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Annie Leonhardt, at the age of 22, sat on her favourite chair at the kitchen table, drinking a cold glass of her favourite Marleyan beer. She briefly recalled saying, years ago, that she didn’t care for the simple and settled life, but now she realized how wrong she truly was. The curtains in the kitchen swayed dreamily, barely knocked out of position by the small breeze making its way through the small farmhouse. A nameless songbird sang from somewhere outside, and Annie made no effort to guess its tune.
Maybe Annie’s comment about not wanting to settle wasn’t how she really felt. Maybe it was about not thinking the day would come where she could choose to settle, choose someone to settle with. Maybe Annie stopped even considering a calm, war-less, life before she was even able to fathom how much she wanted it.
The sun was almost setting now, as Annie would only allow herself a beer later in the day every once in a while. The blonde breathed in and out, feeling the air on her face, hearing the leaves rustle and the birds sing, smelling the oh-so-familiar scent of home. She would say that moment of feeling and hearing and smelling was perfect, but it wasn’t. Annie was waiting for her person to come home.
Mikasa Ackerman, at the age of 21, was currently at work on her last day before retirement. Annie knew this, but still she wished that Mikasa’s last day had been yesterday. She wished, rather selfishly, that Mikasa quit right as she did, but she knew that would’ve never happened. Annie knew Mikasa too well, the woman would never quit until she had finished taking all the responsibility she could. And that day had come at last, Mikasa was most likely on her way home at that moment. Annie’s heart bounced at the thought of seeing Mikasa’s horse make its way down the hill and road towards their house.
Mikasa would be smiling. Her hair, now grown out again, would flow in the wind. She’d reach down to pet her horse, maybe give it an apple, before continuing her journey to their home. Mikasa would do what she always did when coming home from ‘work’, except this time would be the last. Opening the curtains fully, Annie sat back down onto her chair and watched the sun begin to sink.
After a few breaths, some blinking, and another sip of beer, Annie let her heart get the better of her. Mikasa would be home all the time. Annie put her head down on the counter. Oh my god.
She would wake up to Mikasa, make breakfast with her (they would have time for breakfast!), sit with her and talk. Not that they didn’t do that before, but now they could do it all the time. Annie let herself be needy for once in her life, thinking about good morning kisses.
God, what a sap she was becoming. The female titan, soft as a marshmallow.
Something covered a patch of sunlight in their kitchen, Annie looked up. Mikasa trotted down the hill, with what Annie guessed was a huge pack on the horse's back. Maybe she brought back supper? Annie enjoyed cooking with Mikasa, but her bringing home food was good too.
Mikasa got closer and closer, and Annie stayed in her chair waiting. Maybe, Annie thought, Mikasa would come running up and kiss me. Topple the chair over too. She then thought that might hurt. Annie sighed into her glass.
Mikasa waved at her from her horse and rode it into their corral, where Annie lost sight of her. She got up finally, grabbing another glass and remembering that Mikasa, too, had a taste for Marleyan spirits. After she poured another glass up, she heard the door open and the floorboard creak. Annie didn’t have to turn around to know that it wasn’t just Mikasa that walked in. Who else could it be?
Annie turned to face Mikasa and… a little girl? Mikasa gave her an apologetic look and slipped into their room. Annie’s mind raced as the little girl took off her coat and made her way to the table, sitting in the seat opposite to her own. Did Mikasa have a younger cousin she didn’t know about? No, Annie thought, that couldn’t be it.
Annie stared at the now closed door Mikasa had walked through, trying to pick out what she was doing and failing. She then turned to the tiny thing that her love had brought into their house, wondering why on earth Mikasa thought it a good idea to bring a child into the home of a former war criminal. And a tiny thing she was, shorter than Annie if you could believe that.
The little girl had dark hair, a round face, and calm eyes. She didn’t say anything to Annie, she only shifted in her seat. The kitchen was now quiet, a vacuum of awkwardness created by Annie’s lack of experience with children. Say something, Annie thought to herself, idiot. How do you even talk to a little kid?
Thankfully, Annie’s first word problem was solved by the thing that caused it.
“What’s that?” The girl asked, pointing to the glass in Annie’s hand.
Annie looked down at the glass of alcohol. “Beer. Want one?” She said without thinking.
The young girl widened her eyes. “No! I’m six, those are for adult people!”
“Right,” Annie said, scolding herself. Of fucking course you don’t give a six year old a beer. “Are you… hungry?”
What was Mikasa doing in there? Why the hell was she taking so long? Why the hell did she leave Annie to deal with this kid?
“Yes,” she said. “Accept I don’t want any beer.”
“No beer, got it.” Annie scanned the kitchen. “We have bread, cheese, grapes, apples-“
“Apples.” The girl sat up straight at the mention of the fruit. “I’d like some.”
“Cool,” Annie said. She walked over to the counter and grabbed an apple out of the fruit bowl. Annie rolled it over to the girl. “What’s your name?”
“Why is it yellow?”
“Weird name.”
“No! The Apple.”
“The apple is yellow because it isn’t any other color.” Truth is, Annie didn’t really know why the apple was yellow, only that it was and that it would stay that way. “Your name?”
“Clara.” The girl, Clara, picked at her apple. She looked up at Annie with a pleading look. “Can you… peel it?”
“Oh,” Annie said plainly. “Yeah, give it here.”
