The Case of the Corps Tea Party - File No. 07 Oluo’s Side (1/3)
“All that’s left is the tea. Can you take care of it, Oluo?”
“Yeah… I got this.”
It was, as always, a busy morning.
The Survey Corps Special Operations Squad, also known as Squad Levi, was working to make yet another simple breakfast from their provisions in the old Survey Corps headquarters they temporarily called home.
“…Hm?”
As his fellow soldiers carried trays to the table, Oluo began to make some tea, his superior officer’s favorite…but Oluo felt like something was off as he performed this simple task.
These tea leaves… While the average person would think they’re regular leaves…
He looked at the tea he had just opened with his own hands and was sure.
There’s no mistaking it. This…is going to be an issue.
******
As Oluo brought the teapot into the dining hall, the “issue” was already beginning to manifest. Everyone was looking with suspicious at a sheet of paper that seemed to be from Levi, their leader.
“What’s going on here, Petra?” Oluo asked as calmly as he could.
“We got a report from the Military Police first thing in this morning. It said the tea we were supplied with the other day was ‘unfit for consumption,’ and that we should return it all without opening it up.”
“Unfit…for consumption?”
That was strange.
The Military Police had given them the notice, but they were known to hoard all the best meat and luxurious alcohol for their own use. They considered the Survey Corps utter idiots.
“They’re the kind of bunch that would go out of their way to give us the bad-quality stuff…”
It seemed like they would have loved the chance to get rid of anything unfit for consumption by handing it off to the soldiers at the bottom of the totem pole. As everyone wondered why they would bother to take it back, Levi asked a question.
“Oluo, did you use the tea yet? Did you notice anything?”
The Captain’s voice was calm, almost as if he knew exactly what was going on.
I knew it… That Tea…!
Oluo nodded and gradually began to give his opinion as he poured each of the others their tea.
******
“Now listen… Tea comes in different grades. But that doesn’t have anything to do with its quality… It’s all a matter of the size of the leaves…
Of all the corpsmen present, Oluo was the only one to see the tea they had been given. He also knew that something was different about it.
"Does that have something to do with this commotion about a recall?”
“Stay cool, Petra… The truth isn’t going to sneak away from us. It’s right in front of your eyes, after all.”
“Stop talking like such a creep. I’m telling you to give us your conclusion.”
Oluo handed his offended corpsmate her tea as he explained.
“The tea that makes it all the way down to us is a blend of late-picked, poor-quality teas. No matter how high the grade, there’s not going to be any noticeable change in taste. However… This was something different. The tea had a young colour and a deep aroma… While the size and shape of the leaves is no different from our usual blend, the actual product is something entirely different. This is made from the leftovers of the kind of first-flush tea leaves that those damned aristocrats drink in the interior!”
“The colour of the tea being lighter than usual is proof of that,” he proudly concluded.
******
His squadmate Eld took a small sip. He did feel like something was different about the taste, but he cocked his head to the side.
“…So you’re saying they accidentally sent some high-quality tea our way, and that they’re trying to take it back because we’re not worthy of it?”
“It’s not like cover-ups are anything new for that bunch… Someone was probably too drunk and sent us the wrong supplies by accident, and now they’re trying to hide the fact and get it back by claiming the tea isn’t fit for consumption.”
Oluo looked to the captain he so respected for backup. Levi took a sip of the tea in his hand and seemed to enjoy it more than usual before he sighed.
“You’re right… This does seem a little better than the cheap tea we always get. Oluo’s reasoning must be right. But…”
“Captain?”
Everyone in the squad, including its recruit, had their eyes on Levi, who seemed to be deep in thought.
So he’s saying…that’s not all…?!
Oluo was on pins and needles as he waited to hear what words would come from the mouth of the man he unconsciously aspired to become.
The Case of the Sacked Squad Leader - File No. 06 Nifa’s Side (3/3)
Hange’s lab had been sacked despite it being a locked room with no way in or out. Hange, who was inside, had no memories of the incident, and everyone was trying to figure out the true story behind what had gone on.
Nifa, who worked under Hange, said she had carried tools for her superior officer’s experiments until moments before the room was locked.
“You can put Unit #1, the log mockup, in front of that bookshelf. Unit #2, the pendulum, goes in front of the desk, and put Unit #3, the wire trap, next to the shelf.”
