Something to the Stories

by Lady_Bluebird

Summary:

As delicate as the figure was, when they swung their head from side to side to check for witnesses, they moved with a copperhead’s grace. A few more steps toward the snare, and Levi would have them.

Notes:

• For across_galaxies.

I wrote this fic for an exchange - I hope you like it, Finn! I've thought about doing something forest-related and some kind of more unconventional abo AU for a long time. Thinking about what to write for you inspired me to connect those two kinds of AUs, and you finally broke me out of the writing funk that I've been in since April. You are such an incredibly kind person, and I really appreciate all the advice and help you've given me, so I'm so happy that I got the chance to give something back to you :). Thank you so much for all the valuable insights, spooky art and movies, and good times hanging out in VC. Also, thank you for helping mod this exchange!

At first, it looked like dinner had escaped the snare, but Levi knew better.

If the rabbit had fought to free itself, there would be fur clumps, blood splatters, and disturbed leaf litter. There was none of that. It was like the rabbit had disappeared.

The poacher was back.

Levi scanned the ground around the snare, but as usual, whoever took the pack’s game left no footprints. The only sign that someone was here at all was the scent lingering in the air, sweet and tangy like lilac and sorrel. Not someone from the Ackerman pack, and not someone whose scent Levi recognized from any of their neighboring packs, either.

And an omega.

Levi checked the other snares on the trail, collected their catches, and made his way back to camp. As he moved through the forest, he was mindful not to snap twigs underfoot, and he kept an eye on the shadows between trees in case one of them moved. None of them did.

Despite the summer sun, Levi shivered. He didn’t like this poaching business. Not just because of the poaching itself, although that problem would only grow as the weather cooled and game became scarcer. Whoever the poacher was, they never smelled of anyone else's scent but their own. That meant they had no mate, no packmates - they were a loner, and that added another layer to the problem. Loners were very, very rare, and with good reason. The deep forest was dangerous. Aside from the packs, it housed bears, bobcats, and, especially in the part of the forest that gave way to the treacherous mountains along the western border, cougars. Packs were big enough and loud enough not to be a target, but someone living on their own would be in grave danger. No sane person would try to survive the forest by themselves, which meant that loners were usually exiles, those who caused enough problems in their pack to be considered dangers to the community.

The last thing Kuchel needed was a troublemaker encroaching on the pack’s territory.

And for the loner to be an omega… That wasn’t just unusual, it was unheard of. Exiles were usually alphas who got too ambitious or too rowdy. Packs tended to be more protective of their omega members, and, although it was definitely a double standard, they wouldn’t reject them as easily as alphas.

The poacher’s scent clung to Levi’s nostrils long after he left the scene of the crime, covering his mind in an enticing haze and making it difficult to focus on the path back to camp.

What did an omega do for their pack to reject them?

As Levi got closer to camp, laughter drowned out birdsong, and the trees gave way to a clearing populated with birch-and-hide huts. A fire pit crackled in the center of the campsite. People bustled around camp, doing their daily tasks maintaining the pack.

“Levi!” A slight, red-haired omega called out to him. She balanced a resin-sealed water baskets on her shoulder. “Back already?”

“Isabel,” Levi greeted. At the fire, Isabel set her basket down, and Levi passed her the string of rabbits that he had harvested. "The snares were full." Isabel hummed appreciatively.

She flashed him a wicked grin. “So you didn’t actually hunt anything?”

“I didn’t have to.”

Isabel shook her head in mock disappointment. “The best hunter in the pack, the chieftain’s pride and joy, and you don’t actually do your own hunting.”

Levi snorted and ladled himself a drink of purified water from the pot cooling by the fire. “Smart hunting is about conserving energy, Izzy.”

Isabel shrugged. “Sounds like laziness to me.”

Levi jabbed her with the ladle. “Wait until winter comes, and call me lazy when I come back with a stag.”

Isabel laughed. As she’d aged, she’d stopped pulling pranks like hiding raw fish in her enemies’ huts and gleefully watching them tear their home apart looking for the rotting scent. But even after presenting and becoming a full-fledged member of the pack, her gremlin side still reared its head in less destructive ways.

“Hey, Levi.” Farlan joined them by the fire and examined the rabbits. He whistled. “These pelts are perfectly intact.”

“You can have one of them, if you want,” Levi said. “I don’t need them.”

Isabel rolled her eyes. “Of course you don’t, master hunter.”

“It’s true.” Levi didn’t need more pelts. He had plenty of rabbit skins for his nest, plus hide from the moose that he brought down last January. He didn’t have a mate to court with furs, and despite his mother’s increasingly explicit prodding, he didn’t plan to find one anytime soon. Levi was content to have his living space to himself, and he was perfectly satisfied with the platonic relationships he had with his packmates. “Whoever prepares them,” Levi told Farlan, “just tell them that I said you could have first choice.”

“And tell them before Oluo notices,” Isabel added. “Or he’ll hoard them all to give to Petra.” She grinned.

Farlan made a face. “I don’t know why they haven’t bonded yet. They’re so head over heels for each other, I feel like I don’t exist when I’m around them.”

“I’m happy for them, though," Isabel said. "Especially after Petra wasted so much time trying to court you,” She added to Levi.

Levi frowned. He hadn’t realized how Petra construed their relationship until she asked him if he wanted to go hunting with her, alone, and tried to kiss him on the deer paths. They hadn’t been able to look at each other for a week afterward, but Petra laughed it off, and they were still good friends. Nevertheless, he didn't like to think about how he had embarrassed both of them.

“Hey, Levi.”

Levi turned. Erd stood behind him, dressed in the deerskin and brown-and-green paint that the hunters wore to blend into the forest. “Your mother wants to see you,” He said. He averted his eyes as he spoke, keeping them on the charcoal-strewn ground out of respect for the top hunter.

Levi nodded and stood up, wiping dust off of his pants. “Is she in her hut?”

Erd inclined his head in answer.

Kuchel’s hut, as the chieftain’s, was the largest in the camp, and the huts that neighbored hers were built a little ways away, giving her a respectful berth. A dark-haired alpha, towering even with his hunched back, leaned against the hut’s entrance, head slouching so that his chin touched his collarbone. As Levi approached, he roused himself and looked down at Levi with the same salmon-grey eyes that everyone in their family had.

“Uncle,” Levi greeted.

Kenny grunted. “Nobody else is with her right now, go on in.”

Levi nodded and pushed aside the hide flap that functioned as a door, stooping to step into Kuchel’s home.

Every time he visited his mother, Levi felt like a pup again, playing with knucklebones on her bear rug. Looking down at it now, hazy through the incense smoke swirling around the room, he remembered when he could fit his whole head into its gaping maw, sitting still with his throat between its canines and pretending that he had tamed it.

Kuchel sat cross-legged at the far end of the space on a raised, polished wood dais that she used to hold audiences. She wore her traditional diadem, a pair of snow-white antlers that towered high enough to nearly scrape the roof. Levi had tried to wear them once, on a dare from Isabel, and he thought his neck would snap under its weight. How his mother could wear them all day with her head held high, he didn’t understand, but he wasn’t surprised.

Levi started kneeling, and Kuchel tssked.

“Since when did my own son become so formal with me? Stand up Levi, and come here.” He did, and she wrapped him up in a tight hug. Her scent was as familiar as his own, and even though the thick, medicinal incense was giving Levi a headache, he felt completely at ease.

Kuchel pulled away and studied Levi’s face. “I’m so proud of you,” she said.

“You tell me that constantly,” Levi said.

“Because it’s true,” she said. "I couldn't ask for a better son and heir."

Levi detached himself. “What did you want to talk to me about?” He asked.

Kuchel pursed her lips. “You’re the one who checked the snares today.” Levi nodded. “Did it happen again?”

“Yes,” Levi said. “And the one they stole from is closer to camp than last time.”

Kuchel sighed. “They’re becoming bolder.” She frowned into space, deep in thought. “Taking a rabbit, or a bird, at a time – it’s a problem, but we can manage that. I’m concerned that they’ll get bold enough to steal more at once.”

“There’s only one of them,” Levi said. “They don’t have a reason to steal from multiple snares at a time.”

“True,” Kuchel agreed. “For now. When they stockpile for winter, we’ll compete not only with every other predator in the woods, but with them.” She shook her head. “They’re like a fox. So opportunistic.”

And just as irritating. Despite himself, Levi felt a little sorry for the thief. Were they stealing because it was easier than hunting, or could they not hunt for themselves?

“Do you think you can track them?” Kuchel asked.

It wouldn’t be easy. The poacher was a cleaner bandit than any fox Levi had ever encountered, and if Levi cornered them, they might become twice as nasty.

But he was the best hunter in the pack for a reason, and the pack couldn’t afford an interloper. The intruder was making the others nervous as things stood, and if the situation got worse, tempers might flare. “Yes,” Levi promised.

“Take all the help you need,” Kuchel said.

“I can do it alone,” Levi said. “A whole team might scare them off before I can make them show their face.”

“Very well,” Kuchel agreed, “but if you decide that you want more help later, we can spare the manpower.”

“Thank you.”

“Rico wants to talk to me about keeping some of the pups in line,” Kuchel said. “They get too distracted chasing each other when they need to be chasing crows away from the fields.” She shook her head.

“I’ll leave you, then.” Dealing with constant audiences for everyday frustrations was exactly the reason why Levi didn’t envy his mother. Eventually, he would have to accept the diadem, but in the meantime, he would savor his relative freedom.

Kuchel offered him a small smile. “I’ll see you tonight, Levi.”

Levi slipped away to his hut. His bow was good, but the string was a little looser than he would have liked it to be, so he spent the hour before dinner restringing it and preparing fletching for a few new arrows. As he worked, less and less light shone from under the door, and the campsite became louder as the pack finished their work and began to gather to eat.

Hange, the healer, barged in. “Levi!” The beta beamed. “What are you, a pill bug? Come out and eat with us.”

Levi brandished the flit arrowhead that he had been sharpening. “I’m working, dumbass.”

Hange rolled their eyes. “You don’t need to make any more arrows, Levi. There’s no need to hunt, dinner is already cooked.” Hange grabbed him by his sleeve and tugged him outside.

The pack looked up as Hange and Levi approached the fire. Gunther raised his ceramic cup. “The cook is here.” The others laughed.

Levi grunted and sat down in the space Farlan and Isabel made for him. “Technically, I didn’t cook it, Nanaba did.”

“The butcher,” Gunther amended.

“They’re just rabbits from a snare. I didn’t lay the snare either. I think Mike did.”

Mike shrugged. “I don’t remember. Either way, thanks for making the trek to pick them up.”

Someone passed Levi his portion of rabbit, and he picked the smoky meat off the thigh. A flurry of conversation drifted through the night air like embers coming off of the fire, but Levi was content to sit in silence, listening to the talking and joking around him.

Eventually, the conversation died down. Isabel wiped her hands on her skirt and leaned forward, eyes glowing like hot coals. “Everyone,” she announced, “I have a story.”

“If it’s about more of your past pranks, I don’t need to relive my victimhood,” Oluo griped.

“I like those stories,” Petra objected.

“Because you like hearing about me in pain,” Oluo grumbled.

“A little,” Petra admitted.

“More than a little,” He said. “Some caring mate you are.”

Petra cooed and leaned into him. “No, I love you.”

“It’s not about anything I’ve done.” Isabel smiled. “It’s about the ghost.”

“Ghost?” Farlan asked.

Isabel nodded sagely. “Someone’s been taking prey from our snares, right?” The pack’s combined scents took on a sharp note of unease. “What if,” Isabel said, “it’s not actually a matter of someone taking it, but something.”

“Long ago,” Isabel continued, “When true wolves still lived here, there was a great warrior who would hunt them. He was the only one who would – everybody else avoided the wolves for fear of the pack tearing them apart. This hunter could track the wolves by scent or lure them in by howling as if he was one of their own, and over time, they came to fear him even as they were drawn to him.” With the fire darkening her cheeks and eye sockets, Isabel looked a little like a ghost herself, a skeletal creature floating by the fire. A few members of the pack glanced over their shoulders, staring into the dark woods.

