𝐀 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐨’𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 | 𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐢 𝐀𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧
I wanted to end the 2025 year by going back to my angst-writing roots. Not edited, just written in the backseat of a car as I return home.
Heroes aren't supposed to live long. They're supposed to die giving their all in a blaze of honor and glory.
But Levi has never once regarded himself as a hero. Just a man. Just lucky.
Though, in the first half of his life, he'd never consdered himself fortunate. It was one battle to survive after another; an existence of kill or be killed. And when the dust settled, he was the last one standing .
I guess most would have considerated that luck. He never had.
Not until he met you.
Because only luck could explain how you entered into his life, at the very moment he'd felt the most alone. How you'd given him a reason to live, when his purpose had all but disappeared.
Love. A home. Children.
You and he had made these things together.
Those treasured years with you went by too quickly, as happy times often do. The spring and summer of your love turned to a deep and cozy autumn.
Levi had never expected to see old age, yet here he was, with grey hair and deep set wrinkles. You complain about your changed body, your aches and pains. But Levi still sees you as he did on those bright and beautiful summer days.
When you left this world, it was on one of those summer days, surrounded by Levi and your children. It was peaceful—Levi was grateful for that. But now the happy home the two of you shared feels empty, bereft of your presence.
He wonders when he will join you; if the last remaining curse of his Ackerman blood is for him to linger, on and on, while those he loves move to that mysterious world on the other side.
But then he looks at his children and grandchildren and sees your light in their eyes, feels your presence in their laughter. They gather around his wheelchair and beg for stories about his youth, of the times when he battled giants and braved death.
"None of that," Levi says shaking his head.
"Instead, let me tell you how I fell in love with your grandmother."
—//—
