Bratty thief stole my heart

Chapter 18: Nightmare

Levi's Pov:

I woke up when I heard a small sound next to me. That alone was amazing, because waking up ment that I had been sleeping, which ment that I really had been able to fall asleep. It felt like it was the first time ever since I had met Eren that I hadn't jolted awake from a nightmare only an hour after falling asleep. I must have dozed off while watching the brat and it seemed like his presence somehow had been enough to allow me an at least decent time of rest.

I turned around to see what had awoken me from my peaceful slumber. It was pretty dark in the room seeing as it was still the middle of the night, but I could clearly make out Eren's silhouette on the other side of the bed.

The boy was tossing and turning in his sleep, making small pained noises, like a wounded animal. I crawled over to him to get a better view of what was going on. From up close I could see that his face was twisted in distress and sorrow. Small sweat drops started appearing on his face and his trashing got worse. He looked like he was a really bad nightmare. Seemed like I wasn't the only one who got haunted by painful dreams. Or in my case memories.

Eren's nightmare seemed to get even worse, because his whimpers got louder and he was desperatly trying to escape the blanket he got himself hopelessly tangled in. I couldn't just watch him, doing nothing while he obviously needed help to wake up from his nightmare. So I grabbed Eren by his shoulders and shook him to wake him up. But he only tried to pry my arms away, wrapping himself up even more in his blanket.

"Eren, hey, wake up! You're having a nightmare, you need to open your eyes!"

I shook him more harshly, but the boy was trapped in his own mind. He let out a small cry, curling into a ball, his arms wrapped around his body as if he was trying to keep it from falling apart.

"Wake up, Eren, this isn't real! You have to snap out of it!", I did my best to calm him down, but words just weren't enough.

I pulled the trashing boy close to me, trying to hold him still and prevent him from hurting himself more. I wrapped my arms around him and held him close. His movement got weaker and his body started to relax into my strong grip. His head fell onto my chest and I looked at Eren in surprise when I felt something wet on my skin.

Eren was crying into my shoulder, his hands clutching the fabric of my shirt as if it was the only thing that kept him from falling back into the horrible world of his nightmares again. I tightened my grip around him and ran my hand through his soft locks. I remembered my mother always stroking my hair when I had been afraid or sad over something. She used to whisper sweet nothing into my ears to sooth my upset little mind and just held me close, showing me that I was safe.

So that's what I did now with the crying boy in my arms who still wasn't fully awake, but more in a half dream state. I held pressed him against my chest, not hard enough to suffocate him, but enough to make him feel safe with me. I let him cry into my shoulder while I just sat there, woving my hand through his dark hair that was shining in the small rays of moonlight that fell through the curtains.

"Shhh, Eren, it's okay, everything is okay. It was just a nightmare, you are safe now. Nothings gonna happen to you, I will protect you."

A strangeled sobb escape the boy's throat and his grip on my shirt tightened even more. I closed my eyes and just listened to his ragged breathing slowly calming down.

"L...Levi"

I looked at him and found two big bloodshot, but still beautiful sea green eyes staring back at me.

"Hello sleeping beauty",

I smiled at him. It wasn't intentional, it was like a reflex. It just appeared on my face, naturally, as soon as I saw Eren's teal eyes. I brought my hand to his face and wiped a few tears away.