and i've got my hands in your heart, you've got your hands in my hair - Daisytraci1 - Shingeki no Kyojin (2024)

Chapter 1: new friends and blue skies that never end - sunshine and summertime by faith hill

Chapter Text

The small lake was surrounded by trees and Adaline grinned as she looked over the shimmering water. They didn’t get breaks like this often, but since the attempted kidnapping on herself and Eren, they were having more time to themselves with all of the changing of squads and protection orders. There seemed to be a lot of time for everyone to just enjoy the day now and not stress so much about expeditions.

The lake wasn’t far from the cottage they were using for the time being, and with the heat of the summer, it was nice to be able to dip into the water to cool off.

Connie was running full sprint, screaming at the top of his lungs as he ran to the lake. He plunged straight in, laughing as soon as he resurfaced and wiping the water from his face with a grin on his face. Sasha was not far behind in a small cropped top and tiny shorts with her arms waving in the air as she was giggling, running into the water rather than jumping. Jean and Marco were lounging by the water in the coarse sand, talking about what was going to happen next. Armin seemed to be trying to show Hange something along the treeline while Mikasa was stealing glances at Eren, who was being chewed out by Levi. It was like a little paradise for them all.

“Are you going to get in as well?” Historia asked as she walked up, wearing a thin sundress over a short sleeved blouse. She had a sunhat on as well, shielding her face from the burning sun. “I may, I feel weird wearing so little in front of everyone though. I’m so used to being fully covered.” Adaline replied as she looked down at her shorts and jacket.

“I can’t help but agree, that's why I won’t get in. I feel a bit too exposed for it.”

“Oh I think you should. It’s odd but I like seeing everyone let loose like this. We don’t get this freedom often. We all should probably treasure it.” Adaline smiled at the other girl who shook her head, “I think I’m good. Seeing everyone enjoying themselves is enough for me.”

“Adaline! Get over here!”

Adaline’s eyes wandered over to where Marco and Jean sat, where the former was waving her over. “Excuse me, can’t keep the prince waiting.” She smiled before she made her way over to Marco, her toes burning from the warm sand. She hopped lightly to try to avoid the burn from the sand but it was hard.

Marco instantly patted the spot beside him as Adaline got close enough, to which the girl dropped down to sit beside him. “Yes sir?”

“We wanna play chicken, you down?”

“Chicken?”

Marco looked scandalized, “You’ve never heard of chicken? The best game known within these walls?”

“I told you! People from Jinae are freaks, Marco! No one has ever heard of that game.” Jean said with a raised eyebrow. “This freak says apparently it’s where two pairs are in the water with one person on the other’s shoulders and they try to push off the other top person of the other team. Even worse, multiple people can play it? While we’re working hard back home, these freaks in Jinae are just f*cking around. How can you move in water that fast? Water sucks to move in! You guys have too much time on your hands.”

“Marco, I don’t know how to swim.” Adaline said with a light blush on her cheeks. She heard Marco groan before laying back down, “We won’t be in deep water, I swear! It’s really fun! Plus you’re small enough to be a rider!”

Adaline sighed before fiddling with the jacket she was wearing over her top. It was the one from Jean, the one she had never turned back in or gotten rid of. She wondered if he realized she had kept it for so long. She wondered if he realized it was his in general. “Who’s all gonna play if I agree?”

Marco grinned while she heard Jean groan, “I’m carrying Armin, Connie is gonna carry Sasha, Mikasa is carrying Eren and Jean will carry you!”

“Why is Mikasa carrying Eren?”

“She refused to be carried and I’m not gonna try to change her mind. She literally scares me so much, I refuse to argue with her. You’re welcome to try and change her mind but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Adaline sighed as she fiddled with the sleeves of the jacket again. “Okay, I’ll play if Jean is okay carrying me, that is.” She looked at Jean who grumbled before agreeing, “Sure, whatever!”

Was it weird? Yes, but seeing Marco’s face light up like a child made it worth it. He stood up quickly, yelling for everyone to come around as he pulled his own shirt off, revealing his freckled chest.

Despite him being her best friend, Adaline felt herself blush. Yeah, they would only be friends, that’s all she wanted from Marco, but there was no denying he was a good looking guy with tanned, freckled skin. His hair was starting to grow now and he smiled more, he wasn’t as sad about what happened in Trost. Even the eye patch and scar added something to his appearance. She had thought he was attractive ever since they were cadets, some things never changed.

It seemed Connie and Eren didn’t want to be outdone as they stripped their shirts off as they ran up, with Armin keeping his own on. Adaline counted to herself quietly as she glanced at Jean who took his off as he stood up. She was going to die here today. Being in the Scouts seemed to help all of them physically. Sure they all grew mentally, but physically was a whole other level for them all.

“Historia! Do you want to play? You can switch with someone!” Marco called out to the other girl, who only shook his head. “No thank you! I’m quite alright playing judge on dry land!” She grinned from where she sat in the shade. Adaline threw a playful glare to her sister, who could only laugh in return.

“Alright everyone, we discussed earlier how to play, I’m sure you remember but lets go over it again. Carriers are Mikasa, Connie, Jean and myself. Chickens are Eren, Sasha, Adaline and Armin. We’ll be in fairly shallow water because not everyone can swim and the carriers can only be in about waist deep because of moving. No cross teaming! I’m looking at you, Sasha and Adaline. Just because you are besties does not mean you can team up. Any questions?”

“More like a concern.”

“Yes, Armin?”
“Eren and Adaline can never team up. They would be too good together.” Armin said with a smile, gaining a glare from Jean and Mikasa. Adaline felt herself blushing more, “What, why?”

“Well you and Eren literally trained together so you could communicate together on the battlefield while he was in his Titan form. It would make sense that you two would have fairly good teamwork outside of his Titan form.” Adaline and Eren shared a look before she sighed, “Okay well, I don’t think Eren could pick me up on his shoulders in his human form.” She grinned as Eren tried to defend himself.

“That’s my girl.” Jean said as he nodded, before he realized how his words sounded. His eyes widened while Adaline blushed, Sasha and Connie screaming in the background. Sasha was on the ground from laughing so hard while Connie was bent over. “Shut up you two! I meant it like that’s my teammate so stop being weird! Let’s just play this stupid game!” Jean snapped, walking to the water.

“Adaline, you know you can’t keep wearing that jacket, right?” Marco asked with a grin and she glared up to him. He knew what he was doing, the smug little bastard. She slowly shrugged off the jacket before setting it down, “Better?”

“Much.”

“Perv.”

Adaline felt her blush move down her chest as she tried to cover her body without being obvious. The shorts weren’t nearly as loose as they were on Sasha, maybe it was her height or maybe she just carried her weight differently. Either way, the whole outfit felt too tight and too exposing for her.

She rushed to the water, slowly walking into the cool water once she reached it as the others followed behind her. “Uh, how do we get on?”

“Oh! Carriers will go under and you’ll just straddle the back of their neck. Once they feel you, they’ll come up and boom! Carriers, it’s best to hold onto the chicken’s thighs when you lift up.” Marco smiled widely as he moved past the girl. Everyone had made their way into the water, standing off with their partners.

Adaline watched as the carriers sank under the water before the chickens moved. Adaline let her thighs slip around Jean’s neck before she gently grabbed onto her head. She felt Jean grip her thighs before he deemed it was a decent hold, standing up from under the water. The others copied her actions before the carriers rose up.

“Don’t pull hard, I’m not Eren.” Jean said and Adaline nodded, holding somewhat tightly as she looked around. She was second tallest now, considering Jean was barely shorter than Marco and Armin was only somewhat taller than her.

“Everyone ready?”

Everyone yelled out with Eren clapping his hands together, “Let’s do this!” Connie screamed in response while Sasha let out a ‘yipee!’.

Adaline let out a small yelp when Jean began to walk, moving them away from the others. “I want to make sure we have a fighting chance, Shorty.” She felt her heart stop at the sound of her old nickname, but she said nothing in reply.

“Begin!”

Sasha stuck her arms out, her tongue sticking out as she looked for someone to grab. Eren showed just as much enthusiasm while Armin looked around worriedly. Adaline knew their best option was to take Armin and Marco out first, Sasha and Eren seemed to have zoned in on each other.

“Go to Marco and Armin, we can get them easily.”

Jean nodded as he began to walk over to the two boys. Marco grinned at them before he tapped Armin who seemed scared. Marco began to walk to Jean and Adaline, meeting them in the middle.

Soon enough, Armin and Adaline were pushing on each other with Marco yelling at Armin to pretend Adaline wasn’t a girl. Jean was yelling that she needed to take Armin down, no matter what. Both Adaline and Armin were quick thinking, but even if Armin was smarter, Adaline had a couple of tricks up her sleeve.

“Urgh, this top really cuts into my chest, if only I had something looser.” She said as she leaned forward more, moving her chest slightly. Adaline had to bite back a grin as Armin glanced down before faltering. At that moment, Adaline pushed harder and Jean stepped forward at the same time, forcing Armin and Marco to fall backwards.

Adaline cheered as Jean grinned, “Hell yeah!”

Marco popped out of the water, smiling, “Using your chest to your advantage, huh Adaline? Kinda shocking for you considering you wouldn’t even take your jacket off.”

“I like winning.”

“Try to win against us!”

Jean turned and Adaline saw Eren and Mikasa coming towards them. They had moved into deeper water and maybe Adaline would have been concerned had she realized. When did they knock Sasha and Connie down?

“Adaline! Use your special move!”

“How is it a special move?”

“Just do it!” Jean yelled as Adaline and Eren grabbed onto one another. She tried to push but Eren did have her when it came to upper arm strength. She spared a quick glance down to see Mikasa glaring up at her with Jean smirking towards the other girl. At that moment, Jean’s grip on her thighs was much more apparent.

“sh*t, my top is so tight on my chest.” Adaline said as she continued to push. Eren looked down for a second before he yelped as Mikasa pinched him, hard. “You will not get me with your womanly charm!” Adaline almost let go at that. Womanly charm? Eren really did say the stupidest things.

Adaline tried to ignore Marco cheering for them, while Armin was trying to shout encouraging things to Eren and Mikasa. It seemed that all eyes were on the two pairs as they pushed back and forth in the water. It was a hard one, Eren was strong and Mikasa wasn’t backing down.

Jean’s grip tightened on Adaline as she tried her hardest to push but her grip was slipping. Eren yelled as he pushed with everything he had, sending Adaline flying backwards. When her back hit the water, she didn’t think anything of it until she kept sinking. How deep were they? Were they not still by the shore?

Trying to push herself up, Adaline broke the surface of the water, gasping. Why couldn’t she feel the lake bed below her feet?

“sh*t! Adaline can’t swim!”

“I didn’t know!”

Adaline felt herself slip back under. She gulped in water as she went under while she struggled, her arms flailing. Her eyes fell shut to try and keep the water from irritating them.

A pair of arms wrapped around her, pulling her to shallow water. She coughed violently, feeling the lake water coming out of her lungs. When her eyes opened, Adaline could see Jean’s arm wrapped around her chest as he pulled her to shore.

“You f*cking idiot Jaeger. Why would you push her that hard? She’s still a girl, not a Titan! You can’t be that f*cking rough!” Jean asked as he let Adaline go. Marco was beside her in an instance, patting her back as she continued to cough up lake water.

Eren mumbled a response, causing Jean to get angrier. “Speak up, dipsh*t.”

“I said, I didn’t mean to! I wanted to win! Why are you such a dick sometimes, Jean?”

“You wanna explain to the queen why her sister almost drowned?”

“Oh come on! You grabbed her in no time like a classic knight in shining armor! She wouldn’t have drowned!” Eren yelled back, pushing his hair from his face as he glared.

Adaline held her throat before looking at the two boys, “I’m fine, okay? Stop fighting.” Her eyes burned from the lake water as she tried to blink it away.

Eren sighed, “I’m sorry, Adaline. I didn’t mean to push you that hard, I didn’t think we got so deep either.”

“It’s okay, you didn’t mean it.”

“Oi, brats. Try to be careful!” Captain Levi walked down the shoreline, his eyes in thin slits. Hange was walking behind him, grinning. “What a fun game! Adaline, are you alright?”

“I am, really.” She smiled to Hange who nodded, “Good good! Jean, good reaction time in grabbing her, that was quite impressive.” Jean muttered a thanks in response before looking at Adaline, “Are you really okay?”

“I am, I think I’ll stay out of the water for awhile, maybe sit in the shallows. Why don’t you guys keep playing.” Adaline smiled at everyone before watching Sasha and Connie run back into the water. Eren pulled on Armin, bringing him into the water and Adaline sighed.

Marco sat beside her, “I’m sorry, I didn’t want that to happen.”

“Marco, you didn’t hold my head under, it happens. We just never went swimming when I was younger so it’s no one’s fault it happened.”

“At least your knight in shining armor was there.” Marco said with a wink. Adaline scoffed as she watched Jean talk to Mikasa. They were off to the side with Mikasa keeping a watchful eye on Eren while talking to Jean. It was a win for Jean. “Friendly reminder he’s in love with Mikasa.”

“So you think.”

“Look at him, he’s literally staring her down.”

“True, but the second you went under, Jean was already getting over to you. No one else had time to react before he was grabbing you. Section commander Hange was not kidding about his reaction speed.” Marco shoved his shoulder into Adaline’s with a smile.

The girl sighed, “What is up with you and this whole Jean agenda you have going on?”

“I think you two could be really good for each other, if you would just pull your heads out of your asses. Sadly, the both of you are so far in your own ass, it’s sad. Can you even see up there?”

