Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“We have a new case.”

Levi looks up at Erwin who enters their small office suddenly, the front door slamming shut loudly behind him. In his hand, a manila folder wrapped rather neatly with a rubber band so that the contents of the folder don’t fall out and scatter. Levi stares up at the older blond expectantly, his right hand held out across his wooden desk. Erwin drops the folder into Levi’s waiting hand and the raven wastes no time snapping the rubber band off to pour over the contents of the file.

“Client name?” mumbles Levi.

“Jaeger.” Erwin sighs. “It’s a case I always hoped would come up again.”

Levi pauses in reading the file to look up at Erwin skeptically, “You’re already familiar with it?”

“Fortunately.” There’s a strange sort of forced smile that creeps it’s way onto Erwin’s face but it’s very brief. Had Levi blinked, he probably would have missed it. “It was the case I worked when I was still on the force.”

“Ah,” the shorter man realizes. “This is the case that got you canned.”

“... Unfortunately.”

“So,” Levi moves to close the file, deciding he’d rather hear it from Erwin himself. He could always go over the file later if he felt the need to later. “What’s the situation then?”

“Eren Jaeger. A twenty-two-year-old local artist that went missing about four years ago, give or take. I was originally assigned to the case but I was stonewalled for trying to make it more than just a simple missing persons case.”

“Right. I recall. So, how’d this manage to make its way to us? This was some real high profile shit, wasn’t it?”

“Only because I made it high profile.”

A certain dark expression comes over Erwin’s usually calm face, his thick eyebrows furrowing together as his bright blue eyes seemed to go dull. Levi could tell the man was getting lost in a bad memory just now, perhaps something he remembered because of the case resurfacing.

“Everything about it felt wrong, Levi. I’m not quite sure how else to explain it. Call it a hunch, or whatever you want but I know in my heart of hearts this disappearance was more than what the police department originally made it out to be.”

“Alright,” sighs Levi. “So where do we start? I'm intrigued.”

The light in Erwin’s eyes seemed to return as he regarded Levi with a smile. He looked almost relieved that he agreed to take the case with such little persuasion. Usually Erwin had to pull out all the stops to get Levi to agree to a missing persons case. Those usually didn’t end well but this time he figured he owed it to the big-ass tree sitting across from him now. Their desks were adjacent from one another in their humble little office. They didn’t exactly need very much space considering their line of work mostly consisted of field work so two desks and a couple of phones and computers were more than enough.

“I appreciate your cooperation.” Erwin says. “I know how much you dislike these types of cases.” Levi simply shrugs, prompting Erwin to continue. “Well, first of all, the case was brought to us through Eren’s mother, Carla Jaeger. She remembered me being the original officer in charge of his case and when she found out I had been forced to leave my position, she was adamant about keeping in touch with me and I agreed. I suggest we stop by and see her first.”

“Sounds good to me.” Levi stood up from his desk and started throwing his coat on. “I’ll drive.”

“Why?” Erwin questions curiously.

“You heard me. I’m driving.” Levi holds his hand out and motion for the blond to hand him the keys.

“I’m perfectly capable of driving the car, Levi.”

“Yeah? Are you also perfectly capable of driving faster than 30 miles an hour, grandpa?”

“... Not all of us need to drive like a bat out of hell, you know.”

“No but most of us like to actually get where we’re going in under an hour. So fork over those keys, Eyebrows.”

Carla Jaeger was a middle aged woman and a former nurse. Though, if you asked Levi, she neither looked middle age or like she earned a living working in hospitals considering her house was nearly a mansion. Well, maybe he was exaggerating about the mansion part but her home was definitely way too big and expensive looking for it to be all hers alone. She hardly looked a day over 30 at most, her skin was a lovely golden tan and her dark brown hair was pulled back into a low ponytail that hung over her left shoulder. Her eyes were rather large and an amber-brown color. Overall, she was a very attractive woman and yet he could see the exhaustion in the slight bags under her eyes and the way some strands of her hair stuck out from her constantly running her hands through it in frustration. Her grief was written all over her face the moment she saw Erwin and Levi walking up the long, paved driveway.

“Erwin,” she sighed out as they approached her on the front step of the lit porch. “Thank you so much for coming.”

The blond man reached a hand out and placed it gently on her shoulder, a small but comforting gesture that the older woman seemed to appreciate dearly.

“Thank you for agreeing to meet with us on such short notice, Carla. May we come in?”

“Yes,” Carla sniffled. “Of course, I’m sorry. We can sit in the kitchen.”

The two men followed her into the house and just as Levi guessed, the inside of the house was just as beautiful as the outside. It was definitely an older house, renovated to be more modern for sure but still having a lot of the charming characteristics of an old colonial style home. She led them through the halls, their shoes clacking against the shiny tiled floors. To his pleasure, Levi noticed the home was remarkably clean but filled with what looked like photographs on every wall. Family photographs, some solo candid shots of either Carla or an older man who he assumed was her husband. He didn’t have much time to take in the photos as they reached the kitchen soon enough and the three of them were all sitting at the round, wooden table.

“I would offer the both of you some tea or lemonade but I’m afraid I’m all out of… well, everything.” she chuckles tiredly. “I’ve been trying to keep myself busy with work and the hospitals have been a bit chaotic because of flu season.”

“Don’t worry about it, Carla. We won’t be here very long.” Erwin reassures her. “By the way, I’m sure I’ve mentioned him in passing but this man is my partner, Levi Ackerman. He’ll be helping me work on Eren’s case.”

Upon his introduction, Levi gives a slight nod of his head before speaking. “I’m sorry about your son, Mrs. Jaeger.”

“Levi,” she says with a watery smile. “Thank you for doing this. Both of you. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“Of course. I could never turn down Eren’s case.” Levi noted the way Erwin reached across the table to take Carla’s hand in his own, giving it a good squeeze which she returned in full. “I’m sorry if this will be upsetting for you, but would you be willing to go over the details of Eren’s disappearance with us? You’re free to refuse.”

Carla took a moment to gather herself, her free hand coming up to her face to wipe away a couple of tears that had been lingering in the corners of her eyes for the last minute or so. She sat a little straighter in her seat and took a deep, steadying breath before beginning.

“Eren is my only child. Since he was a young boy, he’s had such a wild and creative imagination. I knew early on that he was going to grow up to make beautiful things. He’s always loved drawing and painting, he used to play with the cameras my ex-husband would buy for family photos during vacations. Next thing I knew, Eren came to tell us he was going to study to be an artist and do photography on the side. As you could probably see from the rest of the house, I enjoy displaying a lot of Eren’s photos and paintings in the house.” she pauses as a small sob tries to make its way up but she forces herself to swallow it down and continues.

“He’s always fought for the sake of others, even if it meant getting into fist fights with neighborhood bullies or even older kids who were twice his size.” Carla gives a little laugh, her tear-filled eyes lighting up with momentary joy as she recalls her son’s rougher childhood memories. “Grisha was always much too forgiving with him. Since he was a baby, all Eren had to do was bat those big, beautiful green eyes at Grisha and my ex-husband would just melt in his little hands. I was always the one who had to be more firm with him but… I could never stay angry with him, even when he came home all scraped and bruised.”

Levi and Erwin exchanged looks as Levi pulled out his notebook. He figured he should start taking down notes just in case Carla happened to tell them anything worth further investigating. For right now however, she seemed lost in happier times and neither one of them were about to pull her from them. From what Levi could understand, Carla seemed quite tortured by the disappearance of her only child and why wouldn’t she be? This was exactly the reaction he would expect from any mother when one of her children goes missing without a trace.

“I’m sorry. I trailed off again, didn’t I?”

Erwin was quick to reassure the woman with a sheepish smile, “That’s okay, Carla. Don’t push yourself on our behalf. We just want to help you as much as we can but we also understand if discussing this is a bit of a struggle as well.”

‘Speak for yourself.’ Levi thought briefly. It wasn’t that he had no sympathy for Mrs. Jaeger, quite the opposite actually. He just didn’t see the point in them wasting time reminiscing when they could be out getting some real work done so they could bring her son home, granted, that’s if he was even still alive. Missing persons cases were tricky and very time sensitive. It's no wonder the police considered it a case closed after only a month of looking. He’d heard the story from Erwin at least a dozen times by now but it never failed to infuriate him. The police truly had no interest in actually solving this case, so they chose to simply sweep it under the rug instead. It happened all too often but that was the whole reason Erwin had started this Private Investigating agency.

“No,” Carla sighed. “No, I’ll be fine. I have to see this through, Erwin. I want my son back and the only way to do that is to put my sorrow aside. If I don’t…” she stops speaking and looks down at her hands that are laying in her lap. They were the loving and worn hands of a mother alright. Soft, gentle, but firm in the way she gripped the material of her long dress skirt. “If I don’t put my sorrow aside, I’ll never be able to forgive myself.”