Annie pulled out a knife and began to mutilate the large yellow apple. Clara stared at the mess in Annie’s hands, wonder apparent on her face. Annie didn’t know why the hell she looked at Annie like she invented fire, so she just focused on peeling the apple.
She finished and threw the peel into the garbage, passing Clara the remnants of the apple. Her tiny hands picked off chunks of fruit, before she just gave up and started gnawing at the apple itself. Annie took one last sip of beer before putting her glass by the sink.
The door opened and Mikasa walked in. Annie shot her an inquisitive look before smiling slightly. Mikasa looked down at the little girl eating the apple. She walked over and kneeled down, now level with the chair.
“Your name is Clara, right?” Mikasa asked softly.
Clara nodded.
“So, Clara,” Mikasa said, Annie could tell she was trying her best to be comforting. “You’re going to be staying with us for a little while, does that sound alright?”
“Okay,” Clara swallowed the last bite of her apple. “Can you tell that lady I would like another apple, please?”
Mikasa turned to look up at Annie, an amused smile on her face. “Annie?”
Annie’s eyes widened. “Oh, yeah sure.”
The blonde grabbed another apple and her knife and began to carve off the peel. Mikasa watched as Annie archaically peeled the apple, and watched as Clara once again stared intently at the fruit in Annie’s hands. Annie placed the apple in front of Clara, who dug in.
“So,” Mikasa said. “You guys getting along?”
“Yeah,” they said at the same time.
“I mean, well,” Annie mumbled. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
Mikasa nodded and walked back through the door behind her. Annie followed, checking back one last time to see Clara eating her apple. Annie closed the door softly behind her and looked back at Mikasa.
“Explain, maybe?” Annie asked quietly.
Mikasa’s face softened. “She, um, doesn’t have any parents. Not anymore.”
Dark hair, Annie thought, a calm look in her eyes. Mikasa saw herself in that young girl who lost her parents.
“So we’re…” Annie said slowly. “Taking her in?”
“Is that okay?” Mikasa sighed.
“Of course.” Annie didn’t hesitate. “But we’re going to have to, like, buy more kid food. I accidentally offered her… beer.”
Mikasa snorted. “Beer?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Annie smiled. The magnitude of this is just now hitting her. “I’m…”
Mikasa must’ve noticed. “You’re sure this is okay?”
“Like I said, of course,” Annie reassured her, trying to reassure herself too. “I’m just thinking, like, is this going to be a permanent thing?”
“I would think so,” Mikasa said. “I did send a letter to Historia. There was no room in any of the group homes, that's why I offered to take her in here. I sent a letter to Historia, y’know, asking when she was planning on starting construction for the new houses and buildings. So it could just be temporary but… maybe not?”
“Okay,” Annie said. “One step at a time I guess. Let’s do it.”
Mikasa smiled. “Thank you… I couldn’t leave her on the streets like that.”
“Yeah.” Annie smiled back at her wife. Wife. They had been married for a whole month now but it still gave her goosebumps when she said it or thought it. Mikasa, Annie thought, is my wife. I’m her wife. We’re wives.
Mikasa brought her into a warm embrace. Annie sighed into the shirt of her love.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Mikasa mumbled into her ear. “Please.”
“I’m thinking…” Annie swallowed. “That my wife just brought home a little girl that we’re going to… raise or something. My beautiful wife, whom I love very much. Fuck.”
“‘Fuck?’”
“Not a bad ‘fuck’ just a… holy shit ‘fuck’.” Annie took a breath. “What if… I don’t know how to do it?”
“Then we’ll learn together, I guess.” Mikasa smiled.
Mikasa pulled away to press her forehead to Annie’s. Their breathing synced for a moment, before a high-pitched voice came through the door.
“What are you doing in there?” Clara screeched.
“Uh!” Annie shouted back. “Just talking! We’ll be right out!”
Mikasa giggled a bit before Annie spoke again: “I’m also thinking that that is a very articulate six year old. She probably knows what articulate means.”
“She probably does.”
“Well,” Annie smiled softly. “Let’s go.”
Mikasa grinned before saying to Annie, in a low voice, “Thank you.”
Annie winked back, and they opened the door to the kitchen. Clara stared at them, showcasing her sticky hands from the apple. Mikasa walked over to the sink and gestured for the little girl to join her.
Annie thought about what she just did. I guess I’m a parent now? Could she see herself as a mom?
“You like apples?” Mikasa asked Clara.
“Yes, they are my favourite fruit,” the girl responded. “I am sorry I ate all of yours.”
“Oh, no worries,” Annie said. “I was going to go shopping tomorrow, anyway.”
“You were?” Mikasa asked. “Didn’t we go just a few days ago?”
“Yeah, but,” Annie leaned over to kiss Mikasa’s cheek, “we ran out of those biscuits you like.”
Mikasa blushed at the gesture and nodded. Annie was overjoyed that she was still able to make Mikasa flustered like that.
Clara looked up at them. “Are you guys married?”
Annie choked on her saliva, Mikasa held out her ring finger. “Yep, as of about… a month ago.”
“Cool!”
“See, Annie, we’re cool.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” Annie said.
Annie Leonhardt, at the age of 22, and Mikasa Ackerman, at the age of 21, spent their first night together raising their little girl. The sun was now set, and the birds were at rest in their trees. Both of them were at complete peace with themselves, and both of them were ready to face whatever needed to be faced. Whether that would be teaching Clara how to ride a horse, tucking her into bed, or buying more apples, they were ready and happy to do it.