Above: basically the sunroom as I see it, although a bit wider and different furniture; that far wall the photo shows would be where the couch is, and behind the photographer would be the piano and fireplace and such. The door into the house is to the right, and the door to the backyard is to the left. I hope that makes sense. ._.

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Lucy quickly became Eren's best friend in the place, the sunroom his favorite part of the house. It was so easy to gravitate back to it and watch sunsets, to see the rain fall against and slide down the glass, to lie on the couch while his hand stroked over the canine's glossy black fur as she laid on the floor next to him, watching the clouds roll lazily by over the month he'd been there.

His bruises, after what had seemed like an eternity, had finally faded completely away. His follow-up check up had gone well two weeks after being discharged from the hospital, but he still remained silent, something no one could figure out. In truth, something had been boiling inside him since waking up that first day in the hospital; he was afraid that if he opened his mouth and tried to speak, he'd end up screaming instead. Whatever it was, it was left over from Them and everything they'd done to him while was there. It hurt, yet he was strangely afraid to let it out.

Because of it, he didn't make easy friends with the others. Marco and Mikasa, he found, were nearly inseparable. Annie kept to herself more times than not. And that was why he stuck with Lucy, who welcomed him easily. He'd often leave his bed in the middle of the night and sneak down to the sunroom to curl up on the couch and sleep. Oftentimes, Lucy - who was free to wander the house as she pleased during the night - would come find him and sniff him awake; he'd curl up next to her on the floor, getting a much better sleep there than upstairs.

"He might've gone mute," he heard Petra saying in a hushed voice one morning. He'd been in the sunroom again and could hear her from the kitchen, talking on the phone as she got breakfast ready. She'd either overlooked him or saw him and presumed he was still asleep. "He's been through so much trauma...it might have mentally scarred him so bad that he can no longer speak." A pause as she listened on the other end. "Yes, I've spoken to doctors about it. They all tell me to take him to a psychologist, but if he can't speak, I don't see how that will help...I know, I'm just worried...No, he hasn't really made friends with the others. He's taken to Lucy, though, which is something." A sigh, and then, "Mhm...He sleeps in the sunroom a lot, but I don't know why...No, the records say his father was killed in a car accident and his mother overdo--"

At that point, he couldn't take listening anymore. He'd bolted up and out the backdoor before he could hear her finish the word.

Petra homeschooled in the dining room four out of seven days of the week. She'd just had him jump in with where everyone else was, and he picked it up easily. Studying, though, had him thinking of Armin, and that pain in his chest grew a little bit every time he thought of his long lost friend. He thought about using his wish to see him, but that would require speaking, and he wasn't sure he even deserved to see any friends anyway.

Presently, he stat in the waiting room of an animal hospital with Petra, waiting for one of the vets to call them back to see his kitten. She'd taken him as often as possible; the first time, he'd nearly broken down in tears with thankfulness that he was able to save the animal, even in the poor state he'd been in back then. She was bigger every time they visited, and for just a while, he'd forgotten about everything that had gone on just a few weeks ago while he watched her eat, sleep, and try and play on her tiny legs. Today they would find out if she was ready to be taken home yet.

When they were called, he practically jumped up and was several steps ahead of Petra in following the vet back.

She was still so small, but not nearly as tiny as he'd remembered her to be, wrapped up in a bloody towel and looking for milk. As she wandered around a large metal crate, shared with four other black kittens and a large female cat lounging in the corner of the cage, her tail stuck up, stalking toward the black bars in his direction. A small smile forming on his face, Eren knelt down in front of her; she promptly latched onto the bars with her little paws, mewing quietly at him as if she remembered him, almost as if she was thanking him. His smile widened and he offered her one of his fingers to sniff. She nibbled at it gently, her baby teeth grazing his skin.

"In spite of her condition when she arrived, she's a very healthy and happy kitten," the vet said with Petra at his side. Eren didn't even bother looking up. He could tell simply by seeing her as she continued to nibble and nudge at his fingers through the bars with her little black face.

"That's good news," Petra said, seemingly in response for him though she already knew from previous visits.

"Have you a name picked out for her yet?" asked the vet. His face, blue eyes and blond hair coming into Eren's peripheral view as he kneeled down near him. Eren shifted his eyes from the kitten to the man's face, noting his chiseled features and neat hair, trimmed into an undercut. He caught sight of his name tag - 'Erwin Smith', it read.

Eren offered the slightest shake of his head in response. In truth, he hadn't thought much about what he'd name her, especially considering he hadn't seen her since those dark days in that horrid basement. He wanted her name to mean something, even if it was something simple or cliche. They'd made it through that ugly situation together; she'd miraculously survived when her true mother and siblings hadn't, and he'd somehow had enough willpower to keep himself going to protect her until help came. Her name needed to be something of a representation of that.

"That's okay," Dr. Smith said before pushing himself back up and turning back toward Eren's new foster mother. "You weren't kidding," he whispered, to which the teen rolled his eyes and continued playing with his kitten. Like I can't hear you, he thought in annoyance.

"Mhm," Petra hummed. "But he's a fighter, that much is evident. I'm eager to see what he'll do with his life."

Eren let the conversation fade to the background. He was admittedly a bit tired of Petra talking to people when she thought he couldn't hear her, even if she said good things. It was somehow like he was so much different than the others she'd raised, but he couldn't help but wonder if she did the same thing with all foster kids she took in for the first few months they were with her.

