CHAPTER 6

Author's Note

You know, it's such a bizarre experience to write this story while watching the last episodes of the anime come out. It's a strange reminder that despite the fact that I still enjoy reading Levi and Eren stories from time to time (and writing it myself, of course) I haven't shipped the actual characters in years. Comes to show how much the characters, especially Eren, has changed. Isayama is a genius, the depth of his stories inspire me so much. That is all.

~Gum

The next day, Eren crawled out of his bed with low spirits. Not only was he still embarrassed by the events that had happened last night but his cut had now become swollen to the point where Eren could feel it throbbing. When he made his way to the bathroom, he groaned at his reflection knowing that people would be giving him curious stares all day. Still, he brushed his teeth, took a quick shower and changed clothes in an attempt to feel refreshed and energized.

However, his mood quickly sank once again as he stood in front of the exit to his apartment. Any other day the teen would've called his bodyguard for some reassurance that he was still looking over the brunet but now Eren wasn't so sure if it was a good idea to do it or not. The brunet took out his phone and looked at it for a while, his thoughts continuously bouncing back and forth between doing it and not doing it.

Much to his surprise, the phone began vibrating on its own. 'Jonathan' was calling him. His heartbeat spiked.

"Y-Yes?"

"Why are you taking so long to call me? I've been waiting all damn morning." Levi's voice was as harsh and cold as always.

"Sorry..." The teen mumbled.

"Whatever. Listen, I've got shit to do concerning the two men that attacked you yesterday. Once you arrive at the diner I'll be on my way and I should be back around the time you get off work so be aware of your surroundings and if anything strange happens call me immediately, got it?"

Eren almost had a heart attack upon hearing the news, "Wait, what? B-But what if- I mean- just yesterday."

"Calm down, I'll still have an eye on you. I have some cameras set up and its highly unlikely that anyone will attack you while you're at work."

Eren nodded even though it was a phone call. Wherever he was, Levi must've seen it because he continued saying, "Good. Go on to your job then, or else you'll be late."

The bodyguard hung up. Eren stuffed the phone back into his pocket and shook his whole body, hoping it would relieve a bit of tension. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and left to work.

Eren's worry still consumed him as he approached the diner. Questions like, when will he find me again? Will I hide forever? how long can I keep this up? swirled through his head. A part of him wanted to fight back instead of cowering, but he didn't know how.

"Ouch, what happened to you?"

Eren lifted his head to meet Sasha's curious gaze. She sat at her usual place, stuffing her face as always. This particular morning she was downing a plate of scrambled eggs. Armin appeared behind her, his eyes widening at the sight of Eren's nasty bruise.

"I- uh... I got in a fight with someone." The green-eyed boy mumbled.

"Who?" The girl inquired.

"Sasha!" Armin reprimanded, "Maybe he doesn't wanna talk about it." The blond whispered, even though Eren could hear him clearly.

"Why would he not want to talk about it?" Sasha said loudly, "Who beat you up Eren? We'll find him and beat him up too!" Sasha made punching motions. Armin, on the other hand, facepalmed.

"It's no big deal really, just some random guy..."

"Some random guy? That could be anybody!" Sasha threw her arms in exasperation, clearly missing how uncomfortable Eren was with talking about the subject.

Armin frowned, "Still though, it looks pretty swollen. We have a first aid kit here in the diner, it's not complete but it's better than nothing."

"Did you even treat it when you got home? Your parents must've gotten mad at you."

Eren avoided eye contact, "Well I haven't mentioned this but I'm new in town so I'm missing things like first aid kits and stuff. Guess I should come around to buying shit sooner than later."

"I could help you out with that!" Armin interjected.

When his gaze drifted back onto his coworkers, the brunet couldn't help but notice that Armin was staring back at him much like how a mother bear would look at her cub, "I take care of most of the house chores back at home so I could help you settle in-" the blond suddenly stiffened, as if he had just remembered something, "I mean... if you'd be comfortable with the idea." He mumbled.

Eren stiffened as well. The memories of their awkward interactions yesterday came flooding back. Sasha, failing to read the room once again, gave the blond boy a sideways stare, "Why would Eren be uncomfortable with the idea?"

