A/N: Good morning/afternoon/evening my lovelies. I know we're anxious for the date but because of the timeline of the story being so condensed, patience must be exercised! This chapter has a WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH. I shan't say who, when or why (duh, that's why you're going to read this chapter), but it is indeed a heart-sore moment. ALSO there is a mention at adult themes so just be warned. LAST BUT NOT LEAST there is also an awkward pairing so PLEASE DON'T HATE ME for it. Like in real life, all things happen for a reason.

Also just a quick shout out to my followers, favoriters (gawd that isn't even a word now is it) and especially my reviewers. You guys know who you are, especially my favorites *wiggles brows*

Disclaimer: I do not own SnK, its characters or any other brands mentioned in this story. But I'd be damned if I had half the chance!

Waking up on any other Saturday, especially following the horrendous meeting where he met yet another two men salivating to tear him apart limb for limb, would've been an immense relief now that the week was over. Ordinarily, Eren would wake up late and enjoy a lazy day either alone or with his friends and then most likely have a good night out that would render him useless for the remainder of the weekend. That was usually how his Saturdays went, but not this Saturday.

The brunette teen found himself significantly less than excited as he dressed himself at the early hour of seven in the morning that particular Saturday. Instead of excitement for the weekend, he felt nothing but pure dread at what he was to endure for the next who-knows-how-long. He had no idea where he was being taken, what he would be doing or even for how long…all he knew was that today was the day he had to honour his arrangement with Levi to go flying in that god-awful Ferrari red Robinson.

Eren glanced at his wristwatch, hoping that he'd somehow slept through Saturday and that today was actually Sunday…but he had no such luck. His watch clearly said 'SAT' on its weekday display, those three little letters more offensive now than they had ever been before. With a sigh, he looked over to his wall calendar and groaned when his eyes caught sight of the wildly scribbled black lettering across Saturday's block that read 'D-DAY'. Accompanying the ominous script was a poorly sketched image of a helicopter engulfed in flames and a childishly sketched screaming face. All in all, every indication was pointing to the fact that today was indeed Saturday, and there was no way he was going to be able to worm his way out of his appointment with Levi.

"I'm going to die today," he groaned. He ran his eyes up and down the reflection of his body in his full-length mirror, and let out a please sigh. "At least I'll look good when I go."

He wore the pair of black skinny jeans Mikasa had bought him to replace the ones that were damaged in his accident, and they may or may not have been a size to small, but either way, they hugged his form in a way that truly complimented it – accentuating his long, leanly muscled legs and plumping up his firm, round buttocks. He liked the jeans, and despite usually liking baggier clothing, he liked how it made him look. With the jeans, he wore a form-fitting, olive-green V-neck shirt that made him look more muscular than he actually was. He liked that shirt for obvious reasons. And to top the outfit off, he wore his favourite pair of slip-on shoes, the very pair he'd worn the day of his accident.

For an idle moment he wondered if wearing these shoes to fly was a bad omen.

After dropping Mikasa a text saying he was on his way to the airport, very sarcastically thanking her for making him take Levi up on the 'generous' offer, he hopped onto his bike and sped his way to the airport. Eren lived not even ten minutes from the airport and very quickly declined the offer Levi extended to pick him up from his home – there was no way in hell Eren was going to give a man who tried to kidnap him his home address. He wondered if Mikasa had been aware of that incident if she would've still bullied him into calling Levi to take him flying. He thought of telling her about it, but he was sure she wouldn't believe him.

Eren was surprised to see Levi waiting for him in the parking lot; the teen had assumed Levi was 'too good' to be on time for anything, but Eren was horribly mistaken. Seeing the irritated look on Levi's face for showing up five minutes late, Eren quickly deduced that Levi must be a man of impeccable timing. What didn't surprise Eren was the magnificent piece of engineering Levi was casually leaning against: a jet-black Lamborghini. He didn't know much about cars but he knew a sexy car when he saw one, and the car Levi was leaning against was the sexiest hunk of metal Eren had seen in a very long time.

"He has good taste," Eren mumbled as he dismounted his bike. Or too much money.

As Eren approached Levi, he couldn't help his eyes trailing up and down the man's body, and noticed then, probably not for the first time, just how damn short Levi was; the car was low and the man looked small against it. He snickered as he remembered a comment Reiner made recently about helicopter pilots compensating for 'life's little shortcomings'. If Levi wasn't the source of that term, Eren would be damned. The teen smirked as he thought he wouldn't be surprised if Levi's height wasn't the only thing small about him.

