Daisy | Levi Ackerman

Chapter 38 - Silence

[Naomi]

"Uncle!" I screamed, unable to pull myself back any longer. I scrambled towards Floch and helped him up the roof, taking my bloodied and poorly bandaged father-figure off of his shoulders.

All of his weight was nothing to me as I laid him down on the top of the roof, immediately checking his pulse as my heart began to pound on my chest like a giant drum. "Levi... He's still alive! He's alright!"

When I looked hopefully towards Levi, worry smeared across my face; he took the box back to his chest and decided well with certainty. "I'm using the serum on Erwin."

"Captain!" Eren roared helplessly, scrambling towards him as I cradled my dying uncle in my arms. As they both argued and debated upon who to revive, I took my uncle close into my drumming chest, unwilling to face any other consequence than getting him back to life.

He can't die- not today. Please, not today.

"C-Celine?" I heard Uncle Erwin's weak, fading voice as Mikasa arrived on the scene.

Suddenly, everything that was happening outside of the two of us just zoned out- completely black and soundless; with only the sound of my pained heart as it pumped my racing pulse.

"Uncle," I sobbed, hugging him closer to me. His face was dirtied and almost bloodless, losing grip. I wasn't prepared to let him slip away. I wasn't ever going to be prepared.

"Celine, honey... I'm home." He whispered weakly, his voice coming out dry, urging my tears to the edge of my eyes. They burned on my skin as they trickled down, dropping on my uncle's uniform as moment by moment, I felt him fading away.

This is not real. This is not real.

"I have so many things..." Uncle Erwin said again, his eyes closed, his breath dry yet his tone faithful and loving, "To tell you about."

"No!" I sobbed quietly, pulling my uncle against me, tightly, as if it was the only thing I could possibly do to prevent him from slipping away from me at that very moment.

His blood spread all over my hands, and my torn and half-burnt uniform. My limbs trembled all over at the sight, unable to perceive the reality of him at the brink of dying. I mustered up a shaking utter from the ashes that were becoming of my courage. "Uncle, you'll meet Aunt Celine again, in your deathbed, peacefully, surrounded by me, your friends, Levi and your many grandchildren. Not like this, Uncle; Please, anything but this- anytime but now."

I sobbed and sobbed, my shoulders shaking and my hands going numb. All of the physical pain that throbbed through my body was toned down by the pain I felt in my heart, the fear creeping in that this was going to be the end for either the closest friend I've ever had in the whole wide world, or the most loving, admirable man whom I have grown to look up to as a father.

Please, don't make me decide.

"Levi!" I yelled, through the hopeless tears in my eyes. "We... Uncle E-Erwin... Armin... I'm scared."

Levi looked at me in a deeper shade of hurt; his pain not only for the sight of his struggling friend and commander, but at the sight of me telling him that I was terrified to lose my uncle, to lose my best friend- that I could not decide for the better who would have to be more deserving to live. He gazed into my eyes with the overflowing desire to ease me off of my anxiety and my ticking agony, to me it clearly looked like daggers were continuously staking through his heart as he watched me profusely cry further.