Just so you guys know, medical stuff in this chapter isn't exactly accurate and for that reason I may just take this whole chapter down bc I hate being inaccurate. The reason I decided to post it was bc I promised at least 5 chapters...but yeah. Sorry.

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Cold. It was the first thing Eren noticed upon waking, as well as the absence of another warm body right beside him. That was all it took to get him sitting up quickly and glancing at the clock.

2:38.

Last he remembered, he'd been protectively curled up around Levi, gently scratching his scalp and giving him soft kisses as he rested, shaking lightly, and absently talking about nothing in particular to keep Levi's mind off his withdrawals.

Now the room had been plunged in total darkness and the space Levi had occupied was void of him; the only evidence he'd even been there were the wrinkles in the sheets.

Eren shook himself, trying to wake up as he slid out of bed. He felt his way to the door and pulled it open to peer down the dark hallway. Light leaked through the cracks around the bathroom door. Forcing down the sickly feeling rising from his stomach, he gave its wood a soft knock. The scene felt sickeningly familiar in more ways than one; he knew no matter what he found behind that door, his life was about to change, even if just a little.

"Levi," he murmured, placing a gentle hand on the knob. He didn't really expect an answer and when he didn't get one, he tried the knob. It turned easily. Light flooded into the hall; he held his breath, peering around the door's edge, heart pounding.

Levi laid on the floor in front of the bathtub, halfway curled up with a towel between his arm and his head. His legs were tucked in close, his right arm curled around his stomach. His face was mostly shielded by his hair, pressed into the towel. His whole frame shook, his skin sickly, and an odd sound elicited from between his parted lips in time with his breathing. His eyes were closed, but Eren couldn't tell if he was asleep or--

The thought was stopped short. Eren sucked in a shallow breath as he moved into the room, making sure to shut and lock the door behind him in case Charlotte wandered out of bed. She didn't need to see this.

"Levi," the brunet called softly again. Levi's hand twitched, his fingers curling a bit. Eren knelt down, his hand extending out but stopping halfway.

Why am I afraid to touch him...?

But he had to. With uneasy fingers, he softly skimmed the tips up Levi's arm and shook him a bit. His eyes peeled open fractionally. Eren brushed the hair away from his face, leaning down to better see him.

"Hey," he said. "What happened?"

Levi pulled his lips shut and licked them, his brows furrowing. "Threw up," he managed in a weak whisper.

"Can you sit up?"

It took more effort than should be necessary, as well as help from Eren, but he managed to push himself into a sitting position. Marks were indented into the side of his face where it'd been pressed into the towel, and his skin was almost...yellowish. A round of coughing shook his shoulders; it was wet and deeper than Eren remembered. Worse. And it had Levi clutching the fabric over his chest so tightly his knuckles were white.

"Something's wrong," the raven sputtered. "It...it hurts to breathe..."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Bury your panic, Eren commanded himself. It was already plain to see he was having trouble breathing, as it came in fast and shallow little pants, an odd wheezing Eren hadn't heard from him before sounding in time with it.

Levi could only shake his head.

"Come on. I'm gonna take you back to the room and call Alex."

Levi allowed himself to be lifted off the floor after Eren unlocked and opened the bathroom door. Carefully, he carried his husband back to the bedroom where he laid him back against the pillows, placing a glass of water in his hands before proceeding to get his phone and dial Alex. She answered on the second ring.

"What's up?" Her voice was serious; she knew Eren would only call her at quarter to three in the morning if it was an emergency.

"Alex, there's--there's an emergency," he said, distancing himself from Levi as if that'd prevent him from hearing.

"What is it? Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, Charlotte and I are fine, but Levi..." He ran a hand through his hair, the frantic feeling growing stronger.

"What?" she urged.

"I'm...not sure," he mumbled. Something inside of him said not to tell Alex about the relapse quite yet. "He said it hurts to breathe, and he's not breathing all that well, anyway. And he threw up..."

