Cherishing You [Chp6]

Chp1 | Chp2 | Chp3 | Chp4 | Chp5 | Chp6 | Chp7 | Chp8 | Chp9 | Chp10 | Chp11 | Chp12 | Chp13 | Chp14 

Cherishing You

Genre: Drama | Romance | AU | Incest | Modern Days

Rating: M

Pairing: (mainly) Rivaille x Eren, and some other pairing which will be added as the story progressing.

Summary: Having separated from his brother ever since he was a baby, Eren didn't remember the face of his older brother aside from his baby photos. He soon found himself slowly attached to the new guy who appeared in his family's bakery during the first day of his moving.

A/N: I’m sorry for any grammatical mistakes in this chapter that I missed to acknowledge.

Disclaimer: I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin, but this fanfiction is mine. ©AsakuraHannah

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 06: Closer

Eren stared at the flawless overly clean apartment, his eyes sweeping across the living room in awe. He should have expected this kind of hygienic personality coming from the man named Levi.

“Get in and settle in the sofa or something, stop gawking like an idiot.” Levi mentioned it when he knew the boy wouldn’t move an inch. Eren squint his eyes at Levi who was in the middle of putting the basket full of breads on the coffee table.

“I… probably shouldn’t be here right now…” He was unable to leave since Levi grabbed his collar from behind again. The boy stuttered and struggled to get free for his grasp.

“Hey!” Eren squeaked when Levi shoved a bread into his mouth all of the sudden. His eyes widened at Levi’s expression, the raven flicked his thumb towards the sofa in which Eren didn’t dare to disobey. The brunet sighed after he sat down, pulling the bread off from his mouth and munch half a bite of it. He knew by taste that it’s his father’s bread.

“You buy this bread a lot…” Eren mumbled while staring down at the pineapple bread sprinkled with cinnamon. Levi walked to him with a glass of mineral water in both hands, putting the drink on top of a coaster in front of Eren and for his own before sitting across the boy.

“You noticed.” Levi replied shortly. Both of them went silent and Eren starting to feel like a puppy with ears went down melancholy by the man’s gaze. He probably shouldn’t follow Levi after all, even if the man insisted him to. He couldn’t help it if his curiosity kicked in, now he knew Levi was overly OCD right after he how clean his apartment was. Eren left his phone at home, he ran out the house without money and now he has no choice but to stay with a man he secretly having a crush with. This was awkward, Eren seriously hope that Levi wouldn’t get a clue or at least let him leave.

“What’s gotten into you that you runaway?” Levi finally asked and received a glare directed to him.

“So, the interrogation starts now?” The raven rolled his eyes and leaned forward.

“You need to let it out…” Levi’s hand gesture to his heart, Eren eyebrow rose.

“Are you a physiotherapist?” Levi shook his head and sighed.

“You answer me with a question…”

“I don’t feel the need to answer your questions. I thought you are the type of person who always thinks ‘I don’t give a crap’.” Eren shrugged, munching the half eaten bread until it finish. Levi chose to ignore the brat’s tantrum, raised his left hand and mentioned Eren to lean forward.

“Give me your hand…” the boy complied without any word. Their hand touched and Eren’s felt his heart beating faster feeling Levi’s big cold fingers wrap tightly around his hand. The teen’s hand twitched while Levi brushed his right hand lightly with his long fingers.

“W-What are you doing?” Eren stuttered, cheeks flaming as he watch Levi inspecting his hand.

“Your hand is not calloused, rather its quiet smooth.” The doctor was amused when Eren quickly retract his hand away with blushing cheeks.

“What are you implying?” Eren secured his hand Levi just touched in front of his chest, eyes accusing him from causing him that way.

“Have you ever been in the kitchen?” Levi stared right into those enticing green orbs with full of knowing look. Eren went rigid; those shy look turned into anger.

“So what? Dad never let me even if I wanted to! He never trusts me at all… Isn’t that a good thing? I’m glad I don’t have to injure or even burn my hands during the process of baking!”

“You said that but you actually want to take a part of it…” Levi’s stoic expression was unreadable as usual but Eren was even more surprised of how the man was able to read him thoroughly.

“I… never said that…” Eren bit his lip and looked down, avoiding eye contact. Levi got up from his seat and walked toward the boy. He ruffled his brunet hair affectionately; earning a hiss which earned a satisfaction chuckle.

“You have to see it in another perspective, maybe he has his reason.” Eren looked down.

