Requested by Trick on AO3: Eren getting stuck in Titan form with Mikasa around sounds interesting. I feel a bonding kind of vibe, especially since Eren's titan can't talk.

A/N: Writing comedic cutesy stuff is hard. Like, it's hard enough writing it, and executing it and stuff, but oh my god, the process is made all the more difficult when you don't have a great sense of humor to start with (points at self). I can't say I'm entirely satisfied with this one.

Prompts are still closed.


51. Runaway

"What are we testing for again?" Armin asks as the three of them stand in Eren's gigantic shadow. They crane their necks to stare at Eren's looming, titan figure, that stares back at them with curious green eyes.

Giddy, Hange only manages a shrug before running off. "Just observational study," she says, circling Eren's titan and jotting down notes on posture and muscle form. The sun hits the lens of her glasses just right, glinting and shining. "All for the good of science of course."

"This will needlessly tire Eren out," Mikasa says, arms crossed and lips pulled down in the slightest of frowns. "Surely, Captain Levi wouldn't approve."

"Yes, how convenient that he isn't here today," Hange muses. "Hey! Eren!" she calls up. "Can you hear me in there?" But the beast doesn't respond. It shows no sign of comprehension, and instead, stands there dumbly, staring at the trio with a vacant expression. "Eren?"

"Eren!" Armin calls up, "It's me! Armin!"

At that, the titan emits a low rumble, and blinks curiously before yawning.

"Eren, do you understand what we're saying?" Armin asks, "Eren?"

But the titan quickly loses interests, his eyes following a bird that flies past, and for a short while, he's lost to them. His attention snaps back at the sound of Mikasa's voice.

"Eren! You have to listen to Armin and Hange," she says.

Eren crouches down, and slowly, slowly, he raises a single finger, and brings it to Mikasa, pointing to her chest. He makes another low, rumbling sound, mouth moving, this time, as if trying to say something. And then, he slowly opens his hand, dropping it to the ground before Mikasa's feet to invite her onto his palm. Standing in the center of his hand, Mikasa looks incredibly tiny, her small figure juxtaposed against his titan's pure massiveness.

"Eren? Do you understand what we're saying?" Mikasa says as Eren brings her before his face. "Eren?" she peers into those emerald eyes, trying to discover the boy she knows between a mess of brown hair. "What are you doing?" Slowly, the titan rises to its feet, cradling Mikasa in both its hands. Eren takes one look at Hange and Armin, and then he breaks into a sprint in the opposite direction.

"Hey!"

"Eren! Come back!"

"Quick! Grab the horses! Let's go!"

It takes Armin and Hange all of two hours to find Eren and Mikasa—they ride out sixteen miles only to find them two miles away from camp on the return trip.

Eren's titan leans against an abandoned barn house that threatens to collapse, snoring away. There's a moment of panic when they're unable to locate Mikasa at first—Did he leave her somewhere? Step on her? Oh god he can't have eaten her, could he?—but they spot her a few moments later, curled up and napping in the nest of Eren's brown hair. Armin and Hange dismount their horses, and the ground rumbles ever so slightly beneath their feet with Eren's breath.

"We should probably get Eren out of there," Armin says with a sigh. "I hate to wake him." The both of them look so peaceful, curled up in sleep. They always were a bit of a troublesome pair.

"I hate to wake him, too." Hange says. "He looks kind of cute, curled up like that. Like some overgrown puppy." There comes the sound of swords being drawn, and Armin can only watch as Hange moves towards the sleeping pair, blades drawn.