A/N: This fic definitely draws inspiration from the TV show Pushing Daisies (which is excellent, I highly recommend watching it). It deals a lot with death, but still manages to keep a romantic and humorous tone-which is my goal for this fic!
That being said, it's not necessary for you to have watched it to understand the plot, especially since the plan is to venture pretty far away from it eventually.
Trigger warning in this first chapter for a mention of (faked) suicide.
Three pairs of eyes gaze down at a pale body, arms stiffly akimbo in a wooden coffin. The satin white cushion lining, tinged pink by the out-of-place red blooms surrounding the heavy wooden casket only serve to make the man inside look that much more dead, like they're staring down at a too-big porcelain doll. Eren grips the side of the coffin and sighs, glancing aside as Mikasa puts a comforting hand on his back.
"You don't-You don't actually need to do this." she levels her gaze at him, corners of her mouth pulled slightly downward. "Seeing him is enough, I think. We can just-"
"Go on believing he killed himself?" it's a dry tone Eren uses with her, staring at Mikasa flatly. "He left a suicide note. You know just as well as I do that if Levi really wanted to be gone, he'd just go. None of this cryptic bullshit." When Mikasa remains silent, he turns slowly back down towards the body with a frown. "I need answers. He saved my life once, it's only fair."
"You were choking on a hotdog." she snorts, arms crossed. "And you were ten. He just happened to be standing nearby, anyone could have-"
"Mikasa."
It's Armin this time who interrupts her, blonde eyebrows furrowed. He blinks at her, imploring,Let him have his momenthe pleads. You know how much this means to him. Mikasa blinks once, twice, and sighs, turning back toward Eren.
"Sixty seconds."
"I know the rules." her reminder is met with a snap that she rolls her eyes at, unclasping her watch and handing it to Eren. She glances around the small room they're standing in, making sure absolutely no one else is around.
"I'll wait outside the room and make sure no one tries to come in. I don't have anything I need to say anyway." she moves to turn around, pausing when she passes by the third part of their trio. "Armin?"
"... I'll go with you." his eyes snap back up to Eren's, and with a reassuring nod he moves toward the door with Mikasa. "Come out whenever you're done." he says, just before shutting the door behind them and leaving no one but Eren and Levi's corpse in the room.
Eren sucks in a breath.
Eren Jaeger has a secret.
Eyes on the watch, he moves his hand just beside Levi's cheek and exhales.
Because he gives the gift of life.
The second hand flicks twelve.
As soon as his fingertips brush the side of Levi's face, the color rushes back into the pure-white skin. It's almost incredible, how much paler the already-white man became after death. Eren watches with an almost morbid fascination as Levi sputters, coughing, before opening pale gray-blue eyes and squinting at him.
"What the fuck."
Those would be his first words back.
Eren had rehearsed a million times exactly what he would say when he came face-to-face with Levi again, nothing but sixty seconds and his own words to clarify the situation. But when he opens his mouth, it's more like verbal diarrhea-
"Okay I know this isn't going to make any sense but just, listen to me for a second-you're dead and you're going to die again really soon but first I need to tell you that I'm sorry I stole your hamster in third grade and peed on it but you really shouldn't have pushed me in the river that one time, you know? But that's not actually all that relevant and what I'm actually here to ask you is how you died, do you have any idea?"
- and the only answer he gets from Levi in return is a very blank glare.
Eren stares back at him expectantly, glancing down quickly at his watch. Forty seconds left. His gaze bounces back and forth from the watch to Levi's face, worry increasing as the timer ticked down.
"Um-"
"That's why my hamster smelled like piss?"
Levi finally speaks again, sitting up in the coffin and blinking tiredly, as if he had woken up from a long nap. Swallowing, Eren scratches the back of his head.
"Well, yeah, again, sorry about that… But that's not the point of this conversation!" he cuts himself off with a shake of his head, sucking in a breath and trying again. "Okay, do you remember how you died?"
"No."
Eren frowns. Helpful.
"Er… Wait. Backtrack. Did you commit suicide?"
Levi looks at him like he's absolutely nuts, blinking slowly. "I think I would have remembered if I tried to off myself. Nice to know your listening skills haven't improved in the last couple years since I saw you." he pauses, glancing around again. "Where is this anyway? My funeral?"