“It has something to do with my deceased older brother…” Levi perplexed, trying to find a word to reply but Eren cut him before he opened his mouth.

“He was able to create breads during 12 year old. His motive was simple, he just wanted to make people happy by eating his breads… Dad loved his creations, but he never showed it to him. I know my parent loved him, it pissed me off that I just can’t be as good as he was… Dad doesn’t seem to trust me with the shop. Is it my fault that he won’t let me bake something? Am I that bad? I don’t know I’m so bad that he won’t even let me try…” Eren raised his head, meeting his eyes with Levi’s teal-gray orbs. Those eyes were staring at him tenderly that Eren was astonished at the look he received.

“He is protecting you from something, Eren.” Eren’s eyebrow rose.

“What does it mean?”

“As far as I can see from your summary, your father was afraid of having you taking the job. He doesn’t want to lose you, that’s all. Have a talk with your father and find out about it. That’s my suggestion.” Levi patted Eren’s shoulder. A confused look was thrown in his directions; Levi ignored it and shrugged.

“You can stay over the night if you want. There’s a free room across mine…”

“Thank you…” Eren said to Levi with a huge sighed. His stomach grumbled, both of them stared at each other before Levi had to cover his mouth from laughing blatantly. Eren growled and patted his angry stomach shamefully. He was actually heading to the kitchen for having some snack before he found his mother icing the cake. He hadn’t had time to think about dinner after his father walked in and they got into a fight and had him ran out of the house.

“What do you want to eat for dinner?”

“Anything is fine…” Levi ordered takeout pizza. They ate up as soon as the pizza arrived; in the end Eren ate the most of it than Levi himself.

“I’m so full…” Eren moaned contently as he leaned back to the chair.

“There are still 2 left…”

“Oh no, no… I had enough…” Eren’ hand reaching for the glass of water and guzzled it down. Levi stood to pick up the empty plates and Eren quickly offered a help, following him to the sink.

“Put the leftover in the refrigerator then stay where you are, I don’t want any more mess than it already was.” He smirked at the pouting boy; he sent him away from the sink and continued washing thoroughly.

Eren did what he was told and waited until Levi finished with the dishes and dragged the teen to the living room. He turned the TV on, watching whatever was in the channels before finding some sappy romance. After a few minutes, Levi felt something heavy on his left shoulder. Eren had sleeping against him, he could heard him snoring softly. Levi sighed and switched the TV off. He was never this close to someone before and Eren was not much different from the others who’d tried to approach him. Most of them would get bored and started making distance, but not with Eren. The boy was practically throwing him curious glances. The more they got closer, the more he saw those pink dust adorning his cheeks often in which he wanted to stroke so much. Levi slowly stood up, carefully lifting Eren in his arms. The brunet moaned softly at the movement, but he nuzzled his face on Levi’s chest when Levi scooped him up. The boy wasn’t as heavy as he looked like, much to Levi’s relief. He walked up to the guest room and tucked the boy in the bed, covering him with thick blankets.

“Such a child…” Levi whispered, his lips curved into a small smile while his finger lightly brushed Eren’s brown bangs away from his eyes.

“Brother…” Eren mumbled in his sleep once he felt Levi’s finger brushed his cheek. His face contorted after Levi retracted his hand away, seeking those big warm hand caressing him again.

Levi stared down at Eren, a nostalgic feelings washed through him, examining his sleeping face. He kneeled down before the bed and whispered his name softly.

“Eren…” He placed his palm on Eren’s cheek, rubbing his thumb softly across his cheekbone. Strange enough, it seemed like he was used to do that before. Out of habit, Levi bent down to kiss him on his forehead.  His body reacting on its own and Levi had to pull away as soon as he realized what he just did. His eyes widened while staring at the smiling boy before him, he was glad that Eren was in a deep slumber. He couldn’t believe of what he had just done. Levi covered his mouth with his hand and quickly stood up, leaving the sleeping boy alone. He closed the door gently and retreating to his room. Levi rubbed his palm across his face, sighing heavily.

‘Why the hell did I do that…?’

Levi’s mind drifted back to Eren’s summary of his brother…

“He was able to create breads during 12 year old. His motive is simple, he just want to make people happy by eating his breads… Dad loves his creations, but he never showed it to him. I know my parent loved him, it pissed me off that I just can’t be as good as he was…”

That sounded overly familiar… His heart clenched painfully at the memory of his brother with green eyes. It almost similar to Eren’s…

---

Carla couldn’t be any happier that her daughter finally regained her consciousness. Mikasa slowly sat up, hissed at the pain shoot through her head.

