She wiped the last sweat bead off her temple, and lifted her head. She stared at the destructed scenery. Smoke, debris, rocks and absolute destruction, not to mention thousands of civilian casualties. The children, mothers, the elderly, they were all sacrifices in order for humanity to step forward. It never really occurred to them someone other than the scouting legion would have to sacrifice anything, did it?
Wondering what happened to Annie, Mikasa hurried to the whereabouts of Eren. She could trace back the smoke to a place not so far away. Seeing as she was exhausted from all the manoeuvring, she decided to jog. That idea didn't really meet her fancy, as she forced to pass the devastated district. She didn't really care if anyone had died, but she couldn't help but feeling uneasy looking at the casualties. Keeping her head low, she picked up her pace heading forth. She could hear cries and screaming as well as breaking sounds from hear and there.
"Those are the screams of a dejected mother" she thought to herself, listening to an echoing sound from afar
Suddenly an unfamiliar sound began to ring in her ears
"What's that?" she asked herself, unable to suppress her curiosity
She walked to the place keeping her ears perked
"am I hearing the sounds of a baby?" she wondered.
She tracked the sound to underneath some debris. She felt her heart beat faster as she hoped the baby wasn't seriously injured. She removed the debris quickly and stared in shock
She felt her heart sting at the paining sight before her. The screams of the young baby were now louder and much more distressing. The child, who looked as if he was from eight to twelve months old, was lying in the ruins of a collapsed building. His clothes were ripped; he was suffering some slight injuries.
Before she could think any further, she held the bawling baby in her arms immediately, cradling it in an attempt to calm it.
She checked his injuries. They weren't too serious. She looked over to his left eyes and hovered the back of her hand over it. Her own eyes flinched at the sight
"He lost his left eye…"
The baby was still crying its eyes out, making a noise possibly louder than Eren's titan roar. It had a reason to; the pain this baby was going through now was more pain Mikasa had endured in any of her battles.
She didn't know what do with it. The military didn't have a special place to dump your babies in case a female titan attacks.
In fact the military police couldn't give two damns about the civilians.
It didn't need any further thought; she'd take care of the child until something comes up.
She ripped her white blouse to make a bandage to cover the baby's eye. Then she ripped another smaller piece to make another bandage for any injuries that require pressure put on them. The infant was still crying and it tore her up. She felt it was partially her fault somehow
"sh, sh" she calmed "I'll bring you food I swear. And don't worry your eye will stop hurting eventually"
The child just kept on screaming. Mikasa noticed she'd taken too long and they'd probably called everyone to go back. She tried to ignore the baby's howling, pulling herself together she made an attempt to manoeuvre as fast as she could. She was exhausted and her muscles were aching but the child in her arms had it worse than her.
Suddenly, the little kid stopped screaming and starting staring in shock
'He must enjoy swinging around like this…' she thought
The air kept hitting at his face anyway so he couldn't cry if he wanted to.
Mikasa finally arrived just before the gates could close
"Mikasa, you're late" Levi grunted "Could it be that you're injured?"
"No, don't concern yourself with me."
"What's that bulging under your jacket?"
"My arm, I injured it"
"Very funny, Ackerman. What exactly-"
"OI!" a loud female voice called cutting in "Levi, what're you doing? We need you at the front"
Levi gave Mikasa one glare before leaving
After making sure he's out of view she pulled out the child.
"Thanks for not-"
WAAAAAAA!
"….crying"
She huffed, stuffed him in the leather pouches of her 3DMG she wrapped a belt around him and rode atop her horse. It was lucky for her he liked horse rides, too.
…
"Eren, you've awoken…" Armin muttered
"Yep" he said, stretching "my head aches"
"Well I'm glad you're alright. I've bought you lunch"
"Thanks, Armin"
"No problem"
Eren scanned the room noticing something bizarre. Usually it was Mikasa sitting beside him when he woke up from his after-shifting slumbers. He decided to not confront Armin about it.
The next day, Eren awoke to the sounds of birds chirping. It was a happy, peaceful moment of taking in the tranquil air for one second before he realised his depressing situation and his everlasting headache began. He turned left before noticing his room was empty and he'd slept to the next day. He sat up and his mind began working up about Annie again and various other unsolved mysterious
"I wonder how things have evolved" he thought to himself as he stood up
Before he could make a move on the door handle, the door opened by itself
It was Armin, holding a tray of breakfast.
"Relax, Eren. Hange said you're not ready to walk"
"Gosh I'm not friggin disabled you know"
"We know, we know. Everyone needs you in tip-top shape. If you completely wore yourself out now, we never know if you could ever shift another time" he said, placing the breakfast tray on the nightstand.
Eren plopped himself on his bed hopelessly letting out a huff
"This is boring. I just sit in bed all day and then I shift then I sleep for extra long" he complained "This is not what I signed up for"
"If you didn't have titan shifting abilities you'd be in Santa titan's stomach by now."
"Santa-titan?" Eren asked
"Yeah" Armin sighed "I can still feel his saliva all over my body" Armin spoke sticking out his tongue in disgust
"Sounds like the beginning of a really bad porn"
"WHAT THE HECK EREN!" Armin wailed
"Where's Mikasa?" Eren asked quickly, changing the subject
Armin took deep breathes his face red. It looked as if he was internally screaming. Then it hit him
"I don't know, actually. Haven't seen her since…"
"Since…?"
