Thanks for the reviews people =) I really hope you will continue reading this story, I know it is totally different from my other story but still =)

I totally failed to nail my 7K+ mark but ah well, I wanted to end the chapter with a nice... uh... cliffhanger hahaha

Fixed some mistakes, maybe I should stop writing at 3 in the morning =0 hahaha thank you Brightestwitchofherage16 for pointing them out, when I read your review i was like... whaaatttt, that are some stupid mistakes haha~ so thank you hun~ 3

Enjoy~

The Antiquities Acquisitions Business

Chapter 3

Eren and Armin stood amidst a room filled with maps, charts, pictures and documents. There were about a million reports lying on several desks, forming high stockpiles of paper several feet in the air.

The maps on the wall, were accompanied by small noted, scribbles and pictures. Lines of red thread connected the map with the additional information around it.

This was amazing.

Eren walked towards on of the maps. 'What did you ask her to research?' his voice trembled as his fingers touched the old wrinkled map, his finger tracing one of the red lines up to a photo of an all to familiar ship. The Flor de la Mar. "This is amazing."

"I asked her to research several ships that sunk due to storms from 1500 to 1600." He too gazed through the room. "I just never expected that… it would be so many."

"But we don't know, if they have sunk or disappeared, right?"

"Not yet." Armin smiled. He was so eager to read all of those papers. He picked one up from a small desk near the window. "It looks like her life's work, all cramped up in this room."

Eren threw his backpack on the floor and pulled out his black leather notebook. He found a pen on the same desk where Armin was currently reading through some reports and hurried back towards the information covered walls. Eren was always one more for maps and pictures and unclear notes, which were more for Mina herself than for any other to understand, than reports and other boring documentation. Those were more Armin's piece of cake.

"Ah, look at this!" Eren nearly squealed, he could be any happier than he was now, and quickly scribbled some things in his notebook. He tore a picture from the wall and showed it to Armin. "Look." He said again, too happy for his own good. A wicked grin on his lips. "She didn't single anything out. This is the New Spain Flota -The New Spain Fleet- of captain and general Juan Velasco de Barrio… ah man. This is amazing." He gasped. "Armin. Six ships supposing sunk by a freak storm. Do you remember the story? Uh… 1567, they were sailing from Veracruz back to Spain when they received word that they were two… or... I dunno, English ships waiting to intercept them on their voyage. They took an unusual road back and were struck by a storm near Puerto Rico. Six ships sunk. They couldn't turn around to retrieve the lost treasure, they forgot the exact location and there were no survivors of those lost ships."

"Six ships." Armin whispered as if he were in trance. "Six ships." He said again now with more power in his voice. "What was the name again?"

"Uh. New Spain Flota. 1567." Eren repeated quickly and turned his attention back to the wall. It was a sight he couldn't get enough of. He pursed his lips and tilted his head. If anything, he looked like a visitor in some fine art galley, enjoying beautiful paintings and other wonderful objects.

Armin searched the desk for reports with a matching name. It took him quite some time to find several documents. He shoved the heavy wooden chair back a little and sat down, opening bundles of paper. He looked like a scholar in a never-ending library, some would call it heaven, some hell. For Eren it was most definatly the latter.

In the meantime Eren scribbled down more pieces of information in his note book, copying the most important pieces and occasionally took pieces of paper, maps, and other doodles off the wall and stuffed them into his little book. He walked back to his backpack and slung it over his shoulder.

"Hey, is there anything like… tape around here?"

Armin looked up from the reports and glanced over the desk. "Oh here's some." He picked up the tape and tossed it to Eren. 'Catch!'

"Thanks." Eren said as he caught it and began taping some of the pieces into his notebook. "This place is…" he started when he was busy stuffing his book. "I didn't know she did all this."

"I know. It's amazing right."

Eren laughed when he saw Armin sitting in the chair behind a desk full of stacks of paper, in the sunlight that peered through the window. "Don't you look right at home?" He laughed at the sight.

"I wish this was my home." Armin scoffed, not looking up from the document he was reading as it was too interesting to put down.

