21 October, 1942
4:01 am
It was about two days.
Two days that Hanji Zoe had been in the hospital.
When he ran into the building, his uniform and body were splattered in a crimson red, and his hand was gripping Hange's hand. The sight of her nearly dead body was enough to make him lose his damn mind.
Blood was dripping down her forehead, and some of the skin around there had been torn open a bit to reveal a bit of raw flesh. Her glasses were lost in the crash, but her eyes were shut tight as if she were already dead.
But she wasn't yet.
When Levi saw the her crippled, broken body near the heap of metal once known as her plane, the world before him nearly disappeared. Her crippled, bloody body was all that he could see.
He ran to her, collapsing onto her. He held on to her, squeezed her as tightly as he could. But the only response he got was a dead silence. All his nightmares he had once dreamed of had come alive, his dream was now a nightmare in his arms, as lifeless as a doll.
"Hange! Hanji! FOUR-EYES! Come on, Hange, y-you can't die. You promised you wouldn't die. WE PROMISED EACH OTHER!"
A still, empty void.
His voice was nearly cracked. And so he screamed, screamed so the whole damned world would know. He cursed, he screamed, he cursed again.
"Why. Why do you have to be such an idiot, Four-Eyes?"
He thought of his title, his so-called heroic, brave title. It never held any meaning to him, not when people saw him and said that he didn't even deserve that name, humanity's strongest. The name didn't suit him anyway.
Because Humanity's Strongest had a weakness. And it was the commander lying in his arms.
She was laying in bed now. Somehow, Hanji had managed to survive the crash. Her lungs were ruptured, the majority of her ribs broken, not to mention her bones as well. She'd probably be left paralyzed for a while though, and be made to stay in the hospital for even longer. The trees that had broken her fall were responsible for saving her life. Had they not been there, he didn't want to think of what he thought earlier.
A knock on the door. A wisp of blond hair. Erwin had appeared.
"Not awake, yet?"
"At least she's not going to be preparing for her funeral."
"Sour as always, Levi."
He walked over to the same side of Hanji that Levi was on, his eyes falling on the hand that was holding her right hand. A sigh escaped from his mouth, then he shook his head.
"Love. It has so many effects. It's like a poison and an antidote. You love them so much it kills you, yet it makes you feel like the happiest person in the world."
Levi shot an annoyed glare at him. Now was not the time for his inspirational shit right now.
"You two are my top soldiers. I've already lost so many. Whether it was to save humanity or merely because of one mistake, there gone. There's no way of getting them back and there never will be."
He let his head drop on Hanji's shoulder. He hadn't showered or even wiped the blood off his head yet. Flecks of dried blood were visible on her bed. Getting cleaned off was the last thing on his mind right now. Pictures of Hanji's lifeless body flooded his brain, refusing to go away.
"Four-Eyes, she's basically immortal. No matter how many times she gets hurt, she's still alive. But at the same time she's crazy, and acts like she has no regard for her life."
Erwin huffed, then smiled, but barely. He placed his palm on Levi's shoulder, like a proud father congratulating his own son.
"You're starting to talk about Hanji a lot, which means it's a sign I should leave."
He started towards the door, before stopping as if he had forgotten something.
"Don't give up on her. Don't let go of her hand until you walk out of this hellhole of a world."
And he left.
A twitch of a finger caught the corner of his attention.
Hange.
Her breathing hitched, then returned to normal. Her eyelids barely lifted, revealing dark brown eyes that he'd thought he'd never see again. A flutter. Then they stayed open. She stared blankly at the ceiling above her, as if trying to figure out what it was.
He smiled. He, Levi Ackerman, smiled.
"Four-Eyes, you made me worry so much. Don't you dare scare me like that again, you hear me? I'll ram my foot up your-"
"Four-Eyes? Oooh where?"
His smile turned into disbelief.
"You, Four-Eyes," he said, repeating his given nickname for to make sure she remembered. No matter how many times he said it though, she still looked at him in confusion.
"I mean, the name kind of rings a bell in my head. I can't put my finger on it, though."
She sat up, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.
"You seem familiar too. I know that your name is Levi something, but that's all I can recall."
No fucking way.
Did she lose her memory?
"Four-Eyes, Hanji! You love me, right? And you know that I'm stupidly in love with you?
He stared at those brown eyes, but they only looked glassy to him. No sign that she was remembering anything.
"I'm sorry, but I can't remember anything about me ever loving you."
This woman, this lovely, crazy, messy woman, had forgotten him. What hurt worse was that he hadn't.