Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize from the manga and/or anime called Shingeki no Kyojin or Attack on Titan. Anything you don't recognize is mine.
..
The hyena dropped the dead women onto the stairs. She tumbled down to the bottom and landed with a thud only a few paces from the stunned dog transformation. The hyena snarled at Brandt who stumbled a couple paces back as fast as he could. It leaped down the few stairs to Karla's body and hovered over it.
"Leave her," came Kenny's voice from the top of the stairs. Both he and the hyena turned to look at him as soon as they heard his voice. Brandt had seen Kenny like that many times before, and it never failed to remind him why he had followed him all those years. Rod Reiss and Kenny Ackerman were fundamentally different and it was evident in the way they held themselves: Rod held himself like a king but Kenny held himself like a true combatant. And he was. And so all the lesser warriors could do was obey.
The hyena backed off, lowering it's ears and head, and before Brandt even realized it, he felt his tail between his leg and his own ears pinned to his head. Kenny descended down those stairs and Brandt knew he should be running. But he had long learned not to, for it would only make things worse.
"Brandt," Kenny said slowly and Brandt shook with fear. "You told me that you had found the Jaegers."
Brandt whined. Every survival instinct he had was telling him to stay in his more powerful form and to run, run from these creatures who he could not defeat. But as the scent of fresh blood in the house was quickly fading and he could smell the wolves that Kenny had brought with him. Their fight outside was finished, and it seemed like they were the only two survivors. And now, now they were blocking his way out.
"The only Jaeger that is here," Kenny continued, "is Karla Jaeger." Brandt lowered himself to the ground. "She is useless. But with her dead now, we won't be able to get to the children, not nearly as easily. Certainly not without drawing attention to ourselves."
Under that glare, and under the threat of all the fighters surrounding him, Brandt could only do one thing. He transformed back to his human form and he began to beg.
"I'm sorry, Sir," Brandt said, still curling in on himself, trying his best to hide the places most vulnerable to attack. "I didn't know the children wouldn't be there." Kenny stared him down with those iron gray eyes, and pure fear churned in Brandt's gut.
"Kill him," Kenny said finally.
"No!" Brandt yelled. The hyena only a few steps from him growled, and lowered its' head aggressively, stalking forward with its' teeth bared. Kenny walked down the stairs, moving much like the hyena did: dangerously. He strolled calmly behind the hyena backing Brandt into a corner. "You said you would forget everything!"
Kenny Ackerman didn't look back. He was done with the former fighter, he had nothing to say to that dead dog. The hyena would take care of it, and the wolf would help the hyena clean up, by his orders. The wolf would also pick up the corpse of the cougar and the team Reiss had sent. He met the other wolf at the who stood waiting just behind the door. The wolf was still in its' animal form and it was waiting for Kenny, who nodded at the gray wolf. Kenny transformed back into his Amur tiger form and led the wolf away from the Jaeger house.
..
Eren groaned, letting his head fall against the table with a thud. "I can't believe you all talked me into this!"
"Quiet, Eren," Mikasa said. "You need as much help as Daz, Franz and Mina, so let us help." She already had her notebooks and textbooks out on the table, showing off her neat notes. The exact opposite of his… well, as long as he was passing, which he was, no matter what Mikasa thought.
Daz laughed quietly, ducking his head lower. "Thanks for your help, again," he said to Mikasa who smiled at him.
"Don't thank me," Mikasa said, "it was Armin's idea." Armin's chin length blond hair swished slightly as he raised his head from Franz's and Hannah's notes to smile at the other library table.
"It's no problem Daz," he said cheerfully. "I'm happy to help out anyway I can." Daz smiled back at the small blond a little shakily, his nervous, almost Chihuahua-like disposition showing again.
"Nerds," Eren muttered under his breath. His sister simply rolled her eyes while Armin shook his head with a slight smile before turning back to Hannah and Franz.
"You really are a life saver, Armin," Hannah said. "We're both so grateful, aren't we Franz?" Her boyfriend startled and lifted his head from Armin's notes and his, blinking at the both of them.
"Of course!" he said happily. "Really though, it's great for you to put this study group together. Mina and I would be screwed without you."
Mina laughed lightly from her own library table. "We definitely would be," she said. "My coach is pissed at me, and I'd really hate to miss the next game."
