TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter does contain mentions to past rape, violence, and I suppose implications of trauma(?). I will place indicators at the spot where it is brought up, but don't worry, it didn't happen to Levi or Eren or any other main character. Feel free to skip this portion, as it is not essential for the reading of this fic. I hope I didn't inconvenience anyone with the addition of this minor plot-point, and that you can still enjoy the rest of this chapter. Please enjoy! : )

-Line Break-

The castle's abrupt shaking due to Eren cutting on the water for his bath caused Levi to bolt right up out of bed. He winced as his old bones popped and creaked when he moved. Quickly brushing the hair out of his face, he opened the curtain that kept him from seeing Jean and gave the fire demon a surprised look.

"Is Eren back?"

"Yes. The bastard's wasting all my hot water again," Jean said as he idly grabbed another log and bit into it.

Levi rolled his eyes and decided to get up, not wanting to sleep the day away. He quickly woke up Armin and told him to get dressed, much to the blonde's displeasure. He himself got dressed, and once they were both ready and well feed, they headed out into the town of Maria.

"I don't know why we're doing this. Master Eren hardly eats!"

"Too bad," Levi said half-heartedly.

If Levi was being completely honest with himself, he didn't completely understand himself why they were out buying groceries for Eren. Perhaps it was because he wanted to thank Eren in return for taking him in, even with his terrible lie.

Levi also admittedly like going out early in the morning. The cool breeze and mostly silent streets always calmed him and brought a smile to his face.

"Don't you just love early morning markets, Christa? And just look at the water!"

Levi nearly forgot that Armin was clad in his magic cloak that transformed him from a spirited little blonde boy into a kind-hearted little blonde girl. Besides, calling Armin 'Christa' didn't sit well on his tongue.

He didn't even give the blonde a second to answer before he continued speaking.

"I've never seen the ocean before! It's beautiful!"

Christa rolled her bright blue eyes, all the while smiling, and said, "It always looks like that."

They continued to make their way into the busier side of town, which resided near the docks, and began buying what they came for.

Levi carefully looked at some potatoes at a pregnant brunette woman's vender while Christa busied herself with finding fresh fish at the vender next to the plump woman's.

The cheery blonde happened to glance over at what Levi was looking to buy, and her expression turned sour.

"I hate potatoes…."

The brunette woman gasped, appalled that anyone would dare say such a thing about her beloved potatoes, while her shorter, bald husband tried his best to calm her down.

Levi gave Christa a glare, and muttered, "Pay up."

The blonde rolled her eyes, remembering that Levi had no money with him to speak of, and paid the brunette who was still trying to keep from being hysterical.

"Th-Thank you! Have a nice day!" The brunette's short husband called out as they began to walk to a bakery that was near the docks and its venders.

As the duo looked around for a loaf of bread as the baker himself did his best to convince the two to buy his goods.

"All of our pastries were baked fresh this morning!"

Levi was cut off from making his decision by a commotion that began outside.

"One of our ships is in the harbor!"

"It looks like it's on fire!"

A woman burst into the shop, her little boy in tow, and called out to get the baker's attention.

"It looks like there's been a serious battle!"

The baker's attention was immediately on the woman as he asked, "What happened!?"

Right before running out of his own store, the baker looked to Levi and Christa and said, "Sorry, sir, we're closed."

As he and the woman ran out, Levi could hear the cries of the townspeople grow louder and louder.

"It looks like it's on fire!" One man cried out.

Levi and Christa looked at each other and quickly made their way out of the store to see what the townspeople were talking about.

As they made their way to the docks, Levi could see one of Maria's battleships slowly pulling back into harbor. There was smoke coming from many of its windows, and it looked like it had been to Hell and back.

Levi and Christa watched in horror as dozens of lifeboats made to the burning ship. Just as one of said lifeboats was about to reach the ship, hundreds of men began to jump from the ship and into the water for safety.

"Come on, Levi, let's get a better look!"

Levi was pulled out of his thoughts by Christa, who was adamantly tugging on his sleeve in an attempt to get him moving. Levi let himself be pulled along by the blonde as his heart raced and his legs shook.

This scene felt all too familiar. Watching a horrific scene take place, and standing on the sidelines unable to do anything to help.

