This story just came to me today and even though I have an ongoing fanfic, I just have to write this. I'm pretty hyped for this one so I'm gonna likely try to finish this first. Hopefully it doesn't take long. Please give it a try and if you like it, please comment. I'd really love to know what y'all think! Reader version is on Ao3, same username but underscore instead of dash~
Of all the strangest, fucked up things in the world... this is something Levi has not expected to run into.
Well that is the understatement of the century. He has not expected this at all. This scenario hasn't even crossed his mind, not something that he's just randomly imagined finding himself in.
This is so unprecedented. So out-of-the-blue as a meteorite crashing into the earth's surface. Weirder than even Hange's experiments. A completely out-of-this-world phenomenon.
So maybe those comparisons are a bit of an exaggeration, but they're as close as they can get to how clearly messed up the state Levi is currently in.
As messed up as the sight in front of him, and the situation that is soon to follow. A situation that, no doubt, he is now an unwitting and unwilling part of.
...
Levi doesn't really know the family. Barely knows anyone in his neighborhood, for that matter. He's not the type of person to socialize. The only thing that makes him a part of the neighborhood is the fact that his house is located there and nothing else.
Hange often teases him about it, that even though he has resided there for more than half of his life — he's been living there for a little over ten years, having moved there after being taken in by his uncle when he was just nine — he wouldn't be able to recognize the faces of his neighbors if something comes up that needs some identification. That usually earns his crazyass of a friend — yes he actually has friends outside his residential area — a scoff. He won't benefit from getting chummy with these people. And if that scenario she describes even happens at all, there are others to bother with questioning. Of course he doesn't entirely mean that, only saying it to counter the annoying woman's teasing. As someone who intends to become a man of the law, he knows he has to be observant and all. But for reasons he's actually aware of, Levi has a bit of an issue with the rich people. Not that he needs to make an effort in trying to be friendly. Those people are stuck-up and keep to themselves just as much as he does.
Unbelievable as it may seem, Levi actually lives in an uptown community. He's not particularly well-off, but his Uncle Kenny, after having left him with the house to travel to who-knows-where, has left him with a decent amount of money to help him survive. Not one to live frivolously considering how dirt-poor he and his mother were before she died and his uncle found him, Levi has learned to properly manage his resources at a young age. And having applied for part-time positions since high-school, he's never had to struggle financially.
His days usually comprise of attending university, going to work at the cafe, sometimes hanging out with his group of friends — surprisingly, even as gruff and unsociable as he is, the weirdo student-scientist isn't the only one who's got guts to actually approach him — and then coming back to his big, empty house. He's not exactly lonely, but sometimes he can't help but think that his life is so mundane. Not that he's the adventurous, thrill-seeking type of guy, but he hopes that after graduation, when he finally applies for a job in the force, that things will start running eventually.
Apart from his residence being his sort of sanctuary where he gets to eat, sleep, and have some privacy, Levi has no real attachments to the place. Especially since, to him, his neighbors might as well be non-existent. Although, one of them — it's a family, in fact — kind of stands out, but not due to anything remotely personal to him. Maybe 'standing out' is hardly the term for it; he's just unwittingly, perhaps unconsciously, singled them out because they're the only ones that he even remotely recognizes from among his many neighbors in all his years living there. And the only reason Levi actually knows about them is due to their house being next to his.
True to his attitude towards his neighbors, Levi doesn't really know anything about the family. Not a surname to attach to the vaguely distinguishable faces. All he knows is the couple have a kid, if she's even their kid. He's seen their car come out of the drive whenever he locks his door in the morning. He hears the engine quite late into the night, everytime he prepares for another battle with his insomnia. Sometimes, he sees the child playing on the lawn, small and quiet as she sits on the ground with her small collection of toys. Levi doesn't really care, but he's only taken to lingering a bit with his stare after he's caught her almost burying half of her body in the bushes. He wondered what the hell she was doing, until he heard the barest of whispers. She was talking to something — someone? in the bushes? — and Levi was suddenly reminded of a certain mad woman, and wondered briefly if the child is kind of loose in the head as well.
Besides seeing and hearing their car at the opposite hours of the day and catching the little girl on their lawn occasionally, Levi has nothing more to do with the neighboring family. Apart from these little details, they simply fade into the roster with the rest, and the young man continues his life without much incident, or anything at all to stir up his pretty much straightforward life.
He really should have watched what he wishes for.
Levi hasn't really thought...
