[Open] Let's try this again

[everylastone]

Characters: Eren and Open
Location: Casualty Communal, basement
Rating: PG-13
Time: June 20th
Description: Turning into a hungry titan is something to chew on, and Eren isn’t sure he’s ready to stomach it yet. Locking himself into the basement feels oddly consoling, although sitting still doesn’t comes there easily either.


It had been a couple of days since they had been dragged back forcefully recovered from that mission that had gone wrong. Even though all of Eren’s wounds had already healed – literally all of them, when his titan powers returned that had included his abnormal healing rate which had taken care of not only his mangled limbs and malnourishment, but even of the small surgery they had had to do on his neck as well – the teen still didn’t feel any better about what had happened.

In fact, thinking of it made him feel pretty sick.

He had turned into a titan and lost control again. Worse, he had not only been attempting to hurt people and left damage on the village that was hard to overlook, but he had been hungry enough to attempt catching and eating other living beings as well. And in at least one case, he had also succeeded…

The memory had Eren press a hand against his mouth in order to resist the urge to hurl as he kept steadily climbing down the stairs with a fixed goal in his mind. Nobody had come to take him down, as should have happened. He knew he should have felt grateful for that, but he wasn’t. Instead it felt as if an important promise had been ignored, even though he still didn’t want to die.

No, he couldn’t die. Not as long as even one of the titans was still left alive!

…even if that meant that he’d have to end up killing himself too at some point. Finally reaching the bottom of the steps, Eren fumbled for the keys that he had gotten himself for one of the rooms within the basement. Locking himself up there was no solution, but he felt that he would feel better if he could use a semi-familiar environment while he attempted to sort his thoughts on the matter of his titan-mess. It hadn’t helped within the last couple of days, but who knew, maybe today-

The key slipped from between his fingers and landed with a clatter on the ground rather than to undo the lock as intended. Muttering a low “Oh, come on now” under his breath, Eren crouched down to retrieve it. Maybe he should have thought to switch on the light after all.

Comments

[starfruitfrog]

And of course, wherever there is a basement, you are likely to find creepy-crawlies attracted to the coolness and damp. Like frogs, for one.

Keroro had come down to escape the heat with his model kit building tools and a brand new Gunreaper model kit when he heard a clatter and muttering,

"...Is someone there, de arimasu?"

[everylastone]

Eren froze the moment he heard a disembodied voice call out to him, feeling a cold shiver crawling down his spine. Usually he would have just ignored not being alone in the basement, but the strange dissonance of te voice and where it had came from - too loud and somehow sounding as if it were coming from below - alarmed him.

For a moment his eyes traveled down, but there was only solid concrete below his feet. And he hadn't noticed an hideaways or trapdoors further down either...

Squinting his eyes in a vain attempt to see better in the darkness, he made a careful step forward, not answering the call.

"....." Was it just him or did his breath echo abnormally loudly?

[starfruitfrog]

If this was Giroro, there would have been screaming and running. Keroro though doesn't have the imagination to be afraid of ghosts. The only thing he feared was his father and broken Gundam model kits, neither of which breathed that loudly.

Keroro decides to grope around for the light switch he knows is around here somewhere whilst trying not to bump into the source of the breathing.

"You know...if you want to go around mouth breathing that badly, I think it would be better to do it up in your own rooms, de arimasu. It's kind of distracting down here where it echoes and stuff, de arimasu."

[everylastone]

Oh. So there really was somebody, albeit they had to be very small. Maybe a kid? There were all kind of people in living in this house, or so it seemed.

Eren relaxed visibly as he started to reach for that small switch that activated the lamps in this place as well. "Yeah, sorry." He didn't sound very sorry at all. "I didn't think anybody would be here. Wait a moment, I'll try and get us some light."

Ah, there it was! A click and then - Eren froze.

[starfruitfrog]

Keroro doesn't notice that anything's amiss when the light turns on. All that matters is that he can now see who it was, and he doesn't look all that dangerous. Holding his Gundam model kit closer to himself, Keroro smiles, "Thank you very much, de arimasu."

sorry, I accidentally clicked enter before the tag was finished!

[everylastone]

A...frog.

