Work Text:
Levi's skillful fingers danced across the cool surfaces of the piano keys. As one was pressed down, other fingers were already gliding to another, creating a plethora of beautiful sounds. It wasn't bombastic; wasn't something that kept everyone's eyes on him and the ink black piano. It was simply background music.
At one dining table, the music kept a sense of peace amongst an estranged family, struggling through awkward and terse conversation. At another it brought a soft smile to the faces of lovers, that looked as if they could spend all night listening to Levi's serenade, and gazing into each other’s eyes.
The table to the left of them had the scene Levi was most attuned with however. An older gentlemen's worn, leather shoe tapped to the rhythm of the music as slowly, he sipped a glass of red wine. The man's gaze was soft, gentle, and focused on the empty chair sitting across the table; a full glass of red wine in front of it. Some who took a glance may think, “maybe his Misses went to the restroom," and most wouldn't even care. Levi however, had seen this man every Friday night since he started working at the restaurant, three years ago. Always alone, and always gazing lovingly at an empty chair.
It was fascinating at first, then weird, then sad, then oddly familiar. No, Levi may not have lost a love as deep as that man most certainly had, but the raven had been caught enough times making googly eyes at his phone screen to have an idea of what longing feels like. The longing for a person you'll never have again, or in the pianists case, a longing for a person he'll never have.
Levi felt a buzz in his pocket and his breath caught in his chest. He drew his gaze from the kindred spirit and finished off the piece, bringing the song to a soft close, before silently leaving the piano bench to enjoy his break. A few claps of appreciation resounded through the restaurant, but Levi simply turned his head to nod back in brief acknowledgement, continuing towards the bar.
He had just barley sat down when three more buzzes were felt. A hint of a smile tugged at his lips and he quickly pulled out his phone.
Titan: hey rockstar~ ;) shift go well?
Levi rolled his eyes. Fucking dork.
Titan: your not still on shift, are you?
Titan: fuck your totally on shift. I fucked up the times again didn't I?
Titan: im gonna shut up now
The raven gave a soft snort and quickly typed out a reply.
Heichou: Yeah, you kinda fucked up again brat, but I'm on break now
Titan: oh good. im glad I didn't mess up your death metal flo again ;) lol how many times have I done that?
Too many was the answer, but the raven couldn’t find it within him to be bothered. The best part of his performance was feeling that little buzz in his back pocket, letting him know that Titan was thinking of him. Levi bit his lip to contain whatever stupid smile wanted to break out across his face.
"You’re gonna get me lovesick with that dopey look of yours," the bartender, Erwin, commented as he wiped down the counter.
Levi scowled. Apparently, he hadn't hid it as well as he'd thought.
“Shut it, shitty brows." He snapped irritably.
He then looked down at his phone again and quickly typed out: a lot. Almost instantly his phone buzzed, and a green bubble popped up reading: Shut up. I try okay?
The raven shook his head with a knowing smirk. Poor guy didn’t know how to read a clock or something.
Heichou: I know babe. You just keep trying
Levi, very lovingly, tacked a little thumbs up at the end.
There was a longer pause before Titan simply sent Levi a huffing emoji and a gif of Mr. Rogers giving him the middle finger.
The pianist snorted against his will and reflexively slapped a hand over his mouth, really hoping that he didn’t actually just do that. He chanced a look at the shitty blonde bartender and regretted it almost instantly when he was met with a smug smirk and reproachful eye. Levi glared at him again, hard enough to convey, “you better not say anything,” before looking back down at his phone. He pulled it closer to him and practically huddled over it to make sure only he was privy, before quickly sending a sardonic blow kiss emoji and shutting off his phone.
Levi was pretty sure he would never live it down if Erwin, of all people, saw him do such a thing.
