Pairing: Eren/Mikasa, Shingeki no Kyojin

Setting:: Sometime after they leave the cabin and before Eren and Historia get taken

Rating: K + (Little language)

Words: 5432

Notes: This was a request from Ryvius who asked for Eren to temporarily lose his memory and to have the others try and explain their relationships and his life. Mikasa is the most affected by it not being able to look at Eren and see him looking back with no memory of her and the things they had been through. I really liked the prompt! I thought it was a mix of adorable and sad, because of the effect Eren's memory loss (more than normal lol) would have on his friends, but writing Eren without all his horrible memories was really cute okay. The title is of course from "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri.

For A Thousand More

It seemed like it never mattered where they went, Eren would still find himself in trouble regardless the situation. Mikasa reached over to move the damp rag off his face as he slept in one of the empty beds of the house they were hiding in. He had been out for a good majority of the day; Hanji was pretty sure his fall had caused him a concussion, and judging by the nasty bump on his head, Mikasa was inclined to agree.

She had watched him fall, right out of the tree and onto the ground. It figures, only Eren would find danger when there was no immediate danger around him. She dipped the rag back into a bucket of cold water and rung it out. He had only been trying to get a better look around the area, per Levi's orders, when his foot slipped or got caught or something. Regardless, it caused him to take a fall from which he hadn't woken up yet.

Hanji managed to scout a head and find this small abandoned house for them to stay in until Eren woke up since it would be more than a little difficult to carry his unconscious body through the wilderness. Mikasa was sitting by his bed ever since. She tried not to worry, after all Eren went through worst; in fact this was one of his more humorous incidents. She'd probably laugh if it hadn't been hours since he woke up. She felt the nerves tightening in her stomach the longer she sat watching him.

Some noises outside the door made her turn away but no one came in to bother her. It was more than likely Levi making the others clean the house until not a layer of dust remained on any surface. He let her stay with Eren, provided she cleaned the whole room top to bottom of course. She went to roll her eyes and look back to Eren but his eyes were already watching her. Relief filled her body.

"Eren," she breathed, leaning in to take the rag from his face as he sat up. "How're you feeling?"

He sat up slowly, his forehead scrunched together, like he didn't quite know where he was. "Good…I think…where am I?"

"Somewhere still in the woods. Hanji found it for us to stay in while you recovered. How's your head?" Mikasa reached out to find the bump in his head to see if it had gone down any but before she could touch him, he jerked away from her. "Eren? What's wrong?"

His eyes watched her carefully, cautiously. "Who're you?"

Mikasa felt her stomach lurch, as her body froze in her chair. "W-what? Eren, it's…" she didn't even know what to say. "It's Mikasa, you've known me since we were kids."

Eren stared at her with his intense gaze she knew so well that she almost thought he was going to smile and say he was kidding, but he dropped his head into his hands instead. "I don't…I don't remember you. I don't remember anything."

Mikasa's heart started to pound as her hands started to shake. No, something was wrong. No matter how many times Eren got hurt, no many how many times he came out of his titan form in his feverish haze, he never didn't know who she was. The thought alone had hot tears burning her eyes.

She pushed herself up from her chair and practically threw the door open. "Hanji!" she called and even Mikasa heard the raw desperation in her voice. Eren couldn't remember who she was; he couldn't remember anything they went through. "Hanji, please, it's Eren!" Mikasa felt like something had cut out a piece of her, leaving a hole a in her chest.

Her cries not only had Hanji running from another part of the house but Armin too.

"What is it?" Hanji asked coming to a stop in front of her.

Mikasa was afraid if she opened her mouth to say the words the tears she was holding back would fall. "He doesn't remember me." It was all she could say, and judging by the look on Hanji's face, it was enough.

"Wait out here, okay? I'll go talk to him."

Mikasa nodded and stepped out of the doorway as Hanji shut the door behind her. Armin was standing nearby, his eyes watching Mikasa, but she didn't even know what to say to him. Eren probably wouldn't remember Armin either and Mikasa knew from recent personal experience, the person you care about most in the world looking at you and not seeing you wasn't a good feeling. She quickly wiped away the tears in her eyes before anyone else came looking to see what happened.

