I was told to sit still, as lukewarm bath water was splashed across the lower half of my bare back, as well as the feathered tips of my wings. I couldn't say that I was enjoying myself, but I couldn't exactly own up to entirely hating such an event, either. After all, I was being bathed like a dog, but at least I was being bathed by Levi.

"Lower your right wing," he instructed, before squirting a palmful of puppy shampoo into his hand. On our way back to the apartment, he had called Hange and told him to bring back three bottles of the stuff, leaving it to his imagination as to what they could be needed for.

After doing as I was told, I gazed back at Levi from over my shoulder. "Does it look like it's coming out?" I wondered. It was hard for me to tell. With wet wings that were sopped up with shampoo, it still felt like they were caked with beautifying product.

"Kind of," Levi responded, dipping my wing into the water and lathering it, "but I'm going to have to rinse and repeat a lot. You're fine with sitting in here for a while, right?"

Even though I'd rather not be sitting in a shallow bath for any amount of time, I chose not to put up a fuss and nodded.

"Good."

I knew it wasn't his intention, but as he continued to clean my wings, Levi ended up pulling on one of them a bit harder than was ideal. More of an automatic response than anything else, both wings opened wide and began to flap, while a short gasp was muffled by my hand. If Levi wasn't already exasperated enough that he was spending his Tuesday evening preening an angel's wings, surely he was now.

Almost instantly, his hands stopped what they were doing and retracted themselves from the depths of my feathers. Levi seemed hesitant, when he asked, "...Are you okay?" He paused for the beat of a second, before adding, "What did I do wrong?"

I felt guilty for reacting in the way that I did, but how could I not? Levi should have been used to being delicate around others, especially when cutting their hair and applying their make-up. Then again, he was still new to the concept of angels, pain tolerance included. There was no way I could logically justify being angry with him.

"I'm alright!" I said. "My wings are just a little fragile, so if you wouldn't mind being a bit more gentle, that would be really..."

My mind went foggy and my words lost their passage of delivery, as two hands slid their way up to my shoulders and began kneading at the skin and knotted muscles. I appreciated my reaction, this time around. With my shoulders rolling back and my eyelids beginning to waver, it was difficult to suppress the relieved sigh that had escaped me. "That feels...really good."

"Good," Levi murmured. "It should."

He continued to massage my arms and shoulders for a good ten minutes, before he began bathing me again. He must have seen the slight shudder than crawled up my spine, signaling the water had gone cold, for he began to run the bath water again, this time at a heightened temperature. By the time he turned the faucet off, I was nearly waist deep in the warm mixture of both bubbles and bronzer.

Just as he was about to pull the shower head down to my level and rinse me off, Levi stopped. He appeared to be deep in thought, which prompted me to ask, "What's the matter, Levi?"

He quickly snapped out of his daze. "Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about something stupid."

He grabbed one of my wings and began hosing me down, but I wasn't ready to let the conversation end there. "What were you thinking about? You can tell me anything."

He was probably shaking his head at me, because he replied, "Really, it was stupid. I don't want to say it."

I really wished that I hadn't been seated in a forty-eight by thirty-two inch bathtub, otherwise I would have turned around to see what kind of face Levi was making. Trying to sneak a peek at him from over my shoulder just wasn't cutting it.

What if what Levi was thinking about was something that was seriously bothering him? What if it was a mental ailment he'd been dealing with from long before I'd arrived? Was he okay? What he healthy? To me, he appeared to be both, but of course, that was just on the surface. I knew that sometimes, problems went to much deeper, much darker places.

I'd gone and made myself anxious.

"Levi, please tell me," I almost begged. I was forced to bite my tongue.

I heard him sigh in defeat. Setting the shower head aside, letting the gentle spray of the water hit against my knee, Levi rested his elbows on the side of the tub. He mindlessly played with a few feathers that floated along the surface of the water, poking at them and pushing them forward. "I was thinking about you," he finally admitted. "You and me, actually."

"You and me?" My heart started to pound, but I needed clarification. "What were you thinking?"

He pressed one of the feathers down so that it just barely dipped beneath the water, but the second he released his finger, it defiantly popped right back up. Inhaling, he composed himself enough to say, "I was thinking about what you said back in McDonald's. How you said that you wouldn't tell me what our relationship was like, until I'm able remember it. For all I know, we could have been brothers, best friends. We could have been anything, really."

It was a test of my own control, when I cracked a smile and teasingly asked, "Even lovers?"

My breath had nearly left me when Levi plucked up one of the floating feathers, rolled it between his thumb and his index, and said, "It's possible. Like I said, we could have been anything. You're the only one that knows what we were, though."

