DISCLAIMER: I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin. It belongs to Hajime Iasayama.
title: Successor
by: The Rose in Death's Garden
written for: The HPFC Rebirth of the Daily Weird Prompt Thing (Day 7)
prompt: inspired by the song "Time to Say Goodbye" (2nd beginning theme from RWBY)
pairing: Erwin/Hanji
He knew it was wrong to start something with one of his underlings but Erwin had never intended to develop romantic feelings for the woman he'd singled out as his successor. He spent years testing her abilities and then subtly molding her into a capable leader. He was often exasperated with her antics and looking back he couldn't have said when his feelings started to become something more. The realization of what he felt crept up on him slowly, so that he began to fear it happening before he realized that it was something which had already been true for a while.
He knew it wrong to feel this way. But it would have been even worse to tell her. Because whether she would accept or reject him, it would only hurt worse for both of them in the end, when they already knew that his time in this world was growing short. Crippled as he now was, there wasn't much left for him but sacrifice himself in battle.