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He's with Mikasa in some sordid alley that he thinks might be too sketchy for a place as pristine as Stohess, the walls besmirched with grime and dried blood, the gravel damp from the poor intake of sunlight.

She coaxes a drunk at the end of the street to take his ragged body and half-full bottle to a different place with some choice phrases bordering "I'll arrest you for disturbing the peace if you don't do as I say", even though she is clearly not from the Military Police, and as thus, does not hold that kind of authority in Sina. Luckily the man is far too impaired and stumbles off with a muttered sentence fragment and some accompanying profanities.

Eren doesn't want to lean on such a grimy wall but he's also tired of standing. Armin is taking too long, he wants to say, but doesn't.

As if reading his mind she approaches him with the crate the drunken man had been perched on before and a spare one she found around the corner, setting the latter one down at his feet. "Sit," she says gently, placing the other down beside it. "If I know anything about Annie, she won't be easily convinced. They could be a little while longer."

He dusts off the top and perches on the dampened wood, exhaling a sigh of instant satisfaction and relief. "Awesome! My feet were killing me. We've been out here for hours, it's nearly after noon already…"

She sits without a sound, and he notices then that her hair is getting long again, she forgot to cut it or just hasn't found the time, and her body is curved and she's grown into the muscle she built up over the years in training. She's become an adult, and he's both known this to be happening but it passed right by him all the same.

And suddenly he misses it. He misses being a child that loved his mother more than he wished he could have told her, a rambunctious kid that beat up and got beat up by the same bullies on the block – (he hasn't seen them since the Fall, but figures they're alive somewhere. Alive or eaten) – a rebellious teen with a mean streak and a burning passion only for Titan killing and not for Annie Leonhardt, the monster that slaughtered his friends but loved him all the same. And he misses being that stubborn trainee when he first met her, before they became real adults, before…

"When I first saw the ring on Annie's finger," she starts and Eren instantly wants to change the subject so he can talk about Titans or the sky or how she should trim her hair or Titans or anything that did. Not. Include. The ring, "I was confused. Carla told me, after she gave you the ring, that I shouldn't worry, because you would most likely choose me. You just had a weird way of showing how much you cared about someone, and the ring would be all the proof I would need."

He turns his dejected gaze to the ground. "Oh…"

"And I wanted to confront you about it for quite some time now… but then I saw it – I saw it in your eyes at the mention of her name and the in the smile on your face when she was near, and it was in her looks and in her speech… I knew it was her, Eren, who deserved that ring more than anyone, more than me."

He gradually raises his arm to her farthest shoulder and pulls her against him, head against hers, stroking the edge of her collar bone with his thumb. "I'm sorry," he whispers, and he doesn't know what for, but he figures he should be apologizing – for them, for what wasn't them, for what will never be them, and for so many other things he can't quite recall right now, but he's certain he will eventually, so he'll apologize for all those times too.

"It's not your fault." Her hand crosses over to touch his fingers, delicately, almost reluctantly, and she sighs dismally under her breath. "Whatever makes you happy will make me happy too. You're my brother, and I won't ever forget that."

"You're my sister, Mikasa, your happiness should come first!"

There's something about sister that sits differently on his tongue than any time before – probably because now, unlike any other mention before, it holds some level of a deeper, more affirmed meaning, one day to be set in stone on their graves or on their death certificates (because bodies are cremated not buried, but he will be buried outside the Walls by the ocean when every last Titan is dead, and he'll be damned if he's forgotten so soon).

"I'm sorry I didn't take care of you like I should have, like Mom wanted… but I'll be here for you more often now, okay?"

"Okay," she agrees with a smile, and her hand settles completely over his. "Thank you, Eren."

"For what?"

She doesn't respond because she figures she doesn't need to.

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When Armin finally returns with Annie in tow Eren immediately takes Annie by her wrist and excuses them, guiding her around the end of the alley into an adjacent, equally direful one.

"Eren?" she utters, perturbed by his hasty actions, but her words are skewed when he rams her back against the wall and locks her lips with his.

He kisses her in a way he hasn't before, insistently and longingly, hard enough to bruise her mouth but careful like the first time he ever touched her, and she picks up on his strange vibe but chooses to ignore it, because it isn't like him to be any less than giddy or passionate, and if she gives it any more thought it might just bother her. His tongue is fierce, dominating her own when she's so used to being the one in control, like he's desperate for something he believes he's losing.

She coaxes him to pause by pressing on his shoulders until he's drawn completely back. "What's wrong?" she whispers, brushing his adumbral bangs from his forehead, her other hand cupping his cheek. It's not like her to be so gentle, but it's not like him to be so rough.

"I've really missed you," he replies breathlessly, a half-lie.

