Well, I lost the temptation to start a series of various Eren pairings. I just like him with everyone, okay? For the first chapter I'll start off with classic Ereri/Riren! Based off the song Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift.
"Corporal L-Levi, we're almost there, okay?"
Eren's question was met with dead air, his exerted pants the sole source of sound. The weight on his back shuddered with every lug of his legs, but remained unresponsive, inert and dropping in temperature. It had been for a while now, yet he continued on. The fire raging in his legs was ignored. As was the dampness soaking his cape.
"Corporal Levi...are you okay?" Eren angled his head to administer the mess of raven hair. Exhaustion was evident in Eren's features, purple splotches had gathered beneath his eyes, and a raspy soreness grated his voice. He blinked slowly at the despondent bundle. "Corporal, please..."
The evening was cooling rapidly and brought soft rustling winds in its wake. It brushed through Eren's sweat matted locks like fingers caressing his scalp. On any other outing, a breeze would be welcomed with open arms. However, in the barren landscape where only trees and shrubs dwelled, it was a haunting reminder. A reminder of how quickly things had escalated, then diminished.
Dried grass crunched under every step of his boots, accompanying his breath in disturbing the silence. His feet shuffled along unperturbed when his knees weren't quaking. This treacherous body let him get fatigue, allowed him to feel weak when the Corporal was in such shabby conditions. Eren had already promised to not fail; Levi had heard his promise.
Eren faltered in his steps. The teen fell to his knees, swiftly adjusting the carried man so he'd receive no damage, the full blunt force jolting up Eren's thighs. His chest contracted as a pained wheeze left parted lips. Clenching his eyelids and dismissing the blooming pain-a rock lodged in his kneecap no doubt-he struggled to rise.
The camp wasn't too far off. Maybe another two miles, give or take a thousand feet. Eren could muscle through how light his head felt. What panicked him most was the rapidly descending sun and how it sucked all peachy color from the sky, leaving him with a vast space. Light shed from the moon and stars could lead his path, but it unnerved him to be outside during nightfall. Especially when the only sounds were him, the songs of crickets, and distant reverberations of snapping branches. Any second now the boy expected thunderous vibrations to announce a Titan's arrival.
So far luck had been on his side. No behemoths had appeared to rear its ugly face at him. But that could be because the entirety of their squad was made sacrifice, and he'd fled in the havoc. They'd courageously placed down their lives to buy his escape time, lives that could never be resurrected again.
Eren grit his teeth. No, he couldn't cry. Not here, not now! There would be time for mourning later when he and Levi were safe. There'd be time to remember each one of the nameless faces when Levi wasn't deadweight.
Eren wasn't aware that he'd began crying until he touched his muddied cheeks. A wetness mingled with dirt glistened on his fingers, leaving streaks and exposed skin on his face. Vigorously he swiped his coat over his eyes, growing more wary of the pulsating throb assaulting his ribs. Prodding at them, he figured none were broken.
The throbbing was just the feel of devastation.
So weak, so weak! he screamed internally, brows furrowed deeply. I couldn't save any of them! It's all my fault, they're dead because of me!
They were dead because he wasn't strong! He thought with his fists and that was their downfall. Because of his disobedience to specific orders and his own selfish thirst for revenge, he could only think of killing the Titans. So stupid, such an idiot! There were so many dead because he couldn't be there to save them!
"All my fault," Eren moaned painfully. His feet were hardly being lifted off the ground by now, shoulders aching and arms wretched from their sockets. "This is a-all my damn fault..! Everything, every fucking thing!"
Eren was angry. He was angry because he failed to be their hope, he was angry because their infinite deaths were crushing his body, and he was angry because he had no idea what to do. The people who'd counted on him to be their savior, they'd be met with a fraud who couldn't save anyone. Not even the man who was Humanity's Strongest. Eren had stolen their champion from them in a wrath-filled state.
"Corporal Levi, M-Mikasa, Armin," Eren listed the names, those of the people he'd brought shame to. Those who would remember the words 'Eren Jaeger', with a bitter taste. "Sasha, C-Connie, Reiner, Bertholdt, A-Annie, Christa, Ymir, Jean.." There were two names that lingered on his tongue. Both acidic, and both beating at his heart.
Say them, remember who they were.
"M-Marco Bodt...Mom."
