Despite getting back to the barracks far after lights out, Eren was able to slip back into his bunk with little fuss, only getting a hushed, "Where have you been?" from Reiner.

Eren pressed a finger to his lips, then pointed to his wrist as he made his way to his bunk.

As he approached his bed, he quickly glanced over to see that Armin was sleeping soundly.

Good. As much as Eren loved him, he could often be far too nosy, and with the ramifications of what Eren had just discovered weighing on his back, he wasn't sure how long he could keep it a secret.

Eren pulled back the thin sheet given to all trainees upon arrival-really they may as well have just given them a bunch of tissues sewn together for all it did to keep them warm-and set to forcing his hand underneath the mattress covering.

Although trainees were later given 3DMG blades once maneuvering practice started, the beginnings of camp were a strictly no-weapons zone. If anyone was caught with so much as a letter opener, it was confiscated and the trainee punished appropriately.

No one really knew why this was the case, as eventually every cadet would be given blades much more dangerous than any knife they could smuggle in, but apparently it was an old standing rule that had stemmed from multiple issues.

Something about fights and dead cadets.

Despite the policy, small blades and the like often ran rampant throughout the camp, and could be used as a bargaining chip for a wide array of favors, ranging from extra food to a change in duties.

For that reason most trainees hid their blades off their person unless they were planning on making a trade, as losing a blade was the same as losing currency.

Yet, despite the value and status they held, no cadet ever really needed them, as the blades were much more effective at cutting and knives had been supplied previously whenever they were needed.

As such, Eren kept his stash untouched, hidden within his straw mattress.

While wholly uninterested in trades, he just didn't feel safe without at least one knife, as what if he needed it to defend from kidnappers or thugs attacking the camp in the hope of stealing some 3DMG?

That was a perfectly good reason to keep ten knives of varying sizes hidden within his mattress and around the camp.

As he pushed his arm up to his bicep into his mattress he pushed and dug through the straw until-

There!

He gripped one of the small pocket knives that he'd hidden within his mattress and quickly withdrew his hand.

Looking down he noticed that it was the red folding knife he'd pickpocketed off of Daz within his first few days at the camp.

Aw. He'd been hoping it'd be the silver one.

Eren tugged off his boots, dropping the knife in and folding the top over to conceal the glint of metal, just in case someone noticed it in the morning.

He'd much rather have snuck in during dinner and grabbed the knife rather than having to carry it around all day, but he knew that he'd already built up a ton of suspicion from Mikasa and Jean by skipping today, and he'd much rather take the punishment for being found with a knife than have anyone find out what he planned to do with it.

Walls, that'd be an awkward conversation.

Shoving his boots beneath the bed, he glanced over and realized that he'd never actually properly put up his 3DMG straps, as when he'd taken them off earlier it'd been impossible to do with only one hand.

He glared at the straps, knowing that they'd be an issue tomorrow if he didn't fix them now, but fuck, he was practically already in bed and could feel the sleep pulling at his eyes.

He sighed.

Whatever, that was future Eren's problem.

As expected, future Eren was not pleased with past Eren's decision to sleep instead of fixing his straps.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Cried Eren as he tried in vain to untangle the mess that was the waist belt.

Everyone else except for Armin had already left, making sure to be early in case they incurred the wrath of the commander, which would end up especially bad before breakfast.

Lineup was in about ten minutes, and on a good day it normally took him about ten minutes to fully gear up and adjust the straps to his liking, and today was not a good day.

"You doing ok there Eren?" Came Armin's concerned voice from beside him, "You seem like you're struggling a bit."

Eren glared at him as he finally figured out that he had gotten the left clasp flipped around.

"You think!?"

"Waoh, chill out. You've got time to put your stuff on, you might just not be able to adjust it until after lineup." Said Armin as he calmly tightened his chest strap. "If you tell me where your boots are, I can grab em' for you."

