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Chapter Text

The sun had risen only a few hours ago when the 104th Cadet Corps got up for their morning drills. Connie dragged his feet with Sasha in the back trying to eat some bread without choking on it as they hurried to catch up with the group. In the front was Reiner and Bertholdt with Marco a little behind them. Jean and Eren were past them, trying to push the other out of the lead. Mikasa jogged beside Annie with Armin trying to keep up with the group. Krista and Ymir ran side by side a bit behind Mikasa and Annie.

“Hey Mikasa!” Armin yelled up to her, she turned around to look at him, “wait up for me!” She slowed her pace as Armin pushed himself harder. He caught up to her and Annie, who decided to wait for him as well.

“Thanks” he said between heavy breaths. Mikasa nodded to him with a small smile. They were curving around the path now, meaning that they were almost done with their run. Armin and Mikasa could hear Eren and Jean yelling at each other as Reiner yelled at them to ‘calm their tits’ as he so elegantly put it.

“Shut it, Reiner,” Eren and Jean yelled at Reiner at the same time. Annie huffed a quiet ‘idiots’ under her breath and Armin let out a laugh. The rest of the run Armin continued to slow down, but Mikasa slowed her pace to stay with him, same with Annie surprisingly. The group finally arrived at the Barracks and Mess hall to eat breakfast with the other trainees who were there.

“Beat you Jean!” Eren grinned. Jean growled and grabbed Eren by his collar.

“No way in hell did you beat me, shitface!” Jean spit in Eren's face. Eren kicked Jean in the leg and Jean let go of his collar, in that moment Reiner decided to intervene before Commander Shadis saw and made them run laps till they passed out.

“Eren, Jean, shut up and go eat!” Marco grabbed Jean’s arm and dragged him away from Eren who was currently being talked down by Armin.

“Eren,” Armin snapped his fingers in front of Eren and finally got his attention after doing that twice, “calm down it’s 8:30 in the morning.”

“Jean that stupid hoseface I swear he’s going to feel my wraith one day-“ Armin cut him off by grabbing his hand and pulling him inside the Mess hall. Eren took that as a sign to shut up and let Armin drag him along. After they grabbed food they sat down across from Mikasa who was, surprisingly, talking to Sasha.

“Sasha!” Connie yelled when he slid into the seat beside Sasha, “You ditched me for Mikasa” he said in a fake pouty voice. Sasha laughed and threw her arms around Mikasa’s and Connie’s necks, pulling their faces close to hers.

“I love you both equally!” She said with a bright smile on her face, Mikasa shook Sasha’s arm off her shoulder and covered her face with her hand before anyone could notice she was blushing.

“Shut up” Mikasa muttered and Sasha only laughed harder and ruffled Mikasa’s hair. The room filled with the noise of many conversations at once with the occasional yell from someone (mostly Eren). Soon enough Commander Shadis came in and announced what each group would be doing.

“Alright shit-for-brains, listen up!” he started, “Reiner, Eren, Marco, Jean, and Ymir! You all are practicing using ODM gear. Armin, Mikasa, Krista, Annie, Sasha, and Bertholdt! You all are cleaning the Barracks and ODM gear! Clear out” The people who were practicing ODM went to the storage shed and put on the gear as quickly as they could. Eren practically sprinted outside once he had it on and ran to the treeline where they would start training.

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Eren practically sprinted outside once he had it on and ran to the treeline where they would start training.

“C’mon guys, I wanna get to training as quick as possible, the sooner I can, the sooner I can defeat the titans!” Eren all but screamed, making it clear to the other members in his group that he wouldn’t be shutting up about that anytime soon. He started on the training course before the others, I can’t let them steal any kills from me, Eren thought to himself right before a cutout of a titan appeared. He drew back his arms before thrusting them forward quickly into the soft nape of the fake titan, successfully cutting a chuck of the nape. I got it, he thought and Eren grinned and then came back to the task at hand, he knew he had a short amount of time before the others joined him. Eren saw two more up ahead and sped up, trying to recreate a move he saw Mikasa do, but right before he could cut through the fake nape he was cut off by Jean and Ymir who were barreling towards him. He quickly launched himself to the side and just barely got out of the way before both of them cut deep into the nape. Ymir laughed loudly and let herself almost hit a tree before launching herself up and landing on a branch.

“Bet you you didn't expect that,” Jean said between bated breaths, hands on his knees for no longer than 5 seconds before he took off again in search of another ‘titan’ to kill.

Eren jumped off the branch he was on and raced in the opposite direction of Ymir and Jean. I know there’s a ton of those titan figures in here, all I have to do is find ‘em, Eren thought. Eren shook his head and looked around his surroundings, seeing nothing besides large trees and small plants on the ground. He sighed quietly before turning back in the direction where he could hear faint ODM gear noises.

He shot off, looking around for any cutouts around him, but he soon zoned out after searching for several minutes. The world blurred around him and he thought about what he normally did when he had a chance to be alone, his parents.

He hadn’t heard anything from his dad for the past six years, he was supposed to be graduating in a few short weeks and then joining the Survey Corps. His mom was dead, he watched as a titan grabbed her from the remains of his house and ate her. He cried for weeks, he stopped eating and hardly slept for fear of nightmares. It was a miracle he had Armin and Mikasa there to make sure he didn’t accidentally kill himself or work himself to death when they worked in the fields. As much as the trio tried to block out their memories of the three years where they had no family besides each other, the memories always resurfaced soon enough. Eren could hardly remember when life was simple for the three of them, he’s only mentioned it once to Armin, but he could hardly remember his mothers face and what she sounded like. He sobbed in Amrins arms for a long time after that, allowing Armin to comfort him in a moment of vulnerability. Since that moment months ago neither has mentioned it, but it’s a well known fact among the 104th that anything that happens between Mikasa, Armin, and Eren will either be discussed by everyone or will end in a yelling match between Mikasa and Eren.

Eren shook his head quickly, trying to clear it of useless thoughts and focus on what he should be doing, which is training. When his vision cleared he saw a huge tree less than a foot in front of him, he quickly tried to maneuver to the side but that failed and he hit the tree dead on.

He gasped as the impact knocked the air out of his lungs and then plummeted to the ground from at least five meters. He landed on his arm and let out a blood curdling scream, he quickly bit down on his lip to quiet his screams and desperately tried to get air back into his lungs. Spots danced before his vision and he continued to hyperventilate until his breathing steadied. He sucked in a harsh breath before using his hands to push himself off the ground, he instantly regretted that because the moment he put any pressure on his right arm he let out another scream before cutting himself off. Eren tilted his head to the side to see what happened to his arm, his breath stuttered and then sped up. He had completely broken his arm, the jagged end of the bone stuck through his skin like a knife.

“Calm down, Eren, remember what Dad told you,” he muttered to himself, breath catching each time he looked at his own bone sticking through his elbow.

“I’ll be found soon enough and they’ll get help-“ but he cut himself off, what would happen if he was found in this state? He wouldn’t be able to train for weeks, hell, months if it was bad enough. And it definitely looked bad enough. Tears streamed down his face and he couldn’t tell if they were from pain or from desperation. If I could find my way back to the Barracks, Eren thought, I could use a first aid kit and maybe hid this. He tried again to sit up, this time only using his left arm to push himself up and then scoot to the tree behind him. He leaned on that for a few minutes before he heard a sickening snap come from his arm and it felt like it had just been twisted. He screamed again before sobbing, large tears fell from his eyes and he could barely see his mangled arm through the tears. He didn’t register the fact that steam was rising from his wounds and that his bone had snapped back into place. He unceremoniously slumped to the ground, unconscious without a person knowing where he is or what had happened to him.

Chapter Text

Reiner found Eren slumped on the ground pressed up against a tree, his eyes were closed, red and puffy as if he’d been crying. His blades splayed on the ground in front of him and his gear appeared to be dented. He should know better than to run off alone, Reiner thought. He went to grab Eren’s shoulder to wake him, but Eren startled awake, quickly pushing himself away from Reiner and hiding his right arm behind his back.

“Geez, Eren, what happened?” Reiner asked, reaching forward again only to have Eren push himself further against the tree. Eren’s eyes widened and he tried to stutter out an excuse.

“What? Why would you think something had happened?” he responded with an awkward laugh, eyes darting around the scenery, looking anywhere besides Reiner. Reiner gave him a look.

“Eren, we all heard you scream multiple times. It took us about 30 minutes to find you, but here I am” Reiner tried to assess the situation as Eren tried to calm down. He had no way of hiding his broken arm, if Reiner found out he’d be screwed. He could say goodbye to his dreams of joining the scouts and achieving his goal. Eren had no good ideas on how to get Reiner away, how is one supposed to explain a broken arm and have the most responsible person in the 104th not tell anyone?

“I, uh, didn’t scream. That must’ve been someone else or-“ Reiner cut him off.

“Don’t lie” Reiner responded bluntly. When Eren stared at the ground quietly Reiner’s patience ran out and he moved forward quickly and grabbed Eren’s right arm to pull him up. Eren braced himself for pain…

but it never came. Reiner gave him a weird look, but Eren decidedly ignored that and ripped his arm from Reiners grip and poked it. Nothing. No pain, no blood, no bone sticking out, it’s almost as if it had never happened at all.

“Eren, what the hell are you doing?” Reiner got more confused by the second. As far as he could tell nothing had happened to Eren that would’ve caused him to scream loud enough to be heard from almost a mile away. Eren continued to ignore him and instead poked and prodded his arm like he expected it to hurt.

“Did you say something?” Eren asked innocently, a shit-eating grin on his face as he looked up at Reiner. Internally Eren was panicking, in no way should he be healed in the 30 minutes between hitting the tree and Reiner finding him. Eren was spiraling. Even that could be seen by Reiner who saw his breathing speed up and heard the unsteady breaths. He collapsed and kept working himself up further, why can’t I breathe? Why won’t I calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down...

“Hey, Eren?” Reiner tried to get a response from him, but that wasn’t working. Reiner grabbed both of Eren’s shoulders and shook him. Eren didn’t show any response until his eyes focused on Reiner. “Jaeger? You with me?” Eren nodded, sucking in a lungful of air and coughing harshly when he choked. Reiner breathed a sigh of relief.

“I didn’t know how I was going to explain to Mikasa that you’d died” Reiner nudged Eren’s shoulder and laughed quietly. Eren smiled at him with tired eyes and chuckled. Neither said anything for multiple minutes. Eren was still deep in his thoughts and Reiner was coming up with ideas about what could’ve happened to the young man beside him.

“Ok, come on let’s get back to the barracks and we can get you checked out by someone.” Reiner lifted Eren back up and fiddled with his maneuvering gear.

“Does my gear look functional to you?” Eren asked and whether it was sarcastic or genuine, Reiner couldn’t tell. Reiner looked at Eren’s gear and compared it to his own. Reiner grimaced for the conversion ahead of them.

“No, I’ll carry you back on my ODM gear”

Eren clenched his jaw after hearing what Reiner had said. He was fine, completely fine even after seeing his arm get snapped in half, why couldn’t he just try to use his own gear? He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and nodded to Reiner, albeit reluctantly.

“But if anyone sees, I’ll kill you” Eren says, looking into Reiner’s eyes as if he could see all of the secrets and sins of his past. Reiner swallowed, throat suddenly tight, but quickly focused again and nodded.

“Get on my back” Eren groaned when Reiner said that. “It’ll be more embarrassing for me than it will be for you” Reiner added; as if that pointless lie would make him feel any better about himself.

Once Eren was secure on Reiner’s back and was finishing moping and groaning, they took off.

__________

“Where are they?” Mikasa asked Ymir, agitated that it had been almost an hour without any news of what had happened to Eren or Reiner. Ymir glared and shoved Mikasa back.

“Get off my ass, how should I know where they are?” Ymir growled.

When the group had heard a scream an hour ago Reiner had sent Ymir, Marco, and Jean back to the main training grounds to report to Shadis. Unfortunately, the other group had noticed the lack of two people. They had pelted the trio with questions about what had happened to Eren and Reiner, and after almost an hour without any updates people were growing concerned.

Sasha rolled her eyes and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like ‘dumbasses’ but no one commented on that. Armin continued ignoring everyone and paced back and forth, the sound of dirt crunching filled his ears.

Of course he was worried about his best friend, they’d been through the worst parts of their lives together. For Eren to be out there and potentially hurt, it scared Armin just as much as it did Mikasa. Armin ran a hand through his chin-length hair and exhaled shakily, he paused his pacing for a second when he heard- wait was that ODM gear?

He turned his head in the direction of the quiet noise and saw a bulky figure in the woods coming towards them.

Reiner landed on the grass right outside of the forest they just exited and Eren jumped off his back as if it burned him. They walked in silence to the group of 104th cadets that were less than 500 feet away from them. Eren saw two figures running towards him and knew immediately it was Armin and Mikasa, a slight smile tugged at his lips, not realizing what was about to come.

“Eren! Are you ok? Are you hurt anywhere, what happened?” Mikasa shot question after question at Eren. She grabbed both of his shoulders and looked over him quickly and saw nothing out of the blue, no bruises or blood anywhere in obvious locations. When she turned his arm over she noticed a hole in the elbow of his jacket, and some blood had stained his jacket right around it. Although she was concerned she knew that public confrontations did nothing to get answers out of him. Eren snatched his arm away and glared.

“I’m fine, Mika” he ground out, “stop worrying over me.” Do you think she noticed? Eren wondered. He looked over to Armin who stood awkwardly to the side, clearly not wanting to get in the way of the two. Eren walked over, taking Mikasa with him by grabbing the cuff of her jacket and wrapped both his arms around Mikasa and Armin.

“Trust me, I’m fine,” he said in a serious voice. He hated the idea of his friends worried about him over nothing. He was fine, but no matter what he did he couldn’t get the image of his snapped elbow out of his head. The bone pushing through his skin, blood oozing from the wound, and the bruises starting to form…

“Hey, Eren? You sure you’re ok?” Armin asked after Eren had suddenly gripped him and Mikasa tighter. Armin grew more concerned after Eren didn’t respond for a few seconds, but he then nodded.

“I- I’m ok,” Eren answered softly. Mikasa and Armin shared a look, both knew that whatever had happened in the woods had a bigger effect on him than expected.

“I’d hate to ruin the moment, but Shadis is coming now and I think it would be better for all of us if you guys ended the moment” Jean commented. Connie hit him in the side but didn’t actually say anything. Eren quickly let go of Armin and Mikasa and straightened himself out.

“Anyone care to explain why I got a frantic cadet saying that some fuckhead had screamed bloody murder and no one knew where they were?” Shadis asked, deciding to skip the formalities and going straight to the point. Right before Reiner could respond Eren beat him to it.

“It was me, Sir, I had accidentally hit a bird midair and screamed when I realized I had killed it, Sir!” Eren scrambled to make an excuse up. A few people snickered quietly and then shut up real quickly after seeing Shadis’s glare.

“Are you aware you are an idiot, Cadet?” Shadis yelled in Eren’s face. Eren’s patience was running thin, but deep down he knew he couldn’t say anything back.

“Yes, Sir” he responded dejectedly. Staring at the ground as if it was the most interesting thing around. Just get through the embarrassment and you can figure out what happened, Eren thought, keep it together.

“Run laps till you pass out or the sun sets!” Shadis ordered. Eren could hear Mikasa behind him start to say something, but Eren quickly interjected.

“Yes, Sir!” he saluted Instructor Shadis quickly and then took off running to the track around the training grounds.

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“He’s been running for hours…” Connie trailed off.

After the incident earlier he had been running since almost ten in the morning, now it was four in the afternoon. Eren had slowed down considerably and everyone could tell he was hardly able to keep running, any moment now he would pass out or collapse. Since the cadets had finished their work and training 30 minutes earlier they had been monitoring the situation. Armin talked to Mikasa about how she couldn’t go out there and force Eren to stop running.

“He’ll have to do it himself” Armin had said, calming Mikasa and simultaneously getting himself to relax.

The group of teens were now watching their most determined friend continue to run laps as they sat on the small porch area of the boys’ barracks. Marco, Jean, and Connie relaxed in one corner talking loudly about whatever came to mind. Sasha and Mikasa quietly conversed. Sasha was doing most of the talking but both of them enjoyed each other’s company, it didn't matter if they were talking or not. Ymir and Krista held hands in the other corner of the porch and would laugh loudly occasionally. Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie watched Eren run in silence while sitting on the steps with Armin a foot away from them.

He wanted to go up to Eren, grab his hand, and force him to go inside to lay down. He knew that wouldn’t happen though and would just put a strain on their relationship if anything. Armin wanted to ask Eren so many questions about what had happened to him, but he knew he had to wait for Eren to tell him.

It hurt thinking that Eren could keep all his emotions bottled up, never telling anyone, but he couldn’t judge. Armin did the same thing. Sure, he had told Eren and Mikasa about his emotions and shit like that, but he never did it willingly. Normally Eren would force it out of him or Mikasa would quietly sit by him and say that he could do it at his own pace.

All Armin wanted was for Eren to talk to him the same way Armin had. Eren had the self-destructive tendency to only show how he truly felt when it all became too much. He would either break down or yell first about unimportant things and then break down in a storm of tears and snot.

Armin knew it was dumb and that he should forget about ever getting Eren to talk to him about it, but his heart clenched at the idea of Eren having to deal with it alone. He remembered Eren’s face when Eren had hugged Armin and Mikasa. He looked so vulnerable and scared, to think that Eren could feel that way without saying anything to him pained Armin more than he’d like to admit.

“Hey, guys! He dropped!” Connie yelled and pointed at Eren’s still form lying face down in the dirt only 20 feet from the small porch. Armin jumped to his feet and sprinted over to Eren, Mikasa right behind him. The two of them grabbed Eren’s arms and threw them over their shoulders, his legs dragging slightly on the ground. Once they got inside Armin laid Eren on his bed, thanking Eren subconsciously for picking a bottom bunk.

Mikasa ran off to get water and some bread while Armin sat on the far edge of the bed. After only a few minutes Eren groaned and Armin whipped his head around, surprised that he would be awake so soon after running for nearly 6 hours straight.

That’s my Eren, Armin thought, smiling softly before focusing on Eren again. “Are you ok?”

“Of course I’m ok,” Eren said as he rolled his eyes and grinned slightly at the blonde, “I can run laps in my sleep.” Armin laughed and crawled across the bed to sit next to him instead of at the end of the bed. Mikasa came in a few seconds later with bread and water, shock wove its way across her face, but she quickly steeled herself again. She silently set the bread and water on the floor next to the bed and sat down on the edge closest to Eren.
She sighed and faced him and asked the question Eren was praying she wouldn’t…

“So, Eren, what really happened today?”

Chapter Text

“So, Eren, what really happened today?” Mikasa raised a brow, “because I cannot possible think of an explanation for the blood and hole on your jacket.”

Eren felt the blood rush out of his face and he paused for a second. He quickly rebounded though and put on a smile that wasn’t all fake, he was actually kind of excited to figure out what had really happened to him.

“Don’t you remember? I hit that bird midair right in the elbow and its beak punctured the jacket.”

“So then why is there blood, too?” She wanted to believe Eren, truly, she did want to believe him.

But when his story is so obviously a lie...

“I hit the bird with my elbow and it got squished when I hit it and then, BAM! Blood on my elbow” Eren bullshitted his excuse, that was by far my worst lie, Eren thought. Armin and Mikasa were, coincidentally, thinking the same thing. Armin silently rolled his eyes and then lightly pat Eren on the cheek.

“That’s dumb, Eren” Mikasa said bluntly. Eren rolled his eyes.

“I am a smart and brilliant man, how could I be dumb?” Eren said in a fake proper accent that he imagined was how people would talk in wall Sina. He laughed and then grabbed the cup of water and a small piece of bread. He gulped down the water and shoved some of the bread into his mouth.

“So good,” Eren groaned and then laid back down. Mikasa and Armin copied his movements, so all three of them were squished into the twin bed.

“Reminds me of before joining the Training Corps,” Armin commented, “when we had that small shack to sleep in with only one twin mattress in it.”

“And it reeked of mold and dead rodents” Eren said bitterly, he wasn’t as fond of those memories. It was a harsh life, all of them were glad to get out of that situation and into a better place.

“Remember when we used to run around Shiganshina?” Mikasa asked, rubbing her scarf between her pointer finger and thumb.

“Eren would constantly start fights, but Mikasa would always be the one who ended them.” Armin wheezed, the fond memory of Eren pulling him up off the ground after fighting his bullies still fresh in his mind.

Eren threw his hands over his face, “don’t bring that up” he said in a muffled voice.

“Awwww, is the suicidal maniac embarrassed?” Jean interrupted the moment and glared at Eren and then blushed when he saw Mikasa. Eren parted his fingers slightly to see Jean peering down at the trio.

“Fuck off, Jean” Eren replied, way too tired to put up with his shit. Bertholdt walked in front of the bed and pulled back Jean.

“It’s decently late, so Mikasa can you please head back to the girls’ barracks until we go to Mess Hall for dinner?” Bertholdt asked politely. Mikasa reluctantly nodded and stood up.

“I’ll see you later.” She said to Eren and Armin, turning around quickly she walked out the door. Eren propped himself up and waved bye and then plopped back down on the bed, turning to face Armin directly. Armin blushed at the close quarters and turned to face the wall.

“Armin,” Eren grabbed a piece of Armin’s hair and tugged on it gently, “do you think Mikasa thinks I’m lying?” Eren asked. Armin didn’t know what to say, of course we think you’re lying? We’ve known you since we were kids and you still suck at it. He couldn’t tell that to Eren though.

“I’m sure she’s just nervous, we didn’t know what could’ve happened to you” Eren nodded and slammed his fist onto the bed.

“I’m so tired of her treating me like I’m some baby! I’m 15, I literally saved her from being kidnapped. Why does she continue to think so little of me?” Eren growled, trying to keep his voice moderately low so no one else could hear him.

“Eren, she thinks the world of you, do you seriously not see the look in her eyes when you talk to her?” Armin pressed. He didn’t know how Eren could be so oblivious, after all these years and he still hasn’t picked up on her feelings for him.

Eren rolled his eyes and punched Armin lightly in the side, “yea, yea, we have to stay together, I can’t die, I can’t join the Survey Corps. She’s told me all that a million times, of course I know her feelings”

No, you clearly do not. Armin sighed and slid off the bed and made his way over to the group of boys talking around a small table.

”Hey Armin,” Jean said, “sorry about having to kick Mikasa out, but you know, rules and shit”

Connie slapped the back of his neck, “You don’t care about rules, you just didn’t wanna see her cuddling up to Eren.”

“I do not!” he yelled back, “she’s nice and all, but not my thing.” Connie wheezed and sat down in the chair beside him.

“So then what is your thing?”

Jean shrugged, making eye contact with Marco for a split second and then looking back at the table, “living I guess, getting into the Military Police.”

That shut everyone up real quick. The chances of them all dying a painful death at a young age was impossibly high.

“What an absolute coward,” Eren said, “you’ll let hundreds of other people die just for the sake of yourself?”

“Of course I would! We all aren’t as willing to throw away our lives like you!” Jean yelled back. Eren walked up to him and grabbed the front of his shirt, yanking Jean just inches away from his face.

“Eren! Get off of him, what the hell?” Reiner yelled, but Eren ignored him.

“You know, Jean, I’m so tired of you always talking about the Military Police as if you have any reason to join. What have you seen? What have you done to deserve that life? I’ll answer: you’ve done nothing,” Eren’s voice cutting through the quiet, the temperature dropped as his voice took on a chilling tone, “you think I want to throw away my life? Fuck no, but I have revenge to get and people that I can still save.” Jean stilled and then pushed away, making Eren trip and go crashing to the floor.

“You piece of shit! I have every right to join the MPs, I’m tired of you thinking we all have to join the Survey Corps just because your mom got herself killed! Stop forcing us to join when it’s only your fault she’s dead!” Eren went dead silent, his breathing shallow and rapid. He got off the ground and stalked out of the barracks, turning around at the door he looked straight into Jean’s eyes, tears starting to form in his own.

“Die.” he said between clenched teeth and then walked out. Jean stared at where Eren used to be and then looked at Armin.

“I- I swear I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to take it that far-“

“Save it, Jean.” Armin said.

Marco cut in and grabbed Jean’s forearm and then dragging him away, Connie following.
Leaving only Reiner, Bertholdt, and Armin around the table.

“I’ll go get him-“ Armin started saying and then rushed out the door, not bothering to finish his sentence. He didn’t see anyone in the area and ran around for a few minutes before having a good idea of where he could be.

“C’mon Eren, where are you” Armin muttered.

_________

“Go get Annie, impromptu Warriors meeting” Reiner whispered to Bertholdt, they both discreetly left the small building and went in the direction of the girls’ barracks. Reiner left as well and went to where they would normally talk about such things. After a few minutes, Bertholdt showed up with an annoyed-looking Annie.

“Why did you call this meeting?” Annie asked Reiner, she had been relaxing with the other girls and was enjoying it for once.

“Something is up with Eren,” Reiner responded.

“There’s always something up with him, what happened now?” She was tired and wanted to eat something, maybe go lie down.

“He’s just… weird, weirder than normal. When I went to look for him earlier he was passed out, but when I went to wake him up he jolted awake and then wouldn’t let me touch his arm. When I did touch his arm he seemed shocked that it was fine, something happened.” Reiner finished, staring at Annie and Bertholdt.

Bertholdt laughed and smiled, “it kinda reminds me of when I had first gotten hurt after inheriting the Colossal Titan.” He shook his head slightly and continued, “what do you two think might have happened… guys?” he questioned.

“Bert, you’re a genius!” Reiner exclaimed.

“Hold on, the chances of him having a titan is tiny and even if he did, he would probably know.” Annie said blankly, Reiner sighed and looked at Bertholdt.

“But it’s a lead, he could’ve been the one to eat Marcel,” Reiner said seriously, Annie raised a brow and rolled her eyes.

“I highly, highly doubt that. He has very solid feelings about the titans and his mom’s death, you can’t fake those tears. Plus we’ve all seen him actually lie, he sucks ass.” Annie turned around and walked back in the direction of the girls’ barracks, but turned around after a few steps and glared at them. “Take care of this, I’ll leave this to you since it’s your idea,” and then stalked off into the night.

“That went well?” Bertholdt commented, but it came out more like a question. Reiner nodded and grinned at Bertholdt.

“You’re smarter than you think,” he said, but continued more seriously, “although this plan isn’t well thought out, I think we could figure it out relatively easily. All we have to do is cut him and see what happens.”

