Bite Me.

17.

Marzia was a little baffled by what was going on in the house. First, Levi's brother she never even knew existed turns up and they fight all hours of the day. Then Eren appears a few days later with sister in tow and was now staying here, and she was expected to look after May while the boys were at school. Currently, she was cooking pancakes for her after picking her up from school. She finished so early, it was hardly fair. How could she learn anything when her lessons finished at 14:30?
'What do you want on your pancakes?' She asked May, who was sat on the sofa avidly watching TV. 'There's Nutella, lemon and sugar, maple syrup...'
'I want all of them!' Was the unsurprisingly childish reply. 'Eren tells me off when I have lots of sugar. But now I can, can't I?'
'I don't see why not... How about maple syrup? I don't think it'll taste so good with all of them together.'
May nodded eagerly, begging to help with the flipping. Marzia rolled her eyes, looking up to the heavens and praying for release from her duty soon. This kid was relentless. She placed the pancakes on the table and sat her down, laying down a knife and fork. When May asked why she couldn't eat it at the sofa, she was told,
'Levi would kill you. He doesn't like mess.'
'I'll kill him first,' the little girl crossed her arms and puffed up her chest in an adorable attempt to appear intimidating. Marzia laughed and ruffled her hair, wishing she had that same confidence in her abilities. She still didn't understand why the house had apparently become some sort of orphanage but who was she to complain? Her job wasn't to ask questions; it was to do what she was asked. It wasn't that she was unused to looking after children- she had been in sole charge of her five younger siblings at the tender age of 11 when her mother had gone to work. She just hadn't had to deal with kids for such a long time that it felt strange, and it also made her a little homesick. She hadn't seen her siblings since she'd left home to come here in search of a better life. She supposed she had found the riches she was looking for, and an easy job to go with it. She wondered what her siblings were doing these days. The eldest, Paolo, would be almost 25 by now. She hoped he'd matured a little since she'd left. She had been only twelve when she'd made the journey to England, and it hadn't been easy to leave her family behind. But it was all she could do to help her poor mother, who didn't have the money for one child- let alone six. May actually reminded her somewhat of the youngest girl, Sophia, with her tireless playful energy and fixation with sugar. When she next had some time off, she decided, she'd visit her family.

Eren had asked Levi to drop him off round the corner so that nobody knew he was staying at his; he seriously couldn't handle the rumours of people saw that. Everybody would definitely assume he was taking drugs or involved in some really dodgy shit. Not that anybody would talk to him about it. All his friends were still ignoring him. Really- how immature could they get? Every so often he'd look over his shoulder and see them staring after him, but then they all looked down hurriedly and walked away. The morning had been awkward, sitting in the car with the brothers, especially when they had started arguing over whether somebody or other ought to be fired for being bad at folding clothes. Obviously, Levi had been arguing yes. He was apparently some kind of neat freak, and Eren had found him scrubbing frantically round the edges of the kitchen sink that morning, claiming that the maids were being 'lax as ever'. Eren wasn't entirely sure, but the sink looked pretty clean to him. But what did he know? He'd never had maids. He'd never even had a cleaner or anything. His house was kind of in a permanent state of filth. He had a right mind to unleash Levi on it.
'Eren Jaeger!' The teacher slammed a hand down on his table. 'See me after the lesson.'
A unanimous 'oooh' went up around the room, everyone delighted to see that somebody was in trouble. Though somebody was always in trouble at this school. Only the week before two boys had been expelled for setting a bin on fire. A little arson was never welcome in the school, but this wasn't the reason they'd been expelled. It transpired that there had been a live cat in the bin. They'd said they were just 'exterminating' it.
Eren remained in the classroom as everyone left, his expression that of a sulking toddler. He resented that today of all days should be one when he ended up finishing late. He didn't want to make Levi and Archer wait... He wasn't sure they wouldn't just forget him and drive off anyway.
'Eren, I have been told some concerning things by friends,' the teacher, Mr Allister, was quite young.
'Yeah, great. Can I go?' Eren glared at him, hoping that he could intimidate this fresh-faced teacher into setting him free.
'Not just yet. A few of your friends are worried that you might be having a hard time at home. Is this true?' He sat on the desk in front of him, crossing his arms.
'No,' Eren narrowed his eyes at this interfering young man. 'They're just pissed off at me so they thought they'd cause drama.' He stood up and tried to leave, but Mr Allister grabbed him by his shoulder and steered him back to the chair.
'I've noticed it too. Your work has halved in its standards, and you never contribute in class anymore. You don't talk to anybody either. Not to mention the bruises on your face.'
'I'm clumsy.'
'If something is happening, the school needs to know. We only want to help, not get you in trouble.'
'That's a nice sentiment but I'm fine.'
'Well, if you're sure... When you feel like you can talk to me, I'm always around. You know where my office is, right?'
'Yeah,' Eren was already halfway out the door. 'And just for the record, I don't contribute in lessons because they're shit.'

