Notes: Still don't own SNK.

I have this headcanon that Erwin was born a noble, and to make this a bit unique, nobles have given names, first names, middle, and last name. The given name is something passed down in families and often the same from father to son and mother to daughter, and it is more of a title than a name. The first name is what they go by, and then there is a middle name, and a surname.

Otto Smith

"What are you doing awake, Miss?"

Evelina stopped brushing her hair and placed her brush back on the vanity. "Felicity," she chuckled at her nanny-turned-maid. "It is a Tuesday; I have math and grammar lessons with Madame Wahlberg."

"Not today, Miss. Your mother asked me to wake you at this time to let you know she has told your governess to cancel today."

"Did Mother tell you why, Felly? Oh, and drop the miss when it is just you and me, you practically raised me."

"Your mother did not say anything," she shook her head and patted her graying bun. "Sorry I can't give you more information."

"No, no, don't worry about it. If lessons are cancelled then I may as well pay a visit to Arthur and Leonie. You will figure out a lie to tell Mother, right?"

"As always," Felicity promised as she set to work cleaning the room.

Still in her nightgown, Evelina tiptoed to the staircase and leaned over the banister. "Mother," she called down into the foyer. "Is there a specific reason you cancelled my lessons today?"

To her surprise, there wasn't the faintest sign of life from downstairs, and considering it was a Tuesday morning, that was beyond unusual. Oh well, she shrugged and walked across the hall to Erwin's old room. Felicity once stated that the only people who touched it after he left for the military were the maids who took care of the dust, which led Evelina to believe that her parents did not hate him as much as they pretended to. Parents who hated their children did not leave their bedroom like a shrine to them.

Given that her parents never set foot in the room, it was the perfect place to hide possessions she did not want discovered; more specifically, clothes. Hanging at the back of Erwin's closet was a commoner's outfit Evelina had pieced together with items borrowed from Arthur's, Leonie's, and Erwin's collections of outgrown clothes. Too tight trousers and slightly too large boots Erwin wore when he was thirteen, a white shirt and sleeveless tunic from Arthur, and a brown hooded cape from Leonie that hid what little evidence she had of her feminine figure made up an outfit that disguised her beyond recognition. The outfit was not shabby enough for her to be mistaken for a servant, but was so ordinary that she looked like a governess's or financier's child, or a member of the least elite class of nobles her mother liked to call 'barely nobility.' With her barely nobility disguise, she was able to walk through town to get to the farm Arthur and Leonie's families lived and worked on without attracting suspicion. Seeing as both of her parents were not home, she decided to seize the opportunity before the window closed itself on her.

Often, she wished that she herself could have lived on a farm where there were trees to climb, fields to run through, grassy hills to roll down, and best of all nobody to shame a girl for wanting to make her own salad. Her fondest childhood memories were of sneaking off to the farm to visit her friends. She knew that she could not stay long, for it was almost harvest season, but a few hours could be spared. The first person she saw when she reached the farm was Leonie.

"Leonie, turn around!"

"Evelina! Oi, Arthur," Leonie shouted across the field. "S'our runaway rich girl, come to visit us, say hello!"

Leonie and Arthur dropped whatever tools they were holding and ran across the field to greet their friend with bear hugs. "You, little missy, are in big trouble," Leonie scolded.

"Yes, you haven't been to see us in over three weeks," Arthur pouted like a child and wiped away an imaginary tear. "We thought you forgot about us, you heartless demon."

"Right, I did, but I woke up this morning and remembered that I had two loser friends on the farm and may as well see if they wanted to hang out."

"So we are your backup plan boredom activity? That hurts," he mimicked being stabbed in the chest, but yelped in pain for real when Leonie smacked him upside the head. "Abuse!"

"Maybe if my boyfriend weren't such an idiot, I wouldn't have to smack him," Leonie teased, planting a kiss on his cheek. "Come on, let's go sit by the creek and catch up with our little blondie."

:-:

Leonie Pascal was a relatively short, green-eyed, firmly built brunette with a fiery personality that presented itself in both the best and the worst ways. Leonie's love knew now bounds. She was a steadfast friend, a devoted girlfriend, and her parents' most dutiful daughter, but was also someone whose hate a person did not wish upon their worst enemies. She was a person who always had a strong opinion and never hesitated to speak her mind

Balancing out her fierceness and intensity was her incredibly tame boyfriend, the brunet, steely grey-eyed Arthur Bode. Upon meeting him, people tended to think instead of his girlfriend, he was the one to be afraid to of. Arthur was a tall, muscular young man with a gravelly voice, and like all of the males from his village of origin, sported several piercings on his right ear. His accent and occasional use of words unfamiliar to the people in and around their area of Wall Sina set him apart as an 'other' and even people in his same social class shied away from him. One look at his piercings and people took off running, but once somebody took the time to talk to him, they shortly discovered that the mysterious out-of-towner was nothing but a docile old dog.

