Chapter Text
4th November, 06:00
"Wake up, Hange!"
The clock in the dormitory rang, signalling six o'clock in the morning. Hange groaned as Sasha vigorously shook the sheets they were wrapped in. They raked one hand through their hair in a futile attempt to tame it and fumbled around for their glasses with the other. Soon enough, they felt the cold metal frames sliding across their temples, and their vision sharpened to find Connie grinning up at them as he straightened their glasses across their face.
"Thanks, Connie," they beamed. "Morning to both of you. Energetic at the crack of dawn as usual, hey?"
"Breakfast is soon!" Sasha bellowed in typical fashion. "I need help with my shoelaces so I can get to the dining hall and eat now!"
The four-year-old ran around with her shoes slipped onto her hands like gloves. Connie mirrored her and began crawling up on all fours to the beds of the other children in their dormitory with loud clomps and roaring at them, earning a chorus of squeals and groans. Hange giggled despite their tiredness, and after getting dressed, they managed to catch Sasha mid-lap around the dormitory in order to put her shoes on properly.
"You two are so silly. If you want to learn how to tie your shoes, you should first know what part of your body they're supposed to go on." Sasha laughed, squirming in Hange's arms as they sat her down on the bed. "There's two ways you can do it, but I think it's easier if you make bunnies with them. See?" They demonstrated on the younger girl's shoes.
When they stood back up, they caught eyes with Moblit, who was straightening Nifa and Furlan's jackets on the other end of the dormitory. He smiled at them in greeting, and they returned it.
Waking up was always one of the most hectic parts of the day, given that it involved being in the same room as half of the orphanage's children at once. It could even be a little stressful at times, since Hange, as the eldest child in their dormitory, was partly responsible for corralling all the other children into getting dressed and making their way to the dining hall without going astray. But every day, they all somehow made it successfully into the dining hall, where the majority of the other dormitory's children already were. Hange never claimed to be as good at their responsibilities as the elder children of the other dorm, but they managed just fine.
Today, they took a single step through the door of the dining hall before feeling arms wrapping tightly around their legs.
"Good morning, Hange," little Armin grinned up at them as his tiny hands gripped the sides of their trousers.
"Morning, Armin. Did you sleep well?"
The boy nodded rapidly in response, his blonde hair covering half his face. "And I got dressed all by myself today!"
"Really? Without any help at all?" They asked with exaggerated surprise.
"He did," a lower voice informed them from their left. "It was very impressive."
Armin giggled shyly at the compliment before tottering off towards the table.
"Morning, Erwin," Hange greeted.
"Morning. You look like you slept well," he said.
"Mm, the same as usual, I think."
"He means your hair's a mess from rolling around in bed," Levi claimed from behind them in his deadpan tone. Hange turned to find the eldest boy of the orphanage staring at their head with an exasperated expression, as was often the case.
"Don't put words in his mouth, shorty," they retorted, but when they swivelled their head back around to face Erwin, they found his mouth had a playful lilt to it. "Seriously?" They whined. "You guys are so mean to me. This is why I'm the favourite!"
"Whose favourite?" Levi scoffed, and went back to finish setting the table.
"Papa's, who else? Well, maybe everyone's, if you wanna go that far. I'm the only eleven-year-old here who doesn't hold my age and intelligence above everyone else to bully them!" They called after him, and glared at Erwin, who had left mid-monologue to sit the youngest children down.
"Now, now, Hange," a booming voice resounded from the hallway, startling them. "You know I don't have favourites."
"Was only joking, Papa," they muttered. Typical that he was there every time they made a jab like that.
Behind Papa's legs, a boy with thick brown hair and bright emerald eyes peeked out, chewing his thumb.
"Ooh, is that the special boy I can see?"
"It is indeed," Papa smiled warmly, and gestured for the five-year-old to move forward. "You can sit next to me today, Eren."
"Really? Yay!" Eren smiled brightly and took off to the head of the table, attempting to climb onto Papa's chair instead of the smaller, lower one that had been arranged next to it.
"Honestly," Papa sighed. "No wonder he comes back inside with his knees and elbows covered in bruises all the time."
They watched as Eren struggled to haul himself up until Levi skulked over and lifted him with ease, dumping him onto the correct chair and no doubt telling him off as he muttered into the younger boy's ear.
