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“I WILL!” I screamed as slamming the door. I ran down the street with my tears making a path behind me.
“You are a good for nothing son Eren, go burn in hell!” echoed in my head as I kept running. I can’t believe I did that, No one would ever be crazy enough to stand up to his or her father like I just did. I stopped on the side of the road and sat on the curb.
“I’m an idiot!” I laughed hysterically to myself, and then went back to sobbing. I now knew I was on my own, no place to go. I got back up and started to walk, for a couple hours. I was walking, then I couldn’t go on I was too tired, this late at night I couldn’t believe I hadn’t collapsed of exhaustion. I sat down on the side of a building and as I shut my eyes a man walked up to me.
“Why are you sleeping out here?” I opened my eyes and there was a guy squatted down next to me. He was a bit skinny with some ruffled black hair.
“What?” I asked.
“Do I have to repeat myself?” he said and sighed.
“Boys your age shouldn’t be out on the street at this time of night. Come on.” He told me as standing up and holding his hand out to me. I took it and he helped me up. I followed him to an apartment and he unlocked the door. He helped me up the stairs and then unlocked another door.
“You can go sit over there, on the couch. I’ll be right there.” He said as shoving me a bit in that direction. I found my way to the couch and sat down with proper posture. I waited there for a minuet till he came in with a cup of coffee for himself.
“What’s your name?” I ask him.
“Levi.” He said as falling back into the chair across from me.
“Dose your last name happen to be Rivaille?”
“How did you know?”
“I’m Eren Yeager.”
“Brat!” He said as his face brightening up.
“Well I guess that is what you called me…” I say.
“Last time I have seen you was when you were a 3rd year of middle school student! Well anyway, why were you out there so late?”
“I was just…” I paused, I just replayed all that had just happened in my head.
“You what?” He said. I started to cry, I couldn’t help it. He looked at me with a surprised expression.
“You don’t have to cry just calm down!” he said franticly. I couldn’t stop, Levi came over to the couch and sat next to me. He sat his coffee on the table and put his hand on my back, I was pretty sure he was clueless on how to comfort me.
“I… I had to… run… away…” I said, fitting those words in-between the breaths I took to continue crying. I moved closer to him, practically hugging him. He patted me on the back.
“Its ok, whatever it is you’re away from it now right?” he said. I then felt safe, and also found myself falling asleep in his arms.
I woke up with my head in his lap, he must have fallen asleep, too. I lay there a second remembering what happened last night.
“First time I saw him in years and that’s how I act.” I laughed to myself as picking my head up. I looked over at Levi and he was still sleeping, his clothes were different from the night before. You don’t think he got changed then came back to sleep back on the couch, was he protecting me?
“Eh brat, you up?” He says tiredly. He Lifts his head up and looks around.
“Food.” He says.
“What?”
“Do you cook brat?”
“Yeah, why?”
“There are some eggs in the fridge, go do something useful”
“Oh, ok.” It was the least I could do, he let me stay in his house the whole night. I walked to the kitchen and looked in the fridge. Just like he said there were some eggs, the only other thing in the fridge was about half a carton of milk. I grabbed the eggs and sat them on the counter. I picked one of the many pans and spatulas hanging on the wall. I found some olive oil and poured a bit on the pan, I moved it around to get it on every spot. As scrambling the eggs I ran through some memories I had with him in the past. He was a bit older than me so when he was around his friends he’d pick on me, but when it was just me and him he was really nice. If anyone got in my way he would stand up for me and I was thankful that. I hurried around the kitchen for plates and finally found them in a cupboard. I put the eggs on two plates and then found some forks. When I came back into the living room he was watching the news. I gave one of the plates to him.
“Thanks.” He said as shoving all of the eggs on the plate into his mouth.
“Do you have anything?” he looks over and asks me.
“What?” I say confused.
“Did you bring any of your belongings with you when you left?”
“No, I just kind of ran out as fast as I could.” I said. I leaned over and remembered I forgot everything. Levi got up and walked into a room. I heard some noise and he came out with some clothes.
“Here take these.” He says and hands them to me.
“I can’t…”
“Just put those on brat, and you may want to take a shower while you’re at it.” He said as giggling to himself.
