Hello, apologies for the long wait. Please red the author's note for an explanation.
Credits to KN_27K for the creation Ellie Farmhart.
A usual day in Ehrmich's military hospital was summed up in a bunch of people in white coats fighting procrastination. The new generation of medics was not one for evading duties. In fact, some of them were overzealous souls raised by frontline reports from the Survey corps and Garrison troops during the titan war.
But they were too late to be useful for that. Now that they learned how to tourniquet a gaping wound and the industrious towns of the inner walls had mastered the production of morphine and antibiotics, the supply of injured and half-eaten survivors had completely diminished.
Not to get the medical personnel wrong, they cheered humanity's victory (Now Eldia's apparently) as every soul did within the walls. But as a consequence of it, they now had to settle for taking shifts in civilian hospitals or settling for garrison drunkards with concussions and broken bones here and there.
They were so frustrated because a year and a half ago, any expedition outside undisputed human territory would warrant all hands on deck to save cartloads of dying scouts.
And now? Now the damned scouts were stationed outside Wall Maria and camped god and the brass knew where.
Hell, two of them who were now lazing their medical leave in the patient wing had been the remaining scraps of the beast titan's plate in that legendary operation that wiped out almost an entire branch. Ellie only knows that her two special patients (and the most interesting thing she has had to deal with in weeks) came from there, and the redheaded one was twitching to go back.
Speaking of him. Floch, she found, was a surprisingly analytical reader. A cynical twat, an avid and pretentious hater of heroic characters in the stories she and Mikasa slung to him like illegal hallucinogens, but in the end, he interpreted both folktales and classics as if he was a versed academic and not a hot headed veteran with PTSD.
Ellie chuckled to herself mid-guard in the emergency wing as she thought about him and Mikasa and why she even knew about Floch's ridiculous rants and breakdowns of Abendroth's classical works.
The time she went to his bed to deliver his request of things to read she found that the Ackerman had beaten her to the punch and brought him some books from her unmotivated shopping trip. The problem was that when she revealed her haul it was all children's stories. Which of course got him upset and snarky, but he ended up reading both Ellie's and Mikasa's contributions. Whether out of boredom, the haunting thoughts that plague him behind his eyes or both, even the illustrated folktale about the fox and the rabbit now sat on the pile of finished covers.
Ellie was so bored in the quiet emergency wing that she genuinely started to replay in her mind Forster's rant about one of the most celebrated stories by the beloved author Benedikt Abendroth. Remembered as a genius of the kingdom by those privileged enough to appreciate it, the pride of Utopia district and a complete hack to one grumbly scout.
She blew an amused gust of air as she thought of his fake-detachment which did nothing to prevent his passion from seeping into his tirade about an inconsistent ending, plot holes and a character which he claimed Abendroth 'inserted' himself into.
Ellie thought of a huge question mark when it comes to Forster, but in between the obvious but also mysterious complexities that go deeper than what meets the eye she was certain of one thing…he was one nerdy bookworm.
"Farmhart!" A gruff voice with a lazy drawl pulled her focus back to the night guard.
When she stood straight and saluted with her fist over her heart she was met by a scoff. One she and every young medic in this hospital knew too well. Captain Strobel held a cigarette over his mouth and mumbled "Light". An indirect command for her to light a match for him.
Ellie complied with a poker face, not entirely a misguided representation of her inner feelings. She, like many, was too used to and too tired of Strobel's antics to seethe about it anymore. Half of the matches she carries around weren't to light candles, but to pull out in the case of a misfortuned encounter with the chain smoking man in charge of Ehrmich's MH.
The salt and pepper-haired man took a drag of his cig and blew the odorous cloud in Ellie's general direction before speaking. "How are you treating our gracious guests from the scouting legion?"
"Lieutenant Ackerman is pretty much good to go for discharge, albeit she insists on waiting for Forster to make a full recovery so they can return to their camp together. I estimate he will be ready for approval in a week and a half." She answered in plodding obedience. Professional, detached.
Strobel chortled a puff of smoke. "Fucking scouts. A waste of funds today, a waste of funds tomorrow. There are no more titans to give them gas for their gear, but now they want us to support their little hiking excursion as 'fellow Eldians'...whatever the hell that means."
