Disclaimer: The Shingeki no Kyojin universe, characters, and plot belong to Hajime Isayama. I only own the Richter siblings and their backstory.
I've had always had snippets of this story conjured up, but this is the first time I'm putting something cohesive together. Please go easy on me!
Also, I read the AOT manga a while back and always perceived Nanaba as a male, so I'm going to go with that here. I know "he's" been identified as a female, but bear with me here!
They never intended to join the Survey Corps, or the military at all, as a matter of fact.
The Richter family started out in a large town in the Karanese District, sandwiched between Walls Rose and Maria. Older brother, Kaud, and younger sister, Aria, were the children of their father's first wife. Nadia, their younger sister, came after the second marriage. Aria refused to accept the new woman in their lives and resorted to calling her Selena or Miss Selena if she was in a particularly good mood. The feeling was mutual on both ends.
Klaud and Aria were left to their own devices when Josen Richter went to work. They hardly got to see him, and the times he was home, Josen spent them with Selena and Nadia- his new family. At first, Klaud tried to keep them all together. He tried to chime in on their conversations at dinner and even tried calling that lady "mom". Aria's stubborn, nine-year-old self-refused to give in.
Fortunately, his grandeur plan of creating a happy, cohesive family unit never bloomed to fruition. Once Klaud saw how pushy Selena was with Aria, he started to take her out for long stretches of the day. They started hanging around the town square where no one bothered them. She could get lost in the sweet smell of bread and the welcoming low hum of chattering that always permeated the marketplace, but when the sun went down, they had to go back.
"Aria, come on. We should get going now." Klaud beckoned her over apologetically.
"But I dun wanna." Aria gripped her blouse tightly and pouted. The sun was beginning to set, signaling their inevitable departure. The dark orange rays of the descending star made her hair look ablaze in the light. Her brother was blessed with their father's rich, chocolate locks, while Aria had inherited their mother's auburn locks. Both had waves that fell down in messy tresses.
"It's 'don't' and 'want to' and you know we have to, so don't make this any harder than it already is," he gently chided.
"Can't we jus' go back to Ol' Man Elijah's?" She looked up and gave her best puppy dog eyes.
Elijah was an old man, but more importantly, he was the town's healer who took them under his wing as an odd mixture of a surrogate grandfather and neighborhood friend. Roots and herbs of all kinds were kept in glass jars, which adorned the majority of flat surface available. Every weed, fern, and flower had a particular use-whether it was to be used as a remedy or poison. Name it and Elijah had it. Unfortunately, that made him the town's local satanist.
The Richter siblings never shied away from the man and his work despite their father's warnings. Instead, they would watch him meticulously drain each drop from the bulb of a zotylin plant for the woman who asked him to cure her baby with breathing problems and help him paste mashed up roots onto a teenage boy's forehead to lower his lethal fever. In their eyes, Eli was an honest man who presented only what was truthful and dedicated his all to his customer's best wishes.
He was also a masterful storyteller who relished how open and eager the kids were. He would teach them parts of his trade such as how to identify easy herbs and how to make simple salves to remedy common ailments. He even took them on walks through the fields to collect and take notes on the plants they come across.
Elijah traveled far and wide before settling in Karanese and always had stories to tell, which Klaud and Aria would often listen to in absolute rapture. He's been around Trost, Shiganshina, and even Hermina, but had never set foot in Sina. He had concocted this crazy plan to start a caravan where healers like himself could teach others of their trade, exchange information with other botanists, and safely sell their plants to those in need. Eli hoped that would be his golden ticket to Sina. There was never a boring moment in the time spent with Elijah and he, in turn, also seemed to enjoy the kids' company. Especially now that his late wife had passed away, he found himself feeling he needed the Richters more than they needed him.
How they met though, was quite the ordeal.
The diplomat's son, her arch nemesis or more like the village idiot, was always strutting around town decked out in expensive fabrics and boasting about his father's job in the inner wall.
"No one gives a rat's ass about what your ol' pops has to say, Davies!" She hollered as loud as she could muster. She was trying to fix the laces of her boots when Aria was suddenly pitched forward and found herself in a puddle of murky, sewer water. Dirt splattered across her baby blue dress. Aria looked up to find Davies chortling and pointing his pudgy little sausage finger in her face.
