Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin.

Flesh and Bone

Jean was not surprised when Armin stood to go to bed early. After everything the poor kid had been through during the mission, no one could blame him. The others still lingered solemnly in the meeting room even though they had basically talked over everything that needed to be said. Jean volunteered to walk Armin to their room, and Armin nodded his consent.

The hall seemed darker and emptier than normal, and Jean wondered if anything would look the same again. He glanced down at Armin, whose eyes no longer held that spark, and the ache in his heart increased. Jean clenched his fists.

"Armin, is there anything you want to talk about?" Jean asked, as blunt as ever.

After a moment's hesitation, Armin shook his head. "No… not right now. Maybe tomorrow, but for tonight, I just want to sleep and forget."

Jean nodded. He could understand and respect that. He, too, wanted nothing more than to forget his own helplessness and failure from earlier, but he knew that it would haunt his dreams for a long time coming. He didn't think he would ever forgive himself for turning his head, unable to help, unable to watch as his squad mate went through hell right in front of him.

"I… I wanted to thank you, Jean," Armin spoke up, his voice soft. His eyes stayed trained to the ground as they walked. "You've been a good friend through all this."

Jean's eyes widened in response. Of all the things he expected to come from Armin's mouth, those carefully chosen words were the last. "Armin, how could you say that? I couldn't do anything. I couldn't stop him…"

"Of course you couldn't," Armin cut him off. "We had a job to do, and as soldiers, it's our duty to perform with all our hearts. If you would have tried to stop him, it would have ruined the plan, and things would have been much worse for all of us. You made the right decision."

At this point, they had reached their destination, the bedroom that the boys of Levi's squad shared. They lingered in the doorway, and Armin finally raised his head to meet Jean's eyes.

"I'm talking about afterwards. You defended me when that guy…" Armin broke off and seemed to lose his nerve. He averted his eyes and continued his monologue to the wall. "Anyway, you defended me, and you comforted me. I can't thank you enough for that."

Jean stared in astonishment. He felt that all of that had been the least he could do after what Armin had been through, but now that Jean thought about it, he had been the only one to show any attention to Armin. Even though the kid had received the worst of the mission, everyone had only been focused on the new deal with the Reebs Company. Didn't they realize that they owed it all to this young soldier with broken eyes?

Even Eren and Mikasa hardly spared a glance in Armin's direction. They listened to Levi's orders and brooded over their own thoughts, but neither offered any words in regard to Armin's ordeal. Weren't they supposed to be his best friends?

Sudden anger bubbled up in Jean's veins as he thought over it more. If the roles had been reversed, Armin would have checked on his friends before anything else. Eren, that bastard, he had everything a person could want in friendship, yet he neglected so much.

"Anyway, goodnight," Armin said. He entered the bedroom and curled up in his bunk. Jean imagined he was thankful to have the room to himself for a few hours before the rest of the squad turned in for the night as well.

"Goodnight," Jean whispered back.

As soon as Jean shut the door behind him, he gritted his teeth and marched off to find a certain asshole.

Distantly, Jean realized that Eren and Armin's relationship was really none of his business, but fury outweighed rationalization. He was just so fed up with it all. If Eren didn't watch out, he was going to lose everything in this cruel world without even realizing what he had in the first place.

Jean knew that feeling all too well. He wondered how he would have treated Marco differently if he had known their time together was going to be so short. Jean gagged at the thought of being similar to Eren, but he couldn't deny the parallel relationships. He only hoped and prayed that Armin wouldn't leave as Marco did, but as physically weak as the kid was, many saw it as a miracle that he had lasted this long. Still, after being saved by him twice and witnessing his skills, Jean knew better than to underestimate the kid.

But Armin was still human, and right now, he needed his best friend.

When Jean returned to where everyone was gathered, nothing had really changed. Connie and Sasha mumbled nonsense to each other at the table, actually keeping their voices low for once. Eren stared darkly at that stupid key he kept around his neck, and Mikasa forever remained at his side. Jean marched up to Eren.

"We need to talk. Alone. Come outside," Jean ordered.

Eren broke out of his daze and scowled. "Why the hell would I listen to you?" he growled.

"It's about Armin, you asshole," Jean hissed. Just as he expected, Eren's expression changed completely. After a moment of tense silence, Eren followed him out of the room. Mikasa seemed to sense the graveness of the situation, for she remained behind to allow them privacy.

Once they were out of earshot, Eren stopped and crossed his arms. "What's this about, Jean?" he demanded.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Jean exploded. Now that they were alone, Jean didn't hesitate to release his fury. His eyes burned with emotion, and he clenched his fists as he faced Eren head on. "I always knew you were an ass, but I didn't realize you were such a douchebag!"

Eren startled for just a split second before matching Jean's anger with fury of his own. He narrowed his eyes and shouted, "What the hell are you talking about? Instead of screaming like an idiot, just tell me what you're so pissed about!"

Jean took a deep breath to try to get his words out before he really did start screaming. "Have you even talked to Armin since the mission? Do you realize what hell the poor kid went through? You're supposed to be his best friend!" Despite his resolve to explain calmly, Jean's voice still rose with each word until he shouted the last two.

Eren actually stepped back in shock. Armin? "W-what do you..?"

"You mean to tell me you don't even know?" Jean growled. Somehow, that made it so much worse. The bastard didn't even bother to ask his best friend how he was after a crucial mission.

"What happened?" Eren demanded fiercely. He, too, had his fists clenched, and he stepped forward as if he was going to punch Jean if he didn't answer.

