A/N: Ah, shoot, I kinda missed November didn't I.

Welp, I have my piece for the month prepared, but I guess it slipped my mind to upload it. Anyway, this one's a little unorthodox (honestly most of my fic ideas are) and it features a couple OC's. I always imagined Eren and Mikasa as being wonderful parents but at the same time remaining true to their characters and personalities. A hint of sadness in this one, here's an upfront warning that there's character death. And a lot of fluff is centered mostly not on them, which I know is kind of strange seeing as this is an EreMika collection, but I wanted to dig deeper past just basic fluff at this point because I'm sure we've all seen it before. I also really liked the idea of chronicling a story thorugh the perspective of their kid ;)

So sorry for the late update, and hope you enjoy!

Fly Away

It had been several years since Benjamin Jaeger had seen those pure white doves floating in front of his backyard. Maybe because it had been so long since he'd moved in to Shiganshina County; maybe because for the past fifteen years he'd tried his absolute best to turn away from those icy feathers, fearing the memories they'd bring.

His mother used to always point them out to him. A calm, sweet talking woman with passive gray eyes that he wore himself. Wrapped up in a dark red scarf, the hum of constant crooning and soft words ever-present in his ear, but a stinging fierceness to her words when she was angry. On occasion, it would be directed at Benjamin himself, in youthful abandon and doing what children did. And other times it would be his father, forever gleeful until she rained down on him with a glare hotter than his temper. It never failed to entertain whenever she would be cross, yet at the same time never failed to assure both of them of her endless care and affection.

Mikasa Ackerman loved the doves, a favorite of hers every season they would turn up. She loved being warm, the quiet and serene view of dusk and morn, snow when it would fall gently and cover their small house in light layers that broke at the slightest of nudges. But perhaps most of all she loved her boys.

And as far as Ben knew they loved her too. He found it hard to picture his parents together with anything but a deep closeness, although he'd admit that as many times he'd seen them with ginger sweet arms wrapped around each other he could count an equal amount of images with them launching at each other with harsh words. In argument, his parents were two different animals: one, a stubborn force hell bent on proving himself right no matter what, and the second a colder, yet still jaw-clenching blade sickly poking at her partner's arguments with frustration and a similar relentless drive. A rather appropriate case of unstoppable force meets immovable object. They taught him many lessons about marriage on the days their house was brimming with venom in the air.

He missed her sometimes, he really did. As much as the Eren in him hated any show of weakness, he couldn't help but let the stinging influx of emotion overwhelm him at the mere mention of her memory. Not too long later he'd find water racing down his cheeks, turning himself away into a corner until Valentina would brush them away with the edge of her sweater. Often he'd remind himself not to take her for granted like he took his mother. He never knew when she might be whisked away from him.

The world is cruel, something that she used to say, his father would tell him. Not that Ben had ever heard her say such a thing by his own ears. All he heard from her was easy, sweet to the ears. He'd never heard of her dark side, though many an aunt and uncle had confirmed it for him time and time again. But around him? He couldn't imagine her uttering such words.

Benjamin found it hard to retell her passing, but some years along the line he mustered up the eventual courage to tell the story to himself. It took another two years for him to reiterate the story for his wife, and one more for him to put it in simpler terms when Maya would ask why she didn't have a Nana. Ben handled it pretty well the first time the toddler sprung the question on him. Little did his daughter know he came crying to his room not half an hour later. Again, love to you, Valentina, Ben thought. He confessed his thoughts over a warm plate.

The doves, Ben thought. Can't believe his attention had slipped away so quickly. Where was he? Her passing. God, what a painful subject. Why was he thinking about this again? Because of the damn doves. No wonder he had moved away. Ben shrugged an arm off of the spine of the heavy oaken chair sitting near their screen door, tearing his eyes away from the nature beholden to them outside. Near him was his desk, and above that a shelf, which was shrouded into a little alcove that he called his study. He had one or two memorable objects sitting on that shelf. The small Scout's emblem carving he'd been awarded back when he had just turned thirteen.

Thirteen. Right. That was the year she had died.

