If anyone would have told Hanji Zoe, to believe into the fictional creatures in books and old folks tales in town, spoken by parents to keep their children away from the forest, she would have told them they are crazy.
There exists no vampires, demons, Werewolf's or witches even if they were labeling her one fight now.

Hanji Zoe was a healer with a vast knowledge of herbs and other healing methods all around the world from her travels.
She never stood at one place for long. Somehow ever since she was little, she was different and felt the urge to travel and see the world. To find something on her journey, even if she had no idea what exactly she was looking for.
Hanji supposed her heart would tell her when she found it.

Her lifelong journey had ended two days ago.
Accused of dark sorcery. Killing the lord of the small town she arrived to a few days before. Just like in any town for some money to earn Hanji offered her healer knowledge and helped anyone in town that needed medical attention.
This never was a problem and every time the towns people were grateful for her, offering her sometimes free lodgings for a day or two or some food for her long travels as well.
The lord in this town she had arrived to was very sick. Not even his wealth could protect him from his upcoming sooner or later demise.
The brunette got invited into his humble manor after the rumors spread fast in town of a brown haired woman which healed the most problematic sicknesses with her herbs and portions.
Unfortunately Hanji could not heal him but she could at least ease his pain and make him feel a little more energetic again.
Giving him some special teas to drink and a portion she mixed together she left again. She got a handful of gold for her service even which would help a lot on her travels. She could need some new clothed and a weapon in case of robbers or wild animals. It was not uncommon for her to camp into the wilderness as well.

A loud banging on her door woke her up from her slumber.

„Huh? I am coming… I have to get dressed first."

Putting quickly some clothes on herself, Hanji went to open the door only to have 5 or more soldiers barge into her lodging's room.

„Miss Hanji Zoe? You are under arrest for sorcery and dark magic practice and to kill the Lord Franziskus the III! A trial will be hold shortly to decide your fate!"

Without further warning two soldiers grabbed her by the arms and roughly began pulling her with them.

"What!? Wa-wait! LET ME GO! There is a misunderstanding! I didn't do anything! LET ME GO!"

Hanji yelled and struggled but no avail.

"Shut up witch! Your mouth is full of lies! The townspeople will decide on your punishment. Now come or we will kill you right here!"

Before Hanji could respond she felt a dull pain in her stomach, looking down she saw one soldier has hit her in the stomach hard. She felt her conscious fading and everything turned black.

The next time Hanji woke up she groaned in pain. Everything hurt. Her whole body was on fire.
She was on her knees on the cold dirty stone ground sitting. Pulling at her arms the brunette noticed she was unable to move them. The rattling of the chains and painful handcuffs, cutting in her flesh slowly more a grim reminder how they had handcuffed her against the stone wall of her cell, with her arms over her head hanging.
Memories came back to her and Hanji let out a painful chuckle. In her fading conscious being on and off between asleep and awake state she started to remember what they had done to her.
At first they started to punch her after they chained her up into her prison cell until they had enough and Hanji was a bloody mess, than they ripped her shirt open and cut her skirt with a sword to have their fun with her even more.
Hanji was glad she supposed her conscious was fading more due to the relentless beating from before at that part and she didn't had to endure most of this shame in a awake state.

They must have left her to rot in her cell after they were all satisfied with her.
Of course no punishment would befall them. If a woman was labeled as a witch there was no return. She would receive the death penalty.
The question was only in what way they would kill her?
Burn her on a stake alive in the town center?
Drown her in the river?
Cut her head off?

At this rate Hanji only hoped they would decide fast on a method.
The longer she was rotting in here the more times these bastards of soldiers had time to torture her for their own entertainment.

"So this is how it ends for Hanji Zoe eh? What a pitiful life."

"Indeed what a pitful life, shitty glasses. If you would have stopped hiding so long for me I could have prevent this."

"Who is there!?"

Snapping her head up she frantically looked around from where this sudden deep mocking voice could be coming from.

Her vision was blurred regrettably because of the loss of her glasses. They were probably by now shattered into tiny pieces in some corner lying if Hanji had to guess.
It didn't help either that night time must be by now again. There was only a very small with metal bares closed window in front of her on the opposite wall, letting only a little bit of moonlight inside her cell. It was enough for her to make out the dark sky however and figure out what rough time was it.

"Where are you!? Show yourself!" She shouted again.

"Look a little more up, idiot. But I suppose in your current state this might be a bit difficult."

Forcing her head up, Hanji's eyes widened in shock.
Floating in the air, slowly coming lower was a person completely in a black cloak covered. A hoodie over his head hiding his face. But the most fearsome thing wasn't his appearance but what he held in his hand. It was a huge long scythe and it was dripping with blood.

Descending down to barely float over the ground, the mysterious person removed his hood and revealed a raven haired with an undercut male, handsome face, sharp ice blue eyes and unreleased expression on his face.

