Caffeine Addiction

Eren wasn't sure when his addiction to coffee began. It could have been in the fifth grade, when his mother had let him have a sip of her decaf dark roast after dinner. It might have been in middle school, when he and his friends had nothing better to do after class and decided to try out the new coffee place down the street. It was probably in high school, when his final exams were the week directly after the one that he'd spent doing nothing but playing video games and taking naps. Well, whenever it started, all he knew was that, as a sophomore in college with a part-time job and a roommate that never knew when to shut up, if he didn't get his caffeine fix at least once a day, he was not liable for his actions.

Even though Eren was terribly desperate for his cup of joe every twenty-four hours (sometimes less), he also had a very picky palate. He tried many of the local coffee shoppes that were frequented by the students on his college campus, only to find out that none of them had the exact brew of bean that he was looking for. Eren liked his coffee dark, but he also wanted it to be rich. It needed it to have a shot of expresso and three tablespoons of heavy cream or else he wasn't going to drink it.

And sadly, the only coffee house that seemed to get his order absolutely correct with fifteen gold stars was the place where he worked.

At first, Eren didn't even know his name. Whenever he talked about him to his friends - Armin and Connie - he would always refer to him as "that one guy with the stick up his - yeah, him."

If Eren wasn't horrified of what his withdrawal symptoms would be like if he were to stop consuming caffeine, having to order his cup of coffee from Mr. "I Hate My Life" every day would have been his motive to quit.

Oh yeah, his name was Levi.

It wasn't until recently that Eren had even bothered to learn it; it wasn't like Levi had ever bothered in learning his. In fact, Eren was almost convinced that Levi purposely spelled his name wrong on his to-go cups just to get on his nerves. Well, mission accomplished, because it totally worked.

"What do you want?"

It was always the same, every time Eren was ready to place his order. All of the other customers were granted a half-hearted "welcome" or something else along the lines of "do you need a minute?" But not Eren. Levi gave him a special sort of treatment, the kind that no one would want to be on the receiving end of.

If only the way that he made his coffee wasn't like drinking a cup of Heaven, Eren would have stopped going to that place weeks ago.

"The usual," Eren sighed, already fumbling around for his debit card. He was pretty sure that he still had enough money in his bank account, so he didn't feel like messing with cash.

"What's the name?" Levi wasn't even looking at him.

"Eren."

He gave a quick nod. "Wait over there."

As Eren strolled over to the small counter where customers were given their drinks, he was starting to feel antsy. He couldn't even remember the last time he had drank any coffee, and after having to deal with all of the annoyances he'd put up with at his job that day, he was more than ready for his caffeine fill. After a few more minutes of waiting, Eren heard his name being called.

"That's me," he said, and approached the front of the counter. After grabbing his coffee cup and giving his drink a gentle blow, Eren took a small sip and allowed his senses to be overtaken by the wonderful taste of pure perfection. Just as he was about to tip his cup back for another sip, something scribbled on the styrofoam caught his eye.

"Hey, that's not how you spell my name," Eren addressed. He had spoken loud enough, and had managed to grasp Levi's attention.

"Is the coffee good?" Levi asked.

"Well, yeah...but-"

He interrupted him. "That's all that matters. Now, move out of the way so that other customers can get their drinks."

Eren blinked. At first, he was so stunned by Levi's blatantly rude attitude - which shouldn't have been a surprise anymore - that he couldn't move, but when the sting of his tone had settled in, he was more than compliant with his barista's order. In a huff, Eren stormed out of the coffee house. He clenched at his coffee cup that was marked incorrectly. "It's Eren," he grumbled to himself, "not Aaron."

And the next day, it was the very same thing.

Eren had just taken his quarter final for his Calculus class, and being more than a hundred percent certain that he'd totally failed the thing, he was more than a thousand percent ready for his coffee of the day. But what he wasn't ready for was...

"You're going to die, if you keep drinking this crap every day."

Eren rolled his eyes and slipped his debit card into Levi's hand. "You don't have to tell me that. Just get me my usual, alright?"

Swiping Eren's debit card into the card reader, Levi pressed a few buttons, clicked his tongue, and confirmed the payment. After handing Eren both his card and his receipt, Levi sighed and asked, "Name?"

'He seriously doesn't remember? I've literally been coming here every day since the beginning of the second quarter. He remembers my order, but not my name?' With a sigh of his own, Eren said, "Eren, but it's spelled E-R-E-N, not A-A-R-"

"Got it."

He wasn't even listening.

While Levi prepared his drink, Eren began to wander around the coffee house. Normally, he was in such a rush to get in and get out of the place that he didn't take the time to observe his surroundings. It was a pretty nice place in actuality, decorated with lots of earthy tones and natural decor, but its staff was less than stellar. Eren wouldn't dream of spending more than five minutes tops in there.

"Hey," Levi said, snapping his fingers to get Eren's attention. "Pick up your drink."

Oh, Eren wasn't going to argue with that. The only thing that was holding him back from all of his frustrations was that tiny to-go cup that was sitting on the counter for him. He was more than ready to consume its contents. However, when he approached the counter, rather than testing the temperature and taking a sip like he usually did, Eren flipped over his cup and looked at what Levi had written.

"You spelled it wrong again," Eren sighed. "I said E-R-E-N, not E-R-I-N. This is how girls spell it."

