The Music Room - Ereri/Riren (SNK)

-Day 10-

Levi,

I'm sorry to say Eren is on bed rest for the day and won't be making it to the music room. Of course, you're welcome to join him in his room if you'd like, I know he would enjoy the company.

-Nurse Julia

I carefully peel the note from the door, reading it over a few times to let the words sink in.

Eren's on bed rest. That can't be good.

I swallow around the lump - seemingly constantly there - in my throat. Past the door awaits the baby grand standing in solitude as if it's lonely without Eren. And it is; the vacancy of the room is strange to me upon showing up, seeing the bench empty and the room quiet.

I swallow again and fold the tape back, sticking it to the back of the paper, and then fold the note itself in half before tucking it away in my pocket. My footsteps remain soundless as I retrace them back toward the residential end of the building in search of room 104.

106...105...

I'm unsurprised to find the door propped halfway open; quiet, normal sounds of a television drifting out into the hallway. I peek in a bit and knock softly.

"Come in," Eren calls softly. I push the door open to find him enveloped in a nest of blankets and pillows in his bed, snuggled up so only his head is visible.

Still, I can see he's even worse than yesterday. Paler. Barely possessing the strength to lift his head; it's propped up on a throw pillow anyway. His eyes are hooded a bit, the irises lacking much of their usual luster. My stomach twists painfully.

"Hey," he breathes, a weak smile still managing to manifest and grace his features.

"Hey," I reply, migrating slowly into the room and making sure to put his door back into the position it'd been in.

"Have a seat." He nods at the chair to his right. I sink down into the brown suede material and cross my legs. "I'm glad you came. I was getting bored of this Bizarre Foods marathon."

I glance at the screen where a large bald man is ogling over some seriously disgusting looking food, if it can even be called food. I scowl and turn back, repulsed by the sight. Eren chuckles weakly at my expression. His voice is so hoarse...

"You really don't like TV, do you?" he asks, an amused sparkle in his eye.

"Not at all," I say. "And I especially don't care for large men scarfing down abhorrent things he calls food," I spit the word.

"Hey, I like Andrew Zimmern," he utters semi-defensively, but he's still amused. "And you have to have a lot of guts to eat some of the stuff he does."

Once more, I gaze at the television, letting myself linger for a minute before turning away, a shudder dancing down my back. "Suppose you have to have guts to eat guts," I mutter.

Eren laughs again, this time harder, but I don't know why. The sentence wasn't intended to be funny. Quickly, however, his laughter turns to deep coughing that seems to come all the way up from his stomach; I instantly regret making him laugh, unintentional or not.

"Ow," he mutters once it's over, pale face reddened considerably. He smiles, though, once his eyes land back on my face, causing me to realize I must be frowning.

"Anyway, you can turn this off." He nods in the direction of the remote on the table between us. When I make no move for it, he asks me to, so I do. The room is left in silence, save for Eren's ragged breathing. The urge to fill said silence claws at me.