The Little Things
First Night
Come on, let's get going... Back to our home.
There was a gentle knock on the wooden door, too soft for anyone to hear. Creaking open ever so slightly, a thin illuminating stream of light escaped through the small opening and danced around the dimly lit room. Distant voices could be heard coming from the outside world, somewhat muffled and yet, still understandable:
"Oh God, I can't believe this is happening. That poor girl..." It was a woman's voice, drenched with pity and nervousness.
"Yes... Well, she'll be staying with us now. She has already seen too much pain so it's the least we can do for her." This time, it was a man's voice, so serious it sounded. Always so serious...
"But still... Grisha, is... Is it true?" The woman almost hesitated to ask.
"What is it, Carla?"
"What Eren did... Is it really true?"
"He... did what he had to do. Please leave it at that, Carla."
"But... But, Grisha!"
The door closed as quickly as it was opened, the darkness eager to return and fill the entire room. Only silence remained as the two voices faded away into the night. But there was still one voice.
"Hey, are you... Are you still awake?" said the voice. It was from the young boy standing under the cold shadow of the door. His face expressionless but his eyes showed signs of concern.
"Yes. Yes, I am." The girl answered meekly. She spoke in hushed tones, her voice barely audible over the distant murmurings of crickets and other sounds of the night.
The boy simply sighed in response. He was tired- deathly so-, and his body was still sore after what had happened earlier that night. He could still feel the bony fingers of the wretched kidnapper around his neck. Despite his obvious unease, he casually shook it off as if nothing really happened. He knew that the girl was feeling a lot worse than he was.
Carefully making his way to the little bed at the end of the room, the boy tried his best not to make any sudden noises or bump into any of the furniture in his small room. A single window hung over the small bed, letting in a thin beam of moonlight into the room. The light washed over the thick blankets that the girl was hiding under.
"Here, I got you something." He said, in his hands was a curious little cup of pulpy green liquid.
The thick blankets rustled slowly at first before gently sliding off the girl's petite body just a little bit, revealing her long raven-colored hair. Her tear-stained eyes glanced at the young boy standing beside the bed with a grim expression on his face. If it had been just any other night, the girl would've felt a nerve-wracking sense of uncertainty in her stomach like she would always feel whenever she was in a stranger's house, but tonight, she felt nothing.
"My father, he-" The boy said as his fingers nervously fidgeted over the cup's surface, "He made you some medicine to help with the headache." He continued, his voice was almost as serious as his father.
"Okay." The girl simply replied.
She slowly sat up, pushing the blankets halfway down her worn body as she did so. As she turned to face him, her empty eyes met with his turquoise ones in a lasting gaze. The glinting moonlight coming through the scratched window flickered between them like a beacon of sorts in the darkness. The boy did not know what to do, he wasn't even sure of the correct words to say to the quiet girl. What is inside her mind, he wonders. What is she thinking? She seems so distant, so uncaring. Her eyes were emotionless. Barely any life remained in them as she continued to stare at him.
But after what had happened to her, who could blame her for being so... lifeless? "It's a miracle that she can still speak and walk normally after all that she's been through.. It could have been so much worse..." His father had told him on the way back home earlier that same night.
It was almost strange and kind of hard to believe, actually. To think that before this very night, before everything that happened and everything that they did to survive, they did not know each other at all. They were literally complete and total strangers to each other before this particular night. If fate had a twisted sense of humour, he would definitely be laughing right now, finding it hilarious in his own delightfully sick way.
"Here, you need to drink it quickly or it'll taste even worse than it already is..." The boy instructed as he handed over the cup, finally breaking the silence between them.
"Okay, thank you." She muttered a reply. Her hands were icy and lifeless to the touch.
"You're still cold..." The boy was quick to point it out gently, careful not to offend or be intrusive in any way. That was the last thing he needed to do right now.
"Don't worry, I'm fine." She reassured the boy-if that could somehow be considered reassuring-before she edged the cup slightly closer to her mouth. Without even batting an eyelid, she immediately drank the entire cup of strange-looking medicine in one go. The warm, stinging liquid felt like it was burning her throat, but she didn't stop.
As soon as she was done, she suddenly grimaced in pain as she felt a burning sensation in her forehead. Her head was aching painfully as the medicine slowly did its job. But even though the pain would eventually be gone, the bruises would still be there and the scars in her skin would scream, reminding that what had happened that night was very real indeed. It almost felt like someone had stuck a knife in her head as the images of what had happened briefly flashed before her eyes. She couldn't fight it; couldn't help but to remember every single gruesome detail.
She could still remember the thick smell of blood in the room. It was everywhere, on the walls and the floorboards.
