Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Walking through the halls of the old castle the Survey Corps were using as a base of operations, Eren Jaeger couldn’t help but notice how blue the sky was. He cursed the fact he was on cleaning duty inside the castle today; he’d much rather be out weeding the yard or hell, mucking the stables.

The horses were great company anyway. 

“Jaeger!”

Eren froze at the urgent call of his name, ignoring the jolt of anxiety that ran through him as he turned around to face the soldier running towards him. “What is it, Horseface?”

Jean rolled his eyes at the nickname but the uneasy expression adorning his face didn’t go away. “The commander is calling you to his office. Immediately, he said.”

“Okay, thanks.” Eren nodded, careful not to show any emotion in his voice or on his face despite the way his heart jumped into his throat, beating at a speed that couldn’t be healthy, his stomach turning with a sudden burst of anxiety, his vision blurring momentarily.

Ignoring the violent reaction his body gave, Eren sidestepped Jean, not sparing him another glance as he set out in the direction of Commander Erwin’s office.

At least, that was his intention, but Jean’s hand on his arm stopped him. “Wait. Tell me something. Do you know what this is about?” When Eren didn’t say anything, Jean frowned. “You do, don’t you? It sounded pretty damn serious. What the hell is going on?”

Eren sighed, looking Jean in the eyes. He was surprised to find genuine worry in the soft browns, but all he could muster in assurance was a crooked, humourless smile.

“Don’t worry your tiny horse brain over it. It’s going to be either something big, or nothing at all.”

Jean frown only deepened at that. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? Hey, Eren! Wait!”

Without another word, Eren simply shook his head before leaving the other soldier standing alone in the hallway, confused and deeply concerned.

Eren could only pray that concern wouldn’t be warranted.

Eren closed his eyes as he gathered the courage to knock. He knew there was no way to get out of this and the longer he waited, the worse it would get, but knowing that didn’t make it any easier. Didn’t make the anxiety go away, didn’t untie the knots in his stomach. 

Didn’t make his hands stop shaking.

Taking a deep breath, Eren opened his eyes, gulping heavily, before he finally gave the door a sharp knock. A call of come in came immediately, making it clear the commander had been waiting.

Willing his heart to stop beating so loudly, Eren pushed the door open, saluting in greeting while he assessed the situation. Commander Erwin was sitting behind his desk with his hands folded in front of his face, sporting a grave expression. Squad Leader Hanji was standing next to him; she was missing her usual smile and refused to look anywhere near Eren. The last person in the room was Captain Levi, who was sitting in a chair opposite of the commander with his back towards Eren, his bangs hiding whatever expression he was wearing.

The commander gestured towards the lone empty chair next to Captain Levi, a silent command which Eren obeyed immediately.

Silence hung over the room as the commander leaned back in his seat, giving Eren an unreadable look. It took him a long moment to ask, “Eren, do you know why I called you here?”

Eren’s eyes momentarily veered towards Hanji, who was still unwilling to look at him, but guilt flashed across her face clearly all the same.

“I have a feeling, sir,” Eren replied slowly.

“Hanji has informed me—” Commander Erwin paused, searching Eren’s eyes “—that you are… in a certain condition.”

“I don’t know if I would call being pregnant ‘a certain condition’ but that is correct.”

Erwin’s eyebrows shot up as heavy silence descended over the room once more. Eren waited, meeting Erwin’s calculating gaze with his own unwavering one.

“So you knew about it,” Erwin said with a hint of accusation.

Eren gave his commanding officer a wry, humourless smile. “I am a male omega, sir. Of course I knew.”

“And you didn’t think to inform anyone?”

“I figured Squad Leader Hanji would find out soon enough.”

Erwin sighed. “Your actions—or lack thereof—and manner of speech right now are honestly on the verge of being classified as insubordination.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but I am well aware my child’s life is at stake here. I think I have every right to be defensive,” Eren responded, maybe slightly more aggressively than advised.

“You’re right Eren,” Hanji interrupted before Erwin could say anything else and probably only aggravate Eren further. “You have the right and it’s to be expected. But you are still a soldier talking to your commanding officer so please, do try to keep calm, okay?”

Eren shot her an unimpressed look but said nothing.

Erwin took his silence as a cue to continue. “Alright, Eren. First, who is the other parent and do they know about this?”

Eren looked directly into his commander’s eyes before he firmly stated, “They do know and I’m sorry, but I’m not telling you who they are.”

“Since they are aware of the situation, they have to be present, Eren. Otherwise, it will only… complicate things.”

“With all due respect, sir, I am not telling you no matter what you say,” Eren hissed, baring his teeth in anger.

“Okay!” Hanji interrupted again, then continued in a gentle tone, “You don’t have to tell us, Eren. But I think you know where this is going.” She paused to take a deep breath and closed her eyes as if she was scared of the words that were about to leave her mouth. “We’re going to have to ask you to abort. It would be best for everyone.”

Eren flashed his teeth again, a low growl escaping him as he instinctively shifted to shield his stomach. “How. How exactly is that better for us or our child.”

“That’s…“ Hanji turned away, clearly at a loss for words. She looked to Erwin for help but the man ignored her, intently studying Eren instead.

“Moreover,” a new voice added, speaking for the first time since Eren arrived, “are you willing to deal with a pissed off alpha when he finds out you killed his child?” Captain Levi‘s voice sounded a little too calm and emotionless. It was clear didn’t like the situation that had somehow come to be and was putting in great effort to keep his voice level.

Erwin raised his hand to show Hanji he’d take it from there, making the researcher sigh in relief. “That’s exactly why I asked Eren who the other party was. To minimise the possible damage.” He turned to Eren, now speaking in a more placating voice. “Eren, I can only imagine how this makes you feel. I completely understand you don’t believe us when we say this, but it really would be for the best of everyone, including the child. You are a titan shifter. Who knows how that ability could affect the baby. Not to mention we would have to halt all experiments, even drastically reduce your normal physical training. Going beyond the Walls would also be out of the question.

“All that is a problem for us in itself, but most importantly, people would notice. In the Corps, as well as in the Capital. Then your stomach will start growing and people will connect the dots. I don’t think I have to explain that if the government or the Military Police find out, they will either tell you to abort anyway, or try to kill you and the baby. Worst case, they will take the baby as soon as it’s born to use for experiments. And when they are done with that, they’ll sell him or her to the highest bidder as a trophy— if your child survives at all. Whichever the case, the child will suffer.  

“It wouldn’t be the first case of a ‘Titan Child’. Terrible things happened to the first such case. But, considering your child would be much more closely connected to the titans than the first one, it would suffer much, much more than even him. None of us here want to see that,” Erwin finished in a sad whisper.

By the end of the commander’s speech, silent tears were streaming down Eren’s cheeks, although he was more furious than anything. His teeth were bared and he was growling loudly without bothering to hide it, staring at Erwin with that infamous maniacal look in his eyes. He curled around his stomach protectively, clutching at himself desperately, fighting to suppress the trembles brought on by his anger.

“No,” he snarled. “No, I won’t let that happen. None of those things. I don’t want to give up this child either. I don’t want anything to happen to them. No.”

Hanji, fighting back her own tears, walked over to crouch in front of the young omega, who was by now on the verge of a breakdown. She gently placed her hands on his knees, squeezing them in a soothing gesture. “I know you’re angry. Or sad, really, behind all that anger. It’s a difficult decision. Probably the most difficult decision you’ll ever have to make in your entire life. But you yourself know it’s the best way. The safest way for you and your child. I promise you on my life I will put even more effort into my research, Erwin will put more effort into his plans, Levi more effort into slaughtering everything standing between us and victory. We’ll all do our absolute best to win this war as soon as we can. And once we win, you can have another baby. And another after that. All the babies you will ever want. But now…” Hanji paused to wipe away her own tears. “Now is just not the right time. You have to be strong this one time.”

At that point, Eren could barely see in front of him. His vision was clouded, whether it be the tears or the raw emotions, he didn’t know and he didn’t care. He was trembling all over, his heartbeat echoing in his own ears. He knew he was still growling but there was a broken whimper stuck in his chest. A pathetic noise of a wounded animal, lost and scared.

He knew what Hanji was saying made sense. He knew what Erwin was saying made sense. Bringing a child into this world, into his world, was the worst thing that he could do to them, but…

It hurt.

It hurt so fucking much.

Yet, the alternative would hurt that much more, wouldn’t it?

Letting go of a shaky breath, Eren blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision at least a little. He raised his head, so, so fragile determination in his eyes as he looked at Hanji and nodded the tiniest bit, whispering quietly, “I understand.”

Hanji smiled weakly at him, squeezing his knees one more time. She went to hug the boy but before she could so much as touch him, she was stopped by a single, ice-cold word.

“No.”

All heads turned to Captain Levi. His head was still angled in a way that no one could read his expression at all.

“Levi?” Erwin questioned, surprise and confusion almost tangible in his voice.

“No. I will not let you people do that. I don’t doubt you don’t have any fucking idea, living all your life on the surface, but have you ever heard about an omegan abortion?”

Hanji and Erwin looked at each other with identical, puzzled frowns, but Eren simply continued to stare at his captain without even blinking, his gaze glued to his shielded face.

“Well, now that you mention it… No, I suppose not,” Hanji said slowly.

“That’s because no one fucking does them on the surface. Why do you think that is? It’s definitely not because no omega ever experienced an accidental pregnancy. Or was fucking raped and ended up with unwanted brat. None of that matters, an omega won’t ever ask for an abortion and no one forces them to. Even miscarriages are rare. They get the best fucking medical care upside too.”

“Is it dangerous? Do you think even with Eren’s regeneration it would be too much?” Hanji asked as she chewed on her bottom lip, obviously worried.

Captain Levi snorted, a sound so void of an amusement that it was almost painful to hear. “That’s not the problem. I’ve seen it so many times in the Underground. Pimps forcing their whores to abort because it was inconvenient. Pregnant omegas getting beaten up so bad they miscarried. The abortion or miscarriage itself is the same for an omega as it is for a beta. But for an omega, losing a child absolutely fucking breaks them. They die inside and you can do fuck-all about it. Not even another pregnancy fixes them. They’re fucked up for the rest of their shitty, miserable lives.”

Something akin to horror flashed over Hanji’s face; even Commander Erwin looked unsettled.

Captain Levi ignored them both as he slowly stood up.

Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room shifted, an air of dominance and danger descending upon all people present. The second Levi took his first step towards Eren, Hanji scrambled as far away as she could, her eyes going wide as she stared at her best friend in shock.

As he calmly took his place in front of his charge, the captain pulled out the dagger he always carried and firmly held it in a reverse grip. Only then did he raise his head to let the whole world see the angry, glowing eyes of an alpha protecting his omega.

Hanji gasped while Erwin took in a sharp breath as they both finally understood the whole picture. Why Eren refused to tell them who the other parent was. How quiet Levi had been ever since the start of the meeting. Why he was so aggressively against the idea of abortion.

“I’ll ask you again,” Levi growled lowly, taking up a defensive stance, ready to protect against whatever force came after his charge. “Are you willing to deal with a pissed off alpha protecting both his child and mate?”

The silence that followed was heavy, almost oppressively so. None of the people present dared to even move, much less speak, in fear of disturbing the fragile balance. 

It took a long, long while before Eren broke the stillness in a quiet but firm voice. “Levi, stop. You’re not helping.”

“Shut up, Eren,” Levi barked, without taking his eyes off of the other two. “I’m protecting you two from making the stupidest decision in the history of these shitty walls.”

Eren frowned up at Levi even though he knew the man couldn’t see it, but before he could say anything back, Commander Erwin started talking instead. 

“He’s right, Eren,” he said in a calm voice. “It doesn’t sound like the wisest decision, after all. I’m sorry for almost forcing you to agree to it.”

“What are you going on about, Eyebrows,” questioned Levi cautiously, although some of the tension in his body visibly let up at the realisation that he had made his point heard.

Erwin smiled apologetically at the pair. “What you said changes the situation drastically. It never occurred to me that abortion could have such dire consequences but since that is the case, it can’t even be considered an option. Humanity needs Eren in the best shape we can possibly have him. Again, I’m sorry for not taking Eren’s mental health into consideration.”

At that, Levi finally relaxed completely, putting his dagger away once more. However, instead of sitting back in his seat, he grabbed the chair and put it as close to Eren’s as possible, refusing to keep his distance anymore. He flopped back into it, crossing his legs before he reached out for his mate’s hand to hold it firmly in his own.

Or he tried to. 

The second his fingers touched Eren’s skin, the omega jumped at the wet, slimy feeling. When he looked down at their interlocked hands, his eyes went wide with horror.

Blood.

There was blood all over Levi’s hand.

Quickly prying his own hand out of the vice grip Levi had on it, Eren turned his mate’s hand over to look at his palm. It was bleeding, four small cuts in the shape of human nails at the source. As if Levi had been clenching his fists so hard that he broke the skin.

Eren gulped, looking up at Levi in disbelief. “Levi, you—”

“It’s nothing,” Levi dismissed him, simply going to grab his hand again.

The omega didn’t know what to say. Should he scold him for hurting himself? Or thank him for protecting him and their child? Should he ask for assurance, seek comfort? Should he give assurance and comfort?

But then, as Hanji muttered something about a first-aid kit and ran off, Eren was reminded that they still had other, bigger problems to focus on. So, he simply opted to shoot Levi one last unhappy look, before he turned back to Commander Erwin to ask the question burning at the tip of his tongue.

“So, do we—do we get to keep the baby?” He clutched Levi’s hand in a death grip, momentarily forgetting his mate’s injury. Levi squeezed his right back.

Erwin gave them a contemplative look, taking a few moments to give his final answer. “I don’t see any other option since your full control of your titan is essential to us. So yes, you get to keep the baby.”

Eren sighed in relief, slumping in his seat until his forehead touched his knees. He almost burst into tears again.

“But,” Erwin continued firmly, “some extreme measures will have to be taken. Absolutely no one outside the Survey Corps can know about this. Don’t tell a single soul for now. I’ll have to think about how we’ll proceed and then we’ll talk. Think very, very carefully about who you can trust with your— all three of your—lives in the meantime.”

He was interrupted by a knock on the door, Hanji slipping back inside a second later with a first-aid kit in tow. For a moment, the three of them watched in silence as Hanji kneeled down in front of Levi and started cleaning and disinfecting both of his palms, before Erwin directed his next question at her.

“Hanji, how long do you think we can hide Eren is pregnant?”

Hanji tilted her head in thought without ceasing her work. “You mean visually, or with his training and experiments and stuff?”

“Visually. The rest we can probably work around with some difficulty.”

Hanji ran her eyes up and down Eren’s form, although Eren had no idea what she could possibly read from that. “Hard to say. Usually, male omegas don’t show much, especially if they have some muscles on them, so the odds should be on our side. If we’re lucky, Eren might show so little you won’t notice unless you’re looking for it even close to birth. But we might not be lucky and it will become obvious a few months in.”

“So, we have a few months before potentially getting a heads up if it’s not in our favor?”

“That’s about it, yes.”

“Thank you. Hanji, I want you to give Eren a full, detailed checkup and I want an estimate of what I can expect in what time frame by next week. I expect you all here on Monday at the same time to discuss our options. You’re dismissed after Hanji’s done with Levi.”

“Yes, sir,” the three of them replied in unison, Eren being the only one who bothered to stand up and salute.

It took Hanji only a few more minutes to fasten the bandages on Levi’s hands, after which they all started filing out.

But, before they even reached the door, Erwin called out, “Levi, Eren, wait a second.”

The two of them paused, turning back to look at the commander. Out of the corner of his eyes, Eren could see Hanji throwing a quick glance over her shoulder before she left without another word.

Erwin waited until the door closed behind the squad leader before he gave the remaining two a warm smile, catching Eren completely off-guard. 

“The two of you, take the rest of the day off. You both look like you need it.”

Eren opened his mouth to protest but before he could do so, Erwin continued, “And, putting aside just how bad this whole situation is, congratulations.”

Eren shut his mouth, gulping heavily. He didn’t know what to say, what to do with himself. “Th—Thank you, sir,” he stumbled over his words, blushing a little as he bowed his head bashfully. “For everything.”

“You’re welcome, Eren.”

Giving the commander a small smile of his own, Eren then made quick eye contact with Levi, the two of them coming to an understanding practically immediately. With one final salute, Eren excused himself, leaving Levi and Erwin alone.

Levi lingered a minute longer, simply staring at his friend and superior officer without a word, only mumbling a quick thanks of his own once he finally turned away to leave as well.

Erwin laughed easily. “We’re having a nice, long talk about responsibility and regulations later.”

“Fuck off,” Levi shot back with an amused huff, allowing himself a small, relieved smile.

Everything was alright. At least, for now.

Chapter Text

It was just after lunch when someone knocked on the door to Levi’s office. He had expected it to be Eren bringing him his afternoon tea, but instead, Hanji poked her head in, a strange expression on her face.

“What is it, Shitty Four-Eyes?” Levi asked, returning his gaze to the papers on his desk.

“Levi, I’m going to report to Erwin.”

Levi raised an eyebrow, still not giving her his full attention. “And? You’re telling me this why?”

She shuffled her feet uncomfortably, chewing on her bottom lip. “There was something in Eren’s bloodwork from yesterday. I think you should be there.”

The alpha froze. He was pretty damn sure he knew what this was about, though he didn’t expect it quite this soon; Hanji was too efficient for her own good sometimes. He bit back a curse. “Fine. Give me five minutes to finish this and I’ll go.”

Thankfully, Hanji just nodded and left ahead of him; Levi wasn’t sure how it would play out if she didn’t. As soon as the door closed behind her, he abandoned all pretense of working and tossed the pen he was holding away before he broke it in his grip. He didn’t even know for sure if it was about Eren’s pregnancy or something else and he already felt his protective instincts rising to an alarming level.

He wanted to find Eren right now and hide him somewhere he would be safe but he knew that was impossible. Beside the fact they had already agreed to face this problem head on, the omega was too stubborn and hot-headed to just let himself be stowed away.

Levi loved and hated that part of him.

After a detour to the bathroom to wash his face and calm down to the best of his current ability, Levi arrived at Erwin’s office only to be faced with a terribly tense atmosphere, causing his instincts to spike up once again. Making sure to keep his expression neutral, he flopped into one of the chairs opposite the commander.

He took a deep breath, eyeing Erwin and Hanji warily. “Alright, I’m here. What is this shit about and what does it have to do with me.”

Hanji took a step forward, tapping a little stack of papers on Erwin’s desk. “I wanted you here because this concerns Eren and you’re the one who’s in charge of him. As I already told you, there was something in Eren’s bloodwork from yesterday. I didn’t want to believe it but I checked it twice. There’s no mistaking it.”

“Stop stalling, Four-Eyes. What is it?”

“He’s pregnant, Levi,” Erwin announced bluntly and Levi’s gaze slid to him.

Well, fuck. 

Levi knew this was it but hearing it confirmed didn’t help ease his instincts any. It pretty much did the opposite, really. 

“... And?” He kept his voice deceivingly level, taking great care to not show any emotion.

Hanji gaped at him. “What do you mean, and? It’s a problem, Levi! A serious one at that! He’s Humanity’s Last Hope and he’s pregnant! What if someone finds out? What if he can’t transform anymore? What if he refuses to fight anymore?!”

Levi sneered. “You should know damn well the brat won’t just up and give up because he’s a parent now.”

Hanji deflated a little at that. “I know but…”

“He shouldn’t keep the child. If we can help it, at least. It would mean too much of a risk. For us and for Eren as well. Not to mention the risk the child would face.”

Erwin’s words made Levi clench his jaw in anger. He had expected someone to propose this sooner or later but that knowledge still didn’t prepare him for having to actually hear it. He took a deep breath, curling his hands into fists. He couldn't lose it now. He couldn’t.

“Are you talking about Kyklo?” Hanji asked Erwin quietly, thankfully not noticing Levi’s inner struggle.

The commander nodded, but didn’t elaborate. “Well, first we have to talk to him and try to make him see our point—”

“You mean your point,” Levi interrupted through gritted teeth.

Erwin gave him a contemplative look but didn’t comment on his aggression, simply correcting himself. “See my point and wait for his reaction.”

Hanji sighed sadly, “I can’t imagine he’ll take it well.”

“Me neither but I don’t believe there’s a better solution. Do you?” he asked both his trusted squad leaders and while Hanji shook her head in defeat, Levi said nothing. Erwin continued, “I already sent for him so we should know our position soon. If he doesn’t agree to abortion, we’ll have to come up with a really damn good plan to hide it.”

Focusing on the painful sting of his nails digging into his palms in an effort to keep himself from tearing Erwin into little pieces for the mere suggestion, Levi silently swore he would make Erwin come up with that ‘really damn good plan’ if it was the last fucking thing he did.

Not five minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

The corridor was mercifully empty when Levi left Erwin’s office twenty minutes later. He took the opportunity and slumped against the wall behind the first corner, closing his eyes and taking several deep breaths to try and calm down. He still felt like he might rip the head off of the first person to look at him wrong in some misguided attempt to protect his mate and child. He knew he wouldn’t fully calm down unless Eren was somewhere in his immediate vicinity but he had to take care of things before going to look for his mate. He had to find Mike or someone at least semi-competent to reassign the duties he and Eren had been relieved of.

Letting go of one last, final sigh, Levi forced his face into neutral to at least look as composed as always before he set off in search of human activity. Heading for the nearest stairs, he thanked his lucky star when, after descending only a few steps, he spotted Nanaba just a little ways below him.

“Oi, Nanaba!” he called after his fellow veteran.

The woman stopped in her tracks, startled by the unexpected voice. She looked around in confusion before her eyes found Levi and she smiled, “Oh, Levi! What is it?”

“Erwin gave me the rest of the day off. Tell my squad to continue what we were doing yesterday and that if I find out, and I will find out, they were slacking off, I’m gonna work their asses until they can’t walk and then more.”

Nanaba smirked. “Sure thing. Anything else?”

“The cleaning duties are still in order. Someone also needs to take over for Jaeger, Hanji’s orders. If I find a single speck of dust tomorrow, I’ll skin the fucker responsible.”

“Yessir,” Nanaba laughed and if he didn’t know any better, Levi would think she was making fun of him.

He narrowed his eyes at her in warning as he thanked her.

“No problem. Enjoy your time off, Levi.” She left with a small wave.

Levi waved back before going back the way he came, heading for the small kitchenette that was conveniently and entirely coincidently located on the same floor as the commander and squad leaders’ offices. He needed something hot and liquid. It always helped him relax and he knew for a fact that if he needed something extra to calm down all the way, a certain hot-tempered brat needed it twice as much. No matter how much he pretended to be alright or denied being upset.

Levi prepared the tea with practiced ease and soon enough, he was picking up a tray holding a teapot and two cups. He just hoped Eren was alright and waiting for him—in other words, that he had somehow managed to escape Hanji’s clutches.

Walking up the one flight of stairs to get to the top floor holding the officers’ private rooms, he was relieved to see his own door was slightly open—meaning Eren was most likely inside and expecting him to come soon, with his hands full. Levi didn’t resist the soft smile pulling on his lips; the kid knew him so well.

The alpha used his foot to open the door, quickly kicking it shut behind himself before he took in the scene before him.

Eren had already made himself comfortable in Levi’s bed, surrounding himself with all the pillows and blankets that he had somehow managed to sneak in over the past several months, making a sort of a nest for himself. Levi refused to admit how much more at ease he felt just seeing him, especially since he looked so nice and cozy in Levi’s own territory.

Seemingly lost in thought, Eren had been staring out of the window until the sound of the door shutting made him jump and brought him back from his trance.

Levi smirked. “That’s my bed, you know?”

“Didn’t see you complaining until now.”

Shrugging, Levi countered in his typical, impassive tone, “I wasn’t complaining, just stating a fact.” 

Eren huffed and looked away pointedly, making Levi shake his head a little.

Ignoring his mate for now, the alpha put the tray on the bedside table and focused his attention on the tea. Pouring each of them a cup, he handed one to Eren; he waited patiently for several seconds before Eren acknowledged him and accepted the warm drink. 

As the cup changed hands, the contents came a little too close to spilling for Levi’s comfort and he swore in his mind that this would be the first and last time that anyone was eating or drinking anything in his bed. But, easing Eren’s mind was his top priority right now, so he let it slide and just prayed neither of them would actually spill a single drop.

Only once Eren had his tea securely in his hands, soaking up the warmth the hot cup provided rather than actually drinking it, did Levi climb into the bed as well. Making sure not to disturb his nest too much, he carefully settled in close to his mate, then finally reached out to grab his own cup. The moment he tried to pick it up by the rim, however, sharp pain shot out from his injured palm, making him hiss and loosen his grip. What a dumb idea, punching holes into his own hand…

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Levi gave up. 

It felt awkward, holding the cup by its body and he felt the heat slowly seep through the bandage covering his palm. He didn’t understand how Eren could hold the cup like it was a comfortably warm temperature rather than barely-not-scalding hot as it was.

And speaking of Eren…

“Why are you staring at me like you want to bite my fucking head off?”

“Your hand hurts.”

“No shit. It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

That was clearly not a good enough response for Eren. The omega narrowed his eyes even further as he hissed through gritted teeth, “I can’t believe you. You’re such an idiot! What the hell were you thinking, hurting yourself like that?!” 

Levi raised an eyebrow. Wasn’t it obvious what he was thinking? 

But, Eren wasn’t done yet. 

“And while we’re at it, why did you even come out? What were you trying to do, threatening the commander and Hanji like that? We agreed to keep you out of the picture as long as possible and then you turn around and just go and put yourself in danger of suspension or worse at the first opportunity! Yoummmph!!”

Levi slapped a hand over Eren’s mouth to shut him up, for which the omega glared viciously at him, but Levi just shook his head. He put his untouched teacup away again, doing the same with Eren’s, before turning back to him. “Listen, you little shit. Do you really think I could just sit back and let you so easily agree to the shittiest solution ever? That I could just nod along while you three discuss aborting our kid? While knowing it would kill you right along with them?”

Now it was Eren’s turn to interrupt his captain. He angrily slapped Levi’s hand away and gave him the most venomous glare he could probably muster. “Do you think I liked the idea of it? Do you?! Fuck no! I hated it! I wanted to kill them both for even suggesting it but it made sense! It was the best call! Did you hear what the commander said might happen to the baby?” Eren’s voice broke at the memory and he continued in a much quieter voice. “I don’t want our child to suffer. Ever.” He held his mates gaze as silence settled over them.

Finally, Levi raised his hand and put it gently over Eren’s cheek, rubbing soothing circles into the warm skin. “Eren,” he murmured, “do you really think I’d let anyone touch the kid and survive? I’ll sooner murder every fucking human behind these shitty walls than see either of my brats get hurt.”

Eren groaned, closing his eyes before slumping against the strong body of his mate, Levi’s arms automatically closing around him.

“I can protect myself,” Eren mumbled defiantly into Levi’s shoulder.

The alpha only snorted in response. “That’s bullshit and you know it. Suicidal bastard.”

Eren laughed weakly at the remark but it was short-lived. “Walls, Levi, I was so scared,” he whimpered, finally letting his true feelings surface.

Levi let his head drop, kissing the top of his omega’s head and nuzzling his hair. “Me too, brat. Me too.”

Eren’s hands came up to clutch at the alpha’s back, his fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt as he took a deep, shaky breath. “I’m so fucking happy and so relieved, but I feel so selfish, keeping the baby. We’re going to cause so much trouble for everyone. The commander and Hanji especially.”

Levi couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “That’s another bullshit right there. Shitty Four-Eyes is gonna implode trying to keep all that excitement in. What would be better for that maniac than getting the opportunity to study a titan kid?”

“Don’t call them a titan kid, it brings up weird images.” Eren made a face as his grip on Levi’s shirt tightened momentarily before he finally sat up, making himself comfortable in his nest once more, this time curling into Levi’s side.

Levi smirked as he picked up their now-lukewarm tea before putting an arm around Eren to pull him closer still, while the omega rested his head on Levi’s shoulder with a small sigh.

“Erwin is right, though,” Levi said quietly after a long while of comfortable silence. “We should think about who we’re going to tell. It’d be a real bitch trying to hide the fact you’re pregnant and protect the two of you with just Erwin and Hanji.”

“Well, I have to tell Mikasa and Armin at some point either way.”

Levi hummed noncommittally but went mostly ignored as Eren continued. “And I think—” he paused, an almost pained expression on his face. “I think I want to tell Jean,” he finally mumbled in defeat.

Levi’s eyebrows shot up. “Seriously?”

The omega nodded firmly, even though he still looked like he couldn’t quite believe his own words. “Yeah. He’s a total asshole and a horse to boot and I can’t stand his guts, but I trust him.”

“Okay.” Levi nodded, seeing no reason to disagree. “Anyone else?”

Eren sighed, shrugging helplessly. “Honestly, I’d like to tell the whole squad eventually but I don’t know if the commander would agree to that.”

“You gotta ask him and you’ll see. Though I’m not looking forward to the whole bunch of shitty brats running around screaming about babies.”

“That’s just Connie and Sasha,” Eren said with a laugh, the sound sending shivers down Levi’s spine. Walls, he loved Eren’s laugh.

And when the omega smiled up at him, Levi had to actively stop himself from kissing him. Had to remind himself they were still holding cups full of tea in their hands. No excess movements allowed until those were gone. Not even if it was to taste those sweet lips.

Levi only tore his eyes away from Eren’s mouth when Eren turned the question back at him. “What about you?”

Now, it was Levi’s turn to shrug. “Probably just Mike and Nanaba and Shitty Eyebrows would likely be telling them anyway. Erwin and Hanji already know and the only other people I’d trust would be my old squad, so there’s no one else.”

Eren frowned but didn’t comment. They were over that argument too many times already, with Levi making it perfectly clear he didn’t want to hear Eren apologise a single time more. So instead, Eren just settled back into the crook of Levi’s neck. 

“What are we going to tell them, though?”

Levi hummed in response. “What else can we tell them now but the truth?”

“Mmn. I suppose...” Eren sighed as Levi hugged him tighter.

The alpha went to take a sip of his tea but paused as the implications of what he had just said dawned on him. He looked down at his mate, his voice completely serious when he spoke, “We’ll tell them the truth, but for the love of god, no matter how much she begs, don’t give Hanji any details about our sex life.”

Eren nearly spat out his own tea.

Chapter Text

Fuck cuddling was Levi’s first coherent thought of the day upon waking up to half of his body completely dead while the other half hurt horribly. He groaned quietly, glancing down at his mate, who was happily using him as a goddamned body pillow, completely oblivious to Levi’s torment. He got a mouthful of hair as a result.

Let him say it again.

Fuck cuddling.

He tried extracting himself from the vice grip his omega had on him but Eren would have none of it. Even unconscious, he was stubborn. Levi wanted to be gentle, he really did, but then feeling started to return to the one arm he had managed to rescue, making the limb hurt like an absolute bitch. He decided enough was enough. He needed his body back and go take a shower—if nothing else, then just to help him forget the terrible feeling of needles pricking every damn bit of the right half of his body. If he was lucky, he might be able to actually move before breakfast.

Mind made up, Levi unceremoniously pried Eren off of himself and got up, wobbly on his feet. He was halfway to cursing cuddling to hell and back all over again when a soft sound of protest came from behind him.

“Levi, come back,” Eren whined, his voice slurred with sleep as he blindly searched around for his mate.

Levi almost gave in and went right back to bed to cuddle the shit out of this adorable creature. Almost.

It wasn’t even his aching body that stopped him; instead, the noise coming from outside the window drew his attention. The birds were already making a racket. The castle would be full of activity soon.

He sighed regretfully as he sat on the edge of the bed, ruffling Eren's hair. The omega moaned pitifully, trying to swat the offending hand away and only succeeding in making Levi smile. “Eren, you have to get up. It’s morning.”

“No.”

“Yes. We don’t want to make Erwin even more pissed than he already is when someone sees you leaving here, do we?”

Eren groaned before he finally forced himself to sit up. He looked at Levi, blinking slowly a few times. “You’re a cheater,” he stated in a gruff voice, a pout on his lips.

“Morning to you, too,” Levi smirked before he gave Eren a small peck on the cheek.

Eren only hummed noncommittally in response, fumbling to get out of bed, obviously still half asleep.

Levi was already dressed and busy gathering his things in preparation for his shower by the time Eren so much as managed to put on his shoes. But, when the omega stood in front of Levi to get a proper good morning kiss, bad breath and all, Levi didn’t see a reason to not oblige.

“See you later, Levi,” Eren said with a lazy, yet still blindingly bright, smile.

Levi couldn’t help but kiss him again.

As Levi observed his squad during their hand-to-hand combat practice later that morning, he wasn’t exactly surprised to feel someone approach him, joining him on the sidelines without a word. Neither of them said anything for a good while, simply watching Mikasa try to teach Armin how to throw her to the ground, and what looked like Krista scolding Ymir for not trying hard enough.

“How are they doing?” Erwin asked finally.

Levi sighed deeply. “You can see yourself. They’re still a far cry from Eld and the others. Ackerman’s the only one with the ability to kill right now. All of them have some potential but—Braus, Springer! Five laps, now! And if you start shitting around again, you’re sparring with me!”

Two identical, high-pitched squeaks came in response before the two idiots in question hurried off for their laps, followed by badly muffled snickers from their peers.

Levi wanted to bash his head against the nearest wall. This was what he had to work with. 

The way Erwin didn’t even bother to hide his amusement over Levi’s suffering wasn’t exactly helping either.

Rubbing at the bridge of his nose, Levi started again. “As I was saying, all of them have potential but it will take time to whip their asses up to standard. At least their teamwork’s pretty good.”

Erwin nodded in understanding. “That’s the most important part. And if they are as talented as you say, their skill will grow rapidly with your training.” The commander paused, his tone turning more serious. “Also, they know all too well what they’re facing. That’s some motivation to get better.”

Levi hummed in agreement but then his eyes caught some suspicious movement to the side and he looked over to see Sasha and Connie shoving at each other while supposedly doing their punishment. He let go of a long-suffering sigh, jerking his hand in their direction. 

“Try telling that to them—or her,” he added, when he noticed Ymir letting Krista overpower her without putting up any fight whatsoever. Again.

“Well, I suppose they’re trying to have fun, which is admirable.” Erwin laughed easily. “But, they seem to be doing their best regardless. And as for that girl…” He trailed off, taking a few moments to study the interaction between Ymir and Krista. “Seems to me she’s doing the exact same thing you would if you were to spar with Eren.”

Levi shot Erwin an unimpressed look. “That’s bullshit and you know it. I’d never go easy on anyone, Eren included. You’re just trying to steer the topic. Is that why you’re here? To pry into the privacy of our relationship?”

A pleasant smile appeared on Erwin’s face even as he kept his eyes on the squad. “No reason to pry since Eren is currently with Hanji getting thoroughly examined. I figure it’s easier to wait until Hanji tells me everything without me having to ask, rather than try to force anything out of you. But otherwise, you would be correct. You know me too well, Levi.”

“You weren’t exactly subtle. Are you that pissed that you didn’t figure it out yourself?”

“Maybe a little.” Erwin hummed as if contemplating Levi’s accusation. “Mostly, I’m angry at you for going through with it at all. What exactly were you thinking, Levi? Did you really think it was a good idea to knock up one of our soldiers? One you are directly in charge of, mind you?”

Levi raised an eyebrow as he mockingly repeated, “Knock up?”

When Erwin just continued to stare at him with an unchanged expression, Levi sighed, giving up. 

“It wasn’t exactly our plan to get him pregnant. But it happened so we all just have to accept it and adjust accordingly.”

“And put all of us, including all our plans, in serious danger while we’re at it, right?”

Levi could hear the hidden irritation behind the polite, conversational tone. He elected to ignore the biting remark.

Erwin took a deep breath, continuing his lecture with renewed vigor. “Let me start again. Levi, this relationship between you two would be bad enough on its own. Putting aside the current situation, did you really have to go and mate him? I’m asking as a friend right now, do you realise what you did?”

Levi’s eyes flashed as something primal stirred in his chest. 

How dare another alpha question his choice of mate?

He bit back the growl that threatened to escape him. He knew in his head that Erwin didn’t mean it that way, wasn’t trying to insult his omega in any way; he was just looking out for them, but even so… The alpha in him bristled, stirring with anger. No matter how hard Levi tried to reason with himself, he really, really didn’t like the possible implications of Erwin’s words.

And it most definitely showed.

Erwin quickly noticed Levi’s ire and he immediately backtracked, making sure to talk in a calm, placating voice. 

“It’s not that I disapprove of Eren as your mate in itself. If you make each other happy, then in any other situation I’d be the first one to congratulate you. But you are in this situation. We are the Survey Corps. Either of you could die anytime we go outside the walls. And as if that isn’t enough, Eren is in constant danger from inside the walls as well.” He paused, narrowing his eyes at Levi to make sure he got his point across. “Not to mention you are the one who might have to kill him one day.”

“Your point?” Levi barked with venom. 

“Don’t play dumb, you know what mating does to people. If one of you dies, the other will be left behind with a piece missing and unable to mate anyone again to fill it. You’ll suffer for the rest of your life. Will you be able to continue fighting if Eren dies? And don’t even try to tell me you’d be able to kill him yourself if the situation called for it.”

Levi looked away. There was no need to give an answer to that.