"Yeah." Eren swallows thickly. "There's a lot of people. I didn't realize you got so people friendly after high school."
Levi raises his eyebrows as Eren coughs, continuing. "So, you don't have any memory writing a suicide note?"
"No, because I didn't. Is that what they're saying?" He shakes his head, eyes flicking to the watch on Eren's wrist as it counts down. "Wow. So how much time do we have left?"
"Ten seconds." shifting uncomfortably, Eren pulls his other hand out of his pocket and reaches for Levi. "Any last requests, or words or uh. Whatever?"
With a roll of his eyes, Levi flops backward into the casket again.
"Yeah, let sleeping dogs-"
He doesn't get a chance to finish the sentence. Something snaps at the movement, sending the lid of the casket forward with a heavy groan. Wood slammed against wood with a resounding finality, like a judge with his gaveland a faint, innocuous click. Eren lurches forward just a second too late.
Flower stems snapped at awkward angles, with petals strewn ungracefully on the white tiles, as Eren frantically scratches at the wood, attempting to pry the wooden box back open again, to no avail.
Mikasa and Armin are back in the room within seconds, scrambling toward increasingly panicked teen.
"What happened?"
"The-the casket." Eren's hands scuttle across the wood after futilely struggling with the latch. Why the fuck is there a latch on a casket. "It snapped shut and Levi is still-"
"What the fuck is going on."
Levi's still-alive voice calls out, muffled, from inside the burial box just as the watch around Eren's wrist clicks ominously.
"Oh, no."
Armin's voice breaks the temporary silence as Eren slumps forward, slamming his forehead into the casket. "Please tell me this isn't happening."
Mikasa wastes no time. Grabbing the latches on the casket, she forces the lid up, and Eren swears he sees the wood splinter. She throws the lid off, scowling when she sees that Levi is indeed still alive and kicking.
"Do it now." she commands, motioning towards Levi. He glances back up over the box, paling at Levi's scowling face.
"I can't."
Mikasa's eyes flash dangerously at that, but before she can say anything Levi speaks up.
"Something on your faces tells me that you brats fucked up." he ignores the venomous glare that Mikasa shoots at him, focusing his attention back on Eren. "I might not be the best timekeeper, but I'm pretty sure it's been past a minute. Why the fuck am I talking and not six feet under?"
"I-" Eren's mouth was completely dry. Helpless, he glances back toward Armin with a pleading look. Armin frowns.
"We need to go."
Mikasa nods in agreement, turning back toward Eren. "Eren, we have to get out of here so poke his cheek or whatever and put him back-"
"I'm already responsible for one death here today, I'm not taking two lives!" jumping up from where he was slumped over, the scowl on his face is evident. "There's got to be a way to…" his voice trails off, guilt ridden. Running a hand through his hair, Armin sighs.
"We can pop the screen out of that window and go out that way. This is around back, so if we're careful we can make it back to the car without being seen." he glances back at Levi. "I'll go out the window with Levi, you guys go and see who…" his voice trails off and Eren nods. Mikasa gives one begrudging glare back Levi, who returns it this time.
"If one of you shits doesn't explain to me right now what's going on-" he stops mid sentence as a shriek is heard from outside the room, eyes widening.
"That was Isabel. What the hell is-No, I'm going out there."
He swings a leg over the side of the casket, hopping out from it and moving toward the exit. Eren and Mikasa exchange looks of horror, but before either of them can move Armin cuts in front of him, blocking the door and holding up his hands in a pleading gesture.
"Wait! Levi, wait a second." he glances back at Eren and Mikasa standing behind Levi, looking completely at a loss. Sucking in a breath, he continues, "If you go out there now, there's going to be more than just one screaming girl. Think about this."
The short speech gives Levi pause and allows Eren a chance to interject. He moves beside Armin, mouth still turned down. "Please, Levi. Just go with Armin. I'll explain everything as soon as we're out of here."
At Levi's unconvinced face he musters up the most sincere expression he possibly could manage, eyebrows pushed together and lip stuck out lightly. "Please trust me on this. If Isabel was the one screaming, she's fine, I swear."
Levi hesitates for a few tense seconds more, eyes flashing at Eren's wording. But something in Eren's eyes must have been the final straw, because he sighs. "Fine."
