Eren's POV

"Got any plans today?" I asked Levi as I set down my empty plate into the sink. We had been having breakfast a few minutes ago, Levi had made scrambled eggs and fried vegetables.

I felt a lot better, my mind lighter, after our talk. There was literally no border between us anymore that could bother our life-we could finally live in togetherness. There was nothing that could separate us ever again. With Levi by my side and me cherishing him, there would soon bloom a love that...

A love that would make us a whole.

We still had a long way to go, though, but I was willing to take every step to bring our love for each other to existence; brightening our lives by feeling fuzzy when we were with the other, melting into a state of bliss when our significant other was next to us. I knew that Levi still had to built up his trust for me. After all these losses he hab been faced with in his childhood, I could understand completely that he needed his time to show affection towards me. And I wanted to help him with that. Without pressuring him, I wanted to make him a person with feelings.

It would have never striked my mind that I would ever be in a situation like this where I needed to teach my lover what love was, but here I was, and I didn't regret any second and any choice I had made. If it meant to do it for my beloved one, I would do everything to secure him happiness.

If Levi was happy, then I was, too.

"The fact that you're asking like this means that you already have something planned for us." I flicked my gaze over to Levi who was still situated on his seat, flashing a wide smile as I closed the distance and sat next to him. Lacing the fingers of his one hand with mine, my thumb trailing over his skin, I locked eyes with him, and if I were to look at myself in a mirror, I would most likely see my orbs sparkling in anticipation. "Let's go on a date."

~~~

"Eren, this is ridiculous."

"Hm?" I questioned, the bite I took not seconds ago stilled, the bun clamped between my lips. Levi threw a dissatisfied look at me, his brows twitching in irritation. His right pointer finger was tapping on the table nervously before it was balled into a fist along with the other fingers, his upper body bent forward as he looked me in the eyes with a very sincere expression.

"I can't believe that you're serious." he said, a lack of understanding swaying in his tone obviously.

I raised one brow, taking my meal away from my mouth as I chewed on what I had bitten on. With my mouth still full, I asked, "Whaddya mean?"

"Okay, right. I don't have any experiences with dates. In fact, this is my first one. But I can't believe that you're really forcing me to do this. Going to a local burger restaurant? This is your idea of what to do on a date?!"

I didn't give him an answer right away, swallowing up everything first. "Why are you so judgemental? You didn't try your burger in the first place, so technically speaking you don't have the right yet to criticize the food."

Levi crossed his arms resolutely, leaning back in his seat, giving a frown at the burger in my hands, scoffing. "I can already see from this distance that the thing you're holding has too much fat. No way is this pile of incredibly unhealthy shit going to land in my stomach. I don't eat anything that has too much fat."

"Worried that you might gain weight?" I joked, the edge of my lips curving up to a small smirk.

"No", he retorted, cocking his head, the irritation in him ascending as he feigned a smile. "But this food might be good for you - to some extent. You've lost weight."

"I-I've not become that much thinner." I pouted, hiding my mouth behind my burger, averting my gaze. What he was saying was probably right though. Over the past few weeks I hadn't really paid attention to the things I was eating or the amount I had been taking. Therefore, there was a high chance that I had lost weight due to my careless treatment of my own body.

"I still don't get it, though. Why a cheap burger shop? Eren, are you broke? If yes, then tell me. I can invite you. There are some good restaurants I know-"

"No!" I said quickly, shutting him up by stuffing his mouth with a burger. The reaction I got from him was a really unpleasant one, his eyes parting wider, disgust covering his facial features. But to be quite frank, it was a funny thing to look at. "I'm not broke. It's just that I don't want to go to some fancy restaurants. There's a reason why I chose this location."

Levi backed his head away, spitting out a sound of revulsion. "Disgusting. You're the worst, Eren."

"Geez, I can't believe you are a person with very high standards. This is what common people eat occasionally."

"This is what people eat who don't know what proper meals are." he spat.

I sighed, putting my burger down and wiping my hands off on a handkerchief before placing Levi's hands in mine (I was certain that Levi wouldn't let me hold him if I didn't clean my hands at least a bit after touching this "pile of incredibly unhealthy shit"). "Levi, it doesn't matter where we are or what we're eating or what we're doing. On a date, the most important thing is that we're spending time together. " His face softened gradually, his eyes switching downwards to our hands laying on each other. Although this was something trivial I noticed now, but looking at him made me realize what beautiful eyelashes he had. So dark and pretty.