That wasn't true. I wasn't the only one. Hange knew. Be it that he was referred to as "Hanji" during the time, his memories were no less distant, no less distorted than my own.

I hadn't been expecting the conversation to change so suddenly, but when Levi switched gears and asked me if I was ready to be rinsed, I said that I was and allowed my wings to relax against my shoulders.

The water felt nice, as it rained against my back, but when it coated my feathers, the barbs began to absorb the excessive amount of moisture, causing my shoulders to cave from the extra weight. Breathing a silent prayer when Levi had finally finished, he told me to stand up so that he could wrap a towel around my waist.

"Want me to wrap it like a diaper?" he smirked.

"Haha, very funny," I mumbled, rising into a stand. It was a good thing that Levi had said that, otherwise I would have been too distracted by the fact that I was naked to even think about moving. I mean, sure, Levi had no problem being naked around me, and I had no problem seeing him naked, no, of course not, but when I was the one who was in the nude, it was an entirely different agenda.

As he tied a terrycloth towel around my hips, it brought me back to the first time we'd seen each other's skin. I remembered asking him before touching him, the way he watched my every move. I remembered how his eyes traced my fingers, moving with them as they trailed up the length of his arm. I had been nervous. He told me to breathe, and I did. We both breathed. We were alive.

Stepping out of the bathtub, it was with a mighty sense of self-control that I refrained from flapping my wings dry. I noticed that Levi was reaching under the sink to grab what looked like a hairdryer, so I could only assume that it would be used for my wings. Plus, shaking them out would more than likely end with the entire bathroom in a puddle of bath water and loose feathers.

In Levi's bedroom, I sat crisscross applesauce (I blame my mother for that silly saying. She used to say it all the time to the older children at the daycare) while he pushed his nightstand aside. Exposing an empty socket, Levi plugged in the hairdryer and beckoned me to come closer. After I did, he turned it on and began drying my wings.

"Ahh..." My head fell back and my eyes slipped closed.

"Oh, does that feel good?" By his tone, I could tell that Levi seemed genuinely amused by my reaction.

I nodded. "It feels so good. Do you think you can turn the air speed any higher?"

"Yeah, give me a second." Levi fussed around with the controls of the hairdryer, when suddenly a gust of hot air began to ruffle my feathers. I was immediately telling him to turn it back down.

"That was intense," I laughed lightly. "Do you ever blow dry your hair like that?"

Levi flattened out a small clump of my feathers, and said, "What, on turbo? God, no. I'd ruin my hair. Actually, every human being on the face of this Earth would ruin their hair. I don't even know why they have that level of speed available for people to mess around with. It's like a trap for stupid people." He faltered for a moment. "Does it still feel good?"

"Yeah, it really does," I smiled. "You know, I can understand why Bentley hated baths now."

"Who's Bentley?" he inquired. "An old dog of yours?"

"Yup. I had him a few lifetimes ago. He was a shepherd mix, so he loved to roll around in the grass and get dirty. Oh, but he hated baths. Like, absolutely loathed them. My dad and I would have to soap him up as much as we could and spray him down with the garden hose, in the summer. But, you know, as much as he hated baths, he simply adored getting to feel the heat of the blowdryer afterwards. It was almost as rewarding as dog treats, to him."

"So, what you're saying is, you hated that bath just now."

I was able to see the snarky smile that lined Levi's lips, and it was enough to make my cheeks flush red. I had to look away. "Well! I mean, yeah, kind of, but you know, it was kind of okay. Like, I didn't entirely hate it. Not all of it."

"Yeah, of course," he said. "You like the hairdryer at the end."

When he'd finished with my left wing, I heard him shift around a bit, before he started working on my right. He paused for a bit, and it almost sounded like he had been looking through one of the drawers in his nightstand.

"Did you need to get something?" I questioned.

"Yeah, actually, could you hold on for a minute?" After I gave a quick nod, Levi handed me the hairdryer. Before I knew it, he was on his feet and was walking out of his bedroom.

Now that I had the chance to get a better look at the hairdryer, I could determine a few things. First of all, it was a burnt orange color, probably the model of Levi's choosing. Secondly, it had a thin tip, one that was clearly used for styling hair. Paired with a comb, I could only imagine the crazy kinds of hairdos people could pull off with that thing. Lastly, there was the speed dial. It had three settings: slow, medium, and turbo. Just for the heck of it, I held the dryer up to my face and switched it to turbo.

