Withering
Summary: Marie's not the kind of woman who waits.
Disclaimer: I don't own Attack on Titan
Chapter 1: Rose dead
Marie's not the kind of girl who expects things to get done on their own. She rolls up her sleeves and gets to work, no dilly-dallying. It's one of the many reasons why Erwin's well-guarded heart was pried from his chest, no-nonsense, as if it happened every day. If she hadn't looked him in the eye and told him: ''Be with me or let me go,'' she wouldn't have been the woman he loved.
Erwin likes choices and he knows he can't bring himself to wed in a world like this. A world he can leave at any moment- torn away, mashed like the potatoes Marie enjoys so much by a Titan maw sixteen times his own size. He's seen it happen to the families of men and women who were eaten before his eyes too many times. He won't do that to his own family. And he wouldn't lie to Marie either.
''And that's why I like you,'' she said, ''You're honest when it comes down to it.'' The cheery, earnest tone didn't fit her sad expression at all. But she womaned up, composing herself. Eyes gliding over his face, she took his arm and stood on her tippy toes, kissing him on the cheek lightning quick. ''Goodbye.''
And then she left. Forever.
He loved her for not waiting, but goddamn, it hurt.
(He's not the kind of man who can bear giving his life for the state when he's got a family at home, and she's not the kind of woman who waits for a man who will never come. And oh, they were beautiful, for as long as it lasted. A flower, blooming one season, doomed to die.
A plant not watered does not flower again, roots shriveling up.
Wither, they did.)
Well I'm so far away
That each step that I take is on my way home
A king's ransom in dimes I'd given each night
Just to see through this payphone
Still I run out of time
For tonight I sleep in a bed of nails
- Bon Jovi, Bed of Roses
Author's note
When I read Idyll by the awesome queensmooting on ao3, I got into my intense Marie/Erwin/Nile love triangle feels again. And I couldn't help but write! Check the fic out if you want, it's Erwin/Levi visiting Nile and Marie (plus the adorable kids!) in their home, and it's so adorable and touching and it gave me all the feels!