Even though the shutters are closed tight, a thin beam of moonlight still creeps through, barely noticeable in the flickering candlelight. The silence outside is so absolute that it almost feels as if the entire world has died and left them behind; absent is the chirping of insects, and so few animals move at night even though they have so much less to fear; in the rest of the castle, soldiers are trying to sleep.
In the room with the last melting candle, Eren sits between Levi's legs as the he rests his chin on the boy's shoulder.
They have hardly spoken since they climbed into bed, and the wordless moments are what's needed to be glad that the other is still alive. Levi would never say such a thing, but he gives himself away when they are alone, often holding Eren so tightly that it is almost painful. But it's the pain that reminds him that he is still alive and human. Now Eren takes Levi's hand and traces a new cut along the corporal's thumb with his fingertips, slides over callused hands and the bandaged wrist, and reaches back along Levi's arm to find lines of scars hatched across his skin.
Eren turns and straddles Levi's hips just to follow the line of scars until they taper off under his jaw; there is a cut behind Levi's ear, a bruise across his shoulder, and he winches when Eren's other hand wanders down over his stomach. He tugs Levi's shirt up and rests his palm flat on the corporal's chest over his heart. The beat is faster than it should be, uneven and erratic, although Levi's expression is impassive. After holding his gaze for a few seconds, Eren leans forward and follows the line of a healed scar with his tongue across Levi's throat, and the man shudders. Yet seconds later, Levi pushes him away.
"Eren." The corporal's voice is deep in a way that makes his laboured breathing worse. "If you're going to touch me you could try being less tense."
Before he has any time to respond, he finds himself on his back with Levi leaning over him. He is suddenly everywhere, the warm musk of his skin and the faint, sharp smell of sweat, the earthy scent of his drying hair. The mattress dips by Eren's shoulders where Levi leans forwards. He lowers himself down onto his elbows so that there is hardly any space between their bodies and Eren is suddenly ten times more aware of Levi's thigh between his legs, and the corporal's chest pressed on his. He tries to concentrate on breathing evenly but Levi's hand curls around his wrist as he presses his lips softly on Eren's with a gentleness he wouldn't have expected Levi to be capable of. Eren tries to follow him back when the man moves away but Levi has moved on, nipping once at the boy's earlobe, kissing along Eren's jaw before parting his lips over the boy's throat. Eren tilts his head back as Levi sucks long, wet kisses along his neck; his hand slips from Eren's wrist to his hair, pushing the boy's head to the side and working his way around the back.
Levi hesitates there and Eren waits, breathing unevenly with his hands curled in the man's shirt.. Levi is being far more careful than usual - he would be waking up tomorrow with far less bruises than usual, it seemed- but the hesitation is new. It takes him a moment to realise that it is a curious, contemplative hesitation, and by then Levi has already licked an experimental stripe along the back of Eren's neck.
They both immediately freeze. Eren hadn't meant to be so loud, but he'd had no idea that the back of his neck is so sensitive. Levi hovers, listening carefully in case anyone has heard and is coming to check what all the noise is about (not that it would be the first time, but Levi always gets so frustrated by distractions). Slowly, the glint in Levi's eyes returns, and it is both as exciting as it is terrifying, and after sparing a quick warning glance, Levi returns to Eren's throat, leaving as many wet kisses as he can in the space he can reach while Eren squirms under him, biting his lips against the moans bubbling in his throat.
Of course it is nothing to when Levi pushes Eren onto his stomach and bites down on the boy's neck; short of crying out like he had before, the tension suddenly melts out of Eren's body. He is still aware of everywhere Levi touches him (the hand on his back, the cool breath on his neck, Levi's leg between his) but his arms slacken along with his jaw; his shoulders unwind and one of his legs slips and hangs limply off the side of the bed. His breathing comes slowly now, and he is utterly at the mercy of the corporal.
Any other night, it would be another age before Levi leaves off, but instead he helps Eren onto his side. Their kisses are as slow as his breathing, soft in a way they rarely are, reserved for moments when danger has passed and the adrenaline from a fight has finally faded. He is like a different man from the one Eren knows from the battlefield; that Levi barks orders and returns to bite bruises across his lover's skin; this Levi carefully curls his fingers in Eren's hair as he tugs tenderly at his lips, and even takes the time to caress the boy's cheekbone with his thumb. He must be tired, Eren thinks, to be so gentle. Indeed, after stumbling across a whole group of Titans earlier that day, even the corporal would be exhausted. So few died today, and Eren can see why.
As Eren drifts, the last thing he remembers is Levi's tongue flicking across his lips and his own pathetic attempt to reciprocate. It doesn't matter. Tomorrow Eren will keep himself alive in order to continue. Levi depends on it.