Chapter 5: Old friends, new enemies
Levi walks down the hallway and feels eyes following him. He should be used to it by now, it doesn't bother him much, its more the reason for the rumours and talking isn't him but Eren. Since the new recruits arrived and found out about Eren´s past. To be fair most of it was Eren´s own doing by freely talking about killing a bunch of assholes as a child. Better to tell the truth but let their imagination go wild. That Eren knew two of the recruits before his time in the underground city spread like a wild fire. Of course the two recruits got questioned by their friends and following soldiers. Levi listened in some of the conversation. Armin Arlert and Mikasa Ackerman didn't tell them much. For one she doesn't know much except for the fact that she stood right beside him as he killed those people and he has to many childhood memories of their time together.
Still the rumours reach from him kicking the shit out of other children with five to Eren eating people because he had killed many more but only got caught with the last three. Adding on this was that his father is apparently missing. Levi lost the whole thing after the first week. Too many different sources, too many different stories and all different. And Levi hate every single one of them.
Every time he hears a new one he let the new recruits feel his opinion about it in the next training lesson. Eren tries to stop him and hold him back but Levi still gets them worked to the bones in the moments Eren isn't looking. He knows exactly who spreads what rumour.
Eren on the other hand handles the whole thing as if it isn't there and it is Armin that explains it to Levi why he acts like it. As they were children Eren really was a child. Never fitting in, always fighting, never knowing when to give up or give in. The people in their neighbourhood had started talking about him and mothers wouldn't let their children play with him anymore.
As a child Levi and probably every child born in the underground city dreams of the surface as soon as they learn of it´s existing. Every child wanted to be born up there not down in the darkness. They think everything in perfect in the cities under the sun. No suffering, death, hunger or violence. But after meeting Eren, Levi and the others learned quickly that not everything is a walk-in paradise on the surface. The childish thought that children will live a good life … it might be true for some to some extent but not for all. Ant yet again Levi wants to make Eren´s life better. So he punish the rumour spreading recruits in a way no one can blame him for. Its just training. And more training after the main training and if that isn't enough to let them all fall to the ground vomiting and passing out from exhaustion, there are still stables to clean and rounds to run.
"Levi?" Eren whispers into the dark of the night. They had gone to bed hours ago but Eren couldn't sleep. He had met Armin before training and he told him that Levi is punishing people who spread rumours about him and apologized for all this people. A typical reaction from his childhood friend. They hadn't really spend much time together. First of all he has a job to do and Eren takes his job very seriously. Second Armin and of course Mikasa too have their own work to tent to. If Eren has to be honest with himself he also tries to keep them on a save distance. He grow used to being who he is and being around them reminds him of a time in chains and he falls back into old behaviour. Around Levi, Isabel and Furlan is no need to think about anything he does twice. If he wants to hit that guy that insulted his relationship with Levi then he does so. If he feels like going into the woods and kill a rabit for them as a secret snack he goes out and hunts a rabbit. No one questions him where the blood on his hands come from, no one dares to.
"Hm?" Levi mumbles. Half sleeping or still dreaming Eren isn't sure.
"I love you." Eren whispers. He doesn't expect an answer. He isn't even sure why he told Levi that in the middle of the night, well aware that they both have to get up early in the morning. Twilight training, he calls it.
"Love you too." Eren smiles even half-sleeping Levi can say it.
"You don't have to worry about me. Lets give the poor souls that got you angry on my behalf a rest. The next mission is soon and I don't want them too tired to fight the real enemy outside. Okay?" The warm body that holds him stills and Eren knows that Levi is now more awake, that he had listened.
"Only you can have such a good heart." Levi kisses his neck. Trailing kisses to his ear. "Fine. For you but if one of them says so much of a peep I will personally use them as titan bait." Eren´s ears feel hot as Levi speaks and the warm breath that leaves his mouth let him shudder.
Eren turn around in Levi´s arms and searches for his eyes in the darkness that is only illuminated by a few stars and the weak light of a new moon. "Those rumours can´t hurt me." Eren tries to sound confident. He feels confident that his words are true, now in the arms of his beloved. Surrounded by warms and love.
"Maybe but they hurt me, listening to them making you into some kind of mindless beast like a titan. You are my monster. You have a right to fight for your life, for your friends and family. You have the right to shed blood and cover your path with the bodies of your enemies. No one has the right to take away your ability to fight and to survive in this cruel world. These people who aren't ready to do everything to survive have no place in this world." Levi stops and looks at Eren, using his hand to push away a few of the hairs that had fallen into his face. His hair had grown longer again. "I love you. I love it when you cuddle with me. I love it when you remind me to do the dreadful paperwork. I love you when you tell me to eat the strange beans they tell us are healthy. I love you when you tease Isabel. I love you when you prank Furlan with her. I love you when we train the recruits. I love you when you kill titans. I love you when you protect me and when you let yourself be protected by me. I love you when you let the monster that let you survive until today take over and I love you when you hold me back if I am too hart to another person. I love you Eren and no one can ever change my mind."
"I am your monster." The words are barly above the sound of their breathing but Levi hears them, always.
"You are my monster and I´m your demon." And like always he answers with a sentence that is theirs.
Eren knows that Levi would never tell him a lie, that he also rarely talks that much in the daylight. He is toughed by those words. All of them. And he feels the tears poring out of his eyes. The last time he had cried it was for his mum, no he cries for himself and let himself be pulled closer. No air exists between the two bodies. As if they had become one.
True to his word was the training easier the last few days, Levi even told them so with the threat of being bait everyone is still doing their best. The next mission will start tomorrow. They will ride over to Trost and exit the fall form there. Eren is looking forward to it. Technically its still inside the wall but it is different. And he loves the feeling of the wind in his long hair when they ride fast through the inside of the fallen wall Maria. They will try to reach the wall bringing new building material for their ultimate goal of fixing the gate so the wall can be reclaimed.
Nearly all of the new recruits are on the mission. They look nervous, even Mikasa who is pretending not to care looks a bit paler as usually. But Eren managed their training, she is ready. Erwin had put them in different team. Levi and Eren are on the opposite sides of the formation, the most dangerous place to be, they are the best fighter. It´s logical to place them there to defend everyone else. It always ends like this. It still make Eren feel uneasy, every time.
The long line of horses, carriages and people enters the city of Trost. They stand in line waiting for the bells but they don't come. The city is filled with a strange silence. One Eren had never heard before. It feels wrong, as if something will happen in the next minute. Birds suddenly rise into the air and Eren follows them with his eyes as they disappear behind the wall. A yellow/green lightning hits the ground behind the world and steam fills the sky.
The ugly face of a skinless titan looks over the wall. And all hell breaks loose.