Ellie nodded with another pokerface. Her ho-hum a product of the unaware irony of the Captain. Here, an MP accustomed to giving orders but who had long ago forgotten the part about putting effort was criticizing Queen Historia's budget for the military. Thinking his drunken and tobacco-filled days of taking the space of a physician and harassing female personnel should be worth more than the pioneers who won the war against the titans and were now spearheading the kingdom's quest for answers and security.
She internally cringed, if Floch ever met Strobel he would undoubtedly assume he was always right about the MPs. And how to even defend the unicorn? The captain was almost a guide as to 'what not to do if you want to make the oath count and devote your heart for your people'.
After entertaining him for long enough with polite nods and a very political way of carrying herself inherited from her father, Ellie excused herself from Strobel's presence, who was left grumbling and cursing her for being too zealous with her duties to agree to his umpteenth attempt to coerce her into inappropriate activities, long unpunished for him.
She lingered around the emergency arrivals wing for another half an hour of morale-crushing silence before deciding to break it by walking through the halls of the building, trying to find something useful to do whilst evading the captain.
As her boots echoed around the hospital, she circumvented the patient's ward several times. She nodded to some of her comrades losing a common battle to boredom, she made sure Mikasa was doing okay in her ridiculously light sleep (the Ackerman girl woke up, ready to spring to action twice.) and she stole a couple of faraway looks at Floch, who was noticeably awake.
As a respectable MP she continued to observe from a distance, taking the moment to appreciate that look in his eyes. The one he couldn't conceal when alone, she knew this by now.
That first time they spoke one on one it came to light that whenever Floch stares at words he's not reading he's thinking of Shiganshina. But even with the explanation, Ellie cannot stop seeing Leonhart's look on him. Before she stomped Stohess to smithereens, she looked at things exactly the same way he's gazing at the paper.
Ellie was never too close with the female titan to begin with, she shouldn't feel this much curiosity. But she had to know more.
Once again, Floch didn't immediately look up when the sound of her boots got closer, but the late hour and his memories weren't any excuse to be a sitting duck for an approaching bogie.
When he raised his eyes to look at her, holding a steaming cup of tea there was a barely noticeable shift on his expression. Paired with the slightly-widening of his eyes, Floch's mouth shaped as if to make an 'S' sound, but the sound didn't come out and his lips closed as soon as they parted.
"What was that?" Ellie asked with an arched brow.
"Nothing. The opiate's effects must still be in my system."
"You haven't been administered any in the last four days. I checked."
Floch sighed wearily, inwardly cursing her sharper wit that took more effort to fool than most people. He considered his options. If he wanted he could quickly dish out a convincing explanation with some half-truths sprinkled out there.
But then again, it was Ellie Farmhart the one he was considering lying to. He'd done it a bunch already, naturally, like he did with so many others. But his mythomaniac tendencies, born due to the necessity of not plummeting the survey corps' newfound recruitment rates after Shiganshina, sometimes left him feeling a feeling of guilt that normally he wouldn't have.
Ellie's icy but very human gaze made him feel that way. The time to decide was running out, and under the pressure of the late hour and her standing with a cup of tea, steaming and evidently brewed for him, he cracked.
"You reminded me of someone. You bringing me tea specifically."
Ellie's features crinkled the slightest. "Someone…from home?"
"Not my mom, if you mean that. But yes, from Karanes…and then Shiganshina."
"Ah."
A Silence that threatened to entrench them came, but Ellie decided to ask something stupid.
"Why?"
"Why what?" He quickly responded.
"Why did I remind you of them?"
"As stupid as it sounds…that exact pose of you carrying that steaming cup. Coincidental, I know…but it was like seeing a ghost. Not like those are strangers these days…" He muttered that last part.
"My father would likely make a good-intentioned comment about having to make a mental health check, but I find it in bad taste." She said in an attempt to acknowledge his eerie comment in a light way.
Floch huffed amusedly. "You're very much his daughter then. Most people would have just kept the thought to themselves."
That silence again.
