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Eren had never given his sexuality much thought before. It wasn't a subject that he was terribly interested in, nor one that he considered important. If one day he met a person who interested him as more than a friend, so be it. If not, that would also be fine. It could be described as a "cross-that-bridge-when-you-get-there" type of matter.
His story of crossing that bridge began while waiting for the metro. Only a few seats were occupied, there still being some time until the next train arrived. A distance away from Eren, a man strummed a guitar and had his case laid open for tips. To the man's right was a freckled brunette who sat with an arm slung around the shoulders of a pretty blonde girl. Sitting to their right and Eren's immediate left were a man and woman who kept sending dirty looks in the girls' direction. It wasn't difficult to guess what was going through their minds, but Eren had hope that as long as the pair kept their mouths shut, he would be able to hold himself back from confronting them. In an attempt to distract himself the disrespectful sneering, Eren focused his gaze on an advertisement for some action movie featuring guns, explosions, and fire.
After a few minutes, the sound of footsteps signaled the arrival of another person. Glancing to his right, Eren found a man standing in front of the bench that he was perched on. When he caught a glimpse of the man's face, Eren decided that he'd found a sight he'd much rather look at than the advertisement board. He had sharp features and intense eyes that were looking straight at Eren and black hair and—
He was looking straight at Eren.
Eren hadn't even realized that he was staring at the man. He could feel his cheeks heating up and oh god he'd better not be blushing right now. The advertisement suddenly seemed very interesting and he quickly snapped his head forward to watch it intently.
Perhaps he hadn't been watching it quite as intently as he thought—it wasn't his fault that the stranger standing next to him was distractingly handsome, what an asshole—because he noticed an amused glint in the man's eyes from his peripheral. Eren's entire face now felt as if it was on fire and any hopes that he'd had of not helplessly blushing were dashed.
He continued to gaze at the cause of his embarrassment from the corner of his eye. It occurred to him that even though the bench was open and the train wasn't due for another five minutes, the stranger was still standing. Eren took a moment to gather his courage before he turned his head to face the man and spoke.
"Are you going to sit down?" he asked.
The man raised an eyebrow at Eren before directing a glower of repulsion at the seats and answering, "Fuck no. Do you have any idea how disgusting those benches must be?"
Across the subway tracks, Eren observed as a teenage girl took a wad of chewed gum from her mouth and stick it to the bottom of her seat.
He rose as well with a mutter of, "Good point."
Though the stranger didn't seen to be a naturally cheery person, Eren swore that he witnessed a hint of a smile on his face.
"My name's Eren," he introduced with a smile of his own.
"Levi," the man responded. They stood in a peaceful silence then, the music from the guitar player carrying through the tunnel. Eren found himself gazing at Levi once again. He noticed that the other man was actually rather short, and he held back a laugh. He also noticed that Levi's sleeves were rolled up just below his elbows, revealing toned forearms—
Their eyes met once again and Eren realized that fuck, he had just been caught staring again, this time at Levi's forearms. Would there ever be an and to his humiliation?
Feeling a familiar warmth in his face, Eren cleared his throat awkwardly and quickly returned his attention to the crappy movie ad. What had once been a comfortable silence now seemed to have a suffocating effect on him. He supposed that he'd brought this upon himself, but still, he couldn't believe that he'd been caught checking out—
"You actually interested in seeing that shit?"
It took a moment for Eren to respond due to the shock that not only was Levi continuing to speak to him, but he was overlooking the incident. He practically trembled with relief.
"The movie?" Eren asked. "No, I'm more interested in what a waste of money it would be."
Levi huffed a quiet laugh. As they continued to converse, Eren almost forgot about the others in the tunnel. However, he was rudely reminded that they weren't alone by the same people who he'd been trying with so much difficulty to ignore.
"Do they have to do that in public?" sneered the woman seated next to them.
Eren looked to his left with narrowed eyes and saw the two girls huddled together. The brunette was scowling at the other couple while the blonde attempted to calm her down, a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"The idea of two women being together is just not right," the man agreed.
Feeling anger boil in him, Eren was about to tell the two to shut their damn mouths, but someone else beat him to it.
"Well, the thought of your fat ass fucking anyone doesn't do it for me, either," Levi deadpanned.
