Freiheit | eren x levi

Act 6: Schmerz

For crying out loud it was only the second day for Eren and he was already severely injured. The prince was not clumsy or unskilled but climbing down this fucking boogerman tree was a real challenge. It was late afternoon by the time he made it back down to the second branch when his foot slipped and he tumbled off the tree ungracefully as he rocketed down towards the air with wind blowing on his bruised face.

The air was knocked immediately out of his lungs and he felt as if his whole body was starting to burn up from a fire and it was unbelievable that his wig was still in place. His limbs were thrown in random directions like a rag doll who was flung across the room by a careless toddler and he was pretty sure some bones were broken. He was gasping for air with his chest heaving up and down rapidly following the rhythm of feet stomping their way to the broken form of the prince and for a second he thought he saw a tunnel of light coming his way. Eren couldn't care less about all the pain he was feeling; all he wanted to know was how the fuck was he still alive when he fell from such a high tree?

"Aw," he heard Levi's disappointed voice say, "you were so close impressing me."

"Levi, now isn't the time for that crap. This poor girl needs to go to the medic tent asap," Hanji snapped as she knelt besides Eren. "Besides if you wanted your stupid ass arrow in the first place you could have retrieved it yourself since you're humanity's strongest, right?"

"Why, you-"

"Arlert, help me get her up please," she commanded, shortly cutting off the king before he could finish his sentence.

It took so much effort for the two of them to lift Eren off the ground without hurting him or causing any discomfort, but with the much appreciated assistance from Erwin, the three of them were able to delicately carry him to an unoccupied bed in the medical tent and surprisingly there were a few injured cadets there too. So thankfully Eren wasn't the only one who totally failed on the second day of training.

The prince groaned from brief pain as Hanji pocked at his torso and arms to see if there was anything broken and luckily he manged to cheat death with only one sprained ankle and twisted wrist. Armin stood by Hanji's side and watched nervously as she started to rummage around the many unpacked boxes of medical supplies. Eren's breathing was unnatural at the moment: one moment he was gasping for oxygen and then the next moment he would be nothing close to inhaling any air at all and it scared Armin a lot be case he didn't want his childhood friend and prince of Maria to die in the land of his enemy's country.

His skin was covered with dark bruises and bleeding cuts and Hanji and Armin were pretty sure he was gonna fall unconscious but he didn't. He remained lying down with his eyes wide open and filled with determination.

"Did he get his fucking arrow back?" Eren asked through gritted teeth and a pained yet angered expression on his face.

"Yes and don't listen to what that midget says. This is the first year where someone actually managed to get that arrow from up there and also first girl to do it. Good job, kiddo," Hanji said with a smile.

Eren painfully clutched his hands into fists with his nails biting in his palms. He took a long, staggering breath before saying anything more.

"Thanks," he murmured.

It was an innocent word but deep down in his soul Eren was angrier than Mikasa on her periods. He climbs this very tall tree that probably reached the clouds and fell off and almost died and all he got was a 'good job'? This was stupid and just plain ridiculous. If Eren had his own army he would never do such a thing and he would train them all with respect but sternly. Levi's country was trained by doing reckless things.

"You are hurt right now but I can tell that you're going to be very useful to us," commander Erwin said as he returned to Hanji's side.

"Levi seems to be very interested in this girl too," Hanji said as if Eren wasn't even there.