A/N: Recommended listening for this one is Downtown by Anitta and J Balvin

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

Levi hears the nonexistent clock fill the silence while he remains incapable of producing words.

It's not a big deal.

Really.

This is America, everyone has guns and it's fucked up. He shouldn't feel the need to explain himself to Eren at all.

Apparently, Eren can't wait for an explanation.

"I mean, are you a redneck or something?"

Levi's eyelid twitches reflexively in annoyance. "No, of course not. Have some respect."

Eren holds up his hands placatingly. "Okay okay. I'm just saying like hypothetically, I think I'd rather you were a serial killer than an NRA activist or something."

Levi has to bite back a smile at this.

"Well, lucky for you I'm neither. Look, Eren. I just… I dunno. I had a shitty and violent upbringing, and having a mode of self defense just makes me feel better." This is technically true, and who is he kidding. Levi has no moral compass so

it's not like he gives a damn if he's lying or not.

Eren crinkles his nose in an infuriatingly attractive manner and then lights up like a bulb.

"Fuck, the omelettes!"

He grabs a spatula from the gun drawer and starts to flip the omelette. It's less of a flip and more of a subtle coaxing of the egg off the not-so-nonstick pan.

"It's not burnt; that was close." he sighs. He plates the omelette and turns to hand it to Levi. Levi notices that his hair is tied back in a tiny button of a ponytail at the base of his neck.

A few thick brown locks fall free of the ponytail and frame his face.

Levi forces himself to look away and grab the proffered plate.

He begins to eat the omelette while standing, pacing around his living room and stopping to lean against the wall and look out the window. He wonders if he should sit down at the dining table, give Eren a chance to properly enjoy his meal.

But that just feels

old and

married and

sedentary.

Levi sucks at morning-afters and Eren doesn't seem to care as he joins Levi near the window, perching on the edge of a couch and staring at Levi staring out the window.

"I'm sorry for making a fuss about the gun thing. I know it's not really my business." Eren takes a bite of his omelette and speaks around his chewing, "And you did warn me that you were 'dangerous' so I guess I get to keep finding out what the fuck that means."

Levi genuinely can't figure out if he wants to squeeze Eren's cheeks for being so appropriately weird or slap him for talking with his mouth full.

Tick tock.

The clock keeps ticking as they finish their food, Eren stealing glances at Levi every once in awhile.

"That was really good. I've never thought of using cilantro as a topping before." Levi says earnestly, because it truly was a delicious breakfast. He clears their plates, washes them. Water droplets splashing his torso as he realizes stupidly that he's still shirtless.

"I should probably get out of here and head to class." Eren says, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. Levi guesses Eren is starting to feel the awkward jitters too.

"Do you know how to get back to wherever you need to go?"

Eren laughs, bright, and the clock stops ticking momentarily. "Honestly, I have no clue. But Uber's a thing so I'll survive." He hovers at the doorway, definitely intentionally trying to prolong the moment.

C'mon Eren, just

Go.

Of course Levi's silent urges don't do anything. Eren plows forward like a determined bulldozer. "So, I had a really good time with you. Can I get your number?"

Levi opens the door for Eren. "Thanks, last night was great. But I really have to get to a meeting so you should go." The words tumble out of his mouth, part of a script he's rehearsed countlessly, a monologue he's delivered to too many people in the past.

"Yo, are you seriously trying to ghost me in person? You really don't want more of this?" Eren gestures at himself and wiggles his eyebrows, the goofy grin on his face masking the confusion in his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm serious." Levi crosses his arms over his chest for added effect.

Eren's eyebrows furrow, grin falters. He looks unhappy. "Okay but, last night wasn't an average one-night stand. You definitely thought it was incredible."

"Are you usually this pushy with everyone you fuck?" Levi bites back.

Green eyes narrow, unhappiness wiped clean off a beautiful face. Now Eren looks calm and blank and it's a terrible look compared to his normal expressiveness. "No, you know. I liked spending time with you and thought you kind of felt the same way, but if you're going to be curmudgeon ass and insist you don't want to see me again, I'll get out of your hair."

