COMRADES • Eren Jaeger

CHAPTER 22: Dead Stars

This chapter subtly jumps back and forth between yours and Eren's POVs.

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FOR SOMEBODY as ill at ease as Eren Jaeger, endless waiting was not something he had the patience for.

Constantly wondering if you were alright, if you were breathing, if you were truly alive. If you had somehow managed to slip from the hands of death and survived the fatal wounds that may have ended you.

Perhaps you were still somewhere out there, wondering about him too.

The squally sea breeze was chilly in the evening, causing Eren's dark green cloak to swirl out with the wind as he sat hidden behind a cluster of sandy white sedimentary rocks by the empty beach.

It's a starless night, Eren noticed as he glanced up at the dark black blanket in the supposed heavens above him, full of equally dark clouds. A perfectly accurate representation of how he had been feeling inside for the past few months. Today was no different, regardless of how it ended.

One particularly harsh gust of wind stabbed at his cheekbones, but he only silently hissed at the sensation. No amount of physical pain could ever beat the agony he had undergone in the span of these past twelve months. Whether it was a sign that it was a blessing or a curse, Eren did not know. Nor did he wish he had the means to find out.

Eren sat alone on the beach, his eyes moving from sand to stone, from rock pools to breaking waves. Only in his private thoughts while waiting for enemy ships did he indulge himself by thinking of you.

It was cruel really, how astonishingly beautiful the island seemed to have gotten ever since you set foot off it as though your presence had been some sort of wavering curse for the Eldians. Everywhere he went, you were the only thing he could ever see in everything that was good and right about the world — the laughter of young children playing in the districts of Wall Sina, the fresh flowers that bloomed within the wild fields of Wall Maria, the pale moonlight that illuminated Eren's lonely hours sleeping in your old bed in Wall Rose.

He should probably let go of that bad habit.

The image of you accompanied Eren even in places most hostile to romance. It followed him during strenuous training sessions with the new recruits, the spilled red blood of Pure Titans the Scouts had slain in the past few weeks, the war chants and songs of the military that seemed to have an endless echo in his empty ears. It seemed as though no matter how hard he tried, he could never let go of the thin string of fate that tied together the feeble hopes of your return.

Isn't that what you had said to him the last time you held each other? "See you later"? He should have known that you weren't one to make insignificant little promises. Because before you were his girl, you were a soldier, and you chose to live your life the way you did.

That meant you had been the most free girl in the world, and that idea at least gave Eren some satisfaction.

If you were gone, then for sure you must be free from your heavy burdens. At least, that's what Captain Levi had said to them. Eren did not agree with him — he believed that freedom meant living a full life. Still, it made the others feel better. That you had been unchained from the tight shackles that imprisoned you in this hell.

Top One. Squad Levi. Scout Lieutenant. Cherished friend. The last few months of your life in Paradis had been pretty well-lived. After all, your dream had been to become an honorable hero of the Survey Corps, and you achieved exactly that in your last few moments. Your face and voice might one day be forgotten in time, but there was no doubt that someone out there would carry on your admirable legacy.