"Same," Franz said, relief evident in his voice.
"It's no trouble, really," Armin said. "But we should get working if we actually want to do help you three."
"Right!" Franz said loudly, while Daz nodded quickly, and Mina smiled at the small blond and went back to hovering over her notes, along with the ones Mikasa and Armin had provided her.
Eren sighed again, prompting Mikasa to stare him down. "Here," she said, sliding him her notes on algebra. "Use these, you're getting a C minus in that class."
With raised eyebrows and wide eyes, Eren picked up them up. "You never let me look at your notes."
"I never let you look at the answers," Mikasa corrected firmly. "You've never asked me for my notes."
The voice that spoke out next was not a voice of any of the students in the little, thrown together study group of friends who wanted to help each other out. It came from just inside the library doors, and it was grim. "Eren? Mikasa?"
Six students looked towards of the teacher, Mr. Hannes, who stood in the doorway. "Mr. Hannes, what…" Hannah started to ask, but the kind girl trailed off when she saw the sad and pity on the teacher's face.
"Please come with me," he said solemnly.
..
Eren's head hung low as he held back the tears burning in his eyes. Mikasa just stared blankly at the building across the street. The two had been called away from the library and driven to the morgue to identify their mother's body.
She had been horribly mutated, and the coroner had ruled her death an animal attack. And at first Eren had been angry. How had she been attacked by an animal in a house? How was she dead?
Mikasa had silently stood in the doorway while her brother had raged. No matter what her last name was now, she was not Karla's daughter. She had not known Karla from her birth, and though she had loved Karla, she had not loved Karla like Eren did.
But the thought that had stuck in their minds the entire time as they saw their mother's body, talked to the coroners, and then as they waited downstairs for the Arlerts to pick them up, was why? Why were they left without parents? Why had Mikasa's parents died? Why was Grisha Jaeger gone? Why was the only parent they had left gone?
Eren was shaking slightly and Mikasa wished she could do something for her brother. Perhaps if she was a better person, like him, she would have given her red scarf to him. The red scarf that had been his first Christmas present to her. Karla had helped him wrap it. She should give it to him, to remind her how kind Karla was, and that she, his sister was still there for him but her hand had somehow, without her realizing it, clamped in a death grip around the very edge of the red scarf and she just didn't have the strength to remove it.
A shadow appeared over the two grieving teenagers, and Mikasa turned, her hand still clamped tight over her scarf, to see a tall blond man with blue eyes and abnormally large eyebrows, and who was wearing a simple suit. She just stared blankly up at him, and Eren didn't even move at all.
"Excuse me," the blond man asked, "are you Mikasa Ackerman?"
"Mikasa Jaeger," she replied quietly, reflexively correcting him from using her former surname. "Yes. That's me."
The blond nodded. "Of course. And that's your brother, Eren Jaeger, correct?"
Mikasa tensed slightly, tugging on the edge of her scarf as she sat up straighter. She turned towards the stranger, blocking Eren from his gaze. "Yes," she said curtly, forcing false strength into her voice.
"I am so sorry for your loss, Miss Jaeger," he said kindly. "My name is Erwin Smith."
"What do you want?" Mikasa asked. She was never in the mood for small talk but today her patience was nonexistent. She wasn't even sure how long she could keep the farce she was putting on up.
"I'm a private detective," Erwin Smith said, pulling a business card out of his jacket pocket. It looked like he had little time for small talk as well. "The police are always busy. If you want to call us for any reason, just give the name Mikasa Ackerman, and we will help you with whatever you need."
"My name is Mikasa Jaeger," she said shortly. "And why would we need you for anything? The police told us this was an animal attack."
At this, Mikasa glanced momentarily at Eren, to see if this conversation was affecting him any. But it didn't even look like her grieving adoptive brother had even noticed Erwin Smith's arrival.
"If you need us," Erwin Smith repeated slowly, "you can always call. Just mention your name."
He took Mikasa's slender hand and placed the card in it. He smiled softly, and maybe a little sadly before turning and walking away towards an old muscle car. It was a restored, but beaten up black Mustang. In the driver's seat was a man with black hair and silver sunglasses over his eyes. But even with his sunglasses, his gaze was intense enough to feel like it was burning into her. Mikasa stared back at him, but it was not her commonly used death glare. There was something about this man. Something.
