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The Boy Who Makes Giants and The Boy Who Swings From Trees meet up on the road to town one day, one coming, the other going. The Boy Who Makes Giants lets out a wistful sigh at the sight of The Boy Who Swings From Trees and a giant is born from the sigh and goes off on the usual rampage of giants, destroying the town. The Boy Who Swings From Trees, however, swings into a tree and is able to avoid death-by-giant this way.
“Well,” The Boy Who Swings From Trees says. “There goes the town. Idiot.” And The Boy Who Makes Giants sadly agrees and continues on his way, knowing he is not wanted.
Not too long ago, The Boy Who Makes Giants was called Eren and had been a normal boy. His mother had been a baker, his father a doctor, and he had a sister and close friend to spend his days with. Of course, it had all been ruined by his curiosity and his love of giants. There had been a sleeping giant in the net town over and Eren had made his way to it to see what he could observe. He had been eaten by the giant, but had been spat back out – probably due to his horrible flavor. After the close call, he had gone home in a hurry, glad to be alive.
And then, Eren had discovered his new gift.
Seeing a pretty lady from afar, he had sighed in delight and want, and suddenly, a giant had materialized from his ensuing breathe. It had murdered the whole town, and Eren’s family, before running off to the next town where it was subsequently set on fire.
Eren had become The Boy Who Makes Giants and was alone.
That next town had, consequentially, been the home of The Boy Who Swings From Trees, who had once been called Jean. Using pulleys and rope, he and his mother had flung themselves up into the air to destroy the random giant that had appeared in their town. His mother had been a butcher, and so both mother and son had used butcher knives to hack away at the giant before some other townsperson had thought through it enough and set the damn thing on fire. Jean’s mother had burned. Jean had not.
Upon mourning her loss, Jean had looked up to one of the hills surrounding the town and had seen a boy running down, waving his arms about like a lunatic. Jean would have been inclined to find him sweet and attractive if the boy had not taken one look at him and sighed in admiration. And from the sigh, had been born yet another giant. To his credit, the mystery boy had looked chagrined as Jean had battled and set alight the new giant.
But then, it had been the end. Jean, now The Boy Who Swings From Trees, had sworn to kill The Boy Who Makes Giants for helping take the life of his mother.
Eren, The Boy Who Makes Giants, had merely gulped in horror.
That is how the two Boys first meet.
And they keep meeting.
Wherever The Boy Who Makes Giants goes, The Boy Who Swings From Trees swears to follow, and he does. Both Eren and Jean forget their true names, escaping the stigmas of their pasts. As The Boy Who Makes Giants, Eren goes to one town, and as The Boy Who Swings From Trees Jean stalks close behind, waiting to see The supposedly malicious Boy Who Makes Giants destroy the town. But nothing happens. The Boy Who Makes Giants keeps his head down and gets a job, and The Boy Who Swings From Trees follows him around the town, waiting to catch him out. Of course, the moment The Boy Who Makes Giants catches sigh of The Boy Who Swings From Trees, he sighs at The Boy Who Swings From Trees’ beauty and then grimaces in distaste as a giant is born from the sigh and begins to rampage the town.
The Boy Who Swings From Trees takes it down, but not before it destroys most of the town and kills almost all of the people. By the time he turns around, The Boy Who Makes Giants is gone, afraid of persecution and irritated that he had been doing so well until The Boy Who Swings From Trees had come along to ruin things.
The Boy Who Swings From Trees continues his search.
It keeps happening.
The Boy Who Makes Giants relocates, The Boy Who Swings From Trees finds him, and after a few weeks reveals himself only to have The Boy Who Makes Giants create a giant before he can stop the sighing. It’s amazing that The Boy Who Swings From Trees cannot piece together the pattern until The Boy Who Makes Giants corners him one day in a destroyed town and angrily jabs him in the chest. It is the first interaction between the two and the first time The Boy Who Makes Giants has waited behind after a giant had been born.
“Would you quit it?” The Boy Who Makes Giants yells.
