Crack of Sunlight (Ereri/Riren)

•~Chapter Thirty~•

Listen to that ^^^ while you read; it'll milk out all the feels, I promise.

Also. Last chapter before the epilogue.

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Levi was released from the hospital a little over a week later. The doctors kept him for so long for tests and making sure his body was capable of functioning on its own after such a detrimental accident.

An accident. It had been an accident, Levi told Eren the second day he visited. He hadn't meant to overdose, but he had been looking for a fix.

"I'd been struggling for a while, Eren," he said softly, never looking at the brunet directly as his fingers fidgeted in his lap. "I mean, more than normal. But I didn't want to worry you, so I hid it. I thought I could fight it, but then you left and I was too weak. So I ended up doing the stupidest possible thing, but that shouldn't surprise you." He punctuated the words with a dry laugh, but Eren wasn't amused in the slightest.

Eren visited him every day for as long as he possibly could before he was kicked out, either by one of the nurses bugging him about visiting hours being over or Levi telling him he should go, that he should have better things to do than wait around a hospital all day. Eren never did. He could've gone to work, but Petra and Bertholdt said they were fine running the place until Reiner returned. He could've made plans with his friends, but he knew he'd just be a downer. His depression was starting to get the better of him again, but of course this wasn't something that got past the raven.

Alex wasn't notified of the news right away per Levi's request. He'd already ruined Eren's time with his family, already burdened Armin with finding him that night. He refused to ruin his sister's honeymoon, too. To him, it wasn't much. He wasn't anything worth racing home for, and if he'd been awake to have it his way, he would have told Eren to stay in Germany with his family for the duration of his trip.

Levi didn't allow himself to apologize to his younger companion anymore. The words "I'm sorry" were damn near meaningless and he couldn't ask Eren's forgiveness. Not this time. He didn't deserve it. He'd broken such a huge promise and he felt it was only a matter of time before Eren realized how absurd it was to stay with him.

And so on the rainy morning he was released from the hospital room, he made the decision to take this particular matter into his own hands.

Eren walked beside the man as he was wheeled toward the door. He slung his jacket around his shoulders in preparation for walking out into the end of summer, beginning of autumn rain. It was his favorite kind of weather, just cool enough to need a jacket, fresh and breezy, but not quite on the winter side yet. Sweater weather.

"Have a nice day," the nurse who escorted them out said before reentering the building. The two stood under the long overhang for a moment until the doors slid shut again.

"Ready to go?" Eren asked.

Levi gave a stiff nod. Eren so desperately wanted to hold his hand as they journeyed through the wet weather across the parking lot to his car, but with Levi's hands tucked neatly into the pockets of his vest, he got the inkling the feeling wasn't mutual. This wasn't the first time Levi had done something of the sort in the past week. He'd rarely even touched Eren, and if he had it was with reluctance, with hesitance. It was almost like he felt his touch alone would hurt Eren, but the brunet never brought it up. He in fact pretended not to notice, though the weight of it laid heavy in his chest.

Levi hadn't been so talkative, either. Any conversation was started by Eren, and with Levi's lack of input, ended fairly quickly. The younger wanted to pretend it was all in his mind and was trying to convince himself things were normal between them and that they'd return to the way they were once Levi was home again.