A/N: So a few days after I had posted the last chapter, I went back and changed the last paragraph of the dream. Since the end of the last chapter bleeds right into this one, re-reading the last seven (start of the dream fix) paragraphs of the previous chapter would also enhance your reading experience with this chapter.
Update on the wrist: it's still not fully healed, but doing better, which is why this chapter might seem short... like Levi :3
Chapter 17
The Lightning Strike
The next few hours awake didn't get much better for Eren.
As the sun began to raise, alone in his quiet kitchen, Eren sat on a stool staring blankly at the cup of coffee he fixed but never touched, feet perched on a brace bar while one leg bounced up down so fast it vibrated his whole frame feeling strangely agitated mixed with aghast. He felt like the walls were going to suffocate him inside them, and he knew that he needed to get out of his house. Without any thought of what time it was or where he was going, Eren quickly grabbed his book sack and wallet before running out the front door. As his feet hit the pavement, his eyes adjusted to the soft morning light, and for a moment, the world glowed in rainbows.
The streets were still a bit hazy with a light misty morning fog that ironically mirrored Eren's troubled mind. He had never been in a situation that he could not find a solution to. He tackled things head on with any and every resource he had at his disposal. Ironically, he realized that he had mostly always relied on his money or his parents' connections to get him out of tight spots, but to his credit, he still was smart enough to utilize them to his advantage. However, this was something that neither would help him with, for they could not fix the problem that only existed in his mind.
Now that he was out of the house and some of the adrenalin had left his system, Eren could feel the side effects of the sleeping pills he was forming a habit of take hold of him; consequently, he walked to campus in a zombie like state contemplating hard about how to get these dreams to stop.
When Eren made it to the university grounds, he was pulled out of his mind as he noticed that it was half empty. Only then did he realize that it was still too early to go to his first class—Levi's class. Nonetheless, Eren decided he could at least wait for the class to start on a quiet bench inside the building. As he walked to the lecture hall, he reflexively grasped at the key under his shirt, and he let thoughts of Levi distract him from his troubling dreams.
Levi was another mystery Eren would have to solve. Though the man had been totally professional with him, Eren could see the desire his professor still had for him every time their eyes met during class. He could feel the sexual tension between them whenever the two of them were alone in Levi's office. It didn't go unnoticed to Eren that Levi was trying to put distance between them when they met in his office by never allowing Eren to sit together with him on the small couch in there, despite Eren having seen him working with other students in that very spot. No, Dr. Ackerman made sure to always have his large office desk in between them whenever Eren was in the room. The man was definitely being cautious. However, even with as often as Eren stopped by, not once did Levi tell him to leave.
After searching for a few minutes, Eren found a nice secluded place to relax on the second floor. Letting his book bag slide off to his side with a muffled thud on the vinyl cushion, Eren sat down and rested his head on the wall. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes that burned from lack of sleep. He once again clutched the key around his neck; it had unconsciously become a source of solace. For whenever he was feeling stressed and overwhelmed, he would take it in his hand and recall his and Levi's night together. The more Eren learned about the man the more he wanted to be with him, the real him. He liked that L had the day job of being a psychology professor regardless of having a med degree and license in psychiatry. He understood why the singer would choose to do so. It was simple really. If Levi did work full-time as psychiatrist, he would not have the time needed to also be in the band. And if that was the case, Eren thought it to be a tragedy because then he would have never met Levi. To Eren, L also being a doctor was actually more perfect than anything he could imagine; because since Levi was a M.D., practicing or not, there was no way his parents could disapprove of the singer when he finally brought him back home.
