Summary: It's almost the 15th of January, and Eren only learns that its Historia's birthday… 13 hours before the day itself. Eren and Historia have been in a secret relationship between both the military government and their comrades backs as neither wish to be involved with politics nor deal with Mikasa's reaction and their comrades teasing. …Eren tries his best…?
Note on Spoilers: No explicit manga spoilers in this chapter, although there will be some hinting at a few, details are not revealed so spoiler free in essence since it would only maybe affect your opinions on the basement reveal perhaps? - Unlikely even that but just so you don't say that I didn't warn you! Very minor hinting in essence despite the heaps they learnt, nothing here is revealed, same as previous chapter.
This would also happen within chapter 14 of the main fic once it reaches there. Also same as before, main reason this is here and not in the main story (aside from extra chapter length) is because you shouldn't necessarily take it 100% seriously in the latter half, but it's all meant to be seen as occurring in reality. It's sort of the bad/silly stunt people pull in real life and even in AoT like Potato x Sasha x Meat just bigger in a way, so yeah don't take it as necessarily a good fit for AoT's tone since Eren using his Titan power for silly things is like someone walking round with a rocket launcher down the streets and messing around with it – it's the line of reality that this fic sort of crosses and I think it's best I shut up now cause you get the point!
Also… 3 months late! Welp… what can I say for myself here lol? It was my waifu's birthday yesterday (obviously not from this series lol) so from one waifu to another… something like that? She's mai duaghter-in-law by internet logic, so… something like that? I will hopefully have Eren's out soon as well but yeah, after that I've got more AU-AU stuff planned and many will be more drama orientated instead of light-hearted like the first 3 bits but yeah!
Also just to confuse you, Fragment 2 occurs before Fragment 1 in timeline order… why didn't I publish this one first? Go figure, I honestly was just struggling for so long with the ending here lol, but Eren's birthday fic got me thinking a bit more so yeah.
Guest/unPMable Reviews:
Guest (1) : Baka, I ship them more lol, just kidding haha (actually I'm probably not haha), but anyways that chapter comes later, but yeah.
Guest (2) : Glad you enjoyed it, and here's one for you lol, but yeah, some won't be oneshots here and might have a few parts but yeah.
"speech"
'thoughts'
Fragment 2 - 'Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, Historia!'
Mid Winter of the Year 851 – 13 Hours Before Historia's Birthday
Another passing hour within the brumal cold within the air was signalled by the old clock in the hallroom clicking audibly. The last hour of the late morning, not much more than another 59 minutes to go until midday.
Though the clocks that the Survey Corps owned were by no means particularly accurate, they weren't incorrect by a some great margin.
Some of the soldiers extending out their arms to the candleflames lit in front of them, with their shivering hands, biting sharp cold around his fingers joints, no matter how hard they rubbed in an attempt for warmth.
There was still another couple of hours left before their next meal, yet warm jugs of tea, soups and other warm liquids were being passed out along with various other resources left in the storage rooms.
The windows and doors had been fortified, sealed shut and the fires and furnaces started wherever they could as everyone buckled down in fear of being frozen by the icy storm raging outside and across the country.
The 'whooshing' of winds seemed to come with a pattern of soft snow and crushing hailstones that repeated endlessly.
A swirling storm of screaming silvers, greys and whites. There was no way to know which direction to go in such a blizzard at this time of year, for the usual landmarks were hidden behind the white so densely and erasing anything that wasn't the colour of the snow blast.
The soft crystals that would be found so bewitching from the other side of a pane glass, were simply daggers being thrown down in an attempt to break through the glass and slay any dwellers of the land below.
The Survey Corps Headquarters had been moved to the Trost district now, the lifts set up over the gate for faster transportation than moving round to either eastern or western outlier districts.
Neither expedition nor small scale mission was going to be carried out in this weather. The entire city had already closed down all its doors, and was only able to share stores through the underground routes throughout the city.
No shop was open, nor work was going to be done in this time, even if there were more things to sort out. The houses of the several thousand citizens were all locked, their windows sealed tightly and their fireplaces burning as brightly as they could.
The soft embers tried to withstand the thickening cold, threatening them with extinction as the coal could do nought to help them.
Families, both of children with their parents and orphans with their friends, were huddled round together, scooting as much warmth as they could to make it through.
Chimneys however were not proving successful here as the snow fell from all directions in irregular wisps, sneaking down to smother out the bright flames of glowing hearths.
Frankly, it was warmer away from the old fire system and better to stick in groups by a close and less exhaustive flames.
"Oh lord, thanks," was the most frequent set of mumblings that would briefly leave the lips of the few individuals sticking around and helping each other and receiving offerings of blankets and ale to them all.
Eren was seated at a table with the people he usually would, wrapped in his own jacket, cape and blanket much like everyone else was.
He hadn't spoken all day to them. In fact, he hadn't even spoken to them for the past 3 days. The last time he had said anything was a simple 'okay' when someone asked him a favour.
He had never stopped and done it… but it was surprisingly easier than Eren had previously thought to quite literally go several days without speaking a single word aloud or haver a single line of conversation with anyone.
"Hey Eren, here have a drink at least," one of his friends said. Eren didn't recognise nor muster the ability to look up and identify who it was offering him the alcohol.
The mug slid across the table and stopped a little past him after being pushed just a little too much. The soldier glanced at it, noticing the scent of ale and an allure of both sweetness and warmth.
Eren didn't take it. Not caring anything about it, he set his eyes back at the splinters and the wood boards of the table's edge.
"Eren is too young to drink," a woman's voice said, reaching over and taking the mug away and passing it back to another of their companions. Her voice should have been familiar to the unresponsive soldier. And yet it was not.
"Oh come on Mikasa, you seriously care about a few more years which we might not even live to see?" the first voice argued again back at the woman next to him reasonably.
They began a light argument, trying to spark some conversation as they all shivered as a group. All except for Eren, who seemed to shiver for a different reason.
It was cold. Drowning out the conversation and the few sounds of life around him, the Titan shifter focused on the feeling and the pain.
He had become… somewhat distant from everyone recently as they noticed. Noticed and tried to help him when they could without any result.
It's not like he blamed them in the slightest, it was just… he wished they could understand what he'd seen…
But they didn't.
Because they couldn't see what he could.
They could only try their best in doing what they could do, and Eren was grateful for that.
Yet it didn't change how much he wished for them to understand it… to see it like he did…
That didn't matter.
There was already someone who understood that, even though it was perhaps just one person.
Historia was all he needed for such a thing.
Something like that… surely would not affect his friendship with the others…
…
'Historia…' Eren thought of her, like he had happened to on an easily daily basis. Missing the feeling of one's lover's close comfort. Eren was by all means in a relationship with Queen Historia.
He had only just confessed to Historia almost exactly 3 weeks ago now, and the two had began courting in secret away from public rumours and the possibility of open threat.
It had taken more effort than he imagined, to finally pull through at last, after Eren had felt doubt crumble up at him a number of times.
But everything had worked out in the end. Historia had equalled his feelings with her own, and they had both secretly established their relationship.
The snowstorm had started about a week ago, at first gentle yet consistent before the winds came in and the snow soon after built.
Since their confession, he had only been able to see her twice, and now was spending yet another week doing just that.
Seeing Historia once a week. There was no way he could survive this winter at this rate…
His heart buzzed with longing as the withdrawal symptoms, of not gazing into Historia's eyes for lifetimes, took precedence over all other feelings in his mind.
No good.
He was losing his head, falling into a drowsy feeling as he could find no deeper place to scoot into the blanket he grasped around him.
More than anything though, he was truly worried. The capital would surely be far better heated than down south here in Trost but he had no way of knowing that for sure how she was, unlike the rest of his remaining friends.