Ellie wasn't sure why she was doing this much to keep an elusive, late hour conversation alive. But for whatever reason, it felt like she could stand the quiet thoughts even less than Floch.
"I had a friend that didn't come back from Shiganshina too y'know…I don't think I mentioned him before."
"...what was his name?"
Ellie swerved her head lightly to sigh and remember someone, as everyone in this island above the age of 5 did. When she named a certain "Marlowe Freudenberg" she anticlimactically missed Floch's pained expression that was gone in an instant.
"We were in the same squadron, back in Stohess. After the female titan's attack…and the mess that the revolution left behind for the MPs, I joined the medical wing…and he left for the scouts."
The way Floch was clutching his bedsheets spoke of how he wasn't about to smile and say how much of a coincidence it was that they both had served in the same squad as Marlo. No, Floch was thinking of mangled bodies and medal ceremonies.
Ellie, trapped in her own trauma and uncharacteristically unaware of her patients sheer anxiety, continued:
"...I was sad to hear about Marlo's death. But I can't…I can't imagine how hard it was for my squadmate Hitch."
Floch bit his tongue.
"We weren't friends. Hell, I haven't even written to her in these two years since I left Stohess…" She ran a hand across her hair. "But I hear she changed completely. We of the 27th Military Police brigade…those who survived Annie's rampage that is, we're not a very tight lot. Yet still, I ran from a comrade in need of comfort…and still do to this day."
Floch's hand shot out to touch her shoulder. The sensation of his touch was enough to straighten her hunched posture in the stool beside his bed. She turned to look at him and found his expression unreadable.
"...only we know why we hurt others. Only we regret it. And…only we can forgive ourselves."
Floch himself wasn't sure what the fuck that was even supposed to mean. But as her grey eyes met his in a mix of puzzlement and understanding he stood firm behind his barfed wisdom.
There were a million things he felt about the two names Ellie mentioned. Shame for how he handled it, cold logic behind the why, and a deep loathing for his emerald reflection in the medal etched with his name and the survey corps emblem.
In the end, Marlowe was a dead eldian. One whose memory he had desecrated to the world in his own way of honoring him from the perspective of someone who saw Shiganshina. But Hitch's tears and his comrades' disdain told him the dead need no lawyer, and he wasn't about to be one again in front of Ellie Farmhart.
"Forster… What does that even mean? Did you steal that from a passage from Abendroth's works or what?"
Floch's usual annoyed glare returned with a vengeance at her abrupt and playful comment.
"I've taken more respectful spits to the face, Farmhart."
Ellie breathed out an exhausted chuckle. Not usually one to use humor to cover vulnerability, but aware of how both of them were distilling a lot of resentments in their heads that weren't going to heal tonight.
She took notice of Floch's pile of books.
"Hey, you've finished all of those, right?"
"Yeah, got any more for me? Maybe some Not written by over-decorated hacks this time?"
"Would you prefer more children's fables?"
"Unironically, yes."
Ellie giggled properly this time. "You're ridiculous."
"Sorry for biting the hand that feeds me, but I'd rather gouge my own eyes than to keep reading his nonsense." He finished his now lukewarm tea and set the cup down on his bedside table alongside his despised titles.
"I'll see what I can do." Ellie smiled softly and stood up.
She gave one singular step before she was hit by the same need to prolong the conversation. She bit the inside of her cheek and for some stupid reason, thought of Floch's soulful gibberish phrase.
With a swift turn she addressed the redhead. "On second thought. I've seen you walk and test the limits of your recovery, that means you can tough it out. We're going bookshopping on my next leave."
One of the redhead brows on his face soared in confusion. "Okay, but why'd you waste your leave day getting stuff for me?"
She huffed. "Believe it or not, there's not that much to do in Ehrmich, even for a farmer girl like me. Stohess messed big cities up for me. So come on, it'll be a change."
Floch still seemed skeptical. It seemed too much like some reasoning Mikasa would say. But needless to say, they thought completely differently.
"Are you sure you're allowing me to roam the city?"
Ellie sighed. "You know, Forster. I was just about to consider approving your restorative training. I was of the idea that you were eager to regain endurance and agility so you could eventually be cleared as ODM-capable personnel again. But if you're that reluctant, I guess I could bury the form back into the mound of files."