-TRIGGER WARNING! -

His mind went back to when he was very young, about three or four. This was when his mother was desperate and worked for her brother Kenny at his brothel. There had been a raid, a terrible on too. Dozens of drunk men flooded in to the cramp, dirty place, too drunk to even think straight. They had guns, which they made a show of by shooting in the air or even turning their weapons to some of the women working there. One man had even shot one of the women when she didn't want to comply with his demands.

Levi, too young to even properly understand the horrible truth behind their home, could only hide in the closet and watch through the slits as his mother was violently attacked and taken advantage of, along with all of the other women working at the brothel.

-TRIGGER WARNING OVER-

The currently crowded docks, on which he and Christa were standing, all too well reminded him of that dark memory he had spent his whole life trying to forget.

When he finally came back to reality, Christa was staring at him with a worried expression. He looked down at his hands, which had been interlocked with Christa's when she dragged him closer to the scene, and noticed that they -just like his legs- were violently trembling.

"Levi, are you okay? What's wrong? Do I need to get Eren?"

"N-No, I've j-just seen all I can take. Let's go home, Armin."

Noticing that Levi was too shaken to even address him by his fake name, Armin made it his priority to get Levi home as soon as possible.

Just as they were able to weave their way out of the crowd, the sound of a bomb being dropped caught everyone's attention.

Two bombs hit the water, causing everyone in the crowd to run away in fear.

Armin looked up to see an enemy plane flying overhead. The airship seemed to have no intention of dropping anymore bombs, but people still ran away, screaming in fear.

Armin quickly grabbed Levi's arm and began running in the direction of the house. As they ran, Armin could hear some officials trying to get the horde of people to calm down.

"Everyone remain calm! It is just the enemy trying to scare us into submission!"

Armin paid no attention to this as he and Levi finally got to the house. They quickly ran inside, and once they were in, Armin let his hood fall as he closed the door and locked it. He quickly turned his attention to Levi, who seemed to still be in shock.

"Levi, are you okay!?"

Levi didn't answer him, and the only thing that could be heard were the sounds of their harsh panting, and Jean crackling in the fire place.

Armin carefully led Levi up the stairs and into the house, doing his best as to not move to quickly and startle the frazzled man.

Once Levi came back to his senses, he said, "I-I th-think I just need a glass of w-water."

"I'll get it," Armin said as he hurried to the kitchen to drop off their groceries and get Levi his much needed water.

Levi finally sat in front of the chair seated in front of the fire place, and sighed, closing his eyes.

Jean carefully eyed the old man, unsure of what to say, until Armin came back with Levi's water. He handed it to the older male, who gave a small, "Thank you" in return.

"Geez, what happened to you? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Armin glared at him, and Jean took that as a sign to shut up.

Before the three of them could grow comfortable in the silence, a loud yell from the bathroom made all of them gasp in surprise.

All three of them watched as Eren came running out of the bathroom in only a towel around his hips. The wizard had his hands covering his eyes as accidently ran into the wall outside of the bathroom, his shrieking never ceasing. He was finally able to make it all the way down the stairs when Armin, Levi, and Jean could see that the wizard's hair was no longer its signature dark chocolate brown, but a bright orange color.

He uncovered his eyes to reveal his once calm, jade eyes were now angry and hateful.

"Levi! You sabotaged me! Look! Look what you've done to my hair! LOOK!"

He ran up to the shorter male, nearly knocking him over as he shoved his orange locks into Levi's face. He was pulling at his hair to show Levi that the color went all the way down to his roots. The tugging of his hair didn't help the situation any because it only caused him to literally pull some of it out. Not at the roots, luckily, but enough to make it shorter. Levi also figured that whatever caused his hair to change in color is what was causing it to fall out, because it came out way easier than it should have.

"W-What a pretty col-"

"IT'S HIDEOUS!" Eren cried. "You completely ruined my magic potions in the bathroom!"

Armin was genuinely taken aback by this display. While it wasn't uncommon for Eren to lose his temper around Jean and himself, it was unheard of for Eren to go this crazy in front of someone else.

Levi, still seemingly not over the events from earlier, fiddled with his hands, unable to look Eren in the eye.

"I-I just organized things, Eren, nothing's ruined."

"WRONG! WRONG! Ugh, I specifically told you to not get this carried away!"

The powerful wizard seemed to let out a sob as he let his now-shorter hair cover his eyes.

"Now I'm repulsive," he sobbed as he fell back into the chair Levi had previously been sitting in. "I can't live like this."

