A/N: Springles is such a lovely ship. One of my favorites although I never got requests for them before 105, so in a way, it's nice even though the chapter broke my heart.

My eye keeps twitching a lot lately. I think it's because I'm not sleeping enough although I always wake up at the same time no matter how late I go to bed.

When he returns after the events at the Castle Utgard, after escaping the battle between the Colossal Titan, the Armored Titan, and Eren's own Titan, he can't sleep. It's not that he's worried about himself and the monsters he has to face once again in the future – at least no more than he's usually worried. He's signed up for this. He knows what sort of danger he's signed himself up for. But after seeing his comrades fall in the Battle for Trost, after watching the veteran members of the Survey Corps get slaughtered mercilessly by the Titans while he watched helplessly at the top of Utgard's tower, after returning home to seeing his abandoned village, thinking about the unfortunate fate that seems to be inevitable for his loved ones scares him. Hell, he doesn't even know where Reiner and Bertholdt are and they were just behind him on that wall, weren't they? Mikasa and Eren are strong, but he's not sure if their strength is enough for the battles before them. And if people in the top ten like Marco can fall without anyone else noticing, his half-eaten carcass the only thing left behind, what is going to happen to the rest of them?

"Connie?" a voice says suddenly, pulling him from delving any deeper into his darkest fears. It's familiar, warm, comforting. He turns and it's Sasha, her hair messy from running around and delivering reports from her own village, but she's safe and she's here and somehow that feels him with overwhelming relief.

Usually, he has so much to say to her, but now he has no words. He rushes over to her instead, holding her tightly because if he doesn't he's afraid that she'll disappear just like his family had, just like the villagers he had grown up knowing, and just like he's afraid everyone else will.

"Hey," she laughs, but she puts her arms around him. "What's wrong?"

"I thought you were gone," he says, his voice cracking. His throat is tight with the sobs he tries to hold back. "I thought you wouldn't come back."

"Silly," she says. Her voice is soft, gentle. Her arms wrap around him more tightly. "I'll always come back to you. We're a pair, aren't we?"

He thinks then that he'll never let her go. He's lost his family and lost so many friends, he can't lose her too.

After they return to Shiganshina, he doesn't leave her side. He just waits by her side and watches as her chest moves up and down, her breathing proof that she's still alive. Sometimes he sees her finger twitch, her eyelids flutter, her mouth moves as she mumbles something incoherent, but she doesn't wake. With every passing day, he begins to lose hope and just when he's given up completely, she stirs in her sleep, mumbling about how her body aches.

He doesn't even wait for her to wake up completely, just throws his arms around her even though it will probably hurt her more. It doesn't matter though. If she's in pain, that means she's alive and that's the only thing that's important to him.

"Hey," Sasha laughs weakly. "At least wait until I've eaten something first, won't you? I'm starving!" But she wraps her arms around him anyway.

"I'm sorry," he mumbles. He wipes away tears that he hadn't even realized were falling down his cheeks.

"Don't cry," she tells him, wiping a tear he had missed with her thumb. She cups his cheeks in her hands, pulling him close so that their foreheads touch. "I told you I'd come back for you, didn't I? And I'm here now."

And that's all he needs.

He runs to her as soon as he hears the gunshot, holds her in his arms as she bleeds out onto the floor. He wraps her arms tightly around her as the others rush to stop the blood, but this time her arms remain limp at her sides.

He's known the world isn't fair, that it's never been, and that the fact that she's come this far is some sort of miracle in its own way. Still, he doesn't want her to leave. It's too soon. The world has taken too much from him – his family, his friends, his home – and now it wants to take her too.

So he prays to the heavens to spare him. He pleads with the uncaring gods, the ones who have ignored his prayers before, to leave her alone. They can take everything from him, even take his own life, but let her live. If he can just have one thing, please let it be her.

A gentle hand brushes his cheek, wiping away the tears from his face. When he opens his eyes, Sasha is looking at him with a weak smile.

"Are you crying again, silly?" she asks, her voice just a whisper. "You're only allowed to cry for me when I'm gone, and I'm not leaving you yet."

He pulls her close, burying his face in her neck as he cries tears of relief. He hopes she never leaves. She's the only one he has left.

A/N: I get such a kick reading all of the reactions/responses to my fics, so please leave a review if you have the time! The tags on Tumblr make me laugh a lot. I think I'll write another Springles soon since there is one more sitting in my inbox ^^ I hope you look forward to it!

Sometimes I forget to put the line breaks D: I'm sorry if this happens and you read it before I remember to edit them back in!

Word Count: 861