Close of Play

"You're right, Rivaille. This is something else."

Irvin chewed thoughtfully on the chicken casserole. Hanji nodded contently, tapping her nails against the kitchen island counter next to her emptied plate.

"Told you so!" Hanji said, jabbing a fork at the air. "After that day when he brought food into work, Sasha hasn't been the same. The poor thing practically drools when Eren steps into the office." she laughed, turning her attention toward Rivaille. "Hey, Rivaille, what did you want to talk about? You alright?"

Rivaille reached into his coat pocket that was slung across the chair, pulling out a folded, worn out pamphlet. He pushed it across the counter towards the two, Hanji shoveling in another spoonful of her second helping.

"Trost Academy of Culinary Arts? Wow, the one that produces batches of Michelin chefs every year?" Rivaille nodded curtly, and she continued. "I've heard it's pretty prestigious - Oh, Rivaille, no."

She saw right through him. He blinked back blankly at her as she shook her head. "What would you do without him? He's the first assistant we've gotten that's stuck around and you're trying to send him off!"

Rivaille thrummed his fingers against the countertop, silent. As if this was an easy decision for him.

Hanji let out a deep sigh."If your decision is final, then there's nothing I can do, is there." it wasn't a question. Irvin cleared his throat.

"Have you talked to the boy about this?"

"If he knows what's good for him, he'll go."

Hanji shifted in the chair, glancing at him from over her glasses. "You're going to pay for it? It's two cities away, you're going to have to pay for a place for him to live, too-"

She cut herself off at Rivaille's flat look. "No, he's going to go on the non-existent money he has now." his voice was laced with sarcasm. "Of course I'm going to pay. For all of it. He's going to have to cut down on the groceries, though."

Irvin tapped his finger on his chin. "Can he enroll during the school year?"

"He starts next semester." Rivaille answered. Hanji fingered the worn and dog-eared corners of the pamphlet. Rivaille must have spent many sleepless nights thumbing through it.

"You sure have done a lot of investigating on his behalf, haven't you?"

Rivaille met her gaze for a few seconds, emotions carefully masked. She smirked, amusement gleaming behind the thick frames of her glasses.

"I knew it."

"You let your imagination get away from you. I'm not fond of seeing someone's dreams fall flat."

"But you are fond of leaving pretty red marks all over your assistant's neck." She snickered when he had nothing to say back to that. "Eren wouldn't explain when I asked him, but he doesn't need to. You've got the entire office gossiping about it, you know."

Rivaille scoffed. "Oh, is that what I'm paying them to do now?"

A smile snaked its way onto Irvin's normally stoic face as he spoke up. "Something tells me you don't mind, Rivaille."

"He always did like to write his name on what was his."

Opting to ignore their comments, Rivaille continued "He starts in December. He's got two and a half months left." he snagged the flyer back up from off the counter, folding it neatly and tucking it back into his jacket pocket.

Hanji sighed again and laid her head down on the counter. Rivaille rolled his eyes. "Trying as it may be Hanji, not a word of this gets to Eren. Clear?"

She nodded, and suddenly stiffened. All heads snapped to the corridor as a loud thump was heard.

Eren.

Two of the plastic grocery bags lay slack on the marbled tiles and one hung from his fingertips. Rivaille sucked in a silent breath.

"Eavesdropping, brat? And here I thought you were above that."

Eren's grip on the plastic handles tightened. "I was getting some groceries to surprise you. Didn't think you were planning your own surprise, Rivaille." He smiled wryly as his eyes flicked from the blank faces of Hanji and Irvin, then back to Rivaille. "Can we... discuss this in private?" he licked his dry lips, suddenly cold and clammy. "Now?"

With an anxious glance and a polite nod to Eren and Rivaille, Hanji and Irvin scurried out. Eren waited until he heard the door shut behind them before he bent to retrieve the fallen bags, depositing them none too gently on the counter. He slowly turned and leveled a questioning look at Rivaille.

Neither of them said anything for a few moments. Rivaille finally broke through the silence, his face unreadable and calm as always. "Well?"

