"Being a successor of one of the nine Titans is what we were born for, Eren." Zeke informed his younger sibling, sitting on the edge of a wall in the courtyard of Liberio. "We've all been handpicked for a reason."

"I know I can do this!" Eren beamed with enthusiasm and punched the air. "We'll both be side by side! We'll be warriors Zeke!" His eyes glistened with hopes of the future – he and Reiner had shared dreams of becoming Marleyans so that they could bring acceptance to themselves and their Eldian mothers. They were the closest that they had ever been.

Zeke's faith was less idealistic than his brother's, he knew that there would be far more to their destiny than glory for Marley. "Don't get your hopes too high, Eren. Not all of the cadets will be selected."

Eren's cheeks puffed cutely, even at the age of ten he was still driven by a sense of purpose that most failed to conceive of.

"Yeah, Eren. You'll never be one of the nine." Porco sniggered, even as Marcel nudged him lightly. "Just like Reiner."

"I'll show you!" Eren growled and shook a fist at the brothers, more so the problematic one. He looked like a cub channeling the energy of a proud lion.

Somehow Zeke always felt as though he was on babysitter duty with the chosen cadets. Bertholdt, Annie, Pieck, and Marcel were the tamest, the least overstepping. But between Eren, Reiner, and Porco there was nearly constant bickering. Rather than support each other, they were competing. He pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation when Porco and Eren charged each other, engaging in yet another senseless scuffle. They had too much fight in them for being so young. Marcel rushed in to hoist his brother back, while Reiner wrestled to pull Eren in the opposite direction. Bertholdt was lost in a little world of his own as he watched Annie target an insect in the dirt with her boot.

"Enough." Zeke hopped down from the wall and shook his head. "Eren, let's go. You too, Pieck."

Eren grumbled as he fought out of Reiner's arms, he didn't have a second to wipe the dirt from his cheek as Pieck took his hand and pulled him with her. "Eugh, gross, why do you always have to grab my hand?" His cheeks burned pink, and he shied as they followed behind Zeke. "I'm not a baby."

Pieck wasn't much of a talker, in fact she was a peculiar girl, always cuddling Eren's arm and picking random flowers for him. Carla was a huge softy around her and constantly invited her around to their house, encouraging Eren to be friends with her. "You're muddy." Pieck poked at the dirt on Eren's cheek.

"Knock is off already." Eren's face scrunched as the girl pinched and pulled on his cheek. She often squeezed him like he was some squishy teddy bear, it embarrassed him in front of the other warrior cadets. "Porco is lucky that Reiner saved him, or I would've left him crying in the dirt." He realized he was only muttering to himself when Pieck was preoccupied in watching a blue butterfly fluttering above them, sometimes he wondered why she had been considered to take on one of the nine in the first place. Zeke seemed to always want her around, too.

The older Yeager stopped his walk through the internment zone of Liberio as he reached Eren's home. He lived there, too. However, he couldn't say that it ever truly felt like where he belonged. Carla did her best to support him in Dina's absence, but nobody could fill the void of his deceased mother. "Go on, wash up for dinner. I'll be in soon."

With sad eyes, Eren watched as his older brother sauntered down the small alley close at the side of the house, rummaging in his pocket for his lighter. "Mom will kill you if she sees you doing that. You know she doesn't like it."

"I know." Zeke chuckled and waved back at his brother with his fingers as he placed a cigarette between his lips.

There was no changing Zeke, Eren knew that. He sighed sorely and skulked into the house, pulling Pieck along by the hand. She lived a little further along, so Carla always insisted on bringing her by to get fed en route. "Hey mom, I'm home."

"Hi sweetie." Carla beamed a bright smile at her son and approached him. She knelt in front of him after noticing that his shirt was creased at the front and that his cheek was dirtied. "What happened here?" She tapped her finger to his tender flesh.

"Oh…umm…nothing."

"So the dirt just landed on you itself?"

"…told you…" Pieck mumbled innocently and gave Eren a gentle jab in the side with her elbow.

"Yeah, yeah." Eren bowed his head, avoiding eye contact with his mother.

Carla exhaled knowingly and whisked Eren up into her arms, carrying him with ease on her hip. "You got into a fight again, didn't you?" She kept one limb wrapped around her son so that she could reach for Pieck's hand. As she led the children into the small kitchen, she already pieced together what had happened purely from Eren's evasive eyes and pink cheeks.

"Looks like I'm not the only one." The boy grew less interested in his own issues when he noticed a tiny bruise beneath his mother's eye socket. The Marleyans weren't very welcoming to her, least of all in the tavern when they grew too rowdy for their own good. It angered him more than anything. He remembered the time he witnessed a drunken officer slap his mother and he lashed out by biting the man's hand so hard that he nearly lost a finger. Eren would've had his teeth knocked out if Zeke hadn't intervened on his behalf and talked the whole situation down. This was why he needed to become a warrior – he needed to protect his mother. Grisha rarely existed in their lives, he was always off doing something else, somewhere else. It was so secretive. Eren loved his father, but at times he also hated him for abandoning Carla in a society where she didn't belong. No Eldian did.

As proud as Carla was for her son's keen observations, she also damned it. It would have been so much easier if he could just be a child – an innocent child with no thoughts of war or the harsh reality of their world. She smiled and decided not to burden Eren with a conversation he was too young for. She set him on the counter and her face softened as Pieck handed her a washcloth. "Thank you, sweetheart."

Pieck smiled tiredly in response and clung to Carla's apron as she watched her clean the smudge of dirt from Eren's cheek.

"Where is your brother?" The woman asked, noticing that Zeke wasn't present, and she could only guess why.

Eren screwed his face, pulling his cheek from the damp cloth only for Carla to tug his head back and force him to be still. "He is talking to Reiner and Betholdt." He lied, hoping it would be enough.

"Is that, right?" Carla didn't look convinced. "Pieck?" She glanced down to the girl at her waist.

Unsure, Pieck could sense Carla was waiting for the honest version of the story, and behind her was Eren's pleading gaze – he was silently shaking his head with wide eyes. "Mm-hm." The girl nodded slowly.

Eren remembered to breathe and let out a sudden puff that nearly gave him away as soon as his mother brought her attention back to him. He gulped suddenly and forced up a bright, nervous smile. "Um, what is for dinner, mom?"

"Why don't you and Pieck set up the table and then I'll tell you what's for dinner." Carla lifted Eren down and set him onto his feet.

"Did someone say dinner? I'm starving." Zeke spoke coolly as he stepped beyond the front door.

Carla set a hand on her hip and eyed her stepson suspiciously. "Enjoy the fresh air, outside?" She probed, knowing that Zeke had been indulging in sneaking a cigarette when she had scolded him multiple times for it. She still considered him too youthful to be taking up such a habit, she didn't care whether he was suited to be a Titan shifter or not, it wouldn't matter if he killed himself with nicotine before he got that far.

"Hm?" Zeke knew that his stepmother was onto him, he rubbed his neck and lifted his shoulder in a half shrug. "Oh, right. Yes. I was just talking to Annie."

"YOU MEAN REINER AND BERTHOLDT!" Eren blurted out with a blue face, arms curled tightly around the plates he had intended on setting out. Zeke's story differed to his too much and he shrunk behind the table when Carla gave him a death glare. "…oh crap."

Author's note: Since this is an AU, I'm tweaking a lot of details here and there to fit the overall flow of the story. It is rated M for future chapters, but hopefully you enjoy so far! Thanks so much to kian1974eve for the request! :D