Exchange between k-lionheart and me. She first gave me this drawing: . /a3be5d93a495790e95437749e76caabf/tumblr_inline_ and I wrote the following piece based off of it.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the published stories or characters I write about in my own work, nor do I make any profit from my writing.
"Mom! Daddy! You're home! Mom and Dad are home!"
Pounding feet echoed above and into the spacious living room, the sounds of joy and relief resounding in his ears as he pushed opened the front door.
How would he tell them?
"Father? Mother?" his oldest stood at the top of the stairs, his sharp face breaking into a grin. "You're home early. We weren't expecting you until later tonight after the Commander arrived."
"Daddy!" A short bundle of energy flung itself at him, grasping at his cloak and clothes. "You won't believe what he was doing to me earlier!" Levi's only daughter pointed an accusing finger at his older son. "Where's Mom?" The young girl looked around behind her father, waiting for her mother to pop out somewhere.
Levi cleared his constricting throat and gathered his daughter closer. "Com-complications." He rasped, the word sticking in his mouth. "Mikasa…your mother—"
"Father?" His middle child appeared at his side through the front door. "Where's mom? She usually comes back with you after…"
"No…" Levi's firstborn clenched his fists, his face contorting in realization as he recognized the look on his father's face. Guilt.
"What? What Daddy?" She examined his face with all the sternness she could muster for a twelve-year-old. "Where's Mom?"
"She—"
"Mikasa, get back here. Follow the command." Levi twisted against the straining wires, adjusting his angle and following the path Erwin had set out for them.
"We've already scouted this area, Levi. Catch up." She grinned at him in mischief, her eyes twinkling. Thirty-eight and still as beautiful as the day he met her.
"I'm getting too old for this, Mikasa. You may be my wife, but I'm still your superior. Get your ass behind mine." Levi rolled his shoulders into the maneuver and swung forward, dodging a tree-branch.
"Is that an invitation, Captain? Got something planned for tonight, hm?" Mikasa smirked, but didn't slow her speed.
"Follow the order and it will be, Lieutenant." He grinned back.
"Quit flirting up there and let's get on with it!" Eren called from behind. "That's my sister!"
"Aw quit your yapping, Jaeger! It's not like you're any different with Annie!" Jean yelled, and the rest of the Special Operations Squad broke into laughter.
The crash of falling trees almost brought the whole team to a halt. Levi nodded to Historia and Connie—his two best scouters—to survey the area ahead and they flew off in silence. Mikasa and Jean swung to either side of the Captain, awaiting his orders.
"Nothing is supposed to be here. Hanji's team reported it yesterday." Jean muttered, all joking cast aside.
"We must assume they were wrong, or that targets have moved in since then. Levi, er, Captain?" Mikasa shot a sideways glance at her husband.
Levi sighed, ignoring his wife's blunder. Not that he minded. "We're expected back within the hour. Wait until Connie and Historia return. Move in, dispatch as quickly as you can."
Jean and Mikasa both nodded and moved into their usual strategic positions in the high branches, waiting. Levi frowned. Something wasn't right.
The crashes got closer and dust began to rise. Historia and Connie burst through the trees pursued by Titans. How many there were no one could tell.
"Mikasa! Kirstein! Move your asses and take down any Aberrants! Jaeger, Arlert, and I will take the stupid sacks of meat. Braus and Reiss! Contain and distract! Springer! Double around and get me a head count!" Levi barked out his usual orders and clenched his teeth. Definitely too old for this.
His team sprang into action, their movements fluid and with purpose. They'd done this before, too many times to count. Four titans fell to his right, steam rising from the bloodshed. Another stumbled in front of him, and he leaned forward to target another, turning into his preferred attack maneuver. Spinning gracefully and dragging the blades through the hot flesh, he dropped it, eyes already searching for another.
"Twenty-seven, Captain! And more seem to be coming!" Connie's voice cut through the screeching.
"Get to it, Springer!" Levi yelled.
"Captain! Sasha's hurt!" Historia's voice screamed to his left.
"Pull her back! Get her to the edge of the forest!" Jean roared, his voice heightening with every word. "You'll be personally responsible if she doesn't make it, Historia!" He barked, each syllable heavy with fear.
"Got it!" Historia answered back, her high voice pitched.
"Captain! Levi!"
Levi felled another one and threw his blades into the eyes of an approaching Titan, delaying it. "What! Do your fucking job, Cadet!"
"Levi! LEVI!"
It was Mikasa's voice. And it screamed his name in such abject terror and fear that his mind went blank.
"Mikasa! Where are you?!" He cried, skirting around Titans and leaving them to the rest of his squad.
"Captain! We can't take much longer! They're too many! We have to fall back!" Armin's low voice yelled above him.
"Pull everyone back! Get them to the edge of the forest! Where's Mikasa?!" Levi didn't wait for an answer and flung out a cable into the smoke, hoping it would catch something.
"LEVI! Please! No! NO NO PLEASE! PLEASE! LEVI!"
Her voice was getting closer, and Levi felt his arms go numb. She was caught. Mikasa Ackerman, the Girl Worth A Hundred Soldiers, his wife was dying somewhere. And he was lost.
"Mikasa! MIKASA! WHERE ARE YOU?!" He raked his swords through another Titan, not caring if they bit through the neck or not.
"HELP! LEVI! I'm here!"
