CHAPTER 18

Author's Note

Eyyy, look who posted on time B)

~Gum

6:04 AM

That's what the cellphone said anyway.

Eren sat on his bed, changed and ready to go, praying for Levi Ackerman to call him. They were supposed to have a training session that morning but will all that had happened in the last couple of days, a sinking feeling in his stomach told him Levi wouldn't be guarding him any longer.

He's not calling.

6:05 AM

Nope, he's definitely not calling.

I'M HERE. COME DOWN. -Levi

The brunet sighed in relief. He sped out the door and down the staircases. When he opened the front door of the building, he had no time to do or say anything, as almost immediately, the bodyguard turned to him and said, "Let's go."

The bodyguard led him to a car -this time grey- and hopped in. No words were exchanged as they put their seatbelts on. Even though Eren always felt tense around the man, that particular morning the tension was extra straining. Levi started the car, checked a few things and was about to head off when the boy interrupted.

"Uh-uhm." Eren looked out the window, then back at the bodyguard, "No blindfold today?"

"What? Oh. Right. Here." He reached into the pocket of his jacket and threw it towards the boy.

Eren raised an eyebrow. It wasn't like the bodyguard to be so careless. He dared to take a good look at the man. He was in all black that day. Long black jacket, black pants, black boots, black everything. It made his pale face pop out. Upon closer inspection, Levi had bags around his eyes, a dark color around them suggesting a restless night. If Levi was crabby when he had a good night's rest, Eren didn't want to imagine what he was like when he was insomniac.

The brunet was in the midst of putting the blindfold on when the bodyguard stopped him, "W-Wait actually no. Hold on a minute I gotta tell you something before you put that on. I know you're gonna be all fidgety when I tell you."

Eren was startled at the feel of Levi's cool hands on his wrist. As a result, he simply dropped them to his lap, completely shutting down in the middle of his nervousness.

Here it comes. He's finally gonna tell me he's leaving me. I knew it. Where is he gonna take me? With Petra to get a new bodyguard assigned? Oh Gods. Is he taking me to some shady place and killing me off?!

"I looked into your sister's case."

Eren's thoughts stopped dead in their tracks.

"Y-You did? What did you find?!"

Levi sighed heavily, "It's hard to say. Grisha - that's your father's name right? - his workers are just as confused as I am. It seems since that night when you forced your way in she disappeared. I tried tracking her down but she was just... gone. Maybe she escaped on her own in the midst of all the chaos but if I'm honest I have no idea where she is."

Eren's gaze fell on his lap.

That meant... that had to mean that Annie had been successful right? Mikasa was in her care. That would explain why Levi hadn't found anything. Mikasa on her own would've left some kind of trail behind but with Annie she would know how to leave without a trace. He took the biggest, deepest breath he had taken since all of yesterday. If Mikasa was with Annie that meant she was safe.

"You seem to be taking the news... rather well." Levi spoke.

Eren nodded fervently, "Yes. Tha- That's good. It's good that she escaped. I know she did. She's strong. She can handle herself, so, that definitely makes me feel better."

Levi glanced quickly at the brunet, "Good to hear."

Eren clasped his hands together, "Thank you by the way... I know you didn't have to do that."

The bodyguard huffed, "Yeah, well. I made a promise that I would look into it."

The memory flashed back of the young man holding onto Levi, begging him to look for his sister. Normally, he would've felt embarrassed but he had no regrets. Had Eren said nothing, he would know nothing about Mikasa otherwise.

"S-So you're not dropping me as your client?" Eren ventured.

Levi furrowed his eyebrows, "What? No, dumbass. Not yet at least." He teased.

"Thank you..." Eren whispered again, so low that Eren didn't expect the bodyguard to hear.

He did, in fact, but chose to say nothing else but, "Now put your blindfold on or I'm not driving."

"50, 51, 52, come on, you're barely half way there. Pick up the pace, those jumping jacks aren't gonna do themselves."

"22, 23, 24, no. No. Don't stop there. Give me at least 5 more push-ups."

"44, 45, 46 almost there. Do those curl ups right or you'll have to repeat them!"

"PICK THOSE FEET UP BRAT! YOU STILL GOT 7 LAPS TO GO!"

"You're gonna have to squat deeper than that if you want me to count it. Do another set."

Eren panted, "You're- ah- you're gonna kill me!"

The brunet laid on the floor, sweaty and exhausted.

The bodyguard put his hands to his hips, "No. What's gonna kill you is Grisha's men when they come knocking down your door. Trust me. When you have those guys on top of you you're gonna regret not having done your work-outs properly."

