A/N: My new multi-chapter fic, Mikasa/Eren. Love this pair. SnK created by Isayama Hajime. Please note, spoilers to very latest manga chapter released.

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He could feel the dying pulsation of muscles contracting around his left arm and upper body. Rhythmic like a weakening heart organ, occasional spasms quietening to a dull silence. He couldn't open his eyes. They were glued shut like painted over windows. If only he had that little ounce of strength to rend a crack… but his body felt drained of all movement, captive in the ragged remains of his Titan body. He knew instinctively when someone drew him out of its shell. There was so much noise…

He faded out...

…and came to. His throat was filled with the pungent aftertaste of coagulating blood and humidity, his scalp burning cold from from exposure to… a swift wind? Was he on the move?

Numb feeling returned slowly to his back. Through he haze, he could feel something large pining him in place and preventing his slide to the earth far, far below. A grasp that was neither benevolent nor hostile. Before he could make sense of this strange thought emptiness reigned. For a long time…

…until, drifting in the swirl of darkness, his weightless form travelled toward the light of a memory.

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"If I tell you why, will you promise me something, Eren?"

"Can't you just ask? It's the third jam time this week and I don't want to break my neck on a tree before I kill a single-"

"-Because I want you to listen to me!" Mikasa grabbed his offending hand and flung it off her shoulder so hard he could feel the immediate strain in his shoulder ligament. The semi darkness around them was lifting. He could vaguely make out the glint of a metal harness buckle under the collar of her shirt, damp with drying perspiration. And Mikasa's inscrutable eyes looking at him. He didn't need light to know they were two clear pools of beautiful, inky hazel.

"I'm listening," he replied quietly, after a moment. "Sorry. We're both tired."

Mikasa sighed and indicated to their left. A narrow, rough track running downhill. "It'll take us three hours to travel back without gas. Let's go."

As they reached the desiccated riverbed half a kilometre down, he tried to break the silence: "What did you want me to…?"

She ignored his question and began following the riverbed at a brisk jog, leaving behind a trail of dust from crushing the dry, flaking mud underfoot. "It's thirty laps if we're late for the Terce bell."

Her behaviour confused him. He was well used to Mikasa'a candidness. It defined her. She spoke her mind at her own leisure, self assurance so steeped in her bones that no one could have less than absolute confidence in her words and ability. In a world where absurdities reigned and death beckoned, she was a grounding force. Even Eren felt uneasy when that rock shifted.

He could see her struggling with something in the past month, despite it being no different from the previous eighteen. There was a heightened intensity to their exercises, but they were almost final year trainees. And Mikasa was prodigious in every task. He could not pinpoint the source of her internal anxiety.

Yesterday morning, she requested that he accompany her for this advanced night exercise, despite his prior assignment as a team leader for the younger recruits back at base. Mystified by her sudden demand, yet accustomed to trusting their star student, their superiors had mutely allowed a reassignment.

His gaze fell to the large pouch tied to her body, knocking against her hip as she moved forward. It was filled with calamint flowerheads for fever and german chamomile for tea. She had found everything herself, leaving him feeling like a hinderance the entire night, and what with his equipment failing…

"I think the launcher would stop jamming mid-motion if you launched a more controlled swing. Remember, our ropes have an ultimate tensile strength. You need to be aware of how much elasticity and length they have and use it accordingly. I'll show you on the tower this afternoon."

Eren jerked to attention, almost ramming into her as she stopped and turned abruptly. He raised his head to Mikasa's expression of sadness. "What's wrong-"

"Eren, when you run to fight your Goliath, could you not run so far that I can't catch you? I'm not going to hold you back, but sometimes I feel…"

He couldn't move as she reached out and pulled him closer, hands grasping the base of his skull. "...sometimes I think you'll disappear. And I wouldn't know until after the fact."

Eren breathed a sigh of relief and shrugged off a twinge of guilt. He should have guessed. "You forget, mostly I can't keep up with you." He reached up to detangle her fingers from the back of his neck.

She leaned forward.

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Eren opened his eyes, phantom fingers trailing his shoulders, ghostly lips leaving a sweet, heated imprint on his.

He turned his head to the sound of a deep voice. "Yo, Eren. You awake?"

Reiner. The traitor.