Chapter Text
I don’t know how the girl had managed to get herself into this type of situation, but I couldn’t care about the reasoning. All I cared about was getting her out of harms way. There were two burly men holding her down, shoving her face into a rain puddle. When they pulled her head out, her teeth were bared, green eyes alight with anger.
“You bastards!” she growled. “I’ll show you! I’ll kill the both of you!” They didn’t let her go on, pushing her head back into the water, drowning out her next string of curses. That’s when I stepped into their line of sight.
“Let her go,” I demanded, clenching my hands into fists at my sides.
One of them looked up at me with beady black eyes, a smirk appearing on his dirty face. “Who the fuck are you, kid? Think you can take on the both of us?”
“Come on over here and see.”
It was raining out, the droplets falling onto my face and clothes, drenching me where I stood. I didn’t know how I must’ve looked to them—probably like some thin, stupid kid who couldn’t keep his nose out of their business. But I wasn’t going to let them hurt her. With us being in the part of the city where murders happened every day, I wasn’t going to leave without her in tow.
The man released her head, coming to a stand. He wiped his dirty hands on the front of his black jeans, smiling as he approached me. He was a lot taller than me, with black hair and oily skin. My eyes locked onto one of his belt loops, where a sheathed pocketknife hung.
“Listen, kid,” the man drawled, picking his teeth with his index finger as he reached me, "you look young. I don’t feel like messing with some punk today. Why don’t you run back home to your mamma, huh?”
I took a step closer to him, looking up into his eyes. “I’m not leaving without her.”
“Do you even know her?” He gestured to the red-haired girl, who was still being restrained by the other man. “She stole from me, kid. Once you do that, there’s no going back. Risking yourself for her is pointless. Even if I let her go, she’s going to come right on back, because she’s a low life.”
I gritted my teeth. “Don’t talk about her like that! Every life is precious—including hers!”
“So you don’t know her, then?” he said, shaking his head. “She’s not as innocent as she appears. She runs with some hoodlums who cause nothing but trouble for the poor folks around here.”
“That’s not true!” the girl shouted. “You’re a monster who steals from the poor! You won’t get away with this! Big Bro will come for me. He always comes for me!”
The man laughed, throwing his head back in a dramatic fashion. “You’re talking about Levi, aren’t you?”
My eyes widened at that. I had heard of Levi, the underground thug. I didn’t even live around these parts, but his name got around. He was the strongest thug in the underground. No one messed with him. If he was on his way, these men were going to pay for their actions.
The girl nodded proudly. “Big Bro is probably already on his way.”
“Doubt that,” the man said. “We were watching you. You snuck out. He doesn’t know where you are. You’re just feeding us bullshit in hopes that we’ll release you. Well, that’s not going to happen. Not today.”
The girl’s face fell, and she looked so small in the alleyway they were holding her in. She was surrounded by dirt and trash, and all I wanted was to help her escape. Even if Levi wasn’t coming, I was going to do something for her.
The man turned back around to face me, reaching out to flick the lapel of my navy-blue blazer. “You’re not from around here, are you, kid? People from here don’t have enough money to purchase such fine clothing. What are you doing in these parts, anyhow? You should just run along already. Save yourself the trouble.”
“I said I wasn’t leaving without her,” I muttered.
He sighed, exasperated. “I’m really going to hate to have to ruin those nice clothes of yours.” His hand whipped out, but I dodged it in the nick of time, bringing my knee up to smash it against his groin. He toppled over, groaning as he collapsed to his knees. “Get him, Nile! What the hell are you just standing around for?”
The other man holding the girl pushed her aside like a rag doll, coming to a stand so he could face me head on. I noticed that he was without a weapon, so I plunged forward, ducking my head down to crash right into him. With the force of my entire body weight against him, I managed to knock him back.
“Go!” I yelled at the girl. “Get the hell out of here while you can!”
She looked shocked that I had done anything for her, but then her eyes narrowed at the man beneath me. She shook her head. “I won’t abandon you.” She rolled over onto her feet, running over to where we were to kick the man hard in the neck. He gagged, spitting up blood. “Come on!” She latched onto my arm, pulling me up to a stand. “We’re on their turf right now, but Levi’s isn’t too far from here. If we get there, they won’t mess with us anymore.”
