Author's Notes
Hi there, this is the COOKIECHEESEMAN! I generally write fics for the Fire Emblem section of Fanfiction, but with the final episode of Attack on Titan airing in a few days, I wanted to write another AOT fic to celebrate the occasion!
The first AOT fic I wrote back in 2022 was a modern day fic that shipped Yelena with Onyankapon, and it was called Big Secrets. That fic was quite lewd, whereas this fic with Sasha and Niccolo is mostly pure, innocent fluff. Emphasis on mostly.
Understandably, this fic features some minor spoilers from The Final Season. But this takes place in a timeline where everything magically turns out okay after the Marleyans end up on Paradis Island. The only exception is the racism towards Eldians and especially the residents of Paradis Island. For the sake of the plot of the story, that hasn't gone away. But everything else is perfectly fine. Attack on Titan is sad and depressing enough; we need to have more happiness in the AOT universe! :D
However, be warned that the ending Author's Notes may contain spoilers for the entirety of the Attack on Titan manga. So if you're not caught up with the manga, you may get spoiled on something important!
And on that note, let's get started! If you wish to give this fic a review, please sign into your account first or it will be deleted!
Our Future Together
Wow, she's really into this, Niccolo thinks to himself. He can see the concentration in Sasha's eyes as she tries her best to twirl the pizza dough in her hands, as well as the restraint it's taking to not eat the delicious-looking object. It's already been seasoned with garlic powder, and so the smell is making the dough quite tantalizing.
"Nikuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, can't I sample some of this? My stomach is crying in emptiness!"
"Not until it's done, Sasha," Niccolo replies, chuckling. He knows how much his fiancé loves eating food, but as much as she'd enjoy eating the garlic pizza dough, it would simply be instant gratification. He also finds her new nickname for him quite endearing, which adds to his amusement. "Remember how good the finished pizza was last week? That's what you're learning to replicate."
Sasha puffs her cheeks in adorable rebellion, but nevertheless continues what she's doing. The two of them have been learning more about each other's interests over the last little while since getting engaged. Last week, Sasha took Niccolo on one of her hunting trips with her father. She had felled multiple geese before taking down a huge deer, a buck in fact, with one shot between the eyes with her trusty bow and arrow.
Her flare and her confidence in her archery skills (not to mention her long and flowy skirt) had admittedly turned him on a little bit, but he was able to hide it… mostly.
He thinks Sasha's father may have noticed something, but thankfully he didn't say anything about it.
"Hey! I think I've got the hang of this!" Sasha says, pulling Niccolo out of his thoughts. Her twirling technique has indeed improved, and the smile gracing her features warms his heart. While it was initially her joy in eating his cooking that drew him to her, eventually her other qualities, such as her positive outlook and her diligence, that made him begin to fall in love with her as a person, despite the fact that he was a Marleyan and she was an Eldian.
No, in fact it was worse than that. She was one of the cursed Devils of Paradis Island. And yet, he's learned the truth of the matter; the truth that they weren't devils in the slightest. He's happy that Sasha was able to open his eyes from the propaganda that blinded him for so long.
"Okay, it seems good to go!"
Putting the dough on the cutting board to let it settle, Sasha wrings her fingers in anticipation. "Now what?"
"If you can put the toppings onto individual plates, that would be great. I'm going to get started on the marinara sauce, and then I'll guide you on how to copy it for yourself."
"Sounds good!" she nods excitedly, and she gets to work on her task. Niccolo meanwhile pulls out the bowl that he needs and then proceeds to get the tomatoes for making the perfect marinara sauce from scratch.
Despite seafood being his specialty, this meat and tomato pizza is one of his favourite recipes, and he knew that it would be one of the first he would help Sasha to cook on her own.
Honestly, he knows that Sasha is already a great cook. When she recounted to him how she once cooked boar meat to perfection, he was so impressed with her that he had very uncharacteristically hugged her out of nowhere. But if she were to get the specialized training that he previously received… he could only imagine what himself and Sasha could accomplish in the world of food.