"I can understand why she put everything here." Eren glanced around the room once more. The extent of her research was enormous. "I don't think this would have fit in either her house, or her meteorology lab, office, I don't know what she has. Had." He corrected himself. The word stung. Had. She was no more. He would make sure he'd never forget that again. And it's easier to keep it separate, and… secret. But still… a hotel room is too risky. Too public. What if someone else finds this information? What if the wrong people found this? The same from the airport. Eren's expression darkened when he thought back at those moments. Reliving those memories, reliving loosing Mina. He cursed in silence and ran a hand through his brown locks. They needed to make sure nobody found this room, or make it so it was gone. But burning down the place would attract attention. That, and the fact that Eren had given away his lighter. I should stop flirting. It bits me in the ass every single time. Fuck. He looked around, opening some cabinets and found a box of matches from the hotel. Score. That was surprisingly easy. Not that Eren mind.

"Ah! Found it." Armin's voice sounded through the room after minutes of absolute silence. "Just like Flor de la Mar the Spanish Fleet was caught in a freak storm, or so it was claimed, however scientific research shows that none of the factors present could cause such a storm. It could produce soft breezes and cold temperatures at night at most. The ships did not sank because of a storm, since there wasn't any." Armin read aloud. "And at the side… here, and… uh here." He pointed at the report as he held it out for Eren to see "…are some of charts and weather pattern's during that period."

"That text looks very hard to read." Eren stared at the papers with a grim face.

"I simplified it… a bit." Armin admitted.

"Are you saying I'm a retard? And I wouldn't have understood otherwise?"

"Not in those words per se." Armin laughed, and warned Eren not to hit him.

"Be careful you." Eren pointed his index finger at Armin, warning him in a playful manner. He saw a flash of fear cross those bright blue eyes. He laughed and he saw Armin relax considerably. "Joking, remember."

"Yeah…" Armin sighed escaping his streak of fear. "I know. But sometimes you're so intense."

That comment made Eren laugh. He'd heard that many times before. "I thought you knew me well enough." It was always the eyes. He'd heard that too many times before.

"I thought I did too, but here we are." Armin said as he continued reading the papers. "There's too much."

"Do you think she had a laptop or something? A notebook? At least something with some kind of summary…" Eren mumbled his question, rubbing his chin as if he had a beard. "I'm going to search the room. You just stay here."

"Hm. Sure." Was all he got from the blond. Eren chuckled when he saw that Armin had his head practically buried in the report, reading it closely. Very closely, in more ways than one.

He left the living area and stepped into a small kitchen, he passed through that too when he didn't see what he wanted, and continued towards the bedroom. He stood in front of the door and swallowed deep before entering. He felt like he was trespassing, but he knew he needed to search the room. His hand went up to the metal knob, his fingers clutched around it, and breathed in slowly before turning the knob and pushing the door open.

And eerie feeling hung in the room as he stepped inside. He knew it was all in his head. I know I did all I could… but still…

He felt like he was trespassing. He was in a place where he didn't belong. Everything felt wrong and it made him feel nauseous. His limbs grew heavy and his sight dimmed tremendously. He felt like he was about to faint. The air was too thick for breathing easily; the room was too dark to see without narrowing his green eyes. He stumbled inside and steadied himself by leaning against a slim desk not too far into the room. His hand hit something off the tabletop and a soft thud followed as it hit the ground. Eren looked down and found a small black booklet on the floor. He reached down to pick it up. When he held it up high enough he noticed it was some kind of notebook. Is this…?

He took a moment and sat down on the soft double bed in the middle of the rather large room. He opened the small booklet and found it was what he'd hoped for. It contained notes, some pictures, and some random scribbles, which didn't seem to make too much sense. At least, not right now.

Eren discovered that halfway the booklet the notes stopped; the other half was empty, untouched. His eyes fell on the last note she'd scribbled down.

