May, 854 - The Queen's Farm - Reiss Lands
It was a quiet morning, and the Queen was leisurely sitting underneath a small and serene tree. Historia was concentrated, she had laid some important documents and books, a couple of diaries and private letters over the cloth. The Queen had decided to immerse herself in her State research rather than have a sole picnic or even a quiet nap. She clearly had more important things in mind.
Historia looked over to see that old friend walking in the distance. She sighed, mildly annoyed at the sight and strikingly nervous. But she prepared herself to talk to him as he walked over.
"I looked for you everywhere," Eren told her as he approached the small tree. He stopped with his hands on his hips.
"Well, darling, if you had looked towards the fields as you arrived you would have seen me here right away," Historia replied while putting some papers back down over the cloth.
Eren looked up, still with his hands on his hips. "That's a nice tree," he noted.
Historia sighed. "It was my mother's favourite spot," she relayed while looking back down again. "She was always here when I was growing up, reading," the Queen added.
Eren looked down at Historia again. "Why haven't you replied to my letters?" he questioned her. "I haven't seen you or heard from you in months!"
"Three months," Historia quietly noted, counting it in her head. She looked up at him again. "I told you not to send me letters," she advised.
"Why?" Eren asked, confused.
"Because they always read them before I do," she cleverly remarked. "They think I don't know it," Historia continued, looking down at her small research once again. She slightly shook her head. "I know a lot more than they think," the Queen added under her breath.
She looked up at Eren very seriously. "Stop sending me letters," Historia strongly advised.
Eren looked to the side, watching the children and the nuns, and the building in the distance. Thinking. He turned to Historia once again. "Well, in that case, you could have just sent for me," he proposed. "You know the rules, you know I can't just barge in if I want to talk to you," Eren reminded her.
And Historia looked up at him once again. "What if I didn't want to talk to you?" she questioned bluntly, making him realise it.
"Oh," Eren let out, he leaned closer and sat next to her, underneath that tree. "Is everything alright?" he asked, worried as he could tell she was a little angry and upset. "Why are you back here and not in the palace?" he also asked.
She looked at his interest with some annoyance. "I wanted some peace and also to check how the orphanage is doing," she justified. Historia sighed, "with all honesty I just wanted to be left alone."
Eren looked up at the tree leaves as they shook with the calm winds. "It's funny, I thought you and your mother didn't get along," he commented. Eren then looked at her with a small smile. "Why would you choose to be in her favourite spot?" he asked.
"It's not that we didn't get along. We just barely spoke," the Queen began to explain. "And on the rare occasions that we did, she made her feelings towards me abundantly clear."
Historia leaned over and started to organise some of her research. "For her I was always just a monster," she added under her breath.
Eren tilted his head. "So why are you on her favourite spot?" he questioned.
The young woman shrugged her shoulders. "I just- I've been thinking about her a lot lately," Historia explained. Ever since the Queen had been aware of her pregnancy, she couldn't stop thinking of her own mother.
"Why?" Eren asked.
"Never you mind," Historia replied, trying to focus on what she was reading.
The Queen was purposefully wearing one of her more comfortable and loose-fitting spring dresses. She didn't have her hair tied up as it was customary now. It was only braided in a simple waterfall and her golden locks floated with the winds. Eren took that moment to admire her beauty, it completely took away his concentration for a moment.
He snapped out of it and focused on what she was doing instead. "What is all this?" he asked.
"I'd just like to know more about the country I'm governing," she regally explained.
Eren smiled trying his best not to laugh.
"You're not governing it," he noted with a small chuckle.
She looked up at him in spite. "Don't play with me, Yeager," Historia advised.
"How are things with Zackly?" he asked, still in a sarcastic tone. Eren leaned over to check her small basket of fruits and snacks and Historia moved it away from him, annoyedly.
"He still treats me like a child," she complained. "They all do," she added in frustration. Historia looked down and away for a moment.
'A child bearing other children, I wonder how they will treat me now,' the Queen considered, only in her mind.
She raised her eyebrows. "And here I thought that when I'd finally be eighteen they would just step away and let me rule. Silly me," Queen Historia let out and crossed her arms. "What a dreadful bunch of old sacks."
"We could always just get rid of them," Eren suggested, quite carelessly as he tried to check out the snacks on that little basket, which was now so much further away.
"What are you suggesting?" Historia asked, but he only shrugged.
"All I ask is for me to be viewed as the Queen not as some silly doll to be paraded around," Historia let out her frustration. "This is my Island."
