Sorry for the super late update i'm a do*che ok.
Warning: grammar errors, Titus Ryouta being unproductive, weird ending, typo, and such.
Thank you for all of your support! Finally i made it till the end
The living room was so quite, the lamp from the kitchen which was near the living room was switched off, dramatized the setting. Mikasa sat on the sofa with her mom still sobbing, and her father sat on the sofa in front of them. After 12 minutes her father decided to talk.
"It's about Rivaille"
His voice was deep, and Mikasa thought it's a serious problem. She nodded, signaling her father to continue.
"You saw them yesterday didn't you?"
"who?"
Mikasa said tilting her head. Her action made her parents thought that it's not a good idea to talk about it now. But they already too worried so they had to tell her about 'them'.
The girl with black hair tried to understand the meaning of what her dad said. She couldn't understand anything at all. It's like everything was in mute that time. Actually, 'why' was the word that Mikasa really wanted to spit out but she can't.
She suddenly felt this atmosphere similar to something from past
She knew this thing well
The atmosphere when her friends got caught by outsiders
Her pupil widened and there's a slight line on her face, dark line. She's too shock for everything.
"See? I told you Mikasa will regret it!"
"But honey, Mikasa was trying to be friends with him!"
"It'd bring bad memories to her!"
Mikasa didn't say anything, she just stared to the floor. She understood what her dad said. She knew this feeling. Her heart was cracking as if it were made of porcelain. Her silky black hair covered her face.
She gripped her hands and ran toward the door.
Her parents yelled her name but she didn't glance to look at her parents. She just wanted to make sure that she's not too late. She ran to Rivaille's house. She didn't even wear shoes, she left traces on the mud. So it was raining that day, was she really that shocked that she didn't hear it's raining outside? She didn't care enough, she just ran.
Sometimes her white leg stepped on a small stone that made her stopped, screamed, and squealed for a second. Sometimes she tripped and made her cardigan and her dress stained with mud. Finally she's in front of Rivaille's house. The fence door was not locked, she pushed it and made such a noise. A worried expression was lying down on her face. She didn't want 'it' to happen.
"Rivaille!" her voice was mixed with rain drops and door's bang.
The house was dark, the only light was from outside, the moon light. She hesitantly walked, her right hand was placed on her chest, clutching. She's pretty much afraid if a ghost or a murderer would come out and ambush her. She was still calling out for Rivaille in low voice.
"Listen, Mikasa. Those men you saw that night when you're in Rivaille's house"
"They're evil men who took Rivaille's mom's job plac- I mean bar"
Mikasa's mother looked into the window that faced to Rivaille's house
"They will take Rivaille to their place which is far from this"
The three black haired people only looked down now, they remembered each other's fear. But what Mikasa's parents were afraid of is….
Mikasa regretting meeting Rivaille.
Why?
Because Mikasa will thought that Rivaille left her and she will hate him. Like what she felt for her ex friends.
Mikasa's hands were shaky and she couldn't feel her legs. She shook her head carefully, her pupils widened with dark line on her face. She sat down forcefully, in front of her she saw a dining table and a chair lying, and an untouched bowl of porridge.
Her eyes were so hot as if somebody poured oil and set fire on them.
She couldn't believe it, it's like thousands times she already felt like this. Why won't god just let her be in peace….. With a friend.
"TRAITOR!"
The underground place is no good after all. It's so dirty, mud everywhere, homeless people everywhere, men smoking while playing…. Cards? And they bet on money.
I was dragged here, I haven't even said sorry or good bye to you. I felt bad.
They made me do something to provoke the government, I often fail though. Some of the men would kick me until I drip bloods. Oh right, I'm going to send this letter on the sly. Hopefully they won't noti-
"HEY!"
The heavy voice yet so loud made Rivaille startled. Rivaille was sitting in front of unused building near the riverbank. It's already late so Rivaille thought it would be a perfect time to write a letter to Mikasa. But then.
"What is this? Letter?"
