Unity

Chapter Three

Eren walked beside me the whole way home. Honestly, it was kind of nice to have him there. He was fun to talk to. He was also very awkward. I may sound mean thinking this, but it was actually quite amusing how awkward he was. He was very talkative, but whenever something pissed him off, he was pissed and showed it. Though he did have shown anger issues, he was also very funny. He had tripped over the side walk a couple of times, which brought to Mikasa's amusement.

"You said you lived with your grandfather?" I nodded and looked down, remembering that I did have to live with him. God, how I hated him. I clenched my fists and crunched my teeth together.

"Yeah, but he's not here so it will just be us three." Eren nodded.

"You look pissed," I jumped a bit and stopped in my tracks. I began walking as soon as I realized that I had stopped moving.

"Nah I guess I'm just tired."

"Okay." The rest of the way was relatively silent. I wasn't really paying attention, but Eren gasped when we reached one house.

"Oh my god look over there!" About two houses up, there was a small house with a man laying out in the front covered in blood. There were bloody footprints leading inside and there were many police cars surrounding the house.

"Holy shit that's my house!" I ran up to the site just to witness my grandfather lying dead on the ground outside. A cop turned towards me.

"No kids allowed on the site, please go home, this is none of your business." He turned away.

"Yes it is! This is my house!" He turned back towards me. His expression changed. He almost looked... compassionate?

"Is this your guardian?" I nodded. I saw a medical assistant drag him onto a stretcher through the tears and ashes in my eyes. He began to write things down in a notepad. Eren put his hand on my shoulder and witnessed the scene with me.

"Where is your mother or father?" I started having flashbacks of their death...

"They're dead..." The cop stared into my eyes sympathetically.

"I'm sorry for making assumptions. Do you have any other guardian?" I shook my head, and he wrote more things down in his notebook.

"What happened?" He shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but we're not sure what happened. The neighbors called the police and from the color of the blood, we are assuming that it happened two or three hours ago. What would he be doing at that time?" There was no doubt about it. He never did anything else but gamble or go to the bar.

"He was either gambling or at the Trost Bar."

"I see. I'm going to have to ask for your friends to go home." Eren got into fighting position and narrowed his eyebrows.

"None of us here even have a home anymore!" He tried to punch the police officer, but I grabbed his hand and put it back to his side.

"You have to control your temper right now, I'm sorry, do you think you can?" Eren took five or six deep breaths until he nodded. Mikasa patted his back calmingly. Surprisingly, he didn't lash out on her.

"These two don't have parents either?" Mikasa shook her head and stepped in front of Eren. Eren pushed Mikasa and broke through the 'Caution' tape without a care. He was almost tall enough to look the police officer in the eyes without looking up.

"I swear if you send any of us to a god damn orphanage I will personally come to you and teach you what it's like at orphanages. You've never been in one of those buildings called an orphanage, have you? They'd be better off calling it hell and I swear if you do-"

"Eren." Mikasa grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "I'm sorry about him." Mikasa held onto his arm and it clearly affected Eren, because he became less tense.

About 20 minutes later, the police officers drove back to the station to do who-knows-what. The police officer Eren had talked to swore to not let the others know that all three of them were orphans with no other family. The only thing to figure out now was how to live.

"Eren, you're lucky you intimidated him. He wouldn't have let us off if you didn't look so scary all the time."

"Shut up, Mikasa! Police officers don't know shit," Mikasa stayed silent. After Eren calmed down, we all walked to a park nearby. I sat on one of the benches and cupped my hands around my eyes.

"Are you okay?" I nodded my head to Eren's question. He knew it was a lie. "No you're not." He took both of my hands in his and looked me in the eyes. "Answer truthfully to me. Are you okay?" I had to think of my answer for a long time. It's not like I'm an orphan just losing the last of my family or anything...

"Honestly, I'm in shock but I'm not sad that he died." Eren looked confused.

"You aren't? Why not?"

"He hated me and was very clear about it. Can we not talk about it?" Eren bobbed his head up and down. I felt a sudden wrap around my shoulders, and sure enough, Eren was holding me tightly against him with his arms.

"Eren-"

"Just let me," his words were muffled by the clothe on my arm. "Please..." I pushed my blonde hair out of my face and sighed. I wrapped my arms back around him and motioned for Mikasa to join us. She sat next to Eren and leaned her head against him. Eren pulled out a jacket from his backpack and spread it across us evenly.

"I know I just met you today, but I feel like we're going to go through a lot of shit together." Eren said, meaning it to be meant for my ears. I looked down at the ground. And when I thought things couldn't get any worse... they plummeted too hard and its consequence smacked me painfully across the face. Something about the thought of going through it with Eren didn't seem so bad, though. He opened up to me on the first day, and he saw into my past on the first day.

"I feel that way, too." Eren made sure that all of us were warm and comfortable and not too hungry. We all shared a granola bar that Mikasa had in her backpack. We've barely even started our struggle, but I'm already worn out. Something about Eren breathing on me kept me okay, though. Something about his presence in general made me comfortable...

But right now I'm just worried about survival, and if I want to survive, I'm going to have to put up a good fight, because, hell, it's only the first day and I'm already wanting a home again.