"Are you sure about this?"
Eren taps his fingers, nervous, against the steering wheel. He glances back toward Levi who was sitting-somewhat grumpily-in the back seat. Levi rolls his eyes.
"It'll only take a few seconds. In and out. Unless you want me to walk around your house naked, because I've already wore this suit for more than 24 hours. 24 hours Eren. I'll have you know bacteria count quadruples with every-."
Eren tunes him out, focusing instead on the road and entertaining his daydream of Levi walking around his apartment without any clothes on. Maybe they could save the effort if Levi just agreed to wear his old clothes but oh god, Levi in his clothes—that trainwreck of thought was effectively derailed with a very sharp kick to the back of his seat.
"Just go knock on the door and keep them distracted. You've got sweets, it should be easy enough."
Side-eyeing the box of cookies, Eren frowns. He certainly had experience talking to bereaving families. He was a private investigator, after all (Not a very good one, though, considering that it was usually Mikasa or Armin doing the talking).
Helping the deceased break into the house, however, was a new experience altogether.
Ten seconds of silence from the typically chatty boy in front of him was enough to indicate his trepidation at the whole idea. Levi sighs. "Look, kid, there's an unlocked window in the back with a ladder connected to it; Isabel can't ever be trusted enough to remember her key when she goes out. No one will know I'm there and I'll be back in the car probably way before you're done talking to them."
"I-I'm sorry, I'm just a little jittery, y'know? It's Mikasawho does this for a living, we just help out sometimes. I work at a flower shop with Armin, who, by the way, is running the shop by himself right now so you can pull a B&E on your own house."
Levi snorts. "You sell zombie plants for a living? Wasn't there a game like that?." He pops open the car door and slinks out like a cat, crouching by the car. "I'm going in." He declares in a harsh whisper. "I won't head in until I hear you ring the doorbell though, top floor creaks like a bitch."
All Eren hears is the soft click of the car door closing, before he's all alone, eyeing the box of cookies with a frown. Couldn't Levi have picked a time when they weren't home?
He trudges up the driveway-not a small thing, by any means, but not huge either. It's a modest little semi detached, comfortably sized, just right for three. His skin crawls, thinking about the vacuous space left behind since Levi had to move to his apartment.
He rings the doorbell.
The door opens up only a few seconds later, a shock of red appearing just beneath his chin, with searching eyes peering up at him curiously. "Hi." she says, voice high pitched and fitting to her stature, her eyes flicking from him to the box under his arm and back again. He clears his throat.
"Hi… Isabel?" the look in her eyes tells him that that was indeed her. He starts up again, trying to use his best professional voice. "My name's Eren. I'm a private detective, investigating Levi's death. May I come in? I just need to ask you some questions; you were his housemate, yes?"
She purses her lips and stares at him for a few seconds. Fuck, bullshitting this was a lot easier when there was an actual private investigator present. He tries his best 'natural' smile, though it probably came across as a grimace, shifting the box he was holding. "I understand that this is probably very hard for you, Miss Isabel. If it helps, I brought some confectionaries..." He trails off, observing in muted wonder as Isabel's pupils dilate.
"Cookies" she mouths. After he nods, Isabel grins slowly, eyes never leaving the blue tin in his hand. "Come on in!"
She moves aside to let Eren in and gladly relieves him of the cookies, hopping around the hall, stopping to peek into the kitchen as if looking for something. The floor is still buffered to perfection beneath his sneakers- not a spot of dust visible, the only indication of Levi's recent demise. A cat figurine perched on a mantle catches his eyes when he's jolted a loud stomp against the hardwood floor.
"One second, I need to call my housemate down here." she tells Eren with a serene smile, and Eren only has half a second to think 'Aw, how cute—" before she sucks in a breath.
"FARLAN!"
Eren jumps probably a half a foot into the air. How the fuck does something that loud come out of something so small? He gapes at her as someone stamps down the stairs- oh fuck, please tell him they didn't see Levi.
But if the man who's now standing at the end of the staircase, exasperated, did see his undead roommate, he shows absolutely no sign of it. His eyebrows push together as he stares at the girl standing in the center of the room, who looks unperturbed.
"What the everlovin' fuck, Iz-" he stops midsentence as he finally notices Eren standing there, box in hand. Isabel answers the unsaid question for him.
"He's a private detective, investigating into Levi's death. Also, he has cookies!"
Farlan squints at him.
"... Weren't you at the funeral?"
Fuck.
