Promises of One Innocent

Summary: At the age of five, a seed of a possible love blooms in his young and pure heart. Years then pass by, and he still remembers his promise to a certain someone.

A/N: Inspired by "Attack on Heichou-sensei" doujinshi. It's just. TOO. CUTE.

"There is no aphrodisiac like innocence."—Jean Baudrillard

He still remembered the day when he first saw him in class.

Young, knowledgeable, stern, yet kind—and possessed the saddest-looking eyes he had ever seen. Those thoughts plagued him since he first laid eyes on him, and until now, he could still remember the day that the then young man introduced himself in front of everyone with an indifferent expression.

"Starting today, I will be your teacher for the whole year. Call me Teacher Levi, if you will."

He still remembered the day when he was first approached by the strange yet compelling teacher. Levi had been walking around, hovering behind each student and silently observing their homework about drawing one's family.

He remembered he was furiously coloring a tree back then.

"Eren? Are you done with your homework?"

Until now, he could still remember the way his voice would flutter through his then tiny ears. Since that day, he had imprinted every phrase Levi had said to him and about him—with much reverence.

"That's a really big-ass tree you drew there. Are you climbing up that tall of a tree?"

He blushed upon remembering such a thing—that that certain teacher, he realized at an early age, held no sense of shame when it came to dealing with his words. He filtered nothing when he spoke, be it teacher, pupil or parent alike—he would speak as he deemed fit to his crude way of language.

He remained indifferent when it came to teaching pupils. He saw children as a bane to his everyday life. He bluntly complained about quitting his job every day in front of the kids. Heck, he even once got mad at a little girl for eating all the breads reserved for the whole class.

He chuckled at the memories—despite all the teacher's flaws, he had never once heard a single negative thought about Levi from the other teachers. Or maybe he was then too young to understand.

Levi's charisma, as he thought about it, seemed to know no bounds—he attracted both genders too, it seemed, despite the teacher himself not knowing that fact. It became apparent when Valentine's Day came.

He remembered the day when he finally mustered up the courage to confess to his "most favorite teacher in the whole, wide universe"—he had crafted a bouquet of flowers made out of colorful papers and stationery, things that he found in his mother's room (with her permission, of course). He had completed it with a nice, big red bow around the makeshift stems—

—and Eren still remembered the way Levi looked back then when he offered up the bouquet of handmade, paper flowers. The young man, known for his unwavering passive face, and seemingly detached stance, had quirked up a tiniest hint of a smile. And much to his surprise back then, the then 18-year-old patted his head.

Eren never once remembered anyone in class whom he patted on the head, as the teacher had always been deemed as an obsessive-compulsive person—he had always refused to touch other people unless it was necessary.

Eren unconsciously patted his hair, somehow trying to reenact the scene so many years ago, yet he knew his touch couldn't compare to the touch that Levi had.

He quivered at the memory when he recalled how soft his palm was—smooth and warm. It was that day that the then five-year-old Eren held a soft spot for the then teenager.

He remembered he cried the whole day when it was announced that Eren would be moving to first grade. He chuckled at the memory of how he clung and bawled on Levi's leg. He remembered how even his own mother couldn't pacify Eren's screams about moving classes. And the teacher had made it a task to carry him and calm him down with some sweetened bread.

Levi had made a promise to him that day—that on Eren's first day of class, he would be there to cheer him up.

Those words were more than enough to give Eren hope.

On his first day of first grade, surely, as the teacher had promised, Levi was there, standing just outside the back door, peeking to see if Eren was behaving well.

He remembered the odd stares he got from his classmates when he had bursted out of the room to hug him—and Levi had patted his head once more.

Months passed by, and everyday, unfailingly, Eren would turn around the back door, checking to see if a certain pair of eyes were watching him. Oddly enough, Levi would be there—usually during lunchtime—and Eren would spend his time talking with him, wrapping his young mind to every bit of story that Levi would utter.

He told Eren about himself—how he graduated from university at the age of 18, and taught in kindergarten as soon as he passed his board exam. A lonely person that he was, as he only lived alone in an apartment near the school.

It had come to a time when a 10-year-old Eren suggested that he should drop by to Levi's house—just so the older man would not feel lonely, as he suggested. Levi had accepted the offer back then, and in due time, it became a normal routine for them.

Eren remembered how, on the day of his graduation in sixth grade, Levi had dropped by the Jäger household to congratulate the family. Little did the Jäger couple know, that it was an excuse to talk to Eren alone—Levi had attended the kindergarten graduation that day, and he was the one assigned to pin the medals and ribbons on the pupils. He remembered how Levi had explained it to him countless of times before he left the house that night—it was to avoid a misunderstanding between them. Eren had tried his best to understand what Levi said that night, and on the next day, Eren visited his house once more.

A woman had been sitting with Levi in the kitchen when Eren arrived that day. It was the first time that he found the teacher actually having a conversation with another person. Looking back, he supposed it was normal—but back then, Eren had been so confused with his feelings that he had suddenly jumped on Levi's lap.

The woman—who Eren recalled went by the name of Petra—had been startled by Eren's actions that day, yet Levi had done nothing, and merely patted Eren's head, as was their norm. It had been as though Levi wasn't surprised at all by the sudden intrusion, and the older man simply rearranged a whining Eren on his lap.

"Eren, have you eaten breakfast?"

And the green-eyed boy had nodded fervently and accepted his offer to eat breakfast, despite him having an already-full stomach before he went to his house.

All the while, Eren would never forget the way Levi had cradled him like someone to be protected.