Adaline scoffed, “Did you just cuss? Must be pretty serious, huh?” She smiled before looking at everyone in the water, splashing each other. “I think I’m good on the whole boyfriend thing. My last one turned out to be a criminal and mass murderer.” Marco let out a big laugh before shaking his head, “Okay, he was a special case. That doesn’t always happen.”

Grinning, Adaline shook her head, “Once was enough for me, but thanks.”

Watching the group was peaceful, everyone continued to do their own thing again, leaving Marco and Adaline in their own world. The birds chirping above paired well with the breeze that slowly rolled through the area. It made Adaline relax her shoulders and just soak in the feeling of serenity. “I wish it could always be like this.”

“Me too, it would be nice, wouldn’t it?”

Adaline leaned, resting her head onto Marco’s shoulder, who in turn laid his head onto hers. She breathed in his salty smell that was mixing with the wildflowers around them before letting out her breath. If only they could truly stay like this.

If only life didn’t have a way of throwing curveballs at them.

Chapter 2: has something ended or begun - the last day of summer by rob rokicki

Chapter Text

“My princess.”

“Connie, I am begging you.”

“Please princess, do not carry that, you may hurt yourself.”

“Not you too, Sasha.”

“Please, princess, do not worry about a mere peasant like myself.”

“Sasha.”

“Your stallion awaits.” Connie said with a smile as he waved his arm not holding wood to Jean who was walking ahead of the group. Sasha began to burst out laughing, the basket of food she was carrying threatened to fall as her body leaned forward, shaking. Adaline felt her body heat up as Jean turned around quickly. “What did you say, baldy?” The boy asked with his eyes glaring at Connie.

Connie merely shrugged with a big smile, “I’m just saying dude, if you’re gonna be called horse face, you must be like a stallion somehow. Hopefully where it counts in the end if you know what I mean.”

Sasha was almost crying from laughing, trying to cover her mouth with her hand despite the weight of the basket. She looked at Connie with tear filled eyes. “Connie stop please, I’m literally gonna pee myself from laughing so hard.” Adaline squeaked before she grabbed her basket from Sasha. She muttered out a quick ‘nasty, Sasha’ before she quickly moved forward so she was walking beside Jean.

Adaline pouted up at the boy, “Why are they doing this?”

“Cause you are a princess? You’re slumming it with us Scouts. They find the whole thing funny.” Jean raised an eyebrow as he looked at the girl. She merely rolled her eyes as they continued towards the small cottage they were staying in.

They were currently listening to Frieda’s advice about hiding out. The Scouts had a couple cottages within Wall Rose, and Captain Levi had taken them to one he particularly liked. Due to everything that happened, many of the 104th became the new Levi Squad which worried Adaline, but she liked being with everyone, even if things had changed. The day at the lake had reminded her that they all spent so many years together training, and now they would be fighting together. They were in the end stronger when they were together.

Jean was awkward still around her, especially after she cried on him multiple times after the attempted kidnapping. It happened at night when she would wake up in a moment of panic. They would sit by the fire and he would let her cry and grip onto him to feel some sort of stability. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes it would never be enough even if Adaline begged for it to be.

Marco had tried to get them to talk alone during the day, but Jean would often walk away with an excuse of needing to work elsewhere, leaving Adaline crushed. Marco told her he would come around at one point, even if it took awhile, but Adaline was scared about how long it would take. The day at the lake had been a once of a lifetime day of forgetfulness and forgiveness for them all.

Sasha and Connie were the exact opposite of Jean. They were constantly making jokes about Adaline’s royal status and both seemingly forgave her for lying. Sasha wouldn’t stop hugging her once she got to the girl, crying about the fear of her best friend dying. It only made Adaline cry more and Connie even shed a tear, especially everything that happened at the castle. He thanked her like she did so much when she felt useless that day, like her presence only hurt them.

The small group walked into the cottage they were staying in where the rest of the Scouts were cleaning. Eren and Marco were sweeping on opposite sides of the main room while Armin was getting prepared to cook. Mikasa was fixing the wood in the corner for heating the room. Historia was nowhere to be seen and Adaline wondered if she was with the captain again.

“Woah! Shoes! The captain will kill us if we get dirt in! Especially after all the sweeping me and Marco have done.”

“He’ll be okay!”

“Jean, uh, hate to break it to you, but he will actually kill us. You try spending as much time with him as we did.” Adaline said as she slipped her shoes off before grabbing her slippers from the small shelf. There was still the fresh shock in everyone besides Eren and Adaline that they were now in the Levi Squad, it felt unreal.

After sliding on her slippers, Adaline walked to Armin with her basket, “I have the apples, do you want me to cut them up?”

Armin shook his head as he looked up, “No! Of course not!”

“Please, don’t do this.” She said softly and Armin sighed, “I’m sorry, it feels weird knowing everything. I feel like I can’t let the princess help cook dinner or anything, you know?” He gestured toward her and Adaline just frowned in response.

This was the worst part since the truth came out. Everyone felt weird with Adaline doing things. No one felt like this with Historia even though they shared the same father, only Adaline for her full-blooded royal self. They all treated Historia like a goddess to begin with, nothing had to change with her. Adaline was no longer the orphan, she was a princess, a goddess in her own right, even if she never felt like one.

Adaline walked past Armin to grab a knife before grabbing an extra lemon from the bowl by the stove. She took a seat in front of her basket before she started to cut the apples so they would be easier for everyone to eat. Ignoring the looks from Armin and the arguing Jean and Eren were doing, Adaline sliced the apples before dribbling some lemon juice on them to stop them from browning.

“How was today?” Marco sat down beside the girl on her right so he could see her easier. She looked at him and smiled softly, “It wasn’t bad. Sasha and Connie are still making jokes about everything. Jean doesn’t like me. I felt like I had to fight just to carry my own basket back. I feel useless, the usual you know? What about you?” Adaline shrugged as she continued to cut the apples up, dropping them into the bowl.

Marco sighed as he reached over to grab a slice from the pile Adaline started in the basket, chewing on it. “He just feels weird about everything, you know he doesn’t do good with secrets. And I’ve been cleaning nonstop with Eren since y'all left, so obviously I’m not doing the greatest.”

“Tell that to my bruised ego.”

“Oh! Apples! You’re cutting them already?” Sasha yelled out as she sat across from Adaline and Marco. She had set her own basket of potatoes and onions down in front of her with a smile. “Armin, got what you asked, are we having stew tonight?” Sasha asked as she grabbed an apple slice herself.

Armin nodded, “Jean said he would help me, so you guys don’t need to worry about helping tonight.” Jean perked up at the sound of his name. Everyone looked at him and he blushed lightly, “It’s no big deal, I was just gonna make the vegetable stew my mom makes.”

“Your mom makes the best stew! I miss Agathe and Piers. Agathe makes the best vegetable stew ever. Jean, we should really go see Agathe again soon, what do ya say?” Sasha sighed as she leaned onto the table with a pout.

“Please never refer to my parents like you are friends again, thank you.” Jean said as he took a seat beside Sasha. “Mikasa, did you eat today?” Jean asked and the girl just shook her head while walking to Eren to whisper to him. Adaline watched Jean’s face fall before he grabbed an apple slice with a groan.

Adaline bit her lip before sighing, “I was cutting these so we could eat them with dinner, not to snack on now.”

“But apples are best as soon as they’re cut.” Marco smiled widely, causing Adaline to roll her eyes as she stood up. It made her happy to see him so carefree, but man did she want to smack him. There were days that even Marco tested her patience. She set the knife down before wiping her hands on a towel.

Captain Levi stepped in, his eyes moving. “This place does not look nearly as clean as I requested it to be, would anyone care to explain?” Everyone jumped at his voice with Eren letting out a whimper. “Adaline, I need to talk to you and the brat with your half sister. She’s waiting outside.”

Adaline moved quickly, grabbing onto Eren’s sleeve to pull him with her as she walked outside. The boy always seemed to freeze up when the captain was involved, he always needed help moving after the captain called him. The captain led them a little into the wooded area surrounding the cottage where Historia stood with Frieda. The two girls seemed to be deep in conversation but Adaline couldn’t help but call out to them, “Sister!”
Frieda looked up with a smile, “It’s so good to see you, little princess. How are you holding up?”

“Decently, it’s been weird being holed up, but if this is how it has to be.”

“All will be righted soon.”

“I understand you two would like to chat but let’s first discuss what’s happening.” Captain Levi spoke, pulling the sisters’ attention to him while Eren shuffled back and forth away from the trio of girls. “We think someone is coming for Historia, Adaline and Eren. We’re thinking we need to get them elsewhere.”

Adaline blinked, “What? How do you know? It’s been quiet here since we came, I haven’t noticed anything weird..”

“That’s the problem. Too quiet. Erwin has sent word that other safe houses owned by the Scouts in the outskirts of the wall have been broken into and torn apart, almost as if someone is looking for something or someone. Any guesses?”

Adaline shivered at the thought of their little cottage getting broken into. She feared what would happen, she really didn’t want to be kidnapped again. Once was enough for her and her feelings would not be hurt if it never happened again.

Frieda seemed to think for a second before nodding, “I agree, it would be smart to get them somewhere more secure than in the woods. We don’t have good enough defense out here, we need something better.”

Historia and Adaline shared a quick look before Historia spoke, “I understand moving us, but how would it help? Would we not be targeted while we were moving? That doesn’t make sense.”

“We could set up decoys with some of the other Scouts, move you three in secret and lead everyone to think the other carriage has the real you, when really it’s not. We would need to pick who could be decoys for you all.”

Frieda nodded, before looking at her younger sisters. “I know none of us expected for any of this to happen, but there’s nothing we can do now but accept the fate we have been given, okay?” She reached for their hands as she held them. Eren glanced awkwardly between the girls before looking back to the captain, “So what’s the plan?”

“We will move in the morning, we can’t spend past tonight here. Miss Reiss will meet us at a Scout safe house in Trost. It will be best to not have all four of you together.”

“But moving three of us together does seem the best? Should we not split into twos?” Adaline asked, her eyebrows furrowed as she watched Captain Levi. He shook his head, “Miss Reiss is too big of a target as is. Adding more people with us will likely ruin this whole thing. Anyone who knows she’s the queen will try to attack her no matter what, we need to keep down who is taken if anyone.”

It was weird being such a big target, Adaline had been just any other child for the longest time that she forgot she was a princess. Being targeted didn’t feel right, she didn’t feel like she was enough to be targeted.

Frieda looked at the captain, “Captain, do you mind if I stay here? I’m worried about heading back. It’s getting late and I fear break-ins since they started up.”

“Of course, Miss Reiss, I believe you are just in time to wait for dinner.”

Adaline grabbed her sister’s hand and smiled, “Sister, you’re in luck! Jean is making his mom’s stew tonight and it’s so good! And I just cut some apples up, they aren’t Miss Weber’s but they’re very good.”

Frieda smiled, “Jean? That’s the boy you cried on, correct?” Adaline quickly stopped smiling and began to pull on her sister, who laughed. Historia grinned, “Yes Frieda, that is Jean.”

“Historia!”

“I have to tease my sister, don’t I?”

“Why are we teasing Adaline about Jean, I’m confused?” Eren asked with a confused look on his face, causing Frieda and Historia to share a look before giggling.

Adaline shook her head, “We are not teasing Adaline about anyone!” She pointed her finger at her sisters who only giggled more. She pouted as she drug Frieda into the cottage, where the rest of the Scouts were preparing for dinner.

Jean had his sleeves rolled up to his forearm as he chopped potatoes, Marco was beside him chopping onions and occasionally making a comment to the other boy. Armin was cutting celery they had left in the cottage from before.

“Brats, you better cook your very best tonight, the queen will be eating with us.” Captain Levi called out as the small group walked in, Frieda waving her hand at him, “Please, it’s not that serious. A home cooked meal is good no matter what.” She smiled at the Scouts in the room, who all had wide eyes.

“Miss Reiss uh, Frieda, no no, uh your Queenliness.” Sasha sputtered, causing Frieda to only laugh. “Please Sasha, call me Frieda.”

“Frieda, yes of course, what are you doing here?”

“We’re moving tomorrow. People are targeting the sisters and Eren, so we will be taking them to a different safe house inside Trost. It’s not safe for Miss Reiss to travel back so she will stay here tonight.” Captain Levi said as he went to start boiling water for tea.

Sasha smiled at Frieda, “It’s really cool we can hang out with you then!”

Adaline walked over to Marco, watching him chop the onions. “Do you need any help?” She asked with a smile but the boy shook his head, “No, I got this. I don’t cry as much anymore cause, ya know.” He gestured to his eye patch. “You can always ask Jean if he needs help though.” She glanced over to Jean, who was cutting the potatoes into small cubes before dropping them in the cooking broth.

“Jean, do you need any help?”

He glanced at her and sighed, “Can you stir the stew? Connie was supposed to be grabbing carrots, can you check on him after?” Adaline nodded quickly before she grabbed the wooden spoon. She stirred the stew, watching as Jean slowly added more potatoes and Armin came to drop some celery in. “Jean, I can go get Connie.” The boy smiled before leaving the two. “Okay, thanks Armin.”

“Captain, the water is ready for tea.” Adaline called out to the man who was sitting at the table with Frieda. Sasha and Historia were crowding the older girl, talking to her and asking about her duties. The man nodded at the girl as she walked over carrying tea cups. Mikasa came from behind her, grabbing the tea bags from the shelf.