"He hit his head, these things happen sometimes," Armin said, taking a few steps closer to her. "He didn't fall that far, I'm sure it's just a short term memory thing."

"But it's Eren, he looked at me like he never saw me before. He's never…not even the first time…" She looked down at her hands, feeling utterly useless as she heard Hanji talking behind the door. Mikasa strove so hard to keep him safe, but how could she when he wouldn't even let her touch him?

She felt a hand on her shoulder and Armin's warm presence near her. "The mind is a difficult and complex thing. If he's having trouble remembering, we'll just have to jolt his mind back. Something will bring him back to us."

The door opened causing Mikasa to jump as she looked to Hanji's face. She didn't seem upset so maybe that was good news; though it was always hard to tell with Hanji.

"From what I can tell he seems like he has no memory of anything really. His name he seems to remember and the way our world is but nothing of his childhood, family, the being in the military, being a shifter, anything personalized to him." She paused for a moment. "But I don't think it's permanent. Acknowledgement passed through his face when I brought up certain things, he just couldn't seem to place them. It's probably just from the hit to the head he took. His memory should come back, though how long I'm not sure."

"So the brat can't remember anything?" Levi was leaning up against the nearby couch when Mikasa looked over to him.

"Seems that way," Hanji shrugged. "At least he won't remember to be terrified of you on a daily basis."

"More like to run away from you when you come at him asking him to feel his arm like a damn psychopath."

"Come on, that was one time, Levi, and it worked didn't it?"

Mikasa couldn't take it anymore. How could they be so casual about this? Eren couldn't remember anything about them, about the situation they were in. Why was everyone so calm about it? She jerked herself away from Armin's hand and brushed past Hanji until she reached the small staircase the led upstairs to a few bedrooms. She heard Armin call after her, but she didn't want to be around any of them. She picked the first door she saw, opened it, and shut herself in.

Did no one understand? Even Armin. How could he be so okay with what was going on? Why was no one taking this seriously?

She laid down on the nearby bed, burying her face in the pillow. Maybe she was the one overreacting, but she couldn't get rid of the ache in her chest when Eren looked at her like he never saw her before. Even when…even when he saved her, that first moment she saw him. He never looked at her strangely, like he had known her his whole life but now all she saw was the way he flinched from her, like she was gonna hurt him.

Everything they went through was gone from him. All their memories, all their fights, all their good times and all their bad times were gone. She had to look at Eren knowing everything about him but he didn't even recognize her face. She just got him back too. He was looking at her like he used to, they weren't fighting all the time; she just gotten her Eren back and now he was gone in the worst sort of ways.

She didn't even want to go down in face him. How could she look at him when he couldn't look at her?

Mikasa wasn't sure when she fell asleep but when she opened her eyes the sun was already set. She stretched her arms over her head as she sat up, looking over the unusual room she found herself in. She went to throw her feet over the bed when a jolt shot through her body. Eren. Dread filled the pit of her stomach as she pulled herself to her feet and headed out the door. The hallway was dark but she heard someone laughing from downstairs; it sounded like Sasha but it made Mikasa furrow her forehead as she walked down the stairs.

There was a lantern on the table that was lighting up the room and sure enough Sasha was grabbing her sides laughing. Connie looked equally amused and even Jean was cracking a smile while they sat around the table. Historia was there too watching the others quietly, Armin near her, and Eren watching with eager eyes. Her heart jumped up in her throat as she watched him. He looked like Eren but was different; he was almost smiling, his face lit with a sense of carelessness she hadn't seen in a long time.

"You can't be serious, Sasha? You were just standing there eating a potato?" Eren snorted, his laughter not helping Mikasa's already pounding heart.

"You don't come between a starving girl and food, even if you are bald and seven feet tall," she wiped some tears from her eyes as she placed her hand back on the table.

"Hey, Mikasa!" Armin smiled at her at he waved from his spot next to Eren.

