"Eren?" Eren shook his head at hearing his own name.
Why had he been at the work sight? Why was Pixis... it hit him then, harder than ever. Levi was still looking for him! He sank to his knees in the dirt under the broken semi trailer.
"Levi..." He breathed out the name.
"Yeah, you started to tell me his last name, but you, I don't know, you changed." Armin laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"I became Levi. We switch places." Eren ran a hand over his face.
"That would explain why your eyes changed color." Armin went back to their camp table.
"What? They did?" Eren got up to follow him.
"Yeah, they became grey." Armin looked up at him.
"It's Levi." Eren muttered.
"Do you know his last name?" Armin asked.
Eren could only shake his head. Levi had only told him his first name, as Eren had only told Levi his. Why had they been stupid little kids! He cried. Armin tapped his hand, Eren looked up. The blond before him had cleared the table. He now held out a plate of food for him. Silently Eren took it.
They ate in silence. Armin had to charge his phone since he had been doing research all morning. They had a small generator they used for things like that. Once done eating Eren cleared the table. He walked the few feet down to the small creek that ran behind their home. He washed the dishes. It was getting late, well for them. Eren walked back taking care of their dishes as Armin made up the bed.
Eren sank down beside his friend. "Try to not think about it. We have work tonight." Armin said.
"Maybe, in a few months, we can get our own place." He yawned.
Eren closed his eyes, draping his arm over them. They had been dreaming of this for some time now. Something always came up. One of them lost the job they had, they were forced to move due to other street people shenanigans, or something. Eren had nearly forgotten about the hope of having a home. He rolled over muttering a maybe to Armin.
Surprisingly, sleep came pretty quickly to him. Maybe he was just so emotionally exhausted that he slept until his alarm went off. He groggily opened his eyes to the darkness. Armin leaned over him to shut the alarm off. He stretched sliding from the bed.
"Come on, or we will miss the bus!" Armin warned.
The cold creek water was enough to wake anyone up. Eren bathed swiftly, mentally beating himself up for not doing it before he went to bed. He dressed as Armin handed him his backpack. It held his gear as well as lunch for the night. Eren shouldered it as he followed his over eager friend.
Armin loved to talk, mostly about stuff no one else was interested in, but Eren had learned long ago how to tune out most of what he said. Tonight seemed a bit different. He was overly animated. Eren sighed, when Armin got like this, it was because he was hiding something. Eventually, he would tell his friend. Eren just needed to be patient enough for the small blond to work out whatever he needed to, before confiding in Eren.
They got to the construction sight with five minutes to punch in. Hannes met Eren at the clock. He ordered the boy to get ready. Once Eren was suited up in his visibility vest with all his gear on, they headed out on their patrol route. Hannes was like Armin in the since that he talked about nothing. The problem was, Eren had to listen to him due to him splicing in something important about the job. This was mentally exhausting to him.
They had just finished up a walk around the lower floor of the building. Some stairs were set up for the workers to get supplies or themselves up higher. Hannes had informed Eren that they would have to check each floor of the under constructed building. Eren turned to follow him, when his name was called out. He stopped, looking back.
"Hey there, boss man!" Hannes cried slipping past Eren to greet Pixis.
"What brings you out here?" He asked removing his hard hat to wipe sweat out of his eyes.
"You need that on at all times!" Pixis snarled at him. Hannes quickly replaced the hat.
"Eren, do you know Mr. Ackerman?" Pixis asked.
"Um, the mafia boss, why would I know him?" Eren looked confused.
"So, you haven't done any work for them, have you? Delivered packages?" Pixis pressed. He moved closer to Eren to watch his reaction.
Genuinely confused, Eren shook his head. "No way, sir. Armin stays on top of all that. We want to get our own place one day, not owe our life to a mafia family!" Eren stated shocked.
"Good, good. I figured you were a good kid." The old man patted Eren's arm. He withdrew his flask to take a long sip from it.
"Alright, carry on. I just needed to know." Pixis turned away.
Eren watched him go for a bit. He chuckled as he turned to follow Hannes up the steps to the next floor. Their next hour or so was spent carefully walking around the unfinished floor plan of the building. Hannes was good at balancing along the boards. He let Eren in on some tips for this, along with his love life. Eren survived getting back down to the ground floor.
That was were the trouble began. He had reached the ground floor before Hannes. He saw the two street kids trying to shove some smaller pieces of copper tubing, copper wiring or tools into their bags. Eren knew these sold well, giving the thieves some money to live on. Being from the streets, he understood this. But this was his job. He wasn't going to ruin it for anyone.
