"What do you think happens after you die?"
Levi put down the paper he was looking at and instead looked down into his lap, where the head of his (probably way too) young lover rested. "Huh? What brought this on?"
"Well, having half of your body eaten and almost dying only hours ago might have you thinking about the afterlife..." replied Eren, staring up into the other's eyes.
Levi raised an eyebrow sceptically. "You seem lively enough for someone who 'almost died only hours ago'. I doubt that counted as a close encounter with death in your case."
"Well, if I didn't have the titan abilities, I'd definitely by dead!"
"If you didn't have the titan abilities, you'd be dead long before you even joined the Survey corps."
Eren pouted, but couldn't really say anything against it. He did get to see a titan stomach from the inside once... "But it still was a traumatic experience."
Levi looked at him with an are-you-kidding-me look.
"Oh, come on! Can't you just be nice and go along with it for once?" Eren pouted.
His Heichou tried to resist the urge to chuckle at the sight, but kind of failed. "Fine, fine. I think there's no use thinking about afterlife; you'll know when you actually die. So I don't really have any opinion about it."
"Hmm..." was Eren's only response.
Levi thought that was the end of it so he went back to his papers.
When Eren noticed no-one's paying any attention to him anymore, he huffed. "You're seriously not gonna ask me what I think?"
"Why should I?" was the reply. He didn't even look away from his papers. (And thus effectively shielding the smirk that graced his lips. Eren wouldn't appreciate it anyway.)
Eren rolled to his side to show he was seriously sulking (but he still didn't leave his lover's lap so the impact was kind of... not there).
Said lover peeked from behind his paper shield, his usual poker-face safely back in place. He loved teasing his cute little titan, but he also loved seeing him happy. As much as his sulky form was adorable...
He sighed in resignation. "Fine. What do you think happens after death?"
"No idea."
Levi raised an eyebrow. "'No idea'? That is what you made a scene for? Brat."
Eren's head snapped towards him, angry gaze meeting with amused one. "I didn't make a scene," he exclaimed stubbornly.
"Sure you didn't."
"Tsk."
There was a short moment of silence, until Eren resumed his earlier position and continued his unfinished thought. "I have no idea, but I think it would be nice if you reincarnated."
"You do realize you could get reincarnated as a rat, or a spider, or something equally disgusting, right?"
"That's not true! People get reincarnated as people again," shot Eren back.
"Whatever you say."
"You're not really interested in what I'm saying, are you."
"No, not really. But I am listening."
Eren huffed again but thought it was still better than nothing so he continued. "Well, I like the idea that the fates of people are connected in all their lives. It would be nice to meet everyone again, don't you think?"
"It would be nice, but you wouldn't know you're meeting them again anyway. And if fates are connected than you'd meet the people you hate again too, not just your family and friends."
"Actually, I don't care. As long as I can see you again, it doesn't matter who else is there. ...That was kind of the whole point of discussing this with you, you know."
"..." Levi was speechless. "What the hell, that's so cheesy."
"Does it matter if it's cheesy? It's the truth."
"And here I was, thinking that the only thing in your head was killing titans, and meanwhile you were actually full of cheesy lines. I'm not sure if I should be glad or not."
"You should be glad. It means I love you more than you thought." Eren said that without blushing or any other indication of embarrassment. Levi was impressed. In a weird way.
When his Heichou didn't say anything in return, Eren interpreted the silence as 'Thank you, it means a lot to me. I love you, too.' He knew he probably wasn't too far from reality.
"Hey, so would you want to meet me again in let's say... 2135 years?"
Levi shot him a look. "What's with that number?"
"Nothing, I just came up with it. So would you?" Eren smirked as Levi averted his gaze in poker-faced embarrassment.
"...Why not?"
"Okay, it's a date. Exactly 2135 years from now. Don't you dare forget. I'll kill you if you are a second late."
2134 years, 364 days, 23 hours and 39 second later
A young boy was just walking down the street with his girlfriend when he suddenly stopped as a short older guy came into his view and their eyes accidentally met.
Mikasa, whose hand he was holding, was forced to come to an unexpected stop too. She turned her head. "Eren? What is it?" He let go of Mikasa's hand without thinking. Why was he feeling guilty?
Mikasa shot him a confused look. "Eren?"
"Hm? Ah, it's nothing sorry. I just had this weird feeling... Like a deja-vu..." He caught her hand again and smiled. "I'm sure it was just my imagination."
A few meters behind him, Levi was looking over his shoulder sharing similar, equally confused thoughts.
A/N: Whoa, I'm so productive these days... ;;
I'm sorry if you were expecting a happy ending... but I like it like this.
Someday, I plan to write a big multi-chapter story with this as a prequel, but... that's probably very optimistic. I'm kind of unable to come up with a plot that would last longer than 6000 words (and that was only one)... Maybe, some day, 2000 years from now...
By the way... why can't there be dots in chapter titles? I hate that, I want my dots! It looks so much better when it's called 'It's a date... 2000 years from now' than 'It's a date - 2000 years from now'... Even the meaning is kinda sorta different.
(You might have noticed I'm obsessed about dots... ;;; But I'm not ashamed!)