Give Me back!

Promise

Word count: 796

Levi was already waiting in front of the Professor's office, when Eren arrived.

Without wasting his time talking to the older student, Eren knocked on the door and Pixis voice echoed from the other side: "Please come in!"

He opened the door and Levi followed him without a word.

There they were, standing side by side in Professor Pixis' office. Eren's lip was split and a small streak of dried blood was still visible on his chin, his cheeks were dirty and his hair dishevelled. He had made no effort to clean his face unlike Levi, who had tried to get rid of the dust on his clothes as much as possible. He had even washed his face, so that no traces of Eren's blood remained on his pale features. Only the shadow of a blue eye started forming around his already swollen left eye.

Professor Pixis let out a very desperate sigh.

"I've heard from several teachers now, that there have been aggressive verbal confrontations between the two of you, and now these arguments have turned physical, well done, boys. I do hope you're getting the irony of my statement.

Do you know how certain cultural groups had the tradition to symbolize the final peace among two rivals by letting them form a bond based on the exchange of blood? Fortunately, we are not members of these groups, therefore we do have less bloody traditions, where you two are simply going to shake hands for more than five seconds, looking each other in the eye and apologizing to one another. Then you'll both promise me, that such an incident will never occur again, am I making myself clear?"

They nodded.

He gestured to them, to shake hands and so they did.

Levi had to swallow down his anger and pride for a moment, stretching out his hand towards Eren, who took it and looked him straight into the eyes. Levi shivered for a second. He hadn't thought that the brat's hand would be so soft and warm. And there seemed to be a slight shimmer of regret in those ocean green eyes, that bored into him.

"M sorry, Levi", Eren said and squeezed his hand for a short moment. Levi sighed. "I'm sorry too, Eren", he said. They held each other's hand for one more second and then let go, turning away from each other immediately.

The same hand that had punched his face several times a few minutes ago. The same soft hand he had held for five seconds... Levi shook his head, suddenly feeling a little light-headed. Stupid brat, he thought to himself.

They promised Professor Pixis not to get into any more fights, nor any severe verbal rebellions. Their parents would receive a call from the school this afternoon, telling them about what their sons had been doing. And they would get detention for the week after the short holiday around Halloween.

"And I strongly advise you that whatever is going on between the two of you, that you find a solution for it as soon as possible, without harming each other even more, alright?"

They nodded in union one last time, then they were released and stepped out of the office.

Without looking at each other, they walked down the corridor and down the stairs until they reached the main entrance.

Levi sighed, "I fucking hate you, Jaeger."

"Says the worst midget off them all", Eren countered and before Levi could say anything else, he ran towards Mikasa and Armin waving at him from where they had left their bikes this morning.

"What did Pixis say?", Armin asked and Mikasa took off her scarf to wrap it around Eren's bare neck. It was the same red scarf he had offered her all those years ago, the first present she had ever received, from the first person who had hugged her warmly and smiled at her with a huge welcome sign in his hands. A very happy memory they both held dear.

"Ugh, nothing special. He wants us to get along and all that shit... But how the hell am I supposed to concentrate when that stupid midget rolls his eyes and sighs so loudly that not even our always-being-so-damn-calm-person Marco could ignore him and his sassy comments?"

"Hey, leave Marco out of this!", Jean shouted from behind them as they walked towards their bikes.

"Ahhh – stop annoying me so much horseface or do you want a blue eye as well?"

"Hey, this is not funny!", Mikasa said and stepped between the two of them.

"Let's just go home, before anyone else gets hurt", Armin suggested and finally they all left each other alone, waving their goodbyes and driving home through the last rays of sunshine of the approaching wintery autumn days.