The powerful gust of hot air startled me, but the soft chuckle that came from the doorway was enough to make me jump. I quickly turned the setting back down to medium. "Hange?"

"Good evening, mate!" he greeted, still chuckling as he stepped into Levi's bedroom. "How was your bath?"

"Awful," I answered honestly. "It was really, really bad."

Sitting in front of me in the same, crisscross way that I was seated, making it appear like we were about to share campfire stories, Hange latched his hands onto the both of his ankles and began rocking back and forth. "I hear you there," he smiled. "Most of the dogs that I groom hate getting bathed, too. You know, not saying that you're a dog, or anything."

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it. Just before you came in here, I was actually comparing myself to an old dog of mine. His name was Bentley."

"Aw! That's a cute name!" Hange cooed. "What breed was he?"

"A shepherd mix. He was a pound dog that we had rescued."

Hange seemed to like the sound of that. "Good, good. I always like to hear it when dogs are rescued from shelters and pounds alike. They're the ones that are in need of the most love, you know?"

"Yeah, I agree."

I was grateful that, at just the right moment, I remembered that I had something very important that I needed to tell Hange. Hopefully, we'd be able to discuss my little "issue" before Levi came back.

Lifting my head, I made direct eye contact with him, and asked, "Hange, can I tell you about something that happened last night?"

Hange's excitable attitude died down slightly, as he gave me his full attention. "Go for it, Eren. What's up?"

The communicative aura between us was highly nostalgic, only this time, we weren't talking about Titans or shifters, but rather, we were discussing a more personal topic. "It's Levi. It's something that said in his sleep."

"In his sleep?" Hange tilted his head to the side curiously. "What did he say?"

Nerves began to bundle in my stomach, shooting shocks of sheepishness throughout my veins. Hange had known about my relationship with Levi, I knew that, but it never made talking about those sorts of things any less awkward. However, if this tidbit of information was a step closer to having Levi remember his past, it was a hop, skip, or jump that I was willing to take.

"He said," I began, trying to keep my voice relatively low, "he said, 'I love you, Eren.' Just like that."

With wide eyes, Hange pushed up his glasses. "Whoa, seriously?" He kept his voice just as low as mine. "Are you sure it was him?"

"I couldn't have been anyone else, Hange. We were the only ones present. Just him and me."

"Wow, wow, wow. Like, wow." Now, Hange was on his feet, pacing back and forth pensively. "Was he dreaming? Did he say anything else? Did he try to do anything to you? Are you sure he was asleep?"

Hange had asked me too many questions to mentally process in one go. Fidgeting, I did my very best to respond adequately. "Uh, yeah, I'm pretty sure he was dreaming. No, he didn't say anything else. He didn't do anything to me; I was all the way at the other side of his bed, and yeah, I'm pretty sure he was asleep. He was really tired. We both were, actually."

Nodding at each of my answers, Hange stopped pacing and sat down on the edge of Levi's bed. I had a feeling that Levi wouldn't like the idea of that if he were to see it for himself, but it wasn't like I had any right to tell Hange what he should or shouldn't be doing. It just wasn't my place. Also, if I knew Hange like I had known Hanji, there was a good chance that he really wouldn't care whether or not his actions would annoy Levi. Sometimes, I felt like he did silly things just for spite.

With my nerves beginning to resurface, my wings began to flutter. My left wing flapped at a considerably quicker speed than my right - given that it was completely dry - while my other was still waiting on Levi for him to come back and continue. Then again, where was Levi? He'd been gone for quite some time. Was he okay? He didn't slip and fall did he? After all, my wings must have left a slippery trail from the bathroom to his bedroom. He was smart enough to watch his step, right?

Okay, maybe I was getting nervous over more things than I'd originally anticipated.

"Hange," I spoke softly, settling my wings against my back, "what do you think it means?"

"You're talking about what Levi said, right?" I nodded. Shrugging his shoulders, he sighed slowly. "You know, Eren, it's really hard to say. It could mean lots of things. I'd like to think that he's starting to remember the past, and I'm sure you feel the same way, but right now, it's really difficult to make any sort of conclusion on this type of matter."

My deflated expression must have prompted Hange to add, "But don't worry! I'm sure he'll remember soon enough. I'm still holding out for Erwin to remember, too."

Yes, that was right. Levi wasn't the only one who was left in the dark about the past. And the more that I thought about it, neither was Erwin. "Oh, Hange!" I said quickly. "Did you know that Levi's boss is Mikasa?"

