Flapping Of Wings
Summary: Random bonus scenes from It Takes Two Wings To Fly, mostly from the moment Eren and Levi reunited onward. Fluff, fun, slight non graphic smut, occasional angst, short. Not in chronological order.
10. One Of Those Days
For the past twenty plus years, Levi had accumulated a rather impressive number of days that could be counted as bad days, days when he would remember the death of a certain comrade in excruciating detail whether he wanted to or not. It's not like he wanted to forget, as he was now all that remained as the proof that all those people had once existed.
Sure, legacies lived on, one way or another, but for ten years, Levi had harbored a number of faces and names in his heart, protecting them from oblivion by remembering them, their contributions to humanity and their sacrifice.
He had too many names and faces that he carried, but it was a burden he would never give up on.
The day the Rumbling happened, the day it ended, was the last time Levi had to take someone's name and memory and bury it in his heart so that he may carry them with him until his last breath. Even as he traveled and made new acquaintances, even people he might consider friends, he never had to add any more names to the cemetery within his heart.
The last name that had been added was a heavy burden to carry, but Levi would never let it stop him from moving forward. That's not what he would have wanted. He would have wanted him to keep on moving forward, to keep on fighting, to keep on living, and so Levi did. So Levi traveled and lived and found happiness in little moments and big adventures for the sake of all the names, the legacies he carried within his heart, so he can one day share it all with them when he joins them in death.
But on specific days, he would take the time to mutter a name, perhaps carve it into a tree or a rock he found nearby, and he would mark that place in his mind as a place that belonged to that name and that name alone. Even when one day carried more than one name, he would give each name its own place unless he believed the owners of the names would have wanted to be together.
He did it for the whole two years he traveled alone and he brought that tradition to the little town in the middle of the woods with the Glass Tower.
And there, for the first time, when a certain day came around, Levi found himself not needing to carve a name. Because the owner of that name was not dead.
Instead, when someone saw Levi looking so confused and lost for a short amount of time, seemingly not at all aware of his surroundings and asked if he was alright, he now had someone who would assure them that he was fine in his place and leave him to deal with his memories until he was ready to keep moving forward, to face the day head on, because it was just 'one of those days'.
One of those days when he remembered all those who had dedicated their hearts for the freedom of their people.
One of those days when he just needed to remember that it had all been worth it in the end.
Eren had days like those, too, but at least now they can face them together.