Work Text:
Hello, Mr. Reaper! How do you do?
There's a couple of things I'd like to tell you...
The skies were never as dark as they were in that moment. The rain falling against his cheeks felt thick and slimy, as though it would cling to his skin forever. The ground beneath his him was slippery, his feet digging into the mud mixed with things he really didn’t want to think about as he struggled to keep going.
Eyes the color of summer skies without a single cloud in sight racked over the field around him searching, searching, searching - his heart beating as though it wanted to jump right out of his chest. His lungs felt as though they were full of lead, and there was not a single coherent thought in his mind sans ‘where is Levi’.
I don’t know if the life I’ve lived was good
or bad, and I don’t know if you’ll take my word
when I say that I really tried to do right
in a world so wrong, but try as I might
I’ve hurt people that I loved, and sometimes
I thought I’d knock on your door
before you come for me on your own…
The sound of rain hitting against flesh and bone, the sickening thud of people falling to their knees beside fallen comrades, the sounds of thunderous roars and ear-splitting, heart-shattering screams of pain and desperation echoed over the last battlefield.
They had won, but at what price?
Hello, Mr. Reaper! Did you have a good trip?
Did your Banshees weep?
“Erwin-danchō? Erwin-danchō!” he stopped and turned on his heel when the familiar shrill voice broke through the sound of his own heart thundering in his ears, and air hitched in his lungs, his eyes growing almost impossibly wide when Hanji-bun-taichō fell to her knees in front of him, hardly any color other than red visible on her uniform almost a third of which was in tatters, her 3D Maneuver Gear broken beyond repair, and the fact that the blood clinging to her clothes and body was not evaporating told him that it was all human blood.
“Hanji!” he fell to his knees in front of her, his hands landing on her shoulders, eyes racking over the hunched form seeing desperation, horror and fear. Nothing was left of the eccentric, happy-go-lucky woman he was so used to. Nothing. “Hanji, what happened? Where is everyone?! Where is Levi!!”
A whimper escaped her and she raised her head, her eyes - for once not obscured by glasses - filling with tears as she looked into Erwin’s eyes.
“I came for you as soon as I could,” she choked out in a wavering, pain-filled voice. “I - I tried my best, Danchō…” she pressed out in a voice hardly louder than a whisper. “I tried my best, I swear!”
In that moment everything stilled.
And Erwin could hear nothing.
“Where?” the Survey Legion’s Commander managed to press out over the suffocating amount of panic and fear in his throat and Hanji swallowed thickly, not even trying to suppress a sob of utter pain.
“At the very end of Eastern flank, but Danchō-” Erwin didn’t give her time to finish. He climbed to his feet and glanced around to orient himself, hardly breathing as he broke into a run.
It was impossible not to see groups of people all around him, kneeling beside mutilated bodies of their fallen friends and family. Titan skeletons were evaporating all around them, enemy soldiers lying dead and ignored for now, but to Erwin it felt as though he was looking at all of it through some kind of a veil, as though he was somehow separated from it all, because the only thing he needed right then and there was to find Levi.
Whatever condition he was in…
Certainly your hounds were howling
in the night, quietly prowling
through shadows to catch the prey unprepared for your
arrival, but I promise Mr. Reaper,
I will be good. I won’t try to run
now that everything has been said and done
and I am leaving this world behind.
Erwin stumbled to a stop when he caught sight of a familiar young woman, screaming and crying as two young man struggled to keep her standing, and Erwin’s heart beat almost painfully hard, eyes settling on a lean body he knew every inch of hunched over a lying form, the all too known body of a Titan disappearing into nothing just several feet away from them.
Erwin could hardly understand what Mikasa was screaming about, Jean and Armin doing their best to hold her back even though both looked like they were about to fall apart. Sasha and Connie were just a bit further away, staring in absolute shock at what was going on.
There were others there, but Erwin had eyes only for one man.
His knees almost betrayed him when he took that first step forward, and the Commander stumbled for a moment before he managed to straighten, walking on shaky legs to the man he wanted - needed to find.