The brunet rolled his eyes, "Yes. My 'poor form squats' are gonna be the first thing I think about before I get a bullet to the head."

"Is that an attitude I hear?!"

Eren was an idiot, but he wasn't stupid.

"No sir." He quickly responded.

"Good. It better not be."

Eren observed Levi take off his long coat, storing it on a bench nearby. Underneath was an equally black shirt. Though it was short-sleeved it had a long neck. The brunet noticed how the bodyguard's muscles would be accentuated when the man stretched his upper body.

"Get up. We're not done yet."

The green-eyed boys heart sank. He could only dig his teeth into his lips to keep a complaint from coming out.

"W-What are we doing? I'm gonna be honest man, I don't know how much gas I got left in the tank."

If his heart had sank before, it was definitely at the bottom of the ocean when a pair of boxing gloves where thrown in his direction.

"Nooooo."

"Yes."

"Noooo!" He said with even more horror.

"Yes."

After that first match, Levi had given him some lessons.

LESSONS!

Not a whooping. But by the way Levi had thrown the gloves, same as the first time, Eren knew that it wasn't gonna be a lesson. It was gonna be a survival of the fittest.

"I can't I'm too tireeddd."

Levi, who was already strapping his gloves on, shrugged, "Ok. Stay there I don't care. I'll beat your ass wherever."

The brunet groaned. He forcefully pushed himself off the ground, unsurprised by how wobbly his legs felt as he walked towards the ring. When he finally got there, the boy fell onto the ground again knowing Levi wouldn't let him do that for long. He began strapping his own gloves on.

"But don't leave my face unrecognizable like last time. Armin's already getting suspicious of all the injuries I've been getting."

Levi hummed, "That boy really cares for you, doesn't he?"

Eren shrugged, "I guess."

The bodyguard crossed his arms, "And you must care for him I imagine."

The teen fidgeted with the Velcro straps of his gloves, "I dunno."

The bodyguard sighed, "Look, all I'm saying is... try not to get too attached, ok? I know everything may seem fine right now but it's becoming increasingly clear to me that it's not everyday thugs we are working with here. Any day of the week we gotta be willing to pack up and make a beeline out of the city."

The brunet raised his shoulders, "Why would I become attached? I'm not attached to Armin. It's whatever."

Levi made an irked expression, "You don't wanna admit it? You two hang out all the time."

"Well it's not like I have a lot of options." Eren blurted out, feeling a tinge of guilt in his heart.

"So what, you don't like him?"

"Like him!?" Eren shrieked in a panic voice, "I mean he's nice but it's not like I wanna marry the guy!"

"Oh. That's right." Levi tilted his head to the side, "You don't like him 'cause he's gay right?"

The boy panicked. Where was all of this coming from?!

"I never- I don't- Let's get on with the training thing!"

Levi frowned, "You piss me off sometimes, you know that?"

Eren's pride pooled over, "You're probably just mad that I don't like Armin 'cause you're gay too!" A heat washed over Eren's body, a strange combination of fiery rage and searing regret.

There was a moment where Eren saw everything in slow-motion. Glaring at the bodyguard, he observed how the man's face contorted at the words. First shock, then confusion and finally anger.

Levi lurched forward, "Do not talk to me so casually, brat! I should have never told you such a thing in the first place."

"Yeah! You shouldn't have but you did and i-it fucked with my head, dude!" Eren confessed. The words were coming out of him on their own accord.

A deep scowl was drawn onto the man's face, "What?"

"If you hadn't got mad at me for calling him a homo I would have never hung out with him!" He blurted out.

Levi paused. Everything Eren did confused him. The boy always managed to surprise him whether it was by befriending the blond kid after berating him for being gay or running away spontaneously on a heroic journey to save his sister. Thinking back on the party, everything clicked in the raven's mind. Eren was a dumbass beyond Levi's comprehension.

"Ohhh... I see. You're trying to blame me for having kissed him. If I hadn't been annoyed by you, you never would've gone to the party in the first place." He raised his gloved hands up, "Hey, don't try to pin that on me. That was all you. Though I bet that's got you all confused, huh."

Eren felt as if he was being pricked by needles all over, "What?! No! I- I was just trying to help Armin get Jean's attention!" It was the only possible explanation to why he would do such a thing after all. Armin must've been right all along.

The bodyguard huffed, "Hah! Please. You were piss drunk. That Jean boy was the last thing on your mind."

The brunet sensed the heat rising to his cheeks. His pride swelled so much, it felt like it was going to explode. Eren staggered to his feet. Ok. Now he was pissed off.

Levi laughed darkly, "Oh, what? Now you wanna fight? Come on, take a step forward. Try to hit me."

