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Eren, he is so bright and stunning. Daylight follows in his wake, everywhere he steps is bathed in his warm glow and Levi cannot help but marvel at such beauty.
He's always surrounded by people, those awakened as the Sun passes the horizon to shed light across the land. The hustle and bustle of humans… They never really cross Levi's path.
His darkness encourages the quiet animals, hunters and nocturnal creatures. It seems the darkness he rules instills fear more than anything. There are some, very few, who find the silence of night comforting… Like a woolen blanket to keep the chill from your skin in the evenings. Others cower and hide away, the lack of sunlight disconcerting. It saddens him…
Levi observes the daytime a great deal, tucked away in the shadows cast by oaks older than humans could ever wish to live. He wants so deeply to be able to bring that happiness… That hope of a new start that Eren wears so naturally. People love him, adore his crafting of golden tendrils that open the buds of flowers and raise crops from the soil.
Levi, always alone in the darkness, can only watch from afar as this brilliant boy does his work. Eren runs with light feet across meadows, leaving bursts of colourful flowers in his wake; rests his head upon the river banks as the waters rush over his bronzed skin, white robes carried in the water like billowing clouds across a flawless sky.
They seem so separate, polar opposites are Levi and Eren. A pain forms in his chest as Levi thinks of how Eren will never admire him in the same way - Levi thinks of how he cannot drag his gaze from the boy with eyes as green as Spring, cannot seem to pull his thoughts from him.
Although it may seem true, that night and day are destined to never meet… Twice a day, Levi has his chance - Dawn and dusk.
Every evening, Levi and his darkness bleed into the scenery as Eren pulls his sunshine back into himself and away. While Levi feels an almost guilt gnawing in his chest as he brings fear to the humans; as he takes money from the hands of farmers who wish to continue their harvest. He also feels that warmth that remains, the fade between night and day is slow, and it is beautiful.
Levi takes this time to bathe in the last tendrils of Eren's glow… He feels almost as if they could brush hands, he could reach out and that pure glow could truly grace his skin. But he doesn't.
Instead, he just basks in those moments… He drinks it all in, Eren's sweetness, his warmth. Levi stays quiet and keeps to himself, his pale hands stay strictly to his sides… Levi could only image the shock Eren would feel, to be touched by one so cold and dark. He would never dare to reach out, he is undeserving of that brightness.
And then, every day at dawn, Eren takes back that control. It's Levi's favourite part of the whole cycle, when he gives the power over to his counterpart. The skies are Eren's once again, and a happiness fills Levi's gut as the glow of the moon recedes and the Sun floats into view. Levi would give everything he has to Eren, if he could. If Eren would ever accept. But he won't, never will.
What would Levi trade to feel worthy, to finally feel Eren's warmth in person, like being wrapped in the arms of a loved one - Levi doesn't know what that would feel like, but he sees it. He sees so much, he wishes he could experience those things… Among the fear he witnesses, there's little love.
Night is a place for thieves and awful deeds, kept secret and lost to the darkness. The silence is almost deafening, but for a worn person falling into their pillow to sob away their woes; a child's scream after they've woken from night terrors.
The sounds of day are different. There's the sound of children playing in the streets; songbirds lift spirits with bright tunes; people's idle chatter fills spaces once devoid of friendship and love. There's so much more.
Levi has nothing to offer Eren, nothing but the power to relinquish the night, remove himself fully so Eren can shine. He has to be gone for Eren to reach full potential… The dusk and the dawn are Levi's favourite times of day, but maybe it's different for Eren… He could hate that fade, the blurring between them that Levi basks in.
How could someone like Eren, enjoy being merged with Levi… It must feel a true ordeal to experience his golden light giving way to the dark velvet of night. Night feels like loss, day like receiving.
They have always been the same, repeating the same dance... Night to dawn, to day, to dusk. It circles and they complete their rituals of give and take. For years and years, they have been connected. But it seems only Levi has taken note of Eren, not the other way around.
However, to Levi, it feels like enough... To at least be intertwined with Eren during that fade, that beautiful blurring of two. It'll do... Eren will always be enough, even from afar.