Great Descendant || Attack on Titan x Reader

30 || Lifelong Dream

"I love you, (Y/n) Tybur."

What was the meaning of love? Your father once said it was a feeling so intense and filled with so much affection towards another person. When you love, you would get attached to someone, wanting to be a part of their lives, even dreaming of sharing a lifetime with them. Something you didn't have — a lifetime.

The moment your parents brought you down to the basement of the military headquarters in the capital of Marley, everything changed.

You laid your eyes on the chained figure of your aunt. Your eyes went blank, even when someone injected a titan serum into your body. In that moment, you already traded your life over a pure, almighty power that benefited the nation you were born into. Selling your life for Marley, selling your time for the power-hungry community.

There was no backing down. No other chance to have the mundane life you could get. You wouldn't be able to have a crush on the class leader or the one who annoyed you for wanting your attention, searching for a dream or things you wanted to do after graduation, travelling around the world with your loved one or some of your dearest friends. And on top of it all, you couldn't fall in love.

The only love worth remembering was the one your parents had given to you. You didn't need to explore romantic love, not when you only had thirteen years left to breathe in this world. That time wouldn't be wasted as something as enchanting as finding true love. So you knew, you couldn't have the same bond your father and mother shared. It would be forever out of reach of you.

How about platonic love? The answer would still be no. You couldn't rely on someone, a best friend, or colleagues. None of that, you couldn't be attached!

Yet from all the things your father had taught you, love somewhat grew inside your heart to anyone you have ever met. And for you, that was a curse you had to live with, not this power, no. The power to transform into a war hammer titan, despite cutting your lifespan, you considered a blessing. It would help you ‌save humanities, thus becoming such an honour to bear one.

But to love someone, to love your friends and anyone you held dear in your life, that was a curse you had far before you could understand the meaning of love.

You knew you shouldn't have got into a relationship when there was no future where you were in it. Yet you still dived in, letting someone share the same sentiment and an even more powerful attachment towards you. Without thinking twice, you gave them something as powerful as hope. To him and to the people you befriended on this island.

The hope of having a normal life with you, the hope of having you by their side in every battle they had to face.

"I want to be free and see the world."

"Do you think it's possible to save my mother?"

"One day, I am going to get that prime real estate downtown."

"Meat. We can hunt a lot of animals once we reclaim our land!"

"I will like it anywhere, as long as he's there too."

"They said, the ocean is a vast territory of water."

From there, they repay your faith in them by sharing a glimmer of their dreams. Whether it was a small one to achieve or their lifelong pursuit.

"I want to be an honorary Marleyan, of course."

"My dad is waiting for me."

"We are going to come back to our hometown. Together."

Together, Bertolt once said. But it wouldn't be possible from now on. Not when you tighten your grip on the steel blades. Dashing in a flash of lightning as your hooks grappled on the thinner muscles of the colossal titan until you flew on top of him. Your vision was blurred, but you could aim clearly.