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There he was again, that beautiful boy with power sparkling in his eyes. Levi hated the way he could feel his face already heating as he swam right over and floated only close enough to get a good view of him… Eren.
That was his name, he was pretty sure. There was another human who always yelled that word and it made this one turn his head. To Levi, that was confirmation enough. This was Eren. His Eren, with that exotic, richly colored skin. It had soaked up the sun, surely, and that caused this delicious shade which made Levi hungry every single time he thought about it. His body was still elegant, though, tall and lithe and fucking perfect.
There was no doubt that he did look edible, true, but Levi knew he’d never let anyone or anything, not even one of his kin, sink their fangs into that water smooth skin. It belonged only to him, Levi had made the decision. Even Eren didn’t seem to know yet, but that changed nothing. Levi had been spreading his territorial markings each day, making this crystal clear, and his brothers and sisters wisely kept far away from this special space, the space where Eren would appear.
He’d sit down and that smooth voice of his would wash over the water, most of his words melting until Levi couldn’t clearly make them out, but Levi knew better than to get greedy and dare to poke any part of himself above the surface of the water. Eren wasn’t like most humans, after all, defenseless and useless. No. Not his Eren. His Eren was a fighter, with that spark in his voice and those sea-green, magnificent eyes…
Fuck. He’d felt himself getting too hot for the past few moons now, and Levi knew just what that meant. To put it simply: he’d fucked up. He’d been lured by this beautiful boy one too many times and his body had been able to sense it.
Honestly, Levi knew he had reached his prime multiple harvests ago, but he’d made sure to never get close to others, be they his own kind or… just about anything else, as a matter of fact. That was how he had risen in rank so quickly and become the captain of the hunting squad.
Every quarter he selected their targets and matched the right merman or mermaid to patrol, making sure not a single inch of the shore would be unmanned, and he knew very well that his methods were flawless. Everyone knew it and everyone honored him for it. Not even one single human had ever escaped on Levi’s watch. Even so much as drawing too close to the water would end the hunt, as he himself had trained each and every member of his scouting crew. If a human drew near but did not truly enter the water, they could simply swim a small ways away, get a good start and leap out to capture them.
Ideally they would practice this particular skill in the dead of night, setting up lookouts on all sides to ensure they would never be spotted. This was their secret weapon, after all, and he needed the humans to never find out about it.
According to custom, every human should’ve been considered fair game. That was what Levi had thought the first time he’d seen Eren. Fair game. And said beautiful fair game even had the balls to walk right up to the water, shouting as if he were angry at it. Why, Levi had no clue, but that was when Eren had looked down with those eyes filled with shining ferocity and that smooth voice of his seemed to somehow match perfectly. Never once had Levi ever seen anything so arresting, passionate… so alive.
The water wasn’t like that. The water was cold and empty for the most part, filled only with brainless school after school of fat, moronic fish and Levi considered even his own kind just barely any better. He had never opted to live with any one of them, even though he’d been invited so many times. He preferred roaming the waters freely. It was how he learned, how he grew so much stronger and sharper than the rest of them. How he maintained at least some good excuse to have at least some semblance of pride.
But Eren wasn’t like that.
Eren was the very embodiment of pride, filled with determination which brought him to the water again and again and again, and because this section had just happened to be Levi’s section, he too came again and again and again, and before long, for once, he felt glad for something.
He felt lucky.
Nothing else in his life had ever felt like luck. He had scraped and clawed for everything, from meals to belongings to even his small corner of the elite living quarters.
Levi knew how to work hard to earn something and he also knew how to use wits and cleverness as well. That balance meant there was nothing he couldn’t achieve, but still, achievement was exactly that, something earned, not just a lucky, magnificent gift.
He had no such things in his life, save for one, meeting Eren.
Levi knew that his kind sometimes surfaced very late at night and very far from shore, and they’d float on their backs and gaze up and just let the beauty of the unknown bathe over them. That wide and glowing thing up there. Those sparkling little pieces that may have broken off of it… Those were the muses of hopes and dreams, something to look up to and to look forward to, a reminder that the world was still a big and mysterious, exciting place which always had still more to look forward to…
And that was Eren, to Levi.
So full of power and mystery. So beautiful and so reliable. Every day Levi could look up and see his very own personal, sparkling reminder that there was still more out there just waiting to be captured and savored, still more that no one else would be able to handle.
