East Sector of Trost, sometime near midnight

Trost, and to a more drastic extent Shiganshina (when it was still up anyways) was, in short, not the most popular place in the twelve (now eight after the Fall of Maria) districts which the Walls of Maria, Rose and Sina held.

Situated on the southernmost side of the Walls, the two south districts were known to be the two hottest districts of them all. Ehrich, Sina's southern district, wasn't as hot as it was situated closer to the middle. Often times than not, the temperatures would soar up to about ninety to eighty degrees, and on one recorded instance even went up to 104.5 degrees, though that was quite a long time ago and was a one time incident.

Because of these rather hot climates, most from Rose/Maria (again, when it was still up) or any districts within it generally avoided Trost/Shiganshina, especially the eastern regions of the District as they were infamously hotter than the other areas.

There were other reasons for the eastern sector being abandoned. Many superstitious residents claimed to hear the screams of Garrison who fell clumsily off the walls and, more recently, the voices of soldiers who fell during the Fall of Maria. They were rather wild claims, but they were prevalent enough to keep people away from the region, if the sun hadn't done it already.

Somewhere at the east region of Trost, there stood a small barn. The thing used to belong to a rather experienced farmer who passed on five years prior due to old age, something amazingly uncommon in any region outside of Sina. Since then, the barn was left on it's own. There were plans made by the Garrison to tear it down, but they decided that it wasn't worth it, mainly thanks to the scorching heat and overall reputation of the area it was located in. So, the military left it as it was to slowly rot away.

However, the barn was much sturdier than they had anticipated, surviving for the five years of rain, heat, occasional flooding and windy days since it's abandonment. No one had really turned to look at it more than once as it wasn't what anyone would consider interesting. But it's rather uninteresting look and rather inconvenient location made it the perfect place to use as a hideaway for any kind of criminal or random person looking to be alone (if it wasn't so hot), and eventually it was used as such, though not by a regular resident of the Walls.

Instead, it was used to house what could arguably be considered the strongest weapon within the Walls, the ASW-G-08/F6, Gundam Barbatos Form Six, while serving as a 'home' for it's pilot, Mikazuki Augus.

Currently, Mikazuki was sitting right in front of Barbatos, his back resting against the knee armour of his unit. And right in front of the boy was a small fire, just barely lighting up the admittedly large barn's interior. Augus had created the fire not too long ago with some loose pieces of wood he pried off the walls and by crashing two rocks together until the sparks ignited the wood, an old technique he learnt back when Tekkadan was still CGS.

After he had created the flame, an admittedly small one, Mika had sat in front of it, his Tekkadan jacket draped around him like a makeshift blanket. He was as silent as always and his expression was neutral, but inside his labyrinth of a mind, the boy was still feeling mixed emotions towards his current dilemma.

'How long has it been?' he thought, staring up through the huge hole in the roof of the barn, up at the night sky rather wistfully. The sky of this earth looked so… beautiful. Much better than the sky from the earth he knew back on his earth anyways. 'Three days…?'

Mika wasn't exactly too off course from the actual amount of time where he had been stuck here. In actuality, he had been here for five quarters out of the seven days in a week, if one were to include the night where he had first landed on the planet and the Fall of Maria. Though to give him some credit, if he were to be extremely exact and count how many days he's been inside the district of Trost, he had been here for more or less three days.

It was rather safe to say that these three days were considered to be the worst days of his life, and the boy has seen some properly bad stuff in his youth, including the death of many casual acquaintances/friends from Tekkadan and, on one occasion, a pedophile who nearly got to Takaki. However, he had a feeling that this one topped them all, just narrowly beating that pedophile incident as at least with that, Mika had stopped the bastard before he got through. And at least back then, he still had a family… unlike now.

Yes, the fact that he was on another planet seemed rather trivial to him when compared to his biggest issue, his lack of camaraderie. Over the past years of what Mika would consider to be his childhood, the boy had no form of camaraderie outside of whatever friends he had in CGS/Tekkadan. In his eyes, anyone from his group, be it new members or old comrades, with the exception of the CGS First Group (minus Dexter), were at least a friend, and at best, family. They were the only ones he could speak to freely and the only ones he could trust.

And now, they were gone. Lightyears away from him… perhaps even dead. What their current condition was, he will most likely never know, though he hoped that they were all right. He wondered if they were mourning his supposed death. It was likely, but he hoped not. He especially hoped that Orga didn't take his disappearance too hard as he still needed to lead Tekkadan down the path he had envisioned for it.

Rather abruptly, Mika violently shook his head. No… he shouldn't be dwelling on such thoughts. Remembering such things will only distract him. He had no way of turning back time, no way to change what had happened, and he could only move on and try to survive.

Heh… survive. Just thinking that word make Mika chuckle as he rested his hand on an object beside him, his pistol, a gift from Orga. wrapping his fingers around it, Mika raised it up to his cheek and felt the cold 'body' of the gun against it. It was one of his only remaining reminders of home, a gift from Orga himself. And, rather ironically, he had nearly used it to end his own life just two days ago, right after he had infiltrated the Wall of Trost and found this conveniently placed and abandoned barn…

Three days prior

It was dark, perhaps a little darker than Mika was used to, at least on (his) Earth.

Perhaps it was because this planet which looked exactly like earth was a little darker at night, or because of how high the moon was up… or perhaps it was because he was standing right underneath the massive eastern Wall of Maria. Whatever the reasoning was, Mika held little care for it as it kept him out of view. Not from the Titans as they seemed to be able to smell him or something, but from the humans.

Yes, rather paradoxically, Mika was not hiding at all from the Titans, but from the humans who called themselves 'Garrison' and 'Survey Corps', strange names to Mika.

The boy knew that if he was spotted by any one of those soldiers, they would at the very least keep a very close eye on him, and at worse attack him, which wouldn't be too bad as Mika knew that Barbatos could withstand whatever they threw at it. But he knew that if they kept a close eye on him, it would ruin all chances of him being able to enter the Wall which was at the northern side of Maria. He had heard several soldiers call it Trost, so he decided to call it that from then on.

A couple of hours ago, right after he had rather unexpectedly saved that group of soldiers, with the ever familiar face which belonged to the bespectacled lady whom, if he remembered correctly, was named Hanji Zoe and the sour faced man whom he suspected to be this 'Levi' he kept hearing on his local comm links. Straight after that, some awkwardly silent staring between human and Mobile Suit, and after knocking out and dodging two cannonballs, Mika had made his way to the eastern side of Maria, though he did stray a little away from the breached wall so that he could reduce the risk of being seen by those atop the Walls, only stopping when he situated Barbatos in a rather impressively sized grove of trees..

Once he was certain that he was out of the cannon's range and out of the sight of the soldiers atop both the breached and unbreached Walls could not see his Mobile Suit, Augus had stopped moving his MS. Looking back the way he came, he could very vaguely make out that the cannons were now aiming away from Barbatos, instead aiming downwards, outside the Walls to perhaps blast oncoming Titans. He was rather thankful that they were not aiming for him as, despite him doubting that the cannon shots would have heavily damaged his Gundam, they could at least damage it to some extent. The soldiers seemed to have their hands full with either defending the fleeing residents of Shiganshina/Maria, meaning that at the moment, Mikazuki was off the soldiers radar.

Still, Mika knelt Barbatos down to reduce the chance of being discovered and dimmed the lights in the optics and power symbols on the chest and knees. With that done, Mika turned his attention towards the top of the unbreached Wall which was due north. It looked exactly like it's breached counterparts, with a massive gate smacked at the center of a fifty metre tall Wall. At first, he did think against infiltrating the Wall, seeing as how two of them were breached within a day. But he then considered that being inside the confines of a Wall which could be breached at any moment was probably better than striding out on his own.

