Eruriren Week Day 6: Mistake
It's only hella late. This can be found on AO3 under fairylights101 as well.

"Levi?"

The small man smiled as the sound of his lover's voice, even if worry dripped from those syllables. "Hey," he rasped into the phone, forcing back a cough that burned at the back of his throat. Letting Erwin hear would only make him worry, something Levi definitely didn't want.

"Levi, how are ya?"

So he added Eren to the call… "'m fine… Seriously. Bought to take a nap. Can ya pick some medicine up on the way home? This stuff is sh-" Rough coughs broke off his words, scraping his throat raw as he curled in on himself. Hell, it didn't even sound like a cough - more like he was hacking up a luck or some shit. Didn't help that he was wheezing like a beached whale either. The fit passed after a moment and he pressed the phone back to his ear. "Sorry…"

"Levi, it's fine. Eren and I will get some medicine, okay? Just lie still. We'll be home soon."

"Idiots… don't leave work early 'cause of me. I'll survive." A familiar snort met his words. He didn't have to see Eren's face to know that the brunette was rolling his eyes.

"Stop trying to be so tough Levi. We'd be idiots if we didn't know better by now. So shut up and go to sleep. Erwin's already gone to talk to Shadis. We'll be home in thirty, forty-five minutes tops."

Levi scowled as he hugged a pillow closer to his aching chest. It was stupid of them, leaving work just because he had fucking bronchitis and it wasn't going away quick enough for their tastes. "Idiots," he mumbled, eyes already closing as exhaustion dragged at his bones. Nights had become sleepless, the absurd amount of coughing a massive hindrance on top of his insomnia.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm an idiot, he's an idiot, but we're idiots out of love. Gotta go. Love you Levi. We'll be there soon."

"Mmm… love you too…" A burst of laughter met his words before the call ended. He's probably blushing, nice and cute… They treasured those words from Levi - words that were only spoken on rare occasions. But they deserved it, even if they were being dumbasses and leaving work early. Levi nuzzled the pillow as he curled up tighter. My idiots…

Knocking jarred him up, bleary-eyed and confused, still weary though the need to cough had thankfully diminished a bit. Wasn't it lighter just a few minutes ago…? What fucking time is it anyway? More pounding on the door urged him to swing his legs off the couch and stumble to his feet. He didn't bother to speak - his throat was too sore to call out that he was coming, to yell at them to stop their fucking knocking. Thank God we don't have a doorbell.

Levi pulled the door open as he pushed his hair back and stared at the two men - not Eren and Erwin - standing there. "Whatcha need?"

"Is this the residence of Mr. Erwin Smith?"

"Yes."

"And would you be Levi Ackerman, husband to Mr. Smith and Eren Jaeger?"

Silver eyes narrowed as he nodded slowly, eyeing both the men. And then he froze. Dark blue uniforms, a shield emblazoned above their hearts with scales in the center - the Shield of Justice, they called it. No. "Mr. Ackerman, I'm sorry to inform you that your husbands were in a wreck at approximately three thirty today. They were taken to Sina Hospital in critical condition. We don't know all of the details, but it seems that there was a drunk driver who caused a head-on collision…"

He didn't hear any more. Hell, he'd barely heard the first half. Blank silver eyes stared forward, lips parted but never fully spreading to say something, not that he could have if he tried. Wreck. Eren. Erwin. Hospital. Critical. His brain was short-circuiting, everything slamming to a halt as he stared at the officers. They must have noticed that he wasn't absorbing a single thing they said because they had stopped talking at some point, instead patiently waiting for him to get a grip on the situation. For the words to sink in completely. Levi's hand tightened on the door handle as his knees shook. He couldn't afford to collapse to the ground, to let his legs give out and send him crashing to the ground. Fuck, he wanted to. But he couldn't. "I… What rooms?"

"Mr. Smith is in room 143. Mr. Jaeger is still in surgery last I heard, but they mentioned that they'll be in the same room. If you come with us, we can get you to the hospital in ten minutes."