Levi rolled his eyes, as he began cleaning out one of the sugar containers. "Does it really matter?" he asked, sounding exasperated. He was annoyed? If only he could switch places with Eren for a minute. Then, he'd really see what it was like to be annoyed. "It's just your name. If the coffee tastes good, that's all you should care about."

"I don't care that my name is being spelled wrong," Eren shot back. He probably should have taken a swig from his coffee, before he said something that he was going to regret. "What bothers me is that you're doing this on purpose. I've been coming here for, like, over two months now. How is it possible that you still can't spell my name, even after I constantly tell you how it's spelled?"

Levi put the sugar container down, along with the towel he had been using to clean it, and folded his arms across his chest. "Look, I deal with hundreds of customers a day, and most of them are regulars, so you're nothing special. If I spell a name wrong here and there, it's no big deal. It's not like I'm doing it on purpose."

In the heat of the moment, Eren took his word for it. As someone who personally dealt with crappy customers day in and day out, he had to give him some credit. All Eren ever did was ring up people's purchases at a cash register; Levi had to do exactly that and had to actually make the item, too.

Letting the incident slide, Eren apologized for his behavior and left. If Levi said that he wasn't spelling his name wrong on purpose, then he wasn't spelling his name wrong on purpose.

He was definitely spelling his name wrong on purpose.

"What the Hell!" Eren shouted, bringing a ton of unwanted attention to himself.

Levi, who was trying to manage taking people's orders and creating their beverage masterpieces all at once, looked over at him with a scowl. "What's your problem? Why are you yelling like that?"

"Air in?" he read, baffled beyond all reason. "Did you seriously just spell my name as Air in?"

"What?" Levi asked, in the midst of shaking up someone's mocha macchiato. "That's your name, isn't it?"

There was no logical response that Eren could have given to that. Yes, "Air in" sounded exactly like how his name was pronounced, but it was the furtherest from correct spelling that Levi had ever conjured. Kudos to him; he'd just lost a customer because of it.

...For about a week.

Eren referred to that week as "the week that even Hell would call Hell". He'd had so many headaches and migraines that he'd lost track of counting them, and by the time the weekend came rolling around, his good friend Armin felt the need to say something.

"Eren," he said, keeping his voice low. He didn't want to irritate his aching head any more than he had to. "Let's go get some coffee. If I'm there with you, maybe it'll be a better experience."

At this point in his cycle of the withdrawal that he'd feared so much, Eren was up for just about anything. He felt like his head was about to give birth, and he wasn't ready to become a parent yet. It was that nonsensical thinking that had him and Armin entering the infamous coffee house and strolling up to the front counter.

Levi had actually been quite surprised to see Eren stumbling through the front doors. He was almost sure that when Eren had said, "I'm never coming back here again," that he was never going to come back. Truthfully, he was glad that he did. But, no matter how grateful he was, that didn't stop him from saying, "You look like crap."

Eren completely ignored that. "Armin, order what you want. This schmuck already knows what I get, and he should know my name by now, too." With that, he stomped over to the drink pick-up counter.

Armin felt a tad intimated by Levi's natural appearance and overall demeanor, but after ordering a sweet treat to go along with his caramel latte, he joined Eren over at pick-up.

Seeing as it was a Saturday, the wait was longer than normal. Levi had a lot of customers to tend to and drinks to make, so while Eren and Armin "patiently" stood in the pick-up line, they began to share the muffin that Armin had purchased to go along with his beverage. Ironically enough, by the time their drinks were ready, the muffin was completely gone.

"Have a nice day," Levi said, and although the words had been inviting, the tone that backed them up were entirely off-putting. Still, it was probably one of the nicest things that Eren's barista had ever said to him...but he was convinced that he was only saying it because Armin was there, too.

Awkwardly, Eren responded with, "Thanks, I guess?"

After he and Armin had exited the coffee house, they headed back towards the campus. While Eren tipped back his drink and savored each sip like it was his last, he noticed that Armin had started giving him a funny look. Confused, he asked, "What is it? Do I have muffin crumbs on my face, or something?"

Shaking his head and squinting his eyes, Armin began to look very focused as he tried to concentrate on something, but what? What was he looking at? "It's not that, Eren," he eventually said. "It's just, there's a lot of writing on your cup. Your hand is covering it, though, so I can't read what it says."

Wait, what?

Eren had been so disoriented from his lack of caffeine that he hadn't even bother to look at how Levi had spelled his name this time. In his haste to see just what the heck his friend was talking about, Eren flipped over his coffee cup and began reading what Levi had written. Suddenly, his eyes went wide in disbelief.

Eren

I'm not an idiot, I know how

your name is spelled. I just

wanted to flirt with you a

bit, that's all. I think you're

pretty cute. You should call

me sometime. My number is:

XXX - XXX - XXXX

Let's just say that Eren wasted no time in calling Levi that same night.

Hi there! Chappy here! :D

Listen up! This drabble was written and is specially dedicated to my very best friend Lauren, because today is her birthday! Ahh, happy birthday, hanny! (:

There probably isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank my lucky stars and my blessings, because wow, I'm so glad that I was able to meet you and become such good friends with you. I try to say this often, but I want you to know that you mean the world to me and I am always hoping (and always worrying) that you are well and are happy, healthy, and having the best day ever.

Even though I could on for hours, I'm going to cut this short and just say, one again, happy birthday, I love you, and I hope you enjoyed this short drabble because the idea of it came solely based from you and your addiction to coffee! :D

To everyone else, I hope you enjoyed as well, and thank you for taking the time to read!

- Chappy