Chapter Text
When Jean comes to, he’s shackled to a chair with silver chains. His skin sizzles where it comes into contact with the thrice-cursed contraption, even through his clothes, its purifying power set on disintegrating and ruining his body beyond repair.
His head is swimming, making it difficult to differentiate between what’s real and what isn’t. Perhaps Jean is still asleep, after all? He has to focus. Has to think slowly, pretend like everything is under control. Only then will he be able to—
“Jean.”
His head snaps up.
Mikasa is standing before him, beautiful like the night he saw her last, a burgundy dress fitting her curves like a glove. Her hair hasn’t changed and remains cut just above her shoulders. There’s also the scar on her cheek—the only imperfection marring her porcelain-like skin.
But Jean has always considered it perfect, too.
The angel of death.
“Mikasa.”
“You shouldn’t have come here,” she says mournfully, bringing him back to reality. Her teeth look like little pearls, perfectly white and deadly between her crimson lips.
“It’s not like I had any choice.”
“I’m sorry.”
They’re in an abandoned office space, with a sea of dusty desks and chairs surrounding them. There must be some generator in the building because the room is partially lit, unpleasant fluorescent lights flickering above their heads.
There is also a strange sound coming from the dark corridor, as if someone is sharpening several knives against a stone. The sound is traveling, slowly getting closer and closer… until Jean is able to see its terrifying source standing right in the doorway.
It’s Eren Jaeger. Jean recognizes his smell, the stench of poison pooling behind his fangs.
Jaeger is a different type of werewolf than Reiner. Different from any Jean has seen so far. One that must be the result of Grisha’s infamous experimentation.
Eren is a hybrid, half-human and half-wolf. His legs are strong and furry, ending in large paws. His arms are too long for a human, his hands adorned with monstrous claws. Those are the knives that were being sharpened against the corridor’s walls, pieces of paint and plaster still sticking to them.
Eren’s back is hunched, and he barely fits into the doorframe. His eyes are glowing, a vibrating shade of green, and his hair is still in disarray, partially covering his face. The face is far too animated; its muscles constricting and contorting, his cheekbones protruding.
Jaeger must be in pain. And yet—he’s smiling. A feral, unhinged kind of smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.
“Que será, será,” he sing-songs in a low, rough voice, making his way toward Jean. “Whatever will be, will be…”
Mikasa steps aside without a word, letting Eren pass, and Jean scrunches up his nose at the smell coming from him.
It’s that poison again. And sickness. And death.
“The future’s not ours to see… Que será, será.”
At this stage, the silver chains should have burned through Jean’s bones, rendering him helpless. They would have, if he were any ordinary vampire. But he is not, and neither Eren nor Mikasa is aware of this fact. Levi was right when he told him to keep quiet about his ability.
Jean grits his teeth, focusing on neutralizing the purifying effect of the chains. He needs to stay focused. Needs to remain calm even as Eren’s claws reach for his injured neck.
“Huh. The amount of poison I treated you to was enough to kill an Ackerman. How come you’re conscious?”
“Your sorry excuse for singing could quite literally wake the dead, it seems.”
“Oh?” Eren tilts his head, his eyes unblinking and just as creepy as before. His claws wrap around Jean’s neck, cutting into it. “It’s time to rectify that.”
“Eren, that’s enough,” Mikasa says, pressing her hands to her unbeating heart. “You don’t have to do this for my sake. I told you I’m not interested in him.”
Ouch.
Okay.
“Wow, is this what this is about?” Jean can’t help but snort, not minding Eren’s dangerous growl. “You’re jealous? That’s… rather pathetic, but I guess I can’t blame you. Everyone knows I’m hot as fuck. As for you… well, Zeke got the good genes.”
“Shut up!” Jean’s throat gets squeezed in a way that makes him wince, perhaps out of habit. Eren’s claws seem made of metal, about to crush his windpipe. “I told you, this is not about you! I have unfinished business with him!”
