Levi Has A Pet
Summary: Levi has a pet, an unusual one, but it's a pet and he likes it with all of his dark little heart. It's small, undemanding and, most of all, clean. But it's a blast from the past and when word gets out, everyone wants it. Levi has to make sure his unique pet remains his and free. Eren, already done with this BS 2000 years ago, gets dragged into it. He's not complaining, despite his complaining.
"I still can't believe Hange ended up being ZoeH," Eren said as he walked into the guest room at Hange's that they were, once again, sharing. Armin had chosen the couch in the downstairs living room, as a taken man who would rather not risk the fury of Annie, while Moblit had chosen the upstairs tea room as his resting place for the night, with a futon placed over an air mattress Hange had pulled out for him. The guest room was actually Pieck's, but she was staying in Hange's room for the night so Eren and Levi would have somewhere to sleep. Gabi had her own room and Falco being her boyfriend, he was staying with her. "I mean, what are the odds, right?" He mused as he toweled his hair dry from his shower.
Falco had been kind enough to lend the males clothes for the night - except for Levi, of course, though Hange had let him use her washing machine to take care of his few clothes that he always has with him - after everyone took turns in the bathroom but his clothes did not exactly fit everyone the same. Falco still hadn't fully grown into his frame muscle-wise and there was no telling if he even wanted to buff up, but that meant his shirts, at the very least, were a lost cause for Moblit and Eren, who were taller and broader than him, Eren especially as the currently tallest and (second) most muscular man present. Luckily, Moblit had been given an extra blanket and Hange had dragged in a portable heater in case he gets cold despite said piles of blankets provided to him.
So here they were now, Levi in his usual sleeping clothes - long sleeved, pretty worn shirt and some basketball shorts - and Eren only in a pair of jogging pants that still looked like they barely fit him, no matter how loose they actually were. Levi had seen Eren shirtless before, plenty of times, actually. Both in this life and the past. But it somehow felt ... different this time. He didn't know why, but he found himself either unable to look at Eren too long or unable to look away at all. There wasn't a big difference between Eren two thousand years ago and this Eren ... Though he had grown an extra inch or two, considering he lived through to the end of his growth and maturing phase. It was a bit distracting.
This Eren also had scars. Mostly minor, faded ones that would have come from a normal boy's childhood adventures and games, but seeing scars on Eren was strange, as Levi was used to flawless skin. Well, the times he'd seen Eren without a shirt on, anyways.
"Yeah," he remembered to reply, trying to sound unbothered by all the bared skin before him.
"And to think you guys managed to find each other without ever actually meeting," Eren said with an amused huff. "Though Hange should have really known better than to not just randomly invite someone to live with her when she already has roommates who had no idea about her invitation."
"That's Hange for you," Levi said as he sealed up the Hallucigenia's container after he finished feeding it. He should change the water tomorrow. The container may have an inbuilt filter and oxygenation system, but fresh water was still the healthiest.
"Do you think she'll be calm and collected enough to give us some actual answers and solutions tomorrow about the Hallucigenia and the memories?" The brunet asked, keeping the conversation going even as he approached the bed they were meant to share for the night, completely unbothered by his half-naked state. "I mean, she did say there were things she wanted to show us that might hold answers for the whole reincarnation-memories thing, but that's not even the main problem in our lives. We need to figure out what to do with that thing," he said as he nodded at the Hallucigenia getting settled in at the bottom of its aquarium for the night. It rarely needed to sleep, but it did, a couple of times a month or so. It needed its rest, too. "I still think the Mariana Trench is the best option if you're still so against killing it."
Levi looked over to Eren and gave the brunet his most deadpan but disapproving look that he could manage. "Eren, for the love of fucking everything sane and healthy on this fucked up planet, do you ever use your brain to think, even for just one minute?"
"Hey, no need to get like that, sheesh!" Complained Eren, actually looking annoyed with Levi, which was definitely a first, in both lifetimes. Levi had seen Eren get angry at him - the time with Armin's near death in Shiganshina comes to mind as the perfect example - but the Shifter had never been annoyed with Levi.
