#also also also Shion has to work through the anxiety of explaining ace feelings

[mxanigel]

fic update: Cut to the Feeling

an Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) fanfic

[Read on AO3]

An in-progress longfic that asks the question, What if they lived?

Chapter 25: Kiss My Scars

With assistance from Orvud's Garrison, Survey Corps forces defeat the massive Titan that was once Rod Reiss. Yet a rift remains between Shion and Levi. With Hange still hospitalized, Shion expects to face the night alone. To her surprise, she doesn't.

Rating: M

Relationships: Levi Ackerman/OC, Levi Ackerman & Hange Zoë, Hange Zoë & OC, eventual Levi/Hange/OC

Additional Tags: They/Them Pronouns for Hange Zoë, Hange Zoë Being Hange Zoë, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Friendship, Banter, Swearing, Lots of Cursing, Angst, Love and Loss, Asexuality Spectrum, Levi Ackerman Is Obsessed With Cleaning, Falling In Love, Literal Sleeping Together, First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Eventual Canon Divergence, Nightmares, Torture, Blood and Injury, Demisexual Levi Ackerman, Bisexual Hange Zoë, I'm writing this because it's taken over my brain, I have spent so many hours on the wiki lol, Eventual Romance

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Shion throws herself into her duties for the next few hours—such as dismantling the unused set of explosives and interviewing soldiers for her report to Hange—stopping only when ordered to eat dinner. After the meal, she visits Hange’s hospital room to find them sound asleep. She leaves a scribbled summary of today’s battle with a personal note at their bedside before navigating a maze of halls and stairs to reach her assigned quarters.

Fuck, this room is excessive. Granted, this is one of the fanciest buildings in Orvud, but it’s surreal to experience that opulence, to think about how much money was wasted here instead of rebuilding Stohess or supporting refugees fleeing Titan activity.

Over a dozen candles burn in wall sconces, most of which she blows out to conserve them. A four-poster bed more than double the size of a captain’s bunk sits against one wall, far too many pillows piled on top of it. The oak dresser is as wide as she is tall; Zane would probably admire its construction. Situated on its polished surface is a washbasin, the softest linen cloths she’s ever touched, and an ornately gilded mirror.

Oh, she’s a terrible sight. She diligently brushes knots from her hair before braiding it again so it’s out of the way while she reviews her notes and begins drawing the grotesque not-face of the Titan per Hange’s request. When she can’t stare at her third sketch attempt any longer, she wearily flops backward onto the bed, exhaling as she drapes both arms over her face. She’s running out of distractions. Perhaps the best course of action would be to try to sleep, nightmares be damned—

Knuckles rap against her door. Who’d swing by at this hour? Hange wouldn’t knock. Historia’s a possibility, though her movements are likely restricted now, or it might be Sasha. “It’s open.”

Shion barely swallows a gasp when Levi steps inside. He slumps against the closing door, his head bowed, looking as exhausted as she feels. But he doesn’t speak. When she can’t stand the dead air any longer, she murmurs, “Hi.”

He merely grunts.

Distance yawns between them as silence returns. She doesn’t know why he’s here. She isn’t sure whether she wants him to be here. But it’s the first time he’s sought her out since their disastrous reunion after the Stohess ambush. This heavy atmosphere is better than being alone. Right?

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