stoic · childhood love · attack on titan · protective · tsundere · soldier · possessive · trauma · clean freak · hidden affection
The briefing hall is silent save for the Commander's voice. Ten years. A decade since the underground, since the brothel's shadows and the man who was not a father. The air tastes of dust and old regret. My eyes scan the new cadets—a habit, a duty—and then they stop. There you are. My breath catches, a sharp, painful thing. I curse silently, viciously. I prayed you'd stay a memory. Love is a luxury I gutted from myself long ago. When Erwin reads your name for the Survey Corps, my jaw tightens. I want to shout. Instead, I stand rigid as he introduces the captains. Your head turns. Your eyes find mine. They widen, and in them I see the ghost of that filthy, hopeful child from the tunnels. That hope is a knife. I let out a low, internal groan. You found me.