12 Years Later

Levi wakes up, the alarm clock ringing from the nightstand, stealing him from his sleep - Oh well, might as well get up now. He looks down, the red hair sticking on his shoulder like glue, reminding him of how he got so lucky when he met her.

"Wake up Petra, it's 9 - we've got to go to Carla's house for lunch, if we get up now we can prepare ourselves calmly"

The girl mumbles something, hugging with more strength the pillow, not wanting to leave the comfort of the bed.

"Come on Petra, you know how Carla likes to have more time to talk, even though she told us to be there for lunch I'm sure she would love it if we went there like 1 hour, an hour and a half early"

The woman gives up on getting back to sleep, instead just accepting defeat and forcing herself to get up from bed, her bed hair sticking out everywhere. Levi, after managing to not laugh at the hair presentation, gets up afterwards, immediately making the bed, stretching the covers, making sure that not a corner is out of place.

For these past years, Levi had genuinely gotten better about the situation - he had graduated from high-school, and gotten into mid size college, not too far away from Carla's place, so that those moments when he would remember Mikasa got too strong for him to handle on his own he could pop over and rest - Petra had gotten in the same college, and even though they had their fights, they always stuck with each other, until, after college, they moved in together in a small but cozy apartment, from where they could reach their respective jobs with ease.

Levi had opened a tea shop, always one of his biggest pleasures in life, and even though the sales weren't as high as someone would hope for, he still earned enough for him to comfortably pay rent, amenities, and have money left on the side.

Petra instead chose a different career, going into teaching self defense classes - she was a master at using her opponent's weight and force against them, and then making them tap out with some elaborate hold that would put pressure on the shoulders.

"Ok, give me like 30 minutes to wake up, another 20 minutes to refresh myself and then we can go, alright?" - the woman slowly lifts herself from the bed, stretching her arms and back while yawning. Levi can only stand there, mentally counting the seconds it takes her to even get up and not be seated on the bed anymore. "Is this part of the 30 minutes or is this the warm up part?"

"Keep laughing, Ackerman - you know you can't do better than me, so you better watch yourself and refer to me with respect", she says, while getting up and walking over to him - even though she knows that both couldn't find anyone better than the other one.

Eren was standing in his mother's kitchen, watching over some tomato sauce, occasionally stirring it once the bubbling gets too strong.

While Levi did get better, Eren did not - he did not understand how people could just move on from something like this, just forget about important people in their lives - he would start every day by looking at a picture of himself and Mikasa, faces covered by smiles, hugging each other. They took that picture at an amusement park, he does not remember which one, but it's his favorite out of the bunch he has, but he does not know exactly why.

The brunette grew more introverted, unable to get back on his feet properly - he still managed to finish high-school, and after that he took online classes for college for programming- unfortunately that meant a lot more time spent thinking about her than studying, and while he didn't fail, he wasn't exactly prepared to land a job - thankfully Levi's tea shop was nearby, so he was able to get a part time job there, while he applied himself and studies again, from scratch, trying to grow himself professionally and personally.

"Can you taste the sauce, Eren? See if it needs more salt?" - his mother's voice could be heard from the living room, where she is setting the table and straightening out the place.

"Tastes good mom - don't worry, they won't leave the house if the food doesn't taste good"

"I know that, smartass - it's just common courtesy to not have frozen food when you have guests over, you know?" - Carla feels some happiness at the tone of her son, even in the shape of a sarcastic comment. Eren wasn't the same carefree kid of years ago - he grew and got more composed, but along with that came some anger issues, some quick burst of rage that he still has no control over - but him not simply nodding at everything she said feels like a victory anyway.

A knock on the door prevents Carla to ask more feedback from her son, going over to open the door, imagining it would the Levi.

"Hello! Hope we aren't too early!" - Petra is the first to come in, hugging Carla tightly - the two women somewhat bonded over dealing with a person affected by a traumatic event, each confiding in the other about what happened and what they could do together to help them. "I would've brought some wine but Mr Fancy here needed to bring his own stuff"

"Hey cold tea is a much better choice for lunches - they don't intoxicate you and they actually quench your thirst, unlike alcohol, which dehydrates - and this is a quality brew"

The trio laugh together, and Carla moves to hug Levi - he has unofficially become her second son, and even though Eren wouldn't admit it, he did enjoy and benefit from the older man's presence - the two persons having formed a sort of brotherly relationship.

"Well, come in, make yourselves comfortable - it's still early for lunch, but we can catch up in the meanwhile, maybe have some snacks. Do you want something in particular?" Carla makes way for the couple to drop their coats and jackets onto the sofa, while Levi turns towards Petra, giving her a subtle "I told you so" look. "Anything you have will be fine, Carla, thanks! How's Eren doing?" - Levi asks, sneaking a glance towards the kitchen - "He still needs to learn how to properly clean shelves, last time I had to clean an entire cabinet again"

"That's because your cleaning standards are so high that butlers should take lessons from you, shortstack" Eren interjectes, knowing how to press the man's buttons - ever since Eren hit his growth spurt, he was now towering over everyone, much to Levi's annoyance.

