The Transtempus Penalty (ERERI//RIREN)

Chapter 30

The night was long and full of intermittent check-ins with Levi, who was more tired every time I woke him up. I felt bad that I had to get him up so often, but I wasn't willing to risk anything that first night. If he was mostly returning to normal by the next night, I wouldn't have to keep such a close eye on him, which is what I was hoping for. The next morning, I was exhausted, and after waking Levi up a final time at around seven in the morning, I knew I wouldn't last much longer without falling asleep.

"Good morning," I mumbled, my eyelids too heavy to lift very far.

"Hey, Eren," Levi said, but it took me far too long to process what he'd said.

"Hi," I said, my voice coming quietly from my throat, my lips too laxed to form the word.

"You look rough," he whispered, scooting closer to me and resting his head on my shoulder.

"You should see the other guy," I snorted half-heartedly, shaking my head and letting my eyes close completely while I gestured to his face. His cheek and eye socket where the impact had occurred were swollen and black with bruises. It hurt to look at.

"Okay, rude. Are you sure I'm not gonna die now?" he asked sarcastically, yawning halfway into his question.

"Yeah, you can do whatever you want. Just don't be a dumbass," I murmured, feeling my heavy breaths take hold of my chest and sink me further into the mattress.

"I'm probably gonna have a couple uninterrupted hours, if that's okay with you," he replied, settling down beside me while my head fell into the pillow beneath me. I didn't remember falling asleep after that.

I had had a very uneventful night, not even including the ordeal with Levi. I was sneaking out after he'd fallen asleep every hour to have a meeting with Farlan and Isabel.

Over the weekend, they had gotten a tape from Hanji, and had waited to listen until I had a chance to listen to it with them. She had said that she needed two of us to leave for twenty-four hours to appear in court and testify, showing up at the post office early the next morning. She explained that if all three of us left, we would close window of time we'd accessed without having passed the first murder, which could be detrimental, and require a complete restart on the penalization. The only problem was that two of us had to leave, and twenty-four hours on the outside was six days on the inside. I was more than a little nervous about the requirement, because either I went with one of them to hear what they would testify, or I would have to wait for six days to hear if they'd thrown me under the bus. I could feel panic flit around my insides when the recording came to an end, and I had to focus on the grains of wood in the coffee table to keep from losing my shit.

"So, uh, Eren. You're kinda the head guy," Isabel said quietly, "So I'll let you make this call. Do you think you need to stay back here? If we'd have listened to it over the weekend, at least we would have had some more warning."

"Well, it's fine. We still got time," Farlan responded with a confident smirk playing on his lips. "Okay, so, yeah. Eren, who do you need going and who do you need staying?"

"Just a second. What time is it?" I asked, worried about Levi, who had been sleeping upstairs. I hadn't checked on him in almost forty five minutes, and I was beginning to get nervous.

"Twelve-thirty," Farlan replied, gesturing towards the stairs while he spoke. "Go check on him and come back, alright? We need to make a decision soon, or we're gonna be more underprepared than we already are. She said she needed two of us at six in the morning and we need to figure out who we're gonna send."

"Right, okay," I nodded, stressed out of my mind with the weight that rested on my shoulders. I was glad we had listened to the tape before we showed up late to court, but my stress levels were off the charts. I pushed open the door and crept into my pitch black bedroom, lit only by the lights downstairs. I saw a lump under my covers and was relieved that the lump was breathing. I rested my hand on Levi's shoulder and gently shook him, hoping to rouse him into consciousness with the movement. "Hey," I whispered. "Hey, Levi."