Floch had never bitten bait this fast before.
"That's low even for an MP. Fine, I'll go with you on a limping stroll."
"Don't pout, brave scout. You'll be flying around, swinging blades into a titan's maws in no time."
"...yeah."
Floch looking wistful whilst obviously thinking of something heavy was quickly becoming a custom for their conversations, and once again Ellie placed a mental bookmark on it.
"I'll wake you up early. If Lieutenant Ackerman doesn't go up ahead, we'll take her with us." She derailed the spiral and took business back to its original purpose.
"I doubt she'll be anywhere else or turn us down. So I guess I'll be escorted by you two, huh."
"This time with an audience, scout. So do try not to feel too wobbly or else all of Ehrmich will witness a hero of Shiganshina fall facefront at the ripe old age of sixteen."
With a masterful last laugh that would make her father proud, Ellie finally left Floch to grumble and think his soul off for the night.
When morning came, the cobbled streets of Ehrmich did indeed witness a scout of the legion rise, but not quite as certain and steadfast as the sun.
Floch had often sneaked off to pace around the hospital when the silence became too unbearable. Hence the return to physical exertion wasn't too bad on his legs. In fact he could walk just fine. It was the feeling of humiliation that got him.
Back in the desolated hospital halls it was simple. If he stumbled or needed to rest for a bit he'd rely on the walls. Not an alien concept for an ex-garrison like him. But now? He was being pulled by two ravenettes, one holding each of his arms.
It was clear that Ellie was having fun dragging him around, but Mikasa was taking it seriously, and whenever she 'helped' steady him they both ended up stretching him like a rope.
The amused looks they received from the passing populace made Floch sorely regret wearing the wings of freedom and tarnishing the legion's pride.
"Don't slouch Floch. You need to retain proper posture so you don't have to learn how to keep your balance all over again for the ODM reconditioning" Mikasa scolded.
"And that's an order from a CO, y'know Forster? Best to listen to her." Ellie giggled and piled up on him.
Floch however, was more focused on the mixed reactions to the crest Mikasa and him were wearing.
Many people scoffed or dismissed them. As it had always been, since before the days of the first breach of Wall Maria. But as they encountered people that weren't immediately obvious that they were merchants, the reception to the scout uniform changed.
Ellie went somewhat ignored, as her MP coat with the medical division patches was taken as her simply aiding Mikasa and Floch. But those two seemed to move something in the eyes of passerby's. Two comrades, one aiding her wounded friend stand properly. It made the eyes of some working class Ehrmich residents glint with respect and sorrow.
"I guess the wings will always be controversial. Even in peacetime, huh?" Floch finally spoke. His tone half absent, lost in thought yet again.
"Can't really blame the locals. With your HQ right here in the heart of the city, they're well used to the ugly sights of the titan war." Ellie noted seriously. "Many of these people saw truckloads of young men and women, many of them local, set out to participate in expeditions just to never come back and have their names added to the memorial plaques. Not to even delve into the mess that was the military coup spearheaded by your former commander." She sighed, deciding to leave the worms canned.
"But in spite of it all. Many of them…are fathers, mothers, siblings…lovers. They may resent the Survey Corps for 'taking' their loved ones. But to see veterans that likely served and fought beside their dead and show clear camaraderie even for something as mundane as a stroll…it gives closure for the soul."
Floch and Mikasa were completely speechless. The sheer empathy for everyone involved in what could be described as a political matter was enough to shake two of the most jaded scouts alive. But the reflection of what their very existence could mean for the families of fallen comrades silenced both of their erratic and mourning thoughts that often prowled in their minds and souls.
"…I never thought about it that way." Floch admitted.
"I…I think I can understand it. But if I'm being completely honest…it never gets easier. I know what it's like to lose family, I also know what it's like to be worried to death about my loved ones out there facing danger. To think that people face those same fears, and then blame me when they see the uniform…" Mikasa trailed off. Unable to finish her heartfelt take.
