[Not very helpful. He stops where he is to try pulling up the tracker, to see if it's still working, if she's in range.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org nothing but a bunch of stray cats and sand
[It's dangerous here, the environment is harsh, the water is poison. But there's no sign of the locals, on day 126. No sign of the monsters, above ground.]
[ With that she stays put, halting her slow wandering. She settles herself along the wall of the closest building, with nothing but her clothes and her cuff with her. She doesn't know how much Eren has by way of supplies, but she's tragically empty handed, without even her Juggernaut.
It's a pain. And if anything stronger than the average human decides to pick a fight with her, she might find herself in trouble. ]
[He doesn't waste time. It's dangerously close to the top of the hour, when the winds kick up and send the sand flying in blinding, choking storms through the air. By the time he finds her folded against the wall—]
Mikasa!
[—it's already starting. He skids to a stop in front of her, grabs for her hand to tug her upright.]
Come on—
[They'll need to wait it out before they go anywhere else. They can't say out here even if they wanted to. Without waiting for an answer, he pulls her toward the entrance of the nearest building.]
[ She jerks as soon as she notices him, like a current, like magnetism that draws her toward him. Not that she needs to make any movements, he's in front of her fast enough, and she's got her scarf already tugged up to her nose, irritated by the dust grating against her skin and pinching against her eyes.
His presence is enough to distract her from it, and she lets him grab her, tugging her inside the building, the door falling shut behind them with a merry jingle.
She's focused, watching for signs of injury or strain—even though she knows they won't last on him. But he seems fine, if particularly committed to his default state of agitated.
It's a relief. (She's happy to see him.) Her assessment of Eren done, she shifts her attention back outside, both grim and confused about their current circumstances. ]
[He pulls her through the door and stalls for a few seconds, gripping her tight and coughing sand into his sleeve. Then the door rattles against the wind, the bell at the top of it kicking up into an alarm, and he raises his head, drops her hand, shoulders it closed and turns the lock to keep it that way.
As he does—]
We're not on Macha anymore.
[Which she'd probably guessed long ago, but starting from the top—]
[ Something went "wrong". Though the instructors had seemed fairly nonchalant, if mournful, of Dagger being killed. It's still a shock to her to know that CDC employees can kill one another like that, and she mulls it over for a moment watching the sands outside, absently unwinding her scarf from around her neck to shake out the dust.
Eventually, she sighs, drawing away from the door and nudging Eren to indicate that he should wander further in as well.
It's then that she gives their location some actually attention, taking in the large mirrors and cushioned chairs. Save for the supplies, it's abandoned like everything else.
Then, ] How was Macha destroyed?
[ The destruction process had been rather tedious last time. ]
[An evac order coming down from HQ—Even if they know (sort of) what caused it, that doesn't seem like anything but something going wrong. Even the CDC can't take it kindly when their officers are offed by their supposed comrades.
He follows as Mikasa urges him further into the room and away from the storm, rakes his hand through his hair to shake the sand from it, pushing it back away from his face.]
HQ sent out an alarm a while after you went out. We evacuated. [The neraki had bid them goodbye, safe travels. His jaw draws tight, the line of his spine drawing stiff. It hadn't been an easy handful of days. He hasn't forgotten them. (But that Mikasa has, unlike Armin, woken from stasis after the planet they'd been on was destroyed is no small thing. He keeps close enough to brush shoulders with her while they wander into the unfamiliar shop.)]
It was gone the next day.
[He doesn't know if the actual method of destruction was different, this time. He'd spent Ajna's destruction bleeding out in the hangar after hopping the last shuttle in, so he hadn't seen it.]
[ HQ? That sounds like a big deal. It all seems rather surreal, that a high ranking officer from their crew would be murdered, especially after so many attempts had been made to wipe out the Neheda already. (She remembers quite clearly what Armada had said about the harpies.)
She walks over to one of the chairs to sit not, sparing a short glance at the items on the shelf under the mirror, her gaze remaining fixed on Eren otherwise. Iwaizumi had mentioned that the Neraki had wandered into camp shortly before the destruction in an effort to make reparations, and she's noticed that Eren hadn't mentioned it. He would've been angrier for it, more torn up about it but.