Adaline muttered a soft thank you as she began to pour the boiling water into the cups, Mikasa adding the tea bags. “Would anyone like sugar? We should have some somewhere.” Mikasa asked once she finished dropping tea bags. Frieda smiled again and nodded, “Yes please.”

Mikasa moved to grab the sugar, asking Jean to move who did it without even looking at the girl. It was unusual but Adaline shrugged it off. She went back to the stove to stir the stew again.

“I have chopped up carrots, you can thank me later!” Connie yelled as he walked to the stove, showing Adaline his bowl of carrots. The girl smiled before nodding to the stew, “Pour them in.”

“Is your sister staying with us?”

“Huh? Oh, Frieda? Yes, just for tonight though.” Adaline nodded as Connie began to slowly add the carrots in to avoid any splashing. She continued to stir the stew as it began to boil. Connie moved to the table once the carrots were done, sitting beside Sasha. Marco leaned over to look at the stew before nodding, “I’ll add the onion once everything cooks for a bit.”

Jean moved behind Adaline, watching her stir the stew. “Don’t stir too fast, you’ll cause splashing.” Adaline turned her head to look at him, “I think I know how to stir, I used to help my dad with cooking.”

“Wow, you know there’s space beside Adaline to stand, you don’t have to stand directly behind her.” Marco said with a light smirk.

Adaline felt her face heat up as Jean tried to say something back. He coughed into his hand as he moved back from the girl, who was staring hard into the stew. “I’m just saying Jean, maybe Mikasa would be a little more interested if you weren’t constantly all over Adaline.” The smirk on Marco’s face only grew.

“I’m not constantly all over Adaline, I was just observing her stirring, that’s all. Doing friendly things.”

“Sure. Keep thinking that mister knight in shining armor.” Marco said before he began to drop the onion into the stew. “Keep stirring that Adaline, you are apparently the best at it.”

Adaline’s face felt unbearable red and from the quick glance at Jean, he wasn’t doing much better. Adaline pulled Marco towards her to whisper in his ear, “Stop, you’re gonna make Jean upset, especially if Mikasa hears.”

Marco shrugged before he moved to the table with the rest with extra water for tea.

Adaline looked at Jean before lightly nudging him, “Just ignore him, he likes to mess with you, you know that.” Jean merely shrugged as he was focused on the stew. Adaline sighed before glancing at the table filled with people she loved. He moved to almost be pressed into her side as she added some spices and onion to the large pot. As they continued to work on the stew, she wished this would never change and she could stay in this little cottage with everyone for the rest of her life.

Chapter 3: warm me up and breathe me - breathe me by sia

Chapter Text

Adaline shot up in the small bed she laid in with Sasha. Her heart was pounding in her chest and tears were forming in her eyes as she looked around the room. Her body was drenched in sweat, covering her in a sheen. She gripped her hair as she tried to breathe.

Recently, Adaline could only dream of herself getting kidnapped again but this time it wasn’t by Bertholdt, it was by a random man. She dreamed of being thrown into a small room where she was left for days, chained to the wall while she screamed. She saw herself being forgotten, starving as she begged for someone, anyone to come save her from the hell she was living in. She could feel the screams coming from her throat yet no sound came from her, only silence as she screamed into the dark void around her. The pain of the chains on her wrists felt so real that she rubbed at them to make sure the metal wasn’t there.

Her eyes moved to look beside her where Sasha was on her stomach, snoring. It seemed she didn’t wake her up in her panic to escape the hell in her dream. She took a deep breath of air before slowly leaving the bed. The room had four sets of bunk beds, all the soldiers piled into them somehow. Sasha and Adaline shared a bed while Mikasa and Historia had their own. The boys all had their own too, not having to share if they didn’t want to. The two girls didn’t have to share, but it felt better to, it kept them close to one another. Adaline didn’t mind sharing until her nightmares hit. She always worried she would wake Sasha up even though the girl was able to sleep like a rock, her hearing was incredible.

Adaline slipped out of the room, carefully closing the door. She paused to listen to the door next door where Levi slept along with Frieda for the night. When she heard no noise from them, Adaline moved into the kitchen with light footsteps. At least she woke no one up tonight, that was a small miracle.

Putting a kettle onto the stove, she started a small flame inside as she could make a cup of tea. She placed a teacup down along with a teabag.

Despite the warm weather, Adaline was freezing. She wore her swim shorts with a large button up she had stolen from Marco to sleep in. She tried to pull the shirt tighter around her body as she stared at the kettle, willing it to boil faster.

She was too awake to sleep right away, even though she knew she needed the sleep for the coming journey. Nightmares always did that to her, they always left her scared and high strung for what felt like hours.

“Why are you awake?”

Adaline felt herself jump as she turned to see Jean in the doorway, squinting at her. His hair was tousled and a mess, it looked like he just woke up as he rubbed his stomach underneath his shirt.

“I’m so sorry, did I wake you up when I left the room?”

“What? No, I usually wake up around now and get a drink of water or something. So why are you awake?”

“Just couldn’t sleep.”

Jean sighed as he walked over to the table. He sat down as he blinked slowly, “You are so bad at lying, how did you get away with pretending for so long? I was really gullible I guess. Get me some tea too.” He raised an eyebrow as he spoke.

Adaline could feel herself pouting as she got down a second teacup and bag, “That’s a little hurtful.”

“Yeah, so is you still lying to me after everything. Why are you awake?”

Adaline chewed on her lip before sighing, “I had a nightmare, thought tea could help me calm down and maybe get back to sleep after I finish my cup.” She went back to looking at the kettle.

She heard Jean move before hearing a fire start in the small fireplace in the cottage. She turned to him, “What are you doing?”

“Doing what my mom did for me whenever I had a nightmare. Be quiet and finish the tea.” Jean spoke as he left the room, going into the cramped bunk room again. Adaline watched after him before she walked to grab their sugar cubes. She dropped two cubes into her tea and only one into Jean’s, knowing the boy hated if his tea was too sweet.

The room was already warmer, and Adaline quite liked it. She never fared well in the cold. She grabbed the kettle before it could sing, not wanting to wake anyone else up so late in the night. Slowly, she poured the hot water into the cups before running to grab a spoon to stir the hot water around.

Jean could be heard coming back into the room, struggling to close the door. Adaline turned to look at him before her brows furrowed, “Is that your comforter?” The boy said nothing as he tossed the comforter onto the small couch. “No questions. Is the tea ready?”

Adaline nodded, picking up the saucers to walk them over to the side table before turning back for the teacups. She placed them on their saucers. She extinguished the stove fire as she looked over to Jean. “Next instruction?”

Jean sat down on the comforter before patting directly beside him, “Come here.”

She failed to find many words, only being able to say a quick, ‘huh?’ as she stared at Jean.

“Come on, don’t make this weird.”

Don’t make it weird? Sitting on the small couch with just them wasn’t weird? Adaline slowly sat down, making sure she wasn’t touching Jean. She yelped when Jean jerked her to him instead, his arm closest to Adaline wrapping around her waist while the other reached to pull the comforter over her shoulder. He then wrapped the other side of his shoulder before pressing her into his side.

“This is weird.”

“Oh come on, I know you and the giant used to do this all the time.”

“Jean, I was dating him.”

“Bet you kissed him.”

“Do you want a kiss?”

Adaline didn’t wait for a response as she buried herself into Jean’s chest, hiding her blushing face. Jean didn’t say anything as he held onto her, looking into the fire in front of them. She felt his arm tighten on her waist as she gripped his sleep shirt.

“So.. This Marco’s?” Jean asked as he looked down at the white button up. It was way too loose, it was no secret it wasn’t hers. “Yeah, he gave it to me when I was complaining I wanted something bigger. I think he thought I was gonna give it back to him, not sure why.”

“You could have asked me for one.”

“Would you have given me one?”

“If you asked nice enough.”

“You could hand me my tea instead.” Adaline said as she looked up to Jean with a small smile. The boy leaned over to grab the cup, softly blowing on it as he handed it to Adaline who poked her hands from under the comforter. She sipped it slowly as Jean grabbed his own drink to sip on.

The warmth from the cup in her hands and the warmth of Jean pressed against her side was relaxing as they sat in the cool cottage. Jean leaned to put his teacup back on the table, his arm still wrapped around Adaline and taking her with him. She handed her tea off so he could do the same with her cup.

“Wanna talk about your nightmare?” He asked as he wrapped his second arm around her. She played with his shirt as she chewed on her lip, “I guess.”

Glancing at him, Adaline saw him nod and wait for her, causing her to sigh. “I had a dream that I got kidnapped again, but this time it was by some big guys, like men within the walls. Bertholdt and Reiner weren’t there, it was new people. Maybe it was supposed to be whoever we’re supposed to avoid tomorrow. They ended up locking me away in some room but they kept me chained up. I died there.”

She felt Jean’s grip tighten on her but she didn’t say anything about it as she laid her head over his heart, “It was scary. I couldn’t scream or anything. Like I was trying to, so hard but no sound came out from me. My body wouldn’t let me scream. I remember being so afraid no one would ever look for me, that I would be left to die.” Adaline hadn’t realized she had started crying until she noticed the wet spots on Jean’s shirt.

“You know we would never let that happen right? Marco would give up his other eye before he let you get seriously hurt.”

“I know, but I don’t want you guys to be like that. If it hurts you guys, I don’t want you to risk your lives for me.”

Jean let out a deep sigh, “Not gonna happen, Shorty.”

Adaline felt Jean begin to shift, moving until he was particularly laying down with Adaline now laying on top of him.

“Sorry, this felt more comfy.”

Adaline nodded into his chest as she let her eyes slip shut.

“I just want you guys to be safe.”

“We want the same for you.”

Adaline couldn’t reply after that, she felt the tears coming back quickly. For the first time in forever, it felt normal with Jean, like they didn’t fight. It was like he didn’t hate her for lying to him for so long.

“You don’t have to answer, but do you hate me?” Her voice felt so tiny and small as she asked. She clutched his shirt so tightly in her hands.

“I never hated you, I was just upset you lied to us. I get it though, considering we’re having to try to keep you from getting kidnapped now. It just hurt that you hid the truth from us.” He muttered in response and Adaline stole a quick glance only to be met with his eyes being shut.

“I could never hate you either.”

“Oh good, I was so worried.” Adaline lightly hit his chest, causing the boy to let out a small laugh.

“I missed this, I won’t lie.”

“Cuddling? We have never done this before.”

“I knew you would be a good cuddle partner.”

“Can’t say I’m surprised, who wouldn’t want to cuddle me?”

Adaline felt Jean chuckle again deep in his chest before she buried her face into his chest over his heart. His heartbeat was calming to her, it was a constant beat. It helped that she was surrounded by the warmth of the blanket and Jean, with the heat of the fire surrounding the both of them.

Adaline hummed lightly as she let her arms rest along Jean’s shoulders. His left hand came up to lightly run along her back and she almost melted into him.

Usually after a nightmare, it took forever for her to fall asleep, she would often just stay awake until the morning time. However, here on the small couch with Jean, she could feel the call of sleep pulling at her toes.

The last thing Adaline did on the couch was mutter a soft thank you before she let sleep overtake her body.

Chapter 4: high all morning, ride all night - la calling by crystal fighters

Chapter Text

Adaline fiddled with her fingers as she sat in a carriage with Eren and Historia. Historia sat beside her, her hand opening the small curtain to look outside. Eren was tense, shaking his leg as they moved.

It was fairly early in the day. They wanted to get to the new safe house as early as they could, they had all agreed it would be safer with avoiding anyone trying to get the small group.

No one saw Jean and Adaline on the couch as far as she knew, they hadn’t even meant to fall asleep to begin with. They tried their best to play it off when the captain asked why there was more burnt wood in the fireplace when there wasn’t any inside when they all went to bed. She didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea about the two of them when they were only just sleeping, that was all.

“Do you think this plan is going to work?”

Adaline looked over at Eren as she was pulled from her thoughts of the night before and sighed, “I hope so.”

“You hope so? Is that all you have to say about your sister and her idea? The commander’s too!” Eren asked. He was biting and chewing on his lip and Adaline wanted to reach over to stop him. It bugged her to watch him pull the dead skin off his bottom lip.

“Frieda is smart, she has to be. She knows what she’s doing but we can’t predict what some people will do. We just have to hope it works based on the information we have.” She shrugged before turning to look at her half sister.

“How are you doing?” Historia turned to look at her as she rocked back and forth lightly, “I feel.. Strange. I haven’t really ever had a family.” Adaline didn’t know what to say, she at least had a mother and father who loved her for four years, plus she grew up with siblings before that. “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for Adaline, I hope we can start over. We had our differences but I hope we can move past that.” Historia said and Adaline nodded, starting over would do them both some good.

Eren glanced between the sisters and shook his head, “It’s amazing to me that you guys only share the same dad. I can’t believe none of us realized you guys were related.” The two girls shared a look before Historia sighed, “We never spoke, I was always with Ymir and Adaline was always with her little group or Bertholdt.”

“Still! You’re both some of the nicest girls! Personality wise, you two are very related. Adaline just hangs out with the dudes more.”

Adaline and Historia laughed at the boy as their carriage headed through town.

They shared a quick look as Eren took in their blonde hair, Adaline’s more cool toned while Historia’s golden hair. Their eyes were both blue but one resembled the sky while the other’s reminded him of the ocean Armin talked about.

They were trying to get to a safe house where they would meet Frieda and Erwin. Erwin seemed to have a plan with Frieda revealing herself as the true queen and taking the throne. While it was a good idea, Adaline was worried about what would happen to them all with the truth being brought to the public. Their lives would all change.