A. Arlette

Airport, April 20th

Call Thomas about dinner

Eren whispered the last part. He doesn't know. He doesn't know about her death, about his wife's death… he slapped the book shut and buried his face in the palm of his hands, booklet still in hand. He didn't hear footsteps approaching.

"Eren, are you feeling alright?" Armin asked his now awfully pale friend. Shit, this doesn't look good. Armin thought while he stood up straight. "You wait here. I'm going to ask if they have some medicine downstairs. Take it easy and don't do anything stupid while I'm out. Okay?" he got a sloppy nod for an answer. That'll have to do for now. "I'll be right back." The blond had no idea what to do. Was Eren really feeling sick all of a sudden?

"No, I… I'm fine…" but when he looked up, he found Armin gone. He started to wonder if he'd spoken those words or if they were all in his mind. Either way, Eren found himself alone in a room, in some hotel, in a country far from home.

Levi scanned his room with pursed lips, judging the cleanness of if all. He swept his finger along the windowpanes and his lips formed a thin line when he pulled up his index finger and found it covered in dust. "Tsk, they call this cleaning." He said with great distaste. "Guess the saying 's true then. There's no place like home."

Back in England, Levi's rather large apartment was spotless. Hanji had once complained that it reminded her of a hospital. Too bad for her, it was his house, and that meant his rules. He walked up to the mini kitchen and washed his hands with soap. As he dried his hands on the soft towel his phone beeped his usual message tone. He looked back at the previous room where he'd left it on the small table near the window. He walked into the room, still drying his hands. When they were dry enough the tossed it on the couch nearby and took his phone in his now clean hands. He also grabbed an odd looking bottle next to it and gave it a few good squeezes, filling the air with bacteria killing substances. When he looked down he found the screen was lit up and showed Hanji's name.

Levi opened the message and his eyes grew wide.

Hey! I'm boarding now! But I found something REALLY interesting and you have to check it out right away! You said you stayed at the Perdana Kota Bharu Hotel, right? Well guess what, so was Mina Carolina. Room 247. Go now!

Cheers dear! Xx

"What…?" it took a moment before it all made sense. Dr. Carolina… stayed at this hotel? 247? Wait… 247? He checked the message again, and again. His eyes weren't playing tricks on him. She was staying two rooms down the hall. "Tsk…" he clicked his tongue as his eyes fell on his bag. No… she was staying in the room next to him.

He pulled his badge and trusted handgun from his luggage. He weighted his Beretta Model 93C in his hands to get used to it again. It was a good choice bringing it along. He preferred this type of pistol since it had two firing modes, a single shot mode and a three round burst shot. He often found himself in situation where he needed a semi automatic gun, and he never knew when those types of gunfire were required. He liked to play safe. This choice also included keeping the same gun for a longer period of time, as far as Levi knew, these guns were out of production. A classic.

Levi checked his ammunition and marched to the door, which he opened and closed swiftly but not before taking his hotel key card and stuffing the gun in the back of his jeans where it was gracefully covered by his blouse.

When at Dr. Mina's room, which was literally a few steps from his own door, he pressed his ear against the dark wood, listening attentively if someone else might be in the room. Nothing. Of course there's no one, she's dead for Christ sake.

He found the door shut, giving it a few pushes got him nowhere and he brought one of his hands up to his mouth, pinching his bottom lip between his thumb and index finger. "Shit…" he mumbled. "… was expecting that. Let's see how strong these doors are." He glanced around the hallway and strangely enough he didn't spot any security cameras. "No CCTV huh? Nice. Let's see if the security here runs a tight ship." He kicked the door hard short after. The strong wood didn't bulge.

"Fuck." He said as he pulled out his gun and fired a round at the key card lock and kicked with just as much force right after. The door burst open. Well, someone must have heard that. I give myself ten minutes max. And he stepped inside.

Levi didn't bother to close the door behind him and quickly made way to the living room, gun raised, extended before him. He held it with both hands, no finger on the trigger, in an extension of his limbs. It was a second nature to him. The gun was part of him.

This room had the exact same setup as his own across the hall; he noticed that in an instant. Good, at least he knew the layout.