Historia was alone and separated from everyone else.
That was all that he could think about.
Cuddling up in each other's warmth and using it to help the other through the cold days…
Eren wished he could do that now.
He shivered as he felt about to doze off.
"I'm going for a nap…" Eren said absent mindly before pushing his stool away from the table and leaving tiredly. He hadn't slept well in what felt like an era past.
He didn't wait for the responses of his friends that called after him, asking if he was alright.
Of course he wasn't.
After everything that had happened…
And he was about to drown himself in a circulative argument once more. They didn't understand when they hadn't seen it like him, and he didn't blame them for that.
A cycle of repetition swinging from thoughts of the world outside to thoughts of within the walls to thoughts of her again.
Eren forced open the door, feeling his body sting at the sudden need to power stiff cold joints at the half stuck door.
He sighed as he entered the room, a personal and spacious enough one all for his own self. Moving around the room, the soldier checked the window for gaps half-heartedly, convincing himself that the small gaps between the poorly fitted window frame wouldn't bother him.
Two sheets of blankets to curl himself up in on top of his shirt, light jacket, Survey Corps cape, longcoat, military coat and another blanket that Mikasa had tied around him.
Eren was leaning down limply on his bed as he sighed, feeling queezy in his stomach and frozen on his skin. Digging his fingers beneath the covers, he tried shaking the cold of his pained joints.
He hadn't bothered to nor thought of changing, feeling content in wrapping himself under as much covers as he could.
He wasn't going to find the warmth that he longed for here.
Mid Winter of the Year 845 - In the Memory
A mirror. He had seen this mirror so many times.
The Titan Shifter stirred within the memory he was all too familiar with as he watched the unexpected face in the mirror mover in accordance of his own movements.
The beautiful woman's long hair was being brushed smooth as the young woman hummed a tune to the midday clamour outside. He deep black hair was the key difference between this woman and her younger half-sister.
Frieda Reiss moved in accordance of her own will. It felt like Eren could sometimes affect her actions… but he wasn't even so sure of that either.
These were 'memories' of Frieda after all, and Eren would simply see the young lady's face in the mirror as it were his own.
It shouldn't be possible to communicate through something like that.
Unless of course, a past inheritor would leave a message for the one who would inherit their memories.
He had already seen it and felt Frieda's heartfelt will.
And regardless of whether he would have seen that particular memory or not, her wish already aligned with his own.
This memory was different from that one, though Frieda would often comb her hair every morning, Eren had began to notice the various little differences over the different memories.
Whether she had 'those eyes' or not. The slowly increasing number of scratches across the table. The varying amount of bristles on the hairbrush that had been accidentally plucked out. The gradually gathering dust on the window sill. And the length of the beautiful girl's hair.
All the little details that Eren had become growingly aware of as he carefully observed each one of the various memories from Frieda alone.
This was reality.
It wasn't some painted and reoccurring set of faked images. There was far too much detail for that. It was no illusion, and it was the world that someone besides himself would see.
Eren's vision wandered as Frieda got up from the chair she always sat on before the mirror, pacing across the room towards the window.
The snow covered the whole world this time as well. Eren estimated, from the particularly cracking wood carvings and her shoulder passing hair, that this was towards the end of Frieda's life.
'6 years ago…' Eren guessed thinking back to this time and how it would only be a few months later when everything changed.
The Founding Titan, chained by the will of the First Reiss King, was not capable of stopping it, no matter how secretly Frieda truly wished to.
Frieda had longed for many things, few of which she could with the ones chocking her and her bloodline.
'She'll be 18, no 17?' He tried to remember Frieda's age. The last few months before her end.
Did she even know that it was coming?
Could the power of a chained God have the ability to tell her such things?
Eren hadn't worked that out yet, but he seemed to feel it sometimes. That Frieda… that his father… knew that he would have to end up with the Titan power someday.
Deciding that it wasn't the time to think of such things, Eren kept focus on the whole sight he could see from Frieda's eyes. He had yet to work out where this place was, though it certainly wasn't the royal palace where Historia now lived.
There was no signs of anything nearby as all came sheeted with frost. Except for…
The wall.
The Reiss family still ruled many lands despite not being on the front seat of power, they were undeniably the rulers who the royal government bowed down to.
Somewhere in Wall Sina perhaps, was where Frieda most often resided. Which meant…
'Historia would be on the other side of that wall…' he thought hopefully, wishing to see his lover even though he knew it was just as a memory, 'She would be… 9 years old now…?'
He sighed at the frequently reoccurring number, wondering if it was some sort of undecipherable omen.
"Hmm, hmpp mmhmm hmm," Frieda kept humming the unknown yet familiar tune, just like she often did. The melody that a princess might sing while awaiting a hero that would never come.
Or just a trapped prisoner trying to raise a companion's spirits and cling onto impossible hope.
Frieda walked towards her bed and crouched down beneath it, searching for something. She had to crawl a bit more underneath, sighing in annoyance before pulling out a box.
"…" she had stopped humming, and though Eren wasn't sure, he could feel that her face was stressed up, perhaps… in melancholy?
Walking over to her table again, she placed the box down on the desk before looking back up and revealing her clean features to Eren again.
"So it has been almost 10 years…" the lady mumbled to herself, putting her eyes closer to the mirror and making it feel as if Frieda was looking into Eren himself. "… Only half of those have I…"
It was sometimes difficult to tell when the person in the memories he would see was thinking or saying things out loud, though Frieda had a tendency to mumble to herself… and swear very, very loudly when something truly pissed her off.
'10 years…?' Eren did the thought in his head as he waited for Frieda to say something else. Instead she kept staring into the mirror, leaving Eren with the hints to complete, '10 or 5 years ago, that was…'
A lot of things had happened in that point. But if he had to guess… the most important part would probably be –
"Sis! What are you doing?!" a girl's voice suddenly called out as the door was quickly opened, a little girl was hanging on the handle as she leaned into her elder sister's room inquisitively.
She looked so much like an 8 years younger version of Frieda herself. Her facial features matched Historia's as well, only her hair was the same dark colour inherited from their father and her hair stretched slightly longer, unbraided and brushed smooth.
The girl whom his father would crush underfoot in a few months.
"Sorry Florian, I was just thinking," Frieda smiled in return, hiding away the box behind her back before the younger girl could see it.
"C'mon then big sis! Everyone is waiting!" the girl cheerfully encouraged, full of life. She hopped into the room and grabbed Frieda by her arm, dragging her along.
The woman smiled down on her as she untucked the gift from behind her back. The box that she had pulled out, now open and revealing the contents inside.
"Here you go. You can have it now so long as you promise not to tell anyone else, okay?" The Titan shifter knelt down and nodded to the girl who looked on in equal mischief and gratitude. "Happy Birthday!"
"Hehe, thanks Frieda!" the young girl happily smiled and gave her sister a hug, only then taking the present happily without opening it from the box and then hugging her elder sister once more. "Love you!"
"I love you too sweetie," the elder reassured and responding with her own arms now that her hands were free.
"By the way, who was that other gift for?" the now 10 year old girl's face peered up in interest. It wasn't in some expression of hidden desire for an extra gift, for the young girl was truly already satisfied. But it was with genuine curiosity. None of her other family would have a special day for them anytime soon.
"O-Oh, that is for… another precious snowflake…" Frieda suddenly said, glancing down to beneath her bed where the other gift was hidden. Perhaps just a slightly more expensive gift, but no less thoughtful than she would for her other siblings.
"Is it that person's birthday as well soon?" asked Florian, pondering who this person might be.
