Chapter Text
Levi had spent the entirety of the previous night pouring over Eren Jaeger’s case file. Unsurprisingly, Erwin had kept a very detailed record of everything that happened in the case up until he was forced to resign. Eren was twenty-three at the time of his disappearance, that was four years ago now, he graduated from Shiganshina University with a major in art and photography and if the interviews with his friends from school were anything to go off of, Eren was generally popular and well-liked, but like most people, he had his fair share of people who disliked him. There was nothing particularly special that stood out about that information, other than Levi already had a narrowed down list of potential people to interview himself. Re-interviewing people was his least favorite part of this job, but it was necessary. Hopefully he could have Erwin handle most of them.
Aside from Eren’s mother and father, he also had an adopted sister named Mikasa. Now, that little piece of information he did find interesting and he made sure to make note of wanting to interview Mikasa first before anyone else. His next person of interest was his best friend Armin Arlert. According to Erwin, Armin had been childhood friends with both Jaeger siblings so if there was anyone who could possibly be a valuable source of information, it would be him. Before he could make any other moves into the investigation, he knew he needed to speak with those two people first, especially if he wanted more information about Eren’s last days before his disappearance. Oddly enough, there was no picture attached to the case file, which Levi found only slightly strange. He’d managed to see what he assumed was an old photo of Eren back in the Jaeger house but it was only very briefly. He’d have to ask for a more recent photo from Carla or see if Erwin had one already.
Regardless, Levi had his to-do list for the day and it was to reach out to Mikasa and Armin for an interview. He made sure to put Eren’s case file away into a locked drawer next to his desk, meticulously placing the key into the inner pocket of his overcoat. Levi was the first to arrive at the office, but that was only because he got there a whole two hours early to start working on Eren’s case. It wasn’t like he slept much anyway, so he figured he’d try to get a good head start on this. Suddenly, he heard the little chime of the bell on the front door jingle, signaling someone had just entered. He only briefly glanced up toward the door already knowing it was just Erwin, but he had to double take as he noticed the man was not alone.
Trailing in closely behind him as he entered was an asian woman of average height with short, jet-black hair. She had big, dark eyes that seemed to cut into you like the sharpest knife and it intrigued him. By her side was a blond man with long hair tied back into a low ponytail, he looked slightly baby-faced, though the slight stubble on his chin gave away that he was probably older than he looked. Erwin politely invited them in and the two strangers stepped in, giving the office a quick glance around. The woman had a much more critical expression on her face while the blond man next to her seemed slightly amazed.
“Levi,” Erwin calls. The man approaches his desk where Levi had been casually lounging in his chair. “You’re here early. Couldn’t sleep?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions you already know the answer to, Erwin.” The raven had been nursing a hot cup of black tea in his hand and he took a deliberate sip before he nodded toward the two people awkwardly standing in the middle of their office. “What’s with the brats?”
Before Erwin could say a word, the asian woman approached Levi’s desk and addressed him rather coldly. “You’re Detective Levi?” she asks. He met her intense glare head on with a tired look to show he wasn’t the slightest bit intimidated by her. Then, he gestured toward the name plaque on his desk, her eyes glancing down briefly before she was pinning him with an even more intense glare. “I understand Eren’s mother hired you two to investigate Eren’s disappearance.”
“And you are?” Levi asks.
She seemed to dislike his tone, but answered him nonetheless. “Mikasa Ackerman.” came her answer through gritted teeth.
“Mikasa,” he heard the blond standing behind her say nervously. “Don’t be so defensive. We came here to see if we can help, remember?”
Erwin cleared his throat suddenly, breaking the tension in the room as he finally spoke up. “This is Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert. Eren’s sister and childhood friend, as I’m sure you’re aware.”
“Ah,” Levi mused quietly. “Yes, I’m familiar with the names.”
“We should all have a seat in the consultation room.” Erwin directed Armin and Mikasa towards a door just off to the right of Levi’s desk that had a plaque on the outside. ‘Consultation Room’. It was just a smaller, more private room with no windows and a leather couch and two matching leather armchairs. The perfect place for them to sit with clients and exchange any sensitive or private details pertaining to cases.
