Pain. So much pain.

Blood surrounded the crumpled heap, spreading into a grotesque puddle.

Just another mission. Not one of particular significance; a typical run outside the walls for the scouting legion. Another small mission to prepare the newest additions for what will soon be their everyday reality. Eren and the others had already been on several such runs. But for some reason, this one was different. Somewhere along the line, things had gone horridly wrong. Not that missions outside the wall typically went well, because they simply didn't, and there were always casualties, but normally the good at least balanced out the bad somewhat.

Today was different, indeed.

The formation fell apart more quickly than usual. To this day, no one is really quite sure what the leading factor was. It could have been the cluster of titans the frontline ran into immediately. It could have been a single misstep by one scout. The titans all appeared larger than normal. There were less 3-4 meter class and more 15 meter class titans, causing more trouble for Eren. Eren was to use his titan power to his fullest, and kill as many titans as possible while in titan form. Rivaille had made it quite clear that his handpicked selection of elites would protect him at all costs.

A majority of titans was clustered near the entrance of the forest. Rivaille, at this point, (almost) trusted Eren to the point of allowing him to stay near the forest entrance, and fighting the titans clustered there. This was by far the most significant amount of trust he had shown towards the reckless younger scout.

Eren still had a difficult time consciously controlling himself as a titan. He still, more often than not, lost himself to his constantly burning anger. The elites had long since gotten use to this and adjusted their techniques to protect Eren while still keeping a safe distance. Although nobody questioned Rivaille outwardly, most troops questioned his confidence in Eren and could not understand his thought process in always making Eren a top priority. Yes, he was a beacon of hope for mankind, but he simply was not where he needed to be as an efficient fighter for mankind.

Eren found himself oddly elated at Rivaille's obvious (more so than intended) display of trust and was particularly enthusiastic to destroy titans that day. He fought with ease in the beginning; however, his eventual downfall was that enthusiasm. He overexerted himself eventually.

It would have been fine, but there were way too many titans. They were drawn to Eren due to his human scent even though he harnessed the body of a titan. The elites had their hands more than full. Somewhere along the process, they lost sight of Eren and Eren lost sight of them. If the formation hadn't been in such disarray, the command to pull back would have probably been sent.

Too much.

Inevitably, Eren lost himself. There was too much to do. Too much to focus on. He had to fight, and that was it. He had to destroy all titans. Every last one of them.

Kill them. Kill them all.

Eren was no longer controlling his titan consciously. His rate of fighting increased, but so did his rate of injury. He did manage to destroy many titans.

Corporal Rivaille was nowhere to be found. At least, nowhere near Eren.

Two of four elites protecting Eren lost their lives at this point.

Eren continued fighting with everything he had. A 4 meter class titan was latched onto his leg.

A few minutes later. The titans were harder to keep away.

Rivaille killed a 7 meter class titan in one sweeping motion. Aware of every battle going on except for Eren's.

So many titans.

Another elite lost their life trying to protect their comrade. One left on Eren's protection force.

Madness all around.

This was supposed to be a simple mission.

A punch. A kick to a titan's weak spot by Eren.

Too many battles were ending badly.

Eventually, a piercing shriek that shook the whole forest. One titan was laying on the ground in complete agony, and that titan was Eren.

The titans were all over him.

The remaining elite was able to lead some away, and kill one or two of them.

Suddenly, the forest was quiet. There were no titans within eyesight from where Eren was.

Eren was nothing but a crumpled heap. He wavered in and out of consciousness, as blood pooled under his body. The elite troop came back and gasped in shock at the sight of Eren. He was torn to shreds. So much strain had been put on his titan body that several wounds made by the titans had made it to Eren's human flesh. Eren's eyes were open slightly and he feebly coughed up a trail of blood. The elite was already gone, racing off on his horse to find Corporal Rivaille.

I can't die. Not like this. I'll wait here. I will not die. Corporal Rivaille will come and I will survive.

Strange that Corporal was the first person to come to Eren's mind. Not Mikasa, who was the closest thing he had to family. Not Armin, who he would protect with his life. No, it was Corporal, the person who had treated him like shit since they had met. The person who had beat him up in the court room within Wall Shina.

However, Corporal somehow made him feel alive. Eren hadn't exactly seen a "soft side" to Rivaille but he had seen some of his less harsh moments. Because once in a while, Rivaille managed to lighten his tone while speaking with Eren. He had also confided in Eren what he didn't even confide in his hand-picked elites. Their relationship seemed to be based on hatred, but there was more to it than that.

With these thoughts swimming through his hazy mind, Eren allowed his eyes to close completely. And with that, he lost consciousness.

-x-

The elite troop had been unable to believe his eyes. He hadn't realized that it was actually possible for Eren to be injured so severely while still in his titan body. The sight was definitely not pretty. Once the elite gained his composure, he hopped on his horse (who was very lucky to not have been injured while the elite was away) and raced to Corporal. Finding Rivaille was a shot in the dark, especially with the lack of structure with the formation. It was safe to say this mission was failing. The elite could only hope that he could track down Corporal in enough time to save Eren.

-x-

Rivaille was fighting as brilliantly as ever. His kills that day were many, which was to be expected. He had fought off all of the titans in an immediate radius of him and found himself wondering how Eren was managing. The little brat's probably lost it by now. I should probably go begin fixing whatever damage the damn dog has managed to cause by now.