Finally shrugging the gray piece that connected the straps up onto his back Eren responded, "That'd be great man, I think I left them under-"

Suddenly Eren had a flashback to what he'd done last night.

Oh shit, if Armin picked up his boots Eren knew he'd feel the extra weight from the knife and would definitely start asking questions.

An excuse like 'I planned to make a trade!' wouldn't work as Eren knew that he'd previously explained to Armin how he hated everything about the knife trading system, down to the most minute detail.

"Under the uhhhhhh.."

Eren glanced over to see Armin's face furrow in confusion. Fuck he had to be quick about this or Armin would become suspicious.

"Y'know what?" Eren asked, "I don't really remember, but I'll look for them. You should go line up though, there's not a whole ton of time left."

"We've still got about seven minutes, and it'll go a lot faster if I help you look y'know."

Eren started to sweat. Walls he hoped he didn't look as nervous as he felt.

"No, no, no, no, it's totally good! They're probably in one of the places I normally put them so I'll find them quickly. You should go tell Mikasa that I'm not dead though, she's probably freaking out by now."

Armin still looked relatively confused, but ultimately agreed to head out to talk with Mikasa.

"Just so you know, it's now your own fault if you end up late." Armin called out as he headed for the door.

Eren smiled nervously as he fidgeted with his chest strap. "Yeah, yeah I got it!"

As Armin walked out the door Eren flew into flurry, ripping his boots from under his bed and retrieving the pocket knife.

Sina that could have been so bad, thank Walls he'd been able to come up with a good enough excuse to fool Armin on the spot.

(Armin, for his part, was entirely unconvinced that Eren hadn't been attempting to hide something from him, but if Eren had been that anxious and it involved his boots, Armin really didn't want to know)

Eren clipped the knife to the front of his shin, using one of the straps that criss-crossed as a hold, and pushed the knife down as far as it would go before hindering his ankle movement.

In one swift motion, he pulled own both of his boots and was pleased to see that the small bulge of the knife was hidden by the folds in his boot.

He moved his foot in a circle to check and- yep, it was hidden no matter which way he moved.

Good.

This was good.

Now all he had to do was wait until free time after dinner and he'd be able to test all he wanted!

Lineup had been an overall boring affair, but Eren hadn't been able to get over the feeling of someone watching him.

He was used to the normal stare of Mikasa, constantly checking if he was doing ok-which yes, he was fine, Walls she didn't have to worry so much-but this was different.

Someone was boring holes into his back and Eren shuddered, feeling much like a bird being stalked by a cat.

He was tempted to turn around, just to see who the hell had suddenly decided that he was the most interesting thing to look at today, but his growling stomach and the commander's threat of having anyone who broke formation run their way through breakfast had him staring directly forward.

That didn't stop him from squirming in place though, as seconds seemed to suddenly tick by much slower.

Fuck, this sucked.

After morning lineup Eren headed straight to the mess hall, thoroughly weirded out by whatever that was.

On his way he met up with Armin and Mikasa, both of which were not amused by his disappearing act from the previous day.

"So Eren, would you like to tell me exactly where you went yesterday?" Asked Mikasa, as she stepped in front of him to block his path.

Eren averted his eyes as he responded, "I told you as I was leaving didn't I? I went to look for Armin."

Armin and Mikasa shared a look.

"Eren I was in the barracks reading the entire time."

Shit.

"Yeah, well I thought that maybe you'd been practicing out by that tree you like so much." He retorted, "I got back after you were asleep because it takes a while to get out there y'know?"

He knew his ears must have been bright red by now, but the sun had been beating down on everyone as they stood in line, so hopefully it wasn't that obvious.

Armin shook his head. "But it should only take half an hour to get out there and back, and Jean said he was one of the last asleep and didn't see you come back."

Fucking fuck, Jean just had to go and open his mouth didn't he. Walls, Eren was gonna kick his ass today in hand to hand practice for that.

"Why would you ever believe anything Jean says man, you know he hates my guts."

