Wolverine
By ZAFO
Summary: Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies. Annie/Eren/Levi.
A/N: This is a re-post since I took this down about a year ago. I wasn't happy about the way I wrote some things, but I had a fondness for it always. Now, with renewed obsession from playing the new AoT Ps4 game (heh), I'm determined to continue! Enjoy
–
I.
Connie Springer felt nauseous; the room began to spin. He looked up at his vaguely guilty, slightly sheepish, not-quite-girlfriend, and fought the urge to hurl as he spoke.
"Sasha," he began. "Is this… are you…?"
"Pregnant?" She finished for him.
Connie nodded. His face had turned pale. The brunette laughed nervously, tossing the positive pregnancy test over her shoulder. Her not-quite-boyfriend watched helplessly as the white plastic stick bounced mockingly off the cheap carpeted floor.
"Yep!"
"H-how?!" He managed to choke out.
Sasha began playing with her hair. A light blush graced her pretty features, and in any other instance, Connie would have taken the opportunity to steal a kiss, or sneak a hug, or…or something, but at the moment he wanted nothing more than to sink into the ground and let it swallow him whole.
"Dunno." She said casually. "Could've been that one time behind the bus stop, or that other time on the beach, or that other time—"
"—stop, stop!" Cried Connie, waving his hands about.
He was not ready for this. He was too young to be a father!
The bald-headed boy gave a keening groan and fell to his knees, fists balled over his eyes. Sasha tip-toed around him and lay a hand on his shoulder.
"There there." She cooed. "The baby will probably look more like me than it will you."
"How do you know that?" He sniffled, batting her hand away. "And that's not why I'm crying! How are you not worried?!"
"Because it'll be fun?"
"Fun? FUN?" Connie practically leapt to his feet at this. "How is this going to be fun?! We're BROKE, Sasha! How are we going to take care of a baby?"
"The same way we take care of Seymour." She shrugged.
Seymour was the name of their pet cactus. Sasha obviously Did Not Get It.
"Sasha, a baby is not the same as a houseplant!"
"Well I know that, silly. I'm just saying that they're similar—we've just got to water it and stuff!"
"You don't water a baby!" He argued desperately.
Sasha looked thoughtful as Connie finally began to cry shamelessly.
–
Eren Yeager lived in Shiganshina City all his life and felt no love for it, especially during rush hour.
In fact, he hated it. The city was nothing but a filthy, suffocating cage to him—and the traffic he was stuck in made it no better.
Increasingly agitated by the lack of movement, Eren snarled, slamming his palm onto the car horn as he was forced to stop again. This set off a round of furious honking in the sea of cars around him, and the cacophony left his head pounding.
Eren groaned and slumped in his seat.
'This is hell.' He thought morosely.
…and not just that day either, but every day.
Because of that, Eren ultimately didn't regret bullying his sister, Mikasa, into high-tailing it out of there. She was smart, she was pretty, and she actually had a damn good chance of making a life for herself out in Mitras instead.
Mitras, the capital, was not like Shiganshina.
Mitras was clean. Mitras was prosperous. Mitras held opportunities.
Mitras was no place for a Loser like him.
Eren groaned.
The ride home from work always gave him time to dwell on just that. Unlike Mikasa—who was a prodigy in every sense of the word—Eren didn't really have any defining trait about him other than his legendary obstinacy and his remarkably short fuse. If he were to be completely, bitterly honest with himself, he was about as talented as his stupid horseface of a housemate, Jean. If he dwelled on that particular little tidbit too long, he'd probably start crying.
As the minutes ticked by and the traffic failed to budge, Eren gave a heavy sigh and leaned forward to rest his chin atop the steering wheel. Today was especially depressing. He loathed to admit it, but Eren had been growing progressively lonely without Mikasa. Coming home to Armin and that dipshit Jean just wasn't the same—plus, none of them knew how to cook. Eren could almost swear that he'd become anemic, now that there wasn't anyone there to nag at him about getting his nutrients.
He contemplated picking up a bottle of vitamins on the way home when his cellphone rang. The Bluetooth function rerouted the call to his car's speaker systems, and Sasha's sniveling voice reverberated throughout the vehicle.
"E-Eren?"
"What's up, Sasha?"
"I—I—"
"Spit it out." Eren drawled, curious as to what had his happy-go-lucky friend so shaken.
"I need your help!" She exclaimed. "We need your help! Connie, he—he—"
"—what happened to Connie?" Eren interrupted, voice losing its lazy edge as he began to tense.
"—he won't come out!" She wailed. "I don't know what to do! He just completely freaked when I told him about the baby—"
"—baby?!"
20 minutes later, as traffic finally eased up, Eren took the next available exit and drove straight into Mitras City.
Like Mikasa, Connie lived and worked in the capital. Unlike Mikasa, however, Connie didn't pay the sky-high rent with a prestigious internship, but with the help of his exasperated, prestigious parents.
