Chapter 2

Eren

Eren sighed. With every day the world seemed to get more and more complicated.

Or maybe he was not keeping up with things?

I should keep moving forward. Always forward.

"Okay, so I'll choose... Caffe Borgia and also this strangely sounding caramel espresso... Con pa..."

"Con Panna!", the smiling coffee shop worker finished the sentence. "You will love it, I'm sure. Will you drink here or take away?"

"Take away, please." A few minutes later, Eren walked out of the coffee shop, holding a gray cardboard box with two paper cups placed in it. He was wearing a brown jacket with a hood and black glasses. As Annie used to say, 'better safe than sorry'. He doubted that anyone would recognize him, but he didn't want to take any risks.

After a while, he slipped into a small tenement house, jumping several steps at a time until he reached the top floor. He knocked twice, then stepped inside the apartment in the attic, pulling the hood off his head.

He almost tripped over the pile of clothes that were laying in the hallway. Eren laughed softly, then opened the door on the left. Though it was the middle of the day, the room was dark, illuminated only by the computer screen. A young person was sitting in front of the computer. He seemed lost in his thoughts. The boy had short, neatly cut blond hair and rectangular glasses. He ran his fingers through the bangs that fell over his large blue eyes. Then he yawned loudly.

He raised his eyebrows at Eren who just entered his room.

"Eren? Aren't you supposed to be out of town with Annie tonight?"

"Yo, Armin. Change of plans, she postponed the meeting. If I had to guess, Grisha told her go without me. Here you go." As he spoke, the young Yaeger put one cup of coffee on the desk. It joined the collection of others that were placed on the counter, but were already empty.

"Is that coffee? I needed that!", said the boy named Armin and quickly grabbed the hot drink. He took a few sips, then looked at Eren, who jumped on the bed to lie down. "It's funny that you came by, especially right now."

"Yeah? Why is that? Are you doing laundry? Can I throw in my clothes?", Eren asked, raising the window blinds. The shadows in the room were replaced by daylight.

"That too," Armin admitted, then bend over to the computer. He smiled calmly, but there was bright light of excitement in his eyes. "And also, you know… I finally managed to hack the security system in that detective's house. I can unlock the back door for a few seconds. It's not much, but should be enough to get you inside."

Eren took off the black glasses from his nose, so Armin could see that his eyes were widening. In no time he stood up and reached the chair, on which his friend was sitting. Yaeger looked at the laptop screen.

"Oh shit! Arlert, you are a fricking genius!"

Armin laughed merrily.

"Shut up, it's not a big deal… But, to be fair, this is truly one of the most solid security systems that I have hacked. The guy knows his stuff."

Eren nodded appreciatively. Armin looked at his friend's face for a moment. He hesitated before speaking.

"Eren... Are you sure?", asked the blond boy, touching the cup with his lips. His blue gaze turned sad. Yaeger looked at Armin and raised an eyebrow.

"You need to be more specific. Are you talking about me breaking into this man's house? I told you, I can't knock on his front door and just say hi. I don't want to risk that anyone sees me. I'm not going there for a cup of tea…"

"You know what I meant," Arlert interrupted. "Are you sure you want to do this? I can only imagine what will happen when your father finds out. Or somebody else."

"I have no choice. You know why."

Eren reached out and put his hand on his friend's shoulder. Armin widened his eyes, then glanced quickly in another direction.

"You don't have to do that. I can handle it, really", the boy muttered, but his voice started to falter.

"No, you can't, Arlert. I have to do this on my own. I want you to be safe, you and Mikasa."

"But what about you?", Armin asked, returning his gaze to his friend. Suddenly there were tears in his blue eyes. "Eren, if something bad will happen to you, I'll never forgive myself."

"Easy, I'll be fine. Gosh, you are such a cry-baby… Remember? We checked out these detectives before. They took down Heckmann's group all by themselves, though it took them some time. Think about how it would look if there was someone inside the group, helping them."

"I know, but I'm worried anyway. When Mikasa finds out about this, she definitely won't let you do this…"

"And that's why we have to keep it a secret. For her safety, I don't want her to find out. I will get you two out of this shit, I promise."

"Us three, Eren. Don't forget about yourself."

Eren sighed.

"If the police will agree to that, then yes."

"Of course they will agree", said Armin, turning his eyes to the laptop. "You haven't committed any serious crimes yet, Eren. Besides, you are still underage. People don't go to jail just for belonging to an unlucky family. I hope you will get along with that Ackerman guy. I heard that he's not too gentle, if you know what I mean. Are you sure we should start with him?"

