"We need to talk"

"Shit, I can't deal with all this lying I've been doing, the worst part is that she will probably see right through me."

"You could tell her the truth" Frieda sugggested.

"That's not an option, because either she will try to actually kill me for not telling anyone about this, or she'll tell Eren, who will also try to kill me for not saying anything, especially to the scouts."

"Well then, what are you going to do?" Frieda asked.

"Im going to bend the truth. A lot."

"Good luck with that love, I'll be watching."

He looked into Mikasa's eyes, even though he couldn't see any enotion in her grey orbs, he could tell she was slightly pissed at him. Probably because he didn't come to her sooner about being a relative of hers.

"Look I get it if you're angry with me for not telling you that we were related, but-"

"You think I'm angry?" She asked him, the question obviously being a rhetorical one.

"I've lost every family member I've ever had except for Eren and you think I'm angry."

"Well what do you feel then?" He asked, trying to get a read on her emotions before saying something he shouldn't.

"I'm confused, mostly about why you didn't come to me before, especially if you knew we were related." She explained to him.

"Well, I guess I was afraid at what you or Eren would say, and there's the fact that you don't particularly like me. And I know the reason is that Eren gets hurt when he trains with me, but it gets really annoying when he keeps asking for the training."

"I don't dislike you, well at least not for the reason you think, while I didn't enjoy you training with Eren, I didn't think badly of you for that because he told ne that it was what he wanted, I tried to persuade him out of it because I didn't want him to get hurt, but you know how he is."

He chuckles a little, "Yeah, he can be very stubborn at times, but why didn't you like me?"

She sighed before speaking, "It was because I was suspcious of you." She stated to him.

"What do you think I did?" He asked her.

"It's not that you did anything." She replied, confusing him a little before she continued, "It was the way you acted, you could have had everything where you came from, a loving family, high status, the furthest away from the titans as possible, great food and wealth. There was also the way you acted, like you knew things everyone else didn't and refused to share them with anyone. There's also the fact that you've never shared the real reason why you're here, your answere is always the same, that you made a promise, but no one knew what that promise is."

"I never lied about who I was or anything about my past whenever I talked to anyone about my life in the interior."

"I didn't think you did." She stated. "I just want to know what you hid from us."

"I can't tell you what you want to know Mikasa, I don't expect you to understand my reasoning, but can you at least respect it?" He pleaded with her, not willing to tell her the things he knew, not because he didn't want to, he did, but he wanted to protect her, since she was technically his family.

"Can you at least satisfy my curiosity by answering one question?" She asked him, her eyes had softened a lot since the start of the conversation.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Why was the name Ackerman persecuted in the towns and cities?" She asked.

"Do you want the short or long story?" He asked her.

"We can skip breakfast." She said, wanting the full story.

"Okay, well I guess I should start at the beginning." He took a deep breath before beginning his story. "Before the walls were constructed, the Ackerman family were an elite line of Soldiers, they were the right hand to the King at the time. But after the walls were constructed they refused to serve anymore. The King at the time feared his ability to control them, so he resulted to persecution."

"But how are we here if our family was persecuted for a hundred years?"

"Because 17 years ago, there was an assassination attempt made on the King's life by an Ackerman, but instead of executing him, the King forgave him and made him his right hand man and stopped the state sponsored persecution of the Ackerman's in the processs."

She stood still for a short while, silent, as she was processing the information that had been given to her. She was trying to decide whether it was the truth. But if the Ackerman's were an elite line of soldiers, then why wasn't he as skilled as her, she pondered for a moment before deciding to let it go for now and accept hos words as the truth.

"Thank you for telling me Nick. Oh and before I forget, do you know how closely related we are?"

"No I don't, sorry."

"It's okay, but since you are some of my only family left, I think I should warn you about Annie."

"What about her?" He asked, confused as to why Mikasa would be suspicious of her as well.

"It's the way she acts, she says she wants to join the military police to be safe, but she doesn't act the usual people who want to join the MP's."

"I know what you mean." He responded, "She doesn't act scared of titans or act self centred like Jean."

"I think she has to join the MP's" Mikasa stated.

"Why would she have to join the MP?" He asked.

"I don't know, but you should be careful around her."

"Okay I will. Thanks Mikasa."

The bell sounded, signalling the end of breakfast and the beginning of a new day of hell for the recruits.

"You want to hug it out" Nick offered, opening his arms for her.

"No thanks, maybe in the future though" she politely declined his offer with.

"Oh and Mikasa"

"Yes Nick?"

"If you don't deal with the way that Eren treats you like shit, I will."

(Later that day)

"How did it go?" Eren asked towards his raven haired adoptive sister.

"Yeah, how was it?" Armin also asked.

"We talked for a bit, and we settled out differences in favour of becoming close to each other, because it turns out we are actually related through the Ackerman name."

"But why didn't he say anything earlier?" Armin asked, confused as to why he didn't tell her when he found out.

"He said he was afraid of what me or Eren would say about it, and there was the way I acted towards him for the past year of training."

"Alright, but tell me you didn't rope him into babying me as well."

"No I didn't Eren."

"Maybe I should ask him to help protect Eren, after all we're all practically family now." She thought to herself, inwardly praising Eren at giving her that brilliant idea.

(Later that day)

Mikasa was currently looking for her newly aquired relative, wanting to ask him about the potentiallity of him looking out for Eren as well as her and Armin. She was scouting the training complex, since it was lunch and she couldn't find him in the mess hall, she suspected that he was in the forest, since it was usually peaceful at this time of day.

She entered the forest, intent on finding him and ask for his help, she was so engulfed in her goal that she didn't take the time to admire the scenery around her, the wind softly blowing against the branches of the trees, the leaves also beginning to change colour at the end of summer.

