#a simple truth

[zora-gate]

Eragon/Murtagh would have been the most popular ship from Eragon if they weren't brothers

[fairydrowning]

– By "Rukmini Poddar", Instagram account "rockinruksi"

[honey-bunnysaurus]

Bigender Michael Afton is real, I feel it in my heart.

[this-is-allison]

A Simple Favor (2018) dir. Paul Feig 

“You do not want to be friends with me. Trust me.”

[mangoxangel]

Daily reminder that Barricade has the best survival record out of all the Decepticons ever in history

[smashpages]

Out this week: A Simple Truth (SLG, $14.95): 

Kevin Sacco, the creator of Josephine, returns with a new graphic novel about a couple “wanting a child and willing to go to any lengths to get one, but their path takes them on a dreadful journey that pulls them away from all that is familiar into the uncharted waters of international adoption.”

See what other comics and graphic novels will arrive in stores this week!

[micia-posts-stuff]

A Simple Truth

Chapter 2/11: Always Just A Friend

Levi was lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling. He had been standing in that position for a while, trying to make order in his head.

Why was this all happening in that moment? It wasn't surely the first time he had dealt with Hanji Zoe.

The two had attended high school in the same place, the same school where they were teaching now.

They met while they were waiting in front of the principal's office after they got into trouble. He had beaten a boy, because the guy had insulted his mother, and she had sneaked into the science lab, picking the lock. Even if the two didn't know each other, Hanji started talking anyway, while Levi listened in silence, initially a little annoyed by that chatter.

-I certainly wouldn't have sneaked in, if they gave us a little more freedom during lab hours. What's interesting about cells seen under a microscope? I can just look for images of that on the internet, am I right? Those tools are wasted. I have a thousand experiments in mind where they would be way more useful. Do you want to know what they're about? -

The boy gave no answer, so Hanji was immediately intrigued. It didn't happen often to meet such a peculiar person, almost all the people around her looked like photocopies of each other.

-And then with that kind of lock! It was so easy to open it, it felt like it was meant to be lock-picked. Don't you agree?-

Levi had looked at her out of the corner of his eye. Who the hell is she?

-Levi Ackerman, it's your turn.- Shadis, the principal during that time, had called him into his office.

-It looks like we have to say goodbye, Levi Ackerman. It was nice talking to you-

- Silent Zoe! You're next.-

Hanji's face had become red and she had nodded, Levi found our later that the girl had a crush on the headmaster at the time.

Before entering the office, the boy had turned one last time to observe that strange person. At school he was famous for being a troublemaker and generally people tended to avoid him, so why wasn't that girl bothered by it? He was certainly surprised by that behavior.

-I am Hanji! - she had shouted as soon as she noticed that she had the attention of the boy. Then the door had closed.

Their meetings had taken place in more or less the same way throughout the rest of the school year, until the two ended up becoming friends and started hanging out outside of school as well.

In the years that followed Levi realized how brilliant that person was. She had often helped him with school, so much so that the boy had started taking higher and higher marks. He, on the other hand, came occasionally to her home, to force her to go out, and the two spent their days in the green areas near the city, where Hanji collected berries and flowers for her research, while Levi trained in running.

With university they weren't able to see each other as much, but they did not lose contact with the other. The two of them took the same train in the morning and used that time to chat with each other, even if it was just for an hour.

It had been many years since that meeting in front of the principal's office, but their bond remained. However, in all that time, their relationship had always been just pure friendship. Even when, after college, the two started teaching in the same school, things hadn't changed. They had always been close friends, but nothing more.

And in that storm of memories an obvious question popped in Levi's mind. How? How was it possible that he and Hanji Zoe were such close friends? How was it possible that he got along so well with a person who was apparently so different from him? At first, when Isabel and Farlan, two of his oldest friends, had met her, they couldn't believe that the girl got along so well with Levi. And yet, it was what it was. By now he was used to her enthusiasm and that positivity of hers was even able to bring a little bit of happiness in his gray vision of the world. And if you knew her well, you would have known that Hanji wasn't always so cheerful. She had her dark moments too and in those moments he had been there. He was happy to have been able to comfort her in the past, in his own way of course, but even his unusual method of uplifting people seemed to work with the woman. And of course she had been there for him in difficult times too. Their friendship had grown closer as the years passed.

Now that they were colleagues it wasn't unusual for them to spend their afternoons together. Hanji was a science teacher, whereas Levi taught PE, so he often helped her with the corrections of tests with multiple-choices answers. They drank tea together and chatted. He was really happy in those moments. Now that he thought about it, they were one of his little joys of the week. In the past he had often avoided other commitments, just to not have to give those moments up.

