Lara (Long-Fic Levihan | Armin Arlert X OC)

Chapter 24 - The Festival

In the seventh week of her treatment, Lara was discharged. The Survey Corps soldiers lined up in the corridor of the infirmary and Lara passed through them on Mike's piggyback, while receiving a round of applause for her excellent recovery.

To celebrate it, Lara asked Hange and Levi if they could take her to a festival that would take place in Trost District the next weekend. She had heard one of the nurses talk about it and got very excited, because the tutors of the orphanage had never taken her to a festival before, for the lack of money to pay for the food and games from the tents to all the children.

Hange and Levi agreed and on Saturday morning, they left in a carriage heading to Trost. It would take them about forty minutes to get to the festival and Lara was elated. She had only ridden a carriage once in her life, and now was loving the experience, going from one window to the other every five minutes, enjoying the landscape.

Levi and Hange sat one in front of the other, he in his typical black suit and white cravat around his neck, and Hange in a casual outfit: beige pants and white shirt. Lara wore a simple blue dress, which Levi had to buy recently, as some of the clothes they had bought when Lara came to live at the Survey Corps HQ were already starting to be too small for her.

At certain moments, Levi would block Lara's passage from one side of the carriage to the other, just for the simple pleasure of irritating her.

When they arrived at the festival, Lara never imagined that there could be so much fun happening in only one place, and just like she did when she saw Levi fight the Titans for the first time on the way to Shiganshina, when she spotted all the tents and toys, she clenched her fists, squeezing them and desperately waving her arms, in a sign of pure excitement.

If there is one word that would best describe the festival, it would be "colorful". Flags of different colors crossed the streets, above the tents, which were an exception themselves. In each one that Lara visited, she would find something new.

There was a section for food tents, another for games, and another for tents selling knick-knacks. In an open field, there was an area for outdoor games, such as sack races, tug of war, and dancing. In addition to also having a large stage in the center of the festival, where throughout the whole day, theater and music performances took place.

Hange, Levi, and Lara spent the morning exploring the game tents, such as ringtoss, pinning the tail on the donkey, and fishing. At a certain shooting game tent, Lara had hit the target, but the owner denied it, refusing to give the prize, which was a stuffed horse, like the one Lara rode in the Survey Corps.

Slowly, Levi took the shotgun toy from Lara's hands, put in some fake ammunition, and with an impassive look, hit not only Lara's target again, but all the other targets as well, leaving the owner with an expression of total bewilderment. Two minutes later, Lara was running through the row of tents, lifting her new stuffed horse above her head.

At lunchtime, they tried a variety of different foods and in Lara's opinion, her favorite dessert was chocolate-dipped strawberries.

After lunch, Lara wanted to participate in the games located in the open area of the festival. Excited, she joined one of the children's teams for a tug of war competition. Hange and Levi noticed that Lara had displayed a certain competitive behavior sometimes, but nothing too extreme. However, Lara became so immersed in the competitive spirit of the game, that you could see the veins in her eyes, so eager she was to win it.

With even a certain violence, Lara pulled the rope with all her strength and still glared at the children who, in her opinion, were too wimpy. Levi watched the scene with perplexity and, to his greatest surprise, by his side, Hange was shouting encouraging phrases to Lara, in the same intensity of euphoria as the girl.