That night, Armin lay awake on his back in his bed at the Survey Corps headquarters and thought about Titan powers.

Eren had been able to accidentally cause his arm to shift on its own when he was reaching for a fork… Just his arm. And, he'd stopped the Smiling Titan with his actual human fist. Again, he had not been transformed into a Titan, but he'd been using titan power…

So, was it possible to use only a part of the Colossal Titan instead of the whole thing at once?

Say, for example, could Armin cause his hands to become incredibly hot while not in the Colossal Titan form?

He raised his hands up in front of his face in his dark bedroom. Nothing happened for two full minutes, which was what he expected. Eren had had trouble transforming when he was supposed to fight Annie—he'd needed a purpose… a will to fight.

Armin pushed his blankets back and stood from his bed. Closing his eyes, he held his hands up in front of himself again. He imagined that there was a block of ice between his hands. This ice—if it didn't melt, Eren would die. And Mikasa. Everyone would die if he didn't melt this ice right now.

When he opened his eyes, he wasn't in the dark anymore. Rather, his hands glowed and smoked with heat. And amazingly enough, the heat didn't hurt his hands…

He glanced around the room, eyes wide. Of course, no one had witnessed this new finding other than him. Absentmindedly, he sat back down on the bed, deep in thought. And then, when his hands rested on his knees, he immediately scorched holes through his pajamas.

After having a quiet cup of tea in the morning, Armin, Hange and Levi travelled deep underground of headquarters to where Annie was being held in a dark, cavernous crypt.

The three soldiers now stood side by side as they gazed at Annie, enclosed in her crystal. Armin thought the dozens of cords stretching over the shiny casing looked ridiculous. Clearly those cords wouldn't restrain her if she woke up and turned…

"I want to try something," Armin said.

"What?" Hange asked immediately.

As an answer, Armin closed his eyes as he had the night before and imagined the ice he needed to melt or everyone would die. He smelled the smoke and felt the heat radiating from his hands. Opening his eyes, he stepped toward Annie. Immediately, the cords around her crystalline form caught fire and burned away.

"Armin!" Hange exclaimed from behind him.

The crystal, however, remained intact. He pressed his hands harder against it but it didn't even seem to heat up. He was disappointed, but not surprised. "It was worth a try," he said, stepping back from her.

"Huh! We'll have to keep that ability in our back pockets," Hange said, patting his shoulder. "That was a good try."

"You can warm my tea for me some time," Levi said quietly.

"I can't transform in here," Armin said, thinking aloud. "I would like to transform and I will try to get her out with heat again. It's possible that the heat in my hands isn't enough."

"Hmm, yes, we'll do that…" Hange said, still staring at Annie's form. She glanced at Levi, who looked back at her for a moment before he spoke.

"I am wondering if this crystal is a one-way street," Levi said.

"I am wondering the same thing," Armin said reluctantly. "It is possible it can't be broken or melted or changed once it's there. Which, if that is the case, she may be in there forever. But if that's the case, then how was there damage to the wall when she climbed it if we are to believe that this stuff is inside the whole thing? And how did that cave collapse when Historia's dad kidnapped Eren—"

"Ah, yes. The wall. We could open part of the wall again to see what it really looks like in there," Hange said seriously. "It was hard to get a good look when before we covered the hole with all those blankets… I wonder, if the titans within the wall are encased in this sort of stuff, then what does it look like when it ages?"

"I advise against giving a command to intentionally destroy part of the wall," Levi said flatly.

"Or we could go back to the cave and see what it looks like now that it's collapsed," Hange said, ignoring Levi. "By the way! I never did thank you for dragging me out of there, Armin!" She patted his shoulder. "Thank you!"

Armin felt his cheeks warm. "You're welcome," he said quietly.

"You could eat her," Levi said. "Crystal and all."

Hange crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, it could make your transformations a lot more interesting! What would the Female Colossal look like?!"

Armin side-glanced at Hange. "I still haven't had much luck recalling any of Bertholdt's memories. I don't think eating Annie in my Titan form would help me remember hers any better. Also, the question remains—is she still protected within the crystal if she's consumed?"

Levi walked over to a stony sort of ledge surrounding a stony pillar. As he sat down, he crossed his arms.

