Eren registered the smile as what it was, having seen the older and higher ranked members of the military use smiles like that before as well. (Except lance corporal Levi. He never really smiled and Eren also didn’t think that he cared about what other people thought about him as long as they didn’t get into the lance corporal’s way. It was one of the things that Eren admired him for, together with his incredible fighting skills.)

“Much higher,” he tried to return the gesture at least lightly, “that high that it’d seem like the end of the world to you and that there’s no normal way to see or go past there.”