Work Text:
Hanji stood at the front of the classroom with the assistant, Miss Ral, smiling at all the children as they worked on their pots, painting them bright colors. The smile faded when Hanji noticed Mikasa, sitting there with a blank pot and unused paint brush, walking over to the black haired girl. Hanji crouched at the child’s side, looking at her carefully.
“What’s wrong, Mikasa?”
“I don’t have a mommy, Hanji,” she quietly whispered, careful to not draw attention. She lived with the Jaegers after an incident nobody knew too much about, but did she really not consider Eren’s mom as her own? Hanij tried to smile and nodded, not asking about a father, but instead taking the piece of paper that had what to write on the pot, crossing out the word “Mom” and writing something different.
“How about you write this on the pot instead,” Hanji mentioned, Mikasa watching as words were scribbled down. “It says thank you for coming Levi,” and looked to Mikasa, who had a blank, almost unimpressed face. “He’s my friend, he’ll come in and spend the day with you so you’re not alone.”
“Levi is a boys name.”
“It’s better than nothing, right?” Hanji did best to stay positive about this, having a sickly gut feeling Levi wasn’t going to show up after figuring out it was Mother’s Day rather than Human Being Appreciation Day.
“Please Levi, she doesn’t have any parents!! You have to come! She’s cute, and so is my assistant,” Hanji teased him over the phone for the third time, hoping to finally receive a yes.
A huff came from the other side of the line, “I have work tomorrow, you know that, shitty glasses,” he mentioned his job for the third time now, and without waiting for a plead again, the line went dead and Hanji grew scared, setting down the phone.
The next day Hanji sat in the classroom, watching kids walk in with their moms, Jean, Marco, Annie, Connie, Sasha, one after one with a smile on their face and their mom’s face. Petra was greeting the mothers and their proud children at the door when Mikasa and Eren walked in with Eren’s mom, Carla. Eren was doing everything to get out of his mom’s grip while Mikasa walked along side them. It was obvious the two who were blood related of the three were excited, as Eren showed his mom where he sat and what he drew and his favorite book, Mikasa following along.
“Petra,” Hanji began, catching Petra’s attention, “Come over here, I need to go make a call, a personal call.” The strawberry blonde nodded cheerfully, sitting at the desk as Hanji walked out of the room. Then Hanji began dialing the number to Levi, stopping to pause. A deep breath was taken, then another, before finishing the number, listening to it ring. After one minute, a voice came on.
“Shitty glasses, if it’s you I swear, you know when to call me, not now, but if it’s anybody else, feel free to leave a message after the annoying beep sound.” The brown eyes stared at the phone a bit shocked by what his message is, but shrugged it off, walking into the room to see Petra setting up cups on the counter, with a big bowl of fruit punch at the end of it. With curious eyes, Petra looked to her, only to get a shaken head in reply. Without a word, Petra went back to her work with the punch, pouring it from the ladle to the dixie cup.
“Alright kids, listen up. Don’t bring your moms, but come up to the window sill and grab the bag with your name on it,” Hanji smiled, clapping a couple times to signal for the kids to wander to the window and search eagerly for their bag. Eren found his first, rushing to give it to his mom. Jean was next, going over not as quickly, but still excited. Mikasa found her’s last, walking back to get spot and placing it beside her chair as she sat back down.
A knock on the door stopped everything for Mikasa as she looked at her teachers, noticing they didn’t hear the door in all the commotion. Slowly, the black haired girl stood, wandering from her small blue chair to the door, opening it carefully, looking up at a short man who just stared back at her with a bored expression. Mikasa tugged on her dress a bit, trying to not break this weird staring contest she placed herself in.
“Who are you?”
“I’m somebody who’s here because of shi--funky glasses,” he stopped himself a bit late on the swear, looking in the room through the small crack in the door. “Who are you?”
“I’m somebody who’s here because I’m in funky glasses’ class.”
“You don’t seem all that bad, how about a name?”
“You first,” she said, pointing at him with her small, extended index finger.
