There were things in his nose. That was the first thing Eren noticed when he woke up. He hadn't even opened his eyes but he could tell that there was something in each of his nostrils. It must have been some sort of tube, because he felt a thin line of cold plastic going from his nose up behind his ears, too. It took him a minute to realize it was one of those things that helped pump oxygen into sick people, and that was why there was a cold stream of air coming from the little nubs in his nose. He'd never been in the hospital for anything other than a broken bone before. He'd never had the little nub-things before, but somehow he just knew what it was. He'd seen a lot of crappy late-night soap operas before while he waited for Erwin and Levi to come home, so maybe that was why.

For that one blissful moment right when he woke up, Eren was able to just think about the little nubs providing him with fresh, clean oxygen. But then he remembered why he was where he was.

He opened his eyes. Where was he, anyway? He assumed a hospital. It looked like a hospital room, at any rate. That made sense. He wondered what all injuries he had. He thought of calling a nurse to ask, and then he thought of calling a nurse to ask for some water because wow, he was really thirsty now that he thought about it, but then he couldn't find a call button so he decided he'd wait until someone came by. He didn't even think of moving. The parts of his body that weren't currently aching – which was not a large portion of his body – had a pleasant, almost numb feeling to them. And it felt like there was something hard surrounding the bottom of his right leg. He thought it was probably a cast, since he's broken his leg before and this felt pretty similar, but checking if he was right would require moving the stack of blankets on top of him and that was just too much effort.

His mind suddenly shifted to Erwin and Levi. Were they ok? Where were they? Why weren't they there waiting for him to wake up? He looked around the room, realizing he hadn't bothered moving his neck in his previous inspection of the room so he had only seen about half of it. He let his head flop to the right, and, seeing nothing beside a window with the shades closed, he flopped it to the left. He managed a small smile when he saw what was waiting for him there.

Erwin was spread out in a chair, leaning back and fast asleep. It didn't look at all like a comfortable place to sleep, especially with the man's big frame, but he was still there. Eren wondered where Levi was. There was another chair a couple of feet away from Erwin, but it was empty. Had something happened to Levi? The rational part of Eren's brain tried to tell himself that it wouldn't be logical for Erwin and Levi to spend every minute of their days and nights in this room while Eren was asleep. The selfish part, however, wanted them to have waited here for him. Levi was probably fine, but there must have been a lot of work to do after the whole debacle. Eren wasn't sure what all that work would entail, but he assumed they'd be trying to find out whoever took him. That would make the most sense.

But Eren was still worried about Levi, so he kept his head turned toward Erwin and tried to call to him. "Erwin!" he tried to say, but it came out in a raspy whisper. His voice didn't want to work, probably from disuse and dryness. "Erwin!" he tried again, but to no avail. He couldn't be loud enough to wake his sleeping boyfriend.

It turned out he didn't have to wait very long, however, to have his needs satisfied. When he heard the door handle turn, Eren lazily turned his head back to face across the room, and in walked Levi, perfectly fine and carrying two cups of coffee. He looked tired, the rings under his eyes darker than usual and his scowl pressed even harder onto his face.

That changed, however, when he saw that Eren's eyes were open. "Eren!" he said in a hushed voice. He rushed over and put the two coffees down on a side table before standing next to Eren's bed. He moved as if to touch Eren's face, but decided against it, too afraid to hurt the boy further even though it would have just been a gentle touch. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

Eren smiled tiredly, glad that both his boyfriends appeared all right, and he let his eyes slip closed because it was an effort to keep them open. "Honestly?" he asked in reply to Levi's question. "Like a pile of crap." Levi huffed out a laugh in response, and Eren tried to clear his throat so that it would work better. "Could you get me some water?" he eventually asked.

"Yeah, hold on," Levi said and he left the room for a minute. When he came back in, he was being followed by a doctor.

"Eren!" Hanji called, bounding over to him with a clipboard in their hands. "How are you feeling?" They sounded way too excited for this situation.

"I feel like I've been run over by a truck," Eren groaned. He loved Hanji, but right now they were just far too loud. But of course Hanji would be his doctor. Eren supposed that since this had to do with Erwin and Levi's work, he was being treated by their people. He wondered what hospital this was.

"Well, you weren't hit by a truck, but they sure did a number on you," Hanji replied, and Eren could detect a note of anger in their voice, as if they wanted to kill whoever did this to him just as much as Erwin and Levi and Eren's friends. But Hanji quickly returned to their usual demeanor and started checking Eren's injuries and vitals.

Over in the chair, Erwin was waking up due to Hanji's loudness. He was confused for a moment about what was going on but was out of his chair in a second when he saw that Eren was awake. Levi moved over so that the man could stand next to Eren and very gently cup Eren's cheek in one hand. "Eren," he said reverently as he looked down at his bruised face.

