Blackout785: Good prompt, but can you make it more specific? Where do I go with it? Remember that it should be able to fit into a single chapter.
Hint 227: Different interpretations and possibilities. It may not be in the story, but the way I see it, it doesn't violate canon either. You can assume that we just didn't get to see all the interactions.
Ode 30: I'm glad you liked the last chapter. When it comes to Annie and Co., I am reminded of the U.S. Sailor who escaped from the USS Arizona when it was sunk at Pearl Harbor. Most of his friends died there. Several years ago, he met and forgave the Japanese pilot who sank his ship. I wish I could remember their names. The whole 'warrior' aspect of RBA leads me to conclude that these are just Soldiers doing their jobs. You're prompt is next.
Brook: !
TheLuckyShot: I'm glad you liked it. What does your signature mean?
Satsuki de Virgo: I'm glad you liked it. I had never read a Springles fic before either. I wanted Sasha to be seen exactly the way you saw her. And yes, now that you have requested it, I will do a sequel to Run Through The Jungle.
Karano (1): Yes.
Karano (2): Maybe it's my personal experiences, but I can't seem to hate any of them. Subterfuge and sabotage are a timeless (and technically legal) part of warfare, though they may be seven kinds of questionable. If I was ordered to infiltrate a an enemy stronghold, befriend them, then kill them if I had to, I'd do it. I'd probably hate myself to death and never be able to sleep un-medicated again, but orders are orders. Annie is actually the one I struggle with the most. What she did borders on a war-crime. The others might be let go at the conclusion of all this, but she would be facing some kind of trial.
Notes: This is part of my main story. Be advised that I will probably be doing prompts for a bit, until the manga picks up again, starting with Dust In The Wind (part 2).
Behind The Honor: Chapter 5: Wish You Were Here
"Hey, Eren, can you help me?"
The young boy got to his feet in a flash, his book falling to his side. He was afraid something like this might happen. He had needed to leave her bedside for a few moments to use the outhouse, but a moment of weakness had seen him distracted by one of Armin's volumes on the outside world. When his foster-sister had needed him most, it seemed he was in their squad's communal living room rather than where he should have been.
The poor girl still needed to recover from a set of painfully broken ribs and could do almost nothing on her own. Eren and Historia had both been caring for her, but the petite blonde girl was out and away at the moment. As much as he wouldn't have minded doing tending to Mikasa all on his own, it had been his decision to leave some of the more intimate tasks to the young Miss Reiss. If that's what this was about, things were about to become a mix of frustration and awkwardness for the young soldier.
Eren stepped lightly to Mikasa's quarters, a small three-meter by four-meter room with an equally small bed, and began to push the door open. This would give him time and opportunity enough to shut the door quickly, should he see anything too private. Such possibilities always loomed; his foster-sister had a habit of 'forgetting' that they weren't kids anymore and changing right in front of him. It wasn't that he minded, quite the opposite in fact. He just didn't want to be labeled as a creep for staring.
Opening the door wider and wider, he finally found his sister, on the floor, looking like she was about to do the last thing in the world that she should be doing. Or maybe the first thing, knowing her.
"Hold my feet," she said, looking up at him. After a moment, she must have noticed the expression on his face, adding, "Please?"
She was sitting on the ground, holding her knees to her chest, ready to work out her abs. She wore nothing but a loose, worn sports bra and a pair of tight compression shorts. The former showed an enticing amount of cleavage from her modest-but-still-perfect breasts. Eren tore his eyes away, willing himself to feel anger, rather than what his body told him to feel.
"Mikasa, what in the hell do you think you're doing?!" he all but yelled. He needed to keep his tone tightly regulated, the better to show that he had learned to better control his temper. But seeing his beloved foster-sister about to do something so stupid sent his blood boiling and made it easy to get carried away.
"Sit-ups," she said, giving a half-shrug.
"I... I can't even begin to understand how you think this is a good idea," he said, shaking his head in disbelief, "I'm even less certain how you could possibly think I'll help you with this."
It wasn't that her ribs had been broken before their run-in with the smiling titan and aggravated by the long horseback ride to safety. If that had been all, he might have helped her with only begrudging reservations. Just enough time had passed. No, it was because this was the second time she had broken her ribs in the span of a week.
