AN: Sorry for taking so long to post new chapter but as I said I'm terribly busy right now. Great thanks for reviews and hope you'll enjoy this chapter :)


„I spoke with Shadis." Erwin says as he sits down right opposite Levi. They are having a soup with bread.

"What did he say?" Levi asks, taking his spoon in his hand.

"That you can come and start to train recruits any time you want." Erwin smiles. "But I think it would be better if you didn't go there right away and rather wait for some time."

"Why?" Levi narrows his eyes, annoyingly. Erwin feels the sentence that Levi doesn't say out loud: I can't be here alone anymore. It drives me insane!

"You still need to get used to these crutches." the blond points at the wooden tools which are leaning against the wall behind Levi. "You should practise with them more. Start to go outside for a walk or you can visit me in my office. Anyway you should show yourself in public. I swear people think I murdered you in your sleep or something."

Levi chuckles.

Erwin looks at him for few seconds. Levi has never been one for laugh and nobody ever see him smile in public. He still has his face of apathy. It's something he and Erwin have in common. In private, Erwin sometimes smiles. He doesn't do that very often, but he does. Levi doesn't smile at all and the only time Erwin hears his laugh is when he's drunk; which is not very often. The only thing Levi does, when he is entertained and sober, is a chuckle.

And the last time Erwin actually heard Levi's entertained and not painful chuckle, was weeks ago.

"Why are you smiling?" the raven notices Erwin's look and raises his eyebrows.

"It's nothing." Erwin bowed his head, so Levi can't see his smile.

Levi raises his eyebrows but says nothing. They eat the rest of their soups in silence.

Just when Erwin gets up to clean the dishes, somebody knocks at their door. Hard.

I can't be private visit because the knocking sounds somehow very reserved. Plus, the only one who visits them is usually Hanji and she just kicks the door until angry Levi or Erwin comes and open the door.

Erwin sighs. Somebody must need him because of some concern about Recon Corps. Why else would they be there after his work is done.

The blond goes to the door, not in hurry. He opens it and there are, indeed, members of military.

But something has to be terribly, terribly wrong, because these men are not members of Recon Corps. They have symbol of Military Police on their uniforms.

"How can I help you?" Erwin's eyes narrows.

"Mr Smith, where is Levi?"

Nile Dawk stands on Erwin's threshold and few his men stand behind him.

"May I ask why are you looking for him?" Erwin narrows his eyes.

"We have an arrest warrant for him." Dawk waves with a sheet of paper in front Erwin's eyes.

Erwin, usually so calm and with his typical poker face, actually widens his eyes. "An arrest warrant for Levi?" he asks, completely in shock. "Show me!"

Dawk, with a stoic expression, hands the document to Erwin. Blond's eyes quickly read lines written on that paper. Erwin's heart starts to race when he sees that it is exactly like Dawk said.

"Where is he, Erwin?" Dawk demands and the blond consider lying to him. Saying that Levi is not there. But before he can even do that, Levi appears behind him, leaning on his crutches.

Immediately, Dawk nods to his men and they pass beside Erwin to Levi.

They try to put handcuffs on him but Erwin narrows his eyes. "And how are you expecting him to go if he can't hold his crutches?"

The men stop and look at Dawk who nods again and says: "I am arresting you for a reasonable suspicion of a murder. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Levi stays calm which can't be said about Erwin. But right now, he can't really say anything. Everything is written on Dawk's paper pretty clearly. Including a date of the trial.

So he just stands with his arms behind his back, watching Dawk's men taking Levi away. The raven doesn't seem bothered at all but Erwin sees how tensed are his shoulders.

After the men leaves, Dawk turns to Erwin. "I couldn't do anything about it." he says completely calm. "Orders from above. Do you remember the murder of Alexander Walton?"

"Of course I do." Erwin says, trying to stay calm and reasonable and not to punch Dawk into his face. "I thought it's a cold case with no evidence to follow." I thought that you dropped the evidence away just as we arranged.

Dawk looks nervous. "We have re-opened this case, Erwin, and trust me, I know Levi was a great benefit to the mankind, but he is not anymore since he is crippled." The chief of Military Police sighs and Erwin clenches his fists. "Listen, Erwin, I wouldn't arrest him since this murder happened years ago but I can't reject this request, if you know what I mean."

Erwin narrows his eyes and Dawk leans to the blond, braking Erwin's personal bubble. "As I said Erwin – it's an order from above."

In Military Police is nobody above Nile Dawk. That means this order must have been given to him by someone who he can't reject. And there are very few people whom Dawk can't reject.

