The Ereri Project!

Sunflowers

Petra smiles at the familiar sound of the bell in the door of Erwin's flower shop.

It's been a while she's been in it, but it smells exactly the same and looks a tiny bit brighter. "I'll be out in a moment," Erwin calls from the back room.

"I can wait Erwin, it's alright," she replies.

Petra giggles when it sounds like he's dropped something. "Petra," he says, walking out, grinning.

She walks over and hugs him. "Oh dear," he says. "Levi was right, you certainly are pregnant."

She makes a face of mock hurt. "Are you saying I'm already getting fat?"

He holds his hands up defensively. "You're normally all skin and bones," he says. "I can already feel a hard bump at the bottom of your tummy."

She smiles and for a moment he feels incredibly old. This nearly thirty year old woman used to sit on his lap and teach herself new words from the dictionary.

Now she's taller and beautiful and has a wisdom in her eyes he never noticed before.

He is getting very old now, isn't he?

He smiles and sits behind the counter while she perches herself on it like she used to when she worked here. "So," Erwin says. "Eren tells me you're not planning on marrying the father."

She sighs. "Does everyone have to make such a big deal about that? He's not moving here and I'm not moving to Germany so there's no point. We're friends of course, we Skype all the time, it's just impractical to try and share physical space."

Erwin nods and chuckles. "Well, what's he like?"

"I have a picture, if you'd like to see," she says, taking out her cellphone. "Here," she says when she finds it. "It's from when I flew over last September but-" The look on Erwin's face makes her pause. "What?"

"That's him?"

"Yeah, why?"

"That's my nephew."

Petra stares at him. "Are you serious?"

"Did you not realize he looks almost exactly like me in my twenties?"

"I didn't know you in your twenties," she replies, looking back and forth from him to the photo. She shrugs when the similarities become clearer. "Now that you mention it, that's probably why I was so attracted to him."

Erwin smooths over his face with his hand. "Oh man," he mutters. "I have to call my sister now."

Petra starts giggling.

"What?" he asks.

She shakes her head. "It's just that, when I showed that picture to Papa, he mentioned that he looks like you. He'll just die when I tell him you two are actually related."

Erwin can't help but smile at her as he gets back up. Petra sits up when she realizes he walked into the back. "Where're you going?" she asks.

"We just got these in," he says, coming back with big yellow sunflowers. "I want you to have them."

She smiles. "Thank you, Erwin."

He nods and she gets off the counter. "I'm going to go back next door and tell Papa the new news," she says. "Tell Armin I said hi."

"Will do."

Erwin's heart feels light as he watches her walk out the door.