So, writing Free from the Dead sort of inspired this one and JeanMarco being the otp of otps for me just sorta sealed the deal. Hope you enjoy the prologue!
And thanks to my best friend for coming up with the title for me! Thank you heicchous!
"Armin!"
Armin took his eyes off the ground and saw Eren running towards him. He gave Eren a small smile once he caught up and sighed, "You know I can walk back to MARIA on my own, you don't have to come pick me up every day."
"What do you mean I don't have to come?" Eren asked. He lightly bumped Armin's shoulder with his own, "Who's going to fight all the bullies away?" Scratching the back of his head he apologetically added, "Sorry I'm late. I just went to see mom."
"It's okay. I hope she's getting better," Armin said. He laughed lightly, "And Mikasa always fought them away, but good try."
"Oh, whatever. I just feel like you're working yourself pretty hard, what with military training in the morning and that medical program you entered in the afternoon." Eren looked over to where he knew the Mie Prefectural Shima Hospital stood. "I've gotta keep an eye on you," Eren continued, "by the way, mom's doing well. Doctor said she'd be getting crutches next week. Who knew falling down a flight of stairs could get you that hurt, right?" Eren shrugged, turning back to Armin. "Hey, what's wrong?" Eren asked, stopping Armin when he saw how upset he looked.
Armin had begun gripping his bag's strap until his knuckle turned white. Eren could see that he was trying really hard to keep up appearances, but underneath it all Armin seemed really shaken up. He glanced at Eren before turning away and taking a deep breath. "It was just…a patient at the hospital."
Eren didn't know whether he should pry but Armin was the one who always told him that it was best to talk out his feelings, so he asked, "What happened?"
"He passed away, about 20 minutes ago." Armin gripped his bag tighter.
"You don't have to tell me the whole thing if you don't want to," Eren said, not wanting to make Armin feel worse by talking about what happened.
"I-it's okay. Really," Armin looked up at the clouds tinted pink by the setting sun, "He died of blood loss. We tried to stitch up his wound, but he was losing so much blood." He wrapped his left arm around himself, "We even gave him a blood transfusion. I should know, I'm the one they sent to the blood room to get the blood. AB +. But he still died." He kicked a small stone in his path. "There've been a couple of our patients who died of blood loss today. I wasn't there for the other ones, just for this one. But it still really…" Armin trailed off with a small sigh.
Eren wasn't the best at comforting others. Words weren't his forte. So Eren did the only thing he knew to do. He held Armin's hand. He tentatively reached out as they continued to walk and slipped his fingers in between Armin's, and when he felt the way Armin held him like a lifeline, he knew he'd done the right thing.
They hadn't held hands in a really long time, only doing it whenever either of them was really upset. It had begun when they were children and other kids would ruthlessly pick on Armin for being smart and relatively small. Mikasa would take care of the bullies and Eren would hold Armin's hand until his tears subsided into sniffles and hiccups. Then Armin began to use the same technique whenever Eren would get really upset for whatever reason. Once they joined the Military Accelerated Regiment Institutional Academy (MARIA for short) about a year ago, they stopped comforting each other that way. However, Eren felt a complete sense of peace whenever he held Armin's hand. As if the brewing storm clouds in his mind parted and allowed him to think with a clear mind.
He looked over at Armin and saw him still pointedly staring at the ground. Eren rubbed soothing circles with his thumb along Armin's hand. Armin peeked up at him, his blond bangs falling over his storm blue eyes. Eren gave Armin's hand a squeeze. "Don't worry, I'm right here. I'm here for you," Eren reassured.
Armin gave him a teary-eyed smile.
"Eren," a voice rang out from down the road, "you have to start locking the door to your room." Mikasa began scolding Eren in her usual monotone as she approached the two. She glanced down at their interlocked hands but didn't say anything. "How's mom?"
"She's great," Eren replied a bit preoccupied, still worried about Armin.
Mikasa came to walk beside Armin as they continued down the street. "How was the hospital?" she asked.
"It was good, yeah," Armin lied, wiping his eyes with his right hand. Mikasa saw him try to hide that he was upset but only glanced up at Eren. Eren shook his head infinitesimally, in a gesture of Don't ask right now, I'll tell you later. Mikasa shrugged and pulled up her scarf as a particularly cold breeze blew past.
"Weird, it still being so cold even though we're in the spring time," Eren pointed out, changing the subject.
"You're right," Armin agreed. "Apparently we might even get rain these next few days."