Once he came to terms with that, Augus, rather quickly, formed a simple yet effective plan on how he'd get over that huge Wall. it was more or less similar to his original plan of infiltrating Maria before it was breached. He had intended on waiting till nightfall and, using the power of all the thrusters and pistons in Barbatos' legs, leap his entire MS straight over the Wall of Trost. Now that he thought of it, he realized that he had never leapt Barbatos that high up in the air before, but he was pretty confident that his Gundam could make the jump.

From where he knelt his MS, Mika could vaguely see the top of Trost. It seemed as though the south and west sides were rather heavily guarded, with cannons being manned by several Garrison. The east side, however, to Mika's surprise, was guarded only be a few soldiers, all spaced out pretty randomly. Mika knew that he could use it to his advantage when night fell as some of the soldiers were spaced out far enough to let Barbatos leap by them without much issue. Though he would definitely have to wait for nightfall first as attempting to leap a 18.8 metre tall mecha in the morning wasn't exactly smart, even to Augus.

So, after unplugging himself from Barbatos, Mika waited. And he waited. And he waited some more, until the sky went dark. During that time, Mika was rather surprised to find that no human had wandered over to where he was, by accident or intentionally. Several Titans did find their way to him, but Mika dealt with them swiftly.

When he wasn't flicking oncoming Titans to the side with a flick of Barbatos' manipulators, however, Mika would wondering about the possibility of him being on a different planet. It seemed preposterous, something out of a bad story written by an ametuer writer, but he could rule it out as, at the moment, anything seemed to be possible, at least from what he's seen. Mika didn't dwell on those thoughts, however. He could be in an entirely different part of earth, for all he knew.

Aside from that rather preposterous thought, Mika's mind lingered on that emotional moment he had just hours prior. It confused him as, up till now, he was able to keep his emotions under wraps despite the many ludicrous situations he has found himself in. him having an emotional episode now, in a foreign land and away from any issue which involved his old friends, was odd to say the least. The boy kept pondering this but had no answer to his question, and even when the sun had set and he began to enact his plan, he still had no idea why.

Finally, after a few boring hours of waiting, the sun had finally sunk over the edge of the world, replaced with the moon, a full moon this time. Mika was admittedly a little bummed when he saw it, as he always preferred the crescent moon over the full for rather obvious reasons, but he didn't dwell too much on it. He did, however, take five minutes to stare up at it before he made his way towards Trost.

Mika stopped Barbatos when it was about a hundred metres away from the Wall. He had decided to jump over the east sector, which, by now, seemed to be completely free of Garrison, though he could still hear some barking orders over to the western side via his local comm links. Deciding to use the sudden desertion of the east side to his distraction, Mika crouched Barbatos down and activated the thrusters. The blue plasma-like flames emitted from them slowly grew in size and power, and before long, they were ready for action.

Propelled by the joint forces of the seven thrusters and the many pistons within his Gundam, Mikazuki sprung both him and Barbatos up into the air, leaving twin Barbatos-sized indents on the ground as they did. As he expected, Barbatos made the jump… perhaps a little too well as it was launched close to seventy metres up into the air, just a little too high. To slow his descent, Mika activated the thrusters of his MS which did their job. His descent was slowed down dramatically, but the impact still shook Mika up to some extent, all while it created a shockwave which shook all of Trost and launched several thousand pieces of dirt into the air.

After he had recovered from that rather jarring impact, Mika shook his head and looked around, and he was rather relieved when he saw that Barbatos had landed in a grassy plain. Through his Mobile Suit's optics, he saw no human close to him, at least within a hundred metres, anyways. Despite being rather secluded, however, Mika decided against standing Barbatos up to its full height to reduce the chances of him being found.

"The fuck was that?!" came a voice from not too far off, prompting Mika to turn Barbatos upwards to investigate. Zooming in on the top of the Wall, he noted that a small group of soldiers were staring at his landing point. Deciding to not wait around to be found, the boy immediately got his unit to move.

With the grace of a typhoon, Mika snuck Barbatos through the forested eastern confines of Trost, keeping MS low to the ground as he moved it. He wondered if he should just leave Barbatos in a massive grove of trees, but he decided against it. Leaving his MS in a random place was not a smart move, even to Mika, as anyone could come across it by accident. No, he needed a structure… hopefully big enough to conceal Barbatos. It was unlikely that he'd find one, but he decided to not lose hope so soon.

After some time, Mika found what he was looking for. It was a rather large structure, perhaps twenty metres tall and wide, somewhat resembling a barn. It looked somewhat rotten through, with it's wooden walls looking as though they could break apart at any moment. Despite that, Mika thought it looked rather sturdy, and it was more than capable of containing Barbatos.

Standing his Gundam up to its full extent, Mika just barely saw that there was a fairly large hole on the top of the barn, large enough for Barbatos to go through without much effort. Deciding to use it as his temporary hideout, Augus crouched his MS down a tad before springing it up and in through the hole. Amazingly, Barbatos managed to get in with the greatest of ease. Once Barbatos was in, Mika positioned it in a kneeling position with both it's weapons by its side.

Mika remembered trying to contact Tekkadan with the comm-links back then. He spent hours upon hours trying his best to establish some kind of link with his friends, his family. He never gave up hope on the idea that he may very well just be in a different part of earth, simply miles away from them, close enough to reunite with his companions. However, by the time midnight came by, Mika had given up on contacting Tekkadan. Every one of his fifty or so attempts to contact them had ended in him getting the message of no signal on Barbatos' cockpit monitor, and by the time he gave up, Augus had more or less believed that he was on a seperate bloody planet.

His initial reaction to being stuck in another planet, one which was similar, yet so different, from his own was to take a look at his gun, his rather sizable pistol, gifted to him by Orga. It was rather obvious what he was thinking of, to end it all with a single bullet. The gun currently held twelve bullets, each able to at least heavily dent a piece of metal, more than enough to punch a hole into the skull of a human.

For the briefest moment, he had considered it. Part of him thought that it was better to die than live on some mirror variation of Earth than to be stuck hundreds of miles away from Tekkadan, so far from his family. However, he then thought of what Orga would tell him to do. Would his old friend, practically a brother, agree to him putting a bullet through his skull, or would he tell Mika to try his best to survive in spite of his predicament? It was a rather simple answer, evidence by the fact that he was still alive.

Once he had come to terms with the fact that he'd be trying to survive on a planet which was essentially a carbon copy of a planet he knew very little of, with the only difference between it being those Titan things, Mika felt that it was necessary to at least know what his new… 'home' was like. So, on the next day, he went out to have a look around Trost, at least the eastern districts of the place.

Augus wasn't exactly surprised by the lack of people living in the eastern district. The sun there seemed to be enough to boil someone's blood in a metaphorical sense. Mika, on the other hand, knew how to resist it. After all, he's faced much hotter temperatures in his lifetime. Though, admittedly, Mika did feel hot enough to not bring his jacket on the walk. He never bothered to hide his Alaya Vijnana systems from anyone. Besides, no one really noticed anyways, and those who did didn't comment on it, even if some of the younger lads did point towards it out on occasion.

In his walk around Trost, Mika saw nothing noteworthy. At best, the old-timey aesthetic of the district, at least the parts he's seen so far, reminded him of Chryse, with houses that were similar in size to those found in his old home, and possible birthplace, Mars. The houses had their brick walls held up by wooden supports and what seemed to be roofs made out of hay. The stores were also similar, with moderately sized stores selling food items, mostly bread, or some poorly made dolls. It gave him a mild sense of nostalgia, though. So that was something.