Pointless deaths. Those two were purposeless, a sick joke played from by a twisted god. This was what he hated.
Eren hated those who hadn't died a justified death. The 104th trainees, Armin and Mikasa's families, Levi's squad. He felt overwhelmed by the copious amounts of bloodshed, each life adding to the pressure which pushed him to a breaking point. They gave him strength and purpose, but knowing that he had to avenge them all, it was stressing. Even in what could be his last moments the weight was suffocating him. Too many people had been killed by disgusting monsters and horrible humans. Levi couldn't be discarded onto that pile, not when there wasn't anyone to personally carry on his legacy.
Eren would ensure he'd live to see the morning.
Surveying the surrounding land, a seemingly desolate landscape, he spotted a distant tree coverage. It was mostly brambles, low shrubs, and drooping branches, but opposed to the bare open it was a haven. Eren clung fiercely to the comatose body, hooking his elbows under Levi's knees, and urged his legs to move.
If his ears weren't mistaken, they could pick up the faintest footfalls.
The landscape passed beneath him as Eren raced the sun's dying rays. When night hit he'd be rendered blind, and learning through Hanji's experiments that Titans could remain active for extended time periods without sunlight, that didn't fare well for him. A hoarse breath, pained gasps, and shaky sounds halfway between cries and groans welled within and clogged his throat. Bubbles of pain churning and popping under his skin, Eren was notified of a throbbing he hadn't sensed earlier. Presently, it made his right leg want to cave.
His 3DMG had long since been disposed of. The heavy equipment served to only slow him down and proved useless in this flat terrain. Regardless of its cost, Eren thought it unimportant to tote along. So his gear straps flapped in the wind, whipping at his grubby white—stained now—pants in every direction as he limped along. It didn't take long to reach the shubbery, but his limbs screeched like they had borne witness to a personal training with the Special Ops Squad.
Finally, Levi was relieved from his back before his spine suffered further damage.
But...he didn't look so good. Right off the bat Eren noticed how pale his complexion was. Levi was already pale when at full health, but now he looked to be made of some translucent paper. The remaining flush in his skin was draining to leave his face looking hollow, cheekbones jutting out sharply. Eren's eyes traced the curve of his chin, panic flitting across his turquoise gaze, and passed over the man's whitened lips. Even his darkened, sunken in bags contrasted strongly to the deathly paleness.
Eren hesitated before he eagerly called: "Corporal Levi! We're safe now, so you can wake up! I got us away from the Titans, Sir!" His smile brightened his face with hope as he awaited the higher up's answer.
Levi didn't answer right away, and Eren felt his smile slipping. It was a losing war keeping it up. He resigned to sitting on his knees, mindful of the fit Levi would have later when he saw the grass stains, with trembling lips. He tore his stare away from the inanimate appearance Levi possessed, trailing down to rest at his torso.
The wetness that had collected on his back from the journey, the red that smeared the Survey Corps insignia of his own cape, had seeped through Levi's own clothes. With quivering fingers and a bated breath, Eren unlatched the button to Levi's cloak, peeled off its clingy material, and dropped it to the side. The muscles in his jaw locked.
"Corporal Levi," Eren started dully, "we're safe and sound, don't you understand? There's nothing here to hurt you, I promise you'll be all right.."
He pressed a hand to the blood stains puddled on Levi's abdomen. It was warm, and when retracted it glistened like his tears had. Eren fisted the hand.
"Levi? Levi, it's okay now!"
He hysterically assured the man's security, praying that in some way shape or form, Levi would shift and call him a shitty brat. Gladly, Eren would be happy to be called shitty brat! He'd be fine getting assigned every square inch of the kitchen to clean! Hell, even scooping up horse excrements from the stalls wouldn't make his smile budge! Those punishments would be worth having his superior open his eyes.
Humanity's Strongest was worthy of another day. The legend, his childhood hero, deserved to see the extinct of Titans and even, maybe, he wanted to see the ocean as well.
Eren wasn't the one who was worthy. He convinced himself that he only brought disorder on missions. Levi was the one who was calm, collected, level-headed throughout disaster. Levi was the one who'd saved him from a nasty death, by taking it as his own.
He lost his smile.
Eren reached down to a pale hand and gripped it in a death vice. Frustration thickly coated his words, each snippy letter coming out slurred. "This isn't f-fair..! None of this is fucking fair! This shouldn't have happened!"
