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Prince Eren and Levi Ackerman are official engaged!
The Royal Family of Marley announced Prince Eren’s engagement to Eldian-born banker, Levi Ackerman, via the Freedom Palace Twitter account along with the Royal Family’s New Year wishes for the Marleyan public. They got engaged in Liberio on Christmas Eve and will marry this Summer; the Palace announced in a series of tweets.
The couple reportedly first met in March last year, while Prince Eren worked in an Eldian Bank based in Trost City. Readers will recall Prince Eren was still married to his then-wife and acclaimed Nascar racer, Mikasa Azumabito, of the Azumabito political dynasty from Hizuru. Prince Eren and Ms Azumabito’s divorce was finalized through the Liberio High Court in September, four months after Ms Azumabito gave birth to their son, Hiro.
News reports of Prince Eren’s involvement in the recent policy change in the Eldian Royal Government’s decision to reintegrate the families exiled to the famed Mitras Underground surfaced in June. Gossip columns place this close to the time Mr Ackerman, then working for the Eldian First Republic Bank, emigrated with his family to Liberio.
Prince Eren is no stranger to controversy. Prior to his wedding to the Azumabito racing princess, Prince Eren was connected to various starlets and rising stars in the Marleyan political and financial circuit, notably reality TV actress, Annie Leonhart of Love Island fame, and Reiner Braun, hotshot litigator of Magath & Co. Law Office.
We know little information about Levi Ackerman, who is a private citizen, naturalized under Marleyan law. Mr Ackerman is formerly of the Mitras Underground in Eldia. Many speculate that Marley’s involvement in Eldian policy change may be connected to the couple’s romance, and that the Prince met Mr. Ackerman during a charity function for the marginalized citizens of the Eldian subterranean city.
Prince Eren has requested for privacy as he and his fiancé settle into their new life in Liberio. Freedom Palace has not answered this reporter’s request for comment.
“Charity function?”
Levi cocked an eyebrow, unable to keep the wry quirk of the corner of his lips as he closed the magazine and replaced it in the rack with other gossip rags, moving on with his shopping cart. Beside him, Eren peeled the foil wrapping of an orange-flavored ice popsicle and proffered it to the rosy-cheeked, green-eyed toddler, making grabby hands at him. Before the child could sway his chubby hand at the popsicle, he mocked the baby, licking salaciously at the ice treat. Levi hurried over, snapping the wrapper from Eren before his hard-headed boyfriend stuck it into their shopping cart and got sticky residue all over Levi’s groceries.
“Would you quit doing that?” he muttered as Eren made faces to the child in the pram until the boy burbled happily back at him. “He’s not supposed to have ice cream yet. Your wi—Mikasa won’t be happy if she finds out you’ve been feeding Hiro garbage.”
Eren rolled his tongue back into his mouth, the tongue piercing he got a month back clicking against his teeth as he flashed Levi a grin, plucking Hiro out of his pram and carrying the toddler one-handed as he dragged the pram behind him, following Levi out of the magazine and periodicals aisle. “Gerber isn’t garbage.”
Levi stopped walking. “Eren, you live in the Freedom Palace. You have a chef. Even if you can’t cook, you have kitchen staff to make your son a nutritious meal that doesn’t have to come out of a prepackaged cardboard box.”
“Gerber comes in jars, not boxes,” Eren replied, though it was hard to take him seriously when he kept teasing his son with the popsicle and Hiro slapped his sticky, chubby palms on Eren’s stubbly chin. “Anyway, we’re coming over to stay with you. You can cook Hiro’s breakfast so he can eat the breakfast of champions.”
Levi shook his head. “Is that a tagline for cereal? No wonder you feed your son Gerber.”
He thought about helping Eren with Hiro, especially when the boy reached over Eren’s shoulder as they passed Levi and gurgled a laugh in Levi’s direction. He was a cute little thing, Hiro was. Black-haired, green-eyed and ruddy-cheeked, Hiro looked the spitting image of Eren save for his black hair. More than once, as they followed Levi around in the supermarket, passersby commented on how cute their toddler son was. It was a strange experience, one that had Levi dawdling at the pasta aisle or pretending to mull over his tea brew selections as Eren blithely continued walking, chattering back to his son’s occasional gurgling at the bright lights and colorful displays of the supermarket racks.
He wasn’t sure it was appropriate for him to be mistaken as Hiro’s other parent when Mikasa Azumabito’s representative would show up in the evening to pick Hiro up from his day out with Eren. And now that he’d seen what some of the headlines said of his and Eren’s impending nuptials, he worried they’d get photographed while they went through the supermarket three blocks from the apartment Levi shared with his mother and Kenny. If these rumors reached the child’s mother, there was every likelihood it would stir up another media storm, especially if Mikasa was unhappy with Levi being around her son. He didn’t actually know what Eren’s arrangement was with her, and he didn’t want to pry.