“I can’t believe they’re making Jean be my decoy, again! We don’t even look alike.” Eren said, a pout on his face.

“Armin’s mine, he’s a boy. And Connie is Adaline’s!” Historia said with a grin, “All because everyone else was too tall except for the captain and we can’t have him as a decoy. I’m sure that was quite the ego deflator for Connie at that.” She rolled her eyes as she leaned back in the seat.

The carriage pulled through the streets and Adaline let her eyes slip shut. Maybe she could take a little nap until they got to the safe house. She had spent too much time awake last night just talking to Frieda before bed, plus waking up from the nightmare always tired her out. It was a bad idea, but seeing her sister made her want to talk to her as much as possible.

They sat in silence and it made it easier for Adaline to let herself slip into a light sleep. She pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs to keep them close to her. Sleep was calling to her and it was coming quickly.

“Hey, she asleep?” That was Eren.

“Uh.. yeah, her breathing is steady.” Historia. Definitely.

“How are you holding up with the whole sister thing? I know it was kind of thrown onto you.”

“Better than I thought. I tried to push Adaline away when we first joined the Cadet Corps. I knew who she was and I was angry our sister favored her. It makes sense though, I wasn’t supposed to know about my royal blood. I wish I didn’t.”

“Hey, it’s okay! What matters now is that you’ve met your other sister again, you guys can be a family.”

“I don’t know if they want that, Eren.”

“I’m sure they do. Family is important, a lot of people don’t have that. I mean, you remember Sasha talking about when Adaline broke down when they met Jean’s parents. She was torn up because she missed her parents so much.. Adoptive parents? You know what I mean. Having two sisters again is probably something she wants. Adaline has always treasured all of us, even when people were mad at her.”

The carriage hit a bump, causing all three of them to jostle. Adaline’s head hit the side of the carriage, causing her to open her arms as she rubbed the spot. “Ow.”

“Oh! You’re awake.” Historia said as she looked at her sister and she nodded, “That bump was pretty bad.” Adaline continued to rub the side of her head. She pulled the small curtain back to look outside when she ripped herself from it. Her eyes were wide and Eren looked at her, “Hey, hey! Adaline! What’s wrong?”

“We’re being followed. f*ck.” What had happened to the others if they were being followed? Were they okay?

A gunshot was heard and they all shared a look. “This isn’t good, sh*t, do you guys have any weapons on you?”

“In case you forgot, I am a weapon.”
“I’m sure that sounded so cool in your head Eren but we are in the middle of a town, turning into a Titan is like the last thing you need to do. You would kill not only me and Historia but several civilians around which we want to avoid.” Adaline shoved her hand into her boot before pulling out a small pocket knife.

“You had a knife?” Eren asked, shocked. Adaline reached over to flick the boy on the forehead as she spoke,“I’m not stupid, of course I’m going to bring a weapon.”

Historia giggled, causing the two to stop arguing and look at her, “I’m sorry. You two fight like an old married couple, it’s kinda funny.” The two shuttered as they shared a look with Adaline shaking her head.

Another gunshot sounded off and the small smile fell from Historia’s lips. “Who do you think is shooting? Isn’t Captain Levi supposed to be following us?” She asked as she glanced out of the window.

“More importantly, are Jean, Armin and Connie okay?”

Adaline’s heart began to thud as she opened her small knife. “Look, we have to be ready. There’s no telling what will happen.” Her heartbeat only continued to thud when another gunshot was heard, but this time it came through the carriage door. Eren yelled, throwing himself over the two girls as he looked out the gaping hole.

“f*ck, sh*t, are you two okay?”

“I think so!” Adaline wiggled out from below, her knife ready to do whatever necessary. Her eyes looked for Captain Levi through the gaping hole but she saw nothing. Someone had to step forward and try to protect Eren if the captain couldn’t.

Adaline missed the man swinging beside her until it was too late and a dart entered her skin. Adaline’s eyes rolled back into her head before she fell back in the carriage with a thud. “Adaline! Stay awake!” Eren yelled as he looked over her body but it was too late. Two more darts whizzed through the open hole, hitting Historia and Eren, causing them to pile onto Adaline’s body.

…

Adaline felt heavy as she struggled to open her eyes. She was on her side and she felt her arms were bound behind her back. She slowly blinked as she tried to look around the dark room she was in. Historia was close by, also bound and seemingly still knocked out just like Adaline was. She turned to look and saw Eren on the opposite side, knocked out and arms tied up and his legs. That was odd. Why was he tied up more?

“Adaline, are you awake?”

Her body froze as a chill ran down her body from the sound of that voice. It’s a voice she knew and she hoped she would never hear again.

“My darling daughter.”

Adaline looked up to see her father stepping towards her. Rod Reiss. He didn’t seem any taller than what she remembered from her childhood and his hair was thinning out. He seemed tired as he looked down on her with his eyes full of sorrow.

“You’re not my dad, don’t call me your daughter.” Adaline spit out as she struggled in her bindings. Being kidnapped was getting really old. How did this keep happening to her?

Rod sighed as he kneeled down in front of her, reaching for her. Adaline yanked back as best she could with her bindings, struggling to put distance between herself and the man. “You are my daughter, I could never forget you. You and Florian look so much alike, it breaks my heart Adaline.”

“Yeah, if only she was here, but you let her get killed. How does it feel to have murdered your family?” She glared up at the man as he merely shook his head. Rod pulled away from his daughter slowly as if he was in pain. “There is so much you need to learn.”

Historia began to cough beside her and Adaline struggled in her ropes to get to her sister. “Historia! Hey, wake up!” Adaline watched as her sister slowly opened her eyes to look at her. Rod seemed to smile, “Historia.”

“Don’t talk to her, you scum.” Adaline bit out as she wiggled between Historia and Rod, glaring at the man. There wasn’t much she could do but Adaline refused for his hands to touch her sister, to try and taint her.

“Hey, where are we?”

The girls turned to look at Eren, who was slowly blinking. Rod waved at someone, causing two people to come and stand on either side of Eren, “Don’t try anything boy, they will kill you if you attempt to turn into a Titan.” Eren squinted his eyes to try and see in the dark as the two men grabbed onto him.

“Don’t touch him!” Adaline yelled out.

Rod seemed confused, “He can’t be your boyfriend, can he? I was not made aware of you having one, that could cause some problems of course.”

Had they not been in a life or death situation, maybe Adaline would have laughed but all she could do now was glare at the man in front of her. “No, but that doesn't mean you’re allowed to touch him. He’s my friend and doesn’t deserve anything you’re going to try and pull.”

“My darling daughter, if only you knew. Soon you will though.” Rod made his way closer to the girls and Adaline was getting angry. She couldn’t attack him, not without her arms. She was basically useless there on the floor. “It’s so good to see my youngest daughters. Bring her.” He called out to more people behind him.

“No.. no bring who?” Adaline asked. Her question was answered as Frieda was thrown down in front of them after being pulled in from another room. Adaline felt her heart stop. They were all caught, the plan had failed completely.

“Frieda!” Adaline screamed as she looked at her sister before going to glare at the man again, “How dare you!”

Rod shook his head, “I don’t remember you being this rude Adaline, what were you taught when you ran away? What kind of monsters raised you?” He grabbed her and yanked her forward as he looked down on her.

“I was taught to be a decent human, you can’t relate, Rod.”

“Adaline stop! What if he hurts you?” She heard Eren yell but her focus was on Rod, “He’s already hurt me.” She spit out.

Rod sighed before he pulled away, “If only I found you sooner. Maybe you wouldn’t have turned out like this but it was hard for me to find you. Luckily the situation at Stohess let me be able to find you.” He stood up before walking over to Frieda. “It was nice being able to find Frieda again as well. It’s so nice to find three of my daughters again.” He smiled at the girls and it made Adaline feel sick to her stomach. She knew she couldn’t trust anything he said but glancing at Historia, she seemed interested. Adaline felt a wave of worry wash over her as she stared at Historia with wide eyes.

“I hope we can put the past behind us, especially us, Historia.” Rod walked to the small girl before pulling her into a hug. Adlaine bit her lip to keep herself from saying anything. Historia was slowly unbound and hugged their father in return as she stared at Adaline with wide eyes.

Adaline looked to Frieda, who could only shake her head in response while mouthing her apologies.

What the hell was going to happen to them?

Chapter 5: the young me was afraid of nothing - dinosaur by akmu

Chapter Text

Adaline bit her lip as she sat beside the only window in her room. They had been in some random home for a day. Their bindings had only been removed once they had left the dark room and gotten to the house, being placed in new rooms. There was no telling how long they would be here, no one came to tell Adaline anything, leaving her in wonder and anxious. Just sitting in the room made Adaline want to scratch her skin off, her skin felt like it was crawling with a filth only she could see and feel.

She had been allowed to roam the house, however there were always people watching her no matter where she was. The idea of being watched made her sick to her stomach. She had decided that staying in the bedroom was the better option, at least no one watched her when she was in the room. Even if someone stood outside her door to listen, at least they didn’t look in on her when she sat in her room. It gave her the smallest bit of peace of mind.

When they had left the first room, Eren and Frieda had been taken somewhere else, while Adaline and Historia had been kept together. Adaline had been trying to figure out why, it didn’t make sense. Why separate the sisters, especially Adaline and Frieda? What was Rod thinking? Did he even know what he was thinking? Adaline chewed on her lip as she glared out the window. “sh*t.”

A knock was heard on her door and Adaline turned to look at the large door. “Come in.” She called out as she watched the doorknob turn. Historia poked her head in with a small smile before she revealed the tray she was holding that held a small bowl, an apple and a cup of steaming tea. “I haven’t seen you in the dining room at all and I was worried you weren’t eating.”

“Ah, sorry. I haven’t been very hungry. I guess it was my body reacting to the dart they shot us with.”

Historia nodded as she walked to Adaline before gently setting the tray on the table beside her. “You need to eat, Adaline.” Historia pushed a small bowl of porridge closer to the other girl.

“I’m sorry,” Adaline said, “I just can’t eat when I don’t know what’s happened to Eren or Frieda. I’m really worried about what he’s doing to them both.”

“Adaline, how can you have the energy to care if you don’t eat?”

“It’s been a couple days, Historia. I ate the night before we left when Jean made stew. I didn’t eat the day after because I was nervous about the move and then I didn’t eat yesterday because I was even more nervous and then we got kidnapped.”

“Exactly, two days of no food Adaline.”

Adaline sighed as she picked up an apple from the tray, biting into it. She made a show of her chewing and swallowing it before smiling, “Better?” She placed the apple back down as she turned to look out the window again.

Adaline heard Historia sigh as she took a seat on the bed across from her, her hands delicately folded in her lap. They sat in silence then, Adaline watching the birds fly outside. They were free, they weren’t trapped in a house. She wished she had that, the ability to be free and not confined to a place.

“Your parents, what were they like?”

“Which ones?”

“The adoptive ones.”

Adaline let out a sigh as she looked at her sister. She had to think for a second, pursing her lips before sighing one more time. “What do you wanna know?”

“Everything.”

Adaline let out a small chuckle before nodding, “Okay.. well, their names were Matteo and Elizabeth Hoffman. My dad, Matteo, grew up in Wall Sina, his parents were fairly wealthy from what he told me. One day, he went to Shiganshina when he was young with his dad on a business trip, something about the merchants there or something, I’m not sure anymore. He was about seventeen years old when in the marketplace, he saw my mom for the very first time.” Adaline smiled softly, in her head she could see her dad telling her the story while she grinned at him. He would wave his hands around in wild gestures and a sparkle could be seen in his eyes as she glanced at her mother.

“My mom was a little younger, fifteen. He says when he saw my mom, he felt his heart stop and he knew he had to talk to her. My dad was this super nerdy ginger kid, he could never get his hair to lay nicely but mom said that’s what drew her to him. He walked over when his dad was distracted to where my mom was and introduced himself. Mom says she didn’t fall in love with him right away, but she was interested in him.”

“Was your mom’s parents there?”

“Her parents died during a pandemic that happened. It was just her after she was 11. Miss Weber took her in. My parents were really young when I lived with them.”

“Miss Weber?” Historia asked, leaning forward. Adaline hadn’t realized she had scooted closer to her sister. She didn’t realize she was so excited to talk about her parents, it had been so long since she was given a chance to talk about them.

“Ah, she was this old lady when I met her, I always saw her like a grandmother. She had an apple orchard and would sell in the market. She moved to Trost when Shiganshina fell, I should visit her now that I think about it.”

“What else about your parents?”

“Well, my dad’s parents didn’t like that he was into this little orphan girl. Mom was small. She was a blonde woman and maybe your height and even skinner. She was malnourished growing up from the time her parents died to before Miss Weber took her in. Plus her family didn’t have a lot of money before the pandemic. It didn’t help it seemed she couldn’t have kids, she never bled. Dad though didn’t care, he fell for my mom. He always told me he missed his parents, but he would miss my mom more, so one day, he left the inner wall so he could go and be with her.”

“Wow.. they really were in love, weren’t they?”

“The most I’ve ever seen. I remember asking them if they thought I could get a love like that, and dad would tell me any boy would be lucky to be loved by me.” She grinned as she spoke and Historia giggled. It was the first time they truly felt like sisters.

“How did they adopt you?”

“Ah, the night Frieda and me ran from the family house, we ended up in Shiganshina. It was far from our home. We got in fairly late and I remember Frieda was panicking, I mean, I was six, she was fourteen. We were both young, too young to be running around a town neither of us knew. We ran into Miss Weber, she was closing up her stall when she saw this young teen having a panic attack, holding the hand of a small child who just seemed lost. Frieda asked if there was anyone who took in children. Miss Weber asked where we came from and Frieda told her it was an abusive home and she wanted to get me out. That’s all it took to get Miss Weber to help us out.”

