Daisy II | Levi Ackerman

Chapter 13 - Of the Tainted and Pure

851

[Naomi]

"Zeke Jaeger is to be accepted by Paradis Island..."

"On the condition that the safety of the Island is guaranteed..."

"Are you seriously buying that?! They were the ones who wiped our troupes out at Shiganshina!"

"But without them, we cannot establish contact with the rest of the world."

"The survival of the Eldian people is our objective."

Staring hard onto the swirling dove paintings of our bedroom ceiling, my eyebrows furrowed and my chest burned in a dubious hearth at the memory of the military hearing the other day; when the superiors of the Scout Regiment returned to Mitras to critically discuss the incoming upheavals that approached us. This so-called willingness of Zeke Jaeger to save Eldia.

Why in hell would he say that now? My thoughts churned as my chest tightened in spite, so early in the morning. I did not know for certain why this pernicious pondering permeated my mind the moment I opened my eyes; but I was there, laying flat on my back, the thick white comforter tight around me as I clenched my fists from under, controlling my bated breathing.

Zeke Jaeger, it chimed in my head, uttered by Levi's voice when I asked him about the identity of the Beast Titan, the man who wreaked that devastation in Shiganshina. The man who murdered my uncle. No matter how much I desperately wanted to keep my personal woes out of it, I could never accept that we decided to trust them for now.

I knew it was going to come sooner or later- after we reached the coast of Paradis Island- that the countries from outside, the people that Grisha Jaeger wrote about, were going to discover us. I considered the inevitability of commerce and trade, of technological advancement, of literary and artistic enlightenment; hell, even war, most definitely war. But never in my wildest dreams did I once think that the same person who lead that massacre in Shiganshina would lead a faction that aimed to liberate my people.

It was all too murky. So murky.

An awakened moan gently drifted me off of my angered trance, making me aware of my physical surroundings and the peace that it offered, which I set aside because of my anxious doubts of the current predicament.

Only when the fluffy mattress began to shift and my husband's deep morning voice came in that I was aware of the warm sunshine, the light breeze of spring, that surrounded me well enough to remind me that I'm home. I should not be thinking of those matters that troubled me, I should have left them at the professional premises.

I should not contaminate it with these external doubts, because our home is my peace. Mine and Levi's both.

"Goddamn, I hate the sun." Was the first thing I heard from Levi, making me giggle softly as I sat up, covering the thin fabric of my nightdress with the comforter as I looked to him.

His bare chest kissed by the morning glow, Levi lay there with a hand over his eyes, covering them from the very light that I always wanted to touch me every morning. I laughed at the sight of him annoyed by the sunlight, feeling relieved off of my worries even for a little while.

"Why do you prefer getting seared to death the moment you open your eyes every day?" Levi asked me, his voice still hoarse and his arm still over his forehead. "Makes me regret I let you use thin curtains for the bedroom."