Bertholdt shrugged, “sounds fine to me,” and then went off back to the boys’ barracks. Is this actually happening? It all came together so quickly and randomly, Reiner thought. He pushed those thoughts aside and jogged over to Bertholdt, together the two of them went back inside.

__________

“Eren!” Armin called out again. Before he knew it, he was in front of the forest where they would train. The blonde sighed and continued in, praying that Eren wasn’t lost or doing dumb things that would get him in even more trouble.

__________

Eren was in the woods, running away from his friends and problems. Tears streamed from his eyes and his heart was pounding as he ran further into the woods. He wiped them away with his hand and continued running until he got his foot caught by a tree root. He came crashing to the ground and he pulled himself onto his knees, he pulled his hands into his chest and sobbed.

He sobbed for his mom who he couldn’t save, his dad who disappeared after the fall of wall Maria, Armin’s family, Mikasa’s family. He only acted like a big shot so no one would realize all the guilt he had for what had happened. The brunettes sobbing turned into pitiful whimpers after several minutes. He could feel his pulse racing and his eyes stung from the constant assault of tears. He heard a snap behind him and he spun around.

“Who’s there?” he croaked out, voice still sore and tears still coming.

“It’s just me,” a soft voice said that Eren could recognize from anywhere. Armin stepped out of the bushes and trees and into the small clearing that Eren was currently kneeling in. Armin’s breath hitched when he saw Eren clearly, his eyes bloodshot, tears poured over his cheeks silently. Eren’s neck was red and had slight red lines as if his hands had been scratching it. Armin ran over to him and dropped to the ground in front of him, cupping Eren’s face in his hands and wiping away the tears. Eren broke down and threw his arms around Armin, face smushed in Armin's neck and dampening his shirt. Armin rubbed Eren’s back slowly and whispered to him nonsense that he hoped would cause Eren to calm down.

Eren looked at him, eyes that used to be bright and full of life now seemed dull and tired, “Is it my fault, Armin? For not saving her…” Armin shushed Eren by shoving Eren’s face back into his shoulder.

“No, don’t let anyone make you feel that way. It’s not your fault Eren, you were 10 years old.” Armin said quietly, “you can’t blame yourself for that-“

“But I can! It was my fault, I was right there in front of her, but I was too weak to pull her out,” Eren gripped Armin’s jacket like it was a lifeline and he sobbed harder, “you can’t tell me not to blame myself, when have you ever experienced that?” Eren said spitefully, instantly realizing his mistake. He pulled his face away from Armin and let go of his clothes.

“I didn’t mean that,” Eren sighed. Armin was shaking now too, he hadn’t thought of his family for a while and for a good reason. He buried those feelings down though and looked at Eren.

“It’s ok, I’m ok” he whispered, Eren nodded and wrapped Armin in another hug, but this time Armin hugged him back. Eventually he felt Eren exhale a shaky breath and untangle himself from Armin.

“C’mon, let’s go back, it’s dark now. We’ve probably missed dinner.” He offered his hand to Armin and then pulled him off the ground and then tugged him in the direction of what he assumed was the barracks. After walking for a few minutes in silence listening to Eren’s occasional sniffles, Armin realized they were still holding hands. He blushed and looked over to the side making sure Eren didn’t see that, why am I acting like this? It’s not like we like each other, Armin thought. He heard about relationships with two men, but it was hardly spoken of. The only time Armin had seen it was when two men were in an alley kissing, back when wall Maria was still standing.

“Armin, I think we’re lost,” Eren said awkwardly. Armin looked around and he could hardly make out the shapes of trees in the low light. He only then realized the sun had set, the only source of light was the moon now. “What do we do?” Eren asked.

“We should try and get back, we’ll be in so much trouble if we don’t and there’s probably bears around.” Armin responded, Eren’s jaw dropped.

“Bears? I completely forgot we had issues besides titans,” Armin rolled his eyes after Eren said that. How Eren could go from sobbing and hyperventilating to joking around, Armin would never know. He focused back on the present and realized they were still holding hands, he almost fell when Eren surged forward. Dragging Armin behind him he sprinted to a medium-sized tree with the roots of it exposed and let go of Armin’s hand. Armin felt strangely hurt that Eren had let go of him and his hand felt cold now that it was exposed to the crisp air.

“Eren?” Armin asked hesitantly, Eren had run to the large roots that were above ground and sat down.

“Armin, we could sleep here!” Eren said excitedly, he always enjoyed being outside and especially with his friends.

“I don’t know if that's such a good idea… we should keep walking back and find our way.”

“We could do that and get even more lost or we could sleep against these roots and trees and find our way in the morning,” Eren said, slapping the slide of the tree as an example.

“Eren, what if we completely lose our sense of direction?”

“Armin, what if we get eaten? Or kidnapped?” Eren countered, his smile growing bigger.

“Eren,” Armin said in a chastising voice, he walked over and heaved Eren off the ground, “no.” Eren sighed and reluctantly agreed.

“Fine, but if we don’t find our way back it's your fault” he grumbled.

They continued walking for a while, it must’ve been at least an hour since Eren proposed his idea to sleep in those tree roots, but neither kept track of time as they were too encaptured by the conversion. Even if it was all nonsense, Eren would become completely involved and Armin would stare at him as he yelled about anything and everything. We’re holding hands again, Armin’s mind supplied for him and he blushed.

Why do I keep blushing? Armin internally questioned.

“Whoa dude, you ok? Your face is really red-“

“I’m fine!” Armin yelled and cut Eren off awkwardly. Eren rolled his eyes and kept walking, crossing his arms and ripping his hand out of the blonde’s grasp. The rest of the trip was even more awkward. Walking in complete silence and only hearing the occasional rustle of bushes was decidedly not enjoyable. Fuck, I made this weird, didn’t I? Eren thought, but his thoughts all ended when he saw a light up ahead.
“Hey Armin you see that light too, right?” he whispered. Armin nodded and then Eren started sprinting over.

“Eren! Wait, we don’t know what it could be!” Armin yelled and then ran after him.

Chapter Text

“Eren! Wait, we don’t know what it could be!” Armin yelled and then ran after him. Armin picked up the pace when he saw Eren disappear behind a wall of trees that a small amount of light peaked through. He paused right before he went past the tree and tried to listen, he could slightly hear voices that decidedly were not Erens’. Although every other second he could hear a voice very similar to Erens’. He saw a small space between the tree branches to look and then he saw something he would never forget.

___________

Eren wasn’t having a good day, other than the fact that he sobbed for a minimum of an hour and then got lost in the woods with his best friend... it still wasn’t good. He just had to stumble in on a campground of a bunch of guys with guns, it wouldn’t have been an issue if they had just let him leave.

“Heyyy, fellas? You seem to be busy, so I’ll just go…” He awkwardly tried to turn around and go back to Armin, but he hit the chest of a tall man and stumbled backward.

“What do we do with him?” The man that Eren had run into asked, in total there were four people. Three guys and a girl, each one armed with a gun and probably concealed knives.

“I don’t fucking know, let’s just kill ‘em,” another guy responded. Eren started internally panicking and did the only thing he could think to do, punch someone. He bounced on his heels and used the form Annie had taught him, he quickly hit the first man in the jaw and dipped to the side of him. Eren sprinted to the trees that he assumed he had come from. Armin jumped out of the trees as soon as Eren was running, neither could dodge the other in time and they collided. Smacking each other in the temple and crashing to the ground. Armin and Eren dropped to the ground. Armin was silent and unmoving, but Eren was groaning and holding his head. He slowly pushed himself off the ground and almost tipped over, but steadied himself and got in the fighting stance again. This time in front of Armin’s unconscious body.

“F- Fuck off,” Eren stuttered. His headache was increasing and his vision was getting increasingly blurred. The people laughed and one went up to Eren and pushed him over.

“This ones got some fight, eh?” The man laughed. Eren’s eyes slowly closed and the last thing he saw was Armin’s body next to his.

___________

“Think we could take these kids to the underground?” A woman's voice asked. Eren shifted slightly and cracked his eyes open. Armin was laying on his side, eyes still closed and blonde hair splayed on the wooden floor of what Eren guessed was a wagon. Eren laid there for a few minutes listening to their captors talking and trying to regain his senses. All I need to find is a weapon of some sort, that way I can get Armin and me out of here, he mused. He glanced up at the sky and found that the sunrise had started, painting the sky shades of pink and yellow. He also noticed his legs were tied together with rope, but not his hands. This’ll be easy, they must be amateurs, Eren thought confidently.

“Are they both unconscious still?” Someone asked, a man grunted in response.

“Think so…” he trailed off. The wagon hit a bump and Eren smacked his head on the floorboards and his eyes squeezed shut while he gasped. Armin stirred awake and groaned. All heads turned their way and Eren mentally sighed.

“They are awake clearly.” The woman said and rolled her eyes, Eren bared his teeth.

“Fuck you!” he shouted. He started struggling in his restraints and Armin watched him with wide eyes. Eren stopped when he heard a gun cock and a cold sensation under his rib cage. Eren looked down and saw a shotgun jammed into his stomach.

“Shut up or I’ll kill you right here” the man said who was holding the gun. Eren shuddered and looked up defiantly.

“Do it, pussy” he replied. Eren was trying to smile, but it turned out more like a grimace. The man sighed and lowered his gun, but that opening gave Eren the perfect time to attack. He reeled his head back and slammed it into the man's head. Both dropped to the ground, but Eren recovered quickly and hopped over to the man's body. He grabbed the gun and pointed it at the people, his and Armins captors also had guns pointed at them.

“Why don’t we all just calm down and come to an agreement, there’s no point in killing each other,” Armin tried to reason with a small smile. Eren searched the man's pockets for a knife and he cut his legs out of the rope and then did the same to Armin. After successfully cutting Armin out Eren wasted no time and shot at them, but missed horribly.

The woman grabbed her gun and shot at Eren’s chest, hitting the mark. The kidnappers stared at them and started talking amongst themselves, assuming they would be able to grab Armin if he ran.

Armin wasn’t paying attention to any of them, his focus was entirely on Eren in his arms. Blood seeped through Eren’s shirt where he got shot and tears fell down Armin’s cheeks. All of a sudden the sound of electricity filled the space and Armin looked around,

then he saw it.

Electricity danced on Eren’s chest and loudened. Armin had the common sense to jump out of the cart and sprint to a tree. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the kidnappers jump out and run as well, clearly noticing the noise. A huge bolt of lightning came from the sky and hit the cart. Armin’s jaw dropped. Where Eren’s bloody body used to be stood a 15-meter class titan. Brown hair down to its shoulders and muscles lined its arms and legs. Armin stepped out from the tree and gaped.

“Eren?” Armin asked, the titan swiveled its head to Armin and crouched down. “This cannot be happening. No, no, nonononono! I’m dreaming, this is all a terrible dream and I’ll wake up any second!” Armin yelled and smacked himself, hard. The titan tilted its head and reached forward to pick up Armin. Not a dream clearly, Armin thought bitterly. He screamed and ran down the small dirt road they were on. He felt the ground beneath him disappear and was lifted into the sky, only feet away from the massive titan’s face. It breathed in his face and he gagged.

“Eren? Are you in there?” Armin asked, he felt stupid for ever thinking that titan could be Eren. But the titan responded by licking Armin and grunting. Armin decided to try something again. “Eren, can you put me down?” He asked. The titan set Armin on the ground and roared for seemingly no reason in particular. Armin felt all the air leave his body.

Holy shit, that’s Eren. Eren is a titan, Armin's thoughts went a million miles per second. He laughed hysterically and sat on the grass, heart pounding. The cart and people were demolished, they were in the middle of who knows where, and Eren was a titan. Three issues that Armin had to deal with. The sun was still only just beginning to rise, so he hoped no one would be around to see Eren like this.

Armin walked up to the cart and threw up once he saw the carnage. Two of their kidnappers didn’t run away when Eren had started flickering with electricity, so when he transformed he smashed them. The mangled bodies of two people were still on the cart, burned and bloody. The remaining body was thrown from the cart. It had its neck and arms bent at a 90-degree angle and its eyes stared at the ground, lifeless.

He didn’t seem to remember that there were four kidnappers and only three bodies. He had forgotten about the kidnapper that was able to get away in time.
An idea popped into his head.

“Hey, Eren!” He yelled at the titan, Eren’s titan looked at him as if he was ready to take orders. “Can you dig a hole?” Armin asked. He was praying Eren in titan form would still be able to understand complex questions. Eren seemed to mostly understand, so he ripped dirt and grass out of the ground, leaving a hole that was about 2 meters by 2 meters. Armin mentally prepared himself to lift the corpses into the hole, but after grabbing one of the dead bodies and its guts getting on himself he decided not to. Instead, he was hoping Eren could do this task for him as well.

He knew it was selfish, he knew he should man up and do it himself- but he couldn’t. He didn't like the fact that he had seen dead bodies at the age of ten, he repressed those memories for years. Seeing all this though, it brought him back to those. He gagged again and dropped onto his knees, dry heaving onto the grass. He remembered when he saw his first dead body.

He was running with his grandpa to the boat that was going to leave for Wall Rose. Titans surrounded the area, smoke rose from houses and the screams of innocent people being killed filled the air. He had stumbled over something and when he turned back to look his eyes widened. He had tripped over the arm of a dead woman. Not even a full woman at this point. Only her upper body remained in tact. Eyes stared at the sky. His grandfather pulled his arm and dragged him away from the body. As they continued moving more bodies would show up, missing limbs and covered in blood. Guts were strewn across their bodies and the ground painting the stones red.

Armin had always known about titans and what they did, he just never expected it to be this bad.

He came back to the present to see Eren still in titan form looking at him expectantly. Armin weakly said, “lift the bodies into the hole and cover it in dirt.” He didn’t have the mental capacity to be amazed when Eren did just that.

Eren sat on the ground, mirroring Armin, but suddenly a loud crash came from the side where Eren’s titan form was now laying face-first into the ground. A burst of steam came from the nape of Eren’s titan and a body came out of it, specifically, Eren. Armin stumbled over to it and shoved his arms under Eren’s armpits, tugging him out of the fleshy nape that was connected to him. Eren was so hot that it burned Armin to touch his skin directly, but after a few more pulls Eren finally came out of the nape fully.

They tumbled down to the grass. Eren’s titan was quickly evaporating and it was making the smell of burnt and rotten flesh increase tenfold. Armin cradled Eren in his chest, he shoved his head into Eren's chest and listened for the sound of his heart still beating. Armin breathed a heavy sigh of relief when he heard the familiar sound in Eren’s ribcage.

He glanced at the sky, it still pink and yellow, covering the world in a golden haze. It painted a beautiful background for the absolute carnage around him.

Although Armin wanted to get his way back to the training ground he didn't know how he would be able to do that. He had to wait for Eren to regain consciousness to begin to find their way back. Armin dragged Eren back towards a tree and Armin propped himself against it. Then he placed Eren so he was in between Armin’s legs, head resting on his chest. Armin dozed off, cheek pressed against Eren’s hair.

This was the most peaceful Armin had seen him in a while.

SOMEWHERE IN TROST DISTRICT —

A woman ran through the crowds of people on the streets at eight in the morning, looking around for anyone who resembled a soldier. Her heart pounded as her eyes darted around from place to place. She thanked whatever god out there that she had driven the cart close enough to be able to get to Trost District on foot. Her hands still trembled after that encounter.

She was a strong woman; grew up in the Underground and fought her way out. Never in her life has she seen anything like a kid transforming into a titan. She shuddered and quickly focused when she saw the Wings of Freedom on the backs of Survey Corps members. She followed them until she couldn’t see them anywhere, she spun around multiple times before getting kicked to the ground. A sword was thrust at her throat and she looked up at a short man with silver eyes and an undercut.

“Why are you following us?” he asked harshly. She only then noticed the other person behind him. They had brown hair up in a messy ponytail and glasses.

“I have something to report,” she responded as confidently as she could. The two scouts shared a look and then the short man nodded at her to continue. “I was in the woods and me and my friends found some kids, so we obviously were concerned because they were alone at night in a huge forest.

“We told them that we could take them to Trost District and they agreed, so after a couple of hours of driving a wagon, we were about two to three miles away. One of the kids got hurt somehow and transformed into a titan. Yes, you heard me right: a titan.” She knew she was lying through her teeth about the backstory, but it’s not like she could say ‘I kidnapped two kids’. She prayed they would buy the story and finished speaking. The scouts stared at her in silence before all hell broke loose.

“How stupid do you think we are?”

“Tell me all about it! What did it look like? How did it transform?” the person with long hair pushed the short man out of the way and shook her shoulders. A huge smile on their face and they asked her question after question. “Where are my manners?! I’m Hange Zoë and this short angry man is Levi Ackerman! Humanity's strongest soldier!” Hange said with a teasing grin. Levi rolled his eyes and scoffed.

“I’m Lena,” the woman responded curtly. She still didn’t trust these people.

“What did the kids look like?” Levi asked.

“Uh, both looked about 14, maybe 15, and one had shoulder-length blonde hair and blue eyes. The other had short brown hair and green eyes, his skin was tanner too. The brown-haired one turned into the titan because the blonde ran away.” Lena replied, she didn’t know why she was snitching on some kids. Call it revenge.

“Clothes?” Hange perked up.

“I don’t remember well, both had brown cropped jackets though.” She responded. Hange seemed to perk up more.

“They could be in the training corps, I’m pretty sure the training grounds are only about 20 miles out of Trost,” Hange said excitedly to Levi. Levi stared at them tiredly.

He sighed, “How do we know you aren’t lying to get us out of Trost and then kill us?”

“What!? Ignore him, Lena, we believe you.” Hange butt in and elbowed Levi in the temple. He promptly responded by kicking them in the leg.

He sighed again and pinched his brow, “how long ago did you find them and when did you get here?”

“I found them probably around one to two in the morning, or I guess night… Whatever, we waited about 30 minutes and then got in the wagon to drive to Trost. After we drove for about two and a half hours we got a few miles from Trost. That’s when the kid got hurt and turned into a titan, that was at about six in the morning. I walked the last few miles on foot, taking breaks occasionally. Since it’s about eight I probably wandered for two or so hours.” Lena explained.

Well, her explanation seems to make sense, but something isn’t fitting here, Levi thought bitterly. “I’ll get Erwin’s permission to check this out, Hange come with me. Lena, go eat somewhere. We’ll find you.”

“Levi, you’re the best! Let’s go!” Hange yelled, looping their arm around Levi’s shoulders.

ON THE ROAD TO TROST, NEAR A FOREST —

Eren woke up feeling hot and confused. He felt arms around him, so he shifted slightly and saw Armin’s blonde hair and cheek pressed into Eren’s head. Eren smiled and started playing with a strand of Armin’s hair until he woke up, it didn't take too long. Armin saw him awake and then tightened his grip on Eren, pulling him into his chest more.

“What do you remember?” Armin asked softly.

“Not much, getting shot, and then something happened. I can’t remember what though,” Eren replied, “Why? Did I do something wrong? It doesn’t matter if I got shot, all that matters is that I’m fine.”

Armin sighed. He should’ve known Eren wouldn’t remember and that he would get defensive about being shot because to him, worrying his friends is a fate worse than death. He peered over Eren’s head to see blood still staining Eren’s shirt, but the skin underneath it was smooth. Not even a scar was left.

“Eren I don’t know how to say this, so I’ll just get to the point: you transformed into a titan.” Armin said simply. He felt Eren stiffen and then rip himself out of Armin’s arms.

“You’re lying,” Eren deadpanned. He refused to be the monster he had set out to destroy from the start. Armin looked at him pitifully and Eren clenched his fists, body shaking.

“You’re lying, right?” Eren whispered, tears shimmering in his eyes. Armin shook his head slightly.

Armin knew he should tell Eren about the people he’d killed, just rip off the bandaid. But after seeing the look on Eren’s face— he wasn’t making any noise as tears slipped out of his eyes and landed on the grass— he decided he wouldn’t do that to Eren’s already fragile mental state. Eren’s breathing grew rapid and he stood up pacing back and forth before punching a tree. He whimpered and clutched his hand to his chest. Armin started walking over to him but stopped when Eren started whispering something.

“I just want my mother back…” Eren was muttering to himself. That statement finally broke Armin’s composure and he rushed forward to Eren, gathering him in his arms.

And for the second time in the past 12 hours, Eren sobbed in Armin’s arms.

Chapter Text

Armin rubbed Eren’s back soothingly and tried to get him to calm down. As much as Armin wanted Eren to be able to feel this out, he knew that they had to start finding their way to the training grounds. He’ll just have to suck it up, Armin thought and immediately felt bad, cringing slightly. He didn’t want to do this, no one wanted to listen to their best friend quietly sob and mutter stuff about their dead mom and then force them to get up and start walking, but he had to. For the sake of keeping whatever happened during the past 12 hours a secret.

Armin reluctantly stopped rubbing Eren’s back and whispered. “C’mon Eren, let’s go.”

Eren nodded and shakily stood up, tears still leaking out of his eyes. Armin grabbed his hand and started dragging him along the side of the road. Armin stared forward, too scared to see the look on Eren’s face if he turned back.

For the next 30 minutes, they trudged on. Armin continued to take the initiative and led Eren along the path. Eren, during those 30 minutes, had considerably calmed down. His soft whimpers turned to sniffles and him clenching Armin's hand like it was the only thing keeping him sane. Maybe it was. Eventually, they got to the gates of Trost District.

When they walked in they immediately got weird looks. Armin glanced back at Eren to realize that both of them were covered in blood.

“Eren, take off your jacket and shirt.” Armin said, Eren paused and gave him an incredulous look. “Please?” Armin begged.

“Fine, don’t get too distracted by my devilishly good looks though.” Eren replied teasingly, trying to shake the jitteriness out of his body.

It was at this moment that Armin realized something was off about Eren. His eyes racked over Erens body as Eren took off his shirt and jacket, then glanced at Armin. Armin felt the blood rush out of his face.

“Eren? What happened to your face?” He asked.

“What do you mean?” Eren asked, worried. Armin quickly looked around them and then grabbed Eren’s forearm, running to the nearest alley.

“Don’t freak out- I just said don’t freak out,” Armin sighed. Eren had started to clench and unclench his fists, his signature sign that he was about to freak out. Armin grabbed Eren's hands and curled their fingers together. He then lifted the back of Eren’s hand to his cheek, right below his eyes. Eren realized it too. He ripped his hand out of Armin’s hand and pushed underneath his eye, feelings the ridges that decidedly were not there before.

“What the fuck, what the fuck are those things I feel, Armin?” Eren asked hurriedly. Armin was at a loss, he didn’t know. He practically passed out right after getting Eren out of his titan, and the past hour or so have been chaotic. He easily could’ve missed seeing those marks on Eren’s face.

“That can wait, what need is to find a shirt and hat for you. I got hardly any blood on my shirt, but I had to ditch the Training Corps jacket so I’ll be fine. Just keep your head down.” Armin quickly put it together. Eren still looked apprehensive though.

“Do you trust me?” Armin asked innocently.

Eren rolled his eyes and shoved Armin playfully, “of course I trust you.”

“Great, let’s go.” Armin peeked his head out of the alley and looked around for any clothes they could steal. He wrapped his arm around Eren and whispered, “I’ll lead you, just look at the ground in front of you.” Eren nodded slightly in response.

Armin saw a shirt only about 20 feet in front of them on a clothes rack. Running forward and muttering a short ‘sorry’ he ripped the shirt off the rack and shoved it into Eren’s arms. Eren wasted no time in putting it on. Slipping it over his slim, but still muscular, body. Armin then looked for a hat and saw none except on people’s heads.

“Pretend to fall over and get hurt in front of that man.” Armin said, pointing to a random man in a hat.

“That’s humiliating, I’m not doing that!” Eren whisper-yelled.

“Would you rather get questioned by the military police after being found out?” Armin countered. Eren groaned and slapped a hand over his face. He shook Armin’s arm off his shoulders and flipped him off behind his back as he walked over to their target.

I feel like an idiot, Eren seethed inwardly. Once he was in front of the man he pretended to trip and fall. He prayed this man would rise to the bait, so Armin could grab his hat.

“Son, are you alright?” The man asked worriedly. Eren had to stifle a laugh and pretended to groan.

“My leg hurts…” Eren trailed off. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Armin break into a sprint and come barreling into them, knocking the hat off of the man’s head. After Armin grabbed the hat, Eren grabbed Armin’s arm and pulled him in the opposite direction.

“Hey! Give me my hat back!” The man yelled after them.

“Sorry, sir!” Armin called back. They ran to a random tavern and barreled in. The door slamming on the wall and the room went deadly silent. Armin and Eren pulled themselves together and walked up to the bar.

“We don’t serve minors.” The bartender said roughly.

Armin flushed and stuttered, “O- oh we aren’t here to drink. We’re wondering where the Military training grounds are.”

The bartender raised a brow, “from my limited knowledge that’s about 20 miles west of here,” he replied. Eren sighed and slammed his hands on the bar, then forcefully pulled Armin out of the Tavern.

Eren whirled around to face Armin once they were outside, “Let’s steal a wagon and some horses.”

Armin blanched. A shirt and hat were one thing, but an entire wagon and horse? That’s a whole other story.

“I don’t think that's such a good idea. I’m sure there are other options,” Armin calmly responded. Eren grumbled and ran up to the next person.

“Excuse me, but what time is it?”

“About 9:30.”

Eren paled but quickly recovered. “Thank you.” He jogged back over to Armin and repeated the time to him.

“Oh Walls…” Armin whined. The 104th definitely knew by now they were missing, probably already told Shadis. “Fine, but-“

“Yes!” Eren interrupted excitedly. Armin cut in.

“but, we will never talk about this again and I’m not doing the stealing part. Your idea means you get to do it yourself,” he said while crossing his arms. Armin knew that was selfish, but at this point he didn't care.

“You got it! Go outside of the gate to Trost and I’ll get you!” Eren grinned before kissing Armin’s forehead and running to where he saw wagons earlier.

Armin blushed furiously and quickly turned around, heart beating out of his chest. He walked over and out of the gate and leaned up against the wall. Luckily the Garrison Regiment was nowhere to be found, so he could do it. Eren please don’t do anything too crazy, Armin thought.

Eren ran to the nearest wagon with horses still attached and pretended to pet the horse as he looked to see if anyone was around. Once he knew no one was looking at him, he grabbed the reins that were tied around a post. He led the horse and wagon onto the side of the main street, then he quickly jumped on the wagon.

“Wait, I don’t even know how to drive a wagon,” Eren muttered to himself. He hopped off the wagon and detached the horse. He had learned how to ride a horse in training, so he hoped Armin would be fine with this arrangement. He swung himself onto the horse and was about to take off when he heard a voice yell.

