Levi Gets Sick
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Cold. Levi was shivering cold when he woke up. He had hardly slept all night. He had been tossing and turning and sometimes getting out of bed to walk around the room. Levi opened his eyes and rubbed them.
“I’m glad to see that you’re awake… A voice said causing Levi to jump slightly. Levi looked up to see who it belonged to. Who the-? It was a man standing near the door. His arms were folded across his chest. He moved slowly and adjusted his glasses, “… and still alive Levi. Now we can talk.”
“About what? What’s going on? What happened?” Levi asked confused. Levi had no idea who the man even was, yet he was sure he knew him somehow.
The man seemed to ignore Levi’s questions, his face was sour with what seemed like anger and sadness, “You know exactly what you did…! I can’t believe you! After all that I did for you… you…” He wiped tears from his eyes, “I let you live here, fed you, gave you clothes… I even permit you to play with my son… You defiled him. He doesn’t trust me anymore. And to top it off..! The nerve!” The man seemed to be very angered now, his tears blinding his eyes and dripping down his cheeks.
Levi was speechless, he was still very confused as to what was going on. The man was moving towards Levi’s bed now. “Wait, I don’t understand-”
The man reached for Levi and grabbed him by his shirt pulling him into sitting position, “I hope you said goodbye to my son because you won’t ever see him again. I’m sending you back where you came from!” He yelled as tears poured from his eyes. He raised his other hand, “I’ll make sure you don’t see the light of day again!” With that, the man’s hand collided with Levi’s face with a loud smack. The force of the smack caused Levi to fall backwards into his bed.
Despite hitting the bed, it still hurt to fall into it. It felt like his whole body hurt, yet at the same time Levi’s body went numb. He felt everything and nothing at the same time. He began to shake and curl up into a ball. He covered his face with his hands. No. Not this. I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to be caged again. The horrors of going back to his imprisonment was terrifying. Levi’s blood ran cold, “Wait! I don’t want to go back! I didn’t mean it! I didn’t, honestly! Give me another chance!” The room was quiet as if time had stopped. After a while of silence, Levi knew that it meant one thing, he was going back.
Levi sat upready to face the man. Where did he go? The man had disappeared. Levi’s bedroom was empty again. Then it hit him all at once. He groaned. He felt terrible. It felt like everything hurt all at once. He was burning up, yet he also was shivering. What the fuck? Was that a dream… or did it actually happen? He rubbed his eyes. Levi felt so exhausted and very sore. Regardless of all of that he forced himself out of bed. When his feet hit the cold floor they screamed for him to stop. Levi took a step towards the door which was actually harder than it was supposed to be. The floor appeared to move, it made Levi dizzy. It was hard to focus because his vision was blurry. He was extremely light headed, he fell to the floor landing on his knees. Levi breathed in slowly and then slowly stood up once more. He used the wall for support.
It took way longer than Levi had expected to get out of his room. He stumbled and battled his way out of his bedroom door. It took even longer to get down the stairs. Levi had to almost crawl down the steps to even go down them. Thank goodness railing was invented otherwise Levi was sure he would have just fallen down. And either the house was much larger than Levi remembered or he wasn’t hardly moving. All of his muscles were begging him to stop. Somehow, thankfully, Levi finally managed to make it to the living room. Damn, why is this so hard? Levi stumbled heavily, once again falling to the floor and landing on his knees. The floor was cold just like his bedroom floor was. It made Levi shiver.
Why did the floor provide the cooling that Levi wanted for his fever? Why did he also feel like he was freezing to death? And why the hell does my head hurt so fucking much? He brought his hands to his chest and folded his arms in an attempted to warm himself up. He stayed there for several long minutes but his shivering didn’t stop. So he did what he usually did when he was cold in his cage. Levi unfurled his wing. He didn’t care that his night shirt tore, no that didn’t bother him. It was the antagonizing pain that sprouted from his wings that bothered him. They were heavy like someone had strapped weights to them and they hurt as if someone pulled out his feather individually and replaced them with needles. Levi immediately keeled over as a whimper escaped his lips.
All the pain seemed to burst into fire all over his body. It hurt to move. It hurt to think. It hurt to breath. It hurt to live… Levi let the darkness take him.
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Eren spent his last minutes at work absentmindedly cleaning the lenses of his new camera. “I see you’re getting use to you camera. Great job by the way.” Eren’s boss chuckled, “I knew you were the right person to give it to.”
Smiling slightly, Eren looked up from his camera, “Yeah… I guess. Thanks for the opportunity boss.”
“How many times do I have to tell you? Call me Erwin.” He sighed, “Something bothering you?” Eren’s brows furrowed in surprise and Erwin chuckled, “Eren, you’ve been acting distant all day. It wasn’t that hard to tell that something was bothering you. So what’s up?”
