Broken Hearts, Severed Limbs (Levi x OC x Erwin)

|138| One Final Goodbye

Nathalie rushed back home. She was in her ODM gear. She had it filled with blades and gas and ready for war. But she rushed back home. She didn't know how late in the night it was. It was probably morning at this point. But it was dark and cold, but she didn't care. She just rushed back home because she had to see her babies. She had to see them one last time. She knew they were probably sleeping now. And she was right.

She walked into a mostly dark house, though the light in the hall was open as she had instructed the two older women. Mrs. Springer was awake to fetch a glass of water and she turned and looked at Nathalie. Nathalie was dressed up in her ODM and her green Survey Corps cloak around her and Mrs. Springer instantly knew what that meant. Nathalie gritted her teeth and tears gathered in her eyes.

"I need to see them," Nathalie pleaded and Mrs. Springer approached her right away.

"Of course, darling," Mrs. Springer pulled her into a tight hug that Nathalie accepted right away. She buried her face in the woman's shoulder and a sob erupted from her throat.

"I'm afraid... that this time... I won't be coming back," Nathalie mumbled in her shoulder and Mary shook her head in denial as she rubbed Nathalie's back.

"Don't say that," Mary pulled back and cupped Nathalie's face. She ran her thumbs across Nathalie cheeks, wiping away her tears. Mrs. Springer almost felt like her mom. It felt so nice, because Nathalie didn't know how having a mom must have felt like. "Your babies need their mom to raise them," Dammit. Nathalie was going to do exactly what her own mother had done to her. She was going to leave her babies. More tears slipped down her cheeks. She knew how it felt, that horrendous feeling of needing a mom and not having one. She knew how it felt. She was going to make her babies feel that too. "What is it? What happened?" Mary asked worriedly.

"Marley... declared war on Paradis," Nathalie explained and Mary's eyes widened. "Don't worry. Commander Erwin is going to send a squad to keep you safe. A- And Connie and Jean, I'll protect them with my life, I promise you, b- but, I- I need to find my husband," Nathalie buried her face in her hands.

Erwin said he couldn't contact them cause it would give out their location. Which meant that they didn't know what was happening. They didn't know where Levi was or whether he was okay. They didn't know whether they had already been attacked. Whether her Levi was alive or not. Her world just came crushing down to ruin in just one night. Dammit. Damn it all.

"I need to see my babies before I leave,"

Mary handed her a handkerchief that Nathalie took gratefully and used to wipe her cheeks. "They're asleep, but we could wake them if you want to talk to them," Mary offered and Nathalie shook her head.

They were asleep. She didn't want to interrupt their peaceful rest. She didn't want to explain Isabel why her mom was crying. The two of them just had to rest, even though, it felt like it was going to be the last time she'd be seeing them. "It's alright, I just need... to see them,"

Nathalie made her way through that hall that she and Levi had danced into just a few weeks back after tucking their babies to sleep. She remembered how he had held her and kissed her that night. How she had stood by the entrance to their room and watched him humming 'So Ist Es Immer' to them whilst he tucked them to sleep. How precious he had looked. Alas, she didn't even know whether he was alive.

Her vision was blurry as she walked into their room. The light from the lamp in their shared bedtable in the middle of their beds brought enough light to watch them both make their messy cute little sleep. Nathalie pulled them both in her arms and she sat by the edge of Furlan's bed. Isabel's little fingers reached for her shirt and clutched onto it instinctively and Furlan buried his face in her neck shifting closer to his mom. Both her babies recognised the touch of their mom, her scent as they shifted closer to her even in their sleep and she held them both in her arms.