"Does he have a fever?"

"I don't know. I haven't checked yet..."

"Check now."

Eren was already crossing the room, where Levi was watching him through narrow eyes. He allowed him to lean down and press a kiss to his forehead; Eren almost jerked back in surprise at just how warm Levi's forehead was.

"Yes. Yes, he's got a bad fever," he told Alex through the receiver, quickly crossing the room to shuffle out a pair of jeans. In the background, he heard Reiner's sleepy voice questioning his wife, but he didn't pause. "I'm gonna take him to the ER. But Charlotte..."

"We'll meet you at the hospital and take her," Alex concluded, figuring the hospital was decent middle ground between their residences. "Unless you just wanna call 911..."

"No. That'll take too long," Eren said, remembering how long it took the paramedics to show up when his father passed away.

"Your call. We're on our way."

"Kay." Eren hung up, tossing his phone onto the foot of the bed and scrambling to finish pulling his pants up. He didn't bother changing his shirt.

"Eren," rasped Levi; aside from his struggled speech, he seemed calmer than before.

"What's wrong?" Eren murmured, immediately moving to his side.

"Don't tell her."

A frown. "I didn't, love, I thought we should wa--" Levi shaking his head cut Eren off mid sentence. He wasn't talking about Alex, about telling her about the relapse. He was talking about Charlotte.

"I won't," he promised. "But I don't know what to tell her."

"Anything else. Sugar coat the truth, if you have to. Just...d-don't let me hurt her, too."

With a thick throat, Eren pulled Levi to his chest, tangling a hand through his unruly black hair. "I love you, Levi. I love you so much."

"I...I love you too, Eren."

Eren could've sworn Levi planned to apologize, and so reveled in the feeling of a returned 'I love you' instead.

"I have to go get her," he said. "We have to go..." Because the wheezing of Levi's struggled breathing had gotten the opposite of better. Because his skin was almost hot to the touch. Because he was literally fearing for Levi's very life.

He left Levi with a soft kiss to his temple before exiting the room.

~*~

The little girl slept on the way. She'd been too out of it to really question what was happening and for that, Eren was thankful.

"Why didn't you tell Alex?" Levi whispered as he pulled into the parking lot.

"Wasn't the right time," Eren murmured in response, swinging into the closest parking space to the door he could find.

Eren was fumbling with the buckles on Charlotte's car seat when a soft, familiar voice said, "I've got her. Get Levi inside." He turned to find Alex, her eyes calm and her expression even. She hadn't seen Levi yet. She didn't know.

Swallowing and nodding, he moved aside and let her pull Charlotte from the car. Levi had already opened his door and had his feet planted on the ground.

"No," Eren demanded softly. "There's no way I'm letting you walk."

"I'll be fine," he insisted. Gripping the door, he pulled himself to his feet. Immediately, though, a pale hand flew to his chest and his face, already pained, broke out into a grimace, teeth clenched together to bite back his groan. "What the fuck," he hissed. "Where's that coming from...?" he muttered, bending in half.

Eren wasted no time. Murmuring a soft warning, he wrapped an arm around Levi's waist and leaned down, folding the other around the back of his knees and lifting him up into his arms. A small gasp drew through the raven's lips before a hand lifted to Eren's neck, bracing himself.

Eren kicked the door shut and booked it toward the building, not even noticing the few drops of rain descending upon his face.

The Emergency Room was fairly quiet at three in the morning, and it was clear the security guard behind the glass in the small lobby-like area was bored out of his mind when they rushed up. When he spotted Eren, though, he sat up at attention, his eyes widening at the sight of Levi. He practically rushed out of the little office, going for a wheelchair in the corner. "What's going on?" he asked.

"He's having trouble breathing," Eren explained, a bit breathless himself. "He says it hurts and...and he's experiencing withdrawals."

"Withdrawals from...?" the guard prompted as he worked on unfolding the chair and braking the wheels.