It had mostly been a normal year. Both Eren and Mikasa had been delighted that he wanted to participate in a summer camp with the Scouting Corps. He'd signed up and awaited his acceptance letter with eagerness. It was definite that he was to be accepted, his parents were close with the Corps. What was even better, near the end of the camp's four months period he would turn thirteen. The letter came and he departed in haste, desperate to become stronger and desperate to become a man. His mother tried to hug him as he left, but he felt himself too old for such a thing, despite her protests. He insistently jerked his head away from a parting kiss on the cheek, and when the caravan arrived he'd waved the both of them off with only the slightest turn of head back to glance at their two retreating figures. He would come back a changed child, he thought. Reformed and ready for the world. Wait till she sees me then, Ben thought, quiet determination in his mind; there was no drive more motivating than the need to make one's parents proud. He thought he was ready.

He most definitely was not ready. And it was the absolute worst decision he'd ever make in his life.

A month later would bring the arrival of a cursed letter, informing him of his mother's sudden drop in health. She'd dealt with head trauma her whole life; a genetic thing passed down for ages along her family line, apparently. One day she had an unfortunate encounter with the table top while decluttering the bottom cabinet, and her already fragile condition worsened. And in her older age, while still an undeniable superwoman for thirty-nine years old, it had been one hit too much.

The doctors had difficulty in identifying where the problem was, it was a deep rooted issue that she had put off addressing for years. The letters left Benjamin on edge, but the arduous task of his camp kept his mind distracted, at least for the time being. Fast forward to find the final letter that would spring him to want to return home. She had fell to intensive care and was transferred to an inner district to be attended to at a better hospital. Now Ben felt the urge to return, but it was too late: the snows had began to fall for the winter, and the roads would not be cleared by the time he left. He was forced to wait. And even more unfortunate was Ben's father himself was not able to follow, seeing as the dead of winter usually required meticulous attention to their old wooden cabin. Ben would stare out his windows in his corner of the barracks, sick with worry for the health of his mother and sympathizing with his father, both of them frustratingly unable to be of support. He'd hope day to day to finally get the all clear to catch a caravan back home, then preferably jump straight to the main commercial road leading right into the big city where she was being treated.

But no matter how much he hoped, the world was cruel, and it would move on with the universe regardless of those involved. As he had feared in millions of nightmarish scenarios he'd envisioned in the darkest corners of his imagination, he was too late.

When they got there, they said that she had died peacefully, in her sleep. Benjamin on the other hand could find anything but peace when they told him. His father had reacted worse, the attendants said, yelling and berating the doctors for all it was worth, refusing to accept it. But Ben didn't have the that ignitable fire that resided in Eren Jaeger. Or maybe he just didn't inherit enough of it. Regardless, he found himself at his knees, silent, unmoving. A foreign ringing in his ears where his mother's sweet voice once was. Tears blurred, and he could vaguely feel someone helping him up.

There was a calendar in the main office of the building. Ben made the walk out almost unconsciously, not even able to process the reality of the situation. Dumbly, he glanced at it, and took notice of the date. It was his thirteenth birthday.

It was hard to reconcile with his father for a while. Naturally, there was plenty to blame him for. Mikasa had died with no one beside her; Eren in his grief clung to the accusation that maybe if they had done something different they could have prevented it. Ben didn't blame him for his anger, hell, he couldn't even relate to it at all. But like father like son, they say, and Eren and Ben were more similar than given credit for. Butting heads seriously for the first time in his life, Ben took off to find solace back at camp, where he would take on working as a serious intern. There were no longer any active military missions at their time, but they still served as a service to the citizens and public help. Ben would work alternating between a soup kitchen and a warehouse for four years, before moving back into an inner district to find decent living in hard labor for another two. These years strengthened him far more than any summer camp could. He lived on his own, paid for his own food, found his own shelter. There were days where he'd be a copper short and would have no lunch for the day, instead preferring he save the coin for an evening at the canteen for dinner. One day he felt like he would reward himself with a grand lunch, only to find that a scum baggy colleague had swiped his coin pouch off of him unsuspectingly and wasted a month's worth of work for a hard spirit over the gambling die. The hardship would build Ben's character, and slowly he'd morph into the boy that he dreamed would show up back home to the glowing faces of proud parents. But of course, that wasn't possible now.

