The Little Red Hooded Hunter

Chapter 4

Levi curled his tongue as the brunet returned. He waited until the kid was properly attired to speak. There was a faint blush, barely visible on the tanned skin, as the kid walked ashore. For someone who had been so brazen as to masturbate naked in the water, the brat had the audacity to be embarrassed as he picked up and put on a pair of ripped pants lying on the rocks. Levi had no idea where the kid's shirt when, but his upper body was completely exposed.

"Oi, put this on." He tossed his red cloak towards the kid. His clothes would be too short for the brunet and Levi would rather not be traipsing inside the forest with a shirtless brat. He already found his eyes unhealthily glued to the bob of the brat's Adam's apple when they had spoken earlier, but dangling the caramel flesh in front of him was more than an unwelcome distraction. It was a fucking disaster waiting to happen. He didn't know the brat and he didn't want to.

"So who are you and what's a brat like you doing in the forest?" The hunter crossed his arms, wincing at the mysterious bite mark on his forearm, and glared at the brat he had saved at the risk of his own neck. Levi had a rough idea of what had happened after his daring jump into the river, but why Nile Dok and his cronies had come was still a mystery to him. The negative feelings between the two of them certainly did not warrant what had happened. Which could only mean one thing: that they had come for the kid whose life he had saved.

"That's a lot of questions you're asking."

"You better answer them then, brat."

Emerald fires flared for a moment, before the brightness waned. "First of all, I'm not a brat. I'm Eren. And I'm older than you think I am. How old are you anyways?"

"That's bullshit." Raking the covered kid, Levi guessed the brunet to be in his late teens. Definitely not a day over twenty. "You're what? Seventeen? Eighteen tops?"

"Rude." The kid's nostrils flared. Bright green with flecks of gold stared at the hunter for a moment before Eren opened his mouth. "I'm... forty-six...?" He trailed off hesitating for a moment before correcting himself. "No, forty-seven in human years."

"Kid, there's no fucking way you're older than I am." Levi scowled at the blatant falsehood.

"How old are you then?" The brunet fired back. "And I still don't know your name, Mister."

"Levi. Levi Ackerman." The hunter was somewhat surprised that the strange brat hadn't already recognized him. Even those residing in faraway villages had heard stories or at least knew of his reputation. "And I'm thirty-three."

"Yup, I'm older than you are." There was a wolfish grin as Eren beamed at him.

"Don't fuck with me, kid." Levi didn't like jokes on a good day. As this wasn't even remotely a good day – he was stuck in the middle of the forest, had just taken a barely passing shower in a stream, and had some cuts that needed taken care of – the dark-haired hunter's patience was wearing extremely thin.

"Well, I'm not lying."

Admittedly, Levi's gut instinct told him that the brat wasn't lying. There was, however, something about Eren's demeanor and manner of speaking that put Levi on edge. Eren hadn't told him the whole truth or was keeping something back.

"Kid, I've dealt with liars and thieves my whole life, and while my gut tells me you're not lying, there's something you're not telling me." He crossed his arms, narrowing his gaze. It was enough to make a normal person wither and admit to lying. "So what is it?"

Bright green with flecks of gold stared at the hunter for a moment before Eren opened his mouth. Those rosy lips opened and closed once more silently. "Well... that's because I'm a shifter."