Paper Airplanes (Ereri - SNK)

Prologue - Skulls.

Eren stands on the ground. His knees are shaking—visibly. His hands are bloodied and dripping. The crimson of the thick liquid plip plips on the ground audibly, arrhythmic. Even Levi, residing on a nearby rooftop with the pounding of titan feet headed in their direction, can hear it. Can almost even hear the drawing in and pushing out of his ragged breathing. His eyes are a mix between ravenous and fearful. Wide. He's unmoving.

"Jaeger!" Levi shouts down to him. He's sure Eren has heard, but the boy makes no move to respond. "Eren!" he calls again. Glances toward the left. The titans are approaching. Not too quickly, but they are. And if they're to survive, they have to retreat and now.

"Eren!" Levi nearly screams. Finally, the brat's head snaps up. He trains his wide, fearful eyes on the corporal who's balancing one foot on the gutter of a roof while holding onto one of the chords of his maneuver gear, wrapped around a chimney. "Get out of there!" he orders. "Off the ground! Now!"

Eren's eyes fall to his trembling hands. "I can't," he nearly whispers.

"What?! Stop fucking around!"

"I...I can't!" Eren repeats louder. "M-my gear is broken...and I can't transform..."

The latter was clear from the blood all but gushing from the boy's hands, but the news about his gear comes as a shock to the corporal.

"Dammit," he hisses. He retracts the cord back into his gear and allows his feet to slide the rest of the way off the roof. He braces himself for a hard landing on the ground, hoping his legs (shaking much like Eren's) will manage to catch him.

But, as most things are in this world, his hope is in vain. As soon as his feet make contact with the ground, his knees buckle and his ankle—the one he'd injured while fighting the female titan—twists and cracks. He hisses again, catching himself on his hands as the pain blooms throughout the lower half of the limb.

"Captain! Why did you do that?!" Eren exclaims, rushing to Levi's side. "Get yourself out of here!"

Biting his tongue, Levi rises to his feet, making sure to keep most of his weight on his good ankle. The booming of titan feet are becoming louder; he glances over to find at least three in pursuit of them.

Eren's in a frenzy. His clothes are bloodied from his hands, his hair disheveled and his eyes—god, the fearful, worried, innocent look in his eyes kills Levi. Those eyes have seen so much and they are still so young...

"Can't," he says. "I'm out of gas."

Eren's eyes widen fractionally and he kneels down, beginning to fumble with the tanks in his own gear. A hand, rougher than intended, stops him.

"No," Levi says. "It'll take too much time, and I am not leaving you here alone."

Eren's liquid turquoise eyes lift again to Levi's hardened gray ones, skin darkened around their edges from lack of sleep. From seeing so much himself.

"You should get out of here," Eren retorts. "So at least one of us can survive."

"No," Levi states firmly. "On your feet. We need to get inside somewhere." His eyes are already scouring the area, scouting out a place to take refuge in for the time being, for some place to give them the last little speck of hope that maybe, maybe they'd see their comrades again...provided they aren't already dead.

Eren, as usual, is in no position to argue and reluctantly pulls himself to his feet. They start in the same direction the titans are headed in—north—to move themselves further from the hungry beasts. Levi bites his tongue as they start walking, trying his best to move quickly despite his injured ankle. When he's fallen several feet behind, Eren turns.