It had Levi scowling, too. "Eren, think. It seems it's only Eldians being reincarnated, memories or no memories. And we were all once connected through the Coordinate, which was created through this thing's powers. Can you imagine how bad things could go if we still somehow shared a connection with this thing? What if harming the Hallucigenia does something to us, too? Kills us? Leaves us brain-dead? Comatose? Fucking turns us back into primates or some shit? Ever think of that? Because it seems more plausible as the days go by and we discover things about it and Eldians that we've never known before. Despite how much of a pain in the ass this thing is, I'm not going to risk what might very well be half of humanity by killing this creature. I've made this decision since the day I picked it up when I'd found it. There's no turning back now."
Eren just groaned and plopped down on the bed, exasperated by their whole situation, it seems. "Why are things always so fucking complicated?"
Levi really wished he had an answer to that, but he didn't. He doubted anyone did. Life and nature and evolution and just everything ... It was beyond human comprehension and he guessed it was meant to stay that way. He didn't want to think about what humans could do if they truly understood everything around them. They'd make Jurassic Park/World look like Disneyland in comparison. Levi's own ancestors had had a taste of what humans would do with any sort of understanding of a greater power; the world did not need super-soldiers like from Marvel movies or some shit.
"What if Hange discovers that we can safely kill it?" He asks and Levi turns to face him again after putting the Hallucigenia onto the nightstand next to the bed. Those green eyes were already fixed on him when he turned and Levi was no longer surprised to see the change in their hue because of the Hallucigenia's light. "What if that's the best we can manage to keep this world safe from becoming like ours had been? And what if it's not half the population of the world that's at stake? I mean, Hange did say that Paradis and the continent it had been connected to had sank ... What are the odds of its people ever having made it to the continents that still exist today?"
"Are you saying that the Rumbling was useless, anyway, if all Eldians from Paradis and Marley and their neighbors died anyway due to a natural disaster?" Levi asked with an arched eyebrow and Eren really glared at him this time. They hadn't ever really properly talked about the Rumbling in the time they had been roommates. It was a line they had decided not to cross, something better left buried or locked away, never to see the light of day again, but it was something that won't be remembered forever.
The world bore very few traces of what could have been damage caused by the Rumbling. Two thousand years is a lot of time to cover up any and all damage the world's landscapes have suffered under the giant feet of an army of Colossal Titans and Eren's gigantic Founding Titan form. Nature barely needs twenty years to reclaim abandoned towns, covering them in foliage and greenery or dirt and dust until they were invisible. It's why archaeologists have to dig to get to sites and find out anything about ancient humans from what was left of their settlements, graveyards and storages and everything that could be found there to reconstruct the cultures and everyday lives of ancient peoples. Two thousand years is a lot of time to cover up giant footsteps, so they don't even know how far the Colossal army had ever gotten, though they had still been on the continent where Marley and ancient Eldia had once existed.
But Armin had informed them all that Eren had said he'd killed off 80% of humanity in the world. It's not impossible. The Colossal army had been moving in three waves, for the three Walls they had once made up. It was possible Eren had fallen back to move with the Titans that had made up Wall Sina while the ones who made up the two far bigger Walls had moved on further than any Eldian eye had ever seen. Those fucking things had been pretty damn fast swimmers and their march had been steady and unwavering. Who knows how far they had made it.
But lack of physical evidence was no reason to pretend the past was just in the past.
The topic of the Rumbling hung over all of them, but no one discussed it aside to inform their comrades without their memories about it in a summarized version that couldn't hope to cover the terror of that dreadful day. Perhaps they should talk about it.
It seems only Levi dared bring it up in such a context at all.
Of course, he didn't know if Eren and Armin had had such a talk before he met Eren and his mother practically a month ago in that metro station in Barcelona, but they sure as hell didn't talk about it now.
"Don't change the subject," Eren said in a serious tone Levi had only heard from him in those last days leading up to his death.