“That’s my horse, dipshit! Get off of it!” A man yelled behind him.

Eren turned around with a shit-eating grin, “sorry!” Eren laughed and squeezed his legs, signaling the horse to move. The horse took off and the hat fell off his head as the wind picked up. He continued quickly until he was past the gate and stopped abruptly in front of Armin.

“What happened to the wagon?” Armin screeched.

“Believe it or not, I don’t know how to drive a wagon…” Eren said sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Then why would your own idea have an impossible component to it?” Armin asked.

“Does that really matter?” Eren whined, but then realized the situation they were in, “just get on, some guy saw me stealing this horse.”

Armin gaped, but grasped Eren’s hand and pulled himself up onto the horse. “You better not get us in trouble.”

“With the Eren Jaeger? No way!” Eren snickered and then pulled the horse's reins. They took off and Armin quickly put his arms around Eren’s torso to make sure he wouldn’t fall off.

“This should take us about an hour if we keep going at this pace!” Armin yelled so Eren could hear him over the wind.

“Then we should get there at about 11!” Eren yelled back. Armin pressed his face into Eren’s back and nodded, arms tightening. Armin stayed in that position for who knows how long before he felt Eren stiffen under his grasp and the horse came to a stop. He raised his head and saw what had bothered Eren; the remains of the cart Eren had smashed stood out in the center of the dirt road, but what stood out more was the blood.
“Did,“ Eren paused, “did I do that?”

“I was going to tell you I promise, but-“

“Did I do that?” Eren asked again, voice rough and sharp. Armin was a loss for words.

“Yes,” Armin replied quietly. He felt Eren’s body tremble and then the horse moved again. Armin went back to laying his cheek on Eren’s back and looped his arms back around Eren’s torso.

“Let’s get going again.” Eren muttered. Armin squeezed him tighter, hoping that could help.

They continued down the worn dirt road.

___________

“C’mon Erwin, let us go check this lead out. It’s not like we have any expeditions today. We’ll be gone for a few hours max” Hange pleaded, Levi a few feet away from them. If Levi was being truly honest, he wanted to go check this story out as much as Hange did. He wanted to know if this random lady was full of shit or not.

“Erwin,” Levi injected, “if this lead doesn’t show us anything beneficial we’ll come straight back.” Erwin sighed and dismissed them with a flick of the wrist.

“Yes! Thank you, Erwin! You won’t regret this decision, I have a good feeling about this,” Hange shouted then ran out the door. Levi groaned and walked out of the room as well, eyeing Erwin one last time before stepping out. He caught up to them quickly and saw them talking to Moblit excitedly, rushing around the room gathering pens and papers. They turned around to see Levi leaning against the doorframe.

“Ready?” he asked. Hange nodded and quickly said bye to Moblit before rushing out the small office space. Levi jogged after them and once he caught up, grabbed their wrist.

“Wait, we have to grab that Lela girl.”

“You mean Lena?” Hange corrected.

“Yeah, sure, whatever. Go get her, I’ll get the horses for us.” Levi said. Hange gave him a thumbs up and rushed over to where they had left Lena an hour ago. I didn’t think it would take that long to talk to Erwin and then get his permission, Levi thought.

Levi raised his hand to his horse and let it sniff it for a second and then pet its mane. Fingers running through the soft chestnut-colored hair. He took it out of the small stable they had in Trost District and along with two other horses for Hange and Lena. He led them over to the side of the main street and waited for Hange to return.

“Garrison shitheads don’t even care! I got my horse stolen from me over half an hour ago by some kid and the Garrison said to wait a day! Can you believe those idiots? I’m never getting that horse back…” a man yelled down the street to another man, catching the attention of Levi. Since he didn’t see Hange around he decided to go see what was happening.

“What’s the issue here?” Levi asked bluntly. The men startled, they hadn’t seen Levi come up to them.

“You are in the military, right?” the man asked, Levi nodded in response, “some kid stole my horse half an hour ago and left Trost. What do I do to get that back?”

“What did the kid look like?” Levi asked.

“I couldn’t tell much, but he was wearing a black shirt and white-ish pants. He was wearing this hat too, but he had short brown hair and green eyes, I think.” The man held out a straw hat to Levi. Not to jump to conclusions, but could this kid be the same one Lena was talking about…

“I’ll look into it,” Levi said and shook himself out of his thoughts. He clutched the hat and walked back over to the horses, now with Hange and Lena there too.

He tossed the hat at Hange who scrambled to catch it and turned to Lena, “that’s a possible lead. The kid you talked about might’ve just been here.”

“Really? That’s surprising, how do you know?” Lena asked.

“Some kid with brown hair and possibly green eyes stole a horse and then left Trost District. It might be a reach, but it’s the best we got.” Levi said. Hange somehow looked more excited and Lena just looked tired.

“Let’s go, folks!” Hange yelled and swung themself onto their horse, Levi doing the same. Lena heaved herself up and then they were off.

____________

“Hey, Eren?” Armin said into Eren’s back.

“Yea?”

“What’s going to be our excuse for all this?”

Eren sighed, running a hand through his hair and then over his face. “I don’t know, let’s just say we got lost in the woods.”

“For over 12 hours?” Armin questioned.

“Yes? Look, Armin, I know you normally think things out and stuff… but we don't have the time for that. We’ll probably be there in about 10 minutes, so the best option is to lie and then hope it works.”

Armin didn’t like this plan of Eren’s, but he didn’t have any better ideas. “Fine, but what about Mikasa?” Armin asked and Eren’s face whitened then he tried to speed up the horse, but the poor thing was exhausted.

“Fuck, she’ll see right through us.” Eren groaned. Armin seemed to disappear in his mind as he thought through possible excuses.

After a few minutes in silence, they pulled to a stop and Eren unwrapped Armin’s arms around his body, then slid off the horse. Armin mimicked his action and got off the horse. Eren tied the bridle to a tree and turned down the dusty dirt road, assuming Armin was following.

“If they ask why you have no jacket say it got ripped along with your shirt, and if they ask how you got another shirt just say someone let you have it. Got it?” Armin said. Eren nodded.

“This is going to suck for a while, isn’t it?” Eren grumbled and bumped Armin’s shoulder with his own. Armin laughed at Eren’s antics.

“Yeah, but we could try and figure more out about your titan powers. It could be really useful to taking back Wall Maria and maybe going back home.” Eren smiled after Armin said that.

“Oh my fucking walls, how did you think of that before me?! We could go out there secretly when we join the Survey Corps and kill the titans, like, in secret!” Eren exclaimed, gesturing wildly with his arms.

“You really think we could sneak out of Wall Rose?” Armin asked pointedly. Eren shrugged.

“Maybe. We have one titan and one skilled plan maker, what could go wrong?” Eren said. Armin would never get tired of this, seeing Eren excited again was a nice change of pace after the past day.

Armin huffed, “maybe…”

“Hey! Look we’re here!” Eren yelled and ran up the slight hill. He could see the training grounds only a couple hundred feet away. Little figures stood around the grounds, blissfully ignorant of the storm that was about to come once Eren and Armin returned. “Bet you a piece of bread that I can beat you there,” Eren boasted.

Armin knew he couldn’t beat him, but played along, “oh you are on!” Armin ran past Eren quickly, trying to get the upper hand, but Eren shortly passed him. Eren turned to face him and flipped Armin off, then continued his sprint. Good, his face markings are gone. That could’ve been a problem, Armin thought. He got to Eren only a minute after him. Eren had waited at the boundary of the training grounds, wringing his hands.

“Nervous?” Armin asked.

Eren pulled his eyes away from the grounds and glared at Armin, “Scared? Me? As if.”

“Whatever you say… C’mon, let’s go back to everyone.” Armin started walking and was actually surprised by the lack of people around. They were probably doing a drill or lesson, so it made sense.

The pair turned a corner and- oh, so that’s where everyone is.

All eyes turned to them as they walked in on the 104th cadets in the middle of doing a hardcore fitness drill.

“Hey, guys?” Eren said, but it came out more like a question. Mikasa jumped up and ran to Eren and Armin, throwing herself in Eren’s arms. Armin backed up to give them some space and Eren squeezed her back and ran his fingers through her hair. She peeked her head over Eren’s shoulder and gestured for Armin to come over. Once he was within arms length she grabbed and pulled him into their group hug.

“I’m so glad you’re alright,” Mikasa sighed and leaned into them. Quickly she shook herself out of their grasp. She was never one for unneeded touch, but both boys knew she needed that. Suddenly, she slapped both of them on the cheek.

“What was that for!?” Eren exclaimed.

“That was for being dumb and worrying all of us,” she replied calmly. A mixture of worry, sadness, and anger burning just below the surface of Mikasa’s collected exterior.
The rest of the cadets watched the interaction until Shadis interrupted.

“I’d hate to ruin the moment,” he said sarcastically, “but can dumbass and blondie come with me? I have some questions I’m sure they are dying to answer.”

Armin gulped and silently followed Shadis, Eren flipped him off when his back was turned and then copied Armin. Shadis took them to a small room that they assumed was his office area.

“Explanations, now.”

Chapter Text

“Explanations, now.”

Armin and Eren sent each other a quick glance.

“So basically-“

“We-“

Shadis rolled his eyes, “one at a time, please.” Armin decided to take the initiative and he knew he would do a better job than Eren.

“Eren ran out of the boys’ barracks last night and so I went after him, but I couldn’t find him for a while. Once I did, it was dark and so instead of wandering around we decided to just make a little camp and sleep in the woods. We woke up and then found our way back. It’s a pretty basic story, we didn't get here that late too, it's only 11-ish.” Armin summarized, Eren was always shocked by how smoothly Armin could lie and manipulate the people around him. Everyone saw Armin as the innocent one, but in reality Armin was the one who had done the most illegal things as kids.

Shadis shrugged, “sounds like a dumbass move, but it’s your training, not mine. Just remember that you guys are going to be graduating soon and all training counts.”

Eren jumped into the conversation, “sorry Instructor Shadis, we won’t do it again. Let’s go Armin.”

“Thanks, bye!” Armin called to Shadis, chasing after Eren. He quickly caught up to him. “That went well, we really should’ve assumed he wouldn’t care.”

Eren laughed slightly, “Yeah, we were honestly freaking out over nothing. It’s not like there’s any evidence of us doing anything wrong, well besides that smashed cart… I’m sure it’ll turn out fine.”

“Hopefully.”

They walked towards the group of cadets still doing fitness drills. Everyone turned to them and for an awkward minute they just stared at each other.

“So,” Eren started saying and Armin internally died, “what’s up?”

“What’s up? That’s seriously all you’re gonna say? You can't just run out of the boys’ barracks and then go missing for over 12 hours!” Jean yelled and then whispered the last part, “why can’t you get it through your thick skull that we care about you…”

Sasha ran up to Eren and Armin and hugged them tightly, muttering “fucking dumbasses” under her breath. Eren shakes her off and steps back, leaving Armin still in her embrace.

“We really are fine, guys. You don’t have to worry.” He said calmly and then pat Sasha’s arm to signal to her that she can get off him. Sasha huffed and went back to the rest of the group.

“Ok, let’s go back to the drills. Marco, can you explain to Eren and Armin what to do?” Reiner said.

_______________

“Hange, shut up.” Levi snapped, already regretting the decision to go with them and Lena. He just wanted to get to whatever Lena said would prove her point. They have been riding to it for half an hour now, going at a slow pace since Hange felt the need to have a conversation every other second. Only a few minutes after that they came across a smashed wagon with blood surrounding it.

“There’s my proof,” Lena said and pointed. Hange ran up to it and touched the blood.

“This clearly isn’t titan blood because it hasn’t evaporated yet,” Hange ran around the cart and lifted up a piece of wood, “either it’s the dead horses’ blood or it’s your comrades’. I’ll bet it’s a combo of both, but we don’t even see your friends bodies. If you want us to believe you we need that proof.”

Lena sighed and looked around for the bodies, but she couldn’t see them anywhere. She could see blood in small puddles all around the area, but still couldn’t see anything. “I don’t know, maybe the people who killed them hid their bodies?”

“Look for an area where there’s a pile of dirt.” Levi said and dismounted from his horse. He scanned the surrounding area when he saw a small pile of dirt almost in the forest. “Hey! This could be it.”

Hange and Lena jogged over, Hange bent down to observe it closer. “Looks as if it was ripped out and not shoveled.”

“How can you notice that?” Lena asked.

“If you look at the outline of this hole and around it you can see those little chunks of grass with dirt still connected to it, that basically means it's been ripped and not not dug.” Hange explained.

“We have no way of proving your buddies' bodies are under there, though,” Levi argued. Hange shrugged.

“Technically yeah, we can’t prove it without a shovel and digging it up. But I’m agreeing with Lena, this is proof enough to go check out the Military training grounds.”

Levi groaned and then spat out “fine.” He walked back over to his horse and climbed on, waiting for them to come back so the trio could continue their trek to the training grounds.

After only a minute or two Lena and Hange mounted their horses again and were about to set off before Levi interrupted, “wait.”

Hange tilted their head, “yes?”

“Lena, when we get there you aren’t allowed to ask questions or talk to any of the trainees. Once you identify the people you think did it and then we interrogate them, you’ll leave. We will update you every once in a while.” Levi said, looking Lena straight in the eyes.

“Wha-“

“Sure.” Lena said. I don’t even want to go see these kids, the chances of them ratting me out are high. Whatever, this is revenge for killing my friends. The little shits have it coming, Lena thought bitterly.

“Great, let’s go” Levi turned his horse and took off down the dirt road. Hange and Lena a few feet behind him. Hange sped up their horse and caught up to Levi, the two silently thought about how they would plan on finding answers.

_______

“We’re here!” Hange yelled. Levi saw the buildings in the distance that were getting increasingly closer.

“Know the plan? Our excuse to be here is to scout out potential soldiers for the Survey Corps.” Levi explained quickly, Hange looked at him seriously and Lena remained stoic, but looked Levi in the eyes. The trio slowed down and rode through the training grounds, Lena looked out for anyone familiar. Eventually they came across a kid wandering around.

“Hey! Wanna help us?” Hange asked. The kid looked scared, but nodded.

“Where’s the person in charge around here?” Levi asked.

“Instructor Shadis, his office is over there.” The kid said and pointed to a small building.

“Thanks!” Hange said.

The three of them dismounted and tied their horses to a nearby post, then walked to the building. Levi knocked on the door and a muffled “come in” was heard. Hange and Levi stepped in while Lena stayed outside.

“And to what do I owe this pleasure?” Shadis said sarcastically. Levi rolled his eyes.

“We’re just here to scout out the recruits since they’ll be graduating soon, where are they?”

“It’s noon, so probably eating or relaxing. Maybe just finishing up the drills I told them.” Shadis responded. Levi scoffed.

“I meant which building.”

Shadis pointed out the door, “over there or in the biggest building, you can’t miss it.”

Levi muttered a quick thanks to Shadis and walked out the office and over to where he had pointed. Sure enough, a group of about 10 trainees were doing an obstacle course that doubled as a fitness drill. No one seemed to notice the three adults observing their progress.

“C’mon Eren! Beat Reiner!” a boy with a buzz cut yelled from the side.

Levi turned to Lena, “any of these brats look familiar?”

“Yeah, the brown haired one doing the course and the blond boy with shoulder length hair.”

Levi walked up to the group of teens and everyone fell silent when they noticed him. The brown haired kid doing the obstacle course actually fell off the part he was doing when he saw Levi.

“You,” Levi said and pointed at the brown haired kid and then at the blonde, “and you. Come with me.”

The kids shot each other a look, but followed Levi nevertheless.

“Ooo, Eren’s in troubleee,” Jean said in a sing-song voice.

“Fuck you, Jean!” Eren yelled back. Levi clenched his fists, you can’t hit a child, he thought exasperatedly. Once they were far enough from the group of teens Levi whirled around, causing Eren and Armin to stumble back. Hange and Lena stood behind Levi.

“Hey! It’s you, the bitch who kidnapped us!” Eren yelled, stomping up to Lena.

“Eren!” Armin cried and grabbed his arm, pulling him back.

Levi turned to Lena, “is this true?” he asked menacingly.

“You’re seriously gonna believe the kids you just met over me?” She yelled.

“Maybe.” Levi responded. And this is why I trust my gut, I knew she was suspicious from the start.

“Why don’t we hear the kids side of the story, ok?” Hange jumped in before this turned into a fight.

“Eren ran into the woods, so I chased after him. We got lost obviously because it was dark and only getting darker. We started wandering around and then we walked into this women’s campground. We would’ve left, but then her friends kidnapped us. We had to fight our way out!” Armin explained. Adding a few tears here and there for dramatic effect.

“You’re the one who turned into a titan!” Lena yelled back and pointed accusingly at Eren.

“Uh-huh, sure. That sounds completely sane,” Eren said sarcastically. If these people find out what I can do, I’m dead, Eren thought.

Levi watched the interaction between Lena and the children. He knew both of them were lying.

“Lena, a moment?” Hange said and pulled her and Levi a couple of feet away from the teens.

“Explain.” Levi said.

“They are lying, I’m not kidding!” She whisper-yelled. Levi pat her on the shoulder.

“Go home, Lena,” Levi said. She hesitated for a second, but nodded and walked back over to her horse.

“Levi? Why would you do that?” Hange asked angrily, “you’re seriously going to let a potential child trafficker walk away? With your past?”

“She got her coworkers killed in front of her and we’ve seen her face, if we really wanted to report her we could. It’s not like she will go risk that, plus she’s probably not going to go kidnap some random kids after what those two did. We didn’t need her help anymore, so I let her go.” Levi reasoned.

“Fine, let’s get back to those kids. They look five seconds away from shitting their pants,” Hange laughed.

Eren and Armin talked to each other in hushed whispers and panicked breaths.

“Great, my idol is here and now he’s going to kill me for being a titan. This is just amazing,” Eren said, rolling his eyes and stretching his arms and legs.

“Uh, Eren? What are you doing?” Armin asked.

“What do you mean? I’m stretching so I can fight them obviously. If I get in a few good punches we could probably get away.“

“Eren?! No!” Armin yelled and then mumbled, “what is wrong with you sometimes?”

“What was that last part?”

“Oh, nothing… Point is, that idea sucks. Just leave it to me and don’t hit anyone,” Armin said. I need some alone time after all this, he thought. Levi and Hange walked back over to them.

“Sorry for that,” Hange said awkwardly, “we let her leave, so you don’t have to worry about her anymore.”

Armin and Eren shifted uncomfortably and mumbled ‘thanks.’

“What are your names?” Levi asked.

“Why do you want to know?” Eren challenged. Armin pinched his brows and resisted the urge to hit him.

“Armin Arlert,” Armin said.

“Eren Jaeger.”

“So, Jaeger, are you a titan?” Levi asked. He grabbed the front of Eren's shirt and pulled him face to face.

“No!” Eren yelled. Please believe me, please believe me, please believe me…

Levi watched the kid closely, looking for any tells that he was lying. There’s two possible explanations; either he is truly a titan, or Lena has been lying to us and just wanted to take revenge on the kid who killed her friends, Levi contemplated. He let go of his shirt and pushed him back.

“Ok, Hange, let’s go.”

Hange stuttered for a few seconds, “S-seriously? We come all this way and then we leave just like that? You’re really going to trust this random kid's word?!”

Levi ran a hand through his hair, “Hange, a word please?” He walked a few feet away and Hange followed him.

“What, Levi?”

“We don’t have any legitimate proof first off, we lied to the instructor here, and this is insane.”

“Huh?”

“What I’m saying is let's just cut our losses and leave. Think about it, the idea that someone could transform into a titan is impossible. You should know that too after researching them constantly,” Levi said while staring at them. Hange sighed.

“Fine, you’re right. Let’s just wait for another person to say the kid is a titan and then we can look more into it. Deal?” Hange held out their hand to shake on it.

Levi grabbed their hand and shook it, “deal.”

“Great!” they walked back to the teens and addressed them, “we’re leaving. Consider this a funny prank, hope to see you in the Survey Corps!” They then took off to the horses.

“Bye?” Eren responded hesitantly. Levi walked by them and turned to look the pair in the eyes.

“I have a feeling we’ll meet again. Don’t do anything stupid,” Levi said and then walked over to where Hange was with the horses. Eren’s jaw practically hit the ground and Armin was pretty sure he sweat through his jacket.

“Sir!” Eren yelled and saluted. Levi rolled his eyes and kept walking, leaving the teens alone.

“I thought that was the end,” Armin mumbled, collapsing to the ground. Eren laughed slightly and extended his hand for Armin to grab, so he could pull him up. When Armin continued to ignore it Eren sat on the ground next to him.

“It wasn’t that bad. We didn’t die and nobody found out, so overall it was pretty good,” Eren remarked. He was trying to comfort Armin, but it wasn’t working. Armin stared off into the space in front of him. Eren grabbed his forearms and pulled him up, patting his cheeks until Armin focused back. “Good?”

“Yeah, I’m good, sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. You saved our asses more times in the past day than I can count.”

Armin smiled and flushed, “c’mon let’s get back to training.”

_______

“Training is a bitch!” Eren sighed, falling backwards onto his bottom bunk. The other boys were walking slightly behind him.

“Lazy ass,” Jean muttered and Marco jabbed him in the side. Armin giggled and then dragged Eren off his bed and into the bathroom.

“We’re showering because we both smell like shit,” Armin said. He went over to a shower and turned it on, Eren did the same with the one next to it. A low divider between the two showers. Eren stripped and jumped into the stream of water, startling slightly when he realized it was too cold. He quickly turned up the heat and relaxed. Armin doing the same thing next to him, he grabbed a bit of soap and lathered it into his hair. Then he did the same with his body. He got out of the shower after a bit less than 10 minutes and wrapped a towel around his waist, leaving Eren in the bathroom.

“Hey, Armin?” Marco called out. Armin was wearing his normal clothes and was sitting on his bed, paging through a book.

“Yeah?” he asked and walked over to where Marco, Jean, and Connie were sitting.

“Why were those scouts here today?”

“They just wanted to check out the possible recruits, why?” Armin said sweetly.

“Nothing really, we were just wondering that’s all.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Eren butted into the conversation. They hadn’t realized Eren had gotten out of the shower and changed.

“The scouts that came to check us out,” Armin replied, silently begging Eren to go along with the lie. Eren looked confused for a second and then rebounded.

“Yep! And guess who they didn’t talk to...” He said sarcastically and looked right at Jean.

“You’re probably the only one here who would voluntarily join the Survey Corps” Jean rolled his eyes.

“Can we go a single day without you two being at each other’s throats?” Marco interjected. Armin grunted in agreement.

“Whatever, I’m going to go shower. Marco, you coming?” Jean said and left for the bathroom, Marco trailing behind him.

“You’ve always been one to speak your mind,” Armin said, “but can you please try to get along with Jean? At least end military training on a good note since you might not see him again after.”

“He’s just so annoying” Eren complained and plopped into a chair next to Connie who was still sitting at the table.

“You know, I’ll leave you guys alone,” he said and scurried off somewhere.

“Where’s Reiner and Bertholdt?” Eren asked Armin.

“I don’t know, probably just relaxing outside somewhere.”

They fell into a comfortable silence, enjoying each other’s company in the quiet space.

“Wanna play cards?!” Eren asked out of the blue.

_______

“Stop laughing and go to sleep!” Reiner yelled impatiently.

A typical night for the cadets would include: saying crude jokes, thinking said jokes are the funniest thing in the world, not being able to shut up, someone getting offended, and finally, arguments. Currently they were still at the stage where they thought the joke was the funniest thing they’d ever heard.

“Shut up, last time I checked it was 11 and we have to get up at 6 to go run sprints!” Someone yelled.

“Wait who said that?”

“Dammit, just go to sleep.”

“Buzzkill…”

“Shut up!”

Chapter Text

“Eren I don’t think this is a good idea…”

“Armin, we have a bit over a week to figure out these titan powers. A week. Can we at least try out a few of our theories?” Eren pleaded. Right now the two of them were in the forest, still in ODM gear and Eren had a blade drawn. They hadn’t been able to sneak away from Mikasa for almost a week after coming back from their little ‘adventure’.

“Fine. I can’t believe I’m actually going along with your crazy ideas,” Armin groaned. He pulled out his blade and positioned it above Eren’s hand, only inches above its pointer finger. He raised it and was about to bring it down, but then stopped abruptly. “Yeah, no we’re not doing this.”

Eren grabbed the front of Armin’s shirt and pulled him face to face, inches away from each other. “If you don’t do it, I will.” He wasted no time to take his own blade and press it on his finger, blood beading slightly.

“I’m not doing this. If you’re so committed to figuring out these powers then do it yourself,” Armin replied. I can’t do this, but how can I call myself a friend if I let him cut off his finger? What if it never grows back and this whole plan goes South because it was a one-time thing? Oh my walls, Eren is cutting off his own finger right now…

The blade sliced through skin and bone and the now detached finger seemed to fall in slow motion. Armin scrambled to grab Eren’s hand and press on the bleeding stump that used to be a finger. Eren was whimpering pitifully, trying to conceal the immense pain he was in. Tears flowed down his face silently and bit down on his lower lip.

“See?” he croaked out, “doesn’t even bother me.”

Armin’s jaw dropped, but he decided he could teach Eren about self-preservation later.

“Might as well continue with your crazy-ass idea. Listen, I’m going to take my hand off your wound, so we can see how this works. Ok?” Armin asked. Eren nodded quickly and Armin withdrew his hand. Blood still leaked out of the wound, but now it was steaming and the flesh and bone seemed to knit itself back together out of thin air.

After less than five minutes Eren was back to having ten complete fingers.

“Whoa,” Armin breathed. Eren looked just as dumbstruck as he was, bending his finger and poking it. Armin reached out to touch it, too. It’s warm still, Armin thought.

Eren jumped up and started animatedly gesturing and talking. “This changes everything! Wow, if I can regenerate that then maybe I can regenerate whole limbs-“

“By the walls, Eren! No, we aren’t cutting off an entire limb!” Armin yelled and put both of his hands on the sides of Eren’s face, forcing Eren to look into his eyes. Tear stains still were present on Eren’s, but those were overshadowed by the look of absolute hope in Eren’s eyes. Something Armin hadn’t seen much of. Sure, Eren could say speeches about doing the right thing for humanity and not being afraid of the titans. But in all those times Eren’s eyes had been filled with anger, anger for the people they had lost. Now they had light back in them. Oh Eren, I’ve missed you.

