#eruriren network

[lady-bertrams-pug]

Molar Opposites

Rating: Teen and up

Pairing: Eren Jaeger / Levi Ackerman / Erwin Smith

Tags: modern au, dentists, anesthethics, humor

Summary: Eren hates dentists. But with this buger of a molar torturing him, he has no choice but to turn to Dr Smith for help. He's about to have his hatred cured in very unconventional and effective ways.

Notes: my entry for erurirentober at @erurirenevents, day 1: “teeth”

Please read on AO3

If you like my writing, please consider buying me a coffee!

[alliechick]

Happy New Year!!! 🎇 List 10 good things that happened in 2k16, then tag 10 people to do the same. I was tagged by @glassesgirl0401! 1. Got engaged to @godtier1 <3 2. Moved in with @godtier1 and moved out of my parents place 3. My little bro came home from Mexico after living there for 2 years 4. Didn't write as much as previous years, but did write the three fics I'm currently most proud of. And generally improved upon my writing process 5. Joined the @eruriren-network and met some nice people like @glassesgirl0401 and @sihaiya and @kiokushitaka. Even if I'm a shy bean and don't often get involved in the chat much, I'm definitely glad I joined 6. Unofficially adopted @rohankishibae, my beautiful boy <3 7. Got into Voltron and Yuri on Ice, which are fun and sweet when things in AOT get rough 8. Went to several fun cons and bought lots of cool merch 9. Took @godtier1 on her first plane ride and showed her the place I grew up 10. Did some arts I'm quite proud of and finally got a new drawing tablet So it wasn't a complete dumpster fire. I tag @godtier1, @rohankishibae, @sihaiya, @doveformen, and whoever else wants to

[seraphichan]

Happy New Year! List 10 good things that happened in 2016, then tag 10 people to do the same.

Tagged by the brilliant @fairylights101 Thank you, darling :3

+++++

1. Moved home offices for my job, so I have a better chance of making a full time position before I’m dead lol

2. Got to see my aunt/uncle from California 3 times! (Considering I see them once or none normally, this is a very big deal)

3. Was asked, and accepted, to be a bridesmaid for one of my best friends’ wedding in May (I’m anxious about all the stuff I need to do for it, but happy all the same)

4. Participated in my first writing week (@erurirenweek)

5. Met some super awesome people because of said writing week (all you lovelies from @eruriren-network chu~<3)

6. Apparently wrote a lot (thanks, Frau, for making me do the year in review writing thing so that I actually saw that I’m not as laughably mediocre as I originally thought)

7. My turtle grew another inch (diameter-wise in the shell, I’m so proud of my little water potato)

8. Beat my grandmother in scrabble by over 100 points (she is family scrabble queen, and I’ve been on cloud 9 ever since)

9. Went to Otakon in August

10. Did my very first cosplay at Otakon (I was Spiller from The Secret World of Arrietty)

+++++

I’ll tag @hisakom (thank you for following me and this mess of a blog, you’re wonderful) and...well, everyone else I can think of has done this/has been tagged already, so I’ll leave it at that. Cheers to the new year!

[sassy-pastel-eren]

*Shows up late with cold starbucks*

Eruriren week day 1. Red

Eren is a Turkish street performer who is friends with Marco, who runs an urban coffee and tea shop, who happily lets Eren perform outside the shop(hey eye candy brings in customers, what can the boy say?)

Enter Erwin and Levi who visit the shop before Eren starts performing, only to be enamored with the dancer, and ask him out when he’s taking a break. 

[lady-bertrams-pug]

Soldiers Day

Rating: Teen and up

Pairing: Eren Jaeger / Levi Ackerman / Erwin Smith, Eren Jaeger / Levi Ackerman

Tags: Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Grief/Mourning, Past Character Death

Warnings: major character death

Summary: They have never spoken about what drives them to commemorate Soldiers Day with their late lover’s customary birthday treat every year.

Notes: my entry for erurirentober at @erurirenevents, day 3: “apples”

Please read on AO3

If you like my writing, please consider buying me a coffee!

[lady-bertrams-pug]

Ram’s Horns and Cherry Blossoms

Chapter 1: Spring

Rating: Teen and up

Pairing: Erwin x Levi x Eren, Levi x Eren, Erwin x Eren, Erwin x Levi

Tags:  Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Fairy Tale Elements, Curses, Fairy Tale Curses, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change

Summary: During his journeyman years, joiner Eren meets two cursed creatures. Touched by their fate and growing increasingly fond of them, he decides to break the curses that bind them.

For @erurirenevents, eruriren weekend 2018

Please read on AO3!

[lady-bertrams-pug]

For the writing prompt? Erwin/Eren/Levi and #139: “This place gives me the creeps.”

Bless you for sending this prompt, writing it made me so happy :DShoutout to writing mastermind @perksofbeingawaifu for introducing me to the beauty that is surgeon!Eren and drafting with me a canon au where Grisha actually applies some basic parenting skills XD

Rating: Teen and up

Pairing: Erwin x Eren x Levi

Characters: Levi Ackerman, Hanji Zoe, Eren Jaeger, Erwin Smith

Tags: Canon divergence, surgeon!Eren, one armed Erwin, injuries, amputation, hospitals, mentions of unspeakable and outdated medical procedures, awkward flirting, pining, fluff, lots of smooches

***********

The man leaning against the wall next to the hospital’s back entrance held his face into the sun with his eyes closed, so Levi could study him at his leisure.

His face was handsome enough, with strong features and a soft, sensuous mouth. Long chestnut hair was tied into a neat ponytail and shone in the sun.

He would have looked as appetizing as a cup of hot tea sided by fresh shortbread… if it wasn’t for the blood soaked apron and surgeon’s scrubs. His hands, however, were immaculately scrubbed clean, as Levi noticed when the man flicked the ashes off the cigarette in his long, slender fingers.

Raising said cigarette to his lips, the man opened his eyes and looked straight at Levi. Feeling caught, Levi averted his gaze and kept walking, suddenly noticing to his chagrin that he had actually fallen behind Hanji while ogling the stranger. He risked another look back at the blood stained apron and shuddered.

He looks like a butcher.

Hanji and Levi entered the hospital through the main entrance and were immediately led to Erwin’s room. Learning that their commander was still alive was already a relief. While they followed a nurse down a long corridor, his mind’s eye presented the horrible moments again when the abnormal titan had snatched Erwin’s outstretched arm with his jaws and ripped the limb off. They had quickly applied a tourniquet and hoped for the best, but his deathly pale face on the long trek back would haunt Levi for a long time.

Erwin lay in bed, propped up with pillows, and a clean bandage covered his arm stump and chest. Otherwise, his upper body was bare. He was asleep, but it looked peaceful, unlike the pain-riddled unconsciousness of shock and blood loss. Hanji briefly held his hand and touched his forehead, a tear in her eyes that she furtively wiped away. Not wanting to disturb his rest, they pulled up two chairs and talked quietly.

Just as Erwin started to stir, someone knocked on the door and entered. To his surprise, Levi recognised the smoker from the back entrance. Now, he was clad in clean scrubs and carried a couple of patient files. He introduced himself as Dr Jaeger with a firm handshake and, since all chairs were occupied, sat down on the edge of the bed.

The dipping of the mattress prompted Erwin to open his eyes, and he blinked a little and looked around to orientate himself. Dr Jaeger shot him a brilliant smile.

“Commander! I was hoping you would wake up around this time. It’s always hard to tell how long anaesthetics last. I’m Dr Eren Jaeger, your surgeon.”

He then proceeded to explain the surgery he had performed, how he had used the remaining skin to cover the wound, and a lot of nauseating details that Levi didn’t really care to hear. Although, he had to admit, Dr Jaeger’s voice was nice to listen to. All the while, he patted Erwin’s remaining (unclothed, Levi couldn’t help observing) arm reassuringly, and Erwin looked a little starstruck.

“You were really lucky that someone had enough presence of mind the cleanse the wound thoroughly of any titan saliva. You have no idea how often we have to fight gangrene because of contaminated wounds. Which means amputation.” He chuckled. “They call me ‘Dr Sawdust’ around here.”

“That was Levi,” Erwin replied.

Levi found himself on the receiving end of that dazzling smile and damn, it should come with a health hazard warning. “That was very well done, Captain - you probably saved the Commander’s life.”

Hanji nudged him with an elbow. “Who thought that your preference for cleanliness would pay off like this.”

Levi tried very hard not to find the doctor illegally cute and instead reminded himself of the blood stained, sinister figure from earlier.

Finally, Dr Jaeger examined Erwin (absent-mindedly not letting go of his wrist long after he was done checking his pulse) and shooed them out, claiming that his patient needed rest.

On their way out, they heard shrill screams of agony from somewhere in the back of the building, abruptly cut off by a slamming door. Levi’s skin broke out in gooseflesh.

“This place gives me the creeps. Hanji, if I ever get injured, please make sure that these slaughterers don’t get a hold on me. Rather put me out of my misery quickly.”

“Oh, I don’t know. This Dr Jaeger seemed awfully nice and competent. Erwin looked so well - and he is positively smitten with the doctor, it seems.”

He grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. “Hanji, I’m serious. Don’t ever, ever put me in this hospital.”

He turned around, missed the first step of the stairs, tumbled all the way down and landed with his head hitting a metal dustbin.

When Levi came to, he was aching in a dozen places, the worst of all being his head. It pounded like it was split open, and to top it off someone kept prodding and touching it. He groaned and tried to slap the bothersome hands away, but the person warded him off.

“Please keep still, Captain Levi, I’ll be done in a minute.”

The voice sounded familiar, smooth and deep. Soothing. For a moment, Levi swam in confusion, not being able to recall where he had heard it before.

His eyes flew open.

Dr Jaeger smiled his by now familiar smile. “That was quite a tumble you took, but luckily nothing’s broken. Well, you’ll be terribly bruised, but I venture a guess that you’ve seen worse in your life. The worst is this cut on your forehead, but I’m doing my very best to stitch you up all nice and neat. Wouldn’t do to have this handsome face blemished with a big ugly scar,” he added, more to himself.

He noticed Levi’s startled expression and bit his lip, blushing.

Adorable.

Levi blinked. Where did this suddenly come from? He must have smashed up his head worse than feared.

Dr Jaeger snipped the final thread and wiped away the last remnants of blood. “There you are. As good as new.”

