And after several months this has finally been updated. I'm so sorry guys, I actually had chapter 7 written weeks ago but had felt really iffy about it and kept putting off the posting date. But this weekend I suddenly got a whole new surge of inspiration and scrapped that chapter and really liked this one much more. Also I feel a lot better about my writing now, so I promise the next chapter will be out much sooner.

Anyway I'm sorry for any grammatical errors (I'm bad at spotting those) and I hope you enjoy!

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"Where on earth did you even find this?"

It was a tired evening after a long day at work, and before Eren could even sit down to unwind, his daughter had run up to him with an old yearbook clenched tight in her hands.

Karlee shrugged her shoulders innocently, looking at the wide green book that she had placed in her father's lap, "I dunno…I was playing hide and seek with Erik and I found him under the bed, but his foot got stuck! So when I went to go pull him out I saw this thingy," she gestured at the yearbook that Eren was now holding, "And I saw your name on it and I wanted to ask you about it but you were at work, and since I'm not allowed to call your office anym-"

"-That's because you keep calling to talk to Levi."

The little girl scowled, "I call him because he's my friend!"

"He doesn't like you," Eren thought, smiling a bit sadly.

"Anyway," he said, "Continue with what you were saying."

"Oh yeah! After I found this book, I waited for you to be back. Then you came home, took off your shoes, made mommy mad again, was getting yelled at, start-"

"I get," Eren snapped, "So you wanted to ask me about this book, right?"

The eight year old nodded, bright eyed and all smiles. She climbed into her father's lap and pointed to his name messily scrawled on the top.

"That's you right?" she asked.

Eren nodded and flipped it open. Somehow Karlee had managed to find his senior yearbook; an item that he had thought had been lost with the years. The edges were bent and colors dulled, but it still held the memories and photos of what seemed like a lifetime ago.

He looked on as Karlee turned the pages, looking at and asking about all the people and things that she saw inside. When she came across the senior class she gasped at seeing her father one of the pages.

Her face was contorted in shock and disbelief, "Daddy! Is that you?!"

Eren smiled, "Yup. Back when I was seventeen."

Karlee made a face, "You looked so…so…"

"So what?" he asked, "So cool? So handsome? Well I'll have you know that I'm still very hand-"

"So lame. Wow."

Silence hung in the air like a heavy scarf.

Karlee was too busy looking at the old photo of her father while Eren was too busy trying not to let his hurt pride bleed through. The little girl kept looking back at the picture and then to her dad, whipping her head so strongly that her dark brown ponytail whipped him across the face.

"That was rude," Eren bit out tightly.

Karlee shrugged and dismissed his comment, "Where's Mommy?"

Eren sighed and set his hurt feelings aside, "She's on the first page. Turn back a bit."

"Where?"

"The pictures go by last names. So if I'm with all the Y's then Mommy should be where?"

"Right next to you, duh," Karlee deadpanned.

Eren's brain stopped for a moment and he briefly questioned how on earth she had gotten the notion that the letters 'A' and 'Y' were right next to each other, but suddenly he got it. The laugh that barked out of him was so loud and unexpected that Karlee shrieked and accidentally elbowed him straight in the ribs.

"Ow! Holy shi-" but he caught himself for once, "Holy shipmates!"

Karlee eyed him, "Shipmates? Isn't it holy shi-"

"It's shipmates, now be quiet," he cut in.

"Whatever," Karlee sighed and Eren wondered where the hell she had gotten this new sassy attitude, and if he could possibly return it.

"Stop wasting time daddy and tell me where Mommy is."

Eren sighed silently to himself and gave up, "Look in the A's. If I remember right, she was the first one listed."

Karlee nodded and flipped back a few pages before landing on the right one. Her soft gray eyes scanned the page quickly before landing on her mother.

She took a sharp intake of breath, "Woah! Is that Mommy?"

Eren was back to grinning as he rolled his eyes, "Yes, that's your mother."