Once Erwin had set the two up with a couple of cups of coffee, the four sat in the consultation room, Erwin on one leather chair with Levi in the other just next to his. Despite the tension between Levi and Mikasa earlier, she seemed slightly less guarded now that Armin had talked her down, but she still sent Levi the occasional glare every now and then. He couldn’t be any less bothered by it, especially since this now saved him the time and energy of having to contact them for an interview. Erwin took a sip from the small cup of coffee steaming in front of him as he geared up to start asking questions.
“So, what brings the two of you to us so early in the morning?”
Armin was the first to speak, “Well, as you know Officer Smith-”
“Please,” Erwin interrupts. “Just Erwin. I’m not an officer anymore.”
“Oh, r-right. Well, as you know, Mikasa and I started our own podcast a couple of years ago revolving solely around Eren’s case.”
“A podcast?” Levi parroted. “What is that?”
“It’s like a series of audio-only episodes online where people discuss different topics. There’s different genres of podcasts for different things. Ours is about Eren’s case.”
“I see.” Levi mumbles quietly. “What prompted this?”
“To shed more light on Eren’s disappearance and hopefully get answers.” Mikasa was quick to answer next. “We got tired of the police doing nothing to help actually solve his case so we did the only thing civilians could do in order to help.”
“That’s actually brilliant.” Erwin chuckles softly. “Shedding light on Eren’s case to a wide audience of listeners means his case will never truly go cold because as long as people stay interested and demand answers, there will always be someone willing to investigate.”
“Exactly!” exclaimed Armin and Mikasa. They seemed relieved that Erwin immediately understood their reasons for starting the podcast.
“We’re so glad you agree. Now that that’s out of the way, the real reason we’re here is actually related to our podcast.” Armin turned to Mikasa and grabbed her hand in his, giving it a light squeeze. They seemed to be having a silent conversation between the two of them as Armin stared into Mikasa’s dark eyes.
Levi took a long sip of his tea that had begun to go cold at this point. He still drank it, regardless, but he couldn’t help but slightly grimace every time he did. Cold tea just wasn’t the same and he enjoyed it a lot less than when it was piping hot but there was no point in wasting good tea. He eventually got to the point where he could see the bottom of the paper cup and felt that was a good spot to stop drinking the tea altogether. Finally, Mikasa spoke up.
“We wanted to ask you if you’d both be willing to feature on the podcast whenever there’s an update on Eren’s case.”
Levi and Erwin shared a look of mixed confusion and skepticism for a long moment before Erwin was opening his mouth to speak.
“Uh, I-I’m not quite sure how to answer that, Mikasa.”
“How about, no?” Levi scoffed. “Carla didn’t hire us to fuck around on some internet show. She hired us to find her fucking son that’s been missing for four years.”
“Levi!” Erwin scolded. He was starting to get tired of always being scolded like some little brat by his mom. “We can’t just turn down their offer like that. What if their podcast could help us get leads?”
“I don’t see how involving the general public is going to help. The general public is filled with a bunch of trolls sending in fake tips and information and I’m not about to start chasing dead end leads when I could be spending my time doing something actually fucking useful.”
Armin sat forward and tried to reason with the other raven sitting across from him, “But Levi, we wouldn’t be accepting just any information. Mikasa and I have spent the last four years carefully drawing up timelines and collecting information on our own, we just want to help in any way we can.”
Mikasa was strangely quiet, but Levi didn’t pay it much mind. He was quickly standing from his seat with his finished cup of tea in his hands as he crushed it and threw it in the trash can on his way out of the room. He’d had enough of this conversation.
“I’m not interested in being on any shitty podcast. We haven’t even started this case and already you brats are jumping the gun and wanting us to update you with any new information? Don’t be stupid.”
Erwin gave Armin a pained smile, one that looked mildly regretful even. “I… have to reluctantly agree with Levi about that last part. We’ve only just received Eren’s case yesterday evening and the first thing we did was speak to Carla. She was helpful, obviously, but Levi and I have yet to start re-interviewing witnesses and persons of interests so we’d like to get that out of the way first.”
