Disclaimer: I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin, for if I did, the entire Levi Squad would still be alive and so would Isabel and Farlan.
Prologue
"Let your dreams be bigger than your fears and your actions louder than your words."
June, 1924
"Levi, watch out! You have two on your tail!"
It was late in the afternoon. The sun was already reaching out to the horizon, casting the small farm in a sweet and peaceful orange. The small boy looks over his shoulder, spotting the two planes his best friend warned him about.
"I can't get 'em. You have to shoot 'em down," he replied, his gaze focused on the two germans following him. He turns around, facing the front once again and nodding to Farlan. The little girl sitting behind him wraps her arms tighter around his waist, squeaking and closing her eyes. With a thumbs up, Farlan leans to his right, raising his fake gun and pointing it to one of the 'planes'. He closes one eye and shoots, his little mouth trying to produce the sounds a real version of those would make.
"Nice shooting!" Levi says, leaning to his left so Farlan could have a better view of the other plane chasing him. Trying to reproduce the sounds once again, Farlan takes down the last plane.
"Yeah!" he shouts happily, waving his arm in the air in victory. Isabel giggles happily from behind Levi, clapping her hands excitedly as she tries to get off the carton box that is Levi's plane. Her brother grabs her before she can jump, forcing her to sit down once again.
"We're still flying!" he claims, scolding her "You can't jump off the plane, or you'll die"
Her lower lip pops out in a pout, but she ends up nodding, holding onto his waist again. After he lands, he gives her permission to get out, to which she readily complies. Running to Farlan, she is quick to wrap her arms around his waist, squeezing him tight and expressing how brave he was to take out those two planes all by himself. He laughs a little, rubbing the back of his neck while saying that 'it was nothing'.
"I think we should check our planes," he says once Isabel lets go of him, pointing to the empty carton boxes (each has two pieces of carton sticking out from both sides, serving as the plane's wings) "This battle was pretty hard!"
"LEVI! ISABEL!" the three children's heads turn to the barn, where a tall man with a bowler hat now stands. He starts taking quick, purposeful strides towards them, his eyes glaring daggers. Farlan gulps a little, glancing at the horizon where only half of the sun is visible.
"Oh, no" he whispers, realizing that it's way past the time for Levi and Isabel to be home.
"What the fuck are you doing out here at this time? I told you to be home by six," Kenny says through gritted teeth, dragging Levi and Isabel by their arms "It's eight!"
Isabel cries out, her father's iron grip sure to leave marks on the girl's skin. Levi grits his teeth, mad that Kenny was being so ruthless to his little sister.
"I-it's not their fault!" Farlan tries to intervene, running after the man "We were distracted, we lost track of time"
Looking behind him to where the blond boy is, Kenny grinds his teeth, almost snarling at him. Before his father could do something to harm his best friend as well, Levi tries to free his arm from Kenny's grip. The latter, noticing the boy's action's, tightens his hand around his arm and turns his snarl to him. After a few moments he continues dragging them through the farm, growling all the way. Looking behing him at Farlan, Levi mouths his gratefulness before trying to keep up with his father's strides once again.
Their home wasn't big. It was a one story house with two bedrooms, one kitchen and one bathroom. That meant he had to share a room with Isabel, but he didn't mind. He loved her, even if she annoyed him sometimes and even if they didn't share the same mom. Not that they had any now, either way.
He misses his mom sometimes. They weren't together for long, since she passed away when he was two. Next thing he knew, his dad brought a new baby to the house, claiming her to be his sister. Since his mother wasn't alive at the time, he figured the little baby girl was his dad's and someone else's, though he never met Isabel's mother.
The both of them bonded straight away, as he took care of her since she came to live with them. They shared everything, bad or good. She wanted to join him in whatever he did, going as far as sharing his dream of flying.
She was five now, and he was eight, and he was her big brother and he had to protect her at any cost, especially from their father. Kenny never was a nice man. He thought discipline was the equivalent of pain and Levi and Isabel got countless beatings because of it. He tried to protect her always, but sometimes, it wasn't enough. After their father found out their wish to soar through the skies ("Just like those men who fought the bad guys during the war!" he claimed), the beatings got worse. Every time they mentioned a plane or anything to do with the sky, he would most definitely beat them. He always said that a man's place was on earth, and those who let themselves want more than the earth - specifically the skies - would eventually face their downfall.
That was why, as soon as they walked through the doorstep and the door was firmly closed behind them, Kenny's hand crashed with Levi's face. The young boy fell to the ground with the force of the impact, his own hand reaching up to craddle his bruised cheek.
"I've told you already but I'll repeat it again: if you don't give up on those silly flyin' dreams of yours, I'll beat you down to a pulp, do you understand?" he asks gravelly, eyes harsh as he glares down at Levi. He doesn't respond and Kenny backhands him again. Isabel's whimpering in a corner, her soft cries reaching Levi's ears in an instant. Looking at her from the corner of his eye, he nods at Kenny, replying with a small "Yes"
"Good" Kenny says, pleased to get an answer. Turning his back on Levi, he starts walking towards Isabel, who, upon his approach, starts retracting to the wall . Levi's gut twists with dread, knowing full well that Kenny's planning on punishing Isabel. He runs to his little sister as fast as his eight-year-old legs could carry him, placing himself in front of her with his arms stretched, eyes glaring fiercely at Kenny.
"Don't hurt her" he spits and Kenny's eyebrow raises at his sudden outburst.
"Would you prefer me to punish you instead of her, that is?"
Levi nods wordlessly, his eyes never leaving Kenny's, even as he tries to swallow down the fear that threatens to overcome him. With a small shrug, Kenny backhands him twice, possibly the punishment he had planned for Isabel. Levi's eyes blur with tears, but he blinks them away, not wanting Kenny to witness his vulneranle side.
"Go to your room and don't come out" he orders them, making his way to the kitchen "And don't bother asking for dinner"
He grabs Isabel's small hand in his and darts to their room quickly. Closing the door behind him tightly, he closes his eyes and breathes in twice, trying to calm his erratic heart. He hears Isabel climbing onto the bed and he quickly follows, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her tight to his chest as she whimpers softly. He can't cry. He can't. He needs to be strong for his little sister and that's exactly what he plans to do. He'll be strong. He'll be strong for her.
After a while, her soft snores break him out of his reverie and he peers down at her. Her pigtails are in a disarray, bits of red hair free from their confines, but he thinks she never looked so peaceful. Carefully placing her on the bed, he removes her shoes and his own. He doesn't want to wake her up just so she can put on her pajamas, so he lets her be. Looking down at his own clothes, he decides to stay like that as well. He lays down, pulling a cover over them and wrapping his arms around his little sister again.
He doesn't care what his father thinks. He's going to fly a plane someday, even if he has to go through hell for it.
With a soft sigh, he curls with Isabel on the bed and closes his eyes, dreams of real planes and endless skies flying through his mind.