Follow Me Around The World { Explorer!AU }

Follow Me Around The World

The story of Eren Jaeger and Armin Arlert is a unique one. It is a tale of adventures into the unknown, it is a tale of deep seas and dark jungles, it is a tale of a bond so strong that the walls theirselves seem weak under it.

It is a tale of how two souls became one with the help of the beautiful unknown. The beautiful unknown being the world outside. The world outside the walls. The world outside the walls was something no one really knew of. It was said to be dangerous and scary. It was said to be full of bandits and thieves. It was said to be full of the unknown. Well that's what Armin's books told them.

Fortunately for these boys, their love for the unknown slowly out grew their fear of bandits and thieves. In all their time growing and flourishing under the walls protection, they had formed a bond that couldn't be shaken. A bond that couldn't be broken but anything. It grew throughout the years.

The bond suffered pain, it suffered when Armin would return to Eren bruised and bloody. The bond had suffered loss when Eren's mother passed away, leaving Eren's druken father in charge of Eren and his sister, Mikasa. The bond suffered every time the boys shed tears for each other. The bond suffered terribly throughout the years, but that bond never broke. It didn't ever show signs of cracking, of breaking and crumbling between their fingers.

The bond grew in strength. The bond grew to something that couldn't be explained by anything other than true love. This love was in every book they shared together. This love was in every smile, every laugh they shared. Every touch, every embrace. Every warm feeling kept it burning brighter than ever before. It burnt brighter than the stars they watched. The bond was like the stars themselves. Something that looked so small at first but nice you looked closer, it was larger than life and burning too bright for your own eyes but it never phased the boys.

When they played together, they would play explorers. They would pretend they were far away from the walls. Far away from their worries and problems. Far away from everyone that didn't matter to them. They left their worries behind and pretended to head forward. They'd blow promises into the summer air and let the wind kiss them in return, as if sealing that promise.

They'd sit beneath that oak tree in the field and tell each other that no matter what, they'd get out. They'd get out of these walls and go somewhere far away. Far away from people, far away from worries and problems. They only needed each other to happy. That's what they told each other. That kept them happy for their years until they thought that dream became nothing more than a dream. Time ticked on and their dreams and promises blessed by the warm summer air were blown away by the wind.

-*-*-*-

As the boys grew older, the bond between them never wavered. It didn't waver through their school years. The bond didn't waver, yet it didn't grow all that much. Their years in highschool were difficult to say the least.

They found the names difficult. They found the pushing and shoving difficult. They found the little sly comments about themselves difficult. They found explaining to the council officer why they had been beaten up again difficult.

Eren found controlling is anger difficult. Armin found calming the boy down difficult.

Eren found being tripped in the halls difficult. Armin found being pushed and shoved out the way difficult.

Eren found watching Armin be hit again and again and again while he was held down, doing nothing by shout and curse at the monsters who dare hurt his Armin, difficult.

Armin found watching Eren trying his best not to cry when people laughed when he was tripped difficult.

Sometimes they boys would sit together in the school bathroom, just sit there and not talk for a while because they both knew how difficult it was for each other. Sometimes Armin would slip their hands together and just give his hand a gentle squeeze, telling him that it would be all okay. Even though they were both so far away from okay that it reminded Armin of when they watched the stars. Their well being seemed so small to some people but to them, it was like burning. The problem burned them from the inside, it was killing them but they couldn't call out because they both knew no one could hear them over all the things happening around them. Sometimes the problem of who was going to be the homecoming king out weighed the fact that some kids were being beaten until they cried out, being beaten until they couldn't take it anymore. They were stars. So small in the sky that they didn't matter anymore. People saw stars everyday, now they just seem boring, old, a waste of space.