[If it wasn’t for Eren’s hand in hers she might have started spiraling. Even so, it’s hard not to tear up when he speaks again; it’s almost less the words themselves, more that he said anything at all.]

[Aubrey… doesn’t really know what Eren wants from her, at the end of the day. (Has she ever?) Just that, by now, he wants her to stay. That he wants her to kiss him, sometimes even hold him. And of course she’ll do all that and more, because he’s Eren, and she loves him.]

I-I’m sorry… [She chokes on it, this time. Dropping the clipboard, she wipes her eyes with that hand.] God, I just wrote about the dead horse— I shouldn’t have treated you like that. And I know it’s not this easy, but… I wish you didn’t hate yourself. [Her arm stays there, covering part of her face.] I don’t want that for you, either....