Whoo, hey, so second chapter. A lot better than the first, but ultimately a filler chapter because fuck everything at two in the morning (which is when I wrote this like five months ago). This was pretty much just me putting in another character since I'm going to be practically torturing Levi in this story.

Sort of.

Kind of.

...Yeah.

On an unrelated note, damn I hate the restriction that FF puts for the chapter name. I couldn't name the chapter 'Super Special, Super Meaningless Chapter: The Meeting of Terra Brown and the One Dwarf' like it is over on AO3. e3e

Oh well.

Levi woke up three hours later, panting, screaming, and crying from the images of his parents that haunted his dreams. One of the boys that he shared the room with, an older boy with platinum blonde hair threw a pillow at his head and told him to shut up, that there were people who were trying to sleep.

After bouncing the boy's head off of the wall and kicking him into the stomach a few times, Levi was forcefully removed from the room and given a new one, one devoid of roommates.

He didn't dare to go to sleep.

During breakfast the next morning, he was pulled aside by a man with paper thin skin and breath that could curdle milk.

The man apologized for pulling Levi away from breakfast, mumbling something about it being the most important meal of the day and Levi only blinked, thinking about the lump of whatever it was that he was given as a poor excuse for food and more than happy to throw away.

"I'm here to talk to ya about what happened yesterday. Ya know," the man lowered his voice a little and leaned close, making Levi lean back and fight the urge to cover his nose. "yer mum an' dad's untimely passin's."

They weren't untimely, they were well past due.

Levi twitched, but it went unnoticed by the old man.

"Anyhoo, I understand that this is a really rough time in yer life, borderin' on the point where things change so quickly that yer head spins an' ya really feel the need to 'ave support from a strong, sturdy male figure an' comfort e'ery now an' again from a soft, lovin' female figure, but they'll 'ave that figured out for ya in no time, lad." He pats Levi's knee in what he thinks is a comforting gesture and the boy keeps himself from jumping away from him.

"Now, uh, I've been told that ya were in the house when yer parents 'ere killed?"

Grey eyes widen.

Deep, angry slashes that covered his Daddy's torso and even deeper gouges into his face, into those eyes that he's constantly reminded he inherited.

Resentful, stabs into his Mama's stomach, the look of shock and betrayal on her face. Everyone told him that he had his Mama's face.

He hated every single person that told him that.

What little breakfast Levi had forced himself to down made an abrupt reappearance onto the floor, spatters of it on the man's shoes that looked too small for his feet and on his own bare calves. A couple of people rushed with a towel in tow to clean the vomit. One tended to the mess while the other patted Levi on the back as he coughed, saliva still dripping slightly from his mouth and tears forming in his eyes from the burn of his stomach acid and memories.

"I'm so sorry, lad, I di'nt mean to cause anythin' fer ya. Perhaps we'll talk later on if yer feelin' better." The old man made a hasty exit, not even hearing Levi cough around the word 'no'.

I don't want to talk about them or about what happened; I just want someone to make this stop.

Levi was given a glass of water to sip and then sent on his way to do whatever, so long as it didn't involve a lot of fast movement lest his stomach turned against him again.

He headed outside, contemplating if he'd be able to walk anywhere that was as far away from that place as possible.

Looking across the yard, Levi couldn't help but to raise an eyebrow at a girl that was sitting in the fetal position in the grass not even twenty feet away from him and found his feet dragging him towards her.

As he got closer, he noticed a magnifying glass in the girl's right hand and short, choppy brown hair mostly covering her face.

At three feet, the girl looked up at Levi, eyes narrowed at him.

He stopped in his tracks when her eyes settled on him and after a pregnant silence, decided to be a little bold and try to talk to the girl.

"Hey."

"Hi."

"What are you doing?"

"Watching a ladybug crawl on a piece of grass." She turned her attention to said ladybug, putting her finger out and letting it crawl onto the appendage. "Now, it's crawling on me, see?" She held her hand out to Levi to show him the bug and he stepped back a little.