Eren was getting adopted today, which was why he was being doted on a little. Though everyone was always encouraged to be happy for one another when they got adopted, a part of Hange felt it was a shame to see them go. Eren in particular was a bright personality at Shiganshina House, so it was no surprise that a family had already chosen him, despite him only being at the orphanage for four years.
Once everybody settled down at the table, Papa led them all through their usual thanks.
"Good morning, children. Let us be grateful that all thirty-eight of you are able to live here happily today, as always."
"Thank you for the food," every child chanted in unison before digging into breakfast with vigour.
Eren was certainly getting spoiled, what with Papa spoon-feeding and wiping him down whenever he talked too enthusiastically with porridge still in his mouth and spilt it down his chin. Hange heard Levi's scowl of disgust beside them, and grinned at the typical behaviour of their siblings.
"He tries to copy you all the time, yet never quite managed to pick up your table manners in the end, huh?"
"Loud-mouthed brat."
"I'm sure his new parents will be happy to have a child with such a large spirit around," Erwin commented from across the table. "Even if he is boisterous."
"Right," Levi murmured, and Hange directed their attention back to the conversation at the head of the table.
"If I get another Papa, does that mean I can't call you Papa anymore?" Eren asked worriedly.
"You can call me your other Papa, or your new parent something else, like Dad," he replied. "Nothing wrong with having more than one. The more the merrier, in fact."
"It's weird when people have the same names as each other, though," Connie said.
"His name isn't actually Papa, silly," Jean laughed at him. Marco nudged him hard with his elbow, ever the diffuser, which made Jean yelp and Hange smile.
"It's not?" Connie gawked at Papa. "What is it, then?"
"Zeke," Papa responded with an amused smile. "But I'm still your Papa, so I better not catch you calling me anything else, okay?"
"Gotcha!"
"Can I call you Zeke because it's my last day and I'm getting a new Papa?" Eren dared to ask, earning a chuckle from the man in question.
"Maybe when you meet your new parents at the gate. But don't try and show off in front of your other siblings, Eren."
"Sorry," he mumbled, before getting distracted by Mikasa and Armin waving for his attention from another table.
After breakfast, everyone over the age of four went to take their daily morning test in the classroom. Apparently, it was a difficult one, as most of the children were grumbling and murmuring whilst Papa scanned each test to collect their scores. Hange didn't have an opinion; they, like always, thought it to be as easy as every other test.
"Erwin, Hange, Levi. Congratulations, all three of you have full marks!"
Hange grinned at Papa's declaration, expecting nothing less. If anything, they wished the tests were even harder, so that they could finally prove they were smarter than their two brothers.
From the moment they first began the daily tests, the trio had been battling for the bragging rights to be the first to achieve 300 marks. By the time Hange turned four, Levi already had similar scores to the over-tens, but they'd quickly overtaken him in a matter of weeks. Erwin had started a couple of months after Hange, studied as much as he was allowed to, and bested both of them within a week. The last hundred marks were a lot more difficult to acquire, and it had taken a few months before Levi's score shot up once more. Erwin and Hange had surpassed it, and then Hange had been the first four-year-old to make it over 220. By eight years old, they were in such close contention with each other that it was a matter of comparing daily tests rather than the weekly averages.
Typically, when Hange had finally scored full marks for the first time, it had been the same day that Levi and Erwin had managed to do the very same. In their eyes, they had won because they managed to get 300 without ever studying their errors. In Erwin's eyes, he was the victor because he was the youngest, and therefore got the top score in the fewest amount of completed tests. In Levi's eyes, it was a draw, and he didn't care anyway because the tests weren't a matter of intelligence, but memorising patterns, and competing was pointless. Hange thought that was a bit dramatic considering all the effort he had put into surpassing them so many times. Nonetheless, all three of them had maintained top scores ever since.
"You lot are something else," Moblit muttered. The ten-year-old was a pretty high scorer himself, but still a couple dozen marks away from the maximum.
Miche, the other ten-year-old in the orphanage, hummed in agreement with a frown that could easily be mistaken for a glare directed at his close friend, Erwin. The elder boy raised an eyebrow at him, and Hange could taste the brotherly rivalry seething between them in the air.
"It?" Erwin prompted eventually.
"It," Miche agreed.
Now that the eldest children couldn't compete properly with the tests, the game of tag was their fallback for trying to best one another. It was one of the favourites of all the children in the orphanage to play when they were allowed outside for free time after chores and lunch, and so everyone down to the four-year-olds was well-versed in it.
