VII

Eren was relieved that the 104th was just the same as before. The same rags to clean the counter, the same pots of coffee grains, the same mugs with chips on the rim, the same clients ordering the same drinks... He was also glad that Pixis and his colleagues hadn't pushed on him on his whereabouts. They had asked him how he was and told him he could come to them if he needed help. If only he really could. The ache on the back of his neck was a constant reminder of his enslavement to the CCG.

"Eren, there's someone for you."

He perked up. His heart almost stopped when he met Petra's smiling face. Under her beige coat, she had abandoned her tailor suit and heels for an oversized sweater and plain jeans. Eren looked around him but no one seemed to notice she was an investigator. In their eyes, she was a customer like any other. His shoulders sagged with relief.

"I was passing by and I remembered you were working there."

"Yeah... Uhm, do you want anything?"

"No. I wanted to talk to you about the ghoul you and Levi have encountered."

Eren tensed. "Can we... talk about this after my shift? I finish in a minute."

She leaned over to share a conspiratorial smile. "Not a problem. I'll wait for you."

She walked out of the store, the doorbell ringing behind her. He sighed, turning back to the coffee machines and began putting whipped cream above an order. He startled when Connie elbowed him.

"Got a girlfriend, Eren?" He grinned.

Jean snorted, "How could he get a girlfriend with a face like his?"

"Nobody asked for your input, horseface. But she's just a friend."

"It always starts with 'just being friends'," Sasha chuckled as she twirled around the counter, balancing her tray with one hand. The liquid in the mugs sloshed back and forth. "Doesn't it, Jean?"

The main concerned turned crimson. "What are you talking about? What are you even implying?"

"Oh?" She smirked. "Do you want me to ask Mar—?"

"Shut it, potato girl!"

As if on cue, the last waiter of the 104th stepped inside. His oval countenance, flushed from the cold, was dotted with freckles. He unwrapped the scarf from around his neck, smiling.

"Hi everyone." Seeing their looks, Marco frowned in nervousness. "Did something happen?"

"Jean happened," Eren grumbled.

He put the can of whipped cream away and gave it to Sasha. She kept on laughing as she went away to serve the customers. Marco was searching for answers from Jean's scarlet cheeks to Connie's mischievous eyes. Eren rolled his eyes. It was a known fact by everyone in the 104th, even by some of the regular clients, that Jean fancied Marco. Yet it seemed that Marco was oblivious and responded to Jean's subtle flirting with replies full of innocence. Ah, Marco, the human gifted with an angel's benevolence.

"Hey, Eren, is it me or Jean is avoiding me?"

It surprised him that Marco had chosen to confess to him. He was the newest in the gang, but then again it assured him he wouldn't gossip to the others. Glancing over his shoulders, he saw Jean taking orders, scribbling down his pad. His cheeks were still tinted red. Eren selected his words carefully.

"I think that Jean is avoiding you, yes, but not because you've done something wrong. He just needs time to think over something."

"Ah, I understand. I wonder if it's about that ghoul we met." Seeing his frown, he explained, "We saw her late last night near Ward 2. She seemed to have quite a feast."

"Isn't Ward 2 Colossus' territory? From what I heard he rips the kagune of trespassing ghouls."

"It's just a rumour. It's like the one about us, the 104th. Have you heard about it? They say we ambush humans in an alley and tear their limbs apart for fun."

"That's because of horseface. He looks ecstatic when he pins his victim down with his bikaku."

"Oi, Eren, you're stopping Marco from working," Keith Shadis cut in.

"Ah, sorry. I'll see you on Sunday, guys."

They waved back at him as he left. He didn't have to walk far, for a hand snaked its way around his arm and dragged him away from the main roads. He wasn't too surprised to see Levi and Hange waiting with arms folded in the back of the alley.

"Titan, my Titan, how are you? Oh, I've missed you so much."

