Risk

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/4525119.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M
Fandom: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Relationships: Levi/Eren Yeager, Mikasa Ackerman/Eren Yeager, Marco Bott/Jean
Kirstein, Mikasa Ackerman/Annie Leonhart, Krista Lenz | Historia
Reiss/Ymir, Petra Ral/Erwin Smith
Characters: Eren Yeager, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Mikasa Ackerman, Armin
Arlert, Hange Zoë, Jean Kirstein, Marco Bott, basically everyone,
everyone I can think of anyway, which admittedly isn't everyone, like -
Character, not even close - Character, Whoops - Character, false
advertising up in here, why do you keep adding character after my tags,
at this point this has nothing to do with characters, i'm just free balling it
here
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, mentions of child abuse, Mentions of
Suicide, but only mentions, Probably ooc, I have no idea what I'm doing,
I can't write summaries, or do tags, there's cursing and stuff, because
Levi, Nonbinary Hange Zoë, Demisexual Levi, i don't think that ever
actually becomes important, but its a thing, eren thinks he's straight,
NOT IN MY STORY YOU'RE NOT, oh my god it's completed, cries
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2015-08-08 Completed: 2016-03-01 Words: 45,380 Chapters:
19/19
 Risk
by ghostmaybite

Summary

Eren didn't care if he was marked. He and Mikasa had built a relationship based on love, and
pain, and shared secrets. No one could compete with that. Or so he had thought, until he met
Levi, who was too short, too grumpy, too foulmouthed, and all together too enthralling.

Notes

Soooo, this is the first fan fiction that I'm actually writing. It's been a long time since I've
written anything at all, so I'm rusty. Have pity on my poor, weak soul.
This is already posted on Fanfiction.net. Same title/username and what have you. I have three
chapters done, so the other two will be up momentarily.
 Chapter One

Eren wasn't in a hurry to be anywhere, despite already being ten minutes late to his
Criminology class. He hadn't gone in weeks, ignoring Armin's nagging and Mikasa's sighs.
The whole college scene just really wasn't for him. Yes, he knew he was "ruining he life" as
Armin so gently put it, but he hated sitting in classrooms, and writing essays, and he couldn't
imagine doing it for another three and a half years.

"Eren, you have class," Mikasa said from her desk, twisting her head slightly to stare at Eren
where he lay on her bed. He heaved himself up, crossing the small dorm room to reach her.
Tugging gently at the frayed red threads of the scarf she rarely removed, he pressed a kiss to
her cheek.

"Maybe I just don't want to leave you, babe," he murmured against her skin with a sweet
smile.

"Bullshit." Mikasa's voice was flat, even more deadpan than usual, and her grey eyes were
distinctly unimpressed. Eren laughed, stepping a distance away before falling backwards into
his girlfriend's bed.

"Caught me," he chuckled with a shameless grin. He propped his hands behind his head,
kicking a foot up unto his knee. He sprawled across her bed like he owned it, green eyes
shining was a lazy joy. "I just really don't want to go to class."

"Eren," Mikasa sighed, with that tired, forceful tone she used whenever he did something she
didn't agree with (which was often). "I'm not going to let you stay here when you're skipping.
Go to class."

"Fine," the brown haired boy drawled in return with an exaggerated role of his eyes. He
slouched off the comfort of her bed, mussing her blankets and stooping to scoop up his bag.
He fished his phone from his back pocket, pulling Armin's contact up on the screen. "I'll
leave. No promises I'm going where you want me to, though." Hoisting the strap of his bag
higher on his shoulder, he made for the door.

"Eren," Mikasa called, and he stopped, glancing back to her. She had pushed her chair out
from her desk to face him, a soft smile on her face, even as she pulled her scarf up to cover it.
"I love you. Now go to class."

With a grin that was equal parts adoring and smug, Eren crossed the room with a couple long
strides. He pulled her scarf out of the way, pressing a quick kiss to her lips. "I love you, too,
but I don't love anything enough to go to class when I don't feel like it."

"It never hurts to try," she sighed. With a parting grin, Eren left the room, dialing Armin as he
did.

"Yo Ar, can I crash at your place for a while? Mikasa just kicked me out," he said without
preamble.
"I'm shocked she let you hang around as long as she did," came the staticy voice of his best
friend from the other line. "I really don't get why she puts up with you. And what makes you
think I'm okay with being your rebound? I have standards, Eren."

"Mikasa puts up with me because she loves me," Eren laughed loudly as he walked across
campus towards Armin's dorm, waving to the few the people he knew as he passed. "Which,
coincidentally enough, is the same reason you're going to let me come hang out at your place
right now."

"I would Eren, but I'm not even in my room right now. Funnily enough, I actually have a
class right around now, not unlike yourself. I guess the key difference here is that I actually
go to my classes." Eren rolled his eyes at Armin's dramatics. They had been friends for years,
and they loved each other like brothers, but there were some things they just couldn't see eye-
to-eye on. Education happened to be one of them. "If you want to skip class why don't you do
it in your own room?" Eren's grin immediately fell into a frown, his expression doing a
complete 180.

"Gross, no. Jean is probably there. He doesn't go to class anymore than I do." Armin's
lighthearted laughter drifted through the phone.

"You guys are fighting again?"

"We're always fighting, Armin. He's a horse-faced douche, and I'm a short-tempered asshole,
remember? We don't mix well."

"As hilarious as it is to see you two pretending that you're not friends, it gets kind of tiring
sometimes."

Eren scoffed, a noise of disgust spilling from his lips. "We hate each other. He's a prick who
lives to annoy me. And if you're not going to let me come over, you're useless to me."

"Jesus Eren, I love you, too. My class is about to start anyway. Oh, and speaking of classes,
you should really go to yours."

"Yeah, yeah," Eren mumbled dismissively, snapping his phone battered shut. He stood in the
middle of a courtyard, halfway to Armin's dorm, with his plans suddenly dashed. Mikasa had
already kicked him out and would probably punch him in the face if he tried to come back
already; Armin apparently had a class and still refused to just give Eren a key to his room; his
own room was still very much occupied by the disgusting existence known as Jean. Sighing,
Eren strode over to a nearby tree, collapsing against it. He dug through his bag for his MP3
player, only to remember after a few fruitless minutes that he had lent it to Mikasa the other
day, since her own had broken.

With nothing else to do, he pulled his phone out yet again, tossing it between his hands
before flipping it open and dialing Mikasa. Considering that she had kicked him out earlier,
he doubted that she would be happy to hear from him. She would probably refuse to answer,
just to spite him for skipping class. It was a flawed strategy, really. If she was to try and give
him the silent treatment every time he slacked off with his academic responsibilities, they
would never talk. Surprisingly enough, she picked up just before her phone would have sent
him over to voice mail.

"Eren, you're supposed to be in class," she sighed.

"You knew I wasn't going to go, don't act all disappointed in me," he replied, shrugging to
himself as he tilted his head back against the bark of the tree he was leaned against. "If you
are, you should really lower your expectations."

"Today's an important day, Eren. You can't just hang around people's dorms all day, refusing
to go out." When he didn't reply, she pressed further. "You're supposed to me her today, aren't
you?"

Eren sighed, glancing at the mark on his wrist. He remembered when it had trailed up his
arm, spiraling around his forearm, five, ten, fifteen times. Now it was barely two inches long,
and if he stared hard enough, he could see it getting gradually shorter, burning away like a
fuse.

"Probably," he reluctantly admitted. "The marks aren't 100% consistent, so it could be

tomorrow. Hard to know for sure."

"Well then, you need to be out there. You need to be where ever you're supposed to be when
that mark disappears." Eren growled softly, glaring at his wrist, and resisting the urge to snap
that is was impossible to be anywhere else. He took a deep breath, reminding himself that the
mark would most likely be gone in a couple of hours, and he could go back to pretending it
didn't even exist.

"She's your soulmate, Eren," Mikasa said, so softly that Eren could barely hear her with his
horrible reception.

"It doesn't matter," he growled. Sure, he would be meeting his "soulmate" with the next few
hours, but he was already in love with Mikasa. His soulmate could be anyone, and it wouldn't
matter.

Don't misunderstand, Eren thought soulmates were great. He just didn't need one. Most
people had the same type of mark Eren did, and in most cases, those marks led them to love,
but plenty of people found love without the marks, or in spite of them. He had watched the
band on his arm get shorted for nineteen years, supposedly counting down the time until he
met "the one," but it only took him nine of those to find the girl he wanted to spend the rest of
his life with. Plenty of people were born without marks - Mikasa was one of them - but those
people were still perfectly capable of finding love anyway. jean, as much of an asshole as he
was, had one of the best relationships Eren had ever seen, and he and Marco both had
different soulmates. Eren's parent's had been soulmates, and that hadn't ended well at all.
Obviously the marks weren't everything. They were a nice, safe fallback, but frankly Eren
preferred to take the risk.

"The marks are important, Eren!" Mikasa burst from the other line. "They lead you to the
person who is perfect for you."
Eren felt his temper snap. He snapped forward, elbows resting on his knees, head hanging as
he clenched his teeth. When he began talking, his voice was louder than he wanted it to be,
immediately attracting attention, but he didn't bother to control it.

"You know what Mikasa, have it your way. Maybe she will be prefect for me. Maybe she
will, somehow, be a better match for me than you are. I'll be the first to admit that our
relationship isn't perfect. I'm too hot headed for my own good, and you've been bottling
everything up since we were kids. There's nothing 'perfect' about that combination. Sure,
sometimes we balance each other out, but sometimes - a lot of the time, really - it just doesn't
work. And I know that that bothers you. I know it bothers you that sometimes we seem so
incompatible that this must be impossible, and I know that bothers you all the more because I
have a mark and you don't. I know it all bothers you, even if you won't admit it.

"But so what? So what if there's some stupid thing that says I'm supposed to be with some
stupid girl I don't even know? You know better than anyone that I hate being expected to do
things just because, and that's all this soulmate shit it. This mark doesn't matter. It hasn't
mattered since I fell in love with you when we were thirteen years old. If I'm being
completely honest, it probably hasn't mattered since we met when we were seven. What we
have is built off of twelve years of friendship. Actual history. We made this relationship work
for the last four years with love and hard work. We fought, and we cried, and we hurt each
other, but we are still here, we are still together. And right now, I still love you as much as I
ever have, even though you're being a fucking idiot, and I know you still love me even
though I'm screaming. To me, the fact that we are still together after all the shit we have been
through makes us more of soulmates than some mark on my arm. I love you, Mikasa. I love
you, and nothing, no one could ever make me leave you."

He was screaming, which wasn't shocking really, because this was Eren, and screaming is
what he was best at, God damn it. Now his voice fell, still loud, but deeper.

"You're my family. You are the last family I have left, and I don't know what I would do with
out you. It's not something I even want to think about."

"O-Okay," Mikasa said after a long pause filled with Eren's heavy breathing. "I love you,
Eren. You can come back to my room when ever you want." She hung up, and Eren pulled
the phone away from his ear, smiling slightly now despite the fact that he was still flushed
with anger. He let his eyes slide shut, relaxing his posture.

"Oi brat," a voice snapped in front of him. He opened his eyes, leaning back, head bumping
against the tree at his back, to meet the angry grey gaze of a very pissed off man. "What the
fuck do you think you're doing, airing your shitty private business in a public place?"

Simultaneously, with a faint burn, the marks on both their wrists disappeared.
 Chapter Two
Chapter Notes

There will be typos. Forever. The typos will never be completely gone. I apologize. If
they bug you, just laugh at me to ease your sorrow. It's all going to be okay.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Eren swallowed as he stared at the man before him. Three things were immediately evident:

1) The man was painfully short. He held himself proudly, but even standing tall, Eren
doubted the man was higher than his shoulder. It was true that Eren was slightly taller than
average, but even sitting down, he could tell that the man before him was extremely lacking
in the height department.

2) The man was painfully angry. His eyes were flashing silver, his mouth set in a tight scowl.
Eren got the distinct feeling that this man could (and possibly would) beat him senseless,
despite being a head shorter.

3) The man was Eren's soulmate. Eren's mark was gone and there were no other suspects, so
this short, angry man was guilty as charged.

It was these three things that hit Eren immediately, stinging against his senses like a slap to
the face, but in the moments that followed, Eren noticed countless other things. Small things,
like the way the man's grey eyes had subtle tints of blue. The way his black hair was styled in
a carefully maintained undercut. The way Eren couldn't tell how old he was, but knew that he
was older (late 20s, early 30s?). The way his suit fell in impeccably straight lines. Eren noted,
with complete detachment, that one of the man's eyebrows arched slightly higher than the
other, but Eren couldn't tell if it was part of the man's (completely disgusted) expression, or if
it was just a natural imbalance in his features.

Eren stared for longer than was probably polite, completely overwhelmed by the big issues
and small details alike. Disbelief and confusion made his ears ring. Blinking himself out of
his near catatonic state, Eren scrambled to stand. The man's scowl deepened as Eren stood,
his head tilting back to retain some semblance of eye contact. The younger man was, in fact,
a head taller, the stranger being approximately eye level with Eren's shoulder.

Stillness prevailed for a long moment, filled with the buzz of awkward eye contact, but it
shattered abruptly when the man stumbled a step forward. Eren caught him by the elbow,
shocked at the action which somehow seemed completely out of character, even to Eren, who
knew next to nothing about the man. The stranger ripped his arm from Eren's grasp, spinning
to face a companion Eren hadn't even noticed. Shifting his gaze, Eren jumped slightly upon
meeting the gleeful eyes of his biology teacher.
The professor leaned forward eagerly, brown hair held in a fly-away ponytail, chunky goggle-
like glasses flashing. Eren couldn't remember their name, and hadn't attended one of their
classes in over a week, but he did remember their adamant insistence that binary genders
were ridiculous and they be referred to with gender neutral pronouns only. Their lips twitched
as they stifled their laughter, staring at Eren with unabashed excitement and fascination.

"O-Oh this is too good," they giggled, pressing a hand into their mouth. "Just wait until I tell
Erwin and - oh God, Petra!" They doubled over for a moment, and Eren wondered how they
could take the glare the stranger was giving them without keeling over. Straightening up,
Eren's teacher grabbed his arm in one hand and the man's arm in the other.

"Okay! Let me introduce you. This-" they said, jerking roughly on the man's arm, eliciting a
violent hiss, "-is Levi. He's kind of a dick, but he's sort of a lovable dick, so it's all okay. I'm
his friend, and I can tell you that it takes some getting used to, but-"

"You're not my friend, shitty glasses," the man - Levi - interrupted. His voice was flat, but
threatening. Every time Eren wondered if the glare plastered on the man's face could possibly
get worse, Levi immediately turned it up a notch. Eren wondered how his teacher could
possibly still be alive, if they were exposed to that on a regular basis.

"Levi," the professor replied, shaking the short man's arm again, "I am your best friend. You
love me, and you would be devastated if I disappeared, so shut up and be pretty for your
soulmate. Look at him, Levi. He's adorable. You obviously need to try harder."

Eren squirmed slightly, growing distinctly more uncomfortable as time wore on. His maniac
teacher turned to him then, pulling him closer.

"This is Eren. He's a student of mine, when he bothers to come to class - which has been
never, recently. I don't know all that much about him, really, besides that he's adorable. And,
I mean, come on, that's all you need to know when a person has a face like this." Eren
squirmed again, reaching with his unrestrained hand to disentangle himself. He didn't really
know what was going on, but he was seriously considering punching this person in the face,
teacher or not.

"I'm Hange," they told Eren, finally releasing their hold on Levi as well. "I'm sure you've
forgotten, since you're never in class, and Levi could probably use a reminder, too. I'm pretty
sure he sometimes tries to forget. I'll never understand why, since I am obviously the best
friend and matchmaker in the Universe. I mean, I just introduced you to your soulmate. That's
kind of a big deal."

"Hange," Levi growled, grabbing his friend (?) roughly by the wrist. "Did you not hear the
same conversation I did? Leave the brat alone. We have shit to do, anyway." He brushed past
Eren, pulling along Hange, who flashed Eren an apologetic grin.

"If you ever want his number, you can just come find me," they offered. "We should really all
hang out some time, get to know each other."

"Shut the fuck up, glasses."

Eren watched them go, feeling as if his throat was stuffed with cotton. That had not gone
according to plan.

Whenever Eren had imagined the confrontation with his soulmate, he imagined meeting a
pretty girl who would be so excited to finally meet him. He imagined that he would have to
choke out a rejection (because he didn't want to be with his soulmate, but he didn't want to
hurt them either). He thought that she would cry, and he would have to awkwardly try to
comfort her without accidentally leading her on. Maybe, if she was feistier, more like Eren
himself, she would get angry and they would end up fighting. Either way, it would end with
Eren walking away, returning to Mikasa, and living out the rest of his life without ever
thinking of it again.

He never considered that maybe his soulmate would be a short, grumpy man with a
permanent scowl. He'd never imagine that his rejection would be in the form of a very loud
and very public over-the-phone argument with his girlfriend. He had never pictured his
soulmate having the most obnoxious friend in existence, who would be all too willing to
make Eren completely uncomfortable. And he had definitely never imagined that his
soulmate would be the one to walk away from him.

And frankly, he was pissed about it.

Eren was a catch, God damn it. He was attractive, and interesting, and he had his talents.
From what he had seen, Levi was nothing but a grumpy, short bastard who treated his
"friends" like shit. A guy like that would be lucky to land a guy like Eren. It didn't matter if
Eren was straight. It didn't matter if Eren was taken. It didn't matter if Eren's interest was
absolutely zero. It was the principle of the things, and Eren was fucking offended.

Who did Levi think he was, to just walk away? Sure, he had overheard Eren's conversation,
but he could have let Eren explain. He could have given Eren a chance to do things properly.
If he was going to be an asshole and reject his soulmate, Eren at least wanted to be a
gentleman about it. But no, Levi just up and walked away, like Eren wasn't even worth his
time. Now, Eren could put up with a lot of crap - his roommate was Jean Kirstein, for fuck's
sake - but being ignored wasn't on the list. A part of him wanted to track Levi down, punch
him in the face, and force him to at least acknowledge Eren. He also realized that it would be
counterproductive to actually follow through.

He glared in the direction Levi had gone, fists clenched and chest heaving. Someone came up
to ask if he was okay, and of course he was fucking okay, what the fuck else would he be?
Idiot. He took a deep breath, trying to calm down, but oxygen only fueled his fire. He
snatched his bag from the ground, slinging it over his shoulder, and trudged his way back to
Mikasa's dorm.

The walk calmed him slightly, and Mikasa's face when she opened the door at his knock
calmed him more. She let him inside, and he dumped his bag by her bed before he flopped
down onto it. Mikasa nudged him over slightly with her knee before settling beside him.

"God, you guys are gross," Annie, Mikasa's roommate, groaned as she collected stuff from
her desk.
"We're not even doing anything, Annie," Eren growled in return. The blonde girl wasn't all
bad, but she was cold and guarded. She and Eren had also seen far more of each other than
they would have liked, since Eren spent most of his time in her dorm room. It led to an
awkward tension whenever they were both in the dorm. They got along pretty well if they
saw each other outside of it, but Annie rarely went out with their group of friends, preferring
to stay inside.

"I'm going to stay with Reiner and Bert," she said, shoving some things into her bag before
pulling on a white hoodie. "Don't still be naked when I get back in the morning."

She left the room, door clicking as she locked it behind her. Mikasa curled into Eren's side,
resting her head against his chest. They lay in silence for a moment, resting comfortably, and
Eren reveled in the peace of the moment. All his confusion and fear and doubt and anger
drained out of him. Here he was, with his girlfriend who he loved. Levi didn't matter. It didn't
matter that he had found his soulmate; it didn't matter that his soulmate was a guy; it didn't
matter that Levi was his soulmate. The mark was gone now, as if he had never had one. As he
wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, his breathing evened out completely for the first time
since the phone call.

"I'm sorry I upset you," Mikasa murmured, leaning up to press a kiss to Eren's neck. He ran a
hand through her hair.

"I'm sorry I yelled."

"You always yell," she laughed, propping herself up on her elbow so she could look at him.
"It's just a part of who you are. I'm used to it by now."

"Doesn't mean I can't be sorry about it." He gripped her neck, pulling her down into a sweet
kiss. They parted, but she lingered above him, black hair falling across his face, tickling his
neck. Her grey eyes shone with emotions that they rarely revealed.

Eren's chest swelled with his feelings for her, and he wondered for a brief moment how he
could contain it all. He loved her so much - so much that sometimes it terrified him. He
honestly had no idea what he would do without her. Everything he was hinged on her being
there. She was the only reason he kept functioning, the only thing that kept the pieces of him
together. He would fall apart without her, and sometimes that honest-to-God terrified him. He
was terrified that one day she would move on, find someone better - more intelligent, more
talented, more driven. It wouldn't be a hard thing to do. As much as Mikasa loved him (and
he had no doubt that she did), she didn't depend on him in quite the same way.

He pulled her into another kiss, this one harder, more passionate. He flipped them over,
hanging above her, but her fingers landed on his wrist before he could kiss her again. She
gripped him with enough force to make him lean back, and when he did, she sat up. Her eyes
were cold as her fingers clenched, nails digging into his skin.

"Eren," she said, voice sharp. "Where did your mark go?"
Chapter End Notes

This should be 21 chapters total. The chapters will be short. The story will be simple.
 Chapter Three
Chapter Notes

Eren doesn't know how to do any emotion but angry. Mikasa is good at angry, too. No
Levi in this one. But there is more ErenxMikasa. And there will be more in the future.
All good things to those who wait.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Eren froze, eyes locked on Mikasa's fingers as they dug pale ovals into his skin, painted nails
biting into tan flesh. Her grip covered the place where his mark should have been, and for a
moment, Eren could pretend that the mark was still there, that he hadn't met his soulmate, and
that his girlfriend wasn't currently fuming. When it had first disappeared, he had been so
happy, so relieved - not with the circumstances, but at least with the fact that it was gone. He
should have known that it couldn't be so simple. The absence of his mark was a dead
giveaway to the encounter he had had with his soulmate, and he should have known that
Mikasa wouldn't just leave the subject be. In all likelihood, she would be as difficult as she
could be about it. As much as Eren loved her - as both a girlfriend and a friend - he
recognized that she could, at times, be incredibly spiteful and petty, especially when she was
feeling insecure.

Mikasa grit her teeth at Eren's silence, leaning further into his space. Her eyes shone fiercely,
and her brows drew down over them. In the shadow of her anger, they briefly flashed silver,
and for a moment (that he would never admit to), Eren thought of Levi, whose eyes had
flashed like lightening.

"Eren," Mikasa pressed, "Where did it go?"

For a second Eren's mouth opened wordlessly before he haltingly replied: "You already know
the answer."

It was a stupid thing to say. Eren knew it, and Mikasa's answering scowl confirmed it. He
sounded stupid and standoff-ish, as if he was challenging her and her insecurities. Maybe he
was. He didn't know. Admittedly, he did think her worries were needless and stupid, and he
was getting annoyed at the amount of conflict it was causing between them, but he also
understood that she couldn't help the way she felt. Yet here he was, crassly telling his
outraged girlfriend that she already knew where the mark had gone, as if her question didn't
even dignify a proper response.

As he watched her forehead furrow in frustration and rage, Eren was hit by a curious sense of
panic. The worry and regret he felt for angering the most important person in his life was
overlaid with something heavier and more frantic, because suddenly he was thinking about
Levi. It wasn't like the fleeting thought from moments earlier that Eren could stubbornly
pretend hadn't entered his mind. This was full-blown contemplation; this was appraisal. The
unasked for conclusion: Mikasa and Levi were startlingly similar.

They looked so alike that Eren was surprised he hadn't noticed immediately, and wondered
now if perhaps they were related. Mikasa's hair was short, smooth, and inky black. The color
and look of Levi's was nearly identical, and Eren wondered vaguely if it would feel as silky
as well. It was the type of thought that Eren smothered instantly, pushing back the horror and
confusion it brought along. Both Mikasa and Levi had pale skin and sharp features. Their
cheekbones were high, their noses small and pointed, their lips thin with the slightest
downwards curve while resting. They both had grey eyes with the same slight tilt to the edges
that spoke of Oriental heritage somewhere in their family. Levi's eyes were a lighter, clearer
grey with slight hints of blue, and they had heavier lids, but the similarities were undeniable.
Their foreheads wrinkled the same way when they scowled. Their mouths curled the same
way with distaste. They held themselves with the same pride and confidence. These were all
things Eren loved about Mikasa, and he wondered with widened eyes and pursed lips what
exactly that implied about his feelings for Levi.

Not that he had feelings for Levi. That wouldn't make any sense. He had just met the man.
Nevertheless, it was slightly distressing that the things he had noticed in the man were all
things he already loved in his girlfriend.

"Who is she?" Mikasa demanded, leaning forward until Eren was forced to tumble backwards
onto his hands. Mikasa straddled his legs without delay, and Eren wished the circumstances
could be a little different here, because he never thought he would have to say that he didn't
want his girlfriend on top of him.

"No one," Eren replied, finally pulling his wrist from Mikasa's grasp. Her nails had left
crescent trenches in his skin, a small line of blood filling in one of the creases. The imprint of
her hand remained white for a long moment before slowly turning red as blood flow returned
to the area. In an attempt to calm her, Eren ran his heads up Mikasa's arms, rubbing gently,
but she stiffened against his attempts.

"Who?" she growled, shaking her shoulders violently to dislodge his hands. He rested one on
her hip as it fell, but she slapped it away with a glare and a twist of her upper lip.

"It's not important, Mikasa. They're not important." He didn't cease his attempts to calm her,
and she didn't cease her furious rejections.

"Don't tell me they're not important!" she snapped, slamming a fist to his chest hard enough
to make him wince. "She's your soulmate! She'll always be important, even if you reject her."
Mikasa hung her head, hair falling over her face. Her shoulder trembled.

"Hey," Eren said softly, running his hands along the back of her neck. He could feel her
shuddering beneath his fingers. "You are the only one who matters to me." With a gentle
pressure on the back of her neck, he attempted to pull her into a reassuring kiss. Their lips
barely brushed before she yanked away, eyes narrow and suspiciously shiny. Her hands
landed on his throat, and for a moment, he thought she was going to choke him - it wouldn't
be the first time.
But then she was lunging forwards and her lips were on his and there was nothing reassuring
about this. Their noses bumped and their teeth clacked and Mikasa bit his lip hard enough to
draw blood. Their tongues fought, and Eren let Mikasa have her way. Her fingers had a vice
grip on his neck, thumbs digging into the sides. Even if he had wanted to pull away, he
wouldn't have been able to. It was a harsh, awkward kiss, messy even by Eren's standards,
but he could feel Mikasa's heart thundering in her chest, taste her breath as he breathed it in,
and nothing mattered but the way she was looking at him.

She broke them apart a minute later, saliva hanging in the air between them in a way that
would have been gross if it wasn't for the fact that it was so completely not. The grip she had
on his neck loosened unexpectedly, one hand trailing up the back of his neck to stroke his
hair before roughly fisting in the nape. Eren gasped as she yanked his head back, his neck
clicking at the sudden movement.

"Tell me everything."

"I met my soulmate," he stated, eyes fixed on the ceiling.

"I already figured that much out."

"I don't know what else to say," he lied. "They overheard our conversation. I didn't even
really talk to them."

"You're lying," she growled, tightening her grip on his hair. "Your ears are turning red. It
gives you away."

"We honestly didn't talk. Their friend tried to introduce us."

"Tried?"

"Failed. They overheard our argument and were pretty eager to leave."

"Name."

"That's not important, Mikasa," Eren tried pointlessly to evade.

"Name."

Eren was prepared to lie. He could use any random name, and everything would be okay. But
no, it wouldn't be, because he could already feel his ears getting hot, and he hadn't even said
anything. If he lied, Mikasa would know. She would get mad, and then she would get the
truth, one way or another.

"Levi."

Mikasa's hand fell from his hair. Her eyes narrowed, but Eren refused to meet them. "Levi?"
she asked. The name sounded wrong rolling from her mouth. Dirty, taboo, shameful. Eren
swallowed around a dry tongue.

