Archive of Our Own

“When are we going to be stopping for food?” Sasha complained loudly over the growling of her stomach. “I’m starving! I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”  

“That could be arranged.” Eren smirked over at Jean, who just sent him a nasty hand gesture.  

“Fuck off Jaeger, or the main course will be suicidal maniac.”  

“That doesn’t even make any sense! Mine was better.”  

“Guys! I’m serious.” Sasha interrupted their bickering, holding her stomach tightly as her face twisted with pain. “I feel like my stomach’s eating me alive. And my feet hurt.”  

“My whole body hurts.” Connie groaned. “I wouldn’t mind stopping for some grub.”  

“We just ate a few hours ago. The sun’s barely even gone down.” Mikasa pointed out wearily, shooting them a pointed look. “Now hush, we’re working.”  

“When are we going to get there?” Sasha whined. “We’ve been travelling all day! How far away is the Capital anyway?”  

“Far enough.” Armin huffed, hefting his backpack higher up on his shoulders. Sasha crossed her arms.  

“I don’t see why we had to stable our horses so far away.”  

“We can’t ride horses through the Capital. We’re supposed to be undercover.” Armin reminded; his voice low. Eren wouldn’t say it out loud, in fear of being dubbed a crybaby, but internally he echoed Sasha’s grievances.   

He still didn’t understand why the Commander had sent them of all people for this mission. They were supposed to travel into Mitras to find the Premier to, more or less, bully him into giving them more funding for supplies and outings.   

It went without saying that Armin would be doing most of the talking. He was good at that, debating without it actually sounding like arguing. He had a way of convincing people his ideas were ones they had originally come up with on their own. Armin could probably convince a rich man to give up all of his gold. If Eren had a shot at it, he’d just plow things over and demand they needed more money to go out and fight the Titans. Because that was what was most important, obviously.   

Maybe Commander Smith had specifically sent Eren’s squad out because they were kids. Adults had a hard time saying no and crushing the dreams of bright-eyed, eager youths, right? Or maybe it was simply because of Armin and his dangerous intelligence. Whatever the reason Eren really wished he hadn’t been picked. He hadn’t joined the Scouts for spy work, nor to argue the more political side of things. He’d much rather be training, sparring, working with dummies to really hone in his Titan killing skills.  

But, obviously, he couldn’t refuse an order from the Commander of the Scouts. And not only out of respect for his standing, because he was his superior. Erwin was like Armin in the sense that he could probably convince Eren to serve himself up on a platter to the Titans, as some great sacrifice to win the war.   

So now here they were, dressed in dark grey capes unlike the forest green ones with the Scout emblem sewn onto the back. Eren was still wearing his jacket and they all had their ODM gear tucked away but, for all intents and purposes, for today they were simply civilians Though Jean looked ridiculous wearing sunglasses, as if he actually thought that would do anything to hide his identity. His face was too long, he’d be picked out instantly in a line up. Actually, he looked more suspicious wearing the sunglasses, not aloof and mysterious as he probably hoped he did.   

Plus, it looked like it was going to rain. The skies were darkening to a navy shade of dark blue with grey clouds woven into the skies, and the sun’s golden light had lost it’s warm, forgiving glow. The breeze blew past them in cold waves and Eren could almost taste the musk of the rain before it had even fallen hanging in the air, in preparation.  

And he did not want to get rained on. The Commander had arranged for nice, cozy rooms in an inn and Eren was eager to live in the lap of luxury, even if only for one night. He was tired of sleeping on wafer-thin bunkbeds with twenty other dudes snoring and doing God knows what else five feet away from him.   

He hoped there would be a pool at the inn. And if there was, he wouldn’t feel the slightest bit bad for indulging.  

So long as he completed his duty first, so that he could feel good about it.  

And he hoped there’d be some frivolous pillow mints laid out too.   

A thunderous roar then sounded, but not from the purpling sky. No, from his own belly. Jean noticed and shot him a sneer.   

“You too? What, the pancakes this morning weren’t good enough?”  

“Those weren’t pancakes.” Sasha sniffed, and Eren had to agree with her. “Those were more or less glorified pieces of paper. No, I want real food! Like....oooh, mashed potatoes! Buttered corn. Maybe some squash, some nice leafy, crunchy greens. All of our vegetables back at base are soggy. I’ll bet they have turkey here. Maybe even chicken! Maybe beef!”  

“You’re killing me.” Connie groaned, slamming his palm into his forehead as he stared past the crowds morosely. “I haven’t had beef in....probably since I was like five or something. She's a long lost lover that I’ve missed. If you tempt me with her presence I might go into a rut right here and now.”  

“Can we stop talking about meat like teenagers who just got their first boners?” Jean interjected harshly, grumbling foully under his breath. “We’re going to look like hillbillies in this town if you all don’t knock it off. At least try and pretend like you belong here.”  

Eren couldn’t resist. “If you’re worried about looking like a hillbilly, you should probably do something about that face of yours.” Jean turned on him sharply, his cheeks flushing an ugly shade of scarlet.   

“You wanna go?” He asked dangerously, his eyes flashing. Eren might’ve taken him up on that offer considering how bored he was but one steely glance from Mikasa shut him down.   

“Because fighting isn’t going to draw attention to us.” Mikasa scoffed, rolling her wide grey eyes. Jean immediately sobered up, his cheeks flushing as he smiled sheepishly.  

“Sorry Mikasa.” Ew, gross. Eren pushed past him, walking on ahead. It was so obvious that Jean wanted to bone Mikasa, to everyone but Mikasa, of course. Thank God that didn't have a snowball's chance in hell, and not just because they were both alphas. Mikasa clearly knew she was too good for Jean (Eren hoped, he did not want to have Jean as a brother-in-law). 

The whole premise of secondary genders threatened to give him hives, so he shook his head and busied himself with looking around the city.   

There were walls and walls of people surrounding them as far as the eye could see. It made sense, considering it was a busy, bustling Friday night but Eren was tired of feeling like a sardine packed tightly into a can. Random townsfolk were bumping into him every five seconds and he had to try and control himself, not bite the head off of anyone unfortunate enough to nearly push him to the ground.  

He wished that there had been some secret way they could have gone. Like a tunnel or a forgotten pathway overgrown with weeds and grass. Or he wished they could just activate their ODM gear and soar above the crowds, they’d be to Mitras in no time.   

Unfortunately, that would kind of defeat the whole purpose of the ‘undercover’ aspect of their mission.   

He wasn’t even sure how they had managed to stay together thus far. They kept losing Armin and Mikasa walked so quickly she was practically miles away from them. Connie and Sasha stuck together like glue, and wherever Mikasa went, Jean was never too far behind. Eren just kept his sights fixed dead ahead.   

He knew where Mitras was. Sort of. Vaguely. But he had absolutely no idea where the inn was, nor where the Premier was located. Armin had already memorized the directions and he was in charge of the map, because he was the only one who had a sense about these things. Mikasa was a typical alpha and followed her own senses, which usually worked out, but there were those odd times in their youth where they’d ended up on the other side of town simply because she was too prideful to simply stop and ask for directions.   

Though, it’s not like Eren was much better, even as an omega. Eren’s head was hotter than the fires of hell themselves, he was all too aware of that fact. He always had to be the smartest person in the room, something he’d most likely picked up from his father, who rarely ever was. He was impulsive and reckless and usually didn’t take too kindly to any form authority. Ironic, considering he had joined the Scouts as soon as he had turned twelve and was able to sign up for basic.   

Come to think of it-why one earth would the Commander have thought Eren was a valuable asset to send along? He usually talked first and thought later, and sometimes his words were accompanied with fists. He had no fondness for government proceedings and didn’t like pandering to men who really weren’t anything special, they had simply been the only ones rich enough the job. Influence helped too. None of these things Eren cared about.   

Perhaps because he needed Mikasa as the brawn and Armin as the brain-and he knew they wouldn’t go without Eren. That was probably it. The Commander knew them very well, in an intimate, scary way, even though Eren had probably only said five entire sentences to him so far in his whole military career. But Erwin was cunning and ruthlessly wicked when it came to getting his way, it’s what made him such a good Commander. He always had a trick up his sleeve. He was smart enough to have many tricks up his sleeve, each suited for any possible outcome ever.   

So was Eren exactly wrong for suspecting there was some ulterior motive to this mission? Definitely not. But it wasn’t like he could ask anyone else about it. He’d just be called disrespectful for daring to question their esteemed commander. And, somehow, word would get sent back to Erwin. It always seemed to.   

“Ow!” Eren hissed, as someone else jostled his shoulder. He couldn’t even see any of the stalls, never mind any of the town like this. “Watch it asshole!”  

The woman didn’t even spare him a second glance and Eren felt fury burn hot beneath his eyes. He opened his mouth to tell Mikasa they should change directions and maybe walk more off to the side, but he found that he would be directing his request to the back of a faceless nobody who definitely wasn’t Mikasa.  

She wasn’t ahead of him anymore, swallowed up by the crowd.  

Eren twisted his head, his eyes darting around and slowly felt his chest begin to fill with a drip-feed of dread as he realized he couldn’t see anyone. Not Armin or Sasha or Connie-not even Jean and his horseish face.   

He froze. Eren frantically began to search the area surrounding him as frost crept up the corners of his vision and threatened to disorient him but-  

He had somehow gotten lost.  

And he was alone.  

Don’t panic. He forced himself to breathe, feeling his throat twist at a tight, odd angle. This was fine. Everything was fine. They couldn’t have gotten far; he had just been surrounded by them a moment ago. They were probably just a few paces ahead, no big deal.  

He shouldn’t panic.  

Because imagine how odd that would look. He wasn’t some child that had lost his mother nor was he stranded out in the wilderness, helpless. He was fifteen years old, basically an adult, no, more than that, considering he was a veteran Scout. Veteran because, everyone was a veteran, if they made it back from their first mission without being spit out from a Titan’s mouth.   

Right, he had gone through scarier things. He had fought Titans for Sina’s sake. Killed them too. He had survived under Shadis’ loud tyranny for three years, he could most definitely handle this. There was no need to lose his head and start running around frantically, knocking into people until he found Mikasa as if she was his keeper. That was just pathetic and if there was one thing Eren Jaeger wasn’t, it was pathetic.   

So, somehow, through force of his own will alone, he managed to soothe his raging heart into a steady lull. He sucked in a deep breath of air that was tangled with so many different smells and scents it tasted sour on his tongue, but it was still air that rushed through his lungs and made his head throb, reminding himself that he was still alive.   

He began to walk faster, squaring his shoulders and stiffening his muscles as he began to forcefully push through the crowd, ignoring the elbows and disgruntled murmurs sent his way. They were heading north and were walking in a straight line, it’s not like they had somehow just fallen off of the face of the earth.   

Right?  

No, right. Eren was too old to be scaring himself over thoughts of total and complete abandonment, even when he knew better. Thanks dad. He thought of his missing father sourly, finding that it was easier and safer to busy himself with thoughts fueled by anger rather than upset. He narrowed his eyes and set his jaw as he strained his neck, standing on his tippy toes to look on ahead, farther ahead, even though he was already a respectable 5’7 as is.   

