Do You Still Love Me

Jacket

Levi stood up and gave Eren a pat on the head. "Alright brat, time to go," he said before going to grab his keys.

Eren nodded and went to grab his jacket off the back of the couch with a sigh. It was too hot to wear the jacket, even at Hanji's, it would be uncomfortably warm. He was about to put it on when Levi walked up next to him.

"You know you don't have to wear it," Levi said sensing Eren's irritation.

"Yes I do, if I don't they will show," Eren said stretching his arms outward slightly facing his wrists upward as he looked down at the atrocious scars that littered his arms. His arms started to shake after a minute and he dropped his arms and turned his face away from Levi ashamed.

"Who cares," Levi said trying to get Eren to talk about his insecurities rather than hide them away.

"I do!" Eren raised his voice as he whipped his head around to face Levi.

His sudden outburst shocked Levi for a second, but it seemed to shock Eren even more.

He had tears in his eye and a face of regret. He put his hands up to his mouth covering it and widening his eyes. "I'm sorry," Eren whispered, he never liked it when people raised their voice, especially himself. "I'm sorry," he whispered again. He had noticed that his outbursts were coming more frequently whether he caught them or not he could feel as they came on and that scared him. 'Something's not right,' he kept thinking. I'm so sorry," He mumbled through his hands once more.

Levi walked up and wrapped his arms around Eren who was still mumbling out apologies. "Hey, hey it's okay," Levi said rubbing Eren's back.

"I didn't mean it," Eren whispered.

"I know, it's okay," Levi said before pulling back a little to look Eren in the eyes. Levi knew he hated yelling, not only did it sometimes trigger memories from his past, but it also caused scary thoughts to appear in Eren's head. His worst fear aside from losing Levi was becoming like his father, so yelling was something he shied away from doing.

"Look, I didn't mean it like that," Levi said trying to explain. "I meant, you shouldn't care what people think, sure you regret what you did, but your scars are a part of who you are. They are parts of you that show you've been through some pretty bad things, but it means that you fought your way through. Every hero has his scars, and not all of them are visible ones, but just because you have scars doesn't mean you need to hide them."

Eren went to look away and Levi put his hand on his cheek to get him to look back at him. "You might not like it, but those scars are a part of you, and they won't go away. Hiding them isn't gonna make them magically disappear, you have to face them and own them. Acknowledge the pain you went through, remember the regret you feel for making them, but move on afterward don't dwell on those feelings." Levi said remembering how he dealt with some of his scars that littered his body.

"But Levi, they are ugly, I can't walk out of the room without a jacket everyone would think they are disgusting. All they do is stare at them and point." Eren whispered moving his eyes so that they faced towards the floor.

"Eren I'm not going to lie and say that scars are beautiful because they're not," Levi sighed. "But that doesn't change what I said. Just because they aren't the most pleasant thing to look at doesn't mean that you should hide them away. They are still a part of you, and you shouldn't care what people think of them because anyone who judges a person for having scars before knowing enough to know the reason they have them in the first place shouldn't matter." Levi waited as Eren's eyes slowly but surely came back up and meet his.

Eren nodded and Levi pulled him into a tight hug.

"We should get going, we don't want to keep Hanji waiting," Eren said clearing his throat to try and rid himself of the cracking voice that came with the tears that threatened to spill.

Levi nodded and headed towards the door. When he looked back at Eren he saw that Eren was right behind him and had left his jacket on the back of the couch. "You ready?" Levi asked.

"Yes," Eren nodded taking a deep breath and heading out the door behind Levi.

The car ride was quick and silent. Eren looked out the window the whole time as he held Levi's hand. Levi kept his eyes on the road but would glance over at Eren to make sure everything was okay. He could tell Eren was a little nervous to show up at Hanji's house without his jacket. He was fidgeting his finger tapping on his thigh as he struggled to sit still.

When they pulled up at her house Levi walked up to the door and Eren was trailing behind him fiddling with his hands. They heard the greeting as the dogs barked and whined waiting for Hanji to come and open the door.

Levi really quickly turned around to face Eren before Hanji came to let them in. "Breath, she won't care Eren, if anything she'll be happy for you," Levi said grabbing Eren's hand and giving it a little squeeze.

Eren gave him a little nod and squeezed his hand back.

Hanji opened the door and greeted them with a hug and let them in the room.

When they walked in Hanji noticed that Eren wasn't wearing his jacket. Before she showed them to the couch she hugged Eren again while his back was turned. "I'm so proud of you," she said into the hug. "You are becoming more confident in yourself," Hanji said before pulling away from the hug and looking into his eyes. "Also your hair looks great when it's up I can actually see your eyes again," she commented.

"Thank's Hanji," Eren said glad that she encouraged him rather than give him weird looks, but what else could he expect Hanji was always so accepting. She didn't care about looks, all she cared about was where your heart was.

"Well make yourselves at home," she said before disappearing back into the kitchen for a moment.

She might not look like it, but she was a really good cook. Eren thought it made sense since she always hung out with Levi, in all that time she picked up a few things. Levi always gave her a hard time and said that her food was satisfactory and would be a back seat driver to her cooking half the time, but today he decided to leave her be to see what she came up with on her own. Though you could tell he was a bit curious.