Experimenting With Miracles // ERERI

Chapter 19

This had been the worst day that Levi had had in awhile. Boring and awful to a fault, along with the impending feeling of doom that seemed to surround himself and Eren. All thanks to the preparation he was being forced to do, he hadn’t seen Eren since he had woken up this morning. Which during that time, the younger had clung to him with all his might, begging he stay with him in bed longer and softly crying when Levi had finally left and closed the door. If there was one thing Levi hated most in life, it was seeing Eren cry. Even his hatred of titans didn’t come close.

In the end, he’d practically had to threaten Erwin to at least give him the rest of the day off--shirking his responsibilities off for some other poor soul to deal with. Luckily enough, the man had agreed, saying something like ‘since I’m forcing you to go on this expedition against your fucking will, I’ll actually be a human and let you spend time with the one person you care about’. Or something like that. Either way, after a bit of afternoon training with the regiment, he was out of there. He took a quick shower and changed his clothes before heading back to where his lover laid. He could already hear sniveling from within as he approached the room.

“Eren…” Levi called as he entered the room.

His heart seized in his chest when he saw Eren. Why did life have to be so awful?

The man had somehow wrapped himself in a little ball around his round belly. He was curled in on himself, clutching a pillow to his chest and sobbing into it. He was facing the wall, and honestly Levi had never seen him look so small and broken.

When he heard Levi entering he turned slowly on the bed, seemingly having difficulties because of his overly swollen stomach, and faced him. Despite the object of his worries being right before him, safe and sound, he didn’t seem to be able to dry his tears. Eren wiped his tears with his sleeve and looked up at his husband with reddened eyes.

“H-hi,” he said in a hoarse voice.

Levi frowned, immediately dropping his uniform onto the chair and sitting down on the bed next to Eren. The younger sniffled, sitting up and looking sadly into his lap. His husband reached over and lifted his chin with a finger, wiping a few stray tears from his eyes with his thumb.

“It’s okay, Eren,” he soothed, running a hand through the man’s messy hair.

The brunette shook his head, more tears falling silently from his eyes. He wiped them futilely and collapsed into Levi’s shoulder with a choked out sob. He was trying to stop the tears from falling, trying to reign in his emotions and choke down the sobs that were slowly destroying his composure. But it was impossible--he couldn’t keep them down no matter how hard he tried.

“P-please...don’t go…” Eren cried.

“Eren, I have to,” Levi said with a sigh.

The younger shook his head again, curling further into himself and falling into Levi’s chest, clutching his shirt like a lifeline and spilling tears all over it. Levi frowned, heart clenching again as he saw how broken his absence was making his lover. He brought Eren in for a searing hug, which only seemed to succeed in making the brunette cry and whimper further. He held him tighter.

“I’m sorry, Eren. Please don’t cry,” Levi wiped more tears from his lover’s face. “There’s nothing we can do about it. Everything will be fine.”

The younger sniffled and buried his face into Levi’s chest. Levi held him close, allowing his spouse to snuggle into him, head on his chest, arms around his waist, and legs intertwined as he clung desperately to him, hoping he wouldn’t leave him sooner than he had to. He rubbed Eren’s back in soothing circles, breathing evenly and speaking soft, calming words into his hair. His sobs quickly lessened, but they didn’t stop. Eren continued to cry quietly in Levi’s arms, pressing his ear to his lover’s chest, trying to listen to the man’s heartbeat.