Bite Me.

26.

Eren felt his head pounding like crazy when he was woken for school by Armin, and he jerked up violently. For a second, he forgot he wasn't at Levi's anymore and he half panicked.
'We have to get May to school, right?' Armin asked, unaware. 'She's already ready.'
'Yeah,' Eren breathed, his heart slowing down a little. 'Thanks for letting me stay.'
'It's fine. I know you'd do the same for me. Now get dressed so we can go.'
Eren was left alone for a while, and this gave him some time to mentally prepare for the day. He was just so exhausted- not just from lack of sleep, but emotional too. He'd have to see Levi, probably. And Archer too. How could he face those near-black eyes without dissolving into tears? There was nothing he wanted more than to curl up in a ball and not move for a few centuries. If only he didn't have responsibilities such as school and a life to uphold. He yawned and rubbed his eyes hard, not able to fully wake up until he had splashed some water into his face. He stared at himself in the mirror, noticing how different he looked from his carefree self he had been just two weeks before. His eyes were now sunken in and subtended by dark, ominous bags. He looked eerily haunted. No wonder everybody had been so worried about him. He wondered if they'd start talking to him again, now that Armin was. He couldn't tell them the truth though- they'd all think he'd lost it. As if the King of the school would take an interest in him. They'd most likely accuse him of taking/selling drugs. That was certainly more believable, and he'd actually rather that he had been doing that instead of what actually happened.

Levi didn't sleep a wink that night. He was too troubled to close his eyes other than blinking, because each time he did he visualised Eren leaving. The look of pain and betrayal in his eyes had been agonising to witness. Why had he done that? At first, he enjoyed scaring the boy and taunting him, but this wasn't the kind of pain he enjoyed causing. Sadist as he was, he had never meant to hurt him in this way. If he wanted to resume his natural state of being (as the ruthless head of the capital), he'd do what was best for him and let Eren go. But he really, really hated the thought of it. The idea of never speaking to him again, never tasting that sapid blood again, never touching him again filled him with dread. There was only one thing for it- he had to get him back.
So when he arrived at school, he immediately started scanning the groups of people round the gates. He was nowhere to be seen, and neither was his blond friend who had stolen him away. On a more positive note, he also hadn't seen his brother since he'd tried to explain that it had all been part of the plan, he didn't really want him dead. Archer had gone too far, as usual. What he had done was cruel and the amount of anguish it had made Levi feel was almost unparalleled. Almost, of course, because later on Eren had left and just driven him round the bend. He had to admit he had not dealt with that very well. What he should have done was leave the party and try to calm down. Instead, he had returned and in a whirlwind of rage had downed an entire bottle of vodka and done some regrettable things, hurt some feelings and fooled around with a few too many girls. He hoped Eren didn't find out about that. He was obviously a very jealous sort of person, given his reaction to seeing Levi feed off of somebody else. Perhaps that was the way to get him back... Drive him crazy enough that he came crawling back just begging to be allowed half of the pleasure he was giving everybody else. Oh, that would be just delightful.
'What are you smirking about?' His most long-standing bodyguard, Tomas, looked at him sideways.
'Shut up and do your job,' Levi shrugged him off.
'Don't you have lessons to get to?'
'Yeah.'
'Are you waiting for someone?'
He hesitated before stating that no, he wasn't waiting for anyone.

