Levi POV
Cold settled in Levi's bones, the feeling eerily uncomfortable. Yet he didn't dare to move. Neither forward to the young man nor backwards to call for help – not that he would need it if it came down to a fight.
Although he should reconsider this statement if he thought about the little show of that guy back then in the throne room. If Levi closed his eyes, he would still be able to see those magnificent pairs of wings. Their outstanding beauty and elegance.
Now that the man, who those wings belonged to, stood in front of him, mere meters away, Levi found that he didn't even want to do anything. He couldn't trust his own instincts and that frightened him.
Not that he would ever admit that if Eyebrows or Four-Eyes asked him.
"What are you doing here?", he asked, keeping a hand in front of Izzy's face to keep the dog from happily running up to the guy who she seemed to have taken a liking to faster than ever before.
The prince, who was more a shadow than a person at this point of the night, carefully took a step back as if he were hiding behind the trunk of the tree with a hand against the wood and his head tilted in a way that made Levi want to swallow down the lump in his throat.
"I could ask you the same question."
A voice, as soft as velvet and deep enough to send shivers down Levi's spine, kept his attention on the young man.
"Answer or I'll call the guards.", Levi snarled. Despite his words, he kept his voice low, not particularly liking the thought of someone else showing up. They might scare the boy away.
The chuckle, that followed after Levi's resolute statement, resonated in his head a thousand times over and over until he had to blink three or four times to get rid of this...picture...that kept coming up in his head.
A picture of the prince's confident smirk.
A smirk that Levi somehow knew was on his face right now.
"We both know that you would have done that as soon as your beast spotted me if you had really planned on it."
"You don't fucking know anything, brat!", Levi stressed and was short of giving Izzy the sign to move forward and do whatever she wanted to do with the prince. Even if that meant she was just going in for a hug. But who the fuck would expect that from a creature like her?
"Oh? Then please, General, explain to me what I apparently don't know."
The boy moved forward a bit. Just enough so Levi could make out his fragile features in the moonlight but little else. He wore the same coat...the coat back then...
He raised a hand to brush a few loose strands of hair out of his face and for a second there Levi was wondering if he was just imagining the suggestive tone of the royal brat.
Levi pressed his lips together and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Shouldn't you royal bastards be fucking educated enough to answer a simple question?", Levi spat, images of Zeke crawling into his head. "Answer me."
"You aren't fond of members of the royal family, I take it?", the prince chuckled slightly, the movement of his head just small enough to look endearing in the moonlight.
No! What the fuck? Get a grip on yourself, Levi! Damn it!
"Your father sure as hell didn't make a good first impression.", Levi growled and watched the flinch of the boy with glimmering interest. "And neither did your brother."
"So you have known Zeke? Must have been one hell of a pleasant meeting."
"Whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean..."
The figure took a step aside, arms behind the prince's back and the chin raised a bit.
"I may have lost any contact to my brother over ten years ago, but I sure remember his stubborn head.", the boy answered him.
This time – and maybe for the first time – Levi averted his gaze.
Back then...ten years ago...that room...your room...
There was so much he should say. So many questions he could ask.
And yet he stayed silent.
As did the prince.
Maybe was waiting for those questions. Questions about what happened. Questions about that damn king that he had to call his father. But then something struck Levi's mind again...
"I know the Second Prince."
"Faris...", he mumbled. Levi didn't miss the slight wince of the prince's figure as the soft word left his mouth and he made a step forward, partly expecting the prince to get a bit more distance between the two of them.
But against all his expectations the boy stood still. Again, Levi couldn't shake the thought, that he was waiting for something to happen. But...what?
"Do you know that servant brat?"
"You would do well to pay the smaller people more respect." It was the first time Levi had heard the prince talk to him in anything but a friendly or flirtatious way. His voice was downright sharp and cold.
His whole body tensed and Levi heard the deep inhale of the Second Prince.
"They might as well be the ones to poison your food.", he continued. Levi huffed, the audacity of the brat very much to his liking.
"Do you know him or not?"
"He told you. Isn't that enough?"
Levi frowned.
"I don't trust the words of strangers. People tend to talk and talk but they are spitting out nothing but what they think other people might like to hear."
"He told you the truth."
"Huh?"
"Faris.", the prince said and a sigh left his mouth, his chin lower than before and his stance relaxed again. "He told you that he knows me. And he told you the truth."
"What the fuck is the truth?"
Levi watched the fists of the young man clench and unclench.
"You saw the truth firsthand, I heard."
Firsthand?
"The room..."
"Yeah." The Second Prince laughed and the sound was cold enough to send a small wave of...something through Levi's stomach. "That room. You saw how that night began for me."
Levi listened up, confused by the prince's choice of words.
"What do you mean...began?"
The prince turned away, so Levi couldn't even guess what he might have expressed through his face or the movement of his head. Anything he could see now was the lean back of the royal brat.
"You can't really think that that bastard's cruelty ended there."
The words were spoken so softly, so full of bone-deep hatred that Levi had a hard time understanding them even in the silence of the night.
The boy looked over his shoulder. Or at least Levi thought to see the small movement. His eyes were still tired, burning from his insomnia and a yawn threatened to overtake his features.
"Go back inside, Levi.", the brat said with such a soft voice that Levi cocked an eyebrow at the unusual turn of events. "We will see each other again. And as long as that's not the case...Faris will always be by your side if you need to bring me a message."
"How can I trust you?", Levi nearly shouted but then decided to still keep his voice down enough as not to alert anyone in the palace. "You make me a traitor without my consent."
"And yet you are still standing there, not calling for help.", the prince bit back and straightened his back with an – what Levi thought to be – angry glare. "Don't you dare put the blame on me for not doing what I thought you would do."
And without even giving Levi a chance to answer, the prince disappeared in the dark.
Levi contemplated to call him back but he would be more than surprised if the brat actually listened to him after he...insulted him? Even tho he hadn't lied to him.
He had talked to the Second Prince.
Without arresting him.
Instead he felt a bit disappointed that he didn't get to ask any more questions.
He sighed, rubbing his eyes.
I need to talk to Eyebrows...this pain in the ass might tell me what the fuck is wrong with me...
And as he strode back to the palace he remembered he had never gotten an answer to his question.
(Aaaaaaanndddd here we are, people! Some more Ereri content for you and I hope I didn't make too many errors! I looked it over again but writing in the night tends to make me overlook mistakes more easily so never hesitate to tell me about them! You'll make the reading experience for the next reader even better!
Eren and Levi have met and Eren gave Levi a chance to 'give him a message' and how ridiculous is that if we think about the fact that Levi might tell Eren to give a message to Eren.
But anyway, hope you liked it!)