“Okay. Can I go now?” Levi sat up and swung his legs off the stretcher, only to tip over sideways again, dizzy and nauseous.

“Woah. You’re going nowhere, Captain. You have a concussion, and no way am I sending you home like this.” Dr Jaeger insisted he lay down again and asked a bunch of inane questions - for example who was currently king, what year it was and how old he was - before gently tilting Levi’s head up and examining his pupil reflexes. Levi was acutely aware of the careful, gentle fingers on his face, the thumb almost brushing his lips.

“Hm. Slightly dilated.” He could have sworn to hear amusement.

“Do you flirt with all your patients like this?” Levi blurted out.

“Forgive me for being a little… exhilarated at having the Commander and you, the heroes of my adolescent years and the very reason I became a military surgeon for the Survey Corps, right here, under my care.”

“What? You’re a surgeon because of us?”

“Oh, the surgeon part was my father’s doing,” the doctor replied. “He was the famous Dr Grisha Jaeger, the saviour of Shiganshina - you may have heard of him. My childhood dream was to become a scout myself, while my father wanted me to follow his footsteps. But since he knew about reverse psychology, he encouraged my plans, stating how it was much more fitting for me because I wasn’t cut out to become a physician. Of course that only made me want to prove him wrong.” He shook his head with a little laugh. “Failed the exam at my first attempt so spectacularly that everybody told me to give it up, only to ace it the second time. Theory was not my strong side to be honest, but I have a way of instinctual learning, so understanding how a body works and how to act when something goes wrong was relatively easy once I got the hang of it. Plus I straight out refused to fail again. But instead of becoming a practitioner, I applied for the military’s medical service.”

While listening, Levi found himself relaxing on the hard stretcher and almost dozing off, but much to his disappointment Dr Jaeger got up, apologized for babbling about his life story when Levi needed to rest.

“It’s a bit unorthodox considering your ranks, but would you mind if you share a room with the Commander? I fear we are overstaffed, and I think you would rather room with him than one of the lower ranks. Commander Smith has already said he wouldn’t mind.”

Levi nodded his agreement, and he was only half aware of the stretcher being rolled down a corridor, then some people helping him change into pyjamas and crawl into a clean bed that smelled of sun-dried sheets and disinfectant.

He was asleep before his head was fully nestled into the pillow.

For a surgeon working in a fully occupied hospital, Dr Jaeger (“Please, call me Eren”) spent an awful lot of time with his favorite patients. Checked and re-checked Erwin’s bandages, ran his fingers up and down the stump in search for any signs of inflammation. Helped him cut and eat his food. Gently cleaned Levi’s wound and sweet talked him into taking his painkillers, calling him a ‘good boy’ when he complied, causing Levi to almost choke on his sip of water. One morning Erwin thoughtfully scratched at his growing beard stubble and asked the nurse for a shaving razor. His attempts at shaving with his left hand let Levi’s blood freeze, but he insisted he had to learn how to cope on his own. Until Dr Jaeger entered and without ado took the razor out of his unresisting hand. Erwin obediently tilted his head this way and that, eyes closed with something close to bliss as Eren expertly took the offending stubble off with slow, precise movements.

Levi thought that shaving wasn’t supposed to look this erotic.

He watched Erwin’s gaze soften, his fingers linger on Eren’s when they shook hands. Felt his pulse speed up when these firm, warm hands cradled his own face to inspect him, and more than once his eyes flitted down to Eren’s lips when they were this close, so soft and inviting.

Enticing.

For someone who only suffered a superficial head wound and a concussion, Levi stayed a surprisingly long time in hospital, and uncomplainingly so. Even when his headaches had subsided Eren advised him to stay one more day “just to be on the safe side”.

“Your pupils still seem dilated, and that concerns me.”

Levi rolled his eyes and grabbed Eren’s head. “Have you ever considered, Doctor, that the cause of that may be you?” He ran the tip of a finger over Eren’s plush bottom lip. “How can someone be around you and not be affected?” He inched a little closer.

Eren tried to pull back. “Captain -”

“Levi.”

“Captain… Levi, you are still my patient.”

“And who would be in the position to change that?”

Eren said nothing, but this time he didn’t resist the pull of Levi’s hands either.

“Wouldn’t you say I’m sufficiently recovered to be discharged, Doctor?”

They were breathing the same air now, and out of the corner of his eye Levi could just make out Erwin watching them in amusement.

Silently, he pleaded Eren to say the magic words, because he wasn’t sure he could exist another second without kissing him.

Eren’s eyes were half lidded and his lips just barely brushed over Levi’s as he spoke. “Yes. You are discharged, Cap-”

The final syllable was muffled by Levi’s mouth pressing against his, just a gentle dab. He wanted to savour the moment, learn the warmth and texture of Eren’s lips. Eren tasted vaguely of cigarettes, but to his surprise he found he didn’t mind. Even though they kept it chaste for now, soft and almost shy kisses, it was intoxicating. Levi felt a heady rush from kissing this man he’d only met a couple of days ago. Eren was so… multi-faceted, a cold blooded surgeon who could sever limbs without as much as batting an eyelid, an adorable albeit awkward flirter, and now he was kissing Levi with all the reverence as if he’d been dreaming of this for years. One of his hands was in Levi’s hair, not minding its state of being unwashed for several days due to the injury, the other caressing his jaw and neck.

Finally they broke off, reluctantly, but they were both acutely aware of the third person in the room. Erwin didn’t show any signs of embarrassment or annoyance, but there was a little dejection in the way his shoulders slumped. Eren glanced his way and back to Levi, and he gave an almost imperceptible nod. They smiled at each other, hands squeezing shortly, and then Eren got up and ambled over to Erwin’s bed.

His voice was warmer, softer than ever. “I am awfully sorry that you are still my patient, Commander, and will remain in this hospital for quite some time.” He tapped Erwin’s chin gently to make him look up. “But once you’re healed… and if you’re not opposed… I would very much like to kiss you too.”

Erwin reached up and closed his fingers around Eren’s hand. He guided it to his lips and kissed the inside of Eren’s wrist. “Since it’s going to be a long time, would you mind humoring an old veteran and giving me just a little taste?”

Levi groaned inwardly, but Eren seemed to find the approach charming enough. He leaned forward to give Erwin a teasing peck before kissing him fully. Levi watched in fascination how they melted against each other and got lost in the sensation.

Not for very long, however, before Eren pulled away and smoothed down his shirt. He tried to regain his professional composure, but the blush on his face he couldn’t hide.

“Be a good patient, Erwin, and I’ll be able to send you home soon.” He smiled brightly and turned to Levi. “Dr Arlert will take your stitches out if you come back here in a couple of days. But I hope to see you again much, much sooner.”

He couldn’t refrain from briefly touching both of them, then rushed out, giddy as a schoolboy.

Erwin said: “And you thought him a butcher who takes apart bodies in the basement.”

Levi shrugged. “Well, first impressions can be wrong. And he did pierce my heart, after all. If you ask me, his cuteness is more dangerous to the public than any bone saw could ever be.”

[lady-bertrams-pug]

I don't know why I'm doing this but- 46 and ErwinXEren? Or LeviXEren, either is fine (or even both idk)

Heeyyyy thank you! As you left the choice up to me, I went with the OT3. Some alcohol-induced shenanigans ahead.

46: 

What is this? 20 questions?

**********

“You’re late.” Without looking up, Erwin continued chopping up fennel as if he held a personal grudge against the crisp green heads.

“Only ten minutes.” Eren snatched a cherry tomato and popped it into his mouth. “And it wasn’t my fault. Someone dragged me out to the bar when it was long past the bedtime for a solid and responsible young lad like me.”

Erwin had to admit that he had a point. It had been his own idea to go out for a drink, and somewhere between the third gin-tonic and 11 pm the thing had gotten out of control. It had taken him all his determination to crawl out of bed.

Out of the corner of his eye he watched Eren don an apron, gloves and a hairnet. He looked remarkably fresh for someone who had been dropkicked out of a bar for dancing La Bamba on a table.

“Why isn’t the radio on?” Eren flicked on the ancient radio set, and Erwin winced at the volume of some post-grunge track mercilessly drilling into his eardrums. The younger man whistled as he began cleaning and slicing a crate of bell peppers.

Erwin relaxed a tad. Apparently Eren had forgotten about his alcohol-induced bout of oversharing. Levi would skin him alive if he -

“So, is it an animal?”

“What?” Erwin’s hands stilled, and he felt as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head.

Eren’s smile told him that he remembered every last syllable of last night’s conversation.

“Levi’s tattoo. Is it an animal?”

“Eren, can we just forget about this?”

“Like hell am I going to forget about this. You spilled that Levi has an unfortunate tattoo and expect me not to ask what it is? Come on.”

Groaning, Erwin crossed over to the coffee machine and filled the largest mug he could find. Maybe a dose of piping hot caffeine could soften his blazing headache a bit. Usually, he loved their food truck, surrounded by mouthwatering aromas and selling fresh pasta to their customers. Today, it would be taxing. Very taxing. He thought of the clams that waited for their preparation and gagged.

“Is there enough of the lemon pesto for today?” He tried to swerve, knowing it was fruitless.

“Yup. All the pre-cooked sauces are stocked up. We only need to get the veggies, seafood and meats ready. Is it a fluffy kitten? Please tell me it’s a fluffy kitten.”

“No, it’s not a cat. Eren -”

“Any other animal?”

“No animal.”

“A flower?”

“Uh…”

“Hah. Just one flower?”

“Eren. Please. Levi will kill me.”

“He will kill you anyway, so you might just as well tell me everything. So, one flower?”

Erwin closed the lid on the box of fennel and turned to the asparagus in hope of avoiding the clams for a while longer. “No, it’s not one flower.”

Eren beamed. “So, several, huh? Hm. What’s a classic choice of tattooed flowers… lilies… no, wait, roses. Is it roses?”

“What is this? 20 questions?”

Both men whirled around to the door. Levi’s arms were crossed, and his raised eyebrow said he was not amused.

“I thought you guys were long finished with preparations. Can’t I stay at my cousin’s for one fucking night without you messing up everything?”

He ignored his boyfriends’ chirped greetings of ‘Hi, honey’ and ‘Good morning, darling’ in favor of checking the fridge contents.

“And what’s this talk of tattoos and flowers?”

