Levi frowns down at the reports in his hands.

Things have not been going well since the fall of Maria, and lately the Scouting Legion seems to be the ones in the deepest shit. On the one hand, they 're finally being taken seriously as a division--not just as the needless killers of loved ones--and the military is fast becoming an enticing, steady job for many of the refugees--sometimes the only job they can find.

On the other hand, however, people are more terrified of Titans than ever. False rumors about a Titan 300 meters tall, and Titans that could run with the speed of lightning, or single Titans leveling entire cities, devouring everyone in sight, are only too common. It 's proving very difficult to get terrified people to join a research division dedicated to getting as close as possible to the Titans.

In front of him, Erwin has a look of grim acceptance, visible in the pull of his mouth and the angle of his thick eyebrows. His hands slide up to clasp in front of his face, his weight resting heavy on his elbows.

"The same as usual, I suspect?"

Levi nods, handing the practically incriminating papers to the stern-faced man. "Low enlistment rate, high dropout rate, too many casualties, and no real significant outcomes." He feels like slicing something, but a quick glance around at the Spartan elegance of the office suggests it will have to wait until tonight's training. Maybe shitty-glasses will be up for a spar...

"And what of your...pet project?" The look on Erwin's face shows that he expects nothing new, but Levi knows his report is necessary all the same.

"Nothing, sir. It's nowhere to be found." He feels a twitch of irritation. Months--

years!

--of sightings, and now it had just disappeared. Granted, they were many miles from its usual habitat, but that had never stopped it before, no matter how far from the walls they'd gotten. That doesn't make the sense of missed opportunity any less profound.

"I doubt this means you're giving up." One of these days Levi is going to get fed up with that omniscient tone and shove a sword up Erwin 's ass, but he could at least admit that the man wasn't wrong.

A smirk tugs at his lips. "Not a chance, sir. It's only a matter of time before I find it."

Only two people knew of his obsession with the Abnormal, and while Erwin remained mildly disapproving, Hanji gave him nothing but shit about it. A few months ago the shitty scientist even gifted him some blacklisted book about a fisherman and his obsession with a whale.

The book was terrible, but at least it was accurate.

The Berserker was his white whale.

And he would fucking find it.

Over the next few weeks, the temperatures rise and the crops started to grow, and Eren is getting better and better at his human studies. He has more words than he'd ever thought possible rattling around in his head and is starting to grasp reading and writing. He's also much more aware of what is and isn't acceptable in human company.

For example, taking of his shirt while weeding the crops or relaxing in the sun? Perfectly acceptable. Taking off his trousers? The humans panic trying to get him to put them back on.

Some customs he still refuses to abide by, however, such as the foot coverings--

shoes,

he had learned they were called. They are uncomfortable and cumbersome, and after a lifetime of not being able to feel the earth beneath his feet and grass pushing between his toes, there 's no way he 's stopping now.

A definite plus to learning the new customs and words is that Mikasa and Armin seemed happier. Since they'd arrived in the farming village to work, it seemed like every time he had to ask for clarification on some apparently-banal human habit, his humans would give him a heartbroken look before hurrying to explain it. He still wonders what causes that look to spread over his friends' faces, but the one time he'd gotten the courage to ask, Armin had started asking probing questions about his past.

If there's one thing he's certain of, it's that no one here can know of his other form. Telling them the truth was out of the question, but he hadn't known enough about how humans actually lived before the fall of Maria to make up a convincing, so he'd just shaken his head and pretended not to understand the words.

He'd kept up with his bird-hunting ever since the first successful catch, and now he could confidently say that he had all but mastered the art. It was nice to hone the hunting skills that had gone so long unused. And if he is honest with himself, the necessity of it only made him better. Before, his hunting skills hadn't

needed

to be good, his superior speed, strength, and intelligence more than made up for any stealth and patience he lacked.

Now, however, he and his humans rely on his ability to snatch a bird or two from their perches. The meaty supplement is doing wonders, too. Armin 's legs are almost completely healed of their bruises and what was apparently a sprained knee and ankle, and doesn 't need his walking sticks to move around anymore, and Carla too no longer smells of sickness. He had continued leaving morsels for her whenever he hunted, making sure to leave them on the windowsill instead of entering her den again, after what had happened the first time.