Armin looked slightly embarrassed as he nervously tucked a piece of his long hair behind his ear, “Y-You’re right. We’re sorry for being so overly eager. It’s just… this is the biggest thing to happen with Eren’s case in four years. We just want to be helpful.” his big, blue eyes broke contact with the two men to stare down at the ground, Levi noticing the way his hands that had previously been resting on top of his knees seemed to ball up into tight fists.
Maybe Levi was being a little harsh, there was really no reason for him to be but he just didn’t like the idea of doing some stupid podcast talking about things they haven’t even investigated yet. Erwin would be a better option since he was more familiar with the case, why didn’t they just ask him to be a guest?
Finally, he heaves a heavy sigh and exchanges a tired look with Erwin. The blond must have been able to tell what Levi was thinking because the big ass was smiling at him knowingly now. What Levi wouldn’t do to wipe that shitty grin off his face right now, but, now wasn’t the time for that.
“Let’s shelf the podcast thing for another time.” he says defeatedly. “For now, we’d like to sit down with both of you and interview you for more details about what you remember before Eren disappeared.”
“Sure.” Armin agrees with a nod. “Whatever you need from us, just say the word.”
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of silence, Mikasa stood up from the leather loveseat she shared with Armin, slightly startling the blond as he looked up at her quizzically. She had her gaze set on Levi, though she seemed to have lost the sharp, intense gaze from before. Now, she only looked determined and Levi couldn’t quite place his finger on why.
“I’ll only agree to an interview if I get to pick a new location.” she demands. Then without any hesitation, she points a pale, slender finger directly at Levi who is standing near the entrance of the room. “I’ll take the shrimp.”
There was a long, pregnant silence in the room as what Mikasa had just said sunk in with the rest of them and finally, Erwin coughed into his hand. A poor way for him to try and hide a laugh but clearly failing. Levi didn’t even bother trying to send Erwin one of his scathing glares, he kept his gray eyes on the girl who seemed to be silently challenging him.
“Alright,” he huffs while crossing his arms over his chest. “You’ve got my attention. What’s your location of choice?”
“Eren’s old house.” She quickly pulled a piece of paper out of the pocket of her torn jeans and handed it to Levi as she exited the room, only pausing to look over her shoulder and say “I’ll meet you there in twenty minutes. Don’t be late.”
- ▼ -
Levi met Mikasa at the address she had scribbled down for him, surprisingly, it wasn’t too far from where their office was, maybe a bit out of the way in terms of terrain but he found it nonetheless. It wasn’t quite what Levi was expecting the house of a twenty-something-year-old to look like at all. He expected something small and extremely modest, what he got was the opposite of small and modest. The house was rather large for someone who supposedly lived there alone, located just atop a hill that overlooked a small lake. It was surprisingly secluded, the grand, white house looking mighty yet lonely on that hilltop as Levi parked his car in the driveway and walked up the paved path to the front door.
Mikasa was already there waiting for him looking rather impatient as she checked her watch. Levi found himself mildly annoyed at this and couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
“What’s with the attitude? I couldn’t have been that far behind. I left one minute after you did.”
“I took a shortcut.” was all she said as she made her way into the house.
“Shortcut my ass.” Levi grumbled to himself quietly following her in.
Just as he approached the porch steps, he took notice of the front of the house. It had four windows looking out over the lake and what looked like a back porch that connected somewhere around the side. He could see empty flower beds and he briefly stopped to consider what a shame it was that the outside of the house had so much land yet there were no plants or flowers where they should be. Mikasa must have caught him staring at the empty flower beds because what she said next was almost as if she was reading his thoughts.
“Eren likes flowers. After he disappeared there wasn’t anyone to take care of his garden, so everything died.” She stepped back out of the house to join Levi in staring at the empty flower beds from the porch. “I’ve tried replanting some things but I guess I just don’t have his green thumb.” Levi considered what she said for a long moment before she eventually broke his thoughts. “Are you coming in or not?”
