How to Train Your Titan:

Chapter One

They were out of gas and out of sharp blades. The sun had set only a few minutes ago, and the blue sky was getting ever darker, blocking out all sunlight through the trees of the woods. Giant silhouettes covered the forest floor. Eren and Levi were the only survivors. They hid within the cover of the trees, their 3D Maneuver Gear useless without gas and their swords only dead weight without sharp blades to cut with. They were miles from Wall Rose and they were deep within Titan territory. Their horses had been killed and it was impossible to survive in the flatlands without their horses.

Eren was lost and scared, and he felt no reason to deny that fact. Levi hadn't spoken a word to him wince they set up a substitute campground here. Eren knew that he'd been a witness to the death of their commander, Erwin Smith. Levi had placed all of his trust into that one man, his superior, and Eren knew that seeing him die must have shaken him up quite a bit.

But Captain Levi didn't show an ounce of dread or fear or hopelessness. It was as if he was thinking up a strategy to get the two of them safely back to their home. But Eren knew it was useless. He could turn into a Titan and probably get their on his own, but he still couldn't control it very well, and neither he nor Levi knew if that was the best decision to make. It seemed to be their only option, though. Eren knew it would come down to the use of his power in the end, but he also knew that Levi needed to be ready to fight for his life. And that wasn't going to happen right now.

Eren avoided him, for the most part. It wasn't out of hatred or anything like that. He just thought that the captain needed to be alone and have some time to think. And he knew he wasn't the best person when it came to making people feel better. That was Armin's specialty. But Armin and Mikasa had been ordered to head back a few hours ago. It wouldn't be long after they arrived that they would learn that he and Levi had been left behind. They would have signaled them, but they were also out of flares. Their situation seemed hopeless.

"We don't have the time to wait for someone to come and get us," Eren whispered, breaking the long and awkward silence between him and the captain.

"We need to rest," Levi said monotonously. "You used up a lot of your strength fighting off that female-form Titan, and we're out of weapons and gas. We have no choice but to wait until you have your strength back and use your Titan abilities to get us both out of here. Are you willing to do that?"

"Yes, sir," Eren exclaimed.

"Keep your voice down, you idiot," he growled. "The only way we'll get any rest is if we aren't found. It's the Titan's instinct to follow the paths through these woods, so they won't unnecessarily walk through the dense parts. But it you make a racket, they will hear you and come searching for us."

"Yes, sir," Eren whispered, lowering his head, "Sorry, sir."

"And stop with that, will you?" Levi groaned, "I may be your superior, but it's just the two of us, and to be honest, the only way I'm getting out of here is if you protect me when we have to go through the miles of flatlands. Don't be so formal."

"Yes, sir," Eren said, and Levi shot him a glare before he realized his mistake. "Sorry," he added. Levi rolled his eyes, a bit annoyed with the boy.

"I'll take the first shift. You get some rest," he said, leaning back against the tree he was sitting next to. He folded his arms behind his head and looked up at the darkening sky.

"I'm sorry," Eren said, quietly lying down on the soft ground.

"And quit apologizing, Jaeger. It's getting on my nerves."

"No, I mean… I'm sorry about Commander Smith. I know you two had a long history in the Recon Corps together. It must have been difficult to be a witness to what happened to him."

"People die all the time out here," Levi said casually, but Eren didn't think he was that halfhearted about the death of his friend and comrade in arms. He was just trying to hide it, and for good reason, Eren thought. Levi knew that being weighed down by his emotions right now wouldn't do either of them very good. He would have time to grieve when they were safe inside the walls once again.

As soon as his head hit the soft ground, Eren learned just how exhausted he really was from becoming a Titan and fighting with that female-form Titan. He was asleep in a matter of seconds.

Eren woke to the feel of pressure on his upper leg. He bolted upright, but thankfully remembered to keep his mouth shut and his voice down. He saw Levi sitting in the same position he'd been in before Eren had fallen asleep, but the moonlight revealed that he must have been sleeping for quite a few hours.

He looked down at his leg and found the hilt of one of Levi's blades resting on the ground next to where he had been hit with it.

"I'm tired. It's your shift," Levi whispered, slowly looking over his shoulder at him. And Eren took his words seriously. His eyes were half-closed and bloodshot and there were a few dark circles under his eyes. Well, more-so than his usual look of indifference and not caring.

"Yeah," Eren said, looking at his tired expression with a bit of worry, "Of course. Please rest." He looked more than just tired, actually. He looked hungry and worn out from battle. And Eren might have guessed that Levi had been mourning the loss of his comrades while he slept from the slight red in his eyes. He didn't want to pester him about it, though, so Eren just sat up and looked around, through the trees and the shadows from the moonlight.

But even before Levi could rest his head on the ground, Eren gasped, and Levi looked up and his eyes widened. Above them loomed a 10-meter class Titan. Eren could tell that its vision of them was hindered by the lack of sunlight. He'd learned from Hanji that the Titans would die without sunlight, and they were often weaker at night than they were during the day. And thankfully, this one didn't seem to be an abnormal.

Eren had been worried that he would have to transform into a Titan to protect himself and the captain, but he was confident in his ability to get away from this one with only his human form and abilities.

"Captain Levi, sir," he whispered, as the Titan leaned its face closer to them to get a better look. "We should run. It doesn't seem to be able to see us very clearly right now. We can hide from it in these woods, and it's dark enough so that it won't be able to see us very well. But we'll have to move fast, because the noises might attract other Titans, and it's probably best if I wait to transform until the morning." He turned quickly to look at Levi, but he was leaning against a tree for support and his breathing was heavy for just standing there. "Captain Levi, sir, are you all right?"

