Shingeki no Oneshot

VII. Old Trainees (Levihan)

written on — 11.6.14/18.6.14

word count — 3,000 

artwork — check out johannathemad in the external link because she's an amazing artist and the inspiration is a photoset. i have my favourite one there, on the side, but seriously. she's amazing. you'll be seeing her a lot. 

OLD TRAINEES

"Hey."

         Silence.

         "Psst, hey."

         More silence.

         "You know you can't ignore your fellow trainee forever, right?"

         Levi sighs in annoyance and turns around to look at one of his fellow trainees. Her name begins with an H, he knows that much. No matter how hard he tries, Levi can't remember the girl's first name, so he calls her by the last. "What do you want, Zoë?"

         "I was just going to ask for some polish for my maneuver gear," she says, letting out a huff. She pushes her glasses up with her middle finger and raises her eyebrows at Levi. "I've heard that you're a clean freak, so you can't lie to me and say you don't have any."

         "What if I used it all?"

         "I doubt it. Polish can be hard to find."

         Levi can't help but admire the girl's knowledge of polish, of all things. It seems a weird reason to agree to anything, but he just indicates for her to follow him to his room. He takes the polish out from under his lower bunk and hands it to her. "You better not waste it all."

         Zoë laughs. "I just said it was hard to find, didn't I?" She waves the polish in the air as she leaves Levi's room. "Thanks for this. I guess I can consider you a friend, right? Since you're lending me your super special cleaning supplies?" When Levi doesn't respond, she turns around and looks at him from the door. "Wait a sec. What's your name again?"

         Levi's face shows no hint of expression, but inside he's definitely surprised. This girl, the one with shoulder length brown hair and eyes and strangely round glasses, is one of the smartest people in the trainee corps, yet she doesn't remember names. "It's Levi. Levi Ackerman."

         "Levi Ackerman." He listens as she says the name several times. "I like the sound of it. I'm Hanji Zoë. You'll have your shoe polish by tomorrow, don't you worry."

         For the two weeks straight, Levi wonders why Hanji is constantly following him around, talking to him about the strangest things (mostly theories about what's past the walls they're surrounded by) and repeatedly asking the same question of why he wasn't in a specific class on a specific day. Levi never responds to the question with a straight answer; normally, he doesn't answer at all. 

                ––––––––––––––––

The following week, Levi begins to grow accustomed to Hanji's ramblings. He actually begins to listen when she speaks during their lunches.

         "Levi, it's amazing! Just imagine what it would be like to live among kind titans," she muses, resting her chin on her knuckles. Levi stares at the food on her plate. The theory of kind titans is the theory of the week. He knows this because she's barely eaten anything. "If they were all coherent and were helpful, homes would be built with no issue at all! We could build skyscrapers with their help and even make homes for all titans."