These last words are thrown at Mikasa, who somehow shrinks in on herself.
“Eren, please, let’s go back home.”
“Stop talking!”
Some of Eren’s poisonous spit lands on Jean’s face. Jean grimaces and counts to ten in his head, feeling the poison trying to bite through his skin. He needs a little more time. Just a few more minutes.
“Aren’t you a sweetheart,” Jean hisses, discreetly rubbing and twisting his wrists behind his back, working on loosening the chains. “Wouldn’t want to have you for a boyfriend.”
“That’s funny. I’m told you’re not only a bloodsucker, but a cocksucker as well.”
“Oh? Was that supposed to insult me? Yes, I am a cocksucker.” Jean quirks an eyebrow. “You look like you don’t eat pussy, though. Is it scared of the big bad dog?”
“I’ll kill you now,” Eren informs him, that gross smile finally gone from his deformed mug. “I’ll peel the skin off your face, cut off your cock, and make you choke on it.”
“Yeah, you totally don’t sound jealous.”
“I should have killed you that night twenty years ago. I would have, if Ackerman hadn’t interrupted me.”
“You bit me, didn’t you?” Jean’s power is purring in his veins, filling him to the brim. He’s almost ready. “I knew I’d smelled that poison somewhere before.”
“I did. And yet you’re not a werewolf. Or a corpse rotting in the ground. You’re an abomination.” Eren’s claws dig into the injuries he left before, reopening the wounds and sinking into Jean’s body bit by bit. “I do not agree with having this kind of offspring.”
“What? Ew.” Jean can’t help making a face. “I’m not your fucking offspring, you unwashed mongrel!”
“Jean!”
Is Mikasa trying to warn or scold him? Jean doesn’t know. And he doesn’t have time to ponder this either, because the next thing he knows, there is a loud crash and a rain of glass fills the air.
It’s lucky that werewolves don’t need to be invited to come in.
Reiner tackles Eren to the ground in a blaze of glory. Jean’s chair gets kicked, and soon enough he is on the floor as well, thrashing around to see what’s happening. Mikasa is holding her head as if she has a headache, her eyes filled with blood, not tears.
And then it hits Jean.
This is bad. This is very, very bad. Because Reiner is still in his human form. Jean doesn’t even know if he can turn into a hybrid like Jaeger. But he surely won’t do much against that monster as a wolf.
And Reiner keeps pummeling Eren, his eyes glowing, his teeth transformed into fangs. His rage rolls off him in waves, his fists almost scraped to the bone with how hard he hits Jaeger. And Eren keeps… laughing, laughing louder and louder with every punch he takes.
“Reiner! Get off him! I had it under control!” Jean yells, his wrists straining against the chains. Had they been iron, Jean would have ripped through them long ago. “Reiner!”
But Reiner doesn’t listen. Even if his body isn’t that of a monster, his mind is. It’s his instinct guiding him now—the one that is telling him to protect his mate.
Protect Jean.
Braun is a brick shithouse, a true immovable object under any other circumstances, but he doesn’t stand a chance against Jaeger’s unstoppable force, that much is certain. Eren is toying with him. He roars with laughter like a madman, ecstatic with pain. He finally takes the initiative and headbutts Reiner with a sickening crack.
Jean can smell Braun’s blood before he sees it. Mikasa growls, familiar hunger seizing her features, and Jean knows he has to act fast. He kicks at the chair, at the floor, trying to change his position and free himself.
“Reiner, get the fuck away from them! Now!”
But Braun doesn’t listen. Once more, he throws himself at Eren, a primal roar coming from deep within him—and he miscalculates. Jaeger slaps him, his claws tearing Reiner’s face almost clean off.
Jean can hear Reiner scream as he stumbles to the ground. Can see fragments of his skin and what looks like the remains of an eye sticking to Eren’s fingers.
