Tutor

Forgiveness

Hi folks!

Man, we are really coming to the end of this story. I'm just guessing, but I figure there's less than five chapters left before she's all finished. Just have a few things to wrap up for our lovers. If you've ever read the short story "Early Autumn" by Langston Hughes, that was a big inspiration for how I wrote Hange and Y/N. Though Hange and Y/N are less tragic than those characters. I highly recommend it; it's only one page yet very moving.

As always, I hope you enjoy today's chapter.

-Parks 🖤

The anxiety in the carriage was palpable as it vibrated between Levi and Hange. Levi was anxious to see Y/N again and confirm that she was safe, that his actions of the day didn't have any immediate consequences that were doled out on her as some divine punishment against him. Hange was also anxious to see Y/N, but not to for her safety. Hange had spent the last three weeks believing, hoping, praying that if they were successful in arresting Y/N's father, then Y/N would see that Hange's betrayal had been worth it. Hange would prove that they only acted because they knew they would succeed. And maybe Y/N would forgive them.

So they sat. Intermittently bouncing their knees and tapping their toes. Not another word was spoken between them until the carriage broke through the thick of the trees. The yellowed, dead grass sprawled out across the expansive field, only broken up by the few trees that stood tall around HQ and its stables. The sudden warm light reflecting off the grass caught their attention through the carriage windows. Hange sat forward to poke their head out the window.

Levi chuckled. As if they can see Y/N from here.

"Oh! There she is!"

"What?" Levi lunged forward. "No way you can see her!" He tried to squeeze into the window around Hange, but they wouldn't budge.

"Can to. She's in the field. I think she's flying a kite."

"What the hell?"

Hange finally relented and let Levi poke his head out the window. There he saw a tiny Y/N on the horizon with seven other figures; five were seated while two ran with Y/N and her red kite.

"They're supposed to be guarding her, yet they're out flying a kite in the open," Levi scoffed, though it sounded more like a chuckle.

His chastising complaint had little energy behind it. He couldn't be mad when Y/N was safe, and her being out in the field allowed him to verify this fact much quicker than if she were inside HQ.

Y/N ran with Luka and Ilse through the field insistent that she would be able to fly the kite better than Luka had. The three of them heaved their laughter as they ran around in large circles. Meanwhile, Y/N's remaining bodyguards, plus Anna, were seated on the large maroon blanket that Otto had provided picking at the remaining snacks and watching their friends.

The three Scouts that had been strangers to her before their first assignment as her bodyguards had melded into their friend group with ease, so last week when the stress had gotten to Y/N, she had confided in all of them about her situation. She certainly didn't tell them everything, but it had been enough for the lot of them to approach Levi and volunteer for any future body guarding details.

Luka had felt an extra layer of guilt after hearing Y/N's story. If he was lining the timeline up correctly (he wasn't), that meant she had freshly escaped when they met (it had been over a month). Which meant he had been coming onto her while she was dealing with all of that, and he had been beating himself up for it. He had been especially eager to help in anyway he could as his own little repentance for his brazen behavior in the past.