"It's more than that."

"The King might put me to death, Ann. I'd like to make the most of what time I have left."

She presses her lips into a thin line, choosing to accept that as an appropriate answer when he knows she suspects something else. "Okay," she says decidedly, "let's go before we burn too much daylight… and then we'll pick up on this again later tonight." She gives him a playful wink. "Sound good?"

He nods absently with a woeful smile, because it sounds good to him, even if there won't be a later for either of them.

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She gets them through the gate by flashing the guards her badge and makes up a bullshit lie about them being merchants who just dropped off her division's 3DMG, so now she was escorting them back. The guards look the other way as per plan and don't even bother to pat the trio down for smuggled weapons (or in this case, gear), simply waving them along and focusing their attention on the cart coming in behind them.

Armin takes them to the Under City stairwell some blocks down. The tunnel isn't set aglow with torches like Annie figured (hoped), so at the maw of the passage she hesitates. The darkness swallows Armin and Mikasa first, like the jaws of the underworld are engulfing them, teeth of shadows clamping shut.

Eren stops. "Annie? What's wrong?"

"I can't go down there."

When her eyes adjust she can see that Mikasa and Armin have paused as well. Eren mutters something incoherent under his breath. She had told him once before that his cell was terrifying when the torchlights went out, and that against her characteristic rock-hard attitude, she was afraid of the dark. It seemed almost childish. It seemed far, far too convenient for a time like this. "Annie, knock it off and let's go. You can't be scared of the dark when you're barely scared of kicking the shit out of soldiers twice your size."

"I'm fucking serious, Eren. I'm not going down there!"

Mikasa is glaring up at him, and he can almost read the thoughts in her eyes. He knows that if Annie doesn't follow them – no, I won't let that happen. He turns towards the girl outlined in sunlight and ascends the steps until he's several paces beneath her, gesturing out his hand to hers. "We don't have time for this, Annie. Please take my hand. I don't care what you're afraid of; I'll protect you from it."

She shakes her head a firm no. "I can't."

"Annie," he hisses and she visibly freezes up, "quit fucking around! I've had enough of this bullshit you're playing! Don't you get what's happening?!"

"What makes you think I don't?" she seethes in return, slapping his wrist down and stepping back so she's out of his reach. "You think I haven't noticed that there hasn't been a single person on this street, in the busiest sector of the city? You think I haven't noticed the quiet amongst you, or the tension in Mikasa's shoulders, or that look of betrayal in Armin's eyes?" Her frigid gaze lands on the blond boy and he deftly swallows the swelled lump in his throat. "You think I don't know… that you've found me out?"

"Annie!" Armin exclaims, "if you're really the Female Titan, why didn't you kill me during the expedition?!"

She laughs, a horrible, delirious, hollowed sound, cruel, harsh and belittling. "You thought I was a good person, didn't you, Armin? You fucking dolt. I didn't spare your life because I pitied you. But now"—she flexes out her fore finger, gradually raising it to her lips—"I can see I made a mistake in showing any mercy at all."

"Annie!" Eren screams, and she snaps her gaze over to him. "Annie, please don't do this! They're going to kill you!"

She merely looks back at him, equally intense, hands quivering as the guilt sets in – Mina and Petra and Auruo and Gunter and Erd and Marco and all those nameless souls she massacred out in the field, they all had families and friends and they were all Eren's friends – and then she starts crying. The tears slide down in rivulets, gliding along her cheeks and dripping from her jaw, seeping into the fabric of her jacket.

What have I done?

"You don't understand," she utters, "this wasn't supposed to happen like this. I was supposed to get the coordinates! I wasn't… I wasn't supposed to fall in love with you."

"Annie, please!" He makes a move to grab for her but Mikasa fists his cloak. "Let me go! ANNIE!"

"I love you Eren"—she presses the knuckle of her finger to the edge of her teeth—"I'm so sorry."

"ANNIE!"

Armin fires the flare directly at her and the bullet whizzes by her face as she reflexively whips her head to the side to dodge. Several soldiers are upon her a split second later and she doesn't have enough reaction time to fight them all off. They're snapping back her arms and kicking out her knees, but her gaze never once leaves Eren. She instinctively thumbs at her ring, snapping the hidden blade outwards with a metallic click.

Oh no.

"Get down!" Armin exclaims, but there isn't enough time. The explosion will kill them.

Reflexively Eren hooks his arms around them and sinks his teeth into the ridge of his palm. First there is an explosion, like the sound of screaming metal and collapsing framework of the passageway around them, crumbling stone and burnt flesh.

Then there is silence.

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A/N: Because I haven't given enough attention to Mikasa. Thank you for all your wonderful reviews last chapter my lovelies~