"I s-see..." There was still something he had in mind that was bothering him, the words probably stuck rather on his tongue than his throat, and I stayed silent purposely to edge him to continue talking. "We can spend time together whenever we want though. Why does it have to be a date?"

Smiling, I replied, "You're right. We can be together whenever we want. But isn't the idea of going out with your partner on a day you two are free on only to spend it with them - and only them - beautiful? Like... It's a day - maybe even only a couple of hours - where all you think of is the person you are with and how happy they make you. You know, when you're doing something with your partner, you most likely find out more about them coincidentally. Eating, shopping, doing sports activities, going to the cinema, all those things can reveal what the other person's tastes are. And once you know more about your lover," I straightened my pointer fingers, holding them before me, hooking them together then, "you'll grow closer to them."

Levi watched my two intertwined fingers for a while. "I think I understand now." He entwined our fingers again and in a dead serious tone and a dead serious stare he growled, "I know now that you like to eat cheap prepared meals, and you know now that I am the complete opposite. This is probably not the only thing we're spending our time with. Whatever you've planned next, it better not be worse than this."

My face faltered. "Wow, that's mean. This sounds like I don't have any clue about dates. As I said before-"

Levi waved a hand dismissively, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I doesn't matter what place we are staying at. Okay, I'm fine with that, as long as we don't go anywhere where's it's unnecessarily noisy or disgustingly dirty."

A smile lit up on my face again and I continued eating. "Do you really not want to eat anything? Try the fries at least. Fries are never a bad choice." I winked, giving him a pleading look after that.

Hesitating at first, he then grabbed one single fry reluctantly, taking a small bite. "Satisfied now?"

"Yes!"

The next thing that was on my plan after our meal was a visit to a cinema. Right now, we were standing in front of the movie posters, contemplating what to choose. "There are so many movies to decide for. I don't know what we should watch. Levi, you have a say in this, too, by the way."

Levi was looking at the posters with rather disinterest, his hands pocketed as he read each title of the several movies. "How about romance? It would fit to our occasion."

"No, no, no! No romance!" I refused quickly, shaking my head to which Levi reacted with a furrow of his brows. "Romance movies are always boring and unrealistic. The way a relationship between two people is established in those movies is rarely true to life." I explained, telling half of the truth of my actual motives.

"Okay, then..."

The actual reason was that I didn't want Levi to watch some poorly sappy Hollywood romance that would give him a false image of what love was. It would only bring inconveniences to our relationship if he got things wrong. I was the one who would show him what real love was. Not those people in that romance shit with their 'I love you more than anyone else.', 'You make my heart go faster' or 'I want to live with you forever.'

You don't say!

But the fact that in almost every love story the same few sentences are used for a person to proclaim their love was simply degrading the value of love and what it meant to be in a relationship to a love story full of clichés. This can lead to people forgetting that every romance had its own uniqueness.

I would try to never let our relationship get threatened or risked by hurtful or unnecessary things. Also, I would make sure that my efforts would always be successful and done by me wholeheartedly. Even today. I wasn't allowed to fuck anything up. In other words, no romantic shit movies.

"Eren?" I snapped back to reality, my train of thoughts being interrupted. "Are you alright? You seemed to be deep in thoughts. Is there more behind your refusal to watch romance?"

Even if Levi lacked of romance, he wasn't dumb. I hummed to myself, trying to find the right words. "U-Uh... Well, we don't need to watch that kind of stuff. I think it doesn't display love correctly. Like in... It doesn't necessarily have to be like that. Love is more than what we see in those movies." And then a sudden thought grazed my mind. "Wait, did you ever watch a romance movie before?"

"Not that I remember. I know that sometimes I had watched crimes with Kenny and after that I got into horror and action movies, and drama with bad endings, and now I don't really care anymore. But if what you're saying is right, then we shouldn't waste our time on watching fake couples gawk at each other."

"Well, this is my opinion."

"I like your opinion."

"O...kay." I viewed the posters for a second time. "But horror sounds fine. There's one airing."

