After reading the last chapter, I feel pretty happy about it. It feels good to get back in to writing, especially after looking at the massive influx of people reading this story again after so many years. I want to finish this story and improve in my writing even more, so those of you who are reading along with my posts, thank you so much for watching me on my journey. Those of you who are new to this story, the first 11 chapters were from years ago. Chapter 12 and up are my newest posts! Don't be afraid to review on what you want to see happen between these two, it would be very likely that what you request gets fulfilled. Anyways, enough of my rambling.

~.~

Eren's POV

Working at a cinema was the last thing I would recommend to anyone who was out of high school and looking for a job. It was humiliating and honestly, the working conditions sucked. People treated me like shit on a consistent basis and if it weren't for Mikasa breathing down my neck, I would have blown a fuse a long time ago. Customer service was my weakest point in a job, and just by the luck of the draw, that is exactly what I landed in for every job I've ever had. Luckily though, today was slow since it was Monday and most people were tired from work instead of coming to see the newest lame chick flick or gay superhero movie that never met up the expectations everyone held it to. If it weren't for the fact that money was required to live in this shitty ass capitalistic society, I could imagine myself traveling far away from everything. Washington was dreary as ever and not to mention freezing for half the year. I truly hated this place. I hated the smell of popcorn, the grey skies, the cold blast of air that hit me in the face every time someone opened the entrance doors, and most of all, I hated Levi.

After he had sauntered in to my life just the day before, it seemed like everything reminded me of him. Someone with black hair would walk in and I'd think it was him. Someone would say a bitchy remark and I would think of him. I'd look at said chick flick poster on the wall and imagine how he'd kissed me...

Just stop, Jaeger, you're disgusting.

"Eren, you look like you're about to pop a blood vessel."

I looked over to Mikasa who was leaning up against the counter on the other side of me. She always worked the ticket booth and I always got stuck with register and concession duty, the most annoying position of all. Of course, when things got hectic, she would always switch with me since I didn't do well under stress. Or handling bad attitudes.

"What do you mean?" I hunched over the counter, resting my chin on my hand. As I looked up at the clock on the wall, the time read 8:23.

Almost free, just thirty-seven more minutes.

"You've been really focused on the clock and that poster for the entire shift. Not to mention your face looks really intense." I could tell where she was getting at, and before she even mentioned it, I stopped her.

"Don't even say what I know you're going to say," I stared at her, almost threateningly. I did not want to hear a word about Levi, nor did I want to think about him.

"And what would that be?" She rose her eyebrow at me, obviously instigating a confrontation like always. You would think she would mature up and stop worrying about me for once, but no, she had to always nag. And I was sick of it.

"Oh, nothing, y'know. Just how you always bring up Levi behind my faults. Even before he came back, it was always 'It's cause you're heartbroken' or 'It's Levi's fault'. Even Mom accuses me of being gay because none of my relationships have worked out since he left. 'Oh, Eren, when are you going to find a nice girl and give me some grandchildren?'" I took a deep breath from my rant, "I'm just sick of it. Okay? I didn't ask for any of the shit that happened to happen, but it did, so let's all just quit fucking blaming Eren for getting involved with some "emo" douchebag from sophomore year. He isn't the reason why we struggle now, and isn't the reason why I'm upset, so quit instigating me!"

...

I knew I blew up and probably took it too far, but Mikasa's unimpressed look showed me that she didn't particularly believe a word I said. I didn't even believe a word I said, either. I knew I was gay, I knew Levi was the reason I acted up ever since he left, but what I didn't know was that behind me, a customer was standing across the counter. Mikasa simply stared past me, and as I stopped, I looked over my shoulder and noticed a tall blonde-haired man with extremely blue eyes smirking at me.

"Still got a temper I see, Eren."

His voice was low and a dangerous sounding, and as I turned completely around, I realized I knew this man. Although it had been several years since I had seen him, I realized that it was Erwin.

"Ah...I'm sorry. I didn't realize that you were standing there." I scratched the back of my head awkwardly and looked back to Mikasa who was staring daggers into Erwin. I never knew why Mikasa didn't like him, but I didn't particularly care for him, either. He was...Weird to say the least.

"It's fine. I was standing at the ticket booth, but I realized that there was a commotion over here and came to see what was going on." He gave me and Mikasa that charming smile of his. It was almost weird how white his teeth were and the way his features just perfectly aligned when he grinned. It was a little unsettling.