"His name is Levi."

The air between them thickened with each passing moment of silence. Eren's breathing felt
too heavy in the quiet. Mikasa broke it first - predictably, since Eren had no plans on
speaking first.

"You're gay?" she asked flatly.

"What?" Eren spluttered. "Of course not! I'm not into men!"

"Your soulmate is a man."

"Soulmates means nothing!" Eren screamed, pushing Mikasa off his lap and jumping from
the bed. "They're stupid, arbitrary. People look for their soulmates because society tells them
to. They make up nice sounding words to explain the marks on our arms, and sometimes that
fucks everything up. Sometimes people force it to work when it shouldn't, sometimes people
give things up, and they end up unhappy. I'm not going to give anything up!"

"Not everyone is your father, Eren!"

Eren froze, bubbles of angry words popping in the back of his throat. His blood ran cold, his
ears filled with white noise, his vision tunneled.

How fucking dare she.

He stared at his childhood friend, his girlfriend, his family, and he wondered how she could
fucking dare to say that to him, in the middle of a fight, at that. She stared back, face hard and
defiant as she crossed her arms over her chest. For a wild second he wanted nothing more
than to slap her. He wanted to knock her over, he wanted to make her cry, make her bleed. He
wouldn't, but he wanted to.

"I'm leaving." He picked his bag up from the ground, movements measured and careful
because he was feeling this close to loosing control. After a moment's hesitation, he turned
and snatched his MP3 from beside Mikasa's laptop.

When he left, he slammed the door behind him and ignored the way Mikasa looked at him as
it closed.

Eren walked to Armin's dorm like a robot, steps still calculated and precise. He could feel the
rage-fueled nervous energy that had built up in his joints, and he knew that one reckless
movement would lead to a complete loss of control. He tried to keep breathing.

Armin didn't answer the door at Eren's heavy knock, but his roommate did. Marco invited
Eren inside with a kind smile that Eren felt slightly guilty for not returning, but even that
guilt for being rude to the nice boy was buried under massive amounts of anger. The freckled
boy's attempts at conversation were met with stony silence, much to his confusion. Eren and
Marco usually got along well, as long as Jean wasn't around, but Marco didn't want to press
Eren into anything. The two weren't the best of friends, so Marco couldn't guess as to what
was troubling Eren, but he knew that something was wrong, and frankly, he was quite
intimidated by the atmosphere surrounding Eren at the moment.
 Armin returned home almost an hour later, shocked to find his best friend sitting cross legged
on his bed. Eren's back was ramrod straight, his fists curled into the fabric of his pants, breath
coming in long, noisy draws, that regularly broke rhythm.

"Mikasa and I fought," Eren announced blandly upon Armin's entrance. Marco glanced over
in mild surprise as Armin's eyes widened in understanding.

"Bar?" he asked, and Eren replied with a brisk nod. "Have your ID?"

"Of course. I plan on getting hammered."

With a small, sympathetic sigh, Arming dug through his desk drawers to find his own fake
ID. He knew Eren well and he could see how unstable the brunette was at the moment.

Armin could only hope that the alcohol would help. With Eren there was always about a
50/50 chance.

Chapter End Notes

Writing this was really disorienting. Every other sentence I just stopped like "woah, wtf
am I doing?" I have no idea what's going on. Does this chapter even make sense? I don't
trust myself right now.
 Chapter Four
Chapter Notes

Eren knows absolutely nothing about alcohol because I know absolutely nothing about
alcohol. You know the saying "write what you know?" Under that rationality, I really
shouldn't write anything at all, because my life experience is 0.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Eren and Armin got drinks at the bar just outside campus with little issue, and Eren
adamantly ignored the meaningful and expectant glaces Armin kept sending his wrist. It had
been a long day and all Eren wanted to do now was get drunk as hell and forget everything
that had happened. Of course, he was also aware that he would probably never be allowed to
forget, and in that case, he would at least like to rant to his best friend about it. Eren knocked
back half of whatever Armin had ordered for him. He didn't know what it was exactly - he
hadn't heard Armin's order and he really didn't drink that much - but it burned on the way
down and it would serve its purpose. Eren sighed, glancing at Armin, who was patiently
nursing his own drink.

"Go ahead," Eren said with a resigned wave of his hand. "Ask your questions. I have a drink.
I'm good to go, now."

"Well," Armin began carefully, placing his drink back on the bar, fingers swirling in the
condensation on the glass. "I'll leave the more obvious issue for later, since that will probably
take longer to explain. You and Mikasa fight all the time. What did she do this time in
particular to make you so incredibly pissed. I've seen you angry plenty - I mean, there was
that year in middle school where you were angry all the time - but I've never seen you this
angry because of Mikasa."

Eren clenched his teeth. He had sought Armin out, prepared to rant to his best friend about
Levi, and Mikasa's worries, and his own damn insecurities, but he didn't want to talk about
the last bit of his argument with Mikasa. Really, he was an idiot for thinking that Armin
wouldn't ask, because this was Armin, who was painfully observant and always curious.
Armin always asked. Eren downed the other half of his drink. Armin signaled for another.

"She was... angry," Eren explained slowly, staring at the battered surface of the bar, accepting
his drink with a nod of his head. "I was trying to calm her down, reassure her, but I was
angry, too. Long story short, she told me that not everyone is like Grisha. As if I don't already
know that. As if that has anything to do with anything. As if it's okay to throw something like
that in my face in the middle of an argument." He could feel himself getting angry again, and
he took a deep breath.
"She has a valid point, though," Armin said casually, ignoring the sound of Eren's glass
shattering and the yells of the bartender. "She shouldn't have used it against you in an
argument, but you have been kind of jaded since everything that happened. It's
understandable, but sometimes you do seem to forget that not all relationships between
soulmates turn out like your parents'."

"I know that," Eren growled, jerking the dustpan from the bartender's hands as it was shoved
at him. He quickly pushed the shards of broken glass into it before roughly shoving it back.
"Just look at Krista and Ymir. Those two are perfect for each other, and they're soulmates.
Franz and Hannah, too. I know that soulmates can be perfectly happy together, even if my
parents weren't."

"Calm down, Eren," Armin said, laying a soothing hand on his friend's shoulder. Eren took
another deep breath, making an attempt to actually listen. Armin, with his cool personality
and unwavering support, was just about the only person who could calm Eren down when the
taller boy got angry or upset. "I'm not trying to attack you. I know you know, but I think that
you only know it rationally. Subconsciously, you still doubt that your own soulmate could be
any good for you, especially since you already have Mikasa. She's just worried that that will
change, and she's getting defensive about it. You met her today, right? Your soulmate? Isn't
that why you and Mikasa fought?" Eren cringed, hoping that Armin would think it was from
anything other than his misuse of pronoun. He really didn't need Armin thinking he was gay,
too, though he knew it was just a matter of moments before Armin learned about Levi.

"Yeah, I did," Eren confirmed, taking a sip of the drink that had been placed in front of him
after he shattered his last one. He delayed for a moment, keeping his lips around the glass. "I
didn't talk to them, though - not really. They overheard a conversation I had with Mikasa and
were in a hurry to leave."

"They?"

And there it was. Eren's careful use of neutral pronouns was as dead a giveaway as if he had
said "yes, I met my soulmate, and they have a dick." Mikasa hadn't picked up on it, but she
could be incredibly dense sometimes, especially when she was angry and seeking validation.
To her credit, Eren probably wouldn't pick up on it either, because he was dense just about all
the time. But Eren wasn't talking to Mikasa or himself, he was talking to Armin, who was
basically never dense. The blonde boy was incredibly perceptive, and he knew Eren better
than anyone. He didn't need to look at Eren's ears to tell if he was lying or hiding something.

"He," Eren corrected himself after a long silence. He fought the urge to glance away from
Armin in favor of surveying his friend's reaction. Armin simply nodded.

"What's his name?" he asked. There was no malice or force behind the question, unlike when
Mikasa had asked Levi's name, like the answer had killed her firstborn. She had been hostile
about it even before she realized that Levi was a man.

"You're not going to ask if I'm gay?" Eren blurted, leaning closer to his friend.

"Are you?" Armin returned with the slightest tip of his head.
"Of course not!"

"Okay then," Armin shrugged. "I didn't think you were. I'm pretty sure I would know if you
were gay long before you ever figured it out for yourself. Frankly, I don't see how it matters.
Sexuality isn't black and white. Heterosexuals can still have perfectly healthy, happy
relationships with someone of the same gender. It doesn't happen often - I think mostly
because of societal things - but it's possible. All sexuality really influences is sexual attraction
- who you see and intrinsically want to have sex with. That doesn't have to have anything to
do with relationships and chemistry. I'm asexual, but I still have a soulmate out there
somewhere, and I still plan on having a perfectly normal relationship with them. If you say
you're straight, I'll believe that you're straight, even if your soulmate is a guy. Soulmates are
matched based on personal compatibility. Sexuality has nothing to do with it."

Eren nodded numbly, filled with a confusing mix of relief and dread. Some of the worry in
his chest eased away, but it was instantly replaced with different worry. On one hand, he was
straight. Armin had confirmed it, right, and Armin knew everything. If Armin said that Eren
wasn't gay, Eren wasn't gay. That was a relief. That was one thing Eren could stop worrying
about. But it was even more distressing to think that Levi could still be his soulmate, even if
he wasn't gay. That meant that they were matched together because of "personal
compatibility," and somehow that was even worse than thinking that maybe Fate just thought
Eren liked dick. Eren could apply his argument about soulmates being arbitrary, say that he
and Levi were matched together randomly with no deeper meaning, and that eased some of
the worry, but there was always some doubt. Just the smallest seed of it seemed to weigh a
ton.

Armin broke Eren from his distressed musings. "So, what's his name?"

"Levi," Eren answered thickly.

"Tell me about him."

"He's short," Eren replied immediately, with a vicious scowl. "And he's a jerk."

"What exactly happened when you two met?"

"Well, I was talking to Mikasa," Eren summarized, launching animatedly into the story. "We
were fighting. She's been so insecure and paranoid lately, and its been grating on my nerves.
So I was telling her for the 50 millionth time that, no, I'm not going to leave her, and we sort
things out, and suddenly, this dick is there, scolding me for something or other, and my mark
is gone. The guy is with my weird biology teacher-"

"Hange Zoe?"

"Yes! They're with him, and all he does is insult them, even though they're apparently friends,
while they try to 'introduce' us or some shit. Then he just leaves. He doesn't even let me
apologize or explain - he just leaves without a fucking word to me, as if I don't even exist or
something, like I'm not worth his time, because he 'has other places to be' or something."
Eren threw back whatever was remaining in his glass, and he was actually starting to feel the
effects of it now. "Like, who the fuck does that? I was going to reject his ass, sure, but I was
going to be a damn fine gentleman about it."

Armin nodded sympathetically, and Eren was grateful for it, even while aware that Armin
was probably not sympathetic at all but was just being a good friend.

"Pissed me off so damn much. And then I go to Mikasa's place, seeking some love or comfort
or some shit, and she flips out!" Armin nodded again, resting a hand on Eren's shoulder and
letting the brunette rant to his heart's content. It continued on for about half and hour, the
focus of Eren's anger switching between Levi and Mikasa, occasionally rocketing over to
Hange, or even Jean, who had nothing to do with the situation. He continued drinking,
leaning slightly on Armin as time went on, until his rage found and entirely different target.

The men sitting at a table to the right of the bar had been there for a long time, and they had
been sending distasteful glances towards Eren and Armin for the majority of that time. Armin
had noticed them shortly after they sat down, and had hoped that Eren would be too
preoccupied to do the same. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time until Eren's gaze
narrowed in on the space they occupied over Armin's shoulder. Even more unfortunately,
Eren was already angry and he was irrational enough even without alcohol in his system.

"The fuck's their problem?" he growled, rising slightly from his stool. Armin caught his
wrist, pulling him back down.

"Ignore them, Eren. It's hardly the first time this has happened."

"Yeah, and every time it does, I beat the fuckers up."

Neither of them were lying. It wasn't often that they went out drinking just the two of them,
but when they did, it wasn't uncommon for one or both of them to be harassed. Armin had
been getting shit since high school for being gay - even though he wasn't - and whenever
Eren started drinking, he got clingy and affectionate. It wasn't weird to the two of them, since
they had been friends since they were toddlers, but there were always the assholes.
Sometimes the assholes were vocal, but Eren always got violent about it. He shook Armin
off, standing and moving towards the table.

"Eren, they haven't done anything."

"They looked at us weird." Armin stopped his pursuit in shock.

"Can you even hear yourself?" he asked incredulously. "'They looked at us weird?' What the
hell, Eren, use your head!You're not a child."

Eren ignored him, because as far as he was concerned, he was being perfectly rational. He
slammed his hands down on the table in front of the men.

"You got a problem with me?" Eren sneered. The men looked at him, unimpressed. Tall but
thin, with a face that was more "cute" than "handsome," Eren was rarely described as
intimidating. Even his anger, which was a force to be reckoned with, often came across with
 the same unrestrained carelessness of a child throwing a temper tantrum. It often led people
to underestimate him.

"You and your friend, yeah," the guy on the right, with a nose too large for his face,
confirmed.

"We don't take too kindly to fucking fags," his buddy added.

Eren punched him in the face.

Usually Eren would have some tact. They would be more verbal sparring, and then Eren
would get fed up and pull them outside where he would promptly beat the shit out of them.
But right now he was angry, and drunk, and honestly still a little touchy about his sexuality,
and he wasn't putting up with any shit.

The guy he hit fell to the floor, while the other stood, startled but winding back to throw a
punch of his own. Eren dodged for the most part, but the man's fist still clipped his shoulder.
Eren was stronger, faster, and angrier, and he managed to land a few blows while Armin
shouted for him to stop. He had no plans on doing so, until he was restrained and bodily
thrown from the bar by a burly worker, who tossed Armin and the two assholes out into the
alley as well.

"Jesus Christ, Eren," Armin groaned. "Why the hell does this always happen whenever we go
out?"

Eren didn't hear what A-hole #1 said to make A-hole #2 laugh, but he saw the smug grins
they exchanged and he was on them in an instant. The second took the opportunity to flee
while Eren grappled with the first. A fist landed in his face, but Eren ignored it, wrapping his
hand in the short hair of his opponent to slam their head against the ground.

"Eren," Armin cried, "the bartender called the cops when they kicked us out. They're going to
be here soon." The crunch of tires outside the alley told Eren that they already were but he
didn't have a single damn left to give.

"I'm not done yet," he snapped, shoving an elbow into the ribs of the man beneath him.

"Yes you fucking are, brat."

A kick connected solidly with his ribs, rolling him off his almost unconscious enemy. Armin
squeaked. Eren jerked up, eyes spitting sparks at Levi whatever-the-hell-his-last-name-was
for just a moment, wondering what the hell he was doing here - and then the man was
slapping handcuffs on him.

Chapter End Notes

So yeah, Levi is a cop. That's a thing.

If the fight seems undetailed and poorly written, it's because Eren is drunk and has no
idea what is going on. Totally. It has nothing to do with my personal inability to write
fight scenes. Who even suggested that. They're crazy.
 Chapter Five
Chapter Notes

Wow, I almost forgot that I also post this story here. Whoops.

Anyway, I know nothing about cops, or jail, or anything like that, so my advice to you
this chapter: just suspend disbelief. If it helps, just pretend this story is set in an alternate
universe where this is EXACTLY how being arrested works.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

The cuffs were cold and too tight. Amidst all the confusion, that, at least, was easy to
understand. The metal was cool, stubbornly refusing to warm up against Eren's skin, and Levi
had clasped them through the notches until they dug into Eren's wrists, probably on purpose.
Eren focused on that. It was easier for him to understand his discomfort than the fact that he
was currently being shoved, scratching and biting, into the back of a police car by the one
man he never wanted to see again. Armin was already inside, head supported by his
(uncuffed) hands. He was mumbling to himself, unintelligible phrases, probably intended to
reassure himself, but the string of words stopped as Eren's shoulder bumped his.

"This is the third time, Eren" he sighed, lifting his head to make eye contact with his friend,
who was staring blankly at the mesh divider between the front and back of the car. He didn't
acknowledge Armin's presence besides him. "This is the third time us hanging out has ended
up with both of us in the back of a police car. I get that you have anger issues - I've gotten
used to them by now - but do you really have to drag me into it every time." Eren didn't reply,
eyes still blank and unfocused. "You're not even going to apologize, are you? No? Yeah, I
didn't think so." Armin shook his head, blonde hair falling in a disarray around his face.
"Jesus Eren. I love you, but sometimes it's so fricken hard to be your friend."

A knock on Armin's window caught his attention, and he turned to see the officer, who was
gesturing behind with a look that suggested that he wanted everyone around him to drop
dead.

"I need to babysit this dick until the fucking ambulance gets here," he said flatly, voice just
loud enough to be heard through the glass. "You look after him-" with a harsh jab of his
finger towards a no-longer-despondent Eren, "-and make sure he doesn't try anything stupid."

Armin nodded, turning back to his best friend who was now glaring at the officer. Armin was
unsurprised by the glare itself, though slightly shocked by the intensity of it. The phrase "if
looks could kill," came to mind. The ambulance arrived five minutes later, and Eren's death
look never faltered. Eren didn't even spare a smug grim for the moment the guy he had beaten
was loaded into the back of the ambulance, now unconscious, mostly likely sporting several
broken or cracked ribs and a fractured wrist. His glare was focused, with an intensity that
alarmed even Armin, who had been exposed to it for years, solely on the man in blue, and
when the aforementioned officer finally opened the driver's side door, Eren leaned forward to
band his fist on the partition.

"Oi," he growled. "What the fuck is going on here?" Even with the answer staring him
straight in the face, Eren was confused as hell, and that was only fueling his anger. When
Eren got mad, it was a self-sustaining force, that constantly found excuses to keep itself
burning. It wasn't hard in this case. His "soulmate," who he had hoped to never see again, had
handcuffed him and thrown him in the back of a police car. (Eren was disgusted to realize
how kinky that sounded, and then even more disgusted to realize that it wasn't actually kinky,
it was just reality.)

Levi spared him an unreadable look - eyes blank, lips tight, an eyebrow slightly raised -
before slamming his door shut and shoving his key in the ignition. "What the fuck does it
look like?" he replied with a dry sarcasm.

"You're a cop?" Eren demanded, unable to match the new information with the mental image
he had already created of Levi. The man was brash and disrespectful. He hardly seemed like
the type to car about justice or rules. He had kicked Eren off of the other guy with enough
force to send him flying, for fuck's sake. Wasn't that police brutality or something?

"Did you miss the part where I shoved you in the back of my fucking police car?"

"You two... know each other?" Armin asked, surveying the two of them with sharp eyes. Levi
laughed, a sound just as flat and emotionless as his voice. Eren cringed, both at the ungodly
sound, and the realization that his friend would inevitably realize just how they knew each
other.

"You could say that," the short man answered, smirking slightly with a type of wry
amusement that made Eren want to punch him.

"No we fucking don't," Eren corrected. "He's just some asshole off the street." As far as he
was concerned, it was true.

"Oh, is that what kids are calling it these days?" Levi sneered, the blankness of his voice
giving way to blatant hostility. Eren preferred it to the coldness that was intimidating if only
due to its unreadability.

"I'm not a kid," Eren said, already tired of Levi's ever-present 'mightier than thou' attitude.
The guy was older, sure, but he was hardly a better person for it, based on what Eren had seen
so far.

"You look and act like a fucking twelve year-old," Levi deadpanned. "You're a child."

"If I'm a child, aren't you a pedophile?" Eren returned, quirking an eyebrow in challenge.
"And I'm nineteen, for your information." A flash of genuine surprise shown on Levi's face,
but it was quickly discarded. Eren would have missed it if he weren't glaring so intently.
"Holy shit, you can't be serious. You're barely fucking legal! If I had met you a couple years
earlier, you would have actually been jail bait. No wonder I had to wait so god damned long."

Levi's hands clenched on the steering wheel. His knuckles stood out starkly, bone white
against his already pale complexion. His fingers unfurled for a moment before snapping
down again in a slightly different location. To Eren's horror, he was entranced by the
movement. Levi's fingers were long and almost skeletally thin. They looked like something
that would come out of a Tim Burton movie, and Eren didn't know whether to call them
elegant or downright creepy.

It was Armin's quiet "oh" of realization that drew Eren out of his musings. Armin stared for a
moment, his blue eyes almost comically wide as he processed his new information, and then
his face crumpled like wet paper and the first giggle burst from his mouth. Eren scowled,
annoyed but unsurprised. Armin was smart and level headed, easily the most reasonable
person Eren knew, but he always laughed at shit like this - especially if said shit somehow
involved Eren.

"It's not fucking funny, Armin," he said, bumping his fists against Armin's bowed head,
ignoring the twinge of pain the movement caused when his cuffs bit into his skin.

"It's like a cosmic joke," Armin gasped. "Of course it's funny!"

"If this is a cosmic joke," Levi offered dryly, "the Universe is on par with comedians who
only tell jokes about airline food."

"Everyone in the audience is just coughing uncomfortably," Eren added. "The joke is so bad
that it doesn't even deserve pity - it's just shameful."

"And there are crickets chirping, even though it's the middle of the fucking winter. The
fucking pests came out of their disgusting hiding places just to emphasize how shitty the joke
was." Eren nodded in fierce agreement.

Armin finally fell silent. He stared, looking from Eren's serious face to the back of Levi's
head, eventually slouching back into his seat. The corner of his mouth twitched.

"You two are perfect for each other."

The silence that followed his statement put all other awkward silences in Eren's lifetime to
shame. He repeated the words in his head, trying to comprehend their exact meaning.
Vaguely, he saw Levi's hands again, as their grip tightened and released in spastic spurts
against the steering wheel, and he noted that Levi's hands were apparently the most
expressive part of him. Eren's brain resumed its normal functions slowly, then all at once.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" he asked, voice rising quickly. "Don't make me
punch you in the face, Armin." Armin raised his hands in surrender, and okay, Eren wasn't
going to hit him, but he was not a happy camper right now.

And somehow, it was all Levi's fault.

Eren was pissed, and it was because of Levi (because Levi was the easiest things around to be
angry about). The stupid asshole showed up and made things even more tense with Mikasa
then usual, and then Eren goes to a bar to blow off steam, gets in a fight, and who shows up
to haul him off to jail but the new bane of his existence! Seriously, it had only been a day, and
the guy had already taken Jean's place at the top of Eren's "people I hot to never see again"
list.

The three minutes remaining in the drive to the station were spent in silence. Eren wondered
if his anger was tangible, if Levi could feel it like nails or knives driving into the side of his
face and neck (and fucking hands). The vehicle stopped with a jerk, and Levi got out, closing
his door with a slam before circling around to Eren's. Levi yanked him out of the car by his
arm, and Eren hissed, both from the contact itself and from the jolt of pain as his wrists
jostled. Levi rolled his eyes.

"Don't be melodramatic, brat."

Oh, that was it.

First of all, Eren was not being melodramatic. He didn't fall to the floor screaming or
anything like that. No, he exhaled harshly through his teeth to express his discontent at being
touch by Levi. That was perfectly reasonable, because Levi was a dick, and the fact that he
was touching Eren was disgusting. It actually made his skin crawl. His wrists were killing
him now, also because Levi was a dick, who had intentionally put Eren's cuffs on too tight.
It's not like they had magically loosened over time. No, they had been fucking chaffing for
the last twenty minutes.

Secondly, Eren was not a brat. He was sick of the way Levi said it. He hated being treated
like a child (even if he sometimes acted like one) and being treated that way by Levi, of all
people, rubbed him the wrong way - the worst way.

Eren was so done.

He ripped his arm from Levi's grasp, stumbling slightly. His balance was fucked up since his
wrists were bound, but that didn't stop him from twisting around, aiming a heavy kick at
Levi's stomach. Armin screamed behind him, scrambling out of the car, but Eren ignored
him, baring his teeth in what was probably a smile. He braced his body for impact, trying to
preemptively set his balance so he wouldn't fall over, and-

Then Levi had a forearm braced against his windpipe and a hand fisted in his hair.

"If you try that again, I will not hesitate to knock your teeth out," Levi growled against his
ear. "You're lucky I'm not going to charge you with assault on an officer. You'll be in deep
enough shit already if they guy you beat up decides to press charges."

Eren stumbled when Levi released him, gasping for air. He stretched his arms out in front of
him in an attempt to keep himself upright, but a tap of Levi's foot against his ankles sent him
to his knees. He glared up at the smirking man, wishing they they were in some shady dark
alley - or really anywhere other that in front of a police station - so he could actually murder
the asshole. Armin proffered a hand, and Eren accepted it after a moment, pulling himself
back up with his friend's help. Levi led them inside the station with a smug smirk that didn't
suit him.

"Levi!" a small woman exclaimed, rushing forward. "You're not supposed to go on patrols
alone. If you're not going to take me with you, at least bring Eld or someone." She frowned
disapprovingly, placing her hands on her hips in a way that was distinctly motherly.

"It's not necessary, Petra," Levi replied, looking down to her. She was probably one of the
only people his own age he actually could look down to, Eren noted disdainfully, and he was
still only a couple centimeters taller than her. "I'm fine, aren't I?"

"This time, yeah. But it's dangerous to go alone, Levi. You might get caught up in something
that even you can't handle." Levi stared at her blankly for a moment before conceding,
probably just for convenience's sake.

"Fine, fine. Whatever you say. Can you take care of these two for now?" he asked, gesturing
to Armin, who kept a calming hand on Eren's shoulder. "The blonde one is just a witness.
Someone needs to take his report, then he can go home. The other brat-" he emphasized the
word and Eren knew he was being intentionally spiteful, "-beat the shit out of some guy. Can
you handle them?" The girl - Petra - nodded. "Good. I need to talk to Eyebrows." Without
further ado, Levi left them, and Eren felt some of the tension ease from his body when the
man disappeared around the bend of a hallway.

Eren was sat down and supervised while Armin gave his account of events in a separate
room. He glanced apologetically at Eren when he returned, and Eren shrugged it off. He
knew his blonde friend would answer any and all questions honestly, even if those answers
pained Eren in a bad light. Eren didn't mind. He knew what he had done, after all, and he
knew that it was wrong - at least in the eyes of the law - but he still didn't regret it for a
moment.

Petra questioned him next, and his handcuffs were thankfully removed. Eren also answered
honestly - more or less. In his account, the other guys may or may not have thrown the first
punch. As far as Eren was concerned, the other guys had moved first. They had called Eren
and Armin fags, after all. That was a punch in Eren's book - a figurative one, but Petra didn't
ask if he meant it literally, so he was telling the truth. More or less.

Levi returned halfway through the questioning, and Petra noticed the way Eren instantly
tensed and closed off. Shooting Levi questioning looks, she tried to subtly shoo him away,
but he waved her off, lingering silently.

He escorted Eren to the cells in back, but gestured to the phone of the wall before locking
him in one.

"You get a call." Eren nodded stiffly. Picking up the phone, he waited for Levi to leave, or at
least back away or something, but the man showed no inclination of doing so. With a long-
suffering sigh, Eren dialed one of only two numbers he knew by heart.

He wasn't sure what he was hoping for. Mikasa would answer or she wouldn't. If she did, she
would come get him. If she didn't, he would spend the night here. He couldn't say which he
would prefer. He was still mad at her, and she was probably still mad at him. But then again,
Levi was here, and Eren wanted to be where Levi wasn't.

She answered after two rings.

"Hello?"

"Heeeey Mikasa..." Eren drawled, rubbing the back of his neck. He shot an apprehensive look
towards Levi who was watching him with keen eyes.

"Eren?" Her tone instantly became more hostile and Eren sighed slightly, pulling away from
the receiver for a moment so she wouldn't hear. "What's up? why are you calling?"

"Yeah, about that. I need you to come get me."

"Where are you?" she asked. Eren could feel her getting more defensive every second they
were on the line together.

"...Jail."

"You've got to be kidding me. You're joking, right?"

"Nope." He popped the p, trying to ease the tension and failing miserably. "Well, technically
I'm just in holding. But, you know, basically the same thing."