A passing thought was presented to him that he should call out for Mikasa before he thought better of it. He didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to himself or any of his comrades.   

But he just had to find someone. He had to.  

And no, he absolutely would not concentrate how dark the looming clouds overhead were growing. It was still a far cry away from nightfall, he had to remember that, to flick away these thoughtless delusions that threatened to consume him until he was a quivering, shaking mass of tendons and bone.   

“Excuse me.” Eren grunted pointedly, brushing past a very obnoxious looking man wearing a suit. His blood was boiling, and not just from the claustrophobia swamping him like treacherous waters. His eyes burned from the strain, from the way he refused to let himself blink and miss even a second of time that could provide the answer for where his friends were.   

But he was horrified when he realized the endless sea of faces were all beginning to blur together. Everyone was beginning to look the same, just people ambling around meaninglessly, a fog of faces bleeding into the crowd. They all looked to have the same eyes, the same hair, the same stony expressions of annoyance-hell, even noses began to look indistinguishable to his teary eyes. Teary because he hadn’t blinked in a while, obviously. Like he’d ever cry over something like this.  

But it was a near thing and quickly approaching. The faces seemed to turn and smile his way, eyes glinting, as if they knew something he didn’t. Like they could see him propelling headfirst into his doom. But they never said a single word. They just smiled wider, wider, their lips stretching higher, higher, into painful lines across their cheeks that almost looked to have been carved there. Their eyes were all black and twinkling like the starry night sky.  

One that he was gazing up at alone, stuck in his own solitude and powerless to pull away from.   

Eren had always hated being alone. He never had been for long so he thought it was the unfamiliarity of the feeling that haunted the marrow of his bones. He had grown up in a small house but it was warm with love and company, always. Until it wasn’t...just mere rubble stomped over by bloodthirsty beasts but then he had Mikasa and Armin. So afraid of loosing each other to the horrors they had watched everyone else they loved succumb too, they had been inseparable more or less since Eren was ten. They’d done everything together. Worked together, trained together, ate together, hell, they’d even slept inside of the same bed until basic and they were split up by gender. And even then, Armin had usually snuck into his bunk shortly after lights out, fearing nightmares that may try and snatch him while he was under sleep’s defenseless charm.   

But Eren was, as of now, truly and completely alone. Even with bodies pressed up against him from every angle. He was lost inside of his own mind and couldn’t glimpse a single flicker of light shining from the seemingly fathomless, never-ending tunnel. Darkness was quickly approaching and consuming him.   

It made his blood run cold. His heart began a frantic march inside of his ribcage as he realized he might be trampled. Everyone around him would all be consumed with their own menial lives and mundane happenings and simply step over him, maybe on him, not even sparing him a cursory glance down because to them all, he was deemed inconsequential.  

He couldn’t be seen in this crowd. He was just another faceless, nameless nobody, with a Chesire grin stretched wide and cutting up his face, while his cobalt dark glittering eyes stared ahead unseeingly at the vast nothingness of the world behind the walls.   

He couldn’t take it. He felt trapped inside of his own skin that felt too tight, stretched taut over his bones. It was a trap too. He couldn’t crawl out of his body he could simply exist, just like this, alive yet just barely, floating through aimlessly until he reached the end of the world until nothing else could be found.  

And then that would be the end of him.   

He gasped as he suddenly ran headfirst into another. He took a stumbling step back, his vision swam, and he tasted hot bile tickling his tonsils. The angry person he’d bumped into turned around quickly, grasping his shoulders, shaking him killing him taking him far far away....    

" Eren? Where are the others?” Pieces clicked into place slowly as clarity snatched him from behind, but it felt like a warm hug more than anything. Eren never thought he’d say this, but as the doubles of his vision coalesced back together into one being and everything turned from its fuzzy haze to something solid and material, he had to admit he was so happy to see Jean in this moment that he might’ve cried. If he hadn’t had better control of his emotions, of course.   

“I don’t know.” Eren blinked, finally, staring into Jean’s mottled brown eyes to find a mirror expression of his own desperation. And panic. There was panic there, it was undeniable. “You haven’t seen them? Any of them?”  

“No.” Jean scowled. “You’re the first one I’ve seen. I got swept up in this fucking crowd, Mikasa disappeared somewhere behind me.”  

“She wasn’t ahead of you?”  

“No! That’s how bad it’s gotten. Shit! We need to find them.”  

“I know.” Eren bit out, but that was more due to his panic and nothing that Jean had done, surprisingly. Jean didn’t even notice, that same franticness was bleeding from him in waves as his head swung around haphazardly.  

“I’ve never seen anything like this.” Eren watched as his adam’s apple bobbed sharply, as he swallowed heavily. “We could be trampled. They could be-they could be anywhere! This is dangerous, we have to go. Fucking hell, it’s like a mass exodus.”  

It’s like we’re all cattle. Cattle being led to a slaughter. Eren didn’t even think twice as he grabbed Jean’s hand, and the other didn’t protest, his fingers fitting snugly against his and squeezing tight. Eren wouldn’t be embarrassed or awkward about this. Not now. Jean’s weight was reassuring, tangible, something real he could cling onto so as not to be swept away from this reality back into the horrors still looming in the darkened corners of his mind. Jean’s scent was rancid with panic but Eren tried to ignore it, continuing on beside him, constantly looking over his shoulder to be met with Jean’s side-profile and never once loosening his grip, not even when their hands became slick and slippery with rainwater.  

They were in a big city now. Somehow, it was more disquieting than the silence and great space that surrounded them out in Titan country.   

There he anticipated danger. One he could see from far away. One he was equipped to deal with.   

Now the hairs on his nape were prickly and stung the goosebumps they’d risen from, because he felt as if some unseen enemy was breathing down his back. But he also knew if he turned around to face it there’d be nothing there, just more smiles and dead eyes. It made him wonder what kind of danger one could find in the Capital.  

He didn’t want to find out. But he was certain something was out here, almost by his side, leading him somewhere he shouldn’t be. But he knew he couldn’t turn back. Something urged him forward. The voice of his conscience?  

Or the devil.    

“Do you see them anywhere?”  

“No. Do you?”  

“Obviously not, since I asked you.” Jean snapped, but Eren was so flustered he’d forgive him this once. His mind was sharp and homed in like a blade, his focus was directed towards one sole mission, what he was doing in the city was all but forgotten, temporarily.  

Find Mikasa and Armin. Connie and Sasha. Make sure they’re safe.    

That we’re safe.    

The first rain drop landed lazily atop the bridge of his nose, splattering wetly. The sound rang out like a scream, almost drowning out Jean's whisper. “We’re entering Mitras. Fuck, they must be really far ahead.”  

Eren looked ahead and sure enough, Jean was right. The arches loomed highly above them, imposingly. Menacingly. Though they were intricately designed and pretty, obviously meant to portray the exorbitant wealth of the city it stood in front of. But Eren wasn’t too impressed, he didn’t take the time to take the architecture in as he tugged Jean forward.   

Strangely enough, he felt light as a feather. Or maybe his adrenaline was powering him forward, any external aches and twinges were a mere afterthought, directed to the back burner until he could once again find his friends. Then the rest would come. 

The clouds seemed even darker beyond the gate. Any luminous glow the sun had once provided was now long gone. Now, a storm was coming. The clouds were thick blocks of grey and made up the entirety of the once crystal-clear blue sky.   

He thought he heard thunder rumbling in the distance. Like a warning cry.  

“Should we activate our ODM gear?”  

“What? No.” Jean shook his head. “We can’t give ourselves away, don’t be stupid.”  

Eren frowned, his fingernails digging into the soft back of Jean’s hand. “From a bird’s eye view we could probably find them.”  

“Forget it Jaeger, not happening.” The finality of the statement was spoken with a loud exhale of air. His heart began pounding louder. It was thumping inside of him with such a ferocity he was surprised a hole in his chest had not yet been carved.   

“Then what do you suggest?” Eren demanded hotly. “It’ll be dark soon and then we’ll never find them. We’ll be totally lost.”  

“Like we aren’t already?” Jean murmured, dodging a man and his...poodle he was pushing in a stroller. Eren did a double-take, his wired mind for some reason taking stock of this bizarre thought.  

Rich people were weird .   

“You know what I mean.” Eren muttered. “We’ll be practically blind.”  

Jean nodded grimly. “Should we just make it to the inn and wait for them?”  

“Do you know where it is?”  

“....No.” Jean sighed forlornly, obviously realizing Eren didn’t either and that was a big fucking problem. Eren shivered, and not just from the cold.   

“Then what do we do?”  

“I don’t know!” Jean exclaimed in his exasperation. “But it looks like it’s going to storm, and I really don’t want to be out here when it hits.”  

Eren nodded, no way did he want to walk into the inn looking and feeling like a drenched rat. And he knew rainfall and thunder and lightning would only bring about more confusion, they’d totally lose their sense of direction.   

“Plus, some of the characters here look...shady.” Jean murmured into his ear, his voice low. “Which is surprising, you know, for the richest city.”  

Eren shrugged. “It’s a big city. It makes sense.”  

“I do not want to be cornered by thugs.”  

“Oh really? I thought it might be a fun bonding experience.” Eren griped but he wholeheartedly agreed with Jean. He knew what kinds of people lurked around in this city, despite never having travelled to Mitras before. He knew enough from his father.  

Plus, back when Mikasa had narrowly avoided being kidnapped, he had heard those men whispering about how they should take her through the Capital. Even back then at the tender age of nine he had known what that meant.   

Luxury didn’t equate safety. After all, most rich men didn’t have sparkling hearts of pure gold.   

“Look, we’re soldiers.” Eren tried to console Jean and, really, himself. “We’ve fought Titans. We’ve killed Titans, we can handle this.”  

“You’ve only killed one.”  

Well that was completely uncalled for. Eren glowered at the other, really wishing he could have found literally anyone else.   

“Are you seriously fighting with me now?"  

“It’s not a fight, it’s a simple statement of fact.”  

Eren crunched his hands into fists, his blood boiling. “Listen up, shitbag-”  

But he never got the chance to finish. For at that exact moment a flicker of lightning suddenly lit up the night sky, illuminating new life. Or new death, however you wanted to look at it.   

And then panic ensued. Pandemonium consumed the city in a riotous uproar, as the rain poured from the sky and over the curving vines wrapping the walls of the city. Shrieks and hisses sounded from all around, umbrellas were popped open, and mothers collected children under their shawls as they scurried away. Hats were tipped down and Eren really wished he had stolen his father's as rain slicked back his hair and fell into his eyes, making them burn something fierce.   

Rich people acted like they’d never seen rain before. He wondered if their town was too pristine to be touched, if the weather here was always fair and beautiful just like their lives.   

“Dammit!” Jean cursed, and Eren felt arms wrapping around his shoulders. “The cobblestones are fucking slippery!”  

Eren might’ve pushed Jean off of him, if in that instance he didn’t feel his stomach flip flop as he too almost fell backwards onto his ass. So instead he clutched onto the hand squeezing the fabric of his shirt, and he didn’t even have the mind to bitch at Jean for attempting to ruin it.  