Erwin, apparently satisfied with the lack of answer, went on, “And don’t even get me started on the bond itself—I really don’t appreciate the prospect of either of you abandoning whatever mission you have any time the bond tells you the other one is in danger. It poses incredible risk not only to you two, but to everyone else on the field with you. It’s reckless and absolutely irresponsible, Levi.” He took a deep breath as he rubbed his temples. “You live a life where either of you can die at any moment. The entire population of the Corps—no, the entire human population depends on you two and you go and do this. And then you bring a child into this mess on top of it.”

Levi didn’t look at Erwin. He kept his gaze on his new squad, even though he was not really seeing them. 

It was only a long moment later that he finally replied, “That’s why.”

“What?” Erwin asked, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

“That’s why I mated Eren. We could die anytime in this shitfest of a world and I couldn’t stand the thought of him being in danger without me there. Or even fucking knowing about it. Again.”

Erwin’s eyes lit up with understanding. “The female titan?”

“Yeah.” Levi sighed, looking up at the bright, bright blue sky.

Erwin took a moment to respond, simply studying Levi’s profile for a while. When he finally opened his mouth to speak, it was only with solemn sadness. “It wasn’t your fault, Levi.”

Levi chuckled humorlessly. “I know. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. It’s in the fucking job description. But Eren could have died. Hell, my whole squad died and I had no fucking clue. If I went looking for them a few minutes later, Eren would be gone. If I went a few minutes earlier, I could have saved them. Now I at least know when shit is going down.” Finally, Levi turned to look at Erwin, meeting his eyes directly. “I made the choice I would regret the least.”

They held each other’s gaze for several painfully long moments before Erwin raised his hands in surrender. “It’s not like I can do anything but complain about how much stress you two have dumped on me. I can’t exactly tell you to un-mate each other or to un-impregnate him so you can stop glaring at me like that.”

Levi smirked at the total defeat nearly tangible in both Erwin’s voice and body language. He used the opportunity to shout instructions at his squad, sending them off to run a few laps before stretching to finish off the training. 

Once the brats shuffled off, he gave his attention back to Erwin, who was looking back at Levi with that annoying, calculating look of his and Levi clicked his tongue. 

“What is it now, Eyebrows?”

“Have you talked about who you want to tell about Eren?”

“A little, why?”

“Just asking. Can you tell me who you have in mind?”

Levi narrowed his eyes. He had a feeling he wouldn’t like where this conversation was heading. Still, he reluctantly opened his mouth to reply, “You know damn well I don’t have anyone besides you, Hanji, Mike, and Nanaba that I would trust or care to tell shit. So, I guess you want to know about Eren.”

Erwin nodded silently, only making Levi more suspicious. Not that he could do anything about it.

“He’s telling Ackerman and Arlert as soon as you give the go ahead. And then probably one other brat if he gets over his pride. Kirstein, the guy who was Eren’s body double in Stohess,” Levi elaborated when he noticed Erwin’s raised eyebrow.

“Ah,” Erwin nodded, understanding perfectly what Levi meant.

“But eventually, he wants to tell the whole squad. Now will you tell me what the deal is?”

Erwin quietly contemplated Levi’s words for a minute, completely ignoring his captain’s impatient prompting.

Levi was about ready to kick Erwin for being so damn creepy when the man finally opened his mouth again, speaking slowly, weighing his every word. “If Eren trusts his sister and those two friends with all three of your lives, he can tell them whenever he wants. I don’t really have any complaints about the rest in the long run either. It makes sense to tell them, since they’re now under you and in charge of protecting Eren, but if you can wait with telling the others, I’d appreciate it.”

Narrowing his eyes, Levi stated flatly, “You’re planning something.”

“I always am,” Erwin replied easily, an annoying, pleasant smile on his face.

Levi crossed his arms over his chest as he glowered at his old friend. “You know what I mean, you asshole.”

Erwin chuckled but shook his head, dismissing Levi’s suspicions. “It’s just an idea, not a solid plan yet. I will let you know when it’s time, like always.”

“I trust you, Erwin,” Levi said slowly, “but I swear, if put Eren in danger on purpose—”

“You just said it, Levi. If you trust me, then don’t worry.” Erwin then gave Levi another one of his unreadable smiles.

That didn’t help elevate the sense of foreboding that had descended on Levi in the least.

But, it wasn’t like Levi would be able to do shit about it either way, so he decided not to dwell on this shitty ‘idea’ of Erwin’s for now, instead turning his focus back to his squad. Seeing the kids had finished their run and started stretching, Levi started walking towards them, not sparing Erwin another glance. 

However, before he could take more than two steps, the commander called after him, a clear warning in his voice. “Just be careful, Levi.”

Levi looked back over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow, echoing Erwin’s earlier remark, “I always am. Do I have to remind you how you found out at all?”

Erwin pursed his lips, now looking even more worried after being faced with Levi’s confidence. “People mess up, Levi. Do I have to remind you how I found out at all?”

“Touché.”

“Keep it in mind, Captain.”

Levi rolled his eyes at the title, waving Erwin off and finally leaving to relay his observations throughout the training to his squad.

Next time, Sasha and Connie needed to be split up. Same with Ymir and Krista. Ymir would have to spar with Mikasa from now on; he had a feeling she could fight if she tried, just needed a reason to get off her ass—and Mikasa would be a pretty damn good reason. Hopefully, she wouldn’t disappoint Levi and prove to be a good enough opponent for Mikasa. If she didn’t… 

If she didn’t, Levi would have to become Mikasa’s sparring partner himself.

Other than that, Levi didn’t really have any complaints. Armin was rapidly getting better with how much effort he put into training, desperately trying to catch up with his squad mates. Jean, Reiner, and Bertholdt really just needed to fight, fight, fight. All of them had to get better if they wanted to survive, and other than experience and proper training, there was simply no way to do that.

For now, Levi had to reluctantly agree with Erwin. 

They needed to be really fucking careful, at least until these people got good enough to protect Eren and the kid. Luckily, they were learning quickly and improving with each day, but there was still a long way to go before Levi could come to trust them, trust their skills as well as them as people, enough to share the responsibility for his brats’ safety with them.

Finally dismissing his squad, Levi took a deep breath and closed his eyes momentarily. There was no point mulling over shit like that right now. There was nothing he could do about it but be patient and push their asses until they could shit on their own out there.

Opening his eyes, Levi decided he had enough bullshit for the day. Deciding to get in some training of his own before lunch, he set off in the direction of the shaded, semi-secluded area of the outer courtyard, but he was soon stopped by someone calling his name. He glanced over his shoulder, only to see Mikasa jogging towards him, her jaw clenched and a complicated expression on her face.

“What is it?” he asked once she was close enough for him not to have to shout.

“Captain, I wanted to ask where Eren was. He didn’t say anything at breakfast and he doesn’t normally miss training unless he’s recovering from transformations…” she questioned, all the while chewing on her bottom lip with her brow scrunched up, nervously playing with the end of her well-worn scarf.

Levi regarded her for a moment before he took a quick look around, noting that everyone else had left already safe for Armin, who was lingering nearby and obviously waiting for any news Mikasa might bring. Deeming it safe to talk, he answered her honestly, “He’s with Hanji. She’s giving him a full check up.”

The frown on Mikasa’s face only deepened. “But he had a checkup the day before yesterday and he had no transformations since?”

Levi paused, contemplating how much he could tell her. “There was something in his test results that needed to be looked at properly,” he said eventually, having opted for the censored truth. After all, there was no point in straight up lying to her now.

However, the young alpha girl looked even more worried at this information. Great.

“Is it bad? Is he sick? Do you—”

“He’s fine, it’s nothing bad,” Levi interrupted her quickly before she could blow his head up with questions—or before she went to look for her brother herself. “He’ll tell you what’s going on soon so calm your shit for now.”

Mikasa looked like she wanted to protest but thought better of it. “Thank you, sir. I’ll take my leave now,” she said instead of pressing him further. She then saluted half-heartedly, giving Levi one of the disdainful looks she reserved just for him.

Levi paid no mind to her attitude, all too used to her distaste for him by now; he simply nodded and watched her walk off with Armin, who immediately jumped her with an interrogation of his own.

Seeing them, being faced with how much Eren’s sister and closest friend cared about him, made a strange sense of warmth bloom in Levi’s chest. They loved Eren, and Eren loved them in turn; maybe, just maybe, Levi could trust these two at least, when it came to his own two shitty brats.

But then again, knowing how skilled Mikasa was with her swords, how she didn’t like him to begin with, and how smart Armin was…

Levi made a mental note to ask Eren for a heads-up before he told them. 

He’d much rather not wake up one day to find out he had been castrated in his sleep.

Chapter Text

Eren stood in the hallway, staring at the door to Hanji’s lab like everything wrong in the world was its fault. Somehow, the longer he stared, the bigger and more intimidating the stupid piece of wood became. The hallway was starting to close in on him.

He didn’t want to go in there.

He really, really, really didn’t want to go in there.

He would much rather run and hide in a cave somewhere but he was pretty sure Hanji would hunt him down all the same. Nowhere was safe enough to hide from her. He’d had enough trouble escaping her the day before, after they had left the Commander’s office; he had only managed to get away by promising to tell her everything she wanted to know—within reason—when he came for his checkup today.

A promise he now very deeply regretted. 

The Walls only knew what she was going to ask him. He was already embarrassed and he wasn’t even inside, yet! But, what was done was done, and he had never been one to run away to begin with.

But still. 

He so didn’t want to.

Eren had no clue how long he stood there without moving a muscle before he finally gathered enough courage to knock, the door immediately swinging open to reveal a grinning Hanji.

“I was wondering whether you were ever going to knock or if I’d have to go get you myself,” she teased, winking at him cheekily.

Eren felt his ears heat up at being caught, but he obediently followed Hanji inside the lab, heading straight to the examination table in the center of the room and hopping right on it. Holding his breath, Eren only hoped he was waiting for instructions and not a questioning assault.

Hanji rummaged through her things for a while, taking out some needles and vials, several bottles with different chemicals, a stethoscope, and a big stack of papers that were Eren’s personal medical records, along with the research done on him, before she turned to face Eren. She clapped her hands and smiled brightly—a sight that only unsettled the omega more. 

“Okay, you know the drill. Shirt off.”

Eren gave her a suspicious look as he hesitantly took off his uniform jacket, unfastened the upper straps of his gear, and started peeling off his shirt. 

During the whole process, Hanji watched him like a hawk; her hands were twitching strangely, her grin impossibly wide, her entire body tense. She was all but vibrating in place.

It only took a few seconds for her to finally burst. 

“Ahhh, I can’t take it anymore!” she cried, and, before Eren even managed to pull his shirt over his head, ran towards him with a squeal, hugging him around the middle to bury her face in his stomach.

To say Eren was taken aback would be an understatement.

He froze, his head and arms stuck in his shirt awkwardly, a choked sound of shock and confusion escaping him as he tried to wrap his head around what was happening while Hanji rubbed her face against his abs without care.

“I’m so excited!! I can’t wait to meet you, you teeny tiny human, you!” she gushed, her words flowing out at such a rapid speed that Eren barely understood what she was saying. “We’re gonna have so much fun together! You’re gonna love my lab!! Are you a girl or a boy? Is it too soon to ask? Well, it doesn’t matter, I bet you’re gonna be the most adorable little thing either way! Oh, you’re going to be so spoiled!!” Suddenly, her head snapped up to stare up at Eren with wide eyes that almost seemed to sparkle. “Say, Eren, can I name him? Her? Whichever? Pretty please!”

Eren blinked a few times at the sound of his name, snapping out of his stupor.

Quickly freeing himself of his shirt, Eren sighed in relief before he glanced down to eye the weight hanging off of his waist warily. The woman was looking a little too excited; energy radiated off of her and she was grinning so wide that Eren was worried her face would split. It was honestly kind of terrifying.

“Uhm,” he started, decidedly uncomfortable. He didn’t know how to tell her he didn’t trust her to pick the name for his child at all. Knowing her, she would come up with something weird like Pea or Wheat or something, in honor of the late Bean. Or worse. He honestly wouldn’t put anything past her. “Don’t you think it’s a bit early to think about names?” 

“It’s never too early for that!” Hanji announced, clearly undeterred by his attempt at deflection as her grin only widened.

Eren couldn’t bear looking at her anymore. His eyes veering off to the side, he wrecked his brain for literally anything he could say that wouldn’t lead him down a path of no return. He couldn’t think of anything. But, well… it wasn’t just his child, was it? 

Latching onto that thought, Eren tried, “Maybe ask Levi?”

He didn’t have to see Hanji’s face to be able to feel her excitement evaporate as she sagged against him, her head dropping until her forehead bumped into Eren’s chest. “The big meanie will never let me, I know it,” she mumbled, sounding beyond dejected. 

Eren winced. He… could at least let her make suggestions? Maybe? That should be safe, right…?

Thankfully, Hanji was quick to recover, her energy back full-force before Eren managed to completely give in, and she sang happily, “I do have lots of time to convince you! And so many ideas already, you two are bound to like at least some of them!”

The omega sighed in relief, the crisis having been averted. For now. 

With the topic successfully behind them, Eren thought she would finally let go of him, but Hanji seemed more than content squashing her face into his stomach. He squirmed a little as he started to get uncomfortable, the heat and the strength of her grip making it hard to breathe. “Hanji? You’re kind of suffocating me…”

“Whoops!” Hanji laughed, sounding completely unapologetic, as she squeezed him one last time, mumbling a bye to his stomach before she let him go at last. “Sorry, I’m just so excited! It’s so great that the Corps are having a baby!”

Eren’s gaze dropped to the floor as a jolt of guilt ran through him at the reminder. “I’m sorry, I’m causing so much trouble for everyone,” he muttered quietly.

“Oh, Eren,” Hanji said, her voice turning soft. “Don’t even worry about that, it’s gonna be fine. We’re always ready to adjust to whatever situation comes up. That’s what the Survey Corps do!”

“The commander doesn't think so… You didn’t think so either just yesterday.” Eren snapped his mouth shut the moment the words left his mouth. He shouldn’t have said that; why did he have to say it? It just flew out of his mouth before he could stop himself…

But… those were his real feelings, weren’t they? 

Why was Hanji so hyper now, considering their conversation from yesterday? He didn’t know what to make of the sudden change, didn’t know how to react to it. He could clearly tell that Hanji wasn’t acting, she was truly, honestly ecstatic right now, but he didn’t think she was acting yesterday either. What changed? How could she have made such a switch so easily, so fast?

He couldn’t say he wasn’t happy about it but it was… confusing.

But then again, it was Hanji.

He didn’t know her as well as Levi did but he did know that she didn’t fake her emotions and that she could be… erratic. Would it really be that strange for her to change her opinion so quickly? 

After all, she was ‘the fucking definition of a shitty Abnormal.’ Levi’s words.

The woman gave him an understanding smile. “Yesterday… Well, it was a different situation. To be perfectly honest, I was really happy right when first I realised what was going on with you. But then I thought about what that would mean in the long run, how much risk it would put you in… It made me so sad and broke my heart. I just didn’t think it would be wise to keep it in the end. But now we know we have to figure this out. It will not be easy and we will have to be really careful, but! I can now be excited all I want! You and Levi can be excited all you want, too!”

By the end of her speech, her wide grin was back full-force, and Eren couldn’t help but smile in return.

“Oh, and as for Erwin,” she continued, a mischievous spark finding its way into her eyes, “he might act like he’s anything but happy now, but trust me. Once he actually meets the little one, he’s gonna melt straight down into a big puddle of goo. Only the eyebrows will stay.” 

Eren met Hanji’s playful wink with a doubtful frown. He simply couldn’t imagine that happening—were they talking about the same Commander Erwin?

Seeing Eren’s disbelief, Hanji laughed, doubling down, “No, really. I’ve known him for a long time and I can guarantee you he’s going to gush and spoil the baby rotten. Even more than Levi.”

Eren still couldn’t say he believed her, but even so, he couldn’t help but chuckle. “If you say so.”

Hanji stuck her tongue out at him. “Of course I say so. And I’m always right. Just you wait a few months and you’ll see.”

Eren laughed at the conviction in her voice, shaking his head in amusement. Hanji really was a strange person. Strange, but Eren didn’t hate it; instead, he welcomed it, welcomed the relief her easy-going, excitable personality gave him. He felt so much lighter now. He had no clue how Hanji did this.

Returning the grateful smile Eren gave her, Hanji jumped up and exclaimed, “Anyway! We are gathered here today for a reason and it’s not to talk about Erwin, nor his eyebrows. Let’s get down to business.” She grabbed the stethoscope from where she had left it earlier, walking around the examination table to get behind Eren.

As soon as he felt Hanji place the contraption on his back, Eren started breathing deeply, just as was always required for this.

“So,” Hanji drawled casually after a second, “how is Levi in bed?”

Eren choked.

“Hanji! What the hell?” he cried once he finally stopped coughing. He felt like his face was going to burn off. He wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere and die.

“What?! You promised to tell me everything!”

“Within reason! This is definitely outside any reason! And I thought we were done talking!”

“Done talking about Erwin,” Hanji pointed out. “What’s the big deal anyway? Come on, tell me! Please!”

“No! You have no need to know anything about that! ”

“But I’m curious! I was so sure Levi was gonna die a virgin and now he’s having a baby! How can you deny me this?!”

“I don’t care! No!”

“Fi~ne.” Hanji pouted, a little whine in her voice.

Eren huffed, satisfied with his win.

Silence settled over the room for a while as Hanji sulked, placing the stethoscope on Eren’s back again in a remarkably defiant fashion as she finally actually started listening to the omega’s lungs, then his heart. Soon, she put the tool away, muttering to herself as she took down some notes.

After a moment, she hummed, nodding to herself before turning to look at Eren seriously.

“What’s your favorite position?”

“Hanji!!”

Hanji couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t remember the last time she laughed this much, laughed to the point of tears streaming down her face and her belly hurting. She gasped, going to take off her glasses to wipe her tears away, thinking she was finally calming down… but the second her eyes fell on Eren’s beet-red face and the positively mortified expression he was wearing, a new wave of glee hit her and she was right back where she started.

Ah, this kid really was too cute. She was almost tempted to steal him from Levi.

“Can we move on?” Eren barked, clearly fed up both with Hanji’s amusement and his own embarrassment.

Hearing the annoyance in his voice, Hanji straightened up and cleared her throat, trying her hardest to bring herself under control. It was hard. So very hard.

But, Eren was right. They were supposed to be running tests and making sure Eren and the baby were fine but here they were, having fun and not getting any work done. At this rate, they might end up being stuck here until dinner…

Closing her eyes, Hanji took a few deep breaths, making sure to exhale extra slowly, and forced herself to focus. 

Finally deeming herself sufficiently composed, Hanji gathered her needles, vials, swabs, and alcohol, placing everything carefully on the table next to Eren. “Okay, let’s get on it. I’ll stop teasing and leave your sex life be,” she said, before shooting Eren one last smirk. “I will go harass Levi later though.”

“Please, don’t,” Eren groaned, hiding his face in his hands in despair.

Hanji smiled fondly when she noticed the small smile the omega couldn’t hide.

“Alright,” she announced, poking Eren’s head to make him look up. “I’m going to take a few vials of your blood. I have to run some more detailed tests, make sure that there’s nothing that shouldn’t be there, and everything that should be. We also need to try and figure out how far along you are. Do you have an estimate?”

Eren shrugged as he offered his arm to Hanji so that she could easily wrap a string above his elbow. “Not really. I’ve known for sure for about a week and I started noticing the changes a week before that, I think? But I don’t really know exactly when it happened.”

Hanji hummed a little, pursing her lips in thought. “So about three weeks, I’d say? I’m no expert on omegan pregnancies, much less male ones, but from what I gather, you’re supposed to be able to tell just in a few days.” She paused, prompting Eren to pump his fist before continuing, “Your body stops producing eggs pretty much immediately and as a result, your testicles start shrinking and withdrawing back into your body. That process should be noticeable in about four days since conception or so. I suppose you realised this happening sometime two weeks ago then?” She shot a questioning look at the boy, who only nodded in confirmation, a pinkish tint back on his cheeks. “Then mild pain and pressure in your abdomen appeared as your uterus started fully developing and your organs repositioned to accommodate it, while your nipples became more sensitive and pronounced, the whole area around them tender. Something like that?”

“Yeah,” Eren nodded again, blushing a little more still.

Nodding, Hanji thoroughly disinfected Eren’s skin before she picked up the needle, carefully injecting it into Eren’s vein before she asked, “And what convinced you you were actually pregnant? You said it took you another week to know for sure, even though all the signs were there…”

Eren shrugged and his posture sagged a little, making him look a little lost and helpless. “I didn’t want to believe it at that point, you know?” He sighed deeply. “But then… I don’t know, I guess it was more instinct than anything in the beginning? Like, when I messed up during training and nearly hit a tree mid-maneuver, instead of covering my head, I covered my stomach and such. Just little stuff like that. So, coupled with the… physical stuff, the idea did go through my head. But I only started to seriously consider the possibility, when—”

The omega stopped talking suddenly as if burned. Taking her eyes off of the vial she was filling for a second, Hanji peered at his face, taking in the slightly scrunched up brow and pursed lips.  

Hanji smiled encouragingly, after which Eren closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath.

“You know when—” he paused for a second, then tried again “—when Levi and Commander Erwin left to go to the Capital a little over a week ago? They stayed there for two nights.”

Hanji frowned slightly, tilting her head to the side. Could it be...? She did remember Levi calling Eren his mate but she never saw the mark, neither on Levi nor on Eren, and the omega was sitting half-naked in front of her right now. It didn’t make sense…

A wry smile found its way to Eren’s lips as he raised his free hand to massage his neck where it connected to his left shoulder. “The mark healed but the bond is still there, thank god. At least something stayed.”

Hanji took a sharp breath, a small, excited grin pulling on her lips. This was most interesting. It hadn’t even occurred to her that the mating mark disappeared thanks to Eren’s regeneration skills, but it did make perfect sense.

It explained how Eren got convinced through his denial also.

“So, you felt the separation through the bond when you usually didn’t?” she asked to confirm.

“Yeah. Our bond is normally pretty, I don’t know, dull? We could go a week without seeing each other without issue but this time…” Eren trailed off, his shoulders sagging. “This time, it was almost painful, you know? Like the bond finally started working or something.”

Hanji shook her head, ruffling Eren’s hair playfully. “It didn’t start working, dummy. From what I know, since male omegas are generally more independent, it always takes more of a stimulus to trigger the signal to their mate. And you’re especially independent even for a male omega, so I’m not surprised it seemed dull to you two.”

Eren only hummed noncommittally, clearly not convinced, and Hanji huffed. Oh, this precious kid , she thought, but chose not to voice it out loud.

“Then, the unexpected pull of the bond was what convinced you that you were pregnant? You needing your mate close for assurance and support, and Levi feeling a stronger need to protect you, even though there was no external reason for it?”

Eren hummed in affirmation, then sighed deeply. “It was… exhausting.”

Hanji huffed out a small laugh, “Once again, I’m really glad I’m a beta. Sorry to say this, but alpha-omega bonds sound like a bitch.”

A genuine laugh bubbled out of Eren’s chest.

Hanji smiled warmly at the sight, taking in the way Eren’s whole body relaxed, colour returning to his face. He looked much more alive now, like a weight he had been carrying suddenly lifted with Hanji’s casual remark. It made her happy, knowing that those few words could help him feel so at ease. 

That he could feel at ease with her.

Walls knew that all the skulking around and carrying this secret—not just the pregnancy, but even just their relationship itself—between just the two of them had to be beyond draining for both Eren and Levi.

On that note…

“How long have you been bonded anyway?” Hanji asked curiously as she corked up the last vial of blood before removing the needle.

As he automatically took over putting pressure on his vein so that Hanji could put everything away and label all the vials properly at her desk, Eren hummed thoughtfully. “Two, three months? Since we got back from the female titan expedition.”

Hanji’s jaw dropped, turning to stare at Eren completely dumbfounded. She had assumed it was very recent since she had never noticed Levi having a mark. The alpha didn’t have Eren’s regeneration so it had to be right there for everyone to see… How the hell had she never noticed?!

Eren laughed at her flabbergasted expression, immediately understanding the source of her shock when her eyes dropped down to his pristine neck. “It’s under his cravat. He wears it just high enough to hide the mark completely.”

Blinking a few times, Hanji dropped into her chair, slumping over her desk. She didn’t move at all for several seconds until she started laughing hysterically. 

Eren, on his end, could only laugh right along with her; when he thought about it, it was a pretty ridiculously convenient coincidence that Levi liked wearing an accessory that could pretty much specifically hide all incriminating evidence of their illicit relationship.

But somehow, Eren was grateful to that stupid piece of cloth.

With the cravat hiding Levi’s mating mark, Eren at least didn’t have a constant reminder of his own lack of it. A lack that made him feel angry, regretful, and guilty. He didn’t have anything to show the world he belonged to Levi. He couldn’t give his mate the same feeling of pride and warmth that Eren always felt whenever he could admire the beautiful scar on Levi’s neck. The scar he himself had put there, a mark that showed everyone that Levi was his and he was Levi’s.

Eren couldn’t give Levi the same satisfaction of having tangible proof of the bond between them and it made him angry at himself. He wanted that mark. He wanted to carry it proudly, to cherish it, to show the world the truth.

But he simply wasn’t able to.

Levi often told him didn’t care Eren’s mark had evaporated off into nothing. He always said that as long as the bond stayed where it was supposed to stay, he was more than happy. But, those assurances didn’t change Eren’s longing for Levi’s mark, any mark, to stay longer than a few minutes. It made him sad; it made it almost seem like nothing had ever happened between them. 

He knew he was being dumb, and that he wouldn’t be able to show the mark off anyway—it would be stupid to do so, a death sentence for them both—but he still longed for that feeling of looking at himself and seeing he belonged to someone.

It was only Hanji’s voice that snapped him out of his melancholic thoughts. “Eren, are you okay?”

Eren jerked, then shook his head to clear it. “Sorry, yeah. It’s nothing, just lost in thought.” He smiled at her to further assure her he was okay. And he really was; he loved Levi and he knew Levi loved him, and that was all that really mattered in the end. 

Hanji eyed him suspiciously for a moment, studying his expression and searching for any signs that he was lying or trying to deflect, but finally, she nodded. “Alright. Lie down on the table, please. I’m gonna check your stomach now.”

Eren complied, watching while Hanji gently and carefully pressed her hands all over Eren’s abdomen. He honestly had no damn clue what she could even tell from that.

After a few moments, Hanji glanced at Eren’s face, a sly grin slowly spreading on her lips, and Eren’s heart dropped. Obviously, the interrogation wasn’t over yet just because they returned to work.

“So, Eren,” she sang sweetly, “I told you I expected Levi to go to his grave without ever knowing one of the pleasures of this world. How exactly did you manage to seduce him? I know for a fact you weren’t the first to try.”

Heat rushed to Eren’s face once again, his eyes veering off to the side as he refused to look at the nosy maniac.

“Come on, spill. You promised!” 

Groaning, Eren rubbed at his face. He took a deep breath, trying his best to ignore the way Hanji was persistently poking at his side, but it wasn’t working. Finally, he exhaled slowly in defeat, letting his hands fall to his side as he glared at the ceiling and opened his mouth to speak.

“I didn’t seduce him. It just… happened.”

Chapter Text

“Say, Eren. Do you hate me?”

That was probably where it all started.

Eren was sitting on the couch in one of the rooms provided to the Survey Corps, still bloody after the beating Captain Levi had given him in court after the battle of Trost. Of course, Eren didn’t blame him for it; he understood once he saw how they all treated him behind closed doors, even without Commander Erwin explaining it was all an act to ensure his survival.

But, Captain Levi seemed to be thinking otherwise.

Eren jumped when the alpha, Humanity’s Strongest Soldier, his idol, threw himself on the couch next to him—the monster, the titan, the enemy of mankind. Didn’t he want to be as far away from him as possible? Wasn’t he disgusted by him? Wouldn’t he feel safer, more comfortable staying further away?

Then Levi asked his question, and Eren was surprised to detect a little insecurity in his body language. It wasn’t obvious, the captain hid it more than well enough, and Eren doubted anyone untrained would be able to tell. Eren, however, had spent the last eight years of his life living with Mikasa and her poker face.

Still, Eren couldn’t quite believe it. The great Captain Levi asking him whether he hated him.

Eren barely managed to stutter out his reply.

It was almost surreal how the captain’s body relaxed with relief.

The next day, the small group of soldiers under Captain Levi’s direct command left for the old castle they were to use as a base. The ride was long and gruelling and it was hell for Eren with his body still sore, despite now being pretty much fully healed. And, if his protesting muscles weren’t enough, he couldn’t help but be on edge the whole time. 

He just couldn’t relax; he was surrounded by all these skilled people he had always looked up to, each one of them ready to kill him at a moment’s notice. As it was, he couldn’t even feel the tiniest bit of excitement over the fact he was now a part of this group, a part of the Survey Corps’ elite squad, like he’d dreamed of since he was a little kid. The only thing he could feel right then was the anxiety over what might be waiting ahead for him, and the groan of his muscles as he did his best to not fall off of his horse.

And, on top of everything, he could feel someone’s eyes on him the entire time.

Don’t get him wrong, he knew they were going to watch him closely—keeping an eye on him was in their current job description, not to mention he was , objectively, a danger—but to do so constantly was unnecessary! It was not like he was going to turn into a titan just like that! 

… Hopefully.

Having had enough, Eren carefully turned around, gauging the attention on himself. He at least wanted to know who didn’t trust him this much…

His eyes widened when they met with Captain Levi’s unfazed ones. Eren immediately turned back around in embarrassment and confusion. Maybe… feeling a little hurt.

Eren couldn’t believe this.

Humanity’s Strongest was a complete clean freak.

Eren had cleaned these rooms top to bottom at least three times already but it still wasn’t enough. Where was the dirt anyway?! Eren couldn’t even tell what was dirty and what was clean anymore; everything around him was melting together into one big smudge that needed to be scrubbed away. He sorely needed a break, to look at something other than mops, rags, and dust pans.

It wasn’t like he minded the cleaning in itself, he honestly didn’t. On the contrary, it took his mind off of things, gave him time to be alone, and allowed him to breathe easy for the first time in what felt like weeks. It was just—

He just wanted to please the captain and it was beyond frustrating that he simply couldn’t do it. He only kept disappointing him instead.

Eren heaved a deep sigh as he ran one last look over the final room on the top floor, searching for anything he might have missed. Finding no such signs, he pulled down the handkerchief covering his mouth, readying himself to go report to Captain Levi. 

Hopefully, for the last time.

He yelped in surprise when he turned around, only to find the captain in question standing in the doorway, appraising Eren’s work with a critical eye. Eren saluted stiffly, his heart jumping into his throat as the alpha turned his perfectly blank gaze to him.

“This work is acceptable.”

Eren’s whole body sagged with relief. He could collapse to the ground and pass out right then and there.

Not sparing either Eren or the room another glance, Captain Levi stepped back out of the room and gestured for Eren to follow. “I’ll show you where you’re going to sleep.”

Immediately, Eren’s heart dropped, his mood spiralling down to nothing. He recalled the conversation he had had with the man earlier, he knew where they were heading. He understood why it was necessary but he also really wasn’t looking forward to sleeping in some dank cell in the basement… 

Trying not to let his apprehension show, Eren simply gave his affirmative and ran after his superior.

The walk down the many stairs was completely silent up until Captain Levi stopped in front of the door leading underground, placing his hand on the handle. 

“This leads to the basement. The closest bathroom is down the hall, the mess hall the other way and one floor up the stairs.”

Eren looked the ways Levi pointed to and hoped he wouldn’t get lost at the first opportunity. There were simply too many doors on both sides of the hallway, and they all looked the same to him—hell, all the hallways in this damned castle looked the same to him.

At the sound of the door creaking open, Eren turned his attention back to the captain, only to see he was already halfway down to the basement. Eren almost fell right down the stairs hurrying after him, but when he finally found his balance and looked up, he could only stare. 

He couldn’t believe how nice the basement looked. Was it even possible for an underground, stony, mouldy room to feel this clean?

When the captain spoke, it was in a perfectly indifferent tone. “This is going to be your room from now on. Sorry, it’s the basement so it’s not really convenient or comfortable. Honestly, it’s a shitty room, but those were the conditions Zackley gave and there’s fuck-all we can do about it. I tried to make it as inhabitable as possible at least.”

Eren openly gaped at the alpha. Was this man being serious right now? 

“I—Captain, I understand why I have to sleep in the basement, you—you really don’t have to apologise.” Captain Levi slowly turned his head to look at Eren and the boy gulped loudly before he continued, “I’m sorry but… Did you say you tried to—Did you prepare this room for me, sir?”

Levi shrugged, looking away once more. “It was disgusting in here. And I thought it was the least I could do after yesterday.”

Eren could feel heat rising to his face, a blush that he couldn’t stop. He couldn’t help it; his idol especially cleaned his room for him. Because he felt guilty.  

“I really don’t blame you for yesterday, sir! Actually, I… think I should thank you. You saved my life. Really, thank you very much, Captain Levi,” Eren said as he saluted, his words starting off maybe a little louder than strictly necessary before trailing off into a soft murmur.

Captain Levi huffed, rolling his eyes at Eren. The omega couldn’t help but notice some tension easing from the captain’s shoulders, however.

“At ease, Eren,” he sighed. “You really have nothing to thank me for. As Hanji said, I took it further than was necessary. Are you okay, now?”

“But I do, sir. If you hadn’t made it believable, I might have been on a Military Police operating table somewhere right now.” Eren paused, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards. “Thank you. For your concern as well. I fully healed overnight so I am completely okay.”

Levi held his eyes for a long moment without saying anything, making Eren feel like he was being dissected. He was certainly starting to feel uncomfortable. Taking a deep breath, Eren opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but the captain beat him to it.

“Don’t lie, brat. Your ass looked ready to fall off your damn horse the whole ride here.”

Eren opened his mouth, ready to deny the accusation but he found that he couldn’t. It was true, after all; the ride wasn’t the most comfortable or the surest one he had ever had. He closed his mouth lamely, blushing a little harder still at having been caught, almost apologising for the trouble he had caused. But then, the implications dawned on him and he froze. 

Was this why Captain Levi was watching him so closely? Not to make sure Eren didn’t rebel or try to run away, but because he was worried?

Despite himself, a small smile pulled on Eren's lips at the realisation. Sure, he could be wrong… but something told him that he wasn’t. 

“I was just a little sore. No need to worry, Captain, I promise.”

“What the hell are you smiling about?” 

Eren was pretty sure he didn’t imagine the barely noticeable, pinkish tint that appeared on Captain Levi’s cheeks. 

“Nothing, sir,” he assured, making sure to hide his amusement and school his expression to a careful neutral.

“Thought so. Get settled in here and then come to the mess hall for dinner.”

“Yes, sir!” Eren said, saluting his superior one last time.

Levi looked at him for a few more seconds, almost as if he wanted to say something more, before he simply clicked his tongue and started walking away.  As he passed by Eren, the alpha raised hand and gently tapped his fingers to the side of Eren’s head.

Truthfully, Eren wasn’t sure who was more surprised by the action—him, or Captain Levi himself. The alpha froze for a split second before he quickly retracted his hand as if burned, but the damage was done.

Eren’s breath hitched in his throat as his heart skipped a few beats, the touch of the captain’s fingers sending a shiver down his spine. Warmth spread through the omega’s body, starting from his scalp and continuing all the way down to his toes, a tingling sensation following soon after. It wasn’t… unpleasant.

Rather, Eren had to say it felt right.

Inadvertently, Eren turned around to stare at the captain as he walked up the stairs. He was still trying to wrap his head around what had just happened, but he startled when the alpha unexpectedly stopped and looked back down at him, their eyes meeting. 

Eren wasn’t sure how he looked to the man right then; he barely even realised he had, at some point, raised his hand to touch his hair, as if chasing the ghost of Captain Levi’s touch. His mind was completely blank, unable to think about anything but the way the captain was looking back at him—wearing a complicated, almost conflicted expression, his eyes darting all over Eren’s face, his jaw clenched, lips parted slightly. Whether that was out of shock or something else, Eren didn’t know—didn’t dare wonder about.

They stared at each other for what felt like hours, neither of them speaking, neither of them moving, something so incredibly fragile hanging between them. It was something that neither of them understood, something neither of them dared address or disturb in fear of it breaking. 

But finally, Captain Levi spoke, his voice perfectly level despite the emotions Eren could plainly see behind his sharp eyes. 

“Try not to take too long or the food will get cold.”

Eren could only nod as the door shut behind the alpha.

Unknowingly, as they both closed their eyes and took a deep breath, their minds echoed each other.

What the hell was that?

If the situation wasn’t so bad the next day with Hanji’s pet titans getting killed, Levi would have laughed at how utterly exhausted Eren looked. 

Sure, they all knew what would inevitably happen when the whole squad left the brat all alone with Hanji, but that didn’t mean Levi couldn’t find some small pleasure in it. The kid would have needed to learn not to provoke the mad fucking scientist sooner or later regardless, and the drained, half-dead look on his face was hilariously cute.

And when Erwin started asking his weird-ass questions, when Levi saw Eren’s expresion morph into one of pure confusion, his brows furrowing and his mouth hanging slightly open, clearly not knowing what the fuck to even say… 

That was when Levi realised.

Last night, that moment they had shared in the basement, it wasn’t a fluke. 

It was a warning.

Over the next few weeks, Levi became painfully aware of how his eyes always seemed to follow Eren. He gravitated towards him without meaning to, almost as if something was pushing him to stay close to the young omega. He had to count himself lucky that keeping an eye on the brat was his job. He didn’t know how he would hide it—or worse, explain it —otherwise.