"My dad said that your mom ran away from your good-for-nothing dad and now you and your stinkin' brother are hangin' around that devil worshipper all the time." He grabbed a pigtail and lugged her back with a beefy arm. "You better not put a curse on my family or try anything funny or I'll tell my dad, punk."
Aria sunk her teeth into his offending appendage and socked him straight in the gullet. He dropped like a sack of rocks and doubled over clutching his throat heaving and crying.
That's how Klaud walked in on them. He looked at Davies, then his sister, then back to Davies and opened his mouth to surely give her an earful when an older man stepped into the alley. He had close-cut, black hair with heavy graying at the temples and sported a clean, thin beard that resembled salt and pepper. Except a lot more salt than pepper.
He took one look at Davies still blubbering at his feet. "I saw everything. Don't worry son, I'll take care of this," he said, patting the meatball looking turd on the head.
Klaud pinched Aria's arm and gave her the stink eye as he walked past her to follow the adult. Aria thought she was going to seriously get it later on. They warily followed several paces behind until the man turned and walked up the steps of a red-stoned row house. Fumbling in his pockets for the keys, Aria looked up and read the wooden board hanging next to the second story window. The sun hit the sign at an angle where the golden letters seemed to glow. It read: Elijah's Medicinal Cures and Remedies.
An abrupt clang startled her. She turned back to the man to see his keys on the floor and him, crouching with one hand over his stomach and the other covering his mouth trying to cover the rising volume of laughter. He burst into a hearty fit of chuckles.
"Whoo-whee, girly. Where did you learn to speak with a mouth like that!" He pointed at her. The man grinned and extended his hands to both her stunned and confused brother and Aria.
"Elijah Thendel, nice to meetcha!"
She blinked, grasped his weathered hands in her own and giggled. "You're a weird old man! I like you!"
"Aria!" Klaud elbowed her and knocked her on the side of her head.
The man laughed and winked at Aria. Brimming with glee at his approval, she looked up to gauge Klaud's reaction. The bugger was trying to ignore her. Aria counted to three in her head. As expected, he let slip a tiny smirk and glanced back down at her whilst proceeding to wreak havoc on her unruly hair.
By the time they arrived at their cottage, the sun had long disappeared behind Wall Maria. Nobody seemed awake, so the siblings walked in as quietly as they could. A single candle was lit on the dining table and leftover food was covered by a cloth. Aria was halfway through a bowl of chicken soup when Klaud let out a noise of surprise. Their father stepped from the shadows and pulled out a chair to sit across them. The chair's drawn-out groan did nothing but accentuate the awkward air that seemed to have suddenly appeared.
"How was your day today? Klaud? Aria? " He asked lowly. It was almost as if he was pleading. Maybe he was doing this to start making an effort to get to know his children again or maybe it was because he was upset that they came home so late. Klaud and Aria exchanged trepid glances. Feeling antsy, Aria looked down and started pulling at the loose seams of her blouse.
"Why are you doing that? Stop that. Don't you know that costs money?" he barked.
Aria snatched her hand back in alarm. "S-sorry," she whispered.
She hated feeling like that-like she had done something to personally offend her father. She tries her best to be a good daughter but with her personality, it never seemed to go the way she intends it to and it doesn't help that the neighbors are always gossiping about the pair of them. She felt the only way to redeem herself in her father's eyes was to stay out of his new family's way so that he didn't have to remember the painful memories with their mom. Aria knew he avoided her in particular because of her auburn tresses which so closely resembled her late mom.
"Don't look at me like that. WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT?" Josen bellowed.
Aria flinched and turned to see Klaud's eyes narrow more. He slowly reached out to grab her hand.
"Ungrateful brats," their father spat. "Why are you like this? What did I ever do to you? Where did I go wrong? All Selena and I have done, from the beginning, was try to love you but others have been telling me how nasty you have been to your m-"
"She's not our mother!" Aria burst out. "What happened to you? It's like you're not even our dad anymore!"
His eyes widened in rage and gritted his teeth. He had been like this after mom ran away from him. On and off, present and absent, subdued and unhinged. He became volatile and sunk into a grieving stupor by letting life drag him by his feet. There was never a gradual incline to set him off. It just happened. They tried to help but he refused, arguing that it was his job to care for them. Then in came Selena, swooping in like an angel and cutting him free. With Nadia and Selena around, he avoided them like the plague.
