Note: The motel manager used to be named Frida but I kept confusing myself because there's a Frida in the manga and it's not the same person soooo... her name's Irene now. I'll be going back to fix it but it's not as easy on FFN as it is on AO3 so it might take a couple days.
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Eren stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror as he washed his hands, annoyed with himself. It hadn't even been Levi he'd thought of when he got off, he hadn't thought of anyone. Eren found himself trying to remember the last time was that he'd actually had any desire to get off; the stress of everything and disgust with his actions on Halloween had thoroughly chased away any semblance of a sex drive. That it had suddenly made a resurgence now of all times left him feeling embarrassed but at the same time he couldn't help but remember the warm feeling that he had while he'd been under the impression that he was cuddled up against Levi. Looking down at his hands as he dried them he realized that what he had felt had been a lot more concrete than simply 'warm'. What he had felt – for the first time in months – was safe.
The realization made him pause as he dried his hands and he let out a long sigh. The irony laughable; he felt the safest he had in a long time while trying to escape from unknown people with murder on their minds and accompanied by a man who kept him at arm's length. Though he supposed that in the end it wasn't irrational for him feel safe with Levi. While the man was hardly as powerful as Mikasa or Erwin he was experienced and his intuition and quick reflexes had stopped the both of them from getting killed at least twice since they'd left Trost. With one final glance at his reflection in the mirror he turned the light off before exiting, not wanting to wake Levi up.
When he exited the bathroom he stopped for a moment to let his eyes adjust to the light and froze as he found Levi sitting on the bed with his knees up and his elbows resting on them, his head in his hands. He looked up as Eren closed the bathroom door, his expression fuzzy and unreadable in the semi-dark. They both stayed in place, unmoving as they watched each other.
"Are you okay?"
"Not really."
"Nightmare?"
"Honestly, I'm not even sure I slept." Eren felt his stomach clench in horror as he watched Levi let his head tip back and dragged a hand down his face. "But I must have since I don't remember anything before hearing the toilet flush." Eren let out a short sigh in relief – the idea that Levi might have heard him getting off again was unbearable.
"At least you slept a little? And no nightmares."
"All I can think of is what if I'm asleep and the Titans or maybe some fucking ally of theirs comes barging in." Eren felt his shoulders slump as it hit him that his own feeling of safety was entirely at Levi's expense.
"Is there anything I can do?"
"Don't wander off, do as I say, learn how to drive."
"The first two I can do. The third one…"
"Even if it turns out you can learn to properly drive a manual in a couple hours if we get pulled over you don't have a license."
"Can't you play the superhero card?"
"The 'superhero card' doesn't exist when you're playing your not-so-mild-mannered alter ego."
"We need to take a break then. You've been driving during daylight for three days straight. You already admitted you're not at your best." Eren paused and leaned up against the wall. "I'd really like to finish my degree and I can't do that if I'm killed in a car wreck."
"I don't want to stay in one place for too long."
"We can stay here a bit longer. Irene covered for us already."
"Do you really think they aren't going to double back when they don't find us further down the highway?" Levi unfolded himself, leaning against the headboard and straightening his legs out. "I'm not asking a random woman we just met to cover for us again. They clearly weren't fucking around the first time if she gave us a gun and I doubt they'll be nicer if they show up again."
"So we ask her if she's okay with it. If she's okay we stay, if she isn't..."
"We leave and keep driving. We don't stop until we're back on a main highway again."
"I'd really like to not die because you're too tired to drive."
"Have a little faith."
"You know, I'd really like to but you already admitted the first day that you fell asleep driving and I don't see how pushing yourself more is going to make it any better."
"The longer we stay in one place the higher the chance they find us. I want to be back in familiar territory as soon as possible. I have no idea what we're supposed to be doing and it wouldn't be a good idea to try and contact Hanji again from the same place." Levi paused and took a deep breath, holding it for a moment before letting it out. "We underestimated them, thought we had all of the pieces just about put together and now we're paying for that."