But when he finally reached him, when he finally saw the broken, tattered form of Eren Yeager, Erwin suddenly forgot about everything, and the only thing he could do was fall to his knees beside Levi who was holding on to Eren’s left hand as though he would never let it go, silvery-blue eyes wide and full of horror, whole body trembling as though he was about to fall apart.
“I - I’m sorry, heichō…” Eren muttered, blood-covered, chapped lips titled in a small smile, unseeing, milky eyes staring up in Levi’s general direction, tears mixing with blood on burned cheeks. “I know I - I promised to survive, but…”
“Don’t talk, you brat!” Levi pressed out and Erwin looked at him in shock. He had never heard Levi sound so broken. He had never heard Levi’s voice wavering so much that it sounded almost an octave higher. “You’re going to be fine, idiot! You’re healing already, so just…”
“I wanted to - to thank you, heichō.” Levi choked up, eyes growing impossibly wide and his hold on Eren’s bloody, broken left hand grew tighter, the fact that Eren showed no sign of feeling it telling Erwin just how far gone Eren was. “Thank you and - and Erwin-danchō for - for everything you’ve done for me-”
“Eren…” Erwin breathed out, covering Levi’s hands with his own without thinking about it, and a small frown marred Eren’s face before it melted into a smile.
“Erwin-danchō…”
“We’re both here, Eren,” the Commander spoke, not even bothering to clear his throat, voice thick and strained and he looked to his right at Levi who slowly raised his head to look at him, eyes brimming with tears Levi has never cried before.
Erwin swallowed thickly and placed his right hand on Levi’s back offering quiet comfort and reassuring himself at the same time that Levi was indeed there.
“We’re both here.”
I’m sorry, Mr. Reaper. I’m trying not to cry.
I just have my whole life stuck in the corner of my eye.
“Erwin…” Levi breathed out and Erwin tried to gift him with a smile, but when he failed, feeling something climbing to his throat from somewhere in his stomach, choking him, pushing the air out of his lungs, Erwin wrapped his right arm around Levi and pulled him to his chest, blue eyes never leaving the smiling face of Eren.
“Can I - can I ask you something, Erwin-danchō?” Eren murmured weakly and Erwin pressed Levi closer to himself, and even though no one was close enough to see, even though it was more than obvious that Eren’s eyes were of no use to him, Erwin did his damn best to keep his tears at bay.
He needed to be strong.
He needed to be just as strong as this young man was.
“Anything,” Erwin pressed out, resisting the need to close his eyes when Levi pressed himself closer to Erwin’s chest, the heichō’s hands wrapped around Eren’s left hand trembling within Erwin’s hold. “Whatever you want, it will be done.”
We could recount every mistake I’ve ever made
every truth and lie, everything I’ve ever said.
And once we’re done going down memory lane
I’ll be happy to go with you
to where the grass is ever green and the sky is ever-blue.
“Take care of Mikasa and Armin,” Eren choked out, fading faster than anyone wanted to see, and Erwin could feel Levi’s hold on Eren’s hand growing tighter, as though the Lance Corporal didn’t want to let the younger man go. “And… And if you ever get a chance - go to the - the sea. I’ve always - always wanted to see it.”
“Eren-”
“Danchō!!!” a familiar screech reached their ears and Erwin turned around, eyes widening at the sight of Hanji running towards them with the medic-team on her tail. “Danchō!!” she waved at him madly, grinning like a loon, big, fat tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Eren!” Levi blurted out as he leaned over the young, fading man, “Listen to me you, shitty brat!” he snapped and Eren twitched, eyebrows narrowing in a small frown.
“Hanji!! Hurry!” Erwin shouted, waving her over on pure reflex before he looked at Eren again, feeling as though his heart stopped beating when he saw the unusual stillness of the young Shifter’s body.
“Eren?” Levi choked out, not caring in the least that two tears trailed down his cheeks. “Eren?!”
Just tell me one thing, Mr. Reaper,
because I won’t be around to see…
“Erwin-danchō! Levi-heichō! We need space!”