“Hellooo, Armin?” Eren waved his hand in front of his face.

“Yeah?”

“Great, you’re back. You zoned out for a little while back there, anyways what I was saying is that we should cut off my leg. Well, not really we, more like you.” Eren said as if this was normal.

“What the fuck? Eren no.” Armin replied, hoping his tone would signal the end of the conversation. Armin should’ve realized that once Eren gets an idea it's hard to stop him.

“My dad taught me anatomy, so I know where to cut it so I don’t bleed out before it heals. All I need you is to slice it, please?” Eren begged him. Armin grimaced and slowly shook his head. Eren sighed, “fine, I guess it’s understandable.”

Armin let out a shaky breath he didn’t know he was holding and held onto the finger that Eren had just grown back. “Thank you, thank you so much.”

Eren laughed awkwardly. Why does he seem so concerned? He knows that it’ll just grow back, right? Armin, you’ve always been too nice to people who don’t need it, Eren thought. A dark part of his brain whispered, or deserve it, but he shoved that aside. “Sure, Armin. If it makes that big of a difference to you I won’t cut off my leg.”

Armin smiled, “I’ll hold you to that.”

__________

I looked down at the ground and saw blood soaking into the dirt and flies swarming the bodies littering the forest. I ran around looking for Armin’s and Mikasa’s bodies. I hurriedly turned over each of my friend's remains, the last glimpse of terror still on each of their lifeless faces. Each time checking for a pulse and each time finding none. I saw short black hair peeking out from behind another cadaver. I ran and stumbled over another body, falling into the black hair.

“Mikasa?” I whispered, voice cracking. Mikasa’s guts spilled out when I pulled her into my arms. My fingers fumbling to find a pulse on her wrist, there was none. Blood dripping out of her empty eye socket and onto my shoulder.

“You killed us, Eren,” a voice said behind me. Still clutching Mikasa’s lifeless body I whipped my head around and felt the blood leave my face. Armin stood a few feet away. He was missing an arm, half of his face was gone and his golden blonde hair was covered in blood. Multiple broken ribs stuck out his chest and he walked towards me.

“What? No, I would never!” I yelled at him, tears streaming down my face. Armin’s corpse continued to walk towards me until he was inches away from me. He kneeled down and took my face in his bloody hands.

“Why did you kill us, Eren?” he asked, rubbing his thumbs over my cheeks. I choked up.

“Why couldn’t you care about us enough to save us?” Mikasa asked, her reanimated corpse moving away from me and going to stand by Armin.

“I care about you!” I pleaded. Armin scowled, well he tried to with what remained of his face. He took a step away from me and Mikasa followed.

“If only you weren’t a titan,” Mikasa started.
“Then maybe we wouldn’t be dead,” Armin finished. They walked away from me, I still sat in the puddle of Mikasa’s blood.

“Wait! No, stop! I love you!” I sobbed and screamed. I heaved myself up and sprinted to them, tackling them both. When I turned their faces around they were limp and cold, not a single word came out of them. “Come back to me,” I sobbed.

“I thought I loved you, I guess my love wasn’t enough,” Armin said quietly before going slack, mouth still slightly parted.

Eren woke up with a gasp, he scrambled out of bed and dashed to the bathroom. He slammed the door open to one of the stalls and heaved into it, not even trying to be considerate of the boys trying to sleep. He threw up until he was stuck sitting on the floor dry heaving into the toilet, tears continuing to slip silently out of his eyes. The dry heaving slowly stopped and he felt like he could breathe again. He inhaled and exhaled shakily. Each time he closed his eyes the terrors from his nightmare would come back. A sob wracked his body and he threw his hands over his mouth to quiet the noises. Thank the walls I shut the bathroom door, he thought, trying to take his mind off what had happened.

I thought I loved you, I guess my love wasn’t enough.

Eren dry heaved again.

Armin listened to Eren from the other side of the bathroom door. He didn’t know how long he had been sitting here, listening to Eren be in pain, at least an hour. What a great friend, you’re too afraid to even talk to him right now. Why should you be allowed to even call Eren your friend if you’re not willing to help him? Pathetic. Armin shook the thoughts from his head and slowly opened the door.

“Eren?” he called out softly, closing the door behind him. He heard him sob and then Eren scrambled to sit up. The two stared at each other, only a few feet away. Eren backed against the wall, eyes still wide and staring at Armin as if he was a danger.

Armin took a step back and slowly lifted his hands above his head, showing he was unarmed and not dangerous. He tried again to get a response from Eren,

“Eren?“

“Shut up,” he murmured. Armin was taken aback and reached out for Eren.

“Hey, it’s ok. I’m here with you-“

“SHUT UP!” Eren screamed, “YOU AREN’T EVEN ALIVE, WHY ARE YOU STILL TORMENTING ME?!” He fell to the ground in a heap. Eren wrapped his arms around his knees and bit his hand to stop the sobs from coming. His breaths came out short and quick.

Armin still stood frozen. He was truly at a loss for what to do if Eren wouldn’t even let him get near me.

“Are you even real?” Eren whispered. Armin’s heart broke and in that moment, he decided to do the only thing he could think of. I’m sorry, Eren.

Armin walked up to Eren and pressed Eren’s face into his chest. Eren struggled, trying to pull back and muttering something that sounded suspiciously like. ‘no, I don’t want to get stabbed by your ribs’.

“Can you hear my heart beating?” Armin asked softly. After a minute Eren nodded.

“And can you feel the heat my skin gives off?” Eren nodded again, this time quicker.

“I’m here, Eren. I’m real, I’m alive. I’m ok,” Eren gripped Armin’s shirt tighter.

The pair stayed like that for a while on the floor of the bathroom. Armin’s arms wrapped around Eren and Eren’s head tucked under Armin’s chin, his breathing slowly matching up to Armin’s.

“You ok?” Armin asked after a while.

“Yeah,” Eren said tiredly, “I’ll be ok.”

Armin smiled reassuringly and went to rub Eren’s hand, but Eren flinched away.

“Shit, I’m so sorry,” Armin said quickly and retracted his hand.

“It’s ok,” Eren said again and tried to smile. His eyes still had that haunted look in them. Armin sighed and untangled himself from Eren. He refrained from offering Eren a hand and let him get up on his own.

“Let’s go back to bed. I can tell the sun will be up soon, so let’s try to get some sleep.” Eren’s eyes widened and he shook his head.

“I- I can’t go back to sleep!” Eren cried, looking on the verge of tears.

You killed us, Eren.

Why did you kill us, Eren?

Eren started to back away from Armin again, but Armin brought him back to reality before he could spiral again.

“I’m here, I’m real, I’m alive,” Armin said and intertwined their fingers.

“Thank you,” Eren breathed out. Armin just led him out of the bathroom and over to his bed. Armin noticed that some people were awake, he tried to signal to them that he would explain later. That seemed to get the point across because everyone awake seemed to relax.

“Ok, your bed is here,” Armin said delicately, “I’ll be in the bunk above you, so if you need me I’ll be there. Ok?” Eren didn’t respond, but Armin took that as a yes and tried to pull his hand away. Eren tightened his grip. “What, Eren?”

“Can you, um-“ Eren looked awkwardly at the sheets, “canyousleepwithme?”

Armin blushed and stuttered, “sure? If you want then yes of course.” Eren nodded and Armin climbed into the twin-sized bed. The two of them shuffled awkwardly until they were finally in a comfortable position. Eren’s back was to Armin, who wrapped his arms around Eren’s middle.

Eren slept peacefully after that.

___________

“You have three choices: the Garrison Regiment, the Scout Regiment, and the Military police! Only the top ten scorers will be able to join the Military Police.”

Eren eagerly awaited the end of the Graduation Ceremony. He had been waiting for this moment ever since he joined the military training. You could even argue he’d been waiting for this moment ever since he saw the scouts for the first time. Eren sighed, fantasizing about what his first titan kill would be like.

Mikasa grabbed his arm and shook it, “Eren? Ceremony ended, c’mon let’s go eat.”

Eren nodded and followed her to where Armin had been waiting for them. “Ready?” Armin asked.

Eren grinned and nodded, grabbing Armin and Mikasa’s hands he led them over to the building where they would be eating. If he noticed Armin and Mikasa blushing, he decided not to comment.

“I never realized how good meat was until I haven’t eaten it in a month,” Eren groaned, shoveling more food into his mouth. Armin and Mikasa sat on either side of him and ate more politely.

“If you keep eating like that you’ll choke,” Mikasa deadpanned. Eren grumbled a complaint but reluctantly slowed down. The large room was filled with conversation, everyone was deciding what regiment to join.

“Guys, let’s go get something to drink,” Eren said. Walking off to get a mug with Mikasa and Armin following him. He followed the path of people over to the drinks, talking to some along the way. He grabbed a mug and poured whatever he saw first.

“Hey Eren, you still think you won’t join the Military Police?” Thomas asked.

“You got in the top ten!” another guy added.

“Yeah? I’ve never said anything different,” Eren responded, “I trained so I could fight titans, not live in the interior.”

Thomas gritted his teeth, “you can’t beat them!” he yelled, “they’ve killed thousands of people and you probably know that the best!” Eren’s brows creased and he turned to Thomas.

“It’s that mentality that makes us unable to beat them! If we all said shit like that then we would never even get a chance to fight back!” Eren ground out.

“You’ll just die! Everyone in the Scout Regiment dies!” Thomas argued back, “We lost 20 percent of the population years ago. After that, the answer is clear: Humanity can’t defeat the titans.”

Eren clenched his jaw, “So? Do we just give up because we think we can't win?”

“Well…”

“You’re right, we’ve been on the losing side. That’s because we didn’t know how to deal with titans,” the room was silent and every eye was Eren, “standard warfare is meaningless against the titans. We may have lost in the past, but each of those losses has helped us gain valuable information! Are we going to abandon everything we learned, after so much sacrifice, and just become titan fodder?!” Eren glared at his hand and squeezed it into a fist. “I’m going to drive every last one of those fucking titans out, and leave these cramped walls! That’s my dream, humankind hasn’t lost yet!”

Armin watched in amazement. All these years did nothing to change his opinion, he’s still as hard-headed as he was the moment we joined the cadet corps, Armin thought, I was worried for him during training. He seemed to lose himself and would get angrier with less provocation, but I guess graduating helped bring his spirit back.

The room stared at Eren in silence and he grit his teeth angrily, tears beaded at the corner of his eyes and he took off.

“Wait, Eren!” Armin called after him, chasing him with Mikasa.

Eren sat on the stone stairs outside of the building, he quickly wiped his eyes and looked at Armin and Mikasa.

“What’s up?” he asked innocently, but his voice cracked and betrayed him. Armin and Mikasa laughed and went to sit by him. Armin lowered himself on the step below Eren and Mikasa was a step or two above Eren. “Seriously though, go back and enjoy the party. You don’t need to talk to me.”

“Idiot, we want to spend time with you,” Mikasa said. Eren huffs and turns back to the wall and stars above it.

“I’m joining the scouts with you, Eren,” Armin said. Eren whipped his head to him.

“W- Why?!” Eren asked.

“I want to one day see the ocean with you, that’s my dream. I figure joining the scouts along with you is my best option.” Eren smiled weakly at that response.

“I’ll join the scouts as well,” Mikasa piped up from behind him.

“What? You got the best score out of the three of us, why wouldn’t you join the Military Police?!”

“I’ll go wherever you go, if you decide to go to the MPs then I will too.” Eren scowled and went back to staring at the wall.
Eren sighed. “Do what you want, you’ll both know where I’ll be,” he blushed and fumbled out, “I’m really glad you would both come with me.”

“What was that?” Mikasa teased him, “couldn’t hear you, can you speak up?”

“Fuck off!” he yelled, but his words didn’t have much bite in them. Armin and Mikasa giggled and eventually, all three of them were practically pissing themselves.

“You guys think that we’ll stay like this?” Armin asked once the trio had calmed down.

“What do you mean?” Eren asked.

“I just mean do you think we’ll stay this close? This happy?”

Eren playfully pushed Armin's face, “sure we will, who’s stopping us?”

___________

The next morning Eren looked the colossal titan in the face. You know what, Armin, I don’t think we’ll be like that again…

Chapter Text

“Everyone go to your squads and remember your job: protect the remaining civilians! Dismissed!” Shadis yelled. Each cadet had the same look of fear and panic on their face and most of all, desperation.

“I was so close, so close to joining the Military Police…” Jean mutters as he walks quickly through the small courtyard and runs into Eren.

“Watch where you’re going, asshole,” Eren growls.

Jean rolls his eyes, “you ran into me.”

“I did not!”

“Whatever, I don’t have time for this,” Jean said and went to move past Eren, but Eren grabbed his shoulder and pushed him against the wall. “Let go of me, you shit!”

“Where are you going in such a hurry? Didn’t peg you as a guy who would rush to join the group that fights titans,” Eren countered, eyes narrowed.

Jean ripped himself out of Eren’s grasp, “where do you think I’m going? I’m getting on the first boat to the interior.”

“You’re seriously going to abandon humanity? You’re not even going to try to fight back?! Then what the fuck was the point of the last 3 years, we just trained nonstop for 3 fucking years and you want to ditch at the last moment? What is wrong with you? If you survived training then you can survive this too!” Eren screamed, he pinned Jean back against the wall, forcing him to listen to his entire speech. “Don’t just give up after we’ve gotten this far! We aren’t going to die, not yet at least.”

The people around them perked up after hearing Eren’s impromptu speech and started standing up, some continued to lay on the ground and accept their fates as titan fodder. Jean and Eren parted ways and Eren quickly came across Mikasa.

“There you are, I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” she said.

“Yeah? What do you want?” Eren asked, he wanted to go get prepared to defend Trost.

“Just,” Mikasa sighed, “if you get in trouble come find me.”

Eren rolled his eyes and pushed her out of the way, “I’ll be fine, Mikasa. Stop worrying so much.”

Mikasa was about to argue before a Garrison soldier approached them, “Mikasa Ackerman, you are supposed to go join the rear squad immediately.”

“What? No, I’m in-“

“You heard him! Nobody cares about what you want, go fight for humanity!” Eren yells at her. She turns around and follows the man a few steps and then looks back at Eren.

“Don’t die, dumbass,” she says quietly, but loud enough for him to hear. He laughs and throws his head back, but quickly grows serious once more.

“I’ll be fine!”

“Excited, Eren?” Armin asks as they wait for orders. Eren cracks a small smile and looks at Eren sideways.

“Sure I am, I’m going to defeat the titans and destroy Trost! If this succeeds we’ll probably be able to join the Scouts and leave the walls,” Eren replied. Armin watches him hesitantly but then smiles back.

“Whatever you say,” Armin says while exhaling. “Oh, wait, Eren, come over here for a second.”
Confusion crosses Eren’s face, but he follows Armin so they are on the opposite side of the roof where the rest of the squad stands.

“If you get in a tight situation try to turn into a titan,” Armin whispers.

“Did we ever figure out how?” Eren whispers back quickly, Armin shrugs.

“You turned into a titan when you got shot, so maybe if you’re in a life or death situation you’ll change automatically?” Armin guessed.

“Yeah, ok. I’ll take your word for it-“

“When I say that, I don’t mean go purposely into a life or death situation!” Armin quickly interrupted and grabbed Eren’s shoulders. “I’m serious, I don’t want to lose you. I can’t lose you. Not again…”

“I didn’t die when that crazy lady shot me, so technically you’ve never lost me before,”
Armin glared at him.

“…anyways I swear I’ll be careful and won’t do dumb shit,” Eren finished. Armin still looked skeptical and worried, so Eren grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers. “I promise.”

They looked into each other’s eyes and Armin searched for any lies in Eren’s green orbs, all hesitation was gone and determination shone through. Eren, you deserve better than this shitty world. We shouldn’t have to promise to each other that we won’t die a horrible death, Armin thought sorrowfully.

“Fine, but if you’re lying, the titans won’t be the only thing trying to kill you,” Armin said in a fake menacing tone. Eren gave Armin his signature grin and laugh and Armin felt his heart skip a beat. What was that? All Eren did was smile and laugh, that’s not new…

“Soldiers! Your orders are to join the front guards and assist them!” A man yells at them. Their squad sets off and runs through the city, using ODM gear to shoot across the buildings.

“Hey, Eren! We listened to your speech and got really motivated and shit, so what I’m saying is thanks!” Thomas yelled. Mina nodded and shouted at him in agreement. Eren blushed and turned his head, muttering thank you. They continued their path to the front as saw the smoke and fires become clearer and brighter. A putrid smell was thick in the air and only got thicker. Holy shit, the titans are already in Trost, Eren thought.

“Titan!” Armin screamed and pointed. Every dodged out of the way when the thing leaped at them.

“Where’s Thomas?!” Mina screamed. The titan that had previously leaped at them tilted its head and stared at them. Thomas’s body hung out of the titan’s mouth, paralyzed in fear and pain.

“WAIT-“ Eren screamed, and then the titan bit down. Blood went everywhere and Eren felt as if he was back in his 10-year-old body, watching his mother get eaten without him doing a single thing, “BASTARD!” Eren screamed and shot off to go kill the thing. He swung from building to building, quickly gaining on the titan. He pulled his arms back, gripped his blades tightly, and prepared to slice through the thick nape of the titan. A titan below him shot up and Eren had no time to move out of the way, his leg got bit off and he crashed into the roof. He rolled and hit multiple roofs before coming to a complete stop.

Eren had never felt that much pain in his entire life. Not when he would fight bullies as a kid. Not when he was choked by the man trying to kidnap Mikasa. Not when he was shot only a month or so ago. His body felt like it was on fire, each bone felt splintered and his leg ached. He could feel the blood dripping down his face and onto the roof. His hand hung off of it and he had no choice, but to watch his friends get eaten. He heard his friends scream for anyone to come and help them. Get up, his brain screamed at him, get up and fight! Don’t just sit and watch as your friends die! Maybe if you were stronger you could’ve saved them…

Eren’s eyes kept focusing and unfocusing, but his eyes latched onto a still form with blonde hair. He focused hard and saw Armin staring at his prone form, he was on his knees and his hands laid on the roof. Armin didn’t even seem to notice the titan that approached him, not until it was grabbing Armin and lifting it to its mouth.

“NO! STOP-“ he was dropped onto the titan’s tongue and slid down it, trying desperately to latch onto anything that would stop it. He felt a warm hand grab his own and he looked up to see Eren holding him. Eren grit his teeth in determination and heaved Armin up, he then threw Armin out of the mouth. Armin landed heavily and multiple roof tiles broke beneath him. Eren kneeled in the titan’s mouth, arm stretched out to Armin.

Armin lunged forward and screamed, “TRANSFORM!”

The titan bit down and Eren’s arm flew off, blood sent flying. Armin’s jaw dropped and he let out a bloodcurdling scream. Tears fell in large groups and he sobbed loudly. He didn’t know how long he sat there before a huge hand stuck out of the titan.

D-did he actually get the chance to transform? Armin watched as a titan - Eren’s titan - ripped the titan in half by sheer force and stand to its full height. It roared and then peered at Armin, recognition shone in its eyes and Armin stood up on shaky legs. “Eren?”

The titan blinked and seemed to groan in response. Amazing, Armin gazed in wonderment.

“Go kill titans! Come find me when you finish!” Armin yelled and tried to phrase it simply, still not sure if Eren was entirely in control or able to respond to complex words. Eren seemed to get the point though because he roared again and two titans attacked Eren. Armin forced himself to look away and shoot off to find another squad. As much as he wanted to stay with Eren, he knew that Eren would fight better without him there. I always seem to get in the way. If Eren wasn’t able to turn into a titan… he would’ve actually died. For me. How could I have lived with myself if that happened? Armin pushed those thoughts aside and looked for a squad, he spotted Connie and made a path over to him. He landed on the roof that Connie, Ymir, and Krista were standing on and startled the group.

“Why aren’t you with your squad?” Connie questioned. Armin swallowed the bile that started to rise when he thought about his comrades.

“They died,” Armin said weakly. Connie gasped and Krista shoved him out of the way.

“Even Eren?” she demanded. Armin paused at that question, he didn’t exactly know what to say because he’s not dead, but he doesn’t want people to find out that the raging titan was Eren.

“I don’t know, in the middle of a fight we got separated.”

Krista nodded and went back to Ymir. Connie looked concerned and Armin wanted to tell Connie the truth so badly, but he wouldn’t do that to Eren.

“How are you coping with that?” Connie asked quietly, completely out of character for his normally laughy and positive self. Armin sighed for dramatics and tried to get tears to well up in his eyes, so his lie would look real.

“I’m worried obviously, but Eren wouldn’t just die that easily. He’s stronger than you think, than everyone thinks. He’ll be fine, I believe in him.” Connie smiled sadly at that.

“Sorry, man, we all knew he was important to you.”

“Why are you saying that as if he’s dead?!” Armin questioned angrily. Do these people seriously think that little of Eren?

“No offense, Armin, but I don’t think he’s coming back. Hardly ever when someone gets separated they are actually found alive. I wouldn’t get your hopes up, sweetcakes,” Ymir said, deadpanning.

“Ymir!” Krista cried.

“What? I’m only being honest, I’m surprised that that idiot has even made it this far.”

“You don’t have to believe me, but I believe in Eren,” Armin growls, trying desperately not to scream at Ymir for how wrong she is. Ymir just stared at him.
“Whatever, I’m leaving.”

Connie quirks his head, “Wait, why?”

Armin ignores him and just shoots off, leaving them behind. He looks around for anyone he could help.

Should I go find Eren? I know he probably has everything under control, but I still feel like I should check on him. If I did that though I would just be a nuisance, he’d have to protect me against the titans and that could get him legitimately killed. He’s always had to protect me, I’ve always been too weak to help him. He’s always had to save me. Why can’t I repay the favor for once?

The evacuation bell rang clear and strong over the screams of people.

Mikasa scanned the area for any sign of her fellow soldiers, specifically a blonde and brunette. She didn’t see anyone though, only the people in the rear guard climbing up the wall and a few stragglers. She sighed and tugged her hands through her hair, trying desperately to not spiral to a worst-case scenario. She saw a few titans in the distance all going in the same direction, she followed behind them and felt the life in her body leave. The entire HQ was covered in titans trying to get in. She quickly shot forward and killed the titans she was following, the blood landing on her clothes and turning into steam.

She searched for an open entrance, but only saw a window that was free of titans. She slammed feet first into the window, effectively breaking it and rolling to break her fall. Mikasa stood up slowly, making sure nothing was wrong with her legs and then stalked over to the door. She opened it an inch and peered inside, about six to seven four-meters. In this enclosed area I can’t effectively use my gear, I’d only be able to kill a few of these shits before one gets me, Mikasa strategized. She opened the door fully and took a step out, there was a door at the end of the hallway that hopefully had things she could use to kill the titans. Once she couldn’t see any titans she sprinted to the door and threw her shoulder into it, trying to open the door.

“Fuck! Why is this door locked?!” she yelled and hit the door with her palm.

“Get the door open!” Mikasa could hear voices on the other side of the door. The door whipped open and a hand grabbed her arm, yanking her into the room. Sasha pulled her into a hug and shoved her head in between Mikasa’s neck and shoulder. After realizing who it was, Mikasa hugged her tightly back.

“No one had seen you, we were worried,” Sasha mumbled.

Mikasa twirled a piece of Sasha’s hair between her fingers, “You don’t have to worry about me, I’m strong.” Someone coughed behind them.

“I hate to break up the moment lovebirds, but we have actual issues at the moment,” Jean snarked.

“Oh c’mon, Jean! We all know you have a thing with Marco, let me have this moment!” Sasha groaned and flipped him off. Jean blushed furiously and turned around, taking a sudden interest in the wall.

“I do not have a thing with Marco!” He said, trying to sound sure of himself.

“Where’s Eren and Armin?” Mikasa cut in.

“I’m here, Mikasa.” Mikasa whipped her head to the side and saw Armin sitting on the ground in the corner of the small, cramped room.

“Why are you sitting on the floor?” She asked. Armin shrugged. “Wait, where’s Eren?”

“I don’t know, the last time I saw him was probably an hour ago. I know he’s alive, don’t freak out.” Mikasa had stopped listening after he said ‘I don’t know’ and stalked over to the door. She started moving the things in front of it out of the way.

“Mikasa, where are you going?!” Sasha cried, putting her hand on Mikasa’s shoulder and successfully stopping her.

“I’m going to look for Eren.”

I should’ve not told her that, fuck, Armin scolded himself. How am I supposed to get her to not go look for him?

“Mikasa, stay here and help the rest defeat the titans ravaging HQ. I’ll go out and look for him,” Armin said and stood up.

“No, not happening.”

“Seriously? Mikasa, you’re stronger than me and none of us will get out of here unless we get the gas that’s currently below us. We won’t survive unless you kill those, plus I’m willing to bet you don’t have as much gas as me,” Armin argued. Mikasa opened her mouth as if to say something, but then closed it and moved out of the way of the door.

Armin smiled gratefully and hugged her quickly, “I’ll be fine.”

“You better be.”

Armin slipped out the door and crept out, staying as quiet as he could to not alert the titans below him. Once he got to the door at the end of the hallway that was already open he walked in and saw the busted window. Walls, Mikasa, did you crash through a window? He leapt out the window and shot his grappling hooks at a building, pulling his body there. He landed on the roof and searched for Eren. Armin scanned the area, looking for any large masses of titans or one very aggressive titan. He heard a roar behind him and laughed loudly out of pure joy, tilting his head back. I can always count on you to be loud and extra, Eren. He followed the sounds of titans fighting and the subtle sound of blood and guts landing on stone.

When he got there Eren was fighting three titans at once, all climbing over him and one directly positioned over his nape. Armin gasped and shot forward, cutting the nape of the titan trying to eat Eren's nape. Once he did that Eren crushed the skull of one of the other titans and the for the other he ripped its nape off. Eren’s titan then turned to face Armin, a slight smile on its face. If you could count that as a smile, Armin thought. He then leapt onto Eren’s shoulder and walked to its nape, where he saw Eren exit his titan last time. He shot his grappling hooks on either side, securing him in place. Then he lifted his blade and sliced down on each side of the nape, not too deep to cut Eren, but hopefully deep enough for him to pull Eren out. Steam billowed out and Armin had to shield his face. He coughed and cut slightly deeper, then put his blade back. He reached in and almost pulled back, the inside was scalding. He ignored that and grabbed what felt like Eren’s arm, yanking back he felt Eren start to come free. Armin then wrapped his arms around Erens’s torso, pulling tightly. He felt his hooks start to come out of Eren's titan’s skin and he pulled tighter. He then felt Eren pull free and they both tumbled to the ground. Armin landed on the titan’s leg painfully with Eren still in his arms.

