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"Shit shit shit shit" Levi muttered to himself while pacing outside Erwin's dorm room.
"What the fuck was I thinking??"
----
Thirty minutes ago, back in class. Jean asks Levi about Eren:
"Hey dude, you know that Eren guy I see you with sometimes?"
"Eren? What about him?"
"Is he single?? I was thinking of askin-"
"No."
"No???"
"I mean, you can't! Because...because he's Erwin's boyfriend! And Erwin is well, he's possessive, so you're gonna want to back off."
"Oh...well, that's a shame. I never knew, Eren is quite the popular one"
"What do you mean?"
"Can't you tell, everyone fancies him. Id never seen him be close with Erwin, maybe I have a chance?"
"No!" .... "I mean...they're rarely close in public, but they'll probably start being close now. Alright gotta go bye!"
-----
"Shit shit shit shit"
Levi couldn't believe his blunder. He's had the most inconvenient crush on a certain brunette for months. In the face of a code yellow emergency, telling the competition he was taken just tumbled out of his mouth. Erwin, his best friend, would find this amusing if he didn't have a girlfriend. Which is what led to Levi pacing outside his best friends door while panicking.
"Come on, am I an Ackerman or aren't I??" He breathed to himself, readying to face Erwin.
As he walked through the door, he waltzed right into view of Erwin and Marie in bed. Thankfully, not doing anything that would scar Levi.
With one arm around Marie, Erwin looked up to Levi. "What's up?"
"Okay so don't kill me" Levi began, taking a deep breath.
"Oh lord..." Erwin began to get up, swinging his legs to the side of the bed while Marie buried herself under the duvet seeking more sleep. "What did you do?"
With one more deep breath, Levi began speaking a million miles per second.
"Well Jean was saying that he was going to ask Eren out and I thought that would be disgusting because Jean??? Seriously??? Jean??? And so I panicked and said you're Eren's boyfriend and then he was like 'I've never seen them be close' and I was like ' they're gonna start being close'!!!! And so yeah you gotta be close with Eren so it looks like you're together and so he and other people stay away from him yeah please sorry hi Marie is that cool with you?"
Marie hadn't listened to a word, just hummed a 'yeah sure whatever'. As opposed to Erwin who sat still in his spot speechless. Running his hand down his face in an attempt to wake himself up.
"Christ Levi, this Eren thing. You're good friends with him, try asking him out. Honestly"
"Erwin! Did you hear a word of what I just said?"
"Hm? Yeah sure I'll be his boyfriend or whatever you want. Just nothing beyond hand holding, Marie will kill me even with that much but it's for a good cause"
"Oh my god, thank you." Levi exhaled a breath of relief.
"On one condition, you tell Eren how you feel"
Levi froze. "You're fucking insane."
"You're dramatic"
"You're deluded"
"You're lonely and single"
"Okay true."
"You know, he feels the same way. It's obvious in the way he looks at you."
Levi simply rolled his eyes.
And with that he strode out of the room to his own one he shared with the future victim of the current situation.
Eren sat at his desk, beside his bed, with his headphones on. Completely unaware of Levi's entrance.
"Ah he doesn't have to know" Levi muttered as he strode to bed.
The next day, Erwin made his way to class. As he turned the corner, he saw Eren, his "boyfriend". He began to call out for him when he spotted Jean, who was clearly eyeing the strange distance between the supposed boyfriends.
"Eren!" Erwin called out, jogging up beside.
Surprised by being called out, Eren turned around slowly. "Hey Erwin..?"
"Hi!" Erwin lowered his voice to a whisper. "Okay listen, I doubt Levi's told you but I'm going to put my arm around your shoulders and you're going to just act as if it's completely normal."
Eren blinked up in confusion. "Uh, sure."
Erwin made it a point to look to Jean. As they passed, Eren turned. "Do I want to know?"
"Probably. But Levi should tell you, if I'm honest."
"I'm so baffled, you're putting your arm around me but I should go ask Levi why?"
"Just trust me" Erwin assured.
Eren trusted Erwin not be scheming, Levi however, he wasn't sure. Levi and himself had been classmates for almost a year now, and so became good friends as the months progressed. Being room mates did nothing but help their friendship, with the long amount of time they had ended up spending together. Most of the time, down to pure laziness to go out and do anything. As this all happened, Eren had developed a crush on his room mate. Although, with the way Levi never made any second glances towards Eren, he figured he'd never have a chance. And to try would just make it awkward for the two of them. And so, Eren allowed his crush to fade, or rather, was hoping it would fade. As of yet, he had no such luck. He had really fallen for the clean-freak.