“We need to find shelter.” Eren said, blinded by the fog steadily enveloping him, and the water soaking them to their shivering bones. “The ODM gear isn’t supposed to get wet.” Thank God they had their cloaks to cover it, for now, but it provided minimal protection against this type of unyielding weather. His cloak was now all but sodden, clinging to the finest points of his bones, only making him shiver harder.   

“We could duck into a restaurant?”  

Eren nodded and allowed Jean to lead the way, mostly because the other had better eyesight than him. Thunder rumbled, it felt like the very ground was shaking beneath them, as if preparing to give away and plunge them into an unforgiving void they’d never be able to escape from, just slowly sink into the earth until their names and faces were all but forgotten, even by themselves.   

He hung his head, wet bangs pointedly stabbing him into his eyes. It was no use trying to wipe his face, if he did then only a second later he would be drenched to the bone once again. He felt like crying and didn’t know if he already was, if it was just the rain of his own torrent emotions marring his face. The soft pitter patter grew louder and louder, nearly deafening, pounding the ground and their bodies in tune with his throbbing heart.   

“I see a door.” Jean grunted, tugging him suddenly to the left, or rather, Eren’s right. “Come on.”  

Eren had no choice but to obey.   

The landscape was cloaked in fog, reveling in a gauzy like sheen that was slowly but surely dissipating, revealing Jean’s door, which to Eren, glowed as fiercely as light shining brightly at the end of a tunnel.   

He couldn’t see the name of the establishment the door stood between. There was no sign swinging haphazardly in the air as it was pushed around by the punishing winds swirling the rain all around them, so he wondered if maybe it had blown off. He couldn’t really see anything, actually. No porch, no windows, it was as if the door had appeared from nowhere and was standing stagnant on the scene, alone and abandoned and decrepit, filled with the sins of the past.  

It looked quite old but Eren was not going to complain. No he was not. Jean twisted the door handle furiously and it opened with an easy click, before the wood swung in the opposite direction Eren noticed a small keyhole in a weird shape and wondered where the owner was. Thank God the door was open though, his teeth were chattering violently from the cold, so loud and unforgiving against the others he felt as if there were mere seconds from chipping off and cracking entirely. He didn’t want to swallow fragments and scrape his already raw feeling throat.   

Jean disappeared inside and Eren hastily followed, still looking down at his feet that dragged through puddles because he couldn’t bear to look towards the sky and perhaps go blind.   

Then he looked back, once, and saw nothing. Only sheets of rain falling onto the land, and the rest of the sights were hazy images of black and grey.   

The door closed behind them with a jarring snap. It felt like the ending of something. But that was silly so Eren shook the thought out of his head.   

“Shit! I’m fucking drenched, I can see through my shirt!” Jean complained, tugging uselessly at the fabric. Eren, despite himself and his own foul mood, snickered as Jean grappled with the wet fabric clinging to him obscenely.  

“You better not strip horseface, we’ll be kicked out in five seconds flat.” And then he added, probably unnecessarily. “And that’s if everyone doesn’t go blind first.”  

Unsurprisingly, this went down with Jean about as well as the Colossal Titan kicking through Wall Maria. “Fuck you Jaeger! I can see your nipples poking through your shirt like glass by the way.”  

Eren felt himself flush dark red. “Why are you looking weirdo?”  

“Why are you looking at me?”  

“Because you’re standing right in front of me! Back up asshole!” Eren snapped, loudly, but then froze, as his voice came out louder than he intended, and shot up. He could hear the decibels still, echoing in his mind, seemingly unceasingly. No, that wasn’t right.  

His voice was echoing. Off of the walls, off of the ceiling, it was resounding everywhere....  

Bouncing aimlessly off of high, looming cavern walls, receding into the distance far, far away.   

“What the fuck?” Eren blurted before thinking, looking down and realizing they most definitely weren’t inside of a restaurant. They didn’t seem to be inside of any establishment. “Where...where are we?”  

The staircase was long, but not winding. It looked to be a straight shot down, leading to somewhere far away. He couldn’t quite tell. The steps were stretching such a length he couldn’t see where they ended. But they were old and cracking, creaking every time he slightly shifted.   

They disappeared into the darkness, which was as solid and unforgiving as a brick wall. He felt blind looking down into it. And it seemed to be creeping closer.  

“Um....I don’t know.” Jean rasped in a weak voice, taking a step down and then flinching when the stair audibly protested under his weight.  “Did we make a wrong turn into a basement or something?”  

“This isn’t a basement.” Eren felt as if the slowly spoken words were stripped off of his tongue, dread spread through his chest slowly because this didn’t seem to be anything.   

He wasn’t quite sure what he was looking at. Or maybe he was, but he didn’t want to be sure.   

It was eerily silent, except for unsettling murmuring and rasping sounding from the dark down below. He had no idea where any sort of noise was coming from, it all sort of echoed around, mixing into one disquieting symphony of misery. That was the exact word that came to mind.  

Something was very wrong down here.  

“Let’s just go back outside.” Jean murmured, and Eren agreed wholeheartedly. Despite the raging storm that would be waiting for them the wind and rain and even the booming thunder seemed a more welcoming atmosphere than this. The air smelled distinctly like rot, something decaying and decrepit and broken. Eren shivered, hugging himself tightly as he looked back over his shoulder, not exactly wanting to make the trek back up, but he knew they couldn’t' stay down here for much longer. That was like asking for trouble and he’d already gotten enough of it today for free.   

Why did trouble always seem to find him dammit?   

Even when he was trying to hide.   

And it was suddenly much too quiet. As if sound had never even existed.  

Eren swallowed, his shaking fingers pitifully going towards the handle. Perhaps the rain had even began to dry up, breaking off into to a small drizzle, like the sky was merely spitting at them. It seemed like they’d been down here forever, though it must have only been a mere few moments. But it felt like he was staring eternity in the face, looking down towards the darkness eating up the steps. Like time wasn’t even a material thing that existed down here in these depths. Eren squeezed the handle, twisting it violently left and right, but the door wouldn’t budge. Was it push, not pull? But he had pulled it to get inside. Perhaps it was a trick doorknob.  

….Or perhaps it was locked.  

Gut churning, Eren niggled the knob loudly, twisting with all of his might, until his wrist cramped and ached and he was forced to let go. To let go.  

No. What? How-how could it be locked? It hadn’t been locked a moment ago, they had gotten through it fine, so it couldn’t be locked. It just couldn’t be.  

Unless...had someone locked it from outside?  

No, it couldn’t be locked.   

“What’s the hold up Jaeger?” Jean complained from behind him.  

Panic, hot and cold, sliced down his sternum as he threatened to breathe, to find a calming heartbeat in the midst of its beating fury, to hold onto any single rational thought he had left, because now, he was being overrun by a ferocity that made his knees buckle.   

But the door wouldn’t budge. Eren even grew desperate enough to throw his whole weight into it and slam his shoulder into the cold, hard wood, but it merely shuddered. It was sturdier than it looked, like a great stone rolled in front of the entrance.... 

Trapping them.   

“Hello? Are you fucking insane?” Jean hissed, grabbing his shoulder. Eren shook his hand off, beginning to back away, his trembling fingers going to his hair and pulling, hard.   

Had...had someone locked it from the outside? But who? And why would they do that? Had they seen Jean and Eren coming down here? Was this all some elaborate trap? Eren started sweating buckets before he finally calmed himself with the thought that no one could control the rain so they hadn’t known Jean and Eren would seek refuge through this door.  

Still, it was only a slight comfort, because someone could have been looking for an opportunity and thought this was their lucky day. Jean had commented about the less than savory types that seemed to be skulking around.   

“The door’s locked.” He said dully, still glaring at the grand, imposing oak door. Jean flinched at his abrupt entrance and then his face went pale as he sat back, beginning to anxiously wring his hands.  

“No....”  

Eren nodded grimly. “Yeah.”  

“No.” Looks like Jean was going with denial. “No, check again, you must’ve twisted the doorknob the wrong way.”  

“The wrong way? How many different ways can you turn a doorknob?” Eren demanded, momentarily disposing of his panic to glare at Jean with a tempestuous force for his difficulty. “You try it then!” 

Like Eren wouldn’t know how to open a door. But Jean had apparently come to that conclusion, as he flicked his lip up in a sneer and roughly pushed past him. “Alright, yeah! I’ll get us out of here. I’ll save the day, like always.” 

“And when have you ever saved anything?” Eren griped, thoroughly pissed off, and somewhat sadistically pleased, feeling validated quite self-righteously when Jean began to struggle.  

But, of course, since this also affected him his feelings were meaningless, schadenfreude. Jean’s failure was just as much his own.  

He looked down then, only to find a keyhole. He frowned, because didn’t that mean someone would have had to lock it from the inside? And no one could have gotten past Eren and Jean in the brief moments they had been bickering, unless they had come through and immediately locked it, but then they would be trapped up here as well...  

Eren swallowed as the realization hit him-it must have locked immediately after shutting, and only a key could unlock it from the inside. 

“Fuck!” He quietly growled to himself, feeling the fear slowly begin to gnaw at his bones. This was bad. This was so bad and he didn’t know what to do, how to get out from under it. If he even could. All he knew right now was that he and Jean were stranded in some mysterious place, locked in and trapped entirely, with no one knowing where they were. They had no means of alerting them to their location.   

“It really is locked.” Jean whispered, almost in an awe, most likely at the sheer catastrophe of this new, seemingly hopeless quagmire they’d found themselves in. That they’d all but walked into themselves! “Shit....shit! Eren, what do we do?” 

“How should I know?” Eren threw his hands up, feeling like he was about to pace, but right, he couldn’t, otherwise he’d fall right off of the platform down to the darkened depths below. “We can’t break it down; we can’t open it.” 

“Should we knock?” 

Eren leaned back against the door, his entire body vibrating. He felt like he was on the verge of hyperventilating and that was no good, because what would he do if he passed out, left helpless and prone to whatever might have been lurking in these shadowed corners? He had to keep his head firmly seated on his shoulders, now perhaps more than ever, but it felt like it was going to just pop off of his shoulders. And just...roll, down, down, down....  

Landing with a sickening crunch at the bottom of the stairs. Eren blew out a hot gust of frantic breath.   

He hated feeling trapped.   

He reached up to rub a cool hand over his thumping, pulsating heart, that was pounding against his chest with such a ferocity that he ached deep inside, when suddenly his fingers brushed over something was most definitely not skin and bone. He held his father’s key tightly inside of his hand.   

His father had given this to him, just before he had disappeared, he remembered it vaguely. This key had been important, for some reason, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember why. Or maybe his father had never told him. The man was good at that, keeping secrets.  

He eyed the key, its curves, the dull brass that didn’t so much as sparkle in the darkness, or maybe that was because Eren never bothered polishing it. It swung haphazardly as he lifted it into the air and then he grasped it tightly inside of his clammy fist. The weight was reassuring, somehow.  

Eren knew it was probably stupid to hope a random key his father had given him would be their ticket out of here. It was probably the key to a door in their old house, probably leading to the cellar, since Eren had had a copy of their house key so it would have been foolish for his father to give him another one.   

