I don't own Attack on Titan.

Chapter Warnings: Eren being a lil cinnabun, Levi being painfully sweet, and some prohibited sexy times

The Hunters

Chapter Eighteen — The Way I Feel Inside

Nine-and-a-half goddamn hours after waking up blissfully in Levi's firm, muscular embrace, I was peeling my legs off the seat of the van and nearly falling onto the pavement in front of a Best Western in Salt Lake City. Like we do at almost every hotel we check into, we collapsed onto the bed the second we unlocked the door and didn't move for a solid fifteen minutes. I don't understand how sitting around all day is exhausting, but it is—in Levi's words, "If traveling were a fucking person, it'd be a goddamn bitch with a dirty-ass cunt." Not the foulest sentence I've heard him speak.

"Dinner," he grumbled, his face in the mattress.

I paused my mindless Facebook scrolling to check the time in the top corner of my phone. "It's only four."

"Plan." I glanced at him to find his eyes were closed. He must have really been tired.

I took a second to like Connie's new relationship status with Sasha—final-fucking-ly—before I opened the map function and hit the restaurant button. I narrowed it down to diners so that Levi could have his omelette fix. "Mm…'s a Perkins across the street."

"Yeah." He rolled over to be side by side with me. "Hungry?"

"Not yet." I went back to Facebook.

"Not a question."

I smiled. "Oh." I took a deep breath, summoned all of my willpower, and heaved myself off the bed. "Okay." The Corporal remained square in the middle, on his back, looking at me. "Aren't you getting up?" He reached his arms up like a baby. I snickered and grabbed him by the elbows. "It's no good to be la—whoa!"

He'd pulled me down to straddle him and rested his hands on the small of my back. "We could always wait a bit." He nuzzled into the crook of my neck. "Kill some time," he added between kisses.

I laughed a playful "Corporal" and put my palms down on the bed so I was on all fours. When he didn't stop, I changed my tone to scolding. "Corporal, come on." One of his hands gave my ass a good squeeze while the other one pressed against my nipple; they'd been so much more sensitive since being pierced, and for the first time, they didn't feel tender or sore. "C-corporal," I breathed, reflexively bucking my hips. "Don't start something you can't finish."

He ran his hand down my thigh and huffed. "Fucking Hange."

I blushed. "You said you wanted more than just fucking anyway."

"I don't want zero fucking either." He rolled his eyes, and it was funny to me. "Okay, fine. Get up." He smacked my ass, and I bounced back onto the bed.

"Where are you going?" I put my hands behind my head.

"Bathroom," he growled. I wanted to laugh at him, but I couldn't blame him. "Can't go to a family restaurant with a boner."

I hopped off the bed. "Lemme grab some tissues before you go in there."

He stopped in the doorway. "Let's just jack off together."

I blushed. "No, thanks, that sounds super awkward."

He scoffed. "More awkward than yanking it six feet away from each other on either side of a three-inch wall?"

"Well—I—" He had a point. It was just as weird to hide from each other. "If sex is off the table, then that's probably also against the rules." I didn't know how to tell him I wasn't ready yet.

"Fine." He glared at me, throwing the box of tissues my way. It hit hit me square in the chest. "But I want to hear you," he demanded before shutting the door.

As Levi and I crossed the street to the restaurant, side by side, our hands briefly brushed against each other. He trailed just a hair behind me, and only because of the height difference. I held the door open for him, we were seated at a booth, and I played with the menu. The lamination made a good slap sound against the table.

"Eren, stop."

I put the menu down and slouched. "Did you like to do cute things with Petra?"

He made a face. Whatever scathing retort he had was cut off by the arrival of the waitress with her pleasant and practiced speech. "Welcome to Perkins, my name is Anka, and I'll be your server today; can I start you off with some drinks?"

"Black tea and a water," Levi answered gruffly.

I smiled at Anka and tried my best to remember her name. "Just water, please and thank you."

She nodded affirmatively and walked away. I looked back to Levi. "No."

I cocked my head to the side. "No?"

"No fucking talking until you pick something. I'm not doing that thing where you can't decide and the poor woman has to come back three goddamn times."

