"Never ever, ever let Mikasa walk away alone with me ever again," Gaia groaned as she fell face-first onto Eren's bed. Eren chuckled and Armin smiled shaking head at their antics. They had been enjoying a fairly quiet evening until the unlikely duo burst through the door. 

"What have the two of you been up to for the past 3 hours?" Eren asked Mikasa, as he petted Gaia's head next to his hip. Gaia looked up Eren pouting, 

"Oh we were just having some fun, she is being dramatic," Mikasa said leaning against the door frame, 

"Sure sure, because torture is fun to all of you, Ackermans." Gaia said, rolling her eyes once she propped up her head on her up-turned palm, Mikasa smirked at her comment, the girl was clearly still upset with their captain, she had sulked about it most of their evening despite Mikasa's efforts to distract her.

Eren's face darkened at Gaia's words, very familiar with his captain's methods of torture.  

"You tortured her?" he asked, as he slowly moved forward to protect Gaia,  

"I am sure Gaia is just exaggerating, you know that she tends to do that, " Armin said in defense, quickly finding his way between his two childhood friends, 

"How do you know? This could be Gaia's desperate cry for help. We should protect her," Eren said, still on the edge of the bed, almost hiding Gaia from their sight, 

" I should know, because I taught her how to speak," Armin deadpanned, sweat-dropping as  her recalled her odd habit of over exaggerating as soon as she was able to speak conversationally - it had been a key indicator for them that she may have had a personality before joining them. He shook his and before Eren could respond, he felt Gaia, placed her hand on his back, effectively calming him down. His frown fell and his shoulder's noticeably slumped, 

Mikasa's eyes trained on Gaia's hand, hope that somehow it would set a light if she stared hard enough, Gaia saw the young girl's reaction to her calming gesture to Eren in amusement. I wonder when this boy will realize how much he means to her. 

 Although Gaia wanted him to relax he was not able to ignore the fact that Gaia's legs were shaking from behind him. She probably hoped that the angle that she laid on his bed and the fact that she was now behind his back, that he could not tell that her body was shaking from overexertion. 

He looked over at Armin, who could see behind him. He noticed that Armin noticed it as well, that's all confirmation that he needed,   

"If you did not torture her, then what exactly were you doing?" Eren asked, a clear threat in his tone made Gaia frown, 

"We just had a little fun," Mikasa replied crossing her arms, as Armin's eyebrows raised. He could not think of what Mikasa could think fun was, every game that they ever played together involved Eren and himself. What could she and Gaia possibly view as fun together? Especially now that they were grown women, he doubted that they were playing tag or hide and seek... Mikasa hated board games and card games... Mikasa... He looked over to his friend who at this point was feverishly arguing with a screaming Eren. There was something odd about her. Mikasa's hair was disheveled and her skin was almost shinning.., or  perhaps glowing? His eyes trailed down her form, her white shirt that was clinging to her form more than usual. Why was Mikasa in such a state and Gaia's legs shaking...? Armin paused as an unsavoury picture made its way into his teenage mind. Mikasa being so cryptic about what they were doing did not help his mental image of what they defined as "fun" either...He blushed. 

"You know, Levi has a point in being suspicious of you two," Mikasa said, bringing Armin out of his thoughts,

"Oh please, not you too," Eren said, bringing his hand to his face in frustration, 

"It's not completely illogical, just going off your behaviour," Armin said after clearing his throat and adjusting his collar, sitting down on his bed opposite Eren, after seeing that they calmed down, 

"It's really not like that," Eren said looking at Gaia who was now propped on his pillows listening to them. She looked at him and he knew that she felt sorry for him, she did not particularly care most of humanity thought, she made that abundantly clear from the moment she shared a room with their captain, 

"It's more like... more like... Our bond is... she..." he tried, stumbling over his words, looking at her for guidance, but she was unsure what the mass of emotions she was feeling could mean, he looked in her eyes and she tilted her head, giving him a small smile, trying to comfort him while he was clearly feeling in distress, his eyes widened at a familiar feeling breaking through his chest, 

"She is like my mother..." 

"Mother" 

"...mother"  she heard the word whispered by more than one voice, 

"...mother" a grown man's voice, sounding distressed 

"...mother" a female voice, happiness evident 

"...mother" voices across time, 

"...mother" accompanied by the faces of three beautiful little girls, if angels existed, surely they were the sweetest and most innocent kind, the sight of their forest green eyes, eyes that mirror hers, made her heart give a painful lurch. 

These strangers, who meant more to her than all the stars in the sky, who were they? 

Why were they so happy to see her?

...why were they calling her mother? 

Where are they?

"Gaia," She has been here for so long? Where are they? Are they okay? 

Do they miss her?

"Mother," Why were there so many voices? Was she their mother as well? 

"Mother,"  that's what Eren referred to her as, his eyes had always been hauntingly similar to his. However, she was no fool, she had heard the story of his true mother's unfortunate demise, he was young, surely she would have remembered giving birth so recently... They boy is what 16... is 16 years ago recent to her? Heck, she was not sure how old she was. She was going off the fact that she was probably older than him... probably.

.. 

"Gaia," Her heart ached at the thought, how could she not remember having that many children? 

She was told that the wonders of childbirth resound throughout a woman's life until the very end. 

Why didn't hers?

 Why can't I remember?!

...

"Gaia," she was brought back to reality, by Eren's worried voice,

"What...I... What's wrong?" she asked reaching up, and cupping Eren's face, 

"W-What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? You have been staring at me crying for an hour," he said, wiping some more of her tears away, as he had been doing for the past five minutes. Mikasa and Armin sweat- dropped at his blatant exaggeration, the very same habit that the female titan had picked up on, 

"If it bothers you that much that I think that our relationship is similar to a mother and son then-"

"Shhhh, I did not say that," Gaia interrupted, cooing as she patted his head, while he willed his angry tears to go away, 

"Then why are you crying?" Armin asked, 

"Well I..." her voice broke a little, and Eren moved closer, once again ready to catch her tears, 

"I have a feeling that Eren is not the only one to have felt that way about me..." she paused to breathe, 

"In fact, I think that there were many who have called me... mother,"