CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
When Levi woke up the next morning, he couldn't believe that he'd actually been able to sleep halfway through the night. Not because he wasn't a light sleeper by definition. No. It was when Eren threw one leg around his hips that Levi assumed he wouldn't get much of a sleep. He could've just pushed him away, but he hadn't find the heart to do so. He waited until he would just toss in the other direction and the problem would solve itself. But Eren had other plans. A few minutes later, Eren slid his arm under Levi's neck and no sooner, took a death-grip on the man next to him until Levi found himself being held like by a boa constrictor. It didn't happen that often that he was being overwhelmed by the strength of another person, but damn, the brat was strong when he was sleeping. Despite the slight suffocation he endured due to the boy pressing his face into his chest, Levi decided against doing something about it. In fact, he kinda liked it. So much, he went back to sleep not long after.
Normally, the kid seemed so fragile, especially when he was in a bad mood. Yesterday on the contrary…
He did hear Eren when he asked him to go faster the first time. But he couldn't quite believe it. After all, it had been the kid's first time getting something like that done to him. He expected him wanting to go slow. Who would've guessed that hard and fast did the trick for him? And Levi hadn't been gentle by no means. Eren probably wouldn't be able to walk straight if he woke up, despite that all he had done was jerking the kid off.
Sitting in bed beside Eren's sleeping form, he looked down at the boy. He still couldn't believe that he was able to do those things to him… do those things with him... without losing himself and hurting him. A part of him wanted to see how far he could go, but… he knew he was playing with fire here. None of this was normal for him. And he wasn't a big fan of not knowing what came next. Predictability was one of the pillars of his life for a reason.
Next to him, Eren started to stir in his sleep and it didn't take the boy long to finally open his eyes.
"Morning, brat. Slept well?"
Eren closed his eyes again and snuggled a bit closer. When he clung to Levi's form, he looked way too delicious with his hair being a mess and the sheets only partly covering his still naked body. Levi decided to dodge the possibility of getting stupid ideas and slid away from the boy, standing up. Pulling on a pair of nylon warm-ups, he asked over his shoulder: "You want food? I'm going to make a kitchen trip."
When he kid didn't answer right away, Levi turned around. Eren's eyes blissed out. "You're actually going to bring it up here? As in, I don't have to move?"
Levi couldn't help but smile at that. "You're going to owe me, but yeah, I'm willing to deliver."
With his face turned into an honest-to-the-bone expression, the boy said: "You are a god."
Trying to ignore the sensation that began to spread inside his chest, Levi glided into a pair of slippers. "What do you want?"
Eren turned onto his back, and crossed his hand behind his head, exposing his body fully to Levi's stare. "Whatever's in the kitchen. Hell, make yourself really useful and drag that fridge on up here. I'm starved."
Levi walked out the door, keeping watch if anyone was close by and able to see Eren in his birth suit. Luckily the mansion was still very quiet. It was still Sunday morning. Levi walked along the hallway and down the staircase, heading for the kitchen.
As he fished some tomatoes and mozzarella cheese from the fridge and knife and cutting board from the counter, putting everything together with some slices of black bread, he thought about what he said to Eren before carrying him to his bed.
They'd have time.
Was that really the truth? Admittedly, it didn't seem like his target was in a hurry. It had been almost three months, and everyone included thought that the man would've made a move by now. Instead? Nothing.
But more importantly… why did he even say that? Was it to curb Eren's eagerness? To make him feel at ease? Or because he himself actually wished for it?
He sprinkled some olive oil on top of the sliced tomatoes, remembering the way his chest clung at Eren's words just a moment ago.
No, he wasn't falling developing feelings. Because that'd be insane.
All that was happening here was him giving in to curiosity because with Eren he could do things that never had been imaginable for him before. Yeah, that was it.
Grabbing the two plates after squeezing a bottle of orange juice under his arm, Levi went up again. Because of the lack of free hands, he softly knocked the edge of one of the plates against the door and waited for Eren to open him.
As the door swung open and Eren stood in front of him, a bit unsteady on his legs in fact, the boy's eyes grew huge. "Wow, that looks amazing! Is this the smoked mozzarella Maria bought a few days ago? Man, I can't wait to try it! I wanted..."
