A/N: This... was a very late update, and I don't really have any excuse for it (other than a flood of assignments and work) so please accept my apology with a double update- where the 'double' will come tomorrow. We're nearly at the end and there's about one more chapter to go before I get to the epilogue, so thank you to everyone who's persevered with the story so far. Anyhow, this should be the last intentional cliffhanger (for obvious reasons) so... strap yourselves in, I guess. And if you guessed that something like this would happen, then kudos to you for doing so.
Beta'd by Stately Demented
secondary edits are unbeta'd
~ Chapter Eight [Escaping] ~
"W-What… how… I-I don't…"
Eren's aghast spluttering was the only thing that could be heard in the apartment after he'd lunged forward to shut off the radio and, when his noises subsided, the silence that stretched between them grew uncomfortably heavy with each passing moment. As the tea cooled in the forgotten mug on the bench –Levi had put it down some time ago, after he'd noticed that his hand was trembling– and in the untended puddle on the tiles beneath, its once comforting smell assaulted Eren's nose. It almost made him sick with its pervasive intensity and how little comfort the herbal scent now brought him.
Eren desperately wanted to open his mouth and say something, anything, to break the tension between them, but his voice refused to obey him. The only noises that he could make were choked ones, but even those were muffled by the dead weight of his tongue and unmoving lips.
"Eren, I don't really know what's going on," Levi suddenly said, breaking the silence with a curiously subdued tone that Eren had never heard before, "but you don't look like a class criminal to me."
The small comfort that Eren received from Levi's belief in him lingered in the depths of his stomach but, when his neighbour moved forward and placed his cold hand on his cheek, all he could think about was the odd emptiness unfurling in his chest. That, and the unbidden moisture prickling at the corner of his eyes.
The last time that he'd cried had been a year or so ago, if his hazy memory was anything to go by. He couldn't quite remember what had happened, but it must've been bad enough for him to bury the memory deep inside his mind…
…but now, as Levi's icy fingers caressed his lips, all he could see was a film of tears blurring his vision.
"Talk to me, Eren," Levi said, and Eren was horrified to find that there was a faint plea in his voice.
Levi was supposed to be the strong one while he broke down, not the one that broke down with him. There was something fundamentally wrong with his actions and, to Eren's befuddled mind, it was the factor that almost pushed him over the brink. As it was, though, he couldn't hold back the stray tear that coldly caressed his face and slid inexorably to the floor beneath.
"I-I don't know why," Eren mumbled thickly, after Levi's hand had drifted to his hair and he'd found his trembling forehead resting on Levi's collarbone. "I h-haven't done anything wrong… have I, Levi?"
Most criminals scheduled for public execution were often serial killers or fear-mongers that had justly owned their offense of High Treason against the State, yet he had neither killed nor stirred up the public. He had only lost his temper a number of times over the past month and been a little less happy than he should've been, and that was all. As far as he knew, he didn't have multiple personalities or something else that might indicate his ignorance towards his own action.
So was his anger really a legitimate excuse to class him as the highest possible category of offenders?
…Or did he really deserve to die for a reason that he wasn't aware of?
"Nobody ever deserves to die," Levi replied, and Eren quietly wondered why his mouth couldn't keep his thoughts to himself. "We don't choose when we cark it and, damn, we'd be gods if we could. You might go against the norm with your emotions, but you're no threat to society as you are."
"How would you know?" Eren shot back, as he sniffed petulantly and glanced at Levi with slightly swollen eyes.
The slight narrowing of Levi's eyes was practically ignored by Eren as he furiously wiped at the tears threatening to run down his face. However, when he finally sensed Levi's obvious disapproval of his faithlessness in him, he angrily scoffed and began talking again.
"Apparently, I'm a threat because I do things differently and I go against the natural societal order, but how can I protest when I don't even know why I've been selected to die?" Eren growled, as if he hadn't been crying mere moments ago. "Like, seriously, 'high treason'? What the fuck is 'high treason,' Levi?"
"The rate you change emotions is truly astounding…" Levi muttered quietly, but he didn't bother to repeat his statement when Eren raised his head and cast a challenging glare in his direction. "But in all seriousness, brat, you do realize that you're making absolutely no sense, right? And besides, arguing about shitty particulars with me will get you nowhere anyway."
"I'm going to die anyway," Eren stubbornly replied, "So I don't see the difference either way, Levi. Nothing matters anymore when I'm going to fucking die and neither you nor I can do anything about it—"
"Don't say that." Levi's eyes hardened, to the point where they were almost like twin shards of frosted glass, and Eren gulped at the intense chill that raced down his spine. "You're basically implying that everything I did for you means nothing in the face of your death."
