Chapter Text
When it came to academics, Eren Yeager was spectacularly average. Throughout his highs school career he had always done just fine but he had never truly excelled. The same could be said for anything he did; the outcome of every action he took was average. However, his determination to do well enough to comfortably get into a decent college had put him in the top quarter of his class; an achievement that came as a shock to many. His childhood best friend, Armin Arlert, sat at the top of the class as the Valedictorian their senior year. Eren's adopted sister, Mikasa Ackerman, had been the school’s star basketball player as soon as she joined the team their freshman year. While Eren didn’t have any extraordinary feats under his belt, he held an enthusiasm for every task he put his mind to that was rather admirable.
Their high school experience had mostly been spent in a clashing school rivalry against the students of Titan High School; both schools were pretty evenly matched as far as athletic ability among the sports teams and average intelligence of the students, but Titan High was set in a very wealthy district and they had the upper hand when it came to finances. The two schools were at a constant war, it seemed. Neither school ever really came out on top, as far as Eren could tell. Besides, none of that trivial bullshit mattered now. He was no longer a high school student; he was a freshman in college, now.
His first day of classes was two days from now. He only had two days left to prepare himself for the next stage of his life. Of course, he wouldn’t experience this alone. Although Mikasa could have easily gotten into any college she wanted to on a full-ride scholarship from the athletics department at Maria High, she had insisted upon lowering her standards to attend the completely average Trost University with Eren. Eren had argued with her over it countless times, had screamed at her that he would be fine without her and that he could manage his life on his own without her constantly at his side. Mikasa argued that if Eren went to one of the more prestigious colleges, she would gladly follow suit.
Eren had been planning on being a student of Trost University ever since he had been a kid whose college experience was still a lifetime away. The University had a fair reputation as a solid, reliable school. It wasn’t overly difficult to be accepted into, but the graduation rate of students who attended T.U. was high. Realistically, T.U. was the perfect college for Eren. He was still pissed off about Mikasa’s overprotective tendencies that were chaining her down with him, but he supposed it was only natural. Their dad (Eren’s biological dad and Mikasa’s adoptive dad) was rarely around; or if he was, he had always locked himself away into his office. Neither Eren nor Mikasa were allowed to set foot in his study and they really didn’t think they wanted to, anyways. Because Eren’s mother had passed away when him and Mikasa were only children, they had grown up to be extremely close and were always looking out for each other. However, Mikasa wasn’t in need of somebody to protect her; in most cases, she had to help Eren out of whatever tight situation he had gotten himself into. Those situations happened a lot, that didn’t improve with age.
Armin, however, would be attending Shina Private College; his intelligence level was matched by almost nobody else his age. S.P.C. was one of the top schools in the whole country and was extremely difficult to be accepted into. Armin was accepted without hesitation on the faculty’s part. For awhile, Armin had also considered going to T.U. in the fall. Both Eren and Mikasa had aggressively denied that idea; there was no way they were going to let him attend a school that wasn’t top-knotch. After a rather bittersweet departing, Armin had left on a train for the long ride up to S.P.C. about a week ago. Every single one of them had shed a few tears; this would be the first time they were ever really separated for more than a couple days’ time. Armin had promised that he would Skype with him whenever possible, but who knew exactly how often that would be; his schedule was guaranteed to be rigorous and they doubted he would have much free time to play with.
Eren and Mikasa had been saving up their money from their part time jobs so that they could get an apartment when the time came. And sure enough, that day was spent unloading and unpacking boxes into a small two-bedroom apartment near campus. They didn’t have much to fill the apartment with, but that was probably for the better. The two bedrooms were a fair size but everything else was about as tiny as anyone could get away with having. But the apartment was cheap and it was all two college freshman could really need. Both of them were exhausted by the time the sun sank below the horizon, and they tiredly sprawled out on their old couch, surrounded by half-empty boxes.
