Paper Airplanes (Ereri - SNK)

Titan.

This chapter is only half-edited because I'm just not feeling it right now and it's been a month since I updated so I really just wanted to get this up. I'm so sorry for the wait, guys; hopefully it doesn't take this long next time, but life is kicking my ass right now.

(And yes, this entire chapter is a flashback.)

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"Whenever you're ready, then," Hanji called from several meters away.

Eren gave them a nod, but his eyes were trained fifty meters up. He couldn't specifically see the short man at the top of the wall, but felt he could somehow feel Levi's eyes on him as well.

Levi watched impassively as Eren, fifty meters down below, sunk his teeth into the flesh of his hand and a nearly blinding green light exploded around him, causing the corporal to have to squint. His hands stiffened around the handles of his blades, ready to jump into action if need be. Erwin's orders were to give Eren at least ninety seconds in titan form - if he changed - before anyone was to pursue freeing him from the beast, and that was only if his behavior was abnormal. It wasn't like Levi to disobey orders, or even plan to, but with it being Eren down there in the given situation, he was prepared to face the consequences if it came to that.

Despite its size, Eren's titan was difficult to see past the billowing steam. Levi's knees bent, his eyes never straying from the large gray cloud, prepared to jump as it gradually thinned out.

"Hold your positions!" boomed Erwin's voice from Levi's left.

Down below, Hanji and their squad had jumped away from the steam and were clinging to the side of the wall, watching, waiting.

Finally, finally the face of the titan came into view. It was eerily still, its eyes heavily lidded as if it were lethargic, its jaw hanging slack with steam pouring from the open throat. It only had patches of hair, and as the steam continued to dissipate, Levi found patches of its skin were missing with the muscle underneath frayed and torn like wires.

Hanji shouted something Levi's ears couldn't make out, though he was sure they were trying to grab Eren's attention. They continued to yell in that overly cheerful voice of theirs.

And then the beast roared louder than he'd ever heard before. Only twenty-two seconds had passed, and the beast fell to its knees with a cacophonous boom that rattled the ground - and Levi was springing into action. Various forms of his name reached his ears as he swung toward the grass, but he paid them no mind as his main concern was with Eren. He swung directly into the thinning cloud of hot steam and found a steady perch on the titan's shoulder just as it suddenly went completely silent and limp, slumping toward the ground in a fetal position on its knees, its arms thudding against the ground.

"Dammit, Eren!" Levi hissed as he found his way to the nape where the skin was a bit puckered and stretched out - where he knew Eren would be. Automatically his eyes were measuring out where Eren's body was trapped inside the beast, preparing to cut him out as quickly as possible without severing any limbs or fingers.

He tore away at titan flesh with his blades, ignoring the steam immediately rising up and nearly blinding him. He could hear shouting from all around, could hear the zipping of maneuver gear cords, yet he paid it no mind. His priority was Eren.

Eventually, he came to a mop of brown hair, the reddened skin of Eren's neck, and a half-lidded left eye. He continued to tear it away and once most of Eren's torso was revealed, sheathed his blades and leaned down into the fleshy heat, worming his arms around Eren's torso and yanking him upward. The muscle-y flesh connected to the usually smooth skin of Eren's cheeks snapped almost immediately, but his trapped arms were a different story. As Levi tugged and slashed at it, holding up Eren's limp, too hot body all the while he spit curses to the wind until finally, finally he managed to completely free Eren's body from the titan that, without the boy inside, was already beginning to evaporate into the air.