Attack on Titan Fanfiction – A Decade in the Making: Chapter 8

Dreams Come True

Mikasa and Jean did get to talk the following day, on a balmy Sunnûnâband afternoon. He spent the morning nursing a nasty hangover at work but by afternoon he couldn’t wait to see her again. His brain had cleared and was bright as could be but there was a small voice at the back of his mind questioning everything that happened the night before. Mikasa in love with him? That was like saying all of Paradis’ enemies decided to become allies and they could now live in peace. A ludicrous fantasy. 

His worries were laid to rest when at exactly three in the afternoon, their agreed meeting time, he heard a woman call out his name, “Jean!” 

And there she was, Mikasa, waving her hand. She ran, not walked, across the platform and flew straight into his arms. He grinned from ear to ear, embraced her and twirled her around and around. They were laughing and hugging, and when he cupped her face in his hands to kiss her she stood on tiptoes and pressed her body to his, kissing him back hard, her tongue seeking his. Jean knew then that what he feared he imagined happened the night before was all real. Today everything faded in the background as they melted into each other’s arms. 

There was no pretty purple dress, no flowers, no silk gloves, no frilly hat, no lacey blouse or heeled shoes. That morning Mikasa brought the fancy clothes she borrowed to the dry cleaners as Mrs Hitch Schulze said she needed them back for tea in a couple of days with her uppity mother-in-law. With nothing else nice to wear Mikasa put on her old familiar outfit of drab grey and white. She and Jean agreed to meet at the port the next day and “redo” their messed up welcome home fiasco the way both of them dreamed it should be. 

How good it felt, how liberating and pleasurable it was to run up to and embrace your beloved, minus the shyness and uncertainty and doubt. On her way to the port Mikasa fretted over her shabby attire and small breasts and lack of hairdressing skills, but she soon found out that in Jean’s arms none of them mattered. In his eyes it was clear that she could have worn a potato sack and still be, to him, the most beautiful girl in the world. A penniless soldier and orphan from the impoverished countryside, she was but a simple country girl. All she could offer was her smile and the love in her heart. To Jean that was more than enough. She was perfection and everything he ever wanted. 

“Lucky, lucky me,” Mikasa thought as her heart fluttered under his intense, loving gaze and she got lost in their torrid kiss.

Wrapping up the day’s work Corey Feldman, Jean’s aide-de-camp, rolled his eyes upon spotting the two sucking face in the middle of the port, completely oblivious to the hustle and bustle around them. It was the raven-haired beauty who stormed the tavern last night. He shook his head. From the way his boss slept around in Noblain he had no idea there was a girl waiting for him in Paradis. In Jean’s defense sometimes women, and not a few men, threw themselves at him, tall handsome devil that he was. They didn’t even seem to mind he was Eldian.

Feldman assumed Jean would simply remain the proverbial stud and only settle down against his will, like when he’d accidentally knocked up some girl who wanted to rope him in. But he glanced at the couple down below and the way they were at it Jean obviously wanted to be roped in by this particular girl. Well, maybe he’s decided to keep this one now that they were home for good. All the better, Feldman thought, what after those scandals he got involved in while at Noblain. 

“Hey boss!” he shouted from the ship’s deck, “Get a room, for heaven’s sake, and stay there!” 

The newly minted couple were chastised enough to leave the port and finally have The Talk within the privacy of four walls. A talk followed by a kissfest, and plenty of oral sex. On a proper bed they took their sweet time, licking and sucking and exploring, lovingly discovering each other’s bodies. Afterwards they rested in each other’s arms and talked for hours.

Jean didn’t jump her bones: he wanted to go through the courtship ritual, the whole romance rigamarole. So he took her out dancing, brought her flowers, surprised her with little gifts, took her to the theatre where they held hands the entire length of the play. He held her hand as they shopped for groceries; he engaged her in funny yet meaningless conversations; he took her to an outdoor concert and they listened to the music while leaning their heads together. He cut his drinking to one serving per day so that he could enjoy her company with a clear head, especially the teenage make-out sessions, the ones he’d fantasized about as a boy and could now finally turn into reality. 

Mikasa, new to being romanced, was initially overwhelmed by the attention, but she kept Levi’s words close to heart: Life is short. She decided to open up her heart to Jean, to accept and reciprocate all the love he had to give. And when she did she found joy and laughter and hope. It was like opening the heavy drapes over the window that was her heart and letting the sunshine in.

Eventually they had to do the deed, and it came three weeks later, Jean having planned it to be as romantic as he could possibly muster, with a candlelit dinner and walk along the beach and then a night on a sailboat he and his crew lavishly decorated for the occasion. With the stars twinkling up above he proposed. With tears in her eyes she said yes and a boat-rocking fuckfest followed.

They agreed to elope the following day, but when Jean took Mikasa to see his mother, Mrs Kirschtein was pleased yet adamant they held a proper wedding. 

After they got engaged they visited their parents’ resting places to pay their respect and tell them the good news. They laid flowers on the graves of Mr and Mrs Ackermann; Mr and Mrs Jaeger, Mikasa’s adoptive parents; and Mr Kirschtein, Jean’s long-gone father who passed away in a carriage accident when he was still a toddler. He could barely remember him, but was nevertheless thankful for his bringing him into this world. They also visited the graves of Erwin, Marco, Sasha…there were so many. It took them the entire day to do the rounds.