Everyone turned to look at her as she made her way down the rest of the stairs. She gave them a small wave while she headed over to the table but once face caught her eye more than the others. While Eren looked at her with such confusion earlier, she now watched his face light up in a way she wasn't used to at all when he saw her. Her heart skipped as he smiled a toothy grin at her.

"Mikasa," Eren said, his tone warm. "We wondered where you went."

She went to sit down at an empty chair near Armin when she noticed him nudge Eren in the ribs.

"Ow, okay," he said, pushing Armin's arm away with a laugh. "I'm also sorry about earlier. You were looking after me, like I've been told you do, and I shouldn't have acted that way. So I'm sorry, I just wasn't sure what was going on."

Well, at least she knew he still didn't remember anything, though the way he was apologizing for something Eren normally wouldn't should've given that away.

"Don't worry about it," she said, trying to not be visibly baffled by his current behavior. It was just so strange to see Eren acting, well, so happy but at the same time, it was hard not to keep her face from heating up at the way he was looking at her. It was very surreal; he looked like Eren and talked like Eren, but at the same time it wasn't Eren, not the Eren she knew at least.

"This is still the strangest thing of my life," Jean grunted. "I'm used to him being sulky and angry all day long, not mister rainbows and sunshine."

"You still haven't told me how our relationship is," Eren said, taking a sip from the cup that was in front of him.

Sasha snorted back laughter as she clasped her hands over her mouth.

"What?" he asked, arching an eyebrow at her response.

"Well," Armin said. "You guys aren't really friends. I can't even really remember a time you two got along."

"Huh, why's that? He doesn't seem like too bad of a guy."

"I'm remembering you said that when you get your memory back. That will come in handy." A smirk was pulling at Jean's lips as he watched Eren from across the table.

"You know," Sasha said, her face looking as though she was contemplating something. "I'm not even sure why they don't get along. It just seemed like they were always fighting."

"It's because," Armin was trying to bite back a smile; the others might not see it but Mikasa could. "They are both hotheads with differing opinions, so naturally when one opens his mouth the other one wants to fight him. I think they find themselves being rivals and more ways than just one."

Jean grunted as he propped his chin up against his hand on the table, but didn't say anything. Mikasa felt his eyes looking over to her, understanding all too well what Armin's comment referred to

"Well," Eren shrugged clearly not picking up on Jean's attitude. "Was it always the seven of us? We seem like we're all pretty close, at least."

The air around them changed as smiles faded or attempts to smile failed. Eren seemed to understand the effect his question had as his wide grin faltered.

"No," Historia said, making Mikasa jump remembering the quiet blonde girl was still there. "There were more of us when we started training, and when we joined the Scouting Legion but they're either dead or gone now."

For a moment, Mikasa could see a reflection of the Eren she knew in his eyes. There was an overwhelming sense of loss in his face, in his eyes as Historia's words sunk into him. He couldn't even remember the people who were lost, the betrayal he had experienced at the hands of "friends", but a part of him must've known it all too well.

Armin placed a hand on Eren's shoulder, his eyes looking down at the cup in his hands. "What about Levi and Hanji? I know you were asking me about them earlier."

"Yeah, well, I talked to Hanji at least," Eren said, looking up to Armin. "She seemed a bit…"

"Crazy?" Connie supplied.

"I was going to say eccentric, but yeah."

"She obsesses over Titans and Levi obsesses over cleaning," Jean said, his fingers absentmindedly playing with the wax falling from the candle on the table. "They're a match made in heaven."

Eren arched an eyebrow. "Is that why he kicked me out and took off all the sheets immediately after I got up?"

"Yeah, that sounds like him." Sasha rolled her eyes.

"They're strong though." Connie said. "We'd be dead without them. Hanji gets a little enthusiastic when it comes to doing experiments with you but they always seem to help whether she finds something or not. Hey!" His eyes lit up as he leaned forward against the table some. "There was this one time when we were watching over you while Hanji was running experiments and you were in your Titan form…they told you about that right?"

Eren nodded. "Yeah, Hanji explained it to me."

"Okay, good. I didn't want to be the one to drop that bomb. Well, you just kinda reached down and picked us up, and carried us around the mountains. Levi was yelling at you to knock it off, but since you could probably step on him, he didn't seem to fight that much."