“Then, let’s not waste anymore time.” Levi says bluntly. Erwin shoots him a stern look, one that seems to scold him in every way possible but he simply ignores it. “When was the last time you spoke to Eren, or saw him, even?”

Carla didn’t seem fazed by Levi’s sudden straightforwardness and sat to face him with a determined look on her face.

“I last saw Eren three days before he disappeared. He came home to have lunch. I made his favorite dish and we spent that whole afternoon watching a movie until the sun started to set.”

“Was there anything unusual about this visit?”

“I didn’t think so, at first.”

Levi arches one of his thin eyebrows in curiosity at this, “Please, go on.”

“Well,” Carla seems to look a little nervous now. She breaks eye contact which Levi only found slightly odd but disregarded it. Not because he wasn’t suspicious but because he wanted to focus on what her next words would be. “I’m not exactly sure, call it a mother’s intuition but I couldn’t help but feel like Eren was in some kind of distress. It wasn’t outrightly obvious, at least not to anyone else maybe but… I’m his mother. I’d like to think I can tell when something is bothering my child.”

Ah, he understood her sudden nervous behavior and hesitancy now. Saying that you ‘just have a feeling’ isn’t exactly something that goes over well with police and he’s willing to make a good bet that Carla was probably scoffed at for even saying this to the investigators on Eren’s case at that time. That is, except for Erwin.

“That makes perfect sense to me.” the raven says as he leans back in his seat. He drapes one of his arms across the wooden back of the chair and uses his other free hand to scribble down notes. “Can I ask what specifically stood out to you about Eren’s behavior?”

Carla seemed a little surprised that he just seemed to take her word for what it was, not so much as scoffing or snorting or even dismissing the idea. Nonetheless, she continued.

“It’s difficult to explain but, Eren’s always been close with both his father and I. He adored spending time with us because Grisha and I both worked at the same hospitals. He’s a doctor and I’m an RN, so you can imagine how hectic our schedules got. Still, we always made sure to make time for Eren whenever we possibly could. That afternoon was no different, Grisha was at work and I had stopped working full time at that point, only working as needed but Eren had suddenly called me out of the blue and said he was down the street. I was a little surprised because he always gave me at least a day's notice before just dropping by but this time he just showed up last minute. I thought it was strange but didn’t think anything of it.”

Levi watched as Carla shifted in her seat, somewhat slumping against it as she sighed. A wrinkle formed between her perfectly shaped eyebrows, a look on her face that he could only assume was either regret or frustration, perhaps even both? Regardless, he readied his pen on the paper of the notepad.

“Nothing was too off, not right away. He seemed his usual energetic, cheerful self but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being just a little more clingy than usual. His hugs were just a little too long and a little too tight, he seemed to shadow my every move in the kitchen as I got all the food ready to eat, and then…”

Suddenly, Carla stopped, a hand came up to her mouth as she anxiously bit down on the nail of her thumb. Levi made sure to make plenty of notations on Carla’s behavior as well, simply because he found it mildly interesting. The police really fucked up on this one. Carla’s recollection of the last time she saw Eren was already proving to be a wealth of information. It was in the minor details exactly like this. Levi let Carla take her time, he could see that she was clearly on to something and didn’t want to break her focus. Any little piece of information they could get from her about that day would help them possibly get closer to an answer.

“...We watched his favorite movie from when he was a boy. Eren hadn’t asked to see that movie since he was about nine-years-old and I thought it was strange but put it on for him nonetheless. He even snuggled up against my side the way he did when he was a child. I remember wrapping my arm around his shoulders holding him close as I stroked his hair, just like I used to until he fell asleep.”

There it was. The crucial piece of information he knew was coming. He exchanged looks with Erwin who nodded at his silent statement. They both knew this would help them tremendously once they started following leads and tracing other sources of information. Visiting Carla Jaeger turned out to be more fruitful than Levi first anticipated and he almost felt bad for assuming this would just be a waste of their time.

Carla seemed to come out of her thoughts when she realized the room fell quite, then she sighed, “I don’t know if any of that will be helpful to you two.” she gave them a worried smile, full of embarrassment and concern.

“You’ve been extremely helpful, Carla.” Erwin reassures. “This is more information than Levi and I know what to do with, at this time, believe it or not.”

“Really?” she gasps. “But, it was the same story I told the police when Eren first went missing. I may have left out a few details that didn’t seem important at the time but-”

“Those small details will be far more helpful than you think.” Levi says with a grateful nod. “But, I think we’ve bothered you enough for one day, Carla.”

“It’s no bother at all,” she says with a dismissive wave of her hand. The three adults all stand from their seats as Levi pockets his notebook into the inner lining of his black overcoat. Erwin reaches a hand out to Carla and she grabs it gratefully. The two share a long look, one that Levi was sure to tease his partner about later once they were in the car, until finally he released Carla’s hand and fixed his own brown overcoat. “Please don’t hesitate to contact me anytime. I may not always be able to speak on the phone due to me working full time at the hospital again but I’m usually responsive with texts.”

“We’ll be sure to remember that.” Levi notes. “For today though, I think we’ve got enough to start working with, paired with the case file Erwin’s already got prepared.”

Carla walked the two men out of her stunning home and Levi took a little time to actually look at some of the photos and paintings on the walls on his way out. The paintings were all mostly oil or charcoal, some were of people and some were landscapes. He could tell that Eren was quite skilled, though he wasn’t exactly well versed in the expression of art. The photos were mostly of Carla and who he assumed was Mr. Grisha Jaeger, as well as a young asian looking girl with long black hair. Finally, he saw a cluster of photos with a young man who he at first thought was Carla with short hair but upon closer observation, realized it wasn’t her at all. Bright green eyes, a wild mess of brown hair. This had to be Eren when he was a boy. Levi had yet to actually look at any photos of the missing man so he was a little curious now.

Once they reached the front door, Carla once more expressed her gratitude for their help. She was quick to hug Erwin first, catching Levi off guard when she moved in to hug him next. He stiffened up and felt his hands twitch in his coat pockets, a force of habit whenever someone touched him suddenly. It was like a reflex to either shove them away or try to punch but he knew neither of those options would go over well. Luckily, he managed to keep that reflex in check… this time.

“Please come back and visit anytime.”

“We’ll be in touch, Carla. I promise.”

Levi was still a little too shocked from the sudden hug to really say anything, other than a subtle nod of his head before he was quickly shuffling out the door. Erwin lingered a second or two longer before he too was following after the short man down the long driveway. He heard Erwin chuckle from behind him and this caused Levi to stop and face him with a scowl on his face.

“Yeah? What’s so fucking funny, caterpillar brows?”

“You’re so socially awkward. It’s mildly amusing to me.”

Levi waited to fire off his scathing retort until they were both back in the car, Erwin in the driver’s seat this time.

“At least I’m not the one who was practically mooning over someone’s married mom.”

Erwin didn’t say anything to that until after he backed out of the driveway and started making their way back down the road.

“First of all, she’s divorced.” he pointed out. “And second of all, I was not mooning over her. I was just-”

Levi snorts loudly “Just what? Being affectionate with a client because you felt bad? Please, Erwin. Don’t pull that shit with me. I’ve seen you interact with dozens of other clients, not once have you ever fucking given googoo eyes to a woman until now.”

“That’s not-”

“Admit it. You’ve got the hots for Mrs. Jaeger.”

“Levi-”

“No, it’s totally fine.”

“Will you sto-”

“Eren’s mom has got it goin’ on.”

“LEVI!”

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.”

(X)

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.

Chapter Text

Levi and Erwin spent the next couple of days comparing information from Mikasa and Armin’s separate interviews. For the most part, Armin’s answers supported whatever information Mikasa gave Levi while they were at Eren’s house, but of course, the younger blond had his own theories about Eren’s disappearance as well. He seemed to be of a different mind than Mikasa on whether or not Eren left against his will.

“So, Armin thinks Eren left on his own?” asks Levi as he finishes off his third cup of tea for that evening. They had been at this for hours. If he drank anymore tea, he was sure he’d be pissing like a horse the rest of the night.

“Not in so many words.” Erwin sighs. “He was a little more vague compared to Mikasa who seems to think foul play is involved. The way he worded it was very interesting.”

“Meaning?” Levi drawls with a roll of his eyes. He hated when Erwin started rambling like this. “Speak plainly for us laymen.”

Erwin seemed to find amusement in his little snarky comment, shooting Levi a fond yet exasperated look. “I’m not sure how to put it. Armin’s a lot smarter than he lets on. I think he has a pretty good theory about what happened to Eren but doesn’t want to say it in fear of Mikasa’s reaction.”

The raven took a moment to think about that. “I guess I could see why he’d be scared. Mikasa seems pretty dead set on believing that Eren would never just pick up and leave on his own like that without saying anything but…” he stops and looks over at Erwin who is slumped in a chair behind his own desk looking for all the world just as weary and exhausted as Levi felt.

“But,” Erwin continues, knowing exactly where Levi is going with this. “We’ve seen this kind of thing before so the possibility isn’t entirely off the table.”

