Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Eren woke up with a start, hearing the blaring sound of his alarm screeching in his ears. Glaring at the brightness of the sun seeping through his thin curtains, he practically slammed his hand down on the snooze button. It felt like pins were pricking his eyes as he groaned and made a mental note to buy better curtains that would block out the blinding light. He clearly wasn’t a morning person.

However, his gothic companion was the complete opposite. She’d gotten up early, way before the sun had even begun to rise, and began to get ready for another day of school. During one of those intervals of her constantly checking the time while she touched up her hair and makeup, she realized that it was 7:00AM. That’s when Eren had to wake up to start getting ready for school.

She knew his antics all too well, and sprinted over to his room making sure that he’d wake up early so they wouldn’t be late to school again.

The last time this happened, Eren got an earful from his mom about waking up early, with Mikasa just silently witnessing the lecture he received. She made a personal vow to never experience an angry Carla ever again. It didn't matter if the anger wasn’t directed towards her, she’d just prefer not to see it, ever.

“Eren time to get up,” she said as she barged into his room.

She didn’t notice yet that he was already up (barely), and was just about to sluggishly drag himself out of bed.

“Mika I’m already up… you should try to not be so loud… ”

“Barely, and you’re exaggerating. Get up, I’ll help you with anything if you need,” she said, immediately going over to his side to help him get out of bed.

He moved away from her hand that was reaching towards his shoulder to help him get up, and instead placed a hand over her shoulder and sleepily grinning at her.

“Mika I’m fine… I’ll be downstairs in a bit.”

She just smiled and nodded, leaving his room so he could get ready.

Eren quickly took a shower and brushed his teeth before changing into his dark blue jeans and a slightly wrinkled white button up short-sleeved shirt. He fastened the watch on his right wrist and quickly combed his brown locks through with his fingers in an attempt to tame his bedhead. Once he was done fixing his hair, he slung his bag onto one shoulder, the movement wrinkling the already un-ironed button up shirt even more.

He walked down the stairs, with some remnants of sleep still in him. The brunet was greeted with his mother and Mikasa sitting at the dining table. He looked around and couldn’t spot his father. Eren’s mother noticed this and quickly interrupted whatever thoughts were going through his mind.

“Your father’s at work again honey, you know how it is being a doctor.”

“Yeah, yeah mom I know. It’d be nice to see what he was working on at work though.”

He sat down at the table, sitting in the empty chair with a plate of breakfast right on the table in front of it. He couldn’t help but notice his father’s empty chair with a blank space on the table in front of it. His father was always working, and left early in the morning to get to work. Only Mikasa was probably awake at that hour and could probably watch him go.

He broke away from his thoughts and dug in. He wound up finishing his breakfast rather quickly, leaving Mikasa to continue picking at the remains of her toast, even if she started eating earlier than him. She never really did have a huge appetite in general.

“Mika you gotta finish your food, or we’ll be late,” he nagged at her quietly.

“Says the one who’s always the cause of us being late.”

He groaned and got up to put his plate in the sink, waiting for Mikasa to finish her last few bites of toast. Once she finished her breakfast and put her plate in the sink along with Eren’s plate, they were both ready to get to school. They grabbed their bags and said their goodbyes to Eren’s mom, walking out the door.

They walked along the sidewalk together in comfortable silence as they approached their bus stop. It only took a couple of minutes of waiting before they spotted the big yellow automobile emerging towards them from the corner of the street.

It pulled up right in front of their spot on the sidewalk, and the doors opened to let them in. Eren stepped off to the side, making sure that Mikasa got in first before he followed right behind her. They chose a seat near the back and sat down next to each other, seeing their friend Armin sitting in the other row right next to them with a girl.

“Hey Eren! Mikasa!” He greeted them with a smile and a small wave.

“Good morning Armin,” Mikasa greeted him with a slight smile and a wave.

“Morning Min, I see you’re with Annie again, you guys dating or something?” Eren snickered and Mikasa lightly slapped his arm trying to hide her smile as Armin wailed in embarrassment.

“This is the first thing you say when you see me? C’mon you know that’s not true!” he cried out, as a blush formed on both him and the girl sitting next to him.