But perhaps it was a skeleton key.  

He could only hope. For now, it was all he had.  

But it proved to be fruitless and pointless, as hope usually was, because the key was too big, and was just uselessly jamming at the hole, making disgustingly loud clanging noises that sounded all around the cavernous pit they had landed in.  

Eren just had to accept it. They were trapped.   

“You really thought that would work?” Jean demanded, Eren shoved his face in his hands. 

“I don’t see you coming up with suggestions!” 

“Here’s one-hey! Help! We’re trapped, let us out!” 

“What are you doing? ” Eren whispered, wrenching Jean’s fist away from where it was currently trying to pound a hole into the unyielding wood of the door. His screams echoed until Eren couldn’t remember the silence. “Dickwad, don’t shout!”  

“Pfft-there’s no one here.”  

“You don’t know that.”  

“It’s abandoned. Who would be down here?”  

“It’s better to be safe rather than sorry.” Eren insisted, eyes darting around at the rot and waste clustered on the edges. Sure, it looked empty, barren, desolate. But he couldn’t be too careful. He felt another’s presence-eyes, peeling into him. Scraping through layers of skin and gnawing on bone. He felt as if he was being watched from every angle, and he had nowhere to hide. Only possible dead ends to run towards.  

Looking over his shoulder, he only found that the shadows in this place were so overpowering he couldn’t even see Jean anymore. Not really. He was starting to fade away into the grey. And all he saw below him was a great darkness, fearsome and oppressing. It looked like nothing existed down there.  

But he knew with some frightening certainty that something most definitely did.   

They had to get out of here. They couldn’t continue wasting time.   

“It’s locked, Jean.” And no one’s out there waiting for us. Jean’s eyes widened as the sentiment was shared silently between them. “We need to find another way out.”  

“Is there another way out?” Jean snapped, tone and scent drenched with fear. 

“There...has to be, right?” But Eren wasn’t so sure. And he didn’t want his stupid inner omega to start going crazy with panic. Jean already smelled too much of it, smelling like a slow-burning candle that had been reduced to flames just chewing at the melted wax. They grimly met eyes and then looked down the stairs, the only possible path left to go down.  

“No.” Jean said instantly, holding his hands out as he backed into the door. “No, we...we can’t go down there. We don’t know what’s down there.” 

Eren knew this, the temptation to stay and wait for help was strong, but it wasn’t as if they could just continue standing there with their hands in their pockets. Waiting for someone to find them first. The call from the void was dangerous, a lilting siren’s song that made his head ring unpleasantly, and the more he stared at it, the more unwelcoming it seemed.  

“We don’t have a choice.” Eren swallowed down bile. “Besides, we have our ODM gear. If we encounter anything, we’ll use it to escape.” 

Jean glared. “I am not going down there!” 

Eren glared back. “We don’t have a choice!” He snapped, before steeling himself for what he was about to do. He felt as if his decision was nothing short of disastrous, but he had made it, so he turned on his heel sharply, beginning to descend.  

The loud swallow that scrapes against his raw throat sounds like a great booming noise to his own ears. Resounding like the sound of an explosion. Or a scream.  

But he doesn’t look back.  

“Hold up! Wait! Dammit Jaeger, come back!” 

Footsteps sounded behind him thunderously, wracking the stairs below him with tremors, like a twitching snake trying to slither out from his feet. Eren growled, blinking and fighting against the nothingness pelting against his corneas.  

He didn’t even know how high up he was. How much further down below he’d have to travel. 

How far beneath the earth do I have to go?  

“Piece of shit, I told you to wait.” Jean grumbled behind him. Eren scoffed, choosing his steps carefully. If he tripped, he had no idea how far his tumble would travel. If he’d still be alive by the time he hit the bottom. 

Would he even be able to breathe down there? Surrounded by dirt and the earth’s dust? What if he was crushed, or the ceiling caved in? 

Eren shivered, and not just from the chill that was thick in the air, that was steadily growing thinner and thinner. 

He heard some faint sort of dripping.  

“Do you have a light?” 

His footsteps echoed, sounding hollow, and Jean grumbled before a rasp of wood being lit roared over his shoulder. He’d always made fun of Jean for smoking but now he was grateful for the matches. The light was weak but a glowing gold, illuminating the steps before them, so they could see just exactly what hell they were headed to.  

He did feel like he'd just began a trek down a stairwell leading to hell.  

And, from the looks of the atmosphere, that was becoming a more and more plausible theory for what exactly was residing down here.   

Looking back, he found Jean's eyes were filled with the same dark clouds from above. 

The darkness down here was, of course, more powerful. He felt his eyes stinging and blinking from a lack of light, horrified with the feeling that his senses were slowly but surely slipping away from him.   

The match sputtered, and the puny light faded. Another one was lit with haste.  

Then they reached the last step, hitting dirt when their feet fell. 

No, they landed on something spongey, something wet. 

Eren looked down, only to find the half-eaten, ripped and vile corpse of a bloody rat. 

“Fucking disgusting.” He hissed under his breath. 

And then he looked up.  

He felt as if these sights couldn’t possibly be real. Maybe he had hit his head outside in the commotion and passed out, and now this was just some hyper-realistic coma dream. His confusion felt so palpable he could almost see the birds flying around his head as he swayed on unsteady feet.   

“Where are we?” Jean asked, looking around, then looking back to Eren, completely bemused. Eren...wasn’t sure.   

“We’re...underground. In some sort of city.” He said hesitantly, because that sounded as mad as a box of jumping rats. But the evidence was right in front of his face and irrefutable, buildings towered above them, all looking rotten and decaying.   

And he almost wanted to say that this town was abandoned, haunted by ghosts, but no, he wouldn’t let himself go there.   

It wasn’t exactly dark, simply dim, lusterless light was muted and faint-seeming almost grey. Everything seemed grey, in fact. Colorless and desaturated, like he had fallen into the pages of a horror book.   

A queer feeling of dread spread through his chest as he took in the buildings that were clustered around. Buildings. As if this was an actual city, one built entirely underground.   

He saw shadows, moving silhouettes, too dark to be just a trick of the light. They flickered with movement every so often and that sent chills up his spine. 

“I mean, what even is this place? Some-some underground city? How is that possible? Did people actually live down here?”  

“I don’t know why you’re asking me, as if I’d know.” Eren quipped, rolling his eyes. He was letting his annoyance at Jean overpower his sickly beating heart, it was throbbing inside of his chest with a heat that made him feel ill, like he had swallowed down fire and was now just waiting for the flames to take over. He couldn’t take his anxiety, not now. It wouldn’t serve him here. He had to be the rational one, for both of them.   

If anything, it was Jean’s fault for spotting the door and dragging them down here in the first place, but Eren was smart enough to realize voicing that aloud would do nothing, and probably just make Jean take a swing at them.  

No, for now, he had to smite any base emotions that threatened to consume him before tossing his ragged bones into spiraling waters. He was a solider, he’d gone through worse. Definitely worse, he’d fought Titans after all, and always walked away without so much as a scratch. He’d been trained for this, how to act and function under pressure. It was fine. He could be cool as a cucumber.  

Shadis had always said fear was what killed most soldiers out on the field.   

Fear was a concept currently only harboring in his mind. He could overcome it. He had to.  

But now it felt like physical claws, sharp and curved, were digging into his heart. 

“Do you see anyone?” Jean whispers, low and soft. Eren can’t really see anything amidst the grey darkness that seems like fog surrounding them, but he takes a cursory look, scoping the area out for danger, like he’s on the field hunting for Titans. 

But, down here, anything could be hunting him.  

And then he heard it- laughter.    

Bone-grating, eerie, scraping laughter that sounded the definition of ominous and foreboding, as if he was hearing the beginnings of an omen sung like a hymn, detailing the finer points of his destruction and demise.   

And there were multiple laughs, sounding to be coming from every angle. Maybe even above him.   

Without thinking, Eren ducked down behind some of the heaps of trash and tugged Jean down with him, but Jean seemed eager to go along anyway.  

“There’s laughter. There’s laughter.” He said in a rush, the words pouring out of him like water. “There are people down here, Jean. Actual people.”    

“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck...” Jean cursed, his eyes wild as they darted around. “Who would be living down here? Who?”  

"I don’t know.” Whoever lived down here, Eren suspected there weren’t just kindly grandmas or friendly neighborly types.  

Anyone who lived down here surely had to be hiding.  

Or hiding the world from themselves. From their own worst nature.   

And now they just had to be that much more careful.   

It felt like there were eyes on him from every angle. Stripping him down to bare bones, he felt naked and exposed and felt there was no cover for him to find, even though he was currently huddled and hidden under heaps of vile smelling trash.   

It reminded him of his youth, when his mother used to sit him down at night and, after tucking him in, she’d read him fairytales. Most were of whimsical creatures and romantic happenings, but every so often there would be a dark, dreadful tale recounting the existence of beasts. With gleaming, gnashing fangs and claws like knives, who towered over the townspeople and decimating them all like flies. He’d picture the sunken in, glowing red eyes glazed over with nothingness and death that would occasionally flash with a thirst of blood whenever they’d catch a glimpse of a small child like himself, and he’d shiver under his covers until his father would come in to calm him down.  

He’d always said there were no monsters hiding under Eren’s bed.   

But now, well, they were certainly under something.   

The bedrock of the world.   

“Can you tell where it’s coming from?” Jean asked but the laughter was gone, the disconcerting silence was back. And it seemed to be crushing him, breaking his bones, one by one.  

Internally he was frozen but his skin was burning up, sweat was leaking from every pore and he waved out the fire infesting his veins in the form of nervous pins and needles.  

“It’s...was coming from somewhere inside of the city. Maybe on the left.” But how was Eren to know that? The sound travelled down here, it vibrated through the muddy ground and echoed off of the damp earth walls. For all he knew, the person could be right behind him.  

Right behind him.  

With a knife mere inches from his back.   

Eren whirled around and his toes lifted off of the dirt for a split second at the sound of a shriek-  

A rat squeaked as it hurried past him, skittering around the piles of rotten food, and he heard Jean yelp behind him.  

“Gross!”  

Eren exhaled loudly, shaking as his heart seemed to beat through the thin skin over his chest. He felt sick from its vibrations, and acid clawed its way up his tight throat. “It’s just a rat. Calm your tits.”  

Mostly, he was saying this aloud to himself.  

But his heart wouldn’t quell its dangerous tune, he felt his head nodding along to his own rhythm- we're going to die we’re going to die die they’re going to kill us we’re going to di-    

“Yeah, I know that.” Jean snapped, and Eren rejected the tune loudly infesting his ears and his very mind as he looked over his shoulder, to find Jean’s curled lips and flaring nostrils. “It’s still fucking disgusting.”  

“Keep your voice down.” Eren whispered.

And then he heard voices not coming from him or Jean. Their lips were sealed, sewn together. These timbres-low, grungy ones-were coming from the mouth of thugs. 

"I swear it Ed! I smell omega. Can't you?"

Eren feels withered and vile, and Jean's eyes widen, as he starts quietly scooping dust all over him, as if that will erase his scent. Eren glares as dirt rains off of his hair.

