Breaking Free » l.∤.

Chapter 23 - Funeral

I left the basement, there was too much happening at once. I couldn't cheer anyone up and I was feeling a bit crowded so I wandered upstairs and took a walk down a long hallway lined in stained glass windows. It was nice to be alone in the quiet part of the building so I could think about how to deal with all of this. What was going to happen now? Are we ever going to be the same after this?

I walked down the hallway until I reached the glass door at the front of the building. There was a woman standing outside in the rain and I opened the door. She looked familiar but I wasn't quite sure I recognized her...

"Sasha?" I asked as I opened the door.

She turned around and smiled softly at me. "Hey...Harry."

"What...what are you doing here?"

"Today is my last day here. I'm going back tonight and I just wanted to say goodbye and see how Katie was doing. I didn't want to come in because I wasn't sure if it was appropriate since I didn't really know El..."

I looked around to see if anyone was watching us and I stepped outside with her. "You can't leave yet! What about the anime convention next week?"

"I wish." She chuckled as we walked around the side of the church. "I don't have tickets for it. They sold out immediately." We walked down through the field of freshly mowed grass behind the church in silence. I was going through a hundred different scenarios on how I should tell her this... "So how are you holding up? I know you were friends with Eleanor."

"I've been better. It's been an emotional day."

"Aw, does Harry Styles get emotional?" She mocked me and I grinned at her.

"Everyone gets emotional." I looked away from her.

"I'm really sorry. I know this hasn't been easy on you guys."

We stopped walking when we reached a little stone bench and we sat down on it. "Sasha, after the funeral I was going to look for you because..." I pulled two tickets out of my pocket. "I know you still don't like me but I'd like to at least try to make up for some of the crap I've put you through."

"Are those two tickets to the anime convention?!" She practically ripped them out of my hands.

"I originally bought two tickets. I wanted to ask you to come with me." She tilted her head and she looked so unsure of what to say. "Just...just as friends, of course."

"That's...that's actually really sweet and selfless, Harry. I believe there's hope for you after all." Just as her heart began to melt a little she stiffened up on me again. She was literally impossible. "I don't...I don't have a costume."

"We'll get you one! You can go as Mikasa!"

"Wouldn't it be more appropriate if I went as Sasha since my name is Sasha and so is hers?"

"Well I guess so but then this scarf would have to go to waste." I pulled the folded scarf out of my coat pocket and wrapped it around her neck. "Just like Eren and Mikasa."

"You're...you're giving me the scarf? But you won it and... you don't have to..."

"No, I want to. It's a symbol, when Eren gave it to Mikasa it symbolized his friendship with her. It was how he welcomed her into his life and promised to look out for her. It was how he showed her that, even though everything is going wrong, there was still someone who cared. Even though everyone she cared about had been taken from her, he was still there. Despite the fact that the world was so cruel it was also..."

"Very beautiful." She finished my sentence and I looked into her eyes. "I have literally never been more attracted to you than I am right now."

"Well there's some bushes over there, we can get it on..." I joked and she nudged me in the side.