Well, that's a problem in the past now, and their crew is down an officer, abandoned in this bizarre place as far as they can tell. Who knows that it isn't another attempt to just eradicate the Neheda's crew.
She nods, solemn. ] I see.
[ For now: ] How much do you have by way of supplies?
[He hasn't forgotten what happened with the Neraki. He could keep dwelling on it (he did, for days, it sticks in his throat, hangs around his neck like an albatross,) or he can get her up to speed. He paces past her, turns on a heel.]
Just what we could take with us.
[He's got his gear at his sides and as much compressed air as the tanks will hold. Everyone was scattered upon arrival, but they're doing their best to keep the crew in food and clean water. He frowns.]
Did you just wake up here?
[He would have noticed if she was up and about on the ship.]
[ It's a relief that Eren had at least had time to prepare himself for the relocation. She trusts that he has enough supplies to sustain himself for at least a day. If they end up stranded here for longer than that... Hopefully the food and water here isn't as bad as it really seems then.
Her hands move to lace in her lap, replying first with a nod. ]
Yes. I just woke up inside another building not too far from here.
[ Woken up to messages of Macha's destruction, and the subsequent evacuation of the Neheda. (As well as Iwaizumi's totally uncalled for drunken questioning. But that was all right, at least he'd filled her in on what was going on.) ]
[They'd gotten very little in the way of an idea of what they were in for. But food, weapons, water filters. That had been made clear, at least. Half an hour is more time to prepare than none at all. The storm outside has picked up into a full gale, by now, visible through the windows, the door they'd ducked through. In case she hasn't yet noticed—]
It does this every hour.
[No telling why. Already restless under the roof of their erstwhile shelter, he paces past her chair again.]
We can't leave until it clears up.
[Too hard to breathe. Definitely too hard to see.]
[ They really did pick the most hospitable location to drop them off. It's strange that they wouldn't just leave them on Selena—not that Selena hadn't had it's own fair share of issues and attacks while they'd been in attendance. Never a dull or easy day in the CDC.
Her eyes follow Eren as he paces for a moment, and then she's reaching out to take hold of his arm. Still against his angry energy. ]
Take a seat. We should save energy while waiting it out.
[From what they gathered, this place isn't exactly the same sort of downtime as their last pit stop. Hospitable does not seem to have been the point, really. She takes him by the arm to stop him, settle him, before he can resume pacing the floor. And that's no small feat on a good day. (They have been short of good days for a long time.) But he...stops. Maybe doesn't quite settle, but he does not pull away from her on the kneejerk.
(She'd been out a long time, during the uncertainty of the evacuation and the death of the planet and the murder one of the officers and everything that came with it. Eren's attachment to Mikasa is not a clear mirror of her devotion to him, it does not show itself in the same ways. That does not mean it did not get to him.)
He hangs by her side for a while before reaching to tug her fingers away so he can settle in another one of the high swiveling chairs that are spaced in increments across the floor. Set deliberately across the cracked mirrors on the walls.]
[ Silence hangs between them for a moment after Eren sits. It doesn't bother her, words had never been the primary mode of communication between the two of them, and she is normally content to let them sit in peace (or as close as Eren can get to such a thing) without any disruptions.
Except that she's still baffled by everything that had gone on while she slept. To think so much would change during a two week nap. ]
Did everyone evacuate without injury? [ Or, serious injury. It would be a rare day that any of them would go a mission without accumulating some scrapes and bruises.
It's a strange thing for her to ask about them anyway - comrades though they may be. But she's learned now that the CDC's medical capabilities are not all-powerful. They hadn't been able to give Marco his arm back. ]
[He folds his feet beneath him, drawn into a tense ball in the oversized chair. Not a great topic if she wants to settle him down, but she ought to know.]
Three KIA, besides Dagger.
[No one he'd known very well, though they'd shared a rover with April, briefly. Though—]
[ Three KIAs isn't that bad, and Mikasa doesn't dwell on it since it's not anyone that know but. She'd seen that Sasha had been transferred and she greets the news with stony silence. It's better than the alternative; that she died in this desolate place again. (Like the rest of them probably would. Her mission freebie demanded that her and Eren remain on the same crew, though it isn't a request that would save either of them from danger.)