"H-heroin," Eren staggered out. He lowered Levi's shaking frame into the chair, not really feeling as his nails bit into his neck just before he let go and curled his arms around himself once more.

He followed the guard through the automatic doors into a long, tiled, fluorescent-lit hallway, the walls littered with large oak doors, some hanging open and some shut. Off to the left was a small 'reception'-like area occupied by another, younger looking man. More quickly than Eren could've, the guard reiterated the issue to him. He asked for a name and a date of birth, which Eren quickly supplied, and they were immediately admitted to a room.

Eren was the one to lift Levi up onto the bed just as he began coughing, his hands clutched over his chest. Eren could only rub his back and wait for it to subside, leaving a grimace spread across his face.

The next half hour was filled to the brim with questions - about Levi's past battle with addiction, about his relapse, his withdrawals, his health and everything in between since initially getting clean. The entire time he sat with a pained look over his face; they'd put him on oxygen to aid in his breathing, but he was clearly in constant pain. To Eren, the questions felt endless and his worry for his husband only skyrocketed.

One of the nurses listened to his chest through a stethoscope, but with her perfect poker face, Eren could tell nothing right off the bat before she pulled it away and wrapped it back around her neck.

"Sounds like pneumonia, and it's pretty severe," she murmured, turning back toward the computer to peck at the keys. "I'm ordering an x-ray. If it is pneumonia, there will be fluid in the sacs of your lungs and it'll need to be drained as soon as possible." She clicked a few times, typed some more, and then turned, and retrieved a box from the cabinet. "It'd be a good idea for you to get a mask so you're at less of a risk of catching it yourself." She swiftly pulled a mask out and held it in his direction. Shakily, he took it and worked on tugging it around his ears. "I'll be back soon. We'll have you in to be x-rayed shortly." With that, she strode swiftly from the room.

"Eren," Levi managed.

"I'm here," Eren promised, moving closer to him and taking his hand.

"'M sorry for all this bullshit," he muttered, hiccuping and grimacing. "...sorry for fucking up again."

"Levi." Shiny gray eyes lifted to meet iridescent green ones. "I love you."

"I love you, too..."

Levi was pulled out for x-ray only fifteen minutes later, and Eren was required to wait in the lobby of the emergency room behind the reception desk. He paced the carpet, arms crossed tightly over his chest.

Pneumonia. The sick, awkward word continuously repeated itself in his head. Pneumonia of all things, on top of his other diseases and the withdrawals...and Levi's body could only take so much. What if...

"Eren, hey, what's going on?"

The sound of Alex's voice stopped the thought short, and he spun around to see her striding toward him from the direction of the doors. "Alex," he breathed, thankful to finally have the company of another familiar face.

"Where's Levi?" she asked, glancing back toward the rest of the ER.

"They took him in for an x-ray," he said. "The...the nurse thinks he has pneumonia..."

Her eyes widened fractionally for a split second before her face relaxed back into it's neutral state. "I see," she mumbled. "How is he, though?"

Eren shook his head as his knees gave out and forced him to sink into a chair, leaning over and burying his face into his hands. "He's...in pain," he strained. "It's so hard for him to breathe. They gave him oxygen, but I don't know if it helped...and the nurse said he might have to have his lungs drained..." He could feel the anxiety creeping up. "And with the withdrawals..."

Beside him, he felt the woman stiffen. "Withdrawals?" she asked in a skeptical tone.

Eren's hands slid halfway down his face. "Yeah," he mumbled quietly. "He relapsed."

"I see," she said. But just like her brother, she kept a perfect mask of stoicism in place so it was impossible to tell how she was truly feeling about it.

"I just...I don't know what's gonna happen..." Eren went on, his anxiety refusing to relent.

"Take a deep breath, Eren," Alex soothed lightly, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder from where she sat beside him. "We'll take this one step at a time, okay? Can you tell me what happened at home?"

