Chapter 10

Five days.

Five days it's been since Levi heard from Eren. Or Rogue for that matter.

After their fight on Sunday evening, Levi had picked Eren up on the dreary Monday afternoon to take him home. He hadn't given the kid much of an option really, simply texted Eren that he was on his way and that he should be ready to go by the time Levi arrived.

To his credit, Eren was waiting on the door step as Levi pulled up to the drive, carrying an overnight bag that he hadn't brought with him. Most likely carrying his outfit from the previous evening, as Eren was now dressed in a pair of clean sweats, a black T-shirt and sneakers. He also wore a pair of sunglasses, whether he did this due to a hangover or to try and hide his red-rimmed eyes, Levi couldn't be sure. Probably a mixture of both.

He wordlessly got into the car and stared out of the window for the whole ride to his place, which was surprising in itself as Levi had been anticipating a screaming match at the very least, getting fired on the spot at worst. Instead, the sullen boy said nothing. Not a word, and Levi didn't dare disturb the silence.

Upon arriving at his house, Eren exited the car as quickly he could, not giving Levi a chance to even say goodbye. And not 10 minutes later, Levi received a text message from Eren saying that he would be taking a short "vacation" and that he would call Levi when he's needed again.

It's now Saturday morning, and Levi still hasn't heard anything. But that hasn't stopped him constantly thinking about the brat.

To fill the gaps in his day, Levi has been apartment hunting. He has a week left at his hotel, then he'll have to start paying for the room by himself if he hasn't found a suitable living arrangement. And Levi's standards are high to say the least. Most of the apartments so far have had far too many flaws for him to keep a proper record of, and the decent ones he's seen are far too expensive for him to be able to afford by himself. He would need to get a roommate to help him with living costs, and that's not something he wants to do again any time soon.

Shiganshina has become an expensive place to live in the last couple of years, Isabel and Farlan were lucky to get the three-bedroom detached house they had at the time. Lucky being a very loose term he would use, considering the circumstances…

Levi's attention is caught by his phone ringing, and the ID confirms that the caller is his boss. He sucks in a breath and mentally prepares for the earful he's no doubt going to get.

"Hey Erwin."

"Levi! Glad I caught you this morning, there's something quite important we need to discuss." Erwin says, sounding a bit distracted.

"Look, whatever the kid or whoever has told you, just know that I plan on apologising for it. That night I got thinking about Izzy and Farlan, and I was in a horrible mood, and I know that's no excuse but at the same time…." Levi rattles off before he is abruptly interrupted.

"Whoa! Levi slow down, I can barely understand a word you're saying. I was just calling because I got those search results back on Eren and his family." Erwin says, the confusion highly obvious in his voice.

Levi lets out a sigh of relief he hadn't realised he'd been holding.

"Well that took you long enough! What did you manage to find?" Levi asks.

"Hang on a second Levi, right now I'm far more interested in what you have to say." Erwin enquires, seriously but with an unmistakeable hint of amusement. Levi cringes inwardly before he responds.

"I…had a bit of an altercation with the brat last week. I hadn't been thinking straight and I lashed out, I take full responsibility for my actions. Anyway, the kid got a bit upset and I haven't heard from him since. I fully intended to resolve the situation tonight as it's been a while, but then you rang and well, I was certain you were calling to chew me out." Levi admits sheepishly.

"Well, I hadn't been informed of anything I can assure you, and I can't lie and say I'm surprised that you two have clashed. What I will say though is that I hope you do take the initiative to fix the situation, and promptly." Erwin says, back in serious boss-mode.

"Understood, sir."

"Now, back to why I called. I did a little digging like you asked and I've come up a blank on anything suspicious related to Eren's family. From what I can see they're squeaky clean. Eren's father is a renowned surgeon with a fantastic reputation within the community and that's putting it lightly. His mother is a housewife but very well known in the political scene, she does a lot of campaigning for women's rights and LGBT recognition and has run many a successful rally in the last few years. And lastly his sister is a mechanic for a local business, not much is known about her other than that she was adopted by the Jaegers when she was a child due to her parents unfortunately passing away in an accident. Tragic really." Erwin finishes, and Levi can't help but feel slightly regretful at the memory of how he and Mikasa had met.

"Okay, so that's my theory on his family life in the shitter. But there's got to be a reason he was never home. What about Eren's background check?" Levi asks.

