I feel a little bad making Erwin the bad guy.

Eren POV

"How do I help you?" He asked me. He hovered over me, his fierce gray eyes looking down over my injured wings.

"Take me somewhere safe," I whispered. I reached a shaking, blood covered hand up and grabbing his shoulder.

"I'll have to carry you." He slid his arms underneath my body and I cried gently in pain. "I'm sorry for the pain, but you have to be quiet. Erwin and the others still want your wings."

"Okay." I nestled my head under his chin as he picked me up bridal style. His hands were under my wings on my bare back so as not to crumple them further. He picked me up and started walking. I felt a rush of pain with every step he took but I bit back my cries. I let my tears fall freely, though, as they made no sound.

I didn't look where he was taking me, I didn't care. I couldn't stop him from taking me to the people who wanted to hurt me, so I just had to trust him. He took me quickly through the forest, my wings sometimes getting snagged on branches. I didn't complain, though, he was saving my life. I kept my face pressed to his neck and my hands clamped on the back of his shoulders, where his wings would begin if he was my kind. The skin of his neck was wet and salty with my tears and goosebumps were raised on it in the cool night air. His breath was hot on my head as he ran and I tried to focus on that and his steady heartbeat to distract myself from the pain.

I could feel my healing nymph powers trying to read him. Even when my body was in such terrible condition, I still felt my power reaching into this man and trying to find what was wrong with him. I found a lot of emotional distress and something wrong with his right leg. There were minor scrapes and bruises all over this man's body. I tried to pull my power's probing fingers out of him and focused on healing my own injuries.

"Here." He said to me, suddenly slowing down. "This is the river I used to hide at when I was in more shady dealings."

I looked up from his clammy skin. We were in a small clearing next to a river. He laid me down on the bank and brought out a flask from the breast pocket of his coat with the wings on it and put it to my lips. I opened and let him pour some into my mouth. The liquid was hot and sour and stinging all over my mouth. I leaned over away from him and spit it out in a fine spray. I coughed and pain shot up my spine.

"Can't handle booze, brat?" He said. "Okay. Wait." He left me there alone for a second while he went to the river. He poured the poison water out into the river and dipped his flask into the water to get some real water. He brought it back over to me and I took a moment to look over him.

He was very short, especially compared to the other men who had shot me down. He had black hair that was sticking to his forehead with sweat. His nose was curved up a little bit at the end and I wanted to put my finger on it. His lips were thin and pressed together unhappily. He had a sharp jawline and was clean shaven. His uniform was tan and green and white, with wings all over it. I didn't spend too long looking at all that, though, because his eyes were so fascinating. They reminded me of the moon, intense and gray.

He sat down next to me and put the flask back to my lips. This time the water was cool and familiar.

"Were you trying to kill me with that poison?" I asked him seriously. Why did he not finish the job? He looked at me with his brow knitted together.

"It won't work. I'm a healing nymph. Healing is what I do. You're going to have to try hard than that to kill me." I glanced down at his thigh, where there were a couple daggers tied there with some leather belts.

"I'm wasn't trying to kill you. I was trying to give you some alcohol to take the edge off your pain." He looked down at my wings.

"That poison heals people?" I asked. His lips twitched.

"No. But some people think it does."

I didn't know what he meant, so I ignored that comment.

"What's your name?"

"Levi." He said, watching as my feathers began to straighten.

"I'm Eren." I could feel the tingling of healing moving up my wings and I knew my crooked feathers were being healed first.

"Your wings are healing." He whispered.

"I already told you, I'm a healing nymph." I said.

"How can I help?"

"Roll me onto my back and wash the blood off the wounds from where I was shot."

He gently rolled me onto my back. I winced at all the movement it took. I stretched out my shaking wings to their full size, giving him access to the wound. I laid my head on my folded arms and tried to relax. I knew what was about to happen would be painful. I felt him reach out and touch the sensitive area around the wounds. I couldn't help but whine and wince my wings away a bit. He pulled his hands back and I waited to feel them return. When they didn't, I encouraged him.

"Go ahead."

"I don't want to hurt your wings…" he drifted off. I didn't wince this time, and gritted my teeth against the pain of him moving the broken feathers out of the way of the wound. I heard him unscrew the flask once again and closed my eyes tight. I knew the pain would be intense, so I focused my healing powers on that spot. He poured the icy water onto my first bullet wound and I muffled my scream with my arm.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled. "I'm so sorry."

I whined at the pain until he had exhausted the flask's supply.

"I'll go get more." He whispered, his voice thick.

"No!" I reached my hand out and clawed at his pants leg. He stilled my hand and held it in his own, but my arm still shook violently.

"I'm going to heal the wound." I whispered.

"Okay." I could barely hear his voice.

"I need you to not touch my skin. Just stay." I said. My power was trying to reach into him due to our skin to skin connection. He let me go and waited.

I took deep breaths, focusing all my energy on healing that one spot he had cleaned. My feathers trembled and I broke out in a cold sweat. I started healing the wound and heard Levi gasp. The wound got tighter and tighter until it stopped healing. There was something in it. I could heal over top of what was lodged in the wound, but that could make problems for me later.