With a nod Levi turned around and stumbled through the house - their house, so empty, so lonely. Numb hands tugged a shirt on, pulled a jacket on overtop. He didn't bother to fix his hair, to brush his teeth. He simply shoved his feet into a pair of shoes - no socks, no time - and threw himself into the backseat of the police cruiser. The wail of sirens filled his ears, louder than he remembered from the last time he'd been in the back of a cop car. Everything blurred by, failing to be absorbed into a mind that could barely function. Coughs racked his body, panic and the crap in his lungs made every breath a pathetic wheeze. A quick search revealed empty pockets, but he wasn't about to ask them to return to the house just so he could grab his inhaler. No. He had to see them, had to know.

The cruiser had barely stopped before Levi had ripped the seat belt off his body, thrown the door open, tossed a mutter of thanks of his shoulder, and dashed inside with as much calm as he could muster. It wasn't much, but it was enough to get him to Room 143. The room was empty of nurses, silent except for the soft, slightly elevated blips from a heart monitor. Two beds were in the room - one unoccupied, the one by the window filled with the muscular bulk of a certain blonde. Trembling legs carried Levi over to the bedside.

Lacerations crisscrossed Erwin's face, bruises were already starting to form on the slightly tanned expanse of his face, and his arm was held snug to his chest, wrapped up tight and settled in a cast. Erwin… His fingers slipped between the limp ones half-curled toward a palm that hung off the bed. "You idiot…" he managed as he swept the disarray of blonde bangs back into place, almost concealing the thick band of gauze that was wrapped around his skull. "You two should have stayed at work…"

He wasn't sure how long he was standing there before a quiet knock on the door brought his head up. A tall man in a doctor's lab coat stood at the door, two medical charts in his grasp. "Mr. Ackerman? May I have a word with you?"

Levi glanced back at Erwin's face, covered with red welts, stitches, and sterile white bandages, some of which were stained with blood. He hesitantly released that big hand and moved on stiff legs out into the hallway. Cool silver orbs stared at the doctor, a carefully constructed calm masking the impatience, the worry.

"I am Doctor Edmund Snow. As you've heard, your husbands were in a car wreck. Mr. Smith was in the driver's seat, Mr. Jaeger in the passenger. A drunk driver collided with them at a force of what is projected to be sixty miles-per-hour. The airbags deployed, but there was a substantial amount of damage, especially to the passenger side. Mr. Smith has a severe concussion, a fracture in his radius and ulna, and have numerous lacerations and contusions, some of which required stitches.

"Mr. Jaeger… He's just come out of surgery for his leg and chest. His right leg was crushed, everything beneath his patella shattered, his femur cracked. Because Mr. Smith put his arm across Mr. Jaeger's chest, it managed to stop him from hitting the windshield, but nothing could be done about the airbags or the front of the car crumpling in. He broke three ribs, one of which punctured a lung. There's a lot of internal damage, but countless people have survived worse. We'll bring him in here in a bit, but don't expect him to wake for a while. He's heavily drugged. It's likely that the survival mechanisms of the brain will induce what will probably short-term coma if such does happen."

Levi nodded mutely, not enough oxygen in his lungs to attempt to give a response. Everything was wobbly, the world wavering around him. This is all my fault. A strong hand squeezed his shoulder. A comforting smile quirked the doctor's lips up. "Don't worry. We'll do everything we can to make sure they do just fine." But those words couldn't warm the block of ice sitting in his chest. Especially not when he saw the occupant of a hospital bed that a nurse brought up beside them.

Half his face was dark with bruises. Stitches dotted the tanned flesh above his eyebrow. A leg covered in swathes of bandages and held in place by sturdy splints and rigid plaster. More covered what little of his chest was visible. A slow, uneven, rattling breath dragged his eyes back to Eren's face, back to what he wanted to miss: the oxygen mask, fogged up from unsteady breaths. Why? Why did you two have to leave? Why'd you have to be the ones?