Floch frowned and despite the pang of hurt he felt when placing a hand on her shoulder he supported her back. "Mikasa, you know damn well it's not on you. You don't carry those deaths."
"But I do feel their weight." She responded in what sounded like a whimper for her usually monotone voice.
Floch had no answer. Not even lies.
Ellie sensed that the two of them were about to spiral down into their traumas from the war. She had some too, hidden under her desire to protect others from it. And protect them she would.
"Honor them. As these parents and siblings honor the ones gone. They may light candles near a portrait or their tags. But it's up to us in the uniform to nurture the flame."
She stepped in front of them and kept them in place with a gaze full of sympathy, duty and understanding. "Mikasa, you still have loved ones. People you still have to make sure they survive. And you, Floch…" She turned to him and their eyes clashed with all the tension of their avoided moments of vulnerability. "You said only we can regret it, didn't you? But what if equally, only we can honor them and avenge them. You can't get crushed by the weight of the dead when they're standing behind all of us who survived the titan war."
Mikasa looked down. She raised her hand, but for once in her life refrained from touching her scarf, lowering it back down. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to bite back at the throbbing sensation on her head that threatened to pummel her with a headache.
"Y-you're right. Eren…Eren is still with me. And so is Armin. And Sasha, and Jean and Floch. Even you Ellie… I have people I must protect. Thank you." She opened her eyes and nodded a grateful and determined gesture to the medic on the rise.
Ellie showed her a gentle look of acceptance but gestured to her to start moving. "Yes, never doubt that. But um… we should get going. Floch didn't look like he wanted to discuss it further…and left already."
"What?"
Mikasa gasped and immediately started scouting with her vision for a tamed nest of red hair and a uniform like hers.
"Damnit…" As if donned in ODM and taking off to the air, Mikasa swiftly began her pursuit, fueled by Ellie's words.
They trotted up the nearby backstreets and alleyways, hoping to the walls that he didn't end up far. Ellie followed Mikasa not far behind and questioned herself how sneaky that emotional and mysterious bastard could be if he disappeared in a minute.
'Kergüs books' read the only hanging sign in a quiet, lived-in street full of homes. The wood was dark and decent and the words were inscribed in a metallic material. The lack of a rusty creak to go with its gentle swaying spoke of the owner's devotion to its aesthetic.
A business as well kept and full of identity like this in a so-called heartland neighborhood was bound to be a hotspot for the breed of people that could only be found in the interior of the walls. The intellectuals of the 8th century according to some, the bane of literature according to Floch.
This was exactly the kind of place that would be considered a temple to Abendroth and the such.
Mikasa raised a brow and turned to Ellie who was catching up and thinking around the same lines. This bookstore would ward Floch away, not lure him in.
They were just about to turn away and resume their search, but at the same time they halted and focused on what they had both seen through the corner of their eyes.
The sneaky and brooding bastard was there alright. Barely on sight through the glass storefront window.
"Is he…you know what? No matter, as long as he's accounted for." Ellie sighed and walked inside, followed by a much more relaxed Mikasa.
Floch was behind a bookshelf, staring at the first page of a book in his hands when they approached him. The book looked more beat up and worse for wear than what the store seemed to proudly display in the window.
Mikasa didn't waste a second in closing the distance to put a hand on his shoulder and chastise him for running off. Ellie was walking closely behind, but as they went off about 'not being Eren' and 'no excuse for endangering oneself and worrying them' she stood back and appreciated the place's interior for a moment, letting Mikasa handle it.
It was a pleasant little thing. The entrance and the path to the sales counter was carpeted, allowing whoever wanted to take a dive into the pages to keep a nice silence whenever someone entered or left. Only three rows of bookshelves stood, but they proudly offered its contents to the curious and the hungry who sought more.
Ellie walked around the middle aisle between bookshelves, drowning out the sound of her friend's hushed argument. She refrained from picking up any particular leatherback, but she did reach out to brush her fingers across the row of books.
None of the titles convinced her for a gift to send back home. Lang Farmhart was probably the opposite of Floch Forster in their way of thinking, but if she sent her dad one of these works by the pupils of Abendroth he'd likely use it as a leveling foot for a table or chair. The difference was that her dad was never even going to pretend to be a literature enjoyer.