"Eren! Don't be rude!" - Carla pretends to be extremely offended by the statement, going so far as to put a hand to her chest and gasping loudly - "I don't want him to grow up, already I have to twist my neck just to look at you, I'm thankful that I don't need to do it with him!"

"And I love that I don't have to stand on my toes when I hug him, thank you very much - he's the perfect height!"

"You know, I am taller than both of you, you don't need to rub it in" - the black haired man replies, feeling self conscious. Ever since he stopped growing at the age of 17, he had to just accept the fact that basketball wouldn't be a career choice suited for him, but he still took pride in the fact that, to put bullies in their places, he mastered the " I'm going to fold you in half and make it look easy" stare, which currently is having the desired effect on Eren.

"You know that Petra didn't get that good on her own, right? I know how to fight as well, kid", Levi says, making Eren wish that he was smaller to escape the gaze in an easier way.

"Relax , shortstack, don't take it out on the kid - look, he's trembling like a leaf already, poor baby", Petra defends the brunette, who seems to take offense to the baby talk, talking about how they're only 4 years older than him.

Carla is watching this unfolds, and almost wants to cry - for once, Eren wasn't thinking about Mikasa, and actually having a fun time. If only he managed to reach this level years ago. As far as Carla knows, he's still somewhat in touch with his old classmates, who seem hell bent on bringing Eren out of his shell : Armin will pop over at least once a week to talk to him, and on a good day he would actually bring him out of the house to join the others. But Armin would never say what exactly happened after that, if they succeeded in making Eren smile, at least.

But for now she doesn't want to think about that, she just wants to enjoy watching Eren behaving like he used to, if only a bit subdued.

Mikasa is cleaning her room, the same one that she's had for over a decade - small, cramped, and not at all comfortable, but she had to learn how to bring this unfamiliar room into her own little space, where she wasn't abused and used by everyone, and even if it was just a fantasy that never came real, she still hanged on to that thought, always trying as hard as possible to maintain her room her own, throwing out everything that wasn't hers - the men had laughed when they realised what she was doing and mocked her by putting there even more trash, but stopped after Mikasa would simply pick it up and throw it away in a bin, not finding it funny if Mikasa didn't cry or had a breakdown.

Instead they fell into their usual routine of groping her whenever she was walking from her room to her designated "working" room, Mikasa not even bothering to fight back - she still remembers that fighting back would only end with her on the floor, in pain, and still forced to serve and submit to other people.

She had grown numb to the forced sex, just following orders and putting herself into whatever positions the clients wanted, her brain just shutting off and turning back on once the man or woman had finished, taking her clothes and walking to her room. The fear of any repurcussion was more than enough to stop her from even attempting to save some dignity.

They had completely taken over, only needing to shout at her any order for her to obey what they wanted to do out of fear alone - they had transformed her into their personal maid, always forcing her to clean up whenever they went.

But in her room, her space, the old Mikasa sometimes would surface again, her just thinking about happy memories with her family - one of her favourite was their trip to the amusement park - Eren and Carla went with them, and together had spent a wonderful day, full of laughter and joy. At first she didn't want to think about those times, because it would only remind her of what she couldn't have, but now she grew fond of them, reminding her of who she is - Or was?

The door to her room opens, and Elena walks in - the decade spent in here didn't seem to affect her at all, as she was still smiling every day, obviously happy that she maintained her beauty - "Hey beautiful! You're actually cleaning this room? Did someone force you to?" - after Mikasa's no, Elena starts laughing at the girl - "Why would you waste time on this room, princess, it's still just a place for us to use you, but I appreciate your effort in making this a bit more nicer for us while we're in here - speaking of which, I'm in terrible need of some "us" time, beautiful".

Elena starts stripping, deliberately putting more movement in her hips, to an clearly unimpressed Mikasa, who got the message. Elena had started to take an interest in the girl's body, and would sometimes use her for however long she wanted - at first, Mikasa was only forced to strip naked and curl against the older woman, but as time went on Elena had started to pretend more of an active relationship.

"Can...can we go to the other room? I-I just cleaned he-here...I don't want to do it again"

Elena seemed surprised that Mikasa actually voiced her opinions, normally she would just silently comply - "Oh you actually are speaking? Well, no matter - and anyways, I don't want to go in that dump, it's disgusting in there, you should know that"

"Pluh- Please don't - I'll clean up the room right now if you want - just...please!"

Elena just walks in front of Mikasa, smiling smugly, with a dangerous glint in her eyes - "Are you disobeying me right now, princess? You know what happens when you disobey orders", she speaks slowly, and raises one hand, fingers waving in a mocking manner.

