Luckily for everyone involved, Eren's stunt wasn't found out by anyone inappropriate, and thanks to Erwin's flawless rhetorical skills the elite of the Survey corps was back to the headquarters by afternoon the next day.

Eren was standing stiffly by the door to Levi's room while Levi himself was changing out of the clothes that smelled of sweat and horses.

"I hope you realize you're on cleaning duty for the next month."

"..."

Levi rolled his eyes at the lack of response. "Don't tell me you're still sulking."

"You're still angry, too!"

"Yes, I am. I have the right to be. How did you even get into that situation? You're supposed to be better than a bunch of petty thieves."

Eren shrugged. "They hit me from behind. I didn't think I had to be too careful so I didn't hear them."

"Okay, that was stupid. You know there are thieves everywhere."

"I know; I'm sorry."

Levi sighed and stared his brat down. Eren still refused to look at him. "Whatever, that's not the point anyway." He narrowed his eyes before continuing, "Why the fuck did you shift?"

Eren looked at his feet. He really didn't want to talk about this. "I told you; they pissed me off."

"How, Eren, how."

"They looked down on me."

Levi gave him a stop-wasting-my-time look that was kind of pointless since Eren was still not looking at him. "That would just make you beat them up, not shift."

"They talked shit about the Corps."

"Not it either. You'd just shout at them for that."

Eren sighed in defeat, "They talked shit about you. And..." he trailed off, going red. He quickly cleared his throat. "I just wanted to shut them up and make them pay for all the stuff they said. Scaring them seemed reasonable to me."

Levi was speechless. He stared at Eren for a good minute in silence. So long it even made Eren look up to assess the situation.

Levi wasn't sure how he was feeling about this. Happy that Eren got this angry for him or annoyed that he was stupid enough to get this angry for him. His expression was completely blank when he replied, "You're an idiot. I'm used to people talking shit about me."

"But you don't deserve it!"

There was a passionate fire in Eren's eyes. Levi knew there was no point in arguing with him about this, so he just shook his head in disbelief and moved on to the other important point of the brat's confession. "What else did they say? You said they talked shit about me and. And what?"

The red that went away in the meantime was back full-force. "Umm... I'd rather not..."

Well, this was interesting. "What, Eren." It was an order and Eren knew it.

He cringed and mumbled something incoherent.

Levi rolled his eyes. "Talk so I can understand you, brat."

"One of them touched the collar."

Now Levi was speechless.

Eren was so red he started wondering whether one could die of having too much blood accumulated in their head. After a while he couldn't stand the silence anymore so he turned around to escape it. "Sorry, I'll go... clean something..."

However, before he could reach for the handle, a hand wrapped around his wrist. Surprised, he turned around and his eyes fell on Levi staring intently back at him with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Heichou?"

Levi is silent for a few more seconds before his grip on Eren's hand tightens. "Did you mean it?"

The boy frowned in confusion. "Mean what?"

"That you shifted because they touched the collar."

Eren flushes again. "Uhm, yeah? Well, not only because of that but it was the last drop... Listen, I'm really sorry I did it, Heichou, but I just-"

He got interrupted when Levi roughly pulled him down to his level and kissed him hard. The boy jerked back in shock. "Wh-What?!" Not like he was complaining but wasn't Levi angry at him? What the hell was going on?

The older didn't let him protest any further. He opened his eyes long enough to shoot Eren an annoyed look and a growl of, "Shut up, brat," before he was kissing him again.

This time Eren didn't pull away and instead melted into Levi. He decided he didn't really care he didn't always understand why. He'd take whatever Levi gives him.

Levi, on the other hand, was kind of disappointed Eren didn't get what Levi was feeling right now but he was actually relieved for the most part. God knows what would happen if someone found out just how happy it made him that the collar meant just as much to Eren as it secretly did to him.