Eren stared at the equipment before him. Two belts, two sets of body vines, two vine tubes, two metal squeezers and three cans of silver air.

That would do for now.

It had taken Eren two weeks to accumulate their supplies to this level without raising suspicion.

His own equipment was secure against his frame, hidden from view by the bulky clothes he was given and explained about to by Armin.

He now understood slightly about why humans wore tops, especially with his own muscular structure, but he still wouldn't wear shoes no matter what his two hu- friends would say.

Eren soon came to also understand that there were others out there who could teach his friends how to fight, and that by learning from them they would be let out without gate or pole or fist holding them back. But when he tried to get them to be taught the response had been anything but positive.

"Grow up first, fucking urchin. Stop coming here."

Grow up?

He asked what that meant, but it soon became apparent that they were fed up with him by this point and he beat a hasty retreat.

"Eren... It means we're not old enough yet, we need to wait a few years before we apply. Also we need to do that together! Don't do something like that again without telling us,"

Eren, surprised by Armin's growing angry tone, quickly agreed.

A few years... how long was that? By the sounds of it, it seemed like a long time. Well while they waited Eren would do everything he could to get them ready to the best of his ability.

During those weeks he had also been looking for somewhere where he could help them without being seen by others while making his way to and from the fields.

A thick medium sized grove of trees a good distance off the farm track looked the most promising. They would have to go there in the cusp of morn or eve though to avoid the rest of the farmhands. Also so he wouldn't fall asleep mid-flight and freak his friends out.

He was improving but he still had serious difficulty staying awake for too long after dark.

"Eren, you in there?" Came his Adelina's voice.

"Here Mikasa," he murmured, standing up to look out for his friends within the trees

"Why did you ask us to come here?" Asked Armin as they made their way through the edge of the grove with a faint smile on his lips. The hushed overly secretive way their new friend had whispered the directions had been so very endearing that he hasn't pushed too much to find out, only correcting Eren's: "it good shock" to "it is a surprise".

"Learn time," Eren now explained to the other two's confusion.

"I thought he forgot about that," Armin whispered "he hasn't mentioned it for two weeks now,"

Mikasa didn't reply, simply walking up to Eren. Armin sighed and increased his pace to meet his grinning friend. His own distant smile faded as he saw what Eren had in front of him.

"Eren! Those belong to the military. Did you steal them?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"No not all metal. Took them from old build. Not need. They have lot,"

"A lot," he corrected without really thinking.

"They will notice they are missing though. You cannot steal- that means take without asking- you'll get in trouble," explained Mikasa in a worried tone.

"They not notice, have lo- a lot of them, I uh- steal slow. Go when eat in eve. They not notice," he repeated, trying to calm their worried expressions.

They both still looked faintly concerned but childish curiosity soon overcame their hesitation as they knelt down next to the equipment.

"What are all these things?" Armin asked.

Eren's smile almost split his face as he haltingly explained the purpose of each component, pausing occasionally to try to find the right word.

The people who heard Eren speak in the fields or in their camp thought he was simple, shaking their heads or lording it up over the oblivious boy with patronising smiles and barbed comments. As Mikasa and Armin had spent more and more time with him over the last few months it became apparent this was not the case at all.

Eren was raised speaking another language, like those he used to read about in Grandpa's book.

It would have been hard to realise this if Eren didn't on occasion burst into a flurry of the strange words, rolling and singing off his tongue like water in a stream.

He was definitely improving on his use of their language though.

The strange thing was that he still had a lot of difficulty understanding some basic concepts, like clothes (God that had been a hard conversation), bathing (which he had been very interested in once it was explained but obviously still a bit baffled by the reason) and kissing (which had been an awkward experience on all sides and was now understood not to be for friends).

Armin always wondered where he learned this strange language. But then again, he also wondered why he was so clueless about simple things, how he became so proficient at killing Titans at such a young age and what happened to his family.

Eren never had an answer to these questions, often shrugging or trying to change the topic.

He secretly feared the answer when Eren did neither of these things and simply stared at Armin with an empty gaze. That was usually when he tried to ask him about his family and whoever raised him, before he gave up trying to find out. For now.

Armin came back into the present, trying to focus on the names Eren gave to the pieces of equipment which he was almost 100% sure were wrong.

Eren did however understand a scary amount about how to use them, securing them into their harnesses and explaining each step to them, before securing their vines-

"I'm sure they're called cables- not vines Eren,"

-their cables into two parallel trees and having them practice balancing.

Mikasa got it straight away of course. That is until Eren pulled something off her belt and she flipped upside down with a faint squeak.

"Like mine now, keep tall." He explained, helping her to get the right way up again before moving on to Armin who was struggling to keep himself upright with a good belt.

Eren held out his hand for Armin but Armin flushed and looked away.