"God damn it, Eren."

"So, are you going to come get me, or what." There was a long pause.

"Of course I am."

"Thanks, Mikasa."

"Well, I don't really have all that much of a choice, now do I?" she questioned, and Eren
smiled to hear some humor return to her voice.

"You totally do," he joked back. "We both know you could leave me here to rot and not even
loose sleep over it." She laughed, and it was more tense than usual and a little forced, but at
least she was laughing.

"Shut up, you prick."

"Fine, fine. I'll see you soon?"

"Soon," she confirmed. Eren moved to hang up, but thought better of it.

"Mikasa?" he called, to see if she was still there. She hummed in acknowledgement. "Love
you."

"Love you, too. I'll be there soon."

 Eren hung up with a small smile on his face, ignoring the fact that Levi was still there,
currently holding a cell door open. After some prodding, he went into the cell, settling on the
plain cot in the corner, making himself comfortable while he waited for his girlfriend to
retrieve him.

Chapter End Notes

This chapter was soo hard to write. Well, not hard per say, so much as uncomfortable.
As mentioned at the beginning, I have no idea how stuff works, so the whole time I was
writing, I was super hesitant about it (but pfft, like I'm actually going to do research or
something, I'm so lazy), and then I realized that I have no idea how Levi characters.
Like, how does he even do that? And here I am, writing a fic in which he is a main
character. Dig the hole a littler deeper, why don't you. It's like, I realized that there's no
climbing out, so I tried to dig my way to China, except I forgot that the Earth has a
gooey molten center that I'm about to run into.
So I started drawing instead, and that is so much easier, and then I got sidetracked, and
now we're here.
/rant over

Also be warned that this has not been proofread in the slightest. If you want to know
why, refer again to the rant above.
 Chapter Six
Chapter Summary

Eren is stupid.

Chapter Notes

While reading this chapter (and any chapter of this story, really) keep in mind that the
PoV is third person limited. The perspective switches sometimes, but that perspective is
always limited. As in, when it's in Eren's perspective, you don't get magical insight into
Levi's thoughts and feelings. Eren is 100% an unreliable narrator.

Also, can I just say that you know you're bad at pacing when the first day of your story
spans seven chapters (yes, seven, there's still one more after this). And the chapters
following those first seven are filled with time skips. I'm such a noob.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

The station was about a half hour from campus, and the wait wouldn't have been so bad if
Eren had had any of his stuff. As it were, all of his stuff had been taken before his was
questioned: his phone, his wallet, his jacket, hell - even his shoes. All he could do for the next
thirty minutes was stare at the wall across from the cot he was seated on, picking pictures out
from the uneven texture of the stone like he was gazing at clouds. Maybe even that wouldn't
have been so bad. It was mind numbing, without a doubt, but it was the type of monotony
that lulled you into a trance and made time pass quickly. So maybe it wouldn't have been that
bad - if not for Levi.

It was bad enough that the man arrested Eren, bad enough that he sat in on the last half of
Eren's questioning, and bad enough that he listened to all of Eren's phone call with Mikasa. It
was bad enough that Eren's day had gone down the drain just because Levi existed. It was
worse that Levi was still there.

It had been a long day. Eren was in a jail cell, having been put there by his soulmate after a
fight with his girlfriend about said soulmate. He just wanted to be alone for half an hour
before he had to face Mikasa and probably end up fighting with her yet again because of the
tension that had been running rampant between them lately. He wanted to close his eyes and
enjoy some calm, peaceful silence. He wanted to finally let go of the anger that had been
burning in his stomach since his argument with Mikasa.
But no, of course he couldn't do that. He couldn't do any of it, because Levi was still
lingering. He had locked Eren in a cell, and Eren had waited patiently for him to clear out,
but the man just sat himself in a chair, and pulled out his phone like he was in it for the long
haul.

Eren didn't know what to say. All he could do was gape and glare suspiciously as Levi leaned
his chair back on two legs and tapped away at some game. He wanted to yell, scream
something, but at this point he didn't know what to say. Few things could render Eren Jeager
speechless, but congratulations to Levi, he had done it. Something unintelligible fell from
Eren's lips, and Levi glanced his way with a thin eyebrow quirked.

"Something bugging you, brat? You look constipated."

"What are you doing?" Eren spluttered, the words shocked out of him by the challenging look
in Levi's eyes. Levi glanced at the phone in his hand before waving it slightly.

"Playing ," he replied. Eren narrowed his eyes in disbelief. Was he really just sitting there
playing some shitty game as if everything was completely normal? Though Eren supposed
that was strangely apt. The game was all about growing so you could devour other people.
"I'm fucking awesome at it."

He was doing this intentionally, Eren knew. Levi probably wanted to be somewhere else just
as much as Eren did, but the sadistic shrimp apparently enjoyed making Eren uncomfortable
more. Eren could see the gleam in Levi's eyes that told him that the man knew just how
uncomfortable Eren was with the situation. Eren took slight solace in the fact that Levi must
be just as uncomfortable.

Being someone's soulmate was so incredibly awkward. Here they were, supposedly perfect
for each other because of some bands they used to have on their arms. Anyone who knew
they were soulmates would expect them to make nice, start dating, and eventually get
married. But they wanted nothing to do with each other. They had yet to have an actual
conversation (hopefully they never would) and the only words they had exchanged were
hostile ones. Levi's insistence on hanging around was just making everything worse. He
should have gotten the hell away as soon as he could, but it seemed that his desire to make
Eren suffer outweighed his desire to put distance between them.

Without further comment, Levi returned to his game.

"That's not what I meant and you know it." Eren scowled and he could swear he was
developing a twitch at the side of his mouth from doing it so much. He had a short temper,
sure, but that was usually balanced by a good bit of cheerfulness. Today is seemed like he
was just pissed all the time. Correction: it didn't seem like he was pissed all the time, he was
pissed all the time. Levi spared him another glance and sighed.

"Fine," he conceded. "You're in police custody. Someone has to be back here to supervise
you."

"Okay, I get it," Eren said, with a brisk nod of grudging approval. "But why you?"
"What do you mean, why me?" Levi asked, and Eren felt like an idiot from Levi's look alone.
"It's my fucking job. What the fuck do you want from me, brat?"

The question was rhetorical, but Eren answered bluntly and honestly: "Mainly for you to go
away."

Levi stared at him for a long moment, and Eren was sick and tired of the man's completely
unreadable expression. Was he mad at Eren for being a dick? Was he enjoying making Eren
uncomfortable? Did he even have an opinion on the situation? Eren couldn't tell. Just as the
silence was getting uncomfortable, Levi sighed.

"Well I can't fucking do that. Just suck it up; your girlfriend will be here soon."

As hard as Levi was to read, even Eren could hear the spite wrapped around the word
"girlfriend," and he immediately bristled. He understood that Levi didn't like him, but that
was no reason to judge Mikasa. Eren was stupid and short tempered and apparently a "brat,"
but Mikasa was nothing like him. Levi had no right to judge her just because he was dating
Eren.

For a moment Eren considered letting it go, because it had been a long day and he was tired
of fighting - but then again, Eren never let things go. He stood, moving away from the shabby
cot, and came to a stop at the front of his cell, near where Levi was seated.

"Oi," he called pointlessly, since Levi's attention had been on him since he stood. Eren
gripped a bar in one hand, leaning down slightly so he was closer to Levi's eye level, and put
on his best intimidating glower. "What do you have against Mikasa?"

Pure shock shone on Levi's face. His features fell slack with it, his usually hooded eyes
widened, and his hands twitched. It was the first time Eren had seen Levi display a genuine
emotion for longer than a split second, and Eren bitterly noted that Levi actually looked
human like this, instead of like a robot or some kind of doll.

"What do I have against Mikasa?" he parroted, grey eyes wide and baffled. His fingers
tightened around his phone, folding tensely over the brightly colored screen of game over.
"Well, I don't know. What could I possibly have against your girlfriend, Eren?"

Eren jolted slightly at the use of him name, delaying his reply. Honestly, Eren had never
expected Levi to call him anything other than "brat." He hated the way Levi said his name -
hated that Levi said it at all. It sounded wrong and unnatural, if only because it sounded
completely normal and fine when it shouldn't have. Eren swallowed.

"I don't know," he finally replied. "You don't even know her. You have no reason to dislike
her. She's a better person than I am, anyway."

Levi exhaled heavily, raising a hand to press slender fingers against his temple as if he was
fighting a headache. He glared, and it was different than all the glared before it. Levi was just
about always glaring, but those were "I'm angry at the world, and I hate everything" glares.
This, though - this was and "I'm angry at you, and I hate you" glare, and Eren shuddered
slightly to be the focus of all that emotion.
"You're an idiot," Levi sighed, voice angry but resigned. "Go back to your shitty cot. Your
girlfriend should be here any minute."

Eren's protests that he was not an idiot were met by stony silence, and when it became
obvious that his efforts were fruitless he retreated to the cot and collapsed back into it.
Burying his face in the flat pillow he noted that Levi was right, not about Eren being an idiot,
but about Mikasa's imminent arrival. Thirty minutes had just about passes, so she could be
walking up any moment. Dread bubbled in Eren's stomach, and it took him a moment to
become consciously aware of why.

Mikasa was coming here. Levi was already here.

Mikasa, his paranoid, angry girlfriend, was coming here. Levi, his soulmate, was already
here.

Mikasa, his paranoid, angry girlfriend was coming here, and she was going to meet Levi, his
soulmate, the very person she was paranoid and angry about.

The apprehension churned in his stomach, bringing with it the horrible awareness that this
was not going to end well. Pressing his face further into the pillow, Eren squeezed his eyes
shut and tried to calm himself down. Maybe this would be for the better. Mikasa would meet
Levi and realize that he was no threat to her. She would calm down and their relationship
would go back to the way it was meant to be. Or, better yet, Mikasa would come get him,
they would leave, and she would be none the wiser as to who Levi was. Things wouldn't get
better, but they wouldn't get worse.

Eren snapped up when he heard footsteps moving down the hall, breath catching in his throat
as he steeled himself in determination. He moved to the door of his cell to see Mikasa
approaching, escorted by Petra. Levi made no move to open the cell, opting instead to watch
the girls approach. Eren slapped his shoulder, and Levi retrieved his keys with a roll of his
eyes.

When Eren left his cell, he walked immediately to Mikasa, ignoring both Levi and Petra as he
did everything he could to leave as quickly as possible. Mikasa met him with flat, slightly
irritated eyes, placing her hands on his arms as she appraised him.

"You're covered in bruises," she informed him with a disappointed shake of her head. "It'll
probably take hours to clean you up. Your hands are mess." Eren glanced down to see that she
was, in fact, correct. His knuckles were bruised, split, and scraped - a bloody mess that would
probably hurt like hell tomorrow.

"I still have plenty of first aid stuff back at my dorm," he dismissed with a careless shrug. He
was well accustomed to patching himself up (and occasionally Jean, much to his chagrin).

"I can't believe you got in another fight," Mikasa sighed. She shook her head with a look that
spoke of major frustration that Eren couldn't understand. Eren had been getting in fights his
whole life. She had had twelve years to get used to it, but she still sometimes seemed
surprised. "But I'm glad you're okay." One of her hands moved from his arm to his cheek, and
she leaned up slightly to place a kiss at the corner of his mouth.
"I am 100% okay," he confirmed, grinning cheekily. "Let's just go back. Jean is with Marco
tonight, so you can hang out at my place with Armin and me. If you want." Mikasa hesitated
long enough to make Eren uncomfortable, but cautiously smiled, and he wrapped his arms
around her, bowing his head against hers.

"Sounds nice."

Petra watched their exchange with a soft smile and dreamy eyes. "Ah, young love," she
sighed with a small laugh. "Levi, go get his stuff so they can go."

Eren knew the exact moment where he became fucked. Mikasa tensed in his arms and her
eyes closed off like a wall had dropped behind them. She turned, pulling away from Eren's
hold to stare at Levi's back.

"He's Levi?" she questioned, voice hot with a hollow anger. "That prick is your soulmate?"

Petra, still standing innocently on the side, gasped, head whipping around to stare after her
coworker. She blinked several times in rapid succession.

"Yeah," Eren answered weakly, knowing that he would just aggravate Mikasa further if he
kept silent. "That's him."

"What the hell is he doing here?"

"He's a cop, apparently."

"Your soulmate is a cop?" She laughed at the irony. "That doesn't make any sense."

Eren shrugged helplessly. Mikasa was basically just stating things that he had already
thought.

Levi returned a moment later to a tense silence. Petra watched with morbid anticipation. He
hefted the plastic bag filled with Eren's belongings before tossing them over, content to
ignore the atmosphere between his companions. Mikasa caught his eye and they stood,
running their gazes over each other with thinly veiled hostility (on Mikasa's part, anyway -
Levi was unreadable as always). Mikasa's lips twitched.

"Jesus, Eren, he's so short," she snickered. "I thought you had taste."

Mikasa, appeased, turned back to Eren and gripped his arm, telling him that they were good
to go. After they left, Petra turned to Levi, eyes still wide.

"I didn't know you met your soulmate," she said cautiously, hunting for tells as to what he
was feeling. She found none.

"It's not like it fucking matters," he replied before turning away. He gathered his things
quickly and left the station, making for his car to go home. His shift had ended hours ago.
Chapter End Notes

Last time on Risk: Eren was stupid.

This time on Risk: Eren was stupid.

Next time on Risk: Eren is stupid.

Hm. I'm sensing a pattern.

 Chapter Seven
Chapter Notes

I am so happy to finish up the first day of this story. It has gone on too long. I feel like
I've been writing the same thing over and over. My writing novice is showing, need to
cover it up quickly.

Jesus, this chapter is so short. Like, even shorter than usual. I try to keep them between
2000 and 3000 words. This is just sad. Apologies.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Mikasa drove them back to campus in the run down car they had bought together when they
were 17. Since starting college, they had used it significantly less, but they still made a point
to go out on the occasional drive together. Lots of memories had been made in this car. Hazy
summer days spent driving to distant locations, where they would kill a few hours before
heading home in the evening. Nights spent star gazing on the hood, blanket laid out to
combat the chill. Pretending that they could run away together when things got to be too
much to handle, driving off into the sunset as if they would never come back, returning with
slightly lighter hearts. Usually Eren would take a moment to reminisce, lean his head back
and enjoy the nostalgia with closed eyes and a small smile. Unfortunately, the tension in the
vehicle prevented him from doing so. Mikasa stared dead ahead, hands gripping the steering
wheel with far more force than was necessary.

Eren felt his anger from earlier festering, fed by the negative energy of the silence they sat in,
and multiplied by the way Mikasa had acted at the station. The barb she had thrown at Levi
on their way out was unjustified. The man hadn't said anything, hadn't even looked at her
wrong, and she had insulted him to his face. She had no more reason to dislike Levi than Levi
had to dislike her. It wasn't as if Levi wanted to be Eren's soulmate. He probably hated Eren
just as much as Eren hated him. She hated him for something he couldn't control. Eren hated
him because he acted like a prick - that, at least, was an actual, justified reason. Mikasa was
just being petty for the sake of it, it seemed.

The ride was silent, and Eren enjoyed that silence despite how sharp it was. He knew it
would inevitably devolve into shouting when they got to his dorm, because that was just the
way things always escalated between them. Eren planned to enjoy the relative calm while it
lasted. Both of them had been getting angrier and angrier as the drive progress, and they
needed to let it out. Eren just hoped that it wouldn't get physical. Arguing he could handle.
Outright fighting, with teeth and nails and fists, he hated.

The walk to Eren's dorm was equally silent, but Eren held Mikasa's hand and that seemed to
calm both of them down, just enough so they could remain rational human beings rather than
becoming raving lunatics the moment they were in private. It reminded them why they were
doing this. Reminded them that even though things were hard sometimes, especially now,
their relationship was worth it.

Eren would handle all argument, all the insecurities, the paranoia, the pettiness that Mikasa
had to offer, and he wouldn't even complain, so long as he got to hold her hand at the end of
it all.

Armin was already in Eren's room when Eren and Mikasa got there, sitting on Eren's bed,
face tight with worry. He bolted up when the door knob rattled, tripping over himself as he
stumbled forward.

"You're back," he gasped in relief. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, I guess," Eren answered with a shrug. "Can't really know for sure until I find out if
that guy is going to press charges."

"He won't," Armin assured with such absolute certainty that Eren had no choice but to
believe him. When Armin was sure about something, he always ended up being right. "He
got beat up by a 'fag.' Guys like that don't press charges over stuff like this. His pride will be
too wounded to take it to court."

"Well then, everything is perfect," Eren amended, grinning widely. He tossed his things to the
side. His bag landed in front of the door, and he noted with a smug appreciation that Jean
would probably trip over it when he came back tomorrow. Eren kicked his shoes off, toeing
them under the bed before collapsing on top of it. He had just begun unwinding his muscles
when Mikasa spoke.

"Everything is not perfect," she declared as if she was personally affronted by Eren's claim.
She ripped the scarf from her neck and tossed it over Eren's desk chair, and that's when Eren
realized that he was in truly deep shit. Mikasa only ever took off her scarf when either the
room or her temper was running extremely hot. Eren knew it wasn't the first because the
dorm rooms were always kept insufferably cool, which could only mean that Mikasa was
well and truly pissed. He sat up slowly, meeting Mikasa's angry stare with head on
determination.

"It's not perfect!" she repeated, fumbling slightly. "It's not. That guy - that guy." Mikasa had
never been the best with words. She always favored blunt, decisive statements, but she lost
grips with that if she got upset enough. Eren knew that, in this case, her momentary loss of
composure was fueled not only by her anger but also by her distress, and the knowledge
made his chest ache behind his own anger. He hated when she hurt.

"So you met Levi, then," Armin interjected with casual optimism, as if he had just pointed
out a particular detail of the weather. His tone was too bright for the conversation, and
Mikasa's eyes shone with betrayal.

"Yes, I met Levi," she spat. "What was he even doing there?"

"He was doing his job, Mikasa," Eren shouted back. "I was pissed about him being there, too,
but it's not like there was anything that could have been done about it. It just happened."
"I know," she said, the volume of her words dropping as her voice cracked. "That's what I'm
afraid of." She covered her face with her hands, shoulders heaving with her breaths as she got
a hold on herself. When she looked up, her face was carefully composed and her eyes were
the empty grey they became whenever she detached herself from a situation. "He's your
soulmate, Eren." She emphasized the word like it was supposed to mean something, like it
alone would make Eren suddenly understand her way of thinking.

"I've already told you that that doesn't matter." He felt like he had said it a million times
already, but apparently once more was in order. The words felt stale on his tongue. "I don't
care."

"But maybe he does."

"What?"

"He's your soulmate. Which also means that you're his. You're his soulmate. You are perfect
for him. Maybe that matters to him. Maybe he cares." The "maybe he'll try to take you from
me" went unspoken, but Eren heard it anyway.

"What are you talking about?" Eren questioned, confusion feeding his anger. "Levi is as
uninterested in this as I am. We want nothing to do with each other - it's mutual. We'll
probably never speak again."

Mikasa stared at him. Her face was blank and unreadable in a way that really shouldn't have
reminded Eren of Levi, considering the circumstances.

"I have to go," she finally said, making for the door before Eren could do anything. "You can
take care of your injuries on your own, right?"

She was gone before Eren could tell her not to run away. He glared at the door, stupidly
noticing that she had pushed his bag to the side when she left, so he couldn't even look
forward to making Jean suffer tomorrow. Armin stared, too, shocked by the exchange, but not
shocked to the point that he wasn't going to comment on it.

"She's has a point, you know." Eren stared at his friend, completely bewildered, and Armin
took his silence as a prompt to elaborate, even though Eren really didn't want to hear the
follow up to that statement.

"Most people look forward to meeting their soulmate. Maybe they're not excited, per say, but
they're at least curious. Levi is older than us, so he's probably been waiting a long time. Of
course, then he meets you and you're... the way you are. If you think about it, it's really not
fair to him at all."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Just that Levi deserves an actual soulmate. Everyone does."

"So I'm not good enough?" Eren asked, offended beyond reason. He didn't even want to be
Levi's soulmate, had no intentions of acting like one, but was still angered by the implication
 that Levi was actually unlucky to be paired with him. Eren was a catch, god damn it.

"You can hardly consider yourself an 'actual soulmate' if you don't even give him a chance."

"So what? Are you telling me to date him, leave Mikasa?"

"What?" Armin's voice cracked when it rose with shock. "No! I'm just saying that it's not fair,
is all." Armin stared at Eren like he had turned into a twenty meter tall man-eating monster,
and Eren's face grew hot with the realization that he was the one who had made it weird.

"It's fine," Eren said quickly, fumbling to cover his tracks. "Levi didn't want a soulmate,
either."

"What makes you think that, anyway? You've implied it several times now, but Levi's never
actually said so, has he?" Eren frowned at the realization that, no, Levi never had said he
didn't want a soulmate. Not that it mattered, because Levi made it plenty obvious even
without saying so. He had shown absolutely zero interest in Eren, right from the get-go. Eren
was sure that Levi had no interest in this soulmate nonsense, either; that was one thing they
had in common. "You need to stop assuming that everyone thinks like you."

Silence fell between them. Eren glared at his bedspread like it was hiding the secrets of the
Universe from him. Armin looked on with long-suffering eyes. The moment stretched longer
than was reasonable, and Armin pulled out a book, leaving his friend to his contemplations.
He was interrupted half a page in.

"Armin," Eren called in a worryingly weak voice. "Mikasa left her scarf." Armin glance to
Eren's desk, shocked to see that it was true. Mikasa's scarf was still draped over the chair, the
faded red seeming bright against the dull faux leather.

"So, I'm thinking of getting everyone together," Armin said hastily, spitting out the first thing
that came to his mind to distract Eren. "My birthday is in a couple weeks, but I have a project
due around then, so I thought we could all go out in a few days. Friday, probably."

"Huh? Oh. Sounds good." Eren glanced at him, and Armin was glad he had at least pulled the
brunette's attention away from the scarf, even if Eren's words were still hollow and distracted.
He had no clue how Mikasa had managed to leave the article behind. It meant so much to her
and Eren. Armin's moment of relief was short lived. It died the moment he saw the look in his
friend's eyes.

Eren looked absolutely lost.

Chapter End Notes

God, my Eremika feels have been running rampant lately. I know that's not what you're
here for, but you'll just have to put up with it until the Riren starts (which'll be a while).
Also, Jensen Ackles is a beautiful man. That has nothing to do with anything, but I have
been reading too much Destiel lately, and I needed to let it out.

I'll be on my way now.

 Chapter Eight
Chapter Notes

I always come THIS close to forgetting to update this site. THIIIIS close. I cannot
accurately represent just how close.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Armin did arrange a party for Friday, though it was less a party so much as a get together at a
club about ten minutes outside campus. It was short notice, since Armin wasn't much of an
event planner and he had only thought of it in the first place to distract Eren, but their group
of friends was always eager to meet up and drink. Everyone said they would be there, besides
for Annie, who joined a group thing if there was going to be more than five people in the
room (secretly Eren wondered how she managed to function in any of her classes). Despite
the fact that the even was to organized to celebrate Armin's birthday, he and Eren were about
the last to arrive, gaining entrance to the club with Connie and Sasha, who were well known
for being late to anything that didn't have a buffet.

It had been unusually difficult for Armin to pull Eren out of his room. Typically, Eren was the
energetic, extroverted type, who thrived in crowds and loved to go out with friends, but today
he lingered in his room and hesitated in the doorway, one hand shoved deep into the pocket
of his tight jeans, the other fiddling with the ends of Mikasa's scarf. He had wrapped it
around his neck, wearing it himself until he could return it to his girlfriend. Armin was
slightly disoriented to see it on Eren instead of Mikasa, blinking in unconscious surprise
every time he looked back to his friend after glancing away. He reminded himself that the
scarf had been Eren's before it had been Mikasa's. He vaguely recalled a small Eren running
around with it tossed over his shoulders, taking Armin along with him on childhood
adventures, before they had even met Mikasa. Sometimes Armin missed those days, even if
he hated himself for it.

Eren and Mikasa hadn't spoken since she left his dorm two days earlier. They had exchanged
texts - mainly Eren telling her that she left her scarf and her asking him to return it "the next
time they saw each other," as if that day could be weeks away - but they hadn't called, and
neither had visited the other's dorm. It was odd, being away from Mikasa for even two days
after years of seeing her daily without fail.

Honestly, Eren was terrified to see her again. He was pissed, too, but mostly, he was scared.
Not that the difference was huge, since Eren's fear usually manifested as anger. Just like his
sadness, and his frustration, and 75% of all his emotions, really.

Eren was used to fighting with Mikasa. They fought all the time, enough that people who
didn't know them well claimed that their relationship was dysfunctional. The fighting didn't
bother Eren much anymore, even if it did annoy him sometimes, but the fact that Mikasa had
left her scarf without even thinking - that bothered him. He gave her that scarf when they
were nine years old, the day he saw her eyes empty out for the first time, and they day she
became a member of his family. It was stupid and too sentimental, but that scarf was
symbolic for something important. That she had just thrown it away left a sick feeling laying
heavy and thick at the bottom of Eren's stomach.

When their eyes met as Eren and Armin pushed through the crowd, things became incredibly
uncomfortable. She stood to greet them and Eren came to a stop in front of her while Armin
slid into a seat next to Jean. Jean, Reiner, Connie, Sasha, and Ymir watched with unabashed
curiosity. Marco, Bert, and Krista at least had the decency to look slightly concerned. It was
no secret that Eren had met his soulmate by now, though few of the people gathered at the
table knew the particulars of the situation. They knew that Eren's fuse had wound down, and
they knew that Mikasa was upset about it, and that was all they needed to know.

Biting the inside of his cheek, Eren removed the scarf, draping it clumsily around Mikasa's
neck. Half of it ended up over her face, and she blinked twice, looking at him with wide eyes,
just like she had when they were kids. He scowled at her and nodded briskly, still angry and
unsure and afraid, but ignoring it all, at least for the moment. She nodded back, the small
movement just enough to ease some of Eren's inner turmoil, and pulled the fabric down so it
no longer covered her nose, but still covered her mouth - the way she always wore it when
she didn't want to talk.

They took their seats, squeezing in next to Ymir (who looked disappointed at the lack of a
scene) and Krista (who looked relieved for the same reason) and Eren threw an arm over
Mikasa's shoulders. After a second of delay, she relaxed into his side, but he could still feel
the hesitation and distrust in her muscles, and he wondered when the two of them had turned
into a couple of beat dogs.

"So Armin," Jean said with a teasing grin, the first of the group to turn his attention away
from Eren and Mikasa, "finally turning nineteen, huh?" Armin rolled his eyes. He was the
youngest of their group, barring Krista. No one cared - why would they? - but Jean was the
type of idiot who always liked to hold it over Armin's head as if it mattered.

"Maybe it's not the best idea to announce that we're celebrating my nineteenth birthday when
we're doing so with alcohol."

"Oh come on, Blondie, it's not like anyone it listening." Jean leaned back in his seat and
cleared his throat. "Attention everyone!" he said, voice louder than it should have been.
"None of us are-" he cut off with a strangled yelp when Marco, angelic smile still in place,
elbowed him in the ribs. "Jesus Marco, was that really necessary?" Jean glared at his
boyfriend, moving slightly closer to Armin while eying Marco like he might attack. Marco
shrugged.

"You were being an idiot." His smile was at odds with his words, and Jean gaped at him
before moving back to his side with only a shake of the head. Ymir laughed.

"God, you're so whipped," she observed mockingly, face split by an amused smirk as Jean
went red with anger and embarrassment. "Two years ago you would have thrown a punch if
someone pulled that, boyfriend or not."
"You're one to talk," Jean sniped back, tone more or less friendly. He and Ymir weren't the
best of friends, but they certainly got along better than he and Eren. "Krista's had you
wrapped around her finger from the moment you two met." The small blond in question
smiled sweetly, with a cute tip of her head. Ymir held her hands up in mock surrender,
smiling in crooked amusement.