“The hunter’s skills won him fame and fortune,” Isabel continued. “Packs as far away as the other side of the mountains knew his name and reputation. Every day, omegas would line up outside his hut in hopes of catching his eye, although no one ever did.”

Isabel paused. “But,” She said, speaking so quietly that the pack had to lean in to hear, “he became too bold.”

Her lips curled like a wolf’s snarl. “One day, to prove his skill, he snuck into the heart of wolfpack’s camp and stole two pups from right under the alpha female’s nose. It was a mistake. When he brought the pups back to camp – a camp that used to stand right where this one was built, by the way, - the chieftain was horrified and ordered him to return them. But he refused, laughing and claiming that, if the wolves had a problem with him, they could come and try to take their children back. And that’s exactly what they did.”

Isabel shook her head. “It started slowly. Pups disappeared from camp. First, it only happened at night, but then people started disappearing in broad daylight, too. Omegas would send pups into the fields to shoo away blackbirds, and, somehow, somewhere in the rustling cornstalks, something would silently carry them off. Sitters watched the children around the clock, two at a time so that, if one had to blink, the other one could still watch the pups. It didn’t matter. Somehow, something always went wrong.”

“Finally, the chieftain, visited by yet another sobbing mother, knew what had to be done. This was revenge for the hunter’s hubris. The hunter would finally have to pay a price. When the hunter, even under orders, refused to relinquish the cubs, the healer slipped a nightshade draught into his water – not enough to kill him, but enough to force him into sleep. Then, two warriors carried the hunter out into the woods until they found the wolves’ den, left him before the alpha female, and ran, never looking back. They said that night that you could hear the screams from the other side of the mountains.”

Oluo shuddered and pressed closer to Petra.

“They never tried to retrieve the body,” Isabel said. “They didn’t dare. But the pack thought, sometimes, that they saw the hunter late at night, wandering the edge of the woods.” The fire made the nighttime shadows dance, curving and stretching like figures stalking the gathered pack. “Hunters checking snares would complain that they were being watched, even when nobody was out in the woods with them, and sometimes, when they checked snares, there wouldn’t be anything in them. The hunter, or whatever was left of him, keeps stealing from his old pack. Nobody knows why. Maybe he is angry that they betrayed him. Maybe he’s trying to eat and is too stubborn to remember that ghosts can’t feed. Or maybe.” Isabel grinned, baring her teeth. “He’s giving them to the wolves, trying to appease them for his unforgivable crime. Whatever the reason is, when the wind is loud enough, you can still hear him screaming, begging for the wolves to stop, begging for a relief that he can never escape, even from beyond the grave.”

The camp was quiet for a long moment. “A hunter?” Erd said. “Levi said the poacher smells like an omega.”

Even surrounded by the jostling scents of the entire pack and the fire’s heady, thick smoke, Levi remembered the omega’s scent.

Isabel scowled at him. “Are you saying omegas can’t be hunters?”

“No!” Erd bristled. “It’s just less common for them to be, that’s all.”

“Maybe the ghost will get you for insulting him that way.”

“I think it’s much more romantic than that,” Marlene mused. “The ghost of a lost omega, wandering the woods in search of a mate that didn’t remain after death the same way he did.”

Isabel made a face. “That’s so cliché.”

“It’s beautiful,” Marlene insisted.

“Regardless of what kind of ghost it is,” Kuchel cut in, “these stories are making the pups’ eyes as big as owls’.”

“I’m not afraid,” Isabel said loftily. “Big bro will protect me.” Levi stiffened as she threw her arms around him.

“I’m going to start tracking them tomorrow,” Levi said.

Ghost, demon, criminal – whatever and whoever the poacher was, they wouldn’t stay a mystery for long.

Levi rose before the sun. The hunters usually set out to check the snares a few hours from now, so he hoped that he could beat the poacher to the snares and lie in wait for the thief. The nocturnal creatures hadn’t gone to bed yet, and as Levi slipped into the woods, bullfrogs' croaks and owls’ hoots reverberated through his bones. As he traveled deeper and deeper into the woods, following the subtle deer trails along which the hunters laid their traps, the forest shrouded the campsite behind him, and he was fully enveloped in the slightly musty scent of dew-laden woods.

If Levi didn’t catch the thief at the snares, he might be able to track them by scent, but it would be difficult. The daily dew and fog would wash away some of the previous day’s scents.

When Levi reached the first snare, a rabbit lay in it. Luckily, based on the angle its neck was at, it hadn’t suffered. There was a tree a few feet from the trap, and Levi scaled it with practiced ease, ignoring the rough bark scraping his palms. One of the tree’s thick branches hung over the snare. Levi tested it, putting one foot out on the limb and pressing down to see if it swayed. When it held firm, he crawled out onto it, perching above the deer trail like a bobcat.

In the forest, people and animals alike forgot to check above them when they looked for threats. Levi hoped the poacher would make the same mistake. Even if they didn’t, he was perfectly camouflaged, obscured behind leaves with his exposed skin smeared with mud and moss-green paint.

The waiting obscured time. One of the things Levi loved about the forest was the way it became a pocket dimension, a place outside of the daily schedule of errands and gatherings. Here, if he wanted to be, Levi could be the only soul in the universe.

Something emerged from the forest.

At first, between the tawny hair and long, slim legs, Levi thought the newcomer was a fawn. Then, as they walked out of the underbrush, silently picking their way over leaves and twigs that would normally crack, Levi realized that the dancer-nimble creature was a person.

They also smelled like sorrel and lilac.

Levi tensed, preparing to leap down. As delicate as the figure was, when they swung their head from side to side to check for witnesses, they moved with a copperhead’s grace.

A few more steps toward the snare, and Levi would have them.

The omega looked up, and he locked eyes with Levi.

Levi nearly fell out of the tree. The omega’s emerald eyes were the same vibrant chartreuse as leaves were when the sun shone through them. Levi opened his mouth to say something, and the omega turned on a dime to sprint into the woods.

Swearing, Levi dropped out of the tree, rolling to absorb the shock of hitting the ground, and darted after the thief. “Hey!” He roared. The omega accelerated.

The poacher didn’t just look like a fawn, he moved like one, bounding and weaving through the trees like he could fly. Levi nearly slid into a massive oak when he tried to copy one of his prey’s hairpin turns, and he had to slow down to pick his way across streams that the omega cleared with ease. Levi ground his teeth, trying desperately to keep up with the blur of brown and green that wove in and out of trees.

The omega glanced back over his shoulder, something people only did if they were worried you would catch them. His eyes widened. Taking that as a sign that he was closing in, Levi pushed himself harder, rocketing through the trees. The omega stopped, and Levi couldn’t stop looking at the way his plush, phlox-pink lips formed around an exclamation.

Suddenly, the forest lurched around Levi, the leafy canopy above him spinning and inverting. Levi’s face rushed toward the ground at the same time that something jerked his feet upward. The leaf litter below swung back and forth as Levi struggled to free himself from the grip of whatever had caught him. Thrashing only made his captor tighten its grip around his ankle like a garotte. He was in a big game snare.

Levi closed his eyes to block out the lurching world, but losing his vision only disoriented him more. Going from running at full speed to a complete stop in the blink of an eye made his stomach turn. His temples throbbed as blood rushed to his head, and Levi groaned as his breakfast tried to escape his stomach.

“Fuck,” Someone whispered.

The voice was behind him, and when Levi twisted to see who it was, he saw the omega, standing upside down and watching him with an unreadable expression. Then, his movement made the snare spin again, and he lost sight of them.

Swallowing his humiliation, Levi ignored the eyes burning a hole into his back and reached up, curling his torso into a half-crunch to reach for the snare’s noose. He couldn’t do it. Levi’s core muscles screamed in protest. The omega’s scent hung heavy in the air, making it even harder to focus.

Stewing, Levi said, “Enjoying the show?”

The pause was so long that he worried the omega had left, but finally, the poacher said, “Not really, honestly.”

Levi closed his eyes, remembered how nauseous he felt the first time he did that, and sighed. “Why are you still here, idiot?”

“Uh, it’s my snare.”

Levi twisted around again and glared at the omega. “This is yours?"

The omega blinked. “Yes?”

The omega spun out of view again. “Then why the fuck,” Levi said, “are you stealing?”

“It’s not good enough yet,” The omega said. At least he wasn’t shameless enough to apologize. “My snares never catch anything.” He laughed. “Well, except for you, I guess.”

“It’s not fucking funny,” Levi warned.

“It kind of is, though,” The omega mused. “A hunter getting caught in a hunter’s trap.” His voice had a lilt that Levi couldn't identify as an accent from a forest pack. It sounded nice. Very nice.

“Brat,” Levi said. Gravity threatened to pull his tunic over his face, and when cool air tickled his stomach, Levi felt as exposed to the omega as if he was naked. The searing eyes on his body didn’t help.

“Get me the fuck down,” Levi said.

“Would you help me if I got stuck?” The omega asked.

“What do you think?” Levi demanded.

“I don’t think you would. You seem like an ass,” The laughter in the omega’s voice made Levi want to throttle him even more. “I bet you’re thinking about what you’ll do to me if I free you right now.”

He wasn’t wrong. “Why are you still here if you weren’t considering helping me?” Levi shot back.

The omega didn’t say anything to that.

“If you let me down,” Levi said, “I’ll show you how to make a snare that will catch something you can eat.”

“Before or after you take that bow and turn me into a hedgehog?” The omega asked.

“I won’t,” Levi promised. Not because he didn’t want to – it was tempting – but he doubted it would do much good. This omega really was like a fox.

As beautiful as one, too

What? No. Fuck no.

“Promise?” The omega asked.

Levi snorted. “Sure.” He expected the omega to start cutting him down, but nothing happened for a minute. “Are you going to do it or not, brat?”

“I will!” The omega said, too quickly.

Levi frowned. “What are you waiting for? A bear to find us?”

“I’ll do it, leave me alone.”

“Are you? And stop hiding behind me, come the fuck over here.”

That, the omega didn’t argue with. He stepped into view, gazing down at Levi with a furrowed brow. “I don’t know how,” The omega confessed.

Of course he fucking didn’t. “Well, don’t cut the rope, or when I fall I’ll break my fucking neck. Go to the tree you tied the rope to and untie it. Slowly. Then lower me.”

The omega nodded and disappeared again, slipping out of the corner of Levi’s eye. Nothing happened for a long moment, and then the rope slackened. Levi had a millisecond to brace himself before the ground rushed toward him for the second time, and he only just managed to catch himself on his hands as the snare gave way. Pain shot up his right wrist, and he hissed. “I said slowly."

“Sorry!” The omega eyed Levi with curiosity, concern, and unease. He kept out of Levi’s reach, hovering in case he needed to bolt.

Levi sat up, gritting his teeth as the forest spun again. He picked up the arrows that had scattered when he stepped into the snare, shoving them back into the quiver. There was no reason to be embarrassed, but gathering his things under the thief’s alert gaze made his neck and cheeks warm.

“Is your wrist okay?” The omega asked tentatively.

Levi rolled it. It throbbed. “It’s fine.”

“It looks like it’s going to swell,” He noted.

“I’ll take care of it,” Levi dismissed.

The omega bit his lip. Levi should strangle him for the trouble he caused the pack, but in that moment, all Levi could think about was how endearing he looked when he was concerned.

Levi felt like the guilty one, making the omega so obviously nervous. The idea of spooking the poacher and sending him darting into the forest made Levi wilt as if he would become a water-deprived jewelweed plant without the omega’s presence.

“I can give you something for it,” The omega said. “Your wrist, I mean.”

“You’re a healer?” Levi asked. It made sense. Living alone, the omega would have to be well-versed in all of the roles that a pack would usually divide up.

The omega flushed. “Not really. My father was a healer, I just managed to pick up some things.”

The omega’s name was Eren, and he didn’t explain anything beyond that. The walk through the woods to Eren’s home was awkward, and neither of them knew what to say, instead exchanging glances that they dropped as soon as they made eye contact. Levi’s heart pounded from the anxious, shy quiet, but also because there was something exhilarating about it. Levi couldn’t define it, but he liked it.

