The Alpha and his Omega

Barbeque and Fireworks [Work/Life 7]

The moment he saw the giant spread and all the people the lunatic had invited, Levi felt it was a bad decision to come here. It was only mildly better than the alternative of not showing up. Once he had purposely stayed at home, only to have Hange call him and whine until he went. They had threatened to move the party to his apartment if he didn't comply. The alpha would have cut off all communications with the outside world, but the last time that happened, they had showed up on his doorstep with Erwin, Moblit, and Mike in tow to drag him out.

He should have expected the scene in front of him, though, having attended a few of Hange's previous BBQ birthday parties, complete with a giant cake and fireworks. After all this time, he was amazed the crazy maniac hadn't blown their house up, gotten arrested for destruction of property, or induced severe food poisoning among the guests. Every time he came and saw the crate jammed full of explosives, a frisson of anxiety ran through him at the thought of what Hange planned. More surprisingly was how the brunette got away with all of it. Each time he came to one of these shindigs, there seemed to be more people attending and an even larger box of fireworks. In particular, there were now two boxes which should have been more to satisfy any pyromaniac.

"Any news yet, Levi?"

"News of what?"

"Oh come on, you know what!" Hange nudged him, and Levi scowled.

"I can't read your mind, shitty-glasses." Nor did the alpha ever want to. There was no telling how much insanity there was crammed in such a small space; the alternative was that Hange's mind had rotted away and it was a giant black hole of chaos.

"Marriage! When are you going to ask your cutie-pie to marry you! I can see the way you look at him!"

If he had been drinking anything, Levi would have spit it out. Since coming back from his last trip and seeing Eren at the airport the alpha had been entertaining the idea, but never really came around to asking or figuring anything out. He certainly had not mentioned anything to the beta staring back at him excitedly. His mate hadn't brought up the subject either, and he figured Eren hadn't really had to time to think about it with all that went on with his work in the summer. The omega's contract had been renewed for another year, on a project-by-project basis. In other words, more or what had happened last year.

Although being with Eren like this was satisfying, a part of Levi also wanted more. They had never really talked about it seriously, so he had no idea where the younger male mate stood on the issue. Levi was not the product of a marriage nor had he grown up in such an environment. The closest one had been Farlan and Isabel's parents, but they were betas and hated him. That meant there was nothing he could go on in terms of experience building a successful one, which made it more difficult for him to determine what difference being married would make. The institution of marriage was a complete black box to him, and the stereotypical vision of a white picket fence and ring of squealing brats running around was definitely not Levi's cup of tea, making it even harder to broach the subject.

Before either of them could continue on the topic, the other person of primary importance in this issue, namely Eren, came back.

"Hey, Moblit said the food's going to be ready. Do you want me to grab something for you?"

"No, it's fine. I'll get it." Everyone who came to these events loved the food. Even Levi admitted it was good. Hange always had Mike help season the food. The giant man's nose was useful in selecting the perfect seasonings for barbeque. It was always really popular, and the best things always went fast.

But more importantly, as much as he loathed leaving Eren at the mercy of his crazy coworker, Levi was desperate for the opportunity to escape Hange. He needed to clear his head. Levi didn't want the beta to continue pestering him about the issue in front of Eren, particularly when he had only just come to terms with his feelings in his own mind. Sure he was in love with the brat, but marriage and the whole ten yards had never really appealed to him until now. Although this was one drop in the giant-ass bucket of surprising things Hange said, there was some merit to be said of their question this time.