Armin and I were in love. That was obvious. We met during the training years. He was always so kind, so polite. We barely crossed paths, but when we did, I felt something strange inside of me everytime.
You can call them what you want, butterflies, nerves, nausea. But we fell in love.
And that love continued. Even after we had finished training, and he joined the Scouts, we still saw each other almost everyday if we could. We lived together, we were a couple.
The Scouts started coming home less, they always came back tired and injured. I'd always be there to assist them, and he'd always come back to me. We lived happily. We could have been married by now.
But we aren't.
Because when he came home one evening, he ended our relationship. They were going deeper into the new world, to kill titans and experiment. He couldn't live with himself making me wait all the time. There was fighting and crying to follow, and by the end of the evening, he had left me alone, with our child inside of me. The child none of us knew about.
They went away on their 68th expedition beyond the walls the next day, and have never returned since. It was normal maybe for an expedition to last a month at the most, but they'd always make their way back to the safety of the walls after a certain amount of time. Its been three years.
And I miss him so much. Every single day. I can picture him playing outside with Emilee, crouching down to look at her discoveries, holding her hand as she pulls him to look at something. The thought makes me cry, seeing what I don't have.
But crying is pathetic. I have no time for it. We aren't even together anymore, so why am I even thinking about the Scouts?
I know why. It's the harsh, sad truth, that even if Armin did end it for a reason, we've got another reason that keeps us together.
Our daughter.
She hasn't met him. He doesn't know she exists. What would he say? Will they ever meet?
My heart beats at the thought. I want Emilee to have a father.
* * *
"On behalf of his majesty the king, you are arrested. Come with us."
After brutally fighting some burglars, chasing them and eventually handcuffing them, I placed them under arrest. A group of us escorted them to the dungeon, forcing them in.
It was a lot later when we were finally finished. We returned to the base, where Emilee sat impatiently with a trainee, who noticed me come in, and stood up straight to greet me.
"Miss Leonhardt, I looked after her while you were gone. She was thirsty and so I gave her some water." I walked forward, picking up my daughter, smirking at her overly dramatic pose.
"Thank you very much. There's no need to greet me in that way. I'm your captain, not a bloody corporal."
"Oh, right. Sorry. Thank you."
"You may leave now..."
"Yeah, okay. Umm," she walked out of my office embarrassed. I barely took no notice.
"Mummy!"
"Hello sweetheart. What did you do while I was gone?"
Her eyes widened. She pointed towards a letter on my desk. I took it, and opened it.
"Well, its an invitation from the king to escort and guard the visitors tomorrow." I observed the letter carefully, then Emilee started playing with my hair. "What is it darling?"
She pointed at the rain that had started to pour outside.
"Lets have a look, yeah?"
I moved over to the window, and she stared outside in wonder, trying to touch all the raindrops, giggling innocently.
As she looked through the window outside, I did the same, hoping and praying to god that her father was safe.