He nodded solemnly. "Yeah, I knew that. I'm very sorry, Eren..." From that alone, I knew that he must have tried having a conversation with her in a past encounter. Without him having to say anything else, I could already tell that it had led him down the same route that it had taken me. "In your case, it's even more upsetting. You two were-"

"Yeah, I know..." I hadn't meant to interrupt him, but I'm almost certain that he understood where I was coming from. I didn't need to hear it twice.

"And you and Levi, " Hange murmured. "It must be tough. I must be really, really tough."

I bit my lip, holding back the words that I knew would only leave a sour taste on my palate. It was tough, very tough. As much as I was grateful to be with Levi again, taking over the role of the protector instead of the protected, it still hurt knowing that I carried the burden of our prior relationship alone. No one was at fault of this, of course. It wasn't like I could be angry with Levi for his lack of memories. Maybe he did have them in one of his past lives. Maybe he'd spent the entirety of it searching just for me. It was sad to say it, but that was merely the cycle of life. However, these false hopes were what had lightened my mood enough to be able to respond to Hange.

"It's different," I said, taking the opposite direction of where my mind was telling me to go, "but I'll make the best of it. I'm here to guard and protect Levi as he currently is, not wallow and sulk around about the past that we used to share." Looking to my lap, my fingers began to squeeze against the handle of the hairdryer, still blowing lightly against my thigh. "And even if he doesn't remember, I can't bring myself to be upset over it." I squeezed harder. "I'll...I'll always love him. No matter what."

I could tell that Hange was about to try and rest his hand against my shoulder, before he remembered that such a thing was impossible for him. He chuckled softly, while I shifted my legs, hoping to ease some of the embarrassment that was, by no doubt, still lingering on both of our outward expressions.

My heart skipped a beat, when Levi had finally returned. In my haste, I jumped to my feet and dropped the hairdryer. Not only that, but the towel that had been wrapped around my waist came loose. It fell straight to my ankles. If my face wasn't red enough before, surely it was now.

"My, my, my, Eren!" Hange smiled. "You sure do love being around Levi, huh?"

I was already bending over to retrieve my towel, by the time he had said that. God, I was so embarrassed. After everything that Hange and I had just finished talking about, too. It was like the world was putting a big, fat cherry on the very tippy-top of my cupcake of catastrophe.

"Stop bullying him, Hange," Levi said, throwing him a sideways glare. "And get out of my room. You're going to get it dirty."

"What?!" He seemed offended. "How am I going to get it dirty?! I'm not even doing anything! And I was being so good, too! Eren and I were simply having a nice conversation, weren't we, Eren?"

I didn't want to be dragged into the middle of their feud, and luckily, I didn't have to be. Levi had come to my defense.

"Don't bring Eren into this," he advised. Reaching beside my foot to grab the fallen hairdryer, Levi picked it up and held it to Hange's face, much like a victim at gunpoint. "Now get out." He switched it to turbo.

Hange was flailing at the air and rushing out of the room, before I even got the chance to thank him for our conversation. Nothing had really been accomplished because of it, but it did give me peace of mind to know that there was still a sliver, even if it was just a tiny inkling of hope that Levi had the ability to recollect his past.

With the towel tied back around my hips, Levi asked me to sit down so that he could finish drying off my other wing. I was still curious as to where he had disappeared to, and there was nothing there to stop me from asking, "Where were you, Levi? What did you need?"

All I had to do was blink, before a bottle of hand lotion appeared before my eyes. Well, that had answered one of my questions, but now I was forced to ask another. "What do you need that for? Are you hands feeling dry?"

He lifted the bottle back over my head and squeezed a small amount of the citrusy-smelling blend into one of his hands. I'd been so used to the warm air blowing against my back from the hairdryer that when I'd felt Levi's hand rubbing the cold lotion between the small junction of skin that separated my wings, I had to physically stop myself from reacting over dramatically.

"That's cold!" I yelped. I still didn't understand why he was putting lotion on my back, either. "What are you doing?"

"Your skin is so ridiculously delicate that it was starting to dry out from all of the warm air," Levi explained, continuing to alternate between rubbing in the lotion, as well as drying off my right wing.

I felt touched, because of Levi's kind gesture. He'd gone out of his way to find lotion, just so that it would be of benefit me. I wanted to thank him, I also wanted to hug him, but by the time I'd mustered up the courage to do the prior, Levi was already speaking once again.

What he'd said caused my eyes to widen with fear.

"What did Hange mean, when he said that it must be really tough? What was he talking about?"

I didn't want to show it, but I was beginning to panic. Levi had heard that? What else did he hear? He didn't hear me, when I'd said that I'd always love him, did he? What about my thoughts? He didn't hear those, right? Oh, wait. Those were my thoughts. No one else could hear those, accept for me. Duh.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied nervously. Bad mistake, on my part. Levi could sense my hesitance.

