A Sinner With A Smile // An AOT Time Travel AU

A Dream or A Memory

Eren awoke once again after closing his eyes and deciding he wouldn't anymore. He also opened his eyes inside a room and a bed, two essential things that didn't exist anymore.

His eyes surveyed the room with a familiar feeling, yet his thoughts were quite muddled, and he couldn't remember why he felt deja vu.

Hmm, maybe he was dreaming? It would explain both his muddled thoughts and the familiar scenery. Or was he inside one of his memories again? He had done that for a while, hadn't he?

After all, why would he continue to live in a world where his comrades- his brothers, his family- had ceased on existing anymore?

The thoughts of the dead made his head throb with pain, and he groaned, closing his eyes. How much time had it been since he had ever felt pain like this?

Now that he thought about it, his hands hadn't reflexively held his head. Was there a problem with them? He tried to move them, but his efforts were unrewarded. Prying open one eye and tilting his head slightly, he tried to look at his arms but was awarded another bout of piercing pain that shook his observations apart.

Damn, that had hurt like a bitch.

Wait. His eyes flew open, filled with astonishment. Ithurt?

Didn't that mean he wasn't dreaming? Sorting through his memories didn't make him experience pain either. Was he... actually awake right now? But that was impossible! His thirteen years were up! He should be dead!

Before he could think more clearly, the door opened, and in came another surprise: a walking, talking Carla Jaeger, who had died thirteen fucking years ago, acting as if nothing was wrong, and Eren had to question his sanity, again for the twentieth time that month.

Maybe the pain was psychological, and he was having delusions right now? Had he finally gone insane after three years of total solitude? That seemed quite plausible to him. He'd heard about people going insane from solitude for a month, let alone three whole years.

His sanity questioning was interrupted by a cool hand touching his forehead, and Eren realised in the back of his mind at that moment, that oh, he had a fever.

And that was even less possible than feeling pain in his mind. Eren hadn't gotten sick a single time after becoming a Titan Shifter at age ten. Was he really losing his mind?

A chuckle broke through his jumbling thoughts, as clear and refreshing as the summer breeze, a melody he remembered clearly even after many years of its absence. His mother's voice had always been his favourite tune, and he would probably remember this tune until the day he died.

Once again, that meant he wasn't dead. Especially since according to Connie who occasionally spouted religious bullshit he had learned from his mother, when you died you met your dead loved ones and they hugged you and welcomed you and shit.

Since his mother wasn't saying anything like that, Eren was pretty sure that wasn't the case, but what would Connie know since he hadn't even been dead at the time?

Memories of blood, crushed limbs, a cracked skull, dull grey eyes flashed in his mind, and he could feel his heart clench painfully. It had been more than three years since the nearly-bald boy's death, yet it was still quite painful to remember. He had accepted it, of course, but his heart still throbbed with sadness anytime he reminisced about the boy who had always been cheerful until Sasha's death.

Brushing away those memories, Eren could hear his mother's soothing voice coming from atop him, her hand ruffling his hair lovingly just like she had done so when he was young, and for a second, Eren thought thatif this was a dream, he didn't want to wake up.