Chapter Text
“You didn’t go through all that for nothing.”
You pull your bag higher up onto your shoulder, letting out a satisfied hum at the weight of it. It’s been months since you’ve scored this well. The kids are going to be happy. You’ve got bread to feed them for at least two weeks, dry meat, some dry mix to make porridge, a couple carrots and potatoes.
You can’t help but smile to yourself as you duck through the various allies of the underground. It doesn’t even dampen your mood as you step through a stream of unidentifiable liquid. The blood sticking to your fingers and arms doesn’t bother you. You’re in too good of a mood.
You swing open the door to your little house, unable to hold back your obvious joy at your most recent endeavor. You feel like a dog wagging its tail, you’re so happy. “Guys, we are going to have a good dinner tonight!” You say as you step into the damp darkness of your home.
As soon as your eyes sweep your one room house, you drop your bag, veggies rolling across the floor. Two men you don’t know are sitting with your four siblings at the kitchen table.
Your hand drops to the knife you keep at your hip, you flip it in your palm, and send it flying. Your siblings gasp and scramble away from the little table in the corner of the room. The blonde man that you’d sent the knife at tilts his head and the knife buries itself into the wall behind him. The other intruder, a short man with dark hair, shoots to his feet.
Thea, your eldest sibling at seventeen, rushes at you and grabs your wrists to keep you from throwing another knife. “[y/n], wait!” Thea looks up at you desperately. “They’re not a threat!”
“I’ll decide that.” You hiss, ignoring Thea and keeping your eyes trained on the men.
Tobais, the youngest at only seven years old, looks up at you grinning with a mouthful of something. “They brought food!” His twin sister, Ellery, nods her head happily. “It’s sweet bread!”
Your heart drops at that. “Spit that out!” God only knows how many enemies you’ve made. Poisoning your baby siblings is something you’d expect from the kind of people you deal with in the underground.
The blonde man puts his hands up in surrender. He’s unsettlingly calm. “We mean them no harm, I assure you.”
That doesn’t comfort you in the least. Your gaze bounces between the two men. “Who the hell are you?”
“They’re scouts!” Tobais chirps, having swallowed his food. “They go kill titans outside the walls.”
They don’t look like scouts. You don’t know what their uniform looks like, but these two men are clearly in casual clothes. “Get. The fuck. Out.” You snarl. Your anger and fear has your heart pounding. These men will not hurt your siblings. You won’t let them.
“(Y/n), really, I promise they’re not bad people.” Thea looks at you desperately, clutching at your hands. “They said they just want to talk to you.”
Leonard, aged fifteen, walks over to your side calmly. “She’s right. They don’t have any weapons besides a knife. I checked.”
“You want to talk?” You tip your head in the direction of the door. “Outside.”
The blonde man stands from his stool, smiling at you. He pauses, clearly waiting to follow you outside. When you don’t move he smiles a little more at your stubbornness, moving past you to the door. His colleague passes you without even looking in your direction.
“(Y/n), please don’t do anything stupid.” Thea says, reluctantly releasing your hands. “They seem nice.”
“Nice.” You scoff.
“They brought good food!” Ellery hums, biting into another chunk of bread. Beside her, Leonard leans against the wall, eating an apple the men must’ve brought.
“God damn it, please don’t eat food from strangers. We’ve been over this!” You sigh. These kids will be the death of you. How many times are they going to walk head-first into death and expect you to rescue them?
“It's good food.” Leonard responds, ignoring you.
“It doesn’t taste weird or anything though.” Tobais says.
Just as you open your mouth to reprimand him, Thea shoves you gently towards the door. The look she gives you gets you to stop arguing. She’s always been your better half. Raising your siblings down here has been hard. You’re a mercenary, a killer. Sometimes you need Thea to remind you to let the kids be kids. Not enough children get the chance down here. You certainly didn’t.
You let her shove you outside, shutting the door to ensure the kids don’t hear more than they need to. Finally, you let yourself look over at the men without identifying the best way to kill them. The blonde man is quite tall and he’s got an aura of authority even you can’t ignore. Then, there’s the shorter black haired guy. He’s tough, you can tell. If you have to fight these two, you know that he’s the one who’s going to give you trouble. There you go again, looking for their weaknesses.
“What do you want?” You let your gaze drift over the men in more depth. Their clothes are neat and pressed, their shoes pristine. They’re not from here. No one would be dumb enough to spend all that money on brand-new clothes just to try and fool you. The likelihood that you’ll kill them anyway is way too high.
The blonde is the first to speak. “Join the scouts.”
“No.” You cross your arms over your chest. Joining the scouts is the last thing you’ve ever thought of doing. It’s a death sentence. Although, with your skill, you’d probably last longer than most. Still, you need to take care of your siblings. There’s no way you’ll leave them here.
“If you do, we’ll put your siblings in the best orphanage around.” The man continues. That catches your attention. “They’ll be well taken care of.”
You don’t respond, turning the thought over in your mind. That’s a good deal. A really good deal.
“Inside wall Sina. They’ll get a good education, jobs when they’re ready.”
“Wall Sina?” You breathe out. You’ve only ever dreamed of making it there. Everyone there is well off, you know that much. They’ll never starve. They’ll never die from a curable illness. They won’t be murdered on the street for their shoes.
Still, you can’t fight your suspicion. It’s what’s kept you alive down here. “Why would you do that? Out of the kindness of your heart?” You say, sarcasm thick in your tone.
“I wish I could say that,” The man’s eyes never leave your own. “But in reality, the scouts need soldiers. We’ve heard you’re good with ODM gear. If we put you out there, we might have less casualties.”
“Take the deal.” Your eyes snap over the black haired man. It’s the first time you’ve heard his voice. He stares you down with icy eyes. “You’re a mass murderer. This is the best your siblings will ever get.”
When you don’t respond to him, still crossing your arms and frowning, he continues. “We could just arrest you and leave them with nothing.”
That makes your heart flip in your chest. You know these kids will starve without you. The response tumbles out of you on instinct. “Not if I kill you first.”
He wrinkles his nose in disgust. “Is that all you know?”
Your mouth falls open at that. It hits too hard. Killing is all you know. “I-” You scramble desperately for a response. You don’t have one.
“There’s no need for us to fight. I do want to help you.” Erwin says. His voice is soothing. Ever though you’re on guard, it still manages to calm you down.
You relent. “How long do I get to think about it?”
“Well, we don’t have much time.” Erwin continues. “We can give you maybe an hour-”
Erwin’s cut off by Thea tumbling through your door. She catches herself before she stumbles into the ground. “There’s nothing to think about.” She says, standing to her full height and dusting off her tattered skirt. “This is a good thing. A good deal.”
“I told you not to eavesdrop-” You mutter, changing the topic. You don’t really want to think about it. Taking this deal means leaving your siblings. The five of you have never lived apart. They’ve been with you since the day they were born, bought from their parents by the orphanage. The longest you’ve ever been away from them was maybe twelve hours.
“Whatever.” Thea huffs at you before turning to the two men. “She’ll join the scouts.”
“I never said--”
She cuts you off, giving you a big grin. “C’mon now, we both know that not even a titan can kill you.” Her double meaning is not lost to you.
“That’s not what I’m afraid of.” Your voice drops lower. A deep ache wretches your chest.
Thea smiles at you again, softer and gentler this time. She’s always been good at comforting you. “I’ll watch over them.” She turns to the men, eyes alight. “When do we go?”