Eren cries out in horror as he glances down at his phone, quickly weaving between people to make his way to the granite steps, where a large building loomed over him. He swallows hard, running a hand through his messy hair before opening the glass doors as he loosens his tie.
He almost runs head first into the chest of a blond man, who smiles slightly down at him, arms crossed as he steps to the side. Eren blinks and stares at the man, frowning as he realizes he looks very familiar.
Eren sweeps his gaze over the older man, first taking in his black suit, tailored just right, before meeting those cool blue eyes that watch him with veiled laughter. He arches an eyebrow and takes in the rest of the man, seeing his brown undercut and those…fucking huge…eyebrows…
"Yes I know my eyebrows are huge." The man before him laughs. "Levi likes to remind me about them all the time."
Eren sucks in a sharp breath and freezes. Did he just say that out loud?! Shit, shit, shit, shit…that means…this man…is…
"What the fuck are you doing Erwin?" A shorter man appears from the elevator, eyebrows drawn together in obvious irritation. "I thought you were going to get the car."
"We needed to meet Eren, remember?" Erwin responds calmly, tugging gently at his cuffs. "And stop using such vulgar language, please."
"Fuck you."
Erwin sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. Levi tsks, tapping his foot impatiently. "Where is the brat anyways? Eren is it? Sounds like a fucking girl."
The blond man looks over apologetically, but Eren can't find it in himself to be mad.
How can he, when the most handsome man to ever walk the earth insulted him?
Eren takes in Levi's profile with a quick sweep of the eyes. His shorter body shows a loose tense set to his joints, and his fine arms cross over his chest in impatience. A dark blue tie hugs his creamy neck and his thin lips purse together.
And his eyes.
Dear God his eyes.
Their eyes lock and Eren swallows hard, ears going red at the tips. Levi's granite gray eyes stare into his soul, raven hair falling to cover the piercing gaze.
"What the fuck is your problem? Who the hell are you?"
Eren opens his mouth,
And speaks his death.
"Please fuck me."
Eren wakes, feeling more rested than he'd felt for weeks.
His next scream of pain says otherwise though.
Why the hell does his head hurt so badly? Why can't he see? Better yet:
Why the fuck can't he move?
"Oh Eren." A soft voice sighs somewhere off to his left and he tries to tilt his head to the left, but restraints on his head and chin don't give him much room to move. He chokes out a cry, hands clenching as he tries to pull his wrist free from the chains.
"Do you like your new bed? Isn't it comfortable? I'll admit, we had to restrain your arms and legs to the bed because we don't want you to hurt yourself." The soft-spoken woman rests a gentle hand on his arm and gently rubs it.
"I feel bad that you have to bear the brunt of our frustrations, but your husband did something that we just can't forget quite yet."
He tries to speak, but a wordless whimper escapes his split lips. The woman laughs softly and traces her fingers down his temple to his lips. He wonders fleetingly why she won't remove his blindfold anymore.
"Testing your eyes was sad to me, but we wanted to see if it worked like how your husband would test too. And it worked better than I thought." She laughs softly, and suddenly her lips brush his ear.
"Only 14 more hours Eren, and then you'll be put out of your misery."
And he cries, cries tears of blood from his damaged eyes.
10:30 AM
13 and a half hours left
Trost Hospital
Status: Lockdown. All doctors and nurses will be asked to give a sample of blood to the police.
Levi stands next to Erwin, a pounding headache tearing his head apart. He watches Mike as he directs all the doctors and nurses to a private room to give small samples of blood before continuing with their work.
The catch?
No one can come in or out of the hospital until everyone is cleared.
Eren's nurse, Annie, comes up to him and Erwin after she's given her blood, icy blue eyes watching the two of them. "I'm sorry to hear about Eren. Hopefully he can be found soon."
Levi says nothing, breathing slowly. Erwin places a hand on his shoulder and nods to the nurse in front of them. "We thank you for your concern. I have to ask if you don't mind, if you've seen or heard anything unusual."
Annie stares at the two of them for a moment, gaze dead and hard. "You're not the police. Stay out of my business."
Before either man can speak, she's already left back to her office. Levi watches her go, eyes narrowed. The Emergency Room was oddly quiet as the workers slowly shuffle to the testing rooms.
But then that fucktard has to ruin the tense quiet.
"WOULD SOMEONE EXPLAIN WHY THE HELL THE BUSIEST AND MOST NEEDED HOSPITAL THAT I OWN IN UNDER LOCKDOWN FOR AN UNDERTERMINED AMOUNT OF TIME?!" Kenny bellows, slamming the doors open while some policemen fight to drag him back out.
