[ In some way, he's apologizing for both. The people he needs the apologies for from home, though, likely won't give them to Eren.

Jean waits out Eren's silence, feeling those hands squeeze and release. It feels agonizing, like being suspended in midair with no hooks - a terrifying freefall that you'll either stop or die in.

Eren would have every right to get angry, to rage.

But he doesn't.

Jean hears the wet noise of his lips when he tries to speak, long before he manages. He doesn't let Eren's hands go, but he does finally shift so that he can half turn and look at Eren. ]

I'm not going to leave. We'll be together as long as we can.

[ He doesn't promise forever, because he knows one day one of them will leave. Either by chance, or choice.

He thinks of Dolph, who asked him to remember how the love felt. He once promised Eren his bones would remember him. So: ]

And, even if we don't have our names anymore, we'll remember how we felt for each other.