A/N: Thanks to those who have followed and favorited. I feel special… it gives me warm fuzzies that this is being liked by others, let alone being read. I had a hard time with this chapter, the first one flowed out so smoothly and this one, I wrote over and over…. I'm much happier with it now.
There isn't much for trigger warnings for this chapter except that Eren is in the hospital recovering from his suicide attempt. Also, I know Levi seems too kind at first, but there is a reason! There will be plenty of his sarcasm and shit jokes by the time this is through.
I do not own Attack on Titan or any of its characters. I wish, though as someone pointed out to me earlier today that if it was Eren x Levi would have been a thing, officially, a long time ago.
Eren, slowly becoming conscious, groaned. Bringing his hand to his head, he felt the bandage covering his wound. 'It wasn't suppose to happen like this.' He thought to himself, eyes still closed. 'I was supposed to die, I can't even swim!' His head pounded with his heart beat, every sound of the monitors hurt. Eren grew upset that his attempt wasn't successful. Slowly trying to open his eyes. The light blinded him and caused his pain to spike. Everything was blurry for a few moments, he looked around the room and saw a small man sitting in one of the chairs, watching him. He was short and had silver eyes. His hair long enough to cover his ears but had an undercut in the back.
"I'm glad to see you've woken up." The man said as he stood up and walked over to him.
"Who are you?" Eren was surprised to hear his voice was scratchy. He groaned and rolled to his side, curling up into a ball, covering his face with his hands.
"I'm Levi, I would ask how you feel but I think thats a bit obvious." Levi replied. "I'll go let the nurse you're awake." He turned and left the room.
"Fuuuuck!" Eren yelled while rolling to his other side. The pain was growing worse. His eyes turning grey instead of being dark while closed. He held his breath waiting for the spike to drop. Eren didn't get migraines often, though he wondered if it was the stress of living, or the hit to the head he took in the river that caused it. He failed to hear the door or the footsteps coming back into his room.
"Eren?" He heard a woman talking to him but was only able to respond with a low moan. "I'm Dr. Hanji. Are you in pain?" Eren slowly noded. "Can you look at me?" Eren slowly turned onto his back, and tried to open his eyes as his hands dropped to his sides. A taller woman with long brown hair, that was pulled into a ponytail, looked at him with concern. "I'm gonna shine a light in your eyes ok?" He nodded as she pulled out a small flashlight, she quickly shined it into one eye and then the other.
"God that hurts." Eren hissed before closing his eyes again.
"I need you to open your eyes and tell me how many fingers I'm holding." Eren peeked at her before responding with a short, three. Hanji nodded and said softly, "Do you remember what happened?"
"I….. jumped into a river. It was cold. I felt my head hit something. I don't remember anything after that."
"Eren, why did you jump in the river?"
"I wanted to go for a swim." He knew if he answered truthfully he would go back to that place. The mental hospital. Last time he was there for 4 weeks before they let him go. Horrible memories flooded through him like he was drowning all over again.
Hanji sighed, "Eren, I know you can't swim, not to mention its the end of September and the water is freezing."
Feeling cornered, he realized he would have to tell the truth. Which sucked because he just wanted out of the hospital to try again. "I wanted to die, alright?" He spat out, without opening his eyes.
"You are very lucky you didn't, Levi just happened to be driving past the bridge as you jumped."
Eren didn't respond. For one he was in too much pain to talk, but he also didn't want to say anything that would cause him to be held in the hospital longer than necessary.
"Alright, I'm going to go get something for your head. Try to relax and calm down. I'll be right back" He heard the footsteps retreating followed by the door closing. He opened his eyes briefly when he felt like he was being watched. He saw the man that introduced himself as Levi standing on the other side of the bed.
"What are you doing here?" He said quietly.
"I wanted to make sure you were ok." Even though Eren's eyes were closed once again, Levi couldn't bring himself to look at him. The boy had reminded him of himself. He tried to push his memories out of his head while his eyes looked to the floor and held his hands behind his back. "You've been unconscious for about 24 hours."
Eren didn't respond, instead he started crying. It was from anguish and the fact that he was still here, suffering in his mind, than his migraine that created his sobs.
Levi didn't yell, but he was also stern with his words. "I know it doesn't seem like it right now, but things will get better."
'You don't know anything,' Eren thought to himself. 'Why can't this just be over.'
Levi walked over and sat on the side of the bed, putting a hand gently on Eren's back."It's ok, it will be ok."
Armin sat at the table, staring at his food that he had barely touched. The blonde couldn't stop thinking about how he found Eren last night. His friend had been missing for a few days, and honestly he thought it was already too late.
"Armin, you ok?" Armin startled and looked up to see Jean and Mikasa looking at him with worried eyes.
"Yea, just lost in thought." He started to eat the dinner Mikasa had made for them. It was a simple pasta dish with alfredo sauce and basil. He heard the phone ring followed by Mikasa standing up to answer it.
"Hello?... Yea this is her….. I understand…. Yes we will be by tonight to visit him…. Thank you, bye." Mikasa came back to the table and sat down. "That was the hospital. Eren woke up a bit ago. I'm going to go see him if either of you want to join me."
"No, I have work in an hour." Jean responded, he wasn't exactly on good terms with Eren, but they managed to play nice for Mikasa's sake. He didn't want to cause trouble in the hospital tonight.
"I'll go with you." Armin spoke quietly. He was so worried for Eren, but at the same time he was tired. They have all gone through this multiple times with him. He would disappear and end up at the hospital after his attempts. None of them knew what to do anymore. Ever since Carla, Eren's mom, had died, Eren had been in this deep depression.
"Alright, we should get going," Mikasa stood back up and started to walk to the front door after placing a kiss on Jean, "Call me when you get on break."
Mikasa and Armin walked into the small hospital room Eren was in. He was obviously upset, trying to hold back sobs. His back was facing them and was curled in a ball.
"Eren?" Mikasa approached the bed and softly put her hand on his shoulder.
"Mikasa?" Eren turned to her and quickly wiped his face from tears and sat up. His migraine had lessened from the medication the doctor had given him. Mikasa sat on the bed and hugged him tightly.
"I'm so happy you're ok." Mikasa spoke softly, Hanji had told them of his head injury and how it was causing a migraine.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." Eren was barely able to speak before he broke down in sobs once again. He wrapped his arms around Mikasa and lied his head on her chest. He was trembling like he was cold, but Mikasa knew that it was from stress, not lack of heat.
"Shh, its 're here now." Armin said as he sat on the other side of the bed and put his hand to Erens head and rubbed his hair.
They heard the door open and turned to see who it was that came in. Armin jumped up as he saw Levi close the door behind him. He looked up and seemed surprised to see them for a second. "I'm sorry, I will leave you alone to talk." He turned to leave but Armin spoke up.
"Wait, I'll come with you." Armin wanted a chance to talk to the raven. He hurried to the door and walked out with Levi.
"Who was that?" Mikasa asked Eren.
"Um... His name is Levi. I guess he was the one to save me yesterday."
Her eyes widened, "Him? But he's so small." She nudged Eren in his arm, trying to get him to smile. He chuckled softly.
"Apparently he's a lot stronger than he looks."
A/N: Please let me know what you think with a review or a message. Thanks for reading!