"You're here again?" Levi blurted out in a low tone, taking slow measured steps behind the expressionless girl, who was kneeling down before the depleted stone. Her devoid eyes were trailing the written scriptures that was embedded on the surface of the grave stone, her lips pressed into a thin line. Her facial structures had become more hardened throughout the years, the edges of her face maturing in harsh lines—fatigue accumulating in the regions of her charcoal eyes. The effects of death around her had ruined her feminine features—leaving traces of her internal suffering. It made her beautiful in a twisted and convoluted way. That he couldn't deny.

"So why are you here." Mikasa let out in a bleak, firm tone, her eyes flickering up at the apathetic man who stood before her— his eyes glinting with a mixture of exhaustion and affliction. The dark circles under his eyes were proof of the incessant stress that were piling up on his stiff shoulders day after day. He seemed dreary. Almost lifeless. Color flushed from his placid face.

Levi exhaled heavily, clasping his hand behind his head, his eyes wavering from her sudden question— that he couldn't even answer himself, even if he wanted to. He couldn't apprehend a single reason as to why he was here in front this grave stone. It wasn't like his character to wander off in the middle of paperwork, especially since his life was always built on the foundation of standards and principles. His body just instinctively led him to this sickened, oppressive place. It was gut-wrenching and also very heavy. A form of heaviness that was dawning in his chest internally.

"I can't answer that, " His shoulders slumped downwards, his slanted eyes in the midst of his own thoughts, as he took another step forward, the tip of his boots colliding against the stone. "My reasoning could never be an adequate enough answer that even a person, like myself, could understand thoroughly." He gripped his hand tightly, a vein protruding from his temples. He was struggling. Struggling with an opposing force that he couldn't see. It was a twisted feeling in the pit of his stomach—one that was latching itself tightly by a thread. "People like us—we don't require specific reasons for doing things that feel natural." He paused, gradually kneeling down beside her. "Our body just reacts instinctively to what our heart is conveying to us." He let out a dark chuckle, lifting his fingers to trail over the engraved letters that stood out boldy on the surface of the cracked stone. "Death occurs every single day of our shitty lives—that in a sick, twisted way, we've become so accustomed to those deaths that it's become irrelevant."

Mikasa felt the atmosphere around him gradually changing, the glint of affliction in his eyes, overriding in the darkest depths of his blue orbs. She could feel a tight, heavy chain securing around her chest, weighing her body down with an unforeseeable pressure. It was a nostalgic feeling. One that she's felt before.

"Our burdens are reminders from our hearts," he clasped his rugged hand on the surface of his chest, his gaze locked with her dark, hued eyes, "that we are still here. That we are suffering every waking moment of our lives—giving us the resolve to move forward. These burdens are the remembrance of what we lost, what our choices resulted in, and what gives us the strength to endure." He gritted his teeth together, his mind in the midst of his vague memories. "We're the same Ackerman—splitting images of each other. We carry burdens that give us the willpower to protect. To protect the very things that weigh us down in our lives. Friendship. Trust. Bonds. Those weights are the only things that keep us from completely losing our sanity. Without those burdens to constantly remind us, we would forget that we're actually just human beings living in this hell on earth."

Mikasa could feel his intimidating, scrutinizing eyes searching in the depths of her hollow soul. Searching for an answer that could put to terms of the sickened feelings that he was trying so hard to convey.

Levi glanced down at the tombstone, his eyes filled with such anguish, such dejection that it casted a formidable aura. "These burdens are the very reasons that led us here." He clenched his fists tightly, his body trembling in a forceful manner, his eyes welling up with tears that wouldn't fall. He was trying hard. So hard to keep his composure. It pained her. It pained her soul to see him struggle to maintain the one thing he kept up for so many years. The walls that caged his vulnerabilities from surfacing. He was human—just like she was. Ruined beings that withheld all of their burdens on the stiffness of their shoulders. They were reminders of what they were and how they became monsters. They were the reminders of their survival.

Mikasa flickered her vacant eyes towards the tombstone, her mouth parting slowly, as she spoke the one name that constantly reminded her that she was surviving in this merciless world. The name that gave her the strength to become human again. "Eren.."

Eren Jaeger. Age 15.

May he rest in peace

for the strength he gave to the people within the walls.

A new hope of survival.

Omg.

Why did I write this T_T

I feel so depressed now.

But I hope you enjoyed seeing Levi's vulnerabilities, even though it made you want to cry.

Thanks for reading!