Eren stayed silent, continuing to lean against the wall as he let Levi's words sink in. Not that he had thought the Survey Corps was infallible – hadn't for a while now – but he was slowly realizing that they were somewhat outclassed by the Titans. They were only now stumbling into the realization that what they had been chasing for months had been in motion for years and no matter how skilled any of them might be, they still weren't holding all of the pieces in front of them. There were a number of things that Eren wanted to say then; words of concern and consolation, gratitude and empathy.
"We should get something to eat and then ask Irene about staying."
They weren't exactly the words that he wanted to say, and he was pretty sure most people would see them as abrupt or even tone deaf, but the fact that Levi only let out an amused huff before getting out of bed and pulling clothing out of his bag made Eren feel like what he had said was actually the right response.
"So then, are ya two stayin' or goin'?" Irene looked up from the book in front of her, pages splayed out on the counter as they walked into the office, tense and yet lethargic from breakfast.
"Staying… I think." Her eyes narrowed slightly at Eren's hesitant tone.
"Simple question: Either yer stayin' or yer not."
"We want to but…" Eren paused frowned. "But you covered for us once already. If you want us gone, we're gone."
She watched them with a hard look on her face, eyes narrowed and sharp as she looked at them. Some unidentifiable emotion flitted across her face a moment as she looked back and forth between then, analyzing not just their faces but their bodies as well. Her eyes followed their limbs, taking in the nervous tension of Eren's clenched fists and the slack exhaustion of Levi's slumped posture. Whatever she was looking for she seemed to find it and after a moment of consideration her face relaxed slightly, curiosity replacing the earlier hard expression.
"So are ya two heroes or what?" She raised an eyebrow as the both of them stiffened in shock. "I live in th'sticks but don't take me f'r a dumb hick, 'm not an idiot."
Eren dropped his gaze to the floor, looking at his feet and noting the stains from the dirty water they had slogged through just the day before. He could feel Irene's stare taking in his body, reading small clues that he wasn't even aware of. After one minute of silence was followed by another he realized that neither he nor Levi had responded, that their silence really said just about as much as any words could.
"Well, you certainly don't look like the unheroic type." Eren's head jerked up; Irene's voice had lost its slow drawl and turned sharper, vowels trimmed and consonants summoned back into existence. There was a sudden vice-like constriction around his heart and he could see Levi's posture stiffen and his face go even paler than before. The briefest look of shock flitted across Levi's face before it hardened into something more suspicious and confrontational.
"And who the fuck are you?"
"Irene, the simple manager of a motel in Dauper."
"But that's not all." The spasmodic twitch of Levi's curled fingers caught Eren's attention. He had been curious earlier what Levi might do if pushed to lash out in defense and he couldn't help but wonder if he would be getting an answer to that question shortly.
"No, it isn't." She frowned and closed her book, folding her hands on top in plain sight. "I moved back to Dauper twenty years ago but I lived in Shiganshina for ten years. I wasn't really Irene all that much there."
"So who were you?" Eren's voice came out cracked and dry and almost unidentifiable to himself.
"Sometimes Irene, mostly Madam Immateria."
"Oh." Some of the tension drained out of Eren's body. Of course a former hero would recognize people as being in the same line of work. He relaxed slightly and turned to Levi, surprised that if anything, Levi's body had tensed up even more.
"I was a bit young then but I definitely fucking remember hearing the name 'Immateria' when I was a kid. Can't say there was anything particularly heroic about your body count." Levi's eyes were hard and Eren caught the words he needed to revise his earlier assumption. A villain would be just as capable of identifying a hero, if not moreso.
"And your hands are clean?"
"I've never killed fifty people with the wave of my hand." Cold washed over Eren at Levi's words and he took a cautious step back, eyes focused on the woman in front of him and the sudden anger in her eyes.
"Thirty. Those pigs killed my brother. They deserved everything they got." Her voice was a snarl, her fury tangible as the room trembled.
"Yeah." To Eren's surprise, Levi's posture slackened and his shoulders relaxed. "Yeah, I get that."
