Freiheit | eren x levi

Act 12: Krieg

Jaron looked like that kind of boy who fell ill very easily; he was paler than his father and he looked as of he were to break any second. People , such as Eren, underestimated him quite often which Jaron never really noticed since he was still very young.

Eren was sweating buckets as he cleaned the swords, maces and daggers clean from blood and dirt and surprisingly Jaron had cleaned way more than him and that skill probably came from Levi since he wanted everything clean all the time.

The little boy was happily humming as he flipped the leather grips to make sure there wasn't any stains left at all as he stared at Eren's work.

"You missed a spot," he said in a sing-song voice.

"Why does it matter if they're just going to end up dirty anyway," Eren groaned.

"Well," the small prince sighed, "I believe that the closest thing perfection can exist is in war. My father claims that he spends endless hours training and commanding his armies until they're perfect...or at least close. They train to strive for perfection but they can never receive it because in our world that doesn't exist. If we can't have it then we need to get something at least similar to it."

When the small boy had finished talking, Eren was gaping at him that he nearly sliced his finger off when he wasn't looking while cleaning a blade.

"H-how old are you?" Eren stammered because surely he was too young to say something so...deep.

"Six," he answered simply and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Gee, buddy, you're just like your dad," Eren told him and ruffled his hair. He was surprised because he really did look three or four.

"No I'm not," he pouted. "He's mean and grumpy all the time but I'm not!"

They continued on with their chore until their hands felt dry and raw and arm muscles felt as if they were burning. The sun had grown more hot for their tired eyes to even see anything and Jaron looked as if he were going to collapse.

When they finally polished the swords and bows, they slumped against logs of wood to catch their breath. Everyone else was doing harder things but Eren felt like he was going to pass out despite the small and easy job.

Eren was sure he was okay because everyone got tired easily, right?

Wrong.

---

Everyone was trembling and the air was heavy with terror, nervousness and misery. For the last two weeks they have been training nonstop legit. They never had more than an hour for rest but they were not exhausted at all. They were all fueled with the angry burn of near battle but they were all afraid. Not afraid of death but of losing and they would all sacrifice their lives if it meant winning. They just had to.

Levi had dark shadows under his ees due to the fact that he got zero minutes or seconds of rest but he looked alive and ready. They woke up at night and started to head to Maria for battle. They weren't supposed to go there so early but it wasn't official where they were supposed to fight to the death because nothing was fair in war.

Jaron despite his young age went with them because Levi didn't want to leave him in the castle after what happened a few months ago so he couldn't risk it. He was always by Eren's side for the past few weeks like some sort of cheery puppy and he always watched while Eren trained.

This made Levi a little uneasy though because it made him a bit upset that his own son trusted a person more than him. He shoudn't be upset because Levi was like an emotionless robot; he couldn't really feel human emotions because it made him feel weak. Why should he care anyways? There were tons of children who strongly disliked their fathers so he wasn't the only one and it was his fault anyways for not being there for him when he needed him the most. It was too late now.