"Oh yes. I'm sure. I want to do it today. Do you have the evening off?", Eren asked, placing his hands on the backrest of the chair.

"Your father doesn't need me until tomorrow, so yes," replied Armin.

The silence that followed was very telling.

Levi

Ackerman put a glass of water on the table. Then he sat down on the chair and looked at Eren.

Eren leaned back against the chair. His face was now clearly visible in the bright light of the lamp. Big green eyes with long lashes attracted attention. The boy's face was covered with a slight stubble. Long brown hair was falling around his shoulders.

Yaeger looked back and smiled wryly.

"Thanks", he said casually and reached for the glass. He took a few sips of water and sighed with pleasure. "Much better now. Being overpowered by a police officer really dehydrates the body."

"Can you explain now what are you doing here?", Ackerman asked menacingly, staring at Eren through narrowed eyes.

He rested his elbows on the table, with the gun in one hand. He couldn't help it, he felt much safer this way. Even if Eren found it disturbing, he didn't make any comment.

"Like I said, I wanted to talk to you."

"I'm not your friend, you little punk", Levi muttered, while his gray eyes narrowed dangerously. "As far as I know, shithead, you're not even eighteen."

"Geez, are you always like that?", Eren laughed. When he saw Levi's murderous gaze, he sighed. "Okay, sir. Is that better?".

"What would someone like you want to talk to me about?", Ackerman asked distrustfully. He wanted to call for support right away, but since the kid was harmless, he decided to do that later. He preferred to interrogate Yaeger all by himself. Suddenly something occurred to him. "How did you even get in here? It's impossible to get through my security system... Was someone helping you?"

"So many questions at once… Sir, you are worse than my mother." Eren rolled his eyes and smiled. "I'm not the one who hacked your system, it was my friend. He is quite a prodigy in that matter. He turned off the alarm at your back door for a few seconds. I couldn't come to you during the day because that would be dangerous. Walls can have eyes and ears... If we want this to work, we must keep our acquaintance a secret."

"Our acquaintance? That is still an overstatement", said Levi with a gruff tone. He looked at the unannounced visitor without a blink. "What exactly do you want to do? Grisha sent you here, right? This bastard really thinks he can bribe me?"

For the first time this evening, Eren's face tightened. The sound of his father's name was enough to make the boy's body tense nervously. Young Yaeger frowned a little. He looked much more serious and much older.

"No. He doesn't know that I'm here." The boy paused for a moment and looked to the side. Levi stared at him silently, waiting for the rest of the speech. While Eren's face definitely belonged to a young man, his eyes showed feelings and emotions reserved for those who had seen too much. During his career, Levi had often witnessed a similar sight and found it very unfair.

Young people shouldn't have such a heavy gaze.

He didn't know what must have been going on in the boy's life, but it certainly wasn't anything good.

Levi chose not to rush Eren, he already had asked him too many questions. He knew from his experience that silence was sometimes more effective than any kind of requests. Or threats.

Finally Eren opened his lips and spoke.

"I want you to catch him. I will do anything to help you."

His voice was strong, determined, without any sign of trembling or hesitating. Levi managed countless interrogations in his six years in the police force. Thanks to his work experience, he could easily tell when someone was lying. Of course, his feelings were always highly subjective, he was not a lie detector after all. But if he had to make a bet with Hanji tonight, he would have bet that Eren was telling the truth.

However, he decided not to trust that brat so quickly. Perhaps in the same way that his brother was a great killing machine, Eren might as well be a great actor. Everyone had their own role to play.

He turned the Glock in his right hand and fixed his gray eyes on Eren.

"Did I understand correctly? Do you want to be our informant?"

"Yes, exactly! That's the word I was missing", Eren replied, straightening up in his chair. He brought up an earlier smirk that rejuvenated him. Suddenly he looked like a teenager that was up to something. "I know that you probably have to think it through and do all the police stuff, blah, blah, blah… Like talking to your team and so on. But I hope that after this, we can start our cooperation."

"How should I know it's not a trick?", Levi asked, watching Eren's face and trying to read his emotions. All he could tell at that moment was that the boy looked relaxed and amused for some reason, though it seemed more like a pose. Levi didn't like it. "You might as well give all the information back to Grisha."

"Well, I guess you have to trust me. I'll try to win you over somehow. Together we have a chance…"

"No, kid, I don't have to do anything," Levi interrupted him sharply, speaking each word hostile. "Besides, I don't even know if it's possible. There's no way I could trust you."