"Yes… very soon… someone who is also very special to me…" Frieda nodded in reply and noticed Florian's expression. The dangerous smirk told her everything as Frieda looked down unamused at her youngest full blooded sister. And flicked her nose lightly, "it is not like that!"
"Hehe, okay," the girl stuck her tongue out playfully after teasing her elder sister at a potential love affair, who was replied with only the disbelief at her behaviour. "Tell your special person 'Happy Birthday' from me as well!"
"Go on, shoo little nightmare, I'll be right there," Frieda scolded her and smiled as Florian nodded and disappeared from her room.
Frieda sighed in disbelief, walking over to her bed again and leaning down under it. She then pulled out the larger box, that was filled with several gifts.
Her family had naturally got wind of it and presumed it was something for her youngest sister as they all sat around by the dinner table and her brother had brought it up.
Technically, it was for her youngest sister. Her youngest half-sister who would not receive the gifts of whatever was within their father's reach in the walls.
Frieda wished she could bring the gifts of all her family. But her father never spoke about it. It's not like it was exactly an easy topic to bring up whenever their mother was around and unaware of his affair with another woman behind her back.
"Someday…" Frieda managed to shake away her sadness a little, hoping for the future, "someday… I hope that… someone else would…"
Frieda got up suddenly, realising something and walking over to the mirror. It clicked in Eren's mind. The way she was staring into him again as the dawning realisation came in.
Words didn't need to be said.
Frieda's will to whomever would inherit her memories was signed. Historia would live on after she did for sure.
Entrusting to the next in line to look after her even after that, Frieda looked into the mirror.
And Eren stared back at her.
'… Historia's… Birthday…'
…
Historia was born right into the middle of winter. In the snowy coldness, her mother had given birth to her before looking at the minutes born child in disdain.
Eren refused to see further into the memory causing his teeth to crack under the pressure of his disgust.
…
The middle of winter.
Historia's Birthday.
Tomorrow.
…
'Oh s–!'
Swearing curses at himself for only realising it now, Eren pulled himself out of the memory and awake.
9 Hours Left Until Historia's Birthday – Trost District of Wall Rose
A tiny amount of white seemed to seep in through the window. Instead of the warm rays of sunlight, the white specks were freezing to the touch of a human.
Bits of hail that had managed to squeeze through the tiny gaps from under the window in the current Scout Headquarters had tumbled onto the floor.
The storm was still continuing.
"…" Eren experienced that knowing feeling. The feeling when you're about to be late and have heaps of work left to do. "… Shit."
He lurched up off the bed, shoving the covers away from his body, refusing to let the freezing cold atmosphere bother him any longer.
The end of his bed was damp, despite his earlier check, wet from the melted fractures of hail
"Shit," Eren repeated, grabbing his boots and shoving his feet into them, roughly doing up the straps without care, "shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit –"
Dressing faster than the speed of Levi, Eren pressed his face against the glass after throwing on his longcoat, and eyeing the corners of the sky.
It was misty and snow was swirling all over, seemingly mostly from the north east. The land was filled with several inches of snow.
There was no way any carriage would dare to be travelling through this.
There was no way that any shopkeepers would have the time to spend away from the fire, let alone even considering customers.
"Shit… shit, shit, SHIT!" Eren kept swearing the curses that his mother would slap him for uttering in front of her, as he paced violently across the room.
No one would blame him for not being able to turn up with this weather.
Historia wouldn't even ask him to get anything for her and would surely say the typical line of 'all I need for my Birthday is you!'.
As if Eren cared though.
His first birthday gift to his lover.
Mid Winter of the Year 835 – Her Birth Day
The snow had been continuously pillowing down in sheets and masses of groups. Unbending and unstopping, it tore across the countryside just like it had the last year, and the year before that.
White flakes whirling around the once lush and enveloping farmlands, in an angry vortex of isolation. Each farm and houses was separated, practically impossible for anyone who would be insane enough to leave to survive for long before freezing to death.
A bleak space of ice and wind. The land outside was untraversable at this time, a natural prison for those who failed to escape into a shelter of warmth somewhere.
The farmers and field workers had already steeled away and locked down every window and crack within their homes, permitting none of their warmth to be stolen nor shared to anyone else.
For a lone baby swan, that had neither been able to follow the rest of its family to the warmer south nor was able to find safe refuge along with others who would stay dug in away from the winter, there was no hope.
Flying alone in the soon to be frozen desert, it would try to squeeze into a warm refuge of any sort, even at the house which it died at the doorsteps of, frozen to death and forgotten beneath the building snow.
Inside of the house, the open hearth pumped slow warmth into the room as the woman sat up in her delivery bed of the old farm, now covered in sheet white, purer than any material they could come to find, with the exception of what was provided by the woman's master.
The blonde haired woman stared at the wailing child that she had just given birth to.
Looking at it.
In utter disdain as it cried for warmth and the loving embrace of a parent.
The woman wasn't planning to give her daughter anything like that. It was a girl. She had wanted a son, but luck had once more not awarded her.
The baby kept crying and woman yelled at it to silence, only causing the newborn to quake in fear and cry even more,
The woman truly considered tossing the baby out into the snow if only to silence it with a cold death by freezing.
But she could do that. She would be throwing her whole chance away.
'Master… I can be a good wife… I promise… I'll give you whatever you need… I'll be a better wife than that woman…' the woman prayed for it wordlessly.
For a future where she could be taken in as the new wife of a Lord of the land. She would live in the great halls instead of sweeping them, dine on the lavish foods of the nobility and wear fine clothes that she had long lusted for.
All of that, in exchange for pleasuring her master. She may be a concubine now, but the woman hoped this would change it.
She couldn't get rid of this child yet, the baby had its uses for her until she spoke to her master and showed the girl to him.
He would want a son next time, a daughter had far less value than a son for him.
All her master needed to do is to arrange for his wife's removal and then she could take her place where she always wanted.
He would surely want to as well. Nights filled with constant pleasure for the Lord Reiss. The woman was certain that her master would want that.
The tool she intended to use was still crying, begging for just a little warmth as it began coughing in the freezing air.
"SHUT UP! Stop crying you ungrateful little –!" The mother yelled at her daughter, spitting out curses at her existence. The woman's patience had run out.
The baby only got more frightened, continuing to struggle to live, as it cried for someone to at least wrap her in a blanket, drowning out her mother's attempts to yell.
"Alma," her mother had walked in from the kitchen after hearing her daughter's yell, looking at the baby girl in disappointment again. "Are you really going to keep that bastard child?"
The cold and emotionless voice inquired about the newborn she had witnessed the birth of a few hours before, much to both her and her husband's disappointment as a girl was born instead of a boy.
The woman's parents had not been pleased when they learnt of how her daughter was not the Lord's playtoy but didn't object to the new mother's intentions in becoming the Reiss's wife.
It's not like they could object to the wishes of the Lord of their land, however they still felt an interest in the possibility of gaining wealth for their remaining family.
Not needing to tend to the farmlands again, the thought of it made them comply with their daughter's desires and prepare for the new birth of their grandchild.
And so the child had been born in the middle of the winter as the land became icy and the winds hollow and exempt from the warmth from the hearth of a home.
"… It's too late now," the woman lifted the baby improperly by the head and gave her daughter to her mother to hold. "Keep the damn thing. I've suffered way too much for it but it's born now, right?"
The new grandmother put the child into her chest as it started to quieten it down beneath the scornful gaze of her grandparent.
"It's not too late yet Alma," her grandmother stated, "we can still get rid of it. Try again with him and this time hope for a son."
"Tch. After all my hard work?" the woman expressed as she covered herself silently. "Fine. Drown it in the sink or toss it into the fire or whatever. Throw it out, the snow will make it disappear."
Her grandmother narrowed her eyes uncertainly. They would have to wait another while before the snow cleared and the Lord Reiss would send for her again.