Only yesterday she had been standing, walking, and training on her own without much issue. She had insisted that she had been completely healed. But bones don't permanently set that quickly, even for someone with ostensibly superhuman abilities like his sister. Her ribs had set and begun to weave together, but no more than that. Basic abdominal work-outs, crunches, and chopping wood she could handle. But hanging upside down from a tree by her legs with forty-five kilograms of weight in her hands while doing inclined sit-ups? That had pushed her body a bit too far.
After he fourth set of that regime, the poor girl's own muscles had compressed and collapsed her ribs, re-breaking six of the bones along their original seams.
Combat released endorphins and adrenaline in both the wounded and the witness. The experience tended to create a tunnel vision effect, dull pain, and limit the sense of everything not immediately in front a person. Training accidents... They happened, and could be felt, as clearly as the stars at night under a cloudless sky. Eren could still hear her screaming in his head.
The last thing he needed was a repeat performance.
"I'm healed," she said, "Good as new."
"You said that before," he replied, moving to lift her off the ground, bridal style.
"Doesn't matter," she said, through she made no move to stop him when one of his arms made its way under her knees, the other running along the small of her back. "This is going to happen," she finished.
"No it isn't," Eren muttered. In a steady motion, he began to lift-
And found Mikasa's hand firmly balled around his shirt collar. He tried moving the girl, but just couldn't get leverage from where he leaned over her and she wasn't about to let him move.
"Hold my feet," she said again.
"No."
"Yes."
Again he made to lift her, and nothing. He tried for a third time, bringing his legs under his torso, instead of trying to lift his torso back over his legs. That would allow him to lift her with his knees. He suddenly had in his head the image of Mikasa as a petulant child. He also began to wonder if this is what she had been going through having to deal with him for so long. Never again...
Of course there was an issue with his plan, one he discovered almost as soon as he began to move. He had been leaning over Mikasa to carry her, meaning that she currently sat beneath his upper body. And that was exactly where his legs had needed to be and presently were. He looked down at his red-faced sister, her head mere centimeters from his groin. Very quickly he shared that same complexion. Too late now. Better follow through.
This time, there was no getting around it for the frustrated and embarrassed girl. She weighed a lot for her build, but not so much that Eren couldn't lift her. Holding onto him, without being able to cancel out his leverage, did nothing but bring the pair closer together in a very literal sense.
Eren had her in his arms and then on the bed in seconds, plopping down next to her and panting from the exertion, or so he told himself was the reason.
Mikasa glared at him. "You know, I'll just get back down there and try again when you leave. And I'll have to do crunches because you won't hold my feet, which are worse for my ribs," she said, still holding onto his collar, locking her dark opal eyes with his green ones.
Eren made no effort to move away from her, or to get her to release her grasp, though her face remained breathtakingly near. Although he didn't want her to know how he really felt, he hoped that she could tell that this was his tacit statement that no, he did not mind being this close to her, and that she wouldn't pull away just yet. He knew himself well, and the way others percieved him. He knew that by not complaining in the slightest, his message would get across and he might be able to feel Mikasa's hot breath on his lips and cheeks for a just little bit longer.
"If you're just going to try it again when I leave," he mumbled, "Then I'll have to stay here and make sure you don't." He meant to speak with more conviction but found himself far too entranced by her stare to do so.
He felt as much as saw her moving in closer to him. He registered it slowly, they way a prey animal might have when hypnotized by a cobra. To his shock, he found himself moving toward her by miniscule increments, in time with his racing heartbeat.
Did he want this? Hell yes he did. But did she want this? She thought she wanted it, that was for sure. Eren wasn't stupid or blind. He had know exactly how she felt about him for a while, maybe since they joined the training corps, maybe longer if he admitted it to himself. But did Mikasa really want, or need, a relationship with him? What if it was just an infatuation?
Supposing that they could have a relationship, could they ever look at each other in the same way? No. He hoped that they might see each other as something better, as something more, but his hopes and reality didn't always coincide.
What would happen when she met someone better, less prone to outbursts or obsessions? Or if the romance just died on its own? When a 'sister' bedded her 'brother,' she would without question stop being seen as a sister and vice versa. So with no romantic relationship or familial relationship, they would become... Nothing.
As much as Mikasa made it know that Eren was all the family she had, the obvious unstated truth of the matter was the she was all the family that he had. The young woman would do anything to not lose him, but what she often failed to realize was the he would do anything to not lose her.
With that terrible, grating thought in his head, Eren did that absolute last thing in the world that he wanted to do at that very moment. He turned his head from her. He could have cried when her movement for the kiss carried her forward and he felt her lips press into his cheek instead where he needed them. He closed his eyes and mentally screamed.
