Levi wasn't entirely sure why he was there.

Yes, he had promised the kid that he would be, but he couldn't tell you why he promised that to begin with. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he empathized with the kid. He looked at him and saw a younger and less fucked up version of himself. When he was the kid's age he had blood on his hands as he clawed for his own survival.

At the kid's age he'd only just – No.

On the other side of Hanji's door something smelled good. They'd said that there would be food but he assumed it would be the usual beer and shitty Chinese take away from down the street and not whatever this was. Hanji's grin was wider than usual when they answered the door.

"Something smells edible. Clearly you aren't cooking."

Hanji laughed and waived him inside. He paused a moment to remove his shoes and jacket before following them into the kitchen. As he walked up behind Hanji he saw that it was the kid who was cooking.

"They put you up to this didn't they?" Given the look that the kid gave them he had been too absorbed in cooking to notice that anyone else had entered the kitchen.

"Nope! It was all Eren. He's worried that you eat like shit – you do, don't deny it – so he wanted to make dinner for all of us." He could see the uncertainty on the kid's face, slight nervousness as he avoided Levi's eyes; they both knew exactly why he was cooking dinner.

"It smells good." He watched the kid's face start to light up. No, I'm not fucking happy about this kid. I don't like being forced into things. "It looks like shit though."

"Levi!" He caught but ignored Hanji's disapproving look and was about to follow them into their office but the kid started to talk before he had a chance to start moving away.

"It's lamb stew. It's sort of my great-grandma's recipe but it never got written down and I never really learned how to make it so I had to figure it out by taste… It's not as good as my mom's." Something about the kid's tone caught him and he was halfway done before he realized he had even started talking.

"People have a habit of remembering things as better or worse than they were. I'm sure it's just as good."

Rather than stick around and deal with whatever came out of the kid's mouth after that, Levi turned abruptly and walked across the kitchen to Hanji's office.

"Hanji, why the hell are you having the brat cook dinner?"

"Apparently someone said they would let him cook dinner for them if he sat down and answered some questions. He was smart enough to realize that whoever it was wouldn't hold up their end of the bargain unless they were forced to." Hanji gave him a pointed look, daring him to refute their statement. He glared and sat down heavily in the chair across from them.

"He has a crush on me. I'm not encouraging him."

"It wouldn't kill you to be friendly."

"He said he wants to be friends."

"So?"

"I don't want friends."

"What about me? What about Mike and Erwin?"

"You're the exception to rule. Mike and Erwin are…" he paused and looked away. "I trust them."

"So you've got one friend and two people who you trust. No room in there for Eren?"

"No." Levi looked up at Hanji and gave them a frigid glare. They took the hint and changed the topic.

"So what I'm really hoping to find out tonight is where Eren's father worked before he disappeared, ideally what he did as well but if he disappeared when Eren was young then he probably won't remember much of anything."

"In case you don't remember the shit fit he threw the other night, you're going to want to ask about Grisha and what happened before he left.Unless you want him to clam again."

"And you say you don't care."

"I try to remember things that make people easier to deal with, easier to manipulate them into answering the questions that need answering."

"That's cynical… even for you." Hanji was looking directly at Levi now, concern evident on their face. He refused to meet their eyes, instead focusing on an imperfection in the wood of the table they were sitting at.

He didn't process that the kid had finished making dinner until Hanji laid a hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

The food was good and he honestly appreciated it. Maybe he'd tell the kid how much he appreciated it if there was a moment where it couldn't be seen as anything other than a basic thank you. There was nothing he wanted less than to have it misconstrued as some sort of an effort on his part to become friends. It was a social nicety, not an actual show of kindness.

Is it really so hard for people to grasp that I just want to be left alone?

He wasn't paying attention to whatever Hanji and the kid were doing. He knew that they were talking and that it was an easy conversation between the two of them. They left to get their notepad and laptop and Levi simply sat with his thoughts.

At least Hanji told the kid to get iceberg and not that fancy-ass arugula shit.

He pulled back himself back from his thoughts and into the current discussion. He had been halfway listening to the kid trying to explain what it was like to live in a place like South Stationary; what it was like to have the whole world stacked against you. Hanji was good at asking the right questions but right now it was clear that they were pushing the kid away.

Hanji, drop the vaccine bullshit. I don't give a shit if any of it is true, you're just freaking the kid out. He's going to clam again if you keep this up.

The next moment he was able he caught Hanji's eye and gave them a look. It was wordless communication based on years of working together. He knew the kid had reached his limit and as much as Hanji might think they were onto something, he could see it was beginning to take too much of a toll on the kid for them to pursue it. Hanji let out a frustrated sigh to let him know they disagreed with the interruption but honored it nonetheless. He knew that Hanji was already starting to defer to him when the kid was involved. They of all people would be able to put together their similarities and extrapolate the empathy that he didn't want to admit.

Levi hadn't expected Hanji to suddenly offer tea, but it would definitely give them all a chance to regroup their thoughts. He knew what the kid needed to hear, knew that Hanji was probably a bit off-base with their assumptions. He knew monsters; had seen them, had worked with them, had lived with them. Grisha Jaeger was many things, but Levi seriously doubted that he was a monster.

He watched as the kid got more and more tense sitting at the table. He knew that Hanji would make him a cup of tea regardless of the fact that he had turned it down. The kid was on the verge of completely losing it and this was exactly why Hanji would normally be the person who is was absolutely best for Eren to meet with; Levi didn't do feelings or comforting people. So he was stuck wondering what the hell you were supposed to do for an emotional twenty-one year-old on the verge of a meltdown. He was weighing his options when he heard the kid whispering to himself. Well, it would be whispering for anyone else, for him it was clear as day.

"Why am I defending him…? I don't know what the hell he was doing, I was twelve when he left. I don't remember shit."

Okay, this is emotional bullshit I can handle.

"Because you don't want him to be a monster."

"Huh?" Oh for fuck's sake kid… I have better-than-human hearing. Weren't you a fanboy at some point?

"It's easier to have him be the asshole who up and left one day than have him be a monster who experimented on the people who he was supposed to be helping. That's why you're defending him.

"I don't have any proof that he didn't do anything."

"Do you have proof that he did?"

"…no."

"For what it's worth, from what you've said and from what we've been able to find out, he seems like he was just a grade A asshole who walked out on his family."

"Aren't you guys talking to me because you can't find out anything about him?"

"I've met monsters. He isn't one."

Please let me be right.