A/N: well here's the sequel! I must say this first chapter could've been better but I tried! Chapters to follow shall be better! I swear! Oh and if ya haven't yet read the story before this one I suggest you do. You'll get confused otherwise.

Warnings: language and some suggestive themes (in the future)

Love Anew

Prologue

They say that birds are the freest creatures in the animal kingdom; be it a small little sparrow or a big eagle, they were all free. They could fly up in the heavens and experience the open skies freely. They're flight paths were limitless. They could glide through the clouds without worrying about the force of gravity pulling them down and constricting them from all the freedom that their wings allowed them.

Eren had always thought that if he were ever to die then he would have loved to be reborn as a bird or any creature that could fly. To be free was something he had always wanted. To live without a care and experience the same things birds did. Of course he didn't mean that he wanted to fly up in the sky because that was just stupid.

What he wanted was to just live without anything holding him down, like birds. Gravity doesn't hold them to the ground. They surpass any and all laws of gravity and take to the air and glide through clouds with the wind ruffling their feathers and the sense of freedom conveying in their hearts.

That was what he wanted. But the freedom he had wasn't something he could reach anymore. At first it was something he thought would come to him quite easily, but after a while of unsuccessful attempts to achieve it he eventually gave up, and in so he'd became a very, very jaded person and he partially blamed Levi and his father for it.

When Levi had left him he'd done it in a very peculiar way. The same day that he'd told the brunette about him leaving was the same day he left, except Eren hadn't even known he was gone until the next day when he'd found the male wasn't next to him. After ransacking the house to find the blackette the brunette had discovered a letter from Levi, one stating why he was gone and why all he had left was a letter.

Because actually saying goodbye hurts more.

His reasoning had made sense. But Eren still felt hurt by the way in which he'd left. Then again he'd felt hurt about him leaving all together. But he was young and immature back then and didn't really understand the others reasoning. As far as he had been concerned Levi could have easily just gone and studied somewhere else.

But he had eventually started to understand why Levi had left. It took him nearly repeating the tenth grade to finally understand though. His grades had dropped excessively and since they weren't that good in the first place he was already walking on thin ice. But he felt that almost failing a year made his eyes open up to the reality he was stuck in.

Levi had left him not only to make something out of himself but to let the brunette do the same, because he knew that he was an obstacle and that if he stayed Eren would be too fixated on him and lose sight of what he really should be working on. Which was himself. He thought the brunette was too young, too immature to handle a serious relationship and school at the same time. And let's not forget his actual family life.

And Eren hated him for thinking like that. He hated him even more because he'd known that he had been right. Nearly failing taught him that. So by the time it came to the final term for the school year he'd made a new resolve. He would better himself. He thought that he should forget about the other, but he realized that that wouldn't be the best option. The thought of the blackette and the thought of meeting him motivated Eren to work harder, to become something. He wanted to do it so that one day when if they ever had to meet again, which was probably very unlikely, he would be a better man and someone mature.

The reason why meeting would be unlikely linked with the reason why he had eventually given up on finding his freedom.

In the eleventh grade Eren and Levi had still been contacting each other. It was the only way they'd be able to speak to each other. It had worked for a while but soon Levi had started becoming distant. He would hardly reply to some of the others messages and whenever he did it was a week, maybe two later. He was caught up in his studies and working a part time job at the same time.

Eren hadn't minded. He tried to endure it all. But after a while Levi had just stopped speaking to him all together. Eren still sent him messages and tried calling him. After six months of trying his hardest to contact Levi the blackette had finally contacted him. He'd told Eren to stop contacting him because he was only making himself hurt more.

Eren had been so angry. He'd had to stay out of school a whole week because he feared that he might actually kill someone with the levels of irritation and frustration he felt. When he went back to school he had still been extremely unapproachable. Even Armin and Jean dared not to speak to him. But when his attitude stayed like that for a whole week and a half Jean had got so irritated himself and ended up punching Eren in the face. That had led to them brawling it out on the school court yard.

They threw insults at each other along with punches and the occasional kick here and there. Both had eventually been separated by two seniors and one of their teachers. They'd been sent to the principal's office and after a long talk from the principle himself, along with their parents that were called in, they were sent home and suspended for the rest of that school week.

