Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Kill Me Not

Part I: Then

When I first met him, I was momentarily attracted to his smile. I just don't think that I understood, or let myself acknowledge it. Eren, to this day, hasn't said to me when was that I caught his eye, but I have a hunch that it happened also during our first meeting. If not I don't fucking know why he hung around for such a long time. Unfortunately when I met him, I was working, and working, to me, means killing people. It's a shame that Eren was also working, and what's even a bigger shame, that working to him means the same as it does to me. So all in all, our meeting was a huge fuck you from the universe to the both of us.

That time we met as enemies – we were both sent after the same target. The target was an old bastard, worth a shit ton of money, so without a doubt, I took the job in a heartbeat. It took awhile, but I got closer to the old fart – close enough that he would meet me without the presence of his bodyguards. That day he was even stupid enough to believe me that the dark alleyway, which we went through, was only a shortcut. I was about to shoot him, when this other bastard suddenly appeared from nowhere and sliced his throat. My target's throat. Anyway, so as if that wasn't enough, that cocky brat – I couldn't actually see his face that time, so I presumed that the person was younger than me, and oh, what a lucky guess – waved his bloody knife right in front of my face, before flashing me his blinding smile, which caused him to show me, the lower half of his face, and only then disappeared.

He was wearing all black, except for his shoes – they were white. I can still clearly remember thinking how inconvenient must that be, because the shoes came into a contact with the dirty things, the most. After we got together Eren admitted knowing that there were other assassins sent after that guy and the first time he saw me, after starting tailing the old bastard, he thought that I'm probably one of them. He said, that actually that day he wasn't planning on offing the target, the brat wanted to wait few more days, but I was the one who ruined for him. It seems he was going about his usual routine when he saw the murder intent in my eyes, and just thought fuck it, making use of the knife he always carried on himself.

Now after hearing my first impression of Eren, and knowing what our relationship ended up being in the long run, you might think that I turned all mushy, into a fangirl or something, straight away. Well if you're thinking that you're fucking wrong. I was enraged. He practically stole walking money from right under my nose. And I didn't even want to begin thinking about all the energy and time that I've wasted on that old bastard. I wanted to find that cocky brat and crush him – I even asked Hanji to get all of the information she could find about him, not that she found anything, as we had no leads on him – but I also appreciated his smile, I guess.

We met for a second time a week later. This time, I was the one to get his target, from right under his nose. I was really satisfied with myself, I even thought that I could be done with this obsession over him, but oh, how wrong I was. When I turned to look at his face – this time it was uncovered because, I guess, he wasn't expecting company – and he was smiling the same fucking smile, he had smiled when he killed my target. This only served to further my anger, and so the matter didn't get resolved at all.

After that the times our paths crossed increased, it was sort of like a race actually, to see who was better at killing, and who would get to the target first. Two months later our paths crossed, in a street full of people, when we were playing civilians. I don't know why, or how, but we ended up at a small cafe drinking hot beverages – he drank coffee, and I tea. We didn't even have a proper conversation, at least at first, it was more like a game of pretend, an interrogation trying to find out more about another without slipping yourself. We would ask each other a question, the kind you wouldn't answer with our kind of work, and hope for another to screw up and spill the beans, but neither did. After playing like that for few hours we gave up and it drifted into a, relatively normal, conversation.

That's when I found out that one of Eren's aliases is Titan. He also found out that I called myself Rivaille while accepting jobs. We talked practically about nothing, yet about everything, until one of the staff workers came to say to us that they were closing and asked us to leave. At the time I didn't admit it, not even to myself, and certainly not to a person I knew as Titan, but I really did have a good time.

Our encounters while working didn't lessen and we started meeting as civilians as well. After few weeks we stopped playing pretend all together, and started having genuinely great time. Another month later we finally knew each other's real names. I liked the ring that the name 'Eren' had to it and when I told mine the brat couldn't stop calling me by it the whole evening.

"For fuck's sake, Eren, stop." I remember saying, after finally losing my patience.

"But, Levi, I like your name." Was the green eyed brat's response. He was wearing a shit eating grin when he said these words.

We quickly became friends, even though the only thing we knew about each other was names and phone numbers. Now, it might sound as if our relationship wasn't the best, but in reality if we didn't trust each other, as we did, we wouldn't have even revealed our true names. At the time we were just being careful. When you work as an assassin for a living, you quickly learn to keep personal things to yourself.