"Well this is where things get really interesting, Eren's own record is far less than squeaky clean. Just as you suspected, he was suspended numerous times from school due to violence and violent outburst towards his peers and a couple of teachers. He was allowed to come back after every time as his parents would vouch for him whenever permanent expulsion was on the cards. But that's not the interesting part." Erwin says.

"Oh? Well then enlighten me, what is the interesting part?" Levi asks, feigning indifference.

"Eren has been arrested by the police officially on two separate occasions, but he was never charged, only received a caution and both have since been removed from his file. One because of his age, he was 16 at the time of his arrest and it was formally removed when he turned 18. The other was when Eren was 18, but the charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence and the file was sealed." Erwin explains.

"That's not too surprising, a lot of kids get in to all kinds of trouble when they're young, too dumb and reckless for their own good. Eren sure fits that bill." Levi says non-chalant, knowing full well the kind of bother teenagers can get themselves into, having first hand experience of that himself.

"Obviously I'm well aware of that, but it's the type of charges Eren faced that I'm interested in. The one when he was 16 was for possession of Class B drugs, Cannabis to be specific. He was arrested but in the end was only given a caution as he'd somehow managed to convince everyone that it had been unknowingly planted on him and he wasn't planning to use or sell it. His drug tests at the time came back clear." Erwin states.

"Managed to convince? You almost sound like you've judged the kid as guilty yourself, Erwin." Levi half jokes.

"Well that's because just over half a year later, Eren dropped out of school and did a stint in rehab for a Cocaine addiction." Erwin confirms.

"Shit, seriously?" Levi asks, truly shocked, "I mean the kid is definitely a lot of things, but I'd never had him pegged as a Cokehead."

"That's because he isn't, well not anymore at least. He was in rehab at the age of 17 for a period of 10 months. He managed to kick the habit completely and hasn't had any recorded instances of drug usage since. When he returned, he did a year at community college and started working as a drag queen at Maria's bar at the same time."

"I've gotta admit, I'm rather impressed. It takes years for recovering addicts to fully quit, sometimes they don't ever." Levi says, remembering the issues his own mom had with drugs when he was growing up. Levi had never openly admitted it, but his stunted growth had a lot to do with his mother's substance abuse when she had been pregnant with him, so he knows first-hand what living with addiction could look like.

"But wait…" Levi begins, suddenly remembering Erwin's earlier words, "…you said he was arrested again when he was 18? What was that for?"

"Before I tell you, you need to promise you'll stay calm. I'm serious Levi." Erwin warns.

"Cut the shit Erwin, just tell me what it is. I could always report you for using your old military clearances to get all of this information. How many privacy laws did you have to break to get this stuff?" Levi threatens.

"Fine, but you know that I don't seek out or use this information unless it's completely necessary, so that's a cheap shot." Erwin literally whines before finally answering Levi's question.

"The charge was for suspected prostitution."

Levi is silent, not trusting himself to say a thing, until Erwin breaks him out of his reverie.

"Levi…. You still there?" Erwin questions tentatively.

"The charge…was for fucking WHAT NOW?" Levi snaps dangerously.

"The charge…it was prostitution…but it was dropped Levi, they had no evidence to support the claim and there was…" Erwin manages before he is cut off.

"Thank you for letting me know Erwin, but I now have a couple of errands to run. Goodbye."

"Levi wai…." Levi hangs up the phone before Erwin can argue further.

He doesn't bother to change out of his casual clothing, consisting of a pair of dark blue jeans, a lilac shirt and a button up cardigan, instead simply gathers up his necessary belongings, puts on his shoes and leaves his hotel room.

He is in his car in an instant, driving in the direction of Eren's house.

Levi knocks Eren's door and calls into him twice but is completely ignored. All of the lights and appliances are off but he knows Eren is home, he's not stupid, reconnaissance was literally his career for 14 years of his life. He's spent his life hunting down and negotiating with some of the most dangerous enemies in existence, he's sure he can tell when a dumb kid is holing up in his house specifically to avoid confronting him.

After a few more attempts, Levi is done being accommodating and bangs on the front door, strongly and consistently, until he can hear Eren inside cursing to himself and unlocking the bolts on the door.

As the door opens, Eren appears in the doorway looking a little worse for wear. He has on the same sleep shorts and T-shirt combo he had been wearing the morning he and Levi had first officially met, so he's hit with a strange sense of Déjà vu. Except this time, in addition to his relaxed ensemble, Eren still adorns a pair of dark sunglasses.