"Uh. Yeah. Went there for, ah, investigative reasons." Eren tries, trying for the wink-wink-nudge-nudge approach and hoping Farlan wouldn't press the issue. Farlan opens his mouth to protest, but Isabel walks over to him, still cradling the tin protectively in on hand, and grabbing Farlan's collar, jerking him down to her level to whisper something in his ear. He grunts and nods at whatever she tells him and she releases him, turning back to Eren to grin.
"You can start asking Farlan whatever you want. I'm gonna go pour a glass of milk for the cookies. Want some?"
"N-No thanks." he says, not missing how Farlan rolled his eyes once she turned. She sighs.
"You guys need to learn how to live a little"
Eren almost chokes on the irony.
x
Levi only breathes after he hears Farlan tromp down the stairs. He hadn't even accounted for the fact that one of them might be upstairs- but luckily Isabel's voice could probably summon Farlan back from hell, if needed. He just hoped Eren wasn't standing too close to her. Poor kid would never hear again.
He snakes around between the back of the door and the wall he was pressed against to hide, walking lightly to make as little noise as possible. Finally making it down the hallway, he isn't surprised to find his room untouched. If anyone had been in there at all, it was Isabel. He can tell by looking at the floor, the marks her boots make against the hardwood- but even then, he isn't positive if it was before or after his "death".
Moving fast, he pulls out a suitcase and starts throwing shit into it. He's halfway through filling it up when he gets distracted by a framed picture of the three tenants of the house that Isabel had taken nearly a year ago. It's all three of them, grinning and drunk, blurry around the edges. But what really stands out is their smiles, so bright, like nothing in the world could possibly get better. A rare photo, especially for Levi, indeed.
He hesitates, hand hovering by it while he tries to decide if he's going to grab it or not... Just as he bumps against it and sends it crashing to the floor from its spot on his bedside dresser.
He doesn't make a move.
Freezing on the spot and straining his ears, there doesn't seem to be anything amiss. Farlan is still prattling on to Eren about something in his thick accent, and Levi sighs in relief. Thank god for his bedroom being over the kitchen and not the living room.
Bending down carefully, he extracts the picture from beneath the shattered glass and broken picture frame, placing it gently in the suitcase. Now what else to-
"Careful with that sharp glass, it'd be terrible if something happened to you."
He felt his undead heart slam against his undead ribs as he whipped around, suddenly face-to-face with one very pissed-off looking Isabel. He notes the look in her eyes- not genuine surprise but more like satisfaction, hidden under layers of relief and confusion and maybe even a bit of happiness. He sighs and runs a shaky hand through his hair; out of all the tons of houses he's broken into, the one he gets caught in has to be his own.
He glances away from her but she continues on, unfazed. "We knew you weren't dead, how do you think you could hide something like that from me and Farlan? Just like you to try and fake your own death. Lame! At least cover up your tracks." she huffs. "Me 'n Farlan were just about to go out and do some investigative work of our own, but it looks like you came to us instead. So, why'd you do it?"
Wait, she-
Thought what?
"Why did I what?"
Now she looks indignant, eyes narrowed dangerously. "Fake your own death? I had to admit, it was pretty good, creating all that chaos and then just slipping out- So, what, is that kid down there your lover? Going to elope, take on a new identity?"
Levi nearly chokes on his own spit. Isabel watches him, arms crossed, before scoffing. "So I was right! You could leave a suicide note but not one just tellin-"
He claps a hand over her mouth, noticing that she was getting way too loud and Farlan and Eren were being way too quiet. He waits for them to start talking again, just as Isabel licks the palm of his hand.
"Eurgh!" he releases her and grabs a tissue from his bedside dresser. "Isabel. Listen, I think there's a serious misunderstanding here."
"Like what? Are you trying to say that you didn't fake your death? Because the only other possibility I'm seeing here is that you're a zombie, then." she rolls her eyes.
Levi pauses at the dilemma, before Isabel looks him straight in the eye and breaks the silence "We don't care if you're gay, you know" and taking Levi's indignant sputtering as a cue to continue, she presses on "Really, we don't. I always kind of guessed, anyway, because there was that one time when we tried to do that threesome and you were like, all over Far-"
"Izzy."
She finally stops talking at the use of her nickname, resting her hands on her hips. Levi exhales sharply. How could he even explain… That he was brought back? The living dead? She'd hardly believe him anyway.
He has to make a decision, so he sucks in a breath.
"... You can't tell anyone."