-x-
Eren and Mikasa had mutually agreed to spend the next day leisurely; this was their last day of freedom before truly starting their college lives. Side by side on the couch they sat and stared at the tv they had brought with them; it was a fairly decent one that had been in Eren’s room back at home. If anything, it was better than what most college kids got for a television. They spent the day in a comfortable silence as they mindlessly stared at the screen in front of them.
Eren found himself reflecting on his high school experiences with this time. To his surprise, the first thing that came to mind was a teacher he had had during freshman year. That teacher had by far been the most unique teacher he had ever had. The most notable quirk that teacher had was that he had refused to tell any of the students his last name; he simply had them add the suffix of “Mr.” to his first name; Levi. Eren wondered why a teacher would do that; it simply made no sense. The next most notable aspect of Mr. Levi was his height; almost everyone in the whole damn school was taller than this man. Naturally, he had coldly refused to tell the students his height but according to speculation, he was about 5’3”; shorter than even most freshman girls. At the beginning of the year, all of the students made as many jokes as was humanly possible about his height; this came to an abrupt halt by the looks he gave the students. Eren finally truly understood the phrase “if looks could kill”. The way his eyes narrowed along with his eyebrows and the way his jaw set was somehow terrifying. Mr. Levi had already possessed a serious face; he just had one of those faces where no matter what, he looked about ready to kill somebody. Eren had been curious as to what could make his face like that; nobody’s face naturally looked quite that irritated. Hell, Eren wondered why this guy had ever chosen to be a teacher in the first place.
He had been a physics teacher, and his course was difficult. Everyone who had him for a teacher bitched and moaned about the work load he gave to them; Eren was probably the least affected by it. Why shouldn’t they have to actually do work for a class? That class was certainly an interesting one; if only for the whiny girls who actually had attempted to sass Mr. Levi. Another fine example of a look that could possibly take the life of somebody else. He would tell them to get out of his class and with an eye-roll and sigh, they would leave. They weren’t too fond of the detentions they were forced to serve; Levi believed in punishment, and that was all there was to it.
Eren had always held some small shred of admiration for Mr. Levi; if Eren had been a teacher, he probably would have slapped one of the students or sworn profusely at them if they had regarded him in the way they regarded Levi. Or both. But Levi had never done that; his expression may have gone darker than usual but he never lost his composure with the students. He also seemed to be extremely intelligent and his approach to physics was logical and much more understandable than the way most teachers attempted to teach it.
Levi also didn’t play favorites, which was certainly a change of pace from the other teachers. Levi didn’t have a student who he let get away without doing their homework or who he would allow to do some easy bullshit task for extra credit. If anything, Levi was stand-offish and rather unapproachable; most of the typical kiss-ass students were too intimidated by him to attempt to develop any sort of bond with him. Levi had always been quite the mystery to Eren, and he would have loved to have known more about him. That year of physics had gone by within the blink of an eye, and Eren had waited out the summer expecting Levi to be his teacher for his next science course, since for most subjects one teacher pretty much taught all of the different classes.
But when Eren had returned to Maria High as a sophomore, Mr. Levi was nowhere to be found. Eren walked into his new science classroom in a state of disappointment as he laid eyes on the old woman in front of him who was definitely not the person he had been hoping for. He listened in on some of the students around them; he overheard a group of girls talking about how great it was that they wouldn’t have to deal with Mr. Levi ever again.
Sophomore year of science class had passed a lot more slowly than freshman year science class had.
“Eren?” At the sound of Mikasa’s voice, Eren snapped out of his state of daydreaming.
“Yeah?”
“Are you hungry for dinner yet?”
“…Yeah.”
-x-
Eren had intended to wake up to the shrill ring of his alarm clock going off, but he had instead woken up to the blinds in his room being opened and Mikasa telling him that it was time to get up; they should be early on their first day. Eren groaned and looked at the clock on his nightstand; Mikasa had woken him about twenty minutes before his alarm would have gone off. What a waste of twenty minutes, Eren thought.