“Thank you, senpai.”
“Please don’t call me senpai. The bathroom is down the hall to the left, towels in the closet.”
“Ok, thanks.” I say as heading to the bathroom. After getting dressed I go lay down on the couch thinking about everything that had happened. I really don’t know how to feel, just a mix of being nervous, sorry, and surprisingly safe. I hear footsteps and its Levi.
“I’ll be out in a minuet get ready to go.” he says.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.” I hear Levi slam the door and the sound of the shower coming on. I sit there listening to the water running and then I hear something, is he singing?! I really wasn’t expecting that, someone like him singing in the shower. I start laughing, I can’t help it’s just so funny! When he gets out I still hear him humming a song. I still am laughing when he comes out of the bathroom.
“What’s so funny, brat?” He asks.
“Nothing, you have a very amazing voice.” I’m still giggling and he gives me the plainest look.
“Shut up.” he says as throwing his head towel at me. About five minutes later he comes back out.
“Ready?” He says. “Where are you taking me?” I ask.
“I told you it was a surprise, come along brat.” He says as opening the door. We walk out of the room and down the stairs. After we get out of the building he presses the button on his key chain and a car beeps. He gets in in the drives side and I get in on the passenger’s side. He starts the car and turns on the radio.
“Let’s go!” he say excitedly. As we are driving a song we used to listen to comes on the radio. We both immediately look at each other when the song registers in our head. We both start laughing. As we are laughing another memory comes into my head...
“Levi…”
“What?”
“Will you always be my friend, even when I go to my new school?”
“Of course, Eren.” Levi said as ruffling my hair.
“We’re here!” he says as getting out of the car. I look around trying to remember if I have been here before.
“Where is here?” I ask.
“You don’t remember? At the top you may realize that we are at the…” He stops his sentence running up the hill. Once I see him stop he smiles and looks down to me.
“Come on, you’re missing it!”
“Coming!” I shout back. When I reach the top I look out and see an amazing view of the town.
“Now do you remember?” He asks.
“How could I not.” I reply. We sit down and talk a bit about old memories, laughing at all of childhood. The sun starts to set filling the sky up with bright warm colors.
“Why did you run away?” He questions. I just look at him.
“If you don’t mind me asking.” He adds on.
“You and I both know me and my father never got along. I just got out of hand….” My eyes start to water.
“…My mother is very sick at the moment and money is tight. Our class was going on a trip so I asked him for a 50, that’s when he got angry. All I remember is his final words and me running up the street balling.” With those words I can’t hold it in so I start to cry.
“He told me… he told me to… burn… to burn in…” I can’t continue, I curl up holding my knees.
“Eren.” He says kindly as jumping to my side. He puts his arm around my shoulders and holds me.
“It’s ok.” He says as trying to calm me down.
_____________________________________________________________
It’s dark now, still on the hill, just us looking at the stars.
“I believe that’s a planet.” Levi explains as pointing to a spot in the sky.
“No, it’s a satellite.” I say.
“How are you so sure?” He asks
“It’s blinking.” I reply.
“Oh…” It’s nice just sitting here, clearing my mind. We lie there a bit listing to the lullaby of nature, bad thing is it worked. I closed my eyes and next minuet I opened them I was in the apartment and it was daylight.
“Finally up, sleeping beauty?” Levi says sitting at the table behind the couch.
“Shut up!” I say as sitting up. I look over at the clock, its 11.
“Better hurry up, we are going somewhere at noon.” He tells me.
“Another adventure?” I ask.
“Actually I had plans and I’m not giving them up just because you came into town.”
“I always have been in town.”
“On the whole other side, an hour away maybe? Come on hurry up, besides you’ll like it.” He says. I get up and head to the bathroom. After I’m ready we get in the car and go. He turns on the radio and immediately starts singing with the song. I smile a bit then look out the window.
“If I remember correctly we are going to the coffee shop, yes?” I say.
“Well you certainly have a good memory.” He replies with a smile.
“Who are we meeting?” I ask. He stays silent and begins to park.
“You’ll see…” He finally answers. We get into the coffee shop and the first thing I hear is someone yelling Levi’s name. The women runs up to him and hugs him, then looks back at me.
