Pairing: Eren/Mikasa

Setting: Before they leave for Shiganshina

Words: 1914

Rating: K

Notes: I had this request for ages but I was waiting for just the right time in canon to place it and when they were on the farm awaiting to leave for Shiganshina I knew it was finally the perfect time for this story. After writing so many AUs writing these two lost kids in canon both breaks my heart and warms it. Here's to hoping they all get to see the ocean one day. The title is from the song of the same name by Hoovastank which was the song Tragedymakesahero asked for when they requested this! ^^

Right Before Your Eyes

Mikasa knew what was coming, they all did. These moments of peace were leading up to a life or death mission, one she had no intentions of losing but it was something even she couldn't predict. There was only so much preparation they could do to fight off the inevitable, only so much when they had to fight people who used to be comrades. Mikasa shook her head as she pulled her jacket closer to her to cut out the chilly autumn air as she walked the familiar path up to their makeshift base. She couldn't think about that. After what they had done to the Legion, to Eren, they weren't comrades anymore. They were enemies who had to be stopped.

There were a few people doing some training off in the field nearby, no one she really recognized though; just more of the new recruits. She was sure Erwin, Levi, and Hanji were all still with the other squad leaders planning out every detail before they left in a few days, where Mikasa's team was though she had no idea. She saw Sasha and Connie chopping wood earlier in the day but she hadn't seen Historia all day, though these days that wasn't too unusual. She had her own business to attend to now. Where Jean, Armin, and Eren were Mikasa wasn't sure. Maybe she could go check the dining hall for them. It had to be close to dinner time now. She wasn't very hungry but if Armin and Eren where there at least she'd have company.

She turned down a different path on the farm that would lead her to the main building, where they ate and slept but also where the meetings took place. The meetings for the plans that would take them back to Shiganshina. Mikasa swallowed a lump that formed in her throat at the thought. Home, she was going back home; even though she was well aware her home was nothing like it once did. It would never be the place it once was.

Some shouting drew her attention over to another field but it was just some more recruits training. She was about to look away when something caught her eye, someone laying on top of some hay bales. It was Eren, Mikasa knew him anywhere. She went to go off the path, walking over to where he was staring up at the gray sky but she only took a few steps before she stopped. There was something about Eren that made her stop in her tracks.

He wasn't upset, at least, not visibly, though he didn't look particularly thrilled either. His eyes just stared upwards, the wind blowing his brown hair lightly. The sight nearly took her breath away. When did his legs get so long? His feet dangling off the hay bale because he couldn't fit on it. He wasn't always that tall. He was taller than her when they were kids but for such a long time she could look at him and meet his eyes directly. When did she start to have to look up to him?

Her eyes traveled up, looking over his stomach, his chest, clothed by his shirt and his jacket that was blown open from the wind. She could almost see the toned muscle underneath, the way his skin now dipped and rose where there was once a skinny stick of a boy. Despite the chill in the air she felt heat rise to her cheeks. It was natural really, with how much they did physical training for the past three years. Of course he'd grow from being lanky into being firm, strong. She couldn't say that was something she didn't notice; she had seen him shirtless many times over the past months. It was just something she tried not to notice afraid someone would see her red cheeks, the way her heart would race at seeing who Eren had grown into.

She quickly looked away, ashamed that she was staring and horrified that someone could've seen her. No one was there though, not even Eren's eyes flickered over to her. She looked back up to him, and sure enough his eyes were still on the sky. She wondered what was on his mind, where it was taking him to make him lay there so still, so calm. Maybe he was thinking about going home too, even though she knew it probably didn't bring him any comfort. He lost his home too, like Mikasa.

Eren reached his hands from his sides and up behind his head. His arms were hidden by the sleeves of his tan jacket but Mikasa still saw the strength they now held even just in how he moved. His hands, his arms, they were always some of her favorite parts about him. His hands that clumsily wrapped a scarf around her, that held her hands leading her wherever he wanted to go, that brushed away tears and his arms that held her on the nights when dreams turned into nightmares. They always held such strength and comfort but now she could physically see how strong he had grown.

