... Well. This is kinda awkward.
Hi, everybody! Long time no see!
I'll save my rambles for the endnote.
"Here you go!" Sasha declared proudly as she dropped the large sack of dead fish on the table. The loud noise elicited very little response from the Scouts currently eating their breakfast, as most were too tired to care and the rest were growing used to the routine by now.
"More than last time?" Mikasa asked with an air of sternness, as though doubtful that her friend could follow such simple directions.
Sasha smiled, not to be deterred by the other girl's serious demeanor. "More than last time!" she confirmed.
Armin smiled gratefully at her. "Thank you, Sasha. We really appreciate it." Sasha had voluntarily taken up the job of waking up two hours earlier and going out to the lake near the base to fish; she was an expert fisherman and hunter, so it was no surprise that she easily caught however many fish she needed.
The girl's cheeks got the slightest bit redder but she waved it off. "No problem! Anything I can do to help!" She said cheerily. Everyone was in higher spirits as of late, so it seemed. Not too surprising, Armin mused, considering the progress Eren was making these last three weeks.
Noticing how hungrily Sasha was eyeing a nearby Scout's plate, Armin reached into the sack and pulled out one of the better-sized fish, handing it to her. "It's only fair that you keep some of what you caught," he said, chuckling to himself when she eagerly took the smelly thing and thanked him profusely, already heading back into the kitchens to cook it.
"I'm surprised she didn't eat it raw," Mikasa commented, twisting the sack shut with a graceful flip of her wrist and slinging it over her shoulder, apparently unbothered by the rancid stench permeating from it. She turned and led the way through the halls and up to Hange's quarters, Armin hurrying to catch up- one of these days he would be taller than her!
The bright sunshine shone through the window and illuminated the whole room, filling it with a homey warmth and light that was always welcome in such a dreary old castle. Enjoying such rays, absolutely sprawled out on the stone floor, was Eren, who started chirping at them when they entered but made no move to get up and come to them. Armin's lips turned up at the corners as the little Titan stretched his arms lazily, peering at them upside-down, ears wiggling eagerly.
"Hey there, Eren," the blonde boy greeted his young best friend, moving to kneel next to Eren on the floor and poke him in the bony ribs, making the child emit an odd squeak that served as a Titan laugh, curling up reflexively.
Mikasa dropped the sack of fish and knelt as well, pulling her self-appointed charge into her arms and burying her face in his hair, closing her eyes for a moment; sometimes, when the vague lingering scent of Eren on the teen's favorite scarf wasn't enough, she would take moments to pull him aside and hold him close, pressing her face to his or resting it atop his head. She'd done this for years, and Eren was a good sport about it, never complaining about how weird they surely looked to their peers and simply waiting it out patiently until she was reassured that all was well in the world- well, as well as things could get in this twisted, unforgiving world. Armin often felt the urge to look away from such moments, feeling like he was intruding on something intimate and private. He never did, though. He just waited in silence.
"How are you today?" Mikasa asked the Titanlet quietly, and Armin didn't miss the way Eren had stilled in her arms, mirroring almost exactly the actions of his older, human self. The small creature hummed in reply, seeming to understand the question much better than he had yesterday.
A few minutes passed peacefully, the teens happily absorbing the warmth of the sun, before Eren wormed out of Mikasa's arms, the scent of the fish clearly too much for him to ignore any longer. Armin had seen his nostrils flaring and his ears perking up several minutes earlier, but the Titan was slowly developing a more humanlike sense of self-control and had admirably stayed put in his adopted sister's embrace. The boy allowed a small smile onto his face at the thought; even the tiniest changes glaringly showed how much progress Eren was making each and every day.
As per what was clearly Eren's usual, he brought joy from what before had only been tragedy and heartbreak. His near-death experience, first as a sick infant Titan, then as an embryo with no means of life support, had turned out to be for the better, and had made the Scouts realize, with a shaky sigh of relief, that it was possible for Eren to return to his natural age and size without Hange needing to synthesize a sort of miracle 'cure'. When his new Titan body had formed around his tiny, embryonic form, it was noticeably bigger. What had once been gaunt and concave was now more filled in and leaning towards muscular, and short, stumpy little legs were now longer and leaner. Later measurements confirmed that he had grown almost six inches and had gained half a pound of what seemed to be pure muscle mass. They were too hesitant to test the theory right now, but both Armin and Hange believed that Eren- the real Eren, buried in the tiny beast's nape- had most likely aged, as well. Something about being in a bigger, more developed body might make the little embryo skip forward faster than normal to a fetus, or even possibly a young infant. Hange would be running a few more calculations before they made the decision on whether or not to try cutting him out again to see if the next body he formed would be bigger, through which they could determine a pattern and method for returning him to normal.