Her eyes light up instantly.
"So I was right?! You two are together?" the excitement is back in her voice, and he worries yet again that she's going to get too loud. He tries his best to keep a deadpan face.
"Yes. You can't tell anyone though, because his... his sister." Levi tries, but can't find it in his heart to continue as Isabel shushes him and nods understandingly.
"I won't ask then. And I won't tell a soul. Except Farlan." she pauses. "He doesn't have a soul anyway."
Levi leans over and tugs on one of her pigtails. "You're the ginger, here." he gives her a slight smile. "And of course you'd tell him, you two are practically telepathically connected anyway." She scrunches up her nose at that.
"No thanks. I don't even think I want to know what happens in his brain."
"And I don't even think you have one. Funny how that works."
x
After much convincing that he and Eren really had to go, that they didn't have time to explain this situation all the way over again to Farlan, Isabel finally lets Levi escape back out the window.
"I'll explain to Farlan later. You said Eren works at that flowershop all the way across town, right? He and I will just drop in some time!"
Great. Just what that store needed.
He slips back down with his suitcase in hand, tossing it in the back and crawling in behind it. Waiting patiently and watching for Eren's figure to appear at the door any second, he hopes Isabel keeps to her word about making an excuse for him to leave and doesn't try and grill him. But he could just imagine her, practically throwing Eren out just so she can tell Farlan about how he's still alive.
Less than two minutes later, Eren is pushed unceremoniously out the door, with Isabel spouting some excuse or other with a mouthful of cookies. The glutton.
He jogs his way over to the car, pulling out his keys and flopping down in the front seat.
"Isabel sure is… Interesting."
Levi scoffs as Eren turns the ignition on and backs up, pulling off the curb and heading back down the road. "Yeah." he pauses. "She saw me, by the way."
Eren slams on the brakes so hard if Levi hadn't been wearing a seatbelt he might've flown through the windshield. He grips the steering wheel, twisting around to meet Levi's unamused stare. "What?"
"Jesus fucking Christ, trying to kill me for real this time? I said she saw me when I was packing the suitcase. She doesn't know anything about your fucking walking dead magicks, calm down. She made up her own crazy story and I just went with it. Something about faking my own death."
Levi can hear Eren suck in a sharp breath. "She thinks you faked your death?"
"That's what I just said, yes."
"... Why?"
Levi pauses before deciding that Eren's week couldn't possibly get worse, so he sighs. "I don't know, something about star crossed lovers. They both know where you work now, by the way, and whenever we see them we better start acting like newlyweds because she thinks I faked my own death to be with you."
This time Eren accidentally stomps the gas pedal and nearly sends them flying into a stop-sign.
After Levi was done cursing and Eren was done hyperventilating, he twists back around again. "They think we're a couple?"
"Well if you want to correct them and explain the truth, be my guest. I thought you might appreciate this way more." he snorts, glancing out the window. There's an old lady standing on her front porch, staring at them oddly. "Let them believe what they want. As long as both of our stories are straight, it doesn't matter."
"Straight-"
"Shut the fuck up and drive."
x
"Y'know, Levi." Eren starts, speaking as he chops up carrots for a pot of stew later that day. Levi looks up from the paper he's reading, freshly showered with clean clothes on. Eren continues. "Farlan actually said some things that reminded me of something. We still don't know how you died.."
Levi clicks his tongue. "Hrm."
"I mean," Eren carefully moves the cutting board over the boiling pot, scraping off the stray carrots stuck to it. "Do you know anyone who hates you enough to try and kill you?"
Levi moves his eyes back down to the newspaper, looking disinterested. "Do you want the entire list, or."
"... Is that another morbid joke?"
"Kind of."
Eren sighs, reaching around his back to tighten the straps on his apron. "I'm just saying. You aren't the least bit curious-or concerned- about it? If it was a murder-and someone forged a suicide note, so I'm not really seeing any other option-they're still out on the streets, you know."
"You think I haven't thought about that already?" Levi slams down the paper, exasperated. "I really don't remember anything from before I died. I don't know if that means I was drugged, or what, but there's nothing there."
"What's the last thing you remember?"
He shrugs. "I think I might have laid down for a nap or something. The next thing I know I wake up at my own funeral. There's nothing there to go by, so I've just been trying not to dwell on it."
Eren dips his head down, turning back toward the stew. "Sorry. I guess I just thought maybe you'd have some sort of lead."
