Paper Airplanes (Ereri - SNK)

Embraces.

Sorry for the shitty chapter title. ._.

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-Levi's POV-

"When's the last time you visited Mikasa?" I ask him a few days later. We're walking slowly along the top of Wall Rose headed toward the east. His fingers are wrapped securely through mine; they're tight, like he's afraid to let go of me. It's early afternoon, the sun hanging over in the cloudless sky, beaming right down on us. My feathers are growing hot and I find myself tucking my wings closer and closer to my back to keep them out of the sun as much as possible.

"I don't know..." Eren mumbles, his eyes glued to the top of the wall in front of us as we stroll by. "A couple months, maybe? I'm surprised you have to ask..."

I don't, really. I know it's been a while since he took the initiative to make the journey to her house. I ignore the remark.

"You should go see her," I suggest. "She probably misses you."

"Hmph. If she missed me, why can't she come visit me?"

Such a brat. "She's busy, idiot. She has a kid and a whole other life now. It's not like she can just pack up and hike over to HQ whenever she wants."

I feel Eren flinch and immediately regret what I've said. I know things like that tend to strike a nerve with him, what with, in his mind's eye, his lack of purpose within anything anymore.

"I know," he finally says in a quiet voice.

I stop and let my hand fall from his. He turns, brows furrowing. "What is it?"

"Let's go," I say. "You need to see her, and we're not very far from her place anyway."

His face relaxes. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why...do I need to see her?"

"What kind of question is that?" I cross my arms, shift my weight to my left foot.

"It's just...if she's so busy, wouldn't I just be getting in the way?"

'He's broken.' His voice is so small and timid, so weary; he suddenly appears a decade younger than he is, yet bearing smoldering pain in his eyes. Before I know what I'm doing, I stride toward him and pull him against me, hooking my arms around his shoulders and tangling my fingers through the soft hair where his scalp meets his neck.

"You're so naïve," I mutter in his ear, feeling his arms wrap themselves around me, too. "She's your family, Eren. You're crazy if you think you'd be in her way."

I feel him relax into me. "What if I don't want to go?" he asks. "What's wrong with just staying here with you like this?"

"Humor me. Don't let me jeopardize your relationship with her."

His fingers gently pull through a few of my feathers, hesitating. I sigh and move back, though keeping my arms around him, and stare him straight in the eye. "Just go. For a while. Stop acting like a brat."

Somehow that pulls a small smile from his lips, but only minutely does it touch his eyes. Better, but far from what I want to see.

"Okay," he says. "As long as you go with me."

I quirk a brow. "I thought you didn't want me around in the presence of other people."

"This time I don't care. As long as you don't say anything."

I roll my eyes. "Whatever it takes to get you to go."

So we set off hand in hand again toward Mikasa's place. She, Jean, and Rory live in a small, one-story house in the suburbs of Trost. It's painted a simple white with light blue trim, complete with a brick chimney and a grassy front yard, a sapling growing near the corner. Eren and I saunter quietly down the stone path in its direction, our hands having ceased contact so it doesn't appear as if he's clutching at nothing. Still, I keep a tender hand on his arm, having noted contact between us keeps him calmer somehow.