Another thing that was unsettling was the look Mikasa gave the front entrance. Nobody was outside from what I could see, but that could partially be because my eye sight had been slowly deteriorating over time and I was blind as a bat at night.

"So.. Did you need to buy a ticket?" I piped up amongst the awkward silence, looking up at the man who was now glancing over to Mikasa.

"Yes, need to buy four total, actually," he grin turned a little foul to look at as I immediately looked down to the register. We could sell tickets at the concession where I was, but management didn't particularly want us doing that so I looked over to Mikasa who was still staring at the doors to see if she'd give approval even though she wasn't a manager. She didn't even look towards me, not noticing my frantic appearance in the least.

"Okay, tickets... Tickets.." I scrambled through the system, forgetting how to work the computer all together as I heard the front doors open. I ignored the cold blast of air that billowed through the room and hit me, simply keeping my eyes on the monitor in awkwardness. It was weird running in to people from high school, especially people who were close friends of Levi. Once I pulled up the correct screen and hit on the four ticket mark, I looked back up to Erwin.

"Okay, the total is 42-"

"OH MY GOD!"

A loud screech rang through the building that startled me, causing me to knock over the stack of unopened cups that was sitting beside the register. As I fumbled with catching them, I looked over to the front entrance where I noticed a woman with glasses running over to the counter. She looked very familiar also...

"Eren! Oh my god. You're so cute! Come here, come here! Let me look at you!" The woman who I now identified as Hanji reached over the counter and grabbed my head, messing up my hair and eyeballing me with huge eyes. "Oh my god! Your hair is even curlier than I remembered! Did you perm it? Please tell me you permed it. You could be a model with how adorable you are! And look how you've grown. Oh my gosh, I can't get over this. Petra, come here, look at Eren!"

Before I could get a word in, a short red-headed woman appeared from behind Erwin and Hanji, a bright smile on her face as she leaned over the counter for a half hug to which I reciprocated.

"Eren, dear, how are you? I didn't know you worked here." I smiled warmly at her, but soon gave Mikasa a worried look. She was watching the scene from a distance down the counter and stared me down, a heated look on her face. Her body was more tense than I have ever seen her.

"Y-Yeah! Mikasa landed me this job a few months ago. It sucks, but hey, it pays the bills." I shyly looked back and forth between the three, they all were dressed up in nice clothes. Probably brand named. They looked like they were doing well for themselves. I was happy for them. Especially Petra due to all the bullshit that happened back in high school between her and Levi. I felt bad for what I had done to her. I was supposed to be her friend and I felt as if I betrayed her. Maybe what happened between Levi and I was my karma.

"Guys, I'll be right back!" Hanji giddily left the other two and ran to the front entrance and back out the door. I couldn't really see out that far, especially since a lot of the cinema's front lights were burnt out. This place was a piece of shit afterall. Mikasa stared daggers back out the entrance and I awkwardly spoke up to her.

"Mikasa, what are you staring at?" This caused attention to be put on her, and I could tell she was upset with me for doing so.

"You'll see." She bitterly looked towards me and then back to the front entrance.

I squinted my eyes towards the front, this causing Petra to awkwardly laugh. " Hey, Eren? What movie do you recommend? Nobody can decide on what to watch. Also, do I get a discount for being the nicest customer of the day?" She giggled and I smiled and shook my head.

"No, but y'all can get free popcorn. It's getting late on a Monday night and this whole batch will just be thrown away. Also, all the movies suck right now." I turned around and grabbed two large tubs for popcorn after earning a giggle from Petra, figuring that should suit two to a bucket since apparently there were going to be four of them.

Wait... Who's the fourth person?

I ignored the question that ran through my head and made their popcorn, turning back around and placing it in front of them.

"Eren, you don't have to do that. I've got money. Plenty of it. No need to get in trouble over it." Erwin spoke up with a serious tone in his voice. I could tell he was pretty stern about following the rules, but he seemed grateful for my offer either way.

"Honestly, it wouldn't hurt my feelings in the least bit if I got in trouble over something so stupid." I grinned and looked back towards the entrance where I saw a faint figure of what seemed to be Hanji tugging a small child. A small child with raven black hair.