They were all silent now with even breathing and even heartbeats. The electric tension in the room dissipated and it was like everything has stopped moving, that time had stopped. Part of Eren wanted to think that those tremors had been his imagination – that fear and lack of sleep had finally caught up – but he could see things ever-so-slightly out of place. There was no reason for there to be a splash of coffee on the counter or a pair of pencils on the floor and yet there they were.
Of all the powers he'd ever seen or heard of, the one that truly left him in awe wasn't flight or superhuman strength, not even shapeshifting. Without her regalia to focus her powers Krista could barely do more than stop a coffee cup from falling, nevermind cause an entire room to tremble with anger. Instincts were telling him that out of fight or flight, the latter was the best option, that Levi was correct in saying they couldn't stay here. But Levi seemed more at ease now than he had fifteen minutes ago and Eren wasn't about to discount his instincts. His faith and trust however, only extended to the man beside him.
"So why did you cover for us?" He felt Irene's gaze slide to him.
"I'm retired and this clearly isn't my fight. I don't know what the heck is going on with you two but I don't have much love for anyone who's out to kill a kid."
"I'm twenty-one." He wasn't sure if he was ever not going to sound petulant when someone called him a kid.
"And I'm forty-five, so." She gave a lopsided smile and shook her head. "A kid."
"I know you said this isn't your fight but I was wondering if a group calling themselves 'the Titans' rings any bells." Levi was focused on Irene, watching for any reaction.
"Nope, sorry."
"Or the Children of Othrys." The approving nod that Levi gave Eren left a small warmth in his chest.
"Othrys?" The both of them watched intently as Irene's brow furrowed. "There was a group that called themselves 'the Others' that was just about dead by the time I was Madam Immateria. They were all shapeshifters, ones that didn't quite fit."
"Yeah, that doesn't sound like what we're looking for." Levi simply shrugged – it had been too much of a long shot to get upset about.
"So why did you come back to Dauper?" Eren tensed as soon as he spoke and watched Levi's expression fall somewhere between exasperated and furious. On the other hand, Irene's face remained neutral.
"It wasn't my brother. Or my first husband either. Not even losing my leg." Eren felt his mouth drop open. "I just didn't want my daughter to grow up alone."
"Oh." Things were silent again, Eren struck dumb and Levi staring at Irene with an unfathomable expression. After a moment, she cleared her throat.
"So. Are ya two stayin' or goin'?"
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The motel room was dark when they reentered, not having opened the curtains when they left for breakfast. There was just enough light that they were able to navigate the room, shedding their coats and sitting heavily on their respective beds. Part of Eren wanted to just crawl back under the covers, to will his brain to shut down and forget everything – to forget about being hunted, to forget about a world where telekinetics massacred people and ran motels, to forget about his father and the swirl of cloak and dagger conspiracy he had left behind. Unfortunately, Levi seemed to have other plans as he turned to Eren, sitting on the edge of his bed and planting his feet firmly on the floor, elbows on his knees and propping his chin on his fists.
"I'm actually happy about this weird as hell turn of events."
"We're hiding from killers at a motel run by a retired villain."
"A powerful telekinetic who has a soft spot for kids."
"I am twenty-fucking-one." Eren glared at Levi, clearly hiding a grin behind his hands.
"Maybe the next place we stop to eat we can get you a kids' menu."
"Fuck off." Eren reached behind him and grabbed a pillow, throwing it at Levi. Part of him expected Levi to throw it back at him, but instead he shifted to the side and it went sailing past him over the bed, landing on the floor with a soft unseen thump. Levi raised an eyebrow at him, wordlessly indicating just how mature he thought Eren was being. "Well I'm going to go shave because I'm and adult with facial hair."
Eren ignored Levi's amused snort as he got up and walked towards the bathroom. As much as he disliked being called a kid he couldn't call up any real frustration or anger at Levi; there was something almost friendly about it. Levi had never poked fun at him previously and being called a kid before was him dismissing Eren. Now it felt like the same sarcastic camaraderie that he and Jean had developed. He realized that over the past few days their relationship had shifted dramatically and that while Levi continued to hold back somewhat, he no longer put much effort into keeping up a façade. Just a few days prior, Levi's interest in protecting him had been purely out of pragmatism and professional interest and now it had shifted into something more personal. That Levi had shown him his tattoo – and not just shown it, but explained it – had been so surprising that he hadn't really processed what exactly it meant until this moment. In retrospect Eren realized that he'd shared a lot of himself as well, both voluntarily and involuntarily, and just how much trust was involved in Levi's reciprocity.