I nodded. “Lead the way.”
She booked it down the alleyway, with me right on her feet. She took a sharp right turn, her feet splashing up water as we crossed a flooded out street. People stared at us as we ran, their eyes going wide when they saw that two men were chasing after us. They were hot on our tail, and if we didn’t hurry up, they were going to catch us.
I looked back at them over my shoulder, seeing their faces contorted into expressions of anger. If they caught us, they’d show us no mercy.
“They’re right behind us,” I said.
The girl’s head whipped around. “Shit! We’re going to have to do something quick.”
“Like what?”
As we passed a tin trashcan, she grabbed hold of it, throwing it at the men following us. Since they hadn’t been expecting it, it hit them head on, knocking one of them back.
She pumped her fist in the air. “Like that. Now come on.” She snatched up the sleeve of my blazer, pulling me along as she ran down narrow streets. “We’re almost there. Just a little further.”
My heart was hammering in my chest, my body light with adrenaline. We were going to get out of here.
Suddenly the girl stopped in front of me, and I slammed into her, stumbling back to land on my behind. My eyes darted up, seeing what she was seeing. There were about five men in front of us, blocking our way. They all held some type of weapon.
“Turn around,” the girl shouted, but when she looked behind us, she froze. “Damn! There’s more.”
I jumped to my feet, pulling her behind me to protect her in any way that I could. I stared at all the men, counting a total of fifteen of them. There was no way for us to run through them without getting caught. We had to fight. If we didn’t fight, they were going to kill us. I had no doubt about that.
“We have to fight,” I said.
I was expecting her to cower, to show some type of weakness. But to my surprise, she moved to stand next to me, lifting her fists up to her face. “I won’t die a coward. Come on, you fuckers!”
The first set of men came running up to us, and I sidestepped around one, kneeing him in the stomach. When he hunched over, I grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked his head down as I jerked my knee up. I heard a sickly crunch as his nose broke, but I didn’t focus on it, pushing him out of my way.
I took the bat he had been holding, bringing it up to swing it down on another man’s neck, screaming as I did it. I whirled around, clenching my teeth together as another man ran at me. I met him halfway, thrusting the end of the bat against his throat. He fell over in a coughing fit, and I stepped over him, ready to take on whoever got in my way.
That’s when I heard the girl scream. “Help me!”
I turned around to see that a man with greasy blonde hair was holding her in a headlock, the blade of his knife pointed to her face.
“I got this little bitch,” he said.
No part of me hesitated to charge at him, catching him off guard. He expected me to back down, but I never would. Not until there was nothing left in me. Not until I was dead.
He tossed the girl to the side at the last second, bringing the blade down on my arm. I couldn’t even feel the pain, too riled up, too angry. I smacked the bat hard against his face; satisfied when I saw his two front teeth shatter as blood spewed out of his mouth.
“We have to get out of here,” the girl said, getting back onto her feet. “There’s too many of them.”
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “If we win, we live. If we lose, we die. If we don’t fight, we can’t win. Do you understand that?”
A look of determination settled on her face, and she nodded once. “I understand. If we don’t fight, we can’t win.”
“That’s right,” I said. “Now give it everything you’ve got!”
Just as we were about to face the men that were heading our way, a loud whirring sound stopped us in our tracks. I looked from side to side, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from, but the men looked just as confused as I did.
“Big Bro!” the girl hollered. “I told you assholes he was going to come for me!”
Out of nowhere, two men appeared, seeming to come from the sky. One landed beside us, his blue eyes taking in the girl that was beside me.
“Isabel,” he said. “Always getting into trouble.”
She shrugged. “Not on purpose.”
He jerked his chin in my direction. “Who’s this?”
“I don’t know. He saved me, though. Reece had me, then this boy came along and helped me out.”
The guy’s eyes darted back to me. “We’ll get you out of this. Don’t worry.”
I nodded once. “What do you need me to do?”
“Just lay low for now. Levi will handle it from here.”
“You’re not Levi?” I asked, though now that I was looking at him, he was a little too pretty to be some badass thug. He had dirty-blonde hair that fell carelessly onto his face, bringing out his pale-blue eyes.