Levi watches him. "And I wish I did. But sometimes it's better just to let bygones be bygones. I can't do anything about it."
"I guess." he stirs the stew lightly. In an attempt to change the subject, he says, "This is my mom's recipe, you know."
Staring at Eren for awhile, Levi finally stands up and moves next to him to look at the pot. "I didn't know you knew how to cook. Color me surprised."
Eren shuffles a few inches away from him out of caution, giving him a shrug. "Everyone should know how to cook if they live by themselves. Can't live off ramen and pizza forever."
"Well, it smells good, anyway." he stretches, and Eren moves even farther left. Levi gives him a look. "Isn't it skin-to-skin contact only?"
"Well, yeah, but-"
"I'm not a porcelain doll, you can stand next to me without shattering my precious fragile life." To further prove his point, he reaches over and claps Eren squarely in the middle of his back. Eren sputters, nearly dropping the spoon into the stew.
"Can you not do that?" he scowls, watching Levi's hand warily as he drops it back down to his side.. Levi rolls his eyes.
"What do you think's going to happen, my hand burning through your clothing?"
Eren shakes his head. "All it takes is just one-Just one bit of skin to touch another bit! If there had been a hole-"
"I'd be dead right now." Levi finishes the sentence for him. "As much as it was nice, being completely silent and all, I kind of don't remember anything from being dead and it's not too terrible being alive. I don't have a death wish, yet, so I'm not entirely stupid. I wouldn't have done that if there had been a tear there."
Eren looks unconvinced, but turns back to the stew. "I just don't want to be the cause of another death."
"And I'm not ready to be your next victim yet. Save that for the posies."
He turns around and walks off toward the living room, leaving the newspaper on the table flipped open to the obituaries page.
x
The next morning's weather is bright and cheerful, with crisp air in the early day but a promise to be sweltering by the time afternoon hit. Eren wakes up early—nothing out of the usual, and a little less than an hour later Levi finally shows some movements of stirring on the couch.
"About time sleeping beauty woke up." Eren says as he pours himself a cup of coffee, pulling out another mug. "Want a cup?"
Levi grunts as he rubs the sleep out of his eyes. "Yeah."
"Still not a morning person?"
Levi leans forward, sitting up on the couch, and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Death doesn't change so much, really."
Levi yawns, and Eren is struck suddenly by how attractive he is. Sunlight streaming in through the window, hitting the side of his face as he squints, bedhead and sleepy eyes-
Eren has to pull his gaze away, which is almost harder than expected. He's glad Levi's still out of it, too focused on trying to become fully conscious to comment on it.
"So, uh," he searches for something to pull his mind off of the attractive male in front of him. "I have to work today. You're free to do whatever, really, I guess. Just don't draw any attention to yourself, and if you go out in public you should probably wear sunglasses or something." Levi doesn't say anything, so he continues, "I don't think anyone will try too hard to recognize you, but try not to get in trouble or anything. You're kind of carrying around a dead man's ID."
"What time do you leave?"
Eren glances at his watch. "We open by 9AM, so I've got to be there in like 30 minutes."
"Take me with you."
Eren blinks.
"Huh?"
"I said, take me with you." Levi shrugs the blanket off his shoulders, standing up to stretch. "I can't sit around in your house all day and do nothing. Especially when I'm not paying rent."
"Levi, I don't really care about-"
"I do." he reaches for his bag as he replies, digging around for something to wear. Eren frowns, but he continues, "I'm not going to freeload, and it's not really possible for me to get a job anywhere else. I'll even work for nothing, just think of it as me paying rent. It gives me something to do anyway."
Eren was silent for a few beats while Levi got dressed. "... Alright. We could use another hand anyway. But I'm paying you an actual wage."
"Whatever."
They finish off the coffee and head for the shop, a shophouse downtown, 15 minutes away from Eren's apartment. He frowns when they reach the door, looking inside one of the windows before opening it.
"What?" Levi asks, standing exactly two feet behind him. The new rule Eren set up, space giving. Levi figures that rule will last exactly one day before Eren forgets it again.
"The door is open. I thought I locked it…" cautiously, he pushes the door open and looks around-
And sighs.
"Christa."
A blonde head pops up from behind a row of potted plants, spray-bottle in hand. "Oh, hi Eren. Sorry, did I scare you?"
"A little," he admits, pocketing the keys to the shop. "You're here early."
She nods. "I woke up early. Also…" a bashful grin. "I was hoping I could leave a little early today."