Levi didn’t think he needed to reply with any sort of affirmation. Instead, he simply raised his feet up so that they rested on the top of his desk as he finally took a moment to relax. They had poured over so much information these past two days. The box Mikasa had handed them contained more than they even knew what to do with at the moment; text messages between Eren, Mikasa, Armin and his mother; bank statements showing no particularly suspicious activity; some photos that were last taken in the month before Eren disappeared. All of it was all fairly ordinary, or so it seemed. There was something they were still missing… some piece of the puzzle they had yet to find to make the other puzzle pieces they had make sense.

“Well,” Levi hears Erwin grunt as he stretches, prompting him to look over at the hulking blond as he stands from his seat. “I say we call it a night, Levi. We won’t be of much use to Carla or Eren if we work ourselves past exhaustion.”

Levi shrugs at this, “I’m always exhausted.”

“Yes, well, you’re welcome to keep working but as your employer, I’m formally asking you to go home.”

“Tch,” the shorter man sucks his teeth loudly at this. “You just don’t wanna have to pay me overtime.” he snarks.

“I think we’re past that point.” laughs Erwin who moves to grab his coat and briefcase. “But seriously. Go home. We’ll pick things up again tomorrow morning after we’ve both had some rest and food that isn’t greasy chinese takeout.”

At the mention of greasy chinese food, Levi scrunches his nose up in disgust and realizes Erwin has a point. They’ve been eating like garbage recently and he wasn’t happy about it. Usually, Levi wasn’t big on eating, but when they got really engrossed in a case, the two men tended to abandon any of their usual healthy eating habits for convenience sake which wasn’t always a good thing.

“Right.” huffs Levi. He decides to take Erwin’s advice and finally gets up from his own seat to start getting ready to go. “I might try to squeeze in a quick gym session.” As he grabs his own coat and things, the two men meet in front of the door to leave and Levi eyes Erwin up and down with a critical eye.

“What?” the blond frowns, looking himself over a bit. He notices belatedly he has some stains from the chinese food they mentioned earlier and bashfully tries to wipe them away but at this point, the stains have set into his nice white dress shirt.

“Maybe you should try doing the same thing.” says Levi. Then the raven moves a hand to pat at Erwin’s slightly pudgy stomach. “Putting on some weight, cap’n?”

The taller blond man clears his throat loudly as he self-consciously tries to hide his stomach from Levi with his coat. “That’ll be all for tonight, Levi.” he announces loudly.

“Geez.” shrugs the shorter man as he leaves through the front door first. “Touchy, aren’t we?”

Erwin lets out an affronted sound as he follows the raven out the door and locks it behind them. “I’ll have you know, I’m retired. I don’t need to keep myself in shape the way I used to. I’m 40-years-old. I’m perfectly comfortable with my body.”

“I’m just fuckin’ with you, Erwin. Jesus christ. I could care less if you wanna let yourself go or not.”

“I haven’t let myself go.” the blond grumbles.

“Uh-huh.” replies Levi dismissively. “Well, I just figured since we’ll be seeing more of Carla Jaeger and you’ve clearly got a thing for her that you’d want to keep appearances up.”

It was way too easy to tease his partner and employer sometimes. Erwin practically painted a giant target on himself. The two men walked to their respective vehicles, Levi waiting to get into his car until Erwin had unlocked his own car and thrown his stuff inside. They shared one last look before Erwin was damn near pouting at him like a toddler at that last comment.

“Well… I guess it wouldn’t kill me to go to the gym tomorrow morning before coming to the office.” As he says this, Levi snorts as he notices Erwin touch his own stomach and squished it around. “But I’m not going because of your stupid, juvinile comment about wanting to impress Carla. I’m going because… because I just suddenly felt like going!”

The raven smirks at this. “I can practically see you blushing from here, eyebrows.”

“Goodnight, Levi.” the blond says pointedly.

Feeling satisfied in teasing Erwin to the point of exasperation, the two men finally get into their cars and leave, each going their own separate way. Levi couldn’t help but sort of zone out as he drove back to his apartment. All of the information relating to Eren’s case was overwhelming and yet they still had no clue as to what happened to him or where he went. It was practically an oxymoron. Had he just decided to pick up and leave without telling even his closest friends or family where and why? Evidence pointed to that and yet it was all still so strange. Why hadn’t he taken anything with him? Clothes, shoes, toiletries, personal belongings, his paintings and portraits? None of it made any sense. Why would someone just leave everything behind and disappear? There was more to this story. There had to be.

The next morning had Erwin and Levi returning refreshed and quite sore. Both men had kept good on their word about going to the gym, although Levi wasn’t quite as miserable as Erwin was seeing as the man was clearly in more pain than he was. That was probably because Erwin hadn’t been to a gym in months while Levi only missed a couple of days at a time depending on how busy they got with a case. Eren’s case was obviously pretty time consuming so he’d let more than a coupe of days slip by but nonetheless, the raven almost felt bad for making fun of the blond last night. Erwin was definitely entitled to enjoying his retired cop life but Levi just couldn’t resist poking fun at him.

“Alright,” sighed Erwin once he was sitting at his own desk with a hot cup of coffee. “I received a text from Mikasa this morning saying she was going to be sending her Fiancé in for an interview.”

“Fiancé?” Levi asked quizzically. “She’s engaged?”

“Of course.” Erwin says so very matter of factly.

“Excuse me for not being up to date on these things.” Levi goes silent as he ponders this for a moment. Mikasa wasn’t exactly his type, in fact, he preferred men to women but even he could acknowledge that she was an attractive young woman. “Mikasa doesn’t really strike me as the marrying type.” he said, more to himself than to Erwin but the blond heard him regardless.

“Neither are you.” quips Erwin with a smirk. “So, I guess there’s still hope for you yet, Levi.”

Indifferent gray eyes meet satisfied, twinkling blues and Levi is quick to shoot the blond his middle finger before he goes back to rifling through his desk drawer for Eren’s case file.

“Now would be a good time to maybe give me a picture of the kid we’re supposed to be looking for, you know.”

“Sorry?” Erwin asks. “Was there not a picture of Eren already in the file I gave you?”

“No.” Levi sighs. “Would I be asking if there was?”

“That’s… strange. I could have swore… Well, whatever. I have another one in my file here.”

The blond pulls his own file out, though nearly identical to Levi’s copy of files, Erwin’s had more notes considering he’d been following the case for a lot longer than Levi had. He locates the photo, no bigger than maybe his own hand and he walks it over to Levi who is sitting behind his desk by now, flipping through his own case file. He slides it across the raven’s desk until it’s right in front of him and Levi freezes as he finally gets a good look at the kid━ no, Man that they were looking for. He took in the messy chocolate brown hair that had been pulled up into a bun on the top of his head and his tan skin, a perfect gold. He traced a strong jawline, cleanly shaven but the real thing that caught his attention were the stunningly bright eyes that stared back at him.

Levi grabbed the photo by it’s worn out edges carefully and studied it. This was the guy they were looking for? He could see the strong resemblance to Carla and yet he could also see more masculine features as well, some that didn’t quite match the graceful woman he’d met just days ago. There was no doubt this was Carl’s son, but he lacked her warm amber eyes. Instead, Eren’s eyes were a shockingly bright blue-green and the first thing Levi thought to himself was how could anyone with such bright eyes just disappear without a trace? With such striking features, there had to be someone who had seen him. Eren’s face wasn’t one to be forgotten, especially not with those eyes…

“We’re sure that no one has called the police in the last few years to report a sighting?” Levi asks, eyes still glued to the photo.

“Not that I’m aware of.” Erwin answers bluntly. “If there were any updates on this case, my sources would have informed me.”

“Ah, yes.” Levi snorts, finally putting the picture away, though he did so very carefully. “Your ‘sources’.” there were a set of sarcastic air quotes for this statement and Erwin frowned.

“Mike and Nanaba have been extremely reliable sources within the police department, Levi.”

“Yeah, except when they’re not.” The two men stared each other down for a long moment. Erwin seemed to want to argue that Levi’s opinion was wrong but the raven was not about to let him win this one. “Face it. They’ve hindered more than they’ve helped.”

“They can only do so much. We can’t deny that they’ve tried their best with what they can.”

“Please,” the shorter man scoffs. “That nut Hanji has been more helpful than Mike and Nanaba and that’s saying a lot coming from me. I can’t stand that crazy moron.”

Erwin didn’t seem to want to argue with him, going silent which was unusual. Maybe he was just too tired to try to fight him, but Levi decided to drop the matter as well. They had more important things to do than bicker like an old married couple. For starters, they were going to need to start figuring out what questions they were going to ask Mikasa’s Fiance when they got there.

“Okay, so how is Mikasa’s Fiance tied into Eren’s case? I’m assuming they either knew him personally or by association.”

“From what I understand, Jean Kirstein was part of the group of friends Eren hung around with.”