"Alright, patience, little one," Mikasa chided gently, pulling Armin from his thoughts. She was pulling a fish from the sack and keeping it out of a pair of grabby little hands. "Calm down." The child instantly plopped back onto his backside, looking up at her pleadingly. A small smile on her lips, Mikasa handed him the fish and they watched as he eagerly brought it to his mouth, opened his lipless jaws wide, and extended his wickedly long tongue to wrap around the food source. The fish was hardly visible in its grasp, and soon the tongue began pulsating as it suctioned the carbamide from its body. Soon the fish was dropped to the floor, dry and shriveled, and the Titanlet reached for the next one in Mikasa's hands.
Armin couldn't help but find the creature's ravenous appetite as a good sign.
Hange Zoe sighed, exhausted but nonetheless intrigued, as she studied the crystallized teenager carefully. Annie Leonhart, aka 'The Female Titan', was proving to be a rather difficult subject. Her diamond cocoon was fascinating, and Hange wished she could take samples, but it was impervious to any blade and she had so far been unsuccessful in chipping off a piece to look at under her microscope. She'd looked at the few remaining shards from the battle, when Eren had broken through the crystalline substance several times with his powerful attacks, but they had already been in the process of evaporating under the scorching sun and much of their makeup and other essential biological information had been lost. She wanted to see the real deal.
But the most infuriating thing about Hange's current project was that Annie had shown quite clear signs of emerging soon from her 'safe zone', her face just inches away from being exposed, but now the girl had somehow moved herself back to her original state of unreachable sleep in the center of the shard. And Hange had been so excited, too! After all, the fact that the only thing that had managed to make the dreaded Female move and possibly risk real capture was little Eren's scream, which made Hange wonder if Titan Shifters were more controlled by primal instincts and urges than she'd originally hypothesized- and if certain Titan characteristics controlled them even when they were outside of their massive bodies. And now it was looking like Hange would still be waiting for a very long time.
"Section Commander, maybe it's best to give this a rest," Moblit piped up from his position leaning against the closest wall. She sighed again and removed her glasses, wiping a few smudges from the lenses.
"I know," she admitted. "But there are so many unanswered questions that it's my job to find answers to, and it's eating at me all the time. I should be able to get some conclusive data, but she's left so little behind for me to work with." She rubbed at her eyes a little before replacing her glasses, tucking the cloth back into one of her many belt pockets. "I feel this need to study her as much as I possibly can until something gives and I can actually find something to work off of." But that was ridiculous, of course. Poking and prodding at a chunk of crystal 24/7 wouldn't suddenly make Leonhart decide to offer up some samples.
Moblit ran a hand through his hair and came over to her, placing a heavy hand on her shoulder. "Section Commander, Ma'am, you're doing your best, and that's just what it is- it's the best anyone on this base could hope for; in fact, it's better. I think I can say without doubt that you are the most advanced scientific mind on this base, if not of the entire military. Whatever you offer is better than what anyone else could come up with." He rarely spoke this much, not even to her, so she found the sentiment even more charming. Ah, her trusty assistant. Always there when she needed him.
"Well, I suppose that's true… and I'm making plenty of progress on Eren's end…" She conceded with a small appreciative smile. It was the best she could muster; despite popular belief, when she was tired enough, and when her studies hit a brick wall, she had a hard time being her usual perky, talking-a-million-words-a-minute self. "Alright, I'm calling it a day. Night. Whatever it is."
He nodded and produced his watch. "It's… oh, it's half past noon. We've been down here for fifteen hours."
Wow. No wonder she was drained.
"... We joined the Scouts soon after. The Scouts are the people around us, and this castle is our base. Our symbol is the Wings of Freedom." Mikasa pointed to Armin's back and the familiar pair of wings thereon, glad that Eren was paying attention and seemed interested in what she said.
Eren appeared to be slowly returning to his normal self, but no one was sure yet whether or not his memories remained, or if they would ever return to him if they were buried. As such, she and Armin would often pass time by recounting the most important events of their shared past as well as several fonder memories. Hopefully this would help keep the humanity alive in his mind as he grew.
"The Scouts were the only ones who weren't scared of your ability; well, they were a little scared, I suppose, but they were willing to look past the Titan and see your ability for what it could be: hope," Armin pitched in. Eren made a small peeping sound.
Then the little Titan's ears twitched towards the door, and two seconds later Hange stumbled through it, dropping her bags of supplies to the floor with a yawn. "'Morning," she greeted, receiving two polite good mornings and one chirp in reply. The woman smiled tiredly, glasses reflecting the sunlight, and she knelt beside her favorite test subject. "Feeling good today, little man?"
