Chapter 2 – Soggy Cornflakes

Present

"Eren, breakfast's ready."

Eren mumbles something that could hardly constitute as an answer.

"If you're not there in five minutes, I'm dragging you down."

Eren grumbles something louder and hears the sound of footsteps out the room.

Don' wanna wake up, he thinks, even thinking too much of an effort.

He snoozes a little longer until he feels someone violently shaking his shoulders, "EREN!"

"Huh? Wha?"

"Eren, get up! Mikasa can and will drag you down there and you know it."

Eren blearily wipes his eyes and mumbles, "Mikasa can't catch me. I'm too awesome for a stupid girl to-"

"Eren!" Armin yelps and quickly wraps his hands over his mouth.

"Oh, don't stop him on my account, Armin," says a very calm voice and Eren feels suddenly very cold. "Please, continue, Eren? What can't a stupid girl do?"

There is a moment of silence. Armin trembles as he glances from Mikasa's ever so calm face to Eren's face that's strangely blank. Another moment passes.

"Nope! Not today!" Eren cries and flings himself out the window next to his bed. He's just preparing to scramble up the pipe outside and get to safety – maybe go through Jean's window upstairs – when he feels a yank on the back of his shirt collar.

"Oh, God!" he cries.

"Oh no, Eren, it's just me~"

"Eren, you were so close this morning! I swear you're getting faster! You'd think you'd learn by now."

"Oh, fuck off, horse-face. Go outside and graze or something."

"Oi, Jaeger, what have I told you-"

"Stop fighting," says Mikasa softly and the two boys immediately, albeit reluctantly, shut up. Mikasa places a cloth filled with ice cubes against Eren's forehead. A massive bruise is already starting to form where he smacked his face against the bricks outside the window while desperately flailing in an attempt to escape.

Eren irritably pushes her away and holds the cold pack himself as Mikasa returns to washing dishes. The cold bites into his skin unpleasantly and he has to force himself to ignore the impulse to throw the pack as far away as possible. Or perhaps into Jean's face. Eren narrows his eyes. Yes, this could work…

"Jaeger, don't think so hard. You look like you're constipated."

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to steal your usual expression. You can't help it that you're full of shit."

"Eren," Mikasa warns, eyes not leaving the sink in front of her.

He sighs loudly but when she isn't looking, flicks a particularly soggy cornflake onto Jean's cheek. Jean freezes for a millisecond before-

"JAEGER, I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"No!" Eren wails melodramatically, "No, Satan, don't eat my soul!"

"WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU, YOUR SOUL WON'T BE THE ONLY THING THAT'S MISSING!"

"Ahh, Mikasa~" Eren whines, "Save me, please~"

Mikasa dries her hands off casually before bodily picking Jean up by his collar and slamming him back into his seat. She notices the cornflake on Jean's cheek and says lowly – dangerously - , "Eren. What did you do?"

"Nothing," Eren says quickly and begins shovelling cereal down his throat as fast as he can manage without impaling himself with the spoon.

"You're the only one that's eating cornflakes, Eren," she comes closer.

"No, I'm not!" And he slurps the whole bowl's contents into his mouth. Mikasa makes a lethally quick grab for him but he dodges with his cheeks puffed out like a squirrel. A particularly suicidal squirrel. Eren makes it to the door and glances back to see Jean pawing pathetically at Mikasa for sympathy before she returns to the dishes. Eren spits out a bit of the milk still in his mouth at the back of Jean's head and promptly sprints down the hall with cereal spraying all over as he struggles to laugh and run at the same time.

"JAEGER!"

Trost Building – home to the 104th Trainees Squad. Eren, Mikasa and Armin joined two years back when they were fifteen and Armin's grandfather had passed away. Eren told them he would be joining and that he'd send his monthly allowance home to them so they could concentrate on schoolwork instead of a job. Eren claimed that it wasn't like he was smart enough for school anyway but Armin and Mikasa knew what he was planning since that day seven years ago. Unexpectedly, Armin said immediately that he would go with and, more expectedly, Mikasa said she would too. This is their last year in training and then they'd be real firefighters.

