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Eren’s alarm woke him up at four thirty AM, and he bounced out of bed, changing into jogging clothes. He went into the bathroom across the hallway, and when he came out, he went into Mikasa’s room, and, knowing her response, smiled.
“Mikasa! Come running with me!”
She threw her pillow at him with an angry growl. Laughing, he dodged it and left her room, closing the door gently.
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Eren threw a rock at Jean’s window, and he came out the back door, already shouting.
“What the fuck do you want, Jaeger?!”
“Come running with me, Jean!”
In answer, he went back inside, slamming the door.
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Knocking at Armin’s window, Eren bounced on his toes, keeping himself warm. Armin opened the window, looking at him sleepily.
“Armin! Come running with me!”
“Eren. It’s four forty-five in the morning, go back to sleep.”
Shaking his head, Eren vaulted his fence, and Armin closed his window.
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Jogging past Ymir’s house, he turned into Christa’s, knowing the door would be open for him.
“Christa! Is Ymir coming?”
Christa came out of her bedroom, laughing at the disappointed noises coming from within.
“No, she tried to pull me back into bed. Let’s go.”
They left, Christa locking the door behind them, heading to Hanji’s, and seeing Annie on the way.
“Yo, Annie! Come running with us!”
Annie looked over at them from her position at the garage door, pulling her jacket on.
“No, Eren. I already ran, now I’m going to the gym, remember?”
She hopped on her bike and rolled down the driveway, stopping with her foot.
“And before you go ask, no, Reiner and Bert don’t want to go with you. I went into Reiner’s room, but I shouldn’t have even gone in.”
She shuddered and biked off, leaving Eren and Christa to themselves. The next house was Marco’s, and Christa bounced up the steps, knocking on the door. A sleepy and rumpled Marco opened the door a moment after, looking down at Christa with confusion.
“Christa, what do you want?”
“Come running with us!”
Marco blinked slowly, processing her words. Trying to be nice, he slumped against the doorway.
“Christa, it’s… what, five am?”
“Yup!”
He shook his head, sighing.
“I’ll pass, thank you.”
“Okay, fine!”
She bounced down the steps as he shut the door, going back to bed.
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Eren and Christa didn’t talk much during their morning runs, but they used that time to talk about things going on, school, their friends, anything really.
“Hey, Christa?”
“Yeah?”
“Does it bother you when people use gay as an insult?”
They jogged in silence for a minute while Christa gathered her thoughts.
“Yeah, it does. It’s because of ignorance, and the way they’re raised, and the media and society and all that bullshit. It bothers me more when people target me and Ymir, or Reiner and Bert, or Jean and Marco just for being gay. Like, if you hate me, hate me for something else. Hate me for being obnoxious, or happy all the time, which is a lie, but really, anything else than liking girls.”
“Huh. Does the word fag bother you too?”
“If it’s a queer person using it, in a laughing matter, that’s okay. If you’re straight and you use it, honestly, fuck off, that word is not yours. I don’t use it personally, but yeah.”
“What about queer?”
“I haven’t really heard queer as an insult, actually. I hear it more as a label or an umbrella term. Like with fag, if a queer person is using it, it’s all good.”
“Thanks, Christa.”
“Anytime, Eren. You’re a good guy.”
They jogged the rest of their route in silence, until they got back to the Jaeger/Ackerman house, and Christa called a goodbye as she went on past towards her own house.
“See you later, Eren!”
“See you, Christa.”
She went into her bathroom, unplugging the stereo, making sure the right CD was in it. Tiptoeing into her room, she plugged it in near the door, setting it to full volume, and waiting for the right moment to jump on her bed, where Ymir was very peacefully asleep.