The Wings of Truth

5.

"So," Connie drawled with amusement as Eren came back around the corner to them. He was leaning against Jean who was grinning ear to ear. "You're boyfriend running away from you, dude?" Jean snickered from beside him and Eren just rolled his eyes. They meant no harm, no, they meant no harm but they just couldn't resist teasing him about his orientation, especially Connie who was dating Sasha although he almost didn't try to ask her out when he thought she was crushing on Krista and Mikasa.

"He's going outside the wall to visit family," he stated and relished in their shocked expressions. As far as most people knew, no one lived inside the wall since Maria fell. There were some, but they were far and few between and they often were people who had managed to get through the Staircases of the Underground. Connie broke out into an insane grin as he pumped the air with his fist.

"I knew that Corporal had to of come from a tough family! It's so cool that his relatives live outside Rose!" Eren smiled and noticed Hanji returning from the stables. He went to greet her, but Jean interrupted him.

"Hey, Squad Leader Hanji! Surely you must know, where does Levi's family live in the walls?" He flagged her down, and she walked up and gestured to Eren.

"That's actually what I came to talk to you about, Eren," a look of confusion spread across his features and she gave a soft, forced smile. "One of the words, Jean right," she asked and the boy nodded so she continued on as if she hadn't paused, "Jean used was in the wrong tense." The three looked between themselves and back at her before she explained. "You said 'live' right? Lived is more like it," she explained and it took a moment but the reality of her words sunk in as the meaning hit them. Levi's family was dead.

"Why didn't he say anything? Was he lying to me, Hanji?" Tears and confusion filled Eren's green eyes and she gave him a soft look of understanding before reaching out and cupping his cheek.

"I don't doubt that he tried to lie to you, Eren, he lied to everyone about it for six years, and he refused to tell even when they threatened to beat it out of him or else discharge him on account of secrecy. To be honest, even though we now know where he's going, we've never heard it from him. Erwin followed him the one year and it didn't take much for Erwin to understand," she felt her heart clench as Eren looked up to her, seeking answers while fighting tears. Jean and Connie were intently listening, Jean setting a comforting hand on Eren's back in the silence, one that he would later deny was ever there. "He doesn't talk about it, Eren, not unless he's really drunk or talking in his sleep, although Erwin has said that Levi has answered some of his questions when he'd wake up in the night. It had nothing to do with you, Eren," she assured and his eyes softened a bit at her honest and sincere sounding tone that was laced with comfort. She settled the hand on his face down on his shoulder and continued, "Levi doesn't like to make others worry and he doesn't like to open up about the things that bother him, Isabel was able to assure me that he's been like that long before he was forced into the military."

"Forced," Jean questioned and she nodded, explaining that the rumor that Levi was a rebel before being in the corps wasn't as true as saying that he was a criminal that was hired to assassinate Erwin. "Man, how did they even become friends when that's the circumstances they met under?"

"No kidding dude! Levi must've hated Erwin's guts!" Connie was far more into the story than Jean, but it was refreshing to see someone react so vividly when the corps was so dark and depressing. Eren and Connie made Hanji long for Isabel's cheery and carefree ways of running around and messing with people, excitable as ever, before running up to Levi and calling him pet names and nicknames that he'd beat others if they called him that, but with her... He just smiled, inwardly mind you, and took the nicknames. She livened up the place, but there was no point in longing for the dead for too long. You'd waste your life away wishing that they still had theirs.