In the middle of his walk, Mika had come across a rather sizable crowd. It seemed to be at least three times bigger than the entirety of Tekkadan, at least it looked that way. It didn't take much for Mika to guess that they were what remained of the residents Shiganshina/Maria district/wall. If he were honest, it seemed rather small as he suspected that the huge group before him was at best one quarter of every resident from the breached walls.

At first, when Mika saw them, he paid them no mind. But he then noticed that the refugees were being handed free pieces of bread, and that was what caught his eye. Mika knew that he wouldn't be able to get any food, not without stealing, which would be a little difficult as he had never stolen much, even before he got into CGS. He also wasn't exactly good at working for money to buy food, as all the jobs he's seen thus far had something to do with selling stuff, something he had almost no experience in.

So, deciding to take his chances, Mika joined the crowd of refugees. And, to his surprise, he was actually mistaken for a refugee of Shiganshina/Trost. Either that or the soldiers who handed the bread out, the Garrison at he heard they were called, couldn't tell if he was a refugee or not, meaning he could simply walk up to them and grab a piece of bread without much more than a glance from those soldiers.

The piece of bread which he had taken looked stale, but at least it looked edible and didn't seem moldy, at least from what he saw. Thankfully, when he took a bite, he found no mould inside. It did taste dry, however, sucking up all the water in his mouth. He rectified that by popping a raisin into his mouth and letting the little juice it still had rehydrate him. He managed to finish the piece of bread in five bites.

While he was eating it, however, Mika had lingered around the refugee site for some time. The boy had chosen to stand a good distance away from the crowd, but he also found himself relatively close to a pair of soldiers. From where he stood, Mika could overhear a small conversation between the two. The first quarter and a half of their conversation didn't interest Mika in the slightest, but the last quarter had caught his attention.

It was a small conversation relating to the refugees. They did speak a little about them, but it was usually them complaining on why they were here. Now, however, they were speaking about what they would possibly do to them. They spoke relatively silently, but Mika could hear them pretty well. They were speaking of possibly carting the expendable refugees, which Mika presumed to be the old or the disabled, to try and retake the Walls of Shiganshina or Maria. It was the worse idea Mika had heard in a very long time.

As for those who were not expendable, which Mika assumed to be the moderately healthy or strong refugees, would most likely to be sent to the western side of Trost to tend to what the Garrison had dubbed the fields. Mika also overheard that those without identity papers which linked them to Trost, or those with no papers at all, had to either work in the fields or march to their deaths.

Mika wondered if he would be bundled up with those who had no identity papers as, well, he didn't have any. Part of him didn't wish for that to happen, but the other thought the opposite as Mika, admittedly, wouldn't mind working in a field. After all, the boy did always want to start a farm of his own. That, and he was curious as to what a farm could actually grow, as his only experiences with with farm growths was corn.

On his second day here and just several hours ago, Mika further explored Trost, spending a solid thirty hours in total doing nothing more than walk around the district. He memorized the place to the best of his abilities and capped off both his long walks off by going to grab a piece of bread from the refugee site, one of which he was currently eating.

As the boy ate, he wondered what Tekkadan was currently doing. He knew that, if Tekkadan were still operational, Orga wouldn't be that happy despite their victory. But he was rather curious on how the others took his disappearance. If he were someone else, he would have just assumed himself to be dead. He suspected the others did too. Whether they were lamenting his death or not was another topic all in itself. A select few would definitely lament his absence, but several others may not.

However, the one person whom he was worried about, perhaps just as much or even more than Orga, was Atra. He didn't know why, but he got a strange feeling in his stomach just by thinking about the little pink haired girl feeling sad about his disappearance. It just didn't seem right to him. Despite him never speaking of it, she was immensely important to him, important enough that he had stormed a building with armed, official guards just to save her. Little Atra was precious to her… and he never got the chance to tell her that.

As he sat there, thinking about the little girl, Mika felt a small, wet object slide down his cheek, trailing down onto his chin. At first, he thought it was raining, but he soon realized that he was wrong as rain would have a higher chance of striking the top of his head instead of his cheek. Confused, he rubbed his eye, only to realize that he was crying.

Weird, Mika never knew how it felt to cry, or at least he didn't remember when was the last time he did so. All he really knew was that it felt weird, feeling those droplets slowly slide down his cheeks, and strangely comforting too. He didn't know why, exactly. Perhaps it was because he thought of Tekkadan and it triggered the response? He suspected that to be the reason. Or perhaps he was just accepting one rather cruel fact.

'I'll be dying here. Alone,' thought Mika, as he raised his head upwards, looking at the night sky. And, despite his rather unexpected tears and his current situation, however, Mika managed a small smile.

'But at least you guys can have a chance at living the way you want…'

Several days later

Mika did suspect that this day would come, but he never expected for it to be here so quickly.

Not long after Mika had arrived in Trost, roughly two days ago, he and at least a hundred refugees from Shiganshina and Maria were tending to the fields of the district. Despite the horrid weather, Mika brought along his Tekkadan jacket for no apparent reason. While the other refugees grumbled at the prospect of working in the field, with nothing more than a stale piece of bread as their 'income', Mika was rather content with what he was doing.

Despite being a child soldier for a majority of his life, Mika's real dream was to eventually become a farmer… a weird goal but he didn't really care about it. The teen did have experience with farming thanks to the fact that Sakura Pretzel, an acquaintance of his, owned a farm. He worked there on occasion, and it was probably there where his interest in farming blossomed.

When they were first carted off to the fields, the refugees who were tasked with tending to them were split up into various groups of differing sizes. Mika got a small group comprised of at most thirty people, mostly children. He made no effort to interact with any of them, and none of them seemed to try anyways, most likely because his expression would send a chill up their spine so cold that it'd threaten to freeze it.

By his third day on the fields, Mika was more or less used to the experience. Planting and tending to them wasn't exactly hard, and his 'income' was pretty serviceable, one and a half pieces of stale bread in exchange for about twelve hours of service seemed to be fair trade for Mika, that and he got free lunch, typically more bread or a baked potato, so he didn't exactly complain.

During his breaks, Mika would busy himself with thoughts about Tekkadan while he ate pieces of stale bread. If he wasn't thinking about his family, Mika would be wondering if anyone had accidentally stumbled upon Barbatos. It was unlikely, but not impossible.

Currently, Mika was on his own, secluded from his designated field group, with his only 'company' being a black haired girl who lingered near him, unrooting a couple of carrots which were most likely planted weeks before. As he unrooted them, Mika still couldn't shake his surprise at realizing that these things were edible. All he knew about them was that they were the noses of snowmen, not that they were edible. Still, he did his best to ignore his surprise and toss the carrots into a small sack which was provided to him.

Right after he tossed it, however, Mika heard a relatively soft yelp from behind him. Acting on instinct, Augus whirled around and sprung his arm out, inadvertently wrapping his fingers around a small wrist. It took him awhile to realize that he had just saved a person from falling onto their back, most likely thanks to the rather muddy ground they were on. And it took him a little longer to realize that the person he saved was none other than the black haired girl whom lingered close to him.

The girl whom he saved seemed to take a moment to process what was going on, and when she did, her cheeks almost instantly turned a soft shade of red. Mika, on the other hand, kept his expression neutral as he hauled her back upwards. When she was up, Mika got a quick yet good look at her.

She had thick, black hair which was tied up into twin ponytails that were slung over her shoulders, twin light grey eyes, and a height and face which told Mika that she was about ten to twelve years old, even if she was almost as tall as him, if not an inch taller. She wore a long sleeved teal blouse and a grey shirt.