Eren smiled and pressed his cheek into Erwin's palm, letting his eyes slip closed again. "Hello." His voice was even raspier now and when he noticed he opened his eyes and looked over to Levi. "Could I have that water?" he asked, and Levi brought it to him. Hanji had tossed back the covers by Eren's feet and was inspecting the leg that was in a cast. Eren reached for the water with the arm that didn't have and IV needle in the elbow and shakily brought it to his lips. Levi kept his hand practically on the cup as he followed it to help make sure Eren didn't spill anything. Eren gulped down half the cup before his face scrunched up.

"What's wrong?" Erwin and Levi asked simultaneously.

"My mouth still tastes like blood," Eren complained. "I don't know if it's my own or the two people I bit, either." He definitely did not miss Levi's look of disgusted horror.

"You bit two people?" Erwin asked.

"Yeah, the first was Annie when they were taking me." It seemed almost unreal when he thought back on it. It hadn't truly dawned on him yet that all of the events the past few days actually did happen. They seemed almost distant right now, even though the injuries certainly hurt.

"That's... actually kind of impressive," Erwin said, remembering back to the patch of skin Levi had found in the alley.

Eren looked at Levi and could tell he was trying not to make a comment about how disgusting it was. "It tastes terrible, though. Is there like a mint or something I could have?"

Hanji looked up from their examination of Eren's broken ribs, which they had been gently pushing at, causing Eren to wince. "I think I have one in my purse," they said. "I'll be right back." Then Hanji rushed out of the room and down the hall.

Since the three boyfriends were alone now, Erwin took the liberty of brushing Eren's hair out of his eyes and leaning down to give him a quick kiss as Levi gently sat down on the edge of the bed. "How are you doing?" Erwin asked as he pulled away, lightly stroking Eren's hair, even though it was sweaty and disgusting from all he'd been through.

"I told you," Eren said. "I feel like I've been run over by a truck."

"No," Erwin said. "I mean…" He paused to find his words.

"You went through a lot, Eren," Levi provided. "It would be perfectly reasonable for you to be freaked out or something."

Eren averted his eyes and stared at the IV line in his arm. "I…" he began, but he didn't really know what he was going to say so he stopped. He thought for a minute and as he thought he could feel tears welling behind his eyes and he forced them not to fall. He made sure that when he spoke he wouldn't show weakness. "I just want whoever did this to die," he eventually said.

Erwin used the hand he had on Eren's head to direct the boy to meet his eyes. Levi put a hand on Eren's thigh on top of all the blankets covering it and started rubbing soft, comforting circles. "You can talk to us, Eren," Erwin said. "You don't need to act tough."

Eren closed his eyes so he could make sure no tears escaped. "I don't want to talk about it," he said weakly. He didn't want to cry about it. He didn't want to complain because it was his own fault he'd gotten in the situation. He had trusted Reiner and Bert and Annie. He had opened himself to the opportunity. He should have been smarter. He should have been able to get out of the situation on his own, or at least have been able to dosomething. Instead he'd spent the time just sitting there and taking it because he didn't know how to fight back. He had been worthless, and it very well could have gotten Erwin and Levi hurt.

With his eyes closed, Eren didn't see the worried look that Levi and Erwin exchanged. "That's ok," Levi said, even though he didn't actually think it was ok. "You don't need to talk if you don't want to." He wanted Eren to talk, though. He knew that Eren was upset and he wanted to be able to do something about it. If Eren wouldn't talk, though, he didn't know how.

Eventually Eren felt sure enough he wouldn't cry and opened his eyes again, leaning his face into Erwin's palm, which had moved down to cup his cheek. "You guys didn't get hurt, did you?" he asked, trying to look them over for any injuries.

"No," Erwin said with a small chuckle. "Just some bruises, but other than that we're fine."

"And what about me?" Eren asked, and Hanji chose that moment to walk back in, a box of Altoids in their hand.

"You have three cracked ribs, a broken fibula, a minor concussion, some serious bruising, and some lacerations around your wrists," Hanji rattled off as they walked over to the bed. They took an Altoid out of the box and held it out. "Open your mouth." Eren obeyed and Hanji placed the Altoid on his tongue. They continued as they put away the Altoid box. "Thankfully your ribs didn't puncture your lung. You got lucky there."

"Yeah," Eren said, going over all of the injuries he had. "Lucky."

Hanji ignored the sarcasm and took out a small flashlight, shining it into each of Eren's eyes. Eren winced and hissed when Hanji pulled a bit on the eye that had a shiner to open it further. "Sorry," Hanji said. They put the flashlight away and seemed done with the examination. "Ok, so, for the next few days I'd advise you to stay away from watching television, reading, listening to anything loud, doing anything that requires a lot of concentration, and you probably want to stay away from walking or standing until your ribs heal a bit more."

"So..." Eren said. "I can eat and sleep, and that's it?"

"Pretty much," Hanji replied, frowning. "Well, and you can have short conversations and things like that. I doubt Erwin and Levi are going to be leaving your side anytime soon, so at least you'll have company." Erwin and Levi thought about protesting about how they were being talked about as if they weren't even there, but they knew Hanji's statement was right so they decided against it. "How's your head feeling, by the way?" Hanji added.

"Like I've been saying: run over by a truck," Eren replied.

