Karano chapter 9 . Feb 21 - Why did it make you cringe, if I may be so bold as to ask? Too weird or too sad? I really believe that Mikasa thinks of Eren as her husband-in-waiting, so to speak. The United States can have such a huge military budget because we do not spend nearly as much as Europeans do on social programs, education, and medicine. Conversely, Europeans cannot spend nearly as much on the military, and high school military preparatory programs, because of those budget items. But Europe doesn't have to have an expensive military if it knows the U.S. has their back in a fight. If that were to change, as was the case with the Ukraine, well...

Karano chapter 8 . Feb 21 - Thank you.

Blackout785 chapter 9 . Feb 19 - Yes, the most hard-core branch in the Army, or the entire U.S. military for that matter, at that time, that accepts females, is the Military Police. They are little more than infantry with more guns and vehicles when in theater. They're also expected to operate much, much more independently than infantry, with more know-how, and more discretion.

Seseorang chapter 9 . Feb 18 - Sorry, I'm making this as true to source material as possible :( But Annie and the rest can join Junior ROTC in high school (around age 16) which then will set them up for a career in the real military. Think of it as military training without actually being enlisted or having to fight.

icecreamlover19 chapter 9 . Feb 18 - Here's a hint for the next chapter (which is 1/2 done, I swear): Aruani is half of the chapter.

Ode 31 chapter 9 . Feb 18 - Sorry it's so depressing, but it will get better at some point. I ain't dead yet.

maesde chapter 9 . Feb 18 - Lots of Aruani, I swear it.

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Prompt: Chapter 56!

Note: Just a little something for fun. This will be non-canon to everything, including to the rest of my stuff, just as soon as chapter 57 is out, I'm sure of it.

...

Title: White Wedding

...

He had been avoiding it like the plague ever since he'd first seen her. Then his father had to go and ruin everything by proving that he wasn't dead. It would have been a lot easier had Flegel not survived. He debated killing him as they marched back to the safe-house, but that wasn't like him anymore. It would have been wrong under any circumstance, but more so only as a means to keep his petty secrets safe. It seemed too... self-serving.

She'd have questions... Questions that he didn't have an answer to, questions that brought up memories he didn't want. Honestly, what had he been expecting? To keep the girl in the dark forever? She had a right to know that Eren wasn't her only family, didn't she? Did she even want to know that? That idiot boy barely notices her as it is... He'll probably quit speaking to her altogether if he knows she has someone else. That'll crush her in the short term, but it might work out for the best in the long run. She deserves better anyway.

One thing he didn't want was the kind of attachment she held for the boy. Attachment leads to recklessness, anyone could look at Mikasa and see that, and recklessness led to mission failure. That could not be tolerated. It also led to heartbreak when the inevitable happened, when one of them died. Was it not better for Mikasa to keep thinking of him as her asshole squad-leader, deserving of a few flowers tossed on a well-kept tombstone when the time came, and nothing more? Wasn't that better for her?

To know that she had actual blood-related family still in this world, only to see him killed before her eyes a short time later, smacked of travesty. He could lie and tell himself, as he was sure the rest of the one-oh-fourth still did, that he would not die before the war was won, but he was far too veteran a warrior for such nonsense. People died, no matter how good they were at their jobs. A titan's footsteps he could feel in the earth from a mile away and act accordingly. But a military policeman's bullet? It could happen tonight and he'd never know it.

Another thought crossed his mind. If Mikasa did have a thing for falling in love with family members, which was either the case or she had lied when he once asked her what Eren was to her, then maybe telling the girl wasn't the best idea. Such a concept was just plain wrong on so many levels, but one never knew how others thought deep down inside. He could attest to that.

On the other hand, the bond Eren and Mikasa shared went far beyond mere family ties, friendship, or even romance. It had been there from the since he first met the pair, but since Erwin had lost his arm the two could never be found apart, except when ordered to separate. The girl had even toned down her over-protectiveness a bit... It was as if she had become more secure in her position at Eren's side. He idly wondered what had happened between the pair, if the boy had finally come clean with his feelings and reciprocated. Well if so, it's about damn time...

He surmised that either Mikasa had been lying about considering him family of some kind, or she had meant a very specific kind of family, namely a husband. It wasn't necessarily the weirdest thing a sixteen year old girl could dream up, though he really had no reference to guess.