He didn't exactly care if she was alright, but he decided that it wouldn't hurt to ask.

"Are you alright?" asked Mika as he turned away from the girl, crouching to unroot another carrot. Though when he did, he missed the rather goofy smile on the girl's face as she replied.

"Y-Yeah! I'm f-f-fine!" she said, tripping over her words as Mika stood up, holding a decently sized carrot in his hands. He didn't intend on answering, but he did give an acknowledging grunt in response. Once that was done, Mika expected her to move on and leave him alone, but to his mild surprise, she lingered around, making him occasionally turn to glance at her. She seemed to notice, as she kept tensing up whenever he looked her way, though to her credit, she did smile and wave at him in response to his constant glances.

After few awkward moments of silence, the girl seemed to gather up all her courage and finally speak up. "Erm… so…" she began, making Mika turn to look at her straight up. "What's your name?"

Well that was unexpected. In Mika's experience, only new members of CGS, before it became known as Tekkadan, and Kudelia would ask for his name. Everyone else seemed content to call him a Rat. So to hear this girl, a complete stranger, ask for his name was definitely somewhat surprising. And apparently it was so surprising that Mika froze for a second, as he didn't notice the girl waving her hand in front of his face for quite some time. "Hey… you alright there?"

Shaking his head a little, Mika blank to get himself out his minor trance before nodding. "...yeah," he replied, before looking at the girl, considering if he should tell her. It wasn't a hard choice, as his name literally had no meaning in this place. No one knew he piloted Barbatos, so giving out his name wouldn't affect him in the slightest. So, with no real hesitation, he answered her. "...Mikazuki, Mikazuki Augus."

"Nice name," said the girl with a large smile and no trace of sarcasm, making Mika believe that she actually meant what she said. He was pulled out of his thoughts rather abruptly when the girl placed both hands on her hips in a dramatic fashion as she responded. "Call me Mina, Mina Carolina!"

Mina Carolina, it was a simple name, one which Mika wouldn't find much difficulty in remembering, mainly because her actual name was quite literally one letter away from being the same as his nickname.

After the girl, Mina, introduced herself, Mika simply gave a grunt and a nod in response before heading back to work, clearly not interested in befriending the girl. Mina, however, seemed to linger around close to Mika, assisting him in his area to the best of her abilities. She did inadvertently become an obstruction, though Mika was too amused by her rather childish attempts at helping/getting his attention to really mind.

For a long moment, both of them were silent, simply carrying out their given duties. Finally, however, Mika spoke up. He didn't exactly mind Mina being close, but he still prefered to be alone. Even so, Mika didn't exactly want any hostile attention directed towards him, so he tried to get her to leave as polite as he could.

"Shouldn't you be with a friend?" he asked, glancing at Mina with a raised eyebrow. Mina, on the other hand, looked at him with a somewhat confused stare. She then apparently connected two and two together, or at least she thought she did, and responded.

"Not exactly," she admitted, stretching her back a little. Mika could hear a few pops as she did, and the black haired girl rolled her shoulder as she responded. "Annie's back at home resting… so is Nac… I'm only here because I wanted to."

"You wanted to?" questioned Mika, an eyebrow raised. He didn't know why anyone who had no potential interest in farming would willingly work here.

"Yep. I kinda felt bad for the refugees… and kinda volunteered to join…" admitted Mina sheepishly. "Mum didn't exactly approve… neither did Nac… but I managed to convince them…"

Mika simply nodded at that. It was a naive mindset, sure, but he wasn't gonna voice that out. But one more question still lingered in his mind. "...why are you staying beside me instead of trying to make new friends?"

"Come again?" said Mina, not quite getting what Mika meant.

"Why are you here with me when you can go make friends with other people?" repeated Mika in a more conventional manner which made Mina blink.

"Well…" she muttered, scratching the back of her neck rather awkwardly as she gave a crooked smile. "You… erm… you kinda just seemed… lonely, ya know? Everyone else has someone accompanying them… everyone but you. I felt a little bad and decided to at least stand close."

Lonely… that was a word Mika didn't expect to hear from the girl. He had expected some crazier reason, not something as simple as him being lonely. And, as much as he didn't want to admit it, Mika was feeling at least a little lonely. Without anyone from Tekkadan to converse (however brief or enthusiastically) with, Mika felt his sense of camaraderie slowly fade, replaced by a rather strange sense of loneliness.

It seemed as though Mika had frozen for a while, thinking about what Mina had brought up, as the girl had to wave a hand in front of his face in order to snap him back to reality. Blinking, he saw that Mina was bent down a bit so that they were on eye level. "You alright, Mika? You kinda spaced out there."

Mika's response to that was to quickly shake his head and grunt softly. When that was done, he refocused on Mina, who, to his surprise, look somewhat concerned for him. However, he quickly ignored that look on her face, assuming that he was just seeing things, and grunted, though mentally the boy was thinking of something to try and cover up his rather sudden space-out. "... I was just… thinking about something."

That wasn't exactly that smart. He knew that if anyone were to use that as an excuse for anything, the one who they told it to would ask what they were thinking of. And, sure enough, after an admittedly adorable tilt of her head, Mina asked. "Of what?"

"Of…" muttered Mika, not entirely sure on how he should answer, so he improvised. "Of how… lucky you are."

"Lucky?" questioned Mina, tilting her head with a raised brow. And though she couldn't notice, Mika silently cursed himself for saying that. But he didn't let his unease show, instead keeping his expression neutral as he improvised on a reply.

"Ah…" he replied, looking away from Mina as he carefully chose his words, racking his brain as he improvised. "You… have friends. I only had a few back at… Shiganshina."

Mika needed a lot more effort than he had expected to not say 'Tekkadan'. The boy was still very used to saying that name, and he needed to remind himself that it didn't exist here. However, Mina didn't seem to notice how he had to pause in between certain words. Instead, she seemed… well, concerned for him. Perhaps even a little guilty.

"Oh… right…" she muttered, looking away from Mika and down at her own feet. And. for a surprisingly long moment, the girl stayed quiet. So much so that Mika assumed that the conversation was over and went back to unrooting whatever he could see, only stopping when Mina snapped her fingers rather loudly, making the boy swivel his eyes to glance at her. "Hey, I've got an idea!"

Mika intended to ignore her, but he ended up giving an acknowledging grunt by accident, prompting Mina to go on.

"Why don't you be our friend?" she asked, smiling like a maniac, albeit one with good intentions. Except unlike a maniac, her smile seemed genuine and non-psychopathic. Almost as though she were actually asking Mika, a child soldier who killed hundreds, even before piloting Barbatos, to be her friend. Granted, she didn't know about that, but still, he was surprised that she offered him of all people, as he was, according to Shino when he asked him once, one of the least approachable people he's ever met, and that was saying a lot as he's approached a lot of people in his lifetime.

Mika seemed to have frozen from surprise once more, as the boy ended up staring at the girl in slight shock for a few seconds, making Mina tilt her head to the side and raise one of her eyebrows snap her fingers in front of his face a little, snapping him out of it. "...huh?"

"I asked-"

"I know," said Mika, cutting Mina off as he looked at her in mild shock. "...but why?"

"Why?" asked Mina, smiling as she unrooted a sizable carrot and stared at it for a moment. She then turned to face Mika. "Well, it's pretty simple. No one deserves to be alone, you know? And besides, you seem like a nice guy. I'm pretty sure Annie and Nac would like you… maybe Nac more so than Annie… but I don't think Annie likes many people anyways."

