Come Along: SNK AU

~31

As time blurs, from exams in school to my friends expanding their horizons and futures, a gnawing pain progresses through my body.

Not one of the usual pains, but one of a depthless void of nothingness.

It endlessly spirals to a vast hell hole where I just exist. However, others try to reach out to me.

I desperately want to recoil from their warm embrace, only to feel my insides turn to stone, so no pain can touch my being.

The persistent isolation and depression have reaped its' belongings, from watching my grades drop, to speaking less and less at lunch, to the point I wander off and enjoy the company of wondrous characters of faraway lands and universes.

No words can sustain my happiness anymore, no embrace or lies can fill the hollowness in my chest.

I asked Levi once if he has felt this way, I watched his expression darken and answer with a rough, 'yes'. 

That simply answered all of my questions, there is so much that Levi will never tell me, maybe dad knows.

Those are questions for another time, maybe another lifetime.

~

Sitting on my bed, I hear a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" I call out.

"Levi," he replies.

A silence follows until I say, "What is it?"

"Some of your bratty friends are up in the living room."

At those words, my heart skips a beat, what are they doing here? What do they want from me? 

A sense of dread appears, with a hint of rage and sadness.

Slipping a sweater on, I plop myself into my wheelchair and open the door, to see Millie hiding behind Levi.

Hence, he wasn't kidding. So I make my way up the ramp to see a handful of people sitting on the couch and floor.

One with glossy black hair drapes an arm around one with firey passion that will never fade. As for the two blondes they silently chat, a small frown upon one of their pale complexions.

At first glance, anger and betryal erupts through my veins, past my lips, "What do you want?" I shakily ask, not with a more defiant tone I desired to voice.

"What do you mean?" Eren instantly counters, his hands balled into fists.

"Eren, please not now," Armin intercepts, reaching a hand out to him.

It was Annie who spoke next, "Thais, we are worried about you."

At those words, my small world collapses, those simple words through me through a loop.

Without knowing, a small sob echoes across the room, with all eyes on me.

"Say something," Mikasa pleas. 

"You guys, thank you... Thank you so much." I reach my arms out, and within moments Armin embraces me with Mikasa and Eren following suit.

I meet Annie's eyes, "I love you guys, to the moon and more." I mouth to her.

"We love you too." She softly replies to the world around her, is this too much to ask for?