There were a lot of times that we caught each other staring at another. The next few minutes would be incredibly awkward until Eren – yes, it was always Eren – would start laughing and break the tension. I think he understood that I felt something for him, only didn't know what that something was. Compared to me, Eren was great at hiding his own feelings, I did not even once think that I might mean to him something more than just a friend. Though, now that I think about it, his feelings for me were showing quite clearly and I just regarded it as another quirk of his personality.

We continued as close friends until, after knowing each other for a year, I received Eren's phone call in the middle of a night. I was trailing my target, waiting for a perfect moment to off him, so without a doubt I ignored the first time the phone rang. As well as the second time. When Eren called me the third time I picked up. I was about to shout at him for being a fucking brat and interrupting me while I was working, but I wasn't able to. The only thing I was able to hear, was city traffic and I started getting a bad feeling about this whole situation. Soon the noise caused by city traffic was replaced by heavy pants and I felt my stomach turn.

"Levi, I know you're busy, sorry for calling you." More pants. "I just have something really important to tell you." I could hear Eren whimpering.

"The fuck is going on?!" I let out a harsh shout. I was lucky that the crowd of people around me was accumulating a lot of noise, so no one even noticed me raising my voice.

"Just shut the fuck up and listen!" The insolent brat shouted in return, or at least tried to shout as it sounded more like a rough whisper. "Look I... I love you. I'm sorry for not saying anything earlier.. It's just that we were getting along so well, and I was afraid to ruin it. Ironically, now that my time is cut short, I can finally express my feelings." He said these words as quickly as he could, I presume, as what followed his confession was a cough and heavy panting.

"What- Eren, what the fuck are you talking about..?"

"I got careless and failed to kill my target in first try." Short silence followed his words. "I don't fucking know how that happened, but was supposed to finish the job tonight. Didn't really go as planned." Eren tried to laugh and the sound that came out of his throat sounded like a strained weep. "The bastard had hired more bodyguard, than I thought he would, and one of them shot me."

"Then why the fuck are you calling me?!" By this time I was panicking. "If they let you keep your cell phone, you should have called the fucking ambulance instead!"

"Levi, don't be stupid. I've got a hole in my stomach from a bullet." He stopped talking and started coughing, again. When the coughing fit was under control, Eren continued. "If I called paramedics they would be bound to call the police, and I doubt that cops would let it slide."

I decided to stop wasting the precious time, by bickering with the brat and asked where he was. When he said that he had no idea, I made Eren describe the place. His description wasn't really that much of a help, since he only said that he was behind some kind of shop and that there were a lot of neon lights. I tried to keep him talking until I found him, but it didn't last long. Eren passed out after about five minutes of laconically answering my questions. As it turned out, he was behind some kind of privately owned convenience store, few blocks away from where I've been.

When I found him he was in a very bad shape and had already lost a lot of blood. The red liquid seeping onto the grey concrete reminded me of Isabel's death, so to keep the images of Eren's and Isabel's bleeding wounds mixing into one, and clouding my vision I kept my eyes on the brat's face.

I didn't waste any time and called shitty glasses. She was the closest thing to a medic I could get Eren, as contacting a proper underground doctor would have taken too long. Hanji came rushing and was able to save him. As I had no idea where Eren lived, he stayed in my apartment for the next few weeks.

The green eyed brat regained consciousness after two days of being bedridden. He was very surprised that he was still alive, and even more by the fact that I was the one who found him. Actually, Eren later told me, that the first time he woke up, he thought he was dead, as my first words to him were "Me too. I love you too."

When Eren was well enough to stay awake for more than five minutes, we talked more than we ever did. I, with a cup of tea in my hands, spent the whole night by his side, listening to him talking. Eren talked about his mother's death, father's disappearance, about his sister, Mikasa, and how caring she was. He also talked about his friends. What I got that was that Eren's best friend is a guy called Armin, who was studying to become a biologist. There was also this person Jean, with whom Eren didn't really get on well with, but his boyfriend, Marco, was the nicest person you could ever meet. He talked about how there was something clearly going on between his two friends, named Connie and Sasha, and how they always denied having any kind of feelings for another, even if everyone saw it. I also found out, that all of his friends think he's an office worker, except for his sister, who knows his true occupation and despises it. We laughed our asses off at that, since Eren doesn't look like an office worker at all.