"You'll be able to take her home in several week's time," Dr. Smith informed him once their hushed conversation had come to a close. By then, Eren was fully on the floor and using both his hands to play with his kitten and a few other curious ones who'd come up to inspect him and nibble his fingers, squeaking little meows at him. "She's still got some developing to do, but you can come back and see her any time."

Taking that as a dismissal, he sighed through his nose, gently scratched the little one's black nose with the tip of his finger, and moved to his feet. She immediately began squealing out at the sudden loss of attention and the desperate little sounds left a crack on his heart. Still, he turned back toward Petra, who gave him a smile and led him out after thanking the vet.

~

Not two days after the visit was Eren given a decision to make.

"Can I have a word?" Petra asked as she eased her way into the sunroom where he was on the floor leaning back against the couch next to Lucy with a random book he pulled from the shelf for lack of a better thing to do, having already finished the (ridiculously easy, in his opinion) 'home'work Petra had assigned for the day. He shut the book, keeping his place with a thumb between the pages and watched as she sat near him on the couch. "Oluo and I were talking--" Oluo, the name of Petra's husband who Eren still had yet to meet and was constantly wondering what kind of 'business' could keep him away for over a month "--and we've decided to give you a decision to make."

Eren's heart automatically jumped at the new information. Decision? What decision could she possibly need him to make, other than choosing between two different things for dinner to break the tie or if he wanted to move up to a more advanced level in one of the subjects she taught - something she'd already asked about for part of their studies? Was it a decision that would require him to attempt to speak without screaming his lungs out as he'd feared? That thing in his chest felt hard and jagged like a stone, and every day it got a little bigger, a little sharper, and sometimes he was to the point where he didn't even want to open his mouth in fear of wailing at the top of his lungs.

"It's just that we're concerned about the fact that you haven't spoken," she went on; he forced a subtle swallow, unable to meet her eyes any longer. How the hell can someone I've never even met be concerned for me? he thought, perhaps a bit too bitterly. "It's okay, honey." She set a gentle hand upon his shoulder. "You've been through a lot and no one can really blame you for not wanting to talk about it. But we think it might help if you'd like to see a professional about it. We only want what's best and what's going to make you feel safest and most comfortable." And how the hell did he know she was going to say that?

'I'm fine,' he wanted to say. But the fact that he was too afraid to use his voice - for reasons he honestly couldn't entirely fathom - was proof that he wasn't fine. It had been so long since he'd said anything to anyone; he couldn't remember the last time he spoke, what he said, or who it was directed toward. He wouldn't have been surprised if his voice had completely withered away without use and truly had gone mute.

"You don't have to go," Petra continued. "I completely understand if you want to work things out on your own, in your own time. I believe you're more than capable of that. But it couldn't hurt to have a little push, too. So, if you'd like, I can make you an appointment with the psychologist I work with. She's spoken to several of my kids quite a few times and I really think you could benefit from a visit with her. And she makes house calls," she tacked on at the end.

Eren didn't want to see some shrink. Yeah, there was something wrong with him, but he'd been beaten and neglected to the point where he was put in the hospital for crying out loud! Of course he wasn't going to completely be up to par on acting like a perfectly normal fifteen-year-old. Because he wasn't.

The bubble of anger building up was so futile, and he knew it, but it didn't stop him from setting his jaw and turning back to his book, pretending to continue reading without so much as giving her a nod or a shake of his head, as he normally would have (she'd gotten used to asking him strictly yes and no questions, whereas the others hadn't).

"Think about it," she said before standing up. "You don't have to make the decision right away." With that, she exited the sunroom and left him to his own devices.

~

He was left with little time to simply lean one way or the other on the decision, because the very next day Petra dumped more news on him.

Dumped wasn't exactly the best word to use, but after the damn-near ultimatum she'd given him the previous day, it felt like it.

"How would you feel about a roommate?" she asked cautiously, though not lacking a smile.

He raised his brows. A roommate? Already? She continued to smile as if it'd encourage him to the idea.

"Gosh, I know this all so sudden and I'm piling things on you left and right. It's just that this is a little urgent. We might have another kid joining us within the next couple of, oh, months. I wanted to know if you'd be okay with sharing a room with him before I make any definite decisions."

Oh, god, he thought. He already had trouble fitting in and being accepted by the other kids who were already there and not rooming with him; he didn't know how to feel about sharing a room with some random kid from who-knew-where.

But could he really say no? Petra took in troubled kids, kids with darker pasts who struggled to fit into the world anywhere else, and tried to give them a fresh start, easing them into the world better than their true parents had. Meaning whoever would be sharing a room with him was someone who might've seen or experienced the same or similar things as he had. He knew he sure as hell would hate to be rejected from a foster home just because some kid was too stuck up (could a foster child be stuck up?) or selfish to share his room.

"Would you be okay with it?" Petra asked after she didn't get an answer for a long moment.

Eren shrugged, a gesture he hoped came off as 'I don't really mind' rather than flat out 'I don't care'. She smiled warmly at him and squeezed his shoulder, thanking him and telling him she was proud of him for being so gracious. "Have you thought about your wish any further?" She followed up with.

He had, but he hadn't come up with something to use it on, so he simply shook his head. She merely said 'okay' and let him back to his 'studies' - reading about the Cold War in a text book and simply writing notes on it to help him better remember. The note-taking turned out to be essentially fruitless, however, and although he was still into it enough to jot down the important points, his mind kept wandering back to this new roommate he'd be getting soon...

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I feel like the quality of the writing in this chapter is shit and I'm sorry. I also apologize for such a late update. I'm still really excited for this story, though, as I hope some of you might be too. :3

Any suggestions for the name for his kitten? I literally can't think of anything .~.