And Jean screams too. He’s full of sound and fury, signifying more than anyone would expect. His fingertips are prickling with hidden power. Whatever he has now, it must be enough. It must be.
He strains his muscles one last time, feeling his skin boil and char. The smell of burnt flesh buries itself deep in Jean’s nostrils. And then the silver chains crack, breaking into pieces like a necklace.
Mikasa gasps.
In the next moment, Jean jumps at Jaeger, pushing him off Reiner’s still form. Eren hits the wall, thrown back by the impact, and Jean makes sure to tear his throat open with his claws before retreating.
“What—what the hell! I thought he was… restrained!” Eren chokes on his blood, trying to stop the bleeding with his hands.
Mikasa rushes to his side.
“He was!”
“With silver chains?!”
“Yes!”
“Then why isn’t he paralyzed?!”
Jean gathers Reiner in his arms. Braun is unconscious, his limbs limp, half of his face gone. It’s been turned into a caricature, a madman’s sculpture—a mixture of blood, ruined tissue, and cracked bones. It seems unholy to have destroyed something so perfect.
For one terrible moment, Jean wants to lick it all off. To bury his fangs and tongue in what’s left of Reiner’s beautiful, beautiful face, feel the tender jelly of its insides, snack on the membrane and…
Reiner is dying. Eren’s poison is coursing through his veins; Jean can smell it, can see it in the wreckage of his body.
Unforgivable.
He cradles Reiner’s head to his chest, letting the grime soak into his clothes as he turns to face Eren again. Jaeger is back on his feet, the wound on his throat stitching itself closed. The blood loss affected him enough to force him to lean on Mikasa in order to stand.
There’s murder in Eren’s eyes. Murder and the promise of a long, agonizing death.
“I’ll fucking kill you,” Jean and Eren say simultaneously.
“No, I will.”
Levi moves like a shadow, descending onto the building and swimming somewhere in the periphery of Jean’s vision. His aura precedes him, reaching Jean in the form of a warm wave and forcing Eren to his knees again. Jaeger’s wound reopens, and he starts choking on blood once more. Whatever ancient powers Ackerman is wielding come crashing down on Eren all at once.
“Stop it!” Mikasa orders, kneeling by Jaeger and shielding him with her body. “Please. He’s sick. He’s dying.”
“Why should I care?” Levi asks with no emotion whatsoever, his voice nothing but a cold breath of air.
“It’s getting worse every day. Sometimes he can’t even turn back. That’s why we came here. Help me, please,” Mikasa begs, looking at her cousin with bloodshot eyes. “I need to save him.”
Levi straightens his back. Eren seems almost comatose now, going limp in Mikasa’s embrace. It’s only his yelps of pain, strangely reminiscent of a kicked dog, that prove he’s still conscious.
“You help your family,” Levi says. “And I’ll help mine.”
Jean doesn’t know what Mikasa does next. They leave her there with her monstrous, doomed lover, who truly seems beyond saving. Perhaps she’ll find a way to reverse Grisha’s machinations. Perhaps she’ll get the old Eren back. Perhaps she won’t. Frankly, Jean doesn’t care anymore.
And yet he suspects her desperate sobs will haunt him for days.
It’s funny, though, that Eren almost killed the one thing that really could have saved him.
Levi helps Jean carry Reiner to the rooftop. There is a glimmer of yellow on the still-dark horizon. The sun is waking.
“That night, twenty years ago, we both bit you. Me and Eren,” Levi says, and Jean turns to look in his direction.
Reiner’s breathing is still irregular, but his heartbeat remains steady against Jean’s chest. His body is fighting the poison, raising his temperature. Jean keeps caressing his head as Levi confesses:
“We were fighting when you appeared out of nowhere. You must have gotten separated from your group. There was fire and smoke everywhere… The battle had lasted for hours by then, and we were both hungry. Jaeger got to you first, tore your throat open…”
Levi’s voice is quiet, and something about it seems regretful.
