Shingeki no Kyojin/進撃の巨人 A different path

As Eren regained consciousness he felt a comfortable weight on his chest, he cracked and eye open to check the clock on the wall. Seeing the time he decided it was necessary to get up, moving carefully so as to not disturb his partner, and started towards the bathroom. But after he left the bed he felt his arm being tugged, and when he looked down and saw black eyes staring back up at him. "Where are you going?" she asked in a tone that to others may sound emotionless, but after spending years with her he was able to notice the inflection of worry. He just smiled down at her and said "I'm just going to get washed up, it's almost six thirty and we have to be down there by seven. And I was trying to let you sleep in some more Mikasa, you have been exhausting yourself lately." He leaned down and kissed her forehead while pulling his arm out of her grasp. He walked toward the bathroom kept adjacent to their room and called over his shoulder "I'll just be a minute, need to wash up before we leave."

When he walked in he poured a bucket of water into a bin and dropped a cloth and bar of soap into the water, letting the two objects soak while he stripped down to wash himself. As he scrubbed himself down he glanced around the room, seeing the counter only containing a couple brushes reminded him just how Spartan he and Mikasa lived. He had a healthy blush on his face when his eyes came to the bathtub as his mind brought up the many '_events_' he and Mikasa had in that tub. A few moments later he pulled the plug in the bin, put a towel around his waist, placed the cloth in the laundry bin, and walked back to his room.

As he reentered his room he saw Mikasa sitting on the opposite side of the bed, he smiled as he quietly approached her. When he reached her he put his arms around her waist and looked over her shoulder, seeing her staring at her left hand he chuckled and said "Still think this is all a dream? I remember for the first week after the wedding you wouldn't let me out of your sight because you thought I might 'fade away'," She merely hummed and leaned her head on his shoulder, and he played with her shoulder length hair. He kissed her cheek and said "Come on, we have to get dressed. Remember we still have to pick up Armin." At her nod of agreement he got up and moved to his dresser and proceeded to put on his uniform. His outfit consisted of black slacks, black dress shoes, a white dress shirt, light green vest and a black coat. After smoothing out wrinkles and creases he glanced over to Mikasa, while Eren's clothes were very flashy Mikasa's were more practical than anything. She wore a matching pair of grey pants and a gray shirt, she wore boots coming up to mid-calf, but the most eye-catching aspect of her ensemble was the light green clenched fist embroidered on the left side of her shirt.

After seeing she was done he motioned to the door and they walked to the hallway and then out the door, Mikasa grabbing a rifle by the door, and they left greeting the cleaning lady as they went. Mikasa entered a cabin with a horse in front to check for any unexpected surprises. Meanwhile Eren chatted with the driver saying "How are you today Ulfric? Your kids are doing well I hope?" The middle aged man took off his hat and said in a deep baritone voice "I am well thank you master Yeager. My son is doing better recently, thank you again for giving me early leave to help him, master Yeager." Eren just waved him off saying "Oh it was no problem Ulfric, and I thought I told you to stop calling me 'master' I'm not much better than you and besides it makes me feel old." Ulfric adopted a coy expression and said "I don't know what you're talking about master Yeager, I was not even aware I was calling you master Yeager, master Yeager. Am I still doing it now master Yeager? " This caused Eren to sigh in frustration and walk over to the cabin once Mikasa waved him in, saying over his shoulder "I swear Ulfric you are spending way too much time with Armin, speaking of which that is going to be our first stop." Ulfric just chuckled and responded "Aye, sir."

As Eren sat in the cabin he leaned his head back against a rest there for a few minutes, enjoying the peace and quiet while he could. After a while he looked across from him at Mikasa, then he suddenly reached across the gap and pulled her into his lap chuckling as he saw her blush. He whispered softly into her ear "Hmm, even after two years you're still embarrassed by something like this? You weren't this embarrassed last night when we-" he was cut off when the cabin pulled to a stop and footsteps began to approach. Mikasa squeaked and scrambled to the seat beside him while Eren just snickered to himself, then the door opened and a fair haired man walked in. He wore tan slacks and a white shirt with a light green vest, he looked from Eren's proud face to Mikasa's quickly fading blush and shook his head at his friends antics. He took his seat across from Eren and started up mindless conversation with the two.

When the cabin stopped for the second time there were many noises bleeding in from the outside world despite the time, conversations and the rhythmic beat of horse hooves from commuters, vendors yelling for the attention of said commuters, and children running around screaming with delight. After a moment Mikasa stood up and grabbed her rifle before slipping outside the door, after another minute there was a knock on the wall and the two men stepped outside. The group of three stood in front of a set of locked iron gates with concrete walls on either side, beyond the gate was a large black building with large metal chimneys. Eren took a key from his pocket and unlocked the gate swinging the two sides forward before the group moved forward. After entering the building the group split up into two groups with Armin entering a room adjacent to the main work floor, while Eren and Mikasa went upstairs to a room that overlooked the entire factory.