The front entrance burst open again, and I heard the excited woman mumbling something to the person who was hidden behind her.

"Fucking Christ, Hanji. I haven't finished my smoke." A slight pause occured, "No, fuck you. I will do as I please. I don't wanna be here. Just let me sit outside and smoke." I could hear Hanji whispering excitedly to the voice that I could already identify as Levi. My heart sunk a little as I looked to Mikasa who was now glaring at me. I knew exactly why she was staring a hole into the front entrance now. She saw Levi.

Erwin and Petra were looking awkwardly back and forth between Hanji and Levi, then back to Mikasa and I and I did the same. Once Hanji got done bickering with Levi, she dragged him towards the the concession stand where Petra and Erwin were blocking his view from me. If things couldn't have gotten more awkward, Petra decided to speak up in a whispering tone to Levi as he approached.

"Now, Levi... Look who works here!" She gave a fake attempt at excitement, obviously not knowing that Levi already had seen me the day before.

Levi peeked his head past the others and met eyes with me, then looked over and saw Mikasa who was basically wishing she could make a hole, have Levi fall in it, and drop all the way down to Hell. Things were awkward to say the least, and when I saw him, I felt nothing but fear on what to say.

"Just look at him, Levi! He is so handsome now, isn't he? Look at him in his little uniform and his cute hair! I swear it's a perm, it's gotta be. You could have at least warned me about how good he looked!" She giddily tugged at his long-sleeved shirt. He looked completely different than yesterday. Instead of his dressed up business look, he was wearing a long black sweater with a few buttons up top that were undone to show a small amount of his collar bone with dark blue jeans that fit snugly around his legs. It felt embarrassing having him be here especially after he basically attacked me the day before, and now I was standing there in front of my ex boyfriend ? Could I even call him that? And his three best friends. One of them of which who was fawning over me, one who was shyly giggling into her hand, and one who was giving a quizical look between Levi and I.

"Hanji, if you don't cut it out, I will cut your funding double of what I did last time."

I didn't particularly know what "funding" Levi was talking about, but it was a deep enough threat that shut Hanji up immediately. She sulked and hid behind Erwin where she beat her head melodramatically against his shoulder, "So mean to me Levi~."

This earned a deep sigh from Levi who immediately looked over to me, leaning his side against the counter as he dug in his back pocket, pulling out his wallet and slapping his credit card down on the counter towards me. "Get them whatever they want, except Hanji. She can have a toddlers popcorn. Actually, take that side cup right there and put two kernels in there. She can have that. But make sure it isn't fresh."

Hanji let out an exasperated cry of distress, "Levi, please don't do this to me."

Their display of a love-hate friendship earned a small chuckle out of me as I pushed forward the two large containers of popcorn towards the group. "No..I uh, am giving the popcorn and drinks for free...It's super late and it's just going to be thrown away."

"Brat, take the damn card and ring it up." He basically hissed at me, almost like I was insulting his wealth, which I wasn't.

"Levi, leave Eren alone, he's being nice is all," Petra spoke up against Levi's harsh words, smiling back at me with that angel-like face. God she was too nice.

This earned a disapproving look from Levi as he made 'tsk' sound and slid his card back in his wallet, "Fine."

I meekly looked over to Mikasa who was now sweeping behind the concession stand, obviously trying to get her leftover chores done as she listened in on the conversation.

"Just consider it a small thanks for taking care of the wreckage... Sorry again about that..." I itched the back of my neck hesitantly. Things were getting too weird between them, even in this short confrontation.

"Wreck?" Petra spoke up suddenly, looking to Levi who gave me a pissed off look.

"Uh.. Yeah. I hydroplaned yesterday on the way to the gas station and there he was, crashing in to me. It was my fault, of course." I laughed it off and Petra gave a worried look.

"You're not hurt are you?" She looked over my body for any bruises and scratchmarks.

"Oh, no no. It was a tiny collision, I was in a truck and it barely did damage."

"Okay, can we get on with this. The movie is about to start and I don't wanna hear any bitching about missing the previews to debate over them, Hanji." Levi hissed at the moping woman wearing glasses who was staring at the Sour Patch Kids in the window. He looked uncomfortable in the situation which made me feel a little better, but as I glanced up at the clock, I realized that it was no where near time for the next showing and he was just trying to get out of the situation. I took note of that and once I filled up all of their drinks and slid it to them, they took their tickets and pranced off. Levi was the last to walk off, though, staring at me as he did so. When I looked down at the counter, I noticed a hundred dollar bill laying there and I immediately looked down the hall where the group was heading towards and noticed Levi nodded at me as he entered the dark cinema.