“You’re the one destroying everything, you homicidal maniac!” The Boy Who Swings From Trees yells back, ready to jab his mother’s knives into The Boy Who Makes Giants’ chest. He wishes he knew the boy's name. The Boy Who Makes Giants is starting to get too long to say in his head.
“Yeah, only because you keep showing your ugly horse face here.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” The Boy Who Swings From Trees gripes. Jean does not think he has a horse face.
“It means that sighing like that makes the giants. And I only sigh like that when I see you,” The Boy Who Makes Giants explains, amazed at The Boy Who Swings From Trees’ stupidity. He wishes he knew the boy's name so he could insult him better. “Did you not notice?”
“Why are you sighing at me then?” The Boy Who Swings From Trees yells, slowly realizing he might be to blame for all the recent carnage and death.
“Cos you’re pretty!” The Boy Who Makes Giants yells. The Boy Who Swings From Trees is flattered, but less so when The Boy Who Makes Giants stomps away from him. “Now stay away! Before you make me accidentally kill anyone else!”
And with that, The Boy Who Makes Giants is gone.
The Boy Who Swings From Trees stews over the fact that he might be to blame for his mother’s death, for everyone’s death. He thinks he doesn't deserve to have a name. He starts to avoid The Boy Who Makes Giants whenever he can, though he does remember the boy’s words. As long as he stays away, everyone will be fine.
But it’s difficult.
Occasionally, they’ll accidentally run into each other; the world, after all, is a such a very small place:
“Well,” The Boy Who Swings From Trees says. “There goes the town. Idiot.” And The Boy Who Makes Giants sadly agrees and continues on his way.
The last time they meet, is deep in the woods. The Boy Who Makes Giants figures he can stay secluded and never sigh with wanting again to keep the whole world safe from him. He makes himself a cabin and lives his life quietly there, knowing that the odds that he will see The Boy Who Swings From Trees are miniscule, and even if he did, there is no one around to hurt besides themselves.
The low odds stop nothing, as The Boy Who Swings From Trees concludes that if he hid out in the woods, then there would be a low chance he would run into The Boy Who Makes Giants and everyone in the whole world would be safe from him. He makes himself a cabin in the woods and lives his life quietly there.
Months later, they meet up by the river, looking for water.
The Boy Who Makes Giants sighs before he can stop himself. The two Boys look at each other in horror, then at the giant that is forming in the water.
“Oh shit,” they both say.
Thankfully, The Boy Who Swings From Trees has gotten rather good at slaying giants, and he saves both The Boy Who Makes Giants and himself. Afterwards, they lay on the bank of the river exhausted – The Boy Who Swings From Trees from fighting and The Boy Who Makes Giants from trying and failing to help. Slowly, The Boy Who Swings From Trees sits up, an idea forming in his mind.
“You only sigh like that when you see me for the first time after a while, right?” The Boy Who Swings From Trees asks. “Because we’ve been laying here for a while and nothing has happened.”
“That’s because after a while, I find you annoying,” The Boy Who Makes Giants gripes, but he sits up too, wondering where this is going. “Why? What do you have in mind?”
“Maybe if I just don’t leave your side… then you wouldn’t be sighing like that whenever you saw me again,” The Boy Who Swings From Trees says shyly, looking away. Maybe the other boy is beautiful. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to stay in one place for good. Maybe he could have a place again.
“You? Stay with me? Out here?” The Boy Who Makes Giants asks, cheeks flushing. “You’d do that for me?”
“Uh, no,” The Boy Who Swings From Trees says, trying to sound indignant and failing as he cheeks also flushed. “I’d do it for the innocent people of the world’s safety.” He pauses and peeks at The Boy Who Makes Giants. “And maybe a little bit for you.”
“Alright,” The Boy Who Makes Giants says. He sticks his hand out and The Boy Who Swings From Trees holds it. “I’m Eren. What’s your name?”
“Jean,” The Boy Who Swings From Trees says, shocked, his name coming forth with such ease that he wonders if he ever really lost it at all. He smiles.
"Well,” Eren says, returning the smile. “Welcome home, Jean.”