To be Free

xXx

Eren is screaming. He's screaming his lungs out and I do my best not to plug my ears and cringe. I could, though. This time I can ignore his screams because they're the good kind; they are not anguished wails of misery and utter terror.

Eren is screaming and giggling hysterically like the moron that he is.

Of course he dragged me of all people to come with him. For the past five years he continued to pester me 'Heichou, will you go to see the ocean with me? Huh? Heichou, come with me! I want to go with you'... God, what a brat.

And every time I asked him why he wanted me to accompany him, he wouldn't say.

But I caved and I went with him anyway.

And now I'm watching him laughing hysterically while running up and down the ocean shore. It took us about three weeks to find it and now I have to admit it's worth it. The expression on his face is priceless.

He's just running along through the shallows, the waves and his kicking making his uniform soaked. I have to smile at the sight. A twenty year old young man, who now has grey streaks in his dark hair from all the horrors he's lived through, and who almost forgot how to smile in the past year or so...

Okay, now he's shedding his clothes off. I have to stop him... Or...

No, I won't stop him. He has all the freedom in the world now, and if you ask me, he can do whatever the fuck he wants. He's lived to everyone's expectations and he fulfilled his role of humanity's last hope. Honestly, I'm honored to be the part of it all.

He just took his jacket and shirt off and my eyes fall on the long scar on his back. It's healing slowly. Or should I say, it's healing normally. Eren has lost all his titan powers in the end. I believe it was a huge burden lifted from his back. He finally doesn't have to think he's a monster. The brat was actually thrilled when the wound didn't disappear after two days.

So I stand here on the shore, happy to see him like that. He took off his boots and he's prancing around the sand, trying to escape the oncoming waves, still giggling like an idiot.

"Join me," he says and I wave him off, even though it's tempting. When was the last time I had fun?

Nah, just looking is enough for me.

He enters the ocean, letting his fingers glide through the green-blue water, then splashes around and finally dives under the surface.

He emerges a few seconds later, blinking and spitting.

"Heichou, it's salty! It really is! Just like it says in the books! Oh my god," he laughs more and floats on his back.

I sit down in the sand and after several minutes of him floating in silence, he suddenly scrambles to stand, the water reaching his waist. He has a weird look on his face.

"What is it Eren?" I ask. I don't like it when he pulls a weird face. Usually means that he's either fucked something up, or that he's about to...

"Heichou," he whimpers.

Cry.

"What's wrong? Aren't you happy we're here?"

"I am... It's just... I'm so happy it hurts..."

I almost laugh at that. I know the feeling.

"And I always believed we'd make it here, you know? But as much as I believed, I was scared that I would never see it... Or worse, that I would see it alone..."

He stands there in the water, staring at me miserably. It makes my heart ache. That moron, always making me feel like this...

"You know you wouldn't be alone. You have all those other brats," I try to sound tough, but I know I'm failing.

"Heichou, if you had -"

"I didn't. See? I'm here," I say awkwardly. I know what he's thinking. Now he's going to cry and I'll feel like it's my fault even though it isn't.

"Heichou," he sniffles. He's giving me that look that I've seen too many times. I never acted upon it. He was a brat back then... Now? Now he's here with me. He's free. I shouldn't chain him to myself. I should let him go and live his young life.

I'm a selfish bastard.

"I love you," I say softly, but I know he can hear me, even over the waves.

"Y-you do?" He asks, his face practically shining. There's that open and youthful smile, right there.

He wades through the water in a hurry. As he reaches the shore, he kneels before me, our eyes leveled. He stares at me until I give him a smile.

... And I find myself tackled into the sand, my hands full of an overjoyed brat that seems to have just turned fifteen again.

xXx

The End