He turned the tap on the sink, giving the water time to heat up while he took a razor out of the packaging before finally splashing warm water to soften up the hair and finally lathering his face with shaving cream. The pull of the razor along almost three days of growth caused him to wince, the cheap razor making the process far more painful than it should have been. He had only just finished the left side of his face when he heard a knock, Levi slipping into the space between the doorframe and the bathroom door that Eren had left partially ajar, a frown on his face.
"If you want to shave I'm nowhere near done."
"I'm fine." They lapsed into silence, the only sound the rasp of the razor. Eren watched the mirror, half of his attention on his face and the other half on Levi, his lips pursed as he stared into middle distance, loosely focused on the showerhead as a bead of water gathered, hanging heavy before it finally fell. It was the sigh that escaped Levi that finally grabbed all of Eren's attention, pausing with his razor halfway between the sink and his face.
"What's up?"
"I fucking hate this." He glanced over at Eren, taking in his furrowed brow and clarifying. "Waiting."
"We're resting. You're resting." Eren lifted his razor again, starting on his neck.
"It feels like waiting."
"You should sleep."
"Too keyed up."
"I can always ask Irene if she can get you some warm milk." Holding back a grin, Eren finished the final pass of his razor, dragging it carefully over his Adam's apple. The glare he got from Levi would likely have made him freeze up before but now he could only let out a sharp laugh at Levi's sour expression.
"Fuck off." He pushed off the doorframe and left Eren's line of sight.
"Not so fun on the receiving end, is it?" Eren called out after him before rinsing his face and 'borrowing' some of the lotion from Levi's bag of toiletries, exiting the bathroom with a slight smile on his face.
The curtains were drawn back a few inches, allowing enough light into the room to navigate without potentially bumping into anything. Levi was laying on the bed, flat on his back with his hands folded over his stomach; the same position he'd taken up the night before when he was on Eren's bed. He stared up at the ceiling, not acknowledging Eren's presence as he sat down heavily on his own bed. When he spoke he didn't turn his head to face Eren, simply speaking upwards with his eyes fixed on the turned-off light fixture.
"Hanji and Erwin want us back ASAP as well."
"Yeah but –" Levi cut off his protest.
"I know I need the rest, but I can't force myself to sleep or get my brain to shut the fuck up." His jaw clenched, his body stretched taut for a moment before relaxing. "Though, knowing Madam goddamn Immateria is only a hundred yards away gives me some peace of mind."
"She admitted she killed thirty people. How can you just trust her?"
"I don't." Levi finally let his head tilt to the side so that he was facing Eren. "But it's this or we get in the car again and the last I heard you were pretty against that."
"Compromise and leave this afternoon?"
"Yeah, okay." He turned his head so that he was staring up at the ceiling again, allowing his eyes to fall closed.
"So… what did Hanji have to say yesterday? Besides that we need to get our asses back to Trost."
"Not much really. Told them about the bank and the basement storage room. Finding the hard drive and the files, getting shot at, losing the files. Some of Grisha's letter about the Titans also being called the Children of Othrys, Grisha working for them in some capacity, that he's dead now. The rest of the letter is up to you."
"What if Hanji or Erwin need to know?"
"I'll let you know and you can tell them. Or you can just tell them when we get back. Whatever you want."
"That's kind of a big thing to leave up to me."
"The letter was addressed to you." Levi's head turned again, his expression unreadable. "And you haven't been given much of a choice about anything recently." He shrugged awkwardly, still laying on the bed.
"Thanks."
"Mm. I just hope Hanji can crack the encryption on the drive. Erwin isn't happy about not having the files to go with it."
"You didn't want to go back."
"I didn't want you to die." Levi shifted, pulling the blankets around him and rolling over to face away from Eren. "I'm going to take a nap. Get me up if I'm not awake by three."