5 Years Ago

About an hour or so to the east of Shiganshina is where you'd find the town of Liberio. It was a fairly large military town, and held quite the reputation among the people. Not many people would choose to live there their entire life, instead choosing to move out, or people would move there from other places. This wasn't because of the quality of the town though, it was just people's personal preference.

There were some families who had been living there for generations, and their names had become recognizable throughout the town, meaning everyone was quite friendly with them. These names included the Brauns, the Hoovers, and the Leonharts.

Another name that was recognized by many was Grisha Yeager, who despite not living in the town, or even that close to it, was still hailed as one of the best doctors they had ever seen. He made regular trips to Liberio, during which he would check up on old patients, and help at the local hospital, and that sort of thing is what helped him become the public's favourite doctor.

Today just happened to be one of those days when the good doctor would visit Liberio. And on this particular day, he had brought his son with him.

"Daaad," Eren leant on his arm which was propped up against the car door. "why do I have to go with you? Couldn't I have just stayed home with mom and Mikasa?"

Stopping at a red light, Grisha turned his head slightly in the direction of his son. "Eren, that's the 20th time you've asked me that so far. I told you, your mother and Mikasa are having a day to themselves at mall in Trost, and are also seeing if the high school there is any good. You need to consider your options for education, so they're giving you a big hand in this."

"Well, yeah, but still…I could have looked after myself! Or I could have gone over to Armin's house. I'm sure his parents would be fine if I hung out for the day." Arguing back, Eren pouted.

The traffic light turned green, so Grisha continued to drive "Now, now, Eren, it's good to get out of the house, and even out of Shiganshina every once in a while. Besides, I'm leaving you with a good friend of mine. He and his friends are out at one of the parks, and they all have children around your age, so maybe now you could try and make some new friends."

Eren wasn't exactly the best at making friends. His friendship with Armin was more of a right time right place kind of thing, as Eren had been walking by when Armin was being bullied, and so he attempted to protect Armin. Mikasa was adopted into the family, so they were pretty much forced to become friends. His other friends such as Jean and Connie only became friends with him after they had started getting detentions together, and realized that they had a lot more in common than they previously thought.

"Fine. But don't blame me if I don't make any friends. Not like I'm gonna see them a lot anyway…" Or so the young Yeager child thought.

A few minutes later, the two arrived at a quaint little park located in the suburbs, one that had a playground in one corner, and a river running through the middle. After parking the car and then walking up to the playground area, Grisha spotted the very man he was looking for.

"Ah, Andrew!" Grisha waved as he approached a man around his age with blonde and gray hair. "There you are!"

Noticing his old friend, the man replied. "Grisha, long time no see. How have you and Carla been?"

"Yes, it has been. Carla and I have been doing quite fine. And yourself?" As children of all ages could be heard screaming and laughing in the background, the glasses wearing Doctor grew quiet. "...How about Lisa? Is she doing well?"

"I've been doing fine as well. As for Lisa…she seems to be steady for the moment, if not recovering. It kinda came out of the blue, didn't it?" Andrew chuckled "Who would have thought that Lisa would be the one to fall ill? I hope she gets better soon though…"

"Mm…I do too. I wish there was more I could do. You and Lisa have been together, what…nearly 20 years now, right?" Grisha then felt a tug on his sleeve.

"Dad, who is this? And who's Lisa? What's wrong with her?" Eren asked, curious, as he had currently been left out of the conversation.

Grisha mentally slapped himself as he looked down at his son, and Andrew looked towards the boy at his friend's side. "How could I forget. Eren, I'd like you to meet my good friend Andrew Leonhart. He's the man I was telling you about on the way here." Eren stuck his hand out, and the man he had just been introduced to took it in his own and shook it.

"Nice to meet you, sir."

"The pleasures all mine. And please, call me Andrew." The older man smiled down at Eren.

"Lisa is Andrew's wife." Grisha continued. "Not too long ago she became a bit sick. Nothing to worry yourself over. I'm sure in the end it'll turn out to be nothing." He lied.

The Leonhart adult took a look at his watch. "So, you just want me to watch over your boy for a few hours, correct?"

Grisha looked around at the other families in the area, seeing that this looked like a good place for Eren to waste a few hours. Though he would prefer it if Eren could actually attempt to make some friends here. "Yeah, that's correct. I'll try not to be too long." Grisha ruffled his son's hair. "Try not to cause too much trouble."

"Daaad!" Eren complained. "You don't need to tell me that sort of stuff!"

Andrew laughed, seeing the similarities that Eren shared with Grisha in his younger days. At least in terms of personality. It seemed that Eren mostly inherited his looks from Carla.

