A/N: I don't usually write author's notes and I'm not even sure why. I've had 3 years hiatus ('cause of college and look at me writing at this point in my life XD how shameful) from this site but I've been writing without posting. I don't know I guess I like writing so I might as well leave it somewhere instead of lost in a computer. If you like this I may continue or not. I'm really bad at finishing stuff. I do like this one story and I have the second chapter done. Anyway let me know . (Peace)

Second A/N:Oh this is supposed to be Royal stuff medieval type of thing, I'm a sucker for AU's

Chapter 1

Schadenfreude:

Pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.

The first time he meets her he was barely ten. It was a sunny spring day, too hot to wear a jacket but still chilly enough that he wouldn't skinny dip at the lake. Armin was tugging a girl to their spot, their secret spot by that matter. Eren couldn't believe the betrayal, sometimes Armin brought stray cats, books or gadgets to their hill with a giant oak tree. All of the above were fine with him, but never another human being.

She was currently hiding behind his blonde friend, hugging one of his arms. It wasn't like Eren to dislike someone after seeing them once but he didn't exactly like the fact that Armin didn't even tell him about her. "I found her looking at the tulips yesterday and she ran away, but she came back to apologize for taking one." Armin retold, looking like he couldn't help but smile. "She's weird like us." Armin said, finally letting out a chuckle.

Eren looked at her, really stared with a plain bored glare. She was weird alright, straight black hair, pale skin, slanted eyes. He had never seen anyone with those eyes before. That didn't matter as much as her clothes. She was a noble.

Not only did Armin bring another human, he brought the enemy. "She's not like us Armin, and she's not welcome here." He spit the last part with no remorse, after all nobles weren't sweet spoken to him or his kind. Armin looked sad, but didn't flail. He clutched the girl's hand and waved the air as if that could ease up the tension. "Her name is Mikasa…" He continued, completely ignoring Eren's aggressiveness. "And she's playing with us today." Armin finished looking at Eren the way his mom looked at him when he wasn't supposed to answer.

Eren couldn't really complain after that first meeting since she barely made a sound and Armin was there to fill any tension with his stories about books. It started getting annoying when she began showing up every day. "When is she leaving?" Eren asked loud enough for her to hear. She was playing by the lake picking up water washed pebbles while Armin and he sat at the shade of the oak.

"She can hear you Eren, you're being rude." Armin said looking ashamed for his friend's behavior. That irked him more. He wasn't ashamed for himself. He wanted her away, who knew what her father could do to them when he found her playing with street kids. Armin was smart, he must know that, so why was he so careless. Nobles were cruel.

Grisha Jaeger was a meister, one renowned for the small town Eren lived in. He was also his father even if he barely spoke to him. They lived near the great walls which separated their kingdom from foreign countries. Ever since he met Armin he dreamt of a way of seeing the world beyond the walls. They were at war but that didn't mean they couldn't fight back. All the stupid kingdom wanted to do was hide.

His father had a good job due to the war but he had to travel often to keep his position as the noble's meister. One night when Eren was finishing supper, his father ordered him something for the first time. "Today you will come with me to this visit; you're going to be a meister too after all." Eren looked at his father, his round glasses tinted by the sun and his perfectly combed long hair. That was the first time he realized he looked like a stranger, and he felt like one too.

He did end up following him to a noble's home, the Reiss's family. There was a pregnant lady who needed assistance, but from what his father told him, she wasn't going to survive the delivery. That night Eren still remembers the smell of blood and ashes surrounding him. His father had barely received the baby when the flames started. His legs turned to stone when he saw the different ladies of the house that ran in panic.

The flames had spread like cracks in ice and after that, all he remembers was darkness. Grisha had managed to save the baby but the mother and the servants had all died in a fire. Eren woke up to the crusty taste of dirt and wood and a baby crying beside him, wrapped in tattered and soot stained wool. They had arrived at the gates to the noble's castle where three black figures were waiting for them.

