The Ereri Project!

Trust (Superhero)

BOOM!

"Eren!" My ears are already ringing from the blast so Armin's shout in my communicator isn't helping.

"Get outta there!" the despair in Mikasa's voice kills me as I race around.

I dive into the hatch leading to the basement just before a piece of the crumbling roof would've landed on me. "Ow," I grumble, sitting up.

I move to tap my earpiece, to tell the others I'm alright, but I find it's gone. "Guys!" I shout toward the ceiling.

"They won't be able to hear you."

I jerk, not having realized I wasn't alone. "Who's there?"

"You really don't recognize my voice?" Feline. I immediately go on the defensive. I hear him sigh in the dark.

"Slow your roll, wonder boy, there's no way out even if you do arrest me now, and besides," I hear him groan and shift around. "I can't move much right now anyway."

I find my flashlight on my belt and hear him gasp, scrambling to turn around but clumsy and slow. "I lost my mask," he says. "Don't you dare shine that near my face."

I frown but continue look him over from his chest down. "What happened?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because I do."

I can practically hear him rolling his eyes. "Oh please, you just want me alive so you can feel good about putting me in jail."

I frown. "It's not like that."

"So you won't put me in jail?"

"It's what I have to do."

"Why?"

"Because you broke the law, several times over."

"Did you ever stop to wonder why?"

I scoff. "You obviously get a kick out of it."

"No, I don't," he says. "Do you assume the same of all people like me? We all do this shit for fun?"

I freeze. "Well..."

"I do this because I have to," he growls. "I can't get work anywhere else so I have to find money somehow."

"Why can't you work?"

He's quiet for a moment. "When I was thirteen I robbed a convenience store. I would've been expunged from my record but I also had a history of assault because I used to prostitute for years after that so all the judges around here hated me too much to be rid of any of it when I turned eighteen. No one wants to hire anyone with a criminal record."

I'm quiet.

"Feel sorry about your stupid "criminal justice" system yet?"

I take a deep breath. "I know it's not perfect but of all the supervillians out there, most of you guys are too nuts to let stay on the streets. We have to do something."

I hear him shift around some more as I turn off my flashlight. "Well," he says. "I'm not like most supervillains."

"How's that? You've got powers, you commit mass crimes, you -"

"I'm not just taking care of myself, you know," he says.

I don't really want to know who else he has to take care of, I don't want to know who he is outside of his villain persona. My judgment will be compromised.

"What are you doing here anyway?" I ask.

He snorts. "Now you ask? I live here. This basement is where I keep my costume."

"Wait so -"

"Yes, dimwit, I've been illegally squatting underneath a supermarket."

"Hm."

"What?"

I sit down. "My parents kicked me out right after my seventeenth birthday," I say.

"What are you -"

"My dad couldn't handle living with a superkid," I say. "I would accidentally levitate in my sleep and my strength would always switch on when I was angry or upset or unfocused so I would accidentally break things a lot so they told me I had to leave. The Alliance took me right away and it was the first time I didn't feel wrong about being me. They're my family. That's why I have to believe in the justice system, if not I lose my family again."

I can feel him staring at me. "Wow," he says.

"So here's my proposal," I say. "Because any judgment I make about you from now on will be biased anyway, we form a truce, just between the two of us. I'm not accountable for anything any other heroes do to you but if the decision comes to me, you get to stay free. On one condition."

"What condition?"

"I can see your face."

I can hear the barest breath of a chuckle. "That's quite a condition."

"You can see mine too."

He's silent for a beat. "You're going to compromise your identity for me?"

"I don't think you have any reason to tell anyone who I am."

"You don't know anything about me."

"If I'm right about who you really are, I know more that you think."

I peel my mask off and finger comb my hair back down. "Give me your flashlight," he says.

I hand it over and he stands on shaky legs, walking across the small space. I hear him digging in what sounds like a drawer for something before lighting a match.

He lights a few candles sitting on that table and brings them over. I smirk when I see his face, mostly trying to hide how much I'm surprised he's this goodlooking. "I knew it," I say.

"What?"

"You're the man whose picture is hanging in the main hall at the orphanage, you've been giving them most of the money you've been stealing."

"Less than a fifth of the money I've been stealing, actually. I've saved most of it." He looks me over appraisingly. "You really are just a kid," he mutters. I nod and he smirks at me. "I'm Levi," he says finally, holding out his hand.

"Eren," I reply, shaking it.

"Well, Eren, I believe this is the beginning a nice, convenient friendship."

"Vim!" I hear a shout, definitely Mikasa.

I pull my mask on as quickly as possible. "Get in your civilian clothes and hide your uniform in a bag."

"Why?"

"I'm getting you out of here."

"Vim!" I hear again.

"Down here!" I shout back.

Levi is in normal clothes quicker than I would've thought possible, given his injuries he still hasn't let me see. He finds his mask and shoves it in a bag with the rest of his uniform a couple other things.

He blows out the candles just as light breaks from the hatch. Mikasa's face peeks in, and I can almost see her relief through her mask.

Levi plays the damsel as Mikasa leads me (I'm carrying him) out of the broken building.

It's the first and last time he ever lets me carry him.