MERRY (late) CHRISTMAS!

I felt I just needed too! My Christmas present to you guys. My sister bought me 'Attack on Titan: No Regrets Vol 1' for Christmas! She's amazing!

Anyway on with the Story!

Chapter 7: The Penn (29 Sept 2015)

Six months later, Age 7...

Two turquoise blues peaked around the corner, carefully scanning the surrounding area for any signs of life. Behind him his accomplice shuffled uncomfortably on his feet. "Eren a-are you sure this is such a good idea?"

The brunette swung on his heels to face his friend. "Relax, we'll be in and out before you know it."

His reassurance did nothing to ease the blond's nerves. "Won't we get in trouble? Isn't this considered breaking and entering of military property?"

"Look Armin, we won't get into trouble unless we get caught." The boy in question stole a weary glance back at the supposedly abandoned building behind him. "Out of all the places on this base, this is the one place I'm not allowed to go. I want to know why."

"But maybe there's a good reason. Maybe its an armoury or a morgue."

Eren turned back to the building. "No, that's not it. Everyone's gear is kept amongst their personal belongings and I've seen more dead bodies than I care to count. They won't tell me that I'm not allowed if it was that."

Seeing that he wasn't going to convince his friend otherwise, Armin readjusted his footing once again. He really disliked the idea. If they got caught...he for one isn't keen on getting on Captain Levi's bad side, but he be damned if he left Eren on this venture alone, regardless of the potentially painful consequences. He groaned mentally, hoping with all his being that Eren knew what he was doing and shakenly followed the boy into the building.

The structure itself wasn't much to look at, its style and architecture didn't really defer much from the old Castle nearby that the Survey corps used as a base. The same was said for its state, besides being duster than the Castle (for obvious reasons) the halls was dark and cold all the same. Their only light source being moonlight peering through the cracks that cast dancing shadows all over the broken floors.

The building itself seemed to be in a square shape with an extra part surrounded with halls added to it, like a courtyard. At the moment they were inside the square part. By the looks of it, it looked almost like it was turned into some kind of research archive mixed with a storage facility. Most of the rooms where filled with bookshelves, creates, supplies, desks and workspaces covered in papers. It made sense. If it was the Survey Corps' Research Archive then it would explain why Eren had seen Section Commander Hange enter the building every now and then, but it wouldn't explain why Eren's not allowed in the building in the first place then, if its just a big library.

This prickled his interest. It didn't take away his nervousness though. The place still is pretty creepy and it keeps getting darker and darker with every passing moment. They haven't been inside for very long and still all his senses where screaming at him to get away as fast as possible. As if there could be something very bad waiting around the corner at any given moment...

.

.

.

.

"What are you two doing?"

Both boys nearly jumped out of their skin at the ominous disembodied voice from behind them, The only thing keeping Armin from screaming and bolting being Eren's hand over his mouth. Instead only a muffled peep could be heard. Except said ominous disembodied voice actually wasn't all that disembodied and it definitely wasn't all that ominous either, as it was more like angry Mikasa.

Even worse.

"Mikasa! Don't sneak up on us like that!" Eren complained, though it came out more as a whine as an actual complaint.

"Its not my fault you wet your pants."

"I did not!" He whispered angrily back at the girl who was already walking past him. Armin wasn't about to interfere, because unlike Eren he actually did wet his pants, but wasn't about to bring that to the attention of either of them.

Mikasa who by now was ignoring Eren's angry whisper rant, took in the surrounding hall with an emotionless interest before turning back to him cutting off the grand finale. "We're not allowed in here. What are you doing here?"

Eren grumbled but answered anyway. "I've seen Hange come in here plenty of times. I want to know what is so bad that I'm not allowed in here."

She nodded. "These rooms are all storage compartments and workspaces. What about that one." She pointed to the door at the end of the hall, the one that likely leads to the courtyard. The door itself was bigger and unlike the rest was a double door, worn by use.

Eren stared at the door in new understanding, having caught on to what Mikasa meant. If they were hiding anything then whatever it is, it must be behind there. He turned back to his two friends with new determination burning in his eyes. Its now or never. With one big effort the beam keeping the door closed was lifted and the door itself was pushed open just enough for three heads to poke through...

Another wall.

Perfect.

