At the young boy's question, Levi's mind went back to her. Her eyes, that makes his world go a pause. Her small smile, whenever he visited her in the mental hospital after duty hours. No one knew of his visits besides Erwin. In fear of anyone misunderstanding you. He knew they wouldn't understand. He doesn't fully understand either, but he tries to. Everyday.

In the warm glow of the afternoon he sat behind her back on the hospital bed. His body warm against her back as he sighed. His fingers caressing the fresh bandages on her wrists. A flower drawn on the bandage. "Promise me you won't do this anymore. Please. Even if it's just for me." He says, his words soft holding back the subtle quiver in his voice. "I worked so hard drawing on this flower after all." He adds smiling bitterly to himself.

There was no response from her. He held her against his chest. And she snuggled close to his warmth. Feeling his heartbeat.

That's enough of a response for Levi.

His minds snaps out of the memories as the little girl followed the little boy's question. "Yeah! How did you do it?"

Levi's heart clenches, but his expression betrays nothing of the memories in his heart.

"I had a lot of practice." He answers.

Edit: changed the music since this us more fitting

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* important to note that all of james’ plots r currently gender neutral!!! and multiple ones can be combined if u want. please go wild and snatch them up bc i spent so much time on them.

* ok so first of all, he works at jojamart. he’s a clerk there & his dad is the store manager. this is the reason why he’s something of a town enemy; three years in, there’s still a lot of ?? disagreement ?? regarding jojamart, clearly, and even though it’s not his family’s fault, it seems like people are hellbent on hating them, anyway.

* but to be fair, he probably dislikes this town and most of the people in it just as much as they dislike him. he was born and raised in santa cruz, california, so when his family moved to yangwon for jojamart, james was like...... bro, are you fucking kidding me? we moved to this FARM TOWN FOR THIS ONE STORE???? I WILL SCREAM!!!! was very peeved when he couldn’t find a starbucks.

* his parents are both from south korea, so he wasn’t ignorant to the culture or language. he could communicate efficiently & knew most of the behavioral expectations. granted, he didn’t know everything, so he probably offended a ton of older folks and even younger ones who are set in traditional ways when he was new here.

* he’s athletic. he played baseball & football for pretty much all of his life, only giving it a rest when he graduated from high school. he stays fit & could probably hurt a small adult into outer space. (probably not, actually, but he does always seem to hit people on the back just a little too hard when he’s greeting them.)

* super loud. this boy never shuts the fuck up, regardless of what kind of situation he’s faced with. he copes with every misfortune through humor, so if something bad happens to you, probably don’t go to james?? it’s likely that he’ll make fun of you, and he doesn’t even MEAN it in a bad way, he’s just been eating his dumb bitch oats.

* speaking of dumb bitch oats. he’s......... pretty dumb, man. air-headed. on a good day, this just means that he’ll be found miscounting change at jojamart. on a bad day, it means that you might find him skateboarding down a steep hill towards a landing pad made out of expired eggs. there’s rly no telling what you might find him doing.

* doesn’t like to fight. he prefers to be friendly, but he is definitely americanized so his friendless can come off as a bit much to locals. but he rly just wants to spread good vibes, ya feel? lately he’s been losing his patience because it’s been three years and yangwon just...... refuses to accept him...... so he might lash out & insult people from time to time,, but generally only if they push him.

* counting down the days because his parents are sick of being hated also and they’ve come to an agreement that if another year passes and something doesn’t change, they’re leaving. james wants to leave, but at the same time his stubborn side and overwhelming desire to be liked doesn’t want to be forced out by a town that refuses to open their hearts to him, so???