Chapter Text
“What’s your name?”
“I don’t have one.”
“What did they call you… wherever you’re from?”
“Does it matter? I’m not going to stick around.”
“I would like to call you something.”
“Why?”
“To remember you.”
Gray eyes met blue. It was at that moment that Squad Leader Erwin Smith realized that there was something inherently different about this dirty, blood stained whore from the Underground. It was at that moment that Erwin realized that his life would be inextricably tied to this young man.
“They called me Levi.”
"Levi," the blond man repeated softly. "It's a lovely name."
"Lovely? What kind of jerk are you? There's no such thing as a lovely name," the dark-haired man scoffed. The harrumph turned into a bout of coughing, and Erwin leaned in, placing his hand on the younger man's back, running it back and forth in soothing circles. He knew that it wouldn't help, not really, but he could not bear just to watch Levi suffer. That was his biggest problem, or so he had been told: he couldn't just stand by and watch.
“I don’t care what you say. I like your name. And I will call you by that name when you come and join the Survey Corps.”
“Fuck off.”
“Erwin?”
The blond looked up from his paperwork to see Hanji Zoë standing in the doorway, eyes wide.
"What is it?" He asked although he felt in his bones that he already knew the answer to that question.
“He’s gone. Levi’s gone.”
"It's been a while," Erwin told the crouching figure. Mike had his hands tangled in the dark, matted hair, ready to slam Levi's face back into the mud. The blond gestured for him to stop and instead sank to his knees to level his gaze with Levi's. The gray eyes met his once more, just like they had that first time. Erwin could see that the younger man was healthier now, better fed, at least. Judging from the fact that he now had sidekicks, and actual clothing that looked nothing like the rags Erwin had found him in the first time, Levi was making a name for himself. But what a name it was.
“You’re a criminal now.”
“I was always a criminal.” Levi spat mud, his face twisted into a grimace of disgust. “You thought I was something else. I never dissuaded you.”
“You can dissuade me now. It’s time to make use of that promise you gave me back then.”
“I promised you nothing.”
“I gave you a roof over your head on one condition. That you would join the Survey Corps.”
“I never agreed to that.”
“I could hand you over to the Military Police right now.”
“You wouldn’t,” Levi said venomously. He heard Isabel protest loudly behind him as she struggled against her restraints. He sighed. “You’re too fucking noble.”
“Perhaps. But this is a second chance for you.”
“You offer too many second chances.”
“Will you take this one?”
Levi regarded him for a moment, his wrists aching from having been bound for such a long time. The old scars felt new again, and he disliked the feeling as much as he had hated it the first time, with Kenny and his constant stream of customers. Of course, Isabel and Farlan knew nothing of that. They were too naïve to be burdened with his story. Only Erwin ever knew.
“Fine. I’ll join the Survey Corps.”
"I don't expect you to stay by my side all the time, you know," Erwin muttered to his new husband as they circulated the room, accepting insincere congratulations from the rest of the capital dwellers. He spotted the Survey Corps at the sidelines, their attention was drawn to the buffet table, and smiled softly. He really did sometimes think of them as his children, as wrong and twisted as that assumption was. After all, what kind of parent would send their kids to die for the sake of Humanity like he did?
“I am supposed to be by your side now. From now until forever,” Levi countered quietly. The new bracelet on his wrist felt like it was made of lead. His other hand was trapped between Erwin’s big fingers, and that hand, for some unfathomable reason, felt lighter, giving him the illusion of freedom. He knew that he was just kidding himself into thinking that life would go on as normal. Everything was about to change. “You, me, and the child.”
“Don’t think about the child. It’s too early. We’ll find a way out of this. I refuse to take responsibility for ruining your life,” Erwin told him gravely.
“You take responsibility for doing that with everyone else, why not me?”
“Don’t touch me.”
“Levi, you know that I didn’t want this to happen.”
“You let this happen, whether you wanted it or not.”
“Don’t blame me for this.”
“Then whom should I blame, huh? You promised me that nobody would ever touch me like this ever again. And then you went ahead and did it yourself. So much for promises, Erwin.”
“Levi, I never wanted you to get hurt–,”
"Apparently the world doesn't work the way you want it to. Now go away. I need to hurt someone right now, and it might as well be you."
Erwin hesitated in the doorway, his eyes falling to the sweat-soaked sheets, the only evidence of what had happened the night before. That, and Levi's naked form curled up on the left side, so small and shivering.
“I will be in my office if you need me.”
“Don’t hold your fucking breath.”
“I never thought she’d look like this.”
“What did you think she’d look like?”
“More like you, I think.”
“She doesn’t look like either of us right now. She looks red and gross.”
“She’s a baby. Don’t expect her to win any beauty awards in the near future.”
“You’re enjoying this.”
“Aren’t you?”
“…yes.”
“Commander Smith?”
Erwin looked up from the map of the Underground he had been studying for the past several hours. He felt like there were mounds of sand in his eyes, and his head was on fire, but he refused to let it go. He had seen Levi at the party. He had spoken to the younger man. And he had failed to recognize his husband until the very last moment. This was on him. He had been the one to do this, and he had to fix it.
“Yes, Jean?”
“Everything is ready. The men are prepared to set out in the morning.”
“Thank you, Private Kirschtein.” Jean nodded, turning to go. He paused at the door.
“Sir?”
“Yes, Jean?”
“May I… go with you?”
Erwin smiled softly, even his face tired from the strain of not having Levi by his side.
“Eren’s just come back from the capital. He needs you. I will get both our children back safely.”
Jean looked at him for a long moment before nodding and leaving the room without a backward glance.
“I have to,” Erwin whispered. “I have to.”
“He’s bleeding out!”
“Put him on the bed, quick! Get me bandages and antiseptic, right now!”
