Orders | Levi Ackerman

83• The Departure

"Why does it seem like you've always done that?" Mikasa said. A smile lightly painted over her lips.

Mia raised an eyebrow, looking at what Mikasa pointed to. She looked down to her fist, unclenching it as she noticed the dried blood around where her fingernails dug into.

"I have?" She asked, not tearing her gaze away from the indents on her palm.

Mikasa sighed quietly, and looked back over to the river ahead of them. The river that she and many others would soon cross. It would be only an hour till they were to depart.

"I noticed you did it a lot when you were upset," Mikasa raised her palms to Mia, both their eyes slowly gliding along each scar, "I guess we're more alike than we know."

Mia's eyes rose to meet Mikasa's, but she wasn't quite sure what to make of the expression she gave. She wasn't sure of the warmth in her solemn face.

"Would it be wrong if I asked..." Mikasa strayed off, her skin dropping in color as she pondered even the thought.

She inhaled, "Would it be wrong if I asked you to not do it? To not kill...Eren?"

The air grew chillier as Mia watched Mikasa bite her lip. Desperate to stop it quivering. Mia parted her lips, trying to answer her question but Mikasa cut in.

"I know it has to be done, but I wish it didn't. I just don't want to lose my family again." And then not even the strength that Mikasa held was enough to keep the tears from welling in her eyes, and falling past her cheeks.

She made no sound. No sob. But her gaze stayed fixed on the horizon, and her heart stayed numbed.

Mia watched her. Her chest aching for the words Mikasa had barely made out. She sighed but even now, her throat was far too dry to even mutter a sound.

"I need you to give him something for me."

The anguish in Mikasa's voice had ceased. It had been replaced by a solidity in her tone that Mia could only remember from their mere year of fighting alongside one another in the Special Operations Squad.

Mikasa raised her hands to her neck, and winced with each step she took to unravel the scarf around her neck. The scarf Eren had gave her ten years ago.

She looked at it. Her face contorting with both despair and joy. Mikasa held it close to her chest, allowing a single tear to fall onto it as she remembered each time Eren had wrapped it around her.

And how he'd never do it again.

"I need you to give this to him for me."

Mikasa forced the scarf onto Mia's hands. If they were both to lose Eren, Mikasa would ensure he wouldn't be alone in his final moments. Even if his company would be in the form of a cloth.

"Okay..." Was all Mia could say. She felt sick to her stomach. As if she could throw up at any moment.

Mikasa waited for Mia to say more, but she didn't. She let out a long sigh, and squeezed Mia's shoulder before walking away.

She stared down at the scarf in her palms and her stomach dropped. Mia's head ached, her entire body did. The daunting thought of what she were to do felt like streams of bullets piercing every inch of her skin.

This was wrong. It shouldn't have came to this. Mia should've been back in the scouts castle, running around with Eren to get away from Levi's chores.

She should've been going on recon missions outside the walls with Erwin leading them. She should've been fighting alongside Eren, as the duo they'd always been. She should have never become a titan. Nor lost four years of her life to being away in Liberio.