Eren stopped at the foot of an ancient elm. It looked like one of the oldest trees in the forest, so wide that five hunters could surround it, linking hands, and still not be able to encircle it. Craning his neck to search for the top of the tree, the only thing Levi saw was the canopy covering its trunk, obscuring most of the tree from view.

“You sleep in the tree?” He asked Eren.

Eren smiled. “Not exactly. Here.” He took Levi’s hand, making Levi jump at the sudden, electrifying contact, and guided him to a spot on the tree with notches gorged into the ancient, nearly petrified bark. “Make sure your bow is secure, we have to climb.”

Eren was like a fawn, a viper, a fox – and now, watching him deftly pick his way up the massive tree, he reminded Levi a little of a squirrel.

Eren stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, why?”

Eren shrugged. “You made a noise.”

He’d laughed.

By the time they got to the top of the tree, Levi’s wrist was on fire, but when he looked around at Eren’s home, the breathtaking sight distracted him from the discomfort.

Eren had a treehouse.

It was tiny – not bigger than one room, wedged between three branches that grew close enough together to form a cradle for the house. Moss covered the roof, and vines crept up the cabin’s walls, their waxy leaves camouflaging and waterproofing the home.

“You made this?” Levi asked. “By yourself?”

“I made a pulley system to bring up building materials,” Eren explained. “Then I brought it up piece by piece. It took a couple tries.” He offered Levi a slight, sheepish smile. “The first time I tried to build it, it just fell out of the tree before I could finish it. I figured it out, though. The trick was to lash the planks together.”

Eren gestured to the door flap, made by stitched-together rabbit skins. Poached ones, probably, Levi noted wryly. “Do you, uh, want to come in?”

Levi nodded. Inside the tent, Eren’s scent hit him like a bolt of lightning, and the layers of it that had collected here – crisp, fresh notes, like flowers wet from rain, Eren’s joy, and more bitter notes, fear and pain.

And the scent of Eren’s last heat, very faint but still noticeable.

“- was winter, so that I could give you some ice for the swelling.” Levi realized that Eren was speaking. Eren moved around the compact cabin, gathering small bundles of dried leaves from nooks lining the walls. “But I can give you some white willow bark.”

There weren’t any windows, and yet something cast a soft, cool glow over the room. Looking up, Levi noticed a jar suspended from the ceiling. Inside, a pale blue stone glowed, illuminating the treehouse.

“It’s called titanite,” Eren said. “Here.” He took a half-step toward Levi. “Give me your wrist.”

Levi complied. Eren’s touch was as light as a butterfly, but, like when Eren touched him earlier, Levi nearly jumped. Instinctively, he wanted to pull his hand away, but he resisted the reflex.

Eren prodded Levi’s injury, and Levi resisted the urge to hiss. “Sorry about this again,” Eren murmured.

“Stop worrying about it. You can’t go back to the past.”

For a moment, Eren’s face spasmed. Then, he smiled. “No, I guess you can’t.”

Searching for something more comforting to say, Levi added, “I’ve had worse.”

Eren grasped Levi’s forearm and squeezed. “I can imagine. You’re strong.” Before Levi could figure out how those two statements connected, Eren asked, “Are you a hunter, or a soldier?”

“Hunters and warriors are the same in my pack,” Levi said.

“Oh, they were different in mine,” Eren said.

Eren might be a bit of a twerp, but Levi found it hard to reconcile the helpful, contrite omega in front of him with the kinds of shitstains who usually became exiles. Maybe Eren hadn’t been cast out.

Something else had gone wrong.

“I’ve never seen a titanmite before,” Levi said.

“The titanite?” Eren smiled. “I don’t think you can find them in the forest. I got it from a cave close to where I used to live.”

“Where did you live?”

Eren’s eyes darkened. “Elsewhere.”

Levi dropped the subject and watched Eren grind the herbs into a paste with a mortar and pestle.

“So,” Eren said. “About my trap…”

“What about it?” Levi asked.

Eren raised an eyebrow. “You told me that you would tell me how to improve it.”

Levi cocked his head. “Did I?” He asked, deadpan.

Eren’s mouth dropped open. “We agreed to an exchange.”

“Like we agree to an exchange when you steal from our traps?”

Eren bristled. “I’m joking,” Levi clarified, before Eren snapped at him.

Eren squinted at Levi. “You aren’t a very good joker.”

Levi shrugged.

Eren was adorable when he worked, brow furrowed in concentration as he prepared the salve. “First of all,” Levi said, “your traps are way too big to catch anything. Unless you want to trap bears, which would be a bad idea. You’re also putting them in the wrong places – you have to put them on the deer trails, or near warrens and burrows. Something might stumble into yours, but it’s much less likely to happen than if you moved it to a more well-traveled part of the forest.”

Eren nodded. “Where are the deer trails?”

“They’re everywhere, you just have to know what to look for. I can point some out to you, if you want.”

Eren’s lip curled. “Helping me set up traps in pack territory? Aren’t I in trouble for poaching?”

Levi watched Eren spread the salve over papery birch bark strips. He wasn’t sure what he would explain to Kuchel, but in this moment, he also couldn’t bring himself to care.

“Nobody can survive on autumn olives alone,” Levi said. “But you have to use your own snares instead of stealing from ours, or I'll catch you.”

Eren nodded. “I’m sorry,” He said. “About the stealing. I don’t like doing it. You guys seem like a good pack. In terms of survival skills…” Eren gestured around them. “I’m good at domestic things, and foraging, but nobody ever showed me how to hunt.”

“Never?” Levi asked.

Eren shook his head. “Omegas didn’t learn to hunt in my pack.”

“Everyone learns basic survival skills here,” Levi said. “After you present, your duties are partitioned,” he qualified, “but everyone knows how to hunt and fend for themselves, regardless of their dynamic.”

“Your omegas are very lucky.” Eren secured the bandage around Levi’s wrist. “How does it feel?”

Levi flexed his hand. “Very tight, but not too tight.”

Eren hummed. “Good, that’ll keep you from jostling your injury too much.”

“Thank you, Eren.”

Eren flushed. “It’s nothing. I can find those herbs anywhere.”

“Still, thank you,” Levi said.

“It took two seconds,” Eren protested.

Levi jabbed a finger at him. “Accept the gratitude.”

Eren flushed even redder. “Okay,” He said feebly.

There was a container sitting on the floor near Eren’s nest, and Levi had never seen anything like it before. It was made of glass and full of sand, but there was no visible lid or opening that it could have been filled through. The glass looked as if someone had pinched its waist, leaving only a narrow tunnel from one side to the other, and sand trickled from the top of the container down into a pile at the bottom.

Almost all the sand had passed through the narrow middle. Eren glanced at it, and his eyes widened. “It’s getting late. You shouldn’t stay.”

Levi brushed the door flap aside and glanced outside. The sun had almost completely set, and the last few lightning bugs drifted through the air, holding out for a mate that probably wasn’t waiting for stranglers like them.

“I’m sorry,” Eren said. “I didn’t mean to keep you past dark.”

“You say sorry too much,” Levi said.

“Sorry?” Eren said.

Levi sighed. “I’ve been out in the woods after dark before, it’s alright.”

“Brave of you.” Eren had a certain way of looking at him. Levi couldn’t put his finger on it. Appraising, maybe? But something more, too.

Levi wasn’t afraid of the dark, but, as he thought about picking his way back down the tree, a different problem occurred to him. "I don't know how to get back to camp from here." Inwardly, a part of him curdled for admitting as much to Eren. Incompetent alpha, his instincts whispered.

Eren's eyes glowed in the dark like a moth’s eyespots. "That's okay," He said. "I do."

At night, Eren didn’t navigate by deer trails, streams, strange-looking trees, or any of the other tricks Levi had learned.

He used the sky.

It made sense. The pack didn’t travel long distances on a regular basis, and the moon and stars weren’t always clearly visible, so local, on-the-ground landmarks were usually enough to help them make sense of the forest. Wherever Eren came from, it was far away, so he must know how to map longer distances than Levi ever traveled.

Slowly, the sounds of camp returned, and laughter filtered through the night air. Right before they got to the edge of the trees, Eren stopped. “I don’t think I should come with you.”

Levi’s instincts disagreed, but Eren pressed his lips into an unyielding line. “I’ll see you some other time, Levi.”

Levi didn’t have time to process what that meant, or that Eren had touched his shoulder, before the omega was gone.

Levi stepped out of the woods. Maybe Eren was a ghost after all.

Levi didn’t know how to explain that, not only had he not captured the poacher, the poacher captured him, let Levi into his home, and suggested that he would do so again.

So, he said very little. When Kuchel asked what happened in the woods, Levi said that he’d taken care of it. Hange complimented how well his bandage was wrapped and how good the poultice was, and Levi said he made it himself. They absolutely thought he was full of shit, but they didn’t call him on it.

In between his pack duties, Levi found himself spending more and more time with the strange, lone omega in the forest. Somehow, Eren was always the one who found Levi, slipping out of bushes and trees and into corners of Levi’s vision to reveal himself when Levi least expected it. Even when Eren’s scent wafted through the forest, Levi could never pinpoint his exact location until Eren revealed himself.

It was maddening, but because it was Eren, Levi didn’t mind.

In time, Eren stopped touching Levi so fleetingly and became bolder, leaning back against Levi’s chest – and his crotch, but Levi would die if he thought about Eren’s ass too much – when Levi showed him how to aim a bow, or greeting him by springing out of a tree and onto Levi’s shoulders.

Eren remained guarded, and that was okay. “What will you do if I never explain myself?” Eren asked once.

“What do you mean?” Levi had asked.

Eren shrugged. “Why I’m here. What happened to me. What would you do if I never tell you any of that?”

Caught off-guard by Eren’s forwardness, Levi mulled over the question for a long moment. Like everything about Eren, his past intrigued Levi. For the first time in his life, Levi needed to understand another person as intimately as possible, to be able to read their mind without being in it and impress himself into every crevice and wrinkle of Eren’s brain.

But he also never spent time with Eren solely because he wanted Eren to explain everything to him, and he didn’t harbor any delusions about seducing Eren into changing. “Nothing,” Levi said.

“Nothing?” Eren’s voice wavered.

“Nothing,” Levi confirmed.

When Eren did talk about his past, it was only in bits and pieces. Besides his father being a healer, his mother had been the best cook in the pack, he had an adopted sister who had been orphaned after one rival pack raided a neighbor, and his best friend was what Eren called a “Keeper.”

“Keeper of what?” Levi had asked.”

“Stories,” Eren said. “Histories, prophecies, legends – the keeper learns and recites them.” Eren smiled. “Armin is so good at it, Levi. Not only can he remember more stories than his grandfather says any past keepers in recent memory could, but he tells them really vividly. When he speaks, you would think the titans would rise any moment.”

Titans. Another Eren-ism that Levi accepted without understanding. Eren’s pack, whoever and wherever they were, had a different origin story than the Ackermans, one with goddesses and titans. According to Eren, Ymir, the girl who cut and wore swaths of shadow from the once starless, holeless night sky, was the source of the packs and their dynamics. Ymir had three daughters: Maria, Rose, and Sina.

“How did she have daughters without a mate?” Levi asked.

“This was before the dynamics,” Eren said. “She didn’t need a mate.”

Sina, Eren said, was dangerous because she used the crescent moon as a sickle. On the darkest nights of the month, there was no moon because she plucked it out of the heavens and brought it down to Earth to hunt with.

“Hunt what?” Levi asked.

“Alphas who interrupt too much,” Eren answered, smiling up at Levi from his lap.

Eren’s stomach was ticklish. Levi exploited that. Mercilessly.

Anyways, Ymir had three daughters, one of whom is dangerous to alphas who cruelly tickle omegas. They lived in harmony until the daughters turned on their mother and consumed her, tearing her limb from limb and splitting her still-beating heart three ways. Imbued with her power and corrupted by cannibalism, each had three children of their own: The titans, who came to Earth and set about culling humans, who at that point were like infants, soft and weak without good senses of smell to alert them of danger or the fast reflexes to fight it.

