One of Petra's first memories were of a story her mother told her.

"Once upon a time," She had began as many stories tend to do. "The sky fell in love with the earth. They loved each other more than anything else had ever loved before. However they could never touch each other.

And so the sky fell into despair at the futility of his love, and rain was formed. The earth tried to use the sky's tears to grow trees to reach him, but that failed. And the earth gave the sky many gifts such as birds and bugs, but they still would not reach him. The sky's sorrow turned to anger, and he threw a flash of lightning down to her, but that only caused the earth to cry out in pain.

Horrified at his actions, the sky hid from his lover and grew dark and cold. A star saw this sad affair and knew it couldn't leave its father like this. So it fell to the earth to fulfill its father's wishes."

It was awfully dark for a young child, but Petra hadn't noticed. Not til she was an adult and starring at a starry sky after another failed expedition.

A shooting sky fell before her, and memories of mother and her mystic tales came back to her.

Back then she had believed in dreams and stars that could make any wish true.

It was foolish to hold onto childish beliefs like that but maybe...

An image of a dark man with piercing silver eyes filled her mind. He had been taller than her, but still short, smiled rarely but he was so handsome when he did, and his lips...

Petra felt guilty for wanting something so trivial, if stars really could grant wishes, it'd be noble to wish for the titans to be gone, or for an expedition to finally go right, or anything besides one forgotten soldier.

Doesn't lessen the hurt

She missed him. It wasn't just the fact he was gone but also how her life seemed completely broken now. Sleep was impossible, not just because she didn't have his even breathing, but because whenever she closed her eyes she saw his corpse.

Her tea seemed to never be just right, she always made too much, still thinking she needed to pour a cup for another person.

And don't even talk about the quiet hallways now that it was just her and Eren.

Someone knocked on the side of of her doorway and Petra turned to see Hanji lazing around, trying to act unfazed.

"Got a minute?" They sighed.

"Sure," She gestured to the empty space beside her. So they stayed together in silence, neither saying a word. Both knew the other had lost a lot, and words weren't needed to express apologies.

"I miss him Hanji," Petra finally spoke. "I miss him so, so much."

"We all do," They cleaned their glasses. "It's rough but we have to stay strong for the kids. It's what he would do."

"I know, I know but I'm not him," She played with a strand of her hair. "If it had been me then he would move on quickly and stay focused, but I'm not him," Petra sighed this time. "So can you just give me some time to grieve?"

Hanji opened their mouth to say something, but shut it again. "I'll try to," They gave her a pat on the back before leaving. "Rest well, Captain Ral."

"You too Commander Zoe."

A.N. Couldn't end rivetra week without dead!Levi either, while I like him, Petra as a Captain is too good to pass up