Forgiveness

"So how'd it go?" Eld asked as he stepped into the house, halting abruptly on the doorstep when he found his commanding officer on his hands and knees, furiously scrubbing the floorboards. "That bad, huh? Y'know, if you keep doing that, you're going to wear those down to nothing."

Levi didn't give any indication he heard him, plunged the old brush into the overflowing bucket, and resumed scrubbing. There was water and soap suds all across the floor, soaking into his comrade's trousers. He always did one of three things when he was mad, Eld had noticed over the years: clean, train, or drink.

Narrowing it down had been easy. The MP training hall had been vacant and Levi had been avoiding alcohol for some time now. The Survey Corps didn't have any official living quarters in the interior, except those who'd been granted a place to live through 'meritorious service'. "This is a nice house." Eld remarked, leaning against the doorframe. "You want to tell me what happened?"

This time, his captain right himself and whipped the scrub brush into the bucket with a loud 'splash'. "I beat up a kid today!"

Eld flinched at his tone but said nothing. The easiest thing to do was leave and come back later when he calmed down, only that did even more damage as he tended to mull over the issue for hours and work himself into unmanageable, pissed off state. No, it was better to settle it now than handle some explosives later.

"You don't normally let something like this bother you." He remarked, raising an eyebrow. "You did what you had to. Isn't that what you normally say?"

Levi didn't answer.

"This about Kenny?"

From the way his friend stiffened, he knew he'd either hit the nail on the head or smashed a finger in bringing up that name. Either way, he didn't answer and retrieved the brush, quietly scrubbing the floor again.

Eld sighed and reached down to pull his boots off. "I thought that might've been it." Padding across the floor, he reached into the old bucket, found a sodden rag, and joined the older man in scouring the floor.

"It isn't exactly something you forget."

"So you have a few unresolved childhood issues and regret beating the Jaeger kid. I can't say I blame you for-"

"No, that's not the problem."

Eld looked up in surprise.

"After it was over, I asked him if he hated me for it. He didn't." Levi ran a hand through his hair. "And the little shit meant it, too. I could tell. Who the hell says something like that? Whatever the reasoning, no one is that understanding!"

It took him several moments to puzzle through this one before he started laughing, "You've come a long way since we met, my friend. But you still have a lot to learn about how kind humans can be. It may not seem like it, but we can be a pretty forgiving race when we want."

"Well, forgive me if I never saw that."

"And now you have."

Levi paused and closed his eyes, water dripping off the ends of his hair from when he'd run his hand through it. "I need to be alone right now."

Seeing his work was done, Eld nodded in understanding and rose, "Well, catch you later, I'm gonna see if I can find a pub that doesn't clean me out after one shot."

His friend snorted, "Good luck with that, but I would think finding a place to stay would be your first priority since we're currently abstaining from Military Police hospitality."

Eld grinned over his shoulder on his way out. "I thought I would just crash here tonight."

Levi threw a rag at him.

-0-0-0-

Author's Notes: I like to write Eld as the most understanding one in the squad. When watching the part when Eren accidentally transformed, he seemed to be the only one asking (demanding) for an explanation rather than jumping straight to accusing like the others were.

Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin is owned by Hajime Isayama.