The Little Things
A Hesitant Promise
"Okay, remember what I told you? Just hold still and try not to move so-"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it! I get it! I'm ready so just do it already!"
The boy held a firm grip onto the table's corners and gritted his sharp teeth, preparing himself for all of the upcoming pain he will surely experienced. He's not very sure what to expect but one thing's for sure, it was all inevitable, no matter what he does.
"Ag-" He let out a meek sound but promptly swallowed it back into his throat before it was too late, not wanting to let it escape so easily.
"O-" His mouth felt sore as he tried his best to keep it inside him, but the boy knew he wouldn't be able to keep this up forever.
"Ow! Agh!" And in the end, his apparent bravado was, unfortunately for the young boy, very short-lived.
"Okay- ouch! Okay, slow it down a bit. That's- That's too much!" He screamed for sweet mercy somewhere between his occasional sounds of painful howls, repeatedly flinching his sore eyes as he does it.
"Ow! OW! I said- Ow! Mikasa, I sa- That's too much!"
Eren couldn't help himself but to let out another constant series of short pain-filled yelps, trying his best to hide his grimacing face from Mikasa as she wrapped the bandage tightly around Eren's bleeding forehead. The bandage was thoroughly clean and was even dosed with a bit of medicinal antibiotics from the house's medical supplies - the only problem at the current moment was that Mikasa was never really known for her ever so gentle and caring touch.
"OW! Hey, okay, that's a- That's a little bit- Okay, now that's too- ARGH!"
"Alright, I'm done." Mikasa said, completely indifferent to Eren's pain.
"Oh, finally! Thank God." He sighed, filled with pure relief as he gently caressed his numb head like a mother would with a child.
"Wow, I didn't realize you were such a crybaby." Mikasa playfully scoffed as she packed away the medical kit back into the dusty kitchen cupboards - if you could consider droning on a single short sentence with nary any trace of emotion as 'playful'.
"Hey, it's not very fair that you have these creepy hands made out of goddamn steel!" Eren angrily retorted, his cheeks were flushed with a light pink-ish crimson as he defiantly slammed his worn fists onto the table.
"What the hell is even wrong with your body in the first place, Mikasa? How did it get so damn strong all of a sudden? It's really freaking me out!"
"Oh, that?" Mikasa's eyes didn't even change, seemingly used to the boy's angry outbursts. "All you have to do is eat a healthy diet and-
"Yeah, you know what? Just forget about it..." Eren was quick to notice the sarcastic tone in her otherwise completely emotionless expressions.
"On second thought, I don't even want to hear it." The boy slightly shook his head before he declared his confident and cocky words, "I'll just have to keep working extra hard from now on and become stronger than you in my own way!"
"But... Why?" Mikasa asked, her empty tone was changed to a more serious one. "Why are you even doing all of this?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Eren replied, not realizing his clenched fists - their knuckles still fresh with the stains of blood from today's events.
"Do I just simply do nothing at all as they keep making fun of Armin? Make fun of us both?"
"And so... You just fight them all? Even if you make a complete fool of yourself in front of everyone?"
"Well, I really don't care what those people think. They're basically just a bunch of strangers to me." He said as he cocked a smug smile on his otherwise badly bruised face.
"And screw whatever Hannes thinks - that old drunk ain't going to live long anyways." He chuckles at his would-be joke, although the girl didn't seem none too pleased by it.
"But, in all seriousness..." Eren continued, his cheeky smile disappeared as quick as it had came.
"If I don't keep on fighting, how else am I going to join the Survey Corps? I have to be even stronger than I am right now or I won't be able to make it! Those soldier guys don't just accept any two-bit weakling, you know!" Eren exclaimed with such determination as he carefully stroke his blacked-out eye, hoping that it could somehow dull the pain just a little bit.
"And then... What will you do when you're a part of the Survey Corps?"
The boy raised his eyebrows, noticing the sudden array of questions from the girl. "Is this going to be another one of your confusing self-reflecting ques-"
"I said..." Her voice still sounded the same but, the boy could almost sense her sheer annoyance. "What will you do next?"
"I... Well..." The boy didn't answer immediately - he slowly turned his solemn gaze away from the girl and towards the wooden floorboards under the dining table.
"Well, I'm going to try my best and get even more stronger than I've ever been before. Then, I'm going to try my best and slaughter every single one of the Titan bastards outside the Walls and liberate all of Humanity from the fear of the Titans. When all is finally done and finished, I want to travel with Armin, following our plans to explore the uncharted horizon and discovering new exotic locations."
"Wow, it seems like you have everything figured out already." The girl sounded disappointed and even a little bit displeased.
"Of course I do - I'm not playing around over here, Mikasa. I got to have a grand master plan prepared for these kinds of things, you know." He grinned, his white sharp teeth was a sharp contrast to his blackened eye and bruised face.
"But, then again..." Mikasa quickly added, her character was more relaxed for some reason as she moved closer to the boy and sat on a wooden chair directly opposite of the young boy.
"It all kind of sounds..."
"Hmm? Sounds like what?" Eren glanced at the girl in front of him as he suddenly let out a bored and tired yawn.
"Tremendously childish." The corners of her mouth was raised ever so slightly as she smiled.
"Hey, come on. Don't judge me like that. You don't see me making fun of your life goals." The boy snapped back, his eyes seemed disinterested, if you could somehow look past the bruises.
"My life goals?" Mikasa repeated the words out loud, seemingly uncertain with the words or the concept.