"Yes, but you were acting really weird yesterday? Are you sure there's not anything you need to tell us?

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I think you guys are just looking way too far into this."

Both Armin and Mikasa looked at him in concern before finally deciding to continue walking forward.

Walls that had been close.

He knew that neither Mikasa nor Armin were stupid, hell Armin's intellegence was his defining trait, but fuck he hadn't expected them to start catching on so early.

He'd have to be much more careful in the future.

As they approached the mess hall the trio noticed that their usual spot had been taken over by Hannah and Franz so that they could do whatever weird couple thing they pleased, and as a result the rest of the cadets had decided to give them a wide berth.

Eren grimaced and turned back to Armin and Mikasa.

"Can we uh, not sit there today?"

Both nodded enthusiastically-or at least Armin did and Mikasa followed- as they scanned the mess hall for other open seats.

Jean was siting at the table, that one was full, another one was full, Sasha was at that one and almost done eating, and aha!

Towards the back Annie, Bertholt, and Reiner were closely huddled together, but other than that, the rest of the table looked clear.

"Hey do you guys mind sitting with their crew today?" Asked Eren

Armin shook his head, "At this point I'm hungry enough that'd I'd deal with Hannah and Franz if I had to."

Mikasa shrugged noncommittally.

Quickly grabbing food, they strode over to the table the trio was still huddled at and sat down.

The three jolted apart, seeming to not have expected anyone else to decide to join them.

The six stared at each other in silence before Eren finally asked, "Yo, do you mind if we sit here? Franz and Hannah kind of uh, occupied our table."

They continued to stare for a second before Reiner finally responded, "Uh yeah, man sure." He turned back to Annie and Bertholdt and asked, "Do you guys mind?"

Bertholt quickly stammered out a "n-no it's all good," while Annie simply shrugged.

"Ok, cool." said Eren as he began to eat.

All six ate in uncomfortable silence before Reiner cleared his throat and turned to Eren.

"So Eren how's your wr-"

He was roughly cut off as Eren slammed the side of his fist into his chest, causing Bertholt and Annie, who were sitting across from him, to jump.

"My chest? Oh it's a lot better now, there's barely even a bruise left!" Blurted Eren, "Thanks for being concerned though, Mrs. Servott was really understanding when I told here."

Eren smiled at Reiner, but it seemed a little forced, and didn't quite meet his eyes.

Now, Reiner was not the brightest guy when it came to social interaction, but even he could see the obvious strain in both Eren's smile and arm, which was still closed in a fist in the center of his chest, and screamed 'finish that sentance, I fucking dare you.'

Although Reiner didn't doubt that he was overall stronger than him, Eren was vicious and unpredictable, and Reiner was honestly a little terrified of whatever lurked behind his facade of normality, so he decided to go along with whatever Eren was trying to do.

"Yeah...sorry about that, you just looked a little messed up out there." Wheezed Reiner as he attempted to catch his breath.

Fuck, Eren could hit hard when he wanted to.

"Messed up?" Questioned Mikasa, suddenly becoming invested in the conversation. "What do you mean?"

She'd leaned over the table, invading Reiner's personal space to the point where he thought she was aiming to clock him.

Reiner flinched back as he glanced over to Annie for help.

Annie just stared back at him unimpressed, her glare seeming to say 'You got yourself into this, good luck getting yourself out.'

Eren wasn't being any help either, as he'd removed the hand from Reiner's chest, but was still staring at him like he was about to spill of Eren's deepest secrets.

"He just looked like he was in a lot of pain y'know." Reiner muttered as Eren began to glare holes into the side of his head, "And I don't really think I've ever seen him cry from pain, so I thought it was really bad-"

"You were crying!?" Exclaimed Mikasa, as she whipped around to face Eren, and oh boy Reiner immediately knew that had not been a smart thing to say.

Eren glared even harder at him as he responded, "It's just because threw up, I always end up tearing up when I do."