"Don't worry yourself Grisha. I'm sure Eren won't be too hard to handle. And we can always take him and the others for some food if he needs to calm down."

"I'm sure he'll be fine too." the doctor then knelt and put his hands on Eren's shoulders. "I best be leaving now. Eren, I know I'm repeating myself here but please try to be nice to Mr Leonhart and the others."

"Yeah I know. I got it already…" Eren brushed his dad off of him. "Bye dad."

After Grisha and Andrew shared a quick farewell, Eren was left alone with the blonde-gray haired man and was led over to where he was sat previously. That being a group of benches where a few other adults were sat, some with their children, some without. Andrew then called over a couple of boys, both a bit older and taller than Eren. "Reiner, Bertolt, come here for a second!"

Eren looked over to where Mr Leonhart was calling to, and saw two boys walk away from their parents towards where he was stood. The first boy, a blonde-haired boy who, despite being the older of the two, was the smaller one, spoke first. "Yes, Mr Leonhart?"

"This here is Eren. He's the son of a friend of mine. I'd like you to make him feel welcome here, and try to be friends with him." He instructed the two boys.

Reiner and Bertolt turned to face Eren, and Reiner spoke again. "Alright then. Hey, the name's Reiner Braun." He stuck his fist out, and Eren hesitantly gave him a fist bump.

The second boy, the taller of the two, who had dark hair, spoke up with a wave from behind Reiner. "And I'm Bertolt Hoover. But you can just call me Bert if you want."

"Hey. I'm Eren Yeager." The teal green-eyed boy waved back at Bert. "I'm, uhh…I'm from Shiganshina…" He shuffled his feet awkwardly, not exactly sure how he should continue the conversation. He was essentially thrusted into this situation, and was being forced to become friends with these complete strangers.

"Well…me and Bert here were gonna go play a bit of football together, so if you want you can join us. You fine with him joining us, Bert?" Reiner suggested, looking over to his friend to see if he agreed.

"Y-yeah, sure. I'm cool with that." The taller boy agreed, and they went back to their parents, grabbing a ball and then leading Eren off to an open part of the park, and started playing around, all the while making small talk and getting to know each other better. Or rather, Reiner and Bert getting to know Eren better, and vice versa.

It turned out that Eren shared at least some similarities with the Braun and Hoover boys, and they were quite easy to get along with, Reiner more so than Bertolt, due to his more outgoing and brotherly personality. They became friends fast, and for a moment the three completely forgot that they had only just met and lived in different towns. After what seemed like only a short while, but was in fact nearly an hour and a half later, the three new friends decided to take a break, and walked back over to where the parents had been sat. They sat down, and continued to talk to each other, and at the same time shared some snacks and drinks.

The parents of Reiner and Bertolt, and even Mr Leonhart, were all glad to see that the kids had become friends. Andrew Leonhart especially so, because he was the one tasked with looking after the Yeager child, and so this gave him an opportunity to see how Grisha had raised his son.

Somehow Eren had only just realized how he had met the children of the Braun and Hoover families, but he hadn't met the descendant of his father's friend Andrew, even though that was who he was left with.

"Hey, guys?" The brunette started. "So, does Mr Leonhart have any children? I figured that since he's here, and he is the one my dad asked to look after me that he must have at least one child."

"Oh," The hazel eyed blonde looked in surprise at Eren, thinking that he would have met the child of Andrew Leonhart before meeting Bert and himself. He let out a little laugh. "yeah, he does. A daughter Bert's age. She should be around here somewhere." Reiner started looking around the park for his female friend.

And just as soon as he started doing so, a small blonde girl approached Mr Leonhart, and without realizing it, Eren stood up and slowly made his way over to the two.

"Papa." The young girl squeaked, gaining her father's attention. "Hair came undone. Could you do it up again?" She could do it herself, but preferred it when her parents did her hair for her.

Andrew smiled at his daughter. "Sure, Annie, dear. Turn around." He then carefully took hold of his daughters moderately short blonde hair and fixed it, tying it at the back, and making sure there was hair partially covering her face. Just the way she liked it.

Hesitantly, Eren walked up to the girl. "H-hey." He stuck his hand out, as if asking to shake hands. "I-I'm Eren. Your dad is friends with mine, and u-uhh is l-looking after me while my dad is on business."

A pair of deep blue eyes flicked over to Eren, and gave him a quick look over, not saying a word.

"U-um as I was saying I'm Eren Yeager. I-it's nice to meet you!" Eren was once again rewarded with no response.

Annie turned to her father, using her eyes to ask what the hell this boy was on about.

