Crack of Sunlight (Ereri/Riren)

•~Chapter Seventeen~•

10K READS YOU GUYS WTF YOU ARE ALL SO AMAZING, THANK YOU ♥♥♥

---

The last of the sun's rays had just disappeared beyond the horizon as Eren pulled the car to a stop. He could still easily see the hill, fifty or so yards away. As the sunlight faded out, the Milky Way faded in. The night had left the air considerably cooler with a gentle breeze swaying the grass and kicking up an earthy scent. Eren kicked off his shoes and socks, wanting to feel the lush grass beneath his feet, between his toes. He urged Levi to do the same who complied with only minor complaints. The grass was cool and slightly damp, but felt nice after such a warm day.

Hand in hand, they climbed the hill. Very quickly, it became too dark to see much of anything. This night lacked the full moon that had provided them with light last time. Instead, it wasn't much more than a curved sliver among the stars, appearing one by one in the dusk sky. Shortly, what was not so long ago on fire from the sunset turned to a vast, dark blue velvet blanket alight with what might as well have been nebulae. Levi's memory of the last night he spent with Eren in that spot did not do what he gazed into now justice. Then, his eyes had been clouded, blurry, tainted. This view before him now was indescribable and humbling; he found he couldn't look away.

"I forgot...how..." he mumbled, shaking his head.

Eren, however, had his eyes locked solely on Levi, watching his look of wonder, the stars reflected in his glasses, as he took it all in again. His heart seemed to swell up to twice its size by simply looking at him, being in his presence.

"Lay with me," Eren found himself saying, reaching over for Levi's shoulders as he himself laid back into the grass. It tickled the back of his neck, but a pleasant warmth consumed him as Levi laid back against his chest. He brought Eren's hands to his own chest, pressing them directly over his heartbeat while he continued to gawk at the velvet sky above.

No conversation between them occurred for a long while. The only sounds were the crickets chirping nearby and an owl's hoot somewhere in the distance, just as last time. The breeze was on and off, carrying different scents with it. Eren could mostly smell Levi - his mint honey shampoo and the masculine scent of his deodorant, complimenting it nicely, mixed in with the scent that was solely Levi. He smelled good, and Eren wanted to just bury his nose in those soft dark locks and inhale him forever.

Under his palms, Levi's heart beat in that same rhythm, that same song he felt was somehow meant for him, and he smiled.

"Show me the constellations again," Levi requested in a soft voice.

And so Eren did, tracing the outline of each one he could remember and then making some up just for the fun of it, earning 'tsks' from his lover and laughing. The rumble of Eren's laugh was somehow comforting beneath Levi's head. He reached up and grabbed his hand, bringing to his lips to kiss his knuckles. He let his eyes slide shut and saw distorted after images of the sky he'd been staring at so long.

"Eren?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you miss your father?"

"Um...well, sometimes, I guess." The question had evidently taken Eren off guard. The magic of the moment suddenly shifted - not disappeared, but formed into something heavier.

"Only sometimes?"

Eren chewed his lip thoughtfully, shutting his eyes as well. "I miss who he was aside from the drugs," Eren said cautiously, fearing that anything else he might say could trigger Levi's tainted mentality again.

"Give me examples."

"Hmm. Well, he took me fishing sometimes. We never caught anything, though. He was the one who taught me how to ride a bike, and one time he took me driving in his old farming truck when we went to Germany when I was eight. He let me drive, but I almost crashed. He wasn't mad, though. He just laughed, probably because he was so scared. He wasn't as...affectionate as my mother, but he did love. He loved especially her. Like sometimes he'd be thoughtful and bring her flowers or make her breakfast in bed. When she got sick, he was always there to nurse her back to health and all of that. That's what I mean."