Eren figures that Reiner will always outlive him. Eren has been fated to die since before any of them ever knew it — not from the curse of the titans, but from his own. There was never a future, never a chance.

He's not entirely sure if Reiner lives through the Rumbling. He'd been shocked to find that Hange didn't. Who else doesn't? He's never asked Levi, not wanting those answers. He'll have them one day, when this reprieve ends and they inevitably go back.

Though he wants to think that it's not inevitable now. He's lasted more than two years past his expiration date. He'd never have seen 20 before.

Somewhere in his ongoing memory, Reiner asked, "What happened?" and he answers, "I turned 20." That had been such an answer in and of itself, though at the time, Reiner hadn't been aware Eren would die at 19.

Here in the present, their stolen time, Reiner says always. That's a word Eren has never dared to think, not since he was too young to know the horrors of the world. Always is a pipe dream, something impossible. People like them could never have that.

Could they?

One side of his mouth turns up, but a smile and not a smirk. It isn't a full smile, but it's the closest he's managed since the day he left his friends behind in Marley. That was lifetimes ago.

"Okay," he says. "Let's do it. Let's see who gets grey hair first."