His keen eyes peered through the room and a chill ran down his spine as he swore he heard something from the bedroom. Was that a whisper? His muscles tensed and the hair in the back of his neck stood up. Who's there? He was certain he heard something, no someone, and he slowly walked towards the bedroom, gun raised, flipping the safety pin off, and slowly placed his finger on the trigger. He was ready.

Levi slowed his breathing, inhaling through his nose and exhaling through his mouth. Levi tiptoed into unknown territory.

Why was the door open? Blue eyes grew wide. Why? How? I'm sure I closed it. "What's going on?" terror slipped into the blonde's heart as he feared for his friend. No, I'm sure I closed the door. Yes. I did. I did! Determination crept back into his being and he walked up to the now open hotel room. It took only one quick look to discover he had to run as fast as he could. They were not alone.

There was a bullet hole in the door, the sight sent shivers down his spine and made him think horrible things. Someone had opened it by force, and that someone was in the room right now, with Eren. And more important, that person had a gun, a loaded gun.

Armin stood outside, not really sure what to do. He had to warn Eren, yes, he did. But how was he going to do that? He had no gun, no weapon, no nothing. Who was he kidding, he wasn't even good in a fight, in any fight for that matter, save one of knowledge of course, but Eren never really counted that as a fight. I should stop reading and start paying attention to… ah, I can't believe this… I gotta pay more attention to what Eren says. I should handle more of these type of situations… shit. What should I do… no what can I do? What. Can. I. Do?

He pressed himself against the wall like a gecko, his back against the warm red painted walls. He peeked around the doorpost only to find the small hallway empty. Armin couldn't help but tremble. He was frightened to the core. He wanted to save Eren, he really did. His bottom lip quivered when he knew he wouldn't stand a chance and it made him feel like absolute shit. If he went inside, he would get himself killed. But… I can't just leave him…

Armin pulled out his phone. I could call him… nah. Stupid idea. So instead he send a simple message and hoped that either the intruder wouldn't hear, or Eren had his phone on silent.

M.P.

Was all it said when he pressed send. He knew that if Eren wouldn't be able to make it out alive, no one would understand the message. M.P. was like an abbreviation for My Place, something Eren had introduced in the early years of the Titans. Every member knew what it meant, and that was all that mattered.

He quickly glanced around. There must be something I can do? He smiled faintly when he spotted a vase on a table he guessed was way too expensive. He grabbed it without a second thought and made his way back to the room. He lifted the fragile object above his head and hurled it inside. Armin turned on his heel immediately, not even waiting for the vase to hit the ground, and started running as fast as his legs could carry him. Right now, he needed not to get caught.

Eren had no idea what had happened, everything had gone way to fast for his depressed brain to process. Just now he sat on the bed with Armin talking to him, than he was in the middle of the room –Alone, yes very much alone- and finally he found himself standing outside on a thin ledge four stories high, like he was some kind of suicidal bastard with a shitty wife and a hundred kids he knew nothing about. Oh, he probably used a shitload of drugs to in that life.

As soon as he heard a gunshot feral instinct took over. Eren had retreated back into the bedroom without making a sound, clinging as much to the shadows as he could during the day. He dashed towards the window beside the bed and opened it, but not before cursing the damned thing for being the rusty piece of pathetic shit it was. Yanking at the thing only made things worse and he wanted to bash his skull against the wall so bad he muffled a groan. "Come on…"

And bow! He was outside. Great. Now what? It seemed like such a good idea at the time… but now? He looked down. Shit the trick it to not look down you baboon! And he looked down again. Shit!

He tried to close the window behind him, still clinging to the wall but decided it was safer for it to stay open, since he almost fell down, once, okay maybe twice without doing anything in particular. If he was going to close the window he was going to make quite the impression on the people below, and not in a good way. Excuse him, but Eren didn't like falling face first into concrete from four floors high. As mentioned before, his goal was about 80 years of life, and that didn't include smashing into the pavement.

