random soft friendship things
Eren and Historia escaping to the pastures for a few hours and lying down in the tall grass, basking in the sun / saying nothing, because no words are needed / their hands inches apart but not touching. Sometimes one of the orphanage kids will find them and fall on top of them, giggling, but they just lie there and take it - Eren gives them a piggyback ride when they go back, though.
Eren and Connie napping together, one of their heads always leaning against the other’s shoulder, probably both drooling. Always after a long mission, the two of them always default to falling asleep on the way back home / Connie staying halfway awake on the chance Eren has a nightmare and needs to be woken up / and Eren draping his coat around Connie when he starts shivering in his sleep asking for his mom - because it was an old trick Mikasa used to use on him to simulate a bit of human warmth.
Eren and Sasha ( mostly Sasha ) dragging Eren along to escapades in the marketplace, flitting between the stalls and snacking on various bits of food - talking about random, usually unimportant things / Sasha slipping back-and-forth between her country drawl and “polite” manner of speaking. Eren, exasperatedly, reaching into his pockets to buy Sasha a nice slab of meat because he could see her pining after it from a mile away, and giving it to her on the walk back home along the trails / suffering her overbearing hug as she babbles about taking him back to have dinner with her family.
Eren and Jean ... just being together, quietly. Jean, picking up an old habit of drawing that he used to do before he joined the military / and Eren, being one of the few people that knows about it, having a casual interest in Jean’s progress. Maybe, sometimes asking him to draw faces or scenes from his memories - before they got the chance to cross the sea and actually visit locations in the outside world. Jean, quietly fascinated by the things Eren describes / and mildly horrified at how Eren seems to spontaneously switch into becoming another person entirely while he’s speaking: straighter posture, a different accent, the way he keeps rubbing at the bridge of his nose as though he were adjusting an imaginary pair of glasses ... And saying some stupid shit to try and snap Eren out of it, which usually results in a playful / annoyed shove.
Eren and Armin going on long, mundane strolls along the beach, wading into the tide / not really thinking or saying anything too important or profound. Sometimes Armin will speak up and talk about obscure things, like facts he’s recently learned, or how his studies on marine animal life is going. Eren’s shoulders subtly relaxing from their tight hunch / tuning into Armin’s voice and nodding along with interest that he doesn’t need to fake. A few times, they’ve actually gone swimming - and trudged back to camp soaking wet but smiling, smelling like sea salt and with sand clinging to their heels.
Eren and Mikasa trying their best to escape from their duties ( read: Yelena and Kiyomi, respectfully ) and finding niche little hiding places to go to when they’re feeling overwhelmed / usually under the shade of a tree. Meeting each other with a casual wave or a slow nod, settling in comfortably next to one another. Eren, bored, expertly climbing the tree / hanging from some of the low branches to poke at Mikasa, challenging her to race him to the top ( knowing that he’d win, but only because she’d let him ). Mikasa, struggling to contain a smile, refusing him at every turn simply because it’s expected of her ... instead, bringing up a happy memory about their childhood / sometimes an occasional anecdote about life with her parents / picking at the grass under her fingers with sentimental nervousness, forever awkward about sharing those kinds of secrets - but, above all else, trusting Eren explicitly to keep them safe for her.
Eren and Levi taking a break from training to have tea ... er, rather: Levi ordering Eren to take a break from training so that they can have tea together, as is a weekly tradition. Levi, trying to fill the silence with shit jokes and Eren laughing out of awkwardness / pity. Eren, tentatively, saying a few jokes of his own, and Levi snorting into his cup. Eventually, the both of them lapsing into a quiet moment again, until Levi abruptly stands and orders Eren to clean up ... ( but really, they do so together, because contrary to popular belief, Levi is not a totally heartless monster, and the thought of leaving Eren alone doesn’t sit entirely right with him. )
Eren and Hange being swept up in the chaos of experiments / with Eren emerging from his Titan form exhausted and in pain / Hange ordering everyone out of the immediate area so they can tend to Eren personally. Hange babbling excitedly about nonsense to ground Eren to the present moment, taking special care to make sure Eren continually keeps sipping some water or shoving a granola bar under his nose so he can eat something / handling him gently instead of hauling him around like they used to do, because there’s still so much that’s unknown about Titan Shifting and they don’t want Eren to fall into the habit of thinking his body is completely expendable - they’ve seen how fellow soldiers have pushed themselves into ruin for the sake of an objective, and Eren is still so young ...
Eren and Falco hanging out on their bench together - Eren, in his own reserved way, asking about Falco’s wellbeing and life in the internment zone. Falco, being especially sensitive to Eren’s loneliness, filling the air with stories about his friends, his brother, what the Warriors are up to ... sometimes even bringing Eren treats from beyond the hospital that they share in private because he’s not TECHNICALLY supposed to have them. Eren randomly sharing tidbits about his own life and friends - in a more somber tone, of course / with Falco secretly enraptured, always encouraging Eren to send more letters home, so that his friends know that he misses them. ❤