"I'm not going to deny the truth, man," she said, shrugging carefreely. "That's the difference
between us. I don't deny that I'm whipped, but you try to pretend that you're still a man when
everyone knows that Marco has your balls in a vice grip." Laughter danced around the table,
Reiner's and Eren's among the loudest. Eren found himself smiling genuinely for the first
time in several days as the conversation took the form of (mostly) good natured jibes at Jean
(who pouted and grew more flustered with each one) from various parties.

The night was shaping up to be a good one, all lighthearted conversation, drinks, and
dancing. Jean and Eren fought, Eren and Armin danced like dorks, Ymir bragged about
Krista, Marco and Jean made out, Eren and Mikasa played a drinking game, Mikasa won like
always, Reiner and Bert slunk off somewhere, Connie and Sasha ordered more food than
booze (and proceeded to completely monopolize it), and everything was as it should be.

They didn't get together like this nearly often enough. Reiner and Bertolt had only joined
their group this year, and were notably less close knit - Annie as well - but the rest of them
had been friends since high school, and they used to do stuff like this every weekend. Really,
it was a miracle they had all managed to stay together this long, but maybe it was just the
small town mentality. They all went to college to get away from home, but they all chose the
same safe close-but-not-too-close option, and here they were. Eren smiled, wishing that the
night didn't have to end.

Of course, things couldn't go his way, and his night ended significantly earlier than everyone
else's. He had gone to the bar to get another drink - soda now, at Armin's insistence - a foolish
smile spread across his face, put there by a mix of alcohol and the giddy feeling that came
from being with his friends, when someone called his name. He had turned to see none other
than his crazy biology teacher, sitting with two other people, bouncing it their seat like an
excited puppy as they waved.

And that is how Eren Jeager's night came to an end.

Hange called his name again when he turned back to the bartender, but, determined to ignore
them, he ordered himself a Pepsi. Perhaps predictably, he was pulled away from the bar
before he could get it. Hange planted him in a chair before taking the one next to him. Their
two companions, one of whom Eren now recognized as Petra, looked at him questioningly.
The other was a man, a regular Captain America type, neat blonde hair, blue eyes, stern
features, and pronounced eyebrows. Eren raised a hand in a weak wave, offering them a
pained smile before turning to his abductor.

"What's this all about, Hange?" he asked them, trying not to let his building annoyance ruin
the good mood he was in.

"I told you we should hang out, sometimes," they said, as if words said briefly in parting
constituted as actual arranged plans. "Now is a time. We're Levi's friends and you're his
soulmate, so we should all get to now each other."

"I'm kind of here with friends," Eren said, forcing another smile while hooking a thumb over
his shoulder, towards his table.

"Oh, I know. We saw you a while ago. They won't miss you."

"No," Eren denied, cringing internally at her choice of words. He reminded himself to keep a
hold on his anger. Hange was his teacher, Petra was a cop, and who knew who the other guy
was, but he didn't want to get mad here. "We're celebrating my best friend's birthday, so I
really should get back."

"That blonde who came to the station with you?" Petra asked, and Eren nodded. Petra was far
less annoying than Hange. In fact, she gave off the same agreeable, "impossible to hate" air
as Krista.

"Just ten minutes, Eren," Hange insisted. "They won't mind." Eren shook his head, eyebrows
drawing together, a muscle in his jaw ticking.

"Listen, I really can't-"

"Eren, I swear to God, sit down or I will fail your bitch ass."

Eren sat.

It wasn't the treat itself that concerned him - because honestly, he couldn't be doing all that
well in any of his classes with his attendance record, and he couldn't say he cared - but the
way it was delivered made him uneasy. Hange was still smiling that practically insane smile
and their tone had been casual and too sweet. Eren was a little bit afraid of them, in that
moment. Even Petra and the other man were looking at Hange oddly for it.

"So, lets start with introductions. Since you're obviously shy, we'll go first." Eren resisted the
urge to say that he was the furthest thing from shy, he just didn't want to be there. Hange
clapped once, smile still in place.

"I'm Hange Zoe! I'm 29 years old, and I'm a biology professor at Maria-Rose University.
Occasionally I do some forensic work with the local police. I spend most of my free time
doing independent research in my lab - but keep it on the down low, because the Dean got
super pissed when he found the monkeys I was using for my last project. Mostly I do
research on soulmates, actually, so if you have any questions, you can always just ask me! I
met our darling Levi when I was taken into police custody for trespassing on a crime scene,
and we have been the best of friends ever since, even if he tries to deny it. He would die
without me, really."

The three people with Hange looked at them oddly, thought Petra and the blonde man seemed
far more accustomed to this (whatever this was) than Eren could ever imagine possible.
Hange looked to Petra, nodding with enthusiastic encouragement. Petra sighed in resignation,
and gave Eren an apologetic look.
"I'm Petra Ral," she began, much more haltingly than Hange had, occasionally glancing to
them for prompts. "I'm 30. I work at the police station - but you already know that. Erwin and
I are together... Soulmates. We got engaged in the fall." She paused, faltering, and Hange
mouthed hobbies to her. Petra shook her head, but resumed speaking. "I read a lot. Fantasy,
mainly, just to keep myself busy. I love art and music but I'm not particularly good at either.
I've... known Levi since high school. We weren't particularly close back then, but we became
friends when he got his job. We do patrols together a lot - when he doesn't go off on his own,
that is." She slumped backwards, and Hange nodded their approval. The man started without
prompting, face fitted with a friendly smile Eren didn't quite trust.

"My name is Erwin Smith. I'm 35. I work at the station as well - I'm the chief of police,
actually." Thank God Eren didn't let go of his temper earlier, then. "I spend most of my time
with Petra or at the station. I don't have many hobbies, really."

"He's work obsessed," Petra interjected.

"He is," Hange confirmed.

"Yes, well," Erwin continued without regard for them, "I met Levi when I offered him a job."

"What?" Hange asked, pouting. "You're not going to tell him the story?" Erwin raised his
(frankly quite impressive) eyebrows.

"I hardly think Levi would appreciate me telling some boy we barely know his life story."

"But this boy is his soulmate," Hange argued. They said the word the same way Mikasa said
it, as if it was supposed to magically explain everything and magically change opinions.

"Not really." Eren interrupted, before Hange could take their argument any further.

"What?" Hange and Petra asked in near unison.

"I mean, technically I am, yeah," Eren explained, "but I have a girlfriend. Nothing is going to
come of it."

"Does Levi know that?" Erwin asked.

"What? Of course. He doesn't want a soulmate either."

"Levi said that?" She asked the question with a type of confusion that Eren couldn't
understand.

"Basically, yeah."

"Well, lets just ask him when he gets back!" Hange declared, with another clap of their hands.

"Gets...back?"

Of course he was here, Eren realized. His friends were here, why wouldn't he be? The empty
chair that had been next to them, the one Eren currently occupied, was Levi's. The abandoned
drink on the table that Eren was only just now noticing was Levi's.

"Yeah," Hange said, unaware or uncaring of Eren's sudden distress. "I don't know where he
went, actually. Sometimes he just disappears, but he should be back soon."

Eren needed to get out of here before that happened.

He stood quickly, knocking his chair back with enough force to cause it to tip dangerously for
a moment before he caught it.

"Sorry," he excused. "I need to use the bathroom."

"Need to take a shit?" Hange asked, then laughed s if she had made the greatest joke of the
night. Petra snorted with a role of her eyes.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." And then he was gone.

He actually did go to the bathroom, leaning over the sink as he tried to get his breathing
under control. He growled to himself. After taking this moment to himself, he would go back
into the club, find Mikasa, and both of them would leave immediately, before either of them
had the misfortune to run into the current bane of their existences. Objectively Eren realized
that this whole thing wasn't Levi's fault, but the man was certainly the cause of a lot of
problems, and Eren needed someone to focus his anger on, or it would become self-
destructive.

The faucet next to his turned on, and Eren wasn't sure what should have caused him more
panic: that Levi was right next to him, or that he could recognize the man from his hands
alone. Eren stiffened, hoping against hope that Levi wouldn't notice him, or at least wouldn't
say anything. His hopes shattered like a physical thing when Levi spoke.

"Are you even old enough to drink, brat?" he asked, voice low and smooth and completely
emotionless. Levi already knew the answer, already knew that Eren was nineteen.

"Obviously I'm capable." Eren's reply came unbidden, falling from his lips with no conscious
thought. Levi snorted. A silence fell, Levi still scrubbing at his hands, Eren still leaning over
the sink, and Eren was relieved that there wouldn't be much talking, at least. Levi shattered
that hope, too.

"Are you okay, Eren?"

Something else shattered with Eren's hope, and he's pretty sure it was his control. Levi
sounded worried. It was faint, his voice still more or less blank, but Eren heard it. Levi was
concerned.

What the fuck was that? Who was Levi to worry, to be concerned. Levi wasn't supposed to
wan anything to do with him. Levi was supposed to avoid him, because neither of them
wanted a soulmate, and seeing each other was awkward. Levi wasn't supposed to ask if he
was okay, wasn't supposed to use Eren's first name, and definitely wasn't supposed to do all
of it with something fucking tender hidden at the edge of his voice.
 "I was perfectly okay until you showed up!" Eren snapped, whipping his head up to expose
Levi to the full force of his glare. Levi's empty grey eyes sharpened suddenly, they neutral
grey shifting to a gleaming silver that reminded Eren (not inaccurately) of razor blades. The
man exhaled heavily through his nose, finally pulling his hands from under the stream of
water and switching it off. "Even if I wasn't okay - even if I wasn't - it would be you're fault!"
Eren knew he was placing blame, pointing fingers like a child, but it didn't matter, because it
made sense in his head.

Levi twitched his fingers, attentively shaking water from the tips, and then he slammed Eren
into the wall.

Eren gasped as his back met the tile, breath caught by the forearm placed firmly against his
windpipe. His mind was a solid five seconds behind the course of events, still stuck on the
movements of Levi's hands as he shook them dry. Eren's knees were bent awkwardly, putting
his eyes level with the ones that were currently stabbing holes through him.

"Listen brat, because I'm only going to say this once," Levi growled - actually growled, Levi
of all people. "I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask to spend 31 years waiting for you. If you have
a girlfriend, fine - I can deal with that shit. But stop making me into some kind of shitty
villain. I've done a lot of bad things in my life, but I haven't done any of them to you, so grow
the fuck up, and stop fucking blaming me for something that neither of us had any control
over." He removed his arm from Eren's throat, turning back to the sinks to wash his hands yet
again, even more fiercely this time than the first, before storming from the room.

Eren thought that Levi was very much like a storm.

With that, Eren slid down the wall to the floor, chest heaving and heart pounding so hard it
hurt.

Chapter End Notes

Eren's still being an idiot, what's new there, but Levi's HAD ENOUGH OF HIS
BULLSHIT

So, I actually really like this chapter, personally. AND I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO
THE NEXT TWO. Hopefully I can do my ideas justice, yeah?
 Chapter Nine
Chapter Notes

As I said at the end of the last chapter, I am super excited for this one. So I'm actually
updating during the day (gasp, what is this, plot twist) instead of at 3AM. Well, I mean,
it's still technically night, but it's not past midnight, so I feel accomplished.

Some of Levi's perspective in here for you. Hope you enjoy~

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Sometimes, even a week later, Eren would remember some small detail about what happened
in the club bathroom and it would hit him like a slap to the face. He would remember how
cold the wall was behind him, or the exact way Levi had crowded him against it, or the way
one of Levi's hands rested on Eren's hip to pin him. He would zone out, thinking of how
Levi's breath brushed against his face or how the man smelled so incredibly clean, like soap
and aftershave, and a hint of something Eren couldn't name and didn't even want to think
about because it was just Levi. Eren was eaten by these thoughts in a way that was quite
uncharacteristic for him - usually he rarely thought at all - and each time he was woken from
his reprieve, he was more shocked and more disgusted with himself.

He had seen Levi around campus a couple of times, usually with Hange, and wondered how
it had taken him so long to meet the man when he saw him around all the time, now. They
never spoke. But sometimes Levi would see Eren, too, and the man would stare for a
moment, then nod and herd Hange away before they could cause some issue. Sometimes,
Eren would find the presence of mind to nod back, but Levi was almost always already gone
by that point.

Armin noticed, of course, but Mikasa didn't. She was still tense, but things were better
between her and Eren now. They fought less, mostly because Eren was too wrapped up in his
own thoughts to get upset when Mikasa said something nasty or insecure. As far as she was
concerned, the rough patch they had been in was passing. It wasn't true, as far as Eren was
aware, but what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

Armin was suspicious, though. Eren could tell. He saw the way Armin looked at him after he
snapped out of a zone. Armin was the first and only person Eren told about his confrontation
with Levi, and after that, Armin's suspicious looks became thoughtful ones.

Eren didn't know what he could be thinking about - the situation wasn't that complicated.
Eren himself was distracted by guilt and confusion, because apparently Levi had wanted a
soulmate. Eren still had no plans to be that soulmate, but he did regret some of his actions
and words, in retrospect. That's all there was to it. That's the only reason he was zoning out.
Guilt and confusion. The only reason he ever nodded back when he saw Levi was because he
was trying to be civil, do as Levi said and stop blaming him. That was all. That was it.

It wasn't a complicated situation.

Currently, Eren was seated in his dorm (Jean was blessedly absent, out with Marco
somewhere), contemplating just how not complicated the situation was. He had lost track of
time at least an hour ago, but now it was six, and Jean would probably come back soon to
find Eren staring blankly into space. It was just a matter of time before his roommate started
asking annoyingly persistent questions that Eren didn't have answers to.

A knock on the door startled Eren from his bed to the floor, and he glanced at Jean's desk,
wondering if the horse-face had forgotten his keys. Eren didn't see them, but shrugged, and
stood to unlock the door.

Levi's eyes met Eren's when it opened. Eren knew that the other man was as surprised as he
was, could somehow see it in Levi's grey eyes, despite the blankness of his face. Eren
wondered when he had gained even the slightest ability to read Levi, wondered it before he
even wondered what Levi was doing there.

To Levi's credit, he didn't know that this was where he was going. When Erwin had handed
him a slip of paper with the name "Eren Jeager" and a dorm block and room number, Levi
had assumed that he was going to be meeting with some poor college girl. The name was
oddly spelled - German, Levi now realized - and he had assumed that it was feminine. He
didn't connect it with his green eyed soulmate, whose last name he didn't know and whose
first name he had always assumed was spelled "Aaron." Levi had been doing a lot of
assuming, lately. Too much, apparently.

Levi wondered if Erwin knew. If the man had any idea what he had sent Levi to do. Who was
Levi kidding? Of course Erwin did. This was Erwin - manipulative bastard extraordinaire,
who loved to drop coy, vague bullshit on the heads of unwitting people, and watch as the
tried to figure it out like it was a gift from the heavens.

"Eren," Levi said, hating to hear that his voice was slightly breathless and hoping it wasn't
noticeable. "Eren Jeager?" The boy - the brat, the wide-eyed, innocent brat, who was too
young and didn't deserve this - nodded.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, voice the least hostile that Levi had ever heard it.
Apparently Eren was taking his words to heart, and not being a complete dick all the time.

"I'm here on business," Levi answered, almost stuttering. Almost. "Can I come in? We
shouldn't do this in the hallway." Eren let him in with guarded, distrustful eyes, and Levi
glanced around the small dorm room with a grimace of distaste. His soulmate was a slob,
evidently. Somehow, Levi had seen that one coming.

"What's up?" Eren questioned, taking a seat on his bed. Levi remained standing. "Am I in
trouble?" Something lit up in Eren's eyes. "Oh God. Is that guy from before pressing
charges?"
"No." Levi's voice was choked, and he knew that the brat noticed when he squinted slightly.
"You're Eren Jeager? Son of Grisha Jeager?" Eren's face folded into a familiar scowl, brows
drawing together and lip curling up.

"That's me," he said, bitter and annoyed. "What's my old man done now? Finally get himself
arrested?" Levi swallowed. He wasn't sure if Eren's evident anger towards his father would
make this easier or harder.

"He's dead," Levi announced bluntly. Do it quickly, like ripping off a bandage. "He
committed suicide two days ago."

Harder, Levi thought as Eren's gemstone eyes widened. Definitely harder.

"You're kidding," Eren stated, voice hollow. "You have to be."

"I... no."

"He offed himself?" Eren demanded so sharply that Levi could only nod in reply. Eren's head
dropped to his hands, and Levi took half a step forwards, prepared to - well, he didn't really
know what he was prepared to do. Whatever he had to, he supposed. When Eren's shoulders
started to shake Levi reached a hand out, but he stopped, letting it hang in midair when he
realized that Eren was laughing.

"He left you a letter," Levi said after a moment.

He wasn't sure exactly how he was meant to respond to the current situation. Levi was
generally the one sent out to tell people about deaths, because he was the least affected by it.
Petra couldn't report to a family member without crying herself, and the others were always
sullen, depressed, and basically useless for the rest of the day. The job fell to Levi, and it was
far from his favorite, but someone had to do it. Usually he just gave them the news, answered
questions if they had them and he was actually allowed to give out the information, and went
on his way. This was different.

For one thing, this was Levi's soulmate. Levi had never been particularly good at
sympathizing with people and he usually wouldn't bother trying, but now he felt like he was
supposed to. He felt like he should be consoling Eren, even if he had no idea how to do so.
While Levi didn't particularly like the boy, he did feel a certain responsibility for him that he
found hard to explain. Levi wanted Eren to be happy, even if he would never say so, and he
definitely wouldn't say so in those exact words.

For another, Eren was laughing. Levi was shit at knowing what to do in social situations, but
even he knew that when someone cried, you comforted them. Levi was shit at comforting,
too, but he though that he could probably figure it out, if push came to shove. But Levi didn't
know what to do about this bitter, derisive laughter, didn't know what to do when Eren looked
up at him - and damn the brat had beautiful eyes, but that didn't fucking help here.

"A letter, huh?" Eren asked with a broken smile that looked wrong on his face. "Well, let me
see it." With a stoic nod and a carefully blank expression, Levi pulled out the envelope with
"Eren" written on it in abysmal script. Eren spared Levi a look when he noticed that the
envelope was already open, but began reading without comment.

Several officers at the precinct that handled Jeager's case had probably read the letter. It was
important evidence, and as far as Levi understood, Grisha was a somewhat infamous figure in
his area, making the letter all the more important, since they had to analyze it to evaluate the
possibility of foul play. It had been quickly dismissed, the case closed, and the letter sent to
Levi's division - and thereby Levi - to deliver to Eren. Levi hadn't been on Grisha's case
himself, since the man had lived on the other side of the state and was handled by state
officers in the area,but he had read the letter anyway. Technically, he wasn't allowed to, but it
wouldn't cause any issues. Nobody knew, and nobody gave a damn.

The contents were what you would expect from a suicide letter. "I love you" after "I love
you." Countless "I'm sorry"s. Certainly nothing to justify the blinding rage that was building
on Eren's face.

Levi had seen Eren mad on several occasions, and generally speaking, it was comical. He
imagined that a smaller man (metaphorically speaking, unfortunately) might have found Eren
quite intimidating, but after having been into more knife fights with guys three times his size
than anyone could hope to survive, Levi viewed Eren almost as a chihuahua yapping at his
heels. Small, nonthreatening, sometimes cute, but mostly irritating. But now Levi was
honestly a little uneasy. Doubtless, he could still take Eren out with a few well aimed blows,
but the brat looked absolutely homicidal. It was nothing like the childish resentment that Levi
had come to expect, and he realized with an abject fascination that, in that moment, with an
unsettling determination burning in his too-bright eyes, Eren was perfectly capable of murder.

"He says he's sorry," Eren explained, his tone more rational and even than Levi had ever
heard from the boy's anger, despite the look on his face. The letter crumpled as Eren balled
his fist. "Says he didn't want to leave me, as if he hasn't left me a million fucking times since
I was six fucking years old. As if I didn't want him to go."

Levi stared as Eren fumed, aware that the wall that usually covered his emotions may have
fallen, but unsure if it actually had. He remembered thinking, no more than fifteen minutes
ago, that Eren was too young for this, too innocent. Too young, yes, too young for this and
everything else that Levi was only just beginning to get a sense of. But too innocent? No,
apparently not. Apparently Eren had been disillusioned a long time ago. Another thing he
was too young for.

"And this key," Eren burst, ripping at a chain around his neck. Levi heard a link snap as the
necklace pulled free, and saw the ornate brass key that had hung beneath Eren's shirt for just
a moment before it was tossed across the room where it hit the wall and fell behind a desk. "It
doesn't even fucking open anything!" he screamed. Levi listened as Eren's voice cracked,
watched in horror as tears welled in the brat's eyes and spilled down his cheeks. Eren's
broken sob rattled Levi's chest as if Levi had made the noise himself.

Neither of them knew how Eren had ended up in Levi's arms, if Levi had moved on some
intuition he hadn't even known he had, or if Eren had sought him out for comfort, but that
was where they ended up. Levi kneeled on Eren's bed, hands tangled in the brunette's hair,
pressing his tear-streaked face into Levi's shoulder. Eren had his arms wrapped around Levi's
 waist, hands clinging desperately to the older man's jacket. A part of Levi shuddered to
realize that the brat was crying all over him, his jacket now wrinkled, covered in snot and
tears, but Levi shoved the feeling away. Right now, it didn't matter much, even if these
clothes would be thoroughly washed the moment he got home.

"It's okay, brat," he murmured against Eren's hair, even though he had no idea whether it was
or not. "It's okay."

But Eren didn't calm down. His breath flew across Levi's neck in ragged pants, and his frame
still shook against Levi's, and nothing Levi said could make it better. Levi couldn't say how
long they stayed like that before the door opened behind them and a startled "the fuck?"
pierced the air along with Eren's sobs.

Chapter End Notes

What's that? Could it possibly be progress?

Does this constitute a cliffhanger? I really don't know, but I'm sorry if it does.

The writing for this chapter... isn't as good as I would have hoped. But I still like it.
 Chapter Ten
Chapter Notes

You know, sometimes I'm embarrassed by the fact that I update so quickly, because it's a
dead giveaway to the fact that I have no life, and then I realize that I do have a life, it's
just spent on the internet. Also, this story has short chapters, so they're easy to write.
Things would be different if I was trying to spit out 6,000+ words. Like, seriously, major
respect for the authors who can actually do that on a regular basis.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

"The fuck?"

Eren could feel Levi's shoulders stiffen, the man's fingers halting their shift through Eren's
hair. With a sob caught in his throat on the way up, Eren turned his head away from Levi's
neck to send the best glare he was currently capable of at Jean. The redness of Eren's eyes,
the tears still welling there, and the wetness of his nose lessened the impact, if Jean's raised
eyebrow was anything to go by.

"Get the fuck out," Eren stuttered, voice thick and congested. Each word caught repeatedly,
faltering over and over like a scratched record as he tried to force them out.

"What?" Jean barked, curling his lip. "I don't care what kind of fit you're having or who the
hell this guy is, but it's my room to, and I'm not gonna leave if I don't want to."

Eren jerked, a growl mixing with the sobs in his chest, and Levi's arms tightened around him,
fingers digging harshly into Eren's scalp and scratching along it. Eren's grip on Levi's jacket
shifted, pushing away now, instead of pulling closer, but Levi huffed under his breath and
kept hold, forcefully pulling Eren's head back to his shoulder every time Eren tried to pull
away.

"Stop squirming, brat," Levi scolding flatly. "I'm not going to let you kill your roommate."

"Who the fuck is this guy, Jeager?" Jean demanded, and Levi introduced himself blandly over
Eren's head.

"Levi, huh? And do I even want to know why you're currently acting as big spoon to my over
emotional... friend." Eren growled again, pissed at the insinuation and at Jean's spiteful use of
"friend."

Eren didn't want to kill Jean, he just wanted to shut the asshole up. Knocking him
unconscious would be okay, breaking his jaw would be ideal. Eren was furious, but the
current target of his anger was already rotting in some morgue 5 counties over, so he needed
to latch on to someone. Usually he wouldn't hesitate to take it out on Levi, but he was still
overwhelmed by the memories of what Levi had said to him a week ago, and Eren didn't
think he could take it out on Levi right now. Now with Levi's hands tangled a bit too tightly
in his hair, not with Levi's shoulder under his cheek, not with Levi's back beneath his hands.

It was so easy to be mad at Jean, to funnel all the anger and hate and twisted sadness cause by
Grisha at his horse-faced "friend." Even easier because Eren knew that Jean would take
whatever Eren had to throw at him with a glare and some nasty words, but wouldn't hold a
grudge for anything Eren did. Eren yanked at Levi's hold again, and this time, Levi let him
go.

"Fine, I get it," he said, and Eren could detect the faintest trace of something that might have
been amusement at the edges of the man's voice. "Just don't kill him, okay. If you do, I'm
legally obligated to arrest you again, and I don't think Petra will let me shove all the
paperwork for it onto her a second time." Eren ignored him, too angry and too unreasonable
to reply, unsure of what he would have said even if he had been capable of response.

Eren stood and stepped forward, legs shaking slightly, and Jean had the chance to say one
more snide word before Eren's fist met his face and Jean fell backwards into his bed, out
cold. He would be more than a little annoyed when he woke up, but he and Eren did shit like
this to each other all the time, and it was they had an unspoken agreement that neither of
them would ever make too big a deal about it.

Eren stared at Jean for a long moment before the tears started up again. He couldn't keep it
together; he was tearing apart at the seams. Covering his mouth with his hand as a strangled
sound clawed up his throat, Eren collapsed into his bed. Punching Jean hadn't helped at all. It
had just made him feel worse. His knuckles ached now, and some of his anger had drained
away, which just left more room for that sadness that he shouldn't have even been feeling,
that he hated himself for feeling.

His father was dead.

Grisha had killed himself.

As if he had any right.

Beside Eren, Levi was holding a cell phone - Eren's cell phone - fiddling with it. He didn't
really know how to work the thing. It was old and battered, but he managed to locate Eren's
contacts after a moment of button pressing. He considered calling Mikasa - she could
probably calm the brat down, being his girlfriend and everything - but he didn't want to have
to deal with the girl who had, in one meeting, proved herself to be incredibly spiteful and
petty (perhaps understandably so, but no excusably). The better option came when he saw the
name "Armin" at the top of the list. Levi had liked Armin. The kid was far smarter than his
friend, anyway. Levi dialed the number listed and didn't even have to wait for an answer.

"Hey Eren. What's up?"

"It's not Eren," Levi said bluntly, belatedly realizing that that made him sound like some
fucking kidnapper or something, calling to ask for a ransom. "It's Levi," he added.
"Levi? What are you - nevermind, is Eren okay?" The kid's voice was plagued with worry
that Levi didn't know how to ease, or if he was even supposed to for that matter.

"Can you come to the brat's dorm? He's kind of a mess right now, and I don't want my pants
to be the next victim of his snot."

"I'll be there in five." Armin hung up with no further question, despite how little information
Levi had provided him in the brief call, and Levi took a moment to internally congratulate
Eren for managing to land such a good friend. He closed Eren's phone and put it neatly back
on the table where he had found it before turning back to the boy himself.

Eren's sobs, which had stopped momentarily while he confronted Jean, had returned full
force. He was curled into himself, shaking, and he looked incredibly small, for the first time
Levi had ever seen. Levi had planned to show himself out after ending his call, but with a
disgusting twist in his stomach, he realized that he couldn't leave the brat alone, not when he
was like this. The unconscious roommate hardly constituted company. Awkwardly, he sat
besides Eren, unsure of what to do. His hand hovered uselessly before alighting on Eren's
face, wiping some of the tears from under the kid's wide green eyes with a sigh.

He didn't know what the fuck he was supposed to do. He was shit with people and he didn't
even know what was actually wrong with Eren. Whatever it was, it wasn't as simple as his
father being dead, that was for sure. It was more complex than that, and Levi couldn't do
anything to fix it, couldn't even do anything to make the brat feel better.

So he mumbled generic words of comfort that probably didn't make any sense, and he ran his
hand through Eren's hair, and he pulled the brat's hand away from his mouth when the brat bit
his thumb hard enough to draw blood. The little shit bit Levi instead, and fuck that hurt, but
Levi couldn't even be more than mildly irritated about it.

