Dangerous Territory

Paris Est Délivré

After a week, Eren was well again. During that time, he had sneaked as much medicine to Levi as he could without arousing suspicion. Levi helped with the nurse tending Eren, and when they were alone, Eren tended Levi's scars on his back from the lashing, rubbing on ointments and removing the stitches on the severe ones Armin had sutured.

During this time, Levi got to eat normal food—albeit military rationed. He had to admit, by the time Eren was deemed healthy enough to return to duty, he also felt much better, recovered from the tortures he had been through over the past month.

He was also a bit spoiled, having a clean room to sleep in, a sink to wash up in whenever he wanted to, and a real toilet. Sleeping next to Eren was annoying the first two nights, but by the end it felt strangely comforting. He even woke up one night to find Eren had wrapped his arms around Levi's legs and snuggled against his feet. Levi just sighed and fell back to sleep. He felt strangely protected letting Eren hold him in the night, and that was a feeling Levi had not experienced before, probably never in his entire life.

When the fever broke and Eren was deemed healthy enough to return to his duties, he had a meeting with his platoon. Levi was left to rest upstairs in the bedroom while the German soldiers argued between themselves. When the discussion was over, Eren returned to the room with a defeated look.

"I tried to convince them to keep you here as a personal servant. Armin and Thomas liked the idea, Jean, Connie, Franz, and the rest were against it."

Levi sighed and shook his head. "Obviously that wouldn't be allowed. I could kill you all in the night and escape."

"If you really wanted to do that, you already would have." Eren looked miserably apologetic. "You have to go back to the dungeon."

"I expected as much," Levi said, trying to be coldly logical about this. Still, his hand touched the quilt on the bed. "It was nice while it lasted."

Eren took a bold step forward. "Yes, it was."

Levi looked over, but something about those teal eyes made his heart race and ache. He stomped over to the window to escape that tender gaze. "You should take me back."

"Levi—"

"Now!" He sneered as he whispered, "And take care of yourself, takhshet."

Eren smiled at hearing that reluctant compassion. "You too. Stay out of trouble."

He walked Levi back to the castle dungeon, thanking him once again before locking him in his cell. Eren had color in his cheeks and was eager to get lots of sunshine, while Levi stared around at the darkness closing in around him.

He had to go back to eating watery broth and stale bread, randomly hit by soldiers for no reason other than they thought it was fun to beat up a Jew, spending from sunrise to long past sunset hunched over toilets or cooking pots, his hands getting rough and raw from lye soap and scratchy scrub brushes. It reinforced the miserable position he was in: a prisoner, not much more than a slave to Nazis.

It might have almost been tolerable if he could have seen Eren a few times, but the young lieutenant was determined to catch up with work. The few times Levi caught sight of him around town, Eren was surrounded by other soldiers, either deep in conversation with officers, or goofing around with his platoon mates. Levi's heart felt warm to see him enjoying life, but then a chill sank in as he felt like he had been forgotten.

He risked getting sick to care for Eren, and Eren could not even be bothered to glance his way.

"As it should be," Levi muttered to himself. If Eren had continued to be friendly with him, he would probably scold him to watch himself. Wasn't this precisely what he had been telling Eren to do for weeks? To not be too friendly? To not slip down into the dungeon and risk others thinking he was sympathetic to the enemy?