Crack of Sunlight (Ereri/Riren)

•~Chapter Twenty Six~•

The familiar sound of a phone ringing accompanied the buzzing of a tattoo machine. Levi glanced up from his work to see Eren behind the desk fumbling to answer it, frowning as his eyes clearly scanned the caller ID of his cell phone.

"Hey, Mom," he mumbled into the receiver as he stood and strode swiftly toward the door to push it open and head outside. The only thing Levi's ears picked up before it swung shut was "What's wrong?"

Despite mild concern, he continued his work, though out of the corner of his eye could see the brunet pacing on the sidewalk outside. Not a minute later, he'd hung up and poked his head back in.

"Levi?" his voice was mildly strained, but only to Levi's ears because they knew it so well. He looked back up; Eren motioned him over.

"Would you mind excusing me for a second?" Levi asked the client he'd been working on.

"Of course not," she said with a smile. He quickly set his things down and peeled his gloves off as he stood up. He strode over toward the brunet, who nodded for him to join him outside.

"What's the matter?"

"That was my mom...she said there's kind of a family emergency."

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah...she just sounded sad. Kind of distressed. But she didn't tell me what was happening so I...I think I need to go, if that's okay with you."

Levi was already nodding and fishing in his pocket for his car keys. "It's fine. Go." He dangled the keys in front of Eren, who wrapped his hand around them.

"Will you be okay here alone for a while?"

"I've been here alone a lot. I'm fine. Go take care of things."

Eren nodded. "Okay. I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

"I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Don't rush, and be careful."

Eren nodded slowly; the distress was showing clearer and clearer in his features.

"I love you," he said quietly.

"I love you, too, Eren. Now go."

Again the brunet nodded and leaned down for a quick kiss before he backed up toward the car and jumped in. Levi didn't wait to watch him drive away and turned on his heel to reenter the shop. Apologizing to his client, he pulled his gloves back on and got back to work. Throughout the rest of this work, the part of his mind not preoccupied by the art itself was constantly on Eren, wondering what could be wrong, what could have happened for his mother to ask him to leave work early. He hadn't had all that much to do aside from filing and taking pictures as normal, especially considering Reiner was off with Alex on their honeymoon and had been for a few days. Even so, his mom never called him at work and Levi couldn't help but worry.

He got through another two tattoos and was working on another commission from that morning before Eren made his reappearance. The sound of the door opening was what caught Levi's attention; he immediately set his pencil down and strode across the floor to the other.

"How'd it go?" he asked softly, noting the frown still plastered on Eren's face and the sadness pooling in his generally bright green orbs.

He shook his head slowly and took Levi by the hand, leading him back to where he was so they could sit. Before saying a word, he lowered the music volume with the remote.

"I've told you that I have family in Germany, right? My dad's family." Levi confirmed. "They called this morning because my grandfather passed away last night.