Although he was as fast, strong and alert as him now, Levi was still worrying his head off. It felt as if nothing had changed, as if Eren was still a soft and delicate human being who needed heavy duty protection. If he really wanted to, Eren could probably rip a tree from its roots or run/swim to the other side of the world in just a matter of a few hours, but Levi still had his concerns. The image of Eren dying and taking his last few shuddering breaths in his arms was still fresh as morning dew in his memory, and he wasn't going to let it happen again, even if Eren was capable of surviving. He would do anything but relive that horrid scene ever again; seeing the way fresh blood had leaked of Eren like he was a broken water bucket, or the way his chest had finally seized all movement-

"Levi," Eren called out to him, knocking him out of his reverie. "Are you alright? I was looking for you."

Levi had escaped to the entrance of the forest for some peace and quiet, right next to a pond filled with croaking frogs and buzzing insects. He sat on a rotting piece of wood with his chin resting on the knuckles of his fist, thinking long and hard about all his choices in the meeting he had agreed to. He angled his body swiftly to turn to Eren.

"I am now," he replied quietly as he gestured for Eren to come over by spreading his arms wide and waving them. Eren went over to sit beside him.

"How are you? You look a little... worried," Eren said.

"I should be the one asking you. Everything must feel so odd and complex, doesn't it? You'll get used to it very soon," Levi told him and gently brushed the hair away from his lover's eyes.

"You're not thinking about the whole Petra situation, are you?" Eren asked and raised a brow. "You always look look out of it whenever you think about it. Don't stress about it anymore, alright? At least it's not just the two of us against her now."

Levi chuckled, a sad little laugh locked in his mouth. "How can you be so positive?"

"Because when you've been only alive for less than twenty years, you haven't seen all the bad things in the world yet," he told him jokingly. "Just kidding. It's because even after everything that happened to me, I was always fine in the end and same goes for you. Remember that one time when we hid in a tree and when I came out to find you, you were missing an arm and leg? Or that one time you almost starved and I found you? Even in times of negativity, you can always pull through."

"But, Eren-"

"You're like an old man worrying yourself like that, you know? I won't leave you, nor will I accept it if someone attempts to take me from you. I intend to be with you for as long as you have me, so you don't need to worry about me dying because I won't let that happen," Eren reassured him as he reached for one hand to give it a tight squeeze.

Levi sighed. "I'm just afraid of losing you."

"You don't need to be, because you won't," Eren whispered to him and offered him a closed-lip smile, a smile threating to explode into an open one. He loved how Levi could sound so charming without hardly trying.

The black-haired vampire glanced blankly at nothingness for a brief moment before he turned his head back to stare ruefully at his tattered boots. "When I first met you, I had always thought that you were someone I could never have. Now that I finally have you, it's quite difficult to believe at times, so I just have the overwhelming desire to protect you because I don't want you falling through my fingers the way she did." Although he could not breath, he exhaled roughly at the word "she". "You're worth more than anything, but if you had a diamond you'd want to protect it for your own selfish needs, correct? To make sure no one else could have it but yourself."

"I'm no diamond."

"You're right; you're even better," Levi corrected smoothly.

"I'm really starting to wonder if healing and showing others the past aren't your only abilities. Maybe you flirt to your victims to death too," Eren said and laughed as he placed a hand on Levi's thigh.

He knew for a fact that Petra had the ability to easily persuade individuals, but nowadays he felt that if Levi told him to do something he would definitely do it. It was funny how a few months ago was slightly different; if Levi even opened his mouth Eren had to hold back from socking him in the eye.

"But... I didn't come looking for you so that you can charm me. Hanji still wants to have a word with you, as well as the others. I think it's urgent," he continued and tugged at Levi's sleeve.

"Can't I have time to be alone with you? This is far too much human interaction for one day. Before you, the only time I would talk to a human was when I was planning to drink from them." Levi shook his head.

"No whining.  This is highly important, Levi, you know it is."

"I do. It's just... Is it really okay for us to trust them?"

Eren was just about to part his lips to argue but soon realized that Levi had the right to have trust issues. After what happened with Erwin and his plans to capture the vampire, Eren was sure he would feel the same as well. They chased him out for actions he could not simply control, and now he was stuck with bad experiences forever implanted in his brain. They had treated him like he was the king of the underworld himself, an outcast to society.

"Honestly, with the incident with my parents, I can't trust some of them so easily. But we can't afford not to work with them. They won't betray us since Erwin, the head of this place, is no longer here but Hanji was very close to him. I'm just concerned he might have... influenced her. I doubt there's a high chance he rubbed off on her, but there is still a possibility. It sounds risky but I believe fighting alongside them will be no trouble," Eren said and turned to meet Levi's eyes. In a split second, he could see his eyes waver, almost as if he was hesitating.

