"Grisha came home last night, so I told him you were at Armin's. He has to go on an impromptu trip to Japan. He's leaving on Friday evening. You'll see him before he leaves, but probably tomorrow too."
"Oh. How long is he leaving for ?"
"For a month," sighed Carla.
"He's leaving you for a month ?! With barely a day's notice ?"
"It's not his fault, he couldn't have known beforehand ; he was just as surprised as I was, darling."
"Mom ..."
Carla's lips curved upwards half-heartedly, as she rubbed the back of her hand over her right eye. "I wasn't expecting it, so it's a shame, especially since I see him so little when he is actually here."
"Mom, it's not fair for you."
Carla shook her head, shooting him a small, reassuring smile. "It's fine. Now," she clapped her hands together, "I would very much like to settle down and have one of our movie nights. Put on a film Eren, I'll go grab something to snack on."
They both headed over to complete their tasks, until Carla turned back to Levi, who was heading for the stairs. "Come back here, you're watching it with us !"
Levi stopped in his tracks, his eyes flickering between his left and his right. "I don't want to intrude."
"Don't be silly, you're more than welcome." Levi turned to look at her. "It doesn't bother Eren either, right honey ?"
Eren didn't feel pressured to answer yes, it came out instinctively. "Of course not."
Levi hesitated for a minute, then moved towards Eren and Carla, who had both settled down on the couch with a soft blanket covering their knees, one of the ones that Eren and Levi had used previously. He sat down gingerly, a little further from Carla and her son then they were from each other.
The movie began, the red letters spelling out "searching" fading into white.
Carla circled an arm around both boys on either side of her, pulling them closer to her, until they rested against her shoulders. She softly kissed both their heads, smiling as she felt Eren unconsciously snuggle deeper into her body. Levi had tensed up when he got pulled nearer to Eren's mother, but Carla felt oddly comforted by the tension fading from his body the longer she hugged him.
She sighed with a smile, content.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
"I don't know what I would do if you disappeared like that ..."
"I'm not going anywhere Mom." He snuggled into the creek of her neck, playing with her hair. Eren could see she was affected by Grisha's unplanned leave, and he was doing his best to make her feel better.
She passed her thumb over his soft cheek, covering him with a gaze full of love so strong she couldn't express it with words. Instead, she hugged him tightly with her left arm, her right one still around Levi. He didn't budge, but he didn't move away either.
The timer on the oven beeped, dragging out a heavy exhale from Carla, announcing the end of the embrace. She moved to get up, but Levi beat her to the punch.
"Leave it to me, I'll go take it out. Will I put it on the metallic grill ?"
"Oh thank you Levi ! You didn't have to."
"It's nothing." The raven left the sitting room to get the chicken breasts Carla had put into the oven halfway into the movie.
"The minute he walked into this house, he didn't strike me as a cuddly person. Turns out he's quite pleasant to hug," Carla thought aloud.
"That sounds weird," muttered Eren into her shoulder.
"It does not !"
"Does."
"Not."
"Does !"
"You're not winning this one, Eren."
He grinned happily, reassured to see her get some of her usual perkiness back.
"Jokes aside, I wouldn't have pegged him to be the decent type."
"Just goes to show you can't judge a book by it's cover," cited Carla.
Eren groaned, dramatically throwing his head back onto the couch. "Not more of those proverbs ! There have been too many wise words coming from you lately."
"You need them though. Every last one of them," joined in Levi, strolling into the living room with his hands in his pockets. He gave off an entire bad boy vibe. It didn't fit with the way Levi had acted in the park, being helpful and some sort of encouraging. He felt his cheeks heat up as he thought about just how much of a chicken he had been.
"Dinner time," he blurted, feeling the two pairs of eyes on his gradually reddening cheeks.
Carla chuckled, picking up the empty mugs of hot chocolate as she went into the kitchen.
"What are you thinking of ?" Levi asked.
"You. Wait no. Of the park. Trees. How much of an embarrassment I was."
Levi smirked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Just that ?"
"Yeah. Definitely. Actually, it's a lie. Now I'm thinking of how much of an ass you are." Eren glared at Levi's insistent look.
"Language, Eren !" protested Carla, coming to tell them dinner was ready.
"Sorry Mom," he apologized, glaring at Levi once more.
"Have manners like this young man here," she finished with a smile.
"Thank you Mrs. Yaeger."
"Carla," she rectified, motioning with her head for them to follow her.
"Right. Carla."
"Exactly ! Now let's go and have a bite to eat, since I need to leave in an hour or so."