Levi drummed his fingers impatiently on the side of his car, squinting his eyes against the sun. It had been ten minutes and Eren still hadn't shown up. He would have left already, if it wasn't for the fact that his brother had confiscated his car keys until their resident had turned up. Why couldn't he just be punctual? At last, he caught sight of the brunet speeding away from an angry looking teacher. Levi recognised him as the history teacher, Mr Allister. He looked very red-faced. Eren bounded up to the brothers, slightly out of breath.
'Sorry, he kept me behind. Then I called his lessons shit.'
'Just get in the fucking car,' Levi looked at his brother expectantly, who smiled like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth and opened the car. Even Mr Allister paused to appreciate the car, no doubt wondering how they could afford it. Then his face hardened over.
'Eren, you'll consider it, right?' He handed the boy a detention slip. 'Until then, you have detention all next week.'
'This is fucking ridiculous!'
Mr Allister was about to scold Eren for his language and offer him another detention when he noticed that it was, in fact, Levi who had said it.
'You too, Levi,' he wrote out another one and stuffed it in the short boy's palm. His brother, whose name he believed to be Archer, burst out laughing until he was also handed one.
'See all three of you on Monday,' Mr Allister said smugly. He'd shown them.
'What do you think?' He heard Archer chuckling as he walked away.
'I'll talk to Smith tonight. See if we can't get the guy fired. What did you say his name was?' Levi replied, fully aware that Mr Allister, who had gone very white, could hear him.

'Thanks for sticking up for me,' Eren turned to Levi as they cruised down the streets.
'You think I want to wait on you after school every day?' Was his caustic reply.
'What he meant to say was, you're under our protection now. Anybody messes with you, they're messing with us. And we will kill the damn fils de putains.' Archer smiled simperingly, the words out of place beside his kindly expression. They spent the duration of the remaining car ride in a strangely amicable silence, the brothers not fighting for once. It was nice, actually. Eren felt relaxed for the first time in... Well, he didn't know how long. Surprisingly, he felt safe, which was an odd feeling to have going 20mph over the speed limit in a car with two vampires. Did he mention their psychopathic tendencies?
The house was quiet when they returned, May snuggled up on the couch watching cartoons and Marzia watching her.
'Eren!' The little girl leapt up when she saw her brother. 'Eri, I'm watching Sky channel.'
She said this with such pride that he couldn't help but laugh. Sky was something they could never afford the luxury of, so instead they were stuck with BBC at home. But obviously Levi had unlimited funds, so anything was possible really. He smiled and picked her up, kissing her cheek and then setting her back down again.
'Mon dieu, but I am parched,' Archer signalled to Marzia, and she nodded subtly. 'Bring me one of the prettier ones, no? You must be hungry, brother.'
Levi harrumphed and retired to his room, motioning for Eren to follow.

Eren let Levi drink from him, and savoured the pleasure while he could. Once finished, Levi wiped his mouth with his sleeve and pulled on a shirt. Eren noted for future reference that when blood was taken from the vein, it didn't feel quite so good. But clearly Levi was a little embarrassed, for want of a better word, about how excited they had both become at the previous feed, because he didn't say a word. Eren felt the need to fill in the silence, ever made uncomfortable by lulls in conversation. He just felt the pressure of the thick atmosphere weighing down on his brain. But he had no idea what to say to make it feel better, so instead he just feigned a yawn and said he was going to bed.