Capturing the female titan should have brought back a sliver of hope, but the discovery that there were others like Eren came as a startling nightmare. It begged to ask other questions. How many more of them were there? Where did they come from? If there can be human-like titans, are there titan-like humans? Theories and rumors spread like a disease. Some people had even started accusing their peers of being shifters. Fear was everywhere. The funny thing about fear though, is that it can both paralyze and empower. More often than not, it empowers those who hold it over others, but there is the odd exception when fear can spark courage.
To say that Eren was scared at the revelation that Annie was a titan shifter, would be an understatement. Eren was terrified, he had trusted her. He thought of her as a good friend. But now, he didn't know what to believe.
She was a titan. She was the enemy.
All titans are enemies, and must be destroyed.
…
Somehow, Commander Erwin Smith was able to keep the Survey Corps' jurisdiction over Eren, and he would continue to train his titan power at the old Survey Corps Headquarters. Knowing this had comforted Levi's squad and Hanji. They had all grown to care about him, especially Levi, even if he wouldn't admit it.
After the close call in the forest of "big-ass trees", Levi's squad finally trusted Eren. After all, who wouldn't trust someone who had saved them from a brutal death? Their meals together became much more relaxed, and conversations were common and friendly.
The squad members were eating their dinner of stew and bread. The stew was made mostly of vegetables and a few scraps of meat, and the bread was a little stale, but all in all, Eren thought it was comfortable. Auruo was complaining about something to Petra, Hanji was terrorizing Moblit, and Erd and Gunther were talking quietly amongst themselves. Everything seemed to be normal.
Eren looked over at Corporal Levi, and was surprised by what he saw. Usually the Corporal ate the regular portions of food (which would be a bowl of stew and two pieces of bread). This time however, there were three empty bowls before him, and he had three slices of bread in his left hand. Even Sasha didn't eat that much.
Eren observed the others and saw that the rest of them only had one bowl and two slices of bread (unless they had already eaten them). Eren stared down at his own half-eaten stew and wondered, why the Levi was eating so much today. He knew it was none of his business, but he couldn't help being concerned.
He was well aware of what stress-eating was, and Eren knew that he would be downright stupid to think that Levi didn't have anything to stress about. He decided he would ask him about it if he had a chance to talk to him alone. Hopefully, Eren could find a way to help and comfort the Corporal if he could. Worst case scenario, Levi would kick his ass, but at least he would know that Eren cared about him. Right?
As usual, the Corporal accompanied Eren down to the dungeon later that night. Eren decided to take this opportunity to see if Levi was alright. If Eren were to be honest, he would say that the Corporal looked a little on edge, but maybe that was just his imagination and he was making something out of nothing. As they reached the bottom of the stairs to the dim dungeon, Eren took a deep breath of air before facing his superior,
"Sir! I kinda noticed you ate a lot of food and bread earlier during dinner, I mean you had three bowls! Are you-"
"I was just hungrier than usual." Levi cut off Eren's rambling with his usual monotone voice.
Eren looked at the Corporal, still a bit uncertain, but Levi had continued walking and led Eren to his cell. As he turned to leave, Eren called after him.
"Are you sure you're fine, Corporal?" Worry filled his voice.
"Goodnight, Yeager." Levi ignored his question and kept walking, not bothering to turn around.
Eren didn't sleep well that night.
…
The next morning, the squad was eating a light breakfast of fruit and the bread leftover from last night. No one except for Eren seemed to notice that Levi was eating at least three times as much as the others.
Squad Leader Hanji bounced into the room, followed by their caretaker Moblit.
"Good Morning!" They said brightly, their grin was impossibly wide.
"Shut the fuck up." The Corporal growled, not even caring to look in their direction.
"My, my, someone's especially grouchy today." Hanji chirped.
"I am just fucking tired." He spat bitterly looking up from his meal and narrowing his eyes.
Even Hanji was taken aback, and someone in Levi's squad mumbled a "Geez, Corporal", but it was hard to distinguish who it was. Never the less, the Corporal shot an icy glare in their general direction. The rest of breakfast felt tense and strangled. Something was definitely wrong with the Corporal and Eren was determined to find out what it was.
…
Training that day was absolutely brutal. The Corporal demanded inhuman perfection. Later at dinner, the most of the squad was thankful that Levi wasn't there, but Eren was nervous. All of this wasn't sitting well with him. Eren wouldn't lie and say he knew everything about his superior, but he knew this was out of his character.
The rest of Levi's squad was speaking in hushed whispers. It was hard to hear what they were saying, but it was along the lines of "Who put a stick up his ass today?"
Eren let out a sigh and looked at his dinner. He wasn't really hungry. He never was when he was worried. He decided to leave dinner early.
…
On his walk back to the dungeon, he heard a strange gagging-like noise. It sounded like someone was throwing up. Eren stopped walking to try and hear it better. It sounded pretty bad.
"I should probably go make sure they're okay." Eren thought aloud. As he walked towards the putrid sound, it started to die down. He stopped in front of the men's washroom, and carefully opened the door. He could hear haggard breathing as he walked in, and he cautiously walked towards the stalls.
Eren was startled as the person walked out of the stall coughing, and was even more startled when he saw that it was Corporal Levi.