Welcome to the Little Titan Caf '!

Today's special: Peppermint Mocha Latte

While most stores were already playing Christmas music, a certain coffee shop wasn 't. Typically it wasn 't an issue when a majority of their customers were college or high school students. But every now and then there was an occasional customer who couldn 't help but point out the choice of music (not that there was anything bad about it. They tried to keep the music light, from Michael Bubl ' to Of Monsters and Men, with The Mowgli 's mixed in, among others). Any other time of the year there was never any complaints, but the closer they got to the holidays, well '

'Have a good night, Mr. Pixis, ' Eren set the older man 's drink on the counter, waving him off. He returned to the register just as an elderly woman approached. She was squinting, brows furrowed and lips twitching as if in distaste. Eren liked to think that, after he became old enough to work for his mom, he was a pro at reading customers the moment he saw them. And he knew from the moment she squinted her beady eyes that she was going to be bat-shit crazy. 'Welcome to the Little Titan Caf '. What can I get you? '

She frowned at him, her gaze critical. 'What you can get me is some holiday spirit. '

'E-excuse me? '

'If this is one of those anti-Christ establishments, I refuse to give you my business! '

'I don 't understand, ' and Eren truly didn 't. He had just gotten back from break before their regular, Mr. Pixis came in, took his order then made it, sent him on his way and now some elderly woman was going on about holiday spirit. 'We 're not anti-Christ, ma 'am, or anti-religion. '

'Then where is your holiday spirit? ' she demanded. 'Why are you not playing Christmas music? '

That was when it finally clicked what the old bat was getting angry over. 'That 's got nothing to do with me. The owner picks out the songs. ' Well, that was only half true. Eren often had influence over what songs his mother put together mostly because she didn 't understand how to make a mix, buy or download (free) music online, burn them onto a CD or copy them into a flash drive 'basically anything technology-related. 'Now, what would you like ' '

'I 'm sure you 'll start attracting more customers once you start playing Christmas music, ' she rattled on. Eren sighed, glancing around the shop, because it was fifteen minutes after ten on a Friday night and the place was decently packed.

'This is just my personal opinion, ' Eren gestured at said decently packed shop, 'but I don 't think we need Christmas music to attract more customers. Are you going to order something or not? '

'But there should be Christmas music

everywhere

, ' she insisted passionately.

Eren 's patience was a fickle thing. It lasted only so long ' thirty seconds, give or take a second ' before impatience reared its ugly head. 'Look, lady, I ain 't dissing your love for Christmas music but do you know what it 's like to

listen to it for hours on end

? Actually, don 't answer that. But let me tell you it 's a nightmare, okay? I would rather listen to some preppy, pop shit all day then be forced to endure endless hours of 'we wish you a Merry Christmas. ' And we haven 't even had Thanksgiving yet! Halloween just ended like, a week ago! Give it some time!

Now

, ' Eren paused to catch his breath, 'you either order or you get out. '

A splotch of red stained the old bat 's face, a splotch that grew brighter and brighter in a matter of seconds. Eren counted off with his fingers:

3 '2 '1

before the customer found her voice. At this point, Eren tuned her out. It was always the same spiel with people like her: where 's your manager? I 'll have you fired. Rude. Terrible customer service. You didn 't even

smile

when greeting me. You 're supposed to smile at your customers. Children these days. And that attitude! Oh how ashamed your mother would be (not that Eren could deny it).

'It 's not hard to smile, you know, ' she continued, her voice finally breaking through Eren 's indifference. 'You let go of all that teenage angst and it 'll come naturally. '

'I haven 't been a teenager since I turned twenty. And that was like, a year and a half ago, okay? '

'Oh, ' her tone took on a different meaning that Eren didn 't like. It was sympathetic and pitying. 'I see. You 're working here because you couldn 't get into a good college. I understand why you are the way you are. '

God-

fucking

-damn it was there no end to this woman? 'No, you got it all ' '

'I 'll just take a small black coffee, ' she fished her wallet out of her purse and pulled out a couple of bills. She slipped some of them into the tip jar, 'and here 's a little something for you, dear. I pray the holiday spirit touches you this year. '

'No, I ' ' Eren let out a frustrated breath, sagged his shoulders in defeat and punched her total into the register, 'That 'll be one-fifty. '

'What was that about? ' a voice asked when she left with her 'small ' black coffee, coffee that he figured to be as black as her heart.

