"I just.. I really need to have you here with me right now."

A cluster of small, whispered words that hardly made it through the phone to Levi's ears. The male blinked, sitting up a bit straighter in his leather desk chair. The lights of his office had been dimmed- enough to be relaxing to him, but not enough that he could fall asleep. With his cellphone pressed against his ear, Levi spoke softly back to him.

"I'm sorry, Eren." Sniffling on the other end. No, Eren. Don't start crying. It's okay. "I'm stuck here at work for a few days more. Your sister, Mikasa, is home, right?" the voice of Levi was soothing to Eren, but not soothing enough to keep him from letting out a small sob. Tears that started streaming down his face- something Levi could hear and see in his shaking voice.

"Y-yeah."

"Alright, then." He leaned back again, the harsh but quite sound of the chair creaking as he did so echoing around the nearly empty room, with it's wooden paneled walls and great big windows that faced the city, giving Levi a wonderful view of the nightlife of New York, with it's twinkling lights and car lights, all packed together to equal a blur of color and light. It was almost like being back in Stuttgart. Levi took a few deep breaths, silver eyes fixated on the world outside the large window on the outer wall. He wasn't looking at anything in particular, just taking in the entire scene. With silence on both ends of the phone, the business man pushed his chair out a bit, lifting himself from the chair and striding over to the great, clear window. He stopped, his forehead a mere few centimeters away from touching it.

"Eren," he said softly, blinking slowly as though he were a content cat. "Three days is all there is left. Verstehst du? I'll be back home in Esslingen by Tuesday. At the latest"

There was a soft sniffle, followed by a yawn. "ich verstehe, Levi," came the small and familiar reply from the boy on the other end of the phone. Levi could almost hear the exhaustion in Eren's voice, a gentle smile coming upon his features because of it. He sounded, oddly enough, like a sad pup when he was tired. "Eren, it's about 7:00 there, correct?"

The boy on the other line hesitated a moment, before voicing his reply,".. Yeah.." It was hesitant and questionable, his response. Levi cross one arm acrossed his chest, resting his elbow on it in order to continue holding the cell phone to his ear as he gazed through the window. A small chuckle left his lips, but his voice took on the slight of a scolding tone to it,"Did you stay up the entire night again?"

That was something Eren had a bad habit of doing. He was no longer in high school, and while he certainly couldn't afford to miss his college classes, that's what happened at least once every other month. Levi must have nagged him for it whenever Eren did so, but when he was in a completely different country (and in the middle of a very large work project), Levi's ability to nag Eren whenever he missed classes had dropped severely. Probably due to the fact that he couldn't actually see if Eren was not at class. Levi raised and eyebrow as he heard a nervous giggle from the other end,"uh.. yeaa.."

"Damn it, you shitty little brat."

Eren laughed quietly, breath hitching in between laugh and words,"It's okay, I'll go to class on time on Monday, I promise."

Levi shook his head, turning and walking back to his chair, turning and sitting down into it with a sigh,"You never would have gotten away with this if I were over there." Eren, of course, already knew this, and responded with yet again, another tired yawn and giggle. "Alright, well. I command you to get your ass into bed right now."

"What? Why? It's already 7:00, Levi.."

He snorted,"There's always time for sleep. You have nothing today, correct? Then go to sleep."

"But-"

"Sleep," Levi said in a demanding voice, leaning back in his chair.

There was silence on the other end of the line, before Eren sighed softly and finally agreed,"Okay. Fine, I'll go to sleep."

Levi rubbed his eyes, smiling and resting his arm on the armrest of the chair,"good."

"But only if you promise to go to sleep as a good time, too."

"Yea, Yea. I will."