Next night, it was my turn to talk and the stories were more depressing. I talked about how I've never met my father, and honestly never wished to, about how my mother died and about my short stay at Kenny's place, including all details of how much of a bastard he was. One of the hardest things to talk about, was my memories of my childhood friends – Farlan and Isabel. I don't really remember, but I think that while recalling their deaths, my mask of calm cracked and I had tears in my eyes. But I also talked about positive things, like meeting Hanji and Erwin. I promised to introduce them to him, and the next morning I ended up having a chance to introduce shitty glasses, as she came to check up on how Eren was doing.

They both got on quite well and Hanji ended up talking about what she was truly passionate about. About human body that is. She only studied it for fun, though, for she was in the underground business as well, only not as an assassin, but as an informant. She was one of the best at her job too.

Those two weeks, that Eren and myself spent in my small apartment, flew by in a bat of an eye. I didn't want him to leave, as he still wasn't in the best shape, but he insisted, as his sister was bound to be worried beyond reason, being unable to contact him for such a long time. I agreed to this, but with a condition that he would call me at least once a day, when he got his new phone. He had to do this tedious task, as in the midst of panic I had forgot his old phone somewhere on the bloody concrete.

During his first call to me, we decided to become lovers, as our feeling were mutual. After this we made sure to meet more as civilians, rather than as assassins, as well as agreed to keep few simple rules. They were: 1) Have dinner date every Friday; 2) Always keep in touch while doing a job; 3) Text 'goodnight' to each other, before going to sleep; 4) Inform when taking on a job; 5) Don't take any long-term jobs, as they were the most dangerous.

Neither of us dared to break even one of them, but soon the first and third rules became useless, as we started spending the nights in each other's apartments, saying our goodnights in person, right before falling asleep in another's arms, as well as having dinner dates almost every day. After six months of keeping this routine, we finally decided to start living with each other and began looking for a suitable apartment.

Around this time I had my first meeting with Mikasa. She was a woman of stoic face and reminded nothing of the person Eren had talked about so many times, except for the fact that she kept doting on Eren. She glared at me the whole evening, as if I was some kind of monster, which was about to take her precious brother away, and I countered it with a glare of my own. Later that night, Eren explained to me that because she was few years older, she was overprotective since they were little.

That made me realize that I didn't know about him one, very important thing, which we somehow managed to skip in all our conversations. "By the way Eren.."

"Yeah, what is it?" Eren focused his stare of those green eyes on my face, waiting for my question.

"Mind telling me how old you are?"

"Huh? I'm turning nineteen this March." Eren replied and went back to whatever he was doing. That shocked me a little, as I wasn't expecting him to be this young. I also understood why my nickname for him – brat – fit so perfectly. Something on my face might have given out my surprise, or he might have already known me well enough, that when he turned back to me, Eren asked me. "What?"

"Nothing."

"No seriously, what is it, Levi?" He lifted one of his eyebrows, causing his forehead to have creases on it.

"I'm only thinking that you really are a brat." I said, smirking.

"Could you stop with that already?" Eren wrinkled his nose, as if disgusted by the nickname.

"Well, I'm saying the truth. Babysitting fucking brats like you, takes a lot out of old men like me." I shook my head.

"Stop exaggerating."

"But I'm not. I'm thirty-two, so you're just an annoying brat to me." I said flopping on the sofa behind me.

"This explains a lot. I thought you had a stick up your ass or something, but it turns out, that the old age is the cause for your attitude problem." Eren smirked coming over to sit next to me.

"Shitty brat."

"Old fart."

"Be careful, because this old fart still has enough strength to throw you out of the window, for disrespecting your elders." Eren laughed at my words and that was one of the many times that I understood how lucky I was to have him by my side.

"Levi. Levi, come on~. Wake up~. Someone's voice suddenly interrupts my dream and I'm ready to decapitate the person, when I realize that it's Eren.

"Why the fuck are you waking me up in the middle of the night?" I ask in a hushed whisper.

"I'm leaving. Remember I told you about the job I accepted?" I nod, slowly opening my eyes. "I'm going to tail my target. I'll be back by afternoon." I nod again and notice that Eren is smiling. I raise one of my eyebrows indicating a question, feeling too lazy to use my voice. "You must have been having a good dream. You were smiling in your sleep." He says.

"Yes. It was a dream I haven't had in a long time." This time I use my voice and it comes out strained.

"What was it about?" Eren asks me, while putting on his black t-shirt.

"About us..."

AN: This is the first ever time I wrote from 1st person pov xd Actually the first time I wrote a normal short story, so please forgive if it's not that good xd

Also, I know, Eren confessing over the phone... Well it was either this or sms... xd

Positive and negative comments are always welcome.