Good afternoon! Or I guess evening or night, depending on your longitude. I wanted to get this up and posted this morning, but I was covering for someone at my day job. So annoying, right? Regardless, I'm so happy you're all here and very grateful for the feedback I've received so far! I don't think I've ever gotten as much positive feedback over one line in any of my other work as Eren saying "All right bet" and I think that's wonderful. I also wasn't expecting it to resonate the way it did, and I think that's wonderful too!

Anyway, welcome to chapter 2! I'm excited about this chapter for many reasons, but the first one is of course because we get to meet Levi! I remember when I was first writing this last year after words and words of Eren's narration being in Levi's head was such a breath of fresh air. I love his banter with his colleagues and the fucked up jokes and genuine affection between him and Hange, it gives me such life. Levi was also interesting to write, because the way he speaks in Japanese is really unusual (my dear Vega, who is competent in Japanese unlike me, explained it to me). It's simultaneously really delicate and really crass in a way that's hard to convey in English without it sounding aggressive. It was a really cool challenge technically, and I think I did a good job but I'll be curious what you all think!

Also I need to shout out to another dear friend of mine who works as a funeral director here in New York (she has the best work stories of anyone I've ever met, as you can imagine) and was basically my technical advisor for a lot of the next two chapters.

Also also, it's been a year since chapter 139 got released, can you believe it? I remember getting up early to read it, then going and getting my Covid vaccine at Yankee Stadium, which interestingly was the first time I'd ever been there! I'm actually terrified of needles, so it was an interesting day all around.

I think that's it? OH NO!

For the vibes, listen to Heroin by Lana Del Rey.

Okay, now that's it. Enjoy the chapter!

The words hung in the morning air, holding everyone and everything completely still. Eren's first, stunned instinct was that he hadn't heard correctly, that his exhaustion must have distorted the words. "What the fuck?" he asked, eventually. Carla sighed impatiently and Grisha took a step towards him.

"Zeke's dead," he repeated, and although Eren had been taller for years, his father seemed to tower over him in the enormity of his news. "His body only got discovered last night, so I have to go identify him, then see to his apartment. Now get in the car, Eren."

"I-" Eren had no idea what to say, but what could he say? All he wanted to do was go upstairs and pass out, and now- none of this made any sense! It was surreal, bizarre even. In the end, all he could muster was, "What do you need me for?!"

"Do as your father says, Eren, for heaven's sake!" snapped Carla, who was now brushing sand out of Mikasa's hair.

"I need to go to sleep!" he cried, but Grisha cut across him.

"It's your own fault you've been up all night! Now I won't tell you again, get in the car."

Seething, Eren stormed past his father and threw himself into the passenger's seat. Grisha followed, slammed the driver's side door shut and screeched off. He turned sharply left three times, then began to heave and lurch down 2nd Avenue, catching every single red light in the thickening morning traffic. Eren closed his eyes, crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned back in his seat; the constant starting and stopping was much more noticeable now he wasn't driving. Grisha sighed heavily and turned on the radio, only for Eren's music to come blasting from the speakers. "For god's sake!" he snapped, switching the input to the radio and an NPR broadcast. In the relative quiet of the host's droning about who was fucking up the world today, Eren heard one sentence echoing loud and clear inside his head.

Zeke was dead. Zeke was dead! Zeke was dead?

What the fuck was he supposed to do with this information? He and his half brother had only met a few times, it was always fucking weird and he could only remember two incidents clearly anyway: Zeke's mother Dina, Grisha's first wife's, funeral when he was a kid, and then when Grisha had disowned him four years ago.

Zeke had called Grisha, saying he had something to talk to him about and that he wanted to do it in person. Eren overheard the phone call, and subsequent discussion between his mother and father, while he was in the TV room playing video games. Carla had left in a hurry, saying she had errands to run, and an uncomfortable tension had filled the house. Grisha retreated into his study while Eren and Mikasa stayed up in their rooms until Zeke arrived. Eren pressed his nose against his bedroom window to watch his half brother enter the house before lying down on his bed to wait for him to leave, his music at a much lower volume than usual. He had no interest in eavesdropping, but he did have tickets to a show that night and he didn't want to head out while Zeke was still there, lest he try and talk to him.

Unfortunatley, the conversation dragged and dragged and cut Eren's departure finer and finer (concerts were the only thing he didn't like being late for because fuck fighting for space inside venues). When he couldn't risk any more time, Eren gathered his headphones, money and keys, closed his bedroom door softly and snuck successfully past Mikasa's room. However, when he was halfway down the stairs, the conversation in the living room exploded.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU DID THIS TO ME!" Zeke shouted.

"MY FAULT?! HOW DARE YOU!" The noise nearly knocked Eren back and he clutched the banister for support just as Mikasa came sprinting out of her room, eyes wide and breath shallow. She seized Eren by the upper arm, though she needn't have bothered: the blazing argument kept him frozen where he stood. He'd never heard his father yell at anyone like that, it was usually his mother who got loud. He looked at Mikasa over his shoulder, genuinely alarmed, but then,

"DON'T BLOW YOUR SECOND CHANCE, SINCE YOU THREW YOUR FIRST ONE AWAY!"

