Swing Life Away [Ereri/Riren]

Relapse - Part 5

Final part of this chapter~ (And super sorry this is late!!)

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Eren woke a few hours later to the trembling and whimpering of the other body beside his own. His dry eyes peeled themselves open to the dimly lit hospital room and immediately sought out his husband, immediately finding him curled up tightly beside him on the very edge of the bed, leaving several inches of space between them.

"Levi," he mumbled, automatically reaching for the other. As soon as his hands made contact, Levi twitched and tensed, recoiling from the touch.

"Stop," he whimpered. "Please don't..."

"I'm not gonna hurt you..." he murmured, but withdrew his hands anyway and sat up. Quickly, he shuffled around for the bed controller and switched the overhead light on. As soon as he could clearly see the other, it clicked into place.

Flashback. And it was worse than he'd had in a long, long time.

He remained curled up. An arm was securely wrapped over his stomach behind his knees, nearly tucked all the way up to his chest, and the other arm where the IV was taped down was curled within the cocoon, fingers tangled through his hair. His skin was shiny with sweat, parts of the gown he wore soaked in it while tears dampened his lashes. Whimpers and the quietest of pleas elicited from between his pale, chapped lips. Every so often, his body would jerk in one direction or another and if Eren didn't know better, he'd be afraid he was having a seizure...

All Eren could think to do was stand and go around the bed, kneeling down beside him and gently taking his hand to pull it away from his hair. Normally he'd have put up a fight and pulled it away, but his body was so weak that it was almost too easy. Even so, he rubbed his feverish hand between his own, murmuring soft things to him to try and pull him back, fending off his own tears all the while.

The door cracked open. Eren's head snapped up to find the night nurse slipping through, sanitizing her hands as a frown manifested when she assessed the situation.

"What's going on?" she murmured, sidling up with Eren.

"He's having a flashback," Eren strained, barely taking his eyes from Levi. "I can't pull him out of it..."

"A flashback? Does he have PTSD?"

"Not that he's been officially diagnosed with, but..."

"Hm. His heart rate and blood pressure just went way up, so I came to check. Perhaps I should get an appointment with our psychiatrist in the morning..."

Eren spared an absent nod. At the moment, his only concern was to pull Levi's conscious mind back to the present.

"This happens often?" the nurse asked as she crossed the room where she began scribbling things down on a clipboard.

"Sort of," Eren murmured. "It hasn't happened in a while. It was worse when he was experiencing withdrawals..." Which explained this, and brought back Eren's own memories of those days. "Most of the time, it seems like they stem from dreams, so he's woken up like this before...just never quite as bad. Or as long." He had both of Levi's hands now, rubbing each of his fingers, his palms, his wrists, even his forearms, talking softly to him between his conversation with the nurse.

"Eren...?" he strained out.

"I'm here, love. Open your eyes."

"She won't leave..."

"Shhh. She's gone, sweetheart. She's been gone for years. She can't hurt you anymore, okay? It's not real. You're here with me. Open your eyes, Levi."