“Just let me inside,” he huffed, folding his arms. Slowly the small girl stepped aside, opening the door for him to enter the crowded classroom, watching him carefully walk inside, glancing around. Petra was the first to notice the man enter the room, looking up from her desk before looking back down again. Without thinking, he found an empty chair, looking to the small girl who was heading over to it, seeing that there was a bag next to it, similar to the one’s all the moms were holding happily. He walked over to her, figuring this was the kid he was here for in the first place.
He kneeled on the ground next to her looking at her. “Need somebody to give that bag too?” She nodded silently before looking at him a bit surprised.
“Are you Levi?” He just sat there for a good five to ten seconds, blank, before nodding to her. She smiled at his response, picking up the bag from the floor, thrusting it out to him. He took it from her, setting it on the table before a boy with dark brown hair walked over to his sister and the short man.
“Who’s that?”
“Levi.”
“That’s a guy! It’s Mother’s Day today.”
“Go away, Eren,” she huffed, folding her arms, much to Levi’s surprise on how much she acted like him. Eren was gone quickly, back at his mom’s side, smiling with her. Levi was also surprised Hanji hadn’t noticed he was here, but that didn’t bother him at all speaking it was… Hanji. Mikasa pointed to the bag, signaling he needed to open it now. With a nod, he did just that, pulling the tape apart so he could look inside, finding a folded piece of paper saying his name in big letters on it. Hesitating a bit, he pulled it out, looking at the front before unfolding it.
Quietly, he read the letter to himself, “Dear Levi. Thank you for coming to Mother’s Day, even though you are a boy. It means a lot to me. Mikasa.” He just looked up at her slowly, a smiled on her face. “So you name is Mikasa, huh?” She nodded rapidly. “Do you have a last name?”
“Ackerman.”
Levi stared at her with an open mouth. “How old are you?”
“Five. How old are you?”
“Twenty-four.”
“Wow, you’re old.” He just shook his head at her words, before finally speaking.
“What was your dad’s name?”
“I don’t remember, but my mom's name was Misumi,” she just smiled endlessly, Levi shocked after everything she shares about herself. Soon their moment was interrupted by Hanji, shocked at Levi’s sudden appearance in her classroom.
“You came!”
“Oh no, you’ve noticed my presence, what am I going to do?” Hanji just shrugged with glee, leaning in closer to him.
“Jean and Reiner are arguing over if you like boys or girls.”
Levi almost gagged at that, basically out of shock that they’re aware of those things in this world, his eyes wide, irises small and eyebrows at his hairline. Hanji just laughed it off, walking off to leave the two Ackermans to their business.
“Do you like boys?” He just shook his head, looking at her sternly.
“Don’t ask people that question, it’s their business, not yours.” Mikasa just nodded slowly before looking at Eren again, who was sticking his tongue out at her for having a mom. She just looked away.
Another knock happened against the door. Nobody heard it, so nobody answered it. After the third time the knock happened, it sounded very impatient, Petra finally hearing it as she was setting up plates for the cake to go on, opening the door to find a very upset man standing tall with his arms folded and eyebrows pinched together.
“Where’s Levi, I found a note saying he was going to help Hanji with setup, but he’s in trouble at work for skipping out without beforehand notice and,” he stopped after seeing Levi with Mikasa on his lap, sitting on a beanbag, reading her a book. Petra just glanced in his direction, gasping at the sight of the two in the chair, walking over slowly, leading the tall man over. She leaned down to find both pairs of eyes sealed shut, as if they fell asleep instantly like that.
“Should I wake him up for you, sir?”
“It’s Erwin, but… you can leave him, I just want to take a picture, if I may?” Petra giggled quietly and nodded, letting Erwin take his picture before Jean jumped out of his chair.
“I WIN REINER!! MIKASA’S DADDY HAS A BOYFRIEND!” Levi jolted awake at the screaming, Mikasa doing the same, he looked around, but before he had known, Erwin was already gone and Petra was back to her business, Jean in one corner in a take-a-break chair with his arms folded and an angry look on his face. Eren was in the other after throwing three markers at Jean, both moms looking away from their children in embarrassment. Mikasa did nothing but cuddle back into Levi as he held her in his lap, sinking back into the chair to continue their little nap.