"Whoa," he whispered to himself, shaking his head. He cleared his throat and scowled, lengthening his strides to close the distance between him and Levi quicker. He did not want his mind to wander in that direction. Not now, not ever.

The memory of his late-night shower and the result of seeing Levi in his relaxing fantasy flashed in Eren's mind, causing the teen to blush. Shit…

To distract himself, Eren tried to take in as much detail about Levi's clothing as possible. The man was decorated in brand-name clothing, although Eren couldn't identify the logos of half the high-end brands Levi wore. But he had to admit, the man knew how to dress: he wore plain grey jeans that looked more like faded black than grey, stylish leather slip-on shoes and a tight V-neck shirt that matched his eyes perfectly. On his right wrist was a prominent silver watch that looked like it cost more than most college kids' first cars, while his left wrist remained bare.

Levi was not oblivious to the neither the teen's blush-dusted cheeks nor his obviously wandering eyes. The man smirked internally at the wonderful feel of Eren's eyes so attentively on his body while he, in a much more subtle matter, appreciated how damn delectable Eren looked in tight clothing.

"Hi," Eren said when he finally came to stand before Levi.

"Still no fucking manners," Levi said.

"That's rich coming from you," Eren retorted.

The tiniest of smirks tugged at the corner of Levi's mouth at Eren's bratty retort, but he kept any further comments to himself. Seeing Eren show off his body so blatantly was fast dragging Levi's mind to the gutters, and any comment he may want to hurl at the teen would undoubtedly be about a very certain brand of discipline that Levi would just love to instil. So without another word, Levi turned and led Eren to the hangar in which his beloved Robinson slept. She had already been taken out of the hangar and was in the process of being fuelled when Levi arrived. The raven simply nodded at the man fuelling his baby and proceeded to do a quick exterior inspection of the machine, keeping his arms folded tightly against his muscular chest as he appreciated every curve on the pristine surface.

A smile lit up Eren's face as he watched the man's usually stoic features soften ever so slightly at the sight of the Robinson before him. The love in Levi's eyes was as clear as the sun in the sky as the man admired the machine more than actually inspecting it as he was supposed to be doing. His eyes roamed up and down the sleek body of the aircraft as a man's eyes would over a woman's body – tenderness, appreciation and yearning clear in his eyes. The emotions were fierce in Levi's eyes and the teen found himself staring, intrigued that a man such as Levi was capable of looking at something other than himself with that look in his eyes. It was almost mesmerising to see Levi so open, so…in love.

It suits him, Eren thought idly.

And just as Eren was about to dissect the odd thought that had just occurred to him, the blaring of the chorus of an indie song broke the quiet of the early morning air. With a look of annoyance now plastered on his previously relaxed face, Levi turned to eye the teen just as Eren turned away with a cell being lifted to his ear.

"Horse-face?" Eren said in an unsure voice. A short moment of silence followed and when Eren spoke again, he sounded frantic. "Whoa, whoa, Jean, calm down, man. I can't hear a single word you're saying."

This caught Levi's attention. He fully turned away from the engineering magnificence he called his own and stared at Eren quizzically, watching those oceanic eyes dart from left to right under a furrowed brow as the teen concentrated on whatever it was 'Horse-face' had to say. Levi couldn't help but think that out of all Eren's facial expressions, that scowl made him look the sexiest – that look of intense concentration in those fierce, oceanic orbs would no doubt be present if Eren were to be concentrating on say…satisfying Levi. The man gritted his teeth at the image that flashed through his mind:

Eren atop him, green eyes fiercely boring into his grey as the teen fights every instinct to thrust for his own pleasure, fighting his urge to cum just to satisfy Levi before his own release…

Eren gasped loudly, immediately snapping out of his perverted fantasy of – god forbid – being topped by the brat. He shuddered at the thought and focused on Eren's face at the right time to see the colour completely drain from the teen's tanned skin. The teen had a hand in front of his mouth and his mortified oceanic orbs were as wide as dinner plates and rapidly filling with tears as he stared blankly at the ground before him.