Nobility, for example. It is always good to have support of nobility.

"Have a nice day." Dawk leaves. His last words make Erwin even angrier. Of course he can't have a nice day if Levi is in jail.

Erwin waits few minutes. The blond just walks from one side of room to the other, thinking. Then he growls and goes out of his house.

Everybody avoids him and when he looks at them, they lower their eyes. Usually, Erwin has no expression on his face, but when he is angry, everyone can see it. His shoulders tenses up, his eyes are cold as ice and his jaw is clenched. And everyone gives him a wide berth. Although Erwin never yells at anybody while he's angry, he can be very, very nasty.

His house isn't very far from the barracks (in fact it's almost part of the barracks) but the walk there usually helps him to calm down. But not today. Quite the contrary. He feels like yelling at someone although he's never had such urge.

He runs into one of the soldiers, young woman. He grabs her elbow and asks: "Where is Hanji Zoe?"

She looks really terrified by him but Erwin doesn't care. "I-I think she is in her lab."

The blond doesn't bother to thank her; he has no time to spare.

He literally bursts through the door to the lab so quickly it almost flew off its hinges. Everyone in the room jumps in surprise.

Hanji is leaning her elbows on the table, reading some report. A man of Hanji's squad tries to hide behind her after he sees Erwin's expression.

"Everybody out!" Erwin says calmly.

Both, Erwin and Hanji don't move but the squad leaves the room immediately, probably thinking Hanji did something wrong and Erwin is there to shout at her. If anything, the opposite is true.

Erwin waits until the last one of them closes the door and then he slowly walks to Hanji.

"What's wrong, Erwin?" she asks carefully.

The blond doesn't answer right away. He tries but when he opens his mouth nothing comes out. Not even after the second try.

"Easy, Erwin." Hanji comfortably touches his arm with one hand and reaches for s chair with the other, pulling it closer so she can seat Erwin on it and the blond lets her.

She doesn't push him to talk. Instead, she goes to the door and locks it up. Then she heads to a coffee jug, preparing a cup for Erwin.

He has cried very few times, mainly because of his father. Every time he saw Erwin crying he started… discipline him, saying Erwin was a man, he was not supposed to cry. The blond's mother tried to convince her husband to be kinder to their only child, but the old man never listened to her – after all, he was the man, the head of the family, it was up to him how to raise their son. Even when Erwin's mother died he couldn't cry during the funeral, because his father was watching. He couldn't show any weakness in front of his eyes. So he cried when he was alone in his room.

After that, Erwin didn't cry for very long time. No matter how many men he has seen died, how many times people pointed at him as one points at a monster, he didn't cry.

Then Mike's death came and Erwin cried for all the night long. Not only for Mike but for everybody he disappointed, for everybody whose life Erwin sacrificed. Levi held him in his arms, as his huge shoulders were shaking and he kept apologizing. And Levi was whispering comforting words into his ears and gently stroked his back.

And now Erwin feels like crying again. Everything is so fucked up! As if it isn't enough that Mike is dead and Levi lost his leg, now the raven is under arrest, too. Erwin tries to analyze everything in his mind again and figure out where he went wrong.

"There." Hanji hands him a cup of coffee and leans on the table. "Now tell me, what happened, Erwin." Her voice is surprisingly gentle.

Erwin tells her everything that was on his mind since Levi's injury, everything that happened.

She is patiently listening and when Erwin's voice cracks while talking about Levi's arrest, she leans closer and she wraps her arms around him to comfort him.

Fortunately, Erwin manages not to cry although he lets his head rest on Hanji's shoulder.

They stay like this for few moments before Erwin pulls away from Hanji.

"I think you should find something out about that Alexander Walton." Hanji suggests. "I mean – it's pretty clear he had some good contacts since they didn't arrest him with his… reputation but if it would be only contacts nobody would seek for revenge right now. It leaves two options to us-"

"He was a bastard or a lover of someone important." Erwin finishes the sentence. "And that someone is still pissed."

Hanji nods. It's clear she hesitates to say him something but after few seconds she speaks again: "Maybe you should go to your father. After all, he has a lot of friends, doesn't he? He might help us to get Levi out of this shit."

Erwin sighs. He doesn't want to meet his father. Their relationship is… well, it's not at the best terms. They see each other only once a year, at the anniversary of Erwin's mother's death. Other than that they only write each other letters, usually for birthdays.

But however Erwin looks at the situation, it seems like Erwin has to ask him for a favor. And he doesn't like asking for favors. He doesn't like that one bit.