{SnK} Bonds Ch. 12

Eren pouted sitting on the ground arms crossed. "I'm not a kid....Armin nii-chan! I'm not a kid am I?"

Armin turned around looking over at the brunet. "Well Eren you do act childish sometimes."

"When?"

"Like when you whine or pout and sit like you are now."

He uncrossed his arms and crossed his legs together instead. "How do I not be childish?"

"Why would you want to know that?" The blonde looked back at his book that he was reading.

"To show Levi that I'm not a kid! That I can do grownup stuff too!"

A small laugh escaped his lips as the smaller boy closed his book turning around fully to face Eren. "You really wanna learn?"

"Yeah!" Eren stood up in front of him nodding with a determined look.

"Then let's start with the basics."

"Basics?"

Armin held up the book in his hands. "Reading and writing."

The brunet blinked staring at the book. "But I know how to read and write..."

"Not all that well," Armin pulled the taller boy to sit down at a desk in the room they were in. "Which is why I'm going to teach you to read and write better. If you show Heichou that you can read and write properly then he'll start to see you as an adult."

"Really?"

"Uh huh, an adult can prove they are an adult by what they read, how well they write, their speech, and then their actions. These are the basics to becoming an adult."

"Then I'll do it! I'll become an adult!" Eren clenched his hands into fists again over his chest feeling ready and determined to learn to be an adult. This way Levi wouldn't call him a kid again!

Well those were very simple things, there's a lot more that he probably shouldn't know about. Though I think this will be fun to do. Almost reminds me of when Eren would show his admiration to the corporal. How he has changed in just about a month.

"Armin nii-chan! Let's start let's start!" Eren tugged on his arm bouncing in his seat.

"Okay okay, stop bouncing Eren you're looking like a child again."

He instantly stopped looking up at him still.

The blonde smiled pulling out some papers and books. "Alright we'll work on both since they go hand in hand really well."

Eren nodded listening in very closely to what Armin told him. Though as they went on with the lesson, Eren couldn't help but find this very familiar, that something like this happened before...Or...was it something completely different?

A book? ....Bullies? Hmmm....he really looks like the boy I saved that one time...was it just me or was there someone else too? And....why can't I stop thinking about this thing called an Ocean...

                                                          ~*~*~*~

"Mikasa nee-chan! Mikasa nee-chan!" Eren went up to her with Armin running behind him.

"Eren hold on!" Armin shouted still running to catch up to him.

The two made it to the raven haired woman who was washing the horses this time. She turned around to see the, coming up to her. "Eren, Armin."

Eren skidded to a stop in front of her. "Mikasa Mikasa nee-chan! I need your help!"

Looking at an excited boy, then at a tired blond, Mikasa raised an eyebrow. "What do you need help with Eren?" She went back to grooming the horses.

"I need your help to teach me to be an adult!"

"A what?" She instantly turned to look at Armin to explain.

"Long story short, wants to prove to Levi Heichou that he is an adult."

"Why do you want to do that?"

Eren clenched his hands into fists in front of his chest. "Because! I don't want Levi to think I'll always be a kid! Because I'm not a kid!"

"Aren't you five though Eren?"

The blond boy looked between the two, not sure if he should intervene between them...but didn’t like where this was going.

"A-Age doesn't matter! Armin nii-chan has been helping me learn a lot of stuff! I can be an adult!"

Mikasa put down the brush for the horse as she fully faced him her arms crossed. "Eren you don't understand how hard it is to be an adult."

The brunet began to pout stomping his foot. "Armin nii-chan already told me what it takes to be an adult!"

She looked towards Armin.

"It was really really basic simple stuff..." Armin held his hands up not wanting to be a part of this.

“I see…” The raven looked back at Eren. “Eren I don’t think there is any need to really teach you to be an adult.”

Eren glared at her. “Why not?”

“Because, Eren, you’re acting more like a child just trying to learn if you could be an adult.”

“I can!”

“No you can’t.” Mikasa lowered her arms going up to stand in front of him. “You do not understand Eren, you’re not getting that there are complications as to why you can’t act nor learn to be an adult.”

“Mikasa you’re not making any sense as to why I can’t! You’re making it seem as if I don’t understand something important!”

“Because you don’t!” She raised her voice at him.

The brunet backed away a bit surprised by her sudden raise in voice; he never heard her raise her voice especially towards him.

Armin started to get worried seeing the tension build even more between them both; he would be there to stop and remedy the situation if needed be. But he felt as if this needed to happen.

Taking a step back herself, the raven haired woman calmed down before speaking once more to him. “You don’t understand…what it means to be an adult Eren…”

His hands balled into fists his bangs covering his eyes. “You think I don’t know…what it means to be an adult? I learned what it meant when Hannes took us away from our mother…as I watched. Her. Die. Before my very eyes.”

Both Armin and Mikasa looked up at him in shocked when he said that.

“You think I don’t know how much responsibility it takes to move forward after a titian eats your own mother in front of you? How much I want to…eradicate each and every single one of them?”

Their eyes widened when they saw the intense glare that Eren gave them when he looked back up.

“So don’t tell me I don’t know what it takes to be an adult because I do and so help it you’ll-!” The brunet choked back on the next words when he felt tears swell up in his eyes. They slowly widened when the words he said finally sank in as he brought a hand up to his mouth.

Is he… Mikasa and Armin both came over when Eren dropped to his knees.

The boy quietly cried to himself as he felt Armin and Mikasa hug him between them both. “M-Mom….m-mother…” He leaned into their embrace crying his heart out tears falling even more.

Both teens held the brunet close into a hug letting him cry on them. They looked at one another giving a silent nod to each other.

Eren was beginning to remember.