Humans were smart, though, and in their darkest hour, their healers and shamans were able to harness the essence of humanity and create the dynamics. New breeding capabilities brought humanity back from the brink of extinction, and, newly equipped to live in a dangerous, feral world, humanity recovered from their ordeal, albeit greatly changed.

“And what happened to the titans?” Levi asked.

“The healer-shamans put them to sleep,” Eren said, “and the new world grew over them. You can still find parts of them, though, if you know where to look.”

“Your titan stone,” Levi said.

“They’re in there,” Eren agreed.

“You tell that story to children?” Levi asked, amazed.

“Do you not like it?” Eren asked.

“Cannibalism?" Levi said. "Near-extinction? Why would children kill and eat their parents? Why would the titans decide to eat people, of all things?”

Eren shrugged. “There are different explanations. Does there have to be a concrete one?”

“It doesn’t make sense.”

“Neither do most things,” Eren said, sitting up. Levi resisted the urge to guide Eren’s head back into his lap. “Violence is random. Think about it. When someone is attacked by a bear, there’s no reason why that certain person should run into a bear at that particular place and time. Sometimes luck isn’t on your side, and life isn’t fair.”

“Isn’t it?” Levi asked. “Here, the gone chieftains, who govern animals and the dead, only send misfortune as punishments, or to make sure something happens that will outweigh misfortune’s pain.”

“Is that how you explain stepping into my trap?” Eren asked, eyes twinkling.

Levi’s chest tightened. “It got me into your home, didn’t it?”

“True.” Eren’s smile faded. “But sometimes, I don’t know how any good outcome can justify the pain that people feel.”

Eren’s lips were sealed into that thin line again. It was like he was afraid that, if he didn’t press them together tightly enough, they would open and scream.

Eren weaseled his way into Levi’s life more easily than he had any right to. Levi knew that it was obvious to the pack that he was spending most of his time with a stranger. After so much close contact with Eren, Levi wore his scent like his own, and he wasn’t so emotionally stunted that he missed the sly, curious glances his packmates gave him. Nobody pressed, probably because they correctly guessed that he would tell them to fuck off, but he always heard the unspoken questions that lingered in the campsite.

In the last month of summer, Eren disappeared for a week.

On the first Eren-less day, Levi thought Eren was just being more elusive than usual, but he spent the whole day in the forest without seeing him. Eren was a little shit sometimes, and it was probably just a joke. Even so, Levi had some honeycomb that he knew Eren would like for his remedies, and the omega’s wordless absence made him feel slightly sick even as he reassured himself.

After three days, Levi was afraid something happened.

“What does the headache feel like?” Hange asked, rummaging through their vials.

“Like someone has my head between their hands,” Levi said, “and is squeezing it as hard as they can.”

“Tension headache,” Hange said. “I’ll make you a chamomile tea. Here, smell this lavender,” They passed Levi a bundle of dried twigs with purple leaves. Levi inhaled the soothing, slightly soapy scent.

“What’s on your mind?” Hange asked. “I’ve never seen you get worried enough to come see me. Not even before your first hunt.”

Levi shook his head.

“Is there something wrong with your friend?”

“What?” Levi said.

Hange wagged a finger at him. “Do you think you’re sneaky? You act so aloof, Levi, but when it comes down to it, there’s only one reason any alpha would suddenly disappear so much. It’s alright,” They added before Levi could respond. “You don’t need to introduce me or anything like that. Unless you want to.”

“Fuck off,”

“No, I don’t think I will.” Hange hung newly-picked plants above the fire to dry. Eren taught Levi about many of the plants in the forest, and he recognized most of the leaves: Milkweed, which was good for wart removal. Black walnuts, which had iodine. Bee balm for stomach aches. Black cohosh roots, to ease omegas’ heat symptoms.

Thinking of Eren made Levi’s heart tighten until it hurt. It felt like whatever was keeping Eren away had wrapped a hand around his heart, squeezing until it threatened to burst.

“I don’t know where he is,” Levi said.

Hange's eyes gleamed at the confirmation. “And that’s unusual?” They asked.

“Yes.” Levi tried to swallow, but his throat was too dry.

Eren was always fleeting, elusive, mysterious. What frightened Levi more than anything was that, when Eren didn’t tell him things, he could infer very little. He had no idea where Eren was or what happened.

“He's an omega, isn't he?” Hange asked.

Levi frowned, thrown off. “Yes. Why?”

Hange shook their head. “If he didn’t explain himself, then I don’t think it’s my place, but I wouldn’t worry too much.”

Levi stared. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Trust me, Levi,” Hange said. “He’s probably fine.”

Levi couldn’t let it go. Hange’s tea and aromatherapy barely helped, and at night, he couldn’t sleep, staring at the roof of his hut and consumed by the relentless pressure on his soul.

He got up, took his bow, and slipped out of camp. It was too much. Hange was brilliant, and Levi would trust them with his life, but trusting them with Eren’s was a completely different matter.

Something lurking in the back of his mind drove him deep into the forest. Eren had taught Levi how he navigated by the stars, and Levi used them to retrace the route he would take to Eren's treehouse.

According to Eren, the stars were absences, not things. Holes Ymir left in the cosmos when she harvested fabric for her gowns. Levi’s great grandfather told him that they were eyes, peepholes that past chieftains used to maintain their duties and keep watch over the living. Wordlessly, Levi asked them to make sure that Eren was well. Living alone, if a predator came for Eren – bears could climb trees, after all, - Eren couldn’t fight it off as well as a pack could, and he didn’t have anyone with him who could run and get help.

Gods forbid Eren fell trying to climb home one night, missing a foothold in the dark. Or maybe his house had crumbled again, falling out of the canopy when Eren was asleep, and –

Levi didn’t realize that he was running until he tripped over a root.

When Eren’s tree came into view, there was no Eren lying crumpled on the ground or broken planks scattered where they had fallen. No smell of bear, either. The only scent was Eren’s, so thick that Levi nearly tripped a second time.

“Eren!” He roared.

For a moment, all Levi heard was his own heartbeat. Then came a call, high and shrill. Help, pain, need, now-

Instinctively, Levi crooned back. Eren’s scent was too strong to think through, and the only thing that mattered was that he needed to be in Eren’s home. Now.

There was no fear in Eren’s cry, but it was desperate enough to make Levi bristle at the moth flying in his face, slowing him down on his trip up the tree.

Levi called again when he reached the top of the tree, consumed with Eren, omega, protect, comfort, and Eren answered again. The frenzied noise echoed through the forest, and Levi realized that any other alpha could hear Eren and come running. He saw red and burst into the cabin, determined to establish his presence before anybody else could.

When Levi’s gaze finally landed on Eren, his last few fragments of sentience abandoned him. He perceived Eren in bits and pieces: Eren’s chest, rising and falling like he had run a race. His eyes, as black as the nights when Sina borrowed the moon to go hunting. Pink, swollen lips, partially parted as Eren panted. Long eyelashes, fluttering like Levi’s heartbeat. Eren’s skin shone under the titanite light, and not just with sweat. Eren’s scent was thick with a new sweetness, something even more saccharine than honey.

Slick.

Eren was in heat.

Eren was on his side, lounging in a way that accentuated his slim waist and emphasized his hip bones. When he saw Levi, he moaned, low and agonized, and rolled onto his stomach. His skin was so soaked and sticky that his nests’ furs plastered themselves to his skin when he moved.

Somehow, Levi remembered how to move. Entranced, he approached the nest. He was familiar with the shape of Eren’s body, the weight of it on his, where Eren was hard or soft, and where he had curves and angles. But as much as Levi was familiar with the heat of Eren’s body, Eren was probably hotter than ever, and more pliant, and Levi was eager to explore another side of Eren,

Eren, while the needy omega squirmed and whined and rubbed against him. He squatted down by Eren’s nest, and Eren turned his head to look at him.

Their lips were centimeters apart. Levi wanted to lick Eren’s throat, bite his collarbones, and taste the salt on his soft, unmarked skin. He was on his knees next to Eren, taking in as much of his quivering body as he could. He wanted, needed, to get between Eren’s twitching thighs, or to straddle them, to press himself as close to Eren as possible for as long as possible so that Eren’s sweat and slick and oils smeared all over his body. Then, he could lay his own claim on, in, Eren, and –

“Levi!” Eren jolted. For the first time since Levi stepped into the treehouse, Eren looked at Levi like he really saw him.

Levi snapped out of it. “I-.” He tried, but he couldn’t stop his eyes from wandering. Eren’s flush deepened.

“What- are you doing here?” Eren curled his fists into the deerskin under him as if the pelt would keep him from floating into madness.

“You, uh, disappeared,” Levi said.

“I-,” Eren shut his eyes and whimpered. His stomach muscles spasmed, and the sweetness in the room intensified.

Levi’s mouth watered as he watched another wave of slick run down the insides of Eren’s thighs. Eren’s body was so pliant and prepared that Levi wouldn’t need to stretch him out before he slid his cock-

“Levi,” Eren said.

Levi took a step back. “I’m sorry,” He croaked.

Eren shook his head and flung his forearms over his face. Unsure what the gesture meant, Levi hovered by Eren’s nest. His instincts screamed at him louder than angry blue jays, and he realized, with a mixture of terror and anticipation, that he wasn’t sure he would be able to hold back.

“You need to leave,” Eren said. “I – fuck!” He convulsed.

Desperate to control himself, Levi closed his eyes, trying to block the beautiful feast in front of him out of his mind. It didn’t work. The image of naked, writhing Eren branded itself into his brain.

“E-ren.” Levi’s voice cracked. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”

Eren whimpered.

Levi was familiar with pain. He’d been bitten by rattlesnakes and punctured by stray arrows, tumbled into sharp rocks and thorn bushes, fallen from trees and Eren’s trap, and, as a pup, stepped on a burning ember. Witnessing Eren’s heat was more painful than every past injury combined. Hearing Eren’s desperate, broken whimper was agony. So were warring between common sense and his instincts and his throbbing, impatient dick.

Levi tried to steady his breathing, but it was impossible. “I can’t,” He repeated.

Another convulsion. Another wave of slick. Eren groaned.

“Let me help you,” Levi pleaded. “Do you have food? Water?”

Eren made a jerky movement that Levi guessed was a nod.

“Is there medicine you can take?” Levi wracked his brains. “Do you have dried valerian?”

“No.” Eren spat the word out from between clenched teeth. “Not- working.”

“Let me guard you,” Levi said. If Eren refused, he would respect the omega’s wishes, but “I can’t leave you like this.”

“Your pack,” Eren croaked.

“Fuck the pack.”

Eren’s brow furrowed.

“They’ll be fine,” Levi insisted. They would worry about him, but if he went back to camp, he would also worry about Eren. Even if he went back, he doubted that he would be able to stay away, not knowing that Eren was alone and in heat.

Eren finally nodded. Levi steeled himself for what he would have to do next and said, “I’ll be outside. Call for me if you need me.”

Eren’s scent was still very concentrated outside of the treehouse, but a cool breeze gave Levi enough fresh air to think a little more rationally. Leaning against the side of Eren’s home, cradled by the branches, Levi scanned the forest below for any possible threats.

So this was what Hange meant when they suggested that they knew Eren was fine. This is why they asked about his dynamic. When Eren’s heat was over, Levi was going to strangle Hange for being so elusive.

Eren was quiet, but occasionally, a high, broken whimper would cut through the evening cicada calls.

Levi’s face was hot. He had apologized to Eren, but he would have to apologize again when Eren was sane. Eren was in the most vulnerable state he would ever be in save for childbirth, and Levi hadn’t meant to force Eren to share the experience.

The next two days were hell. Levi thought of Eren, trying to match the faint sounds from the treehouse and the fluctuations of Eren’s scent to what he might be doing, torturing himself with fantasies. Sometimes, he tried to distract himself by planning how he would toss would-be intruders down from the tree, but that only brought his thoughts back to Eren again.