“Miss Weber seems to be a huge part of all your lives.”

“She is. She took us in for the night. The next morning, she let me and Frieda meet my parents and that’s when they explained they could never have kids. They offered to take me in and care for me like their own. I remember how Frieda cried when my dad helped me cut vegetables for dinner that very night. Rod never did anything like that with the kids.”

Adaline smiled fondly at the memories of her early years even if her eyes did fill with tears. “As you know, they died when the wall fell. Frieda had come to visit, I had been at the stall that my parents owned. Frieda and my mom had just walked back to our home and I was gonna stay with my dad when this feeling of dread came over me. The wall fell. I was panicking when all of the sudden, Frieda and mom were running to me. As they got closer, a rock came flying down, dad and mom pushed me away right before they got crushed. Frieda then grabbed me and we ran. I saw them die.”

“I’m so sorry Adaline, I saw my mother die too.”

“Historia.. I’m sorry too. No one should have to see their parent die.”

Historia merely shrugged, “She wasn’t a mother to me. She didn’t want me, she saw me as the world’s greatest mistake all the way to the point of her death. She didn’t treat me like a daughter so I barely saw her as my mother. It’s one reason I always longed for a real family, I never had one growing up.”

Adaline chewed on her lip as her sister spoke. Her mother didn’t even want her? Their father didn’t want the disgraced child either. “Frieda visited you though, she told me about her going to visit the other sister.”

“She did, but I barely remember it. It was always only hazy memories I have, even back then. I could barely remember her face, just some words every now and then.” Historia said as she smiled sadly at Adaline. She had leaned back from her sister before sighing, “The farm I grew up on was nothing special either. But I do remember one thing, a book.”

That caught Adaline’s attention. “A book?”

Historia nodded back, “Yes, one about a girl.”

“Ymir. Her name was Ymir. A little blonde girl.” Adaline said slowly as Historia looked at her with wide eyes, “Yes! That was exactly what she read to me! Did she read it to you as well?”

Adaline nodded, “Every time she babysat me for my parents, she would bring it cause I always begged for it to read it to me. I loved hearing about Ymir.”

“I wish I could have run away like you.”

“I regret it sometimes.”

“Why?”

Adaline sighed, “As you know, I had a twin sister. Florian. We used to mess around so much and bug the sh*t out of Urklyn, my eldest brother. Dirk would sometimes join us, Abel was too cool for that sort of thing. She always wanted to be with Urklyn and would yell at us for bugging him. I left behind an entire family because I was scared and Frieda was scared for me.”

“How old was everyone?”

“Abel was a couple years older, and then Dirk. Urklyn was two years younger than Frieda. Me and Florian were of course the same age, but she would always make sure to point out she was the older twin. I was the baby of all my families.”

Historia seemed to perk up at that. “Oh that’s right! I’ve never asked, when is Florian and your birthday?”

“Oh! We’re not born on the same day.” Adaline watched Historia pull back with a confused look on her face. It made the girl giggle, “We had a weird birth. Our mother didn’t know she was even pregnant with twins, since we were both so small. Florian was born late into the night on January 14th. Everything was fine until two days later, when her body felt weird. I was born early January 17th.”

Historia snorted, “Seems you’re still the baby in the family, I’m born January 15th.” Adaline laughed, “Great, I’ll always be the youngest in the family, yet some of the oldest of the 104th.”

The two girls smiled at each other before a knock was heard on the door. They shared a look before Adaline turned to the door. “Come in.”

The door pushed open to reveal a large man. He nodded to the girls before moving out of the way, revealing Frieda behind him. Adaline was up in seconds, running to grab Frieda and pulling her into the room before shoving the door closed. “Where have you been?” Adaline asked, holding onto her sister as stared up at her.

“I’m sorry, Rod finally let me come here.” Frieda held her sister’s hand before pulling her into a hug. Frieda pulled back to smile at Historia, “Hello, little one.”

“Hi Frieda. How are you?”

“Tired, very tired.”

Adaline and Frieda moved to the window, where Adaline took her seat beside the window again as Frieda sat down beside Historia. “Frieda, how is Eren? Have you seen him?” Adaline asked as she leaned forward. She watched as Frieda slowly shook her head, “I haven’t seen him. We were taken to different places as far as I know.”

“I hope he’s okay.”

“We won’t know until Rod reveals why he kidnapped us all.” Frieda sighed as she brushed her hair from her face. She looked so much older than twenty three sitting there. “I’m so sorry you two are involved in this. When I said I was worried about someone looking for you all, I never in a million years thought it would be our father.”

“You couldn’t have known, none of us could.” Historia said softly with a tiny smile to match. It wasn’t a happy one, but Adaline appreciated her trying to make their sister feel better.

“Exactly. We just need to figure out how to get out of this.”

“I could use my Titan, but I have no idea where we are, it would be useless to run around in it. He would probably just kill me. Plus if we’re in a village, there’s a chance I could hurt people around us.”

Historia seemed to worry about that as her eyes widened and Adaline had to bite her lip from talking. They couldn’t let Frieda die, not when she had the Founding Titan. The power of her Titan would go to a random child and they needed to avoid that. They didn’t have many options though.

“Well luckily, Jean is out there and he’s somehow always able to sniff out when Adaline is in danger.” Historia grinned. She was no goddess, Adaline thought as she stared her half sister down with a weak glare. Frieda seemed to perk up at this, “Jean. That’s the boy who Adaline cried on, is he not?”

“It is. They claim to be just good friends, but she’s met his parents, they rode on a horse together, she’s cried on him, I have seen her snuggle up to him when they think no one is looking..”

“We do not snuggle.”

“What do you call it when you were in the cottage at night by the fire and you’re drinking tea and you’re both on the couch and his arm is around you and you’re talking to quietly I can’t seem to hear a thing?”

“Conserving warmth.”

“In summer?”

Adaline felt herself begin to blush, “I do that with Marco as well.”

“Marco.. The boy with the freckles? And the eye patch?” Frieda seemed to struggle to keep up with the younger two, whose words were flying back and forth.

“Jean always seems to know when Adaline is upset and he tries to get to her as quickly as possible. When she was dating Bertholdt, I thought she was actually with Jean the entire time. Everyone in the 104th thought her and Jean wanted to hide their relationship, which is why she was with Bertholdt.”

“Is that why everyone always made those comments?” Adaline could feel herself pouting as she thought back to everyone’s words. It would make sense, how had she never noticed before?

Historia giggled in her fist as she nodded, “Oh yeah! No one actually thought he liked Mikasa. When you were off with the Levi Squad and Eren, Jean was constantly mumbling about how you didn’t deserve to be paired with ‘that idiot Jaeger’, that you deserved a better job. It was cute.”

Adaline groaned as she watched Frieda continue to look between the younger girls. She seemed confused as she tilted her head to the side, “Do you not like him? Why did you cry on him if you don’t like him?”

“Adaline doesn’t want to admit she likes him in case he really is in love with Mikasa, who is in love with Eren, who isn’t in love with anyone. It’s a horrid love triangle square type thing, I’m not sure what shape it is.”

“I’m not in love with Jean, we are good friends who care about each other. He really is in love with Mikasa.”

“Nah.”

Adaline sighed before reaching to the tray Historia had first brought in. The bite hole in her apple had begun to brown so she bit elsewhere on the apple. “I need my strength to come back if I’m going to deal with you spewing nonsense, jeez.”

The sisters all shared a quick smile before laughing. Maybe they could get through whatever this was, and become a real group of sisters for once. Maybe there was a chance for them.

“Maybe one day, something will happen. Maybe one day, he’ll forgive me for my lies.”

Frieda and Historia shared a look before the older leaned forward, “Adaline, do you like this Jean boy? At all.” She asked so gently that it made Adaline blush.

“I mean, would it be bad if I say yes?”

Historia squealed, “Oh my god! When did you realize?”

“Uh maybe when everyone found out I wasn’t who I said I was. It was when all of you were sent away and me, Jean, and Marco were in Stohess as back up. He seemed so upset and just angry at me that it actually hurt. He was making all these comments about how I only lied to him and he couldn’t trust me and I wanted to change his mind. Maybe that’s why I wanted to prove myself at the castle.”

“What do you mean?”

“Jean told me I could prove myself by saving everyone. Guess I took that too far considering I fell asleep the second Marco got me.”

Frieda seemed to be taking in all the information while Historia was adding her own input.

“It seems to me this boy does have feelings for you, he just doesn’t understand them. Were you not close after? It seems he forgave you but now he realizes he has feelings for you so he doesn’t know how to talk to you.” Frieda pointed at Adaline who could only groan. This isn’t what she wanted to talk about.

“Well it doesn’t matter. Right now, he’s not here and we have to figure out how to get out of here, not discuss boys.”

“We can discuss girls.” Historia smiled, causing Adaline to stutter. “You and Ymir were disgusting, she literally only cared about you.”

“Is that jealousy I hear?”

“Of course not, I dated the tallest boy in the 104th, I was quite happy.”

“Yeah, human form and Titan form.”

Adaline tossed her apple at Historia, who giggled as she swatted at the apple to keep it from hitting her. Frieda laughed as the two girls argued back and forth with a smile on her face. They would get through this.

Chapter 6: i’m a different kind of beast - what type of x by jessi

Chapter Text

The family chapel. It hadn’t changed since Adaline had last seen it, not really at least. It looked less used in the worship hall with the pews being covered in a fine layer of dust and the altar standing bare, no holy book left open on top of it like it used to be. Her family had been there so often, they never bothered to put the book away, Rod had always said it was a waste to get it every time. She could almost imagine her family gathered in the pews, waiting for the pastor to come to them as she played with Florian in the aisles, Frieda sitting close enough to keep an eye on the two youngest.

She remembered coming to worship every Sunday as a child, clinging onto Florian’s hand as the pastor told them about heaven and hell, for the good and the bad, the saved and the damned. One day, a battle so heavenly would occur on the planet, leaving a flattened earth as humanity was forced into submission to pay for the sins that they had committed all their lives. She remembered shaking as she was told if she wasn’t careful, she would burn with the rest of the people, it didn’t matter who she was or that she was a princess, she would die like the rest. It had been her greatest fear after seeing her father hit her mother and Frieda, she feared if she wasn’t a good daughter, she would be hit, she would burn, she would die in a fiery hell. She was always scared then, so frightened of the world around her that it left her numb and shaking like a leaf.

She was walking beside Historia, gripping onto her sister’s hand and it felt like she was with Florian all over again. They both wore white nightgowns with thin cardigans on top and their hair was down. Adaline hadn’t realized as long hers had gotten since she had joined the Scouts so long ago.

One of the men had taken Frieda from them again, they had been alone in the home for another four days and Adaline had been in a state of constant panic. Historia had moved into the other girl’s room while they were still in the home. She would try her best to be awake with Adaline through the night but Adaline knew she was struggling. While Adaline was hopped up on adrenaline and panic, Historia wasn’t. Adaline’s body was forcing her to stay awake through the night in fear someone would come into their room and separate them. It didn’t help that she still wasn’t eating, not a lot at least. She would do her best to eat the apple Historia brought her daily but it could only do so much. She was weak. She felt like she would fall at any second if she didn’t have some sort of support.

“Adaline, this feels weird, where are we? What is this place?”

“This is the family chapel, we came here to worship when I was growing up. We never missed a Sunday, Rod and my mother were both very serious about worship. I’m sure this is where they came when the wall fell, it’s been considered a sanctuary for the Reiss family since the first king, at least, that’s what we were always told.” Adaline’s eyes were searching the worship hall for any life besides them. It was too dark and dreary for her.

Suddenly, one of their guards came from behind him, grabbing onto Adaline’s arm and causing the girl to yelp. “H-Hey!”

“This isn’t where we are supposed to be.”

“You don’t gotta grab me like that!”

“I’m sorry Miss. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

Adaline felt her body shiver at the man’s words. Something seemed so off. Why were they at the chapel at night first of all, they never worshipped this late as a child. Why were they in nightgowns? What was going to happen? Where was Frieda?

Historia tried to pull Adaline closer to her, staring up at the man who towered above them. “I can watch out for my sister, please don’t worry about her.”

Another man came out, walking towards the center of the room. He moved a large rug that covered the floor, pushing it to reveal a trap door in the stone floor. Adaline felt her eyes widen as she looked at the door. How long had that been there? She didn’t remember that from her childhood even though she was here weekly, sometimes even more. Had the rug always been there, hiding the secret?

“Please, your father will be waiting for you down there.” The man said, pushing the girls towards it as the man by it opened it up. There were steep stairs that led down far from the looks of it, it was dark inside the hole. Adaline gripped onto Historia harder as she slowly blew out air. The man by the door grabbed a torch as he began down the stairs. The man behind the two girls pushed on them, causing them to follow the other man.

The stairs felt almost cold, even through their sandals as the sisters made their way down. Adaline chewed on her lip, her heart felt like it was going to explode as it thudded in her chest. Where were they going?

When they finally reached the end of the stairs, the small group was greeted with a giant cave that was covered in crystals. It gleamed and Adaline could feel her jaw drop. It was huge, they began to walk through it with the two men forcing them further into the cave. Giant pillars held up the roof to the cave, all of the pillars made from the same crystals. It looked icy, and while the air was cold in the cavern, Adaline could tell it wasn’t real ice.

“What is this place?”

