Feign (Ereri oneshots)

Etheral

I've decided to combine this and Feign together since I feel like this one kind of puts readers off because of it's length. Maybe the previous one might convince you that this one is also worth a read ^_^

It had been a dark night, Levi remembered. The alleyway blended with the ghastly streetlamps, plunging the corridor into a nightmare of dancing shadows. Boot footsteps echoed on the dirty tar as Levi cautiously approached a struggling figure hidden inside a sack. The sack let out a ear piercing yowl, making him jump. Slowly, Levi undid the rope that held the opening shut and allowed the sack to roll around until the creature inside found the open entrance. A sleek black cat with fur as dark as the alley emerged, scanning Levi with luminous golden eyes as bright as the unreachable moon.

"What are you doing here?" Levi crouched down and held out an outstretched hand. The cat approached it with a lazy alertness, sniffing the hand. The eyes then returned to meet Levi's own gaze as Levi rubbed its ear.

"You are as much of an idiot as Eren is. You even share the same coloured eyes," Levi smirked, sadness lingering at the corner of his eyes. The death of too many comrades had rendered him unable to cry, and all he could do now is put up with the suffocating pain and burden placed upon his shoulders, and suffer the regret of being unable to help them. Bone-chilling wind blew through the alley in the night, fluttering his green cloak. Levi clenched his fist, remembering the way he would fly around freely with his gear, eyes glinting as a titan dared to approach him. The wind had been his friend then, and the wings on the back of his cloak a symbol of freedom.

What about now?

Stiffly, he reached up and unclasped the cloak, letting the wind carry it away to the unknown. Or maybe it would end up back at the castle, or the headquarter within the former walls. Agitation filled his being and he stood up, and glared at the broken walls that had once kept humanity safe from the unknown threat referred to as Titans. Levi patted his gear that had never failed him, and with a deep breath, manoeuvred around the tall buildings and towards a place he knew all too well.

***
The castle was as dirty as when he first visited it with Eren.

Moss and cobwebs formed an external layer on the stones, giving it a ghastly, haunted look. A turret had already crumbled, weary from all those years it managed to stay upright. Nature had been allowed to have her way with the shelter, with the same goal of destruction it had in mind as when it bore the Titans. Levi walked in freely like it had always been his home, and undid his gear, allowing it to clatter to the ground. The interior, ironically, had suffered no damage: everything, even the way the chairs were scattered, the table overturned and fissures in the wall, had stayed the same since the last time he was here. If Levi tried, he could probably remember the angst, remorse and anger as he sat at the table alone, clutching the Survey Corps emblem he managed to salvage before their bodies were tossed off the cart. In his anger, he had flung the furniture with all his strength, yet they stubbornly stayed intact. Why can't humans be that resilient?

Levi knew what was coming next, yet he could not stop the replay anymore.

Eren had heard the racket, and came upstairs to find Levi broken and kneeling in a small pool of blood. The same red liquid dripped from his knuckles, as if to shed the tears he had been unable to.

"Levi," Eren held the smaller but older man in his arms, rocking him like a infant.

"Levi...Levi..." he muttered Levi's name like a mantra, like a lifeline he is desperately holding onto.

It was that night, on a dark night when the shadows danced a harrowing dance as the minuscule light of the candle fluttered weakly in the wind, that they kissed.