"Well." Eren repeated, his eyes flashing dangerously. "Planning my life without me?"

"I was informing Hanji that you wouldn't be working at the office much longer." Rivaille answered back simply, straight-faced as always. Eren ground his teeth so hard he thought they would crumble. He could break bone with his bare fist, just like in his childhood fights, just like when he prepared a meal, but he could never shatter that damned façade of Rivaille's.

"I'm not going."

Rivaille raised an eyebrow at that. "You stupid, brat? You won't even have to pay a cent. What's the problem here?"

"That's a two-year college, right?" he shook his head. "I refuse your offer."

"No one said it was an offer." Rivaille crossed his arms over his chest. Eren stepped closer to him, trying to use his height to his advantage. Rivaille remained unintimidated. "You can refuse to go, but where would you live?"

Eren opened his mouth, shut it, and gaped again like some kind of fish. "You're…kicking me out? Over this?"

When Rivaille chose not to respond, Eren drew his brows together. "Fine! I'm..I'm going to live in my car until I save up enough money. You don't think I'll do it? I will. That's where I'd be without you anyway. I don't need your help. Or you."

That last part stung a bit.

"It'd be pretty hard to find another job, living in your car and all." despite his narrowed eyes and pursed lips, Rivaille's voice was level. Disbelief flickered through Eren's eyes.

"And on what grounds would you fire me on?" he snapped, getting more irritated by the second. The sweets for the surprise dinner soured in the acidic atmosphere. He could tell that his voice was raising by Rivaille's glances in the neighbors direction.

"Too loud, brat"

"Let them hear"

He scowled, switching the topic back. "Office relations are strictly prohibited, Jaeger." Rivaille snapped.

Eren seemed a loss for words at that, the unsaid disbelief written all over his face. He shook his head.

"Unbelievable." he whispered, clenching his hands into fists at his side as he looked down at the ground. Jerking his head back up to meet Rivaille's intense gray, he repeated himself again. "Unbelievable. You're such a fucking prick, Rivaille!" he was shaking now. "Oh, I mean, sir."

He bit out the last part angrily, hoping it hurt every bit as he meant it to. At the face Rivaille made, it did. Eren smiled inwardly, a twisted sense of achievement at having somehow squeezed a drop of emotion out of him.

"Why are you so adamant to not do something that will only benefit you?" Rivaille snapped, letting the anger show through this time. "I'm trying to help you. You said you wanted this"

"Yeah, when I was 13!" Eren slammed his hand on the counter top. "What I want now is-" he cut himself off, taking in a shaky breath.

"... Not relevant." He concluded. "Completely, totally, utterly irrelevant now." he shook his head, backing away and pulling his tie off to toss it on the counter. "God, I'm a real idiot. If you're going to fire me, I quit. Nice knowing you, Rivaille."

And as he turned and walked away, Rivaille held back the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

x

The space in the back of his car was awfully cramped.

He also hoped he didn't get pulled over or questioned for being parked in an abandoned parking lot at 1AM, still in a suit and his dress slacks from work. He wasn't even sure how that conversation would go -"Yes, officer, I am homeless. And jobless, and broke. No, I am not high, my eyes are red from crying, I just got dumped. Please disregard my outfit."

The thought almost made him laugh bitterly. That was kind of pathetic, mocking himself as he slept in the back of his car in a department store parking lot with absolutely nothing because he had lived in someone else's house for the past 3 weeks.

He shifted uncomfortably in the scratchy upholstery of the backseat, curled up into himself. This is it Jaeger. Rock bottom. You moved in with your boss and fell in love with him, and somehow deluded yourself into thinking he felt anything for you.

You were greedy, Eren chided himself. If you had been satisfied with anything you wouldn't be out here in the first place. Affection wasn't enough, was it? You wanted your feelings to be reciprocated.

But that was stupid, because he was the employee and Rivaille was the employer and everything he had done had been out of the kindness of his own heart, and lust at the most. Eren wasn't one to be pity-fucked, literally or mentally.

