Chapter Text
Petra fiddled with her Trost Comic Con badge hanging from her lanyard. She shouldered her way through the crowd in the artist alley, trying to keep up with Nifa’s excited, hurried steps.
“Come on, Pet! We’ll lose our time-slot for the signing!”
Her friend was fast despite the weight of her cosplay costume. Her Luffy straw hat made her easy to spot among the sea of people.
“I’m here. Relax, we have plenty of time. Oops, sorry!” she said to a Sailor Moon cosplayer she accidentally bumped into.
Petra admired cosplayers, but she wasn’t brave enough to suffocate herself in a dozen layers of clothes or carry around lightsabers and weapons. Conventions, as enjoyable as they were, were also exhausting, even in her comfortable Crocs. She made sure to decorate them with jibbitz with her favorite fictional characters, though. She looked down and found Stitch smiling up at her. And that was as far as she was willing to go when her appearance was concerned.
“Petra, don’t waste time! We’ll come back later!”
Nifa’s urgent complaint made her tear her eyes from a booth filled with stickers. A chibi version of Zuko caught her attention. She smiled at the purple-haired girl sitting behind the table, a silent promise she’d return.
Petra adjusted her tote bag on her shoulder and followed after Nifa. Over the course of the day, it became heavier and heavier with all the merch she was buying. But the heaviest object in it was the first volume of her favorite comic series. And just in a little while, with Erwin Smith’s – the acclaimed author’s – signature on the first page, it’d become invaluable.
She took a quick glance at her watch. Half past eleven. The time-slot they booked for Erwin Smith’s autograph wasn’t until twelve, but Nifa was the type who considered being on time to be late.
Yet, Petra couldn’t blame her entirely. Meeting the Erwin Smith was a huge deal, and they couldn’t afford to lose their chance. Who knew if he would ever come back to Trost again?
“Do you think they’ll let us chat with him? Just for a minute or two?” Nifa asked with glowing eyes.
“I don’t know. Maybe he’ll just sign without looking up from the table and then wave for the next in line to come. I wouldn’t get my hopes up, he must be pretty busy.”
At that, Nifa pouted. Not only did she admire him as an artist, but she had an enormous crush on him, always blabbering about his dreamy blue eyes and his charming smile. Petra wasn’t blind, she could admit that Erwin Smith was a conventionally attractive man. She’d liked a few of his photos on Instagram. But he wasn’t really her type. Too tall. Too confident. Petra was here to get his autograph purely out of admiration for his work.
They soon made it to the Guests section of the arena.
“Tell me this isn’t the line for Erwin Smith,” Petra muttered, feeling the beginning of a headache behind her eyes.
“Wow, it’s huge, isn’t it?” Nifa marvelled, not deterred in the slightest. “Almost as huge as Erwin’s cock, I’m sure.”
Petra gasped, and before she had the time to scold her horny friend, Nifa grabbed her hand and dragged her to the end of the line. They showed their online reservations to the staff, they scanned them, and Petra resigned herself to spending the rest of eternity here. Was Erwin Smith really worth it? If it weren’t for Nifa, she’d probably turn around and leave as soon as she saw the queue.
This year, Trost Comic Con was busier than Petra ever remembered it to be. Perhaps busier than any convention she’d ever attended.
“Cool costume!” someone said behind them.
Nifa brightened up and twisted to face the kind stranger. It was a woman in her thirties, brunette, tall, with huge glasses, Smith’s comic book tucked under her armpit.
“Thank you!”
“My boyfriend cosplayed as Luffy last year. Right, sweetie?” The woman nudged the man beside her with her elbow.
“Um. Yes. Hi.”
“I’m Hange, and this is Moblit.”
Petra and Nifa introduced themselves and exchanged handshakes.
“Nice earrings!” Hange said to Petra.
Pride flared in her chest. “Thanks so much! I actually made them mysel–”
“Oh, look!” Nifa chimed in. “A guy’s cosplaying as Tony Tony Chopper!” She pulled out her phone from her pocket and took a picture of him. Then, she proceeded to talk about One Piece with Hange and Moblit, who seemed equally interested.
Petra hadn’t watched it, so she had nothing to contribute to the conversation. She could perfectly understand bonding with random strangers instantly over fandoms, but she herself had limited experience in that area. Apart from Nifa, she mostly talked about her favorite ships with her online friends.
Oh, she should snap a few photos from the convention to share with the Discord group she was in.
She let her gaze wander around the arena, zoning out, as the line progressed slowly, and Nifa kept talking with Hange and Moblit.
Next to Erwin Smith’s booth, there was the line for Hitch Dreyse, a voice actress who currently starred as a policewoman in an FBI-style anime. Rumor had it that she was dating her co-star, Marlo Freudenberg, who was also signing autographs today. They were going to have a panel later today. Petra could go. If they ever got to Smith first.
There were many guests here, but Smith’s line was the longest.
Petra noticed a booth with no line at all. A young black-haired man was sitting at the table, looking at his phone. The screen above him read: “LEVI ACKERMAN, COMIC ARTIST”. Petra didn’t recognize him. Well, she hadn’t been reading comics in a while. But it was a pity no one wanted his autograph, especially considering that it was free, as the brochure on the table stated.
To get Smith’s autograph, Petra had paid eighty dollars.
Levi Ackerman pulled out a sandwich from his backpack and leaned back on his chair.
