So the next morning, Armin's grandpa was listed for the mission. He placed his hat on Armin's head as he left. He smiled at Lyla and said,
"Take care of him."
Those were his last words as he went to the place where coming back was impossible. Oh, how many lives were on her now? Lyla's head drooped.
Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and Lyla all sat depressed. Then Eren said with determination in his eyes.
"I'm going to join the Training Corps!"
At this Armin shut his mouth in a tight line and said, "Me-me too!"
Mikasa also joined in, "If Eren's going. I'm going."
"No way! You might die!" Eren exclaimed.
"I know. I'm going to prevent Eren from dying." Well there's that obsession again. Lyla sighed and said briskly, "So I guess all four of us are going to join?" There was a moment of silence. "Eh…?" Lyla was confused by their reaction. Suddenly like a dam breaking down, all three of them burst out.
"You don't have to go!"
"We need a place to come back, you could keep house."
"I'll protect you along with Eren. I won't send you where it's dangerous."
Lyla blinked in surprise. "You know, I'm your guardian. Wouldn't it be a little bit awkward if I don't go?"
"Certainly not!" All three of them chimed in unison. "And if you die, who would take care of our cookies?" Eren added. Lyla got in a fit of laughter at this.
"I'm glad that you guys are worried about me. Or is it the cookies? But I have a promise to keep, and so, if you guys are joining, I'm joining the Training Corps too. I'll go wherever you go to protect all of you."
"Please don't tell me that promise is a death wish or something?" Eren said slightly glaring at Lyla. Lyla again burst into laughter, "No, I have no intentions in dying, quite the opposite. I'm too young to die anyway." Lyla pulled out a cookie from her handkerchief. "It's the last one. Let's share it."
"Don't try to smooth things out with a cookie," Mikasa said.
"So, you don't want it? I was even going to add a story to go with it."
"Well…." Mikasa blushed at Lyla's words.
...
...
A few days later they were provided a small house. Although kids under the age of 14 were to go to the orphanage, Lyla insisted on keeping Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. Had the orphanage not been so crowded, Lyla wouldn't have cleared for a guardian.
The house was dusty. On the first floor there was the kitchen area and a table with four chairs. There was also a small fireplace which was good to know. There were two beds in each of the far corners and a bathroom between them. Lyla swept her gaze around the first floor and clapped her hands once.
"Okay, let's get this place all nice and shining!"
Eren audibly groaned but stopped when Lyla gave him a look.
"Now Eren, you sweep the floors, Mikasa, you mop it up. Armin can wipe the windows. And as for me…"
Lyla walked into the kitchen which was caked with grime. Well, it looks like she had her work cut out. There's no way that Lyla would cook in this kitchen. Not that she could cook much. When they lived in Shiganshina Carla did all the cooking and she only helped.
"Guess I'll have to learn now."
Talking to herself like this, Lyla started scrubbing the kitchen counters. Soon she was humming a merry tune and for the next few hours they concentrated on making the whole house clean. Lyla kept giving instructions to the kids while working and occasionally scolded Eren for slacking off.
By the end of the day they did a decent job. Lyla nodded her head in approval.
"Now, let's have dinner." She went to the kitchen where she kept the leftover bread of that day's ration on her cookie cloth. They started eating and Eren was practically stuffing the bread in his mouth.
"Eren don't take such big mouthfuls. You'll choke," Lyla reprimanded him. Eventually Eren did choke and everybody laughed. Dinner was merry, even though there was nothing but tough bread. But after dinner Lyla started in a heavy tone, "You know, these rations won't be forever."
The kids looked at Lyla.
"The higher ups would stop providing rations at some point. Then I would have to get a job to sustain us. And about your education…" Lyla trailed off. Eren frowned as he didn't like studying.
"I don't think we can afford for all of you to go to school but I can teach you here, at home."
Eren, who looked hopefully turned back into a scowl at the end of Lyla's sentence. On the other hand Armin looked delighted.
"We can still learn a lot of things!" He exclaimed.
"Yeah, whatever," Eren mumbled.
"You guys can write diaries every day and I can check your grammar…" Lyla started devising a plan. History she can get some books from the library. The biggest problem was math which was certainly not her forte. Well, they could do without it since they know the basics. Maybe Armin would be interested in more advanced stuff. She would try the library for that too. For social studies and reading she would use the newspaper. Lyla could also teach singing if they were interested.
As Lyla predicted the rations soon stopped but Lyla was lucky enough to work as a waitress at an inn so they had some savings. The owner understood that Lyla had kids to take care and was kind enough not to give her evening shifts.
"I think Lyla got the job because of her tongue," Armin remarked when Lyla was out at work. Mikasa and Eren looked up from their paper. They were writing their journals.
"I mean, Lyla can talk in quite a civil way if she wants to, like the nobles, and she's really pretty."
"How do you know how nobles talk? You've never met one," Eren stated blankly.
"It's just a feeling. And sometimes she has this mysterious atmosphere around her, don't you think?" Armin said. "Anyway I'm proud that she's our sister."
"She does sometimes make those eyes like she's missing something," Mikasa said quietly. The other two boys stared at her but Mikasa continued writing with no further explanation. At this moment Lyla stepped in the house with a bag of groceries.
