𝙃𝙚𝙧 𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙤𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙩 || Eren Jaeger

𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒂

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"YOU SHOULD TEACH me some of those poses, Eren." Hanji says as she unlocks the cellar, opening the door with a sharp creak. "I liked that last one! With the closed fist, the brooding gaze—"

Eren massages his forehead wearily as he comes out. "Please, I'm begging you..." his voice drops to an embarrassed squeak. "shut up."

Levi clicks his tongue, bored. "Quit it, Hanji. He is still an adolescent, after all. At 18 years old, the brat might as well been born yesterday."

"Ohhh," Hanji muses avidly, "so it's a phase."

Eren drags his hands down his face, wiping away the gloom and heaviness of being locked up for three days. His joints ache, his back and neck are stiff from sleeping on the hard wooden slab for a bed. He desperately wants to collapse and yet feels an impulse to run 2 miles at the same time.

But no. Before he can do any of those things, there's someone he wants to see.

"Corporal," Eren turns to his disgruntled superior. "Where's Johanna?"

The Corporal breaks eye contact immediately. Not in a panic, and certainly not out of intimidation. It's a deliberate choice. Almost like looking at the floor made him more comfortable to answer.

"She's outside. By that big sycamore tree near the stables." He turns and leaves. The rest of his sentence is almost lost— Eren has to piece it together— but he heard "meet you there", and that was a good enough inkling.

Hanji clears her throat, but it sounds more like an awkward squawk. She follows Levi out. "Yeah I have uh, some science stuff I gotta..."

She's gone, and Eren doesn't even bother making sense of that incomplete thought.
He has more pressing matters to attend to: like the fact that Johanna didn't come to see him at all during his imprisonment.

To say his stomach's tied in knots is an understatement. He's not stupid. Although he has made stupid or thoughtless decisions before— thanks to his hovering friends, and the Survey Corps who constantly feel the need to babysit him, he's very aware of each and every mistake he's made in the past.

I'll be damned if I screw up with her, Eren thinks as he takes the other exit up to HQ's main floor.

The fact that Johanna didn't show herself once, didn't even pop in for a quick "hello" for three days, is indicative enough. There's something wrong. And small or big, Eren is more than determined to talk it out with her.

His hand subconsciously dips into his pocket, and he feels the tension in his chest unwind when his fingers graze against the cold, thin ring.

He remembers the brief exchange from yesterday:

"About time," Eren said when he saw a silent, tall figure come down the stairs.

Jean does not reply. His head is lowered, fist jammed in his pocket a little too tightly, and he doesn't meet Eren's eyes until he is face-to-face with him through the metal bars of his cell. His temporary cage.

Eren's face radiates despite the glum atmosphere of the dungeon. He felt like a little kid on his birthday. No, Christmas. No— better than that. None of those occasions could provide him the delight overtaking his senses right now.