"It can't be," he whispered. "Please tell me you're lying…"

Something terrible must have happened. Levi waited patiently for Eren to end the call, suddenly nervous at the sudden change in his demeanour. With the new worry in his mind, any chance of a stray perverted thought was completely obliterated as Levi stared at the teen for a few more seconds before the brunette lowered the device and gently slid it into his jeans' pocket. Eren then turned away from Levi, running both his hands through his thick, chocolate hair as he let out a shaky sigh. Upon closer inspection, Levi could see that the teen was trembling slightly.

"Oi, brat," Levi called. "What's going on?"

At first, Eren didn't respond. He didn't turn to face Levi, nod, shrug or even acknowledge that the man had spoken to him. For a long moment Eren stood still, hands still fisted around clumps of hair, shakily breathing in and out in a desperate attempt to catch his breath. As much as Levi wanted to push, a part of him warned him to just let Eren be – and it was a good thing he did because without any warning, the teen doubled over, hands on his knees and he lost his breakfast on the grass just meters away from the helicopter.

"Oi!" Levi barked, but Eren completely ignored him. Fucking disgusting!

The teen heaved until the last of his breakfast lay in a messy, half-digested stew on the dry grass, and still he heaved some more. The painful contractions of his stomach seemingly trying to tear itself out of his body didn't let up for another minute, and once Eren finally gained control over his body, he simply stared at the mess he made on the grass. His vision was blurry and it took him another minute to realise that it was because there were tears in his eyes.

"Eren!" Levi called for the fifth time, and Eren finally straightened out, wiping his mouth on the shoulder of his shirt. Levi grimaced at this but let it slide. "What the fuck's going on?"

When Eren turned to face Levi, the man froze. Those expressive oceanic eyes held nothing but anguish and regret as they met with the man's impassive gaze, and the depth and magnitude of Eren's pain was so great and so easily communicated that Levi found himself absolutely dumbstruck by it. He swallowed thickly, desperately trying to form words but coming up black as Eren's tears continued to fall at a steady rate from those tormented eyes.

"I've uh…gotta go," Eren whispered weakly. "I'm sorry, Levi…"

Without further explanation, Eren turned and briskly walked off towards the parking lot, leaving an awestruck Levi frozen beside his fully fuelled helicopter. Levi watched as Eren ran across the apron, narrowly missing a taxiing aircraft but not even flinching at his close proximity to it. The teen pushed on, not looking back once as he disappeared through the gate to the parking lot. The image of Eren's pale, tear-streaked face and those honest, oceanic orbs showing nothing but absolute anguish was all that kept Levi's pending anger at bay as he realised that he'd just been ditched…by a teenager.

"What the fuck?" Levi ran a hand through his hair and let out a hiss of breath.

Once again, just as he was about to catch a break, something had to come up and disrupt his time with Eren. Something always came up to steal the teen away from him. Levi idly wondered if his obsession with the brat wasn't perhaps misplaced – it was impossible that this was more than just lust if the universe fought so hard to keep them apart. Perhaps that was all Eren was good for; a good, hard fuck. It seemed a lot more plausible than being destined to be. Yet as the man thought this, something twisted painfully inside him that caused him to stop and erase all thoughts of Eren being just a quick fuck. There was no way that an exceptional young man such as Eren could ever be anything less than the perfect lover.

Because if Eren was just a quick fuck, it would've happened by now.

No, there was something more, something much deeper between them. Whether or not Eren knew it was debatable, but highly unlikely. That was why Levi had been so desperate, so excited for this day they were to spend together – he was hoping to not only sort his own feelings out, but to tap into Eren's mind and interoperate the brat's innermost thoughts as well. To implant the seed of desire and let it grow in the teen's emotional mind, to find that small part of Eren that needed to belong to someone and extort it to make Eren want to be loved.

Today was supposed to be the day Eren started to fall in love with Levi.

Eren stormed into Marco's apartment ferociously, completely unsurprised that the front door was unlocked. Having thrown the door open with significantly more force than what was required, he marched straight to the small living room where he found Jean sitting on the floor with his back against the couch.

Jean sat cradling his legs against his chest, arms wrapped rightly around his shins and his chin resting on top of his knees. His usually condescending eyes were entirely devoid of life, the red and swollen orbs staring unseeingly at a spot on the floor. It was obvious that he'd been crying a lot, and had it been any other day or any other circumstance, this would've been grounds for Eren to shamelessly mock Jean's pathetic behavior. But this was not the time or the place. Seeing his usually pompous friend curled in on himself on the floor had Eren's heart clenching painfully and his throat constrict to the point where he could no longer breathe. Guilt and grief overcame him and before he knew it, he was seated beside his distraught friend.