An old face of shaved gray hair recognized him one day, claiming to be an old associate of a man who carried Benjamin's father's name. Turns out, Lance Corporal Springer and his father had been close many years ago. He said he knew his mother as well, and was saddened when Ben informed him of her fate. But the words went a long way with ole' Connie, and Ben had apparently made a sizable impression on him. And sure enough, Springer was true to his word, and only two month's shy of his nineteenth birthday Ben would be referred to a higher ranking faculty even closer to the capital to serve as man-at-arms for a sentry platoon stationed at a noblewoman's mansion at the head of a well-respected and influential fief of the county. Benjamin would arrive and be greeted by the Lady, an aging but still beautiful Historia Reiss, who put her hands to her mouth at the sight of him and immediately asked the whereabouts of his parents. It was strange to find out how many high-profile figures his parents were known to, Ben thought, but then again he guessed that was probably why they had secluded themselves so much. Eren and Mikasa had hated publicity. Historia was once upon a time the queen of their world, until she would eventually retire the position to the military, where the ruling of Paradis was now under the council of veteran politicians and war generals alike, many of whom originated from the Scouting Corps as well.

Ben would ease into a pleasurable routine at the mansion and its surrounding courtyard and marketplace, a bustling hub of trade and commerce. He would do his shifts and find his experience in the fields, accompanying hunting parties or being at the front line of an escort whenever Lady Reiss and her two daughters would travel to the surrounding territories. But perhaps this would be a good time to mention the two heirs to the Reiss' highchair, two persons of whom he had become well acquainted with in his first few months of stay.

Ymir Reiss was a poised and passive older sibling who had four years on Benjamin himself. She was collected whenever they spoke and often made the impression that she would undoubtedly take up her mother's seat once the time came. Mostly silent but beautiful as ice, wearing piercing blue eyes that sparkled with the will of a natural born queen.

But on the other end, enter a much younger and quirky last-born child, the teen aged and lively Valentina Reiss. She and her elder sister shared the same blond but wore them completely differently. Shared the same eyes but observed you differently, one keen and inquisitive and the other sparkling with curious attention. In comparison to her sister, she was, objectively, of lesser beauty, seen acting in ways sometimes not so befitting of a highborn lady, but many figures of court also agreed that her bubbly manner of speech more than made up for the aesthetic difference. More so, Valentina was known to smile more.

She was one year his junior, but young Valentina took an interest in this fresh face she now saw around the estate. She'd enjoy flustering him on duty with a discreet wave or wink that would send him into a blushing mess, and giggle as he earned a hearty scolding from the captain of the guard for slacking off. On occasion, Valentina would want to visit a posh friend in a neighboring county, and she'd request for him to be part of her escort. She'd make fun jibes at him from time to time but would not get the opportunity to know him till one fateful day a half year later.

In other words, after nearly six months of averting his eyes and making sure he payed attention while on duty, Ben saw opportunity when there was a tournament being held in their estate. It was an open showcase of combat for any traveling warrior seeking decent pay, a preferable option for most seeing as the world had rare opportunities for fighting men nowadays. Lady Reiss would be overseeing it, and the grand prize would be the privilege of a promotion to the Reiss's personal guard, an elevated position compared to the sentry that Ben was now. Feeling confident, Ben would participate.

Unfortunately however, his skills would fail him that time, and Benjamin would head back to his quarters disappointedly, fiercely embarrassed that he had made a fool out of himself in front of many people he saw on a daily basis, most of all including the upstart young princess who had a grandiose view of him getting absolutely sandblasted off of his horse. Dazed and completely out of breath, Ben made the walk of shame back to the pavilion to dust off his ODM gear and make his way back to the barracks. To his surprise, he'd find a letter awaiting him at the door.

It had been roughly seven years that he hadn't spoken to his father, and Ben was eager to respond to him in person, but his duty would prevent that. He requested to be released from duty for a week and was granted a spot on the waiting list. Until, not two days later, he'd come into a bizarre encounter with the youngest Reiss as she walked past him on the way to her room:

"Greetings, m'lady," Ben would salute. Valentina would regard him softly.

"A fine night to you, Benjamin," she would reply, then to Ben's surprise, her robes would stop just as she neared him, their silk ends lightly brushing against the rough leather of his boot. "A quiet night isn't it?"

"Rather so," Ben agreed. There had been minimal activity for the past two hours, and he was just reaching the halfway point of his shift. Valentina nodded, her eyes giving off a warm tint in the light of the torches suspended above them.

"I hear that you're trying to apply for a week's worth of vacation days," she said suddenly. "Mind telling me what that's about, Benjamin?"

Ben wasn't too surprised. He was aware she actively asked about him to his superiors. "Hoping to go back out to the country, m'lady," he replied simply. Valentina wouldn't have it.

"Someone important you want to meet?"

"Suppose you could put it that way,"

"An old acquaintance?"

"You could say so,"

Valentina paused. "Is it family?"

