At Work Today

Some touching (but mostly funny) stories about Eren, Armin and Mikasa's days in the Scouting Legion. (Set during the month before the 57th expedition.)

I don't own Attack on Titan.


Chapter 1: Diversity (This is supposed to be about culture)

Tea and buns

'Pancakes! Pancakes!'

'Try our breakfast menu! Hash browns and egg!'

'Jasmine tea!'

The calls of stallkeepers ring out loudly, invitingly. The smells of hot food and drink fill the air of the village market. It's Mikasa's day off, and she's got several hours to spend with her friends and commrades, free of work.

Each day of the week the Scouts take turns to leave HQ and relax. Saturday is Mikasa's turn; she shares it with the 104th Training Squad and several older scouts, including a few vets and the Special Operations Squad, who are here to watch over Eren.

Wenig Aurich is a medium sized village a few hours ride away from the castle, so they were up before sunrise. Before breakfast too, but the market makes up for that. Mikasa buys a warm bread roll from a young woman who stares at her a bit.

'Oo, that looks nice!'

Sasha appears suddenly behind Mikasa, peering around her.

'I'll have one too!'

Mikasa remembers she's here with friends and looks around to check where they all are (they're in civilian clothes so it takes a minute spot them in the crowd).

Armin and Eren are just across the street, buying roasted nuts. Connie, Jean, Bertholt and Reiner are a few stalls down. Ymir and Krista are looking at knitted jackets with a couple of older scouts.

'Here's the money, Amelia. A bun for me and something for you.'

A woman's voice catches Mikasa's attention. She looks around. There, next to the roasted hazelnuts stall, a middle-aged woman with long, dark hair is selling red tea, a drink that was popular in Shiganshina. Eren and Armin have noticed her too.

'Excuse me,' says Armin. 'Are you from Shiganshina?'

The woman blinks and smiles in delighted surprise.

'That I am! Are you also from there?' Her accent is familiar. Abrupt and throaty, like they haven't heard in ages, and it brings back memories.

'We are!' Eren joins in.

'All three of you?' Mikasa nods as she joins the boys.

'I'm Johanna,' the woman introduces herself. 'I'm a midwife in this village now.' The hundreds of adults and few thousand kids who escaped Wall Maria would take years to assimilate into Wall Rose - most of them were still living and working in the landfills, but skilled people like medical professionals could leave much sooner.

'Who are you dears? Have you just moved here?' Oh, they could be talking to a shopkeeper or neighbour back home.

'I'm Armin Arlet.'

'Mikasa Ackerman.'

'Eren Yeager.'

'Yeager? Are you related to Dr Yeager?'

'Yeah.'

She asks them, carefully, about themselves, where is Grisha Yeager, are they working now? Johanna spent several months in the landfills with her mother before appealing for work and relocation and wound up here.

'We joined the Military,' Armin tells her. 'It's our day off.' As far as they know, the three of them are only people from Shiganshina who have enlisted since the Wall was breached.

'Oh my, where are you stationed?'

'We're in the Scouting Legion,' Eren says proudly. Johanna gasps and drops a tea spoon on her table.

'The Scouting Legion?' she murmurs, face paling. 'You want to face those creatures again?'

'I'm going to avenge my mum,' says Eren with that burning, unapologetic look in his eyes. 'I'm gonna kill all the titans and see the outside world.'

Mikasa doesn't want an argument with the first Shiganshina person they've met in a long time, so she changes the topic.

'Tell us about your job, Johanna. How busy are you here?'

The people of Shiganshina love to talk about their work - Johanna's face lights up and she tells them how it's less busy here so she has time to train student nurses and sell tea, how she delivered twins last week...

'Hey, Mikasa, there's a table selling these neat looking combs over there.'

Jean and Connie join the line for nuts beside them, and Jean's rough, yet sharp Trost accent is suddenly more noticable.

'One bag please.' Connie's accent is light, smooth and fast.

'Are you buying tea?' asks Jean.

She didn't plan too, but it has been a long time.

'I'll have a cup, please.'

'Me too.'

'And me, please.'

Red tea is sweet and spicey, made from rooibos leaf, rosehips, and lemon grass. The first sip brings tears to Mikasa's eyes.