"It may still be the best option," Hange said as she walked over to Levi and sat down next to him, crossing her legs. "But we should exhaust all other possibilities first before admitting defeat and having you consume her. You're right, Armin. She would make a great source of information for what to expect across the ocean. And, opening the crystal is something we should explore in any case."

Armin was thinking only of how he didn't want to kill Annie, even though she was a murderer… In the end of it all, she'd really only wanted out. She'd been caught up in something she didn't want and she had been desperate. "Why?" Armin asked quietly, shaking his head as he stared at her. If only there had been some way to force her to change her mind before she'd done what she'd done…

But mind control wasn't something they did in Paradis anymore. That was the old way of doing things.

It was quiet for a few minutes while Armin was deep in thought until Hange said, "Was it a mistake not to have Eren come with us? He has the ability to crystalize. Maybe the two of you could practice together—"

"Yes… but he seemed so—" Armin was going to say sad. Eren had clutched Armin's hand so hard as they watched the sunrise over the ocean, it seemed as though he was trying to break his hand. "Tired."

"Yes, I want to let him rest at least for a couple of days. His transformations are better when he's rested," Hange agreed. "I admit I ran him through the ringer with practicing the Coordinate before we went to the ocean…"

"Yeah, speaking of that," Armin continued, "I have a feeling that the only way to get Annie out of this casing safely is for it to be her decision. If Eren uses the Coordinate power to try to control her mind, it's possible he could change her mind into wanting to come out again."

"Arrrmiiinnn!" Hange said, throwing her head back and her hands into the air as she stood. "Of course! Eren needs to practice his Coordinate Power some more anyway! He'll have to figure out how to command her! He will change her mind and make her come out of there!" She came forward and gave Armin a side-hug. Then she turned to Levi. "Alright, Levi—tell the new recruits to come and wheel Annie out to the combat practice fields. We'll still have Armin transform a few times and try the initial ideas."

"Yes, Ma'am," Levi said, standing.

"And tomorrow," Hange said, shrugging her shoulders, "if we're sure there aren't any other options, I want you to go get Eren and bring him back here."

"Yes, Ma'am," Levi said again.

"Two days of rest is better than nothing," Armin said, gazing at Annie again.

Eren let Mikasa continue sleeping as he tiptoed from their shared bedroom. Quietly, he closed the door behind himself. As Eren sat at the kitchen table on his second morning of furlough, he drank a cup of tea and stared at the dust motes floating in the kitchen window's sunbeams.

Two night ago, the first night back from the ocean, Eren and Mikasa shared Eren's bed in his bedroom. Mikasa was actually the one who decided it was too tight of a fit for two people. And so last night, he and Mikasa had taken their own mattresses out of their smaller bedrooms and pushed them together into the largest bedroom. It was far more comfortable to make love in the wider space, but still—he and Mikasa had slept together in his parents' room last night.

Except, they hadn't: his parents had never technically slept in this master bedroom—the house had had to be replaced nearly in its entirety. Instead of a corner post of the house, a large boulder held up a corner of the house now instead. Eren had built that master room, and all the other rooms, with his own two hands (and with a significant amount of help from Mikasa and others in the Survey Corps). It was his and Mikasa's. It only looked like his parents' old bedroom…

He realized that the strangest part about it was that the room existed at all. His parents were never coming home. Why had he built the bedroom to begin with? …It didn't matter now.

What would Carla have said about his and Mikasa's change in their relationship? Would she have been appalled?

No, Eren thought, she would have been happy. Mikasa had been the perfect child for that year she lived here, but Carla had never called Mikasa her "daughter." Maybe Carla had even been pushing Eren toward Mikasa from his childhood?

Eren finished the last of his tea and took the cup to the sink as his thoughts turned to his father. He hadn't really allowed himself to think about Grisha much since learning about his father's death and how he—Eren—had been the cause.

Grisha Yeager…

Grisha knew. He had to have known what the last name "Ackerman" meant and what Mikasa's potential was. He had the Attack Titan. He stole the Coordinate. Grisha had to have known what a powerful ally Mikasa could prove to be. His fostering of her seemed like such a strange coincidence that it was almost unbelievable.

