Ereri - A Loving Mistake - Eren x Levi - Attack on Titan Yaoi

The Party

"Ooooh, daddy! Look!" Ellie squealed, waving a toy sword frantically, running around and giggling. She leaped over wrapping paper strewn across the floor, occasionally nearly hitting the colorfully decorated tree, which sat towards the center of the living room, which was a mistake on Eren's part, because the amount of times she had almost knocked it over in the past five minutes was getting out of hand. Yet, they simply didn't have it in them to stop her.

"Ellie..." Eren groaned, flinching as she came dashing past, the sword nearly hitting him, before he skillfully dodged it, looking after her with an irritated expression. Ignoring her father, she continued to dash around with her new toy, pretending to fight off imaginary villans.

Levi just laughed, wrapping an arm around Eren's shoulder. "That's your little girl." He ruffled Eren's hair. "And that's what you get for watching Attack On Titan around her so much. It's your own fault that all she wanted were toy weapons and action figures."

Eren shrugged his arm off with a groan. "Don't be a prick."

Levi just chuckled again as they sat back, watching Ellie with amusement.

They sat on the leather couch of the living room, in their decently sized suburban home, which was a change from their old apartments, even though it was only fifteen minutes away, but it was cozy. It had two stories, four bedrooms, and it was actually in a slightly undeveloped neighborhood. Out the large window behind them, there was a beautiful snow covered forest that seemed to stretch on for miles.

In the living room itself, there was a nice fireplace, a few chairs and a couch, a tv, all that homey stuff, but there was also a large tree they had miraculously managed to cram in the house. Everything was sparkling clean, and Eren could sense Levi's growing agitation with the fact that he would be the one stuck with the tedious chore of cleaning up all the wrapping paper and taking the tree down. But he tried to ignore it and enjoy the family time, doing his best to veer Ellie away from the fireplace whenever she came dashing in that direction, shouting, sword raised. Despite Levi's constant worries about Ellie falling and burning herself, Eren had lit a fire, and it kept the small room warm as they opened presents.

Levi found himself watching Eren after a while, though. The way his face lit up each time Ellie let out another battle cry, causing their cat, Jean (nicknamed 'little stallion') to scurry away, was gorgeous. His eyes were shining, and he looked so happy, so relaxed... Levi couldn't help but think back to a time when Eren never smiled, when he drank nonstop, when he even hurt himself, when he wanted nothing more than to die. Both of them had been like that, at some point. Every single thing that happened back then was engraved in their minds forever. But that's the thing- they both came from shit backgrounds. No parents, abuse, abandonment. They hit rock bottom. They fucked shit up all the time. Levi was even a druggie at one point. They were both just living off of what they could, dragging through life day after day, in pain. But, when they met eachother, something clicked. No, the memories and the pain of all the bullshit they had been through didn't disappear, and it never would go away. Nothing goes away. It's a part of life. But, things do come your way. Good things, that outweigh the bad ones. Like the fact that they met.

Even though they were both in a dark place, they managed to do their best for each other. Their best, well, it certainly wasn't the greatest. Sometimes, all they could do to support the other was hold their hand, or even just a smile, but after a while, they built each other up. They supported each other, even if it ended up hurting them, and eventually, they reached a better place. They still had nights where they would cry into the other's arms, where they would be tempted to get shitfaced and make out instead of talking things out, where Levi would want to go back to smoking, but they learned to help one another resist those urges, for the sake of themselves and for the sake of the kids.