Went on a writing binge yesterday, I have a good amount done on the next chapter and I had this one down.
Anyway things will be picking up soon, if anyone is even reading this and is wondering when the story will really begin.
Enjoy
Mina had not died. But as she sat, the child curled up in her lap, face buried in her shoulder, Ymir could not help but be furious. She had not stopped shaking since Ymir had scooped her up and held her close. She was already on her way to see that day's test (Mina had been begging her to come to one) when she had spotted a frantic Hikari. When the scientist had explained what was going on - well Ymir hadn't moved that fast in a very long time.
By the time she had arrived at the site, Mikasa was standing over the little girl, sword out and steaming, titan corpse behind her. She had marched right up to the two, Mina charging up to her and hiding behind her legs, tiny hands clinging to her jacket. Ymir hadn't shouted then, quite calm while the child was still frightened out of her wits. "Mikasa." She had said, voice shockingly cold. "I expect you in front of Historia and I before the end of the afternoon." With that, she turned and pulled Mina up, into her arms, the child clinging to her tightly.
She hadn't been the one to reprimand Mikasa, that was Historia, her tiny wife handling the situation with controlled anger. They had put Mina under the Zoë girl's care so that she would be safe and cared for.
"When we had offered you compassionate leave, you assured us that you had your emotions and grief under control." Historia had reminded. "You declined, saying that you did not need time off." Mikasa did not argue, face impassive, standing in a salute. "When you asked to observe the child's tests, you assured us it was only to see if the child shared her mother's traits and attitudes, you told us that you would not interfere."
"I needed to know." She had stated, clearly. Ymir tightened her grip around the girl in her arms slightly.
"You unleashed a titan on a defenseless child!" Historia paused, taking a deep, calming breath. "You are hereby relieved of your duties as the director of the survey corps until further notice. You need to take some time to get your life together, Mikasa, you're only a shadow of what we once knew in the training corps."
"You are biased!" Mikasa hissed, breaking her salute to gesture at Ymir. "Your wife is one of them!"
"And your brother was one of us!" Ymir retorted angrily, speaking for the first time. Historia held up her hand in a gesture that silenced Ymir, who focused back on Mina. Mikasa seemed furious at the outburst.
"Ymir has been a loyal guard and protector of humanity, or have you forgotten her actions during the final push after Annie's escape? She singlehandedly drew the titans away from the walls - she risked her life to ensure that we had time to end this war. Yet you would isolate her as an enemy? Maybe I am close to the situation, but perhaps it is not I who is acting upon biased beliefs." She stated, ending the conversation while Ymir looked on at her wife in awe during her small, empassioned speech.
"You're making a mistake, Krista!" Mikasa warned loudly, the Queen waving for her guards to escort the shouting woman out.
Once it was silent once again, Historia approached the two, Ymir moving her arms slightly so that her wife could see the scared child. "She's shaken, but otherwise unharmed, if Mikasa had not intervened.." Historia hushed her, bending slightly to look at Mina. The child peeked out from the shoulder she was hiding in, to meet the Queen's gaze.
"Oh, sweetheart, you've had quite the difficult time since you've come to us, haven't you?" She soothed, Mina nodding but not releasing her hold on Ymir's jacket. "Hikari would like to see you, she's worried sick, would you let her?" She asked, Mina shaking her head almost immediately.
"She left." The child muttered, slightly muffled by the collar of Ymir's jacket.
"She came to get one of us." Ymir explained, rubbing a soothing circle on the child's back. "She couldn't help in any other way, she wasn't strong enough without her swords, and she can't heal super fast like me or you. Coming to us was the only thing she could do. Forgiving someone is sometimes the hardest thing we have to do, you need to be very strong to do it."
Mina pulled away slightly to look up at Ymir in mild confusion. "But Mir, I'm weak, I can't lift heavy things, or hit the bag very hard. I don't think I can do it." Ymir nodded, to show that she understood Mina's point.
