HOPE YOU ENJOY 

PLEASE VOTE

https://youtu.be/frJxo5umtXc

Sometimes when you've lived most of your life being seen and treated as a monster, you start to become one. You lose your true self to how the world has vied you and only grow to be the monster they see. 

Mikasa knew that much to be true.

She's heard what others had called her and how others had seen her to be, even when she stood a mere frighten child. 

But Mikasa has never lost herself to the beast that others had titled her to be. She had friends, good friends, who reminded her how loved and human she was. They saw her as their friend, as the scared little girl she once was, as the person she chose to be and they've never stopped seeing her as a living being. 

Armin had grown to be her emotional support, he's always kept her grounded to life and showed her just how loved and wanted she was. Always praising her without her feeling like some super human or a demon. 

Armin would hug her without any hesitation or fear over her about to eat his soul or slit his throat for even daring to think she'd be vulnerable before him. Armin showed the world she was as human as he was. 

And she noticed that the captain held no one like that. 

He was humanity's strongest, that's all he was seen and known as. 

All the praise he was given was linked to his skills that were useful to humanity, nothing else. 

All the respect grew from fearing him to be a demon summoned by the survey crops. 

No one would cry for the captain's death, they'd cry for the lost of a tool for humanity's survival. 

She knew he was friends with the other captains and commander but they always seemed to encourage the rumours or gossip over the man being a demon from hell. 

They'd laugh and joke over it with or without him close by. 

No one seemed to notice on the hard days, his lowest days, how such words burden his soul. 

He didn't have an Armin like she did, didn't grow up with an Eren who'd scream at anyone who'd speak badly over them after winning an unfair fight. 

She decided to be his Armin. 

She was going to look after him, more so when no one else would. 

It wasn't planned, she thought over talking to him over his.. feelings on the matter or at least showing that she understood. 

But she moved into action before a conversation could truly be hold over the subject she's been thinking over. 

She crossed paths with a few soldiers speaking over the captain, talking as if he truly was a wild beast tamed solely for the survey corpse use. Speaking and laughing while the captain was in ear shot and she knew the captain was having an low day, everyone has bad days and no one else seemed to notice he was having his. 

She had stormed over, a murderous glare aimed towards the group who all fell silent and soon enough she was scolding them on the spot. Having waited until the captain was out of ear reach before truly scolding them and reminding them that he was as human as the rest of them. 

Such incident carried on happening around her. 

She'd take notice over the attuited aimed towards the captain and she'd unconsciously glare towards groups or soldiers who spoke in such cruel ways. 

After two weeks of her stepping in, everyone learnt to bite their tongues and grow silent if she even dared to look in their direction as they thought over speaking over the Captain as a monster. 

The rumours, gossip and jokes all died down whenever she crossed paths with anyone daring to speak as if the Captain was a mere beast and not someone willing to die for the shake of their freedoms. 

Armin backed her up, in his own way, patting her arm in praise and giving her hugs whenever some of the soldiers started to mention how terrifying she was. Wanting to comfort his friend up and show she had feelings just as anyone else did. 

She didn't make her awkward form of truce and comfort obvious until a certain expedition. 

She had just.. hugged the Captain. 

It was a rough expedition and many lives were lost to the titans. 

A few dumb soldiers complained over the captain failing in his own job to wipe the titans out for them. Clearly not catching on over how pained the Captain was over all the lives lost.  

Flashbacks over Mikasa crying over a grazed knee on her way to school, being laughed at by others passing for a "monster can cry" and soon being hugged by both Armin and Eren. Eren screaming at others to carry on walking while Armin moved to clean up her graze.

So, instincts just took over and Mikasa hugged the Captain, hoping to make everything feel a tiny bit better and help to take some of his sadness away. 

Everyone had froze and Mikasa just awkwardly patted the Captain's shoulder once she broke the hug and walked away to find her friend's as she had been doing before overing the other soldiers words. 

It wasn't the last physical affection or comfort she tried giving the captain. She moved to patting his back sometimes or giving a light head pat to his head. On the worse days when he seemed ready to break, she'd hug him in hopes to hold him together and take away all the hurt and suffering from him. 

It was a sight that everyone around them was slowly growing use to seeing. 

Armin had been the first to catch on that Mikasa's "need" to comfort the captain wasn't the same type of feelings he and Eren held when wanting to comfort her as a friend. He'd silently placed a bet with Moblit who had questioned him over his friend's recent change of behaviour. 

"He's not a monster. He shouldn't be treated as one" Mikasa simply answered as her reasoning when the rest of their friends finally questioned her recent habits with the captain. 

Their friends just staring at her, some looking like lost puppies as he they wondered if they were speaking over the same captain. All of them having thought of the most strongest and skilled titan killer and fighter the walls have ever met compared to some stray kitten that Mikasa had clearly been picturing. 

"I call dibs on walking you down the aisle" Armin smiled sweetly, hearing wedding bells in the future and claiming his role already. 

"Do I need to walk him down an aisle someday?" Mikasa whispered to her friend with slight confusion, wondering how far she had to go for looking after the captain. 

Armin just smiled and sat up taller to pat the top of her head in a comforting and friendly way. Knowing she wasn't ready to hear his theory over her and the captain just yet. 

Meanwhile..

"It must be mind games. She's treating me like a dog" Levi announced as he was finally losing his mind over Mikasa's new behaviour. 

"Giving you pats as a treat to keep you behaved.." Hanji crackled back, loving the thought over Mikasa treating her friend as a mere pet. 

"Maybe she just wants to be friends. I feel like her friends might give her bad advice over how to make a better truce with you and gain a friendship with you. She's not the most.. people person and she'd probably been given stupid advice from others who assumed she was joking over getting along with you better" Moblit offered up his own thought with a small worried smile, having been trapped in the commander's office by having dragged his captain here for the last minute meeting. 

"It would be nice if the strongest soldiers under my care did get along better. Maybe put some effect into this new.. relationship with her" Erwin casually replied as he looked towards his shorter friend, hoping he'd try to put some effect into getting along with Mikasa better. 

"The moment she starts trying to give me ear scratches in the moment I'm feeding her to a titan" Levi warned as he glared towards the commander. 

"I'm more surprised you didn't send her flying to the ground the moment she hugged you. You're not a touchy person" Hanji mumbled back with a thoughtful expression. 

"I think he was in shock like the rest of us" Moblit pointed out as none of them really knew what to do when it first happened. 

"He likes hugs" Mike merely commented as he looked straight at the shortest male in the room, knowing why the other hasn't been attacking the cadet everytime she's hugged him since the expedition.

"She is a very good hugger" Levi shyly admitted, his ears growing red. 

Erwin and Hanji had lost themselves to shock for the next hour as the shortest captain made his quick escape before they could harass him over his thoughts or his feelings towards Mikasa. Moblit groaning out as he went off to find Armin and pay him his losings in their bet.