Chapter Text
Erwin was barely able to dodge out of the way before the hurling disc whizzed by his ear and shattered against the wall just behind him, shards flying out in all directions.
“Levi!” Erwin protested, arms raised in an effort to block the onslaught of dinnerware. “That‘s the good china!”
“I don’t care if it’s a fucking family heirloom, you bastard piece of shit!” Levi snarled as he got ready to send the matching tea cups next. “This is unforgivable Erwin! What were you thinking?!”
“If you can calm down, we can talk about it! We need to talk about it!”
Erwin jerked to the side, narrowly avoiding said teacups.
“Dammit, Levi!” Erwin scowled as he heard his salad bowl smash into a thousand pieces behind him. He’d had to go to four different stores to complete that set! The thought of all his wasted effort was really trying his patience. “Stop this! This is childish!”
“No, eyebrows!” Levi spat out. “I’m going keep throwing these fucking pretentious slabs of fucking clay at you until I’m satisfied! And then you will need to find a really good way of making this bullshit up to me!”
Levi hurled a water goblet (still full) and grabbed the silverware to immediately follow. Somehow, Erwin still managed to dodge everything, making the shorter man’s blood boil even more. Damn, his aim sucked when he was pissed! Erwin maneuvered himself through the onslaught and finally caught Levi in a bear hug to stop his actions. It was by no means a tender hug at all, especially with Levi struggling to get out of the behemoth’s grip.
“Levi, listen-“
“No, you listen! You’ve been really shitty lately. More than usual actually, and I’m tired of putting up with it! I swear it’s like you don’t even fucking care anymore!”
Erwin scoffed.
“You’re right, I don’t!” he yelled with exasperation.
Levi immediately stopped struggling. He felt his heart go still.
“What?” he choked out quietly, his eyes narrowing.
Erwin let Levi ease out of his hold, but he still gripped his shoulders.
“Levi,” Erwin exhaled loudly, trying to find the right words. “Mike and I aren’t a ‘thing’ that’s going to go away. We’re in love. And we’re going to be together. I’m sorry.”
Levi couldn’t believe his ears. Erwin sounded like a fucking clueless teenage girl defending her love for some street punk. Was he supposed to play the father part and try to forbid it? This was ridiculous!
He vaguely heard Erwin go on to list complaints about how he wasn’t happy, how Mike understood him, how much they had in common, how they hadn’t meant for it to happen. Blah, blah, blah. He honestly didn’t care. All he heard from Erwin was me, me, me. Where was the compromise? Where was the communication between them that they should have as a couple? Levi hadn’t even been aware that there were issues between them. He didn’t even know that he was making mistakes or not living up to par, whatever the case may be! As far as he was concerned, he was the one always having to overlook Erwin’s shortcomings and shitty behavior because he wanted things to work out for them. It wasn’t fair that Erwin just decided that he wasn’t happy and therefore flung himself straight away into foreign arms.
Asshole!
Levi eased himself down onto one of the dining chairs, lost as to what was happening and not sure what to do anymore. There were too many things going on in his head and he couldn’t focus on any one thing. He knew when he’d found the pictures and texts on Erwin’s phone that something like this could happen, but he never really thought it would. He’d been devastated, yes. He’d felt betrayed, absolutely. He’d cried over it, embarrassingly so. The one thing that he hadn’t thought about was them breaking up. That had never crossed his mind. He figured they’d been together for so long that one of them was bound to get curious or bored and stray. He assumed it would just be a passing thing though. They would work it out. They had a life together, and he was just going to throw it away? For a fling, really?!
He thought about all the time they had been together. They’d been best friends throughout high school. It wasn’t until after college that they started dating and quickly moved in together. He hadn’t felt like they were rushing things back then because they’d been together so long it just seemed like the natural progression of their relationship. It had also taken them years to establish their home just the way they wanted.
Ok, that was a lie.
It was just the way Erwin wanted, Levi had let him have his way on everything. Levi wanted to believe that he let Erwin do as he pleased because he wanted him to be happy. Thinking back on it now, it was possible that maybe he just hadn’t given a rat’s ass about such trivial matters. Who knows really? He would have to think about this sometime when his mind wasn’t fucked up like it was at the moment.
The whole situation was giving him anxiety and he was finding it increasingly hard to breathe. He needed to get out of there with what dignity he had left. He needed to get out now! He wasn’t sure what Erwin was even saying right now. It seemed like he was just talking in circles and not even really noticing that Levi wasn’t listening.
Feeling like a caged animal, he dug into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He silently texted Petra to see if he could stay with her for a while. Honestly, he would have preferred to stay with Hanji, but that wasn’t possible. Petra was his closest friend besides Hanji and he knew he could count on her for a shoulder to cry on.
Petra replied right away.
Petra: Of course! You are always welcome here, you know that. But is something wrong?
Very perceptive. Hell yeah, something’s wrong!
Levi: I can’t say right now. Can you pick me up?
Immediately! Seriously, like this second!. I can’t stay in this shit storm anymore!
Levi: NOW? Please?
Petra: Grabbing my keys. Are you at home or…
Levi: Yes. Thank you!
Petra: I don’t know what the situation is, but please be careful!
Petra: Be right there.
Thank god.
After a while he noticed that Erwin had stopped talking, so he decided he must be finished justifying his actions and therefore Levi could stop pretending he gave a shit. Erwin had obviously already made his choice and it wasn’t him, so why was he still hanging around? He got up and without a word, he marched to their bedroom (ha, what a joke!) and packed his overnight bag. Erwin didn’t follow him, didn’t try to stop him, he just stood where he was in the dining room waiting to see what Levi would do. When Erwin noticed Levi heading out with his bag, he was suddenly right beside him. As he exited the house, Levi informed Erwin that he would send for his things. Erwin seemed shocked that Levi would leave so easily.
