It Started With Cadet Training (Reader/Levi/Erwin/Hange/Mike)

Peace

"Apparently, being the cart titan has side effects on her," Hange clarifies your confusion as you smile at the little girl leaning against your side.

"Welcome to our little group of misfits, I'm sure your friends will be happy to see you again," you assure her, letting her lean against you.

"How can we be sure we can trust you?" Zeke questions, drawing your attention over to him where he's sitting in Mike's lap. "Won't you just use us like Marley did?"

"You're kids. If we were going to use you as weapons, wouldn't we have brought Annie, Bertolt, and Reiner with us? We don't want to use you as weapons, we want to have our freedom and let you have yours," Erwin explains as Porco curls up in his lap, closing his eyes as he settles down.

"What if we want to go back to Marley?" he argues, crossing his arms across his chest. You have to hold back a snicker from how much he looks like Levi or Erwin when you try to get them to take a break.

"Do you want to go back to Marley?" Mike murmurs, leaning back in the chair with a chuckle.

"No," he replies quickly, adjusting his glasses.

"Then relax, we're nothing like Marley. But don't take our word for it, you can ask your friends when we get back to Trost," Mike tells him as Pieck rests her head in your lap.

You run your hand through her hair gently as the conversation mellows out into questions about living on Paradis and their friends. You can't blame them, but the more questions they ask, the more obvious the fact that Marley had raised them as living weapons shines through. It's painful to hear, but you silently hope to yourself that you can show them what it's like to have a childhood rather than being a weapon.

Eventually, Eld comes to collect the eight of you, letting you know it's time to leave. You climb into a wagon with the kids, Mike taking a seat down next to you as his horse was one of the ones caught in Zeke's boulders.

As the wagon pulls away from the city, you tilt to the side, resting your head on Mike's shoulder and watching the sun slowly set in the sky. It had barely been a day, yet you missed your bed and your kids dearly.

"I can't wait to get home," you whisper as Pieck and Porco yawn in your lap.

"I'm sure the kids are wondering where we are," Mike hums quietly, pressing a kiss to the top of your head.

"Do you think Nile let them stay up to wait for us?"
"They probably begged him to let them. You know how soft he is around them."

"I hope he at least put most of them to bed."

"I wouldn't be too hopeful, they all seemed pretty adamant about being good friends to these three when we brought them home."

"What are we going to do? We have fourteen kids to look after now."

"Don't forget Jean, he's always visiting them," Mike reminds you, wrapping his arm around your shoulders.

"Gods, we have enough to make small squads," you chuckle, leaning your head on his shoulder.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Mike hums, resting his head on top of yours as you watch the scenery appear and disappear around you.

When the wagon finally pulls into Trost, people are in the streets cheering. It's late at night yet everyone is wild and celebrating as you return. Mike wraps his cape around the kids to shield them, but they poke their heads out, waving as the cart trots past people.

You catch a glance over at Erwin, he's beaming like an idiot with Hange. Even Levi has a small smile on his face as people cheer around him. Someone passes you an unopened bottle of champagne, and for a brief moment, you wonder where they'd gotten it from. You set it down in the cart next to you as it turns the corner.

The barracks come into view shortly after, the lights are still on and as the cart pulls to a halt, you hear a child's voice calling out "baba!" as well as the titles of your partners. Turning your head you see your kids rushing through the crowd towards the wagon, Nile rushing after them with an exhausted expression across his face.

The first three to reach the wagon are Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie. Levi scoops them up, letting them onto the wagon as they rush over to Zeke, Pieck, and Porco, a taggle of limps as they cluster together in a giant hug.

The wagon's quickly flooded as the other kids scramble on board as well, until you're laughing at the mass hug as the Scouts around you smile and put away gear and horses.

As you sat there, smiling at the kids with Mike's arms wrapped around you, and Levi, Hange, and Erwin leaning against the side of the wagon, watching them as well, you couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief you hadn't realized you were holding in. Under the comfort of the stars, tears started to roll down your cheeks.

For the first time since you were a kid, you had a family to call your own. For the first time since you were a kid, you were proud of how far you'd come. For the first time since you were a kid, you truly knew what peace felt like.