When it's apparent that Eren is done, she just offers a short nod—silent again. It settles this time, and they both return to the recesses of their thoughts; pointless things that Mikasa wouldn't bother saying out loud, futile thoughts and wishes that would serve no purpose in the cruel reality of their lives.
But the two of them had survived. It had been a long time they'd been employed by the CDC, faced with powers greater than the both of them combined, and they'd survived. Not entirely by a feat of skill, so perhaps they do have some bit of fortune on their side.
Then, her attention wanders once more to their surroundings, and she shifts in the oversized chair, leaning toward the side so that she can examine the mirrors and the worn, old and dusty supplies that sit at their base. It's all rather familiar. ]
This looks like a barber shop. [ She imagines at least, it's not like she'd frequented them.
The point is that it's startling human. Perhaps they'd landed on some strange earth. ]
[They'd survived. Because they had no other choice. (Because any choice that ended otherwise was unacceptable. Something he wouldn't allow.)
He'd leaned his arms against his knees to wait out the storm in his standard measure of unhappy attention. Doesn't pay the mundane surroundings much mind until she mentions it. It does look like one. Sort of. (So?)]
Are you gonna cut your hair?
[Why else point it out? (And maybe it says something that he asks—are you gonna—and doesn't tell—you should— They're worlds away from home, from the people they'd been, and Mikasa can grow her hair out if she wants to. They still rely on their gear, here. But not as exclusively.)
Nevermind that it's been more than a year since either of them has had a proper hair cut. Eren's too impatient to let his get too long (and too impatient to keep it too short.) But quick trims with sewing scissors only go so far.]
[ The question earns a curious look from her, and she takes a moment to pinch a couple strands of hair between her fingers to check the length. It is, even with semi-regular maintenance from Ino, longer than she normally keeps it. But it's not as though a couple of inches really makes a difference at this point.
Letting it fall again, she shrugs in response. ]
I don't know. It might save time just to use a hair tie.
[ Like nearly every other girl from their year, but that's not important.
She settles back in her chair then, already tired of the wait, before she focuses again on Eren, giving him a contemplative stare. ]
[Every other girl in their year who was just asking to get scalped or something!!!! Idk.
He raises his head to frown at her, when he feels her watching him. Is it? His hair had been scorched shorter after the Neraki set his cage ablaze, and he hadn't really touched it since. Things had been busy. He's not very good at paying attention. It's been a while.
He raises a hand to rake it through his bangs, as if only then noticing.]
I guess.
[Not so long that it was getting in the way and irritating him, but getting there.]
[ It's not exactly a surprise that Eren hadn't noticed. He probably wouldn't even notice that his own arm was missing if it didn't hinder his fighting ability.
Needless to say, Mikasa isn't that shocked, nor is she all that invested in the state of Eren's hair as silence spreads between the two of them again. She looks again around the area, until she scissors and bottled water(?) on the ledge under the window catch her attention again.
[Look, he would have noticed once it got long enough to like...obscure his vision. (Then again he manages alright with his titan's longish hair so maybe he wouldn't.)
A few seconds pass with nothing but the wind howling and the sandstorm battering at the windows. He pulls his hand through his apparently overlong hair, pushing it back from his face and shaking the remnants of the sand from it.
And instead of hackling, posturing, bristling, (you're not my mother, Mikasa)—]
[ His easy compliance is unique enough to earn a raised eyebrow from her, though she doesn't say anything, simply acknowledging his response with a soft nod.
She pushes herself off the chair then, gathering the scissors from the shelf and snipping a small portion of her own hair to test how sharp they are. The water stays put for now; she knows already that it's not safe for consumption. Though no one had mentioned that it wasn't safe to make contact with (they are presumably going to need some for hygienic purposes eventually), it's not necessary so she leaves it be.