"I'm not and it's a legitimate question," he countered, still keeping a deadpan expression on his face even as he felt his body and mind preparing for a fight. "Besides, even if it's only a handful of people who had survived the sinking of Paradis and its surroundings, do you still think it's okay to risk the lives of their descendants by simply killing the Hallucigenia without knowing if its death might affect us? Are you forgetting you fought for the people of Paradis? For the freedom of Eldians? For the lives and happiness of your friends? Mikasa and Jean are getting married the day after tomorrow, Eren. Connie and Sasha are halfway to dating. Armin and Annie have just found each other and are only restarting their romance. Hange has only just found Moblit. Historia is blissfully unaware of her past life and lives a happy life with a big family where at least a few members of said family love her. Marco doesn't remember and seems content with a peaceful life. Erwin is out there, somewhere, preparing to chase me to the ends of the Earth because that's his job but at least he's safe as long as he's chasing me and not some psycho. Reiner and Bertolt seem content with their own lives, too. Falco is happy and peaceful, too, and as much as you dislike Gabi, I know you like Falco enough to approve of her as long as she's good to him. Your parents are alive and your mother is living a peaceful, happy life now that you've saved her from Grisha's psychosis of the twenty-first century or whatever. Are our lives suddenly less important than the rest of the world? And I know how hypocritical I sound but fuck it! We're allowed to be selfish enough to live, too!"
Eren, surprisingly, seemed to relax at that and sighed in what seemed like content. Then he surprised Levi by snatching him into his arms and cuddling into him as he laid them both on the bed.
"Oi!"
"I'm glad you won't make me choose this time, Heichou," Eren said and Levi froze in whatever attempts he would have made to freeze himself, realization dawning.
It was a test.
Eren had been testing him, to see if Levi would stick to the same morals as he had two thousand years ago, when it was between Paradis and the world and Levi had been too Levi to discard anyone's life if he could help it. Levi's first reaction to that was to beat the shit out of Eren but then he just settled to let it pass because he knew where Eren was coming from.
After all, Eren had sacrificed the world for the sake of Paradis, for the sake of all Eldians. But Levi and everyone else they'd been reunited with so far had fought against him, to stop him. And Levi was now toting around what might as well be a ticking time-bomb for all they know, a potential danger to all things Eldian, and so Eren had to be sure they wouldn't have to be circumstantial enemies again.
Eren had to make sure he won't have to be the one to make the choice this time, that he won't be the one who will have to lead them on the path to becoming opponents, enemies, again. It seems like Eren was tired of making big choices. He wanted Levi to make a few.
So the Ackerman relaxed against Eren with a sigh, just nodding as a response to what Eren had said and let his former subordinate hold him for a minute. When he thought it was enough, he tried to push Eren away so they could get some damn sleep. "Alright, that's enough cuddling. We ought to wake up early tomorrow morning so we can get first dibs on the bathroom, since there's only one in this entire damn house and there's eight people currently occupying it." Eren didn't move. "I'm serious, Eren. Let go."
"Are you uncomfortable?" The Shifter asked, shifting about so he could look down to meet Levi's gaze questioningly. The little shit didn't seem to find anything weird or awkward in the position the two men have found themselves in, completely content to just hold his former superior officer in his arms like he was a giant teddy bear.
And Levi would be lying if he said he wasn't comfortable. Because damn, was he ever. Eren was deliciously warm and having someone he trusted - despite the circumstances of the last few days of Eren's life two thousand years ago - sleep near him definitely helped Levi relax. The night before they found Jean and the nights at Mikasa's hideout had been some of the best sleep of his life, both the past life and this one, and Levi was, quite honestly, ready for a repeat. And now knowing where all of his precious comrades were - well, almost; there were still Mike and Nanaba, as well as his original Special Operations Squad, not to mention Isabel and Farlan - despite also knowing he was in the same city as some of his pursuers, Levi was honestly more content than he had ever been since he'd regained his memories as a mere toddler.
Though he would have to ask Hange in the morning to check on his mother's condition and what was happening with Kenny and the others. Now that he had the means, he had to know whether they were alright. Two years was such a long time to have absolutely no contact with his family and he was honestly sick of it. A bit homesick, too, but 'home' for Levi had never been a place, it had always been a person or people. It's why he'd never explicitly missed Paradis when he decided to stay on the mainland in his past life, after the Rumbling. With Hange, Erwin, , Sasha, Shadis, Nile, Pixis, Eren and a whole other plethora of people dead, Armin traveling around with Annie to continue building up diplomatic relations with what was left of humanity for Paradis, Historia being busy ruling the nation, Jean and Mikasa moving to Mitras and leaving the military life and Connie helping out the Blause family with their new restaurant alongside Niccolo, the only people Levi had left that he cared about were in Marley and Falco and Gabi, so young yet so traumatized, had needed him more than the others ever could. So Levi had built his home around them and had been content to spend the rest of his days like that.