Not all of his Eren thoughts were sexual. Most were, but some of them were just about Eren’s Eren-isms. When he bundled prepared herbs, Eren tied the string he wrapped them in with a bow. When he held a bow, he always leaned slightly forward, like he was preparing to break into a sprint after his prey and take it down with his bare hands if the arrow missed. He drank straight from streams without boiling the water, and when Levi reprimanded him, Eren only smiled and gargled the water.

Alphan instinct wasn’t the only thing making Levi protect Eren.

One morning, Levi awoke to Eren nudging his shoulder.

“You’re alright,” Levi said. Dark circles rimmed Eren’s eyes, and sweat and grease plastered his hair to his face, but he still looked like the most beautiful person Levi had ever seen.

Eren rolled his eyes. “Of course I’m okay.”

Normally, Levi would have a line to bite back with, but Eren was still naked and making no attempt to cover himself.

“Here.” Eren pressed a chunk of dried venison into Levi’s hand. “Eat. Then, I know somewhere we can clean up. You stink, I’m sorry.”

Eren didn’t get dressed before they left, and, stumbling after Eren through the underbrush, Levi wondered if the omega understood what he was doing by sauntering butt-ass naked right in front of him. The combination of Eren’s bare skin and his lingering heat scent made it impossible to do anything more than follow him like an imprinted duckling.

“Someone could see you,” Levi said weakly.

Eren grinned over his shoulder. “Lucky them, then. Well,” he reconsidered, “actually, I’m pretty gross right now. Either way, there’s no point getting clean clothes dirty. I’ll get dressed after we’re done. Maybe. Does it bother you?” Eren asked.

“Bother” wasn’t how Levi would put it. “Look where you’re going,” he said, “or you’ll run into a tree.”

“If I do,” Eren asked, “will you kiss my bruises better?”

As always, Levi couldn’t really be annoyed at Eren’s audacity. His wild, brazen antics were exactly what made him so entrancing. But these weren’t Eren’s normal shenanigans. Something changed during his heat.

The spot Eren led Levi to was a pool. It lay in a sunken stone basin, dark from the rock’s reflection and so flat-surfaced that Levi thought it could be made of glass. Eren slid in without a ripple and sank below the surface, letting his arms float up above his head as the water enveloped him. Levi watched his hair float around his face. Eren’s puffed cheeks made him look like a chipmunk. Even though his eyes were scrunched shut, when he tilted his head up toward the sunlight, Eren seemed so serene that Levi ached.

Eren broke the surface and gasped for air. He shoved his soaked hair out of his face and smiled at Levi. “Are you coming in, or are you just going to gape at me like a dying fish?”

Levi couldn’t say no.

Eren’s gaze and the cool air made Levi goosebump as he peeled his clothes off and scooted to the edge of the pool. Eren looked at him with the same intense appraisal as he had on the first night they met, and Levi sank into the water, holding back a sharp inhale at the sudden chill.

Eren bobbed over to him. “This might be the last time to come here until next spring,” He murmured. “The leaves will change soon.”

“Are you going to be able to stay warm when the frost comes?” Levi asked. "Titanite doesn’t produce heat, does it? Just light.”

“You’ll keep me warm, won’t you?” Eren wrapped his arms around Levi’s shoulders. Eren pressed their stomachs, then their hips, together. Levi tried to shift his pelvis as subtly as he could so that Eren didn’t notice he was hard.

“You don’t have to do that,” Eren said. He held Levi like the hunter was a pup, tucking Levi’s head under his chin and running his hands through his undercut.

“Do what?” Levi said.

Eren laughed. “I know you want me.”

Levi couldn’t breathe.

Eren knowing was one thing. Whether or not Levi’s desire was reciprocated was a completely different question.

“Not because of my heat,” Eren clarified, “although the way you looked at me was obvious. You’ve been courting me for months.”

Levi stared.

“I have been?”

Eren stared back.

“Levi,” Eren said, “you’ve been bringing me gifts for weeks. You let me scent mark you-,”

“I."

“Sweet Ymir.” Eren covered his face with his hands. “All the times you let me lie in your lap, or wrap my arms around your neck – you realize that means my neck and wrist glands are all over your skin, right? I thought you knew that.”

Levi felt even more idiotic than he had when he stepped into Eren’s trap. “No, I didn’t.”

"You guarded me during my heat," Eren said. His skin turned rose-gold as a blush crept up his throat and ears. “Levi, I wouldn’t have let you stay if I didn’t think – oh, sweet Ymir,” He repeated. “Let me go. Let me drown.”

“No,” Levi said. His thoughts raced as he tried to wrap his mind around everything Eren had said.

Eren made a strangled sound. “No, I thought you understood-,”

Levi didn’t know what was more humiliating, that Eren thought he was courting him or that he was humiliating Eren now.

“I wasn’t trying to court you,” Levi said. “But…” Eren peaked at him from behind his fingers. The words felt so foreign in Levi’s mouth that they almost hurt, but he did want to say them. “I do like you a lot, so…” Eren knew what he was trying to say. Levi could see it in the way his lips quirked, but he didn’t say anything, letting Levi suffer and confirm Eren’s suspicions.

Levi swallowed and buried his face in Eren’s neck again. “I wouldn’t mind courting you.”

“I also wouldn’t mind,” Eren said. “I would do the absolute opposite of minding, actually.”

“That makes me feel the exact opposite of bad,” Levi tried.

Eren snorted.

If Eren made Levi panic before he confessed anything, now he was twice as flustered, and the quiet between them was even more swollen.

“I couldn’t do it during my heat,” Eren said. Levi pulled away with a questioning frown, and Eren hastily clarified, “let you in. Express any of this. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like you.”

“Okay,” Levi agreed. “I wasn’t upset about that.”

Eren chewed his lip. “I have… a complicated relationship with heat.” He tilted his head back, looking up at the halo of trees that circled their heads. “So, yeah.”

“You don’t have to explain it,” Levi said.

“I know.”

Levi would have a lot to explain to Kuchel when he went back. He knew Hange well enough to assume they would reassure the chieftain that he hadn’t been kidnapped or dragged off by a mountain lion, but no doubt the tribe was confused about his absence. And now… he had an omega.

Levi was prepared for Kuchel to not like Eren. If she and the rest of the tribe were nervous or wary about him, fuck it, Levi was going to pursue him anyway. But it would still make things easier if they liked him.

“What’s wrong?” Eren asked.

Levi shook his head.

“You don’t have to tell me,” Eren said, “but if you want to… I’m here for you.”

Levi took a deep breath, inhaling as much of Eren’s scent as he could. He still smelled like heat, and Levi felt like he was caught in a snare again, the world tumbling around him.

“I know,” He said. “The same goes for you, too.”

Eren gave Levi another evaluative look, which Levi now knew as a beautifully, distinctively Eren expression. “I think I should tell you everything.”

“You don’t have to-,”

“I know, I know,” Eren said quickly. “You didn’t guilt me into saying anything. But I think… I think,” Eren said carefully, “I’m ready to explain it. At least some things. Everything might spill out, I’m not sure.”

"Okay," Levi said.

Eren gazed somewhere over Levi’s shoulder. “I grew up on the other side of the mountains,” He said. “Have you been there?”

Levi shook his head.

“There are a lot of different ways you can live,” Eren said. “There’s some forest, and a pack that lives there, but there are also packs on the plains that herd the wild horses – horses are like massive, strong deer, but without horns, and they can’t jump as high. If you go far enough, there are packs in the desert, too, although I don’t know how they survive out there.”

“Desert?”

“I think you told me a story about them once. You called them the scorchlands.”

“There’s a lake,” Eren said, like he hadn’t just confirmed the reality of children’s stories, “on the other side of the mountains.”

“Don’t tell me packs live underwater,” Levi said.

Eren snorted. “No, but there’s an island in the middle of the lake, and a pack does live there.” He bit his lip. “I lived there.”

Somehow, that was very Eren. If he was going to live anywhere, of course it would be on an island.

“It’s beautiful,” Eren said, “and I grew up happy. My pack made camp on the island, but we had boats that we would take into the lake to fish. When we had to trade for supplies or forage for something we couldn’t find on the island, we would take the boats to the mainland. I don’t swim nearly as much anymore, but when I was little, Armin and Mikasa and I would hunt for shellfish along the beach. Or get bored and chase tadpoles. It was a little dangerous because it was a rock beach, not sand like in the desert, and some of the rocks were sharp and slippery, but…” He smiled. “None of that really mattered. It was fun.”

Levi thought of a younger Eren, green eyes looking even bigger and wider in comparison to his small face, cheeks round with baby fat as he raced along the water. His heart clenched.

“You’ve mentioned that your pack visits others to trade,” Eren said, “but you never trade with packs from across the mountains, do you? Only with groups on this side of them.”

Levi nodded.

“If you crossed the mountains,” Eren said, “you could find all sorts of plants and supplies that you can’t get anywhere else. Sometimes, we would trade for this black glass, really brittle but sharper than bone blades if you cut it right, that apparently comes from a pack that lives next to a place of exploding mountains and burning lakes. It sounds crazy, I know. I never saw it or traded directly with them, only with other packs that had. But that’s one example.”

Eren’s gaze refocused, and he pinned Levi with it like a bobcat stalking a rabbit. “But you shouldn’t cross the mountains. It’s not worth it, trust me.”

“But you just explained how-,”

“I know, I know. But part of the reason we lived on an island was because it protected us.”

Eren shuddered, and Levi watched as some ghost deep inside of him crawled into his eyes.

“Everyone has different histories,” Eren said. “We all live in the same world, but we also don’t, right? We all want the same things, when it comes down to it, and yet those things take such different forms, and two people can experience the same thing in very different ways.” Eren smirked at Levi, and Levi flushed, remembering his cluelessness.

“I told you my people’s story. You have a different one. So does every other pack. That’s usually okay, but sometimes it isn’t. Tribes have each other in their stories, and in their histories, they fight each other, kill each other – for no fucking reason, really.”

Eren’s jaw clenched. “I believe my pack’s story. Everyone else also believes their packs’ stories. Maybe only one of them is right. Maybe none of them are. Maybe they all have some truth to them, and you only know the truest story if you look at every legend put together. I don’t know. But…” He shook his head. “People kill each other for shit that their ancestors, generations ago, may or may not have ever done.”

“My pack name is Jaeger.” Eren said. “In one of the old languages, it means hunter. The story that I told you, about Sina? Some of the other packs that have her in their histories call us Sina’s people. They say that, in exchange for protection from her children, we would tell her where she could find people to hunt. If we did ever do that, it wasn’t a good bargain, because the titans didn’t care what people they killed, but…” Eren shrugged. “You can’t really argue with people’s histories.”

“I went to the mainland one day,” Eren said. “Right after I presented. I was enraged. I thought I was going to be an alpha, and then, suddenly, I was in heat. Once I was out of the heat den, everything I loved from my childhood was over. I love my parents, but omegas are breeders above everything else in our pack, and they were going to make me follow tradition.”

Eren swallowed. “So, yeah, anyways, I went to the mainland. Armin and Mikasa followed me. Not to “talk sense” into me, exactly, but definitely to keep me from doing anything stupid. I told them I would run away.” Eren laughed. “Which I did, but not because of presenting. I didn’t have a choice. I don’t know what I would have done if I did have one.” Eren shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, though.”

“One of the packs that lives on the edge of the plains, the Tyburs, held a grudge against us for generations. “For a long time, they didn’t harass us, but they would do things like refuse to trade with us, give other packs ultimatums about either trading with us or them, that kind of thing. It was stressful, but they were also so far away, so I don’t think anyone really felt like we were in danger.”

Eren took a deep breath. “When I presented, they had a new chieftain. I guess he decided to be more proactive, because the day I went to the mainland with Armin and Mikasa, a force he had sent arrived. They had some of their own boats with them. When Mikasa and Armin finally convinced me to head back to camp, the Tyburs had taken our boats too, and…”

Eren shook. “The island was on fire. People were screaming, running, throwing themselves into the lake and trying to swim to shore. They couldn’t get away. The Tyburs rowed their rafts up to them and speared them like fish.”

