Eren POV
Armin wasn't getting better.
Not on the first day, not on the second one.
Eren was by his side every second that he wasn't busy somewhere else. He stayed by his friend's side, talked quietly with him and looked out for any signs that his condition worsened.
"Mikasa is acting really strange lately.", he just whispered, his hands working on changing his unconscious friend out of his sweaty pair of clothes. "But that must be her worrying about you. You're keeping us on our toes, that much is true."
He chuckled softly, careful not to let his regret show in his voice.
It was his fault that Armin was in that bed, sick and white as the clouds in the sky on this sunny day. Since yesterday it was hot enough to make every step outside the palace feel like pure torture.
Even the gardeners refused to work out there. They got punished by his father but other than that they were allowed to stay inside. Even Grisha seemed to understand that the temperatures had reached unbearable levels.
"You know what they say about the hot days. There is a thunder coming for us.", Eren mumbled, putting the old clothes aside and straightened the collar of the new shirt he had brought his friend from their room. Even though Eren had already assumed that General Smith would let Armin stay for a while, he would have never expected this 'while' to last for longer than a day.
Eren glanced outside the window.
The sunrays reflected in the glass, displaying all kinds of beautiful colors. For a second he thought to see the honey tone of his mother's eyes but when he blinked, it was gone. He shook his head and put away the vest he had been wearing, short of undressing.
But since this wasn't his room wasn't his, Eren didn't want to risk that someone came in and saw his scars.
Those ugly scars.
He pressed his lips together and touched the skin on his back – all the spots he could reach. Even now he could feel the pain from back then. From all those years ago in the palace. From that night.
The night that had changed everything.
And all those scars he had gathered out there in the woods. They had survived there for five months. He smiled darkly, intertwining his and Armin's fingers while he sat down next to him, his eyes focused on the closed ones of his friend.
"Where do you think they are now, Ar?", he muttered. Sadness covered the determination in his eyes and a broken sound escaped his throat. "We probably shouldn't worry about them, right? They have survived Shiganshina. They have survived the woods. They will be fine without us."
"I didn't know that there were more than a few survivors of the massacre in Shiganshina."
Eren spun around, letting go of Armin's hand in the process and found himself getting stared at by Levi, who was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed and the same disinterested look on his face as always.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"Worried that I might have heard your heart-to-heart with sleeping beauty over there?"
"Show some damn respect.", Eren snarled, taking a step to the side, so Levi wouldn't be able to look at Armin. He knew that he should be friendlier. That he should spin his web like a spider ready to kill.
But this wasn't about him.
This was about Armin.
And he would kill to protect his friend – his younger brother by heart.
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Coming for your heart
Fanfiction|| Book 1 || Eren Yaeger had to flee from his home when he was only six years old. With his mother and his adopted sister he tries to forget anything related to the King and the secrets they left behind. Many years later war comes for Eldia and Er...