"So what? Are you gathering dirt on them so you can use it to force them to step out of the way?" Eren asked with a large smile, as he was about to bite on an apple that he had just stolen from the Queen's little picnic basket.
Historia took the tiny apple back right before Yeager could bite on it.
"Not exactly." She put the small fruit away again and held up one of the small books. "I've been reading my father's diaries," the Queen explained. Historia then looked at the small book with deep melancholy in her face.
"No, Historia. Why?" Eren confronted her with some confusion.
"Well, I never really knew him," Historia softly explained. She then turned to look at the diary again. "He has made some questionable things," she let out. "Many questionable things," she added.
"Yes, we know that." Eren was firm with her. "Have you considered that this might be one of the reasons why the new council - or any of those 'old sacks' is reluctant to give you any power?" He cleverly remarked, leaning down with his arms behind his head and looking up to the tree leaves as they shook with the wind.
Historia looked down at the small diary in her hands. "I was considering… we should have a parliament. A proper one," she suggested.
"Historia," Eren scratched his head in confusion. "I'm an Army man. All I know is how to hit and attack-" he stopped and rephrased himself, raising himself up again. "How to protect this country. So don't come at me with politics because I don't get any of it." Eren explained quite honestly.
"Well, all that matters is: will you support me?" she asked, and smiled cheekily.
Eren smiled. "You're my only ally, I'll support you through anything," he told her with much love. His green eyes deeply focused on her blue ones.
And Historia smiled back at him lovingly. A smile of relief as she thought of what was coming.
Eren thought this would be a perfect moment to lean in for a kiss. He hadn't seen or kissed those lips in months and he missed it all quite deeply. He was about to lean in when Historia abruptly turned to her papers once again.
"Do you want to know who are the best sources of information in this Kingdom?" Historia asked.
"I thought we were an empire," Eren interjected, leaning back down again and holding his head with his hand, mildly annoyed.
"Well, sugar, we are sort of… neither," the Queen replied and continued. "Regardless, what I was about to say-"
"Who is your source of information?" Eren interrupted with his question.
"The oldies," Historia explained with a clever smile. "The old ladies whose husbands I put in prison."
"You should have killed them," Eren complained, playing around with the arched handle of the little basket.
"It doesn't matter now," she affirmed. "The important thing is that they all want my favour and they all want to show me their support," Historia explained.
"What's your point?" he asked.
"Well, all these women gossip a lot," she pointed out.
"Impressive," Eren let out ironically, he still couldn't see Historia's point.
So she proceeded to explain it. "And being noble women, they know so much about, well everything," the Queen noted. "About our history… about my history specifically."
Historia leaned over to him with more excitement. She continued with a bundle in her hand. "These letters were stolen. None of my old girls wants to admit who stole them, but that doesn't matter. The important thing is: these are the endless letters my father wrote to my mother," Historia explained, passing her fingers through the bundle. "She never replied to a single one, I wonder if she even read them," she added while shrugging.
"Well, I for once feel for him," Eren joked, being in a similar situation himself.
"He sounds quite pathetic to be honest," Historia confessed while looking at the bundle, as she had read most of those letters. And Eren raised his eyebrows.
She proceeded with some spitefulness. "I'm not leaving anything embarrassing like this in writing for future vultures to pry on my life once I'm gone," the young Queen relayed.
"So young, so tiny and yet so bitter," Eren joked back at her.
"Did you just call me bitter?" Historia questioned him with eyebrows raised.
"I'm joking. I think you're clever and you're right not to want for people in the future to know too much about your private life, I respect that," Yeager explained more seriously.
"Thank you," Historia solemnly replied.
"You of course wouldn't want others in the future to know about you galavanting with one of your soldiers before getting married," he started to joke again. Eren leaned in closer, "all those secret encounters in the corners of the Palace," he added more boldly.
"Galavanting?" Historia questioned his word choice with eyebrows raised high. And Eren only shrugged. "I'm not getting married," she reminded him; as that had been something they had previously discussed.
"Fair," Eren replied, more sympathetically. He looked down at the little basket more reflectively. 'I won't be around for very long so…' he thought, considering his impending death. 'You might forget me.'
Historia had told him she would never marry anyone after his death, but he hoped this wouldn't be the case. He hoped she wouldn't find happiness and had a family after he was gone.
"Do you want to know what the old ladies also told me?" Historia asked, changing their topic of conversation.
"What?" Eren asked back.