Their trio was odd, and sometimes, Evelina debated with herself about whether or not she even belonged there, but she could not possibly ask for better friends. In a way, she owed her open-minded existence to the couple just as much as she owed it to her brother, nanny-maid, and cousin. By the influence of those five people, she learned things that she never would have learned from her parents, and could not imagine her life any different.

"Come visit us more," Leonie demanded in a ridiculously sweet voice, her head in the younger girl's lap, legs thrown across her boyfriend's. "It's dull without your visits."

"We have plenty of fun on our own, but we miss our runaway rich girl," Arthur said tossing a stone at a squirrel as it leapt from tree to tree. "Plus, sentiment, childhood attachments, you know?"

"I still feel awful about you and your moms being ousted from my home. If I had not been so stubborn and insisted on being friend with you, you would still be living in the servants' quarters and your moms would have nicer jobs," Evelina twirled a strand of her hair around her finger and let out a sigh. "How unfair."

"Ma hated yours, anyway," Arthur laughed.

"Everyone hates my mother, except Father and I," Evelina pointed out. "Even then, I find her barely tolerable time to time. I cannot believe your mothers don't resent me for all of that."

"Nonsense! Mom was actually glad to be kicked out of the Smith home. She is worlds happier living and working on this farm, and so is Arthur's Ma."

Evelina patted Leonie's head and shrugged with a grin on her face. "All right, then, if you say so. Sun is at its highest point, guys. I should go home."

"At least let me horseback you to the edge of town, it's one hell of a walk," Arthur offered.

"No, I'm okay, I can walk it. Thank you, though," she said, hopping to her feet.

:-:

Whether a person believed in God, karma, the Walls, destiny, or kismet was irrelevant. The indisputable fact of existence was that the universe worked in infuriatingly strange and confusing ways. Even things that should be and have every reason to be guarantees were not granted one hundred percent certainty. Improbabilities were another thing that threw the balance of the universe off-kilter and into entropy. The domino effect, how one decision had the potential to set off a chain reaction of related but separate events, was yet another mortal enemy of order and security.

Adults blamed the disorder in the world on many things: politics, the poor, fate, greed, money or lack thereof, titans, the military, the list went on forever. Evelina firmly believe that people were the heart and soul of the problem. Humanity was precious to her, but not even she could deny that human nature was tricky. People were selfish and made decisions that affected others without so much as their input. The wealthy shamelessly took advantage of the poor and took more taxes or rent from tenants than necessary. Children, especially young girls in Sina, were encouraged to not think rather than be curious.

Occurrences of improbabilities were a fact of life, but, as Evelina found out later that day, you never quite understand what that means until it happen to you.

Later, she figured that she should have known something was fishy when Felicity screeched in fear upon seeing her enter the house through the kitchen door. The look in her nanny-maid's eyes was of pure, unadulterated horror. Had it been another one of her family's employees, Evelina would have thought the reason for the screech was her commoners' outfit, but since it was Felicity, that could not have been the case. The middle-aged woman grabbed her longtime charge by the wrist and dragged her into the cupboard.

"Felly!"

"Listen dear, please, I need you to stay calm and listen. Your father…there is somebody here to see you, a man, and he is friends with your father. I hid a dress in here about an hour ago," Felicity knelt down and slid a dress from under the bottom shelf. "Change into this dress right here, right now, and join your parents and their guest in the sitting room. You need to be on your best, best behavior – oh, dearie, there is no time to freshen you up…well, hurry and put that dress on, it will have to do."

Without a mirror, she could not be certain, but she was positive that her face had lost its color. Felicity had been employed by the Smith family since she was fifteen, and that was twenty-nine years ago. She had been by Otto, Maite, Erwin, and Evelina through the family's most trying times – financial rough patches due to Otto's gambling, Maite's two miscarriages between her son and daughter, Erwin's near-deadly battle with the measles, Evelina's first menstrual cycle and every one thereafter, broken bones for both children – nothing, literally, nothing threw Felicity.

Nothing, that is, except for whatever Otto's friend wanted.

"My favorite dress," Evelina said, smoothing out a wrinkle in the black material.

"I wanted you to smile," Felicity said soft as a butterfly's wing.

Evelina stepped out of the cupboard, grabbed a butter roll from the basket on the island counter, and devoured it on her way to the sitting room. Her best behavior must have been too much to ask, because instead of silently joining her mother on the sofa, she entered the room with a classic noisy, cheery, Evelina Smith greeting.

