A Clean Romance

A/N: After being on a hiatus for months, I emerge with this :P My style etc hasn't changed much, only this time, I'm writing for SnK, which I shamefully admit I have a limited knowledge of. Nevertheless, I hope you guys would enjoy this fic ^^

Summary: Eren Jaeger, a young and promising student, falls in love, and is determined to make the love of his life fall for him (or at least, go out with him).

Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin!

CHAPTER 1:

Eren Jaeger, seventeen years old, a not-so-intelligent but hardworking student from Saint Maria High School, had a problem.

He was deeply, irrevocably and very much in love with Rivaille-san.

Yes, Rivaille-san. Not Mikasa, his beautiful and headstrong best friend, not Crista, the shy, quiet and pleasant girl most of the guys in his year liked, not Hanji-sensei, the quirky but very intellectual biology teacher, but Rivaille-san.

Rivaille-san, the thirty-year-old, shorter-than-average, seemingly-forever-grumpy school cleaner.

Eren groaned and slumped in his seat, burying his head in his arms as he thought of his predicament.

What bugged him wasn't the fact that he liked a guy (he had nothing against homosexuals), nor the fact that it was the school cleaner of all people that he liked. It was Rivaille-san's age that bothered him. He had no idea his crush was that old until he had told him.

Flashback

"I'm thirty."

CRASH! Eren dropped the stack of old newspapers he was holding.

"WHAT?!" He spluttered, his mind unable to process the earth-shattering news that was Rivaille-san's age.

"Th-Th-Th-Th-"

"Thirty." Rivaille-san completed for him what he was unable to say, his face as unamused as usual.

"Are you sure?" Eren blurted out, and regretted it once he saw the older man's glare deepen just a little slightly.

"Why wouldn't I be sure of my own age?" Rivaille-san reverted back to his previous task of arranging the books.

"Just to be sure… You know…" Eren's voice trailed off once he realised that Rivaille was not going to answer him and, still in great disbelief, smiled weakly and scrambled to pick up the newspapers on the floor.

End flashback

He doesn't look that old… Eren mused, trying to convince himself of the pros of dating an older man. Learning Rivaille-san's age had not stopped his feelings at all, and had instead, magnified Eren's affection towards the older man. Eren was a little embarrassed to admit that Rivaille-san's actions were a lot more cuter now that he knew his age.

He recalled the first time he had met Rivaille-san. He had stayed back with his best friends Mikasa and Armin after school to study for the upcoming history test. His classmates were all confident of passing the test without studying, but Eren knew his own abilities, and he knew that he would need all the help he would get to get a good score.

Eren had left his friends to check out a few reference books in the library, and it had taken him some time to search out the recommended books. He heaved a few more books into his arms and prepared to leave the room.

But then, he saw it.

The light.

Or rather, lights.

The shining, sparkling, glittering scene before him blinded his eyes. The entire area of that little nook in the library was screaming of cleanliness and exuded a fresh scent of lemons which made Eren long for a cup of freshly-squeezed lemonade. He wanted to drop his books on the spot and relax in the beauty that was that very clean corner. He marvelled at the scene of pure white around him and wondered what exactly was the foreign feeling bubbling in his chest at that moment. It was exquisite, it was spectacular, it… It made him feel like a princess. He wanted to stay in that moment forever, never letting the wondrous sight escape his eyes, he wanted t-

"You are in the way, damn brat."

Eren jolted out of his reverie upon hearing the very rude interruption, he turned to face the intruder and internally gasped at what he saw.

If he had felt like a princess before, then the sight before was the epitome of Cinderella.

Dressed in a crisp white uniform of white pants and white shirt complete with a white headscarf was one of the school janitors, but this was no ordinary school janitor, because this janitor was a grumpy school janitor.

The school janitors were known for their cheerful, happy expressions no matter where and what they were cleaning. In fact, Eren recalled seeing one particular janitor whistling happily to himself while scrubbing the toilet bowl. If that wasn't considered weird, he didn't know what weird was. So Eren could only conclude that the janitor in front of him now was either new (and had yet to integrate into the team of happy cleaners), or he was an imposter (although he wasn't sure why someone would impersonate a school janitor).

He stared at Mr Grumpy as he walked past him to wipe away the speck of the dust which had just fallen on the window pane, and realised that Mr Grumpy, was rather short.

He barely reached a little above Eren's ears from what Eren estimated, and it was all he could do but stare at this little specimen of a cleaner as he resorted to using an old wooden stool to reach a high corner of the window.

"You did this?!" He asked without thinking, and winced when Mr Grumpy whipped his to stare at him.

"If by 'this' you mean clean the room, then yes I did. Am I not allowed to do my job?" Hands moved to rub vigorously at the window while their owner replied in a rather bored tone.

Eren was awestruck. This little man, doing everything by himself? He was amazing! Eren had never seen a room this clean before, and to find out that it was all done by one person had touched him very much. He must be a really dedicated person to do all this, Eren mused. His own room would never reach one-quarter of this supreme standard. He needed to know the motivations behind this man! Only then would he be able to clean his room well and make his mum proud!

