Yo... Hi. Again. This is fairly late, though with school hanging around I was quite surprised that I even got the time to remember.

Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin... Because if I did I wouldn't make the viewers die with anticipation, waiting for the second season - IF it's coming of course.

Ryoh tugged on Levi's sleeve as they tore through the building, through Ryoh's countless apologies, he had decided not to mind the pain that dispersed through his legs and feet. Their plan was to claim the headmaster required something of them, and in which took the excuse as a span for fleeing.

They'd almost made it to the exit when their headmaster had toppled onto them from around a corner. The two made an attempt to hide their exertion from their breaths, but was faced by an accusing jab of a finger. Ryoh brought out his classic half grin and in which Levi remained dark faced.

"What - " Their professor had tugged onto the collars of their shirts in order to lead them convenient, "do I have to deal with you two now?"

"It's absolutely nothing, Levi's father is here and," Ryoh motioned to their classroom, "he just so happened to forget something from the cubbies."

"The cubbies are on the other side of the building, Ryoh, you've got your facts wrong." Their headmaster was about to drag them back into his office when Levi grabbed onto a certain chunk of flesh on his thigh and made a twisting action and to which the old man collapsed hastily.

The two boys departed the incident immediately and darted out the anterior opening.

"Where are we going, sir?" Eren jogged to catch up to the Corporal who had left without any indication of whereabouts.

"Somewhere where your distasteful Titan abilities won't be pointless."

"Where's that?"

"Oh my god, boy. Just follow me or get misplaced. How many times do I have to tell you to shut up." Levi glared at the trainee with the incessant curiosity.

Eren groaned before closing his mouth and trailed along.

Ryoh led Levi through crammed alleys between brick buildings, debris littered in every corner they turned in, plant roots crawled up the rust coloured slabs, as sunlight streaked from tight openings in the alleys' exposed canopy, in which highlighted the sheer amount of 'disarray in which Ryoh and Levi avoided as they dashed by.

Levi suppressed his urge to release the scream of agony he had felt coming from his throbbing wounds. When he noticed, Ryoh had nudged him to slow his pace, clearly the pained expression on his face had alerted Ryoh.

After a while of neighbourhoods rushing by, the conditions became evidently less opulent, stone manors with lush trees blundering to hide the wealth becoming paltry bushes clearing in need of management scattered in front of smaller, less decorated houses. Until there was nothing generally stopped being human habitats altogether.

"We're here." The boy whose golden hair whipped behind him in the wind stopped in a halt.

Levi breathed out puffs of rushed air, as he leaned onto the walls for support.

"They won't ever locate you. This is one of the only uncharted and not assessed areas of the inner ring."

Levi checked his surroundings with precision. They were in a wooden shack, closely simulating a house, though appeared as if sloppily constructed. Around was a extensive forest, dark greens as far as the eye could assess, in which they were standing at the only open space where sunlight could streak in.

Levi slipped onto a low tree branch to regain his breath and, "Thank you." He said.

"Well, will you look at that! Narcissistic, gloomy boy has finally showed some appeal."

Levi kept his indifferent expression and began picking at loose twigs that littered the grass y surface.

"And. It's gone again." Ryoh crammed his head to meet the detached boy, he had begun twisting the stick through his fingers as if it were slipping on its own, in substitute of the usual pencil."How do you do all that? No, how do you do anything? Pushing my arm up like that? What about how you knocked out the old man?"

Ryoh was greeted with the silence of timid winds and leaves rustling across the vast canopies.

"By the way, I am really enjoying our conversation. So… One sided." He scorned in Levi's direction. "Oh my god…"

Levi had opened up his jacket to reveal a ghastly blood-stained which cloth, which beneath was a scab which had began to crack open again. He reached for a nearby leaf, shined it by wiping it on his sleeve and managed to wipe away a plurality of the blood. Through gritted teeth behind pursed lips, he reapplied the bandage without difficulty.

"Look. Levi, That's not just a regular beating, it looks deep. What the hell made your dad hit you that hard?!" Ryoh said, "God. How do you deal with these things? You don't open up to anyone, I presume, since you won't even respond to the guy who basically saved your ass. No friends, and even if you have siblings, they would probably hate you. Parents," Ryoh gestured to his shoulder, "No discussion invalid."

