-Chapter 2-

|| Hello again! I hope you liked the first chapter! Here's the second chapter! ^ ^' ||

There was darkness once again, except this time, it only lasted for a couple of minutes. After blinking a couple of times, Mikasa realized she was on top of a building. She sighed slightly as she began to look for Eren, once again.

As she began to jump from building to building, Mikasa encountered someone different.

"Annie." She stated coldly and bitterly.

The blond haired girl jumped to another roof but before Mikasa could follow someone else caught her eye.

"Eren…Eren you're safe." Relief was clearly shown through her voice. The brunette simply looked at her. His emerald eyes showed no emotion.

"Eren, come." Annie's voice rang from behind Eren. Almost instantly, Eren turned around but Mikasa made her way and put her hand on his shoulder.

"What do you think you're doing?! Don't you remember who she is?!" Eren aggressively shook her off as he glared her down,

"You're not my mother. Lay off, Mikasa." He spat nastily as he jumped from the roof.

"Eren!" Mikasa reached as she grasped noting but air.

*beep beep* *beep beep* *beep beep*

Mikasa opened her eyes as she took a deep breath. Life flooded her veins and the air was refreshing in her lungs but something kept echoing in her mind.

"You're not my mother. Lay off, Mikasa."

Mikasa sat up as she sighed. Why did her heart hurt? Why was all of this happening? Suddenly someone knocked on her window. Mikasa blinked and suddenly she remembered her plans with Jean. Darn it. She suddenly wished that she had just said no. Sighing, Mikasa quickly changed into pants and a sweater. She wrapped her red scarf around her as she walked out. Eren's voice still rang in her mind,

"You're not my mother. Lay off, Mikasa."

It was still dark outside and the morning was crisp.

"Do you carry that thing around everywhere you go?"

Mikasa looked at Jean with a dead expression,

"Sorry, sorry. Good morning, thanks for coming out."

Mikasa nodded as she began to walk next to Jean.

"You look…frightened. Are you okay? Did you have a bad dream? Is there anything I can do for you?"

Mikasa's eyes widened. She wasn't used to anyone asking or even caring, outside of Eren and Armin. It was…kind of nice.

"…Just had a bad dream, is all. Thanks for coming out."

Jean smiled as he stretched,

"Yeah, no problem! So…sunrise eh? Why did you choose this? N-not that I mind!" He added quickly at the end, Mikasa merely shrugged.

"It's a beautiful world…it's something as simple as the sunrise that make me realize that. The crisp air of the morning, the quietness, everyone is asleep and yet you're awake to witness something so beautiful. It's almost like your own private show."

"Well damn. When you put it that way, I guess it is something nice. Well either way, I know where to take you. Follow me!"

Mikasa nodded as she began to follow Jean.

"…You're not my mother. Lay off, Mikasa."

Mikasa shook her head of the memory. No it wasn't a memory. It was a dream. …although…those words were a memory, weren't they?

"So whaddya think?"

"Hm?" Mikasa looked at Jean as she realized that they were in a hill besides a big tree.

"I-I used to come here all the time when I was younger and play. As soon as you said that you wanted to check out the sunrise, I thought of this place. I'm amazing, I know. No need to thank me."

Mikasa rolled her eyes, he was quite confident wasn't he?

"Oh right. It's almost time for the sunrise, come on!"

Mikasa blinked wondering what he was talking about when he suddenly got down on one knee and he pointed up,

"Ladies first. You can use my knee to get up and start climbing. Or you can do just that-" he mentioned as Mikasa simply jumped and brought herself up to the tree. After climbing for a bit and almost reaching the top, Jean pointed out a thick branch that was up above most others.

"There, we can sit there."

Mikasa's heart seemed to stop for just one second.
"Hey Jean, this is the tallest tree here isn't it?"

He grinned confidently at her,

"Sure is! I used to daydream of climbing this one day. I guess today is that day."

That was kind of sweet.

"Ah and there it is. The sunrise and our own private show that you were just talking about."

Mikasa looked ahead as different colors filled her eyes. The darkness seemed to be leaving as the sweet, yellow orange orb rose. The warm colors melted against each other; there were reds, pinks, yellow, and a bit of blue. She caught sight of Jean, smiling like a dork at the sunrise. This was surreal…it was almost as if it was a dream. Being here enjoying something amazing with someone that wasn't Eren.

But suddenly she was in a large forest. Her heart was racing and felt like it was about to leave her chest.

Eren.

A large female titan suddenly opened her mouth. Mikasa's attention was quickly brought to the Eren's Titan form that was slumped against the tree.

No, no, no. Not Eren. No, NO!

The female titan ate Eren.

EREN. Eren! Anger boiled within her, Give Eren back…NOW! GIVE HIM BACK!

"Mikasa! Oy, Mikasa!"

Mikasa's eyes blinked as she felt something warm around her. What was going on? Jean was suddenly extremely close to her,

"What? Why are you so close, what's going on?! Is Eren okay?! Eren-"
Jean rolled his eyes, he seemed annoyed.

