Comfort Character

"Until We Meet Again,"

Levi looked up from the piles of paperwork strewn across his desk — one pile of things that needed to be signed by only him, one of things that needed Erwin’s approval as well, and one that needed to be finalized by the cadet it was in reference to. He sighed, and slumped back in his chair as he reached for his favorite book - the second in the series, and it was his third time re-reading it. He was disappointed that it was ending soon, as the author said they wished to switch gears to something more light-hearted, and so he had decided to re-read it from the beginning. Levi enjoyed the series so much that Hange had even taken him to a book signing on a recent day off after Levi forced them to read the first book in the series of ten books.

Slowly, it seemed like most of the veteran’s in the Survey Corps were reading it at Hange’s suggestion - and who wouldn’t blame them, it was almost comforting to read - a book about a different land, where the technology was jaw-dropping and the characters led seemingly normal lives, but each had their own internal battles that no one knew of but themselves - for one, it was their love life, for another, it was education, and for yet another, it was work. Their struggles and pain all seemed to intertwine and compliment one anothers. And their arc’s ebbed and flowed with one another's. Everyone couldn’t help but find a favorite, and many nights were spent by the fireplace, drinking tea and arguing over the characters and their arcs. Most people loved the three leads, and there was a small betting pool when the last book was released over who the lead would choose to be with of the two options they had. 

But Levi - he couldn’t help but secretly be infatuated by one of the side characters. Someone who had gone through so much, but still managed to persevere. Someone who rarely depended on the other characters, and didn’t talk about their feelings as much as the others. They were the rock of the group, yet were somehow always left out by the rest. They were selfless, and expected to be perfect, and never broke like the rest of them. But inside, they fought battles no one could understand and that no one seemed to care about. 

If he closed his eyes, Levi could almost picture them - their (h/c) hair, their (e/c) eyes, and a sweet smile that he loved to imagine. When the author released a series of portraits, the printed image looked exactly as Levi had imagined them to look - it was almost uncanny. And he never spoke of it to anyone, except Hange - who relentlessly teased Levi, saying he was in love with a fictional character. 

He picked up the book and made his way to the bed, taking off his clothes and pulling the blankets over him before flipping the page to where his bookmark lay, and read the paragraph he left off at - there was his favorite character, sitting on the edge of their bed with a bottle of pills in their hand and a glass of water in the other. 

_____________________________________

You sighed as you flicked the light to your bedroom into the ‘on’ position, and kicked off your shoes. It was another day, full of restless thoughts and having to fake a smile and be the strong one. For everyone else, meeting up with friends was supposed to be a relief and something to look forward to - but for you, it seemed like you were always having to be the emotional punching bag, the one to sort out everyone’s problems and wipe away their tears. 

And you just couldn’t do it anymore. 

You slipped your coat off onto the floor. Crashing onto your bed. You reached for the nightstand and grabbed your copy of the 34th volume of your favorite manga - ‘ Attack on Titan’ . It was the finale. The final issue - and you were re-reading it for what must have been the fifth time in anticipation of the anime ending. But no matter how much you read, you couldn’t quite find the happiness you usually found in those pages. Not after the day you had.