During this time of watching Eren, however, Levi had learned quite a few things about the titan-shifter, as well as about himself.

Not only could Eren be terribly cute at times, but Levi was also very quickly reminded of the intrigue he felt when they first met in that courthouse cell. There was a fire blazing inside of him, one that was brighter, wilder, more alive than anything Levi had ever seen. It made him stupidly determined and stubborn. He didn’t know how to give up until he reached his goal—whether that goal was cleaning the stables, mastering a difficult maneuver, or single handedly ridding the world of all the titans. He was also remarkably strong and independent for an omega, and although not particularly talented in any one area, his overall abilities were well above average of the typical, newly-recruited member.

He learned quickly. It took him only a week to figure out how to clean up to Levi’s standards on the first try. He integrated himself into the squad’s formations easily, remembering their signals perfectly after only one afternoon.

He was eager to please, listening well to his senior squad members and giving them due respect. Even while Auruo was making a complete idiot out of himself the whole time.

He was considerate, taking over Petra’s kitchen duty when she hurt her hand during training without her having to even say anything.

The horses loved him. Even Levi’s own stubborn, suspicious mare, who didn’t like anyone but Levi so much as touching her, got all excited whenever Eren came to brush her. And people loved him, too—the squad was still wary but Levi could see their guards melting quickly in the face of Eren’s sincere effort and blinding smiles.

Levi also learned that his stone-cold heart wasn’t so dead, after all, as it was, apparently, capable of jealousy. 

When Eren’s friends from his trainee days arrived, Levi could see how happy Eren was to see them, as well as how disturbingly close he was with Ackerman and Arlert. Levi wasn’t worried about Arlert—he was a beta and obviously didn’t care for Eren that way—, but Ackerman… 

Mikasa Ackerman was an alpha. 

Levi tried to reason with himself that they were siblings, he was just imagining things, but even so… They weren’t real siblings, were they? Mikasa was adopted. They weren’t related by blood and on top of that, they only lived together for a year before the Wall Maria fell. It wasn’t like they grew up together, fighting over toys and their parents’ affection. And if that wasn’t enough, Levi had a feeling the girl was doing her very best to keep Eren as far away from Levi as she possibly could.

It took him a few days of watching Ackerman monopolise Eren to admit to himself that he really, really didn’t like it.

Of course, Hanji’s experiments didn’t always go according to plan—or well at all. It was to be expected, especially considering no one really knew how Eren’s power worked, including Eren himself. But, the first time they tried a transformation… 

That didn’t go well in any fucking sense of the word.

They put Eren into an old, dried up well for safety and told him to transform on signal. He didn’t. Not on the first signal, nor on the second one. Hanji wondered if, maybe, he didn’t see them, but Levi knew, he knew there was no way the brat could miss the green flares trailing high into the sky. He could feel it in his gut. 

Something went to shit.

Levi’s stomach dropped when he reached the well, and his eyes fell on the figure at the bottom.

Eren looked so damn small. He was scared and clearly in pain, covered in blood from the several deep bite marks on both of his hands. Levi wanted to gag at the sight of the helpless omega, who looked like he was on the verge of whining to him for help but biting down on the sound—fighting against his deep-rooted instincts in fear of showing weakness.

Levi immediately ordered for the experiment to be stopped and pulled Eren out.

He was relieved Eren seemed alright, if a little shaken and with wounds that refused to heal for some reason. It was shitty that the titan-shifting mystery had deepened even more, but at least the brat was alive and as well as could be.

Then an explosion sounded behind Levi as he peacefully sipped at his tea and talked to Petra, and he cursed himself for speaking too fast.

For the first time in a long, long time, Levi was scared. 

He was scared when he saw Eren half-sitting on top of a giant arm, looking panicked and confused and absolutely terrified, surrounded by Levi’s own squad with their swords drawn and ready to kill. They were firing questions at the omega but didn’t let him answer, throwing threats and accusations at him instead. Levi was scared of how they were panicking even more than Eren, and how that only made everything worse.

Levi moved faster than he thought possible, rushing to Eren’s side to try and calm the situation. It wasn’t helping much. Levi didn’t know what to do, what to say to stop this absolute shitfest before someone snapped.

Never in his life had he been happier to see Hanji’s crazy ass, or more grateful that she couldn’t read the room to save her fucking life. Walls knew what would have happened if she didn’t come when she did, screaming and jumping around in excitement, breaking the tension and de-escalating the situation without even meaning to.

Levi let go of a deep, measured breath; he couldn’t deny he was relieved but despite that… 

He also couldn’t ignore the realisation of just how scared he had been for Eren—and that in turn scared him even more. He didn’t think he would ever be able to care for anyone this much since Isabel and Farlan. But, there was no running away from it anymore, was there?

He was in love with this fucking omega, beautiful smiles, angry shouting, blind determination and all.

When they got back after the incident, everyone was on edge except for Hanji, who was beyond excited and immediately ran off somewhere, shouting back at the squad to wait for her in the mess hall. Moblit immediately ran after her, as always trying and failing to keep his superior somewhat in check. 

The Levi Squad members looked at each other and shrugged, before they shuffled off towards the mess hall, leaving only Captain Levi and Eren behind.

Eren chewed on his bottom lip, wondering what he should do. He wasn’t really comfortable joining the others. Would he even be allowed to sit down with them? Would they feel safe with him there? It was awkward enough as it was, did he really want to make it worse?

He could feel the captain’s eyes on him. 

He wasn’t sure how to feel about that either. He knew the alpha wasn’t watching him to threaten him—rather, he was making sure that Eren was okay. It was concern, and that was what both scared and soothed Eren. The captain’s presence was strangely comforting even though it shouldn’t be, and Eren suspected he knew why. He wasn’t dumb.

There was something unspoken hanging between them, something that was completely new to Eren. Feelings he had never experienced were swirling inside him, a quiet but relentless storm, an attraction that drew him to the alpha like a magnet.

He thought it was just hero worship on his part at first. But then, why did it feel so different from what he had felt for Captain Levi a year ago? He already worshipped him back then, but it wasn’t like this. It was nothing like this.

Now that he had met him, talked to him, saw his little quirks, learned how to make his tea, laughed at his jokes said in a completely deadpan way… 

As the tinsel he had put up around Humanity’s Strongest fell away, the hero worship from before quickly dissolved as well. What remained was only Levi, and feelings that meant so much more than mere hero worship.

Eren was in love with Captain Levi.

He wasn’t dumb, but he also wasn’t blind. He knew he wasn’t the only one who was feeling something.

The problem was…

Eren didn’t think he deserved it. 

He was a titan-shifter. A monster. Captain Levi was in charge of him, was the one who was to kill him if something went wrong at any time. His presence and ability was the only reason Eren was alive right now at all. Whatever was happening between them was… dangerous. Forbidden. 

Terrifying.

“Eren.”

The omega startled at the sound of his own name, suddenly pulled out from the downward spiral his mind had fallen into.

“Follow me,” Captain Levi ordered, his voice almost soft despite the tone that allowed no room for arguments.

He didn’t wait for Eren’s response before he took off in the direction of the mess hall, Eren quickly stumbling after him. They soon passed right by the room, the alpha instead leading them down the quiet, slightly secluded staircase behind it.

Once they reached the bottom, the alpha leaned against the wall and looked at Eren with an unreadable expression on his face, Eren meeting his gaze with confusion and uncertainty.

“Talk.”

Eren blinked, his frown only deepening. “S-Sorry?”

Levi leaned his head back until it rested against the wall and closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep breath before he elaborated, “You obviously need to talk about today. I’m here to listen and explain the other side of things. Hanji’s going to take a while so we can take our time.”

Eren’s breath hitched. The two of them held eye-contact for a little while before Eren’s gaze dropped to the ground in defeat and he shuffled slowly back towards the staircase, sitting down heavily. It took him a moment still to gather his thoughts. The captain waited patiently for him, his calming presence easily anchoring Eren and giving him confidence until finally, he opened his mouth to speak.

They talked for a long time, Eren opening up about his anxiety and insecurity and turmoil over his new-found powers. He voiced his worry about the rest of the squad, their lack of trust, and his fear that they were right for it. Hell, Eren didn’t trust himself. After all, no one knew anything about his powers, Eren himself included.

They talked about the squad, their nervousness and doubt, the well-trained speed of their reaction to potential danger. About the effort they put into growing to believe in Eren despite all of that. Captain Levi pointed out Hanji’s presence, stressing how mad, obsessed, and brilliant she was. Given time, the alpha was sure she would figure it out—Eren’s shifting, how it worked, where the limits were, what they could do with it. And somehow, Eren believed him.

They talked until they heard Moblit coming down the stairs, announcing that Hanji was calling for them.

Levi heaved a sigh. “Let’s go.”

“Y-Yes, sir.” Eren scrambled after him, clumsily trying to get up as quickly as possible.

When he looked up, Captain Levi was standing a few steps above him, staring at Eren almost as if he was fighting some inner battle, and Eren couldn’t tear his eyes away.

He could hear Moblit had left already. They were alone again.

“Captain?” Eren asked in a whisper when the silence became unbearable, the tension almost tangible.

At that, Levi went back down again, stopping on the step just above Eren, looking him straight in the eyes. “It’s gonna be okay, Eren,” he said quietly before raising one hand to touch Eren’s cheek gingerly, almost as if he was scared Eren might disappear. Or run.

But Eren didn’t run.

His eyes widened for a second before he relaxed, his eyelids falling shut as leaned into his captain’s touch. Without even realising, he raised his own hand, placing it over the alpha’s on his cheek.

Eren could almost feel the captain’s breath on his skin. He slowly opened his eyes, and as their gazes met, the omega startled at the whirlwind of emotion that was swirling in those sharp, stormy greys. Something stirred in Eren’s chest at the sight, a dull ache, a longing for something he didn’t dare wish for.

“Captain, I…”

“Yeah.”

A split-second later, their lips connected, meeting each other half-way. There was so much desperation in the brief touch, heat coursing through every inch of Eren’s body. The kiss only lasted a moment but to them, it carried the entirety of time, the weight of the word, the heat of the Sun. It was a wonderful feeling—amazing, safe, and absolutely terrifying.  

They separated only minutely, resting their foreheads together to try and soak up the moment, to catch the breaths they had stolen from each other, to process what just happened.

“I think we need to talk,” the captain murmured as he finally pulled away. “I’ll come to your room after dinner.”

Eren could only nod in acknowledgement.

Yeah, they really needed to talk before this… something blew up in their faces.

Eren was a nervous wreck by the time evening came. 

He paced around his room while his mind was busy running in circles, jumping at any little noise that might mean someone was coming.

Walls, what a fucking mess he ended up in.

It didn’t matter what the result of his conversation with Captain Levi would be; Eren was fucked either way. Honestly, the best outcome would probably be if the captain accused him of using his wily evil omega ways to seduce him and then refused to ever even look at him again.

It wouldn’t be the first time that had happened to an omega, or to Eren himself—usually from people he didn’t want anything to do with in the first place—and it would cleanly cut off this thing before it could start. It would hurt, it would piss Eren off, but it would be for the best. If they didn’t stop this right here, right now…

Eren wasn’t sure he would be able to do it later.

Levi was a nervous wreck by the time evening came.

During dinner, Eren had accidentally bumped Levi’s hand with his own while collecting his plate and the simple touch sent a jolt through Levi like he got burned—except it didn’t hurt, it didn’t even feel remotely bad. He could still feel the touch now, half an hour later, as he made his way towards the basement at an excruciatingly slow pace.

Walls, what a fucking shitfest he ended up in.

It didn’t matter what the result of his conversation with Eren would be; Levi was fucked either way. Honestly, the best outcome would be if Eren either told him he was abusing his power to take advantage of him, or if he said he only wanted to fuck Humanity’s Strongest and nothing else.

It wouldn’t be the first time, the Walls fucking knew half of these star-eyed recruits were hoping he would sleep with them just once, then get pissy over him refusing to even give a passing glance to any of them. If Eren was like that… It would piss him off but it would be for the best. If they didn’t stop this right here, right now…

Levi wasn’t sure he would be able to do it later.

It was bad.

It was really fucking bad.

They were supposed to have a talk, to break it off before it started, but here they fucking were, making out on Eren’s bed like nothing in the world mattered. They both knew it was bad. And yet, neither of them pulled away. Neither of them wanted to.

Neither of them said what the other wanted to hear. 

Neither of them heard the words that would allow them to walk away.

Instead, only helpless whispers of what the fuck are we going to do and we really shouldn’t be doing this and why can’t I stay away from you and we’re so fucking screwed were exchanged before they dived in head-first like absolute idiots.

But who were they kidding; before they even kissed for the first time, it was already too late for them. There was no going back. No running away from these feelings for either of them. They could either fight themselves and pretend nothing was there, wishing, hoping, praying it would all go away, or let themselves be swept away by each other and hope for the fucking best. And right now… 

Right now, neither of them cared.

They didn’t care about anything; about the titans, the Military Police, the risk of getting caught, their positions in the Corps, the fact Levi was supposed to kill Eren if needed be.

None of it mattered.

Only the way their lips moved together, skin sliding against skin, and the warmth they exchanged mattered. Only the emotions raging inside of them mattered. Only the feeling of rightness as they kissed with abandon, the way the alpha and omega inside them preened at the taste and smell and touch of the other… Only those things mattered.

The tension that had been slowly building up between them since that day in court had finally snapped, and now they were drowning. Drowning in each other, in these feelings, in the unknown that loomed over them.

It was bad.

And they couldn’t bring themselves to give a damn.

It was only when Levi nipped at Eren’s bottom lip, earning himself a quiet moan that raised goosebumps on his skin, Eren’s legs parting just a tiny bit more, that Levi finally pulled away. He was panting slightly, his heart beating faster than could be healthy, eyes shut tight as he rested his forehead on Eren’s shoulder.

He cursed under his breath, yet was still unwilling to let Eren go. His mind was sounding the alarm bells but his hand refused to part with Eren’s jaw, his fingers refused to untangle from his soft hair, his thumb refused to stop rubbing circles into Eren’s skin.

Levi cursed again.

“What now?” Eren asked, his voice barely a whisper.

Levi barked out a laugh. “Hell if I fucking know.”

“Captain, if you—”

“For the love of god, don’t call me Captain right now. Don’t make it any weirder than it already is,” Levi interrupted, sighing deeply at the reminder of the amount of shit they had stepped into.

“Levi—” Eren stressed, and Levi both loved and hated the sound of his name in that voice “—if you want to continue, I’m fine with it, just—”

“No.”

Eren froze at the blunt refusal, the hand that had been loosely holding onto Levi’s back curling into a fist. 

Levi took one last deep breath before he forced himself to pull away to look at the omega under him. He gently traced his jaw with his fingers, taking in how beautiful—if a little angry and confused—Eren was. It was ridiculous.

Levi was so fucked.

“Why?” 

The simple, short question sounded strained, almost as if Eren was fighting with himself. Wanting more, yet knowing better than to want for more. Cursing himself for wanting more even so.

Levi knew that feeling all too well. Had been fighting with it all fucking day.

“Because,” Levi started sternly, “one, it would obviously be your first time. Two, if this was about sex, we wouldn’t be here. I have more self-control than risk fucking everything just because your face is pretty. And three—” he cringed at his own stupidity “—I’m pretty sure I didn’t lock the door earlier.”

A beat of silence passed.

And then, Eren was laughing.

It was a melodic, beautiful sound that rang around the room and reached deep into Levi’s soul, shaking him to the core. He could listen to it forever. 

If only it wasn’t at his expense.

“Stop laughing, brat,” Levi hissed, finally forcing himself to get off of the omega. 

Eren immediately shuffled around a little, giving Levi room to sit next to him.

“I’m sorry, it’s just—I don’t know, this whole situation is ridiculous.”

“Tell me about it,” Levi groaned. 

He didn’t resist the urge to reach out and run his fingers through Eren’s hair. Eren leaned into his touch, humming in approval at the way Levi gently scratched at his scalp. 

Silence settled over the basement room for a moment, before Eren broke the stillness in a quiet voice.

“Seriously though. What do we do now?”

Levi heaved a deep sigh, closing his eyes as he let his head fall back. “I don’t know. What I do know is that we’ll both be trudging through some deep shit if anyone finds out. We really shouldn’t be doing this.”

“So, what, pretend none of this happened?”

“Can you?”

“Can you?”

They exchanged a look, the both of them knowing the answer all too well.

It was a long time before either of them spoke, but then Eren blindly reached out for Levi’s hand still in his hair, taking a loose hold of his wrist. “I guess there’s nothing we can do but see what happens, huh?”

Levi hummed in agreement and defeat. “I guess. I’ll try to keep my distance. You should too. But if we can’t…”

“Yeah…”

The words were left unspoken but they both knew. If they couldn’t keep their distance… they would be truly and thoroughly fucked. 

In more sense than one.

Eren’s voice grew more and more quiet as his story progressed. 

Hanji listened with bated breath the entire time, a grin so wide that her cheeks hurt plastered on her face. She just couldn’t help it. She couldn’t stop smiling if she tried. She wasn’t trying to tease Eren or anything but they were just so adorable!

“Anyway, we did try to stay away from each other, but it was just impossible. Without even realising it, we were spending all our time together and stealing touches and kisses and—” Eren stopped his mumbling abruptly, cringing a little at what just came out of his mouth. “We realised pretty quickly there was no point ignoring it.” He shrugged helplessly, looking around as if something—most likely Levi—might materialise out of nowhere to come to his aid if he wished for it hard enough.

“And?” Hanji prompted, curiosity killing her.

Eren blinked, meeting her eyes for the first time since he started his story, a confused frown on his face. “And what? And nothing, we’ve been together since then.”

Hanji pouted. “Oh, come on, Eren. The mating? How did you mate?”

Eren’s eyes widened, completely scandalised. His voice came out a little high-pitched when he replied, “You want to know how we mated?! No! That’s…” He trailed off, covering his face in embarrassment, no doubt remembering the event.

“No~!” Hanji laughed, waving her hand to dismiss the idea. “I don’t want a step-by-step. It’s not like I really want to hear what you two do at night, I’m just teasing when I ask about it.” She winked, making Eren scowl.

“Your teasing is not funny.”

“Oh, but it is, you just can’t appreciate it.” She grinned mischievously, making Eren huff unhappily. “No, what I meant was more like… How did it come to that? It’s a huge decision to make. There had to be a good reason.”

Eren looked away, a little bit of sadness finding its way to his voice and demeanor. 

“Well… After we came back from the expedition where—” he gulped heavily and Hanji’s smile dropped a bit “—where Petra and the others died… That evening, Levi told me he wanted to mate me. He said he didn’t want to come back inside the walls next time and find out too late that I died without him knowing anything. He—” Eren closed his eyes at the painful memory. “He was crying , Hanji. He needed the bond and I didn’t have a reason to say no since I felt the same way. I still feel the same way. I need to know that he’s safe, that he’s there, that he’s close if I need him. If he needs me. I need to know that and I doubt I’ll ever not need to.”

Suddenly, Hanji felt like she had missed a landing and fell down from a tall, tall tree without her gear having anything to anchor onto. One moment, she was holding back high-pitched, excited squeals, the next, she felt like crying.

She gave Eren a soft smile, not commenting on what he had just told her. Instead she stretched, then moaned when her back popped. 

“Well, we should wrap this up. Thank you for indulging me but I think that’s enough for today. We’ve been here for so long and I still need to write up that stupid report for Erwin. I don’t understand why he wants it on paper when he’s going to burn it anyway.” Hanji pouted at the prospect of completely wasted work before tossing Eren’s shirt at him.

“Do you need to do any other tests?”

Hanji hummed thoughtfully, pretty sure she did forget something; she had become so enraptured in Eren’s story at some point that she just completely lost track of anything else, but… “I can’t think of anything. If I remember I missed something, I’ll call for you, okay?”

Eren smiled and nodded. “Okay.”

“Great! Run along to lunch or you won’t eat until dinner. I’m pretty sure your mate wouldn’t appreciate that.”

“Damn right he wouldn’t.”

Both Hanji and Eren jumped at the interruption; neither of them had noticed anyone coming in.

“Levi! What are you doing here?!” Hanji questioned, clutching at her heart dramatically.

The alpha just rolled his eyes at her. “Checking if you haven’t killed him yet. What the hell is taking you so long, lunch is almost over.”

Hanji scratched her head sheepishly. “Sorry, we lost track of time. But we’re finished now!”

Levi shot her a glare at her unapologetic tone, but Hanji just had to smile when he reached out to help Eren jump off of the examination table like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Who knew Levi could be so sweet?

Chapter Text

Eren followed Levi out of Hanji’s lab without a word, but when, instead of into the mess hall, the alpha led him into the first empty room he found, Eren frowned in confusion.

“Levi?” he questioned as soon as he closed the door after himself.

Levi sighed and went straight to the point. “I talked to Erwin.”

Eren froze, biting on his bottom lip nervously.

Immediately noticing the change, Levi quickly shook his head and reached out to grab his mate’s hand, rubbing soothing circles over his wrist. He could practically see the what-ifs that had started running around in circles in Eren’s head. “No, it’s fine, it wasn’t anything bad. He just wanted to bitch at me.” He was glad to feel the tension leave Eren’s body little by little. “But he said that if you trust Mikasa, Armin, and Jean, you can go ahead and tell them.”

As if he had flipped a switch, the tension in Eren was right back. Levi almost had to laugh as he watched Eren’s face scrunch up into a glorious expression of distaste. It was painfully obvious he wasn’t looking forward to that conversation.

Eren groaned, slumping forward into Levi and burying his face into the alpha’s neck. “I don’t wanna.”

Levi huffed in amusement as he ruffled Eren’s hair fondly. “I know you don’t but you’re going to have to, sooner or later.”

“I know, but I kinda hoped I’d have more time to mentally prepare myself,” Eren muttered, his breath tickling Levi’s skin. “Mikasa’s going to kill me. We’ll fight then she’ll leave in a fit because I won’t listen to her and instead go kill you. Armin will try to make me feel guilty for not telling him sooner. He’ll be grinning like an idiot the entire time, too. And then he’ll start overthinking everything. And Horseface will just keep making fun of me,” Eren finished his rant in a drawn out whine.

Levi huffed, kissing Eren’s temple. The brat was just too cute sometimes. “I’ll talk to Mikasa when she comes to me but you’re such a brat. You know it will just get worse the longer you ignore it.”

“Can’t you just nod along and pretend to sympathise with me for a minute?” Eren growled in frustration.

“No. I need to piss you off so you actually do something about it. Just give me a warning before you tell her. I need to prepare the battlefield.”

“I hate you,” Eren sighed in defeat as he nuzzled closer to Levi.

Levi smirked, pressing another kiss to his mate’s hair. “I hate you, too.”

After a rushed lunch Eren was glad to finally be able to attend training, much to Mikasa’s obvious relief. The girl ran to him as soon as she saw him coming, bombarding him with questions about his whereabouts earlier that day and the day before and his well-being, while Eren did his best to avoid answering anything directly.

Unfortunately for him, however, Mikasa would have none of it. After a few minutes of fruitless back and forth, she had had enough. She grabbed Eren’s elbow to prevent him from running away and leaned in too far into his personal space, staring straight into his eyes from such a close proximity that it made it impossible for Eren to look anywhere else.

“Eren, you will tell me what the hell is going on or I swear I’m not going to let you go anywhere alone,” she growled, trying to assert her alpha dominance.

As if that had ever worked on Eren.

Not having the patience for this alpha bullshit right now, Eren snapped, “Mikasa, stop it! I can’t fucking tell you right now! I don’t even have any obligation to tell you every little thing going on with me either. I was planning on telling you tonight but if you’re still planning on babying me like you did when we were fucking nine, you can forget it!” Eren bared his teeth at her, knowing full well on a rational level that he was overreacting. He knew Mikasa was just worried about him but he was so sick of her always treating him like a child.

As always when their arguments got to the point of shouting, it was Armin who stepped in to mediate. He quickly assured Eren that they wouldn’t push him to tell them anything but they would appreciate not being kept in the dark completely, and then assured Mikasa that Eren would tell them when he was ready. Always the peacekeeper of the little group.

While Armin talked in his best placating voice, Eren took several deep breaths to calm down, being careful not to look at either Mikasa or Armin as he tried to keep control of his voice and emotions.

“Come to my room after dinner, but do not talk about this with anyone, alright?”

Mikasa and Armin exchanged a confused look before they both nodded, quietly agreeing to leave the topic be for now.

Just then, almost as if he had been waiting for Eren to finish, Levi called for his squad to pay attention. As they all scurried towards their captain, Eren noticed Jean giving him a weird look—a sudden reminder of the amount of confusion and worry he had left Horseface with when the alpha came to get Eren the day before.

The omega sighed to himself. That was another bomb just waiting to explode.

Watching the captain giving out instructions for the manoeuvre course they were about to go through, Eren got the impression Levi was almost amused. And when he announced they would all be going in pairs with Eren being stuck with Jean, the two of them going last, he became convinced. He was absolutely doing it on purpose.

He threw a betrayed look at his mate, who only gave him an impassive stare in response.

Asshole.

Eren heaved a deep sigh. What a subtle way to tell him to get it the fuck over with…

Suppressing a groan, Eren did his best to ignore the way Jean was drilling holes into his skull with his eyes while they waited for their turn, but the number of people around them dwindled all too quickly as the squad disappeared in the trees one by one. Eren closed his eyes when the second to last whistle came and Reiner with Bertholdt shot forward, leaving him all alone with Jean.

It barely took two seconds for the alpha to jump at the opportunity that Levi had oh-so kindly served to him on a silver platter. “Alright, Jaeger, what the hell is going on? After that creepy shit you pulled yesterday, no one sees you until breakfast, then you disappear again up until now. What. Is. Going. On?”

Eren grit his teeth to keep himself from automatically barking at Jean that it was none of his business. He had to remind himself that they needed as many people on their side as they could get, and honestly after the shit he had said to him yesterday, he knew Jean deserved at least a little bit of courtesy.

And so, he took a deep breath, closing his eyes momentarily to mentally prepare himself. “I can’t talk about it right now. It’s still… confidential.”

Eren didn’t think he had ever seen Jean’s eyebrows shoot so far up so quickly; he almost wanted to laugh at the dumb expression he was making right then. The seriousness in Jean’s voice was the only thing that kept him from actually snorting. 

“Are we in danger?”

Eren was taken aback by the no-bullshit attitude Jean suddenly seemed to have developed. He blinked, thinking about it for a moment before replying honestly, “Not right now but—” Eren’s gaze dropped to the ground as his hand twitched to cover his stomach “—we could be. I’ll explain everything if you come to my room after dinner. I’ll be talking to Mikasa and Armin, might as well get it over with all at once.”

The two of them stared at each other for a long while, neither of them saying anything as they tried to gauge the other’s thoughts. They didn’t move even as the last whistle sounded, the heavy silence hanging between them for a few seconds longer, until Jean gave a curt nod, shot his gear out, and disappeared. 

Eren followed a split second later, wondering at the strange experience he had just had. He was pretty sure that was the quietest, calmest, most level-headed conversation he had ever had with Horseface. 

He could only shake his head and attribute it to momentary confusion on both their parts.

The longer Levi watched his squad run through the course he had set up for them, the more it dawned on him what a terrible idea this was. Eren was expecting. What if he hurts himself? What if there’s a gear malfunction and he falls from this height? What if—

“Worried?”

Levi jerked, almost falling off of the tree branch he was perched on at the entirely too amused voice that came from somewhere above him.

He glared up at Hanji, who only kept grinning madly back at him.

“Are you trying to kill me?” Levi hissed

Hanji shrugged. “Not my fault you were so lost in thought you didn’t hear me coming. Or calling your name, like, three times.”

The alpha only glared at her harder. “What are you even doing here, Shitty Four-Eyes? Shouldn’t you be writing reports or something?”

“I’m observing! Eren’s performance in training is an important indicator of any undesirable side effects! Like losing balance, worsened eyesight, bad judgment of distance, stuff like that.” She snickered at the slightly panicked look that made it onto Levi’s face before she quickly assured him, “There shouldn’t be anything wrong. I checked all of it this morning and he seemed perfectly fine. But knowing Erwin, he’ll want to know every little detail I can get.”

Levi wanted to believe her, he really did, but he still couldn’t stop himself from looking frantically for his mate. If he were thinking rationally, he might have realised that if anything had gone wrong, the bond would have let him know right away, but he had already been worried before Hanji came in with her shitty commentary and the bond didn’t cross his mind at all. 

He ignored the way Hanji was looking at him from above as if he were a test subject himself, a look of pure fascination and glee written all over her face.

Just then, the tell-tale sound of manoeuvring gear reached Levi’s ears, his head immediately snapping in the direction it was coming from. It was almost scary, the way his whole body relaxed at the sight of Eren, perfectly fine, trying furiously to stay ahead of Jean, who was right on his heels.

“Levi, you do realise he’s not invalid, right?” Hanji questioned with badly concealed laughter.

“Shut up, Shitty Four-Eyes,” Levi snapped, clicking his tongue in annoyance.

He sure fucking hoped he was imagining the heat that was rising to the tips of his ears—even though Hanji’s delighted snickers told him otherwise.

Dinner was a very tense affair. Eren spent the entire time doing his best to ignore the intense stares boring into him from several different directions while simultaneously trying to suppress the rising anxiety. The way Hanji kept sending both him and a visibly annoyed Levi weird looks while giggling to herself wasn’t exactly helping either; it just screamed suspicious and Eren wasn’t sure he wanted to know what that was about.

On top of all that, it was painfully obvious the rest of the squad could tell something was going on. 

They kept sending worried looks at Eren, Mikasa, and Levi, not daring to move or speak more than necessary lest they set one of them off—it didn’t even really matter to them which one of those three that would be as they all looked equally volatile, and could be equally destructive. Something was brewing, however, nobody but Squad Leader Hanji seemed to know what.

Eventually, Eren stood up rather aggressively, fed up with Mikasa glaring daggers at him constantly and Armin and Jean thinking they were so sneaky with their occasional peeks. Of course, Hanji’s random bursts of laughter did nothing to help with his patience.

Mikasa looked like she wanted to follow right after him but Armin’s hand on her arm stopped her. She gave the beta a questioning, if slightly accusing look, but the blond only shook his head and gestured towards her untouched plate. Only then did she seem to realise she had been so busy staring a hole into Eren’s skull that she hadn’t eaten anything at all. 

She let out a defeated sigh, finally picking up her spoon and digging in, much to Eren’s relief and Armin’s satisfaction.

Leaving the mess hall behind, Eren headed straight to his room, where he proceeded to pace around nervously as he waited for the others to join him.

Was he ready for this? Hell no. Did he have any choice? Not anymore. Was Mikasa going to kill him? Most definitely. 

The omega grasped and tugged at his hair desperately. He so didn’t want to be here. He wanted to be relaxing in his nest in Levi’s room, or bothering his alpha in his office while he did paperwork. Just like he had only two nights ago. He wanted to carry on as if nothing had changed. Wanted to act as if their life hadn’t completely turned on its head and then right back again in the span of 24 hours.

Wanted to pretend their world wasn’t still wobbly, still looking for the center of gravity it had lost.

Eren felt like he was on the verge of a panic attack by the time a knock on his door ripped him out of his thoughts. He abruptly stopped pacing and instead collapsed into the chair Levi had moved into his room at some point along with a small desk to allow himself to work while spending the night.

Another knock came and Eren sighed deeply.

“Come in!” he finally called, sounding completely defeated even to his own ears.

He wasn’t surprised to see Armin’s blond head pop in a moment later, sending him a warm smile. Armin was, of course, immediately followed by Mikasa, who looked about ready to burst with questions but trying to hold herself back. No doubt Armin had given her some talking to before they arrived.

Eren gestured to the bed for them to sit, trying very hard not to blush when his panic-fueled mind oh-so helpfully supplied that it was probably that very place where this entire problem started.

Armin smiled encouragingly once settled. “We’re ready when you are.”

The corners of Eren’s mouth twitched up into a humorless smile as he muttered under his breath in response, “Somehow, I doubt that.”

Mikasa looked at him, her eyes full of worry. Is it that bad? she seemed to be asking him.

Eren quickly shook his head before he continued in a normal voice, “We still have to wait for Horseface. I refuse to talk about this more times than I have to.”

Armin and Mikasa exchanged a confused look. 

“Jean?” Armin questioned with a frown, as if he might have heard him wrong.

“Yeah, there were some... circumstances and I thought he deserved to know. Besides I need as many people to know as possible and—” Eren cringed at what he was about to say, his face twisting with something akin to pain “—I trust him.”

In that moment, Eren’s eyes caught movement on the stairs leading up and his eyes widened with horror when he came face-to-face with the horse himself, grinning like he just won something. 

Eren had to begrudgingly admit he didn’t not win something.

Still, Eren scowled at him. “Ever heard of knocking , Horseface?”

Jean’s smirk only widened. “I figured I was welcome to just come in since you invited me. And since you trust me.”

The omega rolled his eyes. Awesome. Now he wouldn’t hear the fucking end of it for at least a month. It took great effort to remind himself that there were bigger problems right now than starting a fight with Jean.

He took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, before he decided to go straight to the point.

“First, I need you all to promise me that you won’t tell anyone. As far as I know, the only people who know about this right now are Hanji, the commander, and the captain. And it has to stay that way for now.”

Mikasa frowned deeply, concern almost radiating off of her.

“Why are you all looking at me?” Jean cried defensively a second later.

Mikasa just shrugged while Armin’s gaze veered off guiltily. Eren, however, looked him directly in the eyes and simply stated, “Because you have a big mouth, unlike them.”

“What’s that suppo—“

“Okay, okay! Time out!” Armin interrupted with a clap of his hands before they got completely off-track. “Leave it guys. This seems serious and Mikasa looks like she’s going to punch a hole in the wall if Eren doesn’t explain soon.”

Jean and Eren both huffed, looking away from each other simultaneously.

“Fine. I promise not to tell,” Jean recited in a forced tone of sincerity. The others only rolled their eyes at the dramatics before all attention turned back to Eren.

“Okay, so…” Eren closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. No use in trying to dance around the subject. “I’m kind of pregnant.”

Silence so thick you could hear it followed. No one moved and time practically stopped for a very long while and Eren worried he would lose his mind if something didn’t happen soon.

Finally, a high pitched squeak of WHAT?! came from none other than Jean and the spell broke. 

Suddenly, all of them were moving. 

Armin squealed in excitement as he jumped up to hug Eren, while Jean started backing away slowly as if Eren was some sort of a dangerous, unknown creature.

Mikasa was the last one to wake up from her shock. But soon, she was running to Eren’s side, pushing Armin away and kneeling in front of her brother, clutching at his knees like her life depended on it. 

“Eren, you weren’t raped, were you?” she asked, fear finding its way onto her face.

Eren only stared at her, his own eyes slowly filling with horror. 

“Oh my god, no!” he cried, voice full of frustration. “Seriously, how do you always jump to the worst possible conclusion? I’ll have you know it was very much consensual.” Eren froze at his own words. Walls, why did he say that? There was so much heat in his face…

Luckily no one commented on his slip-up. Mikasa only slumped against Eren’s legs as all energy drained from her, her head hanging low as she quietly whispered, “Thank god.” 

Eren could only run his hand through her hair soothingly.

He jerked away from her on instinct, however, when Jean asked the golden question a moment later, “So, who’s the father? Or mother?”

The color that was just starting to fade from the omega’s face was back in full-force as all heads turned back to him, Mikasa’s eyes narrowing dangerously.

Eren turned away, mumbling, “I don’t have to tell you.”

“Eren,” Mikasa said in a warning tone.

“And what are you going to do with that information?! Go pick a fight?”

“Just warn them not to hurt you and to better take care of you or so help me, I’m going to skin them alive.”

“So go pick a fight! Keep dreaming, I’m not telling you!”

“Armin.”

“What?” the blond jumped, taken completely off-guard by Mikasa suddenly addressing him.

“Who’s the parent? I know you know.”

Armin turned a little pink; whether that was at the roundabout praise or at the topic, no one knew. “Well, I can’t say I know but there aren’t that many people Eren has any real contact with. It’s not you or me and obviously not Jean either—” he was interrupted by disgusted protests by the both of them at the mere idea “—and I somehow doubt it was Commander Erwin. Also, going by the fact that Eren said only 3 people knew before us, it only leaves…” Armin trailed off, letting the others figure out what he was suggesting by themselves.

Eren couldn’t help but flinch at Armin’s words and he cursed internally. He knew just that was nothing if not a clear admission of guilt—letting them know Armin was spot-on and leaving him no room to run away from it.

Everyone knew the exact moment the dots connected in Jean's head at the impressed whistle he let out, followed by an awkward, yet equally as impressed, chuckle.

It took Mikasa a few more moments to give any reaction but then she shot up, heading straight for the door. “I’m going to kill that fucking midget,” she seethed as she strode purposefully forward.

Eren quickly stumbled after her, trying desperately to stop her. “No! Mikasa, wait!! What are you trying to do?!”

Mikasa didn’t even bother looking back at Eren as she answered with a voice full of venom, “He doesn’t deserve you, Eren. I can’t let him go unpunished for taking advantage of you.”

“He didn’t take advantage of me! Why are you so dead-set on hating him?!” He made to grab Mikasa’s arm, although it didn't slow her down much. They soon left the basement and Eren was forced to continue in a whisper-shout. “What did he ever do to you?!”

“He beat you up terribly, Eren. He lost his right to even look at you when he hit you for the first time.”