Erwin, as usual, chose to take up the role of It. He was a brilliant seeker, often managing to catch every child within the 20-minute timeframe, despite not being gifted athletically. He made up for it overwhelmingly with his clever strategies of weeding out hiding children or cornering them in order to tag them. Over the years, Hange had probably devised hundreds of running routes and avoidance methods in the hopes that they would be able to win against him. Despite their boundless energy, quick reactions and improvisation upon being hunted down, it had been a couple of years since they were able to avoid Erwin for more than 20 minutes even once. In fact, the only person to have outlasted him in their recent memory was Levi.
The eldest boy of the orphanage rarely played anymore, instead choosing to spend most of the group games seated at the starting tree in charge of time. The times he had, however, proved he was an exceptional runner, and if he really wanted to, he could even remain undetected for the entire duration of a game of It. From what they remember when they were younger, he usually won against Hange when they were It, but if they saw him, he wouldn't bother to counter their chases much, and his wins against Erwin were never consistent enough to determine who was superior. Additionally, Erwin would accuse Levi of messing with his pocket watch's time whenever he did win, and Levi never offered himself to be It, so they couldn't even test whether Levi was a better seeker than Erwin or themself either.
As expected, Levi wasn't playing today, so it was up to Hange to attempt to steal the title of best runner.
They estimated it to be 17 minutes into the game when they caught sight of Erwin running about a dozen metres behind them. They slowed down a little and turned their head properly so the two of them could make eye contact. Now, the real game would begin. In three minutes, Hange could be declared the winner!
They picked up their pace again, flying across the stream's log bridges and making sharp turns around the shrubbery to conceal themself. Unfortunately, over the last ten years, Erwin had memorised the forest grounds just as well as they had, and for every jump he couldn't make or crevice his larger frame wouldn't fit through, he used an alternative route to catch sight of Hange once more.
Eventually, they decided to make a risky jump, cutting Erwin off for long enough that they had time to climb high into a tree before he could detect them. It took almost a minute before they caught sight of him checking around the clearing their tree was located on the outskirts of. They grinned widely. Any second now, the bell would ring from the top of the hill.
Their anticipated triumph was short-lived. Erwin tripped over an exposed tree root, yelping and landing hard on the ground.
"Erwin!" They leapt down from the tree and ran over to him. "Are you okay? That looked hard enough to break something!" If he had sprained something, Hange knew how to make a temporary splint, and could carry him on their back if nece-
Erwin's intense blue eyes bored into them as he clamped a hand down on their forearm. They had been caught.
It took only a second for them to realise what he had done, and they watched in dismay as he used the smoke gun Papa had agreed to lend him after his eleventh birthday exclusively during It and fired into the air to indicate that the last child - Hange - had been tagged. They scowled at him, but he retained his calm expression with a light smile.
"I got Levi with that one the last time he played. I wasn't sure if he had told you, so I left it as a last resort. It was close, but I think I got you in time."
As if on cue, the bell rang from the hill. Hange was devastated. 20 more seconds - only 20 - and they would have finally won for the first time in years against Erwin.
"Poo! Next time, I'll leave you here to die. You'll get no more pity wins from me, you dirty cheater," they stomped their feet in frustration.
"Tricking isn't cheating unless you falsely call time or a reason for the game to end prematurely," he droned on. "But it was a good effort. I've just about run out of ways to outplay you. You'll likely beat me next time."
Begrudgingly, Hange trailed behind Erwin as they left the forest. All the other children were waiting at the top of the hill, and the disappointed chorus that came from them as they and Erwin emerged from the trees rubbed in just how close they had gotten to winning. Erwin grinned triumphantly and raised his arms in victory, and Hange tugged them back down before marching away, clenching their jaw.
"Don't look at me like that," they told Levi as he fixed them with an unimpressed stare. "I heard you fell for the same trick. Thanks for the warning, by the way - not."
"You should know better than that by now. He always pulls this kind of thing. And you still could have gotten away once you realised he was reaching out to you, you're quicker than he is. Always be suspicious."
"Oh, shut up," they huffed. "I know for next time."
"That's the problem," Levi drawled, his immediate attention swivelling back to stitching what looked to be a bunny motif on Armin's blanket. "There won't be a next time. He won't pull the same trick twice on the same person. You need to be able to do it right the first time, or you're going to lose forever."
"Well, I can't plan for what I don't know he's going to do, can I?"
