Be My Salvation (Ereri/Riren)

XXX

Christmas morning, the sleeping occupants of the house were woken up by a rather obnoxious man dressed in a Santa Claus suit. Marco was the one, after excitedly greeting his foster father, to rush downstairs and wake the ones still slumbering soundly in the sunroom. Eren jerked awake at the sound of his ecstatic shout of, "Oluo's home!"

"Wha?" he mumbled, automatically reaching up to rub an eye.

"He brought stuff. Come on!" And then the boy was gone, disappeared through the door without a backwards glance - not even at the way Eren had still been curled up against Levi's side or the way they essentially shared the same blanket.

"The hell was that?" Levi groaned sleepily, dark lashes fluttering open.

"Marco," Eren said with a yawn. "I guess Oluo made it home for Christmas."

The raven sighed. "What damn time is it?"

Eren shrugged, sitting up to stretch. "I dunno, but it's Christmas, and Marco's still only eleven. It makes sense that he's awake so early."

Though he didn't catch it, Eren chuckled at whatever Levi mumbled under his breath before leaning forward and, before he could sit up, greeting him with a soft morning kiss. "Happy birthday."

"Hmph, you already said that."

"I'm saying it again."

Levi rolled his eyes, but the slight smirk didn't go unnoticed. "Thanks," he said, sitting up.

The two ventured into the front of the house not long after to find Mikasa and Marco already crowded around the Christmas tree, where several new wrapped presents had piled up. They entered the room just as two people were descending the stairs - a man dressed in a bright red suit, complete with the hat and a fake white beard hanging from his chin with a red-headed woman carried bridal style in his arms. It was a sight Eren couldn't help but smile at.

Oluo let her down at the end of the stairs and tugged off the beard, blowing out a breath of air. "I didn't know having a beard could be so hot," he said with a laugh.

Before long, they were all circled around in the living room on the floor, the coffee table having been moved out of the way. Petra had put on soft music in the background and Marco, already having volunteered to do so, was eagerly awaiting his cue to start handing out gifts.

"This one first!" he said, sliding out the largest one beneath the tree, one that Eren automatically recognized as his gift to Annie in the secret santa. After reading the tag, he passed it over to her.

A light, barely noticeable blush colored her cheeks as she carefully tore into the paper to reveal the boxed black and red basketball Eren had found at Walmart. When he'd first drawn her name, he was immediately wary about what to get her, seeing as she was the one he knew the least out of all of his foster siblings. What with her being buried in her phone ninety percent of the time, he had no solid ideas on what her interests were. A talk with Petra, though, cleared things up; he'd learned she was on the basketball team at her middle school when she lived at her previous foster home.

So of course he was closely watching for her reaction when she pieced together what it was, balling up the wrapping paper in the process. It was subtle, but her eyes did light up a bit before they met his, knowing only it was from him by the name on the tag.

"Thank you," she said.

He nodded, smiling. "Petra told me there's a park with a basketball court where you can use it," he explained.

She nodded back and before things could get awkward, Marco was ready with the next present and passing it over to Mikasa. A small smile coated her delicate features as she mimicked Annie's present-opening actions to reveal a set of what Eren could only assume were colorful markers.