Chapter Text
Levi lived in a shabby old Victorian that had been converted into apartments—each of the four floors was one big apartment, so four apartments total. His apartment, second floor, had what was originally a sitting room (now a common area) a bathroom and two bedrooms with two beds each. Each apartment was $2000 a month and Levi was anxiously seeking roommates.
The house had originally been faculty housing but the faculty were moved off campus. Then it was for many years a frat house; the foyer on the first floor still stank of weed.
The two guys downstairs on the first floor (referred to by Levi as ‘the gym bros’,) were also looking for roommates putting them at odds with Levi—they were competition for anyone seeking a place. Levi was at the disadvantage; his space was advertised as non-smoking, no pets, no parties, no overnight guests. He was pretty sure the gym bros were 420 friendly and they had already held a raucous party and school hadn’t even started yet. (Levi had no problem with weed per se, he just didn’t want any smoking of any kind in his apartment.)
Levi was checking his snail mail, depressed because he was sure he’d not get any inquiries about the apartment, when the door to the ground floor apartment opened and disgorged the gym bros. Both hulking blonds, Phinks and Reiner were fast friends. Like orange cats, Levi was pretty sure they shared a single brain cell between them.
“Lee, man, haven’t seen you in a while!” The taller man thumped Levi on the back so hard he almost fell. If it hadn’t been for Levi’s fit self he would have crashed into the wall.
“You saw me day before yesterday, Phinks, and it’s ‘Lee-VI’”
“Sure, sure!”
“Say, man,” this was from Reiner, the one who held the single brain cell the most often, “had any luck with finding roommates?” Reiner was the son of the owner/landlord who still made him pay rent. Sometimes he had the delusion of authority.
Levi shook his head. “Nope.”
“Did you try putting it up on the board at Brandy’s?”
Levi was startled. No he hadn’t. Brandy’s was the little dive bar next door to Stumpy’s Gym where he worked.
“Well, would you put our ad up there? You're 21 right?”
“No, I won’t be till December.” Levi thought hard. It was a good idea, though. He wondered if he could find someone of age to get in the bar to do the honors for them both.
The young couple in three? Probably not. The bar was a bus ride away and Levi didn’t know them.
“Gimme your ad. I’ll see what I can do.”
The next day Levi was determined to ask one of the gym regulars if they’d put both the ads up. He wouldn’t have chosen a barfly for a roommate but at this point he’d take what he could get.
He got off the bus at the corner and put his head down against the blowing sleet. In order to get to the gym he had to pass right by the bar and as he did so the door to it opened abruptly. The man who exited and Levi collided. A fluttering of paper sheets fell onto the wet sidewalk and both Levi and the man hurried to retrieve them.
“Oh, god, I’m so sorry!” the man said.
“No it was my fault!” Levi insisted.
“I’m so stupid,” the man wailed.
The last of the sheets picked up, Levi took a second to look at the man. He wasn’t tall—maybe 5’7”-- but was incredibly attractive. Slender and pale-skinned, he had long delicate white fingers and a beautiful face framed by silky black hair. Levi was dumbstruck. Wow.
“You’re not stupid; don’t say that. It was just an accident.”
The man sniffled and smiled. He had a gorgeous smile. He stuck out one slim hand. “Chrollo Lucilfer, and I’m not normally this clumsy.”
Levi, who had a thing about cleanliness and touching people, hesitated.
Chrollo’s face fell.
Levi held up both hands. “Oh, it’s not you! I just have anxiety about … about … fuck.” He gestured helplessly.
Chrollo’s smile was restored and Levi smiled back. “Levi Ackerman, by the way. I work right here at the old gym. Wanna come in and defrost? We’ve been standing out in this shitty weather.”
“I’d like that.”
Levi got them both cokes out of the ancient machine that dispensed glass bottles and they sat at ringside where Chrollo stared, fascinated, at two leggy young women sparring.
“Yeah, it’s quite a treat for the eyes around here,” Levi said wryly.
Chrollo waved a hand. “Oh, I’m not interested in that, I’m gay.”