"I would've been better if he wasn't there," Eren grumbled, earning a glare from Levi.

"Eren, do you know anything about the ghoul that attacked you?"

He eyed them cautiously. "It was a female. She was attacking Mikasa. Her rinkaku—"

"Oh, a rinkaku! I love rinkakus!" Hange was brimming with excitement, bouncing on the ball of her toes. "Levi told me it was similar to yours in diameter."

Eren's breath hitched in his throat. He felt cornered by the Head of Research's manic grin and the Special Class Investigator's cold glare. If the ghoul didn't work at the 104th or threatened them, then he wouldn't get involved. Being a ghoul smelled of trouble and danger, and he didn't want to involve by ricochet Mikasa and Armin. He would never forgive himself if he did so.

"I don't want to be part of your investigation if there's any. I'm letting Hange do what she wants with me like I'm supposed to but that's it otherwise."

"It's not like you have a choice."

As if to prove its point, a glimpse of white caught his eyes. Petra was holding her suitcase. He cringed. It revolted him that their Quinques were made of a ghoul's kagune. Even when he had been entirely human, he had almost thrown up his breakfast when he'd learned about the truth. The ghouls could eat human flesh, but they didn't deserve such pain. He tore his eyes away, sneering.

"Yes, of course. The bad guy in the story is me."

"Eren, it's not what—"

"Ah, shut it," he snarled to Petra. "Don't make me laugh. You're just like them."

He didn't even have the time to blink before he was seized by the collar. His back collided against the wall as a fist as hard as iron shattered a few of his ribs. Then he was sent crashing on the ground, twisting his ankle in his fall. The world spun out of reach in a whirlwind of murky darkness. He grunted as he lay flat on his stomach, taking precious seconds to gasp for breath. But Levi wasn't done. He delivered a swift kick in his face before grabbing him by a fist of hair.

"Don't think for one second I can't kill you, ghoul."

Eren barked out a laughter as he taunted him, "Then why don't you do it?"

He had his answer when Petra's hand squeezed Levi's forearm. "Captain, please. It's enough."

The ice in his eyes thawed as he locked gazes with her, and then slammed him head first on the concrete. A crack followed by a muffled groan resounded in the alley.

"Oh, oh, oh," Hange clapped as she leaned over to observe Eren. "Maybe we'll see his super fast healing factor in action! I wonder if his regeneration's faster than the others..."

A cloud of smoke shrouded Eren's face to mend his broken nose. Hange swatted the smoke away, jumping on her feet. Levi wiped his hand on his shirt, thorough disgust distorting his features. Petra was speaking to him in a low voice, eyes darting back and forth her superior and the ghoul. Eren growled and his arms propped himself up like supple vines. He didn't even have the time to kneel before Hange lunged at him, her glasses glinting.

"Extraordinary! Look at that, Levi, look at that!" One finger drew the outline of his mending nose and he flinched away. "We have to see how fast you can regenerate."

"Hange, even if Eren heals fast he can still feel the pain," Petra pointed out.

The brunette's manic smile drooped. "Oh, yes. I didn't think of that. Such a shame."

Eren would've wrung her neck out with his bare hands if not of Levi's glower. He was adamant on showing to the investigator that the ghoul in him wasn't in control, to prove to him he was wrong. Killing his colleague wasn't the brightest course of action. Instead, Eren's fists clenched by his side and his nostrils flared with a frustrated sigh.

"Eren, CCG has been collecting data on simultaneous attacks for a while now. We don't need when it will be held or even if it will be held, but one of the possible leaders is called The Lady. The ghoul you encountered fit her description," Petra explained.

"We want to catch her." It came out as no surprise that Levi had cut it down to the core reason to why they were present. "You, your charming sister and I are the only ones who saw her and live to tell it. She's not a fool. She'll most likely attack in the next days to kill us. Erwin came out with a plan to use you as a bait. I must say I agree. If you have the misfortune to die, then I figured you could die usefully."

