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【𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄】
*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*
IN THE SILENCE OF THE ROOM, Himari could hear her heart pounding in her chest. Blood rushed loudly through her ears and her head spun dizzyingly as she stared at Eren, who was sitting across the table from her. Crimson blood dripped from the cut on his palm, spreading across the glistening tabletop in a slowly-gathering pool that made Himari feel nauseous to look at. She swallowed thickly, her tongue feeling like sandpaper against the roof of her mouth.
She rested her palms on the top of the table, the coolness welcome against her warm fingers that she had to desperately remind herself not to curl into fists, out of fear that one wrong move may set off the ticking timebomb in front of her. It was almost as though she had been frozen in time, with how still she was. With how still the whole table was. Mikasa was as stiff as a board to her right and she could feel Armin breathing shallowly on the other side of her. Every single one of them was terrified of the person sitting before them.
A quiet knock on the door sounded like an explosion in the otherwise silent room.
"We're going ahead." Himari's eyebrows furrowed at Floch's familiar voice, but she kept her eyes trained on Eren's face. There was no change in the expressionless mask he had donned and merely lowered his head slightly, eyes dropping onto his bloody palm in front of him.
"Very well," he replied, his voice monotonous and sounding very unlike him. She spared a quick glance at both Armin and Mikasa while he was looking away and managed to catch the eye of both of her friends - the two of them looking just as nervous and as uncomfortable as she felt.
"Was that Floch's voice?" Armin asked in a painfully strained tone, as though desperately struggling to keep his voice calm. "You came here with Floch?"
"Yes," Eren replied, eyes flickering up to Himari's face. Her eye twitched in her attempt not to narrow them, wondering if Floch had told Eren about the way that she had spoken to him when she had thrown him, Elsa and Louise in prison. She couldn't see anything on his face that gave it away, however, and wasn't going to attempt to ask, knowing it would be like trying to get answers out of a brick wall.
"I wanted to speak with you," he continued, finally looking away from Himari. "Just a quiet chat. Conflict is not necessary to solve Eldia's problems."
Himari had to bite down hard on her tongue, that time, to stop herself from saying something she knew she would end up regretting. It was already too late for that, she wanted to scream at him. He had already started the war against Marley and the rest of the world when he attacked Liberio and stole the War-Hammer Titan after massacring thousands. It was a little too late to solve anything now by talking.
"Where are you taking everyone else?" Himari asked, but her words had a sharp edge to them, making her remark sound like more of a demand than anything else. Eren's eyes flickered up to her face again. He was silent for a moment, watching the way her dark, flaxen eyes grew hard and guarded the longer he gazed at her. He didn't recognise the look in her eyes, for it was not one that she had ever directed at him.