Eren wanders the halls of Trost since training would only start a little later. He watches his fellow trainees scurry around trying to do their morning rituals. He peeks into Connie's room, expecting to see Sasha there too but is disappointed. She sleeps directly across the hall yet she finds herself much more at home in her short friend's room. It's probably partly due to his never-ending supply of smuggled snacks but everyone suspects that they're a bit more than fellow hooligans. Connie is restocking his stash when Eren knocks and he quickly flies into a defensive position before relaxing.

"Oh, Eren, it's only you," he sighs in relief.

"Only me," Eren confirms. "Who'd you think it was?" he asks, glancing up and down the hall.

"Man, if you only knew how much Shadis is on my case," Connie groans. "After searching Sasha's room and not finding anything, he's now put a target on my back! I mean, why would you suspect me?"

"Oh, I don't know," Eren muses, "Maybe because whenever there's food stolen, Sasha's not the only one I hear giggling down the corridor."

"Hey, hey, hey," Connie says, waving a finger threateningly, "I don't giggle. I'm a man. I chuckle."

"Well, Big Man, if you don't want Shadis breathing down your neck then I think you should-"

"CONNIE!"

Eren spins in surprise, "What the-"

High pitched squealing sounds pierce his ears as a blur of white and brown comes streaking past him into the room.

"CONNIE!"

Sasha flings herself onto Connie, wrapping her arms and legs around him like an oversized koala on a very small tree. Her brown hair looks almost as wild as her expression and she's barely covered by a large white towel.

"What the fuck, Sasha?" Connie yells, almost losing his balance and sending them both sprawling on the floor.

"CONNIE!" she wails, "Someone finished all the hot water again and I'm COLD!"

"And how the fuck is that MY problem?" he yells, flicking her on the forehead.

Eren looks sheepish and is edging backwards out the room when Connie notices, "Oi, don't leave me here! Get her off me!"

Eren ducks out the room and peeps only his head in, "Sorry bro, naked girl is YOUR problem."

"Wait, what?" Connie glances down as if noticing for the first time that the towel Sasha is sporting barely constitutes decent coverage. "Wait! Eren!"

"I'm out!"

Eren can hear Sasha laughing as Connie scolds her and reminds her that she has her own room.

He almost bumps into Marco as he turns a corner and sidesteps at the last moment.

"Hey, Marco, you okay? Need some help?" Eren asks, referring to the boxes piled high obstructing his view of the spattering of freckles that practically made him famous.

"Oh, no, it's fine, don't want to bother," Marco huffs and Eren can imagine the good natured smile.

"Here," he says, taking the top half, revealing Marco's flushed face.

"Oh, thank you, Eren!"

"Not a problem, where do these go?"

"Upstairs. I'm moving rooms," Marco says and Eren notices a different kind of flush on his face. He chooses to ignore it, knowing that if Marco wants to tell him he would.

The pair walk upstairs to Marco's new room and Eren politely answers Marco's friendly questions of how did he sleep, is he looking forward to training, is that a new bruise from trying to jump out the window again this morning. Marco stops outside Jean's door and takes the boxes from Eren's grip, smiling broadly, "Thanks for your help, Eren."

Eren is confused, "But, wait, isn't that…?"

The door opens. "Jaeger?" Jean asks warily, scanning the hall suspiciously before noticing Marco. "Marco?" he chokes out, his face reddening quickly.

"H-hey, Jean," Marco says, face also becoming red even though Eren lessened his load considerably. "I'm moving in across the corridor." He jingles some keys and quickly turns his back to Eren and Jean so he can fiddle with the lock on the door.

Eren glances between Jean's strangled expression and Marco's back. The tips of Marco's ears and neck are also becoming red. Now why would…?

Oh. Oh.

Eren grins wickedly and turns to Jean. "So, horse-face," he drawls, "Did you enjoy your cereal this morning?"

Jean takes a moment before his face becomes red with rage, "Thanks for reminding me, Jaeger. I still have to kill you."

