lovefool | eren x levi

seventeen years.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
♡♡♡♡♡

eren did not want to go to homecoming. he did not want to celebrate their football team winning yet again when he could just as easily sit in his room and pretend that armin was there, humming a song.

carla, however, agreed with grisha on one thing. and it was that eren had to go to homecoming.

"you can't make me go. i'll run away," eren said.

"with what money? look, it's a glorious experience, and you're going, end of story. now put on your suit and get ready."

so eren became a pretty boy, just for that night.

he washed his hair and put it in a man bun. he slid into the tight suit and the long pants. he cooperated.

there was a phrase that eren and armin used to refer to 'cooperation,' but, for some reason, eren could not remember it.

and he got a date.

he took levi's adoptive sister, sarah smith. he did not bother to glance at levi's frowning expression when he asked.

he picked sarah smith up in carla's car and was driving her to his school.

"you know, i didn't accept this for nothing," she said, speaking in the silence. "i remember you and armin were close. always were. and now, he's gone... i just... i'm not gon' be no rebound for you, okay? i'm more than that, period."

and in this exact moment, as he was pulling into the driveway, he realized that he was never going to be able to move on from armin arlert. he was going to die a lovefool, and this time, it would be without his partner.

so he pulled in and told sarah to get out. getting some quick cash from his wallet, he gave it to sarah.

"here. call an uber back home when it's over. i'm not... i'm not going."

"what?" she said, a twirl in her voice. "please don't tell me you're bailing on me now, of all times?"

there were laughing couples walking into the school. some were hand-holding, some had their arms wrapped around their backs, and some were just walking side by side. sarah and eren, however, were none of the choices.

"i'm sorry."

"are you actually fucking kidding me? i missed out on my own homecoming for this. you cannot be ditching me right now."

"i'll see you later, sarah," he said, and then pulled out of the driveway. sarah yelled in frustration and threw her pink sparkling purse at eren's window.

that was the last encounter sarah had with eren.

❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥
❥❥❥❥

eren found himself at the lake. 

 every day, when school finished, he would go to the lake. he would imagine the day when he saw armin floating in the water face-down, but for some reason, whenever he tried to see armin's body, that turtle appeared.

 "hey, disagreeable dave," he said. "are you thinking about it, too?"

there was no response; disagreeable dave had not even looked at eren.

"when armin had died, i, um, i hated this place, y'know? i hated every inch of it. even you, disagreeable dave."

he tugged on the key and pushed his other hand further down into the sand.

"i found out what this key unlocks to recently. it was a little cupboard in his room. full with little sticky notes of, uh, everything. and, well, now? i'm not comfortable with life, now that i know that armin had... had been..."

eren stopped talking, and now all could be heard was the telltale sign of night as crickets and cicadas chirped. 

after a few more moments, dave had begun to walk back underwater when eren spoke up.

"hey, disagreeable dave, have you ever thought about quitting?"

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
♥♥♥♥♥

on the day of homecoming, eren drove back to the lake. there was no place he thought of first that wasn't dave's lake.

today, however, he would not be allowed to lounge carelessly with disagreeable dave.

when he walked out of the car, there was loud laughter coming from the spot he usually sat in. he walked down the slope to find the most enraging thing he had seen since armin's school memorial.

a group of little children—four, at most—were crowded all around one tree, and one, in particular, was holding a dark-green mass up.

he ran up to the kids, just to see that it really was what he thought he saw.

pushing the kid away and holding him by his shirt, he shook him around.

"why? why?" he asked repeatedly, shaking him as he spoke. the kid held his hands up, eyes widened.

"we were just having fun. i wasn't gonna kill it," he said with a laugh. his friends laughed around him, but eren's rage quickly turned to happiness.

he did not relinquish his hold on the boy, instead, he carried him over to the lake and plunged him deep in the water, just as he imagined armin had.

his friends gasped and ran over to eren, trying to pull him away.

"stop! stop it!" said one of them.

"i'm just having fun. i'm not gonna kill him," eren said with a smile, mocking what the boy had said moments ago to him.

the kids run away and leave eren alone with the kid. so eren puts him further in before drawing him out.

the boy was near purple, he was coughing, and crying, and rubbing his eyes feverishly.

"you—hah—you monster!"

eren laughed at him, giggles giving him a great feeling spread throughout his body. he felt wondrous at this one moment, in his preppy suit, laughing at a kid who almost drowned.

the kids had finally come back, and this time, they came with an adult.

"he's the one! he did it!"

the man looked from eren to the boy, and back to eren. then, with one sneer, the man picked eren up and threw him in the lake.

❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦
❦❦❦❦❦

eren cackled maniacally on the shore, his head to the sky and his body shivering with delight. he leaned on his arm as his sound went out, and his laugh became silent.

"maybe it is time to quit being the norm. time for my story to end."