CHAPTER 18

"Oh, please, it's barely a flesh wound! You have got to be kidding me!" I yelled, hitting the table in front of me rather violently. The sudden pain shot through my veins and connected with the fresh wound, and I had to use all my strength to keep up my stoic face, when I just wanted to cry out in pain.

Fuck, that hurt.

"Don't be a fool, Levi. You're wounded, and that's enough. I won't allow you to go any further," Pixis said, crossing the one leg over the other. He was sitting at the side of my hospital bed in a chair that one of the nurses had brought in. "It might even have been a bad idea bringing you into this operation in the first place – "

"Are you fucking kidding me? You would never have gotten this far without me!" I continued to yell, my anger and frustration starting to shine through my voice. Pixis didn't even flinch at this, he just continued to look at me, observing and studying.

"That might be true as well. I'll take it into consideration," He just said, leaning back in his chair for a second before taking a deep breath, preparing his body to stand up.

"Hold it right there! You can't just pull me around like a puppet, I have the right to continue participating in this operation, you – " At this point, I was just grasping at straws, not even making sense in my own head anymore.

"As I recall, you weren't even that amused with the idea of doing this in the first place. This is my fault, getting you invovled like this, and of course I'll take full responsibility,"

"You'll do no such thing!" I said, my vision getting red with rage. At least I had gotten my voice under control, since instead of yelling, it had now become cold and chilling. "There is no need to take full responsibility, because I'm not done with this operation yet,"

"Well," Pixis made a pop sound when he smacked his lips together, and for a second I actually thought I saw him smile. "If you insist, then I guess I can't stop you,"

In that second I almost felt like he had played me, but I couldn't figure out the reason behind it, so it was quickly dropped.
"Good," I just said, before leaning back in my bed once more, all the negative emotions seeping out of me as I had finally gotten what I wanted.

"I've talked with the doctor by the way," Pixis said after standing up and pushing the chair up against the wall behind him. "You'll be released tomorrow. Being shot in the chest should probably have left greater damage, even though you had a bulletproof vest on, so I guess you could call yourself lucky,"

I rolled my eyes, not believing in luck, but I didn't say anything. I had a feeling that Pixis would continue talking wether I would answer him or not.

As he kept talking, he went over to one of the machines that I was hooked up to, pressing a little, yellow button. I didn't know what it did, and I certainly didn't feel any different, so I decided not to say anything about it.
"It appears that none of your ribs have broken or are suffering from pressure in your chest. But your arm is a different case all together,"

"It's a damn flesh wound, don't make it such a big deal," I said, my voice filled with annoyance. I wasn't about to let such a superficial wound stop me from doing my job, and since the bullet went right through, then I couldn't really see the problem.

"It could have been much worse, yes, but it still needs time to heal, or else the doctors won't know what could happen to your arm if you strain it,"

"Got it," I just said, wanting this conversation to be over sooner than later. I didn't need a lecture on taking care of my own body.

"Well then … " Pixis looked down at me, as if he was considering if there was anything else he wanted to add before leaving.

"Yes?" I asked, raising an impatient eyebrow.

"Well … I think I'll check how Oluo and Nanaba are doing,"

"You go ahead and do that," I said, crossing my arms over my chest tightly, my sight not leaving his for a second. "Anything else?"

I could sense his hesitation. There was something, he just didn't now how to say it.

"I don't believe there is," Pixis finally ended up saying, though there was a rather sad smile on his face. "I'll be sure to tell them you said hi,"

"You'll do no such thing,"

Pixis only laughed at that, before he walked out of my little room, and I was soon left to myself.

As the silence surrounded me I straightened my back, not feeling tired at all. Talking to Pixis had only giving me back the motivation that I so greatly needed, which meant that I didn't need to sleep any more. But as I looked around I noticed something lying beside my legs, on top of the blanket.

"You have got to be kidding me," I mumbled annoyed, when I grabbed the small envelope on the side of my bed.

Had this been here the entire time? Or had Pixis left it here when he left?

I looked closer, only to realise that I was holding a letter that was meant for Oluo. Then what the hell was it doing in here?

Annoyed that I now had to return it yet happy that I had an excuse to get out, I swung my legs over the bedside while throwing the blanket to the end of the bed. Luckily I wasn't wearing one of those embarassing hospital gowns that had holes in the back that didn't cover your ass – sure they were great for when you had to take a huge shit, but not for when you wanted to walk through the hospital. I was instead wearing pyjamas pants, the colour was a light shade of sand with small, blue dots on them. I wasn't really wearing a shirt, other than the gauze that was just beneath my chest, covering the entire area where my ribcage was supposed to be. Another set of gauze had been tightly placed around my left upper arm to cover up the wound from the bullet. But I sadly didn't have any more clothes to cover myself up with other than the blanket, and that would just be inconvenient in the long run. It appeared that my arm was still hooked up to the IV fluid that was hanging from the rack, so I had to take that with me. When I stood up I noticed something even more annoying; the rack was even taller than I was. I grabbed it, glad that it had smalls wheels on it, so that it wouldn't be so troublesome to walk around it.

However, when I took my first steps towards the door, I immediately understood why it was first tomorrow that I would be released from here; all air was being pressed out of my lungs, and I found myself already out of breath. When had it become so difficult to breathe?

As I gasped for air, I opened the door and continued walking out of there, though at a much slower pace now than before. Instead of only slightly holding the rack, I was now holding it with both of my hands, almost holding onto it as if my life depended on it. My knuckles were become white with the intensity of the grip, and I bent my back slightly so that I could lean my shoulder and neck against it as well. The cold metal felt nice against my skin that as a contrast was burning up already. I took a deep breath to prepare myself before taking another step, then another, then another … Slowly I was making my way through the hallway that sudenly seemed longer than it had before.