That dangerous human, the one with the weapons, who would actually put up a fight. That brazen one. The strange one. The loner. Levi knew those things were what the others called Eren… In other words, Levi’s perfect match.
Initially, he’d remained stationed here under the guise of doing his duty. As the only one brave enough to take on the human with weapons, it had made perfect sense. But in truth, from the very first moment, Levi knew the true reason he couldn’t stop coming here...
Because Eren was meant to be his.
Unfortunately his body had caught on. He’d been old enough to take a mate for some time, but because Levi lived such a careful and solitary life, his body never really bothered to prepare for a partner. His rut, therefore, had been little more than a minor annoyance. He’d feel hotter and slightly less reasonable for a number of days and then that would be it.
Levi prided himself on that too, as the others were never so lucky. They ached for a mate every time their cycle came around. They suffered without one and feverishly searched, losing their heads sometimes or even losing their very functioning. That was only their natural insurance policy though, the way nature ensured their species would continue indefinitely.
One partner would be driven to gather and nest and then nature would have them be docile and sweet. The other would be driven to search, dominate and provide, and simply put: it worked. Offspring were born and the cycle continued.
But Levi had never wanted offspring and had never once found himself drawn to any female, either of his own kind or of the human variety. Never.
And even when he’d realized what this strange stirring inside of him must’ve meant when he looked at Eren, he’d still never expected his body would ever catch on. They had never once even touched after all, never spoken back and forth, never truly spent time together…
Levi longed for that.
And so, when his cycle started growing more and more disruptive, making him far too hot and too unreasonable, he’d been devastated. It was just one more way life had fucked him and in just another way that made no sense. Eren was a human, and a male, and far more importantly…
Eren hates me.
That was the worst part, by far. It was not simply that they belonged to two different worlds, spoke different languages and ate different foods… No. That would be too kind, and fate was never kind to Levi. She had only ever been brutal to the point of irony, and he knew it had made him grow hard and the others saw him as impassive or even aggressive. But that was just what Levi had been forced to shape himself into.
Sometimes, as he floated beneath the surface, watching Eren curse at the sea, he understood that Eren knew exactly how that felt.
He did not come out here in the heat and uncomfortable gritty sand just because he liked to. He came because, for some reason, fate had forced him to. That was why his face often held anger and bitterness, and sometimes his eyes even turned red and began to leak. Those were the hardest for Levi. He wanted to be able to comfort him. Wanted to ask what was wrong or who hurt him and whether he wanted him to rip their belly open and shit into it… But he couldn’t.
Because Eren hated him.
And so Levi knew it had been silly, at best, when he started spreading his dark, territorial markers, letting everyone know he’d selected the one he wanted.
He knew it was just wishful thinking when his cycle began and he let his feelings pour from him in embarrassing, glimmering white…
But he couldn’t help it. His very species meant he spent much of his time feeling cold and seeking out reliable perches and sources of warmth. Levi knew that. His position meant he should’ve chosen a female to carry down his supposedly superior features. Levi didn’t give a shit about that.
He only cared that so many things had been stacked against this, the one and only thing he’d ever truly wanted.
The boy with the sun-kissed skin, warm and reassuring to the touch, surely, because his species made him that way. Passionate and prepared and sharper than even he himself seemed to know. But most crucially he was one thing more than any other: constant.
With the water always moving, time always passing and even friends and family dying, Levi had never known anything to ever really be constant.
But Eren would be. Hell, he already was. Eren had even been the one to give Levi his new name which he had accepted with pride, to the point of refusing to ever even use his old one nowadays. Whenever Eren’s powerful voice spoke this name, Levi felt a thrill. Usually Eren spoke it with derision or annoyance or even a sadistic, sly upward lilt… He knew the name likely meant something very unfriendly. Likely something along the lines of “asshole” or “enemy,” but Levi didn’t mind. It was true anyway and sometimes it even helped him keep his head on straight and not get his hopes up too high.
But nothing could damage this spark he felt looking at Eren, hearing Eren, thinking of Eren. Nothing made him waver in wanting him, in aching for him and returning again and again and dreaming of him… until that last day.
This latest cycle had been brutal. There was so much heat and confusion and pain, horrible, aching pain. There was hunger that, for the very first time, genuinely forced Levi to fear for his life. He was drawn to Eren as he always was, true, but then something inside of him punished him for stopping where he had always stopped, for not leaving the safety of the water.