"We'll just keep this one working at the farm for a few years then," her grandmother suggested instead, knowing that they needed extra field hands. "You can have the next one with him and we'll just hide this one, if it even survives."
The newborn's mother didn't reply, giving her silent consent at the idea before throwing another blanket on herself.
"… Fine. But I'm not feeding it," the woman turned her head one last time, glaring at the quietly whining girl before turning round and not looking at her daughter for the next several months. "It's weak anyway, so it won't last long working for you."
Her grandmother left after nodding in agreement, walking into the kitchen where her husband was resting on the couch with an almost empty bottle of alcohol in his hand.
She walked over to the room through the entrance, picking up a bucket filled with goatmilk stored for the winter, she searched over through the cupboard until she found a drinking vessel for the child.
The two now growing old farmers had used it for her own daughter in the past but it had been left aside and beginning to rot in the damp since.
The woman used it, giving the now silent baby, its first drops of milk before it got wrapped up in a old clothes and placed to one side on the kitchen table.
Blanketless.
"We're keeping it then?" the woman's husband finally asked as the baby was placed near tot the second stove in the living room. His wife nodded in reply. "… Don't you think it would be a mercy to get rid of her now at least? There's no guarantee that the Lord Reiss is just going to accept Alma."
His wife shrugged in understanding but gave him the knowing look to place his hopes on it at least for now.
They sat in two different chairs, warming their hands before the smoking fire, carrying soft fumes into the growing night.
"What its going to be called?" the grandmother called over to the other room where her daughter was resting. The woman wasn't asleep, but she made no response, not caring for whatever name they chose.
The two elder parents nodded in understanding.
It would be better to let the Lord Reiss name her in the event that he chose to take their daughter in. If not, then they'll just someone else give the name.
They couldn't bother nor think up of a name for her at any rate, and there was no way to know if the child would survive anyway.
The glowing embers of flames managed to at least carry through the cold room's air and reach the baby, giving it just enough warmth to survive through the night, and the ones after.
The warmth of the fire was at least enough to shield its fragile body, but it weren't nearly enough to fill the shell of life that had been caused.
The broken void already carved.
9 Hours Left Until Historia's Birthday - Survey Corps Headquarters
"… E… ren?" was the response that half a dozen people were able to utter as a storming blur rushed passed them through the hall.
Their fellow friend and soldier in arms had been a growing concern on their minds recently. Ever since after that battle, he had become dispirited completely. Worn out and dragged out like he had been in the past beneath the Reiss chapel.
To see the brunet thundering across the room wile the rest were shivering or slowly filling their stomachs with something warm, was a very strange sight.
Dashing across the hall, he paid no attention to the calls of some of his friends, too caught up in his frantic though process.
'A gift… a present…' Eren addressed the most pressing issue in his mind. Which definitely was not the fact that he would be walking into a sweeping snowstorm the moment he steeped out the door.
Something to give Historia for her birthday.
Maybe it was perhaps too eager on his part to think so, but Eren genuinely thought he knew Historia pretty well.
It's not like she didn't have things that she wanted, but things that could be given as a present for her birthday, were far less in number.
Or more specifically, they quite literally numbered zero. She was still the Queen in the end, and although it would require approval first, she could get her hands on anything she wanted. The money would be subtracted from the national treasury and the job would be done.
'Damn, what hasn't Historia got…' Eren pounded his head as he paced to the front door, getting odd looks from the people all around.
He momentarily looked up to see the locked door, barricaded in the case of strong winds throwing something which would pull the latches open. Not to mention that the snow was already several inches deep.
It would surely be physically impossible for someone to trudge threw such deep snow, still constantly building by the minute.
"Eren…" Armin suddenly appeared next to him, turning him round by the shoulder, "what's wrong?"
He expected Eren to shake his head and tell him 'it's nothing', before probably returning to his room. Instead Eren walked back to the door.
And began tearing it open.
"Hey you bastard! What are you playing at?" Jean yelled from the table, not impressed at Eren suddenly kick the crates blocking the door aside which Jean had to take care of several times already.
He had now idea how his trainee days rival was able to push stuff which took him half an hour to move, but he would be damned if his hard work was going to be met only with frozen icicles in his face.
Jean blinked. Mikasa blinked. Armin blinked. Everyone else just stared or were half sleeping.
And Eren was gone. The door had been opened and instead of freezing air flooding in, Eren had stormed out, and seemed to burn a path through it.
"…Huh?" Jean cocked his head, trying to comprehend. He moved so fast. The door looked like it was ripped off it's hinges despite the creaking sounds signalling that it was still holding on.
The speed at which he flashed out. Could Captain Levi even move that fast?
Everyone remained silent in incomprehension.
And the a heap of snow flushed in and smacked Jean specifically in the face.
"CLOSE THE BLOODY DOOR!" Floch had just woke up.
9 Hours Left Until Historia's Birthday – Royal Palace
The snow was now gently falling in the centre of the walls. The main storm had moved further south by now and was already continuing its rush down the slopes of their world, extending its domains as far as it could stretch.
"Your Majesty, it will still be a few days before the roads can be cleared," the Queen's aide announced from behind the young girl, staring out of the window as she watched the cold world become still. "You won't be having any visitors for a while yet."
Historia kept staring at the frozen drops of water. Through the window at the corridor where she looked through after just completing her meeting in the other room.
She watched them fall.
Snowflakes.
Crystal like and of a beautiful shape like they were so often drawn in books and told in stories. Intricate patterns of clear sparkling glass.
They looked nothing like that.
Just like every year, the snowflakes looked nothing like they were so often described. Instead of something fine crafted and beautiful, they were simply… normal.
Normal collections of frozen water turned white, falling it simple little bits and bobs instead of in some star shaped pattern.
"… I see." She responded vaguely in response.
She wouldn't see Eren again for a few more days.
She wouldn't see anyone for the next few days besides her reoccurring work colleagues.
She only had the normal snow to keep her company.
"Then, if you please excuse me your Majesty," her aide bowed shortly to the young woman's turned back, "I bid you goodnight."
The elderly lady was gone before she could return the gesture, too fixated on watching the false crystals.
Historia sighed, before turning around and moving through the palace again from the map in her head. She knew it well now, when her world was mostly spent in here, she had quickly become familiar with all the routes, the different rooms and the secret passageways.
'I hope the orphans aren't causing trouble…' she thought of the next most familiar place she had, easily able to map out the simple barns and rooms within them.
The Queen had especially ordered extra bedding, clothes and fuel to be sent to the workers there before the start of winter.
If anyone would feel the cold of Winter, it would be kids like them.
And… people who were once just like them.
She thought about him as she wondered through the halls.
The one person that had dug himself so deep into her, grasping her beating heart in his hand. Historia still sometimes felt it was like a dream, to be actually in a secret relationship with Eren of all people.
What would Krista have thought if she had been told of the future back then?
Historia mused the thought, as she listened to the storm which picked up once more.
The glass seemed to shake a bit, making her walk on edge a little at the thought of it breaking and the cold winds flooding in The light ringing continued against the window while she did her best to ignore it.
Her footsteps across the carpeted floor were muffled almost completely from the noise outside. And the hammering of glass. Which seemed to keep following her down the hallway.
Historia stole a glance to the glass. She would have almost missed it fluttering around between the window pillars, panickedly pressing itself against the window. "…Eh?"
It seemed to look at her. It was looking at her. It froze her within an instant and sent her hurrying to the window, pulling herself up on the window sill. Without even thinking.
The window was unlatched by it's ice-cold lock that had been sealed shut some days ago when the snow had become heavy.