"I do care about you and the things you've done for me, but it doesn't make a difference whether I do or not." Eren sighed as his shoulders slumped and he leant heavily against the kitchen cabinet. "Don't you get it, Levi? Even if I believe your word is the gospel truth, it doesn't count for anything outside of this room! Fuck, even the average person would know that nobody has ever been cleared of High Treason in the history of our society…"
The noisy sigh that escaped from Levi's parted lips was far too loud for Eren's liking, but he managed to swallow down his cutting remarks in time to hear his neighbour's response.
"So you're basically trying to say that you've given up hope." Levi shook his head and cast a baleful glare in Eren's direction. "Wow, Eren, I didn't peg you as the sort that lay down and died quietly, but I guess it just goes to show that you're really just a whiny brat."
"I'm realistic, not whiny," Eren growled, but it was clear that his developing temper was getting the better of his cognitive reasoning.
"And since when have you ever been 'realistic', Eren?" Levi snapped.
"What, are you trying to say that there's something wrong with me?" Eren yelled back.
"I'm not saying that and you know it, you shitty little brat!" Levi roared, but Eren was already vomiting out a tirade of caustic sarcasm before he could stop him.
"Oh, look here, let's all pick on the dimwit non-conformist—"
"Goddammit, Eren, are you trying to piss me off here?!"
"—and rain all our curses down upon him—"
"Eren, I swear I'm going to slap you if you don't stop right now…"
"—because who the fuck cares when he's a useless piece of—"
The slap echoed in the sudden silence that followed Eren's abrupt end to his rant.
As a red mark blossomed to life in the hand-print left in Levi's wake, the stricken boy could only open and close his mouth noiselessly in a cheap imitation of a stunned goldfish. A pale hand slowly came up to brush the bruising mark but, before it could make contact with the imprint that it had left, Eren was already bringing his own hand up to swat away Levi's questing fingers. To think that his neighbour, a man that probably had more visible muscle than anyone he knew, would slap him and then have the nerve to comfort him…
He didn't want his neighbour's supposed pity anyway, not when he could see the smouldering anger in the other's silver eyes.
And besides, he wasn't going to forgive him that easily anyway.
However, before he could rediscover his voice and yell at Levi some more, any words that had tried to worm their way out of his mouth were stopped short by the insistent rapping upon the door. Eren was more than happy to answer the door but, before he could, he found a hand covering his half-open mouth and an arm locked tightly around his frame.
Of course, it hadn't occurred to Eren that most respectable people wouldn't visit someone at such an ungodly hour, but his mind was too shaken to reason properly. Luckily, Levi was kind enough to reason for him on his behalf.
Not that he noticed or cared.
Before he could even hope to question Levi's actions or bite into the sparse meat on the hand covering his mouth, though, a harsh yell came from the outside. And, as Eren's mind digested the words and a sheen of sweat sprang to his brow, a soft whisper next to his ear stopped him from voicing the panicked whimper attempting to worm its way out of him.
"Do not answer that door or make a noise when I let you go, okay?" Levi whispered beside him, as his frightened eyes sought out his neighbour's flat ones.
"If you value your life, stay away from the Feds outside and listen to what I'm about to say next…"
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"This is the Federal Police! In the name of the law, Eren Jaeger, open this door immediately!"
The knocking had ended some time ago and the repetitive (and almost robotic) orders for Eren to open his door had been repeating themselves for the past few minutes, but nothing had responded to their demands. No matter how loud or insistently they repeated themselves, the wood did not magically part underneath their hammering fists.
If anything, there had been no move to indicate that the occupants of the apartment had heard them at all.
Just as they had given up on waiting and were prepared to force the door open, a quiet series of clicks from the front door stopped their movements and, within moments, the door creaked open. The Federal Agents, believing the person to be Eren Jaeger, steadied their hands and prepared to grasp their anticipated target, should he attempt to escape.
However, the person that opened the door wasn't the brown-haired kid that they had been instructed to capture. In fact…
"…You don't look like Eren Jaeger at all, sir," the first agent muttered confusedly.
"It's probably because I'm not him," the unamused man in front of him replied.
An almost comical look of bewilderment flitted over the agent's face as Levi glared steadily at him, but the more agreeable-looking man standing beside him drew out a paper from his pocket and casually pointed towards the details printed upon there.
"Forgive me for interrupting," the pleasant-looking agent said without a hint of remorse in his tone, "but I couldn't help noticing that this is Eren Jaeger's listed address. Who might you be, sir, if you're not Eren Jaeger, and what might you be doing in his apartment?"