"She looked so pretty!"

"Yeah, don't tell her I said this but your mom was hot as hell back in high school."

"Oooh you said a bad word."

"And if you keep it a secret, you're in for some ice cream tomorrow."

"Deal!" Karlee cried, "…But can you tell me why her hair was so short?"

"She used to play a lot of sports back then and couldn't keep it long."

Karlee's eyes lit up, "She played sports? Which ones?"

Eren leaned back, bringing Karlee and the yearbook with him and counted off his fingers, "Well let's see. There was soccer, karate, track, swimming and that one time she managed her way onto the boy's football team."

"…Mommy played football with boys?"

"Yup," Eren answered, "And she was freaking great at it to. You should've seen her Karlee, your mom was a beast."

Karlee gasped, "Did you just call Mommy a monster?"

Eren tried not to groan, "No I didn't. The word 'beast' has a lot of meanings."

"That's stupid," Karlee muttered, "But can you tell me who that heck Eight-cur-man is?"

"The hell? "Eren thought, leaning forward, "Eight-cur-man? Do you mean Ackerman?"

"Yeah that, whatever," Karlee commented, "Who's that?"

Eren was so busy mulling over his daughter's sudden cheekiness and wondering just where he had gone wrong as a parent that Karlee had to repeat her question several times before he finally heard her.

"Oh yeah, Ackerman? That's your mother's old last name," Eren answered.

"No it's not," Karlee countered.

"What? What do you mean by 'no it's not'? How would you know?" Eren realized that he was arguing with his eight year old daughter, and he also realized that he didn't quite care.

Karlee place her hands on her hips, "I know because her last name is Yeager! Like mine and yours!"

"That's why I said old," he frowned, "Before she married me, her last name was Ackerman."

Karlee perked up at the word 'married' and was suddenly brimming with new curiosity.

"Before she married you, Mommy's name was Ackerman?"

"Yeah."

"What else? What about Mommy before she married you?"

By then Karlee was leaning right into her father's face, gaze expectant and irises shining even brighter than usual. Though Eren felt pressured by the intensity of his daughter's eyes, he was still reluctant to talk about his wife from the past.

He could still remember that rainy night almost two decades ago, when his dad had come home with a girl his age trailing slowly behind him.

-Eighteen Years Ago-

A crack of thunder had woken nine year old Eren up from his sleep. It was storming outside and felt as if the walls of his tiny two bedroom home were being swayed and pushed on their sides. He had rubbed his eyes and groaned. It had been the third time a boom of thunder had knocked him awake that night.

Just as he was about to try and fall asleep again, Eren had heard the sounds of people talking outside his bedroom door.

"Mom? Dad?" he thought. It was well past three in the morning and Eren had no idea why his parents were still up.

Crawling out of bed, he rubbed his nose and crept towards the door. Their voices got louder but it was when he had pressed his ear against the wood that he heard his mother cry out:

"They're dead?!"

Immediately Eren's stomach dropped and his mind went through a list of people who could've possibly died. He had swallowed thickly and pressed against the door again, only making out bits and pieces of his parent's conversation.

Shot by robbers.

Hiding.

No place to call home.

She survived.

Eren's eye's widened, "She?"

She. Who is she?

The moment after roughly pushing the door open, had been the very first time Eren had seen who she was. She had been a little girl just around his age. She had long, black, pretty, hair and had been tiny inside of his dad's coat. She had been standing in the room corner, quiet and hidden like a slow and somber shadow.

When she had looked up and their gazes met for the first time (a moment the two of them would never quite forget), that was when Eren could also see that she had wide, beautiful, and very gray eyes.

Very gray eyes that were breaking in sadness.

-The Next Day-

It was his dad who had told Eren that her name is Mikasa.

It was also his dad who had told Eren that Mikasa's parents were dead.

Dr. Yeager left the more morose details of the incident out and simply let Eren know that Mikasa had lost her old home and would live with them from then on out.