Continuing to chatter about whatever crossed his mind at the moment, Eren let him pass before closing the door and following him to the table next the window. He told him about Armin's date, how Mikasa gave him the exact same advice as Levi did when he was training with his nunchucks, and that he totally had to look into this one biology topic he was going through with his teacher for a second time. At some point, Levi stopped paying attention to what he was saying and just listened on the sound of his voice.
Curiosity. That's it.
As dawn fell Eren was underground in the gym, a dagger in his right hand, his feet planted in the ready position. When Levi whistled through his teeth, Eren began to move through the exercise: swipe the weapon across the chest, slice back at an angle, step forward, and stab up under the rib cage.
"Eren, stay sharp!" Shit, he was fucking this whole thing up. Again. Feeling utterly blind and mostly useless, he tried to find the rhythm in the positions, but his balance was in the crapper and his arms and legs just wouldn't behave.
"Eren- stop." Levi came up behind him and moved his arms around. Again. "Back in ready position." Eren settled in, waited for the whistle . . . and screwed it all up. Again.
This time when Levi walked over, Eren couldn't look him in the face.
He felt Levi's eying stare on him. "Let's try something," The raven said, taking the blade and putting it in Eren's left hand.
Eren shook his head. "But I am right-dominant", he stated.
"Just give it a try. Go!" Another ready position. Another whistle. Another fuckup— oh, but wait. This time it wasn't. Miraculously, Eren's body fell into the series of positions like a perfect piano chord.
He couldn't believe it, but everything was in sync. All his arms and legs going where they needed to be, the dagger controlled perfectly in his palm, his muscles coalescing and working together.
When the drill was over, he smiled. Until he met Levi's eyes. The man was staring at him strangely but then seemed to catch himself. "Better, Eren. Much better."
Eren looked down at the blade in his hand. "But how is that possible? I do everything with my right hand."
Levi walked up to him. "It happens from time to time. Some people are stronger doing certain things with their non-dominant hand, which can be quite a blessing when it comes to combat. It makes you less predictable. Most people are right-handed and therefore have a tendency for adapting to also right-handed opponents in battle. You can take advantage of that by attacking from their weak side."
While he circled him once again, he kept on talking. "Next time we practise hand-to-hand combat, we'll see how you do when we shift your movements to the left side. First, we continue with the dagger. Again!" Levi called out.
Eren did the sequence twenty-three more times. Then worked on another that had him getting down on one knee and lunging upward. Levi patrolled every move, barking out demands.
He didn't have to fix Eren's position once more. Everything just came together, the vein tapped, the gold extracted.
When the lesson was over Eren headed for his bag, but Levi called him back, led him into the equipment room and over to the locked closet where the training weapons were kept.
"From now on you'll use this." He handed over one with a blue hilt. "Calibrated for the left hand. I'll do some calls to get you new guns and weapons as well."
Eren tried it out, running through some moves, and felt even stronger. He couldn't believe the solution was this simple. He so had to show Mikasa his progresses once he'd be sure today wasn't just dumb luck.
After thanking Levi for his instruction, as he had become accustomed to in the meantime, he ran upstairs to take a shower. There wasn't much time left before he had to go down to dinner and after that he had to go to Armin's room. Since the next semester was closing in and Armin had to go back to his grandfather soon, he wouldn't stay at Eren's for much longer. Therefore, he wanted to spend as much time with his friend as possible. His sister would come, too. But before that, he urgently wanted to do something else. His guitar had been throwing him reproachful looks for days now, because he never got to play it at all. He hadn't worked on his song for weeks either. If he didn't use the time until dinner, he probably wouldn't be able to do so until next weekend. He'd probably spend the night at Levi's room again, not that he was complaining, and since tomorrow was Monday, his school lessons would continued.
He made quick work of washing himself and hurried into his studio. When he grabbed his Gibson, he noticed that he had never shown Levi this room. All the time they spent together, they had been at Levi's, but never in Eren's room. He would like to show him his studio. After all, all his gems were gathered here. Who knew, maybe at some point he'd even play him the song he was writing. If he should manage to finally come up with a theme that he could sing about.
As he played the chords a few times to get into the groove, Levi's face didn't stop entering his mind. Man, he was really crushing hard.