She pulled the whole glass pane upwards and for an instance blazing glacial death exploded straight into the room invading and pushing out the vague warmth of the hallway and freezing anything in it's way.
Historia felt it biting and slicing against her like steel blades tearing at her throat, eyes and body, but she easily withstood it.
All she needed was a split second and the window had been closed again, sealing of the fierce winter. She breathed out slightly, her airline felt constricted and her breathing slow from just the short moment.
"What… where you doing out there…?" the Queen spoke softly after a while to the empty hallway. The thing that had been scooped up in her arms in the blink of an eye fluttered in response. Then it let out a barely audible sound of inhumane speech.
In her hands, there was a small animal that at first glance seemed to be resting dead after being frozen to death. But ever so slightly, its feathers trembled and shook, signalling that it was still clinging onto life.
It had been so full of desperate life just seconds ago. Beating against the window in anguished last moments.
She dared to unpeel her hands for just a second and take away the warmth again just for a moment.
A swan. A baby swan.
Long neck and gray feathers. Paddled feet and large size for it's kind. She wasn't very knowledgeable about bird species at all, however she was certain that the animal was a baby swan.
A thought crossed her mind as she looked upon the pitiable, quivering life that it certainly couldn't be a baby at it's moderate size they was about half the width from one of her shoulders to the other.
But the small creature that the Queen was now cradling in her arms like a newborn, looked like it had just awoken as a baby.
A bird which would actually be foolish enough to struggle on outside in this time of year.
It felt like a short strange dream for such a thing to happen one day. But the fragile feel and weak bones that somehow were holding it alive told her it was real.
Historia left with a fast pace, intent to getting the little bird nestled in her arms to warmth within her own quarters after blinking once and breaking to a short sprint.
She threw the doors open without giving time for the guards to move and only stare at her in confusion as they often seemed to do.
Rushing about the room, the Queen grabbed a blanket off one of the cupboards before quickly moving in front of the already blazing fireplace where she lay it down as a cushion and rested the young bird around in the blanket, close to the fire, making sure not to harm it or put it in any danger of the flames, sometimes comforting warm and in other times painful.
She went back to her bed and took one of her pillows, bringing it over to where she had laid the frail swan and sat on her knees.
The guards had closed the door for her at least, allowing the warm air to circulate through the whole room slowly.
Slowly reaching out, she felt the shivering bird carefully. It felt so delicate. One wrong movement and Historia was afraid she would damage it.
'… Still alive…' she thought. She gently caressed over it's shaking wings, feeling frozen to the touch and tried supporting the blanket around it.
It's neck was curled inwards, hugging at it's breast. Was it too hot right now? Would it die from the cold by morning? She hesitated over how to best act.
The swan desperately hitting the windows as she walked through the hallway. Struggling on with some hope against the Winter for its own life.
She had been caught in a daze by it. Ignoring that light hammering at the window, begging her grandparents to let her in, she buried the cruel memory.
It was strange.
Historia resisted that past which she had once been cleared from her mind by Frieda. It was different when her half-sister would temporarily make her forget her memories of her and block her out.
There were things which had been permanently erased from her mind as she found out along with Eren a while ago.
But the hammering on the glass and the desperate feathers scattered out brought some reminiscence of it back.
Historia looked at the swan once more, feeling it's body.
It was warm.
Despite how freezing to the touch it's feathers where, somehow it's core was beating warmly to her hand.
The swan's head was tucked into it's body feathers, huddled into a small ball. She couldn't see them now, but she could have sworn it just moments ago before she went rushing to open that window.
The swan had been staring at her. The black pearl eyes seeing right through her as it struggled and beat itself to get attention.
An omen or message from someone, telling her not to forget.
She watched the last bits of stardust fall for that day.
8 Hours Left Until Historia's Birthday - Trost District
Eren had stepped out, made 9 powerful strides forward.
Before then slipping and collapsing face first into the ankle high snow.
Only then after his sudden adrenaline rush and buzzing idea, did his senses return and realise just how freezing it was.
And that he was literally eating snow that seared at his lips untouched by anyone except Historia. And the food he ate. And the fists he took there. And the one time when his horse reared its head back at smashed him in the teeth.
Aside from all that, Historia was his first kiss.
Actually going back to the subject at hand, Eren coughed and stumbled back up, glancing back as he heard a shout. The snow was falling everywhere, creating a mist like world where Eren could no longer even see the building which he had just left after a few metres.
He couldn't see further than maybe 4 metres in his vision.
That was more than enough.
Eren took another step forward, suddenly shaking snow out his hair with the creak of his joints, foot sinking down halfway through the cold desert.
Historia.
There was one thing that he knew he simply had to get Historia on her birthday
It was obvious.
There was no need to question further.
'… The place to look…' Eren though, vaguely aware of how his whole body was convulsing and the pain leering through.
His body lurched with every step and yet Eren's eyes remained fixed.
A few others thoughts occurred to him such as perhaps not rushing out the door without informing the commander.
But it was too late for that now anyway. He would simply have to face the consequences afterwards.
Hardened water found their way into his jacket in every possible way. They packed down his neck, slipped underneath his collarbone and between the fabric that flapped at the front.
Eren could feel his blood creating painful heat and his skin becoming icy, failing its resistance.
Getting a bearing of his orientation, Eren began his challenge to the storm with his own as he began forcing his way up towards the inner gate.
Wall Rose. Trost district was quite literally all shut down, and the same is quite likely for the nearby country, however he would still find it there.
The one gift he knew Historia must have.
Flakes pelted against his frozen cheeks, clinging to his eyelashes and almost neck reaching brown hair.
The swirling beating winds numbed his exposed skin, biting in beneath his fingertips and clothes, creating an exhausting chore to make a single stride through the accumulative snow drifts.
Shivering, Eren heard his teeth begin to chatter. His exhaled deep breath warm his face briefly before sucked away by the cold as he continued advancing forward.
Dry, aching throat from thirst and cold. Wind cut through his clothing, and he found his vision fading, eyes forced into a squint and made watery.
Discomfort arises from snow drifting down the collar of his coat, into his boots, and between mittens and cuffs of his clothing.
This was winter.
And it wasn't enough to stop Eren Jaeger.
"Ow!" he cried out as a fluttering newspaper slapped him in the face and sent him rolling around backwards all the way to the door again.
1 Hour Left Until Historia's Birthday – Royal Palace
Historia had her memories returned from Frieda during the time in the cave. Reminiscing on past times, she could still recall how Frieda had come about 6 years ago from around this time.
She had turned up at the farm, returned Historia memories for the time and snuck her out from beyond the fence for the first and last time.
Laughing all the way, the elder sister had brought Historia to a small wagon that she had someone bring.
"…" Historia sighed as she rearranged the cushion on the tiny swan, its long-ish neck burrowing in together into the rest of its body.
Looking back into the memory, Historia reached into her pocket and pulled out the red band which she still had.
That had been the first thing her sister had given her. She had brought her about ten different things if she could recall. Or was it eleven?
Historia couldn't remember what the others were, aside from a particularly large one being a weird machine that Frieda mentioned having a tough time getting.
What was there? Clothes? Books? Shoes?
She seemed to think that she had received such gifts but could not recall the exact details.
Tucking in the feathers of the poor bird in once more, Historia stood back up and walked across to one of her cupboards, placing her braids amongst several others that she had been recently using.
The red one, always holding the special place.
She carried it around with her, even if she wasn't wearing it.
Historia had been wondering for a while. About what had happened that day. Her sister had helped her sneak all the gifts that she didn't think she would ever deserve nor receive into her small room that Frieda always grumbled seriously about.
"Tomorrow…" Historia decided, not bothering to think about anything else and slipping into her corner of the bed.
She wondered why her elder sister chose that day of all days.