Armin looked off to the side, a pink blush creeping up on his cheeks, "I don't know Sasha, sometimes people prefer doing stuff alone!"

The girl cocked her head, surprised to hear him talk so uncharacteristically loudly, "Hm?"

The green-eyed boy stayed silent. On one side, the thought of buying cleaning supplies with a little gay blond boy was way too cutesy and domestic for Eren's taste. On the other hand, the teen couldn't help but wonder if he could take advantage of this opportunity to get on Levi Ackerman's good side. After all, the bodyguard had mentioned not to be so rough on the blond boy. If Eren were to treat Armin nice this one time, maybe Levi would change his mind about Eren. Then, the teen could stop worrying about Levi leaving Eren to die just because they- ahem, shared different morals.

"You're being silly, right Eren? I'd go with you boys but I gotta babysit my siblings this week. Dad's out of town." She shrugged.

The teen boy chewed on his lip. It was in Eren's best interest to swallow his pride this once, and yet the brunet still felt like he was choking on it.

"Sure." He said hesitantly. All he had to do was to be nice to the blond boy for a couple of hours right? And he could really use the trip to the shops. All the brunet had to his name was a couple of shirts, some underwear, a toothbrush and a bag of stolen money.

Armin perked up a bit at the response, "Alright! Well, you got free time after our shift?"

Eren looked up at the ceiling in thought. He had all the time in the world after work but hadn't Levi said that he was going somewhere? The teen didn't want to be out and about when his bodyguard wasn't around. Also, if the man wasn't around to see Eren acting all nice with Armin, it would defeat the purpose of the trip, "I have to make a call first, then I'll know if I got free time."

Armin nodded, his hair swaying gracefully alongside the movement, "Sure thing, I'll go get the first aid kit meanwhile."

"I already told you, I'll be back by the time you get off work. Stop worrying and do your job."

"Are you sure though? What if you get held up or something? Can you at least call me when you get back?" The brunet whined.

"You know, you're starting to sound a lot less like a client and a lot more like a clingy girlfriend."

The bodyguard was able to make out a huff. The comment obviously irritated the younger male. The older man rolled his eyes.

"Yes," he said exasperated, "I'll call you when I get back, ok? Now you go do your job and I'll go do mine."

He swiftly hung up, not even taking the trouble to say goodbye. A small voice at the back of his head chastised him for being rude to the younger male, a voice that suspiciously resembled Petra's.

Petra.

Man, did she owe him. He was going out of his way to protect her because of how careless she was acting lately. It's not like watching a teenager sprawled on an old mattress, only getting up to piss and jerk off in the bathroom was Levi's ideal Friday nights. Seeing how naïve Eren was, Levi had thought that the job was going to be a piece of cake. How much trouble could a wimpy guy like Eren get into? And yet there he was, only a week into the job and he was already cleaning dead bodies and planting false leads.

Levi groaned, stretching his body out to relieve some stress. He sighed deeply, turning around to look at the van he was about to search. It had false advertisements of a fumigating service plastered all over it, a simple yet effective cover up. He grabbed the keys in his pocket and got to work.

The bodyguard had already taken care of the dead bodies. After patting down the corpses he found no identification of the men. However, he had found the keys to the van, some weapons, a couple of burner phones and a peculiar syringe with a sickly green liquid contained inside. He had them carefully bagged and stored in a black satchel he was carrying, hoping to get them to Moblit as soon as possible to be examined. Even though they were just burner phones, they could be carrying valuable information within. As for the syringe, Levi hypothesized it was nothing more than a drug that the attackers used to get high. Still, there was only one way to know for sure, he had to get it examined as well.

The man opened the vehicle carefully, keeping an eye out for any potential traps. He swung the doors of the back of the car open, revealing a rather empty interior. Levi guessed that it was where they had planned to keep Eren in. He hopped inside, approaching a metal box that had seemingly been soldered to the floor of the vehicle. He crouched down to examine it. Inside he found nothing of interest. Rope, blindfolds, a tire pressure gauge and a couple of bloody rags.