“Eren?! Eren, can you hear me?!” Armin yelled and they fell further off the titan, but this time onto the stone road. Armin taking the force of the fall yet again. He slung Eren’s arm over his shoulder and dragged them into a side alley. He propped Eren against the wall of an abandoned building and sat beside him. Armin intertwined their fingers again, ignoring the burn he got from Eren’s hot skin. “Hey, Eren? Can you hear me?”

Eren didn’t say anything and Armin exhaled slowly with a desperate attempt to reassure himself, this is fine, I’m fine, he’s fine, Mikasa is fine. As long as we aren’t found, it's all good. Armin let his fingers lightly trace over the markings on Eren’s face, feeling their ridges and dips out of curiosity and as a distraction for the problem at hand. He pulled his hand back and laid his head on Eren’s shoulder; Armin’s breathing started to calm.

This is all a problem for Future Armin, not Present Armin.

Chapter Text

Eren shifted slightly in his sleep and fell over, his head smacking the ground of the stone alley.

“Ow…” he muttered and rubbed his head. He heard a soft sigh and saw Armin sleeping beside him, mouth slightly parted. Eren smiled and then glanced up at the sky. The sun was still high in the sky, he was assuming it was around two AM. And then it all came back to him, I don’t hear anything, Eren thought. Where is everyone? Did they already evacuate? Why are Armin and I the only ones here?

“Yeah, I saw somebody come out of a titan around here. I couldn’t get a good look, but someone helped them.”

“Thanks for your information, we’ll keep our eyes peeled.”

Eren heard voices say outside of the alley he and Armin were currently hiding in. Eren hoisted Armin over his back, praying he wouldn’t wake up and then slipped into the nearest building. Thank the walls the door was right here, Eren praised. Armin started to yawn and Eren slapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes screaming for Armin to shut up. He clearly got the message because Armin stopped struggling and Eren lowered his hand.

Eren cupped his mouth and raised it to Armin’s ear, his hot breath tickling his skin, “there’s people out there who saw me come out of my titan and you helping me. We have to wait until they leave.”
Armin nodded and listened for the sound of voices and footsteps. Armin and Eren sat there for at least 10 minutes before hearing voices again.

“I don’t know, Levi. They probably aren’t here anymore, we missed them. Again.”

“Stop pouting, Hange. You look pathetic.”

“Bet you wouldn’t say that if I was Erwin.”

“I’m leaving.”

“IM KIDDING, you’re such a buzzkill.”

Eren gasped, “oh my walls, those are the guys from the training camp-“ Armin slapped a hand over Eren’s mouth and tackled him to the floor.

“Did you hear that?” A voice asked from outside the house.

“Yes, be quiet.”

Armin grabbed Eren’s hand and ran over to the window on the opposite side of the room they were in, “jump out.”

Eren didn’t hesitate and jumped out, stumbling slightly after the three feet drop. Armin jumped after him and they peered over the wall, looking down the street in the direction of the voices.

“I don’t see them!” Someone yelled around them.

“Shit! Let’s just run!” Eren begged Armin. He didn’t even wait for Armin's response before taking off down the street and then using his ODM gear, disappearing behind roofs.

“Wait!” Armin yelled, abandoning all hope of remaining secret. He sprinted down the street and shot off in the direction of Eren.

“Levi-“ Hange called over to Levi, but he was already chasing the two kids.

“On it!” Levi called and Hange followed. He then signaled for them to go around the other way and Hange split off discreetly.

“Why are you chasing me?!” Armin yelled at Levi and landed on a roof, “can’t we just talk about this?!”

Levi landed on the roof opposite to him and held his blades in his hands, “what’s there to talk about? You clearly are a threat due to your relationship with that titan thing.”
Armin clenched his fists, “he’s not a thing, he’s a human. He isn’t trying to hurt anyone and neither am I!”

Levi pointed his blade at Armin and glared, “either you tell me where your friend went or I turn you over to the Military Police right now.”

Armin groaned and threw his hands up, “have you listened to anything I’ve said? I said we aren’t dangers, he literally helped you by killing titans. You’re welcome.”

“Turning you over it is,” Levi said bluntly and within the second he was pinning Armin down, tying his hands behind his back.
Armin struggled against Levi, trying to swing his legs and get his hands out of his grasp. Someone else landed on the roof loudly and voices immediately filled the area.

“LET ME GO! I’VE DONE NOTHING WRONG!” Eren screamed, kicking his legs wildly and was trying to break the rope tying his hands behind his back. Eren smashed his head back into Hange’s face and tried to get free, but to no avail.

“Eren!” Armin called and Eren’s eyes locked onto his.

“Why are you tying up Armin?! He’s done nothing wrong, let us go!” Eren started yelling again. Armin sighed and stopped struggling, attempting to convey to Eren that he should also stop putting up a fight.

It wasn’t working.

“Eren!” Armin yelled and Eren’s face snapped to face his, “stop struggling.”

Eren looked like he wanted to argue and fight. Please just go along with this, don’t make this worse for the both of us, Armin begged internally.

“Ok, we’re going,” Levi stated and grabbed Armin with a steel grip and threw him at Hange, “give me that one.”

“HELLO? I’m a person, you know,” Eren butt in. Hange pushed Eren to Levi and then gripped Armin tightly under their arm.

“Hold on, sweetie,” Hange said and took off to Wall Rose. Armin gripped their arm tightly, thanking the walls that Wall Rose was close to them. Armin could hear Eren yelling profanities at Levi behind him.

Hange began climbing the wall, only taking a minute or two. Wow, these guys are really talented, Armin thought. If they weren’t trying to hand us over to the Military Police I’d probably ask them shit.

Levi dropped Eren on the top of the wall, not caring if Eren fell over or not.

He did and struggled to get himself back on his feet.

Levi rolled his eyes and dragged him over to Hange, “let’s go, Hange.” They ran over to him, pulling Armin along.

The four of them walked in an awkward silence. Eren cleared his throat as if preparing to make a statement. Walls, Eren, please don’t make this worse somehow.

“Uh, so what did we do, exactly?” he asked.

Levi scowled and Hange looked at him incredulously, “you were seen getting out of a titan and this was the second person who has seen you doing that? You’re a danger to humanity? Don’t you remember us?”

“Well, yeah I remember you guys, but I didn’t think you would arrest me. I thought that I did a pretty good job last time getting you off our backs-“ Eren seemed to realize what he said wrong as soon as he said it.

“So you admit it?!” Hange cried. Armin abandoned all hope of them getting out of this.

“Eren, why?” Armin groaned and glared at Eren.

“Oops?” Eren smiled slightly, I fucked up. Well I lived a good life, I guess it’ll all be ending today.
Armin could’ve strangled him in that moment. His stupid crooked smile, Armin thought, his stupid loud mouth. I will kill you if the MPs don’t do it first. Armin reeled in his thoughts and breathed deeply.

“Ah, Levi, pleasant seeing you here.” Pixis said, holding his arms out as a welcome. Flask in hand, as always.

“Pleasant,” Levi responded plainly.

“Who do we have here?” he asked tilting his head to see Eren and Armin.

“Taking them to Erwin before the MPs, this is that titan boy.”

“Hey?” Eren greeted. Armin stared at him incredulously, why would he greet the man who’s probably willing to kill us?

“Ah, yes. You’ve made quite ruckus for someone that practically no one has actually seen.”

Eren grimaced, “Can someone explain what’s actually going on?”

Levi started to say something, but Pixis drunkenly jumped in, “Some random soldier saw you come out of titan after watching you kick ass in it. They blabbered to someone else and now basically everyone knows. Military Police has ordered your arrest and our buddy Levi heard this and then went to investigate, so here we are.”
Eren cocked an eyebrow, as if challenging that statement.

“No, he’s right,” Levi said. Hange giggled behind him.

“A word, Levi?” Pixis said, gesturing for Levi to follow him over to the edge of the wall.

“What?”

“I have an idea,”

“That’s never good,” Levi deadpanned.

Pixis ignored that statement and pointed at the boulder sitting in the middle of Trost district, “If we get that kid to lift that boulder, as a titan obviously, he might be able to carry it to the hole in the wall. He could plug it up.”
Levi opened his mouth, shut it, and then opened it again, “That’s definitely an idea. It could work, but it would draw attention and would require the cooperation of all the soldiers still around.”

“Maybe. I don’t know how many titans are still down there or how many soldiers are still around, but I’m sure I could get more people involved if need be.”

“I didn’t peg you as a tactical person, Pixis.”

“I didn’t peg you as a 5’2 man, but here we are.”

Levi growled and stormed back over to Hange and Eren, kicking him over.

“What was that for?” Eren yelled, glaring up at him.

“Can you turn into a titan on command?” Levi ignored his previous question.

Eren flicked his eyes towards Armin, “Maybe. I don’t know, I’ve never tried.”

Levi pinched his brows, “What do you know about this?”

Armin realized he was talking to him, “Not much, just that every time he’s transformed it has been life threatening injuries.”

Hange furrow their brow at that, “Strange…” Levi rolled his eyes and dragged Eren to the edge of the wall, then grabbed his collar and almost threw him over.

“You think falling from a height like this would cause a life threatening injury?”

Armin’s eyes widened, “You’ll kill him! If he falls from a height like this he would end up dying!”

“The MPs are going to kill him either way, might as well try this fucking crazy idea.”

Armin’s eyes watered and tears threatened to spill over, “This won’t work, you’ll kill him-“

Levi dropped Eren.

Eren plummeted to the ground.

Armin screamed.

Hange’s jaw dropped.

Pixis took another swig of his flask.

Lightning struck the ground where Eren had fallen, smoke rising and obscuring the view of what happened.

Armin sprinted awkwardly over to the edge of the wall, “EREN?!” He squinted, looking for any sign of Eren's titan or just Eren. A roar sounded from below and he sagged in relief. Levi’s eyes widened and Hange practically threw themself over the wall to see. Hange laughed maniacally as they fell off the wall and into the smoke, their grappling hook catching them.

The smoke subsided and Levi and Armin could see Hange on Eren’s shoulder, Eren’s titan trying to swat them away from his face. At least they aren’t trying to kill him, Armin tried reassuring himself.

“He didn’t die,” Levi said blandly, peering over the edge.

Armin rolled his eyes, pretending like he wasn’t just freaking out over Eren’s safety, “He’s not weak.”

“Never said he was.”

“I’m pretty sure you were implying it.”

“Shut it or I’ll hand you over to the Military Police without even letting him try this plan,” Levi glared and Armin closed his mouth.

“What’s the plan?” Armin asked innocently.

“Get that shithead to carry that boulder to plug up the hole,” Armin stared at him to continue, “that’s it. Pixis only gave us that idea.”

Armin looked at him incredulously, “I mean, I guess it’s not a bad idea. It’s not thought out though and could end up backfiring majorly.”

Levi shrugged, “it’s all we got at the moment, unless you have a better idea.”

“I don’t,” Armin confessed, “but I do have a way to make this plan of yours go smoother.” Levi inclined his head slightly for him to continue talking, “If your remaining squad could clear out or distract the remaining titans then I could lead Eren to the boulder and get him to plug the hole. My idea for the distraction is to get everyone still around to stand on the corner of the wall opposite of where the boulder is, successfully taking the titans away from Eren and myself.”

“Sounds risky and could lead to casualties,” Levi responded.

Armin sighed, “everything leads to casualties. If we plug this stupid hole now then we could probably stop even more unneeded deaths.”

______

“EREN, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!” Armin yelled from the roof next to Eren’s titan. Eren’s titan roared and stared at him, as if waiting for Armin to tell him to do something. They were actually going through with the plan, surprisingly enough. Levi convinced Armin by saying that they would probably get a less harsher punishment from the Military Police if they did this. Since Eren was already in titan form he didn’t get much of a say, but Armin was sure Eren would've said yes.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Levi said to the left of him. Pixis had put Rico and Hange in charge of distracting the titans using the people still here and whoever Pixis could gather. I’m sure that dimwit told them all about Eren, Levi thought bitterly, now civilians could hear this and freak out about this.

Armin saw a green flare on the corner of the wall where the distraction would be, signaling Eren to lift the boulder and for Levi and a few members of his squad to defend him.

Armin rolled his shoulders a few times and then shot off to land on Eren’s shoulder. “Lift that boulder,” Armin yelled at Eren and pointed at said boulder, “and then put it there!” He said and pointed over to the hole in Trost. Eren peered at him from the corner of his eye, convincing Armin this would work.

“Ok, Eren, I’m leaving this up to you,” Armin said next to Eren’s huge ear and pat his cheek/jaw lightly. He hoped that small gesture would reassure Eren. Armin went back to Levi and stood next to him.

“This better work,” Levi said harshly.

“It will.” Please, Eren…

The world seemed to watch in silence as Eren moved towards the boulder, less than 10 feet away from it now. Eren’s titan snapped it’s head to the side, spotting a titan and abandoning his job to chase after it. Eren’s heavy footsteps caused the house Armin and Levi were on to shake slightly.

“Fuck, this could be an issue,” Armin muttered. Levi sighed, trying to repress his urge to yell at a 15 year old.

“I thought you said he listened to you,” Levi growled.

Armin rubbed the back of his head and laughed awkwardly, “Did I say that?”

“Yes.”

Armin dropped his smile, “He normally does, but keep in mind we have only done this twice. I’m not an expert, plus I’m not even sure he knows how to control it-“

“TITAN!” Someone shouted from behind them. Armin jumped off the building in time for a titan to smash into the house by Eren tackling it.

Some didn’t jump in time, though.

Eren pounded its head into the brick road, blood flying through the air. Eren didn’t show any signs of stopping his rampage, a chill ran through Armin’s body.

“What happens…” Armin asked slowly, “if Eren doesn’t do this plan?”

Levi stared straight ahead at Eren, eyes analyzing everything he was doing, “He’ll die.”

Armin inhaled sharply. He nodded and walked away from Levi, needing air or anything that could get him to calm down.

“This is fine, all I need to do is get Eren’s attention. No problem,” Armin muttered to himself, hyping himself up. He breathed deeply and then jumped off the roof, letting his body fall for a second before catching himself with the grappling hooks imbedding themselves in a house. It didn’t take much for him to get to Eren since he was only a house or two away, but the mess he was making made Armin regret his choices.

Blood covered the ground, houses, anything within Eren’s boundary of destruction. Titans wandered over to him and he would kill them with everything he has, utilizing anything from his fists to his mouth.

“Eren!” Armin shouted and cupped his mouth. Eren either didn’t hear him or ignored him because Eren’s titan continued to crush the skull of another titan. Armin ran forward and launched himself onto the roof closest to Eren. Armin could already feel the heat rising from the amount of titans being killed. “EREN! I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE!” Armin screamed, “STOP THIS OR WE WILL BE KILLED!”

Eren seemed to still at that and Armin felt a bit guilty, key word: a bit. Armin wasn’t sure that he would be killed too if Eren failed this, but he wasn’t willing to take that bet. You’ve always saved me, Armin thought, let me for once save your sorry ass.
Eren finished off the titan and turned to Armin, his imposing form even more staggering with the blood covering his fists and feet.

“GO GET THAT BOULDER,” Armin yelled and pointed harshly, “AND PUT IT THERE,” he then gestured wildly at the hole. Armin was grasping at straws, even he himself could realize that, but what choice did he have? If Eren doesn’t do this we’ll die and if he does he still might be considered a danger and be killed. There’s no good way this’ll end.
Eren’s monstrous howls cut through Armin’s overwhelming thoughts and brought him back the present. Eren was trying to pick up the boulder, his arms and legs straining. Armin shot a grappling hook at Eren and landed on his shoulder.

“C’mon, Eren, you got this!” Armin said, praying to the walls that positive reinforcement would work. Armin continued to mutter encouraging phrases and after minutes he had finally lost his patience. “Eren! Stop fucking around and feeling shitty about this situation because I know you are. You were put on this world for a reason and that’s to live. Complete this and we’ll live. We can live and enjoy life again and you’ll continue to be dumb and loud, but that’s the best part of living! Eren, do this for me. Do it for Mikasa, do it for Jean and Connie and Sasha. Do it for all of us because we all know we’re counting on you!”
Eren let out an ungodly roar and heaved the boulder up, his monstrous steps sounding like thunder and the light crunch of breaking brick. Armin struggled to find a way off Eren’s shoulder, but he left and rejoined Levi and his squad.

“Seems like whatever you did worked,” Levi commented and Armin beamed. He didn’t have enough time to respond before Levi peeled off from the group and killed a titan in pursuit of Eren. Eren paid no mind and Armin questioned if Eren could even think about multiple things at once in titan form.

As Eren approached the hole, Armin could feel the tension in the air, this was the moment of truth. Armin held his breath and watched Eren strike the boulder into the hole, successfully closing it. Armin dropped to his knees and stared at it, I always knew you could do it. He suddenly remembered Eren was still in the titan that was now slumped on the ground and he propelled himself to it. He landed on Eren’s nape and raised his blade to cut it open. He stabbed his blade into the flesh, deep enough to slice through it but not to hurt Eren, and cut him out like earlier. Steam was released as soon as Armin cut off the chunk and began to pull Eren loose. Burns formed on Armin’s hands and arms and he pulled more frantically. He fell down the back of Eren’s decomposing titan with Eren secured in his arms. Some of the tissue that connected Eren to his titan still hung off his face, but quickly evaporated.

Armin traced his fingers yet again over Eren’s titan markings and pulled his hand back when it singed him. Levi landed in front of them and fired a single green flare to signal the end and success of the operation.

“Military Police will be here soon,” Levi said. Armin nodded tiredly and clutched Eren closer to his body, wrapping his arms tightly around Eren’s torso.

“Got it.”

“I hope you know I won’t let them kill you.”

“What about Eren? Will you protect him against the MPs, too?” Armin asked.

“I’ll do my best,” Levi said with an air of finality. He walked off and Armin closed his eyes, consciousness already leaving his body.

We’ll be ok, Eren. I’ll protect you this time.

Chapter Text

Eren woke with a groan and yawned loudly, trying to stretch his arms forward only to realize he couldn’t. He looked around to see chains connecting his arms to the ceiling, restricting his arm movement. He was in a bare room, Eren was willing to bet it was some sort of a cell due to how dark and damp it was. Eren then turned his head away from the chains and looked straight forward at the bars separating him from a dimly lit hallway. Levi stared back at him, leaning against the stone wall next to a tall blonde man. Eren brought his hand up to his cheek, fingers brushing it lightly to check if the titan markings were still there.

“You’ve been unconscious for almost two days,” Levi said. Eren’s eyes widened and he pulled at his chains when he scrambled to the end of the cot.

“Where’s Armin?” he demanded. He could see the two guards on either side of his cell tighten their grips on their guns and he reluctantly eased up, sitting on his knees.

“Your friend is fine, he’s actually been released from Military Police custody,” the blonde haired man said and then added, “I’m Erwin. Commander of the Survey Corps.”

“Wait, why was Armin ever in Military Police custody?” Eren had to stop himself from pummeling Erwin with questions about the Scouts. Armin, I’m so sorry I dragged you into this mess, Eren thought.

“After you had closed the hole to Trost and he had recovered you from your titan, but you both passed out by the time the MPs found you and arrested you. I defended Armin’s name and said that he had been an asset that proved most important to the success of shutting off Trost. Nile didn’t give much of a shit and let him go as long as one member of my squad or Hange stayed with him, so Hange is now watching him.”

“I’m assuming he wouldn’t let you get custody of me?” Eren asked, picking at his fingers and peering up slightly.

Levi sighed, “Yes, but in a couple days there will be a trial deciding what will happen to you.”

“Just stay here and try not to do anything that would prove you’re dangerous or unstable,” Erwin interrupted.

Levi walked forward and clutched the bars to Eren’s cell, “But if you do anything that makes me lose my trust in you,” he glared at Eren, “I won’t hesitate to cut you down.”

Erwin placed a hand on Levi’s shoulder, “Ok, Levi, that’s enough. And Eren, we’ll see you again.”
They walked off, leaving Eren alone with his thoughts and the guards who clearly hated him, but were simultaneously scared of him. Eren sighed and fell back onto his thin bed. He stared up at the wooden ceiling before rolling over, his shackles rattling slightly.
I wonder what Armin is doing right now…

_____

“So, Armin,” Hange said and propped their chin on their hand.

“Yeah?” He responded, knowing this conversation was probably going to go in a weird direction.

“What’s your relationship with Eren?” they wiggle their eyebrows and smirk. Armin choked on the water he was sipping and they laughed loudly, pounding his back to help him breathe.

“WHAT?”

Hange rolled their eyes, “Oh c’mon, I noticed the way you looked at him even IF I’ve only met you twice. You like him, don’t worry. It’s ok.”

Armin stared at them, but shoved his head into his hands to hide his blush, “I don’t like him. We’re just friends.”

“Fine, fine, fine. Maybe I was misreading things, I apologize.” They backed off and the two fell into an awkward silence.

There’s no way I like him, I mean c’mon. We grew up together and yeah we held hands and stuff, but never in a romantic way. I’ve never wanted to kiss him or anything… right?
Armin groaned and slumped over on the table. Hange laughed quietly from behind him, Armin turned over and stared at them, “If I were to like him, what would I do? I DON’T LIKE HIM, I’M JUST SAYING IF!” He blushed harder.

“Of course. Well first I’d get my feelings in order, see if I actually like him or not. Then I’d try to see if he likes you back and then go from there.” Hange rubbed his shoulder supportively.

“This might sound dumb, but isn’t homosexuality, like, not a thing?” Armin asked. He slammed at face into the table at how dumb at sounded.

“While I could see why you’d think that with humanity’s numbers declining and stuff, nope. I’m sure you’ve seen two men or two women kissing once.”

“Yeah, once, in an alley.” Armin recalled the experience clearly, it was dark out and Armin had been wandering the streets alone. He had been heading back to his Grandpa’s house when he walked past the alley and peered in. Being the little kid he was, he became awkward and ran off, but the memory stuck with him.

“See? Some people think it’s wrong, but it’s not. Don’t worry too much about this now, don’t want you to freak out or anything,” they laughed and pat Armin’s head. Little did they know he was already freaking out. Wait,Armin thought, what about Mikasa. What if she has a crush on him, it felt that way when we were all kids, but now we haven’t had any time to think about this stuff. “Can I go see my friend?”

“Are they here? You realize we are in Stohess District now because of Eren’s trial, right?”

Armin’s mouth formed an ‘o’ and he huffed, “Of course I knew that.”

“Sure, kid, anyways since we’re stuck here for a few days I will have plenty of time to talk about titans!”

Armin smiled softly, “you know, I actually have an idea about titans.”

Hange gripped his shoulder, “tell me now!”

_____

Eren began to lose track of the days in that cell, he had never been good at keeping track of time and now that he didn’t have the sun to help he was utterly lost. He spent most of his time picking at his fingers or the thin sheet over the even thinner mattress or his scratchy shirt or anything. Point is, he was bored. He was also worried for his friends, he hadn’t heard anything about the casualties from Trost. I know Mikasa is fine, she’s strong. And if Mikasa is fine then so is Sasha because Sasha is important as hell to her, Eren thought and listed off the people who he thought were fine and why. Letting his mind wander and relax, trying to relieve his boredom.

He had tried a few times to strike up a conversation with the guards, hoping they could find a common ground or at least let him walk around, but nothing was working. “Hey, can I get water?”

The guards glared at him, “monsters don’t get water.” Eren groaned and clenched his fists.

“But-“

The guard that had responded previously banged his gun on the bars separating them, “shut up!”

Eren growled, “You guys have to at least give me water! I could die!” Wait can I even die?

“Wouldn’t it just be better if you did die?” the guard who hadn’t spoken yet said. Eren opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out.

“Cat got your tongue?” he laughed and cocked his firearm, aiming at the space above Eren’s head, “think I could hit that stone behind it?”

The other guard laughed and cocked his gun as well, “Maybe. Let me try too.”

Eren’s eyes widened when he realized what was going to happen, “Guys, let’s not do that. I know you hate me, but I think that’s taking things a bit too far.” Eren laughed awkwardly, trying to lessen the tension. Neither guard lowered their guns and continued to take aim through the bars.

“On the count of three,” the first guard said.

“One,”

“Two,”

“Three!”

Eren ducked. Throwing himself back down on the bed, eyes screwed shut. Two bullets hit the stone and some rubble and stone shards fell out onto Eren’s hair and face. The bullets were laying on the floor in the space between the bed frame and wall. Eren cautiously opened his eyes and propped himself up, seeing the two guards laughing and hollering loudly. Eren saw red. He threw himself forward and was yanked painfully back by the chains, “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! I’LL KILL YOU BOTH! RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!”

The two men paled considerably and gave each other a quick look before cocking their rifles, both aiming at Eren’s face.

“What did Nile say to do if it got violent?” One guard asked the other, looking at him from the corner of his eye. Eren continued to pull at the chains and scream at them.

“We can’t kill it, but we can hurt it,” the guard responded and threw his gun back over his shoulder. The other guard repeated the action and withdrew a key from his pocket. He unlocked Eren’s cell and stepped inside, leaving the door open for his partner to get in too.

Eren stopped pulling against the chains when he heard the cell down shut with a resounding clang! He didn’t even realize the guards were in his cell until that moment and the unwelcome feelings of fear flooded his body. He felt even more trapped in this instant than when he first woke up to Levi and Erwin. Eren pushed himself flush against the headboard and the guards laughed.

“What happened to that fighting spirit? Don’t lose it, we haven’t beaten it out of you yet,” the first guard smirked and cracked his knuckles. Eren was about five seconds away from rising to the bait before he remembered what Erwin had said,

“Just stay here and try not to do anything that could prove you’re dangerous or unstable.”

Eren sighed and lowered his eyes. He stared at the mattress and felt the two other mens eyes on him.

The second guard scoffed, “I always knew you were weak just like that blonde bitch. Let’s leave, he’s not worth our time.” Eren’s head snapped up and his large green eyes zeroed in on the guard and scrambled forward, arm outstretched enough to cause his skin to tear around his wrist cuffs and he could feel his shoulder pop out of its socket. His hand just barely reached far enough to graze the man's shirt collar.

“Don’t say that about Armin,” Eren said, his voice dangerously low.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did we insult your boyfriend?” He replied. Sarcasm dripped from his voice, “I didn’t think monsters had friends, or maybe he’s just pitying you.”

