[To Eren, there is no one stronger than Captain Levi. He has a reputation, back home - Humanity's Strongest Soldier. That was enough, once, when Eren was young enough to be impressed by things like titles.
[He met him. Captain Levi, the definition of tough love, if you could call it that. He kicked the shit out of Eren to save his life. He asked if he resented him.
[No. No. He never did.
[They spent...less than two months together, back home? Eren was surprised by Levi's adherence to orders, his height, his penchant for cleanliness. He wasn't the person Eren pictured. He was better. He talked to Eren like a subordinate, but not like a weapon, or a tool, or a monster - not...the way others did.
[Levi looked for him. He tried to understand. But Eren is impossible to understand. They've spent more time together here, trying to break down the walls of their hierarchy and start to adapt to a world where they could be something aside from soldiers, but with every new thing Eren learns about his future, the distance between them only seems to yawn open wider, wider, wider...
[Eren lies awake at night. He thinks of so much. His own memories, the memories of others, or memories he shouldn't have yet.
[Captain Levi, barely stitched back into one piece.
[Eren was lucky enough to be taken under the wing of his greatest hero, and what did he do with that honor?
[Levi hasn't lived that future yet, but he's made Eren feel forgiven all the same; something in Eren trusts that he'd never hate him.
[God. He never wants him to. But he doesn't know how to look him in the eye anymore. There's so much shame, so much hatred, so much rage that's still unresolved, that will continue to burn him, burn Levi, burn everyone he touches because that is what loving Eren means.
[Captain Levi doesn't deserve that.
[But Eren is held. There is no safer place in this world. Levi couldn't save Eren, couldn't save the world - it still feels impossible to believe. Eren knows now that the simple answer is that he couldn't be saved; there's no one else to blame...
[But he isn't asking to be saved. Levi rocks him as he sobs, more a child than he's ever been, clinging and choking and swaying and howling because no matter what he does, or what he says, or how violently he grieves, or how miserable he is, has been, always will be, no matter how hopeless--
[Levi will protect him. He always has, hasn't he?]
GOD ME TOO HERE HAVE A NOVEL I'M NORMAL (DO...LMK IF U NEED MORE THAN CRYING)
[He met him. Captain Levi, the definition of tough love, if you could call it that. He kicked the shit out of Eren to save his life. He asked if he resented him.
[No. No. He never did.
[They spent...less than two months together, back home? Eren was surprised by Levi's adherence to orders, his height, his penchant for cleanliness. He wasn't the person Eren pictured. He was better. He talked to Eren like a subordinate, but not like a weapon, or a tool, or a monster - not...the way others did.
[Levi looked for him. He tried to understand. But Eren is impossible to understand. They've spent more time together here, trying to break down the walls of their hierarchy and start to adapt to a world where they could be something aside from soldiers, but with every new thing Eren learns about his future, the distance between them only seems to yawn open wider, wider, wider...
[Eren lies awake at night. He thinks of so much. His own memories, the memories of others, or memories he shouldn't have yet.
[Captain Levi, barely stitched back into one piece.
[Eren was lucky enough to be taken under the wing of his greatest hero, and what did he do with that honor?
[Levi hasn't lived that future yet, but he's made Eren feel forgiven all the same; something in Eren trusts that he'd never hate him.
[God. He never wants him to. But he doesn't know how to look him in the eye anymore. There's so much shame, so much hatred, so much rage that's still unresolved, that will continue to burn him, burn Levi, burn everyone he touches because that is what loving Eren means.
[Captain Levi doesn't deserve that.
[But Eren is held. There is no safer place in this world. Levi couldn't save Eren, couldn't save the world - it still feels impossible to believe. Eren knows now that the simple answer is that he couldn't be saved; there's no one else to blame...
[But he isn't asking to be saved. Levi rocks him as he sobs, more a child than he's ever been, clinging and choking and swaying and howling because no matter what he does, or what he says, or how violently he grieves, or how miserable he is, has been, always will be, no matter how hopeless--
[Levi will protect him. He always has, hasn't he?]