She doesn’t bother to wait for an answer as she turns and walks back into the house. Levi follows her in silently and is at first hit with a pleasant scent as he enters. It’s a soft, gentle scent that he can’t quite describe but he finds it strangely comforting. Mikasa motioned for him to follow her through the foyer, hardly giving Levi any time to look around. There was nothing especially interesting about the front entrance, other than it looked as though someone was still living there with the coats hanging on hooks and the shoes lined somewhat neatly by the door. Strange, considering Eren had been missing for years. He would have figured they’d have this house empty by now but it still looked fully furnished and lived in.
Levi followed Mikasa into the next room, it was open with a high, arched ceiling. The four windows he saw in the front of the house when he arrived were to allow plenty of sunlight to pour into this spot of the house and to no surprise, it was filled with quite a few plants. The whole room was like a mini garden with flower pots of all assortments sitting in the windowsills and deep green, leafy palm trees in the corners of the room nearest the windows. There were also several other vine-like plants that draped across a mantle that had a painting in the center of it. Mikasa took a seat on one of the pair of white, cloth chairs facing a front window and Levi took a moment to admire the large painting on the mantle.
It was probably the same height as him, which wasn’t saying much, but it was probably about the width of one of the front windows. It seemed to be a portrait of a… monster? It was difficult to say for sure but to Levi, it looked like some kind of creature with one, ominous glowing green eye staring out from a curtain of stringy, dark hair and it’s teeth and jaw partially showing. It’s mouth was open and it looked like steam was possibly rising from it. The monster’s face was only vaguely showing with the rest being painted over in black oil paint to seem as though it were peeking out of the darkness and into a fiery glow of embers. It was an interesting painting to say the least, a bit messy but Levi supposed that was maybe the point. He was bad at interpreting art pieces but that was just what he got from the painting himself.
“That was Eren’s self-portrait project from when he was in art school.”
Mikasa’s calm, cool tone jostled Levi out of his thoughts and forced him to tear his eyes away from the painting to regard her still sitting on the chair with both of her legs tucked underneath her.
“That’s supposed to be a self-portrait?” he asked incredulously. Levi took another long glance at the portrait. “Not to sound like an asshole but…. Eren’s not looking too great in that portrait.”
He heard a soft snort come from Mikasa which surprised him, he didn’t think she would find his poor excuse of a joke funny. Most people didn’t find his jokes funny but then again he’s been told his sense of humor was shitty.
“It’s supposed to be how he saw himself. Not an exact portrait of what he looked like.”
Levi decided to take the empty chair just a few feet away from Mikasa, reaching into the inner pocket of his coat to take out his notebook. He flipped it open and got his pen ready as well, clicking it loudly with his thumb as he prepared to write down new notes.
“So, Eren saw himself as some kind of monster? Why is that?”
Mikasa stayed quiet, at first. Levi gave her a minute as she seemed to be staring out the window at something. It was starting to rain outside, dark, gray clouds rolling in and hiding any sunlight that may have previously been trying to peek out this morning. Her thin brows were pinched together in deep thought and Levi took the time to scribble in some minor notes he’d want to revisit later just in case Mikasa ended up not wanting to talk.
“Eren wasn’t a perfect person.” she suddenly said. Mikasa still had her gaze fixed out the window and Levi figured it was probably helping her to do so. He wasn’t about to complain.
“No shit.” snorted Levi. “I read his file. I know he had a little bit of a juvenile record.”
“Please don’t misunderstand him.” she corrected pointedly. “He may have gotten into a lot of fights but it wasn’t just because he felt like fighting. Eren had an anger inside him that hounded him no matter what he did. It didn’t take much to set him off most days. Just some kid insulting Armin for being a bookworm and a know-it-all in school would send Eren into a rage.”
“I see…” Levi made sure to write that down in his notebook, but it briefly reminded him of his own past as an angry child and teen. Fuck knows he definitely wasn’t one to judge about juvenile records, but, that was in the past. “So, you’re saying it’s not impossible to say that Eren had enemies.”
“I personally don’t think he did.” Mikasa was quick to say. “But, I suppose it's possible. Although, this doesn’t seem like some kind of petty revenge situation. If that were the case, wouldn’t there be some kind of evidence of foul play or kidnapping?”