"ZEKE!"

But Zeke was already storming into the hall, fists clenched and eyes flashing behind his glasses. He paused, trembling and breathing hard, then looked around and caught sight of Eren and Mikasa on the stairs. Immediately, Mikasa yanked Eren back and stood protectively in front of him, but Zeke just laughed. "I wish you luck, Eren!" he cried, his tone a weird mix of spite and concern, then wrenched the front door open and stormed from the house, slamming it shut behind him. The sound echoed in the sudden, electric silence. Mikasa looked over her shoulder at Eren, but neither of them said anything. A full minute later, Grisha appeared in the foyer, but he paid no mind to Eren or Mikasa as he strode down the hall towards his office.

The door slammed in the distance, and after another minute, Eren muttered, "I'll see you later," hastily to Mikasa and sprinted out of the house before she could argue.

Although the concert was fun and he was sweaty and battered from moshing and his ears were ringing from the noise and his throat was raw from screaming, it wasn't enough to banish the picture of his half brother's expression as they'd locked eyes or his father's as he'd stared coldly into the foyer.

Zeke had tried to reach out to Eren in the intervening years, but he'd always ignored the messages. He wondered suddenly what would happen now. Would people expect him to cry? Mourn outwardly like they had been close? Eren didn't understand and at this moment could not have cared less, and why the fuck was his father dragging him out with him anyway? What the fuck did he need him for? He thought about asking, but as the car pitched and swerved, opening his mouth didn't seem like a good idea.

"Where did you two go last night?" asked Grisha, after a few minutes, turning down the radio. Eren sighed irritably and waited until they were at a complete stop before answering.

"The beach," he muttered, without opening his eyes.

"That explains all the sand on the floor."

"It does."

Neither of them spoke the rest of the drive, and Eren didn't open his eyes until the acrid smell of gasoline pulled him out of his dizzy half sleep. He blinked, and saw they'd pulled into a parking garage. He rubbed his eyes with his fists and took off his seatbelt while Grisha told the older man who'd come out to greet them, "I doubt this will take more than an hour." Eren got out of the car, the smell of gasoline even sharper in his nose as the distant jackhammering of ConEd doing god knows what echoed off the concrete. He bit back a groan, wishing he could sit down again. "Let's go," said Grisha, tucking a paper ticket into the pocket of his suit jacket.

"Lead the way," muttered Eren, following his father out onto the street. They were apparently in midtown, west of Penn Station, which, now the sun had completely risen, was baking and steamy and way too bright. They crossed 9th Avenue, overflowing with traffic and people on bikes weaving in and out of it, then walked halfway down 35th Street where Grisha opened a grim looking door. They found themselves in a long, dingy hallway, painted a sickly green and lit with ugly fluorescent strip lights. "Fuck," Eren muttered, blinking as his eyes adjusted.

"What?" asked Grisha, but Eren said nothing. At the end of the hall, a bored security guard looked up from his phone to watch Eren and Grisha empty their pockets and walk through a metal detector. He then pressed a worn out button on the wall behind him to let them into an equally depressing waiting room.

It was cold, and the floor was made of stained linoleum and plastic chairs were set along walls painted the same sickly green as the hallway. A few people milled about, some crying, some whispering to each other, some just staring straight ahead in silence. The whole scene swam strangely before Eren, like a desert mirage, but under his dizziness and exhaustion he knew a shoot of curiosity. He'd never been to the coroner's office before, and somehow he'd expected something more impressive, like the hospital where his father worked. Of course, Grisha was a neurosurgeon at a private hospital uptown, the people here were all exploited city employees.

There was a water fountain in a far corner, and Eren made his way towards it while his father approached the reception desk set behind a plastic barrier. Eren filled a paper cup with water and drank slowly from it, and though it did help with his nausea, one of the strip lights above him flickered irritatingly. He shut his eyes tight and bit down on his lip, moving it between his teeth, until a sudden loud buzzing rang out through the room.

"Eren, come this way," Grisha called. He tossed out the paper cup and followed him through a door to the right of the front desk into yet another grim hallway. It was even quieter and colder than the waiting room, and goosebumps erupted up Eren's arms as their footsteps echoed off the walls.

"Dr. Jaeger?"

"Yes." The medical examiner, a hard-faced woman who looked even more tired than Eren felt, appeared from another door, carrying a clipboard in one hand and extending the other, which Grisha shook.

"Are you also family?" the ME asked next, turning to Eren, but before he could respond, Grisha added,

"Yes. This is my son, Eren." She shook Eren's hand too.

"This way." She opened the door with a soft click that echoed in the narrow space, and Eren knew a thrill of foreboding.