So was it possible that maybe he had always liked Hanji? That there had always been that affection and that it had simply grown over the years? Was the event of the previous evening nothing more than the result of that feeling, which had continued to mature throughout all that time?

Levi no longer understood anything, he had never been very good with feelings and the whole situation was very confusing. So he finally got out of bed and started cleaning the house. It might seem very weird to many, but cleaning was one of the things that relaxed him the most. It was like reading a book or drawing, those activities that people do to calm their nerves.

Once he was done he went to the kitchen to make himself some tea. He looked at his watch. 1:00 PM, he had lost all morning because of those thoughts, luckily it wasn't a problem, since it was spring break. Anyway, it was lunchtime now and he hadn't even started preparing anything, but as he got to the stove he remembered something. When that thought popped in his mind, he started sweating.

How could he forget?

He looked at the clock in panic. That was the last thing he needed that day.

While he was thinking that, the doorbell rang.

Chapters: 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

[micia-posts-stuff]

A Simple Truth

Chapter 1/11: Drinking Too Much

What just happened?

What did he just do?

Levi ran in the rain with a hood on his head, his eyes down and a blush on his face. He watched the drops bounce off the ground as those images kept flowing through his mind: eyes slowly closing, her lips that tasted like alcohol, her breath on his face. He remembered every little detail, but, more than anything, he remembered the pleasure he felt when their lips met.

That evening the faculty of the school had gathered to celebrate the start of spring break, sure it would only last a week and many of them had mountains of tests to correct, but every opportunity was good to go out with friends. So glass after glass they spent the evening laughing at various little stories about their work. And then it happened: Levi and Hanji had kissed there in front of everyone, who, most likely, wouldn't even remember it, considering how drunk they were.

Levi entered an alley and stopped for a moment. Only a few drops could reach him there, so he pulled off his hood and took deep breaths, in an attempt to get those worries out of his head.

It was definitely the alcohol, he thought, they got drunk and it happened, end of the story. A kiss between two drunk adults, nothing to worry about.

A lie, obviously. Levi knew very well that alcohol had no effect on him. He had never gotten drunk in his entire life, no matter how many glasses he drank, he was always perfectly sober. But Hanji was drunk! She kissed him and he was too slow to push her away, yeah that's what happened. So it was definitely not his fault.

Another lie of course, since not only he indulged in the kiss, but he also liked it. However, he forced himself to take that version of the events as the truth, completely ignoring that little voice that told him he was lying to himself. With this thought in mind, he headed to his apartment.

Fortunately, he didn't have to worry about being seen. His friends wouldn't remember much of that night and the rest of the bar was empty. The owner, Dot Pixis, had kept it open specifically for them. The man was a former teacher of their school who retired a few years ago. Once he retired he had decided to open a bar, given his innate passion for alcohol and often let them in after closing time, taking the opportunity to drink with the group, of course. For this reason Levi was been able to sneak away without worrying about leaving everyone in that state: his colleagues would wake up after the hangover and return home, or Pixis would let them stay until morning. No witnesses, no questions. The only one who knew about this was him.

Entering his apartment Levi threw himself on the bed and the lie he had clung to before, disappeared under the weight of the truth. In the darkness of the room the question came spontaneously: why had he indulged in that kiss? He had the time to push her away and he knew it, but instead he had come closer, like it was natural. The answer to that question was simple and obvious, but Levi continued to ignore it. It couldn't be, right? Not Hanji Zoe, not the messy, loud woman he knew. There was surely another explanation.

Tormented by confusing theories, he fell asleep.

That night Levi dreamed of the woman.

She was sitting on the grass looking away with the wind ruffling her hair. There was something beautiful about that brown mess, it perfectly reflected the woman's character: always out of the ordinary, difficult to control. She was wearing knee-length pants and a light shirt, the ends of which fluttered in the wind. Levi approached the figure, but just as he reached it the sound of cicadas, which had been a pleasant background sound before, increased until it became deafening. His vision darkened and everything around him disappeared. The absence of the woman beside him made him feel an almost agonizing sense of loneliness. Overwhelmed by this emotion, the man suddenly woke up. He was sweating in his perfectly made bed, since he didn't even go under the covers the night before. It was early in the morning and a small light was starting to filter through the curtains.

It was at that moment that Levi Ackerman realized he had fallen in love with Hanji Zoe.

Chapters: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11