Chapter Text
Thump….
What happened?
Thump….
He thought his head was cut off..
Thump….
He survived?
(Captain Levi threw the thunder spear into the Founder Titan’s bony teeth, creating a rough opening, allowing Mikasa to pass through to kill Eren once and for all.
Eren looked up.
She cut down his neck swiftly, a sad look flashed across her features.
“See you later, Eren.”)
How?
He is supposed to be dead. To rot away from the world. To simply disappear. After all he did—to those people who died, to those people he controlled, to those people he deceived—at the extent to protect Paradis and to achieve freedom.
(He just wants to be free from everything. He doesn’t want to lose anything anymore.)
Clearly the world hates him since he was even born.
He shouldn’t even be feeling alive again. But he can feel. He could feel the calm beats in his pulse, in his bloodstream, in his heart. A cool breeze brushed gently on top of him, his hair tingling in every movement. His circular breathing, in each breath he take, filling his lungs, makes him feel what it is to be alive again.
“Eren?”
…Huh?
Opening his eyes wildly, a gasp escaped out of his mouth and immediately covered his face with a thick cover that overlay his body, from a sudden bright light that greeted him and shielded his eyes with his arm as an extra. He’s on a bed, he realised, feeling the texture of fabric under him. Eren let out a breath.
“Eren. You woke up. It’s time for breakfast.”
Now getting used to the radiant colour, Eren rip off the blanket he has on him and quickly sat upright, it turned out to be a really bad idea with him getting slightly nauseous from it. Now slowly opening his natural green eyes, he surveyed his surroundings—a habit that is needed for a soldier for he is still one—and what looked like what it would for a room. A bedroom in fact. Why is he here? Surely not because of some stranger that let a rebellious 19 year old soldier that is also a titan who threatened the whole entire world into extinction just to save a what is known to be the devil’s island, inside of their house?
It was also messy. With some already used trash littering on the carpeted floor and pencils scattered throughout a wooden desk. Papers plastered on the concrete white wall, proud of themselves as they show the barely recognisable drawings. Captain would be so disappointed. Eren thought. Though looking closely, there are some weird objects that are not recognisable. A small rectangular black tab connected to the wall, another bigger tab that many cables connected to a box—Are they weapons?
Eren gripped the blanket.
“Eren?”
What? Someone is calling.
Turning his head, he faced the door and—
Eren choked back a cry.
(How could he had missed it?)
In the center of the room, a person.
And a person who is very much familiar.
“Mikasa?”
…What? There’s no way.
Why is she here?
Her red scarf. The scar on her cheek. Her black hair.
Mikasa Ackerman.
Eren’s eyes burned.
“Eren, why are you crying?”
His limbs felt heavy—but light, and alive—from moving as he stood up fast and ran towards—
“Mikasa!!”
Clamping his arms around Mikasa’s neck, Eren dug his face on her shoulder, wet tears leaked fast and dropped down his face. Hiccups went up his throat and he could hardly breathe. He could care less about this position. She can kill him later. Because—
This is Mikasa.
Eren’s best friend.
(“I’ve always hated you.” Eren’s eyes landed on Mikasa’s, she’s crying and his heart breaks. I’m sorry, he thought, as Armin lunges at him.)
I’m sorry, he thought now.
Mikasa looked dumbfounded and awkwardly wrapped her hands around the boy’s trembling back and soothed him, both of them kneeling down on the carpet. Eren sobs and cries his heart out(he doesn’t want to be called crybaby by Historia again); this is an expectation, he won’t cry anymore after this.
He will die soon anyways. Eren doesn’t know why he survived. Humanity must’ve wanted revenge at him so much they want him to suffer and raised him up from the dead just to kill him again.
But he knew he deserved it.
He doesn’t know how long they stayed like this. Eren wants it to last longer but wants to end it to save his embarrassment. He’s surprised he still have some, for a mass murderer like him.
“…Eren, are you alright? Did you had a nightmare?”
He holds her tight from the question.
A nightmare?
What is Mikasa talking about?
Eren holds both of her shoulders and pushes her away, staring at her intently; Mikasa looks surprisingly unbothered at this. She looks absolutely different from what he remembered. Her hair cuts short just above her collar, longer than what he remembered her hair to look like. Her scarf—ragged and old—seemed so much thicker than before—
No.
This is not Mikasa.
While Eren is dazed, seemingly petrified, ‘not Mikasa’ grabbed him and starts to drag Eren out of the room. She says something about being ‘late to school’ and ‘you have to eat’ but the teenager heard none of that.
‘Where the heck am I?’