A/N: Hey, TwoMoons17, SaraTheAngelic and year of the panda! Welcome to the party! Also, I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my best friend (who calls herself Izzy on the internet heh). This story is based on her OC and I finally had the courage to show it to her! She loved it, yay!

Chapter 11

I couldn't keep my eyes off him during the entirety of our descent, one hand laced in his. His own gaze stayed upon me, and I didn't know why but I felt vulnerable underneath it. It was frightening and exhilarating and—

We crashed through Time and into my living room, the place absolutely trashed. Standing up quickly, I surveyed the damage to see if anything had been stolen during my absence; nothing. Then I checked the digital clock on my television's cable box for the time and date.

3:45 AM on February 15th. So it literally dropped me off a few short hours after I had traveled. I really wouldn't be able to get used to that, no matter how many times I did it.

Then I remembered: Levi. Levi was in my living room. Levi was in Los Angeles. Levi was in the year 2014.

Turning on my heel, I bent down to help him up but he was already making his way to his feet, dusting himself off. "This place is filthy, who lives here?"

My blood, already red-hot from the recent events, only boiled over at his little comment. "It's mine."

"You should clean this shit up." He didn't look at me anymore, just sauntered into my kitchen and started searching around. He made an "ahh" noise as he leaned down to look inside a cupboard, producing my Windex, a feather duster and floor cleaner.

"Levi, now is not the time to be doing this." I joined him and snatched the Windex away before he could reach for it again. "We have to figure out how to get you back to your time."

He sighed softly, shrugging. "I had already processed that sort of thing isn't up to you, now is it?"

"Well, no—" Goddammit, Levi. He had a point. "I mean, we still have to try. Aren't you freaking out even a little bit?" I slammed the bottle of blue cleaning solution back onto my marble kitchen countertop and placed my hands on my hips.

"I don't see the point in panicking over something that is out of my control. So we may as well make use of our time while Father Time is allowing us here." Without bothering to listen to any further arguments from me, he grabbed the feather duster and went right to work. "Start picking up pieces in your carpeting."

He was not going to order me around in my own house. And how could I be the only one ready to keel over because of this random turn of events?

And more importantly, why the Hell did he think I was going to do any type of cleaning at almost four in the morning?

"I'm going to bed," I stated then, swiveling on my heels to leave him. "I have to get up for work in two hours. I'm going to utilize that time with sleep."

"You're still going to work?" he asked, and something about his voice made me look back.

"Well… yes. I have to retain some sense of normalcy, after all." With that, I was gone and in my room.

Of course, I did not sleep. I was wide awake as I thought of all the possible wrong things that could occur while Levi was in my time period. I couldn't bring him to work with me, as I was sure he would spend the entire time cleaning up after everyone. No, now that I really thought about it, going to work right now was probably a very bad idea.

My alarm went off and I slammed for it to shut up before mechanically sitting up, my joints screaming at me. I must have been stiff on my bed, for my senses felt like they were on a thin wire as well. Quickly, I made my way into the living room to see if he was still cleaning.

He finished.

Not only was my living room spotless, but my kitchen, hallway, and even bathroom resembled sterling perfection.

Now Levi lay with his face in my couch, the feather duster still grasped in his hand. Cute, I mused, my face warming at the sight of him. Instead of waking him up, I figured now would be an ideal time to call in sick and take a shower. I would take the write up if I had to; didn't really bother me, considering my current situation. I had bigger things to deal with.

My boss yelled at me and threatened my job, and I almost decided to go in. But I had to stay true to my decision and abruptly told him it had to do with some "women problems". That shut him up right quick and I took the opportunity to hang up on him.

Next came bathing. Looking at how sparkling clean my bathroom was, I didn't want to ruin it with the sweat and dirt clinging to my skin. But I assumed Levi would understand.

I hoped.

I showered quickly, brushing my hair and teeth under the running water so as to not waste anymore time in the bathroom than necessary. Stepping out, I wrapped a towel around my body and made a leap for my bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind me.

And screamed at the sight before me.

Levi was going through my stuff. When the Hell did he even wake up?

"Get out!" I yelled, stomping over to him. He didn't appear to have flinched by my presence or by the fact I was yelling at the top of my lungs. He seemed more concerned with the contents of my closet.

"You have terrible taste in clothing." He fiddled with one of my scrubs, my favorite pink one covered in fluffy white kittens.

"That's none of your business!" I snatched it away from him and hid it behind my back. "But if you must know, most of this is for work. It's my uniform."

"I would sue for harassment and defamation of character." He finally left the room after that statement, and only when I knew my door was shut and I was left alone did I allow myself to breathe.

What if he had gone through my underwear drawer? There was nothing in there except boy shorts, an exercise bra, a couple of regular bras and a shit-ton of socks—and somehow, that seemed more embarrassing. When guys in my time scavenged through a woman's underwear drawer, they probably expected sexy and secret things, not the Plain-Jane pieces of fabric I sadly wore on a daily basis.

I'm too vanilla for anything else, I realized feebly, collapsing on my knees with a pair of boy shorts in my hand.

Now in dark jeans and a light sweater, I exited my room and wished I had a lock for it. Levi was in the kitchen, as indicated by the sizzling noises from my stove, so I entered with caution. What I didn't expect was the sight of him flipping fried eggs in a pan.

"You can cook?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course. Can't you?" By the look of chagrin on my face, he took that as his answer. "No, didn't think so."

Excuse me?! "What, you don't think I can take care of myself?"