"My mother comes from a situation very similar to mine," she started to explain.
"In what way?" he asked.
"Well, her father, my grandpa, is also a bastard of the king," Historia revealed. "Meaning that my parents were cousins."
"What? I'm confused," Eren let out.
"They were both grandchildren of the Second King of the Walls," she explained.
"So you are a Fritz from both sides?" Eren asked.
"Suppose so," Historia replied. "That's probably why mother called me a monster," she added.
"Are you more Fritz than your half-siblings were?" Yeager questioned curiously.
"No, I doubt it," Historia argued. "It's very probable that the Queen was a Fritz as well, they were probably cousins too."
Eren looked a little disgusted and stunned, so Historia proceeded to explain those customs. "It's just the norm, especially among nobility," the Queen explained. "And this is a small island, I suppose we are all related on some level," Historia argued.
"In that case, you might be related to Armin after all," Eren joked. And proceeded to chuckle at his own joke. "I bet you are also at least cousins."
"Oh, I wouldn't mind that," she replied with loving eyes. "He's so incredibly clever, and decent and sweet-" Historia started to list all of her good friend's qualities.
"Do you fancy him?" Eren abruptly asked, with much concern and jealousy.
"What if I do? Why would it matter to you?" She challenged him with tenacity and a small shrug.
"Don't- Don't make this weird," Eren pleaded as Historia raised her eyebrows quite high again.
"Can't I admire him? I admire him, he's one of my closest friends," Historia countered.
Eren still felt very confused. "Don't- stop making this weird, he is my best friend," he maintained.
"We're all friends, Eren. Stop behaving like a child," Historia reprimanded him. She then leaned in closer. "We're adults," the Queen quietly but sternly reminded him.
Historia knew that Eren wasn't particularly mature which was making the impending reveal of her pregnancy a very stressful and very difficult topic to get into. She was afraid, as she had no idea of what reaction he would have.
Eren crossed his arms, a little annoyed at her tone, he looked down at her research again.
"Did your father know your mother was a Fritz as well?" he questioned, intrigued.
"I don't think so," she replied. "What makes this all the more ironic."
"Why?" Eren asked.
She held up another small book. "From his diaries and all these letters he always sounds so defiant. He always goes on about fighting with his father and wanting to go against the crown and all of the family traditions," Historia explained. "It seems his affair was yet another way of rebelling. The irony is that Alma was also a Fritz."
Historia put the little book down, shaking her head in disapproval. "He ran right into her arms. So sure that he was running away from all his problems in doing so, but in reality he just created another one." She explained in self-loathing.
"You're not a problem, Historia," Eren immediately rebuked. "For once I believe you are the solution to all of our problems," he declared. "You can save this island," he told her very lovingly.
"Oh, is that why your father killed everyone else?" she joked back at him. And Eren looked stunned.
Historia let out a small smirk. She sat up straight, and her small bump suddenly became more visible under her dress. "You know, it's a good thing you're an outsider-" she started to cleverly argue.
"I'm not completely an outsider," Eren slightly interrupted. 'My father was,' he interjected in his mind.
But she continued, "otherwise we would run the risk of you being a Fritz too," she noted.
Eren shrugged, looking into the basket again, searching for a new fruit. "I'm definitely not," he replied nonchalantly as he picked up one of the apples again. "Otherwise I could activate those powers," he logically explained, taking a big bite from that tiny, but juicy apple.
"Wait. Why are you saying all that?" He asked while munching, a little confused.
"Because there is one more thing we need to talk about," Historia said, putting her papers and documents to the side.
"What?" Eren leisurely asked while slightly leaning back down and munching on the apple.
Historia took the knife from that basket and held it up, then brought it close to her other hand. "Whoa," Eren let out, fearing as she was about to cut herself. Startled, he even dropped the small apple. "Wait!" he pleaded, lunging forward. She then swiftly made a cut on her palm, showing it to him.
Eren was very stunned and very confused. Why would she intentionally hurt herself like that? The whole situation looked insane.
Historia's big blue eyes just stared intensely at him as she held that bleeding hand up. And he watched as the Titan steam started to rise, and her palm slowly healed. Eren was perplexed.
"How- How did you do that?" he asked in pure confusion.
The Queen tilted her head, looking at him sternly and cleverly. "You tell me," Historia suggested. And Yeager's expression suddenly changed completely.
-.-
Extract from Chapter 19: "Two Thousand Years Apart" of Attack On Titan Changes
-if you want to read more, go check that fic! (in my profile)