Chapter Text
“Mamãe...he really doesn’t understand.” Levi said, his phone cradled against his ear as he spread out over the day chair in his room.
“Baixo, you need to apologize to him. I told you not to start any fights.”
“It wasn’t a fight, mãe. I just yelled at him.”
“Levi Ackerman, do not make me ground you from here.”
“Mãe…”
“Don’t you dare. You go apologize to him, do you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Go, now. Call me later tonight, alright? Eu te amo, meu anjo.”
“Eu tambem te amo. Tchau.”
“Good boy, tchau.”
Levi tapped the “end call” button and sighed. He rested his head back against the armrest. He missed his mother. When he called again later, he thought to himself, he would have to talk to his grand parents too. He hadn’t talked to them in a few days and was beginning to feel the nibble of guilt eating away. Or was that the guilt of yelling at Eren earlier? Levi couldn’t tell the difference between the two feelings. The guilt just jumbled together and sat at the bottom of his stomach, the mass clawing at his inside to escape and clutch at his conscious, but he pushed it down. He'd resolve it all soon, just like his mother told him to.
The raven closed his eyes. He wasn’t liking it here. He didn’t like it much at all, and he felt bad for making Eren feel unwelcome as well. The brunet probably wanted to go home just as badly as Levi. The raven didn’t like it because of how easy everything was here. Dinner was a nightmare are the Smith’s house, and he was worried he’d forget his manners when he returned home. He didn’t want his mother to be disappointed in him. He’d fucked up on the first day even, he could tell that Erwin was uncomfortable with his hug in greeting, but the guy really had to get over it. Erwin’s mother thought Levi had called her a whore on the car ride to their home. Levi was shocked, did senhora really sound like whore? She had bad hearing, he repeated to himself. I was like enye, it wasn’t a hard h. He had panicked that first day. His mother said that he shouldn’t give a gift even though they were hosting him, and although he was only listening to what his mother told him, it made him feel nervous. Almost sick. It was very unlike himself. He was polite, and collected. But being away from home was hurting him.
They ate too much meat in the house. Levi was vegetarian, and he felt as though he was wasting their food whenever he’d push the main meat of the dish to the side and eat the rest. He was burden enough, he needed to just ignore the meat. They didn’t eat fish or seafood because Erwin’s father was allergic to both. Levi kissed goodbye to his protein as soon as he walked in the door.
Levi got up from his chair and stretched for a minute. He need to apologize. It was shameful and he felt embarrassed, but he was going to do it. He had to, his mother told him to. So he left his room, headed for the stairway, and went to find the trio. He spotted the two blonds in the spacious living room, cuddling close together with Erwin’s arm around the smaller boy. Levi continued on, hurrying to the kitchen to see if he could catch Eren alone before he went back to the living room. And he was in luck.
“Eren.” He whispered, standing behind him and pulling on the taller boys shirt hem.
He turned, his teal eyes wide and his hair in his face again. Levi felt the urge to push it away, but restrained it, barely allowing his hand to twitch.
“I’m sorry for saying such mean things. I...desculpe. Do you know that word?”
Eren stared for a minute before shaking his head. “It is okay.” He said, his long hair swishing with the motion.
Levi stared back. He was so tan, and Levi loved how the long hair looked on the much taller teen. “Do you actually understand English?”
Eren just stared again. This time, Levi guessed that Eren had just known “I’m sorry” from his apology. He could live with that. That wasn’t bad.
“Okay. Good.” The raven said, rocking on his heels a moment before turning. “I’m leaving.” He said, hooking a thumb back at the doorway of the kitchen. Eren nodded.
“Tchau.” Levi hummed under his breath.
“Tschau…” Eren responded, smiling a bit.
Levi stopped. “Do you speak Portuguese? Você fala Português?”
Again, a blank stare. “What? I...German speaking, not much English. Sorry.”
The raven stood for a moment before nodding. It was lucky, the words just happened to match up. That happened. Whatever, life goes on. He got his hopes up a bit too high, he realized, as his heart felt a little heavier. He’d gotten excited and hoped that Eren spoke at least some of the same language. He wanted to get to know him. He wanted to get to know him badly, in a million different ways, and a lot of them weren’t appropriate things to admit out loud.
--
Eren stood outside of Levi’s door, fiddling with his hands and slowly rehearsing what he needed to say, over and over and over again. He wanted Levi’s number. He wanted to text Levi. As a cover, he’d already gotten Armin and Erwin’s. He just wanted the ravens phone number so he could text him, maybe learn a little more English. The brunet was good at written English. Like, really good, he could read and translate it pretty easily. But speaking it was a completely different level that he didn’t have the ability to process. It just sounded like gibberish to him. Sometimes, if he was lucky, he’d be able to understand one of two words said to him. But they didn’t look the same as they sounded.
He raised his hand up, ready to knock. He quickly rapped his knuckles against the door, short and staccato. His hand nervously pushed through the long strands of his hair, pushing them back out of his face. I can do this, he thought to himself. I can do this.
The short boy opened the door, a glare greeting him. Eren was beginning to wonder if Levi just always glared.
“What do you want?” Levi asked, holding the door open only a few inches.
“Can I have your number?” Eren asked, careful in pronunciation. He didn’t want to fumble a single word.
Levi paused for a moment, sizing the teen up. “My number? Why do you want that?”
“Uh...E-Erwin and Armin…”
“Oh. Here, give me your phone.” Levi said, holding out his hand and waiting for Eren to give him his phone.
The brunet nodded nervously and tapped in his passcode, swiping over the numbers in quick succession, 3-7-3-6. After a moment of stumbling to find his contacts app again, he pulled up the new contact form and handed it to Levi. The raven typed with both thumbs, quick with the numbers, and then handed it back to Eren.
“Th-thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Another awkward pause between the two, and Levi was already shutting his door. That was plenty fine with Eren, now he didn’t have the need to be verbal. He could easily just text Levi from this side of the door, and awkward pauses wouldn’t be an issue. Finally, he could feel himself starting to get a bit excited at the thought of finally being able to communicate with the group, specifically Levi though. He wanted to get to know Levi, seeing as the raven was short and grumpy looking, but also pretty attractive to Eren, with his dark hair and sharp features. Eren was genuinely happy for one of the first times since being in America. Thank god, he thought. Maybe things were looking up.