Author Note:

Thank you, guys, so much for all of the reviews! All of the kind words towards this fic really makes me happy. I'm glad people like this.

With that being said, this chapter is a little shorter than normal. For that I'm sorry, but I didn't want it to drag on.

Here we go!

Eren looked around the nurse's office as Levi packed what few items he had in the room.

"I can't believe you're not going to be the school nurse anymore. It's surreal. Do you know who is taking your place?"

Levi stopped what he was doing and took a glance around, as well.

"Yeah, some person called, Hitch."

"Hitch? What kind of name is that?"

Levi shrugged and went back to organizing his box of stuff. Two months had gone by fast and school was already out for the summer. Levi had secured a position at the hospital in town and was scheduled to start in a week. Today was a half day, so Eren took it upon himself to help Levi out. It had been an hour already and all Levi saw Eren do was stand around and talk. That was fine, though. Levi didn't mind the company.

With a quiet sigh, Levi picked up his box of things and turned around to face Eren. The boy was playing a game on his phone and not paying attention, so Levi coughed a little louder than normal to get his attention. Eren looked up startled, but then gave Levi a big grin.

"Oh, you ready?"

Levi shrugged, "Not really. I just like standing around, holding a box of shit for no apparent reason, brat."

He watched as the brunette rolled his eyes, pocketed his phone, and opened the door for Levi.

"You're such a smartass."

"And you're a liar if you say you don't like it."

Eren got back home a couple of hours later. As soon as he stepped into the apartment, he knew something was wrong. Someone was in his living room talking and the last time Eren had checked Mikasa was supposed to still be at work, but her shoes were here.

Eren called out tentatively, "Mikasa?"

The voices stopped talking and Mikasa called back, her voice sounded weird to Eren's ears, "Eren, come here."

Sliding off his shoes, he began his trek to the living room, his heart beating so hard that he thought it might break his ribs. The sight that was displayed before him as he rounded the corner didn't make it any better.

Two male police officers were sitting on chairs from the dining room and Mikasa was settled on the couch, her head turned to look at him with wide eyes that held fear, a look Eren hadn't seen on Mikasa's face since the day they found out about his mom.

"What is this?"

Eren stood stock still, halfway into the living room, and stared at everyone as they watched him.

One of the male police officers with short blond hair stood up and made his way to Eren with a friendly smile.

"You must be Eren. Nice to meet you, I'm Hannes. I actually went to school with your mother, back in the day. She was a great woman, I'm sure you miss her greatly."

Hannes held out his hand to shake Eren's, but Eren didn't budge.

"Why are you here?"

Hanne's smile dropped into a frown and he withdrew his hand.

"It might be better if you sit down." Hannes gestured to the spot to Mikasa and went back to his chair. Eren wavered on whether he should continue to stand or do what the police officer said, but one look at Mikasa's face and he knew he should probably sit down.

He settled down next to his sister and leaned forward with his hands on his knees.

"What's going on?"

The police officers shared a look, before Hannes nodded and looked at Eren and Mikasa, "I'm not going to beat around the bush. This is about your dad."

Eren stood up suddenly, his anger already rising, "What about my dad? Did you find him? Where is the asshole? Does he know how much me and Mikasa have went through since he disappeared?"

Eren's chest was heaving as his breathing became more and more erratic. Mikasa touched his hand and gently pulled him back down next to her.

"Calm down, Eren. Let them tell us what's going on." Mikasa spoke in the calming voice she always used when Eren was volatile.

Eren inhaled and exhaled, making himself calm down, before he apologized for losing his cool.

Hannes nodded his head, "It's okay, Eren. I understand. We did find your dad. I'm sorry to inform you, but he is no longer alive."

A dark shadow passed over Eren and Mikasa. They were hoping that maybe, somehow he was out there and he would eventually come back. That one day, they could have some semblance of a normal family back. It was a thought that was farfetched and with each passing year it dwindled.

"Where? How? When?"

It was the only thing Eren could think of asking. He needed answers; he needed to know why his mom died and why his dad disappeared off the radar.

Hannes sighed and straightened up in his chair, "The case has always been open since we found your mom. We had given up hope on solving the mystery, but just a month ago they found a body and we finally got the results in. It's your dad. From the lacerations on the bones and the missing fingers, we suspect that he was tortured. We got an anonymous tip a long time ago that we never placed much thought into, because it didn't make sense at the time. It seems your dad was in a bit of financial trouble with some loan sharks and when your mom and him were driving around town, the collectors spotted Grisha. We've got bits of information here and there, we are assuming that it led into a car chase that made Grisha crash. Your mom died on impact and the collectors took your dad."