But now that everyone - or at least almost - was reincarnated, with or without memories, and seemed to be gravitating towards those they cared for the most in their previous life, living this one peacefully and in happiness and his nearest and dearest all practically within reaching distance, Levi found himself able to actually relax and not fret about so many things.
Sure, he still had plenty to worry about. The threat of a new Titan age was still very much present as long as the Hallucigenia lived. The threat government organizations and other shady groups held to him was still very real as long as he had the Hallucigenia and even if it died tomorrow, he'd still be targeted as the person who had held an extinct creature as a pet and thus knew more about it than anyone else in the world and knew where 'there might be more to be found' so he'd still be chased for questioning, but he thinks he can deal with that with Hange's hacking skills on his side.
But he doesn't have to worry about people anymore and that's what allowed him to easily drift off to a refreshing slumber cuddled up in Eren's arms and wake up well-rested the next morning without either of them having moved a single muscle the whole night. Eren still had a strong grip on Levi's body, even in his sleep, but he was relaxed and he looked content in a way Levi had never seen the Titan Shifter be in their last life.
The responsibility everyone had been piling upon him since his first transformation in Trost on top of the trauma from Shiganshina had really done a number on Eren and Levi only realized now that by the time the Survey Corps captured their first Marley ship, Eren had lost that sparkle of life that had made him so endearing even when he was a ball of uncontrollable rage and trauma and teenage angst. Eren had been suffering and shouldering a lot more than they could have ever imagined back then. Or had they been so cold as to be indifferent towards it, ignoring it because it was inconvenient?
Levi would like to believe he wasn't that much of a piece of scum of the earth, knew Erwin was, but he couldn't delude himself, either. Levi had had his moments when he'd been just as ruthless and uncaring as Erwin was. It was never out of malice, for either of them, but they had simply been cowards to acknowledge what their actions and decisions did to their soldiers.
Well, perhaps Levi was just a tiny smudge better. He had at least tried to comfort his soldiers, his comrades, to the best of his emotionally-stunted ability. He'd often fallen short, but he'd also had his moments when he'd managed to actually make a difference, or so he'd like to believe. He knew how harsh he can sound, he knew his blunt nature wasn't suited to comfort or reassure people, but sometimes a reality check can be just as comforting as it can be cruel. Sometimes that's just what people need. Levi had done his best, he'd made sure his words were never flowery but empty, meaningless. He'd never made promises that can't be kept or given someone empty platitudes. It would be a disservice to himself, the person needing comforting and all of their fallen comrades.
But was Levi ultimately cruel? Yes. Because he'd still sent hundreds of people to their deaths, even before he all but ordered Erwin to lead that suicidal charge in Shiganshina for an uncertain victory, the only kind the Survey Corps had ever known.
No wonder Eren had taken things into his own hands when he realized neither Hange nor Levi can offer anything better than that.
No wonder he hadn't trusted them to keep their people safe.
He may have even hated them.
So why did he act as if he was still that same brat who had been so eager to please Levi, in this new life, with no powers or responsibilities piled upon him? Why did he follow Levi everywhere he went like a lost - or loyal - puppy, even when he occasionally left the Hallucigenia behind? Why did he seem so fond of him?
There were many things Levi didn't understand about the world, about the two lives he's lived so far. Eren Jaeger is at the top of his list for both. Maybe they'll both live long enough in this one so he can figure him out, even if just a little.
He manages to wiggle out of bed by replacing himself with a pillow after a bit of a struggle - Eren was a real cuddle monster and refused to let Levi go for even a second, the damned, adorable brat - and is the first one to be awake in the house, which gives him undisturbed access to the bathroom to take care of his morning business. He makes sure to take his bag with him so he can change out of his sleeping clothes and after he's done, he checks on the clothes in the washer. They were, of course, done by now so Levi takes it upon himself to take them out and hang them up to dry on Hange's small balcony. After that's done, he goes down to the kitchen to put on a kettle for tea and doesn't bother with anything coffee-related. He doesn't drink the stuff and has never bothered to learn how to make it. In his household, only Kenny had been a coffee drinker, so Levi had learned to spite him in bouts of 'teenage rebellion and angst' by never preparing him a coffee when he and his mother would sit down to drink tea in the evenings or for breakfast. When he'd been rooming with Armin and Eren, Eren had revealed that he still drank tea like in the olden days while Armin had become a heretic and drank coffee. Levi and Eren often made fun of him - in a gentle manner, usually befitting more to teasing than the usual coffee vs any-other-hot-beverage battle people were prone to making - when he had to fight to stay awake while helplessly trying to brew his morning life-blood so he can be something more than a zombie with a beating heart.
