lovefool | eren x levi

three years.

♡♡♡

"cookie?" asked eren, pointing to the jar.

"you've already had one, eren. it's time for your story with dada, so go upstairs."

eren's face scrunched up, reddening by the seconds. carla backed away, not even sure what to do when a kid was mid-tantrum. this was her first child, and although she went to multiple parenting classes about this, all the knowledge seemed to drift away as eren screamed.

if there was anything she should not do in this situation, it's giving eren the cookie. she repeated to herself, muttering, "don't give him the cookie."

he had his cookie already, and now it was time for him to read.

was she supposed to yell at him? she hated yelling, not even mentioning yelling at a child going through their tiresome threes. it didn't seem right to yell at him.

so she ignored him. she simply sat down on the couch and went through her phone, hoping that her gesture would make eren quiet down when he realizes she revoked her attention.

fortunately, for carla, eren's cries reduced to whimpers, to sour faces at her. she smiled.

"are you ready to go upstairs and start reading?"

eren frowned, nodding.

when carla could finally barricade eren into the room with his father, she sighed. eren was an angel at best, but it was like holding fifty halos and wings at once when it came to taking care of him.

she wondered how kuchel was handling levi. she previously declined carla's many offers to send money to her, and wouldn't tell carla at all how she was paying for levi's care. heck, though the numerous times they met up for coffee, kuchel had not uttered a word about her dead husband.

carla knew she was pushing kuchel, and kuchel would never forgive carla if she kept pestering her over something that she has made clearer than transparent she did not want to talk about.

she laughed to herself. "well, there is a price for everything. only the fools that are courageous enough to pay for it get the product, right?"

she called kuchel.

"hello?" kuchel mumbled.

"hey, kuch! how's levi doing?"

"sleeping."

carla giggled and pressed the phone closer to her ear.

"i've been thinking we should expose eren and levi to each other more often. they seem very wary of each other, and i personally believe that they should get used to seeing one another."

"sure! do you want me to pick you up, or..?" carla said, edging on to the very thing she wanted to see.

kuchel's voice went into a higher volume, and carla wished she could see kuchel's face at that moment. her body language. she wanted to read kuchel like her favorite book, turning each expressive page at a time.

"no, no, most definitely not! we'll meet you at the park again next week, okay?"

"i... eh, sure," carla said, hanging up.

as she put on her work clothes, she pondered about that change of atmosphere kuchel caused. the rushed tone, the hushed sound, it all was too suspicious for carla's liking. or, perhaps, this was purely just her examining situations to fit her own theories again.

carla liked to think kuchel and her were best friends. they had shared many extracurricular conversations, mostly about kuchel's little quirks in her life, like the litter of kittens that liked to run in her backyard, or the peculiar bird that always sits on the bus sign, not bothering to move despite everyone's banter about it.

carla liked to think kuchel told her everything. and now, she thought she should not distrust kuchel in any form until she reveals her hypothetical lie.

carla liked to think she was right.

♥♥♥

"what's your name?" kuchel asked levi, who was playing an interactive shapes game on kuchel's phone..

"lev," he said, not bothering to look up.

"no, no, that's your nickname. what's your actual name?"

"lev...i?"

"give me a high five!"

levi smiled at her and gave her a high five with all his strength. kuchel winced and waved her hand around before starting the game over again.

"now, can you tell me what your last name is?"

"asserman," levi deadpanned.

she stared at levi, not sure what she heard him say. "can you say it again?"

"ass... er... man!"

she cackled, throwing her head back and clapping her hands.

"no, levi! it's ackerman. can you say ack?"

"ass."

"levi, no!"

♥♥♥

levi pedaled on his tricycle, which was a gift from carla on his third birthday. chatting with his mother—which was more of a tangent of barely coherent words that he expected her to answer to, for kuchel—as they walked to the park to play with eren.

eren and levi were friends. sometimes, levi's mommy liked to say that eren was her friend, but that's weird. eren was his friend, not mommy's. mommy's friend is eren's mommy. mommies are always supposed to be friends!

"i spy... white!"

kuchel hummed and looked around.

"is it the clouds?"

levi shook his head and giggled. "nope!"

"is it the sidewalk?"

"nope!"

"is it... me?"

"no! it's my shirt!"

levi pedaled into the park, where carla and eren were waving at him. levi got off the tricycle and walked towards eren, holding his teacup car toy.

"hey, kuch!"

carla ran over to give kuchel a hug, basically squeezing her.

"i've been putting eren in some playgroups, and he's done so well!"

"it shows," kuchel said, looking at the two children. while they weren't really talking that much to each other, levi had clearly taken eren's toy, and eren didn't seem to have a problem with it.

"levi's such a sweet boy, i must say. always so quiet."

"that's just because we're outside! you should see him behind closed doors," kuchel said. "he talks more than i do."

"well, kids are kids, and kids aren't afraid to run their little blabber-holes."

"ain't that right!"