That's right. Eren nodded to himself, chuckling darkly. If anyone's more of a loser than I am, it's Connie.
Connie Springer was—as Jean's mother once put it—a 'charmingly dim young man.' Whereas Eren was just boringly average, Connie was a complete and utter failure. He was nice enough, sure, and funny—that was the main thing Eren liked about him—but he had absolutely no ambition in life. The only things he ever seemed to spend his free time on were Sasha and shoot-em-up video games.
Naturally, his parents weren't so thrilled with this. Nonetheless, Connie was an only child, and so they supplied about a half his rent, forcing him to work part-time to earn the rest of it.
Eren tsked fondly.
His bald-headed friend was a flaky one. Connie tended to last an average of three months at every odd job he took. He was clumsy and ditzy—which was probably why he got along with Sasha so well—but despite it all, he was a genuinely good guy. He had the tenancy to keep trying, at least.
After a few more minutes of driving, Eren arrived at Connie's run-down apartment complex. He parked his car in the nearby lot, then made sure to lock it before trotting up to the second floor.
"HEY!" He called, paint chips falling atop his knuckles as he rapped the door. "I'm here!"
The door creaked open, and a bleary-eyed Sasha greeted him with snot running from her nose. Eren wiped it away absentmindedly as he welcomed himself in.
"Eren," His friend blubbered, tugging at his work shirt. "C-C-Connie is…!"
"I know, I know." Eren murmured, patting her tousled hair gently. "Don't worry. I'll get him out."
"He said—he said that babies aren't like cacti!"
"I'm sure he did." Eren said mildly.
Despite his nonchalance, Eren knew the situation was grim. Being a fellow 22-year-old, the thought of becoming a father so early on made him shiver. At this point in life, he could barely take care of himself—how could he ever care for a little puddle of human?
Still consoling a weepy Sasha, Eren puttered over the room Connie had locked himself in, knocking lightly.
"Connie." He commanded. "Your girlfriend is crying. Open up!"
Silence. Sasha began to outright wail.
"CONNIE!" Eren called again, rapidly losing patience. It was times like these that made him grateful his girl, Annie, was so level-headed.
(and robotic—Jean had commented once, but who cared what stupid Jean thought?)
"He's been in there since morning!" Sasha sobbed. "I didn't think—I didn't think he'd react like this. I swear! If I had known, I would have taken care of the baby myself!"
The brunette felt a stab of pity pierce through him at that. Connie may very well have lost it, but Sasha was rapidly following in his footsteps. What kind of man let his lover go to pieces like this?
Eren inhaled, then unleashed a fearsome barrage of pounding on the door.
"CONNIE!" He shouted. "OPEN THE DOOR! IF YOU DON'T, I SWEAR, I'LL BREAK IT DOWN, AND WE BOTH KNOW YOU'RE TOO BROKE TO GET IT FIXED!"
Connie finally reacted.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" He screeched back, his voice hoarse and muffled. "I'M NOT IN THE MOOD, MAN!"
"NO ONE'S 'IN THE MOOD,' YOU SELFISH FUCK! SASHA'S THE ONE CARRYING THE THING—AND YOU'RE IN THERE CRYING ABOUT IT?"
"MY PARENTS ARE GONNA KILL ME!"
"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Eren roared.
Meanwhile, Sasha had grown increasingly meek and withdrawn with each exchange. Eren grabbed the girl's wrist to keep her from slinking away, then used his other hand to continue pounding the door. "CONNIE!"
"TAKE HER HOME ALREADY!"
"YOU HAVE 'TILL THREE—"
"EREN!"
"—ONE—"
Eren released Sasha's wrist and planted a foot on the door.
"EREN, STOP!"
"—TWO—"
Connie's shouts had turned into shrieks now.
"EREN!"
"—THREE!"
Eren's many years as a petty punk paid off. With one strong, well-practiced kick, the door broke off it's rusty hinges, revealing a cowering Connie inside. The brunette rushed into the room before the shorter man could make a break for it, then tackled him roughly, pinning him helplessly onto the cream carpeted floor.
Sharp emerald eyes glared down at him.
"You motherfucker," Eren started "I can't believe you."
"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Connie cried, wriggling furiously in the other boy's grip. "You've never seen your life flash before your eyes like this! I'm not ready! I can't be a father!"
"Well too bad so sad, Connie. How do you think Sasha feels?" Eren's gazed flickered over to her form hovering beside them. Sasha winced at the sudden attention, but Eren didn't stop there. "She told me that if she knew you'd react like this, she would have taken care of it herself. You gonna let her become a single mother?"
"She doesn't have to be one at all!" The bald boy hissed. "It'll fuck up our lives—it's better if she just gets rid of it!"
Sasha gasped at this; it was a tiny, heartbroken sound, and Eren saw red overtake him as the words sunk in.