He steps into the hallway and closes the door behind him.

Levi can't help but feel like

everything that just happened shouldn't have happened this way. And then

curmudgeon. Who the fuck even uses vocabulary like that anymore? Levi isn't old. For fucks sake, just because Eren's a college brat doesn't mean 34 is old.

He stares at the door and it stares back.

Nothing gives.

And Levi lets his solitude, his favorite companion, envelop him in its arms and everything is exactly as it should be.

He moves on with his life.

"Grisha Jaeger is gone."

Solemn. This loss is more personal to Erwin than if he accidentally shaved off one of those prodigious eyebrows of his.

"Gone as in dead or gone as in disappeared?"

Erwin looks lost for a moment, pulls himself together. "We aren't certain yet. I believe he either went into hiding or was kidnapped before he had the chance to."

"I didn't realize the other people trying to get to him posed real threats."

As far as Levi knew, Erwin's contingent was the main group after Grisha and his Coordinate Project. Erwin's contingent being Erwin "the brains," Mike "the nose," Levi "the aim," and...

"I'm SO sorry I'm late!" a voice shouts as the door is flung open.

Hanji shuffles in, plopping stacks of paper down on the table in the meeting room and heaving themselves into a chair.

There's also Hanji, "the lab rat."

"What did I miss? I have updates on Mina Carolina, but you guys seem to be in the middle of something el- WAIT. Levi! Is that a hickey?!"

And there's Hanji's short attention span.

Levi slaps a hand onto his neck and ignores them. "Erwin, do we have any idea who could be behind it if he was in fact kidnapped?"

Erwin sighs and nods at once. "There are a few suspects. It could be drug cartels, although I cannot figure out what they'd need Grisha's work for. It could be the anarchists although they are highly amateurish. I'm also considering Senator Pixis; we heard that Grisha was refusing to cooperate with him recently."

"And Mike checked out where Grisha was located last?" Levi doesn't really understand Mike. Sometimes it seems as though they have him on their team solely for his sense of smell, although it has come in handy in the past.

"Yes, Mike is on the trail." Erwin turns to Hanji, "So, you have the results of Carolina's autopsy?"

Hanji looks up and looks alive again, tuning into the conversation. They begin rifling through their papers. "Yes, unfortunately, we did not detect much. Her liver was 5% larger than standard, and she had elevated levels of LDL."

Levi barks out an angry laugh. "Really, high cholesterol? They get this way because Grisha fattens them up?"

None of their autopsies have revealed anything useful.

Hanji looks upset. "I know, I know. Whatever these subjects are being treated with, we can't detect it in the blood as a foreign substance. It seems to integrate seamlessly into the body; which it kind of has to in order to not trigger the immune response. But I do intend to look further into the LDLs. We shouldn't rule out lipoproteins as a possibility."

If Erwin is bothered by the lack of meaningful results, he doesn't show it. "Well, if that's all, we can wrap up here." He smiles a distant smile at both of them before sweeping out of the room.

Levi starts to exit before he's inevitably interrupted.

"Soo, Levi. Tell me about that hickey! Who was it? Was it good? Are you going to see him again?"

Hanji follows him out the room.

"Hanji it's nothing really. I'm serious. I needed to get laid so I went to a bar. That's the story."

Of course, Hanji squeals in response to this. "Why did you go to a bar without telling me? We haven't gone out together in so long, I miss you!"

Levi keeps walking and mutters, "Because the last time we went out together, you vomited all over the guy I was going to take home." Hanji laughs and gets a gleam in their eyes.

"It's settled then. We're going clubbing tonight."

They are finally outside the office building and Levi turns to face Hanji. "What? No. I'm not going clubbing, you know I don't like it."

"I'll pick you up at 9!" Hanji sings as they skip off in a random direction simply for the sake of making an abrupt exit. Levi groans. What Hanji wants, Hanji gets. Which means Levi is in for a very long night.

Levi has another kill that afternoon.

It seems pointless considering it was assigned before they found out Grisha was missing.

But Erwin knows Levi, knows

that Levi needs this to function.