Guilty silence.

Levi turned around and regarded them both closely, instinctively homing in on Erwin, who scratched his head and shuffled his feet like an overgrown schoolboy.

“Oh no, you didn’t.”

“Levi, I -”

“He didn’t tell me on purpose, Levi, he just let it slip when he was drunk…”

“Eren, you’re not helping.”

“What? Levi, we only talked about bad life choices and stupid stuff we’ve done, and I said that you’re the only person I know who I think never did anything dumb, and then he said you had this regrettable tattoo. I swear, that’s all.”

Levi huffed with a hint of amusement. “Your opinion of me is far too flattering, Eren. I may appear to have my shit together now, but I certainly did my fair share of dumb stuff. Including getting a dumb tattoo.”

He sighed. “Well, I guess sooner or later you’ll get to see it anyway.” Levi and Erwin had already been an item for many years, while Eren had only recently changed his status as business partner and friend to boyfriend.

Eren blushed slightly. “I, um, hope so. But what I don’t understand, why should a roses tattoo be embarrassing? Many people have flowers. As long as they aren’t terribly ugly -”

“Oh, the roses are perfectly fine. It’s more the banner that says ‘daddy’.”

“Excuse me?”

“And the dick.”

“I thought you just said dick.”

“I did.”

“Oh.”

Eren picked up a celery stem and nibbled on it thoughtfully. Erwin and Levi exchanged a glance and waited for him to mull it over.

“So you have a tattoo. Of a dick. With roses. And the inscription is ‘daddy’.”

Levi inclined his head. “Accurate.”

“Hm.” More celery crunching.

“Why did you get that?”

Levi glanced at his watch. “That’s a story I’d rather share with enough time and after two or three beers.”

“Fair enough. Have you ever thought of changing it?”

Erwin looked up from the asparagus he’d been tending to while listening to their conversation. “And what should he cover it up with, a unicorn?”

“Don’t be silly.” Eren picked up two more stems. “I thought more about adding another dick. And have them crossed like swords.” He demonstrated with the celery and waggled his eyebrows.

Levi laughed and took a container of prawns from the fridge. “Maybe if you get me drunk enough, kid. And Erwin, for the love of God get some fresh air, you look like death.”

**********

Note: Levi’s tattoo is inspired by this magnificent art by @kiokushitaka

**********

Drabble challenge 1-100 by @prompt-bank

[lady-bertrams-pug]

⭐ Do I even have to explain why? damn the eruriren network is still alive only thanks to you and you always gift us with your beautiful writing so ofc you're one of my favourite people like in the whole world.

asdgdasd and 🌟🌟🌟 right back at you! You were the one to revamp the network in the first place, introduced me to amazing people and habe never been anything but a good friend! I miss our talks so much since your life got so overwhelmingly busy, I love your sarcastic wit and intelligence!

[lady-bertrams-pug]

Happy New Year!!! 🎇 List 10 good things that happened in 2k16, then tag 10 people to do the same.

I got tagged by @mongoose-bite and @leviinmodernland, thank you so much!

1. I got to meet @kahleniel, @agent-2-6, @raefill and @zedsdead1001 in person!

2. my mammography came up all negative

3. my kid finally left darn grammar school in summer after four years of hell

4. I spent a super relaxing holiday on Tenerife

5. my employer paid me a bonus after some particularly hard work

6. Voltron and Yuri!!! on Ice

7. finally got the haircut I wanted for a long time

8. Christmas without family drama!

9. joined the @eruriren-network and for erurirenweek managed to write my longest fic so far

10. figured out some things about my romantic and sexual orientation - it’s never too late to question yourself ;)

I tag @sammy-dean-pie @noenoh @chromehoplite @fairylights101 @alliechick @pinkheichou @choked-cherry @kittyboo8015 @erwinsalive @sugarplum-senpai

[lady-bertrams-pug]

And with the dawn our sun will rise - chapter 5: Blue

Rating: Mature

Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage

Relationship: Levi/Erwin Smith/Eren Yeager

Characters: Eren Yeager, Erwin Smith, Levi Ackerman, Armin Arlert, Mikasa Ackerman, Jean Kirstein, Bertolt Hoover, Reiner Braun, Hanji Zoe, Moblit Berner, Sasha Blouse, Connie Springer, Hitch Dreyse, Historia Reiss

Tags: Post-Canon, set after chapter 80, eruriren week 2016, Titan Eren Yeager, Titan Erwin Smith, Blood and Gore, Physical Disability, Canonical Character Death, but none of the good guys I promise, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, What’s in Eren Yeager’s Basement, Titan Levi, Fluff and Smut, Kissing, Body Worship, Hand Jobs, Blindfolds, Levi gets bored and needs a distraction, underground city, acwnr characters, Beyond the Walls, Ocean, Also A Lot Of Growing Up, Character Development

Chapter Summary: A peaceful but boring winter brings some rest before Eren and his friends have a promise to fulfill.

Notes: Apologies for the long wait but this is a looong chapter and I wanted to get everything right. The emotional parts were v draining but then again, this chapter was also incredibly fun.Heads up: there is hunting and fishing mentioned in this chapter so some animals will be killed. There are no gruesome details but I´m mentioning this just in case.

Many thanks to @sihaiya for helping me with travel distances and times and to lovely @sammy-dean-pie for betaing this mammoth with infinite patience.

Some notes on the innkepper I took from ACWNR. I found it awkward that he and his wife had no names to address them with, so I couldn´t resist the tempation to name him Hogan. For Cena, his wife´s name, @honjizoo is entirely to blame.

About geography. I placed the walls in Europe and guess what... the area is HUGE. It would have taken our protagonists about 10 days to the Croatian and maybe 15 days to the Bulgarian coast. So I cheated, yes, sue me. I took the general course of the river Danube through Croatia and Serbia, and through the Iron Gates into Bulgaria and the Black Sea. BUT I stretched it a lot to make the journey last roughly three months. Artistic liberty yay.

Read under the cut or on AO3!

The rest of summer and autumn passed in a blur of activities. Levi was in the capital and the Underground for weeks on end, and the slow but continuous flow of people who showed up in the MP headquarters to subscribe their belongings for a house or a piece of land somewhere in Wall Maria proved his efforts. For once, Levi blessed the mindless bureaucracy - no one raised the subject that most of the underground people were too poor to be the actual owners of the houses or flats they turned in when they were able to produce a document with his signature.

There was, of course, a lot of opposition from the nobles, and thus the land and dwellings that were given to the underground people were very modest, hardly more than shacks or huts, the plots stamp-sized. Levi didn’t mind - he knew his people. Compared to where they came from, it was still palaces, and they were hardboiled and would squeeze a living out of the little they were given, and prosper. More spite than actual resistance came from the Military Police, who saw their extra income going down the drain but who didn’t dare oppose a direct order from the crown.

Hitch Dreyse had been appalled at the amount of bribery and corruption she witnessed down there from her supposed comrades. Goods were hard to get, and hardly anything was brought underground without the Military Police having knowledge and claiming their share. She kept her mouth shut and her eyes open, documenting everything she witnessed. When this campaign was over, she would turn them all in. Levi couldn’t persuade her to join the Survey Corps - her mouth was set in a thin line when she explained to him that she had to stay to help make the Military Police what it was supposed to be. Knowing she had chosen the more difficult path, he dropped the subject - soldiers like Hitch were needed in the Survey Corps but they were even more needed in the MP.

Erwin had to supervise the rebuilding of something that at least resembled a military unit, the lack of staff being the most painful obstacle. New recruits were in training already, but it would be years before they could fill the empty slots. Now, with the titans gone, an incredible amount of applicants wanted to join the Survey Corps, smelling adventure without the risk of being eaten alive, and part of him resented the youths, but he accepted them anyway. The grueling training would sort out all the slackers and wannabes.

With the titans gone, the Survey Corps and the Garrison faced the greatest changes. Neither going on missions nor protecting the walls from attacks were noteworthy tasks anymore, although they still kept a lookout and had to get rid of the occasional titan still roaming the lands in Wall Maria. Currently, they were more busy with monitoring the relocating, documenting and reporting the state of settlements, establishing supply and trade routes, and helping with all kinds of repairs.

Erwin too had to travel a lot, schmoozing up Zackley and his staff to keep the Survey Corp going and charming the Capital into forgetting that he and Eren (and, unknown to them, Levi) were shifters and therefore a possible threat. He had to consult with Nile Dok and Dot Pixis, commanders of the Military Police and the Garrison, occasionally supervise the ongoing training of the recruits, and perform a thousand other tasks and representation duties.

Eren stopped counting the times he was asked to shift in order to do all kinds of heavy work. He tore down half collapsed houses in Shiganshina, moved debris and boulders, and carried tons of equipment, material and supplies. At night he faceplanted into his bed and was often out before he even hit the sheets. Sometimes he snuck into Erwin’s quarters, but more often than not they were both too tired for anything else than a back massage and some precious minutes of talking. At least he got Erwin to leave his paperwork and turn in at a halfway decent time. It made Eren happy to see the eternal worry lines on Erwin’s forehead smooth out when he was around, and some of these nights he would watch Erwin sleeping, his head rested on Eren’s chest, and he’d softly card through the blond hair that was so much softer than it looked and feel a wave of protectiveness surge through him. Eren had fallen for Erwin gradually, and part of it was that the commander needed someone so badly to look out for him and care for him and didn’t even realize it. But it showed in the willingness with which he opened up to Levi and Eren, his readiness to be comforted.

They both missed Levi terribly, but they knew he was happy having been granted this opportunity, which covered both his need to be active and useful and his lifelong wish to wipe out the filth of the Underground. Sooner or later, their hectic lives would settle into a more comfortable routine.

As winter came, Levi returned to what was now their Headquarters in Shiganshina. Erwin had chosen the place for the sake of his soldiers rather than his own convenience, since most of the work to be done was still here and in the surrounding areas. Independent squads had been sent out to other districts of Wall Maria, under the command of the better equipped Garrison.

Levi arrived on a late afternoon, the sky already dark and heavy with clouds that looked like they were considering snow. He knocked quietly on Erwin’s door, heart skipping in his chest in a most silly and unfamiliar manner. The sound of Erwin’s voice calling to come in, however, was drowned in the sound of running feet that rapidly drew nearer, and sure enough, Eren skidded around the corner of the hallway and nearly crashed into the wall.