Mikasa and Armin hadn't been able to stop the laughter that had bubbled up their throats that night when he'd explained why he was covered in dirt with leaves in his hair, and he couldn't begrudge them their humor. He probably looked ridiculous. Besides, they'd wrapped him in a tight embrace after that, knowing full well it was something he loved. Having his arms filled with delicate, sweet-smelling humans was a feeling he'd never get tired of.

It's a day like any other when Eren receives another reminder of human fragility. He wipes the sweat from his brow with a hand aching from handling the small tools needed to keep the small crops from getting choked by weeds. Mikasa follows behind him with the water bucket, feeding the maturing plants and muttering about how poor the irrigation to this village 's crop-fields is.

He glances over to where Carla usually works, just to check up on her, but she isn't there.

He turns to the dark-haired human behind him. "Mikasa." He waits for his friend to turn to him. "Carla gone."

Mikasa looks around just as he had, before nodding. "She's probably with the doctor right now for a check-up." Eren is almost certain his face blossoms with worry, because Mikasa is quick to reassure him "No, no, she's probably fine. She's just pretty far along in the pregnancy. The baby should be coming out in a few months, so she needs to make sure she's healthy. Or else...you know." A soft, one-shoulder shrug accompanies the words.

Eren looks up at Mikasa's quiet tone with confusion and shakes his head. "No...not know. What 'or else'?"

The human frowns, adjusting its grip on the water pail. "Childbirth...that means, bringing the baby out of Carla's stomach..." Silvery eyes meet his for only a moment before returning to the water. "It's dangerous. Sometimes...sometimes the mothers don't make it."

He frowns at the confusing wording. "...Make what?"

"Some die, Eren." The words are hushed and gentle, but they send a chill down his spine nonetheless.

He doesn't want Carla to die. She is...nice. She always comes over during their work hours to thank him for the food he leaves her, and returns the cloth wrappings washed and folded. She also seems to understand how skittish he is around her, and makes her motions slower and her voice gentler than she does with the other humans. Eren isn't as simple as some of the villagers think. He notices things like that.

That alone has made him bolder, to the point where now they exchange a few words of pleasantries whenever Carla comes to thank him after hunting days before returning to work. Eren thinks it 's a big improvement from the first few times, in which he 'd hidden behind Mikasa in the hopes that the female wouldn 't see him and attack him for invading her territory.

His chest feels tight at the thought of losing one of his humans--how long had he considered Carla one of his humans? 'and he doesn't realize his eyes have begun to leak until Mikasa wipes the water away. "Hey, don't worry Eren. She's probably the healthiest person inside Rose right now, what with how much you feed her." The last bit is said lightly, as if to soften the seriousness of their conversation.

Eren looks up into silver eyes full of assurance. "So...food...help not die when..." he thinks back to the word Mikasa had used before, "Chial...barth?"

Mikasa nods and corrects him smoothly. "Childbirth. And...yes. I mean, if a person gets too hungry, they get sick easily. Sickness is usually what makes the whole thing dangerous. Does that make sense?"

Eren nods enthusiastically. "Carla need many food. I hunt more."

"Eren, you don't need to--"

"I hunt more." He interrupts before Mikasa can finish, looking at the human with a steely determination.

The dark-haired human smiles softly, running rough hands through his hair. "Okay."

It isn 't often that Armin has work when Eren and Mikasa don't, but here they are, Mikasa sitting on the top of a bench in the middle of the room while Armin wraps off-white bandages around the other 's hands and dabs ointment on the angry red blisters that had colonized the small hands.

"Why don't you ever seem to get them?" Mikasa scowls in Eren's direction, and he looks down at his hands. His healing ability doesn't even allow him to form callouses, so his hands are still mostly smooth. It isn't as swift in this form, but it 's still leagues ahead of an actual human's healing speed. While they do get sore and tender, he 's never formed any blisters.

Instead of saying that, though, he shrugs. "Maybe you hold tool wrong." He easily catches the roll of cloth that's thrown at his head and Mikasa only scowls harder.

"Be careful with that, Mikasa! I have to wash it again if it touches the floor!" Armin scolds, snatching the gauze roll from Eren and tucking it away in a drawer.

"Don't pretend like you don't love this job, Armin." Mikasa teases, delivering a soft nudge to Armin's side with a bare foot--shoes miraculously removed for once.

Armin shrugged, idly fiddling with the bottles and boxes strewn across the countertop. "It's...not bad. I...like feeling useful. And this is a job I can actually do, you know?"

