Our future signed in letter

Chapter 2

On Paradise:

"And you received a mail from him again?" Armin looks at her with interest. A knowing smile plays around his lips, which Mikasa knew from him before. Mikasa has poured the tea for both of them and there is a cup of steaming tea for each in front of them on her small table. In addition, this morning she has taken the time to bake a strawberry cake and put a generous piece of cake for everyone on the table with a dollop of cream.

Armin is aware that the letters from her former captain save Mikasa from her sad everyday life. He still remembers how desperate and hurt she was. That Levi, the only one who didn't come back to visit her and Eren's grave. She blamed herself for leaving him and everyone else without words despite being in shock. Mikasa cried herself to him in a quiet moment and told about her dream of Eren before she decided to kill him and put an end to the horror. Annie was also there. She told Armin, that Eren had a lot of similarities to Levi in her dream and in between she didn't know which of the two was standing in front of her. Mikasa talked about the words “Stay with me!” And it was the first time that her former captain had told her very clearly what he wanted and felt for her. Armin had encouraged her and advised to contact him if she felt that way. At that time she could not lose much, only win. The second occurred and a loving pen friendship developed between them. And now she regularly talks about her contact with him and he is happy for her to see her smile again and sees her dreamy look when she talks about the letters and also shows her one or the other letter and then asks him for advice, what the captain might have meant by one or the other remark. He even wrote her a song once that he sang with his former friends. " So ist es immer ", Armin remembers and he interprets it as a love song and Mikasa didn't understand what he was trying to say to her and Levi offered her to sing it together in a quiet hour. Mikasa is definitely not stupid. On the contrary, in combat missions, she has often proven her strategic knowledge again and again, as in the battle of Trost. But when it comes to interpersonal things for herself, she is naive or just doesn't want to have many things true.

The scent of tea and Mikasa's baked cake fills the room. Meanwhile, she plays with Jonathan, who is sitting on her lap. The little boy has a close bond with his "aunt" Mikasa and she looks after him from time to time when Armin and Annie are on their way to the doctor or to be able to be by themselves for a short time, making it the second child soon to be born, both are happy about every short togetherness and Mikasa is happy to be able to spend time with the three old child . The little boy plays with Eren's scarf and Mikasa even allows him to cuddle with the scarf when he takes an afternoon nap. As if Jonathan knows that a third person is missing between them.

At times like these, she wonders if Eren was still alive and if they were both parents too. She will never get an answer to this question, and at the time she felt jealous whenever Eren was with Historia. "Mikasa, is everything okay?", Armin looks at her worried. She now notices that her eyes have got wet and is about to cry again. She quickly wipes away the tears with her sleeve and goes to the cupboard by the small kitchenette to avoid Armin's gaze. “It's okay, Armin”, she takes a deep breath, “it's just that when I see you and your little family, I always think of Eren and wonder how everything would have developed if he were still alive."
Lost in thought, she keeps the little card that was in the package from this morning and left it outside as a reminder so that she can ask Armin for advice. "

“Mikasa, he would have wanted you to start over. And he never wanted you to mourn unhappy after him for a lifetime ”, she feels Armin's gaze on her back. “Maybe”, she sighs and pours Jonathan a warm mug of milk with honey, “here little man!” And gives the boy the warm milk. The little boy is the image of Armin and Annie with golden blonde hair and Annie's light blue eyes, which sometimes take on the bored, but also dreamy look of his mother, but with Mikasa the boy always shines. "Thanks aunti !" He says shyly. Mikasa replies with a pat on the head. Then she turns back to Armin, reads the little card that was attached to the tea box and gives Armin the short letter.