"Date with Ymir?" he grins, her smile giving him all the answer that he needs. "Yeah, that's fine. Actually…"
Eren twists around to motion to Levi, who's standing near the door. "This is our new employee, Levi. Levi, Christa."
"Oh, great!" she claps her hands together. "Nice to meet you, Levi. Armin's going to be late today, so do you think you could cover his morning duties? He usually takes over watering all the flowers at the west end, and-"
"I can help him out, Christa. He's never worked at a flower shop before." he interrupts her. "You want to take over helping out the customers for the day?"
"Sure." she's already making her way toward the counter, pulling out two green aprons to toss at them. "Here you two go."
Eren catches them, and hands the smaller one to Levi. "Over here." he says, pulling down two waterbottles from a shelf. "Sorry, she gets a little bit ahead of herself some times. She's really really sweet, but tries to spread herself too thin because of it sometimes."
Levi nods, picking up the water bottle Eren sets in front of him. He watches carefully as Eren sprays each flower, taking note of the way he looked so focused. "Do you really get a lot of business here?"
"You'd be surprised." Eren snorts. "The shop does pretty good. Helps that when the flowers start to wilt I can sort of just…"
Glancing behind him, he makes sure that Christa is preoccupied with something else before reaching over and grabbing the stem of a weak looking flower. It straightens back up, petals uncurling themselves and color returning like magic. "Do that."
Levi blinks. "So Christa knows about your power, too?"
Eren shakes his head as he carefully wraps a piece of string around the stem of the flower. "She's never asked. She thinks me and Armin dispose of the dead flowers together." he glances backward, toward a door in the central back of the shop. "Back there is a storage room full of dandelions that I use as… Sacrifices. She thinks it's an unused room."
"And that thread you just tied around it is so you don't pick that flower up again."
"Bingo. Not without gloves at least." he explains, moving slightly left to water the plants over there. Levi mirrors his movements, moving right instead.
"It's just you, her, and Armin?"
"Yeah. Having you around will actually be a big help. Armin does deliveries and deals with the business and money side or whatever. I have no clue about that stuff." Levi scoffs as Eren continues, "Christa deals with the customers and does the flower arrangements, I take care of the flowers."
"So what do you need me to do."
He sets the spray bottle down, done with that row of flowers. "All of the above? Christa only works part time anyway." at the alarmed look Levi gives him, Eren grins. "Don't worry, you'll learn how to do flower arranging too in no time."
Picking up a bundle of Baby's Breath from the shelf, Eren bows and hands it to Levi. "For you, dear sir." when he picks it out of his hands, Eren grins. "Scientific term is Gypsophilia. Also, they smell like cat piss in large quantities."
"Lovely."
"Being a florist always is."
x
"Excuse me, Miss Ackerman?"
Mikasa looks up from the book she was reading as a man peers into her office, probably about 40 or 50 judging by the wrinkles and laugh lines around her face. She frowns, dog-earing the page she was at and setting the book on the corner of her desk. "That's me. Come in."
He ducks his head slightly as he enters, hovering before her desk awkwardly before finally taking a seat. She blinks. "How can I help you?"
He clears his throat, glancing down at his hands. "My daughter was... Found dead recently. Apparent cause of death was suicide." he pulls out a picture with shaky hands, pushing it across her desk. "The state's looking into it, b-but I don't think they're really trying."
"I'm very sorry for your loss." Mikasa means it with all sincerity. A child having to see their parent die is terrible, but a parent having their child die is even worse. She glances at the photo, before looking back up at him. "Is there a reason, though, that you suspect-"
"There was a note that she apparently left. But I can't accept that—she never..."
He cuts off and stares back down at his lap again as she purses her lips. "A note?"
"It didn't even sound like her, but we can't prove that..."
Mikasa clears her throat, familiarity of the situation ringing all to clear. "I understand. I promise we will find the truth for your daughter. May I have her name?"
The man looks back up, slight smile on his face for the first time since he entered her office. "Thank you so much. Her name was Petra. Petra Ral."
A/N: I'm really sorry for the cliffhanger (it wasn't there to begin with but since this chapter was yet ANOTHER chapter of building without much going on, Jerri my beta suggested I add a little something extra in. This wasn't exactly what she had in mind, I don't think, but blame her anyway. Love you Jerri.) but not really actually.
Mildly surprised at the attention this fic has gotten already! I kind of figured it would be more niche, since it's technically part of two fandoms. Thank all of you guys so much!