“Levi!” he yelled. “I heard you’re back, are you going to stay? Are you here for good? Fuck, I missed you so much.” He pulled Levi into his arms, unfazed by the fact that any second other soldiers might round the corner and see them, and buried his nose in soft black hair. Behind them, the door clicked open as Erwin came to see what the ruckus was about, and they were dragged into his office by the scruff of their necks and buried in a bear hug.

Really, Levi hadn’t known just how much he missed them until he was back in their warmth and their familiar smell, and he closed his eyes and couldn’t help the content little hum that formed in the back of his throat.

“Welcome home, Levi. It’s good to have you back”, Erwin said. “It’s almost time for dinner, do you want to wash up and change?”

“Thank the gods, I’m starving”, Levi admitted.

Eren beamed at him. “I’ll show you your quarters, Levi! They’re right next door! Erwin made sure to have the best room reserved for you.” He took Levi’s hand and showed him his room, which was indeed just down the corridor and - by military standard - rather spacious and nice. His luggage had already been brought in, and when Levi emerged from the shower Eren had lit the fireplace and unpacked his bags and neatly stowed away his clothes.

Dinner was a much fancier affair than usual, the usual stew and bread being replaced by a soup, potatoes, carrots, cabbage and - Levi could hardly believe his eyes - a small serving of meat, plus the inconceivable luxury of an apple cobbler.

“I was amazed when a new canteen manager showed up out of nowhere”, Erwin said with an amused smile as Levi moaned around a mouthful of warm apples and sweet crumbles. “But ever since Hogan took over, we’re eating like noblemen, so you won’t find me complaining.”

“Well I knew he was amazing, but how the fuck did he get hold of whipped cream for this cobbler?”

“It’s no whipped cream”, a voice behind him said. “It’s skimmed milk and semolina.”

Levi turned around to meet the smile of the manager who looked rather pleased with himself. “You don’t run an inn in the underground without learning to make anything with nothing”, he remarked. “The crumbles for this cobbler are mostly potatoes. With the right preparation even the most meager ingredients can make a tasty meal. Just throwing everything into a pot and calling it stew”, he shook his head sadly”, that’s just fucking lazy.”

“What about the meat? You’re not telling me it’s potatoes too, are you?”

“Look, you engaged me for my skills, now don’t go and question them”, Hogan grinned. “It’s real meat, from no questionable source, that’s all you have to know.” Then he hollered in the general direction of the kitchen: “Cena! Come say hello to the Captain!”

His wife waltzed in, as usual all makeup and bodice, and threw her massive arms around Levi before he could escape, and he all but suffocated in her ample bosom while she overflowed with gratitude.

**********

This winter was a peaceful time. It snowed a lot, preventing travel, and the Scouts would mostly repair and stock up their equipment, exercise and keep the Headquarter and stables in spotless order. It was boring, but nonetheless welcome, the change of pace giving them a chance to rest and mentally catch up with the events of the last months. Erwin, Levi and Eren relished the time they had together, growing closer than ever. Erwin and Levi were mostly done healing - Erwin’s arm had grown back up to the palm of his hand, and Levi’s leg ended shortly above the ankle. Despite his difficulties, he’d started training with his vertical maneuvering gear again, thrilled by the rush of air and the velocity that carried him forward after all these weeks. Afterwards, Eren would massage his sore and cramping muscles, and Levi didn’t know how he’d ever managed without the touch of a human’s hand. Their life was quiet and almost domestic, punctuated by nights of fiery passion, and all they could regret was the secrecy they were forced to keep (although Levi suspected that it was a rather well-known secret in the Corps that Eren spent most of his days in Erwin’s or his quarters).

Erwin poured over maps and plans, already deep in planning new expeditions. The titans may be gone for all they knew, but mankind was still trapped behind the walls. Eren often asked to look at the maps, and as winter proceeded he grew sullen and restless. It was hard to notice at first, and he always tried to maintain his smile around his lovers. But he tended to withdraw into himself or talk to Armin at length, and he became more gloomy by the week.

One night, when Eren claimed fatigue and didn’t share their bed, Levi said: “We have to let him go.” He was sprawled over Erwin’s chest, gentle fingers combing through his hair.

Erwin didn’t reply, so Levi continued. “The kid has… dreams, plans. A future. A future that doesn’t lie within the walls. He needs to see that ocean thing that he has been talking about with Armin and Mikasa, and figure out what he wants with his life. He deserves it. And we’re holding him back.”

Erwin wanted to argue, but deep inside he knew Levi was right. There was a future for humanity, a future for Eren and his friends, but this future was not meant for Levi and himself. What they could hope for was bringing this chapter to an end, and maybe have a peaceful end. They had outlived any expectations and entitlements.

***************

They told Eren the next day, and of course there were tears, and there was denial. There were even hysterical accusations of them wanting to get rid of him, something Eren regretted saying the instant the hurtful words left his tongue, but they didn’t even flinch, sensing how torn and helpless he felt.

After a couple of days, when he reckoned Eren had been stewing long enough, Erwin took him, Armin and Mikasa to the top of the wall. There, he swept his arm in a wide arch at the lands beyond. “This, all of this, is your heritage. I want you to go out there and claim it. You earned it. You deserve it. Us old soldiers, we only paved the way for you. This new land, it needs new rulers, or everything will be the same as within the walls.”

He paused for a moment, catching their gaze and making sure he had their attention. “Go there and find the ocean. Find your lands of fire and ice and sand, and then come back and tell us all about it.”

Mikasa’s face, like usual, gave away nothing, she seemed to wait for Eren’s and Armin’s reactions. Armin had lit up as if someone had given him a life supply of birthday presents, which in a way Erwin just had. And Eren… he looked at the open land with such a deep longing and bit his lips.

Erwin put his hand on Eren’s shoulder. “Eren. Everything you want to return to, it will be waiting for you. I promise.” The boy looked up at him with moist eyes, but then he nodded, and his smile broke forth slowly like the sun emerging from a bank of clouds. He turned to Armin and Mikasa.

“Shit, let’s do this.”

Erwin watched with a smile as the three scouts tangled in a group hug, and a painful mixture of pride, envy and loss tugged at his heart.

**********

Setting the three explorers up for their “long term expedition”, as Erwin dubbed it so expenses and their wages would be covered, took the rest of the winter. They were to set out as soon as spring arrived and there would be no risk of them getting surprised by any late snow storms. Aside from the usual training with vertical maneuvering gear and combat, they had to practice how to survive in the wilderness on their own resources. Setting up camp and making fires had to go smoothly, they had to hone their hunting skills, learn about edible and non-edible plants, be able to tend to wounds and sickness, and a million other things to ensure their safety. Levi didn’t go easy on them, all being for their own good, but Eren still sometimes snapped irritably at him, which always ended in Levi dragging him around the next corner and kissing him hard until he stopped bristling. Erwin introduced Armin into cartography and tought him how to measure distances and draw maps. He would be in charge of documenting their travels in a journal.

Towards his lovers, Eren was heartbreakingly clingy and needy, soaking up their affection to store it away for the months to come, and they were happy to oblige. Every opportunity he got, he stole kisses and hugs, and at night he was shamelessly wanton, coaxing them all to new hights. His hands on them felt like he wanted to imprint the memory of every inch of skin into his brain, and he kissed them just the same way, full of attention and concentration.

And then finally the scheduled day of departure came, the pale spring sun rising into a cloudless day. It was a beautifully mild spring morning that promised a stretch of fine weather. Most of the Scouts had assembled in front of the gate to see the adventurers off, and not trusting his voice nor his hands, Eren just smiled and nodded at the farewell wishes and busied himself with the saddle-bags of his gelding. Tethered to the saddle was a pack-horse, small and sturdy, and Armin and Mikasa each led one too. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jean approaching Mikasa and, after a short conversation, handing her a small leather pouch. She tucked it into one of her saddle bags and then hugged him with a smile and patted his cheek. Jean looked terribly flustered, and Eren mused what the pouch was about and if Mikasa would tell him.

There was no farewell hug for his lovers - they had said everything there was to say in the privacy of Erwin’s room earlier on, but he was sorely tempted to throw his arms around them, already feeling the loss like a physical wound. Eren swallowed around the lump in his throat and mounted his horse, prompting Mikasa and Armin to do the same. The gates rumbled open, and without further ado they set off. In passing the crowd, there were only two faces Eren searched for, and there they were, Levi with the usual impassive look in his grey eyes and a curt nod, Erwin with an encouraging smile, and then he was through the gate and they were gone.

During the first hours they didn’t speak much, each occupied with their own thoughts. It felt odd to let the horses trot at a leisurly pace, since on expeditions they had always had to rely on speed, and the familiar landmarks came into view a lot slower. Also, being in a group of only three nade Eren feel vulnerable, and he noticed that Armin and Mikasa stayed rather close and constantly looked around, so he reckoned the were as high on alert as himself. It was habit and hard to shake, since the outside of the walls had always been titan territory. There seemed to be no titans left close by, but who knew what they would encounter? The weight of his gear and the swords on his hips and back felt comforting.

The grass was beginning to grow, and here and there primrose, violets and pasqueflowers huddled in the shelter of hedges, shivering in the wind. Blackthorn, cornel cherry and other early bloomers were coated in white, yellow and tender green, but other than that bushes and trees were still mostly barren.

Around lunchtime, they made a short rest and stretched their backs while the horses wandered off to graze. Their own lunch was frugal - they would light a fire and eat properly in the evening. Resting his back against a tree and nibbling on a stale apple, Eren asked Mikasa: “What did Jean give you earlier on?”

Mikasa continued chewing on her own apple for a while before she answered. “Ashes”, she said softly.

“Oh. Do you think…”

“Yes. He asked me to scatter them in the wind when we come to the ocean. He said… he said Marco would have liked it.”

They were silent for a while, thinking of Marco, Mina, Thomas, Franz and all the others. All of them gone so the three of them could sit here in the shade of a tree.

He took her hand into his, her once so tender and slim hand that was now hardened and calloused from years of hard work and wielding a sword. “I know we always said it was our dream. But it isn’t. It’s their dream as well, and we have to make it worthwhile.”

“Well, if you want to make it in this lifetime, you two better get up and going so we can cover some distance”, Armin smirked and got up. “Come on, I want to be out of eyeshot of the darn walls tonight.”