Zeke was dead. Zeke was dead? Zeke was dead…

The room really did look like a horror movie with its metal tables, drawers and shelves and tile floor complete with drain in the middle. Then of course on a central table, a white cloth covered a recognizably human shape, and the air conditioning and fans didn't mask the smell of what was unmistakably death. Eren's heart sped up, reminding him forcefully and viscerally of his own living body.

"Ready?" asked the ME.

"Yes," replied Grisha, without looking at Eren. However, the ME gave him an inquiring look over Grisha's shoulder. Eren's eyes widened in surprise, but he nodded. The ME pulled the sheet back. Grisha placed his hand over his mouth, and Eren's eyes widened still further.

'Whoever thinks dead bodies look like someone sleeping is fucking blind,' he thought. The face was bloated, waxy and discolored, the skin on the chest was splitting and peeling like a sunburn and the hair was limp and matted by fluids. Even the photos of cadavers he'd seen in his father's medical textbooks looked nothing like this.

"That's Zeke," said Grisha, quietly, though how he knew that, especially since the corpse wasn't wearing glasses, Eren had no idea.

"We aren't sure what happened, given the state of decomposition, but at the outset it looks like natural causes."

"So it'll be a full autopsy, then?"

"That's procedure." Eren had seen videos of autopsies online, but it was hard to imagine that happening to Zeke. He wondered what they'd find. "Afterwards we'll release the body to you," said the ME, pulling the sheet back over Zeke's face, "so if you want to start making arrangements…"

"Yes, thank you."

'Arrangements? For what?' Eren thought, but then, 'Oh, a funeral, no shit, but…' He looked at his father for the first time since they'd come back here. He was pale, and a vein was going in his throat, but his eyes were cold, like windows of an abandoned house. It was the same expression he'd worn after his final argument with Zeke. 'Good luck, yeah…' thought Eren, dropping his gaze to the floor.

"There's a whole ass commotion outside this building," said Levi Ackerman, stepping into the cramped, though impeccably clean and perfectly organized, office.

"Good morning to you too," said Erwin, not bothering to look up from his computer screen.

"An ass commotion?" asked Petra, emerging from the closet they ironically called The Break Room with fresh coffee. Levi shut the door and crossed the room to lean against Erwin's desk.

"That would have been more interesting," he said, folding his arms in front of his chest, "but no, it was just someone passed the fuck out on the sidewalk and his friends trying to get him to move." Petra raised her eyebrows over the rim of her mug, which pictured an illustrated smiling dandelion saying "Blow me!"

"Was he drunk?" she asked, while Erwin continued to type away, his brow furrowed and sharp eyes narrowed. Levi stared thoughtfully out of the window behind his desk. It faced east, so even though it was a shitty view of nondescript buildings somewhere between Times Square and Columbus Circle, plenty of sunlight was coming in. He tried to recall the particular quality of the man's total inability to remain upright.

"Most likely. Fucking dipshit, he'll get his ass arrested doing that around here this early."

"Did his friends manage to get him out of harm's way?" asked Petra, while Erwin kept typing.

"Out of harm's way, I couldn't tell you. Out of the way of everyone walking, yes."

"Well that's something, at least," said Erwin, reasonably, while Petra laughed and drank more coffee. He stopped typing at last and gave Levi a small smile, which he returned as much as he ever did.

The phone rang, and Erwin answered it. "Scouts Decon, Erwin Smith speaking, how can I help you?" Levi had always admired Erwin's professional voice and demeanor, his ability to be businesslike without losing any of his warmth or softness. "I'm so sorry for your loss." He said that with every call, and he meant it with every call. "I see. Yes, absolutely. Well we can't say for sure until we see it, but- Yes exactly, I appreciate that. The address, please?" Levi saw him open Google Maps and enter a Brooklyn address. "I can get a crew down there in a half hour, depending on traffic. Right. Yes. Thank you very much, we'll see you soon." Erwin hung up and returned his gaze to Levi.

"Yes?" he asked, expectantly.

"We have sudden death that wasn't discovered for a week. It shouldn't be too arduous, but who knows with this heat. When Hange gets here, we'll go." As if on cue, the door to the office flew open and smacked loudly against the wall behind it, revealing their colleague and close friend, Hange Zoe, looking as though they'd been blown in by a hurricane.

"Sorry! I got caught up in a meeting with a student!" they exclaimed, wiping their glasses on their button down.

"Only because you go off on fucking tangents for days," muttered Levi, though he was pleased to see them. Hange grinned.

"Oh curious undergraduates, how dare they keep me away!"

"Put your shitty glasses back on, Erwin's already got a job for us."

"Oh?!" Hange's eyes widened as they shoved their glasses back on and looked eagerly at Erwin. However, he just got to his feet.

"Petra, do you mind manning the desk today?"

"Not at all, good luck!"