The steam and smoke was starting to lift, but all he could see were the grinning mouths of the Titans. One by one they came at him.
Then he saw her. The sprinkle of green and white clutched in the filthy fingers of a Titan that was much too far away. "MIKASA! MIKASA!" He bellowed and his mind went into overdrive.
Calculations flew through his head a mile a minute and everything went dark: fury and rage coursed through his veins and he spun through the air in deadly silence. His swords cut through flesh—how many times he couldn't remember—until he final faced the final opponent.
Mikasa's eyes were wide and focused on the face of her enemy, and tears were streaking down her face. "Please, please, please," she was whispering.
Levi released a cable into the Titan's arm, trying to force it to drop her, but the beast held fast, squeezing harder. He heard a sickening crack and Mikasa closed her eyes.
And then it ended. The world slowed. Levi flung himself toward the base of the neck, but he was seconds too late: she had disappeared between the teeth of the Titan.
His world shattered. Levi roared and ripped through the Titan's neck, dealing the fatal blow and making it as violent as he could. Blood spattered across his uniform and face, but none of that mattered anymore. "MIKASA! FUCK YOU! GIVE HER BACK! GIVE HER BACK TO ME!" He swung around, the momentum pulling him back to the Titan, and he sliced through the Titan's jaw—the same cut that had saved Eren Jaeger years before.
The mouth dropped open and Mikasa Ackerman slid out in a slimy mess. Though not in one piece.
Levi lurched forward and caught her—most of her—before she fell to the forest floor and whipped through the rising steam. He didn't dare look. Not yet. "Mikasa. Mikasa! Love, stay with me! Damnit Ackerman! Do as you're told!" He screeched and flew back to the edge of the forest. The Titans had abated, but Levi knew he hadn't much time.
Miraculously, his wife obeyed. She coughed, scarlet staining his uniform. "You…you never…let me…" Cough. Cough cough. "…have…any fun…" Cough.
Levi almost laughed, but not from any sort of comfort. "Stay with me, Mikasa. We're almost there."
"Tell…the kids…"Cough. "Mother…sends…her love…"
He choked. "Just, hold on 'Kasa. You can tell them yourself when we get back." They were almost there. He could see the tiny outlines of the rest of his squad at the edge.
"…Levi…Levi…" She sputtered again and Levi tightened his hold around her, trying not to look down.
"What, Mikasa? What?" He was becoming frantic now and his heart was threatening to pound right out of his chest.
She would die here. And he would be alone. Again.
They reached the edge and Levi landed as gently as he could, his hands trembling and his legs wobbly with overexertion. The rest of his squad immediately backed away, their faces hard, yet broken.
"Mikasa! No! Mikasa!" Eren shoved through and collapsed at her side, eyes travelling over what was left of her body.
"…be good…to everyone…Eren. Especially…yourself." She sighed and coughed again, and this time, her eyes shot open as wide as they could.
"Levi!" She gripped the lapel of his uniform jacket. "Levi!" Her breath came in short gasps.
Eren scrambled to his feet and joined the others, his hands clenched into tight fists.
"Let's go, Eren." Sasha pulled him away, and they left Levi and Mikasa alone on the slowly darkening grass.
"Levi…" Mikasa sighed again, and yanked her husband downward into their last kiss. Her lips melded with his, and tears mingled with blood, flowing into both of their mouths. "You…saved me…Levi…just…like you…promised…"
Levi didn't answer and refused to remove his mouth from hers.
"I love you…I love…you…"
"Mikasa…" Levi stroked the bloody hair away from her eyes. They were slowly growing dim. "I…love you. Don't leave me. Please, don't leave me!"
"Levi Ackerman…I…love…"
The hand on his jacket fell.
"Amaya…I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" Levi held his daughter as tight as he could. Tears were leaking out of his eyes now and his middle son had backed away.
"Daddy? But you said…you said, Mom was coming back…" Amaya searched her father's face for any lie, but Levi knew she already knew the truth.
He drew out a patch, stained with red. "Here. Ami. Your mother…would want you to have it." Levi pressed one of Mikasa's patches into his daughter's trembling hand.
"When will…it be?" His oldest had made his way down the stairs, his face solemn and black with anger.
"Commander Erwin has given me leave for a week. Rin. You will take your mother's place among my squad." Levi's felt his voice crack and he flung his cloak around his daughter. "Remember this day, Amaya. But don't live in the past. We must move on."
Levi pushed past his son up the stairs and into their room. His room now.
He would have never made it this far if it weren't for her. He would have been dead ages ago, succumbed to the agony of so many he had sacrificed and sent to their deaths. But she, Mikasa, had saved him from that path and practically forced him back, cursing and swearing, until he fell into her so completely, everything had just dropped into place.
Now she was gone. He wasn't sure if he could continue. But he would. Because three children depended on his survival: their children. He'd be damned if he let anything happen to them—Mikasa's pride and joy.
Mikasa. Mikasa. MIKASA.
Levi pulled at his hair as he sat on the bed, the pain becoming too much too quickly.
Everything was lost. He was empty again. There was nothing else.
December 24, 873.
He almost laughed at the irony. A day before his birthday. The universe did love to play its stupid little jokes on him so much.
December 24, 873.
They were supposed to have been in this very same bed, loving each other and whispering their forevers, making fragile promises.
December 24, 873.
The day Levi Ackerman died.