“Not always.” Levi says. Mikasa finally stopped staring out the window to meet his tired gaze. “I saw in the police reports that there were no signs of a break in or theft when they came to check this house but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Hypothetically, if Eren was kidnapped, it’s possible the abductor or abductors could have already had a planned way inside or had a key. Did Eren keep any spare keys hidden around the property?”
“Yeah,” she said in a sort of strained voice. She frowned down at the ground as if just admitting that piece of information was some kind of defeat. “But it was well hidden. There’s no way just anyone could have found it without knowing exactly where it was located.”
Levi shrugged as he leaned back into the chair, “Stranger and more impossible things have happened in other cases. I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss that possibility. Who all knew about that spare key location?”
“Myself. Obviously his parents, although Carla already had a spare key of her own and so did I. Armin. Basically our entire close group of friends. Eren was the only one of our group who had his own house. Everyone else either lived in dorms during college or crappy apartments so it wasn’t unusual for him to offer the house to some of us if we wanted to just stay whenever we wanted.”
“So, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say there was probably a lot of traffic coming and going through the house in terms of people?”
Mikasa shook her head, “Not always, there were times when Eren was here alone for long periods of time. It was only ever busy on weekends when our friends wanted to party or go out or just hang out and watch movies. So, maybe every other weekend or so it was kind of crowded.”
Levi made sure to write as much as he could down, then he asked, “Would you be able to-”
“Give you a list of all of our friends?”
He was cut off by Mikasa reaching into her own pocket to pull out another piece of paper already neatly folded.
“I’ve had one ready for a while. They’ve all agreed to be interviewed again and I’ve taken the liberty of providing their personal phone numbers as well.”
Levi blinked slowly at the other raven sitting just adjacent to him and then he sat forward to reach for the note. He took it in his fingers and gave it a brief once-over before he pocketed it safely into his jacket.
“I see you’re prepared.” he mumbles.
“Prepared is an understatement.” She says in a low voice. “I’m armed to the teeth and more determined than ever to bring my brother home.”
He had to admit, he sort of admired her determination. She may not have been Carla’s real daughter but he could see how much she resembled the older woman so much in her sheer attitude alone. It was kind of amazing. He’d dealt with missing persons cases before, usually they were doomed to fail from the start but not at any fault of anyone else. Time was simply their biggest enemy and the longer a case like that went without being solved, the less hope the families carried. Eren’s case seemed different, though. It seemed like the more time passed, the more fiercely determined Eren’s friends and family became. It was almost heartwarming, but Levi knew better than to get swept up in their enthusiasm. In a couple months time, they’d lose that raging flame in their hearts and let it dwindle down into a barely burning ember. He’d seen it happen too many times and there was no one to blame except the cruel passing of time.
“I have to ask,” he starts. “What makes you think Eren didn’t just leave of his own free will?”
The fierceness that had been in Mikasa’s eyes earlier that morning when she first arrived at his office returned with a vengeance as her dark gaze pierced him head on.
“He would never do that.” she said with all the confidence in the world behind her voice. “Eren would never leave without telling me or Armin. We know him better than that.”
“But how can you be sure?” Levi knew these questions would only serve to ruffle her feathers even more but he felt the need to ask. He’d read the case file and he heard the story from Erwin countless times, a month after Eren disappeared the young man supposedly sent a text saying he had left to another city for a photography job that suddenly came up and that he was sorry for not telling anyone. The police immediately dismissed his case and declared he was no longer a missing person since he had texted his family so he was clearly still alive. “I just can’t help but wonder. I’m sorry if my questions upset you but it’s my job to explore every possible option.”
She went silent, though her eyes were still pinned to Levi as she slumped back in her seat. Some of the intensity in her gaze faded, until she finally broke contact again.
“I’m sure because I searched for him in that city.”
Levi sat forward immediately. This was new information he wasn’t aware of. It wasn’t in any of the police reports or notes.
Without a beat of hesitation, Levi asked “Where?”
Mikasa looked up at him again, seeming slightly surprised by his renewed interest. “Sina.”
“That’s two cities over.” He muses to himself.