"The fact you see me, means your life is hanging already in thin air Hanji Zoe. You know who I am, right?"

Putting bis scythe on the ground, he used his left free hand and reached out to her. Hanji didn't even flinch as her cheek made contact his cold hands, cupping her cheek until they moved down along her jawline and settled on her chin.
Her brown eyes were clued to him. She didn't understand why. She didn't understand about anything what was going on. But the moment she laid eyes on him her heart was beating faster, she felt like she has finally perhaps found this something she had lost. This whatever it is what she was looking for and made her feel empty inside her body as long as she can think. Part of her lifelong journey was to discover whatever she was yearning for. To find it and never let it go again.

"The grim reaper…"

A small smirk tugged up his lips as he held her chin up in a place.

"That's right. I was searching for so long for you Hanji… finally I found you again…"

His eyes traveled down her exposed body and full of body fluid, blood and dirt. Grimacing and gritting his teeth, he growled.

"You look like shit."

His actions made Hanji blush in embarrassment. Blushing because of the grim reaper checking out her body?
She would be soon death now that he is here so why would she care about how her body looks.
She had so many unanswered questions but instead she settled on the most obvious one.

"You are going to kill me, right?"

Looking back up at her, the raven haired, took out a handkerchief from somewhere inside his coat and draped it over the blood remains on her cheek, whipping her clean.

"You are going to die tomorrow at 10AM in the morning. They will burn you alive, tied against a wooden stake."

Informing her of her demise Hanji gulped. Silently the mysterious grim reaper proceeded to move lower her body and clean her up as good as he could. Hanji hissed at some of her wounds getting touched and she found it endearing how just for a brief second his movements ceased before they carefully continued, more gentle than before.

"I see. But than Mr. reaper why are you here already? Aren't you too early?"

Sighing he stopped and threw his handkerchief away into some corner. It was sullen now beyond repair for him.

"You don't remember anything yet I suppose. Stop calling me Mr. Reaper. My name is Levi. You should know that or at least you did once."

His voice was gruff. Clearly bothered by the lack of knowledge she possessed.

"Levi… L-Levi…" the words danced over her tongue and out of her dry lips.

Such a familiar feeling was coming over her. As if she knew this name for centuries.

His expression uncharacteristically softened upon seeing her deep in thoughts expression while she repeated his name as if trying yo recall something important

"Let me help you out and remember a little shitty glasses. Before you must make a decision.

Closing his eyes, Levi suddenly touched her cheeks with both of his hands, leaning closer until their foreheads touched.
At that moment it was like a sharp electrical spike moved through her whole body. Memories flashed inside her head in an instant. Soldiers, deaths, titans, a river, a forest and fire. In almost all of those moments was he. Riding next to her on a horse, bringing her a cup of black tea, gracing her with a rare smile, catching her if she got into trouble a bloodied mess of his face she was holding while she felt like bursting into tears.

"Ahhh!"

Letting go of her the memories stopped flooding her mind.
Suddenly she felt nauseous and threw up all of the contents of her stomach in front of herself.

"Easy there shitty glasses. Tch, this was probably too much for you to handle all at once." Pulling her hair to the side, Levi helped her lean forward and not to throw up everything over her own body.

Panting Hanji tried to regain her breathing and to understand what had just happened.

"Levi… what did you…"

"Your memories. I showed you a glimpse of them. From your past life- our past life."

Past lives… thinking again Hanji remembered… that gaping hole in her chest, that part she was missing and desperately was searching for. Of course she was never to find it, him. He is the goddamn grim reaper!

"How could you become the grim reaper, doing such dirty work, aren't you a clean freak?" Hanji chuckled and joked.

Tears began forming into her eyes and rolling down her cheeks but despite this she was smiling. Those were happy tears.
Noticing this, Levi leaned over and quickly wiped them away from his thumb.

"I'm good at killing. Besides you are the dirty ugly mess not me."

"Well sorry, I couldn't wear my finest attire. If I had only known to see you again I would have picked out something else than these ripped clothes and bathed…" Hanji joked despite the miserable situation she was in.

Seeing her uncomfortable look Levi picked up his scythe again and raised it.

"Don't move."

For a moment Hanji feared the worst and closed her eyes as the scythe swung down her head. However all she felt was it sweeping over her head. A moment later the restrains from her arms loosened and her arms were free.

"Huh? I am free?"

Looking down at her hands, Hanji sighed relieved. At least she could move move a little more freely now.
Suddenly Levi grabbed her by her left arm and pulled her up. The force of his strength was so strong she just stumbled right into his chest. There was no warmth. He was ice cold. She felt no heartbeat either obviously. Even so Hanji did feel her body heat up as Levi embraced her.

"Don't worry. I have dealt with those that hurt you. The blood was from them."

