Devotion

Chapter 5

"What?" Eren exclaimed. He was confused, shocked. Why?

Armin closed his eyes and repeated, "We'll tell them I'm the father."

Eren had just listened to the reasoning behind it, but he was still a little confused.

"When they find out she's pregnant, they're going to want to know who the father is. If you tell them the truth, they're going to want to experiment on her and the baby, or even worse, kill them. We can't let them do that. Who knows how far they'll take it?"

Eren and Mikasa exchanged glances. Could it really work? Would they believe Armin was the father?

"It's our only choice," Mikasa said, placing a hand on Eren's shoulder, "I don't like it any more than you do, but it's for the baby's sake."

Eren looked to Armin. Green eyes were filled with worry and concern. He trusted Armin, but... "Do you really think this will work?"

"We can only try."

There was only so much they could do. They were already going to be in deep trouble. They were soldiers living in a world that needed to be saved. There wasn't time for them to be messing around like they had, so they had to make the best of an awful situation.

"We'll do it."

"You're such a shitty brat, you know that?" Levi asked with venom in his voice. He glared at Eren as he walked past the teenager. Eren said nothing and let the older man reprimand him. "My ass was already on the line when you became part of the Survey Corps and you want me to cover for you again?"

Eren looked from his lap. He looked up and met eye to eye with Levi as he hovered over his seat. Levi may have been short, but he was also threatening, terrifying even. Eren knew of the power this little man possessed and he knew he was absolutely not afraid to use that power against him at any time.

Levi took Eren's collar into his fist, lifting him off of his seat. Eren could just see the fury in the captain's eyes. "What were you thinking?"

Eren choked a bit, but he did not let himself get distracted. "I thought," He looked around the almost empty room for a second-trying to find the right words-and went back to speaking, "I thought you could help us so Mikasa wouldn't be sent away. If we tell the higher-ups that Armin's the dad, she wouldn't be tested on and everything will be alright and-"

Levi scoffed; he threw Eren back down to where he had been sitting. "You're an idiot."

Eren only watched as the older man continued. He walked away while still going on with scolding the boy.

"We barely got away with letting iyou/i live. You couldn't hide the fact that you're a Titan. Do you really think that they wouldn't find out you impregnated a girl? That that child might be a Titan as well?"

"That's-that's why we're going to say Armin is the dad then-"

Levi pivoted on his heels and came back face to face with Eren. "Even so, they'll send her away. There's no room for a family on the battlefield."

"That's why I came to you. I thought maybe you could help me," He finally sniffed as his mask started to crack. His eyes burned with tears that were ready to fall. He had tried so hard to be strong, but he could no longer hold it. The thought of losing Mikasa was too much to bear. "I thought maybe you could convince them to keep her nearby and...and maybe Hanji could keep an eye on her to make sure none of my Titan genes in the baby will do anything to hurt her and-"

"You expect a lot of people, don't you? Don't you know that you can't be so careless? You're so immature. You think you can just let your emotions get in the way of everything else? What about your goal? You hate the Titans, don't you? Are you going to let your emotions and your hormones get in the way of being a soldier? Don't you want to kill them all?"

"I do, but-"

"But what?"

Levi was so close now that Eren could feel him breathing on him, the heat built up from his anger radiating off of him. Eren was almost too afraid to speak. He had to, though. He needed to do what he came here to do.

"But, even though I've made a mistake, Mikasa means the world to me and I can't let anything happen to her."

"You're pathetic," Levi scoffed once more and walked away towards the door, "I'll help you, though. Don't expect anything else." And with that, the captain left the boy to his own devices.