He shook his head. “Nah, I’m Farlan. That’s Levi.” He pointed a knife he had in hand in front of us. I followed the direction of the blade with my eyes, seeing a short guy walk up to the men. He had the blackest hair I had ever seen, and pale skin that stood out against his dark clothes.
Why was he just walking right up to them? Why wasn’t he fighting? And why weren’t any of the men charging at him?
My eyes scanned the lining of men, surprised to see that they looked scared. Were they really that frightened of one man? He didn’t look all that tough to me, though he must have been. You didn’t just earn the title of the underground’s strongest for nothing. Still, I couldn’t see what the big deal was.
Levi unsheathed a knife, looking down at the shiny blade as he spoke. “Under whose order did you attack Isabel on?”
The men all visibly shrank back, but one stepped forward, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as he swallowed hard. “R-Reece, sir!”
Levi nodded slowly, still looking down at his knife. “I see. I don’t feel like getting my clothes dirty with your filthy blood, so I’ll let you all go. But if you ever go after Isabel again, I will spare no life. Is that understood?”
All the men nodded at once, some of them even shouting, “Yes, sir!”
“Now get out of my sight,” Levi said, and they didn’t waste a second to run away. Then he turned around, giving me the first view of his face. He had a face unlike any I’d ever seen before. The shape of his eyes drew my attention, and I watched as his gray irises trained on me. “Who are you? Are you one of them?”
“He’s not!” Isabel said right away in my defense. “He saved my life.”
“Is that so?” Levi came walking up to me, his eyes moving downward to glance at the wound on my arm. “You’re injured.”
I clamped my hand over the gash. “It’s nothing.”
He crinkled his nose. “Don’t touch it with your dirty hand. It will get infected.”
I let my hand fall to my side. “Why didn’t you kill any of them? They were going to kill us.”
He seemed uninterested in me as he sheathed his knife. “I don’t like needless death.” He turned his back to me. “Come. I’ll dress your wound.”
“It’s ok,” I said. “I really should be getting home. My mom will worry.”
“Where do you live?”
“Trost City.”
“You’re a long way from home.”
I stepped around him, wanting to see his face. “Yeah. My mom is sick, and this lady told me this special herb could help her, but that they don’t sell it in Trost. She said that I could get it here, so I came.” I dug my hand into the pocket of my slacks, pulling out a small plastic bag full of herbs. “It was worth it.”
Levi gazed at me in a strange way, then he said, “You’re coming with us. Before you go home, I will dress your wound. Don’t argue with me. It’s pointless.”
I sighed. “All right, but I need to go straight home afterwards.”
He gave me no reply, simply jerking his head to the right. Immediately Isabel and Farlan started walking in that direction. When I hesitated, Isabel took my hand, tugging me forward. I fell into step with her, putting the bag of herbs back into my pocket.
“Don’t worry,” Isabel said with a smile. “Big Bro will fix you right up. Say, what’s your name, anyway?”
“Eren.”
She let go of my hand to throw her arm over my shoulders, making me wince, but she didn’t seem to notice. “It’s nice to meet you, Eren. Thanks for saving me back there. I was backed into a corner by those bastards.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” I said. “I wasn’t going to leave you to get hurt.”
She looked over at me, smiling wider. “I like you! Too bad you live so far away. How’s it like living in Trost? I always wanted to go, but Big Bro says they don’t like our kind.” Her face fell.
“It’s not bad, I guess. And if you want, you can come visit me. I wouldn’t mind.”
“Really?!” She whipped around, walking backwards as she gaped at Levi. “Did you hear that, Big Bro? He said I could visit him in Trost. Can I? Pleeeeaaaaase?”
“We’ll see,” Levi told her.
She turned back around, lifting her arms up over her head as she ran to catch up with Farlan. That left me alone with Levi, who was keeping a close distance behind me. I purposely slowed down my pace to come into step with him. He kept his eyes in front of him, acting like I didn’t exist.
“How far until we’re at your place?” I asked.
“It’s not far.”
Well, he didn’t talk much. It didn’t really bother me, but I was curious about him. Even in Trost his name was known, though most people described him wrong. He wasn’t some huge, scary man. He was relatively small, but had this intensity about him. To most people, he wouldn’t seem appealing, but I found myself drawn to him.