Scissors in hand, she walks over to stand behind Eren, watching with an impartial eye before she reaches out to straighten it, tugging the tangles and the sand out. ]
[Look, he's capable of being Not-A-Brat. Sometimes. Given their particularly unorthodox and uneven relationship, it's rare that they're on the same wavelength when things aren't otherwise...terrible.
And right now...
It is a painfully mundane thing, really. They've done it a dozen times before, after the wall fell. It's practical, necessary. (It's quiet and close, and she's been gone for weeks. They've lost more than they've found, and his heart is hurting for it. He's burned through the bulk of his initial anger at the way Macha had ended, his hopeless and helpless guilt at the fate of the Neraki. It's still there, hanging around his neck, settled on his shoulders. The sand is battering the windows and driving them to shelter and his hair is falling in his eyes and Mikasa is at his back.) Her fingers catch on a knot in his hair, and he sucks a breath in through his teeth, reaches up reflexively to catch her wrist and still her before he can think better of it.
His mouth presses thin, but he doesn't say anything. Just holds on a second or two too long before letting her go. He closes his eyes, head bowed, humming tension slowly sinking out of his shoulders as she gets back to carding her hands through his hair and going through the motions of trimming it.]
[ She lets her hand still when he grabs her wrist, waiting patiently for the sting to subside before resuming her movements with a slight roll of her eyes. He can't see her face, and he probably wouldn't even be able to tell if he could, but right now she's thinking wimp.
But the moment passes. She thinks instead of how much easier it would be if Eren actually brushed his hair, and she didn't have to fiddle with the tangles. Eventually she just abandons them, picking up the scissors so that she can get to the task at hand.
The sound of sand and wind against the window is soon accompanied by the snipping of the scissors. She's not a professional by any means, but she's had enough practice cutting Eren's hair throughout the years that it's familiar. It had never gotten this long as far as she can remember, but the motions are the same.
Her knuckles and the backs of her fingers brush against his nape as she works, not even thinking about the vulnerability of it. This is natural, and there's no suspicion or ill intent between them. (Regardless of whatever the Black Box would like her to imagine.) The circumstances are bizarre, when she thinks about all that he must be holding now that she doesn't know about but. Right now, she's comfortable. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Not sure, outside some where. Above ground at least.
Are you okay? Have you run into any hostiles?
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FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
nothing but a bunch of stray cats and sand
[It's dangerous here, the environment is harsh, the water is poison. But there's no sign of the locals, on day 126. No sign of the monsters, above ground.]
FROM: jaeger.eren@cdc.org
stay there. I'll find you.
no subject
[ With that she stays put, halting her slow wandering. She settles herself along the wall of the closest building, with nothing but her clothes and her cuff with her. She doesn't know how much Eren has by way of supplies, but she's tragically empty handed, without even her Juggernaut.
It's a pain. And if anything stronger than the average human decides to pick a fight with her, she might find herself in trouble. ]
no subject
Mikasa!
[—it's already starting. He skids to a stop in front of her, grabs for her hand to tug her upright.]
Come on—
[They'll need to wait it out before they go anywhere else. They can't say out here even if they wanted to. Without waiting for an answer, he pulls her toward the entrance of the nearest building.]
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His presence is enough to distract her from it, and she lets him grab her, tugging her inside the building, the door falling shut behind them with a merry jingle.
She's focused, watching for signs of injury or strain—even though she knows they won't last on him. But he seems fine, if particularly committed to his default state of agitated.
It's a relief. (She's happy to see him.) Her assessment of Eren done, she shifts her attention back outside, both grim and confused about their current circumstances. ]
Eren, what's going on?
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As he does—]
We're not on Macha anymore.
[Which she'd probably guessed long ago, but starting from the top—]
Something went wrong. Dagger's dead.
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Eventually, she sighs, drawing away from the door and nudging Eren to indicate that he should wander further in as well.
It's then that she gives their location some actually attention, taking in the large mirrors and cushioned chairs. Save for the supplies, it's abandoned like everything else.
Then, ] How was Macha destroyed?
[ The destruction process had been rather tedious last time. ]
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He follows as Mikasa urges him further into the room and away from the storm, rakes his hand through his hair to shake the sand from it, pushing it back away from his face.]
