The Transtempus Penalty (ERERI//RIREN)

Chapter 6

Here, have some fanart, THAT WON'T GET FLAGGED, BECAUSE IT ISN'T INAPPROPRIATE lmao. Half naked boys are in your immediate future. How exciting! Enjoy the fucking chapter, sluts.

 I woke up the next morning as I heard the house phone ringing downstairs, reminding me that Petra had said she would call. Hardly giving myself time to completely wake up, I sprang from between my sheets and burst from my wooden bedroom door, hurrying to pick it up before Farlan or Isabel. Upon waking, I could feel each individual injury with an aching depth that only seemed to grow the longer I was focused on it. My knuckles were swollen and covered in scabs, and I was a little afraid to look in the mirror again, for fear of the temporarily disfiguring black eye that I knew awaited me.

"I'll get it!" I yelled to the rest of the house, as I moved swiftly into the kitchen to take the phonecall. Lifting the phone from the rocker with a gentle click of the receiver, I spoke into the microphone. "Hello?" I asked, not immediately addressing Petra in case it hadn't been her calling.

"Eren?" Petra's voice asked, her voice muffled by the transmission through the wires and cords of the telephone.

"Yeah?" I replied quietly, waiting for her to start talking. "That's me."

"Okay, good," she said, letting out a short sigh before speaking again. "I asked Riko and Oluo if they wanted to come with us, but both of them are hungover out of their minds, and don't feel like doing much of anything. So this leaves us with two options. Option one, we forget about them, and have a bomb-ass time on our own. Personally a fan of option one. Or option two, is we wait for them to feel better, and just go tomorrow." She paused for a moment, and I could hear what sounded like a television running in the background of her phone call. "Choice is yours. Levi and I are gonna chill either way, but if you're still down, we can come and get you."

"I'll still come, if you guys still want me to," I said, shrugging despite myself, standing alone in that kitchen on the warm Saturday morning. It was then that I noticed a piece of notebook paper stuck to the refrigerator with a magnet. Walking across the kitchen and stretching out the long telephone cord in the process, I plucked the note from the fridge and read the sloppy cursive that inscribed the letter:

Eren. Farlan and I have both got to work today, but we thought better than to wake you. The car will not be available until later this evening, around four-thirty at the earliest. Have a lovely day, and ICE YOUR EYE.

Isabel.

P.S. If you need either of us, the numbers to our offices are right here.

I read the two numbers listed, as well as Isabel's brief side note, scrawled into the margins, explaining that it would likely be easier to reach Isabel if there happened to be an emergency. I returned the note to the refrigerator as Petra began to speak again.

"Of course!" she exclaimed, pausing for a moment. "I mean, yeah, of course," she said, using a much calmer tone of voice as she spoke. "Yeah. We have to get in our suits, but we'll be by in," she paused, trying to give me an estimate, before deciding to get a second opinion. "Levi?"

"Yes?" I heard his voice say on the other end of the line. There was a certain edge to the sound of his raspy voice that hadn't been there the night prior, though I couldn't say for sure what that meant.

"How long do you think? I'm trying to tell Eren when we'll be by to pick him up," Petra said quietly, as she was no longer talking to me.

"Hell if I know," he muttered, and I could almost hear the eye-roll in his voice. "Give it, like thirty minutes. Hear that, Eren? Thirty minutes. Bye," I heard him say before he hung up the phone rather abruptly, leaving me to search for a swimsuit to wear, and reminding me that I still had to look at myself in the mirror at some point, which I was growing less excited to do with every passing second. I found a pair of navy blue swim trunks with a horizontal band of white encompassing the center of the suit. I tugged off my flannel pyjama bottoms and stepped into the new pair of swim trunks. I pulled a loose white tee shirt over my head, and decided it was time that I forced myself to look in the mirror. Shuffling unenthusiastically to the bathroom, I finally looked into the eyes of my reflection.