Lin is back with another chapter!

I know, I know. I'm 2 months too late with my Halloween chapter. I didn't add this because of Halloween, I had it planned the whole time.

Just like the previous one, this chapter here is a long-ass chapter (25k words haha). Enjoy reading my shit because I worked on it for 5 days straight in my rare free time and it took me 2 days to fucking edit and proofread it, sigh.

There quite a few things going to happen. Also some of you might start hating on Hanji and get annoyed of her, but please wait until the end of the chapter before you start judging her.

(Note: A 'Teriyaki (spit)' is a dish of grilled slices of beef, chicken, or fish that have been marinated in soy sauce seasoned with sake, ginger, and sugar.)

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"Are you ready, Levi?

I switched my gaze over to him where he stood in front of the mirror, adjusting his hair that had been slicked back with hair gel.

Today was Halloween and we were preparing ourselves for Hanji's party.

"Yeah. Just a sec."

I rolled my eyes playfully, a petite smirk of amusement grazing my lips. "Your outfit doesn't have to be perfect. You look fine."

"Either you look good or you look shitty. There is no in between." was all he retorted with, grumbling.

"I see. So you don't mind making your boyfriend wait, if it means to bring your own appearance to perfection?"

"Don't exagggerate. Firstly, we aren't running late. Secondly, so what if I care about wearing things neatly? That's nothing people can complain about. And last but not least, as my boyfriend, you aren't supporting me enough. If I were you, I'd have complimented myself. You can be hella glad that I agreed on wearing this costume. I did this just for you."

When Levi had finished, I let my eyes wander over his whole body—examining him from top to bottom. He looked so badass and at the same time so fine in his vampire costume which I had chosen for him. A white shirt, a pitch-black vest, night-black pants, black polished shoes, and a red rippled cravat with a jewel decorating it in the middle. Not to forget his plastic bat wings as headband on top of his head and the black gloves stretching over his hands and fingers. Overall, he looked like the sexiest human vampire there ever existed.

I wasn't saying that because I had feelings for that particular person. It was just downright true.

"See? I told you that you'd like your costume."

"Mm, I have to admit. This was quite a good choice of yours." he said as he viewed himself in the mirror again, this time from the side. A hand flattened the vest around his abdomen area. "It suits my personality."

I snorted, joining him next to the mirror. "Whatever you mean by that." I added and received a glare in return.

"Instead of joking you might as well can go comb your hair."

"But my hair isn't that messy. I checked just a minute ago." I ran my fingers through my hair.

"No, not that one. I mean that ball of hair around your neck." Shifting my eyes downwards, I furrowed my brows and grabbed the accessory around my throat. "You mean this here? First of all, it's called fur. Also, it has to be that messy."

"Nope. Not buying you that shit."

Now it was me scowling at him, but unlike him I couldn't keep that up for long, changing to a pouting and huffing animal (because my costume was that one of an animal). "Does that mean you don't like my costume?"

"It's good actually. Your angry face suits perfectly to your wolf costume, that's why."

"I'm not that angry... well, most of the time." I stuck my tongue at him, but went for a snarling hiss then, imitating a wolf as I crooked my fingers to claws, holding them up to the sides of my face.

"Cute." was Levi's short comment, a little smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.

My Halloween costume consisted of that fur around my neck, orange-brown striped pants, a dark shirt with a frayed cloth over it and wolf ears attached on top of my head. There had also been shoes in form of wolf claws delivered together with the rest of my costume, but I set those aside.

While I had even put on some Halloween make up to make my face look greyer and even added fake blood to the edges of my mouth, Levi however refused to do that. Since his skin was pale in general, there wasn't much to change about that, but what I couldn't understand yet was why he wouldn't wear fake plastic vampire teeth.

"Are you sure you don't want to use that plastic teeth? They have two sharp eyeteeth that would accentuate your appearance of a vampire." I tried it again, shaking his unoccupied arm; the other one was brushing a loose strand away from his forehead as he looked in the mirror again.

"No." It came out of his mouth stern and had a tenacious tone to it.

"But why?" I whined.

"I won't put anything in my mouth, unless it's edible or your dick."

Taken aback by this, my voice stuck in my throat, totally loss for words as an awkward silence established between us and even Levi figured out that what he had uttered just now wasn't the most appropriate thing. While holding my breath in, clueless whether to laugh or lecture, I watched how Levi averted his gaze after some time, furrowing his brows in distress before his stare settled on my face again and with eyes narrowed in uncertainty he said,

"This wasn't very romantic, was it?"

Oh Levi, my dear.

Slowly, very slowly, I shook my head, giving him a perplexed expression.

"Next time I'll try harder." he then added quickly, going back to his usual self.

I threw my arms around his neck, holding my face close to his. "Aw, it's okay. Don't feel obliged to do that." Indeed I had noticed how Levi wanted to be and do more romantic stuff with me, solely because he thought that our relationship was lacking of it and thus it would leave me dissatisfied—which wasn't true at all. I was fine the way Levi treated me. "You're doing fine. It's not necessary for you to be all romantic."

"But I'm sure a relationship needs at least a bit of cheesy romance, and I think we don't have much of it. C'mon, don't tell me you're fine the way everything is. I can't imagine that."

"It's true, though. Perhaps you didn't realize it, but you are showering me with loving gestures the whole time already."

"Oh, really?"

I nodded happily. "Yeah. Only recently, for example. You know, when I had to settle things between Armin and I. No matter how difficult I was with my mood swings and temper you were always there for me. You eased me with your hands stroking my face and hair, your words cured my despair and I just adored the way you comforted me with your hugs and kisses. Don't doubt yourself, Levi. You don't have to think of ways of how to be romantic consciously. It happens by itself and subconsciously."

There was a long time where Levi's luminous grey eyes pierced through mine softly, blinking before he took a deep breath. "I see."

"Okay, enough of that. Let's send a picture of our costumes to Armin. Maybe he'll send us his and Jean's back. After all, they're going to attend Connie's Halloween party." I took my phone out, opening the camera app.

"Are you sure you don't want to attend his party instead?"

Connie invited me to his party as well, but... "Hanji sent us an invitation first. First come, first serve. Also, I would rather not have Jean around me for hours straight if not necessary. Also, it would be a waste for you, too. My friends aren't yours, but the other way around is not exactly the same. I know quite a few of your friends now, so doing it this way is better."

"You don't have to look after me. You can go to your friend's party and I can stay at home. This way everyone is happy."

"Nope." I tapped my finger on his nose, as though I'd scold him, "Today we're gonna have some fun. No staying at home allowed."

Levi wanted to object, but nothing more than grumbling sounds were heard behind his shut mouth. And then I raised my phone, the camera lense directed at us. Holding Levi by his waist from behind with my other hand, I smiled and took a photo.

The picture turned out pretty well, except for one little thing... "If you're already opting for looking grumpily into the camera, you could have at least not sulked."

"I wasn't sulking." Levi hurled. "That's how I look."

I sent that pic to Armin first and turned my attention to him then, pecking his cheek. "And you look so cute."

He huffed, crossing his arms as he turned his face away from me. Oh god, he was so cute when he was as stubborn as a child and mad like one. "I'm not cute. Don't think I'll forgive you as easily as that."

Playing hurt, I saddened my expression on purpose. (My act would have been topped, if my fake wolf ears had the ability to drop; just like they would on dogs). I faked a sniff and jutted my lips forward. "What do I do now? Wolves don't like to be lonely."

His eyes peered at me, slitted, attempting to not give in. But he failed. "Come here, you lonely wolf." I accepted his offered hug, running into his opened arms and nuzzled the crook of his neck. It remained cuddly until a remark of him destroyed the smitten mood. "Your fur is in my mouth, let go of me."

"You could have said that a bit nicer." A high-pitched chime drew our attentions to my phone. The tone and blinking on my screen signalled me that I received a message. Taking a look at it, I figured it was Armin. "Oh, Armin sent us a message... and a picture!"

Levi looked at my phone from behind me, resting his chin on my shoulder. Armin's message read "Happy Halloween" and the picture he sent me showed him dressed in a bunny costume (oh my god, so cute!) and a grinning Jean dressed as a mummy who was...

Showing the finger to the camera.

My phone trembled in my hand in anger as I gritted my teeth. "Jean, you fucking..."

Levi on the other hand hummed in amusement. "Seems that you and that guy will never get along. At least not in this lifetime."

"That's nothing new. I knew that the very first time I met him."

And then I got another message from Armin, which read,

'I'm so sorry, Eren! I didn't want to send you this one. Jean did it! ｡･ﾟ･(ﾉД')･ﾟ･｡'

"So that middle finger wasn't planned?" Levi asked next to my ear as his hands found my waist.

"No, it wasn't. You see that? His hand is blurry. Which probably means that he rose his hand to the camera last second. And knowing that Armin wouldn't send me a pic like this to me, he acted fast and sent it himself before Armin could delete it."

"Wanna send him one back?"

I contemplated that thought for a while, but eventually decided not to. "Nah, that'd be too bothersome now."

Another chime sounded off, but it had a different tone.

"This time it's not my phone."

Levi sighed loudly as he grabbed his phone from his back pocket, groaning, "I bet all my money on it that it's Hanji." His phone screen lit up and brightened his already pale face with a white light as he unlocked his phone to open the message. His face changed to a deep frown in a split second. "What the fuck. She's asking whether we'll still come to her party. Oh my god, how annoying. She already sent me a message today in the morning. Why the fuck does she need reassurance several times a day?!"

I creased my brows. That Hanji would be as annoying as this was nothing new, but something else rose my attention. "Why is Hanji so obsessed with us attending her party?"

"How on earth should I fucking know what is going on in her head? Maybe because we've been friends for so long now and she knows how much her existence bothers me. She probably has fun getting on my nerves. Eccentric person, you know. Crazy scientist, on top of all."

"That's... reasonable." I shrugged.

"Anyway," Levi's fingers hit the screen, tapping a reply furiously before he handed me his phone. "Let's go now or else I'll receive 20 more messages from her. Just let me go pick something up from my room. I forgot something. Oh, and if she writes back – no matter what the content of her message is – reply with a 'Go fuck yourself, shitty glasses.'

I couldn't hold back a little amused smirk that grazed my lips as I watched Levi go to his room and yelled one last thing to his direction. "I know that feeling. That's the same love that exists between Jean and me. Beautiful, isn't it?" And then a chuckle left my own lips as I huffed at my own sarcasm. Seems that everyone had that one friend that they couldn't stand, no matter what, and yet they were around you because they were the friend of one of your friends.

Or the husband of your best friend.

Shrugging that thought off, I viewed the display of Levi's phone, reading the latest text message he'd sent Hanji. 'Stop messaging me every damn minute! I'd have told you if we decided not to come, you underdeveloped animal!'

Other people may have problems with Levi's language sometimes, but here I was, having fallen in love with that extraordinary side of him. I was probably one of the very few who was aware of his soft side. After all, up until recently he hadn't shown even bits of it to the outside world.

It took Hanji half a minute to reply, but what she wrote caused my anger to boil up inside me as soon as my eyes read the first few letters.

'Your honey-boo Erwin is waiting for you. Don't miss that chance darling~'

In that moment there was no thought left to execute Levi's request because wrath overtook me from one second to the other. My knuckles turned white from my hand clenching around Levi's phone and I screamed an angered cry as I raised the device above my head, ready to threw it down hard. "Fuck you!"

Levi snatched his own phone from my hand behind me before it'd meet the floor in a violent throw. "Woah, slow down right there. Don't destroy my phone. I still need it."

I panted hard, desperate madness heating me up, making it difficult for me to cool down. Balling my hands to fists, I turned around and spoke in a spat, earning a confused expression from him. "I don't know what that "joke" between Hanji, Erwin and you is but I hate it! I fucking hate it! Make it stop, please!"

Levi held my head between his hands, edging me to look into his eyes. "Calm down, will you? I'll explain to you what that thing between us is. I promise you it's harmless."

"How on earth should something like that be harmless?! How, when you fooled me once by claiming that Erwin is in love with you! How, when Hanji came up with that story of you and Erwin fucking a lot! How, when she calls Erwin your honey-boo! I don't like that joke at all! I hate it! Levi, I'm sick of this! I don't want to be confronted with anyone or anything that is a threat to our relationship, even if it's only a joke! I have already endured so much, I'm tired of this! No one—"

My voice was cut off by a pair of lips claiming mine, pressing me into a long kiss. Anxiety and insecurity had me still furious, but I let this kiss happen, without contributing much to it.

When Levi parted his lips from mine, I didn't give out any sound, being glared at with a serious expression and dull grey orbs. "When were you going to shut up and let me explain?" he growled lowly, at the same time my cheeks became victims of his soothing strokes. "The story behind it isn't as bad as you think."

"I don't want to hate Erwin, but... after everything you all told me I have no other choice left. I can't stand the idea of anyone—" I took a deep sigh, calmed down as much as possible and went on, "Okay. Tell me what it is all about."

"Just now, I told you already that I know Hanji for a very long time now. We met in highschool. Actually I had never wanted to have friends there and didn't have any. That was until Hanji and Erwin talked to me and while I was constantly making it clear to them that I didn't want to be friends with them, it was especially Hanji who was persistent. In the end, I gave it up and let them become my friends. Even back then Hanji used to be weird already, but after a while of spending time together, I noticed that Erwin was really nice to me. He was nice to everyone and never rose his tone or picked up fights. Also he used to worry about me many times. That's why, one day, I asked him out of the blue whether he was in love with me. It was meant as a joke, though! I knew Erwin well enough to know that he wasn't gay. I had no interests in him either, neither back then nor today. Hanji and Erwin knew about me swinging both sides and when I came up with that ask, Hanji burst out a loud laughter while Erwin denied my question. Since then Hanji and I would use that joke to jokingly mock him as friends, but we all know that this isn't serious at all. I am not in love with him. And he is not in love with me. Yes, Hanji is aware of that, but she enjoys pretending that the opposite is the case. Hell, Erwin is married and the straightest guy I've ever met. Also, I've stopped joking around. It's gotten boring and Erwin doesn't deserve to be annoyed this much. He's my good friend. When I told you about him the very first time I used an excuse to get you to... Well, you know what I mean. I'm sorry, Eren."

Levi's story helped only semi to satisfy my need for explanation. Only now did I realize that my heart was going faster than usual, pumping anxiety to my bloodstreams. "I-I hate that joke. Let Erwin be and tell Hanji to stop with it as well."

"I'll tell her that today. Have you calmed down now?"

I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, released the breath slowly and nodded then. "Yeah."

"Good. I didn't want to make you mad."

"You didn't do anything. Hanji is at fault. It'd be best if we didn't go to her party now." I crossed my arms, frowning. "That's the least she deserves."

