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It was a typical winter morning, the sun shining weakly through the streets and a bitter cold creeping through even the warmest wool coats, seeping through ones sleeves and burrowing deep between the folds. While Hange much preferred the black woolen coat that her partner wore out, she found herself dressed quite contrary for the weather, the dark shawl around her shoulders thin and unhelpful for cutting the wind. She wrapped it tighter around her as a gust of wind shook the factory-frayed edges, her partner glancing at her with wary gray eyes.
“I’m not giving you my coat, Shitty-“
She sighs. “I know, I know.”
The couple was walking home, a canvas bag clutched in his hands and hers tightly wound in the shawl. They walked close together with their shoulders touching, braced against the biting wind. It was such a typical walk home from the grocers with their bag laden with the basics and their luxuries that it was out of the ordinary to see two children of different nationalities teetering with groceries from the general store.
“Levi, they look familiar,” Hange murmured to him, glancing his way. “Like those kids who keep coming in and out of Marie’s apartment.”
He met her eyes, a silent agreement to change their course, and grunted in the typical fashion of which he always did.
They followed the two grocery-laden children back to where Marie’s apartment indeed did exist, noticing how they took the back entrance instead of the front door. Out of safety they had their hands loosely woven together, but at the corner of the building and the alleyway Levi gripped Hange’s tighter.
A stench resided in this alleyway, and the couple vaguely registered the click of the apartment door locking and cheers from the children inside as they crept nearer, past the door and to the very end of the alley, where Levi turned his head into his arm and closed his eyes.
In the trash bins of the back alley a white bundle sat in one of the bins, barely visible underneath cleverly placed bags of trash. The stench of rotting trash combined with the bundle was not very strong considering the temperature outside, yet the face that had slipped out of the white bindings was quite a familiar one. It was not carelessly placed here, for there were dried flowers in its hair and its eyes were closed, the best one could do in such a situation, and yet, there sat Levi and Hange’s good friend Marie, the former resident of the apartment.
“God,” Levi whispered, looking up from his arm and gripping Hange’s hand tighter. “Guess that’s why we never got her usual thank-you note for those flowers.”
Hange observed the scene more, noticing the care put into not harming the body. “It wasn’t foul play. Marie was old, and she said she was sick a couple weeks ago. They probably just saw an opportunity and took it.”
Levi shook his head. “Let’s say hello. We pay for this place, after all.”
“Wait,” Hange turned to face him, bringing her other hand around his to clasp his hand in both hers. “Please don’t go in there and get mad at them. Promise me.”
He looked at her, his gray eyes never wavering before he reached up and kissed her. “I promise.”
With that, the two made their way back to the apartment, knocking loudly on the door before unlocking it. Shutting it tightly and locking it behind them, they set their groceries down on the bench as they always did when visiting Marie before making their way up the short staircase.
“Hullo,” said a blonde haired boy, perched at the kitchen table with a cup of tea in his hands. Over the steam he asked, “Are you looking for my grandmother? I’m sorry, but she’s terribly ill—“
“Cut the shit,” Levi spat. “Where are the other two?”
The blonde haired boy frowned, setting down the teacup. “One moment, I’ll get them. Sit down, pour yourself some tea. It’s black.”
Levi’s eyebrow raised at the mention of black tea, making his way through the familiar common room and pouring Hange, then himself a cup.
“You’re a gentleman even when you’re mad,” Hange teased him, her eyes showing a glint of humor. He rolled his eyes at her.
From the hallway came another boy’s voice, more indignant sounding than the blonde’s. “What? You’re kidding. We just got groceries! I thought we were well off for now!”
“Listen Eren, I don’t know why they’re here, but they had a key, and we need to respect that,” a female voice spoke.
The owners of the two new voices came following the blonde, one a brown haired boy with determined green eyes and another an East Asian girl with a serious face. The brown haired boy stared at them with attitude, but behind the front Levi could see fear in his eyes. The Asian girl was completely blank, and the blonde haired boy looked worried and tired at the same time.
“Let me introduce us,” the blonde said. “My name is Armin, and this is Eren and Mikasa. I assume you’re the owners of this apartment?”
“Yes,” Levi stood up. “My name is Levi Ackerman, and this is my wife, Hange. We’re the owners, but we were allowing Marie to stay here while she was…” he gulped. “Alive.”
Armin’s face somehow grew even more tired. “Her name was Marie? In the time we spoke, she was very sweet to me.”
Hange nodded, beckoning for Levi to sit down again. “How did she die?”
It was Mikasa who spoke up now. “She froze to death, sir. I’m sorry for your loss.”
Levi looked around the apartment. “At least you’ve kept it clean. How long have you been here?”
“A couple weeks at most,” Armin replied, sitting back down and wrapping his hands around his teacup. “We weren’t aware that it was owned by anyone—we just thought that eventually someone would realize she was gone when the bills stopped being paid, so I was getting a little suspicious that nobody had come. But we needed groceries, so…”
“I see,” Hange said.
“Mrs. Hange,” Eren spoke up. “Are you mad at us for staying?”
She blinked. “I am not. She was a close friend of mine, but she was in her last days. I’m glad to hear she isn’t suffering anymore. And, I like the flowers.”
Armin’s face burned. “I hate living here in the slums…”
Underneath the table, Hange squeezed Levi’s hand. “Where are your parents?”
“Died of sickness,” Armin said.
“They didn’t want a girl,” Mikasa frowned.
“Died in childbirth and while helping out in the war,” Eren said glumly.
Levi glanced at Hange, knowing the exact plan that was forming in her head. “Hange, no.”
Her brown eyes glimmered. “You know you’re too good of a person to say no.”
“I don’t need three brats in our house…” he hissed.
“Yes, but you would feel quite guilty if you left three brats alone in the home of a dead woman,” Hange pointed out.
The gray eyed man sighed. “Zoe, you will be the death of me.”
“I know.”
The three children watched the exchange between the couple curiously before Hange stood up.
“Please, come live with us,” she declared. “You won’t have to live here in the slums, you’ll have as much food and clothing as you need, and we can even enroll you in school.”+
“Oh no, I don’t want to be of any trouble to you—“ Armin replied quickly, only to be cut off by Eren.
“Armin,” Eren interjected. “For once in your life, don’t be a gentleman. I’ll come with you, at least.”
“I’ll go wherever Eren goes,” Mikasa chimed in. Armin looked mildly defeated and just shrugged, giving an affirmative.
“Right, then it’s settled,” said a gleeful Hange. “Welcome to the family.”
Everyone in the room cringed slightly at her use of the word family. Her enthusiasm would definelety take time to get used to.
Armin looked at Levi and Hange shyly. “Thank you.”
Levi merely shrugged and stood up, re-wrapping Hange’s shawl for her before disappearing into the kitchen for a moment. When he came out, he had their still unpacked groceries in his hands and instructed them to gather their things.
“Will you carry our groceries?” He asked Hange on the way out. She obliged, grabbing the bag and glancing back into the house, realizing this was probably the last time she would see it.
“I’m saying good-bye to the house,” she said.
Levi turned to look with her, watching their three children bustle about. “It had its share of life.”
The three children came up to them clutching their belongings all wrapped up in sheets. “We’re ready.”
“Off we go then,” Hange said in her once again cheerful voice.
And that was how three children whom were certaintly not rats became clean once more, after meticulous baths overseen by Levi, and that was how these three not-rats from the darkest parts of London soon shone once more under the care of an eccentric woman and her stiff husband.