AN: This was for Eremika on tumblr.
Heartbeat
He's talking in his sleep again. The syllables are barely audible although a few words can be made out through his tiresome slur. Even so, Mikasa doesn't care to repeat them, her hands only slide across the covers encasing his, and she runs her thumb lightly over his skin.
She can't remember when he started becoming this warm. Anymore rise in temperature and she was sure he could exhale steam. But somehow, he's gentle, calm—human. This dreamlike state being one of the many reassurances of that fact, and she would defend it to her last breath.
An hour passes, and her eyes begin to flutter closed, but she resists. Since their return from beyond this humiliating cage, she feels as though he is never constant, and if she turns a blind eye for the smallest second he would disappear again.
It's been another hour, maybe three, but he stirs, the turquoise shifting half lidded until he meets the ashen hue of hers.
"—Mikasa?"
"Walk with me."
It takes a moment, and she can hear his bones creak as he moves. The bandages on his head need to be changed, but Mikasa isn't ready for his complaints, so she slips a hand to the small of his back and pushes him through the door with a bit of force.
Eren never looks up. She knows he's still beating himself up relentlessly over their deaths, and part of her wishes to shove him into the nearest wall and scream that he doesn't deserve the guilt. But instead, she blinks, watching their boots slide across the gravel, accumulating new scuffs and scrapes that erode the blood, and feeling the ache of their muscles from the various belts that had dug into their skin.
"I haven't spoken with him."
"—he doesn't blame you. He gave you the choice, and he knew the risks."
While the Lance Corporal could hold his tongue through a bitter gaze, it certainly wasn't out of resentment for humanity's new weapon. No, it seemed, through his focused onyx that he only blamed the hell they inhabited.
"The risks killed everyone, Mik—"
"Eren." She stops, her hand reaching for the hem of his sleeve and giving it a light tug. "They believed in you—and you, them. The odds, were always calculated, never constant. There is no blame other than the beast that caused this."
Her eyes remained focused, calm, but Eren can note the animosity in them. So he furrows his brow, matching the anger more prominently with her own, "—I..am.."
"You're not." Her hand falls, before trailing up, resting just left of the center of his chest. She can feel the rise and fall of the palpitations, how they flutter and quicken as her fingers graze the fabric just above his skin. "Monsters, don't have humanity like this.." She breathes, pressing her palm firmly to his chest. "Compassion, determination, a purpose. Things most of no longer care to hold. And yet—"
Before she can continue, his hand has encircled hers, lightly pulling it from his chest, before resting her fingers right over her own pulse. "You feel that, Mikasa?"
She only nods, spreading her fingers out over the white fabric and buttons.
"That's purpose. More than anything. You worry about that first."
"—Eren."
"Before anything."
Her gaze falls, fixating on her boots.
Almost too lighthearted Eren finds the hem of her scarf, before brushing the loose ends against her nose and springing up the rarily observed scarlet just below her lash line.
"Oi, Eren.." her head picks up but he won't meet her gaze, instead his weight shifts, carrying him across the gravel.
"Walk with me."