Chapter 43: Dinner

Training was … exhaustion. At least that´s what Armin would call it. Mikasa had way too much fun and the others? Armin isn't sure what exactly they think about the whole titan-shifter-thing. He had talked them down as they had to face the fact that there were more then one titan-shifter and after Erwin gave the recruits enough information it was Armin´s task to make sure no one starts to fear or worse hate Eren. Mikasa on his side does her best but she isn't a talker, she never was.

After the training where they played the easy version of ´catch the human´ they make their way over to the dining hall. They are all hungry. Hanji might call it a game, but it is harder then any training Levi let them do during their time as cadets. They feel it and the constant correction and lost rounds against Eren weren't helping to lift the moral of the group.

They get their dinner and sit down, even Eren got one but this time he gives his food to Sasha so that everyone sees it. Her happy bubbling was heard in the whole dining hall. And he sees Levi on the other table rolling his eyes. Armin has to smile too. Nothing has changed and the Captain give Eren the time to talk with his friends.

"Oh that´s the reason Sasha has always a bigger portion." Connie comment.

Eren laughs. "It´s not easy to hide the fact that I don't eat, at the beginning Armin and Mikasa got all my food but Sasha here is far easier to fed." They all laugh as Sasha says something with her mouth full of food.

"The safest place to get rid of food, Sasha´s hands." Connie continues. "But honestly, you never ate anything? Not even a piece of bread or an apple. How did we not notice?"

"Can you really recall seeing someone else eating. Most days we were all tired enough to fall asleep on our dinner plates, the breakfast was ignored or taken half-sleeping and the rest was Mikasa with her deflection." Armin answers for Eren. They had helped and now everyone was allowed to know.

"So, he really grew up with you guys." Marco asks.

"No, he saved us. Not Captain Levi. We had to keep it a secret." Mikasa answers in her clear voice. "He freed us from the basement we were buried and took us to the other soldiers."

"I could smell you." Eren says. As he sees the confused faces of his friends, he offers a few more information. "You know that titans have a better sense of smell, I used it in my human form and found them. Most of the smells in the city were older, blood dried, dead bodies already starting to rot if they didn't get eaten but they smelled alive. I dig them out and brought them to Levi before I closed the gate with a bit rock." Now they all stare at him.

"You closed the gate?" Krista asks amazed. They all know that the inside of Wall Maria was titan free again and the only reason for it was that they could close the gate to prevent more titans from entering.

"Yes, of course. Erwin told me to take the rock and I did it. It was a really heavy, big rock but I managed to carry it."

"We saw it. It was amazing." Armin offers. "He carried that thing though half of the city, there was everywhere steam around him and Captain Levi lead the way so Eren could take the shortest route. The other soldiers guarded both gates to protect him from the other titans. I have never seen something so amazing. It was like humanity won against the titans." Armin´s eyes shine bright. He remembers this day clearly; it was that moment he had realized that finding the ocean would be something he could achieve.

"The steam came from my broken bones and tearing muscles. My titan body got crushed under the wight." That silenced the table.

"Does it hurt?" Mikasa whispers.

"Not really, it heals, I feel it, yes but it´s something else then pain. I can´t really explain it." Eren shrugs his shoulders.

"How old are you really." Jean suddenly asks. "I mean you look young but as we started I thought Shadis was right, you looked like a ten year old and now I wouldn't say you are older than 13."

"I don't know. As I met Levi, he said I look like a nine-year-old but before I came in contact with him and other human´s I had no real concept of time. There was no one that would have explained it to me. I knew days and nights. But that was all. There was no reason in the forest where I lived to know what month it is or that another year passed. Hanji had to explain it to me and I still find it strange to measure time."

"Can you tell us something about the outside world." Surprisingly Ymir asks. She stays silence most of the time except when she is talking to Krista.

"You should ask Armin about it. He told me lots of things about the outside world. That there are giant fields of sand and rivers made of fire and the ocean. All I knew was my forest. I lived their as long as I can remember. The only time I really left was as I took Levi back to the wall and he knew where we had to go." They all stare at Armin, waiting.

"My grandfather had a book of the outside world. It was a book from the time before the walls, it shouldn't have existed anymore but it had pictures of places that looks like magic and I want to see them all." Armin wished the book had survived the fall of the wall but it was somewhere in Shiganshina lost until they would return to the city and even then, buried under debris, left to the forces of nature. He has little to no hope to find the book again but he might see the real thing one day. For this they have to train. More than ever before.