Archer watched his brother from afar. He'd dropped out of the school- there was no point being there, as his plans involving it had run their course- and besides, he wanted to keep a distance from his bastard of a brother for a few days. At least until he'd cooled his his awful temper. He wasn't too interested in having his head ripped off just yet. He had explained very politely about his twisting of the truth (okay, blatant lie), yet rather than the relief he'd been expecting he had been met with an anger so strong he'd had to call in a redecorating team just to deal with the damage of the explosion. Well, it was his own money he was wasting having these temper tantrums. Although Archer wasn't particularly pleased to find four gorgeous but very naked girls in his brother's room that morning. Sans brother. He'd much rather they'd been in his own room- Levi was only messing around with them because a.) he wanted to keep up his player reputation and b.) he wanted to take his mind off of Eren- but Archer had passed up his many opportunities to pull that night so he could chase down his pesky brother and make amends for their earlier 'disagreement'.
He was aware that he probably looked like a creep, loitering at the school gates and peering at all the students, but this knowledge was of little importance to him. He'd never cared much as to what people thought of him. He would have hung around a little longer, even after Levi disappeared into the school, if it weren't for the fact that he had just spotted a certain brunet hurrying along the road with a screaming child in tow and another boy he didn't recognise gesticulating wildly. As they came closer into range, he could hear what they were saying.
'Mikasa is going to kill me!' The boy cried. 'I promised to not forgive you until you were being honest with her, and now you've only been honest with me and I'm going to have to lie to her...'
'Not half as dead as me,' Eren grumbled, tugging on May's hand and urging her to walk faster and stop crying. Suddenly he stopped dead, finally having caught sight of the second to last person on his 'people I would like to see' list. Then he ducked his head and elbowed his friend in the ribs, hissing,
'Psycho vampire brother number two straight ahead.'
So he had told this friend about who they were. Now, that really was interesting. That was a breach of vampire law, in fact. Surely they'd have to punish him in some way for that?
'Eren Jaeger,' he called, smiling as he was ignored. 'You've been going around telling family secrets, I see.'
Eren finally looked up, albeit very briefly before he hurried through the gates, and Archer could plainly see the flash of terror in his eyes. So he was still scared of the brothers, despite his bold words and really quite rudely abrupt departure. Frankly, this was all very amusing. He'd never imagined schoolboys could be so entertaining. Okay, that was it. Now he really felt like a leering old man. He may have been old, but he definitely wasn't leery. Now he was beginning to worry about himself. What did he care what Levi did, so long as he was slowly returning to himself? He already knew what he'd be doing all day; not working at all, beating some kids up and mooning around because Eren didn't want to see him. His poor, emotionally damaged and mildly deranged brother.

For the whole day, Eren felt like everybody was staring at him. Every time he walked down the hallway in between lessons, conversations would suddenly cease and voices would drop to a hushed whisper, hidden behind hands. Eyes followed him wherever he went. It was as if somebody had tied a giant sign that said 'freak' to his back. That was what it felt like, anyway. Armin was the only person talking to him, but he'd promise to mediate a meeting with Mikasa. Finally, he succeeded in persuading her to meet them for just five minutes after school.
'Just five minutes,' she had warned. 'If he isn't honest, I'm not staying.'
Armin had assured her that he'd be honest (knowing this was a lie) and the two were now waiting pensively for her to show up in the classroom they'd arranged to meet in. She turned up three minutes late, which was pretty unheard of for her. She was always complaining if anybody was even half a minute late.
'Let's get this over with,' she huffed, not looking Eren in the eye. 'Tell me what's been going on or I'm going to leave.'
Standing there, face to face with her, all his resolve and his cleverly formulated story dissipated into thin air. Fuck. He couldn't lie to her. How could he, after all he'd put her through? And the reason she was annoyed in the first place was his lies.
'Okay,' he sighed. 'Look, I can't really explain to you everything. There are a few parts which I'm going to tell you, but only what you really need to know.'
'Eren, I thought we agreed to-' Armin began, panic clear in his face.
'I'm not staying then. Armin, since even though he told you everything you apparently won't tell me either, you're also on my hit list.' She started to walk off, but he grabbed her shoulder and spun her around.
'I mean it, Eren!' She shouted. 'While you've been off doing god knows what, everyone's been worried sick about you. The least you could do would be to try and apologise to us. All of us.'
'I'm sorry!' He yelled, throwing his hands up in surrender. 'Is that what you want? Yeah, you have no idea what's been happening over the past two weeks. You think I've been off having fun? My uncle came back and he was using me and my mum as a human punchbag, so I stayed at a friend's for a few days, but that didn't turn out so great. You know why I asked to crash at Armin's? Because he spares me the judgmental bullshit. He cared more that I'm in a bad place than where I had been. Isn't it where I am now that's important?'
Her facial expression changed from one of anger to one of pity. There it was. The reason he didn't want to tell her more. He hated being pitied, and she always felt sorry for him for everything.
'I'm- I'm so sorry,' she stammered, squeezing his arm. 'I had no idea... Look, in the future, just tell me. Oh god, I'm sorry.'
'Whatever. Spare me the pity. I need to go get my sister from after-school club. We cool?'
'Yeah,' she smiled, letting him go. 'We are.'