Chapter Text
Jean stood in front of Eren's house and hesitated as he was about to knock. He then decided that he was an impulsive idiot and what the hell was he thinking, up and flying to Germany?! He had thrown all rational thoughts aside and flown halfway across the world because he preferred working on collabs in person. What about his job? What about Connie and Sasha, who he had left alone in his house? He'd be surprised if Eren didn't punch him.
Well, too last to back out now. He knocked three times on the door, and after about 30 seconds, it opened to reveal a very surprised Armin.
"J-Jean? What are you doing here?" Armin asked, confused.
"I, uh," Jean started, "Well, it's stupid. I wasn't thinking clearly when I left, but I've got a proposal for Eren and I wanted to do it in person."
"Why? I mean, you could have just Skyped him, right? Why come all the way to Germany?"
"I really don't know. Is Eren here?"
"Yeah, he's here. Eren!" Armin called over shoulder. Soon enough, Armin was replaced at the door by a very scowly Eren.
"What the hell are you doing here, Horse Face?" Eren demanded.
"Don't call me that. I'm here because that parody of yours was pretty pathetic, and it's in my better interest to help you out," Jean told, "Can I come in?"
"I guess," Eren grumbled, opening the door wider and stepping back to let Jean in, "You know where the guest room is. Dump your bag there, then I want a better explanation."
Jean complied, dragging his suitcase up the stairs and down the hallway towards the guest room. As he walked by, Mikasa came out of her room, and Jean's heart skipped a beat. She looked as gorgeous as ever. Her eyes sparkled in the dim light, and her raven hair had grown out so that it was just longer than shoulder length.
"Jean? What are you doing here?" she asked, shocked.
"You know, that's the third time I've been asked that in the last five minutes," he told, "Do I have to have a reason? Maybe I wanted to see your beautiful face in person."
She sighed, "Not today. Keep moving."
"So, a date tomorrow, then? Fine with me," Jean responded, winking.
"Let me rephrase that," she said, "Not today, not tomorrow, not any day. I'd rather date Eren."
"Jean!" Eren yelled from downstairs, "Stop harassing Mikasa and hurry up!"
"Yeah, Jean," Mikasa mocked, lips stretching up into the ghost of a smirk.
"Yeah, just a minute," Jean called to Eren, then walked into the guest room. He deposited his suitcase on the bed, then headed back downstairs to where Eren was waiting.
"Alright, explanation. Why the hell are you at my house?" Eren demanded.
"Okay, it's sorta a long story," Jean sighed, "It started with Connie and Sasha telling me that I'm supposed to perform at the Survey Team event coming up. The problem is, the song he wanted me to perform isn't ready yet. Then, Connie showed me the clip of the parody you sent him, and dude, that's weak. So Connie and Sasha suggested that the two of us do a collab. When I talked to Erwin, he was on board, so here I am."
"A collab? With you? What made you think that I'd be on board?!" Eren shouted, "You just flew halfway around the world and showed up because you thought we should do a collab?!"
"You mad bro?" Jean asked jokingly, "But seriously, dude, you've got a great voice, and with a couple pointers, you could write a good song."
Eren was silent for a minute, "Really?"
"Yeah, dude!" Jean affirmed, "I mean, no one's first song is good. It's no surprise yours wasn't. But you've got a lot of potential."
After a minute, Eren sighed, "Alright. I'll do the collab."
"Great! I've already got a few ideas. I was thinking we could parody the song..."
---
Five hours, two bags of Cheetos, and a 2-litre of Mountain Dew later, the song was finished, and they were finishing up their last practice run of the day.
"I'll be a warrior and I'll kill you/But we're best friends, an apology's due," they sang in unison. Applause came from behind them, and they turned to see Armin and Mikasa grinning.
"Good job, you guys! That song's amazing!" Armin gushed.
"Not bad, Horse Face." Mikasa nodded her approval.
"How long have you guys been there for?" Jean demanded.
"Since you started that last practice run," Armin answered.
"Glad you guys like it. Anyways, I've got plans tomorrow, so I'm off to bed," Eren told.
"Alright, good night, Eren!" Armin chirped.
He disappeared down the hallway to his bedroom, and within minutes, the sound of snoring filled the room.