Mikasa smiles, nudging him again and this time wiggling tiny toes into the human's ribs, causing Armin to bat her foot away with a short laugh. "All smart-work, you mean." Armin colors and looks away, and Mikasa takes the opportunity to ruffle the blond hair. "I'm glad, though. Give's you a chance to actually use that big brain of yours instead of letting it go to waste."

Armin gently slaps the hand away, ears turning pink under the praise.

"How much big?" The humans turn to look at Eren when he speaks, and for a moment he worries that he's interrupted the moment between them. They don't seem upset, though, just mildly confused, so he clarifies. "You say Armin brain...more big. How much big? How it fit in head if big?"

Armin clarifies that it was just a common way to say that someone was intelligent, and Eren lets out a growling huff. He had been introduced to 'idiom' as Armin had called it, early in his language lessons and it never ceased to frustrate him. What was the whole point of having a language with

so many

words in it if the words

never

meant what they were

actually

supposed to?

He looks away, and his eyes fall on a book, spread wide on the counter he's currently leaning against. One of the visible pages is filled with long, complex words that Eren can't decipher, but the other has an inked drawing of what he assumes to be a gravid--

pregnant--

female, shown from the side. The swell of her stomach was much more pronounced than Carla's, and he wonders how much more girth she would gain.

At first, he tucks it away as just another question to be left unanswered, but then he realizes he might actually be able to get some answers to his questions after all. Suddenly eager for the answers he's been craving, he picks the book up and rushes over to his humans.

"Armin I have question." It's not an uncommon phrase in their group, so Armin just glances up at him with a smile.

"What is it, Eren?"

He points at the female immortalized in the book. "How make baby?"

It takes a few moments for Eren's inquiry to really sink in, but when it does, Armin is sure his entire face becomes inflamed. His mouth opens and closes a few times, but no noise comes out. He turns to Mikasa, but her face is just as panicked.

"Um...well, you see..." Armin runs a hand over the back of his neck.

It's not like he didn't know what sex was--he was fourteen after all. Had they still been in Shiganshina, he and Mikasa would have been just shy of marrying age. He just never thought he'd have to explain it to someone. Especially someone older than him. He tries to remember the way it had been told to him, but it was so long ago...

"When a...a man and a woman...love each other very much..." he recites, before considering the words, "Well, actually, they don't have to love each other, just be attracted--"

"Armin!" Mikasa hisses, kicking him in the leg.

"Ow!" He rubs at the ache, and shoots a glare at Mikasa. "Do you want to explain it?"

"No. But do it right or you'll confuse him."

Eren just looks between them with mounting uncertainty, and Armin takes pity on him.

"To make a baby, men and women have to have s-sex. Which is...it's like kissing, but...um...more?" Armin is certain he's blushing bright red.

Eren gives a slow nod, but there's a frown etched into his face. "What is...all of them mean?"

"All?"

"Yes. Men and women and kissing. What do all mean?"

Armin just stares for a moment before turning back to Mikasa. She looks just as perplexed as him, and jumps down from the table.

"You don't know what men and women are?" She asks gently.

Eren shakes his head, and Armin feels a pang of sadness. The olive-skinned boy doesn't like to talk about his past, changing the subject every time it comes up, but moments like this only made Armin wish he knew more.

He shares a knowing glance with Mikasa before giving a short hum. "Well...kissing is easy, that's when people...put their lips together." Eren nods, seeming to understand. His expression is one of vindicated clarity, like he'd guessed a great mystery correctly. "And as for the others...well...people are sort of...put into

groups

. And...um."

Armin frowns. Describing the intricacies of gender was much harder than it seemed. After some deliberation, he decides to go with the simplest--albeit very flawed--version. "The ones who can have babies in their stomachs, like this--" he points at the drawing in the book "--are called women. And the others are called men."

Again, Eren's face brightens in understanding, and Armin goes on to explain the plurals and singulars of the words to him and introduces the boy to pronouns. He figures once Eren grasps the concept better, maybe he can work in some of the caveats to his simplistic definition.

After the short lesson, Eren seems much more confident about the subject. "Carla is...woman?" Armin nods, "And...Armin and Mikasa and me is...men?"

Mikasa lets out an affronted sound, and Armin waves his hands a bit, now flustered. "No-no, Eren, that's-- Mikasa's a girl-- I mean a woman, Mikasa is a woman. She's not a man"

Eren looks up at said woman with wide eyes. "What?"