Still, Ellie felt like she had to purchase something. If anything, to make the trip worth it for herself. But none of these were appealing to her.
She walked to the third bookshelf at the back, where Mikasa and Floch had been arguing moments ago. Now empty, Floch was paying for whichever title left a single glaring empty spot in the entire bookshelf and Mikasa was looking around the more popular books for a gift to take to a friend of hers called Armin.
She noted the third bookshelf was home to the 'lesser' collections. Scattered works most hadn't heard about and second hand, beat up covers composed the catalogue.
Many of them looked interesting, eye-catching at the very least. But she settled for a thick one with yellow pages and its corners chewed on by rodents. A clear sign of its old age and many years in the possession of past readers.
She stole a last glance at the empty space that Floch's book previously took and thought it was actually the space of two books. Ellie reckoned she'd ask him outside and find out anyways, so with that she made her way to the counter.
The owner, a salt-haired elegant man with a beard greeted her.
"Good afternoon, Miss. Are you looking to purchase?"
"Yes please." Ellie placed the worn leather on the wooden surface.
"Excellent." The man smiled. "I didn't know the scouts were back in town today, but to find three of you here in my humble little shop has been quite delightful. In any case, you should be receiving a discount. Consider it my thanking for your service."
"Oh, thank you mister, but I'm not from the scout regiment actually."
The man's gaze shifted in curiosity. "No? You're with a couple of scouts and your behavior, from the mannerisms to the idle posture is clearly military. Are you a retired veteran?"
"No mister, I'm still on active duty. But I belong to the Military Police. I work in Ehrmich military hospital." She replied with warm politeness.
"Ah, is that how you ended up in their company?"
"Partly, I did treat them both. It also happens that all three of us came out from the same batch of trainees in the cadet corps. But none of us really interacted with each other back then…and upon graduation everyone picked a different branch."
"All three of you went to different branches?" A white eyebrow rose in curious confusion.
Ellie nodded. "Floch, the redhead. He started as garrison, but he transferred to the scouts. He's actually a survivor from the operation to retake Wall Maria from a year and a half ago."
The shopkeeper's eyes widened to the point his eyes almost. popped out "Swear that to me miss, swear it!"
Ellie was understandably startled at the old man's sudden outburst, but nodded and reassured him that her patient had indeed been there in Shiganshina. Something that made the old man breathe out a deep sigh of incredulity and ponderation.
"How poetic…but it makes so much sense."
"What do you mean, what is?"
"That book your friend purchased, I only ever owned two copies to sell in this store. And the second one left with him."
Ellie didn't know why this would be so shock-inducing, but asked nonetheless. "And which book is that?"
The old man held his chin with his fingers and rubbed his beard with his thumb. "The horse and the infant. An old story from a forgotten author, long before the walls were erected. Nothing much is known about it. But that's not what's important…"
"Only one person before him ever found the book, frozen in time between all the cheap and battered titles no one wants to read anymore. It was so irrelevant that not even the old MPs bothered to confiscate it during their raids to censor taboo literature."
The shopkeeper wrapped Ellie's book in paper and put it in a bag without stopping to ask if she even wanted it wrapped as he recounted the memory.
"But this young man…a little older than this redheaded boy. He belonged to the same branch and just like him, he took no interest in all my collections proudly displayed in the window and main shelf at the entrance.
No, he did not care for the intellectual and pompous literature Wall Sina has been fixated on for a few years now. Not the author's current, not the reader's movement, not the romantic passion every well-read man spouted.
"...Commander Erwin Smith bought that book's first copy instead."
Ellie was not certain of why she felt the man's emotional state spread to her, but she had seen firsthand how the echoes of Shiganshina had the ability to grip hearts from southern Maria to northern Sina.
She thanked the man and took the bag with her as she exited the bookstore.
Mikasa and Floch were just outside, waiting for her each with a book in their hands. Mikasa's was wrapped for a gift and Floch simply took it as it came. But those minuscule observations faded to the background of her mind.
