[Eren knows rage. Maruki only needs to sit up and shift away for the scent to hit his nostrils like a shark smelling blood. It doesn't matter that he's never seen it before. It doesn't matter that it's shocking. It doesn't matter that it's Maruki, and that Maruki isn't meant to get upset - Maruki isn't meant to scream, and cry, and condemn, and hate, and feel, and be, but Eren doesn't shy away.
[No, Eren would never shy away. Would never look upon him with disgust, or surprise, or disappointment.
[No.
[No.
[Because Eren knows very well who Takuto Maruki is. Eren knows very well who they are. Eren knows that a man does not bring the world to a ruin of his vision without hatred and misery in his heart.
[Maruki's rage would shock a weaker person, a stupider person, a person more easily tricked, but not Eren.
[Not. Eren.
[These are two men who cannot hide from each other - foolish that Maruki ever tried; Eren forgives him. The man raises up across from Eren, and Eren shifts onto his knees in return, mirroring his friend's height as his voice raises, disturbing birds nesting in the rafters of the windmill.
[They face each other. Eren holds Maruki's gaze, eyes burning, alight with shared fire, all the same vitriol for the world that destroyed him.
[No family, because Eren's ripped them apart, left their bodies strewn, bloody, wherever he found them; they left Maruki alone.
[No friends, because Eren has ground them all up between his mollars, tongue salted with viscera; they left Maruki alone.
[No colleagues, because Eren has razed their offices to rubble, bodies crushed beneath it, limbs sticking out at all the wrong angles, no better than bugs; they left Maruki alone.
[No Akira Kurusu, because Eren
will not
allow Maruki
to be crushed
again.
[If he cannot destroy, he will stalk, and prowl, and watch, and wait...
[For as long as it takes.
Forever.
[In this reality
and all realities.
[Because Maruki is wrong. He doesn't have nothing. He doesn't have no one.
[Eren's voice rumbles out low and vicious, more beast than man.]
You have me.
[Maruki is silent, his cry still echoing in Eren's ears. Eren brings a hand to his face, tender, deadly.]
Don't. Forget.
There is one guarantee in this place, that place, any place. [He spits the words.]
I am your inevitability. I am your guarantee.
And I will not. Leave your side.
There is no Hell strong enough to keep me from you.
None. [A new echo off of the stone walls.]
You know me well, Maruki, but even if you don't know the full reach of my power. [A thumb strokes lovingly over his cheek.]
3/3 and then future caitlin will go "comment chains only count as one comment when counting shards"
[No, Eren would never shy away. Would never look upon him with disgust, or surprise, or disappointment.
[No.
[No.
[Because Eren knows very well who Takuto Maruki is. Eren knows very well who they are. Eren knows that a man does not bring the world to a ruin of his vision without hatred and misery in his heart.
[Maruki's rage would shock a weaker person, a stupider person, a person more easily tricked, but not Eren.
[Not. Eren.
[These are two men who cannot hide from each other - foolish that Maruki ever tried; Eren forgives him. The man raises up across from Eren, and Eren shifts onto his knees in return, mirroring his friend's height as his voice raises, disturbing birds nesting in the rafters of the windmill.
[They face each other. Eren holds Maruki's gaze, eyes burning, alight with shared fire, all the same vitriol for the world that destroyed him.
[No family, because Eren's ripped them apart, left their bodies strewn, bloody, wherever he found them; they left Maruki alone.
[No friends, because Eren has ground them all up between his mollars, tongue salted with viscera; they left Maruki alone.
[No colleagues, because Eren has razed their offices to rubble, bodies crushed beneath it, limbs sticking out at all the wrong angles, no better than bugs; they left Maruki alone.
[No Akira Kurusu, because Eren
allow Maruki
crushed
again.
[If he cannot destroy, he will stalk, and prowl, and watch, and wait...
[For as long as it takes.
[In this reality
and all realities.
[Because Maruki is wrong. He doesn't have nothing. He doesn't have no one.
[Eren's voice rumbles out low and vicious, more beast than man.]
You have me.
[Maruki is silent, his cry still echoing in Eren's ears. Eren brings a hand to his face, tender, deadly.]
Don't. Forget.
There is one guarantee in this place, that place, any place. [He spits the words.]
I am your inevitability. I am your guarantee.
And I will not. Leave your side.
There is no Hell strong enough to keep me from you.
None. [A new echo off of the stone walls.]
You know me well, Maruki, but even if you don't know the full reach of my power. [A thumb strokes lovingly over his cheek.]
I'll rip apart every last reality there is.