Soldiers of Misfortune

The eyes of the heart

Eren POV
After dinner that night I headed out to the tower. I thought about inviting Levi, but I couldn’t find him. I climbed up my mind on a million other things. I forgot the top rung was getting pretty bad. Just as my hand landed on it, my foot slipped. My chin bounced off of the rung below as I fell. Stars dazzled my eyes. I couldn’t think, nor do anything else to save myself. The last thing I recalled was my head hitting the ground. Darkness was always my friend.
A beeping sound, odd. I thought. Was that an alarm clock? Fucking Mikasa liked the ones that beeped. I tried to yell out for her to shut it off, but I couldn’t open my mouth. I groaned trying harder. My body felt heavy to me. Why wouldn’t my eyes open? It had been a while since I had the paralysis dream. I fought against my inability to move. Trying to open my mouth to call for help.
“Eren, relax, stop fighting. Your jaw is wired shut!” that voice. Who was that? My eyes flew open. I was looking up at a celling with florescent lighting. A dark head appeared in my vision. I blinked at him. His face wavered. He looked familiar but his name alluded me. Where was Armin? Mom? Mikasa? I wondered. I tried to ask him who he was but of course my mouth wouldn’t move. How can I communicate with him?
I mimed writing he held up a finger. He controlled the bed to sit me up. Slipping a pen into my hand he found a tablet. Who are you? I wrote scrunching my face at him. I saw his eyes widen. He didn’t answer.
Where's Armin? I wrote feeling tears of frustration wet my eyes.
“Oh, Eren.” He breathed my name holding his hand to his mouth. I saw pain, fear and something else in those steel grey eyes. Wait, grey eyes, I blinked.
“Levi?” I muttered. He froze then pointed to the paper. Oh, he probably didn’t understand.
“Levi.” I wrote the name down then pointed to him and back to the paper. He smiled.
“Fucking brat, you scared the hell out of me!” He whispered.
“Sorry.” I wrote. How did I know him? Why did I know him calling me a brat was a sign of how much he cared? I scowled. The door open. A tall blond man came in leading Armin. I started to scream.  Trying to get Armin away from the man.
“Eren, it’s OK. He’s a friend too. Armin isn’t in any danger.” Levi spoke. I frowned my mind trying to piece things together.
“Levi, what’s going on?” Armin asked.
“I’m not sure, but I don’t think he remembers much of the last few weeks. He didn’t remember me at first.” Levi said the sadness invading his tone. I tried to reach over to hold his hand. Armin intercepted it. That’s when I saw the cast on my other arm. Cast? What happened?
“I fell.” I wrote holding the tablet out. Levi nodded.
“Yeah, you fell from the tower.” He said. Then a doctor came in. A nurse followed making everyone leave. They examined me asking some questions. I was able to answer somethings but others were a bit fuzzy. Then they let my friends back in.
“He hit his head pretty hard. I’m not surprised he has some short-term memory loss. It appears that he is getting it back, but it may take a few weeks. Give him time. Try and fill in gaps when you talk to him. And Eren, don’t be afraid to tell them you don’t remember something. Maybe them explaining it will jog a memory, alright? I am going to keep you here for another 24 hours. I do think it’s best you get back to familiar surroundings quickly.” The doctor explained to all of us.
Mikasa peered around the door. “Oh, Eren!” she yelped rushing up to me. “I will make dad let you come back home. Its where all your memories are!” she cried. I wrote NO as large as I could. The last thing I wanted was to be anywhere near the man who gave me life!
“Why can’t you two just get along!” she cried. I wrote monster and held it up to her. She threw her hands in the air storming out of my room. I waved mockingly.
“That was odd?” Levi muttered to the tall blonde.
“Name?” I wrote pointing to him.
“Eren, I’m Erwin we met at school.” He said. “Levi helped you out in a fight to save Armin our first day.” He added with a warm smile. Vague images swam through my head. I closed my eyes. It was dark in the room when I woke again.
“Hey.” Erwin's face appeared as he spoke softly. “Don’t try to move, Levi's asleep on your arm.” He whispered. I nodded. “Do you remember my name?” I nodded. He smiled. “Do you remember me?” he asked. I frowned shaking my head. He placed a hand on my shoulder. “That’s ok.” He said. I gave him a weak smile. “I’m Armin's roommate.” He told me. An image came to my mind of him walking Armin away from me. Jealousy filled my chest. His hand squeezed my shoulder. “Relax, Eren. I am not taking your place with him. I’m just looking out for him while you can’t right now, ok?” he asked. I drew in a deep breath then nodded. He then sat down where I could see him. He told me about how we met, how Levi and I were making out, I chuckled at that. He looked confused. I wrote.