"There's something in the wound. Something I can't heal around!" I gasped out.

"You need me to, er, pull it out?" He asked.

"Yes." I said. "Hurry, please."

He leaned over my wing and put his face close to the wound. I could feel his breath on my wound and my wings trembled in pain.

"It's Erwin's bullet." He said quietly. "I could use my fingers, but it's pretty deep. I'm going to have to cut it out."

I heard him unsheathe one of the daggers he kept on his thighs. I whimpered as I felt him put the tip of the dagger on my wings. I felt my hot blood flood onto my shaking wings. The pain was hot and intense and I couldn't help but scream. He put his hand over my mouth and continued what he was doing. I felt something pop out of me and the pain lessened. He sat back away from me and I panted hard.

"Now try to heal." He encouraged. I shook. I tried to heal again and felt the newest cuts that Levi had made heal but made no progress on the bullet wound. I tried to heal it and felt my head start pound.

"I can't" I cried.

"Yes, you can!" Levi leaned down to my head and said this into my ear. "Remember what you said to me? You are a healing nymph. Healing is what you do."

I looked up at him. His image was blurred by the tears in my eyes.

"Eren, we don't have time. You need to heal now." He paused. "Think about your family."

I looked away from his bright moon eyes and thought about Mikasa and Armin. Mikasa's loving eyes and Armin's kind face filled my eyes. I whined and tried again.

"There you go. I see the wound closing, keep it up." Levi said.

Healing the injury hurt almost as much as getting the injury did.

"That's one." He breathed. I cried against my arm.

By the time Levi heard someone crashing through the forest looking for him, I had only about half of my injuries healed.

"You have to do the rest on your own." He said and then disappeared into the woods. I watched his retreating back through my puffy eyes and wondered if I would ever see him again.

Levi POV

"I'm very disappointed we didn't get him." Erwin said coldly to the team. He marched up and down our ranks. We were lined up in the hallway of the Survey Corps castle waiting for him to dismiss us to our rooms so that we could rest.

"We will not make any more mistakes." Erwin stopped in front of me. "We will catch him. Dismissed."

"Yes, Commander!" We called. The others shuffled away to their rooms, but I remained standing at attention before him. I knew he would want me in private.

"Come to my room tonight, Levi." He said, then walked away briskly. I relaxed. I hoped he just wanted me for sex and not to talk about Eren.

I walked to the shower in my room first. The others may have no problem sleeping covered in mud and filth, but I did. I knew that Erwin was probably showering, too. He knew I wouldn't fuck him if he wasn't clean. I guessed that if he wanted me there to talk about Eren, he would be still dirty when I came in. If he was clean, he would keep me in his bed tonight.

I showered quickly and dressed in my pajama pants. I didn't bother to put on a shirt. He had seen me naked plenty of times, and there was a fifty/ fifty shot that he would see me naked again tonight. It didn't matter to me. I knocked on the door.

"Come in, Levi."

I glanced around his room. It was messy and I cringed. How did we ever date? We were so much better as fuck buddies. I looked at him and saw he just in his towel. So he had showered for me, after all. I guess we would be fucking tonight then.

I walked over to him and got on my knees in front of him. I started to tug the towel off to get to his cock, when he spoke.

"I want to talk about the nymph first, Levi." He said.

I froze. "Okay." I tried to sound normal. He walked around me and sat on the bed. I followed him and sat next to him.

"Did you see him?"

"No." I answered.

"Did you find his blood?"

"No."

"Would you tell me if you found that thing in the woods? You wouldn't hide information from me."

"Yes, Erwin." I tried to distract him by leaning over for a kiss. He kissed me back for a moment, then threw his towel over the side of the bed.

"You are loyal to me?" He asked, pushing me down and pulling my pants off.

"Yes." I said.

"You're not hiding anything from me?" He asked.

"No, Erwin. I am not hiding anything from you."

He got on top of me and kissed me roughly. My mind drifted back to the nymph in the forest. His wings were so beautiful. It disgusted me that the man who wanted to kill Eren would soon be inside of me.

"What's wrong, Levi?" He asked, feeling my tension.

"Just… do you have to kill the nymph?"

"I need his wings, Levi. Yes, he dies." Erwin pinned my wrists down like usual, but instead of trying to get sexual, he stared into my eyes.

"You're not protecting him, are you?"

"You paranoid, old man? I'm not protecting Eren," I said. His eyes widened and then I realized my mistake.

"Eren, is it?" He gripped my wrist harder and his erection on my thigh reminded me of what a vulnerable position I was in.

"It's an underground term. Air-in. It means idiot. You know, like there's nothing but 'air-in' his head." I didn't let my panic show to Erwin.

"Is that so?" He purred, leaning down to my ear and licking my neck. "I've never heard of that before."

"You're not from the underground, rich boy." I kissed him to distract him and then nipped at a few key places on his neck that I knew would get him fired up.

"Good boy," He said, parting my legs wider.