I sighed deeply and rang up everything they had gotten, which came to be less than a hundred dollars, eight dollars and some change over to be exact. I awkwardly held on to the money and looked to Mikasa who was glaring at me yet again. She had finished sweeping and was wiping down the counter now.

"That was unexpected," I simply spoke out to her.

She didn't say a word to me, and I took that as my cue to shut up and start helping her clean. It was forty-five minutes past the time we were supposed to clock out and we had just finished cleaning up everything. Our manager was nagging us about wasting hours with our slow performance and it took everything in my body not to yell back at the selfish prick. He ran the whole building and had the audacity to treat his workers like they were slaves, then yell at them when he gave too much shit to do and they couldn't complete it on time. I hated this place and so did Mikasa, but it was a job, and it paid.

"I'm going to the restroom before we leave, don't forget to clock out this time or I'll never hear the end of it." Mikasa scurried off to the bathroom and I watched her. The place was basically deadsville. There were no workers up front except for me and some new guy up at the ticket counter up front, playing on his phone as usual. I decided to ring up a free soda before I clocked out and moved around the counter to sit in one of the chairs up front. Mikasa was still in the restroom and I was stuck sitting on my ass sipping on my drink waiting for her. It sucked not having my truck, but at least Mikasa had her car to drive me around. After the incident, she refused to let me drive, accusing me of cheating to get my license in the first place.

I looked up at the clock and noticed it was ten minutes 'til ten at night and I already had felt my eyelids drooping in sleepiness. I rested my hand against my cheek, holding my head up as I closed my eyes. It felt as if I was already drifting off before I was startled back a low voice, "Ya' dreaming of me, brat?"

I jolted in an upright position as I opened my eyes from their glued state. Levi stood before me, holding two drinks in his hand and a pack of cigarettes between his fingers. "No. Why would I want to have a nightmare?" I spoke bitterly towards him. For some reason, whenever he was this close to me, I could still smell his scent. Tonight he smelled like cologne and cigarettes. It was a strange change up from how he usually smelled, but as I looked up at him, he was giving me a smirk.

"More like a wet dream, but hey, whatever keeps your tent down," he set the drinks down on the table in front of me and opened up his pack of cigarettes, pulling one out and sliding it between his lips.

"You'll get in trouble if you smoke in here," I simply stated towards him.

"Like I don't know that you little shit. I was about to head outside, but now that you went and said that," he pulled his black lighter out of his pocket and lit the cigarette, taking a long drag of it and blew it out through his nostrils, "Fuck this cinema."

Ok, there was a problem with this entire situation. First of all, Levi and his old friends from high school were here. Second, Levi was talking to me alone. Thirdly, Levi was smoking inside the cinema. And lastly, I was extremely unaware of how attractive Levi looked with smoke billowing out of him.

"So, brat. Since there's no one at concession anymore, mind filling up shitty glasses and Petra's drink for me?" He took one last drag of his cigarette, leaving it no where near finished as he burnt it out on the precipitation of Hanji's drink.

"I'm off the clock," I simply stated, still resting my head on my hand. I kept looking from Levi to the women's restroom. Mikasa was taking a long time which was unusual. She usually was out of the restroom quick, especially with how nasty the cinema restrooms were.

"Fine, what if I tipped you like a high-dollar hooker?" A smirk rose to his lips as I begrudgingly took the two cups. I wasn't about to sit there and be badgered by the other, especially over filling up drinks. As I sat up, he took a step back to give me room, but was still uncomfortably close to me. I huffed out and walked over to the counter where our first encounter for the day occurred. Instead of walking all the way around, I leaned over the counter and filled up the drinks from the other side. It was an easy enough stretch, but when I turned back around, Levi was staring at me with a low glint in his eyes.

"Are you fucking with me, brat? Or are you really trying to be a hooker?"

As I basically shoved the drinks back in his hands, I tilted my head in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"You leaned over that counter like you were basically about to get fucked, kid." He was staring needles into me as I awkwardly inched away from him.

