talk, I told him that I'd lived in this town my whole life and never seen snow or the ocean. He told me he moved here two years ago from North Dakota with his sister. After a while, it was time for his break and I decided to eat with him. We stopped at the deli and got some off-brand coffee. We sat at a table near the front of the store and talked more about each other.

"I've never been out of the state, so I guess my dream is to see the world." I told him when he asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. He smiled and sipped his coffee. "What about you?"

He looked at his hands in thought. "I've always just planned on joining the army -- ever since my mom died." He looked like he was opening up an old wound. I didn't expect him to continue -- we'd just met, after all -- but he did. "She was killed in the war. My father never talks to me or Mikasa. We keep moving around for his job -- this is actually the place we've stayed longest -- and I want to find something to belong to. I think my dream is to... find something to protect." His frown now hid a smile. He was confident, and he seemed glad he confided in someone.

I decided to share something, so he wouldn't doubt the trust between us. "My parents died when I was little. They were in a plane crash. My grandfather raises me now. I don't have any brothers or sisters, just me. My grandfather barely has enough money for necessities for me and him, but he's happy working for us. That's why I got this job, because I know I probably won't have enough money to get into college, but I wanna travel a little before I die, you know? That's really my goal. I wanna do what my parents never got to."

We both stopped, not knowing what to say. His green eyes threatened to drop tears and I could feel my blue eyes staring too deeply into them. I dropped my gaze to my coffee and quickly pretended to be very interested in it. I still couldn't believe he would tell me something like that.

"How's it going, Yeager?" I saw Jean and Marco, and shifted seats so they could sit next to each other. I smirked because I saw a glint in Jean's eye that told me he was going to have some fun with Eren. I was right.

Jean grinned at Marco, the freckled kid having no idea what was going to happen. Jean smashed his lips into Marco, his arms wrapping around Marco's head. Marco's eyes widened in surprise, but he went with it and kissed his boyfriend back.

Eren's eyes widened, surprised that the thing he had been teasing Jean for this entire time was true. He blushed into his hand and didn't say anything.

It was one of the funniest things I'd seen in a while.

If only we hadn't been in sight of the door. If only the CEO of the company, Mr. Reiss, hadn't walked in at that exact moment.