Realizing what he meant, her eyes widened but even so she didn't felt fear for him. She wasn't scared of Levi and just snuggled closer into his chest.

"I see."

They remained like this for a while until Levi found the words again. He knew he could not wait any longer.

"Hanji… I have a important question for you. You must make a decision now."

Giving her room to move, Hanji looked up at him. Since he was still floating into the air he was taller than her.

"Levi? Why do you look so troubled?"

"… you have two options Hanji. But none of them will make you end up being alive Hanji. You will die tomorrow no matter what." Fear spread inside her body but Levi patting her head to try to calm her down were at least a little bit spending comfort to her. "You can wait in this cell and I will let you die tomorrow burning alive. After you died I will collect your soul and guide you to the afterlife where you will go through the flow of life and get reborn again. But your memories, the fact we met again. All of this will be forgotten. You will start a new life."

"No, I don't want that!" Her answer came out instantly, her grip tightening on his black cloak.

"In this case… I will kill you right now and take your soul with me. I won't guide you to the afterlife but kidnap you. Your existence will cease to exist and you will life a hidden life with me. I will fulfill your old wish and we run away together… if this is what you want. This time I won't tell you we cannot do it…"

"But this will get you into trouble, won't it?" Hanji asked him scared.

"I don't care."

"But Levi-"

"I only care about you, shitty glasses."

Hanji's heart skipped a beat or maybe two. She wasn't sure but she sure she was blushing a lot.

There wasn't much for Hanji to think about. Nothing held her back in this life or in any new life. Leaving his embrace, Hanji did a very familiar salute but instead of touching her heart she touched his chest where his heart was supposed to be at least with her fist and smiled.

"I want to be with you Levi The grim reaper. Please kill me and take me away. You are my home and nowhere else. I already knew this in the forest. I only needed you to be happy."

If Levi had any life left inside his body he would be probably blushing now and his heart would burst out of his chest. However he wasn't alive anymore so his body didn't reacted in any way. The soft loving look he gave her however told Hanji everything she needed to know.

"The next time you will open your eyes all your pain will be gone. Your memories will have fully returned and I will be by your side again forever this time."

Cupping her warm cheeks with his ice cold hands, Levi leaned in and pressed his cold lips against her inviting warms ones, draining the life from her body.

Who would have thought that the kiss of death would be this tender and romantic?

Her body falling limp, Levi catched her. But not her cold empty body he catched. What Levi held and tightly hugged to himself was her unconscious soul. Slightly transparent, glowing a little in the darkness of the cell. The soul of Hanji Zoe he had finished collecting and yearning to hold for so many years long.

"Let's go and finally live together just the two of us, right Hanji?"

"I am so tired…" huffing exhausted, a raven haired grim reaper unlocked the door to his house surrounded by a big forest inside his realm. "Erwin that slave driving bastard…"

"Ah Levi your are back! Welcome home."

Looking up Levi felt all his negativity leave his body as he met eyes with his beloved standing at the doorway in the kitchen, wearing an apron. She was cooking something despite both of them not having the need to eat anything to survive however Hanji said she wanted to remember to be human always.
Their house was created to match their wish how they wanted to live together in the human world. The forest because of the promise they had made so many centuries ago. Since this was Levi's realm he could do anything and create anything in it. Even if the forest and world he created was not real.
This wasn't earth anymore.
This was the world between the living and death. The world where every creature was existing angels in heaven, demons in hell and grim reapers here close to hell yet not in hell. It was hard to explain.
Vampires, Succubus all had special realms where the owner could create and do anything they wanted.
For Levi it was their forest with the little house they had.

Moving closer up to her, Hanji met him halfway and hugged him. Feeling her kiss the top of his head Levi sighed in content. He loved getting showered by her love.
He never wanted to miss this again.

"Was Erwin horrible to you again? I still cannot believe how he ended up becoming a demon and became your superior again."

"Hm. Eyebrow made me work three times as much all because I killed three stupid guards no one was going to miss anyway."

Hanjj chuckled, pulling his head up and kissed his temple. "And because you kidnapped me. Because you didn't do your job and instead killed 3 guards which weren't supposed to die that day, remember?"

"They raped you! They deserved worse than what I did to them." Levi growled before he leaned up and captured her lips with his own. Suddenly Levi had made some change of plans. Grabbing her he lifted her up by her legs, making them slung around his waist.

Squealing Hanji moved her arms around his neck and giggled.

"Levi what are you doing!?"

"Bed. Now. I need to supply my energy after eyebrow did this all to me."

Hanji smiled happily.
She hoped Levi would still be in such a good mood after she told him that Erwin accepted her request. She asked Erwin if she can become a grim reaper and help Levi out.
Erwin earlier gave her a call and gave his okay.

After all she was Hanji Zoe. And Hanji Zoe cannot stand still and she must always be in action. Being soldiers together and now being grim reapers together.