"Yeah, you do," he persisted. "You and Hange were talking about me."

"Levi, I'd rather not-"

"What did you mean, when you said that you'd always love me?"

Crap. So, he did hear that.

Like clockwork, Levi had finished drying my wing. With the hairdryer turned off, the silence that cut through the room was almost suffocating. I wanted to gasp for air, but somehow, I knew that even with lungs full of blended oxygen, it wouldn't be nearly enough to curb my feeling of compression.

"Levi," I whispered, doing my best to keep my voice steady, "I think it would be best if you forget everything that you just heard. Until you're able to regain the memories for yourself, what you just overheard will only serve to confuse you."

"Hange remembers." It was a statement, not a question.

"...That's something you need to discuss with him, Levi."

He didn't quit. "Hange knows who you are."

I didn't respond, but I let him continue.

"He also knows what our relation to one another was, doesn't he?"

Silence. Uncomfortable silence. Nothing like the silence that he and I used to relish in, after a long day of training. I couldn't respond. I couldn't speak. I couldn't do anything, but breathe.

The silence was altered, by the gentle sound of jean material rubbing together. Levi was standing up, moving to unplug the hairdryer from its socket and set it aside on his nightstand. Neither of us spoke. Neither of us admitted that it was awkward.

Not surprisingly, it wasn't before long that I was apologizing. "I'm sorry." They were they only words that seemed to fit into the jigsaw-puzzle-of-a-situation that we were in.

"Don't apologize," he said, nearly inaudibly. "I shouldn't have pestered you like that. You've already told me that you won't give me any answers, until I start remembering things for myself. If anyone should be saying that they're sorry, it should be me."

No, I wouldn't be having any of that. None of this put Levi at fault, so he had absolutely no reason to apologize for anything.

"You don't have to apologize, Levi. Really, I'm the one who's sorry."

As Levi came back into view, I found myself looking up at him. It was strange to say it, but with the way that he'd lifted one of his eyebrows in an amused manner, somehow, all of the tension that had built up like a brick wall between us came crumbling down.

"Are we going to apologize like this to each other all night, or are we going to let bygones be bygones and just forget about all of this?"

I liked the sound of that. Letting bygones be bygones. Yeah, that would work.

"Bygones," I said, a small smile forming on my lips.

I was more than elated to see that Levi mimicked my expression, showing me a small smile of his own. "Good," he stated, holding out a hand that I presumed was for me to take. "Now, let's find you something else to wear."

It took a good fifteen minutes or so, before Levi had found a pair of flannel pajamas that were too large on him. They were perfect for me, and not only that, but the top was a snazzy button up. In order for my wings to sit comfortably within the top, Levi suggested that I just wear the shirt on backwards and that he'd only fasten half of the buttons. His trick had worked like a charm, and by the time we were both comfy and cozy, ready to go to sleep, it was nearing midnight.

"Thank you for cleaning my wings," I said, climbing onto the edge of Levi's bed.

"Don't mention it. You were an eyesore," he snickered.

"That's rude."

"That's me."

After he crawled under his covers and turned off his bedside lamp, Levi had said, "Goodnight, Eren," an endearment that I'd reciprocated, before he was soon after consumed by his fatigue.

I, however, had some difficulty falling asleep. It wasn't because I wasn't tired, no, I was exhausted. I think it may have had something to do with the fact that I had gotten so used to the idea of watching over Levi constantly that the thought of being away from him for just one second, even if it was through our own unconsciousness, was one second too much.

When I heard Levi's bedsheets begin to ruffle, I wondered if he was waking up. Maybe he forgot to use the bathroom one last time, or maybe he needed a glass of water. "Levi, are you awake?"

"You're...going to be okay...mmph."

I froze.

"Damnit, Eren...!"

That was my name.

"...You're going to...to make it out of this mess alive...do you...do you..."

I finished the words for him, and after many centuries of not being able to give him the response that he had undoubtedly desired, I softly whispered, "Yes, Levi. I hear you."


Hi there! Chappy here! :D

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! Even if you don't celebrate, I still hope that you had a lovely holiday week. (:

Think of this extra long chapter (4,800+ words, wow) as my Christmas gift to all of you! You guys are so lovely, and the reviews that you give me really make my day, so thank you very much for taking the time out of yours to do so! (:

I really hope that you've enjoyed this chapter! Can you believe that the next chapter will be chapter 10 already? I can't. It's crazy.

- Chappy