(Hey guys! so sorry for the delay in new chapters! updating will be difficult for a while but i will try my best to stay with it! but i promise i won't give up on this fic! It's my baby!
hope you all enjoy and i would love to hear your thought on it. love you beautiful readers! )
Chapter 7 – New information, New sources
Levi's heart pounds as his words travel into the room, not really believing he admitted Eren's existence to a person he just met. He's not sure if he can trust her yet but if Mikasa confines in her then maybe it's worth giving her a shot.
The psychologist just smiles behinds her hands, trying to keep herself composed and not bursting with excitement. This is the first time she will have a firsthand experience of a human living with a Periphery and she can't wait to get some experiments running. However, before she can do anything she has to get Rivaille to cooperate and judging from the couple of minutes they have been talking it's going to take a while to gain his trust.
Levi nervously waits in his chair, waiting for Hanji to give a response, any response to prove that this whole situation isn't a big prank.
"Interesting" Hanji says with secretive smirk, leaning forward in her chair like an excited child.
"Why do I get the feeling this is not going to end well for me" Levi mumbles but the psychologist hears the comment and chuckles.
"Look Rivaille I'm going to be honest with you. You're, how should I say this… living situation is a first for me and I would like to observe how you and Eren co-exist. All I would need to do is set up a few pieces of equipment, microphones and cameras and so forth…"
"Okay lady, hold it for one second" Levi interrupts. "I haven't agreed to any cameras or shit like that just yet. First you have to tell me what you know about Eren and Peripheries like him" Hanji settles into her chair more comfortably and Levi does the same, preparing for a much longer conversation than expected.
"Alright pipsqueak, I'll tell you. But first let me put your mind at ease by saying that Mikasa and I are the only people here who know about the existence of Peripheries." Levi gives a little sigh of relief, hopefully no more surprise visits from Periphery believers. "But to be honest I don't know much about them, I have only ever met Eren once and that was a very brief encounter. I know they can only be seen through the peripheral vision and two days a year they go through a heat cycle which allows them the connect fully with the human population. But of course you already knew that because yesterday was one of those days…" Hanji gives Levi a knowing look and the raven haired man clears his head, ridding the rising images of the previous night away.
Levi coughs uncomfortably.
"Yes I knew that"
"Then you also might know that those two days are critical for reproduction and they can only mate with humans. I have been trying to study their whole mating cycle and the biology behind it but I haven't had much luck as I haven't gotten a specimen to study. But with you living with Eren it could be my opportunity to do in-depth studies on their species, try to figure out what makes them tick."
Levi ponders her words for a few minutes, contemplating the pros and cons of having his home life violated and having cameras and recorders everywhere. Suddenly Levi is reminded of why he's actually in the town to begin with. No one knows his true identity and having cameras poking into his private life puts him and everyone else around him at risk of being hurt or killed. Images of Eren or Petra dead is too much to bare, he can't put these innocent lives at risk.
Being caught up in all the Periphery nonsense has distracted Levi of his purpose for hiding and stay low. If Kenny finds him then he needs to be able to drop everything and run at a minute's notice. Levi's chest squeezes at the thought of leaving Eren behind, to never see him again, to never feel his presence in a room, to never hear his bell ring again.
Just as Levi is about to decline Hanji's offer, they are rudely interrupted by someone banging on her office door and then entering without waiting. Erwin's body takes up the door way and his face displays anger. He heaves a few breaths before gritting his teeth and addressing Hanji in a very quick manner.
"Hanji, I need to have a word with you in private."
"As you can see Commander Erwin I'm in a meeting right now" she expresses in a neutral tone, showing no sign of being intimidated by the Commander's rude intrusion.
"This is an urgent matter Professor and I need to speak with you at once" the Commander's tone is final. He turns and exits the doorway, leaving Levi very confused about the whole situation. Hanji sighs in defeat and begins to stand.
"I'm sorry Rivaille we will have to continue this talk another time, it seems the Commander is not in good mood today." Levi just nods in agreement and follows Hanji out of her office. He makes his way back to his desk, finding a fresh pile of paperwork to sort through on his desk. Running his hand through his hair he takes a seat and begins sort through the paper work from urgent to non-urgent.
