A Promise (An Attack on Titan Fanfic: Erwin Smith)

♪ Perfect ♪

: Year 846 :

"Papa!"

Two Scout soldiers who were conversing in the courtyard of their barracks turned their faces and saw a little girl on her wobbly legs, short arms stretched over as she shakily made an effort to walk towards their blond Commander; behind the little girl and making sure she wouldn't stumble down, was their Sergeant Major. 

"Um, I've been wondering," one of the soldier began, turning to the taller man in front of him. He was a new recruit of the Survey Corps, and while he had already seen the little girl some weeks back, he still had his curiosity that was not answered. "Is the Commander and the Sergeant Major mar - "

"No," the other soldier cut him off as if he expected the question and was getting tired having to answer every time. He was his senior by a few years. "They're not married."

The new recruit lightly tilted his head with a raised brow. "So, are they dat - "

"They're not dating either."

"... So the kid - ?"

"From what I heard," the soldier paused and looked at his colleague, "the Sergeant Major found her abandoned during the fall of Wall Maria a year ago."

Blinking, the new recruit allowed the information to process in his brain as he glanced back at the two superiors who were handling the Survey Corps organization. From the rumors he got ever since he had enlisted into the branch, the Sergeant Major was the Commander's childhood best friend. As the man stared at the two adults, both with soft expressions as they regarded the toddler, he couldn't help but thought they looked like an actual family. 

The little girl had raven hair just like the Sergeant Major, and her blue eyes were exactly the same shade as their Commander's. 

It would've fooled anyone. 

"They look happy," the new recruit commented as he watched the trio with a smile. When he first joined the Scouts, he had been shocked when he passed by Captain Levi, Humanity's Strongest Soldier, who was walking down the hallways of their buildings while carrying the little girl and muttering something about how 'Four-eyes forgot to change her diapers'. 

The senior soldier followed his eyes and smiled along with him. 

Indeed. They looked happy. 

•

Isanna was stacking the files of papers inside Erwin's office, a hand rubbing the back of her neck in slow massages. She had just finished with her paperwork for the day and her neck was sore from the long hours of facing down. 

It was late afternoon already, and while she was thankful to Hanji and Mike for taking their turns to look after Lauren that afternoon, she was grumbling at the fact that her free time was now going to be spent finishing paperworks. She missed the time where she would just snore the day away inside Erwin's room with no other responsibility except being a titan-killing machine during expeditions. 

Now, she was still a titan-killing machine, but a titan-killing machine who had to sign some stupid papers.

When she heard a gleeful laugh resound from out below on the courtyard, Isanna turned to the open window and walked over, poking her head through the space and seeing Hanji riding on her mare with Lauren sitting in front of her. 

For a second, the raven woman got worried about the little girl falling over but she relaxed when she noticed that Hanji had a careful grip on her as they slowly trotted around the grounds of their courtyard. All around them were soldiers who were preoccupied with their afternoon training exercises; seemingly unbothered at the fact that one of their superiors were casually horse-back riding with a toddler.