Bite Me.

29.

'Levi, you're worried, aren't you?' Meredith bent down to meet his eyes where he was sat rifling through papers in a fervour.
'Worried? Why would I be?' He snapped.
'You asked me to double security, so somebody's threatening you,' she shrugged nonchalantly. In truth, she was a little tense herself. If he had cause to be so, then something was very wrong. She glanced down at the papers, catching sight of a few words. Unfortunately, they were in French and she could translate not a word of it.
'When I lived in Paris, there was an organisation run by the tyrannous Head. Les Deuces. They were brutal and led a bloody reign. He wants Archer dead because he tried to take over a year ago,' he explained, much to her surprise. He didn't usually disclose details of his past. 'And now they've found him here, so they're probably going to try and attack us. They were actually overthrown quite some time ago and Paris was restored to order, so now there's only 3 of them. But they're dangerous, nonetheless.'
She shuddered and knew that she had been right. Anything he said was bad news was probably downright catastrophic.
'Is there anything I can do?'
'I can handle it,' he sounded like he was convincing himself more than her. 'Just keep an eye out for anyone weird. And don't let anybody through the gates.'
'Tell that to the people manning the gates,' she reminded him. It wasn't her job to enforce the security, after all. Just organising it at times such as now, when he was paranoid and tetchy and all around slightly out of it.
'Yes, of course,' he said vacantly. 'Will you send for my brother?'
Meredith nodded and took her leave. Archer was, however, nowhere to be found. When she relayed this information to Levi, he became quite distressed.
'You're sure he's not here?' He struggled to contain his panic. 'He's not outside?'
'I couldn't find him anywhere. I'm sorry.'
'Fuck!' He slammed a fist into the wall. 'If they've got him, we have no hope of finding him. And that means they've won.'
So he didn't even care about his brother, only 'winning' some war waged on him? That did seem a little truer to his character in all honesty.
'We're going out to look for him. He could've just sneaked out to do something stupid.'

The mystery of Levi's whereabouts was solved when Eren saw his car pulling into the car park at illegal speeds halfway through lunch hour. He stepped out the car with a murderous expression on his face and... Was that a gun in his hand? Whatever it was, he concealed it inside his jacket. That was distressing. A tall red-head he vaguely recognised was also with him, looking out of place wearing head-to-toe leather. Kinky. His eyes scanned the crowd until they located Eren's. He started walking, a purposeful heaviness to his step.
'Have you seen my brother?' He demanded, his eyes blazing. Eren didn't answer, instead walking away looking a little perturbed.
'Fucking answer me,' Levi grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. 'Or so help me, I will tear your throat out.'
Armin took a step back, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire. Eren was right- Levi was a lot scarier up close. Especially when he was issuing death threats. A small crowd had gathered around them, itching for a fight. It wouldn't be a fight so much as a beating, owing to the balance of power. Or lack of it. But he couldn't just stand and watch as some pretentious ass threatened his best friend.
'Hey, get off him,' he attempted to placate him.
'Stay out of this, blondie,' Levi spat, not letting go. 'Now, Eren. Where were we? Oh yes, answer my question. It's a simple one.'
'Man, what the hell is your problem?' Eren tried to push him away, but had no luck. Damn, he was so much stronger than he looked.
'Just answer my question!'
'I have no idea where he is, why would I?'
Levi cried out in sheer anger and shoved him violently backwards, sending him flying into the people behind. The redhead came running over, her precariously high boots slowing her down considerably.
'Levi,' she took his arm. 'Come on. Let's find your brother.'
He glared at Eren for just a second longer, then turned away and shoved his way through the crowd of people.
Eren just stood and stared as he drove off, feeling everybody's eyes on him. Why didn't he have his body guards with him? And what was more, why was he so intent on finding his brother? It was hard to imagine Archer could be in any kind of trouble from somebody else. Were they still in an argument? Were they about to fight? However much he hated Levi, and he had the aching pain starting in his neck from how tight he had been holding him to show for that, he couldn't help but be worried for him. God, why couldn't he just let go? It was driving him insane, thinking of him every second of the day. In lessons, he'd sit there and dream up scenarios in which he returned to the house. Crazily, he missed it. To be specific, he missed the inhabitants.
'Hey, you good?' Armin brought him back to reality.
'Yeah,' he smiled weakly. 'Fine. Bet there's gonna be some crazy rumours going round now, huh?'

He was right. For the entire day, it seemed like everybody was whispering and staring and pointing. It was making him paranoid. How much did they know? Had they guessed that they knew each other a little better than their brief and impersonal encounter suggested? Mikasa was the first to speak up about it, unsurprisingly, and she accosted him after school by suddenly yanking him into the corner of a classroom.
'What the fuck is going on?' Were her delightful first words. 'Somebody told me you got into a fight. With Levi.'
He groaned and explained that it wasn't a fight because nobody had hit anybody.
'What happened then? Everyone's giving me a different story.'
'Maybe next time, just ask instead of wrongly piecing it together through gossip. He just wanted to know where Archer was, and probably assumed I'd know. Things got- he got a little out of hand, but it's fine. He didn't do anything.'
'You need to stop getting into trouble you idiot,' she ruffled his hair. 'If I find out there's more to it and you're hanging out with that guy again...'
'How did you know I was hanging out with him?'
'Stuff gets around. I knew for a while. But you've been avoiding him, so I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. I don't know what kind of shit he's mixed up in, but you've got to steer clear of it.'
'I swear, I am. Don't you start worrying about me too. It's not like I don't get enough shit from Armin already.'
'I'm not worried, just annoyed. Remember who your friends are, yeah?'