[ Gently, Maruki presses his palm flat on Eren's chest until he rolls over to lay on his back. He tucks himself up under one arm, rests his head there, right over Eren's heart.

There's one thing that jumps to the front of his mind first. Inconsequential and mundane, in the grand scheme of things, but he thinks about it all the time. It would be good to finally put it to words for someone else to hear. ]

I kept odd hours as a graduate student, and then as a researcher... Usually I fell asleep facedown at my desk, and she would always come take my glasses off and bring me to bed. Rumi had a good job, so she was on a normal schedule, but I hated waking up alone to find out I'd slept through her leaving for work.

[ He traces a finger across the planes of Eren's chest, sketching out the layout of their little apartment from his mind's eye. It's not the shoebox he'll return to when they break free from this reality. It was home – drawn out in invisible lines on his soul's home. ]

So every morning, she would wake me up before she left, even if I'd only been asleep for a few hours. She would be the one to put my glasses back on. Like a little ritual. Sometimes I fell back asleep, but... I never took them off without her.

[ A beat, and his hand stops moving. ]

It's a silly thing, but. You've taken my glasses off before, when I've been too upset or tired to do it myself. It always reminds me of that.