Chapter Text
Levi's POV:
Levi sighed for the trillionth time that day. It had been another busy day at work, and he hadn’t had the time to take a break, let alone time to get some lunch. He was finally finished with his work, just in time to head home and cook dinner. He remembered that he was short on food and would need to go to the store to get groceries. He sighed again.
"If you keep sighing like that Levi, your happiness will escape!"
"Shut up, shitty four-eyes. It already has," Levi replied with a groan.
"Thinking about him again?" Hanji asked. Levi rolled his eyes in irritation. For once he hadn't been thinking about him, until Hanji brought it back up.
"Don't worry Ravioli! He's out there somewhere. You'll find him." Hanji reassured as she came to sit on top of his desk. Levi grimaced before responding.
"Really? I'm starting to doubt it. And don't call me that."
Sometimes, Levi wished he didn't remember. The pain of loss, the brutality, his lover....it was enough to make him an insomniac. His past life had haunted him for the entirety of his present one, his only good memories being of a certain green-eyed boy. The world had changed quite a bit in the 2,000 years of his absence, but the people were the same. Many of Levi's friends from his past life were also reincarnated, all of them with their memories intact, same as him. Hanji, Erwin, Isabel, Petra, Annie, Moblit, Marco, Christa, and Connie were of the few he had found so far. But no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find Eren.
The lack of sleep and the stress that his memories brought him only served to worsen his mood as he listened to Hanji’s blabbering.
"Besides, you're not the only one! Erwin hasn't found Armin. Isabel hasn't found Farlan. Annie hasn't found Mikasa, Marco hasn't found Jean, and Connie hasn't found Sasha," Hanji said. “In fact, most of us are still looking for our missing halves.”
"Tell me something I don't know. I'm aware that I'm not the only one who hasn't found their lover yet, but it's different. None of them..." Levi's grip on the arms of his chair tightened, and he knew he couldn't finish that sentence.
Hanji walked over and placed her hands on Levi's shoulder. "I know. You don't have to say it," she said while gently massaging his shoulders. "Oh! I know what will cheer you up! Isabel scored tickets to this awesome pop concert! We're all going, and I'm sure it'll get your mind off of things. And oh my god, guess who the band is!!!" She squealed. Levi covered his ears in a futile attempt to block out her screeching.
"How the hell would I know? You know how I feel about that shitty pop crap that you call music." Levi growled in annoyance. He had absolutely no intentions of going to some shitty concert, crammed tight with thousands of sweaty people.
"Yeah, but they're different! Scout 104 is literally the best band ever. And the best part is, no one knows what they look like! Each member uses code names and the only way to see them is by going to one of their concerts. Isn't that awesome?!" Hanji had let go of his shoulders and was jumping up and down excitedly. “And we get to see them!”
"...Um, no actually. That sounds dumb, I mean, how do they even gain publicity? It's not like they can participate in the VMAs, or have any posters of themselves. It's probably because they're all ugly or something."
"Their music is just that good though! And I've heard from people who've been to their concerts that they're all pretty decent, if not really attractive. Especially Nere...I hear he's extremely hot. But besides, you need to get out more! When's the last time you actually had fun?" Hanji asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"I don't know what you're talking about, I'm always having fun. Isn't it obvious?" Levi deadpanned.
"Could've fooled me..." Hanji muttered. "Anyways, come on Levi! You have to come! Please! I'm not gonna leave you alone until you agree to go!"
Levi groaned before saying, "Fine! But you have to shut up. When is it anyway?"
"In 3 weeks, on the 23rd at 6PM. Me and Petra are coming over at 5 to help you pick out a decent outfit. If we left it to you, you would probably just wear a business suit!" She laughed.
Levi groaned again while standing up from his swivel chair. Why do I have to dress a certain way to go to a concert? "Who else is going besides you, Petra, Isabel and I?" Levi asked.
"Pretty much everyone. Annie, Connie, Marco, Christa and Erwin are going. Auruo and Moblit are going out to golf, so they won't be coming." Hanji replied as Levi walked over to the coat rack to grab his jacket. Lucky them...Levi thought. "Oh! Do you want to go out to dinner with Isabel, Petra and I tonight? It's on me." Hanji said. Levi paused a moment to think. He didn't really want to put up with Hanji for any longer...but if he did go, he wouldn't have to waste energy on going to the store or cooking something. Not to mention, she was paying.
Levi sighed. "Yeah sure. As long as you're paying."
"Hehe!" Hanji giggled as she linked arms with Levi and dragged him out of the office. They boarded the elevator since they were on the 19th floor, and were soon on their way to the Italian restaurant.
-------------
"Hey guys!" Isabel said waving from the table she and Petra were seated at. As Levi and Hanji walked over, she said " We haven't ordered yet, but the Fettuccine Alfredo looks amazing as usual." Petra handed them each a menu, and Levi opened his and began flipping through to find the most expensive thing.
