Chapter 1: The Lions and their Cub

Her eyes flew open with tremendous drops of sweat running down the small of her forehead, she quickly leaped her foot off the bed and looked under it, and sighed in utter relief. The monster wasn't there anymore. Her night was rough because of it, making her body quite heavy when she rose from slumber.

The gales of the wind made its entrance through her window, the wind spoke for the silence, and the morning chills made her shiver to her legs.
Her hair spread out behind her like the deepest of the endless night, so black and so thin, her matching grey eyes were like abysses under the rays of the sun, and it didn't look spirited as most children had. Jaded and mellow distinctions can be seen in her orbs.

It wasn't her first time fighting against the darkness, each night she'd freeze her eyes awake just to defend herself from the terrors lurking in the shadows. However, she'd never talk about them with her parents, as she recalled once that they shot her a funny look when she told them she had slain a monster and they told her that it was only a product of her imagination. From that moment and on, she remained silent of her encounters.

As a child, after all, it was normal to mistake the dark with all sorts of trivial horrors. Though she planned to investigate the whole house if her night terrors were real or not, she wasn't a dumb little girl who would succumb in the corner, she was brave like her parents or at least, she tried to be like them.

Don't they believe me at all? I'm usually in danger at night because I have to fight at all times, and my they don't even know that they lure the monsters too when they leave with the candle, my light when the night came. But she couldn't tell them that, she didn't want them to think she was weak and that she feared the dark.

The little girl rubbed off the sleep from her eyes after she checked the bed twice if the monster was really gone and then she lazily picked up Lucy from her desk.
Lucy was a furry brown bear with hollow buttons for eyes. She never spoke, she thought the bear was pretty much entirely useless because of that, but she made use of her when she felt unsafe. She'd entangle her arms with the furry little toy and pretended her parents was holding her like that, how she wanted them to stay with her during the times she felt alone.

"You're awake," the door creaked opened and revealed her mom in her usual white apron.

"Yes," she replied, wiping the trickles of sweat off her face. The nightclothes she wore had a disgusting moistness on it and she'd like to get out of it as soon as she ate breakfast, "Good morning," said the girl in a monotone voice.

Her mother approached, her hair dark, long and soft just as hers, swaying side to side as she took steps towards her direction.

"Good morning, dear."

She yawned, "Hungry…" her lips managed to mumble in the drowsiness that almost left her.

"Have breakfast then a bath, you smell of sweat," Mikasa said and the little girl nodded. Her senses were always sharp when it comes to untidiness, but Levi was worse.

"Okay."

So she walked downstairs to do as she was told, her fingers curled around Lucy's furry arm for safety. She decided to be alert even in the morning and not just at night.

In the kitchen was where her father can be found with loads of papers in hand while drinking his usual bitter coffee, he didn't look at her when she greeted him a good morning but he replied quick and stern, "Morning. Eat your vegetables," he pointed his fork at the broccolis and carrots on her plate. "Don't leave a single crumb," Levi's voice was low and deadpanned like his eyes, the bags under it proved he had been a lot busier with work.

"Okay."

She sat down beside her father and she got a little glimpse at the paper he was reading. The girl managed to understand a few sentences among it, but there were words that she haven't heard of or seen but she knew it was about titans.

Her stomach grumbled, she silenced it by eating most of the food on the table in just a matter of minutes. Levi only looked at her with no change to his previous expression while she stared at the last piece of food: the broccoli, she didn't want it, it tasted just as bad as it looked.

"Eat it," he said, taking the vegetable into his fork and attempted forcing it into her mouth, but she covered her whole face. Seeing it already made her stomach twist.

The dark-haired little girl shook her head and tried to call her mom for rescue.

But…

"Eat it," Mikasa said while descending on the set of stairs, not very far from the kitchen.

The two of them weren't exactly joining forces against their daughter, they just so happen to share the same thought on how to deal with their own child.

Wordlessly, she munched the broccoli down her throat and drank lots of water to wash away the awful taste from her palate. Their doubtful eyes watched her carefully as she ate, to make sure she didn't store it in her mouth and spit it out later if they weren't looking. Even the girl that knew she won't be able to leave the table without it in her stomach, but resisting to do so was inevitable for her part.

Mikasa approached the table and took the papers away from Levi's hand, she looked angry, "Don't bring work at the table," she said, putting the stack of paper beyond from his reach. Then she looked at their daughter with worried eyes, "We need time for her. Now." The girl only stared and listened.