If he was being honest with himself - which he either always was or never was, depending on
the week - he was attached the the brat. Levi didn't like him, as Hange so adamantly insisted.
In fact, Levi was typically annoyed by him, but Levi was still attached. He supposed getting
attached to someone was inevitable after waiting 31 years for them to show up. Levi wasn't
some girl who romanticized all the soulmates nonsense, but he had expected to end up with
his. He had expected to end up with Eren

It was strange to try to match his expectations with reality. To try to put a name and face into
the anonymous situation he had always imagined.

Armin arrived in four minutes. He burst through the door, his hair and clothes an absolute
mess as result of his obvious rush, and he immediately set towards his friend. Levi moved out
of the way, hovering towards the edge of the room, unsure if he should leave as Armin pulled
Eren up and shook him violently.

"Eren," he shouted as said boy flopped limply like some kind of rag doll, still wailing. "Jesus
Christ, it's going to be okay!" Levi had said it a hundred times, but for some reason, the
words had a completely different effect when they came from the blonde. Eren was still
crying, and he leaned forward to cling to Armin just like he had Levi, but he seemed less
hysterical and after a few minutes of Armin shouting, Eren began to calm down. Levi
 wondered if he had been doing the comforting thing all wrong, or it Armin just had his own
unique style - screaming until they calmed down.

Five minutes later, Levi had almost forgotten that he wasn't really meant to be there, but then
Eren spoke.

"You can go now, Levi," he said against Armin's shoulder. He sounded completely spent. To
be fair, he probably was. "Thanks for staying. I'm sorry about all this." Levi nodded numbly.

"You don't have to be sorry, brat. I put my number in your phone," he delivered the news
uncertainly (not that he let it show), not sure how it would be received. "You can call. If you
ever need anything."

Eren's first instinct was to say no, point blank, but then he remembered his endeavor to not be
such an asshole all the time. He considered telling Levi he would call if he needed to, but
then deleting the man's number without him knowing. That somehow seemed worse,
especially considering everything that had happened today. Having Levi's number wouldn't
hurt, as long as Mikasa never found it, and she wasn't the type to go through his phone, so
that shouldn't be a worry.

"I will," Eren said, and he meant it. He would call, if he ever needed anything, though he
doubted there would ever be something he needed from Levi. With a short parting nod, Levi
left, and Eren hunkered down to tell Armin the whole story, feeling tired but far more secure
now that his best friend was here.

Chapter End Notes

If you don't like Armin... then just, just - and I mean this as politely as possible - leave.
His character has so much potential for things like fanfics. There are so many different
ways to write him, and half of them are just amazing. Protect this boy.

Sorry this chapter is so short. I considered merging 9 and 10, but then 9 would have
been longer than average, and it would have broken my outline, and it was just easier
this way. Hopefully this will be the shortest chapter in the story, because seriously, I'm
not happy with the length :(
 Chapter Eleven
Chapter Notes

Jesus, I can't believe I'm already on chapter 11. Do you know what that means? This
story is half way over. There's only 21 chapters, guys.

The first seven chapters of this story were just the same characters getting into the same
arguments, but finally, we have some progress.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Levi did not expect Eren to call. He had given the boy his number anticipating that Eren
would never need to use it - wouldn't want to use it, even if he did need Levi for something.
Levi wouldn't be surprised if the brat's first move after Levi had left had been to delete the
older man's contact information. Really, Levi didn't know why he had programmed his
number into Eren's phone in the first place, and he half hoped that the brat did delete it. He
couldn't think of a situation in which Eren would "need" him. If the day in Eren's dorm had
proven anything, it was that Levi had nothing to offer. He had watched the boy fall to pieces,
unable to do anything. If not for Armin, Levi would have spent fruitless hours trying to
comfort Eren, and even then he would have failed miserably.

Levi didn't usually answer when an unknown number called his personal cell, especially not
if it was 9PM and he was still at the station. He hated talking on the phone - it was awkward
and inconvenient and unsanitary - and everyone worth answering was already listed in his
contacts, so they would all show up on caller ID. But when the same number called three
times within as many minutes, even Levi had to answer.

"What the fuck could you possibly want?" he barked, startling Petra who had stayed late with
him to process some paperwork of her own.

"Thank God I finally got through," came the relieved voice from the other end of the call. "I
could have sworn you weren't going to answer. Thought I was going to have to call someone
else." Levi stiffened in disbelief. Petra stood and made her way to him. He held up a hand to
stop her approach, but she ignored him.

"Eren?" he asked, ignoring his coworker in turn.

"Yeah. This is Levi, right? I wasn't given a wrong number or something, was I? I can't think
of anyone else who would answer their phone like that." Levi scoffed.

"Ha fucking ha, brat, very funny. It's me. Why are you calling?"

"You... told me I could, right?" Eren hesitated. "If I needed anything. Did you mean it?"
Worry hit Levi like a brick to the back of the head. Eren's voice carried something not
dissimilar to what it had had the last time Eren and Levi talked, though that was almost a
month ago, now. Hiding behind Eren's tentative question was a vein of anger - not the
shallow type that Levi had seen so much of in their first few encounters, but the more
profound variety, which he had only gotten a glimpse of during their last meeting. It made
Levi uneasy, to have Eren calling him with that voice, to try to think of a situation in which
Eren would sound like that and need Levi.

"What do you need?" Levi questioned. He felt like there was a pit of ice in the bottom of his
chest, weighing on his stomach and pushing on his lungs. Asking someone what they needed
was an every day occurrence in his life, but this time it somehow felt as if he was selling his
soul.

"A ride," Eren responded simply. It seemed innocuous enough, but Levi wasn't relieved yet.

"Where are you?"

"I have no idea."

And there it was. The magical fulfillment of Levi's bad feeling. Certainly the first of many
things that could potentially during and/or because of this phone call. Levi was already tired.

"Anything around you?"

"Not really. There's a gas station a little ways down the road, but I don't see anything else. No
road signs, either."

"What's the name of the gas station?" Levi asked, and Eren told him, but Levi had no idea
where the place was, had never even heard of it. A quick search on Google revealed that the
internet hadn't heard of it either. The place was too small, or the name was too generic, or
maybe it was a mixture of both, but Levi couldn't get any definitive results.

"Go wait there," Levi sighed, closing his browser and snagging his coat from the back of his
chair. "I'll come get you."

"So you know where I am?" Eren asked, hope and relief making his voice lighter.

"No," Levi replied. Eren didn't say anything, but Levi could practically hear the brat's mood
shatter against the ground as it crashed. "But I'll find you," he promised.

"Okay." Eren's tone was surprisingly doubt-free and trusting, considering how uncertain even
Levi was about the circumstances. "I'm glad you answered your phone."

"So am I," Levi returned, and he was. The thought of Eren lost somewhere in the middle of
the night, trying and failing to get into contact made Levi nauseous. He realized that the kid
would have just called one of his friends, the blonde boy, Armin, probably, but his stomach
didn't seem to acknowledge that realization.

He hung up without a good-bye; he would be seeing Eren soon enough.

But Levi had to find the brat, first.

"Petra," he began, looking over to his coworker, who was now standing besides his desk so
she could shamelessly listen in on the conversation. She cut him off with a raised hand, not
unlike the way he had attempted to stop her when she had started to make her way to him a
few minutes earlier.

"If that was Eren, you need to go," she said with a soft smile that she probably intended to be
understanding, though Levi didn't think she understood anything at all about him and Eren. "I
can handle myself here for another hour. And Erwin's still lingering somewhere in the station,
so I'll be fine." Levi nodded.

"Thanks." His rare expression of gratitude caused Petra to raise an eyebrow with a small
knowing smile that Levi ignored, because, again, Levi didn't think she knew anything that
she seemed to think she did.

Levi swung his coat over his shoulder, making for the door, long strides of short legs leading
him quickly to his car. Before starting it, he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes,
allowing the part of himself that he had been trying to isolate for weeks to finally connect. It
felt wrong (mostly because it felt right, when he knew it was supposed to feel wrong) to
finally embrace what he had been keeping at a distance.

It was strange to suddenly know where Eren was. To feel all his muscles and his whole
awareness and his entire being simultaneously pulling in the same direction, subtly tugging
him closer to Eren because some part of Levi recognized that that was the best place to be. It
was almost overwhelming. With a carefully controlled exhale, Levi turned his keys in the
ignition and started driving.

Even with his instincts leading him in Eren's direction, finding the brat was no easy task. The
pull Levi felt was subtle and unobtrusive, an everyday part of soulmates' lives, unless they
chose to deny the bond. It wasn't particularly strong or specific, and it definitely didn't tell
him exactly what roads to take. All Levi knew was that Eren was somewhere to the south-
east, and all Levi could do was take his best guess at what roads would lead him there.
Eventually, it would work.

"Eventually" turned out to be almost three hours later, when the green hours of the clock on
Levi's dashboard were nearing midnight. Levi's skin was itching with worry and irritation.
Worry because it was almost midnight, and he had left Eren alone where ever he was for
almost three hours, and what if something had happened (even though he knew that nothing
had, and that Eren was right there at the gas station where he was supposed to be, and he was
still fine). Irritation because Levi had been driving for almost three fucking hours, driving in
circles, not even sure of where exactly he was trying to go, following the slight tugging that
he didn't even want, because that tug would lead him to a boy who was too young, too stupid,
and altogether too taken.

Eren had approached the car and gotten in before Levi could get out or so much as role his
window down. The brat buckled himself in without a word or a glance, the hood of his jacket
drawn up over his head. Levi observed him in silence for a moment before reaching up to flip
the ceiling lights on. Eren cringed and Levi wanted to do the same.
The boy was covered in bruises. One of his eyes was black and a dark blotch covered one of
his cheekbones and moved down along his jaw line. His hands were beat to hell, one of his
knuckles suspiciously and worryingly swollen, and the wrist of his other hand was in a
similar state. It had to hurt, but Eren showed no signs of being bothered by the pain.

"What would you have done if this wasn't my car?" Levi asked, ignoring Eren's condition.
"What if I was some creep who saw you sitting there and decided to kidnap you? What would
you have done?" Eren shrugged.

"No big deal," he said with a smile that looked as painful as his bruises. "I actually have a
cop on my trail, you see. He told me he'd find me, and I'm taking his word for it. Now, I don't
know much about the guy, but he could probably kick your ass." Levi snorted and rolled his
eyes.

"The only one who beats me is me."

"Exactly."

The silence that fell between them then wasn't uncomfortable so much as it was electric.
They both knew that it was only a matter of time before Eren had to spill the details of what
had happened, and neither of them were looking forward to that moment. It didn't help that
Levi had allowed the bond to connect to him in order to locate Eren. In and of itself, the bond
didn't mean much. All it did was give soulmates a sense of each other's location and general
well being. It was easily blocked or ignored. But the fact was that Levi had accepted it. He
had let it in, let it connect, and by doing so, he had done the same with Eren. Yes, he could
block it or ignore it, but now he could never get rid of it. He was bonded to Eren. And Eren
still wasn't bonded to him. Never would be. It was a pride issue, more than anything else.

"I can take you back to your dorm," Levi broke the silence. "Or it there some other place you
would rather go?"

"Not back to my dorm," Eren said, shaking his head. He fisted his hands and his skin
stretched with the movement, splitting further in some places. Thin lines of blood traced their
way around the creases of his fingers. "Not back to campus. I just - I don't want to see
anyone. Don't want to have to deal with anyone. Take me anywhere else, I don't care, just not
back to my dorm."

"We're going back to my place, then," Levi decided, hoping that statement alone would
somehow make Eren change his mind. "I'm tired as all hell." Eren nodded his consent.

Silence fell again, longer this time, but still just as full of anticipation. When they were
halfway to Levi's flat, Eren broke it.

"Today's the day my mom died," he informed Levi blankly. "This day, ten years ago. Or
yesterday, I suppose, since it's just past 1AM, now." Levi didn't reply. There was nothing for
him to say.

"I always get kind of... out of it on the anniversary," Eren confessed. "A few days before I
always start to get depressed. Then, on the actual day, I try to keep it together and go about
 my business, but I always end up blacking out."

"You black out and unconsciously beat people up?" Levi questioned dryly with a pointed
look at Eren's bloody knuckles. Eren laughed with little humor.

"Guess so. I've never been able to remember - half the point of 'blacking out,' you know. I
fight a lot normally, so it wouldn't be out of character. And then I come to covered in blood,
bruises, and aching like I got hit by a truck."

"Maybe you did. You wouldn't know." Eren ignored him.

"I've never ended up in a jail cell or anything, though, so who knows exactly what I'm doing."

"Lucky you. Maybe you should try to take notes next time so you can figure out how to do
the same when you're actually conscious."

"You know, one year I actually put Jean, my roommate, in the hospital. We were only 13.
That was the first year it happened, and the town was small - there was no where for me to go
to blow of steam when I lost it."

"And the guy's still willing to room with you?"

"Well, that's just the way Jean and I are," Eren said with a shrug. "If we held grudges for the
shit we do to each other Jean and I would completely tear our group of friends apart."

The next silence was more companionable than the first two. Eren was the one to break it,
again.

"Hey Levi?" he asked, voice brimming with curiosity. "How'd you find me?"

"I let the bond connect," Levi answered bluntly, turning onto the road to his place. There was
no reason to hide it.

"Oh. I'm sorry you had to do that. I didn't mean to make you do that."

"Don't worry about it. I'll just ignore it or some shit. It's not all that bad."

"I know. But - You can't get rid of it, can you? It'll always be there."

"Yeah. It will."

Chapter End Notes

Look at these dorks, not being dicks to each other. That's progress if I've ever seen it.

Okay, so, here's the deal. My family is coming down on Friday for my brother's
wedding, and they'll be staying with my mom and I. Frankly, I don't know how
comfortable I am writing gay fanfiction with my Aunt, cousins, and grandparents
hanging around the house. So expect a brief hiatus (very brief, I'm talking a week, at
most) starting either now, or after the next chapter, depending on how long my chores
(gross) take me.

So basically, I'm just telling you not to worry if I don't update for a while, my schedule
will be back to normal soon.
 ChapterTwelve
Chapter Notes

Que backstory

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Eren knew that he shouldn't have agreed to go to Levi's flat - knew that Levi didn't want him
to agree - but he didn't see how he had much of a choice in the matter. There was nowhere
else he could go besides for his dorm, and that was the last place he wanted to be. Mikasa and
Armin would no doubt be there, waiting for Eren to get home. He had no choice but to face
them in the morning, but right now he was still disoriented from his time loss, still aching
from whatever bullshit he had gotten up to, and still just the slightest bit tipsy from the
alcohol he had apparently drank while he was out. He couldn’t handle his friends right now.

Mikasa would be frustrated. She used to cry when he came home, but as time passed her
concern lessened. As did her understanding. Now she would yell and tell him to “stop doing
this to her” every year, as if he had any control over it. She would interrogate him on every
bruise and scrape she could see, refusing to treat them unless he told her what caused them,
so he started treating his own injuries after his Blackouts years ago. He wouldn’t have told
her what caused them, even if he had known. He assumed he got into fights. After all, he got
into plenty of them when he was sober and relatively rational, and the one year he had
definitely gotten into a fight with Jean, even if he couldn’t remember any of it. But he never
had come to in a jail cell, so he couldn’t be seeking out fights too actively. Sometimes, the
cuts on his knuckles were filled with chips of tree bark and his wrists were covered in ragged
slashes, and he started to wonder how many of his injuries were caused by fights, and how
many he caused himself. Those were the injuries he never showed Mikasa. She saw the scars
later, of course, but they never said anything, because she didn’t understand (and Eren really
didn’t, either).

Armin, on the other hand, would be worried and disappointed. He would cry when Eren came
home, and he would treat Eren like he was made of glass or some shit like that. Armin had
tried to get Eren help so many times, but Eren had never complied. He didn’t want to pay
some shrink who didn’t understand anything to psychoanalyze him. Every time he finally
dragged himself home after a Blackout, Armin would give him this look of relief that told
Eren just how much the blonde had been tearing himself up inside while he waited. Eren
hated doing that to Armin, hated making his friend worry year after year after year, especially
when said friend had been offering Eren a simple solution for years – a solution that Eren
refused to man up take, because he was more content to destroy himself than seek help from
some third party. Eren wouldn’t apologize for it – couldn’t apologize for it – but he knew that
the first words out of his mouth if he saw Armin right now would be “I’m so sorry.”
Eren was determined to put off facing them until tomorrow, until after he had had at least a
few hours’ sleep, and going to Levi’s place presented the best way to do that. Levi’s
apartment was small and looked entirely unlived in. There were no photos on the walls, no
magazines on the table, no dishes or clothes laying around. The books and other personal
effects Eren spotted in the living room and kitchen area were all so immaculate and neatly
placed that Eren had a hard time believing that they were for anything other than show.

“Sit there,” Levi said with a gesture to the couch. “Try not to get blood on everything while I
get my first-aid kit.” He disappeared down a short hallway that presumably led to the
bedroom and bathroom while Eren followed his instructions and sat stiffly on the couch,
finally folding his hood away from his head. Plaster drifted down from his hair and he
cringed as a fine dust or it settled over his shoulders and on the couch around him. He didn’t
even want to know how he had gotten a wall’s worth of plaster-dust in his hair.

Levi returned, first-aid kit in hand, but took one look at the mess Eren had already formed
and shook his head. “No,” he said flatly. “Never mind. Get your ass up, we’re doing this in
the bathroom. You’ll clean that up later.” Eren sighed, nodded, and stood, each movement
causing another shower of white powder to drift from his hair, onto the things around him.
Eren could easily read the “are you shitting me” look in the thin press of Levi’s lips, and
wondered when he had perfected that particular ability. Getting a grip (which was blessedly
loose) on Eren’s wrist, Levi dragged him into the small bathroom, shoving the brunette down
so he was seated on the toilet seat before kneeling in front on him.

“You’re a mess,” Levi said, as he fished disinfectant from the kit, eyes scanning Eren’s face.
Eren was sure that he must look significantly worse in the well-lit bathroom, as compared to
the dim interior of Levi’s car. “You have no idea how any of this happened?”

“Not a one,” Eren answered dryly, looking at the multiple bruises and lacerations along his
hands. Levi hummed thoughtfully, and Eren detected the faintest trace of concern that he
wished he could call unjustified.

“Let’s hope there’s nothing too serious. Take your jacket off.” Wincing, Eren did so, pulling
his jacket off and tossing it to the side. He hadn’t seen whatever injuries may lay under his
jacket, but he could feel them, and they weren’t pretty. “Shirt, too,” Levi added. Tugging his
shirt off proved to be harder. The movement aggravated several injuries that Eren didn’t want
to look at, think about, or in any way acknowledge. He closed his eyes and left them that
way. Levi’s sigh sounded pained.

“I barely even know where to start,” he admitted. “Take some painkillers and give me your
hands, I guess. That’s as good a start as any.” Eren popped the pills he was given and
swallowed them dry, reluctantly opening his eyes before extending his hands. He adamantly
ignored the marks on his wrists, but Levi’s first move was to flip Eren’s arm over and ghost a
finger along one of the wounds.

“Did you do this to yourself?” he asked, fingers tensing around Eren’s wrist, but not
tightening. His pinky shifted restlessly. Even now, when Eren found himself able to read the
concern and faint anger Levi was feeling in his face and voice, the man’s hands were still the
most impressive part of him.
“Probably,” Eren confessed, trying to turn his arm away. “I can’t really remember.” Levi held
fast for a moment before thankfully letting Eren have his way. Expression determined and
focused, Levi picked up an alcohol-damp cloth and went to work. He didn’t bother being
gentle about it, prodding each of Eren’s knuckles to feel out potentially problematic fractures.
It hurt, but it was a kind of pain that Eren was well accustomed to, so he didn’t so much as
hiss at Levi’s touch. Levi cleaned the cuts and scrapes on both of Eren’s hands methodically,
taping two of Eren’s fingers together on both hands, so the sprained ones would heal straight.

When Levi finished Eren’s hands, he moved onto his wrists, his touch notably more gentle –
tender almost – and tears welled behind Eren’s eyes.

“My mom died nine years ago,” he said, the words spilling from his mouth before the tears
even had a chance to spill from his eyes.

“How’d she go?” Levi asked. Eren could hear the hesitance in his question, and knew that
Levi didn’t know what to say, that Levi was afraid of saying the wrong thing. It was okay
though. He said the right thing.

“She killed herself,” Eren responded, lips tilting in a pained parody of a smile as he stared at
his arms. “She slit her wrists.”

Eren hated what his mother did to herself, and he hated that he would ever consider doing the
same. He hated that he went through with it during a time he couldn’t even remember. He
hated that he had had scars from it since he was seventeen years old. He hated that Armin and
Mikasa pretended not to see the scars, because they could handle a lot of stupid bullshit, but
they didn’t know how to handle this.

He hated it, and sometimes himself, and for some reason he wanted Levi to know.

“I found her in the bathtub. She was crying. She apologized to me. Said she didn’t want to
leave me, but she died before the ambulance got there.”

“Were your parents soulmates?” Levi asked. His voice sounded the same as ever, but Eren
knew from the slight twitch of Levi’s fingers that the man hadn’t intended to say what he did.
He tended to just blurt things out, it seemed, even if he showed no signs of it afterwards. He
had no brain-to-mouth filter.

“Yes.”

Eren knew what Levi was thinking; when he was younger, Eren thought the same thing. The
bond that connected soulmates – the bond that Levi had accepted in order to find Eren –
served two very simple purposes. The first: a subtle tug, an instinctive desire to go to your
soulmate, and a natural knowledge of the direction you need to go to find them. The second:
an awareness of your soulmates well-being, a type of internal alarm that can be triggered by
pain or by extreme negative emotions. Hypothetically speaking, Eren’s father should have
been able to sense that Eren’s mother was in danger and save her.

“He blocked it,” Eren explained sharply. “Ignored it so completely that he didn’t even know
when she was dying.”
“Is that why you don’t want a soulmate?” Levi questioned, dropping the cloth over the side of
the tub behind him and picking up a roll of bandages to carefully wrap Eren’s wrists.

“It’s part of the reason,” Eren confessed. He had never actually admitted it aloud before, not
even to Armin. “My father was a bad man.”

“Tell me,” Levi said, and it wasn’t a request or an order, but something in between that Eren
couldn’t say no to. Eren let Levi guide his arms into different positions as he tended to the
bruises along Eren’s torsos. Levi’s hands were cold. After a long moment, Eren oblidged.

“He and my mother were both with other people when they met,” he recounted. One of
Levi’s hands rested flat against the curve of Eren’s ribs. “My mother was in love with a boy
she had been dating for almost a year. My father had been matched with a girl by his father –
someone pretty, and of high social standing, as was expected of the old Jeager family. But he
didn’t love her. Apparently, he fell in love with my mother the first time he saw her. Mom
didn’t want to leave her boyfriend, but eventually she gave him up. It was probably the worst
decision she ever made.

“My parents were happy together for a while. They had each other, and then they had me, and
things were good. But when I was around five years old, they went downhill. Grisha got into
gambling, and his job couldn’t support us, and he got into some unsavory stuff to make
money. He grew increasingly unhappy, and he started to blame Mom for it.”

Levi had halted his work. His hands quit their methodical healing in favor of running
soothing along Eren’s sides. Eren closed his eyes, leaning forward until his hair hung against
the top of Levi’s head.

“When I was six, he started hitting us. At first, it was just her, because he blamed her for
ruining his life. He said everything would have been better if he had stayed with the girl his
father had chosen for him, but Mom was his soulmate and he gave everything up for her.
Soon he was hitting me, too, because I was the ungrateful brat he had with the lying whore.”

Levi’s hands wound from Eren’s sides to his back. The loose embrace was awkward, but
oddly soothing, and the press of Levi’s palms against his spine kept Eren grounded.

“Our situation stabilized within the year. Mom got a job, money was fine, we took Mikasa in,
and everything should have gone back to normal, should have been okay. But it didn’t. It
wasn’t.

“He never touched Mikasa. She had nothing to do with it in his mind. I wouldn’t have let
him, anyway. Even at seven, I would rather get hurt myself than have Mikasa or Armin hurt.
It was only Mom and me. When I was ten, I guess it all got to be too much for her. I can’t
imagine what it must be like to give up everything – your friends, your family, your bright,
happy future – all for one person, who eventually betrays you when everything you had every
learned promised they wouldn’t.”

Levi’s head thumped against Eren’s shoulder. Eren isn’t sure which of them moved closer.
“She died. Grisha was worse than ever. And then, when I was thirteen, he just up and left.
Disappeared. I knew he was still alive, but I hadn’t heard a word from him until you gave me
that letter. His suicide letter. That bastard didn’t deserve to die, especially not on his own
terms. Then he has the nerve to tell me that he “didn’t want to leave me.” He left me for the
first time when I was six years old. Left me broken on the basement floor, covered in blood.”

Tears dripped from Eren’s nose to Levi’s hair, and Eren wondered distantly in Levi worried
about things like that in the middle of moments like this.

“Mikasa and Armin, they don’t – they try, but – but they can’t understand.”

“I understand,” Levi whispered urgently, as if he was relaying the most important

information. His lips brushed the bare skin of Eren’s collarbone as he tilted his head. “I
understand,” he repeated. “I was in the foster system, and I had shit luck. I’m sure you’ve
heard the stories. It’s not like that for everyone, but it was for me. I ran away when I was
twelve, and thing only got worse. I joined a gang, I became a fucking soldier. I mugged
people, I shot people, might have even killed one or two, I don’t fucking know.”

Eren wanted to twine his hands through Levi’s hair, but he couldn’t even bend his taped
fingers. He wrapped his arms around the older man instead. He was afraid Levi would fall
apart (he got the distinct impression that Levi didn’t talk about these things), because this was
Levi, and Eren couldn’t even imagine it.

“I was stuck there until I was twenty, when Erwin found me. I tried to mug him. I held him at
gunpoint, threatened his life, and Eyebrows just fucking smiles and offered me a job. My
friends – Isabel and Farlan – they were a lot like me, but less lucky.”

“What happened to them?” Eren asked. Levi pulled back, eyes flashing like mercury.

“Maybe I’ll tell you when you’re older, brat.”

Levi had said everything he needed to. Eren understood.

Levi pulled himself out of Eren’s grasp, and they both sat in silence for a long time as they
regained their composure before Levi went back to his work. They pretended, for the
moment, that nothing had happened, even though their eyes shone with understanding
whenever they met and Levi’s hands were shaking slightly.

“You know,” Eren said, in an attempt at lightness as Levi dabbed at the darkened skin
beneath his eye, “I want to go into law enforcement.”

“Then you should start going to your fucking classes, brat,” Levi scoffed.

“How do you know about that?” Eren demanded, with an exaggerated pout. There was still a
thick feeling in his chest, but pretending it wasn’t there helped.

“Hange never shut ups. Sometimes I have no choice but to listen.” Eren laughed, and it was
almost completely genuine.
 When Eren was all patched up, Levi dragged him back to the living room before disappearing
down the hallway again. He returned with a set of blankets and a small, handheld vacuum.
Eren cleaned the mess of plaster with a sheepish smile and Levi’s supervision.

“You can stay here,” Levi said with a nod to the now-clean couch when Eren finished. “It’s
big enough, and pretty comfortable, otherwise I would offer you the bed.”

“No, this is fine,” Eren said, spreading one of the blankets over the length of the couch before
seating himself. Levi stared for a long enough moment to make Eren uncomfortable before he
moved forward, resting one knee on the cushion next to Eren and one hand on the back of the
couch. The position gave him a slight height advantage, and as their faces grew closer, Eren
noted that Levi’s eyes were more blue than usual. One of Eren’s hands found itself on Levi’s
shoulder, clenching in the fabric of the man’s shirt as much as it could manage with some
fingers bound.

“Levi,” Eren whispered into the inch of space between them. “Don’t do this.”

Levi’s eyes flickered over Eren’s face, lingering on his lips for a long moment before making
intense eye contact. They both knew that Levi could close the gap between them and meet no
protest. In that moment, if Levi pressed forward, Eren would kiss back with no complaint and
plenty of enthusiasm. Eren could see the movement of Levi’s throat as he swallowed.