“Shut up,” Eren spat, not even denying the boyfriend part. He pressed his palms into his eyes until he saw stars and shut out the voices of the guards. Pain blossomed from the side of his head and his face snapped backwards, knocking his cheek painfully against the bed frame. The guard had backhanded him.

“We never said you could talk,” the man said in a disappointed tone and bent down to Eren. He swung his leg at the man and his foot harshly met the man’s side. The other guard made a move at Eren and punched his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Eren coughed and then the guard punched him in the jaw, this time his temple hit the bed frame and a jagged piece of wood and a loose nail sliced from his temple to his forehead. He cried out and his hands flew to his head. The man that Eren kicked down was back up and holding his side. Ha, at least I did some damage, Eren thought. Giving one final kick to Eren’s stomach the guards exited his room and walked down the dimly lit hallway. Leaving Eren to tend to himself.

Eren’s shock of the guards leaving him alone and unguarded was overridden by the pain radiating from his head and shoulder. He lightly pressed down on his temple and hissed at the sting. Blood dripped down his face and over his eye, but quickly turned to steam. He could feel a small piece of wood in his wound, but without a mirror he wasn’t sure how he’d get it out. He looked at where his head hit the bed frame and could see the blood on it that was steaming off. A chuck of his flesh was still hanging off the nail, but that too had started to steam and decompose.

He breathed a sigh of relief, I don’t have to worry about the wound since I have these powers. That’s perfect! Eren then remembered what his father had told him a long time ago. Back when his father was still teaching him how to be his apprentice once he had gotten older,

“Make sure to take out anything that's stuck in your skin before it heals over because once it’s healed you’ll have to cut it out.”

“Walls,” Eren muttered and pressed his temple. He could feel the heat radiating off of it and the wound almost completely healed. “FUCK!” Eren yelled and dug his fingers into the bit of wood- he assumed it was the wood- not healed over. He bit his lip and yanked it out, a scream ripped from his body. He threw it in the corner of his room and pressed his hands against his temple. No point in bleeding out before it can heal, Eren thought bitterly.

He pulled his hand back into his chest when he felt the warm feel of steam beginning to come off his head wound. He rolled his shoulder and bit down on his lip when he popped it back into its socket. He tasted blood. Eren stared at his bloody hands, steam also wafting up. He sighed and fell onto his back and went back to staring at the ceiling.
“Could this get any worse?” He groaned and shut his eyes. Eren fell asleep within the next minute.

Eren found out over the next couple days that it could get worse.

“HANGE!” Armin yelled, trying to stop their incessant rambling about titans. Don’t get him wrong, he loved learning, but this had been going on for hours. Hell, they started this conversation days ago after he had proposed the idea of more people being like Eren. Armin had barely been able to escape them to sleep.

“Yes?” they responded, cocking their head to the side. Armin rubbed his hands over his face and pulled at his eyes.

“What time is it?”

“Um,” Hange lifted a finger to scratch their scalp, “six-ish?”

Armin could’ve screamed in that moment, “I don’t want you to guess, can’t you just use a watch?”

“Try three in the morning,” a new voice said from the doorway. Hange and Armin glanced over to see Levi leaning against the doorframe.

“And where have you been?” Hange asked while smirking as if they already knew where.

“With Erwin,” Levi replied bluntly. Leaving no further room for discussion, but Hange ignored that.

“Ah, and were you, you know,” they made a vulgar hand motion and Armin awkwardly looked at the wall.

“No, we were not doing that!” Levi yelled and flipped off Hange, “we were actually trying to get our last defenses for Eren ready. The trial is tomorrow.”
“It’s tomorrow!? Have I seriously wasted all this time talking to them about titans?” Armin cried miserably, Levi pitied him.

“Don’t worry, we talked a few days ago about what to say. We’ll be fine.”
Armin reluctantly nodded and trudged off to his small room that he had been staying in while he was forcibly being monitored. He fell back onto the soft bed and turned onto his side, holding a pillow to his chest.

“It’ll be ok, I’m sure Eren’s fine. He’s probably just been sleeping all the time… yeah!” Armin tried to cheer himself up, but to no avail. I hope he hasn’t been having nightmares, Armin thought, I don’t want to imagine him having to deal with that alone. I hope he’s eating well, too. I don’t want him to lose the strength and muscle he got from training. He rubbed his face and buried it into the pillow, “Goodnight, Eren, love you.”

“Tell me the truth,” Hange said seriously once Armin left the room. Levi sat down next to them and placed his head in his hands.

“I don’t know. To be honest, this trial could go badly. The evidence of him being a danger isn’t that much, but we really don’t have much proof of him a helpful asset either.”

Hange tapped their finger against their chin, “But what about when they plugged the hole in Trost? Shouldn’t that be overwhelming evidence in his defense?”

Levi shook his head, “You’d think so, but it might not end up that way. Eren had a bit of a mishap and killed two people when in titan form. To you and me that might not sound too bad, but considering the other deaths and how the Military Police are out to get him, it might screw us over.” Levi hated thinking that two deaths wasn’t that many, he took each casualty personally. But after doing this job for so long he’s begun to think that anything less than losing whole squads is a good day.

“And what happens if the MPs get custody?”

“Erwin seems to believe he’s humanity’s greatest chance at stopping the titans, so in the case of that he probably will come up with something,” Levi turned over to look at Hange and they forced a smile, “You seem to like Armin.”

Hange laughed softly, “Yeah, he’s a good kid. Reminds me of Erwin sometimes which freaks me out a bit, but he’s a really good kid.”

Levi pat their arm and stood up, “I’m gonna go to my room. Try and get some sleep, you are the one in charge of getting Eren in the morning for his trial.

“Can I take Armin with me?”

“Yes,” he walked out the door, “goodnight, Hange.”

Hange beamed and ran out the door to their own room, “‘Night, Levi!”

_____

“ARMIIIINNN!” Hange yelled as they busted into Armin’s room. He sat up groggily and rubbed his eyes, “Get up, dearie! We’re getting your boyfriend, his trial is in an hour and I wanted to give you some time to talk to him!”

Armin blushed furiously, “He’s not my boyfriend… but thank you.” Hange shrugged and smiled at him

“I’ll wait outside, come out when you’re changed.”

Armin nodded and Hange left the room, shutting the door behind them. He scrambled up and threw on his clothes. His fingers struggled with the straps, but he got it and slammed the door open. Hange jumped slightly and the door banging against the wall, but started walking off towards someone who was a friend of Hange and Levi. Armin followed them silently, leading Armin through the maze of hallways and into the bustling Sina streets.

He’s under the courtroom. It’s only a five minute walk, but you’ll get to know another important person in the Scout Regiment!” Hange said. Armin nodded and they took that as a sign to keep talking, “This is Miche Zacharius. He’s the leader of Miche Squad, obviously.”

Miche went up to Armin and sniffed his neck, Armin stiffened and tried to hide his confusion.

“Oh, don’t be concerned. He does that with everyone,” Hange said when they saw Armin’s forced expression.
Armin scooted over a bit and held out his hand to Miche, “Hi, I’m Armin Arlert.”

Miche took his hand, “As you know, my name is Miche and I’m a squad leader. Are you a part of the Scout Regiment yet?” Miche asked.

He looked over at Hange, “Am I?”

“To be honest, I don’t know either. You are kinda, but also you aren’t? I don’t know, we can figure it out late- We’re here!” Hange cut themselves off and ran up to the Military Police that were standing in front of the door to the Courthouse.

Armin and Miche stood a bit behind them, waiting for the MPs to let them in. Hange took out a note and gave it to the guards, letting them read it. They stepped to the side and let the trio in, mumbling to Hange where Eren was.

Armin ran up to Hange’s side as they walked briskly through the hallway to the staircase leading down. They followed the guards directions and found the dungeons, Hange turned into a dark hallway with cells lining the left side.

“Last cell,” Hange whispered to Armin. He smiled gratefully and took off down there. He threw himself onto the bars, ignoring the guards on either side of it. Eren’s didn’t make any movement at the noise. Hange pressed the key into his hand and some handcuffs into the other. Armin reluctantly took the handcuffs and let himself into Eren’s cell. He sat on the edge of Eren’s bed and lightly touched Eren’s leg, startling Eren awake.

“It’s too early to beat me up,” Eren said in a hoarse voice and pushed his face into the mattress, “five more minutes.”]

Armin was taken aback and poked Eren again, “Hey, idiot. It’s me.”

Eren snapped his head up so quickly Armin thought he would break it, “ARMIN!” He wrapped Armin in a hug, holding onto him like if he let go Armin would vanish.

Armin pulled back and cupped Eren’s face, “Are you good? Have they been treating you right?”

Eren nodded and his lips quirked up, “Now that you’re here, yeah. I’m alright.” Eren wanted to say more, but the guard in the left corner shook his head slightly as if knowing what he wanted to say. Armin also wanted to press Eren more, but Hange made a hand motion to get to the point.

“Listen, Eren, so your trial is happening in like 45 minutes and I’m sure Hange wants to prepare you a bit. They also said they would let us talk a bit,” Armin explained.

Hange excused the guards and then spoke to Eren through the bars, “We can’t actually tell you much because of the whole ‘he is a danger to humanity’ thing, but we can tell you the gist.”
Eren gripped Armin’s hand and Armin placed the handcuffs on the edge of the bed. Armin knew something had happened to Eren, but it had to wait. I’m sure he’s just a bit shaken from being down here alone for a week, Armin calmed himself.

“The Military Police is fighting for custody of you, we don’t exactly know what for. Probably to execute you or keep you locked up, like I said, we don’t know what they want with you. The Scout Regiment wants custody of you to use you as an asset to retake Wall Maria. Any questions?”

“Is there any outcome that I don’t have to be under anyone’s custody like a dog?” Eren asked Hange harshly. Armin should’ve assumed he wouldn’t like these options.

“Eren,” Armin said softly, “this is the best we’ve got.”

Eren pushed Armin’s hands off his, “Don’t pity me! I’m so tired of people treating me like I’m a baby, and if they don’t treat me like a baby then they’ll treat me like a monster! I’m so fucking tired of it, can’t I just be a normal person!?” He screamed and gripped his forearms tight enough to leave bruises. Armin was at a loss for what to say, he never felt like what he said was the right thing.

“I’m not pitying you, Eren! I’m trying to fucking keep you calm so you don’t get yourself killed!” Armin yelled back and pried Eren’s fingers off his arms. The bruises Eren left already fading.

“Ok, so tensions are high. I get it, Miche, let’s leave them alone for a bit,” Hange said and walked down the hallway.

“What’s wrong?” Armin begged. Eren darted his eyes across the room, avoiding Armin’s question.

“Can’t we talk about this later? I just want to lay here,” he picked at his fingers again, “with you.”

Armin blushed and laid down next to him, “Sorry if I was being annoying and testing you.”

Eren rolled over and inserted his face between Armin’s neck and shoulder, “No, it’s ok. I’m just tired, that’s all.”

“Promise me you will tell me what’s going on after the trial?”

“Promise,” Eren said and lifted his pinky finger. He interlocked it with Armin’s and they shook on it. Armin decided not to say anything and just rub Eren’s back, playing with the shirt occasionally.

Hange came back soon though, “Ok lovebirds, time to go. Armin, if you could please take off Eren’s chains and put on those handcuffs.” Hange tossed him the key to the chains and Armin caught it. He quickly took them off and let Eren rub his wrists before asking him to hold out his hands for the handcuffs. Eren begrudgingly held out his wrists for Armin and shivered slightly when the cold cuffs were pressed against his skin.

“Sorry,” Armin mumbled and opened the cell door for Eren to walk out of. Eren slowly walked out and was surprised to see a man there he didn’t know. “Oh, that’s Miche.”
Eren didn’t say anything when Miche smelled him besides moving away and only nodded when Hange explained that it was a normal thing for him to do. The four of them walked down the hallway and followed Hange up the stairs and over to two grand doors. Hange and Miche walked off to the side door and Armin backed up a bit.

“Wait, where are you guys going?” Eren asked.

“You didn’t think we’d be the ones defending you, did you?” they grinned and left Armin and Eren alone. The doors opened suddenly and two guards harshly grabbed Eren’s upper arms, dragging him to the center of the courtroom. Armin followed behind him and peeled off to the witness stand. He went to Mikasa and touches her shoulder, letting her know he’s here.

“How is he?” She asks him in a hushed voice. Neither spare each other a glance, both are too focused watching Eren be forced to his knees and secured in place.

“He’s fine. He will continue to be fine, don’t worry,” Armin replies. He knows she hasn’t been taking this well. Eren was her rock just as much as Eren is to him.

Zachary walked behind the raised desk where he would be judging today’s trial, “This is hereby the start of the Trial of Eren Jaeger. Anything that happens in this room is strictly confidential and you are ordered by law to speak the truth and only the truth. If anyone wishes to leave please do so now,” no one moved, “Let’s begin.”

Chapter Text

“Let us begin,” Zachary said. Eren's eyes dart around the room, surveying the people on each side of him. He can see the Church of the Walls people along with the Military Police, the other side has the Scout Regiment and a small amount of Garrison. Eren’s eyes widen when he sees Mikasa and Armin standing near the Scout Regiment.

“Nile Dok, please make your case for why Eren Jaeger should be in the Military Police’s custody and not the Scout Regiment,” Zachary gestures in the direction of Nile who steps forward with a paper in his hand. Please, I bet he can’t even read, Eren mocks in his head. He knew he could read, but he just hated Nile already.

“We have all seen the reports from Trost, Commander Erwin claims that Jaeger isn’t a danger, but the evidence is overwhelming! During the time when Jaeger was closing the hole we lost over 200 lives! Valuable lives that Eren took two of himself!” Nile yelled and pointed accusingly at Eren’s kneeling form.

Whispers broke out across the room and Armin whipped his head to Levi who stood a few feet away from him.
“How do they know that!?” He whisper-yelled. Levi cocked a brow and nodded his head towards Rico that stood beside Mikasa.

Mikasa being the observant person she was, had heard this and glared at Rico, “Why would you put that in the report?”

Rico rolled her eyes and whispered back, “What? Did you want me to lie just for the sake of your friend?” Mikasa said nothing and turned back to Nile.

“Eren Jaeger is clearly unstable and has no right to be allowed to hold humanity’s wellbeing in the palm of his hands!” Nile yelled again. Eren narrowed his eyes and glared at Nile, Nile stared back at him with a smirk. “He should tell us all the secrets he knows about the titans and then be executed after a thorough investigation of what secrets might hide in his body as well!”

Eren was about to counter before a wall cultist jumped in, “There’s no need for questioning, execute him now!”

“Pastor Nick, can you wait your turn to speak?” Zachary said while banging his gavel to get the attention of the, now loud, room. “Commander Smith can you please make your case for why Eren Jaeger should be in the Scout Regiment’s custody?”

Erwin stepped forward and cleared his throat, “Wall Maria has been destroyed and we lost 20 percent of our population because of that. Humanity has placed its trust in the hands of the military, but what have we done? Sit around and have the Scouts occasionally go outside the walls? With Eren Jaeger we would be able to reclaim Wall Maria and save humanity from falling further into the cycle of despair and meaningless deaths,” Erwin said calmly and seriously. The room was silent during the speech and then murmurs broke out.

“Would you be able to guarantee that? Would you be able to 100 percent guarantee he won’t hurt or kill anyone?” Nile challenged. Eren’s anger bubbled to the surface, they’re acting like I’m not right here. I hate everyone in this room, Eren seethed inwardly.

“Nothing can be guaranteed in this world, but I can guarantee that we will discipline and keep strict watch over Jaeger. I’ve been around him before and he didn’t do anything that would make me think he would hurt someone with malicious intent.”

Nile smirked, “I actually have a witness to prove he is in fact unstable and shouldn’t be allowed outside of a cell,” he looked up at Zachary, “call I call my witness?”
Zachary nodded and a figure made its way to stand in the front next to Nile. Eren gasped and then grit his teeth when he saw who it was.

“That’s not fair and you know it!” Eren yelled at Nile and one of his guards glaring down at him.

“All I’m doing is bringing a witness,” Dok said innocently, “you shouldn’t be so aggressive.”

Eren nearly screamed and he pulled slightly at the metal pole that pinned his hands behind his back, but before he could yell something back he was stopped by Zachary, “Jaeger, please. Nile your witness has the floor. State your name and occupation first.”

“My name is David Hodges and I am part of the Military Police. I was assigned to guard Eren Jaeger's cell for the past week. From what I have seen first hand it is obviously not fit to roam free and have the faith of humanity in its hands. Humanity would be better off without him here,” he finished and took a step back so he was standing directly next to Nile.

Mikasa surged forward as if to attack him, but Armin grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “Don’t,” he hissed, “if we seem too defensive it won’t look good for our case. Please just let this play out,” Armin said. She hesitantly nodded and stopped pulling against him, settling back into her calm exterior.

“And do you have any instances of this that come to mind?” Zachary prompted David.

“Well, when I was his guard he would have almost constant nightmares, calling out for his mom or his friends. He was violent with us, he attacked me multiple times along with my partner. He is quite obviously unfit to be put in such an important position,” David said with a manic glint in his eye. Gasps rang out through the courtroom and Armin’s eyes widened comically. That’s why he was acting so weird, they probably hurt or insulted him to get a reaction specifically so they could say this. Tricky bastards, Armin thought angrily. He watched Eren’s features go from a face of horror to anger. He started yelling curses or whatever profanities he knew at the guard, chains clicking and making the room tense. Armin could practically hear Mikasa clench her jaw from restraining herself to not get involved.

Armin saw Levi slip through the little gate and down the step to the space where Eren was chained to the floor. Eren didn’t even seem to realize it until Levi brutally kicked his face, causing his face to snap to the side and a sickening crack to rang through the room. A tooth clattered to the floor and Mikasa took a step forward, the second time Armin had felt the murderous rage radiating off her. Armin hadn’t been told the full plan, but he had to place his trust in Levi and the Commander or they wouldn’t be able to get Eren back. He yanked Mikasa backwards, it might’ve been too harsh but at the moment he didn’t care.

“Stop Mikasa, you have to let this continue,” he begged. She flicked his eyes to him and then back to Levi beating the shit out of Eren, but eased up and let Armin pull her back. They watched as Levi continued to pummel Eren, each others company being enough comfort.

Eren gasped and coughed up some blood, tilting his head to look up at Levi once he stopped his hits. Levi walked in front of him and over to where Nile and David stood, “Does that look like the face of someone who wants to bring down humanity?”

The room was silent, Nile switched his gaze between Eren and Levi as if he wasn’t sure who to insult first. Eren breathed laboriously, trying desperately to suck in some air after the beating he just had. Worse than the guards beating, so much worse, he thought. Steam started to rise from his wounds and it seemed that the courtroom had noticed because angry voices started yelling at him.

“Monster!” Someone yelled loudly from the area behind him. He bristled slightly, but ignored them, deciding to focus on the conversation between Levi and Nile.

“See? He has shown his true form, steaming just like the titans. Just like our greatest enemies who have killed and terrorized humanity time and time again,” Nile glared at Eren.

“He clearly doesn’t have any control over tha-“ Levi began to say.

“So you agree, he doesn’t have any control over his power and is a danger?” Nile cut in.

“You never let me finish. He doesn’t have any control over that, his healing works automatically. He didn’t turn into a titan even after those attacks because of his control, if he truly had no control then he would be a titan already.” Levi replied calmly and turned around to walk back to his side of the court. He kicked Eren one last time to prove his point and stood beside Erwin. Zachary was quiet for a moment.

“Levi, do you have any witnesses?” he asked.

“Yes, Armin Arlert was there that day and can recount his experience,” Levi gestured to Armin to come beside him and to step forward.

“My name is Armin Arlert and I am part of the Scouting Regiment after just recently graduating from training. I have been close friends with Eren ever since we met when we were both seven. He has always been a bit of a rowdy kid, picking fights and whatnot but he always did it for his friends and family. To others he could seem like just an angry and violent person, but he’s not like that. He’s been extremely passionate about killing all the titans ever since the fall of Wall Maria and his mother’s death. He wants to reclaim that land and help save humanity, not destroy it,” Armin finished and took a deep breath. Eren stared back at him, his mouth slightly parted. He looks like he’s surprised I would defend him, Armin thought sadly.

“And since you’ve known Eren the longest, how long would you say Eren was aware of his titan powers?” Zackary asked.
Armin thought back to what Levi had said to him when he was being prepared for the trial,

“There’s going to be times when you don’t know how to respond correctly,” Levi said from the other side of the table, “you will have to choose between lying and being honest. You seem like a smart kid, so I’ll leave the choice up to you.”

Armin swallowed and wrung his wrists, “He had discovered his powers about a month before our graduation.”

“How did he discover them?” Zachary questioned.

“On accident, he broke his arm and realized it healed far too quickly to be normal,” Armin replied. He was aware this wasn’t the full story, but as long as it wasn’t an outright lie he assured himself he would be fine.

Zachary seemed to believe this, “And what were the events that transpired next?”

“He panicked and ran into the woods, took us hours to find him but I did and he confessed what had happened to him. The two of us kept it a secret from the other cadets because we didn’t know what was truly happening. I didn’t even know he could transform until that day in Trost.” Armin said and he laughed in his head at how gullible they were. Mikasa next to him didn’t even flinch, he was glad she understood what he was doing. Then again does she know the full truth?

Zachary nodded and peered down at Eren, “Is that truly what happened?”

It took Eren a moment to realize he was being talked to but he nodded and spit out some blood before speaking, “Yes. Everything Armin said was the truth.”

Nile took this moment to jump into the conversation, “Oh really? Because I just so happen to have another witness, my final witness, who would say something entirely different.”
Someone made their way through the stands and went to Nile’s side. A face stared back at Eren and Armin that both of them wished they would never see again.

“Hello boys, funny seeing you again,” Lena said sarcastically. Her eyes narrowed and Armin cursed under his breath.

Eren stared dumbly at her, “What the fuck.”

“Please state your name and occupation and what happened during your encounter with Jaeger,” Zachary said.

“My name is Lena, no surname. I work at a bar part-time and the other half of the time I do odd jobs for people. During one of my odd jobs I came across Eren and his companion Armin in the woods. When I was with them I had three other people with me on that job. Eren lost control of his powers when me and my companions had offered to take them to Trost District since they were lost. Eren lost control of his powers specifically when he was in the wagon and he murdered my three companions, I barely got away in time,” Lena said, letting a tear drip from her eye.

Eren’s patience left his body, “That’s a lie! She found us in the woods, kidnapped us, and then shot me!” He glared back at her and then flicked his eyes to where Armin was. Truth be told, Armin didn’t know what he was going to say. If I confess to the lie Eren and I told a second ago that could lead to Eren’s execution, but if I don’t confess and let Lena continue this lie it’ll look worse for Eren, Armin tried to reason.

“Eren’s telling the truth, he even has the scar on his chest from where he was shot,” Armin said calmly.

“We’ll get to that in a second, but Arlert are you saying that you and Jaeger lied about your previous story?” Zachary questioned.

“Yes,” Armin winced slightly. He prayed that Eren wouldn’t be executed because of this.

Zachary nodded slowly, “Arlert, please show us the scars on his chest.” Armin nodded and made his way to Eren. He pulled a pocket knife out of his pocket and cut the front of
Eren’s shirt, exposing the scar. Eren and Armin never mentioned it to each other, Armin always assumed he was embarrassed about it because of the lengths he went to to hide it. The scar was big by Armin’s standards, that’s what happens when you get shot point blank with a shotgun. It was about three inches by three inches, slight divots where the bullets had ripped into his skin but mostly smooth from Eren’s increased healing. The scar itself was just blotches of discoloration that were raised in some other places, most places darker than his tan skin and some places where almost white. Armin pointed at it and everyone leaned a bit closer to get a better look.
Eren stared at the ground, feeling less like a human and more like an object. He knew this would be important, truly he did, but he hated this. He hated feeling like an object on display to be poked and prodded.

“Anything you’d like to say to defend yourself?” Zachary asked Lena. She shook her head and he gestured to Armin to step away from Eren. Armin apologetically pat Eren’s shoulder once and walked back to his side of the room. Eren was practically healed now, it was as if the beating that had taken place never happened at all. Armin saw Eren’s nose set itself back in place a few minutes ago, Eren whined and tears trickled down his face.

“We will be taking a 15 minute recess, Jaeger will be allowed to be with Arlert in a separate room while still in handcuffs,” he banged his gavel and people began to file out of the room. Once the room was less busy Armin sprinted over to Eren and fell to his knees in front of him, pulling Eren into a hug. Mikasa followed behind him and wrapped herself around the two of them. She pulled back and Armin followed her lead, allowing a guard to unattach Eren from the pole anchoring him to the ground. The guard didn’t spare a glance at Armin or Mikasa before leading Eren out of the courtroom and into a small room down the hall, shoving Eren onto a couch and changing his handcuffs so his hands could sit in his lap. Then the guard left the room to stand guard outside of it. Armin and Mikasa let the guard shut the door and then rushed to his side, each of them on either side of him.

“Are you ok?” Armin asked, blue eyes bore into Eren’s green.

Eren nodded and shifted his handcuffed hands in this lap, “Yea, I’m fine.”

“You’re not,” Armin placed his hand over Eren’s and hoped that offered a bit of comfort. Mikasa watched the two of them interact, feeling as if she missed something important between the two of them. It wasn’t like she was jealous or anything, she had Sasha now and had gotten over her silly Eren crush years ago. She was happy for the two of them, glad they had found some happiness and comfort in each other.

“Hey, Mika,” Eren’s soft voice interrupted her thoughts.

The corners of her lips turned up and she sighed, “Hey, Eren. I was worried about you, we all were.”

“Even horse-face?” He asked with a breathy laugh. Armin and Mikasa were both reassured by his more Eren-like behavior.

“He actually cares about you, you know,” she said. Eren’s smile fell and he went silent, causing Mikasa to wonder what she said wrong

After a moment he mumbled, “Did everyone survive Trost?”

She nodded, “Yeah, the only serious injury happened to Marco. He lost his eye sight in his left eye after he was hit by a falling piece of a roof. He got a concussion and lost that eye, but Jean is taking care of him along with the nurses at the Hospital Marco’s in.” Eren breathed a sigh of relief at that.

“And we’re all joining the Survey Corps with you,” Armin added. Eren’s eyes widened and his face was a mixture of surprise, happiness, and surprisingly enough, guilt.