Mikasa noticed how both of their faces were red, even if Armin’s embarrassment was more extravagantly obvious. She tapped Eren’s arm, making him turn to look at her in slight confusion as she whispered her observation into his ear. He only turned just to snicker at them again, leaving a heavily confused and flustered Armin.

Of course, Armin was the one to quickly try changing the subject, talking about some homework they had to complete that was due for English. A couple of pages of multiple choice reading comprehension questions. Mikasa, of course, had already done it, while Eren started panicking and asked them to give him answers.

She never really asks about his homework because she knows that he’d definitely do it, so she was shocked to see he hadn’t done it. After a couple minutes of Eren begging for answers, the bus had come to a stop, allowing all the students that were packed in the bus to pile out.

“Eren, I can help you anytime you want, y’know,” Mikasa told him with a gentle smile on her face as they walked over to the school’s entrance.

“N-no! I can do it just fine… I just forgot... I don’t wanna have to depend on you always… so that you can depend on me sometimes…” Eren lowered his voice saying the last part of his sentence, not wanting Mikasa to hear it.

Of course, he knew she wasn’t stupid, so she probably definitely heard it, making him silently curse under his breath regardless.

He pretended to look away and act as if he hadn’t said anything, and tried not to look up at her much in fear of being able to know her reaction towards his words.

“Well let’s go over to the gym to hang out a bit before classes! We can sit on the bleachers and talk for a bit if you want,” Armin chimed in, trying to pretend he didn’t hear Mikasa and Eren’s conversation since it slightly shifted the mood.

His tactic seemed to work and he smiled to himself as they both agreed to head over to the gym and sit somewhere in the bleachers with some other classmates and peers.

Armin noticed Annie, who’d departed from the trio earlier, sitting with Reiner, the jock, and Bertholdt, his little messenger. Armin waved to her, and she waved back, a small smile noticeable on her face. As soon as Eren started snickering behind Armin, he got slapped almost comically enough for his dramatic self to fall over onto Mikasa, leaving the poor girl to comfort him.

“Eren, how many times do I have to tell you, we are not dating!”

“Min, you guys stare dreamily into each other’s eyes constantly.”

“That proves nothing!” Armin shrieked at Eren’s remark.

“Sorry sorry, geez… anyways can I have the homework please?” Eren begged politely, hoping adding a please in there would make them cave in and offer their homework. He smushed himself onto Mikasa even more as she just held onto him to keep him from falling off onto the lower levels on the bleachers, since they were seated on the highest level.

“Didn’t you say you would do it yourself? I’m not giving you mine, get it from Mikasa or someone,” Armin replied bitterly, crossing his arms in an attempt to show his frustration, seeming still slightly upset about Eren’s joke. Eren knew this was only banter and Armin wasn’t actually mad, it was just an excuse to not hand over his homework.

“Min I already apologized, what more do ya want?”

“For you to kindly shut the fuck up,” Armin tried to hold back his laugh at his own remark, opting for subtly trying to hide his grin with his arms still folded over his chest.

Mikasa was starting to find amusement in the situation too, chuckling quietly as Eren’s face changed. He sprung up, slightly knocking his head on Mikasa’s chin, feeling the impact and the stab of pain that came right after.

“Ouch! Hey Mika you alright?”

She was silently wincing in slight pain and nodded, “I’m fine.”

“Okay good, but Min please I’m begging you!” Eren whined at his blond friend who was giggling.

“I told you I was sorry please please please gimme the homeworkkk!”

“No, just get it from your girlfriend.” Armin retaliated, leaving Eren an even poutier mess as pangs of pain still shot through his head.

“Girlfriend?! Alright fine I’ll get it from my girlfriend. Mika! Gimme please!”

“So you’re not denying it? Funny,” He wore a smug grin and Eren tried to blank off his blond friend’s taunt.

“Yeah yeah I’ll deny it under normal circumstances but I’m desperate here, pretty please Mika?”

“You could’ve just asked me beforehand,” she said, sighing before reaching into her bag and getting the homework.

She placed it on her lap and waited for Eren to take out his work, and a pencil.

“Thank you thank you thank you!” He exclaimed quickly, getting ready to copy down her answers, making sure to get a few wrong on purpose.

“You’re such a child,” she commented.

“The bell’s gonna ring in like, ten minutes? So you should try finishing this quickly,” Armin informed him, before going on his phone to watch something.