As he dragged the semi-lucid Flegel back to their hide-out he realized that all his ruminations meant absolutely nothing. He'd have to tell her before the corporate heir regained his senses enough to do it for him.

...

"How'd it go?" Mikasa asked, standing as soon as she heard the door open.

Taking in the scene in front of her, she cocked her head to the side. Something wasn't right. The merchant's son seemed to be in a state of shock, tears streamed down his face and he had a look about him that gave the impression that he'd been paid a visit by Death himself. Judging by the fact that his father hadn't come inside alongside him and the shorty, she guessed that she wasn't that far off.

"Eren and Historia," she said, "Are they okay?"

"Yes," said the manlette, "They're fine. For now."

"For now?! With all due respect, Heicho, what the heck is that supposed to mean? Explain yourself."

She didn't have time for these games. If Eren was in trouble, she need to know an hour ago, not now, and certainly not whenever the runt decided to come off his power trip.

"Cool it, Ackerman, everything went according to plan," he said, "Except for the part where the King's secret police discovered the hidden knives and killed off the Reebs corporation. Well, except for this guy." Levi finished by tossing the shell-shocked man to the ground at her feet.

Mikasa stepped over him on her way to the corporal.

"That's supposed to be 'according to plan'? And what about Eren?" she asked with a narrowed gaze, stopping within a pair of centimeters of the man. She did her best to use her height to intimidate, something that wasn't too difficult or unnatural for the girl. She had grown since graduating from the training squad, so much so that she would have had to bend at the knees to rest her chin on the man's head. He had to crane his neck up and she had to tuck her chin down for the pair to meet each others' gaze. "What about him? If those people are willing to go back on their deal with these guys, how do we know they won't just kill him?"

"Because," he sighed, "They need him-"

"You hope they need him. You don't know for sure." she hissed, her hot breath hitting the man's face, filling the space between them like a fog, "That's why we gave him the knives, because we thought he might need to become a titan to defend himself. Now he has nothing."

"Look, we've been over this," he said, refusing to take even an iota of a step backwards, "The need him. They would have just killed him then and there if it wasn't the case. Besides, your precious boyfriend can always scrape his tongue against his teeth or something."

"He's. Not. My. Boyfriend," she said through clenched teeth. She tried like hell to keep the red out of her cheeks and ears, but the intense heat told her how miserably she had failed. "He's my only-"

"Family?" said the minuscule-man, finishing her sentence for her, "Is that what you were going to say? That he's your only family, hmm?"

Mikasa took a step back. Then another. If his tone was anything to go by, she wouldn't like where this was going, not one bit.

She swallowed hard. "What do you know?"

"I know that he's neither," said the man, "Not really."

"Neither?" she asked, taking another step back. Her breath came in short puffs. It felt like she had just run for hours and was about to face Annie again. "What do you mean 'neither'? Neither what?"

"Why, he's neither family to you, nor your only family, of course."

Mikasa felt her calves backing into a couch. Without thinking she fell into it. For an instant, she debated on remaining there before shooting back to her feet. It can't be... But... As much of a prick as he is, I've never known Heicho to lie before. And why? What good would it do to say something like that if it isn't true? He'd have to know I'd kill him if he lied about something like that.

"What... What do you know?" she managed to say.

"Only that you've got an honest to God uncle and cousin still alive. Double-cousin, actually, if there is such a thing."

Again, she thought perhaps he had lied, but cast the idea aside. Lying like this wasn't his style, would serve him no purpose, and went way too far beyond the pale to be a prank. Not that Levi was known for pranking anyone in the first place. No, he had discovered something, or had known something and finally decided to share it. He had quite the mysterious past, after all.

Although, strangely, she realized her first question wasn't about her family or his past.

"What the hell is a 'double-cousin'?"

The man looked stupefied by her question, which brought a smile to her face.

"Uh, it's what you call it when your mother's sister marries your father's brother," he said with a shrug, "Obviously. Their offspring is your double-cousin. A cousin whose parents are both your aunt and uncle, biologically. A cousin so similar to you that it would be like having a sibling, get it?"

"No, not really, but-"

"Look, Ackerman, it's very simple-"

"Just tell me who my family is already!" she all but screamed.

"Fine," he said, folding his arms across his chest, "You're such a brat. Some things never change. You know, speaking of family, I saw my father today."

"Quit changing the subject!"

He frowned as he pointed behind her. "Sit."