"Under normal circumstances I'd agree, but..." Levi paused, staring deeply into my eyes as he said in a dead serious tone, "Do you really want to risk getting terrorized by her the next few days for not having attended her oh so important Halloween party? I wouldn't dare that, to be quite honest. It's better to go now and stay there for a few hours rather than have her do God knows what with us."

"Sometimes I'm wondering whether she's even allowed to act freely. Are you sure she didn't break out from a mental hospital or whatever?" This was half-serious, half a joke while I asked myself whoever had had to suffer from Hanji's craziness the most.

"She is sane enough to act on her own. Just a little bit too dedicated to science and animal researches. That's what gives her her crazy attitude. And she's enjoying life by adding a fun factor to something whenver she can." Levi led us to the front door. "Let's go now or else we're going to be bombarded with more messages from her."

"Does she have a lover?" I asked last, although the answer was almost too obvious.

Levi opened the door for me. "Nope. Asexual, and too much interested in other people's love life than her own."

"I expected you to say that. Geez, I hope she won't be too stresful today."

Suddenly Levi's phone signalled another incoming message. We stayed still and Levi closed his eyes, seeming to curse profanities in his mind.

"Can I break it this time?" I suggested, my tone innocent as I opened my palm.

"No. Let's hurry or else I'll make plans on how to torture her on our way."

