Chapter Text
The sirens were blaring into the shivering four-year-old's young ears. Tears still poured from his duo colored eyes. A black eye still fresh on his slightly tanned skin as he brought the ice bag back to its comforting place, hissing as the cold temperature began its process all over again. Eren had stopped sobbing over 10 minutes ago, but he still sniffled every now and then. The events of the night still fresh in his mind, his conscience wouldn't stop the flow of tears from dripping past his abnormal eyes. It wasn't until the shiver ran through his small, bruised body that he felt the presence of someone in front of him. His form shook with the uneasy anticipation of who it was. Eren dared not to look up to meet the eyes of said person. So he kept his gaze towards the dried dirt splatters on his shoes.
The officer pulled off his hat, making his way over to the young boy that sat in the doorway of his vehicle. A sigh left his slightly chapped lips when he saw the tears still running down the kids face. With a calloused hand running through his blonde locks he put on a small smile when he got near the boy. The smile quickly faded when he noticed the red splatters on his shoes and the shivering of his tiny body. Not wanting to startle him anymore at the officer squatted down to his eye level. The kid said nothing. The lump in his throat threatened to break whenever he tried. The officer returned the smile to his features before he began to speak in a soft tone.
"Hello Eren, how's your eye?"
Eren could only look at him, and the sight broke his heart. He's had cases with bruised and battered children before, not that he's enjoyed any of the ones before this one. But the raw emotion that Eren held in his eyes that showed a mixture of fear and betrayal.... he could only feel his chest tighten at the sight. Needless to say, Erwin was sure to make it his duty to help him as much as he could.
“We’re getting ready to head out. You’re going to ride with me back to the station, ok?”
A jolt of realization hit the boy like a ton of bricks. His eyes widened and threatened to shed more tears as he looked to the officer, gripping even tighter onto his emergency blanket that he kept held tightly around his small form. “W-what about m-mommy?” His voice came out soft and strained when he asked about his mother. It took everything in Erwin to not glance over to the ambulance as it raced away. “Don’t worry. You’ll be able to see your mother, later on, tonight. Right now we have to get you down to the station.”
A nod let him know that Eren understood.
The ride to the station was silent besides the blaring zooms of passing cars and siren that echoed for them to pull over. Erwin would occasionally glance back to the boy, who was silent and stared at nothing but his dirtied shoes the whole ride, through his rearview mirror. Once they got to the station Erwin held the boy’s hand as he led him to his office. There his partner, Kenny Ackerman, was waiting for him. He didn’t look amused when he spotted the sniffling child beside his partner. “So is this the brat they called in?” Erwin was in no mood to deal with Kenny’s attitude at the moment, ignoring his comment as he led Eren to the couch to the side of his office. Again crouching down to his eye level before he spoke. "I have to leave for a few minutes, but this is officer Ackerman. He'll keep you company." Eren eyed the tall man that sat on what was Erwin’s' desk. Kenny held the boy under his strong gaze that made him uncomfortable in his skin.
"Wait here till I come back. My partner here will watch over you while I go find something for you to drink." Before Eren could protest, Erwin left the two in the room with an eerie silence. The small boy kept his gaze anywhere but to the man sitting before him.
“What’s your name kid?”
Nothing.
“What’s with the silence are ya mute or something?”
Eren still refused to look at the man, only gripping onto his blanket and messing with its stitching.
“Tch, you’d better start talking soon brat. You’re going to have to be questioned about what happened. Your mother isn’t here to be your translator.”
Eren flinched at his words. He was right. His mother wasn’t here. She wasn’t there to make him feel better like she usually did when things went wrong for him. But tonight had gone to complete hell. The images flashed through his mind. Screaming rang in his ears as he could literally smell the stench of iron in the room. Broken glass littered the floor from picture frames that hung on the walls of his home. His mother’s face still as a statue. His form began to shake violently, tears overflowed in his eyes and dripped down his cheeks when he began to sob.
“Where’s mommy?! I wanna be with mommy!”
Kenny seemed unamused at the child’s whining. It was quick to get on his nerves whenever he saw someone cry. “Tch, shut that shit up and be a man. Your mother is gone and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”
“Y-you’re lying! M-mommy wouldn’t…l-leave m-me!!” Eren stuttered through his words. Voice cracking as he exclaimed to the older man.
“Why are you being so damn stubborn? She’s dead. She isn’t coming back for you.”
His words pierced Eren like a thin needle. His sobs grew and disrupted his breathing. He began to hyperventilate, balling up into the corner of the couch like it was some sort of anchor for his crashing wall of reality.
“Stop it…you’re lying…you’re a liar…” His voice became small and timid again.
“Don’t believe me if you want, but you can’t deny the truth.”
“Liar! Liar, liar, liar!”
He repeated this word over and over to Kenny. Yelling at the top of his lungs caused the two not to hear the knocks on the closed office door. It was swung open by a teen with pale skin, short black hair and glaring steel daggers at his uncle. The teen quickly made his way over to the screaming child and cradled him in his arms. “Hey. Stop crying, it’s ok.”
Eren’s sobs died down after a few minutes of the raven haired boy petting his hair and whispering calming words into his head. The young child tightly held onto his soother and cried softly into his chest.
“What the hell is wrong with you? You don’t say crap like that to a kid.” The teen directed his voice to his uncle, spatting the question at him through a venomous tone.
Kenny’s dull face didn’t change. “I was only telling the kid the truth. It ain’t my fault he couldn’t take it.”
“Just get out already. You’ve done enough.” The raven sent glares at the man as he left, slamming the door on his way out. The loud sound made Eren jump and left the teen to soothe him again. “Kid it’s ok. Don’t worry about him, he’s just an ass.” He spoke softly, almost whispering as he pulled away a bit to look into Eren’s eyes. His narrowed eyes widened a bit in surprise at their colors. An ocean like green and fiery amber peered back at him through knitted, somber eyes. He internally shook his head and got his mind back to the boy before him. “Better?”
Receiving a nod, the teen wiped away the remaining tears on Eren’s cheeks. “What’s your name brat?” His tone was calm and much more inviting than Kenny’s. The young boy took a moment to answer, still recovering from his episode. “….E-Eren…”
The teen gave a small smile to which Eren gave one back. “Nice to meet you Eren, I’m Levi.”