Glancing down at his camera, Eren hesitated and breathed in slowly. He couldn’t tell Erwin that he went to an auction and bought Levi who was sick. He couldn’t tell him that he wanted to make sure Levi was better by now. No, that wasn’t something that you tell to your boss, “Well… A friend, yeah, I let a friend of mine move in with me. He’s new here and doesn’t know very many people.” Eren cleared his voice, “Well anyway, he’s sick and… I guess you could say that I was worried is all.”
Erwin nodded to what Eren was saying, “I understand. Why didn’t you say so earlier? I wouldn’t have minded if you went to check up on your friend.”
“Thank you.” Eren sighed, “But I’m sure he’s fine. I know he’s strong so he shouldn’t be sick for long. I mean, he just had a fever and a slight headache, that’s all.”
“Good,” Erwin smiled, “I’ll see you tomorrow at work. Good luck with your friend. I hope he gets better.”
Nodding as he put his camera away, Eren smiled, “Yeah, thanks.” He watched Erwin leave the studio. Eren packed his bag and carefully placed his camera into it. He could finally go home and check up on Levi. It was silly to worry like this, Eren reassured himself, but he couldn’t help but to feel something was wrong. He just had a bad feeling. That also had been bothering him all day.
He made his way out of his studio but he didn’t get too far before Armin stopped him, “Hey Eren!”
Eren reluctantly stopped, “Oh, hey Armin, what is it?” He watched as his short blonde friend made his way next to him. He was no longer wearing his costume from the shoot. Armin was wearing a white button up, blue jeans, converse shoes and a nice blue tie.
“I was wondering if you’d like to hang out and get some cake from Ral’s Bakery.” Armin smiled. Oh that’s right. Eren sighed and bit his lip. It had become a ritual to go to Ral’s after work. They even went yesterday. Petra was so nice to let them hang out late.
“I’m sorry Armin but… I have to go check on something at home.” Eren looked down at his friend.
Armin looked back up, “Let me guess. Levi right?” Armin had only met Levi just yesterday but he still remembered his name. Bless him for being smart. Eren nodded, his eyes down casted. “What? Is he sick or something?” Bingo. Eren nodded again. “I understand Eren. You’re worried about his wellbeing. Just text me later on how he’s doing, alright?” Armin gave Eren a little wave and went the other way.
“Thanks Armin! I’ll make it up to you, I promise.” Eren turned on his heal, he was determined to see Levi now. He probably was worrying about nothing… but just to make sure. Eren walked down the hallway, impatiently waited on the elevator and was almost out of the building when Jean called out to him.
“Yo, Eren.” He waved his hand in an attempt to gain Eren’s attention. Marco was trailing next to him.
Eren groaned in irritation, “Sorry horseface, I don’t have time for your shit right now. Text me or something because I have to go.” Eren quickly opened the door and left before Jean could say anything to stop him. Eren found himself half jogging to his car. He carefully placed the bag in the back and got in the driver’s seat. He sped out of the parking lot and made it onto the road… only to be stopped by traffic. The forces must have been against him because he had to take a detour home. Also known as, the long way home.
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As Eren pulled up to his house he noticed that some of the lights were on. Eren eagerly got out of his car and then grabbed his bag from the back. He locked his car and then went up the steps. He opened the door. “Levi, I’m home!” Silence. Eren set his bag by the steps. “Hello? Levi?” Still silence. Eren crossed his arms. He felt like something was wrong. He saw that the upstairs light was on, so that’s what he checked first.
Franticly, Eren looked upstairs. It was weird. He did this just yesterday. But he didn’t feel this way yesterday. Yesterday, he couldn’t find Levi, yes, but somehow he knew he was fine. Today however, he dreaded this. He wanted to find Levi and make sure he was okay. Now. Eren skipped down the stairs and made his way towards the living room. He stopped in his tracks. There. Eren could see some feathers on the ground. Maybe he was just asleep? Eren shook his head to that thought. No. That didn’t seem right. He wouldn’t sleep on the floor! And that’s when Eren ran into the living room.
“Levi!” Eren kneeled down in front of the small body on the ground. He looked… Levi looked dead. His shirt was tore and his wing were out. His black wing was smashed under Levi while his white wing was covering Levi like a white blanket. Eren leaned forward and checked for a pulse. Barely a pulse and barely breathing. Instinct, or maybe it was because his father was a doctor, told him that he shouldn’t move his body. Levi needed medical attention. Fast. But Eren couldn’t bring him to a hospital… Not with his wings out. Eren pulled out his phone. This was the next best option. He had to. He called Hanji.