They'd arrived at MARIA then, going through the high gates which had a stone sentinel holding an upraised sword standing on each side, MARIA's signature icon – the woman with the crown and sword. The grounds seemed pretty empty which was probably due to the weather and due to the fact that it was Friday. Some of the 104th went home for the Spring holiday, opting to spend their two weeks off with their families. A handful of the 104th decided to stay at MARIA, not really seeing a point in leaving for such a small amount of time and instead choosing to wait another month and a half until they get a longer break for summer. Others were only off campus and hanging out in town, whilst the rest were probably at the boy's dorm's common room since Connie and Sasha had extended an invitation to all of the remaining 104th to come and have a Super Smash Bros Brawl tournament.
"We gonna go to the tournament or what?" Eren asked.
"What, so you can get your butt kicked?" Armin smiled.
Eren flushed a bit, "No, this time I'm going to make sure a put up a fight. Plus, it's only a game." Eren huffed a little feeling affronted that Armin didn't believe in him.
Armin only laughed. "Yeah, we'll go. Can we just stop by our room to drop off my things?"
"Yeah, alrite."
They quickly shuffled into the boys' dorm and out of the biting cold that had begun to nip at any of their exposed skin and were hit by a wave of delicious smells.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention, Sasha cooked for us," Mikasa commented, even though Armin and Eren already seemed to notice. No one cooked as deliciously as Sasha, except for maybe Jean – and that was only on a good day. "Shadis gave her special permission to us the kitchens today."
Eren grinned. "Lemme guess – she made him herb roast lamb chops?"
"And she made Hannes tacos de carne asada so that he'd help her soften up Shadis."
"Sasha really does cover all the bases," Armin mused walking up the stairs with the others close behind.
Eren and Armin's room was on the 2nd floor, in between Marco and Jean and Reiner and Bertholdt's rooms. Armin put his bag away and then they left to the common room on the ground floor.
"Jaeger, you ready to get owned?" Jean called out as soon as he saw the three walk into the lobby.
"Nah, but I think you are," Eren smirked.
Jean seemed to want to call out another retort but was interrupted by Marco, "Come sit over here – there's some empty seats left."
Actually, the empty seats Marco pointed out where the only seats left. Surprisingly, all the 104th members who hadn't left to see their families were all crowded in the common room. It was probably the prospect of Sasha's incredible cooking that had lured them all to the tournament.
Armin sat beside Jean and Marco on one of the couches and Eren and Mikasa sat on the ground right in front of them. Mikasa quickly made herself comfortable and leaned against Marco's legs, something which Marco allowed without complaint. Eren tried the same with Jean but instead received a jab in the ribs and a flick on the ear.
"You could've only said no," Eren mumbled, rubbing his red ear.
"That wouldn't've been as fun," Jean shrugged.
Just then a list came around for those who wanted to participate in the tournament. Everyone signed up except for Armin and Mina, who decided to just watch.
"Okay!" Sasha clapped, drawing everyone's attention to the front of the room and away from their chatter and the food that was laid out in the back. "The tournament's about to start – it'll be the initial two person death round, with four players fighting each other. The two who have the lowest scores are out. After that it'll be one-on-one's, until we finally have the winner!"
Connie brought over the list and a pen and began scribbling on a blank sheet of paper. He held up the tournament outline, with 11 boxes, the outermost filled in with four names each. "So there'll be 11 rounds. Each round lasts 10 minutes. Top two players in these first four rounds advance, the other two are eliminated. Your character choice will be what you stick with for the rest of the tournament." He turned on the flat screen TV to show it already on the character choice screen. "Mikasa, Eren, Jean, Marco," he tossed a Wii remote to each one, "you're up first!"
Marco and Mikasa quickly chose their character – Pikachu and Zelda, respectively.
"You're going Sheik aren't you?" Armin stage whispered. Mikasa gave him a wry smile.
Jean immediately chose Link and smirked over at Eren, "You are sooooo going down."
"I don't think so," Eren countered, choosing Pit.
They chose a random stage and their characters all materialized within the Temple as the countdown began. Then…
"FIGHT!" The voice rang out.
Link immediately bee lined for Pit hopping over a few obstacles before reaching his target and dealing a dash attack.
Pit dodged, hopping backwards before dealing Link 12% damage by slashing at his feet.
