Chapter 1: Strangers But Not Exactly?

"Eren, get back here! Where do you think you're going?" Mrs. Yaeger, Carla, frantically called out to her only son who was running away from his mother inside the blinding white building all the while yelling childishly, "No! I said I don't want to do the check up! I HATE dentists..!"

Eren Yaeger, aged 16 at that time, with unruly dark brown hair, bangs almost covering his jade green eyes and owner of a thin frame, was currently trying to escape from his mother's clutches inside a small dental clinic with limited space for running so he was sadly caught in the end when he bumped into someone, falling backwards butt first. "Ow!"

"No running in here, kid." Greeted a silky smooth voice, and something inside him tingled before he reopened his eyes quite timidly, expecting a scary big buff man in front of him. But in reality, it was a normal-size man in a white coat, in his late twenties or so, dark bangs parted at one side of his head revealing hawk-like dark eyes, his lips thin and formed a slight upside down crescent, he had lean but perfectly proportioned muscles but seemed a bit short for his age.

"I'm so sorry, doctor! Hope my son didn't cause you too much trouble!" Carla pulled her son by the arm and forced him to bow with her in apology. Eren unwillingly complied, muttering incoherent nasty words under his breath.

The dentist aka owner of this place, scanned him quite intently and Eren could feel his eyes on him making him uncomfortably squirmed on the spot. "Hmm, a check up? Come this way." He walked to the treatment room first, expecting the brunette to follow behind.

Eren paled and immediately froze, his gut churned terribly and his lips dried up almost as if he was stranded for days in the Saharan desert. He actually had a toothache since last night but the thought of getting his tooth pulled out terrified him so. Not to mention, his front tooth nonetheless!

He was just about to sneak away again but the look on his mother's glaring eyes made him do otherwise. Carla Yaeger could easily turn into a raging demon even to her own child once her switch was flipped. Thus, he trudged ever so slowly behind the doctor whose name he didn't even knew but somehow, he felt a little connection with the man just for a split second. Had they met somewhere before?

"Climb on up the seat." The dentist said behind a pale blue mask as he slipped his hands into the rubber gloves and the latex smell infiltrated Eren's nostrils, further terrifying him. He hated the dentist for various reasons combined – mainly the dentist who usually put out a fake smiley face with a sugary tone of voice to coax him into opening his mouth, the light flashing directly on his eyes when he lied down the seat, the smell of various chemicals and medicines combined made him gagged and lastly the fear of pain.

"Open up, kid." The dentist leaned closer with a plain mouth mirror in one hand and a dental probe in the other. Eren frowned at that and gruffly said, "I'm not 'kid', I have a name, y'know!" The other man raised an eyebrow before asking what his name was. His dark currant eyes noticeably softened when their gazes met.

"I'm Eren. Eren Yaeger! Please don't be so rough with me, mister!"

"Don't call me mister, Eren. I have a name too and it's Levi Ackerman." Levi briefly introduced himself, this time ready to inspect the brunette's mouth. "Now open that mouth."

Levi. Dr Levi.

Eren unconsciously gulped hard before slowly opened his pursed trembling lips. Levi saw this and calmly asked, "Are you afraid of me? Or dentists in general?" He skilfully travelled the mirror around the back and front teeth of inside Eren's mouth and nodded satisfyingly when he saw no sign of cavities. This kid knew how to take care of his teeth then.

"The laher (latter)." Replied Eren, slurring his words due to the two steel rods in his mouth. Before this, he would've shit his pants just by sitting on the recliner but mysteriously, it wasn't that way with Dr Levi. He was calm enough to answer the man without screaming hysterically for his life (he could be dramatic sometimes).

"Any bad experience before?" Questioned the older man as he removed the instruments when it lightly hit one of the front teeth earning a painful yelp from Eren. "Hn? Does it hurt here..?"

Eren furiously shook his head in denial, "N-not at all..! I'm perfectly fine!" And Levi somehow understood him through all that slurring.