He thought about all the things he'd like to do with the man with the hard eyes. The man who can grow soft sometimes. The one who he'd like…
Like lightning crashing from every cloud, Eren suddenly knew what his song should be about. Immediately he jumped up, digged for his notes and wrote down the lines that gushed out of him like spring water. When he finished, he looked at what his mind came up with. At first it didn't make much of a sense, but after some reconstruction it quickly became a bunch of somewhat reasonable lyrics. Yeah, that he could work with.
Looking at the clock on his wall, he saw that he had to stop here for now. Otherwise, he'd miss dinner and his stomach already told him how much this wasn't an option. He put his guitar back in it's stand and run out of his studio.
At evening, Levi sat with all three kids in the large dining hall, and just finished his filet mignon. Grisha wasn't with them, seemingly because he had more important things to do.
"All of us are going to finish the day off in Armin's room," Eren said abruptly. "Would you like to join us, Levi?"
Armin snorted from across the table. "You're not going to make us play Monopoly again, are you?"
"Yup." A collective groan rose up from him and the girl, one that Eren ignored. "Right after dinner."
Levi thought about it for a moment. "I've something I have to do," he said. "But I can come along after that."
"Sweet!" Eren exclaimed. "But you can't be the shoe or the dog then. They always go first."
"I can live with that."
Maria came in with a massive baked Alaska. "Dessert, perhaps?" the maid said with a smile.
As an universal "Yes, please," filled the room, Levi folded his napkin and excused himself.
If he was going to join Eren and his friends to hang out, he had to take care of himself first. Ever since this morning, his body felt like a stranger to him. He couldn't pin down exactly what it was, but he was livid, slightly irritated and absent at the same time. His body was tingling in different places at different times and it felt like his strength was dwindling.
He had the sense that a part of him had become unhinged, that some inner escape hatch was hanging open and segments of him were fleeing the core.
And if the time he had spent on this earth taught him one thing, it was that such changes were dangerous for him. He was hoping that an extra dose of Hange's supply packs could bring calm back to his body.
Shrugging from his clothes, Levi picked one of the blood packs from his duffle bag and laid down under his bed sheets. He took his hand and put it on his pec, feeling his lungs expanding and contracting and his heart beating hard. With a wince he moved his palm downward heading for that throb that was literally talking to him it was so loud. Man, the damn thing was craving sensation, desperate to boil over. His balls were so tight he felt like they were about to crack open from the pressure. He so had to do this, and not just to stay a functioning part of society. The need to finally give his body what it asked for and enter Eren in the ways he craved was past the ache stage and into flat-out pain.
His hand hit his belly and he pushed it farther down.
His skin was warm and smooth and stretched over hard muscle and heavy bone.
He stopped just before he touched himself. Then, with a curse, he grabbed the thing and pulled it. A moan rumbled out of his chest and leaped from his mouth as his erection kicked in his hand. He repeated the slow tugging motion, sweat breaking out across his chest. He felt like someone had put him under a heat lamp - no, it was more like warmth was radiating from inside of him. He arched while he stroked himself, the feeling of guilt present at every move he made.
Settling into a rhythm, he shoved the covers off with his foot and looked down his body. Before his eyes he saw Eren mounting him fully naked, his deep green eyes glowing, positively afire in the darkness. In his mind he rose up to kiss his mouth, then angled himself so as Eren sat down he hit his body just right.
0h, fuck. Faster. Faster With his hand. A little clicking noise rose up inside the room, the result of the clear, slippery lubricant that came out of the tip, getting on his palm.
The stuff ran down the shaft, making his erection glisten.
0h... fuck.
He eased down on his back as Eren was riding him, his erection jumping up and down with every time he took Levi fully into his body.
Levi's hand moved at blurring speed now, his cock hard as marble, his mind filled with the idea of being inside that boy.
Critical overload hit when he pictured him settling into a squatting position, his knees bent, his upper body leaning forward, full weight resting on Levi's chest through the hands he placed there. He saw his face moving closer, his hot breath ghosting over his lips, his moaning filling his ears, and those hips sinfully erotic pumping down from the twitching tip to the very base of his cock— Fuck!