“Interesting.” Levi tapped the tip of his pen on a blank page of his open notebook as he pondered this new information. “What else do you know?”

“Only what I remember from the first time we interviewed him four years ago. Jean’s a pretty level-headed young man, from what I could tell. A little arrogant, but nothing that would immediately set off any alarm bells with me.”

“Any indication about his relationship with Eren? Considering he’s about to marry his sister, is it wrong to assume they were close?”

“Very wrong.” snorts Erwin. The blond took a long sip of the piping hot coffee still in his hand, then set it down on the desk in front of him as he regarded Levi. “All of their friends, including Jean himself, agreed that he and Eren had a tumultuous friendship. More like rivals than anything.”

Levi leans back into his seat, taking in what Erwin was saying while trying to see how re-interviewing Jean would help them with their case. “Huh.” he scoffs. “If they hated each other so much, why’d they hang out in a mutual friend group?”

“Perhaps that’s something we’ll need to ask Jean when he gets here.” Levi nods at this and writes down the question alongside some other rather basic ones. “Jean had an alibi for the week of Eren’s disappearance. On vacation with Family. Mom and Dad confirmed this, as well as social media posts. He wasn’t in the city, let alone the country.”

“I see.” The raven took a moment to look at the little notes he wrote beside each question. Under different circumstances, Jean might be a candidate for a good suspect. It was well known he didn’t exactly get along with their missing john, corroborated by numerous other close friends as well. “Do you think there was a possibility for intent, though?” he asks the blond suddenly.

Erwin blinks a couple times, hums to himself in quiet thought and then shakes his head. “There’s always the possibility. But, as I said, unless we uncover something new that points to him being a suspect in this new interview we conduct, I can’t say for sure.”

“Right.” sighs Levi. This was going to be a long day. “Well, when did Mikasa say he was supposed to be here?”

“Said he’d be stopping by on his lunch break, so in a couple of hours. It’s still early.”

“Where does the guy work?”

“District Attorney’s office.”

Levi let out a low, impressed whistle. “Wow. A hot shot?”

“Not from what I can tell.” Erwin chuckles. “I’m not clear on what it is he does, but if you’re really that curious, you can ask him yourself.”

“I’m not, but still, the DA’s office. That’s not a bad gig.”

With that said and done, Erwin and Levi got started on doing some other mundane tasks. Levi occasionally caught himself staring at Eren’s picture, wondering how someone so striking just went missing without a trace. Any detective worth their salt knew that a missing person’s case became more and more hopeless the longer the person stayed unfound. In this case, four years should have been more than enough time to find something and yet, they still had nothing to go off of. No leads. No suspects. Just dead end after dead end.

“I think I’m going to stop by Eren’s old house after we finish here today.” Levi announced. Erwin looked up from some papers he had been reading, his glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose as he did so.

“For?” he asked curiously.

The raven shrugs, “It’s technically a potential crime scene. Maybe I’ll find something the police or even his friends and family missed.”

“Snooping around, then?”

“Basically. I mean, it is my job.”

Erwin gives him a shrug of his own, neither approving or disapproving of his plan. Levi would take that as permission to proceed and he made some mental notes on what he would look for while he was there. Last time he went, he didn’t really get a chance to look around the place since Mikasa was there and they mainly stayed in the front room talking and going over events leading up to Eren’s disappearance. This time, though, he’d hopefully be able to investigate the house alone and maybe get some pictures of things. At this point, any little thing would help them.

Jean arrived a little after noon, looking quite spiffy in a nicely fitted suit, sans tie. Levi took a moment to assess the younger man as Erwin greeted him with a firm handshake and chatted with him while the blond got him settled in the consultation room. Jean had a face that was a bit too long, with dirty blond hair that looked almost grey in certain lightings. His eyes were narrow and sharp, the color of rye whiskey. He had a bit of facial hair across his jawline but not enough to be considered a proper beard just yet. Looks like he was only just starting to grow it out. Overall, he seemed… Well, Levi could see why Erwin said he came off a bit arrogant. His mannerisms were a bit cocky, the way he stood with his chin held high and nose almost in the air. He gave Levi a once over himself, the shorter detective giving him his best glare.

The younger man seemed put off by this and was quick to break eye contact with him. Levi couldn’t help but feel a bit satisfied with himself for successfully scaring the kid. Jean removed his black suit jacket and hung it neatly behind the door where they had several hooks and then he was smoothing out any wrinkles he may have had in his white dress shirt. Aside from Jean needing a haircut, in Levi’s personal opinion, he wasn’t a bad looking guy. Not his type, but he could see how he and Mikasa would look good together on paper.

“Jean Kirstein, this is my partner detective Levi. He’ll be sitting in on the interview and asking some questions as well.”

“Nice to meet you both. Well, I already knew Captain Smith but-”

“Just Erwin.” the blond corrected. Levi wondered just how many times the blond was going to need to correct someone that he wasn’t a cop anymore while working this case. He guessed, probably a lot. “Would you like some water or coffee?”

“Coffee, if you don’t mind.”

Erwin went off to go and grab the younger man some coffee, leaving him alone in the consultation room with Levi. The two men sat across from each other in their own respective seats, the detective in that larger leather seat while Jean took up the center of the matching leather couch. He seemed to fidget under Levi’s scrutiny but the raven wasn’t letting up.

“So, Jean.” Levi starts. The blond looked up at him hesitantly, his facial expression carefully composed but his eyes showed just how nervous he was. “I heard you work for the DA's office. That’s a pretty nice little set up you’ve got.”

“Oh, um, yeah it is.”

“What is it you do there, exactly?”

“I’m the assistant to the DA.”

Levi gives a slightly approving nod of his head, not expecting him to have an actually decent job with the DA at all. Guess that explained the nice suit.

“How long have you and Eren’s sister been dating?” Now he was just being a little nosy.

“About three and a half years.” Jean answered with ease.

“So, after Eren’s disappearance then?”

“Well, I mean, not for lack of trying.” Levi gives Jean a quizzical look, thin eyebrow raised in question and Jean thankfully understands he needs to elaborate. “I’ve been trying to date Mikasa since High School, really. Eren was always finding some way to make me look bad in front of her back then so it never happened but after he up and left, Mikasa needed someone to support her. She was… a mess.”

Levi could see the strain on Jean’s face as he tried to keep it carefully blank but obviously thinking about Mikasa’s struggles after Eren disappeared was upsetting. “So, you think he left on his own?”

Just then Erwin walked back into the room with a cup of hot coffee in his hand. The taller blond closed the door behind him and handed Jean the cup as he took his own seat.

“Thank you,” the younger man said as he took a quick and precise sip of the hot liquid wincing at the heat but swallowing it nonetheless. “Well, yeah, of course I think Eren took off. He’s always been such a selfish asshole, always making Mikasa and his parents worry about him.”

Erwin gave Levi a questioning look and the raven simply motioned to his pen and notepad silently telling him he had been taking notes while he was gone.

“So, this isn’t the first time Eren’s gone missing? Is that what you’re saying?” Levi was pressing as much as he could, feeling his own desperate desire to shed some light on this case finally.

“Probably not.” shrugs the younger man. “Eren was a hot-headed little shit at the best of times. Wouldn’t surprise me if he was pretty good at throwing tantrums and running off whenever things didn’t go his way.”

Levi couldn’t tell if this new piece of information was helpful or not. It sounded like it was mostly just Jean’s personal opinion more than anything but it gave them something to follow up with Carla about. He made a note and moved on.

It was Erwin’s turn to jump in and ask his own questions now. “When you say selfish, what do you mean? Why do you think he would just leave without telling anyone where he went and for how long?”

“I’ve told you this before.” Jean scoffed, taking another sip of coffee before he set it down on a small end table next to the couch. “Jaeger’s always been like a little kid, doing whatever he wants, when he wants. Mikasa was always chasing after him like a mother after a misbehaving child and Eren never cared who he inconvenienced.”

The two detectives exchanged looks with one another and Levi scribbled down some more notes.

“Sounds like you don’t have the highest opinion of Eren.” The raven remarks casually. “I heard the two of you butted heads quite often. Get into a lot of physical fights with him?”

“Well, sure. When we were in High School.” Jean says passively. He seemed nonchalant about the whole thing, completely opposite of Mikasa’s demeanor when she and Armin were here a few days ago. They were like day and night about this matter. “Don’t get me wrong. I had my differences with Eren but I only wanted him to stop acting like an idiot for Mikasa’s sake. Eren has a big mouth and he never keeps his opinion to himself. If there was something he didn’t like, he’d voice it immediately which isn’t exactly a recipe for making a lot of friends, you know?”

The two men obviously didn’t seem to think highly of each other, according to Jean’s account of things. Erwin confirmed that several of their friends agreed that they definitely were not fans of each other, but Levi couldn’t detect any real malice behind the other man’s words. He seemed to care about Mikasa, but he doubted that Jean would have hatched some kind of plan to get rid of Eren just to get with his sister. Seemed like a flimsy reason to commit a crime but he supposed there were weirder reasons out there.