Levi choked on his coke.
He recovered with a little back-thumping from Chrollo.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” Chrollo said, smiling with his head cocked like a beautiful bird.
“No, it’s okay! I’m bi.”
Chrollo’s black eyes glittered and Levi blushed.
“So what were you doing in Brandy’s at midday during the week, if i may ask?” Levi said.
Chrollo smiled his pretty smile and swelled visibly. “I got a job there! You're looking at an employed man!”
Levi laughed.
“You’re gonna tend bar? No offense but you don’t strike me as the bouncer type.”
Chrollo, who probably weighed 130lbs wringing wet—less than Levi—chuckled. “No! Mr Biern is putting in a piano. He’s trying to shine up his reputation and maybe get more customers. I play. I’m a music major.”
Levi, who boxed as an amateur in the paid fights at the gym on Fridays and Saturdays, thought of all the ner-do-wells and scalliwags who watched and betted heavily on the fights. They brought their own alcohol, drank it at the gym, and then stumbled next door to the bar to finish up the night. He couldn’t imagine them appreciating the elegant Chrollo.
Still, scoring a job in the small college town was a win.
“Well, I’ve got to go,” Chrollo said. Levi, who had been enjoying talking to (and looking at) him looked disappointed.
“Say, would you do something for me before you go?”
Levi handed over the two sheets of paper, one with his own ad and the other with Phinks’s and Reiners’s info. “Can you please put these up on the board in the bar?”
“Of course!”
Inside the bar, the elegant pianist dropped Reiner and Phinks' advert in the trash and put up Levi’s. He smiled his gorgeous smile and slipped out the door.
Levi saw Chrollo occasionally entering or exiting the bar. Sometimes he’d hear the gorgeous music he played when the door opened. Chrollo seemed to be earning his keep: more people frequented the bar, mostly young women who appreciated the piano playing and who obviously liked looking at and talking to the exquisite piano player.
Levi ruefully saw the flood of women and shook his head at his own inadequacies. Not too many women would be attracted to a short, angry man in sweats with busted knuckles.
His luck changed when he got paid and decided to splurge on a small pack of chicken thighs. He was standing in line at Millerson’s—the only grocery store in town—when he caught sight of a meat department employee who startled him. It was a very small man wielding a very large cleaver.
Levi, who could see his muscles flexing under a thin white t-shirt, recognized him. He had almost gotten his ass handed to him by this same man in a sparring match at the gym despite Levi being a light welterweight and the other guy a featherweight. For a second Levi zoned out, remembering how good the little man had looked in just his boxing shorts.
The man looked startlingly like Levi, short, pale skin, straight black hair. But the butcher’s eyes were a dark grey like the sky before a storm and Levi’s a silvery grey like mercury. They regarded each other, warily, like two cats.
“Why you stare, baka?”
Levi blinked. The man was clearly Asian and spoke in broken English. Levi, who was half Japanese himself, knew very well what ‘baka’ meant.
“Why are you so rude, asshole?” Levi snapped
The man did something disarming then; he giggled. It was a high, sweet sound like a kid would make and it made Levi’s animosity drain away.
“You mad,” the guy said happily.
“Well, you were being an ass.”
“I got nice ass. You want some meat or no?” The way he said it was laced with innuendo.
Fuck, was this guy coming on to him? The fact that he did have a nice ass didn’t help.
Levi pushed his hair out of his eyes—crap he needed a haircut—and looked over the display as if trying to decide. “Can I get four chicken thighs?”
The man stepped up to the display case and retrieved two whole chickens, quickly wielding the wicked cleaver to separate the thighs.
Levi looked down into the display case. There were already prepared thighs right there. Why was he cutting up fresh chickens?
Weird.
“What you name?”
“Uh … Levi, Levi Ackerman.”
“Bone or no bone, Levi?”
A little lascivious smile crossed his lips.
He was flirting with him!
Levi was struggling to come up with a witty reply when the man spoke again. He gestured to his chest with the sharp side of the cleaver, an unnerving thing to do. “I, Feitan Portor.”