Klaud abruptly stood up, sent father a glare, muttered his thanks for dinner, and began to lead Aria to their shared bedroom in hopes of preventing the argument before it started. They were stopped by Selena at stairs.
"Are you children making things harder for your poor father again?" she hissed. "I warned you-"
"You should have never been born," Josen quietly interrupted from the dinner table.
Aria's heart dropped when what he said had registered. She knew or thought she did, that he did not truly blame her for mom's untimely exit in their lives. They always fought about her, but Aria never really understood. She only heard her name being thrown around a lot and snippets of their mother voicing her distrust for her father. Klaud made sure to always remind Aria that it was in no way her fault, but deep inside, she never forgave herself for putting a wedge in between her parents.
"What was that you said, honey?" Selena none-too-gently shoved the two out of the way and kneeled beside their father with an arm around his hunched shoulders. Suddenly he looked so haggard-as if he finally released what he was holding in for a very long time and as a result, deflated in defeat. Aria could only stare, wide-eyed and frozen at what just came out of her own father's mouth.
"You should have never been born, Aria. It was all your fault." He looked her right in the eye.
She started to feel short of breath, and the sudden stabbing pain in her chest wasn't helping.
"It's okay now, darling. You have me...and Nadia." Selena brought him into her embrace, "We'll always be here." She touched his heart and finished, "With you."
Aria's heart was still hammering away. Tears welled up in her eyes. Aria couldn't hear anything Klaud was trying to say from beside her. All she knew was that he suddenly ripped away from Aria's tightening grip and advanced, screaming at their father. She had never seen Klaud lose it like that. Josen didn't spare Aria a glance, even after Klaud took him by the collar and roared things she couldn't hear into his face.
"Klaud…" Aria reached out to get his attention. Selena grabbed his shoulder to try and get his hands off their father. When Klaud didn't budge or quiet down she resorted to yanking him back by a fistful of his hair.
"Stop it!" Aria shrieked, snapping out of it, and raced forward to pry Selena's grip off of a struggling and kicking Klaud.
A fist came swinging and collided with Klaud's cheek. Aria gasped. Before anyone could move, another first came and caught him in the lower jaw. Klaud landed on the floor with a heavy thud. Josen clenched his fists and gripped the table with his other, panting in exertion. The house was completely silent except for the crying coming from Nadia's room that they could finally hear now that the commotion had died down.
Selena stiffened and rushed to her daughter's room. Aria's head was trying to process the onslaught of things at once. They couldn't stay here anymore. They needed somewhere to go. To get away from here. Anywhere. Now.
Quickly helping Klaud to his feet, Aria helped him stagger up the stairs the best she could and then started frantically throwing clothes into a bag. Klaud slumped down on his bed sighing. He listened to her half-cry, half ramble on about what to take and where to go.
"We should join the military."
That didn't make any sense to her. She thought Klaud might have been hit too hard. Aria ignored him and fussing around the room. When he got tired of watching her panic, he yanked her down to sit next to him.
"Listen to me for a second, will you?" He asked, sounding irritated and amused at the same time. "We need a place to go right?"
Aria hesitated and then nodded.
"It's perfect!" Klaud laughed. "They'll take care of us. We'll have food, clothes, a place to stay, and we'll even get strong. That's a bonus." He grabbed her scrawny arms and dangled it in the air. She tucked them back in and crossed them, throwing him an uneasy glare. Aria also didn't want him to notice how her hands were still trembling.
"But," She started, still skeptical of his plan, "What if you make it and I don't? What if it's super dangerous? We can die early. Why would we want to do that? Oh, I don't know, Klaud...we have to think about it more." It sounded too good to be true. They were banking on too many factors that couldn't be accounting for this early on but it was hard to refuse when he sounded so sure.
"I don't want to see you look like that again, okay?" Klaud tousled her bangs off of her forehead. "It's not and never was your fault. He doesn't know what he's talking about. But this can be a fresh start."
Aria could tell he was lying but nodded nonetheless. She scrunched up her face, thinking hard. They had nothing else to lose. She got a good look at his face for the first time after what happened downstairs. His cheek and eye were already beginning to swell. She thought that next time around she'd be the one to protect Klaud.
"Where you're going, I am. Let's do it, but we gotta save up. Can we stay with ol' man Eli until then?"