Eren growled, his anger rising more and more with every word that left Mikasa’s mouth. “He had no other choice and you know it, Mikasa! Don’t you dare hold it against him, he beats himself up over it enough!”

“Good. He should beat himself up over it.”

“NO!!” For a second, Eren forgot they weren’t in private anymore, but the deafening echo was a brutal, immediate reminder. He jerked Mikasa a step back, all but slamming her against the wall.

“No, he fucking shouldn’t ,” he snarled, making sure to keep his voice low. He knew his eyes had to be glowing full-force by now, making Mikasa pause. “My own mate shouldn’t have to blame himself for something he had no control over. He saved my fucking life. I won’t let him blame himself for that.”

They stared at each other for a long time, alpha protecting her family to omega protecting his mate, as Eren’s words sank in. Mikasa’s own eyes started flashing as well, her need to keep her brother safe mixing with the fury at having been left in the dark, and only fueling her further. 

“Mate. Your mate. And you didn’t even bother to tell me.” There was a clear accusation in her words, and if Eren was in a better state of mind, he might have detected a bit of hurt in there as well.

As it was, however, he only hissed back, “ I didn’t tell you because I knew you would react like this! You always react like this! Like I can’t make my own decisions about my own damn life!”

Mikasa’s face twisted into a snarl of her own as shook Eren off, forcibly freeing her arm before she set off again. “Fine. I get it. He’s your mate.” She spat the word as if it was poison. “I won’t kill him then.”

“Then where the hell are you going?! Mikasa!!”

Left behind in the basement, Armin and Jean looked at each other helplessly. They both knew this wasn’t going to end up pretty, but they also knew they had no choice but to let it happen. Getting in between Eren and Mikasa in this state was dangerous enough.

Getting in between Mikasa and Captain Levi?

Neither one of them had a death wish.

“Might as well enjoy the show, huh?” Jean gave Armin a crooked, ironic smile.

The beta sighed deeply, gesturing for Jean to go first. “Follow the screeching.”

Eren was very, very angry, Levi could tell from the bond. Also pretty close, if the shouting getting louder by the second was anything to go by.

That was quick; he wasn’t expecting them for another ten minutes or so. 

Rubbing at the bridge of his nose, Levi resigned himself to his fate before gathering all the paperwork on his desk and putting it away. Those shitty papers were the absolute last thing he wanted to fall victim to anyone’s wrath. He‘d have to re-do the entire thing. No fucking thank you.

He only had a few seconds to prepare himself once the voices got close enough for him to understand what they were saying—they weren’t even fighting over him anymore; something about Mikasa always carrying Eren’s share of wood?—before the door to his office rudely slammed open. 

Not that he had expected anything less.

Both of the siblings were seething with rage, their eyes lit up and faces flushed from screaming at each other. Armin and Jean were also there, peeking cautiously from around the doorframe with identical uneasy expressions on their faces. If the situation wasn’t so volatile, Levi would have snorted at sight.

As it was, he could only look from one face to the other, heaving a deep sigh, before he finally looked directly at Eren. “Can you leave us, please?”

Eren gaped at him. “You cannot be serious.”

“Eren, you know we have to deal with this or it will only get worse.”

“But—“

“Eren,” came an unexpected interruption from behind them as Armin stepped inside the room. “I really think it would be better if you left them to sort this out between themselves.”

Eren didn’t seem to be willing to move so after a few more awkward seconds, Jean rolled his eyes and strode into Levi’s office, grabbed Eren by the elbow and dragged him out, saluting half-heartedly before he slammed the door shut behind them.

Eren glared at the door that Jean had unceremoniously closed in his face. Was it… really okay to just leave?

“They’re big kids, Jaeger. I think they can do this without spilling blood. Come on.” Jean huffed before he proceeded to drag a now-lifeless Eren away, Armin jogging after them.

They ended up back in Eren’s room, the two boys ganging up on Eren and pushing him for details about their captain and teasing him mercilessly along the way. This, of course, didn’t go without a few small fights between Eren and Jean, even though Eren was so distracted that he didn’t even care what the others were saying most of the time.

That was how Mikasa found them half an hour later—Armin lying sprawled on Eren’s bed with an evil smirk on his face while Jean laughed loudly at Eren, who was blushing furiously and glaring at the two of them defiantly. However, as soon as they heard the door open, they all sat up straight, holding their breaths, waiting.

When the girl came down the stairs and the light from the several lamps could finally shine on her properly, all three of them let go of a collective sigh of relief. Though hiding behind her scarf, Mikasa couldn’t mask the gentle expression now adorning her face.

“He’s not that bad,” she mumbled, even sounding a little embarrassed.

She then turned to her brother, determination shining through while she took those last few steps separating them. As soon as she got close enough, she latched onto him, hugging him tight. 

“Congratulations. I’m sorry, I don’t think I said it before.”

Eren was a little surprised at first but soon he wrapped his arms around her waist in return. “Thank you,” he whispered back.

Their quiet reconciliation was interrupted when Jean asked curiously, “So what happened up there?”

Without even easing her hold on Eren, Mikasa turned to look at Jean, then at Armin, before answering vaguely, “Nothing much. We realised we had a common goal so we called a truce.”

Eren snorted as Armin smiled knowingly. 

“Well, I think it’s time you two had a good, long talk,” Armin announced, grabbing Jean by the collar and dragging him out with him. “Once again, congratulations, Eren. Just so you know though, I really don’t appreciate you keeping secrets like this from us. I expect you to make it up to me and Mikasa later.”

Eren scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “Yeah, sorry… Are you leaving already? I mean, not the horse, but you can stay longer Armin.”

“Hey!” Jean protested weakly, but he went largely ignored.

Armin shook his head. “Thanks for the offer, but unlike you guys, I actually need my sleep. Good night!” He smiled brightly as he waved at siblings.

Armin parted ways with Jean soon as well, as the alpha opted to join the rest of the squad, who was still making ruckus in the mess hall, rather than join Armin in retiring early.

If he were to be honest, Armin silently welcomed Jean’s decision.

In the light of tonight’s discovery, the blond had come to a decision of his own. It didn’t matter how unsure of his theories and deductions he was; now, there was an innocent life at risk and he couldn’t take any more chances.

He needed to talk to the commander right now.

Chapter Text

On Monday, Erwin surprised both Levi and Eren when he came up to them during breakfast to inform them their meeting would not be held in his office but rather in the meeting room. The mates exchanged a glance as they watched the commander go around and inform more and more people about the event and suddenly, Eren was more than glad his friends already knew. He didn’t want to imagine how Mikasa would react if she didn’t learn about it from him directly and by the looks of it, he wouldn’t have had a choice but come clean after today. Just like Levi was going to have to.

The alpha grumbled as he watched Nanaba give Erwin a concerned look and Eren snickered.

Levi turned his glare at Eren, who only shrugged and mumbled so only Levi could hear, “Who was it that said it would only get worse the longer I waited?”

Levi’s eyes slid from Eren to stare pointedly at Mike and Nanaba, then directly at Mikasa, eyeing her for so long that the girl turned to give him a confused frown. Levi then looked back at Eren with raised eyebrows and an unspoken question in his eyes. 

Are you really comparing my friends to yours?

Eren rolled his eyes before returning to his meal. He heard Mikasa’s voice asking, “What is it, sir? Why were you staring at me?”

He looked up just in time to see Levi shake his head and answer with a slight smirk, “No, it’s nothing.”

Mikasa gave the other alpha a suspicious look but didn’t say anything more.

Eren sighed. He still couldn’t help but feel weird, seeing his mate and sister interact so casually. He simply couldn’t believe how fast things had normalised between them; it was almost as if they were always sort of friendly, yet respectful with each other and not at each other’s throats constantly.

He had tried to ask what had happened after Mikasa had stormed into Levi’s office and he was forced to leave them alone, but all that Levi gave him as a reply was sarcasm. “Nothing, I just confessed my undying love for you,” he said.

As if Eren would believe that. Especially when he said it in that tone.

What Eren didn’t realise, however, was that sometimes, honesty was the best policy—particularly when the truth didn’t sound all too believable in the first place.

After exchanging a few heated words—during which, miraculously, only one single tea cup was victimised—Levi finally blurted the words out. Mikasa didn’t seem to believe him at first, but something in his eyes managed to convince her in the end. The two alphas then quickly came to realise they both wanted the same thing: to protect Eren and make sure both him and the baby made it through the whole mess in one piece. 

It was more productive to work together rather than against each other, right?

Mikasa even forgave Levi for beating Eren up in court—forgave, but didn’t forget, as she made sure to assure her captain.

And so, their rivalry became a thing of the past within half an hour, thoroughly confusing everyone the next day when they greeted each other almost cheerfully instead of ignoring the other’s existence like usual.

Days later, and still nobody could wrap their head around it, Eren included.

The omega was just finishing his food when Hanji burst into the mess hall, looking even more manic than usual, something that looked suspiciously like blood in her hair. Judging by the look of her though, it either wasn’t blood at all, or it wasn’t her blood. 

A foreboding shiver ran up Eren’s spine when she turned towards their table and gave Eren a bright grin.

He already dreaded the moment he’d find out what that was about.

Morning training passed quickly and without incident, except the one moment when Eren tripped while doing some speed building exercises and fell face first into the mud. 

Levi looked like he almost had a heart attack, but judging by the reactions Mikasa and Armin gave, he wasn’t the only one. Even Jean flinched as if he had to stop himself from running over to make sure Eren was alright, and then kept sending the omega concerned glances, all the while teasing him for being an idiot. 

Eren understood on a rational level why they all reacted that way, but that knowledge, unfortunately, didn’t mean he didn’t find it beyond annoying.

He struggled to not snap at anyone but thankfully, the training finished before anyone came to harm and soon, it was time for lunch. Then that was also over and suddenly, it was time for the meeting and Eren couldn’t stop the anxiety from nagging at him. He didn’t know what to expect.

If nothing else, he was glad Commander Erwin had moved the meeting back a little, inadvertently giving Eren and Levi time to share some tea after lunch before heading to the meeting room together. The alpha’s calm presence was grounding, giving Eren something to anchor onto and calm his nerves.

When the two of them finally arrived at the meeting room, the door was closed but they could hear some suspicious rustling and muttering coming from the inside. They exchanged a quick look before Levi tentatively pushed the door open… and immediately, the both of them froze at the sight that greeted them.

Hanji, the only person present so far, had clearly been keeping herself busy.

The large table that was usually in the centre of the room was shoved more to the side, the chairs rearranged so that there were seven seats on one side, and only two on the other. As to where the rest of the maybe twenty chairs went, Eren had no idea.

But, it wasn’t the new arrangement in itself that had caught Eren and Levi off-guard.

It was those two lonely chairs.

They were loosely wrapped and tied together with what appeared to be a large, red ribbon. On the wall behind them, there was a giant banner with a bright pink, elegant cursive proudly stating Seats of Shame with a smaller, much sloppier and congrats, by the way that appeared to have been added later as an afterthought. The space around the writings was entirely covered with little doodles of hearts and flowers in the same shade of red as the ribbon.

Hanji herself was balancing on one of the two chairs, working on adjusting the banner to get it hanging just right. 

Levi cleared his throat, annoyance clear both on his face and in his voice, and Hanji’s head snapped towards them. She smiled widely when her eyes fell on them and suddenly, Eren realised why she was being so suspicious during breakfast. Probably why she had arrived late with what he now assumed was red paint in her hair, too.

“Ah, perfect timing! Can you tell me if I have this thing hanging right?” she asked, excitement just oozing off of her.

Instead of answering, Levi growled, “What the fuck is this shit, shitty Four-Eyes?”

The beta pouted briefly, before the grin came right back. “I prepared special seats for you! Do you like it?”

“Where did you even get all this stuff?” Eren squeaked.

“Oh, I made it! I found some old sheets and thought of this awesome idea! It took all night to mix the perfect colours and soak the sheets and write on them. I haven’t slept at all but I think it was totally worth it, don’t you think?”

“No,” Levi deadpanned, crossing his arms over his chest with a scowl.

Eren only looked on, taking in all the little details. He had to begrudgingly admit he was kind of impressed by the effort and dedication Hanji had put into it but honestly, he was way more horrified by it than anything else. 

Walls, he would have to sit there.

Now, Hanji really pouted. “Meanie! Will you at least tell me if it’s straight?”

Before Levi could respond—probably to tell her to go eat shit and her shitty decorations while she was at it—, the door opened again and in came Mikasa. She took a second to take in the absurd sight but then her hand shot up to her scarf, pulling it up over her mouth. 

Both mates scowled at the obvious mirth in her eyes.

Hanji, on the other hand, zeroed in on the newcomer. “Mikasa! what do you think? How does it look? Isn’t the banner crooked?”

Mikasa shook her head. “No, it looks straight. It’s perfect.” She actually gave the beta a thumbs-up with both of her hands.

A thumbs-up.

Eren felt betrayed on the most base level.

Hanji heaved a satisfied sigh as she jumped off of her chair. “Thank you.” She grinned at Mikasa before turning a disappointed eye at the men. “See? This is how you appreciate someone’s hard work!”

Levi rolled his eyes and muttered several choice insults towards the two women who had apparently ganged up on them.

Eren couldn’t get a word out if he tried anymore.

The next to arrive was Armin, looking a little flushed and out of breath. “I’m not late, am I?” He asked as he leaned over his knees, taking deep breaths with his eyes closed.

“No, you still have a few minutes,” Mikasa assured him, a badly suppressed chuckle still in her voice.

Armin’s brow furrowed; he tilted his head in confusion, but the moment he actually raised his eyes, he didn’t need to question her amusement anymore. Instead, his entire face twisted as he struggled to keep his own laughter in, complimenting the set up and making Hanji beam proudly.

Closely behind Armin came Mike, who scanned the banner, snorted, and put on a look like suddenly, everything made sense.

Eren frowned at the reaction but Levi only shook his head; he would bet that over time, the weirdo could smell changes around the two of them but probably couldn’t tell what was going on until shitty Four-Eyes supplied a hint.

When Jean arrived a shot while later, he immediately burst into laughter before cowering at the scathing glare Levi sent him.

On the other hand, an expression of utter confusion spread over Nanaba’s face when she joined them last—she stared at the peculiar choice of decor with her head tilted to the side for a long moment, then ran her gaze over the strange mix of people present. She frowned at Mikasa, Armin, and Jean in particular, before sending a questioning glance at Mike, then at Levi.

No one bothered to explain any of it to her.

It took Erwin another five minutes to arrive with a large stack of papers in tow, but when his eyes caught the banner, he huffed. 

“Thank you, Squad Leader Hanji, for the appropriate decorations,” he said, not sounding nearly as opposed to the display as Eren would have liked him to be. “I do hope you’ll take this down before someone undesirable sees it and connects the dots though.”

Hanji saluted with enthusiasm and a self-satisfied smile. “Thank you, and of course, Commander Erwin, sir.”

Erwin nodded in acknowledgment before running a quick look over the room. “Well, everyone, take your seats.”

Eren immediately ran towards the nearest of the seven normal chairs, but Erwin’s hand on his shoulder stopped him. His face fell when he looked up to see the commander’s eyes twinkling with amusement.

“Oh, no, no, Eren. You have to sit in your designated seat.”

The omega looked desperately back at his mate, who was ignoring him in favor of staring at their chairs with open disgust. Everyone was seated before Eren took a single step forward, too mortified to even move. It was only after Mikasa prompted them to not hold up the meeting any longer that Eren finally sat down stiffly. 

Levi followed after him, clicking his tongue in annoyance before he flopped into the chair next to Eren with an expression of nonchalance plastered on his face. As if that was going to fool anyone at this point.

Staring intently at the table in front of him, Eren was determined not to look at anyone’s faces as he was sure of what he would see there if he did. All the evil smirks. He knew all of them were enjoying this. He wanted to be mad, he really did; he wanted to shout at them all—granted, mostly at Hanji—but he just couldn’t bring himself to feel anything other than absolute mortification.  

Mortification that only grew worse when Levi’s arm landed on the back of his chair as the man made himself comfortable.

Eren just wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere and die.

After a minute of silence—a minute that was only meant to prolong their suffering, Eren was sure—, the commander cleared his throat. “It has come to my attention that some of us present don’t know what the focal point of this meeting is. So, before we start, I would like to ask one of the causes to kindly brief us on the situation.”

Heat started rising to Eren’s face, just as his ability to make a sound left him completely.

A few seconds filled with nothing but quiet anticipation passed, before Levi sighed and supplied an explanation. “We fucked. We made a baby. No abortions. End of story.”

There was a beat of silence before Hanji burst out laughing, hitting the table several times in her glee, Mikasa joining her soon after with her quiet chuckles muffled by her scarf. Jean looked like he was too scared to laugh but struggling very hard with the apparent hilarity of the situation while Mike smirked openly. Armin simply blushed over the word choice.

Poor Nanaba was the only one who looked like she couldn’t really comprehend what Levi was trying to say.

Erwin rubbed at the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath. He looked just about done with Levi’s shit and Eren couldn’t really say he blamed him. The omega just wanted to bury his face in his hands, plug his ears, and pretend none of this was happening.

“What Levi is trying to say—” the commander glared at Levi half-heartedly “—is that against any common sense they might have had, he and Eren mated. On top of that, they were careless, which resulted in Eren now being about a month pregnant. With how badly abortion might affect Eren, we can’t afford to risk it. I hope all of you realise how serious this situation is.”

Half-way through Erwin’s speech, Eren’s embarrassment was replaced by shame. They really should have been more careful… 

Levi, however, didn’t seem bothered at all. He threw one of his legs over the other, gave Erwin an impassive stare, and bluntly told him, “You don’t have to still be so fucking sore about it just because you’re jealous some of us decided to get a life and mate someone other than our work.”

“Low blow, Levi!” Hanji gasped dramatically. “Leave Erwin’s non-existent love life out of this!” Despite clearly trying to sound like she was scolding Levi, her voice was shaking with laughter and she wasn’t even trying to hide it.

A fact that didn’t go unnoticed by the commander—or Mike, who snorted, his mustache twitching.

The commander narrowed his eyes at all three of them. “This is not about me, nor is it a laughing matter. This is about common sense. And by the way, all of you should be prioritising your work over your libidos.”

Levi only shrugged and looked away.

“Okay, okay,” Nanaba spoke for the first time, raising her hands as if asking everyone to stop even moving. “Why do I get the feeling I was the only one who didn’t know about this?” She sounded a little hurt, clearly unhappy at having been left out.

Mike sniffed before he said, “Because Levi is too shy to share with us. I only realised when I came here, too.”

The two of them gave identical disapproving looks to Levi, who simply flipped them off.

“Maybe we should actually start the meeting so we at least get the basics down?” Hanji proposed, though she was still grinning so wide it looked like her face would split.

“Yes, we should,” Erwin agreed, shifting his attention to his stack of papers. “So, first of all, the people present here right now are the only ones who know about this issue, and it has to stay that way for now.” He looked everyone in the eyes and waited until each of them nodded. “I plan to let Levi’s squad know soon, but there are some things I need to look up first. For now, I want you all to keep it to yourselves and pay extra attention to Eren’s protection.

“Next, according to Hanji’s report, Eren is in perfect health so he is free to continue training normally for now, as long as he’s careful and Levi holds his protectiveness in check.”

Eren relaxed at the go-ahead, a tension he didn’t realise he was feeling dissipating. He was glad he wouldn’t be forced to completely miss months of training; he was sure he’d have a hard time catching up with everyone later on.

Levi, on the other hand, clicked his tongue at Erwin’s last remark, unsure whether to glare at Erwin or Hanji for that one. He glared at them both for good measure.

Erwin sighed, folding his hands over the papers laid out in front of him. “The problem is with the experiments. We have no idea how shifting might affect Eren right now, or if he’s even able to shift at all. But, we won’t know that unless we try. We have to decide whether to risk it or not before we do anything else.”

When Erwin’s questioning gaze turned to him, Eren immediately nodded as he agreed, “Of course, I want to continue the experiments. I’ll do my best to—“

“I refuse.”

Eren couldn’t say he was surprised by the interruption.

“Levi, if I may,” Hanji said with a smile, raising her hand to bring the attention to herself. Levi gave her a look that clearly said no, she may not, but she continued anyway. “I don’t think there’s much risk for either Eren himself or the baby. My theory is that if the shifting posed any threat, Eren’s omega side would recognise it and prevent the shift from happening altogether. Of course, I don’t have any proof, but omegan protective instincts are very strong. You said so yourself, miscarriages are extremely rare and those instincts have a big part in that.”

Levi scowled; he clearly wanted to protest more, but Eren’s hand on his knee stopped him. He gave the omega a questioning glance and was met with eyes that were full of fire and determination.

“Please, at least let me try.”

Levi exhaled sharply; he couldn’t say no to those eyes.

He most certainly wasn’t happy about it though.

He gritted his teeth, cursing under his breath before he finally conceded. “I will be there. Every single time and if I feel anything is going to shit, I have the right to stop it immediately, no matter what any one of you says.”

Eren smiled, squeezing Levi’s knee to silently thank him.

Hanji beamed at them, looking positively joyful, while Erwin simply nodded, a relieved expression briefly crossing over his face.

“Thank you, both of you,” the commander said before he moved on. “Although, we can’t simply continue where we left off. We have to slow it down and test the waters and that’s where our next issue comes in. We’re required to send regular reports to the capital and if we send the real progress reports, they are going to question why we’re repeating tests we did months ago. So, we either come up with a damn good reason as to why we do what we do, or we send false reports. And if it turns out Eren can’t shift at all?”

“I think this should be Hanji’s call,” Nanaba piped up.

“Indeed. I do welcome any suggestions but it will have to be up to Hanji to get creative with either approach. Sorry.”

Eren thought he heard Hanji mumble something along the lines of wow, thanks so much, Levi but he couldn’t be sure.

Armin hesitantly raised his hand, making Erwin smile at him encouragingly, “Yes, Armin?”

“I… I don’t really have any suggestions, but if Squad Leader Hanji needs any help with the experiments or record keeping, since she can’t ask for help from Moblit, I thought I could help instead?”

“You would?!” Hanji cried excitedly, leaning over the table to look at Armin properly. “Can you draw? How fast can you write? Do you think you could—“

“Great!” Erwin interrupted. “You two can go over the details later. Any other suggestions?” As he was met only with silence, the blond alpha continued, “Alright. Let me know what you’ve decided by this evening.

“Now, I want to talk to you about what to do in case anyone asks too many questions.”

Eren tried to pay close attention to what the commander was saying, but with each passing minute, it became more and more apparent that the man was planning to list any and every unlikely scenario that might or might not come into play in the upcoming weeks, and it was quickly becoming difficult to not tune the man out completely. And once Levi sighed deeply —clearly having lost any remaining interest in Erwin’s monologue—, grabbing Eren’s hand to play with his fingers rather than pay any semblance of attention, it became entirely impossible for Eren to stay focused.

They weren’t the only ones struggling either. It soon became apparent that nobody but Armin was even listening to the commander anymore—even though Erwin himself didn’t seem to notice he had completely lost his audience somewhere around King Fritz himself coming in for an inspection.

It took two hours before the meeting was finally dismissed, and then another thirty minutes before Levi deemed the room sufficiently in order and let anyone actually leave.

Chapter Text

“You did really great, Eren! How do you feel?”

Despite his exhaustion, Eren gave a wide smile to the researcher through the steam rising up from the titan arm between them. “Thanks, Hanji. I’m a little tired but nothing more than I’d normally be.”

“Awesome! We can stop here for today then!” She grinned back, turning all her attention to the quickly disintegrating titan relic, even getting on her knees to crawl around it in search of anything that might be different about it.

While Armin ran up to Eren only to immediately grab his wrist to take down his pulse, Eren looked over his best friend’s shoulder to smile confidently at the man scowling in the background. They made brief eye contact before Levi’s frown deepened and he strode over with purpose.

As soon as he was close enough, the alpha’s hand shot up to connect with Eren’s forehead.

“You’re hot.”

Eren bit his cheek in an attempt to stop himself, but the word slipped out anyway. “Thanks,” he said, a tired smirk pulling on his lips.

Armin snicked, only making Levi narrow his eyes at the both of them. “I’m serious, brat.”

Eren suppressed a sigh, leaning over to press a kiss to Levi’s lips in assurance. “I’m fine, Levi. I’m always overheated after shifting. It will go away soon, it was just an arm.”

“I sure hope so,” Levi muttered.

“Don’t worry, Captain,” Armin said with a soft smile. “This level of fever isn’t something even a pregnant beta couldn’t manage without any trouble at all.”

“See?” Eren said, a slightly desperate tint to his tone, gesturing to his genius of a best friend.

He and Levi stared at each other for a moment before the alpha shook his head. He gave Eren a quick kiss of his own before he turned around and walked off in Hanji’s general direction.

As soon as his mate was far enough, Eren sighed and rubbed at his face. “Walls, between him and Mikasa, I can’t catch a break,” he whined. “I’m honestly not sure which one of them is worse.”

Armin hummed thoughtfully as if this was some difficult problem that was in a dire need of solving. “I’d say Mikasa is worse. She doesn’t have a reason to hold back even in front of other people.”

“But I don’t sleep in the same bed as Mikasa every night.”

“You what?!” Armin sputtered in shock and Eren only gave him an incredulous look.

“You honestly didn’t think we slept together? Seriously? After all this?” Eren vaguely gestured towards his stomach.

Armin covered his face in embarrassment. “Please, don’t make me think about this. I did my best to keep the images away.”

Eren smirked, tempted to add in a few more details but seeing Armin so flustered somehow made him feel beyond embarrassed as well. And so, what came out instead was an exasperated groan, “It’s not like we sleep together every night!”

“Eren, shut up, you’re making it worse!” Armin all but shouted, looking absolutely mortified.

The high pitched squeak caught the attention of the two officers talking at the table set up nearby. Their heads simultaneously turned in the direction it came from, only to be graced with the sight of the two friends, both flaming red, resolutely looking away from each other. The two of them stared for a moment, wondering what that was about, before shrugging it off and returning to their conversation.

“So, as I was saying,” Hanji started again, looking over her notes. “From what I can see, Eren’s regeneration time is a bit slower than it used to be. We’ll have to test it out a little more.” She sighed, knowing Levi likely wasn’t going to be happy about that. She was not exactly happy about it herself, after all, since, contrary to popular belief, she didn’t enjoy hurting her subjects—be they human or not. Especially when she was as close to them as she was to Eren.

Frowning a little, Levi levelled her with a suspicious stare. “Will you be cutting anything off?”

Hanji shook her head, her ponytail swishing about. “No, no. It will be the same as today, only in several different places to see if the regeneration rate changes depending on the location. At most, the cuts might be a little longer or deeper, but nothing that couldn’t normally be treated with a few band-aids.”

Levi sighed. “That’s fine, if he doesn’t mind.”

Hanji smiled gently at the trust Levi had in Eren despite his instincts that had to be going into overdrive at the mere idea of someone hurting the omega, but she chose not to comment on it. She valued her life, after all—and more importantly, these were her third and last surviving glasses this month; it didn’t take her long to realise that Levi didn’t appreciate it when someone pointed out his cute, loving side.

And so, she only nodded. “Great. We’ll start with that next time.”

“And what did you get from the shift itself?”

Hanji hummed as she brought one of her hands up to her chin, thinking deeply. “Well…” she drew out. “It did take him a few tries, but he did do it in the end. The arm looked the same as always from what I could see, so going from that, I think that he can transform just fine. Or his limbs can at least. Can’t say about a full shift and I don’t want to risk that just yet. 

“My best guess is that fundamentally, nothing’s changed, he was just too scared to shift and  that’s why he couldn’t at first.”

Levi looked back at his mate, who was now animatedly talking with Armin about something while absent-mindedly rubbing at his stomach, and then back at Hanji in confusion. “Why would he be scared? He’s never been scared of shifting.”

Hanji’s eyebrows shot up. She stared at Levi for a moment, uncertain whether he was joking or just dumb. “Captain Levi, sir,” she started slowly, carefully, as if talking to a child. Levi visibly wasn’t amused, but she didn’t give him time to retort. “Have you ever been scared when Eren transformed?”

The alpha gave her a look like she was the dumb one. “Of course not. The brat can handle it.”

“Your trust in him is beautiful but were you scared today?”

Levi opened his mouth to immediately shoot back an answer but then he frowned and shut it again as realisation dawned on him. Because they both knew the answer. He was scared.

“But he didn’t say anything.”

“Of course he didn’t,” Hanji smiled. “For one, I doubt he actually realised it himself. And two, you were freaking out enough for the both of you.” Hanji ducked quickly, having fully expected the incoming kick. “But seriously, maybe you two should talk about this properly.”

“About what?” the alpha bit out, clearly annoyed at Hanji’s evasive skills.

“Levi, have you two actually sat down after this whole… situation came up and talked about it? I mean, not the practical stuff, but your feelings.”

The man made a face and Hanji could only roll her eyes at him.

“I know these talks are awkward and all, but they are important. And they actually help things! It’s healthy! Talk about how you feel and see things, and listen to what the other has to say. He might know you’re worried and you might know he hates being doted on, but talk about it. Tell him about what you’re scared about and why, and listen to him when he tells you about his own worries. You’ll be surprised how much better you’ll both feel. You’ll learn a lot about each other and yourselves , too, while at it!”

“What are you, some shitty relationship advisor?”

Hanji snickered, satisfied at having successfully gotten through to her best friend—even though she knew Levi likely wouldn’t put her advice to use anytime especially soon. “Nope, just a good friend. By the way—” she looked over Levi’s shoulder over to where Armin was currently showing Eren the notes he took during today’s experiments “—Erwin’s looking into the backgrounds of your squad. I think he suspects there are more spies between them.”

“So that’s why it’s taking him so long to give the go ahead.”

“Yep. But don’t tell Eren. I’m pretty sure he won’t take it well. I bet Erwin will try to keep it from him until the last moment. You know how he was with the Female Titan…”

Levi turned to look at his mate. As if sensing his gaze, Eren raised his head and their eyes met, a smile blooming on Eren’s face and Levi felt the corner of his mouth twitching in response. 

A second later, he tore his eyes away and turned back to Hanji, flatly stating, “He can handle it. He won’t like it, but after the Female Titan he’s much more aware of the possibility.”

“Levi…”

The unspoken warning in her voice clearly got across as Levi clicked his tongue. “I won’t tell him. At least not until I hear something concrete from Erwin. But sooner or later, I will have to tell him, if only so he’s careful around the others.”

Hanji sighed in relief. “Thanks.”

They fell silent for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts as they watched Eren and Armin chatting and laughing, until Hanji clapped her hands.

“Alright,” she called, loud enough that the two boys could hear her. “Guys, come here! We gotta have a little debriefing!”

Armin and Eren responded with their affirmatives before they jogged over to join their superiors at the table.

As soon as she had everyone’s attention, Hanji started. “So. We didn’t do all that much today but I think we managed to get a solid base to build on. Armin, can I see that?”

“Oh, sure!” Armin jumped at being suddenly addressed but immediately handed his notes to her.

Hanji quickly scanned them with her eyes nodding in approval. “Pulse quick and raised temperature but both within norm. Short term and long term memory intact. Reactions good. Logical thinking good. Looks good!”

Eren blinked a few times as she listed all the test results Armin had apparently gotten somehow. “When did you test all that?” he whispered to his friend.

“While we were talking. There are ways to check without you noticing.” 

“No whispering during class, children,” Hanji teased, then snickered when they jumped away from each other. 

Levi only rolled his eyes at how all three of them were behaving. 

A moment later, Hanji continued, “Anyway, everything seems fine but of course, we need to do a full check up just to make sure. Eren, if we could squeeze that in today, that would be great. I’d also like to have the next session as soon as possible but I don’t want to put any more stress on Eren than I have to, so I say we do that towards the end of next week.”

“Uhm, Hanji,” Eren said with hesitation, raising his hand. “I really am fine. We can continue tomorrow.” He looked at her with silent determination and hope.

However, Hanji shook her head resolutely. “Nope! There is more physical stress on your body as indicated by the slowed downed rate of your regeneration.” She put two papers in front of him, one from today, one from two months ago, and pointed out a number on each of them—the amount of seconds it took Eren to fully heal an injury. And as she said, the one from today was a bit higher than the old one. “On top of that, there’s also incredible pressure on your mind as well, even though you might not realise it. All that to say, you have to rest as much as you can since you can’t overdo it in your condition,” she finished, giving Eren a stern look for good measure.

Eren was ready to protest but a soft kick to his leg under the table stopped him. His eyes snapped in his mate’s direction but his will to protest died immediately when he noticed the alpha’s expression. Complain any more, I fucking dare you, it seemed to scream.

Suddenly remembering his promise to always let Levi have the last word during experiments, the omega deflated, opting to sulk silently in his seat instead.

Ignoring the wordless exchange, Hanji started talking again. “Next time, I’d like to check out the changes in regeneration properly. You okay with it, Eren?”

Eren immediately nodded but then paused, giving Levi a wary look.

Levi rolled his eyes in response. “I won’t shut down every little thing, brat. Don’t go fucking paranoid on me.”

The omega sighed in relief before jumping in surprise when Hanji stood up abruptly and slammed her hands on the table, giving Levi an exasperated look. “See?! This is what I’m talking about! Communication!”

Levi sent a kick her way this time but yet again, Hanji jumped away before his boot could make friends with her shin.

“What? What are you talking about?” Eren questioned suspiciously, looking between the two of them.

“Nothing.”

“Levi will tell you as soon as you retire for the evening.”

Levi shot Hanji a vicious glare but Hanji simply grinned at him in victory; she knew Eren well enough to know that he wouldn’t drop it until Levi spilled. After that, with the thought nagging at them both, it was only a matter of time until one of them cracked and started sharing . It would do them good to have a proper talk between just the two of them, what, with all the stress they were under lately. 

Hanji felt so accomplished.

On the sidelines, Armin watched the random exchange quietly with wide eyes; he couldn’t help but feel like he didn’t belong to this little family gathering—torn between feeling left out and immensely relieved he wasn’t a part of this particular mess.

Hanji cleared her throat. “Anyway! We’ll see how it looks after we test the regeneration rates and depending on how much time we have, I’d like to try out your motoric ability with your titan arm. Preferably both of them next time, but it really depends on the situation. We might have to push that one back.”

“Are we working with a time frame of getting to the point of a full transformation?” Armin asked, feeling a little guilty for thinking about the effects Eren’s pregnancy might have on his titan, but unable to ignore his curiosity.

Hanji hummed thoughtfully, contemplating her answer before she sighed, taking off her glasses to clean them. “Honestly, I don’t know. I’d like to try eventually, but the risk is high and really, just watching the changes in the basic functions is fascinating enough. I have to say we’ll see how everything goes. No time frame at all.”

The other three nodded in understanding. 

There was a moment of silence before Eren asked, “By the way, what did you decide to do about the reports?”

Hanji and Armin exchanged a glance before shrugging simultaneously. “We’re going to use our imaginations.”

“So you’re going to bullshit it for months.”

Hanji grinned, shrugging again. “You could say that. Luckily I have Armin and I have to say, his imagination and insight are quite excellent.”

Armin blushed, mumbling a quiet thank you and Eren beamed at his friend proudly.

“Just be careful to keep it believable,” Levi sighed.

Hanji petted his hair—or tried to before her hand was slapped away. “Aww, don’t worry, you big, bad alpha. We’ll make sure to keep your cute little omega off the radar.”

This time, Hanji had to dodge not only the irritable alpha’s attack, but an embarrassed omega’s as well.

As Armin watched Hanji skip a safe distance away from the table while cackling gleefully, he finally came to understand why Moblit constantly looked so thoroughly worn out.

That evening, after Eren was cleared by Hanji as to not having sustained any lasting effects from the experiments, ate dinner, and caught up with his friends, he retired to his room in the basement. He sat in his bed, leaning against the wall and pondering what Hanji had said earlier that day.

Was he really that exhausted? He didn’t feel like he was. 

Sure, there was a lot of stuff going on all too quickly, and the ever present fear of the wrong people finding out about the baby certainly wasn’t helping things, but he didn’t feel as if it was particularly hard to deal with or anything.

His thoughts got interrupted by a yawn and Eren thought that maybe, just maybe, he was a little more tired than usual lately. But it was probably just from the difficult training Levi demanded from his squad, wasn’t it? Not from some mental fatigue… right? 

Whatever the case, he should probably go to sleep early for the next few days to get his energy back…

But not today. Today, he had to talk to Levi.

He had to wait for almost another hour before the alpha finally finished his work, showered, and came down to join Eren for the night. By this time, Levi was more than ready to collapse into bed right next to Eren to do nothing but cuddle with his mate and, by extension, their child for the rest of the night.

Honestly though, he really should have expected to be questioned as soon as the door closed behind him.

“What was Hanji going on about earlier with communication?”

Levi was so not ready for this conversation.

Meanwhile, in another part of the castle, there was a completely different kind of discussion taking place.

“You were right, Armin.”

Armin let out the breath he was holding ever since he had entered the commander’s office. “There really weren’t any records then, sir?”

Erwin shook his head, staring down at the files spread out in front of him. “No. Absolutely none up until seven years ago. Of course, some of them could have been lost with the fall of Wall Maria, but it’s highly unlikely that all of them would be. There are three explanations I can think of but two of those don’t seem very plausible. So…” Erwin looked up to meet Armin’s eyes, reclining in his chair with a smile. “I’m inclined to believe your suspicions. Well done.”

Armin’s face lit up at the praise. “Thank you very much, Commander.”