"Are you really mature enough for them?" Levi asked in a voice that had a mocking undertone. "Did you ever watch a horror movie before?"

I huffed proudly, crossing my arms as I claimed with both brows raised, "I have watched enough to be mature enough for any kind of horror."

I heard Levi snort. "I have my doubts. Sometimes you're so immature or acting like a child, but if you say so."

Without any more word exchanges, we entered the cinema hall, forwarding to the queue. The decision remained by horror and after buying a XXL portion of popcorn for the both of us and some drinks, we took our seats in front of the big white screen, waiting for the film to finally start. During that time, I had already begun eating some popcorn (I had never ever witnessed before someone not eating it until the film started, and since I didn't want to change that given fact, I fed Levi some, too, who had been surprisingly patient with the snack).

Of course he would give me a confused and questioning face as I was shoving the white little balls into his mouth. "U-Uhh... I'm doing this for the greater good." How could I not come up with a better excuse?

He grabbed my wrist and pulled it away. "What the fuck! Eren, you're acting weirdly."

"I-I'm sorry." It was now after he had pointed this out that I came back to my senses. What was I doing? I was never like this?

Don't tell me I was nervous?

There was nothing to be insecure about. This was just a date - Levi's first date ever -, but still! No need to worry, it'd be alright. Nothing had gone wrong yet, and it won't. I will give him the per-

"Eren," Levi's soothing voice stimulated my ears. I wanted to hear more.

"Yes."

"Look at me."

Hesitantly, I turned my head to him, his grey eyes shining in the semi-darkness. I could look into his eyes forever and would fall for them anew. Especially now I was falling so hard for him, it was almost painful. The way he was looking at me; so caring and calming.

"Our date doesn't have to be perfect. You don't need to try make it a perfect one just because it's our first one."

"But-"

"It is obviously making you twitchy that you want everything go according to plan. But it doesn't need to. We can have our fun without any plans. Sometimes letting things happen unexpectedly is not so bad. No moment we spend together has to be perfect. Not today, and not any other day."

Surprised by how easing his words were, I sensed how the tension in my body loosened and I took a deep breath to settle myself eventually. "Okay. I understood." He leaned forward and stilled when he was halfway past the distance that was between us, and then I did the same, wearing a little smile just as him, and our lips met gently. The kiss was literally just a little touch, but enough for me. All I needed to know was that I was doing fine, and this tender kiss was the assurance.

A few seconds later, we parted, smiling to ourselves. "I love you, Levi." I whispered, my eyes closed, both of us falling into a short silence.

"I- I..." The fact that he was stammering and the insecurity in his voice alarmed me, so that I opened my eyes fast, inevitably being met with a face full of struggle and uncertainty. His eyes were speaking out an apology, but at the same time Levi was suffering inwardly.

I took his face between my hands. "Don't worry, Levi. You don't have to say it back if you're not ready. Just because I told you it doesn't mean you have to respond with the same. Don't force yourself."

"But I want to say it back to you." he insisted, curling his arms around my neck.

"Levi, you are not ready yet. I can wait. And if it turns out that you can't say it at all, then it's fine. I won't mind. Because as long as we stay together, I know that I mean something to you." My voice was low and reassuring, fingers loosely caressing his raven strands.

"I will try my best - together with you."

My face approached his until our foreheads touched and the peaks of our noses grazed each other. "Can I have a kiss?"

Levi thought for a while, pursing his lips. One of his arms shifted and seemed to long for something next to us and the next second I tasted popcorn inside my mouth. "No. The film has already started."

Pouting, I chewed on my snack and leant back in my seat with folded arms.

"Don't sulk." Levi said nonchalantly.

"'Am not sulking." I said back, obviously sulking.

If I didn't hear it wrong I was able to make out a "Brat." coming from Levi in a scoffing tone, but I decided to screw that and watched the movie instead. The only knowledge I had about it was that it was dealing with five main characters who had to survive a zombie apocalypse and while they fled, they found an abandoned villa to hide in. Rumours said that that house was haunted because a mentally unstable scientist used to live there whose one experiment went wrong. The result was a flesh-eating monster-like monstrosity which ate its creator, but no one knew more than that, so that the possibility of that entity still living there was given.