The room was by no means large, but Nifa brought model after model for the trap into the room.
Is it really okay to put these inside here…?
Still, they didn’t have unlimited resources. They would have to run at least a few experiments using smaller mock ups before doing anything at larger scale. Nifa knew this, which is why she obeyed Hange’s instructions.
******
“I want to be alone for a bit, so I’m going to lock myself in here, okay? You take care of it if anyone comes by, Nifa. Give any documents or anything else that isn’t urgent to Moblit,” Hange said before swapping their glasses out for goggles. It seemed like they were getting ready to hunker down and start researching.
The Squad Leader didn’t even sleep last night… I don’t want to leave them on their own, but…
While Nifa was concerned for her Squad Leader, she believed in Hange, someone who had made it out of more than a few life-or-death situations.
“Please don’t do anything unreasonable.”
“Aren’t Survey Corpsmen always doing the unreasonable?”
“We’re inside the Walls right now. I’ll come get you when it’s time to take a break.”
Hange would be fine as long as they got the rest they needed. Nifa and the other squad members just needed to be on top of things. Having convinced herself, Nifa closed the door and heard it lock from the inside.
******
Petra was shocked when she heard Nifa’s explanation of the prototypes and leaped to her feet.
“You tested heavy pendulums and log traps inside of a room?! Isn’t that really dangerous…?”
“They’re smaller because they’re prototypes. At most, they were the size of this chair,” Hange said while gesturing to show the size of the prototypes. But Levi was still dumbstruck.
“Why did you lock the door? Did it not strike you that no one would be able to come in and help if there was an accident?”
“That’s right! You should have at least had someone else…”
When Nifa heard Petra say these words, she recalled that Petra was the type of soldier who put a strong emphasis on teamwork.
…But that wasn’t to say that Nifa’s corpsmates didn’t think of one another, either.
“I was working with traps that can activate out of nowhere. If someone who didn’t know what was going on came in and set one off, it’d be dangerous.”
…Yes, that’s the kind of person Hange is.
Hange may have appeared to me caught up in the experiment, but they cared about others, too. It was that kindness that lead to the accident. The rest of Hange’s squad knew that, which made them share the responsibility for what happened.
“…At least one of us should have stayed.”
“It’s fine with me, I’m still alive. I just don’t remember. So, Nifa, what do you mean when you say you figured it out?”
“Let’s go back to the scene one more time.”
The blame would be Hange’s alone unless the truth of the matter was revealed. Nifa knew that she had to prove her hypothesis, and so she went with her officers and squadmates to the room where it all happened.
******
The room remained in shambles. Still, Nifa’s eyes landed on a single piece of debris. She ran over Ang picked it up.
“Look! You changed the size of the model, didn’t you!”
“Oh… Now that you mention it…”
Nifa had brought a piece of wood used to support one of the prototypes into the room, but a table was now attached to it.
“That’s right, the small-scale experiment went well, so I thought I’d adjust it so that it’d reach a seven-to-eight-meter-class Titan…and put the pendulum trap on the desk…and that’s when it happened.”
As soon as Moblit heard Hange said this, he immediately began to scrutinize the desk and the size of the trap, compared that to Hange’s height, and arrived at the same conclusion as Nifa.
“So this log pendulum must have gone swooping down and hit you in the head, Squad Leader. That’s what caused you to pass out…
"…And then the base gave way, causing it to hit the shelf…”
“…Which caused the books to fall onto your test equipment, which is how we ended up with this mess… Excuse me, Squad Leader.”
Just to make sure, Nifa stood tall and raised her arms, thrusting her hands into Hange’s ever-tied hair.
“You have a huge bump on your head!”
“Oh, I do. Well, you know how sometimes bumps don’t hurt that much depending on where you get them!”
“I guess that happens every once in a while, but…”
Hange’s temporary memory loss must have caused them to forget the pain, too.
“…We’ll write apologies as well. We came up with these traps as a squad, after all.”
Everyone nodded at Nifa’s words before moving straight to cleaning up the room.
“I’ll take all the blame for this. We did learn that the weapons, while small, do at least work on humans.”
“Before you do, can you please go to a doctor to get that bump checked out?”
“You never know,” Nifa said, “once we start cleaning up, we might find out that surprisingly little equipment was destroyed.” After that, she pushed Hange out of the room.