“He wanted to see you bleed out, to show me who’s the bigger predator. But I chased him away. And then… and then I looked at you. You could barely talk, but you said you didn’t want to die. For some reason, I found it endearing. Facing the personification of death and asking it for life… so I gave you one. The only one I could.”
The smell of Reiner’s blood is sweet in the air. Even Levi’s eyes are glowing red with interest when he turns to face them.
“Are you sure about this?” Levi asks, gesturing to Braun.
“Yes.”
“Once you reveal your powers to him…”
“We’ll be fine. I’ll be fine.”
Levi nods, accepting his choice.
Jean gathers Reiner in his arms, lifting him as he stands. He tries not to focus on how doll-like and helpless Braun is now, with his head resting on his shoulder. He hates seeing him like this.
“So, I have something of a werewolf in me?”
“Tsk!” Levi makes a face. “It appears so.”
“Thank you,” Jean says with a smile. “For giving me this life. If it hadn’t been for you… I’d never have met him.”
***
He takes Reiner to his house in the werewolf territory. He carefully arranges him on the bed and cleans what remains of his face.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make you handsome again, you dumbass,” he whispers, caressing Reiner’s healthy cheek.
He goes down to the bar and helps himself to a bit of blood—not enough to sate his hunger, not enough to turn him manic, but enough to get the liquid flowing in his veins.
To activate his power again.
He has never used it twice in a row in a single night. He hopes he won’t fuck up. He hopes he won’t drop dead.
Shit.
“Hey, Sleeping Beauty. I need you to wake up. You hear me? Up.”
He shakes Reiner awake. It doesn’t take as much effort as he thought it would. But Braun wakes in fighting mode: growling, ready to kill gods and bring about Ragnarök. Jean has to use force to keep him immobile.
“Shh. It’s me. It’s just me. You’re safe.”
“Jean? Where—”
“Home. You’re home.”
Reiner is pale, sweating, his heart beating furiously in a race to cheat death. He raises his hand, but Jean catches his wrist. Reiner is sweating from stress and pain, the stench of suffering heavy around him.
“My eye… I can’t… I can’t see. It hurts.”
“I know. Don’t touch it.”
“Why isn’t it healing? It should heal on its own.”
“It’s because of Eren’s poison. His father enhanced his abilities and turned him… into that thing. The poison is blocking your regeneration. But I can help you. You just have to trust me.”
Reiner blinks with his only eye. Eren’s claws took away part of his hairline, too. The aim was probably to scalp him completely.
“What are you talking about?”
“Just trust me. Please.” Jean doesn’t use that word often. “And don’t move.”
Braun has no choice.
“Okay.”
“Good boy.” Jean straddles Reiner’s lap, tears his own wrist open with his fangs, and moves it to Reiner’s mouth. “Drink. I don’t have much to work with, so don’t waste it.”
Braun looks conflicted but manages to take three sips from Jean. He licks his lips, then grimaces a little, making Jean chuckle.
“Not too tasty? What a shame. Now, you’ll like this next part even less.”
Jean uses whatever blood he has left to cover the injuries on Reiner’s face. He smears the blood to the best of his ability, mixing it with Reiner’s, with the pieces of his tender flesh, digging his fingers into the destroyed tissue.
Reiner yelps from pain exactly once. After that, everything happens fast: his face rebuilds itself, producing the essential pieces and gluing everything together once again. The Japanese used to repair broken ceramics with gold.
Jean uses himself.
And then Braun sits up, blinking in shock. His missing eye is back where it used to be, his face mended like a mask. Reiner traces his cheeks with his fingertips, searching for pain—and comes up empty-handed. All that’s left are scars. Silver and thin, they look like a spiderweb, one Reiner wandered into carelessly and didn’t bother to brush away.
Jean tilts his head, admiring his masterpiece. He’s quite proud of himself. Braun, however, looks like a confused puppy, and Jean can’t help but chuckle again.
“What… How? I don’t understand.”