From Levi's seat he can see into Commander Erwin's office and he can tell Hanji is being ridiculed about something, the way she stands on the other side of the desk, arms folded and shaking her head trying to say something but is interrupted by Erwin. He seems to be very defensive in the way he's talking using big gestures, almost shouting. Levi is about to focus back on his work in front of him when he sees Erwin point in his direction and Hanji follows his finger till both of them are staring at Levi.
Levi immediately averts his eyes down in the hopes that they didn't see him staring. His heart begins to pound in his chest in fear, it was obvious that he was the topic of conversation but he doesn't know why. Unless they somehow knew his true identity but if that was true he would already be in handcuffs, behind bars. Levi continues to ruffle through the papers on his desk to make himself look busy, silently hoping no one talks to him.
A long while passes before Hanji leaves the Commanders office, a serious expression on her face and she adjusts her glasses to avoid eye contact as she walks past Levi's desk. Levi has a sick feeling in his stomach at seeing the previously bubbly professor look cold and serious.
The rest of the afternoon goes by uneventfully, Mikasa comes in and out of the precinct, occasionally bringing in someone in handcuffs looking pissed at the female officer. Levi avoids eye contact with most people and Mikasa notices this, trying to get his attention throughout the afternoon but doesn't succeed in striking another conversation with the raven.
As Levi is sorting through the last of files on his desk, logging the case file number into the computer and scanning the written files into the system. The task is tedious and boring at best but it keeps Levi's mind occupied so he doesn't go insane from worry, not wanting to think about the fucked up situation he is getting deeper into.
The last case file however captures the Raven's attention. There are a couple of photos attached to the folder with the general report. The pictures vary from a baby sleeping peacefully in a crib to a young smiling mother holding the same baby in a park. Levi feels a shiver run down his spine and an uneasy feeling washes over him. The pictures scream happiness and normality yet here they are stuffed inside a blue police file. He flips through the pictures and sees a few more pictures of what looks like an empty crib and shots of the inside of a house all with small yellow numbers in them. Levi assumes they are the pictures that forensics took.
Levi then flips to the case report, messy handwriting litters the pages and he can just read what the words say. The mothers name is Annie Leonhardt and she is 22 years old. Her baby is Eva Leonhardt and apparently disappeared one night from her crib, never to be seen again. The house had a security system but it was not tripped and there was no sign of a forced entry. Levi skims through more details about the security of the house till something catches his eye. Under the heading of 'Father' it is written as 'unknown'.
Levi then flips to a transcript of the interview conducted with the mother, Annie, and she states the father was a one-night stand type deal and she was never able to find him again. Like he vanished and left no trace behind, all she knew was his appearance of tall and dark hair. Well that's specific Levi thinks as he skims through the rest of the transcript explaining in detail about the evening young Eva disappeared.
For some reason the case resonates with Levi, reminding him of the days spent with his squad and the things they were pressured to do for a certain sum of money. The case file begins to shake with his hands as more memories assault his mind, dragging him through the dark pits of despair and the sound of crying babies' echoes through his mind.
The shrill of his ringtone breaks Levi's trance and he slams the case file shut, getting a few odd looks from officers nearby, taking a shuddering breath he tries to calm himself. He hasn't felt this overwhelmed in a long time, he thought he had a good grip on his emotions but it seems like he is losing his grip.
His phone continues to ring on his desk and he quickly grabs it and checks the caller ID seeing an unknown number flashing on the screen. He quickly excuses himself from the office and runs outside to answer the call.
"Hello?" He answers as he passes the front doors of the building.
"Levi? Is that you?" A young female voice rushes.
"Yes, who is this? And how did you get this number?"
"It's Petra! The nurse who looked after you when you came into the hospital. You gave me this number."
Levi breathes a sigh of relief and smacks a hand to his forehead. Of course he gave her his number, how could he forget that?
"Petra, sorry. What's up? Everything okay?" The Raven answers, leaning against a brick wall.
"I don't really know. You told me to call you if anyone came looking for you or something seemed off. And well…"
"What is it Petra? You can tell me." Levi assures, feeling anxious about the information the nurse has.