“I wanted to fight, but-,” Eren’s voice cracked. “Mikasa and Armin dragged me away.”

“You would have died with everyone else,” Levi murmured.

“I knew that,” Eren agreed. “It didn’t matter. Feeling useless was worse than death.” He wiped his cheeks with the back of his hand, spreading tears over his face. “Mikasa threatened to tie me to a tree and gag me if I didn’t stop screaming and struggling.” He laughed.

“We ran. Foraged what we could. Slept somewhere different every night. Or, more like Mikasa and Armin slept, and I lay awake thinking about how much I wanted to kill every single one of those fuckers. I did, eventually. Plants that heal are usually also poisonous, you know. I put hemlock in the water, gave it to the fish, and when they ate those fish…” Eren’s eyes darkened. “I don’t regret it. Maybe that’s evil. I don’t care. I can’t go back home now either, because I poisoned the water, but there are also too many ghosts in the ruins for home to still be home.”

“But I didn't take revenge until, I don’t even know, a while after everything happened. We were nomadic for a long time. Eventually, we found a pack, the Azumabitos, who took us in because Mikasa was distantly related to them. We stayed with them, and eventually, when I figured out how to mix my poisons right, I took revenge. I snuck away so Mikasa and Armin couldn’t stop me. And I never came back, because that pack’s treatment of omegas was as strict as home’s was.”

“And your siblings are still there?” Levi asked.

“Mmm.” Eren sighed. “I love them, I really do. They’re the most – well, now they're two of the most – important people in the world to me, and I want to see them again someday. But even when you love people, you can’t always stay with them, you know? I could have fought, tried to change the way they treat omegas, but there’s only so much you can fight. Especially because I didn’t want to jeopardize Mikasa and Armin’s welcome. So I left.”

“And came here,” Levi finished.

“Yeah,” Eren agreed. “And came here.”

“And now what?”

Eren laughed. “You think I ever have a plan?”

“Taking me here was a plan, wasn’t it?’

Eren smiled. “You’re an exception.”

The breeze picked up, but even though Levi was floating in the cool water, barely moving, Eren’s body kept him warm. After so long in the water, their scent oils were blended into the pool, lapping at each other’s skin.

“Thank you for telling me everything,” Levi said.

“Does it bother you?” Eren asked.

“Why would it bother me?” Levi asked.

Eren shrugged. “Because I’m fucked up.”

“No, you’re not,” Levi said immediately.

“Nah,” Eren smiled. “I definitely am.”

“I don’t care. It doesn’t change anything about how I feel.”

Another of Eren’s scrutinizing looks. Levi realized that they probably came from Eren's lack of trust, the nagging worry that the people Eren entrusted himself to would either leave or hurt him. Levi met Eren's gaze steadily. If Eren felt insecure with revealing so much, reassuring him again would probably only do so much. Levi resolved to show Eren how much he meant it at every possible opportunity.

“When I poisoned the lake,” Eren said, “I definitely killed plenty of innocent people along with the guilty ones.”

“I know,” Levi said.

“And you’re not… afraid of me? Disgusted? You still want to be around me?” Eren probed.

Levi sighed. “It was wrong to do,” Levi said, “but I also understand why you did it, and if I was in your position, I would probably want to do the same thing. I can’t hold it against you.”

Eren made a garbled sound into Levi’s skin. “How are you so good to me?”

“I don’t know how I wouldn’t be,” Levi said.

It wasn’t an adequate way to explain his insatiable hunger for Eren, the way he needed to protect the omega and do things that made him smile. There wasn’t a way to possibly explain how he felt.

“Thank you,” Levi said, “for telling me. I know it must be agonizing to think about.” He couldn’t decide if he wanted to stay here and comfort Eren forever, or if he wanted to leap across the mountains and take revenge on the people who had destroyed everything that Eren, his Eren, loved.

“Don’t get so mad for me,” Eren said. “It’s gotten better.” He rested his head on Levi’s chest. “When I came here, I wanted to disappear into the forest,” He said. “There are stories about tree spirits called Dryads. I wanted to become one of them. Or to be like the ancient hunter, Artemis, who ran with her dogs and servants and didn’t care about anything, ever, except the forest. Although.” Eren grinned. “Artemis also swore to be a virgin forever.” His eyelids lowered. “I don’t think I could do that.”

“Are you a virgin?” Levi asked, intrigued.

“You’d like to know, wouldn’t you?” Eren said.

“You are,” Levi said.

“You don’t know that,” Eren countered.

“That’s the only reason you would be shy,” Levi said.

Eren squirmed, and Levi tightened his grip on the slippery omega. Eren was so feisty and so bashful at the same time, capable of brewing nightshade poisons with the same hands he so gently bandaged Levi with. Even as he spent more time with Eren, Levi only grew hungrier for his company, and the closer he got to him, the more intriguing Eren became.

“Are you okay?” Eren asked.

Levi blinked. “Very.”

“You looked like you were going to have a heart attack,” Eren said. He ran his fingers up and down Levi’s spine, triggering pleasant tremors.

“Well, if I have one, you’ll be right here to save me,” Levi said.

“Yeah?” Eren said. “I don’t know. That would be a lot of work.”

Levi pushed Eren away, and Eren squealed, arms windmilling as he tried to keep his head above water. “Hey!”

“I’m leaving,” Levi announced.

Eren got his balance and treaded water, glaring at Levi with glimmering eyes. “Do it. I dare you.”

“I will.” Levi didn’t move.

“You’re a coward,” Eren teased.

“Coward?” Levi squinted at him. “Is that what you think I am?”

“That’s what I said, isn’t it? Maybe you’re hard of hearing, too.”

Even as Eren spoke, his gaze lingered on the hard, raised scars crisscrossing Levi’s chest and shoulders. Levi had told him some of the stories behind them. Levi had never felt like his body was breakable until Eren traced the jagged blemishes.

Levi lunged across the pool. Eren yelped. He kicked, sending waves of water flying into the air as he tried to scramble away from Levi. Levi caught Eren by the ankle and tugged Eren toward him. As Eren thrashed, his thighs accidentally squeezed Levi’s hips instead of twisting away from them. His bare skin slid against Levi’s painfully hard cock. Levi gasped. Eren froze.

“Sorry,” Levi said breathlessly.

Eren licked his lips. “Do you like it?”

“I-,” Levi’s brain was fuzzy. “What do you think, dumbass?”

Eren laughed, and his eyes darted everywhere. Levi squeezed the insides of Eren’s thighs. Eren’s skin jumped under his touch, and Levi tried to ignore how good it felt to get a reaction out of him. As tempting as Eren was, if he was uncomfortable, “We don’t have to do anything.”

Eren swallowed. This soon after his heat, his scent glands were still in overdrive, and a glossy sheen of oil covered his throat. Levi wanted to lap it, suck it, bite-

“What if I want to do something?” Eren asked.

Levi groaned. “Fuck, Eren, I didn’t think this far ahead.”

“But what if?” Eren pressed.

“Do you?” Levi asked.

Eren turned as red as a columbine flower. “Yeah, kinda.”

“Kinda.”

"Definitely," Eren corrected. “Look, I’m sorry. It must give you whiplash, blowing you off during my heat and then coming on to you like this-,”

“I don’t give a fuck,” Levi promised. Plaint, willing Eren was pliant, willing Eren.

Eren blushed even redder. “I really do want to do something with you.”

“What kind of thing?”

Eren squeezed his eyes shut. “You know what kind of thing I mean.”

“I can guess, but you have to give me specifics,” Levi said.

The last thing Levi wanted to do right now was cockblock himself, but not overwhelming or hurting Eren was infinitely more important than getting off.

Eren made a tortured sound and dunked himself. Levi watched bubbles burst on the surface of the pool. When Eren came up for air, he covered his face with his hands.

Levi didn’t dare tease Eren in case it made him retreat into his shell, but Eren’s torment was adorable.

“Eren,” Levi crooned. “Tell me what you want.”

In the position Eren was in, floating on his back, legs around Levi’s hips to keep him from drifting away, Levi could imagine Eren sprawled under him in Eren’s nest.

All the semi-repressed memories of Eren in heat hit Levi in full force. Levi ran his hands up Eren’s wet thighs. Eren gasped as Levi gripped his ass, kneading the thick skin. “What do you want?” Levi repeated.

Eren swallowed. “You know what I want.”

“Do I?”

Eren groaned. “Levi?”

“We’ve been naked for hours,” Levi said, “but you can’t look me in the eye and tell me what you want.”

Eren let out a strangled laugh. “It’s – hard, okay?”

“Very,” Levi agreed. Eren tried to kick him, but the movement only brought their bodies closer together, and they moaned as their hot, aching flesh pressed together.

Levi liked to think that he was a patient man. For Eren, he would be. But he was also going crazy.

Eren finally dropped his hands from his face, and again, he looked so foxlike, green eyes sly with appraisal.

“What?” Levi asked warily.

Eren chewed his lip. “Nothing, I’m just thinking.”

“You never think this much.”

Eren grinned. “I want to ask you something,” He said, “but I’m not sure what you’ll think of it.”

“I doubt you could tell me anything that would shock me,” Levi said. “Or scare me, or embarrass me, or whatever it is you think you’re going to make me feel.”

“You can’t know that,” Eren objected. “There are so many things I could ask you.”

“Eren,” Levi dug his nails into Eren’s ass, trying and failing not to think too much about pulling those cheeks apart and pressing two fingers against-

“Just tell me. It’s fine.”

“I kind of want to fuck you,” Eren admitted, “but I know a lot of alphas aren’t into that, so… yeah.”

Levi frowned. “Plenty of alphas are into fucking.”

“No,” Eren said, “I mean…" He covered his face and made a tortured sound. "Look, I want to top you, okay?”

“Ah,” Levi said.

“But you don’t have to say yes,” Eren added. “Normal sex would be good, too. Great, actually.”

“I thought virgins were supposed to be unadventurous,” Levi mused.

“You would be surprised how often it goes like tha- I never said I was a virgin!”

“You didn’t have to. It's okay though, it doesn't matter.”

“Look,” Eren said. “Do you – can I?”

Getting fucked by an omega. It wasn’t what Levi expected to happen tonight, or ever. Usually, he would say no.

Usually.

With Eren… Well, he broke all his rules for Eren.

“Sure.”

Eren’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Maybe you're the one who's hard of hearing.”

Eren didn’t move. Levi took a deep breath of their combined scents. “You ask me that, of all things, and now you’re nervous?” He asked.

Eren shook his head. “Of course. You’re you.” He chewed his lip again, so Levi leaned in, covered Eren’s mouth with his, and bit Eren’s plump lips. He wanted, needed, to see them split open and panting, gasping and drooling, or, maybe sometime, wrapped snugly around his cock.

“It’s getting dark,” He said when they broke apart. He tried to control his breathing and speak slowly. “We should go back.”

“Yeah.” Eren’s eyes darted to Levi’s erection, and then off to the side. “We should.”

Levi spent the trip back to Eren’s home afraid that, of all the times he’d traveled with Eren in the woods, this would be the time he tripped over a root and broke his neck, ankle, or, worst of all, his dick, and then when he lay down in Eren’s nest it would be because of a medical emergency and not sex. The closer they got to the treehouse, the less he felt like the man who wasn’t afraid to grope Eren in the pool, and, in Eren’s home, when Eren looked at him under the titanite’s soft, cool light and asked, “Is this alright?” No, it was absolutely not alright, because his heart was going to explode. Even though he made it through the forest unscathed, he would have a medical emergency after all-

“Yes,” Levi said.

“Okay.” Eren glanced at his nest. “Then, um, lie down.”

Levi obliged, settling back into Eren’s nest. The furs were fresh, and the idea of Eren destroying his bedding so much during his heat that he needed to swap them out made Levi’s mouth dry.

Eren crawled on top of him, spine arching invitingly. “So,” He said, “I haven’t, uh, done this before -,”

“So you admit it.”

“I’m not talking about sex, I’m talking about topping, turtle-brain!”