The nurses was nowhere to be seen it seemed, giving me enough opportunity to look around without getting disturbed by middle aged, chubby women in white uniforms that were a size too small, telling me to get back to bed.

Imagining it made me giggle under my ragged breath, and it didn't even occur to me at that moment that the lack of air was making me too dizzy and nowhere near stable enough to make good decisions. So of course I just kept on going, until I heard voices. I tried remembering what I had been told at one point of the day, about which rooms Nanaba and Oluo was staying in. They were supposedly to stay on the same floor as me, in … Was it Room 313, or 311? I stopped outside the room with the voices, trying to see what it said.

313.

Well, fifty-fifty percent chance that I was right. Here's to hoping that it wasn't some demented old man who thought I was his grandson.

It was a sliding door, so only with a light touch it opened up, revealing only 2 people inside the small room. It was just as small as my own, filled with only a hospital bed in the middle, the night stand beside it and a small chair on the other side. Of course these things were nothing of importance to me; the only thing I was noticing was the familiar face attached to the person standing beside the bed.

Eren.

Yet, there was something strange about the whole setting. It was Oluo lying in the bed, but Eren wasn't just standing beside him, no. His right hand was placed on Oluo's wrist, while his left hand was placed on top of Oluo's forehead. This made my cheeks fluster in annoyance, and I had no strength to hold back the sudden rage that rushed through my body.

"Get your hands off him!" I exclaimed, and though there was no real strength in my voice, my point got through to them anyways. Eren looked up in fright, jumping back and thereby removing his hands from Oluo, who was looking rather terrified as well.

"What's wrong?" They both asked in unison, their frightened faces turning into confusion.

"How dare you touch him like that!" I kept at it, not knowing how to even stop myself at this point. Eren seemed to finally understand, as his brows furrowed and his left hand clenched itself into a fist.

"I can touch whomever I want to. That's really none of your business,"

It had looked so intime, though. As if Oluo was someone that Eren cared for – that he wanted to get better … We had all been in the hospital for over 2 days now, so the sight of Eren touching him like that … Of course; it was jealousy I felt. I was angry that he was touching Oluo like that, since he wasn't doing that to me. In fact, he hadn't really come to visit, or to see how I had been feeling.

"It is my business!" I tried, but the remark was left empty and shallow. I was only grasping at straws right now, and I didn't even fully understand why.

Maybe it was because of my mental state not being fully stable right now, and I could feel that something was very much wrong with my body right know … Yet I continued, almost like I couldn't even stop myself. What was going on?

"It isn't! If I choose to be with Oluo, then that's my choice, okay?" He exclaimed, looking at me with eyes burning with passion.

"W-Wait, what? You like me?" Oluo stammered from the bed, which only earned him a slap on the arm from Eren.

"Ew, no! It's just an example," He quickly said, his hands reaching up in front of his face, trying to wave them excessively.

This was my chance to jump in – I went forward, grabbing his wrist and pulling him towards me. I had no real strength though, giving Eren a rich opportunity to get away from me quickly after.

"What the hell? What are you doing?" He whined, taking a step back. But now that he was closer to me, he suddenly froze up, staring at me like I was crazy.

"Levi … You look … " He was speechless after that, not knowing what to say. I tried blinking with my eyes in an attempt to remove the blurry edges of my vision, however, it seemed as if it wouldn't be going away.

"I look what?" I growled with irritation, as I reached out to grab him again. He stepped back again, his eyes getting larger.

"You don't seem like yourself," He mumbled, but this statement only made me even more irritated.

"Excuse me? I'm fine. It's you who doesn't seem to understand – "

I was interrupted by Eren staying, "Stop trying to control me!"

"Then stop being a weak-assed little teenager!" I snapped at him.

Why am I trying to pick a fight with him? I thought to myself, yet it seemed like the words were slowly disappearing and and wandering off inside my head – as if I wasn't able to even comprehend simple sentences like that anymore … What was happening to me?

"Levi, you're scaring me," Eren mumbled, now stumbling backwards, away from me. I stared at him, annoyed by his movements.

"You little shit," I mumbled, squishing my eyes a bit together, trying to focus.

What was happening? Why was I so angry again? I could feel my fingertips starting to get tinglish, and my grib tightened around the rack beside me. Eren swallowed loudly, and before I knew of it, he had turned around and run out of the room.

"No, wait!" I suddenly yelled, surprised that he had left so suddenly. I could feel my heart beating stronger when watching him disappear, and not knowing exactly why, I just felt like I had just missed out on something important.

Not even thinking another second about it, I threw my body forward and out the door, leaving a confused Oluo behind, so that I could run after Eren.

"Eren!" I cried after him, the only thought going through my head was that I needed to stop him and apologise. Clinging to the rack, I forced my legs to keep going, as I could still see Eren in front of me.

The sudden activity rushing through my body had taken a rough toll on it, though. After only running merely 100 metres, my body was threatening to give up. My breath that had been deep and even before, was now completely turned into a wheezing and whining sound that only greatened the violent trembling of my own body.

"Eren, stop!"

The sound of my breathing became shallow and rapid as I started to lose my own vision, the corner of my eyesight getting more blurry for every second. My lips trembled every time I tried to take a breath, and when I soon realised that I was struggling too much for my own good.

As my body seemed to deny cooperating with me anymore, I collapsed onto the floor, my body finally giving up.

Sooo ... If it wasn't clear then let me explain: Before Pixis left, he pressed a button that you push to get more medicin into the patient's body. So that was why Levi was reacting the way he was - and that was why his body was starting to weaken so much.

This way, he was thereby able to show Eren that he still thought possesively of him, and that even though Levi doesn't yet realise that he still loves Eren, he does now realise that he isn't ready to see Eren with other people.