"Hey, Levi."

They'd grown used to this, sprawling shirtless on Levi's bed, untucking all his neat corners and pushing the sheets down to the end. Kissing and biting, and waiting for the summer breeze to cool the spit on their shoulders and necks and backs. Neither of them knew exactly what held them back, what sign they were waiting for, but it didn't matter. Levi felt that every hour spent like this was an hour stolen back from death. They'd neck like teenagers only one of them was until the lamp burned low, and then he'd send Eren back to his dungeon, sometimes half-asleep, sometimes still burning for more and stealing kisses until Levi shut the door in his face. Sometimes, Levi felt it bordered on torture to see him leave and Eren's footsteps would still be echoing down the hallway when Levi put his back to the door and yanked himself off.

This and no more. To ask for more was to tempt fate.

It had been a long day of training; they hadn't returned to HQ until well after dark, and their kisses once they were back in Levi's quarters had been slow and languid, all tongue and no teeth. Eren was half sprawled across Levi, his lips against Levi's neck, and Levi idly traced patterns on his back looking up at the familiar lines of the beams on his ceiling.

"Hm?"

"Did I ever tell you about the ocean?"

That word again. "You mentioned it once, but were pretty evasive."

"I didn't want to get Armin in trouble," Eren said. "But now I guess he has more on us than we have on him."

"I see." Levi didn't really like putting it like that. "So what's the ocean then?"

Eren told him. More water than the largest lake, so much water it stretched beyond the horizon, the colour of the sky. Eren told him about the salt and the sand.

"And the water moves, up and down, all day. Washing up and back."

"That all sounds unlikely to me," Levi said. "Are you sure this wasn't a book of fairy tales?"

"No!" Eren sat up abruptly, glaring down at him. "The ocean is real, it's a real thing, just like the fields and hills of sand and the solid water-" He broke off as he realised Levi was successfully keeping a straight face, rather than taking him seriously. "Ugh!" He flopped on his back and sighed.

Levi reached out to ruffle his hair and Eren brushed him off.

"What?" Levi asked.

"I want you to see it too," Eren said. "I want you to see the ocean too, with me. And Mikasa and Armin."

"That's your goal, huh?" Levi abruptly rolled on top of Eren and looked down at his face. He looked like he was considering trying to throw Levi off, his arms crossed defensively over his bare chest. "What are you going to do if it doesn't live up to your expectations?" Levi asked. "Even true stories get exaggerated with the telling."

Eren looked up at him suspiciously, checking to see if he was still being made fun of.

"I wouldn't care," he said eventually. His arms relaxed and he gazed up at Levi. "If you were there, and Mikasa and Armin, I wouldn't care if the ocean really was a fairy tale. If we were all there together."

"Oh." Oh, Eren. Levi hung his head. Why did you have to let the future in? It can't possibly hold anything as beautiful as an ocean, can it? Then again, if he'd been asked, he never would have imagined his present would hold something as beautiful as Eren.

"I'm sorry," Eren said, reading him like a book. "I just wanted to-"

Levi silenced him, covering his mouth with his own. Eren uncurled his arms and wrapped them around Levi's shoulders, his warm hands tracing fire down his back. They had this part down perfectly. They didn't shift, didn't stop. They just held each other more tightly, as if that ridiculous future lay somewhere on the other side of the other's skin.

This is not a memory, Levi thought fiercely. He slid his hands down Eren's sides and when he reached his hips Eren arched up against him.

"Eren," he whispered against Eren's mouth, his fingers hooked over the top of his trousers. "Can I take these off?"

"Yes. Please, Levi."

Levi took his time, trailing his lips down a now-familiar jawline, a neck the taste of which he dreamed of sometimes, while his hands worked with the buttons on Eren's fly. He raised his head. Eren's eyes were shut, and his fingers combing through Levi's hair.

"Are you planning on sleeping through while I do all the work?" Levi asked.

