The titan's body started decaying around him and Levi sliced through the tissue still attached to Eren. He hooked his bloodied hands under Eren's arms and heaved him loose.

Eren was hot.

Literally, physically hot. He was always warm fuck was he warm but this time Levi found himself putting the back of his hand on the young man's forehead and hissing in concern. As expected, Eren was completely out of it. His eyes were shut, and his mouth hung slightly open as he breathed in a laboured fashion. His skin was dry and he looked pale under his tan.

Even for a titan shifter, Levi didn't think that was good. Hange shouldn't have pushed him; Eren pushed himself enough as it was. The sun was almost directly overhead, and Levi's head cast a shadow over Eren's face as he felt his neck for a pulse and found it beating wildly.

Fucking useless brat had to go and make himself sick. Levi had already come so close to killing him and now he looked hell-bent on killing himself. Levi took out his signalling pistol and fired a red smoke round, but he wasn't sure how far away help was. He eyed the line of trees that bordered the edge of the field. It might be cooler there at least. With a sigh he dragged Eren off his own titan corpse, and then heaved him up over his shoulder and started carrying him towards the shade.

Levi concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. He thought his feet might have been burned; the leather of his boots looked cracked and scorched beyond repair. Eren's skin was like molten iron; everywhere he touched felt too hot for comfort. The sun was a physical weight on his shoulders and head. The shade didn't seem to be getting any closer but eventually, while the hoof-beats Levi was waiting for didn't materialise, another sound did impinge on his consciousness.

Running water.

This neat line of trees delineated a stream.

"You're very fucking lucky, brat," Levi breathed. His throat was parched. He forced himself onwards, and nearly tripped and fell as he stumbled over the banks of a slow-moving stream, shaded by the trees. A pair of ducks exploded from the reeds at the edge as Levi approached, honking in surprise as they took to the air.

Levi stumbled right in, despite the mud and the reeds and whatever other dirt had collected. He sighed in blissful relief as the cold water filled up his boots. Filthy, but so cool. He preferred dirt to pain, despite the running jokes about him. He'd planned to wade in just deep enough to submerge Eren, but rather than the expected downward slope, Levi's boot met nothing but deeper water and he stumbled, practically hurling the pair of them into the middle of the stream with a noisy splash.

Levi grimaced as he spit out a mouthful of river water – actually it tasted fine, but there had been ducks in it – as he floundered about and found the bottom. The water only came up to Levi's chest, and he managed to stand, feeling his boots sinking into the mud at the bottom of the stream. He shook water out of his eyes as he manhandled Eren to get his face back above the water. To drown him at this point would just add insult to injury. He rolled the teenager onto his back and supported him, letting the water take most of his weight.

Eren coughed and spluttered, which was a good sign, and didn't do anything alarming like ceasing to breathe. Levi cradled him, one arm under his back and the other under his head, and watched Eren's hair wave gently in the cool water. His uniform was soaked, and he knew the ride back would be horrible, but right now the water just felt good and cool. Even if it probably wasn't very clean.

He glanced around occasionally at the dappled sunlight and the dragonflies dancing over the water, keeping an eye out for Hange and their rescue party. The rest of the time he watched Eren, occasionally resting the back of his hand against his cheek to check his temperature. He seemed to be cooling and his colour was coming back. Thank fuck. Levi realised his heart had been pounding.

He missed Eren opening his eyes. He was squinting out into the sunlit field, looking at the corpse of the titan when he heard Eren exclaim. Eren tried to sit up, and promptly dunked himself with a muffled sound of surprise as he struck out trying to find his feet.

"Hey! Stop thrashing about, you moron." His boots sank further into the mud and the waterline crawled up his chest half an inch or so as he lifted Eren back up to the surface. "Just stay there and float. You can manage that much, can't you? You were running a bad temperature and you need to stay where you are for a while."

"Are we at the ocean?" Eren blinked water out of his eyes, looking confused. He did his best to obey the order to lie still and float, his eyes darting from side to side as he tried to work out where he was and what he was doing.

Levi raised an eyebrow. "What's the ocean? We're in a river, which is marginally cleaner than that cesspool you and your friends were wallowing in a few nights ago at least."

"An ocean's, um." He frowned, and got a guilty look in his eyes. "A place that I've heard of," he said awkwardly.

Levi sighed. "Never mind. I don't care."

"Corporal, what happened? I remember trying to go berserk for Hange and it was so difficult and I thought of everything I could to make myself angry-" His eyes widened. "Oh no. I didn't, I'm so sorry, Corporal-" He started splashing again, trying to get his feet on solid ground.

"Eren." Levi moved his hands from under Eren's back to his shoulders and shook him slightly to stop him babbling. Eren bent backwards, his feet on the riverbed, and he grabbed the lapels of Levi's sodden jacket to steady himself, his breathing harsh and his eyes wide.

"Sir?"

Levi regarded him coldly for one long moment. "Don't burst a blood vessel," he said. "You're such a shitty titan I carved you up by myself in the middle of a field. I probably didn't even need the 3D manoeuvre gear. I've seen dairy cows with better footwork than you."

Eren stared up and Levi glared down, and then Eren's face relaxed into a smile of mixed relief and affection, even if his eyes still held concern.

"Thank you for saying so, Corporal Levi," he said. "Thank you for everything."

"Don't ever try and force your rage again, you understand?"