Erwin sighs and pats Levi's shoulder before walking over to the dark-haired man. The doctors and nurses don't even bat an eye at Kenny's outburst, much too used to them sadly.
Hanji finds him sitting with his head in between his legs a little while later. The woman doesn't comment on how dirty the floor is that he sits on and slides down next to him. They sit quietly for a couple of minutes before Hanji speaks up.
"I spoke to him like you said."
Levi says nothing in response. His lithe fingers twist the ring around and around his pale finger.
A promise Levi? Oh no! (A laugh and a quirky smile) The ring is a sign of my love for you! You know I'll love you until the end of time…
"Why…why do I have to go back…why are they wanting me to do this?" He whispers, head bowing to hide the dark circles under his tired, saddened eyes.
Hanji, for once, has nothing to say, and she silently hands him the dark ring, curling his hand around it.
"You know you have to…for Eren."
"Eren is the reason that I left this behind to begin with!" He hisses, hand clenching the ring hard enough to draw blood. Hanji and Levi watch the blood drip from his clenched hand with dull, slightly haunted but obviously desiring eyes.
"Shit." He breathes, eyes dark.
Before Hanji can respond, Mike comes over to the two, bending down. "We've found a match. It belongs to a woman named-"
"LEVI ACKERMAN THIS IS IT. YOU'RE FIRED!" Kenny shouts, interrupting Mike. Hanji whimpers slightly when Levi cracks the stone in the ring as he stands, breathing erratic.
He storms past Mike, ignoring Erwin's calm commands to stop, and grabs Kenny's tie and pulls it tight, slamming the older man hard back against the wall, whole being shaking with unadulterated anger.
"And why the hell am I?" He growls lowly, pulling his silk tie tighter against his neck. "Because my husband is missing and will be killed in almost twelve hours? Do you even know who I am? I could kill you without blinking an eye."
"That's enough, Levi." Hanji pulls him back, and Kenny gasps for air, sliding down the wall as his shaking hands try desperately to loosen his tie. Erwin bends down to help the older man, although stiffly. Hanji physically restrains him back as he shouts at the holiest bosses of bosses, cursing the man and his unborn children to rot in hell for eternity.
A cold pair of eyes watches the entire exchange before slipping their hood up as they silently slip past the guards to the outside world.
"We need to move. Now. They've caught onto us."
"B-but we can't now! He's in the middle of a new test!"
"What the fuck didn't you understand? They're chasing after our asses. We're moving him now. Understood?"
A sigh. "Yes Boss."
"Are you sure you can stay calm and mature Levi?" Erwin asks, crossing his arms as he stands in front of the door, eyeing the shorter man with a calm gaze.
"Fuck you, let me in. The clock is ticking. I need to know who it is now. Then the others can help me." Levi spits, self-consciously twisting the dark ring round and round his right thumb.
"I'm already contacting them." Hanji tells him, phone glued to her ear as she breaks away from her frantic ramblings for a brief second.
Levi nods and Erwin sighs, stepping to the side to let the two in before following after them. Levi pulls his dirtied lab coat tighter around his chest, sitting down before the animal detective.
Mike slides a file to him, sitting back in his chair. Levi sighs and opens it slowly, Hanji peering over his shoulder as she tilts her phone so the other people on the other side of the screen can see it as well.
His eyes widen and he sucks in a sharp breath, eyes scanning the file frantically. "Shit. No. It can't be her."
A dark profanity can be heard on the recipient's side of Hanji's phone. "We've been searching for her forever! How the fuck did she slip under our noses?! We're the toughest gang in the Underground!"
"The Titans are a powerful group Farlan." Hanji murmurs, reading her file. Levi clenches his jaw and grips the photo of the woman in his shaking hands.
"The Female Titan. The boss of that damned group. And my husband's nurse. Annie Leonhart."
"Hey, hey guess what?"
"What?"
"Big bro is back! We gonna help him?"
"Of course. He is the leader after all."
"Will we find her?"
"…one can only hope…"
11:30 AM
12.5 hours left.
Run Levi.
Run.
Your precious Eren bleeds on the tiles you destroyed with your evil.
Run Levi.
.
.
.
Run.
A/N: Thank you all for such positive feedback on this story! A few quick notes before I leave.
I'm going to be posting sporadically, I mostly just write when I feel some inspiration.
And my friend is forcing me to write a chapter in 24 hours so I can have my own little test of sorts. This'll be fun! ^-^
The little memories at the beginning are Eren's memories and dreams as he's held captive, if you haven't picked up on that.
This story is wildly unbeta'ed so I'm sorry for any mistakes.
And finally, I don't own SNK! See you next chapter!