In the morning Eren woke up to the sound of shouting and slashing. He bounced to his feet and noticed that he was alone. The noise came from somewhere further away, near the treetops.

He started to run to the direction of the voices, but had to dodge when something fell from above. A huge piece of meat cut like fat half a leaf. It started to steam and Eren rounded it carefully. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't want to touch it. After getting around it he saw that something else steamed too, and he started to run to that direction. It was silent this time.

"Oh my god Levi, that was brutal!" a voice cut through the forest and Eren was able to detect laughter in it. He didn't like that sound in this situation, and after reaching a small open area in the forest he stopped. Something large was making a huge amount of steam in the middle of it, but after noticing the three human on a tree on the other side of the opening he didn't go closer to investigate.

"There is no such thing when dealing with titans", a more familiar voice told calmly. Eren could see the short human next to two others who wore the same kind of garments as the first one had when he had saved it.

"I found the ocean."

The two others turned to stare at him in wonder. The one with longer hair let out a weird high pitched sound before asking what it was like.

"Cold and salty. I sank like a rock after that titan threw me there", the human told. It turned a thin object on its hand before tsking and letting it fall to the ground.

"How did you get to the shore?" a deeper voice asked. Eren saw it was a blond human with short hair.

"From the Recon or from the water? My horse's reins broke and it started running to the wrong direction, then a titan kicked us into the air and I landed on a tree. Then it was mostly just trying to not get eaten when I had eight of them trying to do so, and before I noticed I was already flying through the air and splosh, underwater."

The blond nodded and asked about getting out of the water.

"Some boy helped me", the human just said.

After a moment of silence a loud 'what?!' sent birds flying from the trees. The black haired human looked annoyed.

"A human boy, teenager helped me. I don't know how because I wasn't fully conscious when it happened, but then I woke up without my maneuver gear in some kind of camp."

Now Eren was able to see something from the rising steam. Dark brown long hair and familiar hand were the only things that were left of his mama.

Too terrified of the humans to go any closer he kneeled on the ground and placed his hand on his chest. It felt like it was going to burst and a very low whine escaped from his throat. Had they killed his mama? But why would they do that? His mama was gentle but determined and protective, plus he was the biggest of his family members around here. Only once he has seen someone bigger and it had only walked away after seeing him like so many others. Mama was always there. Why did they kill it?

"Fine, we'll get the boy", the blonde haired human sighed and walked closer to the black haired one. It kneeled before the other, backside towards it. The black haired one didn't seem amused but climbed on nonetheless. After this they all headed to the direction Eren had come from by swinging from tree to tree with their weird strings. Which was the way he still was in, though closer than the humans thought.

"I must warn you, he doesn't have clothes."

"I don't mind!"

"Quiet Hanji."

"WAIT!"

Eren glared at the humans when the black haired one spotted him and made the others to come down from their trees. He walked to the opening, sitting on the still hot ground. Only some hair and bone was there anymore, but despite that he petted them gently.

"Levi, is this boy a mental?" the most high pitched voice questioned. Eren didn't understand the words that actually had any meaning in the sentence so he just ignored them.

"Shush Hanji. Eren? What are you doing?" the human questioned. Eren glanced at them with a leer and squeezed at the hair in his palm.

"Sitting", he said truthfully. He thought he heard a quiet snort, but it could have been just his imagination too.

"We see that. Why are you sitting?" the human tried again. The leer doubled in its asset.

"God Levi, you suck at this. Let me handle it!" the long haired human said. "Where are your parents boy?"

When the word didn't ring any bells in Eren's mind it tried again despite Levi's tries to quiet it down.

"Your mother? You know, mom, mama, what do you even call it?"

Eren turned his head to the other direction and stiffened considerably. The hair in his hand had disappeared into thin air. No steam to be seen.

"Dead. Killed", he muttered. Were the humans really so mean that they came to him and asked about it?

"Did the titan kill them?"

"Shut it Hanji. The titan was his 'mama'. Now please give him something to wear."

Long talk ensued. Levi explained everything and Hanji almost strangled him for not telling about the talking titan. Now it was dead and so many questions were left unanswered. Then they turned back to Eren.

"Eren, you come with us", Levi said.

"No."

The black haired human's brow twitched.

"Yes you will, we can't just leave you here without anyone to take care of you. We can give you food and shelter, a place to stay."

Silence answered when Eren stood up and started to walk away from them. Levi growled and went after him.

"You have no choice", he mumbled annoyed. Eren didn't react. It pissed Levi off when he had to walk faster to keep up with the teenager.

"What keeps you here? You're not even a titan and without your mama they will try to eat you I'm sure. You can be safe with us." Levi was starting to wonder if the boy's head was made of rock. He would have grasped this kind of opportunity instantly when he was at that age.

Suddenly the boy stopped and Levi almost collided with the naked backside. He was able to dodge however and found himself looking straight into shiny green eyes.

'Oh god, he's crying.'

"You killed mama", the stifled voice sounded accusing, which it obviously was. Levi felt the weird urge to scratch the back of his head.

"She was a titan and titans kill humans. I had to do it."

"No. Didn't had to. Mama not kill you because I said so."

"You think she would have obeyed you?"

When Eren looked at him confused Levi tried to dumben down his words.

"You think mama not kill me if you say so?" This kind of talking was humiliating.

"Mama not kill you if I say no."

"Then your mama was stupid and stupid die in this world."

Wait, that didn't come out right.

A drop ran down the boys cheek and Levi felt uncomfortable.

"If I come with you, you still kill titans?"

"Uhm.." he felt like lying because he really didn't feel like leaving the boy here, but somehow the truth escaped from his lips. "Yes. If we don't kill them first they will kill us."

Eren nodded and looked away. A tense silence hung between them for a long while before he spoke again.

"I come with you, but I want see titan attack you before you attack it. Don't believe."

Levi sighed mutely and nodded. Understandable.

I changed the character from "Corporal Rivaille" to "Levi" 'cause it's faster to write in the story :d *ashamed*

So uhm, Levi and the others are younger in this story. And sorry about not having Mike there (yet!) with this epic trio, the character is such a mystery to me that I'm still trying to understand it :D

Thank you for the faves, follows and especially for the reviews :) *hugs you all*