“So, just to recap.” Levi continued. “You were out of the country when Eren was pronounced missing, correct?”

“Yeah, I was in France with my parents visiting relatives.”

“What about before you left for France? When was the last time you interacted with Eren?”

Jean took a moment to think about it, “I guess it was probably the weekend before I left. Eren liked to have big parties at his house with all of our friends and I think that weekend we all went over for a movie night or something. I don’t remember everything in great detail but I can’t really say anything significant happened. I think I’d remember if anything weird went down. We definitely didn’t get into a scrap like we normally would, though.”

“On that note,” Erwin butts in. “I hope you don’t mind if we ask this, but considering you and Eren didn’t seem to get along so well, why exactly did the two of you still hang out with the same group of friends?”

Jean seemed a little puzzled by this question at first but answers regardless, “I guess it just sort of happened? I was already friends with Connie,Sasha and Marco as well as a few of our other friends but somewhere along the way Eren, Mikasa and Armin just sort of integrated in with our group.” He took another sip of his coffee and then looked slightly bashful at his next words. “Plus, I’ve… always sort of had a thing for Mikasa since I first met her and uh, well, yeah I was willing to put up with Eren’s stupid antics if I had to if it meant I got to hang out with Mikasa.”

“I see.” Levi wasn’t exactly sure why but he was almost disappointed by Jean’s interview. He was really hoping this would have yielded some new information for them but instead, it left them exactly where they started. “Well, this was a bust.”

“Levi,” Erwin sighed. “Ignore him, Jean. I think my partner is just a little frustrated that we haven’t been able to make much progress since we took on Eren’s case.”

“We’ve made no progress at all.” grumbled Levi. “But thanks for taking the time to stop in anyway.”

“It’s no problem.” Jean dismisses. “Look for what it’s worth, Eren may not have been my favorite person in the world but I still want to see him found. If nothing else, I can give him a good punch in the face for making Mikasa and his family worry these last few years.”

Erwin chuckles at this and makes a move to stand up, Jean doing the same abandoning his cup of half drunk coffee on the table. The two men shake hands, Erwin thanking Jean for coming in as well. Jean tried to shake Levi’s hand but the raven simply dismissed it.

Instead he says, “We’ll keep Mikasa and Carla informed if we do happen to find anything else out.”

“Sounds good. If either of you need to ask me anything else, I’ll leave my card with both of you with my personal email and phone number just in case.” As Jean grabbed his jacket on the way out, he fished out two pristine business cards and handed them to Levi and Erwin gingerly. “I’m sorry I wasn’t more helpful.”

“No worries.” Erwin says with a shake of his head. “It’s a process we both know is necessary.”

Jean throws his jacket on as he moves to exit the building but stops and shoots Erwin and Levi an acknowledging nod before he finally leaves. The two detectives let out a sigh as they share a look of disappointment with one another. Erwin looked slightly consternated as he rather unceremoniously plopped down into his desk chair with a heavy sigh. Levi moved to lean against the edge of the blond’s desk as he looked up at the ceiling fan. When was the last time they cleaned up there? He could see a very thin layer of dust building up and it made him curl his upper lip up in disgust.

“Back at square one.” laments Erwin, snapping Levi out of his germaphobic thoughts. The raven looks over to see the older man scrubbing his face. He hadn’t noticed it before but he could see very light stubble starting to grow out on Erwin’s face. That was a bit unusual considering he had only ever seen the blond perfectly shaved and groomed since, well… always. “It feels like I’ve been working on this case for decades, even though it’s only been a few short days.”

“Well, I mean, technically it’s been nearly half a decade for you.” Levi points out with a shrug of his shoulder.

Erwin shoots him a look that said he was less than amused by the raven’s statement. “Thank you for the reminder.” he grumbles back.

“I’m just saying,” shrugs Levi again. “But for what it’s worth, I didn’t even know about this case until just a few days ago and I even feel like it’s been years.”

“This case tends to do that to people.” Erwin chuckles dryly. “Even when I was first working the case, the days just felt endless.”

Levi took a moment to regard his friend and just observed the frustrated look on his usually too-handsome face. He’d never seen Erwin this bothered before, not in recent memory, anyway. For whatever reason, this case bothered him and he could take a few guesses why.

“Look, I have to ask.” Levi starts. “When Eren’s case first got passed to you, what was going on at that time? I know we’ve discussed it briefly but I need to know why you’re so invested in this. I know there’s got to be more than your silly little school-boy crush on the kid’s mom.”

That seemed to get a rise out of the older man as he sat up straight all of a sudden to frown indignantly at his partner. “I do NOT have a crush!”

“Whatever,” Levi dismisses with a wave of his hand. “Answer the question, Smith.”

He watches as Erwin deflates rather quickly and leans back into his chair. Well, slumped back into his chair more like it. Levi also chooses to get more comfortable as he reaches for one of the rolling chairs in front of Erwin’s desk to take a seat. There’s a long moment of silence as Erwin seems to be gathering his thoughts. The raven doesn’t push him, nor does he try to break the silence. He knew that Erwin was probably figuring the best way to ease him into whatever he was preparing to tell him.

“Did I ever tell you the real reason why I left the Police force?” he starts, catching Levi slightly off guard as the raven wasn’t really expecting him to ask that.

“You always said you were forced to retire. That’s it.”

“Exactly.” huffs Erwin. “I was at the peak of my career back then. My goal was always to shoot for Chief of Police and at that time, I had just been promoted to Captain. It wasn’t really required of me to directly handle cases but in this situation, I volunteered to help my team as we were dealing with the loss of several officers so we were short staffed.”

“That team consisted of Mike and Nanaba?”

“And a couple of other good officers but I mostly worked closely with Mike and Nanaba, yes.” Erwin took a moment to pause and consider his next words carefully. “Have you ever heard the rumors of the Shiganshina Ripper?” at Levi’s raised brow Erwin sighed. “I didn’t think so.”

“What am I missing?” Levi frowns. “What’s this shit about a Ripper?”

“Right before Eren’s case came across our desks, my team and I were investigating a series of strange murders and disappearances. There were several bodies that were discovered scattered around the area, some even out by the lake.”

Levi thought back on it for a moment, “I might have seen something about that on the news but I’m not really sure.”

“The department was able to keep a lid on the discovery of some of the bodies but not all of them, so it doesn’t surprise me that word got out. The media is like a pack of hungry hyenas, after all.”

“Okay,” pushes Levi. “So what about this ripper?”

“Just what it sounds like. Serial Killer.” At Erwin’s vague explanation, Levi shoots him a scowl that would probably make a grown man cry out in fear but Erwin simply frowned. “Not just any regular serial killer. This one was twice as dangerous because…”

He gives the blond a moment to gather himself, seeing as Erwin was looking more and more visibly upset by this topic but they both knew this was necessary to talk about, no matter how upsetting.

“I had a theory. A very dangerous theory, especially for that sort of environment.”

“What kind of environment? A police department?”

“Yes.” Erwin said with such certainty that even Levi got slight goosebumps. He had never seen such a focused expression on the man’s face before and he now remembered why he decided to work alongside the man in the first place. His fierce determination to anything and everything he did was enough to inspire even a cynical bastard like himself. “All of the victims of the Ripper at that point in time were all falling under a specific profile. All young, attractive sex workers.”

“Sex workers?” Levi says with a frown. “Of course an asshole like that would pick such a vulnerable target.”

“Exactly. We had already found six bodies, five severely mutilated and the last one…” Erwin paused, his normally too bright eyes seeming to darken as he struggled to say what he was preparing to say next. “They were missing their head.”

Levi was silent at this, not knowing what to say. It wasn’t like he didn’t think things like this happened in the world, he knew they did, but when it’s so close to home it was somehow a harder pill to swallow. Erwin seemed to be reading his mind again because the next thing he said sent chills down his back.

“We never did find the head…”

“Jesus fucking christ, Erwin.” breathes Levi. He seemed to be just as visibly shaken as the blond was, although Erwin was a little more straight-faced while Levi couldn’t help but look disgusted. “So? What was your theory that was so dangerous? Knowing you, it’ll be something worth getting fired over.”

Erwin gives him a slightly chiding yet fond look before he continues, “Yes, well, considering the lack of evidence we found with each victim, it was all starting to seem a little too professional. Whoever the ripper was, they knew what kind of evidence we’d be looking for and made very sure they cleaned up after themselves.”

Levi could tell the older man was obviously trying to hint at something here without plainly saying it and he hated when Erwin did that but in this situation, he decided to humor the man.

“You think it's a cop.”

His eyes locked with Erwin’s suddenly fierce gaze, the blond seeming to buzz with excitement now that Levi had said what he was implying out loud.

“A cop, yes, but not just any old cop.” the blond hesitates, seeming to consider whether to voice his own opinion or not. Levi gives him a look that says just how annoyed he’s getting with Erwin’s hesitation and it seems to give him the push to continue. “I think it’s someone in the upper brass but that's all I have so far.”