I pouted. "I know what I want, so tell me—"

"Bullshit."

"Yeah, I'm gonna get—" I glanced down quickly. "—pasta. Now tell me."

He scoffed, tapping his phone against the table. One corner, the next, the next, the next. "The fuck kind of question is that?"

I crossed my arms. "I'm just curious." The thought had entered my mind earlier and I couldn't get it out. I couldn't stop wanting to know things about him.

The sounds of the restaurant lingered between us until the drinks arrived and we ordered—shrimp pasta for me, since I'd committed to the first thing I saw, and the usual farmer's omelette for him. As Anka headed back toward the kitchen, Levi mashed his straw against the table to get the paper off. "Define cute."

I shrugged, tearing the straw paper at the center and only pulling off one end. "Hold her hand when you're walking down the street or share a drink with two straws or...I don't know, I've never been someone's boyfriend." I blew the end of the straw paper at him, but missed by an inch to the right. He didn't react. I tried to think of Levi-style things. "Get matching tattoos and blast rock albums at one in the morning."

He sucked on his straw for an eternity, downing half the glass of water. "I'm not a PDA type person."

I'd figured as much. "What about in private?"

"Sure." He played with his watch. "We did stuff like that in private."

I gave a sideways grin. "So, does she have a tattoo that matches yours?" He has one on the inside of his left arm that looks sort of like a barcode. He brushed me off the last time I asked about it.

"No." He crossed his arms. "We did have matching earrings, though."

I choked on my water. Between coughs I managed, "You had your ears pierced?"

He nodded with an almost-smile. "Both. Until I was...twenty-five?"

I leaned back in the booth, eyeing him suspiciously. "Are you fucking with me?"

"No." He reached for his glass of water.

I perked up and put my hands on the table. "Do you have pictures? Will you show me?"

He paused drinking with a smack of his lips. "No."

I pouted and slouched, defeated. "No pictures, or no, you won't show me?"

"Both." He pushed his empty glass away and put his hands behind his head, stretching his torso all the way up.

I tried to threaten him. "I'll ask Dr. Zoe."

"She's not gonna gossip as long as you're her patient," he shot back, leaning forward with his elbows on the table. "In any case, don't go chatting with her more than you have to."

"Fine," I sighed. He had a point; if I hoped to keep our secret, then I had to avoid talking to her unnecessarily. Still, I wasn't ready to give up. "I'll ask Mike." He responded by making a face of incredulity. "No, you're right. He doesn't seem like a gossip either."

"Give it up, kid." He plopped his straw into my cup. "Share with me."

I turned bright red and plucked the straw out. "Don't be stupid," I grumbled, throwing the straw at him. "Drink your damn tea."

He picked up his mug and hid his face behind it, but I knew there was a smug little smile back there.

As we waited to cross the street back to the Best Western, the wind picked up. "Hey, Corporal?" I shivered and shoved my hands in the pockets of my hoodie.

"What?" He stepped out into the road, and I followed close behind him.

"Um...I'd like to get my ears pierced."

We reached the other side, and I nearly bumped into him as he stopped short to turn and look at me. His eyes were especially bright in that light. "...Like, right now?"

I put my hands up, embarrassed. "No," I stuttered, "just in general."

He stood there for a moment and shrugged. "Why not? Let's just go do it." He resumed walking.

"Don't you have work to do?" A tiny part of me was panicking. I didn't even think he'd say yes, let alone that he'd want to go for it immediately.

"Fuck no, I don't feel like doing shit tonight. It'll be fun to go do your thing." Instead of leading us back to the entrance of the hotel, he lead us to the van. "Look up some place on your phone."

I pulled my phone out of my back pocket before getting in the car and buckling up. "Wow, you really are trying to avoid work tonight, aren't you?" I didn't want his attention on me or the reason why I randomly wanted to do this. It had nothing at all to do with him, and it was totally random.

"I deserve a damn break. There'll be plenty of time for that noise tomorrow after I meet with the DEA."

"So, we're…following the drugs, huh?" That was my sorry attempt at conversation.

Levi looked at me sideways. "Just give me directions."