He closed his eyes and tried to think of other things. He could probably stay here until Armin or Mikasa were back at their dorms, unless the police found him. His car needed gas from riding around all day, and he had just enough for a quarter of a tank. If he dropped it a little below that maybe he could afford to grab some poptarts at the gas-station in the morning, too.

With a grunt he sat up and stuck the key in the ignition, turning it enough to start the battery up and play some music. It would click off eventually, and hopefully by that time he'd be asleep.

Of course, some awful pop station was playing. He was too lazy to sit back up and lean forward to seek out a different station, though, so the Top 40 hits it was.

"We could have had it all~"

"Fuck this" The radio wasn't going to help either. He snatched his keys back, pocketing them and leaned his head against the window. He was going to have heavy circles for days under his eyes at this rate. Wouldn't that be fun to explain to Armin and Mikasa?

He closed his eyes and yawned. He was going to have to explain the situation to them anyway, should he start at the beginning? Somehow he doubted Mikasa would have a very good reaction to him sleeping with his boss-

A knock from the window across from him broke him from his reverie, but he didn't move a muscle. Crap. The police had found him already? Maybe if he pretended to be asleep they'd leave.

When Eren didn't respond, the banging increased. Shit. Maybe if he pretended he was dead they'd leave him alone.

Suddenly there was shuffling all round the car. The person was futilely trying all the doors to the car, and resumed banging when he found them all locked. Eren swallowed thickly. Was it someone trying to break in? Part of him hoped so, he could use a good fight at the moment - he could kick someone's ass into infinity and teach them a lesson about messing with him.

He slowly opened one eye, only to see Rivaille glaring at him from the other side.

That was an unexpected development.

"Open up, you brat, I can see you're awake." the voice though muffled through the door, rang loud and clear to Eren. He opened his eyes and scowled.

"What do you want?"

Silence, and Eren shut his eyes and hoped maybe he'd go away if he ignored him long enough.

5 seconds passed.

5 minutes passed.

His watched buzzed at midnight and Eren could feel Rivaille's gaze boring into him through the window. He could just tell he hadn't moved an inch. Exhaling sharply, he raised back up again to give Rivaille a tired glare.

"Are you gonna stand there all night?" No response again. Eren groaned and reached over, flipping the unlock button on the door. "Fine-"

Rivaille flung the door open faster than he had ever seen the other man move before, lunging toward Eren to grab him by the shirt collar. He smacked Eren on the back of his head, hard, hard enough to make the younger jerk backward and out of Rivaille grasp.

"What the hell!?" he seethed, reaching back to rub the sore area. Rivaille's glare intensified.

"Don't be asking me that question." his voice was low, threatening. "I spent all fucking night looking for you. It's a good thing, too. Do you have any idea what side of town you're on?"

"Of course I know." Eren spat back, feeling way too trapped between Rivaille's body and the car-door for his own comfort. "If anyone wants to mess with me, I can handle them-"

"I doubt it. Maybe if it was one-on-one, but the people that come out here at night- They don't play fair." he eyed him. "You're a sitting duck out here. You're lucky it was me and not someone else."

Eren shifted with a frown. Rivaille's voice was strained, something he had never heard before. He opened his mouth to say something back, but cut off when another car pulled up next to them. Rivaille froze.

An older man stepped out of the car - bald and complete with what looked to Eren like a 90s porn 'stache. As the man approached them, Rivaille fisted his hand into Eren's hair and shoved him into the seat.

"Don't say a word." he hissed lowly, before turning his attention back to the man who was now peering into the car.

"Rivaille?"

"Pixis."

Eren glanced up from his position, seeing the man's eyes light up in recognition.

"Why, long time no see. And what are you doing here at this time of night? I don't suppose you're here to return to your old ways." the other man raised an eyebrow, looking amused.

"Hardly." Rivaille replied, keeping his answers short and sweet. He tightened his grip on Eren's hair, forcing Eren to have to bite back a whine. "Just here to rope in a stray of mine."

