LLL- Thank you so much for the reviews. If you write fanfics then you know that is really what keeps a writer going. they are great.

Levi- Mhm

LLL- Could you be more enthusiastic?

Levi- She does not and will never own Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin. And please excuse her sucky grammar and spelling. How's that?

LLL-... yeah. my grammar and spelling do kinda suck

The next morning Mikasa, Eren, Armin, Jean, and Connie sit at the kitchen table chowing down on bread for breakfast. Mikasa touches Jean's arm.

"How did you sleep?" she asks him, emotionless. His face turns beet red and Eren rolls his eyes, knowing about the obvious crush for a while now.

"Fine. I..It was good."

"That's good." She then looks over at Eren. "What about you?"

"Perfect," he mumbles, looking down at the table

"You look like you were up all night. Give it a few more days and you'll have darker rings under your eyes then Levi." Eren's heart jolts at the sound of his name and looks around confused, not understanding the reaction. "What is something wrong?"

"No.. It's nothing," he replies, calming down. 'It's because we went out last night when we weren't supposed to. I feel guilty. That's why I had that reaction,' he thinks to himself.

"And what about your hand. It wasn't like that when I saw you yesterday. What happened to it," she asks, referring to his bandaged hand. There are footsteps heard on the stairs and a few seconds later Levi appears, giving him a reason not answer.

"Eren." he says, "come with me."

"What?"

Levi glares at him for questioning. "Come."

"But.. you haven't eaten anything." Now the entire group looks at Eren as if he has a few loose screws.

Levi's stares at him with his usual expressionless face before walking over to the table, grabbing a piece of bread and eating it.

"AHHHHHHHHHH" Hange runs into the building screaming. Everyone stands up, alarmed and ready. Bertoldt and Sasha run down the stairs at the sound of the yell.

"What is it?" Jean asks, adrenaline pumping.

"Annie!"

"What about her!" Eren grunts. He doesn't notice but Mikasa looks at him observantly, studying his amount of concern.

"Some of the crystal broke off."

"WHAT!" Everyone says in unison.

"Come look!" She runs out and everyone follows her. In the tunnel they see the crystallized Annie and the pieces on the ground.

"But how?" Armin says.

"I don't know," Hange groans. "I want to believe that overtime the crystal might just break down on its own."

"NO!" Eren blurts. "It won't." He walks up to the frozen girl and rubs his fingers on where it broke. He unwraps his hand. "Last night. I came in here."

"Eren," Levi says. Eren disregards him and looks back at the group.

"I punched the crystal yesterday and my blood got on it. Right here. That must be it. Blood breaks the crystal."

"WHAT! WHEN DID YOU COME DOWN HERE!?" Hange shouts, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him.

"I don't know. Maybe at about 3AM last night."

"3? Right now its 9... so over a span of six hours blood broke the stone." A crazy grin appears on her face and she digs into her hand with her finger nails, drawing blood. Everyone panics and jumps onto her. Levi leans against the wall, observing the chaos.

"What are you doing!" Jean yells.

"The more blood the quicker we get answers."

"We don't know that yet. You can't just go around cutting yourself open!" He scolds.

"OK. Get off of me." Cautiously they rise and she walks over to the statue and rubs the blood on it that she has drawn. "Now. We wait," she sighs.

Jean stretches with a yawn. "Well as much as I'd love to sit here and watch blood dry, I have wall duty today."

"Wall duty?" Connie repeats.

"Yea. Bit by bit we are repairing and reinforcing Wall Rose."

"Hmm. Sounds kind of dangerous."

Yeah. Getting there is."

"I'm free today. Will you guys be needing extra help?"

Jean gives him a very surprised face. "Why would you want to volunteer to help do something like this. Especially if you have a free day."

"Well, " Connie explains, "Human kind isn't going to move anywhere if we sit around here being lazy. The best thing we can do is help in anyway possible."

"Oh. OK. Yeah, I'm sure it's fine if you come along." With that, the two head out.

"Have a good day you guys," Connie calls back before leaving.

