Full story synopsis:
Morgen [German]: Tomorrow
This is a short story wherein Levi Ackerman has earned a brand new role for himself: entrepreneurship. Set in 855, the war-torn man is now living on the mainland after proven to be more of a handicap than helpful in his injured state. The homesickness is terrible and all-consuming, but that is until his Second returns a year after the War of Heaven and Earth to open up a flower shop next to his tea shop.
Diana Adler is daisies and roses and tulips and lilies, and pretty flowers that spark life and love every day. But at night, she wilts and close up, reliving the horrors the Survey Corps experienced. He is worn-out, dull and dreary, and just needs a bit of a spark to keep him afloat in a new type of world that is moving too fast.
Navigating love and life is hard enough, but with their new hometown in the deep end of a recession following the calamity of the Rumbling, fueding sides test their patience to stay put, and even their relationship. On the cusp of an all-out civil war, will their relationship wilt, or flourish in spite of it all?
(story content warnings: heavy story ahead. serious manga spoilers for up to, and including, chapter 139. talks and deals with dark content (further on in the story and chapters will be put in place accordingly.) Mental Health issues, self-hatred, Levi being lowkey jealous at times, typical canon violence, gore, blood, marriage for the wrong reasons, death, eventual smut, tooth-rotting fluff here and there, SA, themes of prejudice and war.)
content warnings: this is srsly unedited, and i probably will add more to it/clean things up in a bit. manga spoilers for entire manga, incl. chapter 139. levi being angsty boi. slight gore warning (but it's not too much.)
synopsis: levi has an appointment, goes to the grocery store, unintentionally becomes a cat dad and sees a familiar face move in next door.
first love / late spring - mitski
855:
Red.
Red. Red. Red.
And then a flash of green peering into his grey and milky eyes, tapping his cheeks. There's screaming and crying and lurching forward with nausea. Hands painted red and more shrieking and call out for someone so familiar. A nose is being nuzzled against him up and down his cheeks and a middle and index press to his pulse point.
"Hange!"
A bit of scuffling about his head is lifted.
"Our number one threat is here and all bloodied up. Let's shoot him in the head."
It's not like he'd feel it at this stage, he's that battered and broken. Another scream and the splash of mud and rain as they fall to the floor.
"No, please! You can't kill him! Not him, please!"
"He's dead." The voice came from the former Commander.
And he's awake.
He always wakes with a gasp and turns to his left where there's a bedside locker, a glass of water always there greeting him in the morning.
It takes him a moment to reach for it once he has propped himself up. It's been months since that dream played in his head every night before he blinks away the sleep dust (of whatever sleep he got.) He always has to breathe slowly after it every time.
He'll never get used to the sound of her shrieking and crying like that - it was so animalistic and guttural - and while it has been a year since the incident, it's as fresh as ever. She had always been a silent crier after all.
Once he has drank the water, he groans. His walking cane is a few paces away. He swings his legs over the edge of the bed, bare feet touching the floor. His eyes lock onto the cane with fierce determination, his hands ball into fists as they clutch the navy cotton pajama bottoms. He winces in advance.
He stands. Okay, one step completed.
He chews on his bottom lip as he lifts his leg. It's heavy now, not like how it used to be where he just… didn't notice it. It was just there and he knew it was there.
Now it is - still, of course - there, but the weight to it is now mental.
He places it down and when his foot lands successfully, he sighs in relief. He goes to slide his good leg across the wooden floor for balance. Beads of sweat are dotted around his eyebrows and temples. He's doing well.
Until his right foot wobbles.
"Shit-!"
He throws his arms out forward to reach for the skirting around the open door, but misses.
He's just not as agile as he used to be; not as agile as he was once known to be.
He lets out a pained cry through gnashed teeth. His hands are balled into fists and he slams them on the ground. That's when he hears running up the stairs and the footsteps clambering into his bedroom. A pair of strong hands have him pulled up onto the bed.
"You didn't need to be in so early." Levi said.
"Ah, but who else would have opened up Ackerman's? Besides, I had to feed the kiddos. They were whinging for breakfast." Onyankopon answered.
Levi blinks as Onyankopon finds an outfit for the short man. It's plopped down beside him and Levi inspects it. A blue shirt and dark grey slacks, and a fresh roll of bandages for later on. He knows the dark-skinned man only means well for picking out his outfit, but on top of helping him back on the bed… The whole ordeal makes him feel… babied.
And that can be okay at times. Any other person would appreciate the gesture.
Levi didn't know how to, though. He was not used to being taken care of. He was once a Captain… He did the taking care of and the minding and, during the odd blue moon, listening to his soldiers vent and complain and get emotional.