Eren turned to his coworker, a half-eaten melonpan* in her hand. Sasha Braus was a strange thing, from her never ending appetite to her almost manic personality when it came to food. 'Oh nothing. Just another crazy customer. '

She nodded, taking a bite from her bread. Bread that Eren 's eyes narrowed at.

'Did you take that from the shop? '

'Um ' ' She stuffed more bread into her mouth to muffle her answer.

Without another word, Eren walked over to the closet, pulled out a mop and bucket, walked back to Sasha and held both items out. She gulped down her bite, whining pitifully, 'Aw, do I

have

to? '

'To compensate for the free food you 're always sneaking, yes. '

She stuffed the rest of the bread into her mouth before taking the mop and bucket reluctantly. Eren crossed his arms and didn 't look away until she had sulked all the way to the bathroom. When she was gone, he relaxed his posture and dug into the pocket of his jeans to pull out his cell phone. At least he could trust Sasha to screw up so he could use that as an excuse to make her clean the bathroom, something Eren had been putting off for a couple of days now. Not because he was

lazy

or anything, it 's just that typically after he had his break, he was left alone to close the store, so there weren 't opportunities for him to leave the register unattended.

Okay, okay, mostly he was just lazy and refused to be a good worker drone.

' 'at. '

Eren stiffened, realizing someone was trying to get his attention.

'Oi,

brat

. '

Now what?

He hastily stuffed his phone into his pocket and turned around to face the customer. 'Welcome to ' ' a smile lit Eren 's face, 'Oh, it 's you. '

'

Tch

. You and your shitty customer service, ' Levi clicked his tongue as he set his messenger bag on to the bar table. It was always refreshing seeing him, Eren thought, because there was something inexplicably delightful about his presence. Maybe it was the way he was always dressed nice, or simply the fact that he talked to Eren every night that he came, but any other reason flew out of Eren 's head as Levi tugged leather gloves from his hands, one finger at a time. All thoughts came to a crashing halt as long, slender fingers were exposed. It wasn 't as if it was the first time Eren saw those hands. He saw them the past couple of times gliding over Levi 's laptop, tracing lines on paper, grasping his drinks in the way that Eren found adorably awkward.

It had never occurred to him that Levi could be married. That thought crossed his mind for a fleeting moment right then and there, but once the left glove was off, his worries went away. But that didn 't change the fact that ' just as he was aware of Levi 's arms, of his eyes, his glares, his shoulders and neck ' he was now painfully aware of those hands. Such lovely, lovely hands and fingers and Eren wondered how those palms would feel. Would they be rough? Coarse? Soft? Warm or cold?

'Are you even listening? '

'Huh? '

'Sometimes I wonder if there is anything in that head of yours, ' Levi said, leather gloves in the pocket of his overcoat. He shrugged his jacket off and hung it over the barstool next to him. 'I was saying if you had any recommendations. '

'Recommendations '? ' Eren furrowed his brows, still trying to collect his scattered thoughts because it wasn 't fair how aware he was of the man.

'For a drink. You know. Because this is a coffee shop. And you work here. '

'Oh, right. Yeah, coffee. I can do coffee. Um. ' Eren turned his back to Levi so he could look at the menu board. He knew the menu by heart it was just that his own heart couldn 't seem to calm the hell down. 'How about a peppermint mocha latte? '

'Do I look like I would drink a peppermint mocha latte? '

Eren smiled to himself. If he turned around he was sure he 'd see a deadpan look on Levi 's face. 'No. But it 's good, I promise. Maybe a little holiday spirit will turn that frown of yours upside down. ' Oh the irony. That old bat got to him.

He heard Levi sigh. 'Fine. Just don 't make it look festive or anything. '

A couple of minutes later a positively festive peppermint mocha latte in a short cup was set in front of Levi, topped with whipped cream and garnished with crushed candy cane. Eren grinned, all teeth and mischief. 'One festive peppermint mocha latte for Mr. Grinch. '

Yeah, maybe he could get into this holiday spirit thing.

Levi 's brow twitched. Eren wanted to tell him maybe he should get that checked out because his eyebrow seemed to be doing that twitching-thing a lot. 'You little shit. '

'That 'll be three-twenty-five! '

'I didn 't want this! '

Eren

definitely

could get into this holiday spirit thing if it meant pissing Levi off.