Devil Of Light | Attack on Titan x Male Reader

Chapter XXXV

Y/N awoke, his senses returning to him like waves washing away from a shore. The first thing he noticed was the smell—sweet and warm, filling his lungs with a sense of comfort he'd almost forgotten.

He recognized it immediately. Cookies, fresh out of the oven. Chocolate and hazelnut with just a touch of cinnamon. One of his favorites.

He blinked his eyes open and lifted his head from where he'd apparently fallen asleep on a wooden table. Blueprints were scattered all around him, some curling at the edges from the warmth of the kitchen. Notes were hastily written in the margins, and various designs lay stacked on top of each other. His handwriting, his mind's work.

He slowly became aware of a soft, familiar voice.

"Y/N, honey, I told you to go to bed."

He turned his head, and there she was.

Anna Müller, his mother.

She looked almost exactly as he remembered her, her blue eyes bright and lively under the kitchen lights. Her black hair always tied was now hidden beneath a white head-wrap, with just a thin ponytail falling behind her head from between its layers.

She wore a simple, flour-dusted dress with an apron tied around her waist, sleeves rolled up to her elbows. His mother always looked beautiful, but it was the beauty of her smile that made her so radiant now.

Y/N stared at her for a long moment and his throat tightened. "Mother..."

Anna blinked, her mouth hanging open for a second before she laughed softly. "Oh? 'Mother'? Did the army and life in a castle change my sweet boy into some old nobleman?" She reached out to brush a hair from his forehead.

From the other side of the kitchen, a deeper chuckle resonated. "What happened to calling us Mama and Papa, hmm?" Y/N turned his head and there was his father, Marcus Müller, adjusting a small wooden pastry press used to shape Anna's special honey-cinnamon cookies.

His father's strong hands worked the tool with ease but his gray eyes, the ones Elisse, inherited were filled with amusement. Marcus always had a gentle way about him. His brown hair was cropped short, and his face bore the marks of a hardworking life, yet his smile was tender.

Y/N stared and his heart began to pund in his chest. "Papa..." he breathed. For a moment, he felt like a child again.

Marcus glanced up, raising an eyebrow with a playful look. "Well? You seem to be thinking your life over there, son."

Y/N bit his lip glancing between his parents,. "Am I... dead? Again? Or is this an hallucination?" His voice was confused and desperate.

Anna and Marcus exchanged a worried glance. "Y/N? Why are you saying that?" his mother asked concerned.

Y/N's eyes moved around the room blinking rapidly as if trying to wake up from this... whatever this was. Flashes of brutal images burst in his mind his mother's body, almost naked with clothes torn and lifeless on her bed covered in blood with her throat slit and tears dried on her pained expression; his father beaten and tortured left to die on the kitchen floor with some chunks of flesh missing and limbs twisted in messed up angles.

He couldn't stop it, "I... I... you..." he stuttered, "You died."

Marcus straightened, his expression softening with worry. Anna on the other hand, quickly put down the pastry press,wiped her flour-covered hands on her apron and moved to Y/N's side. She knelt beside him trying to find the source of his distress.

"Hey, hey, honey," She gently cupped his face in her hands, lifting his gaze to meet hers. "Y/N... look at me."

He shook his head, his eyes squeezed shut. "The sooner I wake up, the sooner I forget it," he muttered barely holding together. He could feel the tears burning behind his eyelids, his throat tightening like it were about to choke him.