Levi flipped over onto his side, the pillow getting knocked to the floor, his knees coming up. His fangs pierced the package in his other hand, and as the liquid hit his tongue and throat, he jerked around, warm jets going everywhere, landing on his chest and the tops of his thighs and getting on his hand. He kept stroking, eyes nailed shut, veins popping out at his neck, lungs burning.
When there was nothing left in him or the blood pack as well, Levi swallowed hard, caught his breath, and opened his eyes. He wasn't sure, but he thought he'd come twice. Maybe three times.
Crap. The sheets. He'd made a mess again.
As he listened into his body, he realised that this wasn't his biggest problem.
Feeling rip shit pissed, he noticed that the humming was still very present. Shit! He'd hoped it would have taken the edge off of him, but no, he was still bladed as fuck.
He should probably stay on his own tonight, at least until this unfamiliar sensation would leave him.
But then the imagine of the kid's disappointed face entered his mind.
Cursing himself and the brat as well, Levi got on his feet, pulled off the sheets and on the way to the bathroom he threw the them in a plastic bag, he'd put in one of his dresser's drawers in the meantime. It was easier to clean them himself than plugging them into the flute and dealing with questions. But now he didn't had the time.
After a quick shower, he got dressed again and left his room.
On his way down the hall he heard Eren swearing out in behind the door to Armin's, a rolling, under-the-breath litany marked by a lot of f-words and an interesting twist on a-hole Levi was going to have to remember. As he entered, all three kids were sitting on the ground, a huge board lying between them. Mikasa was already out of the game, and it looked like Eren was going to be next.
When Eren noticed him coming in, he yelled: "Yes, Levi! Armin, we have to start over, our last guest has just arrived."
"You lose to me like a man, Yeager, or I will never ever help you with your stupid science homework again!" Armin exclaimed.
"I somehow manage on my own if you're not here as well, so I'll take the risk!" the brat bit back.
Despite their back and forth arguing, the two of them finished their game until Eren lose for good. In the meantime, Levi made himself at home in one of the armchairs that stood in the room and ordered a cup of tea from Maria as she passed by.
Afterwards when Eren failed to encourage Levi to participate in a second game and the brat and his blond friend rushed off, leaving him with the silent girl alone and creating some moments of positively awkward silence, they came back with both hands full of things Levi couldn't make any sense of. But fortunately for him, the sight of the two made the girl disappear with a sigh. Taking a sip of his tea, he eyed the sixteen cans of Aqua Net that were lined up on the coffee table next to him. "What's doing with the hair spray? You boys going drag now?"
Eren held up the length of a PVC pipe he was punching a hole in with a kitchen knife. "Potato launcher, Levi. Big fun."
Levi felt how his eyebrows struggled to decide between a surprised pull up and a sceptical drop down. "Excuse me?"
"Didn't you ever go to summer camp?"
"Baskets weaving and woodcarving are for sissies. No offense, but I had better thing to learn when I was your age."
"Ha! You haven't lived until you've gone on a midnight pantry raid", the kid said, pointing the knife in his direction with a smug smile. "Anyway, you put the potato in this end, you fill up the bottom with spray-"
"And then you light it," Armin cut in from the bathroom. He came out in his pajamas, rubbing a towel on his wet face. "Makes a great noise."
"Great noise," Eren echoed.
Levi looked at the blonde. "You've done this before? I thought, you were the little shy guy around here?"
"Last summer, we tried, but the launcher jammed up", Armin replied, while Eren cursed and added: "Potato was too big. Damn Idaho bakers. We're leading with red skins tonight. It's going to be great. Of course, trajectory can be a bitch-"
"But it's really just like golf," Armin said, dropping the towel across the other chair. "I mean, you gotta think of your arc in the air-"
Eren nodded up a storm. "Yeah, it's just like golf. Wind plays a big role-"
"Huge."
Levi drank along as they finished each other's sentences for another couple minutes. After a while he felt compelled to mention: "The two of you are spending way too much time together, you feel me? You're like an old married couple."
Eren shook his head at his friend. "He has no appreciation for this kind of thing. Probably never had."
"Then we aim for his room", the blonde grinned.
