Butterfly
Eren was —from what Mikasa and Armin have said— a guileless boy.
At the age of 8, his favorite thing to do was chasing butterflies while "Wouldn't it be nice" was on the radio. Eren was just the happiest boy ever.
At the age of 15, he didn't chase butterflies anymore. But he still yelled each time he saw one. His new favorite thing to do was watching the boy he loved.
He enjoyed it even more when Armin and Mikasa were with him.
His name was Levi Ackerman. When he first saw him, Eren thought —like everyone— that Levi was very scary. But these unfounded words vanished the day he saw him saying in an acute voice "Oh my god a butterfly!".
Truth be told, when he heard it, he inevitably fell in love. Since this day, he couldn't help but find everything wonderful in Levi. The way he dressed himself, his way of talking to people, all those mimics that he couldn't help but make… everything.
Eren found that Levi was the prettier boy, delicate and misunderstood. He could dream of him endlessly. Oh, he was in love so much more than what he pretended to be.
Levi was always alone. 'Maybe because he is too little to sympathize with the world' Mikasa said once. But Eren thought it was because Levi felt powerful and free as a loner.
Actually, no one really knew why Levi was always sidelined from the other teens. Even Levi himself did not know. But he quickly got over it, and found the time to appreciate it.
One day, the little trio sat on a bench after Eren caught Levi lightning up matches.
"Oh, look, he's trying to set a pebble on fire!" Eren said, smiling softly at the sight.
"The next victim will either be the school or you" Mikasa said while cleaning Armin's glasses."Why don't you ask him on a date if setting fire to rocks is that empressive to you ?"
Eren immediately turned his gaze to face his friend. "Oh no! I've never talked to him before!"
"He's your classmate for a year, how is it possible?" asked Armin. Mikasa stood up and faced the blond. "He's just a coward" teased the raven before walking toward the small teen.
Mikasa never noticed Levi before Eren started to talk about him. She didn't really like or hate him, but she saw him as a deeply depressed guy.
"Mika no! I hate you from now on!" Eren yelled from the bench. But Mikasa kept moving forward. "I lied, I still love you, don't be mad Mika, sorry!"
Armin put his hand on his arm and shook his head. "I don't think she cares, Eren."
Once near him, she took a deep breath and waved at him. "Hey."
Levi turned around to face her. He looked at her clothes —and her inimitable goth style— and said "Yah no actually the 'Uptight Miserable Young Aged Spawn Of Satan Meetin' ' is down the street, you're gonna take a left, you're gonna see a cliff, you're gonna jump off-"
"My friend," Mikasa interrupted him,"can't stop looking at you everyday of his life because he finds you're pretty and hot and all these things so please ask him on a date."
Levi raised his brows. It was unusual. But he was a bored teen in need of fun. The most interesting thing he could do was leaving the class after having proven to the professor how intelligent and reflexive he was by irony.
"Okay," he finally said. "It's very incongruous, but it seems right."
"Seriously?" Mikasa couldn't believe what she just heard. It was so easy, she hated herself for not having done this earlier.
"Yeah, who's he?" Levi asked, standing up and crushing his used matches.
Mikasa pointed to Eren who was crying, almost exploding, and maybe close to piss in his pants. Levi made a disillusioned face. "Him?" he asked, "he looks like he's about to die at any moment, and I wasn't here when the firefighter came to teach us the cpr."
Mikasa let out an embarrassed laugh. "Yeahhhh he's nervous but don't worry he's a nice guy." Levi crossed his arms with a disapproving look. "He looks like a real loser."
"Too bad you already said yes." Mikasa then left to reach her friends.
Levi looked at her leaving his sides and blew. He could at least try.
"Eren peed his pants." Armin said, whipping the brunet's face.
Eren was a total mess, he was all red and wet. The stress to imagine how Levi would react was overwhelming him before Armin could do anything.
"I'll call a teacher," Mikasa sighed and left again.
_____
The next day, in maths class, Levi sat next to Eren. He would usually sit at the back of the class so no one would notice him, but he had to ask him out, like he said he would.
Eren felt someone sitting next to him and he could bet his life that it wasn't Armin without even looking.
"Sorry it's Armin's chair- OH!" Eren almost fell off his own seat when he saw who sat next to him.
"What's your name?" Levi asked.
Eren tried to figure out what was happening. Maybe he was daydreaming. But it was too accurate to be an actual dream.
"Aaron yogur- I mean Eren jaeger!"
His face became crimson red. He never thought Levi would sit near him or talk to him. All this was beyond surreal for Eren. He then wondered what Mikasa had told him the day before for him to suddenly ask him his name.
Armin eventually arrived but rushed to another place with big eyes open when he saw who Eren was talking with.
"Can I borrow your pencil?" asked the littlest. Eren gave him his pencil case.
Levi didn't want to waste any more time, he had to ask this damn question. But something this unusual couldn't be that easy. But he managed to say it. "Do you want to hang out with me?"
Eren was everything but ready to hear that. He choked on his own saliva. Going out with Levi? It was his ultimate dream, of course he wanted to. But he didn't react. This sudden question froze him.
"Is that a yes?" Levi asked, poking at his shoulder.
Eren nodded slowly. He wanted to shout, jump, smile, and shout again.
"Cool," He wrote where and when on a paper and smacked his cheek, a thing that seemed innocuous when Levi did it, as if he was an expert in the field. "Meet me there."
The bold gesture had Eren melting. Levi then ignored him for the rest of the course. In fact, he ignored everyone. Eren took the little paper with a big bright smile, and when the bell rang, he rushed to show it to Mikasa.