"...you're serious?" questioned Mika after staying silent for a moment or two. And that question earned him a gentle and somewhat sarcastic smile from Mina.

"Why would I lie, anyways?" she asked, pointing the sharper tip of the carrot in her hand towards Mika in a somewhat teasing manner. Mika didn't flinch, something which the girl had apparently expected him to do, so she just tossed her carrot into a bag and extended one of her small hands towards Augus, making the boy raise an eyebrow. "I don't exactly have anything to gain by lying to you. If anything, Id probably lose something if I did."

"And what would you lose?" questioned Mika, gazing at her small hand as the girl smiled.

"A potential friend," responded Mina cheerfully. "You seem a little intimidating, I won't lie, but that's how everyone is when you first meet them. I'm sure you're a great guy, I just needa know you better!"

Frankly, that response shocked Mika, though unlike the past three times, he didn't freeze up, instead, he looked down at his feet, a little flattered that someone, even someone who didn't know about his history, would say something like that. Turning back to Mina, he eyed her with a newfound sense of respect as she kept her smile fixed on him.

"So, you gonna take the offer?" inquired Mina.

Looking at her smaller hand, Mika silently took a second to consider, and slowly, the boy lifted his hand up close to his face. He clenched it a little, before huffing and looking down at Mina's. And, with a shrug, he accepted her handshake, only for Mina to widen her eyes in a small amount of surprise. "Whoa…"

Mika raised one of his brows as he looked at the girl in mild curiosity. "Hm?"

"Your hands… they are pretty big…" she mused, smiling as Mika released her hand and looked at his own.

That comment brought back some good memories, fond ones from a past life. Looking at his hand wistfully, Mika allowed a small smile to crawl onto his face as he nodded.

"Yeah… I get that a lot."

Several days later

If he were absolutely honest, Mika had expected Mina to completely forget about him just one or, at best, two days after the two met and had apparently become friends.

One couldn't exactly blame him for that, however. Even before he had arrived in this Hellhole, Mika had issues with trusting others outside of CGS and Tekkadan. He knew from personal experience that almost everyone would try to take advantage of a child, especially one who looked as frail as him. Almost every 'friend' he had which wasn't from CGS/Tekkadan had left him within a week of befriending him to pursue their own personal matters, either that or they would usually use him to further their own ambitions, teaching him that the term 'friend' was to never be used to refer to anyone outside of Tekkadan.

Mina, however, did the complete opposite of everything Mika had come to expect. The girl had not only kept him company for the entirety of the day which they met, but she had also made a serious, and somewhat impressive (and perhaps a little creepy if Mika thought too much about it), effort at seeking him out and accompanying him every single day at the fields. Whenever he thought that he'd be alone, Mina would suddenly pop up from nowhere to kick that thought straight out of his mind.

At first, Mika had found her rather annoying. He wasn't one who enjoyed the company of strangers, and in his eyes, Mina was still considered one. But as the days flew by, with the days turning into weeks and said weeks gradually evolving into a month, Mika had inadvertently found himself getting used to Mina's company, perhaps even taking a liking the girl, something which surprised even him.

More often than not, Mina would be talking about trivial things which Mika held little concern about, such as the state of affairs in Trost or how the mission to try and retake the breached Walls ended in spectacular failure, which didn't surprise Mika one bit. He did pay a little more attention to her when she was talking about herself, however. Not exactly because he was interested, but more because he had a mild sense of respect for her, perhaps because she, unlike everyone he knew (who wasn't a part of Tekkadan), actually acted like a friend to him.

Over the next two weeks since the two had first met, Mika learnt that Mina was raised by only one parent, her mother. She never knew her father, which technically made her half of an orphan, and she came from the neighboring district of Karanese, coming here out of necessity. Her admiration of the soldier group known as the Survey Corps wasn't too hard to notice, as she tended to focus all her conversation topics around them. Part of him suspected that she intended on joining them, though he could be wrong. He also remembered her talking her mother, someone whom she considered to be an angel. She also spoke about Nac and Annie fondly, something which showed her friendship with the two.

By the third week since he befriended Mina, Mika found it rather routine for him to be talking to the girl, or rather listening as he let her do most of the talking as he wasn't exactly considered much of a talker while Mina was the complete opposite. He found her company rather welcomed, especially since it helped him cope with his current dilemma. However, he didn't expect her to ask one rather awkward question which he had no way to answer.

"Hey, Mika?" asked Mina rather abruptly during one of their field works while they plucked some corn off their corbs. Mika didn't look at her, simply giving a grunt of acknowledgement as he tossed a corn piece into a basket. He would have worried about it breaking on impact, but he's harvested enough corn to know that they won't break that easily. "I was wondering… do you have any parents?"

Mika's response was swift. "No."

"Oh… were they…" she said, before stopping, a little uncertain on if she should continue. But Mika knew what she was about to say and cut her off.

"I never had any," he said, making Mina widen her eyes to a rather impressive extent.

"W-Wait… you're an orphan…?!" exclaimed Mina, so loud that Mika had to recoil in surprise and that several people by the sides turned to stare in confusion. The unwanted attention made the girl slap both hands over her mouth and widen her eyes in embarrassment. "S-Sorry about that… but… you're…?"

"Ah," confirmed Mika with a gruff nod. Mina only nodded.

"Do… do you have a home?" she asked, and Mika huffed. He knew that it wouldn't be smart to tell her the truth, as the barn he used to hold Barbatos was technically his new home and he'd rather not let anyone know about it, even Mina, so he lied.

"No."

Mina didn't seem surprised, but she still had a mask of sadness over her face. It was soon replaced with a thoughtful look, however, followed by an expression which told Mika that she had just thought of something which was supposedly smart as she snapped her fingers. "Hey, Mika?"

"Hm?" muttered Mika with a raised brow.

"Why don't cha' come live with me?" asked Mina with a pretty somewhat sly, yet still friendly, smile. Her question made Mika raise his brows in amusement, surprised that she actually asked that as it was the last thing he expected her to even inquire about. He had apparently froze staring at her, as Mina had to snap her fingers in front of his face. "You there, Mika?"

"Huh… yeah," said Mika with a nod, feeling a little more awkward than usual as he scratched the back of his neck. "... are you sure?"

"Well, yeah!" replied Mina with a wide smirk as she placed her hands on her hips. "My mom wouldn't mind. I mean, she let Annie and Nac live with us… and she really enjoyed their presence. And honestly, I think another boy would be pretty good, since Nac's the only boy in the house right now… pretty unfortunate for him…"

Mika gave an acknowledging, and somewhat amused, grunt. Nac's situation seemed to mirror Atra's, as she was technically a girl in a sea of boys whenever she visited them before CGS became Tekkadan.

"So, you up for that?" asked Mina, waiting for a response. Mika, on the other hand, took a moment to think about this.

It didn't exactly take long for Augus to find his answer to Mina. He felt as though he had been with Mina for long enough to know that she didn't intend on doing anything malicious to him (even if she didn't look like she could hurt anything), and she had earnt at least a small amount of his trust. That, and living in an actual house, no matter how shoddy it could be, would be better than spending the rest of his days inside a barn, sleeping inside the cockpit of Barbatos.

"... but I'm an orphan, and we met not too long ago," pointed out Mika, intending to test Mina's sincerity. Though, to his surprise, the girl gave a giggle.

"I probably should have mentioned this, but Annie and Nac are also orphans," stated Mina with one index finger in the air, and Mika quirked an eyebrow up in mild surprise, not expecting Mina's mother to already have two orphans, alongside her actual daughter, under her wing. "So yeah… I guess you could say that me and mum are used to having Orphans with us. Annie's also like you in a few ways…"

Mika simply raised an eyebrow at the girl, mildly interested in what she meant. "Meaning?"