1 Hours Left Until Historia's Birthday – Capitol City Mithras
"Oh…" the cold breath parted briefly as he quickly shut his mouth to prevent any nits of snow from the whirlwinds entering inside his body.
He realised a problem as he wandered down the rough area where the road had been gathered through Wall Rose. Eren had already been on the move for 2 hours and he only passed the wall of the Trost outlier district recently.
His strides were as large as he could muster despite already feeling the aching feeling of fatigue on them, taking effort to push through so much snow.
Reaching out with his ungloved and bare hand, he tried to guide the way but it is swallowed before it has gone even a few inches.
Eren had narrowed his eyes until they are almost shut in order to save my eyes from the blinding white, and all the while the wind raged without end, only reducing its ferocity long enough to gather the strength for another attack.
After he had left Trost, Eren had transformed into a Titan and began running across to the capitol at his fastest speed.
Until he got crushed by stone.
The old abandoned castle that had been nearby had been slowly rotting away over the years. Until the storm was able to lift a piece of the wall up and let it plummet straight on Eren a few kilometres away.
His Titan form had been crushed and destroyed instantly, but he had managed to escape after a while and transformed again.
Then he was hit by an avalanche from the mountains nearby. He had been forced to roll all the way back half his little trip and buried in several metres of snow that he had to dig out of.
Even with the heat emitting from his Titan body, it still took a couple hours to free himself at last. Trying to be more careful now, Eren had gone back to rushing to the centre of the Walls again.
Until a lightning bolt hit him.
He was the tallest structure around, but it had paralysed his whole Titan body and he had been unable to move for another while.
When he finally did, he transformed for the 3rd time and tried to be even more careful.
And then the Hero of the Walls, the Titan Slayer, the Founding Titan, the Coordinate, the Eren Jaeger… met his greatest rival in the universe.
He had tripped over an apple tree.
The foot from his Titan form was instantly severed by the unrivalled intellect of the organism, awaiting him to cross his path, predicting his every move.
As soon as he lost one leg, he had pressed down on his other far too awkwardly and it had also torn off, and he had collapsed legless.
Defeated by the cunning of his great arch nemesis, Eren had climbed out in defeat and glared at the foe. His final transformation was exhausted and he was at the mercy of the storm.
But his enemy was just and did not pursue to finish him off today. Bidding the mighty foe a rematch someday, Eren had rushed to pursue the last stretches of the way now that he had at least seen the walls of Mitras in sight, their duel unsettled for another day according to the future child Jaeger.
Eren was now close to the gates. He was short on time but the snow had almost stopped here at the centre of the Walls and he could make the distance before the midnight bell.
Wires of pain felt through his arm, as if about to tear his blood circuits out with agonising slowness. Steam was lifting from all across his body after using his Titan transformation.
Skin flushed in white, as if it had been sunk down into his bones that peeled up through skin, Eren thought of the next step. Entering the palace somehow…
His face contorted from the stinging as the icy pain tried to steal his consciousness away but he resisted.
Just a little more.
Just a little further, and he could tell Historia what he failed to tell her 3 weeks ago.
He prayed that the gift would be suitable for this occasion.
20 Minutes Left Until Historia's Birthday
Queen Historia had been laying on the back of her bed, staring up at the unpainted ceiling of her room as she awaited to drift into sleep.
The storm had kept her up for the past couple hours, gently rattling the windows and swooshing through the cracks from under the door.
Historia heard the sudden consecutive scraping from somewhere in the room but paid it no heed at first, passing it off as yet another effect of the snowstorm.
She kept thinking about her life now. The secret lover of the 'Hope of Humanity'. Eren Jaeger's fame had spread across the whole world within the walls, as the one who accomplished it all.
The one who it would be impossible without. Eren was the centrepiece of everything when it came to advancing out to the future against their enemies.
She heard the consecutive hits against something. She realised it was something beating against the window gently, perhaps large blocks of hail were now dropping.
The Survey Corps would be bottled down in this storm, awaiting for it to pass before they would descend over the wall and search for Titans in the snowy fields that had wandered either too far east or west from Trost district.
The snow was not ideal in the slightest for horseback travel, but with their current batch, they would send Eren out in Titan form and he would destroy the ones who were no longer bound to Trost and the giant hammer.
It was Eren once more that was carrying them forward, as always. He would surely be their trump card in future battles with their enemies…
But even he would be at the Survey Corps headquarters at this time, being shielded in from the snowstorm.
The consecutive knocks rang again and Historia counted three of them for the 3rd time, and she finally decided to throw herself up and find its source this time.
She scanned the room and walked into the general direction before hearing the sounds for a fourth time and heading to the window they were coming from.
Historia pulled open the curtains…
And her jaw hit the ground a second after.
…
He was freezing out in the ongoing blizzard while holding tightly against the two columns off from the wall.
Somehow managing to keep itself balanced with both legs and one arm leaning against opposite sides of the walls of pillars, he was shivering dangerously.
Eren waved at her.
Historia blinked and gapped and could not do anything else.
She considered if this some figment of imagination caused from her earlier wish.
"Ah-!" Until Eren yelped and almost slipped.
Snapping into action, Historia practically tore the hinges off from the window and poked her face right in front of him, "wh-, E-, j-just get in here!"
She whispered deadlily to him as she grabbed him by the waist and pulled him in, though Eren quickly adjusted his hands beneath the now open window frame and supported himself inside.
He fell onto the carpet of Historia's room, his legs getting caught up on and almost unresponsive across the edge.
Historia pushed his legs aside and quickly shut the window as smoothly as she could, before calming her breathing and looking at her collapsed Titan shifter on the floor, covered in snow, frost and what looked like hardened clothing.
"Eren…?" she crouched and whispered disbelievingly, grasping his freeing hand between hers. Her other half turned his head painfully and gave her a reassuring smile. "… A-Ah, come this way now."
She pulled him out gently and took straight to the other side of the room where the fire was still blazing and the blanket containing the strange encounter was still present.
"Eren…" she sat him down right in front of it, seeing how his body reacted very positively to the new source of warmth.
Historia looked at him and blinked again. Eren was here. The storm was still raging across the country and it was quite clear that Eren had somehow managed to arrive here nonetheless.
The Queen looked at him, and then back to the window. 'Did he… how the hell did he get up here?!'
This was only the third floor but of a palace like this, but the ground at very least would be around 25 metres below. It was probably close to 30, higher than he would be even if he stretched out his arms in Titan form.
While his joints were half frozen, he had still somehow managed to bypass the whole capitol's security and just turn up on the other side of her window.
Historia opened her mouth to speak but decided to quickly pull the sheets of her bed and drag them across the floor over to the fire, before throwing a portion of the great cover around Eren whom she sat down next to.
"H-H-Happy Birthday…" he shakily spoke, struggling to move his tongue to pronounce it, turning his head to her, "… Historia…"
"… W-What?!" she became startled at what Eren spoke, wondering 'Did he just say.. "Birth" Day…?'
"I don't… understand?"
"I...I know I'm just a terrible partner when I turn up this late," he elaborated, stretching his limbs in front of the fire, "I-I only found out recently, and never even thought to ask about it."
"But… Eren, I don't get it?" she struggled again, trying to get his attention which he resisted, "what are you… did you come here with permission? Why… How did…"
"Y-Yeah, I-I mean no for the last one, but…" pausing, he glanced to his side, noticing the blanket next to him and connecting the dots to the animal beside him strangely akin to himself, he mused. "I-It should be time now, a-and since it's your first Birthday t-together-"
"No Eren, just look at me already," her voice stopped him, both gazing in each other's eyes again longingly into realisation.
