Gangsta's Paradise | EreMika AU

Chapter 25: Jailhouse Rock

      His world kept spinning. His panicked expression wouldn't falter and the fear in his scared eyes refused to leave. His rigid breath shook as rapidly and as turbulently as his fingers which were cold and sore from the digging.

One of his hands froze up from the cold air it was subjected too. His other...warm. Her blood splashed onto his, coating his skin in red. No matter how much he wrapped his hand around it or how tight his grip became, he couldn't stop the leaking of her blood.

Her writhing body twitched and groaned as he attempted to make her as comfortable as he could, but all his efforts were in vain. Eren's fear reached his throat in the form of a lump he quickly swallowed back down. His firm grip neither relaxed Mikasa or himself.

Eren didn't have his phone and despite her radio being on display in front of him, he was too out of touch to consider using it. In his mind, his only option was to hold onto her as tight as his body would let him and pray she was going nowhere. He dreaded the sight of her soul leaving her body, trapping him all alone on this miserable earth.

Her scrunched-up face brought an immeasurable pain to his chest and struck his heart deeply. He unintentionally rocked his body back and forth as if he were cradling her in his arms. He pulled her as close as he could to his torso, not daring to let her go.

The sudden pounding of footsteps forced Eren to look up quickly. To his relief, Eren found it to be Jean running directly at the two alone. As much as he wanted Jean to be elsewhere hunting down the sick freak who shot the girl in his arms, he preferred Jean running at him at top speed rather than Reiner.

Jean skidded to a halt next to them, dropping to his knees with a worried look on his features. "Eren! How is she?"

Eren's eyes met his and Jean paused. He had seen Eren at his lowest points. He remembered how he was assigned to him when they'd first met. His mind could recall how hot-headed and reckless Eren was in the beginning, granting him nicknames like 'Suicidal Bastard'. His hatred grew stronger day by day until he eventually realised just how close he'd gotten to know him, and losing him would be one large punch to the gut.

Eren's proposal to overthrow was a memory still fresh in his mind. The determination he had and the fire in his eyes were burnt into Jean's mind. Jean kept to himself much like Eren, but he recollected the time he'd told Eren and about his mother. About how old she was starting to get. One of the first things Eren did when he took over was to pay Jean's mom a visit to deliver a large sum of hard-worked money. He was sure Eren snuck a picture of Jean's jaw-dropped expression.

Eren had stood over the city of Shiganshina like a King and he looked down on it, not with disgust in his eyes, but affection. Eren cared about cleaning up his streets as best he could. His desire to help people was one Jean respected greatly.

As he stared into Eren's tear-filled eyes, a shocked look grew upon him. His rattling jaw and flaring nose reminded Jean of a child but Eren was far from one. The genuine fear on his face unsettled him on both the inside and outside.

"J-Jean..." Eren stuttered as tears leaked onto his chilled cheeks. "Help her..."

Much like a father to a fearful child, Jean took over. He forcefully grabbed Eren's hand and wrapped it as securely as possible over Mikasa's injury, ignoring the pained face she wore in her unconscious state. Eren's hand was meant to keep pressure on the wound and stop the flowing of blood. After confirming that the shot to the chest she took had left no physical injury, due to the bulletproof vest she wore beneath her shirt, he relaxed a little. Her major pain stemmed from the hole in her arm and her unconscious state resulted from the shock and pain. Being asleep was for the best.