Slashing forward, Link managed to push Pit back, before knocking him to the ground with his shield and hitting him with the hilt of his sword. Pit bounced back on his feet, flying high into the air before coming down hard on Link, sending him flying offscreen.
"What the fuck, Jaeger? How the hell'd that happen so fast?" Jean muttered, turning to glare at Eren.
"Must be skill," Eren smirked.
"If that's how it's going to be then," Jean huffed as Link reappeared on screen.
As soon as Link touched the ground he was on Pit like a ravenous dog on a hunk of bloody meat. He slashed left, right, and center, tossing Pit this way and that. Pit managed to get away, only to be hauled back when Link yanked him back with his chain.
"How do you like that," Jean grinned, delivering the decisive blow. He smacked Pit with his shield and sent him off screen.
"Jean, that was low," Eren fumed.
"Not as low as your skill," Jean retorted.
They continued on like that, slashing and stabbing, kicking and punching, sending each other off screen with infuriating little comments until the match ended.
"How's defeat feel, Jaeger?" Jean smirked from the couch as the match ended and the game buffered before delivering the results.
"I don't know, why don't you tell me Jea…" Eren's words died in his mouth as everyone stared at the TV.
Sheik was standing at the forefront of the fighters, followed by a clapping Pikachu, who stood in front of a begrudging Link and Pit who stood side by side.
Mikasa had gotten first place, Marco second, and Jean and Eren had tied for third.
There were the stifled giggles and laughs as everyone realized that the two most competitive people were out of the tournament.
"Well…I guess Eren and Jean are out," Sasha declared, fighting her laughter with a tough straight face.
"What were you saying Eren? About you putting up a fight?" Armin giggled as the group passed their controllers down to the next players.
"I'm gonna grab something to eat," Eren mumbled.
"Same," Jean grumbled, getting off the couch and following Eren to the snack table.
Eren and Jean awkwardly scooped the Italian themed food and bakery sweets onto their dishes side by side until Jean blurted out, "That was a – good game, Jaeger."
"Yeah, same goes for you, Jean," Eren grinned, feeling the tension of the situation melt.
"But don't think I'm going to go that easy on you next time," Jean commented, adding a few brownies to his plate.
Eren rolled his eyes, "Mmhmm. I'm counting on it."
By the time they got back to the group the second match was already over, revealing that Reiner and Bertholdt had gotten eliminated by Annie and Ymir.
"Here," Eren gave a plate to Mikasa and to Armin, "I hope I got what you like."
Armin took a bite of garlic bread. "Mmm, Sasha you never disappoint!"
"Thanks Armin!" Sasha exclaimed, turning away from the TV long enough to shoot Armin a smile before going back to trying to swallow Connie's Squirtle with Kirby.
"You like sugary stuff, right?" Jean asked, handing Marco a plate laden with cookies and brownies and the occasional Italian food item from behind the couch as he came to reclaim his seat beside his best friend.
"Mmmhm, thanks Jean!" Marco beamed, taking a bite out of a brownie.
Mikasa regarded the cookie she was holding and nibbled on it a little. "Victory sure does taste sweet, right Marco?"
"Yeah, I agree with you Mikasa," Marco laughed, taking another bite of his brownie.
"Last time I'm getting you your food," Jean muttered under his breath.
Marco bumped his shoulder to Jean's playfully, "Aw, c'mon Jean. I'm only messing."
"Yeah, uh-huh," Jean mumbled, eating one of his pizza muffins.
"Don't be like that Jean! C'mon, let's see a smile," Marco smiled mischievously, taking advantage of Jean exposed position as he ate and running his fingers across his side.
Jean jumped about three feet in the air. "Ay, what the hell Marco! That tickles!"
"Kinda the point," Marco smirked, and began motioning to Jean as if he were going to tickle him again.
"Alrite, alrite already – I'm smiling! See!" Jean forced a smile onto his face that looked much more like a painful grimace that made Marco laugh which then brought out a genuine smile from Jean.
The tournament carried on without a hitch (and without any more sore losers). The final match was fought between Annie and Mikasa and was a grueling 10 minute long battle which ended with Mikasa's Sheik overcoming Annie's Samus, earning Mikasa the title of "The 104th's Super Smash Queen".
It had just begun to get dark out, and the group was still in the video game competition mood, so Connie hooked up his Wii U. "How would you guys like to race a few rounds of Mario Kart 8?"
"You're so on!" Sasha grinned, taking a remote and plopping down on the couch once again.
