A bird flies overhead, catching Isabel's eye. The moment she lifts her head to watch him, her feet leave the ground and she goes sprawling.

"Ow!" As soon as she says it, she registers that she isn't hurt, and she sits upright, smiling sheepishly.

"You got distracted. That's fatal in the real world. Keep. Aware," Levi says, voice hard. Isabel nods and picks herself up, taking her stance and focusing on Levi. Be aware.

Levi stands casually, but that means nothing. He is constantly alert, ready to strike at any moment. That's how it has to be. That's what Isabel needs to learn.

"Not just me. You're focusing too much. What if someone else showed up?" Isabel tries to evade one attack and still ends up on the ground, wondering how she got there. "Even when you think you're safe, you're not. You never know what will happen."

She needs to be aware of every possibility. She needs to automatically scan a room when she enters it, assess its potential as a battleground, size up strangers as opponents, all on instinct. When she walks down the street, her senses should be alive, silently keeping watch every second.

Is that any way to live?

Maybe not. But it's how he lives.

He tastes dirt and his eyes tear up from the impact, but he doesn't cry out. He gets to his feet instantly, eyes ablaze and fists ready.

"Didn't expect that, didja, runt?" Kenny smirks. "Never let your guard down, you hear? You get killed that way." Levi barely has time to let the lesson sink in before he's knocked to the ground again, seething as mud dampens his knees, pain radiating up the arm that took the brunt of the fall.

He remembers wanting to bash Kenny's face in, but he knows Kenny's lessons kept him alive. He kept aware; no one caught him by surprise. That was how one survived the Underground.

But Isabel doesn't live in the Underground. She lives in Mitras, in a good home with people who care about her. Does she need this? Does she need to live life on edge, feet stepping carefully, spring-loaded?

Yes. Nowhere is safe. Not above ground, not even in Mitras. It's a big world, much bigger, and much more dangerous. He might be ruining her, but at least he's keeping her alive.

Isabel is waiting, ready, and her eyes are determined. She doesn't intend to go down this time.

She gives it a good try, but she's on the ground again momentarily. Not bad, all things considered. There's a twinge in Levi's chest as she scrambles to her feet again, that look in her eyes. How much longer before she's a wary, lethal machine like her father?

People fall silent when he passes- at least, those who know what he's capable of. Some cringe away in fright. Had he tried to make friends as a child, no doubt the starving creatures would've run away. Even a murder-hungry titan boy once uneasily watched him sit down and enact his best attempt at friendliness, as though scared he'd start kicking again.

There's a certain isolation, and with it a loneliness, that comes with being what he is.

This can't be helped either. At least she'll always have Brian, and Brigitte, and him.

There is one thing he can help. He blocks her attacks easily, then sends her to the ground yet again. She's landed there many times today, but she doesn't have more than a small bruise. He holds her down, just enough to keep her in place, and speaks.

"What are you learning, Isabel?"

"To fight?"

"No. To defend yourself." He lets her up, and she looks at him quizzically.

"I don't want you thinking fighting is the answer to all your problems." There are enough people who think that. "It's not. Violence is stupid, and messy, and unfair. I'm teaching you because there are people out there who won't hesitate to kill you. But you need to promise me you won't become a killer."

"I promise."

"Good."

They continue the lesson. He doesn't go easy on her, doesn't let her win. She can't learn if he lets her win. She fails, again and again, and his frustration, his desperation, grows. Her mistakes, minor setbacks to her, are nails in a coffin to him. Unwarranted panic wells up, as though if she doesn't get this right today there will be no tomorrow. He keeps this inside, contained, until it boils over, manifesting as something akin to anger.

"No! You're making the same mistake. Can't you see that? You'd be dead if this were the real world! Why can't you get this right?"

As soon as he says it, he wants to take it back. He avoids eye contact, a hand going to his hair as he walks away, his heart thudding. It wasn't just what he said. It's what he almost said.

Are you an idiot?

He sits down on a bench, hunched over. I can't do this. I can't. I should've known I wouldn't have the patience, that I'd snap and say something stupid. All I do is hurt her. If Shannon were here…

"Dad?"

He glances up as she sits beside him, swinging her feet slightly. Her eyebrows are scrunched up, eyes searching. She looks like her mother right now.

"Are you upset because I'm bad at this?"

"No. Fuck, no, that's not it."

"Then what?"

He sighs. "I don't know how to do this, Isabel."

She makes a face. "You're a captain. Don't you train people all the time?"

"That's different."

She waits.

"They're already soldiers. I can be… rough with them."

"You think I'm weak?"

"No, Isabel… I'm afraid to hurt you."

She smiles, fully confident. "You'd never hurt me."

"I don't mean physically." He knows exactly how much force is required to take someone down. He knows his body, and his power. It's why she's hit the ground an uncountable number of times today, and with barely a bruise.

But he doesn't have that fine-tuning with words. He doesn't know how to tell her she's doing everything wrong without telling her she's a failure. He doesn't know how to build her up without breaking her down.

"You mean how you yelled at me?"

He nods.

"It's okay. You can tell me when I'm doing stuff wrong."

"No, Isabel, you don't understand."

"Then why… did you leave me back then?"

"I was… unfit… to be a parent."

When Levi comes home, he holds Isabel tightly. She doesn't know why he holds her close, unspeaking. She doesn't know why his emotions are all tangled up in confused knots, or how it is hard to mourn something, someone, so complicated. She does know that he is grieving nonetheless, even if she doesn't know that grief is the name of his sadness.

He promises he won't be like Kenny.

He promises that she'll always know that she is enough.

And he promises he'll be worthy of her.

He spent all that time trying to prove himself, when that was never the question. He doesn't want her to go through that.

"I don't want you thinking you have to win my approval."

"I wouldn't think that."

"Even with me constantly telling you you're doing everything wrong?"

Isabel shrugs slightly. "I don't need you to tell me I'm good at stuff. I already know you love me." Isabel stands up and offers her hand to Levi, all sunshine and smiles. "You just told me so."

Levi doesn't hesitate.

He takes her hand.