He has no idea what anyone of their current housemates might drink, so he makes a lot of tea and leaves it out for people to serve themselves before he just sits at the counter and enjoys his tea.
Hange, unsurprisingly, is the next one to come down and she doesn't so much as pause in her journey towards the coffee pot, preparing the brew and letting it cook before she turns around and pours herself a scalding hot mug of tea, drinking it in one gulp like a heathen and then turning towards the stove and fridge to start making breakfast. Levi leaves her to it, knowing she's a pretty good cook, though usually they didn't let Hange cook with unlimited resources where she can experiment with spices and foods until she makes something even a Titan would die of food poisoning from. Surprisingly, the need to experiment with spices seems to have mellowed out in this life and Hange stuck to your usual recipe - if you can even call something so simple a recipe - of sunny side up eggs and some bacon. She even made sausage octopuses and Levi has no idea why but he can guess that the shape simply amuses her. She makes enough portions for everyone before she goes to the toaster and starts popping in way more bread than that machine could possibly handle, which is when Levi steps in.
He doesn't want to die of toaster-explosion after he'd survived a Thunderspear. It would simply be far too embarrassing.
The house is just waking up when the last piece of toast pops up out of the toaster and Levi's not surprised to find Eren and Pieck as the first to come down, Pieck making a beeline for the coffee pot - a heathen, obviously - while Eren reaches out with grubby hands and bleary eyes for a plate of food, all but inhaling the beacon but stopping in confusion when he sees the sausages. Levi has to repress a snort when confused green eyes look around, staring at Hange like she's magical - like a witch rather than a fairy, it seems - before that puppy dog look turns towards Levi helplessly, looking for an explanation for what he was seeing that didn't really make any sense.
Hange cooed, clearly having forgotten how cute sleepy-Eren can be.
She'll probably have a heart attack when she sees a drowsy Armin. He's more helpless than a blind newborn kitten before he has coffee after waking up.
"This is so weird," Pieck comments from where she's staring at the puppy-ish Eren who looks too sad to eat the cute sausages but is clearly still hungry for meat. They're all always hungry for meat, the people who had once lived on Paradis, having lived so much of their life rationing it all the time, especially those in the Survey Corps. Connie had even joked that Sasha might become a cannibal at some point if a restaurant doesn't serve her a meat-filled meal fast enough and Marco had shared with them how their group always gets dirty looks from any vegetarians or god forbid vegans if they run across them. Mikasa had said that she and Annie had had to hold Sasha back from crashing some vegetarian/vegan/non-meat-eating-group protest last year because they had demanded all restaurants not to serve meat on that day and that day just so happened to be Sasha's birthday and the group had wanted to treat her to some really good barbecue. Mikasa had complained that was the only time she'd truly missed being an Ackerman in this life.
"What?" Levi asked, though he knew. He just wanted easy, cheap amusement.
Pieck sent him an 'Are you fucking kidding me?' face that actually made Levi tempted to snicker. "You can't tell me you don't find him to be weird like this," she said with a vague gesture at Eren as Gabi, Falco and Moblit also joined them at the table. "He looks like a lost puppy you want to stuff into the pocket of your coat and bring it home to then plead your parents to let you keep him."
"Hm, I know, right?" Hange said with a grin. "Not at all like the big bad Usurper, right?"
Gabi, who had just noticed how Eren was acting, looked somewhere between disturbed and flabbergasted. Falco just watched in fascination. He even went as far as sneaking a few of his own octopus sausages onto Eren's plate just to watch him almost coo at the things. That's when Levi got a bit worried, actually. Was Eren high or something? Usually not even he acted this dazed at breakfast.
"What is up with him, anyway?" Moblit asked, clearly noticing the same thing Levi was. "Did someone give him drugs?"