"Do you even know what you're saying?" Eren asked, his voice low. "Connie. Look at me. Look at Sasha."
There were tears in her eyes. She stood at the periphery of their standstill—frozen, petrified, waiting for an amendment… but Connie refused to say anything.
Her partner shut his eyes and turned his head.
'That's it,' Eren thought, lividly, as he took in Sasha's pitiful, trembling form.
Eren had a deep (and in Armin's opinion, almost obsessive) sense of justice, of right and wrong. It was one of the things that truly moved him, and one of the only things can could truly incense him. Sure, there were some people, like Jean and Reiner, who said he took things too seriously—but if he didn't, then who would?
Who, out of their group of friends, would stand up for Sasha, here and now? Who could try to make things right for her?
Eren raised a firmly clenched fist in air. It was too bad for Connie that he tended to morph into a berserker when he was angry.
Sasha's cries of protest couldn't stop him.
—
In the end, Connie Springer got off lucky. By the 12th punch Eren had regained his senses, and the bald-headed boy had escaped easy (sort of, by Eren's track record) with a black eye, some bruises, and a mild concussion.
That didn't mean everything was alright, though.
As soon as Eren had stopped, Connie had scrambled to his feet and practically flown out the door. A heavy melancholy had washed over Sasha as soon as he had left, and Eren felt almost remorseful, now, as he watched the girl quietly wipe the blood off his knuckles.
"Sorry," he grunted gently, not sounding very sorry at all.
Sasha shook her head, focused on trying to scrub the blood out from under his fingernails. The crumpled paper towels she was using did a shoddy job, but Eren appreciated the effort.
"It's not your fault." She said softly. "Thank you, though. You know, for caring."
Eren grabbed the soiled napkin and threw it aside, then reached out to tip the girl's chin up. Sasha hesitated, but Eren's gaze had always been intense. His bright green eyes bored into hers as they met.
"You shouldn't have to thank me for that. You gonna be alright?"
Sasha laughed weakly.
"Yeah, of course! All I need is dinner and I'll be good!" She shook her chin out of Eren's grasp and moved away. "Now, what should I have tonight? Some barbeque, or potato soup, or maybe noodles—"
Her voice shook.
"—Connie likes noodles. Ah," She paused, as if the thought was unfamiliar. "This isn't even my kitchen, is it? That's right."
Sasha grabbed her bag and walked rapidly to the exit, a concerned Eren trailing after her.
"I have to get home now." She said. "I've gotta make dinner. Eren—"
"—I'll drive you back." He said gruffly. "C'mon. You're in no shape to drive."
"But—"
"—c'mon." Eren said, beating her to it. "You know what? Stay with us. Armin, Jean and I—we're shit at cooking, but we'd love to have you over. We've got a shit ton of food in the fridge you could help us cook up. Whaddaya say?"
Sasha deflated, and Eren felt another spike of anger at Connie for causing such a change in her. Sasha never turned down food.
He grabbed her arm and began to pull her back towards him.
"Eren," She started, looking pained. "I—"
Someone knocked twice, thrice at the front door.
Then, unexpectedly, the wood was kicked open, with such force that the entire room shook. Sasha and Eren jumped back at the sudden noise. Ironically, it was reminiscent of Eren's earlier attack on Connie.
Outside, a tall, freckled brown-haired girl—dressed in a police uniform—stood proudly, her arms crossed. She smacked her gum lackadaisically as she drew out a badge.
"Ymir Yggdrasil, Shiganshina County Police." She drawled. "Eren Yeager, you're under arrest for breaking and entering, aggravated assault, and…" the officer trailed off as she absorbed the sight before her. "...home wrecking." She grinned.
"WHAT!" Eren exploded, furious that Connie had actually reported him. "That little—wait, what? Home wrecking?"
"That's right!" Ymir nodded, taking advantage of Eren's momentarily dumbfounded state to cuff him. Sasha looked on in horror. "You shoulda seen the cue-ball—comin' into the office all blubbering with his mommy and daddy by his side—by the way, kid, I suggest you stop glaring. I'm the one with the key here."
"I can't believe this! Connie—he called the cops on me!"
"Yeah yeah," Ymir waved. "Hurts, doesn't it? That's why you can't trust no one."
"That's not what I—wait," Eren sputtered, outraged. "Y-you handcuffed me! Why the hell am I getting handcuffed?!"
Ymir shrugged as she pulled his arms back.
"Duh. Baldy's parents said you were dangerous, that's why. Something about your fuckin' temper. Obviously."
Eren snarled.
"I'm gonna kill him!"
Ymir threw her back and laughed.
Sasha wrung her hands nervously.
"Eren, please!" She begged. "Calm down! You're not helping yourself here!"
"Girl's right." The officer smirked. "Alright, let's go now. Time's a-wastin!"
And so Eren Yeager was arrested.
[to be continued…]
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A/N: I made up Ymir's last name of course. In any case, whatcha think so far? :)