“I’m goin’ out for a smoke,” Levi informed the blonde, before hopping off his seat - yes hopping, the seats are high dammit - and heading for the back door. As soon as he opened the thick wooden door, he was met with a burst of frigid night air smacking him right in the face. Snow had just begun to fall upon the lively streets that afternoon, so only a light blanket of white covered the ground now that the sun had gone down. Levi shivered and pulled out a cigarette and a lighter before wrapping his arms around himself and stepping out, closing the heavy door behind him. He quickly lit his cigarette while it was stuck between his lips, and stuffed the lighter back in his packet, taking a long drag and watching as the smoke exited his lungs into the night sky.
After a few quiet minutes, Levi took out his phone and opened up his and Titan’s chat again, his thumb hesitating over the keyboard. He sighed despondently and took another drag. He knew what he wanted to say, but didn’t know how to say it, or if he even should – he had already asked three times…
“Fucking hell,” Levi muttered to himself, the smoke slipping past his lips, before quickly typing out the message and sending it before he could second guess himself.
Heichou: can we talk?
Only two minutes went by as Levi waited for an answer, but his leg was getting more fidgety as each second ticked on. He was like a high school girl waiting for her crush to respond and it made Levi want to vomit, but at the same time he couldn’t help it. He was so hopelessly gone on this mystery man.
He had first started talking to Titan in January, meeting him in a chat room that Levi would sometimes visit when he was awake and bored at three o’clock in the morning. The conversations had started out simple and light: all night they had talked about frivolous things that were here nor there, only signing out after the sun had come up and it was time for Levi’s day to begin again. After that, his nightly talks with Titan had become routine, and it was not long before those conversations bled into the day, becoming heavier and keeping Levi glued to his phone, hanging on for the next response all the way till December. It was ridiculous really, how fast Levi had fallen, but never in his life had someone been able to understand and converse with him in the ways Titan could, and now he wanted more. Wanted to know more, see more, be closer - he wanted something real.
As time slipped by, Levi continued to stand out in the cold, checking his phone continuously as he eventually smoked his break away. The raven sighed heavily and threw the cigarette on the ground, stomping it into the snow with frustration.
Every time. Every fucking time is was the same deal. Levi never got a response - never. It was starting to make him wonder if he was being cat-fished, but he refused to entertain the idea much further, not right now; maybe Titan just needed a little more time.
With another ragged sigh, Levi clicked off his phone and stuck it in his back pocket before heading inside. He quietly brushed off the light scatterings of snow that had settled on his jacket and head before making his way out to the dining room where his piano sat. Well, not his piano exactly, but he had been playing it enough years that it sure felt like his. Levi sat down heavily and smoothed his fingers over the familiar keys, closing his eyes as he tried to get into the right headspace. However, his mind was a complete mess, focused solely on what could be going through Titan’s mind right then. Was he too nervous to respond, hands fidgeting as he thought of what to type? Or maybe he was just busy and didn’t have time to respond. Or maybe he was just ignoring the raven, stringing him along with no intention of taking that step forward.
Levi tried to literally shake the thoughts out of his head, tossing his head left and right before refocusing on the piano, setting his fingers gently onto the correct keys. He took a deep breath in through his nose, out through his mouth, raised his fingers just slightly – and nearly jumped out of his skin when his phone buzzed, sending a jolt through his entire body.
He quickly took his hands off the keys and snatched his phone out of his pants, unlocking it to reveal a simple message that had Levi’s heart in his throat.
Titan: Okay. Tonight, after your shift?
The raven finally took in a deep breath and couldn’t help the big dumb grin that probably spread onto his face. Distantly, he heard Erwin gagging dramatically, but Levi refused to let the shitty blonde ruin the moment and he rapidly typed out:
Perfect.
Eren paced back and forth inside his run down, two-bedroom apartment, wearing a burning hole into the carpet of the living room with his unrest. He bit his lip and looked down at his phone for the nth time, viewing the message he had just sent not five seconds ago:
Okay. Tonight, after your shift?