"Hello Mother, Father -" and queue the obnoxious curtsey " – honored guest."

"Oh, Mr. Vogel, our daughter," Otto said, the most ersatz grin imaginable plastered onto his face. "She is a lively, joyful one, an utter delight."

"Yes," Maite added, wearing a smile as big as Otto's, but hers was genuine. "Evie is our sunshine."

"Mother, please, you named me Evelina," the teenager chuckled pleasantly as she took her seat. "I am sorry to have kept you waiting, I was, visiting a friend. Claudia Arend, you all know her, correct? I wanted to properly thank her for last week's lovely evening."

"Polite, too," Mr. Vogel's hoarse voice droned.

Mr. Vogel was one of her father's gambling opponents and was one of the eldest males in Sina's fifth most powerful family, beaten out only by his own father. Evelina did not know much of the man, other than he was twice a widower and about a decade her father's senior. If Mr. Vogel had children, she either had not met them, or, they weren't in the right age group for her to interact with enough to remember meeting them. He was clearly a man to flaunt his wealth, more so than even her own parents, and a thick air of self-importance surrounded his very presence. The smile on his face and look in his cold blue eyes was even more unnerving than her father's nervous knuckle-cracking.

Otto Smith cleared his throat and gestured to his daughter. "Abelhard, do tell my little girl why you have come to see us."

"Right, Otto, yes, I was so enamored by this vivacious creature's entrance that I almost forgot," chuckled the older man with more mockery than mirth. "Miss Smith, would you mind telling me your full name?"

"Sir," she asked, confused. "All of my names?"

"Yes, your given, first, middle, surname, and maternal surname, if you do not mind."

"My full name is Maria Evelina Tatiana Smith, and my mother's maiden name is Arriaga," she said.

"Hm, only one middle name," Mr. Vogel noted aloud. "How unusual, I believe both of your parents have at least two. Then again, you are a peculiar young woman, are you not?"

Evelina bit her lip and let out a nervous laugh. "Sir, I like to take words such as peculiar and odd as compliments, and I hope you intended it as such."

"Of course, darling, of course," Mr. Vogel cleared his throat and tapped his cane on the stone floor. "Would you like to know what brings me here today?"

"Yes sir," the teenager nodded politely and lowered her eyes until he began to speak.

"By now, you are well-aware of your father's gambling habit. You also know that at Miss Claudia Arend's birthday celebration, your father went into the Arends' sitting room and spent the night betting with our peers. Your father gambled away a considerable portion of the Smith fortune to me that night, but being the gracious man I am, I offered him an alternative. His money –" the unnecessary dramatic pause only made the girl's palms sweat. " – in exchange for his daughter."

His money…in exchange for his daughter.

Those last seven words were all that mattered to her. His money in exchange for daughter, his money in exchange for his daughter, his money…

…for his daughter

money…

…daughter.

Money. Daughter.

Money, money, money, all that ever really mattered was money.

"Mr. Vogel, I am sorry, but I need clarification," Evelina said evenly, trying to keep it together. "You are here, so logic says Father agreed to the deal, but on whose behalf did you ask for my hand?"

"My son, of course," Mr. Vogel droned, stroking his salt and pepper beard. "Kristofer, he is twenty. Your surprise is understandable, Kristofer was very surprised when I told him this morning."

Maite clasped her daughter's hand and grinned like a giddy child on their birthday. "Your father and I have already arranged the details with the Vogels. An arranged marriage to a man with a pedigree like Kristofer Vogel will serve you well socially, financially, and it would seem that Vogel men are blessings for fertility."

Evelina could not believe her ears; her mother was already talking about her having children with this man. "This is wonderful news, Mother, Father, Mr. Vogel. Have you decided when the wedding will be?"

"Marvelous! You are only fourteen, so your father and I believe it is best to wait until you are at least fifteen," Maite said, patting her daughter's hand with enthusiasm. "I married your father when I was seventeen and he was twenty-three, a healthy age difference is important in a marriage, agreed, Abelhard?"

"Absolutely, my late wives were four and elven years my juniors," Mr. Vogel wore a pained expression; perhaps the man had a soul after all. "I would not have had it any other way."

Every fiber of her being was telling her to stand up, scream, shout, break a vase, light a log on fire and toss it at her unwanted future father-in-law, to do something – anything! – to make her true feelings known. Instead of fighting it, instead of Evelina Smith taking a stand for what Evelina wanted, she sat still and lied like a pro.

Yes, Mr. Vogel, I am eager to marry your son.

Absolutely, let the engagement celebration be tomorrow night.