And now he was being minded.
He feels like a child. He feels like a hindrance, a burden.
It's a stupid and irrational feeling; feeling like he can't be this way.
He wants to be alone, so that he can prove to himself he can be self-sufficient. If not now, then someday in the future. As self-sufficient as he used to be. He wants to be alone because he was not used to the fact that people around him had stopped dying left and right, and if one of them were to vanish out of the blue, he's not sure he'd cope.
He wants to feel like Humanity's Strongest again, someone who was dependable - not dependant - and someone who was strong - not weak like he is now - and someone who could use his damn legs - and not be a cripple.
He shrugs off the negative thoughts - he can do that sort of thinking later - and Onyankopon stands with his back turned as he gets dressed.
"Did they eat?" Levi asks as he buttons up his shirt.
"Yeah, found some ham and cheese and they ate them with your leftover baguettes. You know, Levi, in spite of your leg… your fridge is spotless! I saw my reflection in it."
Levi laughs through his nose. He was still a clean-freak after all the years, and no injury would ever get in the way of that.
"I do my best." He says, simply.
Onyankopon walks over and hands him his cane. With the help of his friend's extended hand, he comes to a stand. "You know, you should leave your cane closer to your bed in future."
The two walk into the hallway and Onyankopon walks down the stairs first to the teashop. They completely bypassed the rest of the apartment, not stopping to open the windows and shutters. They emerged through the creaky wooden door that lead to the stairs that paved the way to the back entrance of the teashop.
"Levi, did you order something?" the man asked, noting Levi walked straight past the boxes that had piled up outside.
Frankly, Levi hadn't noticed them. He doesn't know why they're there and so, he hazards a guess.
"I did send away for some foreign blends not too long ago." He muses.
In the hall they descended, there were two sets of stairs. The second staircase lead up from the abandoned building next door to the teashop. As for the other tenants, there was this silent understanding that they'd use the backstairs and entrance behind the building to access their apartments.
Levi snuffs thinking about the abandoned building. It's been empty for god knows how long, and it just detracts from the exterior of his own teashop. He just hopes it isn't affecting his clientele too much.
"LEEEEEEEEEEVI!" Gabie shrieks once the short man and Onyankopon walk through, almost mimicking the energy Hange used to have.
"Gabie, give him some space, he just woke up!" Falco chastised.
Nevertheless, Gabie loops her arms around him and it has him almost toppling over, again. Couldn't have two falls in one morning. Once Levi finds his footing, he pats her on the back. It was both to return her gesture but also his own silent way of saying "please go away."
Ackerman's was opened at the start of 855 and it sits near the end of the block. The whole street was one of the few streets in Liberio that was completely pedestrianised. Outside the cafe, there were three tables with a set of two wicker chairs with a large umbrella standing over them. Inside the cafe wasn't much different; same style of furniture, except Levi had a shelf dedicated to just tea-leaves. One could scoop some out of the jar, Levi would weigh it and charge accordingly. The shop always smelled like a mixture of green and lavender tea.
Everything was so different now and there was very little left that could bring him back to the old days. But his apartment - much like his old, and now closed, office back on Paradis - always smelled of black tea and pine.
Levi limps over to the counter and takes a look at the red book that keeps all his calculations for rent, utilities and other outgoing costs for both the apartment and building. He sees his scrawl for handwriting with a big red circle around one passage of text.
'Move-In Day.'
"Ah, shit." He grumbles.
"What's up, old man?" Gabie asks.
Levi ignores the dig. "New roommate is in today, slipped my mind."
"Levi, if you're truly strapped for cash, I am happy to loan you some money," Onyankopon offered. "I already talked about it with my fiancée. Rather than have you share your living space with someone-"
"Onyankopon," Levi cuts across, "don't… Besides, everything has been signed."
At this point, Gabie has sat on the countertop by the cash register. And this is something Levi hates.
"Oi, get off the-"
"So if Levi gets a roomie, and if the roomie is a girl, will you date her?" she asks, intensity swirling in her eyes.
"Oh, piss off. And get off my counter."
Maybe the new roommate was already slowly moving in, and maybe that explained the boxes outside his apartment. Were they already moving in?
Levi was stalling now.
"Any… news with you guys?" he asked the three. God, asking that was not something he was used to. It even felt weird coming from his lips.
"Awfully chatty today, Mister Ackerman." Falco observed.
"Mister Ackerman is dawdling." Onyankopon corrected.
"Oh, to hell with you all. I'm leaving now," he announced after taking a pensive breath. He hobbled over to the cloak rack. His fingers fumble around for any loose change for tram fare. He fed his arms through the sleeves of his grey trench coat and matching flat cap. "See you brats later."