"Well you see, I'm talking about a different kind of strong. You're hurt, and mad because she couldn't help you, letting go of that hurt and bad feelings takes a lot of strength from the inside, but if you can be strong enough to do that, you can forgive someone too." Mina scrunched her nose up, squeezing her eyes closed at Ymir's words.
"So like my heart? That inside?" She asked and Ymir breathed out a small chuckle.
"Exactly."
Mina sat quietly for a few minutes, little eyebrows furrowed in concentration, the two women looking on with small smiles. When the child opened her eyes again she nodded, her resolve clear in her eyes. "Okay!" She started, letting go of Ymir's jacket and slipping out of her lap. "Can I please see Hikari?" Historia smiled warmly as she nodded at one of the guards at the door. Once they were open the two Queens watched on as the young scientist scuttled in somewhat frantically, breathing a sigh of relief when her gaze landed on Mina.
"Oh! Thank Sina, Maria and Rose you're alright!" She exclaimed rushing up to the small girl, dropping to her knees and pulling the child into a tight hug. Mina seemed surprised, but still determined to say what she had to.
"You left me." She stated, Hikari pulling back to look at the child's face, hands still on her shoulders.
"Oh I know! I'm sorry Mina!" She apologised, tears brimming at the edges of her eyes while Mina just looked quite sad.
"But I forgive you." The child added and Hikari seemed surprised, simply hugging the child again, her words becoming incoherent. Ymir felt a massive amount of pride in the small girl while Historia simply seemed happy that everything was fine.
/
The next time Rosa visited the two hugged for the better part of ten minutes before they settled on Mina's bed. Rosa, who, as it turned out, was a year older, helped Mina read her mother's books. Hikari had told her daughter all about what happened, and had asked her not to focus on it. Her daughter seemed adamant on taking Mina's mind off it, and was doing an exceptional job. When it came to a discussion involving Rosa's tutors - the older girl had trouble with them, and often had angry outbursts during sessions - Mina recalled what Ymir had taught her about an inner strength.
Hikari found it somewhat sweet that Mina tried, despite the situations not being the same, but Rosa seemed to take the advice to heart. Mina had then proceeded to ask about the things Rosa learned from the sessions, the two getting into a deep discussion about basic addition and subtraction and even a bit of history. Although Hikari hadn't thought of it before, she realised that Mina had never had any education.
The next 'test' they performed was quite different. Hikari took Mina and Rosa to the Survey corps' main headquarters, a mansion-like building, complete with stables, a barn and a small vegetable garden. "Mina," Hikari had started, to get the girl's attention (she had been enthralled by these pseudo-familiar sights) "I want you to show me what you knew how to do at home."
And the child knew a lot, she started in the barn, where she cleaned out a bunch of stalls and managed to feed the pigs. She almost expertly milked the cow and then skipped happily into the stables where she groomed, fed and saddled a horse, before mucking a stall and unsaddling the horse, struggling only a bit with the weight of the tack. Annie had taught her daughter how to take care of animals, and how to get the most from each one. Mina had gone over to the garden, identifying all but one type of vegetable growing there and left it at that after she had felt the soil was damp enough so that the plants didn't need to be watered.
It was well into the afternoon when Hikari brought the child a horse. "Can you ride one?" She asked, helping the child into the saddle. She was a fair rider, struggled a bit with the rhythm of the trot and got a bit nervous with the gallop but otherwise competent, Hikari was honestly impressed with the amount of knowledge Mina had around the agricultural aspects of life, despite struggling to read and not having a clue when it came to mathematics.
She broached the subject of education for her with Historia and Ymir the next time she went to report her findings. Both Queens seemed to like the idea of getting tutors for her but declined the idea. "How would the public react if the child of a war criminal got education when most working class citizens still cannot afford education for their own children. It would look as if we were giving her luxuries unavailable to the public - who are not potential killers."
"She's not a killer though," Hikari had argued and despite agreeing with her, they held steadfast in their decision.
"We know that, but the public still do not trust her."