He had thought this over many times already because, truth was, Eren found Levi to be just as sexy as L. There had been many times where Eren had fantasized Levi finally giving in and stripping him right there in his office. He envisioned Levi's lips kissing all down his body to his dick before his "professor" took it into his hand and mouth. After a time, the man would use the saliva that had drenched his fingers while he sucked Eren's cock to quickly, and none too gently, prep and stretch his asshole. As Eren pushed his hips to meet Levi's fingers, he would try to contain his moans of pure pleasure by putting his hand over his mouth. Then from Eren's actions, the noirette would only get two fingers deep before he became all too impatient; and overcome with the desirous need of being inside his student's body, Levi would swiftly stand up, turn Eren around, and bend him over the desk. In the haste, pens and papers would be knocked off to the floor, but that would not stop Eren from feeling the head of Levi's swollen cock pushing on and breaching his hole. And just like their first time together, the amazing burning sensation of Levi's dick filling and stretching his ass would wash over his body and drown him in bliss.
BAM!
The next thing Eren knew, he was being violently awakened by the loud sound of books hitting the tiled floor. He jumped in his seat a bit confused, not realizing that he had fallen asleep. Well at least it was a dreamless sleep he thought. He pulled out his phone to check the time and saw that it was 0757. In a panic he sprang to his feet and rushed to make it to class on time. It was a good thing that the room was just on the next floor down. Eren ran down the stairs, and with less than a minute to spare, he made it inside the class and took his usual spot in the front row. As he quickly pulled out his materials for class, he didn't notice a pair of stormy-blue eyes looking at him.
As Eren had run into the room and rushed to his seat, Levi eyed him questioningly. Besides on the first day, Eren had never been late to class again. Levi only let the teen's almost tardiness distract him for a moment before he passed out the roll sheet and started the lecture. It was an important day, and he had a lot to cover. "If you are in class today, congratulations, you are the lucky ones that are going to know exactly everything you need to do and how to please me so that you get an A on your semester paper. My instructions will be so detailed it will take this entire class to cover it all. The only way you will not get an A on this paper is if you don't follow all the instructions I am about to give you. So you better pay attention because these instructions are not going to be posted online."
At this Levi heard a few of the students groan, but it didn't even cause him to skip a beat. "Now that we have finally gotten to the topic of behavioral psych, I am going to go over the parameters of the paper. First off the length and format of the paper will be seven typed pages in the standard times new roman double spaced 12 point font. Yes, I understand that this is a bit of a lengthy paper, which is why I am giving you one month to get it done. And I will not be accepting late papers. Now as we had cover in the last class, a person's behavior is determined by all the things that have happened in their life. Your life events have shaped and molded you into the person you are today. Because of this, every one develops their own unique moral code in which we use every day to make decisions. Simply put, the difference in judgment between you and me, originates from different rules derived from past experience."
Abruptly, Eren was hit with a very intense and detailed flash of images playing through his head like a movie. He was on horseback and pushing the animal as hard as he could. He was surrounded by some extremely large trees, and he was not alone. The few other people were also on horseback and dressed the same way as he was, wearing green cloaks and having the same mechanical devices strapped to their bodies. As they rode, Eren felt a fearful urgency telling him they had to run. He knew he shouldn't look back, but he did anyway. And when he did he was horrified. A gigantic human like thing was chasing after them. Eren watched as two people took flight towards the giant ready to fight it. Guiltily, his heart wrenched as he witnessed the huge female creature catching one man in her palm and crushing him to death before she killed the other by smashing him into one of the enormous trees like a bug.
Eren felt sweat run down his back, and his stomach twisted with stabbing nausea. He was going to throw up. Bolting out of his seat, Eren urgently ran to the nearest restroom. He pushed the door open so hard and fast it slammed into the wall with a loud bang. But the sound went unregister to brunet as he dove into the first open stall. Falling to his knees, Eren grabbed the toilet's rim and emptied what little he had in his stomach. His head felt like it was in a neurological cyclotron as his body broke out into a cold sweat. But that still didn't stop the heaving up of the burning bile that ate at this throat nor did it stop his eyes from crying like a shower. Time seemed to stretch to infinity in this state of suffering to Eren, gasping for air as his stomach continued to clench long after there was nothing left in there to come up.