I am sure I will fall in love when I see him, too, Mr. Vogel.

Pleasure meeting you, Mr. Vogel, come again.

It was not until after she saw his carriage pull away from the house that she leapt to her feet and kicked the sofa so hard it moved back a couple of centimeters. White hot rage filled her to the core, heart and soul, inside and out, mind and spirit. The betrayal from her parents, particularly her father, over being literally gambled away in a poker game cut her to the bone, beyond the bone, through it. The room spun and froze at the same time, the temperature both rose and fell, the world was in monochrome as well as color, this was a dream but she was also wide awake.

"You bastard," she growled at her father. "You selfish, appalling, abysmal excuse for a father bastard!"

"Evelina, language," Maite snapped.

"You have no right," she said, her voice shaking with the rage threatening to spill over. "Neither of you have the fucking right!"

Her mother reached out to grab her wrist, but Evelina slapped her away. "Evelina, sit down"

"No! I'm going to my room," she hissed.

She sent a final glare of her shoulder before storming off to her bedroom and locking the door.

:-:

An hour later, and neither of her parents had come upstairs to talk to her. She imagined that most children would have been offended, but in her case, leaving her alone was the only thing her parents had done right that day. Strewn across her bedroom floor were numerous balls of crumpled paper each with a rejected line or two written. Resting on the desk in front of her, ink smudged in some places with teardrops, was the final copy of the letter.

Erwin,

Today, Mother and Father told me something terrifying and it is very important that I share it with you. I cannot, do not, and will not expect you to do anything about it. This is not something I imagine you should be concerned with; however, you deserve to know. You are the last person in the Walls who needs to be told about Father and his poker habit. Father usually wins, so I suppose that is why it has never bothered me before. There was a poker match at Claudia's birthday party and Father apparently lost big. Mr. Abelhard Vogel came to our home today to speak with me. Mr. Vogel told me that Father lost a large portion of the Smith fortunate to him in that poker match, and basically, he offered to cut father a deal. The deal was that Father could keep the money, but instead of the fortune, he had to give me away.

In case I was not clear enough, Mr. Vogel wanted me to marry his son in exchange for Father keeping the money. Tomorrow night is the engagement party and that is when I will meet him for the first time. All I know is that his name is Kristofer, he is twenty, he found out about the engagement a few hours before I did, and our fathers want to us to marry next year. I am terrified about tomorrow, about meeting my fiancé, about meeting a stranger. By the time you receive this letter in three days' time, I will have met him. Erwin, I may be overstepping the boundaries of what appropriate and plausible requests are when I say this, but if it is at all possible, could you ask your Commander if you can come to Sina? You do not even have to stay the night at Uncle Felix's, just see if you can take a day to ride out, visit for a few hours, and ride back. If you can't get permission, I understand, but at least write back telling me what to do.

If I was ever this afraid before, I was too young to remember. The combination of emotions from all of my bad memories is nothing compared to how I am feeling after today's news. The room both spun and froze at once, I was numb but had never felt so alive, I was paralyzed with fear but also shaking with rage, I wanted to cry but I also wanted to laugh. I shouted at Mother and Father, told them they were awful, and almost let it slip that I have been writing to you.

Erwin, I need your help. Tell me what to do, give me your advice; you always give such helpful advice. If your only advice is to sit still and let this happen, I will do just that, and if you tell me to run, I will do that. Given my panicked state of mind, the only person's judgment I trust anymore is yours. You always have answers. I need answers.

Your nervous wreck of a sibling,

Evelina raked her fingers through her blonde hair and allowed her head to fall to the surface of the desk. She blinked the last few tears from her eyes and decided that once she signed the letter with the nickname Erwin gave her there would be no more tears.

Inna

There, she declared silently.

Three soft knocks at the door interrupted the process of folding the letter. Assuming it was her mother, she shouted at the top of her lungs for her to go away and took the liberty of using obscene language solely to spite her.

"It isn't your mother," a gentle voice on the other end replied.

"Felly," Evelina gasped, jumping up and running to the door. "I never meant to curse at you, I thought you were Mother."

"I came to see how you were," Felicity's eyes were filled with the same compassion they always had been. "Is there anything I can possibly do?"

"I have a letter for Erwin. Can you bring it to Uncle Felix's house so he can send it off? Also," she hesitated, she didn't want to ask too much of her nanny, but the woman did bring it upon herself when she came to check on her. "When you get back, can you…hug me goodnight like when I was small?"

Felicity kissed the top of Evelina's forehead, cupped her face in her hands, and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "You wait here, I will take of that letter."

"Thank you," she meant to say aloud, but it came out as more of a labored whisper.