“Oh my god, Eren?!” She asserts. She jumps over and hugs me to.
“You didn’t tell me you were bringing him!” She squeals.
“Hanji give the boy a break.” Levi says. I haven’t even realized it was her till now. I then hugged her back.
“You’re still as cute as your younger self…” She says as walking back to the table.
“Shall we order?” Levi asks me.
“Sure.” After we get our drinks we sit down with Hanji.
“How have you been?” She asks me.
“Great!” I say. With those words Levi’s head turns straight towards me. His mouth is smiling but his eyes looked like he was concerned. I nod at Levi and his odd expression fades away.
“How is your life going?” I ask Hanji.
“Thank you, it’s going well.” She replies.
“Bye guys!” She says as me and Levi walk down the street in the opposite direction. I look over at Levi and he has a happy expression on his face.
"That was fun." I said.
"See, told you that you'd like It." he says as purposely bumping into me. We giggle a bit till we see a poster on a telephone poll.
"Missing Child: Eren Yeager; Age: 17" The heading reads. His face changes drastically, he looks over at me. I was expecting him to look angry but he looked more concerned.
"You should call them so they know you’re ok. You don't want them to go to the next level on this." Levi says.
"Can we just wait till I'm 18? I don't want to forced to live in that hell-filled place again." I reply.
"Just one message, they seem worried."
"I said no!" I scream and start to walk away to the car. I wait a minute for him to walk over and unlock the car. We both get in and have a long and quite ride home. A while later were back home and I’m watching TV. All the sudden arms wrap around from behind me and embrace me.
"I’m sorry." a voice that seams on the verge of tears cries out. I never had heard him cry in my life. He stands there for a minuet just crying into my shoulder till his voice apologizes again.
"What's wrong?" I ask him grabbing his arms witch are currently on my neck.
"I took the poster, I thought it would be simple just a 'Your son is ok' kind of thing."
"You called them?!" With those words I say he holds me even tighter.
"Why are you so concerned about this?" I ask him. He lets go and walks around the couch to sit next to me.
"My parents died a month after you left..." He says. I don't even think till after my instincts kick in to grab his hand. He looks at me and gives a slight smile with his tear-damped face.
"I'm sorry." I say. He holds my hand even tighter trying to hold in his tears, but it’s not working.
"I swear if you tell anyone that I was ever in this condition I will..." He stops when I hug him. For the next few minutes we just sit there while he continues crying with the sounds of the nightly news in the back around.
"Will you come with me?" I ask. He picks his head up.
"Where?"
"To see my parents."
______________________________________________________
It’s the next day and we run to the car trying not to get soaked by the rain.
"Are you sure?" He asks me.
"Yes." I reply. He starts the car and we are off. About an hour later we pull up to my house, we get out of the car and walk up to the porch. Takehiko looks at me and I smile back.
"Hello?" I say as knocking on the door. When it opens dad is standing there.
"Where in hell have you been?" he asks keeping a straight face as usual. His eyes meet with Levi's.
"Who's this?" He asks sternly.
"A friend of mine." I say.
"Where is Mom?" I ask. His eyes widen and he pulls his hand back, then slaps me.
"Your mother is dead! You left her when she was sick, what kind of son does that!" He says. My mind stops working, Mom died? Levi walks up to father and punches him for me.
"What kind of father slaps his son?!" He says as sticking up for me. I still just stand there frozen.
"Mom..." I whisper as running back to the street. As I run up the street I hear Takehiko screaming my name as chasing after me. In less the minuets I arrive at the cemetery. I franticly look around till I see it.
"Kalura Yeager" is the name the tombstone reads. The fresh dirt is covering the plot of land in front of it. The rain made the stone a shade darker as it got wet. I scream, crying falling to my knees. I keep screaming.
"Calm down." I hear Levi whisper as grabbing a hold of me.
"No!" I screech out.
"She can't be dead..." I whisper to myself.
"Eren." He says calmly.
"She's... not... dead..." I say confused. I cry more, letting my body collapse to the muddy grass. He drops down with me, still holding me as he was.
"It’s ok." He says as half rocking me.
"It’s going to be ok." He says as putting his forehead on mine.
"All ok." He whispers as our lips touch.
"Eren... I'm here for you."