Titans Rule, Levi Ackerman UNDER EDITING

(1) Normalcy.

~Amelia's P.O.V.~

Utterly earsplitting, the blaring, repeating buzz of her alarm jolted her awake. The incessant noise reinforced the woman's absolute hatred towards mornings. Routinely, she threw a flurry of curse words at her innocent alarm, proceeding to hit the snooze button. Just as the woman was falling back into her slumber, a second alarm followed. 

"Fine, I'm awake," the woman grumbled, walloping her alarm with an unnecessary amount of force.

The woman's hand snapped up to her face, ripping her mess of hair out of her half-lidded eyes. Rubbing the sleepiness out of her eyes, she forced herself to sit up in bed. Blearily, she glanced at her alarm clock. It was seven-fifteen which was not good. She was going to be late.

Just as her hand reached the edge of her duvet, strident footsteps approached the door. "Amelia! Rise and shine, sweetie!" boomed her mother through the crack in her door.

Amelia gave her no response. "Come on honey, it's Friday. The best day of the week, just after Monday, of course." Amelia rolled her eyes at her mother's enthusiasm. It was a mystery where she got it from and how she could get some of it for herself. 

Biting down hard on her already chapped lips, Amelia restrained herself from the string of swear words threatening to slip out of them. Sometimes, she wished that her mother would have a little more faith in her to wake up herself. She was an ancient twenty-one years of age, officially making her an adult- not that she felt like one at all. Or that her waking up late was evidence of it. Nevertheless, today had been an exception. 

Making the mistake of starting the first season of the anime, Attack on Titan before going to sleep, Amelia had gotten completely hooked. She had only realised the time when the birds had started doing their morning call outside of her window. 

"Come on, your first lecture will be starting soon and you don't want to be late. Oh, and you've got your big race today!" her mother beamed even louder than before. Amelia only groaned. With her sleep deprivation, she wasn't exactly in the mood to do anything active. Let alone participate in a race with potentially hundreds of people watching her. 

Curtains were forced open violently, not giving Amelia's eyes nearly enough time to adjust. Her hands shot up to my face, a groan escaping her mouth from the pain. Without warning, her duvet was ripped from her grasp. Instantly, all of the hairs on Amelia's body stood up and a cat-like hiss escaped her lips. Pulling the duvet back over her, Amelia attempted to go back to sleep. However, this only led to her tumbling to the floor as her mother violently snatched the quilt from her grasp. 

After losing count of the number of dust particles on the carpet, Amelia looked back longingly at her bed and whispered, "I'll come back for you soon, my love." She dramatically wiped away the fake tears from her eyes and beelined for the bathroom. 

Once she arrived, Amelia carried out her mundane morning routine. Only today, she took some more consideration into her appearance than usual. Her dark brown almost black eyes gaped back at her, the source of much of the teasing she had received growing up. She was half-Japanese, having just moved to England and the kids at school had never let her forget it.

Taming her lengthy charcoal hair, Amelia decided to tie it up out of her face. Her annoyingly red lips, which always appeared as if she had an allergic reaction, were irritated and cracking in places. She poked at them cautiously, regretting it instantly as a shot of pain travelled across her face. She was a mess, making her dread the race she had later even more. 

Heaving out a heavy sigh, Amelia meandered out of the bathroom and headed straight for her depressing wardrobe. It was filled to the brim with an endless amount of black: charcoal, ebony, raven, onyx- name a dark shade and she had it. Scrupulously, she selected one of her usual outfits. A plain dark grey t-shirt, black skinny jeans and a black hoodie to top it off. A necklace Amelia's Mum had given her for her eighteenth birthday hung around her neck. It had become a part of her ever since she bequeathed it to her. It had originally been her grandmother's, a woman she'd only met a few times but adored nonetheless.

Promptly, she paced out of her room and aimed for the stairs. Yellowing white walls emblazoned with childhood photographs passed her as she went down, each one skillfully nailed on by her father a long time ago.

After her father was in an accident a few years ago, he was paralysed from the waist down. Limiting the amount of DIY he was able to do around the house. Her mother was completely inept in that area and busy working to provide for her family to be doing any DIY. 

As Amelia reached the kitchen, she was unsurprised to find everyone in their usual places. Matthew, her brother, was engrossed in his phone, not even sparing her a glance as she walked past. Meanwhile, her mother and father were sharing breakfast, immersed in pleasant conversation. Her father was simultaneously glancing at his newspaper whilst her mother was peeking at her magazine. Their attention was still mostly on each other as this was the only time they had with each other until the evening. Amelia's father had become a writer after his accident. So, he stayed at home, holed up in his office focussing on orchestrating his elaborate thriller novels. Whereas her mother was a nurse with an unrelenting schedule.

As a result, Amelia was the one who made dinner and ran the house when she wasn't around. Her father helped as much as he could but with his reduced mobility, he needed help- no matter how hard he tried to pretend that he didn't. Especially since their house wasn't built to be accessible for him nor did they have the money to make it that way. Amelia hardly ever complained about all the extra work she had to do. She simply was glad that her father was still with them. 

However, having to run a household essentially by yourself had taken a toll on her life. Not that she admitted any of it to her parents. She was grateful that they had let her still live at home despite being a university student. But, this did mean that she was exhausted all of the time and lacked any social life or freedom. 

"Hey, Amelia. You've been staring at us for a while, you silly girl. Come and eat your breakfast before it gets cold," her mother scolded her playfully.

Huffing at her, Amelia pretended to be annoyed but soon laughed it off. Grabbing a bowl of rice, she started to wolf it down enthusiastically pairing it with a few sips of miso soup. 

"So Amelia, how's uni been lately?" her father asked out of the blue. It was rare that he asked her how she was doing. 

Trying not to choke on her soup, Amelia responded hesitantly. "The usual. I got given another assignment last week that I've been working on and training for the race today. But, that's about it," she explained, faking a smile.

Amelia was a third-year medical sciences student with dreams of becoming a surgeon. As a child, she had been inspired by her mother's love for saving lives. But after her father's accident, she decided that she still wanted to save lives, but also make a decent amount of money whilst doing it. That way she could support her family and take some of the pressure off of her mother. 

Running competitively was something that Amelia hadn't imagined herself doing. She had taken it up during high school as a stress reliever from her exams. Then, her physical education teacher noticed how good she had gotten and asked her to join the team. She had reluctantly said yes and now here she was, still running but for her university's team. It also helped that her being a part of the team came with a pretty nice scholarship. 

The brief conversation with her father died down as he didn't ask her any further questions. Briefly glancing over at the clock, Amelia's eyes widened at the time. She quickly said the usual goodbyes to her family, grabbed her bag and headed out of the door. 

As she left her house, Amelia noticed how smouldering the sun was. It was pretty unusual weather for April in the UK and she was utterly unprepared for it. Using her hand as a visor, Amelia headed towards the bus stop as quickly as she could. Urging her legs to move faster, she hoped that she would make it time for her first lecture of the day, Immunology without getting too sweaty.