Levi sighed. Looks like the van was going directly to the junkyard. He got back up to the standing position and headed to the front of the vehicle. Once the raven was in the driver's seat he grimaced at the musky smell in the air. He looked around, failing to find anything out of the ordinary. Upon opening the glove compartment, he found a yellow folder and an unfamiliar grey device.

Levi cautiously opened the folder, an image of Eren Jaeger greeting him as he did. It held sheets of paper with information detailing the teenager's appearance, age, health conditions and more. There were some type of instructions on the very last sheet.

Do not kill.

Do not rape.

Do not torture.

Knocking out is ok.

Only use syringe in case of emergency.

In case of emergency? Maybe it was a calming drug.

He read the couple of sentences over and over trying to make sense of it but ultimately decided to stuff them in the satchel to be dealt with later. He moved onto the device. It was mainly a screen that was currently turned off. The man turned it around to examine it from all angles and discovered a couple of buttons on the sides. Looking closely, he was able to make out the telltale engraving of a power button. The moment he used a slender finger to gently press it, the screen lit up a neon green. The bodyguard set some distance between the device and his face as the brightness was too much for his eyes. On the screen were a series of lines in a shade of light green and a bright dot in the middle. In the lower left corner there was a smaller blue dot. Levi looked at it blankly.

He shuffled out of the car all while his eyes stayed glued to the screen. The whole overlay was akin to that of a map, so if the lines indicated streets then what were the dots? The bodyguard extended the arm holding the device and moved it to the sides and behind him, wondering if that would cause it to react. The screen remained static. In turn, Levi took long strides north. First three, then four and finally eight. Levi had just been on the verge of giving up as he saw no response when the screen finally began to adjust itself.

Despite his initial concern for his eyesight, Levi drew the device closer. He realized that the dot in the middle hadn't moved, yet he had sworn the map had gotten closer to it. It was then that he realized that the dot hadn't moved but the blue dot had. So he was the blue dot huh, and apparently he was getting closer to the green dot. Having the streets memorized like the back of his hand, he closed his eyes, mentally wandering through the city. If Levi's calculations were correct, the green dot would be around...

Oh.

That's what the green dot was.

"That'll be $1.99."

Eren swiftly gave the cashier the asked amount, taking in his other hand the drink he had just bought, "Thanks."

"No, thank you!" She said cheerfully.

The brunet lifted his heavy shopping bags and nonchalantly headed to the blond boy that was sitting on a bench nearby. He was already sipping on his own drink. Things had been awkward when they got off work but once they got to the shops and they had begun discussing what kind of things Eren needed, the tension dissipated little by little.

"Ready?" Armin asked innocently.

Eren nodded, "Yeah let's go."

"Wait, you gotta try your drink first!"

The brunet made a face at the beverage. Eren and Armin had been on their way back from shopping when the blond boy insisted they stop at a small plaza to buy a couple of drinks from a stand that sold cool beverages, fruit cups and sweet snacks. He had been gleaming with so much excitement that Eren found it hard to deny him so there he was with a cold cucumber-lemon mix in his hand waiting to be drunk. The way the ice cubs glimmered in the pastel green liquid was hypnotizing and the droplets of water forming on the exterior of the cup made it all the more desirable yet Eren still felt hesitant to try it.

He slowly sucked on the straw, his eyes widening as the drink hit his tongue. It was in that moment that Eren realized just how long he had spent surviving off of Red Bull and coffee. The refreshing taste of cucumber was like heaven on earth.

"Damn, that's good."

Armin giggled, "I know, right? That's why I love coming to this place, the blond cocked his head to the side as he spoke, leaving Eren to wonder if he was purposefully trying to act cute, "I used to come here with my grandpa all the time when I was a kid!"

Armin got up and started walking. Eren took the hint and walked alongside him. He gazed at the orange skies above as he listened to the blond boy.

"Used to? Why don't you do it anymore?"

"Well, you know he's older now... he can barely walk nowadays so he can't really do much without help."