"I can do it,"

"It took I one week," Eren said in a quiet voice, pointing at the belt then himself with a twisted smile. "You better most quick,"

Armin looked at him with surprise.

"But I thought you were a natural,"

Eren crinkled his brow in confusion.

"Uh- that you were just good at it straight away,"

"No, took two spring times get like, every bit- every day practice. Did no- would not stop," he explained, shaking his head at the notion of 'a natural'. "You better. Both get much faster," he grins.

Armin smiled for a moment until loosing balance and falling forward. A hand hovered in front of his face.

"I've got it, I'm fine!" Said Armin, pushing himself up again.

Eren looked slightly taken aback but he nodded and turned to Mikasa who seemed to be having much more difficulty now.

Armin frowned down at the forest floor, five feet beneath him, as he tried again.

Teaching was much harder than Eren had thought it would be.

Once they had both gotten used to balancing, and Mikasa balancing acceptably in the better belt, he had tried to move them onto- well- moving.

He thought he would try it first without the belt and soon became glad he did.

Their stamina and strength was much less than he realised.

He knew they acted slow and tired after their work on the fields but he had always simply thought it was because they had finished and were conserving energy.

No, it was more than that.

They didn't seem to have enough energy at first, saying things like 'we're not used to this' and 'slow down Eren!' quite often.

It was while watching two humans fighting over food, the tired way the other humans waited for it and how they all acted after getting it that he finally realised exactly how important the stuff was.

He knew that they used it like he used sunlight but he hadn't realised that the amount they ate mattered that much.

...A lot of things had made more sense at that revelation... but no- Eren couldn't think of that. He had to think of Armin and Mikasa right now.

He became better and better at pretending to eat his food, sneaking his portions into theirs without them suspecting, putting on then wiping off crumbs from his mouth, ravenously gulping down the space between his hands and dry swallowing air.

Sometimes the real act of eating couldn't be escaped but he found that he was getting better at dealing with the... 'subsequent events'.

Eren had also started again to live up to his old name, in a small way, by seeking out meat for his friends.

Pigeons were by far the easiest to catch with their lumbering fat bodies and slow reactions, but unfortunately they often roamed the built up areas where human's lived and- well- the other humans didn't take kindly to seeing him hunting near them, using lots of words that made little to no sense.

He understood the tone of voice though. He stopped hunting in the city and tried to stay away from those humans after that.

(Strangely enough after mentioning some of these strange words to his Adelina most of them started avoiding Eren in return.)

The woods were much easier. If he was lucky he would sometimes catch a wood pigeon, instead of the usual crow or magpie.

The first time he brought them meat they seemed strangely hesitant but they quickly grew to accept his offerings with small soft smiles when he halting explained his reasons.

The only problem was them trying to get him to eat it too. But no way in Earth was he going to do that. He didn't even pretend to eat it, shoving it back to them and "eating" his bread instead.

Killing the creatures was hard enough, listening to their frantic struggles, trying not to spill blood or tear the flesh too much. There was no way he could breath in their scent or let them anywhere near his mouth.

He could never eat meat.

He had to be careful with his false eating, especially with Mikasa, but happily they were slowly gaining more and more energy in their movements.

When they were to join the military they would get much more food; Eren heard the soldier humans shouting it out to others often enough to be certain.

Until then he would keep them full of The Food.

But over the months, as he took them into the woods almost every night now instead of every other- teaching them how to run for a long time, read the wind, balance in the high branches and create an emergency drey- he started to notice other changes different than the energy in their movements.

Mikasa was becoming thinner in some places and much thicker in others, specifically in her arms, legs and, strangely enough, her chest- much more than Eren was sure it should be.

When he mentioned the last one to Armin in his confusion, he straight up told Eren to never mention this to her. Perhaps it wasn't the human thing to do.

Subsequently Eren kept it to himself as he noticed that Armin was growing thicker legs and could run faster for longer with less wheezing rasping sounds that had always made him worry before.

Perhaps this was what was meant by growing up, although they seemed to be growing outwards more than up really.

In addition to this Eren had been noticing the differences between his Adelina and sun flower, differences which steadily grew as they continued to practice with him.

Both seemed to be getting much better at keeping a pace and using their vin- cables to pull themselves up out of the reach of pretend Titans.

Mikasa was becoming as fast as one of the deer he used to race in his forests and was starting to be like him on occasion when he did not cheat in their races and lighten his weight.

But Armin was not nearly as fast, much to the golden one's irritation and displeasure. There was, however, something in his careful measured movements that made Eren pause for thought.

"Today we hide- we will hide not run," he corrected himself as his two friends sat next to him one evening, backs against one of the larger trees.

"Hide?" Asked Mikasa in confusion.