HQ sent out an alarm a while after you went out. We evacuated. [The neraki had bid them goodbye, safe travels. His jaw draws tight, the line of his spine drawing stiff. It hadn't been an easy handful of days. He hasn't forgotten them. (But that Mikasa has, unlike Armin, woken from stasis after the planet they'd been on was destroyed is no small thing. He keeps close enough to brush shoulders with her while they wander into the unfamiliar shop.)]
It was gone the next day.
[He doesn't know if the actual method of destruction was different, this time. He'd spent Ajna's destruction bleeding out in the hangar after hopping the last shuttle in, so he hadn't seen it.]
no subject
She walks over to one of the chairs to sit not, sparing a short glance at the items on the shelf under the mirror, her gaze remaining fixed on Eren otherwise. Iwaizumi had mentioned that the Neraki had wandered into camp shortly before the destruction in an effort to make reparations, and she's noticed that Eren hadn't mentioned it. He would've been angrier for it, more torn up about it but.
Well, that's a problem in the past now, and their crew is down an officer, abandoned in this bizarre place as far as they can tell. Who knows that it isn't another attempt to just eradicate the Neheda's crew.
She nods, solemn. ] I see.
[ For now: ] How much do you have by way of supplies?
no subject
Just what we could take with us.
[He's got his gear at his sides and as much compressed air as the tanks will hold. Everyone was scattered upon arrival, but they're doing their best to keep the crew in food and clean water. He frowns.]
Did you just wake up here?
[He would have noticed if she was up and about on the ship.]
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Her hands move to lace in her lap, replying first with a nod. ]
Yes. I just woke up inside another building not too far from here.
[ Woken up to messages of Macha's destruction, and the subsequent evacuation of the Neheda. (As well as Iwaizumi's totally uncalled for drunken questioning. But that was all right, at least he'd filled her in on what was going on.) ]
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It does this every hour.
[No telling why. Already restless under the roof of their erstwhile shelter, he paces past her chair again.]
We can't leave until it clears up.
[Too hard to breathe. Definitely too hard to see.]
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Her eyes follow Eren as he paces for a moment, and then she's reaching out to take hold of his arm. Still against his angry energy. ]
Take a seat. We should save energy while waiting it out.
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(She'd been out a long time, during the uncertainty of the evacuation and the death of the planet and the murder one of the officers and everything that came with it. Eren's attachment to Mikasa is not a clear mirror of her devotion to him, it does not show itself in the same ways. That does not mean it did not get to him.)
He hangs by her side for a while before reaching to tug her fingers away so he can settle in another one of the high swiveling chairs that are spaced in increments across the floor. Set deliberately across the cracked mirrors on the walls.]
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Except that she's still baffled by everything that had gone on while she slept. To think so much would change during a two week nap. ]
Did everyone evacuate without injury? [ Or, serious injury. It would be a rare day that any of them would go a mission without accumulating some scrapes and bruises.
It's a strange thing for her to ask about them anyway - comrades though they may be. But she's learned now that the CDC's medical capabilities are not all-powerful. They hadn't been able to give Marco his arm back. ]
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Three KIA, besides Dagger.
[No one he'd known very well, though they'd shared a rover with April, briefly. Though—]
They transferred Sasha out.
[And Reiner. But fuck Reiner.]
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When it's apparent that Eren is done, she just offers a short nod—silent again. It settles this time, and they both return to the recesses of their thoughts; pointless things that Mikasa wouldn't bother saying out loud, futile thoughts and wishes that would serve no purpose in the cruel reality of their lives.
But the two of them had survived. It had been a long time they'd been employed by the CDC, faced with powers greater than the both of them combined, and they'd survived. Not entirely by a feat of skill, so perhaps they do have some bit of fortune on their side.
Then, her attention wanders once more to their surroundings, and she shifts in the oversized chair, leaning toward the side so that she can examine the mirrors and the worn, old and dusty supplies that sit at their base. It's all rather familiar. ]
This looks like a barber shop. [ She imagines at least, it's not like she'd frequented them.
