Protection *Ereri*

Chapter 21

        Levi was nervous as fuck. Of course, he didn't let it show on the outside, but in his head? A million thoughts were racing through it.

What if Eren's parents didn't like him?

What if he said something stupid?

What if he did something stupid?

What if he comes off too cocky?

What if he comes off too rude?

Fucking hell! Never in a million years would he have thought that he would be nervous to meet someone, nor would he have thought that he would care so much about what someone thinks of him. But this.... this meant almost everything to him. He wanted Eren's parents to like him. He loved Eren and he wanted their approval for their relationship.

"Levi, are you OK?" Eren asked, looking over to him from the passenger seat.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm fine. We should probably get inside, I don't want to be late meeting them." Levi said, unbuckling his seat belt. Eren nodded slowly.

"Alright, sure. I know you're worried, but it'll be alright. Just relax, OK?" Giving a small smile, he reached over and gave Levi a small pat on the shoulder.

"I sure hope so...." Levi mumbled out, climbing out of the car and walking around and over to Eren's side. He opened the door for the young male and watched as he climbed out of the vehicle before giving the door a light push, closing it. Turning to face the house, he stared at it for a moment, taking in everything. This had to be one of the most terrifying moments of his life, he had never been in a situation that made him feel like this before.

"Well, let's go." Eren finally said after a minute and began to walk up the small pathway that lead to the porch. Levi followed along behind him, allowing him to take the lead. That's what you're supposed to do, right?

As they reached the porch and began to make their way up the stairs, the front door suddenly opening caused Levi to come to a stop and look up to see who had just opened it.

In the doorway stood a woman who was around his height, maybe a little shorter, and crazily resembled Eren. From her eyes to her nose to her mouth and ears, it was crazy. The only difference between them, really, was the color of their eyes, Eren was definitely way taller than her, and her hair reached down a little past her shoulders compared to Erens short hair. It was still uncanny how much they looked alike, though.

"Mom!" Eren greeted happily as he reached the top of the steps and held his arms out.

"Oh, Eren, its so good to see you." The woman smiled big and held her arms out as well as she embraced the boy in a tight hug. Standing there awkwardly and unsure of what to say, Levi looked away to avoid ruining the 'moment'. It clearly had been a little bit since Eren and his mom had seen each other, or so he was picking up anyways.

Pulling away from the hug, Eren turned slightly so he could gesture towards Levi. "Mom, this is my boyfriend, Levi. Levi, this is my mom, Carla."

"It's nice to meet you, ma'am." Levi nodded his head politely. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to shake her hand or bow or whatever, so he went with that small signal instead. It was still nice, right?

Well, it didn't matter because Carla already had other plans in mind as she walked up to him and gave him a tight hug just like she had done to Eren. "Levi! It's so good to finally meet you. Eren has told us so much about you." The small woman said, pulling away after a moment and looking at him with a big smile. "And don't worry, they're all good things." She laughed.

Levi let out a small chuckle as he glanced over to Eren before back to Carla. "That's really good to hear." He said. And it was. From how welcoming she was and hearing that Eren had said nice things about him, not that he would really expect him to have said bad things, it kind of eased him a little.

Up until they walked into the house, that is, and Levi's eyes landed on Erens father who was just walking out of the kitchen. The man stopped and looked at them and Levi used that as a moment to quickly take in his appearance. So this was where Eren got his height from. Huh. Oh, and their eyes matched as well. That was really it in similarities, though.

"Grisha, look. Eren has finally brought Levi over to meet us." Carla said happily as she moved to stand by her husband. Grisha nodded his head as he held his hand out for Levi to shake.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Levi." Grisha said, looking Levi in the eye as he held his hand out. Levi extended his own hand out and gave a firm shake

"The same to you, sir. The both of you. I was wondering when we would all meet." He replied back casually, trying his best to keep it polite and subtle.

"Well, we knew you had to be pretty special if Eren wanted to bring you here to meet us. Every since he moved out, he doesn't really bring his dates home to meet us. I can't ever remember the last one that he brought over..... Shawn? Or something like that." Carla said, laughing a little bit.

Eren rolled his eyes at his mom, but couldn't help but to chuckle a little. "Yep, that's it, mom." He joked.

"Whatever happened to that one, anyways?" Grisha asked as he looked over to his son.

"Oh. Things just didn't really work out." Eren said simply with a shrug. Levi gave Eren a look, still not happy that this was what he was going to do. His parents needed to know the truth. Sure, technically what he said wasn't a lie, but there was much more than just 'didn't work out' wrapped in it.

"I would say that that's a shame, but to be honest, I already like Levi more in the barely 5 minutes that I've known him compared to all the times that you would bring that guy over. Levi is much more respectful to us. Though the night has just begun, so we'll see how things go." Grisha complimented all while scaring Levi at the same time.

"You'll love Levi, trust me." Eren grinned, moving closer to Levi and grabbing his hand. He gave it a soft squeeze and all the nervousness that Levi has been feeling pretty much disappeared. He could do this, he just needed to stop overthinking everything. Carla was sweet, Grisha seemed to have some faith in him, and Eren was right by his side. He just needed to relax. These weren't the overprotective mama bear and papa bear that he was thinking of. These are parents that just want the best for their son. And you bet your ass that he was going to show them that he was exactly that.