"As if we'd let drugs exist in the same house as Hange," Gabi said with a snort, snapping out of her stupor. "She's hyper and crazy enough as it is. Even with all the stories Mr Levi told us about her in the past, I wasn't prepared." She sent Levi a sympathetic and understanding look and Levi wondered if Gabi had to go through Hange's too-busy-with-science-to-bathe-or-eat phase with her the way Levi had to before Hange became Commander and then Levi had to go through her too-much-paperwork-please-let-me-just-sleep-and-never-wake-up-fuck-breakfast-Levi phase after Erwin's death. No one should have to go through that with Hange ever again.
"Oh! Mister Kruger used to get a bit touchy-feely after he had too much sleep!" Falco suddenly exclaimed, remembering something from his time as Eren's friend in the hospital in Liberio. "It was rare, since he seemed to have trouble sleeping-"
"No surprise there," Levi mumbled to himself as he started eating his own breakfast at last.
"-but he would crash after a few days of little to no sleep and then he'd wake up really soft and cuddly. It was charming." Then Falco blushed when everyone looked at him as if he'd grown a second head but Levi ignored him and instead pushed a cup of tea in front of Eren to wake him up a bit. He glared at Pieck when she tried to offer him her monstrosity of a beverage but she just sent him a challenging glare.
Challenge accepted.
"And to think this is the most powerful person from our last life," Gabi grumbled when Eren unerringly took the tea cup, completely ignoring the coffee, and started drinking and waking up while Pieck pouted and Levi subtly gloated.
"So, what? Eren caught the cuddle bug?" Hange asked with clear amusement as she watched her best friend act like a proud parent who had raised their child well.
"Oh, Eren's a cuddle monster," a new voice said and they all jumped in fright, whirling around to find Armin practically hugging the coffee kettle, looking more and more awake by the second and less like an adorable zombie with each sip or whiff of coffee. "During exam periods, he'd barely sleep and then when everything was over, he'd crash and then wake up a cuddle monster. If you're stupid or unlucky enough to try and wake him before he's ready to wake up himself, he'll drag you in with him and use you as a teddy bear." Levi tried not to feel offended by the fact that Eren seemed to do this all the time but failed and he didn't even know why. "His mom warned me to just let him sleep it off and let him wake up wholly by himself and not try to interact with him until I noticed he was looking ready to murder someone again."
"Wow, thanks Ar, you're such a great friend," Eren said sarcastically, finally looking awake and thoughtlessly eating the sausages he'd looked ready to cry over just a few seconds ago.
"Hey, Levi, is it true? Did Eren try to cuddle?" Hange asked with glee and Pieck snorted while Gabi and Falco suddenly looked green in the face.
"Oh, Levi already knows what it's like to cuddle with Eren," Armin said casually, waving away the deadly scowls Eren and Levi were sending his way. Did the coffee not kick in yet? "I found them sleeping together back home before we met up with Jean-"
"Don't make it sound like that, you blond coconut!" Barked Levi, feeling his cheeks slowly heating up, much to his mortification.
"And they've spent most of the flight all up in each other's business-"
"I'm going to step on you," Eren said in a deadly tone.
"Oh, yes, daddy, please!" Armin said with a sarcastic moan that had Moblit, Pieck and Levi spitting out their beverages, Gabi choking on her food and Falco burying his face in his hands in mortification, pushing his plate away, appetite lost. Eren looked half murderous and half embarrassed. Armin looked like he didn't give a fuck. Hange, on the other hand, had her phone out and was recording everything. Levi will have to get the video from her so he can use it as blackmail. Annie would love to see this side of Armin and that's not even sarcasm. Though she might be jealous that Eren was the first one to unravel this kink of Armin's, real or not. "Anyways, back to what I was saying. So, the flight ... And the nights we stayed at Mikasa's, they also shared a room. And the bed in it." Hange squealed at that. "And that's not even mentioning the couch snuggles-"
Levi, having had enough of Armin airing out their business, reached over for Armin's plate, picked up a sausage and threw it right into Armin's open mouth. It went straight into his throat and the blond student started choking. Eren and Levi made no move to help him, Pieck seems to care more about her coffee than saving him, Hange was still recording everything, Gabi was still recovering from her own choking earlier and Moblit looked like he was questioning his choices in life.
Falco, proving once again that he was too pure for this world, jumped up and helped his fellow blond, doing his best to save the former Colossal Titan while everyone just watched.
Unseen by anyone else, Eren secretly offered Levi a fist-bump.