"No!" His eyes flew open, and Eren's trousers were loose enough around his hips now that he slithered out of them a little way as he sat up.

"Not bad," Levi said, as he helped free Eren's cock from his pants. He'd got an idea what it was like from the times he'd felt it through Eren's trousers, but to hold it, hot and hard in his hand, nearly took his breath away. Impatiently he tugged Eren's pants off, folding them neatly while Eren watched him with affectionate impatience, propped up on his elbows and his cock twitching against his stomach.

"I can't believe you'd rather do laundry." He laughed breathlessly, his face flushed.

Levi leaned over the edge of the bed and placed Eren's pants on top of the rest of his clothes, which were in a sloppily-folded pile where Eren had left them about thirty seconds after he'd entered the room.

"I am capable of doing both you and laundry," Levi said. Eren's eyes were dark as Levi crawled up beside him, trailing a hand up through the fine hairs on his leg, over his knee, digging his fingers a little into his thigh, his gaze never leaving Eren's face. He could feel Eren trying to keep still under his hand. Levi relented.

"F-f-fuck," Eren gasped as Levi palmed his cock in one long, slow stroke, squeezing a bead of moisture out over his fingers. This sort of mess Levi didn't mind a bit. He dragged his hand back down, spreading it over Eren's skin. Levi reminded himself to breathe but it didn't seem to help, as he watched Eren gasp and twitch with heavy-lidded eyes.

Eventually Eren managed to collect himself. "Okay, okay. My turn." Eren reached for Levi's fly with clumsy, shaking fingers. Levi didn't interrupt, just waited as he undid one button after another. He sat up on his knees and let Eren pull his trousers down off his hips.

"Oh," Eren breathed. "Okay, wow." He reached for him, brushing his fingers lightly over Levi's hips, down the outside of his legs, working his way up to touching his cock so lightly Levi frowned in frustration. But he didn't say anything, he let Eren do what he pleased. Then Eren sat up and wrapped his arms around him and kissed him. The end of his cock butted against Eren's hip, and he could feel Eren's against his stomach.

Then they toppled sideways.

"Fuck!" He hadn't planned to plant himself face-first into the sheets, but he was unable to disentangle his arms from around Eren in time to break his fall and his pants were still around his knees. He winced a bit as he shucked them and tossed them over the end of the bed. He would pick them up before he went to sleep, he told himself. Pick them up and fold them properly.

Eren stared at him in sheer surprise few a few moments, a smile curling the corners of his mouth. He was getting awfully smug, wasn't he? He'd have to do something about that. Later.

But right now he had Eren naked on his bed save for the key around his neck, like he had in his head many times before. Reality was something else, however, something warmer and sweeter and saltier and sloppier. They slid against each other, tangling their legs, biting at each other's lips, rocking their hips against each other, feeling skin to skin. Eren was slightly too hot, especially in summer, but Levi didn't care; he was warm, he was alive. All was as it should be.

He felt Eren shudder as he ground himself against his groin. Their cocks butted clumsily against each other's bodies without hands to guide them but he wanted to hold on to Eren, and Eren seemed to want the same.

"Levi," Eren panted. In response Levi sucked on his lower lip. "Levi, wait."

Levi stilled himself with an effort, raising his head and brushing Eren's hair out of his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Levi, at this rate I'm gonna-" He flushed, so fucking cute. "I'm gonna come like this. Is this right? I mean, is this uh, sufficient for you?" He licked his lips nervously.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Levi asked.

"Yes. God, yes." He wasn't lying; Levi could feel his cock twitching against his skin.

Levi pressed his cock against Eren's stomach, "You think I'm enjoying myself?"

"Uh huh," he nodded obediently.

"Then what's the problem?"

Eren grinned, breathlessly. "Nothing. Nothing at all. Fuck me, please."

"Watch your language," Levi growled as he descended on Eren's mouth.

Eren had a point though; it wasn't entirely comfortable. So he shifted himself, trapping Eren's cock between his thighs and rocking his hips.

