[ Eren says I died like it's nothing, like it doesn't matter. Thorfinn's eyebrows knit together. He's finally close to angry. Death is death, after all. Knowing it happens to everyone doesn't make it mean nothing.

He can't imagine death means nothing, especially Eren's death, because he loves Eren. Thorfinn can sometimes admit that the senseless death that happens in war still matters. The dead are still dead, some of them robbed of life too soon, some of them (like his father) denied the Valhalla they longed for. ]

How can you say it like you don't care? I knew you would die if you went home! And you knew too! And I…

[ Thorfinn doesn't have words for mourned. Eren hasn't been gone all that long, and Thorfinn does not know how to mourn, how to grieve. All he knows how to do is get pissed off, turn violence on others, find revenge.

He couldn't do any of that with Eren gone. He just ran away from everyone until Maruki sought him out.

Of course he's not really surprised that Eren's wish never changed. Eren seems strange and distant now, but isn't he Eren? Hadn't he come here to find Thorfinn now that he was back?

Thorfinn has never been very free with his affection, not even with Eren. He had been denied touch for most of his life, aside from fighting. It isn't that he doesn't want to.

So he crosses the distance between them, even if he can't bridge the rift as easily, and reaches for Eren like they had before the war, like they had before Eren's war. Eren is so much taller now and Thorfinn can't even resent it. As long as he's actually here, it doesn't matter.

He buries his face against Eren's chest — broader, stronger maybe, than it was before. ]

I don't want you to be dead.