Ben nodded. "Yes, lady. My father, to be exact."

A familiar grin lit up the blonde's face. "Oh, well that's reassuring," she sighed. "For a second I assumed you were going out to spend an eventful week with an old sweetheart of yours."

Ben reddened immediately. "No, that's not the case, m'lady," Ben said as he regained himself. "I have no such attachments at the ahh…current moment."

Little did Ben know, this statement was much more a relief to Valentina than himself, but the clever princess masked her emotions well. "Of course," she began. "I assume it's been a while since you've seen your parents?"

"My father, m'lady, not parents," Ben corrected. Valentina raised an eyebrow.

"May I ask if there is a difference, sergeant?"

"You may, lady. My mother had passed some years ago. I only came into contact with my father again recently."

Valentina mentally slapped herself. "Ah, okay. My apologies, Benjamin," she sucked in a breath, dropping formalities for a moment. Ben acknowledged her, taking no offense. In other occasions he might have lost his composure to emotions, but at this moment he was quite distracted by how cutely the Reiss was pursing her lips in eccentric surprise.

"You've done no harm, m'lady," Ben insisted. "No need to apologize for nothin',"

"Well, yes, of course. Perhaps I've distracted you for long enough sergeant. May is best you return attention to your shift instead of wasting it on me and my silly questions."

Ben tilted his cap in her direction. "On the contrary, Lady Reiss. You are after all who I am assigned to protect. You have my full attention at all times," Ben's expression went from suave to red again as he realized what exactly he had just said. "I meant…not that you have my attention all the time, of course…but uh, I…" he trailed off into mumbling.

Valentina took advantage of his uncertainty to rid herself of her own. Awkwardness aside, the blond princess would bid him goodnight and walk towards the stairway to her quarters, leaving a fumbling sentry hastily returning a farewell.

The next day, Benjamin would be informed that he had been relieved of duty for exactly one week. Bewildered at how suddenly his application for time off had been accepted, he inquired the captain of the guard. His superior huffed and puffed and looked away grumbling something about a "lovestruck little lass in a highchair" before indirectly answering Ben's question. Shrugging it off as good fortune, Ben gathered his things and caught a trailer heading east for Shiganshina.

Reunion with an older Eren Jaeger was strange for Ben to say the least, but after all the angst and struggle that the two had endured for the past years had built up the two couldn't help but find a way to bond again. Eren himself couldn't deny it, part of it due to the fact that he saw Mikasa living in Ben's storm gray eyes. And Eren was, well, all that Ben had left to call home.

"How are they, then? I assume they're well?" Eren said over the fireplace, coffee in hand. A favorite of his.

Ben rubbed cold hands into the mug of hot pumpkin spiced sugarmilk, a favorite of his mother's. "Yes, they are. Doing very well, in fact. He's a Lance Corporal now."

Eren caressed the stubble on his chin, as if trying to visualize the person they spoke of in the way that Ben had just described him. "Connie's still there, huh. How's Historia? Says she has a daughter now, yeah?"

"Two, actually," Ben felt like he had to correct him, for some strange reason that internally he tried hard to deny. "The eldest is Ymir, and the younger one's Valentina."

"Ymir and Valentina," Eren repeated. "Figures. Literal copies of her, I assume?"

"Down to every strand of blonde on their head," Ben confirmed, which earned him a chuckle from his father.

"I thought so," he said. "Bet they're just as pretty as their mother was at that age. Back in my Cadet Corps Historia used to knock guys dead on their heads."

Ben turned a dark shade of red. "Yeah, suppose so," he meekly agreed, thankful that the flickering light of the fire created sufficient shadows to hide his blush.

His father was wise to his answer, however.

"Something to say, kid?" Eren asked, turning in his chair. Ben shifted in his seat uncomfortably.

"No, sir. Not at all."

"Is it the girls?" Eren asked, suspecting immediately. "You fancy one of 'em, don't you?"

"I…well, it's not…"

"Oh, shut up, kid," Eren leaned back into his chair, and for a moment his voice softened an octave above a whisper. "I'd recognize that voice damn near anywhere. I...your mother used to always catch her breath silly when she was lovestruck. I suppose...you've picked up the habit, huh?"

Benjamin at that moment didn't know whether to feel sad or embarrassed, so he decided he'd just feel both. Hot tears ran down even hotter cheeks as the two of them fell to silence. Ben tried unsuccessfully to smother his sobs, but didn't realize in the gist of it all his father let a few tears of his own break his character.

