[His fingers pull tight in her sleeve when she asks. November beats him to the punch, and his jaw pulls tighter. Chest constricting, blood up and already edging again toward angry, he unhinges it.]
Connie, too.
[November couldn't have known they were comrades. Mikasa would want to know he was gone. And—]
Annie's dead.
[And Mikasa won't return the sentiment, she was a titan and a traitor, but there's a grim edge on his voice that says he is mourning her anyway.
The loudest absence, though, is Armin. By miles. And while it's some small relief to get confirmation that he'd made it off the planet before it blew, the edge on his voice only gets sharper—]
We'll get them back.
[Connie and Armin. And the Commander, Isabel. (Sasha, if what Gliese had implied to him was true, and not wishful thinking, false hope.) Armin. The people the CDC kidnapped away with them and then torn away from them. They can't do anything but trust them to survive until they do. And he hates it. He's more helpless in this than he was in the forest, during the lockdown. It's almost enough to choke on.]
no subject
Connie, too.
[November couldn't have known they were comrades. Mikasa would want to know he was gone. And—]
Annie's dead.
[And Mikasa won't return the sentiment, she was a titan and a traitor, but there's a grim edge on his voice that says he is mourning her anyway.
The loudest absence, though, is Armin. By miles. And while it's some small relief to get confirmation that he'd made it off the planet before it blew, the edge on his voice only gets sharper—]
We'll get them back.
[Connie and Armin. And the Commander, Isabel. (Sasha, if what Gliese had implied to him was true, and not wishful thinking, false hope.) Armin. The people the CDC kidnapped away with them and then torn away from them. They can't do anything but trust them to survive until they do. And he hates it. He's more helpless in this than he was in the forest, during the lockdown. It's almost enough to choke on.]