"Good idea. And it faces the garden-"
"So we don't have to work around the cars in the front courtyard. Excellent."
A couple of hours later and deep into the night, Levi leaned back into the sofa in Grisha's pansy-ass study and crossed his legs at the knee. The meeting with Erwin was the first they'd had since Levi came to this place, and so far everything had been stilled. Then again, there was a big frickin pink elephant in the room that hadn't been addressed yet.
"So, our target doesn't show up as fast as we thought," Erwin said.
"Seems so."
"The question at hand is whether it makes sense to let you stay here when we know for sure he isn't within land borders."
"The question I'm more concerned about it why you assigned me this job in the first place, Erwin. You still won't tell me anything, will you?"
The blonde walked from the room's centre to the huge window. "Things haven't changed. There's still no benefit in you knowing the identity of your target since you don't have to hunt him. All you have to do is prevent the worst from happening when he finally makes a move."
Levi was about to ask what would happen if he'd never show up. But for some reason, he didn't want to hear his boss' answer.
"I am thinking of pulling you off this job as long as we are certain, that man isn't around. I received a bunch of job offers for you in the meantime and frankly said, I think you being in this house nonstop isn't doing you any good."
"What are you talking about?"
"The boy, Levi. I don't care for what the two of you are doing behind closed doors, but it's clear as day that the shackles you put on yourself weaken you. You're even paler than usual."
"That's bullshit, Erwin, I'm fine. On the contrary as a matter of fact, the blood packages are finally working and-"
"Are they really? I've known you for decades, Levi, I raised you to who you are today. Don't think you can hide those things from me. You're tiptoeing on the edge of your self-control, I mean, look at you. You're tapping your fingers and I bet you didn't even notice."
Cursing under his breath, Levi flinched his hand out of the blonde's sight.
"See? You're better off getting away from here for the time when you're not needed, and taking care of your affairs instead."
Erwin was right, of course. He always was. His judgement was impeccable, which was the reason Levi never left his side over all those years. Nonetheless, at times like these it drove him nuts.
"But what if the son of a bitch steps on stage from out of nowhere and I am not here? Where's the point of the last few months in the first place if I tear down my tents now?"
"I've got my eyes on him, Levi. I know exactly where he is and he won't get away without me noticing."
"But-"
"He is a six hours flight away, Levi. He won't be teleporting here. There's no need for you to stay in this house at this moment."
God, how he hated arguing with that bastard. Mostly because he always knew from the beginning that he would lose. But the truth was, he didn't want to leave. The idea of leaving Eren behind without any kind of protection was setting his guts of fire. And naturally, no other protection that could be given to the boy met his standards. None but his own.
Levi thought about what fucking little detail he could come around the corner with to change Mr. Eyebrows' mind.
Only problem was, there was none. He was utterly out of arguments to stay where he was… well, arguments that didn't include an admission on his part that he wanted to stay here for personal reasons. Hell, he wouldn't admit it to himself.
"Fine." As Erwin's voice sounded right next to him, Levi did his best to hide his surprise. Seriously, no one but him could sneak up on him, and sometimes it creeped even him out. Not that he'd show it to him. He learned long before they met that showing emotion was a knife waiting behind your back to stab you when you least expected it.
He slowly turned his head to the other man.
"You stay here. But on one condition," the blonde said, towering over him with an unreadable expression on his face. Levi wasn't sure why he changed his mind so quickly when a few seconds ago it looked as if his withdrawal was a done deal. But he knew better than pushing.
"You'll go out and take care of that bloodlust of yours. As soon as possible. I will inform Grisha of everything he needs to know and I will know if you don't obey my order. You've got three days. I can't have you ripping my client's kid's throat out."
"I'd never-"
"I know you don't want that. But you know what happens if you're abstinent for too long. We've been through this. Consider it a service to your environment if that makes it any easier for you."
Before Levi could get another saying in this conversation, Erwin was already heading for the door.
"I'll inform Grisha about our future course of action," he said over his shoulder without turning around. As he walked through the door frame, he added something Levi could only understand thanks to his excellent hearing. "Sometimes you're too loyal for your own good."
Unsure what his boss meant by that, but feeling like shredding his brain wouldn't get him anywhere, he got to his feet again, and went for the door as well.