Eren was reminded of his next-door neighbor. She wasn't particularly old but she was very much bat-shit crazy. She would constantly ask Grisha if Eren could come over to help her. However, some tasks were stranger than others like unclogging the shower drain, doing the bed-and then undoing it for some reason, counting all the forks, knives and spoons or that one time she asked him to take all the lamps and put them in the living room to 'ward off ghosts'.

Eren turned to look at his coworker, "Does he live with you and your parents?"

Armin shook his head, "No, my parents live in Rose City. I don't know if you know where that is, it's a neighboring city two hours from here. I came to live here with my grandpa last year."

"Really?" Eren was surprised, "Wanted to live in the big city of Sina huh? Well, I guess it is a pretty cool town. It's just our luck that we have to live in the shitty parts of this place." Eren kicked a stray can with more force than he intended. It was frustrating that people were living it up in the heart of the city while he was living in a shitty apartment with crack-heads and bums all around.

"Oh no I didn't come for the big city experience. It's... uh, well I'm planning on getting into Sina university."

The brunet whistled, "Fancy, isn't that school like super prestigious and hard to get into?"

Armin nodded eagerly, "Yeah, but I got a scholarship last year and everything! It isn't a full ride scholarship though and it's still expensive so I talked to my counselor and we were able to work out a deal. My scholarship would be respected for a year while I save up money- she is the best counselor ever, she's supported me so much. But yeah, basically that's sort of how I ended working at the diner." He shrugged coyly.

"I do other stuff too like babysitting and selling pastries when I have time so, little by little I'm getting there. What about you, thinking about going to college?"

Eren hummed, "I haven't really put much thought into college. I'm just trynna figure out the whole living by myself thing first."

The brunet turned to look at Armin that in turn was looking back at Eren with his blue eyes, waiting for Eren to continue. Eren's pulse quickened, his eyes were so big that they made him nervous. It was like he was being inspected with a magnifying glass, "Ah- yeah, you know, I don't really get along with my dad anymore so I'm on my own."

"What about your mom?" The worry in his eyes became so intense that Eren shifted his attention to the road before them.

"She passed away when she gave birth to me."

"Oh... my condolences."

Eren shrugged, "It's okay, I mean I never met her and it was a long time ago so, I dunno it's kind of weird. When I was a kid I used to wonder what she was like. My dad would only mention her once in a while so I would rummage around in the attic looking for old photos of her and then make up stories about her..." Eren suddenly became hyperaware of how much he was oversharing, "But uh yeah, no big deal. Uh, what about siblings? You look like the type that has to babysit your siblings."

Armin gave Eren a small smile. The green-eyed boy wondered if that hint of sadness in the smile was his imagination or not, "No, I don't have any siblings. Just me. You?"

Eren chuckled, "Not blood siblings but back home I got along with a girl that lived next door. I still consider her to be like a sister. We spent every day together. She's kind of scary at first but she's a big softie on the inside."

The blond giggled, "Why would she be scary?"

"Dude, she's got that Medusa stare. Her eyes are like all pitch black so when she gets mad it's like staring at two black holes sucking your soul out."

Armin's giggle escalated to laughter, "Medusa stare?"

"Yeah! And it doesn't help that she's ridiculously strong-like, strong for a human. I swear she came from outer space. The first time we met, we were in first grade and my dad had told me to take care of Mikasa-ah, that's her name- to take care of Mikasa at school you know we're just getting to know each other, she's nice but a little shy so we didn't hit it off immediately. Well, there's this douchebag that just bullies everyone, he's so mean to everyone but no one would ever stand up to him because he's like 6 feet tall."

"6 feet tall. A first grader. Really." Armin teased.

"Okay-okay maybe I'm exaggerating but he was really tall for his age, ok? And really wide too so you knew just by looking at him that his punches would hurt but he starts poking fun of Mikasa about how she's new and ugly and stuff -which is a total lie because Mikasa is the most beautiful girl your eyes will ever see- but he keeps on spewing bullshit and I get pissed because I had already taken it upon myself to take care of this girl so we're about to get into a fight, no teachers are around to stop us, not even other students because recess was almost over and everyone had gone to do formation to get back to the classroom." Eren took a deep breath.