"Not any time I remember." Butted in Armin, and suddenly Reiner wished that he was literally anywhere else than in the direct crossfire between the three friends.

"Ok fine, I hit the branch really hard and it hurt but I'm fine now!" shouted Eren as he threw his hands into the air, "Now can we please drop the topic?"

"No, not until you tell me exactly what happened."

Reiner dropped his head into his hands and looked across from where he was sitting in an attempt to have Annie and Bertholdt help him out of this, only to see that they had already left.

And he still had half a plate of food left.

Fuck this was gonna be a long breakfast.

Unsurprisingly after breakfast had ended Eren was pissed.

Well, he was always pissed- a never ending rage for titans will do that to you-but this was different.

He was pissed because no matter what he said, no matter would he did, Armin and Mikasa just wouldn't drop the fucking topic.

They just kept asking whether he was ok, if anything still hurt, if that was the only thing that had happened.

Of course it wasn't what had happened, but what was he gonna do? Tell the truth and explain how he'd healed from something that normally takes days in minutes and say 'ok so I might be somewhat related to titans, but it's all cool, I'm still the same Eren you've known, just with some extra healing.'?

Yeah, because that would go over so well.

Truth be told he was actually somewhat touched at the fact that they held such concern for his well being, but fucking hell could they just chill out for a couple minutes? They acted as if he was still the ten year old who cried at scraped knees and bruised elbows, not a highly capable soldier in training.

Because of this, the second the commander ordered everyone to branch out and pair up, he moved as far as possible from the two and searched for someone who wouldn't ask to many questions.

Although he'd planned on kicking Jean's ass before breakfast, as he looked around he noticed that Jean had already gained a sparring partner.

Actually most of the camp had already found a partner, except for-

Oh fuck, Annie didn't have a partner.

Whatever, that was fine. Normally Annie didn't take training too seriously and just stood off on her own, so all he had to stick close to another pair and hope that the Commander didn't see him.

Unfortunately as Eren continued to scan the field, he accidently locked eyes with her and she began walking.

Directly towards him.

Fuck that wasn't good.

"You got a partner?" She asked.

"Ah no, but I don't think that-"

She cut him off with a wave of a hand, "Good I don't have one either."

Eren gulped. He really didn't feel like getting his ass kicked into the next century today.

"But before we start I have a few questions."

"Huh?"

That had caught him off guard. Out of the whole year that everyone had been that camp, he hadn't seen Annie even attempt to learn anything about the other cadets, much less straight up ask questions.

"I've got questions for you." she repeated cooly. "Are you going to answer them or not?"

"Y-yeah! What do you need to know."

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she stepped in closer and lowered her voice.

"Why did you lie to Mikasa and Armin about your wrist?"

Eren's smile dropped. So Reiner had told her after all.

"What's it matter to you?" Eren spat back.

"Nothing much really, I'm just curious." She responded. "It's just that I've never seen you lie to them that much until today, so I have to admit, it made me curious."

Eren narrowed his eyes at her. Just curious? Yeah right, he knew there was another reason.

"They fuss over me too much." Eren explained. "If I told them that I messed up and bruised my wrist they'd freak out and try to get me to skip training for a few days."

"Bruised?" Annie asked, her eyebrows raised, "I was under the impression that it was sprained."

"Yeah, well it wasn't. I just hit it really hard."

"Hm."

The two stood in silence for a minute as Annie continued to stare at him, arms crossed.

She finally broke the silence by sighing and responded, "Alright then. I believe you."

Eren opened his mouth to thank her but was silenced by her saying, "But I hope that you know I'm not going to go easy on you just because of one little bruise."

Fuck.

Despite the earlier insistence, come dinner Mikasa and Armin seemed to have stopped asking Eren about the incident, if only to keep him from getting angrier than he already was.

He supposed the rough core muscle training session from earlier also helped keep conversation to a minimum.