The smugness in his words were as grating as whippings to the back. Eren wanted to punch that smugness right out of Levi. He threw a punch right at the shorter male but it was easily blocked.

"You're so easy to provoke Eren, you know that? Such strong emotions all the time."

Eren threw another unsuccessful hook, "You're one to talk! You're always angry too!"

Left. Right. Left. Left. Right. Right. Right. Yet he couldn't land a single one.

"Maybe, but I'd never let my anger consume me." Levi landed a precise blow to the stomach, knocking the air right out of Eren. He then effectively kicked one of the boy's legs, sending him tumbling down.

The teen wheezed. Once he was able to regain his breath his eyes slowly panned up Levi's body. When their eyes met, the bodyguard kept that same air of arrogance.

"What's got you so worked up anyway?", the bodyguard scoffed, "Did you like it or something?"

That's when Eren saw red. He promptly mustered up all of his strength and tackled Levi to the floor. As soon as they hit the ground, the brunet balanced himself on his knees and flung a cascade of punched towards Levi. Quick to respond, the raven hurled his arms in front of him as a defense mechanism. He had an amused smirk drawn on his face that boiled Eren's blood even further.

"You did, didn't you. That's why you're so pissed."

The moment he saw an opening, the bodyguard jabbed Eren's jugular. In the midst of the brunet's disorientation, Levi punched the younger man square in the face. It was soon Levi to be the one in a perplexed state as Eren bluntly headbutted the raven.

Big mistake, Eren soon realized as the trauma his head had been subjected to in the past few days came back to him all at once, aching and thumping all around. Nonetheless, he was too vexed to care.

"I'm... not... gay!" He panted.

The raven laughed lowly. He knew the boy well enough to know that Eren hadn't any energy left. After all, Eren was practically slumped over Levi to the point where he couldn't even take his forehead off of Levi's. In his current state, Eren was a threat to no one, much less Levi.

"How would you know? What did you feel when you kissed him? You should've felt something."

The brunet could feel Levi's hot breath as he spoke. He stared back at Levi in defiance. The devil waltz around in the bodyguard's eyes, mocking him.

"Nothing!" Eren insisted.

Levi put a gloved hand against Eren's chest, intending to push him off and stop with this ridiculous back and forth they were having. Levi worked with plenty of homophobic people. Hell, if anything he would say that his clients were almost exclusively so. Levi was well accustomed to hearing slander against people like him and took nothing personally. Other than what the job required, he cared very little for his clients and their opinions. They ultimately meant nothing to him. What Levi had found so painfully irritating however was the way Eren would sometimes stare at Armin with belittlement and demeaning when the boy had done nothing but care for Eren. It was times like those when Levi's cool demeanor would stumble.

Eren, on the other hand, couldn't even think with how much his head was swirling. He was so close to Levi that he was drowning in him. All he knew was that that smirk still danced around teasingly on Levi's face and all he wanted was to slap it right off. He felt as the gloved hand slowly pushed him away.

"If you say so... nothing, then." The man said in relaxed, low, voice.

In one last attempt to erase that mocking smile, Eren did the unthinkable and flung himself forward, smashing his lips against the older man's. Even with his mind in a twist, he quickly detected the way Levi's lips dropped into a line and even opening slightly due to shock. Feeling satisfied with the result, Eren got up on his own. He moderately stumbled about as he stood, a ringing in his ears making it hard for the brunet to find equilibrium. Oppositely to him, Levi was stuck to the ground like a bug, looking up at the boy like he had lost his damn mind.

Eren took long, haggard breaths, "See? Nothing." He said as if anything he was doing or saying made any damn sense.

Eren had never seen Levi in such a state, that is to say, so stupefied. He was half expecting some snarky comment. After what felt like one of the longest minutes in Levi's entire life, he was finally able to navigate outside his own befuddlement.

The raven spoke at a snail's pace, "You... let me get this straight. You, a guy, just... kissed me, another guy... to prove that you're... not gay?"

Eren was seemingly unfazed. The ringing had stopped, the thumping had ceased and now that he had come to his senses all he knew was that he would refuse to accept he was somehow in the wrong.

"Yup."

Though he projected a nonchalant attitude, the anxiety was rising inside. Why the fuck had he done that? Why the fuck had he thought that was a good idea? Why the fuck? Why?

One moment, Levi was still laying down with a frown so pronounced one could think it would be etched there for all eternity. The next, he took to his feet so fast that it would've been missed in a blink of an eye. The raven ripped off the gloves his hands and sped past the boy without even taking the time to look at him.