"I'm his neighbour," Levi replied in a tone that reeked of bland disinterest, "and I'm talking to two idiots that can't be bothered doing their job properly. What's it to you anyway, sir?"
The pleasant smile refused to leave the second agent's lips but, in the short silence that followed, the first agent shivered from the sudden chill that had descended upon them. Levi continued to glare unwaveringly at the second agent, despite the disintegrating bundle of nerves that shivered and shook in front of him, and made no move to move from his relaxed position against the door.
Soon enough, the icy tension in the air was broken by a soft chuckle from the more composed agent.
"Oh, nothing, really," the pleasant one replied in a smooth, even tone. "I was just wondering if you would be kind enough to accompany me to the station. After all, we'd like to find Eren Jaeger as soon as we can and, as a law-abiding citizen, it would be your duty to aid us in our search."
"But if I go, then who would house-sit mine or my neighbour's apartments?" Levi growled huffily.
"Ah, so Eren Jaeger isn't at home then, sir?" the first agent piped up hopefully.
It was almost like watching a lost puppy grasping at any stick it could find, in Levi's opinion. He snorted a little derisively at the mental image that sprang to life in his head, before he schooled his face into its usual indifferent state.
The agents in front of him didn't seem to notice his amusement, though, if their unchanging expressions were anything to go by.
"His presence elsewhere is of no consequence," the pleasant one interjected effortlessly. "It simply means that our other colleagues will have more work to do. But we seem to be wasting time here… so, if you will, Mr…"
"For god's sakes, it's just Levi," he offered, and watched as the agents' eyes looked at him closely, as if they had never noticed his features before. "And I can't say much in my defence, can I? Now, if you'll all stop gawking and get all this over and done with, I might be able to get back here in time for a quick morning jog."
When the two agents had recovered their wits enough to follow after Levi, who had shut the door behind him and escorted himself to the stairs, silence reigned over the third-floor apartment once more.
The residents continued to slumber, unaware of the man-hunt going on for one Eren Jaeger and the unofficial detainment of one Levi, last name unknown. In fact, apart from the few early birds and the police unit that had been mobilized to hunt down Eren, there really wasn't anyone that was aware of what was going on in the sleeping city.
And so it was that nobody heard the soft 'whump' of body on leaves as Eren leapt from his balcony and began his escape into the city's convoluted alleys.
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Levi had gotten arrested for my sake, and I could do nothing about it.
That was the only thought running through Eren's mind as he twisted through alleyway after alleyway.
Eren could still hear Levi's voice whispering into his ear as the police had pounded on his door and called for him to open it. If he thought about it hard enough, he could even feel his breath tickling his neck. In fact, if he stopped and closed his eyes, he could still recall the shivers that had raced down his back at the ticklish puffs of air, along with the highly-inappropriate scenarios that'd run through his head at the odd yet not unpleasant sensation.
He could also recall the directions he'd been given to a place that he'd promised as a safe haven and the swift yet silent arrangements that Levi had made to grant him safe passage down the third floor. It had involved a few blankets, a great deal of faith in his ability to jump from said blankets to the neighbouring tree and a shitload of luck that he didn't really have, but it was good enough for their desperate minds at the time. Luckily enough, it had worked.
However, what he remembered the most was his neighbour's insistent reminders for him to go immediately. It was like he thought that he would be in danger if he didn't leave at once.
It was almost like… he was scared of something that he couldn't comprehend.
Apart from Mikasa, who must've been an exception to any rule that life wanted to impose on her, and his mother, who he vaguely remembered, Levi seemed to be the most capable person that Eren knew in all the years of his life. Not only could he cook edible meals and make them mouth-watering delicious, he could also reduce him to an obedient and controllable puppy with a few harsh words, which was something that most people could never do in their lifetime. The only thing that he seemed remotely afraid of was anything that correlated to uncleanliness, like the dust-bunnies that delighted in frolicking throughout his apartment or the suspicious stains littering his walls and floors and other random surfaces. Yet even then it wasn't quite fright, or anything close to it; if anything, it was more like disgust and a smidgen of hate, but not exactly fear.
But this… this had been something that Levi had feared with every fibre of his being.
Eren couldn't figure out why a few Federal agents would have that sort of effect on him. If anyone was supposed to be scared then it would've been him… but, oddly enough, fear was the last emotion he could see himself feeling. He had merely confronted his fate with no uncertain amount of anger and a great deal of resignation, but there had been no fear.
