The Little Titan Cafe [ErenxLevi]

Chapter 19- Rivaille

(I know there is another chapter with this name, but deal with it)

Welcome to the Little Titan Café!
Today's special: Butter Toffee Coffee

21:13

Eren stared at the photo, expression carefully blank.

Nothing good ever came out of a fedora-wearing-man walking into any situation. It sounded like the start of a bad joke, something like a man wearing a fedora walked into a bar, that ended with someone dead. Or adjusted. Like in that one movie with that one guy from Bourne Identity, the cute one – you know who he's talking about, right? – he was also in that one movie where men wore a bunch of fedoras. Something about adjustment. It was at the tip of his tongue but he couldn't quite get it out – aha!The Adjustment Bureau. It was strangely coincidental that he watched it just the other day with Mikasa and Armin, and a man wearing a fedora hat walked into the coffee shop which made him seriously consider that the two of them conspired to make this happen.

Said fedora-wearing-man looked to be around his forties, although maybe older because of the deep lines beneath his eyes and the five o'clock shadow he had going on. The smell of cigarettes clung heavily to him, like he smoked recently and every hour prior to that.

He removed the fedora, black hair as unkempt as his appearance. If Eren squinted hard enough, he could spot the tell-tale grays in the man's hair.

"Oh thatLevi. He comes here every now and then."

The man slid into a barstool, hat placed next to him. "You two look rather... friendly in this photo."

"Yeah, well," Eren jabbed a thumb at the tip jar, "that thing doesn't get full on its own."

"You're telling me all you do is flirt with him for tips?"

He shrugged. "It's business. Like what I'm running here. Are you gonna order a drink or not?"

"Just get me whatever."

"If you say so."

It wasn't hard to guess that the stranger didn't like sweet things. Probably took his coffee as black as his hair used to be. Extra bold. No sugar or creamer. With that in mind, Eren went about making his drink, all the while sending curious glances as the patron flipped through a few pages in his notepad.

"Why are you asking about Levi anyway?" Eren finally asked as he set the cup of coffee down in front of the man. "Did he do something?"

"You could say that." The man picked up his drink, and without so much as blowing at it or waiting for it to cool down, took a quick sip before instantly recoiling. "What isthat?"

"Butter Toffee Coffee," Eren flashed a cheeky grin. "It's not on the menu yet, but it'll be up soon."

Nose wrinkled, the man set the drink down and slowly pushed it away from him. "I see."

Eren pinched a corner of the photo between index and thumb, holding it out of the man's reach. "Just curious, mostly out of concern for my privacy because it's a little creepy – okay, reallycreepy – that you have it to begin with," he tilted his head, inspecting the picture through squinted eyes, "Don't get me wrong, it's a nice shot, but why do you have it anyway?"

"Because I took it."

Eren glanced from the photo to the man, back to the photo, only to quickly turn back to the man and snatch the cigarette he was about to put between his lips, "Hey! This is a smoke-free zone. You can do that outside and not come back while you're at it."