And their plan moves into action.
x
"Now I think you owe me an explanation, unless you want me to hop out of this moving vehicle right now and march my ass back to the funeral home in all my zombified glory."
They weren't quite 5 minutes away from the funeral home, Levi and Armin in the backseat, Eren and Mikasa in the front. Eren sighs at Levi's statement, staring down at his own hands in disgust. A single glance at Mikasa told more than enough-her expression seemed composed, but her hands were gripping the wheel too tightly, lips pursed.
"Where do I even start."
Levi snorts, keeping his eyes trained on the back of Eren's head. "I don't know, maybe a good place would be the whole "bringing the dead back to life". Just a suggestion, though."
"Um, okay. I touch dead things and they come back to life."
"That's it?"
"No." Eren puffs his cheeks out and exhales, craning his head around to get a better look at Levi than just through the rear-view mirror. "But it's kind of a complicated story."
"I'm just dying to hear."
As soon as it leaves Levi's mouth Armin chokes on the water he was drinking next to him, pounding his fist into his chest as he coughs. Mikasa groans with a shake of her head.
"Can we not."
"Alright, alright." Eren faces forward again, slumping against the passenger seat as he hopes to stop a potential road-trip argument.. "I guess I'll start with the rules."
"Rules." Levi repeats, drumming his fingers against his pants leg. Eren nods, mostly to himself.
"Yeah, rules. Like limitations, I guess." he swallows dryly before continuing. "Number one: If I touch a dead person, I bring them back to life."
"I think I've got that one figured out." Levi glances up to the rear view mirror, through which he meets Mikasa's sharp glare. He levels a flat glare until she returns her gaze back to the road. "And something about a minute?"
"I'm getting to that." he gazes out the window, watching as the trees blurred by. Three hours back to the city, but two if Mikasa was driving. It was a miracle she hadn't ever gotten pulled over. "Rule number two is that if I touch someone I've brought back to life, it kills them again."
Levi made a hmm noise, frowning. "Is that why I was stuffed in the backseat?"
"Hardly stuffed." Mikasa snarks under her breath, causing Eren to elbow her lightly with a scowl. Armin wasn't one to be weird about his height, but he had no idea how Levi would react after so many years.
"Yeah. It's why you both are." he continues, making a quick gesture to Armin. "Unless you two suddenly get a death wish, no touching me. Armin already knows, though."
Levi gives him a side glance. "So you're a walking dead too."
Eren cringes visibly at the name, but Armin simply nods. "I was eight. I don't know if you remember, but I was always a sickly kid."
"Of course. All the moms would sit around and chat about the neighborhood "miracle recovery boy"." he snorts at the memory. "I guess they were right though."
Armin grins. "Yeah. Well, it was a heart problem. One day when I was outside with Mikasa and Eren, it just… Quit."
Clicking his tongue, Eren clears his throat loudly. He hated remembering that-Armin's face as he just collapsed, being so panicked he did the only thing he knew how.
"Rule number three is the most important: if I keep the thing I brought back to life alive for more than one minute, something else has to die."
Levi stiffens at this, the implication already setting in. "What do you mean, something."
"It has to be of equal value." Armin cuts in, explaining for Eren this time. "If he brings back a petunia, somewhere nearby a dandelion just died. If he brings back a person, somewhere in the vicinity another person just dropped."
"So who was it."
The tone in Levi's voice is dry, sharp, and Eren knows he's expecting the worst. The scream they had heard had indeed belonged to Isabel, but-
"Old man Pixis. I don't even know how he was still alive in the first place." Mikasa answers. Eren's head dips down in guilt, and she glances back at him, gaze softening. "Eren, it could have been so much worse. We got extremely lucky, I bet Pixis would have willingly gave his life for someone younger anyway."
"Doesn't make me not a murderer."
"It was an accident."
Eren shrugs at her and turns back toward the window. Levi nudges the back of the seat with his knee, calling Eren's attention. "What about Isabel."
"She's fine. The scream we heard was her when she saw him collapsed." Eren presses his cheek to the glass, enjoying the cool surface. "They'll just assume he died of old age, I don't think we need to worry about that. By the way, you're going to need to lay low for awhile. People don't take well to the…. Re-living."
Levi grunts in response. "So, where am I supposed to go."
Eren freezes.