Though it had been so easy to scream and yell at Jaeger before, Jean suddenly found it hard to get the next words out. He looked away and grumbled, "Once we were captured, they left one man to guard us. We were both tied up, so neither of us could do anything while... The fucking bastard touched him, harassed him... Armin was crying, and there wasn't anything I could do to stop it."

"F-fuck," Eren stammered. Jean stole a glance and observed how Eren stared hard at the floor, his fists clenched so tight that his knuckles were white. Jean couldn't be sure, but there seemed to be a slight wetness around his eyes.

"That isn't all," Jean said grimly. "Once the squad came in and captured the bastards, Captain Levi ordered Armin to fix the same pervert's gag. The bastard was panting and asked him to do something about it. Armin was horrified, didn't know what to do... So I told him to go outside.

"I punched the bastard. It knocked him out and probably broke his nose, but it wasn't near enough. He deserved far worse."

Silence moved between them once Jean finished the story. Neither seemed to know what to say now that the truth had been brought out and the screaming over with. Eren trembled with the need for violence, but the object of his fury was nowhere to be seen.

"You're supposed to be his friend, Jaeger. He doesn't want to be a burden. He won't come to you, so you're going to have to go to him. If you don't, I'm going to kick your ass," Jean warned, his voice even, only stating facts.

Jean was surprised when Eren didn't retaliate, but then again, maybe something had actually gotten through his thick skull. After a few more moments, Jean marched away. When he looked back, Eren was walking toward the boys bedroom. Jean released a breath.

He knew he should be happy, but his emotions tossed and turned in his stomach. Had he really done the right thing? He'd done the selfless thing, but Jean didn't always count that as the correct course of action.

Still, Jean had a feeling that Marco would have been proud of him.

...

As soon as Jean was out of earshot, Eren picked up his pace until he was practically running to the boys bedroom. Fury still burned inside him, but this time, the anger was directed at himself. Damn it, it was his job to protect Armin! How could he have screwed up like this?

Of course, he hadn't wanted Armin to go on that mission alone, but Captain Levi made it quite clear that Eren would stay behind with Historia where they would be safe. He hated every moment of it, but there was nothing he could do. He'd thought that since Levi would be there, nothing bad could happen. After all, he was humanity's strongest.

Still, he was only human.

Eren wondered if Armin would even want to see him. What kind of friend was he not to even speak to him after the mission? In their line of work, Eren considered coming back alive a success, and once he saw Armin still breathing, he didn't think any more of it. Sometimes he forgot that there are some things much worse than death.

Eren hesitated at the closed door, but after a moment, he barged in despite his doubts. He recognized the curtain of blond hair peaking out from Armin's blankets immediately, and he realized that the boy was already asleep. His chest rose with calm, even breaths.

After plenty of his own experiences, Eren understood that there is nothing quite as valuable as peaceful sleep. Even when the world was falling apart, it was nice to escape into mindless bliss, even if just for a little while. Eren would not be so cruel as to wake him. Instead, he crawled into the minuscule space next to him in his bunk.

Without waking, Armin subconsciously moved over to allow Eren room. They used to sleep like this all the time when they were kids, and their bodies found comfortable positions effortlessly. Eren laid there for a long time. He breathed in Armin's scent and reminded himself that he was alive and so were his friends.

Eren had no way of measuring time, but he was pretty sure it was dark by the time Armin finally spoke. His back was turned to him, but Eren wasn't surprised that Armin automatically knew who shared his bed.

"Eren?" Armin murmured.

"Yeah," Eren confirmed.

"What are you doing here?" Armin turned over to face Eren and rubbed at his eyes.

"I'm sorry," Eren said. He stared directly into Armin's eyes and didn't look away despite his shame.

Armin immediately knew what he was referring to, or he thought he did. "It's not your fault. That man-"

"I don't mean that," Eren cut him off. "I should have been there for you afterwards."

Armin shrugged. "It doesn't matter. You're here now, and that's enough," he promised.

Eren gritted his teeth and growled. "If it was up to me, I would find that bastard and rip him limb from limb. Scum like him should die..."

"Eren," Armin interrupted. "You know, it's not your job to protect me. We're not kids anymore. We can't afford that sort of thing."

"What are you talking about?! Just because we're soldiers doesn't mean we stop being friends. I know I've been kind of an asshole lately, but I still want to be there for you, no matter what." When Armin didn't say anything, Eren continued, "And I know that I can count on you to put things right. So don't act like you won't rip me from my titan body or rescue me from those fucking beasts if it came down to it."

Armin didn't deny Eren's accusations, and that was answer enough.

"I just don't know how long we can keep this up," Armin admitted.

"As long as we can," Eren swore, so old for one so young, yet still so naive.

...

After a while, Jean went back to the boys bedroom to find Eren in Armin's bed. They were both sound asleep. True, it still creeped him out a bit how those two could be, but he was starting to realize that some emotions masked others that were more difficult to deal with. Jean generally did a good job of shoving certain emotions to the side, but sometimes, he really was just too honest for his own good.

He wondered to himself what it would be like to have a friendship like that.

Again.

A/N: Well, this certainly didn't turn out how I expected. I ship Jearmin, not Eremin or Jean/Marco. So how the heck did this happen? Still, I am glad that I wrote it because it really irritated me how the last chapter showed Eren. His best friend from childhood just got sexually harassed, and he's going to stare at his freaking key?! Though it also made me happy how Jean was comforting him. I'm just a mass of conflicted feelings really.