Prompt requested by Anonymous: Lost
A/N: This turned very Shiganshina centric, and I can't say that I have any regrets (though I'm not sure that this quite does what I wanted it to), but I am sorry, Anon, if this wasn't exactly what you had in mind.
11. Breeze
Lying here like this—the field of grass at their backs, and the limitless sky above—it's easy to forget that they're trapped behind towering walls, easy to forget that the clouds aren't just out of reach.
Armin reads the best out of three of them, and so he is the one to recite the descriptions of the mountains and the deserts, creating rock and sand out of the inky hieroglyphics on the tattered parchment. And where Eren's literacy lacks, his imaginativeness makes up for tenfold, and it is the spoken rather than the written word that serves as his foundation for his stories, and the passing clouds become the illustrations for his visions. Together the two boys weave tales of the world outside to which Mikasa is content to listen.
The hero is ever-changing: cartographer, explorer, escaped convict, abandoned Survey Corps member taken for dead, even the name is seldom the same.
This time, it's the escaped convict—wrongly accused and imprisoned, of course—trekking through a forest of eternal rain. Low on ammo, one last bullet in his revolver, to be exact, it's with a spear fashioned out of the elements that he takes out a wild boar, which was originally a camel until Armin reminded Eren that those were only found in deserts.
Mikasa listens as the two boys guide their hero to the river that falls from the cliffs like thunder, as they have him jump canyons and conquer mountains. White, wispy clouds become towering rock formations, and as they float away on the soft breeze, ever so slowly out of sight, the rock formations dissipate back into their original, cottony forms.
"Hey, Mikasa," it's Armin's voice that breaks her from her reverie.
"Where to next?" Eren asks.
"Huh?"
"Where to next? We've been picking the destinations up until now. It's your turn."
"Oh."
It's a harder decision than she thought it would be. The world is so big, and they've visited so much, and it feels as if she has too many choices, and yet too little. They could always revisit a place: one of the islands, or the grassland with the striped horses and the deer with trees for necks—what was it called again? The savannah?—and there were always the sea caves. But she aches to make full use of her turn, to explore something different and new.
And when the revelation hits her, it's no place new, or all that unique in comparison to everything else Armin's book has to offer, but she has confidence in her choice all the same.
"Home," she says. "He heads home next."
She's met with two bewildered stares.
"Home?"
Mikasa nods.
"But what's to do there?"
Her answer is automatic. "His mother has an apple pie waiting." It takes a moment for her own words to sink in, and when they do, a lump catches in her throat.
By the way Eren and Armin's lips are set in a straight line, it seems that an understanding has hit home.
"He got tired of traveling alone," she adds before lying back down. And there's the light ruffle of grass as the other two join her in sky gazing.
The cloud lazily passing by is circular in nature, the crust appearing crisp despite its less than crisp medium. There's a hint of cinnamon on the breeze. She did always love her mother's apple pie.
"Would you ever do it?" says Armin, "Leave the walls, I mean."
"I plan on it," Eren replies—his voice full of conviction.
He's always been a dreamer. He lives for the future, and sleeps for tomorrow. Like a cloud he's impossible to tie down, so eager to drift away. So very eager to leave them behind.
It's Armin who speaks her mind for her: "Will you miss us?"
Eren's brow crinkles as he processes the question, and his expression only grows sterner as comprehension settles in.
"You guys are coming with me," he says. Because they should know. It's always been that way.
Mikasa's heart flutters like the passing butterfly riding the breeze. And then she joins hands with the boys on either side of her
"Let's get lost in this world," he says aloud, and he flashes that winning grin. "The three of us. Together."
Three heroes off to explore the world. Now that's a story she'd be more than content to listen to—more than eager to create.