“Uhm, bone in, please, Feitan.” Levi cringed as Feitan grinned down at the chicken. He drew himself up. This little brat wasn’t going to cow him.
“I’ve fought you before. How long have you been boxing?”
Feitan shrugged. “Been fighting my whole life.”
Levi, who had grown up on the streets, could empathize.
“You good boxer.” Feitan said to the chicken thighs.
It was Levi’s turn to shrug. “I got into the university on a boxing scholarship.”
Feitan’s head jerked up. “You go to university?”
Levi nodded.
“Me too!”
He seemed inordinately excited, like a little kid, and Levi had to smile.
“I not know very many people,” Feitan explained quietly.
It was Feitan’s time to clock out, so he took off his bloody apron and gloves, washed his hands, and joined Levi as he walked to the check-out. Once there Levi suddenly noticed that Feitan had given him four leg quarters (thigh and legs together) not four thighs. That explained the whole chickens being cut up. Levi was just wondering if perhaps Feitan, with his broken English had misunderstood, but when he went to check out, the leg quarters scanned as thighs. He eyeballed Feitan who smiled serenely.
They decided by unspoken agreement to walk together down the sidewalk. Levi was heading for home and Feitan, oddly, had a full dufflebag with him.
“What’s in the bag? You stealing rotisserie chickens?”
Feitan snorted. “My stuff.”
Levi slowed then stopped. “Wait … all your stuff? Where do you stay? Where do you sleep?”
Feitan chewed on a thumb nail. “Crosstown bus.”
“What?!”
Feitan suddenly hitched his bag higher up on his shoulder.
“Got to go. Got a lot of walking.”
Levi frowned. This would be the second time that day that a gorgeous man had bailed on him and this one was homeless.
“Walking? Why?”
“Gotta answer ads. Look for place to stay.”
Levi’s chin shot up. “What? An apartment? How much can you afford to pay?”
Feitan shrugged his small, broad shoulders. “I make do.”
“I’ve got an apartment. Three empty beds, but it’s $500 a month plus deposit ...”
Feitan cocked his head to one side, very much like Chrollo had, and appeared to think.
“Show me?”
They arrived at the bus stop and waited patiently. Levi finally couldn’t stand it and gestured at his shopping bag. “You didn’t have to do that, you know. You could get fired if they found out you fudged the weight.”
“I like you. You nice to me. Wanted to do something.”
Levi, who was as poor as a churchmouse, was grateful. Every little bit helped. Maybe Feitan would take the room and they could cook the chicken together.
“You gay?” Feitan suddenly asked.
“Bisexual.”
“Oh. Me too.”
They waited in silence a bit more.
“You top.” Feitan said.
It wasn’t a question.
Levi, who most certainly topped, said, “maybe. What about you?”
“I vers.”
“You’re versatile? You switch?”
Feitan rolled his dark eyes. “That what it mean, baka.”
Levi’s mouth snapped shut and he scowled. “Brat!”
Suddenly and incongruously, Feitan smiled a small devilish smile. Levi was smitten and the bus was coming around the corner.
Feitan inspected the apartment very carefully for a man who had been sleeping on the crosstown bus. He looked in both bedrooms and in the old fashioned bathroom.
“No kitchen?”
“The original kitchen is in the basement. We’re free to use it. I have a slow cooker, a hot plate, my rice cooker of course, and an electric kettle, as you can see.”
Feitan looked the motley collection of appliances over and Levi cringed at how old some of them were.
“You want money now? I have to go to bank …”
“You’re taking it?! That’s great! No, tomorrow is just fine.” Levi moved to the empty bedroom. “You can pick whichever bed you want. I can lend you some sheets and—”
“Why not your room?”
Levi fumbled, “Well, I just thought you could choose …”
“Don’t care. Gonna be sharing anyway. You snore?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Jerk off real loud?”
Levi blushed. “No!”
“Then whatever.” He bent and picked up his duffle bag and slung it over his shoulder. He looked expectantly at Levi.
It seemed like Levi had, not just a flat mate, but a roommate.