At that time I couldn't know that Hanji had for sure things planned that would bring not only Levi but especially me to the edge of despair and would strain my nerves to unbelievable extents.

~~~

"Shiganshina university?" I questioned, confused at why Hanji would choose a setting like this.

"Yes." Levi locked up his car and beckoned me to follow him. I did as he went on. "She works here."

"But why would she throw a party here of all places?"

"Her apartment is too small for everyone she's invited to fit inside. Apparently the science faculty has hall big enough to throw a party there. Also, she told me something about needing some chemicals from the chemistry laboratories for her party."

"Do I have to be worried now? I'd rather not have something explode close to me."

"Luckily Hanji isn't as dumb as to do dangeorus things recklessly. But whoever gave her permission to use the science hall will regret it by tomorrow. It's gonna be a mess, I can already tell."

We walked outside around the campus until we reached the science faculty building and aimed for the open door we spotted. Various colours beamed through the windows and one could hear faint sounds of music from the distance, so there was no doubt that this was where Hanji would hold her Halloween party.

Right at the doorsill we bumped with Oluou and Petra.

"Oh, hi, Eren. Hi, Levi. Nice costumes." Petra greeted us first, waving. She and Oluou were disguised as zombies, but not simply zombies. Petra was a zombie bride and Oluou the zombie groom. Now I remembered that they were engaged. With their skin painted in ugly green, scars and wounds attached to the face and fake blood staining their costumes and body, they looked great as the undead couple.

"Hey. I can only say the same back." I sent a smile to Petra's direction, but dropped it when I set my eyes on Oluou who was watching me in an arrogant way. What on earth was wrong with him?

"Heh. I didn't know today is your wedding. Congratulations." Levi joked, patting Oluou's shoulder as he smirked at him.

Oluou let out a "Tch", which brought back my memory of the fact that he'd occasionally try being a second Levi. He slapped Levi's hand away. "Don't touch me with your filthy hands or else you won't be invited to our real wedding."

"Oluou!" Petra scolded him, nudging his side. To this, he rolled his eyes and Levi gave him a scowl.

"There you all are!" Someone that couldn't be mistaken as anyone else than Hanji screeched at us from the front door, spreading her arms as she hugged Petra and Oluou first and then Levi and me.

Her hug was really tight and hurt.

"Oh my fucking god, that's enough, shitty glasses. Fucking let go of me!" Levi spat, pulling her away by her forehead.

Hanji didn't do else than to grin widely at us while she was being pushed away, but then she adjusted her glasses and exclaimed once again how happy she was that we were finally here.

Basically she was dressed like a scientist the way we would associate generally. White gown, wool pullover, black pants and her usual glasses that already looked nerdy enough. The major difference from her usual appearance though was the fact that she wore a grey wig to which curly locks were attached and from many places hair stuck out in every direction. Also, she looked at least 30 years older with that make-up on her face. She probably used a face mask to make her face look creasy and wan.

"And you are...?" Knitting my brows, I cocked my head, viewing Hanji's outfit in curiosity.

"Frankenstein."

"Isn't Frankenstein that monster?" I questioned, crossing my arms.

"Nope." She rose one finger in a lecturing manner. "That's a common mistake people like to assume. Dr Frankenstein is the scientist who created that inhumane being."

"I see." Not being more interested in that matter, I went along with her explanation and stepped inside when she asked us to do so.

"Mike is dressed as Frankenstein's creation, though." Hanji added after a while. "His costume is marvelous. He even attached two screw nuts to the side of his neck to make it look like the screw is piercing through his flesh."

"Cool." I retorted in rather disinterest.

"Geez, what's up with you, Eren? I didn't invite you to be this moody. Smile!"

"You can guess what it is."

There was no way that things would be fine with Hanji and me just like that. If she really thought it would, she was too ignorant for thinking that her behaviour and tricks could be put on ice that easily.

Hanji didn't seem to have listened to me much because not much later she said "Wait here! I have to show you something" and distanced herself from us, leaving us in the middle of the hallway. We haven't even come as far as to enter the place where all the other guests were!

Oluou and Petra chattered carefreely, while Levi commented with, "Whatever she wants to show us... I don't wanna see it."

I could only agree to that, letting my gaze wander around the hallway as I waited for Hanji to come back and when I was facing the front again, Hanji had already joined us again unexpectedly, holding up something in front of her face.

"Look who I brought along! Say hi to Sawney!"

My heart skipped a beat at that big something in Hanji's hands – having the form of a ball and moving dubiously in the semi-darkness we were surrounded with – and as I felt goosebumps crawl up my body, causing every strand of my hair to stand up, I sent one of my hands flying to that thing in her hand in a defensive way of protecting myself and yelled, "Oh my fucking god! Take that shit away from me!"

It was one of the worst feelings ever hitting that thing forcefully with my bare hand, ripping it off Hanji's hold. I didn't know what direction my slap took; all I cared about was that this thing would land far away enough from me.

Obviously Hanji became the most appalled by my action. "No! Sawney!" She went after him... or her... it.

"I hope it's dead!" Oluou snapped in annoyance, his voice words drawling out of his mouth with loathing.

As I swiveled in my heels, facing my back at her in disgust, I switched my gaze from Oluou to Petra to Levi repeatedly, gripping my wrist firmly that had felt the impact just now. "Oh my god, what was that?! It felt so warm on my palm," My right hand vibrated as adrenaline shot through my body, rising my fear to a whole new level, "and fat!" I finished, the feeling of that round thing brushing my skin still lingering on my hand.

"Well, Eren," Petra moved next to me, cupping one side of her mouth as she whispered to me, "that is one of Hanji's experiments."

"Gross."

"Indeed. Try telling her that."

"Eren, you meanie!" Hanji's cry echoed through the hallway. "I won't show you my babies ever again!"

"I never asked you to do so! How absurd it is of you to really try creating a new species. Don't you know the ending of Frankenstein's story?!" Rage bubbled up my emotions and partly I found it just so ludicrous how Hanji had made me so heated up after only minutes having passed—literally.

There was a little time span where I didn't hear anything from her, except her breathing that got louder with every passing second until her face was close to mine, glasses luminated in the colours of the varying light next room. "Frankenstein is only fiction! Of course it didn't work! But my experiments will work, just you wait."

There was that part of my mind that wanted to blend out her words and pretend that nothing of this was happening. That I wasn't talking to a person this obsessed with illusionary things. "How many times did your head hit the floor when you were a baby?" I growled at her, indicating with that how weird she appeared in front of others.

She gasped, and I couldn't tell whether she was just playing it or not. "You're cruel, Eren. So mean. It happened only twice."

Oh my god. One day this woman would drive me crazy. But in a bad way.

Someone tugged at my sleeve and then I made out Levi's well known 'Oi.' "Let's go inside already. This is getting too annoying."

My eyes still slightly widened, I let out an exhausted sigh. "How did you manage to endure her for so many years?" Petra and Oluou walked ahead of us, entering the big hall first.

"Remember that today is Halloween. Her most favourite day of the year. It's plausible why she is like that; well, to some extent. You haven't gotten used to her yet."

"I think I don't wanna."

"Understandable."

"Do you by any chance have hand sanitizer with you?"

"By any chance, no."

"Hey, Levi! Do you know whether Farlan and Isabel will come, too?" Hanji asked throwing an arm around his shoulder as she caught up with us. For some reason a strange feeling in my guts was evoked by the mention of their names. And with that came unpleasant memories from a certain day that luckily were as fast forgotten as they appeared.

"When are you going to finally get it. I'm not living together with them. I don't know what they're doing or whatever. Don't ask me useless questions to which I can't say more than to fucking ask them that yourself."

Hanji scoffed. "Fine, grumpy old man."

Finally, we've reached the hall. "You're older than me, shitty glasses."

"One year is no year."

This time it was Levi scoffing, and I threw a pissed off glare at Hanji. Though I was certain that she wouldn't get the meaning behind nonverbal gestures. On the other hand, she wouldn't leave one at peace even if one were to beg her.

"Anyway. Enjoy your stay, honeys. Oh wait, wait! There's one thing I wanna ask of you two." She switched her position from next to Levi to between us, shoving us a bit apart as she took our hands into hers each. "You two are a couple, aren't ya?" Her head waved from left to right, analyzing our expressions that solely showed off anger that was directed at her and in addition to that neither of us uttered a reply. But no response was also a response. Hanji nodded once, threading Levi's and my finger together and placed her hand over our weaved hands. While her grin was unsightly, there was contentment and softness in her voice. "Beautiful."

I sighed an annoyed groan, rolling my eyes.

She pushed our backs forwards, making me stumble while Levi pierced glowers at her, catching me before I'd fall.

"Have fun, you love birds~" Waving, she retreated herself to the hallway; probably welcome other of her guests.

"Hands down. This doesn't look so bad." Levi said, emotionless and almost indifferent, although his comment revealed the opposite.

Judging from his swaying pupils, he surely meant the decoration. The hall (that didn't resemble a science room at all) was cramped with tons of Halloween decorations all over the walls and ceiling, windows and tables. Even the floor was pinned with spider's web stickers. The snacks and drinks were all Halloween-themed, such as fingerfood that looked like chopped and bloody fingers or cocktails in crimson red or dirty green colours. Many people had already gathered here, chattering joyfully. Dressed in costumes typical for Halloween: Witches, more zombies, monsters, aliens, crazy killers or Grim Reapers, ghosts, vampires.

Of course, none of the vampires looked as handsome and spooky as Levi.

"How many of my friends do you know?" The music wasn't too loud, so that I was still able to make out Levi's voice from a close distance. The changing colours of the light painted our bodies in different shades when I turned my head to him.

"Everyone who was on your siblings' birthday party."

"I see." Levi rested a hand on my shoulder as his face scooted next to mine, a finger pointing at someone before our eyes, but a bit far away.

"Hanji was right. Mike is dressed as Frankenstein's monster." Now I saw him too and wow Hanji wasn't exaggerating when she said that Mike did a good job at playing that monster. His forehead had gained width, eyebrows accentuated and face altered patchy—full of scars and uneven blemishes. Skin having taken a pale, dirty colour, there was a tool that looked like it'd pierce through his throat, as if it could keep head and neck together; it was a giant screw. "Do you see that blonde woman next to him? That's Nanaba. His girlfriend. Mike is the second weird person after Hanji, but, unlike her, the thing about him were his strange habits. And yet he found someone who tolerated his habits enough to be his girlfriend."

I mouthed an 'Oh' and remembered again that Mike's habit was to sniff at other people. Also, Nanaba was an undead dead, her lower half of her face looking like someone had ripped that part of skin off her face.

Levi continued and motioned my body to another direction. "A bit to the right there is a dark-haired man. He's wearing a Hannibal Lecter costume. That's Nile Dok. It doesn't matter how much you hate Hanji or your best friend's husband. The biggest rivalry there exists is the one between Nile and Erwin."

Now that sounded interesting.

"How comes?"

"Two men, one woman. In the end only one will savour the glory of victory and the other one has to face bitter loss."

"Are you talking about Erwin's wife?"

"Yes. She's also Nile's ex-girlfriend. But don't get it wrong now. Erwin and Nile have never been good friends to begin with."

"Bitter loss at its finest, huh?"

"It's undeniable that something like this hurts a man's pride."

I wrapped my arms around his body, my chest snuggling his upper half. "Even if I pity him now, after your clarification today I'm just glad that I'm not in the same situation as he is." A sheepish and smitten smile curled up my lips.

Levi's thumb caressed parts of my face, tracing my bottom lip at last. "Don't worry. Erwin will never get in our way."

Speaking of the devil, it was right at this very moment that Hanji called after Erwin.

Not giving much attention to it, Levi and I paced forward to a group of people where we knew most of them, and were confronted with that said person splitting from the group to give Hanji a little wave before he made his way to her.

Erwin stopped in his tracks when he encountered us and we did the same.

Mere inches separated us and it was now that I realized... it.

At this sight, my jaws dropped incredibly, face expressing shock and unwelcomed surprise simultaneously as I blankly stared at him—too paralyzed to form any coherent words in my mind and utter them intelligibly.

This couldn't be...

How could this happen?!

What was going on here?!

"Impossible!" I yelled as I pointed at Erwin who had been just as caught off guard as I was, motionless and speechless, brows knitted in apology before he sighed and took the headband off his head. He also muttered something that was too low for me to hear and which I couldn't decipher from his lip movements.

"Oh, shit." I heard Levi curse next to me.

Those black pants. That white shirt and that black vest. Gloves in just the same colour, those fake vampire wings and the fucking same red cravat!!

"How can you have the exact same Halloween outfit as Levi?!" My fingers fisted into my hair, shaking with frustration, and I was so close to pull at them. Erwin dressed as a vampire. A vampire like Levi was! This was impossible! My beautiful plan! The costume I chose for Levi wasn't that easy to find; a rare and expensive one on top. Same regarding my outfit. I wanted this to be something special between us. No matter how many people would choose a wolf or vampire costume, no one was supposed to look the same as Levi or me!

And now this! Not a random person but Erwin!

I had been on a good path to just leave those misunderstandings of him and Levi behind and now I didn't know anymore what to feel. Other people might not take it as seriously as me, but deep down in my head this was a hard challenge for me. My patience and jealousy was tested once again.

"Why... How... I don't understand... " I whimpered, wishing to just melt to the ground. Or be at home where nothing of this would have happened. "Levi, did you tell him about your costume?"

"No, I didn't."

"But this can't be! This can't be a simple coincidence! For that it's just too coincidental, it can't be true! Why him of all people?! I didn't tell him either! The only ones who knew about our costumes are Armin and Han—"

And suddenly I found the key to the revelation. All the pieces of the puzzle were put together and exposed the one logic answer to this. Memories of the past few days occured to my mind again. Of the messages Hanji had violated my phone with. Her persistance and beggings to show her our costumes. And how I had finally given in to her pleas because at some point I got too annoyed of her. At that time, I had figured it was a mistake giving her my number, but now this thought reached new dimensions.

Now everything made sense.

Fingernails clawing into my own flesh as I clenched my hands into tight fists, I pushed out heavy and dangerous breaths as I turned my body around halfway, my eyes fixating on the person who was to blame for all this, glaring holes into her head. "Hanjiiiiiiii..." I gnarled, my teeth pressed that hard together that it hurt.

Hanji didn't do more than grinning widely at me as she waved quickly. "Hi."

"Yeah, it was indeed Hanji." A deep voice that seemed to belong to Erwin spoke behind me. "Actually I had other costume plans, but it was her who came up with this vampire thing last second and literally forced me into it."

Rage filled me up from the inside as my glare intensified, the thought of revenge fueling me. She was the worst. It was obvious why she had planned this. That joke between them as friends and her sadistic side that wanted to see me suffer and mortify with jealousy.

The moments of stillness were over and it was me who began chasing after her and barely a millisecond later Hanji was already running away, me following and screaming after her.

"You annoying ass! Wait! Don't run away!"

Hanji ran towards the inner hallway of the science department, randomly turning into side floors on the left and right. Not once did I take my eyes off her, staying close on her heels, eager to fucking teach her a lesson. She should fucking regret messing with me!

Unbearable was her ugly, loud laughter echoing through the hallways. When I thought that I had finally caught her, she made a sudden turn to the left and I did the same, not paying much attention to the sight before my eyes and as I blindly followed her, my whole body met with something hard (I figured out fast that it was a closed door), forcing me to the ground.

Dizzy for the first few seconds, I clutched my face, muttering a "Fuck!" and "Shit!" under my breath.

A cracking noise sounded off, indicating that a door (the behind me) was opened. And then Hanji laughed loudly at me. "Haha, I can't believe you fell for that old trick, Eren! You're too funny!"

In a matter of a second I got up and rushed to Hanji who'd already moved again and closed the door before I could trespass it. Even though it was useless, I pressed my body hard against the door from my spot, silently piercing scowls at Hanji through the glas that was built in to the door. On the other side of it, she was leaning her hands against the glass as her face grimaced a crazy, amused expression, nose touching the transparant frame and her breath aspirating a round damp onto the glass.

She shall fucking feel what it means to mock me!

"Just you wait. I'm gonna break this door." I took a few steps back as I murmured this to myself, not averting my eyes from Hanji once. I had no clue how one would force a door open with one's foot or even whole body, but I decided to just do it somehow. As long as it was done with full force, it should work. I was ready to make my move when I received a message all of a sudden and most importantly at the worst timing ever! "What the... Who the fuck dares sending me a message— Aw!"

A hand of mine cupped my cheek as I checked my phone and realized that it was Levi who had texted me.

'Don't commit murder.'

Even if this was basically a joke, it was so sweet of Levi to care about me as much as to think that I was capable of doing very problematic things if necessary. Which reminded me of...

My facial muscles hardened along with my eyes narrowing down as I faced Hanji again who hadn't moved from her spot at all, continuing to view me from the other side of the door that separated us.

Just like a few hours ago, my hand that held the phone was raised above my head. If I... If I just hit the glass hard enough... it would break the glass.

A vibration and acoustic tone signalled another income of a message.

'Eren, come back.'

Levi, please!

I whined inwardly as I fought with my inner self, partly wishing to release my anger on Hanji, but another part of me didn't want to disappoint Levi and his trust in me.

I had to undergo minutes of internal struggles before the grip around my phone loosened and my body had calmed down as much as to not shiver in wrath anymore. Sighing loudly, I slowly made my way back, not bothering to glance at Hanji or else I'd fall back into my prior intentions.

It took me literally ten minutes to figure out my way back to the hall. Great how less knowledge about my former university was left in my head.

When I joined Levi again, he was still at the place I had left him, conversating with Erwin whose costume had noticibly changed.

"There you are."

I placed a hand over my face, a faint afterpain still roaming through my head. "Hanji, that bitch. It's because of her that I ran against a door."

Levi examined my face. "Does it hurt too much? Is something broken?"

"No." I mumbled as I shook my head.

"Well, the positive thing is that the problem is solved. Look." Levi waved a hand at Erwin.

Over his costume there was a white cloak draped over. "I'm a ghost now." he said, casual, and smiled, a rapid movement of his hand under the garment causing it to flatter.

I hummed, not finding the energy to keep up with this thing anymore. It was so nervewrecking.

"Please excuse me." I started. "I have the sudden need to fill my stomach with lots of food now. You'll find me at the buffet table." I walked away without bothering to hear an answer coming from Levi – though he didn't appear to disapprove my decision –, teetering stiffly to the table filled with all kinds of edible things.

Surprisingly, the finger foods, sandwiches and other snacks were heavenly delicious; it brought me as far as to stuff handfuls into my mouth. At the buffet, I got into conversations with other people, talking about random issues. As my mood brightened with each new load saturating my stomach, I eventually loosened completely and considered my time here to be better than expected. I knew that food would always please people.

Though, soon I had to be disturbed in my peace—and of course it was by Hanji.

"Do you like the things I made? They're tasty, aren't they?" she squealed, her voice drumming in my ear, although there were at least six feet between us.

I threw a glare at her and already contemplated which one of the finger foods I had grabbed just now would hurt the most when being thrown.

Hanji came closer, overseeing (or maybe ignoring) the threat that was emitted from me. "C'mon, Eren. Are you really that mad at my surprise?"

"Why did you do that?! Stop joking around. Erwin and Levi don't have any mutuals feelings for each other."

"But they are good friends, you know? Since Erwin has moved to Wall Sina District after university graduation, they don't see each other that often anymore. See it as a matching costumes between friends!" She clapped her hands together, glittering a smile.

"Matching costumes, my ass! This is the worst idea you could come up with!"

"But Eren..." She began sulking, her eyes googling a puppy eyes look. This didn't look cute at all when being disguised as an old, wrinkly scientist.

"Don't annoy me. Let me and Levi at peace." I filled two plates with various food, taking them in one hand and leaving the buffet. Only a few steps taken, and I already stopped in my tracks. "By the way," Even if I didn't turn to her, it was clear that my words were aimed at Hanji, "You could've convinced as many people as you want to wear the same costume as Levi, in the end it wouldn't have mattered. Levi wouldn't have been flattered. Because..." Smirking, I whipped my head back as lasciviousness glistered in my eyes. I clapped a hand over my right ass cheek and squeezed once. "Levi can't resist this wolf ass here."

The result was a stammering and squeaking Hanji being left behind, screaming "Eren, you hot beast!" at me last but not least.

The moment I went back to Levi, Erwin had disappeared and instead he was talking to Petra (and Oluou; whether he wanted it or not) and Mike, Günther and Erd. It rather looked as though they were attempting to convince him to talking more to them and Levi refused to, giving them a frown. At their high table, I placed my plates in front of Levi, stating with excitement in my tone, "Look what I brought along! They taste so great! You should try them, too." I had already taken a snack between my fingers, raising it too his mouth.

"Oh, let me have a taste as well." Oluou said, an arm longing for my food. Immediately, I slammed an arm before my plates, building a barier between his greedy fingers and my plates; hissing like a wolf.

"Go grab some snacks yourself!" What was actually supposed to be treated to Levi landed in my mouth now as I embraced the delicious taste that unfurled on my tongue and stimulated my taste buds. The big question was how someone like Hanji had managed to make these things, but in the end I didn't care. If I were to have gained weight by tomorrow, it would be Hanji's fault.

Oluou clicked his tongue in annoyance, already making his way to one of the buffet tables as he glared at me, Petra not having succeeded in calming him down. I sent glares back at him, taking another bite demonstratively right in front of his eyes. Right now wild hunger and stubborness were controlling my mind and body.

"I didn't want to eat any of those anyway." Levi claimed, and I looked him in the eyes. What I saw in them concerned me. The colour in his eyes was dull and weak, empty, and his face showed off unhappiness.

Alarmed by this, I forgot about the food right away and was thinking about nothing else anymore than him. "Is something the matter? You look sad."

Levi averted his eyes, sighed slowly, looked around him and noticed that everyone was busied doing other things that didn't include listening to us, took my hand in his then, and established eye contact again. "It's obvious that I changed my attitude towards you. I am more open now and showing more feelings. More of those emotions that I had oppressed before. Right?"

I nodded, and Levi squeezed my hand lightly.

"I don't know how to act in front of my friends. The uncertainty of whether I need to be more open to them or not is bothering me. What if they call me weird when facing another self of mine? Everything would be easier, if I didn't change at all in front of them. But at the same time I can't get rid of the thought that I'm not the old me anymore. So why should I stick to my old self's attitude when I'm not the same anymore? And yet... I know that you wouldn't hurt me, Eren. But can I tell the same about other people I know?" Even if he wouldn't admit it out loud, I could sense the haze of despair in his voice.

Levi was scared of harming himself by making false decisions.

I lowered my gaze to our entwined fingers before I looked up at him again. A faint smile ghosted over my lips. "Friends aren't meant to hurt you. They exist to keep you away from loneliness and brighten your life. Even if it differs from person to person, there is a certain amounf of trust you can have in others. You don't have to, but when you spent much time with someone, you'll find out more about them; whether and how much you can entrust personal things, and how much you mean to them. A coin has always two sides, though. Sometimes one has to accept that not everyone who claims to be your friend has good intentions with you. As soon as you find that out, the best is to break ties with them. Forget about them and move on because no one has to suffer from abusive friends. I don't have the right to be the judge. It's up to you to decide how much you want to reveal your feelings and yourself to others. You can be cautious. Or you can follow your instincts. But look at them." I waved a hand towards everyone around us. Hanji, Erwin and Moblit have joined us as well by now. Hanji noticed us talking about them, attentive, trying to figure out what we were going on about. "You know them for quite a while now. Think to yourself how much you are willing to show of yourself. How much you'd trust them. Friends don't ridicule their friend for their problems. True friends feel with and comfort them."

Of course I didn't expect - even less did I demand - from Levi to tell them everything about himself. It wasn't an obligation in the first place and I think he understood. He eyed his friends silently, brows furrowed in deep contemplation.

My other hand found this back and I leant to his chest as I added, "You don't have to make a decision right away."

"No, it's fine." he retorted quickly. And then his facial muscles softened and ended in a small smile. "I think I know now what I want."

"Say, say. What were you two talking there about?" Hanji interrogated, making little jumps in place.

"Tch!" Oluou spat as he arrived at our table again, with food for himself. He was throwing a pissed off glare at me. "Here. My own snacks. Satisfied now, you little moron?"

I was about to snarl another remark at him, but Levi was faster. "For fucking's sake, Oluou! How many times did I tell you already to not imitate me anymore?! It's damn annoying."

"I'm not imitating you, brat!"

"Who are you calling brat? Brat!"

This was not what I had expected after our little talk, but it showed that – no matter whether Levi had changed – there'd always be things about him that would never change. I began chuckling and Petra did as well, the mood lightening up as we all embraced the easy-going atmosphere that had established around us.

Levi leant forward for a kiss and I did the same, our lips meeting in the middle. We didn't feel bothered by the others around us, blending out everything else mentally as I placed a hand on Levi's cheek. It felt so perfect. Well, until...

"Waaaaah!" Hanji exclaimed happily and tore us apart from our kiss. "Is my favourite couple making babies?" Her voice caught a crazy tone, as if she was starting obsessing over something.

"God damn it. Quit being annoying." Levi murmured, annoyed, frowning at her.

My head was resting on his shoulder again and I looked at her with hatred, too—for having dared intervening in something that we had actually enjoyed.

At that time, I shouldn't have thought that everything was over now and that Levi and I could enjoy the rest of the night in peace. Oh, how clueless I was because the "fun" was yet to begin.

Nothing was unusual at first, though. I had stayed by Levi's side for a while until he mentioned a smoke break that I didn't want to be part of, so while I let him go outside, I myself headed for the buffet again. On my way, I talked to some people and one time Hanji even dared asking me whether I wanted to help her setting up everything for the upcoming Halloween games she'd prepared for today. A telling scowl at her was response enough to shut her up, sulk, and search for another one who'd lend her a hand.

At some time, I found myself in heated discussions between Levi's friends who couldn't come to an agreement about who was wearing the best costume. Of course everyone claimed their own ones as the best, but that didn't bring them anywhere. It may be right that I didn't give my own personal opinion about that issue, listening to their arguments instead and agreeing to all of them (which just made it even more complicated to find a final "winner") as I told myself that there could only be two winners when it came to judging whose costume was the best. Of course mine and Levi's were the best and no one could tell me otherwise. Admittedly, I was laughing to myself when everything got out of hand and Oluou and Moblit found themselves in demanding a Halloween costume contest, but since Hanji didn't have something like that planned, she rejected their request. Lastly, she claimed that it was ridiculous to discuss over who looked best because it would be obvious that she herself was the one with the greatest costume.

I was nibbling one of my Teriyaki spit when Hanji patted my left shoulder. Looking at her caused me to roll my eyes and groan inaudibly, switching to an indifferent attitude.

"Everything alright?" she asked me out of the blue.

Yeah. I was totally fine until you appeared, thanks for asking.

"What do ya want?" I spat at her, sounding rude.

"Where is Levi?"

"Smoking."

"Oh. Still?"

"Who knows?" At this point, I guessed that slowly but certainly it was about time for me to make him quit it again.

"You know..." Hanji paused, falling dead silent, and I darted my eyes at her with a questioning expression, spotting how she was trying to create suspense with her dramatic pause. "Last time I checked he was smoking together with Erwin." Her eyes flashed up mischievously.

Normally, this shouldn't have me shook, but it did. At the same time I didn't want to admit it to myself, but I realized very quickly that claiming the opposite was pointless. Breathing in and out deeply in order to tell myself that there was nothing to worry about, I attempted to erase Hanji's words from my mind that were bugging me right now. And when I dropped the spit I knew that I had given in to my ridiculous thoughts. There was that anxious part of me that kept at it and was certain about a specific thing, even though I was proven the opposite more than once already. Many times being proven only today. And yet those little thoughts in my head grew mouths and spoke. Wasn't there that tiny little chance that Erwin and Levi had possibly...

A loud thud was caused by the door, which lead outside to the back of the hall, that I had ripped open violently. To my sight came Erwin and Levi who had held a carefree conversation, both of them smiling slightly. By the way I noticed that Erwin wasn't wearing that white cloak anymore, but had taken off his cravat and vest. I stared at them silently and with eyes widened in unreasonable anxiety. They stopped talking as soon as I appeared, Levi raising one brow, irritated, while Erwin eyed me, no expression on his face. The cigarettes they were holding between their fingers were fuming.

My concerns existed for no reason and this was the proof. But still...

"What is it?" Levi began first, taking a drag. He smirked when he puffed out the smoke. "Changed your mind and wanna join us?"

I didn't reply, making my way to Levi to give him a very tight hug.

"Woah. What has gotten to you, Eren? Is something wrong?" He stroked my head while his other hand holding the cigarette stayed away from me as far as possible.

I rose my head and looked into his eyes with earnest seriousness. "I'm just here to tell you that..." It was merely a split second that I shot a glare at Erwin, changing my expression back to my previous one as fast as I could. Listen well, Erwin. "I love you so much, Levi."

"This is cute." Erwin commented on us.

My eyes narrowed to a slit again and there was somewhat a bestial roar bubbling in my throat. If there had ever been a wolf spirit inside me it was coming to existence right at this very moment.

My fingers fisted Levi's vest and I bit the inner flesh of my mouth, being overstrained with the situation myself. I didn't know what exactly I was trying to gain from this, but doing nothing hadn't been an option for me either.

"I don't know why you came up with this right now, but I appreciate it." Levi told me, hugging me with one arm.

"Mine." I cooed, rested the side of my head on his shoulder in a way that I could still beam glares at Erwin.

Thinking of how I was disturbing their conversation from good friend to good friend, made me remember Hanji's words.

'They are good friends, you know? Since Erwin has moved to Wall Sina District after university graduation, they don't see each other that often anymore.'

Now that I thought twice of it, I figured out it would be impolite and rude of me if I were to forbid them to do what good friends would do together.

"Okay, I got it now. You want my attention, right?"

And now I was practically forcing Levi to be with me instead of one of his friends.

This didn't feel right either. After all, I could be with him every day and every night.

"No." I eventually spoke, releasing my grasp from him. "You and Erwin can go on talking about whatever you two were talking." I waved with one hand dismissively, going inside. "Don't mind my interruption."

"Are you mad at me?" I heard Levi ask, worry but also sternness controlling his voice.

Either way it didn't make me utterly happy and since I had to choose one, I opted for the less selfish one. I hope my altruistic behaviour will pay off one day, I chose not to be selfish!

"Not at all." I gave him a smile—it wasn't an entirely genuine one, but neither did it have any traces of pain. "You don't see Erwin that much, right? Spend as much of the remaining time with him as you want."

I could guess from his face that Levi was doubting.

"You don't have to look after me." Erwin barged in. "I don't want to stand in your way."

I clicked my tongue, giving him a scowl. "Don't make it more complicated. I'd rather not have my decisions being invalidated."

"Fine." He rose his arms in defense. "Fine by me."

"It's okay, Levi. Really." And in order to stress that, I added, "I have plenty of time to get attention from you, love." I blew him a kiss and left with that, and the last thing I heard from them was a

"Nice." from Erwin and a

"Shut up." from my beloved Levi.