'Are guys OK?' Connie asks when Armin sniffles and Eren's eyes water.

'Yeah,' Armin says.

'This takes me back,' Eren sighs like an old man. 'We used to drink this in Shiganshina.'

'You sound like an old man, Eren,' Armin snorts.

'Shush,' Eren mutters and drinks too quickly. 'Ow!'

Everyone save for a very confused Johanna flinches away from Eren. His eyes widen as he realises what just happened.

There's a long pause.

'I jus' burned my tongue.'

'Geeze,' Jean mutters.

'Shit, that was dangerous,' sighs Connie. 'Eren, be more careful!'

Mikasa notices then that the Special Operations Squad have all popped out and were subtly reaching for their concealed swords. Gunther and Eld are still standing in a line.

'Hey, are you gonna order?'

'Oh, yes, I'll have a fruit bun, thanks,' says Gunther.


Birthdays

'Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!'

The sound of singing grows louder as Mikasa nears the dining hall.

'Happy birthday dear Anneke! Happy birthday to you!'

Mikasa enters and finds the source of the singing at the table where stacks of toast, bowls of porridge, plates and other breakfast things are laid out; the breakfast duty team is singing to an young woman who's laying out the knives and forks.

'Oh, it's someone's birthday,' says Krista, who entered at the same time. 'They must be from Trost, remember they sing that there?'

'I wonder if they'll 'ave a cake?' wonders Sasha. (1)

'I doubt it,' says Ymir.

The dining hall is soon filled and Mikasa's table talks about the different birthday celebrations from their hometowns.

'We used to 'ave feasts,' says Sasha dreamily. 'Back before the food shortages. Huge roast boar, buttery mashed potato, flowing cider...'

'In my village we have dance parties,' Connie reminices. 'Grandpa George would always play his violin when you walked by him.'

'Loads of party games in my town,' says John. (2)

'I heard Commander Erwin's from a place where they slap you with an expensive fish for good luck!'

'What did you do in your hometown, Krista?' asks Sasha.

'Oh... we had treats at dinner,' she says.

Mikasa already knows many different traditions from their training days, where trainees (and teachers) from all over the land mixed. Trost had the happy birthday song and cake, Marco's hometown had name pastry, Sina had fancy, expensive lollies, to name a few.

'Don't you do something with flowers?' asks Connie.

'Yeah, we wore flower crowns in Shiganshina,' says Armin.

They'd had no shortage of flowers at home, so they appeared in a lot of Shiganshina traditions.

'Oh yeah,' Jean sniggers, 'Eren looked funny covered in daisies that day.'

Actually, he'd looked very sweet in Mikasa's opinion. Armin too, in his daffodil crown. The teachers kept mistaking him for Krista.

'When's your birthday, Mikasa?' asks Jean. 'I'm sure you look nice with flowers.'

'Look!' Sasha gasps, pointing. 'That's a really nice cake!'

A beautiful cake covered in honeysuckle petals is making its way to Anneke. Considering how strapped for cash the Scouting Legion is, it's probably a very basic cake underneath the petals.

'I wonder where it came from?'

'Someone probably made it here,' says Armin.

'It could've been Squad Leader Hange,' Eren guesses. 'She's a pretty decent baker.' (3)

Loud laughter replaces the singing as Anneke's cake is smooshed into her face.

'Ah, the cake-face,' sighs Heke. 'Karanese District.'


Variety in pyjamas (then not in pyjamas)

Shhhhhhhh...

Steam seeps under the bathroom doors and billows up the hallway where lines have formed.

'I hope the men aren't using all the hot water,' says an older girl.

'I hope no one's using my soap,' says an older boy.

It's still early in the morning, before breakfast, and everyone waiting for a shower is still in their pyjamas. There's quite a variety. Fluffy dressing gowns, nightshirts, baggy trousers and shirts, even a few bold people in underwear.

Mikasa's got on a plain nightshirt she was given by a teacher during training (it's getting too small for her). Eren and Armin are waitng for showers too, in the shirts also donated by teachers. A lot of the trainees from Wall Maria joined the Military with little more than the clothes on their backs and relied on donations from teachers and generous soldiers.

'Hey, you've got pretty small feet for your height,' Connie remarks, looking down at Mikasa's bare feet.

