"Levi…I'm so sorry," Eren choked out, the blood staining the front of his forest green cape seeping through and covering his shirt in the red substance.
When no response came from the other man, who was lying in his arms, Eren broke down in tears. The crystal droplets fell down to the corps of Humanity's Strongest. He sobbed into the cold body on his lap, screaming at how unfair the situation was, how his corporal wasn't supposed to die like this–
How Levi was supposed to be the one to kill him, not the other way around.
The rain pounded heavy against the brunet's back, soaking him to the bone but not effectively hiding the tears still freely pouring from his eyes. The grass around them was muddy, ruining the white pants that every soldier wore, though he didn't need mud to do what as his friends' and comrades' blood had already done. The substances mixed on the fabric, effectively painting it a much darker shade than it should've been.
Eren hugged his Corporal close, the man's usually scrunched up features now uncharacteristically calm and relaxed. His skin was still warm and coloured, but the boy knew that would change in a matter of minutes. Soon, the others in his squadron would arrive and see his sorry state. They'd see Levi. He could be killed for this…
He would be killed for this.
Humanity's Strongest was a great asset and was very important to humanity– 'accidents' don't count in the judge's eyes; it's not "Just this once"– the case involving Mikasa proved that. Not that Eren really minded being beheaded for what he'd done, he deserved it. He was holding Humanity's Strongest soldier right now…the man he'd looked up to, the man who'd helped him countless times before.
Eren wondered what would've happened if he hadn't shifted, if he hadn't lost control. Titans had surrounded them, even if he didn't shift, they would've died. Not even an extremely strong soldier like Levi could've taken on that many eotenas.
Then again, maybe if he hadn't swung his fist that close to the tree Levi would be–
"Eren!" A voice called over the rain.
Said male looked up from the paling face below him and over to Hanji, who was jogging over to him.
"What happened? Where's–" She cut herself off, looking down at Levi's face when Eren did as well, tears welled back up in his eyes.
"Is…Is he…"
"I'm sorry, Hanji," Eren cried, fisting his dead corporal's shirt in his hand and pressing his face to the cloth.
She stayed silent for a moment, taking in the situation for herself before speaking, "We have to keep moving, put him on the back of your horse if you must," she said, a hint of sadness lacing her hardened words.
Eren did as he was told, slinging the body of his former corporal over the back of his horse before mounting it himself and riding off after the leading soldier ahead.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
It didn't take long to encounter a problem– it was to be expected; so far, the entire expedition had been a failure. Not long after their departure, Eren had gotten separated from Hanji due to an attack that broke up their formation. Eren had parted to the left and Hanji to the right and he hadn't seen her since.
The brunet teen was currently being chased by an abnormal through the woods, the trees doing little to obstruct it or block its path as it quickly ran on all fours to chaise them, its pace was almost matching that of Eren's horse.
Eren dared to look back at it and was met with a terrifying sight; the titan had to have been no more than five or so metres behind them, a manic grin spread across its ugly face and a murderous glint in its eerily calm eyes. He turned back to look in front of him and realized that they were almost out of the forest and onto open planes, a place where even if needed, 3DMG couldn't be used for escape.
Eren tried to steer his horse into a sharp right, but only succeeded in pulling to hard and causing the equine to stumble and fall over. The titan came to an abrupt stop just behind Eren, standing and looming over him with a shadowed face, the haunting smile still evident.
The teen stilled, looking up to a hand coming down on him. He quickly shoved his thumb in his mouth, fully acknowledging his lack of energy and probable inability to fight. Biting down hard enough to draw blood, his formally small figure was rapidly encased in a large skeletal structure that was soon covered with flesh. The fifteen metre class was just barely shorter than the seventeen metre titan that stood before him. With what little strength he had left, Eren swung his fist with all his power into the eotena's face, crushing through its skull and out the other side. However, he'd missed its weak spot. He realized this all too late when the titan fought back and unfortunately hit the Rouge titan's neck directly, pushing Eren back into a tree and crushing the person inside.
And just like that, so easily, everything went black.
––––––––––––––––Nearly 2000 Years Later––––––––––––––––
"Mikasa! I'm going out for coffee with Marco!" Eren called, fumbling with his shoes and running out the door without an answer from his sister, as he was already ten minutes late.
The door shut behind him and he ran down to the corner, five minutes later, he was standing at the entrance of his favourite café. He grabbed the handle and jerked the door open, briskly walking inside and spotting his friend already seated and tapping away at his laptop (Eren knew he'd only brought it because he expected him to be late). He paid for his regular order and grabbed his black coffee from the barista's grasp, thanking her and walking over to his freckled friend.
"Hey, I'm really sorry I'm late…again," Eren said, sitting down across from Marco.
"It's no worry, I was just finishing up my history paper, anyway," he replied.
"Oh, that reminds me, I need to finish that," Marco chuckled at his friend's laziness, "So, what're you writing it about?"
"The war against the titans in the 800's," he smirked.
"Yeah, it's so easy to write about something you've lived through," Eren said, smiling, "Not that you lived through much of it, though."
"Mean."
"You're the one who refuses to tell us how you died."
"It's not like you're exactly open about your death either. Were you even there when the titans were wiped out?" The raven asked, genuinely curious.
"No, actually. Though I wish I was."
Marco hummed, "Don't we all."