"Eren." Levi says.

"Yes?" Eren jumps, not expecting to hear Levi say his name again.

"I have have clearing duty today. You're coming with me."

"Clear duty?"

"We are clearing out the Rose wall districts of titans and also protecting those on wall duty."

"Oh."

"Wait!" Mikasa says. "I'll go with you!"

"No," Levi states.

"I'm going!"

"You are on guard today."

"Eren needs..."

"He can take care of himself." Levi sends her a serious glare and her eyes widen.

"But.."

"And if not. I'm there for him."

Eren is surprised by these words but ignores it and looks at Mikasa. "I'm older now. I can take care of myself. I'll be back later." He pats her shoulder and leaves the underground room. Levi looks at her.

"Everyone. Go do something." Sasha and the others look confused by this. "Leave," he commands as he still looks at Mikasa in the eyes. Everyone except Hange clears out of the room. A smirk spreads across his face and Mikasa's eyes widen. She's never seen him make any kind of expression so amusement was out of the question. "Eren Jaeger is oblivious and an idiot." Before she can speak he keeps talking. "At first I wondered why you liked him so much. You can get so much better. You're strong and ruthless." The smirk disappears. "But now I get it and I must say, I'm Sorry." With that, he leaves her in utter confusion.

"Wow." Hange says. observing the stone. "I've never heard him speak to anyone but Reiner that much."

"But.. why? Mikasa says, still confused.

"Seems he's to have taken a liking to Eren."

"WHAT!? What do you mean?"

"I don't know."

"But that doesn't make any sense!"

"Well can you really make any since of what Levi says or does until after it has been done?"

"Why Eren? He's a male."

"Who are we to judge? We all have our own screwed up problems. That others will never understand. Besides. Eren is a titan! Who wouldn't love him! Too bad he had to ruin it by being human too."

Mikasa narrows her eyes in annoyance of the titan loving female.

Eren stands and fastens the harnesses on his 3D Maneuvering Gear. He hears footsteps behind him and turns to see Levi. Levi is already equip. " I don't need you to protect me."

Levi stares at him for a few seconds. "Fine." Eren is somewhat let down, not expecting that kind of response. He doesn't know what he expected but not something so careless. "We are going to take out as many titans as possible. That is the one and only goal. The wall is closed so no more can enter. Stay close. Don't go Titan. And don't die." Eren salutes with his fist on his chest and eyes full of fire at the instructions. All personal thoughts and feelings have disappeared and he has become a soldier again, solely focused on killing Titans. Levi's insides shiver at this strong figure. He doesn't show it on the outside but slowly his admiration for everything that Eren is grows. The two walk out of the gate with 4 other groups assigned to different districts. When they are outside they switch from foot to 3D maneuvering.

Eren follows Levi as they spot their first titan. Almost effortlessly Levi takes it out. Eren goes to the left and takes out another. They both land on a roof top and over look the rest of the town. There are three titans coming towards them, one of them a variant and running. "I got the variant. You take the other two," Levi says before taking off. Eren follows his orders and goes after the one of the others first. The second one swings at him and he looses his balance, crashing onto a roof top. Without hesitation he quickly gets up and looks at the two titans actions. He swings to the ground and then attaches to the arm of the taller one. The titan swings Eren around him and he slices its neck. Landing back on the roof, he sees Levi finally take out the variant. Eren swings down and just as he does so he hears a loud crash behind him. He makes a quick glances and sees a variant racing for him. He has no time to act and has taken his attention off of his initial titan. It grabs his the wire of his 3DMG and he flips upside down. The titan lifts him above his mouth. Levi swings across and cuts the wire. Eren falls and is caught by Levi just before entering the titan's mouth.

He drops Eren on the ground near by and goes to take out the two titans. Shortly he lands next to Eren and starts touching him all over. "Are you hurt anywhere?

He shivers and pushes Levi's hands off. "I'm fine. You didn't have to do that. I had it under control."

"Last time I check being titan food isn't exactly under control," Levi retorts.

Eren looks at the ground, embarrassed and annoyed. "Thank you."

