The Ereri Project!

Okay

"You made sure the car seat's strapped in right?"

"Yes."

"And we already put the bedding in the crib, right?"

"Yes."

"We have enough diapers, right?"

"Yes, Levi."

"And formula, that's like the most import-"

"Levi!" Levi stares at Eren from the driver's seat at a stop light. They're allowed to bring Petra home today so he's been freaking out about them being ready all morning.

His usually impassive face is warped with worry Eren almost never sees in it. "We'll be fine."

Levi sighs, looking ahead as the light changes green. "I just don't want to screw up," he mutters.

"The hospital told us everything we need to know for now," Eren says. "The most important thing is that we're feeding her on a schedule and we aren't, like, throwing her out a window or something."

"Not funny."

Eren smiles. "I promise, we'll be fine. Worst comes to worse we call one of our mom's or her pediatrician."

"You are entirely too calm about this!"

"Well one of us has to be and seeing as you're having a mental breakdown I guess it's my job."

Levi wants to call Petra, his sister, and ask her what to do but it hits him again that it's her baby they're taking home and he wants to cry again even though the funeral was yesterday and he cried almost the entire time. "You should've driven," Levi says.

"Well pull over, we can switch."

He does and Eren takes over while Levi sits in the passenger's seat with a pack of tissues waiting for his tears to come. They don't.

He wishes they would but all he's feeling is anxiety and frustration and he'd rather cry it out than wallow in it.

When they get to the hospital, Eren is the one to half climb into the back to detach Petra's seat from it's stand.

When he pulls up the handle it, he smiles when he realizes there will be a baby in it the next time it's in the car. Inside, the nurses smile at them when they walk in.

When they get to Petra's doctor, she asks, "Which one of you wants to give her her last feeding before you take her home?"

Eren nudges Levi forward so the shorter man just shakes his head and replies, "Give her here."

He sits down and a nurse reminds him how to position his arms to hold Petra. "God, she's so tiny," he says, not for the first or last time.

"They're surprisingly sturdy though," the watching nurse says with a laugh.

He stares at the baby's face and she stares back and Levi still isn't sure if everything will be "okay" but it feels like it. Being weighed down with this tiny, little girl in his arms, Levi feels somehow at peace.

He knows already that this baby has him wrapped around her finger.

He's surprisingly okay with that.