The man with black jacket pulled the letter forcefully, but Rivaille pulled it back causing it to tear off. Rivaille stared at the paper which is now has no shape.
"So you wanted to send this? She is from that oriental village isn't she?"
"No! Don't hurt her!"
"Not a chance, tomorrow we will do something to her family"
Rivaille who was sitting started to stand up, although he is still speechless.
"No worries Rivaille, we will kidnap her and the rest of the family and bring them here~"
Rivaille was going to punch that unworthy man.
But.
But.
That's right, with Mikasa here, Rivaille will not be lonely. He doesn't need to write a letter, he can tell her he's sorry for not saying goodbye. He can spend more times with Mikasa here. Why here? Rivaille couldn't escape from this filthy place though. Although he's near a riverbank, some of the annoying thugs would find him. Why can't they have a fine place to live? A place without crime. A place without
"This world must be larger than I could imagine. So I will leave tomorrow morning"
And then Nero laughed "Promise me you'd come back"
Azalea smiled "I will".
In the next day when Nero was preparing things, he checked Azalea's room. Gone. No one was there. And Azalea's things….. None.
And later on Rivaille heard that they failed to capture Mikasa and her family, her parents died but Mikasa is adopted by a doctor.
Rivaille will spend his life alone in this underground. And Mikasa is still a child she would forget him instantly.
"I will leave you from now on"
And then Nero laughed "Promise me you'd come back"
Azalea smiled "Maybe if you remember this kind of me"
Rivaille sipped his tea cup while sitting on a cozy sofa, he was watching Eren, Armin, and Mikasa talking to each other. Rivaille allowed Eren to play and talk to his friends for 4 hours. But they are not allowed to be outside of the castle. They were talking about familiar thing to Rivaille.
"The author made act 2!"
"Oh right, Jean told me that he received a packet from his family. It's that book"
The blond told Eren and Mikasa about how happy Jean was to receive it. Behind the sofa, they talked about the author and the book. That quite caught the corporal's attention.
This childhood friends trio read the book together, Armin who's in the middle, hold the book while Mikasa and Eren read it while humming.
It seemed really fun in Rivaille's steel colored eyes. He wondered what book is that. He heard that Armin put the same book on the corporal's desk.
He was about to go to his desk until the girl with red scarf on her neck was already in front of him. Mikasa handed over a book with brown cover and 'Azalea and Nero act II' written on it.
"Armin told me to lend you this. Maybe it's like 490 pages but it's worth enough to read. Your deadline to return this to Armin is tomorrow morning."
Well that was scary enough to have Mikasa hands over a book with a small smile on her face. If you see her from far, you can only look her with her poker face.
But then, Rivaille felt like he already seen that smile somewhere. The corporal took the book.
"I'll just do a quick read. I will return it to Arlelt as soon as possible, thank you Ackerman."
Mikasa stared at the book for awhile and went back to the back of the sofa and chat with Eren and Armin, this time their conversation was about Hanji's experiment. Her experiment was some kind of success but she needed Eren's DNA to make it success and the brown haired boy told his other friends how the experiment was doing.
Rivaille already drowned himself in the book. He was going to read all of the chapters but then he thought it would waste about 12 hours while it's already afternoon and he had to work in the night. That way, he can't return it to Armin in time.
So from his quick read, he could analyze that the author wrote it as a flash back. When Nero didn't married to anyone, when it has been 3 years after Azalea left him. Also, Nero met his future wife, Vina.
Nero was not a mine worker anymore, he opened a small shop. Thanks to his helpful assistants, the shop became a really large shop. He's a success man.
It really caught Rivaille's attention fully because in the preview book, when Nero is already 65 years old, he forgot about Azalea and stated her as a stranger. And if Azalea meets Nero again, shouldn't they marry each other? Nero should have married Azalea, not Vina.
The tragedies in this book are a lot actually. Nero met Vina, Nero trained a new worker, Nero lost most of his money, Nero's shop got burned accidentally, and what really caught Rivaille's steel gaze was the last chapter. The last chapter was called
'Azalea, finally'
He clicked his tongue and opened the 2 last pages.
