He was boiling hot, a furnace. After the last battle, it had taken him a full two days to wake from his fevered sleep - and Armin had been there, been there to hold him, keep him still when he deliriously swatted and screamed at phantoms.

He was awake, now, but with an unbroken fever. And a similarly-unbroken bloodlust.

"Move, I'm...kill all of them," slurred Eren, lurching to the door of his cell.

"Eren, please," pleaded Armin, attempting to guide him back into his bed as gently as possible. "Rest, for now. Mikasa went to get you some food, if you can keep it down..."

Even exhausted and broiling from the inside out, Eren could probably drag himself up and out of the building by tenacity alone. Eren convulsed and fell to his knees, remaining upright only by his white-knuckled grip on the cell bars. Armin felt his throat close with panic, and tried to guide Eren to lie on his back - if he would just let go of the damned bars, Armin cursed to himself , as he tried to prise them from Eren's death-grip.

"...kill all of them...kill..." Eren mumbled the mantra under his breath, head lolling against the floor.

Armin managed to pry one hand off the bars, and lowered it gently to rest on Eren's stomach. Eren's fingers twitched, and he slowly, ponderously, rolled onto his stomach. His next course of action was to attempt to tummy-scoot his way out of the room.

Armin pressed his lips into a firm line - to steel his determination, and also to keep from laughing. He moved to kneel in front of Eren, and cupped Eren's face in his hands. He waited for Eren's unfocused gaze to settle on him.

He had talked down a whole army, before. He could handle one invalid who didn't know when to quit. He thought of how his grandfather used to soothe him to sleep, and smoothed Eren's sweat-soaked hair from his face.

"What if," Armin started. "You laid down in soft flowers. Soft soft moss...and then bunnies. Soft soft bunnies...on you...gentle, little pretty buggies and bunnies all around..."

Eren blearily stared at him for a long, few seconds before he gurgled and puked on the floor.

Mikasa returned to the room with a bowl of soup, only to find Armin dragging a babbling, vomit-soaked Eren back into bed by his leg. Armin stared at her with sorrowful eyes.

"...I'm sorry that you went all the way upstairs. I don't think he can keep that down."

"Bunnies," mumbled Eren.