Meow (AOT Story)

Homecoming

The journey back to the walls was quick and silent, as the small group of Scouts kept glancing around the empty plains. The group remained vigilant, but all wore worried expressions on their face's. Hanji was officially the Commander of the Scouting Regiment, and it was made known to all of the living soldiers that Erwin Smith had passed during the battle with the Beast Titan. Tiffany's unconscious body laid on the sole wagon that the group had left with Eren seated next to her. The boy continually ran his fingers through the girl's hair as he kept his gaze fixed on her face. Hours had passed and the walls were finally in sight, which cause Levi and Hanji to give giant sighs of relief as they instructed everyone on how to get to the top of the wall. After everyone had ample time to sober up from their beyond the wall experience, the group of soldiers were herded towards headquarters to give their report. Eren reluctantly allowed Tiffany's body to be taken from him, and his gaze remained on the girl until she was out of eyesight. Upon entering the large building, the group of exhausted Scouts were lead into a large room where Historia sat with the other high ranking officers.

"Welcome back! Were you able to get the information from the Yeager basement?" The Queen questioned with a small smile.

"Yes, Your Highness. We are still reviewing the information, so we do not have any real updates for you just yet." Commander Hanji nervously laughed as she rubbed the back her neck slowly. 

"I see, that is okay. Once you have deciphered everything we will hold another meeting. But can I ask you a more personal question?" Historia frowned as her eyes darted across the room.

"Of course." Hanji fidgeted subtly.

"What happened to Tiffany? Matthew told us she would be returning with you." The young royal asked.

"She did return with us, but she could not attend this meeting." The Commander frowned as she looked everywhere but the Queen.

"She was severely injured during the battle at Shiganshina, and has been unconscious. She is in the hospital right now." Levi stated quickly.

"Oh, that is certainly unfortunate. I was really hoping to ask her about everything that had happened after Reiner, Bertholdt and Ymir left." Historia's voice came out low and soft. 

"I'm sorry, but we don't know when she will wake." Hanji sighed.

"I understand, you are all dismissed. When we have more answers about the titans we will hold another meeting." The Queen sighed before quickly leaving the room.

Everyone left and slowly made their way to the barracks to clean themselves up. The next morning there would be a ceremony which would honor the soldiers who returned safely. Now, not all the soldiers were happy about the arrangement and some even ridiculed a few of the 104th cadets. One of those unhappy soldiers was a boy named, Floch Forster. He had initially found Erwin, still breathing, and had attempted to save the former commander's life by bring him to Levi who had the titan serum. Of course, instead of saving Erwin, Levi chose to save Armin who had sacrificed himself to defeat Bertholdt. Luckily, the ceremony started before a scene could be started and as quickly as it started, it ended. The group of honored soldiers dismissed themselves and all regrouped outside the large hall in silence.

"I'm going to visit Tiffany." Jean mumbled before sulking off.

One by one, everyone split up and went their separate ways. Once Jean had reached the hospital, he walked down the silent halls until he stood before a certain person's room. Taking a deep breath, he entered the room and softly closed the door behind him.

"How was the ceremony?" Matthew's tired voice rasped from bedside. 

"It was short." The younger male sighed as he sat down beside the other man.

"I'm glad that everyone came back safely. I just wish that Tiffany came back conscious." The neko man grimaced as he held the girl's hand.

"Me too, and to think we were so close to making that a reality. It just happened so fast, the Cart Titan came out of nowhere and just hit her." Jean clenched his fists as he stared at the girl's face.

"There's nothing anyone could've done. We will just have to keep watching and praying that she'll come back to us soon." Matthew smiled before leaning back in his chair. 

Jean remained silent for the rest of the time that he was there. He did end up taking his leave after some time, and meandered through the streets. Anyone who paid attention would wave or smile at the boy, but he could barely muster up a convincing smile to return. Luckily, no one had tried to speak to him as he walked around so he continued his walk in utter silence. The other members of the 104th were all worrying about their friend in different ways. Connie and Sasha both sat in the mess hall chatting about their training days with the girl. Armin had ventured deep into the underground and sat in front of Annie and recounted the events of the past several days. Mikasa and Eren both walked around the compound in silence. Lastly, Historia sat in her room overlooking the city with a frown as she thought about all the questions that she wanted to ask the unconscious girl. But what no one from their group knew was that Matthew could still communicate with the girl, and that she was being updated on how everyone was faring. Of course, he chose to keep that a secret as he didn't want them to bombard him with questions in regards to his sister. She needed rest and peace, and the only way she would get that is if he monitored her the way he wanted to. 

"Matthew?" Tiffany frowned as she sat before the boy.

"Hmm?" Matthew yawned as he looked up at the girl.

"You keep zoning out on me. You should probably go and actually rest." The girl smiled as she leaned back on her hands.

"No, this is fine. I want to make sure that you are okay and progressing mentally. We all need you to get better and wake up." Matthew smiled tiredly.

"How long has it been since we retook Wall Maria?" The younger questioned softly.

"It's been a year." The man sighed.

"Do you think I'll wake up? I've been trying to will myself awake, but no matter what I think I can't do it." Tiffany cried softly as she brought her knees up to her chest.

"You will, sooner than you think." Matthew grinned as he jumped to his feet.

The two fell into the same silence that they always found themselves in, but they never felt uncomfortable. After some time of silence, Matthew finally bid the girl farewell and disappeared from their safe haven. Upon opening his eyes, the boy groaned at the harsh sunlight. Today was the day that he had been assigned to help build what was called a "Railroad". Much to his dismay, everyone had accepted an alliance of some sort from a certain hairy Titan Shifter. Honestly, every time someone brought up the name, Zeke Yeager, he had to keep himself from gagging. Something was happening on Paradis Island, and Matthew planned on finding out what it was. The group from the 104th had become weary of Eren, as he began to subtly change and began talking about how his newfound elder brother supported him. But Matthew couldn't find any hard evidence of anything going completely awry, so he had to trust Hanji and others in what they were doing. Even with the fate of Tiffany being blurred, nothing seemed to be right and he worried more and more about where their lives were headed. 

The next two years would go by faster than any could say, "titan". So much technological progress took place, and everyone seemed so much happier. They even made contact with another nation known as, Hizuru, and made an alliance thanks to the fact that Mikasa is also one of their descendants. So much was happening, and everyone was feeling safer and safer as the months went on. There were no more titans terrorizing the people and the people could finally have all the space that they needed to raise families and livestock. It seemed like everyone was starting to finally feel happy, but Matthew. He still didn't have the one thing that truly made him happy, his younger sister. Even though they spoke every night while he slept, it didn't feel the same to him. He wanted to be able to show her what their world looked like now, and to let her see how much her friends had grown and changed over the past three years that she had been asleep. But all that wishing he did, didn't bring her back. Until one evening when he went back to her hospital room for the night. Just like every night, he walked into the room quietly with his head down. Taking a seat next to the bed, he kept his gaze on the toe of his boots. That is until he heard a voice that he hadn't heard in a long time.

"Matthew? Are you going to welcome me back?"