You’re stoic and never deterred by your thoughts or feelings even while performing tasks for a group whose beliefs you hardly support. That’s only one of the many reasons you make such a good right hand for Makarov.

But you know the reason why you’re so stoic? Because you bottle it up. Every emotion you have experiences goes straight into that glass bottle, filling and piling. However, you never expected the day to come that the bottle would burst open, that the lid could no longer restrain all the contents it desperately attempts to hold inside.

Currently, you’re on an operation. Your task? Clearing out a building.

You, along with a group of other soldiers including Makarov, are going from floor to floor and taking out anything that moves. However, you notice a scream, one higher pitched than the others. Despite your main focus, you’re drawn to the sound.

So after making sure no one is noticing, you silently creep towards the direction of where you had heard scream. Sure enough, you find a little boy. Not a man, not a woman. A boy. A child.

In any other situation, you’d shrug it off and continue with the mission but…

As you stare at the gaping hole in his chest, you feel something inside of you twist. You can’t take your eyes off of the boy. Just having been killed, there’s still just a teeny bit of life behind his wide brown eyes, but it’s already evaporating hastily.

You set down your gun, hands trembling. Beneath you, your knees give out, causing your body to fall onto its haunches beside the little boy’s corpse. It’s almost like you see a glimpse of yourself in the ghostly eyes—it was the day you too had lost yourself, given yourself up to a life without expression.

Sobs are wracking your body and you’re just now realizing it. Not quiet little hiccups and sniffles—no, sobs. Loud, uncontrolled breaths that reverberate through the room, streaming tears, and a trembling bottom lip.

It doesn’t take long for other soldiers to catch on, and Makarov soon makes an appearance. He jogs over to where you are, grabbing your shoulder fiercely.

"{{user}}? Что, черт возьми, ты делаешь?(What the hell are you doing?)"