"Um, since…. Uh, since we last saw Annie!" Armin said trying to reminisce "uh, no… wait there's that time underground"
"Forget it" Eren huffed, standing up, heading for the door
"Oi! We're you going? Hange sai-"
"Really bad porn"
With that, Eren limped out leaving Armin with a O shaped mouth his face
"I hope I didn't break him" Eren thought looking back
Bam
"OI! Watch we're you're goi-" he looked in front of him "holy crap, Mikasa!"
"Hello, Eren!" she spoke quickly "goodbye, Eren!" she turned 360 degrees before being held back
"Who are you running away from and why?"
"Who says I'm running away?" she asks her voice somewhat calm, avoiding eye contact
Mikasa could sense Eren rolling his eyes.
"…" she thought for abit "if I run away you won't catch me" she said quickly then scurried away cradling something. Her guess was correct, as Eren couldn't walk one step without tumbling
Lying on the floor, he cursed something under his breath before the door behind him opened and he looked up to see Armin
"Karma" Armin muttered darkly
"uhm…?"
"Get inside, NOW, Eren!" he yelled
Eren wore a pouty face. He crossed his arms and huffed at the fact that he was forced to stay in bed. Armin decided to snitch to Levi and captain Levi said that if he'd spotted him out he'll chain him in his bed so would never get out.
"Usually Mikasa is here to make my grounding more fun" he thought still vexed. Eren remembers that she just sat and rested her eyes, a docile expression on her face. Still, she was patient and stuck with him till he could leave his bed.
Eren cleared his mind to think about food. Armin was late bringing him dinner so he decided to aid himself
"No one helps me in this house" he mumbled walking down. It had been a few days so he'd recovered completely. The dinner hall was empty apart from jean picking at his food and Sasha waiting for him to say the magical word. Mikasa and Armin weren't anywhere.
Eren sat across jean glaring at him
"I see you've healed" jean said glaring
"Yeah"
"Why does it take you three days to heal?"
"Where is Armin?" Eren asked avoiding a possible argument
"went to do work." He replied casually "Oh and he told me to tell you you're free to walk and stuff… about an hour ago"
Eren grunted. He wanted to punch him in the face but he'd save that for another time
"And Mikasa?"
"I dunno" jean shrugged "I thought she was being your mom or something"
Eren had enough of this convo so he decided to leave
"She isn't with you?" jean asked taking things abit seriously
Then it struck him how jean suddenly took interest in all Mikasa topics
"nop I just wanted to thank her for sticking by me all last night" Eren replied with a cheesy face
Suddenly, jean struck him with a fist
"Why, you little!"
"What the hell? What's wrong with you?" Eren asked holding back his punch
"What did you do yesterday night?" jean asked almost crying trying with the other hand
"What are you talking about?" Eren yelled back holding his collar after receiving the second punch
"Don't play dumb Jaeger!"
Eren didn't comprehend anything.
Armin that little… why didn't he tell me about dinner? I wonder what I did to him… and Mikasa! Why is she avoiding me? I'll go barge in her room like a man! And I'll keep a cloth with me if I walk in on her dressing. That's right jaeger. You smart.
"ARE YOU LISTENING?" Jean yelled
"Yep. I feel you bro" Eren said patting him. Then he turned around, walking away to put his mission into action
"I hope I didn't agree on anything serious" he thought
..
"MIKASA ACKERMAN I AM IN YOUR ROOM!" Eren yelled at the top of his lungs. He felt proud that the kicks Annie learnt him worked on doors
"Eren! Why did you just kick down my door?" she asked angrily
Eren ignored her and ran to her jumping on her holding her arms, she struggled but she was too late. Eren peered over and over her at her lap to see something unexpected
"You were taking care of a … baby?" he asked in shock
"Yep" she said seriously
"If you expect me to take you seriously ever again you need to rethink"
"No! This baby needs me!" she protested
"Mikasa for heaven's sake give it back to its parents!"
"You don't understand. I found this baby in Stohess, piled underneath a ton of debris. After you an Annie broke everything" she said naturally
Eren looked at her in disbelief
"Why have you been hiding it?" Eren asked
"If Levi found out he wouldn't let me keep It." she shrugged
"Okay. Good luck" he said, bidding her farewell and heading for the door
"Eren!" she protested
"Yeah…?" he paused, not turning back
"You do realised this poor milf has lost an eye because of you? And his parents?" she said holding up the baby and showing him to Eren along with the poorly made eye patch
"Don't rub it in! I have billions of lives on my back already!" he yelled. But when he saw the baby's tear-jerking state his heart softened
"Help me take care of it" she ordered "I can't do anything" she mumbled
"Why do you assume I'll do I better job?" he asked angrily
"..Two heads are better than one"
Eren took a deep breath and huffed
"Your fault" she murmured
"Okay, okay!" he backfired "I'll regret this for sure… but I'll help you take care of the baby if you want"
Mikasa smiled and Eren groaned
A/N: post female titan arc if you haven't already figured. I'm planning to update regularly so stay tuned! leave a review, constructive criticism is welcomed!