Hiro erupted in peals of giggles. Eren had given up the pretext of not offering the popsicle to the child, and the icy, sticky sweetness of the treat excited the little boy as he chased after the dwindling bit of flavored ice.
Levi turned away, the lump in his throat too heavy for him to swallow at that moment. The way Eren played with his son pulled at something in his chest he wasn’t sure he was prepared to examine, especially not in such a public space, where people who lived in the same apartment block as he did went about their shopping. The last thing he needed was doddering Mrs Bock and her grandson, whispering about how Levi not only brought a man instead of a young lady home to meet his mother, but that said man had a son from a previous marriage. Eren, smiling and repeating the gibberish his son gurgled at him, reminded him of another scene when his lover had held and played with another child who could have been mistaken for their son. Levi wondered whether Dorothy and her mother were among those Furlan brought out of the Underground with him, if she was now well-situated in government housing, playing with other children her age, and enjoying the sunshine.
“Leviii!”
He turned from his overlong contemplation of milk brands to help with Mama’s osteomalacia. Hiro was back in his pram, reaching over to the side as if to grab at Levi’s trousers even though Levi was a probably a good six feet away from where the boy was. Eren plucked him out of the pram again.
“You want Levi, little brat?”
Levi scowled. “Hey, don’t call the kid a brat.”
Eren laughed. “Aww, come on, it’s not that bad. Hiro doesn’t understand it yet.” He shifted Hiro in his arms as the toddler reached for Levi, who blinked and nearly dropped the carton of milk in his hurry to put it back on the shelf and catch the boy before he pitched out of Eren’s arms. “Here, he wants to be with you.”
Levi didn’t know how the kid wanted to be with him. He hadn’t met Hiro before today, when Eren drove up to the bank branch where he worked, toddler strapped into the child seat in the back of his Audi, all apologetic that he’d mixed up his calendar with his day with Hiro. Eren picked him up every afternoon once he’d finished reviewing the balance sheets for his tellers and turned over the locked cash boxes to Mr. Grice for locking into the branch’s vault. They usually spent the afternoon either taking Mama to the hospital for her checkups, or driving the forty-five minutes it took to get to the seaside, where they took long walks on the shore and had dinner in nearby mom-and-pop restaurants dotting the quiet beach of the northern Marleyan coast.
Today, Eren had forgotten that Mikasa was in town for a Formula One tour event, and she’d brought Hiro with her so Eren could see his son.
Levi didn’t begrudge him of the time he needed with Hiro. Eren hadn’t seen him since his and Mikasa’s divorce had been finalized the previous year, and while he didn’t know what position Eren had about having children with him, he could tell Eren liked kids. Hiro was no exception. He was an adorable child. Pink-cheeked, with his two front teeth like little saws when he gnawed on the ties of Eren’s hoodie, Hiro reached over again, pitching himself out of Eren’s arms completely.
Levi dove to catch him, the knees of his trousers skidding on the dirty linoleum tiling of the supermarket floor. Hiro babbled an unintelligible warble of concern, the gristle of his drool dripping on the lapels of Levi’s coat jacket. Hiro smelled of baby powder and milk and the sweet, uncaring innocence only a child could have. Furlan and Isabel had once been that for Levi. It was why he hadn’t stopped sacrificing everything he had for them to grow up as normally as children could in the sunless misery of the Underground.
“Hey, little guy,” he said, sweeping the wispy curls of Hiro’s black hair away from the boy’s chubby face. Hiro’s eyes pooled with tears of surprise, likely jarred from having fallen out of his father’s grasp. As much as Eren believed his son too young to understand the goings on around him, children had an instinctual understanding of how the world worked. Levi maintaining his distance after Eren had sweetly introduced them when he picked Levi up from the bank must have tickled some underdeveloped sense the boy had that Levi was uncomfortable around him.
“Lee-vai,” Hiro gurgled, hurling his face into Levi’s collar.
Eren snorted as he helped them up. “I can’t believe this. You spend thirty minutes with him and he knows how to say your name. Meanwhile, ‘Kasa says his nanny’s been trying to get him to say Mommy and Daddy and he’s never once said either. Shouldn’t children find it easier to learn these things?”
Levi shook his head as he tucked Hiro to his side more firmly and allowed Eren to commandeer control of his shopping cart, steering it into the checkout counter. “Every child is unique. Of course, most children will find it easier to say and learn to pronounce certain words, but it doesn’t happen in every case.”