“Oh Sina, Corporal Levi!”
“He’ll be fine, he’ll be all right, it’s just a gunshot wound, there’s– damn, he’s bleeding out faster than I thought!”
“Levi!”
“Erwin, I need you to move right now.”
“But, I–,”
“You being here won’t help. There. Sit there. In that chair. Don’t mess with the surgery.”
“Surgery?”
"Just… he'll be okay. I promise."
“I rely a lot on promises.”
“Kara, this really isn’t a good idea. I mean I’ve already met them, we practically live together, we actually do, just one corridor away from each other, so I don’t think-,”
“You don’t think, precisely. This sort of thing is important to father.”
“Bullshit, you know he hates ceremony-,”
“This is different. We have to make a formal presentation-,”
"He changed my damn nappies when I was a kid, I'm pretty sure that he's intimately familiar with me.”
“You’re just scared of what Mom will say, admit it.”
“Your mother is the scariest person in the world. And I’ve seen Titans.”
“Well, your mother happens to be one, so why don’t you just give it a rest and come with me and we do this properly?”
“I have a better idea. There was a very deserted looking broom closet that I saw on the way-,”
“Mikolas Kirschtein, you better not be thinking what I think you’re thinking. That’s disgusting. Mom will have you clean it all top to bottom if he ever finds out.”
“Let’s just assume he never will.”
“Let’s just assume that you’re a pig and call it a day.”
“You love me.”
“For some pathetic, stupid reason, I do. Which is why we should tell them-,”
“Tell us what?”
The two trainees turned on the spot to see Commanders Erwin and Levi Smith coming towards them down the corridor. Kara gulped: her mother didn’t look like he was having a particularly good day, and judging by the tone of his voice, they had better proceed with explaining the matter cautiously.
"N-nothing, Commander Smith, Commander… Smith," Mikolas stuttered nervously, hastily letting go of the girl's hand. Though they had always been as close as family, once Mikolas had entered the trainee corps, the relationships he had had with the Commanders had changed somewhat. Suddenly, the two men were not Uncle Levi and Uncle Erwin, they were his superior officers, and as such, they were on the opposite sides of the food chain. Even without the ranking hanging over their relationship like this, Levi and Erwin Smith still made an impressive picture. The blond commander, now with streaks of silver in his hair and a prosthetic arm, provided to him by Hanji Zoë, a genius invention that involved combining natural materials with the Titan serum, was the calmer of the two. He had been a Commander longer, and Mikolas had a vague idea of how he had apparently dragged Levi into the Survey Corps by the hair. The dark-haired man was the spitting image of Kara: short, dark-haired, and possessing a wicked tongue that could cripple even the most potent of egos. "We were just talking about how–,"
“How you were pawing at my daughter in the middle of a deserted hallway,” Levi said sharply. Mikolas felt his knees sag. Even though he was as tall as both of his parents, the presence that the dark-haired commander had seemed to dwarf him. It was funny how Levi had gone from a complete stranger to, as Mikolas had been told by Mom, a caregiver of sorts, who had apparently saved his life as an infant, to a family friend and a trusted uncle, to this impermeable wall of bad attitude and orders. Mikolas understood that rank was important in the military, but sometimes he wondered how things would have been had they not been part of the Survey Corps.
“I apologize, Commander Smith–,”
“Now, Levi, you do remember how well-suited these corridors are for the occasional grope?” Erwin said with a smile. Levi let out an indignant huff, looking down at the two teenagers. “We should have seen this coming.”
"Eren and his adopted sister lived in the same quarters, and nothing of the sort happened," he said moodily.
“Well, Eren happened also not to be interested in females, so that could be why."
“Sorry, sir,” Mikolas interrupted nervously. “What does this have to do with my mother and Senior Squad Leader Mikasa?”
“Nothing at all. Ask your father; he had a massive crush on her in the trainee days before he realized that he was as gay as a picnic basket. That’s beside the point,” Levi said with a smirk. “Do you have anything to say, young lady?”
"We were about to come see you and report the fact that Miko and I are in a relationship, sir," the girls replied with an entirely straight face, giving his mother a mocking salute. Levi's eyes narrowed before he let out an exasperated scoff.
"Sina save me from having to deal with hormonal teenagers." He glanced at Erwin. "I suppose we should have seen this coming. Listen up, numbnuts, I trust my daughter to be much smarter about this than you are–,"
“-which she is,” Kara muttered darkly.
“So I am fine with this unless you get her pregnant. Then I’m coming after you. Me and the entire Survey Corps, including your parents. I don’t think either of them would be too happy to see their thick-skulled son a father this early on. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“Dismissed.”
"You were a bit harsh, don't you think?" Erwin asked as he shrugged out of his shirt. He placed the garment on the chair by the window and turned to look at his wife who was standing at the door, his arms crossed over his chest. "You knew this would happen. We talked about it."
"The brat is still an inferior in the military. Which means that it is our job to teach him discipline," Levi muttered. He sighed, leaning against the doorframe. "I can't believe that they're so grown up already. Seems only yesterday that I was fleeing for my life with those two pressed to my chest."
“When we had our proper first kiss.”
“Yes. That.” Levi pushed himself off the wall and strode over to his husband, his hands immediately going to link around Erwin’s neck. He looked up at his husband and felt like he was at a loss for words, just like he did every single time he looked at Erwin, really looked at him. “I cannot forgive myself for making our first year so…”
“Memorable?” Erwin offered with a smile. Levi chuckled.
“In a way.”
“Would you want to do it again if you had the chance? Do it differently?”
Levi considered it for a moment.
“No.”
“Good.”
“Even though you’re a perverted old man, I don’t hate you.”
“I don’t hate you either.”