~~~

Despite of the fact that I had made this decision myself, it didn't help me with my bad mood.

After the encounter with Erwin and Levi, I had retreated myself with a drink to one of the tables near the corner, head laying on the surface as I sulked and drowned myself in self-pity. Some had approached and asked me whether I was alright (like Petra, Günther or some random people did) and to each I had nodded to their first question and shook my head when they asked whether I wanted them to bear me company. Thus, as I had wanted it, I was left alone. Occasionally taking a sip from my alcoholic drink that I had picked randomly.

There was one – and only that one – person that wouldn't give much shit about my needs such as desiring to be alone right now, so they joined me at the table, hitting my back encouragingly several times.

"What's up, Eren? Don't be so gloomy. The games will start soon. Aren't you excited?" Hanji asked, her voice loud next to me.

"Go away." I whined—to no avail.

"Seriously, though," Her face was next to mine, eyes searching for an answer in my expression. I watched deadly into her orbs. "Why so down? Did something happen?"

Actually I hadn't wanted to answer her but as soon as I noticed that I could blame Hanji for a lot, I opted for talking to her because my answer was giving me the strength to speak up. "Taking everything that happened into consideration," Just like she had done it before, I was the one taking that dramatic pause to raise the tension, "it's all your fault."

"Huh?!" Hanji sounded taken aback and confused.

I swayed the content in my glass and watched it whirl a swirl. "It's actually quite easy to be honest. All your provocations starting from Farlan and Isabel's birthday party and your mischiefs are the reason why I can't do else than react stiffly whenever Erwin and Levi are mentioned in the same context. That joke between you three from back in highschool is the biggest shit ever."

The first part of it was only half the truth, but I didn't think she had to know. My intention was to get Hanji away from her annoying play that dealt with pretending there was something going on between Erwin and Levi just because Levi had wondered once jokingly whether Erwin was in love with him. Convincing her to stop fooling around, that is.

She silently replaced my now empty plastic cup with a full one, not feeling bothered by the fact that I had been watching her every movement with narrowed eyes just now. All she did was to grin at me.

"What did you put in there?" I questioned sternly.

"Nothing. That would cost my job."

That was a valid answer, therefore I trusted her words. So she had another plan, I concluded.

"Don't think you can get me drunk." I said next and spilled some content into my mouth.

"Okay." She sounded nonchalant, but at the same time I could see something sparkling in her eyes. As if she was awaiting her victory.

Not with me. As if I'd fall for her trick.

~~~

I lost. I have damn lost to her.

Our talk had dragged on and somehow Hanji had really managed to get me to drink more and more. Just because I was rambling to her (why her of all people?!) and swallowing down my dejection with alcohol.

And now I'd become a slurring mess.

"I love Levi sho much, y'know," I babbled, swinging my cup in the air by my propped arm as the left side of my face lay flat on the table.

"Are you alright?" Hanji's voice sounded dull in my ears.

"'M fine, dammit." Raising my head slowly, I stared at her, noticing how she was grinning at me. "What?"

"You drank alot." She shrugged her shoulders.

"It's because of you."

"No." She said that as if she was talking to a little child, shaking her head. "I didn't force you to anything."

"Hanji, fuck, why are you doing this to me?" I raised my cup to my lips, only to realize that it was empty. "More!" I threw the cup away, slamming a fist onto the table.

"Why did you drink this much in the first place?" Hanji probed, and in my current state I couldn't figure out where she was planning with that question.

So I answered like a slave. "Because I was unhappy."

"Why are you unhappy?" I was sure that I had told her enough about my worries beforehand (I hope not too much) and this was probably just a feint to trigger something off inside me.

"Because seeing Erwin and Levi together makes m-me anxious!" I hit the table again, yelling this time and probably acted like a kid that was upset because they didn't get what they wanted.

"But you don't have to be anxious. Levi is your boyfriend, have you forgotten?" Hanji said it in a way that encouraged me to agree with her.

"Yesh, he is my boyfriend!" I repeated.

"Then go and get your Levi!"

"My Levi!" I stood up abruptly, and regretted it the instant because I almost fell. Taking a few seconds to gain my balance, I then chuckled out of the blue, stepping away from the table.

"Eren, where are you going?" Hanji sounded more than happy.

"I'm going to Levi..." I replied, smiling at that thought and made my way to the crowd in the middle of the hall. Somewhere... Somewhere there was Levi. I was sure about that.

My mind was working slowly and my sight wasn't the best, even less when flashy lights were added, but nevertheless I didn't give up and searched for him everywhere. It took me some minutes but when I finally found him close to the center of the whole room –together with Erwin –, I halted first, smile having become bright and called his name.

"Levi!" He did hear me but had to look around for a while before he spotted me. And his eyes widened slightly when his eyes settled on me because he realized I was running fast at him, not slowing down—not even when I had almost reached him.

"Wait—! Eren, what are you doing ther—"

I jumped on his body with my own whole body, arms and legs wrapping around him. I didn't think of what consequences my reckless move had, but it seemed that Levi had managed not to fall back, with me on top. So stumbling to the left and right, back and forth, Levi tried keeping himself up on his feet as I clung tighter onto him, grinning.

Finally he balanced himself and held me, too, though not as firmly.

"Eren? What are you doing there?" he asked, totally overthrown.

"I just want to hug you!"

"But not like this. You almost knocked us over. Me and you."

I didn't listen to him, turning my face over to Erwin who was witnessing this with a questioning but amused face.

"Mine!" I yelled at him, holding Levi closer as I hooked my ankles tighter together on Levi's back. "Levi is mine!"

"Yay! Bitch fight!" Hanji exclaimed, cheering.

"Oh my god, Hanji! What did you do this time?!" Levi snapped at her.

I hugged him as firmly as I could, pressing my eyes shut. "You are mine!"

"Yes, okay. Fine." Levi tried to push me away from him, but I didn't move an inch. My head whipped from one side of the room to the other, glaring at everyone. I hope this way they understood who Levi belonged to. Some were giving us weird stares, others weren't bothered by this. "I think literally everyone understood that now. Eren, please. Get off of me."

For some reason I really did as I was told, getting on my own feet. I had my eyes on Erwin again, cackling then. My subconsciousness knew that I should better shut up, but my mind was too foggy from the alcohol to think and judge properly. So as I held Levi's hand with one of my hands, the other one pointed at Erwin.

"You can't take Levi away from me." I told him, smirking confidently.

"I thought we're through this now, Eren. Don't make it worse." Levi begged, shaking me by my occupied arm.

But I didn't listen, pointing at random people around me. In between I caught a glimpse of Hanji watching us in awe, mouth wide and hands clapped together. "No one of you can take him away from me. Yea." I nodded to myself, hiccuping once. I switched my gaze back to Erwin, my smirk not fading. He was looking at me with one big brow raised. "Levi and I experienced so much together. Yeah, you two didn't do any of those things together, right? You don't even know how far we dare to go. One time even, Levi's tongue was inside my a—"

"Eren." Levi clapped a hand over my mouth, cutting off my voice. "This is nothing other people have to know." I locked eyes with Levi lazily whose head was hovering over mine. There was no sign of embarrassment visible on his face. No redness nor flustered cheeks. Instead his grey orbs were piercing through me, silently telling me to watch out for my words. I huffed through my nose, grinning under his palm.

"Oh?" Erwin's voice sounded off, directed at Levi. What I could tell from the corner of my eyes, he had his hands folded behind his back, giving Levi a suggestive smirk, this time raising a brow at him. "So this is stuff you are into? Interesting." His words and his voice expressed how amused he was by this.

"Shut up. I'm sure you and Marie aren't the most innocent in bed either." was Levi's response.

"You wanna know?"

"Hell no! Keep your fucking kinks to yourself."

"Alright."

Since I got bored of this after a while, my body did whatever shit my drunk mind was producing and ordering it. I licked Levi's hand.

"The fuck..." Levi pulled his hand away, slight irritation mirrored in his face.

A random question popped into my head. "Where are your gloves?"

"You can be fucking glad that you didn't lick my gloves. I took them off when I smoked." I hummed a melody as I played with his fingers. "Listen. I don't know how drunk you are, but as a 25 years old you should know how much alcohol you can handle."

I blinked at him innocently, guessing from the way he looked at me that he was already so done with my shit. "I'm not 25." I halted, raising a finger. "I'm 80." And then I started laughing, loud, my tipsiness obviously doing all things to me.

Seconds later he shoved me away, saying, "Okay. You obviously need to take some fresh air."

"But I'm fine!"

~~~

Honestly, the time outside, sitting with Levi on a bench nearby did really do me good. My head became clearer and I didn't feel as drunk as before. Levi ran his fingers through my hair, my head resting on his chest while my upper body leant on him.

To be quite frank, I could just close my eyes and sleep right there and right then.

But not with my guilt gnawing at me. "Do you hate me for being drunk?" I said sheepishly, picking at the sleeve of his pure white shirt.

"Why should I?"

"Because... well... You had had to make bad experiences with... drunk people."

"You can't compare yourself to them, Eren. They were alcoholics."

"But still... Drunk means drunk."

Levi's chest rose and feel under my head as he took one deep breath and pushed it out as a sigh. "There are different kinds of drunk people. Those who become aggressive and violent when drunk. Those who embarrass themselves and fuck things up. Those who become emotional and cry all night. Those who become really eccentric and loud, acting like crazy. And then there is you."

"Hey." I countered, feeling attacked.

"Not meant in a good or bad way."

"This doesn't make me feel better."

"What I'm trying to say is that you aren't the worst when drunk. I don't hate you at all for it."

An almost inaudible hum sounded deep in my throat. Several minutes in silence passed. I wanted to sit like this together with Levi a little longer, but my mouth felt so dry and I couldn't take it anymore. "I'm so thirsty."

"I'll go get you some water."

Whining, I reluctantly let go of Levi, sulking.

"There you two are!" Hanji suddenly yelled from the doorsill, waving at us. "The Halloween games will start soon!"

Levi beckoned her to go inside by pointing at the direction she came from. He created a furore with a rough and venomous voice. "Go inside. Immediately! We aren't done talking yet!"

Hanji laughed as she disappeared again.

- - -

Levi

Hanji was walking through the crowd a few steps ahead of me, but I caught up right away and grabbed her by the collar, pulling her back to me.

My own hands, that were fists now, gripped her collar hard as I tugged her up, forcing her to stand on her toes. The threatening death glares I was sending Hanji had little to no effect on her because her face faltered only a bit and that was just because of my very sudden action

"Listen well now, shitty glasses." Each and every word that left my lips was underlined with bitter wrath and harsh crudeness, expressing the infinite hatred I felt for Hanji right now. "It isn't funny anymore. Not at all! Stop using that joke about Erwin on him, me and especially Eren!"

Her eyes big, Hanji opened her mouth in wonder. "Wow, Levi. When was the last time I saw you this angry?"

"I'm serious here! Don't underestimate my words!"

Her giggle snapped my last straw. Oh, how much I wanted to break that impudent mouth of hers.

"Levi," Someone touched my shoulder. It was Erwin. "Don't go too far."

It took me seconds and all of my sanity to give him a satisfying answer. "I'll try not to."

"And you, Hanji, you were already going too far. More than once."

"Pfft. No wonder that this would come out of your mouth."

I shook her by her collar once to gain her attention. "You fucking won't understand it, huh? You surely don't want to, huh?! Your silly behaviour is going too far. It's enough. Leave Erwin at peace. And keep Eren out of this! Your "jokes" brought him to despair and exhaustion. I won't let that happen to him ever again. Don't you dare continue with your shits or else I'll make a living hell out of your life!"

"Oh, I'm sure that would be interes—"

"For Heaven's sake, Hanji!" My voice rose an octave. "Do you remember how I told you once that the relationship between Eren and me is complicated?"

"Of course I remember~! No way would I forget something like thi—"

"It isn't complicated anymore. It isn't! And it shall stay like that. He doesn't deserve any pain anymore. We, but mostly he, suffered a lot from it. Don't. you. dare. mock. him. in. any. way. Got it? I'm dead serious."

