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[neighsaying]

INBOX (UN: OMNIDIRECTIONAL) text / audio / video / action This is Jean. Leave a message, and I'll reach back out when I'm available. [ Previously was thunderspear ] code credit

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[neighsaying]

No. Shut the fuck up.

[ Jean's tone might be harsh but he keeps his hold on Eren, even as he laughs, as he finally deflates and clings to Jean. ]

You don't have anything to apologize to me for.

[ To the world? Yeah. He'll give Eren that. ]

Especially not here. You promised, remember? You promised me you didn't want to hurt anyone. I said let's not be those people here.

kinda handwaving that at some point eren was told not to hurt reiner

[wintolive]

I don't.

[His voice is desperate.

[He wants to hurt Vaeros for all he's done, sure. He wanted to hurt Reiner, though now he feels like the true enemy (and he's as much as agreed that he wouldn't).]

Not everyone. Goddammit, I was supposed to save them.

oh yeah probably in the other hug thread

[neighsaying]

It wasn't supposed to be just you. You know that, right? Fuck that Humanity's only hope bullshit, I should have kicked whoever said that in the balls.

[ Because who tells a fifteen year old that!! ]

You're not that Eren. You can just be ours. Mikasa's Eren.

[wintolive]

I am that Eren. [Grief. That's what his voice carries now. Overwhelming grief.]

It's already happened. You saw it.

[neighsaying]

You still have a chance.

[ Jean's voice breaks, a little bit, when he says that. ]

You haven't made those decisions yet. And even if you are the same, I don't care.

[wintolive]

[This cognitive dissonance is only a taste of what he'll experience in the future; a life where time is both all at once and not at all. He hasn't made those decisions yet here. Back home, most of humanity has been crushed. Jean knows that. If they ever leave this place, that's what he'll be going back to.

[Suddenly, Eren doesn't want to go home as badly. Eren doesn't want to go home at all.]

We can't leave this place. Not ever. Not ever, Jean. Promise me.

[neighsaying]

[ For the first time, Jean lies.

It's a lie of omission, of course; they can't control when they arrive and when they leave, short of fulfilling that wish. He knows they can't; he's read enough about it now.

Instead, he holds Eren tighter. ]

We won't. We can stay here, forever.

[ In truth, neither of them might believe it. But it's a nice lie. ]

[wintolive]

[Jean's thinking is correct. Eren knows just as well as he does that no one can control when they enter or leave this place. It doesn't matter. The lie is a balm, and Eren's body finally relaxes, laying heavily back down against Jean again. He's exhausted, but something tells him he won't be able to sleep.

[Only hours ago, he'd still been hell bent on going home. Then his life got turned upside down.

[He doesn't speak again; just rubs his nose into Jean's shirt and clings ever tighter.]

good point for wrap?

[neighsaying]

[ Jean lets himself sag back against the couch, gently tugging Eren with him so that he's leaning against Jean.

Fuck, today was already hard enough, and Erwin had to go and do - well, the right thing, Jean's aware. But the thing he and Mikasa were trying to work up to.

(Would they ever have told Eren? Even Jean's not sure, if he's honest).

Holding Eren is as much a comfort for him as it might be for his younger friend. He doesn't try to talk again, so they sit there, in silence. ]