Be My Salvation (Ereri/Riren)

XIX

Sorry for the excessive amount of suck in this chapter :-)

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The weight of Eren's sudden and unexpected confession draped heavily over the both of them. Eren's breath was caught in his throat, his eyes stung from lack of blinking for several long, dragged out seconds. While his body was still and tense, the air in the room just as frozen as if it was waiting for something, his mind was spinning for ways to blow away the awkwardness, to make it seem as lighthearted as it felt despite not having completely intended to blurt it out in the first place.

Maybe I should apologize, he couldn't help but think. Or tell him I'm kidding. Or that I didn't mean to say in love...

But words were lost on his tongue. All he could do was focus on the contact of their backs pressed against one another and the fact that it had been several long, agonizing seconds with no sign that Levi was going to respond or even react.

The seconds then dragged into minutes, and Eren lost all hope of getting a response. He squeezed his eyes shut and took a small chance of curling up into a little ball as if that would eliminate his existence.

And when Levi finally did speak in a soft, gentle voice, it wasn't anywhere near what Eren hoped he might say.

"Get some sleep, Eren."

But it hadn't been a complete rejection, either, which was a good thing...he hoped.

If sleep was lost on him before, it was temporarily nonexistent now. The minutes continued to drag on into an hour, and that hour extended into another and another with the moment playing itself over and over and over in his mind as he tried to think of ways to cushion himself as he fell, or to turn things back around, away from ruination caused by a few, measly little words.

Eventually he must've fallen asleep, though, because the next thing he knew he was becoming once again aware of the bedroom around him. The morning light was dim, as usual, and the air was cool. Eren untangled himself from still being curled up on his side and stretched out, noting how stiff his joints were from being in one position for so long.

When he caught sight of Levi's neatly made up bed, though, it hit him - the memory of the previous night, and the confession he let slip. His body stiffened, and his eyes darted to the door. It was still shut, and of course, Levi was nowhere to be seen.

Oh god, he thought. I've messed everything up...

But he couldn't know that for sure.

He made his way out of bed, to the door, and poked his head out into the hall. Finding it empty, he tiptoed out and directly into the bathroom where he relieved himself, flattened his hair as best he could, and tiptoed down the stairs. About halfway down, Zoë darted past him and zoomed into the dining room where the normal sounds of breakfast were eliciting from. Sucking in a deep breath, he made it the rest of the way to the bottom floor and strode casually into the kitchen. Only Petra was there, flipping the last of the pancakes in a pan.

"Good morning, Eren," she said softly with a fond smile. "Hungry?" He merely nodded. "Help yourself."

He slid a plate from the small stack on the counter and put two pancakes on his plate. After grabbing a fork, he padded silently into the dining room where the rest of his foster family sat, munching away on their own pancakes. Oluo was talking to Marco about his math homework, Annie was texting, and Mikasa was sketching, her plate already empty. Levi sat on the other side of Oluo, silently chewing with his eyes pointed at the table in front of him. The only seat available was across from him, next to Annie, besides the one that was clearly Petra's seat.