Erwin’s smile widened a little at the young beta’s enthusiasm. He seemed so genuinely happy to have had been of help that Erwin felt like he could trust him with his own findings. The boy was very bright and willing to sacrifice a lot for the wellbeing of his closest friends and Erwin honestly couldn’t think of a single reason not to tell him. 

And so, Erwin started talking again. “However—” he watched as Armin’s face fell a little at the prospect of bad news “—while I was at it, I checked all of them. And even though you were correct, there turned out to be one more.”

Armin’s eyes widened in surprise, a worried expression soon finding its way to his face. “One more?” he asked.

Erwin opened his mouth to explain, but he was interrupted by a knock on his door and he frowned; it was late in the day, well past dinner. It was never a good sign when someone came to his office at such a time.

Quickly clearing out all the files and putting them inside a drawer in his desk, Erwin finally called out, “Come in.”

The door opened immediately to show a very nervous looking soldier. The man saluted stiffly before speaking, “I’m sorry for the interruption, Commander Erwin, but Commander Nile Dawk just arrived and he’s asking to speak with you.”

Chapter Text

Armin was sweating and struggling to catch his breath by the time he reached the door to Captain Levi’s private room. He knocked loudly and waited, getting no response. He knocked again desperately, trying the knob after a second. The door was locked, and he couldn’t hear anything from the other side either.

He was starting to panic. He wasn’t in his office either, so where? Where could he be?

… Eren’s room!

Goddamnit. The blond let go a frustrated noise at the realisation that he had run up the flight of stairs for nothing, praying that he wasn’t wrong with his assumption. He would have to go see Eren either way, but if he would have to run all the way down to the basement and then all the way back up again… Taking a deep breath to try and calm his breathing as much as he could, Armin turned around, taking the stairs two at a time until he reached the bottom floor. It was probably a safety hazard and Mikasa would scold him if she knew, but she didn’t so Armin only mentally apologised to his friend and congratulated himself on not breaking his neck.

He banged loudly on the door leading to the basement only to give them a fair warning before bursting in—or trying to. Just like the captain’s room, the door was locked. Armin almost started to panic all over again when he heard a faint noise from the inside and he breathed a sigh of relief. He knocked again, softer this time.

“Eren, it’s me. I need to talk to you!”

A moment later, the lock clicked and the door swung open.

“You scared the shit out of me,” Eren said, looking a little flushed.

For a split second, Armin wondered what that was about, but then he remembered there were bigger problems than Eren blushing for Walls knew what reason. “Is the captain here?”

Eren frowned, nodding, before he stepped aside to let Armin inside. “Armin, what the hell is going on?”

Armin didn’t respond yet, slipping inside Eren’s room and skipping down the stairs, looking around quickly, only to, once again, pause at the sight that met him. Captain Levi was sitting cross-legged on top of Eren’s desk, completely stiff and looking as uncomfortable as Armin had ever seen him—and it didn’t feel like Armin’s sudden entrance was the cause.

As Eren passed by him to go sit on his bed, he accidentally bumped Armin’s shoulder, snapping the beta out of the state of confusion he was in. Armin blinked a few times, before he violently shook his head to get himself to focus on the issue at hand. He made a mental note to ask Eren what this was about another day.

“Eren, Captain, there’s a problem.” Armin paused, breathing deeply, the nerves suddenly hitting him. “Commander Nile Dawk arrived a little bit ago to speak with Commander Erwin.”

Levi and Eren exchanged a look, the both of them immediately snapping out of whatever awkward situation they had been in before. Captain Levi jumped off the table, turning to Armin with his typical unreadable expression firmly back in place. “Did he say why he was here?”

Armin shook his head. “The messenger didn’t know and Commander Erwin dismissed me before talking to him so I have no idea.”

“Okay. Let’s not jump into conclusions but we’d better be careful until he leaves. I’m going to check it out and I’ll stay in my room tonight.” He turned to Eren. “You stay here and don’t wander anywhere.”

“Yes, sir,” the omega replied immediately, not a trace of doubt in his voice.

The captain nodded, quickly walking over to Eren’s bed. He placed one hand on Eren’s cheek, tilting his face upwards as the two exchanged a slow kiss, making Armin blush and look away.

A moment later, Captain Levi took off, leaving the two friends alone.

They were silent for a minute, simply staring at each other, both at a loss as to what to do or say, but finally Armin sighed. "I should probably go, too. It’s getting late and you need sleep after today. You've gotta be exhausted”

Eren nodded without saying a word; Armin took his friend’s silence as his cue to leave. He had almost reached the top of the basement stairs when he looked back and said in a gentle voice, “Don’t worry too much. I probably just overreacted and it’s completely unrelated.”

Eren smiled. “Yeah, probably.”

With a smile of his own, Armin wished Eren a good night, but before he could open the door, Eren’s voice stopped him again. “How did you know about this anyway?”

Armin froze. He could lie and say he ran into Nile Dawk when he arrived, but then Eren would question why he was just wandering about so late. He was a terrible liar anyway. Didn’t he already mention he was with the commander earlier, too? And now he was taking too long to reply and such an innocent answer wouldn’t explain that. It was too late to lie.

He didn’t look at Eren when he admitted, “I had something to talk about with the commander.”

“Like what?” 

Armin could picture the confusion spreading over Eren’s face perfectly even without looking at him. He sighed, answering in a pleading voice, “Please, don’t ask, Eren. You’ll know when the timing is right.”

“You’re going to keep secrets from me?” Eren sounded hurt but Armin could only look at him with raised eyebrows shifting his gaze to pointedly stare at the omega’s stomach.

Eren shifted uncomfortably, dropping his gaze guiltily. “Point taken. But… Is it bad?”

“Could be. But nothing’s for sure, we don’t have enough information.”

“You will tell us as soon as you can, right?”

“Of course.” Armin smiled and hoped he sounded convincing enough. Or at least, more convincing than he felt. 

He wasn’t lying per se, he would tell Eren as soon as he could, but that didn’t mean he probably wouldn’t find out long after Mikasa and Captain Levi would. Eren wasn’t good at controlling his emotions, anger especially, and it was all too likely he would confront anyone he was told was suspicious before any solid plan of action was formed.

A controlled exhale of okay was Eren’s only response, so Armin finally pushed the door to the basement open. Wishing Eren a good night for the second time, with Eren returning the sentiment, Armin only hoped this particular crisis was averted for now.

Stalking through the hallways, Levi wondered how to go about this. If Nile was there because of them, or even just because of Eren and Eren only, Hanji needed to know. Whatever the reason for the visit, they had to be prepared for the worst. If her false reports got busted, she had to make sure any evidence against them was well out of sight, and use all the time they could get her to come up with a cover story.

So, first stop was Hanji’s lab.

Then… 

Then he’d see.

“So, Nile. To what do we owe the pleasure, at this late hour no less?”

Nile rolled his eyes before dropping into one of the chairs in front of Erwin’s desk. “If I’m being honest, I’m not even sure myself anymore.” 

Erwin raised his eyebrows at the unexpected answer as he watched Nile rub at his eyes in obvious irritation.

“Do you have anything to drink? Something strong, preferably,” Nile muttered after a moment, suddenly looking exhausted.

Erwin regarded him for a few seconds before he rose to his feet and walked over to a small cabinet in the corner of his office without a word. He took out a bottle of whisky and two glasses before returning to his desk, pouring them both a shot.

Nile thanked him before he grabbed one of the glasses and took a grateful sip.

Sitting back in his own chair, Erwin finally asked, “So, what exactly is going on?”

Nile studied the contents of his glass for a long time before he sighed deeply. “Did you request some soldiers’ personal files about a week ago?”

“Yes, why?” Erwin asked, frowning at Nile in confusion. Why was that a problem?

“Because today, just when I was about to leave my office and go home, some guy from the First Brigade came in with an official order from the king to immediately go and find out why by ‘any means necessary’.” Nile leaned back in his chair, levelling Erwin with an accusing stare. “What the hell did you do now, Erwin?”

Silence settled over the office as the two commanders stared at each other, trying to figure out what the other was thinking.

It was only what felt like minutes later that Erwin took a thoughtful sip of his best liquor and honestly answered, “This time, I genuinely have no idea.”

Nile groaned. “Oh, great. At least tell me what, who, and why so I have something to give them.”

“I only did a standard background check on the new members of Squad Levi, since they’re going to be working closely with Eren Jaeger. Nothing that should concern the First Brigade or the Military Police in general, much less the King himself.”

“Well, it does. Apparently,” Nile bit out with clear annoyance, gulping down what was left in his glass, then gesturing for Erwin to pour him a new shot.

Erwin quickly finished his own drink so that he could refill both their glasses. “I didn’t find anything that connected to the government in any way, shape, or form during my investigation. But between you and me, with this questioning, they’ve only aroused my curiosity to look into it deeper,” Erwin said with a wry smile.

“For your own good, don’t.”

Erwin chuckled. “I don’t think I could even if I wanted to now.”

“It’s not that you couldn’t, you’d just find yourself in a pretty damn ugly place.”

“Nile, do you at least know which one of those kids this is about?”

Nile shook his head. “No. I didn’t even know you were forming a new Special Operations Squad until now.”

“We couldn’t very well leave Eren with only Levi to protect him.”

The policeman scowled. “You mean leave him unsupervised.”

With a knowing smile, Erwin replied easily, “Eren really doesn’t need supervision. What he does need, is protection. There are a lot of people who’d rather see him dead and we can’t afford to lose him. Even you know that.”

“Why the hell should I agree with you?” Nile’s scowl deepened. “I’d rather see him locked up to be studied than running around like he’s normal.”

“That’s still him being alive,” Erwin pointed out. “But Nile, I think you know how important Eren is. Not the Commander of the Military Police but Nile Dawk knows that Eren’s power is necessary in this war.”

“Why exactly would I think that?”

Erwin reclined in his chair, taking a few seconds to weigh his next words. “How long have we known each other?”

The dark-haired alpha snorted. “Too long.”

Erwin smirked in return. “I have to say I agree. But that also means I know you quite well by now and I regret to say, you are pretty easy to read.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“During the trial with Eren, did you really believe all the stuff you were saying?”

Nile didn’t say anything, simply opting to glare daggers at his old friend. 

Erwin continued, “You’re not stupid, Nile. And at one point, you did want to join the Corps with me. I can’t help but believe you weren’t as against handing Eren over to us as you wanted everyone to believe.”

Heavy silence settled over the room once again.

It took Nile a long while to sag in his chair and shoot Erwin an irritated look. “You’re so damn creepy when you do this people-reading shit, you know that, Erwin? I always hated that about you, ever since I met you. It’s not like you’re always right either.” He paused to gulp down most of his glass. “But if you absolutely must know, I was following orders. The First Brigade wanted Jaeger and they gave me all the documents, ready with all the important information and arguments pointed out. They told me to do everything I could to win the trial. Didn’t explain why. I didn’t even know what I was arguing for.” Nile sounded bitter, yet resigned. As if he had gotten used to following orders he couldn’t understand long ago.

“Do you know—“

Immediately, Nile snapped, “No, Erwin, I don’t know. I don’t want to know. I learned that if people ask too many questions, if they know too much, if they pry too much—” he looked Erwin straight in the eyes, the unvoiced implication of who exactly he was talking about right now left hanging between them “—they don’t end well.”

Erwin was silent for a second, mulling over Nile’s words. “And you have too much to lose now to wonder about where the truth is.”

“Yes,” Nile shot back without hesitation, certain and unashamed. “My family is my greatest accomplishment and I refuse to take any risks.”

“But I am different from you.” Nile snorted in humourless amusement, but Erwin ignored him as he finished, “I could never abandon humanity for something selfish like love.”

“Obviously. I could never understand you, choosing titans over Marie, over happiness. But I wouldn’t be so sure which one of us is the more selfish one. At least I know I’m selfish and realise full well what I am protecting.”

Neither of their expressions changed the least bit as the tension noticeably rose between the two; things that had been left unsaid for too long, old wounds, and even older rivalries only adding to the heavy atmosphere quickly descending upon them.

Just when it seemed like something was going to snap any second, the dark-haired alpha stood up, putting his glass on Erwin’s desk with surprising finesse. His voice betrayed his calm demeanor, however, as it was obviously strained with held back emotions. “So, I gather you only did a standard background investigation on people who are to be entrusted with keeping Eren Jaeger in check. You didn’t find anything suspicious nor do you expect any more investigation to be necessary. Thank you for your kind cooperation, Commander Smith. I will leave in the morning.”

Erwin rose to his feet as well, nodding at his Police counterpart. “Yes, of course. You can always count on my cooperation, Commander Dawk. Your room for the night should be prepared by now. Shall I show you the way?”

The tension slowly dissolved as Nile rolled his eyes. “I think I can find the only usable guest room you have here, Erwin. The last room on the top floor, right?”

Erwin nodded again, a small smile finding its way back to his lips. “Yes. I’ll send someone to get you in the morning when breakfast is ready.”

“Thanks,” Nile mumbled, striding over to the door. “Good night, Smith.”

“Good night, Nile.”

They nodded at each other before Nile opened the door to leave… only to reveal Captain Levi in all his unaffected glory leaning against the wall right opposite of him.

Nile startled slightly, staring at Levi in surprise. 

“Heard the government’s puppy was here so I decided to see it for myself,” Levi drawled.

Erwin shot Levi a warning look from inside his office over Nile’s shoulder as the man tensed at the clear challenge.

“Captain Levi.”

“Commander Dawk,” Levi responded in a mock-respectful tone.

Erwin had to resist the urge to groan and rub the bridge of his nose in frustration. Levi really was the last person to be of help in this situation. Why did he always make it a point to make his and, by extension, the whole Corps’ relationship with the Military Police even worse than it already was? It was only giving Erwin a headache.

Luckily, Nile clearly wasn’t in the mood to deal with Levi, so he only gave Levi a dirty glare before he headed for the stairs to finally retire for the night without another word.

As soon as his steps faded in the distance, Levi strode into Erwin’s office with purpose, shutting the door behind him. “Why is he here?” he barked immediately.

Erwin sighed at his captain’s aggression, which was no doubt fueled by a mix of protectiveness and his categorical dislike of the Military Police. He refilled the two glasses on his desk, gesturing for Levi to have a drink.

Levi huffed but complied, though not before carefully ridding the glass of any remnants of its previous user with his handkerchief. “So?”

“There is, apparently, someone in your new squad who has some kind of connection to the royal family.”

Levi’s eyebrows shot up at record speed.

Erwin shrugged. “I’m as clueless as you are. Why would someone like that be in the Survey Corps? However, the First Brigade sent Nile to question me about my background checks on your squad. Probably because Nile is the only one directly under them who can talk with me on equal footing and has any sort of authority to question me.”

A confused frown appeared on Levi’s face. “Wait, what brigade?”

“I’m not surprised you don’t know, not many people do.” Erwin sighed and went to explain, “The First Military Police Brigade is something of a secret squad serving directly under the King. There are special rules applying to them and no one really knows what they do.”

“So, they can do whatever the fuck they want and no one can say shit. Even the fucking Military Police commander has to listen to them like he’s nothing but their lapdog?”

Erwin took a long sip from his glass before looking Levi in the eyes. “Pretty much, yes.”

“So, I really have some big-shot, spoiled brat in my squad?”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Erwin paused, rubbing at his chin in thought. “To me, it seems more like someone whose existence they are desperately trying to hide.”

“And we don’t know why or who it is.”

“Exactly.”

“Great.” Levi downed his glass in one shot.

Before Levi left not long after, Erwin couldn’t help but beg of him, “Levi, Nile’s leaving right after breakfast tomorrow. Please, behave until he’s gone and don’t provoke him. No more of the stuff you said to him earlier.”

Levi looked his friend dead in the eyes as he replied. “I can certainly try but I can’t guarantee anything. He’s just asking for it with his shitty face alone.”

Erwin groaned, waving Levi off.

After the door clicked shut behind the captain, Erwin took a minute to make sure no one was going to come in before he opened the bottom drawer of his desk heavily. He pulled out all the nine files he had hidden there before Nile had arrived, spreading them in front of himself as he stared at the photos attached to each file one by one.

“So, which one of you is the fourth one?”

Chapter Text

“Hey, guys, is it just me or is something up with Eren?” Connie whispered to his friends as he warily watched the happenings at the other end of the table during breakfast two weeks after Commander Dawk’s brief surprise visit.

Krista shook her head slowly. “No, something’s definitely wrong.”

Just as she finished her sentence, the sound of a chair scraping against the floor echoed around their table as Eren shot up with a hand covering his mouth. He quickly ran out of the mess hall, Armin soon following after a quick, hushed discussion with Mikasa.

In the few seconds of silence that followed, they could hear Jean murmur, “How long is this going to last?” to which Mikasa only shrugged helplessly.

The rest of the squad exchanged looks. 

“Do you think the food’s gone bad?”

“If that was the case you’d be the first one to get sick.” Ymir sneered at Sasha’s worried question. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

“And it wouldn’t explain why Mikasa is so calm about it either. He’s been sick for days…” Connie added.

“Yeah, neither does it explain why he keeps missing some trainings but not others for no reason,” joined in Reiner.

“Guys, you don’t think…” Krista trailed off, thinking better of sharing her suspicion. It didn’t feel very likely, but if she happened to be right… If she happened to be right, bringing it up before Eren was ready to tell them would be a bad idea.

“What?”

Krista shook her head. “No, it’s nothing.” She received a few skeptical looks but no one inquired further.

“I think the others are starting to notice something’s going on,” Eren mumbled while Hanji prodded and poked around his stomach.

“Hm? Why do you think so?” Hanji asked as she jotted down a note.

“I don’t know, they keep staring at me and asking if I’m alright.”

“Well, it’s natural. You’ve been throwing up a lot lately.”

Eren made a face. “Don’t remind me. I brushed my teeth like six times since I woke up and it still feels disgusting.”

Hanji patted the unhappy omega on the shoulder, pitying him silently. With each passing day, she became more and more certain she didn’t want any kids of her own. It just wasn’t worth the trouble and pain where she was personally concerned, and she was quite happy with her experiments. The subjects were like her children to her.

“It’s just so suspicious,” Eren whined after a moment. “I know I can’t do anything about how sick I get but what if someone realises what’s going on?”

Hanji smiled soothingly, hearing the faintest hint of panic in Eren’s voice. “Don’t worry, I don’t think anyone outside your squad pays you enough attention or spends enough time with you to notice. It’s going to be fine, and the nausea will stop soon enough.”

“How soon is soon?” There was blatant hope shining in Eren’s eyes and Hanji could only chuckle.

“Definitely not as soon as you’d hope.”

Eren visibly deflated at that, but when Hanji threw his shirt at him, his attention went back to the real issue. “Okay, but what do we do if someone from the squad finds out but won’t know not to say anything? Shouldn’t we tell them before it’s too late?”

Hanji smiled wryly at him. “Well, that’s not for me to say. It should be a decision for you two to make but I don’t recommend ignoring Erwin. Do you want me to talk to him about it?”

“You would?” Eren’s heart jumped in his chest, staring at Hanji as if she were his beacon of hope. It was clear he really didn’t want to talk to the commander about it himself.

The beta shrugged, gathering some documents along the way. “Sure. I have to go report to him now anyway so it’s no problem.” She smiled at the boy knowingly. “You wouldn’t like having to keep secrets from your friends much longer, right?”

“It’s not that I really mind keeping secrets. Hell, we’ve been hiding the relationship for months.” Eren paused and blushed a little, scratching at his head in embarrassment. “I’m just… not a great liar. If they ask me directly, I don’t know what to tell them. I don’t want to cause any more trouble.”

Hanji blinked a few times before she burst out laughing and engulfed Eren in a hug.

“Oh, Eren, you’re so precious!” she squealed as she tightened her hold on the adorable omega. When she spoke next, however, her voice was much more serious. “But really, stop thinking everything is your fault or that you have to shoulder everything by yourself. You’re going to break at this rate.” 

Besides, Hanji was painfully aware that it was them who had been pushing a lot of responsibility on Eren ever since his shifting became known. She had always thought that if anyone should be feeling guilty, it was Erwin and Hanji herself. She didn’t voice any of her thoughts to Eren, however. The sweet boy would probably start feeling guilty about that, too.

Hanji smiled sadly as she ruffled Eren’s hair, then finally excused herself to go talk to Erwin.

Eren was left in the lab alone, confused and wondering what that last look meant.

Jean squirmed uncomfortably in his chair. He wasn’t sure what he had expected when Armin had asked him to come to the commander’s office after cleaning duties were done, but it most certainly wasn’t this.

He looked around the room helplessly, trying to figure out what was going on and why he was there. After all, he had never been in a situation like this; sure, he might have sat in on one or two meetings with the commander, but those were always for full squads, or the Survey Corps as a whole. There was the one meeting after Eren had come clean but even then he had Mikasa, Eren, and Armin on his side, not to mention Squad Leader Hanji had made the situation much less tense with her choice of decor during that particular instance. This time, there was none of that.  

This time, Jean was stuck sitting awkwardly in Commander Erwin’s office with only the man himself and Squad Leader Mike or company. Armin might have been there as well, but the beta was standing next to Commander Erwin on the other side of the desk and that honestly scared Jean more than anything else. 

All in all, Jean felt completely out of place.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when there was a sudden knock on the door.

“Sorry I’m late. Did I miss anything?” Squad Leader Hanji asked as she slipped into the room without even having waited for an invitation.

“No, you’re fine, Hanji. We haven’t started yet,” Erwin assured her calmly, gesturing to the empty chair in between Jean and Mike, which Hanji took gratefully. Only once everyone was settled, did the commander continue. “Since everyone’s here now, I suppose we can begin. First, Hanji, please. How’s Eren’s condition?”

Hanji pushed her glasses up as she glanced at the papers in her lap. “Everything seems okay. His morning sickness started, but it’s not overly severe or atypical in any way from what I can tell. I don’t think there are any problems with the pregnancy.”

“And the experiments?” The blond alpha prompted.

“I have the reports here, you can look them over. But to sum up, so far it seems his shifting ability hasn’t been affected, though we have yet to attempt a full transformation. As of now, only the regeneration ability seems to be changing. At first, it was subtle but now it’s obvious it’s being focused around the baby. He regenerates much faster in the stomach area than any other part of his body. Subconsciously, he tries to protect his child with any means he has.”

Erwin hummed, “That’s interesting.”

Hanji beamed with excitement. “Isn’t it?! It is, right?! I was so delighted when I realised!” She stopped herself abruptly when she realised she was nearly shouting. She cleared her throat, starting over in a much calmer manner. “Even the concentrated regeneration isn’t as fast as his normal rate was, though. The pregnancy is taking a lot of energy out of him as is, and with my experiments and his training on top of that, plus the mental toll of having to hide it… I’m worried it will be too much for him soon.”

“Bottom line, we either lay off the experiments or the training before he collapses.”

“Yes. I’d like to keep the experiments going as long as possible so I say to start reducing the amount of training he gets. But it’s not really my decision to make.”

Erwin nodded in understanding. “Alright. I’ll talk to Eren and Levi about it. Anything else?”

“Eren said his friends are starting to notice something’s going on. I think you should let him tell them before they figure it out themselves and start rumors.” She shrugged as if it was no big deal.

“Actually, that’s why I called you all here,” Erwin said, giving all of the present a serious look. “I decided to let Levi’s squad know about Eren’s condition. But there are some... set-backs.”

“Umm, may I… have a question?” Jean asked, gulping loudly as all eyes turned to him.

Erwin cocked his head to the side curiously, but gave Jean an encouraging smile. “Go ahead.”

“Why—Why am I here? And not Eren or Captain Levi?” It was a wonder his voice didn’t shake and Jean thanked the Walls for that. 

Erwin’s expression didn’t change. It was pretty obvious he had expected Jean to ask sooner or later. “Because we need someone capable and close to Eren to know about this, and we deemed you to be the most fitting for the role. You’ve proven that you have excellent judgment, and you are not as emotionally clouded when things concern Eren as Levi and Miss Ackerman are. Armin didn’t feel adequate enough for the job by himself, so here you are.”

Jean only nodded, not saying anything while a slight blush bloomed on his cheeks as he processed what the commander had said.

Hanji took hold of the silence with a question of her own. “Is this about the background checks you did?”

“Yes. Armin had suggested I look into the childhood records of two people from the current Special Operations Squad.” Commander Erwin paused to see if there would be a reaction, but everyone kept silent, intently listening to what he had to say. “Just to be sure, I looked into all the past members of the 104th Training Corps who have joined us and survived. I was able to confirm Armin’s suspicions, and more.

“Three of the squad members don’t have any records up until the fall of Wall Maria five years ago.”

Sitting up straighter in her chair, Hanji frowned at that information. “Any?”

Erwin nodded. “None whatsoever. Even Eren, Armin, and Mikasa, who come from Shiganshina, have at least basic information from before that. But these three, all the information we have was only taken down in Trost when they evacuated.”

“That’s impossible. All citizens’ records of birth are stored in the Capital.” Hanji shook her head in disbelief.

“In theory, yes. There are three options. One, they come from the Underground, but if that were the case, why would they appear in Trost and not somewhere within Wall Sina? I confirmed this with Levi and the tunnels do not run that far.

“Two, the records were deliberately erased. The problem with this theory is that if someone had that access, why not just falsify the records to look less suspicious?

“Which leads us to three, they aren’t citizens and only arrived within the walls on that day seven years ago.”

Silence so thick it was almost tangible settled over the room.

“Who are they?” Jean growled after it sank in, the young alpha momentarily forgetting all formalities in his rage as the memories of the Colossal and Armored Titans rampaging through Trost flashed before his eyes.

Erwin gave him a grave look before shaking his head. “I’m not finished yet.”

The three gaped at him while Armin only looked down in defeat. “Everyone here is well aware that Commander Nile Dawk came here a few days ago.”

They all nodded, not looking away from Erwin.

“Well, it looks like within Levi’s squad, there is also someone with direct connections to the king.”

Mike sniffed, voicing the surprise that hit them all. “How?”

“That is the question. Obviously, their records were falsified excellently. After Nile left, I looked at all the files much more closely than before and I couldn’t find a single thing out of place. Coincidentally, this puts even more doubt on the theory that the other three suspects’ records were deliberately destroyed.”

“But... Why is someone like that here of all places ?”

Erwin sighed heavily, glancing at Hanji. “Your guess is as good as mine. We don’t currently have any means to find out whether they are on our side or not. Are they a spy? Were they a servant who got fired but holds sensitive information? Are they an illegitimate child whose existence is too shameful? Are they here because they genuinely believe in our cause and we have nothing to worry about?

“We sat down with Armin since he knows much more about these soldiers than I do, and thought about each of them individually. We ruled out Eren for obvious reasons and then Mikasa and Armin as well. Mikasa, because it’s unlikely they would bring her up during Eren’s trial if they wanted to keep the attention off her, and Armin, because his parents were both members of the Survey Corps.”

“And me?” Jean asked in a small voice as if scared of the answer.

Erwin gave him a piercing look that didn’t settle the young alpha’s worries in the least. “We didn’t rule you out completely, actually. But both Armin and Eren vouched for you. They both trust you fully, therefore I have no choice but to trust you as well.”

Looking up at Armin, who smiled at him shyly, Jean felt this strange wave of thankfulness wash over him. He smiled back.

“As we have no definite proof of anything, I will not give you any names. I want you to treat everyone in Levi’s squad as suspicious but, if possible, don’t let them know you suspect them. Wait for their move and protect Eren at all cost.”

“Erwin,” Mike started, waiting until Erwin nodded in acknowledgement before he continued. “Why should we be more cautious than before? I don’t see how them finding out Eren’s pregnant puts him in any more danger than he’s already in. Why even call for this meeting?”

“Actually,” Armin spoke up, before stopping himself when all eyes turned to him. He blushed violently, looking like he wanted to apologise for interrupting, but the commander smiled encouragingly, prompting him to continue. 

So, Armin took a deep breath and started over. “Actually, if they are planning on kidnapping Eren like Annie did, this is the perfect opportunity for them. It’s likely that Eren won’t put up all that much of a fight. He is an omega and will do what he can to protect his child. He won’t be as reckless as he usually is. 

“Just as Squad Leader Hanji said, the squad is starting to notice something’s going on. Once we tell them what it is, they’re going to pay Eren even more attention and it will only be a matter of time until they notice that Eren isn’t fully transforming. Sure, it’s no guarantee that he can’t but he is reluctant to do so. That reluctance will probably only grow the further into pregnancy he gets.”

“That makes sense,” Hanji hummed thoughtfully. “I agree, we probably do need to start hounding his every step now…”

“Not exactly,” Erwin leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk as he folded his hands in front of his face. “Yes, we will be keeping a close watch over Eren and do our best to protect him but only so no one will notice. We want to make them think we trust them. Make them think that they can kidnap Eren.”

“You want to use Eren as bait,” Mike summarized in monotone and Erwin nodded.

Hanji clicked her tongue in disapproval but said nothing; she knew Erwin well enough to realise that he had probably come to this conclusion after weighing all possibilities and there was no use arguing now.

Jean, however, didn’t have years of trust and understanding to build on. His jaw dropped and he turned to glare at Armin in accusation. “Armin, you agreed to this?”

“Yes.”

“You can’t be serious!” Jean wanted to say more, but Hanji’s hand on his shoulder stopped him. He turned to her, furious, but when he saw the conflicted, yet warning look she was giving him, he deflated. He simply slumped in his chair and continued to fume silently. 

To be honest, he wasn’t even sure why he was so angry about it. It wasn’t like he liked Eren. They were barely even friends, most of the time merely tolerating each other. Was it the unfairness of the situation, the way their superiors always seemed to push all the risk and responsibility on Eren? Or was it nothing but his instinct as an alpha, an inborn concern for a pregnant omega? Maybe it was a mix of both.

Whatever the case, Jean finally understood. 

This was why the captain and Mikasa weren’t there.

Not because they might have murdered the entire squad just to be safe, but because they might have murdered Erwin , and Armin right along with him, for this suggestion. This order.

“Jean,” the commander said, authority dripping from his voice even while his expression stayed disturbingly calm. “If we catch them before they get to Eren, then what is there to worry about?”

Jean had several retorts on the tip of his tongue about how well that idea went with Annie, but he held himself back. In part thanks to the tightening of Hanji’s hold on his shoulder and in part because he felt this was a battle he simply couldn’t win. The commander was right. It was their best shot to catch those bastards, even if it meant risking Eren’s safety. 

Hell, Eren would probably be delighted to be of so much use even while basically being out of commission.

Jean understood how important this plan was.

That didn’t mean he had to like it, though.

It took him a few more moments before he managed to force out a yes, sir through painfully gritted teeth.

He felt Hanji squeeze his shoulder one last time before the comfort of her hand left him.

Eren was already almost asleep in his nest of stolen blankets in Levi’s room when he felt the bed dip as his mate finally joined him. The omega hummed in approval when the alpha’s strong arms snaked around his middle to pull him closer.

“Sorry I took so long,” the alpha whispered, pressing a small kiss to the nape of Eren’s neck.

“’S okay. You have to work,” Eren slurred, placing his hand over Levi’s, smiling at the way Levi was rubbing small circles across his still-flat stomach with his thumb.

“I have good news, though.”

“Really?” Eren asked, turning around in Levi’s arms to blink at his mate sleepily.

Levi hummed in affirmation, pressing a slow kiss to the omega’s lips, and Eren couldn’t help but smile into it, returning the touch gladly.

Once they separated, Levi hugged him close, nuzzling his nose into the brown mess that was Eren’s hair. “We can finally tell the squad tomorrow.”

Eren perked up, almost breaking Levi’s nose with how fast his head shot up to look at his mate. “For real?!” he beamed, full of hope.

“Yes, for real,” Levi confirmed with a small huff. “Now go to sleep, you’re tired.”

“Well, now I’m not. You woke me up.”

“Oh, so it’s my fault?” Levi asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes. I bet you did it on purpose so your insomniac ass didn’t have to be so bored being up all night by itself.”

“Brat. I did not.”

“Did too.” Eren resisted the urge to stick out his tongue, the corner of his mouth twitching in amusement, before he frowned. “Seriously though, if one of us is tired it should be you. How much have you slept in the past week?”

“I’m fine , Eren. I’m not the pregnant one and I’m used to it. Go the hell to sleep.”

“You first.”

“You’re such a brat,” Levi grumbled, shoving Eren’s face into his chest to hide his smile.

Chapter Text

One would think that after he had to share his secret with his closest friends, Eren wouldn’t be nervous about telling the rest of the squad. After all, as opposed to Mikasa, they were not very likely to try and brutally murder his mate in cold blood.

Wrong.

Eren was a nervous wreck by the time he arrived to breakfast—late, since he was busy losing his guts earlier in the morning. He wasn’t sure how he was going to survive until evening, when they had agreed to gather the squad for a meeting, and it was pissing him off. He couldn’t understand why the prospect of talking about his pregnancy made him so nervous; it was one thing telling Mikasa, completely another to other people. So why? He had never used to care about stuff like this. He was never shy with sharing his opinions or admitting to things he didn’t regret, and he most definitely didn’t regret any part of this. 

Yet, he couldn’t keep the anxiety from overwhelming him.

And to think he had been so relieved to finally be allowed to come clean just the night before…

He wondered whether this was the famous hormone issue that every pregnant person and their surroundings had to deal with. Or maybe it was the protective instincts, since he was aware that the more people knew, the more danger his child faced.

He didn’t know. But it pissed him off to no end.

And so, the whole of Survey Corps was soon left to wonder why the titan-shifter was so volatile today and as a result, most people avoided him like the plague. Ironically, the space he was given and the fear in some people’s eyes as he fumed past them only made his mood worse.

Armin attempted to talk to him to try and help settle his nerves a little, but after being snapped at a few too many times, he, too, came to the conclusion that it was safer to leave his friend be.

Levi telling him to calm the fuck down during training worked for a short period of time, but soon enough, Eren went back to his irritable mood and Levi could only click his tongue and rub at the bridge of his nose. He would keep glancing at the omega warily the whole time almost as if he, too, was at a complete loss of what to do.

By lunch time, Jean had enough.

Just before they called off their cleaning duties to go eat, he strode over to Eren with purpose. Once he came close enough, he had to resist the urge to punch Eren in the face for all the shit he was pulling today, reminding himself that would probably get him killed by the captain. And so, he took a deep breath, grabbing Eren by the collar and dragging him out of sight and hearing range of the others on their floor.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Jaeger?” he growled in Eren’s face once he was sure they were alone.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Eren snapped back and Jean narrowed his eyes.

“What, you’re pregnant so now you’re going to act like an angsty thirteen year old?” Jean shot back, keeping his voice low.

Eren ripped the alpha’s hand off his jacket, snarling angrily, “So I can’t just be in a bad fucking mood?” It was obvious he tried to sound sarcastic but failed spectacularly in his rage.

Jean snorted. “Bad mood? This is not a bad mood, Jaeger. If it was, you’d just come pick a fight with me. That’s how we fucking work .”

Eren only glared at him, his lips pressed into a thin line.

Jean sighed, dragging a hand over his face in frustration. ”What the hell are you so scared of?”

“I’m not scared!” Eren replied defensively, the reaction so immediate it almost sounded like a knee-jerk response.

Jean gave him an unimpressed look. “Do you actually believe that or do you just think no one’s figured that one out yet?”

Eren fell silent, opting to simply glare at Jean, but the alpha just raised an expectant eyebrow and waited until finally, Eren slumped against the wall. “I guess I am scared.”

“No shit.”

Eren kicked out towards him, but Jean only dodged lazily. The omega clicked his tongue but withdrew, leaning against the wall again. Soon, the words started spilling out.

“We’re telling the others in the evening and I don’t know…” Eren paused, scowling at Jean who started tapping his foot impatiently. “Fuck, it’s just. I don’t know. So many people are going to know and what if one of them accidentally says something? They’re definitely going to start treating me differently. Hell, they’ll probably start treating the captain differently and it’s going to get suspicious. And maybe I’m paranoid, but what if one of them actually wants to hurt us?”

Jean wanted to roll his eyes at Eren’s worries but he found that he couldn’t. Not after yesterday’s meeting. He was now all too aware Eren’s concerns weren’t exactly wrong and Jean could only thank the Walls that they hadn’t included Eren in the commander’s little schemes. Jean didn’t want to know what an absolute mess the omega would be right now if they had.

“I didn’t think you were such a coward, Jaeger,” Jean noted instead of voicing any of his thoughts, making Eren glare at him with new-found venom. Jean didn’t give him time to say anything, however. “You know yourself that even if you didn’t trust them at all, it’s way safer to tell them and explicitly order them not to talk about it, rather than leave them wondering what the fuck is going on with you so they can start talking to Walls know who. And come on, you have Mikasa and Humanity’s fucking Strongest hounding your every step. Hell, even Squad Leader Mike and Commander Erwin and, like, five other people just one girlish scream away. Walls, what are you even worried about?”

Eren deflated, smiling the smallest bit at the mention of his mate. Jean’s face twisted with disgust at the sight; he didn’t sign up for watching these love-sick displays…

“You’re right, Jean. I was being stupid,” Eren sighed, slapping both his cheeks to get himself back in gear. Then, something akin to pain made its way into his expression, his next words coming out as barely more than a mumble. “Thanks. I needed to hear that.” He didn’t look at Jean while he spoke and Jean was glad for it. It was weird enough to hear the omega thanking him; he didn’t need it to seem sincere as well.