“Sorry, I’ll get you something to make up for this,” the squad heard their leader say. They only shrugged as they began the work of picking up books and gathering splinters of wood.
The Case of the Sacked Squad Leader - File No. 05 Petra’s Side (2/3)
Petra Ral did not belong to the Survey Corps’s Fourth Squad, which was led by Squad Leader Hange. She just so happened to walk by Hange’s locked laboratory around the time it had been sacked.
“Um! I have a notice from the Captain to the Squad Leaders!”
There was no reply. She tried the doorknob, but it was locked.
Is Hange out? I’ll tell the Captain to go to them last.
Just then she heard loud noises.
“Ah?!”
Sounds of objects rattling apart, papers or something similar fluttering to the ground, and a loud, dull boom.
She instinctively knocked on the door to see if everyone was all right, but there was no answer.
Maybe they piled things up in a sloppy way and it fell over?
Petra didn’t think much of it because she assumed that the room was empty and went back to her work.
******
When Hange and their subordinates came by to talk to Petra, that was the first time she learned Hange was actually inside the room when those loud noise occurred.
“…I bet you were so drowsy that you managed to mess up and break that stuff on your own. You’re lucky your glasses didn’t break,” Levi spat at Hange now that he was near, but their only defense seemed to miss the point a bit.
“I had goggles on, Not glasses. I was testing a new weapon.”
Hange looked at Petra and asked her about the situation.
“Petra, so I heard you came by the room while I was in there? Do you know anything?”
“…I heard a noise. I thought it was empty and assumed that some things just fell over.”
She then went on to talk about the sound she heard and what took place right after.
******
A storage shed overseen by the Fourth Squad sat right next to Hange’s locked lab, always filled with an assortment of different items. At times it may have been vegetables to feed to Titans in experiments, while at others it could be spears used to hurt them.
I wonder what kind of experiment they’re running today? Logs…and a rope…
As Petra walked away from the room and passed the shed, she saw something curious and stopped.
Nifa, one of Hange’s subordinates, called out to her.
“Oh, do you need our squad for something?”
“I do. There’s a tactics memorandum going around, and… Oh, I’ll come back for Hange later.”
“That would be appreciated. The Squad Leader’s busy right now,” Nifa laughed, before realizing that Petra’s eyes were fixed on something in the shed. She casually explained what it was.
“Were you wondering about that? Those are the materials for the anti-Titan weapon prototypes.”
As always, the Fourth Squad was full of new ideas. Petra thanked Nifa, still amazed as she left the scene.
******
“Weapons?”
Though Levi seemed to be uninterested as he listened to Petra’s story, he now furrowed his brows.
“Yes. It seems like they’re trying to test how much of an impact a Titan body can take.”
“The only way to stop one of those things is to slice out its nape. We learned that a long time ago.”
“The goal isn’t to defeat them. These are stationary traps meant to stop Titans by neutralizing their limbs. If this works out, it’d help out a lot in cases like defending an encampment while on a march.”
As someone who fought on the front lines, Petra thought it was a good idea. Titans may not move much at night, but some might. There was no such thing as too much safety when it came to the Titans.
“So it’s research that will help lighten the load on any of us on watch duty?”
Petra had been able to stay alive thanks to the way she and her fellow corpsmates helped one another out. As such, she saw Hange’s plan as attractive. Avoiding battles would mean more of her comrades making it back alive.
“That’s right. It’s not smart move to tire out combat specialists like you by placing you on patrol duty.”
Still, Levi was cautious. “That all sounds great, but do our wagons have the space to carry this alongside all of our other valuable resources?”
“They’re made with the assumption that the materials can be procured on-site. They uses pendulums and hammers made out of trees and ropes. We’ve been trying a lot of things.”
“Oh, Squad Leader!”
Suddenly, one of the corpsmen that Hange had brought spoke up. It was Nifa, who seemed to be there hiding between the larger soldiers.
“Nifa?”
“I…think I figured it out.”
The sudden words shocked everyone, and they all turned to listen to her.
Legend has it that the sun and moon are lovers that only can meet during an eclipse. The fleeting moments that they’re allowed to be together, though, they eclipse and change the sky itself.
(I really wish Colors Live didn’t butcher the quality, but here’s my first real attempt at digital art.)