I felt anxious the moment we stepped into the tattoo parlor, but I didn't want to show it. The Corporal strolled easily up to the front counter as I trailed behind, looking at cases of jewelry and trying not to think too hard. I had four really good reasons not to go through with this—not to mention, they're a bitch to take care of, generally a pain in the ass to have, and let's not forget that crazy dude who decided to handcuff me to a bed and stab me with a bunch of bullshit.

"Eren."

"Huh?" I tried not to look startled and sick and scared.

Levi eyed me suspiciously. "You want both? Or just one?"

"Both, please."

The man at the counter smiled. "No problem." He wrote something down on the paper in front of him.

"Um…" He didn't resemble Ian in the slightest except for that he was a blond white guy. "...are you the piercer, or?"

He grinned broadly. "Yup, that's me." He handed the clipboard with paperwork and a pen to the Corporal.

My stomach turned, and I nodded. "Okay."

Levi looked at me, the pen touching the paper, but didn't write. "Do you want to go some place else?" Maybe he connected the dots. Or maybe it was enough that I seemed uneasy.

I shook my head. "It's okay." I looked back to the piercer and pointed at Levi. "Can he be with me?"

"Yeah," the guy shrugged, "that's fine. If you guys want to sit down and fill out that paperwork, I'll just go grab the earring choices." He went off to one of the cases as the Corporal and I went across the room to sit.

"You should ask him to check on your other piercings," Levi said, initialing down the page. "Make sure they're healing fine."

"Okay." I swallowed hard. I had that nervous feeling in my jaw. I tuned into the sound of Levi scribbling his signature at the bottom of the page.

"He can't do anything to you with me there."

I balled my hands up into fists. "I know."

"Okay, so," the piercer started, coming over and holding up two cards, "we got steel posts with gems or colored titanium posts."

I glanced at Levi first, then pointed to the card of titanium posts. "No gem."

He held up the card. "Gold, silver, or black?"

I hesitated. "Black."

"Cool." He took the clipboard back from Levi. "Gimme a couple minutes to set up, and I'll call you on back."

"Okay." I looked at Levi.

He patted me on the head. "Good choice."

"Yeah?" I smiled. "I didn't know I'd get to choose."

He put his arm around the back of the chair. "I would've picked those."

For the first time, I opened my fists and splayed my fingers across my knees. Aerosmith played quietly on the radio. "Thanks for this," I muttered.

"Sure." Neither of us looked at the other. The man came back to fetch us, taking us to a room off to the side. I bristled at the sight of the tray with blue paper and equipment, and Levi rubbed my arm. "It's okay," he reassured me, and went to stand in the corner of the room as I sat down near the tray.

"Before we start, I was wondering if...you could take a look at some of my other piercings?" No, I really didn't want him to touch me or look at me. But it was probably the right decision.

He put on gloves, and I had to look away. "Sure." The sound of one snapping against his wrist made me shiver. "Having issues?"

"They weren't done professionally, so I just want to make sure everything's good." I started by sticking out my tongue.

He lifted my tongue up, then back down, and wiggled the bar a bit. "When did you get it?"

"July."

"It's definitely healed, then. I don't see any issues." He wiped my spit off his glove with a paper towel. "You said you have more?"

"Yeah," I stuttered. I glanced over at Levi and took a shaky breath as I timidly lifted up my shirt.

He checked my belly button first, then my nipples. "And when are these from?"

"The same. July." It was hard to breathe.

"There's some redness around the belly button, but that's typical from the waistband of your pants. Any fevers, redness, heat at the piercings, leakage, anything like that?"

I shook my head. "I saw online to clean them with salt water, so I'd been doing that, but lately I haven't."

"Okay. They look all right, a bit red, but without any other symptoms of infection, it's probably just irritation. With both the nipples and the navel, if you notice your starter jewelry is getting long, we can switch them for closer fitting ones after about three to six months. Yours look fine for now. It could take six months to a year for the healing process to be completed on those, depending on the stress they go through, catching on your clothes and whatnot, so I wouldn't recommend trying to take them out by yourself before then." He took off his gloves. "Just be careful, keep paying attention, and if anything seems wrong, see a doctor."