When she pulled away he opened his eyes and glanced at the girl. What he saw wrenched his heart beyond words, beyond anything he had ever felt, save perhaps for the death of his mother. In her eyes he saw a resigned kind of acceptance, as if she had been expecting such a failure all along.
He did this to her. He took away the hope she held for whatever future she dreamed of. Eren had visions of a world without titans. Mikasa had visions of a world with Eren. He knew this. That's why he couldn't go through with it, no matter how much it killed him, no matter how much he needed it. But a chaste life with his sister was better than nothing.
I'm doing this for you, Mikasa, for us. Please forgive me.
He needed to give her something. Anything at all. He wouldn't allow himself to crush her hopes like this. And who knew? Maybe there was some hope for them. Maybe he would eventually get over his fear of losing her. Or more likely, a combination of carelessness, alcohol, or hormones would cause his true feelings to slip out. Either way, there would be no going back once it happened.
Slowly, he brought his hand to her bare neck, caressing it gently, noticing for the first time how gorgeous it looked. He never really got the chance to appreciate it, with the way she always covered it with his old scarf. She must have taken it off to work out.
"You look really beautiful without your scarf. It looks good on you. Your neck, I mean, not the scarf. But that does too, I guess," he finished, stammering.
She looked away, blushing furiously under his touch and at his words.
Eren wasn't much better, just touching her like this, sitting next to her, awoke certain parts of him in less than subtle ways. He then realized what, exactly, he had said. Not only would she, in all likelihood, refuse to wear that scarf in his presence again, but his word-soup made almost no sense.
"'Your neck looks good on you...'" he repeated, "That has to be the dumbest line in the history of ever." It was her damn fault, the way she had been turning him into an idiot ever since she tried to kiss him a week ago. He could no longer pretend she wasn't interested in him after that had happened. And I totally just admitted to using a -very bad- pick-up line on her… Are you even working, Brain?
He caught her glaring at him.
"You're not an idiot, do you hear me Eren Jaeger?" she hissed.
"Right, but sometimes..." he muttered.
She was about to retort when slid his hand up the back of her neck, running his fingers through her silken hair.
Before he could think too hard about it, he pulled her toward him and down slightly, bringing her forehead to his lips. He pressed into her, letting the sensation of her skin linger before releasing his hold. She complied, recognizing that the moment had passed, leaning back on the headboard of the bed and away from him. She almost certainly felt that to do so was what was expected of her.
"Thank you for the kiss," he said.
"I-" she tried to respond, but he cut her off.
"You know that we'll be together forever, right?" he stated as much as asked.
"...Yes," she said, sounding out of breath.
"And that I can't possibly see myself with any other woman, right?"
Her voice caught in her throat, breaking the word in half, "Y-Yes."
"Okay, then..." again, exactly what Eren had said dawned on him just after he had said it. Ironically, though he hadn't meant it the way it came out, the way that Mikasa had undoubtedly understood it was no less truthful. Being in a romantic relationship with anyone besides her was a completely impossible. He couldn't even think along those lines. "I... I just wanted to be clear."
"Okay..." she said with a dazed smile across her lips.
Was she starting to cry? He looked away suddenly. I'd better change the subject. If she confesses her feelings now, there'll be no stopping me from doing the same.
"I think we should get some sleep," he said, leaning back, "You know, turn in early. You need the rest."
"I, uh, right..." Mikasa said, "But you said you were going to be here to make sure I didn't..." She trailed off.
"Does it look like I'm going anywhere, huh?" he said, faking his best aggravated tone. He slid down on the tiny bed, pulling the blankets over himself.
Mikasa did the same, drawing the blankets up to her shoulders, leaving her neck exposed. She must have very quickly understood what was happening. Hopefully she wouldn't ruin the moment by overanalyzing it. That would only lead to trouble, which Eren would have to solve by taking the floor, and the warmth of her bed felt quite comfortable indeed.
She scooted close, pressing herself against him, settling her back against his chest, a necessity given the small amount of room they had to work with. He brought one arm beneath her neck and down, Mikasa rewarding him with a comfortable sigh as she used his bicep as an extra pillow. His other arm intertwined with hers, resting it against her chest.
"We always to slept like this at home..." she whispered, "I never did get used to sleeping alone in the military..."
"Neither did I," he agreed just as softly.
"I don't want to have to sleep alone again," she muttered as she drifted off to sleep.
"Neither do I," he said, joining her in a dream.
I do this for the reviews (and prompts).