They spent the next few hours, well into the night talking about Mikasa. Reminiscing on old memories and telling their respective stories and exchanges with her. Some stories got laughs, some tears. They had plenty to tell, all of them mostly in occasions with the other absent. More tears were shed throughout the course of the night, but they were silent and loving ones falling for the memory of a very special woman in their lives. When the conversation finally rounded back to Ben, his initial embarrassment had receded, more at ease in the presence of his father. For the first time ever, him and Eren connected as men, then as father and son, and finally as friends.

"You know what, Ben, I don't blame you," Eren would say. "She's sounds like a fine lady. And she'd the daughter of one hell of a woman; I'm sure she's inherited Historia's spirit one way or the other."

Ben smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess. She is quite sweet. Can't say I know her all too well, though."

"Hmm, why say so?" Eren glanced at him. "Sounds terribly discouraging if I may say."

"I'm just a sergeant of the guard, dad. She's highborn and a potential heir. And any of the slightest of chances I might have had were blown out the window when that asshole knocked me off of my horse at the tourney." Ben dropped his head. "Not one of my best moments, admittedly."

"So? You'd just quit like that? Your mother would disapprove."

"It's not giving up, it's just…recognizing when something is impossible."

Eren snorted. "Oh, bullshit, you think just because you got wiped out once means you've lost all your honor? First of all that shows how terribly insecure you are. Shut down your damn ego and learn from it. And second…you wouldn't be here if it weren't for your mother constantly fighting at the face of an 'impossible' situation."

"I…suppose so."

"Damn right you do. You've your mother's eyes, Ben, that's gotta mean something. Believe me, Benjamin, and I know better than anybody, that if I could go back for a moment and say anything at all to myself…" Eren paused. "I'd slap myself in the face for ignoring the face of paradise right in front of me the whole time."

Ben smiled, happily this time. It felt warm to hear of his mother's memory, and to hear his father profess those intimate feelings so openly. His whole life he'd been a figure of dominance and asserting himself with the utmost confidence. To see it break, even for a moment, at the hands of one woman, really put it into perspective for Benjamin what it meant to be a man.

Eren taught him many things that night. And the following week, he taught him plenty more on horseback and ODM gear.

…

Valentina Reiss was humming along with her daughter on their makeshift drum set constructed from a multitude of pots and pans from the kitchen when she heard her husband pace around the the room near her. Curious, she turned her head around to see him scouring the pantry for a snack. He was being moody, she thought. Always hounded after something to chew whenever something would strike him.

"Hey," she said, prompting him to look at her. "You hungry or something?"

"No," he grumbled instantly, which told her he was upset about something but too proud to say anything about it. He never really got over that did he. It didn't help that she would constantly add fuel to that fire through her own witty tongue. Maybe she should consider permanently stopping bringing up the time he was brutally and hilariously knocked lopsided off of his horse all those years ago, a spectacle that sent her nearly dying of laughter when she saw it happen live. Better to just let the old wounds heal, she supposed. Besides, she fell for him all the more that day anyway.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," said another monotone answer. Hm, Valentina thought, maybe appealing to him through his one other weakness would get to him. She tapped at the occupied Maya sitting on her lap, and turned her attention to her sour faced father.

"Hey," Valentina called again. This time she held up Maya's hands with her own and together the girls sprouted giant smiles. Valentina the shining blond of her own mother, and Maya, ash-blond and darkened by her her parents' raven-brown and bright golden mixing into one. "You wanna play with us?"

There are some things that men can't resist, Eren Jaeger once told him in front of a fireplace one fateful evening. The thing that seemed to consistently find itself at the the top of the list was women, and Benjamin experienced that firsthand when he saw two adorable faces grinning up at him. Well, experienced enough to get him out of sulking, much to Valentina's delight.

After some ballistic clanging tunes, a bucket of ice cream, two dolls and an hour of rigorous role-play as knight and princess, he sat both of them down exhausted as he got left with the duty of cleaning up.

"You know mommy's actually a princess, right, Maya?" Ben said at some point. The toddler turned to him with a quizzical look on her face, then jerked her head upwards to seek the eyes of her mother, bumping into her chin.

"Really?" She asked in wonderment. Valentina shrugged, asking her, "I'm not sure. Maybe a long time ago."

"Doesn't seem like a long time ago to me."

"Really? Well, my memory isn't as good as I remember, sarge."

