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The wind hums softly, blowing withered leaves towards his way, landing innocently on the tired man’s path; the next thing he knows, the hushed sound of leaves being crunched echo around the woods, startling a flock of noisy crows that scatter in the grey skies.
Despite this, all Levi hears is silence. It’s all quiet, too quiet.
It’s amazing how the woods still smell fresh, free of the reek of putrid decay or suffocating smokes. It’s amazing how the woods, this aspect of nature itself survives it all and not the unfortunate humans—who have been fighting and fighting for all too long just to breathe another day—that have fallen prey to the tragedies that bloody man caused.
He said he didn’t steal their freedom, yet Levi feels trapped, chained, burdened by the stacks and mountains of bodies that were sacrificed… at what cost? Levi doesn’t know the answer, and till now, he still doesn’t.
If this is what freedom feels like, Levi doesn’t want it. Eren Jaeger’s idea of freedom is warped, and a part of Levi still has the urge to kick some sense into that brat’s crooked mind.
Albeit, he doesn’t have the energy to anymore. Besides, everything’s over.
But to him, death after death, it was over a long time ago.
. . .
As he trudges forward, he thinks about them.
His mother. His uncle. Farlan. Isabel. Petra. Olou. Eld. Gunther. Erwin. And then…
“GAAHHHH! I’m fed up with all this paperwork!” He recalls her squawking the moment he stepped foot into office late at night, in hopes to retrieve a neat stack of completed papers. Instead, he was met with a volcanic eccentric and rain—rain, made up of papers. The sight of Hanji throwing those sheets of paper in the air in her fit shouldn’t be surprising to Levi, at this point. Honestly, what did he expect from her?
For once, he doesn’t scream at her for this mess. He understands her rage, given the stressful times, the predicaments that everyone expects her to formulate a success-guaranteed solution. It’s pressurizing, suffocating—he knows.
After closing the door, he bends down, picking up the pieces of paper, thinking of a sarcastic (albeit, light-hearted) remark to perhaps snap her back into her sane senses when—
“I tell ya Levi!” She turns, points a finger at him. Levi’s eyes narrow, wondering what weird statement or antics she is planning to spout or commit. “Once this is all over, I’m gonna run like a mad, drunken, crazed person into the woods, and when I reach the end, I will—” Her voice gets louder, and Levi’s agitated expression intensifies as well. So bloody noisy, he thinks. But he doesn’t complain, not verbally at least. Because, it’s better than seeing her c—
“I will finally cry! Shout, scream, let it allllll out and cry like there’s no tomorrow!”
Silence envelops them, mostly on Levi’s end because hell, how was he supposed to answer to that bizarre declaration?
And then, that’s when he notices the tears at the edge of her eye, threatening to fall and break free from the wall that Hanji herself has put up. His own pair of eyes widen, immediately drops the pieces of paper he picked before he stands, about to make his way towards her.
“O-Oi—”
“And I’m gonna drag you along!” She huffs, sucking back in her tears, wearing that pestering grin as she places both hands at her waist. “You don’t get a choice!” She declares.
Levi stares at her, at the tears she forces back down and then at that optimistic expression as if she expects him to have absolutely no qualms with her proposal.
He doesn’t.
“…You talk too much, Hanji.” You’re being vulnerable…
She smiles a rueful smile. “It’s just the two of us, you know?” Because I’m alone with you.
Because it’s you, Levi.
.
.
.
It’s quiet, all by himself.
Once he reaches the end, he finds his body surrendering to the weight and heaviness of everything, and then slams himself pathetically against a tree, sliding down. Everything aches.
His remaining eye, while weary, spots a crow near a prickly bush that didn’t flock away with the rest. It doesn’t soar, it can’t soar; at least not in the same sky as the rest.
It’s dead.
He detests the way its lifeless eye fixates right at him; its other eye busy being devoured by the murderous pests that infests and swarms both the insides and outsides of the predator-turned-prey—Levi doesn’t want to think about it.
He closes his eyes.
There are no screams, nothing. There is… nothing.
There is silence, but it is not peace. It’s grief.
“It’s just the two of us, you know?”
“…I wish… we could talk…” But now all there is, is silence. He clenches the side where his heart beats wearily, then whispers her name gently, longingly. Mourning. “…Hanji.” No matter how much you talk, ramble, rant, shout, scream and cry… I will always listen.
It starts off gradual, soft. It’s like a drizzle; an anticipation for a storm—a storm that arrives soon after as more memories cloud him, overwhelm him.
And then, for the first time in a long while, Levi cries.