"She's dead, like you ordered. The baby's not." He heard his father's voice in the distance, but he felt like he was underwater and everything was too surreal until he blacked out again. When Eren regained full control of his senses the royal army arrived to take him home. Grisha Jaeger wasn't found after that.

Mikasa was a noble, he knew the moment he saw her refined porcelain skin, her well-kept hands that probably never held a tool, and her polite bullshit. She's so stupid. Why was she even apologizing for something he was conscious was his doing? "I'm sorry I'm imposing on you, I was just happy to play outside." Mikasa wasn't even looking at him in the eyes when she spoke; she had her head bowed and her hands clutched tightly. It disgusted him to see all that humbleness in a creature that didn't deserve to be with them. "Then leave." Eren bit the words tightly; barely opening his mouth and trying not grind his teeth too hard.

"That's enough Eren if you can't behave then I'll play alone with Mikasa." Armin yelled grabbing the girl's hand and stomping his way across the lake, not caring if he slipped through the rocks. Armin was foolish. But Eren wasn't and he wouldn't let his only friend be deceived into an early grave.

The noble girl kept coming to their hideout day after day, only now she knew better than to acknowledge Eren's presence. Armin made sure to make her feel comfortable despite Eren's best attempts at making her leave. He was getting creative, from hiding frogs in her dress to pushing her in the mud. But she kept showing up. Until one day Armin got ill with the flu, and it was just the two of them. Mikasa had no way to know about Armin, and Eren wasn't going to take her to see him. It was too dangerous.

But he did wait for her at their hideout. Eren usually carried a self-made sling that he used against the biggest jerks of town. Before the weapon helped him hunt ducks or rabbits, and today it would scare the noble right out of Mikasa. She was waiting for them at the lake with her chin tucked on her knees and her eyes lost in her reflection.

Eren was hiding on the big oak, sneaking like a cat on a branch waiting for her to move. He would just shoot a rock right in front of her and she would run and probably never come back. Or so he thought. The moment his aim was secured his foot slipped and the leaves rustled her out of her trance. She turned to look at the tree only to see Eren tangled upside down with a sling on his hand.

"What are you doing? It's dangero-" The sound of a shot stopped her words pushing the air out of her lungs. He fired, cutting her cheek right below her eye. Eren looked at the angry red mark, now dripping through her cheekbone and reaching her lips. He was an idiot and he was still hanging upside down. He was trying to protect someone by hurting another. But he was just ten, a kid, and he was too proud to admit anything to her right now.

The shock of his hand acting on its own broke his balance making him fall head first to the grass. He picked himself up quickly not caring about the leaves tangled in his hair and glared. "This is your last warning, you can't come here anymore!" He yelled waking Mikasa from her stone cold reaction.

He knew lots of girls from town, and he had pushed quite a few so he knew tears were coming. One thing he was proud of was his disinterest in that kind of petty girl reaction so if Mikasa was going to cry he wouldn't budge. But Mikasa wasn't crying. Her face was red, her eyes were puffy, but she wasn't crying. Eren was even angrier, how long was she going to pretend it didn't hurt.

She raised a hand to wipe the blood and brushed imaginary dust from her dress. Eren looked at her walking closer to him like it was happening in slow motion. She got the point where their noses could almost brush, and if Eren hadn't been as terrified by that out of normal proximity he would have thought her beautiful. Until he felt the sting of her hand on his cheek. Her slap resonated so hard some birds flew right off the tree. "You can hurt someone with that." She said, her voice nervous and soft like the first time he met her. "I won't come back again Eren."She said with her back turned to him. He had won, he pushed her away and yet why did he feel like a loser.

His legs gave out from exhaustion, his eyes looking at her fading silhouette. She couldn't leave like that, he didn't feel satisfied. Armin was probably going to kill him now anyway so Eren picked himself up to follow her. If she wasn't going to react the way she was supposed to, he bet her noble family would make her show her true colors.

He watched her disappear through a tower's hidden block entrance. Eren looked up and found himself at the gates of the king's castle. So he was right, Mikasa was not only a noble, she was a princess.