roses. | eren x levi

roses. | seventy-eight

one knock. two.

i had forever perceived her as the nonchalant, lighthearted type, but it's been eternities since i've seen my cherished sister. i would imagine that she would place aside her leisurely strides to greet me.

the mahogany creaky entrance opened to expose a woman of diminutive stature, shorter than mr. rose, even. she tied her long flaxen hair back into a low stringent ponytail, making her look more like a lackey than my sister-in-law, historia reiss.

she gawked at me with wide eyes, so positively blue they were like electricity, driving you into dumbfounded stillness by the utter display of them. the hand that pushed the door open was now quivering on the doorknob as she fought to pronounce the words to speak.

"you're... you're eren, right?"

i nodded.

"come in."

she opened the door wider for my entrance and closed it after me. she glanced behind her at me numerous times as she guided me through the humble home, cluttered with euphuistic porcelain, portraits of a boy with copper-colored hair and a glower sitting in an antique chair, outdated calendars, and family photographs consisting of both historia's family and mine.

"i'm sorry for being so rude. the truth is, well, the last time i saw you, you were waving goodbye to ymir and packing up the van."

i didn't answer. the strength that i exerted to appear at her dwelling was draining in and of itself, and i couldn't bring myself to extract the notepad to communicate unless i was sitting down.

"that was at least ten years ago, right?"

her nature conveyed verges of emotions that crossed too swiftly for me to distinguish. there was strange disappointment, uncertainty, perhaps even hostility; predilections i understood all too thoroughly, but couldn't grasp the significance of. 

her hand whisked past several undusted frames of children grinning, adolescents sulking, undergraduates waving.

"we invited you to our wedding. sent five different invitations to all the addresses we thought you might be at, even that flower shop we knew you bought with the inheritance."

the tempest of sensations appeared to calm now, leaving only subtle anger. she was infuriated at me for withdrawing from their stories, for being too much of a coward to attend my sister's ceremony. she loathed me for that, even.

but, after everything, who was i to criticize her?

"you know what, eren," she said, twirling around and facing me.

"i hope those ten years did you well. i hope those ten years of abandoning the only person who ever loved you was worth it. i hope those ten years of taking care of those stupid daisies were good."

at that moment, she rushed down the corridor and left me at a different set of opaque wooden doors, behind which all i could overhear was a little boy giggling and the pitter-patter of small footsteps.

"mommy's gonna catch you! i'm gonna get you!" yelled one behind the door as the other squealed.

i didn't know they had children. 

ten years is, after all, a long time.

i creaked the door open to glimpse inside. from the tiny interlude of space i provided myself, i could see a woman with brusque sorrel hair running on a brown carpet, avoiding the towering collections of vinyl and trailing the boy, at one point slipping onto the extensive tawny bed that extended from the crown to the core of the room.