Note: Demons. Kid!Eren. Scrapped a lot of the beginning for tumblr, decided to keep it that way here.
Rivaille is the one that breaks the seal and finds it. He doesn't mean to, since whoever sealed the thing up did a pretty good job and it probably wouldn't break for a few hundred years yet if it remained undisturbed. Still, the hunter thinks the seal master must have made a mistake as a kid tumbles out, looking as human as ever. He's not naïve, he knows demons take all shapes and sizes, and he must exercise caution at all times, but when the thing attaches itself to his legs immediately, smiling up at him, he thinks it's fair that he lowers his sword.
"Thank you," the demon murmurs into his legs, "I couldn't breathe in there." Rivaille notes the yukata, the strange way the boy talked. The demon's ancient as hell, the hunter frowns. He brushes the boy off with the tip of his sheathed sword, face grim.
"What's your name, brat?"
"Eren!" The hunter scowls when the demon reaches up his arm, like he wanted to be picked up, pushes the boy back. I'll have to bring him back. See what to do about him.
It's like a weed, this infectious dirty thing that grows in the heart instead of where it should. This thing should fester in the mind, where all hateful things grow, because the hunter can use logic, can use memories, can use everything he's ever known and will know about abominations and demons to reject unwanted sentimentality in his head. But this thing bleeds in the heart and there is no logic there.
Because when the boy, the demon, turns to him with a smile and hugs his legs, his heart shouldn't warm, his face shouldn't soften, and the demon shouldn't be so happy to see him. But Eren smiles as he looks up, arms still wrapped around one leg, and it is the most painful thing.
"Rivaille?" Eren prods, poking a tiny finger at his leg. Rivaille glances down briefly, removes his leg from Eren's grasp. The boy drops his arms, pouting.
He is a weed to your life and you know what you must do.
"Leave."
"What?"
"Leave," Rivaille repeats more firmly, gesturing in no particular direction, "I'm giving you your freedom." He wishes the boy would leave before he changes his mind (you already have).
"But," Eren protests, staring down at his feet, "that glasses person says you have to keep an eye on me until you guys know what to do with me."
"I know what I'm doing," Rivaille says, frowns when Eren grabs one of his pant legs, face ashen.
"I'm gonna go crazy," the boy whispers, eyes wide. "And then you won't be there to save your people. And then everyone dies. And you can't let me go, you promised." And Rivaille almost laughs, because the boy thinks he's actually a threat.
"I don't remember any promises, brat," Rivaille says. Frowns when Eren starts to tremble slightly. The hunter kneels, tipping the boy's chin up. Eren's eyes are starting to tear up and Rivaille clicks his tongue in annoyance, wiping away the tears with his thumb.
"Why the hell are you crying," Rivaille mumbles and Eren grabs the hand on his face tightly, refuses to let go.
"Oi," Rivaille says, "I'm giving you freedom and you're still standing here. You're a weird guy."
"I don't wanna go," Eren sniffs, and Rivaille loves and hates with equal measure. The hunter snatches his hand back, wipes the tears off on his pants.
"And I don't want you here," Rivaille says, ignores the hurt face directed at him. "We'll just have to compromise."
Eren glares at him, tears still gathered in his eyes but he looks furious this time, betrayed. "I hate you all. You humans...you're all the same! I hate you, hate you, hate you! I wish you all were dead!"
A stillness after the last words are uttered, a slight hesitancy, before the boy runs.
"Tch," Rivaille says, glancing up at the sky, "annoying." The words sound fake to his own ears.
"You let him go?" Irvin asks.
"Yeah."
Irvin looks up from where he is examining some documents, meets Rivaille's eyes. Returns his attention back to the papers.
"Make sure you don't regret your decision."
He already has.
Eren is not surprised, not really. Humans are the same through and through, he's known this since forever. They are a superficial race, a dirty race, a race that should be removed from the earth because they are mortals and full of ugly selfish desires. Demons are just the same, but they have existed longer, and thus, better. Still, the demon had tricked himself into thinking that one was different, was better, was perfect. It's in the way the hunter's lips curved slightly when he looked at Eren, the way his calloused hands ruffled Eren's hair, and all those things that make Eren soft inside.
But, but, it is all a lie and it cuts into Eren's heart with expert strokes.
"I found one," someone says from behind him, a rough voice. Eren doesn't turn around from where he is curled up in a fetal position. Some light filters through the warehouse's broken window, forcing the person to squint behind him.
"Hey, demon, don't ignore me when I'm talking," the hunter says, pokes his sword into the demon's back, "I was thinking of offering some mercy but I've changed my mind." Still no response and the hunter stabs harder. Finally, the boy turns around slightly, hand reaching behind him to grasp the blade with his fingers.
The hunter smirks, twists the sword back to cut. His eyes widen when the blade only cuts into hardened skin where a large hand now holds the blade. The fingers tighten, shattering the metal. The hunter glances up in horror as the thing turns around, skin shifting and bones breaking and realigning themselves right in front of his eyes.
"I'll kill you all."
The air is filled with things. Horrible things that Eren can taste on the back of his tongue. Like sin and blood and the smell of humans. It is so hard to breathe through, Eren thinks, as he slugs through the buildings, the pitiful ants squirming in terror underneath him. That hunter, he got away. He was so close to crushing him too. Disappointment is a foul taste on his tongue. The hunters jump around him, moving too fast for Eren's eyes. Annoying, he thinks, reaches for the strange lines that they travel on to break.
