A/N: Hello! ham here :D Welcome to my first fanfic in... *counts* 1.5 years, as well as my first multi-chapter fic. This is quite exciting for me.

Upon proof-reading this story, I realized that there is agonizingly little fluff involved, so let this be a warning to you fluff-hungry readers out there. Hah...

Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin (or the cover art); if I did, I would have stolen Eren's beautiful face.

Cinder-Eren

[In which Mikasa is a princess, Levi is the evil godmother, and Eren is missing a shoe.]

~ o ~

It was quiet inside the Royal Family's dining hall.

Only two people occupied seats at the table. On one end sat Her Royal Highness, the Princess Mikasa of the Kingdom Maria, and to her left, sat her second cousin, the Duke Levi. They both shared dark hair, dark eyes, and a pale complexion, but whereas the Princess was considerably tall for a lady of seventeen, the Duke was rather lacking in that aspect. Being only five years apart, the two were mostly raised together, though one could hardly tell from the way they ate their dinner in silence.

The atmosphere was interrupted, however, when a knock came at the door. A blonde lady entered the room - it was Annie, the Princess's lady-in-waiting.

"Your Highness, we have found him."

Mikasa set down her utensils and dabbed her lips with her napkin. "... Is that so?"

Annie nodded in the affirmative. "He lives in the Shiganshina district, in an orphanage by the south-west shore of the river."

"I see," replied the Princess, and then was quiet.

Levi, however, was not satisfied with this information. "What's this about, Mikasa? Tracking someone down?" When the girl did not respond, he turned his attention to the other. "Who is this person - what's his name?"

Annie looked to her Master for permission to answer. Mikasa turned away - I don't care.

"His name is Yager."

"Yager..." Levi leaned back in his seat, testing out the name on his tongue. Suddenly he looked over to his cousin. "Don't tell me..."

Mikasa could not bring herself to look at her companion. "It is..."

"The one with the brown hair and green eyes?"

The princess nodded hesitantly.

"Tch." The duke rose from his seat. "Thank you for the meal, and I bid you goodnight." Levi exited the room and headed to his room in the castle. Shiganshina was a long ways away; he would need a good night's sleep for the journey.

~ o ~

I

"Alright-!"

Eren held the finished product in the air in front of him. It was a shoe: a piece of cloth stitched onto a heavy slab of cardboard. It wasn't anything fancy, but compared to last time, his skills were surely improving. Eren imagined that his pinky toes would finally have some room in this new pair. He could stitch some patterns on the sides, and the shoe would be perfect.

At that time, the sound of a door opening and closing caught the brunette's attention. He turned to see a certain friend enter. "Jean!"

"Yo, Eren." Jean, a well-built man of eighteen with ash-blond hair, had just returned from collecting firewood, which he unstrapped from his back and dumped by the fireplace. Dusting off his hands, he pulled out a chair and sat down at the table next to his friend. "You finished another pair?"

Eren looked to the older male and nodded triumphantly, earning a chuckle and a congratulatory pat on the shoulder. "One day, we can start making money off of these," Eren mused, turning over the shoe in his hand.

"You already have," Jean pointed out. "Didn't you sell a few pairs these past months?"

"I did, but those hardly got us anything. The money was gone in a meal. What I mean here is really make money. Once I get really good at these, I could - oh, I don't know - set up a little shop at the corner of our street. We could start helping out Hannes with the expenses-"

"Whoa, whoa, there," Jean interrupted. "You mean, you will be helping out with the expenses. I'll just be helping out around the orphanage, fixing things, gathering supplies. Like always."

"Right." Eren smiled at the other. "But what you do is very important, Jean. You keep this place running. Hannes, the kids - everyone appreciates it very much."

"Tch," Jean scoffed and turned away. "Don't get all affectionate on me, boy. You do it too, and you obviously know as well as me that it's only natural. Crazy old man took us in and gave us a place to grow up. It's our turn to pay him back now. Speaking of which, where's that bastard anyways?"

"He left earlier to go drinking or some other."