"She acts like you," said Mina, quick and straight to the point. "Not talkative and not very friendly… and I only met her like, what, a day before I met you?"

When she said 'not very friendly', Mika swore that Mina's face paled by at least ten shades as though she wished she didn't say that. Mika simply looked at her, somewhat confused, before he snapped a finger in front of her face, a trick he learnt from Mina herself. It worked pretty well, as Mina snapped out of it, flailing her arms all over the place as Mika watched in mild amusement. After a second or two, Mina seemed to regain her bearings and clear her throat.

"W-Well…" she muttered, scratching the back of her head in a mixture of nervousness and embarrassment. "D-Do you accept…?"

"Sure," was Mika's response, quick and simple, but when she heard it, Mina gave an adorable fistbump which Mika couldn't help but smile faintly at.

"Ah right!" proclaimed Mina with a victorious smirk as she pointed to a location not too far from where they stood. Turning towards where she was pointing, Mika saw that it was the entrance/exit to the fields. "I'll meet you over there at sunset. See you then?"

"Count on it," was Mika's reply, not sounding too enthusiastic, but perhaps a little more so than he usually was.

Though what he couldn't expect was that him accepting Mina's invitation to live with her would be perhaps the smartest move he made in this God forsaken place.

A couple of hours later

True to his word, Mika had waited for Mina at the entrance/exit of the fields. The girl, on the other hand, had not shown up for a while, making Mika wait for about ten minutes. On a regular day, Mika would be able to wait rather patiently, perhaps even able to wait for two hours without any issue.

However, that was if he was fully awake and on a full stomach. Currently, it was rather late, with the sun about to disappear at the corner of the earth, and his hours of admittedly tiring work were catching up to him, so much so that he had to rub his eyes to keep himself from sleeping while standing up. He was thankful that he brought along his Tekkadan jacket, as the air of Trost was rather cold when night fell.

Finally, after about fifteen minutes after the sun had set over the horizon/top of Trost, and after Mika had nearly slept standing up for the third time, the boy finally heard Mina's voice in the distance. Quickly, the boy shook his head and looked towards where Mina's voice came from and saw the girl racing towards him, looking breathless yet still somehow happy. When she came to a stop in front of him, the girl looked ready to pass out from exhaustion, though she instead slouched down and propped her hands on her knees in an effort to try and keep herself upright.

"S-Sorry… Mika… needed… permi-" she stopped to catch her breath, holding up a finger to tell Mika to give her a moment. "Permission! Needed… permission from mum…"

Mika supposed that explained why she took so long to get here. He didn't exactly know why, and he never did care, most kids kept asking their parents about matters such as this. He suspected that it was out of loyalty, perhaps like him and Orga, as Mika used to wait for his old friend to give him an order, but he wasn't the type to ask him for permission before he did everything. Perhaps Mina's mother was one of those overprotective types which Mika heard of a few times, or perhaps she'd get a beating if she invited Mika over to stay without her mother's permission. Whatever the reason was, Mika didn't exactly dwell on it. Right now, Mina was here. And he followed her as she began leading him towards her house.

The walk to Mina's house was generally uneventful, consisting of several turns and having to cross a bridge at one point. Mina tried several conversation topics, all of which Mika held no interest in but pretended to listen to just to humor her.

After about ten minutes, and after learning about an incident in Dauper Village involving a girl known as Sasha having stolen a basket of bread and feasting upon them like some rabid animal/Titan, Mika and Mina found themselves in front of a modest sized structure, at least when compared to most places Augus has seen in the confines of the Walls, anyways.

Roughly as tall as Barbatos while it was kneeling down, though not as wide, the modest little brick house was held upright by a couple of wooden planks. From what he could see, there were two levels to this house, as evident by the small window near the roof. There was also a decently sized window right next to the door of the house. Said door appeared to be partially rotten through and in need of either some serious repair or be outright replaced. There also seemed to be a small balcony on the second floor, with some clothes lines positioned on top.

His examination of the house, however, was interrupted by Mina when she cleared her throat. Turning to her, he saw that she seemed somewhat nervous, as if Mika's opinion on her house could lead to her death, and if he said he didn't like it, she would spontaneously combust. "So… erm… whaddaya think?"

Mika simply shrugged at that. He supposed it looked descent. It was similar to a lot of the house's in Chryse, so it wasn't exactly impressive by any stretch of his imagination. But he supposed that it was alright, so he gave a shrug, not noting how Mina was holding her breath. "It's nice."

Upon saying that, Mina released her breath and smirked rather proudly, confusing Mika to a certain extent as he tilted his head to the side. Mina gave a chuckle at that as she scratched the back of her head, making Mika's confusion increase by tenfold.

"Well," said Mina once she was done staring as Mika's admittedly adorable confused expression. "Let's not stand on ceremony! Come on!"

Before he could say anything else, Mina seized Mika's wrist and dragged him towards her house's door. Her strength, despite her small frame, did surprise him to a certain degree. Augus knew that he could easily stop her in her tracks, but he allowed her to pull him just to humor her. Mina only stopped when they were right in front of her house's door, and Mina swung it open rather intensely before spreading her hands apart in a dramatic fashion, most likely to show off the interior of her home.

Admittedly, Mika found the interior was better than the exterior. It wasn't too cramped despite what what the exterior design would suggest, with a decently sized couch over to the side, a somewhat sizable wooden table with two normal looking chairs alongside two more which looked to be handmade, and what appeared to be a kitchen area with an old fashion stove and a box. The stairs which led to the second floor seemed to be nearly rotten through, just barely holding together, and there seemed to be a smaller room to the side, most likely a bathroom.

While he was looking about the room, however, Mika did not note the lady who was approaching them from the kitchen area until she was right in front of them. Turning his attention towards her, Mika had to crane his head upwards at forty five degrees in order to look her in the eye. Standing somewhere close to Chocolate Guy's height, and perhaps around the 30 and 34 age group, the lady looked similar to Mina, with thick black hair and some rather fair skin. Her eye colour was similar to Mina's grey, though perhaps a tad darker. She wore an ash brown shirt and a long, medium brown skirt, both of which looked to be hand sewn, most likely by herself. Atop her attire was a dark grey apron which may have been sewed back together multiple times.

"Hiya, mum!" greeted Mina once Mika had noticed the lady before them. The lady, Mrs Carolina, as Mika decided to call her from then on, simply smiled in response and gave Mina a gentle, hearty pat on the head, ruffling up her hair in the process, making the girl blush in embarrassment, most likely because it was happening right in front of a guest, though she didn't voice that out.

Once she was done ruffling up her daughter's hair, the older Carolina turned to regard Mika. the boy watched as the lady eyed him from head to toe, with a hint of suspicion in her gaze, most likely because Mika seemed a little threatening in her eyes. He didn't think too much about it, however. The worst that could happen was her kicking him out of her home, something Mika was, admittedly, expecting to happen, anyways. Though to his surprise, she allowed a warm smile to grace her face after she had examined him, even if it did look partially forced.

"Welcome home, Mina," was the first thing she said, looking at her daughter with a warm smile. Mina returned the expression, smiling as though she had won something, before her mother turned back to Mika. She still seemed wary of him, but it didn't show too much as she smiled warmly at the boy. "And I take it that you are Mikazuki Augustine?"

Mika ignored the misinterpretation of his last name and simply gave a nod. Mina also nodded to confirm that.

