Together Again

Chapter 5: Meeting Zoe

It was a cold, quiet February when Hanji family moved in across the street. Grisha passed along Carla's invitation for them to come over the week after they had moved in, dubbing it their welcome to the neighborhood party. She ended up inviting Mr. Pixis and the Smiths over too, proclaiming that more people meant more fun and that it was a good change for the Hanji's to meet some more of their neighbors. Carla was also delighted to learn that they had a daughter who was only a few days younger than Levi.

The doorbell rang and Carla opened it open, smiling at the trio, "Hi, I'm Carla Jaeger!" She said with an easy smile, sticking her hand out to shake, "It's nice to meet you both!" The man and woman smiled back at her, "Hello. I'm Jiro Hanji; this is my wife, Ada, and our daughter Zoe." The man gestured to each of them in turn and the wife nodded in greeting. Carla shook both their hands and took Zoe's hand, "Well aren't you cute."

Zoe grinned at Carla, her amber eyes sparkling mischievously as they shook hands. Carla led the Hanji family into the house and into the living room, where the Smiths and Mr. Pixis were sitting, chatting amiably. Carla directed Zoe to Levi's room and sat down to begin the process of making friends with the neighbors.

Levi was dubious about even interacting with Zoe, who was strange to say the least. She talked for what must have been fifteen minutes solid about some kind of insect, and Levi was pretty sure she hadn't taken a single breath throughout her little speech. Irvin was more compatible with Zoe, quietly enduring her talking and occasionally inputting something.

Levi could only shake his head; how could someone possibly be so weird? At one point Zoe had said something about having an ant farm and 'disectaming' a worm she had found in her driveway. How disgusting, honestly, did the girl not know how many germs and crap could occupy something like that. Even the thought of it made Levi shudder with disgust.

"Oh!" Zoe said sometime after she had finished talking, "Levi, I brought you somethin'." She rummaged through her pockets for a moment before producing three suckers. She held them out and grinned, "Here!" Levi raised an eyebrow and cautiously took one; Irvin took one took with a murmured "Thanks" along with it. Levi glanced back up at Zoe, who hummed softly as she slowly peeled the wrapper off of her sucker, silent at last. Perhaps she's okay… Levi thought, that doesn't mean that I'm going to cling to her.

Levi tapped his fingers on the wooden floor impatiently as he waited for Zoe to lay down a card. They were playing Uno; Irvin had three cards, Levi had five, and Zoe had ten. "Lay down a card already," Levi growled and Zoe rolled her eyes. "I will when I'm ready," she retorted as she scanned the cards again, her right hand hovering above the cards and moving from left to right along with her eyes.

She finally drew one and tossed it onto the pile; a red 7. Irvin immediately put a yellow 7 card on the pile. Levi gazed dully at the cards and then glanced at his own hand. He had two yellow cards, one of which was a skip, one green, and two blues. This is such a boring game, he thought as he tossed the skip card down, smirking at Zoe's indignant squeak. Irvin laid another yellow down.

"UNO," Zoe shrieked, laughing when she saw Irvin's mouth, which had frozen halfway open. "Snooze you lose," she said, sticking her tongue out cheekily. Levi rolled his eyes and put his other yellow card down, tuning out Zoe and Irvin so that he could think. March is cold again, he thought, but after tomorrow it'll be over again. March is cold Eren; it's very, very cold.

Levi picked up the swords, feeling the way that they had been carefully balanced so that neither end was too heavy to hold in a flat line. The gear felt awkward on his body; foreign, like it didn't belong.

In truth it didn't really; he didn't belong here either for that matter. He was just some street trash that Irvin had picked up after he had tried to stab the other man in a fit of desperation for money, clothes, anything really. Such was the price of living on the streets for who knows how many years; Levi certainly couldn't remember how many years it had been.

He could feel their eyes on him, he could hear their words when they thought he couldn't; neat-freak, trash, pity pickup, strange. It didn't bother him; things as mundane as that had stopped bothering him years ago.

Levi sighed and stared blankly ahead as they waited on the signal to begin the exercise. As soon as the man's hand dropped Levi was already gone, shooting through the trees ahead of the other trainees. He leapt from tree to tree, searching for a target. His eyes spotted movement, too large to be a person and he angled towards the wooden cutout that was supposed to represent a Titan.

He spun through the air, his eyes blazing with cold fury as he sliced through the padded surface on the back of the neck, straight through the middle.

