Between life and death, there is hope. But every ending has the same outcome: the Rumbling razes the earth, taking the person you love with it.
After you die, you reawake in the day you met your best friend, Eren Jaeger. In every life you relive, y...
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Eren's fatal flaw was his unwavering loyalty to the people he loved. It was one of the root causes that enabled him to pursue freedom for you in the Rumbling, and you knew that it was uncontrollable.
So, you did your best to make him hate you.
Easier said than done, because Eren loved the word fight.
Growing up, you purposefully doted on Armin and Mikasa, but never Eren. You turned your nose on him and called him insults—pipsqueak, crybaby, idiot—and he'd respond with equal fire—snob, priss, witch. What was annoying was that the harder you tried to resist him, the more adamant he was about bothering you. Why couldn't he just leave you alone?
As early as childhood, you tried to make him hate you by insulting something important to him.
"We don't need to go outside the wall," you scoffed as he flipped through Armin's book in Shiganshina. "Grow up, Eren."
Armin and Mikasa exchanged a look. Eren wasn't exactly the best at figuring out that you were just making fun of him.
"It is real!" he said fiercely. "I'll bring you there and you'll see it and I'll laugh in your face when you do!"
You smiled unpleasantly. "Careful, you might wet the bed again when you're swimming in a giant salt pool in your dreams."
Eren bared his teeth. He stamped his foot, like a child throwing a temper tantrum, which he was. "I don't care if you're one year older than me. Stop treating me like I'm a baby!"
"But you are one," you observed. You measured your shoulders against his to rub it in. "Look, you're so tiny!"
Eren shoved you away. "I'll be taller than you! Just you wait!"
"Yeah, yeah," you muttered, remembering this conversation from a past life. You directed your attention to Armin. Eren hated it when you suddenly withdrew your attention from him. He wanted to matter to you. "There must be so many creatures in the ocean."
Armin brightened at your zeal. "I have a theory that there are different kinds based on how deep the water is, sort of like pressure when you place stones on top of one another—"
You listened to Armin, and Eren frowned deeply with dislike. He pouted. "Why is it that when Armin talks about the sea, you listen to him and you like it, but all you do is roll your eyes at me?"
You ignored him, pretending not to see how Eren swelled with jealous rage like a bullfrog. That's it. The voice in your head chanted. Hate me. Don't make me your friend. Stay away.
During the fall of Shiganshina, though, it never got easier to anticipate the horror. Eren cried into your shoulder on the boat bound for Wall Rose, and you let him. He hugged you so tightly that your grief washed away like cleansing rain.