"I only smell fuckin' rotting trash. Get yer nose checked man."

"No gets yours checked!"

Eren can scarcely feel himself breathing, curling up into a tight ball. As if that could hide him, but he hopes-probably in vain-that it will. They can't be found. He can't be found. Though he has his blade and is trained-hell has killed two men before-he has no idea how many leery alphas could be lurking around him. 

He hopes they’re not like the sharks from Armin’s books-in the way they can smell blood and gravitate towards it, even from miles away.

And they’re so very close. "Maybe its hiding. Maybe it wants us to find it, then we'll get our prize." Practically breathing down their necks, letting fangs ghost their napes.

And Eren and Jean are lying low but helplessly in the weeds, just waiting for an ambush. 

Eren's heart is rapping against his ribs with such a viciousness and he aches silently, waiting for the kill he feels will inevitably stain his hands. 

He breathes in air only filled with ash, filth, grim. Detritus lines his lungs in ugly succession.

He doesn't want to be thrown down, have his virginity taken painfully, roughly, punishingly. He doesn't want to be trapped, forced to submit, to have to bear the cruelty under brutal fists. He doesn't want to be defiled in such a disgustingly unthinkable way, he'll have to attack, he feels the fight itch hotly against his boiling blood. He'll have to wring their throats, snap their necks. Run his sword straight through their chests and evil hearts.

They're on top of him....Jean’s hand is clamped over Eren’s mouth tightly so as not to make a sound or let one slip pass the barrier. He can't breathe.

They're coming for him-they won't show any mercy. They're coming. 

The footsteps recede, as do the mocking jeers, and Jean's hand falls away as he breathes out a sigh of relief, sounding as if he might cry. Eren doesn't cry but he feels like rejoicing at the way the tension melts away from his shivering bones. 

“We need to get out of here. I think they left. I don’t hear anything, do you?”  

He strains his ears, but he heard nothing. No retreating or oncoming footsteps beating against the earth, the roars and rumbles were a creation of his own twisted mind.   

They were alone, once again.  

Or, at least, he hoped.  

Jean stood up, and Eren straightened his spine behind him, as the other picked his leg up and stepped over the heaps of rot. Eren wrinkled his nose, feeling his stomach toss as he saw something that he thought looked like bone- 

Before his own nose smashed into Jean’s shoulder blades. 

“Um, walk much? Move!” Eren snapped, pushing his clammy palms against his spine, which had gone stiff and tense though the ridges seemed to vibrate under his fingers. 

Jean didn’t respond. He ignored him, though he didn’t think it was on purpose, so his usual indignation revolving around Jean in his entirety didn't get the chance to make itself known.  

He heard him inhale a short, fractured breath.  

“See another rat?” Eren tried to joke, but there was audible hysteria edging in on his tone because what could possibly be wrong now?  What could make this worse? 

He felt like he shouldn’t, but he cocked his head and peaked over his shoulder to find what had sent the other solider stiffening into a statue.  

And he saw people. Actual living, breathing people, not just shadows stretching up the cave walls. Eren’s heart caught inside of his throat and stuttered painfully, choking him, and he felt his eyes grow wide.  

Eren was immediately struck by the strangers' eyes. They were deep pools of gleaming silver, pale as the moon while simultaneously darkened by the shadows that crept around stars’ edges. His eyes were narrowed yet cool, calm, and scrutinizing, as they took in Eren entirely.  

Now Eren felt as if he couldn’t breathe for an entirely different reason. 

There was a group of three, all looking at them with thin eyes and even thinner lips, and the overwhelming consensus is that all of them seem vaguely unimpressed with their presence. He can practically hear the sweat dripping through Jean’s pores.  

“You two look awfully suspicious.” A blond beta was the first to speak, crossing his arms as his blue eyes narrowed suspiciously. Now it was Eren who was drowning in his own sweat, feeling his heart drop back down to his ribcage where it began racing. 

“It’s his fault!” Eren blurted instantly, with nothing better to say. Jean glared thunderously but Eren was unaffected, more enraptured by silver eyes. 

“Thanks for throwing me under the carriage asshole!” 

“What’s his fault?” The girl asked slowly, cocking her head. “What did you two do?” 

“Nothing!” Jean yelped. “Look...we didn’t mean to intrude on your property! We swear! We just got locked in, that’s all.” He gulped, laughing nervously. “We’ll be leaving now if...if you could just tell us how to get out of here.” 

“There is no way out.” She said solemnly. Somehow, it seemed to get darker as soon as those words were spoken. If there had been any air floating down in these depths before, unceremoniously, it was all ripped from his rapidly shriveling lungs. 

No.... no that-that couldn’t be right.  

“What?” Jean’s voice went as high as a mouse’s, squeaky too. Eren felt his stomach sink all the way to his toes. The blond nodded, looking grim, and Eren was two seconds away from simply running back upstairs and beating on the door until someone heard them before the beta’s face broke out into a wide grin.  

“Oh man, you two should see your faces.” He burst out laughing, as did the girl, while the dark-haired man just seemed annoyed, rolling his eyes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you wet yourselves!” 

Eren didn’t exactly know what was so funny, but he began to chuckle along, as did Jean, though their laughs were short and breathy and rolling from their tongues with nerves. “So...so there is a way out?” Eren asked, his voice smaller than he would have liked. 

The blond and the redhead exchanged glances, before they burst out into another peal of laughter, with the girl slapping her knee.  

“You two are such children.” The dark-haired stranger with the dark grey eyes finally spoke, clicking his tongue. Eren felt as if something had gotten caught in his throat because fuck he had not been expecting his voice to be that deep, that low, but his rough gravelly drawl immediately had him straightening up, eager for him to say more. 

Figures that only Eren Jaeger could stumble into a ghost town and instantly begin fawning over who was most likely a thug. 

If it was physically possible, he was sure his heart would be beating out of his eyes. He suddenly felt hot all over, the unforgiving chill from earlier long abandoned.  

“Sorry Levi.” The girl snickered, wiping her eyes.  

Levi. It fits him, it fits him so well. Eren doesn’t day it but he thinks it’s the most attractive name he’s ever heard. The sound of it echoes inside of his mind, so much so he almost loses himself inside of it until the alpha raised an eyebrow pointedly. “Why do you need a way out?” 

And oh, alpha he was. Now, Eren had never really paid attention to the scents of alphas in the past. Most were too obnoxious and try-hard, smelling toxic, sometimes like something dead rotting.  

But Levi smelt almost like smoke, intoxicating, invigorating, yet there was a sweetness there too. Cloying, slightly bitter, but deliciously so. Eren could practically feel himself salivating 

Oh, no, wait, he was. But he had never been so drawn to an alpha before. And now, it was as if a physical force was pulling him over.  

Maybe it’s because he’s an older man. That must be it. He’s aged with life Eren’s starved to live.

Though….that’s not quite right either. 

And he swore, even though he and Jean were standing side by side, the alpha’s focus was directed fully onto him. Like Eren was the only sight worth seeing. Like Eren was the one his eyes were instinctively drawn towards, like he couldn’t pull them away, even if he wanted to. 

As if they're one of those silly fated pairs poems wax lyrical over. 

And he’d like to think there was something like intrigue sparkling in the flecks of silver deep inside of his dark ashen eyes.  

He remembered then that he had been asked a question, and had just been standing there like dead weight for probably the past few minutes, looking like his head was back upstairs, up in the clouds. 

He cleared his throat much too loudly. “We, um, we’re supposed to be working. But we lost our friends and we need to get back upstairs to find them.” 

“Upstairs?” Levi questioned. And Eren felt like he was burning up under that white-hot gaze. “You’re topside?”  

Eren noticed Jean flush dark red out of the corner of his eye, but he had no idea why. Not until Jean opened his mouth and stuttered out. “O-Of course I’m a top, I’m an alpha, duh!”  

Eren was so fucking embarrassed, he felt as if he was on fire with the feeling. The redhead again barked out a loud laugh, and Levi looked at Jean as if he had about one functioning braincell, which Eren wasn’t going to disagree with.   

“No, asshole, I don’t give a shit about what you do in bed. If you do anything at all. Topside. As in, are you from upstairs?” He spoke with an audible eyeroll, his eyes chilly as stone. Jean gulped noisily, clearly looking like he wished the ground would just open up and swallow him whole. Eren wholeheartedly shared the sentiment. “Though I guess that moronic statement answers my question.”  

“Oh.” Jean kicked his uninjured foot out awkwardly. “Yeah, right.”  

Before an uncomfortable silence could have its chance to settle thickly all around them, Eren cleared his throat and tried to collect himself best he could. It was hard, though, his knees still felt much too weak. “Yeah. We didn’t mean to come down here but, uh, yeah.” God, he was saying yeah too much! Levi’s cool, mist-filled eyes rolled over to him and Eren narrowly avoided choking on his own tongue. “So...if you could show us the way back up, we’d be really grateful. We could pay you, or something.”  

Or suck your dick. Eren’s obnoxious brain chirped inside of his skull.  

“You want to get back upstairs?” Levi asked, simultaneously sounding completely confused and out of his skull with amusement. “Why’d you come down here in the first place?”  

Eren felt his cheeks pink for some reason, and immediately jerked his thumb towards Jean. “It’s his fault!” He blurted, feeling the glare of Jean’s betrayed stare singe his beck. “He thought this door led to a restaurant!”  

“Fuck you Jaeger!” Jean hissed furiously. “You were the one that followed me!” 

“You thought...a door leading to the Underground led to a restaurant?” The girl asked, slowly, looking the exact definition of bemused. “Weren’t there any military pigs standing guard?” 

Eren and Jean exchanged a look. “You mean military police?” 

She shrugged. “Same thing.” 

"Why were you even going inside of strange doors anyway?” Levi asked. “Haven’t you ever heard of the Underground?”  

“No.” Jean looked like he was about to preen, as he stuck his nose up in the air. Suddenly, strangely, Eren felt almost green with jealousy. For the stupidest reason, he didn’t want Jean talking to Levi. He was his! “We actually have more important things to worry about.”  

Levi's eyes narrowed dangerously, like Jean had two seconds to run. Maybe not even that long. 

“So, can you help us?” Eren interjected, hopefully. The three traded looks.   

“We can’t just sneak back upstairs. Do you know how many people have died trying?” She started, and Eren felt himself quietly deflate. “I mean, I don’t even know how you guys could have snuck down here in the first place.” 

“The MPs must’ve been on a smoke break.” The beta spoke thoughtfully. “Or they’re too busy getting crabs from a whore house. All paid by our tax dollars, ha.” 

“You don’t pay taxes, Furlan.” Levi scoffed. Meanwhile, Jean was beginning to break down beside Eren. His scent was beginning to smell like a burning wildfire, and it had Eren inching away, before Jean could do something stupid like explode all over him.  

“Oh shit!” He huffed, throwing his hands in the air. “Does this count as desertion?” 

“Jean?” Eren hissed, because they were supposed to still be undercover, but Jean continued huffing and puffing and pacing like he had asthma.  

“The Commander is going to have our asses, Eren. Our asses! They’ll be nailed up on his wall! Oh man, Mikasa’s never going to respect me again!” 