“Goddamn it, Erwin.” Levi lets out a somewhat exasperated chuckle that lacks any real humor. “Leave it to you to stir the pot.”

Erwin seems satisfied with his way of putting it and can’t help but grin, “Well, if I don’t keep those sneaky bastards on their toes, who else would?”

“Yeah, well, look where it got you. An early retirement.”

The two men shared a little laugh at this before Erwin continued, “Well, that was definitely part of the reason. The other reason was because of Eren’s case. My section chief kept trying to paint Eren’s disappearance as just another missing sex worker, which we had no evidence of at that time and still don’t, if I’m correct.”

“I couldn’t see this kid being a sex worker.” mumbles Levi. “But who knows.”

“In the end, it was all for nothing. The department dropped Eren’s case as a missing person as soon as Mikasa got that text she mentioned the other day. It was almost exactly a month after Eren went missing that he supposedly texted her saying he was fine and had just left for a job so the police were all too quick to close his case and move on. Obviously, I wasn’t.”

“Of course.” snorts Levi. “Let me guess, you pushed it until they got sick of you?”

“Basically.” grins Erwin, looking far too pleased with himself. “In any case, that's the situation and now you know what really happened.”

With a nod of his head, Levi stands up from his seat. “I appreciate you telling me. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get to Eren’s house before it gets too late. Need to get some snooping done.”

Erwin says nothing, instead just gives Levi an acknowledging nod as he too stands from his chair. “Right. I think I’m going to give Carla a call here shortly. I have some other questions I want to ask her.”

“Ah, gonna call your crush?”

The blond doesn’t deign this with any sort of response, instead giving a short “Goodbye, Levi.” before the raven is shrugging and heading out the front door. He had work to do.

(X)

Chapter Text

Currently, Erwin was on his way to speak with Carla again. He had called earlier to see if they missed anything, but he caught her at a bad time. She was just wrapping up a shift at Shiganshina hospital but offered to meet him at a nearby coffee shop afterwards. Erwin gladly agreed, especially since he was eager to get out of the office today. He knew if Levi knew he was on his way to meet Carla for coffee at 7pm on a Friday evening, the raven would be teasing him relentlessly. Luckily, Levi was busy snooping around Eren’s house, so he would never get the satisfaction of knowing.

He pulled into the small, slanted parking lot wishing he would have suggested a different coffee shop with less stressful parking, but in the end Maria’s cafe was probably the most secluded spot they could hope for. It wasn’t like Erwin was opposed to meeting Carla somewhere more public but considering they would be discussing sensitive information, he didn’t feel comfortable talking about such things so carelessly. Once he found suitable parking that he knew would be a pain to back out of later, he made his way into the cafe hearing a little bell tinkle as he entered.

Glancing around, Erwin noted the lack of people. A couple having a date in one corner and an older gentleman reading a newspaper. He made eye contact with the barista who greeted him warmly, Erwin tossing her a nod of acknowledgement in return as he approached the counter. The Barista was young with wild, curly brown hair and freckles that dotted her face. Her nametag said her name was Beth and Erwin promptly ordered.

“One Americano, please.”

“With or without milk?” asks Beth the Barista sweetly.

“Just a splash of milk.”

He pulls out his wallet and promptly pays stuffing it back into the deep pockets of his dress slacks before he returns to searching for Carla. He looks around, then spots the older woman sitting by a large window looking for all the world as forlorn as any woman grieving would. Erwin hesitates to approach her for a brief moment, wondering if asking her to meet him today was a good idea. She looked exhausted, still in her work clothes. A set of dark gray scrubs and comfortable looking black shoes. Her dark hair was tied up into a high bun.

The Barista tells him his drink is ready and this gives him the push to approach the woman finally as he grabs his cup of coffee and moves to sit across from her at the two-person table. She seems slightly startled but the blond is quick to place a hand on her shoulder as he gives her a sheepish grin. The woman’s warm, amber eyes light up when she recognizes him and soon she’s smiling back at him. Erwin feels relieved seeing her expression relax and that smile, although wan, was still absolutely beautiful on her.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.” he chuckles. “Have you ordered something yet?”

Carla, points to her near empty cup of what looked to be some sort of frothy latte. “You’re a bit late.” she titters softly.

“Sorry.”

“That’s alright. You can make up for it by paying for my next order.”

She says this with a slightly bigger, more cheeky smile and Erwin can’t help but return it. Carla was always such a joy to speak with, even considering the less than happy circumstances she found herself in. That also just made him all the more determined to help her get answers. He didn’t care how long it would take; even if it took the rest of his life.

“It’s a deal.” he agrees with a nod. The two take a moment to settle in, Erwin removing his coat and draping it over the back of his chair as Carla finishes the last of her latte. “I’m sorry to drag you here right after work. I’m sure you’re exhausted and eager to go home.”

“Oh,” Carla says, sighing heavily. “No, not really. Home just means being alone with my thoughts and God knows that’s the last thing I want to do. So, I’m grateful for the distraction.”

“Well, I’m glad but I’ll get right to the point. Levi and I met with Jean today. He offered to be reinterviewed, although I’m sure it was more at the behest of Mikasa than anything else.”

“Possibly.” the woman smiles. “That boy has never been able to tell Mikasa no. Not even now as adults.”

“Either way, I appreciate his cooperation. I’m not sure if you’re aware of this but Jean was considered a person of interest at one point.”

Erwin waited to see if Carla would seem surprised at this information at all but she didn’t react one bit. Instead, she scoffed.

“Because he and Eren fought a few times? That’s ridiculous.” she seemed to have the same thought Erwin did. Which helped assure him that his instincts weren’t wrong. There really was no evidence proving Jean was anything but innocent, but at this point, any person of interest was better than none.

“I couldn’t agree more. Jean’s a bit opinionated but aside from that, he hardly seems like the type to kidnap or harm someone out of petty revenge.”

“None of Eren’s friends would.” she corrected. “Maybe I’m biased but I’ve known most of Eren’s friends since they were in middle school. Some, elementary. Those kids were as close as any group of kids could be and…” she hesitates to take a deep breath, clearly working herself up.
Against his better judgement, he reaches across the table and covers Carla’s smaller hand with his own larger one. He knew if Levi were here to see this, he would never hear the end of that little shrimp’s teasing but the other man wasn’t here, so it was fine. Carla flashes him a tight but slightly embarrassed smile as she continues.

“Those kids were just as heartbroken and devastated as I was when we couldn’t find Eren. Connie and Sasha still come by every week to bug me for lunch sometimes.” she giggles softly at her own words and Erwin can’t help but chuckle as well. “I know it’s your job to turn over every rock and suspect everyone but believe me when I say that you’re wasting your time looking into Eren’s friends.”

At this statement, she looks him dead in the eyes. Her previously warm expression had suddenly shifted to something far more sharp and determined than he’d ever seen before. It surprised him. What could she possibly be suggesting?

“Who should we be looking at?” he asks suspiciously.

The brunette breaks eye contact with him, looking down at her long empty cup before she says, “It hadn’t crossed my mind until just a few days ago. So, forgive me for not mentioning anything to you sooner.”

“That’s fine.” he says with a little reassuring squeeze to her hand. “Anything helps.”

Just then, a waitress comes by and asks to clear away their empty cups. They pause momentarily to allow her to grab their things and wipe down the table. Erwin luckily remembers to get Carla the drink he promised her. She orders an herbal tea, not wanting to be wired up on caffeine which Erwin thinks is fair. It’s getting late into the evening, after all. They wait until Carla is settled in with her fresh drink and Erwin allows her the time she needs to muster up whatever courage she needs to tell him what it is she thinks they should be looking into.

“I’ve asked Grisha if he would be willing to speak with you.” she starts.

Erwin can’t help but raise a brow at this. “I thought he wanted no part in further investigations of Eren’s disappearance?”

“He doesn’t.” she frowns. “But, let’s just say it took a lot of convincing and a lot of arguing to get him to agree.”

Why so much resistance, Erwin can’t help but wonder. Grisha Jaeger had been investigated and questioned just like Carla had in the early days of the case. The man was obviously distraught over his missing son but once the police had dismissed the case, the man seemed to shut out any further requests for interviews and questions. He didn’t know the exact details but about a year later, Carla and Grisha divorced due to Eren’s disappearance. It happened quite often to families affected by these sorts of cases.

“So, he’ll speak with us?”

“Yes, but only on the agreement that this be the last and final interview regarding Eren.”

‘Damn’ Erwin can’t help but think to himself. “That’s… unfortunate.” is all he says.

The blond takes a long sip of his now luke-warm drink, polishing off whatever is left of it as he sets the perfectly white, porcelain cup down on the matching saucer. He felt like there was more she had yet to tell him, judging by her suddenly stiff demeanor. She was calm and relaxed earlier when he arrived but upon mentioning them wasting their time interviewing Eren’s friends, Carla seemed tense and unsure.

