Within (Eren x reader)

Chapter 3- How I met you...

*flashback to 5 years ago (a week before the wall fell)*

Grisha held his hand in mine, guiding me to his home.

"I promise you will be safe now (y/n)" he said with a smile on his face. "You're now going to live with me and my family. There is Eren my son, he is the same age as you, as well as Mikasa who is just a year older than you. so you will make some new friends." 

"o-ok," I said absent-mindedly. Just earlier Grisha had saved me from my father who was about to abuse me again, but pretty sure his intent this time was not just to hurt me, but to kill me. If Grisha hadn't stepped in causing my father to stop and act all innocent, I- I... could have died.

We arrived at the Jaeger household and began to walk up the steps toward the front door. The door was slowly opened by a beautiful woman with brown hair and brown eyes. She must be Grisha's wife. She instantly gave me a hug, "make yourself at home (y/n)! I'm Carla"

I walked in and began to feel the warmth and happiness that was held in this home, I could immediately sense the difference from mine to theirs. My home was cold and always had the faintest smell of blood, probably from me. But this one felt welcoming and safe.

 I saw a wooden table, sitting at the table was a boy with the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen they were green like emeralds but still had the faintest hint of blue... that must be Eren. Sitting beside him was a girl with shoulder-length black hair and the coldest eyes, I'm assuming Mikasa.

"say hello to (y/n)!" Grisha said looking towards the other children. 

"uh... hi," Eren said grabbing the back of his neck looking towards the floor. Mikasa not saying a word. Well, that was awkward. "hi- uh, thanks for letting me stay here" I said back.

Eren looked at me and scoffed "well I didn't exactly have a choice did I."

"Eren that is enough," his mother said grabbing him by the ear. "She is a member of this family now!" Carla scoffed.

I shouldn't take away this family's happiness... just because I got unlucky with my own. 

I flipped the door open running out of the household. I could hear faint yelling in the background, ignoring what they were saying continuing to run. After running for a few minutes I heard the voices of some other children. I looked over the corner to see a little blonde boy getting bullied by some other kids.

"hey! what the hell do you think you're doing! stop that!" I yelled. My fists beginning to turn white. They completely ignored me and went back to beating up the poor kid. I could feel anger pulsing through my veins.

"I told you to stop..." I said just loud enough for them to hear. My hands were now bleeding from me digging my fingernails into my palm. There were three of them. I walked towards the first one punching him in the side of the head causing him to fall to the ground. 

The other two looked at me in shock and started running towards me. I ran towards the wall jumping off of it and kicking one of them hard in the stomach, then bouncing off them kicking the other one's jaw. One plus about being tortured for 2 years is that I know how to be tough.

They started running away, one of them helping the kid that I punched in the head, maybe I was a little too rough with him. I looked behind me to see Mikasa and Eren standing there in amazement, they saw the whole thing. I ignored them and gave the blonde boy a hand, helping him stand up. 

"th-thank you, I'm Armin!" He said with a smile on his face but still shaking. "I'm (y/n)" I said surprised. "oh hey Mikasa and Eren!" Armin said turning his head to them waving his hand in the air. He then began walking over to them, they were still looking at me in shock.

"where did you learn to fight like that?" Eren then said

"uh- I don't know..." I said suddenly feeling uneasy again. Something about him made me feel so nervous.

"I'm sorry for giving you a hard time earlier, I just- I have a rough time meeting new people... thanks for saving Armin"

"no problem, and it's alright I'm used to it" I began to look at the ground again, I may have said too much.

"do you want to come and play with us? Armin has this book about something called the "ocean", it lies beyond the walls," he said with a smile

"beyond the walls..." 

I looked up to see the wall towering over us.  I hated that wall. "It's my dream to go beyond the walls," I said with a smile. "I'd love to learn more about it."

Eren looked at me blankly for a second, as if he felt the same way. And then he smiled. It was so cute.

We all began to read Armin's book. He talked about fields of ice, and that this "ocean" was so salty that merchants could spend their whole lives trying to deplete it and still not get all the salt out. I felt overjoyed, this was the first time I actually had friends. And one of them made me look at life in a whole different way, He made my heart beat faster each time we looked into each other's eyes. He made me feel at home. What are you doing to me Eren...

*back to reality...*