"Thank you very much," said Grisha in the same clipped tone he'd used the entire phone call. Eren sat a few feet away from him, slumped on the sidewalk outside Zeke's building, head between his bent knees and eyes screwed up against the sun that was hot on the back of his neck. He could still smell and feel Zeke's apartment on his clothes and in his hair, which, combined with his exhaustion and all the driving, made feel like he was about to throw up. "Are you all right?" Grisha asked. Eren shrugged rather than risk opening his mouth. "It's your own fault you've been up all night," his father reminded him for the second time. Eren just shrugged again. "I've got a professional decon company coming to take care of this." Dimly, Eren wondered how the fuck his father had a professional decon company on speed dial, but didn't care enough to ask. "I'm going to call your mother, pay attention in case they show up." Eren gave the thumbs up. "Eren." With a tremendous effort, Eren managed to lift his head. He glared at his father, who glared back for a moment, then sighed impatiently and walked away with his phone in his hand. Eren buried his face in his forearms again.

After leaving the ME's office, they'd weaved and hitched to Zeke's Williamsburg apartment in a converted row house a block away from the BQE. They were able to park right in front of it, and Eren's knees shook slightly as he got out of the car. He shut his eyes and pressed the back of his hand to his mouth, waiting for the world to stop spinning.

"Dr. Jaeger?" asked a sturdy man with a hard Brooklyn accent who'd apparently been waiting for them. Most of the conversation was swallowed by the rumbling of traffic, but Eren did catch that he was the building's super and, "I don't get paid enough to go back in there until it's cleaned out, but I've got the keys here."

"I understand," replied Grisha, curtly. "Come on, Eren." Eren groaned softly but followed his father into the row house. The hall was dark, hot and narrow and smelled of decay. Flies buzzed in an ominous cloud in front of the farthest door, and Eren's stomach contracted and he pressed the back of his hand to his mouth again.

The moment Grisha opened the apartment door, Eren completely understood why the super refused to come back inside. It was like entering a rainforest of decay. The pungent, almost sweet smell hung heavy in the swampy, fly ridden air, making their eyes water. Squalor was piled knee high on every square inch of floor so it was hard to tell what was furniture or possessions versus trash and other filth. Eren shuddered violently and bit down hard on the back of his hand, doing his utmost not to be sick. How his father could stand unmoved was beyond him, but he didn't even flinch. Indeed, he stepped over the threshold into the rotten heat to wade through the room and open the window on the far wall above the death soaked bed. It was brave, Eren thought, but ultimately pointless.

Grisha turned around and stared into the abyss of what must have been a nice studio apartment at one point in time, his face tight and unreadable. Eren watched him warily, but said nothing. Grisha took his glasses off, pinched the bridge of his nose, then, after a moment, "Let's go back outside." His voice was constricted, but steady. Eren turned on his heel at once and retreated.

When the world finally stopped spinning, Eren lifted his head and rested his chin on his forearms, the street shimmering strangely before him. He only ever came to Williamsburg for shows, and even then he hated it. It was the place for people with enough money for Park Slope but who considered themselves above it, or below it, in this case. Tattooed parents pushed $1200 strollers and Wall Street brokers thought themselves progressive for using cloth shopping bags at stores that promised ethical consumerism, all the while everyone pretended they hadn't gentrified the fuck out of the neighborhood. What the fuck had Zeke been thinking, moving out here? Or just generally? Grisha loved to ask that, even after he'd cut Zeke off.

But now Zeke was dead. Zeke was dead… Zeke was… dead…

Eren rubbed his sore eyes, his nausea suddenly giving way to a desperate need to move, to go somewhere, to do something. He forced himself to stand up. "Dad?" he called, walking down the block to where he was pacing back and forth on the phone. "Dad?"

"One second, honey. What, Eren?"

"I'm gonna go get coffee," he said, because it was the first thing that occurred to him.

"I told you- You know what, never mind. Go." He shook his head and returned to the call.

Eren rolled his eyes, then looked around, spotted a bodega across the street and made his way towards it, giving the finger to the car that had to slow down for him.

A bell clanged as he pulled open the sticker covered door, and the low light and blast of air conditioning in the narrow, grimy store made him feel better almost at once. Two construction workers covered in paint were talking in rapid Spanish by the glass-fronted refrigerator full of soda and beer, while an elderly woman dragging a grocery cart pet the fat tabby cat sleeping on a shelf of potato chips.

Eren took a deep breath in, filling his lungs with cold air, then exhaled the last of his sickness. The man behind the counter was speaking fluent Arabic into his Bluetooth ear piece, but he looked up as Eren approached. He ordered an iced coffee, and the chill and bitterness brought him further back to Earth. "Thank you," he said. He didn't want to leave right away, the low lights and air conditioning felt way too good, so he waited for the elderly lady to move, then went to annoy the cat. He actually woke up and stretched, sniffing Eren's fingers curiously before rubbing his face against them. "Smells weird, right? I'm sorry," he whispered, but the cat just bumped his head more insistently against his hand, demanding ear scratches.

