Disclaimer: We don't own any of these characters and no one pays us for writing shitty fanfics. Yet. We hope that time will come soon. Feel free to send us money.

AN: Uh… we're sorry it took so long for us to do this? No excuses, we just couldn't get ourselves to write ;_; So sorry! But as a reward (remember to read the last AN) you get to decide in which pairing we'll be focusing more! Good reward, eh? EH?

Also, if you see any of our typical, stupid big mistakes in grammar please tell us. For every big grammar mistake in the text one Finnish high school student fails a test. Don't let that happen, it could be us!

When Armin woke up from his uneasy sleep he couldn't tell if it was day or night. All he knew was that Reiner snored loudly and the rope that tied his hands behind his back was too tight. They had been traveling for approximately two days, but Armin couldn't be sure. They never slept more than couple of hours at the time and moved from place to place daily. They really had made sure that he would be kept oblivious to their plans or where they were headed and they had ignored all Armin's attempts of keeping up small talk. Without anyone to talk with Armin had had a chance to think about things inside out, but it didn't help when he was all by himself.

Bertholdt Fubar had joined the others a day before, which didn't come as a surprise to Armin - the three of them, Bertholdt, Annie and Reiner, had always been talking in the hallways and walking together, and clearly planning a kidnap too on their leisure. But Armin didn't know their motives at all and it irked him. There were many reasons to kidnap a member of the royal family, too many to count, and the amounts of possible reasons behind the situation had given Armin a headache.

Jean's presence was a mystery too, but Armin thought that he could talk with the boy if he got the chance. He most likely had seen the kidnapping by accident, or that's how it had seemed, but it was hard to say if that was the case.

Armin sat up and tried to stretch his tired muscles. Sleeping on the floor in many different places without a mattress and having only a thinblanket to cover him really made him miss his own bed. His hands, which were most of the time tied behind his back, didn't help him the slightest either.

A silent "Good morning" was heard from other side of the room. The voice belonged to Bertholdt. Back in the castle he had helped Armin get some books from upper shelves many times, and the blond had considered him a proper person. Not a friend, but someone who he thought he could have trusted. Well, that was all past now. He answered the other with a nod.

"We're leaving soon, so if you feel hungry I could give you something to eat. If you want?"

Armin nodded again and waited for Bertholdt to untie his hands. There was no need for the ropes anyway, but Annie was the one that wanted to have Armin tied up "just in case." Armin had thought of running away, but it didn't take a genius to understand that it would be fruitless. He had no idea where he was or how far they were from other people, so playing along was the only thing he was capable of right now. If only he could get some information from his kidnappers!

"Where you think you're going?"

Jean turned around, hiding the fact that Reiner's voice had startled him. "Just taking a piss. Relax. We're in middle of a forest, there's nowhere I could even go."

Reiner snorted and went back inside the old building that was barely standing up, shouting "We're leaving soon so don't take long if you don't plan on walking" before closing the partly broken door.

Jean waited until he no longer heard any voices besides singing of the birds and the sound of the wind going through leaves before making his way further away from the old building. He started to run to get to a small sand road they had used to get to the building.

Time to play a messenger.

Jean had been hiding little notes about where they were going since he had joined Braun, Fubar and Leonhardt. The first one had been the hardest to get to the right persons - he had gone to buy some essential things that Reiner had needed (it was a gamble, really, because they could've left without him, but in the end his plan had worked) and while getting all the things, he had bribed a stray child to take his hastily scribbled note to Mikasa and Eren. Jean wasn't absolutely positive the note had found its way to them since the soldier had only told the boy to look for "a beautiful girl with long, shoulder long hair and a boy with stupid face and short, dark brown hair." All he could do was hope.

At the momentJean had counted that he had been away approximately for twenty minutes at max. He had assumed that by the time he'd be back the others were already leaving. That wasn't the case though, which was strange.

"...has been flooding, so there's no way we can use the bridge."

"Are you sure? I'll take longer than three days until we get to the mountains if we have to go around."

Braun and Fubar. Jean made sure to crouch behind a bush before they could detect him.

"A traveler told me when I went to buy equipment. I'm sorry Reiner,but we have to go through theforest."

"For fuck's sake. I just want to get back to the base. Every extra day out here heightens the risk of getting the army all over our asses. Annie is about to snap, too."

They both stopped talking, giving Jean a change to crawlcloser to them.

Fubar said the next line so quietly Jean could barely make it out: "And once we're there we'll just… hand him over?"

"Don't tell me you're starting to feel guilty at this point."

There was a pause.

"Look, Bertie, don't let it get to you. We would have been better off if it had just been about assassinating him. That would have been easy. However, we had to spend years and years biding our time, so that we could take his ass unharmed to the mountains. They're not gonna kill him, not as long as he might be useful at least. And anyway, it's not our problem."

"I know."

"We need to stay focused."

"I know."