"Hangover?" Levi asks, voice clipped, and arms folded in annoyance.

Eren shakes his head in response, "Migraine, they happen sometimes. Just come on in, the sunlight is killing my head."

Okay, so maybe the brat hadn't been hiding from him intentionally, not completely at least. Levi follows Eren into the house and attempts to manoeuvre his way around the house in the dim light, a task proving much more difficult than he would have thought, considering how tidy Eren keeps his home.

"I'm going to assume you're not here for a social call." Eren says, "Considering how we left things the other day."

"The other day?" Levi asks incredulously, "Try five days ago brat, and you'd be right."

"Five days? Damn, I hadn't realised. These last a couple days and I end up losing track of everything. But anyway, what did want to talk about?" Eren asks, his head bowed and fingers massaging his temples.

Levi considers taking pity on the kid's fragile state and leaving the conversation for another day, but instead, he finds himself blurting the words out he can stop them.

"I know that you're a prostitute." And immediately, he wants to take them back.

Eren's head snaps up and he looks at Levi incredulously. He removes his sunglasses and switches on a nearby lamp. Levi can see from the look in his eyes that he's absolutely livid.

"Excuse me?!" Eren demands, hands clenched into fists. A part of Levi wants to throw his hands up in surrender and request Eren simply forget all about it, but it's too late for that now.

"You heard what I said brat, I don't need to repeat it." Levi says, looking up at Eren, as poised and articulate as ever.

"I can't believe this bullshit. First, you say all of those horrible things to me out of nowhere just as I'm about to spend a lovely night with my closest friends and family, which I invited you to! Then you drive away and leave me without saying a word until you text me the next day demanding that I'm ready to leave when you deem it acceptable. And now, you've turned up to my home uninvited and practically banging down my front door, accusing me of selling my body like a common whore? Who the HELL do you think you are?!" Eren all but screeches at Levi, who is left uncomfortable but not visibly so.

"Hey, you told me to leave you alone! I wanted to talk and sort things out after everything happened, but you were the one that ignored me and said you wanted to take a vacation. Five days I've been waiting to hear from you, and nothing, so you know what I did? I had my company look you up. I know everything Eren. I know about your suspensions, I know about your drug problem and I know about your arrests, and what they were for. So, don't you stand there and lie to me." Levi spits, seething and red in the face.

They stare at eachother, neither really wanting to back down. But despite all his stubbornness, Eren caves first. He pinches the bridge of his nose, hard, and sighs but remains quiet. Levi breaks the silence.

"What are you thinking right now?"

"What I'm thinking….is that I'm going to write a very strongly worded letter to your company and make a formal complaint. The background search, fair enough, I get why. What I don't get is how you guys managed to open legally sealed files for charges on me that were dropped and shouldn't exist anymore." Eren says, raising a perfectly plucked eyebrow at Levi.

"We…. had access to some rather in-depth content back in the Military… it's just never been revoked." Levi mutters, examining his nails in an effort to look casual. He hopes his admission doesn't have too many consequences for his friend.

"You don't say." Eren retorts, looking a little annoyed but this time with a tinge of amusement in his tone, "But before I make any calls or write any letters, I'm going to get a large bottle of wine or two, a couple glasses and we're going to talk this out like adults. Something we should have done days ago."

"Seriously brat? Alcohol? After what I just said." Levi questions bemusedly as Eren moves to the kitchen and opens a cupboard.

"I might have had a drug addiction in the past, it's true." Eren admits, "But believe me when I say that I have some pretty damned good self-control. I know when enough is enough, and a couple glasses of red is gonna do me no harm." He offers Levi an empty wine glass.

"You know kid, technically I'm still on the clock." Levi says, plucking the glass from Eren's outstretched hand.

"Yeah, but you're on my clock. And on my clock, it's drinking time!" Eren jokes, sending a sly smirk in Levi's direction before walking over to a comfortable looking beige three-seat sofa, sitting cross legged on the far end and patting the spot next to him.

"Better get yourself comfortable short-stack, because it's story time. I told you when we first met that I would be completely honest with you, so this is me, cards on the table. I'll answer anything you want to know as truthfully as I can." Eren promises as he looks Levi dead in the eye, still absentmindedly stroking his sofa.

Levi takes a deep breath in and lets it out slowly, grabs the wine bottle from the table and pours himself a large helping. He sits on the opposite end of the sofa and tries to relax as much as possible.

"Okay Eren, I'm listening."