"Typical Eren," Mikasa muttered, closing the door leading to the hallway. It didn't eliminate the sounds, but it muffled them quite a bit. They were bearable now.
Jean's phone vibrated in his pocket. He had a worldwide plan, so his phone worked when he was abroad. He checked his phone; text from Connie.
Connie
guess whos in ur house
Jean sighed with frustration. Great.
Jean
wtf r u doing whos in my house
Connie
marco
we rescued him
his roommates were doin the do
hes been here for a long time
Jean
connie remind me to murder u when i get back
Connie
when u comin back
Jean
tomorrow
Connie
cool okay
stuff 2 do, ttyl
Jean
yeah yeah
"Jean?" Armin said, and Jean stuffed his phone back into his pocket.
"What's up, Armin?" he asked.
"I just wanted to thank you for working with Eren," he told, "You see, Eren would never say this, but he really admires you as a parody creator. He wants to write parodies as good as yours. So, you collaborating with him definitely boosted his self-esteem!"
"Yeah, no problem," Jean mumbled, blushing slightly. That was high praise from his rival's best friend.
"So, do you want to record for a bit?" Armin asked.
"Sure," Jean agreed, "What do you wanna play?"
"Maybe if we find two more people, we can do a 2v2 Battle Arena?" Armin suggested.
"Yeah, I'm cool with that. Who do you wanna ask?"
"Umm... Bertholdt and Reiner? Or Ymir and Christa?"
"You know what, this could be fun. Ask them all, and we can play a 2v2v2."
"Great idea! I'll head downstairs to my room and set things up, and I'll add you to a Skype call when I'm ready!" Armin stood up and left the room. Jean heard his footsteps disappear downstairs, and he headed up to the guest room.
It took him about ten minutes to set up his laptop and mic, and as soon as he logged onto Skype, Armin added him to the call.
"Hey, guys," Jean said as he joined.
"Yo," Ymir answered.
"Hi! It's good to talk to you again, Jean!" Christa greeted warmly.
"So, Battle Arena. You almost ready, Armin?" Reiner asked.
"Yeah, the maps loaded! Does everyone know my ip?"
"Yeah," five voices said at once. Jean opened Minecraft and connected to Armin's server.
"I'll count down from five. Christa, you wanna intro?" Jean asked.
"Sure!" she agreed.
"Alright, in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1-"
"Hi, everyone! Christa here, and I'm with Ymir, Reiner, Bertholdt, Armin, and Jean! Today, we're playing a 2v2v2 Battle Arena! Does someone want to explain the rules for people who don't know?"
"Basically, it's the same as Battledome, but there are no sides. You don't need to build a base, and you can go wherever you want to collect your resources," Armin summarized.
"Alright, we'll be right back, guys, we're just gonna split into separate calls," Jean said. He left the group call and started a separate one for him and Armin.
"And we're back!" Armin announced.
ReindeerGaming: everyone ready?
CraftOrDie: yeah
"Ready, Armin?" Jean asked.
"Yeah."
attackonminecraft: were good
ReindeerGaming: okay 5
ReindeerGaming: 4
ReindeerGaming 3
attackonminecraft: 7
ChristaDTB: 1
thatoneblondkid: 97
TheColossalOne: 2369
CraftOrDie: 69
ReindeerGaming: lol 69
CraftOrDie: shut up
ChristaDTB: okay let's just start the game now
"Right, fifteen minutes on the clock. We need to be as efficient as possible with only two of us," Jean told.
"Definitely. Okay, I'll start mining. You stay up here, get some wood, if you can find a surface cave, mine a bit, but when it becomes night, grind for string and for xp. Find some gravel for flint, get some feathers. We need bows and plenty of arrows. If I need help finding resources, I'll tell you," Armin rattled off.
"Got it," Jean confirmed, then headed off towards a nearby forest.
---
"Okay, we're down to two minutes. Total iron count: 59. How's your situation, Jean?" Armin asked.
"7 string, 12 iron, 19 feathers, 21 flint, a shit ton of wood, and 15 levels. Is there an enchant table at spawn?"
"Yeah, there should be. I've established a small base for smelting on the surface, at coords x -340 z 34. Meet me there."