"If he lets us," Klaud said, smiling. "Good. It's settled. We'll be fine...I'm not saying we join the survey corps or anything like that." Klaud rolled his eyes. "We're not stupid. I've heard being a Garrison is quite uneventful or if you're fed up with the macho life, we can leave after boot camp and try settling ourselves. Help gramps collect herbs and all."
We took our pledge to the Survey Corps three later.
Bootcamp, Aria: 17, Klaud: 19
"Survey Corps? But Nanaba, you'll probably be in the top ten. You can don a green cape with the pretty unicorn insignia on the back. It's a passage of rite that you earned!" Aria had her head placed on her hands and leaned into the platinum blond-haired male, squinting. "So, why?"
The said male looked at her in the corner of his eyes and huffed in slight annoyance. Collecting himself, he settled with not commenting.
"That's his choice, so stop being so damn nosy and eat your food." Rico Brzenska gave Aria her two cents and a side glare.
"What branch are you thinking about joining, Rico?" Aria leaned towards her silver-eyed friend and asked, "Survey Corps as well?"
"She's going for Garrison," Klaud added, grinning as Rico shot him a dirty look. He didn't have a penchant for keeping things to himself.
"Whaat? Garrison?" Aria turned back to Nanaba. "How wil-mmph!"
She was cut off as Nanaba shoved a potato in her mouth to shut her up. Klaud chuckled. Only Aria could get a rise out of Nanaba like that. He's usually quite stoic and composed, spoke only when spoken to. Despite how they were now, the two hadn't kicked it off right off the bat. She had initially thought he was a stickler, being so serious all the time, and he thought she was annoying, being so persistent all the time.
At first, she innocently inquired about his heritage behind his impossibly blue eyes and unique pale hair. The conversation was dead before it even started. After losing multiple times to him in hand-to-hand combat and seeing his apparent rise in skill with the maneuver gear, she asked him to help her train. Of course, Nanaba refused, writing her off as someone who wouldn't put in the effort herself. It was a while before they fought again. He took note of her progress and let curiosity get the best of him.
Both of them were out of breath, one sweating more profusely than the other. Aria remained splayed on her back, on the dirt.
"Ha! -pant- how did you -wheeze- think of -pause- that. I don't need -cough- you!"
Nanaba peered over her, unphased. "You can correct your form when blocking so that your body takes the brunt of the blow, your thumb shouldn't be tucked into your fist unless you want to break a finger, your knees should be angled more parallel to the ground when kicking lower."
"Fu-"
"Good job."
"Oh." Aria paused in surprise. "Thanks!"
"You were saying something before?"
"F-Fun day. Today's match was fun." Aria grimaced at her obvious lie.
He looked away so that she couldn't see a tiny smile that betrayed his mouth, but she caught it.
"Hey! So you can smile," she pointed out, feeling pleased with herself. "No wonder you don't do it often, Nanaba, you look constipated."
He started to walk away, leaving her on the ground. "I guess you don't want to work on your form after dinner."
Aria scrambled to her feet, jogging after him. "Wait! I would like that!"
"I thought you said you didn't need me, though."
"What! When did I say that?"
"Oi, Klaud, you're staring at Rico again," Aria smirked. Snapping out of his reverie, Klaud's head snapped towards his sister, cheeks tinted rose. The said woman threw Klaud another long side-glare and proceeded to ignore the Richter siblings.
Rico Brzenska never had many friends. Her mindset consisted of getting into the military, doing what she had to do, and joining the Garrisons to help those who couldn't help themselves. All that and she never imagined calculated in friendship. It was a foreign experience. Friends were troublesome and had the ability to deviate one's mind from their initial goals. It didn't help that she bunked with the rambunctious younger Richter sibling, nor did it help that she was beginning to harbor something a little more than camaraderie with the older Richter sibling. She did not want to acknowledge such annoyances and didn't have a label for it, so she tried her best to ignore it, but he wasn't making it easier for her.
She peeked a glance over to Klaud. He was looking out the window with the sun casting shadows along the grooves of his face. For a second, he looked more handsome and relaxed, as opposed to the boyish grins both Richters seemed to have inherited.
Klaud squinted at the light and turned his head over to her. "What? Do I have food on my face?"
She sighed and looked back to her food. Scratch that thought. Something had to seriously be wrong with her.