“He’s, my type.”  Erwin grinned. “Well, that’s good since he really likes you. Levi isn’t great at letting people in.”
“Father/ Uncle asshole?” I wrote. Erwin laughed. The sound woke the sleeping ravenette. He glanced at the tablet.
“You remember me telling you that?” He asked. I nodded. Scar. I wrote. He nodded glancing away.
“Levi, it’s a start.” Erwin comforted his friend. I sighed.
“Armin/ blind.” I wrote. They both gasped. I shook my head. “Friends. My fault. Levi Erwin school claimed his fault.” I wrote.
“Oh, yeah I did tell you that.” Levi muttered.
“It wasn’t your fault!” Erwin’s voice rose. “I am responsible for my own actions.” Levi didn’t answer.
The next afternoon I was released, back into the custody of the school. My jaw would be wired shut for six weeks, which meant everything I ate had to be through a straw. I also had to write everything. That was easier with my phone. In all I had a severe concussion, short term memory loss from a few weeks before the accident up until I woke in the hospital. My left arm was busted in three places, I had a bruised spleen and liver, three cracked and one broken rib. My left lung was punctured but it was healing. To make matters worse, I sprained my ankle. This would leave me bed ridden for two weeks since there were no elevators in my dorm.
Levi had agreed to collect my homework from each class. Erwin would escort Armin around. For this I was forever grateful. Connie was my roommate, he treated me like I forgot everything. I attempted to kick him multiple times a day. Levi walked in on one such time. Connie didn’t see him the smaller guy wrapped Connie’s arms against his side and held him where I could kick him. Watching Levi laugh filled my heart to bursting.
Pulling my phone out I asked Connie to leave us alone for a bit. He chuckled telling me not to get any cum on the celling. I threw a pen at him. Being alone with Levi was hard. He was the only one desperate for me to get my memories back. I wasn’t sure why.
“Levi?” I texted.
“Yeah, brat?” He spoke out loud. I tapped my phone. Then decided to just take the plunge. “I told you about the dreams, why are you still around me?” I asked. He read the text, then looked up at me. His face a blank mask.
“Because you’re a fucking brat.” The way he talked unnerved me a little. It always sounded like he was pissed off or mad at you. Or just bored. I frowned. Was the old me used to this? I wondered. I turned my head to look out the window.
“Eren!” Levi kicked my bed. I didn’t turn to look at him. This made him mad. The bed sank as it took his weight. I tried not to smile. He slapped my seeing the smirk.
“Brat!.” He groaned. Then sighed. “You know you scared the hell out of me when I found you laying at the base of the ladder! I fucking thought you were dead. You were hardly breathing, and the blood…” I caught his arm making him look at me I shook my head. Trying to convey to him not to think about it.
“It was worse when you didn’t recognize me.” He whispered.
“Sorry.” I groaned out. He shook his head. Kissing me lightly. I wished I could remember the first time we kissed. I smiled when he pulled away. I was sure it wasn’t so chaste. The memories were coming back in spurts. Sometimes I would get an image and then have to ask people about it.
When the day came where I could walk again, the others were in class. I was told I could take the day off and return to classes the following Monday. I waited for the adults to leave. It took me a while, but I managed to get dressed. I had to still be careful walking. Quick movements made me dizzy. Carefully I went outside. The walk to the tower used to only take me five or six minutes. After being so banged up it took me nearly ten to get there. I thought I must have forgotten the way, when it came into view. I stood looking up at it. I remembered the fall. Hitting my chin, I touched the scar now.
“I found you over here.” A voice spoke from the trees behind me. Levi walked around me to show me the spot, directly under the ladder. “You were still holding the piece of rung that broke off.” He informed me. “When it was nearing midnight and you hadn’t come back yet, I came to look for you. The paramedics said you had to be laying like that for hours. I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner…”  Moving over to him, I pushed him back until he was against the tower. I smirked.
Then another image came to me. Levi leaping into my arms, pulling my hair to get my head up. Him calling me a fucking brat right before… I reached out, snagging a handful of hair, I forced his head up. His silver eyes went wide.
“Eren?” I smiled, then pressed my lips to his. I shoved him against the wall, deepening the kiss. With my jaw wired shut I couldn’t do much more than hold my lips to his. Yet he could. His hands roamed down my chest to slip under my shirt. They were a little cold as he slithered up my warm body. His mouth slipped from mine to nibble at my neck. This guy! I knew I had already fallen for him once. Now it was happening all over again. As his mouth roamed over my neck and upper chest a pounding started in my temple. At first, I fought to ignore it. Soon, however it was a throbbing pain. I screamed staggering back away from Levi. I felt the pain drowning out everything else around me. Once more, on this spot, I gave up my consciousness to the blackness of the universe. This time the last thing I heard was Levi calling my name, then yelling for help.