Levi shrugged. “You’re just being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn.” He grasped Eren’s waist – fuck, he had such a nice, grabbable waist – and pulled his down so that Eren straddled his hips. His throbbing cock wedged between Eren’s cheeks, so close to Eren’s entrance that it hurt to breathe. Eren put his hands on Levi’s chest to balance, and the sight was so endearing and lewd that Levi’s brain went blank. Eren’s scent sweetened by the second, further luring Levi in, and, after a long, uncertain moment, Eren leaned down and gave Levi a kiss.

The awkwardness dissipated. Eren was sweet and squeezable, and his touch undid muscles that Levi hadn’t even realized were tight. Eren sighed into Levi’s lips and bore down on him, rubbing their stomachs and chests together.

Eren broke away. Levi chased his lips, but Eren started nipping and kissing down Levi’s jaw and throat, making Levi tremble. Eren’s scent sweetened even more, and Levi realized that their crotches were too soaked to be wet from precum alone. Eren was slicking.

Eren’s kisses traveled lower and lower. He tasted Levi’s collarbones, sternum, nipples, and navel. When Eren lapped the insides of Levi’s thighs, he made eye contact, eyes wide and innocent despite their lewd position. The sight of Eren on all fours between his spread legs, pert ass in the air like he was presenting, was almost enough for Levi to suggest Eren should bottom after all. Almost.

“Is this still okay?” Eren asked.

Levi nodded.

“Okay,” Eren said. To himself, or to both of them, Levi wasn’t sure.

“I’m going to have to prep you more than you would prep me,” Eren said. “Since you don’t naturally slick.” He frowned. “Why are you laughing at me?”

“I’m not,” Levi promised, running his hands up and down Eren’s hips.

“You are on the inside, though. I can feel it.”

“No,” Levi said. “What were you saying? About prep?”

“Tell me if it’s too much,” Eren said.

“I trust you.”

Eren’s pupils swelled as Levi spoke, and he wet his puffy lips. “You put a lot of faith in me, don’t you?”

“Yes.” Levi squeezed Eren’s thighs. “Accept it.”

Eren laughed and shook his head. He pushed himself up on his thighs so that he hovered above Levi’s body, robbing both of them of shared warmth, and reached behind himself. Mesmerized, Levi watched Eren’s eyelids flutter as he touched himself. Slick noises filled the tree house as Eren sunk his fingers into himself, working them slowly.

When his hands reemerged, they were glossy and slick-coated. Eren spread his fingers, and they both watched clear, mucus-like strands stretch between the digits.

“It’s like a booger,” Levi mused. “An ass-booger.”

Eren looked at him like Levi had told him he liked to eat rabbits’ kittens alive. “I’m trying to have sex with you.”

“I know.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because it’s true,” Levi pointed out. “And you’re trying to be purposeful and mechanical so I won’t realize you’re nervous, but it’s not working.”

“So you say that to lighten the mood?” Eren demanded.

“Did it work?”

“Yes,” Eren admitted. He shook his head. “Shut the fuck up and don’t say things like that ever again.”

“You can’t shut me up,” Levi said. “Even though you’re you.”

“Oh, yeah?” Eren wrapped one slick-soaked hand around Levi’s cock and pumped it, slathering the lubricant over the head and shaft. “What about now?”

“Tighter,” Levi said. Eren obliged, and Levi hissed through his teeth. Even after everything Eren had been through, his hands were uncalloused and baby-soft. Eren’s brow furrowed in concentration. Too adorable. Levi wanted to pull Eren into his arms and scent-mark him until Eren’s scent was barely noticeable under Levi’s, but he also didn’t want Eren to stop.

“Is this okay?” Eren whispered.

“Yeah.” Levi closed his eyes. A nervous litany spiraled through his head – What if I can't last, what if I'm not good enough, what if he doesn't like it - but he focused as much as he could on bucking into the enticing heat around his dick.

More wet noises. Eren’s rhythm became irregular. Levi opened his eyes and watched him gather his own slick again. “Okay,” Eren murmured. “Do you still want to go through with this?”

Levi nodded.

“Plant your feet on the ground,” Eren directed. Levi obliged. Eren resumed working Levi’s cock, and he sprinkled kisses from Levi’s knee to his groin, tickling the thick muscle. The delicacy Eren touched him with made Levi’s chest hurt. Breakable was the last thing he was, but Eren handled him like he was as delicate and precious as a pup.

Eren slipped his slicked hand between Levi’s legs and pressed a finger against Levi’s rim. Levi inhaled sharply. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but he wasn’t used to being touched in such an intimate place. Eren’s slick was warm, and he stayed very still, as if afraid of spooking Levi.

“You know you can back out at any time,” Eren said. “Just because we started doesn’t mean you can’t say no.”

“Are you trying to give yourself an out?” Levi asked.

Eren rolled his eyes.

“You can go ahead,” Levi said. “It’s okay.”

Even though he knew what was coming, the first digit was strange, and Levi couldn’t stop himself from tensing. Eren stilled again. “It’s fine,” Levi said. “You’re not hurting me.”

Eren worked the finger in to the third knuckle. His slick eased the way, but it was still snug, and Eren started stroking Levi’s dick again, trying to distract him from the foreign sensation.

The second finger was also snug, but not painful. It wasn’t until Eren added a third finger that Levi couldn’t bite back a hiss.

“Sorry,” Eren gasped. He twitched as he gathered more slick. By preparing Levi so carefully, Eren was edging them both. Watching Eren squirm was nearly enough for Levi to swat his hands away and insist that they get down to business.

Deep inside of Levi, Eren brushed a spot that made Levi spasm. “Oh fuck, finally,” Eren exhaled. “Are you still okay?”

“You keep asking me that,” Levi said raggedly.

Eren spitefully ground his fingers into Levi’s prostate again, and Levi bit back a whimper. Eren’s slick was all-encompassing, smeared on and in their bodies. Eren looked as painfully hard as Levi felt. His dick, well-endowed for an omega, was an angry red color, and when Eren grasped himself to slick up his member, the gentle contact made him wince.

With anyone else, this would have been unthinkable. Even with Eren, it was nerve-wracking, but Levi trusted Eren completely. When Eren slung Levi’s knees over his shoulders and lined himself up, brushing the head of his cock against Levi’s fluttering rim, there was something natural and comforting about relaxing and letting Eren manhandle him.

Which was par for the course with Eren, really. He was expressive but closed-off, shy but audacious, thoughtful but bird-brained, and a million other contradictions that would make Levi want to strangle anyone else but worked, somehow, with Eren. When Eren breached Levi, the ache was more than physical, and, despite Eren’s best efforts, Levi was completely overwhelmed, adrift in jumbled emotions and sensations that he couldn’t name but never wanted to let go of.

Eren moved at a snail’s pace, shivering as he sank into Levi. Levi groaned as he stretched around Eren’s girth. Eren buried his face in Levi’s neck and dug his nails into the furs on either side of Levi’s face. “Fuck,” He whispered. He laughed. “Are you okay?”

Levi nodded jerkily and spread his legs a little more to accommodate Eren’s wide hips.

“Tell me when it’s okay to move,” Eren said.

“It’s already okay,” Levi said.

Eren sat back on his knees and raked his eyes over Levi’s body. The vulnerability of being so open and exposed was intense, but not to the point that it scared Levi. Eren shifted, making them both moan. He grabbed Levi’s hips. Levi was too muscular for Eren to completely wrap his hands around Levi, so Eren dug his nails into Levi’s hipbones to get a good grip as he slowly rolled his hips into Levi’s.

Eren’s hair fell into his rosy face as he gradually worked into a punishing rhythm, sending lightning down Levi’s spine with each movement. Eren's inexperience was obvious – sometimes his rhythm stuttered and became inconsistent, and he had to readjust their angle several times. It was still good, though. Better than good, really, but Levi didn't have the brainpower to think of the word he needed right now. Levi spasmed as Eren drilled his sweet spot. Sweat made their bodies slide together easily. Levi pressed his mouth against Eren’s shoulders and chest in a broken attempt to kiss him. Eren was searing hot and tasted like salt.

Eren’s slick ran down the insides of his thighs, pooling on the bedding under them. His body, not understanding what Eren was doing, must be screaming at him to entice Levi. After this round, Levi decided that he was going to eat Eren out and clean all the fluid off of his supple body.

“Fuck,” Eren whined. “Levi, you feel so good.” His rhythm was becoming choppier. Periodically, he had to pause, gritting his jaw as he tried not to cum too quickly. “You’re so tight. And hot.” Eren decorated Levi’s skin with clumsy kisses. “Fuck, Levi.”

Levi basked in Eren’s wrecked voice, unable to say anything back. This was one of the most taboo things a couple could do, but Levi could not bring himself to give one iota of a shit. If male omegas weren’t supposed to be able to top their alphas, then there was no reason for them to have a cock, and male alphas wouldn’t have their g-spot in their ass.

More of Eren’s slick dripped onto Levi. “Does it hurt?” He croaked out.

“What?” Eren sounded far away.

“Being empty. Are your instincts crying?”

“No,” Eren lied.

“Let me help.”

Eren’s head bobbed.

Levi reached behind them, running his fingers down Eren’s spine. Eren trembled as Levi touched the cleft of his ass. Eren’s rim was dilated and twitching, and when Levi massaged it, Eren was soaking. He shoved two fingers inside.

Eren cried out and jerked deeper into Levi. Levi grunted in agreement. Eren’s walls quivered around him. If Levi’s body was even remotely as responsive to Eren as Eren’s body was to his, he understood why Eren wanted to top.

The pressure in Levi’s gut jumped, and he groaned into Eren’s mouth, grinding his hips to meet the omega’s thrusts as best as he could in his split-open position. “Levi,” Eren croaked, arching his back as Levi slipped another finger inside of him. “I can’t- I’m going to-,”

“Me too,” Levi gasped. Eren lost all semblance of rhythm and started pounding Levi furiously. He wrapped one hand around Levi cock, stroking it and massaging the swollen, forming knot at its base. The noise of skin slapping skin echoed in the small home, and Levi shook as he finally came. Warmth spread over his stomach as he released, and Eren watched cum dribble from between his fingers. Levi’s inner walls twitched with orgasm’s aftershocks, and Eren, unable to handle it any longer, came with a long, thick moan.

Feeling Eren come inside of him made Levi shudder again. Eren was staking his claim on him in the most primal, intimate way possible save for sinking his teeth into Levi’s scent gland, and Levi was more than willing to accept it.

Levi cringed as Eren pulled out, and they caught their breath, glancing at each other with wide eyes. “Wow,” Eren breathed.

“Yeah,” Levi agreed.

Eren used a spare piece of fabric to clean them up and nestled up against Levi’s chest. He hid, pressing his face against Levi’s skin, but Levi still felt Eren smiling.

“Let’s do that again,” Levi said.

Eren laughed. “Now?”

Levi groaned. “Give my dick some time to recover.”

“Lazy,” Eren murmured. He sighed. “You probably can’t stay the night, can you?”

“Hmmm.” Levi closed his eyes. “Probably not.”

“Damn.”

“Some other night,” Levi said.

He struggled to stay awake. As alluring as sleep was, he knew that if he dozed off next to Eren, he wouldn’t be able to force himself to leave later.

A thought occurred to him. “Eren?”

“Uh-huh?”

“Would you ever consider coming back to a pack?”

Eren propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at Levi. “You mean, would I ever consider joining yours?”

“Yes,” Levi said. “It would be safer, and we could see each other more easily.” We could live together. I could bite you. Levi thought about waking up every morning tangled in Eren’s body, the idea of Eren’s clothes folded next to his, breaking off a piece of his kill to give Eren, and holding the pups that he and Eren made.

“I don’t know.” Eren said. “After what happened to home…” He shrugged.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Eren clarified, “it’s not that I think that your pack will be like the Tyburs, and I know, realistically, that you won’t be annihilated the way my pack was. But knowing that just isn’t enough to trust it. Not yet. I’m sorry.”

Levi shook his head. “No, I understand. You don’t have to apologize.” And he did understand, but it also hurt, even though he knew he was getting ahead of himself by hoping for so much.