"Connie, that didn't happen but nice try," Eren laughed, taking a sip from his drink.

Mikasa looked up at him, and she didn't seem to be the only one. Everyone was watching him, unsure if what he said was telling them that he was back to normal. "Eren…?" she asked.

He looked over at her with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I don't actually remember but something tells me that never happened."

Mikasa felt her heart sink as she looked away again. She heard Connie grumbling that it didn't work, but she just wanted Eren back. She didn't care for all this. She just wanted him to remember who she was without having to tell him his whole past again; it was too hard. Though, she couldn't imagine what it was like for him, having an entire past that people had to inform him of. Eren really was having to live through everything again.

"What about my family? I know I'm in the military so I assume they aren't around but where are they?" That hopeful look in Eren's eyes made Mikasa want to cry. It wasn't fair. This wasn't fair, not to him, not to Armin, not to her.

"We're…" Armin started, trying to smile for him, but Mikasa could see the hurt in his eyes at having to be the one to tell him. "We're all you have left."

Mikasa stood to her feet, her chair scraping across the wooden floor. Everyone looked up to her, including Eren but she couldn't take him asking these things and seeing the way it affected him all over again.

Everyone at the table looked at her for a response but she didn't even know what to tell them. Her fingers fluttered to the ends of her scarf before she turned and went to go back up the stairs, back up to her self-appointed room.

"Mikasa, wait!"

Eren's voice stopped her in front of her door. She turned to look at him as he bounded up the stairs towards her. He came to stand in front of her, but once he did, he looked like he wasn't sure what to say.

"It's okay," Mikasa gave him a small smile. He probably just felt bad because of her reaction, which was a nice sentiment, but really, she just wanted to be alone. "I'm sure you have a lot more questions, those guys down there could handle it better than me."

"Armin told me about us," he said causing her to stop opening her door and look back at him. "He told me we're, me and you, are really close. That us and Armin all grew up together. I know…" he paused, his fingers fidgeting with each other. "I know this can't be easy for you, to look at someone you know so well and them not even know you. It's really frustrating for me because I know you and Armin are very important people to me, I can feel it, I just don't know why."

Mikasa watched him as she turned around to face him, those eyes she knew so well and that soft tone she didn't hear all that often. "It's okay. It's not your fault."

"Well, apparently it is. I'm the one who fell out of a damn tree of all things."

She tried to hold back her laugh but it didn't work.

"There," he smiled. "I get the feeling I don't get to see you smile that often because it makes me really happy to see it." He reached up to graze his fingers across her red scarf, the one that belonged to him once. "Armin told me I gave that to you a long time ago. He didn't tell me why or how, I assume cause maybe he didn't even know, but he did tell me you never take it off." He looked up to meet her eyes again. "He's important to you isn't he?"

It was strange to hear Eren refer to himself in the third person like that but she understood what he meant. "He's the most important person to me."

"You're important to him too, I can feel it. Well, uh, I'll see you in the morning?" He reached to scratch behind his head, messing his hair up more than it already was, and gave her a small smile. He looked a little nervous, like he was still unsure what to say to her, something Mikasa wasn't used to.

"Yeah, I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay," he said, a wider smile pulling at his lips as he started to walk away backwards.

"Okay." Mikasa pulled herself through her door, trying to ignore the way her own lips were trying to smile. She shut the door behind her, and found herself back in her bed. She knew it wasn't really Eren, not without the memories and experiences that made Eren who he is but she couldn't help but feel her heart skip seeing his smile on his face and seeing it directed at her.

She wanted to be angry with him, to be upset that he got himself hurt and the result of that made him forget everything that made him remember himself, but she couldn't do it because he was still Eren. He still spoke like him, he had his smile, he had his humor, he still had that warm presence that always made her feel safe. He was still Eren.

She woke up to a knocking noise. Mikasa sat up in her bed; the sun was shining through her window, and she could tell the knocking was coming from the door. With a yawn, she went to the door and pulled it open only to see Eren standing sheepishly at the door.

