The Transtempus Penalty (ERERI//RIREN)

Chapter 27

Short Chapter this week. Take that for what it is.

Upon my arrival at my house, I discovered Farlan and Isabel resting on the brown plaid couch in the living room, their usual haunts, it seemed, as that was where they always managed to be when I arrived home.

"I'm back," I said while I crossed the threshold with my bag and dropped it onto the table in the kitchen.

"Oh, good," Isabel said, smiling weakly while she stood up. "Dinner's in the fridge. Did you have any Moses-type revelations while you were off on your own?"

"I guess I did, actually," I replied quietly, knowing that the answer I was about to give them wasn't the one that they likely wanted to hear.

"Good!" She exclaimed, patting me on the shoulder and gesturing towards the refrigerator. "Grab some dinner, heat it up, and sit down. We'd love to hear what you've come up with. We have also had time to do a lot of thinking, and I think that if we play our cards right tonight, we can come to a pretty solid agreement."

"Okay," I said, following her instructions and rifling through the fridge until I had constructed something of a suitable dinner with leftovers, before heating it and meandering towards the inevitable discussion I was about to have. The two of them seemed to be in relatively good moods, which gave me confidence that we actually would be able to come to a sort of truce without jeopardizing the rest of our mission.

The fear of being wrong in all of this, and putting Levi's life at stake back in the present was becoming difficult to ignore as well, so I knew that if everything I'd come up with on the drive back towards Duplaine was indeed how I felt, which it was, then I'd have to come up with a plan that would not only keep him happy presently in his teenage years, but also prevent future issues further down the line. It was a tricky situation but I figured that with their extensive psychology expertise, Farlan and Isabel would be able to help me formulate a well thought out course of action for all of us for the next year and change.

"So, go ahead," Farlan nodded, watching me closely while I picked at my dinner, like I existed on a microscope slide, just asking to be observed.

"Well, during my drive, I think I managed to figure out where my feelings from Levi came from, and, well, what they are exactly, but it puts me into an even more perplexing situation, so I'm officially gonna ask you two for help," I started, trying to read the room, checking their responses to make sure I could share without negative retribution.

"Oh, good. Finally," Farlan snorted somewhat jovially, given the situation. "We can knock some bloody sense into ya."

"That was unnecessary," I said quietly, hoping to just get the conversation over with without being afraid of what Farlan and Isaebel would say.

"Well, you know what, Eren? A lot of this shit has been pretty fucking unnecessary, and if we had actually started working together from the get-go, then we wouldn't even be in this situation. Let's just come to an agreement and bury whatever hatchets we've got with each other here and now, so that we can get back on track and get this shit done," Farlan said, punctuating each word with his gritted teeth. "I'm here to prevent murders, alright? What are you here for?"

"Hey, lay off," Isabel chimed in, pushing her wire-rimmed reading glasses up the narrow bridge of her nose as it began to succumb to gravity and slide downwards. "He wouldn't have passed the psych eval if he hadn't been trying to prevent the crimes in the first place. Whether or not you've broken the rules, you're still our partner, Eren, and you have been completely honest with us, as far as I'm aware, including in situations where it would have been easier to tell a lie. As of right now, I have no reason not to trust your word. Don't take that lightly." There was a tangible change in the atmosphere after Isabel had spoken her piece. It was completely silent for a moment, to the point that I could hear that I'd accidentally left the faucet on when I had gotten water from the sink to drink with my dinner, the constant drip, drip, drip of the slowly expelled water acted as a broken metronome keeping unsteady time with the suffocating quiet. "So, Eren, I'm gonna give you the floor."