In short, a few themes put together into one movie and let me tell you that the five people were so fucked.

We were still at that part where they were running away and honestly watching that was so boring - the zombies didn't look very terrifying. I lost my interest very fast, even propping my head on my hand became bothering. Levi wasn't commenting at all, so I couldn't tell what he was thinking of it, and after some more minutes I decided to take action and bridge the time with something more entertaining for us both.

As a result, I whipped my head to his direction, a sly grin planted on my face. "Don't you also think that this is so boring?" I said in a low growl.

Levi raised a brow at me, his head not moving as he side-eyed me, eating popcorn by the way. "That's because nothing has happened yet. Just you wait for the gore."

Shooting my eyes upwards, I pushed out a loud groan, sighing then. "You know what couples do when the movie bores them?" Being a little greedy now wasn't wrong, right?

"Hm?" Levi hummed, not taking his eyes off of the screen.

"They French kiss." I stated bluntly, awaiting for any reaction coming from him.

Levi's head stirred very slightly. With a suggestive upcurve of his lips, he turned his gaze to me. "Oh. I see. That's what you're trying to aim for. Straight forward and needy, you cocky brat. Just like ever."

"Don't you like it when I'm a little devil sometimes?" I stuck out my tongue to give my question a innocent effect, winking as a snicker rose from my throat.

"I like nearly every side of you, but this one is for sure one of my favourites." he said with a smirk while tugging me upwards by my collar until our mouths clashed.

My arms went around Levi's neck in a matter of a second and I had scooted closer to him to deepen the kiss, my upper body pressing against his. Our lips moved in sync and our tongues twisted around each other, the taste of coke on both our tongues mixing with the saliva we exchanged. I had my difficulties to stifle the moans that desperately wanted to be freed, but I did my best to act as discreetly as possible. After all we were still in a public place and even though it was dark, there were people not so far from us who might notice that Levi and I weren't quite following the happenings of the film. Levi's fingers fisted my hair roughly, pulling at it ever so lightly. He was teasing me with that hair tug because he knew that it was able to make me let out sinful sounds. But I didn't let him have this fun. Instead, I maintained my self-control (oh, the irony), and raked my nails over his clothed back, clutching at his shirt then. After some seconds passed, my eyes opened again, though I didn't break from the kiss yet, and subconsciously my gaze moved to the screen to see what was happening in the movie right now. Now I knew that this was a terrible mistake.

My eyes widened horrifyingly. "AAAHHHHH!" I cried out along with some other people who got scared by that gross creature that had appeared in front of our eyes on the screen. Mouth wide open and eyes just the same, I continued screaming, holding Levi's neck from the side tightly, as though my life depended on it. And for one second I thought it would. "Oh my fucking goooooood! What is this ugly thing?! It looks so frightening!"

Apparently that monster was the thing the scientist had created but failed to exterminate and now it was chasing after the main characters, killing them one by one.

"Eren, chill. This is nothing new to happen in horror." Levi seemed to be oh so fucking calm, attempting to release himself from my arms, but I didn't let go of him. Now way would I be able to sit calmly in my seat, I would fidged as fuck!

My grip around him became firmer, my heart pounding hard against my ribs. "This monster is scarier than I would have ever guessed! It's so terrifying, I can't look at it!"

"But you aren't taking your eyes off it." Levi clarified in a neutral tone, a little bit of annoyance hidden behind his voice.

He was right. My eyes were still on the screen, witnessing how the first guy became the victim of that killing machine, claws tearing at his flesh as he screamed in agony, begging for mercy when it was useless to do something like that in a hopeless situation like this. My position still hadn't changed, no, I held Levi even tighter now, my cheeks squeezing his left one. "This is so gross! I am so close to pee my pants!"

"What was that about you calling yourself mature again?" Levi asked ironically.

"I was wrong!"

"God, Eren. You spilled popcorn. You made the floor under our feet dirty. That's disgusting."

"Levi!" I yelled in a reproaching tone, my widened eyes looking at him now. I stressed each and every word that came next. "People are dying! How can you think about dirt now?! Who cares about fucking popcorns on the floor?!"

"I care because it's filthy!" Levi said back, voice raised, glaring.

I ignored it, my eyes fixated on what was in front of me again. "All the blood..."

