Red - OceanIris98
All he could see was red.
Everything around him seemed to move slowly and he could only watch in utter horror as his mother was devoured before him, and as her blood rained down from above, he realized how useless he was.
He could feel the tears rolling off his cheeks and dripping down onto the bloodstained ground of Shiganshina as he suppressed a scream.
This could not be happening. It couldn't be.
And then the world began to spin around him, and all he could see were the faces of his fallen comrades, bloodied, broken, red. Thomas, Mina, Gunther, Eldo, Oluo, Petra…all of them covered in red. All of them people that he couldn't protect.
"I'm sorry," he whispered to them, tears rolling down his face.
But all they did was stare blankly back at him with dead, lifeless eyes and bodies covered in blood.
And then he saw the faces of his friends, and he watched as they were ripped apart by titans and thrown forcefully against the cold hard ground outside the walls.
He screamed as he watched them, one by one, die in front of his very eyes, their lifeless bodies littering the ground.
Sasha, Connie, Historia, Jean, Armin, and…
"No," he whispered. "Not her too."
But there was nothing he could do but watch her fall to the ground and bleed out in front of him, her body unmoving and the light lost from her eyes.
"Mikasa!"
Eren shot up in his bed, panting furiously as the sweat dripped down his face. Hesitantly, he reached up and felt the tears still fresh on his cheeks.
It seemed like ever since he had moved out to the middle of nowhere to become part of Levi's new squad, the nightmares had become more and more frequent.
Ever since he had watched his mom die, he had been plagued with terrible, blood red nightmares, but it wasn't just her anymore. Every night in his sleep he saw his friends, both dead and alive, murdered right in front of his eyes.
He knew they were just dreams, but he couldn't help but have a terrible, terrible feeling that they meant something much more than that.
It was so damn real.
He shuddered. It was so cold in his room.
He looked down to see Armin sleeping peacefully in the bunk below him and Jean and Connie both sound asleep on the other side of the room.
He breathed out a sigh of relief. They were all okay, and he hadn't woken them up with his nightmare.
He buried his face in his pillow and let the tears fall. He couldn't hold them back anymore. He was so completely terrified, and he was so close to breaking down.
He couldn't take this anymore. He threw the blanket off of himself and climbed down from the bed.
He knew who could make him feel better.
He carefully opened the squeaky door, checking back to make sure he didn't wake anyone up, and walked across the hallway to the girls' room. He took a deep breath and slowly opened the door.
Sasha and Historia were sleeping soundly on the right side of the room while Mikasa's bed was on the left, but as Eren got closer to her, he realized that she was not sleeping well at all.
The wet tear tracks on her cheek glistened in the moonlight, and soft, pained, whimpers escaped from her lips.
"Mikasa," he shook her a little bit.
Her teeth were clenched and her eyes scrunched together in fear. She whimpered a little louder, and he nudged her a little harder.
"Mikasa!"
Her eyes shot open and found his almost immediately.
"Eren," she whispered with relief as her eyes filled with tears.
"Shhh," he whispered as he pulled her into his arms, "it's okay. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere, Mikasa."
He could feel her clench onto his shirt, and he could feel her muffled sobs against his chest.
She was so scared.
And so was he.
Now that he thought about it, they were both pretty pathetic.
Finally, her watery gray eyes met his again. "What are you doing here, Eren? Could you hear me from your room?" She asked, afraid of what his answer might be.
"No," he stroked her cheek gently as she sighed with relief, "I'm here because…" he hesitated for a moment, afraid to admit how weak he actually was. "I'm here because I had a nightmare too, and I just really needed to see you…is all," he said slightly embarrassed, feeling the heat rising to his cheeks.
"Eren," she reached up to touch his wet cheek, "you're crying."
He smiled sadly at her and pulled her close, burying his head into her shoulder, and then they cried together.
"Look at us," he whispered as he leaned down to kiss her cheek. "We're so pathetic."
She smiled back at him through the tears and touched his cheek gently, leaning in slowly to kiss him on the lips.
And he let her, their lips moving slowly together, eyes closing, tears still streaming steadily down their cheeks. In this cruel, terrible world, they had each other, and they had this moment. That in itself was enough to make it worth living in.
Slowly she unwrapped the scarf from her neck and wrapped it around them both, tying them together.
They curled together on her bed, and he stared at her beautiful face, still wet with tears, until her eyes closed and her breathing slowed, and the last thing he saw before falling asleep was the scarf wrapped tightly around him, comforting him.
The scarf- warm, calm, comforting, and-
Red.
XX
A/N- This isn't my best work, but I wrote it so I might as well share. Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading!
OI98