"Alright, I trust you. I've got to go, napping awaits. Tell Marie I said hi, see you!"
"I'll see you, and when you see Levi, tell him we saw each other." For a second, Erwin stepped back in thought. Mischief passing over his eyes. "Actually" he began with a smirk. "to speed things along, tell him we kissed."
"What?!" Eren said, surprise in his voice. "Why?"
"Just do it" Erwin replied with a knowing smirk.
And with that, Eren power walked back to his room as Erwin turned to go to class.
As Eren walked through his door, he found Levi in his usual spot; in bed, on his phone.
"Hey" Eren said as he made his way to his own bed.
Levi just grunted a hello as he continued scrolling on his phone.
"So, I saw Erwin on the way here."
"Oh?" Levi briefly looked up from his phone.
"Yeah, he put his arm around me." Eren felt ridiculous saying it out loud.
"Hm, that's strange." Levi replied, looking at Eren.
"You don't look as if you're surprised."
"Well maybe he has a crush on you."
Eren looked at Levi, hoping he wasn't talking about Erwin anymore.
"Yeah, well, he also kissed m-"
"He what?!"
"We kissed." Eren repeated looking Levi dead in the eye.
"I heard you, brat! Why the fuck did he do that for?!" He exclaimed.
"Stop shouting at me! You tell me! He told me to ask you!"
Levi dropped his phone next to him, not sure what feeling was creeping up on him; anger mixed with betrayal, possibly.
"He wasn't supposed to kiss you!"
"Why was he supposed to do anything?" Eren sighed, he'd only been in his room for five minutes and already he and Levi were having an argument. The pair rarely argued but Levi couldn't help but feel hurt.
Tightening his fists and clenching his jaw, Levi felt more upset than anger now. As he was about to get up and walk out, Eren moved to his bed and placed a hand on the others wrist in an attempt to calm Levi down.
"Hey, what's wrong?" He questioned, because honestly he wasn't really understanding Levi's reaction.
"Jean wants to ask you out, I told him that you and Erwin were together."
Shaking his head, Eren became confused. "Wait, what? Why?"
Levi just shrugged, not really sure what to say. "Go talk to Jean, I'm sure he'll be relieved to know that you and Erwin aren't really a thing."
"Seriously? Jean?" Eren dead-panned.
"That's what I said!" Levi exclaimed.
Levis reply brought a toothy grin to Eren's face, to which he replied back to with a smirk.
"Erwin and I didn't kiss."
As Eren confessed to his lie, he moved his hand that was on Levi's wrist further down his arm so this the tips of his fingers were brushing the inside of Levi's palm. As the other noticed this, Levi couldn't help but allow his own fingers to brush against Eren's.
"Why did you say you did?"
"Erwin told me too."
"Bastard."
Although there was a bite to the word, Levi smiled.
"Why did you get so angry?"
Eren looked toward the other, who's eyes were set on their hands.
Instead of answering, Levi shifted his hand so that their fingers interlocked.
"Oh.." Eren whispered. Heat rising to his cheeks.
As Levi looked towards Eren, he soon found that he couldn't hold his gaze. Too embarrassed to look at him, Levi pushed forward and put his head down to rest on Eren's shoulder.
"You suck." He mumbled into said shoulder.
"Yeah well, back at ya." Eren smirked as he brought his other arm around the others waist to bring Levi closer to him.
After a minute of just being near each other, Eren felt another mumble from the other. This time, it was too muffled to be clear, Levi was pressing into Eren's shoulder.
"Come again?"
Backing up a little from Eren's shoulder, Levi inhaled. "I was asking you out."
"YES!" Came a shout from just outside their door.
Immediately, Levi walked to see who just shouted only to find Erwin crouching. He had been eaves dropping on the pair.
"Erwin?!" The pair exclaimed.
"I had to make sure you kept your end of the deal!" He laughed, looking up to Levi.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kick you in the face?"
"Because you have a date with Eren." He replied with a smug smile.
Levi rolled his eyes. "He didn't actually reply to me because you started celebrating our here before he could reply, moron."
"My reply is yes, by the way." Eren chimed in, still on the bed. One hand up in the air, as if he was answering a question in class.
"I-" Levi stuttered, going rosy red in the face.
Erwin let a hearty laugh escape his mouth again as he got up and strode to his own room.
"You're all bastards, I swear." Levi muttered, half heartedly.