He hadn't actually thought that far ahead-and by the look on Armin's face, neither had he. Mikasa lived with Annie, that was absolutely out. Armin went to college and had a roommate all his own, that wasn't a viable option either. The only choice left was Eren's apartment, as risky of an arrangement it was.
He exhales sharply.
"... I guess, my place. I can get you an air mattress or you can sleep on the couch or something, it shouldn't be a problem as long as there's… Y'know, no skin-to-skin contact…" he lets out an awkward laugh, thankful for Levi sitting in the back so the blush threatening to creep up his face is hidden. The last time he saw Levi he was an awkward, short 15 year old. But puberty hit and god did he hit back. If he was attractive as a dead person lying in a casket, he was even better walking around, alive.
Levi chooses to ignore the comment, instead focusing on another part of Eren's sentence-
"How clean is it."
Oh shit. Of course. Eren had almost forgotten about Levi's neurotic tendencies, his obsessive need to clean everything. He swallows thickly. "Aha, well, it could use some work, but…" he trails off, knowing exactly what his tomorrow would be spent doing.
Some things never do change.
x
The rest of the ride back was awkward, with most of it spent in complete silence. Halfway through Mikasa turned the radio on to make up for the tenseness, nothing but the top 40 hits and the tapping of Armin's finger against his smart phone to fill the air. After what seemed like an eternity Mikasa finally pulled up to Eren's apartment complex, looking concerned as she brushes her eyes down his figure.
"Make sure no one sees him. If they do, play it off."
"I know, I know." he nods, unbuckling himself and twisting around in the seat to face Levi. "You ready?"
He receives a shrug in response. "As I'll ever be."
And like that, they were out of the car. Eren waves goodbye to Mikasa and Armin, pulling his apartment key out of his pocket as they drove away.
"So, how many flights of stairs do we have to go up." it wasn't phrased as a question, but more of an exhausted statement. Eren raises his eyebrows at the tone, swirling the keys around his pointer finger as they entered the first hallway.
"Luckily, just one. I'm in apartment 104." he gives a backward glance as Levi follows behind him, frowning slightly. "You seem kind of, uh…"
"Dead."
Eren cringes as he starts up the stairs. "I was actually going to go out of my way to not use that word, but I guess."
Levi shrugs from behind him. "Must be post-mortem depression." Eren purses his lips again as he opens the apartment door, turning around to snark back but Levi interrupts him before he even gets the chance.
"No."
He pauses, confused, before realizing that Levi is staring straight past him, into the living room of Eren's small apartment. He swallows and turns back around, following Levi's gaze and pales.
Of course, he had forgotten. In his mess to find something socially acceptable to wear to a funeral, he had completely torn his living quarters apart-clothes were strewn everywhere, there was a knocked over pop can that a pair of socks had pushed off the table. An empty pizza box was on the couch, grease-stained and smelly.
… In short, it was only in a slightly worse state than usual.
Pulling the door shut again, Eren spins back around to face Levi. "I can explain."
"No."
"I was in a rush today to get to your funeral, and I couldn't find anything to wear, so I was going through some old boxes- I actually moved in here fairly recently, haha-"
"Eren Jaeger, open that fucking door."
He levels his gaze back to the shorter man, hand still gripping the doorknob- and dips his head down with a sigh. Levi's stare was dark and intimidating, commanding even. Eren didn't stand a chance.
"Yes, sir."
He pushes the door open slowly, stepping over the pile of jeans only a foot away from the entrance. Levi shuts the door behind him, standing in front of it with his arms crossed. "Where are your cleaning supplies."
Eren motions weakly to the kitchen area, pointing to a small cabinet under the sink. "I only have a bottle of all-in-one Lysol, though. Normally Mikasa brings over the supplies when she cleans…"
Levi gives him an incredulous look. "Your sister cleans your apartment for you?"
"Yeah."
"What are you, five? Does she also change your shitty diapers?"
"Only on Tuesdays."
Levi doesn't laugh, which is too bad because Eren thought the joke was at least mildly funny himself.
"Go get the Lysol, this place is going to smell like a fucking lemon farm."
x
In less than two hours, the two of them together had managed to make a sterile living place out of a bachelor's pad, and Eren was more exhausted than he'd ever been in his entire life. Blearily, he plops down in a chair across from the couch Levi was sprawled out on just in time to catch the ten o'clock news.
