THIRTEEN • Eren Jaeger

CHAPTER 4: Loop Two, II

A hand placed itself on your shoulder. You turned to see Eren with a solemn look on his face. He must remember too.

You didn't say anything as he pulled you in for a hug.

Familiar.

"I miss them," you admitted quietly.

"Me too," he said. "But at least we now know how to avenge them. I just wish I knew if my dad is dead or not."

You stiffened. Eren didn't know what you did.

"[Name]?"

"It's nothing," you said quickly. "I just wish we had a dad."

Now it was Eren's turn to stiffen.

"We?"

You opened your mouth and closed it. You hated stuttering, but Eren had you cornered.

"I mean, we did grow up together," you said. "We've always been very close."

"Close," he repeated.

"Are we not?"

"We are," Eren said quickly. "It's just... I thought we were closer than that."

"It's hard not to when you basically grew up beside me like a brother."

"Oh," was all Eren said.

You didn't know what he meant. Wasn't that how you both always saw each other? Like how Armin was basically your brother and Mikasa was basically your sister. But Eren... Eren had always had some sort of deeper connection with you.

Either way, it probably didn't matter. A nagging feeling in the back of your mind tried to push you into acting otherwise, but you ignored it.

As you gazed at the district that was once — and would again be — your home, Eren's hands brushed against the skin of your shoulders.

"[Name], can you promise me something?"

"Not if I can make you promise first," you said. "I want you to try and live for me, okay?"

Eren snorted. "Try?"

You suppressed a smile. You had this conversation before.

"That you will," you said. "After everything, you will live. We will live."

You asked him what his promise request was, but you had a feeling that you already knew what it was.

"Still up for the sea?" he asked. "I want you to promise me that we'll see it together. And you have to be excited. We know it exists now!"

You remembered what Eren was like when you saw the sea for the first time. The early warnings of his descent to madness. Your smile faded.

"With our friends. Like Armin and Mikasa."

"Yeah, but I'm asking you," he said pointedly. "You're my—my best friend, so you have to keep this promise even if it sounds childish. You're not getting rid of me anytime soon."

"Yeah, yeah," you said dismissively. "You're part of me."

When you returned to Trost, you found that the joy was short-lived.

"They've escaped," Erwin explained once you were back in his office. "I'm afraid that a man named Zeke infiltrated the Military Police ranks and broke them out. Your suspicions are confirmed. We will be hiding Eren in a safe place."

Here was the thing about Eren: as a teen, when it came to betrayal, he had to see it to believe it. He could not believe that Annie, who taught him how to fight, or Reiner and Bertholdt, who treated him like a brother, were the type to go against him.