The government was the government, after all, so who was he to go against them? All he amounted to was a cog in the wheel, a particle in the grand scheme of whatever the world's agenda was, and something that would never be anything more than a struggling college student. Yet Levi had decided to go against them, for some inexplicable reason that he still couldn't begin to wonder about, and he had sacrificed himself for his sake.
And he just couldn't understand why the man would do something like that for him.
He could've lived a long life and gone jogging for many years to come if he hadn't meddled in his affairs. He could've done any of the things that Eren couldn't think about when his mind was too dead from exercise to amount to anything much. Heck, he could've even outed him when the Feds came around and earnt himself a nice reward for his efforts, like an honorary meeting with the mayor of their city to ask for whatever he wanted.
He had heard that people who dobbed in traitors (or suspected traitors, since it was hard to tell whether someone was an enemy to the state or not) would get hefty rewards. Some whispered of great sums of money, while others whispered of an elevated status in society, but he wasn't all too sure. All that he was certain of regarded the great benefits that Levi would've had if he'd gone and handed him to the authorities...
…but instead, he'd gone and taken up a lost cause for his sake.
Why would Levi do that? Why would he risk his life for a supposed 'brat' like him?
Eren slumped down in a nondescript alley to catch his breath, organize his thoughts and try to figure out where he was in the grand scheme of back-alleys.
He hadn't run like this since he'd decided to race Levi in a competitive sprint around the local park all those weeks ago and even then he'd stopped his mad dash around five minutes in, when he'd realized that racing an extremely fit man was not going to end in victory. He didn't really need to run like this, especially when he hadn't seen a soul since he'd leapt down from his balcony around half an hour ago. However, the thought of being captured and brought back (and the mere thought of wasting all of Levi's efforts) had spurred him on to run for his life.
It was at this moment that a sudden, terrible thought surfaced in his mind.
If his situation had been reversed with Levi's and he'd been faced with the prospect of his death, he would've rigorously attacked Levi if he had slipped into a depressed stupor as well. The chance that he'd lay his life on the line for someone that he'd privately admitted to liking would've been quite high as well, which was probably why Levi had done all this for him. If he had been in his situation, he would've done everything he could've to make sure that Levi got out alive, even if it meant that he'd have to put his life on the line– because he loved him, and he couldn't explain why.
And, for some odd reason, Eren had a feeling that Levi might just feel the same way he did.
Which brought him back to the thought that had plagued his mind, and which continued to do so.
With a sigh, he wearily allowed the thought to drift to the forefront of his mind again as he stood up and ran again. Hopefully, it'd be in the right direction… and hopefully, Levi wouldn't get killed.
Because Levi had gotten arrested for his sake, and he could do nothing about it.
…But he was going to die trying, because Levi had done it all for him.
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Mikasa had always told him to wear a watch so that he wouldn't be late to meetings, as he normally would be, but Eren had never bothered to listen to her sage words of advice. He had a phone, after all, and a phone was useful for telling the time when there wasn't an analogue or digital clock in sight, so he'd vehemently refused any attempts that his foster sister made to give him one.
Unfortunately, due to the fact that his phone was back in his apartment, he didn't really know what the time was anymore. And though it was tempting to curse his own stupidity, he decided to take stock of the situation, as best as he could.
The sun had come up, if the pale pink of the sky was anything to go by, but he had no other indication of what time it was. It had been dark when he'd leapt down from his apartment's balcony and fell into the thick foliage of the lone tree outside, if he remembered things right, and it had been just as dark when he'd tumbled down the branches and shot into the closest alleyway in his street. So now, it was light, when it had previously been dark… which wasn't exactly helpful to him when he wanted exact numbers. Though, now that he thought about it, exact numbers probably wasn't going to help him when he was on the run from Feds that only cared for his hide.
For the most part, Eren had been running for minutes (or was it hours?) on end with extremely short breaks to catch his breath in between, and he'd been so busy tending to himself that the sky's change in colour had come as an abrupt surprise. So now, as he stared up in slight wonder at the pink suffusing the sky, a few questions began to pelt his stalling mind.
Had it been minutes or hours since he'd ran away from his home? He couldn't really tell.
Was Levi safe, wherever he was with those government agents? He hoped so, at the very least.
Questions came and went with the even-paced speed at which his feet landed on the ground, one after the other, as he ran through alleyway after alleyway. However, Eren couldn't seem to answer any of them in a satisfactory manner, so he merely turned his gaze back to the ground and continued to put one foot in front of the other, like he'd been doing for almost all his life.