She could still feel the coarse rope at her wrists chafing her skin as she laid there on the floor with nothing to accompany her but the cold darkness.
She could still remember the deafening silence that came after the door was opened; after her family was murdered before her very eyes.
She could still remember the look of terror in her mother's eyes as she-
"Hey, are you going to be okay?" The boy asked with a tone of concern in his voice.
"Huh? What?" As suddenly as they had come, the terrible memories were gone. Chased back into the darkness by the soothing voice.
She opened her tired eyes to see the boy still standing beside her bed. Still beside her.
"I said, are you going to be okay?" He asked again, noticing a slight change in her eyes' lifeless expression.
"Yes..." She lied as she tightened her grip around the blankets, wrapping them around her legs.
"Thank you. I feel much better now." She said as she gave the empty cup back to the boy.
"No problem..."
The room fell silent again. Seconds crawled by at an annoyingly slow pace, increasing the awkwardness between the two.
The boy continued to stand beside the bed with the empty cup in his hands. He was not in any hurry to leave. The muffled voices coming from the other room were the only sound to be heard from the outside world, the world beyond the wooden door of the room. The voices sounded distressed. Like they were searching for answers they couldn't find.
"Are your parents... angry?" She suddenly asked, breaking the piercing silence and taking their attention away from the voices outside the door.
"What?"
"Are your parents angry?" She repeated the question, averting her eyes from the boy so that they would not meet his gaze. "That you killed those people?"
"Truth is, I don't really care what they think." The boy did not hesitate with his answer. "The men I killed? They weren't even people any more. Just a bunch of worthless animals in human skin, that's all."
"But aren't you worried-"
"There's nothing more to say about it. They were heartless animals, they were trying to hurt us both and we put an end to it. It's what they deserved. All of it. And it's as simple as that..." he said firmly. The boy made it perfectly clear; he had no regrets for what he'd done.. No second thoughts.
Unsure of what else to say, the girl kept quiet. The silence had returned, much to the boy's annoyance. He felt like he should say something to her, but he just couldn't find the right words in his head. "What should I say? Damn it, this is really getting hopeless!" He screamed inside his head as he just stood there restlessly.
"So, are you going to sleep tonight?" She asked, noticing his growing impatience.
"Oh, uh..." He stammered, slightly surprised with her sudden question.
"Yeah, I'm, uh... I'm going to bed right after this." He answered as he nervously scratched the back of his head.
"Where?"
"Huh?"
"Where are you going to sleep? This is your room, right?"
"Uh..." The boy struggled to answer her question. She was right. This small room was in fact, the boy's very own room and it was never built for two people. There wasn't even enough space for any kind of makeshift bed on the floor, so narrow was the place. But that did not stop him from offering his room to the girl. There wasn't even the faintest hint of hesitation in his voice when he did it. No one was more surprised than the girl when he had gladly given her the room to sleep in for the night.
"Don't worry about me. I'll just sleep somewhere else." He said. He tried to be reassuring but he was never really any good at these kinds of things.
The girl simply nodded. "Thank you..." She said.
"I just wanted to give you the medicine." He added as he nervously tightened his grip on the empty cup. "It's supposed to help you sleep and give you plenty of rest."
"I still can't sleep." The girl muttered.
"Why? What's the matter?"
"I'm... It's nothing. I'm just not sleepy right now, that's all." She answered, pulling the blankets over her head.
"Are you still cold?" The boy asked, still remembering her words from back at the cabin.
"...Don't worry, the blankets are fine. Thank you." She said as she slowly laid back down on the bed and gently wrapped herself with the rough blankets. Every single movement she made caused a screech to emanate from the creaky wooden frame of the bed.
"Goodnight." The girl softly whispered from under the blankets. Her entire face was covered by the blanket, with the exception of her still gazing eyes.
"Yeah, you too..."
Well, maybe it really was time for bed. It was getting pretty late, after all. But the boy was still hesitant to leave, partly due to the fact that his parents were still outside but mostly because he still felt like he could have done something else, something much more than just... this. He didn't feel like he had helped at all. He felt useless instead. And how he always hated feeling useless.
The boy took his sweet time leaving the room, slowly dragging his heavy feet towards the nearby door. He could still hear his parents talking outside. He tried his best not to think about what they were discussing. He kept telling himself that what he did was the right thing. He just didn't want to look into the judging and worried eyes of his father or his mother, at least just for tonight. Maybe tomorrow would be different, maybe not.
"Wait..." A sudden thought struck him just as he was about to leave the room. His jaded eyes lit up as he finally noticed something that was out of place with the whole scene. Something that was strangely missing. Something that hadn't been seen or mentioned at all since he first entered the room.
