The Time You Were Gone | Eremin Story

The day is ours

~chapter 8 of part 2~

Summary
The lovers decide to spend the day at the zoo while the guest house continues to bear its weight

If it wasn't for Eren, Mikasa would have never agreed to come here. Not that she didn't like their company, even though she couldn't say they were much close. It was painfully obvious the others knew each other better, and it was understandable.

From her early childhood, she had spent her time alone. The village she was born in and grew until the age of ten was almost deserted and very poor, everyone knew everyone and helped with whatever they could when someone needed it, like a big family. The majority of people were above the age of fifty, leaving the young girl with nobody to talk with.

She never asked her parents why they were livng there, but considering how they were almost always wearing the same clothes and eating the same food they were getting from the small garden behind their house, she didn't need to hear an answer.

The village was surrounded by a small forest she wasn't allowed to explore by herself. She had been seeing the warning signs of wild animals before she could even read it, but never in her life spotting one. Somebody else would think of it as an adventure, trying to find if it was a lie or the forest was really surrounded by beasts, but not her. She obediently stayed close and did whatever she was asked to.

Besides everything in the village they didn't have a doctor, which therefore led to problems. For some time she had started to see a man coming and leaving from the sight of the window in her room, but a child wouldn't think much of it and would continue their play carelessly. Not until she saw the face of the man closely.

Her mother had recently gotten pregnant, expecting a son and a brother of Mikasa. Medical examinations were needed, even more by the time she was already in the 8th month. Long story short, the man introduced himself as Grisha, soon stating that he had a son around her age. With the time he started coming together with him, showing her her first ever friend. A little stubborn and militant kid, but they quickly became close.

The son, who she soon heard to beEren, was coming from a much bigger and luminous city. He used to tell her about it and all the cool stuff he could do there, leaving her only to imagine. Unfortunately here they didn't have as much options for entertainment, so most of the times they were looking for any cool bugs they could find, Eren calling them "sick" and confusing Mikasa for the first few times, or by his suggestion fighting with sticks they called swords, and sometimes they even transfered into guns with complicated names that only showed how interested the boy was at the time, like any other. But she never refused their games.
In fact, he also never complained when she asked him to play with her dolls either, in reality he was also enjoying it. As quickly as they became close, she got attached.

It was more than seven years ago, but she still held a special place in her heart for that meet. What she was trying to say is, she didn't prefer to stay home because she didn't want to hang out with her friends, but because she wasn't used to so many people. It was always Eren and her.

The time when he introduced her a few months ago, making them officially meet was big of a change for her. Not only she felt bad for the last time they met in the hallways, something that Eren also remembered pretty vividly, but whatever was happening she was still the village girl with no friends. It was strange for her to turn that feeling sideways.

But luckily they were all kind.

She lowered her gaze when she realized she had been dozing off for the last few seconds, looking at the phone in his hand. He noticed it and hurried to give her an answer. "Relationships are strange sometimes."