What had he been thinking, sending that to Heichou? He had been avoiding this for a reason. Sure, they had been talking for about a year, but how well did that translate to real time? Probably not very fucking well. What if they came across that horrible, awkward silence, or Heichou just decided he didn’t like brassy jocks?
As Captain of the soccer team at his University and regular partier on the weekends, being social wasn’t usually that big of a deal, but this was Heichou he might hear the voice of tonight, and that made all sorts of butterflies erupt in his insides.
Suddenly, his phone dinged and buzzed in his hand, sending him up a foot in the air and scrambling to unlock it. When he saw the message those butterflies shot off and created a flurry in his stomach.
Heichou: Perfect
“What was I thinking?” He groaned loudly to the ceiling and flopped down onto Armin’s old, ugly, green couch in frustration. He sat his phone on his stomach and rubbed his callused hands across his face with vigor.
As far as he could tell, Heichou played the piano, was a straight A student and a hard worker, and Eren was...well, a punk. He bit the piano teacher when he was six, skipped school more often then not, and drank far more than he should; Eren couldn’t date a classy guy. Then again, Heichou also cussed like a sailor and had a sense of humor that belonged in the gutter, so perhaps he had some edges that the brunette cold rough...
“Alright, alright, alright, alright…” he mumbled to himself. He really had to stop acting like a chick on prom night. The guy – hopefully – on the other end of that line tonight was probably going to answer the phone and converse like a normal fucking human being, so Eren just needed to suck it up and shake it off. This was not something to freak out about. Just a normal conversation, with a normal guy.
Oh, but Heichou wasn’t exactly normal, was he?
Eren groaned. Why did feelings have to make things so difficult? If Heichou had asked ten months ago if they could speak over the phone, he would have said “hell yeah” and called him up. But now… now they would be starting from a place of hundreds of late-night conversations and mid-day chats, all of which had slowly turned into something deeper, richer. Something Eren didn’t want to mess up by saying something stupid – something he couldn’t take back with a button.
Eren wished he could talk to Armin about his predicament, pour all is worries into his best friend, but the blonde was currently holed up in their shared bedroom studying for an exam, as well as writing an essay due tomorrow, because Armin’s professor was an asshole. Admittedly, he could talk to Mikasa, who was doing some reps with her weights in her bedroom, but Eren didn’t imagine that would go very well:
“Oh, hi Mikasa! I need your advice about talking to this random guy that I’ve been talking to anyway for the past year and didn’t tell you. Also, I really, really, really, like him. No, I don’t know what he looks like, what his name his, or where he lives – don’t look at me like that!”
Eren shook his head with a self-deprecating laugh. Yeah, that wasn’t going to work. His sister would probably just take his phone away and devote herself to tracking down his mystery crush, ruining all possibility of a healthy relationship between him and Heichou; it was a disaster waiting to happen.
The brunette breathed out a deep sigh and stood up off the couch, immediately making his way to the door to slip on his Nikes and throw on his old, forest green hoodie, zipping it up before heading out into the cold embrace of the snowy, night air. Eren watched his breath materialize in front of him as he dug in his pocket and pulled out a pair of stringy, white earbuds. Sticking them in, hooking them up, and picking a song before taking off down the sidewalk, feet pounding the pavement as he set a steady pace toward a nearby trail that looped around the community.
The brunette had always found that literally running from his problems was often the best solution for him. Sometimes, Eren just needed to get out of his own head and focus on nothing but one foot in front of the other, music singing his woes away. Part of him wanted Heichou to call right now, really; catch him off guard, steal his breath away, make him stop wondering and just show him what would happen. But this wasn’t a chick flick, so Eren chose not to lay around and fantasize about what could or would be, and instead took off faster, running his worries into the ground.
Softly, Levi brought his last song to a close and bowed before taking his leave, thanking the patrons quietly for any praise thrown his way. He tried to act calm, but his quick pace and fidgety demeanor betrayed his anxiety, causing Erwin to raise an eyebrow at him as the raven punched out.
