Chapter Text
Chapter One:
𝕯𝖊𝖆𝖗 𝕱𝖎𝖔𝖗𝖊,
845
Hand in hand two girls walked with wood being held on their backs. Each step they took through the lively flower field left a tickling feeling against their ankles as grass blades brushed onto them.
A small clearing in the distance with but a singular tree on a hill was believed to be the girls' destination. Underneath the tree laid a boy who seemed to be resting peacefully.
At the bottom of the hill, one of the children slowed to a halt, pulling the other girl's hand to stop her from continuing.
"Mikasa," spoke the first girl, a heartfelt look gleaming through her blue eyes as the other child looked back at her. "What if we left him there? Maybe a bird will take him away."
The girl being spoken to ─ Mikasa, didn't find her friend's words humorous and snatched her wrist away with a frown as she continued walking up the hill.
"Eh," said the child, frozen in place while trying to process what had happened. "Ah! Mikasa, I'm sorry. I promise I was joking, don't leave me for him!" The girl exclaimed before rushing to catch up to her friend.
Mikasa continued walking, not once looking back at her friend until she reached the top of the hill where the boy slept beneath the luscious, ever-growing tree.
"Eren," Mikasa called out to the sleeping boy, waiting for his eyes to flutter open, revealing a bright and beautiful shade of green.
"Mm?" The boy grumbled out, not seeming fully awake.
When the blue-eyed child reached the top of the hill, she nudged the boy with her foot. "Hey, Eren. Get up already, we need to go home."
"It'll get dark soon, Eren," Said Mikasa.
"Huh? Mikasa, Fiore... Aww, when did you guys grow your hair out?" Asked Eren in a daze with a slight frown etched on his face.
The third child, now known as Fiore, raised an eyebrow at the brown-haired boy. "I don't think he's awake yet. Let me smack him once to help him out," The girl said to no one in particular.
Her threat seemed to have worked as Eren rubbed his eyes and picked himself off the ground before grabbing the wood he left on the ground.
"Were you really so sound asleep that you were still dreaming when you woke up?" Mikasa questioned the boy as she watched him get ready to start walking.
"No, but I feel like I just had the longest dream," Eren replied. "What was it? Now I can't remember."
Fiore looked at the boy curiously before her eyes widened slightly. "Why are you crying?"
Eren reached up to touch below one of his eyes, feeling the salty liquid drop down right as the wind around them picked up.
-ˋˏ ༻🌹༺ ˎˊ-
The three children started their walk back to Eren's house and made their way past a crowd of people entering and leaving Shiganshina.
"Don't tell anyone I was crying," Eren sniffled while his cheeks turned red from embarrassment as he turned to the two girls beside him.
Mikasa looked at the boy, face indifferent as she spoke, "I won't."
"I will," Fiore smirked mischievously. "There's no way I wouldn't use this against you!"
"Hah? Why would you do that?!" Eren asked, his eyebrows furrowed and lips tight.
"Because of course, we're love rivals. It's only right," The girl teased, sticking her tongue out at the boy. "Regardless, everyone knows I'll win in the end. After all, I'm cuter, smarter, and overall better than you."
"What are you talking about?!" Eren shouted at the girl, "You're speaking nothing but nonsense again!"
Fiore let out a sigh and rolled her eyes, "Honestly, you are such an idiot," She mumbled to herself.
"Eren, maybe you should have your dad examine you. Crying for no reason..." Mikasa suggested when her friends stopped arguing.
"Don't be stupid!" Eren frowned, "Like I can tell my old man about this."
"What are you crying about, Eren?" A new voice asked from behind the three children, surprising them as they all whipped around to face a blond soldier.
"M-Mr. Hannes!" Exclaimed the boy as he looked at the soldier bent down to his height.
Hannes was someone Eren has known for as long as he could remember. He was a friend of the family who worked in the military.
This close to the man, the trio could smell the strongly scented alcohol he drank and immediately cringed at the smell.
"Did Mikasa get mad at you or something?" Asked Hannes, his cheeks red and hot from the alcohol he had ingested.
Eren covered his nose and glared at the older man, "You reek of liquor!" He shouted before taking a look at the other soldiers behind Hannes.
They all had alcohol bottles beside them and cards in their hands as they sat on top of supply crates, betting the bread from their next meals to see who would win.
The sight disgusted Fiore to no end. She couldn't believe the people who were supposed to protect the weak were acting as though they were living in paradise with nothing to fear other than running out of booze.
"Drinking again..." Eren stated, cautiously, to which the blond soldier grinned at them.
"Would you three like to join in?"
Fiore looked at Hannes with a glare so intense it could have put him six feet underground if possible. "No," The black-haired child harshly responded.
Eren, though slightly disturbed by Hannes's question, spoke up, "What about your work?"
"Oh! We're on gate duty today." Hannes stated nonchalantly while standing up so he was now looking down on the three kids. "We get hungry and thirsty hanging out here all day. What's the big deal if liquor happens to be among the rations sometimes?"
"But in an emergency, would you be able to fight drunk?!" Eren asked, his hands gripping the straps of his wood holder tightly.
Hannes looked back at his comrades, a deafening silence falling amongst the group for a moment until the blond male turned to the children with a blank expression. "What kind of emergency?" He inquired.
Eren gritted his teeth, his back straightened out as he released the straps of his wood holder to ball his fist and his side. "I don't believe this!" Eren raised his voice, "It's obvious I'm talking about if they broke down the wall and invaded the town!!"
