Awake My Soul - Ereri

Chapter 16 - New Years Eve

"So what's the plan for tonight?" Eren asked Levi as they stood in his bedroom, getting ready for the big night ahead.

"Well people will start getting here at 7:00pm and apart from that I don't really have a plan."

"Yeah, okay." Eren was fidgeting and avoiding eye contact with Levi.

"Why are you tense?" Levi asked, he walked up to Eren and wrapped his arms around his waist and pressed his head against Eren's back. Levi gave Eren a little squeeze.

"It's just... I'm nervous." Eren breathed. Levi could tell that much, he could also guess why he was nervous.

"About what everyone will think." It wasn't a question. Eren closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I'm being ridiculous." Eren's voice wavered, just that sound made Levi's chest hurt.

"Hey look at me." Levi said, spinning Eren around to face him. "You do not have to apologise about being afraid."

"I feel like I do. I don't know." Eren sighed. Eren sat down on Levi's bed, his head in his hands. Levi straddled Eren's lap and pushed Eren so he was laying down.

"Listen to me, Eren." He said attempting to remove Eren's hands from his face. "I won't let you feel like you have to apologise for being scared, okay. You want to know what's fucking ridiculous? That somebody would actually hurt you so much that you're afraid to be yourself. It fucking pisses me off. If I ever met them I swear to god-"

"Levi."

"I'm sorry, that I have to apologise for. But I promise you; I won't let anybody hurt you, Eren. I won't let them do that; I won't let them make you believe that you have to apologise for this. I can assure you that I'm not apologising for all of the things that I'm afraid to say or do. Yes I'm afraid, and yes that might mean that some people don't get what they want because of it. I can assure you that eventually you will want something that I'm too afraid to give you, and I'm not going to apologise for it, because everybody's afraid of something. Everybody's afraid of so much in this world Eren; that I don't think anybody should be sorry for what's human nature." Eren's voice was shaky, but he wasn't crying. For that Levi was pleased, he didn't want Eren to cry because of something like this. And if anybody made Eren cry, he would hurt them, because they made Eren hurt. And Levi wasn't okay with that. Levi leant down and kissed Eren's nose, before kissing his forehead and his cheek and his jaw. Levi planted every single square inch of Eren's face before kissing him on the lips. Eren kissed Levi back, slowly. Levi liked this pace. Soft and sweet, the kisses made Levi's heart flutter in his chest and when he pulled away from Eren; the other boy's mouth was tilted up in a crooked smile.

"God Eren, what are you doing to me?" Levi said shaking his head, he was smiling uncontrollably.

"I guess the same thing you're doing to me." Eren whispered, kissing Levi again.

Eren moved through out the people who had arrived for Levi's New Year's Eve party. Everybody was decked out in 2015's. Glasses, hats, shirts, streamers all with the number of the New Year. There were decorations everywhere, one's that Eren could proudly sat he'd helped put up, even though there wasn't a decorative bone in Eren's body. In saying that Levi did most of the work. Eren didn't mind though, happy that he was able to help in any way. At the moment however, Eren wasn't helping much and instead was looking for Armin who he'd seen about thirty minutes ago and was now having great trouble finding. It was dark out, and he'd been searching the insides and outsides of Levi's house for a good twenty minutes but having no luck. Eren wanted to tell Armin about his relationship with Levi before everybody else found out, Armin was his best friend and Eren didn't want him to feel hurt because he hadn't told him. He eventually found Armin, tucked away under a big tree in Levi's backyard, talking... no scratch that, flirting with Annie. Eren wanted to roll his eyes and make gagging gestures at Armin who had looked and nodded at Eren when he'd approached the two.