"What do you mean by my 'Birthday'?" Historia cocked her head in pure confusion. She had never heard such a word before.
Exactly Mid Winter of the Year 851 – Midnight
'… Huh?' Eren's mind ceased. He frowned before understanding it all after seeing Historia sky blue diamonds once more.
Birthdays… weren't celebrated here yet.
He had lost himself in the memories once more, and suddenly realised the obvious case. There was not a single time in his memory where he had celebrated his own birthday.
Nobody inside the walls did. At least not in the current year.
Traditions like that didn't exist… yet,
"It's… the day… you were… born…" Eren tried to answer uncertainly. That was what the date meant at least.
"…But… why… what's so… significant about that?" Historia hesitantly wondered.
The Titan shifter breathed out and in. He had made his own blunder in a way as he had seen the memories of Frieda and connected them with a place beyond here.
But his resolved seemed to steel itself as the new overpowering purpose took him over.
"What are you talking about? It's the most important day of the year," he boldly stated.
…
"… Eh?" She gasped slightly, feeling a sudden wave hit her whole chest and send her blood pumping at a thousand kilometre a second.
"The day on which you were born. How could that be anything but the most important date in the whole year…?" He spoke it softly and without doubts. There was no sarcasm nor doubt in his voice.
…
"The day… I was born…" the Queen repeated his words.
Eren nodded, affirming her understanding.
"Is such a day… really that special?" she didn't speak of it in ill opinion, only genuine curiosity.
"Yes. It's the most special day in the world. It's the most important day in the world. It… It is the happiest day in the world!" Eren became somewhat eccentric for a moment before calming down when he saw her face.
"… W…hy?" She wanted to hear it. She had surpassed whom he she once was, but she still wanted to hear it.
"B-Because you were born into this world on that day" Eren said the words of his mother. And spoke only of his own belief.
"… H-Historia… t-there's nothing left that makes more happier than you being born into this world…"
…
She couldn't contain it any longer. Each words seemed to make her heart explode. The Queen let warm liquid run down her cheeks, revealing them to the only person in the room.
"Ah! S-Sor… oh…" Eren noticed her expression then, dropping his words as he watched tears of heartfelt sweetness drop.
"L-Lean down…" Historia told him, after wiping them away.
He did.
She grabbed his face and smashed their lips together in the instant.
The force of their teeth striking together sharply let out an audible noise. Their teeth ached momentarily from the collision, but it soon vanished from the corners of their minds, drowned out by the intensity of their tender lips against each other.
They both sometimes pondered for a moment whether their relationship was progressing too fast but discarded the thought soon after.
They didn't care what other people said. They didn't care if by comparison, they were proceeding much too fast.
They were already comfortable with each other. And they were already happy to jump steps together if need be.
They didn't need to bond over time when they already have one indisputably precious moment together. They already had something that meant more than any other sense of logic for them.
But they intended to bond over time anyway. They didn't need to take things in any order, but they were going to anyway, because they wanted to.
They had shared three kisses on the day of their confession, 3 weeks ago. They had only been able to meet on the day after that and 2 weeks ago in between both their schedules and the growing snowstorm that covered the world between the walls.
On those two days, they have kissed on about half a dozen occasions. Soft, quick and gentle.
Their lips were indenting deeply onto each other's this time, trying to merge into each other as strongly as possible.
Trying to become one and whole together.
He could feel her raging heartbeat as it pressed onto his own chest, The drumming travelled through the fabrics of their clothes, into his skin and down to his growing excited beat.
The passionate force between them was eventually released, the feeling of being crushed together in delight and desire for more connection.
Leaning down and still cuddling her in his chest, he whispered with hot breath against her ear.
"I'm so happy that you were born."
"I'm so happy that you are alive."
"I'm so happy that you are here with me now."
Again and again, Historia felt his voice.
The loving voice of the Devil that she loved.
For the girl who had spent almost the whole 16 years of her life thinking that everyone would be happier if she had never been born, there were few things that could make her happier than such words from the one whom had seized her heart and soul.
She had her sister unknowingly for many years, though even knowing that had come about from Eren. Historia loved her sister, but it was a very different love that she felt for Eren.
She had been gifted forgotten things, of equal affection for many years. She honestly felt too indulgent in it, but… hearing it from Eren seemed to affect her entire core.
Historia was different from back then when she spent with the forgotten care of her sister. And right now, her whole life seemed to tremble at his words, making her believe that his words were truth.
"A-Anyway here…" Eren steamed a little as he held out the gift from his half disintegrated clothing.
"Eren…" Historia still watered in happiness even after he had wiped them off. She didn't need a present. But she knew Eren was going to give her one regardless.
"What is it…?" she took it curiously and inspected it doubtfully, before brushing off the wrapped cloth in which it was in.
It was a glass bottle of milk.
"So… what was the idea behind this?" Historia looked up and smiled dangerously.
'… You're going to hit me anyway…' Eren thought while giving her a cheeky smile.
"It's so you can grow up big and strong lik– ah?!" Eren explained.
He was right.
Historia glared at him and put her finger to her lips again, before punching him again.
"So where's my real present?" she asked him again after a fifth punch, rolling her eyes.
"I thought I would be enough?" he teased her earlier thoughts, before pulling out something else from beneath his cloak instead, "sorry, this is what I was going to give you."
He pulled it out slowly from behind his back, letting it unfold by itself. It was simply –
A blanket.
Historia eyed it in wonder as Eren held it out to her and began nervously fidgeting, awaiting her reply as she held onto it.
"This is… ah?! W-Wait, Eren, I can't -" she noticed it. Such an ordinary brown colour, done with ordinary string and wool, with an ordinary pattern in it.
"No. I want you to have it, i-if it's a satisfactory gift…" Eren spoke. It was rather embarrassing when he thought back to it.
It was arguably a baby's cot. Eren's past baby cot.
"B-But, you're mother…" Historia remembered it when Eren had told her on the way back from Shinganshina. They had found the contents of the basement that they had searched for, along with…
"Yeah, my dad must have kept it down there as well after I grew out of it…" Eren verified, remembering as he found it when they searched for anything else. It had been in the corner of the room, protected from the dust and had hit with a tinge of nostalgia.
Eren had ended up taking it as well with him, and keeping it in his room. The flower shaped pattern was still as clear as in distant memory.
It really was rather embarrassing to think of giving someone a baby's momento. However –
"Y-you said it in the past right…" Eren stepped forward and took the blanket for a second before flicking it through the air and wrapping it around the shoulder's Historia's night dress. "… If only we had met as kids… somehow… we could have wrapped ourselves together in this blanket, right…"
Her face fumed, looking down and holding the ends of the blanket around her.
It was warm.
As if it fended off the inside coolness from the winter storm, it was warm.
It was big enough to cover all of Historia's chest at least,
"Yeah…" she smiled at him, "… this is… the warmth I'm sure I longed for as a child…"
He smiled back, brushing a strand of her hair behind her ear,
"Thank you Eren…" Historia said, "… it's late… but it wasn't too late… it's… so warm…"
"Well, I'm glad that you can actually cover yourself with it," Eren teased her as always before going on about her size.
She rolled her eyes away and couldn't care about that right now.
All she could care about, was what was engraved within the blanket.
Strand after strand of wool, knitted by struggle, trial and effort.
It was so warm.
So warm.
What had been put in to make it.
Who had once wrapped himself within it.
Why it had been given to her now all of all times.
The warmth that she had been denied was here now. It felt like she had been waiting for it for a long time.
'… Ah… I see…' Historia believed she understood it better now. What Eren had noticed in her at some point, but what she hadn't noticed about herself.
The warmth came from the meaning behind being given it.
She understood it so much better now.
Historia kissed Eren on the cheek. "Hey… are you warm right now?"