"So, how did you get this power anyway."
Eren snaps out of his almost-asleep state, not realizing he had dozed off until he glances at Levi, who has his eyes glued to the screen. It's a view of the funeral home where Levi was, complete with a shot of the empty casket and interviews with a few dismayed-looking guests. Eren frowns, internally cursing. Of course it would make the news.
Now they'd really have to keep Levi in hiding.
"I was born with it, I guess. Found it out accidentally when I was pretty young." he answers the question, glancing back and forth from the TV to Levi's face. "Do you want me to change this? It must be weird…"
"It's fine." Levi shrugs, clicking his tongue against the back of his teeth. "Half of these people talking are- were coworkers that hated me." he snorts. "Anything to get on TV, I guess. So," shifting on the couch, he turns to lay on his side to get a better view of Eren. "How exactly did you find out?"
The actual curiosity in his voice takes Eren off-guard, making him look down at his hands as he clears his voice.
"It's kind of a sad story, but I guess cleaning must have helped your post-mortem depression." he rolls his eyes before continuing.
"I was eight. Mikasa, Armin and I all were. I dunno, I probably brought things back to life before this incident, but… If you touched a rolypoly you thought was dead, and it uncurled itself and scuttled off again you probably wouldn't think too much of it, right? So this was the first time I really… Knew.
"We were all playing around, kind of by that woodsy area next to the neighborhood. You remember, right?" Eren pauses to hear a grunt of confirmation from Levi before continuing. "It was one of the rare times we weren't following you around and trying to get you to play with us like the cool big kid you were. I really don't know how you ever put up with us. But anyway, Armin was… Sick. Sicker than he usually was, but we snuck him out of his house to come play. We were just messing around, playing tag I think, but he… Stopped, starting coughing, and then just… Collapsed.
"I just did the first thing that came to me. Mikasa was closer to him, so she was hunched over him, and I was a little further away so I came running over. I did what I felt I should have done, like it was just instinctual. I pressed my hand to his face and... He woke back up.
"We ran back home, Mikasa carrying him on her back. He had no idea what was going on, we thought maybe he had just blacked out. Mikasa ran to his house to tell them what was going on and to call an ambulance, I went to my house to tell my mom I wanted to go to the hospital with them and she was…"
Swallowing, Eren shakes his head. "She was laying on the kitchen floor, dead. I knew it, I knew when I saw her. She was normally so warm, but she was cold and pale and I reached forward to touch her face and she came back. Came back, scolded me for leaving out one of my toys that she had apparently "slipped" on, and let me go with Armin and Mikasa. I knew, then, that it wasn't just a fluke. I found out that if I touch a person I've brought back to life, they'll die, because when I got home and mom tucked me in that night, she kissed my forehead."
Levi doesn't say anything, but looks thoughtful as Eren pauses again. He shifts in his chair, sighing. "And that was that. No matter how many times I touched her, she wouldn't come back. Later, I found out that Mikasa's dad had died as the whole… Compensation thing for my mom. She was an orphan now, I only had a dad, and my best friend couldn't even give me a hug to console me. And now, we're here."
There's a thick pause in the air, as Eren finishes the story and Levi registers the information he was just told. Although he wasn't looking at him, Eren could feel Levi's gaze on him-making his skin crawl. He didn't want his sympathy, he wasn't the victim here. He was the guilty-party.
The monster.
Finally, after enough time of Eren avoiding his gaze, Levi clears his throat.
"I always thought it was weird. June 24th, right? Everyone called it the day of doom. Two dead parents and a kid rushed to the hospital." he shifts again on the couch, moving to his back to stare up at the ceiling. "But all of Armin's health ailments went away after that?"
Eren nods, grateful to have Levi's stare off of him.. "Yeah. All of them. I guess it's a side-effect of being brought back or something. I never got around to testing that, and to be honest, I never plan to." he swallows thickly. "I promised myself I'd never bring anything back to life again, and you were going to be the one exception, just because I needed to know what happened-but you don't even know and now look what happened."
"Wow. Well I'm surely excited to still be alive too." Levi grimaces as Eren pales.
