Whatever god up there was really keen on punishing him. It was a coincidence how he kept seeing him very often.

"Eren," he stated without even thinking first.

The teenager, looking as if he hadn't slept for a few thousand years, slowly looked towards him as if in slow motion. He did not smile or frown, but the corners of his lips went up in acknowledgement. His unkept and greasy looking hair fell down in front of his eyes like a curtain of seaweed, and his hands stained with blue ink.

"Fancy seeing you here," he said sarcastically.

"Yeah," Levi agreed. The atmosphere around them was so tight with awkwardness, the kind two exes would feel after breaking a long relationship.

"How... how have you been?" Eren asked, much to Levi's surprise.

"Not very good."

"Me too," was all he replied with.

"Well, I should get going now," Levi said with a sharp nod of his head.

"Wait." Eren's hand shot forward to grab Levi's wrist, but he quickly let go of it once realizing what he had done. His eyes were glued to the floor in a solemn sense. "I want to start over."

Levi's eyes widened and his heart leaped out of his mouth like a fish out of water. "I beg your pardon?" His voice was hoarse.

"I don't like this, whatever this is." Eren made various hand gestures, which didn't seem to help in trying to prove his point at all. "I don't... I don't want things to end this way."

"But this is how things should be. We are supposed to be strangers now, Eren, you can't just ask for a start over after everything I've put you through." Levi was already beginning to get mad. He combed a hand through his hair nervously and bit shallowly into the side of his inner cheeks.

"But you saved me," Eren argued. "I thought... I thought we had something."

"Are you referring to our kisses? Because I hope you know those were nothing. We were alone for Christ's sake. There was no one else but one another; who else were we supposed to release our romantic frustration onto? We were just... convenient for one another. I really must go now if that is all."

"Can we please talk about this somewhere else? I'm serious. I really do need to discuss this with you. Please." Eren stared up at him with those same ocean coloured eyes, but they were not crashing waves like they used to; they were calm, too calm and too dull.

"Fine. Just this once," Levi agreed, not wanting to cause a scene in the middle of the cereal aisle and making everyone around them think they were fighting over a certain type of cereal.

They both walked to a coffee shop near by without muttering a word to one another. Eren left his grocery bags in his mother's car and Levi just carried his own, Eren assumed the government wouldn't let him have his own car yet. Once they arrived at the petite and nearly empty cafe, they took a two-person table seated outside. Levi idly looked at the menu board while Eren blankly played with the sugar packets. The coffee shop was very comfy; vines twisting and curling around sodden columns and the stained wood walls and floors, a giant, classic chalk board menu above the cash register and steel wire tables and chairs with throw pillows on them. There were sine framed vintage posters advertising the most simple of things such as bandaids and cakes, giving off the old-style kind of vibe.

"So... what is there to talk about? I don't appreciate my time being wasted," Levi said to break the silence.

Eren picked a sugar packet up, ripped it and dumped its contents inside his mouth. He savoured the taste and the rocky texture of the sugar before setting it down and putting his hands together. "Why."

Levi raised a brow. "Why what? Surely you should know that there are many why's relevant to what had happened."

"Why did you leave me? Did you leave me for death to take me?"

"Of course not." Levi's tone of voice hushed down as he noticed a waitress coming their way. She was preppy and over-enthusiastic. Usually Levi hated these kind of people, but how he appreciated it knowing what direction their conversation was going.

"What can I get for you two today?" she questioned, a hint of a smile in her voice and paper and pen ready.

"I'll take a large London fog with double vanilla shots," Eren ordered.

"I'll have a medium sized green tea," Levi added.

"Would that be all?" She jotted down on her pad of paper.

"Yes, yes," Eren said for the both of them.

She hurried away, leaving the two men to resume their discussion.

"I did it for your sake, Eren," Levi went on. "Do you really think it would be okay to continue running and hiding like we did? The police can track you trough your cellphone, remember? I knew they would find you and take care of everything. I explained it in the letter I left for you."

"Why didn't you say goodbye?"

"Was I supposed to? Eren, we were complete strangers. We weren't supposed grow close. I really detest how you're acting so keen on trying to do it again when things aren't supposed to be this way. How can you look at me like that even after I've hurt you?"

"Again, you saved me. To me you weren't a captor or an enemy."

"Then what was I Eren?" Levi said and slammed a fist onto the table, making it shutter. "Because it's pretty damn obvious that we weren't friends especially after we kissed and I was stupid to even let that happen."

"You were drunk. I gave you alcohol that night," Eren said quietly.

"And I shouldn't have let that happen either. You're like poison to me, Eren, yet I had allowed you to get close to me. It will not happen again."

"I should say the same," Eren said, even louder. "I don't know why it has to be you, but it is. Out of everyone it could have been, it has to be you, and it's such an inconvenience. It could have been the cute girl from the library or the shy one from my creative writing class but no- it's the guy who fucking kidnaped me."