"I'll be fine," he said, "If you're going to run, then get moving, Eren. That Titan could see us clearly at any moment, and he won't just stand there forever."

"Yes, sir," he said, and then darted. He listened for Levi's footfalls behind him, and was glad when he heard them. The man really wasn't in the best shape for this kind of thing.

But then larger footfalls came from close behind the both of them, and Eren nearly jumped out of his skin. It was chasing them through the woods, and he didn't know if the Titan could see them now, or if its instincts just told it to chase whatever was running away from it. He saw a big tree up ahead and sprinted for it. When he reached it, he sidestepped and stopped short behind it. His hope was that the Titan actually couldn't see them very well, but his thoughts were put on hold when he realized that Levi hadn't been right behind him. He cursed at himself for sprinting on ahead when he knew that Levi was weak right now.

He held his breath and looked around the large tree trunk for his captain. He saw the Titan, a good distance away, looking back and forth like a dumb animal. It looked as if it had forgotten what it was doing, and didn't know why it was standing there. Eren ignored it for the most part and searched around for Levi. He caught sight of him behind a tree a few meters back. He took one last look at the Titan to make sure it wouldn't see him before running out from under the cover of the tree and quietly raced to Levi's side. He pushed himself up against the thin tree and had to push his shoulder up against Levi to stay hidden.

"Are you okay?" he asked, but Levi didn't need to reply, and he didn't answer him anyway. His breathing was way too heavy for only running the distance that they had gone. His eyes were closed and Eren could feel the beat of the man's heart against his shoulder. It wasn't fast at all for how heavy he was panting. In fact, it was quite slow. Eren didn't know if that meant he just needed rest, but he hoped it didn't mean he was going to die. He had no expert opinion on the matter.

Levi leaned forward and his head rested on Eren's shoulder.

Eren always knew how small the captain was, but he'd never seen him like this, making it so obvious. He was a good head's height shorter than Eren, and he was thin. He was probably thinner because they hadn't had something to eat for some time now, but even so. Eren had never thought of the captain as being small, because he was so skilled and he was a high-ranking officer of the 13th Battalion of the Reconnaissance Corps. But with his eyes closed and his head resting on his shoulder, Eren couldn't help but notice his size.

Levi needed to rest, but the Titan that had seen them was still in the area, and it had made a lot of noise, so Eren knew that other Titans might very well come looking to see what the sounds had come from. And that put them in even more danger. Especially if an abnormal came by and found the two of them. They were definitely dead, without a doubt, if they encountered an abnormal out here.

"Please, try to get some rest, sir," Eren whispered, "I'll wake you up if another Titan finds us, but you really need to get some sleep."

"I thought I told you to stop calling me that," he groaned, lifting one of his arms and wrapping it around Eren's shoulders to hold himself upright. Eren flinched when he felt some of the captains weight being placed on his shoulders and pulling him down.

Eren lowered himself and Levi onto the ground beside the tree and pulled the captains arm off of his shoulder. "Just rest," he said again, and Levi rested his head next to Eren's thigh. His body curled up next to him on the ground, and he was out like a light within the same few seconds as when he didn't have to stand anymore.

Eren looked down at him, feeling a bit uncomfortable at the position he was in. Not that Levi's head resting partially on his leg wasn't making him uncomfortable, but the position of authority that he was now in made him feel that even more-so. It felt strange, knowing that Levi's life was in his hands. He doubted that he'd be able to run anymore if another Titan appeared, and that would leave Eren with only the option to transform to protect the captain.

He just hoped that Levi would feel better after resting for a few hours. He guessed that they probably had four hours before the sun came up and they would be exposed to the Titans once more. He would have to transform then, but he was genuinely worried about Levi when that happened. He blacked-out when he turned into a Titan, the only thing driving him being the goal he had in mind the second that he transformed. If he made his goal protecting Levi until they made it home, then there shouldn't be any problems. But he knew that there was a limit to his power as a Titan. He was told that he killed twenty Titans the first time he turned into one of them before he burned out.

But they were deep within Titan territory now, and he knew that he might have to defeat more than twenty Titans to get out of the flatlands alive. He feared for Levi if he began to burn out and he left his captain unprotected. He wouldn't have to feel that fear, seeing as it took him a few hours to come-to after he lost his Titan form. If he was going to be killed, he wouldn't remember it, and if he did get eaten or stomped on, he wouldn't feel it.

When Eren first met Levi, he didn't come across as the people-serving, hero-type that everyone made him out to be. In reality, first of all, he was quite short. He was also irritable, violent, and hard to approach. At least, that was what he had been told by the other members of Levi's Battalion. But he didn't think that the captain was all that bad, right from the start. He was loyal to his superiors, which Eren hadn't expected, but he admired. And he knew how to lead his men, which was something else that Eren admired about him.

Levi was also the one who had taken custody of him, and in fact, he still had custody of him. And at first, Eren believed that he would be treated like a prisoner, but Levi had always been concerned with his welfare, even if he didn't like to admit it. He was a great leader, and Eren had learned, in the short time that he'd known him, that he could trust the captain with his life. And that was exactly what he'd done from the start of his training with the Recon Corps.

The only reason he wasn't killed by his own people was because Levi had agreed to watch over him.

Now, it was time for Eren to return the favor. He would watch over Levi, and he wouldn't allow him to die at the hands of the Titans. He would protect his captain for protecting him from the Military Police and those of them that wanted his life.

If not, they were both going to die.