The landscape was open here, which made travelling easy, but it made them uneasy not to be around trees or anything they could use their vertical maneuvering gear on. They prompted their horses to go a little faster.

In the evening, they made camp in the ruins of a half-collapsed cottage. Eren quickly kindled a fire, using the glowing moss he carried in a small tin can, while Mikasa went out in hopes of hunting down some rabbits and Armin scribbled in his journal.

“Do you really have to make it this elaborate? It’s only the first day and we’re not exactly in unknown territory here”, Eren teased as Armin chewed on his pen thoughtfully.

His friend immediately bristled. “Oh yeah, you would probably write something like ‘Rode five hours. Fell into river. No idea where we are but the birds sure look weird.’ ”

Eren laughed. “You’re right, I would be awful at this. So it’s a good thing it’s your job.”

Mikasa came back with two rabbits she had killed with a slingshot. Animals outside the walls weren’t very wary of humans, which would make hunting a lot easier. Soon the aroma of roasting meat filled the small hut and made their mouths water. After some consideration, they decided to cover the fire up overnight. If there were any titans around, they would be inactive at night, but the light might attract them.

Eren took the first watch while Armin and Mikasa crawled into their blankets. He wrapped his own blanket around his shoulders and warmed his hands on a cup of tea. As he watched the moon wander across the sky and listened to the occasional movements of the horses and the rustling of small animals in the undergrowth, he was slowly filled with the awareness that for the first time in his life he was free. Free to go wherever he pleased, and no man or titan would stop him from that. He was grateful that Erwin and Levi had granted him this, had let him go to spread his wings. They trusted that he was capable of this, that he could take care of himself. There had never been a doubt in their words or their behaviour that he would come back safely. Maybe their confidence was attributed a little to the fact that he was accompanied by Mikasa, second in strength and deadliness only to Levi, and by Armin, who was about the smartest person he had ever met. He thought of them, if they were curled up in bed right now, but instead of the sadness he had expected there was a pleasant anticipation. All the things he could tell them when he came back. All the things he could teach them.

When his eyes started to droop, he roused Mikasa and instantly fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

**********

Eren awoke as Armin carefully rekindled the fire from the glowing embers and put on a pot water for tea. Somehow tea always tasted best when it was prepared by Armin - Mikasa´s tended to taste like burnt hair and Eren let it seep either too short or too long. They warmed their chilled limbs at the fire and breakfasted on rusk and dried fruit. Before the sun had risen far on the horizon they were already on their way.

The first days of their journey were soothingly eventless. Their tense nerves relaxed a little, although their hands still reached for their swords at unfamiliar sounds. Even without titans there were still wolves and bears in the woods to worry about, but so far the largest thing they had seen were a couple of deer. They rode in companionable silence or chatted lightly, and the more the distance to the walls grew the more the ghosts of pain and suffering faded. On the fifth day, they reached the river they had been headed to, marking the end of the territory that had been explored by the Survey Corps so far. For a few minutes, they sat in silence. The landscape was still mostly flat here, so the river was broad and shallow, flowing idly in its rock and pebble covered bed.

That day they didn´t travel any further, but spent the afternoon watching the lazy current. Armin lay on his stomach on a boulder and watched the water moving sand and small pebbles. He looked over the riverbed and regarded the larger stones and rocks.

“Hey, do you guys reckon the river washed all the stones down here? From the mountains maybe?”

Mikasa shielded her eyes from the sun and squinted at him “I admit I have never given it much thought. I mean, rocks are where they are. It never crossed my mind that they might have been elsewhere before.”

Armin chewed his lip thoughtfully. “Yeah, but when you watch, the water moves the sand, and it moves the pebbles, only slower. What if it can move larger stones, but only a lot slower? And the rocks super slow? Like, only with the snow melting and when there´s a lot of water? Maybe only an inch a year. Maybe only an inch in ten years. So how long did it take this boulder here”, he rapped his knuckles on the one he was lying on, “to get here all the way from the mountains?”

Eren lay in the grass with his eyes closed, listening to Armin. It was no news to him, his blond friend questioning the very things in existence that he never paid attention to because he saw them as a given. Armin constantly probed and prodded at the limits of their knowledge, asking ´How?´ and ´Why?´ until everybody admitted defeat. Armin might follow Eren´s lead, but it was people like Armin that would lead humankind on, never relenting, never satisfied until he knew. Books had been his childhood companions, books that were way beyond his years, and he had soaked them up like a sponge and digested them with a never ending stream of questions. And now he would attribute his own wisdom, with this journey, his journals, the maps he would draw.

Suddenly, one of the makeshift fishing rods they had propped up bowed and dipped, announcing success and demanding attention. It was a medium sized common roach, not one of their favorites because of the fine fish bones, but since it was edible they wouldn´t complain. Soon, they had caught some more, making enough for a decent meal. It was still early in the year, but they found enough ground elder, sorrel and arrowhead and dug out some nutritious cattail roots to accompany the fish. Since they didn´t know how long they would have to make do, they wanted to make their food supplies last and only add them as extra on their daily menu. With his belly full Eren was glad he could roll into his blankets and leave the first watch to Mikasa.

In the morning the dawdled around their camp unusually long. No one voiced it but they were hesitant to set off - they would advance into lands that no man´s foot had touched in over a hundred years, and a slight fear of the unknown gripped them. It was Armin who finally stomped his foot, grabbed his saddle and walked over to his horse, and the others heard him mumble: “I am so not going to chicken out of this” and grinned.

Neither the scenery nor the weather changed much during the next days as they followed the river southeast, but when they first spotted some mountains in the distance the skies decided to cast the long overdue spring rain on them. Armin reckoned that so far they had done 120 miles since they reached the river, but now the ground was getting soggy and slowed their progress considerably. It was difficult to find a halfway sheltered place for their night rest, and one evening Eren couldn´t light a fire no matter what he tried. In the morning they were all sodden and shivering, with no fire or tea to warm them up, and even the horses became moody as rain continued to pound on them nonstop.

After five days of rotten weather and more and more irritable interactions their spirits lifted when they saw first specks of blue in the monotone grey sky, and in the same afternoon they came across the remains of a road. It was overgrown and full of potholes, but still it made travelling a lot easier. It came from somewhere to their right and continued along the river. The mountains had drawn considerably closer, and slowly the grassy plains gave way to mixed and conifer forests, and the pattern of the ground suggested this had once been farmland. There were more house ruins here, too, bearing witness to a once flourishing civilization. They spent two nights in what had once been a stable farmhouse to dry and air out their blankets, tents and clothing, and a small clean creek offered opportunity for a long overdue - albeit very cold - bath and thorough scrubbing.

Mikasa managed to hunt a young boar with bow and arrow, but had underestimated the aggressiveness of the mother sow and had to make a run for it. She barely managed to climb a tree and had to wait for over an hour until the coast was clear again. By the time she reached the spot of the killing the carcass had already been dragged away by a fox or lynx, and she felt the pulse throb in her temples and an angry twitch in her eye. She fruitlessly kicked at the leaves on the ground and stomped back to the house, where she was greeted with a cheery “What´s for dinner tonight, o great huntress?” from Eren.

“I don´t know, maybe you go and get something, o chosen one”, she snapped and threw the bow at his feet before she stormed off to mooch at the riverbank and throw stones into the water with a satisfying “splunk”.

She didn´t know what had gotten into her to act so irrationally. It wasn´t Eren´s fault that she had no good luck in hunting today. Ever since she had joined the Yeager household she had seen it as her responsibility to watch over Eren, then over Armin, even more so since they had been on their own. With no adults to protect them, Mikasa had taken the role of the older sister, no matter how much it tired her and how much it annoyed Eren. He loved her, she knew that, but he still fought her every step of the way, hating when he was reminded of his own limits and weaknesses.

Eren did rely on her, subconsciously at least, and she realized it tired her. She cared for him, would always do so, but she no longer wanted to be responsible for him. She sat straight up as this thought hit her like a brick.

It was time to let Eren, and Armin, go and find out what she wanted for herself. She had always assumed that being there for them was enough, but obviously it wasn´t. Of course she had known Eren had fallen in love with Levi, then with Erwin, he couldn´t hide anything from her if he tried. Maybe he was scared she´d disapprove of him loving men, or more specifially loving two men at once and his superiors no less. But Mikasa wasn´t bothered by that. Love was love, as far as she was concerned. She was more concerned that he would be used or hurt, but what she witnessed was that his lovers treated Eren like gold. Moreover, they were good for him, and recently he´d been the happiest and more emotionally stable than she had ever seen him.

Behind her back, she heard a rustle and a quiet cough, and she turned around to see Eren holding out a dead magpie like a peace offering. His eyes were worried and pleading, and that was a first. On the rare occasions she´d been harsh to him he had gotten mad, but obviously seeing her so angered was unsettling for him.

She raised an eyebrow, and Eren shuffled uncertainly. “Uh… it´s not much, I know, but I´m not as skilled as you, but… if you want, I can help you hunt, and I´ll get better.”

Mikasa couldn´t help the laughter bubbling up, and she reached out for his hand and pulled him to sit on the bank next to her. “Oh gods, Eren, you idiot brother, come here.” She wrapped her arms around him and shook with uncontrollable laughter.

“I´m sorry for yelling at you”, she apologized at last, wiping tears from her eyes. “I had bad luck and took it out on you.”

To her surprise, he replied: “Don´t be sorry. Finally I see that you´re just a human being after all. I always wondered just how much it would take to irk you. All my life, you´ve been ´Eren, no´ and ´Eren, please´ and at last I get a ´Fuck you, Eren.´”

“What, so you actually want shouting matches with me?” She said, ruffling his hair.

“Heck, yes. That´s what siblings and friends do, isn´t it?” His eyes shone with mirth.

“I´ll tell you ´Fuck you` as many times as you want, then.”

**************

By the time they had passed through the deep valley that the river had carved through the mountains, full spring was on them. Trees and bushes exploded into green, and all of a sudden the migratory birds were back. Barn swallows and swifts flitted around them in search of insects, and in the mornings they were greeted by a chorus of birdsong. White and pink speckled apple and cherry trees. Behind the mountains and as spring proceeded the climate became milder. The land sloped down in gentle hills, and the river became livelier, cascading down rapids, and often the road would wind away from the water to round a hill or avoid steep banks cutting into the rocky underground. The grass looked a little different here, coarser and dryer, and lush meadows like they were used to became rarer. There were more oaks and peach trees here, and every night Armin would scribble and draw furiously in his journal.

