Just Five Days // REMASTERED (IN PROGRESS)

Chapter 18

A voice rang out into the inky blackness of the predawn, shifting me uncomfortably from my slumber. I gradually began to regain consciousness from the grasping tendrils of my candid dreaming as the voices beside me grew louder. It seemed like several seconds and several hours happened all at once as I began to recognize the distressed voice, crying out into the thick comforter of a moonless night. The bedroom was black as pitch, so I saw nothing as my eyelids fluttered open at some unknown haunted hour.

"No! No, please," Levi whimpered, his breath ragged as he thrashed around between the sheets. "I- I can't do it! Don't make me do it," he groaned in a voice that was high and childlike, as though during his sleep he had warped into something of a broken cherub, desiring for some sort of gratification or affection that would never come to him. "C-come back."

I knew that I should wake him up, to try to rescue him from his tormenting dreamscape. I rolled over, catching a grip of his shoulder. "Levi, wake up," I said, my eyes finally focusing on the navy colored sky peeping through the empty windows, smudges of grey clouds seeming to sift through as well, like ripples purling on the surface of water, deep down in a well.

"No," he mumbled. "No!" Levi cried, much louder this time, his face twisting and warping into a mask of pure terror, while he continued to writhe in the bedsheets. I could only imagine what he was dreaming about. I shook his shoulders harder, putting as much force as I could into shaking them.

"Levi, please." I couldn't handle seeing him like that. I had to wake him up. Tears were starting to prick my eyes, as waves of pure sympathy rolled over my body, knocking my head around like a tugboat trapped in a whirlpool. I could feel that my shaking him was seemingly only having adverse effects as he began whipping around much harder in the bed, thrashing against my hands, fighting me. "Wake up," I mumbled one last time, in a final feeble attempt to pull him from his nightmare, and to my surprise, Levi's eyes shot open immediately, and he sat up in a flash, gasping while his eyes swam around the room, reorienting himself to the room once more. Once his eyes focused on me, he clutched at my shoulders, wrapping his arms around my neck, as if I would float away if he let me go. He was fighting everything warring in his mind, it seemed, battling several demons at one time.

"Eren," he said quietly, more to himself, as if he wasn't sure if I was real.

"I'm right here," I assured him, running my fingers through his thick messy hair. I planted a kiss on his forehead while his body trembled in my arms. "I'm here, Levi. It was just a dream." After a long while, he seemed to calm down a little, his breaths becoming more regular, less labored. I watched the grey clouds continue to dance around the ink black sky, noticing the silent stars observing us from afar. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"No. Maybe some other time," Levi hummed, bringing his lips to mine gently, reaching his free hand up to caress my face, brushing tears from my own eyes with the backs of his fingertips, just barely gracing my cheeks. I felt myself begin to kiss him back before he pulled away, all too soon, interrupting our sweet, slow kiss. "Thank you. For waking me, I mean."

"Of course, Levi. I don't know what kind of sadist wouldn't have," I murmured, looping the fingers of my free hand through the fingers of his. Pulling his body tight into mine, I could feel my arms locking around his sinewy, muscular back, silently vowing the rest of my body that they would never let go of him entirely. I felt fresh tears start to spill from my eyes, cascading down my cheeks in their well worn paths.

I hadn't realized that Levi had taken notice until I felt his lips travel from my cheek to my ear, pressing soft kisses into my skin before asking in a soft voice that only melted me further into the putty in his hands that I was, "Are you crying?"

"Maybe." I muttered, trying to choke out a laugh, but it caught in my throat, forcing my breath to hitch itself up into another sob. I realized that I needed to pause if I ever wanted to be able to breathe normally again, so I paused. Levi rubbed soothing circles into my back, continuing to kiss my temple, and down my jaw, and then back up again. I tried to quiet my mind, to allow myself to formulate actual words to say, so that I wouldn't just be spewing garbled sobs into his shoulder for the rest of the night. "It's just so sad. I hate you have bad dreams. I hate that your mind does this to you when you can't get away."

"We'll I guess you'll just have to get used to it, if you plan on sticking around," Levi hummed, and I loosened my arms around him, so that I could break free enough to kiss him, as a quiet promise that I would, in fact stick around as long as I could. I played with his hair gently, tugging on the tips of his two block cut, laying back down beside him, squirming to get closer to his frigid body. He kissed my neck once before softly brushing his lips against mine one final time, bidding me a silent goodnight. I pulled him close and we fell asleep, warm in each other's embrace, happy for that moment, to be alive and with one another.