"Well, we're about to fight when suddenly Mikasa gets in front of me without saying a word. I'm like hey, it's dangerous, I'll beat up this kid for you don't worry, I get in front of Mikasa again when this kid throws a punch right to my face when I'm not even looking, that little shit.

I fall to the ground and look up and what do I see? This little girl that was so shy and quiet kicks the bully right in the knee, the kid falls to the ground too and she just starts punching him like crazy. She's like one third of his size and he is completely defenseless against her, ok? And then I swear she grabs him by the arm and just throws him up in the air!"

Armin bursts into laughter, "Ok, now you're really exaggerating!"

Eren starts laughing as well and held his hands up as if defending himself, "No, no! I swear, I saw it with my own eyes."

The blond boy stopped walking, holding his stomach that shook with every wave of laughter, "You had just been punched! You were delusional!"

"Ok but-! But here's the weird thing." Eren widened his eyes, "I never saw him again after that."

"What, you think he's floating up in space somewhere?" The blond wiped the tears that had formed in his eyes.

Eren shrugged, eyes still widened in horror, "I'm just saying, weird things happened that day man."

"You're silly." Armin playfully pushed the boy, "His parents probably transferred him to another school after getting into a fight."

"I guess we'll never really know."

Armin looked up at the taller boy tenderly, "Well, as much as I'd like to keep sharing childhood stories, we're here now."

The brunet whirled around to find his building right in front of them. He had been so enthralled in telling the story that he hadn't realized when they had arrived.

"Huh, I hadn't even noticed."

"Yup. So I guess this is goodbye. See you tomorrow?"

Eren pursed his lips. He had to thank the blond boy for helping him out but he was having trouble forming the words. In reality, it had been quite a nice trip.

"Uh, yeah. You got a long walk from here to get home?"

Armin shook his head, "No, I actually live pretty close from here. Don't worry."

A thought arose in Eren's head. Maybe in a parallel universe, they might've been good friends. However, Eren knew that from that day forward he would limit his interactions with his coworker. The whole trip had been only to get on Levi's good side. After that, he had no need to go on shopping sprees with the boy. May the Gods forbid Armin would develop a crush on Eren. The very thought made him a little sick.

"Cool, see you tomorrow then."

The blond boy bowed his head ever so slightly as a goodbye and walked off, sipping on his drink once again. Just before he was too far away, Eren's own lips betrayed him as he suddenly shouted, "Wait! Armin!"

Said boy looked back in confusion, "What is it?"

Eren jogged a little to catch up to him. His right hand unconsciously rose as he automatically tried scratching the back of his neck like he always did when he felt embarrassed. However, the cucumber mix didn't allow him to do such a task so he was left there to fidget on his own two feet.

"Uhhh, well I dunno I just wanted to say thank you for taking me to the shops. I don't know the area very well yet soooo... it was very helpful. And well you really didn't have to do that so it was cool of you to do it anyway." He shrugged, feeling a bit of heat rise to his cheeks.

Armin giggled sweetly, "No problem Eren. When I came to live with my grandpa I had to take charge of the house so I know how intimidating it can be to do these kinds of things on you own so, yeah. It was my pleasure."

Eren stared back at Armin dumbfounded, "Yeah, yeah, cool. I'm... heading up to my apartment now so, bye?"

Armin nodded, "Bye Eren."

The green-eyed boy watched Armin turn around and resume walking. After a couple of moments, he snapped back to reality and turned around as well. The orange sky was now being consumed by a dark blue. Despite the fact that it was only around 8, Eren was totally exhausted.

As soon as he got to his apartment he dropped all the heavy shopping bags and stuffed the cucumber mix in the tiny fridge. He violently threw his body onto the bed, seriously considering just falling asleep with all his clothes on and his teeth unbrushed. The Gods must've really hated him however because in that very moment he heard a knock on the door. The green-eyed boy buried his face in the mattress, hoping to drown out the sound. Instead, the gentle knocking was replaced with a harsh voice.

"You better open this door brat or I'm knocking it down!"

Levi Ackerman.

By the Gods, what did he want this time?