In Another Life | Levi x Reader/OC

Love

"Love is a weakness." The memory of your mother pouring water over the blooming campanula emerged in your brain. Tiny water droplets bounced from petal to petal down the stem until they reached the soil. "It makes you do stupid things."

A sigh escaped your mouth at the memory while you stepped into your room, just having finished taking a long shower, brushing your teeth, and slipping on your nightgown. After settling the Rod Reiss situation, you all retreated to a building within Wall Sina near Mitras since Historia's coronation was tomorrow. The night settled in fairly quickly after the strenuous day, and fortunately, the scouts no longer had to reside in a shabby shack but could sleep in a comfortable bed again.

Flopping onto your bed, you rolled over on your back to stare up at the ceiling. You rested one arm over your head, setting it comfortably atop your pillow while you let out another deep sigh. Exhaustion consumed your entire body. You'd like to fall asleep soon to be up early for Historia's coronation, but as always, your mind never liked to shut up.

Love.

Your mind returned to the memory of your mother and the campanula.

"Why would anyone want to be in love then?" you recalled asking your mother. She had just finished tending the flowers and set down the watering can. There was a wistful smile on her face while her eyes were still fixed on the purple flowers.

"Love isn't something we choose," she had said. "You can't help who you love sometimes."

You always adored your mother, but it wasn't until after she died that you truly acknowledged her inner strength. As a young kid, there were moments when you found yourself inexplicably angry at her for reasons that were out of her hands. You used to question many of her decisions of the past, and sometimes you still did, but anytime you lingered back to the memories you still had of her, you realized she did the best she possibly could with what she had placed in front of her path.

But there was still one thing you could never quite understand - how on earth did she end up loving someone like your father?

Adam Krause was his name. You took your last name after your mother, Luna Barlowe, for obvious reasons. Your parents never got married; your father was a Marleyan man while your mother was an Eldian woman. This forbidden love of theirs was always made apparent to you as a kid.

Stupid. It was all stupid. A part of you wondered how the hell they were even able to pull it off for so long, especially since they couldn't be seen together.

And they set one hell of an example of what 'love' was supposed to be like...

What was love to you? How did you learn to love when your example of love was the dysfunctional relationship between your parents? How could you love when all you were taught was to fight?

You shut your eyes at the thought, reminiscing back to your childhood...

-

Eat.

Sleep.

Train.

Repeat.

From the moment you turned five, that was the life you knew.

Early mornings were spent refining techniques with your father, then you went straight to warrior training. Breakfast consisted of water, bread, eggs, and sometimes orange juice if your father was generous enough.

"When you hold the knife, grip it backward," your father instructed you one day. He grabbed the knife from your hand and then reversed his grip, swiftly slicing the chest of the dummy that stood on your right. "You'll feel powerful."