Chapter Text
In a world where the last of mankind lives behind three giant walls, Emma Wood is a completely ordinary woman. Together with her girlfriend Lena, she keeps a little botanical shop in Shiganshina. The shelves inside are full of jars and baskets filled with fresh and dried herbs, self-made teas and spices, as well as various balms and tinctures. In the warmer months, they sell freshly cut flowers, which they nurture and grow in their backyard. It’s not much but it keeps them from starving. The passion they have for their profession, and the way they love each other is what customers adore about Lena and Emma. It’s their little island of peace in a shattered world.
When Emma unlocks the shop door and turns the ‘closed’ sign to ‘open’ Lena hugs her from behind and gives her a kiss on the neck.
Emma laughs: “Hey!”
She turns around in the arms of her lover, staring into the depths of her eyes.
Lena moves strands of her girlfriend’s bright ginger hair behind her ear and sticks a marguerite into it. She chuckles because it looks like the flower grew right out of the temple stem of Emma’s glasses.
“What’s so funny?”, Emma asks.
“Nothing. I love you”, Lena says, while her hand still rests on Emma’s cheek.
It’s one of those moments in which Emma wonders how she ever got a human like Lena to love her “I love you too.”
Suddenly Lena looks over Emma’s shoulder.
“Why are there so many people on the street? Is something special today?”
Emma turns around and immediately understands what Lena meant.
“Not that I know of.”
At that moment, the church bell rings and Lena’s eyes lighten up.
“Oh! The Scout Regiment is coming back. Come on, let’s welcome them!”
So, the sign on the door is turned around again, and Lena pulls Emma out of their store to join the crowd on the street. By pure chance or luck, they get a place in the front row.
They march along the street. Soldiers covered in blood, sweat, and dirt slowly make their way back from their mission outside the walls. Their faces express the horror they must have seen and endured. Carts carry way too many broken bodies of their fallen comrades.
It’s a horrifying sight.
This time Hanji has been lucky. Their comrade had pushed them away at the last second and was eaten instead of them. It was one of those moments where they hated themself. Had they not been so reckless and for one time listened to their Section Commander, this soldier would be alive right now.
Idiot. You’re such an idiot. You always think you’re so smart, but who are you to risk your fellow soldier’s lives for another crazy theory?! You’re lucky if the commander doesn’t demote you.
When the group passes the gate, they push their glasses up to their forehead. They don’t want to see all the gawking people. Having to listen to the mumbles full of judgment all around them is enough.
Their back aches from the fall and they’re fairly certain that it isn’t raining, but still, there’s something wet dripping down their face. They just want to hide in their room until the pain is a little more bearable.
Just a little longer. Keep the façade up for a little longer.
But then for a moment, Hanji lifts their head. They spotted something from the corner of their eye. Fire? No, that can’t be right. They look again. Just a shapeless mass of blurry heads. But there it is again! A dash of color in the crowd. They’ve hardly ever seen someone with that intense red hair before. But there she stands watching the passing soldiers, whose world is so unimaginably different from her own. Astonishing. Have people now somehow managed to change their hair color? Or can hair be naturally like that? A faint little smile appears on Hanji’s face. Even in the worst situations, their curiosity prevails.
Hanji passes the woman with the strange red hair and in the blink of an eye their thoughts are quiet and their mind is at peace.
As they silently watch the soldiers ride by, a man standing beside Lena and Emma begins to ramble.
“I’ll never understand what purpose those Scouts serve. There are plenty alternative ways to die that would be much cheaper for us.”
Emma feels how, beside her, Lena’s body tenses.
Uh-Oh, here we go.
“How can you say something like that?! These courageous people are sacrificing their lives so that future generations may be better off than us!” Lena cries out with passion.
The man crosses his arms.
“Well, that hasn’t worked too well so far, has it?”
Lena’s eyes are emitting sparks.
“Those soldiers are the bravest and most honorable humans of our kind and I firmly believe that one day they will free us from the titans. Right, Emma?”
Emma has seen Lena defend the Scout Regiment to rude citizens a thousand times. Normally she stays out of those conversations and Lena doesn’t mind. But today it seems to be a special case. So, when she sees Lena’s look of expectancy she summons up all her courage: “Y- Yes! Exactly!”
The man just shakes his head and turns around in order to walk away.
“Believe what you want, crazy ladies. I still think it’s stupid. Good day.”
On their way back to the shop Lena barely talks.
Emma takes her hand. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“You didn’t back me up until I asked you to. Don’t you believe in them too?” Lena asks and Emma can hear from the tone of her voice that she is hurt.
“Well, I’m always for learning as much as we can about the world and our enemy. You know that. Nevertheless, you have to admit that their last few missions were all failures and caused way too many deaths. Maybe they just need a new strategy?”
Lena sighs. “You’re right. The body count has been immense within the last few years. I even heard rumors that Commander Sadies wants to lay down his title and give it to Erwin Smith.”
That sparks Emma's interest. “Really? Where do you get all that gossip from?”
Now Lena is in a playful mood. “Well, if you wouldn’t hide in the backyard all the time and were at the front of our shop a little more often, you would hear such things too.”
“Firstly, someone has to do the work back there; secondly, it’s not that often and thirdly, I enjoy learning those things from you way more than from the customers”, Emma returns and gives Lena a quick peck on the lips.
When they arrive at the shop, Lena unlocks the door for them. She’s not done yet with mocking her girlfriend.
“Well then, Miss ‘someone has to do the work’, go back to your watering can where the bad people can’t find you.”
It’s an unspoken agreement between them that Lena does most of the selling work, because Emma gets anxious easily around strangers. But today she decides to be brave.
“Uh-uh, I can’t let you get away with that. Today I’m gonna take the front and you can go back there!”
That caught Lena off guard, but her poise is back in no time and she plays along.
“Mmm so fearless, that’s so hot! Alright then, watch out for savage children, and if someone wants to take you with them, just yell and I will fight them.”
“You are my hero.”
They share one last passionate kiss before Lena vanishes into the backyard.
A few minutes later the shop door opens and an aged woman with a small frame walks inside.
“Hello Mrs. Miller. The same as usual?”, Emma asks with the friendliest smile she can offer.
“Hello dear, yes, please”, the old lady answers.
Ha! I know exactly what this woman usually orders, so much for I’m always back there. I’ll have to tell Lena that later.
When she takes some of the herb-filled glasses out of the shelf behind her, she suddenly hears a loud bang. Alarmed by the noise Emma spins round.
“What was that? An explosion?”
Lena comes into the store. “Did you hear that? Was that an earthquake?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t feel any vibrations”, Emma says nervously.
They remain still for a few seconds. Everything stays quiet. Then Lena takes action.
“I’ll walk up the stairs and check it out.”
While the shop fills out the ground floor, the upper floor of the house is their living space, which is reachable over a staircase on the exterior wall on the backside. Lena runs up to the top and looks around. What she sees is far worse than her wildest nightmare.
Meanwhile inside Emma continues to prepare her customer’s order.
“How odd. Say, Mrs. Miller, did you watch the arrival of the Scout Regiment earlier today?”
That question remains unanswered forever.