Broken Hearts, Severed Limbs (Levi x OC x Erwin)

|63| A Temporary Solution

“She’s awake!”

It was the first thing that she heard from an overly excited voice. It must have been Sasha’s. She felt warm fingers catching her own. She was lying down. A soft mattress laid beneath her. Her soft pillows supported her head just right. She wasn’t wearing her glasses. Levi had probably taken them off for her. Her headache returned and shot through her forehead. Nathalie winced. She didn’t dare to open her eyes. Her free hand reached for her forehead. She rubbed gently.

“Nat?”

She finally allowed the sunlight to penetrate her eyelids. It was still morning, so, she guessed she hadn’t passed out for long. She looked at her kids. Connie and Sasha were sitting on both sides of the bed around her. Jean was sitting beside Connie on the left side. Eren, Mikasa, and Armin were standing no further away, staring down at her worriedly. They all had worried looks.

“I’ll go tell the Captain!” Eren offered and he rushed out of the room.

“Hey, Nat, how are you… how are you feeling?” Jean asked worriedly.

Despite the pain, Nathalie gave him a smile. She didn’t know whether Levi had told them. Maybe he had. Or maybe he hadn’t. She was still going to try and hide it though. She didn’t want to get the same reaction from them that she got from Historia. It was heartbreaking.

“I’m alright, Jeanie,” She said, but she could still tell she wasn’t convincing him. She forced out a chuckle. “Don’t worry,” She turned at Connie. He was the one holding her hand, sitting beside her on the bed with Sasha. He had a worried look on his face. “Connie…” her fingers gave his own a gentle squeeze. “…you shouldn’t be here. You should be with your mom,”

Connie gave her a nervous smile. “Mom’s gonna be alright… thanks to you… but you-” Connie couldn’t bring himself to say it. He just looked away from her and he sucked in a deep breath. It only fuelled his need to cry a little more. “I guess I… I can’t have two moms at once, can I?”

Pain. It wasn’t the headache. It was emotional pain, and it hurt more than anything else she had ever felt. The way Connie’s voice trembled and he let go of her hand and he buried his face in his hands. Sasha let out an exclamation. She climbed on the bed. She didn’t care whether the Captain was going to scold her for climbing on his side of the bed. Sasha buried her face in Nathalie’s neck and she started crying.

“I don’t want you to die!” Sasha wept against her neck and Nathalie’s hand reached for the girl’s hair, caressing weakly.

Jean gritted his teeth. “You’re dying, and you didn’t tell us?! How could you keep this from us?!” He was trying his best to turn the sadness into anger. He was trying his best to keep a straight face.

“I’m so sorry, kids…” Nathalie tried her best not to start crying. But she couldn’t help it. Not when Sasha clutched on her like this. “…this is exactly what I was trying to prevent,”

“Screw that,” Mikasa growled. “We had a right to know,”

“You’re important to us too, you know,” Armin added.

Levi and Eren walked in and everybody tensed up. Connie immediately wiped his tears and Sasha pulled away immediately. “I’m so sorry, sir! I’ll clean off the bedsheets myself if you-”

“It’s alright, Sasha. At ease,” Levi cut her and Sasha sighed in relief. He hated it just as much as Nathalie did. That was exactly why they both had agreed to not tell their brats about it. They didn’t have to know. They didn’t have to be the mess that they all were now. He tried his best to ignore it, and he approached her. Levi dropped on one knee beside the bed, coming to her level. His hand reached for her cheek, cupping gently. He wiped her tears with his thumb. His eyes, soft, as he looked at her. “Are you feeling any better?”