"How often do you eat?" he countered instead of giving me a direct response. "You're very thin, even for your height."

This guy, of all people, would not discuss height with me. He was merely six or so inches taller than me, hardly a difference. "I eat… when I think about it."

Scraping the contents of the frying pan onto a plate, he handed it to me and said, "Well, now it's on your mind so eat it."

If it didn't look and smell so good, I would have thrown it right away. Grabbing a fork, I disappeared into the living room to eat, taking slow bites to savor the taste. Damn his skills! This is amazing. But I wouldn't dare tell him that. Maybe I'd include it in my will or even my tombstone.

Here lies Rosemary Evelyn Aer, who had the best fried eggs of her entire life.

Sounds about right.

"How long do you stay in your own time?" he asked me, joining me on the couch and messing with my remote. It seemed he still needed to figure out how to use it, but I was too preoccupied with my breakfast to help him.

"It varies. Sometimes a few hours. The last time it was three weeks. I grew… scared." Finishing my meal, I headed to my kitchen to wash the plate and put it away before going back. "But it's best not to think about it. Come on, let me at least show you around before we have to go back. I have a few people to visit anyway."

He managed to turn off my television before standing up and heading in the opposite direction of my front door.

"Where are you going?"

"I could at least use a shower, idiot. I just cleaned your filthy fucking house."

This is why I hate you. But I didn't argue with him, just sat right back down and crossed my arms impatiently. When he finished and put on only the button down and black pants he'd been wearing, he followed me outside and to my mailbox. There were a couple of letters, but nothing I needed to read now. Probably just birthday cards. I thought of taking my car, but instantly scratched that idea. I had seen too many movies where the person from the past went completely ape-shit because of being exposed to too much modern technology. Though Levi probably wouldn't react as irrationally, I still didn't want to risk, maybe, stunning him comatose or something.

Not humanity's strongest hero, nope, not a chance.

"What's over there?" he asked, pointing to an expanse of sand across the busy Los Angeles street.

"The… beach?" What did he mean, "what was it"? "Have you never—" Then it occurred to me: all that reading I had done at Hanji's house revealed that humans hadn't been outside the walls, or that far outside, in over a hundred years. "Oh. You haven't." I stared at it, then him, then grabbed hold of his hand and tugged him along.

"Where are you taking me?" he asked in that usual harsh way of his.

"The beach, stupid." I pressed for the right of way for the crosswalk and waited what seemed like an eternity for the light to change. We ran quickly before it changed back on us; LA drivers did not care who was in the road, as long as they got from point A to point B on time. At the wooden boundary before the ground was strictly sand, I slipped off my shoes and left them at the entrance, inviting Levi to do the same.

"Won't our feet get dirty?"

"You'll see. C'mon." He relented and followed suit, allowing me to lead the way all the way to the ocean shore. "Go on, step in it."

"The water?" He looked absolutely incredulous at my suggestion.

"Yes, the water. I'll join you." Rolling up my jeans' legs, I slowly placed my feet into the frigid ocean, the waves trying their best to knock me back onto the sandy shore. "It's safe, Levi. I promise."

He didn't look at all convinced, but he put his left foot, then right foot into the water, standing stiff against the current.

"See? Not so bad at all, huh?" I smiled reassuringly at him, bending down to press my hands against the sand beneath the blue. My handprints formed for only a moment before washing away, but it brought a smile to my face all the same. I felt like a kid again, rediscovering the ocean through the eyes of someone I—

I didn't want to think about it.

"Maybe you can show the others this back in your own time," I told him softly, daring to look back at him after a long silence. "You know, when you defeat the titans."

He was watching me with those intent grey eyes again, making me stop breathing. Had he been staring at me the whole time?

"Levi?"

"Thank you." There he went again, saying those two words at such an unexpected time.

"For what?" I rubbed my hands together to get the excess sand off of them before brushing my hair over my shoulders. "I didn't do anything except, well, bring you trouble."

"No. For this, idiot. For bringing me here." He cast his gaze back out into the ocean, his eyes growing as far away as its depths. "I used to ask myself what it would be like to come here. I had a friend who was much like you, proud and slightly annoying and very clumsy, who wanted to know what lay beyond the walls."

"Had a friend" usually indicated said friend was actually dead, but I dared to ask, "What was her name?"

"Isabel." He still didn't look at me, but continued to speak. At this point, I didn't believe he was in the same place as me, but very far away. "You see, I wasn't always a very important individual in the military. Instead, I was a thug who led a gang of thieves in Trost's underground city."

"A thug? Like a criminal?" So that was the impression I got from him when I first met him. It made sense, and I grew a little more wary of him right then. "What did you do?"

"Just stole shit, snuck above ground and took money, killed people. I became renowned above and below Trost and grew a criminal record the size of a church." He made an ironic tch'ing noise. "Erwin and his little friends found me and forced me and two of my friends into the Scouting Legion."

"So you don't really care about the sake of humanity?" I asked, my faith in him slowly dying.

"I do now. I didn't then." He blinked slowly and focused his eyes on me, his expression much softer than before and the wind blowing his raven hair out of his face. "Just took a little time."

I didn't comment, just stared at him in absolute awe. When I mustered the courage to say something, I went with, "Well, I'm proud of you. And I'm sure many others are as well."

"I guess." He tilted his head slightly behind him and said in a low voice, "He's been staring at us for some time now, I hope you know."

Confused, I whipped my head back to see just who he was talking about—and just about fainted. "Shit."

"What? Who is that?"

"My ex."

A/N: Oh look, another cliff hanger bye.