"Hey, good morning. Did I wake you?"

"No," she said, but her hand reaching up to cover her yawn gave her away.

"Uh, Levi said we did a shitty job cleaning and is kicking us out of the house for a few hours. I came to see if you wanted to come outside with me and Armin."

He didn't have to tell her his memory still wasn't back; she could see it in his face. "Yeah, let me just…" she gestured back into the room.

"Oh yeah, of course," his cheeks turned a little red as he took a few steps back from the door.

Mikasa closed the door as she turned to the clothing she had folded up last night by her bed. It was strange for Eren to be the one waking her up, for as long as she could remember, she was the one who would have to drag him out of bed. She also wished her heart would stop pounding in her chest. She tried to tell herself she had to stop reacting to him like that because the moment he got his memories back it would be back to normal Eren behavior.

She threw her blouse and skirt on before wrapping her scarf back around her neck. She went back to open the door and saw Eren leaning up against the railing of the stairs waiting for her. Mikasa shut the door behind her, causing him to jump at the sudden noise. "Sorry."

"Hey," Eren said, a smile pulling at his lips when he saw her. "It's okay. Armin should be outside already. Want to…?" he gestured towards the stairs.

Mikasa nodded and started to follow him down the stairs and to the front door. She could hear Levi yelling at Hanji to help him but something told Mikasa Hanji of all people was not gonna listen. Eren held the door open for Mikasa as the warm and fresh air hit her. It was actually beautiful where they were, not that she had the time to acknowledge it before; the trees were tall as they waved in the wind over the green grass, the mountains looming over on the horizon.

Armin waved from a spot underneath a tree which blocked them from the bright sun overhead. "Good morning," he said with a smile as they got closer. "It's a rare day when Levi doesn't want to work us to the bone."

"He seems like he'd be a bit of a slave driver." Eren took a seat next to Armin on the grass, Mikasa following next to him.

"You have no idea," Mikasa said, pulling at a small flower that was growing in the grass. It felt like they were kids again, just sitting under trees and ignoring their responsibilities.

"So," Eren said, letting Mikasa know he was about to ask something about them or himself. "We've all been friends for a long time then?"

Armin nodded. "I can't remember when I didn't know you, honestly. I can't even remember how we met." He laughed lightly as he leaned his back against the nearby tree. "Mikasa I remember meeting though. Eren, you came over to play and you were tugging Mikasa behind you. I remember wondering who she was because as far as I knew I was your only friend but I knew she had to be a friend because she was wearing your scarf." He paused to gesture to the scarf she was still wearing. "And you just came up to me and said, 'Armin, this is Mikasa, she's our friend now'. That was that, we were all friends since then."

Mikasa felt a smile pulling at her lips as she picked at the grass. She remembered that. "I was nervous to meet you, Armin. Eren was the only person my age I even knew, and I only knew him for a few days. You just extended your hand and told me it was nice to meet me that made me feel like I always known you. That and you also said the scarf looked better on me anyway."

"Well, I wasn't wrong." Armin laughed.

Eren was looking back and forth between the two of them, trying to look eager but Mikasa saw there was a different type of hurt in his face. She could only imagine how it must here to sit with the people he knew to be his best friends, talking about times he should remember but only ended up feeling left out instead.

"It's okay," Mikasa lightly tapped his head with her finger. "They'll come back."

He shrugged, trying to give her a smile as guilt filled the pit of her stomach. She should've never been so angry with him, it wasn't his fault. He probably wanted his memories back more than anyone; she couldn't imagine just wandering lost in the world with nothing but other people's words to guide him.

"What did we do for fun?"

"Keep you from getting in trouble," Mikasa said.

Eren snorted, shaking his head. "I guess from what I've heard about me that's not too surprising."

"We talked about what was beyond the walls," Armin said, his eyes looking past them and to the nearby mountains. "About the ocean, about being free."

"The ocean?"

"Yeah," Armin nodded, looking over at Eren. "I read about it in one of my grandpa's books. It was always your favorite to hear about. It's a vast body of salty water that seeming goes on forever, surrounded by soft sand and the cool water washing up on the ground."

