Work Text:
Being an outcast is rough. Being eight-years old and an outcast is rougher.
It’s not that Eren does not want friends, it’s just that the other kids in the street simply don’t get him. Can’t they see this way of life is meaningless? Can’t they dream about the wonders beyond the walls, of the different flavors of bread or the new hiding spots for playtime? The other kids are just dumb, anyways, especially when they spit on him, mocked him when he started rambling about a better future.
Eren prefered to be alone and free than stuck in place with a bunch of idiots. Who cares if he was a loser?
One day, mommy asked Eren to go grab vegetables for lunch. He hopped through the market, coins in pocket, until screaming snapped his attention. Down the street, someone with big baby blue eyes stood in the middle of conflict. Kicks were thrown at her, giggling was heard and eyes were flooded with tears.
Eren concluded that little blonde girl was stupid, why wans’t she running away? She seemed to be clutching a weird book in her arms, was she protecting it? Wait, was that a she? He was wearing boy clothes. It was none of Eren’s business anyway, he didn’t mingle with stupid girls…or boys.
The corn at the market reminded Eren of the stupid boy's hair.
He was hard to miss, often hanging out down the street, always by himself. Didn’t he have friends? What a loser, but Eren didn’t have any friends either. Eren got mad everytime he walked close by and the bookworm didn’t notice him, yet, he didn’t understand why he felt like that.
He just wanted to ask if the doe-eyed boy down the street would play with him.
One day, he got really, really angry. The other kids at the playground had made fun of his idea of hiding in the Survey Corps carriages to go explore the outside! That was just unacceptable mockery and Eren wouldn’t stand around for that, he fought them bravely and was only able to calm down when mommy did her deep-breaths exercise.
Afterwards, he was taken to father’s office to get his wounds prepped. Eren hated father’s office.
That day the doe-eyed boy was also there. He was eating apple slices with a bandage around his head. He was missing two front teeth.
Eren couldn’t keep his stares away from the missing teeth. It looked stupid. He wanted to ask about it.
“I got knocked out. But it’s okay! Grandpa said new teeth will grow.” Almost as if reading his mind, the blonde told him, between bites on the apple slices. His voice sounded funny and squeaky. There was awkward silence, Eren was finally getting the attention he wanted! So why couldn’t he say anything else? If he spoke about the outside world, the weird kid would probably make fun of him and would never talk to him again.
He furrowed his brows.
“Did you know that outside the walls there’s a lake so big you can’t see the end of it!? And it's so salty that if a merchant spent his lifetime collecting salt from it, the salt wouldn’t run out?! And…and there’s other types of water? Like, fire water?!” Eren’s eyes sparkled, the boy wouldn’t stop talking about the outside! He was so cool!
Being an outcast is rough. But being an outcast with a friend is much better.