Coming for your heart

Chapter 14

"Is this the revenge for the Crown Prince's death? Or compensation for the fact that the king's second son didn't turn up at the palace when his father called him back after ten years? How could he expect any different after how he treated his son?"

Now the man was eying him warily.

"How do you know so much about the royal family's affairs?"

Armin winced and his eyes widened. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights, of that he was sure.

"I'm...I'm sorry...I...I didn't mean...I didn't mean to be...to be disrespectful, sir." He quickly bowed and bowed again until two strong hands grabbed his arms to keep him upright.

The man was standing far too close. Armin could smell the soap and the faint scent of...of something that reminded him of back home. He just couldn't put a name on it.

He made a step back, pleading to the Gods for the pieces of paper in his shorts to stay where they were at the moment and apologized again to the stranger only to run down the corridor without listening to any further question the man could have had.

Eren POV

The sharp noise of a door thrown open jolted Eren awake. Startled he blinked with still blurry eyes. It was at night, the moon up in the sky and he had tried to get some sleep for once.

Mikasa's nagging had done it's job. He was exhausted. His eyes looked like he wore black make-up underneath so he decided to give that old and shitty excuse for a bed a chance only to find that he didn't mind the hard thing they called mattress as much as he thought he would.

In fact he liked that nothing in their small room, consisting of four walls and two beds with only a tiny shelve for their clothes or bathing utensils, reminded him of home. Of Shiganshina. Of their mother.

"Armin...?", he slurred, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He saw the blond boy, his wide eyes and he could even see how hard he was breathing. 

Every thought of sleep was gone.

"Armin! What happened?" He sat up in bed, waiting for his friend to shut the door closed and to crawl into his bed like they had done many times after they had lost any trust in the walls thickness.

"I...man...and...paper...ladder...fell...and he...and then...I...the documents..."

"Armin, breathe. Everything's fine.", Eren talked him into a calm state and waited concerned until Armin was in fact breathing like a normal human being.

"What happened, man? Did you get caught doing something?"

"Kind of? I guess? Not really?" It was strange to see the otherwise so calm and organized little mushroom to get so scared and confused. Eren took his friends hand, stroking across his palm with his fingers. A gesture they had shown each other to calm down in hectic moments.

"Tell me. What happened?", he repeated the question patiently, averting his gaze from his friend to give him a moment to settle down.

"I was doing what you told me to do." The blond breathed in and out, in a pattern Eren also used when the feeling of panic and anxiety stroke again. "I was waiting for some of the officers to come down the corridor, to get information on what they might be planning."

"That's great, Ar. Did you hear anything? Is that what's got you so distraught?"

"I...he was alone. A man. A tall man. I was climbing the ladder. And...and he surprised me. He talked to me and I...I fell and I tried to grab something but I...I fell and..."

"Did you hurt yourself?" Eren looked him all over but when he couldn't see a patch of blood or any other kind of injury, he dared to let relief flood his extremities. Armin shook his head, swallowing and getting some air into his lungs.

"He...he caught me.", he whispered so thinly, Eren had to lean forward a bit to get every word his friend was saying. "He caught me and he let all those papers fall and...and...oh, right! I stole some from him. Not many but..."

He reached into his trousers and Eren was short of telling him to just leave it when his friend showed him what he had gotten from that man.

Two pieces of paper.

On each of them some key words had been written in italic like letters, standing out from the rest of the text.

He skimmed most parts and felt his throat go dry when he read some of the many words that had caused Armin to take the documents with him.

...Crown Prince's death...second prince...Marley's attack...

"Zeke has been declared dead two months ago now. Seems like my old man is getting impatient with me." He smirked, loving the impact his actions had on his father.

Only a day after Zeke's death on the battlefield had been declared in all of Eldia, Grisha had been forced to find a way to get his second heir back.

So he spun a great lie about how he had given him away so he was able to protect him and now that he was needed it was his duty to come back.

Of course Eren had simply laughed when he heard of his father's request – as if he could force him to show himself against his own will – and enjoyed every second of putting his plan into action.

"He apparently thinks you to be an indulgent and forgiving type of person.", Armin said, taking the sheet in Eren's hand back in his own and skimmed the parts he had been reading, a deep frown on his forehead.

Eren lit the candle next to him and narrowed his eyes.

"He can't have forgotten the reason my mother did what she did. So he tells his fairy tale to every person in all of Eldia to make me out to be the bad guy in this whole game because I refuse to come to his aid."

"Game?"

Eren eyed his friend, wondering what was going on in that genius's mind of his.

"That's what it is, isn't it? A giant game. And my father wants me to be the game piece he can play with."

Armin always had that worried expression on his face whenever Eren talked about the life in the palace. Of course...it must sound crazy for a person who thought of the royal court as some friendly round of men who talked about a problem and instantly found a solution.

Eren winced at his mean thoughts.

He knew his friend to be a person who looked at everything twice before judging and he never acted naively. He was more aware of possible dangers than Eren.

"You need to contact Queen Historia."

Armin's words caught him off guard and Eren nearly fell of the bed.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Now who is the suicidal bastard in the room?", he asked flabbergasted. When Armin's expression didn't reveal any humorous intent he groaned and rested his face in his hands. "You can't be serious, Ar. How am I supposed to do that and why by the Gods would I even want that?"

"You can't afford to be vulnerable, Eren.", Armin tried to reason with his friend, refraining from moving closer to him and instead leaned back, resting his weight on his hands. "You need allies. You need a place to hide when things come down to it."

"When? Should it disturb me that you didn't use if?"

Armin faced him with the same stern gaze he always wore whenever he thought far ahead, too far for anyone to follow his trail of thoughts.

"Now is not the time to be naïve, Eren. It will come to a fight. A fight for your father's throne. And when has a fight for power ever been anything but gruesome and deadly?"