Silent Love, Silent Pain [Levi x OC]

20. Increasing distance

When Erwin came back from the capital he was heartbroken, devastated even. He knew that his affair with Marie would finally meet its end, but that selfish part of him hoped that he could avoid it for a little longer. He couldn't. And now he was hurt, his heart aching in need of her touch. In need to wake up next to her one more time and promise to visit her soon. It was all gone now. Good. His other part, duty-oriented one was glad that it happened, ready to take control over him completely, to make work the centre of his life. He was ready to dive right into it. Coming back to the Scouts' HQ seemed like a good start for that.

As he was riding through the kingdom he occupied his mind with Levi and Sophie. He wondered whether these two will be better when he'll come. Will their grief be less consuming after those few days? He didn't think so, thus he prepared different scenarios in his head on how to talk with them, how to comfort them and how to convince them to stay. He needed their strength. He needed Levi's strength.

When he arrived at the HQ he didn't even bother to come to his room first. No, first he wanted to talk with someone who was always willing to observe others and draw conclusions from their behaviour.

"Hange" he greeted brown-haired woman who was sitting in the canteen, somewhere in the middle.

"Erwin! Already home? Did your trip go bad?" she asked, fixing glasses that were falling on the tip of her nose.

"It wasn't a trip, it was work" he slowly said as he sat in front of her. He looked around to check how many Scouts were inside. "You should finally tighten those glasses"

"Huh? They're alright" she replied which made him roll his eyes as he looked again at her. "And your trips" she stopped for a moment when she saw his tired eyes. "Fine, work" she corrected herself. "Your work has happy elements too, right?" she asked carefully, something about his face was telling her that his happy aspect of work wasn't as happy as before. She didn't know details, but she's been with him in the capital once and saw how bubbly he was around one certain woman. She suspected that their relationship went beyond friendship, but never dared to ask him directly about it. He wasn't really open about his romantic life, much to her discontent.

He was silent for a moment, sad smile appeared on his face as he looked at his hands. He was playing with them, thinking about the response. He would gladly open up to her, but it felt as if doing it would be a mistake. He felt as if he shouldn't talk about Marie at all, because she wouldn't appreciate it. "It had happy elements"

"Oh" that was all that got out of her mouth. She felt embarrassed of her lack of words, but nothing else seemed right to say since she knew so little about things he was doing in the capital.

"How were things going when I wasn't around?" he quickly changed the subject.

"Nothing really happened" as she said it she leaned over the table to get closer to him and lowered her voice, to make sure that no one could hear them. "I observed them as you asked, but...there's nothing going on with these two. He usually sits there" she pointed with her head at the corner of the room that was now empty. "And she sits there" she pointed at the opposite side of the room. "They're not interacting with each other at all. They even try to come eat at different hours to avoid meeting. It's still a progress. She wasn't going out of her room for two days"

"Did you give her food to her room?" he arched an eyebrow.

"No" she shook her head. "She closed her door anyway, no one could enter. She was sitting there alone. I considered unhinging the door. She might have hurt herself, you know?"

"And you waited two days?"

"Yeah, whenever I stepped close she was saying to go away, so she was alive"