As Eren sat beside the unmoving Jean, he could feel the anguish radiating off the taller male. It took all of his strength to rein in his own emotions as Jean's pain overtook him, compounding onto the guilt that was bubbling nauseatingly inside his gut. He swallowed thickly and fought to keep his breathing even, fighting the tears threatening to leave his eyes and the bile threatening to spew from his mouth. For the longest time, the two brunette males sat beside each other in perfect silence, and after the immeasurable amount of time, Jean eventually lifted his head. Sensing the movement, Eren turned slightly to meet Jean's gaze, and the intense culmination of sorrow between green and hazel as they clashed brought a fresh bout of tears to Jean's eyes.

"He's gone," Jean whimpered.

Unable to hold his own any longer, Eren turned away and dropped his head into his hands, letting his unshed tears break free. Pain and emptiness tore through his body as the gravity of the situation consumed him entirely, the overwhelming guilt tearing through his body as the bile fought its way up his throat, burning his insides like acid. Every single cell in his body felt as though it had begun to decompose, spreading a filthy rot throughout his body that devoured him like a disease. The disease ate away at his flesh, tearing at his mind and his soul as he cried, remembering the silent vow he had uttered that fateful morning. The vow he had broken.

I am not dying today, and neither are you, Marco!

I've got this! We will make it!

"I'm sorry," Eren whispered through gritted teeth. "Jean…I'm…I'm so damn sorry…"

Eren heard Jean suck in a breath as if he were going to say something. Immediately, Eren clenched his eyes shut and uttered a silent prayer to whatever god was willing to listen that Jean would not say 'it's okay' or 'it's not your fault' or 'you have nothing to apologize for'. Because it was not okay. It was his fault. And he had everything to apologize for. In fact, if it weren't for him – only him, not a single other soul – then none of this would've happened.

If it weren't for Eren, Marco wouldn't be dead.

"You know what the worst part is?" Jean asked. Eren held his breath and answered that question for himself. I'm the reason he's dead. "I called his parents to notify them that he…and t-they…they didn't even c-care…" A fresh bout of sobs rocked Jean's body and he buried his face in his arms. "They don't even care that their only son is dead!"

There was nothing Eren could say that would make Jean feel better. Marco's familial life was sad at best. To hear that his parents hadn't even batted an eye at their son's death just because he was gay brought a bout of rage to Eren. The brunette let out a shaky sigh as the pain, guilt and anger coursed through his body, unable to channel it and barely able to contain it.

"Jean…"

"You don't have to stay, Eren. I appreciate you coming but…Sasha and Connie are on their way."

"Okay." Eren quickly got to his feet. He had to leave. It wouldn't be much longer before his emotions erupted ferociously, and Jean had enough to deal with already. "I'm sorry."

Eren was on his bike and speeding down the highway with no destination in mind before he could even comprehend what he was doing. Unable to fight back the tears, they streamed down his face and his heavy breathing fogged up his helmet to the point where he could hardly see the road in front of him. His body shook and convulsed as he wailed, the guilt and the hurt burning him up alive and threatening to steal the precarious stability that held him upright on his bike. Yet through all of this, through his failing control on the machine and his decreasing visibility, Eren pushed on, opening the throttle to the maximum and pushing his bike to its top speed.

A part of him just wished his balance would fail him. A dark, depreciating and self-loathing part of Eren's mind was quickly succumbing to the negativity inside, tempting Eren to just throw the bike over and smash his mortal body to the tarmac to end his suffering. That dangerous part of Eren's mind was courting him, tempting the pained teen with every car he flew by, with every pothole he narrowly missed. It would be so easy to just lean a little too far to the right, and it would all be over. At this speed, no one would be surprised to find the teen smeared across hundreds of meters of highway, obliterated by the impact of the fall. No one would be surprised and Eren honestly doubted no one would care.

If anything, he deserved to die.

It was already dark when Eren's senses finally came to. His rationality returned after driving his tank dry; after having pushed his bike to the nearest gas station to fill up, the teen was finally calm enough to think straight. He quickly realized he was in the vicinity of the medical campus residence for Karanese University, and decided to visit Armin – the last thing he wanted was to spend the night alone.