Jean hit f3; he was currently at x -280 z 50. Close, then. He quickly made his way over to Armin and put his iron in the furnaces to smelt.
"Alright, I'm making us both bows and arrows," Jean told.
"Great. Leave mine in the chest after. I'm leaving your armor and sword in the chest, when all the iron's smelted and everything's crafted, we'll head to spawn."
Jean crafted the two bows and 76 arrows. He left half the arrows and one bow in the chest, grabbing his stuff while he was there. He was now fully equipped with full iron, an iron sword, a bow, and 38 arrows. The only thing left to do was enchant.
ReindeerGaming: 30 seconds
"Armin, you ready? We need to get to spawn," Jean prompted.
"Yeah, all good! Let's hurry!"
Luckily, the mini-base was just over a hill from spawn, so they didn't have to go far to enchant.
"Okay, I got full Prot 1 armor, Power 1 bow, but a stupid Bane sword. What did you get?" Armin asked.
"Some Prot 1, some Projectile, Sharpness sword. If you want, I'll enchant you a new sword," Jean offered.
ReindeerGaming: time
CraftOrDie: game on bitches
"No time. Let's run."
And run they did.
Once they were a sufficient distance away from spawn, they climbed to the top of a tree and started hopping from tree to tree, about fifty blocks apart, scanning for signs of their enemies.
"I see a crafting table and a furnace, but no people," Jean reported.
I think- yep, I see someone! Bertholdt's enchanting!" Armin exclaimed.
"Do we try to sneak up on him, or do we rush him?" Jean asked.
"We don't know where Reiner is, so rushing would be a bad move. Let's get off these trees and try to sneak up on him."
Jean carefully hopped down from the tree and crouched. He slowly started making his way towards spawn, ensuring that he was always out of Bertholdt's line of sight. He met up with Armin about twenty blocks with spawn, and they crouched behind a tree.
"Rush now?" Jean asked.
"Yeah, I think- wait! Stop!" Armin shouted, and Jean immmediately stopped moving. He saw Reiner go running right past the tree. One more inch, and Jean would have been spotted.
"That was close."
"Tell me about it." Armin paused, thinking, "We have to draw one of them away somehow. But if they see us, they'll make sure they stick together. So, how do we do this?"
"Fuck it," Jean proclaimed suddenly, and recklessly charged at Bertholdt. Reiner was about 30 blocks away, and by the time he got back, Bertholdt was dead.
TheColossalOne was slain by attackonminecraft
Reiner immediately engaged him, giving him no time to regen. Shit- Reiner had a Fire Aspect sword. They grappled for a few seconds before the fight was concluded.
ReindeerGaming was slain by attackonminecraft
"He set me on fire!" Jean shouted, frantically looking around for water. But it was no use.
attackonminecraft burned to a crisp while fighting ReindeerGaming
"No! Jean! Now I'm alone against Ymir and Christa!" Armin wailed, and Jean didn't blame him. Ymir was a beast fighting alone, and Christa wasn't bad herself. The two together were undefeatable if you were alone.
thatoneblondkid: welp im dead
ChristaDTB: don't say that!
ChristaDTB: you still have a chance!
CraftOrDie: nah hes dead
CraftOrDie: literally
thatoneblondkid was slain by CraftOrDie
"I didn't even see her behind me."
"Well, good game, Armin. Sucks that we lost, but it was fun."
attackonminecraft: gg
thatoneblondkid: g_g
ChristaDTB: good game! ^_^
ReindeerGaming: GG
CraftOrDie: gG
TheColossalOne: gg
"Well, this has been Battle Arena with me and Jean! Drop a like, subscribe if you're new, and have a good day! See you later!" Armin outroed, and Jean stopped his recording.
"So, whatcha up to now, Armin?" Jean asked.
"I'm off to bed," he yawned. Jean glanced at the clock on the wall; 12:30. Well. Great. Time for the European people to go to bed, and he was nowhere near tired.
"I'll probably just mess around on Mineplex or something. See you tomorrow, Armin." Jean hung up the Skype call. He cracked his knuckles and cracked open a can of Mountain Dew, and prepared himself for a long night of mini games.