Genre: General Fiction
DISCLAIMER: Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan (specifically Levi and Eren) belongs to Hajime Isayama.
The first time Eren opened his mouth, it came raining down on his cheek. Hard. The second time he did, it came again, harder than before.
Levi glared down at Eren's disheveled state, the latter extremely intimidated by the Captain's silent wrath. But Eren was not known around the squad to be acquiescent-no, he was known to be the exact opposite, defending his own opinion, even it meant getting hit by Corporal Rivaille, or at times, even Commander Erwin.
Eren mustered up all his remaining courage-not that he was gonna run out of it anytime soon-and sent his captain a glare of his very own. "With all due respect, Captain Levi, I was merely doing my duty and helping a fellow soldier in need. It was a life or death situation." His voice sounded eerily composed as it bounced off the walls in the hollow cell the Survey Corps still put him in, not quite fully trusting him yet. The calm settled in, masking the haywire inside his brain where severe anxiety, paranoia, and panic have begun to take root.
His torso lurched forward, bringing his face a few inches away from Levi's murderous glare. His hands clutched at Eren's collar so tightly, his fingers dangerously close enough to his neck to begin choking the life out of him. "Oh, I get it. You like being the hero, don't you? Always there to save the day. A life or death situation, was it? Welcome to the real world, Eren fucking Jaeger." Levi spat, forcefully sending him stumbling back as he shook his hands off his collar.
"People here live in constant worry, and we may be the only thing as close to hope that humanity has. People laugh at us, mock us, shake their heads in disappointment, but we do our fucking job. We're here to make sure nobody else gets to watch their mother die in the hands of a Titan, or anybody else for that matter. So we sure as hell don't need idiots like you charging into battle without any orders." As forceful as the Captain's words seemed, his face betrayed every word that came out of his mouth. There was the trademark sneer, of course, but other than that, there was nothing else. A hardened battle façade, maybe, but for all Eren knew, even the Captain was starting to doubt his own words.
Clenching his jaw, Levi gave Eren a final glance before turning around and leaving the cell, the sound of his footsteps echoing eerily inside the empty walls.
The indirect jab at his mother's tragedy sent Eren over the edge. Ancient feelings he'd suppressed and thought forgotten speedily woke themselves up, resurfacing once more, coating every thought in Eren's mind with the burning hate he felt the moment he said his vow as he watched the home he knew fall to ruin from the edge of the boat that sailed him towards a whole other life.
"Of course, you wouldn't care," Eren spat bitterly, stopping Levi in his tracks. "You never care about any of your fellow soldiers so it wouldn't be a problem, would it? You see a Titan gobbling up a squad member screaming for help, for his life, and you just fly right past it. You. Just. Don't. Give. A. Shit." The words tasted bitter tumbling out of his mouth. Eren knew he was crossing the fine line between annoying his Captain and truly angering the shit out of him.
He braced himself for the blow that would come swinging to his face. His cheek already stung from Levi's previous hits, but the more he thought about it, the more he didn't care. He even dared to look him fully in the eye instead of his accustomed slightly bowed head whenever he spoke with him. "I wasn't trying to save the day, Captain. I was trying to save the lives of my friends who have helped me survive each and every hour of everyday in this goddamn world."
