Eren turned around following the voice and gave a smile, "hey, Jean."

"Long time no see, what has it been, a little over a week," Jean laughed.

"Sooo long," Eren said sarcastically as he laughed with his friend.

"How's work?" Jean asked realizing he never did officially ask Eren about it.

"It's great, all the kids are so nice, they are a lot like how we were when we were in high school," Eren said with a smile thinking of TJ, Alex, and Thomas.

"Wait, shouldn't you be working now?" Jean asked realizing what time it was.

"They sent me home early because I had a high temperature, but it was just because the classroom was hot," Eren laughed. It wasn't a complete lie so he knew he could get away with it.

"Oh bummer," anyways what brings you here?" Jean asked looking at all the paint Eren had in his basket. "Are you starting a new painting," he asked.

"Yup," Eren smiled showing off the paint a little more.

"Cool, what are you painting this time?" He asked curiously.

"It's a secret," Eren said with an evil grin. "You will just have to see it when it's done," he said with a light chuckle.

"Awe come on I wanna know," he begged.

"Well I can't show you the new one, but I can show you the one I recently finished. That is if you want to see it?" Eren asked grabbing his phone.

"Of course I want to see it," Jean said his face beaming with excitement.

When Eren pulled up the picture Jean gasped, "that looks amazing," he stated as Eren handed him his phone so he could get a closer look, "there is no way you painted this," he said amazed.

"I did," Eren smiled. Jean always had supported his art and aside from Hanji, he was Eren's number one fan.

"This is so cool, send this picture to me yeah?" Jean said handing Eren his phone back. "I want to show Armin and Marco."

"Okay I will," Eren laughed quickly sending it to Jean. "Anyway, what brings you here?" He asked.

"Armin and Marco are working on some fancy projects for their college classes and asked me to pick them up some supplies," Jean said showing Eren the list. "There is just one issue," Jean said, "I know nothing when it comes to art supplies," he admitted.

"Well you're in luck I know all about art supplies," Eren said proudly taking the list.

Eren started helping Jean collect what Armin had scribbled down. He looked up and down the aisle with him, "it should be right here," Eren mumbled as he looked at the shelf. "Ah, here it is," Eren said picking it up and handing it to Jean.

"Thanks," Jean said putting it in his basket.

"The next one should be on the next row," Eren said looking at the list. "I'll meet you on that row in a second I just have to grab one paint from this aisle," Eren said remembering that he wanted to get a big can of black paint.

"Okay, I'm going to start looking for it," Jean said turning around to head down the rest of the aisle.

Eren turned the opposite way and headed for the end of the aisle where the big cans usually were. He went to reach for one but froze in place. He backed up frantically as fear overtook him. He just wanted to get away, but his body wasn't listening to him. His breathing spiked and his body was trembling he couldn't stop his legs from moving backwards. He stopped in his tracks when he had backed into the shelves knocking some of the supplies off of them.

Jean heard a crash as he turned the corner for the next aisle when he poked his head around he saw Eren was standing with his back pressed up against one of the shelves. He saw that some of the items had fallen to the floor and was about to call him clutzy but then he noticed he was shaking and looking at something.

He dropped the hand basket and ran over to his friend. "What's wrong, what happened?" He asked placing his hands on his shoulders.

"They, he, I," Eren sputtered out. His breathing was too jagged to answer any questions. Eren couldn't get out a sentence without his breathing breaking it up. "I," He started, "need... to... leave," He said finally getting his voice out as best as he could.

"Okay, Eren, let's go," Jean said grabbing his arm gently and guiding him to the exit. They had left all of the stuff they were going to buy in the aisle. "Breath," Jean said rubbing Eren's back. He had found his car and walked him to it. He sat him in the passenger seat and stood next to him in the doorway. "I need you to breath," Jean said calmly. He knew Eren was having a panic attack and he didn't know if he could help as well as the others could, but he tried anyways.

He continued rubbing Eren's back and attempted to say calming things. When Eren finally calmed down he decided to ask what the hell had happened. "Are you okay?" Jean asked as Eren had finally caught his breath.

"Yeah, sorry."

"What happened?" Jean asked, he didn't want to throw him into another panic attack, but he knew that he needed to figure out what was wrong in order to help.

"They- He was there," Eren breathed out taking a deep breath.

"He, he who?" Jean asked.

"One of my dad's friends," he said, "he was in there."

Jean looked at the store and just stared at it, "that's what you were looking at," Jean mumbled before going back to facing Eren.

Eren just nodded taking another deep breath.

"I'm so sorry, Eren," Jean said grabbing his hand to get him to look at him. "I can only imagine how hard this must be for you."

"It was unexpected, it caught me off guard," he said. "It brought back everything all the memories all the feelings that I have tried so desperately to forget. When I saw him, I was a 14-year-old kid again looking up at the monster that had taken my innocence, my happiness, my life. He looked right at me," Eren said biting his lip to keep from going deeper into his thoughts as he spoke. The tears that had pricked his eyes for so long finally started to fall.

Jean didn't know what to say he knew that nothing he could say could mitigate the situation. He hated seeing Eren cry, it was always a heartbreaking sight to see his best friend look so broken. He instinctively did what any best friend would do and threw his arms around him hugging him close.

Eren wrapped his arms around his back and let his tears fall. He was shaking and thought his tears were mostly silent every so often a sob would escape past his lips.

Jean just held him rubbing his back as he cried into his shoulder. "Shhh, It will be okay," Jean hummed.

"Hmm," the man said after watching someone have a mental breakdown in the middle of the aisle. "What an unusual sight," he said turning back around.

"Okay, Eren, let's go," Jean had said causing the man to turn around.

'Eren,' the man thought, 'that was Eren?' He asked himself mentally. "Long time no see," he whispered with a evil grin.