In spite of herself, Mikasa found herself obeying the order and collapsing into the couch. She was too shaken not to. Levi took a seat in a chair directly across from her.

"Did you ever wonder how it was you were able to pick up my techniques so quickly?" he asked, "Pulling off moves that we both know no normal human could ever hope to pull off...? I think you know."

"No, I don't"

"Yes, you do," he said, eyeing her closely.

"Do you look at everyone else around here so often that you forget that you're different?" he asked, "Look at me. Did you ever look at my eyes or have you been too busy staring into Eren's? You're looking at them now. Why do my eyes, my features, look so familiar to you?"

She looked away, shaking her head. "I... I don't know..."

His eyes, their color, their shape, all of it, they did seem familiar, somehow, but she couldn't quite place it. His dark hair, too, so silken and black as midnight, was unlike anyone else she had seen, yet somehow she had seen it before. Even his skin, pale and smooth, though entirely free of freckles, reminded her of something, or someone, though who she could only wonder. She had seen it all before, so very recently, she was sure of it. This morning... Wasn't it then? But from where? It can't be... I did my normal routine. I woke up early, went to the bathroom, used it, began brushing my hair, looking into the... No. No, no, no no no.

"You got it."

"No," she said, staring at the man through a new and very uncomfortable light, shaking her head slowly.

"Say it."

"They look so familiar because... Because..."

"Say it." He began unwrapping an uncomfortably familiar bandage from his left forearm, one she hadn't noticed before.

"Because you're an Ackerman," she finished with a sigh.

"That's right," he replied, holding his arm, with her clan mark, up for her to see, "And I'm also one of the last two Asians left alive, my darling little double-cousin."

...

A little something extra. I believe anime/manga fans would call this an omake?

...

"Whew, glad we got out of that one, eh, Historia?" Eren asked as he swung the door open.

"You're so right about that," said the girl, adjusting the bejeweled and over-sized crown on her head, "I never would have thought it would be so easy to overthrow the impostor king."

"But it was," he said, taking a seat next to his foster-sister and across from Levi-Heicho. He threw an arm over the tall girl's shoulder as Historia sat on her other side. "Now we can finally get to my basement in peace."

Eren looked around the room, expecting some sort of reaction. Maybe applause was too much to hope for, there was still a lot to do, but not even a 'job well done'? Levi only stared at Mikasa, sporting something between a smirk and a glare on his face; typical Heicho then, no help there. His foster-sister on the other hand, she stared wide-eyed at her own feet, refusing to move a muscle.

"So, uh, that was our day," he said, looking back and forth between the pair, "I'll spare you from the details. And how was yours?"

"Just peachy," said the corporal, "Best day I've had in a while. And Mikasa, why, she's got every reason in the world to be the happiest she's ever been."

"Then why doesn't she look it," growled Eren.

He pulled her close to him, eliciting half a smile from the girl as she looked up at him. It was gone as quickly as it came, however. The poor girl buried her head in his chest, holding him tightly with both arms. Her grip was uncomfortably strong, as usual, but he didn't mind. He was used to it.

He bent down to her ear, close enough to detect the scent of the fragrant candle she used to light her room with at night. "What happened?" he whispered, his lips brushing against her skin.

"Oi, Brat," Levi interrupted, "I'm not sure I like how close you're getting to Mikasa."

Eren cocked his head to the side and scowled at the man while his foster-sister sat bolt-upright, killing their moment. The young man couldn't believe what he's heard. What int the bloody hell business is it of his how close I get to her? I've been a hell of a lot closer than this before.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"You heard me," replied the corporal, "And I think it's about damn time I asked; just what the hell are your intentions with my little sister?"

"No." Again, Eren's eyes shot between Mikasa and Levi, searching for answers. The former wouldn't do anything but stare at the ground with her hands folded neatly in her lap, while the latter had the broadest smile he'd ever seen on the man. "No, just, no. It's impossible. It can't be. Mikasa, say something! Tell him he's full of crap! Say something! Anything!"

"It's true," the man said, "And I think you and I need to have a nice, long, talk."

"No. Mikasa?!"

With a sigh, the dark-haired girl raised her head to met Levi's eyes. "Onii-sama, please, you're scaring my boyfriend."

His name is Levi Ackerman. His name is Levi Ackerman. His name is Levi Ackerman. His name is Levi Ackerman. His name is Levi Ackerman.

I will try to have the next chapter of 'Attack on Terrorist' out sooner.