Mikasa's Scarf

A/N: I haven't written or read any fanfiction in a long time, so here goes! It's basically Mikasa having a flashback for the most part, but who doesn't want to read about them killing those creeps (again)? One-shot but possible two-shot? Fairly fluffy other than the flashback.

Disclaimer: I wish I owned Shingeki no Koujin. The dialogue in the flashback is a lot of what was used in the anime/manga, so that's not mine either.

They walked silently side by side, done with their work for the day. The boy stopped for a second, causing the girl next to him to stop. "What's wrong, Eren?" she asked.

Eren paused for a second, "Mikasa—let's take a detour. It's a bit too early to meet Armin anyway." Before giving her a second to reply, he turned the corner.

Following his lead, Mikasa caught up to her foster brother. They weren't really siblings, but she cared for him and owed him too much to not believe and follow him. "Th-"

"I have a question, Mikasa." Eren finally managed to say, cutting her off again, "Why do you still wear that scarf I gave you?" he covered his face with his hand while looking at her, poorly concealing a blush creeping onto his cheeks. It had been a year since she joined his family, and she still kept the scarf from their first meeting.

She paused for a second and blinked. Why did she wear the scarf all the time? It was just another article of clothing, it didn't really have a lot of meaning to it—right? She shook her head, thinking back to the day she was saved by Eren.

Back to that day…

Mikasa quivered in fear—watching yet another person that she would let die. Another person trying to save her was going to die at the hands of the murderers, and she couldn't do anything about it. She had already witnessed the cruel ends of her parents—her mother fought back with all she had, yet still, she met her death.

'What can I do?!' she screamed in her mind. Her mind fought, but her body stayed put, unable to do anything to help the boy, Eren, that had found her.

"Fight!" the boy gasped with all his might as he was being choked, "You must fight!" he stared deeply into her eyes before the pressure on his neck tightened. "If you win, you live. If you lose, you die."

Angered, the man's grasp tightened. "What the hell were you thinking, brat?!"

"If you don't fight, you can't win!" Eren choked out again.

Watching in terror, Mikasa picked up the bloodied knife lying on the ground. Quivering, she said, "I… c-can't do it!"

In that moment, she realized that she had seen this scene before. Over and over again, she had seen it happen, but pretended not to notice. 'That's right… the world is merciless.' She stopped quivering and felt an ease run throughout her body. She knew that she had to fight. Without hesitation, she shouted, "I can fight!" she screamed, running toward the man, plunging the knife into the man's heart.

After

Mikasa stared blankly at the fire—listening to the father reprimanding his son. 'I can't have that anymore, can I?' she thought.

"Mikasa, do you remember me?" Eren's father asked her.

She stayed silent for a moment, not looking up. "Dr. Jaegar, where should I go from here? It's cold—and I have no home to go to anymore."

Silently, Eren made his way over to the girl. Unraveling his scarf delicately, he wrapped it around her protectively. He spoke weakly, "You can have this." He stared at her face, hoping for some sort of reaction.

She looked up finally, meeting his gaze out of shock.

"It's warm, right?"

She admired it and touched it with her hands. "It is." She whispered.

Present

"Mikasa?" Eren nudged her shoulder, waking her up from her daydream. "What's wrong? You didn't answer my question."

After a brief pause, she moved toward his face to look at him and smiled. It brought an immediate blush on his cheeks.

"O-out with it, Mikasa!" he stuttered, surprised at her close proximity.

Placing a hand on his shoulder, she whispered, "It's because we're a family, Eren. I will follow you no matter what."

Eren stood there blankly, taking in the information she gave him. "Hey, wait a second, you didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, come on, Mikasa!"

He was already too late though, because she had already run ahead to greet Armin at their arranged meeting spot. "Armin, thank you for being my family." Eren heard Mikasa tell their friend.

"So I wasn't special?" Eren shouted, following his friends and laughing.

Turning back to watch him catch up, Mikasa exhaled quietly, "I love you, Eren."

A/N: Interpret everything as you will, I hope you liked this short little thing I decided to write. I haven't read fanfiction lately, so there might be others like this… oh well! Thank you for reading! (I'm also a lazy loser, so sorry for mistakes.) Following the timeline of events, I would set this closer to the Fall of Wall Maria, because it was only a year...