Deeming the conversation over, Jean resolutely turned around but before he left, he called, “I’m not your personal therapist, I’m not doing this again. Next time, go to your damn mate before I seriously punch you.”

Jean almost thought he heard Eren laugh as he rounded the corner and left the omega behind.

Eren knocked on the door to Levi’s office after lunch, a tray with freshly brewed tea and two cups carefully balanced in one hand; a daily habit that somehow came to be over the past few months. 

Levi wasn’t even sure when or how exactly it started. He only knew that one day, he had asked Eren to bring him tea and then offered for him to sit down and have a cup too. They never agreed to make it a regular thing, but before either of them knew it, Eren was coming by every day with a teapot in hand and Levi had to admit he welcomed the distraction from his work. Walls fucking knew he could only take so much pretentious bullshit before wanting to punch a fucking wall.

Just like he did right now.

Why in the everloving fuck did he even have to do paperwork? Levi was a soldier, not some paper-pusher in a cushy chair in the capital. If he knew being a squad leader came with shit like this, he never would have agreed to becoming one. Which was probably why Erwin didn’t tell him until it was too fucking late to back out. He should have fucking lied and told him he was illiterate like ninety-eight percent of the dogs in the Underground.

Eren smiled gently when Levi looked up at him and the sight alone made some of the irritation that had been building inside him dissipate.

“You tea, Captain.”

“Thank you.” Levi sighed as he threw his pen away, taking the opportunity to stretch with a small groan. “Fuck, I hate this shitty job.”

Eren laughed as he poured the tea into their cups, handing one of them to Levi. “If I may be so bold, Captain Levi, sir, you say that every day.”

“Because it’s fucking true every day,” Levi deadpanned, eyeing Eren carefully. “Looks like you feel better.”

Eren winced, grabbing his own cup before flopping into the spot on Levi’s couch that he had long since claimed as his own. “Yeah… Sorry for the trouble. I guess I just needed a slap.”

Levi frowned with concern, making Eren laugh and shake his head. “Not literally. But let me tell you, Jean is terrible at it.”

Levi watched as Eren struggled with taking off his boots to make himself more comfortable before asking, “But he helped?”

“I guess.” Eren shrugged, taking a sip of his tea. “He just made me admit out loud that I was worried about this evening and, in his own kind words, reminded me I have you and Mikasa and Armin and Hanji and the others to have my back.”

Levi smirked. “‘And the others.’ I’m going to tell that to Erwin, maybe he’ll cry.”

Eren gave him a weird look but Levi ignored him, getting back to the topic. “So you needed Jean to realise you actually have people you can trust? As your mate, I’m hurt.”

Eren snorted at Levi’s over-the-top, dramatic tone. “You know it’s not that.” He sighed before continuing, “I guess I really just needed to talk to someone.”

They fell silent for a moment, Eren staring into space and Levi observing him silently.

“You know you can talk to me anytime, right?”

Eren blinked at him in surprise, before a small, soft smile bloomed on his face. Levi refused to admit the sight made something stir in his stomach. 

“I know,” Eren said, voice quiet and sounding almost embarrassed. “But I didn’t realise I needed it until I did. To be honest, I didn’t even realise I was worried at all until I said it out loud. Trust me, I’d rather talk to anyone but Jean if it was up to me. No need to get jealous,” he added with a smirk.

Levi scoffed. “I’m not jealous. Just making sure you trust your own mate.”

“No need to sulk either.”

Levi shot him a dirty look before he waved his hand dismissively. “Think what you want, but now shut up. I need to finish this shit as soon as I can.”

Eren laughed but didn’t say anything more, turning his attention to his tea.

The silence only lasted a short while, though. “Can we cuddle later?” the omega asked, so quiet Levi almost didn’t hear him.

He looked up, taking in how small Eren suddenly looked, and he felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. “Of course. Why do you think I’m trying to finish this shit quickly?”

Eren peeked at him, the unvoiced question clearly visible in his eyes, and Levi smirked. “You’re a shitty actor, Eren.”

The omega scowled and, with a pout on his lips, turned on the couch so he was sitting with his back leaning on the arm rest and thus facing away from Levi.

Now Levi actually chuckled at the sight, but when he spoke, his voice was firm and certain, making sure Eren heard how serious he was. “You really don’t have to worry, brat. I’ll be there. Tonight, and after that.”

Eren didn’t say anything but his shoulders visibly relaxed at the assurance, so Levi, satisfied, finally returned to his work.

When the day was over and Eren lay curled up in his alpha’s arms, he couldn’t say telling his friends went exactly smoothly after all.

After dinner, the squad all gathered around the table in the meeting room, the chair at the head of the table empty as Levi was running late. The tension was palpable as they waited for their captain. Eren wrung his hands nervously the entire time, doing his damn best to not look at anyone, especially at Mikasa. He knew she was watching him with some sort of sick enjoyment and he didn’t want to see the mirth in her eyes. He wondered whether she saw this as payback for leaving her out of the loop for so long.

He really just wanted it to be done and over with. Where the hell was Levi? Why did he have to prolong Eren’s suffering like this?

“So, does anyone have any idea what this is about?” Krista tried after what felt like hours of silent misery, but when she was only met with shrugs and noncommittal hums, she gave up as well.

It took ten more agonising minutes for Levi to finally arrive; he went straight for his chair, sitting down with an arm hooked behind the back of it. 

“Alright, brats, let’s get straight to the point. An issue’s come up that you need to be aware of. We don’t need you spreading any shit around. What you learn in this room stays in this room until stated otherwise, or I will personally find you and feed you to Hanji’s pet titans.” He glowered at everyone individually, waiting for them all to look sufficiently scared, before he shot Eren a look to let him know he could deal with the bomb now.

The omega squirmed a little before taking a deep breath. Like taking off a band-aid, he thought, bracing himself.

“I’m pregnant.”

It took barely a second before the room exploded and Eren cringed as they all tried to talk over one another, some of them even getting out of their chairs as if that would give them more ground to get a word in or get Eren to answer their questions faster.

Almost immediately, Levi clicked his tongue, slamming a hand on the table. “Shut the hell up or the whole castle will know. This is fucking confidential,” he growled dangerously, his alpha dominance aiding him in not having to shout as everyone instinctively cowered as soon as he showed his displeasure.

Carefully and silently, all the overexcited squad members sat back down, not daring to say another word.

Krista, who had barely even reacted to the news, was the one who eventually broke the silence. “Congratulations, Eren,” she said in her quiet, sweet voice, all the while wearing a disturbingly self-satisfied expression as if she had known the whole time.

Eren ignored that piece of information; instead, he simply smiled at her, nodding his thanks.

“This is so weird,” Reiner laughed awkwardly. “How far along are you, even?”

“About six weeks?” Eren mumbled in response, dropping his eyes to stare at the table instead. Why did this have to be so embarrassing?

Sasha grinned widely. “So, only in a little over seven months, you’re going to pop a kid?”

“Eight months, actually.”

Everyone gathered around the table eyed him in confusion, and Eren shrugged awkwardly, going to explain, “Well, I am an omega but I’m still a guy, you know? My body’s not exactly prepared to carry a child at any given time, it needs time to adapt. Generally, male omega pregnancies are ten months long. At least that’s what Hanji said.”

There was silence for a few seconds before Connie asked, something akin to wonder in his voice, “Can you feel it yet?”

“Connie. Six weeks,” Sasha repeated slowly, giving the boy a look like he was stupid.

“Shut up!” Connie cried defensively. “I don’t know the first thing about babies, how should I know when they start to move?” 

A few snickers could be heard around the table as Connie puffed up, unhappy at being made fun of. Soon, however, an awkward silence once again enveloped the room while everyone processed the information until finally, the absolute last person Eren wanted to say anything at all finally opened her mouth.

Ymir, much like Krista, didn’t really react to the news. She just continued resting her chin in her hand, maybe raised an eyebrow. She didn’t change her posture at all since she sat down, except she was now smirking evilly. “Anyway, to address the real issue here. I honestly didn’t think Jean-bo had it in him.”

A few of the others nodded solemnly in agreement as Eren’s face twisted in a mix of emotions. Disgust and disbelief didn’t even begin to cover what he was feeling at the mere suggestion.

“I would never even think about touching the bastard with a ten-feet pole and you think I made him pregnant?!” Jean squeaked in horror, the look on his face mirroring Eren’s own.

Ymir shrugged. “Well, after the cozy make out I interrupted after the graduation ceremony, I didn’t think it was so far-fetched.”

Eren almost felt his jaw hit the floor, his eyes going impossibly wide as he gaped at the beta girl. His face was burning so much he wouldn’t be surprised if the skin just melted and decided to fall off his skull. That might be a preferable situation to the one he somehow found himself in.

He tried to ignore all the sly smirks and amused laughter as he dared to steal a quick glance at Levi. The alpha looked like he was struggling not to show how deeply amused he was by the revelation and Eren almost cried right there and then. Traitors, the whole lot of them.

Jean was, once again, the first to recover enough to say anything in their defense. “We were drunk! And pissed off! It was an angry-drunk make out!” his voice was becoming more and more high-pitched with every word. “And anyway! You—We agreed it never happened, you absolute bitch!”

Ymir’s smirk only grew wider. “You dumbasses agreed it never happened. I never did.”

Eren and Jean both gave her identical murderous glares, which somehow only seemed to amuse everyone more. A round of laughter followed the exchange while Krista reprimanded Ymir to little to no effect, as it only made Ymir fawn over how kind Krista was.

Forcing himself to break out of his stupor, Eren cleared his throat. His face was still on fire and his voice sounded disturbed and foreign to his own ears. “Anyway, no. Just… No.”

Armin patted him on the shoulder sympathetically.

“Okay, so if it’s not Jean, then… who?” Sasha asked curiously.

If at all possible, Eren’s blush deepened, and he opted to glare at the table in favour of looking at anyone at all. This part was so much easier when Armin figured it all out himself…

“Why are you brats so curious?” Levi asked flatly, taking pity on his mate.

“Sir, aren’t you curious?”

Mikasa barely bit back a snort, earning herself a glare from Eren, but she just looked back at him blankly, almost tauntingly.

Levi, however, looked straight at Sasha, not a trace of shame in his voice as he answered, “Not especially, no.”

Now Eren was pretty sure that was Jean who snorted. From the corner of his eyes he could see Levi’s mouth twitch and Mikasa pull her scarf further up. Even Armin’s face twisted as if he was trying not to laugh.

Eren wanted nothing more than to walk out and slam the door on them all but he couldn’t even move a finger in his current state of mortification.

Clearly not picking up on the suspicious signs, Sasha’s face fell in disappointment at Levi’s answer, and Connie came to her aid immediately. “Could it be, sir… Could it be you already know?”

“Indeed I do, but why should I tell you?” 

Eren was positive Armin’s face was going to explode if he held himself back any longer.

“You can’t keep this to yourself, we’re your squad!” Reiner joined in.

At this point, Eren was pretty sure if Levi wasn’t enjoying making fun of them so damn much, he would have already sent them to clean all the bathrooms in the castle for their cheek. As it was, however, the alpha only raised an eyebrow, crossing his legs and leaning back in his chair. 

“Oh, but I can and you have no right to tell me what to do,” he drawled, taking great pleasure in how they shrank away under his gaze, 

“It’s not your business, though, is it, Captain? If Eren wants to tell them…” Mikasa said in a deceivingly calm voice.

Eren’s head snapped up to stare at her with wide eyes. He could plainly see how her eyes danced with mirth, completely ignoring the unimpressed glance Levi gave her, as well as the look of utter betrayal Eren was giving her. 

It barely took a second before all the attention returned to Eren, a million questions flying at him from all sides. He made sure to give both Levi and Mikasa a good kick under the table, as they deserved. Immediately, however, he followed it with a pleading look.

Mikasa only shook her head a little, a small smirk playing on her lips as if to say, you did this to yourself.

The omega gave up on her, instead turning the full attention of his puppy eyes to his mate. 

The second their eyes met, he knew it wasn’t going to work. He could see Levi was all but telling him that this was not his place to intervene and Eren closed his eyes momentarily, nodding. When he opened them again, he gave Levi a questioning look and receiving only a small shrug in response, Eren took a deep breath, holding it for a second, before exhaling slowly.

Doing his best to ignore the way Armin was staring at them in fascination comparable only to Hanji when faced with some new titan-related discovery, Eren finally turned towards the squad with the smallest flame of determination burning in his chest.

Everyone waited with bated breath as Eren opened his mouth to speak.

“Captain Levi was actually the first one to know about this because, well… He’s my mate.”

The heavy, uncomfortable silence lasted for a long, terribly long moment before the squad all moved at once. Safe for Ymir, whose eyes simply went impossibly wide in surprise, they all scrambled as far away from Eren and Levi as the room allowed, gawking at them with jaws on the floor.

Eren chuckled nervously while Levi clicked his tongue at the over-the-top reactions. Jean gave a dramatic eye-roll, trying to act like he didn’t react the exact same way when Eren told him, while Mikasa and Armin exchanged an amused look.

It took a long time to calm everyone’s panic and explain how that was possible; the squad refused to believe either Levi being the father of Eren’s child, or that the two of them were actually mated. In the end, Levi had to rip off his cravat in a fit of frustration and show them the teeth-shaped, aggressively white scar on his neck proving him to be a mated alpha.

All in all, it was an absolute mess and Eren could only bury his face in his hands and groan as he thought about the evening’s events.

If nothing else, he was at least glad it was done and over with, hopefully never to be repeated ever again in any way. Nobody else needed to know, after all. And hell, at least he got a hug from Krista out of it. Not that he was all that excited about that in itself, but the jealous glares from both Ymir and Reiner were nothing short of empowering.

Not to mention the long, sweet, reassuring kiss he got from Levi after everyone left—a kiss that Mikasa may or may not have walked in on when she came back for the water bottle she had forgotten—, the both of them relieved it was all said and done. That kiss alone almost made it all worth it. He still got butterflies just thinking about it, just like the slow, loving sex they had once they retreated to Levi’s room for the night.

Rolling over in Levi’s arms and snuggling closer into his warm embrace, Eren took a moment to just listen to the strong, steady rhythm of his mate’s heart beating.

That was most definitely a sound he could fall asleep to.

Chapter Text

While Eren tossed around in bed, fruitlessly trying to fall asleep—much to Levi’s steadily growing frustration—other people weren’t even attempting to rest.

Jean was on his third cup of strong tea in the kitchen when the sound of hesitant footsteps from the mess hall startled him from his daze. Frowning, Jean wondered who in the world could it be at this hour; it was past curfew, and although it wasn’t exactly unheard of for people to still wander about, the kitchen wasn’t the most popular spot to hang out after hours. The food wasn’t kept there, after all, and one could get water in any of the bathrooms along the way.

So, when Armin walked in not half-a-minute later, looking just as exhausted and just as confused about somebody else being there as Jean felt, Jean breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t about to get murdered.

Not right now at least.

They stared at each other silently for a moment, until Armin gestured towards the kettle still standing on the stove, an unvoiced question in his eyes. Jean simply shook his head in response and the blond beta slumped in defeat, slowly shuffling over to fill the kettle with water and put it up to boil.

It was only when freshly steeped tea filled both their cups that either of them said anything.

“Couldn’t slee—”

“What did you—”

“Sorry!”

“Sorry!”

Having spoken at the same time—twice—the both of them froze, blinking at each other in surprise, before they burst out laughing.

As Armin gestured for Jean to go first, the alpha huffed, his voice still light with amusement when he asked, “Sorry, I was just wondering what you thought about the meeting?”

Armin hummed, one finger slowly running over the rim of his cup as he mulled over his words. “I think…” He trailed off, letting go of a heavy sigh before he started again. “I think everyone reacted exactly how I expected them to. I’d hoped the surprise might make somebody crack at least a little but I didn’t see anything strange.”

“I suppose they’re really good, huh?” Jean muttered bitterly and Armin gave him a wry smile in return.

“Well, they’ve been playing their roles for almost seven and a half years. They gotta have it down to perfect by now.”

“What about Krista though? She didn’t seem surprised at all. Almost like she knew about it this whole time…”

Armin shook his head with a small laugh. “Jean, now you’re just sounding desperate.” 

Jean clicked his tongue in annoyance at Armin’s teasing tone. His alpha traits might not have been fully developed yet, but it was still enough for Armin's laughter to die down quickly.

Clearing his throat awkwardly, Armin tried again, "I don’t think it’s that weird. Krista is a girl and she’s not as oblivious as the others are. How many things do you think can cause someone to be throwing up for days, while no one makes a fuss about it as if it were completely normal?”

Jean thought about it for a minute, looking for any possible hole in that explanation but finding none. He groaned as he sagged in his chair, rubbing at his face in frustration. “So we have nothing at all. Now what?”

Armin sighed, grasping at his mug tightly as if the heat could give him a better idea if he wished for it hard enough. “What can we do? We have to wait. Sooner or later they’re going to either slip up or make their move. If we’re ready for it, we can get them.”

“What if we can’t?” Jean asked, a tiny bit of anger seeping into his voice. “They are freaking titans, Armin! And we don’t even know who they are!”

Armin sat up straight in his chair, looking at Jean with narrowed eyes and cold, unwavering determination. “We have to,” he stressed. “We might not know for sure but we do have an idea of who they are. Right now, we have no choice but to watch out for Eren and catch them before something happens. And we will do it. We won’t let the Annie incident repeat itself.”

Jean stared at Armin blankly for a while, completely taken aback by the sudden fierceness of the typically meek beta.

“Whoa, Armin. You’ve really been spending way too much time with Erwin lately.”

Both Jean and Armin jumped at the snicker coming from the direction of the mess hall. Neither of them had noticed anyone approaching, and yet, there Hanji was, laughing in that honest, carefree way of hers. 

Jean blinked, swiftly forgetting the shock she had given him a second earlier and instead taking in the way her hair was sticking up in all directions, her shirt wrinkled beyond anything Jean had ever seen, and the circles under her eyes looking worse than Captain Levi’s.

“You look like shit,” Jean blurted out without thinking, then quickly slapped a hand over his mouth when he realised who he was talking to.

Nonetheless, Hanji only laughed louder, waving one of her hands dismissively. Not bothering to address the comment, she went directly to the cupboard to pull out a cup, then plopped into the chair next to Armin without a word, helping herself to some of the tea Armin had prepared earlier. She immediately downed half of her cup, then slumped over the table lifelessly, looking as exhausted as they come.

“Umm…” Armin started uncertainly. “If I may ask, how long have you been awake, Squad Leader?”

“This is my second all-nighter in a row!” Hanji announced proudly, much to the others’ horror.

“Squad Leader, with all due respect, go the hell to sleep!” Jean cried, unable to contain his shock.

“Are you worried about me?” Hanji cooed teasingly, flashing a wide grin. “But this is normal for me, ya know? A researcher has to make sacrifices!” she winked cheekily—an action which didn’t help ease Jean’s concerns at all.

Hanji laughed at the stunned, horrified expressions on both of her subordinates’ faces before chugging the rest of her tea. She immediately went to refill it but in her sleep-deprived state almost spilled the lukewarm drink everywhere. Armin only shook his head, resigned to watching his superior struggle not to fall asleep where she was sitting, but Jean wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

“I’m serious, Squad Leader. For your own good. Go to sleep,” he told her sternly.

Hanji blinked a few times, taken aback momentarily. Soon, however, the squad leader’s face split in a wide grin once again. “Are you trying to dominate me, Mr Kirstein?”

Jean blushed furiously. He didn’t mean to use his alpha dominance but—that was exactly what he did, wasn’t it? He almost went to apologise, but then Hanji made a noise as if she had just witnessed the cutest thing in the world. 

“Aww, Jean! You’re still just a baby as far as your dynamic goes. There’s no way you can successfully dominate anyone older than, like, twelve.”

Jean blushed harder as Armin slapped his hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter.

Hanji raised a finger in a lecturing manner. “You should know alphas mature pretty late compared to the other dynamics. So do try not to pull this with other alphas or you’ll get eaten, ‘kay?” she sang with a teasing, crooked grin on her face.

Determined not to look at either one of the smirking betas who clearly found his attempt to take care of his superior absolutely hilarious, Jean took a big gulp of his now-cold tea. Bastards, the both of them.

Thankfully, before Jean could do something stupid like snap at a superior officer, Armin changed the subject slightly, his words coming out slowly, carefully, a slight thoughtful crease between his eyebrows. “Squad Leader Hanji, I was wondering—” he paused, seemingly searching for the right words “—what even is alpha dominance? We were taught the differences between dynamics at school but no one ever really explains how it works, it’s just taken as a fact… The dynamics themselves, too. Like, you can tell what dynamic someone is as soon as you meet them but I could never quite figure out how?”

Hanji smiled wryly. “Yeah, that’s one unfortunate thing about the education system. Truthfully, if you asked me this two months ago, I’d have nothing to tell you. But after Eren’s… situation, I realised I knew nothing and couldn’t be of any help, so I asked Moblit to look into it.” Hanji finished with a deep sigh, clearly unhappy with herself for not just knowing.

Both Jean and Armin looked at the squad leader in anticipation now, listening with rapt attention to what she was going to say. 

Hanji took a moment to continue—Jean couldn’t help but feel like she was trying to bask in the fact that for once, someone was listening to her ramblings so intently—but then she smiled, pushing her glasses up her nose slightly. 

“Basically, each dynamic’s body is built a little bit differently, though obviously, it’s more subtle than the male-female thing,” she started explaining, obviously doing her best to keep her voice steady and level. “Aside from male omegas being able to bear children and female alphas being able to ‘father’ them, the differences are actually mostly in the physiology and hormone levels. Like estrogen and testosterone and progesterone and such! Oh, and the heat and rut cycles for omegas and alphas! It’s so fascinating! Did you know mates can sync their cycles?! It’s incredible! I wonder if Levi and Eren are synced yet, I need to ask Levi when his next rut is supposed to be. We need to check if it even comes at all now that Eren’s pregnant, or if it’s any different from usual!!”

“So, if we can’t really see the difference, how can we distinguish between us so naturally?” Jean cut in quickly, jumping at the opportunity to interrupt her ramblings when she paused to breathe.

Shrugging, Hanji replied easily, “Pheromones. You know how some animals tell each other things through smell, like during mating season and such? Just like that.”

Jean frowned, exchanging a look with Armin.

“But… No one smells like anything to me? Unless they didn’t take a shower in a month or something,” Jean said slowly, confused.

Armin nodded in agreement. “Same here. I’ve known Mikasa and Eren pretty much my whole life but I’ve never, I don’t know, smelled a difference between them? Even though I’ve always known Mikasa’s an alpha and Eren an omega…”

Hanji nodded enthusiastically, a manic grin plastered on her face once more. “Exactly! You can’t smell it! Our noses aren’t developed enough for us to be able to tell! But the brain still recognizes and analyses the subtle differences and messages on a subconscious level!”

“And alpha dominance is the same?”

Hanji beamed at Armin for catching on, snapping her fingers in excitement. “Yep! When alphas want to show others who’s boss, they release pheromones that others read as danger or back off. Of course, if you’re a fully mature alpha, it just screams challenge but details, right? Anyway, it’s not like the alpha even realises they’re secreting anything either. They do it subconsciously when they’re pissed off or feel a threat to themselves or someone they care about. The pheromones are released based on emotion only. You want to control it, you need to control your emotions.”

The boys hummed and nodded in understanding. Jean wanted to make a comment about how lucky Eren was he wasn’t an alpha with his incredible talent of not being able to control his anger, but he didn't get a chance to.

“Oh, but—” Hanji raised her hand in excitement as if she just remembered something “—alphas aren’t the only ones who do this! When an omega is pregnant, they also constantly release pheromones!! That’s why everyone’s instinctively careful around them, even when they don’t know the omega’s expecting! Isn’t that so cool?!”

Jean perked up at that information; that explained so much. He almost felt a weight lift from his shoulders and he let go of a long, slow sigh of relief.

Hanji frowned at his reaction, cocking her head to the side as she studied Jean, before glancing questioningly at Armin—who only smirked before he oh-so helpfully explained, “Jean was worried he was starting to actually care about Eren.”

“Ah.” A sly smile spread on Hanji’s lips. “So, he thinks now he can hide behind the effects of Eren’s pheromones.”

Armin nodded solemnly and Jean felt a sudden urge to throw something at them both. Unfortunately, Hanji was still his superior officer and the only throwable things around were their cups and the teapot, so Jean only opted for a dirty look for Armin. He was masterfully ignored.

Jean huffed in annoyance, but then a yawn he couldn’t suppress came out and Jean decided he’d had enough for the day. Downing the rest of his tea, Jean got up from his chair to deposit the empty cup in the sink before he gave the two betas a stern look. “I’m going to sleep. You two should as well. You especially, Squad Leader.”

Both Armin and Hanji cooed at him once again but Jean only rolled his eyes this time, opting to simply march away and leave them to their own miserable fates. He can at least say he tried when Armin starts whining tomorrow. 

Back in the kitchen, Hanji wondered with undeniable curiosity whether Jean was reaching the age when he would start attempting to challenge the ‘pack alpha,’ so to speak. It was still too early for him to have any real success, his pheromones not yet strong enough to assert any kind of actual dominance. But young alphas had to start somewhere to hone their inborn leadership abilities, right?

If nothing else, it was cute to watch.

Not to mention it might bear fascinating research results, especially when coupled with a pregnant, mated omega in such a close proximity! Hanji could hardly wait to start observing him properly—maybe she should get a head start and open a nice, big file for him once she was back in her lab?

However, that was a problem for later; right in this moment, Hanji had different, more pressing things to focus on than Jean beginning to slowly grow into his big, bad alpha boots.

Turning her attention to the small, innocent-looking beta next to her, Hanji looked at Armin critically, studying his face, wondering what was going on behind that small animal visage and big blue eyes. She stared at him for so long that Armin started squirming in his seat, stealing a few of his own shy, slightly uncomfortable glances.

Hanji grinned to herself, enjoying the sight for a little longer before she finally opened her mouth to address the issue. “Hey, Armin,” she said, her voice uncharacteristically serious. “How is it that you know more about Erwin’s plans than even Mike?”

As if a switch had been flipped, Armin froze, staring at Hanji with eyes blown impossibly wide, looking almost like a tiny deer caught in a spotlight.

“You don’t have to tell me anything you can’t, that’s not why I’m asking,” Hanji assured him quickly. “I’m just curious. I’m so used to Erwin keeping everything to himself. We all are. So I just can’t help but wonder, how did that happen? How did he come to trust you that much?”

Armin looked down at his hands, not saying anything for a long time. Hanji waited patiently, sipping her cold tea and humming to herself occasionally so as to not let the awkwardness settle in.

She just about started to think Armin wouldn’t tell her anything after all when the boy finally started speaking.

“I… was suspicious of some people in Captain Levi’s squad.”

Hanji abruptly stopped humming and gave her full attention to Armin, who was now looking even smaller than he normally did, his words so quiet she barely heard them. She didn’t respond or say anything at all, simply letting the young beta talk as much or as little as he felt comfortable with.

“I was actually suspicious of them for a while, I just had no proof. But with the current situation…” He paused, heaving a deep sigh. “I just couldn’t risk putting Eren or the—I couldn’t risk putting Eren in danger. So I went to Commander Erwin. I knew he was probably suspicious of the whole squad, or our whole graduation group, honestly. Who wouldn’t be, after Annie, right?” Armin shrugged, a little bit of bitterness and pain seeping into his voice. 

Hanji smiled encouragingly, prompting Armin to continue. 

“I figured he didn’t know much about the members and how we interacted so I thought I’d tell him what I could. The commander agreed to check the backgrounds of the ones I suspected and after confirming that I was right, he somehow, for some unfathomable reason, decided to tell me about his other findings, too.”

“He decided you were trustworthy and a great help, Armin. That is not so unfathomable,” Hanji said, voice soft. “You sound like you can’t understand how it happened yourself. And you know what? Eren and Mikasa are right.” 

When her only response was a deep frown and blue eyes so painfully doubtful, Hanji couldn’t help but chuckle. 

“You give yourself too little credit. You should believe in yourself more. You’re smart, you’re a brilliant strategist from what I gather, and you can keep up with all my research without any prior knowledge. Not many people can do that. And you know, Erwin is probably the best judge of character you‘ll ever meet. If he decided to trust you, it means something.”

Armin flushed so red at the praise that Hanji was surprised he didn’t spontaneously combust before he muttered quietly, “It could also mean that I am so weak I am no threat…”

“You can feign weakness, Armin. Quite easily so. Or you can even be weak for real but that doesn’t disqualify you as a spy.”

Armin gulped as if he had something to retort but decided against it, instead letting Hanji’s words sink in. Hanji could tell he didn’t really believe her, but him allowing her to say it was a start. Eventually, he would find his confidence; Hanji was sure of that.

Silence enveloped the kitchen after that, the both of them trapped in their own thoughts until neither of them could stay awake anymore.

Chapter Text

Days went by, then weeks. By that time, Eren was completely forbidden from hand-to-hand combat and excessive physical training, his activities limited mostly to experiments with Hanji, an occasional basic manoeuvring gear course, endurance and strength training, and cleaning. Eren wasn’t exactly happy about it but he had to admit the combat training at least was getting decidedly awkward anyway with everyone refusing to touch him, their instincts screaming at them to protect, not attack. It was a frustrating experience for all parties involved.

On the other hand, the experiments were getting interesting results and Eren was eager to learn more. That was especially true after the time Hanji wanted to try how his titan was able to protect Eren now in his condition. 

The experiment was simple. Hanji tried to simulate the situation he, Mikasa, and Armin were in during the battle of Trost, when the omega partially transformed to protect the three of them from the canons. Eren thought it was ridiculous and wouldn’t work when Hanji announced he was to protect himself from… pebbles. Pebbles that Hanji would be throwing at him instead of cannon balls. Levi was face-palming in the background while Eren stared blankly at Hanji, who only shrugged, explaining she didn’t want to risk hurting him by throwing anything bigger at him.

Eren suspected not even Hanji thought it would actually do anything and she was only goofing around, but he complied anyway, much to the beta’s joy.

“Ready, Eren?” Hanji called from a distance with a wide, toothy grin, looking a little bit too eager to throw stones at him.

Eren sighed before he raised his left hand to his mouth. “Ready!”

“Good! Here I… go~!!” Hanji screamed the last part excitedly as she took aim and threw the little stone with more force than the omega had expected.

Eren quickly bit into his hand, protect being the only thought on his mind. 

To everyone’s honest, genuine surprise, there was a giant explosion and suddenly, everything was engulfed in steam. Hanji and Levi shared a disbelieving look but when they heard Eren cry out in pain, both their heads snapped back in Eren’s direction, Levi immediately bolting forward to run to Eren’s side.

Once the two of them came close enough to see Eren through the steam, they both froze, staring at Eren in shock. The omega was completely alright, only rubbing at his head with a disgruntled expression on his face. He shot Hanji a dirty look, grumbling, “You didn’t have to aim so damn well…”

Hanji laughed, partly in relief that the boy was okay and partly at the unhappy look on his face. Her laughter trailed off quickly, however, when she realised what she was looking at. Then, she was jumping around screaming with joy and fascination, spouting theory after theory at such a speed that Eren couldn’t keep up if he tried.

He glanced at Levi, but his alpha wasn’t looking at him. Rather, he was staring at something around Eren’s middle with an expression on his face that Eren could only describe as absolutely disgusted.  

Eren’s eyes dropped, following his mate's gaze… and immediately his eyes went wide with horror.

Growing out his arm was a shield. A dense shield of meat and broken bones, all mashed together to form a thick barrier around Eren’s stomach. The sight was so disturbing that Eren instantly recoiled without meaning to, accidentally pulling his arm out of the lump of meat. 

Much to Hanji’s dismay and disappointment, the shield started disintegrating in seconds, and Eren could only apologise profusely to her while she frantically studied the shape and contents of the… gross, gory mess, trying to get as much data out of it as she possibly could while she could.

Aside from the look of it, however, the implications of what had happened were glaringly obvious to everyone present. A partial transformation to protect the baby from any possible harm with barely any regard for Eren’s own wellbeing. It was undeniably an interesting discovery that aroused everyone’s curiosity—would it be different if the danger was more real, or would Eren subconsciously disregard his own safety even then?—but Eren still shuddered at the memory days later.

“Eren, are you okay? You look pale. Are you sick? Do you need anything?”

The omega blinked a few times at the potatoes he was peeling before turning his gaze up at Connie, who seemed to be on the verge of panic. A few seconds of silence passed, interrupted only by Ymir's condescending snort.

“Connie... I’m pregnant, not terminally ill or something,” Eren said slowly before shaking his head and sending Connie off and back to cooking.

The squad was currently on kitchen duty, preparing lunch for the entirety of the Corps—or at least most of them were, as Jean had been dragged away by Hanji for some reason, and Mikasa was off ‘bonding’ with Levi, meaning they were at the training grounds, beating the shit out of each other.

And then, of course, there was Ymir. 

The girl was lounging in a chair with her feet on the table, making fun of everyone while not doing a thing herself, giving the impression of kitchen duty being below her. Krista had tried making her stop with the comments several times with little to no result, but everyone was already used to it anyway; they all simply ignored her when her commentary was aimed at them, or laughed when it was aimed at someone else. No one was even upset about her goofing off as they all knew the truth all too well.

Ymir was simply hopeless in the cooking department.

While still in training, she had been collectively banned from any and all kitchen activities by her squad mates as she had an impeccable talent of making everything inedible by merely looking at it. Krista had tried helping her cook once, observing her every move, telling her what to do exactly, step-by-step. It didn’t help. They were all better off with her being her lazy, snarky self in the corner and not touching anything.

Reiner’s booming laughter resounded around the kitchen when Connie grumbled, “I was just worried, no need to be so mean about it.”

“You should know preggies are sensitive to being coddled! They love to take everything personally,” the blond, buff beta said loudly while slapping his dejected friend on the shoulder.

Eren could only roll his eyes in annoyance. Did he have to be so loud all the time?

As if reading his thoughts, Krista walked over to Reiner and scowled at him, an uncharacteristically stern expression on her face. “Reiner, can you be any louder? You know there would be a load of trouble for everyone if someone hears!” she scolded him in her soft, melodic voice before she huffed and gave Reiner one last warning glare, then stomped off again.

Reiner gazed after her star-struck, mumbling quietly, “She’s so perfect even when she’s angry. I’m going to marry her.”

Everyone snickered, turning back to their work. Sasha used the opportunity to try and steal a carrot from under Bertholdt’s knife, only for her grubby fingers to be swiftly slapped away.

Krista shot Eren a look that was equally as exasperated as it was apologetic, not noticing Reiner moving towards her as if in a trance. Eren saw him though, and got ready to throw a potato peel at his friend to wake him up.

Before he could so much as aim, however, Eren froze as an alarm bell went off in his mind.

A sharp intake of breath, heart-rate speeding up, his stomach twisting, and suddenly, Eren was on his feet, the potato he had been peeling slipping from his fingers and dropping to the floor. Eren paid it no mind; he pulled one leg back and gripped his knife tighter as he took up a defensive stance, ready to protect himself and his child from the incoming threat.

However, just as suddenly as the feeling of danger appeared, it was gone. 

As the tension dissolved, Eren slowly relaxed again, looking around warily. He didn’t see anything out of place, no intruders, no danger. The only indication that anything had even happened was the fact that everybody else looked just as confused and just as tense as Eren felt. For a moment, nobody seemed able to pinpoint what the hell had just happened, but soon, it hit them. 

An alpha.

An angry alpha saying wordlessly ‘stop before you get seriously hurt.’

The only problem was…

There weren’t any alphas.

Only betas and Eren, an omega.

The squad shared wide eyed looks, looking around in search of anyone that could have caused the sudden, momentary surge of alpha dominance. Even Ymir was shaken enough to break her lazy posture and expression of pure boredom, quickly taking her feet off the table and sitting up straight with a deep frown on her face. 

“What the hell was that?”

No one was able to give her an answer.

The after-lunch break found Levi sitting on the couch in his office with Eren, the omega resting his head in Levi’s lap, staring absent-mindedly into the ceiling. Levi had been watching him quietly for a while now, letting his mate think over whatever was bothering him on his own terms, but curiosity was starting to get the better of him.

“Did something happen today?” he asked softly, running his fingers through Eren’s hair.

Levi felt more than heard Eren hum noncommittally before their eyes met and Eren let go of a defeated sigh. “I don’t… I’m not sure.”

Levi raised an eyebrow, cocking his head to the side quizzically. “What does that even mean?”

“It’s just—It was so quick, I’m not sure it even happened,” Eren said, his face scrunching up into an adorable frown. “But everyone felt it so it had to happen. But then, it doesn’t make any sense—”

“You’re not making any sense.”

Eren groaned, rolling over to bury his face in his mate’s stomach. A moment passed, but then he tried again, explaining from the start, “While we were preparing lunch, for a second, it felt like there was a really angry alpha.”

“They didn’t try to attack you, did they?” Levi interrupted, suddenly angry himself.

“What? No. I told you, it was only for a second. But that’s what’s so weird about it.” Eren paused to roll back onto his back, his frown deepening. “There wasn’t any alpha around. It was just the squad, but Jean was with Hanji or whatever and Mikasa was with you. No alpha.”

Levi’s eyebrows knitted together in a frown of his own, but before he could say anything, Eren continued.

“Also, now that I think about it, it was a really strong dominance. Stronger than what Mikasa or Jean could do. It was an adult alpha.”

“Maybe someone was passing by the window? Or through the mess hall?”

“When we looked, the mess hall was empty. We didn’t hear anything either.”

“And the window?”