"What's your name, mister?" Eren asked, eager to know the name of such an amazing person. Mr Grumpy bent down to pick up the bottle Windex from his bucket and glanced at him before turning back to spray the windows. Eren's shoulders slumped when he saw he was being ignored.

"Rivaille."

His ears perked up at once. "Rivaille-san?" He tested the name on his lips, and nodded in satisfaction at it.

He heard a gruff "hmmph" from the other man, and smiled to himself.

"So, Rivaille-san, are you new here?"

The stool wobbled slightly, as if the person standing on it was offended at such a question. Eren gulped and watched the other man carefully.

"I'm the head cleaner here, what do you think?" came the moody reply.

Silence resumed save for the squeaking of the windows as Rivaille-san scrubbed the panes intensely.

HEAD CLEANER?!

In his surprise, Eren voiced out his thoughts:

"Eh? Head cleaner?! I wouldn't have pegged you as such! I thought the head cleaner would be the happiest of them all!"

The stool wobbled harder this time, and this time Eren could feel a hint of irritation from the man before him. It was unfortunate that, in undergoing the process of shaking, the stool had given way, and Rivaille was soon falling off the rickety excuse of a stool. Eren acted immediately.

His quick reflexes soon led him to finding himself in a rather bizarre situation. Wh-What's this feeling… Lying in his arms, scooped tightly to his chest was Rivaille-san, who was rather heavy for his height, and looked rather mortified at being carried like a princess by the younger boy he had just met quite a while ago. It was very embarrassing for the older man.

"Put me down." Rivaille ordered, and the boy quickly obliged. He dusted off the dirt that got transferred from the boy to him, and looked at the boy squarely in the face.

"Thank you, but I would have preferred a less extreme way of helping me. Now, if you would excuse me, I have a toilet to clean." Mustering as much dignity as he could, Rivaille picked up his bucket and stool, and left -fled- in the most subtle way possible. He could always return to clean the rest of the library when the boy was gone.

His heart thumping like crazy, Eren could only stare at the back of the older man as said man exited the room.

Eren was very, very sure he was in love.

His friends, on the other hand, had mixed reactions to the object of his affections:

"THIRTY?!"

Two voices shouted in unison, one of them a lot louder than the rest. He had just told his two closest friends, and Jean (who had popped out of nowhere), of his love problems. He looked at the three of them, patiently waiting for their opinions, but the unamused faces he saw had him realise that they thought he was joking.

He cleared his throat:

"Guys, I'm serious."

The trio around him stared back, none of them reacting to his words.

"Hahaha…?" Armin tried to laugh it off but trailed off once he realised that Eren was serious. His jaw dropped open immediately.

Mikasa had kept her cool and calmly regarded him with a disapproving stare, and Jean heaved a huge sigh of relief before he rearranged his expression to mirror Armin's expression of shock.

"Eren… Do you want to go home and rest?" Armin reached out towards him in grave concern.

"No, I'm not unwell, I'm ser-" He was cut off as Jean pulled him to the side.

"Oi, are you alright in the head? I know you are a suicidal idiot and all, but this is really extreme! You are referring to the grumpy one with the mop, right? It's crazy! He might attack you with his mop or something. I've seen him do that! I know I should be thankful that Mikasa would be available and all but still… It's crazy!"

Eren ignored the rant that was pouring out of Jean's mouth and turned to his other friends for their opinions.

"Well?" he asked hopefully.

"Crazy! Suicidal! You will get killed!" Amidst Jean's rambling, Armin spoke up:

"Eren… I can't say I understand your feelings for now, just let me analyse the possible reasons for your strange thinking and come up with a solution to this." Upon saying this, Armin went into deep-thinking mode immediately.

"CRAZY! IT'S CRA-" He switched off Jean's outburst, and resisted the growing urge to hit the both of them. He looked at Mikasa, waiting and hoping for her reaction to at least be favourable.

"Eren… I think it's a bad idea." His best friend's direct reply sank his hopes of finding support, and he glared at the three of them.

"It's not like you guys are the ones in love, so you all wouldn't understand." Getting out of his seat, he pushed past the trio and headed for the exit.

"Eren! Where are you going?" Mikasa's worried call stopped him in his tracks.

"Since none of you guys want to support me in my wooing of Rivaille-san, I'm going to do it all on my own. I'll show you all that our relationship is possible, so that you all have no choice but to accept it!" Saying that, he exited the room quickly, his mind already forming plans.

I'll get him to fall for me! Just wait and see!

Eren was very sure that it was only a matter of time before Rivaille-san fell head-over-heels for him.

A/N: Am I rusty?! TOTOTOT Is this interesting enough? Seems like it's going into the direction of CAAHI and SSR :O

Do tell me if any mistakes or anything are spotted thanks!

Reviews are very much appreciated :P