Last but certainly not the least they visited the grave of the man who made it possible for them to be together. “He died so that we might live,” said the inscription on the headstone, glowing a golden orange from the rays of the setting sun. Mikasa wept in remembrance of the boy who gave her a reason to live and whom she had loved from the very beginning with every fibre of her being; Jean wept in remembrance of the bittersweet, complicated bond he and Eren had, a relationship he treasured because he knew it made them both into better men. Today they were once again filled with gratitude for Eren’s sacrifice that gave them this new lease on life, this chance at happiness. 

Jean laid his hand on the titan shifter’s gravestone. “We love you, Eren,” he said, “more than you could ever know.”

Putting her hand over his, Mikasa added, “We miss you, Eren, more than you could ever know.”

When Eren was sixteen he’d told them they were the most important people in the world to him. They knew he had meant every word. As they knelt before his grave they said in their hearts, “We shall never forget you, Eren Jaeger. Watch over us, wish us well.”

The two married three months later, ten years to the day Jean first laid eyes on Mikasa and became totally smitten. It was an Army-Navy coupling that everyone approved of, a love story a decade in the making.

Levi, who as a rule despised all kinds of social functions including weddings, was in a rare good mood during the Ackermann-Kirschtein nuptials. His best friend Hange sat next to him and they had a great time devising backhanded compliments for the wedding guests who were senior officers in the military. Both of them had a soft spot for the graduates of the 104th cadet corps; there were only four of them left now and they were genuinely fond of them. They were good kids, if not the best.

Armin was there, grinning from ear to ear. Queen Historia was also there, completely delighted. So joyful were they for the newlyweds they each gave a speech that made the new mister and missus blush in its effusive praise for them. Afterwards they took turns dancing with them, once, twice…who’s counting anymore? 

Levi watched as the one other Ackermann smiled and laughed all throughout the wedding festivities. She looked radiant, this formerly gloomy, rebellious brat, and it made him congratulate himself. Surely the Special Forces ought to be commended for bringing the young couple together. Jean was in the highest of spirits, looking so happy you’d think he won the lottery. Levi glanced at Caleb Pfeiffer, merrily flirting with some Army babes at a table nearby. He decided he wouldn’t mind an Army-Special Forces wedding for his operator.

Mikasa gazed adoringly up at her husband and Jean gazed back at her with equal adoration. Levi approved greatly: happy soldiers and seamen made better fighters. When you had something precious to lose you fought harder, thought smarter, planned more carefully. He needed these two to be as sharp and as prepared as they could possibly be. Because Levi felt that this interim peace they had was about to end. Following their short honeymoon Jean had his work cut out for him as their Navy’s highest ranking officer, and Mikasa would soon branch off from the Army to form the Royal Marines, the infantry arm of the Navy. 

Soon there will be a war, and he and Jean and Mikasa, leaders of their military, will have to strategize and plot and scheme and then fight in the frontlines.  

 “Please, Captain Levi, come dance with us!” The smiling newlyweds suddenly appear in front of him, jolting him from his reverie. Even when he was now brigadier they still called him captain in tones brimming with fondness and history when they wanted to wrangle something out of him: a dance this time. Levi scowls at the hands they hold out. “Capta—in!” they wheedle in unison. Hange pokes him not-so-gently in the ribs until eventually he gives in, favoring the couple with a rare half-smile. They beam at him and pull him onto the dance floor.

Amidst the youthful laughter and glow of young love Levi had fretted to Hange about feeling old. He felt he had lived a thousand years. 

“Captain, thank you,” Mikasa was saying to him. “Thank you for everything.”

“We could’ve never reached this far without you,” Jean was saying. “We owe you big, captain.”

“You brats have drunk too much again,” he replies grumpily, but underneath the pissed-off facade he was smiling. 

“All these rambunctious brats make me feel ancient,” he had remarked to Hange as they watched the revelry from the sidelines.

“Ancient? What in the world are you talking about? We’re fit as a fiddle! We’ve got decades to go!” Hange had countered with their trademark enthusiasm. “Just look at them, Levi. How many of these kids have made it this far and actually gotten married? It’s a new dawn for all of us!”

On the dance floor Levi gazes at Jean and Mikasa, feeling the warmth and energy and love in the hands they clasped to his. He looks around the room, at all the faces full of joy and hope, and he is filled with a new purpose. To help out these brats I might as well live a few hundred more. 

Ancient? Nah, Hange was right. Life has just begun.

That’s it for this story. Thank you so much for reading! Please please please take a moment to say hi in the comment section below. It’s so lonely and discouraging to find out I haven’t got any readers. Your comments are the only way I know my stories are getting read. Even just one sentence from you will give me the encouragement I need to keep on writing. Feel free to use a pseudonym and dummy email address. Please say something—anything at all—just to let me know you’ve finished reading. Comments do mean the world to me—THANK YOU. xoxo, hana

Continue to Part II – Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Back – Chapter 7: Too Precious

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