THIRTEEN • Eren Jaeger

CHAPTER 8: Loop Four, II

As you spoke, you purposely sounded fragile and small. "Why?"

"Just... some stuff."

Your panic swiftly turned to anger. "Fine."

"Fine."

You roughly dropped the planks before Eren's feet. He looked at you warily as he picked one up and began to hammer it down. Then he stopped with a considerate look and said, "I think you'd prefer the hammering work. It lets anger out better."

It was astounding how attuned Eren was to your emotions. The selfish longing in you purred like a cat, desiring for interaction with him.

Your fingers touched briefly as he handed the hammer to you.

A small fizzle of electric shock blasted through your fingers and suddenly you thought of your past life, where Eren had kissed you in the snow after saying that you were the prettiest girl in the room. Even in the current heat, you could remember the cold wind, and the snowflakes in his lashes so clearly.

And you saw another thing—you, covered in the same snow, eyes wide after the kiss—as though you were seeing that memory from Eren's point of view.

Clank! You jumped at the sound of the hammer falling onto the metal track. It had barely missed yours and Eren's feet. He snapped out of whatever daze he'd been trapped in, as did you.

"Sorry," you hurriedly said at the same time.

You bent down to retrieve the hammer. Eren did the same. As your fingers enclosed around the hammer, his fingers enclosed yours by accident. You made eye contact. His face was barely inches away, just like before. Eren stared at you with a weird look, like he just remembered something funny.

You cleared your throat. Eren released his hand. Your skin tingled where he had been.

"I'll leave you to it," he said before slowly standing up to resume your work of bringing planks.

You looked down at your hand. It suddenly felt weak, like you'd fallen asleep on it and now it was numb. You looked back at Eren. Is it possible that...?

In your peripheral vision, you saw that Jean had caught you staring at Eren's back. You quickly went back to work.

Eren made a quick jab that your hammering was awful and that he could teach you how to fix it. You had no choice but to let him. His hand enclosed around yours again, his chest pressing against the deltoids of your back as he taught you the 'correct' and 'proper' way. His low tone whispering instructions into your ear didn't help either. Your legs felt like jelly as you avoided Jean's gaze. Everything about Eren - his energy, his voice, even the sweat running down his temple - was far more exciting and fitting to you than Jean.

When you rode the train cart home, they began discussing who'd inherit Eren's Titan.

Jean volunteered. "I'm no suicidal butthead. I have excellent judgment and I can carry any duty." He used to say it humorously, but now, there was a venom. Seeing Eren close to you had set him on edge.

A few questioning glances were thrown at you, to see if you'd volunteer as well. You kept your mouth shut. No reason to admit you'd do something for Eren.

Then Eren said what you remembered he said.

"I'm not handing it down to any of you. Because you're important to me. So I want you to live long lives."

Then the blushing. You missed his embarrassed blushes.

When the train disembarked, Jean didn't say anything to you as he entered the military barracks. You wilted.