Those Three Words
Summary: All the three word phrases Eren and Levi said to/about each other as their relationship changes and gives them a whole new meaning.
2. Hoh, not bad. (Dungeon scene) (Levi) (Levi POV)
Upon closer inspection, if Levi were anyone else than who he was, he would have thought that the brat before them was underwhelming and not at all what one would think a boy who can turn into a Titan would look like. It was a good thing, then, that Levi was not so naive as to believe this Eren Yeager was neither harmless nor a threat. No, Levi has yet to classify him in either category and he knows Erwin was also waiting for his verdict before he really made the motions to acquire the cadet for the Survey Corps.
As much as they were hurting for numbers and as useful as something like a Titan of their own would be, not even Erwin would be willing to gamble the whole of the Corps, or even the whole of humanity, on a being that he didn't know whether it could be an ally or if it was just a threat. So Erwin relied on Levi to judge the boy's threat level, as well as how dependable or trustworthy he might be. He was well aware just how honed Levi's instincts, his whole body was to react to a threat.
If Levi gave the okay, he's sure both Shitty Eyebrows and Shitty Glasses will have the orgasm of their lives.
Well, if they manage to get the boy from the MPs, that is.
Honestly, Levi is not yet sure how he feels about there being people who can turn into the very monsters he kills on a daily basis, but even he knows they'd be a huge tactical advantage. Especially if they ever hope to regain Shiganshina and the rest of Wall Maria. Yeager might very well be a ticket to that. After all, Trost would have been lost without him.
But Yeager had saved Trost because it was to his benefit, too, not just because of humanity. After all, his little pals had been trapped in that hell, too. Levi has nothing against selfishness that can cause good, but who is to say that that selfishness will always have good results for the greater good?
Levi was no saint, but he'd dedicated his heart to the Survey Corps' cause and he won't let some Titan brat ruin everything he's done so far, make the sacrifices of his comrades meaningless and doom humanity to retreat further and further into the interior until all that is left of humanity is the scum that can survive in the Underground.
Levi is also not one to beat around the bush, so he asks the brunet boy plainly. "What do you want to do?" When it looks like the boy takes too long to answer, he repeats his demand.
Yeager seems to be shaking and, for a second, Levi wondered if he'd terrified the brat too much to be of any use, which would be a disappointment for someone of such great power. Levi doesn't need no coward in his ranks. While fear is a natural emotion when faced with something several times your size that wants to eat you, if Yeager's reaction is to freeze up, he's of no use to Levi nor to the Survey Corps.
But then Eren looks up and Levi barely registers how Erwin subtly flinches back at the dark, crazed expression on Yeager's face and the fierce, monstrous look in his eyes. The boy was shaking from rage, or rather from restraining it, not fear. And that look in his eyes, the conviction in his voice as he claims to want to kill all the Titans ...
Levi feels something within him stir, something that had laid dormant practically his whole life excluding the first time Kenny had put a knife in his hand, but this was different.
Levi had found a soul as damaged and determined as his own in a random cadet ten or so years his junior, a monster caged within the mask of humanity, a survivor and fighter who claws at the Walls towards the stolen freedom outside, shamelessly scraping for more and more, letting the rage and blood-lust build up until it explodes in a wonderful display of aggression that would make any pansy surface-dweller queasy. He had found it in Eren Yeager.
"Hoh, not bad," he said, pushing off of the wall of the dungeons and coming up to the bars to better examine his once-in-a-lifetime find. Eren is clearly startled by that, by this sudden acceptance of the monster that lurks within him that has absolutely nothing to do with the power they've discovered him to possess. Interesting; had no one ever appreciated how beautiful that beast could be? Shame. People are always so blind.
But that didn't matter. No, the inevitable messy trial is all that matters right now and in the nearest of futures.
Levi was now willing to do whatever it takes to have Eren Yeager on his squad.
Who better to look after this little monster than his only kindred spirit?