The two scouts were conversing with their backs to her, facing the setting sun that gleamed over Ehrmich's edifications and streets, making for an image that would fit in any recruitment poster. As the two of them wore their green coats with giant wings of freedom on their backs, the scene mesmerized Ellie and onlookers alike.
They had no idea that images of scouts flying across Stohess during Annie's attacks were flashing through her mind.
She recalled the alarm being raised and the roars and trembling of a titan leveling the city she had been stationed to protect. In a small gleam of sunlight she relived the golden flash of a second titan, fighting for their side and a number of green capes gliding in ODM to take down Annie Leonhart whilst she, Marlowe and Hitch stood in awe at the scene.
Floch noticed the silence during a long moment and turned around, noticing the look on her face.
"Ellie? What 's wrong?"
Mikasa perked up at the very implication of Ellie being in distress, and they both walked the few steps to get up close and personal.
"Sorry, sorry. Just got dazed thinking of something." She bit her lip. "Stohess in particular.."
The look on both scouts softened. Mikasa had been in ground zero during that day, and Floch simply knew all too well the feeling of burrowed memories resurfacing out of nowhere. An effect seemingly generalized among survivors of the titan war.
"Come on." He placed a hand on her back. "We still have a couple of hours to burn for your leave. We can all go to a pub."
Ellie nodded and walked in the center of the group. Floch's condition all but forgotten for the moment, now that it was Ellie's turn to be gently held and pulled forward.
"That man didn't charge me for my book." She said softly.
"Me neither." "Same."
The atmosphere lightened up a bit. Floch said a few sarcastic comments about business strategies and the old man better be ready to apply the same treatment to every scout that went in. Something both Ellie and Mikasa suspected meant himself, likely planning on going in a few times to stock up on free books before they had to return to the coast.
As they walked aimlessly, looking for the place to grab food and drink that would catch their eye, Ellie lowered hers. Her eyes found Floch's book, tightly held in his other hand.
A faded symbol of a horse's head was visible in the spine.
The thoughts of a deceased commander she didn't meet, the hell of Shiganshina and the state her home (apparently a thing called an island) was in plagued her. But she wanted to know something first and foremost.
"Floch."
"Hm?"
"Can I…ask about Shiganshina?"
A silent tension slammed the group immediately, but Ellie went forward anyway.
"I…I want to talk about my friend, Marlowe."
Floch knew what was coming. He sighed and removed his hand from its place in the small of her back before walking off a few steps.
"I did get to know him personally."
Ellie nodded, already having guessed that from their conversation last night.
"And I did meet Hitch too…"
Ellie's eyes widened like plates and her mouth opened slightly.
"Come…this story we have to sit down for. Mikasa knows it."
He grabbed her hand and pulled her with them towards the tavern down the street.
Author's note:
Hello.
I got a million things to say to you, those in and AO3 who have given the last chapter a chance. As well as to my friend Kuna (Ellie's creator).
First of all, thank you. Kuna knows I went through some tough shit since the last time I posted, but she still supported me through and through and trusted me to continue our project.
It's a bit of a sobstory, but I had been sitting on half of this chapter since the 31st of december, eager to finish it as soon as possible to gain momentum in January. But unfortunately, my dog Momo fell extremely ill that very same day. Like literally, I had been typing on new year's eve morning when my mom called out to me and told me Momo was looking really sad and tired.
Momo was diagnosed with a malignant tumor that claimed his life. He fought like hell for a month and a half, undergoing surgery and much treatment. But he died in February 10th. So I dedicate the rest of the story from this point onwards to him.
In another note:
Kuna's birthday came and went this month. I wish I had gotten this out in time but I barely even made it to finish within February. (My apologies Kuna. Happy birthday again!)
Yesterday I went to the premiere of the Attack on Titan's last attack in Mexico. Something funny that happened is that I didn't know it would involve the first chapter rumbling (and Floch's death scene) since I had assumed it would start in battle of Heaven and Earth like the final crunchyroll release in 2023.
So when Eren showed up on screen walking through Marley and it clicked on my mind that Floch's last stand would be visible I bit back a scream.
Went home to finish up with a surge of inspiration.
So here it is. Chapter two with a promise of continuation. Please read it fully and give me your thoughts!