"I'm home!" She sang out. "Did you do your studies?"
"Welcome back!" The kids chimed, Eren immediately taking the groceries from Lyla.
"We're done with our studies but Eren needs to finish his writing," Mikasa reported.
"Okay young man, go finish your writing and stop rummaging around the bag. I'll prepare dinner."
Eren grumpily resumed to his task while the other two set the table. Lyla started to heat the oven to make baked potatoes. She really wished there was butter to go with it but animal products were pricey since Wall Maria fell and all of them agreed to use butter for baking cookies. Lyla smiled at herself. She had a surprise for the kids in the grocery bag.
"Dinner's ready!" Lyla placed a plate of with a steaming hot potato and sautéed vegetables in front of them. All of the kids dug in.
"Eren, how many times do I have to tell you not to take such big bites?" Lyla scolded. After that Eren tried to take smaller bites. Lyla sighed at the meal. There were no proteins and she knew well that these growing kids needed it, especially if they're going to join the Training Corps. She needed to think of something. She heard that beans had good vegetable proteins. She would try that one out.
Lyla cleared away the dishes and checked the day's work the kids did. Armin's writing paper contained no errors and Mikasa had a few. Eren's was covered with red marks. But Lyla only said,
"Eren, your writing has improved." It actually did, he managed to write his apostrophes in the right places. But Eren wasn't listening as he was interested in the grocery bag again. He pulled out a chunk of something.
"Hey what's this? IS IT BUTTER!?" He exclaimed with excitement. Lyla let out a sigh.
"Yes it is. Mrs. Roy gave me some at the grocery. It was supposed to be a surprise."
"Does this mean we're going to make cookies?" Armin asked with twinkling eyes. Even Mikasa looked excited but someone who doesn't know her well wouldn't be able to tell.
"No dear, we don't have eggs."
All of the kids looked disappointed. Lyla could almost see the ears drooping like a dog. Just then there was a knock. It was Mrs. Gardener from next door.
"I just happened to be able to get some eggs and I thought I'd share some."
She placed three eggs in Lyla's hand. Lyla thanked her and they bid each other good night.
"So I guess we'll be baking?" Eren said in a hopeful voice. He could barely contain his excitement.
"Yes, kids go wash your hands!" Lyla said briskly as she started to wash her own hands. She took out a bowl, flour, one egg, sugar and other necessary ingredients. She then started mixing them up until it was right. The children watched with wonder. She pulled out a tray and then dipped a brush in melted butter.
"Okay now you can take turns in buttering the tray. Who wants to go first?"
"ME!" Eren's hand shot up eagerly. Lyla handed the brush with a chuckle. They all took turns and after that the kids got spoons and started placing the dough on the tray. When they said they were finished, Lyla put the tray in the oven. Lyla couldn't help but laugh when she saw the kids all huddled around the oven, crouching. They looked like little ducks!
After some time, Lyla pulled out the tray, revealing golden, round cookies. She let the kids eat one before storing the rest. It was crisp on the outside but soft on the inside.
"Now you guys can soak the dishes in the water while I take these down the cellar." She wouldn't trust the kids handling the eggs or butter. They might drop them in the dark cellar. And the cookie jar. Well it wasn't that Lyla didn't trust the kids. She just didn't trust Eren's appetite for her cookies.
She stored the goods in the cellar and came back up, only to find the mess all cleaned up.
"We did the cleaning!" Armin said.
"You did most of the baking and always helped us so we thought it would be a good thing to do," Mikasa said shyly.
Eren wrapped his arms around Lyla, "Thanks for taking care of us." He then planted a tender kiss on Lyla's cheek. Lyla laughed, tears pricking her eyes.
"Thank you. I'll always take care of you. You guys are my treasure, family."
So it was a happy night.
The next day at breakfast Eren blurted out, "You know, if we want to join the Training Corps, shouldn't we get ready for it or something?"
The rest of them looked at him with curious eyes.
"You know, like train to enhance our stamina that kind of stuff. It wouldn't be easy in the Corps."
Lyla ruffled his hair with a smile. "I didn't know you were old enough to think that far.
"Well I am," Eren said with a slight huff which made Lyla laugh again.
"All right, I'll see what I can do after I get back from work." Lyla said as she left.
When she came back Lyla thought that they would need core strength along with stamina so she devised a few exercises that would do the job to make them better. But before starting, she asked a question to all of them.
"Are you sure you all want to do this?"
They all nodded in assurance.
"Okay then let's start." Lyla also joined in. She adjusted the pace of the exercises to Armin since she realized that he was the one with the weakest stamina, though she never said so.
Every day onward they did the exercises together which worked up Eren's appetite a lot.
...
...
Two years pasted and soon all four of them were joining the Training Corps.
"I'm your instructor Keith Shadis! I certainly do not welcome you! Right now, you are no more than titan food, lower than stalk! We are going to train you for 3 years and see if you turn out to be a soldier or remain titan food!" The soldier who introduced him as Shadis started walking around the cadets.
'This is the start.' Lyla thought to herself.
AN/ Okay, so I just wanted to write some warm things after all that depressing stuff. Hope you all enjoyed and thanks for all the reviews, favs and follows!