"Huh," Eren said, his eyes distant like he was trying to image the scene Armin was telling him. "I bet you'd stand there and see everything."

Armin grinned. "That's what you always said."

That seemed to make Eren smile at least. "Well, I know how I met everyone who is around me, except you, Mikasa. So what do you say? Wanna tell me how you got my scarf?" He was smiling at her, like he wanted to hear the cute story of how the two nine year olds had met but Mikasa's heart sank.

That story was one she didn't want to live through again, nor did she want to make him live through it. He must have sensed it because his smile faltered, but it wasn't fair to keep it from him, not when he had it had such an impact on both their lives.

"Okay," she said, looking down at the ground.

"You know." Armin pushed himself up to his feet. "I think I'm gonna go find the others and see what they're up to, okay?"

"Uh, yeah, okay." Eren waved at him but he had a confused look on his face as he watched Armin walk away.

It was a nice gesture from Armin, Mikasa couldn't help but think; she was pretty sure even he didn't know all the details of what went on that night. She was never one to talk about it, and neither was Eren who simply told Armin they were all friends now with no other explanation.

Eren was watching her carefully, seeming like he understood the weight of the question he had asked.

"I lived with my mom and dad until I was nine years old." She pulled at some of the grass by her legs, never thinking she'd have to explain this to Eren. "Until they were killed in front of my eyes. I don't really remember what happened, all I know was I woke up in a room tied up. I heard them talking about…selling me because of my race. I didn't even see what happened, but you came in and went after the two men that had taken me." She paused for a moment, taking a shaky breath in. It wasn't something she liked thinking about, not when she thought about what would've happened to her if Eren wasn't there. "The two men, they-"

"No, that's wrong."

Mikasa looked over at him, the firmness in his voice making her forehead furrow. "What?"

His eyes were focused on her, his face unwavering. "There were three men and I had no idea what I was doing but the moment I knew you were in trouble, I had to go do something. I didn't even know you, but I knew I couldn't lose you."

She breathed in a sharp breath. "Eren…?"

"Yeah, it's me. It's me this time."

Mikasa threw her arms around his neck, pushing both him and her to the ground. Her head landed by his, her arms still around him. She felt his warm breath against her face as he laughed lightly.

"What happened?"

Eren shrugged but he didn't move from his spot next to her. "I was just following along with you when I started to see that cabin with you, and the men like I had been there and everything kinda came back. What happened after, what happened before, how I felt. Then everything was back like it had never been gone." He paused for a moment, reaching up to brush past her cheek. "I'm sorry, Mikasa. I know that was hard for you."

She shook her head. "It wasn't as bad as what you must have gone through. To have all these people telling you who your friends were, what your life was."

"Looking back it was actually kinda funny sometimes. Did Connie really think he could get away with that?"

"You still knew better than to believe him."

Eren snorted and shook his head, his eyes looked over to meet hers. He just watched her for a moment, those eyes finally full of the recognition she missed. She felt warm again, she felt whole again with Eren, her Eren next to her.

"What is funny though," he mumbled, his voice soft. "Is that even with no memory of you, I still couldn't bear to be without you. Even though I didn't know who you were, I was still in love with you."

Mikasa's breath hitched in her throat as she watched him, almost unbelieving the words that were coming from his lips.

"Don't look at me like that." His cheeks were a slight shade of red, but his eyes never left hers. "I'm not that stupid, you know."

She let his words sink in for a moment before she leaned in and pressed her lips against his; something she wanted to do for a very long time. Eren seemed to be the one surprised now but it only lasted for a minute. His arms moved to wrap around her as his mouth carefully moved with hers.

Mikasa breathlessly pulled away from him, but kept her hands on his face, her forehead against his. "Welcome back, Eren."

With a grin pressed his lips to hers again, pulling her as close as he could to his body.

"Just don't fall out of a tree again," she mumbled against his mouth causing him to laugh.

"No one is going to let me live this one down I take it?"

"Probably not, no."

He shook his head and Mikasa could feel the smile on his lips as he leaned into her. "That's okay, it was worth it."