"Whatever. Now come on." Levi turns around.

"Where are we going?

"Your 3D Maneuvering device is damaged. We need to get you another. There is a storage building further into town."

"Oh. OK." Eren follows shamefully. "I'm sorry for slowing you down."

"Quit pitying yourself. This is normal and the only way you'd slow me down is if you died."

Eren thinks about this statement and is touched by it. He has seen Levi when it comes to dead soldiers and the only one that he has ever showed any interest in is Petra. He cares about everyone somewhere deep down inside but he has never let it get to him.

On the way to the storage building they encounter 3 more titans. Eren stays out of sight as he watches Levi take them down easily. Walking into the building he notices that Levi is limping. He grabs his arm, concerned. "What happened? Are you injured?" Levi has paused with a look of utter surprised on his face. Eren has never seen expressions by Levi and stares at him to understand more. What he can't see by simply looking is that Levi's heart rate increased by his touch.

Levi's face returns to normal and he snatches his arm away. "I'm fine."

"It's happened before. When we were in the forest right? Have you gotten it checked out?"

"No need."

"But what if it's serious?"

"It's not." The two walk up stairs and there are 5 sets of 3D Maneuvering Gear hanging on the wall. Levi sits at a table and Eren hooks himself up. He then walks next to Levi and kneels down, touching his leg. "What the hell are you doing?" Eren doesn't respond and Levi doesn't move. Eren feels up and down his leg until Levi flinches in slight pain.

"Oh... It's a mus cle strain.. You fractured your bone because you let it go for too long without being treated. It must have happened because of ow you rebound of off buildings. It caused a stress fracture."

"How do you know that?"

"My father was the best doctor in all the districts when we lived in Shinganshina. I used to get this a lot from running and jumping so much." Eren stands and picks up a chair. He throws it at a wall and it breaks into pieces with a loud crash.

"Now what are you doing?"

He rips a part of his shirt and grabs the broken leg of the chair, bending back down to Levi. With care he ties the leg of the chair tightly to his leg. "This will keep some of the pressure off."

"Your dad did this too?" Levi slides down to the floor and sits next to him.

"No," Eren looks out of the window. "One day I jumped off of the roof of a building and hurt my leg. Mikasa was tired of lugging me back to the house and destroyed a chair in a random shop and tied me right up."

"It's obvious you two are close."

"We've been together for a long time. She's overprotective. She's always been."

"Must be nice..." Levi states, looking into the distance.

"What?"

"Nothing... She worries about you a lot."

"I don't know why," Eren pouts. "I'm strong."

"Even the strongest need someone to protect them..."

"It's ironic. Everyone says you're the strongest and yet you have no one protecting you."

"I don't need anyone."

"Hypocrite."

"What did you just call me?"

Eren grabs one of Levi's hands as he sits next to him. "How about this. I'll be that person you don't need. I'll protect you. Because even the strongest needs someone to protect them."

"No."

"But..."

"I'm protecting you."

Eren smiles warmly as Levi looks away from him, possibly embarrassed by his own words. "We can protect each other."

"That's..." Levi sighs, "possible. But never speak of this."

"You have my word."

"Good."

"Levi..."

"What."

"This is probably random but I think this is the best moment to ask."

"Spit it out."

"Did you love Petra?"

His eyes widen and his heart stops at the sudden topic. "Now isn't the time. We need to get back." Levi stands up and so does Eren, looking sad that he brought it up.

Levi stops at the door. "Yes. I did. She was the only one who I think really worried about me. I wasn't always OK with her death. I had to bite the pain but now i'm fine because I have you." With that he walks out of the door and Eren feels as if his heart has switched places with his stomach. It's joy but too much.. He feels as if he is going to throw up. Despite this he runs out of the door behind Levi and becomes serious as they reenter the battle field.

LLL- I hope it's not moving too slowly and I hope you likey likey. Please review.

Hange- WOOOO HOOOOO REVIEWWW!

LLL- thanks Hange.

Levi- *sigh* weirdos