Now a reaction was visible on her face: Smile dropped, brows drawn up in sorrow and the carefree joy mirrored on her face gone. "My babies had to go through pain?"

My brows twitched in irritation. "Don't place us on the same level with your failing experiments."

"My favourite couple had to go through pain?" she corrected herself, clutching a piece of her gown that lay over her chest.

Even if the most painful things happened beyond Hanji's influence, it was already awful enough that she swirled up the peace that had finally settled between Eren and me.

Hopefully she fucking understood now.

"Now... what is your answer? Choose wisely, my fist is ready anytime."

"Come on, Levi." Erwin interferred. "You wouldn't punch her, no matter how annoying she is. All three of us know that."

I didn't answer right away, debating over whether today would be the day where this would change. No, it wouldn't.

"Tch." I pushed Hanji away from me, placing a hand over my hip. "You better don't make me angry over this issue again." Voice a lot calmer now, I took my eyes off her. Her voice got louder though and then I felt her shoulder brushing mine, passing me.

"Ereeeeeen! I'm sorry!" I didn't even need to turn around to know that she was going after him, so I just rolled my eyes.

"It's finally over, hm?" Erwin cleared his throat.

"Yeah."

"Eren, I'm so sorry! Don't be mad at me, okay? I just wanted to have a little bit fun!" Hanji's voice reached even us, although she was outside and music blasted through the boxes inside.

Groaning, I made my way to them to pick her up. As I got closer, I heard the things that Eren said to her.

"What the heck?! Let go of my leg!"

When I reached them, I spotted that Hanji was indeed hugging Eren's leg, kneeling as she cried out apologies at him.

Eren threw a pleading look at me. "Help me, please."

I complied (since there was one last reason why I still needed her right now) and grabbed one of her arms, dragging her inside. At this point I even ignored the fact that I was tugging Hanji away from him while her body swept over the floor.

"Now tell me where I can get some water." I said in a nonchalant tone, getting inside.

- - -

Eren

I watched Levi and Hanji until they were inside and faced the front again then. Scratching my head, sighing, I prayed internally that this would be the final end. No more complications, please.

But then I heard someone sigh as they sat down on the other side of the bench.

Oh my god, what was it this time?

A clicking sound reached my ears and when I shifted my head to the right, Erwin came to vision; having lit a cigarette and inhaling before he retreated his hand from his mouth, parting his lips to exhale the white, toxic fume. He was sitting with one leg placed over the other, an arm resting horizontal across his chest as his other arm's elbow rested on his palm. A faint smile played around his lips.

"Ah, yes. It's about time for me to quit smoking. Now that I have a little child at home. Marie is already reproaching me whenever she can. She wouldn't let me hold him if my clothes had even the slightest smell of smoke. Perhaps this one here is my last one." he started, twirling the cigarette between his fingers as he regarded it, as if it was a test object. I grasped that this was his attempt to start a conversation with me. The bigger question though was whether I was willing to contribute to it.

He took out something, which revealed itself as a pack of cigarettes, and held it out to me. I steered at him from the corner of my narrowed eyes, looking away then.

"Don't even bother asking."

"Fine. I just wanted to be nice."

I scoffed. At this point it wouldn't even surprise me anymore if it happened for Levi to have started smoking because of him. The main reason why I used to hold a grudge against him up until a few hours ago may have vanished, but it appeared that there was another reason sneaking up, giving me a valid explanation of why I didn't have to accept him as a friend.

"Levi started smoking years before me." Erwin stated simply, causing me to react taken aback for a second, for he responded to something I had only been thinking of just now. I hated it when people could read my mind. I wasn't that easy to read, was I?

"S-So what? Soon he won't do that anymore. I'll make sure of it."

He scratched his shaved chin. "You're sounding like my wife."

"Well, at least your wife and I know that smoking is bad. Now don't argue with that 'We all are going to die anyway' shit."

"As a renowned lawyer, I would never allow those meaningless words slip past my lips. Else I'd have to ask myself where I'd meet the expections of my fellow lawyer friends, if I ever were to not find a valid reasoning."

Getting irritated, I regarded him suspiciously at first, my mind following only partly. "I didn't understand half of the things you said, but don't think you can befriend with me like that. Stick that cigarette up your ass or elsewhere, but don't offer me one ever again."

Erwin huffed a little chuckle, not seeming to feel insulted or attacked at all. He took another drag, and went on. "Besides what is already obvious is there another specific reason why you dislike me?"

As a first growl trailed up my throat, I crossed my arms, my shoulders hunched. "I hate that joke between you and Hanji and Levi."

"Trust me. No one hates it more than I do. Luckily I'm not living in Shiganshina anymore. Like that I can avoid Hanji's mockings, I'd even forget about it most of the time. But whenever all three of us meet, she'd bug me constantly. Unbelievable and at the same time expected that she's the only one who isn't tired of it yet."

Momentary quietness washed over us as a light breeze fluttered our hair in that cold last day of October. I stared forward, my fingers threaded and arm laying on my thighs. I moved my fingers, curled them, took a glance at my nails and stretched them again before they'd form back to one with my other hand. "I've already asked this Levi, but now I want to hear it coming out of your mouth. You better don't hide anything and spill everything out."

"I'm pretty sure I know what you're going to ask me, but oh well. You know how it goes. Especially in court. People answer when they were asked questions. So go ahead."

My inner self was rolling its eyes at least five times and I felt just the same. No need to act like a philosoph, pal. "What are your feelings about Levi?" The words brushed my lips with less emotions than I had expected. Perhaps it was the exhaustion from the happenings today.

"A friend; a good friend. We know each other for more than 10 years now. Over the years we got along well and understand each other. That's it. Listen, I'm not into males and Levi never showed interest in me either. He's a loyal person, despite of never having been in a relationship before. He didn't sleep with anyone behind women or men he had an affair with, even if those didn't last long. I'm pretty much certain that you mean a lot to him. So if he didn't betray someone he had just fucked, he'll for sure not betray someone who is more important to him. He can stick his tongue into your ass as many times as he wants, I don't care."

My body stiffened at his last statement and I looked at him in shock. "Wait, what?! How do you...? Who told you...?"

"Hm?" He side-eyed me, cigarette raised to his mouth, the tip of it gleaming. Blowing out, he casually said, "You. You told me that. Barely half an hour ago."

My eyes widened horrifyingly. "What?! You're lying!"

He flipped some ash off his cigarette. "No, I'm not. It really happened."

"When exactly?!"

"When you were clinging to Levi like a monkey. Drunk, that is."

I covered my head in my palms, shaking it. "No, no, no, no! This is the worst, how could this happen to me. How many have heard that?"

"Not so many, I think. Well, I did. And Levi. And Hanji."

"Oh my god, no! No, please not Hanji!"

"You can't change it anymore."

"But dying from embarrassment is still an option."

"Not a good one, though."

"She'll bring this up whenever she can, I'm sure."

Erwin was silent for a second. "Hm, you might be right. But somehow it excites her knowing that you and Levi are a couple."

"I don't care. She'll annoy me."

"Knowing her, she wouldn't go as low as to mention it in front of others. I can imagine her suggesting you two some exotic kinks, though. That's more likely Hanji. "

"God, I'm so fucking done." I dropped my head and sighed, closing my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. Then, I sat up straight, but continued looking down.

Erwin was sitting silently next to me, neither of us bothering to say more than needed. Since basically everything necessary was said, there was nothing to talk about anymore.

When I couldn't endure the unbearable silence any longer, I just vocalized the first thought that roamed my mind. "You have a son?"

"Yes. Leo. Three months old."

Cute. "Want to be a good father?"

"Of course."

"Then stop smoking." I said sternly, and deep inside me there bloomed a little feeling of spite.

"Touché." Puffing out his last blow, Erwin squelched the cigarette butt under his black polished shoe, walking up to me after that. While I remained the same as before, he extended a hand at me. "Pleasant to have cleared out all misunderstandings between us."

I regarded his hand first (at least it was the one that hadn't held the cigarette) and after some hesitation, I placed mine in his. He gave our hands one firm shake and released afterwards right away. "Enjoy the rest of the party. Together with Levi of course." He stepped inside, while I was left here, not sure whether the last thing he said had some innuendos or not.

In the end, I just dismissed it.

Finally I heard someone's voice that I would gladly hear as much as I could right now.

"What did you do?" Levi said to someone, probably to Erwin. I couldn't see him yet, but he must be close to the door that led outside to me.

"Nothing bad."

And then I sighted him, carrying a whole water bottle and a cup.

Of course he'd take precaution. I whiffed a smile at him as I accepted the cup. "One glass of water would have been enough."

"You can never be sure. Better this way than dying in thirst. Sorry it took longer than expected. I had to deal with Hanji for a bit." He opened the cap of the bottle and poured me some water.

"It's okay."

"Seems that you had a conversation with Erwin." It sounded more like a question than statement.

"Yeah. We're cool now. Kind of." I wetted my mouth with a big gulp of water. "What are we going to do next?"