He unloaded the cart contents one-handed, Eren swiping them on the scanner and dunking each into the waiting paper bag at the end of the counter. The revelation that Hiro spent much of his time with hired help as opposed to his busy mother and absent father filled Levi with a melancholy that had him hugging the boy closer to himself. He couldn’t imagine growing up away from the people meant to give him the love and support he needed to learn things about himself and the world. It had been why, when he’d first found Isabel, he stopped attending school to care for her longer. He hadn’t started school back up until Isabel was seven and no longer reaching for his shirt sleeve in her sleep.
He chewed his lip thoughtfully, stealing sidelong glances at Eren, who carefully rearranged the bagged groceries while he swiped his card for payment. Eren scooped the bags up in his arms and gestured for Levi to precede him as they headed back to his car.
“I suppose there’s also the fact that words like Mom and Dad are things children associate with their parents. Maybe Hiro knows his nanny isn’t his parents and doesn’t associate the love and care he needs from either of you with the care he receives from his nanny.” He flushed when Eren said nothing as he fixed the mess of discarded t-shirts and hoodies in the back of his car and dumped Levi’s groceries into the backseat. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insinuate that you and M-Mikasa don’t—”
Eren shook his head, closing the rear door and leaning against it, pulling Levi close so he could envelope him in his arms, Hiro sandwiched between them. “No, you’re right, I... ‘Kasa and I have no place complaining about our son not knowing how to call for us when neither of us have really given him the time of day.” He tilted Levi’s head up, away from the messy cloud of Hiro’s hair, and planted a delicate kiss on his mouth. “I don’t know how to do any of this, you know. I wanted to… when you said yes, I wanted to ask you if you’d ever… you know, consider having children with me.” He huffed, running a hand through his long hair, loose today since Hiro had stretched his hairtie out of shape, until the elastic band snapped. “When ‘Kasa and I talked about a divorce, I was—okay, don’t laugh, but I was the one who was supposed to get Hiro. I mean, you know she’s a racer, right? And that means she travels a lot and stuff, and I’d just left First Republic then and you were gone, so I didn’t really have anything going for me.”
Levi shifted so Hiro had a bit more space between him and Eren. “Why didn’t you?”
Eren flushed and ducked his head. “Well… I knew I wanted you back, and I was gonna look for you no matter where my shitty brother had your uncle take you. I couldn’t really tow a newborn baby with me while I hopped into planes and cars and knocked on all the doors I could think of to look for you.”
“Don’t lie; you stormed your brother in the king’s palace and demanded to know where I was,” Levi scoffed. “And then you took your sweet time about it, persuading Ms Dina to take her throne back so you had something to show for when you found me. Kenny told me about it.”
The pink in Eren’s cheeks deepened into a proper flush as he scratched the back of one ear. “Well, yeah, but when you put it that way, it doesn’t sound half as romantic. Besides, I spent a bit of time back in Mitras to help Petra organize with the whole Underground thing after the Reparations Act got passed.”
He couldn’t help how that statement pulled a smile out of him. Hearing of his people, of his little brother and sister, getting the life they deserved out in the sun, the way Levi worked so tirelessly for years still filled him with a sense of wonder that such a thing he once considered an impossibility grew into reality. And it was all thanks to the two people he loved outside of the Underground. Petra was a strong woman who just needed a purpose to drive her into great heights, surpassing the paltry shackles her family name tied her to, and Eren motivating her into the Underground advocate she’d become was the most beautiful thing to have come out of the chaos that surrounded his departure from Eldia.
“And you know I love you for that, right?” he said, reaching up to kiss Eren back. “Now, why don’t you really tell me what all this is about? You never talk about Mikasa unless you have something you really want to say, and I don’t think asking me if Hiro can tag along to my grocery trip is it.”
Eren gave an aborted laugh and scuffed his foot on the tarmac as Levi back away to round the car and put Hiro in his car seat. “Damn, I never know how to open these things up to you when… never mind.”
“Eren, just say it,” he said gently. “I won’t get mad.”
Eren wiped his face with his hands, hurrying to the other side of the car to help Levi with the door. When he got there, though, he didn’t open it just yet, cocking his hip instead on the cool metal as he placed a tender hand on Levi’s cheek. His eyes were trained on Hiro, who had fallen asleep, lulled by the careful movements Levi made so he didn’t jostle the child as he carried him out of the supermarket. He took a breath that whooshed audibly into the quiet space of the empty parking lot.