“As soon as I got his text, I took my car and drove the three hours to get there because I was set on beating his ass for scaring the shit out of us like that.”
“Wait, how did you know where to look for him? Did he tell you where he was staying?”
“No, that was just it. I had no idea where he was. He just sent this rushed, half-assed text saying he had to go to Sina for a job and that he was sorry for not saying anything sooner but that he was busy and would get in touch later.”
Mikasa stood up from her seat and without saying a word, moved into another room leaving Levi to sit there and ponder on her words. He was about to stand up and follow after her because she had just left him on the biggest cliffhanger since he started this case but just as quickly as she had left, she was re-entering the room with a medium sized box in her hands. It was a lockbox. The kind restaurants or small stores had to put cash safely away in. She unlocked it with a key she pulled out from her pocket and started digging around in the box before she pulled out what looked like a USB memory stick. It was small and black with the brand’s name printed in white letters on the back of it.
“I have all of my text message exchanges with Eren dating back from five years ago saved on this memory stick. Armin’s texts with him are on here too.”
Levi stood up and reached for the memory stick but Mikasa hesitated to give it to him. She held the box close to her, almost protectively. He could see the torn expression on her face, a mixture of fear and anger, maybe even a hint of desperation but he could be imagining that?
“Mikasa,” he said almost sternly. “I need to see everything in that box. Especially that memory stick.”
She clutched the memory stick in her hand, her grip not loosening on either the USB or the lockbox. That look of desperation returned to her face and she stared up at him from her seat with an almost childlike sadness in her eyes as she finally, reluctantly, let go of the lockbox and USB stick in her hands so that Levi could take them from her.
“I’m sorry…” she apologized. Her voice had gotten so small and quiet all of a sudden. It was almost hard to believe this was the same ferocious young woman that practically barged up to him earlier that morning with such confidence and resolve.
Levi took a moment to quickly scan over the items in the lockbox. It was like a goldmine of potential evidence and information. Anything from copies of bank statements, obviously Eren’s, to photographs and other memory sticks labeled with different dates and names. He was sure there was more stuff inside he couldn’t see from the surface but from what he saw so far, everything in this box would be more than helpful with their investigation.
“I’ve spent the last four years gathering all of the evidence and information in that box.” Mikasa said, sounding a little more like herself now. “That box is worth more than anything else in this whole world for me.” Levi put the memory stick that Mikasa had taken out to show him back in the lockbox and set it down on the chair where he sat previously before turning to face Mikasa again. She met his eyes with that torn expression of desperation, fear and anger once more and Levi couldn’t help but clench his fist tightly at this. “I’m giving you this box because I want to see you prove yourself.”
Prove himself? He wasn’t sure he understood what she meant. If this was her way of testing if he and Erwin were up to the task, that went without saying.
“If this is about making sure Erwin and I don’t skip out on this case, we won’t. That being said, I also can’t guarantee any results either. That’s not how these things work.” he said. Fuck knows he’d handled his fair share of dead end cases and while they were frustrating enough on their own, especially when every lead thats followed goes cold, he let it eat him up less and less with each one they took. “I’m not a miracle worker. I’m only human, just like anyone else.”
“I’m not asking for a miracle. Miracles are for idiots who sit around and wait for a god that doesn’t care about them to fix their problems.” Levi was a little surprised by her cynical response but also couldn’t agree more with it. At least she was acknowledging that he was no miracle working all-powerful being in the sky who could just fix things with a snap of his fingers or whatever. “I’m asking for your commitment to Eren’s case because he deserves at least that much.”
Levi sighed heavily, his hand coming up to rub at the back of his head where his undercut was hidden. “Like I said, Erwin and I don’t take shit lightly. I’m not going to dick around and waste time with the shit in the box, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’ll work just as hard as you and Armin have, if not harder.”
“Good.” she says, Levi can almost hear the relief in her voice as she says this. “That’s all I’m asking for.”
The two ravens fall into a comfortable silence as Levi moves to look out the window. The rain was still falling and he watched as the droplets streamed down the glass. From this view, he could see his car parked down the long driveway and then that comforting scent from before hit his nose again. Was it the flowers on the windowsill, he wondered?
