Coming for your heart

Chapter 1

You know that feeling when you're chasing down the streets, completely carefree and with a smile plastered on your face?

Yeah, I'm not really getting that.

Behind himself Eren found that the street brats caught up to him more and more every second. He would like to think that it had something to do with the fact that he let them and not with the burning in his legs, the scratches or the blood on his stomach.

"Keep running, freak!", one of them shouted.

Let's make one thing clear:

Eren was not the type to back down from a challenge that fast. But getting home all bloody and roughed up has gotten him into much more trouble than necessary on a quiet summer evening.

"Fucking catch me and we'll see who's the real freak around here!", he called over his shoulder, aware of the impact his provocative words had on their simple minds.

As expected they sped up quite a bit and Eren shifted his focus on the small paths ahead of him, leading them through little Shiganshina with those old huts and women who he merely greeted with a cheeky smile and a wink when he passed them.

Eren hurried around the next corner, evading the few people still outside.

"Out of my way!", he yelled and jumped on barrels and slats to get through the crowd of people too dense to move out of his way, getting knocked down by his pursuers.

"Come back, rat!", another one of them screeched but unlike them he knew which ways to turn and which ones to avoid around this time. Sadly, they lacked the speed and the agility years of climbing on roofs and jumping through the city had gifted Eren with and so it wasn't much a surprise for the boy when the noise of steps behind me ceased.

Beaming in triumph he cheered up and stopped his run only after ensuring that the pursuers were gone for sure.

Then he headed back to the corner where the fun had started this time.

Eren swung through the city with the help of signs, hanging from brittle sticks, enjoying the familiar creak when they had to bear his weight for a second.

When he jumped down from a ladder, he had used to get faster around a corner Eren was greeted by a curled-up ball of blond hair and wide eyes.

"Eren! You're back!"

He landed next to his friend and pushed some strands of his brownish hair nonchalant behind his ear. His grin was wide enough to reach the young boy's ears.

"You didn't think they would catch me, did you now?"

His friend chuckled and got up, holding the book in his hands tighter to his chest. Engraved on it were some kind of dirty letters in a language Eren couldn't understand.

"Those books always get you in trouble.", he stated and aimlessly walked beside his friend, hands hidden in the pockets of his jeans. The holes in it never bothered him, unlike his mother who always chastised him for ruining every single piece of clothing she bought him.

Armin smiled softly, caressing the book cover with a thumb.

"I know. But that's only because those fools don't understand the importance of knowledge written down. Those books will be more important than meaningless words in the face of time."

Eren shrugged, not caring at all if most of those boys their age called Armin a heretic for doing what he loved. After all, Eren himself came from the origin of this corrupted and gruesome society.

They wandered around Shiganshina some more until Armin had to get home to his grandfather. After his parent's death he was the only relative he had left and Eren made sure that the blond knew that he also had a family in him and Mikasa, his older sister.