Oddly enough, even though he'd felt the strain of being pushed to his limits earlier, soon after he'd stopped the strain lessened, and within an hour or so had totally disappeared. He didn't feel the telltale signs of soreness that would last for the next couple days, nor did he feel the burn of exertion that comes with a difficult workout.

Come to think of it, he couldn't remember any time during training when soreness or tenderness in his muscles lasted for more than an hour or two.

Eren supposed it may have been due to his newfound healing abilities, as he'd heard from Armin before that the reason your muscles hurt after using them was because working out actually put small tears in them. That was why they got stronger too, apparently. When your body healed up, it'd build your muscles up even stronger than before.

But the weird thing was that even though he'd been training for over a year, and had certainly gotten stronger, Eren couldn't remember a single day that he'd felt sore.

He remembered the feeling from when he was a child, the deep ache he'd feel in his arms for days after carrying heavy logs down from the field.

But that begged the question, if he wasn't always able to heal, then when did he start being able to?

When did he go from normal human healing, to wounds closing right before his eyes.

He could remember scraped knees as a child- the kind his mother always used to kiss as she rinsed off in the river-, torn up palms, and bruised knuckles. Those always felt like they'd taken forever to heal.

So when? What the hell had happened to cause him to-

"Yo, earth to Eren! Anyone in there!" Said Armin as he waved a hand in front of Eren's face.

Eren blinked once, then twice, before finally realized that he'd just been staring off into space for a little while.

Ah, that'd probably been a little concerning.

"Yeah, I'm good." Eren responded, "Sorry just got caught up thinking about somethin'."

Armin opened his mouth to respond but not before Jean butted in saying, "Well that's a rare sight to see. Eren actually thinking about something?"

"Well at least it's spotted rarely." Eren retorted. "Don't think I've ever seen you think anything through."

"Especially not when talking to Mikasa." Armin quipped.

Jean's mouth dropped open as Eren turned to smirk at him.

"Oh, ouch, think he hit that nail right on the head."

"At least I don't perform a disappearing act anytime somebody starts to win an argument against me."

Eren raised his eyebrows. "That's assuming you were winning the argument yesterday."

Jean scoffed, "If I wasn't you wouldn't have had any reason to run away then."

Eren quickly stood up and leaned over the table, "I wasn't running away."

"Oh really? Then why'd you leave?"

"I went to go look for Armin."

"Yeah, and that couldn't wait until after you were done getting verbally ass kicked?"

Eren seethed. He hadn't fucking run away, he'd had some very important business to take care of, but of course he couldn't fucking say that.

"Y'know what? Fuck you and your fucking horse face." He spat as he moved away from the table, towards the exit. "I'd rather sit and listen to the commander rake a blade across the chalkboard than listen to any more of what you have to say."

Eren stomped through the main doors, making sure to slam them hard enough that a few cadets near the front jumped in their seats.

Jean just looked back down to Mikasa and Armin. Well he certainly hadn't been expecting Eren to admit defeat-and so easily!- but it's not like he was complaining.

"Could you not antagonize him for one day?" Armin asked, sounding exhausted.

Mikasa nodded next to him.

Jean frowned. "He's normally the one that starts it!"

"Yes I understand but," Armin faltered, making sure to choose his words very carefully, "I'm not sure if you noticed but, somethings' wrong...or bothering him at the very least."

The unfortunate thing was, Jean had noticed, and even though he thought of Eren of a suicidal jackass, the mood swing or whatever had happened within the past day was throwing him off.

So he'd tried to do the only thing he knew how to do well, get Eren to fight him. Then hopefully he'd be out of whatever funk he'd been in, because as much as he didnt want to admit it, with all his pathetic drivel about wanting to kill all titans, Eren had wormed his way into being one of the people Jean cared about.

Jean swung himself around the side of the bench seated at the table, placing his elbow on the table and resting his face upon his hand.

"Yeah I noticed." Jean sighed. "What the fuck is up with that?"

"We don't really know." Mikasa responded, her eyes downcast. "We think it has something to do with what happened during maneuver training yesterday, but he won't tell us anything but the basics."