Eren pumped the lever on the hand pump a few times and held his cup out, ready to rinse it.

But, Eren realized, the alternative to a coincidence was to believe that Grisha was somehow involved in the deaths of Mikasa's parents. It was appalling to think about, but at the same time, Grisha had killed all of Historia's half siblings in a single night… No. It was just a coincidence. An incredible, strange, lucky coincidence.

In any case, Eren's father had never been who he'd seemed. That much, at least, was certain.

He pushed all thoughts of parents away. As Mikasa had asked, he wouldn't talk about past wrongs with her. She was right. There was no point.

Eren rubbed the cup with a bit of soap and then pumped water again, rinsing the cup once more. When the water from stopped flowing from the fountain after a few seconds, Eren expected quiet again. But instead, he heard water pumping in the bathroom. What was Mikasa up to? He hadn't heard the bedroom door open, nor the bathroom door.

Eren laid his clean cup back where he'd gotten it from on the shelf by the sink. Then, he tiptoed to the bathroom door across the large, open room. "Mikasa?" Eren asked into the door. He knocked softly a few times.

"You can come in," she said from within.

He cracked the door open. And then when he saw her, he swung it open the rest of the way. Mikasa was in the bathtub, which was overlarge and copper.

"Finally washing all the sand off?" he asked. Her breasts floated slightly in the water and so her nipples poked out of the surface. Eren was hard from the sight of her.

"Come in with me," she said. "You probably need to wash the sand off too."

Eren pulled his pants off and hung them on a hook by the door. He hadn't been wearing anything else. He watched as Mikasa's gaze dropped to his hips and fought the urge to cover himself.

Wordlessly, she scooted forward and so Eren stepped in behind her. As usual, the water was uncomfortably cold. Eren was warm from his tea though, so the bath felt refreshing.

He leaned back on the curved edge of the copper tub and the water swished calmly in response. Mikasa leaned back on him, her wet hair dripping slightly onto his chest. His erection had gotten even harder because of the cold water, and then, as he pushed his legs around Mikasa and wrapped his arms around her, he saw Mikasa's breasts again. His erection was literally throbbing against her bottom and back.

Eren took a cup from the edge of the tub. After scooping some of the bathwater into it, he slowly poured it over Mikasa's hair to make sure it was thoroughly wet. He was careful to keep it from going into her eyes.

Nudging her up a little, he took the soap Mikasa had bought at the market a while ago. It was meant for girls' hair—Carla had always bought at the market when they were kids. It was made mostly of herbs and oil. He scrubbed it into Mikasa's hair.

"Close your eyes," he said softly. She tilted her head back again and he rinsed her hair out. The bathwater surface was dotted with little globs of lavender-scented oil and other sweet-smelling herbs. And taking the bar of soap from the dish on the edge of the tub, he lathered his hands. Gently, he rubbed the soap over Mikasa's arms, her neck, down to her breasts, her abs, down her hips…

"Mm, thank you," she said, leaning her head back against his chest as he rubbed soap over her.

"Anytime," he said, kissing her temple. Eren rinsed her soap off just as slowly as he'd rinsed her hair.

"Okay, your turn." She swished around in the tub and washed Eren's hair too, but not with the fragrant stuff. Instead, she just used the bar of soap, which was what he normally did. She sort of hugged him in order to wash his back.

"I didn't do your back," he realized. She smiled and pecked a kiss on his lips before she swished around again. As he washed her back, his parents popped into his head again. His thoughts softened his erection a bit, which wasn't unwelcome. It had started to hurt.

He thought, if Berholdt and Reiner and Annie had never attacked here, and instead some other town, he and Mikasa could still have been living in this house with both of Eren's parents. And instead, they would have been expected to act as brother and sister. After all, they were only sixteen. Yes they could have still joined the Survey Corps… but when they were home… How frustrating that would have been…

It was hard for Eren to remember how young he and Mikasa were sometimes, after everything that had happened. Eren half-frowned at this thought and then quickly forgot about it because of what Mikasa was doing.

As he rinsed her back, she sat up onto her knees and pushed Eren's legs underneath herself so her legs were on the outside. Eren let his hands slide down to her waist as she pushed down onto his lap, pushing him into herself. After the cold of the water, she felt hot inside. Eren closed his eyes and hissed air through his teeth, trying not to come yet.

