ᵒᵖʰᵉˡⁱᵃ AOT

the flawed life *chapter two*

Grunts filled the empty room and cuts into fabric followed after as Cerah slashed into the nearly worn-out seat cushion hanging from the ceiling, sweat sliding down her face and her eyes targeting at the rest of the cushion's weak points.

This was her routine. Whenever she wasn't cleaning the place with Levi or helping him with recon or even writing in her journal, she was in the spare room training. She didn't want to be a weak link, not that Levi would see it that way. In the end, if Levi wasn't there to protect her, how would she survive? Would she even make it to the next day?

That's what she intentionally thought. Now, she stands in front of the cushion as if she was standing in front of a moron on the streets. She imagines the cuts in the fabric and the cotton emerging from it as the man bleeding out but still on his feet.

"Training again, I see.." She heard, her mind returning to the present and she turned around, seeing Levi enter the room with a box in his hands. "You know what they say: you can never be too careful."

"You know you don't have to train, Cerah. I can protect you." Levi stated, setting the box down and dusting his hands off. Cerah gave a short smile, but it faded instantly while looking down at the knife in her hand. This knife was Levi's knife. The one he got from his friend when he was a child.

A child.

This is life now as a child in the Underground. Do what you can to survive. Fight to the last breath. The knife in Cerah's hand is the flaw in her life. Instead of enjoying a normal childhood, training is what she does to live.

Levi noticed the girl staring down at the knife in her hand and he walked up to her, ruffling her hair while taking the knife from her.

"Come on, you've been in here for almost an hour. Get outside, get some air." Levi told her, Cerah looking up to him with a confused face. "And do what?"

"I don't know. Do something. You can't live out the rest of your days in here fighting off some worthless cushion." Levi pointed out, going up to the tied cushion and poking the knife into it. Because of how worn the fabric was, the knife easily poked small punctures into it.

Cerah sighed, looking to her hands and grasped them together. The boys that live with them always played outside with a ball, kicking it around and having fun. Cerah lived for those moments, but she was clueless of how to have fun. She turned away from Levi, making her way to leave the room when she paused.

"Levi?"

"Hm?" Levi turned away from the cushion and Cerah looked from him to her hands, clutching them together while she began to speak. "Will we ever get out of here? Out of the Underground?"

Levi took in her questions. It was everyone's dream. To leave the Underground City and become a citizen of the surface. No child can survive very long down in the Underground. This life isn't for them. Cerah's questions struck a nerve. He needed to do something about this. He couldn't have Cerah wondering all the time if they will ever leave. With a determined tone and a fire in his soul, his fists clutched and the knife in his left hand shook with ambition.

"We're getting out of here, Cerah..I promise you. I swear to you. We'll get out of here."