Child of the Wings

Remain strong

*Elisa's POV*

"Good morning!" I heard a bubbly voice coming from the door, accompanied by the scent of toast and eggs.

"I'm not hungry," I groaned, turning away from the door.

"Well, I promised that I would help you feel better yesterday so here I am!" I heard Petra say from behind me.

"Ugh, fine," I sighed, sitting up, wiping away the stray tears.

"Yay!" She clapped, pulling my right hand and taking me to get my uniform on.

"What are we doing today?" I asked her, tying off my braided ponytail.

"We're gonna have a girls day out!" Petra exclaimed excitedly, her bubbly personality kind of made me feel slightly better.

The first few minutes consisted of just talking about random girl stuff, like Petra would say something about my hair, and then would just talk about it. I mostly didn't pay attention, only nodding once in a while, occasionally giving off a fake smile.

"What branch are you gonna join?" She asked me, taking me off guard a little.

"The Survey Corps," I told her simply, making her hug me tight, out of pure happiness.

"I bet you'll be amazing! Commander Erwin really hoped you would join us! He even thinks you'll be as good as your father!" She said excitedly, but my eyes widened at the mention of my father.

"What do mean?" I asked her, no longer sad, just confused.

"Oh, according to Erwin, your father was amazing, even better than Levi! He told me that Corporal Deraener had the strength of two squads, everyone admired him," She said, but my eyes just wandered to the wall behind her.

"He never told me any of that. He barely even spoke of what he did," I said quietly, but still loud enough for Petra to hear.

"It's a shame he had to go isn't it?" She said, pulling me in for a hug.

"Yeah," I felt a lo e tear fall onto my cheek.

The rest of the day was spent bonding, which I swore I'd never do again, but thought it was worth a shot to try again. Petra was nice, pretty, confident, and just fun to be around. She even let me braid her hair like my mom taught me once, I think she called it a Dutch braid, where it looks like the braid it sitting on your hair. Petra showed me her favourite spot from when she was training, which was a little clearing in the middle of the nearby forest, which sat on top of a large rock, it was really pretty there actually.

"Thank you Petra, for today and all that," I smiled, a real, genuine smile.

"You should smile more often, it makes you look like yourself, instead of a girl broken and reshaped by this hellhole we call a world," She told me before leaving the infirmary, closing the door behind me to leave silence in her place.

I fell asleep almost the second my head hit the pillow.

"Elisa!" I heard someone call.

"Who is it?" I asked, getting up from my bed.

"It's me!" The voice shouted, just as a head poked in through the open door.