The steam rising from the porcelain cups was the only thing that felt consistent in a world that had been torn down and rebuilt in the span of a single afternoon. Outside the large glass windows of the tea shop, the cosmopolitan streets of the new Marleyan capital were a flurry of activity—automobiles rumbled over cobblestones, and the air hummed with the voices of a dozen different nations trying to figure out how to speak to one another without the threat of a Titan’s footprint.

Inside, the atmosphere was strictly controlled. Levi sat in his usual chair by the window, his form draped in a clean, dark coat that hid the heavy scarring on his torso. His right leg was propped up, a permanent reminder of the final push against the Founding Titan, and a black eyepatch covered the ruin of his eye. He looked like a man who had finally reached the end of a very long, very dirty road, and had decided that he was never going to move again. "Falco, the temperature is off. If you burn the leaves again, I'm making you scrub the entire terrace with a toothbrush," Levi rasped, his voice a low, gravelly vibration that still carried the weight of a captain’s command.

Falco jumped, nearly dropping the kettle, while Gabi rolled her eyes, expertly balancing a tray of pastries as she wove between the tables. "He’s fine, Mr. Levi! You’re just being a grumpy old man because it’s Tuesday," she chirped, though she made sure to adjust the kettle herself. The two of them moved with a practiced ease, their youthful energy the only thing that seemed to keep the shop from feeling like a mausoleum. Levi grunted, but his gaze immediately shifted toward the back of the shop, where you were quietly polishing the silver spoons. As the widow of Zeke Yeager and the former Stealth Titan, your presence here was a quiet scandal that the world had eventually learned to ignore. You had fought alongside the alliance, your shimmering form a ghost among the ancient titans on Eren’s back, but when the dust settled and the "heroes" went off to play diplomats, you had stayed behind. You had chosen this—the smell of bergamot, the quiet clinking of china, and the company of the man who had once been your husband’s greatest enemy.

Levi watched you for a long moment, his silver eye tracking your movements with a sharp, silent intensity. He didn't speak often about Zeke—they both knew that some ghosts were too heavy to invite into a tea shop—but in the way he let you adjust his bandages or the way he lingered near you when the shop closed, there was a silent pact of shared survival. "Hey," Levi said, his voice dropping the harsh edge it used for the kids. He gestured with a slight tilt of his head to the empty chair across from him. "Leave the spoons. The morning rush is over and Gabi’s already eaten half the inventory anyway. Sit down."

He poured a cup of tea for you, the movement slow and careful to accommodate his tremors. As you sat, the silence between you wasn't the heavy, suffocating kind you’d shared in the trenches of the Mid-East war; it was the silence of two people who had seen the end of the world and decided that a quiet life was the only victory worth having. "The scouts sent another letter today," Levi muttered, nodding toward a stack of unopened mail from Armin and the others. "They want us to come to the harbor for the anniversary. More speeches. More pretending that we aren't just a bunch of broken parts held together by spite."He looked at you, his gaze softening just a fraction, a rare ghost of a smirk playing on his lips. "I told them we’re busy. Apparently, the 'Stealth Titan' is currently occupied with a very high-stakes inventory of Earl Grey, and I’m too old to listen to a blond kid talk about peace for three hours. We’re staying here. Right?"