Chapter 32: Home

In a plain with sparse trees inside Wall Maria.

"This is incredibly easier than I thought it would be..." mumbled Klemens.

"What do you mean? How did you think it would be?" replied the his companion in the mission that revealed itself to be far easier than either of them thought.

"Well, I initially imagined that this would be a mission filled with fighting titans all the time, but we barely fought any"

"I hope so, we move at night and rest during the day, titans sleep at night so we can just take them out, wait, are you of all people finding this mission boring?"

Klemens looked at the unsettled girl "I... might be?" even he wasn't totally sure.

"Is that a question?"

"Yes"

"The guy who never wants to do anything dangerous is finding the life threatening mission boring? I would expect that from me, but you? It's unthinkable, but I'm bored too, maybe we should stir up some trouble just for fun"

"Please don't, I'm bored, not insane"

"Sure, we'll reach Shiganshina tonight, if we get in a fight then it'll not be my fault" the girl said while raising her hands slightly as a sign of giving up.

But then she mumbled under her breath just loudly enough for him to hear "I sure hope we get into a fight"

"Hey! You can't do it on purpose" warned the young man.

"Oh please, you'd love a good fight too, I know you, you're as much of a battle junkie as I am"

"No, I'm not"

"Do you remember that time Mikasa managed to land a punch straight to your jaw? You then passed the entire week after that doing double training and you only did double because there is only that much time in a single day"

"Sure, I did that, but you made a titan mountain!" almost shouted the young man, not being the most original in taunts.

"Oh, come on, how long are you going to use that taunt, it's been like three months"

"Only three months Lie, and one month ago you dragged me to fight thugs inside some tunnels"

"And you accepted, can we agree that you're just a little less of a battle junkie than me?"

"Much less" haggled Klemens.

"We're not haggling and I'm just stating the truth" to which words the young man clicked his tongue, giving up temporarily.

But to herself the young woman thought 'He's also definitely more stubborn'

A few hours later the sun was setting.

In the middle of that opening two figures could be seen, one male and one female.

The male, a young man with medium length raven hair was sitting cross legged and vigilantly looking around him to see if any titan was unlucky enough to find the two of them.

His left hand was firmly put on his sword to be ready to react at any single movement, even if any approaching titan would be hard to miss thanks to the vibrations in the soil when they walk.

But his right hand was doing something very different, it was petting the head of the girl that was currently sleeping on his thigh, they didn't have any pillow so the softest place to place their head was the other's thigh to sleep more comfortably.

Seeing as the time was about right, Klemens started waking up the girl with some gentle pats on the girls cheek.

"Come on Lie, it's time we go again" he said with a gentle voice, way more gentle than his usual voice was.

"Five more minutes..." mumbled the girl.

The young man, not wanting to waste any more time pinched the nose of the girl, shutting her air intake.

The reaction was immediate, she girl slapped his hand and stood up "You're such an asshole, no girl will like you if you keep being like this"

"That's not a problem, I'm handsome, strong and funny, I won't have any problem if actually want to find someone" replied Klemens cheekily, if she wanted to tease him she had to know that two could play that same game.

"Humble much?"

"Just stating facts"

"Yeah yeah, hey mister handsome, move your ass and let's get going, the sooner we finish here the sooner I can take a bath"

"Yeah, I need one too, I feel dirty"

The girl couldn't let the opportunity go and said "How about we take one together, like the good old days"

The boy barely blushed and replied "You're talking about when your mum was still spanking you for being a naughty girl that kept getting in trouble?"

"That never happened, you moron!" she play punched him on the arm as she replied.

"Shh now, let's make a slow sprint while conserving as much energy as we can, we need all the energy we can conserve in case we are spotted by the Marleyans"

Silence then descended as the two started running to reach their target, their muscles were hurting from the continuous exertion, but they kept going anyway, they had to get there as soon as possible, but could take it more slowly while going back as long as they weren't found.

But after a bit Liesl stopped and looked at a particular direction, she was looking at a forest not far from the two of them.

Klemens stopped soon after after seeing his companion stopping, curious he looked in the direction she was looking at to see what attracted her attention.

His pupils dilated when he saw that forest, the forest where he spent most of his own childhood, playing around with Liesl or training together with his father and the girl.