"Alright, I'll believe you. If they do anything that puts you in danger, we're running off and never returning again, understand?"

"Of course. Just cooperate and be nice, okay? Some of them are my friends," Eren informed him and nudged his shoulder as an attempt to brighten the mood.

"I can't promise you that I'll be nice. Surely you've been with me long enough to know that," Levi claimed. "But I will try for you."

"Thank you for your consideration, now get up. Hanji must be waiting for you." The newborn vampire stood up as well and extended a hand, which Levi took gratefully. Their hands laced around one another like they had already done it a million times, but was always feeling queasy whenever he got to touch him; it was like having a current of electricity run through his veins and if he was still alive he knew his heart would be thumping excitedly. If his lungs could still function, he would have trouble breathing.

"Hmm, your hands are cold," Levi said aimlessly.

"I'm dead after all."

Levi frowned. He suddenly regretted not appreciating Eren's human life a little more; he should have admired the way his face would flush in the cold, or the way his chest rose and fell softly as he slept. The life of a human was severely fragile, and he felt as if he should have watched the small details so that he could forever remember them. Eren was cold, dead and frigid now, Levi still loved him, but sometimes it felt too out of place and painful for him. Because whenever he looked at Eren he was also reminded of himself.

"What else does she want to speak about?"

"She wants to know more about her behavior patterns and how she will react to things, or the best ways to kill vampires if it ever comes down to that," Eren said slowly, being careful on how to word it out.

"I see." Levi nodded and adjusted his cloak.

"Hey... Don't you ever think that you're betraying your own kind by doing this? I know it's very sudden of me to ask, but I am awfully curious. We're vampires ourselves, and here we are plotting some suicide mission to kill other vampires off. I get why we have to kill some of them, but do you ever feel bad about it?" Eren asked as he looked over at Levi with a raised eyebrow, his lips pursed in a straight line.

"I don't feel bad about it. Truthfully I feel like our kind is some kind of evil created from the devil and cursed by God himself." Levi swallowed at the mention of 'God', feeling the similar sharp and flaming feeling in the back of his throat he always felt whenever he mentioned such a holy name. "Whenever I kill someone like us, I feel like I'm doing him a favour by ridding the world of evil. I know that not all of us are said evil, but most of our kind if lethal and aggressive. It's as if they've never been touched by kindness. They end up killing far too much human lives, and so I feel as if I'm helping if I get rid of them."

"Oh," was all Eren had to say.

"That won't change the way you view me as a person, right?"

"Of course not. I understand your actions and the reasoning behind them, and I was wrong about you. I used to think you killed because it was some kind of sadistic and twisted hobby of yours, but really it was because you either could not control yourself or they were bad people. But what about the humans people claimed you killed?"

"They aren't say the whole story of the truth," Levi told him with a soft sigh, as if he was used to saying what he was about to tell him. "I was a newborn. In myths and other cultures, newborns are in their "baby" phase for a small amount of time for around a few weeks to a few months. They will be extremely thirsty and prone to attacking, you already know the signs. It was different for me. It lasted years, I can't remember the exact number but it was at least twenty. That was far too long to be dangerously aggressively all the time, especially when you're rogue." Levi's grasp on Eren's hand went limp and light for a moment before Eren gripped it to keep his arm from falling to the side.

"That must have been terrible. I'm sorry to hear that," Eren said quietly.

"It's fine. I isolated myself for the majority of those twenty years, so it could have been a lot worse." The facial expression he wearing made him appear as if he were imagining old, unpleasant memories.

"It was never your-"

Just before Eren could finish his sentence, Levi's free hand sprung out at a ridiculous speed in front of Eren's face as if he were trying to smack an irritating fly against an invisible wall. About a second later, a bloodied pointed edge surfaced on his palm, dripping with blood so intensely pigmented that it almost hurt his eyes. It was an arrowhead protruding from his hand, and it had almost pierced through Eren's eye. Levi didn't wince as he pulled the arrow from his palm to snap it in half and throw it to the ground in ager. His fangs revealed themselves as he growled, his eyes shining a red so bright that it almost appeared orange. His head whipped back towards Eren with one word on the tip of his tongue, whispering urgently as if only Eren could hear it.

"Run."

He did not run right away, oh no, he grabbed Levi's hand and then ran with all he could muster out of his legs, which wasn't too hard since a perk of being a vampire was incredible speed. The sound of the wind being hit against them was loud and hammered forcibly against Eren's ears as he sensed multiple presences at their tail. Eren did not look back or asked Levi who it could be, for he knew who it was.

"We only got a few minutes. We have to warn the others," Levi said in a hurry.

The trip back to camp wasn't too long; just a mere few seconds. Hanji was the first they saw, and she looked alarmed when both Eren and Levi had their eyes widened in surprise and horror. She knew it too well and she was used to it. Right beside her was Nanaba whom she nodded to. There were no words spoken because this had happened before. Nanaba ran and shouted at everyone who was lazing around to get up and get ready.