"Going inside. Hanji wants to start with her shitty games."

~~~

"I apologize for the little delay." Hanji announced, standing on top of a little stool to tower above everyone else of the guests. "Everything is sorted out now, so... Let the games begin!" She fistbumped the air, and everyone cheered.

Now that I was inside again and looked around, I noticed that some things have changed. One could indeed spot constructions, giving off the assumption that they could be meant for some sort of games.

Not much later, the first game began.

Hanji started off with something simple—usually it would be easy. Bobbing for apples. A game where one would try catching an apple with only their mouth as the apples float in a tub of water. Hanji had altered the game a bit and made it... less enjoyable for those who were fishing out the apples. First of all, the tub contained of ice-cold water, even some ice cubes were swimming in there. The other thing only the ones trying to catch an apple would notice it because after many failed attempts they became suspicious and guessed that Hanji made this game extra hard.

"The apples are too big! How are we going to even snatch one!" someone complained, waterdrops trickling down his face and his bottom lip quivering due to the cold water it was dipped in. Another one's head popped up from the tub, crying out how cold the water was. Neither did they manage to catch one.

"Stop complaining. You just suck at this." Hanji said, a cocky grin plastered on her face.

Since some other guests couldn't quite believe that this game was impossible to win, they dared sticking their heads into the icy liquid as well, wanting to prove the opposite. Which they couldn't. None of them – not even a single person – seeemed to have a chance at this, which led to some of them getting too irritated, so they started cheating and grabbed an apple with their hands. Basically every other participant followed them. They looked satisfied when finally one of the apples stuck between their lips, and bit into it.

"You cheaters! I told you that you suck at this!" Hanji acted totally appalled.

"You're one to talk! You betrayed us with this game first!"

As a result, all of them received a load of flour that Hanji threw at them. Neither of us had this expected, but flour sticking to a damp face surely was a funny thing to look at.

"Well, this was just a warm-up." Hanji shrugged, "Let's go over to the real games. Next one is arm-wrestling."

Many people expressed a sound of confusion, as in asking themselves why that would be a Halloween game.

Hanji sat down on a chair by a round table, to her left and right stood each one chair; the places where the opponents would be. She grinned at us, explaining, "You all know that Jelly Bean game? One half of the jelly beans is fruit-flavoured and the other half looks the same on the outside but consists of disgusting flavours. Well, I made some of those Jelly Beans myself." She rose her hands from under the table, carrying a bowl that was filled with those beans. But they didn't look the same as the ones one would know. "With the difference that mine are a lot bigger." True. Hers had the size of half of a palm. "And I think the original ones are too merciful with their gross flavours. I used some flavour enhancer and I think it's more fun eating this with stronger flavours." She laughed once. "Of course all of these are synthetic. Now come! Who wants to arm wrestle? The loser has the privilege to eat foul eggs, foul cheese, socks, shit, sewage, sweat, diapers or piss."

My stomach twisted at the mention of this, alone the thought of it sickened me.

"This is so disgusting." Levi said, forehead creased to a deep frown.

"Yeah, it is."

There was many hesitation at first, but some time later people dared this. Two people (mostly befriended with each other) would always play this game, and it was obvious that each of them did this just because they wanted their opponent to eat one of those Jelly Beans. It took some minutes before people considered themselves brave enough to do this. Half of them were granted with the joyful sight of their friend's struggle of eating it, face distorting after just one bite. The other half however had to suffer from the disgusting taste, barely anyone of them ate the whole "sweet".

It was needless to say that all participants had been male, but it wouldn't stay like that forever.

"Okay, next one! Who wants to do this next?" Hanji asked, looking around, the crowd surrounding her.

"I want to do this." Everyone turned their face to the direction of the person, noticing that their voice was too high to be that one of a male.

I hadn't talked much to her today, but her face wasn't unfamiliar to be. The woman who sat down on one of the chairs was Nanaba. Some sucked in their breaths, others hissed loudly. Smirking, Nanaba gazed at Hanji first and then her eyes pointed at random people—mostly male. "No one?" she asked temptingly, "Come on. I'm not fragile."

"W-Well then." some random man in a Grim Reaper costume said, and approached the table. He seemed to have strong arms. The smug look he was giving her told one – without any words – that he was already counting himself as the winner. Something in Nanaba's eyes flamed up and probably fueled her desire to wreck this man and show him that women shouldn't be looked down at.

That woman had a powerful aura handsdown.

Her arm already propped on the table, Nanaba waited for the man to join her on the opposite side, and eventually his elbow slammed down on the surface. Both wore a cocky grin, eyes focused on the other's face in concentration. Some women shouted things like "Go, Nanaba!" and "Show that weakling how strong women can be!" and "You can do it!" at her as encouragment.

"Don't go easy on me at all." Nanaba told him.

"I hadn't planned to do so anyway. But don't whine afterwards." the man cackled in amusement.

"I can only say the same back."

"Good luck."

"I'm serious. Use all the strength you've got. I won't have mercy with you either."

"Alright." Clearly, that man was too self-assured of himself, and I had that vague feeling that he'd be the one to be beaten.

Hanji placed her palm on their hooked hands. "3, 2, 1... Go!" Her hand was retreated.

I didn't know how fast it happened, but my senses told me that not even a second had passed when the man's fist got dragged down to the table by Nanaba's arm; quick and with so much force.

The man's eyes widened, same with his mouth, that smirk vanished from his face as the sound of his fist hitting the surface sounded off. Nanaba on the other hand looked more than pleased, gleeful, a victorious smile featuring her expression.

The male part of the crowd howled in surprise, but it turned to cheers very quickly, showing their respects to her.

Whimpering in defeat, the man viewed his hand, as though he couldn't believe what had happened just now.

Nanaba stood up and patted his shoulder. "Have a nice meal." And then Hanji was already giving the Jelly Bean, which he ate reluctantly, face twisting with disgust.

"That's Mike's girl!" Erd shouted in the direction where Mike was and where Nanaba walked back to. Mike's face didn't express much reaction, only a hand would sneak around her waist. These two belonged together, that much was for sure.

"I'm challenging Erwin."

When I faced the front again, I saw Nile at the table, frowning at someone that couldn't be anyone else than said person. I set my eyes at Erwin too, spotting how he was standing motionless at place, his muscular arms crossed as a faint smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.

"Heh. Now this is going to be entertaining." Levi huffed, smirking himself.

I couldn't really understand this excitement. "Don't you think it's going a bit too far with this? I mean, if Nile were to lose, he'd blame himself in front of so many people. Not only did he lose a woman to him, but he'd also lose to the man who is married to that woman."

"That's what is so exciting here. Is Nile going to get revenge or will Erwin achieve victory? Also, it's Nile's problem if he loses. He started with this."

"Oh, yeah! Erwin, do it!" Hanji yelled, shrill.

Some more people had to shout encouraging cheers first before Erwin felt like he needed to do it, now that he had no other choice left. As he forwarded to the table, he unbuttoned his wristbands and rolled up his sleeves.

One couldn't understate because Nile was practically bombing Erwin with death glares as they sat down, his eyes not switching from him. Meanwhile, Hanji watched them with a big, crazy grin, liking the direction her game was heading. Gripping the bowl of Jelly Beans tightly, she asked whether they were ready.

"I am." Erwin said.

"Bring it on." Nile spat viciously.

The crowd was dead silent, following the game closely. I bet everyone was just as excited as Levi had expressed it just now. Who was going to come out as winner of this arm-wrestling? It seemed that I had been literally the only one who witnessed this with a strange feeling in my stomach. I felt sorry for Nile. Did he really need to seek this little victory that had no meaning besides having beaten his rival in a little fun game when the risk he took was blaming himself more?

"Ready?" Hanji's turn as referee. "Go!"

Unlike with Nanaba and that man, this time the round didn't finish as fast. Their balled hands didn't move much from the middle, occasionally swaying to the left and to the right. The force they used was incredible, it caused their arms and hands to tremble.

Erwin and Nile bored holes into the other male's forehead with their piercing glares, the latter filled with pure anger while Erwin was taking it more loosely, his coolness not fading.

Then, Nile's hand managed to push Erwin's fist to his side halfway, and a victory seemed close. Veins popped up under the skin of his arms and neck, teeth were gritted and even sweat damped his forehead.

Erwin didn't panic, didn't falter. Then his hand moved up again, dragging Nile's hand with him. Nile's brows furrowed deeply. It seemed as if his right hand accumulated all his strength, boiling his blood. That was why it surprised me that Erwin took the lead right then, forcing Nile's hand down. He did it with so much ease, one could even question whether Erwin was giving his best at all. Even if his arm was shaking as well, he didn't show as much strains as his opponent.

This made Nile angry and he started groaning as he attempted gaining back his lead. There was anger mixed with blind eagerness on his facial features, and while everyone was cheering and siding both sides equally, I had that strange feeling that I could empathize with Nile. This was his way of...

After some time of stagnation between their hands, Erwin appeared to have lost strength and his hand moved back, slowly but certainly facing the side of the table that would announce his loss. His face was telling that he tried his best working against the pressure on his palm, but I couldn't really believe that this was happening with earnest. His head red by now, Nile used his last bit of strength and eventually pressed Erwin's hand down onto the table.

He panted hard as the crowd applauded and howled. The most interesting in this was Erwin's reaction to it. His smile hadn't faltered once and even now he didn't take it to heart, so it appeared to me.

Strange... So strange.

And then I concluded that Erwin had just probably had the same worries as me. That Nile wanted to prove himself that he wasn't less of a man by winning against the one who hurt his pride was something that Erwin had been aware of. However, instead of rubbing salt into his wounds, Erwin acted like a gentleman and accepted defeat. He could have won against Nile easily, but he didn't choose to do that.

"The winner is Nile Dok!" Hanji announced loudly, clapping her hands.

Erwin shrugged his shoulders. "I lost." The fact that he was taking this too lightly made it clear that Erwin wasn't that much surprised by the outcome. Oh god, he was a really bad actor. He held an open palm to Hanji, acting calm—too calm. "I have to eat one of these now, right?"

Nile stood up, fists clenched. As Erwin was about to eat it, Nile slapped the back of Erwin's hand harshly, the Jelly Bean falling out of his palm. Even now he didn't lose his temper, but Nile... Oh, how furious he looked. Of course he would see through Erwin's plan.

"Why won't you even take this seriously like a real man would do?" he reproached him, "I still don't understand what it is that a women would like about you. One can't even compete against you properly."

Erwin stood up as well, still the same expression. "This is just a game. Real life is different. And it's full of surprises. And beautiful. One day even you will understand it. After all you used to be so close to tasting the good things in life. Who said it won't happen again. It was a worth play. You've done well."

Nile glared at him and didn't shake the hand that was offered to him, so Erwin just patted his shoulder once and ended this round like that.

"Tch. Erwin, that little shit." was Levi's remark to this.

"I think this was his way of being nice." I told him, being certain of my assumption.

"This? Tch, and here I thought I was the worst at being nice. He could have wrecked Nile in an ease."

"It's okay, Levi." I stroked his arm.

Did all men have that need to show others how much power they had?

"One last bean is left! Come on! Who wants to do the last round?" Hanji cupped her hand to a megaphone and put it over her mouth as she held up the last gross Jelly Bean. "It's the showdown!"

No one volunteered, murmuring.

Suddenly Oluou shouted, "I think Levi and Mike make a very good showdown."

Levi gave him a frown in annoyance. Everyone agreed with Oluou and not much later they were calling out Levi's and Mike's name, Hanji included.

"Why don't you want to do it?" I asked, wondering, but couldn't find a good explanation. It couldn't be that Mike was physically stronger than Levi, could it?

"Not interested." Levi stated simply, arms crossed as his brows twitched in irritation. The crowd got louder.

I looked over to Mike who wasn't showing much reaction, glancing at us once. People around him were trying to convince him to do it, patting his arms, shoulder or back. It took some efforts, but in the end Mike decided to really do this.

My eyes waved to Levi again and I gave him a questioning look. He replied with a scowl. "It's just so bothersome. I don't have to do this. You should be glad that I'm not forcing someone to eat this crap that Hanji made. Mike should know better than that. He should choose another opponent."

"Could it be that you are afraid of losing to him? Maybe you already know that you're weaker than him, but don't want to show it." I tried and earned a glare from him in less than a second.

"I am stronger than him." he growled, voice dipped with venom.

Now that Mike had already reached his place, he faced Levi as he flexed his biceps, his other hand resting on his upper arm. It was rare of him to talk, but he did it now and the words that left his mouth were worth a thousand conversations. A few words and yet they did things to Levi that no one else would even dare—hell, not even dream of! "It's okay if you don't want to, Levi. After all both of us know that you and your slim arms can't stand a chance against me."

Provocation. This was purposed solely for provocation. And taking a side glance at Levi, I figured out right away that Mike's plan worked. Oh how well it did work.

There was a fierce and passionate thirst for revenge burning in his eyes and the glaring look he gave Mike was enough to tell him that what he said just now was a mistake.

"Eren."

"Yes?"

"Hold my headband."

Clumsily, I caught the vampire wings shaped headband he threw at me as he stomped to the table where Mike was already sitting at.

"I've got your headband. Go and crush him, babe!" I yelled at him cheerfully, starting to like the way this game developed.

If glares could kill Mike would have died from Levi's scowls a thousand times. They smirked at each other, confident about winning at this arm wrestling. Literally everyone present barked euphorically, hyped and excited about the outcome of this showdown. The tension rose as time passed and Levi and Mike didn't make it any better with how much time they took for their preparations. Folding their sleeves up to their elbows, shaking their hands and fingers as warm-up, exchanging tempting glares.

Finally their palms hit into each other, fingers gripping the other male's hand firmly. A solid hold was established and both of them seemed ready.

"Uh... Don't you wanna place your elbows on the table?" Hanji asked, her eyes lowered, noticing that Mike and Levi's elbows were indeed not meeting with the table surface. Technically it was against the rules.

"We're fine like that." they replied in unison, and swithed their gazes to their opponents again, smiling maliciously.

Just looking at them alarmed one—the tension that build up around them was practically tangible and tingled in the air. One could even imagine electrifying lightning shooting out of their eyes and since they were at eye level, those little lightnings would collide and burst.

Hanji started the countdown. "3, 2, 1... Go!"

It was with slow motion that I watched their arms falling down to the table to give each of them the solid hold they needed to win this wrestling. During that time, their grip didn't change much, staying in the middle.

I widened my eyes and took a step back when the table broke and splittered into many pieces immediately after Mike and Levi rested their elbows on it, full force.

They didn't even do much and yet the power they had used for this little move had been enough to tear a table apart.

Everyone else reacted the same, taken aback and overthrown, big eyes staring at those two men in the middle who both let go of each other now, looking down at the mess by their feet that they had made.

A couple of seconds were spent in silence before Mike spoke up first. "Look what you've done."

"This is your fault!" Levi snapped.

Hanji, who had been sitting at the table with them, had been affected by this surprise attack the most. "T-Tie..." she stammered out, breathless, "It's a tie!"

They got up and left the place as it was, as if they didn't have to do anything with this.

"I told you to crush Mike and not the table." I said to Levi as I put his headband back on his head.

"How should I have known that this would happen?!" he defended himself, shrugging and scoffing.

The atmosphere finally hung light in the air, and people began chattering again.

"Nawww. What am I going to do with this one now?" Hanji sulked as she regarded the last Jelly Bean in her palm. No one seemed to give a shit about that. "Oh, I know. I'll just use it for my next game." She headed for something to her left and now that I noticed it fully, I realized that there had been a big kettle in his room for a while now. She moved over to this kettle until standing next to it and dropped the bean into it.

I got closer to it to find out what the content of the kettle was. The second the Jelly Bean dived into the liquid, a little cloud of semi-transparent smoke ascended. Furrowing my eyes, I examined the kettle more closely.

It had a red colour and bubbled here and there, big bubbles bursting as steam would get released at some spots.

"What is this?" I asked, nauseated.

It was scary how Hanji was looking down at this, a creepy smile decorating her face. Right now it'd have been more suitable if she had been wearing a witch costume. She changed back to a rather innocent expression. "This is the kettle of horror and death." The casual tone in her voice gave me concerns.

"I need more explanation. What is this game about?" I went on, still not very fond of all this here.