"Good luck, Levi!" Gabie and Falco called out in unison.
Levi turned behind him as the door shut and looked over at the abandoned, empty building next to his budding and bright teashop. He noticed boxes stacked up high outside it and he pursed his lips together. Finally, is someone going to inhabit the dilapidated building?
The next stop for the tram was quite a walk, but he could handle it.
He had to, for himself.
For people around him as well, perhaps.
The man was so desperate to still be useful and needed. He was not used to being told to sit things out, or being told something akin to "actually, I'll ask someone else to do that for me" and it hurt. And it, of course, would hurt. Going from being needed to discarded. It was why he was advised to leave Paradis behind because Humanity's Strongest wasn't needed when he was a cripple. Nor was his presence even needed in courtrooms to sign things over with Armin since he was now so "weak"-looking.
So, now, he was a business owner and he loved it. There were things he was not used to about it still. Like not having to open on a Sunday, just because? He had no idea what to do with himself the first Sunday. He stayed in bed and stared at the ceiling, and then Gabie and Falco came over with books and sketch pads. Levi couldn't even draw a stickman and it felt so nice being so bad at something so inconsequential. So unnecessary.
But, shit, that feeling of being a handicap to those around him ached him.
It has been almost a year since he saw his former squad. What were they doing? How were they doing? Almost a year since Ackerman's opened and none had come to visit yet?
Levi was homesick, and admitting it made him feel so… silly.
But if he could use his damn leg… then maybe… maybe he could go back to Paradis. Open up a tea shop there. Be with his friends there.
Whilst holding onto a pull bar that hung on the wall in the tram, his mind was as busy as the traffic outside the window. It wasn't long until he had reached his destination. He checked his leather satchel for his visitor's pass and photo ID of who he was. By being so distracted this morning - even if it was on purpose - he forgot to put on his armtag. It wasn't enforced anymore as much, but you needed it going into the Marleyan side of the city still or in any medical buildings, grocery stores and recreational areas.
Levi walked into the reception of the hospital after signing in at the front door and proving who he was.
He was an Ackerman, but still an Eldian. Half Eldian, perhaps? Well, it's not like he knew who his father was.
Of course peace between the two races would never come easily - especially after the hell they went through only a year ago - but Levi would always bite his lower lip when a security guard snuffed upon him mentioning he was Eldian.
Someone who killed their wonderboy, Zeke.
Someone who was part of the raid on Liberio.
Frankly, he was already tired and had only been away from his teashop for an hour.
He sat in the waiting room and the smell of clean kept him grounded. People were walking in and out of clinic rooms. Some people came in with flowers, he heard the sound of newborn infants crying from the maternity ward nearby, and he heard adults crying too.
Stay grounded, he had to remind himself. He had to stay focused during this appointment.
"Mister Levi Ackerman?" a doctor called after a few hours.
Typical hospitals and their too-long waiting times, he mutters to himself.
Levi raised his hand slightly, indicating he heard her call him. He pressed himself off the chair with a grunt and began to limp to her office.
The routine questions began once Levi showed his arm-tag and proof of identification again.
Stay grounded, he said to himself once more.
"Now, let's look at that leg, shall we?"
And he was gone instantly, lost in thoughts and memories that seemed much more pleasant than talking about his damn leg.
.
.
.
"How have you been doing lately, sir? Up to much?"
"Stop with the 'sir' shit," he barked at her instantly. He sighed and sat down beside her on the steps of the Mess Hall that looked out into the quadrangle courtyard. "Fine. Paperwork… What about you?"
He searched for her green eyes and there was that familiar glint of hope in your eyes cast on a backdrop curtain of hopelessness.
She stared on into the inky sky dotted with stars as she took her time to answer his question. He couldn't ignore the bags under her eyes despite her young age and the wrinkle already imprinting itself into her forehead, making her look thirty rather than nineteen. Her blonde hair was tousled, despite it being cut to sit at her shoulders. Looks like she hasn't washed it in a few days, seeing how matted it looked today. It normally had a healthy glow to it.
She really had seen better days.
"Reading… studying…" she murmured.
Levi pursed his lips. He missed the times where they would walk together and talk about things not to do with 'him'. Hell, talk about 'him' but not the depressing shit.
But he understood she was in desperate need of an outlet.
"About you-know-what, I take it?"
She brought her knees to her chest and she could already feel her eyes well with tears. He spots it and he stands. He knows why she's up to her eyeballs in books lately, researching with Hange and in turn spending more time with them. Not that he minded too much, but his heart twisted more and more seeing her like this.
