Mikasa POV
Eren.
She...she had to find Eren...
He...he had to help Armin...
Armin...
The guards had let her go after they had brought away her unconscious friend. And even though every cell in her body screamed at her to follow him, she knew that Armin would want her to search for her brother.
She stumbled through the dark, scratches from bushes and branches adorning her skin. Mikasa didn't dare to shout for Eren. There could still be guards around and they could never find Eren. This time she wouldn't hesitate to show what she was capable of if it meant that she could protect her brother.
"Eren...", she whispered, brushing her dark hair aside. She turned her head, facing the trees that grew in the forest close to the palace. If Eren had tried to escape, he could have landed there. Without knowing how to work with those wings, he surely couldn't have gotten any further.
Her feet carried her over the grass, the moon following her movements like it was trying to gift her with more energy. She inhaled deeply, forcing herself to run faster and faster and faster.
The trees became bigger, their crowns as giant and full of dark life as she remembered it.
She looked around herself, wanting to make out any enemy that could have followed her. But when there was no sound, no movement – no enemy, she started running again, deeper into the forest.
Deeper to wherever Eren had managed to land.
Eren...
- - -
Erwin POV
"How is he?" Marie's concerned voice was near his ear and he knew she was standing beside him, for he felt her soft hand on his shoulder.
"Still unconscious. But he should wake up soon."
The woman hummed, curling a strand of her hair around her finger.
"Promise me you will go easy on him?"
"He is suspected to have contact to the second prince. That would make him out to be the enemy after King Grisha's order.", Erwin answered quietly. "I have to do my job."
"Your job isn't to scare those young people, darling.", Marie said and smiled down at him, placing a kiss where his hair parted. "You are to find out what they know. Nothing more."
He sighed. Technically she was right. But he knew that Grisha wanted to hear a confession. Not about how the boy was feeling. But why was he a suspect in the first place?
"I have to go, Marie.", he said and rose from his mattress. He had lived in this room for nearly five years and it wasn't uncommon of Marie to beg him to come and live with her in a place where they would see each other more often. He understood her wish for contact.
But something...something was always holding him back...
She nodded in understanding and walked over to the window, facing the forests behind it.
Just as Erwin was about to leave, she said: "Can you do me a favor?"
"Everything, Marie. You know that."
"When you're with that servant boy...try to be the man I love. Not the man your king wants you to be."
- - -
The cells in the basement were old and the smell in there not pleasant in the least. Erwin certainly didn't envy the guards down here and walked past them with a hint of an apologetic smile that was met with respectful nods.
To both of his sides people were moaning and begging him to let them out. Their skin was dark from the dirt and the ground inside the cells littered with things Erwin didn't want to name. He ignored their pleads and the grunting around him.
Some of those noises weren't the source of only pain and demise – and watching those criminals getting intimate...he suppressed the shiver that ran down his spine by the thought.
He knew exactly where he had to go.
"I am here to see the suspected ally of the Second Prince of Eldia.", he told the man guarding the door in the darkest corner of the basement in which all the cells were hidden from the common eye.
"As you wish, General."
A second later he was standing inside the room, the door falling shut behind him. It was only thanks to his position and his reputation that he was allowed to interrogate the servant alone. Every other soldier would have to get accompanied by someone to prevent them plotting with the inmates.
The king was trusting him.
Another reason why he had a hard time keeping the promise he gave Marie.
But when his eyes fell on the shivering boy on the ground, hiding in the corners with his arms around his legs, he forgot for a second why he was there in the first place. His hair, which had always been tied together, was falling over his shoulders , framing the face of the servant.
When he noticed Erwin coming closer, he raised his head without meeting his eyes.
"I won't tell you anything.", he mumbled. "I already told them."
Erwin froze, not used to hearing the broken but determined edge in the boy's speech. Only then did he notice the bruises on his arms and cheeks. Blood was running down his skin but Armin didn't so much as wince when he took another step to get a closer look at him.
"Who...was there someone else before me here?"
The boy shrugged his shoulders.
"Some soldiers. They demanded answers from me."
"They had no right to."
That's what got the boy's eyes to find his own. He was surprised to find them narrowed but not as hopeless and desperate as anyone else's would have been.
"I told them and I'm telling you again: I won't talk."
"Because you don't want to or because you don't know anything?"
"I don't know anything. I don't even get why I was chosen as a suspect in the first place."
Erwin knelt down in front of the boy on one knee, watching his reactions closely. He didn't like that Armin appeared to be more scared of his presence than of the cell and the danger he was in.
"Apparently you were seen with the Second Prince."
"That's not possible.", Armin mumbled. "I didn't even expect him to just barge in like that."
The man tilted his head, intrigued by the way the boy was phrasing his sentences.
"So you expected him to do something different?"
Armin bit his lip and pulled his legs closer to his body.
"Everyone did, didn't they?", he answered. "That was the whole point of the ceremony. To make him come back to the palace. I just didn't expect him to be so..."
"Blunt about it?", Erwin ended his sentence with an amused smirk on his mouth. "I didn't either. And yet here we are. When you helped me gather all my papers that time, you already appeared to know a bit more about the royal family's affairs than you liked to admit."
"I know a lot about them because I...I like to read.", Armin whispered and Erwin blinked at the flutter in his chest when he heard the sincere hint in the servant's words. Somehow, Erwin couldn't believe that he would be lying about this. "Books...I like them. And I like knowledge."
Erwin inhaled softly.
How can he be involved with the prince? He isn't even brave enough to fight back, let alone betray the king he is serving.
And yet he wondered...why was he still avoiding Erwin's gaze like the plague?
(Soooooo I'm back with a longer chapter this time! And since I had the time to write again, I will update the second chapter for the day in a few minutes.
So Armin got arrested and Mikasa searches for Armin. What will she find? And will Armin tell Erwin what he wants to hear?
Tell me your thoughts and don't hesitate to coommeeenntt!)