"It makes sense, if there are too many Titans it would be better to not engage," said Armin, crossing his arms behind his head to cushion it from the rough bark. "But how? You said before that their sense of smell was too good to hide when near them,"

Eren grinned at his friend's good memory and quick wit.

"You move down of air- wind- so smell do- does not move but that not work all time. That is what we do- um- we are to talk abut,"

"About," corrected Mikasa.

"About," Eren corrected himself with only the faintest puff of irritation.

Armin seemed to be consumed in thought rather than correcting Eren's speech and Mikasa soon joined him.

"How strong is their sense of smell?" Asked Armin quietly.

"Very strong. Can smell from ten size this wood, some more. Ou- their best sense. Sight good- is good- in day but not- uh- focus? Focusing? Focused. Hearing better for most but not much. Nose b- the best,"

Armin looked up at the faint hitch to Eren's voice as he started to speak but it soon mellowed out as Eren haltingly considered their enemy.

Armin vaguely decided to teach Eren more about distances soon before focusing on what his friend had just said.

He really doesn't know- and he's asking us for ideas.

A small warm feeling bloomed in his chest as he contemplated Eren's trust in their newly developed knowledge and skill to find the solution- a feeling obviously shared by Mikasa if the faint sparkle in her eyes was anything to go by.

He frowned as he tried to instead focus not on her eyes but on the problem at hand.

It sounded like Titans were very reliant on their sense of smell. What would happen if they were to take it out?

"Attack the nose?" Mikasa asked, thinking on a similar, if more violent, wavelength.

"We are hide- hiding, not using blades."

"A stink bomb," said Armin suddenly.

"What th- is that?" asked Eren curiously.

"It's a bottle or container of some sort that has nasty smelling things in it, such as rotten food like old eggs with water, that you break so it makes a nasty smell. It could block their sense of smell or confuse them so that we could get away,"

Mikasa nodded with an impressed look and Eren considered this thoughtfully.

"We would need things smell stronger than eggs... But bomb- a bomb could work," said Eren in a considering voice.

"We could also use whatever smell we find to cover up our own scent, like perfume,"

Eren grinned widely at Armin.

"You think about, you are good at thinking."

Armin blushed again and opened his mouth to deny this but Mikasa had started talking.

"What about the other senses then?"

"Sight could be taken by smell, fake not-tears, but don't want trust on that. Today we learn hide- to hide from eyes and ears, and to keep from wind."

Eren nodded from Mikasa to Armin, wondering if he was going to be right in his guess about Armin.

Eren was right.

Armin took to this form of stealth even better than Mikasa, who honestly probably would have done better if she hadn't refused to remove the bright red scarf.

Eventually, after much much discussion, Eren managed to convince her to tuck it into her shirt but his sharp eyes often still found little peeps of red marking her location in the tree tops.

It would do for a normal Titan probably but he was still a bit irritable about it all.

Not too irritable, though, when he thought back to how they got that scarf.

She would probably be happy it is being so treasured so much, he would think to himself sometimes.

Armin, while Eren had been spending time trying to convince Mikasa to change her clothes, had been flying ahead, strapping leaves and grass to his clothing, thinking up silent communication strategies and stepping so quietly with his light frame that he almost completely disappeared into the canopy when Eren had tried to find him.

As the week's progressed Eren found he could not see him at all when he had hid himself and, indeed, would have been impossible to find if it wasn't for Armin's light herby scent.

"It is not just forest out there. We need practice hiding on ground and out of trees," Eren explained one day as he called the two of them back, pretending to have given up looking for them.

And so the game was invented.

A rather fun game, if you ignore the reason for it, Eren thought to himself as he walked quietly along the muddy paths in the crop field, moving stealthily from person to person to creep up to his mark.

Armin let out a yelp as he was bodily lifted into the air.

"Picked you sunflower," he crowed before letting the struggling boy go.

"Stop that now, get back to work!" shouted one of the dead eyed women from not far away.

Mikasa was much more difficult to sneak up on, even for Eren who had only managed to shout out "Picked you moon flower!"Five times. Armin had only just managed it once and was so startled that he actually did it he forgot to shout out their joke.

But neither of them could get the drop on Eren who took delight in spinning round in the last second and blowing air in their faces.

"How do you always know when we're here?" Asked Armin in a petulant voice.

Eren smiled and tapped his nose.

A week later, when walking back through the quiet streets, itching an irritable nose, Eren found himself suddenly being lifted into the air, while two voices behind him shouted:

"Picked you star flower!"

He spluttered in surprise, rubbing his nose as a strange pungent floral smell hit him in full force before he was lowered gently to the ground.

His eyes widened and fell on his friends as a jaw aching smile overtook his features.

"You did it!"

The three friends smiled at each other, happy grins splitting their faces.

It was time.