"Think of it first, then find a solution."
"I've got better things to be thinking about than that. Is that all you do, Levi? You really need better hobbies." Levi sighed at their response, and Hange closed their eyes, lying in the grass. "If it involves so much preplanning and strategy, he's always going to win. I'm happy just being better at the exams." They could sense Erwin furrowing his eyebrows in disagreement at their final claim.
"A mix of strategy and agility would be best. That's why I'm winning more often now."
"You didn't play today," Erwin pointed out, sounding a little further from them now. Hange opened their eyes to find the blonde smirking triumphantly at Miche, who was sulking a few metres away with Nanaba and Gelgar.
"I didn't want to," Levi continued. "And even if you disagree, you'd still be no match against Papa."
"That's true," Erwin's expression turned contemplative. "I've never caught him when It, and you've not been able to hide from him either."
"Hey, Erwin!" Gelgar called out. "We've decided on a rematch. Everyone but you is It."
"And you aren't allowed to single me out first tomorrow," Miche added.
"Interesting terms. Would you like me to roll around in the flowers so you can sniff me out as well?" Erwin replied cockily.
Miche huffed at him and said no more.
As soon as Levi called the second hand striking twelve, Erwin took off down the hill and into the forest. The other children waited five minutes before charging after him, and Hange was about to follow before they noticed Levi packing away his sewing kit and slipping the pocket watch back into his trousers.
"If you're coming, you better hurry up so we can make most of the time we have," they told him, shifting from foot to foot in anticipation.
"You know where he is already," he replied bluntly, and Hange smiled.
"One of us still has to get there first."
In the end, it was Hange who ended up picking the correct end of the forest to search. As expected, Erwin stood at its perimeter, overlooking the fence that lined the orphanage in its entirety. The boy didn't react even as Hange placed their hand on his shoulder.
"Found you."
"So you did." Erwin didn't turn away from the fence, deep in thought, and they followed his gaze. "I still wonder why we aren't allowed to cross this point. What the fence is meant to protect us from, as Papa says."
"I dunno. Stray dogs? Deer?" Hange theorised halfheartedly. "I just thought it was to stop the toddlers going too far from the orphanage. Or maybe there is something, and you'll see it on your way out once you get adopted."
"You know we're both a bit old for that now," Erwin smiled wryly. "It'll be the foster home for us."
"At least we'll go to the same place!" They chirped brightly. "I don't wanna live without you or Levi anyway. It'll be so weird when he leaves. We won't see him again for almost another year."
"He'll probably enjoy the peace and quiet he'll get without us loudmouths bothering him every day, as he calls us."
Hange snickered at Erwin's comment, but wasn't convinced. "I think that's why he's so quiet today. Maybe Eren getting adopted reminded him that he's gonna leave soon himself, and he'll miss everyone, even if he'd never admit it."
"Maybe."
Their conversation ended as footsteps came up from behind them.
"You found him?" Miche asked, looking a little miffed. He was followed by Gelgar, Nanaba, Moblit and Armin.
On Hange's left, they caught sight of Levi walking the perimeter in their direction, hand in hand with Eren.
The five-year-old pointed excitedly at Erwin. "Found him!"
"The game's already over, silly brat," Levi sighed.
"I still found him!" Eren argued. "And the smoke isn't in the sky yet, so it's not over, and if you let me have a piggyback ride we coulda gone faster and beaten everyone else!"
"You're all dirty. No way you're ruining my clothes for a game of It."
"You let Isabel ride on your back. It's not fair!"
"Isabel cleans up first."
"I didn't have time for that. It's my last day, Levi!"
"Oh, let him be," Nanaba chided the elder boy. "It's not like he'll get to when he's outside. If that's his last wish, what's another wash?" Levi turned away at that, and stared past the fence, the same as Hange and Erwin had been a moment earlier.
"You know, when you were younger, I recall your wish being to eat exotic fruits once you went outside," Hange teased. "Thought of anything better yet?"
"I never said it like that!" She retorted, flustered. "That's Gelgar twisting my words."
"No, that's literally what you said!" The other nine-year-old defended himself. "And then I said, I'd rather have them as drinks. All we have here other than water and milk is apple and orange juice, and we only get that on birthdays and holidays, and I'm bored of it. I hear you can make a juice out of any fruit - there must be a bunch more outside!"
"Has your plan for the outside world changed yet, Hange?" Erwin asked now that they were on the topic. "If I remember correctly, you said you wanted to raise a pet frog."
