Lara (Long-Fic Levihan | Armin Arlert X OC)

Chapter 60 - Torn

Levi staggered among the rocks of that open field.

Behind him, four huge Titans lay dead.

He felt a sharp pain in his throat, struggling to breathe.

His entire body was covered in blood. Some of it evaporated, but Levi noticed that the vast majority remained in his body. It was his blood, and also probably of that blond man who had run away, who controlled the Beast Titan.

Now he was pretty far from the sea of corpses of the soldiers who had sacrificed themselves. Levi was approaching another part of the Wall. He would need to climb it and see what he would do next.

Panting, he tripped over here and there, feeling a terrible taste in his mouth.

Then, without meaning to, Levi bumped his foot against a rock and fell to the ground, on his back, with a thud.

He lay there, arms and legs spread, his chest rising and falling, seeking some air.

Levi felt an immense urge to sleep. "Just a little..." he thought. He was exhausted, physically and mentally.

Then, in a thought that lasted less than a second, he said to himself, in a whisper, as he looked up at the sky:

"I want my mom..."

Levi tiredly watched some white clouds that still remained in the sky. The sun was already starting to set and was now taking on an orange hue.

He blinked slowly a few times. Now, his breathing had normalized a bit.

"Ah..." he said, looking at the skies. "What wouldn't I do to be able to spend just one more day with you, mom..."

Levi felt tears start to run down the sides of his face and unconsciously, he grabbed the grass, pulling it off the ground. Now he was crying, his chest trembling.

"Mom..." he said, between sobs, "I can't remember your face..."

Levi tried to wipe away the tears with his arm, but ended up soiling himself even more. He began to chuckle while crying.

"Look at me... Humanity's strongest soldier... Crying and asking for his mother..."

A cold breeze passed over his face, as if to comfort him. Levi pressed his lips and eyes together.

"Mom..." he said, his eyes still closed, "I've killed my best friend... I just sent him to his death... Not only him, but dozens of other soldiers... And it was all in vain... What have I done...?"

"No..." thought Levi. "Erwin wasn't just my best friend... He was my brother... My older brother..."

Despite the conditions back then, it was Erwin who helped Levi, Isabel, and Furlan to leave the Underground. It was Erwin who would give Levi some advice, when he didn't even ask for it. It was Erwin who would pat him on the back, after they returned from the missions and saw how many soldiers had died and were left behind.

It was Erwin who asked Hange to teach Levi how to read and write, because unfortunately, his uncle Kenny didn't bother to teach him that by using school methods, so Levi came out of the Underground practically as an illiterate. What Kenny had taught him was how to survive on the Underground streets, which usually involved the use of knives more than the use of a pencil and a notebook.

And now that he thought about it, it was Erwin who brought Lara, Hange, and him together on that day, when the Commander decided that the girl would join the Survey Corps and that she would have Hange and Levi as her tutors.

If Levi considered himself a happy person now for having Hange and Lara in his life, a large portion of the credit would go to Erwin.

It was Erwin who, when he noticed that Levi was feeling terrible for not being able to assume Lara's paternity, walked to him and told him to solve that matter as soon as possible, because no one in the Headquarters liked to see the "Happy Family" being sad.