"What he says is true, honey. Remember my friend Grisha, the doctor?" She gave a slight nod. "This is his son. He's under my care for the day."

"Oh." Was all she said in response.

"Before you go," Andrew got her attention. "I must say your stance seems to be better. You could do a bit better with pulling back your leg after striking, but for now you have made a huge improvement." He gave a warm smile, and Annie couldn't help but give a tiny one in response.

Knowing that their conversation was finished, Annie turned and began to jog back to a tree that had some padding around it.

Eren followed her every step, mesmerized by her movements, and by the way her hair seemed to drift in the wind. Reiner then came up from behind him, and placed a hand on his shoulder, startling the Yeager child. "Aah!"

"C'mon Eren. I've called your name a few times." Reiner then looked over towards where Eren was staring.

Still following the small girl's slow jog, Eren asked Reiner a question. "Who…who was that? What's she doing?"

Reiner looked back at Eren, and chuckled. It seems his female friend had caught the eye of his new friend. "That was Annie, Mr Leonhart's daughter. She likes to train in martial arts."

'Woah…' Eren continued to stare, his mouth slightly agape. "Annie Leonhart…She's pretty…" A small blush was on his cheeks when he said that, only realizing after a few seconds that he had said it out loud.

All of a sudden, Annie stopped dead in her tracks, one leg still raised behind her, as if someone had frozen her mid jog. Apparently, she had heard what Eren had just said.

Reiner noticed this and called out to her. "Annie is something wrong?"

Heat rushed up to the Leonhart girl's cheeks, and she made sure not to look back at her older friend, so as to not show her reaction. "N-no. I'm fine. Shut up." Annie quickly ran back to where she was practising her martial arts.

The Braun child had to drag Eren away from where he was stood, otherwise he would probably be stood there all day. "Come on, Eren. Let's go play some more."

Eren finally blinked, and shook off his blush. "O-ok." He took another quick look towards Annie, and watched as she repeatedly struck the padded tree, before walking off with Reiner. 'I am so getting dad to bring me back here!'

"He's pretty cute, huh?" All of a sudden, Annie was broken out of her day dreaming state by a poke to her arm from someone beside her.

She blinked "Wha-?" Where was she? What was she just thinking about? Who was talking to her?

"Don't you think Eren's pretty cute? Thomas is more my speed, but I can't say that Eren isn't good looking. To each their own, I guess?" the voice continued whispering.

Annie turned to her left, coming face to face with a girl with black hair and loose pigtails. "Who are…what are you on about?"

"Oh, that's right, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Mina. Mina Carolina. Nice to meetcha!" The now identified Mina revealed herself.

A third voice from across the room spoke up. "Miss Carolina, is there something you'd like to share with the class?"

"No, there isn't. Sorry Mrs Zoë." Mina apologized.

Mrs Zoë? Oh crap, that's right. She was in class…Mrs Zoë's science class, to be specific. And since she was day dreaming about…whatever it was she was day dreaming about…she hadn't been taking any notes the entire class.

Mina looked over to Annie's notebook, and saw the lack of writing. "Hah, guess since you were staring at Eren for the whole lesson you were too distracted to write. Don't worry, you can copy my notes.

"Thanks." Annie blinked again. This weird girl who didn't even know Annie's name was offering to help her? That was unusual. Wait…she was staring at Eren? "I was…looking at Eren?"

"Yeah," Mina replied, giving a childish giggle. "couldn't take your eyes off of him."

So, she was day dreaming while looking at Eren? Then, it clicked in her mind, and Annie remembered what she was dreaming about. She was attempting to recall her first time meeting the Yeager boy, and any other instances of meeting him prior to her move to Trost. Strange…Annie wouldn't normally get distracted by this sort of stuff.

Without warning, a bell rang. The school bell signalling that the day had come to an end. Huh, the day had gone quite fast. Just as Annie was about to walk off, Mina called out her name. "Hey, Annie, wait!"

"What? How'd you know my name?"

"Because Mrs Zoë said it when doing the register? Besides, I'm friends with Reiner and Bertolt too so I've heard about you from them." She replied it as if obvious. "Anyway, don't you want to take a picture of my notes?"

Taking out her phone, Annie snapped a couple pictures of what she should have been writing down throughout the lesson, instead of staring at some boy from her past. "Thanks."

As the various students collected their things from where they were sat and left the school, Mina did the same, and then spoke up. "Hey, so do you wanna hang out? I know that since you're new here you probably don't have that many friends, so I thought we could be friends." After receiving no response, Mina looked up to where she thought Annie was stood. "Annie?" But it turns out that she had already disappeared. Though where to no one knew.