"Figures." A silence rolled in over the two, and Jean watched as Eren cleaned up his workspace. The needle, thread and spare cloth went into a little tool box, and the shoes were set by his old pair, by the door. As Eren returned to his seat, Jean stood up.

"I'm turning in for the day. If you could, Eren, the fireplace needs some cleaning. Weather's getting pretty cold, the kids want the fire burning every night now."

"Got it. I'll take care of it. Rest well, Jean."

"Thanks, and good night."

Eren listened to Jean's footsteps as they retreated to his bedchamber, concluding with the ba-dup of a closing door. Letting out a deep breath, Eren realized that he was getting tired too, but he forced himself to his feet and to the other side of the room. He might as well finish with the fireplace quickly then get to bed.

He lowered himself to his knees and began sweeping out the ashes. He saw as his hands - then clothes, then face and hair - got coated with the black substance, but such were the side-effects of chimney sweeping. The fireplace became cleaner as Eren became dirtier, but Eren didn't mind. It was for the kids, after all.

The kids - how many of them were there by now? Ten? Twenty No matter the number, there were always more still on the streets, still wandering with no food and no shelter. Eren could still remember when he was that child, cold and lost with nowhere to go. It was a horrible feeling. He shuddered just thinking about it.

He had been ten at the time, seven years ago. It was all so sudden too - one day he woke up to find his mother gone, and a few days later, his father as well. Scared and confused, Eren had waited for them to return. He waited, and kept waiting. But they never came back.

It was soon found out, by the local patrol, that adults no longer inhabited the house. Due to housing shortages, another family was permitted to move in, effectively driving Eren out of his home. The only things that Eren took with him when he left was a few changes of clothes, stuffed into a sack and a shoe his mother had made for him - alas, it was from her that he learned the basics of shoemaking.

Miserable days followed, until the hour when Hannes found him. Eren was brought back to the orphanage, where he met Jean, among others. The two, being of similar ages, became fast friends, though not without a good share of fights. Each was convinced that his own trauma was greater - Eren's looming uncertainty of his parents' whereabouts and conditions, or Jean's having seen his parents' starve to death from the famine with his own eyes. Of course, there was no answer, and by the time the two agreed to this truce years later, they were adults and ready to move out on their own.

While the majority of their peers had since left the orphanage to work and make a living, Eren and Jean opted to stay behind to help Hannes with the orphanage. The man was, after all, employed as a local patrol and had a knack of coming home tipsy or drunk. That, combined with his ever increasing age, made him just a bit unreliable when it came to taking care of kids. When Eren and Jean presented the offer, Hannes had gratefully accepted, even offering to let them stay in his house - Jean got the storage room, and Eren the attic, and it had been that way ever since.

All in all, Eren liked his life. Of course, he often wished that he had more to remember his parents by than a single shoe that his mother crafted, but some things cannot be helped. Eren was lucky enough to meet as great a man as Hannes, who gave him a second chance. There was Jean too, who was like a brother to him.

And then there were the kids. Youthful, innocent faces, tossed mercilessly into the cruelest of fates. But these were still the lucky ones. They may not have ample food, or spacious homes, but they had been found. Eren too, was found.

And that was more than enough to be thankful for.

~ o ~

A loud banging came at the door the next morning.

Eren woke up in a startled haze, sitting up so quickly that his head came into contact with the brick above him.

Wait a minute... Brick?

"Ow..." He grumbled, rubbing the area of contact. Where the hell was he? There was no brick in the attic.

Don't tell me... Oh, goddamnit. Looking at his surroundings, it was confirmed: he had fallen asleep while cleaning the fireplace. Eren cussed under his breath and began to stand up, when another series of banging began.

Eren's eyes widened as he sat frozen to the spot. What was going on? Jean had woken up too, rushing into the room. "Eren?"

The younger boy had no reply. He momentarily wondered if another man - namely Hannes - would join the scene, but the damned old man probably never came home last night. At this point, however, he had no time to contemplate this, as the banging only got louder and louder, to the extent where the door was sure to give in, and then, with one last impact, the door swung open on its hinge with a crash.