Everything suddenly turned into a swirl of motion, Mikasa’s pain-filled creams filling the air, Armin’s heavy sobbing and pleading overlapping with it, and Erwin and Levi stood to the side, seeing and yet not, hearing and yet utterly deaf to everything going on around them.
And then Levi looked up, meeting Erwin’s wide, dull eyes, and the Commander felt as though his heart would never beat again.
“Erwin?” the sound of his name rolling off of thin, chapped, pale lips spurred Erwin into motion, and he wrapped his arms around Levi, the smaller man’s feet hardly touching the ground as Erwin held him tight, burying his face in Levi’s neck.
A heavy gasp left Erwin’s lips when he felt small, trembling hands fisting on his back, crumpling his ruined uniform between twitching fingers.
It was over.
It was done.
And nothing felt right.
When I’m gone forever…
Will anyone remember me?
Two figures stood on a vast, seemingly endless shore, waves whispering as they rolled small pebbles in their way before joining the enchanting depths of the sea spreading far into the horizon, the sun melting into endless blue.
The sky was painted with colors the two had only imagined before, the air was salty and the light breeze dancing around them was surprisingly chilly.
The smaller of the two looked down when a wave tickled his bare feet, and without glancing at the taller one he crouched and placed his hand on the cool pebbled ground, a small, hardly visible smile tilting thin lips as another wave caressed his hand, eyes the color of mercury filling with warmth and content.
“It’s quite stunning, isn’t it?” he looked up when his lover voiced his thoughts, mesmerized for a moment by the strong form standing beside him, muscled body outlined by loose white clothes, just a hint of broad chest revealed when the wind made the button-up shirt with top two buttons undone dance around him.
“It is,” he answered as he stood up, the tall blond smiling down at him before he placed one big hand on the small of his lover’s back and leaned down to press a loving kiss on lips he adored.
“Erwin! Levi!” the two parted and turned around, smiles decorating their faces at the sight of three younger people walking towards them, both concentrating on the one young man they thought was lost forever.
“Isn’t this amazing?!” Armin cheered, leaving Mikasa and Eren behind as he ran forward, passing Erwin and Levi, the two turning around to watch the young blond as he ran into the water. “Waaaa!!!! It’s cold!!” Armin laughed happily, and Levi didn’t struggle when Erwin wrapped his right arm around the smaller man and pulled him against his side.
Both looked to their right when Eren and Mikasa came to stand beside them, the young woman’s arms wrapped around Eren’s waist, the Shifter bracing most of his weight on a crutch since his right leg - even though it was mostly healed - still couldn’t support his weight no matter how much of it he had lost while recovering.
Eren looked nothing like himself, but they were all certain he would one day make a full recovery.
They lived in times of peace and prosperity.
They didn’t have to fight anymore.
Their uniforms lay in their traveling chests, cherished and often gazed upon.
They would never forget what they lived through.
They would never forget the friends they lost, the battles they fought.
But future was before them, a future without fear and horror…
A bright, bright future.
“It’s so big,” Eren murmured and Mikasa looked at his face, her dark grey eyes filling with warmth and sisterly love. “I’d never thought I’d see it much less live beside it.”
“We never dared think of a lot of things,” Erwin commented as he looked down at his lover, finding Levi staring with an expression of content and fondness at Armin who was making a fool out of himself carelessly running through shallow water.
Feeling his older lover’s gaze Levi tilted his head back, gifting Erwin with a small smile, something Erwin never thought he would see and most certainly not as often as it now happened, but that didn’t mean he didn’t cherish every single small smile which would grace those sharp features.
“Eren!! Mikasa! Get in here! It’s soooo perfect!!” Armin cheered happily, and Erwin and Levi exchanged a glance before they looked at Mikasa and Eren, finding the two sharing almost matching grins before they moved as fast as Eren could towards the sea, Armin running towards them before all three of them ended up in a mass of tangled limbs falling together into the cold water, laughing like they hadn’t laughed in years.
And all of a sudden, everything felt…
Alright.
I thought long and hard if I should post this…
And then I thought why not!
Go on! Hate me aaaaaaall you want! *grinning evily*
I bet you guys though either Levi or Eren was gonna die. hihihi