"Vice Captain, you look terribly glum and you should definitely sleep more." He remarked as he pulled her up.
Diana quickly flicked away his hands and put on a smile again. It looked real, yet so fake too. An empty smile.
"Easy for you to say, Captain," she jabbed back. "You've seen better days."
He was trying to distract her, and frankly, she needed it so she took it as best as she could. "So this is just a case of the pot calling the kettle black, eh?"
"And the kettle says it back, I suppose?"
And he hears her laugh so he picks up the pace.
He likes walking with her.
"So… have you considered amputation?"
Wait… What?!
.
.
.
.
Oh, he was being brought back to reality.
And it was the doctor who asked him that question.
Damn, could he not go back to walking with her?
"Could you repeat that, please?" he asked.
The doctor cleared her throat and adjusted her glasses. "I said, have you considered amputation…? I mean, I am seeing a lot of needless pain a-and…" She stops speaking as she feels his eye of liquid mercury bore through her and she has to stop speaking to collect herself, "a lot of muscle and tissue was taken by that bite."
While he was 'walking' with her, his slacks had been rolled up on his right leg. He looks down at his thigh and he suddenly wants to gag, but he suppresses it as well as he suppresses every other emotion. The flesh is still pink and red even after all this time, and it sinks into where the teeth had his leg. It looks like a gnarled tree trunk, only it is an ominous fleshy colour.
He looked at the scar again and this time outwardly grimaced. He rolls the slack leg down.
"I like my leg." He replied, stiffly.
I like walking with Diana, he finds himself saying. It sounds silly - the fact that midnight strolls with her had such a profound impact on him (and the midnight therapy sessions?) - but those were the times he had the most memories with her. Diana always had the power to bring him back to the old days.
With his legs, he could walk with her again some day… if she decided to come over to visit.
But it had been a year.
It had been a year and he had to move on.
"Well, uh, you have very nice legs!" the doctor joked, a fruitless attempt at trying to make him smile. She recollected herself. "Well, the surgeons here removed a lot of the necrotic tissue from the injury but my issue is… is there enough leg… left… to function properly on a day to day basis?"
Levi's answers are cold, stiff and to the point. "I'm in pain every day, but I can still walk fine enough with a cane."
"It took a huge effort to get up out of the seat in the waiting room."
"As it would with an injury like this. I like my leg," he repeated, firmly, "I've had it for as long as I can remember. They carry me from room to room, and they both got me on the bus to get here this morning."
The doctor sighs, knowing she isn't going to get through to him. She doesn't know if she ever will.
"Okay, well, regardless, don't let it get infected. Keep it clean."
Levi stands and has to bite his lip so that it doesn't look like he is in pain as he rises to a stand. "Been a pleasure, doc." He declared as he slipped a few notes her way to pay for the appointment.
Levi hobbles out of the hospital after that useless appointment and waits for the tram to arrive at the hospital again. A stranger spotted him using the cane and extended his hand out. With one more pensive stare back at the hospital, not wanting to admit that perhaps the function of his leg had run its course, he took the hand and nodded his thanks.
The tram always stopped at the store a block away from his tea shop at around 5PM every weekday. He stepped off and walked into the shop. He was really eager for a cup of tea now, but first, dinner. He grabs a metal basket and gets to work.
He walked past the produce section and grabbed some potatoes, carrots, onions and a leek. That can make a stew, or some side dishes. Levi isn't a fussy eater - if it has calories, great, he'll eat it - and taste doesn't mean anything to him. But with Gabie and Falco sometimes swinging by and asking him for breakfast, he wonders if he needs to put more effort into what's in his pantry.
"Absolute parasites," he muttered under his breath as he picked up a six-pack carton of eggs.
Levi always squints when he inspects meat and fish. He spent years scrutinizing Erwin Smith's handwriting - which isn't as neat as one might think - and he at least expected the printed cooking directions on the back of the salmon to not be so waterlogged and smudged over. He decides to ask the fishmonger in the store instead, that way it would be fresh.
As homesick as Levi was for Paradis, he loved the option of having meat every day. Onyankopon once invited him over to introduce him to his fiancée and he stayed the night. Levi awoke to the smell of bacon and he smirks as he remembers examining the bacon the day of. He couldn't believe how bountiful meat was here and how it could still be high quality. (In fact, Onyankopon had to swear to him he wouldn't get food poisoning from his fiancée's cooking.)
What Levi inspects the most is the selection of tea leaves and teabags. They are never up to his standard. On his first visit, he picked up every jar of the loose leaves and smelled them. He got a few stares, but he only stared back.
