Freefall | Eren x OC

Chapter 84: Slip and Fall (Eren's POV)

⚠️ GENERAL CW ADVISORY. PLEASE READ A/N FOR SPECIFIC CW ⚠️

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A few days later, Eren and the others gather in the living room, compiling everything they've gathered about you so far. Armin pulls out his laptop and Mikasa comes downstairs with some print outs of newspaper articles.

Everyone talks amongst themselves and quiets down as Eren comes downstairs, his face freshly shaven and his hair pulled back in a neat manbun. For the first time in over a week, Eren feels fresh, renewed, and motivated to fight back for you, for him. Everyone grins and offers him an armchair to sit in and he smiles as he sits down and crosses his legs and rests his head on his arm.

"Okay, let's begin," he says confidently. "Who's first?"

His friends exchange looks and Armin clears his throat. "Well, I don't know if you guys all remember but I used to do a lot amateur sleuthing. Me, Bertholdt, and Marco used to do it for fun, remember our unofficial "club" that was definitely not sanctioned by Shiganshina Hig—"

"We know Armin," Eren interjects and Armin blushes.

"Right, well we've gotten back together to look more into this and we came across the flight number of Uzui's private jet and found it in Shiganshina's flight log. The names are all recorded here, her's included."

"Which means he didn't black bag her the minute they touched down," Jean says. "He had her go through the proper channels to enter Paradis, he wouldn't have done that if he meant to kill her right away."

Eren nods quietly, "Okay, what else do we have?"

Reiner clears his throat. "I've been on the phone with Historia, she's gonna charter a private flight for us to get home. We'll have to go through Marley security again because of our status but we'll have a way to get our equipment and luggage home."

"Right... but that doesn't help me. I'm still banned from Paradis air space," Eren says and Levi clears his throat.

"Erwin's looking into that right now, we have a hard time believing you could be flagged for no reason."

"Agreed," Zeke says, "Uzui has access to a lot of things but national security? I doubt it."

"Exactly," Levi says and Mikasa speaks up.

"I spoke to my gender studies professor, Professor. Hanji Zoe. She helps runs some organizations about violence against women. If you go public with the information, it would be good to have them behind us."

"Will you?" Floch asks, "Will you be taking this information public Eren?"

Eren thinks it over quietly, "I think I have too, we can't keep doing things behind closed doors. It's what's led us here. We're gonna fight fire with fire from now on."

Mikasa and Armin exchange uneasy looks.

"What? What did I say?" Eren says cautiously and Mikasa sighs as she pulls out a newspaper to hand to Eren. Eren takes a look at it and his eyes go wide when he sees your name in the Shiganhsina Times' engagement announcements. He sees a picture of you standing and smiling with Tengen, his arm around your waist as you smile into the camera.

"If you want to go public, you're going to need to do it soon..." Mikasa says.

Eren stares into your eyes, in absolute disbelief to see you smiling with your head and hand resting on Tengen's chest. His breathing gets heavier the harder he stares into the picture, and Mikasa pulls out a magazine, Shiganshina Society, to read their article.