“She didn’t before.” Eren offered. Jean raked his fingers over his pale cheeks, red lines blistering instantly.  

“Oi, Eren, is it?” Eren’s head snapped to attention when addressed by Levi. Like he was a dog trained by a ringing bell. “Calm your mutt, he’s freaking out over nothing.” 

Eren frowned. “I have to deal with this all day.” He grumbled, before turning around and socking Jean in the arm, his monkey brain hoping beyond hope he’d impress Levi with his no-nonsense attitude. “Horseface, calm the hell down.” 

“Calm down?” Then Jean’s eyes nearly turned as red as his face, as he took a dangerous step forward and started waving his hands in the air. “You don’t tell someone who’s freaking out to calm-” 

Eren stood, coolly unbothered, with his foot tapping and his arms crossed and Jean advanced, because he knew the other wouldn’t attack him-and even if he could Eren would body him in two seconds, thank you very much-and then, Jean wasn’t walking forward anymore. No, he was being held back, a hand securely gripping the hood of his cloak.  

“It’d be best for you to take a step back.” Levi growled, and even though the ire sparking in his eyes was not meant for Eren, he felt himself shiver anyway. “Mellow the fuck out, or I’ll make you.” 

Was...was Levi defending him? Though primitive and slightly insulting in origin, Eren could feel his innermost nature preening, on the verge of panting.  

God, this man might be the death of him.  

Jean twisted around. “And who the hell are you to threaten me? I’ve killed Titans before punk!” 

Eren facepalmed loudly. There went any discretion they might have still had.  

And there went his chances of being the elusive, mysterious stranger Levi was enraptured by, only because he had so many questions about his origins, instinctively drawn to Eren due to a yearning of ardent curiosity and marvel.  

Suddenly Jean was thrown back, going ungracefully as his legs gave out when the back of his knees hit the steps. Eren was slack-jawed, enraptured, and he felt his heart beating fast. So fast, he couldn’t even feel it.  

The dangerous power this man held pulled the air from his lungs, threaded and corded beautifully through his rippling muscles his stature was deceiving, and he still looked as if he’d just stomped out a spider. And not even a particularly big one. Looking on with eyes that were somehow a dangerous threat yet entirely bored, he crouched down over Jean’s prone body.  

“I’ve killed men.” He whispered, and those silky words spoken from a honeyed tongue made Eren’s face flush fifty shades of red. He suddenly felt as if it was he who was sprawled out on the ground, and oh, what he’d give to be the one lying under Levi. “Titans aren’t really that scary. Just big, dumb animals. After you take down ten men coming at you with daggers and rifles, you come talk to me then, pissant.” 

Eren felt himself melting into a large, Eren-sized puddle all over the muddy floor. Obsessed wasn’t even the word for it, he was unravelling at the seams for this man, and he hadn’t known him for more than ten minutes.  

But it felt like a lifetime. Heaven and hell in one breath, a story told and one in which Eren was desperate to see the ending.  

Jean nodded, looking ghostly, his eyes almost as large as Commander Pyxis’ drinking problem. “Uh-huh.” He wheezed, his fearful eyes never leaving Levi’s, even as he straightened up.  

Eren, still caught in his dream-like trance, the one that covered his surroundings in a syrupy light where everything seemed brighter and not entirely real, took a step forward and immediately his foot caught on a groove woven in the earth, and he felt his body lurch forward.  

“Fuck.” He yelped, just as his palm scraped against something sharp, something that sent a lightning bolt of pain shooting up his arm.  

“You okay?" Then it was Levi’s voice again, above him, and Eren looked up, blinking away his tears as he meets silver eyes, sparkling in the lowlight.  

All coherent thought ceased to exist.  

“Thanks.” Eren croaked, a bit belatedly, wincing at how his words scrapped against his raw, ragged throat. Air was still a little too hard to catch, his lungs struggled uselessly inside of him as he messily wiped a damp hand over his face, probably smearing more blood over his cheeks.   

Levi nodded, pursing his lips, which Eren couldn’t help but notice were perfectly curved, perfectly shaped. He held out his hand, and Eren gratefully took it without a second thought. 

His hand was so soft, yet his grip so firm.  

Eren opened and shut his mouth, probably looking like a starved fish.   

His head was currently devoid of anything-brain included. His skull felt all muddled by fog and darkness, continuously sinking further and further down unfathomable depths.   

Levi looked him up and down, visibly growing impatient, but Eren could only stare at his striking features. Every contour and curve of his face seemed to be meticulously sculped by some hand of god, it was like he was carved straight from marble.  Alpha his brain chirped, stating the obvious, but the thought felt loaded for some reason. Nearly dangerous for some unknown reason.   

He was lifted off of the ground as if he weighed naught more than a feather.  

“Are you sure?” Levi asked in a low tone and Eren felt shivers racing up his spine, but he just couldn’t talk. It was as if words had been stolen from him, as if he’d never been introduced to them before. All he felt was himself drowning in the swirling depths of this man’s eyes, it was like he was drowning.  

He had to make a pointed effort to blink, reign himself in, before he did something hairbrained and indulgently scented the air. 

But there was something between them, something Eren wanted to grab onto. Unblinking, Levi's eyes wash all over him. 

“You have blood on your face.” Levi murmured.  

Eren wanted to ask if he’d wipe it away.  

“From my hand.” He explained, his voice sounding breathy. “I cut it.” Levi’s eyes narrowed, and it felt like he was staring straight into Eren’s soul.  

Before it had felt like time was ceaseless, endless, dragging on at a snail’s pace, full of doom and uncertain dread. Now, it felt as if it didn’t even exist. As if it was just him and Levi, Levi and him, inhabiting this tiny space carved out in the world for just the two of them. The stars could be falling around them, the sun burning out in the night sky, and Eren didn’t think he’d even notice, as long as Levi’s eyes stayed firmly locked on his.  

Just them amidst the darkness. 

And Eren forgot why he wanted to run back up the stairs in the first place. 

He wanted Levi to lead him somewhere deeper, somewhere only he knew, for only the two of them. 

He found that he didn’t actually want to leave. Not anymore.  

Abruptly, too suddenly, Levi cleared his throat, dropping Eren’s hand, and Eren felt his heartbeat slow, as if preparing for death. The disappointment was hot inside of his chest, as was the sudden exhaustion burning beneath his eyes.  

“We can take you.” Levi says at last. And Eren remembers that he does actually want to taste starlight and sunlight and all of the light of day again. In the darkness, Eren imagines a halo of light falling over his newfound savior. He watches as Furlan narrows his eyes, giving him a pointed look, but Levi doesn’t even so much as look in his direction. “There's another staircase across the city. It’s not too far.” His eyes darted up the stairs, as he shook his head slightly. “No one uses this entrance anymore. I couldn’t imagine why it was unlocked in the first place.” 

All at once, the tension rushes from Eren’s bones like a waterfall. “Oh thank God.” He breathes out. Jean looks less than pleased but nods, wincing.  

“I think I twisted my ankle,” He glares. “when I was pushed.” Levi hardly looks perturbed.  

“Rub some dirt on it. You’ll live.” He turns away, but then looks back, titling his head forward ever so slightly, clearly indicating for Eren to follow. And follow he does.  

“Are you sure?” The redhead asks, looking over her shoulder as well. But her look spells out confusion, rather than any ill will towards them. Levi shrugs. 

“It’s not a big deal. Besides, Scouts shouldn’t be down here.” 

Shit. So they did catch on. Eren isn’t surprised, Levi seems as observant as he is deadly. Somehow, that thought puts him at ease, lulling him into a sense of security he hardly feels is false. Levi moves with a certain sway, there’s a confidence about him that Eren wants to believe in. 

And he follows.  

“My name’s Isabel, by the way.” Isabel offers, and Eren nods. “That’s Levi and Furlan.”  

“Eren. And that’s Jean. It’s nice to meet you.” It is especially nice to meet Levi. Eren hopes this meeting won’t be their last. They stay on the outskirts of the town, and Levi seems to know where he’s going, of course he does, so Eren tries to disregard the decrepit surroundings towering above him. These building’s look ready to fall at a second’s notice, and the air is ripe with rot. His head hurts from inhaling so much of it in, and it almost feels like he’s staining apart of himself with it. 

God, how do these people live like this? 

He thought he heard the quiet taps of footsteps-trying to be discreet but clearly failing-tiptoeing behind him. But his head whipped around at a breakneck speed and there was nothing, nothing there, just more darkness swallowing up the underground land.  

But there was a strange, high-pitched whistling he couldn’t get out of his ears.  

“Stay quiet.” Levi mutters. “We don’t want to draw any unnecessary attention.” 

Eren’s breath was coming out in hot little puffs, he almost saw steam, or smoke, wisping through his lips.  

Their shadows grew and twisted, until heads formed over theirs.   

The darkness threatened to consume him, so he kept his eyes locked on Levi.  

He’d be remiss to notice that Levi stayed close to him.  

The shadows were so much darker down here.   

The cobblestones were cracked, some leading off into sand. And then others looked brown and rotting. Sometimes the blood was tainted with crimson and Eren did his best to ignore those.  

They then made a sharp turn, and his feet wrenched a spine-tingling scrape against the bone-dry earth.   

His blood felt hot, too hot. Overheated, like it was burning from the inside out.   

His flesh blistered with goosebumps. They turned down an alley that seemed tight and narrow, and the further down they walked, the closer to walls seemed to close in. Like they were moving, crawling towards them. 

Sometimes, when he blinks too quickly, they seem to be pulsating with life.  

“Careful.” Eren hadn't even realized he’d stopped, sagging against a wall until he felt strong, firm hands on his shoulders.  

There was blackness then. A sharp pain spread like wildfire up and down his nose, bleeding out into his cheeks, nestling in the hollows of his eyes as his head exploded with small crackling explosions.   

Eren’s heart jumped up into his mouth and he tasted blood.  

“-is he okay? He’s burning up.” 

He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe.  

He couldn’t feel himself. Within himself, inside himself. He felt like his spirit had temporarily peeled itself away from his body, looking for an escape that wouldn’t be found.   

His head jerked to the side, his cheek scraping painfully against the broken earth below- when had he fallen down- and he felt his stomach twist.  

He blinked through his tears.  

He couldn’t be seeing what he was seeing.  

A shadow crouched in the corner of the alleyway was wiping his blood-stained fingers across his cheeks....his eyes blurry and dark as night as he observed the scene before him....  

Before those fingers dipped back down to his meal. Towards the rotting carcass of a human.    

Eren retched, though he had nothing to throw up.   

“Shit.” Someone from above him muttered, their voice like the faint, disordered buzzing of flies peeling themselves off of a spider’s web. 

“That’s disgusting.” That was Jean’s voice, and he sounded choked, like he was about to puke.  

“Eren. Eren. Hey, Eren.” And that was Levi’s voice, lulling him out of his catatonia, pulling him towards the golden light at the tunnel. Or, the silver gleam of the full moon. Light, at any rate, and he was grateful for it. “Don’t look at that, look at me. Are you listening?” 