He leaves the store with the plastic bag and walks across the road before sitting on the bench. He massages around the injury with the plastic bag left by his side.
He lets out a sigh, the sun setting behind him. With his eyes shut, his brain finally shuts off. That is until he hears a pitter-patter. His eyes open and he spots the source of the noise.
A cat.
Now perched on his lap, the cat is staring up at him.
"What do you want?" Levi snarled. The cat walks over to the bag and buries its head inside. "Not today, kitty. Not my salmon."
With a grunt, he heads home. He just wanted a damn break. A cup of tea. Maybe he'd go home and read that book he bought recently. It was a romance leading into a crime book… and he was oddly excited about starting it.
Pitter.
Patter.
Levi turned around. "Aw, seriously?" He looks around and checks the traffic and oncoming pedestrians and cars.
Levi did not want to become a pet owner right now. He had enough going on in his life. Sighing heavily, he reaches into his satchel and unveils the dagger he has kept around with him since he was a child. When Kenny taught him how to use a knife, he didn't expect it to be used for slicing open his wrapped-up salmon to give it to a stray cat to save it from following him home.
It's a black, short-haired cat with white mittens and its tail had a white tip at the end. Levi had no time to play vet and know its gender as he had to lock-up after Onyankopon. But he did notice that one of its eyes was milky.
"Twins, I guess." He mumbled as he tossed the raw salmon out on the ground.
Once he heard purring, he turned around and made another attempt to head home.
It's a ten minute hobble to get from the store to Ackerman's. He bids goodbye to the three who managed the shop for the day and he is relieved to see they did a good job, customers patting him on the back saying how his tea was the finest in the city.
On an ordinary day, he'd thank them for coming but today, he was tired. More tired than normal. So today, he just nods and roots around for the key.
"Alright, thank you!" comes a voice to his right. From the abandoned building.
His heart stills at the familiarity of the voice and he can't stop his lips from parting.
.
.
.
.
"Sketching instead of training, Adler?"
He caught her many a time sitting under the shade of a weeping willow, watching her teammates zip through the air, slicing the necks of Titan dummies. He realized then and there she wasn't in the mood to train the squad today or do paperwork for him today. She needed a break.
If it were any other person in a normal situation unlike her own, he'd have kicked them up to a stand and kicked them again towards the field.
But this was Diana, and he knew her. Too well, one might say.
He also knew what she was going through.
He let out a sigh and came to a seat, peering into the sketchbook. It was just a plain building, drawn on a cul-de-sac with the sun hiding behind.
"Tell me, Levi, what flowers do you like?" she asked.
"What kind of shit question is that?" he replied with a raised brow. She waited with an eager look in her emerald eyes and he knew she probably wasn't going to be satisfied unless he answered. "Lilies, I guess. I don't fucking know."
And so she began to draw a bunch of lilies potted outside the building.
.
.
.
Funny how the lilies outside the abandoned building matched her drawing, right?
Then the figure came out of the shop, and his vision splintered. Crumbling and crackling.
Colours.
Colours of red, of blue, of yellow and green. His vision is now suddenly saturated, and his world is tipped on its axis. The pain in his leg is gone and his feet move. He doesn't even notice the nagging weight that has been on his leg for the past year, nor does he feel it being dragged behind him.
He hears the running of footsteps and the weight of the entire world is thrust upon him when he feels her arms loop around his neck. Her hands are stroking his face as she babbles and waffles about how long the journey was over here and how tired she was.
And how much she missed him.
"Diana...?" the name leaves him and it feels so foreign having not had a reason to say for a year.
God, is it really her?
He allows himself to relax a small bit, and for the first time in a year, he doesn't feel so homesick. It's all pleasant and great as he listens to her babble the way you used to… until he feels a touch of cold on his cheekbone. Her hands fall and he sees the source of the sudden feeling of cold.
Her wedding band.
Oh.
"It's great to see you, Levi!" she beamed.
He's delighted to see her too, but his eyes are stuck on the ring of gold on her ring finger. He can't tear his gaze away, no matter how much he wants to focus on the fact that she was back. Back after one painfully long year.
"We get to be roomies too, after all this time!"
And suddenly he's brought back to reality.
"R-Roomies?"
do let me know what you guys thought! those of you who may have come here because you follow my other Levi x OC story EOAL, I'm sorry for not updating. I have no excuses apart from poor mental health and the final year of my degree whooping my ass. Seriously, 4th year is no joke oml. But I was itching to write, it's always been a stress-reliever for me.
can't promise super fast updates with this either, but this story has been in my head for MONTHS. if you guys like it so far, even if it is just the first chapter, let me know and maybe it'll motivate me to write faster!