A Second Chance (Marco x Fem Reader)

Chapter 74 (Finale); The Aftermath...

A/N:

I included this beautiful mashup of 'call of silence' and 'call your name' (above) that I highly recommend you play at the very end. I'll give you a little reminder once we get there<3

I've also made a little video as a 'final send off/a short recap of the book', so be sure to be on the lookout for that once you've reached the end.

For the last time in regards to this book, I'll wish you happy reading!
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To the boy who sought freedom; thank you

It took a long while before any of you felt remotely happy or even talked properly about what happened. It was like a silent agreement of not mentioning Eren, the titans, the marleyan war; any of it, ensued once you reached Onyankopon's homeland and he got you settled in a small building once owned by his parents. For the longest time you felt extremely empty, struggling to find the energy to get up in the mornings, and it didn't help that the rest were like that as well. When you're so fixated on something that takes up a vast amount of your day-to-day life, such as the titan curse and the Marleyan threat, you're bound to feel empty once it's over. Suddenly, the one thing forcing you to continue close to evaporated, leaving your motivation slim. Though this freedom is what you've always dreamed of, the realization of just how vast the amount of friends and comrades you've lost along the way for you to get here was, hit you harder than you originally thought it would.

Eventually, as months passed, the empty days started becoming your new reality, and slowly you started to get used to filling them up with empty tasks. To think walking around town, shopping for produce and completing small chores would have been your reality without you ever even giving it a second thought if Bertholdt never breached the walls, was a weird thought to you. To imagine never experiencing the thrill of manoeuvring through the air or creating these life long relationships that comes with joining the military profession. Although your past line of work had brought you mostly pain and trauma, you already miss that freeing feeling of flying through the air and the comfort knowing your friends were never farther than a few doors away.

But what can one do but to make the best of what you've got? That's certainly what all of you did once the time of silent mourning passed, and you once again could mention late comrades by name, as well as discuss a few details about those last fateful days, without crying beyond control. Luckily, your past line of work also taught you how to rather quickly pin point the positives in life, making you able to set things in perspective; at least you still had a close group of people around you, and they were not planning on separating anytime soon.

Not even when you were able to widen your horizon within Onyankopon's hometown, and move out of the cramped building of his parents into your new individual places, did you move further than a few blocks away from each other; switching between who's hosting the common dinner were you all gathered every single day.

You and Marco had a small place of your own that was right by Onyankopon's home. That's where Levi got situated as he would need extra help nowadays considering his knee is beyond fixing and the sight on his right eye is forever gone. You didn't want to be too far away should he or Onyankopon need urgent help from any of you. Jean and Connie shared an apartment, while Armin opted to live on his own. You would have protested if it wasn't for the fact that he was right next door to Jean and Connie, and Annie was a frequent visitor. You tried to keep the teasing to a minimum, but you truly found their budding love endearing. They hadn't crossed any particular lines yet, but they were slowly getting there. The rest, such as Pieck, Reiner, Annie, Falco and Gabi, all stayed with their families. After everything they had a lot of catching up to do as a family, so it just worked out that way.