Mikasa arrived at a clearing in the path, she saw Nick, asleep against the tree, but she also saw Annie, who brushed a lock of his hair to the side while she ran her fingers across his cheek.

She saw her start to lean in thinking to herself, "Is she going to kiss him?" She cringed at the thoughts, knowing that Nick was also suspicious of her, she called out, "What are you doing Annie?"

The blonde froze in place, the smile on her lips replaced by a look of shock for a moment before replying to her, "Why do you care?. Ackerman."

(10 minutes earlier)

Annie had seen him going to the forest about ten minutes earlier, she had thought about confronting him about her suspicions of him holding back during the ODM training, since it was all but confirmed he was an Ackerman. She had heard stories back home about the power that these "Warriors" possessed in their blood, so it was safe to assume that he was up to something.

There was also something else about him she couldn't explain, there was a tingling sensation in her stomach whenever she looked at him, there was also the fact that whenever she saw how close he was to Krista, her heart ached a little. She had put those feelings to the side. She had no time chasing something that wouldn't work out in the end.

Another reason she put her feelings aside is that unlike the other two "Idiots" as she called them, Reiner and Berthold, she had the decency to not try and build close bonds with the people of Paradis, because when the truth got out she knew it would hut them less if she didn't get close to them.

She eventually decided against her better judgement, to follow him into the forest, she had decided to confront him and interrogate him on what he knew about the Royal Family, which she knew was a fake. She suspected that he knew who the real Royal Family were, after all, being a noble most likely meant he wasn't susceptible to the memory manipulation of the Founding Titan.

She also toyed with the thought of trying to save him fron the impending doom of Paradis, she thought that since the blood tests that Marley ran were only to determine if people were "Subjects of Ymir", that she could get away with taking him back home with her. However that idea was quickly discarded from her mind as it would likely never happen, since he would most likely resent her for what she had done, after all, the only person she could count on was her father.

She entered the clearing in the forest and saw him propped up against the tree, snoring softly every time he breathed out. His innocence brought a small smile to her face, "He looks so innocent, like a child" she thought.

An idea popped into her head, she thought that since he was asleep, she could kiss him, just to see what it was like, without the potential heartbreak in the future, "I really shouldn't, this could turn out badly if he wakes up, but fuck it." She thought as she brushed his hair out of the way, caressing his cheek with her fingers, she started to lean in before she heard the voice of a certain other Ackerman.

"What are you doing Annie?" She heard the oriental call out to her.

"Why do you care?. Ackerman" she spat back at her.

"Answer the question Annie. What were you doing?" She said again, her voice laced eith venom this time.

They stopped their glaring contest when they heard him wake up with a soft groan, he opened hos eyes to see Mikasa and Annie there, staring each other down.

"What are you two doing here?" He asked, unaware of the situation he was in the middle of.

"I was just leaving." Annie said before she stormed off back to camp, annoyed that she hadn't been able to feel his lips against hers even once.

"What was that about?" He asked to Mikasa after Annie was out of sight.

"I don't know" she lied, not wanting the conversation to turn akward.

"Well then why are you here Mikasa?" He asked her, curious as to why she followed him to the forest.

"I came to ask you of you would help me look out for Eren?" She blurted out.

"Does he really mean that much to you that you would ask me for help."

"Yes, he does, he's my only family left, or at least he was."

"Okay, I'll help, but I'm not going to be babying him like you usually do."

"Thank you Nick" she softly said before she walked off, happy that she had another family member she could count on.

(Later that Night)

He woke up suddenly during the night, for seemingly no reason at all, until he heard his stomach rumble, "Well, that's what I get for skipping breakfast and lunch, I guess I'll have to sneak some food just now."

He got out of bed, put on his pants, socks and boots and braved the cool outdoors, heading towards the food store.

When he arrived he saw someone trying to break the lock on the food store, he got closer only to see that it was Sasha, he wasn't surprised to see her here, in fact he half expected it.

"Sasha, what are you doing?" He called out in a hushed whisper shout.

Sasha jumped at the sound of the voice, but calmed down when she saw who the voice belonged to.

"Hi Nick, I was just hungry, what about you?"

"Same" was all he replied with.

"Well then, looks like we'll both go hungry, Shadis put a lock on the food store." She explained.

"Not necessarily, give me your hairclip and find me a knife."

She gave him her hairclip and handed him a knife after she found one in one of the drawers, wandering what he was going to do.

"What are you doing?" She asked, confused by his request.

"I'm going to pick the lock" he explained.

"You can do that!" She exclaimed.

"Yes, my mother thought it would be a good skill to learn, although I never thought I would use it to steal food in the cadets."

After a few failed attempts, he managed to get the door unlocked. He handed Sasha her hairpin back, as she tied up her hair, he went in to grab a few loaves of bread each for them.

"Here you go" he said as he handed her three loaves of bread.

As they exited the food store, they heard the one thing they didn't want to hear.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING" they heard Shadis yell.

Nick, not wanting him or Sasha to be run to death by Shadis for stealing food, grabbed her arm and ran, dragging her along with him.

"GET BACK HERE" they heard Shadis yell as they were getting away from him.

Once they were sure that Shadis wouldnt find them, Sasha spoke up once again, "Will you be my food stealing buddy?" She asked him, her eyes pleading for him to say yes.

"All right, as long as Shadis doesn't catch us though, I don't want to deal with his wrath. Deal?"

"Deal" Sasha said, shaking his hand.

"Oh god, I just told the hungriest girl on the planet I would help her steal food. What the hell is wrong with me?!"