"Mikasa," Eren said keeping his voice level. "What am I to you?"

Was she hearing him correctly? Her eyes shook in their sockets from the shock of the question. "What is he implying? Is he asking what I think he's asking? How do I respond to this?!" She wondered to herself. After all this time, she wasn't sure how to put into words what it is she feels for him.

Mostly out of confusion and uncertainty on how exactly to approach this, she answered with the first thing that came to mind.

"Uh.. you're uh.. you're my family!" She said before her mind could catch up with her voice.

She watched as his stoic face dropped. It was slight. Most people wouldn't have noticed the difference. But she knew him. She knew this look of complete and utter devastation.

Suddenly, she felt as though someone else had taken over her mind. Almost like she wasn't in control of her own actions.

"Wait! … that's not true… I mean yes I see you as family but its more than that. I don't see you the way I see Armin. I see you… romantically…" that last word hung in the air and Mikasa couldn't believe she had actually said it.

There was a second of silence but before she knew what was happening, there were big arms wrapped around her. Eren had grabbed her to pull her into an embrace. It felt as though he was trying to say 'thank you.'

"What if I told you I felt the same way?" He blurted out, breathlessly.

"You do?"

"Yes Mikasa. I have for some time."

Again the urge that was from somewhere beyond just herself took over and she found words falling out of her lips.

"Lets run away together."

There was silence for a second.

"Are you serious?"

"I actually am" she replied, pulling away just enough to look up into his mesmerizing green eyes.

"Look at us! We've been putting our feelings for each other off all this time and for what? The greater good? The sake of humanity? Look where that's gotten us. For once let's be selfish Eren. Let's live out your final four years together! Just you and me…" She said the last part a little more in character of herself. Shy and unsure. "Where on earth is all of this was coming from?" She thought to herself.

But now she was nervous because Eren wasn't responding. He had zoned out like he had been doing more often these days.

"But we don't have t-" she went to say, but before she could finish, she was caught off by Eren's actions.

She yelped a little because Eren had grabbed her left hand in his left hand and was now running. Running and.. and laughing? Was he really laughing? How unlike him. It had been forever since Mikasa had seen him so completely happy. She couldn't help but join him in laughter.

Off they went running into the night, Eren holding the wrong hand, too elated at her response to notice.

Though Mikasa was confused where this new change in her personality was coming from, she was thankful it came. Because this was everything she could ever hope for.

She intentionally ran just a little bit behind him, to give him the feeling of being the one taking the lead on their new life.

—

Once they finally reached the next town, they were both a little breathless. Though most people would be panting and wheezing after such a lengthy run. Physically, Eren and Mikasa were not most people.

However, Eren did find himself wanting to get some water. Dropping her hand, he turned to Mikasa.

"Should we find a place to grab some drinks?" Mikasa blinked once confused.

"Sure! Like a bar? You wanting to celebrate?"

Oh! He hadn't even thought about it that way truthfully. But the look on Mikasa's face was too cute as it lit up at the thought. He decided to go with it.

"Yeah!" He said "Its only fitting after making such a big decision."

"Okay." said Mikasa with a grin.

Off they went. This time Eren didn't set the pace at a run, but more of a casual walk, and he grabbed her right hand instead of the left.

Mikasa couldn't help but look at the ground and smile. She was sure they looked like a proper couple to any passersby.

Eren was busy looking around for a bar until he found a bar and inn combo.

"Perfect" he thought. "This should do the trick" he said as he led them inside.

They were in luck because Captain Levi had left Mikasa in charge of all of the Azumabito money for all of the Scouts. After the 'Sasha getting stolen from incident,' he found Mikasa the best candidate to keep the money safe.

Initially Mikasa panicked about this when she realized she still had the money, and was ready to go back to return it. Not to mention, she had forgotten her scarf and she felt naked without it. But Eren assured her that the Scouts would be just fine in getting more and that if they really wanted to do this, start a new life, they needed to go no contact. He also assured her that he would get her a new scarf. After some talking her down she agreed.

Because of the money, it meant they would have a leg up in their new life, but they still needed to be smart about how they spent it.

They both ordered just a few beers as they had never really had time for drinking before so they started small. Gradually their courage started building and they ordered more and more.

The conversation started awkward but the more buzzed they got, the more loose lipped they became.

They ended up on the topic of Jean and how much Eren would love to take him in a real fight to the death and all the reasons why he would come out victorious.

Mikasa laughed heartily at his animated story telling until she literally passed out on the table. Eren took the hint that she was drunk and exhausted.

He helped her up over to the inn side of the building, ordered a room with two beds and helped her get to it. He gently tucked her into bed and smoothed the hair on her face.

"Goodnight Mikasa."