His body was betraying him, telling him he had no other choice but to pass down these valuable genes of his. What a fucking laugh. It still didn’t know Eren was male. Just another painful irony to add to his list.
Levi hated feeling like he was giving into that nonsensical and ironic drive, but at the same time, deep down, he knew it was the most honest thing he had ever felt. This was what he truly wanted, manifest by cruel lady luck herself and being forced down his throat. If he didn’t swallow, she’d make sure he choked.
It was time. He was more than capable of providing for even the most helpless mate, strong enough to fight off anyone foolish enough to even try to get close to his chosen one, and had more than enough energy to put into breeding a partner, even constantly, even for multiple moons at a time…
It was time…
But Eren hated him. His chosen mate… hated him.
As humiliating as it was to look back on, Levi understood that he’d let hope invade his usually calm, rational mind.
But still he tried. Levi hunted through the night, carefully selecting only the choicest, nutritious and delicious fish for his Eren and brought them to their meeting spot and presented them to him. And Eren had actually accepted!
What a wondrous moment that had been, the first moment Levi felt they’d connected, at least in some small way. His own teeth had captured the fish, and now his Eren’s precious teeth would be eating it.
And he’d never felt so proud. So hopeful. So foolish.
By the time the next stretch of both warm and light appeared in the sky, Levi had already prepared both his territorial markers and his thought sharing offering, as well as more carefully selected fish for his chosen one.
Eren had been looking thinner lately and Levi didn’t like it. He knew others of his species sometimes chose to gather shiny, valuable objects to give to their mates, but when he looked up at Eren and swore even his muscle mass seemed to be suffering, Levi could not resist the urge to provide. In fact, he began bringing more and more prepared fish for his partner, feeling each spark of new, growing hope every time Eren snapped one up out of the water with those dangerous and efficient weapons.
Still Levi knew one wrong move would mean he himself would be speared with those very same weapons. So he was careful as ever, shrewd, but still he’d provide.
But then something strange happened. Eren didn’t show up. Someone else had instead, a female, and Levi had nearly lost himself. Why? After being so faithful for so long, as reliable as the morning light, now, right when he wanted him most fervently, why would Eren suddenly stop showing up?
Was it something Levi had done? Was this his answer? His way of saying, “just fuck off already. You already know I hate you.” Most likely. Levi understood that, and yet still, foolishly, he returned at next light and again found the wrong human waiting for him. Normally he knew he was supposed to be angry and maybe he ought to have even lashed out. Maybe he should’ve captured this human or eaten it… but instead Levi sank to the depths and mourned.
He couldn’t figure out what he’d done wrong and he couldn’t humble himself enough to ask others what could’ve been going on. From what he had learned, partners enjoyed and needed meals just like the ones he had provided. Eren had claimed the first few rounds and he’d seemed thankful, so then why had he stopped coming when Levi had more down here waiting for him, swimming in their dumb circles and looking delicious, just for him…
Morning four found Levi despondent. He did not even bother swimming to the surface, since the water was clear and he already knew yet another strange human had come here instead of Eren.
Maybe Eren was mocking him, sending something ridiculous to mirror back how ridiculous Levi had been for ever thinking he would ever stop despising him, let alone accept him as a mate…
He had put his hands on his head and openly wept, letting clouds of these dark feelings leak out until they obscured the view he hated anyway. The view without his Eren.
Levi lost himself after that. For how long, he was not sure, because he only knew heat and pain and longing. His body tortured him, punishing for his failure in ways more brutal than he’d ever known. Thankfully a group of his fellows must’ve seen it coming, because they’d swam to him even with that white cloud blocking all vision and worked together to guide him back home. There they strapped him down using both traditional physical restraints and concoctions from the so-called medicine man. But nothing stopped the heat and the torture, the brutal punishment he’d so shamefully earned.
By the time that awful grip of heat released him, Levi wasn’t sure where he was anymore or why he even was there. He had nodded his thanks to the gentle mermaid who’d released his restraints but then swam away without even thinking of where he was going. He found himself at Eren’s perch, of course, but in the dead of night. How stupid. How naïve. How cruel and how very fitting…
And yet he still swam off and collected some fish. Soon he knew his cycle would repeat, renewing his torment in order to punish his failure once again, but what else could he do? It was dark anyway, or at least that was what he told himself, so he spent the time gathering gifts for his Eren, even though it just made him feel fucking pathetic.