He turned to face the direction he had sent Eren, and was confronted with the sight of one of his elites hurtling towards him. It was obvious that whatever news he carried was extremely urgent. Since the elite was closing in on Rivaille, he chose to stay where he was and wait to hear whatever failure to the mission had happened now.

-x-

"Corporal! Come with me! Quick! It's Eren, he's going to die if we don't do something!" the elite shouted. He thought he saw Rivaille's eyes widen slightly, very slightly but figured it was just his imagination. In an instant, Rivaille was on his horse and following the elite. The elite felt bad for having left Eren instead of bringing him, but moving him quickly was going to be complicated and it was better this way. He had sent a couple of scouts that he had found on his way to find Rivaille to protect Eren; hopefully they had found Eren before any more misfortune could befall him. For now, this was all he could do.

-x-

Naturally, Rivaille had been able to keep almost perfect composure, as he always could. However, on the inside countless thoughts were running through his mind. So it had been the wrong choice to trust the brat after all. Nobody could ever guess what outcomes could come of a choice, and Rivaille knew that better than anybody. He had just hoped that the little piece of shit would be able to pull off something larger scale by himself for once. Apparently that was expecting too much of him.

Although, his view on Eren was rather complex.

Publicly, Rivaille regarded Eren as a filthy dog, which part of Rivaille believed to be true. Because Eren was just a filthy dog. But at the same time he wasn't. Part of Rivaille realized that Eren had become an important part of his life. Not that he would ever allow anybody to know that – especially not Eren. Eren's determination was stronger than anyone else's that Rivaille had ever met. However, the kid always seemed to make horrid choices and couldn't control his anger to save his life. In the end, Rivaille couldn't determine what exactly it was he saw to be decent in Eren other than his determination.

He did, however, know that he couldn't let Eren die. No, definitely not. He couldn't imagine Eren being dead. That just wasn't an outcome that could happen.

He refused to let Eren die, and that's all there was to it.

-x-

Once Rivaille was within sight of Eren, he sped ahead of the elite troop, and arrived long before his elite. Rivaille dismounted his horse, leaping lightly off of it. He had known Eren was in terrible condition. Rivaille had seen countless gory scenes in his life but this was one that would stay with him. Eren, having titan power, was able to regenerate himself whenever he was injured. In any other case, he should have been almost completely healed by now. Instead, Rivaille found a gruesome heap that was almost impossible to identify as Eren.

As the elite troop caught up, Rivaille turned to him and commanded him to send the retreat signal, allowing everyone else to return to the safety of the wall. He sent the two troops had been guarding Eren with the elite troop. This left him alone with the near-dead Eren. Once he knew the others were away he knelt beside Eren, and tried to make sense of the mangled body in front of him. Although the younger was bigger than Rivaille, he suddenly seemed tiny. Rivaille grabbed Eren and hoisted him onto his lap to examine his wounds.

Eren was still unconscious.

Rivaille was always in control of every situation, but he could feel the slightest feeling of panic rise within him as he examined Eren. Giant slashes were gushing blood in several places and if Eren had been a normal human, he would have been long dead. As it was, it was a close call. Way too close of a call for comfort. The only signs that the boy was alive was his faint pulse.

The forest was silent. It was almost nightfall. There were no titans to be found in this part of the forest. Rivaille pressed on the two worst wounds to help stop the bleeding, to speed up Eren's regenerative process. Surprisingly, this helped quite a bit. Eren was motionless throughout everything. As regeneration finally begun (although at a very slow rate) Rivaille found himself smoothing down a stray bit of Eren's hair, which was slick with sweat.

That was too close for comfort, you could have died, you ignorant piece of shit. Rivaille thought as he passed a few more minutes simply holding Eren, waiting for the wounds to be healed enough to move him.

Eren's eyes opened slightly, and stared up slightly at Rivaille. He was too weak to say anything, but there was definite relief in his eyes at the sight of Rivaille. What was more; Rivaille wasn't just sitting a couple feet away from him, eyeing him with scorn. No, Eren could feel Rivaille around him. He was in Rivaille's arms, and he was in no hurry to change that.

Rivaille soon noticed that Eren had gained consciousness, mostly due to Eren's raspy breathing steadying out a bit. Relief flooded through Rivaille and he let out the breath he hadn't even been aware he had been holding.

"You fucking brat, making me fix everything you destroy yet again."

Eren looked up and smiled slightly, as much as his weakened state would allow him.

Naturally, Rivaille didn't smile back, but he did have a feeling that was the closest to happiness that he could muster.

"Don't give me that. We're going back and if you think I'm going to treat you all nice and softly you're dead fucking wrong, dog."

Eren continued his little smile and closed his eyes, leaning in to Rivaille. Rivaille didn't tense up, for once, and instead just got up, Eren still in his arms, and mounted his horse. Because they were going home, and as soon as Eren was in a physically stable state he was going to receive a very severe talk from none other than Corporal Rivaille, who cared about Eren Jaeger than he would ever care to admit.

-x-

Yes, I do feel alive with you around, Corporal. And I'm relieved that I managed to wait for you, in my time of dying.