After what felt like forever, Eren lifted his head up and leaned it against the wall. His breathing was finally starting to level off and his body cooling down. Extending a shaking hand, he grabbed a bit of toilet paper from the roll and wiped his face and mouth with it before weakly standing up and walking to the sink. Moments later, he turned on the faucet to cup his hands under it and brought the water to his mouth: He rinsed his mouth out a few times before he cleaned off his face. Turning off the water, Eren reached to his side and pulled a few paper towels from the dispenser. After he had padded himself down, he tossed the napkins in the bin before he grabbed at his back pocket to check the time only to realize that he had left his phone and everything else in the classroom.
In a panic, Eren rushed back to class. Looking through the small glass window on the door, he calmed down a bit when he saw that class was still in section. As quiet as he could be, he opened the front door that he had ran out and silently, but swiftly, took his seat. However, to his dismay, the first thing he heard was devastating.
"Well it looks like we are out of time for today. I hope all of you understand the main points you need to demonstrate for your essay, but I know if you break it down the way I told you to, there won't be any issues. Last piece of advice. Get started as soon as possible, like today if possible. Class dismissed."
'Fuck!' Eren cursed in his head and sunk back into his chair. He had missed the whole thing. As the other students exited the classroom, he sat there in dread until he noticed that his professor was still sitting in the front of the room sorting some papers. Eren carefully got to his feet and moved in the direction of the smaller male. He was too out it to appreciate the sight of Levi wearing an open gray button down with the sleeves rolled up over a tight fitted black V-neck that clung perfectly to his sculpted body underneath the thin fabric. Not sparing the usual first few moments of sucking on eye candy once he was in front of the singer, Eren quickly inquired. "Dr. Ackerman, I was hoping that you might have a bit of free time this week so I can talk to you about the details of the assignment?"
Not looking up from his notes, Levi replied, "I already went over everything you needed to know today in class." Finally having all his stuff in perfect order, he finished packing his leather briefcase and stood up to leave the room. "And I don't think I'll have an opening long enough to go over everyth—" When Levi's eyes finally fell on Eren, he was stunned to see the brunet looking extremely ill and red rimmed.
Eren had started to feel depressed with the rejection that he could hear Levi giving him. But when their eyes met and Levi stopped talking mid-sentence, Eren knew he might have a chance to convince him to change his mind. However, he knew that it would require him being honest and explaining the truth, just like on their night together. "Look, I'm really sorry I had to run out of your class today, but I had suddenly gotten really sick and needed to throw up. So when I ran out that is what I was doing the whole time during your class."
"Then maybe you shouldn't have drank so much last night," Levi shot back, recalling how much Eren could drink.
"No, that's not what's it from. I have been having these nightmares for a few weeks now. I'm hardly sleeping some nights when I have them. And last night was not an exception." He wasn't, however, going to tell Levi that it was the vision he had had in class that pushed him over the edge. Eren didn't feel safe using words like "having visions" around his psych professor, because the last thing he needed was for the man to think he was schizophrenic.
Hearing Eren confess that he was sick from lack of sleep caused by nightmares, hit a cord with Levi. He knew all too well how bad not being able to sleep because of nightmares could make someone feel. Whether it was because of the broken look on Eren's face or the empathy he had for the boy, Levi didn't have the heart to say no to him. With a small warning signal going off in his head, Levi ignored his better judgment. "I might be able to help you out. I teach a late evening grad class at 2000 on Wednesday nights. So I have blacked out office hours after 1500 on that day for my personal time. I have never seen students during this time. However, I'll make a one-time only exception, and it's also the only time I will help you with the paper. Just make sure to get there before 1800, understood?"
Eren was relieved that Levi had made an opening for him, but he was still feeling too unwell to comprehend the weight of Levi's words or be excited by them. "Yes. Thank you so much. Sir."
Levi felt the hairs on the back of his neck prick up when he heard the word "Sir" come out of Eren's mouth. Repressing the chill—or was it heat—he wanted to shake off, Levi nodded his head at Eren acknowledging their arrangement to meet on Wednesday night before he casually walked out of the classroom.
After he was out of Eren's sight, Levi raised his arms over his head to stretch out some of the tension from his shoulders before he softly rolled his neck. What did he just get himself into?