Once on campus, it didn't take Eren long to find the exact building Armin resided in. He quickly parked his bike beside what looked exactly like Mikasa's bike before heading to the building to find Armin's apartment. Although the brunette couldn't remember exactly which number was Armin's, he was sure it would come back to him as he passed by the doors.

After walking the third floor corridor up and down twice, Eren decided he would just take the risk and knock on one of the doors. The worst that could happen is some stranger opens the door, and then? They would most likely be kind enough to point Eren in the right direction. With this in mind, Eren steeled himself and raised his hand to knock on the door before him, but just as his knuckle was about to connect with the wood, he heard a sound that definitely should not come from Armin's apartment.

A moan – a deep, throaty moan of a man in the throes of passion.

Eren immediately backed up and was about to turn to knock on the door one down when he heard Armin's laugh. He froze and listened carefully. Armin laughed again; it wasn't the singing laughter Eren was used to, but it was a sinister chuckle Eren had only heard come from his friend on one or two occasions.

What the hell? Eren stepped closer to the door and heard that moan again. That was definitely Armin's voice. The brunette's jaw dropped. His first thought: Armin's not a virgin? His second thought: Who the hell is he fucking?

Without another second's hesitation, Eren brought his fist down to the door and banged on it ferociously and continuously.

"Okay, okay! I'm coming!" Armin cried out.

"Yeah you are," another voice in the room growled. It was a familiar voice and it made Eren's face scrunch up. Impossible…

Armin cracked the door open, peeking out with disheveled hair and flushed cheeks, his usually innocent blue eyes completely fogged over. When he looked up and found Eren staring at him in what could best be described at pure horror, Armin blushed and shuffled behind the door to hide his naked torso.

"Who is it?" the familiar voice called out. There was no denying whose voice that was.

"Mikasa?!" Eren cried out, brutishly pushing the door open and shoving Armin to the side as he strode into the room.

The smell of sweat and sex assaulted Eren's nose, causing him to scrunch up his face in distaste as he gawked at the naked girl on the bed. Her dark eyes were murderous as they met with his, her hands grabbing at the disheveled sheets to cover her exposed body.

"Jesus, Eren, show some respect!" Mikasa hissed.

Ignoring Mikasa, Eren's head snapped back to Armin, who was covered only by a bath towel tied loosely around his lithe hips. A deep crimson blush lit up his face and he kept his eyes on the floor, away from Eren's probing gaze.

"You're fucking my sister?" Eren cried out, two octaves too high.

"W-well, uh," Armin started, but Mikasa interrupted him.

"Armin and I have an arrangement. We're not romantically involved at all, we only sleep together."

"What the hell sort of arrangement is that?" Eren choked out. His eyes were now on Mikasa, glaring daggers at his adoptive sister.

"I'm single, he's single, we both have needs. Simple."

Eren's jaw dropped. "Needs? I didn't take you for the kind of girl to have those kinds of needs!" He turned back to Armin, astonishment clear on his face. "And I definitely didn't think you would either!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Armin challenged, all embarrassment forgotten. "I'm a healthy young male. I get horny too, okay."

"Okay, okay!" Eren's hands were on his ears, covering them up. "Overshare!"

"So why did you show up uninvited?" Mikasa asked. Eren would've flinched at her words, but he knew she didn't mean to make it sound like he wasn't welcome. Mikasa never has been good with words.

Eren was about to answer when something on the floor caught his eye. It was a royal-purple, phallic-shaped object with an intricate system of straps. The brunette stared at the object for a few seconds, blinking in disbelief – it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out exactly what it was that Eren was looking at, and he couldn't stop the words from leaving his mouth.

"Is that a strap-on?" he blurted out.

When Eren looked up, he saw Armin's face was impossibly redder and the blonde was suddenly very preoccupied with something on his desk. It was clear that he wouldn't get an answer from his best friend, so Eren turned to Mikasa with a horrified yet questioning look on his face.

"Yes," she said uncaringly. "Armin's bisexual so he likes being pegged."

"Mikasa!" Armin cried out.

"It's only Eren," Mikasa said with a shrug. "He was going to figure it out one or other time."

"W-wait, what's 'pegged'?" Eren asked.

Armin whined as Mikasa answered flatly. "I put the strap-on on and fuck him."