'So… you're… All of these time, Azalea….
You're one of my workers?'
Nero couldn't believe what the woman said to him.
She's Azalea, the girl who he helped once, the girl who left him, the girl who made a huge void in his heart.
'I'm so sorry Nero, I couldn't recognize you without your action last week.'
The woman slightly smiled.
'You broke my work shop window to save me, you made me remember what happened that time in the castle.'
Nero gulped, he really couldn't believe it.
'What happened to your Royal duty? Why are you working in a shop?'
'The royal family abandoned me. And i found out that my crush, James, works here so…'
Nero felt his heart was ripped into pieces. He was convinced that he's falling in love for Vina, but now Azalea is in front of him, saying that she has a crush. It broke his heart.
After that, Nero gave the manager position to his most trusted assistant and he went to a mountain to live alone and forget about everything. Vina decided to marry him and bring him back to the town. Nero actually didn't want Vina but he thought it's better than he had to suffer just because of Azalea.
Vina gave him new love, and slowly he forgets about Azalea.
"You can reach better ending if you're not like Nero"
-The end-
"Well that sucks much."
Rivaille closed the book and put it aside.
"I will leave you from now on"
And then Nero laughed "Promise me you'd come back"
Azalea smiled "Maybe if you remember this kind of me"
'I'm so sorry Nero, I couldn't recognize you without your action last week.'
The woman slightly smiled.
'You broke my work shop window to save me, you made me remember what happened that time in the castle.'
And then Rivaille clicked.
'I remember I brought a girl for walk and I helped her to escape from a window,'
Suddenly his brain started to click the 'rewind' button.
He remembered a girl with black hair and he also remembers that he will give her a red scarf.
'I remember that smile.'
Rivaille turned his head to the back of the sofa and he found Mikasa and Armin eating porridge.
The blond was going to eat from his spoon until they heard a 'crack' sound from the kitchen.
"It must be Eren, I'll go check"
Armin stood up and went to the kitchen, leaving Mikasa and Rivaille alone in the room. Rivaille was still sitting on the sofa while drinking his coffee while Mikasa eating her porridge, waiting for her 2 friend to come back and erase this awkward moment.
It was silent for 34 seconds until Rivaille decided to talk.
"Here, Ackerman, I finished reading this."
"Hnn."
Mikasa was still eating her porridge, ignored Rivaille's words.
Usually, Rivaille would say rude things to Mikasa and she would reply in rude words too. But now, Rivaille felt there's something inside Mikasa. Like this is not that cold Mikasa, this is-
"Heichou, I don't know why but did you make this porridge?"
"Yes, you got a problem with that?"
"Thank you"
This is not that cold Mikasa… This is…
"You brought back my memory about a boy by this porridge, I thank you."
This is the girl he lost for more than 10 years.
Rivaille shed a tear.
'I'm not too late right?
I won't end up like Nero, right?'
The corporal stood up, walked to behind of the sofa.
He found Mikasa crying silently.
Her nose was red and her eyes kept producing tears.
"I-is it okay for me to call you Rivaille?" Mikasa said with shaky voice.
Suddenly Rivaille's arms embraced her tightly.
"It's fine, you gave me that name so it should be okay."
Eren and Armin came back from the kitchen. They were arguing about the plate that Eren broke.
"Eren, but that's Heichou's plate!"
"Don't remind me that! It made my body feel heavier."
"Heichou will get mad of-"
Armin stopped his line when he saw the corporal and his female friend fell asleep behind the sofa, Mikasa's head was on Rivaille's shoulder and their face were so peace.
'I'm so glad that Jean lent me the book.'
Maybe I was Nero but I bet my ending is better than Nero's
End
How was it?
I'm sorry if it's disappointing like "Ugh why is it like this"
My father kept my laptop everyday but Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and that sucks.
Thank you for reading! ((really, I mean it. I really thank you))