Although Eren could not die as easily, he was scared. Afraid that he would watch his friends pass away in front of his eyes and he would live forever remembering and how they died and who murdered them. He now understood why Levi seemed a little unhappy when Eren woke up again because like him, he would have to suffer in silence and get used to it. Living forever, he realized, was not as glamorous as most humans pictured it would be; to be trapped in a world full of living organisms doomed to decay and to meet their horrid ends was not something Eren had first thought of when Petra bit him and the venom spread like a wildfire. One of his fears had been watching his loved ones die, and it did not change. Petra was merciless and she was not gonna allow anyone to die without facing terrible pain first.

"I'm scared," Eren said suddenly without thinking. Levi looked at him with parted lips and raised eyebrows.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"It's just... I wish she would stop," Eren muttered.

"We all do." Levi caressed his cheek with a touch as light as a feather.

Their soft moment was quickly cut off when Eren spotted Krista jogging to him with a shock-stricken face with Ymir tagging behind her.

"Hanji told us they were coming and she's telling the truth, right?" she asked fearfully as her eyes darted back and forth between the two vampires towering over her tiny build. "If so, Dot says you two need to be at the front lines to fight. He was about to make you defend but he thought it was best that you two do offense since you probably beat everyone at strength. I think they will be here soon. We must hurry."

Soldiers were scrambling all over the camp searching for any weapon they could find like ants hunting for crumbs. Some of them were missing part of their uniforms, but at a crucial time like this, Eren was sure the higher up's wouldn't mind too much. Eren and Levi both jogged (in human pace, of course) around the camp in search for the crazy glasses lady after dismissing Krista and Ymir with a nod. Some were slinging around barrels of arrows and crates of ammunition, while more were dosing themselves with liquid that appeared to be from small glass bottles with a intricate little cross on it.

Like most of the time, she was near the main large tent where they had their meeting earlier that day. Speaking to her were other soldiers whom Eren could not recognize. They hurried away when they noticed the two vampires standing there.

"You don't need weapons, right?" For the first time ever, Eren could see that Hanji was genuinely terrified. Her usual playful grin was gone, and the light tone of her voice was nowhere to be heard. "Because we're kind of running low on them. The men I sent won't be able to come back in time. By the time they reach camp, most of us might all be dead if we don't fight smart."

"Most of them, if they're not rogue like myself, are very easy to take down," Levi reassured her. "They don't think when they try to attack you; they go straight for your neck without thinking of what would happen next."

"That's nice to hear, but that's not what I'm worried about," she said. "The reason why my men won't come back in time is because some of them were attacked on their way here. She knows what we're trying to do with the blessed weapons." Hanji was sounding increasingly distressed.

"Don't worry about it too much. I have a plan," Levi claimed. Eren jerked his head to the side to look at him.

"What is said plan?"

He grinned, his familiar devilish grin he did whenever he was either going to say something dirty or rude that Eren knew far too well. "I have abilities that I can use to our advantage. I will distract them with it."

With a nod in agreement, Eren did remember about some of Levi's unique powers. He was able to show others memories or events of the past that had already occurred, and could heal someone simply with his tears. Eren had never seen his powers in action before, and he was somewhat looking forward to see it. The young one started to wonder when he was going to get his, or if he even had anything at all. It was only his first day of coming back, so he wasn't too concerned that he didn't experience any signs of it coming.

"Well," she began as she tapped her foot impatiently and as if she were trying to kill an annoying ant, "I'm only going to say yes to this because we have no time to discuss this further. It better work."

"Got it."

"Now that we have that settled, I really need to go and fight alongside Dot. I'm really unprepared, perhaps because I'm not Erwin, but I never got to say goodbye to everyone just in case... well you know. So please try not to die, Eren, it would be very unfortunate."

There was a hint of sincerity in her voice, it was almost touching too. Although he did not have a strong connection with Hanji, he would feel awfully devastated if he never saw her again after this sort of ordeal. With vampires hunting them, it was far too easy to die. It could happen to anyone. He could imagine spotting his friends' bloody, beaten bodies sprawled on the ground like lumps of meat in a butchery, and he hoped that anyone who died that day wouldn't have to go face to face with a death so harrowing. Of course most of them had doubted him and even turned against him when they found out what was going on between he and Levi, but he would never wish anything violent upon anyone in the camp.

It seemed that "Don't die" was as common as "Goodbye" these days, and it was a very sad thought, that goodbye was permanent and sober like the process of mourning. Realization slapped Eren coldly across the face. Now it wasn't his own life he was worried about.

---

AN:

this fic is ending soon hnggggggg

thank you for tolerating me and my somewhat filler updates ^^

~t