He gave a slight nod in agreement, "Right, but first," he grabbed Mikasa by the waist and told the almost stunned looking girl to close her eyes and count to ten.

And their docile daughter did as she was told. Her little white palms covered her eyes as she muttered the numbers through her small mouth, "1… 2… 3… 5… I mean 4," she sometimes got those numbers mixed up due to hearing Martin, the son of her mother's adoptive brother count that way. She hoped it'll be the last time to commit the small mistake.

Levi took the chance to capture his wife's thinned lips for a morning kiss, he wasn't just going to agree with her without gaining something in return and she didn't struggle free from his grip in those seconds their lips joined.

She only heard soft muffled sounds from her mother but she continued to count anyway, "5... 6… 7… 8… 9… 10."

Her eyes opened to see that Mikasa already had stormed away out of the kitchen with her face in the brightest shade of red, leaving her with Levi. What happened to Mom while my eyes were closed?

Before she could ask, he started the conversation, "How is your archery practice?" he took a sip of coffee and downed it while an expectant look for her respond.

"Fine," her eyes were locked onto his while she held Lucy tightly on her lap, with her eyes half-lidded from the sunlight from the window behind him; it was coming at her eyes and it was quite uncomfortable on her part.

"Are you getting along with Martin?" she frowned at the sound of the name, she didn't particularly like playing with the boy even if Mikasa told her to treat him as her brother like the way she was with Eren. Martin complained about everything of her all the time. He teased she was a zombie or a lame vampire, but even if he did say mean things to her, he'd apologize later and ask her to play with him again. However she found it impossible to comply with the hot-headed boy.

"Somehow."

"How about with other kids?"

"I haven't bothered."

Whatever outside her home was something she wouldn't take time to ever notice or even care. Was she afraid? Of being rejected? Of being casted out?
Besides, there were barely any kids around their house and if there were, they'd turn out to be too young and she wasn't even allowed to set foot beyond their fences.

"You're as awkward to talk to as your mother," he finally said, lowering his eyes then patted her head gently with his big hand. It gave her a fuzzy feeling in her chest since he rarely talked to her like that.

There was an awkward silence hanging in the air for a few seconds.

"Oh." Levi cocked a brow, he opened his mouth as to speak something important but quickly shut it. The girl wore a questionable look at him, "…?"

"Forget it. I can already see how you'd grow up to be," he mumbled to himself and then stared straight at her, his eyes lowered in a form sadness or most likely: disappointment for a reason the girl couldn't guess. "You need a bath," his arms swiftly swiped her off her seat and carried her to his shoulder, making her drop Lucy to the ground. She was dragged into the bathroom before she realized.

Mikasa was there already, she prepared her bath. Her narrow grey set of eyes followed her until her small toes settled on the tiled floors and her feet absorbed its coldness. It was strange, she usually bathed alone, but here they were, helping her out of her clothes and putting her in the tub as if she was just a baby. She looked at both of them in slight confusion, "Why are you here?"

Levi clicked his tongue and spoke in sarcasm, "Tch, to clean you up, what else." He folded her dirty clothes neatly and placed it on a basket along with the dirty ones.

She shivered a bit when Mikasa poured some cold water over her, she rubbed her eyes, and stared at them again, "I can do it by myself."

"You don't want us with you?" her mother asked in slight dismay with the statement her own daughter had said, she seem to have disapproved of their presence but truthfully, she was only confused with their sudden actions.

"It's not that… I just find it strange that you are both here with me at a time like this," her head tilted to the side, they should had been off to work at this time of the day. She lowered her eyes with slight worry that she may have done something to disappoint them that made them stay and talk to her.

Levi folded his arms to his firm chest and thought for a second then tilted her chin up to face him, "It's your birthday today, don't tell me you forgot?"

"My birthday was last year," her eyes glinted in confusion.

Her parents stared at each other with their lips pursed, as if they were holding some laughter but not. Mikasa held her cheek into her icy and soft palm delicately while her other free hand rinsed her fine soft locks of hair and Levi settling a new set of clothes in front of her, his arms held it out. It was a baby blue dress with a big ribbon nestled beautifully at its back, and its laces were brightly in pink and looked just about her size. Her eyes savored every detail of the small clothing, it was the prettiest she had ever seen.

"Birthdays are celebrated annually, dear," she explained. The girl wondered again, she never ran out of questions of how the world worked.

"I'm born only once, won't there be no point celebrating it again and so on?"