He gulped down both the saliva and the memories and asked the girl "Do you want to go and see?"

Specifying where he meant by go was not necessary, she knew instantly what he meant and agreed with a nod.

They started running once again, this time in a different direction from before and passed straight through the forest.

It was different from how they remembered it.

After years of playing around the forest and even hunting some of the animals that lived in it with their respective fathers they had learnt the entire geography of the forest.

But some old trees were now gone and in their place, new and still young ones were beginning to grow.

The place that once made them so happy, were they could be children and play around all day, even if they never did that, with future prospects filled with hope.

They were still naive, they thought that they could do anything they desired, because they were smarter and luckier that others.

They saw the wooden machinery that Klemens' father had commissioned done for their training.

But it was different from the pristine, even if with a few signs of use, wood that was in their memories.

The wood had now been overtaken by moss the upper half of the contraption was collapsed and broken in pieces.

They then entered the village, seeing the houses of the people they once knew, now reclaimed by nature itself, almost as if telling them that it was their fate too.

To return to nature like their families, friends and houses had done.

They remembered the spots where they saw the corpses while they were running to their house all those years ago.

They were now far stronger and more knowledgable about the world, knowing things that none else knew inside the walls, but they could still remember the smoke rising up from a few houses.

The corpses of the people whose names they could barely remember were no longer there, as was no longer there the blood that the titans splattered around while eating.

In some of those places there were now spots with flowers or particularly green grass.

Nature used their copses as fertilizer to create new life, it was almost poetic.

They had now long since stopped running and were taking in the broken village around them, every broken house and every particularly green spot.

Even the house that was still blackened from the ashes for the flames that were previously impervious.

Finally, they reached their previous houses, they too were retaken by nature, but no flowers grew around it, no corpse had remained to work as fertilizer after the titans were done with their families.

"Do you want to go together, or..." asked Klemens after seeing his friend barely keeping her tears in.

"No, we should go alone, I can't ask you to wait longer just for me" replied the girl whose eyes got progressively redder.

He made a small, empty smile and said "Thanks"

They then separated to obtain finally at least a bit of closure.

Klemens entered his old home and looked around, he saw the door where his mother used to make a mark every year to document both his and liesl's growths, her home contained the same thing.

He sat on a chair by the dinner table and sighed deeply.

"Hey mum, dad, long time no see, I've been well, there are a lot of good things that happened in these last few years.

We survived, made new friends and we even earned a medal, it seems that when dad said that we were talented he was right.

Liesl an me are fine, we are currently on a mission, thankfully we had enough time to pay a visit here.

But I don't think I'm worthy of title, I don't dream of freedom like Lie does, the one thing I'm the best at is combat against titans, and it won't even be useful in the long run.

But anyway, we will put an end to this stupid war, no matter what."

He chuckled a bit

"I... We miss you"

And then he left, he couldn't bear staying in that room filled to the brim with memories of times long gone, tears were ready to start flowing from his eyes.

Once outside the house he turned to the nearby home and saw that his companion was still inside as if she left she would probably be waiting for him.

'Maybe I should enter' he thought to himself.

---------------------------

"Hey mum, hey dad" said the girl after entering her old home.

In the room there were various things, the dining table with chairs, the place where she ate all the time, with the only exceptions being the times she ate at Klemens' house.

While he decided to keep standing in the middle of the room, she sat down, an action which brought back far more memories.

She could almost see them, her father and her mother sitting there while smiling at her.

She didn't talk, she didn't feel the need, but tears were streaming down her eyes.

Liesl then stood up, and started searching around the house, in the cabinets, drawers and everywhere that came to mind.

She turned the whole already broken down house upside down, but eventually she found what she was searching for.

Her mother's diary, the one she had been keeping sporadically for as long as Liesl could remember.

It was hidden under her parents bed 'How original, mom'

Once again sitting on the dining table, this time with the small book in front of her, Liesl was hesitant wether to open it or not, when she finally decided, a voice came from the house door.

"Is everything alright Lie?"

"Yes, I found mum's diary"

"Oh, I'll wait outside then" he thought that giving her a bit of privacy would be the best, but she had different plans.

"No, come here, I need some company and you do too"

She was right, so he sat down right next to her.

She opened the book and started reading in a position that permitted him to do the same.