"We're done for the day. Grab your things and get in the car."

Other than Levi notifying Eren when it was ok to take his blindfold off, no other words had been exchanged on their way back to Eren's apartment. The boy was slumped against the window, watching the world go by. Meanwhile, Levi wouldn't take his eyes off the road and had a tight grip on the steering wheel.

Eren was angry but he didn't exactly know why. All he knew was that he was pissed off, irritated, annoyed. He was all that and Levi's strange change in attitude didn't help. All Eren wanted was to punch random things until those stupid feelings would go away but someone had forced him out the very gym they had been in and into a small car where all he could do was sit and settle alongside those very emotions.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. The brunet grumpily went to check it, desperate for any kind of distraction. It was an unknown number. Eren's frown deepened. He cursed out the stupid phone for having ever been built by some stupid person working in a useless phone-making factory that should burn to the ground. Eren hated everything that had ever existed because of its audacity to be born.

The bodyguard cleared his throat as if about to speak. The brunet glanced at the car door, considering how painful it would be if he would open the handle and fling himself out.

"Eren, listen. I've realized that I have been acting unprofessional with you. It is unlike me to get so... involved with clients so for that I am sorry." His voice held no sneer or bitterness, rather he was talking like a lawyer speaking with a client.

The green-eyed boy shivered. It was so bizarre to hear Levi Ackerman apologize.

"When I told you about my sexuality I did so without thinking and I know you will believe me when I say that is very unlike me. You had no reason to know that and I none to say it."

The brunet had been progressively slumping into the chair until another buzz of the phone interrupted him. Once again, he took a look.

HEY EREN. AT LEAST I HOPE ITS YOU. IT WOULD BE AWKWARD IF IT TURNS OUT TO BE SOME RANDOM PERSON.

Eren read and re-read the message, eyeing it suspiciously. Levi, however, was too concentrated on the road ahead to notice.

"It is none of my business what your beliefs are and even less who you make acquaintances with. It was out of place for me to tease you about Armin. I want to make this very clear, from now on it is best that we distance ourselves a little..."

Buzz! A second message.

ITS ME, ANNIE. AND GUESS WHO IS WITH ME! I'M SURE YOU'LL BE THRILLED TO SEE HER.

A photo was attached. Levi remained oblivious.

"I will suspend the training sessions for a week while I sort some things out. As for our communication methods, I will insist on keeping the calls to a minimum. Plenty of clients don't even have conversations with their bodyguard after the first few weeks and they are guarded just fine. None of this will hinder me from doing my job properly..."

With a trembling finger, Eren opened the photo. The moment he saw Mikasa's face plastered on his phone, he wanted to cry. Not because of any relief or happiness, but because of the way she was tightly tied to a chair. Thick tape covered the bottom part of her face but her eyes were enough for Eren to know what she was feeling. They expressed a brave front of courage crumbling beneath the increasing weight of fear. Her left eye was swollen from a nasty hit she had taken and even though her hair was as shiny and silky as always, her clothes were all torn and dirty, covered in blood and dirt.

Annie hadn't saved Mikasa. She had taken her with equally wicked intentions.

Eren didn't even hear Levi when he said, "I hope you understand why I am doing this. It is in our best interest to keep a clear, solid line of where our professional relationship begins and where it ends. Ok?"

The green-eyed boy was too stunned to say anything. He stared at the picture, asking himself why Annie would ever do such a thing.

COME TO THIS ADDRESS TOMORROW AT 9 PM IF YOU WANT TO SEE MIKASA AGAIN. REMEMBER, NO BODYGUARD. SHE REALLY MISSES YOU :( SEE YOU SOON!

Annoyed by the silence, Levi at long last turned to the brunet, "Eren. Eren?"

The brunet could barely contain the tears. He closed his eyes, seeing Annie's face when he did so. Despite all the years he had known her, Eren could never figure out what went on in her head. All he wanted was to run away into the sunset with her but she wanted to grab him by the hand and jump into a volcano instead.

This is Mikasa, our new neighbor. You two will be going to the same school so make sure you take good care of her.

Yessir!

Promise?

Promise!

Eren opened his eyes with decision. He knew what he had to do, even if that meant doing the unbelievable and going against Annie.

He turned to the bodyguard, "Levi, there's something I need to tell you."

.

Ooooo, 18 chapters in and we FINALLY got a kiss lmao, and a very awkward one at that. Eren being like I'M NOT GAY and then proceeding to be very gay makes me cackle every time because bitch if that wasn't me 5 years ago XD And yes, Annie is kiiiinda a psycho in this fanfic. Whoops. See you guys next week!

~Gum