Eren sighed and leaned back in his chair, tentatively taking a sip of the dark liquid in his cup and promptly spitting it out, getting coffee all over the table in front of him.
"Eren! What gives?! That could've hit my computer!" Marco yelled, startled– already starting to wipe down the surface with some spare napkins.
"Sorry, Marco, I have to go. I'll be back in a few minutes, though," Eren responded, rushing to get up and out of the door to meet a screaming Hanji who was jumping up and down excitedly outside the café's large window.
"EREN!" She screamed, leaping onto the brunet and knocking them both over in the process.
"Hanji!" The teen said, smiling, "It's good to see you! It's been too long."
"I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU! I already found Erwin and Levi and a few others–"
"Wait, you found Levi?" He asked, cutting her off mid-sentence.
She smiled, taking him by the hand and dragging him to a car parked on the side of the road before throwing him in the passenger's seat and driving off to a tall building, not too far away.
Once they got there, Eren could see that it was a large corporate headquarters. Hanji dragged the teen into the elevator and they were lifted to the fiftieth floor, she then promptly dragged him out of the lift and down a long hallway; he could see they were passing offices on both sides as they walked quickly towards the unknown destination. When they finally made it to the end of the hall, Eren found he stood in front of a rather large (and important looking) door.
The brunet shot Hanji a confused look, but she just shrugged him off and pushed past him and through the door.
"Levi~! Oh! Erwin! Nice to see you! It's been so long–"
"Hanji, it's been a few hours," a smooth voice replied, one Eren recognized to be his former Commander's.
"Yes, yes, details," she said, waving her hand dismissively.
"Is there something you needed, shitty glasses?" Levi asked. His voiced instantly calmed Eren; just knowing that the other man was alive and well was enough comfort to last him the rest of this lifetime.
"Oh! Right! I have a surprise for both of you, more so Levi than you, Erwin. Sorry," She said, bouncing in place.
Erwin chuckled, "It's fine, Hanji, what is it?"
Eren suddenly felt himself being tugged into the office by the woman and he slightly stumbled on his way, but managed to get inside without falling on his face.
There was a sort of stunned silence that followed after he'd entered the room. Eren blushed, as all eyes were on him, "U-uh…hey," he said, breaking the slightly awkward dead air that resounded throughout the room.
"Eren?" Levi was among the first to speak.
"Yeah?" Eren looked over nervously at his old Corporal.
The older man let out a long breath of relief, "I didn't know if I'd ever find you," he said, looking away and putting down the pen that was resting in his hand.
"C-Corporal…I'm really sorry about…" Eren trailed off, not wanted to admit it out loud.
"It's fine, Eren. What happened in the past happened in the past."
The brunet breathed his own sigh of relief at the response, though he suddenly remembered and became aware of the others in the room when Erwin cleared his throat.
"O-oh, sorry, sir. It's really good to see all of you again," he youngest said, beaming.
"Always nice to see you, Eren. Well, I have to get back to work. Levi, would you like to take the rest of the day off?"
"Why the hell would I–"
"Le~vi~" Hanji sang, shifting her gaze over to Eren, who reddened at the treatment.
The raven huffed, irritated, "Fine."
Eren smiled. After waiting almost twenty years in this life, and almost two thousand somewhere in death, he was finally going to get to be with Levi again.
'Hopefully this'll go better than last time,' he thought.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
'Well this turned out well,' Eren thought as he looked around at the restaurant he and Levi were in. The older male had insisted they go out for dinner. If Eren recalled, his exact words were, "If we're going to talk, I need to have wine at my immediate disposal." And that's how they ended up at a high class restaurant– both picking away at the respective dishes in front of them.
"I've been wondering something," Levi said.
"That's new."
"Watch it, brat," the older male countered, sounding slightly exasperated, "How much longer did you live after you kill– after I died?"
"Uh…I'm not sure…maybe about…an hour or two?" Eren said, looking away and fidgeting in his seat.
Levi looked slightly taken back, "Oh, would've thought you'd live longer."
The brunet sighed, "Same here."
They finished up their meals and headed out after paying, well, after Levi paid, anyway.
As they got in the car, Levi noticed Eren was getting a bit restless.
"Stop doing that."
"D-Doing what?"
"Twitching. You're making me tense," he said, backing out of the parking lot and taking the directions Eren had given him to his house.
"Sorry…it's just…" he trailed off.
"Just what?"
"I just wanted to tell you something," Eren said, just as they pulled up to the house.
Levi hummed, "Well? Spit it out."
Eren blushed, looking away for a moment before turning back and chastely pressing his lips to Levi's, taking the other man off-guard.
The kiss was short, much too short for both their likings but Eren knew he had to pull away due to the fact that he didn't know if Levi even liked him or not.
"Sorry…" the younger male mumbled, carding a hand through his own hair.
Levi responded with a small snort, "Wow, did it really take you two thousand years to do that?"
"Huh?"
Levi rolled his eyes but connected their lips once more, adding a bit more force this time, "I missed you," he said, parting but still keeping close to the other.
"I-I missed you too…And I'm really sorry for killing y–"
"Get out of my car, brat," Levi chuckled, lightly pushing Eren's shoulder and laughing when he sputtered and tripped over himself on the way out.
Hopefully the next time we see each other won't be in a couple millennia.
Yay~! Reincarnation drabble! Anyway, thank you to the lovely aelmer6 for betaing, as always!