AOT: Insight

Connections

"Eren?" Eren shook his head at hearing his own name.

Why had he been at the work sight? Why was Pixis... it hit him then, harder than ever. Levi was still looking for him! He sank to his knees in the dirt under the broken semi trailer.

"Levi..." He breathed out the name.

"Yeah, you started to tell me his last name, but you, I don't know, you changed." Armin laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"I became Levi. We switch places." Eren ran a hand over his face.

"That would explain why your eyes changed color." Armin went back to their camp table.

"What? They did?" Eren got up to follow him.

"Yeah, they became grey." Armin looked up at him.

"It's Levi." Eren muttered.

"Do you know his last name?" Armin asked.

Eren could only shake his head. Levi had only told him his first name, as Eren had only told Levi his. Why had they been stupid little kids! He cried. Armin tapped his hand, Eren looked up. The blond before him had cleared the table. He now held out a plate of food for him. Silently Eren took it.

They ate in silence. Armin had to charge his phone since he had been doing research all morning. They had a small generator they used for things like that. Once done eating Eren cleared the table. He walked the few feet down to the small creek that ran behind their home. He washed the dishes. It was getting late, well for them. Eren walked back taking care of their dishes as Armin made up the bed.

Eren sank down beside his friend. "Try to not think about it. We have work tonight." Armin said.

"Maybe, in a few months, we can get our own place." He yawned.

Eren closed his eyes, draping his arm over them. They had been dreaming of this for some time now. Something always came up. One of them lost the job they had, they were forced to move due to other street people shenanigans, or something. Eren had nearly forgotten about the hope of having a home. He rolled over muttering a maybe to Armin.

Surprisingly, sleep came pretty quickly to him. Maybe he was just so emotionally exhausted that he slept until his alarm went off. He groggily opened his eyes to the darkness. Armin leaned over him to shut the alarm off. He stretched sliding from the bed.

"Come on, or we will miss the bus!" Armin warned.

The cold creek water was enough to wake anyone up. Eren bathed swiftly, mentally beating himself up for not doing it before he went to bed. He dressed as Armin handed him his backpack. It held his gear as well as lunch for the night. Eren shouldered it as he followed his over eager friend.

Armin loved to talk, mostly about stuff no one else was interested in, but Eren had learned long ago how to tune out most of what he said. Tonight seemed a bit different. He was overly animated. Eren sighed, when Armin got like this, it was because he was hiding something. Eventually, he would tell his friend. Eren just needed to be patient enough for the small blond to work out whatever he needed to, before confiding in Eren.

They got to the construction sight with five minutes to punch in. Hannes met Eren at the clock. He ordered the boy to get ready. Once Eren was suited up in his visibility vest with all his gear on, they headed out on their patrol route. Hannes was like Armin in the since that he talked about nothing. The problem was, Eren had to listen to him due to him splicing in something important about the job. This was mentally exhausting to him.

They had just finished up a walk around the lower floor of the building. Some stairs were set up for the workers to get supplies or themselves up higher. Hannes had informed Eren that they would have to check each floor of the under constructed building. Eren turned to follow him, when his name was called out. He stopped, looking back.