"Aren't you too old to be thinking about sex? Don't you need to take your medicine to even get it up?" I stifled a laugh at my own joke but soon realized that Levi was no where near impressed.

"Oh? Is that so, brat? Then I guess you need to head on home and snuggle up with your blankie and bottle if our age gap is so huge," his eyes were staring straight through me as a twitch on the corner of his lips pulled in to a smirk.

In this moment of time, I was a little startled by his rebutle, but I could tell by the look on his face he was obviously patronizing me. Right as I opened my mouth to bite back at his remark, I heard the soft padding of footsteps walking towards us. Mikasa stood a close distance away, her arms folded in a disapproving manner as she stared Levi and I down.

"Eren, we need to get home. Let's go." And with that stern statement, she turned on her heels and began to almost stomp towards the door. I could tell she was upset, but honestly, I didn't particularly care.

Levi gave her a frown and then looked back to me, the same dull expression on his face, "Better go, brat. Your sister looks like she's about to shit herself."

"Do you always have to bring up shit in everything you say?" I was currently rummaging around, trying to grab everything of mine as I walked past him. It was frustrating knowing that in my current situation, everything was falling apart all over again just by coincidence of meeting Levi.

"Well, quite honestly, yes. I do. Shit is nasty. Your sister looks like she's about to shit. Therefore, you, are in deep shit." He spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, almost like what he said made perfect sense to him.

"Ah...Well," I awkwardly itched the back of my head as I faced him, "I better get going now, hope you and Petra enjoy the movie."

Shit. Why did I say him and Petra? That makes it sound like I'm jealous.

"Tsk. The movie is garbage, I'm not staying in there."

"Oh...Ok. Bye, then.." I awkwardly waved him off as I almost ran towards the door. Things were still severely weird between the two of us, and the last two times we have met now, I felt as if I was suffocating. As I pushed open the front doors, a blast of freezing cold air hit against my face, immediately stopping all the rushing thoughts I had been having. Mikasa was already in the car that was parked a fair distance from the front entrance, so I decided to jog over to her to get out of the freezing cold. Once I had arrived to the passenger side of the car door, I pulled the handle to open it, but the door wouldn't open. Mikasa was looking over to me and immediately cracked the window open.

"Mikasa, come on, it's freezing out here. Let me in!" I jostled the door a bit to show the urgency, still not gaining a reaction from her.

"Why were you talking to Levi?"

A span of dead air spread between us as I stared at her. My nose was about to freeze off at this point, and it didn't help that I only had a light jacket with me. "He came out to get refills and was the one who initiated conversation, now will you please let me in Mikasa!"

The door made a clicking sound, to which I immediately slammed the door open, getting inside the heated car and closing the door back behind me. Everything was silent in the small space except for the low rumbling of the engine and the heat blasting on high.

"I don't want you talking to him, and the way you two were flirting was not very believable that it was just a coincidence," she put the car out of park and began to back out of her spot, driving towards the exit of the parking lot.

"Flirting? I was not flirting with him. If anything, he was harassing me. Also, I forgot the point in time where you received any permission to control who I speak to? Last time I checked I was an adult." I was getting too heated for my own good, and with the way her driving slightly sped up was an indication of it's own that she did not like what I had just said in the least bit.

"Fine. Let him come back in your life. Just don't come crying to me when he breaks your heart again."

Every inch of me in this moment was frozen by her words, not because I was stunned, but because it took my entire willpower not to throw a tantrum and bite back at her. It was true that I had been letting my guard down around him, but even though he had hurt me in the past, I couldn't see how it affected Mikasa in the least bit. It was none of her business, let alone anyone outside of Levi and I's business who we converse with. I couldn't grasp Mikasa's thought process, nor did I think that I ever would, but she was my sister, and I still loved her. Even if she was over protective. And insane at times. I loved her, and because of that, I said nothing back to her. Not a word.

Especially because I knew exactly what was going to happen.

~.~

Ugh, that took me forever to write. This chapter was meant to be up last Thursday, but that didn't happen because I had finals! But now that all of that is over, I am on Christmas break and I should be updating at least once a week now. Thank you all for reading up to this point and I apologize for the abrupt ending. I just didn't want this chapter to carry on so damned long because I have so many ideas!

xoxo Please be sure to Favorite, Follow, and Review!