Eren mumbled a quick response, “Mhm gotcha,” as he started to fill in the bubbles at a speedy pace, using Mikasa’s work for reference.

Eren was a decent, average student. He didn’t do anything to stand out, nor was he completely invisible. Many people knew him, but he wasn’t popular or anything. He has his friends and his associates and that was good enough for him.

He could never get himself to stand out, because if he did, all eyes would be on him, which gives him even a bigger chance of screwing up and embarrassing himself. He gets decent grades but never high enough to be on an honor roll, and never low enough to fail his classes. His teachers acknowledge him, but don’t excessively praise him or yell at him. He’s just there, dealing with high school with his friend group.

The trio were inseparable since they were young, around the age of 7-9 they all met in some random way. Eren met Mikasa through his father. Since Grisha was a doctor, he constantly visited Mikasa’s mother to check up on Mikasa’s unborn brother. Her mother, as well as her father had been killed by kidnappers who’d wanted Mikasa. Eren wound up saving her, leaving him to be lightly scolded and praised for what he did after his father found his whereabouts. Mikasa ended up living with Eren’s parents, and she was never fully adopted, but they are her legal guardians.

Eren met Armin at a playground. The blond had gotten bullied constantly, and the bullies kept beating him up to their best abilities. One day Eren saw, and he ended up trying to fight Armin’s bullies, however it seemed they were more scared of Mikasa. They ran away as soon as they saw her approach them, and Armin will constantly poke fun at Eren for that, even if he’s grateful for both of them saving him. His friends mean so much to him, and Eren means so much to them.

Their friendship is his main source of happiness, especially his more than obvious romantic interest in Mikasa.

“Eren! Hey, are you done? Two more minutes,” Armin called out to him.

“Oh don’t worry I’m almost done,” he bit his lip as he continued filling out his last page, until he was finally done.

“Thanks so much Mika,” he said exasperated. Apparently coloring in circles for a couple of pages was quite the task for him.

She simply nodded and packed away her things in her bag, him beginning to copy her movements, getting ready for their first period class.

“Min you’re so mean I hope you know that,” said Eren, still somehow whiny even after Mikasa gave him the answers.

“Yeah? And you’re worse than that Eren.”

“Low blow man.”

“Of course,” Armin smiled at him, and a few seconds after, the bell rang.

The students who were in the gym began piling out, trying to make it to their first period class on time. Of course, there were some who’d purposefully stayed a little later to skip just a few minutes, but Eren, Mikasa, and Armin weren’t those kinds of people. So they got moving, and parted ways to get to their first period class.

Chapter Text

They all departed to go their separate ways to attend class. Eren had science, Mikasa had math, and Armin had PE. Eren actually enjoyed science. He thought all the different topics, no matter what, were interesting in all different ways. Mikasa didn’t necessarily like nor dislike math, but she was just lazily doing her classwork waiting for time to pass.

Armin however, had PE and was dying. He was considered weak compared to the rest of his peers, and didn’t really have an interest in trying too much. He’d constantly get yelled at if he zoned out or didn’t take a game of volleyball seriously, leaving him to be frustrated by the time class was over.

Eren, Mikasa, and Armin all had mainly different classes, but they did share a few, so their time together as a trio during the school day was limited. However, there was one time of the day they were all able to come together and hang out, and that was of course, lunch.

During lunch, students had a choice to either stay in the cafeteria or go outside and stay in the backyard of the school to spend their lunch period there. The trio normally chose to sit in the secured backyard, considering that’s where Mikasa would always be no matter what. She went there once when the school’s gardening club began getting more motivated to do actual gardening. Mikasa saw the pretty flowers they’d planted, blooming right in front of her face, and since that day, nothing could stop her from going over there to sit by the flowers.

It didn’t take long to spot her as she was usually comfortably seated next to rows of small flower beds. Her flannel patterned skirt was neatly tucked under her legs as she kneeled down on the grass. A variety of different flowers were messily sprawled among her lap.

Eren and Armin had just finished collecting their lunch back at the cafeteria and were making their way over to their goth companion.

“Mika, hey!” Eren called out to her, holding his lunch tray with one hand, and supporting the single strap of his book bag on his shoulder with the other hand.