"So Levi, are you coming with us to the Scout 104 concert? It's gonna be so awesome~" Isabel said excitedly. Levi glanced to her for a moment to send her a quick glare before redirecting his gaze to his menu. The waitress came over and took their orders and left again before Petra had whipped out her phone to show Levi something.
"Ah! Here it is!" She said, shoving the device in Levi's face. He gingerly took the phone, and started at the picture displayed. The background was separated into 7 different colors, each with a black silhouette of a person. On the farthest left was an orange background, that displayed a tall, lanky looking male with his hands in his pockets. The male appeared to have a long face. Next to him was a light blue background, with the silhouette of a small, manly looking girl, who had short hair, that was slightly shorter than shoulder length, styled in a bob. Or maybe it was a girly looking boy? Levi couldn't tell from the silhouette. They were standing with a hand on one hip and the other hip popped out. Next to the girl/boy was a red background, with a female who was slightly taller than the person in the panel before them. She was curvier, but also had short hair. She was standing turned to the side to show her profile side, while looking towards the camera. She was facing towards the short boy/girl with her arms crossed across her chest, her back facing towards the male in the next panel.
His background was a beautiful green, from the silhouette he could tell the boy was slightly lean and muscular. He had one hand that was threaded through his unruly locks of hair, while the other hand rested on his hip. He was taller than the girl in the red panel, and around the same height as the first boy. He had semi-curly, messy looking hair. The girl next to him was posed like a cheerleader, with her arms up in a V-shape, and one leg kicked up behind her. She had her medium length hair pulled back into a pony tail, and she stood in front of a purple background. In the next panel was the silhouette of a tall lanky girl with hair that was in a ponytail. She stood straight with her arms crossed and her background was dark blue. There was one more panel next to her, a yellow one, with the silhouette of a very tall looking male. He was lean, with short hair. He had one hand in his pocket and the other dangling by his side. But Levi only payed much attention to the silhouette of the boy in the green panel. Something about him was familiar... Well, they were all familiar, but he was different somehow.
"You like?" Levi hadn't realized how long he had been staring at the screen until he heard Petra's voice pipe up. He grunted, and handed her back her phone. She swiped at something, and then handed it to Levi again while saying, "Look at this. It's all of them individually, and has their code names. Nere is my favorite. If you swipe, it'll show you the next one."
Levi glanced at the photo to see that it was the same as the other photo, except the entire background was orange and the only silhouette was of the first boy. At the bottom in white letters, it said "NAEJ". Levi swiped to the next one, with the boy/girl in the light blue background. This one was called "NIMRA". Levi swiped to the one with the girl in the red panel. Her name was "ASAK". He swiped to the next one, but was surprised it wasn't the boy in the green background but the girl in the purple one. Her name was "AHSAS". Levi couldn't comprehend some of these names, they were weird to him. The next photo had the girl in the dark blue panel, at the bottom it showed her name was "RIMY". The next one was of the really tall guy in the yellow panel, with the name "TREB" displayed beneath. He swiped again, hoping that the green one would be there, and he was. Levi quickly checked to see that the boy's name was "NERE". Levi sighed in relief, and then pushed Petra's phone back to her. At that moment, their food arrived, and they dug in.
Levi neatly ate his shrimp Alfredo while pondering the concert and the mysterious group known as Scout 104. After swallowing a bite, he asked “Why do they keep their names a secret? I get that they might not want to be recognized by fans when they go out into public, but that doesn’t mean they need to have secret names.”
Isabel laughed a little, wiping her mouth with a napkin before responding. “No one is really sure why they hide their identity. It’s part of their charm, I guess. I’ve heard a few stories, the most common is that the members of Scout 104 are searching for their “soulmates”, and they believe that their soulmates will know who they are without having to see their faces or have a clue to their names. That way if they come across their soulmate, they won’t have to worry about it being a fan who is pretending to be their soulmate.”
Levi hummed. “If that’s true, they’re pretty weird. How do they expect their ‘soulmate’” he bent his fingers into the quotation symbol for emphasis “to recognize them? Have they met their soulmates before?”
Isabel shrugged as she played with the red strands of one of her pigtails. “That I don’t know. It is pretty weird, but I think the idea is really romantic! Don’t you?” she asked him.
It was his turn to shrug. “I guess if you’re into that sort of thing.”
--------------
Levi groaned as he rubbed his sore shoulders, walking into his bedroom and flopping onto the bed. Hanji had somehow managed to get drunk off her ass, and like the gentleman he totally wasn't, he helped her get home. How the hell did she even consume that much wine without them noticing, anyway? He was amazed at how heavy she was, despite her looks. Levi rolled over, realizing he would need to take a shower. He grudgingly pulled himself off of the bed and walked into the bathroom that was joint to his room. He turned on the water and quickly discarded his clothes into the dirty hamper before stepping inside. Once he had finished showering, he put on his black silk pajamas and soon fell asleep in the comforter of his bed.
-----------
"Eren, stay here. Don't move," Levi said to the young boy.