Adaline turned her head to look at Historia before shaking her head, “I don’t know, I’ve never been down here both. I didn’t know it even existed, I just stayed in the worship space upstairs.”

“My daughter, had you never left, you would have come here when your traitor sister inherited our Founder.”

The girls jumped slightly when they entered a final, larger crystal hall. Rod stood in the middle, wearing his normal three piece suit and his arms were held open. On the ground beside him was a briefcase that was latched shut. “This is where our family has inherited our Founding Titan for generations and where your sister last did all those years ago after you ran away from home.”

Adaline looked at him before her eyes saw something in the back. She squinted her eyes before gasping, “Frieda! Eren!” The names were torn from her throat.

At the end of the hall in the very back, Eren and Frieda sat on their knees, chains holding them to the walls behind them and to the floor of the crystal cliff they were on. Both appeared to be knocked out as they rested, their heads slumped forward at a painful angle. Eren was only in his pants, his shirt and shoes gone while Frieda wore a similar nightgown to the other two girls, though she looked worse for wear as her hair fell a stringy mess around her face. Adaline’s heart began to pound in her chest as she tried to understand what was happening.

“My daughters, I hope you know I want to trust you to do the right thing today, to protect our people.”

Protect their people? Frieda was the queen, not their father. It was her people to protect, not the other way around. Frieda couldn’t protect their people while she was chained to the ground like an animal. She couldn’t do anything when she was chained like that.

“I can see your confusion, my poor child. You both don’t know the true story, Frieda has been lying to you both. Adaline, she’s been lying to you for the longest my dear child. She wants you to think she’s been doing the right thing, but she hasn’t. She’s trying to hurt our family and our people. All the people within the walls will die if we are not careful so I hope you will listen carefully tonight.”

“Frieda has never lied to me! She’s the only one who ever truly loved me in our family, not that you would know what love is!”

“Adaline, she has. She has never told you the whole truth, she’s continued to lie to you and manipulate you to think our family was toxic, but we weren’t. I loved you so much my dear child and I still do, let me prove it to you.”

Adaline felt Historia’s eyes on her as she yelled.
“She told me what she had to do! She told me she was protecting us within the wall, that the first king did this to protect us! That what she was doing would help to protect and save all of us and I believe her!”

“Then why is your sister revealing our family secrets? She’s going to start an uprising, is that what you want? If she continues, everyone you love will die. All of those friends you made will perish if we continue to let her go down this path.” Rod took steps towards Adaline, whose eyes were quickly filling with tears. She let go of Historia as she stepped away. Historia turned to her with a worried look. “What’s happening? Adaline?”

Rod grabbed Historia’s arms before pulling her into a hug. Her face was so confused and Adaline went to grab the man before she was grabbed by a guard. She tried to jerk away from the guard but his grip was stronger than she was. “My dear Historia, you understand right? You understand what’s happening unlike your sister. We need to protect people. Only we can save them.” Rod spoke softly.

“We need a new Founder, someone else to have our family Titan. Someone else needs to have the boy’s Titan, it would benefit us and everyone in the walls if we did this, do you all understand?”

Adaline ripped her arm from the guard, who called out to her. “You want us to eat them? Our friend and our sister? Do you think we’re some monsters or something?”

Rod nodded, “Adaline, you can become queen, you would not be a monster. You have grown up so strong, this is perfect. You are a full blooded royal, you are the only person who can take the Founder and control it the way it needs to be controlled. You can give our people the life they deserve.”

“I’m no queen and I never will be! I’m just a normal girl from Shiganshina. My parents are Matteo and Elizabeth Hoffman.”

“You don’t believe those commoners could ever be your parents, me and your mother are and we always will be.”

“Mother is dead. You killed her.” Historia gasped at Adaline’s words. Her eyes were cold as she stared at Rod. Rod stepped towards her once he let go of Historia, “Your mother’s death wasn’t my fault.”

“Why didn’t you die then? Huh? Why did you let her die and the rest of them? Funny how you got away basically unscathed while they died here, while they were murdered.” Her voice dripped as if it was covered in poison. The years she spent growing up with him made her angry, but she had suppressed those feelings. She grew up loved and cared for. Her siblings never had that chance. Now, she was angry for them and everything that they had gone through when she ran away to play house with people she didn’t even know. Their deaths almost felt like her own fault.

Rod shook his head a final time before he grabbed onto Adaline’s hand. “My darling daughter. I was the only one to escape because when the man came in, he separated me from the rest of the family. That man who killed your sisters and brothers was none other than that boy’s father. It’s his family’s fault.” He turned to point to Eren, who was now awake. His eyes were wide, he looked so scared as he stared at the family.

“Eren!”

“Adaline! What’s happening! Where are we? Who is that?”

“His father murdered our family in an attempt to steal our family Titan from us. Luckily, Frieda wasn’t there, but I would have never expected your sister to go against our family plan. If she was here though, we would have lost it that day.”

Eren pulled on the chains and Adaline could only watch. His father did it? His father is the one who killed Florian that day?

“He came into our chapel when I was gathering the family. He killed everyone once Urklyn refused to reveal the Founder to him. He was so angry at all of us, even the younger children who barely knew what was happening. That man killed Florian. He robbed your siblings of life, not me.”

Adaline felt dazed as she let Rod pull her up the stairs to Eren and Frieda, Historia following behind them as she reached forward to grab Adaline’s hand. She squeezed it as tears slowly began to run down Adaline’s face. Eren looked shocked, twisting his head to look at the two girls as Rod pulled the girls to stand directly behind him. “Place your hand on his back, and you can see what his monster of a father did that day.” Rod spoke calmly as he laid his own hand on the boy.

Adaline and Historia shared a look before they put their hands on his back. In a flash, Adaline could see her family gathering in the crystal cave. Florian was clinging to Abel as they made their way down, Urklyn seemed angry as he yelled Frieda should be with them and not with their ‘dead’ sister. Florian was crying, begging him to stop, saying Adaline would come home in due time, she just needed some time away, but she would never abandon them. Dirk had a sour expression as he yelled at his older brother, telling Urklyn he didn’t know anything about Adaline, that he never paid attention to the rest of them anyway so how could he know. Rod and Ida walked behind everyone else, sharing a look at their fighting children.

Then they were all in a circle with Rod freaking out, yelling out as he clutched his head in his hands. Ida had grabbed onto Florian, holding her close as the small girl was crying into her mother’s dress, begging her to stop her father from yelling, that it scared her and she wanted her sister. Urklyn was trying to calm their father down, but it wasn’t helping, his words did nothing to soothe the older man. Abel and Dirk stood together, clenching each other’s hand tightly as they kept a tight lipped smile, daring not to speak.

Suddenly, a man was in front of them, yelling at them all. Urklyn pushed to the front of his family, telling the man he needed to leave, this was a private estate and no one outside of the family was allowed on it. It was in fact Dr. Jaeger. He demanded they do something before he transformed into a Titan. Abel was screaming for her brother while gripping Dirk’s hand tighter. Urklyn was picked up and eaten. Abel went to run to him, but Dirk tried to pull her away. Ida held onto Florian as the family was slowly crushed while Rod had run. Ida and Florian’s crushed remains could be seen, blood splattered around their barely recognized bodies, the nightgowns they wore soaked through with their mixed blood. Bones were poking from the skin and a look of pure horror was the only thing left on Ida’s face while Florian’s was stroked with her tears, a scream forever on her face.

Adaline ripped her hand from Eren’s bareback, sobbing as she fell to her knees. The sobs were racking her body, the sounds coming from her were pain filled as she tried to hold onto something, anything. Watching her family die was something she never expected to experience and it left her sick. It happened so fast and the images were burned into her mind, forever engraved with the pain and blood splatter.

“Do you see Adaline? Historia? This boy’s father killed our family. You saw what happened to Florian! She was left a decimated mess on the ground. She was only ten, just like you.”

Adaline crawled away somewhat before she threw up over the edge of the cliff. The crushed bodies and blood kept flashing in her mind, the body of her twin sister mangled so much. Historia rubbed her back as she threw up again, her body heaving out on her.

“Adaline, please, I’m so sorry.” Eren called out, “I had no idea, I never knew either. I never expected any of this!”

“Silence boy! You don’t get to speak!”

Adaline let out another sob as she tried to wipe her mouth. Historia pulled her sister’s hair back as she told her to try and breathe. Her body tried to throw up even more but nothing was left inside of her, she was completely empty, physically and mentally.

“I want you two to eat these two, so we can come together as a family and properly take care of our people, the correct way that I know the both of you can. You two can do it. Adaline, you can become the queen the people need and deserve, not like Frieda.” Rod spoke to the girls as Adaline tried to fully sit up on her knees again. Her body was so weak from lack of food and sleep, throwing up took almost everything out of her.

“I need a minute, please. I never wanted to see that.”

“You needed to see it.”

Adaline began to dry heave as panic rose in her body. She could feel her heart pounding, she felt like she was going to die. His words were not helping her. Historia escorted her away from everyone after pulling her to stand up, “You need to breathe, okay? C’mon now.”

She nodded but it was hard, the image of her siblings dead and crushed were fresh on her mind. Their screams of pain filled her head, it’s all she could hear. Historia leaned to her ear, “We’re going to get out of this, don’t worry. Jean always comes.” She whispered the words quickly before pulling away. “Remember that, he always sniffs you out, remember? Breathe. We’re going to be okay.” Adaline nodded slowly as her eyes were trained on the ground.

“Do you two understand why we must take the powers of the Titans back?” Rod asked as he came towards them, only to pass by. He grabbed the briefcase he had stood beside earlier. It was sleek looking, made from leather and had tiny silver clasps holding it shut.

“You want us to save humanity, don’t you?”

Rod smiled, “Historia, you are so smart, I am so proud of you! I knew you would understand.”

Historia glanced to the cliff where Eren was crying silently to himself and Frieda was slowly waking up. She watched as the older girl blinked before focusing on Adaline. Her eyes widened. “Adaline!”

As Frieda yelled, Adaline looked up with fear in her eyes. How could Frieda still look like a queen even though she was beaten down and dirty?

. “It’s okay. Both of you. There’s nothing I can do, not anymore. You can kill me.” The look on Frieda’s face was neutral, no true emotion crossed besides a couple of tears running down her cheeks. She was forever regal and poised as she yelled to the two sisters.

“Frieda no!”

“Adaline, stop it for once! I’ve done what I can, it is okay. I trust you both to do the right thing, no matter what that is!” Tears fell down Frieda’s cheeks while her eyes seemed to glow in the cavern. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be a better sister to you, Historia. I wish I went to see you more, I wish I never wiped your memory after our visits but I was scared. I had already lost one sister, I didn’t want you to see our family and run away next. You have grown up so kind, so helpful to those around you and I am so proud. Please, take care of Adaline after my time has ended. She needs it.”

“Adaline, as much as I missed seeing you in our family home, taking you and letting Matteo and Elizabeth have you was the best decision I ever made. I pray everyday they are in heaven and watching over you. They only had you for four years, and they were so young, but they raised you to the person you are today and I will never be able to repay that. I hope they will accept me with open arms when I die just as they accepted you so long ago.”

Adaline choked out a sob as she fell to her knees, her hands coming up to clutch at her heart. Her face was covered in tears and snot, her body felt like it was breaking down. She couldn’t handle this.

Historia didn’t seem to be doing much better, with tears falling down her face as well. Everything felt like it could fall apart at any second. Neither realized Rod had moved back to beside them again, opening his briefcase.

Inside the briefcase were two syringes with vials surrounding them. Two remained unlabeled with one that said ‘harden’. Rod lifted a single syringe out, inspecting it as he spoke, “This is what we will use to transform you both into your Pure Titan form. Adaline, you will eat Frieda and you will take control of the Founding Titan with your royal blood, you are the only one who can do it. You will be the new queen. Historia, you will eat the boy and take control of his Titan. Together, we can change our world for the better and protect those who need protecting.”

He filled each syringe slowly before handing them to the sisters one by one, who shared a look. They would protect humanity? Was that their duty as discarded and distanced daughters to the most powerful man inside the walls who neither ever saw as their father?

“You two understand, correct? Together, you will be the sisters that will save humanity from perishing. I trust you two to do the right thing.” Rod gave a smile that made Adaline’s stomach churn again. Nothing he said seemed sincere, every word he said felt as if it was laced with lies.

Adaline stood up before wiping her eyes for a final time. She looked at Eren and then Frieda, both who were still crying before letting out a sigh. She would protect humanity, no matter the cost. She would step up and do it with her sister.

And she knew they would do it correctly.

Chapter 7: that’s fine in the end though - baseball by hippo

Chapter Text

As Adaline gripped the syringe in her hand, she couldn’t help but stare her arm down as if it was someone else’s. Her breathing didn’t even feel like her own, it was as if she was on autopilot. She was no longer in her own body, she was in a stranger’s as she gulped in air. Her consciousness felt as if it was drifting away. Historia looked just as scared as Adaline felt as she glanced at her sister.

“Oi! Rod! What the hell!”

A man came down from the ceiling of the cavern as he yelled out. He was older and wore a fedora that covered his head. His hair was dark and fairly long, falling freely over his shoulders, where he wore a vest over a puffy shirt. He glared towards the older man as he landed onto his feet. Rod seemed to freeze as he looked at the man, “Kenny, why are you here? You should be out there!”

“Why am I here? What the hell is going on? Why can’t I eat Frieda? That was my plan.” The man, Kenny, walked to the group, staring down Rod. He looked angry as he spoke again, “This whole thing was useless! Why did I bother helping you this whole time if I get nothing out of this?”