"It's fake."

"There is so much blood... Look at him. His body is totally distorted now."

"Unbelievable that something like this can still affect you."

"How comes that you are totally unmoved by that? This is seriously not something for faint-hearted."

"Nothing can scare me anymore. Not after all those years in which Isabel had forced me to watch all kind of horror and gore movies together with her and Farlan when we were younger."

"We should have decided for another movie."

"Why though?" Levi sounded obviously amused, gradually enjoying my immature behaviour. "I like it. Look how that dog is tearing the limbs apart from the torso and yes, there is a load of blood."

"Levi, this is certainly not a dog." I said, my voice shaking in fright that wasn't as intense as at the beginning, but it was still there.

"Whatever. I am liking this. It's not bad."

And as a result we watched the movie till the end, me either holding onto Levi tightly or burying my head into his chest every now and then, while Levi watched the whole thing, occasionally patting my head encouragingly. This wasn't the kind of intimacy I had expected and hoped for when going to the cinema with him, but - as he had said - not everything needed to or could happen as planned.

The film had ceased to an end, lights lit up again, people made shuffling noises as they put their jackets on, and then they left. Everyone except me. I hadn't moved an inch from my seat yet, my knees pulled up to my chest, arms wrapped around my legs. I needed my time to let the bloody scenes sink in, but I was failing at not taking it too seriously.

"Oi." Levi called out, having stood up and distanced himself from me, since he as well had wanted to go.

I remained in my seat, muttering to myself. "I will never ever watch something like this again. This was the most horrible looking monster ever. It will haunt me in my dreams. It will kill me in my dreams. I won't forget that visage for the rest of my life."

"Oi. Eren." I felt how something light hit my head and found out that Levi was throwing popcorn at me. "Eren. Stand up. Oi." He lifted my body up by my arm.

"Levi, I-"

"You're exaggerating. This is just the aftermath. Tomorrow you won't think about it as much anymore as now." He removed some of my locks that were covering my eyes partly. "You whiny brat."

Immediately, I clung to his right arm, resting my head on his shoulder. "I don't care what you call me. This was really scary."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go now, shall we?"

Nodding fiercly, we then exited the cinema, heading for the park next. There, we were having a relaxed walk, in between those big trees whose leaves were already falling down, paving the road in colours of crimson and brown and yellow. The Shiganshina Park had a big lake located at the middle of the green place, benches have been mounted around it for people to watch the swans from far away, to feed the ducks that were waddling near the lakeshore or to just rest. Not so far away there was a stand that sold rolled pancakes with toppings. Since it had been more than an hour ago that I last had something between my teeth, I bought myself one of those tasty looking sweets .

"Are you sure you don't want one, too, Levi?" I received my pancake from the seller after paying, admiring the beauty of the food. It also smelled so sweet. I had chosen for chocolate cream, strawberries and banana slices as toppings, and I was pretty positive it would taste extraodinary good.

"I am very sure. Can't believe you want to eat something again. Aren't you full from the burgers and popcorn?" Levi had one questioning brow raised at me, his stare switching between me and the pancake in my hand, though he looked at it with rather slight disgust.

"But this looks so delicious, I wanna taste it. Also, you are the one who told me to gain some weight because I seem to be skinny." We distanced ourselves from the stand, about to sit down on one of those benches.

"Well, yeah... but... Nevermind. You're right." Levi was the first one to lower himself onto the woodened bench and I followed suit, sitting very close to him, my head resting on his chest.

Smiling contently, I took a bite from my food. The sweet taste numbed and stimulated my taste buds, causing me to moan in delight. "This is so delicious." I mumbled, filling my mouth with another portion of the snack before I offered it to Levi who hadn't said anything for a while now, solely one of his arms draped over my shoulder. "Wanna try?"

There was that discomforting expression on his face again, his eyes seemed to softly glare at the rolled pancake. "I think I have to correct myself. I don't eat anything that has either too much fat or too much sugar... or both."

"Just one bite. It's really good."

"No." he retorted, determined.

"Please." I gave him a puppy look, jutting my bottom lip to multiply the effect. "Do it for me. I want to share my food with you."