If his mind had been a teacher giving him a pop quiz, he would've failed long before he could get through half of his thoughts… but this was life, the hardest test of all, and he could feel his physical and mental strength giving up on him when he needed it most. Perhaps he should've taken those extra P.E. lessons when he was offered them…
But all his regrets dissipated into hope when a sudden left turn ended in a familiar-looking drawing that Levi had depicted as the final unguarded exit out of the city… though how he knew such an exit would forever elude Eren. As his pace picked up and his breath grew shorter and shorter in his chest, he felt his heart soar within him in a sharp contrast to his tired body. Because, after a few hundred metres…
…he would be free.
The elation that he felt at that moment was like nothing Eren had ever experienced before. It would've been clichéd to say that the very air thrummed with cheeriness and its taste on his tongue was the sweetest thing he'd ever sampled in his life, but there really wasn't any other way of describing his joy. If this was the happiness that Levi had challenged him to grasp with both hands, he was going to fling his whole body at it and seize it in a permanent embrace. If this was what freedom was like, then there was no chance in hell that he was going to let go of it so easily.
Of course, the thought of leaving his family and friends behind dampened his elation and caused his headlong rush towards the sunlit entrance to falter slightly, but the sadness was fleeting and was soon forgotten in the face of his reasoning. Wouldn't they be sadder if he were dead or, even worse, brainwashed into total obedience by the government? At least they could try and meet him again when he was free, and when he had established his place in the unknown world outside.
Maybe, if he was especially lucky, he could even set up a safe haven so that everyone else could attain true happiness with him in a place that was removed from the government's poisonous influence.
Maybe… he could even uncover the lies that choked their society in its stifling grip.
Eren was so buoyed up by his emerging hopes and his lofty plans for his future that he never noticed the figure standing under the shadow of the inviting exit. It was only when a hand shot out and grabbed his wrist in an unshakeable hold that he registered the figure's presence at all.
As the overwhelming mirth halted and subsided into lost confusion, he found his eyes staring into a masked figure that almost blended in with the grey of the walls around them. For some unfathomable reason, they seemed somewhat familiar to him, but he couldn't think of why in the moments that followed his abrupt surprise.
"…Who are you?" Eren asked dumbly, when it was clear that the figure wasn't planning on speaking to him anytime soon. He didn't know where the irrational question had come from, unless the video games that he'd played with Armin in his adolescent years were somehow affecting his thought process now, but it was too late to retract the question.
In any case, the supposed gatekeeper never answered him anyway.
Instead, he calmly pushed his hand backwards and dislocated Eren's hand with a startling lack of emotion in his flat, grey eyes.
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Eren's howl was almost animalistic in its raw display of pain as his mind comprehended the impossible position of his hand. It was only a miraculous surge of adrenaline that allowed him to tear his arm loose from the stoic figure. If the situation had been re-enacted in a movie, he might've found it funny to see someone's hand lying flush against their arm, but all he could think about was the searing agony racing up the appendage and shooting his nerves to kingdom come.
He knew next to nothing about medicine but a small part of Eren's mind knew, with startling certainty, that he would have to reset his hand as soon as he could if he ever wanted to use it again. The pain would worsen for a few moments and then fade as the hand became accustomed to its natural position once more, but there would be more pain if he prolonged the resetting process for any longer. The best thing to do would be to reset it right now… but he couldn't, really, because of one little problem that was getting a little more irritating with each passing second.
Unfortunately, the supposed gatekeeper was rather intent on damaging more parts of his body.
"What the hell?!" Eren shouted through his pain as he barely managed to dodge yet another solid punch, but the silent figure neither acknowledged his comment nor ceased his violent attacks.
His dislocated hand throbbed with pain as he continued to dodge what blows he could and parry those that he couldn't avoid in time, especially when the figure changed their trajectory and delivered harsh hits to his screaming joint. There was no way that he could continue this when he was in no position to retaliate…
And so, in a last ditch effort to cut his suffering short, Eren threw himself towards his assailant and ripped his mask off his face.
The figure threw their head down and attempted to cover their face with the sagging hood over their head but the damage had already been done.
Eren had caught a glimpse of the other's face.
It was only for a split second, the man had covered his face up with a muffler he'd been concealing under his shapeless grey cloak, but he had immediately identified who his attacker was… and the realization had pierced his heart with a cold lance of agonizing confusion. Perhaps, in a few moments, he would blink and see that it was all just a horrible hallucination, and that he would wake up with a gasp and with sweat clinging to his body. But for now, the only thing his mind could do was short-circuit and spark, useless, in his head.
Because, of all the people that his attacker could be…
…why did they have to be Levi?