The world has been unbearably bright since that day.
There are no tall walls of brick and stone, no forests deep enough to soften the sun. Just an open wound of land where there was once life, where trees once bent in the wind.
No clamor of markets, no rumble of carriages or engines…
No Hange to chatter his brain to mush….
Only the thin whistle of air through emptiness.
There is nothing left to be covered in, nowhere to hide, nowhere to pretend.
Even so, there is no mercy for Levi…the desolation does not belong to just the land. It mirrors what’s left inside him.
And his body makes sure the ruin is felt in full, like salt ground into an open wound. Pain, constant and vulgar, refusing to fade.
He’s stopped counting how many places ache, stopped hoping they’d stop. Things don’t heal the way they used to. The strength that used to surge through his blood like a current is now gone.
And with it, the rage. That singular focus that made him useful and dangerous.
Now there’s just…whatever the fuck this is.
At least Armin and the others are near, though he feels a pang when he involuntarily searches for Eren’s face…Sasha’s, Mikasa’s.
He doesn’t know how to feel about the kids still calling him captain. He’s not a captain anymore. There’s no war left to fight, no commands to give. Still, the title binds him to them, as much out of duty as love.
They were his underlings once, but they’re his family now. These days all he can offer them his presence, staying near enough to shield them in whatever way he still can. He won’t risk losing another.
He watches them laugh, argue, cry…grasping at some semblance of normalcy in this upside down world. And he’s proud of them.
Seeing them now makes him wonder if he ever really knew how to be alive. They are strong…in all the best ways. He sees as they constantly find ways to welcome the warriors from Marley with kindness and understanding. An example he’s trying to follow. How funny it is, him looking to them for guidance. The world really has flipped on its head.
There’s only one face he doesn’t recognize in this house.
An excerpt from my post rumbling x reader fic “Requiem for the Living” on ao3 (username: thegaudmuther)
stormborns
titsay
jbbartram-illu
yousharknotpass
janainaart