Mikasa has a blush on her face, too, and she crosses her arms. "I'm a woman."

He snatches the book from where it lay on the floor, jabbing a finger at the pregnant woman again. "This! This is...you?"

Mikasa huffs. "Hopefully not any time soon," she mumbles. "But yes. I'm like that woman." She levels a glare at him, as if daring the boy to object.

Eren frowns, looking at the book in his hands, appearing to all the world as one in deep contemplation.

Eventually he spoke up, his voice oddly muted. "But...you are...

kind

. You and Carla..." He looks Mikasa in the eye, and Armin can feel the weight in the words. "Women...I thought all...

not kind

. All...attack."

There's quiet in the room, and Mikasa looks just as helpless as Armin feels. "Eren..." He trails off, unsure of what to say. "Before you came to us..."

"No!" Eren stands up quickly, putting distance between them. "No before!"

Armin can't help but feel shocked as he stares at the boy's broad back. Eren had never outright denied to answer questions about his past, usually electing to switch topics or stay mute entirely. Sometimes Armin was certain he had deliberately misheard some of the questions to avoid answering them.

"Why...why always ask

before

? Don't want--talk about before!"

Armin can see the tension in his frame and the shaking of his clenched fists, and decides that maybe this time it's best that he let the subject drop.

"Alright Eren," He walks over slowly, knowing that startling Eren sometimes ended with a flailing limb colliding with a soon-to-be-tender face. He lays a gentle hand on Eren's back, hoping that it's a comforting pressure. "I won't ask about before anymore, okay? I promise." It takes him a while to catch the blue-green gaze, but when he does, they're guarded and serious. Armin doesn't see the wild, hapless emotion that usually swims in them.

Moments like these cement Armin's idea that Eren is genuinely intelligent and not simple at all, despite his difficulty with speaking and ignorance of the world.

"Would you like me to read you some of the anatomy book?" So far it was his favorite of the medical texts that littered the doctor's office. He would look at the drawings and sometimes pester Armin to read passages to him. Neither he nor Mikasa knew why it fascinated him so much, but sure enough, Eren sheds his dark, serious demeanor like an old coat--eyes sparkling with child-like wonder once again. He nods furiously and disappears into the back office to grab the stashed book.

He catches Mikasa's eye, and she breathes a long sigh. "What happened to him?"

He only wishes he knew.

[Many years ago and many miles away]

Annabelle shuts her eyes tightly and tucks the clipboard she was meant to be recording on tighter against her chest, trying and failing to ignore the tortured bellows coming from the creature before her.

A hand closes on her shoulder and squeezes comfortingly, and she turns to see her husband Pierre with pained understanding swimming in his eyes.

She swipes at the moisture gathering on her lashes, and gives a single, wet laugh. "I never thought I'd pity a Titan."

Pierre gives her a sad smile, and they turn back to the creature just in time to see it slump forward, exhausted. It trembles, shaky gasps of breath and the rattling of massive chains now the only sounds for many minutes before a

gruff voice tears through the pained noises.

"I 'm finished for today. Tighten its bonds and lock this place up. '

Anabelle turns to see the cruel doctor stripping his hands of gloves and flinches as the instrument he was using on the Titan just moments before clatters heavily to the table. She looks at the imprisoned subject, heavy heart making her hesitate for just a second.

A second is apparently too long for the doctor, as he strides over to her and grasps the front of her coat in a tight fist, 'I 'm sorry, was I not clear? ' he growls. She hears Pierre 's intake of breath behind her, and she knows that were it not for the mass of scar tissue that was his throat, he would have called her name in shock.

'No! No, you were perfectly clear, sir. ' She resists the urge to pull away, knowing it would do nothing for her cause.

'Then you were deliberately resisting my orders? '

'No sir! I was just ' ' She stops, and he raises his eyebrows mockingly as if to say 'Just what? Do go on ' and she mumbles out a revised answer, 'I just had a moment of distraction, sir. '

"Hn. See that it doesn 't happen again. ' He lets go of her shirt front, causing her to stumble slightly. 'Just remember your debt to us. Olympus opened its arms and welcomed you. The least you can do is work off that debt. ' He glances at the Titan. 'Starting by helping me find out all I can about our most recent capture. ' He turns back to her. 'Now doesn 't that seem fair? '

She nods shakily. 'Yes Dr. Grisha. '