Rivetra Week Day 1: Remembrance
"Get off my lawn, Jaeger!" Levi snarled, rising from his chair.
The brown-haired girl giggled, grabbed her brother's hand, and they both rushed away to a house further down the street.
A soft laugh came from behind him. "Kids will be kids."
"More like: Jaegerswill be Jaegers," Levi huffed.
"Don't be such a grumpy old man," Petra chided, lightly massaging his shoulders. Levi allowed himself to relax. "At least they can be kids," she continued. "Lots of space to run around, no titans to worry about."
At a price, Levi added in his mind. After a long power struggle with the Military Police, Historia had ascended the throne. But not before Erwin was executed and countless members of the Survey Corps had died.
Levi believed he had every right to be a grumpy old man.
"Why don't I bring you some tea?" Petra turned to leave, but he quickly grabbed her hand.
"No. Stay with me."
She sat down beside him, fingers entwined. Levi ran his thumb over hers. He never dreamed that this moment would come. Sitting in the sunlight on his porch, the titans a painful - but distant - memory.
And he had almost lost her. Like the rest of his old Special Operations Squad. They visited their empty graves every week. Neither of them had been the same after that. It took him a long time to pull the spark back into her eyes.
The patches of the fallen were currently pushed to the back of his dresser, but he often brought them out again. Listing the countless names in his mind. Isabel. Farlan. Mike. Nanaba. Dita.
He always made a habit of getting to know everyone's name. No matter who they were. He hated that as he got older, his memory got rustier. Faces faded into darkness. Memories grew out of reach.
Petra laid her head on his shoulder. "I love you," she said softly, almost to herself.
He squeezed her hand, and together they watched the sunset, thinking of what could have been.