A roll of his eyes and an annoyed groan of deafeat later, Levi's mouth had enclosed one edge of the pancake, tearing a bit of it apart. He chewed on it long, his face looking conflicted as he covered his mouth under his palm.

"And?" I asked, expecting to hear at least a 'Not so bad.' from him, since that was his way of saying that he liked something.

"I can already feel my blood glucose level rising." There was a higher serious tone to it than a joking one.

Scowling softly, I decided to accept this and went on eating the rest while Levi watched me, not showing any sign of changing his mind and taking another bite. "It isn't that sweet. You're exaggerating."

"You're one to talk. Who did almost shit in his pants because of a horror film?"

"But it was scary, I swear!"

"It wasn't that scary... I swear."

Before a heated discussion could even flame up in the first place, both of us were interrupted by an incoming message on Levi's phone. Levi grunted in annoyance while I crinkled my brows.

"Who the hell dares disturb us on our date?" I complained in a pissed-off tone, frowning to myself and nibbling on one end of my pancake as Levi checked his phone in an expression that wasn't all too different from mine.

"Hanji." he eventually answered monotonously.

Rummaging in my memory, an image of a woman finally appeared before my face. Oh, yeah. Hanji. Messy ponytail, glasses and a wide grin she wore too often, if you were to ask me. And then I remembered something else. A memory of her that wasn't really pleasant.

Narrowing my eyes to a glare, I snapped, "Tell her to fuck off!"

Levi lifted his eyes quickly to look at me with a puzzled face before he viewed his phone screen again. "Wow, that's harsh of you; and unexpected. May I ask where your hate for her stems from? Not that I mind."

"That bitch tricked me on Isabel and Farlan's brithday party. She told me a fucking lie. And she's interfering in other people's businesses too much."

Levi averted his eyes, seeming a bit guilty before he clarified something. "Well... that trick was my doing. Technically speaking. I told her to lure you to the balcony."

I ran a hand through my hair, huffing out. "I had already guessed something like that ... But still!"

"Eren, really. If you started to hate her for that one reason, then I can tell you that it's pointless. If you want to hate on the thing that happened at the party, then you should hate me for it."

"N-No... No, I don't hate you." I nuzzled my head into the crook of his head, at the same time paying attention that I wouldn't spill some of my pancake over his clothes. "What happened in the past between us should stay in the past. Let us not think about the bad memories anymore. It's become different between you and me now."

The soft kiss Levi planted on top of my hair crown send a cosy wave through my body. "Yeah."

"What does Hanji want from you by the way? I doubt it's something important."

"Oh," Levi raised his phone again, scrolling down, "she invited us to her Halloween Party."

"Halloween?"

"Yes."

"Halloween is in a few days."

"Yeah. She's already prepared everything regarding decorations. Now she's sending out the invitations. You don't even know, Halloween is something really important to her; even more important than her own birthday."

"Halloween is about creepy stuff, no wonder why Hanji likes it. She herself is a bit weird." They chilly air hit my face, reddening my nose, and I snuggled more into Levi who was literally emitting warmth, which was very convenient for me.

"That's nothing new." Levi stated in a nonchalant tone, and sighed.

Suddenly, I remembered something that Levi had said a little while ago. "Wait, did you just say that she's inviting the two of us?"

"Yeah. Apparently, she doesn't have your number, so she messaged me - I quote - 'Also bring Eren along!!!!!!!!' with a lot of exclamation marks at the end, which means that she is very excited to see you at her own party, too. And just for your information, I won't go, if you don't go with me. I'm not the kind of person who loves to go to any parties, but I think it will be only half as bad as I imagine it when you are with me."

A little thought roamed my mind when Levi mentioned the last thing. 'When you are with me.' A déjà-vu? "What exactly do you mean by that? In what way am I a good distraction for you in a party?"

"I don't mean it the way you think I am thinking of. Besides, we shouldn't even be tempted to do that when we're at Hanji's. I am pretty damn sure once she finds out that we are gone, she would make sure to catch us in the act."

"Oh, w-well... You're probably right. This sounds like Hanji."

"Anyway, is that a yes?"

"Yes!" I exclaimed, excited, and Levi wrote Hanji a message back.

"Gotta tell her about the movie we watched. Maybe then she'll stop working on a pointless experiment. But, wait, thinking twice of it... I doubt she'll stop creating her own damn pets."