Because Eren still hated him.
And that was why he froze up on his way back to their usual meeting spot. Once again he was acting bizarre. Levi never froze up, but he couldn’t help it this time. There was Eren, standing naturally, right where he’d always been, as if nothing had changed...
Levi felt stupid even when his limbs thawed out and he managed to swim close and get a good look at him. Yes. It was truly Eren, although he had some dumb human bitch at his side now. Maybe that’s where he’d been?
But why?
She was a pretty one, though. She looked strong and reliable, just like Eren himself.
This was his answer, wasn’t it? This was his way of rejecting him once and for all… But that couldn’t be. He couldn’t believe it. Already he felt warmth and comfort rising in his body, causing beautiful white to escape him and giddy contentment to cloud his head and his heart…
Eren was back. His Eren. Precious Eren. And Levi let himself rise without even thinking. He let his head break the surface of the water for the very first time and just stared at him. Here was Eren as he was meant to be, not obscured by water or anything else. Pure, real Eren, and he turned those magnificent eyes toward him for the very first time and Levi thought he could die. SHIT!
He’d ducked down as soon as he’d come to his senses, humiliated. FUCK FUCK FUCK!
He had let a fucking human see him! NO. No no no. Not Levi, strong and smart and fit to lead. Maybe others would make such a foolish mistake, but not he! Surely not he… Fuck me.
Levi knew what this would mean, what the laws and customs of his people demanded… but just thinking about it made his very spirit ache. Eliminate the threat. No exceptions.
Levi knew the rules and had even been the one to enforce them at times. Such was the cost of being a leader…
He had only two choices at that point: forcibly bring Eren to the colony or… But he couldn’t! He couldn’t possibly!
Surely Eren would cry and suffer if Levi forcibly brought him down here and made him live where the other human mates were kept, locked up like captives.
He had thought of that option before, many times, and had always known he couldn’t possibly be so cruel. Eren clearly loved freedom. He loved dreaming of better tomorrows and he wasn’t afraid to be the one to go out there and rip them from the cruel hands of fate, whether with stunning weapons or even his bare hands.
No. He couldn’t possibly force Eren to live with his people and become his mate. He would have to kill him, have to choose the more merciful option…
But he couldn’t do that either.
FUCK. Levi cursed himself when he realized that female was no longer standing beside Eren. Fuck, fuck fuck! Where the hell did she go?
He needed to silence her. He’d have to. She’d seen him… But he couldn’t see her, now. He’d failed once again and allowed her to just walk away. But something even more bizarre seemed to occur then, something totally distracting and far more important: Eren let down his guard.
He stretched his lovely body, sat on the perch he would usually stand on, and even put his head down!
It was almost as if… he was offering himself to Levi…
That can’t be. He knew that, knew that even to think such a brazen thing was foolish at best, and yet Levi drifted right toward him and once again felt wellbeing clouding his mind and body. Every time he even moved closer to Eren, he felt cooler and lighter and free. His body was sending these clear signals for a reason…
So there was no other choice… or at least that was what he told himself as he brazenly breached the surface of the water once again. Eren seemed to be sleeping… but why?
He may as well have just taken his clothes off and jumped in the water. That would render him equally vulnerable after all. Still, Levi knew to be silent and stealthy. He knew to be careful because Eren was armed, and maybe this was some kind of trick… Yes. It was definitely a trick.
Levi felt stupid for even thinking it could ever be anything else… And yet he still approached, and that tiny little hope persisted, so small now and so lonesome…
But Eren was just so beautiful to him… Before he knew it, Levi had drawn in way too close, having lifted his whole head and even his neck from the water, and he even placed his hands on the rock Eren was resting on. Just one quick leap and he’d finally catch hold of him. Levi had done it so many times that he knew he could pull off this easy capture even in his sleep. And then he would just have to hold Eren down, or more wisely, bite into and rip out his neck. Eren still had his weapons in hand, after all, and Levi suspected he’d be able to use them even underwater.
Catching and keeping him had never been an option after all. It was kill or be killed, and it always had been.
Because Eren hated him.
…But I love him.
And Levi knew he’d realized too late, but he also knew that it was true, finally.