"Ah… I remember my daughter talking a lot about you," informed Mrs Carolina as she bent forward to look Mika in the eye. And Mika thought that the smile on Mrs Carolina's face went from friendly (however forced it may have seemed) into a more juviel, playful smirk. "It's almost as though she views you as her boyfriend."

For a second, no one spoke. Only silence hung in the air, silence so absolute that it was deafening. But after that single second was up, Mina's face suddenly flared up, turning into a shade of red which was so extreme that Mrs Carolina thought she had given her daughter a fever. The only thing stopping her from placing the back of her palm against her daughter's forehead was Mina swinging her arms wildly and yelling at the top of her lungs.

"EEEEEEEH?! MUUUUUUM!" she exclaimed, her red face threatening to turn five shades deeper. The sudden yell made Mika flinch a little while Mrs Carolina tried calming her daughter to little avail, though in Mina's defence her mother was also laughing her rear off.

Once Mina had calmed down a little, even if her face was still red, Mrs Carolina gave an apology before turning to Mika. "Sorry about that," she said, scratching the back of her neck with a rather sly, open mouthed smile. "What I meant to say was that my daughter tells me about you every day after her work at the fields."

"She does?" questioned Mika, an eyebrow raised. And for some reason, Mrs Carolina seemed a little surprised by his voice, most likely because it sounded a little gruff for someone as young as him. But her surprise left as soon as it came, replaced with her friendly expression.

"Why, yes!" replied Mrs Carolina, smiling and cupping her hands together, ignoring the embarrassed look her daughter was giving her. "Every day, Mina comes home and tells me about you… she says that you're an attentive listener, and you're apparently pretty strong."

Rather rapidly, the older Carolina began listing down the things which her daughter had told her about Mika. While the younger Carolina was visibly embarrassed by all that info, Mika showed no signs of it. In fact, he seemed perfectly calm with all this new info, much to Mrs Carolina's surprise, as the lady had expected him to at least be a little flattered by all that, now to simply stare at her blankly.

"And just a while ago," continued Mrs Carolina, her tone and expression slowly turning a little serious as she looked at Mika, her wariness of him showing through a little. "Mina told me that she invited you to live with us."

Mika gave a shrug and nodded impassively at that, and Mrs Carolina seemed to consider her words rather carefully from there on. "I suppose that… I could allow you to stay with us for some time."

Mika raised a brow, a little confused as to what Mrs Carolina meant by that, but he noted that Mina seemed to tense up a little at that. Though Mika's attention was drawn away from Mina when her mother's expression went back to being friendly, albeit a little forced looking. Sensing the change in mood, Mina forced a smile and scratched the back of her neck.

"Ha… well, erm…" muttered Mina, looking between her mother and Augus. "Could I… erm… show him around?"

Mrs Carolina's reply was a smile and a nod. "Go right ahead, darling."

With that said, Mina seized Mika's wrist and dashed up to her room on the second floor, ignoring the rather worried expression which her mother gave her.

Mina/Nac/Annie's bedroom

According to Mina, Nac, Annie and herself shared a room with each other to conserve space in their small house, a reasonable decision if Mika were honest. The room was one of the two on the second floor of the house, with two small beds. One of the two was a double deckered and one which was single. Both were held together with a lot of strings which varied in thickness. The top bunk of the double deckered bed seemed to be hastily stuck on instead of being part of the original bed frame, something which made it very precarious looking.

Over by the only window in the room was a bedside table, a very wobbly one at that. It held a single, oil powered lantern which had more cracks than most things Mika's seen back at Tekkadan. Outside of the beds and this bedside table (and the lamp, maybe?), there were no other pieces of furniture in the room, though there were several pieces of paper scattered about the floor.

When she entered, Mina first turned the lantern on, the tiny flame lighting the room up to a surprising degree in spite of its size. With that done, she sat down on the bottom bunk of one of the beds. The bed visibly squeaked under her weight, but it still held. Mika just stood in the middle of the room. Mina did suggest he sit on a bed, but Mika only half listened to her, instead sitting on the floor in front of her. Mina did try to convince him to sit on a bed, but it didn't work, so she gave up and let him sit on the floor.

He wasn't willing to risk letting his weight break one of these beds. He didn't have any money to use to repay them, after all.

"So… erm…" muttered Mina after an uncomfortable few minutes of silence, making Augus look up and face her. He noted that she seemed to fidget a little more than usual, clearly anxious and perhaps a little apologetic. For what, he currently didn't know. "Yeah… sorry about the way my mum acted back there…"

Mika simply raised his brows at that. He had not expected Mina to notice the way her mother had seemed to distrust him. He himself did notice, but he didn't bother bringing it up, and even now he did not say anything about it, with his only real reply to Mina being an expression which told her to that he didn't mind. However, the Carolina didn't seem to get it and went on.

"Well… you see… my mum isn't exactly the most trusting person out there…" admitted Mina as though she were sharing a family secret. "It took her a few days to fully trust Nac when he first joined our family… and even though she's warming up to her… I don't think mum has fully trusted Annie yet… I think it's because of how she acts and looks… which… well… erm… she basically acts and looks like you… except she's a girl…"

Mika got the basics of what Mina was trying to convey to him. Mrs Carolina was not one to trust so easily, something which could be an issue if he was trying to live in her house. Despite what one would think, Mika would prefer to stay within the confines of a wooden house instead of the interior of a half broken barn, so the boy decided that he would take his chances at earning the older Carolina's trust.

"...but hey!" continued Mina, smiling ever so cheerfully at Augus, who snapped out of his minor trance and turned to face her. "If my mum can warm up to a girl version of you, then I'm sure she can do the same with the boy!"

Upon saying that, Mina appeared to have expected Mika to give out a laugh, or perhaps a chuckle or even a small smile. Unfortunately for her, Mika had a tiny sense of humor, and her rather tasteless joke had completely went over his head, making her sign in defeat.

'Least he didn't make fun of me for that…' Mina thought before she regained her cheery mood, clapping her hands together energetically, making Mika raise an eyebrow, not knowing that Mina intended on telling and showing him everything which she currently had with her.

"Hey, Mika?"

"Hm?"

"Mind if I tell you a story…?"

"...sure."

Two hours later

In the living of the Carolina household, Mrs Carolina sat on the couch, her hands cupped together in a somewhat nervous manner.

'There's something strange about him…' thought the mother, looking towards the stairs which led upstairs, unintentionally tightening her hands grip on each other. She was clearly worried about leaving her daughter unattended with Mikazuki.

Despite being known by all three of her children, adopted and blood related, as being a woman who would always see the good inside of a person, not the bad, Mrs Carolina couldn't deny that there was something… off about Augus. Her daughter had told her that he was similar to Annie, something which had already put her on edge. Annie was already unsettling to her, with her emotionless expression and eyes which looked very close to being lifeless. She still remembered when Mina said that she wanted Annie to live with them. She had said no, only conceding when Mina gave her the puppy dog eyes.

However, despite the fact that he was rather similar to Annie in person, Mrs Carolina felt that something was wrong with Augus, and she suspected that it was the look in his eyes.

Annie's eyes were undeniably emotionless, but they still held some level of humanity in them, something which could not be said for Mika's. If anything, Mika looked almost as though he were a dead man walking. His eyes were so cold, much colder than Annie's, and she had saw no trace of humanity left in them… those were not the eyes of a child, they were the eyes of a killer.

The sudden creak from the stairs nearly made Mrs Carolina jump. Quickly snapping out of her minor trance, she turned to face whoever was coming down. She had expected her daughter to be coming down to relieve herself, but instead, she saw Mika, and just the mere sight of him made her blood freeze.