Eren had been even more pissed after that. But he had to admit that the fight he and jean had was exactly what he needed. They'd scuffled and in-between punches and kicks Jean would shout out at the brunette. He told him to open his eyes and to stop letting someone that isn't even there anymore affect him. He tried to knock some sense into him the brunette and oddly enough it had worked.

He had gone to apologize to Jean a day after their fight, though he was almost not allowed to thanks to his father that was very upset with him for causing such trouble at school. Jean accepted his apology and told Eren that if he were to ever become a brooding jackass again he wouldn't hold back when it came to knocking sense into him.

The brunette had changed drastically afterwards. He'd stopped trying to contact Levi. He blocked any and all thoughts of the other male and lived his life like he had been before he'd met the blackette. Sure there were moments when he'd slip and accidently bring up the man or link something he saw to him, but after a while he eventually just stopped thinking about him all together. One could even go as far as to say that he'd forgotten about the others existence.

He'd tried living a normal life and he had almost succeeded. Almost. In the middle of his twelth frade his life had changed completely. Not only had he been reminded about the person he'd lost, but he'd lost the only family he had left. His dad. His dad was supposed to be going to a city in japan to help out in a troublesome earthquake that had done excessive damge, but their helicopter had crashed, and his father and two more good doctors had died.

Nobody knew why the helicopter crashed. It was a mystery. A lot of rumors spread about the crash. Some said that the person driving the copter purposefully crashed some even said that one of the doctors inside caused the crash. Eren believed none of them. His dad was dead. He officially had no one.

At his dads funeral, which he had somehow managed to plan, he met up with Mr. Ackerman as well as Mikasa who had joined. They'd offered him a place in their home but Eren refused. He even refused Armin and Jeans offer. He wanted to just be alone.

His dad had left him money, but the issue was that he could only get it once he turned 18 and he wasn't yet at age. So for a month or so he had to work a part time job just to stay on his feet. But even when he had turned 18 he continued working. He never touched the money he was left. he became independent.

To say the death of his father matured him would be an understatement. It changed him, hardened him up. He became serious and stopped messing around in school. He had somehow managed to juggle school and a part-time job at the same time. When he finally graduated he had thought about taking a gap year but then he shot down that idea.

He went to university, which was the only time he touched the money his dad left him, along with the money his mom left as well, and studied to become a teacher. He had thought about following in his dads footsteps and become a doctor but in the end he decided to follow in his mothers. She was, had been, a teacher after all.

By the time he'd finally gotten his teaching license five years had already passed since his separation from Levi. Not that he really realized. For the next five years he taught at a local high school in his town. He had been a great teacher. Not one child that he taught failed. The scores his children produced got noticed and led him to where he was now.

On a plane, heading to Tokyo to teach at one of the shadiest high schools there. Why? Because the principle of that school thought that Eren could work miracles and help improve their rank. It wasn't that they had bad teachers. The children were the real issue. They didn't listen and for the most part they usually sipped school. Apparently they had gotten in a new teacher but he clearly wasn't enough if they were bringing him in as well.

The brunette felt they were maybe overestimating him. He knew that he was good but not even he could produce miracles. He was just lucky to teach children that were dedicated to their school work. But he didn't back down from the offer. They paid well. Well enough anyway. They at least paid more than his previous job did.

So the day before the current he'd booked a flight and that led to where he was now. Up in the sky, seated by a window and staring out at the birds that flew next to the plane. Those birds had been the thing that brought up his thoughts about freedom. After all they did look exceptionally liberated with the wind ruffling their feathers.

The brunette sighed out before looking back in front of him. "I wonder if Levi is okay" he whispered to himself, thinking about his poor old dog that had to be kept in a carrier somewhere else on the plane. He knew that he should have just left the dog back at home, but he refused to leave the dog with somebody else.

He didn't sell his house, which was the one he'd lived in since forever, and he didn't like the thought of hiring someone he didn't know to stay in it to look after the house and his dog. he did however get Armin and Jean to stay there, since they both still lived in town. And although Levi would have been in good hands with them Eren couldn't leave him with them. He didn't know when he would be coming back and he wanted to keep the dog by him.

He looked down at the watch on his wrist. The plane should land in ten minutes. He was sure the dog could handle it. He just hoped the dog hadn't vomited.

