In His Blue Eyes
Best of friends… that's what they are.
He has her back. She has his.
From childhood to adulthood, he 'tolerated' her insanity and she 'put up' with his control freakishness. They are an unbeatable pair of nobodies heading on their way to becomes somebodies, passing time consoling themselves that the world needs not to understand brilliance the first time it sees it.
He is Erwin Smith- poster boy extraordinaire of Nazi German stereotype with his white skin, coifed blond hair and bright blue eyes.
She is Hanji Zoe- madness and intelligence personified with her crazed smiles, messy brown locks, muddy eyes and tanned complexion.
The two shared play pen as children. They forged an unspoken agreement of tolerating each other everywhere (the sand box, the kiddie study table, the kindergarten table… everywhere) and of letting each other ruffle through the contents of their lunch boxes. The two never left each other through the awkward phase of gender consciousness. Hanji was frowned upon by the girls and was always uninvited in sleepovers. Erwin was berated by the boys for "cooties", but they still looked up him as their leader. The two remained solid in their "I ONLY WALK HOME WITH HANJI/ERWIN" pact all throughout high school. The blonde would wait outside the biology laboratory until Hanji finished up terrorizing her members and the brunette would patiently lean beside the student council office's door while Erwin impeccably went through the duties of his wayward officers.
In college, they never parted ways. They shared an apartment- no matter how dubious it sounds.
Erwin majored in Political Science and Hanji chased after her Biology dreams.
Still, nothing changed. The 'tolerating' remained. The 'put upping' didn't disappear.
But something new and sudden surfaced from all their years of being together. No. Scratch that. It has always been there. You could see it in the blue of his eyes… in the quirk of his lips when he thought she's not looking… even in the disappointment dawning on his face when she told him that they wouldn't work (with a chuckle, mind you) after one measly, sloppy kiss in junior high. The hurt didn't surmount the adrenaline though- every- fucking- time she would ask him to do this and smile at him after doing that. He is putty in her hands and Levi swears (on the ruins of the huge-ass walls surrounded by huge-ass trees) that it is downright pathetic.
"Hey Erwin," Hanji whines. "I don't feel so good…" with that far too obvious revelation, she rushed into the adjacent toilet of the bedroom.
His blue eyes widen. It has been a week now- a week of non-stop vomiting in the toilet bowl every morning. Perhaps…
Retching reaches his ears. It sounds like the painful scratching of untrimmed nails against a chalkboard. He reckons today will be unforgettable. Slowly, he follows her inside the toilet. He kneels beside her, gathering her hair in his hands.
She gives him a crooked sideways smile before getting on with hurling her dinner and light breakfast into the receptacle of filth and bacteria (c/o Levi).
Hanji can feel his warmth beside her.
The blonde control freak never once left her. And from the way other people reacted around her, it is saying something. He is like the brother she never had… and (forgive her) the gay friend she never met.
It was hard to keep herself from feeling.
With one last retch, she parts with the toilet bowl. Erwin flushes down the vomit, then he gathers her up his arms.
"Do you think..?" she heaves.
"Well, it has almost been a week," his mouth quirks up ever so slightly.
"You know I have been experimenting on making a pregnancy-"
"Just… let's just go to the pharmacy."
And they do.
As Erwin drives, Hanji looks out of the window. Of course, she's riding shotgun- it's her privilege. It has always been. Even back when Erwin was experiencing his "transient girlfriends" stage.
She's nervous.
He consoles her with a pat on the hand.
She looks up with a smile.
Nervousness has never been a constant visitor. Well, she IS Hanji Zoe. Perchance the last time she got nervous was on her wedding day.
Erwin must say she looked most beautiful on that day. She was the phenomenal white bride. The moment she went out of the room, Levi had to chastise him. He was miffed. She grinned, "Thank you…" He shook all thoughts away, held out his arm and smiled. He did all of those, ALL OF THOSE, without raw regret flashing across his eyes.
But that was not the hardest part.
The hardest part was walking her down the aisle and giving her hand to the man waiting by the altar.
She asked of him to do that, for both of her parents were already dead back then.
And now…
She is to ask of him to become the godfather of her child with her husband.
It will be hard, but he would do it. He would even feed his arm to monsters if she would ask him to.
So yeah... sue me. I've been wanting to experiment on this. What do you think?