"That's more like it. Anyway, let's get Annie. She'll decide whether we'll cross the woods."

"I… I'll get her, but before that…" the tall soldier started, but the rest of the sentence was a low whisper Jean couldn't catch. As they started to talk way too quietly Jean decided to crawl somewhere where the two men couldn't see him before appearing before them. It also gave him some time to think about what he had just heard and what he knew beforehand - they had been heading Northfor some time now, and the only thing that was there was mountains. Well, mountains and more people like Reiner, Bertholdt and Annie, it seemed. Their goal was to get the Prince there, unharmed, but any other motive was unclear to Jean.

He made sure he was not within the men's field of vision before getting up. He took couple of deep breaths and summoned up an aura of carefreeness.

Reiner, whose back was turned towards him, was first to notice him. "Took you long enough, Kirchstein," he said, clearly wondering how it had taken so much time to take a leak.

"Yeah, I checked the surroundings too while I was at it. Everything's ok, by the way." The lie slipped easily from his mouth and if Reiner's stoic face was anything to go by he bought it. He waved his hand towards the house, gesturing Jean to go followed him inside. The prince was sitting against a wall, an apple in hand while Leonhardt watched over him from the other side of the room. The place they stayed in was old and the roof leaked, but luckily the building had one almost intact room where they had slept. The only sources of light were a small window near the ceiling and a dim lantern.

Jean sat down not too close to the Prince, but close enough to check if he was alright (it had become a habit to keep an eye on the Prince, but it was only because he was supposed to protect him, right? He was a soldier!) and took an apple that was lying on the ground. Bertholdt went to whisper something to Leonhardt, but it was once again too quiet for him to hear.

"There are more apples in the sack," she said like he was talking to Fubar, but as they made their way out of the room Jean realized she had been talking to him.

"Rude people," he muttered under his breath.

"Are we alone?"

It took Jean seconds to realize someone had spoken and couple of more to realize whose voice it was.

"Huh? What?"

"I asked if we're in this room alone," came the reply.

"Yeah, we're alone." Jean stood up and checked the door just in case, but no one was there. He sat down closer to the Prince so that they could talk without anyone else hearing it now that they had gotten the chance to do so.

"You're Jean Kirchstein, right? A soldier from the castle?" Jean nodded, but then he reminded himself of the fact that the Prince couldn't see it and muttered an agreement.

"If you're unsure about my motives," Jean started and checked the door once again, "I can assure you that I'm only here on the behalf of my job as a soldier. I happened to see when they were putting you into the carriage and I had to make a decision in the heat of the moment."

The Prince sat quietly, thinking Jean's words over as he massaged his wrists that seemed to cause him pain.

"I thought that was the case, but I never had the chance to talk about it. Well, not at least before this. Have you heard anything from them? Have they slipped anything about where we're heading or what's going to happen when we get there?" The Prince asked curiously. Jean lowered his voice and turned his eyes towards the entrance.

"They're talking to each other right now. About having to use a different route through the forest. We've been heading North the whole time if I'm right."

Armin stopped massaging his wrists for a moment before whispering something under his breath.

"Uh, I didn't really catch that."

"You said we're heading North. My uncletold me rebels are camping near the mountains because of the difficult environment. The place is full of good hiding spots and despite sending some troopsthere we have only caught a handful of people."

"Yeah, I think that's the case. Heard Fubar and Braun talking outside about handing you over unharmed, but that's all I got."

Armin seemed to fall in deep thought and knowing the Prince was smart Jean let him think. His eyes trailed over to the Prince's slightly red wrists. They didn't look that bad, but hey, the boy was royalty and even that amount of pain must have caused him moregriefthat it would have to Jean. Years spent in army really taught how to deal with being hurt.

He acted on an impulse and took one of the Prince's hands in his to get a better look at the damage, startling the other.

"Sorry, Your Highness," Jean whispered, "Can't risk them getting infected."

"In this kind of situation I think calling me Armin is fine."

Jean huffedin response. He rose up and fetched a small dish of water that was on the corner and some rags to use as gauze.

The Prince - no, Armin - was waiting for him, hands already raised up, waiting for Jean to take a hold of them.

"How do you do that?"

Armin let out a barely audible laugh and smiled for the first time in days. "Intuition, I guess."

Silence fell over them as Jean washed Armin's wrists with a cloth and then wrapped them with clean rags to prevent them from getting more hurt.

"Have you… thought about escaping?"

Armin nodded. "I have, but none of the plans could have worked. Even now if you really are on my side it's two against three. They're not letting me out of their sight and in days we're in an enemy territory. Not much two persons can do."

"Actually," Jean started, "It's not just us. Or that's what I hope. I've been leaving notes behind for Mikasa and the asshole, and if they have gotten even some of them the King should be aware of the situation too. I'm a genius, right?" he said with a smirk.

Armin laughed softly.

