Work Text:
On the war-shattered plains Levi sat; legs crumbling, fingers missing, one eye staring, the other eye closed forever. His world was blurry. For a moment he thought this was because his one working eye had finally also failed, perhaps overtaxed after witnessing this war. Well, that wasn’t a problem for him. What else was there for him to see, anyway?
But no, his eye wasn’t failing, wasn’t turning blind, wasn’t finally at rest. It was just that the air before him had turned misty — foggy — and within the fog — shadows of people — faces vague but familiar — figures he had missed —
Erwin…? Hange? Miche, Oluo, Petra…?
Everyone. All his fallen comrades, in this mist they came alive once again, though only as ghosts. Their fingers united into fists, laid firm on their chests above their hearts.
“You see that?” Levi said to the ghosts, quietly. “Guess this is the result … of all of your devoted … hearts …”
And he too raised his fist, missing fingers notwithstanding, laying it on his chest. His eye prickled, and a blink later teardrops started melting on his cheeks.
What’s the point, speaking to the dead? said his bitter thoughts. This is but a hallucination.
Among his veteran friends, he was the sole survivor. It had always been unconscionably hard for him to ignore the stench of death around him, and this moment was not an exception. Smoke, charred flesh, dirt that was wet not from rain but from blood, and blood itself: metallic, sickly sweet.
He closed his eye. How unfair was it that all his friends were dead, except for him? And he had actually been ready; he wouldn’t have minded; had perhaps even wished for it—
“Meow…”
He froze.
Huh? A cat? he thought in confusion.
Oh. Yes. A cat. Black, with splashes of white. Fat, thick furred — led a prosperous life, it would seem. Or at least that was the case, before all this.
“Where’s your human?” Levi said.
“Meow?” the cat answered.
Levi sighed. First he’d seen ghosts, now he was talking to animals. It appeared he had gone veritably insane.
But the cat did not care if he was insane, did not care that every single person who’d been close to him had ended up a dead body. Mindless of his history, the cat rubbed itself on him — affectionate, persistent, even slightly desperate.
“Where’s your human?” Levi asked again.
But even without the cat’s answer, Levi could already guess: whoever owned this cat had died, perhaps trampled, perhaps fallen off a cliff, perhaps killed in the line of defense.
“You and I, we’re both the same. Just this same shitty fate,” Levi muttered.
The cat crawled onto Levi’s lap, and for whatever reason, Levi let it come. It stared at him through eyes wide as saucers.
Levi’s breath caught in his throat.
“You and I, we’re both the same,” he whispered again.
The cat looked up, craned its neck, rubbed Levi’s cheek with its snout.
It’s warm…
Slowly Levi wrapped his arms around the cat, drawing it against his chest just as he had drawn his fist against his chest a few minutes ago, in a salute.
“You stubborn brat,” he said to the cat. “The world is wrecked, and still you chose to live. Dumbass.”
He glared at the cat. The cat glared back.
“We’re just the same,” Levi said. “You and I both, we’re stupid.”
His lips curved up into a faint, sad smile. Here they were, a cripple and a cat who refused to die, both extremely stupid. But so be it.
At least they weren’t alone anymore.
