"Eren?"

"Mikasa...?"

Her violet-gray eyes blinked couple of times, trying to distinguish if what she was seeing was reality or a hoax.

In the midst of all the squires and knights, she did not expect to see him here. Her heart began racing. She did not know how to act or what to say.

She just stood there, mute for a moment.

At the back of her brain, she was frantic about how Erwin and Levi would react once they find out she wasn't by Levi's side as expected.

She knew she must not stop but she did. She stared into those viridiscent and wild eyes of his and her heart began to act without reason. He stared back at her, meeting her beautiful eyes.

It has been years since they last saw each other.

Nosy people glanced to them, probably coming up with some false stories to spread but they did not care. They did not give a damn about it.

They were meters away from each other but their legs knew what to do.

At the same time, just like magic, they sprinted to each other and embraced one another.

"Mikasa!" Eren whispered as he hugged her tightly. "It has been years..."

Mikasa sniffed and buried her face into Eren's chest. Tears slid down her pale and soft cheeks as she looked down. "Eren..." She felt Eren's arms on her back and she was glad she's embracing him for she never thought this would happen. It did not cross her mind that she would be out of that brothel. She thought she will be living there forever, used, filthy, and probably, have children with men she did not know.

Eren cupped Mikasa's cheeks with both of his hands and he looked at her. "Don't cry now, Mikasa..." He soothed her.

"But I..." She sobbed. "I missed you!"

"Hush." Eren said softly as he buried his face on Mikasa's silky hair. "I am here now. You will be fine. I will protect you, I promise."

Mikasa nodded as she smiled happily. "Thank you."

Thank you...

•••

It was already dark and Historia was done for the day. She was already back at the castle and she was at her room, in front of her dresser. She was brushing her hair with an expensive brush. The brush did not really do help to her hair. Her family only bought it for her since it was expensive and to them, expensive is of good quality but Historia knew better than that. Expensive is not really the best.

It wasn't really her hairbrush. It belonged to her older sister, Frieda.

Frieda was kind, loving, fun, understanding, brave and basically any positive descriptions fit her. In fact, she was the meaning of all those words. Unfortunately, she was killed. Uri told Historia that it had a reason but when Historia asks what the reason really is, her uncle would just gaze at the horizon with a wistful look.

She always hated that face of her uncle when she asks him that.

She sighed as she set Frieda's hairbrush down on the narra wood of her dresser. She looked at the mirror and realized her eyes were brimmed in tears. She brought her hand to wipe them away and she huffed in exasperation as she did.

"Stop..." She whispered to herself as more tears fell down her cheeks. She could feel mucus from her nostrils and the things happening are making her feel gross. "Stop..." She hissed in frustration. She stood up from her chair angrily and pointed at herself at the mirror. "Stop, you harlot! You do not cry. You're a monster with no feelings. Your mother called you a monster so since she said it, I deem it to be true..."

And she broke down to sobs after that.

•••

Levi was forced to repose for the night in a tent filled with noisy teenage boys who called themselves squires. He sat at the corner of the tent made of canvas. It was a huge tent that catered almost ten boys, at least to Levi's deductive reasoning.

This is...such a pile of ordure. Levi thought. He sulked in the corner of the tent that he claimed to be his own. He felt several pairs of curious and cautious eyes that observed him, few feet away from him.

"What?" He blurted out, "What do you need from me?"

A voice scoffed. "Nothing in particular and stop your holier-than-thou facade. It's worthy to be vomitted at."

The voice sounded familiar to him.

"Eh, you again?" Levi said, looking up and saw the small blonde boy whom he fought with weeks ago.

"Aye," was the boy's snarky remark. "Surprise, you dull football player." He said with a monotone voice. He has blonde hair that was nearly as pale as the moonlight. His eyes were carved by Khione's hands and she had filled his eyes with cold cruelty. His nose was sculpted by the gods and it resembled the nose of great dictators of the Great Empire of Rome such as Julius Caesar and his kinsman, Augustus. His attitude was the reincarnation of the lightning god, Thor with a little slivers of the God Of Mischief, Loki.

If it was not for his attitude, Levi could have fallen for the boy since he had a striking resemblance to Erwin but since the boy was just a complete crabapple, Levi did not fawn upon his image.

"I do not play football..." Levi grumbled as he snuggled on his pillow.

"I do!" A fun loving boy, Connie called out from the other end of the tent. "I love football!"

"No one asked, Connie." Jean, the boy who fancied Mikasa stated. "And you know what? You just gave your cheap self away...loving football and all..." Jean mumbled.

"Eh?" Was Connie's surprised response.

Anthony took a deep breath and shrugged and turned back to Levi. "Well, that was pointless. Forgive me." He said, his voice filled with deadly calm. He outstretched his hand to Levi. "Are we now well?"

Levi stared at the boy's pale hand and shook it reluctantly. "Aye, Anthony."

The boy showed a cold smirk. "Good." And he walked away.

Levi's dark eyes followed the back of the young boy as he got farther away.

This is going to be a long time... Levi reckoned. I think I will stuck here forever.

He closed his eyes, off to the realms of Hypnos and then, to Morpheus' lair.

•••

Levi squinted for his eyes were awoken by a small sunlight that shone from a window pane. He groaned as he turned and covered his eyes with the help of his pale forearm but he wasn't able to drift off to sleep since the other boys seemed to rise as well and started chattering to each other.