Eren sat back up, rubbing his hands the rest of the way down his face and tugging the mask off as he did so before briefly recounting everything, from confronting Levi about what he'd found behind the picture frame to waking up and finding him on the floor in the bathroom. He'd just barely finished the retelling when one of the people he'd recognized from the room emerged from around the corner and informed them the x-ray was complete. They all but rushed back to the room, where Alex was immediately offered a mask by the same nurse who'd given Eren his.

"It's not an official diagnosis yet - we'll have to do bloodwork for that - but this is definitely looking like pneumonia," she said as Eren took his place beside his husband once more, whose hand was still clutched tightly over his chest, shaking. "And definite fluid buildup. We'll have to drain it pretty quickly here."

Eren forced a swallow through a thick throat. "A-and what does that entail, exactly...?"

"He'll be given an anesthetic and a small incision will be made to insert a needle or tube into the chest to drain the fluid," she explained lightly.

Immediately, Eren felt his throat close up. He didn't know which part was the worst - the anesthetic, the incision, or the needle. Sensing this, the woman said, "Don't worry. It's a completely safe procedure. It only takes about fifteen minutes, and the anesthetic won't put him under."

"Okay," Eren mumbled. He knew he was saying the word, but his mind was completely preoccupied with the situation at hand. It took everything he had to suppress his rising anxiety, especially with the way Levi seemed to be growing paler by the minute.

"I'll be okay, kid," rasped the raven.

Forcing a thick swallow, Eren slid his fingers around his husband's hand and squeezed. "I know," he managed, trying to find it in himself to smile. "You're strong. You've always pulled through before."

Before Levi could say anything else, the nurse cut in, "It's best if you two step out for this part. This little room can get pretty crowded and I doubt it's something you'll want to see. We want to start as soon as possible before the fluid finds its way into his lungs."

Eren nodded and, with one last squeeze to Levi's too warm fingers, trailed Alex back out the door. He spared one last glance back, meeting Levi's eyes one last time before he disappeared around the corner.

"Eren, hey, shh. Calm down," Alex was saying as Eren pressed his back to a the wall just inside the waiting room. It was only then that it occurred to him that his breath was coming in uncontrollable pants, his eyes brimming with tears, and his heart absolutely flying in his chest.

"N-no..." he managed. "Levi...he...he's..."

"Eren, listen to me," Alex coaxed, standing in front of him, trying to calm him down before the panic attack took over any rational thought. "He's in good hands, alright? They're doing everything they can to help him."

But it was fruitless. Anxiety completely overtook and had him crumpling to the ground, hiccupping sobs into his arms, his entire frame shaking so hard it was as if he was vibrating. Alex was left with no choice but to sit along with him. She knelt in front of him and gently rubbed his knee.

"Breathe, Eren. Sshhh. Think of Charlotte, okay? She's waiting for you to come back and tell her that everything's gonna be okay. She's waiting for both of you to come home, healthy and happy." When Eren's shaking just barely began to diminish, she kept talking. "She needs you both to be strong, okay? And because Levi's not so great right now, you have to be strong for both of you. She's relying on you."

As she continued to speak, the attack seemed to ever so slowly subside over the course of a few minutes. His shaking gradually retreated to just his hands and eventually the tears ceased. "Fuck," he muttered as he used his sleeve to wipe his face.

"You better now?"

"...yeah, I guess," he mumbled in a somewhat scratchy voice.  "Sorry..."

The woman shook her head dismissively. "It's a shit situation, I know. And...sorry if this sounds harsh, but it's not gonna be good for anyone if you're both out of commission during all this."

"I know. It's hard to control sometimes..."

"I understand." Alex stood, offering her hand to him. "Come on. Let's go sit somewhere decent until they call us back again."

Eren, too, pulled himself to his feet and, with one last glance back toward where Levi was, followed her back to a couple of chairs.