"So you think he hurt himself more than he'd admit?"

Mikasa shifted in her seat. That was a very real possibility, but she still couldn't shake the fact that there was something else, something else that was causing him to clam up entirely.

Eren was never good at lying, and she swears on her life that he'd only gotten worse with time, but it made sense because he never needed to lie. He'd downplay things to be sure, but never outright lie to both her and Armin.

To be honest, it hurt a lot that he felt the need to hide whatever was bothering him from her.

Armin glanced over at Mikasa, eyes still downcast.

"We don't really know." He admitted. "He's hurt himself bad before, but normally he just acts like it's not a big deal and gets over it."

"Huh." Jean responded. "Do you think he's going to tell you what's happening?"

Armin simply shrugged. "Who knows. Eren can be really stubborn about this kinda thing. We just have to hope that he's either willing to tell us, or gets over it by himself soon."

Unfortunately for them, Eren had zero plans of telling anyone of his discoveries if he could help it.

As he exited the mess hall, he stomped off toward the clearing he'd been in the previous night, the weight of the pocket knife strapped to his shin feeling heavier with every step.

He wasn't a fucking coward, nor did he rely on Mikasa and Armin for everything, and he was going to prove it!

As he entered the clearing he stripped off his regiment jacket, this time taking care to fold it before placing it on the ground.

His boots and 3DMG straps joined the pile as he unclipped the pocket knife from the shin straps.

So far he knew that a (probably) broken bone healed within hours, and bruises or scrapes within minutes, but knew little to nothing about larger scale injuries that were more likely to occur in the field.

Like large cuts and amputations.

Eren started to sweat as he opened the knife, the cold metal glinting in the remaining sunlight.

Fuck he was really going to do this wasn't he.

Ok, first things first, he had to make sure that what had seen yesterday hadn't been a hallucination, a trick of the light, or whatever else it could have been.

He placed his left hand out, closing all of his fingers except the pointer into a fist and slowly lowered the blade to his finger, until the tip pressed uncomfortably into the finger pad.

Eren took a deep breath.

'Ok, here goes nothing.' He thought as he began to apply pressure to the handle.

There was resistance at first, then the blade slipped through the top layer of skin, moving deeper as it create a clean line down the center of his fingerpad, and oh fuck that kinda hurt.

Eren quickly withdrew the knife and wrapped his hand around the base of his finger to stifle the bleeding that had already began to pool and drip over the side.

He stared at his finger for what felt like ages as nothing continued to happen, the falling blood starting to stain the leaves beneath him.

"Walls, what am I doing?" He asked himself as he shakily let go of his hand and allowed it to fall to his side.

Of course it wasn't gonna heal, what kind of fucking idiot would think that-

He stopped his line of thought as he heard a soft hiss, not unlike the kind he hears as someone approaches with 3DMG, but it was too quiet, nothing like the loud exhale of gas canisters, and the zip of launching cables.

He looked down at his hand and-

Ah. It was steaming.

So this was real then.

Eren brought his hand up to his face as he watched the final seconds of his finger healing, the steam dissipating as the wound fully sealed.

Ok, fuck it was offical. He was a freak of nature then.

Gripping the handle of his knife tightly, he thought about what to do next.

In the Survey corps, two main injuries were common, and accounted for about ninety percent of the deaths outside of combat.

Lacerations and amputations.

Truth be told Eren didn't want to test either, but he needed to if he wanted to be able to protect everyone. He'd rather mess up now than on the field when it mattered.

Eren weighed his options. If he decided on a laceration, it'd have to be someplace undetectable and would have to be non-lethal if it didn't heal, but with an amputation…

Eren looked down at his hands, wriggling his fingers for a couple seconds, then his bare feet.

Fingers were too noticeable. Even if he didn't need his pinkies to properly operate 3DMG, it'd be impossible to explain exactly why he's suddenly missing a finger if it didn't grow back. But if he took off one of his toes, even if it didn't grow back, the chances of somebody noticing were low.