The thought of the two of them cooking together in his own restaurant, husband and wife, with a couple of cute chestnut-haired daughters eagerly watching their every movement…
He swallows nervously. Connie was right. He's got it bad for Sasha. They're not even married yet and he's already expecting that they're going to have at least two children.
But he doesn't mind. Not in the slightest. One day, perhaps after the birth of their first child, he'll summon the courage to bring Sasha back to Marley to meet his parents, and he imagines her winning them over in the course of a night, even if she was a Devil of Paradis. They'll see how happy the two of them are together with their baby daughter, and therefore fall in love with her as much as he fell in love with her.
Though one thing he doesn't imagine them reacting too well to Sasha's… let's say, relationship with food. Her monstrous appetite might turn them off of her a bit, even if he asks her to try and tone her eating habits down for the first visit. His cooking ability was most certainly hereditary, since both of his parents are chefs. He doesn't think anything will stop her from gorging her face full of their delicious food.
He's pretty sure he'll be able to diffuse the situation though. Probably.
Smirking to himself, he continues through his daydream. After dinner is finished, the group of them will partake in some association before the young couple puts their daughter to bed. And then a bit later Niccolo's parents will follow suit, bidding him and Sasha good night. When the two of them are alone, he expects that Sasha will gently squeeze his hand and lovingly kiss him on the cheek, happy that the first meeting with his parents turned out better than expected.
The two of them will share in each other's warmth, and reflect over how blessed they are to be together as husband and wife.
As his wife starts to fall asleep on his shoulder, he'll drape a nearby blanket over her to keep her warm before closing his own eyes with contentment.
But then, a few minutes later, he'll only be able to shiver as his wife snuggles closer to him and playfully whispers, "if we make another grandchild for your parents right now, would that give them another reason to smile?"
And of course, his only response would be to kiss his beautiful wife on the lips before delicately untying the laces on her corset, and…
"Niku, are you okay?" Sasha asks, and when he turns to face her, she can tell he's been daydreaming about something. "Your face is as red as that tomato you've been staring at for a while now."
Busted.
Nonchalantly ignoring the heavy blush on his face, he replies to her, "I'm sorry, I'm just thinking about our future together. We're gonna have at least two kids, right?"
With a light dusting of red smattering her cheeks, Sasha turns back around to save face, muttering, "is… is that so?"
The two of them continue on with their tasks, working in silence. At least until Sasha is finally able to properly reply to Niccolo's insinuation:
"We're… we're gonna keep having kids until I say so. But we're having at least three! So after our wedding, you'd b-better be ready to do your part to… to make that happen! No matter how long it… it takes!"
Sasha is clearly getting more embarrassed as she talks, as she basically admitted some things she feels a lady probably shouldn't say out loud, but Niccolo simply smiles. Listening to Sasha speak her mind has always been refreshing to him, and this time is no exception.
He wraps his arms around his fiancé and nuzzles her cheek.
"I love you, Sasha."
"Eeeep!"
They're such simple little words, but they make Sasha's heart race all the same, even after hearing them from her fiancé multiple times. She doesn't mind hearing them, though. Despite her embarrassment, she can feel a warm smile creeping onto her face.
"I love you too… Niccolo."
After nuzzling her own cheek into Niccolo's, the two of them separate from each other to finish working on their meal together.
The End
Author's Notes
Sasha and Niccolo's relationship is one that's PAINFULLY barebones within the manga and anime. The girl Sasha saved, Maya, mentions how she thinks that her and Niccolo were in love, and we see just how much Niccolo cared for Sasha in his very strong reactions to how people viewed her and talked about her. But that's… basically it. No other context is provided about their relationship.