Eren took it all in. He thought knowing would lift the heavy weight off his chest, but it didn't.

The other police officer coughed and spoke up for the first time, "We're going to have to keep your father's body as evidence for the time being, we're hoping to find out who exactly did this to your family. We'll call you when we can release him to you for funeral arrangements."

Mikasa was the one who stood up as the police officers did and escorted them out with a soft "thank you". When she came back, Eren was still in shock. He couldn't believe this. It was like their life was a soap opera.

"Eren."

Eren looked up at Mikasa in a daze, "Is this real? Did that just happen? Am I dreaming?"

Eren watched as Mikasa's face turned grim and he was so out of it that he didn't even see her raise her hand. When the slap collided with his cheek, it snapped him out of the weird, disconnected state he was in.

"Ow! What the fuck, Mikasa?!"

"I'm sorry, but it was the only way I could think of to prove to you that it was real. No matter how shitty it is, it's what happened. We've been doing fine up until this point, Eren. Now we have a little more closure, so think of it that way."

Eren rubbed at his cheek as Mikasa sat down next to him. She was right. Eren knew his sister had a point and he knew that getting angry at his dad would serve no purpose. They had been doing just fine until now and there was no need to let this hinder them.

"Did you really have to slap me that hard, though?"

Mikasa shrugged and leaned into him, her head resting on his shoulder, "Stop being such a wimp. I could have punched you."

Eren grimaced and wrapped his arm around his sister. They sat there in silence and soaked up the day's events. It was wild and Eren would have never in a million years guessed that it would happen, but he was glad to finally have some sort of closure.

Later that night, Levi stretched out on his couch and patted his stomach for Bean to jump up. The tabby settled down after a few rounds of kneading and Levi petted him absently as he flipped through the channels to look for something interesting.

Before he could find anything, Levi's phone went off with Eren's ringtone. Levi answered it after the second ring.

"Hello?"

"Levi."

Levi sat up at the sound of Eren's voice, effectively dumping Bean into the floor which earned him an affronted meow.

"What's wrong?"

Levi's heart pounded as worry began to build up in the back of his throat. Eren sounded exhausted and emotionally drained.

"Some stuff happened today when I got home."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Yeah."

Eren began telling Levi everything that happened after he had last seen the brunette. He was shocked, but he was also proud. He was so proud of Eren, because the teen was taking the news surprisingly well. Since the first time Levi met the boy with intoxicating sea-green eyes, he has watched Eren grow. Not so much physically, but emotionally and mentally. It was amazing.

Eren talked about his dad and his mom, small stories here and there about family trips and dinner time shenanigans. What really amazed Levi was the fact that Eren wasn't mad at his father. He was disappointed that his dad had to rely on loan sharks for finances, but he wasn't mad at his father about his mom dying. Eren knew that Grisha loved his mom with all of his heart and Eren knew that Grisha probably tried his hardest to protect her, so Eren told Levi that he wasn't mad.

"Dad was just trying to provide for us. Sometimes people make poor decisions even with the best intentions. Mikasa and I have decided we're going to get him cremated and put his urn next to mom's grave. I think mom would have wanted that."

Levi smiled sadly, "You're probably right, Eren. That sounds like a good plan."

They talked throughout the night. Levi eventually ventured to his bed and laid down with his phone still to his ear. They talked about their future. Eren's plans for what he was going to do once he graduated high school. Mikasa had graduated this year, so Eren talked about how she got a scholarship and was going to start college after summer. Levi could hear the pride Eren had for his sister and it made him smile.

Eventually, Eren fell asleep. Levi listened as soft snoring came across the phone. He couldn't wait for the coming up years when he and Eren could establish a life together. He was planning on asking Eren to move in with him once he graduated. He wanted to fall asleep and wake up to that messy haired brat as much as possible.

Before he hung up the phone, he whispered to the sleeping brunette, "God damnit, I love you, you little shit."

End Note: So, the next chapter is the last chapter. I wanted to end it on an even number, lol.

This makes me super sad, because I've put so much time in this and it's so weird to think that it's going to be over soon. I'm planning on finishing the last chapter tonight, so it might be up in less than 10 hours.

Thank you for reading! I hope this chapter was okay, despite it being a tad short.