Eren then slapped himself on the forehead, gaining some weird looks from other passengers. He realized that he had taken Levi to a vet an hour or so to the vet before his flight to get something to make the dog sleep through the flight. So of course the dog was fine. He would only wake up in an hour or so after landing.

"What a relief" he sighed out as he heard the lady from the intercom inform them about the plane landing in five minutes and instructing them to put on their safety belts.

Nearly thirty minutes later and Eren was off the plane, rolling his luggage and holding the carrier that had Levi in it to entrance of the airport. He was supposed to be looking for someone holding a sign up. That was the person he would be staying with. He didn't know who the person was but he was grateful to them. He would probably only be staying with them for a week or so until the house he would be renting was ready for him to move in to.

He looked around and eventually found someone holding a sign with his name on it. Of course the spelling of his name was wrong. He tried to ignore the irritation that started building up in him and walked over to the person holding the sign. Actually the man wasn't even holding the sign up. He just put the board up high enough so that it could be seen while he sat there and played around on his phone. That irritated the brunette more. In fact just looking at the other seemed to irritate him for some reason.

"Ahem" he coughed out as he put his luggage down on the floor and tapped the man on the shoulder. "I'm Eren, pleased to meet you" he said as he took a step back and held his hand out. The other kept his eyes glued down at the screen of his phone, his thumb frozen mid-type. After a awkward moment of silence, awkward on Eren's part, he finally looked up and the shock in his eyes were quite evident.

Eren tapped his foot at the other impatiently, not getting why he seemed so shocked. Maybe he realized that he spelled his name wrong and felt embarrassed by his mistake. "Well, are you going to shake my hand or leave me standing here like an idiot"

The other man seemed to process what he said before he stood up. Eren noted how the man was quite shorter then he was. "Eren?" he asked, recognition displaying in his eyes. "Yes. Who are you?" he asked. The other man looked at him in disbelief before he glared at Eren, something the brunette didn't like. "You know who I am. Figure it out on your own" he said as he turned around and started walking out the airport.

Eren stared at his retreating form. 'What the fuck?!' he screamed in his head as he picked up his stuff and stormed after him. Once he'd caught up he took a good look at the other. Sure the man looked familiar but he couldn't quite place who he was.

His hair was pulled back into a small little pony and the bottom part of his head shaved. The brunette could tell that if it was let loose it would probably look like a bowl cut. He was also quite short but his body was in proportion. He also noticed how the man walked with confidence and grace.

"Figure it out yet?" the man asked as he turned to look at the other before stopping in front of a black car. Eren couldn't tell who he was. "Just tell me your name" he demanded and the other just chuckled. "I'm the person you named that" he pointed at the carrier that held the sleeping dog in, "after" he ended as he dug in the pocket of his jean and pulled out a packet of cigarettes, took one out and placed it between his lips and lit it.

Eren stopped in his tracks and thought a bit on what the male had said. "What?" he said in disbelief. He looked at the other, at a loss for words. Not just because of whom he was, but because he hadn't realized straight away when he should have since nothing about the other had really changed. But once he got over his shock he immediately got angry. For the second time in the last five minutes he put all his luggage down on the ground and stormed over to the other, grabbed him by the wrist and turned him around before raising his hand and slapping him in the face, satisfied at the sound it made and the mark that started forming straight away.

"You fucking asshole!" he yelled, not caring about the people that stopped to look at him. "I guess I deserved that" the other said as he took a drag from his cigarette and cupped his cheek with one hand.

Eren smacked him again, making sure the cigarette fell to the ground. The other just chuckled, but still held on to his cheek that had an angry hand print there. He smirked at the brunette before speaking, and his words angered Eren more.

"Hello Mr. Yeager. I'm Levi Ackerman, your temporary host"

DONE! Omg I struggled getting this done. Quite frankly I don't like how it came out but that's okay. The next chapter should be much better. I just needed to explain what had happened in the past ten years that they were apart. I know I made it seem like Eren forgot about Levi. He didn't… He just shoved down the memory of him away cuz he was angry at him.

Anyway… so ten years passed. Eren is 25 and Levi is 29. I realize that in TC I said there was a three year gap between them. I made a mistake. There's a four year gap between them. Technically they have only been separated for nine and a half years but that's not important.

Okay soooooooo I do apologize for the crappiness of this chapter. I promise that the chaps to follow will be much better!

Review if ya can! Just remember those reviews give me inspiration!

Ciao~