Crack of Sunlight (Ereri/Riren)

•~Chapter Twenty Nine~•

Eren didn't know what he was expecting upon walking into that hospital room. Didn't know if he expected to see Levi as he'd been in his state of withdrawal - pale skin, darkened eyes, much too skinny, overall sickly looking. Didn't know if he expected him to resemble a corpse without any signs of life except maybe the machinery keeping his vitals working.

Because he didn't look like either of those things.

He looked like Levi, like the man Eren had known and loved dearly for the past six months. As he laid there between the white sheets, impeccably still aside from the light movement of his chest as he carried oxygen in and out fed by the cannula tucked under his nose, he seemed asleep. He bore the same calm, serene expression Eren had the privilege to wake up to every morning and watch manifest again every night. How absolutely normal he looked was unnerving to the brunet. He'd relapsed. Overdosed. Put himself into a coma for almost two days. Yet he physically showed no signs of this.

Eren's knees shook beneath him as he entered the room, letting the edge of the thick wooden door slide from his fingers and click shut. He slowly approached the unconscious man, mind blank without ever taking his eyes from his face. His insides felt like they were vibrating with all of the emotions storming inside of him.

He reached the chair next to the bed just in time for his knees to give out the same way they had the moment he heard the news of what happened. For several long moments, he was frozen where he sat despite wanting so desperately to reach out and touch him - take his hand or smooth his hair or something.

Eren wondered if this had erased all of the progress he'd made in the past seven months. He couldn't help but feel it had; he could get addicted so easily again...provided he pulled out of this. Whether Eren believed he could or not was a major conflict in his mind. One hand, he'd been so strong in the past and it was absurd to think that something like this would be his demise. On the other, an overdose on heroin was major and very serious; Levi's body was already so fragile...

Head reclined, Eren managed to lift his hand and wrap his shaking fingers around Levi's still ones. He watched his tears fall and stain the sheet with dark little circles. His teeth rocked together as he fought to keep his hysteria under control.

Suddenly, he felt the gentlest of fingers in his hair and heard an even softer voice saying, "Stupid brat..."

Eren's head snapped up instantly, simultaneous with a gasp being sucked between his lips. Sure enough, Levi's eyes were open - although heavily so - and gazing up at him with his arm reaching across his torso, gently caressing the side of Eren's face.

"Don't waste your tears on something hopeless like me," he murmured, barely above a whisper. His thumb caught a few of the tears escaping down Eren's rosy cheeks. His heart squeezed at the desperate sight of his love crying for him. Again.

"Y-you're awake," Eren breathed. The raven said nothing. "How do you feel?"

"I'm okay," he said quietly. "But you're not. I've gone and hurt you again." He sighed. "Hopeless..."

"You're not hopeless," the brunet whispered brokenly. He reached up with his own free hand and took Levi's from his face, sniffling. "I was scared. So scared..."

"I know, love. I'm sorry." The raven's eyes slid closed once more.

"I don't get it, Levi..." His voice rose, raspy and thick with tears. "I don't understand why you would...do this. Do...do the past seven months mean nothing to you?" Eren's voice cracked, his eyes searching Levi's face in an almost frantic manner, absolutely desperate for answers.

"No, Eren. They mean absolutely everything to me."

"Then why...?!" Eren could feel himself on the brink of hysteria; his voice did nothing to hide that. Noticing, Levi's shiny gray orbs reappeared.