"It's very easy actually." She searched in her pockets for something, took it out, presented it with an opened hand and made a full turn with her body once to allow everyone a glance at that thing in her hand, which had the shape of a big egg. "Somewhere inside this pot is this egg here hidden. It's a plastic egg that one can unscrew. The prize is inside it. One has to dunk their hand in this red liquor and find the egg. But cautious..." She rose a finger to her nose. "There is a reason why this is called the kettle of horror and death. You may never know what surprise will await you inside this kettle. Maybe your hand or arm will get stuck between something. It gets scratched. Bitten. Bloody. Your hand will be ripped off your arm!"

"Hanji." Günther warned.

"Okay, the last one is a lie. But anyway..." She looks everyone deeply in the eyes, orbs shining with anticipation. Again the seriousness vanished and she smiled at us. "Have fun."

"What is the prize?" someone asked.

Hanji waved a hand to the tank. "Find out yourself. By the way, the mixture is not corrosive. You can put your arm in without any worries." Her hand stirred the red mud lazily. "Oh, I forgot to say that one loses as soon as they takes their arm out of the kettle before the egg has been found."

"Hah, this sounds easy." Petra placed her hands on her hips, shrugging and offered herself as first candidate.

She stepped up to the thigh high kettle, stared down at it first and slowly dug an arm in. Petra had her brows curled in puzzlement, cautiously probing through the broth. She startled once, but that was all.

"Hm, that's not really difficult. Just a bit — Oh my god, wah! Ew!" Petra retreated her hand from the red pool abruptly, screeching as she walked away from the kettle. Her cry had come out of her mouth so suddenly other females in the crowd shrieked along with her. "Oh my god! Something moved very quickly inside there! What was that?!" She put her head into Oluou's crook of neck, red drops dripping down from one of her arms.

Hanji laughed. "Dunno. It must certainly have been one of the things I added to my delicious red soup."

"Oh, c'mon." another woman said, reaching for the big round pot. Her appearance and behaviour gave off a very self-confident and mature attitude. Also, she wore a Viking costume and had more muscular arms than many women had. Since she was rather tall, she knelt down and stuck her hand into the content of the kettle. Her face was calm, tightened after a while, and she seemed to have little panic attacks, her arm stocking here and then and – if I didn't see it wrong – she even shuddered.

"What are you feeling? What is inside?" some random man asked her.

"I can't really tell. It's gross, though. So many different things are brushing your arm and each of them feels appalling—... Wait..." Her arm halted for real now and her eyes widened slightly. "What the heck, my hand got stuck." She tried pulling it out, but to no avail.

"Just pull it out forcefully." someone adviced.

"I can't! What do you think am I doing right now?!" Her head directed at the person who was talking to him, she shot it back fast to the front again as horror covered her facial expression. "What the fuck, something is moving there! Oh my god, this is so disgusting!" The woman was horrified as fuck, using all her strength to get her arm out of the red liquid.

"This is so funny to watch." Hanji chuckled, hopping in place as she witnessed everything with excitement.

Someone came and helped her as she started to shout all kinds of vulgar words, losing her shit. "This is so fucking gross!! Get my arm out of this! Hurry! Hell, I don't want to get touched by anything inside there! What kind of bastard shits were put into this?! Hanji, you are the worst!"

"But it's Halloween!! Let me have some fun! Are you scared of this? Is it disgusting? Say, is something licking your skin, hmmm?"

Finally she got her arm out of whatever she'd been stuck in and right away that woman distanced herself from the kettle, panting hard, shock written all over her face.

The man who helped her out just now, rested a hand on her shoulder. "Let me do it."

In other words, let a man do it.

With him, it was basically the same—his reaction really similar to the other ones.

And since people couldn't figure out a plausible reason as to why it was sheer impossible to take a little egg out of a filled tank, more and more people got intrigued and chose to give it a shot as well. Some approached this task with the thought that their predecessor were just exaggerating, but had to witness with their own eyes and feel with their own bodies that no one had exaggerated at all. Mostly men volunteered in this game and it was unbelievably hilarious how even the male part drew back from this after only a short time; some even screeching high-pitched yells. It didn't make any sense retreating one's own hand that fast and thus losing. Like that, it was understandable why no one could fish the prize.

Half an hour passed and no winner had been decided yet. Red liquid laying around the kettle in the middle had the scenery evolved to a mess. If one didn't know it any better, they would think a mass murder had occured here.

"I don't understand. This can't be that difficult." I said, being like the 100th person who had said this today. Yes, I wanted to try it as well.

"Oh my god, Eren, please. Not you too." Levi groaned, facepalming.

I shrugged at him. "Someone has to win this. We can't leave it as it is right now."

"Yes, you're right." Hanji spoke to us enthusiastically. She curled her finger, beckoning me to approach. "Come hither, come hither, darling."

For once I did as she asked of me, nearing myself to the kettle.

"You are really going to do this?"

I looked back. The grimace on Levi's face didn't need any more explanation. It was literally screaming 'Stick your hand into that filthy thing and you can fucking stay away from me and our apartment.'

Giving him an insecure smile, I said to him, "I can wash it off afterwards."

'No touching for the next few days. Weeks!'

Don't exaggerate, Levi.

As I sucked in my breath, my gaze wandered down to the red pulp. It didn't look really threatening from the outside, but to be honest I was glad that my eyes didn't have to be confronted with the things that were inside. As long as I had no image of what I was strobing, it should be totally fine.

That was why I needed to know why the other people had been so utterly grossed out by this up until now that they'd give out loud exclaims.

It shouldn't be that awful...

After dipping my hand into the inner of the bowl, the first thought my mind processed was the luke warm temperature of that liquid surrounding my hand. Nothing felt unusal yet. I went deeper inside, past my elbows and then it happened.

Something fibrous roamed my fingers.

Goosebumps crawled up my body, making me shudder. But it was endurable. Not enough to scare me.

So I continued.

Slowly and cautiously I wriggled my hand downwards, until my fingercups came to touch with something soft. It didn't feel like the bottom of the kettle; for that it wasn't solid and hard enough. Most likely something that lay on the ground and was meant to be one of the appalling things Hanji mentioned. But not for me, luckily. Moving my hand aside, I began searching for something that would identify as an egg-shaped plastic form under my fingers. Another wave of goosebumps covered my skin when my hand met with something indefinable and of firm consistency. I didn't know why, but it reminded me of dry vomit.

To endure this, I bit down on my lips and looked to the side, though the steam and red bubbles that caught my sight from the corner of my eyes reminded me constantly what I was even doing right now.

"Wow, Eren, you last long in there." Hanji pointed out, the whole time standing close to me, a first row audience.

Going on, I dug my hand farther and changed direction and this time another thing felt weird against my skin, raw, and— "Urgh!" My arm moved up a bit instinctively, and Hanji jumped as well, though she only did that because she thought that I would lose this game right at that moment.

Which I didn't. My arm was still inside the kettle, reaching up to my elbows, so I didn't break the one and only rule this game here had.

"Interesting." she commented, her eyes glistening behind her glasses. "The youngest of us all here, but with the highest revulsion tolerance."

So close. I had been so close to tearing my hand away from whatever was buried deep inside there. But the little control over my impulses that was left inside me managed to let me keep going, despite of the fact that my senses – especially my sense of touch – felt abused right now. The reason why I had reacted like this was that something slippery had been passing next to my forearm, as though it had been... "Moving." I completed my thought out loud. "There's something moving inside! And it feels so slick and everything else feels just so..."

"I told it! There really is a moving thing inside!" Petra called out, making sounds of disgust.

"Wanna give up?" Hanji asked tentatively.

"Never."

Courage spreading through my body, I swallowed down all of my restraints and pushed through it. My plan was to revolve around the kettle once as I'd search for that damn little thing. But soon I'd find out that it revealed as a far more difficult task than I had thought. My hand and arm got literally attacked. Poked. Nestled into fabrics. Skin scratched.

The worst was how not once could my hand or arm get used to any of the things I had to touch. Everytime there would be yet another trigger to gross me out and tempt me to just raise my arm and free myself from this shovel work.

Even my hand had almost stuck somewhere, making it impossible for me to motion, which resulted from shoving too many things to one side and get oneself trapped in between them somehow. But I could prevent it fast enough and found myself at my original position again. Everyone had been watching me attentively, seeing me struggle through this mess.

The worst, though, was the fact that despite of my tactic I hadn't been able to find the egg.

"Nothing." I whispered.

"That's enough, Eren." Levi told me, his voice sounding from behind me.

I raised my head at Hanji, looking madly disappointed. "There's no egg!"

"Of course there is one!"

"But I couldn't find it! I searched everywhere!"

"Then search again!"

"What the f..."

"God, Eren. Who cares about that now?" This time Levi's voice came from right next to me.

"I care!"

"Look at yourself. You've got that red shit all over your face."

Huffing heavily through my nose, I decided to do my search again and began walking around the kettle for a second time – now anticlockwise –, eager to find that little piece. I made sure to not miss any spot, weaved my arms more aggressively through the liquid content, some drops splashing onto my face and clothes and my other hand. No way... No way did I want to accept this if it didn't mean for me to find the damn prize. Why else did I work my ass off and endured these disgusting feelings of undescribable things eliciting gross images in my mind.

By the time I reached my starting position again, I was breathing loudly, done. "I don't understand... Where is that damn egg?!" I had my other arm raised, ready to push it into the kettle as well and pull everything out, just so that I could win this silly game. Perhaps spilling the content of the kettle by toppling it over was the better option.

Filled with anger, I was about to follow my new plan, but Levi intervened. "No. Not the other arm as well. That's enough. Stand up."

"Don't touch me!" I whined, attempting to wiggle out of his grasp. "Hanji, there is no egg in there! You were lying!"

"Of course there is!" she yelled back, with confidence and certainty in her voice. "I know it! After all I..." She paused. This couldn't mean anything good. "Ohhhhhh! How could I forget?!" Hanji grabbed into her pocket again took out the egg from before. "The egg I showed you before as I explained the rules... This egg here is the prize. How dumb of me. I forgot to put it in. I'm sorry, Eren." Her hand hovered over the kettle and she dropped the egg, letting it fall into the liquid. I watchted it fall—in slow motion. My eyes wide and fixated on that little thing that had now penetrated the liquid surface and plumped inside, creating drops to splatter.

Every guest here was silenced, feeling dumbfounded; just like me.

"Whaaaaaaaat?!" they roared in unison; anger and madness trailing in their voices.

"Hanji, what the fuck?!" Oluou spat.

She just laughed to it, uttering a simple "Oops."

That damn...

I shot death glares at her as I rose from my kneeling position slowly, growling in wrath. Levi was holding my collar from behind. "You sly snake..." I pushed out through gritted teeth, close to having little to no control over my sanity.

She cocked her head, acting innocent. "Hm? I'm not a snake. This is how a snake looks like." She dug one hand into the content of the bowl, going deep down, and to vision came a long, tubular thing that was covered in red. "This is what a snake looks like." Laughing again, she held the snake in her arms.

Not having expected this at all, I took a step back and the other people seemed to be alarmed as well.

"Geez, can't she be normal for once?" Levi sighed behind me.

"There was a real snake in there?!" someone from far back shouted.

"Oh my god, that moving thing I felt was a snake?!" Petra sounded the most horrified.

Hanji wasn't affected by the people's outbursts, petting that reptile instead as she cooed sweet words at them. The snaked raked their tail around Hanji's arm and for once second I believed that it was about to squeeze her to death and devour her.

"Hey, Hanji! Do you even know what you did there?! That's insane! What if it bit us?"

"Shut up! Flake is nicer than you've ever been in your whole life! He doesn't bite anyone!" She raised "Flake" higher, displaying him.

This was so fucked up... Hanji was fucked up.

It was now that I grasped fully why she had chosen the science faculty department of Shiganshina University as setting for her party.

I felt a tug at my collar, realizing that Levi was dragging me away. "Enough. Go wash yourself."

Speechless and motionless, I let myself get shoved out, my legs being the only part of my body that did their job.

"Come back later! The last game is going to start soon!" Hanji shouted at us, waving.

I hadn't overcome the fact yet that she had tricked me like this, and my craving for revenge was higher than it had ever been.

Some time later Levi and I got back, the red colour couldn't get rid off my skin in a hurry and a matter of a few minutes, so I had to bear with the fact that my arm and hand looked redder than usual. Also, I noticed that Levi made sure to keep a distance between us that was defined as three arm's lengths at the least. He had been helping me with washing, but at some point he had just given it up and called it a 'fucking filthy mess'. I had tried to kiss his scowl and bad mood away, but he didn't even let my face get near him. And when I thought that I had made him seriously mad with my prior act when playing Hanji's dumb game, I got surprised by a little peck he gifted me with – though that was the most I received from him – and he told me that he'd forgive me once I've showered at home.

Now we were back in the hall, the distance between us didn't disturb me much because I knew that Levi wasn't angry with me. Thinking twice of it and looking down at myself, I did look awful. And the red colour that stuck on me smelled like chemicals, who would like to smell like that?

"Okay. So Flake is at a safe place now. It's time for the last game for today." Hanji was in front of us all and behind her I spotted something that hadn't been there before. "Who of you wants to see their host in slime~?" She extended her arms.

The whole crowd began to cheer and approve of her suggestion.

Instead of feeling attacked (why should she when she asked this question herself?), Hanji waited for the crowd to calm down and let out a carefree laughter then. "You fools! It won't be as easy as that." Her voice was clad with a snarky tone.

"Get to the point." a male voice urged.

Hanji did so by going behind and positioning herself in front of a little... pool?

"Okay, okay. I'll explain this quickly. Actually there's not much to explain, ha. You see this? This is a little pool." She hit the wall with her palm as she talked further, "But instead of water it's filled with... " She dipped a hand in and when she lifted it up again a green, sticky jelly clung onto her skin. "Slime! It's a pool of slime!"

Half of the people were disgusted with this, the other half seemed interested in it. I belonged to neither.

"And as you can see there's also this thing here." Making a few steps to the right, she reached a big round slice that looked like a XXL-version of a dartboard. "This baby here is connected to the plank that is hovering over the pool." There was indeed a some sort of plank hovering over the pool. "I'll sit there in a minute and you have the task to hit the bull's eye here." Hanji pointed at it, a black circle in the middle of the board. "But not once. If you hit it thrice, the plank will discard I'll be dragged along into the slime. But I'll only give three people a chance to try their luck. When throwing the balls, all of them have to stay behind that white line I drew there. Oh, and you are equipped with no more than three balls."

Sometimes Hanji had a thickheaded attitude, other times she was smart. Not only that we had to throw at the dartbaord from a big distance, one also had to hit the bull's eye three times in a row and we didn't have more than three balls available.

Surely, she didn't want to be covered in slime.

"Are you serious?! That white line is so far away from the board." Oluou nagged.

Hanji faked a pout. "Naw, don't you believe in yourself? Poor Oluou."

Oluou glowered at her. "Just you wait... Where are the balls?!"

"Well then!" Hanji hopped into place, sitting cross-legged on the round end of the plank. One push and she'd be painted in sticky green in an instant.

Oluou started throwing and missed the first one. Basically it was already over now. Although Oluou was aware of that as well, he threw the other two balls nevertheless, angrily, not hitting the bull's eye once. He had to accept defeat as Hanji stuck her tongue out at him. Sulking, he stepped away from the white line, and now another one had the opportunity to try their luck.

"I want to be next!" I exclaimed, raising an arm.

This was my chance. My chance to get revenge.

"Great." Hanji rubbed her hands, her eyes shining the same way as minutes before. Just you wait, shitty glasses. "Do your best, Eren." She grinned widely.

Already fueled with spite, I grabbed the three balls and positioned myself behind the white line. One glance at Levi and I saw him standing there at his usual place, arms crossed as his eyes peered back at me. He smirked lightly, probably amused of how much I wanted to see Hanji in that humiliating state of being covered in green slime.

The distance wasn't that wide. One could hit the spot. I placed my hand holding the ball behind my head...

I will destroy you, Hanji.

... and threw it.

Missing the bull's eye.

What?

"What?!" I screamed as I threw the other two as well, this time missing the dartboard. "No!" My hands fisted into my hair and I shook my head heavily, not understanding how I could fail my throws this miserably.

Hanji bit into the back of her hand, stifling a laughter. You damn...

"Someone get her into that slime!" I shouted towards the mob of people, and not much later a man, dressed as a contaminated football player, volunteered.

"Let me do this. I used to play baseball back in highschool."

A spark of hope blossomed inside my chest as a smile appeared on my face and I nodded, entrusting him the three balls.

I watched him as he threw, overwhelmed when the first ball landed on the bull's eye.

Yes.

And the second one.

Oh damn, yes.

Even Hanji was stunned by this, forming an 'O' with her mouth. Nevertheless, she stayed cool.

Her eyes darted at the thrower as a smirk crept up. "What are you waiting for? But don't fuck it up. Look how many are watching and putting their faith in you. It would be a shame if you missed now. After all, you're the third and last person."