He had completely pressed his back against the hotel's outer walls. The wind softly wheezed through his chestnut locks. Even though the wind did a great job pushing out the immense heat Eren couldn't help but sweat like a hooker in church. He wasn't a great fan of falling, and certainly not from these heights.

The toes of his shoes surpassed the edges of the slim ledge, making his toes curl. Ah shit. This is scary. And the worst part of all was, that downstairs was nothing more than a parking lot, filled with black and silver cars, one more boring than the other. The pool was on the other side, just his luck. But… maybe better? At least there weren't a large potential of people that could see someone standing where one shouldn't stand, and more clearly wouldn't want to stand. That would be quite a hassle. Thank the gods for boring parking lots.

His head snapped in the direction of the window when he heard something break. What is happening in there? He wanted to take a look, but he knew he had to get away from the window. If the person that was inside would take a look outside, well, bingo, he was busted. And said person would also have a choice of shooting him in the face or… shoot him in the leg and he'd fall to his doom. Both choices didn't appeal to him. And so curiosity didn't kill a cat that day, the cat was thankful, and so was Eren.

Eren crept along the thin edge searching for that one open window that would save him from this hell. Luckily he found the window of the room next door open. "Ah, thank the gods!" he wheezed when he pushed himself through the small opening. He made it through in one go, his backpack included.

Eren found himself in a room of which he'd no idea if there was someone at 'home'. The place felt like it was too clean, as if Eren was contaminating the place. And, oh, that bleach like smell didn't add to the nice hotel atmosphere. "Ack… disgusting…" it was the type of smell that completely overtook your nose and settled down on the base of your tongue. Great, his next hundred meals would taste like bleach. "Fucking nasty…" whoever stayed in this room was a complete weirdo, who Eren was quite sure of, was bullied all through middle and high school, probably even college. Nah, he was sure of that. Poor bastard.

He'd never stood outside a room faster than he did now. He dashed towards the elevator not wanting to waste another second on this floor. He didn't look behind him at all, afraid of what he might see. Armin. I hope you're all right. He wished.

He pushed the button of the elevator, commanding it to close after he'd pressed the ground floor button. "Shitty machine, hurry the fuck up."

The soft lobby-like music called him down to a certain extend, but the adrenaline was hard to shake of his body. He was wide-awake and he was sure if something happened his reflexes would get the better of him. He prayed nothing out of the ordinary would take place in the next few seconds. The feeling needed to disappear as soon as possible. Right now to be exact, but often… Eren's body neglected his commands. Shit.

"Ah shit." He grabbed his phone. In all his haste he'd forgotten where Armin was. Last thing he remembered was that he went downstairs. "M.P." he read relieved. His shoulders fell, marking stress literally had fallen off. "Good boy."

But shit, he needed to take care of that room. Someone had found it. Someone broke into it. And someone was about to discover things that weren't meant for him or her to see. Eren knew he needed to go back soon and deal with the entire matter. "I'll set it on fire…" he murmured. It was a tad extreme, but who cares. Eren was never one to keep a low profile. It wasn't his style.

"Okay, now I'll just have to wait until that ass is gone. Ah… I'll go get a drink first… thirsty as fuck."

Levi clicked his tongue when he found a broken vase in the hallway of the hotel room. He'd scanned the halls soon after but found nothing. He knew that whom ever he was dealing with, was not alone. This vase proved it all. He guessed someone had thrown it inside, a second person, considering the fact that these vases were not present in his own room, nor had he seen it in this room when he entered. However, he'd seen it on the hallways. Lot's of them. And now it was here. Why? He knew. Distraction that's why. He narrowed his teal eyes and he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He stored his gun in his waistband in the small of his back. He was sure the intruder was long gone.

Levi walked through the room a little, discovering the walls were filled with files, pictures, etc. It seemed like a room of some crazy professors he'd only seen in movies, and mostly those super hero movies. He wanted nothing to do with it, but he knew he had little choice. Whoever had ordered the kill on Dr Mina, this could be the exact reason why. He took a few photos of the room.