Eren stayed in the bodega as long as he dared, then finally returned to his father, who was still on the phone. Eren sat down on the sidewalk again, chewing on the straw and drinking the coffee, his eyes half closed. 'Zeke's dead,' he thought, yet again. He'd died in that little studio apartment and no one had known. 'Weird,' Eren thought. It was the only way he could really describe it, or indeed every loss he'd witnessed. All of them had been weird.

"Yes, exactly," Grisha told whoever he was on the phone with. "Right. Goodbye." He ended the call and tucked his phone into his pocket with a sigh. "That was work. I had to rearrange so much today," he told Eren, taking off his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose again. "Thank goodness I didn't have any surgeries." Eren didn't reply. "I do have to go in once the cleaners show up." Still Eren said nothing. Why the fuck was he telling him all this? "I'll drop you off at home first, though." Eren snapped his gaze to his father, the words igniting something inside him.

"If you're just gonna take me home why the fuck did you bring me out here in the first place?" he demanded, gesturing with his coffee free hand. His father stared him hard in the face, but said nothing, and this only frustrated him more. "I'm tired! You couldn't have just let me go to sleep?"

"Eren, I-" but at that moment a large white van turned the corner and came slowly down the block, clearly making for the parking spot behind Grisha's car. Eren scrambled off the curb and the van pulled into the space, its crossed wings logo flashing in the sunlight. Assuming this was the decon company, Eren's irritation switched abruptly to curiosity, and he stood beside his father with wide eyes.

The driver's side door opened, and a tall, blonde man stepped out of the van. He spotted Grisha and Eren at once with his sharp blue eyes and made his way towards them. "Dr. Jaeger?" he asked. His voice commanded respect but gave just as good, and Grisha's tone was suddenly gracious.

"Yes."

"I'm Erwin Smith, we spoke on the phone." He extended his hand. "Again, I'm so sorry for your loss."

"Thank you," replied Grisha, shaking it. Erwin Smith's eyes found Eren, and he felt himself stand up a little straighter. "This is my son, Eren," said Grisha, and Erwin gave him a smile that was sympathetic without being condescending but still demanded respect.

"Nice to meet you, I'm very sorry about your brother." He extended his hand to Eren too, and he shook it.

Holy shit, Zeke was actually dead.

Eren's eyes widened and he gave a little shudder as, for the first time that morning, it occurred to him that he really had lost someone. Erwin's tone and demeanor and contact somehow made it real in a way that even seeing the body hadn't, and he felt his throat burn. However, he swallowed it with more coffee.

"Thank you," he replied, and began to chew the straw again.

"This is my team," Erwin continued, gesturing at the two people getting out of the van behind him. "Hange Zoe." Full of a youthful energy that made their smudged glasses and messy ponytail more endearing and sympathy more genuine, Hange extended their hand to both Grisha and Eren in turn.

"I'm sorry we couldn't have met under happier circumstances," they said. Their expression was soft and sad, though their eyes darted curiously to the row house.

"And Levi Ackerman." Another man, shorter than Erwin but just as commanding, came to stand beside him. Eren's attention sharpened and the straw split between his teeth. Levi had smooth black hair, intense, haughty features, and his slim fitting clothes revealed broad shoulders, narrow hips and toned muscles.

"Good morning," said Levi, in a low voice that made the hairs on the back of Eren's neck stand up. He knew a rush of disappointment when Levi didn't offer his hand, only a nod, but then they locked eyes and everything inside him seemed to stop as abruptly as if someone had yanked an emergency brake. Levi's presence was powerful, impossible to intimidate or surprise, but also grounding, reassuring, safe.

"I'll show you inside," said Grisha, and he led them into the building. Eren slowed down to walk behind Levi, barely noticing the depressing hallway or the fetid smell as he stared at the smooth fade of his dark hair against his pale neck, the developed traps visible above the neckline of his shirt. "I don't know what you're used to but…"

"I assure you, we've seen worse," said Erwin, kindly. Grisha unlocked the apartment and Erwin led Hange and Levi inside. Eren skulked in the doorway, chewing his straw and watching Levi take in the room. He showed no disgust or even aversion, just crossed his arms, his biceps flexing under the thin fabric of his sleeves, and exchanged a look with Hange.

"So you'd like us to get rid of everything?" Erwin asked Grisha, still kindly.

"Yes. I can't imagine there's anything in here worth saving at this point," he replied with obvious distaste. Levi closed his eyes for a moment.

"This shouldn't be more than a few hours' work. You don't have to stay, the super can show us out." Grisha took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose yet again, but before he could agree,

"I can stay," Eren blurted out. Everyone turned to him, and for a heartstopping moment he locked eyes with Levi again. "Go back to work or whatever." Grisha put his glasses back on and narrowed his eyes at Eren. "You dragged me out here, let me at least do something," he pressed on. His father stared at him with narrowed eyes for another tense moment, then shook his head.