“You know,” he heard Mikasa say from behind him as he continued to look out the window. “Eren was the one who saved me when we were kids.” Levi stayed silent and allowed Mikasa to reminisce. Her voice got soft again, sounding very fond of whatever memory she was recalling now. “I’ll never forget the day he looked at me with those stupid, big green eyes of his and he said, “Let's go home.” while grabbing my hand and taking me back to the Jaeger’s house. That was the day he gave me a family again.”
Levi wasn’t sure what she was referring to exactly, but hearing the way she spoke of Eren so dearly gave him the push he assumed she’d been hoping for this whole time. He would admit that he wasn’t the most determined when he first started this case, but now he was at least a little more invested.
“Help me bring him home.” she asked him in the softest voice.
He couldn’t refuse now. After everything she’d given him? He was practically obligated to at this point. But that wasn’t a bad thing in his opinion. Now it gave him something else to work toward.
“I’ll do what I can.” he said in a low voice. “That’s the least I can promise.”
Levi and Mikasa spent the next hour going over more basic interview questions. They poured over more details until he had nearly filled up his notebook. He was a little surprised with how much useful information he was able to get from Mikasa but then again, now that he got to know her a little better, maybe he shouldn’t have been surprised. He and Mikasa left the house together, with Levi asking if it would be alright for him to come back and check the house every now and then when he needed to. Mikasa agreed and even let him know where the spare key was hidden.
She was right when she said it wasn’t easy for just anyone to find. The small brass key was hidden underneath a specific plank of wood on the back patio. She told him to count exactly 8 paces from the back entrance to the steps that led up to the deck of the patio and the key would be hooked onto the inside of a wood plank that would become loose after knocking on it a certain number of times. Not a bad place to hide a key and the chances of robbers or kidnappers finding it were pretty slim, unless they knew the exact instructions for locating the key.
The two ravens met back up at the office where Erwin and Armin were waiting for their return. They seemed to be having a pleasant conversation as they walked in, Levi hanging his now wet coat up on a nearby hook.
“Everything okay, Mika?” Armin asked as she entered behind Levi. The blond approached her with a soft smile and a gentle squeeze of her arm.
“I’m fine.” she smiles back. “But I’m exhausted and starving. Are you ready to head out?”
“Oh, yeah, sure. Just let me grab my stuff.”
Armin hurried back to where he had been sitting with Erwin to grab his jacket and shake the man’s hand before they departed.
“I hope we’ve been of some usefulness to you and Levi, Erwin.” the younger blond said. “You have our contact information so please don’t hesitate to call or text if you need anything else from us.”
“Thank you, too, Armin, Mikasa. You’ve been more than enough help.”
Mikasa and Levi exchanged a meaningful nod with one another. Their little chat earlier seemed to help the both of them understand each other a little better and that tension from this morning was nonexistent now. Armin thanked Levi on his way out as well, with Levi simply dismissing him with a wave of his hand.
“Yeah, yeah. Get out of here and go get something to eat before she-hulk over there flips a car or something.”
Mikasa took the playful jab and even shot one back as she addressed Erwin, “Sounds like the shrimp is hangry. Maybe you’d better get him some food soon too.”
Erwin stifled a laugh at the friendly exchange, “I’ll be sure to do that. Be safe on the roads, you two.”
Armin and Mikasa waved goodbye as they exited the office and soon Levi was bringing the lockbox out from where he’d been holding it under his right arm. He set it down on Erwin’s desk and gave the man a serious look.
“I’m guessing your interview with Mikasa went well?” asked a smug Erwin.
“Shut your stupid mouth. We’ve got ourselves a fucking goldmine here.”
“Oh? Say less. I’ll put on some coffee and tea.”
As Erwin stood up to go into the kitchenette, Levi stopped him. “Food doesn’t sound like a bad idea either.”
Erwin looked back at him from over his shoulder and laughed, “How does Chinese food sound?” he asks.
“At 11AM?” Levi argues. He pauses to really think about it, “Yeah, sure. I’ll call it in.”
They were in for a long day and a possibly longer night.