"Hm…" Hanji said as they thought. "Pick-up truck or semi?"

Eren thought for a minute. "Like one of those UPS trucks," he eventually decided.

Hanji nodded. "Good, the morphine is helping somewhat."

"This is with painkillers?" Eren groaned, letting his head flop back against the bed. He couldn't imagine what this would feel like if he didn't have any morphine in his system. Then again, he remembered what he felt like while he was captive and thought that it probably would feel like that.

"We have you on as much morphine as we can give you," Hanji said, anticipating the question they knew one of the three men in the room would ask, whether Eren could have more. If Eren wouldn't have asked it, Hanji knew that either Erwin or Levi would suggest it because they couldn't stand seeing Eren in pain. It was sweet, but the boy really should not have any more drugs in his system.

"And I suppose I'm not going home anytime soon, am I?" Eren asked.

Hanji thought about their answer for a minute, not wanting to crush the boy's hopes. "We'll…" they said eventually. "We'll see how you're doing in a few days."

Eren frowned, but didn't otherwise respond. Erwin and Levi were still right beside Eren, Erwin's hand on the boy's shoulder and Levi's hand over the blankets on one of his legs. It was as if they needed to be touching him to remind themselves that he was there and safe.

"Well, I'm going to head out now," Hanji said, making some last notes on the clipboard they were holding. If you need anything, send one of your manservants here to find me." Hanji pointed to Eren's boyfriends when they mentioned the manservants, and that was enough to get Eren to chuckle a bit.

"Will do," Eren responded tiredly. "Thanks, Hanji."

"No problem," Hanji said, voice softening. "Just get better, ok?"

"I'll try."

Hanji nodded and then left the room. Once the doctor was gone, Eren closed his eyes. He had just woken up a little while ago and he was already tired again. It was quiet for a few minutes, Erwin and Levi both comfortingly petting him, until Erwin quietly asked if there was anything he or Levi could get for him.

"No," Eren answered, opening his eyes. He looked between his two boyfriends and the worried looks on their faces. "What day is it?" he asked.

"It's April twenty-fourth," Levi said. "It's a Thursday."

"Oh." He'd been taken on Monday, the twenty-first. But he didn't know how much time he'd spent captured and how much time he'd spent unconscious after the fight. "When was the…" He didn't really know what to call it. "The shootout thing?"

"Tuesday afternoon," Erwin answered.

"Ok," Eren said, mentally putting together a sequence of events. So he'd been asleep for over a day. "What time of day is it?"

"It's about nine a.m." Levi answered. He and Erwin patiently waited while Eren fit together pieces of what happened.

After a few minutes Eren looked up at his boyfriends. "Who was it who took me?"

Erwin and Levi had been hoping to put off this conversation until Eren was feeling better, especially because of his concussion. They still tried to do so.

"We can discuss this later," Erwin said, stroking his hand through Eren's hair. "When you're feeling better."

"I want to know now," Eren argued, his voice sounding firm for the first time since he woke up.

"There's a lot we'll have to explain, Eren," Levi said. "It'll be easier when you're more able to concentrate. You look like you're about to fall asleep again any minute."

"Explanations can wait," Erwin added. "You should focus on getting better."

"Then give me the short version now," Eren said. "I think I have a right to know."

That certainly stung Erwin and Levi. They looked at each other and sighed. Levi was the one who decided to explain. "A group called the Titans. It's a drug cartel that we've spent the last few years trying to bring down."

Eren nodded and closed his eyes, glad that he at least now had a name to put to his captors. "Why did they want you?" he asked, keeping his eyes closed now that he was fairly certain he would get answers.

"Probably to interrogate us and then kill us." Eren made a face at Erwin's last couple of words, but made no other indication of how painful the thought of the two of them sacrificing their lives for him was. "The two of us especially have been thorns in their side for a while now. They must have somehow discovered our identities and figured that the best way to get to us would be through you."

"They were right about that," Levi mumbled, and Eren didn't know how to respond to that.

A new question came to mind, however. "Why didn't they want to kill me?" he asked.

"Well, the fake bomb was probably because—" Levi started, but Eren cut him off.

"No, it wasn't just that. They said that their boss didn't want me dead. That's why they used a fake bomb. They thought I was asleep and I overheard them talking about it."

When he didn't receive any response Eren opened his eyes to find Erwin and Levi looking confused. "What?" he asked. He had assumed they would know the reasoning behind them wanting him alive.

"I have no clue," Erwin said quietly as he still thought of why they might not want to kill Eren. Realistically, they should have no problems with it. He was just a bystander. The Titans have never had a problem with killing innocent people before, so he didn't know why they would start. Especially since they hadn't been wearing masks and had let Eren see their faces; normally that was a sign that they weren't planning on letting the victim live long enough to testify. "It doesn't make sense…" He looked up at Eren again, deciding to drop the subject for now and worry about it later. "We'll look into it later," he told the boy. "How about you get some more rest?"

Eren closed his eyes again and nodded, letting himself drift off again, comforted by the knowledge that Erwin and Levi would still be right there when he woke up.