Levi weighed out the words Ryoh had said. And turned finally, with his hair drooping over his empty stare, declared, "My father wants me to join the Military Police."

"So? That's a fine job, you do nothing and get favorable recognition –"

"So, they put shame to their name of saving humanity." Levi cut off.

"Why does that matter? Who cares about genuineness anymore, no one even bothers with remembering what 'genuine' is. All anyone cares about are themselves, nowadays." Ryoh chucked bleakly as he flung a stone in the air.

Levi looked down at the dirt. He's right but I don't want to agree.

"Let's take my sad life for an example." He patted the shack next to them. "This is where I live. As I mentioned before, thanks for not bothering to care, my parents adopted me as community service. They want the image and not the stupid boy who was so useless; his parents left him to die.

"And the worst thing, is that they treat me like a pet. A fucking pet, in which I don't get to go inside my 'home' until dark to sleep, doesn't matter if it rains – snows, tornado for all they care. I'm not allowed to return.

"If you can find any authenticity in that, please enlighten me."

Levi felt his wounds start to seem less horrid than the life of the boy next to him, he had a place to live and was able to eat without contemplation before. His father had hit him, but when Levi took the time to ponder the reasoning, it was always him. Who had established the argument, who'd provoked his father's anger. Which was why a tear fell. He wasn't crying, but a tear fell, and that was enough for Ryoh to melt his face in concern over him.

"Oh god, I didn't mean to put my troubles over you, I know how hard your life is but I just needed to vent, you know. Don't have any more friends than you do, Levi."

Levi hated himself for this. He hated himself for being.. So… Inexplicably... Weak. He hated feeling helpless, disorganized, angry at some unknown source, which was why he persisted like he knew everything from one closure of the world to another. He fathomed the appropriate targets to aim for when in combat, which would enable nerves to correct functioning, which would cause the foe unconscious, and which to kill. He knew the materials in textbooks he never read and he knew how to defeat a Titan.

But he didn't know anything about how a person endures. Humans, as the most sentimental species to exist, Levi didn't know how to deal with emotions, they washed over him like vigorous waves to drown and suffocate. But in those waters, Levi didn't know how to swim.

He stood up. From Levi's branch, and palpably looked at Ryoh for the first time, not examine, not observe, or skim or glance, but earnestly, look. And he knew they'd been the same. Ryoh was a broken, damaged, shattered boy who couldn't pick up the pieces of his mirror that identified who he was, so to disallow others to feel his pain, he smiled while his fingers bled under the punctures of the glass he picked up while his every waking moment.

Levi had taken his pieces elsewhere, abroad from anyone's view point. He isolated himself while he hurt and his fingers pooled the blood away.

But if they just helped each other collect the broken shards. Wouldn't that be better? Darkness and Light must be equal and balanced in order to form the colour of the sky. It was grey, wasn't it? Blue was just an absence of obscure, bleak clouds. Life was bleak, wasn't it? Cruel.

Levi approached Ryoh and demanded him in a shaky voice. "I want to go back."

"What?"

"Which way back to the city?"Levi scanned the area of verdant timbers. They were tall and he didn't recall which direction they originated from.

"It's north. I'll take you back."

"I apologize for bringing you into trouble." Levi spoke, "I'll take any blame there is."

"N-no. It's fine, it was a nice 'reflection upon oneself' moment. Don't worry." And he motioned along the trail for Levi to follow.

He did.

Was this a friend, he was beginning to know?

No. Hold on, he didn't know what defined a friend.

Care? Was it to care? To understand? To love?

He didn't know.

The world is an unfair scale where the ones weighed down by their own despairs were not left room, but there was another world where the broken ones dwelt. And it wasn't so bad, if the fragmented ones stuck together, things wouldn't get worse.

Okay. Then. Ugh. I really need to revise these 'author's notes' because I have absolutely nothing to say, which really contrasts my normal self...

But enjoy ;)

~Livelongprosperr.