COMRADES • Eren Jaeger

AFTER THE EPILOGUE: The House by the Shore

After the epilogue

To you, 2000 years from now.

There is a quaint little house by the sea, and the sound of crashing waves lulls you to a waking moment. Your eyes blink feverishly to see light seeping in through the windows, warm against a gray sky. Soft pillows tickle your back.

For a moment, you are puzzled.

You take in your appearance. A simple dress. The sleeves slide off-shoulder. Your feet are bare. Like a dweller of the oceanside.

And then you remember, just as you remembered everything when you were young.

You are dead.

"Hey. Awake already?"

Dizzy, your eyes snap up to meet him. Eren's hair is short, and he has an undercut. He's putting away a fishing net to the side. It reminds you of how you did that before—the memories are a bit fuzzy now. You and Eren talk about them often, spinning them so vividly that they are almost tangible.

He crouches down.

"Why are you... crying?"

You blink. You touch your face. Salty tears are running down like the air and the water by the shore.

"I just had a long dream," you say.

Eren nods in understanding.

"Were you going over your memories again?"

You swallow. It's always painful to go through them. You do it all the time.

"Yeah. I started from the beginning," you say. You smile. "I was thinking of them. Of all of us, back when we were young."

"We'll see them again, soon enough."

Eren leans down to plant a kiss on your forehead. It makes you feel warm, knowing that this peace is what you can have for the rest of your life. Maybe in the next one, when your time here runs up. You know you're fated to meet him again.

You let him pull you up and stretch, yawning. Sunlight spills through curtains like it wants to paint you gold. The seafoam crashes. It's an absolutely beautiful, peaceful day.

You follow Eren outside. You don't know what today will bring. You know it will be different. Maybe different is going to be kind this week. That is for you to find out.

"Let's just take it easy today," he says. "You look tired."

"I thought about my whole life," you say, feeling your feet sink into the sand. "I can remember it all so vividly."

You're getting repetitive, you know. But you need to talk about it. You need to hear Eren say that it did happen, to immortalize your comrades forever and let them know that you haven't forgotten. They're somewhere out there, in the real world. The real universe that you cannot go back to.

Despite your longing to see them again, you know you will meet again. You will see your friends and family, and you hope that when you do, you will be able to feel their skin against yours and breathe in the scents you can remember. You just miss them so much, you ache. There's just no such thing as peace without a price to pay. But that's alright. You know it will pass.

Eren wraps an arm around you, pressing his front into your back, releasing the sadness from your body. You're biting your lip, probably drawing blood; an awful habit that you can't shake, like your teeth can't accept that you don't have to play soldier anymore. You're simply the person you are now. You had thought you were nothing without the role of soldier, but that was wrong.