It wasn't too much longer before someone came back to summon them. By then, fortunately, Eren's hands had stopped shaking and he managed to compose himself enough before stepping into the room where his husband laid across the bed, looking even more exhausted than he had before.

"Everything was completely successful," the same nurse from before explained. "We'll have to keep an eye on his lungs in case the fluid starts to build up again, but he should be alright for a while. He's on pain meds and the anesthetic hasn't worn off yet, so he might be a little out of it. We've also drawn blood to get it processed at the lab, too, so we'll have an official diagnosis soon. Really, I'll be surprised if it's something other than pneumonia. Though, on top of the withdrawals, his body is likely to have a hard time fighting it off, so the most ideal thing for him is to get him admitted and keep him for a few days at least to detox."

Eren nodded slowly as he was passed another mask from Alex. "Just...do whatever you have to do," he murmured quietly, tugging the elastic around his ears.

"Of course. We'll make sure he gets healthy again. I'll give you some time with him and let you know as soon as we have those results." With that, she strode out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

Eren's eyes drifted slowly back over to his husband, whose eyes were just barely open. A cannula ran beneath his nose, a sensor clipped to his finger connected to a monitor above the bed, keeping track of his pulse and oxygen levels. An IV needle was taped to the inner side of his forearm, some clear liquid dripping through the tube and into his bloodstream. The jacket Eren had put him in before departing the house had been removed but was laid over top of him above the sheets.

As soon as Eren sunk down onto the chair at Levi's left side, his eyelids lifted, eyes shifting in his direction.

"Hey, brat," he mumbled almost unintelligibly.

Eren managed a small smile, forgetting Levi couldn't see it. He moved a bit closer, wrapping a hand around Levi's as he had before. He was still worryingly warm. "Hey, love," he murmured back. "How you feelin'?"

"Like shit," Levi sighed, lids fluttering again. Due to whatever was dripping into his system, it came out more along the lines of, 'like sshhhhit.' "What's that crap on your face?" he slurred.

"A precaution," Eren said, rubbing Levi's hand between his own. "You've seen it before."

"Hmph. Take it off. Makes you look stupid. Covers your beauty."

That managed to elicit a light laugh out of Eren, as well as butterflies he hadn't felt in a while. "Sorry, babe. I'll get in trouble if I'm caught without it."

Levi lifted a brow, though only fractionally. "Fuck hospitals."

Eren knew that one came directly from Levi, not so much from the drugs.

"Tell me you don't have such a potty mouth around your daughter," Alex piped up from the end of the bed, where she stood with her arms crossed.

Levi's droopy eyes sought her out. "Shut your face," he muttered. "What happened to the cotton candy on your head?"

"It hasn't been pink in three years, kiddo," she said.

In a motion neither of them expected, Levi stuck his tongue out at her. Eren couldn't help but laugh at the odd sight and, in the process, pulled Levi's attention back to him.

"Where's Charlotte?" he asked sleepily after a while.

"With Reiner," Alex said.

"She's alright," Eren promised. "She doesn't know what's going on yet."

"You promised you wouldn't tell her..." Levi recalled through his temporarily foggy memory. "Don't hurt her..."

"I have to tell her something, Levi," Eren said tenderly.

"But not everything, okay? D-Don't tell her how much I fucked up..." His voice started to shake, his grasp on Eren's hand tightening.

"Sshhh. Don't worry about it. I'll do my best, okay? You focus on getting better."

"Tell her I love her," he sighed dazedly.

A pang shot through Eren's chest. It took everything he had to keep from physically reacting. "I will," he promised, but was unable to hide the thickness of his throat.

"N'..." Levi mumbled, beginning to fall asleep. "An' tell Eren...I love him, too..."

"I will," Eren murmured, leaning down to rest his forehead against Levi's. "He loves you, too. So much."

He couldn't be sure Levi had heard him because he seemed to have fallen asleep the second their foreheads touched, but Eren was sure, even in this state, that Levi knew.