The first moment he saw her, Irvin didn't think much of it, dismissed her off as another soldier that he had to protect and take under his wing. She was loud and flamboyant, occasionally flashing smiles when he least expected them. "You have nice eyebrows!"
He wasn't sure if he should've been pleased or slightly worried about her sanity.
She quickly became one of the most erratic members, however. At first, all Irvin saw was a loudmouthed woman who hated titans as much as anyone else did-of course she would hate them, right? They were a threat to humanity. A death wish, perhaps sent from god himself. Never in his life had he ever met someone who liked titans, who tired to understand them fully. Not just understand them in the ways they worked physically, their outer demur, but the inside emotions that everyone seemed to ignore, completely set on the fact that they were demons sent from hell with no brain or feelings.
When there was a conversation about that, buzzing idly around the single wooden table in the mess hall, Irvin didn't exactly listen, drifting in and out of the talk with a few occasional nods and grunts; he was too busy thinking up new ways to help the survival rate increase, until a heavy slam hit the table, a pair of hands clenching and unclenching upon the marred wood. "How can you say that?!" It was Hanji, face agape. "You don't even know the clear purpose of titans, and here you are!" She snapped, waving her arm around uselessly. "Judging them like you can, without a single though to how they feel!"
"They have no fucking emotions." It was Mike, the new recruit, mumbling around his mouthful of dried bread. "What are we to do? Kill them. Slice their necks. What else is there to it?"
"You don't understand!" Hanji protested, voice clear and cutting through the muddle of Irvin's mind like a knife. "What if they do have a true purpose? And we just don't understand them that much?"
"We can't understand titans." Irvin interjected quietly, and everyone turned to look at him, startled. Irvin didn't talk during dinner; it was against his moral code.
"We can!" Hanji breathed. "I'll show you-I'll show you all!"
At that time, he dismissed it as a foolish, nonsense idea-what thing was that, understanding titans?
Two days later, she captured a titan. A small eight meter class, with a foaming, gaping mouth. Everyone had screamed and run away in fear, but Irvin was curious despite himself, inching closer and closer to the girl as she bombastically explained her plan.
See if the titans can understand words, see if they can understand pain, and maybe try to gain new information about them.
It was a good idea, Irvin thought. And even though he thought that he might've been going crazy, he went to the commander and explained it the next day.
To his surprise, they agreed. As long as the titan could be chained up and kept "safe", it would be fine. Hanji let out a triumphant whoop and flung herself at Irvin, engulfing him in a hug. "Thank you thank you thank you!"
And Irvin hesitantly embraced her back, hands awkwardly patting her head. "…you're welcome."
The idea was a success. And ironically, having a titan in the courtyard of the castle didn't scare the soldiers, but rather encouraged them, once they saw that even they could keep a titan under control.
Life continued that way, going on missions beyond the wall and exploring, finding new surprises about titans-until a foolish new recruit killed the titan, who Hanji had christened as "Joey."
She bawled and sobbed continually throughout the whole week, refusing to eat, and finally fed up, they sent Irvin, thinking that the soldier would help her. And all he could say, standing stiffly at the door of her room was-"I-I miss you."
Hanji, who was wrapped up in a bundle of her own misery, sitting dejectedly at her desk, lifted her head up slightly, and Irvin thought he saw a spark in those brown eyes.
"Okay."
She said nothing after that, and after awhile, Irvin left, closing the door gently behind him. If he had stayed a second longer, he would've heard the sound of sniffing-not like the over exaggerated ones she gave to the titans, but a quiet broken sob of someone who truly had thought they'd given up.
Hanji came back to dinner the next day. Her usual self, smiling and laughing as the other recruits poked fun of her sulking, she chortled along with them. But Irvin stared at her sadly, seeing the little candle that had been blown out in that gale that no one else seemed to have known about.
They got two more titans, and Hanji eagerly dragged him over to see "Bob" and "Jim", but Irvin could think, feeling her hand wrapped around his in a comforting and firm hold was-
It's so warm.
A drug dealer was running amuck in the city. They sent Irvin to help "exterminate" him. Like a bug. Without a name, without a value-just-
"Kill that drug dealer."
Hanji had worried for him slightly, but he waved her off, saying that everything was fine.
He met the drug dealer behind a tattered, musty stall that used to sell food, clutching a cigarette between slender fingers. A bandage was by his mouth, stained with the color of startlingly red blood. A white shirt hung loose around his shoulders, accenting the bony shoulders of his slight figure, and his hair hung in soft layers all the way down to his shoulders. Shadows were dramatic upon his form, throwing in a air of intimidation.
He was only a kid. "Hey.." Irvin said quietly.
"You're going to kill me, right?" The kid spoke languidly, bringing the cigarette between curved lips. "Do it. I don't care anymore."
"I…" Irvin couldn't think of anything to say.
"Do it." The boy yawned, flicking the burned end off of his cigarette, speaking nochantly about his life like it was nothing. "I don't really care anymore, you know?"
I do know. Irvin silently pleaded. I do know. Because, you're just like me.
When he didn't say anything, the kid looked up quickly, and Irvin thought he could see speckles of metallic dust between those flared eyelashes, hints of gray in those sharp silver eyes.
His face was fey, Irvin thought. Delicate and pale. Like a porcelain doll.
"Come with me." He heard himself saying. "Come with me to the Recon Corps. You'll be-"
"Fulfilling my purpose in life? Feeling grateful that I'm a use to humanity?" The kid snorted, then spat in disgust by Irvin's boots. "Fucking shit, that's all it is."
There was a French accent to his words, Irvin thought. This boy is no strangler. A former aristocrat, maybe? Run away from home?
"No." He finally said. "To feel like you belong."