Eren immediately regretted asking. The visual that came with Mikasa's description was enough to make him never want to close his eyes again. "You guys are absolutely gross."

Mikasa shrugged. "You're just jealous because you're still a virgin."

"I am n…"

"Don't even try to deny it."

Eren sighed. His virginity was no secret to his best friends.

"So why are you here?" Armin asked. He suddenly fully dressed in sweat pants and a loose-fitting T-shirt.

It all came back to him then. This momentary distraction was just that – a momentary distraction. The innocence of it all – innocence being a relative term – was shattered as Eren remembered the reason he'd ended up in Armin's neighborhood without so much as planning to pop by. After hours of speeding around pointlessly, Eren had worked all the emotions out of his system and found himself to be oddly devoid of any feeling. His mind was completely blank.

"Marco is dead," Eren whispered.

"What!" Armin and Mikasa cried out in unison. Armin continued, "How?"

Eren shrugged. Despite the void, it was still unpleasant to think about. "Jean said that when he woke up this morning, Marco wasn't breathing and his body was ice cold."

"He just randomly died in his sleep?" Mikasa confirmed. Eren nodded.

"It's not impossible," Armin said. "If someone suffers a seriously traumatic head injury they can die days, even weeks after it's happened. It actually happened to a boy in high school once…he had his head knocked in a rugby game and randomly died a week later."

"But the hospital cleared him, Armin," Eren said. "They said he was just mildly concussed and that he'd be okay. They said it wasn't life-threatening."

"They must've made a mistake," Armin whispered.

Silence descended upon the room as the three of them contemplated this. Neither Mikasa nor Armin were particularly close to Marco so the news wasn't necessarily disturbing. What disturbed them both, however, was that the same doctor that cleared Marco had also cleared Eren, which could only mean…

"You need to go get checked up again," Armin said and Mikasa added, "Immediately."

"Guys, I'm fine."

"So was Marco. And now he's dead." Mikasa's voice was flat and emotionless.

Dead. Marco was really dead. Marco had died because of Eren's incompetency. The brunette gasped as, for the first time all day, he thought of the legal repercussion of Marco's death: if he was found guilty of being the cause of the accident, he could get charged with manslaughter. Suddenly, losing his licence was the least of his concerns…Eren could spend the next few decades in prison.

"Shit," Eren muttered. He sank to the bed and sat beside Mikasa, his eyes wide and unseeing as he stared at the floor in front of him.

"What?" Mikasa asked.

"I could…" Eren sighed and closed his eyes. "I could go to jail for this…"

"That's not possible," Armin said with what sounded like a smile. "It's not your fault that he…"

"Yes it is, Armin," Eren snapped. He lifted his eyes to glare at Armin, who had shrunken back at the harshness of Eren's tone. The void had collapsed and anger replaced it. "I was in command at the time the plane crashed. They're busy investigating me as being the cause of the accident. If I'm the cause of the accident, it means I'm responsible for Marco's death. That's a manslaughter charge, Armin. That means jail time."

The silence was short-lived. Mikasa barked out, "Why are they investigating you?"

"It's just standard procedure," Eren said quietly. "Pilot error is the first thing the investigators want to rule out so it's the first thing they investigate."

"What'll happen to your flying if you're…you know…" Armin's voice trailed off.

"My licence could get suspended or even taken away," Eren whispered. But after his realisation, that fact was almost inconsequential.

Suddenly, being around his friends didn't seem like such a great idea. When Eren had arrived just moments ago, he was sure the last thing he wanted was to spend the night alone. But now that all the pity was on him, the last thing he wanted was to be around people who would do nothing but feel sorry for him and fuss over him all night. He didn't want them to stroke his back and shush him as he cried because he knew he was a pathetic excuse for a pilot and a murderer. He wanted to work through this on his own. Now more than ever, Eren really wanted to be alone.

"I'm gonna head off," Eren said, standing up. "Sorry for interrupting your…whatever it is you have going on."

"No, Eren," Mikasa said, "please stay."

"You could even sleep here if you want," Armin offered.

"No thanks," Eren replied. "I kind of wanna be on my own for a bit."

Be alone and let Marco haunt him. Be alone and let his self-loathing consume him. Just be alone and let the repercussions play out in his mind. That was all Eren wanted. To just be alone.

