The Royal Decree (Erwin x Levi)

Chapter 15

Mikolas Kirschtein was born a week after that. Eren had been in the hospital ever since the defense of the castle, as Hanji had insisted that it was too dangerous to keep him on his feet due to the unusual nature of his pregnancy. Though he had protested initially, Eren had been easily swayed by the most basic argument in the entire universe – that it was what was best for the baby. Upon hearing that, he'd rapidly agreed to any kind of accommodation arrangements the medics would bestow upon him. Levi had to hand it to Eren – he himself would have already cracked under the doting and given hell to all of the self-imposing assholes who tried to tell him the best way to go about his pregnancy. Eren endured more-or-less stoically, however; on the other hand, Jean was becoming more and more restless as days went by. It got to the point when he'd even socked Armin in the face for no particular reason. Apparently, the blond boy had asked him to pass the salt at the dinner table at the wrong time. Levi then had taken up the job of settling the situation, going as far as dragging Jean out of the canteen to everyone's amusement and straight to Erwin's office. The older man was recovering quite well from the loss of his arm, and he had insisted on vacating the hospital room, "in case it was needed by someone else." Levi had protested initially, but knowing how stubborn Erwin was when he wanted to be, he'd let it go.

After a brief talking-to, Jean had gone back to being the same condescending asshole he usually was – except he now spent ninety percent of his time hovering over Eren’s hospital bed and offering unnecessary assistance. It was good, then, that the night when everyone had already gone to bed, he’d taken a trip down to the canteen to get some water for his bonded and himself and returned only to see a wet bed and a heaving Eren.

The entire castle was woken up by one sole man, which was pretty impressive, Levi thought, as he and Erwin made their way down to the hospital in the most dignified way possible, seeing as they were still in their nightclothes. Erwin had graciously allowed Levi to borrow a pair of pants, huge cotton pants that had been part of a set, yet the shirt had been worn and torn, and the pants had been left behind. Taking care not to trip over, as the pants were clearly too long for his small form, Levi walked down the corridor as brusquely as he could, Erwin following closely behind. They hadn't been invited to the birth formally, however, seeing as a similar fate awaited Levi within several short weeks, he had deemed it necessary to witness the process for himself. With Erwin at his elbow, he stood watching Eren's young face get older as it contracted in agony. It took forever. Jean sat by Eren's bedside the entire time, his bonded hand clasping Eren's tightly. Hanji flanked the boy on the other side, a notepad and pen at the ready to describe what she saw. The Corporal and his husband kept their distance, sitting at a doctor's table in the far corner of the room. From time to time, Erwin's eyes would flicker from Eren to Levi, an unmistakeable look of pity fixed in them.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Levi growled at the man.

“It looks painful.”

“Well, you’ve had your fucking arm bitten off, you’d know what pain is.”

“Levi–,”

“Look, would you stop being such an Arlert about it and just… if you don’t want to see this, then leave.”

“I would never.” Erwin actually looked affronted at the suggestion. “I need to know what it’s like to be able to–,”

“Act like Jean when the time comes for me?” Levi cut him off sharply. “So that everyone can report to the brass how loving and wonderful our relationship is?”

Erwin gave him a weary look. “You don’t think so?”

Levi scoffed. “Please, old man. We are nothing like those two. Look at them. Look.”