“I already prepared breakfast, because knowing you; you probably weren’t even going to eat.”
Well, Mikasa wasn’t wrong. His only concern today was making it through his first set of college classes in one piece.
“Alright, thanks, now can you get out so I can get ready?” Eren muttered, casting his blanket aside and shifting himself so that his legs were hanging off the edge of his bed. He lazily pushed himself off the bed and opened the door to the small closet in his room to find something to wear. He settled on his most well-worn, favorite pair of dark jeans and the first t-shirt he could pull from the pile; a plain light-brown long sleeve shirt. After he ate the breakfast Mikasa had made (eggs, toast, and even bacon) he went into the bathroom to comb his hair and brush his teeth.
Today was the first day of the rest of his life.
He had no clue what exactly he wanted to major in at this point; he was just taking his basic courses for now, as was Mikasa. So really, nothing too exciting. A literature course, a biology course, and an entry-level algebra were among the list of classes he was signed up for. He shared his first class with Mikasa; Biology at 9:30 A.M. He wasn’t even sure how to get to the building the class was held in from here; he would have to rely on Mikasa for that. Of course, it would probably screw him over later when he had his other classes separate from Mikasa, but he would deal with that when it got there.
Once he returned to the tiny kitchen, he pulled on his sneakers that were thrown carelessly onto the floor beside the front door. Mikasa was already all set to go; she was wearing a light-wash pair of jeans with a simple black top with her favorite red scarf.
“Ready?”
“Yeah, let’s go.” Eren responded and opened their door, holding it for Mikasa and then shutting it behind them. They quickly went down the flight of stairs (They were on the second floor of the three-floor building) and were met with the soft warmth of the sun that was just beginning to warm up. The air was crisp and not a single cloud was settled in the sky. The passed by the parking and got onto the side walk; the time it would take to walk to campus was short enough to where driving would have been a waste. Plus, less money they’d have to spend on gas.
The pair chatted the whole way to T.U., and within a few minutes they found themselves entering the iron gates that had Trost University imprinted in intricate writing at the top.
“You know where Bio is, right?” Eren asked, although he already knew the answer.
“Of course. This way.” Eren followed Mikasa and they found the building with ease. The hallway they stepped into was cool, and Eren wondered if they only had head in the individual classrooms; either that, or the staff preferred sitting in an ice box. A set of wooden double doors let them into the lecture hall that their class was set in. Much to Eren’s content, the lecture hall was noticeably warmer than the hallway had been. They descended the steps and chose seating right in the middle; not too high or too low. Eren took out his fairly-new laptop (Their dad had bought them new ones recently knowing that they would soon be entering college) and waited for it to boot up. There were still a few moments before classes started. Eren scanned the room, taking in the sight of all of the people in the room. A girl with freckles and dark brown hair as seated next to a petit blonde a couple rows above Eren. Eren looked to the side to find a girl with brown hair thrown into a ponytail eating a granola bar; apparently she had run out of time to eat breakfast.
Eren finally focused his eyes down to the center of the room, where the teacher was standing. Eren couldn’t tell if it was the distance between him and the Professor’s area, but the man in a black suit seemed rather short. He had his back facing the students as he set up his laptop and projector, and all Eren could tell was that the man had short black hair that seemed to be an undercut, but Eren couldn’t tell all too well.
The man seemed vaguely familiar, but Eren shook the feeling off; there was no way he’d have met one of the T.U. professors before, and if he had, they certainly hadn’t looked like this man. Eren glanced at the clock on his laptop; it was time for class to start.
Right as he thought that, a bell chimed and everyone abruptly stopped talking; their Professor had turned to them in order to introduce himself and introduce the class.
Eren’s eyes widened in surprise when the Professor turned around.
No way. It wasn’t possible. The chances of that were way too low.
Eren inhaled sharply and got a worried look from Mikasa once the Professor spoke.
“Welcome to College-Level Biology One. I’m your Professor for this course; you may address me by Professor Levi.”