The party responsible for the clamour was, Eren saw, an unexpectedly short man. His clothes were those of a noble, spotless and with a starched collar; his black hair was neatly trimmed and his equally dark stare was menacing, to say the least. He stepped into the room as if he had not just kicked open the door moments earlier, shooting sideways glances with his sharp grey eyes at his surroundings.

"Alright now, where's Yager?"

Eren's breath hitched at the sound of his last name. Who was this man? And why did he know his name? But Eren could not find the will to speak. Thankfully, Jean spoke in his stead.

"What the fuck is up with this?" He snarled, approaching the rather compact intruder. "Who are you that you can just barge your goddamn way into this house?!"

The black haired man was not fazed in the least by the outburst. Instead, he walked over to the soot-covered boy and crouched down to inspect him. He wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Why did he turn out to be such a dirty fucking brat..."

Though the words had been mumbled, Eren caught them and grimaced at the insult. But he dared not talk back, for the other man had the aura and the attire of someone with high social standing, and much power. The man stood up and turned around. "Levi, Duke of Maria."

Eren felt himself tighten. Such high rank... what was he doing here? Not knowing what to do next, Eren rearranged himself to his knees and blurted out, "I'm Eren, and that's Jean. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, my Lord."

The duke scoffed. "Charmed," he spat caustically. "Now, if you don't mind, I shall be taking Yager here with me." While he said this, he kept his eyes on Jean, who had not moved from his previous stance. "You got a problem?"

Jean clenched his fists. "N-no... my Lord."

Levi turned his attention back to Eren, who hastily collected himself approached the noble. However, the shorter man's countenance turned into that of disgust once again.

"Who the fuck are you, Cinderella?"

Eren stopped in his tracks, utterly confused. "Sir...?"

"Or should I say, Cinder-Eren." The duke chuckled at his own joke, though his face remained as unfriendly as ever. "You're not going anywhere with that crap all over your face and clothes. Go get your fucking self cleaned up before I kick your sorry ass into the river, understand?! And grab your shit while you're at it."

"Yes, sir!" Eren turned around and rushed to the washroom, washing up as fast as he could and returning minutes later, along with a pack of his few belongings.

"Took you long enough, brat. Your friend here doesn't seem to like me much."

Eren, still slightly wet from his quick wash and dressed in the cleanest set of clothes he owned, looked to Jean to see scrunched eyebrows and a repressed scowl. Eren didn't blame him, the brunette was more than a little upset at the turn of events and would have very much liked to fight back, if he weren't so shocked and damn intimidated by that midget of a man.

But there was nothing to do now, except follow the duke's orders. Eren shot Jean one last apologetic look, as if to say sorry that their lives together in the orphanage would be torn apart so suddenly. "Tell Hannes... that I said thank you and goodbye."

Jean grunted in acknowledgement, and nothing more.

Once out of the house, Levi ordered the brunette to get in the closed horse carriage that awaited them. Eren obeyed, and placed his bag next to his feet. The wanting size of the bag caught the duke's attention, and yet again he chose to voice his offensive opinion. "That's all?"

Eren looked to his feet. "It's all I have, sir."

Levi clicked his tongue out of annoyance. "You've got to be fucking kidding me..."

Finally, the duke ascended the carriage, and the party took off. After a few moments, Levi spoke again. "We're heading to my estate, right now. I'm keeping you under close watch so don't even dare to try anything funny. For now, I have two rules: don't talk, and don't touch me. Understood?"

Eren said nothing.

~ o ~

A/N: There you go! As someone who's written a crap-ton of one-shots and drabbles, I sincerely hope that you all can deal with me as I struggle through pacing a longer work :') At this point, 4 chapters have already been written (wanted to make sure I was committed enough to finishing this story) so I will be updating fairly quickly.

I want to thank freshia for the inspiration to work on this fanfic. Also a shout-out to Chappy-the-Bunny. It's so great to meet you guys again in this fandom!

Thank you for reading, and reviews are much appreciated. xoxo