"Better?" He lifted his head long enough to ask.

"Yea-hhh..." Levi swallowed half the word, licking it right out from between Eren's lips.

They rutted against each other, and Eren's movements grew jerky and desperate, and Levi flung all his weight on him to keep him down. He whimpered and sank his fingernails and teeth into Levi's shoulder and Levi didn't care if he was leaving marks. He hung onto him, holding his breath, losing it, trying to drink in every flutter of his eyelashes, every sound that escaped his throat, everything.

Eren choked on Levi's name, and flung his head back against the pillow and came against Levi's legs, clutching at him as he fell over the edge. While he waited for him to come back down to earth, Levi kissed him on the corner of his open mouth. When he'd recovered his breath Eren snaked a hand between them, and wrapped calloused fingers around Levi's cock.

"Uh?" Am I allowed to do this, his expression asked.

"Go on, Eren," Levi rasped, the words feeling like they were coming from somewhere in the back of his throat.

Levi kept his eyes open. He refused to look away; he wanted Eren to see what he did to him. Eren wasn't so disciplined; he kept leaning in and kissing him, undulating his tanned, lean body underneath Levi's own, his eyes fluttering closed.

"Watch," Levi breathed, and held his gaze as Eren moved his hand a little faster. That was better; Eren was a fast learner when he had the opportunity to observe, and he was soon squeezing Levi just hard enough, thumbing the head of his cock, and he found the rhythm that made Levi's jaw drop. Eventually his breath stopped and the muscles that rolled and writhed under his pale skin tensed up as hard as steel. He came in Eren's hand, still gazing up at him; he never made any noise other than a couple of choked gasps and he wanted Eren to see and not to miss anything, not to misinterpret his silence.

Eren had the kind of expression Levi imagined he'd wear if he ever saw the ocean, his mouth hanging open slightly and his eyes wide as he drank in the view. He wore it for a few moments and then wrapped his free arm around Levi's shoulders a pulled him down and pressed bruising kisses all over his mouth and chin. He hugged him so hard that his knuckles dug into Levi's stomach, his hand still wrapped around his softening cock.

Levi cleaned them up. Eren would have used his shirt if Levi hadn't told him not to be disgusting. As if he wouldn't have a clean cloth on hand. The lantern was burning low and they lay side by side, propped up on the pillows, the sheet half-heartedly draped over their heated bodies, watching the flame burn bluer and lower as it ran out of oil.

"Any regrets?" Levi asked.

"Only that we didn't do this a week ago."

"Hm."

"What about you?"

"I don't know," Levi said softly.

Eren sighed and Levi felt him tug on a strand of his hair, "Still feeling guilty about being a dirty old man?" He chuckled, "You shouldn't; you're the cleanest old man I know." A handful of retorts, verbal and otherwise, crossed Levi's mind, but he didn't respond with anything other than an amused tightening of his lips. Eren had won the right to make fun of him, and he found he didn't mind it all that much. He couldn't remember the last time he allowed himself to be so unguarded and relaxed.

They both knew nothing other than the passage of time would ease Levi's conscience and Eren didn't push it. Instead he rolled in towards him, wrapping himself around Levi's arm and smiling up at him. Levi knew he should kick him out, send him downstairs, and pick all the clothes up off his floor.

He didn't.

At some point Eren would tell him earnestly and truthfully that he loved him, Levi supposed. Or one of them would die before that happened, and these would all be memories. But these weren't memories; the warmth and weight on his arm, the mess on his floor, the breath that ruffled his hair as Eren's bright eyes closed in happy exhaustion.

Not memories at all.

A/N: There you have it, folks. I set out to write this pairing plausibly or die trying and this was the result. Overall, I'm fairly happy with it. Usually I write this sort of thing to get a pairing out of my head so I can move on, but this time I don't think I'm done yet. We'll see.

Thanks for reading, and all your comments; they make me very happy.