Adaline and Historia shared a quick look, what had this man done? Who was he?

“You were supposed to be keeping an eye on the entrance! You can’t be in here, go back now!” Rod yelled and Kenny scoffed, hitting his hat with his pistol, “Why would I help you anymore, you punk? This whole operation was for nothing now.”

Kenny turned to look at the two sisters, “Do you know why he wants you two to eat those two? Do you? Answer little girl!” He pointed at Historia who glanced at Adaline.

“He wants us to save humanity.”

“Save humanity! Wow, Rod, you really are an ass.” Kenny said with a smile as he shoved his pistol under Rod’s chin. The man seemed to freak out as Historia ran to grab Kenny’s arm, “Get away from him! You can’t just shove a gun in someone’s face!”

Kenny pushed Historia from him, causing her to stumble. Adaline ran to her sister to keep her from falling, “You don’t need to push her! She did nothing to you.” She glared at the man as she held tightly onto her sister.

The man scoffed as he shoved Rod hard, causing him to fall onto his backside. Kenny made his way up the stairs where Eren and Frieda sat, slowly, like he had a purpose for what he was about to do. They both looked fearful at him as he stood directly behind Eren. “Should have been quicker, Rod! What are you gonna do when those brats get here? You did horrible at hiding your tracks! They found you easily, they’re f*cking with my men right now.” He yelled, causing Adaline and Historia to share a look. Who was coming?

“Now girls, ignore your daddy dearest for a second for me.” Kenny grinned as he pulled out a knife. “I only wanted to help cause I wanted a Titan, but since I can’t, let’s tell you a little story.”

“You,” He pointed to Adaline, “Your sister inherited the Founder, right? Do you know who had it before her?”

“My Uncle, Uri. I barely remember him but I know he was my father's brother. He was older and very kind, he cared for us kids and gave me these little candies when I was younger.”

“Ding ding, brat! Correct! Seems you know a little. Poor Uri,the guy wasn’t that bad, I preferred him to your poor old loser dad. Me and your uncle were friends, I protected him. Do you know why Frieda here took it?”

Adaline bit her lip, “She asked for it, that’s what she told me. She said she felt it was correct that she was the next to inherit it as the eldest daughter and child in the royal family instead of father since he was getting too old to take it.”

Kenny responded with a deep laugh, clutching his stomach. “Wow! You sure are stupid! No, your father begged her to take it! Just like he begged your uncle to take it when it was their turn to decide who would get it! You know why? You answer this time.” His long finger pointed to Historia.

She bit her lip, glancing at Adaline who could only shrug. Historia let out a breath, “I’m not sure.”

“Come on! You gotta be smarter than that!”

“Well I’m not!”

“Dear old daddy dearest doesn’t want to die! He’s scared! He forces the Titan onto someone else so he can keep living while everyone else around him dies!” Kenny yelled out. Rod shook his head as he slowly pulled himself off the ground, “That isn’t true! Girls don’t believe him. I would never do that! I loved my brother, Uri! He decided to take the Titan instead of me on his own!”

Kenny twirled his knife in his hand, watching the gleam of it. He slowly raised the blade before drawing a line across the front of Eren’s face. Adaline screamed as the blood ran down the boy's face, dripping to the icy floor below him and his pants. Kenny then walked to Frieda, doing the same pass over her forehead. “I think it’s time for him to get a taste of his own medicine, don’t you all agree?”

Adaline held herself back from running up the stairs, her heart pounding as she watched the blood run down her sister’s face. It dripped down her chin and onto the icy cliff below her, staining her white gown.

“You two can transform now, you can get out easy enough. I would try and coordinate though since you’re so close. Have fun Rod, this is what ya get for being an asshole!” Kenny shot the man a wink before he took off on his ODM towards the opening to the hall, flying past the two girls. Rod scrambled to get beside his daughters, huffing.

“Girls, you need to transform now, we may not get this chance again! Do you understand me? If you don’t eat them now, we cannot save humanity. Everyone will die! They could attack us!” He shoved their syringes back in their hands. “Protect everyone! Please, you have to!”

Gunshots could be heard and Adaline’s anxiety was spiking, what the hell was she supposed to do? Whoever was coming was getting closer to them. She looked at Frieda and Eren again before squeezing her eyes shut. What would the others think if they could see her right now? Would Marco be able to look her in the eye? Would Sasha tell her to do what was right? Would Connie congratulate her like it was all a joke? Would Jean even say anything to her or would he curse her again?

“Adaline, you know what we have to do.”

She jerked her head to look at Historia. The two maintained eye contact as the needle of their syringes touched their skin. The way their father watched them was scaring Adaine before she left out the breath she was holding. What needed to be done would happen as if fate was controlling them.

“Do it!”

Eren was crying as he yelled out, “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t even be here. My father killed your family, it’s the least I deserve. Do it and save everyone!” Tears mixed with the blood that ran down his face and Adaline’s heart was breaking. He looked so lost and so hurt, not like the confident boy she had been training with for so long, not like one of her most trusted friends. “Adaline, be selfish for once in your life!”

“I am, Eren! I’m doing what I want because it’s going to make me happy! I’m done pleasing others! Historia!”

As Adaline screamed out, both herself and Historia smashed the syringes on the ground, spilling the liquid onto the ground. Rod and Eren’s yells could be heard while Frieda could only watch on amazed at her two sisters.

“Take that!” Historia yelled as she flipped Rod onto his back, knocking the breath right out of him. He coughed as Adaline grabbed the keys from inside the briefcase. She took off to the stairs with Historia following close behind. Her feet pounded into the ground as she got closer to the chained up pair.

“Catch!” Adaline yelled as she tossed keys to Historia, who caught them before sliding behind Eren. Adaline did the same, getting behind Frieda as she fumbled to unlock her sister from the chains. “What are you two doing?” Frieda yelled.

“I’m being selfish! I don’t want a Titan! I want you to live, I wanna see Marco and Jean and Sasha and the others! I’m doing what I want to do! I don’t want anyone to die yet, I wanna stay with you both! I want to be Eren’s partner as this unbelievable duo to save humanity! With Eren, I will save humanity no matter what the cost because it’s what I want to do and it’s who I wanna do it with! Not with Rod!”

“I’m going to become humanity’s greatest enemy, I’m done caring what they think, I just care about the people I love. I’m going to help those I love and that’s it! I’m tired of seeing the people I care about hurting, I’m changing that now!”

Eren and Frieda shared a look as the girls struggled to undo their chains.

A deafening crack was heard and Adaline looked up in horror to the scene below the four of them.

There on the floor was Rod. He was licking at the serum that was on the ground as tears ran from his eyes. “sh*t, he’s becoming a Titan!” Frieda yelled out as she stared forward with fear filling her eyes. For once, Frieda seemed so scared of what was happening that it made Adaline begin to feel uneasy. Lightning bounced around his body as he continued to lick the serum on the ground.

The steam that came from his body pushed both Adaline and Historia back, the briefcase flying as well, crashing into a wall. Adaline readied herself to hit the wall as she squeezed her eyes shut, but instead felt her back hit a chest.

“Hey! Are you okay?”

Jean looked down at her as she looked up and she felt tears in her eyes. “Jean?” He nodded before he pulled her over to Historia and Mikasa. “Watch her, her eyes are having trouble focusing! It took her a second to actually see me!” Jean yelled to Mikasa, who nodded as she grabbed Adaline’s arm.

Jean snaked his way to Frieda on the ground, helping Sasha undo her while Captain Levi and Connie were focused on helping Eren.

“Adaline! Hey! Look at me!” Mikasa yelled, causing the girl to blink slowly.

“Mikasa, she hasn’t eaten in days! I don’t think she’s really slept either! She wouldn’t listen to me at all when we were with Rod.” Historia screamed and Adaline could feel her eyes refusing to focus. “She’s been running on her panic alone! I’m sure it’s starting to wear off!”

“Well that’s not good! Kirstein, stick with Adaline!” Captain Levi shouted as they had come back, all pressed into the wall as the heat and steam pushed them back. Jean nodded as he wrapped an arm around Adaline’s waist to hold her up. The burning sensation tinged her skin as she sighed out.

“Where’s Marco?” She asked, looking up to Jean who sighed, “With Hange, Armin and Moblit! Hange got hurt when we were fighting Kenny’s crew! Marco offered to help them since he felt like he couldn’t do much in all the smoke we let out with the whole one eye thing.”

“We need to get out of here and quick!”

“How are we going to get out?”

“I don’t know but we have to figure it out!”

Adaline struggled to keep up with all the words being thrown around her, her mind wasn’t there. She tried to turn her head to look at everyone but once she looked at Jean, she felt herself get heavy again. Her legs turned weak, her knees trying to drop. She felt Jean pull her up, “We need to find a way out! Otherwise getting Adaline out is going to be extremely hard.”

“Hard… Harden.”

Jean jerked his head to look at Adaline, “What?”

“Vial. Says harden. It’s used for a Titan I’m sure. I assume it’s meant to harden their skin or something, like what Annie did.” Her eyes fluttered as she leaned back onto Jean, her breathing was getting hard. Maybe it was her body finally feeling like she was allowed to shut down. Maybe it realized she was finally safe enough to slow down and rest.

Everyone began to look around on the ground with Jean worrying about Adaline. “Jean, I think I’m dying.”

“Adaline shut up, you are not dying. You just haven’t eaten or slept in days.”

“Aha!” Adaline tried to look as Historia yelled, holding up a small bottle. “This Adaline?” The girl nodded slowly.

“Whoever takes that will be able to harden instantly as a Titan!” Frieda screamed and before she could continue, Eren grabbed it. The group yelled after him but he didn’t turn back. He began to run off the cliff, biting the vial. Everyone watched as he jumped, transforming into his Titan form. He yelled as he fell to his knees, crystal forming in pillars around him, stretching high to the opening forming.

“sh*t! Everyone under Eren! After the ground collapses, we’ll get out through the opening in the ground.” Captain Levi ordered before he began to move. Adaline felt her body try to move before Jean picked her up. She wasn’t even able to yelp as he began to run.

Everyone crowded under Eren’s Titan form and Adaline weakly pushed on Jean. “Hey, stop it Adaline.”

“I can walk.”

“No the f*ck you can’t. I thought you were supposed to be smart, why the hell did you not eat for days? Or sleep? You should f*cking know better.” As Jean spoke, Adaline teared up. “I’m sorry I’m stupid.” Tears were streaming down her face in no time.

“Jean, did you seriously make her cry?” Connie asked as he looked at the taller boy who only sighed.

“She’s more emotional than I thought she would be, we’ll deal with it later.”

“You’ll deal with it later.”

“f*ck off Connie.”

The ceilings of the cave continued to wall around them as they stayed under the Titan, watching the rubble smash around them. Connie and Sasha stayed close to one another while Frieda held tightly onto Historia, muttering to her about something. Adaline let her head rest against Jean’s shoulder as her eyes slipped shut. Her hand gripped his shirt as if she was afraid he would disappear. Those days in that room had frightened her.

“Kirstein, are you good holding her? You can pass her off.” Adaline heard the captain ask. When she didn’t hear a response from Jean, she assumed he shook his head when she didn’t leave his arms. “Thank you.” She mumbled, not sure if he even heard.

Once the ceiling finally stopped falling, the captain turned to look at Frieda, “We need to get Eren out of the nape so we can get out of here, Miss Reiss, do you mind transforming into your Titan so we can get out easier?”

“Of course. Jean, please be gentle with her.” Frieda spoke softly and Jean could only nod back to her.

Mikasa was already flying up with Captain Levi to get to Eren as Frieda ran out to an open area. She looked around for the largest opening before biting her hand. She kneeled as her Titan formed, laying her hand out. Connie and Sasha got on before Jean followed with Historia close behind. The rock of his steps was putting Adaline to sleep and quick.

Frieda raised her hand to her shoulder, letting the group move off her hand as she could use both hands for climbing.

“Adaline, can I set you down? We need to sit to make it easier on your sister to move.” Jean muttered into her ear and the girl nodded slowly. She felt Jean put her pressed into Frieda’s neck as she opened her eyes. For the first time, her eyes focused on him. “Your face.”

Jean lifted a hand to swipe at a cut on his cheek, looking at the blood that collected on his thumb. “Oh sh*t, it’s just a little cut. I got it when I took down a lot of guys. I was pretty cool out there if I do say so myself.” He smiled and Adaline tried to smile back before her eyes slipped shut.

“Why can’t I keep my eyes open?”

“You’re tired as hell! Historia says you didn’t sleep while we were separated.” A different voice. Adaline peeked to see Sasha sitting beside her. The girl leaned over her, checking to see if she was secured. She nodded slowly before smiling “Here, I have some crackers you can eat. It’s something.” Sasha handed the girl the pack of crackers. Adaline slowly snacked on them as Frieda looked down onto Eren.

“Miss Reiss, please go ahead! We’re going to climb out!” The captain yelled and Adaline could feel Frieda nod as her neck flexed.

The climb was odd as Adaline gripped on a section of Frieda’s hair as she used her other hand to eat the crackers from Sasha. The others were using their ODM gear to make sure they stayed on her while Historia gripped onto her hair as well.

When they were on the surface, Jean immediately grabbed Adaline again, picking her up before taking her off Frieda’s shoulder.

“Ah! Frieda! You’re in your Titan form! It is amazing!” Hange yelled as they ran up, running past Jean and Adaline before turning around. Behind Hange, Moblit could be heard yelling after them from far away. It sounded like he was trying to lecture them on their injuries and running so soon.