Levi had been brooding the whole day. Not only was he pissed off beyond belief that the brat had the audacity to just ditch him with a fully fueled helicopter, but the man was also morbidly concerned about Eren's well-being. The teen looked positively rattled after that phone call, so much so that he rushed across the apron with a complete disregard for his own safety; the kid came within inches of being sliced up by a propeller his own size. As much as he hated to admit it, Levi was deathly worried about the teen driving in that state, but by the time his own senses came to, Eren was already speeding off on that pretty little Suzuki of his.

The realization that this degree of worry was something over and beyond his usual shallow lusting after the teen was also a point of concern for Levi. Levi knew he was not ready to love again, if ever, and the fact that Eren simply existed was challenging this already. But now it wasn't only the fact that it was bound to happen that scared him, it was the fact that it was happening so damn fast. Could he already be falling in love with a teenager who wouldn't even give him so much as a second glance?

In an attempt to clear his mind, Levi ended up at the office working a ten-hour shift. The incessant thoughts of Eren were bad enough when they involved the brunette's gorgeous, tanned body, but they were downright mortifying when they involved the teen's emotional state. Needless to say, Levi had tried to call Eren every hour on the hour since the teen stormed off, and was met with voicemail every time until the teen eventually switched his phone off at two.

To say Levi was not going insane with worry would be a lie.

The man eventually headed home, popped a couple of sleeping pills and poured a double tot of whiskey to enjoy while the pills took effect. If he kept thinking of Eren a second longer he feared he may suffer an aneurysm.

Just as the pills started working their magic, Levi's phone started vibrating. It was a long buzz indicating someone was calling rather than texting. With a growl, the man lifted his phone to see who dared call him at this hour on a Saturday night, but his features instantly softened when he saw the name Eren Jaeger across the screen. Relief washed through him and he was quick to answer the phone.

"Eren," Levi breathed.

"Hi," Eren said.

This kid and his manners, was what Levi would've thought, but the tiredness in the brunette's tone disarmed Levi completely; it wasn't a tiredness caused by simple fatigue, but rather an exhaustion Levi was very familiar with: emotional turmoil.

"Where did you run off to this morning?"

"Marco died. The guy that was with me in the crash."

"I thought it was an emergency landing, not a crash." Levi's poor attempt at lightening the mood by quoting one of the first things Eren ever said to him failed horribly. Eren didn't react at all. Levi sighed. "I know, I remember him. What happened?"

"I don't know. His boyfriend said he found Marco dead this morning when he woke up."

Boyfriend? This piece of information stood out to Levi because it told him something vital about Eren, something that would make pursuing the boy significantly easier: Eren was not homophobic. After all, Levi had found Eren naked and snuggled up against the man he now learnt was gay.

"I'm sorry." Levi had no idea what to say, and was perfectly aware that those words sounded horribly insincere.

Eren sighed. "So yeah. I just wanted to apologize for ditching you like that. We could do it another time…if you want."

"Of course, I'd love to." Levi flinched at how eager he sounded. It was unlike him, but at the same time he had to get it across to Eren that he was keen on spending time together. "Are you free tomorrow? You sound pretty fucked up and I know the perfect place to take you."

"Yeah, tomorrow sounds good." There was no eagerness and definitely none of that characteristic defiance in the teen's voice. Where Eren would usually have a mouthful to say about stepping in a helicopter, the teen was oddly compliant. Marco's death must've hit him hard. Levi wondered if the two of them were close.

"I'll pick you up," Levi insisted, leaving no room for argument. "Text me your address."

"Sure."

Definitely no fight left at all. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Cheers."

Eren hung up before Levi could even say bye. Not that it fazed the man in the least, but once again he found himself irked by Eren's lack of manners, albeit mildly this time because of Eren's obviously anguished state. A small part of Levi actually pitied the teen and he wondered if this devastating setback in the brat's life could actually serve to bring the two of them closer in the long run. It seemed like a predatory thought at a glance, but the truth was Levi only wanted the kid to be happy. He would do anything in his power to turn Eren's tears to smiles.

For the first time in weeks, Levi went to sleep thinking about what could happen between him and Eren in a purely non-sexual context. Thinking about making the teen happy somehow calmed the man and gave him a sense of fulfillment, lulling him to the most peaceful sleep he's had in years.

Tada. That's all for today folks. I promise the date will happen in the next chapter. I don't like breaking promises, but we're all only human. Reviews are always welcome, I love hearing what you guys think :)