Author's Note: This is my first AOT fanfiction. I just finished the anime and I could not forego this opportunity, Eren and Levi are great characters to play around with. Un-betaed.

Eren absolutely hated this. He was officially not good with company – that is, drunk, borderline intoxicated out of their minds company. He had no idea why he had allowed himself to be dragged along to this event, whatever they wanted to call it; save for the fact that he was officially part of the heroic legion that had brought down one Annie Leonhart. Despite the fact that in its essence the operation had been a failure (he tried to ignore that thought as much as possible, even though the guilt weighed on him like a rock around his neck), the thankful (and the surviving) citizens of Stohess grudgingly agreed to stage a formal ball to celebrate the so-called victory – no doubt a plot on part of the government to somewhat lessen the public backlash.

This is how he found himself in the middle of the great hall in one of of the many palaces in the interior wall, dressed to the nines in a newly-sewn formal uniform. He shifted uncomfortably under the heavy woolen coat – it was way too scratch and no aerodynamic enough to be of any help were a real attack to occur in the next several hours.

Suddenly, everyone wanted to shake the domesticated titan's hand, and if he were absolutely honest with himself, he had been kind of keen to get the attention – before the night had turned against him, and he found himself surrounded by drunk soldiers from various corps of the military. It was nice, on the one hand, to see a Military Police officer engage in friendly banter with a Survey Corps soldier, however when said officer tried to stuff his tongue down said soldier's throat, Eren had to look away. This was not what he'd envisioned as a child when he had imagined his time as part of the Wings of Freedom. This was… Not his thing, he supposed.

"Hey, Eren!" A heavy arm slung its way around his shoulders and Eren looked sideways at his attacker to see Jean, his gaze unfocused, a silly smile plastered over his face. He had grown to tolerate Jean, even though he still found him incredibly irritating, Eren had come to admit that Jean was as good a fighter as any. "Eren! Guess what just happened?"

His speech was slurred severely and Eren felt a stab of pity for the other man. This was perhaps the first time he'd truly relaxed since Marco's death. Just for that reason, Eren decided he would put up with Jean's shenanigans just a while longer.

"What just happened?" He asked quietly, trying to ignore the stench of alcohol that wafted off Jean's breath. He'd never been a fan of the drink, having seen the way it impedes all cognitive and motor skills of a potential soldier – and as far as Eren was concerned, they were always potential soldiers. The world just worked that way.

"So you know how Bruno has been completely in love with Tanja since the beginning of last spring?" Jean slurred, watching for Eren's reaction. If Eren were to be honest, he had no idea who Bruno and Tanja were, probably some of the fellow trainees or members of different regiments, but he decided to humor Jean and nodded briefly, urging him on to continue.

"Well, a little birdie tells me that they got caught in a compor-, comp… damn it, they were screwing in the linen closet just now," Jean finished triumphantly, looking at Eren as though he'd just delivered news that they'd discovered the cause of the titans' appearance.

"Heh, little Bruno ain't gonna die a virgin anymore!"

Jean let out a shrill giggle and then sluggishly removed his arm from Eren's shoulder before going off in the general direction of the bar, all the while laughing maniacally.

Eren watched him go, rolling his eyes. Jean was worse than an old woman when he gossiped. Something did not sit well with the young titan shifter, however. He'd never thought about it that way. Soon, they would be off on yet another mission outside the walls – despite the disastrous nature of Erwin's plan in Stohess, the Survey Corps had been allowed to continue activity, with double effort, to make up for the losses humanity had suffered. Which meant that in the next few weeks they would probably cross that gate again, and only a fraction of them would have the chance of crossing it when they returned. This was the life they'd chosen, Eren mused, however, that did not make it much easier for him; he had caught himself thinking about having a normal life more and more frequently in the past few days, and even though he would never regret his choice in joining the Survey Corps, the idea of never experiencing the simple pleasures of life before a titan crushed his spine between its teeth, or before his own comrades kill him for going insane on one of the raids… It was… sad. Eren ignored every other attempt at interaction as he slipped out of the hall, suddenly in dire need of a breath.

He found himself standing in front of the fountain in the palace's back garden, watching the water spill over continuously. The night was not chilly enough to make him want to tighten his coat around himself, and his natural high temperature made it so much more comfortable for him than that ballroom. Eren wondered whether the people would celebrate his own death in the same way. They would, probably, urged on by the Wallists and the Military Police commanders who'd wanted to dissect him in the first place, and his friends would have to comply with the public opinion and also raise a glass to the finally beaten enemy of humanity. That is, if they survived as long.

"What are you doing here?"

Eren snapped around to see Corporal Levi slumped against a wall, his expression brooding. He seemed absolutely out-of-place in his parade uniform as well, and that made Eren feel slightly better. He knew Levi understood the way he felt – that all these balls and reception had no place in a life when disaster could strike at any given moment.

Eren shrugged in response.

"Just… taking a breather, Corporal Levi, that's all." He gave Levi a feeble attempt at a smile. "Not trying to turn into a titan or anything."

"You're hilarious," Levi replied moodily before pushing himself off the fall and walking towards the fountain. "I thought you'd be thrilled with the celebration in your honor."

"There was nothing honorable about that operation, much less so on my part, Corporal. We both know that," Eren said sharply, a little too forcefully than was socially acceptable when speaking to a higher-standing officer, and he felt the need to back down immediately under Levi's unwavering gaze. "I'm… I apologize, sir. It's been a long day."