Hange laughed. They didn't remember saying it, but would be entirely unsurprised if they did. "Well, I still wouldn't mind doing that. There's lots of interesting stuff to be found out about all kinds of species. And just objects and inventions in general - oh, I'd love to ride a train, too! There's so many interesting things outside we'll never see at the orphanage. How am I supposed to choose just one?"
"Like the sea!" Armin chirped up. "I want to see the sea once I get adopted."
"That's a good plan," Erwin encouraged him.
"See the sea, see the sea," Eren repeated under his breath until he began messing up his words to the point that he became incoherent. Levi shut his jaw manually and held it between his fingers.
"What do you want to do when you leave the orphanage, Eren?" Hange asked, getting the short boy to release Eren's mouth.
"I wanna do everything I'm not allowed to do now, like get piggybacks with muddy clothes and call Papa by his real name," he declared with confidence. "And - and - and I'll see the sea for you, Armin, and I'll draw it and write all about it to you and Mikasa."
The small blonde perked up at that, his eyes shining. "You'll write back to us? You really will?"
"Of course!"
"No one's ever written back," Moblit mused.
It was true: in all their ten years living at the orphanage, not once had Hange - or anyone else, for that matter - heard back from a child who had left to get adopted or fostered. They found it a bit odd, especially when so many of them said they would keep contact, but...
"They're probably having so much fun at their new homes that they forgot about it," they decided. "The outside world is just so much more exciting than here! What do you want to do when you leave?" They asked Moblit.
He tilted his head, thinking for a moment. "I... I don't really know. I guess exploring would be okay, but..."
"Exploring would be good. Outside," Miche added.
Hange hummed in acknowledgement. They'd like to travel and see all the different parts of the world too. They had a long, long list of things they planned to do once they left the orphanage, they realised. Maybe they should write it down so they didn't forget all of it.
"You, Erwin?" They turned to him.
"Lots of the things you all mentioned. But first of all, I'd like to know what's past this fence. What we're supposedly being protected from."
"There's no supposedly about it! Of course there's something it's protecting us from," Hange argued. "Papa wouldn't lie to us about it."
"What could be out there that could harm us but not hop a puny fence?" Levi pointed out. Indeed, the fence only went up to the waists of the oldest and tallest children. "We could go over it right now and I bet nothing would happen."
"You're puny," they muttered, and Levi glowered at them. "Go on, then. I'm surprised you haven't before, with all you whine about it." He didn't meet their gaze. "Oh, you have, haven't you? What's there, then? You can't hide something like that from me, I'm your best friend!" They were suddenly desperate to know what it was that Levi had seen - if anything, indeed.
"I'd tell you if I did, you doughnut."
"I'm no doughnut. What do you wanna go when you go outside, anyway?"
"Survive, I guess."
"You're ridiculous," Hange rolled their eyes. "What does that even mean?"
"Survive against what we're being protected from," Levi clarified with a far too serious expression for the topic. He annoyed them so much sometimes, making everything boring when they were just trying to have a fun conversation instead of standing around doing nothing.
"You just said there's nothing we're being protected from. Make up your mind, shorty!"
"It's a good point," Erwin murmured, more to himself than anyone else. "I've always wondered about that. If there really is something out there, surely it's better to know and then learn how to protect ourselves against it. We could go past the fence all the time without a problem, then."
That piqued Hange's interest more than they were willing to admit. "Well, we can't do that from back here." They were almost dead on their feet from being idle for so long now. "Only one way to find out!" They stepped up even closer to the fence.
"Don't be stupid," Levi told them with narrowed eyes. They heard a sharp intake of breath from one of the other children - they weren't allowed to call each other things like that.
"Well, being smart hasn't got us any answers so far, has it? You and Erwin basically live in the library, and you've never come up with a single idea as to what could actually be beyond this fence. So... let's go and see!" They slapped one of their heels up on top of the fence without a second of hesitation, causing it to emit a metallic clang.
"Hange, wait!" Moblit put his hands on their shoulders and pulled them back gently, yet firmly. "You can't just do that all of a sudden."
"Why not?"
"Be-because - what do you mean, why not? Papa said never ever go even near the fence. We shouldn't even be this close, let alone go over it," he chided. "Plus, it's a bad example to Eren and Armin."
