Flapping Of Wings
Summary: Random bonus scenes from It Takes Two Wings To Fly, mostly from the moment Eren and Levi reunited onward. Fluff, fun, slight non graphic smut, occasional angst, short. Not in chronological order.
12. Hunters
Three months after the fight against the giant mutant wolves and the monkey, Levi and Eren were approached by the same hunters Levi had followed out into the forest the day he and Eren were reunited.
They approached them with only one request.
"You want to join us when we go searching for the shining centipedes?" Eren asked, sounding like he wasn't sure if he'd heard them right. The two Eldians exchanged a look, not sure if these people were for real or not. They're not used to people so eagerly entering a war against something that might as well be a force of nature for all they know. Well, someone other than the people of Paradis, anyway, who were forced to learn how to live with the threat of Titans outside their Walls for a hundred years. Or Marlians, who thought they could control said force of nature.
"I'm not taking anyone out when we're going to fight those things. Keeping Eren alive and in check is hard enough as it is. I already told you my stance on needless casualties."
"We only want to help you locate them. We won't fight them or approach them, but we know these woods pretty well. And this is our home. We can't just let you protect us all the time; it's not fair," Luka's father said and the other hunters nodded.
Jaeger and Ackerman exchanged a glance again.
"We can't even be sure if we can teach you how to avoid becoming those things' hosts," Eren admitted and Levi nodded along. "You're not only risking your life, but also risking becoming the very threat you want to protect your people from."
"We risked that for far less, anyways," another of the hunters said. "This way, at least we'll be able to give you some information when we head out into the forest to hunt to make your search easier."
"He's got a point, unfortunately," Levi had to agree. "They can't rely solely on their cattle for meat, not when they were primarily a tourist spot. If they don't have local specialties made, most of which are made of venison, then they might lose more income and clients."
"Actually," the mayor, who had come with the hunters, began. "We're not going to try and attract any more tourists, at least not until these woods are safe. More people travelling the forest will just make a bigger risk of those creatures finding hosts. Besides, the Glass Tower is not worth the amount of work we'd need to put into rebuilding it and we know the actual Ymir Fritz was never buried there. We figured we can become a hunting society. Sort of."
Eren and Levi didn't really care how these people were going to manage their economy long term, what concerned them the most was whether they should risk their lives by including them in their Hunt. (Yes, with a capital H now because there were apparently several types of hunts in play.) They were already at risk simply by going into the forest; perhaps teaching them how to avoid getting too close to those shitty things would be the best plan of action because it will, in all actuality, reduce the chances of one of them being used as a host.
"Alright, we'll teach you," Levi decided and Eren just let the older man take the lead on this. "However, I don't want any backtalk. I'm sure you all already know how I deal with insubordination and while I may not be your commanding officer or anything of the sort, you have decided to put your lives in my hands and that makes me responsible for your survival, therefore what I say, goes. If you can't abide by this simple rule, be it during whatever training we give you or if we ever take you out into the forest with us on a Hunt, walk away now." No one made a move. "Well then ..."
Eren grinned. "Welcome to the honorary Survey Corps. Get ready for hell."
A few months later, they had a rather effective system that helped Eren and Levi find more of the shining centipedes than they could have ever imagined and not a single person from the town was snatched to become a host.
Hell, Eren and Levi once or twice even took them on a small 'expedition' when one of the detected centipedes was too deep into the woods for them to find simply by using a drawn map.
They became so good and so many people began joining the hunters, both for ordinary hunts and Hunts, that the mayor one day proudly presented them all with their town's new name, Jägerstadt, under which the town would grow into a city and turn into an independent city-state within three years.
Levi and Eren could just watch and let them do whatever they wanted, though Levi was not pleased with the statue. Eren was a bit embarrassed.
Neither tried to stop them from having a ceremonial opening.
Neither denied being one of their heroic Hunters.