"Mikasa." Eren says quietly, placing his hand over hers when she parks the car. "We can still turn back."
She takes a deep breath, and smiles. "I've come this far, I can't turn back, Eren. Let's go in."
Eren is uneasy as he escorts her towards the hotel's entrance. He resists the urge to hold her hand, figuring that she must be a thousand times more nervous than he is, yet she is still keeping it all together.
"Good evening, are you checking in?" The receptionist asks when the two of them reach her.
"No. I'm here to meet Mr Kenny Ackerman?" Mikasa says clearly.
The lady blinks, before composing herself. "Oh, are you Miss Mikasa Ackerman?"
"Yes, I am. I'm expected."
"Give me a second." She says, and dials a number on the phone. "Sir, Miss Ackerman is here….Should I send her up?….Yes sir."
After she puts the phone down, she turns back to Mikasa, "Please take that lift over there, to the first floor, and go into the office on your right."
"Thank you." Eren says to her, and follows Mikasa up.
How did they end up in this situation, and why is Eren so wary? Well, the reason is simple. Three months ago, Eren and Mikasa got engaged, and she decided that she wanted to find her father's side of the family first, after years of being raised by the Yeager family as well as her martenal aunt. That in and of itself, is not a problem. The problem is the fact that Mikasa's father had run from his family years before she was born, and had never said a good word about them before his death, so yes, Eren is worried.
Still, for now, nothing seems amiss, and the office that they were directed to has an opaque glass door, so they can't see inside, but Mikasa does not hesitate to knock.
"Come in." A low voice says when she knocks on the door.
A man stands inside the office, facing away from them, looking, instead, outside the windows. Eren thinks this Kenny Ackerman fellow seems rather short where he stands.
The office itself is huge, (and spotless) an open space inside. It is bright inside due to the large glass windows on the side of the office, overlooking the street outside. Just in front of the windows is the mahogany desk. An empty executive chair with wheels sits rather low behind the desk. In the middle of the room, are two dark brown office couches separated by a table. A bookshelf lines the entire right wall of the office, but Eren has no time to try and read the titles of the books on there.
"I…I'm Mikasa, we spoke via email." Mikasa says nervously as she steps into the office, not offering a greeting.
"Sit." The man says.
Mikasa figets slightly before sitting down on the couch, Eren following closely.
"Thank you for meeting me, I-" Mikasa starts, but the man interrupts her.
"Kenny's not here. That asshole pussied out of meeting you, and left me to clean up after him…like he always does." The man sounds very annoyed, like this is nothing more than a bother to his busy day.
Immediately, Mikasa's excitement dissipates, and her face is crestfallen. "He…he's not here?"
Eren hates seeing her upset.
"Yes, and it'd have done you no good to meet him. I don't know what the hell he was thinking, inviting a cop to my hotel. He's a worthless bastard, so, hurry on home, and forget whatever bullshit he told you." The short guy says, still facing away from them.
If Mikasa was crestfallen before, then she is devastated now, and anger flares up inside Eren, never really one to keep his emotions in check.
"Hey dickhead, you can't even say that to her face? No explanation? Do you have any idea how hard she searched, to even make it here? And you dismiss us like we're a couple of nuisance kids?" Eren shouts angrily. "Hey look at me when I'm talking to you!"
Perhaps it is the insult that causes him to turn around, or maybe it's just general annoyance and impatience, but the man finally turns to face them. As expected from his voice, he is wearing a scowl on his face, and his lips are pursed, clearly, he is unimpressed by Eren's outburst. But that is not why Eren gasps, and flinches back onto his chair in surprise.
He recognises him.
Levi.
Yes, the familiar short, black hair, the dark circles under his bored gray eyes that always seem to be caging so much emotion inside his heart. The undercut curtain on the hair is new though, but it fits him so perfectly that Eren almost wants to reach over table and hold one of those strands, just to see if it still feels the same as the one and only time he'd had his hands inside that soft mass of incredibly black hair. The pale skin is even paler, that youthful face unchanged, hiding the man's actual age in the beauty of his soft, but cold features.
It absolutely is Levi.
No fucking way. Why would Levi be here of all places? Also, why does he look the exact same as he did back then, when for Eren it feels like a lifetime ago?
In his shock, Eren misses the chance to see if Levi recognises him. Instead, he finds Levi only sparing him an impassive gaze.
"I take time from my very busy day to entertain whatever this shit is, and I'm the dickhead?" Levi crosses the room to sit opposite Eren and Mikasa.
"Then call Kenny Ackerman, and we'll be out of your hair." Eren suggests.
"Over my dead body." Levi says at once. "He is barred from ever setting foot in my hotel."
"Why isn't Kenny here? He promised me answers about my father, like why he didn't reach out to any of you even though we lived in the next town over. Or why my father even left the city of Trost to hide in a small town like Shiganshina. I just, need to know." Mikasa asks. She is not someone who talks a lot, so for her to say all of this in one breath must be taxing.