Petra had laughed at Levi back then, saying that the stoic teacher had developed a weak spot for the boy—

—and Eren had only stared at Levi's passive face, silently liking the way he was soothed by the idle circling of Levi's thumbs on the skin of his then bitty arms. And when Petra had told Levi she needed to go, Eren had brazenly wrapped his arms around a startled Levi, and he glared at the blinking woman.

He had unknowingly cultivated a sense of possessiveness over Levi—and Eren was not ashamed of hiding it.

As time passed by, Eren became more possessive over the older man—and other people noticed it, too. He remembered, on his first day of middle school, Levi had visited Eren's homeroom during their break time (Eren had given him a complete list of his daily schedule), and Eren had introduced him to his best friends, Mikasa and Armin, as Eren's "most special person".

Until now, he could never understand why Mikasa held an infinite grudge on Levi after introducing himself to her. Armin held no ill intentions towards the teacher, however. Though he oftentimes dropped a quick advice or two on Eren having misguided affections, Eren himself never understood what it meant.

And then, high school came, where everything became complicated. Emotions ran high everywhere—the need to find a significant other was the norm of teenagers, and Eren, then 16 years old, had been having a hard time between juggling school life and keeping up his communication with Levi. The green-eyed teen would visit Levi in school after five, where the 29-year-old was surely drinking a cup of coffee alone in the faculty room.

There, Eren would have his forbidden trysts with him. In the privacy in one of the cubicles in the men's restrooms, they would kiss and embrace like no tomorrow. And try as they might to stop doing whatever it was they were doing—with Levi saying that it was wrong, wrong, wrong—once Eren would hug him and profess his love to him, there was no turning back.

It was the teenager who initiated the innocent yet suggestive contact between him and Levi. He supposed, during that time, it was to assure himself that he still belonged to the older man despite having different lives. Also, it was the teacher who initiated the suggestive and innocent contact between them—both in private and in the public eye.

Levi would discreetly brush his fingers to his as they walked side by side, and Eren would boldly hold his hand and peck him on the cheek.

It had been that way for many years, and he became even bolder when he went to college—openly kissing him on the lips and groping him when Levi would visit him during school hours. Levi, on the other hand, would either smack him upside the head, or would only mutter a string of expletives in his ear. Eren would usually love to hear him curse in his native tongue—it was a fetish of his, he supposed, and Levi knew that somewhere along the lines of puberty, Eren had developed a masochistic side for Levi.

Not that Levi complained at all.

Eren sighed and grabbed a fistful of his hair as he stared at his long-gone-cold coffee. It had been a long while since he thought about Eren's promise to Levi, and that promise was said many years ago, back to when he was only twelve.

"When I turn 20, I promise I will have you all to myself forever."

It was a meaningful promise to him back then, and Eren, until now, couldn't dismiss the feeling of dread as each second passed by.

Everyone around him told him it was a taboo. The pressure of breaking up with him was tied around his neck for a long time, and even Levi himself had been called filthy by some of his colleagues when they discovered the secret. Even so, Levi had made no outright complaint against Eren—he never once blamed him for the quick turn of his life as a teacher. He supposed Levi blamed himself, or, knowing Levi for a very long time, Levi blamed no one at all.

Eren looked at his watch. It was nearing ten, and the sun was glaring at him for so long. He sighed, and simply rested his head on the table.

He was waiting for far too long.

"Yo, brat. Did you even wipe that table's surface? It has fucking crumbs all over it, dumbass."

A smile immediately bloomed on Eren's face and he looked up, and saw the scowling face of one irate-looking Levi.

He instantly stood up and hugged the shorter male, blatantly ignoring the odd stares he received from people passing by.

"You came here! Just like you promised!"

Levi merely shrugged, allowing the taller male to hug him as he pleased. "Meeting was cut short, so I had a lot of spare time and—don't just grab my ass all of a sudden, you—"

Eren laughed, and obeyed him wholeheartedly, opting to rest his hand around Levi's waist, instead. He glanced at a waitress that was looking at them rather strangely, and he smirked as he whispered in Levi's ear.

"But, it was you who taught me naughty things, right, Teacher?"

Levi looked away from him, and scowled at an old man passing by, "The fuck are ya looking at? Never seen two men hugging before?" And the old man hastily walked away, mumbling apologies in his wake, and Eren merely laughed as he lazily draped his body over Levi's, mischievous eyes drooping at his angry face.

"A bit grumpy today, aren't you, Teacher?"

"Shut up, brat. I told you not to call me that in public."

Eren purred in response, and blew hot air in his ear. "I wonder, should I be punished for disobeying you?"

Levi kicked his groin in reply, and Eren yowled.

"You're finally 20, you damn brat. Where's your damn proposal?" Levi growled, tapping his foot impatiently as he watched Eren kneel and groan in pain.

Eren, despite his more-than-obvious discomfort, mustered a wry and lopsided smirk, and he stared up at Levi with much tenacity. "Someone's quite eager, I see—"

"Don't be so cocky, brat. Are you going to fucking propose or not?"

Two years passed since then, and Eren still remembered the day he proposed to Levi.

The older man might not be a true romantic, but there were times when he tried to be.

Just like today.

"Here's the cake, stupid. Happy anniversary."

And Eren would drape his arms around him and fawn over him like there's no tomorrow.

"Happy anniversary, Teacher! Oh, right. We're inside the house—heh—happy anniversary," he inched his lips to his ear, knowing fully well that the older man would not be able to stand the sound of him whispering, "Levi."

Eren knew that the teacher could never have control once he said his name in that tone.

"Before, you didn't even know anything about lust and sappy crap. Now you're not so innocent anymore, you little shit."

"And you like it so much."

Shitty ending became shitty because it's 2AM and my brain died on me. D: I'm thinking of making this one a twoshot if this is reviewed enough.