Yet Eren's mind had focused on the first part of his speech. "She'll attack Mikasa?"

"Let's make a deal. For a reason that baffles me, you seem to value your sister's life. Be the bait and I'll generously place some of my men to protect her 24/7."

I can't let them down. They're everything I have. He stared at Levi's stoical eyes. And you know it, bastard.

"Fine. How does it work?"

Hange whooped. "First, training with me. We don't want you running on a rampage and wrecking havoc, right? Then it's training with Levi and his squad. This operation's a tricky one so we have to make sure you're all gears fitting together and working as one, big killing machine."

Eren crossed Levi's eyes. "It doesn't please me but it's a requirement if we want to catch the ghoul."

And it's a price to pay if I want Mikasa safe, Eren inwardly completed.

"Tomorrow morning at my office, Eren," Hange chirped before trotting away. "See you all!"

She disappeared as she turned around the corner. Petra and Levi remained where they were, observing him. Eren nodded at the woman, deliberately ignoring the man, and left as well. He shoved his hands in his pockets to keep the cold from biting them. Even then, he was wearing a simple long-sleeved shirt, clean pants and his trainers whereas everyone was wrapped in their coat. He blamed the ghoul within him to mess with his internal temperature, for he felt nothing but an annoying breeze instead of a freezing gale.

"So it was true." Eren jolted. Mikasa was standing behind him, her expression undecipherable. "That despicable man wasn't lying when he said you wanted to join CCG."

"It's the right thing to do. I don't want others to suffer like we did."

A flash of fear passed through her dark orbs. "I know. Let the true investigators do their job."

It was easy to lie with a past as theirs. It was easy to muster the right emotions at the right time with a past as theirs. Almost second-nature. It was easy, mainly because he had already entertained the idea of joining the CCG's ranks when he used to be entirely human.

"Some of them don't know what to do when they face the real deal. They're clueless, but I'm not like them. I know what to do and how to do it because I've already been there."

"You almost lost your life back there. I can't lose you."

He felt compelled to reassure her when he saw the past rekindled in her eyes. He put his hands on her shoulders, telling her, "You're not going to lose me. I was a teen and I was reckless, but CCG is offering me an official training. They're offering me everything I lacked off when I was younger. If I killed a ghoul when I was a fifteen-year-old, ignorant boy, then I can do it as a seventeen-year-old skilful investigator."

"It takes time to become an investigator."

"Make it a twenty-one-year-old skilful investigator then."

He was certain he had convinced her when she replied, "Holding onto the past does no good. The ghoul who killed Carla is dead. You killed her. Isn't that enough? It's over. Do you really want to spiral back in violence and revenge?"

He leaned closer to her. "Do you really want to see someone you hold dear hurt or even killed by a ghoul another time? I'm doing this to protect you. I'm doing this to protect myself because I wouldn't handle your loss, you and Armin."

He let go of her. Her head was hanging low, a curtain of black hair hiding her expression. It was the speech he had come up with two years ago to join CCG, but then his world had flipped around when he had fought against the ghoul. The battle in itself was a vague souvenir, but the days after the successful surgery and his so-called journey back to health were forever engraved in his mind. How could he forget the constant churning of his stomach, the enticing smell of flesh and the terrifying hunger tearing him asunder from the inside?

"Eren." Mikasa was staring at him with a fierce gaze he knew too well. "I promised your parents and myself I would protect you. I've made my decision. I'll join CCG with you."

It was in those moments Eren wanted to curse Mikasa's stubbornness and protective streak.


The chapter was already written before Guest wrote me that comment, but uhm yes Marco will be in the story (hahaha such surprise after reading this story). I'm still not sure if this will be an Eren x Levi story, but I do know there is an implied Jean x Marco :) Unfortunately I cannot reveal if Marco will live through the entire story. Spoilers, sweetie.

Thank you for your comments minna-san :D

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