“I think there’s someone else you should investigate.” the older woman suddenly says. Her hands are now wrapped tightly around the steaming cup of tea in her hands, her knuckles white as she cradles it close. “Zeke Jaeger.”

“Jaeger?” Erwin perks up. This is the first he’s ever heard that name and immediately he’s interested in the connection. “What’s the relation?”

At this question, Carla sighs, once again looking weary as she seems to look down into her cup of tea with a distant look in her eyes. “Grisha’s older son. Eren’s half-brother.”

Like a bomb had just been dropped on his head, Erwin can’t help but scoff in slight disbelief as he slumps back into the chair. It creaks noisily and for a brief moment he’s brought out of his shocked reverie. A half-sibling that they had no record of? If this was the first time Erwin was learning of Zeke, then he doubted the police knew anything about him, meaning no one has ever questioned him about Eren’s disappearance. Sitting up straight once more, Erwin clears his throat.

“Why have you never mentioned him before?”

“Because!” the woman cries, startling the former officer as he looks over and sees the slight fear and hysteria in her wide eyes. “I’ve spent years trying to forget that boy ever existed. It never crossed my mind that he could be involved in Eren’s disappearance until recently.”

“Okay,” Erwin quickly tries to soothe, softening his voice to just above a whisper. “It’s okay, Carla. Just… take some deep breaths and tell me when you’re ready.”

He had never seen her look so terrified, except of course when she first reported Eren missing but not in recent memory. Carla was always very calm with a slight somber air about her at times but never scared or unnerved. The woman worked as a nurse for a hospital, there was probably little that could shake her but something about Zeke terrified this woman and Erwin was determined to get to the bottom of it.

He watched as she took a couple of slow sips of her tea, her eyes slowly losing that edge of terror and hysteria from before. Erwin dared not try to push her, he simply let her take her time and say what she needed to say on her own time. Normally, he wouldn’t be this understanding or patient but considering it was Carla, a woman who for whatever reason brought out his softer side, he was able to hold back on impulse.

(X)

“Zeke is eight years older than Eren. Grisha and his first wife divorced when Zeke was only six years old. I married Grisha about a year after his divorce and got pregnant with Eren shortly after.” She pauses to take another sip of her tea before continuing. “I tried my hardest to include Zeke into our new little family. Grisha wasn’t always the most available father, especially not to Zeke who was in desperate need of a parent’s love and attention. So, I thought I could try to fill the gap Grisha and Zeke’s mother left.”

There was a distant look in Carla’s eyes again. Erwin could sense that small inkling of fear lingering behind her gaze as she looked out a window, the sky darkening by the minute. It set an eerie shadow across her face that made her normally stunning amber eyes look sunken and quite dead and Erwin caught himself reaching out for her hand again before he could even stop himself. It was almost as though he felt the urgent need to make some sort of physical contact with her to ensure she was still REAL and not some poor tortured soul that would disappear into the darkness with the setting sun.

Feeling Erwin’s warm touch on her hand, Carla was roused from her darkening thoughts, bringing her back to the present where he was sat beside her with his too blue eyes staring at her with intense worry but fierce curiosity as well.

“When I was about seven and half months pregnant with Eren, I remember carrying a load of laundry down to our basement so I could wash. Zeke was playing in the living room, or… I thought he was. The stairs leading down to the basement were steep and I had to hold the laundry basket with both hands so I wouldn’t drop it.”

The former officer started to get a sinking feeling in his stomach, already sensing where this story was going.

“The next thing I knew, I felt a tiny pair of hands push against my back and I ended up falling down the stairs.” the woman sniffled as her eyes misted over. “I only caught a glimpse of him as I fell but I definitely saw Zeke standing at the top of the staircase, giggling.” She wiped away the tears that were about to fall from her eyes quickly, never allowing them to fall. “I hurt my arm and ankle on the fall down so I couldn’t get up. I was in so much pain, Grisha found me weakly calling for help a few hours later and I was rushed to the hospital.”

“What about Zeke?” the blond couldn’t help but ask. “Did Grisha ask him what happened?”

“No and it wasn’t important at the time either. What was more important was to make sure the baby was okay. Because of the stress of the fall and my injuries, I went into early labor and ended up having Eren that very night. It was simultaneously the worst and best night of my life.”

“Did you ever tell Grisha that Zeke pushed you down the stairs?”

“No, never. Once Eren had been born, any thoughts of Zeke or what he did were gone. All Grisha and I cared about was that sweet little baby boy who smiled at the both of us the moment the doctor’s handed him to us.”

Carla’s story deeply disturbed Erwin. Not only because of the nature of the story but because he had never seen a grown woman so terrified of a child before. He could guess that Zeke’s behavior didn’t improve any, especially not if Carla has spent years trying to forget he even exists. There was still more to the story and he wondered if he actually wanted to know the rest. Professionally, of course he did. Personally? His gut knotted with anxiety as he waited for her to continue.

“To my surprise, Zeke absolutely adored Eren once he was born. Grisha had worried maybe Zeke would try to lash out in jealousy but his reaction was exactly opposite. From the minute we brought Eren home to meet Zeke, he stayed glued to my side just so he could stare at him and watch him fuss.”

“That’s… not what I was expecting.” Erwin muses.

“Neither was I, but adoration can be a bad thing when it’s too much. As Eren got older, Zeke’s attention towards him became concerning. At first, I was fine with him wanting to spend so much time with his baby brother but the more time he spent with Eren, the more I noticed his affections… changing.”

Erwin raised one of his thick, perfectly groomed brows in silent question to this and thankfully Carla obliged.

“He had become obsessed with Eren by the time he was able to walk. To the point where he was possessive, even. No one could get close to Eren, not even Grisha or myself. If I picked him up to feed him or change him, Zeke would immediately start kicking and biting at me. Eventually, Grisha had to physically discipline him but that only made the situation worse.”

“Worse than Zeke assaulting you?”

Carla sets her cup of tea down. There’s a pregnant pause as Erwin waits for her to go on but she once again seems to struggle with her words. It couldn’t be easy, talking about such unsavory memories but this information was so incredibly crucial. If there was someone out there with even just the tiniest bit of motive to harm, that’s where they had to start poking around first.
“Zeke was spending the weekend with us. He was about nine or so at the time. Eren had just turned two-years-old. We woke up early Saturday morning, Grisha had to get ready to go to work but when he went into Eren’s room to check on him… he was just gone.”

The blond felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end at the way Carla said those last few words.

“He took Eren?”

There was no need for words as Carla started tearing up, her lips trembling before he pursed them together tightly. Then came the nod of affirmation and the stifled sob before she was wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. Incredibly, she powered through her sobs to continue her story.

“Grisha and I realized that Zeke was gone too and from there it was easy to figure out. Back then, we lived in a house near the edge of a heavily wooded area. I was insistent on calling the police but Grisha urged me not to. He would go out and look for the boys himself and he did. He searched for hours and found the two of them down by a creek about a couple miles into the woods. Eren was severely dehydrated and freezing cold. I don’t know exactly what happened when Grisha found Zeke and Eren, all I remember was my husband walking back out from the dark woods with our son in his arms. Eren was hugging his neck so tightly, like his life depended on it.”

Erwin swallowed thickly, feeling his own blood chilling. “And Zeke? Was he disciplined in any way?”

A fierce look could be seen in Carla’s eyes, her thick eyebrows pinching together. That question seemed to trigger an anger he’d never seen before and it made him glad he was not on the receiving end of said anger. Carla seemed like the type of woman to raise hell if someone did her wrong. Erwin didn’t intend on doing that if he could avoid it.

“After that, I never allowed Zeke back at our home. In the end we moved and luckily, Eren was too young to remember it happening. That was all I could ask for.”

A silence fell between the two as Carla finished her tea and Erwin sat there, processing everything he just learned. There were several threads that had just been laid out for them to follow. He just needed to pick one and see where it led. He would definitely need to brief Levi on this immediately if they were going to hit the ground running but first, he needed to secure their meeting with Grisha Jaeger. Then, they could pursue Zeke from there.

“Would it be too presumptuous of me to assume you know where Zeke is now?”

“Very presumptuous.” murmurs Carla quietly. “I made it very clear to Grisha and his ex-wife that Zeke wasn’t wanted anywhere near my home or Eren.”
“How did that conversation go over with Zeke’s mother?” At this point, Erwin was just being a little nosy. He was unaware of a previous wife, so part of him wanted to see just what the woman was like.

“Dina?” scoffed Carla. “That woman was a menace as well. Obsessive and delusional, always pushing her own ideals onto her child.”

Ah. So, there was definitely tension there. Well, not a surprise really. Very rarely did ex-wives and new wives get along. He made a mental note to investigate Dina as well. There may be nothing to investigate but Erwin didn’t want to risk not covering all his bases. So, with plenty of mental notes saved in his little memory bank (brain), Erwin cleared his throat and straightened in his seat. Carla picked up on his little cue and straightened to stand.