That was a frog right?! A very big, walking, talking frog except that it didn't look or sound like a frog at all- Eren's brain switched itself off when it became clear that a)there's wasn't any going to make sense of the situation at hand without not getting himself even further and further confused anytime soon and b) that thing- ..person- monster- whatever it was, he was in its reach and it had just moved to come closer to him. Since his brain couldn't comprehend the situation it did what it always did, and left Eren to his impulses to handle the situation while it concentrated on the few really important facts - mainly his fight or flight instinct. Except that Eren being Eren, there was really only one option in that case, not two: fight!

Most important fact of the moment 1: there wa a titanic frog-monster right in front of him

Most important fact of the moment 2: Eren being in Keroro's reach meant that Keroro was also within Eren's reach

Most important fact of the moment 3: Fight!!

Acting first and thinking later Eren jumped forward with the firm intention to kick the thing into the ground until it didn't move any longer. "The fuck?!"

[starfruitfrog]

Keroro had no idea what he'd done to deserve this. Okay, maybe there was the thing with the Watch and Roy. And he may or may not have taken advantage of Bakura just a little bit with that card thing. There was also the time when he'd stepped in someone's cake, the time when he hadn't asked permission to hold a camping trip in the park....But he was sure that wasn't bad enough that he deserved this.

Keroro rolls out of the way for the first kick, instinctively protecting his Gundam model kit. There isn't anywhere else to roll though.

"I'm sorry, please don't kill me, de arimasu! Giroro made me do it, de arimasu!"

[everylastone]

It took a few good attempts to stomp Keroro's daylights out in for Eren to realize that those words weren't any sorts of threats.

Stopping in mid-motion, he asked suspiciously, "Giroro?" Who or what was a Giroro?

[starfruitfrog]

Keroro didn't manage to dodge all of them, but...but at least he protected his Gundam model kit! A little shaky and bruised, arm still held over his head and cowering, he replies as his eyes dart around looking for an escape route.

"Yeah. The red one? Looks kind of like me, but evil, de arimasu?"

Sorry, Giroro. He'll make up for this later. Maybe.

[everylastone]

So there was a good and an evil one of these things and they were color-coded? This was getting more and more curious and confusing.

"There are more things like you? And what did he make you do?"

Also, how the hell could Eren have missed many of those creatures running around if they were common and not all of them were enemies?

[starfruitfrog]

"Horrible things!"

Like training when Keroro didn't want to. Getting on his case about being productive. Being a stick-in-the-mud.

The more Keroro thought about it, the less sorry he felt.

"He's an absolute demon, de arimasu!"

[everylastone]

"And you aren't?" The words were a slip of tongue that couldn't be helped as he kept staring at Keroro and his strange doll. Was that supposed to be a titan? A warrior? An Idol? It was pretty ugly for a toy.

Dismissing the thought, he ordered "Tell me more about that horrible things he's made you do."

[starfruitfrog]

"Of course I'm not a demon, de arimasu. How rude, de arimasu!"

Look at those round black eyes and the proportions of his features! If that doesn't scream cute to you....Keroro thinks you should probably get your eyes checked.

"He always makes people do things they don't want to do, he gets really mad for no reason, and once he even forced me to run away from sharks, de arimasu!"

[pregames]

"I did not realize they rented down here as well."

The lights switch on, following the tails of the incorporeal voice to reveal Atem on the stairs leading down with a small box of things. He was moving and while the state of such a change was currently hanging in the balance he still felt it prudent to prepare. That was how he happened up Eren like this, looking down on him with an expression that was incongruous mix of curiosity and understanding.

After the mission and the aftermath, the young pharaoh had been rather worried about his most recent partner, going so far as to look up where he was staying in the apartments. He found the room but never seemed to be around at the right time even after pestering some of the neighbors. So it's a simple wonder that he happens upon the boy now.

[everylastone]

Eren tensed for a moment as he straightened back up, the key half-forgotten in his hand. He didn't look happy or sad when he recognized who had found him. There was only brief flash of relief washing over his face before his brows knitted together again in a display of silent apprehension.

"Pharaoh. I'm sorry for messing up during the last excursion. Mission." He corrected himself quickly.

[pregames]

Atem watches Eren, with piercing scrutiny. The truth of the matter was they had both messed up, and gravely so, but there was no mention of that.

The silence was broken by a sigh and the pharaoh descended the rest of the staircase into the basement so he could set his things aside. "Even if you had not, we still would have lost." He admitted, not without difficulty. "You know sixteen others were taken while only two made it back on their own. Two of the very best."