"I should never have let you watch Forensic Files." Levi and Hange exchanged another look. "Don't get under their feet." Eren flushed and glared at his father, but then Erwin said, placatingly,

"Let's go outside and sign the necessary paperwork then, Dr. Jaeger."

They left side by side, and Eren waited for Levi and Hange to go ahead of him. Hange placed their hand on Levi's head and led him out of the room.

"I didn't touch anything, don't worry," they assured him in a whisper, ruffling his hair.

"I should hope not, without gloves," he whispered back, conscious of Eren following them. However, he was sure that neither Eren nor Dr. Jaeger would care if they made any of the remarks they usually saved for after the job was over.

"Always so fussy," Hange replied, taking their hand away as they emerged from the building and headed towards the van.

"Shut up, you specky fuck." They opened the back of the van where all their supplies were kept and jumped up into it. Immediately Levi scanned the shelves and boxes, thinking about what they'd need. The apartment wasn't actually that bad, but Levi's years of experience with squalor had taught him to always be careful.

"Should we bring sharps containers?" asked Hange, as though reading his mind.

"Couldn't hurt." They picked up a clear plastic package containing a white Tychem suit and tossed it to Levi, who caught it.

"Mm!" Hange unwrapped their own suit and stepped into it, and Levi looked back over his shoulder and saw Dr. Jaeger sign all of Erwin's consent forms on his iPad, then hand him his credit card, while Eren sucked coffee through his straw and watched everything with wide, probing eyes.

'He looks exhausted,' Levi thought, then asked Hange, "How are your classes? You fail anyone yet?" Hange replied with a noise of outrage as they swapped their glasses for goggles.

"Of course not! I'm not doing my job if they fail, am I?" Levi just raised his eyebrows and unwrapped his Tychem suit. "I've had to be pretty remedial with sterile technique though, lord have mercy. One student has managed to contaminate every sample we've worked with, I'm honestly a little impressed!"

"Disgusting," said Levi, zipping up the white plasticky suit and putting on gloves and a mask.

"Agreed!" They pulled their hoods up over their heads, picked up shovels, garbage bags and plastic containers emblazoned with biohazard symbols and hopped down from the back of the van. Levi felt, rather than heard, Eren move closer to him.

"If there are any issues we'll call you, though everything should go smoothly," said Erwin.

"I'll have my phone on," replied Dr. Jaeger, wearily. "Eren?"

"Yes?"

"I'll come back and get you, don't take off." Levi saw Eren flush and scowl.

"I won't." His father seemed more than ready to dispute this, but then checked his watch, shook his head impatiently and returned to his car. Eren glared after him, and Levi wondered if it was just from being talked down to or if there was more to it.

After the car sped away, Erwin smiled at Eren, whose scowl vanished, before addressing Levi and Hange, "You two go on, I need to call for a skip before I suit up and join you. Eren?"

"Yes?" He sounded much less hostile now.

"You don't have to help, but would you like a mask?" Eren's eyes widened, and for a split second darted to Levi.

"No, I want to help, I-"

"He's not letting you off, it's a legal thing," Levi cut in, without really meaning to. Eren swallowed the last of his coffee and looked from Levi to Erwin, squeezing the plastic cup, and Levi noticed the scars on his knuckles and the back of his hand in the sunlight.

"I'll take a mask," he said, "thank you."

Levi bit back an impatient noise and walked into the building side by side with Hange. "What's that for?" they asked, raising their eyebrows behind their goggles. Levi shot them an incredulous look, because he was sure they could feel it too, but rather than elaborate right this second,

"Kid needs discipline," he muttered to them.

"Mm, reminds me of you when we first met," they replied as they stepped back into the miasma.

"If you get stabbed with a syringe again I'll laugh," he shot back.

"Oh please! You'd be crushed if I got hepatitis!"

"Unlikely."

The two of them set to work, opening the biohazard bags and filling them with everything that had been soaked through with airborne fluids and particles from the body, sending cockroaches scattering and flies swarming. As Levi worked, Kenny's words floated up from the depths of his memory, just as they always did. 'Don't get stuck in this mess, you understand?'

"I need to make a phone call, just give me one second." Eren, who had been watching Levi's retreating back, snapped his gaze to Erwin, and, once he'd processed what he'd said, nodded. Erwin climbed into the back of the van with his phone pressed to his ear, leaving Eren by himself on the hot sidewalk and wondering what exactly he'd gotten himself into. He was definitely curious how they'd restore the apartment, but his main motivation for sticking around was obviously Levi. However, would he be able to talk to him while he was working? Would it be worth staying if all he got to see was Levi in one of those white suits shoveling decay into garbage bags?

"Fuck," he muttered, crushing the plastic cup and throwing it into a nearby trash can.

"Are you all right?" asked Erwin, a few minutes later, emerging from the back of the van suited up like Levi and Hange.