Mikasa and Fiore took notice of the many civilians walking past them looking at Eren either in disgust or fear. It was usually like this when hanging out with the brunette. He was too rowdy for the masses, too different, the masses don't like different.
Hannes gripped his head and groaned about Eren's loud voice, asking the boy to quiet down.
"Haha! The doctor's son has spirit!" One of the drunk soldiers playing cards behind Hannes laughed and slapped his knee. "If the bastards break through the wall, we'll be on top of the situation, but I tell ya, that hasn't happened in over a hundred years!"
Fiore kissed her teeth and furrowed her eyebrows, she couldn't handle anymore of this nonsense. "If it happened a hundred years ago then it can happen again, right?" The young girl asked the intoxicated soldiers. "History will repeat itself if no one stops it, and obviously you useless people won't!"
The group looked at Fiore slightly stunned by her outburst as she sighed and pulled off her wood holder. She separated the wood she had into two stacks, putting one stack into Eren's holder and the other into Mikasa's.
"Sorry guys," She said to her friends, "I still have chores to do at home."
Mikasa and Eren nodded at the girl, making sure to wave her off while she disappeared into the crowd of people.
"Fiore is right," Eren stated, turning back to the soldiers, "Nothing will change if we live like we're caged animals."
Shortly after, the two children took their leave, saying their goodbyes to the soldiers and making their way back to Eren's house.
Meanwhile, the group of soldiers laughed at their interaction with the kids though Hannes stood there, questioning Eren's words.
"Don't tell me, he wants to join the Survey Corps?" The blond spoke aloud to himself, worrying for Eren's wellbeing.
-ˋˏ ༻🌹༺ ˎˊ-
Fiore's home was much smaller than her friend's, but it was all the same to her. She had the essentials, or at least what she could afford.
A year ago she was living slightly more comfortably. Envelopes filled with money were always delivered at least once a week for as long as she could remember, but starting last year they ceased to come. She had even flagged down a messenger to see what had happened, but alas there were no answers.
Fiore never knew who the money came from, she would like to thank them if she could, but a feeling in her gut told her that wouldn't be possible.
It didn't matter now, when the money stopped coming, Fiore took up small jobs around the district to get paid. She was sure that by now people had figured out her situation though no one stepped up to help her.
The young girl wasn't surprised, she had learned long ago that humans were selfish and unreliable. Fiore supposed she wasn't any better. Perhaps her living situation would be better if she wasn't selfish as well.
Never relying on others to help her because she didn't want to feel like a burden, or maybe it was because she was too prideful?
Too prideful to ask for help, too prideful to tell her friends the truth about her living situation, too prideful.
Much too prideful.
The young girl stared at the wooden beams running across the ceiling, wondering if she was embarrassed of herself.
Maybe that's why she never invited her friends here? No, that wasn't it. She knew that the moment they saw where she lived, they would try to help, it all traced back to her selfishness of not wanting to be a burden.
Fiore didn't like how loud her thoughts were in such a quiet space. She needed to clear her head, thankfully it was about time to shop for dinner so the black-haired child picked herself off the uncomfortable mattress and grabbed the pouch of money she had on a dresser beside the bed.
The unfortunate thing about shopping were the vendors. A lot of them thought that just because she was a child, she couldn't think for herself and so they would try to scam her. It rarely works, Fiore isn't dumb, or at least she thinks she isn't.
Walking over to the door, Fiore reached for the metal handle only to fall to the floor when the ground shook violently.
"What the hell?" The girl muttered to herself and quickly stood up to open the door trying to find out what happened.
Cracking the door open Fiore watched in shock as mobs of people ran past her humble home screaming their lungs out.
"Titans are invading!" The child heard one of the fleeing people shout.
It was as though Fiore's body had stopped functioning. She needed to move, but...
She was scared?
This isn't the time to be scared, and yet, she was.
What about Armin, Eren, and Mikasa?
Finally coming to her senses, the young girl stepped outside her house and was immediately swept up by the crowd rushing to the docks. If she stopped moving, she knew she would be trampled so she had to keep going forward.
And yet the girl was concerned, did her friend evacuate already? Are they safe? If she gets on that boat without them she'll be leaving them behind,
Just like a coward.
If she wasn't afraid, she'd pull away from the crowd and go look for her friends.
If she wasn't afraid, she wouldn't be rushing to the boats.
If she wasn't afraid, she'd actually be able to do something!
She doesn't like it, being afraid. She wishes she would never have to feel such a useless emotion again.
By now the girl had arrived at the docks, the boats filling up fast. She wasn't sure she'd be able to get in one.
"We can fit one more person on this boat! Any children or pregnant women?!" Shouted a soldier helping people onto the boats.
Suddenly Fiore was lifted into the air by a soldier standing behind her. "Here! We have a kid here!!" They exclaimed and the girl was quickly escorted onto the boat and squeezed into a tight space.
The boats soon after started leaving Shiganshina, but while passing the wall to leave Shiganshina, Fiore saw rocks fly as a titan plated with what appeared to be armor drove a hole into it.
Which meant, titans could now invade Wall Maria.
And Fiore ran off without her friends like a coward. If something happens to them, she'd never be able to forgive herself.
Without even noticing, the child began to cry softly.
If only she wasn't afraid.
2190 Words