[everylastone]

Eren only kept watching him, expression bothered and closed off. He really wanted to believe that it hadn't been their fault, that it couldn't have happened any other way, but that wouldn't be right. Eren wasn't going to lie to himself. Maybe they couldn't have changed the outcome, but that didn't make their mistakes any less. They could have done so much better.

It's a bitter thing to think about.

"Still." He averted his eyes for a moment before he looked back at Atem again, seeking eye contact. "I transformed with the intention to kill you. That's not really something to forget about." There was a notion of defeat in his voice, but also calm resolution to face things as proud- and honestly as he could. "Deaths happened because I failed to control my emotions."

[pregames]

It was like watching Eren erect a wall around his heart and retreating behind it. But Atem had already witnessed the intensity of his emotions, experienced it first hand. He knew something like that didn't have to be a curse in the way the other expressed it.

"Is that so?" The pharaoh set his jaw and squared his shoulders, assuming authority. "I thought I was talking to the same guy that said we have to keep moving and fighting. Even when we make mistakes. And even when people die." He broached the subject, careful, without so much as an ounce of pride because Atem had also tasted the bitter reality of his own failure, the one that lead him to provoke Eren in the first place.

The same failure that lead to the haunting sensation that his hands would never be clean again.

[everylastone]

If Atem expected a tantrum or bitter self blaming, then he was in for a dire letdown.

Shifting his stance Eren gave him a startled look. "What are you talking about? Of course we need to keep on fighting! If we were to give up now all those deaths would have been utterly pointless!" As much as he had beaten himself up over his repeated failure, the thought of truly giving up or running away had never as much as crossed his mind.

[pregames]

"Good."

It was hard to say what Atem expected, one way or another, he was only reacting to what he saw. But the fact that Eren can still look at him now with all the same conviction gives him cause to smile, not a wide grin so much as a crooked, knowing smirk.

"You are a soldier, right? Then you should understand when I tell you that I do not accept your apologies. I would not blame you for the outcome but there is still something to learn from the mistakes we made. Ensure you do not make them again as you keep going. And that will be enough."

From the tension in his back to the tone of his words, Atem knew these were matters that Eren had already dwelled upon but sometimes words were a spell that came alive with a voice to give them credence.

[everylastone]

Eren smiled in return for a moment, showing a rare display of shared understanding and gratitude to those demanding words. They helped him much more than pity.

"Understood, Sir!" The last part is followed with a snappy salute that had Eren's fist hit against his chest with a thud that was most likely going to leave a bruise. Despite that it had rarely felt better to do a salute.

It also made the following words come out a lot easier. "Even if I might end up eating others, I will not give up trying to master this power and control it for the sake of humanity's victory!"

[pregames]

Atem could have laughed, gladly, when confronted with such sincerity, pleased to see the change and so unused to being addressed as though he had any kind of clout in this world. Though he willing took on the responsibilities he had carried throughout his life, it was strange to be confronted by them in these circumstances.

He could have laughed but that was before Atem understood exactly what the titan had done, or any part of it because when someone tells you they ate a person so casually, it is hard to take it at face value.

"Eating...?" The pharaoh’s brow arched upwards and any further questions died in the back of his throat as he considered whether or not he really wanted to know the answer. Still, he managed to keep the judgement out of his voice; they've had enough of that already.

[everylastone]

"Yeah. It's what titans do. They eat humans," Eren confirmed as if that were the most normal thing in the world. "I told you that my family was killed, right? It's how it happened. They'll ignore just about any- and everything else and don't even need to eat anything to stay alive, but they'll chase down and eat any human on sight."

"Besides that we don't know very much about them..." He trailed off, casting Atem a shy glance before he evaded his eyes. "Hey... I know it's a bit much, but can I ask you for something?"

[pregames]

Now that he had witnessed a titan and perhaps a fraction of what it could do, everything Eren had told him thus far seemed that much less surreal but it was still hard to accept that his friend was capable of that very same horror. Even after witnessing it with his own eyes. Did that mean all the titans were just humans gone astray?

Before he has the chance to prod any deeper, however, Eren surprises him with a question of his own. "You can certainly ask."

[everylastone]

"Alright. I'll just say it straight out: I need you to promise that you'll kill me if I'll ever become a lost cause." Again, he is looking straight for Atem's eyes, his own shining with serious determination. "I mean it. If I become a threat to humanity rather than a tool, you need to kill me for good!"