Do You Still Love Me

Night Time Doodles

Eren jolted awake shaking with fear. He swung his head looking at either side of him, but everything was normal. Eren took a few deep breaths to try and calm himself down. He started to breathe normally, but he was still slightly trembling. "Why tonight," Eren whispered to himself. 'I keep seeing his face.' Eren thought. 'His face more than the rest of them, but the other two are still standing there behind him,' Eren starter remembering his dream. 'They were in our house standing right over there next to Levi looking at him like he was going to be their next victim.' Eren shook his head trying to clear the frightening image from his head.

'Why was I even dreaming about this?' Eren asked himself. 'Could it be a warning? No, there is no way that would happen,' Eren shrugged off that thought. 'Maybe because I ran into him at the store and he told me there were going to find me,' Eren shook his head. 'What an empty threat,' he thought, but there was still a little worry clouding that thought. 'Was it truly an empty threat?'

Eren shook his head and looked down at Levi. He was still sound asleep and Eren was glad that he didn't wake him. He leaned over and kissed his forehead before sliding out of bed on his still slightly shaky knees. 'I have to go calm myself down,' Eren thought quietly opening the door and slipping out of it. He began to walk down the hallway. He was going to get a drink of cold water and draw a little too. He stopped when he noticed the bathroom light was showing under the door into the hall. 'One of the kids must be up,' he thought. He was just going to keep walking and head downstairs. As he came up to the door he heard whimpering and sniffles coming from just beyond the door.

Eren felt as his feet stopped just in front of the door. He had felt like all the panic that was currently controlling him had disappeared so that he could take care of someone else. He wasn't sure what to do. 'Am I really about to knock on the bathroom door where a teenager is inside?' Eren asked himself knowing how weird it sounded in his head, but he didn't want them to keep crying. He already could tell who was in the bathroom. Eren took a breath and raised his hand up before knocking on the door.

After he knocked he heard some surprised shuffling on the other side of the door. "TJ, it's me Eren," he said letting him know who it was so maybe he would be willing to talk to him. It went quiet and stayed that way for a minute before the door unlocked and TJ had opened it a crack so Eren knew he could come in.

Eren pushed the door open and saw TJ sitting on the floor with his knees up to his chest and his head down with his hair covering his eyes and his legs a little as well. He stood in the doorway and TJ looked up at him with puffy eyes.

"Sorry if I woke you," TJ apologized feeling guilty.

"You didn't wake me, I was already up," Eren shrugged and TJ looked back up at him. "Couldn't sleep?" Eren asked and TJ nodded. "You wanna talk about it," Eren asked. TJ just shook his head before looking back down. "Okay well how about we go downstairs," Eren suggested.

"Okay," TJ nodded.

"Okay, let's go," Eren said before helping TJ up. They walked down the stairs and Eren lead them to the dining room where he got TJ a glass of water. Eren sat down across from him at the table.

TJ had already calmed down and the redness on his face was fading away. His curiosity had started back up and he looked up towards Eren. "Why were you already up? If you don't mind me asking."

"I had a nightmare and couldn't get back to sleep," Eren said.

"Sorry," TJ said.

"It's alright," Eren shrugged, "it happens all the time."

"Eren," TJ whispered.

"Yeah?" Eren asked with a kind smile leaning in to hear him.

"I don't want to go to bed yet," he mumbled, "if I do, I know my mind would just-," TJ went quiet and brought his hands up to his face rubbing at his eyes.

"Hey it's okay you don't have to," Eren said, "I was planning on staying up for a while anyway." Eren thought for a minute. "Maybe, we can do something to pass the time," Eren suggested.

TJ looked up at him awaiting his suggestions.

"Well when I can't sleep I usually draw, or paint," Eren suggested. "Would that be something you're interested in doing?" Eren asked.

"I've never really been good at drawing, the best drawing I have ever done was stick figures," TJ said with a small smile over his lips, "But I've been trying to practice," he said.

"I can teach you some tricks to make some things easier," Eren suggested.

"I'd like that," TJ smiled.

Eren walked over and grabbed his sketchbook off the coffee table and tore out a page for TJ. "Let me know if you need any more," Eren said and TJ nodded. Eren handed him a pencil and sat next to him turning to a new page in his sketchbook.

"What do you want to learn how to draw first?" Eren asked.

TJ thought for a moment before suggesting something he thought would be easy. "How about a flower," he said remembering the painting from earlier.

"Alright, a flower it is," Eren said picking up his pencil showing TJ easy methods to use.

After around an hour of drawing, TJ had let a yawn slip as he felt tired.

"Are you ready to go to bed?" Eren asked?

TJ nodded, "Yeah," he said, "Thanks for teaching me," he smiled looking down at the flowers he had sketched on his page. They weren't perfect, far from it, but he was proud of them, and so was Eren. "I'm learning," TJ had said after the first one. They were messily sketched and had a lot of faded marks that were erased, but despite that Eren still saw how beautiful they looked for a first attempt.

"Goodnight," TJ said as he headed back up the stairs drawing in hand. He had gone back up to the room and set the drawing on the nightstand by his side of the bed before crawling back in the bed next to his sister who was still sound asleep.

'Maybe I should get him a sketchbook,' Eren thought to himself, before turning to a new page in his sketchbook. He still wasn't ready to head upstairs quiet yet. He was going to draw a little to clear his mind from the dream he had earlier since it was still getting to him a bit. He didn't know how long he would stay up, but he did know he wasn't going back upstairs until he felt he was ready to go back to sleep.

Levi sat up and yawned. He noticed that Eren wasn't in bed and he got a little curious. It was still the middle of the night and the bathroom was dark. Levi got out of bed and walked down the hall to see that the studio was dark and empty. He kept walking and saw a bit of light coming from downstairs. He made his way down the stairs to see if Eren was there and sure enough when he got close enough he saw him sitting at the table, but something wasn't quite right.

Levi let out a chuckle when he realized that Eren had fallen asleep at the table. He walked over to him and looked at him and what he was doing when he had fallen asleep. Eren was in the middle of sketching a picture when he looked at the picture he smiled. It was a doodle of him and Hanji laughing and with them was a half-finished Erwin. 'He must have been up for at least an hour,' Levi thought at first before smiling, 'he's gotten so good at drawing,' Levi thought looking at the picture. He looked back at Eren and looked at the cast on his arm and sighed. He pulled off his shirt and wrapped it around his cast so that it wouldn't be as uncomfortable before leaning over and picking Eren up. He bumped the light with his arm and proceeded to carry Eren back up the stairs to the bed.

This isn't the first time Eren had passed out in some random place around the house. One of the times he had passed out leaning up against the wall in his studio, Levi wasn't even sure how he managed to accomplish that, but it sure made for a funny picture that Levi took just to prove to Eren that when he told him the next day he wasn't lying.

He had reached the bed and laid Eren down on it and watched as Eren rolled over but stayed sleeping before throwing the shirt he had wrapped around his cast back on and joining him in bed. It didn't take him long to fall back to sleep.