Levi furrowed a brow, "Were you this skeptical as a kid too?" he asked, pointing his thumb at her as he glowered at the woman cleansing their daughter's soft porcelain-like skin with soap and water. He wasn't in the mood in explaining unlike Mikasa who was obliged to do so.

"Not quite," she drew a deep sigh and added, "She's growing intelligently in my opinion."

"I can see that," he closed his eyes and sighed as well.

She only listened to their conversation but her eyes were fixed at the dress.

As soon as her whole body was rinsed off soap and water, Levi lifted her up from the pool of water. His hands were gentle and strong at the same time, holding her delicately as if she was as light as a feather.

Mikasa dried her whole body with a towel, starting from her hair then to the bottom of her legs with a cynical look across her face, "You ought to be grateful to have lived for another day. People die at anytime. Some less fortunate ones die without other people being aware of it, they left the world without anyone knowing they had gone," her eyes were looking at nothing but there was definitely a source from where her subtle feelings came from and then it hit her.
The words etched at the deepest part of her mind, her memories, and her soul. Her small hand rested on her chest to feel her own heart, she realized she was fortunate to have it still beating within her.

"Okay," her attention caught the baby blue dress on Levi's hand once again, her parents helped her with her new dress and then showed her way to the mirror. Their eyes were glued to her as she was admiring the beautiful gift she had worn, "Thank you," words so bland and soothing in their ears as the girl spoke lovingly.

They didn't know that their seemingly distant daughter could say such words that softened and warmed their hearts instantly. She barely spoke during the mornings and evenings they shared.
They knew well themselves that they lacked the luxury of time with their precious little girl, they knew little about her and what she normally did during the times they were gone and had left her in the care of someone else. However, that made them curious to know more of this low-spirited girl, and what was causing her to be so plain and seem uncaring about the world around her.

"Happy Birthday, Emily," they said together softly, there were sweetness on their tone despite how they usually sounded. She felt a smile on them. But as she turned, her long black hair twirled with her in harmony, their smile was gone. To her disappointment, she only gathered a fist firmly on the left side of her chest and saluted them as if she was a soldier, and as thanks. It was all she could think of doing.

Their eyes widened by a small fraction and looked at each other again, she began to notice that they usually share the same reactions and opinions at certain times. Did she do something wrong? She felt like she displeased them by doing so, their eyes looked unhappy all of a sudden and for some reason she couldn't decipher.

They knelt in front of her to directly meet her gaze, they took each of her hand with their eyes lowered and calm. Mikasa spoke first, "We don't want you rising up your interests in joining the Scouting Legion."

Her mouth produced a silent gasp.

"You shouldn't even think about it," Levi added, his words crawled with bluntness.

Emily wasn't really trying to object but she actually wanted to join the Scouting Legion someday, just to fight alongside with her parents.

"Why?"

"We don't want to lose you. We can't risk you like that."

Beyond and within the walls was where unpredictable events could happen, there was no way they'd let her be like them, they experienced the cruelty of what the world had offered at a very young age and they would never let their only daughter and treasure be taken away from them.

She glanced at her father who said nothing further, he was as firm as stone with their decision.

"Because you don't believe I'd be strong as you?"

Mikasa paused for a few seconds and spoke again, it seemed like they were having a hard time expressing what they wanted to say to her, but she managed to collect the words in her mind, "It's because we're giving you what we never had," her grey eyes looked deep into hers, holding her hand tight, but Levi's grip was tighter despite being silent.
"The freedom of living a normal life," she said, then Emily found herself within their arms. She managed to breathe even through the strong yet tenderness of their embrace. They stayed like that for minutes that seemed like forever, she nodded and gave in to their sudden affectionate actions, it felt nice as she returned their loving embrace. They didn't know they've taken her freedom already just by saying that. I was wrong, they already think I was weak to begin with. And yet she just did as she was told.

Her cage seemed to have grown smaller.

...

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okay okay, I know Emily is such a common name, but it still is a beautiful name... I think the meaning behind the name suits her well anyway

So yeah, another RivaMika fanfic from me~ hope y'all enjoyed reading through the first chapter :)

Do you guys like it? Be sure to review if you want update :) otherwise, I'll just leave this here as it is, boost me ;)

oh and disclaimer: I do not own anything (but the fanfic itself), even the cover photo used for this story, however the editing credits for the image goes to me and yeah, that's how Emily looks like in case of you've seen it, she somehow looks more like Mikasa than Levi and a bookworm lol

Thanks!