Makes Me Feel Like I'm Falling Down

Chapter Four

Original Authors Note: [Anons, your messages make me want to write the whole day for you. I promise that the questions will be answered. About levihan, well, it's my SnK OTP, but this is mostly about Hanji raising Eren, so I don't think I'll focus on pairings. Thanks for the reception to Isabel, I'm sure your comments made her happy wherever she is (my head).]

IV.

They rushed into the nearest bathroom to take care of the boy's appearance, and, while both Hanji and the kid seemed content with a change of clothes, Levi had filled the bathtub with water and thrown the kid inside, clothes included. When the boy emerged, he kept opening and closing his mouth, looking like a furious fish, and the moment was so ridiculous that for an instant Hanji understood why Isabel used to laugh at everything.

Thinking of Isabel brought the memories of all her fallen comrades to Hanji's mind, and a pang of guilt hit her. What was she doing, taking care of a titan boy? But she'd made a decision, and she'd have to accept its consequences, so she kneeled next to Levi, who was trying to get the boy out of his drenched clothes and being met with fierce resistance, and stopped him.

"What exactly are you doing?" she said.

"Getting him clean. He looks like a mess, and you do too," Levi replied, looking at her with almost perfectly masked disgust.

"Did you have to do it like that? Be nicer! Look around you, there's water everywhere," she reprimanded him, but he didn't seem to notice, he was busy looking around the room and muttering something about mops and dry clothes. Hanji just sighed and turned her attention to the boy, who looked wary and ready to run away at the first chance. "Sorry, I guess we haven't been too nice. My name's Hanji," she said, and stretched her hand to him.

The boy looked at her hand, then back at her and then, slowly, reached it and shook it with his own.

"Eren," he muttered, and it was like all the tension on his shoulders left him with that word, because he held tightly onto her hand, lowered his head and started crying again.

"Oh, Eren, it's okay."

"No, it's not!" the boy said between sobs. "My leg was hurting and now it isn't, I'm wet, and I don't know where I am."
Hanji reached to stroke Eren's back in a way she hoped was comforting, then tried to steady her voice so her nervousness wouldn't show when she spoke.

"I'm sorry for dragging you here like that, but I didn't know what else to do. It'll be okay, I promise," Hanji said. Next to her, Levi gave her a look of disbelief, and Hanji glared at him.

Eren raised his head and looked at her in the eyes, as if trying to determine if she was being sincere, and Hanji held his gaze and tried to look sure of herself.

"Okay," said the boy, shakily. "Okay," he repeated, a bit louder and steadier.

"Good. Let's get you clean. But in a smart way, with warm water and without ruining your clothes."

"They're ruined anyway," said Levi. "A pantleg is missing, and there's blood everywhere."

"Blah, blah. Help me find him something to wear."

"Get him clean first."

"You can do that on your own, can't you?" Hanji asked Eren, who nodded and started taking off his clothes.

Turned out that the kid was shaped like a normal human, and Hanji felt embarrassed when she noticed it. Levi was unfazed, but probably the only way to get him to react would be by having something explode while he wasn't looking, and he kept pointing out to Eren each spot that hadn't been scrubbed clean yet, and he only left to get him something clean once he'd determined that he was actually clean, leaving Hanji with the task of drying him.

"You'll have to excuse him," she said as she rubbed a towel against his hair. Eren was wrapped in another towel, one that was big enough to circle him twice. "I didn't know he was such a clean freak!"

To her relief and surprise, Eren laughed, and when Levi arrived with the smallest pants he'd found (which weren't his, as he quickly cleared out when Hanji asked), both Eren and Hanji were laughing so hard they were crying, but neither of them could explain why they felt so glad to be alive.