Ein Riese, der Fliegen Wollte

To be Sublimely Great, Or to be Nothing

Mikasa smiles and buries her nose into the bright red scarf around her neck. It's lopsided and lumpy and pretty much a length of holes stitched together, but it's also soft and warm and made just for her. She smiles at the memory of Eren handing it to her the night before Carla and Maria went back home. Apparently he'd wrangled Christa into teaching him, which is something Mikasa would have paid to see.

The gritty blade-sharpener Armin had gotten her is tucked securely in her jacket pocket, ready to be used if necessary, and she smiles as she runs her knuckles over the bulge it makes.

Her brothers know her well.

The whirring sounds of practice echo around her as she walks. They've been practicing with 3DM Gear for a while now, and she likes to think she's gotten the hang of it pretty well. Armin is still struggling with it a little, but Mikasa isn't too worried. Eren absolutely loves the 3DMG training. She's never seen such a blinding look of joy before she saw Eren soaring through the trees toward the large wooden cut-out targets. And as always, he almost never seems sore afterward.

Some people get all the luck, she thinks as her stomach muscles twinge. She's sore in places she didn't even know she had. The first time she'd expressed that thought aloud, Armin had nodded with her, and despite the fact that he could probably name exactly which muscles they had exhausted, all he'd said was 'yeah'.

Eren had looked at them with sympathy.

Mikasa shakes her head at the memory. It's hard to remember sometimes that Eren hasn't always been with them.

She thinks about how much he's grown since they met, and she shakes her head with a wry smile.

"It just doesn't make sense!" Armin says, shaking his head as he pours over their standard issue book about Titans. They're in the grass by the training field again, and Eren can feel the sun shining down on them in a way that makes him want to bask in it all day. The red glow of light shining through his closed eyelids is soothing in a visceral way.

"What is it?" He asks, not moving from his graceless lounging position. He can feel the grass between his toes and he wiggles them just to relish in the feeling.

"This book is saying that Titans don't attack animals." Eren knows from the tone of Armin's voice that this is the end to his pleasant, peaceful break. "But when they came into Shiganshina, they were in a...a feeding frenzy. If they're so hungry, why don't they attack anything else? Why fixate on humans if there were whole forests of animals and plants out there to eat?" Eren frowns at the frustration in his friend's voice. He knows Armin hates not knowing the answer to something more than anything, and Eren always feels guilty withholding the answers to Armin's questions.

"I do not know." He lies. "You should maybe ask Commander Shadis. He seems to know many things about Titans."

Armin grumbles something, and Eren cracks an eye open to give him a look. "I already asked him." Armin admits with a huff.

Eren sits up to look at Armin. The blond human's face is troubled in a way that makes guilt eat at the pit of Eren's stomach.

"You maybe find out someday." He says, resting a hand on Armin's shoulder. "Until then time, the book will not tell you. Now, the sun is warm and we have no assignments." The words make Armin smile.