I nodded approvingly, even though this didn't interest me very much, but whatever. "By the way, who is going to be on that party beside us? Do you know it? Don't tell me she has friends who are like her." I tried to act devastated, but it turned out to be more my true feelings than an act. What if there were really more of Hanji's kinds?

"Luckily, she is the weirdest one of them all. Every other of her friends is pretty normal. Petra, Oluou, Mike, Nanaba, Nile, Erwin-"

"Erwin?!" I exclaimed, anger boiling up inside me as the memories of the party with him visited my mind again. I had thought I could let go of the past, but now I was reminded again that there were things that weren't a closed case yet."

"Ah, Hanji told me about that almost fight between you and Erwin on the party."

"What is the relationship between you two?" I growled through gritted teeth, my hate for Erwin rising with each passing second.

"There is nothing between me and Erwin. Believe me. Erwin is married and straight. I think I know why you started to hate him. But believe me when I say that he isn't my superior either. Don't be mad anymore. There is no reason for you to get jealous over nothing." Levi was calm, not nervous at all, and he sounded convincing. He must be telling the truth then. Why would he lie to me in the first place? He wasn't like that anymore.

My fists I didn't know I had balled shivered in anger. "But Hanji said to me that you and Erwin fuck... or fucked... or whatever."

"She was just telling a joke. The whole thing is just a joke between us three."

"So... He doesn't like you romantically and you don't have any interests in him?" I asked, hope covering my voice.

"No and no. It was never like that and it never will be." he reassured, caressing my cheek.

I leant into the soothing touch, humming. "Okay." A little pause in which Levi retreated his hands to type something in his phone and I went back to our original topic. "Oh, can I choose our costumes?"

Levi's body froze, two fingers stilled on his phone screen as he looked at me with pressed lips and rejection in his eyes. "No." he replied harshly.

"Pleeeeeeease."

"What if you choose something ridiculous for me?"

"No, I won't. Your costume will be great! Mine, too. We'll be the best looking couple on that party."

"Don't tell me you want us to wear matching costumes."

"That's not what I mean. I have something else in mind. Trust me. You'll look good."

Levi hesitated, holding in his breath. "No princess stuff, no witches, nothing with too bright colours, no fruits or any other food-"

"Yes, yes. I got i-"

"And no animals or angels or fairies or-"

"Fine!" I clapped one hand over his mouth, shutting him up, pecking his nose then. "I know roughly what your tastes are. Your costume will be something... I better won't tell too much, eh? Anyway, just wait. I'm going to buy them on the internet. So you'll know very fast what you're going to be." The hand of mine that was over his lips moved up to the bridge of his nose. Even though this was totally out of place right now, but... "I like your nose. It's pretty. Actually... There are so many things I love about you."

Levi remained silent and startled at first due to my sudden randomness, and I used that opportunity to lean one arm against his upper body and place my chin on it, smiling up at Levi genuinely. There was a little tug upwards at the edge of his lips and then there were fingers stroking my hair. "I as well have things I like about you."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

"Your smile, for example."

"My smile?"

"Yes. You have a beautiful smile, Eren. It's something I like to see on your face and I will never get tired of you smiling. I have realized that only recently, but I'm glad I've had that realization. Your smile moves me... in a good way."

Totally overwhelmed by his sudden compliment, heat accumulated under my cheeks, painting it in a rosy pink colour. I got off Levi and sat up straight, holding my burning cheeks in my hands. "O-Oh my god. Don't say that, Levi. It makes me blush."

Although this was a positive surprise for me (which brought joy to me), I was thrown off guard because it was a rare thing of Levi to say something like that, but yet again his words flattered me.

Suddenly, two fingers held my chin and turned my head, emerald meeting grey. "But I'm telling the truth. Is that bad?" Levi's face moved closer.

"No, it isn't." I whispered to him before our lips fell into a long, passionate yet fond kiss. My arms had found his neck while Levi's fingers didn't move away from under my chin. A soft breeze flew by and ducks cackled in the background, little waves of the lake making splashing sounds. It felt good having Levi so close to me as nature surrounded us, giving off a romantic vibe.

Our first date couldn't have been any more beautiful.