Prompt: Withered
Characters: Mikasa
Rating: PG
Mikasa herded the mass of people towards the evacuation area, calmly telling them not to crowd and not to shove but to proceed in an orderly fashion. This was only a drill, a practice evacuation like the one they'd done in Trost during their second year in the Cadets, but some people seemed genuinely afraid and Mikasa had to keep an eye out for the children and elderly as the crowd made its way down the streets.
"Excuse me, young lady?" a shaky voice made Mikasa turn around and search for its speaker. She actually had to look down because the person addressing her was so small of stature. It was a very small old woman who looked barely strong enough to be out and about on her own, her gray hair frazzled and her tired eyes searching the crowd as she wrung her knotted old hands together in worry. "I know you're busy but I can't find my husband, we were separated in the crowd. He's blind, I have to find him or he'll get lost."
"Of course, I'll help you find him," Mikasa immediately disregarded the fact that she was being graded on her evacuation assistance as this small, fragile lady looked up at her. "What does he look like?"
The old lady described her husband in great detail and it wasn't long before Mikasa spotted him. He was standing perfectly still by a rain barrel beside a house on the other side of the street, not far from their position.
"I see him," she told the elderly woman, "Across the street there. Come with me."
She offered her hand and the old lady placed her own hand in it; Mikasa was struck by how breakable and tiny the hand felt in hers. They crossed the street together, winding through the crowd carefully so as not to get trampled in the fake evacuation, and came to a stop in front of the old man.
"Nikolas," the old lady's voice was soothing and calm, "It's ok, I'm here. I would never leave you behind."
"I know you wouldn't, Gretchen," the man replied, a smile spread across his face and he suddenly looked much younger, "I was waiting for you, I knew you would come."
"Thank you, young lady, for helping me," Gretchen gave Mikasa's hand a squeeze and she was surprised at how tight the pressure was, "Soldiers like you are a blessing to us all."
Mikasa watched the couple make their way towards the exit with her husband, their fingers intertwined and her arm around his as she guided him...the love they had for eachother was so obvious and Mikasa found herself imagining what the two of them must have faced together through their lives, how they had remained so in love for all that time. They were both so slight, so fragile so...withered...
But Mikasa envied them. She would give anything to grow old and withered with Eren at her side, walking hand in hand in the twilight of their years. But Mikasa held out no hope for such a thing...it was a rare thing indeed for a member of the Scouts to reach an elder age.
Mikasa would die young, in her prime, with all her strength still there in her body and mind...Scouts never got the chance to wither away in silence and love.