"Yeah," replied Eren at once, missing the straw to chew on and accepting the face mask and gloves Erwin passed him. "I'm fine." Erwin watched him for a moment, his already intense gaze all the more so for having half his face covered.

"It's a lot to take in," he said, simply, and like before, his authenticity made Eren's throat burn. He nodded and put his face mask on, and Erwin led him back into the apartment to find Levi and Hange chatting as they worked.

"Have you even spoken to her yet?" asked Levi, forging a path through the squalor from the door to the bed.

"Of course I have! I just can't come on too strong, you know?"

"You? Come on too strong?"

"Listen-"

Levi and Hange paused their light, unconcerned conversation when they spotted Erwin and Eren on the threshold. "Did I miss anything?" Erwin asked, just as easily, trekking over to the bed and picking up a biohazard bag.

"Not yet!" replied Hange.

Unsure what to do, Eren just leaned against the doorframe, hands clutching the latex gloves in his pockets and breath slow against the inside of his mask. It was sort of funny to watch them talk so casually about other things while doing this grim ass work, though he supposed it was just like any other job. Making coffee, waiting tables, organizing books in a library, cleaning up death scenes… He bit down on his lip to keep from laughing.

His phone buzzed against his hand, making him jump. He extracted it from his pocket and narrowed his eyes at three messages from Mikasa.

Are you okay?

Would you like me to let everyone know what happened?

Or do you want to do it/keep it quiet?

'Go to sleep,' Eren thought, crossly. He didn't really care if his friends knew or not, but didn't want to be the one to break the news either way. He'd told his friends about Grisha and Zeke's final argument at school the following Monday (except Armin, who he'd texted on his way home from the show), and though he'd framed it as something interesting to watch, they'd all responded with sympathy or horror, both of which were annoying.

"Are you okay?" Sasha had asked Mikasa, sounding frightened, while Historia had pulled Eren aside.

"Be careful for a while, yeah?" she'd told him, very seriously. Eren had just shrugged, and she'd punched his arm.

Then he'd gotten suspended from school three days later. He bit down harder on his lip to suppress another laugh as he remembered.

"You couldn't have waited a few weeks?!" his mother had snapped once she'd gotten him back home. "After what just happened with Zeke?!" Eren took the ice pack she'd given him away from his mouth and pointed outraged at his fat lip.

"Oh yeah! Next time I'll tell the guy swinging at me, 'hey my fuck up half brother has my dad feeling some type of way, can we not?'"

"Eren, for goodness sake!" But he just spat blood into the kitchen sink and stormed up to his room.

'What fight even was that?' Eren thought, moving his lip between his teeth as he tried to remember. It was probably just one of the times his and Jean's mutual enmity had erupted into physical violence, but who knew anymore?

"Oi," Levi's smooth voice cut through Eren's swirling thoughts and he snapped to attention. "You want something to do?" They locked eyes, and Eren immediately wondered if was being tested, but was pleased to be included.

"Yeah," he replied.

"Help Hange get the enzyme cleaner from the van." Compliant under Levi's gaze and tone, Eren nodded, texted,

yeah tell them

to Mikasa and shoved his phone into his back pocket before looking to Hange, who bounded forward and led him out of the apartment.

At the sound of the front door slamming in the distance, Levi turned to Erwin, silently demanding his opinion. However, Erwin just picked up a mass of inky wood pulp that must have, at some point, been a book from beside the bed. "Dubliners," he said, after squinting at the just distinguishable cover for a moment. "James Joyce."

"Never read it."

"Keep it that way."

"Tch." However, it was a wrench to both of them to throw any book away. "Here, take the-"

"Could you hand me the-"

They smiled at each other behind their masks.

"Sharps container," said Levi, handing it to Erwin. If they found anything, though it seemed less and less likely they would, it'd be by the bed; Levi had known this long before he'd started working for Erwin. He pulled the filthy sheets off of the mattress and stuffed them into a biohazard bag while Erwin probed around the sticky bedside table.

"I know it's cumbersome, but- yeah set it down here for a second!" The crash of metal on wood made Erwin and Levi look up. Hange and Eren stood on the threshold beside two large metal canisters with long spray nozzles like those used by exterminators.

"Do you have to make so much noise?" asked Levi.

"Yes," replied Hange, as though it were obvious.

"Bring one of those over here," said Levi, rolling his eyes. Eren snatched up a canister at once and carried it through the pathway they'd created to the bed. "There's fine."

"What exactly is this, anyway?" Eren asked, hoping to engage Levi in more conversation, but it was Hange who answered.

"An enzyme based cleaner," they said, eyeing it fondly, "my special formula!"

"How does it work?" asked Eren, and Hange swelled with pride while Levi shook his head behind their back.

"How much biology do you have?" they asked, eagerly.

"I'm a pre-med student, so, some." Levi had the distinct impression that this was the first time Eren had said that with any pride.