"Hey, what are you doing!?" He yelled.
The two split apart running in different directions. Eren took half a second to look behind him. Hannes was plowing down the steps. He saw the one kid, Eren bolted after the other. His longer legs was making short work of the ground. Eren was sure he could tackle the kid, they were a lot smaller than he was. That was until they rounded the corner near the fence.
Eren had just caught hold of the person's hood. He yanked back when several car headlights illuminated him. They were on the other side of the fence. Eren felt his heartbeat quicken. He saw a person pry up the fencing where they had cut it for the two to get in.
"Let him go kid." A large teen demanded. He flipped open a knife.
Eren's breathing sped up. He felt like he was going to pass out. He couldn't lose this job! Armin needed him. His hand tightened on the kid trying to get to his friends. Eren thought of Levi.
Suddenly the night faded from around him. Eren wasn't in the dojo, he was inside what looked like a research facility. He could see burners flaming blue on a few tables. He glanced around. The tall blond who looked like Armin strolled into view.
"... says your wave patterns are normal. Who would have..." He stopped talking as he raised his eyes to look at Eren.
The man moved forward. "You're Eren, aren't you?" He asked pulling up a stool.
"Who, what are you?" Eren's voice didn't sound like his own.
"My names Erwin. I am friends with Levi. Where are you Eren? He's trying to..."
Eren felt the kick to his gut. He doubled over, somehow catching the boot. He held on as the leg was ripped out of his grip. Still clutching the boot, he fell to the ground.
"... guys insane, let's go!" the squealing tires hurt his ears.
Eren was afraid to move. What was going to happen now? Would he lose his job? Erwin. He didn't know that name either. He sighed. How was he ever going to find Levi? He dropped the boot as he staggered to his feet. His hands hurt. Glancing down he saw a blood on them.
He went to a water sprout the construction team had set up as they needed to mix concrete or what not. He washed his hands trying to see if he was cut. Bouncing light came towards him. He turned. Hannes was followed by Armin as well as the guy that was training his friend.
"Eren, you ok?" Armin cried out.
Eren dried his hands on his shirt. He didn't see any cuts. None of the blood had been his. He looked up.
"Uh, yeah fine. The one I was chasing, well they had friends in cars..." Eren showed where the fence was cut.
Hannes went out to inspect the road. The other guy looked around where Eren had fought the would be thrives. He picked up the bag the first kid had been caring.
"Looks like you, at least, kept them from stealing anything." The guy glared over at Hannes.
"Yeah, I tried to hold onto the kid, but he got away." Eren mumbled.
"This one didn't." Armin shown his flashlight on a still body on the ground.
The person groaned as it rolled over. It's face was bloodied. Eren sighed, had Levi done this? He wondered. No, all physical accounts would show that Eren had done it. He turned away feeling sick.
"Good work today, Yeager!" Hannes said.
They had to go back to the trailer to meet with the police. Eren explained what he could recall, even giving the boot to the detective. They thanked him, then sent him back on his way. Hannes was usually quiet for about three minutes.
"I can't believe you got away from a whole gang like that? What kind of martial arts do you study?" He asked.
"I don't." Eren muttered. He saw how curiously Hannes looked at him.
"I've lived my life on the streets, you learn some things to survive." Eren offered.
"Yeah, I'm sure you do. Good thing you didn't get involved with the gangs. How did you manage that?" Hannes wondered.
"Armin." Eren chuckled to himself.
"You kept away from the gangs, from the families, yet you're a street kid?" Hannes furrowed his brow trying to figure this out.
"We move around a lot. If the gangs or the crime bosses started getting too close, Armin just knows when we need to leave." Eren stated.
This seemed to appease Hannes. He let the issue drop as they finished up their shift. Later Eren told Armin about what really happened. He even added seeing Pixis.
"Eren, you never knew Levi's last name, did you?" Armin asked on the bus.
"No, why?" Eren knew this was what his friend had been hiding.
Armin lifted his phone up. It was unlocked. Their was an image of a young man with a surly scowl on his face. His raven dark hair was had an under cut. His name was printed under the picture, it was in the headline of the news article.
"Levi Ackerman, nephew to the Ackerman family head, named as next heir to the empire." It was dated two years ago.
"This is him, isn't it?" Armin asked.
Eren felt ill. He nodded. How could his childhood friend be an Ackerman? They were the largest mafia family in their territory. The bus stopped, Eren stumbled off. He found the nearest garbage can before throwing up in it. No wonder Levi knew how to fight.