Hange glanced at the two younger boys, who were staring at the fence with curious eyes. They knew Moblit was right, as much as it frustrated them. Armin would tell on them, and Eren might try to copy later on and get stuck on the other side or something. Realistically, they couldn't do it right now.
"It's getting late," Levi stated. "Eren will be leaving soon. Let's go back."
With that, he pulled a protesting Eren back towards the direction of the orphanage, and the other children followed suit as Erwin fired the smoke gun into the air again. Hange glanced at the fence a little longer before jogging to catch up to Moblit, who had slowed down to wait for them.
"You didn't answer my question properly. What else, other than exploring?" They asked him again.
The timid boy walked silently for a moment, not meeting their eyes.
"I'd like to stay here, to be honest."
"Really?" Hange raised their eyebrows. "Why?"
"Well..." He hesitated. "Don't you like living here? Nothing out of the ordinary happens, but it's always a fun day. The food's nice, and we get to play and help each other learn. Everyone's always happy here. I don't know why I would want to leave, if I had the choice."
"Meh, you just want an easy life," Hange grinned. "That's fair enough, though. Even if it is boring."
Moblit fixed them with an serious expression. "You really shouldn't do things like go over the fence, Hange. And you definitely shouldn't decide to do it on a whim and go looking for danger. You'll get hurt."
"I wasn't really gonna do it, you know," they muttered, feeling bad for making him worry. "It was only a joke."
"You always say that when you're getting told off."
"Shut up."
Soon enough, dinner had passed, and study time was waived in favour of seeing Eren off. The boy emerged from his dormitory with Levi, dressed up in his leaving attire - a fancy beige outfit that stood out greatly from the bland white uniform that every child in the orphanage wore on a daily basis. He span around with his hand on his hat excitedly as their siblings cooed and praised his outfit.
"Listen, all of you!" He called out. "Don't think just because I won't be here anymore that I'm not gonna keep getting better at everything. One day, I'll be smarter and stronger than all of you and able to win It and Hide-and-Seek and get top scores on the tests every single time! So you be-"
His impromptu speech was cut off by Mikasa wrapping him tightly into a hug, his bright expression crumbling a little.
"Y-you better be ready for when I see you again," he faltered.
Hange could hear Mikasa sobbing into Eren's shoulder, and the boy buried his own face in her neck as he hugged her back. Armin tottered up to them soon enough, his bottom lip wobbling as he too threw his arms around Eren.
"We'll miss you!" The blonde wailed. "Have fun with- with your new family!"
"You're still gonna be my family," Eren sniffed. "Don't be stupid."
Nobody told him off for the insult.
Times like this made Hange feel lucky that they were too old to be adopted now. Eren, Mikasa and Armin had been shaping up to be stuck to one other's sides for the rest of their time at the orphanage, having been close from the moment they could walk and talk, much like Erwin, Levi and themself. Hange would never have to go through this separation, as there was a high chance all three of them were already set to be sent off to the same foster home. Growing up and seeing so many of their siblings be adopted instead of themself had once hurt, but they'd been sure for a few years now that something like this would hurt a lot more. It probably didn't hurt as much to leave as it did to see your best friends leave without you.
Hange wanted Eren's last memory of them to be a smiling face, so stayed strong for his sake, but the low feeling lingered as he walked out the door with Papa. That was fine. It would be gone in the morning. It always did. It was merely the low point in the cycle of a child getting adopted. And soon enough, they'd have a new sibling to take care of anyway.
As they started readying the younger children for their showers, Hange's glasses reflected a glint of something on one of the tables in the dining hall. It took them a few seconds for them to register it as Eren's treasure key necklace - the one he refused to part with or take off under any circumstances, because it kept all of his dreams for the future safe and hidden away, and he didn't want anybody else to see them. In fact, it was only ever forced off of him when he was showering to stop it from rusting. Which he wasn't doing, because he had left the house with Papa not even ten minutes ago.
"Seriously, Eren?" They exclaimed aloud.
Maybe he'd showered early before getting dressed to leave and forgot about it in the moment. That poor boy. He'd be devastated when he found out he'd left without it.
"Is that Eren's key?" Moblit emerged from the hallway, towels in hand, as he watched them pick the necklace up.
"Yeah. I can't believe he forgot it. Do you think he's still here?"
"The light was still on at the gate five minutes ago," Levi said as he and Erwin came out of the washroom. "You can probably still make it if you go now. Shower's free, Moblit."