Eren had nodded his head, not even beginning to understand the severity of his father's words, and turned back to look at the sleeping girl who had shared a bed with him the night before.

-Nine Months Later-

It had been the first time Eren had ever saw Mikasa smile.

It was so unexpected and so out of the blue that Eren almost thought she was being cunning with him. Mikasa had finally gained some sense of security in her new home and no longer seemed so scared and alone. She spoke more bit by bit and began regarding Eren as more than a stranger.

He had made a joke, something stupid and offbeat and hadn't even expected a reaction from her. But she had smiled at him, something small and warm, releasing a gush of air from her nose, and Eren had felt his chest tighten in a feeling he'd never felt before.

He had worked hard after that, just to see her smile again, and most of the time his attempts were unsuccessful. But every once in a while, every blue moon, she would smile at him and make all his efforts seem worth it.

It'd be three years before Eren would ever make her laugh, and when he did he almost felt like crying for some reason.

-Six Years Later-

There had been so many questions and so little answers. Eren had never understood what line of work his father had been in, but as the years passed, the details of his dad's medical business grew more and more questionable. It wasn't something that Eren had like thinking about and sometimes he would be able to convince himself that the issue didn't even exist.

But one day his dad had announced that the family was moving across the country.

And a few days later, his dad had gone missing and was never heard or seen again.

Carla took her husband's disappearance with more strength and grace than expected. She never cried in front of the children and always told them, "Father will come back, don't worry."

But as the days turned into weeks, and weeks to months, that hope died and faded away like an invisible scar.

The effect had been heavy on the family. The pain and memories of losing her own parents had come back to Mikasa tenfold. Carla's resolve had crumbled and she began finding it harder just to live on. Eren had been so angry and so hostile at the world. His father's desertion, his mother's grief, and his own heartbreak pulled had Eren into periods of gloom and cold bitterness.

One night Carla's crying had been so loud that is resounded throughout the entire house. Eren couldn't think, couldn't breathe, and had felt his mind breaking as he ran out the door without even putting his shoes on. He raced down the streets, feeling the frozen sting of the winter air on his cheeks and burn of ice between his toes.

He hadn't gotten far before hearing loud and repetitive footsteps booming after him. Without even turning around, Eren had known that it was Mikasa running after him and stopped right away because he knew that he'd never outrun her.

Furious, he had turned around, eyes flashing and jaw tight. He had asked her what the hell she was following him for, told her to get lost, and pretended not to notice how his words had hurt her.

But even so Mikasa held her ground and told Eren that she wasn't leaving him alone. It was weird because Eren had wanted to yell at her, scream at her even, but did none of those things. The honest sincerity in her eyes had been enough to let him know that no matter how hard he tried, Mikasa would be there with him.

He had taken a good look at her, cheeks flushed pink, in a nightgown, barefooted like him and suddenly Eren's mind didn't feel like it was breaking too much anymore. He walked past her, smiling at how disheveled she looked and told her that they should get home before they both caught colds.

One the way back they both had been entirely silent but when Eren slowly linked the end of his pinky with Mikasa's, he could hear the sound of his heartbeat thrumming in his ears.

And he had wondered if she heard hers too.

-2 Years Later-

The doctors had said that Carla was terminally ill and had a good chance of dying. Eren's heart had felt like it was more than breaking; it was crashing and falling into pieces that would eventually take him years to pick up.

He held himself strong for his mother, like she had for him when Dr. Yeager had disappeared. But later that night he had found Mikasa crying into the back of her hand and Eren suddenly remembered that melancholy girl with the long pretty hair and sad gray eyes.

He had held Mikasa close all evening, squeezing her tight and willing the tears not to fall from his own eyes.

They hadn't.

Later that night, they had both shared a bed again for the first time in years.

-Five Months Later-

Carla had died and was buried beneath the soil that both Eren and Mikasa were standing on. The funeral had long ended hours ago but the two of them still remained, silent and standing.