"Are you really?" Another stronger tap to the tooth and Eren finally gave in, whimpering in pain. "St-staph.. it hwurts..." Tears began to form at the corners of his eyes and only then did Levi removed them, carefully this time.

"My bad. I'll have to examine it once more. Without tapping it this time, will you let me?" came the serious but gentle request.

Eren didn't know how to point it out, but Levi's voice was oddly soothing, pleasant to the ears, strangely nostalgic as well that he had to say yes and obey the older man without a question or objection. "Okay." Once again, he opened his mouth wide for the dentist to see what was wrong with his throbbing tooth.

"..." Levi went quiet as he further inspected the tooth, noticing something peculiar.

"...?" The silence meant something bad was it? Eren's heartbeat began picking up speed as he waited for an explanation from Levi.

Finally, the ravenette said, "Do you still have your milk tooth?" Normally, all milk teeth fell out by the age of ten and below. And Eren was one of those rare cases where he still retained a milk tooth at his age.

Eren shot a perplexed look; did he? He didn't get to reply verbally when Levi continued, "There's another tooth growing under your old one, it will soon replace it so we need to pull the milk tooth out first before it hinders the new growth. Do you understand, Eren?"

"And how long will it take to completely grow?" inquired the brunette, he didn't like where this was going one bit.

"Two weeks or more." Levi submerged the two dental instruments into ethanol to sterilise them before taking out different two instruments used for tooth extraction. "Sit down and relax, it won't hurt if you don't tense up too much."

Quickly covering his mouth with his hands, Eren exclaimed, "No! I don't want to! It's embarrassing if anyone sees the hole later!" It was his front tooth goddammit! Surely he understands?

Levi's already frowning eyebrows furrowed even deeper and suddenly he lifted Eren's hands above his head and pushed his elbow against his sternum, and the brunette choked as a result. "C-can't breathe... Let..me go..!"

He doesn't understand..!

"I will let go, only if you let me remove your tooth." Levi bargained (or threatened) the boy until he became unable to breathe completely, his face slowly turned blue. Hitting his arm repeatedly, Eren barely breathed out something that sounded like, "I give up! Do what you want!"

"That's more like it." Scoffed the dentist and Eren suddenly regretted his decision in life for once. But fortunately it was over before he knew it – a cotton gauze stuffed into his mouth and he vaguely heard the dentist said, "Bite down the cotton properly until the bleeding stops."

All of a sudden, Eren was overwhelmed with anger and humiliation combined. He hated how Levi treated him much like a little kid. Jumping down from the recliner, he spat the bloody cotton out in disgust. The brunette even took the chance to step on Levi's foot in revenge. "..!"

Levi didn't flinch as much but tiredly huffed a puff of air as he removed his mask, "You're not a kid, you're a brat."

Eren stuck his tongue out at the dentist in return before stomping out of the room where his mother was waiting. He would never ever EVER visit that stupid dentist anymore!

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Carla shook her head in dismay at her son's antics. He had been grumpy ever since they exited the dental clinic and wouldn't talk no matter how many times she asked why.

Eren had a reason why he kept quiet the whole walk to the bus stop. He didn't want to open his mouth as much as possible and allow people to see the current state of his teeth. And he was too embarrassed to tell his mother the truth. As he shoved his hands in his pockets, he felt something inside one of the pockets. Out of curiosity, he fished the item out and realised it was a white face mask and inside it was a small piece of note saying, 'wear this if you want'.

"..." Okay maybe he wasn't all that bad after all?

Back at the clinic...

"Eren Yaeger, huh." Levi leaned against the recliner, one hand languidly raking his hair as he recalled a long lost memory. "Eren..."

To be continued...

Welp, wonder if there are plenty of stories like mine out there already? Dentist!Levi with Highschool!Eren lol. But I know story of the past and present selves of them is pretty common but why not. And their relationship will progress a lot smoother than Eren would ever hope! Until then, see ya guys~