As many readers already know, Anastasia’s birth was very traumatic for Levi. In the long hours after Petra nearly died bringing their daughter into the world, Levi refused to leave her bedside. He claimed that it was to make sure she met Anastasia as soon as possible, but really, it was from a feeling he had forgotten that he had the ability to feel; fear.
That feeling, the fear that as soon as he turned his back, Petra or Anastasia would be taken from him like so many others had been taken, was the only thing on his mind.
Synopsis:You’d follow him to the end of the world, you promised, only to realize how silly the words sounded with the current state of life- not to mention, you had said the same to Petra, a girl that met her fate with zombies gnawing the flesh of her thigh.
Word count: 2k
Warnings: zombies, gore, blood, minor injuries, explicit language, mentions of death
When you were twelve, you promised Petra you’d follow her to the ends of Earth, even if the world had gone to shit- you’d follow her.
Looking below you now, growling corpses walking the streets of Paradis; one of the most populated cities, it began to feel almost taunting. Had you manifested this? Of course not, you were a naive twelve year old, but it was too ironic.
Petra walked in front of you, baseball bat clutched tightly in her scar riddled hands. The wind caused strands of her golden hair to fly to the right, escaping the messy bun she had done hours ago. “Hey, wait up!” you called out, having fallen behind more than what you considered comfortable.
She came to a halt, turning as the corners of her mouth lifted, “Aren’t you afraid of heights?” Throughout the whole ordeal, Petra had never lost her smile, you admired her for it; you lost yours on the second day. “Keep up, we only have so much sun, y’know.” and off she was, continuing with her fast pace, leaping from roof to roof.
You groaned, fighting the urge to claim the cement floor beneath you and sleep, but Petra was right, she had never been wrong. “Alright, alright.”
The gaps in-between roofs were small due to the sheer amount of buildings they had stuffed together, but still big enough that one slip would leave you a soon-to-be zombie. “Be careful not to fall,” a useless warning, but it became tradition.
A few rooftops away from home, your leg lost balance, the slant of the roof propelling you forward as your hand desperately clawed the ground, tearing the end of your nails off as a terrified scream fell from your lips, “Petra!”-but it wasn’t enough as you hit the edge, legs rolling over and off the side. “Fuck,” you cursed, bloodied fingers digging into the ledge as you tried to pull yourself up.
Zombies piled below you, the scream from moments ago attracting them. Their groaning and growling added to your fear, one slip up and you’re zombie chow.
It was inconvenient, but you were able to graze your tip toes over what seemed to be an edge on the building.
The yell of your name pulled your attention back from the hoard below, you saw Petra running back to you, skillfully jumping over the openings. “Are you okay- Holy shit, your hand.” she mumbled, dropping to her knees as she hastily pulled you up, careful of causing any more damage. “Shit,” her eyes ran over your fingers, the blood made it look worse than it felt. “you okay? What happened back there?”
Her worried questions fell upon deaf ears- you’d almost died, moments after telling Petra to be careful, you almost fucking died. “How far are we?” your eyes met her wide ones. “I don’t think I messed anything up too bad, my damn fingers hurt, though.”
A strangled laugh forced its way through her as she looked behind her, a sloppy trail of blood from where your fingers tried to catch flat ground showed, “Yeah, I bet.” she held your head in her lap, fingers brushing through your dark, matted hair, looking down at you with a small smile. “Just a few more roofs away, I’d say five more minutes.”
The sun blinded you, Petra’s head doing little to block it out. It was a beautiful day, couldn’t have been less than sixty degrees.
You brought yourself to your feet with the help of Petra, blood staining the front of her pale blue shirt, you shot her an apologetic glance. That was one of the few shirts she owned.
“If I thought I was over my fear,” you started, examining your fingers: the tips had stopped bleeding, but it looked like someone had taken a cheese-grater to them. “Then I was dead wrong.”
Your pun flew over her head or she just didn’t find it funny. Either way, your laughter was cut short as you looked up.
The sky was a light orange, any other circumstance and it would have been beautiful; but with the world burning below it, you couldn’t help but curse the universe and its ability to create something so pretty at a time like this.
“Let’s get home,” she urged, the darkening sky made it harder to spot the openings between buildings and with your luck, you’d fall through. “Don’t want to have to sleep on a roof, again.”
It was meant as a joke, but the silence following showed neither of you took it as such.