A handful of the 104th had retired to their rooms after the Super Smash tournament, which only left Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Ymir, Christa, Sasha, Connie, Marco, Jean, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin in the common room. They all engaged in playful races trying to see if they could get through all the circuits before someone got tired and quit.
"Beat you fair and square, Jaeger!"
"That was a dirty trick, Jean, and you know it!"
"Pardon me, but since when is using a Mushroom at the last minute a dirty trick?"
It was almost midnight and the teens had begun to hold one-on-one races amongst the group and were just amusing themselves by watching Jean and Eren bickering when Shadis and Hannes walked into the common room.
"Oh, hey Hannes! Hey Shadis! How'd you like the food?" Sasha smiled from where she was sprawled on the ground.
"It was delicious, Blouse." Sasha's cooking always put Shadis in a good mood, but today he seemed more serious than usual.
Armin could sense something off immediately. "What's wrong?"
Shadis and Hannes (who had been fidgeting with his hands nervously) exchanged a solemn glance. It was Shadis who spoke. "We'll tell you as soon as you're all here in the common room. It's best to tell you all at once."
The group could feel that this was their cue to go round up the other trainees, so a few detatched themselves from the group (Mikasa and Sasha and Marco and Bertholdt) and went either upstairs to the guys' rooms or next door to the girls' dorms.
Everyone once again found themselves in the dorm room, some a little disheveled and groggy from having been woken up from sleep, and other's looking grim and worried. Shadis and Hannes stood before the group as they waited for them to settle down.
Hannes began first. "First of all, we don't want you to worry – MARIA is the safest place in town, so you really have no reason to worry – "
"Worry about what?" someone called out, prompting a nervous chatter to break out here and there.
"What Hannes is trying to say," Shadis continued, effectively quieting down the group with his commanding voice, "is that word has reached us from our superiors that an epidemic has begun to spread throughout Japan. The first recorded cases occurred only a few hours ago. The virus spreads from contact with those who are infected. As of right now, no case has occurred in Shima, but we've been told to evacuate the population and send them to Tokyo, where they will then be flown to an ally country that has opened its doors to our refugees. But there is no need to panic-"
"'No need to panic'," Jean scoffed, "you come here at midnight and tell us some crazy disease has infected Japan, that Japanese citizens are being evacuated from the country and you think there's no need to panic?"
"Yeah, what does the disease even do?" Connie asked.
Hannes and Shadis shared another quick look as Shadis carried on, "We aren't allowed to disclose that information to anyone."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"How serious is this?"
"What are we going to do?"
"HEY!" Eren shouted over the multitude of voices that had begun to ring out after Shadis's final comment. They all turned to look at him. "From what little info they're able to give us," he nodded over at Shadis and Hannes, "we know it's serious – that's all that really matters. Now, we've been training for a couple of years so we should know how to act during a situation like this." He looked around at his fellow comrades. "We have to help evacuate everyone."
"Whoa, Jaeger Bombastic. Thanks for calming down the masses but, I said 'we'," Shadis pointed at himself then at Hannes, "for a reason. You said it yourself – you've only been training. We can't risk you out there. The police force will help us. Just stay put. Like Hannes said earlier, it's safe here. So, stay here."
"But-"
"No, buts. You're all staying here. We'll be out in the main office, outlining evacuation routes." Shadis put on his jacket's hood and left the dorm for the main office without waiting for anyone to make any complaints.
Hannes looked at the scared teens. "We'll be out and helping evacuate people in our jeeps after we finish with the routes." He lowered his voice slightly, "I've been sworn to secrecy but…" He seemed to be about to tell them what was really going on but decided against it, "just trust us. You'll be safe here. All we're allowed to tell you is that virus is deadly and…" he seemed to fight with himself slightly before quickly adding, "it doesn't just stop once you're dead." Hannes then mimicked Shadis: he put on his hood and began to walk out towards the exit to then go to the main office.
"Wait, what does that mean?" Armin called out, stopping Hannes at the door.
"I can't tell you," Hannes answered, shaking his head, finally stepping out and getting enveloped by the night.
How was it? Should I keep it going? If I do, I'll probably put up a new chapter every month - so, see you next month!
Btw, I hope you guys caught the reference to the Attack on Titan Abridged video !
PS, that whole Eren-and-Armin-holding-hands scene was inspired by this post/84525124863/i-have-this-headcanon-when-they-were-kids-and
head canon, so yeah. Anyways, hope you liked the chapter!