"Yeah, totally," Eren lied unsuccessfully, as she pushed him over to sit on her bed for a second before moving around the room again.
She had returned after stepping silently towards the door and double checking that the doors were locked just as expected, and pulled the key out before laying it on the nearby desk.
"I shouldn't lean down here though…" Eren suggested after picking up the sheets from the floor and arranging them on her bed again. "I'm still cold and wet… I'll sleep by the –"
"No…" Historia had already pulled him down, pressing against his still cold form. "I-It's just sleeping in the same bed alright, don't get any wrong ideas… but… we've slept in the same room before right…"
Eren gaped but nodded, butterflies fluttering in his stomach as Historia pulled him in, already leaving some melted snow dampening the bedsheets,
Historia took her pillow and laid the side of her head down onto it, and gestured Eren to do the same on the opposite temple so that they faced each comfortably.
"Ah, sorry…" Eren whispered, as he felt his longer legs hit and get entangled in Historia's, who locked herself between him and scooted over into his chest.
Her hair tickled Eren's nose and he noticed the lavender scent in it, no doubt from her shampoo.
"… Big, lovable idiot…" Historia muttered into him, before wrapping her arms around him in a half cuddle and half rest, just as she this time laid her head on one of Eren's biceps as he snaked his other arm around her back comfortingly.
They lay in bed together, fully clothed and unmoving in each other's embrace.
And then, Historia moved again, untucking the end of the blanket that was still around her, she turned it to the longest end, and threw it over Eren's back,
"Ah, hey, it'll get wet as w-" he tried to argue. His clothes where no doubt freezing and yet Historia was stubbornly refusing to let go.
"Shush, you're cold aren't you…" she cooed at him, silencing any further resistance.
He didn't feel cold at all to her. The blanket around them, seemed to make such feelings foreign and distant like the gently settling snowflakes outside.
Her bed was damp in some spots but they were hardly anything to worry about now. She would have to make up some excuse in the morning, though it was becoming increasingly problematic.
Her maids and servants were beginning to make silent talk over the possibility that she may have an intimate relationship with someone.
The constant flings of excuses whenever Eren would visit had started to become tedious and overused, making them have to be more careful when moving around.
But then… there where times when they couldn't care.
Basked in the other's warmth, acting as divine protection, they comforted each other's beings.
It was different than before.
He was different than before.
Eren was busy brushing her hair affectionately as he had never been done before. It wasn't that Historia didn't want such affection, she felt that she needed it after all.
But it was Eren.
He had never been the type to display such open affection.
Historia could see it in his eyes, just like always.
He was on the brink of destruction once again.
So soon, only around 4 months since that day in the cave.
But he kept holding on this time.
He wasn't chained to the world and could move freely if even a littl –
'Oh… that's it…' Historia thought, belittling herself quickly for doubting her first instincts when it came to Eren. '… Eren knows now… that's why…'
The answer to what lay beyond the ocean.
He had finally realised the truth he had been trying to fly away from this whole time.
Trying to fly away… to someplace far away… to the land beyond the sky and the clouds reflecting the colours of the sea of sapphires and topaz stones…
But he wasn't going to find it.
Eren knew that for sure now.
But he was grasping onto a faint lingering broken fragment of a wish. Wishing that reality was not as he had seen.
But he knew the truth now, yet still stubbornly tried to hold onto an old dream like an old, dying man after a long life of pain grasping at an ancient memory as he lay down on his death bed.
He wanted to hold onto something which made up the quickly crumbling foundations of his identity.
He had to.
He didn't want to be empty again.
Historia knowingly closed her eyes and shuffled deeper into the warmth of Eren's chest. He brought his arms together around her and tucked her in, keeping her close.
For both her and him, he held on tightly.
The last of his foundations would crumble soon.
Reaching out, trying to hold onto something before they did.
Historia had knowingly, and of her own free will and desire, decided to grasp at his flaying hand.
She decided to create the new foundations of his life herself, just as he had done for her.
She accepted that task 3 weeks ago. The reason why she did had been obvious. The reason why he had confessed to her was obvious.
But too absorbed into the moment, she had not registered just how deeply his desperation was running.
She knew it now. Just how much he was on the brink of collapse. Just how much the gap left my the old dream, she had to fill.
…
Historia wasn't going to let him down.
She was going to show him the new path to follow. She'd drag him if she had to. She'd carry him if she had to.
Feeling her hand over his clothed chest, beneath which laid his faint beating heartbeat in the early morning, she vowed it on her life and feelings.
…
This was it.
This was exactly what she had longed for.
There could be nothing more perfect than it.
…
She was glad she realised it today.
It may have been both the first and the most happiest Birthday of her life.
But more importantly, it was the most valuable Birthday of both their lives.
Both wrapped in the blanket knitted of motherly love.
Also god… I hate Alma/Historia's mom, and I refuse to even try and give her a good light, just ugh… I can't… not this bitch… my teeth were literally falling out as I wrote her scene, but yeah… that was Historia's 'Birth Day' after all so I felt it might do some contrast things… but ugh, someone write an AU where Eren smashes her face in pls, but obviously don't because Eren's hands need to be put to some other use. (Hand holding obviously, duh! What were you thinking I meant?!)
Just to clarify, it's not known what the canonical case is for birthday and the such in AoT and I'm mainly going by general history stuff and what's available, and so have basically gone with the idea of presents for birthdays only happening at this point in time in you-know-where for manga readers. And seeing the memories of people over in you-know-where, Frieda is just the one to decide to get along with that tradition and bring gifts for her family since they can actually afford it.
For the purposes of this fic, within the walls, they currently don't give gifts for people's birthdays (although I guess they would for 'reaching of adulthood' and 'achievement occasions' like that) but yeah, Historia is going to change that from now on! Off-screen probably but meh, might do a reference back to it somewhere perhaps for Eren's birthday but we'll see!
And ending scene:
"Historia…" Eren moaned her name as he felt her warmth slip away for a moment before coming back to him again.
Morning had come. The whole land was covered in plain white snow, that gently continued to fall slowly over time.
Eren mumbled satisfied when the warmth of his Historia came back, along with a small blanket cradled at her breast.
"Shh, I know, I love you too, but –" Historia whispered back before pointing to the door and reminding him of the guards still probably outside.
"Sorry…" Eren apologised, not too bothered about it anyway, but keeping quiet all the same, "I'll… if word gets out, I'll… face whatever happens and protect you no matter wh–"
"Me too," she says in return and looks upwards into his face as he still held her back closely in his chest, "I want to enjoy this for now…you being here is far more important for now… so don't bother saying stuff like that… actually don't –"
"Sorry, yeah… I won't say stuff like that again…" Eren nodded and held her just a little bit more tightly. He looked down into the sleeping swan and grew concerned for a moment.
"It's okay, it's still alive…" Historia reassured him, touching it incredibly softly again. "I can feel it's warm breathing…"
"Where did you find him?" Eren likewise reached down and felt the soft grey feathers.
"Just yesterday when I was walking down the hallway… it was… just there when turned for a moment," she retold Eren what she had seen. "So… I'll get someone's help to take care of him until Winter is over and he's ready to fly again…"
Eren nodded, stroking her hair appreciatively. He leaned over and kissed her, their lips upside down, and causing Historia's nose to get a little squished into Eren's neck.
The little swan wrapped in the blanket was carefully untouched in between both their movements after being switched from one to the other, resting in the almost 16 years old blanket.
They separated for breath and Eren immediately leant down again to kiss her nose in apology, exhaling hot air across her face.
'I truly… love you Historia…' Eren thought longingly.
He wished to shout it out and proclaim it to the whole world without care nor reason.
'… My little swan maiden…'