"No! You want me to just stand back and watch as you fight? In case you've forgotten, I'm a soldier too!"
"I know you're a soldier Eren," Levi said as he turned to place his hands on the brunette's shoulders. "But trust me on this one. Don't you dare move from here. I swear I will protect you."
"But Lev-"
"No! I won't let them hurt you!" Levi stormed off into the midst of battle, while Eren stood still, clenching his fists. Levi slayed titan after titan, but he was at his rope's end. He couldn't see straight, red blurring his vision as he watched many of his comrades fall. He hadn't realized that he had been spacing out for a while as a large shadow crept over him and onto the battleground before him. He turned around, but it was too late, large dirty, stubby fingers wrapped around his body, clenching him in a tight iron grip. He felt his ribs breaking as the hand squeezed harder, and his vision was fading from red to black.
"LEVI!!!!!" He heard someone screaming his name, but was too fatigued to recognize the voice. The hand brought him to a large, ugly face. 'This is it,' he thought. 'I'm not going to make it.' Just as he was being brought to the large gaping mouth, everything around him changed. He was still inside the enormous hand, but the grip had significantly lessened, and he was no longer suspended in air, but on the floor of the muddy terrain. He then noticed that the hand was no longer connected to a body. He shoved his way out of the now steaming flesh, as he caught sight of a soldier standing nearby. Eren. He ran as quickly as he could to reach Eren, noticing that his 3D maneuver gear had been smashed. He soon reached the bright eyed teen, and wrapped his arms around the boy.
"Eren," he breathed out. "I thought I told you stay put."
"Like hell I was going to stand there and let you die. I want to protect you, too. Losing you would be worse than death," Eren replied.
"Tch. Right back at you, brat."
"I love you," Eren said suddenly.
"........"
Levi undoubtedly and unconditionally loved Eren, but he could never bring himself to say it. Expressing his emotions through words was never something he had been good at, even now, as they stood in the middle of a field that looked like hell itself.
"It's fine. You don't have to say it if you don't want to," Eren said gently, pulling back slightly to look into his corporal's silvery eyes. "Just know that I will always love you. In this life, the next life, and the ones after that. Always." Suddenly Eren's eyes grew as wide as saucers, and he pushed Levi away with all of the strength he could muster. Levi landed roughly five feet away from Eren, and he winced in pain due to his broken ribs. He looked up with horror as the same titan from before had wrapped its hand around the younger soldier.
"Eren!!" Even to him, his voice sounded broken as he pushed himself off the ground and ran towards the titan. He came closer, but realized there wasn't much he could do, his gear was broken. He tried to pull one of the blades out, but it was stuck. Doing the last thing he could think of, he ran up to the titan's leg, and began pounding his fists against it.
"It's no use, Levi! You have to run!" Eren yelled.
"No! Not without you! I have to protect you!"
"No, Levi. Just run away. I'm begging you, you have to live! If you don't live, my death will have been for nothing. Go!"
There was nothing he could do. He was 'Humanity's Strongest', but at the moment of truth, he proved to be weak. He watched as the titan brought Eren to its mouth. He couldn't watch. So he turned, and ran as fast as he could. He heard the sound of the titan's jaw snapping shut, and he stopped. He turned around, only to see the lifeless body of his young lover fall to the ground.
"B-b-but...! But he's titan shifter, he can regenerate, can't he?" Levi whimpered to himself. It was then that he noticed that the body lying on the sullen ground had no head. There was no way even a titan shifter could survive.
"N-n-no....," Levi fell to his knees and began sobbing. He looked up towards the gray sky, noticing that it had been raining. The rain splattered against his face, mixing with his tears.
"Eren....EREN!!!!"
Levi sat up with a gasp. He was covered in a cold sweat, and he sat in the darkness, breathing heavily. He glanced at the bright red numbers on his alarm clock. It was 3:12A.M. He flopped back down on his bed, knowing he wouldn't be getting any more sleep, but closed his eyes anyway.
He had that same dream most nights, and had developed insomnia because of it. He could remember every detail of that moment, and even thousands of years later it still caused him unbearable pain. What was worse was that he could remember the moment that he himself had died. Eren had told him to live because then his death wouldn’t be for nothing, but without Eren in his life, Levi wasn’t really living. For two years after that incident, Levi had been completely depressed. He almost never left his room, and he spent more time crying than not.
Levi could easily recall the moment he decided to end his suffering. He had taken one of the blades from his 3D maneuver gear and slit his own throat, no doubt causing pain to those around him when they discovered his lifeless body. Hanji never talked about it, never mentioned what life was like for her after he had killed himself, but when they had first met in this life, she had made him swear to her that he would never do something like that again.
He thought about it sometimes, killing himself that is. But some part of his knew that he was stronger than that. In this life he didn’t have to worry about losing his friends to giant man-eating creatures. Eren was probably out there somewhere, and even if Eren didn’t remember Levi, he would be alright with just knowing that Eren was okay, and that he was happy.