While Hikari delivered the news to Mina with a heavy heart, the child seemed unbothered, Rosa was even quite jealous. "Boo, I hate the tutors," she had stated, sticking out her tongue while Mina giggled.
"Maybe you can teach me the stuff you learn!" She had suggested and Rosa lit up, nodding frantically.
"Oh! Yes! I'll be a much better tutor than those old guys who teach me."
Hikari expected the agreement to last maybe one or two weeks, but months passed and the two stuck to it, toys gathering dust while the two started focusing on theory and events long before their time. A routine developed easily, a test for Mina in the morning while Rosa was learning from the tutors, and when they were done Rosa and Mina sat teaching and learning respectively until Hikari had to drag her daughter home. Once a week Ymir would visit Mina in the morning, Historia had fallen quite ill and had been confined to her bed, but Ymir kept a cheerful disposition around Mina while the girl filled the Queen in on recent tests and newly learned material.
As acting Queen, Ymir's days were stressful and pressing, but Hikari knew Mina helped Ymir relax, for just a morning, Ymir could forget her responsibilities and the stress of ruling a kingdom to spend time with what the woman was beginning to see as a child of her own. On Mina's seventh birthday they had a small celebration, Rosa had gifted her a new book, Hikari one of Rosa's old toys, a teddy bear and Ymir had brought an old package down, she had gone down to the Military Police headquarters and done a little digging, finding Annie's old training corps jacket. Mina loved it.
/
Year two wasn't any different from the first, Rosa spent her eighth birthday with Mina, the two closer than ever. While they continued focusing on their studies it seemed as if most people had forgotten about Mina, the pressure of testing being lifted significantly; allowing Mina more time to herself in the mornings.
Historia had returned to health and had retaken her place as acting Queen, Ymir relieved of that duty, and visiting more often. Mikasa had been reinstated as head of the survey corps did not have the destructive effect Hikari thought it would, the attacks on titans near the walls almost tripling over night to keep them at bay - but no internal violence. Mikasa hadn't shown any interest in Hikari, Mina or the testing.
Hikari had gotten permission to take Mina out to the stables once a month for a day the girl could do as she wished, often grooming the horses, but going riding on occasion, the members of the survey corps who saw them remained impassive of their presence - or amused as it was with one new recruit. He had been on stable duty on one of the days Hikari had brought Mina up to the building; and hadn't been told about the child.
"A little young to be a trainee, aren't ya?" He had asked the girl after seeing the old jacket, "that belong to your mom?" He had asked, inclining his head towards Hikari who chuckled, Mina nodded at the question, looking confused.
"Mina isn't my daughter." Hikari stated in a faux-offense, quite indignant.
"O-oh I meant no offense, ma'am, gosh I knew Commander Zoë had a kid but-" he had sputtered, going red up to his ears when Rosa pointed her thumb at herself from beside Hikari's left leg, Mina at the right one.
"That's quite alright Buermann, this is Mina, she comes up every month to care for the horses. Mina, this is a new recruit in the Survey corps." Hikari introduced, chuckling to drop the offended act.
"You can call me Jaun," he stated with a goofy grin at Mina before turning back to Hikari. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but do you mean M-Mina Leonhardt? Annie Leonhardt's d-daughter?" He stammered, casting another glance at the child, the jacket hanging off her scrawny frame, thin build, wide blue eyes. She seemed completely harmless, and yet all that people have told him for the last one and a half years was how this scrawny little child could be a coldblooded killer, just like her mom.
"The very same. Surprised Buermann?" Hikari challenged, Jaun nodding honestly, but deciding to change the subject anyway.
"So she comes up here every month? I'm still new to all of this." He looked back down at the tiny girl. "Can ya teach me the ropes?" He asked he kid with a sheepish look, Mina beamed at the opportunity to be the teacher instead of the student for a change. Rosa sat on the opposite stall door with her journal and pencil in hand, the rasping of lead against paper and the hum of Mina's voice lulling Hikari into a sense of normality as she watched over the small group.