Surely, his work must have been important if he was invited to one of the biggest conventions in the world.
Was he from Trost? Or did he have to travel far to get here?
No one showed up for his autograph, at least not while Petra was looking.
Meanwhile, their line moved slower and slower. Petra wasn’t sure how long they’d been stuck on the same spot.
“You’re fans of Smith’s?” Hange’s voice disrupted her thoughts.
Nifa nodded so fast she nearly snapped her neck.
Petra gave a nonchalant shrug.
Back when Erwin Smith’s first comic was published, Petra had been a schoolgirl, studying for her exams to enter university. She wasn’t quite sure which path to follow. The options were overwhelming and nothing seemed to fit into the version of the future she’d imagined for herself.
Reading comics was a form of escapism, a distraction from the anxiety gathering in her chest. Erwin Smith’s stories whisked her away to a fictional world with no worries, a world filled with emotions and characters that made her giggle and kick her feet in the air.
It’d been many years since then.
Now Petra was a working adult, and she couldn’t even remember how long it’d been since she last touched Smith’s book on the dusty top shelf of her library, except today to take it with her to the convention.
If she were honest with herself, the reason she was now waiting in line to get his autograph was to honor the girl she’d once been.
Eventually, they made it to Smith’s table.
Nifa asked him for a selfie, and Smith was more than happy to oblige, showing off his blindingly white teeth and dimples. She asked him if he could add a heart next to his signature. She shook his hand with such fervor that Petra was sure she wouldn’t wash it for at least a week.
When it was Petra’s turn, she mostly wanted it to be over. She placed her book on Smith’s table, gave him a tight-lipped smile, and said, “Thank you for your stories”.
If her younger self could see her now, she’d no doubt be offended by how emotionally distant she was.
Thank God, Erwin Smith probably sensed she wasn’t in the mood for more talking, and just replied, “Thank you for coming”, signed her book, gave it back to her and looked to the person behind her.
“I can’t believe it!” Nifa was hugging her copy of the book, clutching it tightly against her chest and squealing.
It was almost two o’clock.
Petra sighed, putting her book back in her bag. “Can we go to the artist alley now?” She hoped the sticker with Zuko wasn’t sold out.
“Now that I have Erwin’s autograph, we can do anything you want for the rest of the day! I don’t care!”
On their way, they passed by Levi Ackerman’s booth.
Still empty.
He was bent above a notebook, sketching with a pencil.
“Wanna go meet him?” she whispered to Nifa, jutting her chin in his direction.
Nifa turned to take a look at him. Her brows furrowed in confusion as she read the sign above him. “Levi Ackerman? Who is he?”
“I don’t… I don’t know him either. But since there’s no line… and it’s free…”
Nifa rolled her eyes and laughed. “You can’t go ask for his autograph if you don’t know him!”
“I can google him!” Petra pulled out her phone and typed his name into the search bar.
“Pfff. Whatever.”
“Hey, Nifa! Petunia!” Hange waved at them.
Petunia?
“We finally got our autographs too!” She opened her book and showed off Smith’s signature. “Ahh, core memory!”
Moblit beamed at her and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Girls, we’ll grab something to eat, wanna join us?”
“God, yes, I’m starving!” Nifa rubbed her belly.
Petra’s stomach growled.
But…
“I’ll catch up with you guys later! Gotta do something first.”
“Oh.” Nifa looked toward Levi Ackerman. “Pet, you’ll be fine by yourself? We can wait.”
Petra shook her head. “I don’t want to delay you. Go and text me when you find a place to sit.”
“Are you sure? The food hall is huge.”
“I’ll find you.”
It wasn’t only because of Levi Ackerman. Petra needed a few moments to herself. Standing on her feet for so long, with all the noise around her…
After Nifa left with her new friends, she found a quiet corner and sat on the floor. She took deep breaths. She’d go to Levi Ackerman’s table in a while, but for now she just kept breathing.
Conventions were fun because she got to take photos with all the extravagant props scattered around the venue, and she could impulsively spend her money on nerdy stuff and satisfy her thirst for dopamine.
But conventions were also overwhelming.
Somewhere in her bag, buried under her new acrylic stands, was a box with paracetamol pills. She had come prepared. But she’d forgotten her water bottle was empty. Just her luck. She’d refill it later.
Perhaps she shouldn’t pity Levi Ackerman, after all. He was alone, away from the noise, sitting on a chair.
Her thumbs trembled above the keyboard of her phone as she googled his name.
“LEVI ACKERMAN AT TROST COMIC CON! The comic artist will be attending all three days!”
In some photos his eyes were blue, and in others grey.
Earlier, when she looked at his booth across the arena, she couldn’t make out his face properly from a distance. Now, she zoomed in and brought her screen closer to her face, studying his features in full detail.
Levi Ackerman was pretty handsome, wasn’t he?
Upon further investigation, Petra found out that he had worked with DC, Marvel, and some small magazines that she hadn’t heard of. He hadn’t written any stories of his own, rather drew comics based on others’ scripts.
His art style was quite unique, with sharp edges and a dark palette of colors.
Unlike what Petra had expected, he drew on paper, not on a tablet, and when one interviewer asked him what his favorite thing to draw was, he’d replied: “People’s faces and expressions.”
Feeling confident enough with the information she now had about him, Petra got up from the floor and approached his booth.