Eren shrugs a shoulder, a holdover thing he's always done, defensive without getting outright defensive. He struggles to agree. Things out of his control grate on him. Things that allow no choices slam up against his need for - his idea of - freedom. Free choice, free will, everything unbound.

He knows he has been/is/will be a slave to that ideal, like Armin said. He's seen himself admit it. But Eren here and now can't and won't.

"Giving up is a choice. Just a shitty one," he says instead.

Reiner. Fuck, what is he going to do about Reiner now? He was so scared of losing whatever it is they have that he's overreacted about it before. It's a weird sort of hypocrisy, as usual. That thing between them was never in danger with Armin being here and it won't be with Bertholdt being here. Eren has barely grown out of being an insecure kid, though.

"I see Reiner all the time," he says. "If I see them, what?"