When they had travelled over a month and Armin announced they had covered nearly a thousand miles, they found themselves trapped between two rivers. The one they had followed was to their right, and now another, bigger one approached from north and to their left. Still, they were confident the road would be no dead end, and indeed they came upon a bridge. The banks were steep here, the water deep and fast-flowing, and there was no way they could wade or swim through the river.

On the other side, there were the ruins of a town, the first one they came across since they had left Wall Maria. All they had seen so far were single houses or small dwellings, but the sight of the overgrown town let their hair stand on end. It looked big enough to house maybe a thousand people, and the architecture was alien to them. Here, space hadn´t been much of a problem, so houses were not neatly lined up in rows, but in a pattern that to them looked random but did indeed follow the contours of the landscape.

The bridge was made of stone and in reasonably well condition, and they crossed it with no problem. Then they entered the town, and the hooves of their horses echoed loudly through the narrow streets. As far as they could tell, this town had not been under attack, and the damage to the houses was done by time itself, and nature slowly and patiently taking back the man-made constructions. The cracks in the pavement were filled with grass, weeds and wild flowers, and birches and other trees rooted in fundaments and rain spouts, breaking stones and mortar apart. Ivy and vine had embraced walls and crept up buildings. Roofs had collapsed under decades of snow, rain and wind, allowing the elements into the houses.

Here and there, they could glimpse into open doorways and yawning window holes, and they saw most furniture was still there and many things were in disarray. It seemed like the inhabitants had left the town in a haste, taking only what they could carry. In some kitchens, there were still pots on the fireplace and dishes on the table. The place had a sinister, eerie atmosphere, and they were glad to follow the road to the other side. They might have stayed for the night and have a comfortable shelter, but without discussion they all wanted to leave this spooky place behind. A few miles down the road, they found an overhanging cliff, and this evening they didn´t feel like going hunting or fishing but preferred staying close together and eating from their supplies instead. The proof that there had once been towns outside the walls, not only small settlements with a handful of people, that mankind had a history that was long since lost and forgotten, jarred them more than they had expected.

Over the next days, houses got sparser again. The road was now often lined with large bushes that had yellow blossoms and gave off a sweet smell. In the shadow, columbine and knotweed lured in bees, while sunny places were covered in alyssum and lupines. The sun warmed their backs, and at noon they had to rest in the shade. It was much hotter than what they were used to at this time of the year, and Armin’s nose was peeling badly. Even Eren, who tanned lightly, had a slight sunburn.

They followed the river down into a wide plain covered in bushes, shrubs and low trees, and their mouths fell open at the amount of settlements.

They were everywhere.

Small groups of houses, villages, small towns were scattered all around. This must have been fertile, prosperous land, feeding so many people. Most houses looked small and humble, single-story buildings of field stones or painted in light colours, with red or brown roof tiles. The plains faded in the distance in what may or may not have been blue.

Here, on mostly flat land, they made great time, although Armin had to stop here and there to examine plants he hadn’t seen yet. There were trees with arrow-shaped, silvery leaves, oaks and acorns that looked different than the ones at home. Birds sang everywhere, and small lizards flitted away at their approaching. Many plants had coarse, felt-like leaves to prevent drying out too quickly. On the general, plants and animals seemed to be smaller here.

Spring gave way to early summer, and the grass was beginning to turn yellow. Thunderstorms swept over the land, drenching everything in a matter of minutes, but they were gone just as fast. The travelers were grateful for the proximity of the river, although when they had to drink its water they boiled it and endured the stale taste. But every now and again fresh clear creeks would cross their paths, providing a welcome refreshment.

The country was crisscrossed by roads and paths now, most half sunken and overgrown but still recognizable. Some of the settlements they passed were destroyed, others had tried to barricade themselves. And many were just deserted. By now they had gotten used to it and slept in buildings and courtyards whenever they could.

One morning, after a night of heavy rain, Eren woke up to see Armin squinting at the horizon. “It’s there”, he simply stated when he became aware that Eren was awake.

They pressed the horses for a little more pace then, torn between eagerness and not wanting to exhaust the animals. And just a couple of days later they were there. The river made a wide arch back north before it opened out into the sea in a wide, marshy delta, but they cut short and headed directly to the east. A large town sat there, with a harbor that was now half destroyed by elements.

Even several miles off, they could already smell it, a fresh, salty odor that couldn’t be compared to anything they knew. Around every corner they could see the deep blue, the sun sparkling invitingly on the water. Far out, there were other shades of grey and green.

Next, they heard it, a low, rhythmic thundering sound that sounded strangely soothing. And then they were finally there, right at the water’s edge, and below them the waves crashed against the remains of the harbor walls. Seagulls and other birds they didn’t know sailed above them, and the spray of the water was refreshing.

They dismounted and tethered their horses and just stood there, trying to grasp the moment. The sight was dazzling, awe-inspiring, nothing but water as far as the eye could see, just as Armin had promised.

The blond boy had sunk to his knees. “It’s so beautiful”, he whispered. “So beautiful… I wish my grandfather… that he…” he broke off in a sob. Mikasa and Eren were with him in an instant, soothingly rubbing his back, stroking his hair.

“He’s here with you”, Mikasa said. “All of them are. We are here for them, in their name.” They held him until he had cried it all away, and then they just sat with their backs to a sun-warmed wall and rejoiced in being there, being alive.

In the evening, they gathered wild flowers, and after that they went to the beach a short way off and waded into the water. Mikasa opened the leather pouch she had been given by Jean and carefully, reverentially scattered the contents in the waves. The ashes hung as a small cloud above the water before sinking down and were carried away with the flowers.

It was Marco’s ashes, or what Jean had assumed they were, but to Eren, Mikasa and Armin, it was all their friends and family that had passed away, and standing there in the water with the sunset in their backs and the dark waters before them felt like an end and a beginning.

They stayed for a week, content with their discovery. They wandered through the surrounding hills, bathed in the water or lazed on the beach. Armin was busy with his notes again and corrected his maps and drawings, adding some sketches of Eren and Mikasa on a whim. His hair had grown so long that it started bothering him, and he started tying it up in a ponytail. A blond beard, slightly darker than his sun-bleached hair, covered his chin and jaw line. Eren too was growing a beard, and his shaggy brown hair came down to his shoulders, more messy than ever and with golden tips. Under the souther sun, he had tanned darkly. Even Mikasa’s porcelain skin was showing some freckles.

But most of all, there was a peace and calm on their faces that made them beautiful, all three of them. They had bid farewell and were ready to face the future, whatever it may hold for them.

[seraphichan]

Somedays

Eruriren Week Day 6 - Violet

Rating: T

(for Summary and Tags see my original Day 1 post here)

Notes: Alas! Eruriren Week is at an end, but it was so much fun! Thank you so much to everyone who read/liked/commented/etc! Now, shoo, go enjoy this final bit of fluff :3

Read on AO3 or under the cut...

“What’s this?” Erwin asks after breakfast as Levi slides a small box in front of him from across the table.

Eren peers at it curiously over his mug of coffee until Levi slides an identical box in front of him.

They both wait, eyes flicking between Levi and the boxes, but Levi doesn’t answer Erwin’s question, so they look at each other before lifting the lids at the same time. Inside they find a matching pair of keys and a strip of purple silk.

“And here I thought we were way too old to do kinky stuff,” Eren says, tracing his fingers along the silk.

Levi snorts. “As I recall we did plenty the other night. I can still feel it in my back.”

“Sorry,” Eren says in a tone that is anything but. He grins, and though his hair is gray and his face is covered in deep laugh lines, his youthful heart shines through. “Just to be clear, though, you’re saying these keys aren’t to a set of handcuffs then?”

“No, they’re much too large,” Erwin says, examining it, as Levi reaches over the table and flicks Eren’s forehead. Erwin hums, flipping his key in his hand and weighing it in his palm. “So that begs the question, what do they unlock?” He looks at Levi expectantly.

“I guess you’ll have to follow me to find out,” Levi says.

He walks to the door of their apartment where he slips on his shoes and grabs the car keys. He turns and jingles them at the pair, still sitting at the table and watching him with curious eyes. They look at each other again before grabbing the boxes and following him out the door, down the elevator, and into the parking garage. Levi stops them before they get into the car. He makes them put the keys in their pockets, then he coaxes them to bend down so he can tie the strips of silk around their eyes as makeshift blindfolds. He double checks to make sure there aren’t any gaps they could see out of before stuffing them both into the backseat.

“How mysterious,” Erwin says.

“And kinky,” Eren adds.

Erwin chuckles and leans into him. Levi flicks Eren’s forehead again before getting in the driver’s seat and starting the car.

Three hours later - in which takes place a very short, but amusing, “I Spy” game between Eren and Erwin, and a less entertaining contest between the two as to who can ask “Are we there yet?” in the most roundabout and irritating fashion - they reach their destination.

Levi helps them climb out of the backseat, and they all take a few moments to stretch out the stiffness in their limbs from sitting for so long. Once the creaking and cracking of their joints ceases, Levi takes their hands and guides them forward.

Eren moves with a slight bounce in his step, swinging his and Levi’s arm back and forth as they go. Erwin hums periodically, moving his head minutely one way or the other, still trying to figure out where they are and why. Levi’s chest swells with pride at having kept, and is still keeping, a secret from Erwin, a near impossible feat if ever there was one.

After a short walk Levi slows them to a stop. He takes a deep breath, suddenly nervous.

“Levi?” Erwin asks, noticing Levi’s hesitation. Eren squeezes his hand, noticing it as well. Astute bastards.

He releases their hands and reaches up to the blindfolds, removing the cloth from both their eyes at the same time. They blink at the sudden change in light, and then for a different reason entirely.

Before them is a short, squat lighthouse at the edge of a cliff with a gentle sloping path that leads down to a small cottage. It is a modest and unassuming building, one level with long, rectangular windows and ivy creeping up the siding; and it is surrounded by a lush garden of overgrown lavender and violets.

A cool breeze rolls over them, bringing with it the smell of the sea and the sound of waves from below the cliff.

“Holy crap,” Eren says as he breathes deeply.

Erwin nods. "It's beautiful, Levi."