It was his shoulders she noticed the most though. They grew so broad, so firm, giving him an air of command, of more than just physical strength. She still saw the way he stood in front of her, his back and shoulders to her, shielding her from what was in front of them. She never saw him look so strong in his life than when he planted himself in front of her, determined to protect her at all costs. Mikasa's breath hitched in her throat. She knew, by then she knew she was in love with him but it was like in that second of time she fell in love with him all over again. Even if he was scared to death he never showed it. He clenched his jaw and did everything he could.

He wasn't that little boy any more who picked fights with people just cause he was mad. He was forced to grow up and he did. Here he was getting ready to try and do the impossible and he never complained. He took what he needed to do and he was determined to do it, she saw it in his face; that face she adored. He was fifteen and yet, he looked nothing like he did on his fifteen birthday. He looked older, wearier, tired almost. Where there was once a childish innocence behind his blue eyes, there was now sadness, but there was also fire. Not the bitter rage she saw after his mother died, but a desire to do what needed to be done for humanity.

She thought he probably still thought himself a monster, someone who could only cause more harm but when she looked at him all she could ever see was a hero. He was her hero and that never changed from the day he met her to this very moment. There was no one she loved more than him.

Mikasa took a few more steps towards him figuring she probably stood there far too long and if he noticed he might wonder that something was wrong. Heat filled her cheeks again at trying to explain why she was standing there. She pulled her scarf up over her mouth as she walked up to the hay bale, her eyes looking back up to Eren.

"You can come up," he said, though he didn't actually look down to her. "Dunno why you waited by the path so long."

A jolt went through her body. He did see her. She wasn't quite sure how but she climbed up on the hay bales hoping if he'd believe her that her face was red from the chill and not from the embarrassment of getting caught staring. Mikasa sat down next to him, crossing her legs, one of her knees brushing against his chest. Warmth filled her body just by being close to him; it also helped he seemed to have a higher body temperature than most, his body heat practically radiating next to her.

"Are you thinking about the mission?" she asked, her voice nearly being lost in the wind.

Eren shook his head, his eyes glancing over Mikasa. "I'm trying to remember what Shiganshina was like, before we had to leave. Do you remember?"

"Of course," she said. "I remember the green grass, the bright colored flowers we used to pick for your mom."

"All the back alley ways we'd take to get home faster so she didn't yell at us."

Mikasa felt a smile on her lips at the memory. "It never worked."

"She was a super human I swear." Eren looked back up at the sky. "The roof of the building we used to climb up to so Armin could read to us and no one would find us."

"The way the sun climbed up over the wall every morning."

"And we'd try and play in the shadow of the wall, pretending we were anywhere but."

"Is this gonna work, Eren?" Mikasa breathed.

"Honestly, I have no idea." He looked up to her. "I do know it's the only chance we have. We have to trust Erwin."

She nodded. Eren was right of course. There was no other option. It was trust their comrades or die.

"Mikasa?"

"Yeah?"

"You'll come with us right?" For a moment there was such innocence in Eren's eyes that he looked like he did laying under the sun in the field in Shiganshina.

"Come with you where?"

"To the ocean."

It wasn't the first time Mikasa heard Eren talk about the ocean; he told her about it when they were kids and she heard him and Armin talk about it quite often. It was something they had together though, something that was promised before her. "Oh, um." She tucked some of her hair behind her ear. "If you want me to."

"We'd never go without you, you know," Eren said, his eyes meeting hers. "If we live through all of this, I'd want you to be there with me."

Mikasa's breath caught in her throat as she watched him.

He seemed to realize what he said because a bit of red started to spread across his cheeks. "And, um, I'm sure Armin feels the same way."

"Of course."

Eren looked back up to the sky. "Promise me. Promise me you'll come with us."

She knew what he was doing; making her promise to make plans with him after all of it was over. Please, he was saying, please don't die. "Only if you do the same."

A smile twitched at his lips though he didn't look at her. He took one of his hands out from behind his head, laying his arm between them. "Okay, I promise." He opened his hand, fingers wide enough for another set of fingers to lace through perfectly.

Maybe it was wrong. Who knows if they could keep these promises, who knew what was gonna happen in the coming weeks. At the same time, the comfort of his words, his warm and inviting skin open to her, that meant more. Being with him in a single moment meant more. If this was all they had, a brief touch a promise of better days, then Mikasa was happy.

She placed her hand over his, weaving her fingers with his as his warmth instantly enveloped her hand.

"I promise."