𝐚𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐬 | 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬

Don't Tell Them What You Think - Eren x Reader

Above scene is from S4, below is a modified version
Soundtrack!: Attack On D - Hiroyuki Sawano
Takes place during S4 (Y/Ns POV)

Many believe that innocence is better than knowledge. Sometimes a fake reality is better to be in place, making those who live in it oblivious to a horrible world. But who would want to live in a horrible world such as that? Pure knowledge would be too painful for the innocent who only wanted to survive in their beautiful hell.

Sometimes I wish that I was oblivious to the real world. Marley? Eldia? Who cares? They seemed all the same to me. These ideas of countries and races, and diplomats and countries. Oceans and creatures that Armin had told me about, all coming into play in front of me with no time for comprehension.

Instead of being happy away from the walls, instead of laughing in the sea with Mikasa and Armin, I waited. I waited for something to go wrong.

I watched the pure light vanish from Eren's eyes and focus on a deeper connection to the world— the possibility of world domination. Dominating a world with no Titans but he, the flicker of possibilities to rule the world as a tyrant.

Of course, that idea was extreme. I loved Eren. I loved the way that he was determined to protect those he loved, and how his face lit up at the accomplishments that we made together. Killing titans— it was a sport. Something that fuelled us. But world domination was something that I had not prepared myself for in the wake of our new life we would start beyond the walls.

I'm thinking about these kinds of things now, as I stand on the staircase that leads down to Eren's cell. Hange and Mikasa insisted that I wouldn't see him. I was banned to, but it was a promise I could not keep. I needed to make sure that he was still there.

Still alive.

Its been years since we landed in the outside world, and the memories are slowly beginning to fade away. They fade and crumble like old pieces of parchment—and when they're gone, they're gone.

But I'm trying to remember the good parts. Like how I'm sure that there were a few days when Eren really looked at me and smiled— like a kid who just realised he was getting a present. Like Sasha when saw that there were extra rations of food. Like Mikasa when we were given new mobility gear. Like Armin when he saw the sea.

I'm sure that I haven't been making up that memory in my head. I couldn't have been.

- - -
"Fight."

I heard a voice from the cell that was just a few steps and around the bend from me.

"Fight!"

When I turned my head I could see him. Eren, clung to the mirror in front of him, talking to himself with the hardest expression I had ever seen.

He looked up at me.

His eyes were darker than I remembered, more foggy than the crystal emerald I thought that they looked like. They looked shocked. His hair was longer, and tied back. He looked like an entirely different person that he had before, especially because I had not seen him during the operation in Marley. He didn't look like the man that I remembered; the man that I loved.

Did I really know him at all?

"You said the word 'fight'," I whispered, and I promised myself that I would not shake. I could not in front of him. "What does that mean? Who are you fighting?"

His eyes remained the same— nervous, like I had seen something that I was not supposed to have seen.

"How are you? You had me nervous for a second. Normally people don't talk to themselves, but you have been alone for awhile...." I took in a breath. Why was this so hard? "So perhaps it would be normal for you in this sta—"