Ben replied with the smallest ghost of a smile. "I'd say your memory is perfectly fine, m'lady." He walked over and plopped down on the couch next to them. Valentina turned her chin over Maya's head to brush her lips lightly against Ben's nose.

"Perhaps not," she said teasingly. "After all I seem to keep forgetting the day that mom knighted you."

"Hm, a little outdated for our time. Your mother was always a traditionalist. I don't even think Paradis has even seen knights before."

"Okay then," Valentina twisted the corners of her lips into mischievous grin. "How about the time when I 'nighted' you?"

She never got to hear the end of it. Maya giggled from her spot on the floor where she watched her dad humorously trying to suplex mommy over the couch. Mommy was a strong one though, and bounced away from him before he got the chance. Ben, unsuccessful in his assault fell lazily back to the cushions stomach first, only to open his eyes to the gleaming expression of his little girl.

"What?" He snapped at her, jokingly irritated. "That's how you came to exist in the first place, you little baby, so would you just zip it?" Maya laughed even more. Valentina walked back over and sat on Ben's back, sprawled over the couch.

"Mrph," Ben grunted from under her, but made no further comment so Valentina let it slide. She leaned back and put her feet up, content with relaxing on him for the time being. Maya not soon after would join her and jump happily onto her father's backside with little regard.

Ben groaned a little louder this time, but the tone of his voice told the two that he was joking. "You know, I used to do that to my parents too, Maya."

"Really?" came her innocent reply. "Did your daddy complain or no?"

"My daddy was the strongest man I knew, Maya. He didn't complain in the slightest. We probably felt like nothing to him."

He felt Valentina lightly rub the back of his neck. "Don't sell yourself short," she chimed in. "You're pretty strong, too, daddy." Maya was quick to echo her. Ben smiled, then closed his eyes contentedly as Valentina's soft fingers remained relaxingly on his neck.

"I'm glad you think so, sweetie," Ben sighed, a sudden weariness overtaking him. "I try my best for you two."

Benjamin felt the weight on his back increase as Valentina laid down across him, snuggling an arm between his neck and the sofa to cuddle. He felt small nudges going up his back that signaled Maya's treacherous journey to his shoulders without losing balance. Two small arms would lean down the other side of his neck, and from that moment on Ben truly felt warm.

The cold weather and the cozy atmosphere of their house culminated in a state of collected tiredness shared by all parties involved. Maya had clutched herself around Ben's left shoulder, and her head sat perched comfortably in between. She was lulled off by Valentina gently stroking her hair from behind her, while the other subconsciously massaged Ben's nape. Eventually Ben grew tired and took her hand away from his neck, place it on the side of his face and leaned on it. The small family dozed off for a couple hours, and Ben would snap awake an hour before sunset. He looked outside to find an easy breeze knocking on his doors, a few white flashes that came by the window every so often.

Peaceful, serene. Loving. It felt like home.

"It sure does doesn't it, Mom?"

"Huh…?" Maya shifted in her sleep. "Wuh waz that daddy?"

Ben slipped her off and caught her in his arms, flipping his position so that he was laying on his back and Valentina and Maya were in his embrace. "Nothing, sweet," Ben assured her, then, voice starting to crack, continued, "When you're up again, maybe I'll show you the doves, yeah?"

"Mhmm, yeah…" she dozed. Ben tilted his head up to kiss her on the forehead.

"I love you," he whispered against her hair, unaware just how much of Mikasa was embodying him at that moment. He could vaguely remember seeing himself as the embraced child, chubby cheeks and innocent as the world's angels.

"I love you, Ben. So, so much."

"I know, mom…"

"No, you don't. And you never will until you know how it's like to have your own child."

"Well, isn't that a long long time away then mom…?"

"Certainly is. Hush now then, you're still my baby. Go to sleep."

"Yeah…okay…I love you, too, mom…"

"Mmhm, I love you, too, Benjamin,"

Valentina stirred from her sleep, this time to wipe the tears from his eyes once more.

A/N: Yeah so if you didn't notice, lol, I also really like shipping EreHisu, and I found a way to kinda make that happen here with Ben and Valentina. I still love EreMika tho! They are so damn close to each other in terms of which ship I like more, but Mikasa wins that margin by a teeny tiny bit. I still want Eren to love both of them dammit why can't he just be happy...anyway this is fanfic so allow me to dream :P

More stuff on the way soon. Promise! No more late days, I'll try my absolute hardest. Reviews are appreciated! Thank you for reading my work!