Family Bed

The blistering cold of late winter nipped at Mikasa and Eren's noses, as they made the long trek from the wood piles out in the lumber lands and back to their house, but it was a journey that had been supplied with a bit of fun. It was odd enough that the first snowfall of the season hadn't occurred until that very evening, but field workers and soldiers of the like weren't complaining. Children, on the other hand, that was a different story.

"Mikasa, look!" Eren giggled, sticking his hands into the slow. Scooping up a good amount of the fluffy ice, he threw it into the air as a sort of cascading rainfall, matching the slow pace of the other snowflakes.

"What?" Mikasa pulled her scarf, the same scarf that Eren had used to comfort to her, up to her nose and around her cheeks. Her voice was muffled by the fuzzy fabric, when she continued to ask, "What am I looking at?"

Seeming absolutely positive in his answer, Eren stomped his foot on the ground and hollered, "I made it snow!"

"But it's already snowing, Eren."

"Ugh, you're missing the point." With a heavy sigh, the young boy collected up his armful of firewood and instructed for Mikasa to do the same and continue following him. "Never mind. Let's just head back."

Both Mikasa and Eren had been sent to get firewood about an hour or so prior, so when Eren's mother heard them climbing up the squeaky steps and entering through the den, she immediately rushed over from the kitchen and welcomed them into her warm arms. "You two must be so cold!" she exclaimed. "What took you so long?"

"Eren made it snow," Mikasa said, standing limp within Carla's embrace.

Never one to force a hug onto the young girl when it was clearly unwanted, she turned most of her attention over to her son, who was shivering beyond belief. "You made it snow, Eren?"

Eren's lips formed into a prominent pout. He understood what Mikasa was trying to accomplish, that she was trying to make him look like some kind of idiot, and he didn't like it one bit. "It was just a joke," he grumbled, pushing himself free from his mother's grasp. "Mikasa takes everything too literally."

"No, I don't."

"Uh, yeah, you do."

Sighing at the idea of a pending quarrel in the midst of her presence, Carla found it in her best interest to use one of her most important parenting skills that she found worked like a charm on her son. Surprisingly, it was also starting to work just as well on her newest daughter, too. It was a little thing she liked to call "mental redirection". "Say, how about you two get washed up for the evening, and I'll start getting the family bed all nice and ready for us. While we all do that, your father will start making a fire with some of the lovely firewood you brought back, won't he?"

She had drawn her husband Grisha into the conversation, with that small request. In the middle of tending to some of his medical supplies, the man looked up to his wife and smiled graciously. "Of course, my dear," he said. "Now, you two heard your mother. Go and get cleaned up."

Both children complied to the will of their parents, and as they scampered off into the kitchen and stepped onto the two foot stools that stood just in front of the sink, Mikasa couldn't help but have only one thing on her mind: the family bed. It was a tradition in the Yeager household that she not only found odd, but had never officially participated in...yet. The idea of sleeping together, all four of them, as one big, happy family just didn't feel right to her. The Yeagers were her new family, yes, but they weren't her family. Most of the things that were normal to them made her feel uncomfortable and foreign, and above all, they made her miss home.

Scrubbing her face with a semi-clean dish rag, Mikasa allowed her thoughts to wonder, as she stared into the soapy water below. Her nose still had a beautifully blushing glow to it from the cold temperatures outdoors, while her cheeks remained as porcelain white as the snow that fell from the Heavens above. Thinking about sleeping with three extra bodies, all huddled together in order to keep everyone warm, on a night like tonight, it didn't sound so bad.

"Hey, Mikasa," Eren spoke, catching the young girl's attention unexpectedly.

"Yes, Eren? What is it?" she wondered.

"Are you going to sleep with us in the family bed tonight?"

In truth, Mikasa didn't know the answer to that. Although the idea of warm arms and lazy bodies sounded very enticing, the fact that she would essentially be cuddling up to strangers caused her to shake her head. "No, Eren. Not tonight."

Come time for the candles to be blown out and for sleepyheads to head off to bed, Eren watched Mikasa, as he did every night, as she walked over to the small cot that had been set up for her since the evening of her arrival. Just before she could prop up her pillow or draw her blanket over her feet, he stopped her and made her turn to look at him.

"Are you here to say goodnight?" Mikasa questioned, thinking it strange that Eren had been a disturbance to her nightly ritual.

"Sort of," was the honest answer she received, and before Eren progressed, he wanted to make one thing very clear. "I want to tell you something important, okay? Will you listen?" There was a slow, almost hesitant nod from Mikasa, before he was ready to speak. "I know you just started living here, and I know a lot of the things we do are different from what your mom and dad did, but you're a part of our family now. Mom thinks of you as her daughter, and Dad does, too. I've started referring to you as my sister to Armin, so I think that instead of sleeping in your cot tonight, you should come and sleep with all of us in the family bed."

For a moment, Mikasa was left with a blank expression, one that made Eren feel like his words hadn't reached her ears. Like his mother in the way that he felt no need to force her into something that she didn't yet feel comfortable doing, he quickly added, "It's just a suggestion. You don't have to if you still don't want to."

And with his thoughts being said, Eren waved Mikasa goodnight and shuffled over to the large bed that was situated all the way on the other side of the room. Both of his parents already nestled within the thick covers made of sheep wool, he, too, climbed inside and joined the cozy cocoon.

Had it been minutes, or had it been hours that had passed? Mikasa, she couldn't tell. When all "life" had ceased, and the only noises that could be heard were the gentle sounds of sleep, she allowed herself to ponder Eren's words - his lecture, rather - and the purpose behind them. Not only had they been the most welcoming thing she had heard from him thus far, but it made her realize that he wasn't just trying to be nice. This was Eren, and Eren never "tried" to be nice. Whenever it happened, its meaning was always genuine.

Crawling out of her cot and slipping into a tip-toe that was softer than even the quietest of field mice, Mikasa coasted her way across the room. Unsure of her complete change of heart, she hesitantly poked her head above the edge of the bed board. She hadn't been seen yet, so she could always turn back if she changed her mind...or so she thought.

"...Mikasa?" It was Eren who had said her name, speaking in no more than a gentle whisper. Weary-eyed and half asleep, he rolled over onto his stomach and looked at her from what seemed like so far away. "What's the matter?"

With no response other than through the answer of her actions alone, Mikasa bravely climbed onto the edge of the bed, still keeping her boundaries, but starting little by little. There, she curled herself up into a well-balanced ball and awaited for Eren to disregard her presence entirely, which he ended up doing in two minutes flat.

It had been a step, a huge step, for a girl who had previously referred to the Yeagers as nothing more to her than the familiar strangers that had taken her in. Sleeping on the very edge of the family bed had been her overall plan - no closer, no further - but by the time morning had come, and the cheerful doves were reciting their timely tune, her step had excelled into a leap of faith, for she had ended up nudging herself beneath the covers, resting within the pleasant peace that four bodies had seemed to fulfill.

Hi there! Chappy here! :D

I am a day late, and I feel absolutely horrible about it, but yesterday was Mikasa's birthday! Yay for Mikasa, woohoo!

I really hope you all enjoyed this short story, because it's actually an idea that I've been playing around with in my head for quite a while now, so I'm super excited that I finally got to write it! (:

Thank you for taking the time to read!

- Chappy