"Oh fantastic! So it works like most enzyme cleaners, you know the ones you use for pet stains and what not, but this one-"

As they ranted and raved, Levi caught Erwin's eye. Hange explaining the technicals and science could be incredibly helpful or incredibly insensitive, depending on the client. However, he could tell Erwin was smiling under his mask, so he picked up the canister and long nozzle, then sprayed the mattress and the walls and floor behind it. All the grime, blood and other fluids immediately began to dissolve, but it needed a few minutes to really work, so he filled more garbage bags in the meantime, listening to Hange's geeky rambling and Eren's little comments whenever he could get a word in.

For his part, Eren liked listening to Hange; it made him feel weirdly capable to be able to understand the mechanisms and answer their questions. It was also mesmerizing to watch the three of them work, to see more and more of the apartment emerge from under the trash and clothes and who knew what else, not that it mattered now. Eren continued to keep an eye on Levi, though he didn't say much else until Erwin had to go and receive the skip they'd hired.

"Oi," said Levi, though his tone was soft as ever, "help me take these outside." He indicated the pile of full garbage bags. Eren nodded at once, put on the latex gloves and picked up the heaviest looking ones. Levi put down the canister of enzyme cleaner, picked up two more, and they went back outside, passing Erwin as he reentered the apartment.

The sun was now scorching, and Eren shuddered against the brightness as he threw the bags into the skip set up behind the van. Levi did the same, then pulled his mask away from his mouth, took a deep breath in and sighed it out. Eren stared transfixed at his face, his sharp cheekbones and sharper eyes, the way his lips parted around his words as he asked, "You okay?" Eren's heart skipped.

"Yeah," he replied at once, "yeah, I'm fine." He swallowed, and a moment's silence passed. Levi sighed again, took off his gloves and tossed them into one of the biohazard containers in the back of the van before opening the passenger side door and digging out a plastic water bottle.

"Here." Eren took off his own latex gloves and Levi tossed him the bottle. He caught it and opened it.

"Thanks," he replied, taken aback but pleased.

"You look dead on your feet." Eren snorted.

"Thanks," he repeated, taking a sip, his eyes still fixed upon Levi as he got one for himself.

"Pre-med, huh? Is that for you or your parents?" he asked, unscrewing it. Eren bit down on the plastic rim of his own bottle, appreciating the question, especially from Levi.

"Is it that obvious I don't wanna take care of sick people?" Eren watched Levi's lips kiss the bottle's mouth as he drank deeply.

"You might want to do research or pathology or some shit, I was trying to be nice about it." Eren actually smiled, a stiff tight lipped smile but a smile nonetheless, and Levi felt an unexpected tug in his chest.

"Does being nice about stuff come easy?" Eren asked, completely unashamedly. Levi snorted and replied without thinking,

"Only when I'm knee deep in-" but he broke off, reminding himself he was still at work and this kid was still a client despite his smart ass tone. "Where do you go to school?" he asked instead.

"NYU," replied Eren, grudgingly. He hesitated, then moved in closer to Levi. "Did you have to go to school for this?" Levi raised an eyebrow, knowing another tug in his chest at the proximity.

"Nah. I mean Hange's getting their PhD in biochemistry, but that's for them. Most of us just learn through experience." He paused, and as Eren bit down on the water bottle yet again, Levi noticed how pronounced his Cupid's bow was. He hesitated, then, reminding himself forcibly of Erwin, "Why, thinking of a career change?" Something sharpened in Eren's expression, and Levi felt suddenly as if he were being pulled towards him.

"Is it mostly stuff like this? Or do you see worse?"

"Worse how?" Levi's tone sharpened a little, though he was pretty sure he knew what Eren was asking.

"I mean," Eren paused, chewing on the water bottle, "is it ever like, blood all over the walls and stuff?" Levi knew instinctively that this wasn't typical morbid curiosity, and though he felt wary, he answered anyway.

"Obviously," he replied. Eren stared at him intently, silently demanding that he elaborate, and though Levi could, certainly, god knows he had some good stories, "Kid, what is it you actually want?" he asked, to spare the tedious talking around things. Eren bit down on the water bottle again, blinking as he pondered the question, and Levi realized that despite the dark circles and puffiness, his eyes were beautiful, blue green and thick lashed. He felt again like he was being pulled into something, Eren's curiosity and energy magnetic and intense.

"I'd like to hear some stories," said Eren, and though he'd clearly tried to frame it as a request, it came out as a demand.

'Spoiled,' Levi thought, before asking, "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Levi hesitated, looking Eren up and down a few times before fixing his eyes once more upon his. Eren flushed and his heart skipped; now he knew he was being tested, and he wanted to prove himself.

"I'll think about it." Eren smiled around the rim of his water bottle, his Cupid's bow and blue green eyes more noticeable than ever. "Yeah yeah. Come help take out the rest of the trash."

Take out ALL the trash, Levi!

Hmm, what do you guys think? Are you excited? I am! I'll see you all next week and hopefully at a reasonable time!

Leave me reviews and I'll dedicate my heart to you!