"That's right. You're wrong in the head and it's all because of me," Levi seethed.

"How would you know?"

"You think I'm stupid? You think I didn't see you in the counsellor's office that one time? You are troubled and disturbed, Eren, and it's because me and my stupid uncle Kenny just had to choose you out of all targets. You can't do this, Eren, you can't attempt to talk to me after I made you go trough hell, and you still are-"

"You are stupid," Eren said, his voice hot and bold like burning coals. Another customer nearby jumped at the sound of his anger. "My problems, they're not because of you. I'm like this because of your uncle. Not everything is about you. For the millionth fucking time, Levi, you saved me. Why can't you see that? Without you, I'd be someplace horrid like a whorehouse or some where dead with no one knowing where I could be. You need to stop punishing yourself by telling yourself it was your fault when it wasn't." Eren then paused to dig a torn box of cigarettes from his deep pockets and proceeded to light one up. He took a long drag and and blew it away from Levi.

"You smoke now?"

"Monkey see, monkey do, mister," Eren slurred with a shrug. "But like I was saying, you're not the one at fault no matter how hard you may believe you are."

"Why... why are you like this?" Levi said with frustration. He gripped at his hair.

"Because I love you, damnit," Eren yelled at him. The waitress so happened to be coming with their order, and it shut them up almost immediately. She set down their drinks silently and walked away with looking at any of them.

"I love you," Eren repeated, quietly this time. "God. I love you. I kind of hate it. The fact that I love, I mean."

"Eren, you can't," Levi said quietly and put his face in his hands. His heart thumped excitedly at his words, and he felt as if he was floating peacefully on a bed of clouds and euphoria with his heart exploding like a firework itself. "You can't."

"I know. I know I'm not supposed to but you can't change what the heart wants," Eren said and flicked his stub of a cigarette away. He retrieved another one and placed it loosely on his lips before lighting it up.

"You're supposed to find a nice, cute girl, marry her and have have a family. Not fall in love with a horrible person like myself. And I am a man."

"You can't..." Eren trailed off before releasing a cloud of smoke. "You can't tell me what I can't and can do. Yes, I am aware of how utterly disgusting I may seem, but it's too late now. My heart has claimed you, and I pretty much stopped trying to fight against it."

"Eren... please think about this," Levi said and then took a long and thoughtful sip of his tea.

"I will, and you should too."

"Absolutely not. I already know that me and you cannot happen. What would your parents think, hmm? Falling in love with a bastard of a man who has done terrible and illegal things? I'm too bad for you, Eren."

"Nope. I refuse to believe that statement because there is always a good side to some people. Even if you can't see it, you're a good person, and that's the part I fell in love with first. Your good deeds overshadow your sins," Eren told him and began to drink his London fog.

"I can't be with you. First of all, your parents probably hate me and second, if I start seeing you the police will not and interrogate the both of us. They haven't forbid me from seeing you like now, but it's seen as suspicious. The world is against us, you and I."

"Reject me then."

"What?" Levi said and looked up from his tea.

"Reject me," Eren said again with shinning eyes. His hands were shaking. "Right here and now. Tell me how you don't love me."

Levi looked down at his tea once more. It was already getting cold. "I don't love you," he mumbled.

"Look at me in the eye and say it again," Eren said sternly, his voice so sure and rigid and full of authority.

"I don't love you," Levi insisted falsely. When he raised a hand to his face, he felt something damp and warm. He felt around his face until the pads of his fingers reached his eyes, and his worries had come to life; without even meaning to, he was crying. He did not feel angsty, but for a reason or another his body felt so compelled to release tears when his lips spilled such a lie. It stung his eyes when he blinked.

"Are you alright?" Eren asked with alarm. This was a surprising sight for Eren because Levi had been wearing an excellent poker- face the entire time, making it not so obvious that he was going to cry.

"Apparently not," Levi mumbled and messily attempted to wipe his tears away with his rumpled shirt.

"I'm sorry for making you say that, but now I can see that you are not speaking the truth," Eren said with a small, sad smirk as he finished his second cigarette. He gulped his beverage quickly and let out an elongated sigh.

"Leave it be. I'm not lying."

"See you're doing it again. Lying. This won't be the end of it, Mr. Ackerman, I hope you're aware of that." Eren got up from his seat and threw his empty coffee cup away. "If you don't love me, you still need to prove it because what you said just then wasn't believable. I'll give you more time to think about it properly. I'll be in the park again tomorrow at noon. I expect to see you again."

And with that, he retrieved his wallet from his hoodie and slapped a ten dollar bill on the table. He looked at Levi one last time before skippering off into the unknown. Levi heaved our another sigh before chugging his steaming hot tea, feeling its warmth slide down his throat.

Eren knew him too well.

—-
AN:

again, this part wasn't proofread either TT thanks for reading anyways !!

-t