Mikasa arched her back. As she grabbed hard to the edges of the tub, her back muscles tensed. For a moment, she looked as though she were made of chiseled marble. Her back and bottom were plainly perfect. In the morning sun coming in through the tiny bathroom window, her wet hair shined with a tint of blue. Eren reached up and ran his hand over her hair.

But he couldn't see her face… "Mikasa," he started. He wanted to ask her to turn around… but the feel of her was so good, he didn't want to mess it up… In this position, he doubted it was physically possible to drive himself any farther into her than he already had.

"Oh Eren…"

As he wrapped his arms tightly around her, he sat up straighter and so she leaned forward slightly. She drove down on him again and a wave of water splashed out of the tub.

"Mikasa, I want to see your face," Eren whispered against her back, almost reluctantly.

Without a moment of hesitation, she stood far enough to turn around and then she pushed down onto him again. He pulled her flush against himself.

"Better?" she asked as she thrust down on him hard enough that water splashed out of the tub again.

"Mm," he said as he kissed her hard. Though, he couldn't thrust back into her very easily… She had all the control. "No—it's too—" And he picked her up in his arms, sliding ominously for a second in the tub's water but then getting his footing, he pressed her against the bathroom wall. "Hang onto me," he demanded.

She gripped harder as she wrapped her legs tight around his waist. It was deep again like this, almost as deep as it had been when she had her back turned to him.

He wondered if he shouldn't have let her keep control but it was too late now. Anyway, he didn't like giving up control so completely like that. It felt wrong. "Is this alright?" he asked, though he'd already started rocking into her.

"Yes… Eren…" she breathed as she lay her head on his shoulder. He went faster.

He kissed her again, fighting her tongue with his. He was about to come… and then a knock sounded at the front door.

Eren stilled for a moment.

"Don't stop, please—" Mikasa begged, bucking her hips against his. "Just ignore them… they'll go away."

Eren did as she said and he tried to ignore it. They knocked again… he was definitely ignoring it now and he was nearly there again… the person knocked a third time… Mikasa kissed Eren's neck. She kissed his eyebrow as he came… he buried his face into the bend of her neck as he tried to stifle a groan.

"Sorry," he whispered.

"Why are you sorry?" Mikasa whispered back, kissing his shoulder.

He pulled away from the kiss and said, "You didn't get to… you know…" Gently, he set her down on her feet in the tub.

"Oh, I don't need to do that to be satisfied."

"I don't believe you." Eren reached back for a couple of towels from a small stack by the sink and he handed one to her. "I'm going to go see who's at the door. When they leave, I'll find a way to make you come, okay?"

Mikasa blushed and crossed her arms over her chest, hugging her towel against her breasts.

"Hey, don't be embarrassed." He wrapped his towel around his waist and smiled. "I'm not embarrassed. I'm looking forward to it."

Mikasa nodded. "I'm going to… I'll meet you in… um…"

"Yeah, I'll meet you in our bedroom," Eren said. Wrapping his arms around her cool waist, he leaned down and gave her a lingering, soft kiss. "I love you."

Mikasa blushed again, surprised. Eren smiled brightly at her again and then left the bathroom.

His feet left watery footprints as he padded across the house to the front door. A fourth knock sounded just as he reached the door and swung it open.

Levi lowered his fist. "You're needed at headquarters."

Eren had to fight the urge to shut the door in his superior's face. "Yes, sir," he said instead.

Levi was eyeing Eren's towel around his waist. "Catch you at a bad time?"

"Um…"

From behind Eren, the bathroom door creaked open. Eren and Levi both gazed across the great room to Mikasa, who walked calmly to the master bedroom while wrapped in a towel. Eren could see even from across the house that she was blushing profusely.

"Yes, I see that I did," Levi said. When Eren turned back again, he was surprised to see that Levi had raised his eyebrows. What did that look mean? "I'll wait at the pub down the street. Mikasa should come too if she wants. I don't think Hange will care. Pack so that you're ready to go on the next expedition after headquarters."

"Yes, sir."

Eren watched Levi walk away down the street for a moment before he closed the door.