Eren made no effort to hide his disappointment. Pushing the door open enough so that the rest of their bodies can fit through. Two halls, one going left the other going right. The one going right though seemed to end in a dead end so they turned down the left one which turned around a corner that seemed to be lit by candlelight. Making sure to remain as silent as possible the trio followed the path. When the rounded the corner the courtyard came into view though their view on the right hand side was obscured by a torn sail. Thinking nothing of it, the three plundered on completely unaware of the beast lurking on the other side of the sail. As if out of no where, a gust of warm wind suddenly blew over them from the direction of the sails, accompanied by the sound of shifting chains.

The trio froze.

They were not alone.

Slowly as their lives depended on it, three heads turned to come face to face with one big blue eye starring at them threw the rip in the fabric.

In less than a second the beast's teeth had snapped where they once where. Mikasa had pulled Armin back just in time, in order not to get bitten in half (sorry Marco! XD). Both of them were now laying against the wall. (sorry Petra! ...Again.)

Eren however...

Like an idiot, was standing right in front of the titan with a ridiculous look on his face, having only stepped back a bit to avoid getting eaten. "Well then. A pet titan. Didn't guess that."

Mikasa spluttered at her friend's reaction. "Eren! Are you stupid! Get away from there!"

Eren looked back at her with a grin. "Its fine. He's chained. See?" He gestured to the indeed chained titan who, in vain, was trying to snap at him, missing by only an inch every time.

"WHAT?! I don't care if its chained or not! It not safe!"

Eren laughed but made no attempt at moving. Mikasa was just about to drag him away from that thing and beat him up herself.

"He's a feisty one isn't he?" A new voice joined them. All three kids turning to face the newcomer. "Chickihilo is always like that."

Eren recognise her when she stepped into the light. "Hange! Oh um-"

Hange waved him off. "Don't worry your not in trouble. Your just lucky I decided to work late today and sent the guards home."

The trio breathed out a sigh in relief, however some where more stained than others, considering the still present aggressive titan. Hange stepped over to Eren, standing right next to him equally undeterred.

"Aren't you afraid of them?"

"No... Not really. If anything, I hate them more than being afraid of them. I think I've outgrown it, like a child being afraid of a spider. It goes away eventually, but the general sense of danger is still there." Next to him the woman beamed at his answer, her excitement growing by the minute. He turned to her, a seriousness in his voice that an seven year old should not have. "That said, I understand that just keeping on killing them and hoping for the best isn't going to work. That's why you are keeping them here, right? For research?"

Hange grinned. "Correct!"

In one swift motion she grabbed him by the shoulders and turned his body to face her. "You know Eren, if you want, you can help me out here sometimes. That is if I can convince your brother not to kill me first."

His eyes widened at the offer. "Really?!"

She nodded, whacking Chickihilo with a stick when he got to close. "It would be glorious! Imagine what we could learn!"

He laughed at her dramatic behaviour. "That would be awesome! Thanks Hange I'd love too."

"Great! I'll talk to Levi and the commander about it tomorrow, assuming I survive. For now the three of you better get back. There's no telling what shorty would do if he finds out you snuck out to here."

Taking her advice to heart, Eren heeded the scientist a goodbye and grabbed his two half recovered friends. They where halfway out of the building, now walking at a steady pace, when Armin let out a snort and shook his head.

Eren stopped to look at him curiously. "What is it Armin?"

"You spend way to much time in the survey corps."

Mikasa nodded her head in agreement. Eren was left standing there for a moment before breaking out in laughter. "I guess so."

With that he ran up to them, subconsciously praying that the lathiathan hadn't yet noticed the absence of his three brave explorers. (Minus Armin of course)

When I wrote this chapter I happened to notice something completely unintentional and in my opinion hilarious. According to my timeline for this fic I unintentionally somehow managed to have this happen around the end of October, around Halloween. And when I wrote this chapter I noticed it had a hunted house type of effect. That I just find funny.

That's funny. In my country we don't really celebrate Halloween unfortunately. Not really. I'm almost sure most don't even know when it is. Were I grew up anyway. Though lately its gotten more popular with my generation. Funny, though my friends and I are known for our expertise in scaring the shit out of people with our awesome cosplay otaku creepiness we skipped Halloween this year(it would have been our first). We have a reputation at school to be the only group of otakus (at our school its very rare in South Africa truust me) the reputation only improved when we proved to be the best at dressing up as well. (costume charity event at school. We went as zombies. Hahah. My teachers couldn't look at me! And I think I traumatised a junior) Next year its Naruto's Anbu. I'm going as Inu (Dog). (my favourite Anime by the way...)

Once Again Merry (late) Christmas!

Until Next Time!

-Ziixx

(Updated: 25 December)