Levi lifted his face from his pillow and squinted his eyes, a frown curved on his thin lips.

"Hello!" A boy from above his bunk said and hung above him and the wooden supports of the bed kept the other boy from falling. The brown haired boys hair was dangling from the upper bunk. It was a boy he didn't recognize.  "My name is Severino! What's yours?" The boy asked Levi in a rather thick English accent yet tuneful voice.

Levi sat up and tugged a few strands of the boy's hair gently. "I'm Levi."

The boy grinned, ignoring the fact that Levi tugged his hair a little harshly. "Sweet!" He exclaimed as he leapt out of bed. "I like it! I like your name, it's quite short unlike the other people here. I mean, Bertholdt is a handful to pronounce when you try to read it on paper and Reiner sounds a little bit like reindeer and Severino sounds like some name of a saint of something."

Levi listened to every word the boy said but what flared his anger a little bit was when the boy, Severino stated that he liked Levi's name because it was short. Was that an indication of mockery towards Levi's height?

Levi rose from his bed and noticed that the boy was so much taller than he was which made him feel more horrible than he already is.

"Do any of you happen to see Eren?" A small and soft voice called out from the end of the tent.

"Nay." Jean answered.

"Alright. I shall go find him then." The squeaky voiced boy, Armin said as he finished folding his covers. Then, he left to find where this Eren was.

The boys clustered into a small circle and started to chat with each other while Levi just sat back at his bed and looked at the younger males that were settled a few inches from his feet.

"Actually," The bigger boy, Reiner said. "I saw Eren hugging this young lady last night."

Upon hearing this, Jean's face contorted in anger and jealousy. "What? Is it the princess?"

Reiner shook his head. "Relax and thankfully, it wasn't the princess." He said and knowing that he is deeply infatuated with the princess, some figured out that he would say something like that which drove Jean into madness. Well, he was not entirely mad, more like being jealous.

"Sorry for interrupting your conversation but what does this girl look like?" Levi said as he leaned closer as if he was trying to absorb all the words that will come out from their mouths.

"She had black hair." Anthony said.

Wait, so was it Mikasa then? There was no one else female in this camp except the princess who happens to be light haired and Mikasa...

Levi eyes lit up in realization.

"You know this girl?" Bertholdt, the tallest in their group asked Levi.

"Aye."

And he could feel some of the boys' jaws drop in who knows? Suspense and drama maybe? This situation could have been another inspiration for Shakespeare to write another play.

"Well, shit-" Connie the inexpensive football player said.

The cloth that served as the door to the tent was yanked open so suddenly that it startled the boys and the canvas was ripped apart which was melancholic to look at.

"What are you doing?" The princess entered the place as she reprimanded the boys, a usual job that she does that changed her opinion greatly about men and boys. "You have work to do!"

"We were doing gossip." Severino replied absentmindedly but dropped a little tone of mockery into it.

She stormed in the place and crossed her arms at them, rather unafraid to be towered by numerous gigantic people.

As she walked to them furiously, Levi was forced to stand up due to fright. Sure, the princess was puny but her size did not match her personality.

"And work?" Severino remarked. "Is it not supposed to be a free day today?"

"There is work!" Historia yelled at them which was happened on a daily basis that boys had gotten used to her yelling and scolding, in fact, it was almost proclaimed ineffective. "Do you think I ripped that canvas sheet for nothing? I did it to provide you work and be grateful since working can decrease the risk of obesity so get to work!" She yelled at the boys.

Levi stood motionless and it was unknown to him about what he should do. There were more than five boys in the tent and he was pretty sure that it would only take one to stitch up that ruined canvas so he headed outside, probably looking for Mikasa.

•••

"Erwin." Nile said with his deep voice and his eyes seemed to carve it's way from Erwin's armor and to his soul. "Do you not realize that your help is gravely needed at the ones who are out to fight those rebels? Please cease from hiding and face those scum. Go and kill them." The man scrunched his eyebrows together as he reckoned deeply.

Erwin swallowed his saliva. He was perplexed and he was having a hard time concentrating for his misery is sucking his life as it pierced its fangs through his mind. It was just sudden that he turned miserable. He was not thinking straight but he remained determined and composed. "I understand. I shall follow you back there, then. Leave me here for a couple more weeks or months so that I can train and educate these squires so that they may become knights."

The knights were situated inside a tent, well, it was not really a tent for it resembled a longhouse which was used by the Natives in the Americas and since discovering it, the knights of Eldia have used the design to inspire their engineering on the tents of the knights and squires alike.

They all had grim faces and their postures were taut. They were seated, arranged in the form of a circle. Fire cackled in the middle of the circle and yes, it is flammable but they kept the fire inside a circular boundary that was made of big and smooth stones.

"Well," Pixis, one of the elderly knights began, "We all know that it is not quite desirable to quickly train the young squires so that they may be able to battle in the fray but since a battle is coming our way, we have to. That was what the King had proclaimed." The old man's light colored eyes showed a faint glow, reflecting the laughing fire. "And you Erwin, along with Nile and Kieth will remain here to teach the young ones. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir." The three mentioned people stated in unison.

"Very well." Pixis said as he rose, dusting his clothes from unseen specks of dirt. "I will leave the rest to you all." He turned to Kitz, "Let us go."

And with that, they left.

Sorry for the late update guys but here it is. The reason why I was late is because I was stressing and working on a bunch of things. Thank you for your patience!