It hasn't occurred to him at first, minding his own business as usual. It has been a hectic, tensed week; Levi has a co-worker who is an asshole, and has been hellbent on causing trouble for him since day one. The guy can try, but apart from Levi seeing him as no more than a low-life, pathetic excuse of a human, as well as a waste of air and space, he'll only raise his brows in absolute mockery if the man dares think he can actually make any kind of impact on Levi's life. And as much as Levi wants to beat the man to his proper place — on his ass — he's simply far too insignificant for Levi to waste any strength on. But then things has come to a head on Monday when the shithead made a pass at one of their female fellow co-workers, after jeering at her and making fun of her supposed feelings for Levi in front of everybody. The humiliated girl could do nothing but excuse herself poorly and hurriedly leave. And for his trouble, the jerk has finally met with the impossibly strong man's fist, and has quite remarkably learned his first lesson from him to never mess with the Ackerman. That punch has been a long time coming, but Levi felt incredibly justified, and, well, good.
Unfortunately, that didn't sit well with his boss, considering Levi did it in direct and complete view of the customers. And even though everyone knew he did it to salvage the woman's tattered dignity, it didn't change the fact that an employee has resorted to violence and in front of the customers nonetheless, especially since theirs is an esteemed brand cafe. So Levi was put under probation and suspended for a whole month, not that he cares specifically, moreso when the asshole himself was put under probation, suspension (for two months), and still a deliberation for termination. The halt in his salary is a shame, but honestly, Levi thinks this is a good time as ever.
Exams are up, and Levi has been poring over his study materials for the better part of the last month. What more, he's been getting less and less sleep lately, and consequentially, more and more tired too. And it's not just from the lack of much needed rest; he's more than accustomed to that, having suffered through his insomnia since he was a child. Before, despite finding it hard to fall asleep, he can still sit on his chair and close his eyes, or drink tea if it gets worse. The lack of sleep is surely harrowing, but at the very least, he's able to relax his body and mind. Now, however, even that downtime is robbed off of him when he is forced to use the time to study instead.
As a result, he's about at the end of his wits, his nerves ready to snap any time. So really, Levi thinks sarcastically, if there's one good, measly thing the guy at the cafe can do in his life, it's his perfect timing that has lead Levi to forcibly take a break from work so he can focus all his quickly sapping energy on his studies.
So no, Levi hasn't really noticed that it's been a full week since the daily routine with his family-neighbor has abruptly stopped. Well, he has noticed it after a week has passed.
He's not even thinking about it, lying on his bed for once with his eyes closed, feeling the exhaustion take over his body, ready to sweep him off to dreamland, when suddenly, his eyes snap open. Looking into the darkness of his room that's barely illuminated by the moon shining through the gaps in the leaves of the tree by the side of his window, he listens carefully for any sign, any sound.
But there's only crickets and more silence.
Not having paid attention, he's not sure how long it has been, but what comes over now with a dawning realization is he hasn't heard or seen anything from the house next to his in a while. He's not certain when exactly it has started, too caught up in his own matters as he is, but now that he's thought about it...
...
...Did they go somewhere? Go on vacation? Move houses?
After the initial astonishment, Levi decides it doesn't matter. It's not like it's his business anyway wherever the family has planned to go. Yes, he's more familiar with them than any other ones in their community, but only because he's heard them, seen their daughter or whoever-she-is, for probably more or less fifty times more than he's ever seen the rest. In ten years. So no shit. They're practically strangers to him.
So perhaps, Levi supposes as he closes his eyes once again, the slight twinge he's felt earlier at the sudden realization that the family of three might be gone is nothing. He's just momentarily caught off guard because he hasn't immediately noticed something is out of the ordinary until much time has already passed, and the sharp awareness of the fact is so abrupt it feels as though he's gone on a time-skip. At most, that brief passing emotion is simply a knee-jerk reaction. It isn't as if he's somehow found some sort of surface-level attachment to them, or to the weird kid talking to the bushes particularly, that their absence has made him a sentimental guy all of a sudden.
Levi has had to witness and experience more important people to him come and go in his life. The 'loss' of a random family that's not even his doesn't mean anything to him.
He wills his mind to clear and finally allows himself to succumb to sleep.
As he starts to fall into slumber, a distant sound that distinctly resembles a mewl reaches his ears, and in his sleep-deprived and almost unconscious mind, the young man vaguely registers it as some stray kitten wandering about his lawn. As his breath evens out, what he fails to recognize is another sound, louder this time but still quiet in the night — a sniffle that soon turns into a low, pitiful whimpering that only ends in the crack of dawn.
Thanks for reading! I'll try to post the next chapter soon. Please review ;))