𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙵𝙾𝚁 𝙼𝚈 𝙻𝙰𝚆𝚈𝙴𝚁

Chapter 14

S/n was messing with the arms of his toy robot before turning toward Eren.

Eren noticed the boy's eyes on him and also looked his way. S/n smiled widely, holding out his small hand.

"My name's S/n."

Eren was taken by surprise, but he shook it off. "I'm...Eren," he said, shaking S/n's hand.

"Nice to meet you!"

"Yeah... It's nice to meet you too."

Hanji smiled and nudged M/n, making the male glance her way.

"What?"

She shook her head and looked out the window. S/n held out his toy robot to him.

"Wanna play with it?"

"Oh, uh... Sure."

Eren took the toy robot, one of his fingers accidentally pressing a button. The robot's eyes lit up, a recorded voice shoutimg, "Assemble!"

"Whoa..."

Before long, they had arrived at Eren's school.

"Alright. We're here."

Eren looked out of the window and at his school. He seemed hesitant to get out. M/n looked back when he didn't hear the car door.

"Eren?"

Hanji also turned around. She then leaned toward M/n. "Hey...M/n. The kid looks scared," she whispered.

M/n noticed the hesitancy Eren had, his hand resting on the handle as he looked out at his school.

"Where are you going?" Hanji asked as M/n opened his door.

He stepped out of the car and walked over to Eren's side. He opened it and crouched down in front of him.

"Eren."

The boy moved his head to look at M/n. "I won't say I understand how you feel because I don't. But, I will tell you this. No matter what anyone says... Nothing that's happened in your life is your fault... None of it... Those kids that bully you... Don't listen to their negative words. They don't understand what you've been through... All the pain you've gone through... You can't help your situation right now... Though I'm sure you wish you could change that..."

"Yeah..."

"You're a strong kid, Eren. And you've got Mikasa by your side too. You might not like her butting in, but...she's just looking out for you. She thinks of you as her precious friend. And you wouldn't want to see your friend suffering, so...she does what she can to help you. If you truly feel so powerless...even though that's not true...Try being a good person to them."

"A good person...to them? But, they--"

"I know. But...just like you, they may be dealing with stuff you don't quite understand too. What good does it do to bully them back? You'd be doing exactly what they've been doing to you. If even then it doesn't work out, well... I'm an adult you can talk to."

M/n handed Eren a business card that had his firm's phone number on it. "You don't have to if you don't want to. After all, you're not exactly supposed to trust strangers."

"I...just have to treat them nicely... Like a friend..."

M/n smiled. He then got up from his crouching position. "So... What do you say?"

Eren held the card in his hand before looking back at M/n with determination. "I really hope your advice works, Mister!"

"Yeah."