"Well, he ate all of the fish and he's not lethargic like yesterday anymore, so we're pretty sure he's fully recovered now."
Hange smiled and ruffled the little one's hair, which had frustratingly been restored to its original length with the new body. "Good! I was wanting to run another test on him today." She took out a small kit and began cleaning off her tabletop, then had Mikasa deposit the Titanlet on it. Taking out a small syringe, the woman brushed the long black hair off of his nape, keeping the needle from his sight, and sighed to steady herself for the upcoming procedure, whatever that may be.
Mikasa felt a weight settle in her gut at the sight, worried what may happen, but decided to be helpful and stand in front of Eren and distract him so he wouldn't get defensive and accidentally hurt someone. She carefully wound her arms around his little torso and held him as tightly as she could without making it seem like she was restraining him- she had noticed that once someone found themselves being restrained, they were much more likely to fight any attempted medical treatment that had required the restraint.
"Hey," she said casually, pressing her forehead against Eren's and making him chatter happily. "I love you, little brother. When you're big again, we'll do lots of fun things together." As she began listing the possible things they could do, Hange quickly injected the contents of her syringe into the nape of his neck, off to the side to avoid sticking the embryo within. Eren tensed up immediately in Mikasa's arms and she tightened her embrace just a little, kissing his nose. "You're fine, Eren. Relax. It's just a little shot, and we're just gonna run a test, and that's it. Trust me."
Miraculously enough, the little Titan seemed to understand what she was saying, because he slowly let the tension leak from his small body before fully leaning against her chest, nuzzling his face in her tunic with a sigh of what sounded like reluctant acquiescence.
After dubbing Armin as her lab assistant, Hange took up a scalpel and let out a short breath. "Alright, let's see what we've got here."
The feeling the loud one made in his weak spot wasn't… pain. It was more… he didn't know a word to describe the numbness in his nape, or the slight pressure he felt as something touched it. Then the scent of blood, his own blood, met his nostrils, and he felt his heartbeat quicken. Why was she making him bleed? Why did he not feel pain from it? His first instinct was to turn around and bite the hand that was dangerously doing something to his only weakness. But his mo... his… Mi… kasa? His Mikasa was holding him so tightly to herself, and begging him to trust her, and he already did. He fought the urge to flee and tried to stay as calm as possible, focusing on the scent of her cloth and her skin and her hair.
"Tweezers," the loud o- the Ha… Han… gee? The Hange- ordered. What were ta-weesers? From the corner of his eye he watched S- Arm-in?- hand a metallic something to her. Some more vague poking feelings on his neck. "Alright, now use these to hold this open." Arm-in disappeared from his line of sight, now directly behind him. "Good. Now, let's look... Alright, here he is!" He? Who? "Just as I thought! Eren now appears to be around twenty weeks gestation- he's definitely much bigger! I'm seeing fingers… toes… organs are visible through the skin… hah! I can see his little heart beating! He's a cutie!"
"So then cutting him out did allow him to age," his Mi-kasa said evenly, voice rumbling in her chest in a way he enjoyed.
"It appears so!" Hange replied happily, and finally the poking feelings were gone and he felt his neck begin to steam. "Now we just need to figure out how often we need to do that to allow him to grow properly… but that's a test for another time."
Mikasa loosened her grip on him, but he stayed pressed against her chest, listening to her steady heartbeat. It was soothing, and constant, and he found himself slowly drifting off.
He was lifted from the tabletop and carried in strong arms. "Sleepy?" his Mikasa asked softly. He didn't know what that particular word meant, but it was a question, and as far as he could tell he could give one of two answers. Taking a guess, the Titan shook his head, making the older girl chuckle and Hange quickly scribble something on a paper.
"Sure you're not." The happy sound of his Mikasa's voice was the last thing he heard before unconsciousness claimed him.
This chapter was sitting in my archives, mostly complete, for a long time. But for a long time it's been very hard for me to write. The desire is there, but the drive is not. And pulling words from my brain is like pulling eye teeth. And whatever I write I feel isn't as good as my writing used to be. So it's been difficult, but I figured you guys deserved at least a small morsel for your support (which I feel I don't quite deserve as is). You're all amazing, and I'm sorry I've let you down. But my life isn't making it easier either- college, work, all the usual excuses. So I honestly don't know when I'll be updating this again. You deserve to know.
Anyway, thank you for all your support! I hope this is at least somewhat to your liking!
Fare thee well, Lovelies!
-Violet
