Excerpt from a thing I’ve been thinking about?
“You’ll be alright,” Levi tells the boy as he reaches his hand out in hopes that the little one will take it. He’s hidden in the back of a closet, and Levi wants nothing more than to get him out, out of that house, out of that life. “You’re safe now.” The boy gives him a skeptical, frightened look, so he adds, “I promise.”
Levi drops his hand and says, “She’s gone. I’m sorry.” He wishes he had a different answer for him, but he doesn’t, and it’s silently killing him inside. The hardest part of these jobs is giving bad news when things go south, especially to the young ones.
The boy’s eyes widen and the tears that he tried to hide so bravely when Levi first showed up fall freely. He sniffles and wipes his nose, as he says, “I don’t understand. Where did she go? Why would she leave me?” He lays his head on his knees and whispers so quietly that Levi almost misses it, “She said she’d never leave me.”
“She didn’t want to.” The boy’s head pops up, and his confusion hurts Levi. “Believe me, kid. The last thing she wanted was to leave you, but those men.. Well, they..” He trails off, not knowing if the boy is familiar with death and what it means, but before he can decide on what to say, the boy finishes for him.
“They–did they kill her? Is she dead?” Levi nods, and the boy’s breath quickens as the tears start to come in spades. He puts his head back down and hugs his knees tighter to his chest. “Who–who will take care of me now? Momma was all I had. What am I going to do?”
Levi reaches out and gently places his hand on the boy’s head. “You can come with me. I’ll take care of you.”
“Why on Earth would you promise a nine year old kid that you’d take him in,” Erwin asks incredulously as he paces the room. “Especially one you know the Elders are after. Are you damn insane, Levi? Do you want them to come after us as well?”
“What did you want me to do, Erwin? Leave him all alone?” Erwin stops and throws him a glare so vicious that if Levi were anyone else, he’d fear for his life. “Look, I get it. You’ve got the coven to think about, but like you said, he’s a nine year old boy. He’s got no one left, and I’ll be damned if I just turn my back on a child who needs me just because the Elders are pissed off at his father. The boy did nothing wrong.”
“You did nothing wrong, but you were still ostracized and attacked by the other covens for your mother’s past discrepancies. We were lucky that the Elders didn’t attack us for accepting you a few years ago.”
“Lucky? If I remember correctly, you had to convince them you’d kill me if I dared to even speak of my mother’s spell books, let alone her damn name.” He stops and rubs at the bridge of his nose, a vain attempt at stopping a migraine in the making, then he sighs. “You somehow convinced them to take a chance on me, and I’ll always be grateful for that, but I have to ask you to take a chance on Eren now. I can’t let him live the life I did. He doesn’t deserve that.” Erwin’s face scrunches up, and he brings his hand up to his forehead only to bring it back down. “Please, Erwin. I never ask for anything. Just let me keep the boy here with me. Let me protect him, show him what magic is really supposed to do, what it’s really about.”
Erwin turns away from Levi with a huff and walks over to the large, ceiling-to-floor window that spans the entire back wall. He crosses his arms and looks out at the lake. Levi walks over to stand next to him when Erwin speaks.
“Then I’ll take the boy and leave.” Erwin turns and glares at Levi, and Levi shrugs before he turns and walks toward the door. “If he cant stay with the coven, I’ll take him and go.” He stops in the doorway, turns his head to look over his shoulder back at Erwin. “It’s not ideal, and I truly hope it doesn’t come to that, but I’ll do whatever it takes to keep him safe and by my side.”