Right before you found the apartments, there had been one other in your small group: Annie. The three of you felt unstoppable, spending all your nights sleeping on whatever roof gave you the best ocean view.
In the end, it seemed zombies always won, taking away the people you love with no second thought.
Thinking about her brought tears to your eyes, she was your best friend of fifteen years and you killed her, or at least what was left of her after the zombies had their taste. “Fuckin’ zombies.”
Petra agreed. It was a loss for her too, having known Annie for the better part of ten years. “Fucking zombies,” she repeated, picking her bat up from the ground.
Trailing behind, you watched stars appear in the sky, one by one. Now that there was less pollution, the stars were brighter; one of the few rewards of the Apocalypse, if you could call it such.
A full moon lit the sky, marking the completion of a cycle. Soon there will be a waxing crescent moon, one of your favorites- you can only hope you’ll live to see it with your best friend by your side.
“Last one,” Petra announced, jumping over the opening. “Your turn, be careful.“
Launching off the edge with your right leg, you landed on your left, falling straight to the cement with a hiss, hugging your knee to your chest. “Ouch.”
A few moments of you not moving later, arms wrapped around your waist, pulling you to your feet. “C’mon, wanna sleep,” Petra whined, pushing the green, metal door open.
The sound of metal against concrete was unpleasant, tonight it seemed louder than usual.
Twelve stairs ascend down from the green door, you’d memorized the number the first day in case of emergency. “I’ll help you,” an arm wrapped around your waist, allowing most of your weight to rest on them as you walked- no, limped down the stairs.
One
Two
Three
Four
Fiv-
A clunking noise sounded from the floor below, echoing up the stairs. Metal against metal you noted, nothing a zombie could make.
“Did you hear that?” Petra whispered, arm tightening around you, ready to take off and drag you to the roof at any given moment.
Your breath was caught in your throat, heart hammering against your chest.
“Maybe something fell over?” The thought did little to soothe your fears, knowing even if something had fallen, someone or something was prowling too close for comfort. “Let’s just get inside our room, lock the doors, and put a chair up against them.”
“And trap ourselves!?” she yelled in a hushed tone, brown eyes glued to what little you could see of the staircase through the barricade. “I say we roof hop, find a new place. Mayb-”
You silenced her, shaking your head as you spoke. “No, our room is right by the ladder, remember? Anything happens, we can leave- but I’m in no condition to be traveling.”
God, she hated it when you were right. “Fine, but I hear it again and we are gone. Understood?”
A compliant ‘yes’ left your lips, Petra was the unofficial leader.
Rarely had there been a disagreement between the two of you. Ever since Annie, she had taken it upon herself to keep you safe, seeing as you were the youngest at twenty. Annie being twenty-one and Petra twenty-three.
She reminded you of your mother, occasionally. The way she doted on you, checking you for injuries every time you went somewhere.
Chairs stacked against the doors, underneath the handles. Petra worked tirelessly to secure the rooms and doors, making sure no one could kick them down, convinced the noise was caused by the living.
“I swear I heard talking, the living aren’t like how they used to be,” she rambled, locking the bedroom door and placing a black, wooden chair underneath the silver handle. “They don’t have laws preventing them from killing- there isn’t a justice system for them to fear.”
The wall behind you was cold on your exposed back, the ridges in the paint poking at your skin.
Turning to Petra, you let your head fall against the wall. “Tra,” you sighed, breaking her from her nervous pacing. “Why would people clear every floor of an apartment building? Not even we did, for all we know some dead fucker knocked something over.”
“The voices- what about the voices I heard!?” Tears pooled in her dark eyes, she was having a panic attack. “You’re injured, can you even climb down the ladder- oh my god, your fingers.” Words flew from her mouth, worries spilling out like a broken faucet.
Your hand caught the back of her shirt, tugging her onto the bed. “Calm down, I can climb and run if I need to and my fingers,” you held them out, blood staining the skin around the nail. “are fine, some rubbing alcohol and a hand wash will fix ‘em up, Tra.”
Her fingers tangled in her hair, palms pressed flat against her face. Blonde fly-aways blowing forward, the open window allowing a breeze to pass through the room. “I just..” she paused, looking over to you. “I worry about you, about us.”
The quiet rustling and groaning of the zombies below became somewhat comforting over the months, it was a constant in a life of variables.
