Crack of Sunlight (Ereri/Riren)

*~Chapter Seven~*

"Eren, where have you been?!" exclaimed Carla as soon as her snow-dusted son stepped foot in the house.

"I was at work...and then I gave Levi a ride home," he answered, a bit startled at his mother's franticness.

Suddenly, her caring arms were around him, holding fast. "I was so worried about you! You weren't answering your phone and you were gone so long..."

Eren returned the embrace tightly in an attempt to reassure his borderline hysterical mother. "I'm sorry, Mom," he murmured. "My phone died, and like I said I took Levi home."

The woman pulled back to look her son in the face. "Just tell me next time, alright? Use your friend's phone if you can. Especially since the weather is getting so bad."

"I will, Mom. Sorry."

Eren felt a twinge of guilt at the desperate, concerned look across Carla's aged face. Outbursts like these weren't uncommon since his father had died. She worried a lot more about Eren and Mikasa because of it, in fact, and ever since the whole thing happened, her stress and depression had put her in mind in strange, made up places that altered the way she thought.

Eren absolutely hated toll his father's death paid on his mother. She was the absolute sweetest, most caring person in the world. She loved hard, and because of this it was inevitable that the death of her soul mate would do so much damage on her. Both Eren and Mikasa did their best not to make her worry about them so much; lord knew that if anything happened to either of them, there would be no returning to normal for her.

A week passed and, due to the snow, school had been cancelled. Nearly three feet of the stuff piled in overnight between Sunday and Monday. Reiner kept Eren busy, however, and had even finally got back to tattooing himself. Petra returned, as well, and had a load of commissions to keep herself busy with. Levi, on the other hand, had no customers, and therefore continued to help the teen in the back.

"It's gonna be several more weeks before we finish this shit," Eren muttered, bandaging yet another cardboard cut across the fleshy part of his palm.

"Unfortunately," agreed Levi.

"Probably won't get it done until after the New Year," he sighed.

"Let's just hope there isn't another earthquake."

"Don't jinx it! I seriously don't wanna spend my life doing this."

"Makes two of us, brat."

Suddenly, Eren found himself asking, "What are you doing for Christmas, Levi?"

The man glanced up with the smallest of frowns, obviously caught off guard. "Um, nothing. Why?"

"What? Nothing? Seriously?"

Annoyance flashed across slate gray irises. "Yes, seriously. I never do shit for Christmas."

"Why not?"

Levi half-shrugged. "My only family is Alex, and she's too wrapped up in Reiner. I don't see the point. I'm not religious, anyway."

"I guess I see your point...I haven't really done anything for Christmas for most of my life, either...because it brings back memories of my dad. But this year Mikasa convinced my mom to put our Christmas tree up."

"Hmm."

A sudden idea popped into Eren's head. His heart burst into a steady gallop and his throat thickened, but he forced the words out nonetheless. "Well hey, if you're not doing anything...if you want, you can-"