The now-red headed male let out a series of sobs that surprised even Armin and Jean. Levi, not wanting Eren to be disheartened, put a gentle hand on his naked back and spoke to him in the sweetest voice he could muster.

"Come on, it's not that bad."

Eren continued sobbing as his hair changed from the bright orange color, to a dark purple color, before finally settling on a brunette color that actually looked brown, as opposed to the almost-raven color it had been before.

"Y-You should look at it now! This shade is even better!"

Eren's tears seemed to stop falling as he spoke in the creepiest monotone voice Levi had ever heard.

"I give up. I see no point in living if I can't be beautiful."

The house began to shudder and shake as the lights dimmed, leaving the room to only be illuminated by Jean's glow. Dark shadows began appearing on the wall, causing Levi and Armin to move closer to each other. Eren's form began to change as his tan skin turned a sickly green color and took on the appearance of a disgusting slime.

"Eren? Eren, cut it out. No, s-stop it, Eren."

Jean's words fell on deaf ears as the inside of the house continued to shake.

"He's calling the Spirits of Darkness," Armin explained. "Jean told me he did it when his mother died, but the only time I've seen him do it was when a girl dumped him."

The shadows grew larger and larger, and Levi decided that it was time for this to stop.

"Now, Eren, you're all right. We'll dye your hair back again, 'kay?"

The old man gasped in shock as the hand he touched Eren with in an attempt to comfort him was covered in slime. Eren stared blankly at the floor as Levi slowly backed away from him.

At this point, Levi was fed up.

"Fine! You think you got it bad!? I've never been fucking 'beautiful' once in my life!"

Levi turned from the wizard and his apprentice, and headed for the door.

"I've had enough of this fucking place!"

He opened the door, not even noticing that when he turned the knob, the color of the circle changed.

When Levi left, he walked right into the rain that poured outside, not even noticing that he was no longer in Maria, but back in front of the moving castle.

He stood in the rain, rethinking all of the events that had unfolded in the past few days.

This had been a horrible day; scratch that, a horrible week; scratch that, a horrible life.

All Levi had ever done was follow the rules, and do as he was told.

He hid in the closet in the brothel when his mother told him too; he didn't complain when he was taken from place to place to find somewhere new to live; he didn't make a peep when his mother decided to use the money Kenny had given them to buy a shop instead of going to the hospital to treat the disease she had gotten on the night of the raid; he didn't have a pity party when his mother died and left him nothing but her stupid shop; he helped out Farlen and Isabel after he found them half-dead in an alley on his way home to the shop; he didn't even fucking argue with Kenny when he told him to start fixing dresses for the women at his brothel so he could keep business coming in.

So why, WHY did it always seem like life wanted to screw him over for doing everything out of the kindness of his heart. WHY was he so miserable because he just wanted to make his mother happy? And fucking WHY did that stupid Bitch of the Waste have to come into his life and give him no other option than to turn to the most conceited man he had ever met!?

All of these emotion piled onto Levi as he stood in the rain, angrily staring at nothing. Before he could stop them, tears began to make their way down his face, mixing with the rain. The negative emotions that he had been holding back all these years finally spilled out in the form of a choked sob.

He couldn't help but just stand there and cry as he wished that he could just be done with it all.

He didn't even notice the sound of a bouncing scarecrow making its way over to him. Turnip-Head hopped over to the crying man, an umbrella perched in his only wooden arm. He hopped until the umbrella was over Levi's head and shielding him from the downpour of rain.

Levi sniffled as he looked up to the scarecrow, wiping his tears. Turnip-head had the same, non-moving smile as always as he stared blankly ahead, but Levi could feel the love radiating off of him.

"Th-Thank you, Turnip-Head…. How did you get to be so kind?"

Levi knew that Turnip-Head couldn't answer him back, but he wished that he could. He wanted to know how it was possible to be so kind without expecting anything in return.

There was a moment of silence, the only sound being heard was the pitter-patter of the rain, which was beginning to let up.

In that moment, Levi felt like maybe life wasn't so bad after all.

-End of Chapter 7-

A/N: Whew, I kept up with the schedule (barely)! I'm sorry if this chapter was kind of a bummer, but things will begin to look up for Levi soon, I promise.

Preview: Levi and Armin help the drama-queen and Eren comes up with a plan.

P.S.: Also, starlithorizon22, sorry for Eren's behavior in this chapter, but it's what happened in the movie. More mature Eren is sure to return soon (hopefully) ;)