The Fool

He stood a few meters away from her. His back was turned while he was facing the setting sun on the horizon. The sun, now half-sunken in the horizon line, bathed both of them and everything around in crimson - making it seem like there was bloodbath.

"I've made up my mind," he declares, his voice deep. The wind blew and tousled his hair which has grown quite a length past his shoulders. Mikasa loved the way they flowed against the wind. They looked so soft.

Anxiety had been weighing on her the whole time. What will be his decision? Knowing him, it will definitely be risky. He always wanted to solve problems immediately, using methods that would be considered brash.

"What is it?" she asked.

He turned around to face her. Mikasa braced herself for his answer, but nothing would have prepared her for what he said next.

"I will marry Historia."

She felt her heart break into many pieces. She was in shock and in despair. Her insides felt like they were turning in the most agonizing ways.

She couldn't even hold onto her dream – that somehow, Eren would someday return her open affection, or that he would at least stay by her side.

But marrying someone else?

She felt like a fool pining after him all these years.

Desperate, she searched his eyes for any signs of hesitation within them, but his determined gaze told her that he really made up his mind.

"Eren – I…"

'I want to tell you about my feelings...'

But Mikasa held back. Eren never wanted her.

He took a few steps towards her. He stopped until he was only a few inches away.

"You can say anything," he tells her softly.

She looked down on the ground. She didn't want Eren to see how miserable she looked. She tried her best to keep the tears from flowing out.

"This has been your plan all along?" she managed to ask - albeit in a very weak voice.

He shook his head. "No. But I realized that I also have to keep her safe. The rebellion is ready to commence. She doesn't have to suffer for the country anymore. She's-"

Mikasa felt his voice darken from the shift of his mood to immense anger. Eren was so angry for Historia. Mikasa wished that he was like that for her too.

"She's had enough. She doesn't deserve to be treated like an object. Such ways must be a thing of the past."

"But do you really have to do that? If you marry her…" She raised her head to look at him. "If you marry her, wouldn't that make her enemies your enemies? You're already at risk as we speak. Following this plan would be foolish. You might even lose the support of the faction."

"The people will listen to me. It seems like you've forgotten that they see me as their savior. They trust me. After I take Historia as my wife, it won't be long before I am able to convince them to change their mind about her." Eren sounded so arrogant. Mikasa almost wanted to slap him.

There was also this nagging voice in the back of her mind that Mikasa refused to listen to. A thought that maybe - just maybe - Eren was doing all of this because he has fallen for Historia.

That - there is a woman who won his heart but it's not her.

She was just a fool to have been denying that all along.

"But what about us?" Her voice was so silent, but Eren was able to hear her.

This was her last desperate attempt to win him back.

But the look of pure distaste on his face utterly crushed her spirit.

"Us? There was never an 'us.' You simply formed an illusion of me and you in your mind. We're not kids anymore, Mikasa."

And with that cold reply, he left her standing there like an idiot.

Eren was the only person that she gave her heart to. And even though he would never look at her the same way that she looked at him, Mikasa has finally come to accept that she will be the fool to remain in this one-sided love.

note: I originally published this pretty depressing one-shot on AO3 a few years ago. I recently went back to writing so I decided to might as well publish it here on FFnet. I wrote "The Fool" after reading Chapter 112 where Eren said that he hated Mikasa. Omg the angst! My heart broke for Mikasa! T^T

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Love lots!