“Okay,” the man murmured. “I won’t, then.” He pulled away, dragging his hand through
Eren’s hair as he removed it from the back of the couch. “Goodnight, Eren.”

Chapter End Notes

Well, that's just how the cookie crumbles, folks. You'll probably want to vacuum it up
quickly, or Levi will get mad
 Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes

Eren had half-formed plans to leave Levi's flat before the man woke up, but by the time Eren
came to, it was almost noon and Levi had been up for hours. The man was perched on a chair
to the side, tapping away at a handheld game. He glanced up when Eren yawned and
stretched his arms above his head as he sat up.

"You sleep like the dead," Levi announced blandly. "If the dead drooled everywhere and
mumbled to themselves." Feeling his face grow hot, Eren instinctively wiped the back of his
hand across his chin, clearing away the saliva that had tracked there with a grimace.

"Sorry," he muttered, voice raspy with sleep.

"You're disgusting," Levi informed him impartially before standing and stretching out a hand.
"Let's find you a shirt and go. I was supposed to start work at eight." Eren eyed Levi's hand
warily before allowing the older man to pull him up.

"Pretty late, aren't you?" Eren asked, glancing to the clock which had officially passed twelve
two minutes ago. "Nobody's going to get upset, are they?"

"I already called Eyebrows and told him I didn't know when I would be coming in." Levi
squeezed Eren's hand before dropping it, the pressure subtle, but strong enough to remind
Eren what had happened the night before.

Levi had almost kissed him, and Eren had almost let him. Eren had had alcohol in his system.
He had been emotionally vulnerable and he was seeking some kind of physical affection and
comfort because of that. That's why Eren would have let Levi kiss him.

But that wasn't why Eren wanted him to.

Eren had wanted Levi to kiss him because the man had been so open and understanding,
because his eyes had been so blue and Eren had seen sympathy in them instead of pity. He
had wanted Levi to kiss him because of the way the man touched him, the way the man held
him – not like Eren was going to fall apart, but like it was Levi's personal mission to hold him
together.

Eren still wanted Levi to kiss him, for all the same reasons, but he still didn't plan on letting
Levi do it. Not when Eren was still with Mikasa, and he couldn't ever imagine not being with
Mikasa, even as he was led down the hall to Levi's bedroom.

"Your shirt was a complete fatality," Levi told him, voice muffled as he dug through his
closet. "Your jacket was a little better, since the fabric was dark, but a little better than a
fucking catastrophe is still a disaster. Even Tide can't work miracles."
"Do you even have anything that will fit me?" Eren stood straighter and looked down to Levi
to make his point, receiving a glare in return.

"Probably not a shirt," Levi admitted, pointedly turning his glower back to his wardrobe.
"You're the size of a titan or some shit, but I should have a sweatshirt somewhere that'll
work." Eren smirked, but Levi shook his head before Eren could make any comments. "And
if you dare to say anything about my height, I will end you."

"Okay, fine," Eren conceded, lifting his hands in a placating gesture. "Consider me silent. I
was just going to say that it's amazing you even have anything, considering-"

A was of heavy black fabric slammed into Eren's face, and he reeled back, pressing a hand
over his nose. It hurt a bitch, especially with all his bruises from the night before, but Eren
couldn't help but laugh when he caught sight of Levi smug, defiant expression.

"Oh, was there a shoe in there?" Levi asked in mock concern, a flat, sarcastic edge to his
voice. "I wonder how that could have possibly gotten there." Eren retrieved the jacket from
the floor, a black loafer tumbling out as the fabric unfolded. Picking up the shoe, Eren tossed
it at Levi's head in a half-hearted attempt at revenge, but the man caught it deftly with a
challenging raise of an eyebrow.

"You bitch," Eren gasped, his insult punctuated with chuckles that drastically lessened its
impact.

"Just put the sweatshirt on so we can go. I'm pretty sure Glasses stole it from Erwin and then
left it here, so it should definitely fit you." With a smile, Eren tugged it over his head,
ignoring the protests of his shoulders as he dragged it into place. Sure enough, the jacket
more than fit him, hanging over his thighs and covering the tips of his fingers.

"I wonder if this is what you would feel like in my clothes," Eren joked as he held the floppy
sleeves up for inspection, receiving a harsh slap to the back of his head for his efforts. He
restrained himself from saying that he was proud of Levi for managing to reach his head,
content to laugh softly to himself as Levi pushed him from the apartment.

"So, are your friends going to be suspicious?" Levi asked as he led the way to his car. "It's
obvious that someone took care of you last night. What are you going to tell them?"

Eren's eyes widened at the question. It hadn't occurred to him, but Levi had a point, a good
one, at that. Eren frequently took care of his own scrapes and bruises, but he couldn't have
bandaged his arms as neatly as Levi did, and he wouldn't have thought to tape his own
fingers. Armin would realize immediately. Mikasa would probably take a little longer, but she
would too, eventually. It was only a matter of time before Eren told Armin all the details of
what had happened, but he never wanted to tell Mikasa anything about it.

Lying was really his only option. Hopefully Mikasa would be too frustrated and short with
him to notice any of him many obvious tell. Armin would notice before, but Eren trusted that
his friend wouldn't say anything until the two of them were alone together. Eren was
relatively confident in his ability to deceive Mikasa, but he would need an alibi.
"I need to call a friend," he said, pulling out his cell phone as he stepped into the passenger
side of Levi's car. He dialed the number he wanted and held his breath.

"Eren?"

"Hey Krista. Would you mind doing me a favor?"

"Of course not," she replied. Eren could hear her smile and he thanked God that she was so
nice.

"I need you to cover for me," he told her. "Can you tell anyone who asks that I was at your's
yesterday? That you fixed me up? Especially Mikasa, if she calls."

The other line was silent for a moment and Eren worried that Krista was actually going to
turn him down before she said: "You're not cheating on her, are you?" Her voice was fraught
with worry. "I'm sorry Eren, but I can't lie to her for you if you are."

"What?" he exclaimed. "No! Of course I'm not. I would never do that to her." He ignored the
fact that he almost had. "I just don't want her to worry." Krista sighed in relief.

"Okay then. If anyone askes, you were with me."

"Thanks Krista. You're a lifesaver."

"It's no problem. Everything's okay, right?"

"Everything's fine. I'll talk to you later. Maybe buy you a drink sometimes as thanks,
assuming Ymir won't murder me for it."

"I'd like that. Bye, then." Eren hung up and turned to find Levi looking at him with well-
masked curiosity.

"So who was that?" Levi questioned, turning his eyes back to the road.

"Krista Lenz. She's practically a goddess. I've been friends with her since tenth grade, and
she's studying to be a nurse, so she patches me up sometimes when I get into fights and
Mikasa won't. She's helped me out a couple of times after a Blackout, so it's not hard to
believe. And she's a surprisingly good liar and she's good at keeping secrets from everyone
besides her girlfriend. She tells Ymir everything, but Ymir won't say anything if it might
make Krista mad."

"No one will wonder about the jacket?" Eren shrugged thoughtfully, tugging at the hem.

"Armin probably will," he said. "He won't say anything about it, though. And – don't hit me
or anything, but you're hardly the first person someone would think of when they see me in a
jacket that's too big." Levi spared him a glare and Eren returned it dramatically with a cheeky
grin. "Mikasa might notice, but she won't connect it with you, and that's really all that
matters."
"Can you stop mentioning her?" Levi blurted. Eren pulled back, leaning heavily into his seat
and blinking in surprise. "I get that she's your girlfriend and all, but I really don't want to hear
about it." Levi stubbornly fixed his eyes on the road, knuckles while against the steering
wheel.

"Sorry," Eren mumbled, ears burning as he turned his own eyes to watch the scenery pass
outside his window. He had been speaking about Levi like he was some kind of dirty affair
Mikasa couldn't find out about, and Eren realized with an ashamed, uncomfortable burning in
his chest, that the assessment wasn't entirely inaccurate. "I wasn't thinking."

Levi dropped Eren off outside campus with some awkward words of parting and Eren
watched with a knot in his stomach as the man drove away. He wondered if, maybe, he was
leading Levi on. And then he started to wonder about the many things that that statement
brought along with it.

Did Levi actually like Eren? Eren knew now that Levi had wanted a soulmate, but did Levi
actually want Eren to be that soulmate? If he did, was Eren encouraging those feelings? If
Eren was, did he have any plans to reciprocate? Did he want to? Was he already?

Each question bred more, but none of them spawned any answers. Eren found himself dizzy
from the introspection, and shook his head to clear it. It worked for the most part, but one
question clung to his consciousness, echoing around his head. Did he have feelings for Levi?

As he walked back to his dorm, he realized the answer. It wasn't a sudden epiphany. It didn't
sneak up on him. When he realized, it wasn't a discovery so much as an acknowledgement of
something that had always been there.

Of course he had feelings for Levi. The man was tailor-made for Eren to have feelings for
him – Eren wouldn't bother denying it anymore. Eren's stomach rolled and his hands
clammed up, because what the hell had he gotten himself into? He loved Mikasa, he really
did, but it wasn't the same as it used to be, and that terrified him. What terrified him more
was the fact that these new feelings he had weren't for his soulmate as a concept, but for Levi
as a person. They were for the way Levi had gotten more animated the more Eren spoke with
him, for the way the man's hands gave away what he was feeling, for his neatness and his
OCD, for his sarcasm, and for the way he looked at Eren.

Eren couldn't deny it anymore.

He opened the door to him dorm, feeling overwhelmed but strangely empty, like he was
ready for sleep after a long day. Armin and Mikasa met him.

"Jesus Eren," Mikasa sighed. "It took you long enough. We've been waiting here since last
night, where the hell have you been? You look like-"

"Mikasa!" Armin snapped, gaining the attention and silence of both Mikasa and Eren. Armin
rarely got aggressive, but now he was seething. "Get out!" he shouted at her. "Just leave and
come back later. You two have been dragging your relationship through the mud for weeks,
and you're about to be a complete bitch. No! Don't even try to argue with me, you know it's
true, and you'd regret it in a couple of days, so just leave now and come back when you can at
least be a good friend, if not a good girlfriend."

Mikasa gaped at him, growing more flustered with each moment that passed before she
eventually flipped them both off, shouted "fuck you, too, Armin," and fled from the room.
The storm on Armin's face cleared, replaced by worry as he steered Eren over to the bed and
sat them down.

"You look better than you usually do after a Blackout," Armin noted, carefully inspecting
Eren's face, and then his arms. "Who helped you?" Armin cut quickly to the chase, his no-
nonsense demeanor eliminating any hopes Eren may have been harboring about avoiding the
topic.

"Levi." Evasion was pointless. Armin sighed and nodded as if he had seen it coming (which
he probably had).

"Tell me everything."

Eren did. He told Armin every detail he could recall from the night, barring only the bits Levi
had revealed about his past. Levi had trusted Eren with that information, and Eren had no
plans to divulge it, not even to Armin. All he said was that Levi could understand, and left it
at that, while Armin listened to the rest of the account in neutral silence.

"You've practically dug your way to China, here, Eren," Armin noted objectively. Eren had
learned over the years that keeping things from Armin was pointless – counter-productive,
even. Armin never held anything against Eren, no matter what the brunette confessed to. The
information never had a negative effect on their friendship, and Armin never judged him.
Most often, Armin used his level-headedness to balance out Eren's irrationality and help him
make decisions that weren't complete shit. Sometimes it was like having a guardian angel.

"I know," Eren sighed, hanging his head in his hands. They sat in silence for a long moment
before a glance at the clock had Eren bolting up. "Shit! I have class!"

"You're actually going to class?" Armin asked dubiously as Eren darted around the room to
collect his long-neglected school supplies.

"Yep!" Eren called in return as he darted from the room, bag bouncing against his side. When
he told Levi that he wanted to go into law enforcement, Eren hadn't been joking. And Levi
had been right – going to class was a first step he had to take, even if it bored him to death.

Over the next week, Eren hadn't skipped a single class. Armin and Mikasa were baffled but
proud, but Eren wasn't doing this for them. As he leaned over an essay for his Criminology
class (which was awesome, by the way, he didn't know why he had stopped going) his eyes
kept trailing over to his phone, resting innocently to the side. After a deep breath, he picked it
up, composing a new text message.
 'Hey Levi, your a cop, right?' Eren snapped his phone shut and tossed it far to the side,
already regretting sending the message. He tried to focus on his work, but the next thing he
registered was the chime of his phone five minutes later.

'If you're trying to tell me that you've killed someone and need help hiding the body, you're
going about it all wrong.' Ignoring Levi's sarcasm, Eren replied immediately.

'So you no about laws and stuff.' Eren felt like a moron for stating the obvious yet again, and
regretted this message even more than the first. Levi's reply only took two minutes, this time.

'Not really, no. I just arrest people lottery-style. You were the one millionth customer.
Congratu-fucking-lations.'

'Can u help me with my school work?'

'What?'

'I havent gone to classes in a long time, so I'm super behind. I don't really know whats goin
on. Can you help? Like, answer questions n stuff?' After a few minutes, Eren worried that
Levi would say no, and after several more, he thought that Levi wouldn't reply at all, but
when Levi's reply came, it was simple.

'Sure.'

Eren took that as permission to text Levi whenever he need help, and he took blatant
advantage of the fact. With Levi answering questions whenever Eren had them, Eren was
actually doing fairly well on all of his assignments. His overall grades still left something to
be desired, after missing so much class, but he was gradually bringing them back up.
Eventually, as he began to catch up on class material, Eren began think up questions to ask
Levi just so he could strike up conversation afterwards. Levi must have noticed, but he didn't
seem to mind.

Eren was substantially happier, acting more like he had in the time before he met Levi.
Mikasa attributed it to their "healing relationship," but Eren knew, even if he wouldn't admit
it, that he was happier because of Levi. Happier because he was talking to the man so
casually on such a regular basis.

Armin knew, too.

Chapter End Notes

The errors in Eren's texts are intentional, btw. I imagine him being an absolutely
atrocious texter most of the time, but he was trying (failing) to be careful this time, since
it was his first time texting Levi. Eren is such a preteen girl, sometimes (read: all the
time).
 Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Notes

Just so you all know, I have plans to edit this story when it's finished. All the typos and
grammatical errors will be taken care of as soon as I finish chapter 21. Consider
everything up right now a rough draft, if you will

This chapter, it's time for the real talks and basically nothing else. Not very exciting,
sorry.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Eren managed to go a solid week before Armin cornered him, and that Eren held out that
long was a miracle in and of itself. Perhaps he was being indecisive and contradictory by
telling himself not to hide things from Armin and then immediately failing to confide some
of the most important details of the situation, but Eren was still conflicted about everything
himself. Acknowledging his feelings for Levi and understanding them were two different
things, just as admitting them to himself and admitting them to Armin were entirely separate
issues. Eren wasn't ready to verbalize any of it, not to the attentive ears of his best friend, not
even to the stoic silence of a completely empty room.

But Armin, apparently, was tired of waiting.

When the full extent of Eren's stubborn reluctance became clear, Armin resorted to his
version of "drastic measures," neatly nabbing Eren's phone before herding the boy into the
bathroom with an expression that brooked no argument. Eren found himself seated on the
grubby tile floor of the too-small bathroom, slouching against the door that had clicked
locked a moment after it closed. Unfortunately, the bathroom connected to Eren's dorm room
connected was shared by another, and locked from both sides for privacy reasons. He could
turn the lock on his side all he wanted, but Armin was waiting on the other to turn it right
back. He could go through the other dorm room, but the two guys in there were complete
dicks who were twice Eren's size, and would undoubtedly just toss Eren straight back in
before going to their RA to complain. Eren was trapped until Armin deigned to release him.

"So, you just got a text," Armin announced casually, voice drifting easily through the thin
door. Eren sighed, hunching his shoulders up around his ears. "Levi says he knew you would
do well on the paper because he practically wrote it for you. He also wants to know if you've
murdered 'Kirst-dick,' because you apparently haven't complained about him in a day or two.
I'm guessing 'Kirst-dick' is Jean, right? Clever."

"Levi seems to think so," Eren mumbled into his knees, tactlessly avoiding the topic Armin
was trying to bring to the fore. "I think it's fitting, myself."
"So is this what you two have been talking about nonstop for the past eight days?" Armin
asked. "How much Jean annoys you?" Eren shrugged, even though Armin couldn't see.

"Yeah, I guess. Jean, Hange, school, work – nothing important, really."

"Oh, really? So if I open your texts right now, that's all I'll find? Just unimportant nonsense?"
Eren tensed, jerking away from the door before spinning around to bang a fist against it.

"Don't you dare, Armin."

"Why not?" the blonde questioned with a deceptive innocence that made a muscle in Eren's
jaw tick. "It's just Jean, Hange, school, and work, right? That's nothing I shouldn't see."

"Armin, don't. We – we talk about our pasts sometimes, okay?" Eren closed his eyes tightly,
pressing his forehead against the door hard enough to leave a faint mark by the time he pulled
away. "You may know everything about mine already, but you don't know shit about his, and
it's none of your fucking business, anyway."

Despite the fact that Armin had been egging Eren on, obviously expecting something, he
sounded completely baffled when he spoke next. "It was one thing that you told him – I could
understand that, given the circumstances – but you've actually been talking about it?"

"You should be happy," Eren deflected. "You've always wanted me to talk about it with
someone other than you, right? This is what you've wanted for years." The lock clicked and
the door swung open a moment later, leaving Eren to blink up at the solemn face of his best
friend.

"This is more serious than I thought," Armin sighed as Eren stood. "This really isn't a
conversation that we should have while you're locked up in the bathroom as a flight risk. If
you would kindly not run the moment I step out of the doorway, it would be much
appreciated."

"This really isn't a conversation we should have at all," Eren huffed. He brushed passed
Armin easily, but made no attempt to leave his dorm, sitting on his bed instead, positioning
his pillows so he could lean heavily against the wall.

"It needs to be done," Armin insisted, crossing the short length of the room to sit on Jean's
bed. "This isn't just about you and Levi, it's about you and Mikasa. If there's one place I have
any right to meddle, it's there. I've been with you two since the beginning. I've been with you
since before you met her."

"I don't know what you want me to say." There were a million things that he could say, but
none of them were sentiments that Eren actually wanted (or knew how) to put into words. Of
those thoughts, he was even more lost as to which ones Armin was looking for.

"You have feelings for him, don't you?" Armin asked, and Eren couldn't even nod in
confirmation, returning the question with a desperate one of his own.

"What do I do, Armin? Tell me what to do."

"I can't do that. You know I can't."

"Then help me make the right choice myself," Eren requested. Requested, because there was
no way he was begging, no way that he was so torn apart by the couple of months that he had
known Levi that he would actually beg for help. Armin's face colored with a regret that had
Eren's heart sinking.

"There is no right choice," Armin said softly. Eren's face whitened. "No matter what you do,
someone is going to get hurt. No matter what you do, you're going to hurt yourself. There's
no getting out of this unscathed."

"Then help me make a decision. Any decision."

Armin did as asked, explaining the situation and available choices as clearly and objectively
as he could. Eren had two viable options.

Mikasa was safe. She and Eren loved each other – they always would, no matter what they
went through, and no matter how they fought. They needed each other, had been together for
so long and through so much that they didn't know how to live without each other. That's why
they had started dating. If Eren chose Mikasa (and he hated to think about it in those terms,
hated to acknowledge that he was actually considering not choosing Mikasa) they would be
together forever. There was no doubt that they would get married, and they would be happy
together, for the most part. Their relationship had always had extreme ups and downs – was
in one of those "extreme downs" at the moment, actually – and that would never go away.
Eren was prone to first of anger, and Mikasa always accidentally antagonized him and made
it worse. Sometimes that festered between them, but at the end of the day, they made the
relationship work. Eren could stay with her forever and not worry about how things were
going to be. He would always have someone to go back to, and no matter how bad things got,
he could rest easy, knowing that they were going to be okay in only a matter of time.

Levi, on the other hand, was the risk. A huge risk, surrounded by variables. Eren knew him,
but didn't know him well. A relationship between them could potentially end in disaster.
Maybe that was more likely than it being successful. For one thing, Levi was a man and Eren
had never been – and still wasn't – attracted to men. Levi was no exception to that. Eren
wanted to be close to Levi in ways he couldn't completely understand, but he still felt no
attraction to the man, and Eren had no clue how that could affect a potential relationship.
There was also Eren's reservations towards the whole concept of "soulmates" in general. Levi
had done nothing wrong, but Eren found himself reminded of Grisha, regardless. Levi wasn't
cruel, but he was a far cry from kind, and who knew how he could change as time went on?
Who knew what he was or wasn't capable of? Just by existing, Levi was silently demanding
that Eren give up everything for him. Eren was terrified that doing so would lead to his own
destruction, like it had for his mother. And to choose Levi would mean giving up Mikasa, a
term that Eren could come to terms with, even as he realized the potential of a relationship
between himself and Levi. But there was always the chance that being with Levi would be
perfect. That it would be everything Eren had only gotten a hint of in their moments of banter
and quiet understanding. There was the possibility that Levi really was everything society
had promised: Eren's destines other half. Eren and Levi had been connected by red lines
around their arms for 31 years. That was twelve years longer than Eren had even been alive.
It was also no small matter that Eren could feel Levi beneath his skin whenever he thought
about the man, feel the gentle, reassuring tug that was always saying "he's that way if you
need him." Eren had no idea when he had opened himself up to the bond enough to let it
actually connect, but he had realized a few days ago, and he hadn't been able to bring himself
to block it. He couldn't imagine cutting it off like that (and wouldn't admit that, if he did, he
feared he would someday Levi would die with Eren none-the-wiser).

The irony was not lost on Eren. For years, he had thought he was being so daring by staying
with Mikasa instead of searching for his soulmate. He thought he was taking some huge risk
on her, when he now realized that it was the opposite. Mikasa had always been his safety net,
and half the reason he wanted to say with her was because he had always been with her, and
no longer knew how to be without her. He had thought that his soulmate was the safe option,
because everything in society said that he should be with them, but choosing Levi would be
risking everything.

At the end of everything, Eren's choice seemed obvious, but no easier.

"I don't know how to do it," he sighed, gripping his hair tightly. "I can't lose her, I can't."

"You know," Armin said, with forced lightness, "I was so upset when you two started dating.
I saw it coming, and I knew there was nothing I could do to stop it, but you two were never
good together. You didn't start dating because you loved each other. You did love each other,
but that wasn't your motive. You only started dating because you needed each other. You
were best friends, like siblings almost, but you were so desperate to be as close as you could,
to never lose each other no matter what, that you started dating, even though you weren't a
good romantic match. You two don't even know how you love each other anymore: friends,
siblings, lovers – your wires are all crossed."

"I thought you weren't supposed to take sides," Eren growled. The words struck too close to
home. They misrepresented some things, ever so slightly, but there was more than a grain of
truth to them.

"You've already made your decision," Armin replied with a shrug. "I can't influence it now.
I'm hardly going to tell you to break up with our best friend and single-handedly ruin your
relationship, but if you've made the choice yourself, then voicing my opinion can't cause any
harm."

"I just don't know how to do it." For this, Armin had no advice to offer. They both jumped as
the door to the dorm swung open.

"You have until Monday," Jean said with uncharacteristic seriousness. "If you don't do it by
then, I'm doing it for you." He grabbed the bag he had forgotten before leaving without
further word. Eren cursed thin doors and nosey roommates, wondering if his heart would ever
start pumping again after that skipped beat, and half-hoping it wouldn't.

That would make many things a lot easier.

Chapter End Notes

You know, I was really content. I was like "oh yeah, Risk is almost done, and I have an
idea that I can work on when I finish it, and it's gonna be cute, and maybe a little angsty,
and life will be great," and then...

I had another fucking idea.

Now I don't know which one to write :c

 Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Notes

So, I'm reading my old original works. Do you ever have terrible flashbacks to the time
when you were thirteen and thought you were master of emotional depth and the human
condition? Because I do. It is both humiliating and hilarious. That will be all.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

A few months ago, Eren would have claimed that alcohol was overrated. Sure, he got drunk
with his friends now and then, but he always regretted it in the morning. Really, he would
have said, what's the real appeal to something that makes you feel light for a night but like
lead for the morning after. He would drink when he was with his friends, and he would enjoy
it, but alcohol in and of itself was not nearly as great as some people made it out to be.

Currently, it was Sunday, and alcohol of any variety was sitting firmly at the top of Eren's list
of closest friends. Armin was there too, but Armin couldn't get Eren so thoroughly
intoxicated that he could forget everything that was going on. In fact, Armin seemed
determined to keep reminding Eren, which was probably due, at least in part, to the fact that
alcohol was currently the blonde's best friend, as well.

"I'm sorry," the blonde groaned, scuffing his shoes against the ground as he kicked his legs.
Eren had lost track of the apologies after the sixth time, and that had been almost ten minutes
ago. One wouldn't expect for a great number of apologies to accumulate in that time, but
Armin seemed intent to say it every few seconds, with varying volume and intensity.

The blonde was seated at Eren's desk, head resting on the hard surface. He had his arms
splayed in front of him, constantly shifting positions as he restlessly moved his limbs, one
hand always keeping a grip on the red plastic cup Eren had given him when he arrived. Even
though he was hardly through his first cup, Armin, who had always been a lightweight, was
already well on his way to being drunk, exuding an aura of pathetic despair as he slumped
against the furniture.

It was 2PM and they had been drinking for an hour, slowly working their way through the
unlabeled bottles Eren had found under Jean's bed. Knowing Jean, the proof on it was
probably high enough to poison a small elephant, and it tasted like shit, that was for sure, but
Eren was determined to drink it anyway for two reasons. The first: it would get Eren drunk
fast, which was a hard feat to accomplish but a must for the current situation. Eren didn't
want to go meet Mikasa sober. He realized that he probably should, out of respect and
decency, but he honestly didn't think he could go through it without a little (read: a lot of)
liquid courage. The second: Jean was the asshole to get Eren into this mess, and Eren wanted
revenge. Technically, Eren had gotten himself into this mess by involving himself with Levi
in the first place, but it was still Jean's fault that he was miserable right now. Drinking his
roommate's booze was petty and inconsequential, but Eren felt he had a right to it.

"This is all my fault," Armin mumbled hopelessly, rousing Eren from his thoughts. This
statement, as well, had already been said several times since Armin arrived, although it was
said about half as often. "I shouldn't have made you talk about it when you didn't want to. If I
hadn't been so pushy, Jean never would have found out."

"Shut up, Armin," Eren sighed, tossing the plastic cup he had just emptied at his friend's
head. He had told Armin to shut up just about as many times as Armin had apologized. "You
didn't do anything wrong. I needed to make a fucking decision – you made me make the
decision. Jean's the reason were here, and all he did was make sure I follow through on it."
Armin jerked up and away from the desk, stumbling a step forward before falling against the
foot of Eren's bed, head and shoulders resting against the blanket while the rest of him fell to
the floor like dead weight.

"You need to break up with her," he said into the covers, voice muffled by fabric and
emotions and drunkenness. Eren wouldn't have understood him if they hadn't know each
other so long, and seen each other in all sorts of states of incoherency. "But you need to do it
yourself, 'cause you realize that you need to, not 'cause Jean's blackmailing you. What are
you gonna do, Eren?"

At this point, Armin's voice was strangled with the tears that had built in his eyes, and Eren
found himself kicking at his friend's head in a way that was supposed to be comforting.
Armin always had been an emotional drunk. It was annoying whenever they drank casually,
but at a time like this, Eren was actually kind of grateful for it. Taking care of Armin and
keeping him from getting hysteric was a good way for Eren to distract himself from what was
going on. If Armin wasn't crying, chances drastically increased that Eren would.

"I'm meeting with her tonight," Eren answered, his voice carrying a soothing note that
quickly died. "In four hours Mikasa will never want to see me again."