“Wait! What’s wrong with her?”

“Hasn’t eaten in days, lack of sleep, incredibly emotional so treat her with caution until we can get her asleep.” Jean said quickly as Adaline continued to chew her cracker.

“Moblit! Grab some food from the resource back up! Jean, you can put her down over there.” Hange smiled before running to Frieda again, yelling at the Titan. Jean carried the girl to the cart where Moblit stood, rifling through the crates that were brought as he sighed.

“Jean! Adaline!” Marco was running up to them and out of breath. “sh*t, is she okay?”

“She’s fine, just tired and hungry.”

Adaline blinked her eyes before smiling up to Marco, “Hello Marco, I feel tall.”

Marco cracked a smile before shaking his head, “You’re not that tall, Jean’s still pretty short compared to me.”

“He’s just tall enough for me. Don’t grow anymore or you’ll be too tall.” Adaline smiled and Marco chuckled, glancing at the other boy who was blushing. “You hear that Jean? You’re just tall enough for Adaline, that’s pretty nice.”

“Shut up Marco. Adaline, you need to eat something else. Moblit has some apples okay? And then you need to sleep.”

“Sleep with me.”

Jean and Marco both choked at Adaline’s words. She looked between them, not realizing how wrong her words sounded. Marco poked his tongue in his cheek before grinning, “You heard the girl.”

Adaline sat in the middle of the empty cart with her apple slices in her hand before she pulled on Jean. She continued to pull until he was sitting beside her in the cart. Slowly, she ate her apple slices, occasionally shoving a slice into Jean’s mouth. “Lay down.” Adaline said as she finished off half a slice, shoving the rest to Jean’s mouth.

“Adaline look, people are gonna look.”

“I don’t care, lay down.”

“Adaline.”

“I’ll cry.”

“Is that supposed to scare me?”

Adaline pushed her bottom lip out as she crossed her arms, “I’m cold, I’ll freeze out here. Weird family ceremonies call for weird ceremonial gowns.” Jean seemed to give in before he took his gear off. He piled his ODM gear at their feet before laying down. “Come on.”

Adaline tried to hide her glee as she laid down with her head pressed into Jean’s chest. His arms wrapped around her before she sighed happily. “Thank you Jean.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Adaline let herself fall asleep, knowing they would wake her up when they needed her.

…

“Hey, you two! Wake up!”

Adaline slowly blinked awake as she tried to find the voice speaking to her. Her face was still pressed into Jean’s chest. She looked to the side where Eren was grinning down to her, “Looking cozy.”

“Shut up Eren, I should have eaten you when I had the chance. Where are we?” She asked as she rested her head back onto Jean’s chest. If she could, Adaline would have flicked the boy’s forehead as his grin only got bigger. Jean’s arms were still wound around her waist, keeping Adaline in place.

“First of all, Historia was gonna eat me, not you. Second, we’re headed for the capital. We should get there just before the beast of your father’s Titan gets there. He’s pretty slow cause of his size. You and Jean need to get up so you can come to the meeting with the commander.”

Adaline groaned before she pushed herself up on Jean’s chest. She heard the boy groan himself as he slowly opened his eyes. He looked at Adaline before his eyes saw Eren. “f*ck, of everyone to come, it had to be Jaeger? They couldn’t send Marco?”

“Oh no, I begged them to let me be the one. I had to see if it was true about Adaline demanding you sleep with her.” Eren grinned and Adaline could feel the evil energy coming from him, “I did not demand.”

“Hate to break it to you Shorty, but you literally said that.” Jean kept one hand on Adaline’s back as he placed the other on the floor of the cart to lift them up into a sitting position. Adaline squeaked as her legs moved to rest around his waist.

“Jaeger, where is everyone?”

“Most of everyone started moving to where the commander is, he seems to believe we can stop this Titan but you guys should see this guy! He’s huge!” Eren’s eyes lightened up as he stood up to point in the distance. Adaline stood up to look and felt sick once she saw Rod in the distance.

“How is he even more disgusting as a Titan?”

“I don’t know, but I heard Hange say he seems to be highly intelligent.”

Adaline felt Jean stand up beside her, rubbing his back, “We shouldn’t keep them waiting. Let me get my gear on and we can go.” Eren nodded at Jean, who turned to grab his ODM from the floor of the cart.

“Where’s my sisters?” Adaline asked as she watched Eren jump from the cart. The boy spun around with his evil grin back on his face, “They should be close by, I saw them not long ago. They seemed quite interested in your sleeping arrangement. Tell me Adaline, how often do you guys cuddle up?” Adaline felt herself blush as she moved off the cart, ignoring Eren who was laughing behind her.

The nightgown seemed ridiculous as she moved around to look for Frieda or Historia. She stripped the cardigan off her arms as she looked around, saying hello to Scouts as she passed them.

“You’re awake!”

Adaline turned to see Historia running towards her with clothes in her arms. The girl had changed into her pants and white button up, her gear already on. “I have some clothes for you!”

She handed them off and Adaline looked at them, “What about gear?”

“Hange said they would give you some after you changed. I guess they’re worried you’re gonna try to put it on over your dress.”

Adaline shook her head before looking down at the clothes. “I’m gonna go change behind a tree, be a lookout for me?” She asked as she headed towards the tree line. Historia was close behind, her hands clasped behind her back.

“So, you and Jean were pretty cuddly, it was nice to see you sleep.”

“You know, sometimes you just need to be held.”

Historia giggled as Adaline changed from the gown to a pair of pants and a plain black shirt. She moved the shirt until it felt right . She then slid the boots on, zipping them up. She felt more like herself getting ready for her gear than in the gown.

“I just really needed the sleep, and he happens to be extremely warm. It helps me sleep.”

“I don’t understand why you don’t tell him how you feel.”
“Historia, you know why.”

“He doesn’t actually like her, that’s all I’m saying.”

The two girls continued to talk as they moved back to the group. Adaline saw Jean standing beside Armin and Eren, a confused look on his face. Before she could walk over to them, Marco came running.

“I’m glad to see you’re awake! You needed that rest huh?” He smiled as he slowed down to walk beside the two girls. “It’s good to be awake, I didn’t even realize how tired I was.”

“You seemed pretty out of it but from what I’ve heard, you were hopped up on panic and adrenaline. It happens when you don’t take care of yourself.” Marco patted her shoulder as they walked. “We need to get to Hange now. They want to see us with the commander, I’m sure they will be excited to see you’re awake.” Adaline nodded as she turned to look at Jean a final time.

“Will everyone be there?”

“I assume, it seems like a large-scale attack is gonna have to happen. It gives off a lot of heat, that Titan.”

“More than Bertholdt’s?”

“It appears so.”
Anxiety coursed through Adaline’s veins as they walked closer to the commander’s tent. Marco pulled the flap open so the two girls could move in. Commander Erwin stood off to the side with Captain Levi and Hange on either side. Moblit was behind Hange with a gentle hand on their shoulder as they quietly discussed things. Frieda sat in a chair, bundled up and a steaming cup of tea in her hands.

“Commander, I have the sisters.”

Everyone in the room turned to look at the two girls, who awkwardly smiled. “Girls. Historia, you looked well. Adaline, I’m glad to hear you slept.” The commander smiled at the girls. “Where’s the rest?”

“A couple were getting Jean ready.”

“We’re here! Ignore Marco! We were not late!” Eren came running in, huffing and puffing. He placed his hands on his knees as Armin and Jean walked in behind him.

“Excellent, we can begin to talk about our assault on the Titan. Hange?”

Hange grinned, “Of course! It appears the Titan is going straight for the capital, it’s not even going towards the outlier district in front of it. Obviously this Titan is intelligent to some extent.”

“Our plan is to bombard him with cannons. Eren will be in his Titan form. We have some gunpowder prepared that we want to get into Rod’s Titan. This is where Eren comes in. He shall shove gunpowder into the Titan’s mouth if possible so we can blow him up. We won’t have any other chance to get close enough with the amount of heat he gives off. The Scouts with some help from the Garrison will then go in after and cut up the pieces of him to protect the citizens below. Is this understood by everyone?”

The group of Scouts shared a look before shaking their heads. Hange grinned at them, “Excellent! Get ready, we need to get up that wall!” The Scouts began to move out, while Adaline walked to Hange.

The girl didn’t have to say anything as she looked at Hange. “Oh! Your gear! Of course, I already know.” Hange grinned, moving past the girl to grab extra ODM gear on the table, “Here you go.”

“Thank you. I apologize I was asleep. It won’t happen again.” Adaline spoke as she pulled the gear on, buckling it into place.

Hange placed their hand on Adaline’s shoulder, “I’m going to be honest. I don’t want you out there.”

“What?” Adaline asked as she blinked slowly.

“I think you need to rest and refuel more. You put your body through a lot from what Historia has told me. Jean and Mikasa came to me together with concerns about you being extremely out of it inside the cavern. They both are worried about you.”

“I’m fine, really. Hange please, I need to be out there with everyone.”

“I rather you not. Think about everyone else. They don’t want to see you get hurt.” Adaline pulled away from Hange, a frown on her face. “I can take care of myself.”

Hange sighed before nodding, “I see there’s no changing your mind, must be a Reiss daughter thing. Meet everyone out there.” They left the tent, leaving Adaline frowning before shaking her head. She needed to prove to everyone she was still useful. She moved outside the tent, staring at the Titan as it crawled. It truly was disgusting.

She didn’t get far before Marco walked up to her, hands on his hips. “Okay, you need to chill out.” He had a disappointed look in his eye that made Adaline frown. “What?”

“You still need to rest Adaline, don’t try anything crazy out there.”

“Why is everyone worried about me?”

“We were told you weren’t eating, weren't sleeping, basically living in a constant panic attack. Adaline, that drains the body. You were forced to see the man you ran away from, who abused your family, you’re gonna be shooken up.”

“Thank you for your concern but I am fine.”

“Let people care about you.”

Adaline paused to bite her lip before she pushed her hair from her face. “Soon enough, that’s all people will do. Let me take this chance while I can.” Marco seemed to take that as an answer, “There should be a horse for you to ride, pick one. We gotta hurry.” He left her standing there.

Adaline got on her own horse quickly, gripping the reins as Hange shouted for everyone to ride. Her eyes remained trained on Rod’s Titan as she took off following the other Scouts. The ride to the wall was fairly quick, they were faster than the Titan.

“Scouts! Use your gear to get up the wall! We don’t have time for the elevator!”

Shouts were heard as the Scouts dismounted from their horses, their ODM gear sticking into the wall. Adaline felt the rush of wind as she flew through the air, she let her eyes slip shut. When she felt her feet hit the side of the wall, Adaline opened her eyes before beginning to run up the wall to the top.

Eren was already there talking to the captain and the commander, nodding to whatever they were saying. He turned before running to the opposite side, pushing past the other Scouts. Adaline watched him and prayed he would be able to pull this off, it wouldn’t be easy.

“Scouts, ready your blades! Once the Garrison can hit the Titan with the cannons, Eren will come in! Then you guys will cut up the chunks of him falling!” The Scouts all screamed as they pulled their blades out.

It felt like an eternity as the Scouts waited for Rod to get close enough to the wall. His long arms slowly reached up the wall, his fingers grazing past people. Adaline could feel her stomach jump just watching him.

Rod’s Titan was pulling himself up the wall and no one could have expected his guts falling as he fully stood up. Scouts began to gag and throw up as the Titan’s insides rained down on the wall. Adaline covered her mouth as her eyes followed the motion of falling guts. How disgusting. How fitting her father’s Titan would be so disgusting though.

“Don’t let that distract you guys! Garrison! Go!”
Cannons were fired, plummeting the Titan. It seemed to do little good as the Titan was moving just fine as it loomed over the wall. He seemed to sway slightly in the wind. “Section Commander!” A Garrison soldier yelled with fear in their eyes.

“Keep going! Do not stop!” Hange screamed out as they watched the Titan, “We need enough for Eren to be able to get in!”

Garrison soldiers were screaming as they continued to load and shoot cannons, fear decorating their faces. No one even heard Eren as he ran forward in his Titan form, carrying a net. His foot step shook Adaline as she struggled to stand. She watched as Eren pushed the net filled with barrels deep into Rod’s mouth as he screamed.

Eren screamed as he forced the net deep into the Titan before yanking back. Explosions began to go off, igniting all the barrels as Eren ran from it. The upper half of Rod’s Titans exploded around them, chunks flying.

Commander Erwin threw his arm up, “Scouts! Now!”
The Scouts all screamed as they launched themselves in the air. Adaline followed behind the others as she began to slice the chunks. Her blades slid through the skin and muscle with ease. She leapt through the sky on chunks of flesh, making her way around.

“Adaline!” Historia yelled as she jumped off the chunks of the flesh, “This way!”

Adaline pushed past a piece of muscle, flying towards her half sister. She watched as Historia pointed to one chunk, “He’s there! Let’s do this together! It’s time we get our revenge!”

Together, the sisters sliced the chunk of flesh holding Rod, screaming as they did so. Adaline felt a pang hit her heart and memories of her father filled her as she only screamed louder. She pushed through, ignoring what her brain was showing her as she fell to the ground with Historia.

They were free, they would change this world and save all those in it.

Adaline landed on the ground before, huffing as she watched the Scouts above continue to slice the Titan bits. She glanced at Historia who stumbled to her. Historia looked at her with tears in her eyes. That’s when Adaline realized she was crying too. Lifting a hand, she wiped the tears from her cheeks.

“We did it. We saved everyone.”

If only this would be the hardest thing they’ve ever done.

If only.