"I'll come with you, Hange," Erwin offered, and they nodded in affirmation as the two of them ran outside.
Thankfully, the door was still unlocked, which at least meant that Papa hadn't returned without them noticing. With relief, they sped towards the gate in hopes that they could make it in time to give Eren his key before he left for good.
The light was indeed still on as they approached the gate's entrance. They'd never been able to see the end of that long archway, and the wooden door at the end looked to be closed. Their heart sank. Was it too late?
"We'll get in trouble for it, but if we call for them by the door Papa or Eren might notice, and he can get his key," Erwin thought aloud.
"Worth a shot. Hope you're happy to get stuck with the nightmare of kitchen duty for the next two weeks," Hange replied with a grin.
As they made their way down the archway, Hange began to snoop around the stacks of boxes piled up on either side of it, a tight fist enclosing the necklace. The storage seemed to contain mostly toiletries and spare uniforms, things Hange was aware came from outside, but never knew exactly where from. One box in particular caught their interest.
"Vaccines," they murmured, pulling out a long, thin tube with measurements along its side. "Not a lot, though. Maybe a seasonal jab for the infants or something..."
Erwin stopped his journey to the door and walked back towards them, glancing over their shoulder at the box and inhaling as if he were about to say something. He was stopped short, however, when a sudden crack of thunder sounded from outside, making them both jump and Hange drop the tube back into the box. From the gate at the end of the archway, the area outside flashed brightly, signalling lightning had hit in unison with the thunder.
"Woah!" Hange exclaimed, surprised. "Has it begun storming?"
"It didn't look like it would," Erwin frowned, looking back the way they had come. There was nothing to be seen; November evenings were as dark as the dead of night itself. "I can't hear it raining yet, either."
"Maybe it's just about to start," Hange reasoned as the two of them continued to the door once more. They wriggled onto the floor to squint through the gap under it to see if it really was raining.
What they saw next made them stop breathing entirely.
There, in the distance, a creature as tall as the trees surrounding it stood. It was almost human-like, naked with a grey beard but otherwise no hair, lacking genitals, and donning an incredibly unnerving facial expression. They almost didn't believe what they were seeing, wondering if they were dreaming, or that perhaps their glasses were so smudged that their tired brain had conjured up something else entirely.
Distantly, they heard Erwin speaking, but it sounded so muffled and far away to them, they may as well have had cotton in their ears. They were rooted to the spot, too terrified to do anything but watch as the gargantuan being picked up something small off the ground. No, not something - someone.
Hange didn't even have time to murmur his name nor cry out in warning before an unconscious Eren was guided into the monster's mouth with its hand, which was about five times larger than the boy. Far too suddenly, the five-year-old had been swallowed whole, save for half of his arm, which snapped off as it was caught between the creature's teeth and spurted blood as it dropped to the ground.
They stared silently, wide-eyed, for a few seconds, their mouth covered to hold something in - a scream, vomit, a disbelieving laugh, or any other potential offenders. Slowly, they craned their neck up to see where Erwin stood, only to find that he, at some point, had joined them on the ground, his head right beside theirs. Never in their life had they seen him look so horrified.
"E-Erwin?" They managed to choke out shakily, and Erwin's own wide eyes locked onto theirs. "That - did you see? That was..."
"Yeah, I..." his voice broke. "Yeah. Eren. It- it..."
They didn't have time to confirm exactly what they'd just seen before they heard footsteps approaching the door.
It must have been on pure adrenaline that Erwin shot up and dragged Hange behind one of the storage piles, because they were certain he'd never moved so fast before, nor pulled them up with such strength. Hange barely managed to grab their glasses mid-air before they slipped entirely from their face from the motion, and once they'd readjusted them, they peered beyond the boxes as cautiously as they could. They didn't dare look too far, the risk of being caught not worth entertaining in the slightest, but they could just about make out people in beige clothing, similar to what Papa and all the children who left the orphanage wore.
...Did any of them really leave, though? Were... were all of them...?
"Looks like it's shaping up to be another regular," one man said, sounding disappointed. "Figures. We're wasting time feeding these ones to the sample subjects. We won't find a titan power in deficient five-year-olds."
"Well, I never expect anythin' when they ship a young'un out," another man responded. "Though I wish we'd just send all the useless kids out and kill 'em off at once, if we know they're just regular devilspawn. Burn 'em in a pit together or somethin'."
