Of Cupcakes And Roses

Eren's nerves were on edge; his keys rattled as his hands attempted to find the correct one for his apartment door. Er, their apartment door. His boyfriend had just moved in a few months ago, and he was still trying to get used to the fact that this was now a shared apartment instead of a one-person home. Honestly, he loved the idea.

Once the correct key finally found its way into the lock, Eren excitedly pushed open the door and exclaimed, "I'm home!"

Except--he was the only one there. Levi seemed to be completely off the grid and was nowhere to be seen.

"Levi?" Eren called into the empty apartment, but no answer was returned. As Eren explored the apaprtment, he saw that clothes and clean dishes were strewn across the connected kitchen and family room, all the way into the couple's shared bathroom. It was odd, to say the least.

And very, very much unlike Eren's tidy, sassy boyfriend.

After setting his coat on the coat rack and loosening the tie around his neck, he chose to explore the apartment more in hopes of finding Levi, but his hopes were low. Maybe he just wasn't back from . . . well, from wherever he'd gone during the day. Since Eren's job was both stable and lucrative enough to support the both of them, they had decided that it would be best if Eren were to work and Levi were to run the apartment and handle the finances. That also meant that Levi's schedule changed daily. It was a valid excuse for Eren to have no idea what he'd done during the day; at least, that's what he'd convinced himself.

Finally, the brunette found himself in the couple's shared bedroom. The only off thing about the room was that the closet light was on.

Muttering and curses could also be heard from the closet. It sounded oh, so similar to Levi.

Found you, thought Eren as he slowly and quietly approached the closet. His only thought was that a scared-out-of-his-wits and cutely adorkable Levi would be a sight to see.

Eren was surprised to see Levi in somewhat-tight jeans and a frumpy, cream sweater--Eren's frumpy, cream sweater. As far as Eren was concerned, this was the best sight known to humanity. He could barely hold in the strange noise that managed to escape from his throat.

Levi turned around with a shocked and somewhat guarded expression on his face, but upon seeing who it was, his usual resting bitch face was back up. "You damn brat, you weren't supposed to be home for a couple more hours." His mumble made him look even cuter in Eren's eyes. The taller male suppressed the urge to run over and squeeze the life out of his partner. "Now get out; I'm not done yet." With those words, Levi led Eren out of the apartment and told him to hang out at the library nearby or something. He didn't know; just somewhere not too close but not too far.

Eren opted for the bakery down the street.

As the bells above his head jingled, a woman behind the counter smiled up at him from the cake she had been icing. "Welcome to Scout's Bakery, sir. How may I help you?"

Eren causally waved to the woman as he approached the counter, saying, "Geez, Sasha, I've been here millions of times by now. Can't a good old 'How's it going, Eren?' suffice?"

The girl's beaming smile stretched even wider, and her half-frosted cake was almost completely forgotten as she said, "Nope! The manager is adament that we 'treat our customers with utmost respect' and all that jazz, so a formal greeting it is. I happen to like my job, thank you very much."

"Of course you would; you're surrounded by food on every side of you."

Suddenly her demeanor changed. "So your order, sir?" Sasha asked with a plastered smile, and it took Eren a moment to figure out that her manager, Mr. Erwin Smith, had walked in to observe her customer service and probably rate her on it.