“Hey guys,” she responded, still quite focused on the flowers on her lap.

“You okay Mikasa?” Armin asked her, taking a seat in front of her, setting his things down on the grass.

“I’m fine it’s just- I don’t know what order to put these flowers in to make another crown,”

“Aren’t you usually like- really good at this? Sortin’ and stuff,” Eren, who'd already sat down next to Armin, butted in, stuffing his face with chicken nuggets from the cafeteria.

“Yeah but it feels like I’ve gotten repetitive with the colors… ”

“Uh well you can do a pattern of yellow and uh- white? I guess,” Eren answered, handing Mikasa a chicken nugget.

She started munching on the nugget, whilst in thought.

“That sounds good, thanks Eren.”

“Hey Eren, you know we have English next period right? Did you finish your work?” Armin interrupted, finishing a bite of his sandwich.

“Of course I did! Armin, do you have memory loss or something?” he inquired jokingly.

“Nah, but I thought it’d be funny if I tried to scare you. Guess that didn’t work,” he looked slightly defeated, taking another bite out of his lunch.

“Hey nerds, get away from this spot,” spoke a fourth voice.

They turned their heads to see a large, buff blond guy, a tall lanky guy with dark hair, and Annie trailing behind them.

“Armin come, I gotta talk to you about something,” said the short girl.

“Uh- uhm sure… about what?”

“Just come, I'll explain later.”

Armin simply nodded his head and grabbed his things, excusing himself to go leave with Annie. After the two blondes left the scene, Eren and Mikasa were left alone with the two boys.

“Why are you guys here?” Mikasa asked, while Eren just ignored them.

He stayed silent and pretended they weren’t there, but was still discreetly listening on to hear the conversation that was taking place in front of him.

“Just here for you to move. The “Queen” Historia would like some flowers from this flower bed, so scram!”

“I never said that Reiner! You too Bertholdt! Ymir already got me flowers, I don’t need yours,” called out Historia who was sitting by a bench, extremely close to Ymir, enjoying the flowers that were gifted to her.

Reiner’s shoulders slumped as he hesitantly walked away with Bertholdt trailing him. The lanky boy had only stared and observed, not having said a single word yet.

Bertholdt was a boy of few words, but he was normally found hanging around either Annie or Reiner. Eren and Mikasa always noticed how his face always slightly changed to something of discomfort or sadness every time Armin and Annie were huddled close together. All Bertholdt could do was observe, and even if anyone noticed, nobody chose to say anything, and left him as is.

“Wow, he sounds pretty desperate. Ya think anyone will tell him Historia’s taken?”

“Nah let him keep trying,” Mikasa responded, head turning down to her lap again to work on her flower crown, making sure to use the order Eren suggested to put the flowers in.

Eren scooted over next to Mikasa, and sat comfortably close enough to her so that there was minimal space between the two. Her pale fingers with nails coated in black and rings adorning them moved expertly, tying the flower stems together.

Eren was lost in the movement of her fingers and how she so gently, yet skillfully connected all the flowers together by their bright green stems. Eren could watch her do crafty things like these for forever, however it doesn’t take someone that long to finish a flower crown.

Before he knew it, she was finally securing the last bits of loose ends on her flower crown. Once she was done she gave it a slight tug just to make sure everything was in place, and clumsily placed it on Eren's head.

“For you,” she said with a smile stretched across her face, eyes crinkling slightly to show her genuine joy.

Eren could practically feel himself fall even deeper in love with his childhood friend.

He hesitantly smiled back, touching the flower crown that laid lopsidedly on top of his messy brown hair. Eren chose to leave it as is, muttering a silent ‘thank you’ as he replayed Mikasa’s beautiful smile over and over in his mind. They sat in comfortable silence until the bell interrupted them. By the ring of just that one bell, their moment of silent bonding was gone.

They got up, collecting their things to go to their next period class. Armin and Annie were nowhere to be found, so they assumed they’d most likely just go straight to their classes instead.

They figured they’d just see Armin and Annie in class anyways since they all had the same English class, so they left the school’s backyard.

Eren threw out his empty tray and followed Mikasa as she made her way to one of the staircases in the school. He forgot about the very obvious yellow and white flower crown that was delicately placed on his head as he headed over to his class with her.