“I am twenty years old,” you giggled, attempting to lighten the mood. “Not a reckless fourteen year old. I can take care of myself, too.”
Blonde hair clouded your vision, Petra had placed her head on your shoulder, hand intertwining with your own. “I know,” she mumbled, “But after Annie..” she didn’t have to continue for you to understand: she couldn’t lose you too.
Change the subject, you thought. Focusing on Annie for too long will make you cry, the wound was still too fresh. “What do you think…y’know, started all this?” It was a frequent conversation you had, each time leading closer to an answer. “I still think biological warfare.”
Silence coated the room, hanging heavy in the air. “I feel like it was just an experiment gone wrong, like someone mixed the wrong vials or something.”
Your back slid down the wall, meeting the softness of the mattress underneath the purple sheets. “That’s so boring,” you groaned, looking up at her. “Besides, this feels intentional. Like, how do you not only ‘accidently’ make a zombie, but spread the virus too?”
The bed creaked as Petra moved down, becoming eye level with you. She watched you with her honey colored eyes, studying your face- memorizing every dimple and divot.
She placed her thumb on your cheek, caressing the skin, noting the scar underneath your eye: small and delicate, thin like a paper cut.
To the right of her thumb, there was a scar, you could feel it as it drug against your skin. If you had to guess, it was within the last seven or so months, seeing as Petra had smooth hands before the Apocalypse.
“One day, you’ll find out,” she paused, eyes closing- pulling her thumb away from your face, before continuing. “I’m sure of it. Now get some sleep, I’ll listen for new noises.”
You smiled, an act reserved for Petra alone. "Love you, try not to stay up all night” you whisper, pulling the gray, wool blanket close to your face.
“No promises,” she grins, moving closer to your body. “Love you too.”
Synopsis:You’d follow him to the end of the world, you promised, only to realize how silly the words sounded with the current state of life- not to mention, you had said the same to Petra, a girl that met her fate with zombies gnawing the flesh of her thigh.
Warnings: Eventual smut, explicit language, zombie apocalypse, minor character death, blood & gore, violence, weapons, minor & serious injuries, hurt/comfort
Levi Ackerman’s life can only be described by using two words: domestic bliss. When a ghost from Levi’s past visits him, his family’s life takes an unexpected turn.
Postwar Rivetra in Marley with a pinch of Kenny Ackerman in their lives
Their new lives with Kenny by their side lived up to Levi’s expectations: he was exhausted. He had missed his old man’s presence in his life over the years, but now he would laugh at his former self for having such feelings after getting a glimpse of how it could have turned out if Kenny had stuck by his side. Levi appreciated all the quiet years he had known before the present day, even with the war. Not that he would ever admit it to anyone, but even dealing with Eren seemed a simpler task nowadays. Fortunately for Kenny, Levi’s violent ways of discipline were a thing of the past, all thanks to his loving wife.
The disarray his life had turned into truly hit him when he woke one morning, and his day had already been ruined before it had even begun. He’d been looking forward to having Petra all to himself for yet another day before the children’s return from Paradise, and he had even told Kenny not to show his face around there. Any joy he’d felt was quickly sucked out of him the moment he saw the junk in his garden- an old metal trailer, rusty and as gross-looking as his uncle sat in the middle of their yard. If his uncle could afford to live in a trailer, why was he bunking with them? The man stormed downstairs from the bathroom, or as best as he could storm when he had one crutch in hand, the other hand holding the handrail with a deathly grip. He needed some answers. But his oblivious wife just stood in the kitchen, cooking some breakfast for the two of them.
“Have you seen that shit in our garden?” He scoffed in disbelief.
“Oh, the trailer?” Petra responded, ignorant to the annoyance in her husband’s voice. And Petra, not being as clueless about the whole situation, only seemed to irritate Levi further when she casually spoke about it.
“Are you telling me you’re fine with it?!” Sometimes she made him wonder why they had gotten married in the first place. That was until he glimpsed at her warm, beautiful, amber eyes and forgot about it all, even his own name. Petra knew how dramatic Levi was with personal space and cleanliness, so she never took his harsh words to heart. She had expected this response when she’d agreed to let Kenny move the trailer into their yard, sure that Kenny knew what he was doing by asking her and not his nephew.