"Hanji might really enjoy this case." Well, at least one of us will have some fun. He mailed them at her instantly. Not that she'd reply instantly since she was on the plane –not that she'd ever stuck to the rules- and had to shut down all network connections. Hanji was a computer geek and she'd rather have the plane go down with her, than being without the web for a few hours. It was sad, but true. She is an addict. An Internet junky. A web-head. It didn't help her favourite hero was in fact the red and blue masked vigilante himself, Spiderman.

"Fuck this. I'll get to the bottom of it later." He stretched his arms above his head, making some of his joints pop. His muscles were still a bit sore from the long flight to his so-called vacation. "Ah, shit. I need a drink." He groaned and with that in mind he made his way to the hotel bar.

He found it near empty, not that that was weird, it was kind of early, too early to hang around in a bar. Levi sat down at a small table situated near a window. He ordered nothing out of the ordinary, just a beer for now, maybe, just maybe he'd be drinking something stronger later in the evening. He settled in, leaning back in his large chair, crossing his legs and closing his eyes to enjoy the bitter taste of his beverage.

"Well, what do we have here?" a youth and cheerful voice sounded, it came in combination with the scraping sound of a chair being pulled back. "Ta-daa!" a certain brunette said excited as he sat down on the seat across the table.

"Oh, dear lord." Levi's expression remained stoic when he opened his eyes.

"You can call me Eren. You know that." The boy winked. "By the way… it seems you haven't called me yet? Is that correct?" Eren said playfully as he leaned forward, cupping his soft cheeks in his hands. A grin was plastered on his face and his eyes seemed to hold this... what was it? Levi wanted to know. Those eyes were mysterious and were dragging him in.

"So desperate for my attention? It's been what? An hour?" the raven leaned back in his chair while he took a sip of his beer.

"Maybe…" Eren said playfully. Levi laughed at the boy's boldness. He had to hand it to the kid, he was pretty god damned cute and his attitude wasn't helping either. His brown messy hair was sticking up in all directions but the right ones, but even so it fit him perfectly. The bed hair he hated with all his heart actually looked good one someone, and he didn't care. Those sea green eyes held him captive and he felt like one of those sailors lost at sea, following the songs of the sirens. Damned, he was into deep already. And he hadn't even thought about that light tan yet, or that perfect smile that was thrown in his direction. That's right in his direction.

"You haven't answered my question yet." Even his voice was smooth, playful, and absolutely splendid. He wanted to hear other sounds pore from those soft pink lips. Shit.

Levi adverted his eyes from the divine creature before him and cleared his throat. "Shitty brat. Don't get too full of yourself."

"Oh, I'm sorry." The kid's smile intensified as if he liked being talked to like that. "You do have a phone do you?" he teased and stuck out his tongue.

"I do."

"Good. Now call me."

"Demanding, aren't we?" Levi actually enjoyed being chased, and pulled out his phone, but instead of calling or texting the brat before him –because, really, that's what the little punk was- he placed the slim black machine on the table and shoved it forward, towards Eren. "Here."

"What's the point? You probably have a password." But he took the phone none the less. "And now I have your cell. What are you gonna do?" Eren stood up and pushed Levi's cell phone in the back pocket of his tight jeans and smirked when he found teal eyes on his thighs, or wait… was it a little higher? "I'm gonna get a drink, you want anything?"

Who was Levi kidding, of course he wanted something, he just didn't want a drink. Fuck a drink if you could get him instead. "Well, I don't want a drink. But I can think of something else…" his voice was deep and dark. Why did her desire this boy so? What was it about him that was just so captivating? Levi just couldn't put his finger on it.

"Oh, straight forward aren't you?"

"You're one to talk…"

"Well, one of my other perks is that I'm awkwardly cute."

Levi tilted his brow. "Awkwardly cute?" he scoffed. "Let's just keep it at awkward for now, okay?"

"Are you sure?" the boy smirked. "Cus I can swear you're totally checking me out."

"Tsk, when you're wearing a shitty shirt like that?"

"Don't worry…" Eren chuckled, his eyes half-lidded, challenging the man "I can take it off… if you want…"