They had come all come a long way from the first days of training. They were all on the brink of parting ways and choosing the branches of the military they wanted to serve. Unfortunately, this left Rico with a slightly heavy heart, but in the end, she didn't come here to make friends. That wasn't included in her goals and ambitions. She felt ready to move onto a new chapter with the Garrison forces-a place where there were no crazy Richter siblings or angelic mute men whose name rhymes with 'banana'.
She sat with her legs dangling over the edge facing beyond the wall. The day was just beginning, which meant she had approximately twenty-four hours to make her decision. A faint whirring of the maneuver gear could be heard before someone landed beside her.
"You can get in trouble if they found you here, you know." Contrary to his usually smooth voice, this morning, it held a slight rumble as if he just woke up.
"So can you," said Aria, smiling briefly.
Nanaba could tell it was troubling her greatly. Chewed up lips served as evidence of her turmoil. "Did you talk to him about it?" he asked.
Aria shook her head. "I don't think he'd understand. I told you why we're here in the first place, but now..." She thought about the choice she'd have to make the next day. "I don't know. I want to fight. I want to serve and be a part of something bigger. It's not going to be easy, but it's the best choice I've had in a while."
"I think," Nanaba paused, "You should do what you know you want to do. Whether your brother decides to back out completely and live behind Maria with your grandfather or follow Brzenska into Garrison, it doesn't concern you."
She opened her mouth to argue.
"He's your brother, yes, but it's your life. We only get to do this once. Make your decision now, cause this is it," Nanaba finished. The sun broke the clouds above and was quickly rising up its track towards morning.
"You know what's funny?" Aria chuckled. "Rico said the same thing."
"I don't get how that's funny."
"Oh, shut up."
"You want to join the Survey Corps?!" His voice echoed in the canteen. He slammed his tray down, sloshing soup everywhere.
"Yes," Aria nonchalantly replied. "And it would be great if you can sit down without acting like some titan and discuss this like the adults we are."
"Oh, that's rich coming from you." Klaud scoffed. "There's nothing to discuss. We had an agreement from the beginning. Anything but the legion."
Rico and Nanaba, who knew of their initial plans, ate quietly next to the siblings. They knew it was something the siblings had to hash it out on their own, despite their differences.
"I know it sounds crazy and even stupid, but I want to go beyond the walls. Think about the bigger picture. Why are we settling with just living behi-"
"It's all bullshit. They aren't any closer to figuring out what the titans are than when the damn faction was formed. If we go out there, we'll probably die, and they still won't be any closer to the truth." Klaud cut Aria off. "You're too young to be knowing what's best for you. Where is this even coming from?"
Nanaba couldn't help but throw Klaud a sharp look to watch his mouth.
"I've been trying to tell you for a while now, but you never listen!" Aria stood up. "I talked to Erwin the other d-"
"Erwin? The second in command to Commander Shadis? When did you even meet him?" Klaud asked incredulously.
"The Survey Corps came the other night. They weren't aware of the training excursion that half of the camp, including you, had to attend. They're the section who were in need of the most recruits, so they came to scope out us trainees in hope of persuading them to join," Rico added, hoping to clear any confusion.
"They're the only ones doing something about the titans. He said that if we don't fight, we can't win," Aria continued, "I think it would be worth laying my life on the line for that cause."
"What 'worth' is there to a useless death?" Klaud stood up and walked away.
The trainees assembled onto the instruction grounds after breakfast. Anticipation and excitement were abuzz in the air. After the grueling time spent in boot camp, the time has come for all those who have persevered the seasonal drop-outs and temptation to resignation, to graduate. Nanaba had been ranked first place, Rico third, Klaud fourth, and Aria sixth.
They began with those who wanted to join the Military Police first. The rest of the six ranked in the top ten best had filed out together. Aria gulped in anticipation and stayed rooted in her place.
Next was the Survey Corps. This time, the commander's instructions were to leave if you wished to join the Garrison faction. Cadets left by the hordes, one of them being Rico. Aria wasn't surprised to see her turn away without as much as a final glance back. From ahead, she caught squad leader Erwin's eye. As she expected, his face was blank, revealing no emotions. Seemingly satisfied with what he saw, Erwin shifted his gaze elsewhere. In her peripheral, Klaud turned around.