“How long do we get to stay?” Eren asks.

It’s not the first time they’ve all piled into the car on a whim and driven somewhere to spend the weekend. But this time--

“Forever...if you want,” Levi says.

They both look at him, eyebrows arched high on their foreheads.

“The paperwork isn’t finalized yet. I wanted to show you both first. We would live in the cottage, but we’d get to look after the lighthouse, too, if you want. You have to get some training and take a test and everything first, but I hear it’s not that awful, as far as that crap goes,” Levi trails off, clears his throat and stuffs his hands in his pockets. “So, um, happy anniversary?” he finishes lamely, eyes darting between the two, trying to gauge their reaction.

Erwin’s lips part slowly in awe. He takes the key Levi gave him from his pocket and stares at it in wonder. “Oh.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Eren says, fumbling with his own key. “So you’re saying this is our house?” he asks.

“Yeah, sort of. Like I said, the paper--oof!”

Eren collides into him, squeezing him in a tight embrace, and next thing Levi knows he’s being lifted up, Eren’s arms underneath his ass to hold him steady.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Levi asks, though he wraps his legs around Eren’s waist and hooks his arms around Eren’s neck to keep from sliding down.

“Carrying my short adorable old man to our short adorable house.”

Erwin snorts and covers his smile with his hand.

“Oi,” Levi says, pinching them both.

“You, too, my tall adorable old man,” Eren says to Erwin, removing one arm from beneath Levi and holding out his hand.

“Lead the way,” Erwin says, taking Eren’s hand and walking in step with him as he begins to move forward.

They make their way up the cobbled path to a small wooden gate. With Eren’s hands otherwise occupied Erwin steps forward and swings it open. The hinges squeak and there is a loud crack, the gate breaking away from the post it should be attached to and flopping to the ground with a thud.

“Did I mention it might need a little work?”

“Looks like I’ll finally get to put those carpentry skills to use,” Erwin says.

Eren and Levi laugh, and Erwin graces them with an exaggerated pout before he goes to the door and sticks his key in the lock.

“Ready?” he asks.

Levi waves a hand in a signal to go ahead and Eren nods enthusiastically.

Erwin turns the key, jiggling the knob a bit before it unsticks. He pushes the door open, which squeaks ominously like the gate, but thankfully holds, and then he waits for Eren to come forward, grasping his hand again before they step over the threshold.

“Welcome home,” he says because it seems like something he should say.

“We’re home,” Erwin and Eren say in unison.

They stand in silence for some time, pressed close, breathing together, and then Eren speaks.

“So…what surface do we christen first?”

[seraphichan]

Somedays

Eruriren Week Day 5 - Blue

Rating: T

(for Summary and Tags see my original Day 1 post here)

Notes: This prompt, and the final one, Violet, are actually the only ones that are in order as far as the timeline for the stories goes. Also, this one's a bit on the short side (and the one I'm least happy with because my motivation for this prompt was literally "the sky is blue"), but, hey, they can't all be winners XD

Read it on AO3 or under the cut...

“This is the last time I let you go to a silent auction for the library unsupervised,” Levi grumbles.

“But, Levi, no one else had placed a bid on it. The organizers went through all the trouble of getting a contribution from the business, and I just couldn’t let their hard work go to waste. I would have felt terrible,” Erwin explains.

“So you’ve said a million times.”

Erwin sighs and switches tactics. “Remember how excited about it Eren was. How excited I’m sure he is, even now.”

“Yeah, well,” Levi concedes and looks up to the sky.

Erwin follows his gaze, though there’s not much to see. The plane is too high in the air for them to spot from the grass next to the landing strip. It left nearly ten minutes ago and, according to the guide, should be reaching the proper altitude for the jump by now.

“Do you think…”

“He’ll be alright?” Erwin finishes during Levi’s pause. “I am quite positive he will be.”

“No,” Levi says. “I mean, yes, that worries me, but…”

Erwin gives him a moment to collect his thoughts this time.

“Do you think he resents us?”

Erwin starts. He did not expect that question, and, honestly, is not entirely certain what it means.

“Levi, what--”

“He could be with anyone he wants, I mean look at him, he’s fucking gorgeous, but instead here he is with us and sometimes it feels like we’re holding him back, I mean I guess we could have tried to do this whole thing with him, but we wussed out, and, and--Erwin, we’re fucking old,” he practically spits, like the word will burn his tongue if he lets it sit there too long. He glares at the ground and rubs the back of his neck.

Erwin knows he is trying not to scratch at the part of his undercut where silver is starting to grow in place of black. He takes Levi’s hand off his neck and brings it to his side, laces their fingers together.

“Oh, Levi,” he says, tone chastising but fond. “We’re not that old. And if anyone should be worrying about that, it should be me. I’m the oldest of us all.”

“Yeah, but...he always has such energy.”

Erwin shrugs. “That’s just him. He’s young at heart, and he always will be. Even when all his hair goes grey.”

“Or he goes bald.”

“Or that,” Erwin laughs. “My point is we’re all getting older, but I don’t think Eren sees it like we tend to, like it’s a bad thing.”

In fact, Erwin thinks Eren rather enjoys it. Eren seems to see growing old as more time they get to spend together. Something that brings them closer, rather than something that would make them drift apart.

On days when Erwin wakes up with sore shoulders and creaky knees, Eren will roll over, still half asleep, and massage his back or legs. When Erwin gets home at seven and falls asleep on the couch in front of the television by half past eight, Eren will cover him with a blanket and rest his head on Erwin’s lap until he wakes up and they shuffle to bed.

These thoughts fresh in his mind, he turns his attention back to Levi, watches as his eyes flicker and soften with memories of his own.

“You and your reason. Fuck you,” Levi says without venom, squeezing Erwin’s hand.

Erwin takes it as the ‘thank you’ he knows it to be and returns his eyes to the sky.

“Ah, speak of the devil,” Erwin says as he watches the deep blue and yellow stripes of the parachute unfurl in the air.

They both watch it get bigger and bolder, the people attached to it becoming distinguishable as well, as it sails back to the ground. Sometimes they are buoyed by a slight breeze, but eventually they drift down to land on the mark painted on the blacktop. Eren is unstrapped from the guide, and he takes off his protective gear, hands it to a different person who came out to meet them. He shakes both of their hands when finished, thanking them loudly and enthusiastically before skip-running over to him and Levi.

“How was it?” Erwin asks as he takes in Eren’s wide smile and adrenaline-flushed cheeks. He also notes how Eren lost the tie holding back his hair during the jump - it falls free and wild around his shoulders. 

“Amazing! The air was all whoosh in my face and when I laughed I could feel it, like, vibrating in my chest and I could see everything and aaahh!” he punctuates with a sigh that is a barely contained shout of delight. “It was such a rush! Thank you!”

He leans up and kisses Erwin, who chuckles a “You’re very welcome” against his lips.

“So you had fun?” Levi asks.

“I did.” He leans down and kisses Levi as well.

“Good.”

“Mm,” Eren hums, leaning down and kissing Levi again. And again and again, peppering him with little pecks on his lips and cheeks.

“Oi,” Levi says, swatting at him. “What the hell?”

“You looked like you needed it,” Eren says, then kisses him once more on the lips, this time harder and longer.

“Eren, we are in public,” Levi says, shoving halfheartedly at his chest.

“Then let’s go home, so I can do whatever I want with you,” he says, voice low and promising. He licks his lips, eyes on fire, then turns on his heel and starts towards the parking lot.

Erwin looks down at Levi and smirks. “Old, huh?”

“Shut up,” Levi says, cheeks red, as he tries to discreetly adjust himself in his pants.

Erwin laughs and dodges Levi’s hand as he goes to smack Erwin’s ass.

[seraphichan]

Somedays

Eruriren Week Day 4 - Green

Rating: T

(for Summary and Tags see my original Day 1 post here)

Notes: The how they met fic (because why not?) in which Erwin and Levi are thirsty af, and Armin is the greatest of friends and wingmen.

Read it on AO3 or under the cut...

Levi sits heavily on the bar stool, spinning inwards and resting his elbows on the edge of the bar. He hunches his shoulders forward, glaring at the scotch bottles lined up on the back wall. Erwin takes his place next to him, a bit more gracefully but no less tired or annoyed. It had been a long day at the office, and apparently Levi’s day had not gone any better.

“Fucking pricks. If they already know it all, why bother to take the class in the first place?” Levi had growled, falling into the passenger seat and slamming the door shut, when Erwin picked him up outside the gym on his way home.

Erwin had merely patted his leg and steered the car towards the bar instead of their apartment, knowing there was no need to ask if Levi wanted to get a drink to take the edge off or not.

He pats Levi’s leg again now, before reaching for his wallet to pull out a twenty. He places it on the bartop and waits, closing his eyes and rubbing at his temples to try and relieve the tension there in the meantime. After a few moments he feels Levi shift next to him, a sure indication that the bartender is making their way to them.

“Hey, guys,” greets the bartender.

Erwin lifts his head, and immediately sits much straighter on the stool.

“What can I get you?”

“Your perfect ass,” Levi mumbles and Erwin has to bite the inside of his cheek to keep his mouth from twitching into a grin.

“I’m sorry?” the bartender asks, not having heard him.

“I said I’ll take a cognac.”

“Gin and tonic, please,” Erwin says as the bartender looks to him next.

“Coming right up.”

He takes two tumblers from beneath the bar and pours them each their drink. He places them on coasters when he is finished and slides them towards Levi and Erwin.

Levi grabs his immediately and takes a long swallow.

Erwin picks up his glass and swirls the contents. “Thank you, ah…”

“Oh! Eren. The name’s Eren.” He smiles and Erwin’s gut churns with heat.

“Thank you, Eren,” he says, putting the tumbler to his lips and taking a sip.

“You’re welcome. I’ll be back to check on you in a few,” he says as he heads towards the other end of the bar where he is being flagged down by another patron.

Erwin follows Eren with his eyes as he goes, notes how very, very delectable he looks in those pants.

“Erwin.”

Erwin pulls his gaze from Eren’s backside and looks at his companion. “Levi.”

“I want him.”

Erwin chuckles as he takes another sip of his drink.