“Anyway, it’s getting late. I’m sorry for rambling on all this time.”

“Not at all. I’m glad we met up. You’ve given me plenty of things to look into.

Erwin shook his head as he stood to help Carla put her coat on. The two spent a few more minutes exchanging pleasant chit-chat, a brief reprise from all the doom and gloom of the circumstance they found themselves in. He wished they didn’t always have to meet on such somber events or topics but he supposed they really had no reason to meet otherwise. The thought saddened him but he didn’t allow himself that feeling. Professional. He needed to remember to be professional.

“Well, have a good night, Officer Smith.”

Erwin opened his mouth to correct the woman but stopped when he heard her teasing giggle. He couldn’t help but sigh with a fond yet exasperated smile. The two parted ways at the front door, Carla shaking his hand, her fingers lingering on his skin just a second too long, though Erwin definitely didn’t mind. He was no better.

“Goodnight, Carla. Get home safe.”

The blond watched as the woman turned to leave, quickly getting into her car as a cool breeze swept through. Erwin could smell rain coming and soon began hurrying to his car as well. He took a moment to sit there and process everything once more. It was all a bit overwhelming but, first things, first. He needed to catch Levi up on the latest information. Glancing down at his clock on the dashboard, Erwin decided he’d wait until the morning to tell him. The last thing he needed was to spill the beans about essentially spending an evening with Carla in a coffee shop. Granted, it was purely for the sake of their case but he knew Levi wouldn’t see it that way, the little shit.

He decided. He would wait until the morning to be taunted and teased by his partner. For now, it was time to beat the rain home.

Chapter Text

Levi found nothing much in his search of Eren’s house. He used the spare key to enter and was careful to place it back exactly where it was supposed to be. The inside of the house was dark, as the sun set in the distance, but luckily the electricity still worked. Guess Carla or Mikasa kept up with the bills? Strange, but he wasn’t going to judge. Using only a few lamps to light his way, Levi poked around the rooms freely, finding what anyone would expect to find in the home of a young artist and photographer. Personal items galore. Receipts from purchases in drawers, miscellaneous items and paints. Lots and lots of paint.

Upon entering the bedroom, Levi looked at the various personal photographs hanging or pinned to Eren’s walls. Various clumsy photos of the young man and his friends, some of Carla smiling or angry with her son. Nothing out of the usual. One thing he did notice was a lack of a computer. There was an empty desk in the bedroom where he guessed a computer once sat, judging by the size of it. It was clearly a work desk and Eren’s primary line of work was photography. He no doubt used a computer to edit and upload his photos. So, where was it?

He made a mental note to ask Carla or Erwin about it later and decided to get the hell out of dodge before it got too late. He wanted to actually go to the gym at a normal hour for once. Making sure he secured all doors and windows, turning out all the lights he used, Levi locked up and got back into his car. Before he pulled away from the house, he took a moment and sat there just looking at the big, empty home. The darkened windows bothered him for some reason. This house clearly wasn’t meant to be sitting empty like this and he couldn’t help but feel a sense of slight loss. He reached over to the passenger seat where Eren’s case file sat under his heavy coat and with a little bit of digging, he pulled out the photo Erwin had given him of the young man.

Big, doe green eyes stared back at him and Levi sighed heavily. “Where are you?” he asks. The man in the photo is silent, of course, but that doesn’t stop the raven from continuing to speak. “What happened to you?” Naturally, he’s met with silence again and this time Levi sucks his teeth in frustration before he tucks the photo back into the manila folder. “You’re losing it, Ackerman.” he grumbles under his breath. “Asking a damn picture for answers.”

The raven finally starts his car and pulls out of the long driveway before taking off down the empty road. The view of the lake is calming, the half moon reflecting on it’s black surface. The clouds move in quickly and he can tell it’s going to be another rainy night. All the better reason for him to get to the gym before it pours. He would reconvene with Erwin in the morning and see what tomorrow has in store for them. Hopefully, answers.

Levi arrives home earlier than he expects to that night. The two hours spent at the gym seemed to fly by, yet he somehow managed to make it home before the rain started coming down too badly. Different story now that he was indoors. The windows to his apartments slightly rattled with each intense clap of thunder. He takes a hot shower, no longer than five minutes and settles into his bed in a loose but comfortable pair of pajama pants he received for christmas some years ago. The sheets on his full sized bed were crisp and clean and he sighs with relief as he sits cross-legged, his open laptop left abandoned near the foot of the bed where he had left it before showering.

He stares at it for a moment and contemplates. Should he continue trying to dig for more things on Eren or call it a night? It had been a few days since they took on this case, yet Levi found himself already deeply invested for such a short amount of time. Normally, he wouldn’t be so hung up on any case they received, let alone a missing person’s case. Those were always a lost cause in his personal opinion but not this time. Well… he hoped it wasn’t a lost cause, anyway. Something about Eren’s situation just bothered him; absolutely nagged at the back of his mind and he could not figure out why. He sighs again, heavy with frustration as he leans back against some pillows he had propped up against the dark headboard.

What was he missing? He knew there had to be an answer among all the evidence Mikasa had supplied them with. He had yet to go through every single item in that box but he fully intended to before the week was out. The thing that puzzled him most was the fact that Mikasa claimed to have received that last text message from him about a month after he went missing. Something about that little detail made his gut clench with uncertainty. Frowning up at the ceiling, Levi sucks his teeth loudly before turning over on his side to face the end table next to his bed. He glares at the photo he set there of Eren; doe green eyes stare back at him and he finds himself reaching out to grab the photo between his fingertips gently.

“You sure are causing all sorts of problems, aren’t you, you little shit?” He realizes he’s talking to a photograph of a missing man (again) but he doesn’t really care. There’s no one around to judge him. Eren’s photo stares back at him in silence. “I’m definitely losing it.” he finally says as he puts the photo down. “What would that idiot Erwin think if he knew you were talking to yourself, ey, Levi?”

Well, it’s a good thing Erwin would probably never find out. Not that he really cared but he didn’t need the former officer reading into it. He chalked up his intense interest into this case as pure curiosity but even he wasn’t really buying that reason himself. There was definitely something more here and he desperately wanted to figure out what it was. Nevertheless, the seasoned detective decided it was probably time to get some sleep. It was the first time in a while he was actually going to bed at a somewhat decent hour and not torturing himself until 4AM with copious amounts of tea and case files. As he settled into bed for the night, he was distantly aware of Eren’s photo still on the nightstand next to his bed. Forcing himself to shut his eyes and try to sleep, he can’t help but mutter to himself.

“I will find you…”

Nothing could prepare Levi for the absolute bomb of information Erwin drops on him the next morning. The big, stupid tree didn’t even give him enough time to sit down and enjoy his tea before hitting him fast and hard with probably the most important break in the case so far and the raven can’t help but give his tall, blond partner a seething look as he spilled just a little drop of tea on his white button up shirt.

“What the actual fuck. You couldn’t have told me this information sooner?”

“I’m telling you the information now.” snips Erwin, who is quickly met with another withering glare from stormy gray eyes. “It was late yesterday. I didn’t want to pull another all-nighter. Forgive me for trying to give us both a little break here.”

“So let me get this shit straight. Eren’s secret half-brother actively tried to kidnap him before and nobody thought to mention this to the fucking police?”

Erwin simply shrugs, “Carla had her reasons for not mentioning Zeke sooner.”

“Like that?” fumes the raven. He reflexively dabs at the little stain of tea on his shirt with a napkin but his eyes are trained on Erwin’s hulking figure sitting across from him at the other desk. “How do you just forget to mention your husband has a psychotic son that tried to kidnap your kid and also potentially tried to murder you?”

“Zeke absolutely terrifies her, Levi.” There's a terse tone to Erwin’s voice as he shoots Levi a slightly chastising look. “You should have seen the look of pure fear in her eyes when she told me this. I’ve never seen Carla so scared in all the years I’ve known her and I’m including the day Eren was first reported missing.”

Levi goes silent at this, leaning back in his chair as he tries to process this new information. He takes a deep breath and starts to rub at the crease that always formed in the middle of his brows. No matter what he did, he always furrowed his brows too much. At this point, the crease was permanent. Oh well. They always said he had the soul of a grumpy seventy-year-old. He may as well start looking the part, too.

“So, when do we go and talk to Grisha?”

“Today, actually.”

The two men stare at each other, Levi noticing that Erwin had taken his phone out to check it while he was busy trying to unwrinkle his brow crease. He seemed just as puzzled as Levi did as he glanced up from his phone screen with wide eyes.

“What?” growls Levi.

“Yes.” The blond is quick to shift his puzzled look to a more serious and determined one. “Carla just texted me. Grisha apparently agreed to speak with us today but only if we can meet with him in the next hour.”

“T-The next hour!?” cries Levi in outrage. “Who the fuck does Grisha Jaeger think he is?”

“We don’t have time for your tantrums. Get your keys and let’s go!”