Another Story: After Autumn (Attack on Titan AU)

Their History - Part I

22 years ago...

Zeke Yeager didn't understand why they had to move.

Plucking a six-year-old kindergartner from the life he's been accustomed to and forcing him into a new life with new environments, new faces, and new adjustments were just straight-up incomprehensible. He couldn't think of a solid reason why they had to—sure, maybe he occasionally heard mom and dad arguing in the living room late into the night while he tried to sleep upstairs, screaming hysterical, and maybe his mom could go on for days, even weeks on end without coming home at all, and maybe he did sometimes find his dad stumbling home with the pungency of alcohol while he was studying in the living room, but was that really reason enough?

I mean, Zeke was the brightest in class. Excellent scores, top of his year, his friends thought he was fun to hang out with, and life wasn't really that bad in the city. At least, he didn't think of that then.

All he knew was that his grandparents from his father's side made him sit down and told him that they were taking him with them to the countryside together with his father, while his mom 'went to sort things out'. They probably thought he wouldn't understand anyway, so they left out the complicated parts.

But now, as he struggled to get along with the new kids in this small town with the nearest convenience store a few roads down the block (not really convenient anymore, huh), he really had himself questioning, and slightly even resenting, his father. The kids at the children's park always kept giving him awkward glances, with a clear divide between him and the others whenever they played outdoor games. Maybe making friends at this age is easier normally, but not for someone like him.

So, like a typical six-year-old, Zeke took his baseball which he'd brought with him from their old house in the city (he found it amidst the box of junk in their unused garage one boring day) and found faux enjoyment in playing catch with a nice, sweet brick firewall as a substitute for a friend. For some odd reason, Zeke Yeager always found some.. therapeutic calmness in throwing baseballs, catching baseballs, and throwing them again. It was an activity so repetitive—mundane—probably the only sense of normalcy in his life, and the only constant thing, too.

Even though there wasn't anyone to throw it to, nor was there anyone to throw it back to him, Zeke eventually came to terms with that fact.

Until one day, he threw the baseball a little bit harsher, and as it bounced against the surface of the rough wall, he failed to catch it precisely.

Zeke followed the ball with his eyes. It soared through the air silently, and Zeke got momentarily blinded by the sun and he had to shield his vision with an arm, but as he recovered, he watched the ball land onto the grass not too far from him, rolling until it stopped in front of someone.

No, not someone. It was a group of kids.

The one at the front was a bit bigger and taller than the rest, with a grin that just screamed of 'trouble' and crooked teeth. He bent down and grabbed the worn-out baseball, turned it in his palm while staring at it, before he looked at Zeke with a sneer.

"Does the new kid need a fwend?" he mocked, earning a few sniggers from the other boys at the back. Just your typical clique of immature boys, was what Zeke would realize in retrospect years later, but at that time, what the kid said really got to him. He never really thought about it, but he knew the feeling of loneliness before even knowing the concept at all.

"Give it back," he said, brows pulled into a frown. He balled his fists at his side, trying to think of ways to get out of this with his baseball back in hand. And then he'd just run back home, probably never stepping foot into the park ever again, probably just look for other places to play fake catch.