Pixis's eyes flicked to Eren, who still had his face shoved into the seat. He chuckled lightly, turning his attention back to Rivaille. "I guess I won't ask how the white-collar life is treating you, then." he pulled out a lighter, lighting up the end of a cigarette. "Lucky I was the first one out here. You know what this place is-"

"I remember." Rivaille cut him off, looking up at the man from inside the car. "Is it just you right now? How much time do we have until everyone else comes?"

Pixis grinned, taking a drag off the cigarette and blowing a ring of smoke into the air. "I'd give you five minutes."

Rivaille nodded curtly at the other. "We'll be taking our leave then." he released Eren's hair, shoving him toward the front. "Don't fall more than two car lengths behind me. Take a wrong turn and I'm not responsible." he hissed, stepping out of the car to stand in front of Pixis.

"Thanks."

The older man smiled. "I'd be on my way, if I were you."

And then the door slammed shut, and Eren fumbled his way to the front. Whatever was going on - he was still too tired, too confused to figure it all out - he could sense the urgency in the situation. He watched Rivaille hop into his own car and pull out of the lot, Eren following shortly behind.

He kept his eyes forward, only looking back once to see several people gathering in the parking lot. He swallowed thickly. Was it because of him? That man wasn't an officer, and he seemed to know Rivaille-

There was no way Rivaille was wrapped up in illegal things, though, right?

Right?

He shook his head, focusing on following Rivaille turn for turn. He didn't know his way around this side of town, but Rivaille cut through streets to get out of the there like he did it every other day. They finally made it back toward Rivaille's house through a way he didn't even know was possible, circling through residential areas until they were back on the other side of town.

Eren had no idea what to say to him now. He had led him back to his house, but Eren remained rooted outside in the cold night air, pointedly looking at his boots. Thunder rumbled in the distance.

Rivaille stood on the porch and stared at him. Swallowing thickly, Eren climbed out of the car and walked toward him. His anger was unmistakable, even from this far away. Standing next to him, Eren could feel his glare piercing straight through him.

After a few more seconds, Rivaille finally broke away and unlocked the front door. Walking back into the house was almost surreal, after what had taken place a few hours ago. Eren rubbed the top of his head, where Rivaille had gripped him so hard.

"... What happened out there?"

Rivaille clicked his tongue in annoyance at the question, hanging his keys up on the rack in the kitchen. Timidly following him, Eren eyed him warily and kept his distance.

"Small town boys shouldn't go riding around the big city at night."

"So what are you, some kind of mafia boss?" that earned him another sharp glare, but he continued despite it. "Is that the meeting spot for dog fights or something?"

Rivaille scoffed. Brushing past Eren, he went and sat down on the couch. Eren stayed where he was. "I washed my hands clean of that shit long ago. You're lucky I showed up when I did, or you would have been mincemeat."

"So what was all that!?"

"You have a knack for getting into trouble, don't you? That was Pixis' turf. We're lucky we ran into him first, before the rest of the guys." Rivaille ran a hand through his hair. "You sure are being a shit head, for someone who was nearly killed."

Eren fell silent. Rivaille said nothing, until the younger of the two finally spoke up again.

"... Sorry."

He exhaled sharply, turning his neck so he could see Eren. "Not everyone had someone around for them when they were a kid, alright? I did a lot of things I'm not proud of, but I don't want to see you running your mouth when my connections just saved your ass."

Eren had nothing to say back to that. They stayed like that for awhile, Rivaille sitting on the couch and Eren standing behind it, basking in the silence. Finally, Rivaille stood up and stretched.

"Go and get some sleep. You've got three hours until you have to be awake again to help me set up for the meeting."

Eren's eyebrows drew together. "But I-"

"Good night, brat."

And that was the end of it.

He retreated into his room and shut the door, leaving Eren in confused silence.

A/N: This chapter was cowritten with theyellowjumble on tumblr (she can say she only beta'd it but she did a lot more than that)!

Please don't throw rocks at me for the ending.