Using his free hand, Eren leant over and cupped Levi's face. Blood marred the blank canvas, bright and vivid atop pearl dyed skin. He gasped, yanking back like he'd been stung.
There was no chastisement. Not a single uttered vocalization that said Levi was upset by the blood smears. He continued to rest on, seemingly inattentive to the filth.
"Corporal, you're dirty now," the statement lacked any real emotion, "don't you want to clean it off? Just get up and wipe it off, Sir."
Just wake up and you can clean the mess. You can tell me what to do. We can make it out alive.
Shakily raising Levi's hand, Eren paused. His lips curled down and clenched, brows turned up and wrinkles creased his forehead, sea green eyes gleamed with the prospect of new tears. He took Levi's hand and laid it on his face.
"Sir, why can't I hear you anymore?"
The question was absolutely broken. It hadn't sounded like he said it, but more like a young child seeing the first of deaths. The first person Eren had seen die was his mother, and at that time he had been consumed by fury. Right now he felt...nothing. There was an absence of sadness, anger, fear. Numbness.
Eren shut his eyes, his thumping heart heightened. Loud, vibrating in his ears. Making his body shudder with every step. Wait, steps?
None of that mattered yet, because Eren couldn't release his superior. He curled in on himself, realizing that the Coporal's silence had nothing to do with exhaustion. The realization hurt, it hurt and couldn't be helped.
"Please, don't..leave me here..!" Crystal droplets splattered down onto Levi's hand. Eren tried looking past his blurred vision, but the cascading tears were incessant.
This was the hell they were born into. Trapped birds in a withering cage, playing prey to the predators who contained them. They stole what wasn't theirs and it was humans, people that wanted to survive, who paid the price. The Titans would pay, they would go extinct for the bloodshed they caused!
Time passed in which Eren sat slumped over the chilling body. He brooded in defeat, the tremors in his back undetectable. The sun had fallen to deep navy that was night. Stars popped out as fake signs that there was actually hope. The dismal land was swept over by a quickening wind, hitting his back the further into night it got.
One hour, two hours, three hours. They were all a blur.
Voluminous footsteps sounded and faded for the first two hours, until it was deathly quiet. Eren refused to drop Levi's hand. He refused to even open his eyes. Not until the morning rays were painting the sky.
Night had passed and he was a statue, a shivering, sniveling statue.
Dropping his superior's hand, Eren shut the man's vacant eyes. It was the last sentimental goodbye, he was convinced.
Groans rebounding from the earth marked the beginning of the Titans' day. They would never stop. They just kept appearing, but they wouldn't lay a single finger on his hero.
Eren rose on wobbly feet. He glared into the horizon, portrayed with baby pink and orange hues. "Don't worry, Sir. I won't let a single one fucking touch you. I won't allow them!"
He couldn't.
"You sleep on undisturbed, okay?"
He needed to fight.
"I'll come back for your body...I'll tell Hanji and Erwin how bravely you passed."
He had to survive.
One last look at Levi's broken body and Eren donned a new facade. He was hurting, but that hurt was pushed aside for the molting resent. It'd been buried under his pain, but now like the morning it was refreshed.
There were two Titans from the east, one 4-meter and another 6-meter. Fight, kill, tear them apart! Eren bowed his head and lifted his hand. Make them pay, make them burn in the fiery pits of hell! Devour them for everyone they devoured.
"I'll fight, Sir! I-I'll fight, because with your strength no one can hurt me."
With that final testament, Eren parted his maul and ferociously bit down in his hand.
Realizing I can't write angsty scenes when it's too late. Mm.
Anyway, this will be a series of Characters(no OCs)xEren. Requests are open to basically any pairings, hetero, yaoi, hell I'll even write Fem!Eren. I like rare pairings (I have soft spots for Eretra, Maruere, Ereannie, Erehan, and Eruere) but I write any! Though I probably will skip over a pairing if it's requested four times in a row…These will mostly be rated T, but I know there are perverts out there (me) and I'll take the first five rated M's for the fun of it! Please keep the pairings reasonable (no AuruoxEren or HannesxEren or I don't even know), and keep the pairing to a threesome or twosome.
This was just a starter chapter, so later chapters will of course be longer. Watch no one request for Eren loving xD