"For once, will you think about yourself first?! He's fine, I'm sure. Probably still sleeping, that lazy ass. It's actually you that I'm worried about! What the hell is going on here? One minute you're looking at the sunrise with…with a lovely expression and suddenly you began to fade away. I don't know…I don't know how to explain this okay?! It's just that you weren't here. Your…your eyes weren't here anymore. So I called out to you but you simply stared off. And then you started to lean back. You scared the hell outta me, I thought you were going to fall so I hugged you to keep you from falling…you're your head slouched back so I rearranged it so that you were leaning against me…Mikasa are you sick?"

Mikasa cleared her throat; it had never gotten this bad before. She usually had strength in her body…

"I'm fine."
"Really? Are you now?"

"Yes. Just sleepy."
"Your eyes were open. Your head slouched back as if you were sleeping but your eyes…"

"I said I'm fine Jean." Mikasa noticed he was still holding onto her. She began to shrug him off.

"You're clearly not. Listen-"

"I have to head back now."

"I said, listen Mikasa." His voice sounded angry and annoyed. She stopped and stared at him. What was his problem?

"You're not okay. Don't lie to me. I may be an idiot but I'm not stupid. You don't have to act strong for me, you hear? I want the truth because I actually care about your health. Whereas you obviously don't which is fucking annoying! What's going on?!"

Mikasa stared at him. She wasn't used to this…she was used to shrugging this off and roughing on through. And it was not going to change anytime soon. IF she was going to ever open up, it would be for Eren.

"Fine. I'll ask Eren."

"No. Please don't. He doesn't know."

"…then who does?!"

"Armin. Only because he observed it. I'll take care of myself. Now let me go."
"Fine. Whatever, if this is how you're going to take care of yourself, that's fine. None of my business." He let go of her as he sighed annoyingly.

Mikasa felt a bit sad…she had pushed her only chance of a friend away…had she always been this way?

"I'm sorry Jean. I'll tell you when I find a solution…I promise. I'll be fine; I don't need anyone's help. I think I should get going…"

They began to head down the tree and the whole way back there was silence between them. As he walked her to her door, she looked at him.

"Jean…thanks. I hope we can do this again sometime. This…this private show that I talked about is better with someone else."

"Yeah, fine. Please think about what I said…I'm always around." He blushed a bit as he walked off.

Mikasa sighed as she opened the door. Eren and Armin where in there, had something happened?

"Hey…are you guys alright?" Armin looked at her in a worried way, oh no. Had he told Eren abou her PTSD?

"Mikasa, what the hell?!"

Mikasa looked at Eren, now what was going on? She had left him alone hadn't she?

"…He saw that you and Jean where up in the tree…" Armin explained quietly,

"Yeah, so? I can't hang out with Jean?"

"Don't lie to me. How dare you lie to us Mikasa?! Really? You should have told me that you were dating that damn horse face!"
"What are you going on about Eren? I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Stop it. Stop lying to us. I went up to the tree and I saw how snug you were with him. Was it comfortable Mikasa? Being held by that nasty Jean. I saw how he held you and how you had your head on his shoulder!"

Mikasa's eyes widened.
"I…I wasn't…he was just…" Mikasa stuttered unsure of what to say. Armin knew what was going on and that is why he was worried. She was grateful that he hadn't said anything to Eren.

"He wasn't what Mikasa? I saw you!" His eyes were full of betrayal and hurt.

"Eren, I don't understand you! One minute you're going off on how I am not your mother and now you suddenly act as if you're my mother!"
"So you are dating…" He sounded so disgusted, it hurt her.

No…no we aren't dating Eren. Please…please understand.

"It's her PTSD. You don't know what you're talking about Eren."

Mikasa shot a glare towards Armin.

"Her what?" Eren looked at Armin in surprise.

"Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. It is a type of mental emotional trauma. It happens after an extreme, traumatic event. Mikasa gets horrible flashbacks of when Annie ate you. She almost lost you and it's been haunting her ever since-"

"Armin, please." Mikasa pleaded.

"Mikasa. He needs to know…don't you think? Eren, you haven't noticed but Mikasa spaces out and she gets pretty realistic flashbacks of this incident. It can last from 5 minutes to about 15 minutes. My guess is that today, she experienced it strongly. She has not been sleeping well because of her nightmares so when she experienced it with Jean today, her body gave out. That's why he was holding onto her. You should be thanking Jean because Mikasa would have fallen if he hadn't been there. She hasn't told you because she didn't want to make you worry. Besides, you're already getting annoyed because she gets worried because of her dreams. She didn't want you to feel even more upset because of her anxiety."

Eren looked over at Mikasa with his mouth half open from shock. Mikasa had been looking at the floor and she felt silent tears streaming down her face. Why…why are humans so weak? Why am I so weak? Eren…

Eren walked over to Mikasa and gave her a soft hug,

"I'm sorry." He whispered into her ear as she broke down and cried into his shoulder. Armin smiled slightly and sighed in relief.