Eren gave her a questioning look, his head tilted, the beginning of a frown upon his brow when she explained that she needed to go shopping, and do a couple of bits for Grisha. "He's already leaving you for a month ! He can go fetch his own stuff and - "
A sharp pain in his forearm stopped him in his rant.
"She's only going to feel worse," hissed Levi in his ear.
Eren stared at the white kitchen tiles, almost like he was waiting for them to crack in front of his eyes, guilt digging a pit in his stomach. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking ... It smells good," he feebly attempted to change the topic.
"Did you cook much when you were younger ?" asked Levi.
Carla nodded vigorously, placing the dish filled with appealing spicy chicken in the center of the table, then adding the other bowls full of fresh green lettuce, salsa and many other fillings for the wraps she took out, before carefully laying out the plates at their seats. Levi helped her set the table, nodding every so often to Carla's answer, or slipping in the odd word.
Eren watched them move around, feeling the guilt writhe inside him, knowing Levi had done a better job comforting Eren's mother than Eren himself. For all the times his mother had been there for him, he was unable to help her this rare time she needed comfort. Instead, a somewhat stranger was doing Eren's job. It brought up a bit of jealousy in him, that he immediately fought down, not wanting to risk burning the olive branch between him and the raven with his jealousy.
Eren remained quiet and meek whenever he talked to his mother, carefully choosing his words, and omitting half of what he wanted to say, even if he knew it wouldn't necessarily worsen things. It was a quiet dinner, the sound of chewing slicing through the thick silence installing itself in between short conversations.
The brunette played around with the bits of chicken that fell out of his wrap, shame causing him to wonder if he was worthy of eating the tasty meal his mother made. Try as he might, he couldn't shake the feeling of unworthiness stemming from his unfair words.
When he finished off his plate, he placed his cutlery in the sink, calmly walking out of the dining room, before racing into his room. Levi joined him a while later, even though he had finished eating before Eren. He hoped that Levi had gotten to have a good chat with his mother.
He mentally chided himself, disapproving his sourness. Thankfully it didn't stick for longer than a minute, for he wasn't the sort of person to hold a grudge.
Silence bathed the room as they both pulled out their maths homework, sitting at their respective desks. So quiet, they would've been able to hear a spider crawl up the wall, their thin paws moving up the wall, emitting no sound, trailing a delicate web behind it. Eren didn't mind spiders, so whenever Armin saw one, and refused to kill it, hurt it, let alone touch it, he always came to pick it up, and put it outside, since Mikasa was rough with them, and just flung them outside.
At least the room was soon filled with the sound of pens and pencils scratching the paper, setting the shapes and formulas in ink or grey lines. If you thought about it, it was rather beautiful, how it all got created by a hand and a pen, just like drawings. Though Eren sometimes felt like he was the only one who thought so. However, art actually conveyed an emotion, whereas calculations ... Well they conveyed boredom.
Levi flipped through his maths book, breezing through each exercise, a careless expression decorating his face. It morphed into a frown when he saw Eren on his bed, playing with the metal nib of his compass, twirling it around on the page, the color of the circle's line deepening just like Eren's frustrated look.
"Your circle is drawn brat," commented Levi, beginning to create his own.
"Mhm."
"Is the math exercise that difficult ?" Levi asked sarcastically.
"Nope, I just feel bad about hurting Mom like that." He bit into his thumb, effectively tearing away the skin preventing the outflow of blood.
"Look, she doesn't seem to be the type of person that would hold grudges. Especially not against her own son. I'm right, aren't I ?"
Eren nodded, laying his head back onto the headboard. "I just wish that father of mine wouldn't leave her to take care of two teenagers, the house, herself, the shopping ... I'll do that instead of her doing it. And I'll do the cleaning more often ..." He went on, talking to himself more than anything.
"I'll help."
"No way, you're the guest."
"I'm not sure someone living in this house for six months can be considered a guest anymore. Besides, it's only polite to help."
"I can take care of it."
"No you can't," retorted Levi, spinning around to face Eren.
Eren straightened his neck abruptly, staring indignantly at him. "I'm sorry ??"
"No offense, but I don't think you're mentally capable of doing all of that."
The brunette was on the verge of protesting, until he realized Levi was right. He wouldn't be able to cope with all of it while dealing with the other things. The other things ...
A shiver crossed his body, as the other thing came to mind, something he hadn't thought about in a very long time. He clenched his fists, behind the cover of his knees pulled up to his chest. He felt like he was compressing his brain as he repressed those thoughts.
"Hey brat, let's go for a run."
The wind whistled past his ears, making the fallen leaves swirl around them, the occasional one getting caught in his hair. His arms fought against the wind, propulsing him further, in synchronization with the raven next to him.