She read it attentively, as if it was a trap full of witchcraft. "Next Saturday at four p.m in front of the record store" she recited.
"He wrote it in maths."
"Yeah I know, I told him about you, that you found him hot and that you're in love with him and everything you keep telling." she said while reading the paper again and again.
"You did not!" Eren grabbed her shoulders and shook her.
"Fortunately, I did. You're welcome, thanks to me, you have a date with Levi."
Eren leaned against his locker, sighing.
"And he even kissed my cheek, can you believe it?"
_____
On Saturday afternoon, Eren came 5 minutes in advance to the meeting point.
He waited in front of the shop window of the record store where Levi asked him to be. He loved this place, and he was glad Levi liked the same things as he.
He looked at his watch every five seconds. It was his first outing. In fact, Eren was scared Levi fooled him, but he blew all his deep thoughts when he saw him walking toward him.
He waved at him happily. "Hi!"
"Hi Eren, are you hungry?" He asked once he reached him.
"I've already eaten today, but thank you for asking."
Levi frowned. He wasn't supposed to ask this question now. "Oh shit, I meant, are you okay?" He rubbed his face with his hands and laughed nervously.
He prepared some questions, in case he didn't know what to do or say. On reflection, Levi found this idea ridiculous.
"Yeah!" Eren laughed.
He took his hand and went into the store. It was so meaningful for Eren, he couldn't help but blush. Once inside, Levi began to search for a disk in the big boxes. "Tell me if you want something."
Eren assumed the reason the meeting point was here was because he needed to buy a disk here. But he didn't mind, spending time with Levi was amazing for him.
"I'm done, do you want something?"
"No, thanks." Eren said.
Levi didn't know what to do. He was not used to dates.
And, like a boost from fate, his favorite song —which is "Every breath you take" by the way— passed through the store speakers.
"Whoa, I love this song!" Eren said pointing at the ceiling, where the music came from.
Levi smiled, glad they had at least one thing in common. "Do you wanna dance?"
Eren's face illuminated. "Of course, I would love to dance with you."
Eren took Levi's hand in his and put a hand on his hip. They then moved from right to left, they turned, they separated and moved closer. Levi's head rested on Eren's chest for a moment. Eren smelled like cinnamon, sweet and soft. They both enjoyed this little improvised slow in the empty space.
There was no one to interrupt them, it was just the music and them. Just the rhythm and the awkward movements of their feet on the tile. But unfortunately, all good things have an end.
"Africa" replaced "every breath you take", and soft smiles replaced the little movements.
"Hum... Do you want an Ice cream?" Levi asked after paying for the disk he took. "I'd love that!" Eren said joyfully.
Levi blew a little bit. He thought he was doing great. They went to a nice diner full of people lazily enjoying their Saturday, and bought their ice cream. A milkshake for Eren, a banana split for Levi.
Once their orders came, Levi started to wonder what was that great in Eren. He didn't hate him, but he didn't like him either. Of course he was very nice to him, cute and good looking, and a very good dancer, but that didn't matter that much for Levi. He wanted to know why he was doing all this for Eren.
Suddenly, a butterfly came near them. It was a very colorful one, there was not a lot everyday. Levi's favourite type, and also Eren's.
"Oh my god a butterfly! it's so pretty look look!" Yelled Eren, pointing to the little thing flying away.
And at this moment, the loser he saw a few days earlier faded away for a beautiful sunshine. His heart began to beat faster, his smile grew a bit, and all he wanted was for Eren to never leave his side. To hold his hands in the dark and look at him in the full light.
In this diner, "Everybody wants to rule the world" in the background, Levi fell in love.
_____
Later, after a walk in a park, Levi walked Eren to his home. It was 6pm, the sun ended its course behind a nearby house, everything was calm.
There were no cars to see, the neighbors dog was quiet, nothing. They both waited for something, a goodbye, a final word to end everything up.
"Hum..." Levi said, touching nervously his undercut.
"Thank you for this day, I had a lot of fun." Eren said, hugging the raven.
Eren wanted for this embrace to never end. He wanted to smell Levi's scent forever, a scent of lemon candy and flowers. Incredibly good.
Levi thought about what he could do now. He was sad all this was soon over, even if he could see him in class on Monday. But not saying anything was a waste of time, a cowardly attitude to enjoy these last minutes in the company of eren, his last solution to keep the moment from totally ending.
Afterwards, he will become a lonely boy again, without the ray of sunshine that the brunette was for hours now. Eren would hang out with his friends, and he would watch them in the distance.
After a few seconds, full of courage, full of hope and love, he cupped his cheeks, closed his eyes very hard so as not to deflate and flee and kissed Eren on the lips.
The moment their lips touched, Levi felt like a wave in his stomach. It was as powerful as getting struck by lightning. He caught Eren off guard, and he himself did not know where he had felt his wings pushed from.
It lasted a few seconds, but for Eren and Levi, it seemed to last a long time. But that adrenaline rush suddenly disappeared from Levi's body. He realised what he was doing, and despite the fact he didn't want to, he let him and ran away, all red. That was their first kiss to both of them.
"Oh my god, c-call me!" Eren shouted, waving at him. He was all red too, very excited, happy, and full of strong feelings toward Levi. He never thought about it, he became all shy and nervous.
His mom opened the door, curious to see where all those sounds came from. Eren didn't waste any more time and rushed to his room.
He threw himself on his bed and shouted his accumulation of feelings in his pillow. He turned on the radio, and, perhaps by chance, maybe luck, "Wouldn't it be nice" began.
The end ✍︎