"Well… there was this guy that came into the emergency department yesterday asking if people have seen a short man with an undercut. The only person I could think of was you… they questioned me and I think I looked too obvious because they left in hurry after they talked to me… and…" Petra sniffs over the phone and Levi can tell this is stressing her out.
"Petra calm down, it going to be okay. I need you to tell me what you told them." Levi explains, running a hand through his hair for the hundredth time in the last few hours. He has a bad feeling that he knows who's after him. If his suspicions are correct that means Petra could be in trouble.
"Um… well he asked if I had seen a man of your description and I said I didn't know but then he kept pressuring me for more information like who came into the department the night you were brought in. they seemed to know something that I didn't but I continued to tell them that I couldn't remember. Eventually they left but they did say something… disturbing"
"what did they say?"
"They said 'if you happen to remember this man, tell him to start running, the shadows are right behind.'"
Levi's eyes go wide and he feels cold over, his stomach drops and cold sweat covers his forehead. He's heard those words before but no directed at him. It's the words of his boss.
Kenny is closing in.
Levi and Petra talked for little bit longer and they agreed to talk in person later that night. Levi gives strict instructions on how to get to his house without being followed. Levi is now in paranoid mode.
By the end of the day the Raven haired man is completely exhausted. He packs his desk up in silence, stacking all the files in a neat pile and wiping all the surfaces down. This little routine of his calms him down, gives himself time to think through his problems in an organised manner.
From the unexpected interview with Professor Hanji to Petra's panicked phone call, Levi hasn't had time to think about the brat Periphery sitting at home. They haven't talked since the night Levi walked in on him doing unspeakable things and their talk before Eren disappeared was cruel. Let's just say things are little distant between the two housemates right now.
"I think you have effectively killed any living organism on that part of the desk" Mikasa remarks walking up to Levi's desk. Levi's concentration breaks and he looks down to see he has in fact been scrubbing the same spot for ten minutes. "What has you so riled up short stack?"
"Why didn't you tell me?" Levi decides to question, choosing to ignore the name but glaring in anger. "Why didn't you warn me about Hanji? I nearly lost my shit in her little interview today."
"I didn't realise you had an appointment with her today so when she dragged you away it was too late to warn you. Plus, I wasn't expecting her to say anything because I didn't tell her that you knew about the Peripheries." The Officer explains in a bored tone.
"If you didn't tell her that I knew about the Peripheries, who did?" Levi asks, putting away the rest of the clutter on his desk.
"She probably made an educated guess" Mikasa shrugs. "She knows that Eren lives in your house so she probably guessed that you knew about him." What Mikasa was saying made sense but Levi does like being out of the loop. "What did you tell her anyway?"
"Not much. She went on about doing some sort of experiments in the house with Eren and me but I lost track of what she was saying. Then we were interrupted by Commander Erwin."
Mikasa frowns at the last statement, crossing her arm in a defensive manner while looking to see if anyone was close by. The change in body language scares Levi a little bit. Did he say something important.
"Did the Commander hear any of your conversation with Hanji?" the officer questions quietly, leaning forward in order to be heard. "Did he say anything strange to you or did anything seem out of place?" the onslaught of questions surprises Levi and he doesn't like where the conversation is going.
"No I don't think he heard our conversation" Levi starts, "Although he called Hanji into his office and they were arguing about something but I don't know what." Mikasa grunts and leans out of Levi's personal space, satisfied with his answer. "What's going on? Why are you suspicious of the Commander?"
The female officer shakes her head and relaxes her body language as another officer walks past Levi's desk.
"Don't worry about that. It's nothing to concern yourself over" for some reason Levi doesn't believe Mikasa but before he can question her further her walkie talkie interrupts them, calling her to her next job. She leaves without another word and it's also Levi's que to go home. He grabs his bag and walks past all the officer's desk, waving good night to the night shift staff.
The drive home is short and quiet. Levi still has no idea what to say to Eren when he next sees him. As he pulls into the driveway he sees a few of the house lights on so that must mean Eren is up and moving about the house. That's always a good sign.
"I'm home!" Levi calls as he walks through the front door. There are a few seconds of silence where Levi listens closely to the sound of Eren's Bell. He finally hears the faint tinkle of the bell coming from upstairs and it grows louder as it bounds down the stairs. Levi automatically turns to his side so he can look through his peripheral vision.