The door of his Mustang slammed shut as Erwin Smith settled in the passenger seat. Mikasa startled and broke her gaze, but the other did not. He started that big, black car without looking away. It was only when he gripped his old car's wheel that he finally stopped staring and started driving away without a backwards glance.
Mikasa took a deep breath and her hand finally loosened slightly on her red scarf, and she realized her nails ached from the death grip she had assumed. She leaned her head back on the back of the seat, her shoulders shaking slightly. She was tired. That conversation had been so exhausting. She felt like she had just run ten miles, and right now she just wanted to sleep, and to forget everything that had happened today, if just for a few hours.
And as her eyesight began blurring with sleep, it looked like she would get her wish. The Arlerts' car pulled up and Armin jumped out while it was still moving, running towards them. Mikasa felt Eren stir beside her, probably having spotted their small blond friend. She saw no more, though, her eyes sliding closed.
..
Eren stared at the ceiling of his new bedroom, his eyes red and burning. Perhaps with tears or perhaps with sleep deprivation. It didn't really matter either way.
Armin and his grandfather were truly good people, just as Armin's parents were. They were in another continent, Eren forgot which one it was this month, building houses and educating children.
The Arlerts had been named Eren's and Mikasa's legal guardians until Grisha Jaeger returned. Everytime Eren even thought about that, he snorted softly to himself. He and Mikasa were both lucky that he had still been in shock when the lawyer had read them his mother's will because there was a very good chance he would have burst out laughing otherwise. As if that deadbeat asshole was ever coming back. Since the Arlerts were off helping people around the world, they were allowed to live with Abel Arlert, Armin's grandfather. He was extremely smart, just like the rest of his family, and worked as an English professor.
Mikasa, who had not spoken much before, did even less now. But she seemed fine. She went to school, did her homework, got good grades (as she always had), eaten all the meals Abel and Armin had cooked for them, and read, both for school and for pleasure.
He, though, he could not do what Mikasa had done. He could not go on like she had, like he was okay. His mother was dead. And his father was gone. And neither were ever coming back.
He loved his sister dearly, and he loved Armin, and his parents and Abel had always treated Eren like their own flesh and blood. But it wasn't the same. It could not be the same.
And so Eren decided to stay in his room, in the dark. His dark room was calm and quiet. No teachers politely but endlessly and impatiently asking for homework, or classmates seemingly forgetting his mother was even a human being as the days began to pass. Her funeral hadn't even happened yet and it was like most people thought that Karla Jaeger's death was something that happened years ago.
Eren found himself constantly angry at the people who failed to remember, or worse, didn't seem to care. And when he was out of his cool, dark room, anger bubbled up and out of him. He had shouted at teachers, insulted his friend Hannah, and gotten punched by his other friend, Franz, for insulting Hannah, his girlfriend. The principal had let him off with a warning, but Eren would have rather he had suspended him. That would have given him a reason to hide in his room on a Wednesday besides that he just didn't think going was a good idea.
Luckily, he wasn't forced into going, as his legal guardians were half way across the world, and the person currently looking out for him left at the crack of dawn to get to work.
Mikasa had tried to talk to him about his anger but that pretty much ended in him telling his sister to fuck off. He had later apologized but refused to reopen the conversation. After that, Mikasa had backed off but she still insisted in knowing where he went when he skipped school. He had agreed to that.
He held his phone up, ready to text his sister, when the anger rose. His sister wasn't his mother. His mother was dead.
Eren threw the phone and jumped off his bed, not waiting to see where his phone landed. He back and forth across his room loudly, his breathing short and harsh. The calming darkness wasn't working. His anger just kept burning in his stomach, growing and growing. He had to get out.
Before he knew it, his hand was on the knob to the door of his room, and he was twisting it, half expecting it to break off and bounce across the floor with how much force he used.
He was down the stairs and out the front door in the blink of an eye, slamming it closed hard enough to shake the windows.
..
Alright, and now you all have chapter two.
I want to mention that I have read chapter 62 of the manga, so yes, I know about Grisha. There's a reason that this is an AU.
I should be updating with chapter three soon. Please remember to give me all the comments/reviews.
Special thanks to Wolfgrowl for beta-ing and helping me come up with most of this in the first place. Go check out his work. Especially the I Can See Green fic. You're welcome in advance.