Abysmally low.

He scanned his area, noticing a large branch that had probably fallen during one of the storms weeks prior.

Perfect.

As he strode over to the log, he stopped by the small pile of clothes he'd made and retrieved his regiment jacket, unfolding it to gain better access to the sleeve.

He dropped roughly in front of the branch and placed his right foot onto its side, while folding his left leg in front of him. He then balled up the sleeve of the jacket and stuffed it into his mouth, effectively gagging himself. This way if, no when, he ended up screaming, hopefully it wouldn't be too loud.

Breathing through his nose, Eren used his left hand to fold all of his toes, except his pinky down, as he shakily brough the knife closer.

He stared at it as it moved down, down, ever closer to Eren's flesh, until it was simply resting on the bendable joint of his toe.

He could do this, he had to do this.

The knife went a little farther forward, it's sharp edge beginning to bite into his skin and-

Eren dropped the knife, shivering violently.

He couldn't do this.

Fuck, he couldn't do this!

Foot still on the log, Eren placed his head into his hands as he tried to get his shaking under control.

Walls, why couldn't he do it? It was just one quick motion, one quick slice, and that was it. Just one push right through the small bone.

He'd heard of people breaking that bone with the simplest of things- a box being dropped, a trip after a missed step, or even just from fucking stubbing their toe- so why couldn't he do it!?

He clamped down harder on the mass of fabric still between his teeth as he picked up the knife once more and set the sharp end on the small cut he'd previously made.

He just had to apply a little bit more pressure, hold it a bit more steady and he'd be golden.

Just a little bit more.

Eren inhaled deeply, closing his eyes-

And shoved.

For a second he felt nothing-heard nothing except a sharp ringing in his ears as his vision momentarily went white.

And then the pain started.

Not too bad at first, just a small burn, similar to when he'd sliced his finger on the thick sheets of paper the military uses to make sure they have the correct person.

But soon, it began to throb and, like a wildfire, the pain spread through his system, setting every nerve alight on it's way up.

Eren dropped, throwing his back against the ground as he screamed into the jacket still lodged in his mouth, because it hurt, holy shit it hurt, make it stop, make it stop.

He didn't even notice that he had started crying until he'd brought an arm up to cover his face, still gripping the knife, and it'd come away wet.

Then, as quickly as it'd come, the pain began to recede. It felt as if someone had pumped his veins full of ice water, and if he hadn't already been crying, he would have started from relief.

As the pain continued to fade Eren ripped the sleeve of his jacket out of his mouth and gulped down precious air. Tears stained his cheeks, but no longer threatened to fall as he continued to lay in the dirt.

Weakly, Eren picked up his head to look at his foot and-

It'd grown back.

It'd grown back!

Eren smiled as he let his head fall back onto the dirt. From where he was sitting, he could see the toe he'd severed, meaning that he wasn't just able to heal and close small injuries, he could regenerate!

Although it definitely felt a little weird to be staring at one of his own severed appendages.

He looked back at his foot, then down to where the toe was sitting. Ok, it was more than a little weird.

He carefully placed the knife he'd been holding down onto the dirt next to him as he pushed himself up on shaky legs. His jacket now had a large wet splotch about halfway up the sleeve, but he ignored it in favor of trying to bring back some warmth to his body.

Even though it was still mid-spring and the temperature had been steadily increasing, Eren could feel himself shivering like it was an icy winter night.

He slowly made his way over to his boots and straps, both starting to become covered by leaves, as he focused on not applying too much pressure on his right foot.

Though the skin had fully healed and looked as good as new, it was extremely sensitive, so he wanted to avoid small rocks and twigs at all costs.

First he yanked on his boots, wincing at the feel of his new skin on the rough leather, then he set to untangling his straps. Although he could carry them back, tangled as they were, it'd be much easier is they were folded into a small pile.

And not a mess of knots like this morning.