Eren didn't seem very concerned after hearing this. He shrugged as if he expected that reaction. He was still smiling slightly.

"Well, I'll do anything to make you change your mind. Perhaps your colleagues will have a more positive attitude."

"I really doubt it. What do you want in return?", Levi asked suddenly. Eren raised his eyebrows.

"What?"

"You are definitely doing it for a reason. What do you want in return? A new passport? Or maybe to leave his country under a different name?"

Eren snorted softly and shook his head as if Levi said something that amused him immensely. Ackerman's eyebrows shot up menacingly, but before he could make up any insulting remark, Eren replied:

"That sounds fantastic, agent Ackerman. Yes, I want a passport, even two passports, but not for me. I want you to get new identities for my two friends. They got into this mess against their will. If they stay here with Grisha, it won't end well for them. We have a common goal, detective, so I think eventually we'll get along."

Levi looked at the young lad without a blink. He took notice of the words that Eren was using during their conversation. He didn't speak highly about Grisha. He also used the phrase "we", as if he had a detailed plan already prepared in his head and he was sure that Levi's unit would agree to his offer. It also sounded like he already considered himself part of the team.

"I can't promise anything," Levi said finally. "As you mentioned before, I have to talk to the team and especially to my superiors. It is not as easy as you think."

"Sure. I understand", Eren raised a hand in a reassuring gesture.

They were both silent for a moment.

"Who are those friends you are talking about?", Ackerman asked finally.

Eren's face softened. The boy smiled slightly.

"Armin, my childhood buddy. We've known each other since forever. And also my other friend, adopted by Grisha."

"Mikasa Yaeger?", Levi asked. "I thought Grisha sent her away somewhere. We haven't heard anything about her in a long time."

"That's because he holds her close", the boy replied. His gaze turned serious. "He wants her to help him manage the business."

"Are you serious? We thought that you will be his successor", Levi said with a little caution in his voice. He didn't want to reveal too much, in case Eren was actually a double agent. "Aren't you your daddy's favorite?"

Eren laughed softly again. Levi didn't know if it was his natural behavior or if he wanted to look laid-back at all costs.

"Me and Grisha don't quite get along. Let's say we have different views on some things. He didn't like the fact that I dared to stand up to him when he got Mikasa and Armin involved in this mess. He is the kind of man you cannot refuse. But I'm sure you already know that."

Levi nodded slowly. He studied Eren's face for a moment longer. The boy looked back at him without any fear. His attitude exuded firmness and confidence. Eren's green eyes showed the strength and stubbornness so characteristic of this family. Levi also saw in those eyes something else, something he couldn't define at this moment.

Ackerman finally rose from his chair.

"Hope you're not in a hurry," he replied, taking his phone out of his pocket and dialing Hanji's number.

"Of course not. I'm at your service, detective", replied Eren, grinning. Levi frowned slightly. Suddenly he heard the sleepy voice of his colleague.

"Han? Get in a taxi right now."

"Are you fucking crazy, Ackerman?", the woman muttered. Levi imagined Hanji, rolling over in her bed. "I just came back from the gym and I'm exhausted. Whatever it is, you will tell me tomorrow morning…"

"I made too much quinoa and someone has to help me eat it."

There was silence on the other side of the receiver. Levi watched as Eren fixed him with an incomprehensible look.

"With chicken? Or with grilled vegetables?", asked Hanji. An attentive listener would sense the anxiety in the woman's voice.

"With grilled vegetables. Lots of broccoli. Come quickly, because it will get cold. Also, ask Erwin and Mike if they are hungry."

"Will do", Hanji replied, then hung up. Eren looked around the living room.

"You know, I suddenly got hungry."

"Because of you, we'll have to change our secret code", Levi confessed, looking at the young Yaeger.

The boy sighed softly. He folded his arms on the table top, resting his chin against them.

"You don't have to change anything. Trust me a little bit, okay?", the young man replied, looking at Levi.

Ackerman didn't comment on this. He could not make this decision by himself. He had to consult with his team and, above all, obtain permission from his superior. He had no idea how Keith Shadis, their unit commander, would react to Eren's offer. Usually informants were greeted with open arms, though very cautiously. However, a person who was so close to Grisha could raise serious doubts.

Seeing the gentle smile young Yaeger sent him from across the table, Levi thought to himself that he might be able to give him a chance.

He didn't know yet if he would be able to trust Eren, but maybe that's how their next step should look like. Maybe that's what they needed to move forward?