Alarm Clock - Ereri/Riren (Re-uploaded)

Chapter 20

"Liebchen, we are so proud of you! If you bring home another one of these, that guitar will be as good as yours!" my mother squealed as she held up my honour roll certificate. I blushed a bit. I was proud of myself. I was finally starting to understand why Armin and Mikasa found satisfaction out of good grades. It feels good knowing the world isn't disappointed in you and that you're not as much of a dumbass as you thought you were. Mom made me my favourite food and we all celebrate. Mikasa was especially proud of me. It was moments like these I really knew that all this protectiveness and obsessiveness from her was her way of showing she really cared about me the most. No matter what bullshit I might be going through in my life, she was kind of like my rock. She was always the most consistent thing in my life.

Me: Check it out

I then texted Levi a picture of my certificate.

Levi: I'm not surprised. I always tell you that you're smarter than you think.

Me: Stop. U sound like Mikasa

Levi: You*

Me: Whatever. Wanna hang out soon?

Levi: Maybe later, I'm working on something right now.

Me: Oh? Art related or school related

Levi: Doesn't matter.

Me: Can I trust you to eat today or do I have to stop by? I haven't seen your house yet :)

Levi: It's fine, I ate.

Me: Good. I'll see u at school tomorrow then. I gtg to band practice.

Levi: You*

Me: **rolls eyes**

"I'm out guys." I said as I hopped up from the couch and grabbed my guitar case that was sitting near the entrance.

"Before you go, son, did you have someone over while we were gone?" My dad asked as he walked in from the kitchen. I saw Mikasa raise an eyebrow and glance over at me.

"Uh, what makes you say that?" I replied.

"I found some clothes that were way too small to be yours in your room." Oh fuck. I just remembered that Levi had forgotten to change out of my clothes I had given him that day.

"Um that's not what it looks like! I swear I was just-" I said frantically.

"Gross." Mikasa scowled.

"But we didn't do anything like that I promise I-"

"Son, I don't care about what you do in your romantic life, but do try and be more careful about us finding out. What we don't know can't hurt us yeah?" My dad added as he placed his hand on my shoulder. I was so flustered by now. I can't believe that I had been so careless as to leave his clothes over there. Nothing happened of course but the fact that my parents thought it did made me so uncomfortable. It was also weird how liberal my parents were about it.

"Just use protection!" my mother hollered from the kitchen.

"Bye!" I shreiked as I rushed out of the door."

Band practice went relatively well today. I was grateful to Armin for that because it probably wouldn't have if he didn't cover for me this week. He doesn't really take the lead whenever I'm here but I honestly think he should. He's the most talented person I know when it comes to this.

"So where were you then?" Asked Jean interrogatively. I shrugged my shoulders at the question and kept casually playing random stuff on my guitar. "Come on, we know you weren't helping your mom with anything. Mikasa said so. So what the hell were you so busy with? Oh my god Sasha can you stop all the noise I'm trying to pressure Eren!" He screamed as Sasha loudly and playfully banged on her drum kit. She goofily giggled before putting away her sticks and packing up her snare.

"It's okay Jean. Eren wouldn't miss band practice unless it was something important. Maybe it's personal and he doesn't feel the need to share." Marco added. He was seated on Jean's lap and was doing little braids in his hair. "Right Eren?" I shrugged again and just kept goofing off. I didn't really intend to let them in on this. It wasn't my place to tell them Levi had been at the hospital.

"Well it's fine cause Armin was even pickier than you usually are so he kept us in shape." Said Connie as he continued to play meme music on his bass. It was getting annoying but he'd stop soon so I'll just let him get it out of his system.

"I think I have a theory about where Eren was?" Armin said somewhat passive aggressively.

"Oh?" Sasha said.

"I have AP science with Ackerman and he hasn't been in for weeks." he continued. I suddenly stopped playing and became frozen. "Now he's back and so is Eren, and they were awfully touchy in the halls today if you ask me." his voice was filled with sarcasm and false innocence. I couldn't really expect anything less from Armin though, he's really smart and it would be easy for him to figure something like that out.

"Ha!" Jean let out. I was well aware of what he was implying with that smirk.

"Shut the hell up Jean! It's not like that." I snapped. The only reason I was closer with Levi in the halls was because I was checking up on him and making sure he ate or slept. I kind of noticed that Connie and Sasha had snuck out of the studio, probably in fear of witnessing another one of me and Armin's weird ass fights.

"Why was Ackerman out for two weeks Eren?" Armin asked.

"It's none of your goddamn business." I hissed.

"Why are you even trying to hide it at this point? Everyone knows."

"Armin. I don't have patience for this right now!"

"I could go all day. Hmmm, I wonder if that's what Levi said to you." he said snarkily.

"Shut up! If I said its not like that its not like that! You think you know everything but you don't know shit!" I said standing up and clenching my fists. I hated it when Armin was in this mood. It was the one side of him I really didn't like and it was coming out quite often now.

"I think I know a lot more than you think I do!" he stood up as well in the same combative stance.

"Not this again." I heard Marco mumble.

"Well whatever! Why can't you just leave it alone!" I exclaimed.

"I'll leave it alone when you stop pretending like its not written all over your face!" Armin said.

"Alright break it up before you say you still love each other again!" Jean screamed as he removed Marco from his lap and stood in between us. "I got a tournament and Marco has a meeting. I don't want to leave you two alone fighting so can you promise that you'll just walk away and move on!" he finished. I took a deep breath and stormed out of the room. I can't believe he brought out that side of me again. He always knows how to get to me. I felt myself sinking into another episode so I had to count backwards from 100 in my car before I started driving. Thank god it worked, but I was still so fucking pissed. Every time I saw that Armin was jealous, it confused me even more about my feelings for him.

As time eventually went on, Levi and I could be seen together more and more frequently. He seemed to be in the right headspace now and it made me happy to slowly see him become himself again. He started looking just as muscular as he used to which meant he was taking care of himself. I'd of course bring an extra lunch to make sure he was eating and we'd hang out sometimes after school. When we got touchy, it wasn't anything too big. We hadn't directly kissed on the lips since New Years, but just like in the hospital, we would exchange little pecks in private. He said he wasn't really comfortable having a committed relationship, which I of course respected, but it was still frustrating. There was something so familiar yet unpredictable about the way I felt about him. Deep down I wondered if I would screw this up like I did with Armin, but I just couldn't turn away. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want more.