Same, but Different

•Chapter IX•

AN: Due to a publishing error, we accidentally posted Chapter 10 as Chapter 9. This here is the real one. (More of an explanation in the AN at the end)

Levi

"Aki, you're beautiful, stop playing with your dress. Also, why are you even wearing a dress? You hate dresses?" I asked, handing Aki her new glasses after cleaning them.

Aki looked at her reflection and puffed her cheeks out before blowing all the air out and sighing. "She isn't going to like me. I can just feel it."

"Nonsense." I flicked her. "You're amazing."

"Not everyone in life is going to like me." She looked off into the distance. "Mr. Eren may like me, but there are plenty of people who don't. There's nothing you can do about it."

I picked the ravenette up and threw her in the air before catching her. "Do you want Auntie Mikasa and Auntie Annie to come visit soon?"

Aki's eyes lit up. "Yes, please!"

Smirking, I set her down. "They'll be visiting soon. How about you go play with Toby until Chelsea shows up?" I suggested.

She nodded. "How come you don't call him Titan?"

"I don't think he particularly cares for me." I shrugged. "I believe he only wants people he's close with and likes to call him that."

Aki frowned. "Oh. Okay. Bye!"

I waved before making my way downstairs, a soft knock at the door causing me to move towards and open it.

When I opened it, I saw a man a few centimeters taller than Eren with light brown floppy hair. His right eye was brown and his left was green. "Hello?"

"I, um, hello. Is Eren home?" The man asked, "I'm Matthew Green, you must be Levi."

"Yeah. I'm Levi. Eren is upstairs. Why do you need him?" I asked, worrying.

The guy scratched his head awkwardly. "You don't know who I am, do you? I just came to say hi, to be honest. I was in the area and... yeah. I-I'm not a stalker, I promise." He fumbled around for his ID, "I'm a policeman. Oh, but he's not in trouble or anything."

I slowly nodded before turning to yell, "Eren!"

There was some thumping around before a head popped over the banister at the top of the stairs, not far forward enough for Eren's guest to see. "Yeah?"

"Some policeman is here to see you," I responded quietly.

Eren smiled, coming down the stairs with a small skip in his steps. "Hey, Matthew. I didn't think we planned anything for today...?"

"I, uh, I was in the area." Matthew replied, still fidgeting awkwardly.

Tobias ran down the stairs, followed by Aki who tread carefully, mindful of her appearance. "It's policeman guy! Have you saved anybody else, Mr. Policeman?"

Matthew laughed, shaking his head. "You were a one off, I'm afraid. I dislike conflict, so saving people doesn't really come naturally to me."

"Sounds like a shitty policeman to me." Aki smoothed out her dress.

"Be nice, he helped me!" Tobias huffed.

"I just thought that saving people was in the job description. It's like being a doctor, but hating hospitals." Aki shrugged.

"It's more preserving the peace than saving people," Matthew explained. "It's people like your dad, and doctors, who really save people."

"You know who I am?" I asked.