"Hey, where's your scarf?" The boy immediately exclaimed, breaking the silence...
"It's... On the table. Why?" The girl answered quickly. There was a hint of confusion in her voice with the boy's rather abrupt change of behaviour.
The boy turned his head to face her with a bit of excitement in his movements. He quickly walked towards the table and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as he found the maroon scarf lying in the moonlight. It looked to have been folded with great care into a neat bundle atop the table.
"Why did you take it off if you're still cold?" He asked as he quickly took the scarf and returned to the side of the bed.
"I thought... I thought that it belonged to you and I-" The girl stammered in confusion.
"Don't worry about that. I told you that you can have it, didn't I?"
The girl was quiet as she silently gazed at the boy from beneath the blankets. She didn't know what to say or what to think any more. Her head was a complete mess and the bruises were still aching painfully. But she knew that the boy was trying his best to be kind to her and it felt... very nice.
"Here, please get up." he said gently, a stark contrast to the somewhat irritated tone he had before.
The girl did as she was told and slowly emerged from the depths of the blankets to face the young boy yet again.
"It's yours, now." He said as he tenderly wrapped the girl's head with the maroon scarf. He knew that it would help her somehow. He was extra careful not to just throw it on her head this time, so gently did he put it on her.
"It belongs to you now so... So you can wear it as long as you want." He said when he finished, taking a brief second to admire his handiwork. The scarf was clearly too big for the little girl as it covered most of her head, the only thing that showed through was one of her beautiful black eyes. It didn't look that different from the first time he did it, but it was good enough, maybe even decent. At least, it looked a little bit more neat this time.
"Doesn't that feel better?" The boy asked. He felt good inside. He felt helpful.
The girl clutched onto the soft scarf tightly, savouring the comfy warmth it provided. "Yes." she answered with a happy tone. It was the first time she had seemed happy all night.
"Good enough to help you sleep, maybe?" He had a hopeful look in those turquoise eyes of his.
"I... do feel a little sleepy now." The girl lied. She knew what the boy was trying to do.
"Great!" The boy exclaimed as he dragged the little wooden chair behind him closer to the bed.
"Then I'll be here, okay?" He said before seating himself on the chair. "If you don't mind, I want to stay with you tonight. I want to make sure you get all the rest you can get so that you'll feel much better tomorrow, okay?"
"O- Okay?" The girl answered with a surprised tone in her voice as she watched the little boy sit down on the wooden chair, getting as comfortable as he could before steeling himself to face the merciless cold of the night.
The boy sat as still as he could, not moving a single inch as he quietly waited for the girl to finally fall asleep.
Still clutching onto the scarf, the girl slowly laid down and pulled the blankets tighter around herself. Perhaps she could actually get some sleep tonight. Or maybe not, but the least she could do was try.
"Hey... Mikasa, right?"
The girl's eyes lit up as she heard her own name. She had thought that he had already forgotten it or something. Come to think of it, the first time both of them had ever met was under less than ideal circumstances.
"Hm?" She turned her head towards the boy to see him sitting there with both of his hands tightly clutching the wooden arms of the chair. She also saw that his eyes were serious, almost as serious as when she first met him.
"Listen..." He said, looking directly into her eyes. "Don't give up... Don't ever give up, okay?"
"Huh?"
"I want you to... Just- I want you to just keep fighting... Just keep fighting as best as you can and you'll always win. You will live..." he said, tightening his grip on the chair.
"And if you're ever in too much trouble, I'll help you. As long as I'm there, I'll help you as much as I possibly can, okay? And as long as we're together, as long as we keep helping each other, I know that we'll always win, no matter what happens, okay? We can do anything..." He said softly. It was the very first time that the girl had seen anything close to an actual smile on his face.
"As long as we're... together?" She repeated the word, seemingly confused by the notion.
"Anyway, uh..." He stuttered, obviously embarrassed by what he just said. He had never said anything like that before tonight, but it was a night of many firsts for him.
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." He said, his cheeks turned a faint shade of crimson as he smiled meekly.
"Goodnight, Mikasa." He quickly turned his eyes away, hiding his red face under the dark shadows of the room.
"Goodnight..." She said warmly as she closed her eyes.
"...Eren." For the first time this night, she could feel herself drifting off into a peaceful sleep, finally...
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this story out of so many others. I know it may not be that good but I really hope you enjoyed reading it nonetheless. Many thanks to deathmakesapoet, for without whom, this story would never have existed in the first place. As always, all reviews and opinions are greatly appreciated. Thanks again and I wish you all a very good day.
Till the next chapter,
-ParagonFlynn