I nodded, and pulled my shirt down as fast as I could. "Um, one more question." I made a show of putting my hand in front of my mouth to hide from Levi. "What about sex?"

"Eren," Levi scolded me, crossing his arms.

The man laughed, playing along by putting his hand to his mouth. "During the first month, I would say definitely not, but at this point...clean hands and a gentle touch should be okay. Clean them afterwards, and just be mindful."

I let myself laugh. "Thank you."

"No problem. Ready for your ears?" I nodded. The sick feeling that left me while we joked around returned.

I reached my hand out to Levi, who came over and took it. "Ready."

Of course, all in all, the experience wasn't so bad, and with Levi there to help me, I only had to overcome my anxiety: no panic attacks or flashbacks or anything horrible. The piercer explained how to clean them, and gave me a paper on aftercare and some salt water spray. The Corporal gave me his keys and told me to go wait in the car as he paid.

I sat in the passenger seat of the van and admired my earrings in the side mirror. Thankfully, the piercing didn't hurt too much, and I really liked the way I looked with them. I tried to imagine what Levi had looked like with his. Did he wear ones like mine? Or did he wear something Petra chose for him?

The driver door slammed closed, startling me. "Keys," Levi demanded. I handed them to him so he could start the car. "Anything else you want to do?" He had the map app on his phone open.

"Nothing in particular," I shrugged.

He programmed the address of our hotel in and started to drive. His phone played The Way I Feel Inside by The Zombies—he listened to them more than any other band. "Do you feel okay?"

I smiled. "Yeah." I looked at his hand which held the gear shift and put mine on top of it. "It really helped to have you there."

He took my hand properly and laced his fingers in mine. "I wanted to make you happy."

I squeezed his hand. "I'm happy."

Our joined hands dangled between us as he made his way to the highway. Suddenly, he cocked his head to the side and looked at me sideways. "Do you want to see a movie?"

I laughed—it just didn't seem very much like him. "Sure."

At the theater, we ended up choosing an action film about a retired black ops operative and sharing some popcorn. During the movie, the star saved a teen prostitute—it made things more than just a bit awkward. On our way back to the hotel, I jokingly called Levi the character's name, and he gave me a glare that halted the conversation for the rest of the ride.

"We've got an early start tomorrow," he said as we entered our room, which was his way of telling me to get ready for bed. As The Corporal changed his clothes, I went into the bathroom to wash my face, brush my teeth, and clean all my piercings. I got a queasy feeling remembering the piercer touching me, and when my mind wandered to Ian, I full-on barfed. Levi knocked on the door to ask if I was okay.

"I'm fine," I replied, grabbing my toothbrush.

He opened the door slowly and poked his head in. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I shoved the brush in my mouth and ignored the sour taste in my mouth.

He obviously didn't believe me. "Mind if I join you?" I shrugged, and he came over with his own toothbrush. I avoided eye contact with him until I was done, but I felt his eyes on me the entire time. I hurried out to change and slid into the bed on my back, staring up at the ceiling. I had a creepy-crawly feeling I couldn't shake.

"Eren?" Levi emerged from the bathroom.

My mouth felt dry. "Come to bed." He lifted the covers and sidled in beside me. "Levi?"

"Yes?"

I turned onto my side and found that Levi was already facing me. "Are your hands clean?"

His expression barely changed, but I could tell I caught him off-guard. "Why?"

"I want you to touch me." I slid my shirt slowly up my chest. "Play with my nipples."

"Is that a good idea?" He placed his hand flat in the middle of my chest. "What about Hange's rule?"

I put my hand on top of his and intertwined our fingers. "I'm not asking you to fuck me."

"You know as well as I do that just because it's not penetrative doesn't mean it's not sex."

"I know. I just…" I looked right into his eyes. "I feel sick. I know he was being very professional, but I keep having bad memories, and I want a good one." I moved his hand to my left nipple. "I wanna feel good."

He hesitated, but scooched closer to me and pressed his thumb gently against my piercing. My breath caught, and I leaned into the touch. "How's this?"