“Ta-da! It’s my secret ability,” Jean says, slumping on the bed next to him. “Quite cool, no?”
He’s slurring a little, his body going into shock, turning stiff and almost unresponsive. Jean guesses that’s to be expected, given everything he has been through that night.
Reiner should be really mindful of his weak state, not to mention grateful, but instead he chooses to be an idiot.
“Reversing time?”
“Healing, you dolt.”
Now it’s Braun’s turn to cradle him in his arms, worry etched onto his restored face.
“Relax. I’ll be fine, golden boy. I just need a minute.”
“You… can heal? With your blood?” Reiner furrows his brows. “This doesn’t make sense. You’re a vampire.”
“Quite ironic, yeah.” Jean sighs, pressing his cheek against Reiner’s chest, basking in its warmth. “Vampires destroy, not create. We bring only death…”
He rolls up one of his sleeves and shows Reiner his unblemished skin. No charred tissue. No blisters.
“Eren poisoned me too. And then put silver on me. If not for my powers, I’d be dead now.”
“So you can heal yourself faster than normal vampires. And you can heal others…” Reiner says, clearly still struggling to wrap his head around it.
“And I can reverse the poison’s effect. I didn’t need you to save me, big guy. I told you I had everything under control. But you just had to go and be a hero… Good grief. Had he been nicer to me, maybe I would have tried to heal Jaeger too. But he bitch-slapped you and crossed the line.”
Reiner is still worried, the wrinkles on his forehead making Jean sigh. He reaches out and traces Braun’s web of scars with his fingers. Reiner doesn’t seem too concerned about the current state of his face, which is a relief. Jean happens to think he looks even better than before, and he’s ready to say it as many times as needed.
“Twenty years ago, when I was turned, I got bitten by both a werewolf and a vampire. I guess this mixture… produced some antibodies to whatever Grisha injected Eren with? I don’t know. I don’t have a scientific explanation for it. I don’t know anyone else with this ability.”
“You idiot,” Reiner says, his voice heavy with sudden anger. “You bloody idiot! Why did you reveal yourself? How could you? If this gets out—”
“It won’t.”
Jean closes his eyes and feels Reiner’s muscles constrict, his fingers digging into Jean’s body, holding onto him desperately.
“They will drain you! They’ll use you as a fucking drip! You shouldn’t have done that for me. You should have kept yourself safe!”
Reiner’s eyes are a mixture of liquid gold and scorching fire, his anguish even stronger than his pain before. Jean pats his hand.
“That’s rich coming from you, but… I guess we’re both hopeless fucking romantics. It’s going to be okay. Now that you’re okay, I’ll be too.”
Braun is silent for a moment, his warmth seeping lazily into Jean’s body, making him hungry again. Reiner’s lips are still stained with his blood. It’s a delicious sight.
“You sure?” Reiner asks in a small voice.
“Yes.” Jean sits up and presses their foreheads together. “Even if we don’t get to do this for eternity, it’s worth it. More than worth it. I know I said I’m not what you need, but… I want you to need me. I need you to need me.”
Jean kisses Reiner’s cheek, and Reiner repays him with a kiss to his neck. His lips travel lower, to the point where Jean’s shoulder starts.
“I can’t stop thinking about that night I saw you for the first time,” Reiner whispers, his breath hypnotizing, making Jean’s fangs come out. “The way you protected your friends back then… I immediately knew I could have a family with you. I don’t care what anyone says. I want you to want me. I need it.”
Jean breaks into a grin, wrapping his arms around Reiner and letting him press him into the mattress. They fit together perfectly, their legs slotting in a way that makes Jean sure they were always meant to be.
“Wife?” Reiner asks shyly.
“Don’t start again.”
Braun whines.
“Fine. Mate?”
“Yes. Fuck everyone and their mother. Let’s mate.”
When Reiner’s fangs tear his flesh apart, they bring nothing but bliss.
Blood is life.