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   What Duty Leaves Behind by aimeleriz

   Fandoms: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan  

   • Mature
   • Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
   • F/M
   • Complete Work

   07 Feb 2026

   Tags

   • Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
   • Erwin Smith/Reader
   • Erwin Smith & Reader
   • Erwin Smith/You
   • Erwin Smith/Original Female Character(s)
   • Erwin Smith/Original Character(s)
   • Nile Dok/Marie
   • Nile Dok/Marie/Erwin Smith
   • Nile Dok/Original Female Character(s)
   • Erwin Smith
   • Nile Dok
   • Marie (Shingeki no Kyojin)
   • Angst
   • Slow Burn
   • Mutual Pining
   • Emotionally Repressed
   • Romance
   • Emotional Hurt/Comfort
   • Reader-Insert
   • Female Reader-Insert
   • Heartache
   • Jealousy
   • Grief/Mourning

   Summary

   Erwin Smith has always carried two impossible loves: the truth beyond the Walls, and You (Marie). When he chooses the first, he buries the second quietly, deliberately, and with a cruelty he convinces himself is mercy.

   You grow up side by side, and then worlds apart. Yet no matter how far he rises, no matter how deep into danger he throws himself, Erwin never escapes the memory of the warmth he left behind, and you never quite outrun the ghost of the boy who traded your future for his mission, because fate keeps dragging your paths back into each other’s orbit; tugged tight one moment, torn wide the next.

   Language:

   English

   Words:

   37,577

   Chapters:

   7/7

   Comments:

   12

   Kudos:

   17

   Bookmarks:

   3

   Hits:

   354

   Bookmarked by keneth15

   01 Dec 2025