"Yeah, what's the point in living anymore if you're not going to do anything with it? That's why everyone needs a goal, everyone needs a dream..."
"My life goals..." She tried to hide her face under the maroon scarf wrapped around her neck as she gazed at the bruised and bloodied boy sitting right in front of her - and smiled even more. "I'm fine... I'm fine right now."
"Sure, whatever suits you, I guess..." The boy leaned back against the wooden chair and stretched his arms wide open out onto the air, enjoying the strangely satisfying feeling of his stiff muscles loosening up and fixing themselves.
As soon as the boy had finished, he glanced back at the quiet girl in front of him, fulfilling the role of her title. And somehow out of nowhere, there was a sudden and very awkward silence between the two children.
Neither knows what else to say to each other as they sat perfectly still at the dining table, the tiny streams of the evening Sun piercing through the windows was the only thing to keep them company in the otherwise dimly lit kitchen. The only sounds to be heard was the occasional creaking from the ancient floorboards and the distant shouting from the nearby markets outside, signifying their final opening hours.
But besides that, the two children were very much alone in a big empty house...
"Hey, Mikasa." Eren speaks up, wanting to break the silence within the house. A glimmer of genuine seriousness could be seen inside his turquoise eyes as he turned to look directly at the young girl before him - only to see she was already staring at the boy for quite some time now.
"...Mikasa?"
"Huh?!" The girl suddenly blurted out, her eyes was widened with shock as she seemingly broke free from her own 'trance'. She even stumbled around like a complete fool and almost fell from her own chair, for some strange inexplicable reason.
"Okay... What's the matter with you?" Eren was of course, perplexed at the girl. "Why are you so nervous, all of a sudden?"
"It's nothing, it's nothing." Mikasa repeatedly exclaimed in such a flushed and worried tone as she quickly tries to regain her quiet composition. A faint crimson was written all over her pale cheeks as she wore a very nervous smile as a makeshift mask. "I'm fine, seriously! I'm fine!"
"Well, you should be. I'm the one who got beat up today, remember?" Eren was still a bit confused with the girl's often erratic behaviours, but he learned to just shrug it off nowadays, sometimes with just a joke or two.
"But, anyway..." The cold and serious look came back into the boy's eyes as he made a heavy sigh.
"I'm sorry, Mikasa, I really am. But..." The boy was slow with his words, as if he's trying to figure out the right ones to actually say.
"Yes, what is it?" Her smile was gone too, sensing the light-hearted atmosphere from before, was suddenly drained away by the boy in a near instant.
"You know I can't stop now." Eren said.
"I won't let anything stop me - not even you."
"Wha- ...What?" She was taken aback by the boy's words.
"Come on, Mikasa. I'm not that stupid. I know what you've been trying to do... With all of these annoying questions and all the stuff you try to do to prevent me from getting closer with the Survey Corps." Eren said with a slight smile, as if he was trying to play it off like it was all nothing.
"..." Mikasa kept quiet.
"I'm just going to tell you right now that I won't change my mind, no matter what you do."
"But... But I-" She tried to stifle some words in her own defense but, Eren was quick to interrupt her.
"You can't stop me. You need to understand that I have to do this. I need to..."
"Eren..." She could only say his name, her eyes were worried, deathly so.
"Look... Just promise me that you won't tell my Mom or my Dad about any of this Survey Corps. stuff. I just need more time to get these things done first, I just need to achieve something first before I can tell them myself. Maybe when I'm older, maybe when I'm stronger... But, for now, they don't need to know."
"But, Eren... You know they won't-" She tried to warn him, how she desperately wanted him to stop.
"JUST promise me, please!" Eren shouted, the house echoes with his determined but desperate voice.
"Come on, Mikasa, please." The boy's piercing green eyes just stared deep into the girl's. "Just do it for me, at least..."
"I'm begging you over here..."
The girl kept quiet, she didn't know what to say to him or what to do next. But one thing's for sure, Mikasa knew the boy's entire future and maybe even his entire fate is at her mercy, but will it be the right thing to do? To strip of someone their entire goals in life, their dream in this world, one of the very reasons for them to try and continue on living in this cruel world?
Is it right to kill someone when they're alive? Even for their own safety? And maybe... for your own sanity?
"Fine." Mikasa could feel the pain inside her as she mutter the very words. "I promise not to tell them, for now..."
"Thanks, Mikasa, for whatever it's worth." Eren smiled, a smile of relief and gratitude.
"Hmph..." Mikasa didn't say anything back though, she could feel her heart twisted with worry as she firmly held onto the table's corners.
"Uh... Speaking of which, where is Mom, by the way?" Eren suddenly exclaimed, trying to change the subject as soon as possible.
"Well..." The girl simply follows his lead and looked outside the kitchen windows, seeing the orange glow of the evening sun peering through the thick glass.
"Looking at the time, I'm sure she'll be back from the markets any moment now."
"Then, it won't be long now, I guess..." Eren said, stifling a sarcastic tone.
"Have fun explaining this to your Mother. I'm sure she'll be more than happy enough to find out what happened..." She buried her head within the scarf as she dryly chastised the young boy.
"Yeah, well... Can't say I'm really looking forward to dinner, I can tell you that much."
"Hmph..."
Thank you all for reading the chapter. I sincerely hope you have enjoyed it. As always, any reviews and opinions are greatly appreciated. I would love it if you were to tell me your honest opinion on the story so far. You never know how much it would really help me out.
Thanks again for reading and have a very great day.
-ParagonFlynn