Trudging back to the barracks, he watched as the rays shining between the trees began to wane, then disappear completely, as the sun continued it's descent towards the horizon. He'd be getting back to the barracks after dark, but before lights out, so hopefully his disappearance wouldn't be cause for too much suspicion.

Even though it was earlier than he'd normally prefer to sleep, he could feel tiredness tugging at his eyelids as each step seemed to become heavier and heavier.

Exhaustion wasn't an unexpected consequence of his newfound abilities per se, but it was certainly an unwelcome one. He'd have to see if he could find a way to lessen its effects, because being able to to take a hit or two in the field and come out fine was great, but of literally no use if immediately passed out afterwards.

Once he got within viewing distance of the barrack doors, Eren noticed that Armin was approaching as well, absorbed in a thick book, as usual.

Hopefully he'd be too distracted to notice anything and Eren just slip by, right into the doors and-

"Oh-Eren, where have you been?"

No such luck.

Eren turned around to see Armin jogging over to see him, his book now tucked under his arm.

He shrugged, "Oh y'know, just prowling around the woods, practicin'."

"Ah, were you working on the kicking technique Annie demonstrated today!" Armin beamed, "It's so interesting with all the factors that she has to take into account in order for the kick to be effective, I mean if her center of balance is just a little bit off-"

Eren began to tune him out.

On a normal day he would have loved-well, not loved but tolerated-hearing Armin ramble on about the physics and science of one technique or another, but Walls all Eren wanted to do right now was throw himself onto the shitty military beds and pass out until further notice.

"Eren, Eren!" said Armin as he suddenly noticed a pair of fingers snapping in front of his face.

"Oh… sorry I uh, stopped paying attention for a minute there."

Instead of looking at him with mild annoyance like he usually did, Armin only stared back at him with concern.

"Yes, I could see that but are you doing ok?"

"What do you mean?"

Armin frowned as he brought his hands closer to Eren's face. "I dunno, you just seem really tired… and you look really pale as well."

He placed the back of his hand against Eren's forehead, but quickly pulled it back as he felt the hot skin underneath.

"Eren you're burning up!"

Eren blinked, not really comprehending what Armin had to say. Couldn't he wait until morning to try to talk to him?

"Ah, ok." He responded as he pushed Armin's hand back down to his side. "M' gonna go sleep now if that's it."

As Eren turned back to walk into the barracks Armin grabbed his shoulder, roughly spinning him around.

His world swirled for a moment before he was finally able to focus his eyes on Armin, who was saying something, but Eren couldn't quite discern what.

"Eren you felt really really warm, and you've been acting super weird for the past two days." said Armin, his brow furrowed in concern. "I think you might have a fever."

Eren squinted down at him. He could tell that Armin was concerned, but was it really that big a deal? If he was a little warm, it'd probably go away once he got some sleep.

"Ok."

He attempted to turn around to head inside and finally, finally get some rest, but Armin's hand stayed firm on his shoulder

"Eren this is serious. You need to go to the medic."

Eren huffed. What part of 'I'm tired. I want to go to sleep.' Didn't he understand?

"I don't wanna."

"Eren."

Armin was now gripping his shoulder even harder, and while he was touched by the concern of his friend, he was more annoyed with the fact that he just wouldn't let him. Go. To. Sleep.

"I'll do it tomorrow." Eren responded, pulling Armin's hand off of his shoulder. "Right now is sleeping time."

He could see Armin's concerned expression deepen, but couldn't find it in himself to care as he finally, finally, made his way into the barracks.

When he entered he could hear the usual yelling, mostly coming from Connie and Jean as the former jumped from empty bunk to empty bunk, something in his hands.

As he strode over to his bed he heard Jean hollering his name from a few bunks down-probably attempting to start a fight, as usual- but honestly couldn't bring himself to care.

When he reached his bunk he placed his straps on the ground, kicked off his boots, then threw himself onto the bed, out before his head even hit the pillow.