“Okay, so I wanted to ask you if you wouldn’t mind that Hiro came to live with me… with us, I mean.” He stuttered at that but powered on when Levi only looked at him. “Mikasa never wanted to get pregnant and… I mean I didn’t either, of course. But he was already along the way and I dithered with her wanting to get an abortion until it was too late and—what I mean to say is she’s not ready to be a parent, and while I’m not sure I am either, I want to be. With you… and, well Hiro’s here and Kiyomi talked about getting him formally adopted as her son instead of Mikasa’s. You know people wouldn’t shut up about her being a bad mother—she’s just not ready, you know, and… oh god, did I ever tell you she was pregnant before we ever met? Fuck, I can’t believe I forgot to tell you about that! You must think me an absolute heel; I’d never cheat on you like that—”
Levi snorted a laugh that turned into quiet giggles he tried to contain so he wouldn’t wake Hiro.
“Love, you don’t need to apologize and explain. I got it, Eren. I know how long a woman is pregnant and I can count. That’s… kind of my job. She was already four months along when you and I met.” He sighed when Eren only blinked at him. “I’m not… I’m not gonna say no if you want to—I mean, I don’t know that this is what you’re trying to say, but I’d be happy to bring him up. With you. If you want me to.”
Eren grabbed his free hand, the one that wasn’t wrapped around Hiro, and kissed his knuckles in that slow reverence he always had that never failed to take Levi’s breath away. “Of course I want you to. You’re my Mrs Jaeger now. Hiro’ll have two dads, and maybe then he’ll learn how to say daddy properly.”
“You’re sure you want me to adopt him? Like… you want me to be his other parent? Won’t your ex—Mikasa, I mean… won’t she be mad about?”
Eren laughed, and the sound was like cool water trickling down the parched tarmac of the sun-bleached pavement. “What? No! She’ll be ecstatic! Now we don’t have to bow to Kiyomi’s weird things about not using baby bottles and shit when we feed him. God, you do not know what a batty old shit that woman is…”
He opened the door and fiddled with something in the backseat. Levi realized, as he heaved the car seat out, that he meant for him to get inside and hold Hiro while he drove them back to his apartment. Hiro, whom Eren wanted to be his son. He was going to be a father. For a moment, he could do nothing but stand there and watch as Eren dumped the car seat into the front passenger seat, then run back to the grocery to retrieve Hiro’s pram, cursing at the plastic mechanism that allowed the thing to fold before he wrangled it into the boot.
A father. Him. Of Eren’s child. Their child. Not even Isabel had ever called him Dad when she learned how to talk at three years old. He’d always been Big Brother, a moniker he’d cringed at for the connotations that he would ever try to control and monitor her life. Now he was going to be Daddy or Papa or… would Hiro call him by name instead because he wasn’t his birth parent? He hoped not, but he wouldn’t be offended if he did, as long as this boy understood that wherever he was, whomever he lived with between his birth parents, Levi would always be there to give him a home if he needed one. Because home wasn’t just somewhere to return to. Levi knew that by now, six years into the time when Petra took him out of the Underground.
Home would always be where the people he loved were, and Levi was determined to love this boy the way Mama had loved him, the way Kenny, in his own strange way, loved him. And he was determined to give Hiro as much time with his mother as Mikasa wanted if she wanted to see him.
“Hey, what was that about a charity function you were saying earlier?” Eren asked once they were both in the car. Levi strapped in the back seat with Hiro, who’d stirred awake when he climbed in, while Eren adjusted the rearview mirror so he could see above the pile of paper bags of Levi’s groceries as he pulled out of the lot.
“Hmm?” he asked, no longer caring about that stupid article he’d read in the gossip rag as Hiro delightedly tugged at the buttons of his shirt, burbling Levi’s name over and over. “Oh, nothing. Something I read in a magazine in the store. Forget about it.”
Eren nodded as they turned into the street of Levi’s apartment building. “So how scandalized do you think your mom’s gonna be if I tell her she’s a grandma now?”
He laughed and shook his head. No, he didn’t think it would scandalize Mama at all. She would have found the news of Eren and Levi having “met” at a charity function stranger and more scandalous than her son accidentally acquiring a child. It wouldn’t be the first time Levi had done it. As for the gossip around their so-called royal wedding, let the gossip columnists say what they wanted about who Levi Ackerman was, what he was like before Eren Jaeger. It didn’t matter. What did was the life he had to look forward to as Levi Jaeger, and the chubby, happily gristling little boy in his arms who grinned his cheesy, two-front-teeth grin at him, batting long lashes as he pawed at Levi’s saliva-damp lapel.
“Daddy,” Hiro said.
And Levi’s whole life was made.