The point is that it's startling human. Perhaps they'd landed on some strange earth. ]
no subject
He'd leaned his arms against his knees to wait out the storm in his standard measure of unhappy attention. Doesn't pay the mundane surroundings much mind until she mentions it. It does look like one. Sort of. (So?)]
Are you gonna cut your hair?
[Why else point it out? (And maybe it says something that he asks—are you gonna—and doesn't tell—you should— They're worlds away from home, from the people they'd been, and Mikasa can grow her hair out if she wants to. They still rely on their gear, here. But not as exclusively.)
Nevermind that it's been more than a year since either of them has had a proper hair cut. Eren's too impatient to let his get too long (and too impatient to keep it too short.) But quick trims with sewing scissors only go so far.]
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Letting it fall again, she shrugs in response. ]
I don't know. It might save time just to use a hair tie.
[ Like nearly every other girl from their year, but that's not important.
She settles back in her chair then, already tired of the wait, before she focuses again on Eren, giving him a contemplative stare. ]
Yours is getting pretty long.
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He raises his head to frown at her, when he feels her watching him. Is it? His hair had been scorched shorter after the Neraki set his cage ablaze, and he hadn't really touched it since. Things had been busy. He's not very good at paying attention. It's been a while.
He raises a hand to rake it through his bangs, as if only then noticing.]
I guess.
[Not so long that it was getting in the way and irritating him, but getting there.]
that icon is too cute
Needless to say, Mikasa isn't that shocked, nor is she all that invested in the state of Eren's hair as silence spreads between the two of them again. She looks again around the area, until she scissors and bottled water(?) on the ledge under the window catch her attention again.
Then, absentmindedly: ]
I could cut it.
sometimes...he's cute...
A few seconds pass with nothing but the wind howling and the sandstorm battering at the windows. He pulls his hand through his apparently overlong hair, pushing it back from his face and shaking the remnants of the sand from it.
And instead of hackling, posturing, bristling, (you're not my mother, Mikasa)—]
Okay.
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She pushes herself off the chair then, gathering the scissors from the shelf and snipping a small portion of her own hair to test how sharp they are. The water stays put for now; she knows already that it's not safe for consumption. Though no one had mentioned that it wasn't safe to make contact with (they are presumably going to need some for hygienic purposes eventually), it's not necessary so she leaves it be.
Scissors in hand, she walks over to stand behind Eren, watching with an impartial eye before she reaches out to straighten it, tugging the tangles and the sand out. ]
no subject
And right now...
It is a painfully mundane thing, really. They've done it a dozen times before, after the wall fell. It's practical, necessary. (It's quiet and close, and she's been gone for weeks. They've lost more than they've found, and his heart is hurting for it. He's burned through the bulk of his initial anger at the way Macha had ended, his hopeless and helpless guilt at the fate of the Neraki. It's still there, hanging around his neck, settled on his shoulders. The sand is battering the windows and driving them to shelter and his hair is falling in his eyes and Mikasa is at his back.) Her fingers catch on a knot in his hair, and he sucks a breath in through his teeth, reaches up reflexively to catch her wrist and still her before he can think better of it.
His mouth presses thin, but he doesn't say anything. Just holds on a second or two too long before letting her go. He closes his eyes, head bowed, humming tension slowly sinking out of his shoulders as she gets back to carding her hands through his hair and going through the motions of trimming it.]
no subject
But the moment passes. She thinks instead of how much easier it would be if Eren actually brushed his hair, and she didn't have to fiddle with the tangles. Eventually she just abandons them, picking up the scissors so that she can get to the task at hand.
The sound of sand and wind against the window is soon accompanied by the snipping of the scissors. She's not a professional by any means, but she's had enough practice cutting Eren's hair throughout the years that it's familiar. It had never gotten this long as far as she can remember, but the motions are the same.
Her knuckles and the backs of her fingers brush against his nape as she works, not even thinking about the vulnerability of it. This is natural, and there's no suspicion or ill intent between them. (Regardless of whatever the Black Box would like her to imagine.) The circumstances are bizarre, when she thinks about all that he must be holding now that she doesn't know about but. Right now, she's comfortable. ]