'Yes.' So do Armin and Eren. Small feet and hands were common in Shiganshina District, and it's hard to find uniform boots fit for long legs and little feet.

'You've got big feet,' Connie continues, looking at Reiner and Bertholt now. 'Is that native to your hometown?'

'Yeah.' Reiner smirks. 'You know what else is big?' Bertholt blushes and kicks him.

'Your ego,' interrupts Ymir.

Everyone's giggling, even the oldest scouts, when a deep, baritone voice suddenly booms out from the men's bathroom.

'Che bella cosa è na jurnata 'e sole, n'aria serena dopo na tempesta!'

'Who's that?'

'Pe' ll'aria fresca para già na festa... Che bella cosa na jurnata 'e sole.'

'Ma n'atu sole cchiù bello, oi ne','

Another voice, higher, joins in. Then another, in falsetto, and soon there's a whole chorus going in there.

''O sole mio sta nfronte a te!'

''O sole, 'o sole mio, sta nfronte a te,'

'Sta nfronte a te!'

Mikasa's not familiar with this song, but she's heard others similiar, and she knows it's in a language older than the Walls. Even though people aren't supposed to talk about the outside world, there are still a few different languages left over from it.

The song finishes and they all applaud the singers.

'I'm sure one of them was Squad Leader Mike,' says John.

'I heard Eld and Oluo,' Eren smiles. 'I wonder if Captain Levi is in there.' (4)

As they wait for the singers to come out, there's a conversation muffled by the showers near the door.

'Wait for one of us to get them.'

'- Only across the hall.'

'But -'

The men's bathroom door opens, releasing a wall of steam. Commander Erwin walks out wearing nothing but a small towel around his waist. His bare skin is pale and damp, littered with bruises and scars.

Someone gasps in shock.

'Commander, the women's room is right next door!' someone inside calls out.

The commander freezes in the middle of reaching for linen cupboard and looks around.

'Oh, um, sorry, we're out of towels...'

He steps back, slips, and flings out his arms to balance himself. His towel drops.

'Whoa!'

Mikasa sees more of the commander than she wants to - curly hair and something dangling - before she turns her head aside, face burning.

Ymir quickly puts her hand over Krista's eyes and bursts into loud cackles.

Sasha shrieks in surprise and turns away.

'Oh my god!'

A two hands slide over Mikasa's eyes - they belong to Armin and Eren.

'Geeze, Erwin, did you do that on purpose, you show off?' Squad Leader Levi pokes his head out and rolls his eyes at the scene.

'Oi, when you've finished oogling your commander, someone fetch a pile of towels from the linen,' he orders. 'Erwin, get your arse back in here.'

Everyone laughs, even the commander, who ducks back into the bathroom blushing.


Notes and Translations

The song is O Sole Mio, sung by a few different people, but written by Giovanni Capurro and composed by Eduardo di Capua.

(1) When exactly did Ymir talk to Sasha about being herself, accent and all? Oh well, let's say she has by now.

(2) Didn't like, 21 cadets from the 104th training Squad join the Scouts? We don't really see much of them. John is one. And Heke.

(3) Hajime Isayama-Sensei actually didn't specify Hange's gender in the manga because he felt that character could be either. The anime seems to portray Hange as female though, and the English gender-netural pronouns it/they don't feel quite right, so I'll use she/her. He/his/him is equally OK to use, though.

(4) Levi's title in Japanese is Heishicho - leader of the soldiers / person viewed as the strongest soldier. Scouts, probably especially the people in his squad often shorten this to Heicho - Captain, I think. As for his actual rank... he's a squad leader, along with Hange, Mike and one other person serving under Erwin. Under them is one senior team leader/assistant sqaud leader, then eight (?) team leaders. More info about their structure on the AoT wiki. (Heicho is also an archaic rank from the Japanese Imperial Army roughly about Lance Corporal, actually really low ranking. Offical translations call Levi "Captain." Information from AoT Wiki and Tumblr.)

About Eren's name: The German origin is Jagar/Jaeger (hunter), which looks really cool, but the official romanised spelling on the wiki (and ff dot net character category) is Yeager, so I'm gonna go with that. As for other characters... yeah, probably also the wiki.