Eren licked his chapped, dry lips, his mouth feeling cottony and desolate-like the vast expanse of a desert, one from Armin’s books. It feels like a merciless stream of hot lava has been injected into his skin, plummeting into his heart.  

But Levi’s given him an order. And he’ll be damned if he doesn’t follow through.  

A distraction is what he needs and, pulling himself together, yanking on his hair like it’s attached to this fog he could somehow physically tug out of his brain, he looks up into Levi’s eyes, which are bleeding with concern. 

For him? 

“Fuck.” Levi suddenly hisses, his eyes darting around. And then he leans closer. “Look. I-” He breaks off, the left side of his nose twitching. “Eren.” 

That is his name, though it sounds like a blessing passing through Levi’s lips. A reverent prayer. Like he’s being worshipped, and if his throat wasn’t twisted and his voice cut off, he’d mouth Levi’s name and let him know that it’s mutual. Eren forgets why he even should be feeling sick, his stomach coiling. But not from any illness.  

He wants and yearns for something he’s not sure of. And his head drops forward, he feels like he’s about to start hyperventilating. God knows why.  

What does Levi have to tell him? 

Will it be something he wants to hear? 

“I'm fine.” He barely manages, his voice rough and ragged. He wants to soothe the sudden anxiety swamping the other’s scent. “I just...can’t catch my breath.”  

“You’re clearly not fine.” Levi huffs, his voice torn from jagged barbs. Eren looks up from blurry eyes, wincing as vertigo swarms him. Something in the other's expression shifts. 

He’s so affected by his mere presence, wanting to shy away while simultaneously lean in closer.   

Then Levi whispers, his voice darker than the shadows that lurk in this underground realm. “You’re going into heat.”  

Eren jerks back instantly, startled. The words hadn’t fully registered in his mind, instead they’d flown over his head like a warm summer breeze. He couldn’t contemplate them-even dare to recognize them as anything close to legitimate, because that was impossible. “I don’t think so.” He gave a shaky laugh. “No....not...now...” He trailed off, realizing that he really couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a heat. He couldn’t really remember anything of importance, in fact, his head was dark with night, the same as the air around them. 

Then he found, unwittingly or otherwise, the alpha had moved to hold his hand and was now rubbing soothing circles into the small of his wrist with his thumb. 

He tried not to shiver. It was embarrassing how much a simple touch seemed intent on ruining him. 

“I know what I’m smelling. You feel feverish, don’t you?” 

“I’m not in heat.” He repeated. But for who’s benefit? Unceremoniously, some invisible rug is pulled away from him.   

He feels the exact moment it happens, when he feels a very peculiar but very distinct wetness begin to slick down his thighs.   

But there’s no possible way.....  

Another ripple of pain runs through him. 

He looks up, feeling helpless, and watches as Levi’s porcelain silver eyes dim. “Fuck.” He curses again, running a hand roughly down his cheeks. “You can’t be out here like this.” 

“What’s wrong?” Isabel asks, sounding curious. How have they not smelled him yet? 

“Change of plans. He has a stomachache.” Levi excuses, but his voice is fluid, there doesn’t sound to be any chips for lies to make their place. “We’re going back to our place.” 

“What? Why?” Jean demands, sounding a bit fearful. “Eren, are you okay?” 

Is he?  

Eren weakly raises one hand up-to give a thumbs up, wave, or as a general dismiss, he couldn’t say. He feels his head spinning as he’s hefted up, one arm thrown over Levi’s shoulder as he helps him up, and then he's nestled securely inside of his arms. 

Being held like some blushing bride-and he doesn’t mind the imagery. Or maybe he’s disoriented. He strangely thinks he isn’t very, not when it comes to Levi.  

Currently, Eren's hold of the present is loose at best. Tremulous, inside of his clammy palms, but he hears voices resounding all around him, unintelligible white noise. He feels like he’s falling, floating...he’s not all there, really. He’s being eaten up by flames. Self-immolated through his gender’s selfish ways.  

It feels a bit like that time he was almost eaten by a Titan, and he just couldn’t get a hold on what exactly was happening to him, nor understand it fully. The Titan was killed in the end (not by him and he regrets it to this day) but at the time, it was the hunter and he its prey. His blades were broken and his ankle was twisted and he was holding Armin behind his back, far away from the grisly gaping maw inching towards him, and he smelt the putrid breath he’ll never be able to forget-because it haunts him now. 

And he just kept thinking that it was a nightmare he’d wake up in a cold sweat from. 

But this time-Levi's here to save him. To hold him, close, keep him near. 

Eren can’t help but gravitate towards him, nuzzle in closer.  

He feels so safe with him and he has no idea why. But he hardly wants to question it and ruin this reverie he needs. More than the light of day, perhaps. Maybe more than most things.  

Some of the delirious haze has dissipated by the time he hears a lock clicking open, but now there’s a certain urgency warring within him, clawing against his ribcage, or maybe that’s just his frantically beating heart. But he knows there’s a beast in him, he feels it, hot and heavy, and he knows that he must feed it. 

And he knows exactly what food it wants to gnash between it’s fangs. Acquiring it is an entirely different matter.  

They step inside of the house-Levi's house, he assumes, from what he said, because he does remember some things-he catches a moment to privately marvel at the cleanliness of the inside. While the sights he’s seen so far have been grimy and horrid, covered in a film of dirt and filth, there’s not so much as a speck of dust out of place inside of this house.   

Eren supposes it makes sense. If he was forced to live in a place like this, he’d want where he lived to at least resemble some form of order.   

He says forced because he doesn’t think anyone comes down here voluntarily.  

Except for him and Jean, apparently. He supposes that makes them idiots.   

“Where are you two going?” 

“To clean up the blood.” Levi snaps, but then, underbreath, he whispers words meant only for Eren. “You can sweat it out in my room.” 

In his bed? 

He massages his throbbing head as Levi carries him further down the hall, lights are flickering, but it’s useless, the ache is sharp and pronounced and just won’t go away, no matter how much he wills it to.   

And he groans when he feels the unmistakable feeling of cramps blossom up inside of him, beginning to ravage him from the inside out. Something low, buried deep inside of his gut, twists and churns and howls, like he hasn’t eaten a good meal in many months, perhaps even a year. It’s like claws from the inside are scraping against his stomach, trying to tear the skin straight off of him.   

“Don’t you track when this sort of shit happens?” He hears Levi’s voice through the fog, clearly. Actually, Levi is the one object in his reality that he can tangibly touch and latch onto, to prevent himself from being lost entirely.  “It’s dangerous to let it sneak up on you like this. You need to be more careful.” 

Eren tries to formulate his words, his tongue dry and aching, much like the rest of him. “N-No. I don’t know why…” He loses his train of thought just as swiftly as it comes to him, groaning as he feels his stomach twist in an unnatural direction.  

Actually, it probably comes out sounding more like a whimper. He feels Levi’s arm tighten around his waist.   

“How old are you?”  

A very reasonable question. One he should have an answer to. But, right now, the only thing he can grasp onto is how good Levi smells. Like cigarette smoke yet salty like the ocean, yet there’s something sweet and cloying there too that beckons Eren closer…  

Until he realizes his head has slumped over and his chin is tucked securely against the crook of Levi’s neck, his nose pressed up against his scent gland.   

“Fuck.” Levi curses, and Eren’s pulled away, instinctively he goes to growl at being disturbed but his vision tunnels until glossy grey eyes are the only thing he can see, the twin moons hung high in the sky that he currently can’t see.  

You’ve hung the moon and you shine along with the stars.  He sees the auroras lit up brightly, all in this one small room. But Levi's presence is all consuming, drawing him in like a moth to flame, horse to water- 

He practically feels himself salivating, as his knees go weak, and he’s led over to sit on the edge of a bed.   

Alpha. Mate. Alpha.     

He’s a savior in the flesh, a white knight in the darkness of the Underground, pardon the metaphor that makes him into a damsel in distress. Though he feels like he’s about to weep, so maybe it’s not too far off, this desire brewing inside of him is wringing the tears out to dry.  

He knows what he wants. With such a frightening certainty that it eats up any other thought he might have, he’s possessed by something that’s not entirely himself.  

…Or, something that is, but it’s true nature has only been revealed tonight.   

“Hey.” Fingers snap in front of his face, so close, Eren could dart a tongue out to lick. “How coherent are you?”  

“Very.” Eren purrs out-or, means to, but really it sounds like tired, incoherent mumblings. Through the haze, he can see Levi’s pronounced frown, a tad concerned.  

“We should get you to bed.”  

A very good idea. Oh-but, Levi obviously has a very different, very literal meaning in mind when he lays Eren down, softly and gently, and begins tucking the sheets in around him.   

Eren throws the sheets away, so harshly and abruptly he hears the sound of fabric tearing. “Don’t! It’s hot.” He groans, throwing his head back against the pillow, feeling his nerves lighting up individually.   

“Right. Sorry.” Levi’s voice sounds a bit awkward and Eren wonders just how exactly he’s meant to go about this. His inner omega commands him to roll over and present like the proper bitch he so desperately wants to be, but he feels that might be a bit forward.  

He’s never had to proposition anyone for sex before, so he’s sort of at a loss.  

Eren blinks, suddenly finding himself alone, and a frisson of panic suddenly slices through him so quickly it leaves him breathless. He can barely jerk his head up, he feels the muscles in his neck strain like they’re about to snap as his eyes dart around the empty room.   

He has to bite down his whine of relief when the door opens back up. He spots the damp rag Levi’s holding in his hand, and tries to swallow down drool as the other kneels down in front of him.  

The coolness of the water against his feverish skin is like a drug, his eyes flutter shut in finding the temporary relief as he feels the dried blood wash away from his skin. Cleansing him. Purifying him, but it’s not enough. He still burns inside, he’s aching and hurting for something he knows only Levi can provide.   

This desire inside of him is not something he can curb on his own.   

The touch against his cheek is so tender, so gentle, and he relishes it, until he knows it won’t be enough to sate him fully and he needs more.    

Levi’s mumbling something incoherent under his breath, it sounds worrying, and Eren inwardly preens over the concern washed over him like cool water. And when the pressure on his face slowly but surely begins to recede, Eren can’t stop himself from reaching forward to grasp Levi’s wrist, pulling his hand back to rest upon his hammering pulse point.  

He needs to know. He needs to know how badly Eren wants this. How he’d do anything for this. For him.  

Eren Jaeger has always been known to get his own way. This is a fight, different, yet in its own right, he will fight to win it, just as he always does.  

Until he’s given permission to submit and loose himself entirely.  

He needs to slake his thirst.   

"Stay." The promise is too strong, tremendously weighted. Yet Levi seems willing to take it upon himself as he kneels down and allows Eren to take his hand.   

“What are you saying?”  

“That I want you.” Eren abandons all thought of propriety, self-consciousness be damned as he licks his lips. “Badly.”  

He watches the way Levi’s swallows thickly, how his adam’s apple bobs pointedly.   

Time passes in a fraction of a second and yet he witnesses eternity, getting lost deep inside those dark silver eyes.  

“Before you get lost inside of it, answer me this. Do you want this?” Levi rasps, his eyes hooded and dark. “Do you want me to take care of it?”  