"No, I didn't mean it like that! I mean, since Pixis…" he trails off, looking down guiltily. A few more seconds pass, thick with silence and an emotion Eren couldn't quite put his finger on. Levi breaks it again, cutting through the air with a single question:
"Eren, do you think some human lives are more valuable than others?"
The question catches him off guard and feels loaded, like no matter what he answered it would be wrong. Eren snaps his eyes back up to meet Levi's, blinking in confusion before scratching the back of his head. "Er..."
Levi smirks, an almost knowing, familiar look and rolls over, grabbing the blanket Eren had given him to drape over himself.
"Never mind. It's late, we can discuss this more tomorrow. Turn the TV off."
"R-Right." Eren fumbles for the remote, trying to shake the question off as he clicks the red power button and stands up from the recliner.
"Hey, Levi?"
"Hm." the answer is muffled from under the blankets and Eren hovers awkwardly, lost in the space between his bedroom door and the couch.
"... 'Night."
"... Goodnight, Eren."
x
15 miles west of where Levi and Eren were staying, a redheaded girl with pigtails was perched in front of the TV, breathing aggressively out her nose.
"I'm telling you, Farlan." her eyes were darting back and forth from a bored looking Scot on the couch to the screen, lips pursed tightly. "He's alive. He has to be, it just doesn't make sense. A missing body, an apparent 'suicide'?"
"I hear ya, Iz." an annoyed tone was seeping into the Scottish accent as he replied, trying to sound patient. "And I'm not saying he isn't, but the news is over and it's almost midnight so if ya could get out of the way-"
"Farlan."
She was standing now, hands on her hips, still obstructing the view of the TV. He opens his mouth to reply, but she cuts him off, tapping her foot impatiently against the hardwood floor. "He faked his own death. I dunno why, but he did and we have to find him before he runs off to, Mexico or Canada or something!"
Farlan sighs, running a hand through dirty-blonde hair as he twirls the television remote. Reasoning with Isabel when she had something stuck in her mind was almost impossible, but he really wasn't about to be roped into something that stupid at midnight. "Ya know as well as I do that if Levi wanted us to find him, we would."
Isabel squints at him skeptically.
"You know, I read a book like this once."
"You can read?"
"I'm going to shove that remote up your ass." she huffs, marching closer to him and tipping her body so she was eye-to-eye with the other. "Yes, I can read. But in this book, there were clues left everywhere and it was up to the protagonists to find the missing person."
"Levi is not our manic pixie dream girl, Iz."
At the blank stare he receives, he sighs. "Never mind. So what 'clues' has he left us?"
"We don't know! That's why we have to go looking for them." she gives him a proud smirk, standing up straight and proud again. Farlan groans.
"Can it wait until tomorrow?"
"... I guess." she deflates ever so slightly, pouting, before pausing as something catches her eye. Cradling the remote closely to him, Farlan catches the mischievous look in her eyes and follows it to the television device he was holding so dearly to him, before scowling.
"Iz, no."
"Farlan, we really should get an early start." she shuffles even closer to him, her smirk from before back in full blow.. He narrows his eyes, gripping tighter to the remote-
Just before Isabel leaps onto him.
There was a scramble for the black device, Farlan attempting to hold it over Isabel's head and Isabel consequently tackling him, knocking him backward into the cushions. The remote was tossed to the side in the struggle, hitting the ground with a thump as Isabel's laugh was muffled, face pressed against his chest as he had his arms wrapped tightly around her body.
"I hate you. Really."
Farlan laughs at that himself, burying his nose in her hair. "If ya try and fight with a bear, you gotta expect to get," he pauses for effect, tightening his hold briefly. "Bear-hugged."
"I'm gonna kick you in the nuts."
"Ya gotta reach 'em first."
The headbutt he receives is, in Farlan's opinion at least, worth it.
A/N: AND THERE IT WAS.
Farlan and Isabel play a bigger part in the next chapter. (Shout out to Shaky, the Farlan to my Isabel, and also where I draw the characterization of Farlan's characters for this fic from.)
This fic is so planned out from top to bottom that I'm almost certain it'll be my longest one yet. I know this first chapter was a bit of an information dump, but the next chapters after will be more relationship-building and fun, I swear.
Thanks for reading!
I feel like I somehow need to add a million things onto this, but hopefully this fanfic will mostly speak for itself and I won't have to do too much explaining.