“Are you alright?” She asked worriedly. Mikasa sighed and nodded.

“Yes, I’m alright… I…” She paused, recalling what had happened previously. She was just fainted on the news she received about her brother.

“I’m sorry, I… we should have told you about it sooner…” Carla wrapped her arms around her daughter, pulling her into a tight embrace. Mikasa only sighed in sadness; she closed her eyes when Carla caressed her hair, deciding to let her do what she wanted.

“I’m still surprised about the news, but… I think I’m starting to see a pattern…” She spoke up after a few minutes of silent.

“I’ll let you know if we can get some clue on his whereabouts, but… I don’t want to have my hopes up. Maybe he changed his name because he’d fed up with the way Grisha treat him during that time. We couldn’t blame him for wanting to go away, maybe he was hiding somewhere, or maybe he was really… dead. We can only assumed the worse, maybe he was sitting at the very front of the bus that time, we never know. The teachers were trying to help but still… we couldn’t find him. The list of the injured kids weren’t enough to convince me that Rivaille disappeared just like that… I don’t know what’s going on, but we had given up… Asking the help from the police officers was not cheap either…” Carla sniffled.

“Mom… you should have told me sooner… Ian work as intelligence, he can track people…”

“Your fiancé is out of town now isn’t he? I’m sure you don’t want to bother him…”

“No, it’s okay, he can work many cases in his hands. I’ll talk about this to him. I’m sure we’ll find a way…” Mikasa’s train of thought went to her brother.

“Where’s Eren? How long did I passed out?”

“You fainted for around half an hour. Eren still hadn’t back yet, he left his mobile phone and wallet in his room. I don’t know where he is now…” Carla let out a heavy sighed.

“Maybe he’s in Armin’s house…”

“How can you be so sure? Armin’s house is very far away, he didn’t bring his wallet with him to go with train… Why both of my sons are always… runaway…” Carla started to sob, Mikasa patted her back.

“Have faith on Eren, Mom. Maybe he brought some money in his jeans pocket. He will be back once he cooled his head off…” She continued rubbing Carla’s back, trying to calm her down. She needed to contact Ian as soon as she could.

---

“You no good of a son! This bread isn’t worth eating?” Rivaille flinched when a hand smacked him on his cheek. He fall down to the floor, groaning in pain as his mother kneeled beside him, helping him up.

“Don’t help him up, he has to learn that making a bread isn’t easy! Such a crap won’t sell, are you trying to make me lose my business? Remake this again; I won’t tolerate any sort of disagreement! You are my son, you’re supposed to be better than this!” Those teal-gray eyes glared up to his father, hand cupping his cheek with teary eyes. He couldn’t see his father’s face clearly through his tears, but he heard himself shouted.

“I’ll do much better than this!”

“Good, do it, now.” His father’s voice was covered with a loud ringing coming all of the sudden, he thought it was probably the oven’s alarm.

Levi jolted awake at the sound of his alarm. He ran his palm across his face, sighing once he realized he just got one hour of sleep. He wondered if he should absent from work, but decided to go right after he checked his mobile phone. Erwin had sent him lots of mails for a patient check up. Levi growled at the messages and quickly swung his feet off the bed and walked to the bathroom. He forgot about his dream once cold water sprayed from above the shower.

---

Eren hummed as he walked out from the room, he had washed his face but still not bathing yet. Levi’s eyes twitched when the brunet cheerfully walked into the island of the kitchen. He could barely sleep last time, too surprised on his own action towards the boy. Levi had been tossed and turned on his bed, and once he finally managed to get some sleep, his alarm went on, surprising his only one hour sleep. He was so close to throw the alarm out of  the window had he not stopped his anger issue. Even a cup of coffee wasn’t helping much.

“Good morning… you look grumpy…” Eren gasped after their eyes met.

“Shut up…” Levi scowled and turned around to place a plate of three layered pancakes in front of him on the island.

“Wow, pancakes!” Eren’s eyes sparkled at the sight of the maple syrup slowly melting down from the top layer of the pancakes.

“Yea… you should eat quickly…” Levi muttered and went back for his own pancakes.

“Thank you, really…!” Eren happily grabbed the knife and fork from the nearby cup of glass and started cutting off his breakfast.

“I just remember, did you even call home last night?” Eren stopped chewing and pulled off the fork from his mouth.