"I never understood what it was about you and Eren that didn't click. Anyway, that's good. If they are about to 'hand me over' to another party I think the smartest course of action would be to wait for that. There's little to nothing we can do as long as we're on the road and there's nowhere to go."

Armin had his theories about who was waiting for him at the mountains, but there was no reason to tell that to Jean just yet. He wasn't sure about it, anyway.

He wasn't sure about Jeans motives, either. 'I'm only here on behalf of my job as a soldier.' Right. To this day Armin had never crossed a soldier with a working morale that strong. Even Mikasa, who was the definition of dedicated, was not driven by duty, but her need to protect her loved ones. Surely Jean had some other motivation.

Well, at the moment he was Armin's only ally and definitely worth keeping.

The Prince reached around until his hand was resting lightly somewhere near Jean's shoulder and raised the corners of his mouth.

"Jean I'm… I'm thankful for what you did. This would be awful if I were alone and I guess I'm just… I'm very happy you're here."

The other boy was thankful for the fact that Armin couldn't see the light blush that was starting to appear on his cheeks. "Uh, thanks," he replied clumsily. This wasn't like him! Then again, the distant regal and a soldier-protocol didn't really apply to this situation, Jean supposed.

Rebellions? Piece of cake. War? No problem. A missing, blind, sheltered heir to the throne? Everything was doomed.

Well, not exactly, but Erwin was certain he was about to burst a blood vessel. As if finding prince Armin wasn't difficult a task in itself, Erwin also had to make sure that the word wouldn't get into the capital. Mass hysteria and a big group of bounty hunters would only make things that much worse. He had sent off soldiers to find the missing prince, but as if the task wasn't hard enough they had to rely on the notes that were passed on them. 'Heading North' wasn't very helpful when it actually came down to navigation, but he had to trust the people that had been put on the job while he himself tried to keep all the strings in his hands. Along Armin, Eren Jaeger and Mikasa Ackerman, four other people were missing: Bertholdt Fubar, Annie Leonhardt, Reiner Braun and Jean Kirchstein. It hadn't been hard to put two plus two together.

Once it would all be over there would be people demanding Jaeger and Ackerman's heads for abandoning the village instead of reporting back to the castle. It would be a shame since Erwin understood their motives and wouldn't care to lose one of hisbest soldiers. That was a problem to be dealt with later, fortunately. The traitors would get a fair share of wrathon them eventually too for taking his nephew away from the castle walls.

Besides, if the Prince wouldn't make it back alive it would be someone else whose head would be at risk. Erwin would make sure that every single person that had been in charge of the things that happened to Armin would have the most slowest, painfullest way of death imaginable. Hanji and Rivaille would make sure of it.

Speaking of Rivaille, now that Erwin thought about it the situation was getting worse and worse. He couldn't really trust his soldiers or Mikasa and Eren to save Armin and since he was tied up with his duties and had to keep low profileso that everything wouldn't get out of hand the only thing he was capable of was leading everything from the castle. But Rivaille, the "housemaid" of the castle could be the answer to his problem. He knew the man had a soft spot for him - they shared a history after all, so it would be worth the shot.

Finding the short man wasn't a problem. He was scrubbingthe windows on the second floor with the help of couple of maids. They were alerted of the arrival of the King by the sounds of his footsteps and after quick bows Erwin dismissed the ladies.

"You look like you want something from me," Rivaille stated as he continued to rub the windows.

Erwin smiled lightly despite the situation. "You know me too well. I'm sorry to disturb your work, but I think we both would rather discuss about things somewhere more private."

Rivaille sighed and put his things down. "So it's serious after all. I kind of hoped it would have been about our usual activities, but I have a hunch that I'm not going to like what you're about to suggest."

Erwin led them to a seldom used study room before closing the door and turning to face the other man.

"It's about Armin," Rivaille pointed out.

"It is."

"The answer is no."

Erwin pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm not pleading or commanding you to do it. I'm asking this as… a personal favour." He took his hand from his face and looked Rivaille in the eye. "Please. Armin is important - both for me and the kingdom. I know you dislike your previous position as humanity's strongest soldier, but for now it's all I can think of."

Rivaille walked to the only window in the room and watched out. Minutes passed and Erwin let one wave of nervousness wash over him. Only one because he was the King and because he trusted Rivaille to agree.

"I thought you said you were not pleading Erwin," Rivaille sighed and turned to face the taller man, "I'll do it, but remember this: I'm taking your horse and the castle must be spotless when I come back."

AN: We're back! Sorry this took so long, we were struggling with pacing and grammar more than usual. Turns out there's a significant difference between 'taking a leak' and 'taking a leek'. English is a great language, isn't it?

We'll post the next chapter as soon as we have dealt with a certain one shot, hopefully it won't take too long.

By the way, we'd like to know if our readers would like to see more jearmin or eremin? Let us know in the comments!

~Janice & Jazzy