The boy looked as she had remembered, though he did seem a little tired, with his eyes barely open. Slowly, he carried himself towards the couch and sat down a cushion away from Mrs Carolina, all while ignoring the wary glance which the lady kept giving him. For a long moment, neither boy nor woman said a word. Mika simply sat there, quiet, while Mrs Carolina did the same, though she was tense.

And after an uncomfortably long moment, Mika spoke up.

"Is anyone sleeping here?" he asked, turning to face Mrs Carolina, who flinched at the sudden inquiry. Turning to face him, the older Carolina had expected Mika to give her his usual icy cold stare. But to her surprise… he didn't.

Perhaps it was because he was tired, but the boy's gaze didn't seem to be as threatening as when she first saw him. Instead, they seemed to be softer, with an almost innocent glint in his eyes, as he stared at her curiously. And for a moment, Mrs Carolina saw him for who he really was, a child who had lost nearly everything and was struggling to survive. But she silenced that thought as she raised an eyebrow.

"Pardon me…?" she muttered, confused as to what he meant. Mika, on the other hand, pressed a hand down on the couch they were sitting on.

"Does… anyone sleep on this?" repeated Mika, his tone rather drowsy as he spoke.

"Uh… no," replied Mrs Carolina. With his answer, Mika turned and picked up a small pillow, making Mrs Carolina understand why he had asked her that. "Wait… do you intend on sleeping here?"

Mika simply grunted in response.

"But… why here?" asked Mrs Carolina, making Mika raise an eyebrow and stare at her.

"You don't trust me," was his reply. "I can tell. You won't allow me to share a room with Mina, that much is obvious to me. Since the other room on top is probably yours, the couch is the only place I can reasonably sleep on."

His answer was quick, and it surprised Mrs Carolina. She had not expected him to figure that out. But it also gave her a slight stab of guilt. Despite the fact that she was still wary of him, she could bear to see him sleep on the couch. Perhaps it was her maternal instincts kicking in, or perhaps it was because he seemed to be much less of a threat now, looking more like a simple, orphaned child trying who was taking only the bare essentials he needed to survive.

Whatever the reason was, Mrs Carolina didn't intend on standing by and letting Mika rest on the couch. She remembered her daughter telling her much earlier that he had no home, even back in Shiganshina, which told Mrs Carolina that the boy most likely slept on the floor for much of his life, and the lady felt as though that was reason enough to let him have a bed, not a couch which was pretty much as hard as the floor, anyways.

So, going against her judgement and following her maternal instincts, Mrs Carolina gave a defeated sigh. "Mikazuki Augus… I suppose that you could share the room with Mina…"

Upon saying that, Mrs Carolina was graced by a suspicious glance from Mika. She had a feeling that Mika thought she was messing with him, and she could help but chuckle at the strangely innocent gaze he gaze her.

"I mean it, Mika… a kid like you deserves to sleep on a bed, not this…" for a moment, Mrs Carolina didn't know how to describe her couch, simply giving it a good thump. "...thing."

For a moment, Mika stared at her, most likely judging her sincerity, before he nodded and sat up.

"... what about Annie and Nac?" questioned Mika, an eyebrow raised. Mrs Carolina was surprised that he asked that, but she gave a response anyways.

"Annie went off to a friend's house when she heard that you were coming over to stay… she doesn't like visitors. As for Nac… I told him to follow her," she explained. "Reiner and Bertholdt would most likely let them stay with them for a night."

Mika simply nodded at that as he stood up. Once he was up, the boy gave a small yawn, one which was not covered, making the lady before him cringe a little.

"Please, cover your mouth when you yawn," she scolded, making Mika turn to face her. For a moment, she expected him to just stare. Though that thought was wiped away when he opened his mouth, most likely to respond, only to yawn once more, though this time he actually did cover his mouth.

"... alright," he replied once the yawn was over. With that done, he headed upstairs and within seconds, Mrs Carolina heard him fall onto one of the beds, most likely Nac's. Despite her lingering wariness of Augus, she could stop herself from chuckling.

'Perhaps I judged you too soon, Mikazuki Augus,' thought Mrs Carolina as she smiled wistfully. 'I have a feeling that you'd make a wonderful addition to our family…'

Hooooooo boy. That took a while.

GREETINGS. REINHARDT HERE. Wait, fuck. Rewind!

GREETINGS! STRYKER HERE!

Now, you may be surprised that I updated this first. My schedule did say the Ironing out Remnant would be the next to be updated… but in truth, I just really wanted to work on this.

Speaking of Ironing out Remnant, that story WILL be on a temporary hiatus as of 28/5/2018. I'll be working on improving it. Sorry if that was some bad news to you folks.

Now, onto proper TnK stuff. As you can see, this chapter contains very little stuff regarding Barbatos. In fact, it's almost 90% human characters. Now, a forewarning, the next few chapters will NOT be containing any Mobile Suit action, namely the next 6 chapters. That is because it will focus on character interactions and Mika forging bonds between his new companions. This chapter covered the Carolinas. The next few will cover the other two.

This chapter is probably a little messy… alright it's very messy. I wrote this in an awkward time during my Preliminary Exams. What? Ya didn't know? Currently, I'm in my National Exam year. This year will determine my future. So if I don't update too frequently… you'll know why.

On another note, I recently got Overwatch. I main Reinhardt, as you can probably tell. Names StrykerJ. If you wanna play alongside me, please, stay behind my shield.

Onto some replies now.

Ulydace: it's probably my fault that it's underrated. I did reboot it after all. The original was a lot more popular. And the idea of Barby being a deviant will be touched on in the next chapter… not to spoil anything.

CrazyCriticer46: *counts* 10361 words, including the outro

Glasses Writer: ah shucks, you make me blush. And the bullies I go against are kinda gone, so I guess I got lucky. And dang. I will pray for you.

Now I shall away. It's 1 in the morning… see ya whenever I see ya.

Bonus

Some time after C6

Absentmindedly staring at Mikazuki and Mina who sat not too far from her, Ms Carolina smiled as her daughter spoke enthusiastically to her newest friend, who, as she had said, was a great listener.

While she watched, Ms Carolina couldn't help but feel that Mina really did like Mika, at least in the same way which she liked Nac and Annie, as in as good friend.

Or perhaps…

'Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to have some fun~' thought Ms Carolina with a sly smile as she cleared her throat, prompting Mina to stop talking to Mika and turn to face her mother. Augus did likewise, and they raised their brows when they saw that smile on her face.

"Since Nac and Annie aren't here, I guess now's a good a' time as any to ask you two this," began Ms Carolina with a suggestive tone and smile. Mina and Mika looked confused at that, and it only made Ms Carolina smile wider as she asked her question. "You two seem close, close enough that I'm beginning to wonder if either of you like each other in that way?~"

Mika and Mina both took a second to register that question, and when they finished processing, the former raised a questioning eyebrow while the latter slapped both her cheeks and screamed like a banshee.

"MUUUUUM!" protested the younger Carolina as she zipped towards her mother and shook her by her shoulders. Her current embarrassment overridden her usual politeness, though Ms Carolina didn't seem to mind as she was still smiling as her daughter shook her. "PLEASE DON'T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT!"

"Why though? Mika doesn't seem to mind," pointed out Ms Carolina, prompting Mina to stop momentarily and turn to look at Mika, who was staring at them in amusement. However, Mina didn't seem to care much as she went on to shake her mother again.

"WHAT ABOUT ME?! I MIND A LOT!" protested Mina, and neither she nor her mother noticed the odd expression on Mika's face, one which seemed to resemble a smile.

'Adorable…'