“Just like that, huh?” The taller man spat out cynically.
“Oh, did you expect an argument from me? I guess your eloquent monologue was just so well thought out and infallible that there is no room for debate. You win Erwin. Clearly.”
Erwin looked like he wanted to say something but his mouth couldn’t form the words.
Just then Levi heard his phone signaling a new message, so he fished it out of his pocket again.
It was a text from Petra.
Petra: I’m in your driveway.
Tch. Not mine anymore!
Before Levi closed the door after himself, he just had one last thing to say to him.
“By the way, Erwin,” the blonde man only glared at him, arms crossed. “Thanks for being a man and ending our relationship properly before whoring around. Very classy.”
He heard Erwin gasp indignantly and felt momentarily satisfied as he slammed the door shut.
* * * * *
A couple of weeks later, Levi was sitting on the floor of his new home with all his boxed up belongings and a bottle of wine. He knew Mike moved in with Erwin almost overnight and was in fact the one who packed up all his stuff and had it sent to Petra’s. Just the thought of foreign hands on his precious belongings made him sick to his stomach. Who knew where that man’s hands had been. God help those two if any of his shit was broken or otherwise mishandled, he would make them pay!
Levi was lucky that he worked freelance and didn’t have a schedule to adhere to, otherwise he would have been fired for sure with the way his life was going nowadays. Between all the drinking, depression, having to find a place to live and re-organizing his life he had hardly done any work at all in the past weeks.
The one thing that was making him unexpectedly happy at the moment was his new condo. It was more like a loft, with tall windows, hardwood floors and brick walls. His sparse furniture so far was a mix of darks woods, wrought iron, stainless steel appliances and stained glass lamps. With the recessed lighting, it almost felt like an artsy café, but he loved it. He even had a small office space that he made into a mini library and workspace. He set up an old record player in a corner of his living room where it would profit from the best acoustics.
Erwin had always told him that everything in “their” house belonged to both of them, but it was all horse shit. Erwin was such a prima donna as to what brand he wanted, what style everything had to be and god help them all if the colors didn’t sooth him when he relaxed in his fortress. Levi hadn’t minded at first because it didn’t really matter to him, and he was oh so in love. Ugh! The thought of it now made his stomach turn!
He was on the ground floor so his place had an enclosed patio space with pale pink rose bushes and vines growing on the mesh fence for privacy. He was planning on having potted herbs growing out there as soon as he could get around to it. He already had black wrought iron patio furniture set out for when he wanted to relax outside.
His upstairs neighbor was a reclusive author who he almost never saw or heard from. Plus he travelled a lot, so a lot of the time the upstairs condo was empty. His neighbors on the side were a retired elderly couple. They were friendly for sure, but they mostly liked to keep to themselves. The wife was tending to her small garden every time he'd seen her so far. He wasn’t sure what the husband did. So far he really hadn't seen much of him. It was a relief to realize they were not busybodies who liked to immerse themselves in other people’s problems.
His place was a corner unit, their section was facing the street and they were situated in front of a park so he didn’t really have any other neighbors besides the elderly couple and the author upstairs. It was a short walk to a shopping center which had a grocery store, bookstore and coffee shop. It was a short bus trip to a mall and movie theatre. The only inconvenience was that it was in close range to the University, so there were a lot of college kids living nearby. So far he hadn’t seen too many of them, so it was fine.
Most importantly, it was nowhere near where he used to live. The chances that he would bump into Erwin or Mike was very slim. It could still happen, he knew. But he hoped it wouldn’t be until after he had a car of his own. That way if they crossed paths he could properly run them over with it.
Overall he was very relaxed and at peace. It had been really hard at first, but once the pain dulled he noticed he was enjoying the calm of not having to deal with another person’s bullshit. Not having to worry about what they’d say; not having to care about their feelings; not having to tiptoe around their mood swings. He felt truly free and maybe just a little guilty for enjoying it so much.
Deciding to get his mind off unpleasant shit and feeling the need to get everything organized, he set about unpacking.
Many hours later, he was a sweaty mess and tired as hell. He didn’t have his tv and cable set up yet, so he decided to relax with some light reading. All his books were still in boxes in the office/library. He would have to go through them all to find something he hadn’t already read three times. He almost gave up and was deciding to just take a bath before bed, but then he noticed some of the books on top of one of the boxes weren’t his. He held one up for inspection. It was a really big ass book, with a worn dusty blue leather cover. It had a weird star shape with symbols he was not familiar with. What was this? Witchcraft? Satanry? He grabbed the other unfamiliar books and upon further perusal concluded they were indeed having to do with the occult.
He had no idea what the symbols and gibberish inside the books were saying, so he put them back on top of the other books in the box. Before getting up, he noticed a piece of paper sticking out of the big blue book and curiosity got the best of him. His eyes widened when he realized they were notes Hanji had written translating different parts of the volume. There was no doubt about it, the writing was unmistakably her chicken scratch. Flipping through the book he noticed there were several of these scattered throughout.
His jaw dropped when he came upon a very worn note paper that smelled distinctly of ashes. He nearly dropped the book when he read the header:
Demon Summoning.
Levi felt a chill run down his spine and he shuddered involuntarily. Although he didn’t believe in such nonsense, he slammed the book shut and threw it into the bottom drawer of his desk, locking it for safe measure.
“I am NOT drunk enough for this shit!”
What the hell had that woman been up to?