"Good," I whispered, letting my eyes close.

He pushed me down onto my back and kept his eyes trained on mine. "And this?" He softly rolled my other nipple between his left thumb and index finger.

"Mmm." I arched into the touch. "Yeah." He continued to play with me carefully, his body pressed against mine. As I started to feel more and more excited, I started to pant and writhe. I couldn't help but grind against him just a little. I leaned my face toward his, and he pressed chaste kisses to my lips and cheeks and neck, making me mewl and whine.

"We should stop soon," he said between kisses.

I groaned in agreement. "Right after you use your mouth a little." He obliged, moving his kisses down my collarbone and chest, locking his lips around a nipple and sucking gently, prodding it with his tongue and flicking the tip back and forth across it. I moaned and bucked my hips, pressing my hard-on against his leg. I felt his erection against my thigh and ground against him again, encouraging him to go further. He kissed back up my neck and settled his lips against mine. I opened my mouth and licked and nibbled at his lips until he let my tongue in, where I rubbed my piercing against his tongue and the roof of his mouth and sucked at his lower lip. "Corporal," I breathed, "I want you to make me cum."

He took in a shaky breath and opened my legs, holding the backs of my thighs. "Is it okay if we just keep going like this?"

I nodded, wrapping my arms around his neck. "That's probably best." He kissed me fully and rolled his hips against mine. I clutched his shoulders, digging my fingertips into his shoulder blades, and ground my crotch against his firm abs, both excited and frustrated by the feeling of his dick rubbing against my ass, separated only by his pj pants and my underwear. The horny part of me wanted to say fuck it and ride his cock, but the nervous side of me recoiled at the idea. Even this was probably too much, but I was barely in control anymore—humping, moaning, gasping for air, my entire body was hot and sweaty and pressed against every inch of Levi it could touch.

"Eren," he moaned, grinding on me wildly. "Eren, fuck—" He moved his hands to my ass, squeezing it and pushing me down against him even harder. I spread my legs wider, aching to feel more.

"Harder, Corporal—ah, ah, wait—" His dick rubbed right up on my asshole and my perineum. "Wait, I'm coming—Corporal!"

Not long after me, Levi groaned and shuddered with his own orgasm. We held onto each other and kissed until the warmth and sweat between us became too uncomfortable. He rolled over onto his side of the bed, panting, and held my hand while I pulled my shirt back down. "I'm going to change," he said after a bit, getting up slowly.

I blushed. "Throw me some new undies." He went through my bag and chucked a pair that landed halfway on my face. I chuckled, too lazy to get up, and wriggled my boxer briefs off under the covers, then watched Levi as he changed with his back toward me. I watched as the muscles in his back flexed when he lowered a new shirt down over his shoulders and relished the nice curve of his ass as he pulled new pants up his legs. The Corporal goes commando a lot more often than I think anyone would expect.

As he got back in the bed, he shut off the lights, and I sighed happily, cuddling up next to him and putting my hand on the side of his face illuminated by the moon. I ran my thumb across his cheekbone and continued up to his ear; I was shocked to feel a metal ball. He put his hand over mine. "The holes hadn't healed shut completely, so...we're a match now."

I felt so unbelievably happy, my eyes watered. "You're such an idiot."

"You wanted this." He pecked me on the nose.

"Shut up; no I didn't." I blinked away a tear.

He smiled broadly, and my heart skipped a beat—for purely physical reasons, of course, because he's so handsome. "You must really fucking love me."

"Not even a little." I buried my face in his chest, and he pet my hair.

"Took you long enough to notice."

I furrowed my brow. "Well, the car was dark, and so was the theater, and just now I was a bit preoccupied," I grumbled. I looked bashfully up at him. "To be honest, I…" I averted my eyes as my face heated up. "I don't really look at you as much as I should." I spent a lot of time looking anywhere but at Levi's face, constantly avoiding him. But, I could tell from the art he'd made that he was always watching me—looking at me in a way I didn't think anyone could.

He held my head on both sides and brought his face to mine. "Look at me now." He stroked my face and hair. "And never stop looking."