Lullaby

"Eren!" A female voice was screaming his name. He groaned sleepily and pulled the covers up over his head. "Eren wake up!" The girl persisted. He felt her tug the blanket out of his grasp and push him forcefully toward the edge of the bed. He shivered when he felt the cool night air hit his exposed skin. Slowly, his opened his eyes, and through the haziness of sleep, he saw Sasha standing behind him. Judging from the horrified look on her face, this must have been urgent.

"What is it? What's happening?" He mumbled groggily, pushing himself up into a sitting position. He looked around to see Jean and Armin confused and awake as well. Sasha's screaming, however, could not wake up Connie, who was still snoring rather loudly.

"It's Mikasa!" Sasha yelled, frantically tugging on his arm. "Come on! Get up!"

"Mikasa?" He repeated. Now he was awake. "What happened to her? Is she alright?"

"I think she had a really bad nightmare but," Sasha inhaled shakily, "but Historia and I can't get her to calm down!"

Now fully awake, he kicked the blanket away and rolled off of the stiff mattress, striding toward the door. Sasha followed close behind as he made his way to the girls' room.

If this nightmare had been anything like the ones she had had when they were kids, he couldn't blame Sasha for feeling so helpless. After her parents died, Mikasa had always had horrible nightmares frequently. Usually, he could get her calmed down on his own, but sometimes, he had run to his mom for help. She had always known exactly what to do.

But Mikasa hadn't had nightmares like this in years. At least not that he knew of. Now, his mom wasn't here to help her anymore, which meant it was all up to him.

As he neared the wooden door, which Sasha must have thrown open in her hurry to come wake him, he could hear her. She wasn't screaming, which was a good sign, but the sound of her choking sobs was enough to make him walk faster.

He entered the room to see Historia sitting on the bed next to a sobbing Mikasa. She was rubbing her back soothingly, trying to calm her down, but it appeared to have no effect. When Historia saw that Eren had entered the room, she immediately hopped up from her place on the bed to make room for Eren. With Historia out of the way, he could see her clearly.

She was sitting up, leaning back against the headboard of the bed. Her hands were tangled in her normally smooth, jet-black hair, and the dim light of Sasha's candle illuminated her face. Her charcoal eyes were wide with terror, and her porcelain cheeks were stained with tear tracks. Her eyes closed when she let out another choked sob, fresh tears spilling over and dripping off of her chin.

"Mikasa," he whispered gently. Slowly, he lowered himself on the bed next to her, the mattress dipping down slightly where he sat. "Hey," he reached up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear, "shhhh. It's alright. I'm here. You're safe."

"Eren," she whimpered.

He winced at the sound of her voice. God he hated seeing her like this. When he looked at her now, it was like looking back at the scared little girl he had found beaten and half-dead six years ago. He sighed, reaching over to gently pull her into his arms

He felt her relax a little bit in his arms, yet hysterical, painful hiccups continued to escape from her quivering lips.

"What would mom do?" He thought frantically. "Think, Eren! Think!"

His mind drifted back to all those nights he spent calming her down after a bad nightmare. He had always distracted her with stories of his past and his hope and dreams and Armin's books. On those nights when all else failed, his mother would come in and hand her a glass of water. Then, she would sit down on the edge of her bed and sing a lullaby. His mother had always had the most beautiful singing voice. It had always seemed to put the girl right back to sleep.

He felt a pang of helplessness when he noticed her shaking in his arms. He could feel her tears, hot and wet, soaking through his shirt, and it didn't look like the hiccups were going away anytime soon either.

He sighed. He had never really liked singing, but it looked like he was out of options. He searched the very bottom of his memory to find the words he needed, took a deep breath, and began.

"I remember tears streaming down your face when I said I'll never let you go. When all those shadows almost killed your light. I remember you said don't leave me here alone, but all that's dead and gone and passed tonight."

XX

"What is he doing?!" Jean whispered from the doorway. He and Armin and both gotten up and followed Eren to find out what all of the noise was about. Currently, the two of them were standing out in the hallway alongside Sasha and Historia, who had explained the situation to them.