"No, I agree with you, Jäger. For once, you sound like a little more than a brat." Levi turned to look at the water. Eren felt very uncomfortable standing there with his commanding officer, just the two of them, and the sound of the splashing fountain. There was something strangely intimate in this moment, and he was unsure of whether he liked it or not. It did not feel bad, yet the situation somehow urged him to reveal more about his thoughts than he was necessarily willing to do. The silence, however, was too deafening not to be interrupted.

"I was thinking…" He began, stalling. He glanced sideways at Levi, sizing him up. Sure, the Corporal was a cruel, obsessive-compulsive son of a bitch, he was sharp in both wit and tongue, he was strong and sometimes a little too much to handle; but he was also the best damn officer the army had. He was intelligent and however dry and inappropriate his humor could be sometimes, he was still able to maintain a joke. Levi was a plethora of contradictions all bottled in a small, strong body, hidden behind blank eyes and down-turned lips. That was what made him so interesting to Eren. He was completely unreadable.

"What a tragedy for all of us, Jäger," Levi quipped, his expression unchanged.

"That is the most cliché thing you could have said, Corporal."

"Do I not amuse you, Jäger?"

"Eren."

"What?" Levi's gaze turned to him sharply.

"It's Eren. That's my name. Please use it."

"Tch. I will call you whatever I damn well please, shitty brat." Levi turned back to the fountain, before letting out a sigh. "And what intellectual insight were you about to offer when I so rudely interrupted your train of thought, which, I am sure, took you about an entire hour to construct?"

Eren fought the urge to growl in frustration. There was the Corporal Levi that he resented. Nevertheless, he licked his lips nervously and offered up his heart to the officer. He did not know why he was doing it now, with Levi of all people… But then again, he doubted his friends would want to hear him talk about such things. They had enough concerns of their own. There was no need to burden them further. Not that he wanted to burden Levi either, it was just… It seemed like the Corporal was genuinely interested – or bored enough, – to listen to him.

"We can die at any moment."

"Very astute, Jä-, Eren," Levi said dryly. "Any other brilliant ideas?"

"So we should make the most of the time that we have while we're alive."

"That is more of a logical connection than I would have ever thought you are able to –,"

"Just listen to me, please!" Eren raised his voice, now towering slightly over his commanding officer, his face trembling. What had just popped into his head was an insane, stupid idea for which he would probably get either beaten to an inch of his life or murdered, but it was like he said – they only had so much time to live, so why not venture, why not?

Levi surveyed him silently before letting out a sigh.

"Continue."

"So, I… um, I realized that there is something that I haven't done yet, and I really want to do it because dying without doing it would be kind of pitiful and I don't want to die without… Anyway…"

"Just spit it out, Jäger."

"I don't want to die a virgin."

The next few moments were marked by a long, stretched-out silence before the unthinkable happened: Corporal Levi burst out laughing. Eren blinked. This was nothing like the reaction he expected. Levi's laugh, a strange, scratchy sound that somehow suited him, rang out throughout the garden, resonating against the encompassing stone walls. Eren watches as the Corporal laughs on and on, before he subsides into silent shaking. Wiping off a tear of mirth from the corner of his left eye, Levi met his gaze.

"That was brilliant, Jäger. I don't think I've had a laugh this good since–,"

"I'm not joking, I'm being serious here!" Eren said, suddenly angry at that fucking midget to dared laugh at what he considered to be a real crisis of existence. He clenched his fists, his shoulders shaking. "I don't want to die tomorrow without knowing what is feels like."

Levi's laughter finally died away completely and he shrugged, sitting down onto the edge of the fountain, not before inspecting it thoroughly for excessive dirt and deeming it passable. He looked up at Jäger, not really minding the even greater difference in height: after all, when Jäger was in his titan form, he towered over all of them. There was nothing imposing about the younger man's height in any shape: Levi was still in control. He actually considered it slightly humorous, the way that the big, frightening titan submitted itself to him.

"So go buy yourself a woman. Or even go back to the ballroom, I'm sure that some private will let you touch her privates."

"I don't think… I don't think I could do that," Eren said quietly, and sat down next to Levi, watching him out of the corner of his eye. "I want it to be with someone I know."

"Well, that girlfriend of yours–,"

"Mikasa is like my sister. Please don't even…" Eren trailed off in frustration. "Plus, what if I lose control? I heard the experience is, um, a bit overwhelming."

"You're in for a big disappointment, Jäger," Levi said casually, leaning back a little. He remembered the first time he'd slept with someone. It had been overwhelming, all right, but not in the sense that the wide-eyed fledgling was hoping it to be. "There is nothing spectacular about sex."

"Prove it."

"Hm?"

"I don't believe it. So prove it," Eren said bravely, looking Levi straight in the eyes. The Corporal raised an eyebrow.

"I'm much older than you and a commanding officer. And I am definitely not a caring lover."

"I don't care. I trust you to keep me under control. And to be thorough enough." Eren could not believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. Had he actually drunk something more potent than water back there? However, Eren being the way he was, he knew there was no way to back out now without looking like a complete coward. So he pressed on, inching towards Levi. "Show me. I trust you."

Levi regarded him for a moment.

"Throw in a 'please' with that and you have yourself a deal."

"Please."

"Friday. Nine. My quarters. Don't be late, Eren."