ereri | 29580 words | T rating | modern au, fantasy, magic, mermaids, fluff
h u g e thank you to @yueirs and @aceveria, two fabulous artistic beans who bring me so much joy~ they are 11 hours ahead and 8 hours behind of me respectively and still weâve cheered each other on across the time zones and kept up with each other!! this big bang has been a great experience and i owe a lot of that to them~ (plus our wonderful mods!!! endless kudos to keth, shulkie, and michelle âĽ)
please enjoy the fic they chose to bless with art, which you can see here:
When Leviâs mother falls ill, he agrees to go live with some distant relatives over the summer while she's recovering. From urban centre to country village, thereâs a lot of changes, but Levi plans to keep to himself. That is, until he meets another boy called Eren, down by the nearby lake. Eren is friendly but alone, and acts strangely sometimes, but they're inexplicably drawn to each other. With Erenâs persistence, plus interactions with baby cousin Mikasa and her parents, Levi learns how to enjoy summer and open up a little.
What he doesn't know is that Eren is also keeping a big secret, one that leads Levi to some truths of his own.
Levi steps onto the empty platform, his motherâs words swirling in his head. The whole train journey he had repeated them to himself, remembering her pleading face, how she had looked at him with a gentle smile. Her eyes had been asking him not to argue. And he had relented, because what else could a twelve year old do when they loved their mother? Especially when her cheeks looked so thin.
He hitches the strap of his duffle bag into a better position on his shoulder, glancing behind him as the train begins to pull away, leaving him there. Taking a deep breath, he squares his shoulders, and makes his way into the station.
He knows he is at the right stop, his obsessive checking made sure of that, but he still has to reach into his pocket and pull out the neatly folded note that tells him what to do next. If his distant relatives are on time, then they should just be waiting for him somewhere inside. Although heâll be living in their house for the next two or three months, Levi doesnât even know what they look like, just that theyâre a couple who share the same surname as him and his mother, live out in the country, and are willing to take Levi in temporarily. The note says to stay put until heâs spotted. It says to be polite and remember his manners and all those other things that good boys should try to be.
Levi stares at the slanted â I love you â written at the end in his motherâs handwriting. The pen was shaking against the paper, trembles in her arm transferred there in each line; miles away he can still see the picture the effort it took for her to do this one simple thing. He chews his lip, and then puts the piece of paper back in his shorts.
Once under the shade of the indoors, Levi realises he need not have worried about not being able to find them. The one large room of the station only has two rows of chairs, over half of which are unoccupied. An old lady is talking to an attendant over at the far desk, and Levi sees only three other people around. Itâs so unlike the city station he had just come from, where he had been at the mercy of the crowds.
A man with short, light brown hair and a woman with Japanese features and a small baby on her lap are making quiet conversation, seated over by the exit. When Levi readjusts his bag again, it catches the manâs attention, and he immediately smiles and stands up from his chair. The woman lifts the baby onto her hip, fixing the strap of their little denim dungarees and then follows the man over to where Levi waits.