Disclaimer - I don't own the show.
A person who cannot give up anything, can change nothing.
"There has been a change," Dhalis Zachary announced.
The military judge had a look that told Eren an upperclassman pissed him off.
Levi spotted it first, and said, "Here we go," as everyone gathered inside the military court for the news to sink within the first part of the walls.
Execution was not an option anymore, and the court did not give Annie a long time to consider her options. The Military Police still valued her as a skilled warrior, and proposed an agreement between she and the government. It was natural for the Scouts to agree reluctantly, but not without their own proposals. The Garrisons wanted her dead and the Cadets were willing to work with whatever happened as a result.
"If you swear your allegiance to the walls and agree with the procedures you are demanded to take part in from the government, we will set you free," Zachary said. "If not, you will be held behind bars for the rest of your life. If there is any time where you feel turning into a titan would help matters, the Scouts and Eren Yeager will be prepared to kill you. They will do a better job now because they know the secrets of your unique skill. I demand you choose wisely."
Mikasa held his hand.
Armin's words echoed like a bad memory. The blueberry muffin Eren promised to get for little Kuchel from Mr. Thomas' bakery, glimmered under the sunlight of his unattached memory. His only niece who did not know Armin as everyone else around him did, would not be here to see her uncle, wallow in a pool of his misery.
"Uncle Eren, tell me more about Uncle Armin," Kuchel had asked, and got him to unravel all the journals Armin kept in his room before his death.
He wanted this to be the last day he ever felt this way, and returned back to the hyper and cheery uncle who had the special talent of making the young and troublesome Kuchel smile. But he would never go back to the life he tried to live - he had to face the truth he's always fought to forget.
Zachary, and all the regiments of the military within the walls, waited for a sliver of a response from the defendant strapped to the iron pole in the middle of the courtroom. Eren did not want to be within her view, but Mikasa forced him to sit amongst the Scout Regiment and he wanted this court proceeding to finish as quickly as possible.
"Hey kid," Levi murmured from the left. "She's looking."
The silence in the courtroom forced him to look up. By now, Armin kept flashing in his mind at the Battle at Stohess.
He finally saw Annie, after months of avoiding her, months of only listening to the voices and wishing the sentence was served swiftly.
A knife drove in his chest and never budged. Annie's eyes were bigger, and the circles underneath them deepened into holes behind faded blonde hair that matted after months of poor hygiene. Her grey prison clothes tattered - and body, smaller than what she wore.
"What is your decision, Leonhart?" Zachary asked again.
Annie kept her dead gaze on Eren.
By the afternoon, Annie was scheduled for to move into his home the next morning.
Not because she agreed with the first proposal, or any proposal, but because Levi interfered and made it for her when she did not utter a word.
"Things are easier this way," Eren remembered him saying to him. "You will keep an eye on her, and the Scouts will try to figure out what the Military Police may be up to. For now, you need her around you at all times."
Levi knocked on his door that morning and brought Kuchel because he knew Eren would not answer it if it were him alone. Both parents of the little girl operated on the strict principle that Eren would do whatever they wanted if they involved his most favorite niece in the world.
"Uncle Eren!" Kuchel greeted with a rare smile and her hushed voice.
Eren spoiled Kuchel rotten, more than his boss of Ackerman & Co. did, and this made Kuchel the daughter he always wished for.
Levi took his opportunity and told him he needed to agree to the arrangement.
"Understood," Eren said.
The former Captain of Levi Squad blinked, "You are not happy - I understand that, but since when were you so agreeable?"
"Since I had no choice."
Birds chirping outside his old home brought way to the rising sun peeking through his window, and over the body of Kuchel, who played with the newest doll he bought her. He knew Levi still watched him, and knew, that no getting distracted by his niece would prevent him from facing what he never wanted to handle.
"Mikasa told me and you and Leonhart have unfinished business," Levi said. "As the only boss you will ever have in your lifetime, I believe it is best for you to speak to her before you become her guardian - this way, both of you set a routine.
Eren glared across the table they sat by.
By the time he reached the cellars under the courthouse, Annie hid so well that all he saw was the dark.
Mikasa waited for him above the courthouse. Levi gave him the week off to figure things out with Annie before she would be left alone to her devices while he was at work.
He saw a patch of white, then realized it came from Annie's shirt. She moved from hugging her knees in a corner, to sitting close enough for both of them to stare at one another.
After months of being held behind bars, no one touched her hair or attempted to get her cleaned for fear of being attacked. She was fed and had running water over her body as a bath, all done while in she was in shackles.
"Armin is dead," he murmured.
She did not budge, but he saw her blue eyes shake.
"He fell in a pit of titans," he said. "He left his journals - they are all under my possession. Mikasa was ordered after the fall of the titans to marry Levi Ackerman. They have a little girl named Kuchel. Jean and Sasha will be having a boy this winter. Connie Springer died...as well as Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Hoover, and the others."
Annie did not budge.
He kept watching her, tracing how cold her eyes seemed as how she still did not grow. She was the same girl he fought with and admired in the 104 Cadet Corps - and she still made him wonder what went through that mind of hers.
"Thank you," she uttered.
Eren wanted to move away, to keep walking and never return, but something kept him there. A tiny ache that urged him to ask, "Why?"
Annie heard it. She raised her hands, callused and unwashed over dark metal.
Eren narrowed his gaze. "Answer the question...why?"
Her hands trembled.
"Why not turn back into a titan and run off again? Why let them take your ring? Why feel sorry when you already have killed the people whose families still grieve their deaths today?" he asked. "Why are you letting all this happen to you?"
Still, dirty hands shook as her parched lips parted, "Eren….I'm just tired."
At that moment, he heard the doors opened. Mikasa entered in a long dress and her boots clacked quietly on the stone cold floors, but she did not come close enough for Annie to see her.
"It's time."
This is a six-part companion I made for Compromise, which is a multishot about Levi and Mikasa's forced marriage after the Titan era. There is no need to read the story before this one as I will make sure I fill in some details. This is slightly AU due to a lot of changes that occured in the manga. I will post after prepping each part. Hope you enjoyed this introduction.