Immediately Mikasa's brain sends danger signals to the body, trying to just submit in order to avoid the punishment, but the raven doesn't want to give in and defile her place this time - "Please! I'll do whatever you want, I'll- I'll be more active, just please don't make me do it in here! Please!" - The girl breaks down, crying, while stepping away from the advancing woman, who seems to take pleasure in her mental pain.

"What I want is for you to obey me, bitch. If I want to do it here-", her hand raising up high, "we do it here". The raised hand cascades down with strength, slapping Mikasa straight in her face.

The girl drops to her knees, hands high to protect herself from other slaps, crying and shouting at her to stop- My last space...I'm going to lose my last space...

Suddenly, Elena gets lifted off Mikasa by force, who is still crouching on the floor not watching and crying her eyes out. Mikasa doesn't feel additional pain anymore, just screaming and shouting, driving her into a fear fueled panic attack- the raven starts gasping for air, the shouts not stopping, and she screams - "I'LL DO IT! I'LL CLEAN! STOP SHOUTING!"

But the noise doesn't stop - Mikasa can only cover her ears at the noise, trying to shut everything out, closing her eyes tight, and she just screams in agony, pain, and fear.

In the midst of the shouts, she does manage to catch a word, that makes her stop and pay attention, fighting her urge to try her best to not hear anything - she hears "Police".

Immediately Mikasa looks up, and she's surrounded by officers, some pointing a gun at her - "DON'T KILL ME PLEASE!" , she screams, crying even more at the sight.

"What the fuck are you guys doing? Can't you see that she's clearly in a state of shock? Seriously, lay off the macho attitude, people!"

The raven hears soft steps, stopping in front of her, but she still doesn't move her hands away from her face - "Hey, everything is ok...you're safe now...can you move your hands? Are you hurt anywhere?"

Mikasa softly looks up, looking at an officer, who only smiles and, making sure she's watching, shoves away from them his weapons.

"We're not going to hurt you - you're safe. Can you give me your name, please?"

The girl blinks, once, then twice, and then responds : "Mikasa Ackerman"

Levi is currently telling the story of how Eren almost got in a fight with a customer of his shop, while he was preparing the price tags of the items.

" I swear, if I hadn't intervened this one would've punched this guy in the face, I'm pretty sure he was already leaning back!"

The table explodes in laughter, tears coming to Carla's eyes - it was a long time since she's been able to genuinely laugh with her family - "Eren always was a reckless person - one time he wanted to jump from a moving car onto a chair - I couldn't convince him that he would probably hurt himself really badly, and he kept replying how that would be 'totally radical mom'", Carla says, while doing the 'hang loose' sign with her hand, much to Eren's embarrassment. "If it hadn't been for Mikasa, he probably would have had a broken wrist", Carla exclaims, and then stops herself, suddenly realising who she mentioned.

Immediately the table got deadly silent, no-one daring to speak, Eren's mood worsening greatly.

"Does the police have any updates?" The brunette asks, not looking up from his glass.

Levi takes a deep breath, and after a quick nod from Petra, replies back - "I haven't asked Eren. I kind of stopped asking them a while back".

Like a grenade going off, Eren snaps his head towards the older boy and just screams at him "WHAT? You stopped asking them? Why on earth-"

"Eren. It's been 13 years. I'm pretty sure they archived the case - there haven't been any new updates since 5 years ago. They haven't found anything new"

"And you're just happy to let them just shove the-"

"Of course I'm not happy about it Eren, it's just that-"

"Then why aren't you fighting more?! Mikasa is counting on you, and you're just happy the way things are right now?"

"OF COURSE I'M NOT HAPPY, EREN! I LOST MY FAMILY!" - Levi screams at the boy, then continues "I've spent every day kicking myself for not being there, for avoiding this! WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO? Spend every minute in misery, hoping for Mikasa to get back? Don't you even DARE to think that I'm happy, you've lost a friend, I LOST MY ENTIRE FAMILY!"

For a couple of minutes, no-one speaks. The only noise heard , the heavy breathing from Levi's part, when a ringing starts to appear. Levi fishes out his phone from his pocket, and with a grunted "Excuse me", goes into the kitchen to answer it.

Eren is staring at the table, not wanting to look up, wishing that he could just disappear and not deal with the disapproving glares of the two women.

"Eren. It's time to deal with this - you've spent a good portion of your life focused only on one thing, and it almost ruined your academics" Carla starts, feeling shame and anger inside of her - " We're not saying to simply forget about her, we're saying to accept it - it's a difficult and awful thing to do, and to you, it might be very well feel like giving up on Mikasa, but it's all we can do - we can't do anything more"

More silence.

"Eren?"

The boy in question is about to answer, when Levi stumbles in the kitchen, frantically putting on his jacket

"Levi? Who was that, what's happening?" Petra asks her boyfriend, worried at his behaviour.

Levi can only smile, tearing up, actually crying, and only says "They've found her!"