"Oh no!" Eren cried, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead in despair. "Whatever shall I do? The penalty for food flinging is death!"

Jean stalks forward and Eren pretends to faint against the wall next to Marco, "Marco! Please! You're the only one that can save me! Get the big bad horse away from me!" He spins onto Marco and the taller boy catches him before he continues rolling onto the floor. Eren arches his back in a position of the damsel in distress and howls, "Tell the horse to go away!"

Marco is just too nice to not play along, "Um, go away?"

"Tell him he's a bad horse!"

"Um, bad… horse?" Marco says uncertainly, blushing as he looks at Jean.

"Marco!" Jean splutters, becoming embarrassed again.

Eren swiftly spins out of Marco's hold and places a hand on Jean's shoulder. His face is serious and he pushes his face into the blushing boy's personal space.

"Now, Jean," Eren says solemnly. "Don't pretend that you don't like the idea of Marco punishing you."

Marco and Jean seem at a loss for words and thus settle for avoiding each other's faces, spluttering and in Jean's case, reaching to strangle Eren.

"Whoop!" Eren says as he dodges Jean's outstretched hand, "Nearly got me there!"

"Jaeger, get back here so I can kill you," apparently he remembering how to English.

Eren twists away again and pretends to contemplate this option, "Hmm, or nah!" and then he's opening Jean's door and throwing himself out the window. He grips the windowsill from the outside and then drops to grip his own windowsill which is directly below Jean's.

"Yeark!"

Eren hoists himself up and through the window before collapsing from laughter onto his bed, ignoring the more-than-a-little startled Armin. The two share one of the very few two-sleeper rooms in the building; something that they don't complain about. If Mikasa was there, it would feel just like their childhood; huddling together on a futon in Armin's grandfather's house, taking comfort in each other's presence.

"I seriously can't get used to you doing that," Armin mutters, a hand over his heart as if to control the jump in his heartbeat that Eren's sudden appearance had undoubtedly caused.

"Oh, careful there, Armin, don't want you falling for me now," he says, winking and clicking his tongue suggestively.

"Eren!" Armin laughs, "Don't be an idiot!"

"Too late. If Jaeger's anything, it's an idiot."

"Reiner!" Eren says, sitting up to greet the taller blonde leaning against the doorframe. "Your shoulder okay? You've been gone for ages!"

Reiner dislocated his shoulder three weeks ago during a training exercise for breaking in doors. He winces and rolls his shoulder dramatically, "Nah, I'll live. Doc says that I should be fine to get back to training as long as I don't do any heavy lifting,"

"Oh no, Reiner, that's half your personality gone right there! What will you do if you can't weightlift?"

"Watch it, Jaeger, I can still lap you on the field and just about in any other training exercise."

"You can't catch me in climbing though," Eren grins. Over the years, he discovered a passion and talent for climbing. He's thin enough to be quick yet he still has the muscle to easily hold his own weight. His forever-messy brown hair and his tendency to fling himself out windows earned him the title of a Suicidal Squirrel. Or Bastard. Depends who he's irritated lately.

"The only one that can do that is Mikasa," says a quiet voice from behind Reiner.

Eren leans forward and catches sight of an incredibly tall guy with dark hair. "Hey, Bertolt," he calls. "You feeling better, too?

"Hi, Eren," he responds softly, moving into line of sight but still staying slightly behind his blond friend. "I feel fine, thank you."

Shortly after Reiner had been carted off to the infirmary, Bertolt had come down with some weird illness that had him there the whole time as well. Looks like he has been discharged today too.

The four boys chat a little while longer till Bertolt gently tugs on one of Reiner's sleeves and the two leave to get ready for training. Armin returns to reading the book he had been busy with before Eren had swung in through the window. Eren flops back onto his bed with a huge sigh. When Armin doesn't respond, he sighs again and louder.

"What, Eren?" Armin says exasperated, closing the book with a slam.

"Woah, hey," Eren says, sitting up, "You okay?"