He pulled a pillow from behind him, pressing it tightly over his face until the pressure there
matched the pressure in his chest. He couldn't believe that this was actually happening. He
had thought that he would be with Mikasa forever, and for the last four years, being with
Mikasa meant dating Mikasa. But he didn't want to do that anymore – couldn't do that
anymore. He loved her, but he didn't love her that way, and he probably never had. His
feelings were some weird mix of friendly and sibling-ly and romantic, but it was none of
those things specifically. It existed in some weird nebulous place that didn't have a name, and
there was no designated way to deal with it. Treating her like a friend felt wrong, treating her
like a sister was worse, and treating her like a girlfriend was the worst. Eren wished that there
was a way to break things off without losing her. He wished he had never started dating her in
the first place.

In the several days since Jean had issued his ultimatum, Eren had barely spoken to his
girlfriend. It was an ill-fated attempt to preemptively distance himself. Maybe, he had
thought, it would be easier. If he went four days without talking to her, maybe it would be
easier to completely ruin their relationship by breaking her heart. He wouldn't deny that it
was probably the most far-fetched "maybe" he had ever held hope for. He had replied to just
enough of her texts to keep her from getting angry, feeding her vague excuses about
classwork when she asked why they couldn't talk or why she couldn't come over.

As for Levi – Eren hadn't replied to any of his messages.

It wasn't that Eren didn't want to – he definitely did. He had read some of them, and it looked
like Levi was getting worried (had been worried since the first day Eren cut off contact,
actually), which was understandable, since Eren had seemingly fallen off the face of the
earth. He had gone to all of his classes except for Hange's, knowing that they would no doubt
interrogate Eren before reporting his status back to Levi. Eren didn't want Levi to worry, but
talking to him at the moment felt dishonest somehow.

Eren had made his decision, and with Jean's threat hanging over his head, he had no choice
but to put said decision into action. He had chosen Levi, which meant that, when everything
was said and done, Eren and Levi would be together. Assuming that Levi would have him
(Eren didn't even want to contemplate the very real possibility that Levi didn't want him as
anything more than a friend). For the moment, though, Eren was still Mikasa, and it felt
horribly despicable to talk to the man he had decided to leave her for before he had actually
left her. The thought of talking with Levi, smiling and laughing at the man's sarcastic banter
made the weight in Eren's chest press down on his stomach until he felt like he was going to
vomit (and no, Eren would not be able to resist the urge to smile and laugh and roll his eyes,
even with things the way they were). His conscience conveniently ignored the fact that he
and Levi had been having what Armin called an "emotional affair" for at least a week before
all this, maybe longer.

"Eren," Armin whined, face still pressed against the bed. "Your phone keeps vibrating. It was
nice at first, but now I have a headache. Make it stop." He groped around the covers,
grabbing the offending device from next to his ear and tossing it up the bed. Eren fumbled it
from the air and threw it back a bare second later.

"It's Levi! It's Levi! Why is he calling me?" The phone skipped off Armin's shoulder and unto
the floor with a thud, vibrating obnoxiously against the uncarpeted tile.

"Probably 'cause you've been ignorin' him for four days," Armin replied blearily. The
vibrating stopped and Eren allowed himself a sigh of relief that quickly proved to be
premature. The vibration started back up just a moment later, causing Eren to flinch and
Armin to groan loudly into the bedspread. The blonde scrambled for the phone and chucked
it violently back up to Eren.

"Just answer it," he nearly begged. "It's never going to stop if you don't." Eren shook his head
and set his jaw.

"I can't just answer it," he hissed, cringing when the phone landed on the bed between him
and the wall. "He's never called me before. We haven't actually spoken since I stayed with
him. We only texted! What am I supposed to say?"

"Jesus Eren, it won't kill you to talk to him. You sound like a twelve year-old girl." With an
exasperated groan, Armin dragged himself up the length of Eren's bed before flipping Eren's
phone open and answering the call himself. Collapsing onto his stomach, he commandeered
one of Eren's pillows and shoved the phone unceremoniously into his friend's face.

"What the hell Armin?" Eren demanded in a whisper, trying to keep his voice from carrying
to the receiver while simultaneously trying to shove the device as far away as possible.
Neither attempts were successful, as his voice was louder than intended and Armin kept
stubbornly shoving the device back against Eren's cheek the moment it got farther than an
inch away. Abandoning his attempts at evasion, Eren took the phone, staring at it distrustfully
before bringing it to his ear.

"Sorry Levi, can't talk now," he said in a rush, before he could hear any of what the man was
saying. "Everything's fine, no need to worry, got to go!" He snapped the phone shut, relief
and pride flowing through him at a job well done. Both were quickly stifled by Armin's huff
of annoyance.

"Eren, that's no good!" Armin pressed his face into the pillow he had stolen, jabbing a sharp
elbow into Eren's hip. "He's just going to call back, now. You made things even worse for
yourself."

True to Armin's prediction, the phone vibrated in Eren's grasp, rattling against his fingers. He
stared at it hopelessly, realizing that he really had no choice but to answer. Either he took this
call and dealt with it, or he waited a couple of hours for Levi to actually show up at the dorm
and dealt with that. Chewing nervously on his lip, he flipped the phone back open and
answered the call.

"Hello…?"

"What the fuck was that supposed to be?" Levi demanded immediately. His voice was
harsher than Eren remembered. "And why the hell do you sound like a kicked puppy? I'm the
one who practically has frostbite from the cold shoulder you've been giving me."

"I'm sorry," Eren mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"You damn well better be. Mind telling me what's been going on?"

"I… I can't," Eren said, voice taking on a whining edge.

"You can't?" Levi was angry, Eren could hear it in the way he clipped his syllables.

"I can't," Eren confirmed. He prepared for the shit storm that would follow, but was met only
with a sigh.

"Everything's okay, right?" Levi's voice was notably softer, still frustrated, but also resigned
and slightly concerned.

"Everything's fine. Or it will be, anyway. You don't need to worry."

"Real convincing argument you have there," Levi said dryly. "It's not vague in the slightest."
 "Sarcasm is the worst form of humor," Eren replied, quoting something he vaguely
remembered Armin saying once or twice.

"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit," Levi corrected.

"Yeah, that. You are very, very low. And not very witty."

"It still goes right over your head."

"What?"

"Nothing," Levi chuckled. "Go attend to whatever your mysterious business is. And also –
stop drinking. Seriously, it's not even four yet, and you're only nineteen, anyway."

"You're not the boss of me."

"Just hang up, you fuck." Eren stuck his tongue out and did so.

"You two are both horrible at flirting," Armin grumbled. "You're lucky you have each other.
Anyone else would think that you were trying to start a fight." Eren stuck his tongue out at
Armin, too.

For the next few hours, Eren continued drinking (because Levi really wasn't the boss of him),
but he did take care not to get drunk. He left his room at 5:30, leaving Armin asleep on the
bed, and arrived at Mikasa's room ten minutes later.

She opened the door with a hard look on her face, and Eren wondered for a heart-stopping
moment if Jean had already told her. She pulled him inside, but instead of moving further into
the room to her bed like the usually would, she had them linger by the door. She leaned her
back against it, effectively blocking the only way out of the room.

Eren wondered why he was suddenly feeling so uneasy, why he was thinking about escape
routes like this was a battle field.

"Eren," Mikasa began, eyes on the ground. Something shifted nervously beneath his skin.
"I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore."

"What?"

"I'm breaking up with you." Her voice cracked, but he face remained blank.

"You're… breaking up with me."

Mikasa always had taken Eren by surprise.

Chapter End Notes

And Risk is officially drawing to a close. Only five or six chapters left, now.
 Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes

"You're… breaking up with me?" Eren asked, blinking slowly at his girlfriend- or ex-
girlfriend, now, he supposed.

"I am," she confirmed.

"Don't."

He heard the word, but barely realized that he had been the one to say it or what it meant until
Mikasa's guarded eyes met his. He didn't know what had possessed him to say it, because this
was what he had wanted. When he heard her say the words he had felt a measure of relief
alongside his boundless shock. Those five words solved at least half of Eren's problems and
took a world of pressure off his shoulders. Wasn't this the world throwing him a bone? Hadn't
he just dodged a bullet? But he said it again.

"Don't do this."

"No," Mikasa said forcefully. "Don't you do this. If you tell me not to leave you, I won't be
able to, and then things will only get worse." Her eyes were flashing but Eren couldn't tell if
it was with anger or sadness or an unnamed mix of both.

"Mikasa, please-"

"No. Stop." Eren had no choice but to do so. "I know I'm not the most observant person in the
world. I can be kind of dense sometimes, yeah, and I'm not so good at reading people, but I'm
not stupid. Do you think I don't know what's been going on? I figured it out, okay! I figured it
out ages ago." She pressed her back tighter against the door, as if reading Eren's desperate
desire to escape, to get out of there, god damn it. The handle must have been digging into her
back, but if it bothered her, she didn't acknowledge it. "You've been glued to your phone for
weeks. I know that you were with him that night, not Krista. I know that you let him take care
of you. I know."

"I'm sorry." It shouldn't have been a surprise that Mikasa knew. Subtly wasn't a part of Eren's
character. He didn't bother with it, and even when he tried, he failed. Of course Mikasa had
noticed, and of course she had put it all together. He thought everything would be okay if he
didn't say anything but he had only thought so because he had wanted it to be true.

He should have done this sooner. He should have known that it was over between them the
moment he realized he had accepted the bond. He should have known earlier – maybe when
he had called Levi for help, or maybe when Levi had brought the news of Eren's father's
death. He should have known, and the moment he did, he should have broken things off with
Mikasa. All this time, she had known, and if it bothered Eren, than it was likely stressing her
ten-fold. He hated that he had done that to her, but he was so afraid of losing her, of facing
life without her, that he had done it anyway. It was selfish. He was selfish.

"I'm sorry, too," she said, teeth digging into her lip. She would probably be bleeding by the
end of this. It was a nasty habit of hers. "I knew this was going to happen. I was always
worried, but the moment I met him, I knew for sure. He really is your soulmate. Somehow I
could tell just by looking at him. I saw him – he didn't even have to say anything – and I
knew that he would take you from me.

"But I don't understand why! He's short and angry and old. You hated him at first, didn't you?
And he's a guy! What does he have that I don't?" She slammed a fist into the door and Eren
reach out to sooth her growing anger before immediately pulling away. Her teeth split
through the skin of her lower lip.

"I didn't mean for this to happen," Eren whispered intensely. If there was one thing he needed
Mikasa to understand, it was that he had never wanted to hurt her, regardless of how much he
had. After all the things that had happened outside of his control, the one he regretted most
was that he had hurt her.

"Did you cheat with him? On me. Did you cheat on me?" The abruptness of the question left
Eren floundering in a way that probably appeared guilty.

"What? No!" he finally burst, shaking his head frantically. "Nothing has happened between
me and Levi." Mikasa tugged at her scarf, a small frown pulling at her lips.

"For some reason, I feel like you're lying," she said softly. "Ah. Your ears are turning red."

"That's because I'm embarrassed," he snapped, slapping his hands over his ears to cover
them.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure! Nothing happened."

"Well… that's nice to know, anyway. Do you love him?" Again Eren was left blindsided and
speechless in the wake of the unexpected question, but this time he was spared from
answering.

"Actually, no," Mikasa continued. "Don't answer that. It was dumb of me to ask. I don't think
I want to know, either way." Eren stood, with his mouth slightly open, unsure of what to say.
They lingered in an uncomfortable silence for a long moment before Mikasa pulled the scarf
from around her neck and wrapped it sloppily around Eren's. Just like that, it was his again,
and he pulled it closer to his face the same way she always did.

"You should go," Mikasa told him. "And you should stay away. I don't want to see you for…
a while. Don't talk to me. Don't try to make things better. Don't act like everything's okay,
because nothing is. Just – don't for a while, okay?"

"For how long?" Eren asked.

"I don't know," Mikasa answered. "Maybe forever. Can you do that?"

"If I have to." He didn't say that doing so would be like losing a part of himself because she
didn't need to hear that, and he was fairly certain that she already knew anyway.

"You do." She stepped into the room, away from the door, brushing past him on her way to
her bed. She watched expectantly, waiting for him to leave, probably to she could break down
with all the emotion she was refusing to show him. He stayed there for a moment, idling in
the silent space, realizing that this was the last time in "maybe forever" that he would get to
be in this room. Then, after his moment was had, he opened the door and left like this was no
different from the millions of times he had left before.

As Eren walked back to his dorm, he thanked the detached emptiness that had filled him.
Without it, he felt that he would probably be in hysterics, but this way he could process the
information with a degree more rationality. Even now he felt curiously as if he was missing
something, a hollowness in his chest that couldn't be attributed to his emotional distance.

For almost as long as he could remember, Eren had protected Mikasa, and she had done the
same for him. They cared for each other. They were always there – a constant presence in the
other's life. The relationship that had had never fallen neatly into place, had never clicked
into a proper dynamic. It had been unhealthy, and Eren was aware of that, but it didn't make it
any easier to live without her.

For so long, they had leaned on each other instead of standing on their own, and now Eren's
legs were shaking beneath him.

He unlocked his dorm with shaking hands, the key rattling in his grip. Armin was still there,
asleep on Eren's bed. Jean was back, sitting on his own.

"Jeager," he greeted coldly. "Did you do it, or do I have a visit to make tomorrow?"

"I didn't do it," Eren replied blankly. "But she did. No need to worry."

"Oh really?" Jean asked with a disbelieving laugh. "She actually grew the balls to break up
with you? It's about time. She's always been out of your league."

"Jean, please, for once in your life, just shut up. You wanted it done and it's done. Just leave
me alone, now."

"You're not really in any position to use that tone on me, you know. That exhausted,
disappointed tone. You're the cheating bastard here, not me."

"You don't know shit," Eren told Jean flatly. Kicking his shoes off, he collapsed onto his bed,
shoving Armin against the wall roughly enough that the blonde would have protested if he
hadn't been out cold.

"I know that you cheated on Mikasa with your soulmate, who's apparently a guy. Isn't that
enough?"
"I didn't cheat on Mikasa," Eren corrected, already sick of the misconception. He had no
doubt that he would be hearing more of it when word of the break up spread to their friends.
"I haven't had sex with Levi. I haven't even kissed the guy, yet."

"Wait – Levi?" Jean asked, brow furrowing. "As in that weird shorty I caught you with? Are
you telling me that I witnessed the start of your affair-"

"No!" Eren barked. "He was there to tell me that my dad fucking died, you prick. I didn't
even like him then." Jean was silent for a long moment, and Eren leaned into his pillows,
prepared to sleep even if it wasn't 8PM yet, thinking that he had finally shocked Jean into
shutting up.

"So you do like him, then?" Jean's tone had changed, losing the hostile edge. He sounded
grudgingly curious.

"I wouldn't leave Mikasa for him if I didn't."

"Well then. Tell him that if he hurts you I'll punch him in the face."

"He'd murder you," Eren laughed into his pillow.

"I could out run him," Jean disagreed with an arrogant half-smile. "Longer legs."

"He'd catch you," Eren assure, no doubt in his mind. Levi disliked Jean on principle – though
Eren wasn't sure of what principle that was meant to be, exactly – and if Jean dared touch
him, Levi would chase him to the ends of the earth for revenge.

"Can I go to sleep now?" Eren yawned. The events of the day were catching up with him, the
alcohol and stress and surprise all translating through as fatigue.

"Not so fast, Jeager. I may punch this Levi guy if he hurts you, but I still have to punch you
for hurting Mikasa." Eren sighed around another yawn, lifting himself from his bed. He set
his feet should width apart and spread his arms slightly from his sides.

"Well, go ahead," he encouraged. "I'm not going to stop you. I would do it myself, if I could."

Jean scowled and rolled his eyes. He balled his fist, and Eren braced himself for the hit,
hoping that if he stumbled and fell he at least wouldn't land on top of Armin, who would
probably cause more damage than Jean, with his pointy elbows and knees. Jean raised his fist
and brought the side of it down firmly on top of Eren's head. It wasn't what Eren had
expected, and though the blow wasn't particularly hard, it had enough force behind it to make
Eren's knees give out. He fell to the floor, kneading his scalp with one hand and flipping Jean
off with the other.

"There," Jean said with a self-satisfied grin. "All is forgiven. You may now sleep." He
flopped into his bed, pulling his abandoned laptop onto his knees to resume whatever he had
been doing before Eren arrived back at the dorm and interrupted him.

Eren settled into his own bed, arranging Armin as he did so that they could both maintain
some modicum of comfort throughout the night. Sleep came to him easily after the long day,
 and he was grateful for it. He needed the rest. He was fairly sure that things would get worse
before they got better – at least, he would feel worse – but he could rest easy, knowing that
whatever "better" was was hiding somewhere just around the bend.

Chapter End Notes

So, this chapter is being posted now mainly so I can warn you that I have no idea how
regularly I will be posting from now on. I go back to school on the 8th and I don't know
how that will effect my "at least once every five days" way of updating. I also have
massive amounts of summer homework that I've barely even touched, so I won't be
posting again before then (I shouldn't even be posting now, but I don't want to leave
people in the lurch). My updates will, from here on out, depend on how my classes and
prepping for college applications and all that nonsense goes.

Also, I've been spelling Eren's last name wrong this whole time. It's either "Yeager" or
"Jaeger" and I've been spelling it Jeager. If you haven't noticed before, you're welcome.
 Chapter 17
Chapter Notes

Jesus Christ, when I said it might take me longer to update, I did not mean 2+ weeks.
Senior year has been harder than anticipated - not school itself but all this college and
application nonsense. I'm sorry that it's taken so long. I hope you're all still with me.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Eren spent the next few days more or less dead to the world, mindlessly going to and from
classes as he tried to stave off a breakdown that felt more or less inevitable. He felt like he
had lost something indispensable, a feeling that was only worsened by his inability to name
what he was missing. For once, Armin was at a loss as to how to handle the situation. He
hadn't understood the specifics of Eren and Mikasa's relationship to begin with, and now that
it was over, he had no idea how to comfort Eren.

Jean was similarly at a loss. He and Eren's friendship had always been a strange one, based
largely off a mutual animosity. Now that Mikasa was out of the picture, Eren suddenly had no
place to be but in class or in his dorm, and Jean was suffering the consequences. He had
resorted to picking fights in an attempt to get Eren to blow off some steam. These attempts
were mostly unsuccessful, and this, if anything, was a reflection of how out of it Eren really
was.

The only thing Eren did with any sort of enthusiasm since the breakup was go to Biology
class. Really, the description "enthusiasm" was being used in the loosest possible terms. He
dragged himself to Biology with a masochistic dread – better than the vague confusion and
disorientation he showed at any other time – only because he shared the class with Mikasa.
As requested, he didn't try to speak to her, and as expected, she ignored him. Mostly, he
wanted to be sure she was okay.

And she was. She was fine. She was also dating Annie.

Eren wasn't sure when exactly it had happened, but a few days ago Annie had showed up
outside their Biology class and had led Mikasa away by the hand. A part of him was relieved,
because Mikasa deserved to be happy, and if she had found someone to make her so, Eren
didn't have to feel so guilty all the time. Another part of him was panicking. He had noticed
the bracelet that Annie always wore on her wrist, he had seen beneath it, and he knew that
she had a soulmate. It was unhealthy, and perhaps stalker-adjacent, but Eren needed to keep
an eye on the situation.

Which was why he had skipped Biology, just for the day. He would catch Annie while she
was waiting for Mikasa, and they would have a nice, civil conversation about Annie's
intentions. He bounced his leg, seated on the stone lip that ran around the building, scanning
the stream of passing students for the blonde hair and white hoodie he was familiar with. His
phone vibrated in his pocket, but he ignored it, something he had been doing with increasing
frequency lately.

For one thing, he was busy. There was the chance that Annie would just keep walking if she
noticed him, so he had to keep an eye out if he wanted to get a word in. For another, it was
probably Levi.

Eren wanted to speak to Levi, but he didn't know what to say. His texting app was filled with
at least a dozen unsent drafts. Half of them were clumsy variations of "Mikasa and I broke
up" or "Hey - you, me, dating - let's fucking do it." Eren typed out at least one a day, stared at
it for half an hour or more, and then decided he couldn't possibly bring himself to actually
send it. In retrospect, he felt incredibly ridiculous for ever assuming that Levi would actually
be willing to date him.

"Eren." It was Annie's voice that broke him from his reverie, and he shook his head sharply to
clear it. Thankfully she had decided to confront him rather than keep moving. His insistence
on not checking Levi's text had apparently led to as much distraction as actually doing so
would have.

"Annie," he returned dumbly. All the things he had planned to say, the grand (if slightly
hypocritical) speech he had planned to give, flew from his mind.

"What do you want?" she asked, after a moment's pause. "Shouldn't you be in class right
now?" She nodded to the building in emphasis.

"I wanted to talk to you." Annie's eyes narrowed slightly, a bored quirk to her mouth, as if
Eren had just stated the obvious.

"Say your part," she prompted.

"Just – don't hurt her, alright." Eren's plans had been much grander, more verbose and
extravagant. He had planned to issue threats, and tell Annie all the reasons why Mikasa was
too good for her. He was going to pump the proverbial shotgun like the big brother he only-
kind-of was. This worked just as well, he supposed, but Annie's eyes didn't soften.

"Whatever you think is going on between Mikasa and me – you're wrong," she said flatly.
"We're not dating or anything. We've just had sex a few times. Nothing for her to get 'hurt'
over."

"You have a soulmate, don't you?"

"I do," she replied, fingers flying automatically to rub over the fabric that covered her wrist.

"Then you could hurt her. Just don't do what I did."

"I have no interest in my soulmate," she said, eyes to the side, and Eren couldn't help the
small laugh that escaped him.
"I said the same exact thing a few months ago. Funny how things change, huh. Now I'm
acting like a thirteen year-old girl every time-"

"Oi brat."

Eren stopped midsentence, back stiffening against the wall. Annie raised a questioning
eyebrow before glancing over to the side, to the rapidly approaching black-haired man.

Levi was angrier than Eren expected him to be. Yes, Eren knew without a doubt that Levi
would be angry the next time they saw each other, but this wasn't quite what he had expected.
Levi's suit jacket was nowhere to be seen, probably left behind at his flat or the station, and
the man had the sleeves of his dress shirt unbuttoned and rolled up to his elbows. Later he
would definitely be fretting over wrinkles and creases, but the only thing bothering him in
that moment was Eren. Eren barely had the time to stutter out Levi's name before the older
man had him in a headlock.

"What's this?" Levi asked, tone casual and bored, in contrast to the tight squeeze of his
forearm around Eren's windpipe. "You don't appear to be bedridden to me. And you still have
all your fingers. I'm assuming you haven't lost your ability to spell. Have you? No?" Eren
pulled at Levi's arm, smiling sheepishly up at the man who narrowed his eyes further in
return.

"No," Eren replied when Levi finally gave him enough room to breathe. "I'm all in one
piece." Levi sighed, the harsh look in his eyes dimming slightly as Eren squirmed. After a
moment, Eren was released with a small shove. Unbalanced slightly, he skipped a step
forward, spinning to face Levi only when he regained his footing.

"Then why have I been on radio silence for the last week?" Levi questioned, suddenly taking
notice of the state of his sleeves. Agitatedly, he tugged at them, eyes rolling in frustration.
"The last time I heard from you was almost a week ago – and that was just a cryptic call that
you ended as soon as possible by telling me that 'everything would be okay soon.' As if that's
not mysterious and worrying as all hell."

"I'm sorry," Eren offered weakly, and Levi seemed no more impressed by the apology, if the
raise of his eyebrow was anything to go by (and it was, Eren knew).

"You better be. Otherwise I'd have to teach you some manners, and frankly, I don't think I
have time for such a huge undertaking."

"I've just – been busy. With stuff, you know?"

"Stuff. The same stuff as before?" Eren's sheepish smile was his only answer. "Am I actually
going to be gifted with the knowledge of what this 'stuff' is?"

"Yeah. Yeah, of course. But maybe not right now – later?" Eren glanced over to Annie. He
had nearly forgotten about her, but she had been standing to the side the whole time,
watching their brief exchange with an unreadable expression.
"You're taller than I expected," she told Levi blandly, and Eren cringed. Mikasa must have
been ranting to her, possibly since Levi first entered the picture. His height seemed to be her
favorite target.

"That's not one I hear often," Levi replied with a flat, insincere smile. "I'm Levi, though you
seem to already know that."

"Annie." They stared each other down for a moment as a trickle of students began to leave
the building. Neither attempted to shake the other's hand.

"For some reason I get the feeling that none of your friends like me, Eren." Eren couldn't help
but smile slightly at Levi's amused tone.

"Don't worry. Armin likes you, and if Armin likes you everyone will, eventually."

"Hardly."

Eren jumped in his skin when Mikasa's voice came from behind him, but he fixed his eyes to
the floor and resisted the urge to turn and face her. With a glare at Levi, she passed him by.
Annie drifted to her side, a hand falling to the small of Mikasa's back as they left, presumably
going back to their dorm, and as he watched the gesture, Eren couldn't help but think that
Annie had been lying through her teeth when she said things between the two of them were
just physical. A strange pain jumped in his chest, but as he turned back to Levi, he realize
three things in quick succession.

The first: Levi was looking at him. Levi had always had moments of strange intensity, when
his grey eyes would focus in as a too-bright silver and pin the subject of their gaze down.
Eren had been subject to it several times already, but he hadn't actually seen Levi since the
anniversary of his mother's death, and to find all of that attention on him so abruptly was
disorienting. He wasn't even completely aware of what could have instigated it.

The second: Eren had said something dumb. "Armin likes you, and if Armin likes you,
everyone will, eventually." Eren was reading too much into it, he was sure, but he had said
"eventually" as if Levi would be around forever, which was stupid and presumptuous,
because they hadn't even talked about anything of the sort. They weren't together, weren't
dating, weren't anything. They hadn't seen each other in person in about a month, and Eren
had been avoiding Levi's texts for a couple of weeks. That was hardly even a friendship. But
here was Eren, assuring Levi that his friends would like him "eventually."

The third: Levi now knew that Eren and Mikasa were no longer together. Shockingly, this,
which was easily the most important of the recent developments, was the last thing that Eren
registered. Levi was an intelligent man, and the atmosphere between Eren and Mikasa was
kind of hard to miss. Not to mention the fact that Annie had led Eren's supposed-to-be
girlfriend away in a very passive-aggressively possessive manner.

"So," Levi began after a long pause, eyes flashing like mercury, "that's the 'stuff' you had to
deal with?"

"Yeah," Eren answered softly.

 "You two…"

"Yeah. No."

Yeah, we broke up. No, we're not together.

"So brat. Eren. You free right now?"

"I – yes."

"What do you say to getting some coffee?"

Eren grinned, and Levi returned it was a half-tilt of his own lips. An answer really wasn't
necessary.

Chapter End Notes

Sorry if this feels rushed or sloppy. Personally, I hate this chapter, but at least it is a
chapter. The less I write, the less I want to write, and at this point, I was pretty much
desperate to just push this out. It is also very short because of that. I apologize for the
quality. It will all be edited eventually.

I have no idea when the next update will come. But come it will. There's four chapters
left and I guarantee you that they will all be posted eventually.

Also, keep an eye out for the first chapter of my next story, which I will probably be
posting soon (read: I want to post it soon, but Lord only knows if that will actually
happen). It's called Past and Present Tense. It's going to be short (9 chapters, short
epilogue), and basically 100% fluff. Like, there's going to be even less plot than there is
in Risk. Nothing but cute Riren-ness. Reincarnation AU in which Eren remembers
everything about his past life and is very confused to see how different Levi is.
 Chapter 18
Chapter Notes

I would say I'm sorry, but at this point, I'm pretty sure that this is unforgivable (2+
months, seriously). And also, it will definitely happen again.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Eren's hands were shaking, but his smile wasn't. Not that long ago, he would have punched
someone in the face if they tried to tell him that he would one day be sitting in a coffee shop
with a giddy smile on his face just because Levi was sitting across from him, but now Eren
wouldn't have it any other way. Even with everything horrible that was going on with
Mikasa, Eren couldn't help but feel that this was inevitable. Everything he had done - even
the screaming and the fighting and the denying - had been leading him here, to this table and
this man.