“Not even the whiskey can keep these old bones warm anymore,” Kenny had argued with her.
“He can’t sleep in a tent all winter, Levi,” was Petra’s final answer. She would not let Kenny freeze to death in the makeshift tent their kids had come up with during the summer, no matter what Levi had to say on the matter. Admittedly, she hadn’t been so keen on the idea at first, as that was less space for their children to play, but Kenny had swayed her.
“Sure he can. He lived in the Underground, remember? I’m sure he’s slept in worse places.” Even nowadays, he dreamt of the dump he and Kenny used to call home. An old, dirty mattress that Kenny dared to call a bed was all he offered Levi when he took him in.
“It’s that or our couch,” was all Petra had to say to put an end to the argument. Levi could just imagine it: Kenny laying on his couch, pants off, with a cigarette in his hand and a beer bottle in the other, spilling everything on his precious yellow suede. As always, Petra had won the battle.
Levi Ackerman’s life can only be described by using two words: domestic bliss. When a ghost from Levi’s past visits him, his family’s life takes an unexpected turn.
Postwar Rivetra in Marley with a pinch of Kenny Ackerman in their lives
Levi sighed in exasperation as he looked through the kitchen cupboards, brows furrowing as the empty spot where his favourite tea biscuits usually sat mocked him again. He was quickly growing tired of this infestation. First, it had been some bread and then some cheese, and before they knew it, they would notice a little something missing every morning. But his favourite biscuits? That was where he drew the line.
“It’s probably the kids’ carelessness; I’m sure they just forget,” his dear wife always told him, brushing off his misfortunes. Little did she know of the extent of his worry, the countless nights he had lost thinking of the little devils roaming around freely in his spotless home. His life in the Underground had taught him to avoid the little disease carriers, and his skin crawled at the idea of sharing a place with them. The multiple traps that Petra had set out clearly weren’t doing the trick, but his own methods hadn’t been very successful either, as he grimly recalled that one shameful night that Petra would never let him forget.
Levi had been on a mission that night to finally spot the little scoundrels terrorizing his home and his family. Mostly him, really, not that he would ever admit it. He had come up with what he believed to be a foolproof plan to catch them. After making sure Petra and the kids were in deep slumber, the man had gotten up in the middle of the night to get everything set up. He chose the perfect bait, some stinky cheese that he usually would never dare to bring into the house, but made an exception this once. He had set it out on the countertop in plain sight to hopefully gather all the pesky rats in one spot. And then he waited, hidden away behind a sofa where he would be out of sight but could quickly jump into action when the time called. He had been ready with artillery, too: a broom in one hand and an old metal bucket in the other to swat the little beasts into their hell. One thing that was not supposed to be part of his rat hunting uniform: Petra’s floral nightgown. But the odds were against him that night. Colder conditions than he was accustomed to and his wife’s tendency to be roused easily forced him into a choice he would always regret.
After deciding to give Paradise another chance, the last place Levi expects to find the woman he never dared confess his love to is a retirement home. Levi works up the courage to rekindle the old flame between him and Petra.
Fall had gone by rather uneventfully. There was a bit of a change in their usual routine, as Petra soon traded flower picking for mushroom gathering, much to Levi’s misery.
“I’m not putting that shit in my mouth.”
Petra laughed as she pushed the mushroom further in his face, earning one of his infamous nose scrunches. He was adorable when he was acting so stubborn. Petra had been doing this all her life and had never made someone ill with the ones she chose. Her father had taught her well enough.
“I would never poison you, Levi.”
He was not usually one to refuse food since he knew first-hand the effects of its scarcity, but mushrooms had always been a no-go for him. As delicious as people claimed they were, Levi could never carelessly eat something that could kill you so simply.
“Not on purpose, at least,” she whispered between giggles.
Levi rolled away from her, not paying any mind to her protests to return. The ones she got out between the laughing fits, that was.
“You’re on your own if a bear comes,” he yelled as he put more distance between them.
“Wait, there are bears in these forests?” He could sense the terror in her voice as she ran up by his side. Not that he could do much to help if a bear did actually come. But truthfully, he knew nothing about it, but she deserved it for mocking his fear of mushrooms.
“Maybe you could just stare at the bear until it goes away. I’m sure it’ll be frightened.”
“Stop acting like a brat,” he warned her as he led her to a place where he had spotted more of those devils.
