Wings [Levi Daughter]

Prologue

Maria bit her lip, and her hands balled to a fist.

"I'm sorry too."

Her words rang through Levi's head every time he was left alone in silence, and he couldn't help but want to go back to that time and change what he said. But, he couldn't, and being the stubborn and prideful man, he was, Levi didn't meet up with Maria to fix their situation, instead, he continuously lived to his promise of helping Maria with her pregnancy by giving her food and money, and nothing more. Even until the day she gave birth, Levi still showed little emotion... If neither of them was too proud, then maybe things would have been different.

"Hey..." Maria said, panting as she did. The midwife brought the child to Maria's arms. Maria cradled the crying child in her arms, her smiling growing every minute the she held the new born. "Hey there, my sweet girl..."

"What's her name?" Levi asked.

Maria brushed her daughter – their daughter's raven locks and caressed the child's cheeks.

"Iris..." She turned to Levi, hoping for him to give her a name.

"Iris Reed." Levi answered, too fast for him to imply the opposite he wanted.

Maria frowned slightly, but her frown vanished when Iris stopped crying and was now sleeping soundly in her mother's arms.

"Iris Reed..." Maria said again, agreeing. "Do you want to meet your daughter, Levi?"

Levi, with stiff legs, went to Maria's bedside. He stood above them and he had a full view of the child, his daughter. She was small, frail, pale skin, a head full of black hair – which it was obvious she got from him, since her mother had red hair – and blue eyes.
With a shaky hand, Levi reached for his daughter and touched her stubby fingers.

Maybe, if he just has told her the truth why he didn't give their daughter his name, maybe if he just told her everything about him, then maybe things would have been different. Maybe, if he just forgot about his pride and came to them begging to be a part of their life, then maybe things would have been different. Then maybe they would still be together, Maria, Farlan, Isabel, all five of them at the surface.

"What more do you want, Levi?!" Maria asked.

Earlier that day, Levi, Farlan, and Isabel took a job from a man named Nicholas Lovof. It was a simple job – kill a soldier of the Survey Corps, Erwin Smith. And as payment, he would give them legal citizenship at the Surface. Levi negotiated with Lovof, saying that he needed two more citizenships, then he would accept the job. Lovof accepted his terms.
Levi saw this as an opportunity for them, to live a better life. Better than this one.

"What's so wrong about this job?!" Levi yelled back. "Maria, it could get us a pass – we could be legal citizens at the surface –"

"You know nothing, Levi!" Maria sneered. "You know nothing of what kind of hell the surface is!"

"And you do?! What do you know, Maria?!"

"I know more than you than you do, Levi... enough to know that life here is better than life is up there!"

"How is life here better, Maria?!" Levi slammed his hand on the table. "HOW?! IS LIVING HERE BETTER THAN THE SURFACE?! HOW IS LIVING IN SHIT BETTER?! IS THIS REALLY THE LIFE YOU WANTED FOR IRIS?!"