“O-Oh, they decided that on their own?” Eren asked. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to stay with his friends, but he wanted them to stay safe. I know they’re strong, but what if they die and it’s my fault because I pushed for them to join the Scouts. We’re never guaranteed safety but I was hoping they would be a bit safer. Let me wipe out the titans first and then we can all go see the ocean, Eren thought. He looked up and saw Armin and Mikasa staring at him with concern, but he just shook his head and smiled. “I’m glad we’re all sticking together, especially us.”

They smiled back at him and Armin opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by the guard coming back in, “Recess is over. Zachary wants you back.”

Mikasa stood up and acted as a barrier between the guard and Eren and Armin, “We should still have a few minutes left-“

“I’m just following orders, Zachary ordered everyone back,” the guard defended himself against Mikasa’s harsh stare.

“Fine,” Armin said and removed his hand from where it was on top of Eren’s. They moved out of the way and allowed the guard to take Eren out of the room and into the courtroom. They watched Eren’s hands be cuffed again behind his back and then anchored to the floor.
Armin and Mikasa walked over to where they stood before and waited for the rest of the people to come in, specifically for Erwin and Levi. They showed up after only a minute with bleak faces.

“Did you guys figure something out?” Armin asked hurriedly.

Erwin said nothing and walked past them, but Levi sighed and paused, “We’ll see.”

“Is that seriously all you can say? I thought you had a plan for this?!” Mikasa said angrily and grabbed Levi’s arm. He ripped it out of her grasp and walked onto the other side of Erwin, not responding. Mikasa exhaled heavily and Armin reassuringly put a hand on her shoulder.

“It’ll be fine and if it’s not we’ll just figure that shit out,” Armin said. Mikasa nodded and smiled slightly at his harsh language. Zachary sat down into his seat and banged his gavel once to get the attention of the chattering room.

“I believe I have come to a fair conclusion since neither side has been completely honest. Jaeger will first be put into the hands of the Survey Corps for a month, after that the Military Police will have custody of him for a month. Whichever one has a better overall effect will keep custody after a final trial once both months are over. If neither military branch wants custody he will be executed, if him being with both military branches has a negative affect on humanity he will be executed. Any final remarks?” Zachary said. Levi and Erwin spoke quietly to each other and then Erwin shook his head at Zachary. Nile shook his head as well. “That concludes the trial of Eren Jaeger.” He banged his gavel once and then left the room, signaling for everyone else to head out. Guards asked Erwin where he wanted Eren to be put and Erwin directed them to a room down the hall.
Armin and Mikasa watched Eren be taken out of the room as they waited by Levi and Erwin who were talking to each other quietly.

“You guys go with Levi and Hange to see Eren,” Erwin said, “I’m going to talk to Pixis and Nile.” Levi nodded and walked around the kids over to where Hange was standing by the grand doors.

“That worked out pretty well!” They said, smiling slightly. Mikasa cursed under her breath and crossed her arms. Armin offered a small smile but he wasn’t all too happy about this situation either, I bet no one is, he thought bitterly. Levi just nodded and walked out the doors and down the hall to the room where Eren was. He was handed the keys to unlock Erens handcuffs by the guards posted outside the door and then let himself into the room, followed by Hange quickly after. Levi walked forward briskly to Eren who sat down on a leather couch, looking uncomfortable with Levi this close to him. Levi bent down and unlocked his handcuffs, then plopped down onto the couch causing Eren to flinch away. Eren rubbed his wrists to try and make them any less sore.

“So, are you scared of me now?” Levi asked Eren.

“No,” Eren said quietly, “you had to do that to show them you could handle me and that I could stop myself from shifting into a titan.”

“Still though, I would have preferred to know that you would be beating the shit out of him beforehand,” Armin said.

“You would've tried to stop me,” Levi said in a monotonous voice. Armin truthfully didn't have a counter to that because he would’ve tried to stop him, it's true.

“Think you’re strong for beating up a helpless 15 year old?” Mikasa snapped from the corner of the room she was leaning against the wall in.

“I never said that,” Levi replied, “I did what I had to do. You’re welcome by the way.”

“Ok, let’s not fight right now,” Hange interrupted before blades were drawn and fists were thrown, “Eren. Can I touch your nose?”

He gave them a puzzled look, “Sure?”

They put their hands gently on either side of his nose and pressed down slightly, then their fingers felt the ridge, “It doesn’t even have a bump from where he broke it. Do your broken bones snap back into place?”

Eren nodded, “Yeah. When I broke my arm in training, that's how I found out about my titan powers as you know, it snapped back into place.”

Hange removed their fingers from his nose and squealed excitedly, “That’s so cool! Wow, I cannot wait to start doing some experiments on your powers!” Eren smiled uneasily, not excited about what they would do to him for science.

“When are we going to leave?” Eren asked.

“Soon probably, whenever Erwin gets the legal documents that prove you will be in our custody for the next month.” Levi replied, “You kids can take it easy for the time being.”

“What about me?” Hange asked, fake pouting.

“You act like a child, so I’m grouping you in with these brats.”

“Hey, that's mean!”

Armin sat on the other side of Eren, pressing up against his side, “They really do act like children,” he whispered to Eren who laughed softly. Levi stood up from where he was sitting on the couch and walked over to the desk, aware of teens who were having a moment to themselves.

“Hange, come over here for a second.”

“Sure thing, Cap!”

“I’m not your Captain, you’re literally a squad leader…”
Armin and Eren listened to Levi and Hange bicker, leaning into each other. Eren pats the couch for Mikasa to come sit on the other side of him and she gladly does. Mikasa and Armin lean their heads on Erens shoulders while he leans his head against the top of Armin’s.

“Guys,” Eren says, “I’m really glad you were there during my trial.”

“Of course we would be there, we’ll always stick by your side,” Mikasa said between a yawn.

“I second that,” Armin adds. He can feel Eren smile from where his cheek is pressed against his head.

“Thanks.” Eren closes his eyes, allowing himself to lose himself to unconsciousness.

Chapter Text

“Hey, brats, wake up,” Levi’s gruff startled Eren from sleep.

He snapped forward, accidentally hitting Mikasa and making Armin fall over, “I’m awake!”

Levi rolled his eyes, “We’re going, Jaeger and Arlert follow me.”

Mikasa furrowed her brow, “What about me?”

“You’ll be coming with the rest of the 104th who decided to join the Scout Regiment in a week,” Hange says from behind them. Mikasa frowns for a second before she steels her expression and nods. Levi leads them into the hallway with only one guard posted outside the door that they were in previously and beckons Eren and Armin to follow him and Hange.

Eren hugs Mikasa tightly, mumbling something in her ear, and Armin is hit with a pang of jealousy. He watches them pull away and he hugs Mikasa as well, “Don’t worry about us.”

She nods and takes a few steps in the opposite direction, a small wave being the last thing she does before turning her head and walking out the doors.

“Why aren’t we going out those doors?” Eren asks, confused.

“Because we are going out the way that's closer to where our horses are,” Levi answered.

“We don’t have horses,” Eren stated.

Levi pinched his brow, “I’m aware of that, but we need to get Hange and myself’s horses before we can go anywhere.”

“Is there a Survey Corps headquarters in Stohess District?” Armin asks from beside Eren. The two of them only a few steps behind Levi and Hange.

“Yes, we have headquarters in Stohess and Trost District. Both are pretty small, but the slightly larger one is in Trost just because it's closer to Wall Maria and where we leave for our expeditions.” Hange answers. Armin nods in response and Eren hums quietly. They follow Levi out the back doors of the courthouse and down a stone sidewalk to a small stable with a few horses in it. Levi tells them to wait on the sidewalk while he finds the person who manages the small stable.

“This is the biggest city I've been in,” Eren said amazed. He spun around, looking at the shops and people enjoying their lives like titans weren’t even an issue. Armin watched from beside him, glad to see his friend being his happy and carefree self again.

“Same, I miss going into towns,” Armin replied and he laughed, “remember when we went into Trost after our kidnapping? You tried to steal that wagon and then realized you didn’t even know how to drive a wagon!” He clutched his stomach and laughed loudly.

A blush found its way onto Eren's face and he playfully hit Armins arm, “Shut up! It’s not that funny…”

Armin grabbed onto Eren’s shoulder for support and laughed louder, “It is! It is that funny!” He gasped for air and tried to calm down, but Eren began to crack a small smile that progressed to a full on laugh. A sound that Armin had missed dearly.

Hange stared at the teens clutching at each other. Hange leaned against the fence keeping the horses enclosed and sighed, “Young love.”

Levi walked back from talking to the manager and raised a brow, “What makes you think that?”

They smirked and peered at Levi, “It’s obvious, isn’t it? Besides, when I talked to Armin about it he seemed confused about his feelings.”

Levi glanced back at Eren and Armin who were now beginning to regain their composure, “Maybe.”

Hange left it at that, clearly picking up on Levi’s opposition to continuing this conversation. Levi yelled over for the teens to come over and Eren and Armin came running, pushing each other out of way and giggling.

“Hange and I have our own horses and while you fools were messing around I talked to the person in charge and he allowed us to take a horse after I paid him a decent sum,” Levi said and he thrusted the reins into Armin’s hand.

“There’s only one horse, though,” Eren says dumbly.

“You two will share it, we’ll have to ride it to the small HQ here in Stohess where we will get prepared to go to the new Survey Corps HQ.” Levi says and leads his own horse out the stables and mounts it, Hange doing the same.

“Where’s the new one?” Eren asked, he hadn’t heard anything about this.

“It’s far Southwest of here, close to Trost but still a ways away. Technically, it used to be an old HQ for the Survey Corps, but since it was so far from the wall and river we had no use for it and abandoned it,” Hange explained.

Eren turned his head to look at Armin, “Did you know about this part of the plan?”

“Of course. Levi and Erwin both said that this is what we would do if we received custody of you,” Armin said. Eren frowned slightly but quickly shook it off. “Do you want to be the one actually riding the horse or do you want to hold onto me?” Armin asked.

“I’m pretty good at riding horses, I can be the one actually riding and directing it,” Eren replied and took the reins from Armin. He hoisted himself up and offered a hand to Armin to grab. Armin grabbed it and Eren pulled him up, allowing Armin to wrap his arms around his waist.

Levi took off with Hange next to him, followed quickly by Eren and Armin. Levi looked back occasionally to check and see if they were following him along the crowded roads. He pulled to a halt in front of headquarters and dismounted his horse, walking briskly inside and yelling for his squad members to pack up their shit to go. Eren hovered awkwardly inside the doorway, doing nothing because basically all he had was the clothes on his back. Armin left him there for a moment to grab his own stuff and came back with two bags, tossing one to Eren.

“That’s your stuff that I brought with me,” Armin explained. Eren smiled gratefully and mumbled a small thank you. The duo waited by the doorway for Levi and his squad to be ready to leave. They saw Hange run through the hallway, carrying all sorts of books and papers with Moblit carrying a mess of bags behind them.

“So,” Eren started, “are you a part of Levi’s squad?”

Armin shook his head, “Technically, no, but kinda? I’m like an impromptu member just for the next month or so. Erwin wanted me to go with you guys to the new HQ because he knows that if you got out of control I could bring you back to your senses.”

“Oh,” Eren said. I’m just a liability, Eren thought miserably. Armin watched his eyes dull slightly and worried if he said anything wrong.

“Hey, at least we’ll be sticking together! Right?!” Armin smiled brightly, trying to brighten the mood.

“Yeah, but I wish the circumstances weren’t so shitty.”

“I think we all wish that.” Armin paused for a second, “Wait, so are you a part of Levi squad?” Armin asked. He tried to remember if Levi told him whether or not Eren would be in his squad, but his memory was failing him.

“I think so? I’m pretty sure,” Eren groaned, “no one is telling me anything!” Eren knocks his head into the stone wall, wincing slightly.

“Don’t hurt yourself before we get there,” Armin says.

“So I can hurt myself when I get there?” Eren challenges sarcastically while raising a brow and leaning forward to shove his face close to Armins.

Armin pushes Eren’s face away from his and hides his blush, “You know what I meant…”

A few people come down the hall and stand in front of Eren and Armin, a woman with short orange hair steps forward and extends her hand, “Hi, I’m Petra Ral and I’m a part of the Special Operations Squad, also called Levi Squad. I’m told that you both are new members?”

Eren shakes her hand hesitantly, “I’m Eren Jaeger and he’s Armin Arlert.” Armin shook her hand as well and waved to the men standing behind her.

“We can do formal introductions when we get there,” Levi said from behind them.

Petra moved to the side, “Sorry Sir, I didn’t see you there,” she laughed awkwardly.

“Never mind that, someone grab Hange. We’re leaving. Eld, can you get Armin a horse?” Eld nodded at Levi’s command and he gestured for Armin to follow him.

“What do I do?” Eren asked Levi quietly.

“Just stay here with Petra, at least one squad member has to be monitoring you at all times. Normally it will be me or Arlert, but right now Petra will do it,” Levi said and went down the hall to drag Hange out the building.

Eren shifted the bag of his stuff so it was over his shoulder, allowing him to pull at the skin around his thumb. This was a habit he couldn’t break, no matter how much his Mom used to scold him or Mikasa used to slap his hand away, he couldn’t stop. Ever since he found out about his titan powers it got worse, his skin knitting itself back together and blood evaporating within the minute instead of having to wait a few days. He pulled more at the skin right next to his thumb nail that was beginning to rip. He yanked down and blood beaded, threatening to spill over the divot in his skin. He pulled more, his skin still not detaching and he gave one final tug before sighing when all it did was rip further down his thumb. Blood collected in a bead before sliding down and then evaporating. His skin formed back over and it was as if it never happened. He crossed his arms and leaned his head against the wall, turning it upwards to stare at the ceiling.

Hange returned with their hands full with bags containing books and random clothes. Levi behind them pulled some science related thing and followed them out the doors and over to where the only wagon they would be using stood. Eren followed them out and saw Armin having a conversation with Eld and holding the horse's reins in one hand.

“Everyone get over here!” Levi yelled. Armin and Eld jogged over and Armin went to stand directly beside Eren. The remaining couple people from the Special Operations Squad came out and Levi started explaining what they would be doing, “Our new HQ is decently far away from here. We’ll try to get there by nightfall but in the case that we don't make it there we will be camping out somewhere. I don’t want to hear any complaining when we get there because we will be deep cleaning that entire fucking place. More questions will be answered later. I want everyone ready to go in five minutes.”

Armin watched as Levi Squad (with the help of Moblit) packed their travel bags into the wagon and then the few tents they were bringing. Imperishable foods were packed into a bag and put in and they threw some guns and gas canisters into the wagon as well. Armin placed his stuff with everyone else’s and held out his hand to take Eren’s so he could put it in there too. Within the five minutes everyone was ready to mount their horses and take off, Armin was glad it was a small group of them otherwise this would’ve taken a while. Hange dashed back outside and threw one more thing into the wagon before waving bye to Moblit and clambering onto the wagon that their horse would be pulling.

“Jaeger! Arlert! You’re riding beside me!” Levi yelled at them from his horse.

They trotted over and Eren shot him an annoyed look, “You seriously think I’m going to turn into a titan?”

“I’m just doing what the court agreed upon.” He threw his hand up into the air to grab the squads attention and then yelled for them to follow him. Levi took them into the street and down the road that took them to the gate of Stohess District, yelling for the Garrison members to put down the gate for them so they could leave. The gates opened slowly and Eren shifted excitedly, he was finally a part of the Survey Corps. His practically lifelong dream was completed. I haven't seen the ocean yet, he thought, my dreams aren’t complete until Armin and I see the ocean. Like we promised each other. Eren saw Armin staring out at the trees and lush grass outside the gates, but he knew this wasn’t anything like the outside world. Technically, they were even farther from the outside world than they ever have been, but neither cared. To Eren this was the closest to freedom he could get at the moment. Levi kicked his horse and he sprang forward, Eren doing the same. He felt the wind in his hair and sucked in a deep breath.

He wasn’t free yet, but this was pretty good.

_________

“How much longer?” Oluo whined from behind where Eren and Armin rode their horses beside Levi.

“A lot further you dimwit,” Levi practically yelled back. Eren sighed loudly and Levi glared at him, causing Eren to glare back.

“What time is it?” Eren asked while peering up at the sky, oranges and pinks began to paint the sky.

“Hange!” Levi yelled to them, “What time is it!”

They grabbed a small pocket watch out of their coat, “It’s, uhhh, almost seven o’clock!”

“So, how long have we been riding for?” Eren scratched his head.

“Only, like, five hours because you shits are slow,” Levi grumbled. The group had started off string and fast but soon after they had slowed down and now they were trotting slowly through the open fields.
Eren didn’t respond and Levi couldn’t tell if it was on purpose or if Eren legitimately didn't hear him. Eren stared up at the sky, a forlorn look on his face, looking almost dazed.

“Armin,” Eren began softly, “remember when Mom would make up those stories about why the sky turned all these colors at sunset? She used to say it was our ancestors and the people we lost showing that they loved us.” Eren dropped his head, “Or something like that. It’s been so long since those days, it's hard to remember anymore…”

“That sounds like something Carla would do,” Armin said from beside him, “she was so nice. Always letting me come over and even feeding an extra mouth when food was slim. She would be proud of who you are today. You know that, right?” Armin could see Erens shoulders shake slightly before clearly realizing where he was.

“What would she be proud of? I haven't done shit, hell, all I’ve done is put more people in danger. I’ve killed people. What would she be proud of?” Eren turned to stare at Armin, tears glistened in his eyes, threatening to fall.

“I won’t sugarcoat it, Eren, you’ve killed people. That’s a statement of fact and it can’t be undone, but that doesn’t make you a bad person. You are a good person, you just, had a lot of shit things thrown onto you.” Armin wished he could give Eren a bit more comfort, but since they were surrounded by squad members and on horses, that was out of the question at the moment.

Eren sighed and nodded, swiping his fingers under his eyes to get rid of them tears that had yet to fall, “Thanks. I don’t really believe much of that, but thanks. In the middle of training I began to realize I couldn’t remember her face well and I freaked out. I’ve been trying to remember her and how she used to act, but it's all fading. All the memories I have of her are crumbling away while the memory of her being eaten is forever burned into my eyes. Ironic, isn't it?”

One of these days coping with bits of sarcasm won’t work, Armin thought. He glanced back over to Eren to see him sitting on his horse and looking forward like nothing happened. Like he didn’t just almost have a breakdown about forgetting one of the most important people in his life. “I really am sorry, Eren.”

Eren turned to face him, “What are you sorry for? It’s not your fault, it's the Armored and Colossal titan’s faults. I’ll figure out these powers and I’ll kill them.”

And we’re back to talking about killing titans, at least that’s more Eren-like. Armin gave him a small, bitter smile in return.

Levi didn’t consider himself a very kind person. He knew that he wasn’t, but when he heard Eren speak of his mother in such a soft way it made him want to change that. Levi wrote Eren off as some angry teen who’s obsession with killing titans had gone too far, but he guessed wrong. I am not comforting him, but out of the kindness of my heart I won’t bother him about this and I’ll pretend I never heard anything, Levi thought. I wouldn’t want some stranger commenting about my mothers death, either.

They continued to ride for another 30 minutes before Levi decided to stop. “We can call it a day, we’ll set off early in the morning and get there with plenty of time!” Levi saw a small cluster of trees and decided to set up a small camp there. He peeled off to the left and the group followed him.

Eren tied his horse’s reins to a tree and then ran out into the vast plain. He sat down on the lush grass and then let himself fall back so he was staring directly at the sky. The sun was almost fully set and the sky was yellow with a slight murky blue tinge now. It gave everything in its vicinity a golden glow.

“Mind if I join you?” Armin asked from above him. Eren patted the ground beside him and Armin laid beside him, “We have to get our stuff set up.”

“It can wait a few minutes, can’t it?” Eren whined and scrubbed at his eyes.

“You’re pretty tired, you can sleep if you want to. I know it's been a stressful and traumatic day,” Armin said.

“I think traumatic is a bit of an exaggeration.” Eren stretched his arms out, his long sleeve shirt riding up just enough to see the small white-ish scars from where the chains bit into his skin around his wrists. They were practically invisible, but in the golden light they were clear as day to Eren. Luckily y for Eren, Armin didn’t see them.

“Whatever you tell yourself,” Armin mumbled. Armin himself was exhausted and he didn't go through half the stuff Eren did. “I’m gonna go back with the group and try to get a tent for us, you can join me or not. It’s up to you.”

“Wait, did you just say a tent for us?”

Armin blushed and turned away from him, “Yeah, we only have a certain amount so some people will just sleep on the ground. Petra said we probably won’t get one since we’re the newest members. You don’t have to sleep in it, you can sleep outside with a sleeping bag. I was planning on doing that at first, but then I saw a bird shit on Oluo’s head and didn’t want to risk it.”

Eren chuckled slightly, “I don’t care. Do whatever, I’ll probably sleep outside even with the shitty birds.” He laughed again, “Get it? The shitty birds? Because they are annoying and they pooped on Oluo?” Armin gave him a blank stare. “Oh, whatever. You never liked my puns.”

“It’s because they aren’t good-“ Armin started to say.

“Hey! I’m funnier than Mikasa!”

“Are you though?”

“Yes! I’ve only seen her make a joke, like, twice in her entire life.”

“Maybe you’re too dumb to understand her jokes.”

“Connie liked my jokes and puns!”

“That's not proving your point that you're smart…”

“So that's how it is?” Eren gasped dramatically and clutched at his heart as if he was injured, “You’re mean! People never expect it from you, but you are!”

Armin burst out laughing and walked away, flipping Eren off behind his back, “Fuck you, Jaeger!”

“In your dreams!” Eren yelled back and stretched his limbs again. He felt the grass brush against his clothed body. He was still in the clothes he wore during the trial, so blood stained the shirt slightly but most of it had already evaporated. His eyes began to feel heavy and droop. He snapped them back up, refusing to fall asleep anytime around eight o’clock. He propped himself up on his hands, before laying back down and rolling over.

_________

“Where have you been?” Annie hissed at Reiner when he turned the corner into the side street that she and Bertholdt were waiting for him at. “Eren’s trial ended hours ago and you should’ve left hours ago!”

“Sorry, sorry. I couldn’t just leave in the middle of that day at the exact same time they did, that would’ve been suspicious. I had to finish this shift and then some guy made me do extra... Anyways, I’m back now.” Reiner explained quickly.

“So? What did you find out?” Bertholdt asked Reiner who was still in the Military Police uniform that he stole earlier, “Were we right? Was Eren truly the Founding Titan?”

“He definitely has a titan and I don’t think it’s Marcel’s, so yes, we were right.” He crossed his arms and looked at Annie who sat across from him, “How does it feel to be
wrong?”

“I never said you were wrong. All I said was that it was a long shot,” Annie responded, her dead eyes never leaving Reiner’s.

“Fine, whatever. Anyways, from what I could overhear they are taking him to some new Survey Corps Headquarters around Trost. Very South of here and a bit West, they only left about five or six hours ago I think? We could try and take Eren today. How long would it take for you to take us there, Annie?”

She paused, “I can probably cut that in half, but let’s wait and do it at night. If we just disappear randomly it’ll be suspicious. I know a few of the new scouts are here in Stohess so let’s just go interact for a bit and go to sleep with the rest of them and then try sneaking out.” She looked up and down at Reiner, “And get out of that ridiculous outfit. It looks four sizes too small for you.”

“I swear, I looked for a guy to knock out who was around my height and weight and stuff but I couldn’t find them. This was the best I could find without looking completely insane.” Reiner said. Before Eren’s trial he snuck around and looked for a guard that he could take the place of, it really wasn’t too hard. He never came into close contact with Eren or Armin, but was close enough to hear what was necessary.

Bertholdt laughed, “I still can’t believe you successfully did that. No offense, but you’ve never been the best at stealth missions and going undercover. That’s more Annie’s job.”

“She didn’t wanna do it and so I had to improvise! Doesn’t matter, just give me back my clothes.” Reiner held out his hand and Bertholdt placed a bundle of clothes in it. He ran
into a random alley and said quickly, “I’ll be back in a sec.”

Bertholdt and Annie stood there awkwardly, waiting for the honorary conversation starter to come back.

“So, you and Mikasa, huh-“ Bertholdt started to say.

“Don’t finish that sentence,” Annie said as menacing as she could with a slight blush on her face, “I don’t like her and I think she’s dating Sasha.”

“How do you know that?” Bertholdt asked.

“I saw her and Sasha holding hands and blushing like idiots in love.” She smirked up at him, “And I know well what idiots in love look like.”

“Is that a reference I’m supposed to get?” Bertholdt asked innocently.

“It’s you and Reiner.”
Bertholdt could hardly sputter out an answer, “W-What? No no no, you have the wrong idea!”

“I saw you guys making out in the woods.”

Bertholdt somehow blushed more, but was saved by Reiner coming out the alley he changed in. “Ready to go meet back up with the rest of them?” He saw Bertholdt’s tomato red face and placed a hand on his forehead, “Whoa, are you sick? You’re beet red right now.”

“I’m fine!” Bertholdt yelled awkwardly while swatting Reiner’s hand away from his face, “I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Ok, lovebirds, let’s go.” Annie pushed them forward and forced them to start walking, “We’re probably also seen as suspicious, let’s just go.” Reiner and Bertholdt knocked into each other, but quickly separated after realizing what she had said.

_________

“Oh, hey guys!” Connie yelled from the side of the small place they were staying in in Stohess District. The group had pooled their money and they were renting out a small place until they got their orders from Erwin or whoever. Mikasa was planning on visiting him tomorrow to see where they would be going. Connie, Sasha, and Mikasa sat on the floor playing cards while Jean laid on the couch with his leg dangling off it. The remaining 104th had gone to Stohess District after Trost had been attacked and it needed major repairs. They had gone as a group to Stohess because they all were joining the Survey Corps and Erwin was already there.

“Hey,” Reiner said, plopping into one of the chairs sitting at a wooden table.

“You’ve been gone a while,” Mikasa said, not even looking up from where she was playing Gin Rummy. She placed her set of four 7s down, “I’m out.”

“You cheated!” Connie yelled, throwing the cards he held at Jean angrily.

“What did I do?!” Jean yelped and threw a pillow from the couch at him.

Sasha threw herself into Mikasa’s arms, “You’re so great at cards. This is your third win and Connie's second meltdown!”

“I hate to interrupt, but where’s Ymir and Krista?” Bertholdt asked when he noticed the lack of a certain two women.

“Upstairs,” Sasha responded, “Ymir took Krista with her when she stormed out after Mikasa beat them at cards during our first round. Marco’s also upstairs sleeping.”

“Why are you so good at cards anyway, Mikasa?” Jean asked.

