2|"A little less greed
could have saved
you and me,"
🌺|"Kaia."|🌺
Eren Jäger
He had to go back. Even though they barely escaped and Sasha god Sasha. He had to go back for her. He only lived because of her. Mikasa was too far to have injured the War Hammer Titan enough for him to at least live. He knew Kaia was too much like him to watch someone she cared about die when she could do something.
He might have also caught a glimpse of pink hair dashing through the rubble. And heard the faint sound of a shotgun ringing.
"What if I told you I could free us?" He could remember asking trying his hardest to sound nonchalant. A quiet hum came from the pink haired girl swinging her legs beside him.
"Then I'd do anything in my power to ensure it wouldn't be a lie." She replied just as nonchalant as he was, like she wasn't talking about commuting potential treason.
A chuckle left his throat at the thought. He could remember that his laugh being the thing that caught her attention and not their talk of treason had him laughing harder.
"Why are you-?" A giggle came out of her own throat like his laugh was contagious and, it might have been with how long it's been since he's done it.
Soon, they were just sitting on a bench laughing. He was sure she didn't even know why she was laughing and it just amused him further.
She knew the consequences of treason. Yet she did it anyways.. It baffled him. "Please, take me back! I'll cooperate i'll-Hange, please. My daughter.." He might have lied about the daughter part to manipulate their feelings in his favor but..maybe he didn't. He wondered how much of his begging was manipulation and how much was the truth.
Hange's eyes widened in shock at his words and he knew he had the survey corps on his side. At least until he got his kid back.
"They killed my brother, you know?" It was completely out of the blue and his head snapped to look at her, startled. "They cut him up in the middle of the night when I was ten because one of the guards wanted to walk me home. You see, there was this story about a girl who got mauled to death by the same guard's father." His eye widened. 'Faye?'
"And he didn't want to take a chance. So he declined fiercely no matter what happened. They beat him into the ground and-" She paused to take a shuddering breath avoid his burning gaze pointedly. "And they broke the strongest man I knew. They saw a weakness and swooped in like vultures, picking him apart.." He didn't say anything in response but he let a comforting silence wash over them.
His kid. She was his kid. He was the only person she had left. Like him, she didn't make friends too well. Maybe he depended on her too. Maybe he depended on the girl with the silver tongue that could be so candid when she wanted to.
Maybe he depended on the kid who met with him everyday for four months and brightened his days spent bound to a bench or a chair.
He depended on the kid who saved her money to spend her first festival with a slow crippled man who had to take seated breaks. The kid who didn't mind sitting down during the most exciting thing in her life.
The girl who didn't care how slow of a pace they moved at, seamlessly adapting to him without a break in her chatter.
His kid. Maybe- Just maybe he depended on his brat as much as she depended on him.
But it wasn't supposed to be like this.
🌺|"Kaia...!?"|🌺
Greenish blue eyes widened as in the distance an eerily familiar wall stood, out looking the sand they trotted through. A small object fell from the top of the wall and his heart stopped when he saw a flurry of pink and a flash of lightning.
A titan with short strawberry icecream colored hair stood at the bottom of the wall. He wanted to cry but he was in too much of a shock because he couldn't comprehend that his kid was a titan.
"What's your greatest fear?"
"Turning into a titan hands down. I'd be imprisoned in my own body."
It hurt that he couldn't do a thing. That he couldn't save the kid who saved him. "Eren..." Mikasa's voice was barely heard over the roaring blood in his ears. A choked sob left his throat and he couldn't even register the tears that blurred his vision.
A better reaction then the one he had when Sasha died at least. "Eren..." God the sight of her as a titan was burned into his mind like a branding.
"We have to kill her. We can't leave her like this.." He could faintly hear Hange muttering to herself just a bit ahead of him.
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
"Pffft Mr. Kruger you're an asshole!" She laughed, staring down at the offending object.
"Yeah yeah. You're just slow." He responded nonchalantly, forcing down a smile.
"You threw a fucking carrot at me." Her face and voice were a deadpan as she looked him like he was stupid.
Maybe he was stupid for getting attached like this.
"...I told you to think fast."
She was supposed to let him die or figure things out on his own. She was supposed to be selfish as most children were. She wasn't supposed to give her life for his so readily when he would already be leading such a short life. Maybe keeping her alive for at least four more years was a pipe dream. Maybe he was delusional.
Maybe he was stupid for getting attached like this.
"Eren..."
"Give me back my crutch you brat." She really took his crutch. She was getting a little too comfortable doing shit like this.
"Then stop hitting me with it, old man. I know you get tired of sitting on your ass all day but it's not this young whippersnappers fault." Whippersnapper? Who the fu—Ok.
"I'll stop if you stop being so damn mean." He responded ignoring the weird word she just used.
"Wasn't my fault he rolled down into a ditch." He rolled his eye so he wouldn't snort at her wording.
"You weren't supposed to laugh though." Who was he to judge what she laughed at when he would laugh too? Hypocrite things.
"Oh so, you're my moral compass now?" She would not want that he looked to the other side as he thought that. No, she wouldn't.
"Is that an insult?"
"I don't know, is it?" He rolled his eye at her response again. Her responses never failed to keep him entertained.
"Here. Not like you're going anywhere though." She said as she put his crutch into his waiting hand. "What happened to the sweet shy kid I first met?"
She looked at him like he was delusional, "Sweet? Shy? You must mean Falco. He's still around." Wow.
"Eren...Wake up."
Tears clouded his vision as he made his way up to the pink haired humanoid in his ODM gear. She-It didn't move except for those golden eyes watching his every move.
As he moved up to its shoulders it's mouth moved to form words, "Mi...ste...rrrr......Krrrr....uuuggg..eerr."
Swords posed to strike the nape like he's done so many times before, he said some words only she needed to hear. "I saw you as my kid, you know?"
Then he struck the nape, 1 meter wide and 10 centimeters deep. And she fell.
🌺|"Who's kaia..?"|🌺
"Eren!" He jolted up, looking around wildly. He caught sight of familiar black hair and, for some reason, felt disappointed it wasn't pink.
"Why are you crying, Eren?" His sister hovered around him like a bird. He let it happen this time, like his soul needed the comfort and his attitude was on the back burner.
"Something bad happened in my dream...I don't-I don't remember." He couldn't remember but he could feel the impression of pain like it happened yesterday.
Mikasa didn't say anything after that. Just rubbed his shoulder consolingly and went off to hand him a crate to carry the wood. Glancing down at his leg, he was surprised to be surprised that it was still there.
"Who's Kaia..?" He whispered under his breath as he pressed a fingertip to his tear stained cheeks.
🌺| "So, you're Kaia."|🌺
Pink hair caught his attention and the sight was so viscerally familiar, it almost took his breath away.
"Your hair's an interesting color. Is it natural?" His mouth was moving before he even processed the words leaving it.
"What's it to you?" The kid barked back, hard golden eyes glaring and lips pulled into a scowl. His heart pounded and his head spun with major deja vu.
"Rather eye catching, that's all." He wouldn't allow history to repeat itself. Not this time. Not her.