So, crouching on a rooftop, Levi fires his sniper rifle. Watches the body thud to the ground. Watches curious bystanders shriek in horror. Feels a wave of satisfaction.

Satisfaction and nothing more.

The club Hanji drags Levi to is noisy and crowded, which is to be expected of a Friday night. He pushes his way past faceless bodies and beelines towards the bar, Hanji hurrying to keep up with him.

"Come on, don't you wanna dance?" Hanji orders them two whiskey sours.

It's not that Levi doesn't like dancing. He just has to be in a very particular mood to not feel awkward while doing it, which results in him not liking it most of the time.

He doesn't respond to Hanji who takes his silence as permission to bob their head in time with the music like a verifiable dork.

He has to admit, he doesn't mind the music. It's more heavy RnB than it is mind-numbing EDM.

"Oh, I see someone I have to talk to!" Hanji bounds away from the bar in the next instant and this is another reason Levi doesn't like going out with Hanji. He always has to cover the tab.

He looks around the club, at the dancefloor while he waits for his drink. Something catches his eye, something all too familiar.

Lo and behold.

Fucking Eren.

At the sight of him, excitement courses through Levi and he doesn't even try to shut it down.

He's dancing close with some guy with a dark undercut and blond tips, mouthing the words to whatever song is playing.

Levi isn't jealous per se, more just disappointed with himself. He doesn't want to look away, only does to skull down both his and Hanji's drinks as the bartender brings them over.

While he's chugging, he doesn't notice Eren come up beside him.

"Fancy seeing you here." His jaw is set and he avoids looking at Levi, only at the bar to order a beer.

"Likewise" Levi sets his glass down, also doesn't look at Eren. "Nice guy you were dancing with." He tries to mention this offhandedly but it's obviously anything but casual.

Eren laughs. "Oh, that's just a friend, Jean."

And then he's leaning down to whisper in Levi's ear

"But you better believe I'm going home with someone tonight, and it's not gonna be you."

Levi finally turns his head, catches a smirk, green eyes glinting, and a tall body sauntering away.

He doesn't know if it was supposed to be a challenge, but he takes it as one. Maybe it's the dark atmosphere, the illusion of anonymity, the two whiskey sours metabolizing in his gut, but he finds himself getting up and entering the throng of sweaty bodies.

Everything he always tells himself, all the cautionary whispers from this morning about how anything more than a one-night stand is too complicated to sustain for a man who kills people for a living, it all peters out of his system.

He's sure the whispers will be back soon, but for now he's tipsy and he just wants to feel happy, aroused, carefree.

He finds Eren just as some burly guy comes up from behind and starts attempting to dance on him. Levi grabs Eren's arm and pulls them together, chest to chest.

Eren looks startled but not surprised.

This is the other thing Levi dislikes about dancing.

He's short; it's clumsy. Their waists aren't exactly aligned so they can't really grind while facing each other unless Levi humps Eren's leg which is disgusting.

He settles for throwing one arm on Eren's shoulder as Erens hands land on his hips. Eren rolls his body to the beat effortlessly, clearly understanding the thrumming of the music, blissfully moving without having to concentrate on it.

A natural, then. Well, that makes one of them.

The beat changes slightly, morphing into a grimy bass-line. In one swift movement, Eren turns Levi, pulls his back flush against his chest, grinds his ass.

"Glad you're back for more, Mr. Dangerous." It's meant to be a sexy, alluring whisper but Eren has to shout to be heard over the music, so it comes off more as a loud statement of the obvious.

Levi appreciates the show of dominance anyway.

He closes his eyes and leans his head back against Eren's collarbone, finally lets the music control him, let's himself get a little slutty as he grinds back against Eren's gradually hardening crotch. Eren grabs his hips tighter in response, leans over, kisses down Levi's cheek, his jaw, his neck.

Tender and dirty, all at once.

Levi opens his eyes for a second, sweeps them lazily across the club. In his alcohol-induced haze, he sees what looks like a masked man dragging a bloody-faced Hanji outside by the ponytail.

The music in his brain stutters to a stop.

Shit.