Why? If, in the language of association, Mikasa is red—and black and white, all stark and clean contrast—and Armin has favored greens and blues—like the ocean, or the sky—what was it that drove him to answer the way he did?

(Historically, it means royalty and wealth. Or else something light and lilac and delicate. For him, it's rather the opposite. The color of a bruise, on his knuckles, under his eyes. Not that Eren is opposed to brutal things—just the opposite, really—but there are some he won't stand for. Earned many of his bruises trying to spare others, stumbling on Armin backed into a corner by a handful of kids twice his size. Wrapping the scarf around the discolorations ringed around Mikasa's neck the day they'd met.)

He's looking down at his hands as he considers it. Eventually, he looks back at Armin and runs one of those hands through the hair at the back of his neck.

"I guess I didn't think that hard about it" he admits it readily. None of that had been why he'd answered the way he did, at least not consciously. It had been kneejerk, a gut reaction, little thought put into the why, because that's how Eren makes most of his decisions anyway. Act first, on a feeling. Rationalize it later. (If at all.) "It's not that big a deal, really. Like I said, it's just a color."

He'd dye his damn hair purple if that's what it took to become a Ranger.