This fic exists to at least give them a happy ending together, and even if some of Niccolo's reactions might seem a bit overboard, his clear love for Sasha in AOT leads me to believe he would be affectionate with her if they actually had the chance to be together. I just wish there was a bit more concrete information to work with. Isayama may be a genius with AOT, but writing romance within it was definitely not his strong suit. :p
Where does the nickname Niku (pronounced knee-coo) come from? Well, it actually has some sad origins. As we all know, Sasha dies in the anime and the last word she says is "meat." However, if you watch the anime in the original Japanese with subtitles, it sounds like she's saying something like "Niku," which appears to be the Japanese word for meat. And the word Niku sounds quite similar to if she was actually trying to say "Niccolo." Even though it's officially confirmed that she was indeed talking about meat, I thought it was still kind of a sad thought. So I wanted to give a bit of happiness to this otherwise sad moment in AOT.
Were Niccolo's parents chefs? Who knows. I just made it that way because I thought it fit well with the section talking about Sasha enjoying their cooking. Just imagining Sasha going hog wild eating their food is an amusing mental image. :p Sadly, though, in the reality of the AOT universe, it's quite likely that Niccolo's parents would not treat Sasha kindly. But guess what? This is fiction. We believe in happy scenarios, not sad ones. So I don't care about that. :p
If you didn't understand the reference regarding Sasha cooking boar meat, it's referring to one of the OVAs associated with the first season of AOT back in 2013 and 2014. There she has a cooking contest with Jean. If for some reason you haven't seen it, it's certainly good for a laugh!
Was Niccolo's little lewd thoughts regarding getting turned on by Sasha's hunting prowess and getting it on with her on his parent's couch necessary? Probably not. But I envision it as just another facet of how Sasha makes him happy. And considering the fact that Sasha wants to have at least three children, she clearly looks forward to doing this sort of stuff with him too. So I'm giving these two a pass in this regard. Let the lovey-dovey husband and wife enjoy themselves. :p
I hate to say it, but I was originally planning this to be a bit more on the lewd side, actually. I even was writing the alternate continuation as this fic was being written. Here's the original synopsis: the fic was starting the same. And then, at some point Niccolo was going to try and grab some milk for his marinara sauce… and he ends up accidentally grabbing Sasha's boob instead. :p And he actually gets a pretty good feel in too, not just a brief graze of his fingers. Sasha of course leaves in embarrassment. And then Connie comes in and makes fun of Niccolo before the two of them have a heart to heart about what Sasha means to the both of them.
But I wanted to get this fic posted before the final episode airs in the next couple of days, so I decided to tone it down and just make it more about Sasha and Niccolo. And I really like how it turned out. So I removed the side plot about the boob grabbing and inserted Niccolo's daydreaming instead. But the (admittingly unfinished) boob grabbing side plot was moved to another document, so in theory there could be a future fic that features it if I'm so inclined to write it! :D
Hope you all enjoyed this happy fic! I think Attack on Titan is something that's literally changed the lives of millions of people. And it's all coming to an end in just two days, November 4, 2023. From the anime's absolutely explosive start in 2013 until now, Attack on Titan has influenced so much of our culture with its deep storytelling, insane foreshadowing, and it's characters that we've grown to love, even the many who didn't survive until the end. And while I don't have as much nostalgia and fond memories with the manga, considering I never actually read the manga until last year in 2022, (and I'm almost done re-reading it before Saturday) it's been an important part of the journey as well. If the manga didn't exist, we wouldn't have the anime. And let's hope that the final episode of Attack on Titan does the manga justice and gives Isayama's masterpiece the send-off it deserves.
So even though he will probably never see this, I must give a big thank you to Hajime Isayama for creating one of the greatest, if not the greatest, pieces of fiction to ever be written. Thank you for creating this story that has touched countless hearts, and will continue to touch the lives of many for years to come. You've earned my signature at the end of this story that I normally reserve for multi-chapter fics. I wish you luck with your future endeavours, including the new art book slated to come out in April 2024 and any new AOT content that may be written in the future.
Shinzou wo sasageyo! Dedicate your hearts!
Signed, COOKIECHEESEMAN