When Levi had asked Eren out for coffee, Eren had expected something more like Starbucks,
rather than the fancy ass place he was pulled out to, but Levi had already said that he was
going to pay for anything Eren ended up getting, and Eren wasn't one to complain about free
anything. For now, he had a coffee and a piece of cake, and for the first time, he didn't know
what to say.

Eren had never been at a loss for words when it came to Levi. When he had hated the man, it
had been easy enough to yell and gripe at him. When they established their tentative
friendship Eren found that the conversation came naturally. But now they found themselves
stuck in a silence that was companionable and awkward at the same time. Eren thanked god
for his cake, which he could push around his plate or shove in his mouth as the situation
dictated.

They were dating now. At least, Eren thought they were. He was fairly certain that asking
someone out for coffee was basically the equivalent of asking them to date you. That's how it
worked in the movies anyway. It was impossible to be sure though, especially with someone
like Levi, and Eren couldn't find the nerve to just ask like he would in almost any other
situation.

Eren glanced up just as Levi took a sip of his drink, and couldn't contain his snort. Levi's
sharp eyes were on him in an instant, and Eren dropped his fork to cover his mouth, trying to
trap the laughter that was determined to escape. Levi had insisted on ordering tea for himself,
and as fancy as the place was, they had brought him out a cup and saucer and everything.
And Levi held it like an absolute moron, gripping it by the rim rather than the handle.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Eren asked gleefully, shaking his head. Levi quirked an
unimpressed eyebrow at the laughing teen.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" he countered smoothly. Eren couldn't tell if he was
being difficult or if he honestly didn't know.

"Drinking Levi - you're doing it wrong."

Pure bafflement shone on Levi's face for a moment (confirming that he actually hadn't known
what Eren was talking about) before he glanced down at his own hand and the surprise
morphed to a scowl.

"Oh god. Not this again, not you, too. I get this shit enough from Glasses. I've heard it a
million times, and I still don't get it."

"There's a handle for a reason, Levi," Eren explained, attempting to keep a straight face, but
Levi was frowning so seriously, with such genuine confusion, that Eren couldn't prevent the
laughter any more.

"This is - this is just how I do it," Levi said, sounding slightly flustered for the first time Eren
had ever heard. His fingers shifted from the rim to the handle as if trying to puzzle things out.
Eren, curious himself, cocked his head at his coffee mug before gripping it by the rim and
bringing it to his mouth. He promptly spilled it everywhere, spluttering as some of the liquid
found its way into his nose. Levi sighed and gave an apologetic look to everyone around him
as Eren wiped frantic hands over his chin.

"How do you even do that?" he demanded, too amazed by Levi's apparent skill to bother
being embarrassed.

"I don't know," Levi replied, his tone edging on defensive. "I just do. Shut the fuck up."

Eren did as ordered, a smile playing across his lips as any lingering awkwardness slipped
away.

xxxxxxxx

There was a hole in the wall.

There was a hole in the wall, and all Annie could do was stare at it and hope the dorm
supervisor would never find out. Maybe she could get Reiner to fix it before it became a
problem. He probably could - but that wouldn't really fix the current problem, which wasn't
that there was a hole in the wall, but that Mikasa had just put it there.

"Who the hell does that midget think he is?" Mikasa growled, collapsing on her bed after her
fit of rage. She dropped her head into her hands, fingers twining spastically into her hair.
Annie reached out and smoothed her fingers across Mikasa's knuckles. Blood fled in the
wake of her touch as Mikasa clenched her hands tighter.

"He didn't do anything wrong," Annie said softly. She knew it was the wrong thing to say, but
it was the truth. Levi hadn't done anything wrong. Even Eren hadn't done anything too
horrible, really. What Annie and Mikasa were doing was far worse. This time, when Annie
reached out to touch her, Mikasa didn't tense, she collapsed in on herself. She wasn't crying,
and she wouldn't - she had finished crying weeks ago, when she had first come to Annie.

Mikasa wasn't entirely sure what had made her do it. She didn't condone cheating. She had
been pissed at Eren for even meeting his soulmate, pissed at him every time he so much as
ran into Levi, despite the situation being completely out of everyone's hands. Then she
cheated on him. Before things even started to get that bad between them, she was already in
her roommate's bed. After giving Eren shit about being gay, too. She didn't mean to be a
hypocrite, but here she was.

'Do as I say, not as I do.'

Annie wrapped an arm around Mikasa's shoulders, the gesture stiff and uncomfortable, but
comforting nonetheless. Mikasa pressed herself further into the embrace, Annie drew her arm
tighter, and then the black band on her wrist came into view.

Annie had a soulmate, too, of course. The majority of the population did. Mikasa had never
seen Annie's mark, since the quiet girl always wore a bracelet to cover it, but they had had a
few conversations on the topic. Annie covered it for privacy, and also simply because she was
tired of watching it change. Her mark was an unstable one, that was just as likely to get
longer as it was to get shorter. She said that she had tried to figure out what was causing it,
but had given up after a few months. Some people's marks just did that, and it could be based
on any number of factors. They hadn't talked about it since they started hooking up, but
Annie had never shown any desire to deny her soulmate when the time finally came.

It wasn't that Mikasa cared - not in so many words, anyway. There was nothing romantic
between her and Annie. Annie was a warm body for the nights when it hit Mikasa that
everyone was leaving her, a shoulder to cry on when Mikasa knew the tears were going to
happen one way or another, a hand to hold when Mikasa really just needed someone to hold
her hand. There was a special kind of connection in that, but it wasn't romantic. When Annie
found her soulmate, Mikasa would-

She would be left behind again. But she would let go. That would be okay. With her nose
pressed against Annie's shoulder, staring blankly at the soft white hoodie that had become
very familiar, Mikasa told herself that it would be okay.

xxxxxxxx

Levi had more videogames than Eren ever would have expected. For one thing, Levi was old,
and for another, he really didn't seem the type to enjoy screen time - but apparently he did. A
lot.

"Mario Kart?" he suggested, browsing the extensive collection he had hidden in his
entertainment system. Eren nodded dumbly.

He was pretty good at Mario Kart, he thought. He always beat Jean, at any rate, and their
win-loss record in most things was split even. When the whole group played, he usually came
in second, sometimes third (Krista was surprisingly good at nintendo games). Yes, he was
pretty good.
No, it turned out, he wasn't. He was complete trash. Levi beat him by miles, murdered him in
seconds, with a slack, unimpressed look on his face while he did it. Eren vaguely
remembered numerous occasions of Levi tapping away at some game on his phone.

Levi was just as good at Halo. And Peggle.

Eren was fairly certain he was dating (?!) a god.

xxxxxxxx

Annie and Mikasa stayed like that for a long time - long enough that Mikasa started drifting
into an exhausted half-doze that turned every minute into five. Annie remained awake, eyes
glazed and distant as she got inscrutably lost in her thoughts, as she tended to do. The air
between them was comfortably silent, warm and heavy with that type of sadness that settled
in the bones like an old friend.

It was the kind of thing that couldn't last long, a tenuous balance of silence and sadness and
peace that can never be anything but evanescent. In this case, whatever shelter the two had
found together was broken just after 3:30 in the afternoon by a short knock at the door.
Mikasa groaned and stared in the offending direction, unsure as to who could possible be
over. Almost all of their friends at least had the decency to call first, and the dorm room had
seen notably less traffic after the drama with Eren had come to light. Turning away, Mikasa
considered ignoring whoever-it-was, but another, far more impatient rap drew her off the bed.

Mikasa narrowed her eyes when the door opened to reveal Armin. Their contact over the last
week or so had been practically nonexistent, and Mikasa got the distinct feeling that Armin
had chosen Eren's side in this dispute, despite the fact that the blonde boy usually tried his
hardest to remain a neutral party. Of course, she knew how close Armin and Eren were, but
Armin was supposed to be her friend, too, and she couldn't help but be a little petty about his
apparent abandonment of her. She was seconds away from snapping something along those
very lines at him, but her mouth snapped shut the moment she registered the implications of
his expression.

Armin was typically a fairly meek person, but he was also the type who had a clearly defined
"I have had it up to here with you, and that is just too far" level. His eyes were cold and
steely, his lips pressed into a grim line, his posture speaking of confrontation and
determination. If Mikasa was sick of Armin's shit, then Armin was ten times more frustrated
with hers.

He pushed past her into the room, a sharp "we need to talk" biting off his tongue. Annie sat
up as he entered, eyes bright with interest. Armin froze, as if he was surprised to see her
there, and they eyed each other in a wary silence before Armin spoke up.

"You must be Annie," he said, voice flat and far less polite than it would have been in any
other circumstance. Despite running with the same crowd, the two had never actually met, as
they both tended to avoid the large groups of people that came along with going out with
their friends. Circumstances would have it that one or both of them always stayed home,
opting out of the socially exhausting get togethers.
"Armin," Annie greeted in return, voice equally flat, though in her case it was hardly unusual.

"Would you… mind leaving?" he asked her, stilted. "Mikasa and I have some things to
discuss." Annie rose an eyebrow, but rose from her bed in a fluid movement, walking quickly
from the room. She kept her distance from him as she did. When the door closed behind her,
some of the rigidity went out of Armin's frame, though it can hardly be said that he relaxed.

"Well," Mikasa prompted, moving with forced casualness to her own bed, which she hadn't
actually occupied in at least a week. "Get on with it. What soapbox are you going to jump on
now?"

"You're being horrible," he told her bluntly. He didn't like to bother with evasion and subtly,
least of all with people like Mikasa who didn't appreciate it in the slightest. If you didn't take
the point and stab it straight through their chest, they would just dodge around it as if nothing
was happening.

"I've been horrible since we were young. There's nothing new about that." There was a
certain amount of validity to that argument - Mikasa never had been a nice person, had never
bothered trying to be - but she was just trying to evade, like she always did, and Armin wasn't
going to let it happen.

"Yeah, you have been," he agreed. "But never to Eren."

"How have I been horrible to Eren?" she asked, the sudden whiteness of her knuckles
revealing what her voice did not.

"He's tearing himself apart over this, and you know it. He didn't even do anything wrong,
Mikasa. He just pissed you off, and now you're being petty about it. You know it, too. Don't
tell me you haven't been sleeping with Annie - I'm not an idiot. You cheated on him, which is
ten times worse than anything he might have done, but he's still so upset that he hurt you, and
you're using that against him. It's nothing but spite."

"Spite?" Mikasa questioned, feigning thoughtfulness. "Would you say I'm spiteful, Armin?
Maybe you're right - maybe I am - but why shouldn't I be?" The question may or may not
have been rhetoric, Armin didn't know, but he wasn't going to answer it either way. Mikasa
continued.

"I'm no stranger to how much life can fucking suck. Doesn't that earn me the right to be a
little bit spiteful every once and awhile?"

"Not really, no," Armin replied blandly. "I'm no stranger to it either, but here I am, dealing
with your shit anyway."

"And you say you're not spiteful. That sounded pretty close, to me." Armin sighed loudly
through his nose, shaking his head in a single movement, jerky enough to displace his hair.

"You're not getting the point," he said. "I don't care if you shut yourself up in your room and
mope for days. I don't care if you sleep around and do whatever other shit. I don't care if you
think you have to ignore Eren. But you have no right to be purposely causing him such
extended pain." Mikasa reeled back, the first hint of genuine emotion showing on her face as
she sneered.

"Extended pain?" she parrotted, a derisive laugh bubbling in the back of her throat. "He's
been sulking around for what? A week, maybe two? I've been dealing with this shit for years,
and I haven't said a single word, done a single thing about it, until now. Don't talk to me
about extended pain, and don't try to make Eren into some kind of legendary victim in this."

"I'm not trying - I know this is hard for you, too."

"Then why does it feel like you're taking his side?" she demanded.

"Because I am," Armin blurted, regretting it when hurt flashed across Mikasa's face, but
making no move to take back the truth.

"I am," he repeated. "I know this is hard for you, but I think Eren is doing the right thing. You
two didn't work together. He wasn't happy anymore and he never would have been - not after
meeting Levi. And maybe you could have still been happy, but it wouldn't have been fair to
Eren, and it really wouldn't have been fair to you, either."

"You don't get it," Mikasa mumbled into her hands, rubbing them across her face. "I shouldn't
have expected you to understand."

"What's that even supposed to mean, Mikasa!"

"Do you know what it's like to love someone Armin? Not like a brother or a sister, but
something more than that?"

"You know I don't," Armin replied with a harsh frown.

"Do you know what it's like to lose someone?"

"You know I do."

"Okay, then imagine this." She took a deep breath, her hands shaking when she held them up
in front of her before lowering them down to her sides again, continuing when Armin failed
to interrupt her. "There is someone you love more than anyone else in the world. They aren't
perfect, and you know that, but you feel like they are, and they might as well be. Because
they are beautiful, and smart, and charming, and everything that you could ever want them to
be, even when you're pissed at them and you hate everything that they are. You don't know
what your life would be without them in it.

"But you know you're going to find out. You know that it is just a matter of time before they
move on, and you're left behind. You know that they won't miss you, not the way you miss
them. You know that they won't regret it. You know, but you don't know what you're going to
do about it, and it's even worse, because they promise - they swear up and down - that it's not
going to happen. They tell you they love you. They say that he means nothing to them, and
you know that they think they're telling the truth, but you also know that they're not. And you
can feel yourself being forgotten.
 "And then you man up - you leave him, because that's better than being left, isn't it? And you
start shacking up with someone when you know you shouldn't, and you maybe start to care
about them, but he's still fucking there, and you want so badly to be closer to him, always
closer, but you've already pushed him away, and he let you.

"Do you have any idea how much something like that hurts?"

Silence followed Mikasa's outburst, and Armin felt half of his fight leave him.

"No," he answered eventually. "But everything hurts, doesn't it? Doesn't everything hurt, even
the good things? Isn't that how you know that you're alive - that everything is worth it?"

"I don't think that's how it works. There's nothing good about this pain."

"You can think that way if you want, but even then - the pain'll go away. Time heals all
wounds and what have you."

"People always say that," Mikasa laughed mirthlessly. She curled into herself, wrapping her
arms around her knees and resting her head there. "But when's it supposed to happen for me -
and what am I supposed to do until then."

Armin considered her for a long moment. Sadness lingered behind his eyes that she didn't
notice. He was her friend after all, and even if he thought Eren had done the right thing, it
didn't change the fact that it hurt Armin to see her broken up like this. He shook his head in
resignation.

"Until then - well, you have to grow up and deal with it, the way everyone else does."

Chapter End Notes

Only three left now, guys!

So that's only what, like a year?

Also, I got a Tumblr (it scares me, help). I'll be posting status updates and stuff there, so
check it out, if you want. My username is Mirandemonium.
 Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Notes

*laughs nervously* Weeellll. I am so fucking sorry. That's really all I have to say on the
matter. But if it's any excuse. Well. I applied to 20 colleges. That is not an exaggeration,
I actually applied to 20 fucking colleges, so that took some time. And all of my IB stuff
- my EE and three IA (including a fucking math IA, how does one write a 12 paged
paper on math) - were all due just a week or so ago. So there's my excuse. It's a shitty
one, and I'm so fucking sorry. There were supposed to be two more chapters after this
one. But one of them was deemed unnecessary, and the epilogue just got merged into
this. So this is the end, folks. Risk is over. Completed. Thanks for reading. Thanks for
sticking with it, because holy hell am I terrible.

(Do any of you remember the time when I uploaded daily? Yeah, me neither)

I love you all. I'm sure at this point you hate me, but I love you. Now I have to try to
finish Past and Present Tense. And then... I have two stories... that actually have... plots
(gasp)

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Being happy was an odd feeling, all things considered. Eren had thought that he was happy
months ago, thought that life was good (and could maybe get better, but not by much), but
whatever he was feeling then was nothing like what he was feeling now.

He still wasn't completely sure what he and Levi were doing. As much as his understanding
of Levi had grown, Eren was still kind of in the dark about Levi's ideals on relationships. The
man didn't strike Eren as a romantic. Levi didn't seem the type to settle down and get
married, or even consistently date someone. Eren would be lying if he said he wasn't worried
about it. Usually, he wouldn't be, but this was his first relationship with a guy, and he was
feeling notably more… insecure about it than he would be otherwise.

But on the brightside, they had been spending a lot of time together, and half of that time they
were attached in some way or another. Hand in hand, an arm around the shoulder, knees
touching, lips locked. (Levi was a fabulous kisser by the way - it sometimes made Eren wish
he hadn't stopped Levi in the middle of his first attempt.)

"I'm happy you finally came around," Levi sighed into Eren's neck. A smile quirked on the
edges of Eren's lips in response. They had come a long way, and this was it. This was it for
Eren.

He wasn't so naive to think that everything from here on out would be perfectly smooth
sailing, or that there wouldn't be any bumps in the road, but he knew with absolute certainty
that his story ended with Levi in his arms. They would probably argue, and fight, but it would
always come back to this. Even as he thought it, Eren questioned how he could be so
absolutely sure, but he supposed that that was just what being soulmates meant.

It meant being in each other's arms. It meant that Eren would smile at all of Levi's jokes, even
though his sense of humor was literal shit. It meant Levi would smile - just smile, because
lord knew that was an achievement in and of itself. It meant that Eren was happy when Eren
didn't know what happy was a month ago.

A knock on the door interrupted Eren's thoughts - probably for the best considering how
sappy they were getting. Levi groaned, collapsing on Eren's bed.

"You get it, brat," he commanded, kicking his arms behind his head. "This is your shitty
dorm." Eren rolled his eyes, but stood. The door opened to reveal Armin, blonde hair frazzled
but eyes blank and impassive. Levi sat up in the moment of silence that followed the opening
of the door, peering around Eren, who was quiet in his momentary confusion.

"Armin? Did you text me or something?" Eren asked, because the blonde boy usually called
ahead before showing up. "You can come on in. Levi's here, hope you don't mind. Is
everything alright?"

Eren stood aside, allowing Armin into the room. When Armin came in, he came numbly, as if
in a daze, and seated himself at Eren's desk without answering any of the questions asked.
There was a tense moment, which Armin seemed oblivious to, in which Eren and Levi
exchanged questioning looks.

"I talked to Mikasa," Armin said abruptly, and both Levi and Eren stiffened at the mention of
her. As happy as they were together, it was easy to forget about her. She never completely left
Eren's mind, always a weight lingering in his chest, but she usually faded to the back of his
attention when Levi was around. And as for Levi - he just hated her. Hated the way she had
treated Eren and hated the way she still made him feel.

"I talked to Mikasa," Armin repeated, as if trying to find his own train of thought. "I yelled at
her actually. Because she's kind of being unreasonable."

"Yeah?" Eren asked with forced lightness. "And how'd that go?"

"Oh, pretty good," Armin responded vacantly. "Annie was there."

"Annie?" Eren questioned, insincere happiness replaced with confusion. "What about
Annie?"

"Well, the thing about Annie is that she's part of the group, but she's not really part of the
group, you know? It's like, everyone likes her, but at the end of the day, she's not very social,
and she's only really close with Reiner and Bert. And now Mikasa, I guess. But the rest of us?
Not so much. I've never actually met her until today."

"Oh no," Levi breathed softly, and Eren looked to him in confusion. Levi's face was mostly
composed, like always, but Eren could read a certain type of grimness in the line of his
mouth.

"What?" Eren asked, feeling suddenly as if he was missing something huge. "What's going
on? Levi? Armin?"

"Annie's his soulmate," Levi said, and Armin nodded blankly, apparently shell shocked.

"What?!" Armin glanced up, a glint of panic on his face.

"Levi's right," he said. "It's - when I looked at her - I don't even know how to describe it. But
for a second there, my wrist felt like it was on fire, and I realized that that was the reason my
timer was always jumping around. Sometimes getting way shorter or way longer. Because we
would be so close to meeting - maybe we were both planning on going to the same party - but
then one of us would choose to stay home, and the time was right back up again… I've been
waiting for my soulmate for so long, and I was starting to think it was never going to happen,
and then bam."

"Armin," Eren interrupted with a smile, "this is great!"

"Eren," Levi muttered aside, "keep in mind who Annie is currently with." Eren's smile fell in
an instant, replaced with a huge swell in his chest, an explosion of emotions that felt strong
enough to crack his ribs from the inside.

"What are you going to do?" Eren asked dumbly, and Levi rolled his eyes at his insensitivity.
Armin though, used to it apparently, just dropped his head into his hands and sighed heavily.

"I don't know," he responded. "I've been waiting since I was little. I'm not like you - I've
always wanted to meet my soulmate. But Mikasa is one of my best friends, even if she's
being horrible right now, and she sounded so broken when I talked to her, Eren, and I don't
know if she can do it again. Not to mention that I don't even know how Annie feels about all
of this. She might not even want me."

"She'd be an idiot not to want you," Eren assured him honestly, though his honesty didn't
necessarily assuage the worry that Annie was, in fact, an idiot. Without a word, Armin stood
from Eren's desk and threw himself down on the bed instead, ignoring Levi who seemed
unbothered by the blonde's joining him.

"You gonna be staying here tonight?" Eren asked his friend, sensing Armin's reluctance to do
- well, anything, really, including leaving. Armin shook his head into the duvet.

"I'll leave eventually," he mumbled.

"Okay. Just know you can stay if you want. And Armin… I kind of-"

"I know," Armin interrupted without so much as lifting his head. "You need to go see
Mikasa."

"You don't mind, do you?" Eren asked, feeling like a piece of shit for abandoning his best
friend, but also the undeniable urge to go make sure his other best friend was going to be
okay. Armin just shook his head again, and Eren trusted him enough to take it at face value.
"Don't worry about it, brat," Levi spoke up. "I'll keep bowl-cut company."

"You really have the most charming nicknames for everyone, don't you?" Eren teased,
smiling at how easily Levi offered to stick around. He and Armin got along surprisingly well,
and that was just another thing that added to Eren's ridiculous happiness.

"It's a gift," Levi shrugged. "Now go check on your friend." With a nod and a smile, Eren left
the dorm.

xxxxxxxx

When he arrived at Mikasa's, he hesitated for a long moment for a long list of reasons. For
one thing, Mikasa probably didn't want to see him. If Annie had broken her heart in favor of
Armin, Eren highly doubted Mikasa would want to see him of all people, considering that he
was the one who apparently started the trend. For another, he didn't even know if Mikasa
knew. It had been what - maybe two, three hours since Armin and Annie found out
themselves? No one knew what Annie was going to do about it, yet. It was completely
possible that she hadn't said anything. Hell, it was possible that she never planned to say
anything. How did he know that Mikasa even needed comforting right now? That she wasn't
in a perfectly good mood that he was about to ruin by showing his ugly face?

Well, he didn't know. And he never would, unless he knocked on the door. Which he had no
choice but to do, really, since he would rather Mikasa get angry at him for showing up for no
reason than leave her to suffer alone on the off chance that she already knew. With that in
mind, he raised his fist and rapped it lightly against the door.

It swung open immediately, revealing a watery-eyed Mikasa who looked at him with hope
that was immediately crushed. Yeah, she definitely knew already. The door swung back
towards him as Mikasa tried to close it in a hurry, but with his reflexes on his side, Eren
managed to get his foot between the door and the jam. After that, Mikasa let him in with
surprisingly little resistance.

"Armin told you," she said, and her voice was hard despite the hurt softness in her eyes.
"Armin told you and you came."

"Of course I came. I needed to make sure you were okay."

"I'm fine," she told him, but the words were only half out of her mouth when they cracked
and she crumbled.

Eren had seen Mikasa cry before, but he had never seen anything quite like this. Even when
Mikasa was weak and vulnerable, she was strong. She built walls around herself that
supported and protected even when he basic defenses broke down. Now Eren watched as
those walls crumbled to dust and collapsed inward for the first time in all the time he had
known her.

"What's wrong with me, Eren?" she sobbed, though Eren was too shocked to provide any
kind of answer. "Why does everyone I love love someone else? Why does nobody love me?
Why am I not good enough? Not good enough for you, not good enough for Annie, not good
enough for a God damned soulmark."

"It's not like that, Mikasa," Eren said, not knowing what else there was to say. "It's not like
that." But this girl he saw like a sister just cried harder and it stabbed Eren to realize that all
this time he was so unaware of the way she was feeling.

He thought she was bitter. He thought she was paranoid. And she was both of those things,
but more than that she was afraid and insecure, and why wouldn't she be, when she saw
everyone around her as designed to be loved and herself as unmarked, never going to meet
the right person no matter how hard she tried.

With unacknowledged tears in his own eyes, Eren pulled her into his arms, hoping that if he
held her tight enough he could hold her together and maybe hold what they had together, too.

"I'm sorry," Mikasa told him over and over, and he just nodded and rejected her apologies
because she was already forgiven, had never needed to earn forgiveness in the first place.

Mikasa was broken, Eren realized. She always had been. But they were fixed. And that was
something. A first step at least.

xxxxxxxx

When Eren got back to his own dorm it was late, but Levi was still sitting comfortably on
Eren's bed, Eren's computer in his lap and Eren's headphones over his ears.

"Armin left?" Eren asked, nudging Levi closer to the wall with his knee before sitting on the
bed himself, leaning against his boyfriend to see what was on the computer's screen.

"About an hour ago," Levi replied. "Annie came by, actually. They left together. Seems like
everything's going to be okay on that front."

"That's good," Eren sighed, eyes slipping shut.

"And Mikasa? How's she doing?"

"All at once worse and better than I expected." Eren's eyes closed for a second, and he was
content to fall asleep like that, Levi warm against his side, the faint noise of Levi's video
drifting from Eren's shitty headphones. But with the weight of Mikasa's sadness still pressing
against his chest, he was compelled to ask: "Levi, how do you feel about soulmates?" The
man in question turned simultaneously curious and impassive eyes on Eren before glancing
back to his screen.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time, Eren."

Eren sat up abruptly the moment the words registered in his tired mind. Levi had implied it
before, hadn't he? But Eren never really listened. Suddenly the implications were crawling
across his skin.

"What?" he asked, baffled.

 "I'm 31, Eren. My timer was way longer than most people's."

"But you were - you were waiting. For me?"

"Of course," Levi replied, as if it was natural. But it wasn't, not for Eren. He had always
assumed that Levi was like him - resistant to the idea of soulmates and originally pissed to
find himself saddled with such a seemingly bad match.

"I - I don't understand." With a sigh, Levi removed his headphones and turned to face Eren
fully, leaning against the wall and crossing his legs.

"I'll explain. When I was young, I dated some people. That's only normal, especially when
the mark on your arm is telling you you're going to have to wait such a long ass time before
you meet 'the one.' I wasn't really sold on the idea of soulmates. When I was your age, I was
actually a lot like you, so I get that. But needless to say, all of my relationships ended. Badly,
for the most part. They didn't like my sense of humor, or they couldn't handle my quirks, or
they just didn't like me. The shit I got involved with didn't help. I remember it bothering me
for a while, but pretty soon, I stopped giving a fuck because - well, because of you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Eren asked, overwhelmed.

"Well, my relationships all went up in flames, but I had a mark on my arm telling me that one
day one of them wouldn't."

Eren realized he was an idiot. It was a full blown moment of self awareness.

"I'm sorry," he said stupidly. "I thought - I thought-"

"I know what you thought. And you don't have to be sorry, kid. Life's no fun without a little
challenge."

"You must've hated me."

"What?" Levi laughed. "Did you hear a thing I just said? I never hated you."

"How do you feel about me, then?" Eren questioned, flushing the moment he asked the
words. That sounded so needy and demanding. He didn't even want to know, really, that
would just make things weird. They hadn't even been together that long. Levi looked at him
oddly.

"You're my soulmate," Levi said, saying those words the same way everyone else did: like
they were supposed to magically explain everything, like all Eren had to do was hear them to
understand.

For the first time, Eren understood.

Chapter End Notes

I'm sorry this is short and shitty, but hopefully it gave everyone some sense of closure. If
you have any specific questions, just message me or whatever and I will happily answer
them because I like doing shit like that. But be warned that I talk a lot. Like super a lot.

Also: that awkward moment when you have your document open on your computer and
your friend comes up behind you like "what's risk and why have you written 80+ pages
about gay dorks?"
Please drop by the Archive and comment to let the creator know if you enjoyed their work!