"Retreat!" One of them screams, "The Corporal's here! He'll take care of it, retreat!" The lines disappear just as a sharp one enters through Eren's neck, stabs into the wall beside him. It hurts, he thinks, as the line tugs and the demon looks up into the sun where one of the hunters is spinning spinning spinning towards him. The human looks determined as it moves to go towards the back of the neck, but just as Eren looks at it, it stills, eyes widening.
"Eren?" The hunter breathes, curses as it spins around again, albiet a lot slower. Eren raises a hand to crush it and the thing just spins off, cutting off Eren's fingers expertly. The demon roars in pain as the stubs start to steam, furious now. The line retreats from his neck, cutting through some flesh.
"Eren, listen to me!" The thing shouts as it lands on the back of his neck. Eren stills. "Turn back now! If I knew this was what you meant by going crazy, I would have never let you out of my sight!" Eren blinks slowly. "Weren't you the one crying about leaving? You can come back now!"
Come back? Crying? The words bring a whole slew of emotions in Eren's brain, but he doesn't understand it. Not understanding breeds frustration and anger and everything that the demon is familiar with. "Eren?"
The thing jumps away when Eren's hand slaps over the back of his neck, fingers crushing into skin painfully. Shutupyouhumansareallthesameihateyouhatehatehateha te-I'll kill you!
Eren roars and the hunter jumps away again as his fist creates a dent in the wall.
It continues for so long Eren forgets why he's doing it. Not that he knew in the first place. He just knows he must kill the human, the hunter, the abomination, because it hurts Eren, and Eren hates hurting. It escapes every time Eren manages to come close enough. The demon notices how it is leading him away from the buildings, the other people, but he doesn't care much. As long as one of them dies out here where the dirt is empty and the sky is clear, it is fine.
Eren's fingers are cut off again as it wraps around the thing and Eren pulls his hand back. The hunter scowls at the blood splattered all over his form, drops the steaming blades onto the ground. Eren watches as his hand begins to heal and the human sighs, grabbing his side for a moment where a different blood bleeds.
"You shitty brat," the human scowls, and Eren's eyes widen, "now we'll both have to die out here."
It sighs. "Poor choice of words. You can still live, Eren. Just turn back and run off. If you don't, they'll come. And they'll kill you." The demon hesitates and the human finally looks up in surprise.
"What a joke," the hunter scoffs, "now you listen to me. Where was your brain five fucking hours ago?"
Eren's head hurts. He drops to the ground, leans his back against a large trunk of a tree behind him. The thing narrows his eyes, walks over until he's underneath Eren's chin, looks up. Eren stares back. It'd be so easy to just reach over, smash the thing against a tree. So so easy, just a little effort on his part, just reach over Eren and everything will be taken care of, done, no more hurting, please, so easy-
"Are you done crying?" Eren stills, eyes wide, and he recognizes the wetness on his cheeks as it spills down like rain onto the human. Eren cries and he realizes, tastes the name on the tip of his tongue now- Rivaille.
The boy gasps as he pulls back from the flesh burning into him, yells his name as he tries to getawaygetaway, it burns and hurts, he needs to get away, and then there are calloused fingers reaching for him from above, pulling him up. Eren buries his face in Rivaille's chest as he jumps away from the collapsing demonic body below them, because the man is so warm and right and not-hurting, and he's so sorry please forgive him.
"Shit," Rivaille hisses as he lands, collapses on his side but keeps his arm wrapped Eren. The boy is still, terrified, as the hunter's chest moves up and down unhealthily under his fingers. Swallows.
"I'm so sorry," the boy begins but Rivaille cuts him off with a harsh 'Shut up'. "After all this shit, don't you dare brush this off as a flimsy mistake." Eren nods quickly and the man sighs, hand moving up to Eren's head.
"I didn't want you to leave," Rivaille says, and Eren's eyes widen, "never did. But I was getting too attached, and you were becoming detrimental to my health, yknow. You demons, always causing trouble." A sigh. "I was right, after all." The last words are uttered too softly for Eren's liking, and the boy presses his ear against the man's chest. It is too faint, his hearbeat, barely even there at all.
"Rivaille?" The boy breaks from Rivaille's hold, shakes the man, but there is no response.
"Please," Eren whispers, and the word is broken on his lips, leans his face into the too still chest, "please don't leave me."
He doesn't know how he manages through the tears, but he does, fingers shaking as he rips off a piece of his shirt to wrap around the heavy wound in Rivaille's side. He wipes at his eyes, takes a deep breath, bites into hand. Blood drips from his hand and he presses it into Rivaille's mouth. He doesn't know how the human body works, but he hopes it'll let Rivaille live. Just take the blood, please.
Please.
Rivaille swallows and the boy cries all over again.
Eren ends up falling asleep wrapped around Rivaille's chest, ear pressed against his chest in hopes he'll hear something. He wakes up to a steady heartbeat and fingers carding through his hair.
"My mouth tastes foul," Rivaille speaks up when he realizes Eren is awake, "I hope that's not your doing." Eren only sniffs, hugs Rivaille's chest. The man hisses as the tight embrace disturbs his injury, but says nothing to deter Eren.
"I thought-" Eren starts, and the hunter clicks his tongue. "Just breathe." The boy quiets, closes his eyes. Rivaille's arms wrap around the boy protectively and Eren can feel the curve of Rivaille's smile as it presses against his forehead.
The man breathes because, for now, he can believe everything's alright.
The boy breathes because the air is just air again and honey, someone loves you.