"Shhh," Historia motioned for him to shut up, "he's singing."

"Well no shit," Jean rolled his eyes. He was tired, grumpy, and frankly just wanted to go back to bed. The only reason he hadn't was because he was genuinely concerned about Mikasa. "I meant why. Why is he singing?"

"Maybe it calms her down?" Historia shrugged. "I mean, Eren knows her better than any of us. If anybody knows what to do, it's him."

"Bsh," Jean scoffed, "I could do a better job calming her down than that."

"Just close your eyes. The sun is going down. You'll be alright. No one can hurt you now. Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound."

"Eren does have a pretty singing voice though," Sasha noted. She leaned over and peered into the room. "It's really kind of cute."

Somewhere behind them, they heard a door close. They turned around when they heard the floorboards creaking under footsteps.

"Shit," Jean muttered.

"I think we woke up Levi-Heichou," Sasha whispered fearfully. There was no telling what he was going to do to them.

"Do you brats have any idea what time it is?" He asked as he approached them.

The four of them could only make out his darkened silhouette, but they imagined that the look on his face was not a happy one.

"It's 2:00 in the goddamn morning," Levi muttered angrily. "Training starts at 6:00 am. You should all be in bed right now."

The four of them remained silent, unsure how to explain the situation to their captain. After all, they didn't fully understand what was going on themselves.

"What the hell is going on anyway?" Levi spat. He folded his arms across his chest and waited for someone to answer him. "Where are the other three?"

"Well," Historia began. Jean certainly wasn't going to speak, and Sasha and Armin were too busy eavesdropping, "Connie is probably snoring in his bed right now, and Eren is in there," she pointed to the open door to the girls' room, "singing to Mikasa because…" she hesitated, "well I think she had a nightmare, but I'm not really sure, so we're just kind of…standing out here. Waiting."

Levi arched his eyebrows up in annoyance and leaned over to peek inside the room. Eren was, indeed, sitting on the edge of the bed, holding the girl in his arms, and serenading her.

He strained his ears to listen.

"Don't you dare look our your window, darling everything's on fire. The war outside our door keeps raging on. Hold on to this lullaby even when music's gone."

"Jesus Christ," he reached up to rub his temples.

XX

"Just close your eyes. The sun is going down. You'll be alright. No one can hurt you now. Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound."

He finished the song, rubbing her back gently. Her breathing was now slow and steady against his shoulder, and as far as he could tell, she had stopped crying, but he knew she wasn't asleep yet.

"Your mom used to sing that to me," she murmured sleepily after a moment of silence. She nuzzled further into his shoulder and relaxed against him.

"Yeah," he nodded. "She used to sing it to me too."

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked softly. From his experience in dealing with her nightmares, she didn't most of the time, but there were occasions when she would spill the contents of her dreams. Then, the two of them would stay up all night talking about their fears and dreams and wishes.

He felt her shake her head, so he welcomed a peaceful silence between the two of them instead. He wasn't sure if the others had gone to bed or if they were quietly eavesdropping on their conversation. Either way, he couldn't hear a thing coming from the hallway.

"Eren?" She spoke after a minute. She tilted her head up to look at him, her beautiful gray eyes filled with fear.

"Yeah?"

"Don't leave me, okay?" She spoke quietly. Her voice was so soft that he almost didn't catch the cracking, quivering fear that wavered in her words.

Slowly, he leaned down to kiss her softly on the forehead. "Never."

XX

A/N- I know this idea has been way overdone, but I wanted to write it anyway! I tried to do something a little bit different with it and put my own spin on it. Anyway, it's a little time crunched, and I didn't get a chance to edit it, but I'm going to post it here anyway and maybe tweak it a bit later. And the song I used in this is "Safe and Sound" by Taylor Swift feat. The Civil Wars. Man, I must have a thing for Eren singing!

Thanks for reading!

-Eremika