"Where to ?" Levi spoke up, without raising his voice, but with a certain power behind it.
"Anywhere ! No matter where we go, I'll get us back home."
"Then where would you usually go ?"
Eren glanced at his surroundings, and his feet automatically made him veer off to his right, into a street without much light, but with nobody wandering along the row of houses. There never had been anyone, no matter how frequently Eren went by. Which suited him fine, since he preferred to run without anyone looking at him. And apparently, that didn't include Levi, the guy who had made him feel completely worthless at first.
It felt nice though.
Without speaking, they both decided after a couple miles to turn back home. Eren hadn't run that much in a long time, but with Levi being a short-legged powerhouse, they both kept up with each other, with a steady pace. Soon enough, they rounded the bend, approaching the familiar house.
He was always up for a run, to be focused on the path in front of him, the scenery no longer of any importance, only the power coursing through his body, fueling his legs, so that each time his foot hit the ground, he leapt forward like a leopard.
It was almost the same thing Levi had said about climbing. So was climbing Levi's way to decompress, and get rid of some of the stress ? If that was the case, then when he said he had often been to the tree they had climbed ... Did that mean he was stressed ? Eren wouldn't have guessed by how he acted. Eren made a mental note to find out what could be the reason to Levi's stress - without being intrusive, but just to see if he could help. Because Eren was a helpful person, to anyone and everyone, even though he couldn't help himself.
The sweaty brunette could've laughed at the regular and heavy income of thoughts that arrived the minute his feet began to take a slower rhythm, until they came to a stop.
Wiping his moist forehead with the back of his hand, he took deep breaths of the fresh evening air, avidly sucking in the coolness that came into his lungs, like it was the only thing he could survive on. Beside him, Levi inhaled silently, but each exhale was like an charging bull, a short but somehow angry one. How a single breath could seem like an emotion, Eren didn't have a clue.
They paused for a minute to catch their breath before entering the house. Eren wandered into the kitchen to get a glass of water, Levi in tow. He noticed a little blue post-it - because Eren convinced his mother yellow ones were unoriginal - stuck on the cupboard, well in sight.
"I'm gone to get a couple of things, I'll be back soon. Remember to hydrate yourselves. Love you xx "
With a sigh Eren gently prised the post-it off the door, the ghost of a smile crossing his face when he read the last part. Carla always cared about him no matter what, including during their rare fights, or slight misunderstandings. She made sure he ate enough, drank enough, learned his lessons, even going to the point of wanting Eren to be home every night. But of course, Eren could never blame her for her protectiveness, even when it went a little overboard. But then again, Carla gave him a lot of freedom at the same time. He loved her deeply, and nothing would ever change that.
Eren quickly gulped down the ice cold water he had poured from a jug in the fridge, appreciating the cold liquid sliding down his throat. Levi did the same, resting his elbow on the counter behind him.
"You have good endurance." Eren passed his thumb over his lips to get rid of any remaining water.
"Well you saw how fit I was, didn't you ?" Levi smirked.
"Cocky idiot," Eren muttered under his breath.
"I heard that, brat."
Eren put down his glass, rolling his eyes at the raven. "I'm going to head upstairs before I get into this any further."
"And I will follow you."
"Nooo go away," complained Eren, climbing the steps two by two.
"Not a fucking chance. Now move your slow ass up these stairs."
"How are you going quicker than me ? Your legs are ten times shorter !" Eren exclaimed, stepping onto the landing.
"Watch that fucking mouth of yours, brat," Levi growled, before wrapping his arms securely around Eren's waist, hoisting him into the air.
Eren yelled in protest and terror, carried all the way to his bedroom, letting out a yelp when he got thrown into his bed.
"That's what you deserve," nodded Levi, a satisfied glint in his eyes.
Eren laid sprawled out on the bed, torn between laughing, or hiding in his closet, so that Levi would never find him again.
He chose the first option, letting out a burst of relieved and genuine laughter, prolonged when he caught the raised eyebrow on Levi's face.
The feeling of letting out laughter was amazing, and Eren would try and take any opportunity that allowed him to do so.
"Thanks !" grinned Eren cheerfully sitting up cross-legged on his bed.
"Why ?"
" 'Cause I needed a laugh."
"Then you're welcome."
Eren stood up, slipping out to brush his teeth. He looked in the mirror hanging above the hand basin, smiling happily at his reflection. He felt like things were getting better. A lot better, actually.
Perfect, right ?
Hey guys, sorry for the late update. There was an issue with Wattpad and my "supposed to be saved" chapter.
I know it's a shorter chapter, but at least it's somethinggg.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Feel free to let me know what you thought !
Thanks !
- Val