“How old are you?” I said, trying to make conversation. He didn’t look that old.
His eyes slid over to look at my face. “That’s none of your concern.”
“Oh, come on. I won’t tell anyone, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
He steered the conversation in a different direction. “We should be there soon. You’ll have to remove your clothes before you come into my home.”
I stopped midstride. “Remove my clothes? Why?”
“You’re filthy and dripping wet. I won’t let you into my home like that.”
If I weren’t so curious about where he lived, I wouldn’t have agreed. Taking off my clothes seemed a little extreme to me, but I suppose he was right. Due to the rain, and the fight I’d been in, I was a complete mess. My mom was going to get on me for the tear in my blazer.
The rain had slowed to a drizzle by the time we reached Levi’s home. It was small, but even from the outside, it looked impeccably clean.
After he directed me up the stairs that led to his front door, he said, “Undress.”
It shouldn’t have been embarrassing. We were both guys. Yet I found myself flushing as I tugged off my blazer, throwing it over the side of the cement railing. I dropped my eyes as I took hold of the hem of my shirt, lifting it up and over my head.
Levi stepped up to me, looking at the gash in my arm. “That’s deep. Are you in a lot of pain?”
“Me?” I shook my head, distracting myself from his close proximity by unbuckling my belt. “No. It doesn’t hurt too bad.”
He moved back to lean against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. “You went through a lot of trouble to save someone you don’t even know. Though I am grateful to you for it.”
I shrugged. “I wanted to help her. They had her outnumbered, and I wasn’t going to sit back and watch her get hurt.”
“A lot of people would have.”
I dropped my pants, peering up at him. “I’m not a lot of people.”
“So I see.”
When I was in nothing but my boxers, he opened his door, letting me step inside. I couldn’t see a thing until he flipped on a light, illuminating the small room. There wasn’t a lot of furniture, and the living room was connected to the kitchen, but everything was clean and tidy.
“Where’d Isabel and Farlan go?” I asked, noticing that they hadn’t come inside the house.
“They went to go pick up supplies for dinner. Now come into the kitchen.”
I followed after him, sitting down when he pulled out a wooden chair. He left me there, disappearing behind a door that probably led to a bathroom. It was cold, and I was severely underdressed, but I wasn’t uncomfortable. I should’ve been worried for my safety, being in a thug’s house—not just any thug, either—but I wasn’t worried at all.
A while later, Levi came back into the kitchen holding a small wooden box. He set it down on the table, pulling out a chair to sit opposite me. I watched him as he retrieved a bottle of antiseptic. He glanced up at me as he poured some of the clear liquid onto a cotton ball.
“This is going to hurt,” he said.
“I can handle pain.”
He dabbed the cotton ball against my wound, and I gritted my teeth against the sudden stinging sensation. He did it a few more times, using a clean cotton ball every time before he produced a needle and thread.
“What are you going to do with that?” I asked, though it was obvious.
“I’m going to suture the gash. It’s too deep to leave it like that.”
“Okay.” I looked away as I felt the tip of the needle sink into my skin. But as he tugged it up, closing up the end, I glanced over at him, taking in his concentrated expression. He wasn’t bad looking. He had an interesting face, and these thin eyebrows that would’ve looked bad on anyone else. “I really like your eyes.”
His movements faltered as those gray eyes moved up to my face. “Thanks. Yours aren’t so bad, either.”
As he continued to work, a comfortable silence settled over us. I couldn’t look away from his face, memorizing every dip and curve. He had sharp features, and I kind of liked his strange haircut.
“Finished,” Levi announced, sitting back in his seat. “Your clothes should be dry by now.”
“Thanks.” I stared down at his handiwork, surprised at how professional it looked.
“I’ll walk you home.”
I stood up. “That really isn’t necessary. I’ll be fine.”
“I’m not giving you a choice in this. Now go get dressed.”
I sighed, walking out to the front patio. Picking up my clothes, I shuffled into them, jumping up when Levi came up behind me. He narrowed his eyes at me, and I asked, “What is it?”
“Wash up when you get home, ok? And be careful with your wound.”
“Okay. I will.”
“Let’s go.”
As I followed him down the stairs, I couldn’t help but hope that this wouldn’t be the last time I’d be seeing him.