A green hoodie and brown hair comes into view and Levi sighs in relief, at least he isn't hiding in his room anymore Levi thinks.
"Levi! Where have you been? You are not usually this late" Levi is a little confused and he looks at the clock hanging on the wall, noticing its 9:30pm. Shit. He hadn't realised he had stayed so late, his talk with Mikasa must of went for longer than he thought.
"Sorry, work was… Busy so I didn't notice the time." Levi's lame excuse seems to satisfy the green eyed Periphery. "Have you eaten yet?" Levi questions, wanting a change of subject.
Eren shakes his head and they both walk to the kitchen in hopes of finding some ingredients to throw together. Levi gets started on dinner while Eren wanders off out of sight. Levi has an hour before Petra finishes her shift at the hospital and makes her way over. He has to find a way to tell Eren before he freaks out and scares Petra with his ghost-like abilities.
Eren and Levi sit and eat dinner together, filling the silence with small talk and avoiding the events from the previous day. Levi finally plucks up the courage to tell Eren that there will be a quest coming over to house and Eren promises to be on his best behaviour.
A knock on the door sounds just as Levi is finishing up the cleaning from dinner. Putting away the last dish, he walks toward the front door, waiting for the second sequence of knocks. They come in quick succession, the first 3 are fast, the last 2 knocks are slow and loud. Levi is proud that Petra remembered the secret knock.
The Raven quickly opens the door and pulls Petra inside, making sure there are no other cars parked outside the house. Petra gathers herself after being pulled through the door and looks in wonder at the house.
"Nice house, how did a homeless lightning strike victim afford a place like this?" Petra comments, running a hand along a wall.
"I got a good deal" Levi states, hoping there will be no more question on why the house was cheap. Levi doesn't want to deal with his Periphery problem tonight, he doesn't want to drag Petra into all that fucked up shit as well. Petra follows Levi into the kitchen area while he makes tea and coffee for them both before they retreat to the lounge room to talk further. They make small talk for a while, both not ready to speak about any heavy topics.
Eventually they run out of things to talk about and Petra shifts into a more comfortable position on the couch. Levi can sense the conversation is about to change.
"Levi, you need to tell me what's going on… I know you have your secrets but you need to give me something, anything, so I'm not interrogated again by scary looking people." Petra explains, clasping her hand together.
"But I fear telling you more will get you into more trouble" Levi replies before downing the rest of his tea and gathering his thoughts again. "I can try and answer some of your questions though" he compromises.
Petra nods in agreement and thinks for a few seconds, searching for the right question to start with.
"Start by telling me who the people were that talked to me yesterday."
"From what I know they are from my gang I used to work with. They are people you don't want as enemies. Was the lead guy an older looking man with a hat?"
Petra nods in confirmation. "There were two other people with him. One was a young male with light blonde hair that was parted in different direction. The other was a young girl, she didn't look more than 19 years old. She had dark red hair that were in pigtails"
"That must be Farlan and Izzy" Levi mutters. Levi had a suspicion they would accompany Kenny on his adventure to find him. Kenny knows they are his weaknesses, they grew up together so it's a dirty tactic to flush Levi out. Levi growls and yanks at his hair in frustration, why must they be involved in my mistakes Levi thinks. He feels like he's running around in circles.
"What are you going to do Levi? They are coming after you." Petra almost whispers.
"I don't know. But I think it's too late to start running again." They both stay silent for a few minutes, not really knowing what to say.
"Oh by the way, does the name Carla Yeager mean anything to you?" Levi's eyes widen as the name sounds warning bells in his mind. It must be no coincidence that this person shares Eren's last name.
"Why do you ask?" Levi questions, trying to keep his face and voice neutral.
"These people, the people after you also mentioned the name. They wanted me to look at the hospitals records for her but I refused because of privacy reasons. Does the name mean anything to you?" Levi shakes his head and looks down at his hands. Should he mention Eren? No he wasn't going to drag her through that shit.
Just as Levi is about to respond he hears the tell-tale sound of Eren's bell. He totally forgot about the young Periphery and the sound of bells gets louder very quickly and before Levi can react and tell Petra to close her eyes, she is screaming and jumping in her seat in fright.
It seems Eren has made an appearance.