“Eren, Armin and I used to play as kids after Eren’s Mom taught us. Once in a while Grisha would have some free time and he would play with us. It was fun,” Mikasa reminisced about the days before the fall of Wall Maria. “That’s kinda why Eren likes playing cards so much, I guess it reminds him of how it used to be.”

A beat of silence.

“This got sad quickly,” Connie muttered.

“Sorry. That was probably too much to say, but to answer Jean’s question: I’m good at cards because I used to play a lot.” Mikasa picked up the cards that were thrown at Jean and looked over to Bertholdt, Annie, and Reiner, “Wanna join us?”

“Sure, how do you play this game?” Reiner asked as he walked over and slunk to the ground.

“I’ll join too,” Bertholdt said and sat beside Reiner with his long legs crossed.

“C’mon, Annie! Join us!” Sasha hollered. Annie shook her head, but Sasha ran over there and dragged her over to the group, “One game and then you can go back to your sulking, please?”

Annie gave in and groaned, “Fine. One game, but that’s it.”

Sasha smiled brightly and let out a little scream of joy, “Great! Loser’s have to make dinner!”

“But- but you’re going to lose,” Connie said.

“I’m good at cards, you know!” Sasha grumbled.

“Both of you, shut up. Mikasa, deal the cards,” Jean cut off Connie before he could say anything.

The room quickly descended into chaos and laughter filled all corners of the first floor. They were all glad to have a distraction, even if it was only momentary.

After a few hours of playing cards and messing around Reiner, Annie, and Bertholdt excused themselves to go sleep in one of the small bedrooms upstairs.

It was almost time to complete their mission.

Chapter Text

“Reiner, get up!” A voice hissed and poked at his side. He groaned loudly and slapped the hand away. “I’m not fucking around, Braun. Get up.”

That was Annie’s voice.

Reiner’s eyes flew open to see Annie and Bertholdt staring down at where he slept. “It’s time. Let’s go do this,” Annie said.

“What time is it?” Reiner asked as he changed into nondescript clothing like the other two.

“Around two AM,” Bertholdt replied as he leaned against the wall and waited for Reiner to finish getting dressed. “Annie said that there's some horses waiting for us outside this house for us to leave. Two of us are going to have to knock out the guards by the gate and open it so we can leave, though.”

“You and I can do it, Bertholdt,” Reiner laced up his boots and hopped up. He brushed his hands off on his thighs and grabbed a small bag next to him of essentials.

“Shut up, you’re so loud. Fucking dumbass, you’re gonna get us caught,” Annie grumbled and peeked her head out the door before motioning for them to follow. They crept onto the landing in front of the stairs and started descending the steps, listening for the sound of footsteps.

Reiner stepped on a stair and a loud squeak echoed in the small house. Reiner immediately lifted up his foot and set it down on a different spot. “Damn this old, crappy house.”

They finally got to the living room and heaved a sigh of relief. The downstairs was empty and dark, save for the small candle burning in the window. The couch was deserted and playing cards were in a messy pile on the floor. They must be upstairs sleeping, Annie thought and turned to face Reiner and Bertholdt.

“Remember the plan,” she said, “we get Eren and then we get out. No unnecessary fighting. We came here for the founding titan, that’s it. It’s already been three years on this godforsaken island, this is our ticket out.” She stared into the two boys eyes, the blue reflecting off the candle light.

“Ready,” Reiner and Bertholdt clasped each other’s shoulders and Bertholdt offered a hand to Annie for a light squeeze.

“Reiner? Annie, Bertholdt? What are you guys doing?” A new voice said from behind the trio. Their heads whipped around and saw Marco, left eye still bandaged, staring at them from the stairs. “What do you mean by let’s get Eren? What are you guys talking about? Where are you going?”

“Go back to sleep, you’re hallucinating and tired,” Bertholdt said hurriedly and gave Annie and Reiner a desperate look.

“What do you mean by let's get Eren?” Marco’s expression hardened and he walked down the final step. “We’re all friends so what the hell are you talking about?”

“It’s nothing, Marco,” Annie responded.

“No, it’s definitely something. Where are you going?” Marco walked forward and crossed his arms, only a foot or so in front of them now.

“It would be better for us all if you just let us leave. It’s nothing,” Reiner said as he walked into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. His back facing them.

“Who are you guys? Haven’t you lived within the Walls your entire lives? What do you want with Eren?” Marco fired off multiple questions at Bertholdt and Annie standing in front of him, ignoring Reiner in the kitchen.

Reiner glanced back at Marco, making sure he wasn’t looking at him, and discretely grabbed a knife that sat on the counter. He twisted it around between his fingers before securing it in a tight grip and then walked back around the kitchen island. He saw Marco glance at him, but Marco ignored him in favor of talking to Annie and Bertholdt. Reiner inhaled deeply before launching forward, knife poised out in front of him and pointed directly at Marco.

The knife caught Marco in the neck. A quick, merciful death some would say.

Reiner cushioned Marco’s body before it thudded to the ground. Blood began to soak Reiner’s pants and droplets fell onto the wooden floor. They waited for someone to come downstairs and catch them, but no one did.

Reiner’s breath came out shakily and his hands clenched and unclenched, a nervous habit of his.

“What the fuck?” Bertholdt whisper-yelled, “We could’ve talked it out, we don’t have to jump straight to murder!”

“He wasn’t going to listen to us! His mind was made up as soon as he heard us!” Reiner glanced over to where Annie stood in shock. Silent tears shone in her eyes that had not yet fallen and she quickly wiped them away.

“It’s fine, we’ll deal with this. Let’s just take the body with us and dispose of it somewhere outside of Stohess District.” Annie crouched in front of Marco’s body and threaded her arms under his armpits. Reiner copied her and gripped Marco’s legs. They pulled up at the same time and almost fell over from the deadweight of the body. Bertholdt wiped most of the blood off the ground with his sleeve and shudders slightly when it stuck to his arm. He didn’t say anything when he opened the door for them and locked it behind them.

No one was on the street when they walked out and heaved Marco onto the back of a horse. Each of them wore the same blank stare and mounted their horses. Hoods covered each of their faces and small bags were on each of their backs.

“Let’s go.”

— A FEW HOURS EARLIER —

Armin sat on a log next to Petra and Hange with Levi across from them, a small fire separating the group. Eld, Gunther, and Oluo were talking over by where the couple tents were set up.

“Where’s Eren? I thought we were supposed to be monitoring him,” Hange said while looking around and craning their neck for any sight of him.

“I think he’s passed out in the grass over there. I’ve been looking over there since I left him alone and he hasn’t moved. I think he just wanted to fall asleep somewhere away from you guys,” Armin explained and glanced in that direction before looking up at the starry sky. The sun had only finished setting an hour or two ago.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Does he not trust us enough to sleep around us? Fucking shithead…” Levi grumbled and threw a pebble at the fire.

“No!” Armin shouted before clearing his throat awkwardly and continuing more calmly, “I mean, no. He looks up to you a lot, Captain Levi, and he didn’t want to be seen as weak if he fell asleep this early.” Armin felt bad for exposing Eren like this, but what he doesn’t know can’t hurt him.

“He looks up to me?” Levi asked, incredulously.

Of course that’s the part he focuses on, Armin thought. “He’s always wanted to be a scout. Since we were seven and dumb and the most important thing in our lives were who would make the best drawing in the dirt, he’s wanted to be a scout. I remember watching you come back from expeditions with Eren grinning beside me. We clearly didn’t understand the severity of what was happening, but he loved to see the gates open and the scouts come back.”

Armin took a breath before continuing, “His mother never approved of it. Carla Jaeger was an incredibly nice woman and cared dearly for the children in her care, but when Eren brought up becoming a scout her mood would sour and she would immediately scold him.” Armin stared into the fire. “His father cared less about his dreams of becoming a scout. Probably because Eren was already beginning to be trained as his apprentice and Grisha just assumed his pointless dreams would fade as he grew up.”

“Eren was training as an apprentice? For what?” Hange asked.

“Grisha, Eren’s father, was a doctor. When Eren turned nine his father began to take him to appointments and teach him the basics of medicine and bodily functions.” Armin cracked his knuckle subconsciously.

“I didn’t know he knew all that. It’s impressive. Do you know where Grisha is now or if Eren kept learning on his own?” Hange questioned, their small smile grew wider.

Armin had to stop for a moment before answering that question, “We don’t know where his father is, actually. He disappeared after the fall of Wall Maria. Eren hasn’t seen him in at least three years. Now, as for if Eren continued to study on his own, I think he did a bit. I’ve seen him go into the woods and point out different plants and what part of the body they benefit. I know that Eren kept his skills up over the years though, when we were living on the streets his knowledge helped us multiple times. He was basically the makeshift doctor for the 104th, too.”

“I didn’t know he was smart,” Levi deadpanned.

Hange threw a pebble at his face and laughed wildly when it hit its mark. “That’s mean, Levi! You hardly know the kid!

“Did you see how poorly he did in the courtroom? I think we all were thinking the same thing as I was.” Levi grimaced as if he was embarrassed after remembering what happened earlier.

“He reacts like pure shit under pressure, but it’s fine. He’s getting better, same with his lying ability.” Armin defended Eren, but even he could admit Eren needed a lot of work. Levi nodded and a silence fell over the campfire. Not exactly awkward, but still not comfortable.

“I’ll go check on him, excuse me.” Armin stood up, grabbing a small lamp, and wandered off in the direction of where Eren was.

“Such good kids,” Hange sighed. “I feel for them.”

“Now isn’t the time to get attached, Hange. You know that in a month we’ll be giving him up to the Military Police.” Levi responded quickly.

“You’re right, I know, I know. I just wish that everything was different.” Hange stood up and walked over to the wagon, “I’m gonna eat something, you want anything?”

Levi shook his head, “No, I’ll be going to sleep soon.”

“Suit yourself.”

Silence. The soft sounds of night filled the air and the wind rustled the grass.

“What time is it?” Hange asked.

“I thought you had the watch.”

“I don’t think so, not anymore.”

Levi groaned and fished a beaten up watch out of his pocket, “You’re lucky I’m prepared. It’s 10.”

“Thanks! Where’d you get that watch, though. It looks like it went through hell and back,” Hange commented and tilted their head slightly to get a better look at it.

“It’s Kenny’s.”

Hange quickly scooted back a bit and quieted. They knew the drill, if Levi mentioned anything from his time in the Underground it was best to give him some space.

“He gave it to me when I was- when was it? Thirteen? Yeah, that sounds right. The first time he was fucking proud of me for winning a fight he gave me this piece of shit and then ditched me. He was a sorry excuse for a guardian.” Levi glared at the watch.

“I’m sorry, Levi-“

“I don’t want your pity. I didn’t say that story for some bonus aw poor Levi points. I said it because you asked.”

Hange nodded and glanced at him for a second before turning back to the fire, “Right. We’re honest with each other.”

Back to silence.

“Well, I’ve got some books that are calling my name, so I’m gonna go. Don’t stay up too late for Eren and Armin, ok? They probably fell asleep out there.” Hange said and waved bye to him. He called out goodnight and rubbed his finger over the face of the watch that sat in the palm of his hand.

“I’ll leave the fire for Armin when he comes back,” Levi muttered to himself while he walked off in the direction of his tent.

___________

“Reiner are you sure this is the path they took?” Bertholdt asked hesitantly.

“I’m sure of it! This is the gate they said they would be leaving through and this is the only direction that has any signs of use in the past day.”

“But we’re been at it for two hours…”

Reiner set his jaw, “I’m sure we’ll run into them soon.”

Bertholdt just nodded and looked around for any signs of a campfire or lamps. Annie hadn’t said anything since Marco died.

They had dumped Marco’s body into the river as soon as they got outside the gate to Stohess. They watched it drift downstream for a few seconds before Reiner walked back to his horse and mounted it.

“Let’s go.”

And now they were here, four in the morning, looking around hopelessly.

Five minutes passed.

Then ten.

And then they saw a small, dull light only a hundred meters away.

“That them?” Annie asked.

“Yeah, it looks like a fire that’s mostly extinguished. Let’s hope they’re all asleep by now,” Reiner said while throwing some rope over his shoulder and putting a knife in his pocket. “Just to be safe let’s dismount our horses here, so we don’t bring unneeded attention to ourselves.”

Annie and Bertholdt nodded and copied what he did, landing on the soft grass with a light plop. The trio by now had adjusted to the darkness of the night, their titan powers helped too. Besides being able to transform into a titan, they have slightly heightened senses and strength. Not that much of a boost, but enough to make a difference when it matters.

Bertholdt was walking ahead of Reiner and Annie through the plain when his foot connected with something and he fell forward, throwing out his hands to catch himself. A groan came from behind him and his breath caught.

“What’s happening? Armin, is that you? Just let me sleep out here. I’m too tired to get up.” That was Eren’s voice. Bertholdt recognized it immediately and so did Reiner apparently because he had the rope in his hands.

Eren rolled over and tucked his knees further into his body, falling back asleep.

“Yeah… It’s Armin,” Bertholdt said, but it came out more like a question. He gestured for Reiner to tie Erens hands behind his back and Reiner quickly fell to his knees and got to work. He yanked Eren’s arms back, startling him awake.

“Armin-“ Eren was cut off by Annie jamming a gag in his mouth. His eyes widened when he saw the people before him and he struggled to get out of Reiner’s tight grip.
He finished securing the rope ties and threw Eren over his shoulder, “Let’s go quickly, before they notice him gone.”

They dashed back to their horses and quickly mounted them. Bertholdt watched Reiner try to persuade Eren— who was now standing— why he should cooperate, but Eren wasn’t having it.

“Eren, get on the horse. We can explain what’s happening later.” Reiner all but begged him. Eren shook his head vigorously and tried to speak through the gag, but only succeeded in making a fool of himself.

Reiner sighed heavily, “Fine. If you’re going to act like a fucking baby,” he grabbed his knife and hit Eren in the temple with the blunt end, “I’ll just do this.”

Eren slumped forward and Reiner caught him and maneuvered Eren on the horse before getting on. It was an uncomfortable fit with Eren leaning up against his chest and bumping him at every move, but it’d have to work until they got far enough away from the rest of Eren’s group.

They quietly took off into the night.

________

Armin had went to bed after checking on Eren earlier. He didn’t get a tent and couldn’t fall asleep from where he was laying on the cold, hard ground. He had been trying for at least a few hours, but without a watch he didn’t know how long he had been laying there. He sighed and grabbed his bag from beside him with a few of his favorite books in it. He grabbed a small chapter book out of it and walked over to the mostly extinguished fire.

The light was good enough to read the book though and he was propped up against the log beside it. Even if the fire was mostly embers it still warmed him up and crackled occasionally.

He sat there for a couple minutes before hearing noises not too far away. Not just noises, those sound like voices, Armin pondered. He stood up hesitantly and listened again for where the sound was coming from.

Wait a minute, Armin thought, that’s coming from where Eren is sleeping...

Chapter Text

Armin crept slowly towards the noises, resisting the urge to just run over there and pull Eren into his arms. He knew he was probably overreacting, but it wouldn’t hurt to check.
He hid his body behind a lone tree and peered over the side of it, his eyes just barely adjusting to the darkness. He squinted to try and make out shapes and colors, but he could hear muffled voices. I could go yell over to them, but that’s dumb as shit, what if it’s another person trying to get their hands on Eren? Armin sighed quietly and then heard horses' hoofs going in the opposite direction of their camp.

“Shit,” He muttered and waited a second before sprinting to where Eren had fallen asleep only hours before. His eyes finally adjusted to the dark and he scanned the area for any sign of Eren.

His breath picked up and he pulled at his blonde hair, a nervous habit he had picked up. He dropped to his knees and inhaled deeply, lungs rattling, and then breathed out. He repeated that action multiple times and then ran back to the campfire. He rummaged through his stuff and ripped out the back page of his notebook and took out a quill, dipping it into the ink and scribbling a quick message to Hange and Levi.

Eren disappeared, I’ll be back soon with him.

- Armin Arlert

He put it on top of the log by the campfire and extinguished the fire fully. Armin was lucky enough that he didn’t change out of his clothes earlier, but he decided against using ODM gear, instead opting for his horse.

He mounted it and went to the edge of the camp, looking back one more time to make sure he was truly alone, and then left. He wasn’t completely sure which direction they went, but he decided to try and go the way he thought he heard them leave in.

I don’t even know who they are, Armin thought, what could they want? They could be angry Military Police guys, but that wouldn’t make sense, these people went in the opposite direction of Stohess.

Armin groaned and shook his head slightly, “It doesn’t matter who kidnapped him, all that matters is getting him back. Walls, I can’t believe he’s gotten kidnapped twice. Who’s that stupid?” His mind supplied the answer to that question, Eren is.

Armin kept his eyes and ears open so he could sense if he was around other people, but after a couple minutes of wandering aimlessly in one direction he paused. He held his breath to hear anything out of the ordinary, and sure enough he could hear the soft sound of horse hooves far in the distance.

“Thank the Walls it’s quiet tonight,” Armin muttered. To be honest, he didn’t know what he was doing. Armin had never been one for spontaneously doing things, strategy was something he was better with, but he dove into this situation head first. Now he’s starting to get second thoughts, “Eren’s a bad influence on me.”

Now isn’t the time to fall apart, get your shit together Arlert, he thought. What would Mikasa do in this situation? Oh wait, she wouldn’t be in this situation,Armin mused sarcastically. He couldn’t believe how stupid he had been. What was wrong with him? Every bone in his body was screaming at him to just turn around and wake up Levi.

But if he was going to be honest…

I’m lost, aren’t I?

“Fuck!” He yelled.

_____

A voice rang out from behind the trio, not exactly close by, but too close for comfort.

“What was that?” Bertholdt asked hesitantly, as if he already knew the answer.

“Someone already noticed Eren’s gone,” Reiner said, rubbing his eyes and looking behind him. “Well, I don’t see anything and I really don’t feel like going back to check.”

“How much farther until we get to Wall Maria?” Bertholdt asked.

“Well, technically we haven’t even gotten past Wall Rose. We haven't reached the titan territory yet,” Annie explained without sparing a glance at them.

“Done sulking?” Reiner rolled his eyes, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

“Fuck you, Reiner.” Annie responded, “I’m the only reason we’re still fucking alive today.”

“Finally snapped? I haven’t seen you this angry since you beat the shit out of me when we were 11.”

“Want me to do it again?” She seethed.

“Shut up, fight when we get back home,” Bertholdt interrupted them. He knew how well they could rile each other up.

“She started it…”

“You are such a child!”

“Shut up, oh my fucking God. Shut up, shut up, shut up! We have someone following us you dumb shits.” Bertholdt was normally a pretty kind and calm person, but Annie and Reiner fighting was one of the few things he had no patience for. Even more so in their current situation.

“Anyways,” Annie started, “If need be, I could transform into a titan and get us there faster.”

Reiner shook his head, “That's the worst case scenario, if luck is on our side we’ll be at the entrance to Wall Maria by sunrise.”

“We’ll have to be even more on our guard when that happens,” Bertholdt added. “Oh, speaking of which; Eren is still passed out, right?”

“Yeah, we’re good. I still have that drug that makes people lose consciousness, too, so we’re all set.” Eren’s head was resting on Reiner’s chest, moving slightly whenever the horses took a step.

A silence settled between the small group and left them to their thoughts.

_____

Armin almost fell off his horse when he awoke. Walls, I must’ve fallen asleep, he thought, disappointed in himself.

His horse was walking lazily, occasionally stopping to eat grass and Armin hopped off it and pulled the horse over to a tree on the edge of the large plain. Armin tilted his head up to the sky to see the beginnings of dawn and a yawn wracked his body while he stretched his arms.

“Damn,” Armin groaned, “How long was I asleep for? How well trained are those horses that they can continue traveling even when the person riding them is asleep? What the fuck.” He shook his head and sat on the ground next to his horse, playing with the grass absentmindedly. “I really should’ve brought a map or watch with me, shit.” He tended to swear a lot when he got nervous, you could say he picked it up from his grandfather who forgot that cursing was bad around kids, but truthfully it was from Eren who couldn’t shut up.

Eren! How could I forget about him? I really hope he’s ok, Armin thought. The only reason he was here in the middle of nowhere was because of him. Armin didn’t blame him though, he knows Eren doesn’t ask to be kidnapped. He knows Eren blames all this on himself.

He fell onto his back, gazing at the sky pretending he was a kid again with Eren and Mikasa beside him.

Mikasa.

Another person he forgot about. He didn’t let his mind wander for long, though, he first and foremost needed to find out where he was. Then Eren. Then his way back to Levi and the others.

Easy.

But that was becoming increasingly difficult as he rode his horse through the land, looking for any landmarks he’s seen in maps or even some hoof prints. He scratched his head and sighed heavily, he knew he would have to turn around soon without even accomplishing the thing he had set out for.

“Fine, I’ll go back to Levi!” He yelled angrily and jumped off his horse, kicking the ground for no good reason besides pent up frustration. His horse fled and Armin didn’t have it in him to chase after it.

Now he was truly alone.

_____

Levi woke up with a pit in his stomach and he knew immediately something was wrong. His instincts had yet to fail him.

“Hange, get up!” He yelled from outside their small and dirty tent.

Hange stumbled out and put on their glasses lopsidedly, “What? Can this wait? It’s,” they checked their pocket watch, “five in the morning. I literally went to bed like five hours ago-”

“I have a bad feeling about something,” Levi interrupted.

“Titans?”

Levi shook his head, “No, not that. Where are the brats?”

“You mean Armin and Eren, they’re over there.” Hange pointed at the area past the campfire.

“You are clearly misremembering because there's no one there.”

Hange scrunched up their nose, “Armin was sitting at that campfire last night. I saw him and I know you did too.”

“Yeah, but that’s not the point. Where are they now?”

Hange shrugged and stepped around Levi, walking to where the campfire would've been if it hadn’t been extinguished. A small piece of paper sat on top of a log and Hange grabbed it and tossed it to Levi.

Levi unfolded the note and read the one sentence he had been dreading.

“Fuck.”

“What? What does it say?” Hange snatched the note out of his hands and their eyes went wide. “Is this some sort of joke?”

“I doubt it, Arlert is smarter than that.”

“Then how, how Levi? How could anyone snuck in here in the middle of the night and not get anyone’s attention besides Armin’s?”

“You think it's the Military Police?” Levi suggested.

“Could be, but they aren’t dumb enough to kidnap Eren on the first night. They would have waited for him to screw up and prove to Zachary that he’s unstable and not fit for this.”

Levi raised a brow, “So you think it's an unknown third party? That just makes our life harder.”

“It’s the most logical answer.”

“Does logic really apply to anything anymore, Hange? A 15 year old can transform into a 60 meter tall monster. Logic has basically been throw out the window since that.”

“Trust me,” Hange said. “When have I ever led us wrong?” A grin started to form on their face.

Levi rolled his eyes, “Many times actually. Do you want me to start naming them?”

“As if! I’m the reason the Scouts have been so successful!” Hange laughs and pats his head, flaunting their height difference.
Levi hits their hand away and walks over to where his squad was sleeping peacefully. They clearly didn't hear anything either, Levi thought bitterly. “Get up, cocksuckers.”

Petra scrambled up and blearily looked at Hange and Levi, “What’s happening?”

“Well it's more like what happened, and what happened was that we lost Eren and Armin.” Hange explained, their tone too calm for what was happening.

“How is that possible? We were all here.” Eld interrupted.

“Doesn’t really matter now. It’s happened, it’s in the past, too late for us to change it, so just get ready. We leave in 10 minute.” Levi commanded. He went back into his tent to grab his small bag of belongings and then readied his horse, happy to see everyone else doing the same. They were lucky none of them bothered to change out of their clothes from the previous day, all they had to do was secure their ODM gear on their hips.
When Hange had finished loading the few things they had gotten out of the wagon back onto it, they set out, looking for hoof prints or just signs of human travel.

“Spread out! Use the smoke signals if you find anything!” Levi urged his horse to go faster while the rest of them panned out and Hange followed him. Like a dog, Levi’s mind supplied for him pointlessly.

_____

Eren didn’t know where he was or what was happening. His mind was muddled and he felt like he had slept for eternity. He groaned and felt grass pressing against his cheek and pushed himself up with… his bound hands? Eren’s eyes flew open and was met with the blank stares of three people, each of them sitting on the grass a few feet away from him.

“Oh, so you're awake now,” Reiner said, “ready to not be a bitch?”

Annie chuckled softly, “When is he not a bitch?”

Eren growled and lunged forward, more appropriately he tried to, his hands and legs were tied with thick rope that made his skin red and his body felt like it had lead in it.

“That’s the drugs in your system,” Reiner answered the question displayed on Eren’s face, “you put up a good enough fight for it to come to this.”

“Wh- Where am I?” Eren stuttered out, his eyelids drooped and he had to will them back open.

“I’m afraid we can’t tell you that,” Bertholdt said, but he had an apologetic tone unlike the other two.

“Fine then, where are you taking me?” Eren asked and was happy to see that his mind was already becoming less of a mess.

“Can… Can we tell him that?” Bertholdt whispered to Reiner and Annie, “I mean we gotta tell him sometime, might as well be now, right?”

“Marley,” was Reiner’s only answer.

“Marley?” Eren repeated, the name felt foreign on his tongue, but oddly familiar. “Where is that?”

None of them decided to answer that question. He tossed the name around in his head, trying to remember where he could’ve heard that mentioned.

Eren let out a short groan when nothing came to mind and was met with a small rock being thrown at his head. “Shut up.”

“Not until you tell me where you’re taking me. Have we passed through Wall Maria yet? No, there’s no way. We wouldn’t be able to just be lounging in the middle of nowhere if
this was titan territory.”

Annie’s eyes widened briefly before returning to their normal glare, “You’re smarter than you let on.”

Eren smirked, “Or maybe I’ve always been like this and you all just underestimated me.” He struggled against his bonds, the rope cutting into his already sore skin. He bit his lip before an idea popped into his head.

I have a knife, Eren’s mind raced, in my boot. Thank the Walls, I might not be screwed.

He moved his hands to where his feet were and peered over his lashes to make sure none of them were looking at him. When his hand was situated over his boot he tried to quietly unzip a bit of it, just enough to stick his fingers in there and grab it.

“Looking for this?” a voice said. He snapped his head up to look at Reiner holding a his knife in between his thumb and index finger.

Eren glared at him.

Reiner just laughed, “We aren’t stupid, you know. We all know that each soldier is supposed to stow a knife in their boot.”

Eren grit his teeth, “I’m going to kill you.”

“I’d like to see you try.”