Chapter Text
Levi found him just beyond his backyard, where his mother had warned him explicitly not to go wandering alone. Or with anyone else, for that matter. The heavy patter of rain was like a drone as the night grayed, the small solar bulbs lining the porch a gloomy addition to the persistently anguished sky. His mother would probably come looking for him in a second when she notices his absence.
Levi huffed, slapping a hand to his cheek to support it as he glumly stared ahead and let himself be soaked. His bicycle lay a small distance away in the mud, his boredom practically oozing out into negative vibes and hanging heavy in the air.
"That boy's gone off again. Have you seen him anywhere?"
He sprang up at the sound of his mother's voice, muffled, unable to will himself to think about going to bed. So he ran mindlessly, out the fence, the small distance between his home and the woods, and crashed into a pile of brush just as the backdoor swung open.
There was a soft protest, and the door clicked shut again. Levi grimaced at the sting of his palms. He got up, mud staining him head to toe, and blew on his painfully scraped hands before looking for his sneaker. It caught on to a twist of brush during his fall and he put it on quickly, wiping his mud ridden nose before weaving through the woods again.
To his dismay, there was nothing in the forest but trees and bushes and trees and the occasional wet ditch he tripped on. There were odd noises everywhere and the mud was drying at that point, and he came to the conclusion that he was very irritated.
And just as much lost.
He should've went to bed, he decided, when a loud and consecutive string of branches breaking reached his ears. He took shelter behind a tree, peeking around it slightly as he quieted his breathing and warily watched his dark surroundings.
When nothing happened or moved in forever, he sighed in relief and pulled away from the tree. He turned around, stumbled back and screamed, screamed until he couldn't hear himself screaming anymore.
Then he suddenly woke up. "I was dreaming." he breathed right away, blinking his eyes open in a post traumatic, nervous excitement. Instead of being met with his glow in the dark planet peppered roof, he was met with the sight of morning filtering through the forest canopy. He jumped to his feet in fright again, afraid of seeing that-that thing from last night. The area was clear, all forest and trees, except-
He fell back on his butt again and clamped a hand over his mouth before he screamed. The creature's eyes widened a bit and it reeled back, and it of all things looked frightened. It opened it's mouth, and Levi nearly thought it would speak, but it emitted a small mixture between a timid growl and a whine instead.
Levi was suddenly conflicted between referring to it as an it or he-because it suddenly occurred to him that the creature looked very much human. If not tenfold the size, that is. He-it, whatever, stared down at him with doe wide green eyes, the ferocious looking ones yesterday that scared the shit out of him. It's features looked human, except for those two rows of teeth that nearly split his face in half. Dark, shaggy hair fell around it's face and his very ripped body was embarrassingly bare, except it's squat and the way it curled it's arms around it's knees made it look almost-vulnerable.
"Don't eat me." Levi suddenly burst, and he nearly hit himself for talking to this thing, but to his surprise, it only shook it's head quickly. A small rainfall of leaves hit Levi with the movement.
"Wait," He whispered."You understand me?"
A nod.
Levi blinked, rubbed at the back of his undercut to make sure he didn't hit his head too hard last night. The thing moved it's hand forward, and he nearly jumped up, but it stopped it's hand midair until Levi somewhat relaxed again.
Then it prodded it's finger in a small patch of mud, struggling to keep it legible in such a small area. Levi blinked. It was writing. It was fucking writing.
He moved his hand back and put it back where it was, and Levi decided that was his invitation to look. So he got up and stretched his neck to get a look. It was far beyond chicken scratch.
"E...Eren?" He mumbled, and it nodded, eyes weirdly lighting up. It pointed at itself, and Levi's jaw might have loosened a little.
"Eren. You're Eren." He said again, and Levi was sure if he could smile then he would have, but the crinkle of his lower eyelids said enough. One of his pointed ears that Levi hadn't payed attention to before twitched a little, and it was the weirdest gesture, but it was communicative for some reason. And it was really, really cute. Weirdly cute.
"I'm Levi." He said before he could stop himself.