She grunted a reply he couldn't understand. He chuckled and crawled into his own bed and for once, quickly fell asleep due to the safety he felt with Mikasa so near.

—

The next day they both woke with no hangover whatsoever and were ready to get going with their day.

Eren with his titan healing ability, and Mikasa with her Ackerman blood, how could they be surprised alcohol didn't really have a lasting affect on them?

Mikasa said she pictured them living in the mountains, so the first thing they did was climb the mountain just behind the village they had come to.

When they got to the top, they happened upon an old cabin. It was extremely beaten down and needed a whole new roofing system. But the structure was good and it still had a lot of the essentials from the previous owner.

It was a small cabin with two bedrooms and one living area that had a kitchen and room for a couch by the fireplace

It was love at first sight for Mikasa. The location, the view, the ambiance. She was quite sure she had to have it.

Seeing this childlike joy from her, for the first time in too many years, was all Eren needed to be convinced that he was going to make sure she got what she wanted.

Now that he wasn't hellbent on killing all the titans, his passions had been rerouted to making Mikasa happy. And when Eren makes up his mind about something, he makes it happen.

They immediately went back into town and asked about the cabin. They discovered that it had been abandoned for many years and that the previous owners had no plans of coming back. No one else wanted it either because the hike to it was too strenuous and no one ever went up there. That was all Eren needed to hear. It was as good as theirs.

At this point in the day it was only around noon. Eren looked at Mikasa.

"How much do you think we can get done in the time we have left in this day?" He had that look in his eye that she knew all too well at this point. A look of intense determination. But she was up to the task as well.

"I bet we can have the roof finished and our rooms clean enough to sleep in." She replied, trying to match his excitement.

So they set to work buying everything they would need. Utensils, cooking supplies, cleaning supplies, fishing poles, axes, gardening seeds, and more.

The only awkward part was bed shopping.

They walked into the mattress store before consulting each other on what they would do with sleeping arrangements and when the worker asked what they were looking for, Mikasa looked to Eren for guidance.

Eren panicked and thought back to the cabin. Oh how he wanted to sleep with Mikasa. But there were already two large wooden bed frames that had been left behind. And there was the fact that he was still having night terrors. Plus there was a whole other topic the two hadn't even broached a conversation about yet….

"Two beds" he blurted before he let his mind wander anymore than it already had.

Mikasa was a little disappointed but also not surprised at his response. Plus, the thought of sharing a bed made her panic a bit too.

They decided to use Eren's titan to get everything up the hill in one fell swoop. It was a little risky to transform so close to town, but it was a busy day and no one seemed to notice.

Once they got back to their little haven on the top of the mountain, they set to work.

First things first, Eren fixed the roof using his titan. While Eren did his part, Mikasa worked inside the cabin.

She got rid of all the garbage left behind, swept, dusted, disinfected, and got rid of bugs. When Eren was done with the roof he joined her and helped her with all of these tasks as well until the place was spotless.

Now that they were done and their beds were set up in clean rooms, they looked around and admired their hard work.

"If only Captain Levi could see us now." Eren said with a smirk on his face.

"He'd be disappointed and find something we missed." Mikasa shot back.

The looked at each other and chuckled because she was absolutely right. Though neither could deny that their cleaning skills were pretty excellent after working under him for so many years.

They decided to make a quick dinner and ate it in silence from the exhaustion of the day. When they were done Eren spoke up.

"Well I don't mean to cut our first night here short, but after being in my titan for so long I'm beat."

"Oh my goodness! Yes of course you're exhausted. Please go right to bed. I'm pretty beat myself. We will have plenty more nights here. Let's get some rest to have a good day tomorrow?" Mikasa asked genuinely.

"Sounds good to me." Eren said, standing up.

And in that moment he spontaneously decided to do something he had wanted to do for a very long time. He walked over to Mikasa and placed a kiss on her forehead.

It was a sweet, gentle kiss, but Mikasa's whole body still went rigid from the shock of it. When his lips parted from her head she looked up at him.

As he looked down at her. He could see her cheeks becoming rosey in embarrassment. He was sure his were just as red. But he tried to seem as composed and confident as possible.

"Goodnight Mikasa."

"Goodnight Eren." She said back a little breathless.

He walked away and closed the door to his bedroom behind him. Mikasa walked to her own room and closed the door.

She turned and looked at her bedroom, fully dazed by what just happened. An enormous smile erupted on her face and she started to think about all the possibilities this new cabin life held.

She was all but dancing around the room while thinking about the fact that they might kiss for real at some point. She let herself think about what that would be like. How it would feel. She decided it would feel so, so good.

"And if we did kiss, eventually we could-"

Her face dropped. She looked out the window into the night and thought to herself, "This could get dangerous being here alone with him."

Little did she know he was in his own room having the exact same thoughts.