Eren sat at his desk, Mikasa standing behind him at his shoulder, he looked over the reports from the last day and sighed. He began to speak to Mikasa saying "Orders have been declining from the Survey Corps, and we can't compete with the moguls connections with the Military Police, the only option left is to try and get in on the Garrison. But even then we won't be able to make up the costs since the Garrison won't use up the same amount of goods as the Survey Corps. Any thoughts Mikasa?" Mikasa was silent for a moment before saying "That seems likely enough, we could switch some production over to commercial goods to make up the extra costs." Eren smiled at her when she said this, before nodding his assent and taking a piece of paper and writing down some orders on it, and then walking to the work floor with Mikasa trailing behind.

Taking his jacket off and leaving it in his office Eren stood and looked over his workers beginning their work day. He turned to Mikasa standing next to him and took her hand, when she turned her gaze he said in a whimsical tone "Hard to believe it's been five years since Maria fell huh? Seems like only yesterday the worst thing possible was having to do our chores." She looked at him with an unreadable emotion in her eyes, before squeezing his hand and saying "That's in the past Eren, we are safe now. Do you… do you still want to go back?" Eren stared down at the floor for a few moments in thought, before saying "Honestly, I don't. I still want the titans dead, but… we have friends here in Trost, we have jobs and a house. We have a life. Maybe after the titans are dead, we could go on a vacation." At this he turned to her and smiled and finished "Maybe we could even try and find your homeland, you've always talked about wanting to see it one day." Mikasa gave him a small smile before saying "I'll be back, I have to do my rounds before everyone gets here." Eren just nodded and watched her walk away with her rifle slung on her shoulder.

Eren heard footsteps approaching so he turned his head to see a man in a military uniform approaching, he was a little shorter than Eren and had an apathetic expression on his face. Eren nodded at the man and greeted him saying "Captain Levi, sir. I assume you are here for the shipment? Follow me." The captain just nodded and followed after him. When they came to a warehouse room Eren turned on a lantern and let Levi inspect the merchandise, after a moment he said "Normally you guys don't buy this much, even with the discount I give you. This could mean either you had a large loss, which would be talked about non-stop if that did happen. Or you are preparing for a counter-attack, in which case I would definitely not hear it. Of the two the counter-attack seems more likely. So the only thing I can say to you is… good luck" Levi just stared at him before turning back to the supplies, after a few more moments before turning to Eren and saying "Everything seems to be in order, the rookies will be by soon to transfer it." Before they could leave the door was slammed open and Mikasa came rushing in, looking around wide eyed before seeing Eren and rushing to her side. She was about to say something before Levi spoke up and said "Calm down Mikasa, not like I kidnapped him or anything. Anyway I'll see you with the next shipment, till then." He then walked out, Mikasa glaring at him all the while, and was followed by the two.

The two ended up back in his office and Eren quickly resumed his work and Mikasa took her spot at his shoulder. Towards the end of the day Armin came into the room and delivered a stack of papers to Eren with a grin and a chuckle at hearing his friends groan and mutterings about "evil paperwork pixies" trying to keep him at work. Eventually a whistle went off and everyone started to head home, as Eren walked out in to the sunset he took a moment to just look at it, for some reason he could not shake the feeling that something large, life altering even, was about to happen as if it he was standing on a precipice of change. He was deeply perturbed by this feeling as it was similar to one that he had before the colossal titan appeared in Shiganshima. Burying these feeling he rationalized it by saying it was because he was worried about his workers and Mikasa with the factories recent downturn. As he turned to join his friends he felt a chill creep up his spine and the feeling of someone looking at him replaced his earlier one, when he turned he was surprised to see three recruit soldiers, one was a nervous looking man, who had black hair and was fairly tall. The other two were similar in that they were both blondes, but after that the similarities ended the first was a man who was well built and had a stern if slightly kind expression on his face, the girl meanwhile was slender and lithe and had a hard look on her face. After he finished looking them over he said "You three must be the recruits Levi mentioned, here" at this he tossed them a key "this will get you into the warehouse room, walk along the southern wall and it's the third door. Remember to lock up after words." Seeing their nods of assent Eren turned and ran to catch up with his two friends who were waiting at the gates. Mikasa immediately asked "Who were they? What did they want?" Eren chuckled at her worry and simply said they were soldiers here to pick up the supplies, after she was seemingly satisfied with the answer they turned and began the trip home, to begin the cycle anew.

Authors Note:

Hey you guys, well here's my one-shot for Shingeki no Kyojin, this was brought about by the first episode of the trainee arc where Mikasa stated that Eren could still help out as a factory owner if he couldn't be a soldier. I might turn this into a full story, explaining how our three protagonists got into this spot and then following cannon to a degree. This will only happen if I can plan out a plot line that satisfies me or this gets an overwhelming response. Om another note I apologize deeply for the delay of the next _Others_ chapter, I have been having problems in my personal life, school and such, and am having a pretty large writers block with it but I am about halfway done with the chapter and promise to have it out by, at the very latest, the end of march. I won't have much time to write here soon since I am going on a family vacation at the end of the month. Anyways that's enough babbling from me and as always

Stay classy internet


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Shingeki no Kyojin/進撃の巨人, Adventure, Romance