As usual, Eren was up before the sun bathed the castle that was the Survey Corps stronghold. He was in his routine of waking up early, cleaning himself and his cell in the basement as much as possible to captain Levi's standards before putting on his uniform and making his way to the halls for breakfast
He sat back on the too lumpy for any good sleep unless bone weary mattress that he'd slept alone on for nearly 3 years, and began strapping the leather 3DMG straps that he could put on with his eyes closed. Some mornings he did close his eyes. This routine was practically the same as breathing; after all he did it almost everyday.
Undoing the clasps of his maneuver belt, Eren noticed something that wasn't part of his morning ritual; a coarse thread of string was looped around his belt, and dangling from the end of it was a piece of crisp, white paper. The formal kind. Not the kind soldiers were given, but the kind that came from Commander Erwin's office, the kind you filed reports on, thick, heavy, and important.
Eren's gear hadn't been tagged for repair or maintenance, so there was no reason for the note to be there, especially when it hadn't been there when he took it off before he went to sleep last night. Someone had been to the basement while he slept. Looking at the note was the fastest way to find out why.
'Eren, I can't stop thinking about you.'
Eren read it over a few times, was this actually what he thought it was? Like, a confession or something? No. No one was that stupid. There was no name, and it was type written, so even if he could distinguish the handwriting, he couldn't tell who it was that left him this note.
The titan shifter knew whom he wanted it to be from though, the person he saluted with more vigor than anyone else everyday, the person who trained him to keep his cool, and believe in himself and his choices. The man who, no matter how much Eren trained with him everyday, he would never come close to beating, because like Eren, his only goal was to train, fight, and kill Titans.
The captain didn't have time to think about him.
He whisked the thought away as fast as it'd come. It was nice that someone was thinking about him, yeah, but he couldn't return their thoughts, and as sad as it was for an 19 year old young man, who should be experiencing things like affection, and off duty shenanigans like other members of the 104th, Eren, like his Captain, didn't have time either.
Eren Jaeger, with nearly 3 years in the Corps under his belt, was out of bounds. Something similar had happened when the new recruits joined this year, except one of the girls that Jean thought was cute ran up to Eren with a blush on her cheeks and eyes that had never seen a Titan in their life, to gave Eren a letter.
It was intercepted by Captain Levi however, who then proceeded to give his usual minimally worded speech to every single soldier in the training yard that Eren didn't have time to be messing around. He was humanity's last hope, and he bore humanity's biggest burden. The girl was killed on her first expedition outside, flattened beyond recognition. After that, Eren trained harder, faster, longer, and the Captain was always there for it all, as was his responsibility.
Despite humanity's progress, a lot was still riding on the green-eyed soldier. The titan shifter and his keeper were the only pair who had to be ready without a moment's notice.
He put the bit of paper on his small desk anyway, maybe after a shitty day of training, or a day when they lost more than they should have, he could come back to his always-empty cell and look at it, whatever could cheer a soldier up even a fraction was a valuable thing.
He slipped on his Survey Corps jacket, the last thing to go on every morning, before he went up the 28 steps to the ground floor and to breakfast. To his Captain.
Levi had been awake since well before the sun decided to show itself, awake and staring at the fucking ceiling as usual. About this time is when he decided he should probably get up, so he could clean, and dress, and make sure everyone else was clean and dressed.
So, he got out his too big bed, with the plush feather mattress given to those higher up in the ranks, a bed that even though as comfortable as it was, Levi never had a good sleep.
He went through his morning stretches methodically, spending extra time on tender muscles that were over worked the previous day. It took everything he had to keep up with the monster brat who wasn't a brat anymore, Eren; who'd grown up and was the apple of plenty of new recruits eye. Eren, who could and would train himself to near death, and be fucking right as rain the next day, like hell if he was going to let that little shit get the best of him just because he could heal overnight.
"Ah, fuck." Levi breathed through a particularly hard stretch, every goddam morning his mind always wandered to the source of his aching muscles. It was part of his routine. So was pushing it away and forging on with the day ahead.
Stretching, and cleaning out of the way, he dressed, underwear, pants, shirt, 3DMG straps and belts, next was his cravat. His cravat that someone had fucking touched. What in the actual fuck? It lay on his jacket, not the way he folded it specifically last night, every night, but carelessly and too hap-fucking-hazard for his liking.
His quick reasoning told it him that it meant someone came into his room last night, had the actual audacity to put their filthy hands on his cravat and just move it. Levi didn't think there was actually anyone pig brained enough in the entire Survey Corps to pull a stunt like that.
He was pretty weary by the time he ended up in his quarters last night though, and it didn't look soiled, he could peg it down to his fatigue.
That was until he picked it up, and from within the folds out fluttered a small square of heavy paper, flipping back and forth sporadically like the abhorrent it was, to the ground in between his feet.
Someone touched his cravat and left rubbish in it. He was going to find that muppet and castrate them. He'd probably just make them clean the entire castle 3 times though.
The cravat went into his laundry basket, it's not like he didn't have more than one anyway, and the bit of paper was going in the bin. Picking it up between thumb and calloused forefinger in distaste, he inspected the anomaly, it was thin and discolored, the sort issued to soldiers for journals and letters. He turned it around and oh.
'Captain, I can't stop thinking about you.'
The person who left this really is a dumbass to think Levi would even believe this filthy little note, let alone care about it. He had to give the moron credit for getting it into his room in the first place though; they must have waited until Levi was out with a last minute meeting with Erwin, or while he was checking that Eren was asleep on his crappy mattress before he himself finally turned in.
They must have been desperate, fearless to enter his room and touch his things, and Levi only knew one soldier that was like that. Only one soldier that would make Levi actually care about this note in his hands.
The way he said captain each morning with that immense drive in his eyes and enthusiasm leaking from every pore, his manic hunger to win, to fight, to survive and keep on living. Once again, his thoughts were going back to Eren fucking Jaeger. Yeah, it wasn't a secret to himself at least that Levi thought about his charge in ways he shouldn't, it was hard not too when you spent every day in his company.
But he wasn't a charge anymore, he was a man, a fine soldier, who even without his titan shifter status was a valuable member of the Corps, he wasn't placed 5th out of all the recruits from his year for no reason. The members of the 104th were a bunch of monsters, all fueled by the biggest monster of all; Eren, he had this way of infecting everyone.
Eren, who still got that manic ardor in his eyes when ever he set his eyes on a titan, who was quite capable of killing beast after beast without turning into one himself, in the physical sense at least.
Fuck, what was a man his age even doing anyway, pining or some shit. Eren's only goal was to eradicate titans, there wasn't a spare thought in that one-track brain of his for his Captain, plus he had enough expectations on his shoulders. The note was either a joke or from someone who had too many spare thoughts.
"Tch." He tossed the small square of parchment into the bin by his desk, they still touched his cravat and he wasn't going to let that slide.
With a fresh cravat and his Survey Corps jacket on at last, he was out of his quarters and striding down the halls to the dining hall for a tea and break fast, to Eren.