𝗦𝗨𝗡𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗨𝗡𝗦𝗘𝗧𝗦 | 𝙀. 𝙔𝙀𝘼𝙂𝙀𝙍

𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

I never found Eren. Once I got better, and my wounds had healed, Leria and her husband, Roger, and I went and searched for him almost every day. I gave descriptions to the townsfolk and shopkeepers, but no one had said they'd seen him. I searched for Armin and Mikasa too, but again, no one had seen them. After around six months of looking for them, I stopped trying to find them. I knew they were dead.

I stayed with Leria and Roger ever since the Colossal and Armoured Titan, that's what people were calling them, had broken through Wall Maria. They adopted me, giving me home so I didn't have to live on the streets or harvest food in the fields like the other Shiganshina refugees. I was lucky to have Leria and Roger; they acted as parental figures to me, but we all knew they couldn't replace my father and mother.

My insomnia has gotten worse, I rarely got more than five hours of sleep a night. I could tell Leria was worried, after I realized Armin, Mikasa, and Eren were most likely dead, I rarely ate too. My cheeks and sunken in a bit and my eyes had dark circles under them again. I looked like a living corpse; like I should've been in the pile of bodies from Shiganshina.

It wasn't until Roger taught me how to use ODM gear that I started to live again.

It was a regular day, I had just woken up from a night full of terrors and was about to eat breakfast. I sat down at the kitchen table, about to pick at the eggs Leria made when I saw Roger cleaning something with a rag from outside the window. He was wiping something shiny.

"What's that?" I asked Leria when she sat down next to me to eat. She caught my line of sight.

"Oh that's Roger's old ODM gear from his time at the Scouts," she said while looking at him with a saddened look. I looked at her surprised but guessed that's how Roger had lost his arm, or forearm I should say. I waited for Leria to continue, but she didn't say anything else and just ate her cereal. I pushed around the food on my plate for another few minutes until I got restless and went to see Roger.

"Hey Roger," I greeted while taking a seat on the ground next to him, mirroring how he crossed his legs over each other by the ankles.

"Hey, Angel." I smile inwardly at Roger's nickname for me. I asked him what he was doing. "Just cleaning my baby! I and this gal go way back," he says with a chuckle.

It was silent for a moment, but I broke it with a question, hesitantly asking, unsure how he would react. "How come you never said you were a part of the Scouts?" His head whipped towards me with a shocked expression, his eyes were wide, but then they narrow in amusement as they look into the kitchen through the window.

"Ah, so Leria told ya eh?" I nodded. "Well, I guess it never came up," he said with a shrug turning towards me. I give him a deadpanned look. He chuckled in response. "Okay, okay, quit giving me that look."

He begins to tell me about him joining the military as a kid, eager to help slay the titans that threatened humanity. Talking animately with his hands he described battle after battle and expedition after the expedition. He went on to talk about how he joined the Scout Regiment.

I watched, intrigued by how he explained how to kill a titan, stars in my eyes. I always knew about the Scouts, but hearing about it like this, I knew I would join the Regiment one day.

Ever since I learned from Roger that a mere human was capable of bringing one of those monsters down, I made him train me every day. With his connections and good ties with old Captains and comrades, he was allowed to teach me how to maneuver ODM gear on empty training fields used to train new cadets. I would've joined the military right then and there to get the full experience of learning but I wasn't old enough yet. I still had to wait a few more months, but in that time, Roger and I trained endlessly.