“You alright?” The blonde called out as he pulled his jacket closed.
Levi stopped midway out the door and turned around to meet his gaze. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said sort of breathlessly, actually feeling sick to his stomach. He was going to talk to Titan tonight, like actually talk to him.
Suddenly, his phone buzzed in his pocket again, tightening his stomach even further. The raven was practically bouncing on his toes now as he yelled, “see you tomorrow!” and rushed out the door, making a b-line straight for his black Nissan Rouge.
Levi slipped into his car, started it and instantly blast the heat, shivering in his seat as he took out his phone to view the message.
Titan: xxx-xxx-xxxx
Titan had sent him his number. Levi bit his lip, cheeks flushed as he thought about what could or would transpire tonight. What would Titan sound like and would he like what Levi sounded like? Would they talk for hours or would it get awkward? Would things get hot or would they stay safe? Was Levi going to speak to the love of his life or a creep trying to catfish him? He didn’t know, but he was on the edge of his seat to find out. So, Levi put the car in drive and peeled out of the driveway and onto the road. The traffic was low at 11 o’clock at night and the path was all freeway, so Levi took it upon himself to set a new speeding record as he raced homewards.
Once he had made it home safely - which was quite miraculous considering his worrisome driving - Levi was immediately greeted by his best friend, and online name sake, Heichou.
Heichou barked and whined, running over to the raven’s feet excitedly, climbing his front paws up Levi’s leg to get his attention while he made curious huffing noises; like he was upset Levi even left that morning. Levi smiled fondly and his whole body relaxed at the site of that familiar, fluffy face. He closed the door behind him and dropped his school bag, before reaching down to pick up Heichou so that the little dog could give him short, sporadic kisses. Normally, animals were a big ‘no-no’ in Levi’s book, and hot, dog breath kisses he was even less fond of, but Heichou was different. He was a well taken care of, pristine, black miniature poodle, whom Levi took pride in grooming every day and brushing the teeth of every morning. He wasn’t really just a dog anymore, he was part of Levi’s small, but close family.
“I love you too,” Levi mumbled as Heichou kissed him exuberantly across his lips and cheeks. Once the little thing had its fill, Levi put him down and made his way to his small bedroom, Heichou hot on his heels. Ever since he got the thing it hadn’t left him alone, but Levi found that he liked that it possessed some devotion and loyalty.
As he entered his room, he immediately hung up his coat in the closet by the door and carefully took off his shoes to slide them onto a shelf above his hanging clothes, while his socks were turned out and thrown in a basket. A big breath of air exited his lungs as he finally fell down into his desk chair. He would have preferred to collapse into his soft bed, but fuck doing that with clothes on that he’d been working in for several hours. Sweat, food, and ‘people germs’ probably covered the entire outfit, and Levi shuddered at the idea of sleeping with those horrors between sheets. Usually, Levi’s routine was to rip the filthy clothes off as fast as humanly possible and hop directly into the shower, but he had an appointment to keep.
He pulled out his phone, leg bouncing as he opened up his and Titan’s chat room and read the number again. A giddy feeling spread through his chest, heating him up on the inside, causing him to worry on his bottom lip and smile at the same time. It was like a whole year of messages on a screen were now finally cumulating to this moment. His heart was fluttering inside his chest, his mind was still all tangled up, and his hair was a sty from his hands running nervously through it all the way home, but fuck it, this was going to happen. He was really going to talk to Titan. Levi took a deep breath, calming his nerves as he dialed the number and hesitantly pressed the call button. It only rang twice when Levi’s heart began racing double time and he anxiously swooped up Heichou, who had been laying at his feet, holding him tight as he waited with bated breath - he really should have taken a hit or something before this.
Five rings later and suddenly, the ringing stopped, leaving Levi with nothing but the sound of his own heart beating against his ribcage. Then, a voice spoke tentatively, with a boyish flavor and soft like a payer.
“Hello?”
Levi stopped breathing.