The kid's eyes narrowed, silver slits gleaming. And even though Irvin knew that he was probably venturing into dangerous territory, he continued. "Won't you feel better if you knew that someone would cry for you if you died?"
"Who would fucking cry for me?"
"I would." Irvin said without hesitation. "I would cry."
"Bullshit." The boy whistled, twirling his cigarette with thin fingers. "You wouldn't."
"I would. I would cry for every death if I had to." Irvin declared, biting his lip and thumping his hand in the salute for loyalty and dedication. "But there are too many. Too many. So that's why.." He took a deep breath. "I want to end those deaths. So that no one will want to cry anymore."
The boy laughed, a deep choking sound. "Fucking hero." With a long pause, he flicked the cigarette onto the cobblestoned ground, stomping on it with bare feet.
"Will you come?" Irvin breathed.
"I…" The boy looked away. "…Cry for me?" He mumbled.
"Pardon?"
"Would you really cry for me?"
"..I would. I will."
After a long moment, the boy nodded, closing his eyes with a finality. "Then I'll go."
Irvin breathed a sigh of relief. But as they were walking along the dirty streets, he suddenly remembered something. He turned to the boy. "That's right. I never got your name."
There was a moment of clenching hesitation, then the boy finally whispered roughly-"Rivaille. Just Rivaille."
Irvin smiled, and the little movement was filled with a feeling that was half hopeful desperation, and half sadness. "It's nice to meet you, Rivaille."
When they got back, Hanji pounced on the boy, squealing something about how she'd never seen such a beautiful face. The boy scowled and kneed her halfway across the room. ("Get your filthy hands off me, woman!")
Rivaille decided to get a haircut, slashing it short. Hanji had wailed at the loss of 'precious' hair, and Irvin had grudgingly decided to help him fix it, nearly having to strap him to a chair as he snipped it with scissors.
During that time Rivaille mumbled something useless about having a family that Irvin courteously ignored.
Hanji and Irvin both decided to take Rivaille as their own personal challenge, and trained the small boy together, discovering that Rivaille had already known many fighting styles that they themselves didn't even think they had.
He quickly soared to the top of the elite, and soon earned the name of "Humanity's Strongest" and all Irvin could do was beam with something like pride, clapping and cheering along with Hanji, who was bouncing up and down with excitement.
And even though Irvin thought he might've imagined it, he thought he saw a slight smile on Rivaille's face as he looked onto the cheering crowd.
A week later, Irvin was promoted to commander. He looked on in shock as the man he had always thought of leader stepped up to him and shook his hand, a sad smile on his face as he proclaimed that he couldn't fight titans anymore. Hanji had hugged him again then, a serene smile on her face as she claimed-"I knew this would happen." And then to his surprise, she kissed him quickly on the lips, dashing away and screaming something about paperwork as she turned the corner.
As Irvin put a shaking hand to his lips, he thought he could still feel the ghost of that kiss on his tingling skin.
Even Rivaille congratulated him with a quiet grunt that Irvin found enough.
He liked Hanji, that was for sure. So when he found her again-outside in the courtyard with the titans, he had embraced her tightly, whispering in her ear-
"Don't ever go." Too many people had come and gone for him to even be sure what everything was anymore. And all Hanji did was fill the air with her usual laughter, reaching up on her toes to kiss him again.
"I want to join the Recon corps, and kill titans, sir!" Irvin had stiffened in shock. This was the complete opposite of-
"Interesting." Rivaille's quiet voice cut through the haze of the prison walls, and he rose from his perch. "Irvin. I'll take responsibility for him."
He straightened in shock-Rivaille never did anything like this. Rivaille didn't like responsibility.
"Because only I can kill him."
In Rivaille's tone, there was a quiet confidence and self assurance that wasn't there
two years before.
And looking at those blazing, furious green eyes, Irvin actually thought for a blinding moment-
Maybe humanity has a chance, after all.
After the courtroom scene, Hanji helped Eren with his wound, exclaiming in concern and half-terror as she noticed the regrown tooth.
And-
"Eren. Do you hate me?" Rivaille had asked quietly, sitting on the couch with his arm behind the boy.
And Irvin inwardly smiled as he looked at Rivaille sitting there with the terrified human-titan by his side, trying to pass off as uncaring.
Rivaille, I wish you happiness too.
Irvin found Hanji standing at a window on a turret in the castle, staring up into the rouge sunset. She sighed as Irvin entwined his fingers with hers. "Stay with me." She said quietly.
"Forever." Irvin promised, rubbing comforting circles on her hands.
He didn't know why, but he thought of giving her a ring, embossed with the emblem of crossed wings.
It was made of a beautiful sterling silver, glowing even in the dark as Irvin tossed the bobble up and down up and down, laying on his bed and trying to block out the sounds of everything down below and feeling the warmth of Hanji, lying beside him.
"I love you." She didn't respond, still lying there with hair askew.
"I love you." Still no answer.
"I love you." He kissed the ring once, for good luck, closing his eyes as he slipped it on her slender finger that he thought he knew so well.
And as he drifted off to sleep, he thought he heard a quiet
I love you
By his ear, but it faded too quickly, until he didn't know anymore.
This is basically a bit of background on Irvin and Hanji for my other fanfiction-
Something InfallibleLike Eternity (it would be awesome if you checked it out! It's Rivaille/Eren)
I think that this is a cute pairing. Come on, guys, they would be cute together!
Right? Anyway, I hope that reading this has made you even a little more accepting of this couple..^^ You might still be neutral, though, (which isn't bad, believe me!)
In this fanfiction, I'm imaging Rivaille to be ten years younger than Hanji and Irvin.
So, Rivaille's about twenty years old?
Hanji and Irvin are about thirty, right?!
..yeah. I hope you liked reading this..
please review and tell me what you think!
K.K