It was when the sun had begun to set and a light rain starting to pour, that the full gravity of the situation had completely and finally hit him.

Eren had crumpled down on the floor, taking deep shuddering breaths and wondered he had anything worth living for. He was so deep in his despair that it took him many moments before noticing the hand that had firmly wrapped around his.

Frantically looking up, he met sad gray eyes and in them he found that same frustration and the same loneliness that he had been sure was reflected in his.

Just like him.

She had lost everything.

(Everything except each other.)

Suddenly he had kissed Mikasa hard and pulled her close to him wrapping his arms around her, his heart around her, and his very reason for living around her.

Later that night the air had been hot and heavy in his bedroom. Outside of inappropriate dreams and heartfelt fantasies, they'd never before considered doing this sort of thing with each other. They had both been embarrassingly inexperienced and were solely moving by instinct. Nevertheless Eren had eventually worked his way into her, sobbing and moaning all at once but Mikasa had been able to lick and wipe every tear that had fallen from his eyes.

-The Morning After-

When they had woken up, Eren had had his arms wrapped around Mikasa and asked her if she could stay with him forever.

She had smiled and told him, "Of course."

A few seconds later Eren had blurted out, "So does this mean we're gonna get married or something?"

Mikasa had laughed surprisingly hard at that, and while she had stopped to catch her breath, Eren was still secretly waiting to hear a 'yes' from her.

He had gotten that 'yes' right away and a very meaningful smile right afterwards.

-Present time-

Daddy.

Daddy.

"Daddy…DADDY!"

Eren jumped, nearly falling out of his seat. Blood racing and heart beating erratically, he looked down at Karlee and found her scowling at him.

"…What?" he asked a bit dumbly.

The eight year old frowned at him, "I asked you about Mommy before she married you and then you got this weird lost look on your face and it was kind of weird."

Eren snorted, "Weird?"

"Yeah," Karlee whispered, "But you also looked like you were gonna cry."

Eren smiled extra brightly at his daughter and ruffled her hair, "Don't worry about me kiddo. I'm okay."

He stood up and stretched his back, popping a few kinks out, "And your mother…before she married me she was…"

"Was what?"

"She was very beautiful."

Karlee groaned, "I know that! She's very beautiful right now!"

Eren laughed, "I know. Exactly."

Karlee glared at him, "I didn't stop my game of hide and seek for this."

"Oh yeah," Eren realized, "You were playing hide and seek with Erik. Where is he?"

Karlee gasped.

"….He's still under the bed."

Eren fell on the floor, he was so startled, "UNDER THE BED? STILL?!"

Karlee looked a bit nervous, "Yeah…"

Eren grabbed her by the shoulders and frantically asked, "WHEN DID YOU START PLAYING HIDE AND SEEK?!"

Karlee gulped, "Around five I think…"

Eren looked at the clock and when he saw that it read past seven thirty, he let out a high-pitched shriek and ran up the stairs yelling, "ERIK DON'T CRY! DADDY'S COMING FOR YOU!"

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Later that night Mikasa was already in bed and half asleep when Eren slipped in right next to her. In the dark she could feel him wrap his arms around her and he buried his face in the back of her neck.

Immediately she could tell something was off and softly asked him, "What's wrong?"

Eren shook his head and breathed in her scent, "Nothing."

"Then why are you sad?"

"I'm not sad."

"…Liar."

Eren chuckled softly and relented, "Okay, maybe I am a bit down but that's because I was thinking about some stuff."

She turned her head, "What stuff?"

"It's nothing," Eren assured her.

They were both silent for a few moments before Eren spoke up again and asked, his voice tentative and wavering, "Will you stay with me forever?"

He didn't even finish his question before Mikasa answered.

"Of course."

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This was supposed to be a happy chapter but my mind clearly thought otherwise.

Reviews are much appreciated (they always make me laugh)

Again, thank you for reading!