Eren really isn't just waiting around to fight Reiner, but he would do it. Will, probably. It's hard to imagine that this weird truce will last forever. He vaguely hopes that no one else dies if and when they can't take it anymore and the dam bursts. Levi will be pissed as hell if other people get dragged into it, and he doesn't really want to go through all that. The captain would probably let them tear each other up without anyone else getting involved, but the second that civilians are hurt, it will be a problem.
He'll try to avoid that for the most part, but Eren only barely cares about the wellbeing of people he does not know. And with the way he can't help pushing buttons…
But not here. Here he can just eat his food and play pretend, like being across the table from a guy who he was practically begging to fuck him a couple weeks ago has no effect on him, or like he doesn't still remember any of the anger he's been bottling up however long. Like he really has control.
He shrugs a shoulder.
"I don't know. I'm not dreading anything. I don't have anything left to dread." That's not entirely true, but he doesn't have anything left to dread from Reiner at the age he must be, before the world sucked them both dry.
He looks away again for a moment, something glassy in his expression. Memory over memory. He had called Reiner a murderer once, hadn't he? He remembers that through a fog of everything else. Said that he and Bertolt were no longer human.
He could laugh at that, but not because it's funny.
We're the same, Reiner.
The crash of their titans. Has this even happened yet? Which time is he thinking of? There are so many.
His eyes slide back to Reiner, the bright neon lights of the signs around them. The noise isn't the noise of a battlefield. It's just people talking, chattering away while they eat their food. He wasn't spaced out that long, was he? Probably not.
"There are things I can't say to Jean or Mikasa. They don't want to know the future. They're better off not knowing what happens. I don’t know that I'd give you the same courtesy. Hide it from you so it won't hurt. Maybe I would."
Or more likely he'd use pieces of it like weapons, designed to dig in where he wanted them to. Some of that could backfire, blow right up in his face like everything always does in a real fight, but it wouldn't stop him.
"You asked me what happened to me, right? Reiner?" he asks. He hadn't answered then. He'd just said something about turning twenty.
He takes a bite. Normalcy, something he tries at even when it's way too late.
"I was supposed to die before I got to be this old. But…I got to come here instead. There was another world before this one. Now there's here. Now I keep living. That's what happened."
It's still not an answer. It's a half-truth at best. The unspoken part lingers in the air between them.
not me making it weird
He'll try to avoid that for the most part, but Eren only barely cares about the wellbeing of people he does not know. And with the way he can't help pushing buttons…
But not here. Here he can just eat his food and play pretend, like being across the table from a guy who he was practically begging to fuck him a couple weeks ago has no effect on him, or like he doesn't still remember any of the anger he's been bottling up however long. Like he really has control.
He shrugs a shoulder.
"I don't know. I'm not dreading anything. I don't have anything left to dread." That's not entirely true, but he doesn't have anything left to dread from Reiner at the age he must be, before the world sucked them both dry.
He looks away again for a moment, something glassy in his expression. Memory over memory. He had called Reiner a murderer once, hadn't he? He remembers that through a fog of everything else. Said that he and Bertolt were no longer human.
He could laugh at that, but not because it's funny.
We're the same, Reiner.
The crash of their titans. Has this even happened yet? Which time is he thinking of? There are so many.
His eyes slide back to Reiner, the bright neon lights of the signs around them. The noise isn't the noise of a battlefield. It's just people talking, chattering away while they eat their food. He wasn't spaced out that long, was he? Probably not.
"There are things I can't say to Jean or Mikasa. They don't want to know the future. They're better off not knowing what happens. I don’t know that I'd give you the same courtesy. Hide it from you so it won't hurt. Maybe I would."
Or more likely he'd use pieces of it like weapons, designed to dig in where he wanted them to. Some of that could backfire, blow right up in his face like everything always does in a real fight, but it wouldn't stop him.
"You asked me what happened to me, right? Reiner?" he asks. He hadn't answered then. He'd just said something about turning twenty.
He takes a bite. Normalcy, something he tries at even when it's way too late.
"I was supposed to die before I got to be this old. But…I got to come here instead. There was another world before this one. Now there's here. Now I keep living. That's what happened."
It's still not an answer. It's a half-truth at best. The unspoken part lingers in the air between them.
Now you. What happened?