Armin sighs and looks ready to brush it off but Eren has his stubborn face on so he relents, "I'm just… I've been thinking about the Evaluation coming up. Even with his injury, Reiner is sure to get in and here I am, trying my hardest and I'm probably not even going to come in the Top 10. Top 20 even. I just… feel so… weak."

His shoulders slump and his grip on the book tightens. He lets out a shaky breath and then suddenly Eren has thrown himself onto Armin's bed and is wrapping himself around the smaller boy from behind and smooshing their cheeks together. "Eren? Wha-? What are you doing?"

"Shh, just let it happen," Eren says, stroking Armin's hair creepily and pressing his cheek harder.

"Oh my god, you are so weird," Armin laughs and Eren can feel the tension escaping his back.

"Let me looove you, Armin!"

"Get off, you idiot!" Armin squeals as Eren begins tickling him.

"Exactly!" Eren yells and twists Armin around so that they're facing each other. Eren rests their foreheads together and says seriously, "I am an idiot. But you're not. Anyone can see that you're the smartest one out of all us. You're not weak, Armin. Not by a long shot. If anything here is weak, it's Mikasa's cooking skills-"

"Eren~" A shadow wearing a red scarf suddenly looms in the doorway.

"Oh, you've got to be shitting me."

"What were you saying about my cooking?"

"Beat me up later, I'm trying to take advantage of Armin."

"You're trying to WHAT?" Armin yelps but then dissolves into another fit of laughter as Eren resumes tickling him.

Eren catches Mikasa's eye over Armin's head and through a silent message, Mikasa steps forward, eyes smiling, "Well don't leave me out of it. Now, let's see, where was that spot…"

Mikasa aims for behind Armin's knees and he howls. He struggles to escape the relentless assault and Eren chirps, "Oh, our prize will get away! I'll hold him down, Mikasa!"

"Nooo!" Armin screeches and laughs harder as Mikasa attacks him.

"What the fuck is going on here?"

"Connie!" Armin gasps. "Please! Please hel-" he breaks off again as Eren takes advantage of his distraction and gets under his arms.

"As much fun as it sounds to join in your weird incestuous-threeway-thing, training starts in ten minutes."

"Thanks Connie," Eren says, "Now if you'll excuse us~"

"No! Eren! Please! Mikasa, stop! AHHHHH!"

"Good work today, Jaeger. Keep up that climbing skill of yours and you might be looking at a spot in the Top 10."

"Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!" Eren pants, hands on knees.

"Alright, you useless shits, hit the showers."

"Sir, yes, sir!"

Eren makes it a habit of showering for as short a period as possible after training. So many people showering at one point makes for very little hot water and if there was one thing hated, it was a cold shower. Or cold in general. Or Jean. Okay, he hates Jean more.

He pulls on his casual clothes and heads back to his room to wait for Armin, so that they can fetch Mikasa and all head to dinner together. He sits on his bed and leans his head against the wall, letting the water droplets drip from his hair onto his face. After a moment, he slides his hand along the sheet and under his pillow, bringing out a little felt bag. He considers it for a few moments, running his fingers along the material, before opening the drawstring and emptying the contents into his hand. An often-read note and a bronze key tumble out. He holds one in each hand, thoughtful, before deciding to read the note again. He has read it so many times that the words are committed to memory, which is good, since the words are bound to fade off the paper eventually due to use.

This was the only thing they salvaged from the fire. No one ever knows how the future will turn out, but I promise you that I will save everyone I can from the fires. Put your faith in me. Your resolve has given me strength.

And kid,

Not bad.

"I'm not a kid," Eren mutters, and then laughs softly to himself. How many times has he said this exact response to a piece of paper? He contemplates the key in his hand. It's quite long and the end is styled in a sort of diamond shape with little round nubs on the corners. The bronze is shiny from Eren's frequent contemplative rubbing. He probably doesn't even remember me, he thinks miserably and then scolds himself for even thinking about it. What does it even matter what some guy thinks? All that matters is that he's a good firefighter. One of the best, actually. Humanity's Strongest.

"All I am is a Suicidal Squirrel, how stupid is that?" Eren mumbles, still rubbing the key.