A stunned silence ensued. The guitar player had stopped strumming to gape at them. Eren stared with wide, awestruck eyes at Levi, who met his gaze indifferently. After taking a moment to get over his shock, he let out a snort of laughter. Another second passed and the brunette girl began to cackle with him. The small blond, who had initially seemed unsure of how to react, joined them as well, giggling gleefully. Even the guitar player chuckled a bit. Much to Eren's delight, the only two not laughing were thoroughly mortified. Clutching his stomach, the brunet attempted to calm his breathing before turning back to Levi with a huge grin plastered across his face. The amusement in the older man's eyes only made his smile grow.
While Eren and the pair of girls continued to snigger, more people began to crowd into the tunnel. They'd finally pulled themselves together when a voice over the intercom announced the arrival of their train. The car that Eren and Levi ended up boarding together was packed. As he stood, a hand securely grasping one of the support poles, Eren glanced around. His jaw clenched in annoyance at the sight of the people who'd spoken condescendingly of the couple in tunnel. Coincidentally, as he continued to scan the car, his eyes met with a pair of blues—blues belonging to the small girl from earlier. Sure enough, the brunette—who he'd had guessed by now to be her girlfriend—was sitting next to her. Eren and the blonde exchanged friendly smiles as the train lurched into motion.
While he didn't mind the girls being there, he had a bad feeling about the other two. He just hoped that they would keep their mouths shut.
Apparently, that was too much to ask for. Just as he was turning to speak with Levi, he heard it.
"I can't believe that we're stuck on the train with them."
Eren exchanged a pained look with Levi.
Please, he thought, please let their stop be close.
Apparently, that was also too much to ask for. For the next few minutes, they had no choice but to hear ignorant remark after ignorant remark. After two stops had passed, the freckled girl seemed ready to get out of her seat and throw two off the train.
Eren had had enough as well. After a comment about how the girls were "just trying to show off how gay they were", he tapped Levi's shoulder and received an hum in response.
"Can I kiss you?"
That got Levi's attention. He blinked at Eren, expression reading did you just say what I think you said?
"What?" he inquired.
Eren could feel blood rushing rapidly to his face. When he'd said it the first time, he hadn't been thinking—he'd been distracted by how pissed off he was. But now that he was being asked to repeat himself, the weight of his words had a chance to catch up to him. What kind of person would ask a practical stranger to kiss them in public? A practical stranger of the same gender at that. To make matters worse, this wasn't just any stranger, this was Levi. Levi, who had a crass sense of humor and intense gray eyes and broad shoulders and who was expecting him to say something.
"I... I, uh..."
Use your words, Jaeger!
Gathering his courage, Eren took a deep breath. "Can I kiss you?"
He closed his eyes, not wanting to see Levi's face when he'd inevitably tell him fuck no, gross, and possibly punch him.
Instead of a fist in his face, Eren was shocked to feel warm lips on his mouth. That wasn't all that he felt—there was a hand holding his waist, another resting on the back of his neck, a thumb softly rubbing through the hair there, and his heart trying to burst out if his chest. Eren's hands found their way to Levi's shoulders and he tentatively began kissing him back. As Levi pulled him closer, Eren's eyes closed and his arms slid around the other's neck. He started to feel a force pulling him backward, and for a moment was confused before realizing that the train was slowing to a stop. Being much more interested in the hand running through his hair before settling back on his neck and the tongue slipping into his mouth, he didn't really care.
At least, he didn't care until the train jerked to a full halt and he found himself stumbling forward straight into Levi. Their teeth clacked together rather painfully and if it wasn't for Levi wrapping his arm around Eren's waist more firmly and grabbing the metal pole for balance, they would have both gone down.
Eren was vaguely aware of a recorded voice telling them which stop they were at, but it wasn't until a loud wolf whistle pierced the air that he became aware of the people around him again. His face grew so hot that he swore he could feel himself sweating. He had just made out with a practical stranger in public. A practical stranger who was another man at that. And he'd enjoyed it (a lot).
Peeking in the direction that the whistle had come from, Eren found the freckled girl cheering loudly and her girlfriend with a wide grin on her face. Before burying his face in Levi's shoulder from embarrassment, he also caught a glimpse of a certain pair of assholes with horrified expressions hurriedly getting up to leave. Despite his sheepishness, he felt smugly satisfied.
Levi gave Eren a small shake. "Hey," he said, "there are two more open seats now."
Eren snorted as Levi took his hand and led him to the unoccupied seats. On the wall across from them, he noticed a familiar advertisement and an idea struck him.
"Hey, Levi?"
"Yeah?"
"Want to see that shitty movie with me this weekend?"
Levi smiled. "Yes."