The nurse pushed the bed into the room as Levi watched, face tight, heart bottoming out. He doubled over, throat burning as rough coughs forced their way out, scraping his throat raw. It couldn't pull his mind off them though, off the thought of his lovers lying in those hospital beds, broken and bloody. And it's all because of me. Because I couldn't make them think I was okay. Cause I couldn't fool them. Cause this damn bronchitis won't go away.

His hand slammed against the pale green wall of the hospital, a feral snarl curling his lips as the coughing fit subsided. My fucking fault. They shouldn't be in there… wouldn't be if I had just kept my mouth shut. Damn it! He couldn't make up for it, for being the reason they could have died. But he could as least sit there for as long as it took for them to wake up. His loves deserved that.

Soft touches on the inside of his palm roused him from sleep, dragged him from what he'd been lacking for a two weeks, especially since they had been admitted to the hospital. Levi's head rolled to the side, too tired to do much more than that. Shitty, watered-down hospital cafeteria coffee and insomnia could only keep one going for so long, especially since his hours of sleep per day had dropped from two or so down to perhaps thirty minutes if he was lucky. Beautiful aqua orbs as bleary as his stared at him, a soft smile on his thin, chapped lips. "Morning, Levi…"

His hand tightened around Erwin's fingers, squeezing hard as he stared up at his husband. Even after six days of Erwin being perfectly conscious, he still couldn't say a word, couldn't work past the block in his throat. Not when he spent every waking moment drowning in self-beratement and anger at himself, at his mistake. Not when the cuts had yet to fully heal, the bruises were only just starting to fade, and their bones had barely begun to reknit. Certainly not when their husband lay perfectly still in his bed, his brilliant green-gold eyes having failed to open even once in the last week.

Erwin winced as his broken arm rose, but it was slight - the morphine dripping into his veins definitely helped with the pain. Gentle, warm fingers combed through Levi's hair, thankfully clean from showering in their hospital room. He hadn't left their bedsides except to get pathetic excuses for cups of coffee and slightly stale muffins. His body was paying the price, full of aches and sore from sitting in the chair for countless hours, endlessly holding their hands. "Levi… say something… Please?"

He glanced at Eren, at the youngest of the three husbands who was normally so feisty, so full of life. All of it replaced by a calm that had lasted far too long. At least the oxygen mask is gone. "I'm sorry…" The words were whispered into his lap, small and insignificant. They couldn't make up for their lover in a coma, for the broken bones, the totalled car.

"Why are you apologizing? It's not your fault. It's that idiot's fault, and he's going to be paying for a while. Not as long as he should, but still. I promise though, it's not your fault."

"Erwin… stop saying that. I shouldn't have said anything."

Those aqua eyes softened as Erwin gazed at him, full of easy love and love, but oddly lacking in the anger he kept expecting to see. "Only when you stop blaming yourself. It's not your fault and it never will be. It could have happened whether we came home early or not, so hush." His smile was so easy, so gentle. The blonde businessman truly believed those words. Levi chewed on his lip and looked away, hands tightening around Erwin's and Eren's. I still messed up.

A quiet moan pulled his eyes up as something seared through his chest - something he hadn't felt in a while. Eren's head twisted to the side, lips slowly opening and closing as his eyes fluttered. "Levi… Erwin… wha…?"

Levi's hand tightened around Eren's as Erwin squeezed his other hand. He didn't have to look over to know that a smile was plastered on his face, easily twice as big as his own quirk of the lips. "You're finally up, Sleeping Beauty."

Eren blinked at his husbands, confusion in those summer green orbs, fuzzy from the drugs in his blood. But his eyes still rolled, mouth quirking up in a smile at Levi's comment. "Idiot… thought we established you were Sleeping Beauty, I was Jasmine, and Erwin was Prince Charming."

"I still don't understand why I can't be a princess."

"Because," Eren groaned, "We gotta have a Prince Charming! Oh… I can't feel my leg. Huh. And… hospital?"

Levi squeezed Eren's hand. "Later. Just keep explaining why he has to be Prince Charming."

Eren grinned, eyes lighting up through the haze of drugs. "Only if you both give me a kiss."

"Brat."

"Of course, Eren."