I Promise You

It feels like an eternity, but they finally had lost their pursuers.

Cold and soaked to the bone, she hauls the both of them up on the riverbank, wet grass sticking to their clothes. Her arms are hurting and shaking from exhaustion, but it doesn't matter. She doesn't feel the weariness of her icy body from keeping them both adrift and out of the hands of their enemies, she doesn't feel the bruises, she doesn't sense the trickle of blood that's dribbling down her cheek from a cut.

There's no place for that.

All that does matter is her friend and comrade, laying in the grass before her, unmoving.

Unmoving but alive.

"Levi?" No response.

She stretches out a trembling hand and lets it waver above the battered face, watching the light but reassuring rise and fall of Levi's chest. Her vision blurs for a moment, but she blinks the tears away. There's no time for crying now.

She needs him to get somewhere safe, he needs help, and soon. Hange actually wants at least to remove the pieces of blade before continuing, it's almost too much to bear to look at the sharp pieces edged into his face. But she doesn't have the right equipment. And there's a chance she ends up ruining the tender skin even more.

She grits her teeth and closes her eye for a moment, sending a tear down her cheek. It has to wait. First, they have to get to a place where they can get help while not getting caught by Floch and his followers. That's her main priority now.

She opens her eye again and bows forward. "I'm sorry, Levi. Hold on a little longer, okay. I'll get us somewhere safe. I promise."

Once again, it stays eerily silent.

Softly, her trembling fingers brush over pale and cold skin.

It scares her. It scares her more than anything. Her best friend and comrade, unmoving, coated in blood and cuts. His right eye seems to have gotten a lot of damage, too.

She bites her lip.

It's so different, so different than anything she has ever seen. No, that's not true, this sight, she has witnessed it so many times over the years. Over and over and over again. She just never expected to see him like this. No, that's not true, either. She just didn't want to imagine it. Didn't want to think that there was a chance that he could get hurt like this too. To make it easier—to be assured that he always would come back safely. After losing so many of her good friends and comrades—

But it has happened.

Involuntarily, her eye shifts to his right hand. Two fingers are missing. His middle and index finger. Holding a blade, it would be impossible now.

She shakes her head, trying to get rid of all the thoughts tumbling over each other. No time for musings, either. She takes a deep breath, and carefully slides her arms under the unmoving body and gets up, her back muscles protesting from the weight in her arms.

Out of reflex she cradles him close and takes a step forward, and another one.

And she would keep going until she had reached her goal.

"I promise. I'll get us somewhere safe."

Another tag to chapter 115. Writing is my way of dealing with the recent events...

All the mistakes are mine.