"You say something, Eren?" says Armin as he comes in, cheeks flushed from the showers. Eren slips the key down his sleeve and shakes his head. He brings up his knees and hugs them to him, resting his chin on top. "I love showering after training, the water's much hotter than in the mornings!"

Eren grunts in reply.

Armin looks at him from the corner of his eye as he fiddles with something in his drawer, "Hey, um, you okay?"

Eren huffs, "Yeah. Just tired. Shadis had me doing climbing drills almost the whole day."

Armin looks suspicious but plays along. "Oh, yeah, I noticed! But you know, if he's taking special notice of it then that can only be good, right?"

"Hmm, yeah, I suppose."

There's a knock on the open door and Mikasa walks in. Her hair seems dry already and her red scarf is present as always. "You guys ready for dinner?" she asks.

"Do you ever wash that thing?" Eren mutters, and Mikasa grips the scarf protectively. He has asked so many times that she instinctively knows what he's referring to.

"Ever wash yourself, Eren? You always leave the showers really quickly," she retorts in defence of her treasure.

"As nice as it is to know you watch me in the showers, I do feel kind of creeped out."

"Oh, hush. Dinner?"

"I'm starving!" Armin chirps, hopping to the door.

"Hey, guys, just go on without me, okay? I'll catch up," Eren murmurs.

Armin and Mikasa share worried looks but leave with soft 'okay's and 'see you there's. As they leave, Eren can hear them whispering to each other as they undoubtedly share theories as to what is bothering him.

He sighs and brings the key out from his sleeve again. After reading the note again, he slips it inside the bag. About to slide the key in too, he pauses. Then on impulse he scrambles for a piece of string somewhere and slides the key onto it. He ties a knot and slips it over his head, letting the key rest against his sternum under his shirt.

He releases a breath he didn't realise he was holding and then steps out the door to head to dinner. He arrives at the dining room but finds that hardly anyone is there. He glances around in confusion, finding only the instructors sitting at their usual table. Shadis catches Eren looking and says, "Jaeger, you're a bit out of the loop. All the other little shits are watching the news in the entertainment room."

"The news?" Eren repeats dumbly. What would be so interesting on the news?

"Yes, Jaeger, don't make me repeat myself. Get going."

He snaps himself up straight and salutes, left arm at his back and right hand placed in a fist over his heart, "Yes, sir!"

Jogging to catch up to everyone in the 'entertainment' room, which is really just a large open space with a tiny TV and a ping pong table, he almost runs into the backs of the people standing right at the back. Wow, everyone's here.

"Hey, guys, what's up?" he asks and about three quarters of the company shush him and the others are too engrossed on what's happening on the TV. Armin gestures frantically for Eren to come closer and he steps forward, now hearing the live news everyone was so interested in.

"Reports from downtown Shinganshina state that Maria Corporation suffered one of the greatest fires this decade. The six storey building housing some of their latest scientific developments was ignited due to a freak accident while working on the rumoured "Colossal Project". The Survey Corps firefighting division was on the scene almost immediately after receiving the distress call sent from within Maria Corporation but on arrival found that the first two storeys were entirely filled with flames and that access to the upper storeys was impossible through them. According to Commander Erwin Smith, the Survey Corps' legendary Squad Levi was responsible for the execution of an innovative plan to rescue employees from the upper floors using an inventive series of climbing devices to lift members of the squad up to implement the evacuation procedure which involved the safe lowering of employees a safe distance away from the fire source. During the evacuation however, it is reported that member of Squad Levi, Jamie Ravine, perished when part of the fifth floor collapsed. One hundred and twenty six employees were safely evacuated while seventy nine are reported to be injured. Sixteen are confirmed as deceased while eight are unaccounted for."

Eren can't breathe. Shinganshina was the neighbourhood where he and Mikasa had lived… before. Eren swallows thickly. The Maria Corporation was where his father used to work. After the… afterwards, Grisha Jaeger was reported as missing. He hasn't contacted Eren or Mikasa since… that day.