Hange gasped at the horrific comment, and Erwin clasped his hand over their mouth, gently guiding the two of them away from their spot and back towards the orphanage's entrance, their path concealed by the stacked boxes. One look at him as they moved slow as a snail let them know he was also disturbed by what he was hearing.
"Doesn't matter," a third man told them authoritatively. "This way we get the adults out too, and give them an honourable path to volunteer themselves to become a potential vessel. We'd be stuck with them much longer if we made hasty decisions with the baby devils. It's an efficient all-round strategy, and you'd be wise not to critique it."
"I did not intend to come across as to question Marley, Captain Magath," the first of them to speak babbled nervously. "My sincere apologies."
"Do not step out of line again, soldier. Lead Warrior Candidate Jaeger, what are these fabled older devilspawn looking like?"
"Promising," Papa's voice rang out coldly. Hange mumbled his name against Erwin's palm, and the younger boy clammed down on their mouth even harder in response, almost causing them to knock into the boxes they were so close to passing. "The eldest three have had consistent perfect scores for years now. Their memories are parallel to that of warriors, or rather, someone who possesses the memories of an individual with a titan power."
"Promising indeed. Let's wrap this up, then. Ship them as soon as they're of age. Is this key one of yours?"
Hange and Erwin sprinted away from the gate and did not dare look back - in the panic to get cover behind the boxes in the first place, Hange had let go of Eren's key necklace. They could easily imagine what would become of them if they had been discovered and one of those adults realised that they knew what was really going on at the orphanage. They didn't really know, but they knew enough, and they didn't have time to unpack everything they'd heard right now.
They legged it up the hill, but when another crack of thunder and lightning boomed from behind them, Hange jolted and lost their footing, tripping and skidding onto the ground.
"Hange!" Erwin caught up to them, panting heavily and struggling to pull them up with his hand. "We're almost there. Can you carry on alright?"
The answer, as it turned out, was no. The disruption had caused their adrenaline to fizzle out, and the reality of their situation began to sink in. Hange's throat grew tight, and angry tears blurred their vision.
"Are we just... sent here to get eaten in the end?" They asked, not really wanting an answer. "That wasn't Eren, was it? It could have been anyone. I could barely see!"
It was with sheer hope and forced naivete that they hoped Erwin would deny it, but he had never been that sort of person, and was unlikely to start now. He looked at them stone-faced, save for his flushed out complexion and rapidly dilating and constricting pupils, which gave away his inner turmoil.
"Eren... was eaten." He stated with a slight tremor to his voice. "That's our purpose here. To be raised and then eaten by... by those monsters."
Hange screamed their lungs out.
4th November, 19:57
"Did you make it?" Levi asked as they trudged back through the entrance to the house, eyes downcast. He tutted, and Hange looked up just in time to see that it was directed at them as he looked them once over.
Miche peeked his head around the doorway of one of the washrooms to hear the answer to Levi's question. Moblit was probably preparing their dormitory for bed.
"No," Erwin managed to answer him. Hange avoided everyone's gaze as they made their way to the dormitory. "We were too late."
There were still a few children shuffling about in their beds, so they grabbed their nightwear and sped back to the washroom, shedding their muddy clothes and not bothering to shower.
When they returned, Erwin was waiting outside their dormitory door, and followed them in when they ignored him. The two of them sat side by side against the frame of Hange's bed, hugging their knees.
"Everyone got eaten. They never went to adoptive families or foster homes," they whispered, and their throat burned, hardly allowing them to get the words out. Erwin stared straight ahead, saying nothing, and they refused to look at him as they continued. "Eren, and Tomas, and Nac and Myli-"
"We're going to find away out of here," Erwin said resolutely.
"How?" Hange whisper-yelled helplessly.
"We'll escape before anyone else ends up... like that. With enough planning, it's perfectly within reason."
"You think we can outsmart Papa?" Hange sniffed and looked at him.
"With the right strategy to throw him off-guard, sure," he smiled weakly. "It'll be a big high-stakes game of It. With you alongside me, I highly doubt we'll fail. Though," he frowned, "we are at a disadvantage to start off with. Papa knows someone left that key. We have to pretend we saw nothing in the morning, or he'll know immediately it was us. And... well, you can imagine what might happen," he trailed off, standing and shuffling back to the door.
"Okay," Hange responded with a small voice, too exhausted and overwhelmed to take in what he was saying anymore.
"Goodnight, Hange," Erwin whispered.
"Night."