"You sure ask a lot of questions, the answers to which you probably won't like. Fine, I'll answer all of them, then you may leave." Levi says. "Old grandpa crime lord has three children, Kenny, your father and my mother who he naturally expected to take over the drug trade, but lo and behold, gang war erupted when he got sick and died. The once proud Ackerman family was defeated and lost everything. Kenny got arrested, and your father ran away in the chaos. That's it."
"That can't be it, I don't understand why you..." Mikasa says.
Eren places a soothing hand on her back. Mikasa always calms down when he touches her, so it is the best way to get through to her at the moment. Sure enough, she takes a deep breath, and closes her eyes for a second. But it is not just Mikasa that Eren is trying to calm down. His damn heart just can't sit still. He's scared, what if Levi tells Mikasa? Eren has worked really hard to keep the darkest parts of himself away from her. He shudders to think of her reaction when she finds out just how much violence he's bathed in, what if godforbid his mother also finds out? Levi and Mikasa are still talking and Eren can't breathe, he needs some air.
"Excuse me, Mr Ackerman, may I use the bathroom please?" He manages to say.
"Go out the way you came in. It's the second door to your left." Levi says, grey eyes narrowed on Eren.
He can finally breathe once he leaves the room, but only in the bathroom can he finally relax and allow himself to properly freak out, because fucking hell, Levi is here.
Eren takes a deep breath, and stands in front of the bathroom mirror for what feels like hours. This is bad, he thinks to his panicked reflection. Never in a million years did he think that this part of his past, the stupid mistakes that his aggression as a teenager had led him to, would cause his world to crumble in his hands like this.
He resists the urge to splash his face with water, because Mikasa would worry, opting instead, to place his hands under the tap and let the water run over them.
He needs to calm down. It has been almost eight years, there's no way that Levi remembers him. No, actually, that thought does not make him feel better at all.
Damn it! Why the fuck does Mikasa insist on finding her family? Lord knows Eren has had enough of family to last him twenty fucking lifetimes. Great, just great, now he's thinking about that asshole Zeke again... Yeah, of course, why wouldn't he? Seeing Levi sure reminds him of his worthless brother. Back in the day when he used to look up to Zeke, and admired him. But those days are long gone, and every good memory that he ever had with his brother is like a sword to the heart. This sucks, and Eren just can't bring himself to move until he hears the bathroom door open behind him. He doesn't get to turn around, before he hears someone speak behind him.
"Shingeki," The voice says.
A shiver crawls up Eren's spine, the name filling his mind with images of the exhilarating rush of his fist colliding with someone's face, of the blood rushing to his ears as the adrenaline takes over even as he is thrown violently onto the cold hard ground, images of himself pining his bloody opponent down on the floor of the ring in victory while the crowd cheers for him.
But the voice saying that name reminds him of a cold summer night on the mat, when everyone else was gone, when he'd been high off actually winning and earning the title of Shingeki. That voice reminds him of that night, hands all over his body, that name whispered in his ear after a kiss, like a drug, pulling him in, and making him drown in Levi, in his warmth despite the usual coldness. He can't forget how skilled those hands were, one sliding up his-
No.
"Pardon?" Eren chokes out.
"I didn't wanna say anything in front of the girl, but it's been a long time, hasn't it, kid?" Levi asks, his frown less pronounced. "How have you been?"
"I don't understand what you're talking about." Eren feigns ignorance.
"Ah, you must be worried about the club's privacy." Levi moves closer, "Don't worry this place is safe, this entire floor is mine. Now, tell me, why did you leave without saying anything?"
"I'm sorry, have we met before, Mr Ackerman?" Eren asks innocently, turning the water off.
Levi's permanent frown deepens, "Are you fucking with me, kid?"
"No sir, is something the matter?" He asks.
Levi walks up to him, and miraculously, Eren is able to hide the storm of emotions that is brewing inside him, instead presenting a confused expression to Levi.
"Tch. I know you haven't forgotten. Don't pretend that it isn't you. You recognised me back there." Levi snaps, "You owe me, Shingeki."
If Eren hears that word one more time, he is going to scream. Side stepping Levi, he is ready to deny it again when he gets a text from Mikasa 'Hurry, I'm in the car'
"Mikasa's left?" He asks.
"Yes, she dramatically stormed out of my office when I informed her how lucky she was that her coward of a father ran from the family and she didn't end up being born from one of the whores in the illegal brothels." Levi says with a shrug.
All control forgotten, Eren's temper flares. "What? Why the hell would you spew that bullshit to her?" He shouts.
Instead of answering, however, Levi only watches Eren. "It really is you. The demure act threw me off, but the intensity in those eyes can only be yours."
"You're sick." Eren steps away from him as quickly as he can, practically running out the door. But not before he hears Levi speak again.
"I'll be seeing you."
Yeah, no way in hell. Eren can only hope Levi's attitude is enough to make Mikasa give up this crap about finding her family. She already has one, for shit's sake. They can't see Levi anymore, his very existence threatens to break down all the progress that Eren has made since his father's death. It threatens all the sacrifices that Eren has had to make in order to get here. Right now, when hes about to get married, Eren does not need any sort of emotional upheaval as it may just end up breaking him, because let's face it, he's barely holding it together, his sanity is a thin thread.