[ The pain in Eren's voice hits him almost like a physical force. Levi stands strong against it as ever, but it doesn't stop it from driving invisible stakes into his chest, hitting every memory of deepest, darkest grief and drags it up to the surface. The feeling of loss is so utterly overwhelming - not just missing a person, but the crushing feeling of confusion and hopelessness, of being so completely lost that you can't find your way out, of something colder and thicker than water closing over your head and sucking air out of your lungs.
Levi remembers that feeling; when he finally realized what he'd lost when his mother died, when Kenny left him to find for himself, when Isabel and Farlan's bodies were ripped apart because of his own foolishness. That black despair is waiting to swallow him many times over, to steal pieces of his heart bit by bit until he can have them all free.
So much has happened even in just the past few weeks, Levi can't even begin to untangle what is the sum total cause of such misery - but it doesn't matter. Eren clings to him, and he doesn't even hesitate. If he could open his own chest and shove Eren in there to keep him safe and take away all his torments, he would - but the closest he can manage is to just wrap arms around him, a scared and shattered teenager, and hold him tightly, face pressed to his hair. After a moment or two, Levi begins to sway a little bit, a slow and gentle back and forth. It's difficult to say if he even realizes he's doing it, but he'll eventually, softly, mutter quietly to Eren: ]
You don't have to do shit right now. Just hold on to me.
crying with them sobbbb
Levi remembers that feeling; when he finally realized what he'd lost when his mother died, when Kenny left him to find for himself, when Isabel and Farlan's bodies were ripped apart because of his own foolishness. That black despair is waiting to swallow him many times over, to steal pieces of his heart bit by bit until he can have them all free.
So much has happened even in just the past few weeks, Levi can't even begin to untangle what is the sum total cause of such misery - but it doesn't matter. Eren clings to him, and he doesn't even hesitate. If he could open his own chest and shove Eren in there to keep him safe and take away all his torments, he would - but the closest he can manage is to just wrap arms around him, a scared and shattered teenager, and hold him tightly, face pressed to his hair. After a moment or two, Levi begins to sway a little bit, a slow and gentle back and forth. It's difficult to say if he even realizes he's doing it, but he'll eventually, softly, mutter quietly to Eren: ]
You don't have to do shit right now. Just hold on to me.