Eruri | Let's Try This Again | Reincarnation AU

Author's Note

Hey guys, thank you so much for reading! I had a lot of fun writing this, and I loved reading all your comments. This fic is up on AO3, Wattpad, and Quotev, so if you see it in any of those places that's fine, it's me. Also, if you're bored, I highly recommend re-reading this on Wattpad with the comments as you go- they're really funny. You guys are great lol

So I kind of have this take on Eruri that I haven't really seen discussed (although maybe it has, and I just haven't seen it), so I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk about it. If you don't care, you can skip these next paragraphs until you see the second ~~~.

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So, in short, Eruri actually doesn't work... and it's Erwin's fault. Hear me out though, Eruri is my favorite ship in AOT, and Erwin is my favorite character, maybe ever. Levi and Erwin each look at their relationship differently, so I'll start with Levi.

To Levi, Erwin is everything. He pulled him out of the Underground and showed him so many things that he never would have been able to see on his own: the sky, the beautiful landscape outside the walls, stars, snow, etc. However, it was Erwin's dream that made Levi want to follow him. He says: "This man (Erwin) is gazing up at something I can't even see. Fine. I'll follow you, Erwin Smith." It's Erwin's ambitions that attract Levi to him. In the Underground, he was merely surviving and trying to help Isabel and Farlan survive- there wasn't meaning to their survival, although you could argue the meaning to their survival was each other. But, even with that meaning, it was ripped from him the first time he left the walls.

I've found that all the major couples in AOT share an ideal- one that was held by one of them and told to the other, and the other quickly adopted. For example, Eren and Mikasa share the whole mantra of "If you win, you live; if you lose, you die. If you don't fight, you can't win, so fight" and Ymir and Historia share the ideal of "living for yourself". Erwin and Levi share the ideal of living a "life with no regrets", and Levi clings to that after Erwin dies. So with this idea of living without regrets, Erwin gives Levi a reason to live, even after he has passed.

After Erwin's death, Levi's only goal is to fulfill Erwin's final orders and kill Zeke. However, he's not mindless in that, seeing as he spares Zeke when he thinks it could benefit Paradis. That doesn't mean he's happy about it, though, and given the first opportunity to, he tries to kill him. Then, when the world is quite literally ending, he gives up on that moral code, and he only cares about killing Zeke, not saving the world, because he can't die and face Erwin until he does. He says explicitly "my goal is to kill Zeke". The fact that killing Zeke lines up with saving the world is merely a coincidence. Even if they hadn't been related, I believe that Levi would still have chosen to go after Zeke. Levi is easily the most loyal character in AOT, doing absolutely everything for Erwin's benefit. So it is extremely possible that what he felt for him was not simply platonic. When asked, Isayama said that Levi's type was "tall people", (without specifying gender) a category that Erwin fills easily (although, to Levi, everyone is tall...).

Erwin, however, does not return the devotion that Levi shows him. Erwin has his own goals and ambitions, and he was willing to sacrifice everything for them, until Shiganshina, of course. Before then, though, he had already made it clear that he wouldn't indulge in romantic relationships. The fact that he cut ties with Marie is evidence enough of that, and it's even possible he still feels something for her, seeing as when he was preparing for his execution in Season 3, he asks Nile how she's doing. Although, he could also just be concerned for her/miss her platonically. Still, this complicates Eruri.

However, Levi's relationship with him is unmatched. During the Female Titan arc, Levi is pretty much the only person to know of Erwin's actual plan, and it's not just because he had been in the Survey Corps since before Wall Maria fell. Erwin knows perfectly of Levi's blind devotion to him, so had he commanded Levi to simply trust him and rush into combat without questioning his orders, Levi would have. Instead, Erwin takes the unnecessary risk of telling him, because he can't fathom the idea of Levi being a Titan or betraying him- it just isn't an option. It's not often we see Erwin make an emotional error, so this is an extremely important detail that gets overlooked simply because Erwin was right- Levi wasn't a Titan and he never betrayed him.

So, in conclusion, it's extremely possible that they both felt romantically for each other, but were unable to act on it because Erwin prioritized his dreams over Levi. But Levi wouldn't have wanted it any other way, because Erwin's dreams are what made him fall for him in the first place. Erwin died without Levi getting to tell him he loved him and vice versa. So maybe, in another life, in a world without Titans, somewhere Erwin wouldn't be forced to choose something over Levi, they could actually be together.

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Honestly, I had more fun writing that than all my English essays put together... and you're more than welcome to argue with me about it in the comments ;)

Anyways, thank you again for the support! This fic was #4 trending for Eruri on Wattpad at one point so I'm pretty proud of that.

As for my next fic, I'm not really sure. I really loved writing this, so I'll definitely be writing again, I'm just not sure what. I might do Eruri again, but I'm also interested in YumiHisu [Ymir x Historia] and PikuLena [Pieck x Yelena]. (Honestly what's up with the ship names in this fandom?? Why are they so strange??) I have this idea for a Zombie AU that could work with any of them, so you might see that soonish. If I do it for Eruri they'd already be married, YumiHisu would be dating, and PikuLena would be enemies to lovers. Also, that new zodiac official art with merman Levi and king Erwin is giving me a lot of idea so I might do something with that. If you have an opinion let me know :) I'll add a chapter to this with a teaser for it when I do.

Thanks for reading!