Don't make him insecure!

The man hesitated with his third throw, but tried not to be affected by her words. Yet I could make out the nervousness in his expression.

"Don't worry. You can do this. You were a baseball player after all." I said in a soft voice, hoping that my encouraging words would have an effect on him.

"I-I won't fail." he muttered, and prepared himself for his last throw.

My heart thumped loudly as seconds passed, giving all my hope into his skills.

The ball flew.

And missed the bull's eye.

"No!" Most of us groaned, disappointed.

"I'm sorry." he told me, looking the most upset.

"I-It's half as bad as it seems." Saying this out loud was harder than I thought. "Not your fault." I sent Hanji a glare. "It's Hanji's fault!"

Levi joined us. "It was so close."

I nodded.

"Ah, well," Hanji sighed loudly, "you all look so sad. You know what? I'll give you two more chances, but—"

"I'll do this!" These words left my lips before my mind could follow completely and I was already grabbing the three balls fast, body and mind led by my fury.

"Eren, wait. Don't throw them aimlessly. Concentrate." I could hear Levi saying, but I didn't listen to his words. Or should I rather say it was already too late?

Even Hanji seemed to have something against my doing. "Wait! The white line is behind you, Eren!"

I didn't care. I didn't care at all!

The three balls were thrown one after another quickly and rather than aiming I threw them randomly.

Fall, Hanji, fall.

If I hadn't let myself get led by my impulsive emotions... maybe then I wouldn't have thrown each of the balls inches over the board.

"Damn it!"

Cupping my face with my palms, I released crying sounds into them, internally facepalming myself for having been too irritable.

"I would comfort you now," Levi said next to me. Though, he didn't rub my back nor did he calm me down in any other way. "But don't you think it would be too awkward, if I did that now? I mean... It's just a game."

"You don't understand." I tilted my head back, drawing out the last word. "Hanji deserves this. She deserves this so much. Why isn't luck on my side today?"

"Well... Most games are based on luck."

"Levi, this is not the right time coming up with logic explanations."

"Then stop whining."

"I won't."

"Stop being stubborn."

"No, I won't."

"Stop being so cute when you're stubborn."

"No—... Oh my, you're making me blus— This trick won't work on me!"

I turned my face away from him, crossing my arms and tried being mad at him. But I couldn't do so for long. When I peeked back, I noticed that Levi hadn't taken his eyes off me, waiting for me to face him again, smiling ever so lightly.

"Can I have a kiss?"

"No. You're not clean."

"Naw."

Hanji clapped her hands, turning everyone's attention to her. Right now her eyes were directed at me in particular, that spark in her eyes was back—but this time it had something villainous in it. So utterly villainous. "My, my. You stepped over the white line noticibly – like, it was at least half of the original distance – and you still fucked up. All respect, sweetie."

My anger came back, boiling under my head.

"I had some more things to add, but Eren didn't even let me finish! So I'll do that now. Yes, I give you two more chances. One of them is already used. Next thing I had in mind was to not allow the same people from before to throw a second time, but again Eren ruined my plan! Ha, in the end it doesn't matter that he got the chance to throw twice. I was more worried about the third person who wasn't quite bad at this. Now, let's see who's going to be the last one. Oh! Did I already tell you what will happen, if no one manages to throw me into the slime? I think I haven't yet. I'll say it now: Someone else that I'm going to choose will receive the slime."

The cocky grin she wore as she pointed at me from her place caused my heart to skip a beat and part my eyes wider. I took a step back as I looked around me, but it was obvious that her pointing finger was aiming at me. Breath quickening, I shook my head in disbelief as Levi spit out a "Tch."

Hanji's voice was full of sadistic amusement as she continued poking her finger out at me. "The one I choose will be bathed in slime in my stead."

"That bitch..." I muttered, angry and annoyed. So this had been her plan all along, huh? She knew that no one would be able to win this and therefore all she had in mind was to mock me. "S-She won't do this. Ha! She can't even carry me to that pool. No way is this going to happen to me."

"Do you really think this is an issue?" Oluou scoffed at me. "Don't worry. Mike will help her."

My heart stopped again at that realization and my lungs had my breath captivated for the moment as I switched my gaze to Mike cautiously.

He sniffed once, looking at me after that. And then he smirked.

Mike. The man with the biggest muscles here. For someone like him it was no problem to carry someone like me who still was suffering from slight underweight.

"I don't want this!" What should I do now?! "Levi—"

"Give me a ball!" His voice raised, he ordered someone to get him the balls. The face I looked at was for sure the angriest one I got to see today.

'You are my rescue.'

But now he also had to win this.

"Wow, so you're going to be the last one, huh?" Hanji rested her chin on her threaded fingers; satisfied.

Levi didn't make a comment to this, but took one of the balls that were offered to him. "I need just one." was all he said to this, his words puzzling me. Just one? How did he want to do it with only one?

Taking his position behind the line, he scowled at Hanji threatingly, dangerous and revengeful grey glooming in his eyes. Hanji watched him with a smile, unaffected. Levi threw the ball up in the air, doing so repeatingly, everytime his hand would catch the ball and throw it up again.

And suddenly Hanji's grin froze—as though she'd finally grasped something that only she could understand. "Wait... No, no, no, no! Wait, Levi! Don't play unfair—!"

The ball Levi threw hit Hanji's chest, pushing her backwards and off the plank, her body falling into the pool. A loud splashing sound rose in the hall, some green slime spilling over the edge.

"This is how you do it." Levi said casually.

Oh my god...

"You are the best!" I shouted and hugged him.

The crowd cheered and howled as they celebrated Levi's win.

It took her some seconds to get up, but Hanji's silhouette, which was covered by a green sticky slime now, appeared, standing upright inside the pool as her arms spread. She laughed crazily, taking this more lightheartedly than I had wished for (why would she never get pissed off of something??). "Who wants to get hugged by meeeee?" She climbed down the pool and after enabling herself to see anything at all by taking off her glasses, she did really chase people to give them a hug; just so they would get a taste of the slime. Of course, most of them ran away from her, but Hanji was fucking persistent. If she wanted something, she'd fucking get it.

Our friends group gathered around Levi and I, and some praised Levi's doing by giving his back a light smack.

All of a sudden, hands clapping were heard behind us.

"I had expected nothing less from my little brother."

A soft male voice that sounded familiar to me spoke. It took me a second or two to figure out who this voice belonged to because I was sure that I hadn't heard it too often yet.

Wait, did he just say 'brother'? Then it could only be...

Turning around, I realized that I had guessed it right.

It was Farlan together with Isabel approaching us.

"Heyya!" Isabel waved at us, smiling big.

Petra made a wondering sound. "You two came. How long have you been here already?"

Farlan and Isabel exchanged glances, smirking amused. "Long enough to get entertained by Hanji's games." Thumb up, Farlan gave us a fleek smile in a way that could pass as a million dollar smile.

"We were in the background and watched everything. It was so funny!" Isabel's eyes glistened in excitement and I bet she would have really liked to play these games, too.

"By the way, your costumes are so great." Petra pointed out, gawking at them in amazement. "What are you actually dressed as?"

Indeed, viewing their costumes didn't reveal who or what they were going as. Nevertheless, their costumes looked really extraodinary. Isabel wore everything in shades of red and brown; camouflage pants, belt decorated with munitions, a dagger and little round bullets that looked like bombs. All fake of course. In addition to that, her upper body was clad with a ripped shirt and sleeveless vest that both reached only to her navel. On top of everything a cape attached with a hood fell down her shoulders and covered the back of her body. The biggest and most epic accessoires of her whole outfit was by far that big, long sword she carried with her.

Farlan stood out with the style of his hair and the way he did his make-up. His locks were dyed platinum and looked messier than usual and his eyes... Damn, it gave off completely different and most importantly striking vibes looking into white orbs. The contacts he wore were white and semi-transparent, changing the colour of his iris to white-grey. Also, his skin had a paler tone and there was a big – surprisingly not so ugly – scar drawn onto his face, going from over his brows down to his cheek.

The clothes he wore had a light grey colour mixed with a bit of white. I couldn't quite tell what exactly made me think of it, but with that tight top and his grey coat that went down to his knees and his ripped pants Farlan looked like an assassinator in disguise who would do everything to fulfill his duty. And for some reason I guessed that he would use his charm

on both men and women shamelessly to get what he wanted or needed to do.

I could be wrong, but this was what I was thinking right now with him in front of me.

A murderous seducer, as it were.

"Isabel came up with these." Farlan pointed at his and her outfits. "As an art student she has much creativity so instead of choosing typical and boring Halloween costumes we agreed on wearing special, more original, stuff. I altered mine a bit. Isabel's original idea for my costume was not... elegant enough."

"This is Halloween. Literally no one looks elegant in their outfit. Well no one except Levi. Big bro, you look great in your vamp costume! Handsome and neat as ever!" Isabel approached him, eyes gawking at his vampire wings on top of his head.

"Thanks." Levi didn't bother shoving Isabel off, it wouldn't work anyway.

"Say, say, big bro. How do I look like? We are going to use this style for two character designs of Farlan's video games that he is going to develop soon."

"I never said that." Farlan intervened.

"But I did!"

"You look... fine. I would prefer it for you to cover your belly, but other than that you did well with the design."

Isabel hugged him tightly, and Levi squirmed a bit, but let the hug happen to him.

Honestly, I felt slightly uncomfortable with all this. Now that they were here I couldn't do else than to remember the last time we saw each other. That was on their birthday party. After everything that happened there, I shouldn't pretend as though nothing had happened at all, right? Especially Farlan. I didn't even know whether I should like or dislike him, since back then he hadn't let me go—

A hand grabbed my shoulder and I winced in surprise as my body got turned around and all of a sudden Farlan's face moved close to mine, his lips next to my ears, almost brushing it. Breath hitting my neck, I could practically hear him smirk. "Stop frowning like that. That's so unsexy, you know."

Irritated and flabbergasted, I stood in place, silent and motionless, no words wanting to rise my throat and leave my lips. I didn't even know what to say to this here.

"Step back right away or else I'll kick your ass and send you flying to the other side of the world." Levi grunted, voice so snappish and crude.

When Farlan did as ordered by Levi, he raised his arm in defense, that little grin still ghosting over his lips. "Fine. No need to overreact. I just talked with Eren a bit. Am I not allowed to?"

"You have literally no reason to do that by whispering something into his ear." Levi objected, the way he glowered at Farlan looked dangerous and predatory.

"Are you jealous?" Farlan spoke out the question that arose in my mind simultaneously.

"What if?" He was by my side now, curling an arm around my waist. "Back the fuck off, big brother. Eren is mine."

"Oh, is that so? Last time Eren didn't want to see you at all."

""Last time" was in the past. Who cares about that now?"

"Well, you're not wrong." Farlan's eyes darted at me. "I'm glad Levi has finally found someone he can be in a relationship with. Take good care of my little brother, okay?"

"Y-Yes." I stuttered, a bit of confusion left in my mind.

"Well then." He walked away, but not before patting our shoulders.

Levi just let out a "Tch.", and scooted me closer to him. "Is he your type?"

"No!" I held his face between my hands, forcing him with that to look into my eyes. I could tell that he was sincerely jealous. "Do you really think that after everything that happened between us I'd fall for some like him? Levi, there is no other person in this world, no, in the whole universe that I love more than you. In fact, I love only you." I looked at him with eyes expressing as much fondness as I could, my thumbs stroking his cheek tenderly.

"You mean nothing can tear us apart anymore?"

I nodded. "Nothing and no one."

"Sounds good." We stayed like that for a moment, looking into each other's eyes smitten.

"In case you wanna know, Farlan just whispered to me that I look unsexy when I'm frowning."

"He's lying. You always look sexy." Levi said promptly.

I giggled to this. "Thanks. After all I have to keep up with my boyfriend who as well is sexy as fuck."

Levi had his eyes averted as he contemplated about the answer. "Should I agree to this like a narcissistic asshole or deny it modestly?"

"I'm just saying the truth." I pressed a kiss on his lips. "How about going home now?"

"Oka—"

"Hey, guys!" It was Oluou's voice yelling. We and the others moved our heads to the direction his voice had come from, spotting him on the plank right above the pool, posing ridiculously. He winked at us but no one in particular. Was he really trying to act like a model? "How do I look?"

"You look ridiculous." Erd said, scoffing.

All of us took the opportunity now and regarded the slime in that pool from a short distance, while Oluou made it himself comfortable on that plank.

"This looks so sticky. I'm feeling pity for Hanji."

"I think she looks great covered in that green shit." Levi said nonchalantly.

"Of course you would say that."

"Get out of my way!" Suddenly Hanji pushed some away from the edge of the pool in order to get as close to it herself. Up until now she had been gone chasing after random people to give them slimy hugs, laughing like crazy all the while. Her hands dug into that green slime, shoveled a generous portion. She rubbed it all over her body several times, until she was fully coated with it again. All we did was stare at her in silence. "This is so much fun! You all have to do that too!" she yelled happily. And then she was already going away; choosing her next prays. "I'm coming! With more slime!"

Everyone speechless at first, it was Levi who regained his voice first. "What was that again about you pitying her, Petra?" The sarcasm was hard not to notice.

"Nevermind." came Petra's answer.

"She isn't drunk, is she?" Farlan questioned, one brow raised.

"Mike and I spent most of the time with her today," Nanaba retorted, sighing, "We didn't see her drink anything at all. Not even once."

If this was Hanji in a sober state, then... alright. From now on, one of my lifetime goals would be to never ever have to deal with a drunk Hanji.

Eventually just shrugging this off, I gave the pool one last glance – happy that I hadn't had to be forced into it –, then my gaze wandered over to Oluou who still hadn't moved from his place on the plank yet, and lastly to the big dartboard on the right.

It was with indifference that I let my eyes wander over these things, but as I thought more about it, one realization hit me hard.

Since Hanji didn't fall into that pool as required, the mechanism connected to the plank here should still work, right? So if someone where to... Oh, I see... That was interesting. And more than convenient right now.

"One." I said, having hit the bull's eye once. And then a second hit came. "Two." I moved my face over to where Oluou was, a smirk curving up as I looked at him mischievously. If I hit the bull's eye thrice now, Oluou would...

He seemed to understand now as well, and from one second to the other his eyes widened and panic was written on his face. "Don't you dare!"

I still gave him the same expression, not making my third hit yet to raise the tension.

The other began to grasp it too. "Please don't do it, Eren." Petra begged nicely. As his financée, she was the only one who didn't want this, all the other ones didn't complain.

"Hm, if I recall it correctly, a certain someone named Oluou called me a little moron today." I justified. "He deserves this."

"H-Hey, i-it was just a joke!"

"Oh. A joke?" I acted innocent, voice sounding more like that one of a child.

"Yes! It was just a joke."

"I see. Well then, see this here as a joke, too. At least then we'll be even."

"No, don't do it!"

It would be some waste not to have this fun right now, wouldn't it?

Get wrecked, Oluou.

"Three." Surprised, my head whipped forward to the bull's eye that someone else hit. Judging by the white sleeves and the black gloves and the deep voice, I figured it was Levi who had given the final hit.

Not even three seconds later I heard a splashing sound. The plank was tilted, Oluou not on top of it anymore.

"Oluou!" Petra exclaimed.

I looked back at Levi, spotting an amused grin. If there was another person beside me who was just as eager as me to see Oluou covered in slime, then it no one else than Levi—for he was the one getting imitated by Oluou, which annoyed him to hell.

"You evil vampire, you." I purred at him.

Wrapping his arms around my neck from behind, he purred back, "I hope my little wolf can forgive me this one time." He nibbled on my ear and I fisted a hand into his gelled hair, ruining the hair style.

"I will. Let's go now, shall we? This little wolf here wants to go back to its den."

"Fine, let's go."

We made our leave, ignoring Oluou's angry cries in the background.

This Halloween party today would for sure remain as a memory in my mind for a very long time.

-------------

Oh my gooooooood! I honestly don't know what to do with Farlan in my story. I love him as a character so much and in my eyes he's just the perfect (former) sugar daddy in this fic, but I can't add that to my fic because he doesn't have a major role as a character here T^T As for now, all that is needed to know about him is that he's pan and poly.

Ok ok, how was the chapter hm?

Well my favourite scene is Levi's and Mike's arm-wrestling haha XD I think if Erwin every had a son, his name would be Leo... AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE! Leo Smith... mmh, sounds good. I don't want to sound arrogant now, but I think that I portrayed Erwin's character so well in my story! I actually like him really much like that! Also, I don't like the idea of past Eruri having to be dealt with in an Ereri fic necessarily. As you can see, my fic doesn't have that and yet Eren and Levi had to deal with other shits (before becoming a couple).

That's all for now. Oh and I'm going to edit my whole fic and correct all typos or other errors. Srsly tho I can't endure it anymore living with the thought of having a fic up which first 10 chapters reads so shitty ugh.

If everything goes according to plan, the next chapter is going to be published on February! On a specific day, but I won't tell which one (no, not Valentine's Day). It's going to be a... sweet chapter I think. I'll do my best at making it worth the wait *^*