Eren bit his lip in thought. “I don’t know, maybe? But still, I don’t think… It was gone really fast, too fast for someone going—I really don’t know.”

Sensing his growing distress, Levi scratched Eren’s scalp gently in an effort to calm him down, before suggesting, “I’ll talk to Erwin about it and we’ll look into it. Sounds good, brat?”

“You’re terrible at comforting,” Eren accused despite the smile that pulled on his lips.

Levi could only click his tongue and shoot Eren a half-hearted, dirty look. “I’m a soldier, not a fucking therapist.”

Eren’s smile grew even bigger as he took Levi’s hand in his, pressing a small kiss to his knuckles. “I know. I don’t want a therapist anyway; orders are more of my thing.”

Levi stared expressionlessly down at his lap for a moment, watching silently as Eren’s last sentence slowly sank in. He had to say he was thoroughly enjoying the sight of the omega’s face turning a darker and darker shade of red with each passing second, horror and embarrassment slowly filling his eyes.

Once he deemed Eren sufficiently mortified, Levi smirked, noting casually, “Good to know. Could have told me earlier, but sure, we can try that next time.”

“Not like that, you ass!” Eren defended himself, lightly smacking Levi’s shoulder in his embarrassment before covering his face with a long-suffering groan.

With a small chuckle and a kiss to the back of Eren’s hand where it was covering his mouth, Levi got up from the couch to return to his work, leaving Eren to suffer in peace. It was almost time for afternoon training, after all, and he would really rather be done with this shit now and have a free evening than have to step foot in this room again today.

A few minutes passed in comfortable silence before Eren spoke up again. “I shouldn’t have reduced my training so much.”

“Why so?” Levi asked without looking up.

“I think I’m getting fat.”

Levi almost broke the pen he was holding. His eyes snapped in Eren’s direction but the brat wasn’t facing him, still lying on the couch where he had left him earlier. Closing his eyes momentarily, Levi took a deep breath. He couldn’t believe they were actually having this conversation.

“You’re not getting fat.”

“Am too. Didn’t you notice? I’m losing my abs.”

Levi stayed silent for a second, contemplating whether he should laugh, face-palm, or jump out the window. He opted for neither, instead saying in a carefully measured voice, “Has it occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, purely theoretically, that might have something to do with the fact there is a fucking kid growing in there?”

Eren’s head popped up over the armrest, a deep scowl on his face. “No need to be sarcastic.”

“You were saying stupid shit. Sarcasm seemed like an appropriate response.”

With a huff, Eren plopped back down, his head now hanging over the side of the couch so that he could glare at Levi upside down, his hair creating a messy halo around his head. Levi dreaded what the omega would look like once he sat upright again. He didn’t keep a hair brush in his office and, unfortunately, he was also pretty damn sure what people would think they had been doing in here if someone saw Eren leaving his office like that.

“By the way,” Eren spoke up again, “while we’re on the subject, Hanji keeps asking me to let her name the baby.”

“Over my dead body.”

“That’s what I told her! Well, not in those words, but basically, yeah.”

Levi raised an eyebrow. “Then why did you feel the need to bring it up?”

“Because she won’t stop asking and I don’t know how else to tell her no without straight up telling her no,” Eren half-whined, half-groaned.

“Then just tell her to fuck off, I don’t see the issue,” Levi retorted matter-of-factly.

“I can’t do that, she’s my superior!” Eren cried, his eyes widening before he sat up properly to fully convey how horrified by the idea he was. 

Levi took a second to take in how Eren’s hair looked every bit as fucked-out as he had expected it to look, but decided not to comment on that for now. Instead, he simply rolled his eyes, telling Eren flatly, “She won’t give a shit.”

“Well I do! I can’t talk like that to a superior officer!”

“You talk shit to me all the time.”

“Only when we’re alone! Like, when I talk to you as my mate and not as my captain! Hanji’s not—I can’t do that with her!” Eren looked more and more scandalised by the second.

“Then tell her you’re quoting me or whatever. Or don’t and listen to her whining. Your choice.”

Eren glared at Levi for a moment before he huffed and left, slamming the door behind himself. Levi only shook his head in amusement before he went back to planning the training regimen for the squad for the next week.

He did hope to god that Eren wouldn’t run into anyone before he got the chance to look into a damn mirror, though.

Armin was pretty sure he was going to be late for training and would have to face the consequences if he was really going to do this now. But he had been thinking about it all throughout lunch and the after-lunch break and he had to see Hanji and confirm his theory, or he was going to think about it the whole time during training as well, end up being distracted, and get extra laps anyway. So, what was the harm, really? He just had to be quick about it.

The beta took a deep breath as he knocked sharply at the door to Hanji’s lab. It wasn’t Hanji who answered the door, however, but rather Moblit.

“Oh, Armin. What is it?”

“Ah, uhm—Is Squad Leader Hanji here?” Armin asked nervously. He didn’t expect this development.

Moblit smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry, but no. The squad leader left right after lunch on some business in town. She should be back by this evening.”

“Oh...” Armin hung his head dejectedly, resigning himself to having to wait.

“What did you need? Can I help instead?” Moblit asked uncertainly.

Armin gave him a sad smile, shaking his head. “No, it’s okay. I’ll wait for Squad Leader Hanji to come back. Thank…” Armin trailed off, before he suddenly perked up. “Actually, maybe you can! Han—Squad Leader Hanji mentioned it was you who did most of the research on the dynamics, is that right?”

Moblit blinked several times, visibly taken aback by Armin’s sudden burst of energy. “I—Well, yes, that’s true.”

“Great! Can I ask you about something?”

“Come in, then…” 

Taking a step back, Moblit made room for Armin to slip in. He looked like he was still not quite comprehending what just happened, but was happy to be of help nonetheless. He quickly closed the door after Armin, going to sit down on one of the chairs by the desk and gesturing for Armin to join him.

Once they were both comfortable, Moblit prompted, “So, what did you want to know?”

Armin brushed his hair behind his ear before starting to explain, doing his best to stay as vague as he could. “So, I was just wondering. How we can tell someone’s dynamic, that’s the pheromones, right?”

“Yes, basically.” Moblit nodded. “Of course, there are some physical signs as well but those can be misleading.”

Armin hummed, taking a second to think about his next words. “Then… Is it possible for someone to give off pheromones of a different dynamic than their own?”

Moblit cocked his head to the side, a small, contemplative crease appearing between his eyebrows, before he answered slowly, “No, that’s impossible. There have been reports of some cases of people with a mixed dynamic, but they emitted pheromones of both at once. Those cases are extremely rare, though, and the affected individuals also had obvious physical and mental developmental issues. In fact, I think only one of them lived past her tenth birthday.”

Armin made a sound of surprise; he couldn’t deny he was very intrigued by that particular piece of information but… He shook his head to make himself focus; he had more pressing issues to focus on.

“Okay, in that case, would it be possible to intentionally cover up your dynamic?”

“Well…” Moblit rubbed his chin, deep in thought. “There is the possibility of an operation to remove the scent glands. The absence of distinct pheromones might make others assume the person is a beta. But that would be very dangerous and probably leave ugly scars even if it were successful.”

“Is there any other way? Like some medicine or anything like that?” Armin prompted, basically balancing at the edge of his seat. 

“Maybe some kind of perfume that would be able to cover the scent? But it would either have to be developed very specifically to disguise that one person’s dynamic, which would be difficult, or be very, very strong.” The assistant researcher scrunched up his nose at the prospect of there being a perfume smelling strong enough to cover up a person’s pheromones. “Other than that… I do have a personal theory that there might be herb mixtures that would be able to inhibit the creation of pheromones, but I couldn’t find any existing research on that so I have no proof as of now.”

Armin grinned, getting to the core of his questioning. “So, theoretically speaking, it might be possible for a person to present themselves as one dynamic, but actually be another?”

Moblit frowned. “Theoretically, yes. But as I said, I don’t know of any research that would have confirmed that, or provided any reliable or easily accessible options for it. I’m not sure why someone would even want to do that in the first place.”

Armin wanted to scream in victory.

A wide smile on his face, he glanced at the clock hanging on the wall; if he hurried, he might make it to the training grounds just in the nick of time. 

“Thanks, Moblit! You were a great help, I really appreciate it!” Clasping Moblit’s hand in his own briefly, Armin asserted his appreciation before he shot up and ran out the door.

Moblit was left behind completely dumbfounded, staring blankly at the spot that had been occupied by Armin just seconds before, wondering silently what the hell was that even about.

Chapter Text

“Levi,” Eren called softly, yet urgently.

Levi only groaned in response, burying his face deeper into Eren’s pillow and circling his arms around his mate’s middle to drag him close again.

“Levi, we have to get up.”

“No we don’t,” Levi mumbled in response, sleep dripping from his voice.

“Yes we do. It’s almost lunch. Mikasa was just here, looking for us.”

“It’s a day off, I don’t have to do shit. Erwin isn’t even here. Who’s going to bitch at us?” Levi cracked open one eye to look at Eren. “Just go back to sleep.” And his eye fell shut again.

Eren shook his alpha insistently. “Levi, seriously. It’s going to be suspicious,” he whined. “And what if someone needs to talk to you?”

“I’m not in charge, Mike is. Everyone can go eat shit.”

Eren stared down at his mate, incredulous. He knew how lazy his mate could get sometimes but this was a new level; was it just because the commander wasn’t there? Suddenly, something yanked at his arm and he found himself blinking into Levi’s chest a split second later.

“Go to sleep.” It was probably meant to sound like an order but muffled by sleep and Eren’s hair, Levi’s words came out more like a sigh.

Eren couldn’t find it in himself to fight it anymore. He relaxed into his mate, snuggling even closer; hopefully, no one but those already in the know would notice they were both nowhere to be found and missing meals in the process… He sighed, closing his eyes as he let Levi’s warmth lull him back to sleep.

A moment later, a creak came from the door leading into the basement.

Immediately, Eren’s heart jumped to his throat as panic took him over. He knew he should have locked the door again after Mikasa left! Why didn’t he do that?! Stupid, stupid! 

Before he could shove Levi off the bed in a vain effort to hide him, down came Hanji’s voice, “I hope you’re not having sex in there 'cause I’m coming down.”

Eren let go of a deep breath as all energy left him and he all but dissolved into the bedsheets. Those were the fucking scariest five seconds of his life.

Levi clicked his tongue in irritation. “Go the fuck away, Four-Eyes. I get one full night of sleep but then everyone keeps waking me up .” His growl got more and more menacing with every word to the point where even Eren felt the urge to cower.

Hanji actually looked and sounded apologetic once she came into view. “I’m really sorry but I need to talk to you. A message came from Erwin, there’s a problem with the higher ups in the Capital. They want to talk to me and Eren. The three of us have to leave as soon as we can.”

Eren’s stomach dropped as his heart jumped in his chest, his breath catching in his throat. Did they find a hole in Hanji’s reports? Did someone talk? Were they in danger?

It was hard to breathe.

His head was starting to spin; he blinked, but his vision was blurry. He couldn’t feel his fingers. Why was his heart beating so loud?

Before Eren could realise what was happening, Levi’s hand came to rest on the nape of his neck, massaging gently, and Eren exhaled shakily. Slowly, his heart-rate and breathing calmed down as his muscles relaxed, his surroundings coming into focus once more.

Closing his eyes, Eren latched onto the way Levi’s fingers dug into the scruff of his neck, letting the silent reminder of his alpha presence ground him. An anchor to keep him in the present, to allow him to breathe easy and stop shaking.

It only took a few more seconds before Levi let go of a sigh of relief as the rush of emotion Eren was no doubt sending him through the bond went away; soon, the comfort of his hand left Eren as Levi finally sat up properly.

And he was pissed. 

Eren felt so bad for him; it had been a while since Levi’s last day off and he could actually sleep through the night for once without staring into the ceiling for hours on end. And then the assholes from the capital decided to ruin it. As if Levi didn’t hate them enough already.

“Okay, you both up now?” Hanji asked, not bothering to wait for the obvious answer before continuing. “Just in case, before we leave, we need to get our stories straight.”

Eren’s brow scrunched up in confusion. “Stories?”

Hanji nodded as Levi got up from the bed and headed for Eren’s dresser to get some of his own clean clothes from there, starting to get changed. 

“Yeah. We don’t know why they’re calling us up there but we have to be prepared for the questions and you don’t have any idea what we wrote in the reports.”

“Oh.” Eren scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “What should we say then?”

“If they ask if you’re pregnant, deny it.”

Eren huffed, throwing a pillow at his mate. “I know that! I’m not stupid!”

Levi shrugged, tossing the pillow that had completely missed its mark right back.

“Right. Levi, I know you’re panicking, but—”

“I’m not panicking, shitty Four-Eyes.” Levi glared at her over his shoulder as he shrugged into his shirt.

“Of course not,” Hanji stated flatly, giving him a look when Levi clicked his tongue upon the realisation that he had buttoned his shirt up wrong. “But please, don’t rile Eren up too because of it. We all need to stay calm and not all of us have your damn poker face.”

“Are you sure it’s not you who’s panicking?”

“Okay!” came a loud voice from upstairs and all three of them startled, looking towards the door to the basement with wide eyes. Armin snorted at the sight they made as he closed the door behind himself and Mikasa.

Realising who it was, Eren fell backwards to collapse into his bed all over again, completely drained of energy. He had had enough surprise entrances today to last him until next year, thank you very much.

When the newcomers came down, each of them carrying a tray with what looked like lunch, Armin gave them all a stern look. “I don’t know what’s going on, and excuse me if I sound rude, but you all seem kind of on edge. Take three deep breaths and you can start again.”

Eren groaned. “Don’t scare me like that, haven’t you heard of knocking? And why are you here, Mikasa just left.”

Armin exchanged a glance with Mikasa, who then answered for him, “When I did leave, and that was over an hour ago, by the way—” Eren frowned at this information; he honestly didn’t think he had fallen asleep at all after she left “—, I told you it was almost lunch time. But you two didn’t come up anyway so we figured we’d bring you something to eat. And we did knock. Twice,” she finished, deadpan.

Armin looked around the room, taking in the fact that Hanji was dressed in her uniform and Levi was on his way to be in uniform as well, busy gathering a set of manoeuvring gear that looked a little too big to be his own. The beta frowned, putting the lunch tray on Eren’s desk before addressing the situation. “So, what happened? Isn’t it a day off for you too, Captain?”

Levi tossed the harness in Eren’s general direction before announcing in a resigned voice, “We’ve been summoned to the capital.”

Armin gasped as Mikasa shot a look full of concern first at her brother, then his mate. “Did they…?” 

Hanji gave her a wry smile. “No clue and that’s the problem. It would be much easier if we knew we should run, honestly.” She sighed heavily, taking off her glasses to rub at her eyes. “But, I don’t think so. I had Moblit look through our reports and he didn’t say anything, so I doubt the idiots up there noticed we were making it all up.”

Mikasa hid behind her scarf while Armin bit his lip, asking, “Can we go as well?”

“No,” Levi refused immediately, his tone allowing no room for arguments. Even so, he gave Mikasa an especially hard stare for good measure, since she looked like she was about to fight him on it regardless. “We don’t need any more people freaking the fuck out. And in case we do need to run, the less people the better. And I need people I trust here.”

Armin hummed, rubbing at his chin in thought. “If there’s someone waiting for an opportunity and realises all the biggest threats—the captain, the commander, Eren, and even Squad Leader Hanji—are gone, they are probably going to take action,” he mumbled, almost as if not even realising he was speaking out loud. “But if there are such people, they would be after Eren. I don’t think they’re going to make a move in this situation. So, I suppose it’s about having people on the inside if something happens with you, right?” he finished, glancing around the room—only to belatedly realise that everyone was staring at him, intently listening to his thought process. Immediately, a pink blush bloomed on the beta’s cheeks as he visibly shrunk away.

There were a few seconds of silence before Levi huffed, looking away from Armin with a shake of his head. “Pretty much. You can never be too careful. Mike and Nanaba might be here, but if shit hits the fan, the more people stay here, the better.”

“You are so pessimistic,” Hanji muttered into the ensuing silence, successfully breaking the solemn atmosphere.

Eren cleared his throat, ready to get them back on track. “Hanji, you wanted to coordinate our answers?”

“Right!” She clapped her hands, jumping at the change of topic. “You two can have your lunch while we talk so we can save some time. Now, as for tests we’ve been supposedly running—”

It took them almost an hour to actually set out for the ride to the capital. 

Not only did Hanji have a lot of stuff to tell them—Eren honestly doubted he’d remember half of it if someone were to question him about it—, but Levi also refused to leave without a shower. Or without spending at least five minutes alone with Eren to make sure they were as well as could be. Luckily, they at least didn’t have to hunt down the squad and waste even more time since Armin and Mikasa happened to stumble into the commotion by themselves and could inform the others of their captain’s absence. It was a day off, after all. Finding anyone but the poor person in charge was a challenge.

Without even needing to talk about it, the three of them came to the unanimous decision to take their horses over a carriage. It was much faster and honestly, all of them were far more comfortable on horseback than sitting in some shaky carriage while it trudged on over paved and unpaved roads.

As soon as they left the castle premises, Eren started feeling anxious, a suffocating feeling that something was going to happen any minute heavy on his chest, and he only prayed silently that all four of them would come out of this journey unharmed. If nothing else, he was at least slightly placated by seeing how fidgety both Levi and Hanji looked, meaning he wasn’t alone in his discomfort. Of course, in Levi’s case it could have been caused by Eren’s own emotions getting carried over through the bond but Eren didn’t think that was the case; their bond was a little dull in this area and the omega was pretty sure his unease wasn’t strong enough to seep through.

Nonetheless, despite Eren’s nerves and the feeling of impending doom never letting up, the ride to the capital ended up being as uneventful as it could have been. They arrived in Mitras safe and sound within four hours—even though their horses didn’t look like they appreciated this record time.

Commander Erwin met them in the courtyard at the Military Police Headquarters and the moment Eren saw the sheepish expression on his face, he knew he wouldn’t like what he had to tell them. Sadly, Eren was proven right when Erwin reluctantly explained how the nobles were tired after the long morning business talks and the meeting they were called for had been pushed back to tomorrow.

Hearing Erwin’s message, the three of them looked at each other, then at their panting, exhausted horses, and Eren could swear he heard Levi’s teeth grinding.

“Well, I’m glad these tired sweeties can’t understand us,” Hanji chuckled humourlessly. “I’d bet they’d be pretty annoyed with us otherwise.”

“No shit. I’m pissed off enough and I didn’t run all the way here for no fucking reason. Those pigs better hope I take a really good shit or I’m going to fucking slaughter them,” Levi growled in response.

Eren’s hand twitched as he suppressed the need to touch his mate—to hold his hand, run his fingers through his hair, anything— to help calm his anger. That would be a bad idea considering their whereabouts. Eren instead opted to affectionately pat his horse in praise and thanks, promising him quietly to get him and his friends some really good treats for their vain efforts later.

Suddenly, something ran through Eren—an emotion that didn’t belong to him, one that was gone so fast he couldn’t identify it. And yet, he knew exactly what it was. He took a sharp breath, his grip on his horse’s reins tightening as he stood up straight, feeling his neck crack with how fast he looked at his mate. 

The alpha wasn’t looking at him but he was definitely standing closer to Eren than he was before, taking up a slightly defensive stance. Eren quickly scanned the courtyard for any possible threats but they were virtually alone; the only people in sight were the two very obviously bored guards at the gate, who weren’t paying them any attention.

“Captain?” Eren asked quietly, worrying at his lower lip, unsure of what might have caused Levi to react this way.

Levi ignored him, simply moving just a tiny bit closer as he addressed Erwin in an icy tone, “So, we’re spending the night.”

Erwin looked like he had to force down a sigh, knowing it would likely only agitate the other alpha further. “We would have to either way, Levi,” he said, keeping his voice quiet and carefully measured.

“Where’s Eren sleeping?”

Eren went rigid at the realization and he heard Hanji take sharp breath; obviously, this problem hadn’t occurred to her either.

Erwin shot an apologetic look at Eren before he answered honestly, “In one of the basement cells.” He visibly flinched at the sudden wave of Levi’s alpha dominance. Eren could only imagine Levi’s eyes were glowing now, to accompany the low growl that escaped him. 

His eyes dropping to the ground, Commander Erwin quickly spoke up, trying to placate the furious alpha while carefully avoiding eye contact. “I managed to convince them he didn’t need guards, and I don’t think it will be difficult to arrange for you to have the keys and be the one to pick him up tomorrow.” He lowered his voice until it was barely above whisper. “It’s an isolated cell, so you two can have some time to settle down together in the morning.”

Eren couldn’t say he was completely happy about it but it was probably the best they’d be able to get. He was supposed to sleep locked up and chained in the basement in their own headquarters as well, after all. The fact that the chains weren’t used even once, that no one ever bothered to lock him inside unless Levi was there, and that Eren himself had one of the keys was… a convenient technicality.

He shot the commander a grateful smile. “Thank you, sir. We—” he stopped himself, clearing his throat before trying again. “I appreciate it.” 

Erwin smiled slightly back before nodding towards the small stables for temporary stay. “Tether your horses by the entrance, I’ll tell Nile to send someone to properly take care of them. I need to debrief you about today.”

The three of them saluted—although Levi still looked ready to rip his superior’s head off—and headed off with their horses.

Hanji quickly caught up with Eren, speaking in a quiet voice, “Do you think you can spend the night separately?”

Levi barked out a mirthless laugh as Eren gave her a confident smile. “Of course, we’ll still be in the same building. Don’t worry, it won’t be the most comfortable sleep but it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Are you sure?” Hanji’s eyebrows knitted together, the beta clearly not convinced. “With every passing week, the need to stay together should be getting stronger. When was the last time you spent a whole night further than fifty meters apart? Outside of Levi’s territory?”

“We’ll be fine , Four-Eyes,” Levi snapped while aggressively tethering his horse by the water canister, not even bothering to hide how annoyed he was.

“Yeah, promise.” Eren told her sincerely, giving her what he hoped to be a bright grin, before quickly looking away, turning his attention to his horse.

His smile dropped the second he turned his back to Hanji, heaving a deep sigh. Would they be okay? They would have to be. They didn’t have much choice in the matter either way; not unless they wanted to end up having to answer some questions. They could only count their blessings for being allowed at least a little breathing room in the situation they found themselves in.

Doing his best to ignore the way Hanji was watching them with eyes full of sadness and guilt—as if any of this was her fault—, Eren tethered his horse next to Levi’s, careful to not look at his mate, yet hyper-aware of his presence. He was standing so close he could almost feel his alpha’s warmth, and he latched onto it, trying to soak up as much of his company as he possibly could, while he could.

Closing his eyes momentarily, Eren silently prayed that they really would be fine come morning, ready to properly face whatever was waiting for them tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Eren had promised Hanji they would be fine but only thirty minutes after Levi locked the door to Eren’s cell, the omega started to feel it. At first, it was only a slight restlessness but as the minutes went by, the silence of the basement started to overwhelm him, only making him focus more on the rising anxiety.

He sighed; it was going to be a long night.

Levi paced around his room, itching to run to his mate and protect him. Of course, he knew Eren was safe, probably safer than Levi himself was, all things considered, but that knowledge wasn’t enough for the bond. His instincts were screaming at him to go find Eren right this second; how dare he leave his mate’s side in such a place while pregnant with his own child? 

What a shitty fucking excuse for an alpha he was.

Levi shook his head to clear it. No. He was protecting Eren by leaving his side. He knew he was. But that didn’t make his mating mark stop burning, didn’t make the bond stop pulling, didn’t make the anger and anxiety go away. Hell, he wasn’t even sure whether the anxiety was his own or Eren’s and that wasn’t helping him any either.

There was a sharp knock on the door, and it made Levi positively snarl. He tried to remind himself to stay calm, but he still threw the door open with more force than needed, causing the policewoman behind it to jump back in surprise.

“Captain Levi, sir!” the girl squeaked, saluting quickly. “I just wanted to ask if you have everything you—” she stopped speaking abruptly when she finally took a good look at him.

Levi suspected his eyes were glowing, his alpha dominance permeating the air. He was gripping the door with such a force that his knuckles hurt to keep himself from doing anything stupid, but the frightened shudder that ran through the woman before him made him wonder just how exactly he looked to her right then. 

Levi couldn’t bring himself to care. 

He continued to glare at her without moving a muscle while she stood there frozen, too terrified to move or speak, unwilling to break the fragile state of stillness hanging between them.

Levi thanked whoever was listening when Hanji walked out of Erwin’s room across the hall with a troubled expression on her face. She stopped in her tracks when she noticed them, assessing the situation remarkably quickly before letting out an awkward laugh, causing the girl to jump once again. 

“Oh, miss, you’d better not be bothering Levi right now! He’s always terribly grumpy after long travels. But don’t worry, he’ll be all better after sleeping for a bit,” she said with fake cheer to her voice, grabbing the girl by her shoulders and leading her away a little too forcefully to be considered friendly. 

Levi watched from his rigid position, halfway relieved, halfway fighting off more aggression at the new arrival.

Thankfully, Hanji was used to closely dealing with both Levi and the titans so she wasn’t too phased. As soon as she ushered the shaken girl away, she ran back, pushing Levi inside his room and shutting the door behind them. She let him go before he could so much as growl at her, backing off as far away from the alpha as the room allowed while avoiding eye contact.

“Levi, she’s gone. It’s okay. Breathe,” she said in an even, soothing voice and waited.

After a few tense seconds, Levi’s posture relaxed slightly and he groaned, rubbing at his face in frustration.

Hanji took it as a sign that everything was alright now. She snickered, although the sound was more strained than amused. “So you’re going to be fine , hm?”

Levi shot her a glare. “What, did you expect us to admit we can’t be away from each other for five fucking minutes because there’s a fucking bond between us that won’t stop screaming at me to protect my mate and unborn child?” Levi hissed, maybe a bit louder than was advised.

Hanji gave him a sad, sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry, I know. Do you want me to stay with you?”

The alpha closed his eyes, exhaling slowly before he shook his head. “No. Wouldn’t want to accidentally kill you in the middle of the night.” 

Even Levi had to admit his attempt at a joke failed miserably, but Hanji snorted anyway as she headed for the door. She paused with her hand on the handle, glancing over her shoulder to tell Levi in an earnest voice, “If you need anything, I’m right here. Erwin is, too.” She waited until Levi nodded stiffly before giving him one last smile, slipping through the door a moment later.

Once she was gone, Levi locked the door carefully before he threw himself on the bed, staring blankly at the white ceiling. He could feel a slight hint of worry through the bond now and he cursed under his breath; he didn’t mean to get so agitated that Eren would be able to feel it. He didn’t want to upset his mate more than necessary and yet, here they fucking were.

He sighed; it was going to be a long night.

Unbeknownst to those in the capital, Levi wasn’t the only one pacing restlessly at the time. Back in Survey Corps’ headquarters, Mikasa was stalking around the kitchen while Armin sat at the table with a now-cold cup of tea, several papers spread out in front of him as he mumbled to himself unintelligibly, making a note here and there with a deep frown on his face.

“Armin, how can you be so calm?” Mikasa snapped finally.

Armin didn’t even raise his head as he answered, “Do I look calm to you?” He paused to circle a date on one of his papers. “We’re just coping differently. Maybe you should go for a run or ask someone to spar with you.”

“Goddamnit,” Mikasa growled, taking several angry steps to do just that but almost ran into Jean in the doorway.

They blinked a few times at each other before Mikasa took a step back to let the other alpha enter.

Jean shot an uncertain look at Mikasa as he passed her on his way to sit at the table across from Armin. He waited for a moment until the door to the kitchen clicked shut before he opened his mouth to speak. “What did you want to talk about, Armin?” He was trying to keep his voice low, barely a whisper, but in the silence of the kitchen, his words could be heard clearly anyway.

Armin closed his eyes momentarily as he exhaled sharply, glancing at Mikasa—who was still inside the kitchen and looming by the door with an unreadable expression on her face—before he gave Jean an exasperated look. “Seriously Jean, I hope to the Walls you’ll learn how to be sneaky before stuff really starts going down.”

Jean looked like he was about to protest but the look Armin gave him was enough to shut him up and hang his head in defeat, muttering, “I didn’t exactly volunteer for this, you know…”

With a huff, Armin shook his head, doing his best to avoid the glare Mikasa was sending them as she stalked over to the table, standing above them with an air around her that made both Armin and Jean shrink away instinctively. They were fucked; Armin knew Mikasa well enough to know she was either going to get her answers or end up puttíng both of their heads on spikes before the night ended.

Mikasa slammed her hands down on the table barely a second later, then glowered directly at Jean. “You’ve been acting extremely suspiciously lately. Disappearing without explanation, talking with Squad Leaders Hanji and Mike in whispers, now this. Talk, Jean. What do you know.”

Jean sent a pathetic, pleading look Armin’s way and in that moment, the beta gave up.

Heaving a deep sigh, Armin reached out to grab Mikasa’s shoulder. “Mikasa, leave him be. He doesn’t know much anyway.”

Immediately, Mikasa turned the full attention of both her glare and alpha dominance at her friend. “What have you been hiding from me, Armin?”

Her voice sent a shiver down Armin’s spine. He really didn’t like dealing with an angry Mikasa. Dealing with Eren was way easier, even without the alpha dominance. “I’m sorry,” Armin said, putting his hands up in a placating gesture. “I just didn’t want to worry you. But I was meaning to tell you eventually, I swear! Even against the commander’s orders!”

Mikasa narrowed her eyes suspiciously, not easing the pressure in the least. “Tell me now then,” she all but ordered, and Armin saw no other choice but to tell Mikasa about the traitors in their midst—and about the fact he suspected that there was also an alpha disguising as a beta.

Mikasa looked positively murderous when he finished. “Who are they, Armin?” she demanded with her lips curled into a snarl.

“I can’t,” Armin retorted, making sure to let his voice carry the full seriousness of the matter. “We aren’t even one hundred percent sure about them. We don’t have any evidence! I hate to say it, but we have to wait until they make their move.”

“Are you telling me to put Eren in danger?” Mikasa hissed, folding her arms across her chest. “Armin, don’t make me kill all of them.”

“Mikasa!” Armin shouted, his chair clattering to the floor as he shot up to his feet.

Mikasa blinked, her mouth falling slightly open as she looked at Armin with surprise written all over her face—an expression that was mirrored by Jean, neither one of them having expected Armin to shout.

Their shock didn’t deter Armin, though he did lower his voice to make sure the conversation stayed between the three of them. “Weren’t you listening to me? There is someone with ties to the royal family and we have no idea what this tie is. If they are a royal spy, or really anything but an outcast, and something happens to them, what do you think the Military Police will do?!” Armin paused for a second, but then answered his own question anyway, “The first thing will be arresting you as the culprit. Then the captain, the commander… probably all of the officers. Do you really think in such a case, Eren would come out unscathed?”

Mikasa looked positively shaken. Her eyes dropped to the ground as she buried her nose in her scarf, suddenly looking so very small, and Armin deemed his point successfully made. 

He let go of a slow, shaky breath before he leaned down and picked up his chair to sit back down quietly. Silence so heavy one could almost hear it settled over the kitchen for a long moment, no one daring to even breathe.

“I’m sorry,” Mikasa and Armin finally said at the same time, then glanced at each other only to chuckle awkwardly.

As the tension dissipated, Jean ran a hand through his hair tiredly. “So, I suppose you called me here about this alpha business?”

Armin nodded, glancing at his papers with a wry, humourless smile. “Yeah, I thought you should know.”

Mikasa got herself a glass of water before joining the other two at the table, asking carefully, “How many people know about this anyway?”

“Well, about the… outsiders, it’s just the commander, Squad Leaders Hanji and Mike, me, Jean, and now you. As for the alpha…” Armin shrugged, sighing in defeat. “My guess is everyone who was there plus whoever they told. Provided they realised what had happened or believed it happened. It was really gone too fast.”

“So the whole squad?”

“Yeah. Captain Levi probably included, I can’t imagine Eren didn’t tell him.”

Jean hummed, rubbing at his chin in thought. “So, unless Sasha, Connie, and Reiner didn’t figure it out, we can count on the whole Corps knowing by the end of the week. And if the captain knows, the commander probably does, too.”

“Pretty much,” Armin confirmed.

Honestly, the beta wasn’t sure whether that was a good or bad thing. 

The alpha would now certainly take more care not to reveal themselves and that, on one hand, meant they would be difficult to identify. But on the other hand, they would lay low and wouldn’t make any rash moves, which gave them more time—and Walls knew they needed that right now. They didn’t even know whether the alpha was one of the outsiders they already knew about, the one with the royal ties, or someone completely different.

Not to mention Moblit was right; why even bother hiding they were an alpha anyway? And why was the situation only getting more and more complicated, with more questions and no answers? What was next, the goddess Shina herself in the flesh as a member of their squad? 

Armin was starting to wonder whether there even were any innocent, normal soldiers among them beside the three of them in this kitchen. 

Although, on second thought, Mikasa barely counted as normal. Was it only him and Jean?

Slumping over the table, Armin rested his forehead on the solid wood, suddenly feeling completely exhausted. He wasn’t sure how much more of this he would be able to take.

Eren didn’t get a wink of sleep that night. 

And, judging by the coming and going waves of anger, Levi didn’t either.

And so, the early morning found Eren fully dressed in his uniform, sitting on the edge of his cot and staring a hole into the locked door of his cell.

Just as the sun started to rise, Eren’s ears picked up the sound of carefully measured steps, the pull of the bond easing more with each passing second. Eren’s heartbeat sped up as the door to the basement opened and closed again, the newcomer resuming their careful walk. Eren didn’t dare move until Levi came into view on the other side of the bars, looking haggard with his hair a complete mess, and, without all doubt, blissfully alone.

The omega sagged with relief. He leaned forward until his forehead touched his knees, burying his face in his hands. He took two deep breaths as he listened to the sound of his mate impatiently trying to open the door to the cell; he almost had to laugh at how frustrated with the lock the alpha was becoming.

Finally, Levi threw the door open and took several hurried steps only to engulf the omega in a tight embrace as soon as he was close enough, burying his face in the crook of Eren’s neck. Eren could feel his breath against his skin, so overwhelmed by the feeling of suddenly having his alpha so close that he didn’t even notice Levi pushing his jacket and shirt to the side until Levi’s teeth sank into his flesh.

Biting him right where Eren’s mating mark was supposed to be.

Eren moaned, a sound close to a purr at the back of his throat as one of his hands flew up to bury itself in Levi’s hair, pulling him closer still. Heat was spreading throughout his body, his own teeth itching to sink into Levi in turn. But he knew he couldn’t. Not now, not while someone could notice the blood before the wound healed. Not until they were safe.

And so, Eren only sighed, relishing the assurance, the claim, the love that Levi was pouring into him.

Levi released his bite a moment later, taking a second to make sure no blood got on Eren’s clothes, but then Eren grabbed his jacket to pull him back towards himself, their lips crashing together a second later. They moved against each other with practiced ease, sharing a kiss that tasted of blood and desperation, a level of relief that Eren didn’t think possible washing over him. He could almost cry when Levi’s tongue ran over his bottom lip, and he couldn’t stop the quiet whine from escaping him.

Levi pulled away then, pressing his forehead against Eren’s, whispering sweet assurances while Eren clung to him like his alpha might disappear again if he let go. They stayed like that for a long time, soaking up each other’s solid presence as they slowly calmed down after the rough night. 

When they finally separated minutely, it was only with great reluctance on both their parts. Levi raised his head so that he could look at Eren, one of his hands finding its way to Eren’s cheek to tilt his face upwards.

“You okay, brat?”

Eren smiled at the pet name. “Of course, sir. Yes, sir.”

Levi clicked his tongue, clearly not believing Eren, but he didn’t push the topic. He only gave the omega one last, tender kiss instead.

When they parted, Eren took in Levi’s face critically. His eyebrows knitting together into a frown, he now felt like it was his turn to ask, “Are you okay? You look like shit.”

The alpha snorted. “I’m fine, just didn’t sleep.”

“And didn’t go to the showers yet. Seriously, are you okay?”

“Fantastic,” Levi replied, voice full of sarcasm. “I can shower when you do. I’d have to go with you anyway so the idiots here don’t shit their pants if they happen to come in while you’re there. At least I won’t be bored out of my mind just sitting there.”

“Fair point.” Eren huffed in amusement, before his lips stretched into a smirk, his voice dropping into a low, suggestive whisper, “But are you going to be able to keep your hands to yourself, Captain Levi, sir?”

Levi narrowed his eyes. “Are you fucking kidding me, Eren? We’re in the middle of enemy territory, trying not to get one or three of us killed, and you ask for something like this?”

Heat crept up to Eren’s face, his eyes widening as the realisation of just what he was suggesting dawned on him. “Shit, sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking! I just suddenly feel really horny, I—I’m sorry…”

A small chuckle escaped Levi over Eren’s horrified fumbling as he threaded his fingers through Eren’s hair soothingly. “It’s fine, I think Hanji said shit like this happens. Something about the omega trying to keep their mate from abandoning them or whatever.” He made a face, shaking his head as he muttered to himself, “As if anyone would want to abandon their mate. Or as if the bond would let them.”

Eren groaned as he buried his face in Levi’s stomach, causing his next words to come out muffled. “Can we just stay like this a little longer?”

“Sure, brat. Whatever you want,” Levi answered softly, pressing a small kiss to his mate’s hair.