"Yes, Sir."

Levi swallowed hard and his gaze slid away to a patch of sunlight on the water nearby. "I could kill you," he said. "If I had to. But I'd really rather not."

"I'm glad of both those things, Corporal," Eren said. Levi looked back at him and Eren's expression suggested he meant it. Ah, fuck.

"Eren." Levi shifted his grip slightly, moving his hands off Eren's shoulders and up the sides of his neck, letting Eren lift his own weight; his jacket could take it. He could feel Eren's pulse under his fingers hammering away and he could see Eren's pupils constrict in surprise when he brushed his thumb along the young man's lower lip. Water beaded on his cheeks and his hair was plastered to his forehead, and Levi drank in his expression as he carefully cupped his jaw.

"Oh," Eren said softly.

"Okay?" he asked. They'd make him kill this beautiful young man, and he'd do it, and worst of all Eren would understand and forgive him. Today they'd come close. So close Levi had felt it, and had brushed against what he'd feel afterwards, and how much he'd regret. So he'd made his mind up, because nothing was fair and you could only take what you could get. And he was beginning to regret every moment longer he spent without closing the gap between them.

"Yes," Eren said. Levi knew he would say that, but had to ask. He could feel Eren's grip on his jacket tighten as Levi dipped his head and pressed his lips against Eren's mouth. Eren squeezed his eyes shut and lifted his head, his lips were pliable against Levi's skin, but he wasn't game to do much with them; something to be remedied later.

Levi kept his eyes open, just a little, as he gently took Eren's lower lip between his own. Eren made a happy little 'unhhh' sound that managed to hook something in Levi's chest and make it hurt. Levi held him there like that for a few moments and then released him and raised his head. Eren opened his eyes and licked his lip and swallowed. Levi waited for him to say something, anything, but all he did was gaze up at him with a joyful expression.

"I'm getting tired of holding you up," Levi said. Eren managed to get back onto his feet as Levi hauled him upright again. His arms were snaking around Levi's shoulders when the sound of hoof beats made him stumble back and nearly loose his footing.

"Try not to lose all co-ordination, Eren," Levi said. "It was just a kiss." Several riders on horseback cantered up to the Titan's remains, and Levi stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled to get their attention.

"I've never had one before," Eren whispered hotly, as Levi started tugging his boots free from the mud and making his way to the bank.

Levi paused, water dripping off his uniform and streaming out of his gear. "I know," he said quietly. "It's an honour." It was another honour to watch Eren turn bright red to the tips of his ears.

"Thank you, Sir," he mumbled.

Then Hange and the others arrived and helped them scramble up the bank. Levi's boots were ruined. Hange was disappointed Levi hadn't taken Eren's temperature (and how exactly was he supposed to have done that anyway) and got entirely the wrong idea about Eren's elevated heart rate, which was a good thing. The squad looked apologetic, and Levi said categorically that it was too dangerous to try and induce Eren to go berserk and if he got word that Hange had tried another experiment like this one he'd make them eat their own fingers. Training with Eren in titan form could continue, but nothing more strenuous than that.

They still had to ride home in the hot sun. Levi's boots squelched with every step he took, his uniform clung to him uncomfortably and the broken blisters on his hands were sore. Eren stripped off everything but his white trousers and dozed off on horseback. Ignoring the former was perhaps the worst part of the ride home, because the slope of his shoulders, the curve of his back, everything, was in Levi's estimation pretty close to perfect. It made it hard to feel regretful about taking his first kiss, and hard to feel anything but impatient for the rest of his firsts, and if it weren't for the discomfort of everything else, probably would have made him just plain hard.

When they got back to HQ and after Levi'd had a bath and a change of uniform, it took him nearly two hours to strip his gear down entirely and clean and oil it. And he had to wear an older pair of boots.

But fuck it, today had been spectacular. Eren slept most of the afternoon, and when he arrived at dinner he was back to his old self again. Well, perhaps not quite. The looks he kept giving Levi were like the sunrise. Levi found himself taking deep, calming breaths whenever he had the chance.

Eren followed him home. Well, followed him upstairs, anyway.

Levi stood outside the door to his quarters, while Eren fidgeted a few feet away.

"Um, Corporal Levi?"

"Is this going to be a personal question, Eren?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Then drop the fucking formality, all right? I don't want to be reminded of my own lack of ethics every time you open your fucking mouth." He narrowed his eyes, "Unless you're getting some sort of perverse pleasure out of it."

Eren flushed. "No Sir- Uh. Levi." He grinned. They stood in a weird silence that wasn't really all that awkward until Levi reminded Eren that at some point he'd rubbed enough brain cells together to come up with a question and if it hadn't fallen out of the hole he called a head already maybe he should ask it before Levi fell asleep on his feet.

"What happens now, Levi?"

Levi inclined his head, "What would you like to happen?"

"Well." Eren drifted forward, awkward and brave. "I'd like to kiss you again, and things. If you want to."

Oh, the things he wanted to.

"Eren," Levi looked into his eyes. "I'm not going to fuck you tonight."

"Oh." He took a deep breath; relief or regret, Levi couldn't say. "Oh!" And then the rest of it sunk in and he started turning red.

Levi opened the door to his quarters and stepped aside. "That being said." He waved him in and Eren darted through the door as if he was afraid it would slam shut on him. Only Levi didn't slam doors; he closed it behind Eren with a solid click.