The sun beats down on his back. Sweat droplets trickle down his forehead and neck.

Eren curses, lowering the hood of the car. He leans on it, taking a moment to breathe.

He remembers the way his mom taught him.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

It helps somewhat.

His anger hasn't been nearly as bad lately.

He has his mother to thank for that.

She's been so patient with him.

"You look like you're a mess."

Historia steps into the barn, arms akimbo.

Her blonde hair is done up in a messy bun and she wears a First Aid Kit band t-shirt that hangs loosely off her slender frame and frayed denim shirts.

A light sprinkling of freckles dots her slightly tanned skin.

"I am a mess." He drops his tools on the dirt floor and sighs, wiping the grease on his hands off with a rag and crossing his arms.

She bridges the distance between them in no time, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"You smell pretty bad," she comments easily, face pressed against his sweaty back.

Despite everything, that gets a laugh out of him. "Sorry about that."

"You dirty boy." She pulls away from him and gives him a swat. "Go take a shower."

Eren hums to himself, angles his body and wraps an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.

She laughs, putting both her hands against his chest and shoving him away from her. "Stop it," she jokes.

He lets her go and she steps around him, admiring his car. "Are you still having problems?" she asks genuinely.

Eren sighs. "Yeah. I can't figure out what the issue is." He bites his lip. "This car is my way out."

"Our way out," she reminds him because there's no way in hell she'd ever let him leave without her.

"Our way out." He softens marginally when his eyes land on her.

He's lived in this tired old place his whole life and he aches for a life outside of it. This battered old car was indeed supposed to be his way out.

He'd saved practically every penny he'd earned till he had enough for this worn old thing.

Now he just needs it to run.

Her hand slips into his. "You'll figure it out," she assures him.

It occurs to him that most boys his age would have a father to teach them this.

But his father doesn't know shit about cars and he doesn't know shit about him.

Everything Eren knows about his car, he painstakingly taught himself.

"It needs some new parts before it can run smoothly," he says. "I've been saving up but…"

"It's hard work," Historia finishes quietly.

He glances sideways at her. "Yeah."

"Don't…" She takes a breath. "Don't push yourself too hard, okay?"
He thinks of her sister, Frieda, hospitalized after pushing herself to the brink and he understands her worry. "I won't. I promise."

Some of the worry in her face dissipates at that. "I'm holding you to that promise," she tells him.

That gets another laugh out of him.

"Of course you will."

/

They sit side by side on the hill, watching the stars.

"Have you thought about it anymore… about where you would go?" Historia asks carefully. She wraps her fingers around the neck of the beer bottle and takes a swig.

"Just away from here." He gulps his own beer, then lets it hang by his side. "I mean, what else is out there for us?"

"I never really thought about it," she admits carefully.

He doesn't say anything to that.

She knows it must seem strange to him, that she never felt the same constraints he did, but the Reiss family has always been on top.

Even for someone like her, the bastard baby sister, feeling discontent with her lot in life was never something she was allowed.

Until she started dating Eren… it really wasn't an option.

He's managed to open her eyes to the endless possibilities stretched out ahead of them and she realizes… she wants all of it.

She doesn't want to spend her life trapped in the same old small town.

"I don't hate everything about this place," he admits.

"I know." Her hand finds his and their fingers twine together. "It's hard to hate the place you grew up in."

"But sometimes, this place… it makes me want to scream. It's like a cage. The same people. The same options. Nothing changes. Ever. We're all in a cage here."

She knows he's aching more than ever to get out of this place.

Ever since Armin, his best friend, left to go to a better school, since Mikasa, the exchange student who'd spent several years with his family left to go home to her own family, really all it's served is a reminder to Eren that he's still stuck in this place.

Because he doesn't have Armin's scholarships or Mikasa's- the last she had heard, he'd met a girl at college and the two of them had been going pretty steady.

Both of them had left with the promise to return, but she'd had the sense that they were both glad to have left this place.

Although Mikasa had left behind a boyfriend, Jean Kirstein, and they seem to have left things on good terms.

It's embarrassing, looking back on it now. Back when Historia had first realized her crush on Eren, she'd been jealous because she'd thought there'd been more to their relationship than there actually had been.

Being with Eren had opened her eyes to the fact that this town… it just did things to people.

So many folks just ended up stuck here until the day they died, but when Historia had tried to imagine that happening to her… to either one of them… she'd felt feverishly hot.

Historia doesn't have the money to help him.

None of the Reiss fortune belongs to her.

If it did, she'd help him fix up his car in a heartbeat.

Maybe though, she reflects, it's better this way.

Let Eren take pride in knowing he got himself out of this. The car means the world to him; it's his salvation. He saved for it, he bought it, and now he'll be the one to get it running.

She wouldn't want to take any of that away from him.

Historia sneaks in under his arm and leans against his side.

"Wha…?"

"Just… hold me for a minute?" she requests. "Please?"

He sighs, but it's one of fond exasperation instead of genuine annoyance. "You're so needy."

She turns her face against his chest, breathing his scent in.

It's comforting to be this close to him.

Even if they aren't out of this cage yet, they will be soon.

She holds onto this.