Later when they get home they fuck hard and fast. And if Levi happens to slur his name so that it sounds like a different one, well, Erwin can hardly fault him for that when with each thrust he imagines a pair of bright green eyes.

~~~

“Welcome back,” Eren says as Erwin and Levi take their seats. “The usual?”

Levi nods and Erwin says “Please” and a few moments later Eren is sliding their drinks towards them.

He leaves them almost immediately then, a kind, apologetic smile in place, as he goes to take the order of a man a few seats down. It is a Friday evening, so the bar is busy. Erwin has noticed that in the past few weeks, of which they have shown up every night, the bar has been burgeoning with business.

No doubt he and Levi are not the only ones whom have taken a liking to the new bartender.

They finish their drinks and Erwin can tell Levi is already sick of being in the crowd. He sneers every time the man beside him breaks into loud laughter, and his hand clenches into a fist whenever someone bumps into his back as they move through the room. If it wasn’t for Eren, Erwin is sure Levi would insist they leave.

“Eren,” Erwin calls when they’ve drained their drinks down to ice.

“Yes, Erwin?” he says, immediately taking notice of them. He comes over and leans his elbows on the bar.

Erwin can’t help but notice how the muscles in his arms flex as he does so, and his shoulders shudder minutely. It’s laughable how out of control he feels because of Eren, and over such a simple action.

He clears his throat, “Another, please.”

“Sure,” Eren says, resting his chin in his hand and looking at Levi. “And how about you?”

“Yeah, I’ll have one more,” Levi says.

“Coming right up,” Eren says, giving them both a crooked smile. When he’s finished fixing their drinks, he asks them, almost shyly, “Anything else?”

“No, thank you,” Erwin answers for them both

“Oh. Alright,” he says, looking, or so it seems to Erwin, disappointed.

Surely it is his imagination.

“Let me know if you do, okay?” Eren raps the bartop with his knuckles before walking away to tend to other customers.

“Erwin,” Levi says after a moment.

“Levi.”

“We are shit at this.”

“It has been some time since either of us has been ‘on the scene.’ We aren’t doing very well are we?”

“We can’t say more than two words to the guy, of course we aren’t doing well.” Levi pauses and then a few seconds later says, “Maybe we should just go home.”

“...Is that what you want?”

“No. But I don’t know what else to do.”

Erwin nods in understanding. He also, frustratingly enough, has no ideas to offer.

“Why don’t you just ask him out?”

Erwin and Levi jump, looking to their right and behind the bar to a different bartender, one who has served them before and who often talks to Eren, that is placing dirty glasses in a tub to take back to wash.

“You heard?” Erwin asks.

“Every word,” he answers. He tucks a strand of blonde hair behind his ear and Erwin remembers that his name is Armin.

“Shit,” Levi says.

“Oh,” Erwin concurs.

Armin laughs. “Don’t look so worried. It’s all I get done hearing. Everyone is talking about him, but,” he pauses as he picks the tub up and rests it on his hip, “you two are the only one’s on his mind.”

Levi’s eyes widen, and Erwin swallows thickly.

“So, trust me, and ask him out. Okay?”

“Okay,” they say together.

Armin smiles at them. “Good luck,” he says as he goes through the swinging doors to the kitchen.

They’re still watching the doors when Eren wanders back over. He hangs back, seemingly hesitant to say anything - he must notice their faces, which Erwin is sure are still a bit dumbstruck - but eventually he does speak.

“Is everything alright?” he asks as he inches closer.

“Wanna fuck?” Levi blurts.

It lacks tact, but Erwin has always admired how Levi could get right to the point.

Eren, for his part, inhales sharply, and his jaw drops. He gives himself a few moments to collect his thoughts, lets his tongue dart out of his mouth briefly to wet his lips, and Erwin can’t help but watch it.

“How about we get a bite to eat first. Then if that goes well,” he pauses, leaning forward against the bar again. “We can all fuck. As many times as you want.”

Erwin feels Levi shiver next to him.

“You’ll get no argument from us,” Erwin says in what he hopes is a steady voice.

“Good. My shift ends at one. I’ll see you then,” he says and saunters away, still looking very, very delectable in those pants.

“Erwin,” Levi says, nudging Erwin’s arm to get his attention.

“Levi.”

“What time is it?”

Erwin checks his watch. “Nine thirty.”

Levi groans and Erwin chuckles. It is going to be a long night.

[seraphichan]

Somedays

Eruriren Week Day 3 - Yellow

Rating: T

(for Summary and Tags see my original Day 1 post here)

Notes: I had a lot of fun writing this one! (So much fun that I set a personal record for finishing a story, that way I can disappoint myself for all future writing projects when I don't get done that fast XD) This one also might be a little self-indulgent, as I am a sucker for a good, fluffy sick fic (and dramatically stubborn Erwin).

Read on AO3 or under the cut...

Eren comes home to the apartment smelling of citrus and disinfectant, and arrives at the obvious conclusion that Levi is cleaning.

This, in and of itself, is not an odd thing. It happens quite regularly, actually, but it is the way Levi is dressed for the task - hospital mask over his face, yellow rubber gloves up to his elbows, plastic booties over his feet - that gives Eren pause.

“Um…” he says, not quite sure where to start or what to ask first.

“Erwin is sick,” Levi says, voice muffled, before going back to wiping down the coffee table with more pressure than Eren thinks is absolutely necessary. Hopefully he doesn’t break the glass top.

Again.

“Where is he?”

“I’ve quarantined him to the bedroom.”

“You don’t think that’s a bit much?”

Levi pauses, glances at Eren. “No.”

“Well, I’m going to go check on him.”

Levi grunts and Eren takes that as leave to do as he likes. The bedroom door is closed when he gets there, so he knocks. When no answer comes he knocks again. A loud snap and shuffling sounds from the other side of the door.

“Erwin?” he asks, leaning his ear against the wood to hear better.

“...Eren?”

He sounds relieved. Which is suspicious.

Eren opens the door fully, eyes alighting on a very guilty looking Erwin.

“What are you doing?” Eren asks as Erwin tries to surreptitiously nudge something out of sight underneath the blankets with his leg.

“Nothing,” he answers too quickly.

“Oh really?” Eren inspects the pile of blankets more closely and sees the corner of Erwin’s laptop peeking out. “You know if Levi sees you working when you’re sick he’s going to be pissed.”

“Ah, but here’s the thing. I’m not sick.”

“Then why are you hiding your computer?”

“Because Levi thinks I’m sick, and he won’t listen when I tell him I’m not, so of course he’ll confiscate it.”

“You’ll want to work on your hiding technique, then.” Eren walks over and sits on the side of the bed. He turns Erwin’s head and leans up, pressing their foreheads together. “Hm...you’re hot.”

“Why thank you.”

Eren smiles despite himself. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“So I might have a slight fever,” Erwin says. He turns his head away from Eren and coughs into his sleeve.

“And a slight cough.”

“Purely coincidental,” he says, coughing again.

“Uh huh.”

Erwin sighs. “Look, I have an important case to review and I can’t afford to be sick, so I’m not sick. It’s as simple as that.”

Eren is about to argue, but there is a light knock and they both look to see Levi standing in the doorframe, mask and boots gone, but gloves still bright on his arms.

“I brought tea,” he says, walking in and sitting it on the nightstand. “Chamomile and lemongrass.”

“Thank you, Levi.”

Levi shrugs, his eyes wandering down to the end of the bed. “...What are you doing with your foot?”

“Nothing,” Erwin says once again. And, once again, it is too quick.

Levi grabs the covers and whips them away from the bed, revealing the laptop hidden beneath. He stares at it for a moment before lifting his gaze to rest on Erwin.

“Now, Levi,” Erwin says, holding up his hands defensively, “let’s not do anything rash.”

“Eren, hold him.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Wait--”

There is a brief scuffle, but Levi and Eren manage to overpower him. It’s not too hard when Erwin starts to cough part way through trying to wriggle away from them. Eren whinces with guilt, but he pins him to the bed anyway, waits until Levi is done securing Erwin’s hands behind his back with his yellow gloves.

“Untie me this instant,” Erwin says as soon as they prop him up against the headboard.

Eren and Levi look at each other before saying “No” together.

“But how am I to drink my tea?” he pouts.

“Nice try, but I’m not untying you,” Levi says.

Erwin’s pout turns into a disgruntled frown.

“Try this,” Eren says, crawling onto the bed and sitting in front of Erwin, straddling his lap. He motions to Levi to hand him the cup and when he has it he holds it up to Erwin’s lips. “Sip.”

“It’s too hot,” Erwin sniffs, turning his nose up at the steaming liquid in a very dramatic fashion.

Levi snorts and rolls his eyes. Eren agrees, but he takes the tea away anyway and blows on it.

“Sip,” he says again once it’s cooled a bit.

Erwin does, sighing in relief as the tea soothes his throat. Eren sees Levi smile knowingly from the corner of his eye and gives a small smile as well.

“More?”

Erwin nods and Eren gives him another sip. They stay like that, Eren coaxing tea into Erwin’s mouth and Levi watching silently beside them, until the tea is gone. Then Levi takes the cup and places it back on the nightstand. He sits on the bed, side pressed against Erwin.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he asks, nudging Erwin with his elbow.

“I suppose not. But now that I’ve finished my tea may I be untied?”

Eren and Levi look at each other again before answering “No” together once more.

“What do I have to do?” Erwin whines.

“Take the week off,” Levi says.

“The week?” Erwin asks, aghast.

“I’m sure Mike can handle you taking a short vacation,” Eren says.

“A week is hardly short.”

“Are you saying Mike is an incapable employee?”

“Of course not. But--”

“Please,” Eren whispers, looking at Erwin through his eyelashes.

“Erwin,” Levi pleads gently, resting his head against Erwin’s shoulder.

“...Fine,” Erwin sighs, caving easily. “I’ll call Mike in the morning and let him know.”

Eren grins in triumph, and Levi makes a pleased noise in the back of his throat.

“But only one week.”

“Unless we can convince you to take more time off,” Eren says, walking his fingers up Erwin’s chest.

Levi hums, rubbing his hand meaningfully up and down Erwin’s thigh.

Erwin squirms. “You are both being terribly unfair.”

“Relax,” Eren purrs. “Let us take care of you.”

“What about me being sick?” he asks, looking at Levi.

“We don’t have to kiss you.”

“Unfair.” Then a few moments later. “And my arms?”

“Stay as they are,” Eren says.

“Unfair,” Erwin repeats, but his complaints don’t last long.