"You can keep it, I don't want the bug."

She squinted at him again and then at the ladybug in her hand. "Fine, he likes me better anyway… Hey, can you help me name him?"

"Him? But it's a ladybug."

"Ladybug can be boys. How about Gerald?"

"You're squinty."

"No, I'm Hanji and it's not nice to try and nickname people you just met."

"You just met that ladybug. And I meant your eyes; you squint a lot."

Hanji looked up at Levi and narrowed her eyes even more at him. "My eyes aren't too good. I'll be getting glasses soon so I can see better and look smart."

"Just because they make you look smart, doesn't mean that you'll be smart." He mumbled.

She gasped and stuck her tongue out at Levi, who returned the gesture.

"You're mean!"

"Yeah? And you're sitting next to an ant hill."

Hanji automatically jumped up to her feet, dropping her magnifying glass on the ant hill and scaring the ladybug away with her flailing.

Levi snorted. "Yeah, I think you'll need those glasses, too."

Hanji pushed him halfheartedly, giggling when she noticed that she actually succeeded in making Levi stumble.

"You call me mean, you pushed me."

"You deserve it, shorty." Hanji defended herself. Levi opened his mouth to question her on the 'shorty' jab but clicked his mouth shut when he realized that , yes, Hanji had a couple of inches on him.

The two stood in silence before Hanji opened her mouth to speak.

"So, what brings you to the great outdoors, uhm…" She scratched her neck. "What's your name?"

"Levi. I was on my way out before I saw you."

"Eh? Out?"

He nodded. "I haven't been her for more than a day and I've got a guy with really gross breath wanting to talk to me about my Mama and Daddy when I really don't wanna talk about it because it makes me sick, plus I got in trouble last night for doing something that I don't even remember doing to one of the guys I was roomed with before they moved me."

"Ooooooohhh, so you're the guy that Deto was complaining about during breakfast! You left a pretty bad mark on his face, what'd you do? Wait, what'd he do?"

"I… I really don't know. I had a nightmare last night, seeing my parents and…" Levi's head throbbed painfully and his stomach turned a little. " I don't wanna talk about it."

Hanji nodded in understanding and pushed some hair out of her face. "Yeah, I get it. It's hard, parents dying and all. My mom died in some freak accident when I was really small and my Daddy just… left me here."

Levi looked up at her face, noticing a bit of sadness. " Did you not listen to him or something?"

She shook her head, defeating the purpose of pushing her hair back earlier. "No. None of the grown ups will tell me that part, why Daddy left me. I was really young; my mind's really fuzzy about that day."

He tilted his head to the side in confusion. "How old are you?"

"A lady never reveals her age, or at least that's what Miss Rose tells me. She also tells me that I play in the dirt too much and if I don't stop, I'll become a mud monster, which sounds pretty cool. But, I'm seven."

"You're gonna be a giant when you grow up. You're two years younger than me and you're still taller than me."

"Maybe. Or maybe you'll be a midget when you grow up." Hanji thought aloud. "We'll be like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves except there's only one of you and I'm not dumb enough to take an apple from a witch… We'll be called Terra Brown and the One Dwarf. You'll be Grumpy." She pointed at Levi to emphasize.

"If I'm Grumpy, then you're Dopey. You're nothing like Snow White." Levi thought for a moment and added, "Who's Miss Rose?"

"Miss Rose is one of the owners of the orphanage, along with Miss Maria and Miss Shina. I'll introduce you sometime if you don't leave."

"'Introduce me'? What, are you special to them?"

"No, they're just nice." A mischievous glint appeared in Hanji's eyes. "And Miss Rose is really fun to bug. Especially when Miss Maria helps."

Levi shrugged. "I guess I'll stay a little longer. I just really hope that old guy doesn't try to talk to me again, even if he does come back with his teeth brushed."