The Wings of Truth

3.

It took her a while to forgive and trust Levi again after that fight, but he made it up to her as she grieved for the loss of her father. She took a week off to attend his funeral and be home with her mom. The last client of her dad had grown fond of the family and hated to see them go, so he offered his guest bedroom to her mother in exchange for help around the house, an offer she gratefully accepted. Hanji was quite reserved and introverted for a while after she returned from the funeral, and it unnerved everyone. She didn't bat an eye at titans but the loss of her father had gotten to her and it went deeper than anyone knew. The commander at the time insisted that she have a roommate in case there were dark, harmful thoughts that she was nurturing, but no female was willing to room with her... so she got put into the dorm that the four men shared. Levi, Mike, Erwin, and Nile became roommates with her until she reached the acceptance stage of grief and was able to move on and no longer concerned the higher ups that she may be so deep into depression that she may make unfortunate decisions. The day that she began cracking up at how the boys seemed embarrassed that she would see them naked when she didn't give a single damn if the reverse was true was the day that she was returned to her little isolated barrack, and the quiet and stillness of the room was peace. Many soldiers crave human interaction, and she was no different, but she felt comfortable alone unlike the majority. She was content with solitude.

If it was quiet, still, and safe, then it was peace to her and peace was becoming a harder and harder luxury to obtain as the titans began breaching walls and concerns grew bigger. She cherished having her own room, and people thought her all the stranger for it. With reality being so awful, and her thoughts being so out there, then what was there to soothe her other than quiet? The world was noisy and her thoughts were far too loud, but her room was quiet and her pillows were soft.

Many people accused her of being up to something, but the higher ups saw no reason to take any action when nothing was turned up from several searches and secret monitorings that she was completely unaware of. She wasn't up to something and that just made her all the more unusual since it meant that every action was for herself and not some ulterior motive or third party. She was used to the accusations to the point that she didn't even hear them anymore. She had just hit the point that she merely shrugged when someone told her the rumor that others were suspecting her of something again. They knew what she was actually up to, but there were still concerns and disbelief. She had simply lost interest in what they said about her once she realized that she couldn't prove them wrong if they didn't want to listen, so she didn't try to prove them wrong; it had never interfered with work and it didn't appear to be likely to become an issue. There was a system, one that she had just fallen into as easily as routine. A skepticism would be raised, a request for a search would be passed, she'd give them the keys to her lab, they'd search it, and the issue would be mitigated so she could continue her work.

Just as Hanji was used to being watched, Levi was used to watching. He was often the one in charge of keeping order and making sure problems were handled, and Levi held himself with an air of authority that made people behave better than the others could. He silently demanded respect and people responded with compliance. It was a smooth system and Hanji was the offset to the strong seriousness that overwhelmed the corps between Levi, the titans, and the king. She provided a break from the strict and monotonous tone of the military, even if she was a little crazy by most standards. She proved useful and calming to many cadets in an ironic way. She concerned them and made them nervous, but she also relaxed them as it helped them focus on other things when she was present. That never changed over the years once the 104th training legion was able to pick branches. The only difference was that she had a new outlet; it's name was Eren Yeager.

With the introduction of Eren Yeager and the titan shifters, Hanji's influence on the cadets went from calming to concerning. They grew nervous and concerned when she would address them, but she either didn't notice or didn't care. Depending on who you asked, the latter was true, though no one was sure whether it was one way or the other, even if they claimed that they did. With Eren, her odd ways became much more commonly seen than before because she sought out others more frequently and was often too excited to behave properly. She was given a valid, and cleared, reason to experiment more and with much more free reign as the new subject could be controlled much easier now that she had Eren in her grasp.