Levi opened his eyes sleepily and rolled over in his bed, looking at the wall for a long time. The dream was fresh and vivid within his mind, but he wasn't quite sure what it meant. Maybe he was going to be someone who flew through trees one day, attacking wooden cutouts.

God, if he ever mentioned that to Zoe she would have a fit before pressing him for every detail. That was just how that annoying girl was. He rolled onto his stomach and thrust his head into his pillow, stretching his short legs out in the long bed. Wings, he thought, maybe one day I'll have wings.

July was warm, but not so much that it was stifling hot or humid. It rained for the first three days, a ceaseless drizzle that occasionally picked up into a downpour. The gray clouds finally began clearing up on the fourth and by the fifth they were completely gone.

"Meow…" the faint sound came from the window looking out into the backyard. Levi looked up and blinked when he saw the squashed, furry gray face peering through the glass at him, golden eyes fixed on gray eyes. He shook his mother's shoulder, his eyes still locked on the cat's own eyes. "What is it Levi?" she inquired, looking up from her letter. "There's a cat," Levi said simply, gesturing towards said feline.

His mother shook her head, laughter bubbling at her lips, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to give it some tuna or something. You go get a can and I'll get him a plate." Levi jumped up and opened one of the cupboards that were easily accessible to someone of his height, rummaging through the cans of soup and tomato sauce until he found some tuna.

His mother was already waiting at the door, a plate in hand. She opened the door and they walked out; the cat jumped down, letting out a meow when it saw them approach but it didn't run. Levi slowly cracked open the can after several attempts, dumping the contents onto the paper plate, which he then offered to the blue-gray feline.

Its long fur was raggedy and filled with knots and despite all of the fluff, it looked quite skinny. Its face was more or less squashed flat and circular, its nose snubbed upwards. The cat hungrily attacked the food as soon as Levi set the plate down, eating in the neat but quick way that cats had.

Levi looked up at his mother, eyes wide and pleading, "Can we keep him?" His mother bit her lip and looked at the cat, "Well… he'll need to go to the vet and that fur has no hope with its current state, but if your father is fine with it then it's fine with me." Levi beamed at her and crouched down to pet the cat, "Your name will be Moony," Levi said, the tone of his voice leaving no room for arguments.

Moony turned out to be a female when they had her examined at the vet's office two days later after they shaved all of her fur except for the fluff around her neck and head, her tail, and her legs.

Irvin and Zoe came over the week after school started for Irvin; the blond boy was going into kindergarten, which he said was quite boring.

Levi couldn't help but think that even boring school would be less boring than staying home all day, doing nothing but coloring, reading, wandering around, and playing with Moony. Things got dull quickly and the days ran together, especially with nothing to do. Sometimes he was so desperate for company he found himself wishing Zoe was there to chatter beside him while they built something with Legos or played cards.

He immediately regretted ever wishing that when Zoe spotted Moony and said, "Can I dissect him?" That earned her a pillow to the face and a punch to the shoulder, which led to Zoe complaining more than was strictly necessary on her part. "Stupid brat," Levi muttered, pointedly turning his back on the girl.

Two small hands met with his back and he fell forwards, catching himself on the floor with his hands. He looked up at Zoe, a positively murderous look on her face. "I am not a brat!" Zoe said, glaring at Levi. Irvin rolled his eyes and walked between them, hands up on either side that they would have to go through him to get to the other.

"Stop or I'll get your mother," he said forcefully. Zoe frowned but stuck her hand out after a moment, her eyes downcast. "Sorry I asked to dissect Moony," she murmured. Levi looked at her for a moment before taking her hand slowly, "Don't do it again."

Chapter 5: End

Alright, another chapter out! Sorry that it's out kinda late at night/early in the morning. I was otherwise occupied until an hour or two ago.

So I really wanted to give Levi a cat in this one (since the cat stereotype is that they are cold and aloof and unfriendly they kind of fit but that's not really how cats are). So I was on tumblr and I saw that Levi's birthday was now officially Dec. 25 and I just sat there staring for a moment before I check Eren's. Thankfully, I got the month he was born in right (hoorah!). So yes, school begins in the next chapter because he'll be of age, along with Zoe.

So yes, another chapter can be expected either tomorrow or Tuesday so please stay tuned!

On another note, thanks to all of you wonderful people who have read this and have been keeping up with it!