Crack of Sunlight (Ereri/Riren)

•~Chapter Sixteen~•

I was not satisfied with the last chapter. So here!

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Eren coughed as a puff of dust rained down on him from the opening in the ceiling he was pushing up. It caught him in a sneeze, too, before he could get a look at what was above the plank of wood. From below, Carla chuckled and said a 'gesundheit'. He laughed too and uttered a thank you before pushing the plank/door the rest of the way open, this time holding his breath as more dust showered down.

It was his day off and he'd promised to help his mom clean out the attic, a place that hadn't been touched by human hands since he was ten or eleven years old.

As he peeked up into it, he almost couldn't believe his eyes. It wasn't a very big room, but it was stacked to the ceiling with boxes upon boxes that were covered by dust upon dust. He held his breath as he climbed higher on the latter, taking a look around.

"How does something that's gone untouched for so long collect this much dust?" he mumbled. The dust was already attacking his nose and he felt another sneeze building up.

"Oh, it can't be that bad," Carla said from below. In answer, he dragged his finger along the wooden floor of the attic and showed it to her. She grimaced at his now gray fingertip.

"Good thing Levi's not here to see this," he joked. "He'd probably have a cow at this mess." He laughed, trying to picture the expression of abhor that would surely plaster Levi's features at the mess Eren currently laid eyes on. The raven was currently at work, having at least five different appointments for the day on top of several other commissions he wanted to get done.

Carla began handing cleaning supplies up to Eren, who immediately started to wipe the floor down so he would have to get himself dirty with as little dust as possible. He was no clean freak like his tattooed companion, but even this amount of dust was too much for him; it would be for anyone. It was caked between the ceiling boards and clung to every flat surface in the room. There were surely rats or at least mice scurrying around in there, having bored hiding places in the walls or even the boxes. Fortunately, Eren wasn't so afraid of such critters. Spiders, on the other hand, were a much different story...

"Help me up, Eren," Carla said, beginning to ascend the ladder. The male cast the cleaning supplies aside momentarily to reach down into the opening and help his mom climb her way into the attic with him.

"I'd say I'm still pretty agile in my old age, huh?" she said, smiling.

"Please, Mom. You're not even old."

The woman chuckled and ruffled her son's hair, already collecting dust itself. "Thanks, hon," she said. She proceeded to look around, her amber eyes growing more hopeless as she took in the endless boxes caked in endless dust and the ceiling that was more so made of cobwebs than, well, ceiling. She, too, sneezed. "Guess you weren't exaggerating."

"Nope. But it's not gonna clean itself."

"Right," she said, and with that they got to work, dusting and mopping the floor until it almost shined in the overhanging light bulb that, miraculously, still worked. For a long while they didn't come upon any rats or mice, but with the droppings among the seemingly endless dust, it was apparent they were there or at least had been. No spiders, either, but the brunet was extra cautious as he dragged a broom along the ceiling to get rid of the cobwebs.

Simply dusting the place took two hours, and by the time they were ready to start going through the boxes, it was past noon. As a result, they went back downstairs to make lunch - Eren's classic peanut butter and banana sandwich (something he'd loved since he was a kid) and Carla's turkey on rye. The two elected to enjoy the nice afternoon and ate outside on the back deck.