"Would someone please tell me what the fuck happened?"
Eren Jaeger was equal parts pissed and confused.
He had been woken up at ungodly hours in the morning to do experiments that left himfeeling like utter shit, only to come back to a crying kid who wouldn't shut upand had a very good pair of lungs. The fact that she looked like Mikasa only made him even more confused.
"I told you Eren, we don't know. We just heard the crying and when we went to see she was like that" Armin was beside him, both friends looking at Christa and Petra trying to calm the kid, not really succeeding in anything but making her cry louder.
"The expedition is in two weeks! We can't have a brat running around here; it's enough with the newbies"
"Auruo, shut up! You're not helping!" Petra gave him a glare while smoothing down the dark hair of the child "Honey, please at least tell us your name. We're not going to hurt you, alright? We just want to help"
The kid seemed to think about it, wiping the snot from her nose with her too-big-for-a-child sleeve.
"'ikasa" she whispered, taking short and quick breaths to avoid crying again. With that, the fears of the people in there became real. That child was, in fact, Mikasa Ackerman.
"Well, Mikasa, everything is going to be okay, alright? Why don't you come with us to find you new clothes?" Krista was using her sweet voice to calm Mikasa, but even then the younger girl seemed nervous.
"I wanna momma and papa" the girl's eyes started to fill with tears and Eren knew he had to step in.
"Hey, Mika" he kneeled in front of her, using the nickname she once had told him only her parents used. "I'm Eren. Look, right now your parents are not here, okay? So I need you to be a good girl and go with these wonderful ladies who will treat you really nice" Mini-Mikasa looked hesitant, but he knew he had convinced her a little with the nickname.
"When will they come back?" she whispered the question too low for others to hear, so he smiled and took the scarf from her neck, carefully so she wouldn't get scared.
"I don't know" he answered whispering too. "But I promise I'll keep you safe until then" he put the scarf lazily around her neck, throwing the end of it on her face softly, making her giggle.
"Okay" she looked to Petra and Krista and accepted their hands, walking with them toward the door, throwing Eren looks over her shoulder until she was outside.
"At least she trusts you" Armin said to him, putting his hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah" Eren breathed "Why didn't you try to calm her down?"
"Are you kidding? I don't know how to deal with kids, the only practice I have is with you"
"Hey!"
Eren was a little nervous sitting in front of the Commander, waiting for his decision in what to do with Mikasa. However, he was sure that whatever he decided would be what made the most sense.
"You will have to take care of her"
"What?"
The Commander had gone nuts.
"Commander, I-"
"Who else would you think would take care of her?" interrupted Levi, raising an eyebrow "You, as her only living family, will have to. She's a five years old, I don't think she can take a shit by herself"
"Levi is right" Hange joined the conversation, giving Eren a small smile "Right now, Mikasa must be scared and feeling alone. So far, she trusts you the most. It's only logical that you take care of her until I can find out what happened in my lab and revert it"
"Alright, fine, I don't mind that. But what about the nights? You can't make her sleep with me!" he thought back to his room, cold and dark in the night, clearly not suited for a child.
"Actually, there is a high probability that she'll have nightmares. You can't leave a kid with nightmares alone"
Eren nods, frowning at his lap. Surely they would make them sleep in a bigger, warmer room?
They do. There are two beds, one for each of them.
Mini-Mikasa slips in his in the middle of the night, sobbing about bad men and momma and papa and Eren, and as he rubs her back to sooth her, he can only hope that when everything is back to normal, she will let him protect and held her when she needs it.