It was a strange and lofty kind of love, though. A love for what Eren had represented to him. A love for warmth and for hope and for light. A love for this other, forbidden world which Levi knew would always reject monsters like him.
And so as soon as Eren moved even an inch, Levi disappeared from his sight.
To even think about killing a beacon of hope was preposterous. It was denying what he knew to be true inside, and that went against everything Levi knew he stood for.
Never, ever could he ever even hurt precious Eren…
Or so he thought. It wasn’t that Levi had never heard of kissing, in fact maybe things would have ended better if he hadn’t. Instead, he knew all about it, that very intimate, very sacred act which only those lucky enough to choose a human mate got to enjoy. Humans had soft and safe mouths, and everyone knew it. Their teeth, designed to eat both meat and plants, were shaped accordingly. Things were meant to be placed inside mouths like that, as chewing was necessary for plant matter. The same wasn’t true for meat eaters like Levi. Meat needed only be ripped and swallowed. It was efficient and quick and made sense, just like everything else under these waters.
But humans weren’t like that. They used their mouths to communicate and bond. They used their mealtimes to gather and strengthen relationships, and they used their food for pleasure. Levi knew this, and that was another reason for his choice of gift for his mate.
How stupid. Why even call him that in his head? Who ever heard of having a mate that hated you? So ironic. So typical. So Levi…
And so maybe he shouldn’t have been so surprised when he glimpsed his precious Eren standing there with that blonde boy, one of his hands touching that other human’s face in the exact same way Levi had longed to be touched by Eren. It was hard to believe, but then he realized he’d stuck his head above water again, the suicidal insistence of his heat apparently taken over once again. But it wasn’t only the heat that selected his next action.
It was both knowledge and instinct combined. It was those precious soft lips being offered to somebody else even though Levi knew they were meant to be his. Looking back on it, he felt nothing but shame and humiliation, as Levi had always believed himself stronger than instinct. But clearly that hadn’t been true. The first trigger had been Eren moving his mouth too close to that blonde boy.
Unacceptable.
MINE, his instincts had roared ONLY MINE and so Eren needed to be told in no uncertain terms. And that meant leaping out of the water and thought sharing with him. But then he had heard the splash, another trigger, and reacted immediately. A human in water meant CATCH and he had trained to do just that for too many years to resist.
In fact, Levi was not even able to fully grasp what had happened until he was propelling himself away from the shore, that stupid fucking blonde in his arms. The dumb thing needed air, so he swam to the surface and let it breathe, but now that it had seen him, he knew he couldn’t take it back to its home. Fuck.
Eren would hate him even more now. But what difference did it really make? Clearly he could sink no lower in those eyes that he loved…
Luck smiled on him once again though, as he’d dropped his new catch in the central pool just as their regal ruler had passed by and something about it must’ve caught his eye.
He’d apparently made up his mind to try courting the gold hair human right then and there, and that meant Levi was lifted up with the highest honors. He would be made a member of the royal court and allowed to live in the same beautiful home as the king.
Normally Levi would’ve declined, and he’d done it before as a matter of fact, but this time he could not resist. Home in that warm and bright palace? Where Eren might actually be comfortable? The king’s home had warm water to lounge in according to the rumors and the humans there had much more space and freedoms and luxurious meals.
For his thin, warm mate, a bright home positively packed with freshly caught food? It only made sense.
The downside was that Levi would have to get used to life there and go through proper training to become a direct trusted servant of the king.
In his absence, another leader was chosen for the hunting squad, but Levi knew he’d return to that shore, and he made sure to tell said leader that his mate was off limits and that he’d better spread the word.
All of his old members knew Eren by sight, so Levi felt confident that if his chosen one ever did enter the water, even in his absence, one of them would catch him and bring him to Levi.
It would not be a pleasant experience though. Not for the boy who craved freedom, and especially not since custom demanded newly captured humans be stripped down and bled so that their clothes could be used to convince other humans of their death.
It was better that way. Kinder that way, because once a human had seen their home and their kind, the law demanded they live among them for the rest of their days. A human would not ever be allowed to return to its old world, lest it spill their secrets and teach other humans how to find and hunt them.
That was too big a risk, and the king would never allow it. Instead he had decried any human that refused to settle after capture should be humanely bled to death. The idea was to give their life blood to the water, or something like that. Levi didn’t know all of those details because he knew he would not ever allow such a thing to happen to his precious human.