Of you? The question remains unspoken but burns brightly inside of his argent, moonlit eyes.   

In that moment, Eren didn’t think he had ever wanted something more.   

“Yes.” He whispers weakly, arching his back. “Please, alpha.”  

He can tell the moment something snaps inside of Levi, restraint withdrawn, as he all but consumes Eren, drawing him into a kiss that leaves him breathless and seeing stars. Levi’s mouth is rough and insistent against his but his tongue is gentle as it lavishes his, licking all the spare traces of him away to keep as his own.   

Eren can’t hold back his whine, and he feel Levi smile against his mouth.   

“What a good boy you are.” He husks, which draws out another high-pitched whimper from him, he throws his head back against the pillow when Levi’s hand begins trailing lower and lower. Closer to where Eren needs him most. “Did you come all the way down here for this? For me?”  

Somehow, subconsciously, Eren’s now convinced that he did. He nods with a ferocity that should surprise him, but doesn’t, though it does make him dizzy.  

But Levi’s there to catch him, wrapping his arms around him securely, as he bestows more tingling kisses all down his neck.   

“Yeah.” Eren nods feverishly, mumbling as he buries his face inside of Levi’s neck. “Yeah.” 

He busies his own hands with ripping off his shirt, hearing the fabric tear and not even caring. His skin is sweat-soaked and desperate, his chest rises and falls just as quickly as if he’d just run a mile without stopping to take a breath, and the only air he can seem to breathe in is what he pulls from Levi’s own lungs as he kisses him ardently.   

“Please.” Eren hears himself beg through his moan, sweaty, trembling hands going to rip Levi’s own shirt away. He needs to feel his skin on his own. Only his instincts are driving him now. “Please. Need you.”  

Teeth are skimming his trembling stomach teasingly, the button of his pants are being toyed with, he feels it, when suddenly Levi cusses. “Fuck. How the fuck do you work these straps?”  

“H-Huh?” Eren asks through the fog, the heat consuming him, as he sluggishly jerks his head up, looking down towards his legs where Levi’s knelt, frowning at the ODM straps that seem to be painted to his thighs.   

Fuck. Couldn’t he have had any warning before his heat hit?   

“There’s....a buckle-somewhere...” Eren says dazedly, too wrapped up inside of himself and Levi to care too much about the mechanics of it all. He feels a yearning that’s urging him towards recklessness, the precipice of a cliff leaning towards death, and he aches deep down as he feels wetness slide from himself and soil the fabric still tightly stuck around him.   

Levi growls. “Fuck it, I need to be inside of you.” Eren’s heart seizes as a smile threatens to take over his face. “I can do you with your pants on. That’s alright, isn’t it?”  

“I just need you inside of me.” Eren murmurs, and that’s all the prompt Levi needs to pull his pants and underwear down as far as they’ll go, exposing Eren’s feverish skin to the cool air swirling around them. Goosebumps rise quickly but are soothed down by Levi’s incessant, calming touch, a cool balm against the wildness that resides inside of him.   

And then-  

“Fuck!” Eren shouts before he can quell the words, clamping a hand over his mouth as he feels the wet heat of Levi’s mouth envelop his throbbing cock.   

His eyes cross and he stares up at nothingness, perhaps past the ceiling, at the glimmering gemstones he caught a passing glimpse of that line the dark cave ceiling.  

There is a light inside of the place, and Eren’s legs are currently wrapped around his head as he mumbles incoherent whines and groans of encouragement.   

“Levi...” The man’s name slips through his lips before dissolving into a bitten off moan, his hands reach forward, burying themselves in Levi’s so soft hair. The man hums around him, sending frissons of arousal and need shooting through his body. It’s like the mere feeling is slicing his being to ribbons but Eren’s so doped up on euphoria he hardly cares. He can’t take this anymore. It’s so hot and heavy and he just needs more.    

“Touch me.”  

“I am touching you.” Levi pulls away, seeming amused, over the overpowering arousal pooling in his eyes. He licks away a string of drool falling from his lips. “You’ll have to be a little more specific.  

Eren licks his own, imagining they’re Levi’s. “I want you inside of me.” Levi’s eyes darken, his hand wrapping around Eren’s weeping cock softly. Eren thrusts up into his hand, once, before Levi’s strong hand is pinning his hips down.   

“You sure?” Levi posies the question, looking absolutely wrecked, and Eren’s so far gone he can barely manage his tiny nod. He feels flames licking at him, from everywhere. His stomach is too tight yet still horribly empty.   

“Please?”  

Eren’s pushed back, roughly, his hair scraping the sheets behind him as he exposes his neck, feeling Levi’s breath ghost over his hammering pulse point, which feels hot and needy under his thin skin. Then the room spins as Eren’s flipped over onto his hands and knees. Instinctively, he arches his back and thrusts his hips towards Levi, all but glowing when the other growls approvingly, his voice a thick rumble tumbling through his throat. Levi’s arousal is so palpable, his scent is burning up and wrapping Eren in a blanket that he feels safe in, secure in. One that he wants to disappear in entirely.   

“What’s this?” Eren’s breath catches as he feels Levi’s hips behind him, his own throbbing arousal pulled free and dangerously close to where Eren needs him most. He pants, tongue lolling, as he looks over his shoulder and feels Levi’s fingers trail over the chain hanging off of his neck.   

“A..a key.” He manages, feeling his heart seize with waves of delirium. His pining is so visceral it hurts him to breath, and Levi hums as suddenly he pulls it off of his head.   

“I don’t want anything on your neck that isn’t my lips.” He explains, voice low, and sweat drips into Eren’s eyes as he shoves his face into the soft pillow before him.  

“Please?” He begs again, feeling so exposed, yet in the best possible way. His pants are still tight vices around his legs and he can’t hide the moan that falls from his lips as he feels Levi nudging closer.   

“Don’t even need to stretch you, you’re already so loose and wet.” The other mumbles, his fingers zig-zagging over the small of Eren’s back. “All for me.”  

Eren nods, teeth biting down into the sodden fabric. He pulls away, perhaps attempting to say something more, to beg once again, but all coherent thought dies inside of him as he feels Levi fuck into him with one fluid motion. There's some resistance at first, but the pull is natural and gravitational in the end. Levi keeps going, rocking, thrusting into him slowly, gently, until it becomes easy and h glides into him fully and Eren thinks he might cry. He moans and might let a sob loose as he feels Levi begin to gently rock into him.  

He hiccups, his throat burning almost as much as the rest of him.   

His grip on the bedsheets turns white-knuckled as he fists them helplessly, rocking back to meet Levi’s thrusts with as much moxie as he has left inside of him. He feels like he’s tumbling down some great big ravine with how the world's spinning around him. Infinitesimal yet fathomless and sinking in all around him. His stomach is clenching around the intrusion and he swears Levi must have breached his womb or something inside of him, he’s so big.    

“Fuck. You’re so good.” Levi hisses, planting a sloppy kiss on one of his shoulder blades.   

“Faster. Faster.” Eren babbles. “I want to feel you. I need to feel you long after. Please.”    

Levi’s fangs skim his nape, inspiring goosebumps, and he feels his fingernails press into the marks surely already splattered all over his hips. His thighs tremble, his elbows ache, crying out before he falls onto his face, and then he’s lifted up and greedily gulping down air as Levi’s fingers tangle in his hair and pull him back up.   

He’s cursing every filthy name in the book, feeling so debauched and filthy but not without a certain glow that’s eating him up, making him feel like a supernova down in this deep, dark cavern. He feels missing pieces of himself he wasn’t even aware he’d lost clicking together, he feels their hearts beating in tandem, he feels the light shines brighter between the two of them, even though the room is as dark as sin.  

Yes. Yes. This is what I’ve been missing. Alpha. Levi. Mate-    

Eren doesn’t even realize he’s moaning-almost sobbing-until his teeth slice through his bottom lip entirely, sending a small twinge of pain shooting through his face before it’s immediately erased and overpowered by the great trembling tremor that wracks his entire being. He closes his eyes and still sees the stars, their heavenly light, as he reaches the climax and the twinkling pinpricks all in the sky are raining down upon him in this moment.   

And he feels complete.   

Then he feels Levi release deep, deep inside of him. Staining him. Marking him as his. It’s a promise. One Eren will cling to for as long as he has strength in his limbs, breath in his lungs. Just as desperately as he clings onto Levi as he falls down into bed beside him.  

They slot together like puzzle pieces, revealing a picture that’s painted in constellations. Soft, secure, and sated, Eren lulls to sleep and is soothed by the short spurts of breath ghosting over his kiss-bitten neck.   

“My good boy.” Levi whispers into his hair, drawing a lazy smile from Eren that he feels, even in his dreams. “All mine.”  

While there had been thrashing claws of fear tearing him apart earlier now, even in the darkness, he feels himself slowly being pieced back together. Peace covers him like the night. 

The dark isn't so dark when he can see Levi's eyes shining through the night.  

“We’ll go in the morning.” Levi’s chest heaves from under him with the effort it takes to speak these simple words, and Eren loves the effect he has on him. Wonders if he could convince him to bite him. 

“Okay.” Eren snuggles closer, the sweat collected atop Levi’s bare chest is so cooling. He feels pliant and boneless and sated, though that’s not to say he doesn’t want more. He thinks he always will, when it comes to Levi. His breath is cool as it passes across his lips, and the chill echoing around the quiet nighttime-dark room only gives him permission to hold onto Levi tighter.  

“I don’t want to have to share you for the rest of the night.” 

In the morning they set off, going down a tunnel only Levi and his friends knew of, a way that led to a more secret entrance upstairs. Levi promised he’d stay with him and Eren knew he would. Now, and forever. Now the darkness and grime of the Underground seem as counterfeit as a bad dream. One that sinks into your bones and terrorizes you by night, but by the sunlight’s dawn, fades into the mist, forgotten entirely.   

The creaks and groans no longer make him flinch, nor wish to jump out of his skin, as he clings tightly onto Levi’s hand and Levi squeezes back. And then their eyes meet and there’s a smile there meant for them alone. 

His fingers immediately find the scabbed over bite mark on his neck, and his eyes rest on the identical one Levi wears. It feels right, marked so deeply in his skin. It feels like a badge of honor. A soft, tranquil smile overtakes his face. 

All in all, now Eren isn’t too sore about falling down the rabbit hole.  

He’s his eternal light at the end of the tunnel. And he leads him away from the horrors, the horrors that can never reach him, never touch him, ever again. 

Suddenly Eren frowned, remembering they’d left the key on Levi’s bedside table. But he probably wouldn’t need it.  

Right?  

Well, it was too late now to go back.  

Eren was told never to look back. Never, ever. Lest he want to find a horror he wasn’t prepared to be faced with, one so shocking and frighteningly horrific it will force him to his knees where he will crumble to ash.  

He won’t look back.  

He can’t.  

Sweat drips down his back in a rhythmic tick, the clock is ticking, time is running out, the air is growing thinner and thinner.   

But Eren doesn’t have to look back, because Levi’s ahead of him, leading him out of hell. He looks towards Levi. His mate.   

He doesn’t look back.