After a quick stop in the bathroom to clean up any remaining smudges of blood from Eren’s neck—where Levi’s bite had, once again, fully healed already—the two mates managed to go for a morning run and take a shower without incident, and without Eren’s stomach turning even once. Having ventured out so early, they had also somehow avoided everyone until breakfast and thus successfully evaded any tense bathroom confrontations or awkward hiding of Levi’s mating mark.

Honestly, Levi thought their morning was going a little too well.

The cafeteria was almost empty when they arrived but even so—or maybe because of that—they couldn’t avoid either the stares or the whispers. Levi could only roll his eyes, not even surprised; after all, not only were they intruders in a sense, they were Humanity’s Strongest and Humanity’s Last Hope, better known as ‘The Monster’. 

He may not have been surprised, but that didn’t mean Levi liked it. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to ignore the murmurs and oh-so sneaky fearful, disdainful glances. He had to remind himself that it wouldn’t exactly do to snap at anyone for bad-mouthing the kid he was supposed to kill at a moment’s notice just hours before a meeting that was probably going to decide their fate.

They sat down at a random table, sitting mostly in carefully kept silence until Hanji joined them a few minutes later, complaining loudly about how absolutely terrible the beds were here. 

Levi raised an eyebrow, giving Hanji a look. He may not have slept, but he did lie on his bed for some periods of time and he honestly had no idea what Hanji was trying to accomplish by lying about this other than assert some kind of strange, completely out-of-pocket dominance. 

Eren, however, gave Hanji a compassionate look, making Levi shake his head in disbelief. Of course the brat believed her… especially since he didn’t get an actual bed at all. 

The reminder pissed Levi off all over again.

Resting her chin in the palm of her hand, Hanji looked the two of them up and down critically. “You two look like shit,” she stated flatly.

Levi snorted humorlessly, while Eren gave her a wry smile. 

“Nervous I guess,” the omega said simply, dismissively.

Hanji gave him a sad smile but said nothing.

They continued sitting in silence, watching as more and more people turned up for breakfast. Soon, there was almost nowhere to sit, yet their table stayed glaringly empty aside from them. Hanji wondered why. Out loud.

“Hanji,” came a warning voice from behind them and all three of them looked up to see Erwin coming up to them with Nile Dawk in tow.

The two commanders ignored Hanji’s pout and sat down at the table next to them, continuing to discuss whatever they were discussing without so much as a glance at the remaining occupants of the table. 

Which was just as well. Levi couldn’t say he cared what Nile had to say about anything.

Levi didn’t get the chance to ponder his categorical dislike for the Military Police and its commander, however, because soon after Nile and Erwin sat down, several soldiers came up to their table with plates of food, placing one in front of each of them. Only once that was done, the other soldiers finally started lining up for their own food as well.

Dispite his distaste for the fucked up ways the Military Police worked, Levi turned his attention to his plate without word. He wasn’t about to piss Erwin off by being difficult now of all times, after all.

He only took two bites before he had to pause as he noticed that Eren wasn’t eating. For a second, he was worried the omega wasn’t going to be able to stomach the food, despite how well he was feeling earlier, but then he took a good look at his face. Face that was twisted with anger as he glared at his plate, stock-full with fresh bread and ham and cheese and seasoned eggs and more ham.

As Eren’s lips pressed into a thin line, his hands curling into fists, Levi could just imagine what the brat was thinking. That the Police, and the officials in the capital, were eating so lavishly for a regular breakfast when food shortage was such an issue inside Wall Rose. That most people at the outskirts, particularly refugees, most likely haven’t even seen this much meat or seasoning since the fall of Maria. And these people were just throwing it around like it was nothing.

Levi understood, but this wasn’t the time or place for such thoughts.

Kicking Eren’s leg lightly under the table, Levi shook his head at his mate. At first, Eren’s face twisted even more, but then he finally picked up his cutlery and proceeded to eat his fill more aggressively than was strictly necessary for a breakfast.

The meeting finally took place about two hours after breakfast. The Survey Corps were led inside a spacious, gaudily decorated room with a large ornate table and comfortable-looking, plush chairs. Several nobles—or fat pigs, as Levi loved to call them—were sprawling in those, glasses of what looked like wine in each of their hands. There were four chairs opposite from these nobles, separated by the table, where the four of them were told to sit. Nile Dawk sat down after them, taking his seat next to the nobles.

Eren felt like he was on trial again.

“Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?” Nile started with a heavy sigh, glancing at one of the papers in front him. “We have received an anonymous letter several days ago. In the letter, the writer has informed us—”

Eren went completely stiff, cold sweat running down his back.

“—that Eren Jaeger is supposedly pregnant.”

Chapter Text

In the letter, the writer has informed us that Eren Jaeger is supposedly pregnant.

The sentence seemed to echo around the room. Eren’s vision blurred momentarily and he had to force his hands to stay still and not cover his stomach protectively. Levi immediately went to grab for his dagger but luckily, Commander Erwin was faster when his hand shot out to grab Levi’s wrist under the table.

All of them jerked as two soldiers came up behind them. A second later, cool metal made contact with the skin of Eren’s throat and he froze in terror. 

Levi and Hanji stood up immediately, the both of them completely furious. Eren looked at his alpha with wide eyes, feeling assured when he saw the man was more than ready to save him if needed, yet praying no one else noticed the fierce glow in his eyes that promised a painful death to anyone who tried to touch his omega.

“What is the meaning of this?” Erwin asked, his voice as calm as ever even with the icy, angry undertones.

Nile smiled humorlessly, shaking his head. “Just a precaution, nothing to worry about. Now, let me ask you some questions.” He shuffled his papers around for a bit, completely ignoring the scathing glares being sent his way.

A few tense seconds passed before Hanji slowly sat down, leaning her elbows on the table and folding her hands in front of her face. Levi didn’t follow her, still standing on high alert, although he was careful to cover his eyes with his longer hair.

“I’ll ask you straight.” The Military Police commander looked directly at Eren. “Is it true?”

Eren opened his mouth but no sound came out. 

Thankfully, Hanji spoke bitterly at the same time, unintentionally covering for his mistake. “As if you’ll believe him, whatever his answer is.”

“I didn’t ask you, Squad Leader.”

Hanji scowled but said nothing. 

The attention turned back to Eren, who prayed his voice wouldn’t waver. “It’s not, sir,” he said clearly.

Nile nodded, taking a note of his answer. “Well, we can’t take your word for it.”

Hanji snorted in sarcastic, humourless amusement. No one else said anything.

Nile picked up a stack of papers that looked like medical records, flipping through them quickly. “Squad Leader Zoe, these are your reports on Eren Jaeger’s health over the past two months. Can you guarantee these are correct?”

“Yes,” Hanji bit out without hesitation. Eren admired her ability to lie so easily.

“Can you tell me what these say?”

Hanji sighed but complied nonetheless. “Last two months? Let’s see, that would be everything within norm aside from the slight cold from last month. He had a raised temperature, between 37.2 and 37.9 degrees, that lasted two days. Cough for five days. Two weeks back on Thursday, he passed out from exhaustion caused by too many experiments and took three hours to recover. That was my bad, sorry.”

“Suspicious she remembers so well,” one of the nobles said, not even bothering to keep himself quiet.

Even Nile Dawk shook his head, making Eren wonder whether he had experienced first-hand how… obsessed Hanji could sometimes get.

Hanji herself raised an eyebrow and stated in a challenging voice, “I can tell you about every single test I ran on Eren since we got custody of him. Actually, I could probably tell you about each and every experiment I ran on the titans since the beginning of my research, in detail. Complete with the dates and exact numbers.”

The noble looked like he wanted to try her but Erwin, knowing full well how out of hand Hanji could get with these topics, intervened, “If you wish to test Squad Leader Zoe’s memory, I have nothing against it, but please, do leave it for after this issue has been resolved.”

“I agree.” Nile jumped at the opportunity to avert this particular catastrophe. “So, Squad Leader—” Hanji slowly turned back towards him, looking slightly disappointed “—you are saying you agree with Eren Jaeger’s statement of not being pregnant.”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell me when his last heat was?”

Hanji cocked her head to the side in confusion. “Four months ago. What does that have to do with this?”

Eren’s brow furrowed, fully agreeing with Hanji. Not to mention that was a pretty intrusive and very much personal question…

“He’s an omega,” some noble sneered as if it explained everything.

“You don’t say,” Levi said in a voice dripping with sarcasm, which earned him a warning glance from Erwin.

“We are aware of that but I don’t understand your implications,” the commander rephrased with a certain coldness. Almost as if he at least knew where this was heading.

The noble gave them a condescending look as the other men snickered. “He was in heat four months ago and we all know that’s the time omegas get pregnant. It isn’t far-fetched to say he seduced some innocent soldier to satisfy his needs and ended up with a spawn as a result. Omegas get very forceful during heats, can’t even try to control themselves,” he announced with a disgusting, lecherous smirk.

Eren couldn’t even say anything. He blinked once, twice, gaping at the guy with his mouth hanging open. Never in his life had he ever heard something as ridiculous as this. He felt more than saw Levi jerk where he stood next to him, a fresh wave of fury accompanying the motion.

A beat passed… and then Hanji snorted, the sound soon evolving into full-blown laughter. Everyone present looked at her as if she had gone crazy, but she only continued to laugh.

“Putting—” she gasped. “Putting aside the fact that most omegan pregnancies happen out of their heats… Never have I seen an omega throwing themselves on some random person just because they were in heat. This is absolutely hilarious.”

She continued laughing until Levi added his own opinion, his voice growing more and more disgusted as he went on. “Has this brilliant idea come to you because the whores in the Underground throw themselves at you when you pigs go there? Because news flash, they fucking live from pretend—”

“Levi,” Erwin barked in a clear warning. “That’s enough. You either shut up or leave. Now.”

That silenced him immediately. The captain folded his arms in front of his chest, taking a slow, deep breath, clearly doing his best to calm down as much as he could—even though his anger was still boiling in Eren’s chest, hot and dangerous and unchanged.

Satisfied, Erwin turned back to the rest of the room, trying to fix the situation to the best of his ability. “I assure you, Captain Levi will be punished accordingly for his insolence later. You have my word.” That seemed to calm the red-faced, sputtering nobles down somewhat, though not completely. “However, I do have to agree with Squad Leader Zoe’s points. Omega heats aren’t usually strong enough to make them lose reason and they never change their behavior because of it. Personally, I have never noticed Mr Jaeger being in heat.”

By then, Hanji had finally stopped laughing, only wiping away the last of her tears, adding to Erwin’s words. “Same here. If I wasn’t asking Eren about any changes constantly and seeing his hormones in action in his blood first-hand, I wouldn’t have any idea either. Really, the only difference it makes is that more alphas turn to look after him when he walks by. And he might get a bit horny but nothing to be concerned about.”

Silence followed Erwin and Hanji’s statements until Nile Dawk cleared his throat, addressing Eren directly, “Eren Jaeger, can you tell us exactly how your heats affect you?”

Eren immediately turned bright red. 

What exactly did these people think they were asking him about? He didn’t ask them about their masturbation habits, why did they have to?!

“Uhm, well…” His head dropped in embarrassment but immediately shot up again when he came face to face with the polished steel of a blade. He cleared his throat, looking anywhere but the people present. “It comes every six months and lasts for about two weeks. As Squad Leader Hanji said, during that time my… sex drive might be a little more—uhm—active but… Honestly, I just try to ignore it when it happens because, especially as a soldier on active duty, it’s really more annoying and inconvenient than anything and I hate the times. It distracts me from focusing on training and the squad leader’s experiments.”

Hanji leaned over, patting him on the arm sympathetically.

“There you have it. No seduction. The brat is a perfect fucking soldier. No way he has enough space in that shitty little brain to think about sex,” Levi said bluntly and Eren would feel offended were he not currently dying of mortification.

“If omegas, or alphas, for that matter, couldn’t control themselves for any given periods of time, they wouldn’t be allowed into the military in the first place,” Erwin reasoned further.

“Well,” Nile concluded, glancing at the clock. “Be it as it may, we have to consider the possibility. I have notified Supreme Commander Zackley and there will be a hearing tomorrow. In the meantime, Eren Jaeger will be sent back to his cell and sometime in the afternoon, one of our doctors will arrive to run our own tests to see who’s telling the truth. This meeting is dismissed.”

The soldiers standing behind Eren grabbed him by his elbows, forcing him to stand up. 

Eren immediately started struggling. “Hey, let go of me!”

Levi instantly stepped forward to stand in the doorway, blocking the exit. He was still carefully hiding his eyes but even so, everyone could plainly see he was furious; his body was rigid, muscles taut and ready to move, the faintest hint of alpha dominance hanging in the air around him. His carefully measured voice carried a barely suppressed snarl when he said, “He’s not a fucking prisoner. He’s still a soldier of the Survey Corps and I’m still the one in charge of him. You will let him go right fucking now.”

The soldiers hesitated, looking at their commander for instructions, as Eren gulped, his eyes glued to his mate. He so desperately wanted to run to his side. To touch him, smell him, hold him. To feel his warmth, to feel like he wasn’t alone right in this instant.

There was a low whine stuck at the back of his throat, a desperate call to his mate—one that would equal nothing short of a death sentence for all three of them. He bit down on the sound at the last second.

Erwin spoke up then, a little bit too loudly and quickly, almost as if he was trying to turn attention away from Levi. “We agree to have Eren stay in his cell while he waits but I do believe Captain Levi is right. He is still in charge of Eren and I have never heard anything about him being arrested. Therefore, I am very much against this treatment of my own soldiers.”

Nile and Erwin stared each other down for a moment until Nile sighed, waving his hand dismissively. “Let him go.”

As soon as the guards' grip on Eren’s arms loosened enough, the omega took two rushed steps away, giving both of the men a glare for good measure.

Not wasting a single second, Levi turned around and walked out the door. “Come with me, Jaeger.”

“Yes, sir!” Eren said firmly, saluting to the people in the room before he ran after his captain, with Hanji and Erwin following them a moment later.

“If he isn’t present later, we will conclude him running away and you all guilty of aiding his escape!” Nile called after them.

The Survey Corps ignored him, heading straight for the basement.

“What are we going to do?” Eren asked weakly, blindly and desperately grasping at Levi’s jacket.

The two of them were sitting together on Eren’s cot in his cell, Eren curled tightly into his mate’s side, basically sitting in the alpha’s lap, and yet it still wasn’t enough. He wished he could crawl inside Levi’s arms, to nest inside his chest and stay there until all danger passed. But that was impossible, so he settled for tugging at his jacket as if he could press himself closer if he tried enough. 

Levi had one of his hands resting on Eren’s thigh while the other was firmly placed on the nape of the omega’s neck, massaging it carefully in an effort to calm Eren down as much as he could—while he himself was anything but. He was breathing deeply, his whole body shaking with suppressed energy, an itch to fight to protect his mate and child that he couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t act on.

Commander Erwin was sitting in a chair outside the cell, deep in thought and completely ignoring everyone else, while Hanji paced around the entire basement in agitation, running her hands through her hair and messing up her ponytail even more than it usually was.

She stopped in her tracks and turned to look at Eren when he voiced his question, a crazed look in her eyes as she cried, sounding on the verge of hysterics, “I don’t know, Eren. I don’t know!”

Levi pulled Eren impossibly closer, burying his nose in his hair.

It was hours later, way past lunch, when the doctor, with two military policemen in tow, finally arrived in Eren’s cell. He was obviously scared to even touch the titan-shifter, much less proceed with any examinations, and Eren would almost feel sorry for him if the lives of his entire family didn’t depend on how the next minutes would go.

Commander Erwin was trying to take advantage of the man’s fear as he talked to him casually, looking for any possible way to work around the current problem without raising any suspicion. 

Eren couldn’t even hear what they were talking about in any case. There was a white noise in his ears and his vision was starting to swim. He tried to focus on Levi's presence, the alpha leaning against the wall next to Eren’s cot, standing as close to Eren as he could possibly get away with. His eyes were closed, Levi having completely given up on relying on his hair to hide the fierce, bright glow in them.

However, focusing on Levi also meant focusing on the fear and rage dancing together inside him and suddenly, Eren felt like he might just throw up.

In that moment, the sounds of a commotion upstairs reached the ears of everyone present in the basement, seven pairs of eyes turning in unison to stare quizzically at the door leading up.

As Mikasa made her way to lunch, she couldn’t help the worry that was nagging at her even more intensely than it had the day before. Why weren’t they back yet? Did something happen? Did everything go wrong? Did they actually have to go into hiding? 

Most importantly, were Eren and the little one okay?

She fiddled with her scarf, tugging and rearranging it restlessly. She didn’t know what to do with herself; she had been jumpy all day, jerking any time someone walked into the room or called her name, and she was getting pretty damn sick of the pitying looks she was getting from her squadmates. Sasha had even tried to feed her to help calm her nerves. Their concerns were certainly appreciated, but very much misguided; it only made Mikasa feel more on edge. More irritable. More nervous.

Heaving a deep sigh, Mikasa shook her head to clear it. Losing her mind in worry wouldn’t help anyone. If things had gone downhill, she needed to keep her head on straight to be able to fully support Eren and his family from wherever they needed her…

“So you really did it? You seriously sent it?”

Mikasa paused, her ears perking up at the half-whisper coming from somewhere in front of her. Well, that didn’t sound suspicious at all, whatever it was about.

She looked up, her eyes zeroing in on two soldiers who were walking slowly a little ways ahead of her, huddled close together and so deep into their ‘secret’, hushed discussion that they didn’t even notice Mikasa plainly within earshot.

“Yeah!” one of them announced proudly. “He doesn’t fucking derserve to be in the Corps!”

“You’re insane. Not that I disagree with you but do you honestly think it’s actually going to work? It’s super easy to prove you were lying. It’s totally going to blow up in your face…” the other one muttered while wringing his hands nervously.

Mikasa’s interest was piqued even further, and she made sure to make as little noise as possible as she followed them, straining her ears so as to not let a single word escape. Alarm bells were going off in her mind.

Something was wrong.

The first soldier sneered. “You think they’ll even bother checking? I doubt it. Every single sane person within these walls is just waiting for the opportunity to have that monster executed. I mean, he should have been killed months ago! Hell, he shouldn’t have even been let in the military in the first place! What fucking business does an omega have here?”

Mikasa’s blood froze in her veins, her mind going blank. There was only one ‘omega’, only one ‘monster’ they could possibly be talking about.

What did he do?!

Before she even realised, Mikasa shot forward to kick the soldier’s feet from underneath him. If her heart wasn’t beating in her ears, if her head wasn’t spinning, if her breathing wasn't so laboured as fear tightened its hold around her throat, she would have taken great pleasure in the hard thud that followed from him hitting his head against the hard stone of the floor.

As it was, she didn’t even pause.

A split second later, she was pressing one knee into this beta’s chest, grabbing the collar of his uniform jacket as she pulled him slightly upwards and towards herself. The terrified look on the beta’s face did nothing but enrage her further, an animalistic snarl escaping her.

“What did you do?” she asked, her own voice sounding foreign to her. Rough and low and so very far away.

When the only response she got was a pathetic whimper, one of her hands shot forward almost automatically; she had to make a conscious effort to pull the punch, trying to remind herself that if she killed him now, they wouldn’t be able to do anything. Wouldn’t be able to help Eren, to stop whatever had been put into motion before it was too late. 

She couldn’t afford to lose herself. She couldn’t. 

She couldn’t.

“Mikasa!!”

Mikasa jerked at the sudden shout of her name, her hand freezing in mid-air where she was getting ready to hit the whimpering, pathetic beta beneath her again.

A moment later, Armin skidded to a stop next to her, dropping to his knees as he tried to simultaneously placate her and figure out what was going on.

Slowly, Mikasa’s eyes turned to him.

Armin flinched the slightest bit and Mikasa could only assume her eyes were lit up with a mix of rage and fear, her alpha dominance so thick in the air that even she could feel it. The instinct and need to protect her family was getting more and more insistent with each second of inaction that passed.

“What happened?” Armin asked, trying to keep his voice level and soothing despite his obvious unease as one of his hands hovered hesitantly inches away from Mikasa’s shoulder.

Something snapped in Mikasa; her focus switched away from the soldier below her, her grip on his collar slipping as the man slumped to the ground. They needed to find Eren. They needed to find him right now.

“Horses,” she muttered in a raspy voice, barely above whisper.

Armin frowned, opening his mouth to ask what she meant, but Mikasa didn’t give him that chance as she grabbed both his shoulders as if her life depended on it, her voice growing louder as panic seeped through. “Armin! Horses, now! We have to go to the Capital!”

Armin didn’t question her then. In a matter of minutes, the whole squad—plus one other, thoroughly shaken soldier—was on their way to Mitras, leaving a stressed and mostly confused Mike behind with little to no explanation.

The seven people in the isolated cell underneath the Military Police Headquarters exchanged glances. They could tell something was going on—they could hear people talking and walking in front of the door, almost as if pacing around while waiting for something. Eren could almost swear he recognised some of the voices too, but they were so faint he couldn’t place them or make out any of the words they were saying.

It took a few minutes of them just waiting for something to happen before Hanji let go of a frustrated noise and headed up the stairs to see what was going on herself.

Before she could make it all the way up, however, the door opened and Hanji nearly crashed right into Nile Dawk himself. Catching herself at the last second, Hanji quickly made way for the Military Police commander, who passed her without so much as a nod, looking like he would much rather be literally anywhere else but there.

To everyone’s confusion and shock, right behind Nile appeared Armin, who was closely followed by Mikasa.

Mikasa, who was dragging one more Survey Corps soldier behind her. Eren was pretty sure the guy was under Squad Leader Mike, though he had never talked to him or even knew his name. He was also pretty sure there was a nasty bruise forming underneath his left eye.

Nobody said a word for a moment; everybody downstairs simply stared at the strange assortment of people, taking in Nile’s awkward body language, Armin and Mikasa’s beaming, victorious smiles, and the roughed-up soldier’s refusal to look at anyone.

“Looks like—” Nile Dawk finally sighed deeply, looking almost pained “—the examination won’t be necessary, after all.”

The doctor looked beyond relieved and immediately gathered his things, running away from Eren as quickly as he possibly could while muttering ‘thank the Walls’ to himself over and over.

“I sent a message to the supreme commander. You are free to leave whenever you see fit.” With that, Nile turned around and left, obviously eager to be gone and able to forget about this entire affair.

The two Military Police soldiers who were present to oversee the examination shrugged and left right away as well, leaving the Survey Corps blissfully alone.

“What—?” Hanji squeaked, not even able to properly voice their collective confusion.

Armin’s grin grew impossibly wider. “You see, Marzell here,” he said, not-so-gently kicking the soldier in the shin, “thought it would be a genius idea to write a made-up letter to the Military Police about how Eren was supposedly pregnant. Because, clearly, Eren personally has ‘no right to be in the Survey Corps,’ and omegas in general have ‘no business in the military in any case.’” Armin’s face twisted with disgust as he put air-quotes around the soldier’s words. “Thankfully, his dumb ass ran his mouth about it and Mikasa overheard him. And even more thankfully, I found them before she managed to kill him.” He didn’t sound like would have regretted it all that much if Mikasa did kill him. “We just explained the whole thing to Commander Dawk and he didn’t think it would be wise to press the matter.”

Long silence followed his explanation as everyone slowly processed his words. 

A strong wave of killing intent soon washed over Eren, filling his entire being with rage. He wasn’t entirely sure whether the bloodlust was his own or Levi’s. It didn’t really matter to him either way.

Surprisingly, however, it was Commander Erwin who moved first. He took his first step towards where Mikasa was holding the soldier by the collar of his jacket and almost immediately, Mikasa let the man go as she herself took several hurried steps back, sensing she shouldn’t be anywhere near the commander.

And only a second later, the commander’s fist collided with the soldier’s jaw.

The man immediately lost consciousness, falling to the floor gracelessly in a heap. No one bothered to catch him.

Erwin sounded just as calm as he always did when he spoke. “This is all the punishment he’s getting.” Before anyone could protest, either verbally or physically, he continued in the same calm yet firm, ice-cold voice. “For now. As soon as we’re back, he’s all yours, Levi.”

“Yessir,” Levi growled viciously, sounding positively murderous. The sound sent shivers down everyone’s spine. They almost felt sorry for the unconscious soldier.

Almost.

Chapter Text

Erwin didn’t even need to ask his soldiers to know the Survey Corps would be leaving the Military Police Headquarters immediately. There was no way any one of them would agree to letting Eren spend another night there—Erwin himself wasn’t too keen on the idea. He had heard enough from Hanji about how the separation had affected Eren and Levi, and he wasn’t about to let his friend and precious subordinate go through that again if he could help it.

The only problem with that currently lay at his feet.

He gave the unconscious soldier one last disgusted look before he turned around to face the room. “We’re leaving as soon as we can. Eren, you wait here for now. Levi, you watch him to make sure he doesn’t go berserk. Hanji and I will go pack our things and prepare our horses.” He waited until the three of them nodded before addressing Eren’s friends. “In the meantime, I’d like to ask the two of you to take care of this soldier. It would be better if he were conscious on the way back.”

“We can prepare your horses as well, sir,” Mikasa offered as she leaned down and picked the much bigger man up to throw over her shoulder with little to no effort.

Armin smiled shyly as he went to elaborate, “Actually…”

“I still cannot fucking believe you shitty brats,” Levi stated flatly as he stared his squad down. 

They were all grinning back at him proudly, not an ounce of shame in any of them, as they stood in the courtyard with all the horses already fully prepared for the ride back.

Eren had to suppress a smile over how self-satisfied his friends looked as he dutifully stood two steps behind his captain, mindful of keeping his distance under the watchful eyes of the Military Police. 

When Armin had told them that all of them were there for Eren, neither Eren, nor the three officers could really believe it. But after Commander Erwin had dismissed them and everyone except Eren and Levi started filing out of the basement, they quite literally ran into them. The squad had obviously been trying to eavesdrop at the door, and even with how fast they jumped to attention at the opposite wall, the guilty looks on Sasha, Connie, and Krista’s faces spoke for themselves. 

Before either Hanji or Erwin could say anything, however, the two girls squealed and ran past the officers into the basement to hug Eren. Krista even had relieved, happy tears in her eyes. No one had the heart to tell them off for being worried for the pregnant omega once they saw that. Hanji simply beamed at the display, beyond happy with the result herself, while the commander shook his head and left them to their own devices to get his things and go speak with Nile Dawk before they left. Meanwhile, Levi only scowled at them all before sending them off to get the horses ready since they were trying to be oh-so helpful.

Now, they were all ready to leave—except Commander Erwin had yet to join them half an hour after everyone else had made it to the courtyard.

The longer the commander took, the more antsy Eren became. Not only was he anxious to leave, it also didn’t look like a pleasant ride was ahead of them. The sky was getting darker by the minute as the sun was starting to set, and Eren wasn’t exactly eager for the experience of riding back home in the dark. Hell, he didn’t even sleep last night; he wasn’t sure he would be able to make it.

The omega caught his captain's eyes as the latter looked away from the orange-coloured sky with a deep frown. Levi didn’t look even remotely happy about this development either, but they silently agreed it was still better to ride on horseback in complete darkness and hope for the best rather than have to spend another night here.

Finally, after about forty minutes of waiting, the commander joined them with a troubled, distracted look in his eyes. He shot a quick, almost concerned glance towards Eren before turning his eyes elsewhere, making the omega frown, a jolt of anxiety running through him.

“Alright, everyone. We’re heading out,” Erwin announced as he walked straight to his horse without pause, clearly about as ready to leave as everyone else. 

The soldiers followed his lead and mounted their own horses after giving quick salutes. Only Marzell, the man who had brought them all there in the first place, didn’t even react where he was already sitting rigidly in his assigned saddle. His eyes were a little glazed over and it was a question left unanswered whether he was even fully conscious.

And so, the group left the Military Police Headquarters without any policeman seeing them off, save for Nile Dawk’s unreadable gaze following them from the window of his office.

The group soon left Mitras behind, but by the time they arrived at the gates of Stohess, darkness had completely enveloped them.

The sleepy and slightly drunk Garrison soldiers manning the town’s gate grumbled at the interruption, making it clear that they had no qualms about leaving the Survey Corps outside until morning. Once they realised they were dealing with Commander Smith and Humanity’s Strongest themselves, however, they didn’t dare see the tempting idea through and opened the gate for them without so much as a dirty look.

Several glances were exchanged when the commander, instead of continuing straight ahead, took a turn into a side street, leading his soldiers at a leisure pace towards the unknown. Their confusion only intensified once Erwin stopped in front of an inn, getting off his horse without a word.

“Erwin? What’s going on?” Hanji asked curiously, hopping down as well.

Erwin looked at her, then ran his gaze over everyone else. “We’re going to spend the night here in Stohess. Or do you want to ride back right now, in the dark, without stopping?”

Everyone shook their heads vehemently, some even sighing in relief. Eren, in particular, couldn't be happier to hear those words; he was beyond exhausted, more exhausted than he’d been in years. Tears nearly welled in his eyes at the realisation he would actually be allowed the rest, to sit down, close his eyes, and let go.

He slid down from his saddle, stumbling as soon as his feet hit the ground; he only managed to steady himself once his shoulder hit his horse. The animal didn’t budge at the impact, but the gelding did look back at him, nudging his master gently with his nose. Eren smiled fondly, patting him back in assurance.

“Eren, are you okay?” came Mikasa’s concerned voice immediately after, in tandem with a worried glance from Levi.

Eren nodded, trying and failing to flash them a fake smile as he mumbled, “Just tired.”

He received several more concerned looks but no one pressed him, for which he was grateful. He didn’t want to answer any questions or deal with anyone coddling him; right now, he wanted nothing but to curl up in bed with Levi and pass out for an hour or thirty.

As they waited for Commander Erwin while he went inside the inn to ask about accommodations, the squad chatting idly amongst themselves, Eren looked around the street they were on, realising it probably wasn’t as late as they were led to believe on the way. There were still lights coming from the windows of most of the houses. Even the entrance to the inn Erwin had disappeared into was still brightly shining with the several lamps hanging around.

Thankfully, they didn’t have to wait long before Erwin came back out, closely followed by a young man who didn’t look all too excited to be there.

“Soldiers, the owner of this inn was gracious enough to let us stay here and even prepare a light dinner for us. There are rooms for two people at a time. Obviously, Levi has to stay with Eren to keep an eye on him—” there were several giggles suppressed and amused glances exchanged, making Eren roll his eyes “—and I will be staying with Squad Leader Hanji. Otherwise, you are free to pair up however you want.” 

Immediately, meaningful nudges were had, everyone knowing exactly how split up.

“However,” Erwin interrupted the whispering, full of authority, “I need someone responsible and not likely to kill during sleep to share a room with Marzell here.”

A long stretch of silence followed, nobody trusting themselves enough not to cause any… damage. Erwin raised an expectant eyebrow when it started looking like nobody was going to volunteer, but then—

“I’ll do it.”

Everyone looked at Jean in surprise. Even Jean himself looked put off by what had just come out of his mouth but he stared at Erwin with determination anyway.

Erwin nodded curtly in thanks. “Good. Now, you can leave your horses for this young man to take care of.” He gestured towards the grumpy looking man behind him. 

Everyone looked at him, then at their horses uncertainly, but left with no other choice, they simply offered pats for their mounts as they entrusted them to the inn’s employee with muttered thanks, just as Erwin ushered them all inside. The squad was more than happy to oblige their commander, all but running to the inn’s dining room to gulp down the quickly thrown together dinner in record time. One by one, they profusely thanked the elderly owner, after which they shuffled off to their rooms to get ready for bed. 

Soon, Eren, Levi, and Erwin were the only ones left in the dining room.

Erwin waited for a few more minutes before getting up to retire for the night as well. On his way out, he leaned down to whisper something into Levi’s ear to which the other alpha only nodded as he returned to watching his mate eat. The commander looked down at them with a complicated expression on his face before he squeezed Levi’s shoulder and finally walked away, leaving the two mates alone.

As Levi took in the way Eren was chewing his food at an excruciatingly slow pace, he inhaled deeply, praying to whoever was listening that this night would pass without incident.

He had at first assumed Eren was eating so sluggishly simply because he was so tired, but the confusing mix of emotions he was receiving through their bond quickly told him that was not the only reason. And now, the longer he sat next to his omega, drinking his tea and waiting, the more he started to notice the tiniest things. How tightly the omega was holding his cutlery. How jerky his movements were, how deeply he was breathing, how his gaze was firmly fixed at one single point. It was glaringly obvious once Levi had the time to really pay attention to him.

Eren was trying hard not to blow up.

Now that everything had slowed down, the excitement that had gathered over the past two days settling in, Eren’s exhaustion was being pushed aside. Overpowered by a tangled mess of emotions manifesting into white hot rage.

Levi only hoped they would be alone and in private once he finally snapped.

The moment Eren was done with his food, he got up and looked at Levi expectantly. Levi watched him for a moment as he studied Eren’s face, trying to get a read of what was on his mind, what he was thinking. How bad he was spiralling. Finally, after a full minute of them eyeing each other, Levi shook his head and stood up as well, letting the omega lead him towards the rooms.

As soon as Levi was sure they were alone in the corridor, he grabbed Eren’s hand to stop him. “Erwin asked me to stop by his room on the way back.”

Something flashed in Eren’s eyes, but it was gone too fast for Levi to be able to decipher it. The wave of anger that hit him spoke for itself though, and Levi had to suppress a sigh as he did his best to keep his voice calm. “I promise I’ll be quick. Just a minute, okay?”

Eren nodded jerkily, his face perfectly blank as he turned around and strode away without a word. Even without the bond linking them, it was crystal clear that Eren was furious. Closing his eyes momentarily, Levi cursed to himself. This wasn’t going to turn out well.

He sighed, rubbing at the bridge of his nose before he turned to Erwin’s room to get it over with as quickly as he could. He needed to go to his mate. If nothing else, to try to abate the storm that was brewing inside of Eren, growing stronger by the minute.

He knocked on Erwin’s door and walked in, not bothering to wait for a response.

“Make it quick Erwin, I need to be with Eren.”

Hanji was nowhere to be seen but Erwin was standing by one of the beds, his shirt half off, as he turned to stare at Levi in surprise, both at his sudden appearance and his demeanor. Luckily, he recovered quickly, getting straight to the point upon hearing Levi’s request—his demand.

“Levi, you, Eren, and Hanji will be staying here for one more day. Maybe one or two people from your squad as well. The two of you need a break after this mess. Especially Eren, which is why Hanji is staying. She wants to check on the—on Eren as soon as possible.”

Levi was surprised but he wasn’t about to argue. He understood why Erwin was doing this and was grateful, even if the soldier in him bristled a little at the implications. They were expecting a child. The situation wasn’t  exactly orthodox and he, as an alpha, also felt the need to keep Eren in place for as long as he possibly could. At the very least until he was sure his omega was calm and ready to face the world again.

“Anything else?”

Erwin gave him a measured stare before a wry smile pulled on his lips. “Actually yes, but it seems now isn’t a good time. Go back to your mate, Levi. I’ll have Hanji tell you tomorrow.”

Levi nodded curtly before leaving without a second thought.

As soon as the door closed after him, Hanji peeked from around the closet door. “Is he gone?”

Erwin chuckled bitterly. “Yeah. You can stop hiding now.”

Hanji huffed, running a hand through her loose hair. “Well excuse me that I’m just a poor, normal beta who’d rather not deal with Levi when he gets so riled up. It was your turn. I had enough last night, thank you very much.”

Erwin laughed, giving Hanji an amused look. “The best part is, I don’t think he even realised he was doing it. You should have seen him, his eyes were glowing more than when we suggested they abort it.”

Hanji made a face. “No, thank you. Just standing there was more than enough.”

Erwin’s smile dropped as he sighed, rubbing at his eyes. “I’m just thankful he started now and not while we were still at the Police Headquarters.”

“I think he realised on a primal level he couldn’t let his involvement be shown unless he wanted to get Eren executed on the spot. Also… It might be Eren who’s starting to lose it and adding that onto Levi’s own anger, making his instincts go into overdrive.” Hanji hummed thoughtfully, intrigue evident in her voice before she shook her head sadly. “Either way, I hope they calm each other down because I have no clue what to do otherwise.”

“Well, it’s pretty much the only reason I’m having them stay here, so I sure hope so. Otherwise, everyone will know and we’ll have a dead soldier on our hands on top of that.”

Levi stalked the hall towards his and Eren’s room with purpose, absent-mindedly noting where the shower was on the way.

He really fucking hoped his mate was okay.

But hell, who was he kidding; he knew Eren was not okay. Levi was not okay. He wanted to break something, to kill something, rip it apart until nothing but a thousand bloody pieces were left. But at the same time, he wanted to hold Eren, to make sure he was safe and warm and alive. And still at the same time, he was so fucking exhausted that he couldn’t help but wonder how the hell he was still conscious.

Would he be able to sleep anyway? He doubted it. There was too much going on in his head, still too much uncertainty over his mate and child’s safety. Too many emotions swirling inside him.

And he could tell Eren was feeling the same way. 

Neither of them even slept last night and Eren was pregnant on top of that but somehow, Levi knew the omega wouldn’t go to sleep anytime soon either. It didn’t matter that he was so tired that he almost fell on his ass just trying to get off his horse. Honestly, Levi was really fucking glad Hanji would be there tomorrow to take a look at Eren. Staying awake for over thirty hours at a time couldn’t be healthy for a three-months-pregnant person, not to mention the baby.

Levi closed his eyes as his hand came to rest on the door handle, praying silently that Eren would be quietly sitting on the bed, waiting patiently for him. 

He took a deep breath, pushing the door open.