Eventually, Levi forced himself to leave, but not before he rubbed their throats together, cementing his claim over Eren. He tried not to stare at Eren’s smooth, unmarked scent gland.

Eren, Levi realized as he made his way back to camp, never stopped poaching. He only graduated from stealing small game to stealing the hunters’ themselves.

He was so good at it, Levi couldn’t be angry with him.

When Levi stepped into camp, everyone looked at him with the apathetic notice of people who had already had the time to be worried, then angry, then fed up. Isabel stormed across the camp, hugged him, and then punched him. “What the fuck, Levi?” she hissed. “It’s been almost a week. Hange kept insisting that we didn’t need to send out a search party, and I guess they were right about whatever the fuck you’re hiding.” Her eyes smoldered. “But, what the fuck, you better have a good explanation for this.”

“Isabel,” Levi said, rubbing his throbbing bicep, “What do I smell like? What do you think?” Isabel started, then blushed. “Your mother said that she wants to see you as soon as you get back,” She said.

As usual, Kenny was guarding his sister’s hut. When he saw Levi, he whistled. “You look like someone did a number on you.” He squinted. “Why are you limping like that? Did you get hurt?”

“Is anyone with her right now?” Levi asked.

Kenny shook his head. “She’s been waiting for you.”

As usually, incense swirled inside the chieftain’s hut, but Kuchel wasn’t in her ceremonial clothes. Her antlers lay next to the dais instead of on her head, and her clothes were wrinkled, and there were dark circles under her eyes. When she saw Levi, she didn’t say anything.

“You know why I was gone,” Levi said.

“I can guess,” Kuchel said.

“How angry are you?” Levi asked.

“I’m not angry,” Kuchel said.

“But you’re disappointed.”

“No,” Kuchel said. “But I’ve been dreading this conversation.” She sighed. “It’s the poacher, isn’t it?”

“They don’t poach anymore,” Levi corrected her. His instincts were going haywire. Not only did mentioning Eren bring back all the memories of the night before, but there was something about his mother’s tone and posture that set Levi on edge. “Why were you dreading this conversation?” He asked.

“Levi…” Kuchel folded her hands in her lap. “I love you more than life itself. I am so, so happy that, after so long, you found someone that makes you act like an alpha,” Before Levi could object, Kuchel added, “I don’t want to undermine that. But you’ve also become reckless. Disappearing for a week? I nearly had a heart attack before I realized what must have happened. Even then, I worried that I was wrong, and that one of the bears had gotten hungry enough and sneaky enough to intrude on camp. I was afraid that a wildcat dragged you away in the night!” Kuchel’s hands trembled.

“Not to mention,” She continued, “how incredibly irresponsible you were to disappear. The leaves will change any day now, don’t you know that? Once that happens, the first frost won’t be far off. We can spare a hunter now, but in winter? Never. During the snow moons, we’re always stretched thin even with everybody working as hard as they can.” Kuchel massaged her temples. "Petra could be pregnant soon, Levi. You can't leave us like that again."

Levi’s heart sank. She was right.

“What are you telling me?” He demanded.

Kuchel looked down at her hands. “I don’t want to make you choose.”

Levi took a step back from his mother. “But you’re going to make me.”

“I want you to be happy,” Kuchel said, “but none of us can always pursue our own desires, Levi. The pack sustains us, and we have a duty to one another.”

Levi turned toward the door, feeling sick.

“Until the frost, Levi,” Kuchel called. “Then, if they don’t come to live with us, you have to choose. I’m sorry.”

Levi spent the day without speaking to anyone, even Hange. If he opened his mouth, he would kill someone. Logically, he knew that nobody but his mother was at fault for his anger. He didn’t want to lash out, but he couldn’t help but resent everyone for being part of his responsibility, part of the ultimatum his mother had wielded at him. He barely slept, did his duties early in the morning, and then went to see Eren, who definitely picked up on Levi’s bitter scent but said nothing.

The leaves changed. Then they fell. Levi wore a new path through the woods going between camp and Eren's home. Eren grew even more beautiful, the ochre forest bringing out new shades of green in his eyes. He was a drug. When Levi was with him, he forgot the nagging, sickening worry that he felt every time he saw a leaf fall, but eventually, when he had to go back to camp, the fear crept back in.

His solution was to say nothing and spend even less time in his own nest than usual.

“Levi,” Eren asked, during what Levi worried might be one of the last nights they spent together. “What’s wrong?”

Levi had known it would only be a matter of time until Eren pressed, but his stomach still twisted. “What do you mean?”

Eren scowled. “I can feel how upset you are. You’re buzzing like a hornet.”

Levi sighed. “Did you bounce on my cock because you knew it would soften me up? Is sex your interrogation technique?”

“Yes,” Eren admitted. “But it was also for fun.” He smiled, but it quickly faded. “Seriously, Levi. What’s eating you up?”

Levi had to close his eyes to fend off the lump in his throat. “It’s almost winter.”

“I know.” Eren frowned. “It’s hard for your pack, isn’t it?”

Levi grunted.

“Is that what you’re worried about?”

“Not exactly.” Eren’s hands on his chest were too warm, too inviting, and Levi wanted nothing more than to kiss Eren and swallow all his questions.

“If you’re worried about me…” Eren’s hands stilled. “I’ll be okay. It’s not my first winter fending for myself, you know.”

“That’s not exactly it, either.”

“Levi,” Eren said gently, “please tell me. Whatever it is, I can see that it’s been hurting you for a long time. I want to help, if I can. Also, when you’re evasive like this, it makes me want to strangle you.”

Levi snorted. The words fought against being said, but fuck it, Eren was right. He needed to act like an adult and pull the stinger out.

He opened his eyes. Eren’s were large and nervous. “My pack needs me for the winter, so my chieftain said that, by the time frost comes, you need to either come live with us, or I can’t see you again.”

“Wow.” Eren laughed, but it sounded a little like a shriek. “Fuck your chieftain. I’m sorry, I know she’s your mother, but fuck her.” Eren curled his hands into fists. “Wow,” He repeated.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want you to feel guilty.”

Eren shook his head. “What is she going to do, tie you up? Keep you from coming here?” Watching Eren turn red, Levi realized that he had never seen him truly angry. Even when Eren recounted why he came to live in the Ackerman forest, his anger toward the Tyburs had been old, cooled into a permanent, but familiar, resentment. This rage was fresh, and terrifying, especially because Levi knew Eren was in pain.

Eren didn’t say anything for a long moment, staring into space. He took a few, deep breaths. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t talk about your mother like that.”

“It doesn’t matter. I felt the same way when she told me.”

Eren laughed and ran a shaking hand down his face. “I’m sorry.” He lay back down and curled up against Levi. Now, he was the one buzzing like a hornet, his vibrating body making Levi’s tremble with it.

Eren didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. Now that Levi had told him, the question that he must want to ask Levi hung in the air like a noose.

“Don’t answer it.” Eren whispered. “Please, don’t answer it.”

“I have to,” Levi whispered back.

“Don’t do it right now.”

“When?” Levi asked.

Eren shook his head.

They lay in the dark, and Levi counted the wooden slats in the ceiling.

“I love you,” Eren said. “I’m not telling you to make you choose me. I need you to hear that, even if you don’t feel the same way.”

Even though Levi felt like he might break any second now, Eren’s confession made him fly. “I love you too.”

Eren nodded, and he took a deep breath, like he wanted to confess something else, but it never came.

“I’m going to figure it out,” Levi said. “I won’t choose.”

But Eren still smelled like he was worried. Even after his breathing evened and Levi was the only one awake, lost in his thoughts and the night.

When Levi woke up, Eren was shivering. He inhaled, his nostrils burned.

Oh, no.

Opening his eyes, he took another deep breath, held it for a moment, and exhaled. A pale cloud left his lips.

His veins frosted over the same way the earth outside had last night.

Levi didn’t know how to think. All he knew was that he was afraid, and angry, and he had unknowingly slept away his last moments before his mother’s deadline. Eren muttered something indistinct and stretched. The moment he opened his eyes and saw Levi, he sat up, wide awake. “What happened?” He asked.

Levi tried, but he couldn’t come up with the words. His breath misted, and Eren gasped, putting a hand over his mouth. “Fuck.”

Eren got up, and, even though he wasn’t dressed, stepped outside. A moment later, he reappeared, pale, and nodded at Levi.

Levi needed to fight. He didn’t want to fight. Not with his pack.

“Levi,” Eren said, “don’t worry.”

“What?”

“Don’t choose.” Eren said. He was looking around his home with an expression Levi had never seen before, his gaze lingering on everything like it was the first time he was seeing it. “You don’t need to.”

“Eren.” Levi sat up. “What do you mean?”

“I mean exactly what it seems like I mean. Get up.”

Levi obeyed, and Eren gathered the bedding into a roll. Then, he walked over to his cubbies and retrieved a leather strap. “It’ll take a few trips,” he mused, “but it’s doable.” He lashed the bedding together. “And I guess I don’t need to bring some of this, if you have it.”

Eren was choosing for both of them.

“Please don’t run away,” Levi said.

Eren looked at him with the same fond exasperation that Petra directed at Oluo when he got too stubborn. “I’m not,” Eren said. “I’m coming with you.”

Levi’s hope was world-ending. “Eren,” He warned, “if you aren’t ready, don’t make yourself come with me, please.”

Eren shook his head. “I’ve thought about it for a while now, you know,” He said. “The ultimatum you were given didn’t trigger anything.” He bit his lip. “I want to be with you, Levi.” He stopped wrestling plants into a bulging leather satchel and walked back over to where Levi dumbly sat on the floor. “I really do love you. And maybe, in the future, that love won’t work out, but I doubt that. And maybe I’ll strangle your mother when I have to look her in the eye, but I’ll try very hard not to do that, because I understand what she did, and you love her.”

Eren cupped Levi's face. “I know what it feels like when somewhere stops being home, and this-,” He gestured around the treehouse, “- isn’t home to me anymore. Only you are, okay? So I’m coming back with you. Life usually doesn't go the way the happy myths do, but I’ve loved you for a long time, so I’m going to take the plunge.”

Levi kissed him, hard. One of them, or maybe both of them, had salt on their lips. “I want you to bond me,” Eren whispered, “soon. I want to live with you.” Levi almost laughed. Eren might be elusive, but when it came down to it, they were on the same page.

“I’m so in love with you,” Levi said, “that you make me feel like I have the brainpower of a tadpole.”

“Oh, I figured you were always like that,” Eren said.

Levi tickled him for that.

“Please! Let me finish packing.” Eren swatted his hands away, breathing hard. Levi showed him mercy, for now, and got up to help.

“What are you going to do with the treehouse?” Levi asked as they climbed down it, picking their way down the frosted bark.

Eren shrugged. “We can still use it.” He gazed up at the tree house. “I’m going to be a hunter, no matter what omegas in your pack usually do, so when we rest after the hunt, we'll come back here together.” Eren shrugged. “If we stop using it in the future, then it’ll be a good home for some animals.”

Eren was a wild animal. Being with a pack wouldn’t take that away from him, and maybe that would cause tension, but none of that mattered.

Winter, Levi thought, was usually about struggle. Death. Discomfort, at the very least. It was the end of everything: easy living, the year, the first era of their love. But when the snow came and covered everything familiar, that also meant anything could turn into anything. Eren didn’t look back as he walked, and Levi studied the now-familiar knobs of his future mate’s spine, the swinging hips that made him feral, and the soft, curly hairs at the base of Eren’s skull, begging to be wound around Levi’s finger and tugged on.

Eren wasn’t the arrogant ghost that Isabel had predicted he was, and he wasn’t a pining, left-behind omega, either. There was no concise way to explain him. Levi couldn’t wait to see how his – their - pack would try, though.

Notes:

Our love was born
outside the walls,
in the wind,
in the night,
in the earth,
and that's why the clay and the flower,
the mud and the roots
know your name
-Pablo Neruda, “Epithalamium”

Thank you for reading this monster! If you liked it, leave me some kudos and comments!