“Uhh… I forgot…” Levi rolled his eyes while putting the last pancake on the plate. He turned the stove off and placed his breakfast across Eren’s, drag a chair and sat down.

“You should call your sister today…” Eren silently nod, Levi offered him to call Mikasa instead of his parents, the man had known him a lot more than he thought. He’d be overly pissed if Levi suggested him to call his parent instead. He took the phone that Levi offered once he finished swallowing his pancake and started dialing Mikasa’s number. As soon as the phone reached in, Eren had to pull the phone away when his sister shouted on the other side of the line.

“I’m alright, really… I’m staying over at Levi’s house… Yes, that Levi, Mikasa. No, I’m fine… No, I’m not that far from our house… I can’t go to Armin’s house, I don’t bring money, remember?” Levi listened to each word Eren was muttering, his lips curved up into a small smile. At least he got a family that cared for him, the brat was showered with too much love from his family which he had failed to noticed. Listening to Eren’s groan after he finally able to put the phone away, Levi had to stop himself from chuckling.

“I’m sure they will give me another hell…” Eren cursed himself for being stupid.

“Have a talk with your father; I want you to do that… I’m sure you’ll do just fine…” Eren gave him a look.

“As if he’d try to see things from my point of view… my Dad is weird…”

“At least you got a family that care for you, kid…” Eren shut his mouth, surprised that Levi retorted him.

“I’ll talk to him…” Eren said, deciding to let his curiosity past him.

“Good…” Levi mumbled, ignoring the curious look those green eyes throwing him.

“By the way, your uniform is on the nightstand in the guest room if you haven’t notice.” Eren gasped, suddenly remembering his uniform.

“Oh yes, I forgot that my jacket is still with you…” Eren chuckled and shook his head.

“Did you even bath yet?” Levi scrunched his nose after Eren shook his head.

“Take a fucking bath, you filthy brat! Hurry up, I need to clock in early today.” Eren groaned at him and dragged his feet lazily to the bathroom.

---

Mikasa glared at Levi once he arrived along with her brother. Carla and Grisha was very thankful, bowing in shame on their son’s act. Eren only pout beside Levi, obviously embarrassed that his parent treating him like a five years old. Once Levi finally able to convince the parent that he needed to work, they let him go with a bunch of pastries and cookies. Levi had refused, but they insisted, he had no choice but to accept them.

Eren yelped when Carla pulled his ear as soon as Levi left.

“You naughty kid, do you know how much we were worried about you? Not to mention that you made people in trouble!” Carla scolded his son. Eren groaned at her, but hearing her worries made him unable to say anything.

“Eren, did he do something bad to you?” Mikasa started and Eren scowled, telling her to stop acting just like their mother. His green eyes landed on his father and Eren looked down to his feet. Carla let him go, both father and son stared at each other.

“I…”

“Eren, if you want to start baking, you should sketch a pattern of any bread you want to make. That way you can decide which taste you will create.” Eren’s eyes lightened up.

“You allow me to?” Eren whispered, disbelieve coloring his tone.

“I will let you try… Only, it’s not a game, I don’t want you to stop halfway because you are not serious. I refuse to give my shop to you if you are doing half heartedly.” Grisha warned him, Eren nodded, lips curved up into a smile then change to a big grin.

“I will do it…” He exclaimed happily. Grisha gave him a warm smile, maybe his son willing to make something from his heart. He won’t force him if Eren wouldn’t want to continue their business, but he’ll give it a try. Rivaille might not want to become like him, but Eren want to bake from his heart. He wasn’t being force at all, that was enough to convince Grisha to start to make him learn.

Carla patted Eren on his shoulder, supporting her son who looked overly happy.

“Eren, care to tell me about the guy that sent you here just now? I’ve seen him numerous time in the shop… he oddly familiar…”

“You mean Levi?” Carla blinked at him.

“Levi? That’s his name?”

“Yes, Levi, L-E-V-I”

“Do you know his family name?” Eren shook his head, now that he realized it, he had never asked his family name before. He’d make a note on that the next time they meet. Mikasa stared at the door, as if Levi would appear as soon as he heard his name. She put a finger in front of her chin, her brows frowned in a deep thought.

‘Levi… Rivaille?’ She recalled Eren had asked her the same thing but… Mikasa let out a sigh; she will need her fiancée to seek some information about this case. Eren better not knowing about this just yet.

TBC

Okay next chp will be much closer... xD