He would train to become royalty. It was worth it. He would leave his old home and his friends. It was worth it. He would live in bright light he hated and warm water which made him uncomfortable and reminded of his lonely and horrible heats. It was worth it.
More time passed and he suffered through more lonely nights, well fed and living in supposed luxury, but without his hope to look up to on that stupid little rock of his. He had really believed everything back home would remain much the same, or actually go back to older ways, just as stagnant and boring as ever.
He’d been wrong.
The new hunting leader had learned from the old members, it seemed, because he’d not only picked up their skill of leaping from the water, but came up with a master plan to win tremendous favor in just one quick, coordinated attack.
Levi only learned of all of this just barely in time to rush over and stop that idiot dragging his mate into the water. Thankfully one of his loyal friends had risked her life in betraying her new captain to fetch Levi, and with their combined efforts, Eren was saved… or well, most of him.
Levi knew he’d taken damage which humans couldn’t recover from fully. They were not like his kind, and so Levi felt like a failure seeing so much awful blood escaping his poor mate and had been shocked when Eren did not so much as even reach for his weapon. Their eyes met, however briefly, and that was not something Levi had seen coming either. He’d expected Eren would run. His instincts and reflexes had always seemed good, after all. But he hadn’t. He’d stupidly frozen there, in the middle of all that carnage and violence and it took Levi shoving him to wake him up.
What the fuck did that even mean? Why had those eyes he adored looked back even once more as he fled? Why bother taking such a huge risk for a monster he hated?
Levi didn’t know, but that moment had been just enough to renew his old hopes. So he went to that disrespectful human with golden hair and made one of the smarter ones translate for him. “Make a gift for Eren,” he’d told him, simply. “Keep it brief, and don’t you dare spill our secrets, but make damn sure it makes him happy.”
And it worked. Probably. The kid seemed to think carefully and came up with a plan: he’d rip all of the pages from an old book and use its insides as a sturdy canvas for a message that could even survive underwater. Levi, meanwhile, chose the task of delivering and hiding it somewhere only Eren could find it, and just to be sure Eren knew this was his idea, not stupid golden kid, he made sure to include plenty of those silver fish.
That was what he’d thought was going through his head, at least, but Levi would learn all too quickly he’d been wrong. He had bitten Eren, after all and created a connection by sharing thoughts. That meant their bodies synced up and Levi’s mating cycle reacted. He had gone into rut last cycle and had been unsuccessful in luring his mate, so this cycle would instead force the opposite. He’d be drawn to gather and build things. To burrow and attempt to please his partner. To be more approachable and demure, and then finally he would be rendered completely helpless, the ultimate test of a suitable mate, with the highest stakes.
Levi had never once been helpless, and he had never built much either, but when he felt that overwhelming heat, he knew what had to be done and did not bother wasting time. Golden hair boy came in handy again, suggesting he attempt to meet Eren on land, and Levi had to think about how he could possibly do such a thing without breaking a million different laws and being seen by humans which he’d then have to hunt and silence.
He came up with a few ideas, bizarre and illogical, but then again so was this damned heat, and worked through the night.
Then he placed himself where he knew only his Eren would ever think to look and waited for the nightmare that was being helpless. Levi knew this was most likely not going to work, and he knew it would be the most dangerous thing he had ever done in all his life. The chances Eren would find him were high as long as he came anywhere near the shore in time, but what Eren would do once he found him was still up in the air. Maybe he’d take full advantage of his helpless, hated enemy and simply slit his throat. Maybe he’d try to capture him in a net or with ropes, and that would be so much worse, as he knew his old friends would surely be near, watching closely. One wrong move and he knew they’d leap right out and end this game once and for all. There was too much at stake for them. Simply too much to lose.
And so Levi waited with dread in his heart and his merciless heat draining all energy from his limbs. He would make sure to be in the water where it would be both damp and cool, but to leave enough clues so that Eren would certainly know where to look. It was perhaps the best and worst moment of his life, the air itself charged with energy and even his every breath seeming to fill him with only more hope, reminding of limitless potential.
The cold, dangerous monster would meet the warm, fearless man, finally, and maybe blood would be spilled or maybe love would be made, and to Levi, however unlikely, the small chance of that meant one thing:
It was worth it.
Because maybe Eren did hate Levi.
But Levi could not help but love him.