No Name [Ereri/Riren Fanfic] [COMPLETED]

Chapter Eight

     The rest of the night went by quick after Eren ate his food and drank his water before he and I went back to bed, all the while Hanji and Miche stayed in the living room watching their movies. Even though I felt better knowing that Eren had eaten something and spoke with me to calm down, I still felt uneasy as the brunet had fallen asleep on the couch he slept on beforehand. I'd wished he'd either try to sleep in his bed or at least share a room with one of us so he'd feel safe, however I knew that both of those ideas was out the window.

     That night was a restless one for me but I was glad that everyone else had gotten their share of sleep. I'd rather have them in a bright and cheerful mood than me, or that's what I thought. H, M, and myself showed Eren around the house and once we came across the practice and recording rooms he picked up an acoustic guitar and started strumming a song. I suppose M was so moved by it that he had hopped onto his seat that sat behind his drum set and started playing to Eren's song, and to my surprise so did H with her bass guitar.

     "Loving can hurt, loving can hurt sometimes. But it's the only thing that I know. When it gets hard you know it can get hard sometimes. It is the only thing that makes us feel alive..."

     When I heard those first few lyrics, I knew that I had caught a big fish swimming alone in the water. This guy just never seemed to cease to amaze me, and I figured that was just who he was. He was a singer and a guitarist at heart with more than enough stories to share and tell, that much was obvious. And that's when I noticed that Eren was looking my direction as he sang, and knowing this only caused me to wear a smile before he came to a stop.

     H and M stopped as well and looked over to Eren with questioning looks before the brunet looked to the ground, holding the guitar in his arms tightly.

     "Sorry, it was all that I could come up with on the fly."

     "You kidding me?! That was awesome! We should totally have that song on our new album!"

     "I don't know H, your music is more hardcore than what I played."

     I took his response into consideration and knew that he was right, but I also thought that a change of pace wouldn't hurt anyone, right?

     "I don't see what the problem is, honestly. We've thrown in random genres of music here and there and no one seemed to care at our performances, so if you want to make this album about something you want off your chest we can do it together. We've got your back, J, and that'll never change."

     Eren looked to the floor before looking up at me with a small smile. "Thank you guys, it means a lot."

     "M and H need to get going, if you haven't forgotten about your appointments with our manager Erwin Smith."

     "Holy crap! I almost forgot about that! You're a lifesaver L! Come on M, we need to get there as soon as..."

     I smiled lightly with my arms crossed as I watched my friends leave in a hurry. I turned back around to face Eren, whom went back to strumming the same song he was playing beforehand, trying to continue composing the song.

     "If you want help with anything, I've got you okay?"

     "Alright, well, you wouldn't happen to know a little bit about guitar would you?" he asked me sheepishly.

     "I know a lot about acoustic guitar, so this'll work out great."

     As soon as I said that Eren's eyes lit up in a way that I haven't seen before, but it gave me hope. Hope that I could the one to break his shackles left behind from his father. Hope that I could help him live the life he's been wanting for what could possibly have been years. Hope that I might become...

     "L? L! Hey? Are you dozing off into space?"

     "Sorry, I was thinking is all. So, where do you want me to help? Like I said before, I can help with the acoustic guitar and I can also help with vocals. Take your pick."

     "You take care of vocals, if that's alright with you."

     "Why would I make that offer if I didn't find it alright with me?"

     "That's true, well alright then. I'll give you the lyrics I've got so far and you can go from there."

     Eren handed me a piece of paper with his handwriting on it, and then I got this thought in my mind. Why am I writing the lyrics? This is his song. Unless... The spark of hope I had before was starting to slowly diminish at the thought that he wasn't sure of himself, and this thought was only going to fuel me into trying even harder to reach him. For now, I'd write the lyrics to this song for him, but next time he's going to write it from the heart.

     We spent our whole day in the practice room writing up his song, figuring out what and how to play, and choosing the lyrics for the song. Even though he gave me the lyrics to work on he still threw in his ideas and eventually we went along with what he came up with, and I was happy that we did. I suppose he felt the same way I did when he gave me the lyrics, and I was glad that he pointed it out and not me.

     Before we knew it time had passed by to reveal that it was now almost 6:00 PM, so we decided to stop for the day and start to prepare dinner. We could've kept going as we had almost finished the song, we just needed one more verse. One more set of four lines and we'd be golden stars, and I was sure Eren knew it too; he needed to dig deep for those lines.

     Time would pass until he found those last few lines, but I only questioned how long that would be.

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Hello hello, here's chapter eight. At first I had no idea what I was going to write, as per usual, but I thought of something and came up with this. I've been listening to sad-ish love songs from artists like Ed Sheeran, Loving Caliber, etc., and I thought that I would use some of those songs for moments like this one. Like a slow, cute, and passionate kind of moment, possibly sad, but that's what I thought. I'm going to put something like that in The Art of Murder but with Loving Caliber's Say You Won't Go. So yeah, anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you guys in the next one!!!

~ Author-san