Chapter Text
Twenty-three seconds to score. It was more than enough time to set up a play, but it would no doubt be the last possession of the game. If they failed to tie it up here, it was all over.
Armin picked up the ball and scanned the pool, desperately trying to find an open teammate as a defender charged rapidly towards him. Just as his shoulder was grabbed, Armin launched the ball over to Eren, who had managed to break free and start a drive towards the goal.
Eren cleared Reiner out of the hole and shoved his back into the defender, scooping up the ball from underneath. In one smooth motion, he snapped away from his opponent and rose above the waterline, rocketing the ball directly towards the goal.
Armin watched the display from the wing, in awe of his friend’s ability and their imminent victory. However, a sickening ding proved that any celebration was premature. The ball had smashed into the top bar, but instead of redirecting downwards and into the goal, it shot directly back out into the pool.
Immediately the ball was retrieved by an opponent, who swam away and burnt the remaining time, ending the game and dashing Shiganshina High’s hopes of victory.
Armin’s attention was drawn back to the hole by a series of violent splashes. Eren had started punching the water, ripping off his cap in anguish.
“Dammit!” he yelled, now swimming aggressively over to the wall. The rest of the team followed slowly behind him, seemingly more downtrodden rather than angry at the loss. As they all knew, anger was something Eren was never short of.
Armin swam over to Eren, clinging onto the wall next to him. He knew that anything he said to try and console him would only make the problem worse, so he sat quietly while the other boy stewed.
“Nice shot, Jaeger!” Jean teased, joining them on the wall. As soon as he heard the voice, Armin knew there was going to be trouble. Yes, they were all friends, but some of them didn’t know how far was too far.
“I felt that vibration from the goal in my gut!” Connie added, smirking despite their admittedly demoralizing manner of defeat.
“Shut up,” Eren responded in a low voice, eyes locked downwards as he scowled at the water.
The two eventually backed off, and the team rose from the water together in order to change and debrief the game. Eren’s demeanor was essentially unchanged throughout the entire process, and remained as such as he head to the car alongside his mother and Armin.
“You did great, honey,” his mom said in a futile attempt to brighten Eren up.
“How? Literally how did I do great? I missed the goal to tie! I lost the game! That was terrible!” Eren exploded the minute he closed the car door.
“But what about everything else? You scored two other goals!” Mrs. Jaeger continued.
“Who cares,” Eren responded in his stubbornness.
Finally, Armin decided he had had enough of the sulking.
“Eren, I know you won’t believe it, but it actually didn’t really matter that you missed that goal.”
Eren looked over at Armin, but didn’t say anything. Armin took it as a sign to continue.
“Think about it! Jean missed a goal earlier, and if he had made that, we would have tied! He sent it flying over the goal, which is even worse than hitting the bar! Maybe I messed up and should have given it to Reiner instead. Maybe that would have scored, and maybe it wouldn’t have! There’s infinite different ways to dish out blame,” Armin concluded, satisfied with his mini-rant.
Eren sighed, running a hand through his chlorine-stiffened hair before collapsing his head onto Armin’s shoulder. It wasn’t an uncommon gesture between the two, but it still caught Armin a bit off guard. “I guess,” was all he said in response, but Armin figured it was progress.
The rest of the drive back was spent in relative quiet as exhaustion began to get the better of the two in the backseat. They weren’t far from the high school, but even Armin found his eyes starting to droop with chlorine and fatigue once the car pulled into his driveway.
Armin collected his things and reluctantly shrugged a drowsy Eren’s head off of his shoulder. “See you tomorrow,” he said, opening the door and starting off towards his house.
“Good job today!” Carla called after Armin as he walked up the stairs to his front door.
“Thank you for the ride!” Armin said back. As he messed with his lock, he was vaguely aware of the car’s presence behind him, and a pair of caring eyes making sure he got into the house safely. Only once he had opened the door and waved goodbye did Carla drive off.
It was little gestures such as these that assured Armin he had a second family with the Jaegers.
Armin wasn’t expecting anyone to be home, but that didn’t make the house any more welcoming. He loved his grandpa, of course, but he had to work, and missed out on a lot of Armin’s childhood as a consequence. That was one of the many reasons Armin found himself at Eren’s house so often.
Once he stepped inside, Armin walked into the laundry room and tossed his towel and speedo into the dryer. After starting it, he trudged upstairs and began running the shower.
The warm water felt heavenly against his skin, washing away the pool chemicals and relieving the stinging from his eyes. He tried his best to wash his hair, but he knew it would be just as frizzy in the morning. Not that anyone else's on the team looks any better. Actually, maybe Connie, but does that count?
After getting out of the shower, Armin put his pajamas on and plopped himself down at his desk, staring at the pile of books and papers he had collected since the start of the school year. His next assignments were due on Monday, and since it was only a Thursday, he figured he could afford to procrastinate at least for the night. He at least deserved that after playing a match.
Armin strode over to his bed and fell face-first into it, not bothering to even turn the lights off. He’d just rest his eyes for a few moments, nothing more.
As it always did, “resting his eyes” turned into a deep sleep that was only broken by a loud pounding coming from downstairs.
“Huh?” Armin murmured, grabbing at his phone and realizing that it was buzzing. Eren’s contact photo filled his screen, and he answered instinctively.
“Finally!” Eren said immediately on the other end. “You’re alive!”
“Somewhat,” Armin answered groggily.
“Did you eat yet?” Eren asked.
“Oh. No, actually,” Armin said, suddenly becoming aware of his painfully empty stomach. He rose from the bed and quickly threw some clothes on, eager to stop the knocking on his front door.
“Good, then hurry up!” Eren said.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” Armin responded. “See you in a second.”
Armin hung up the phone and flew down the stairs, opening the door for Eren.
“Cool, let’s go!” Eren called, hustling back to his car before Armin had even had a chance to speak.
“What? Where?” Armin asked, but found himself following regardless. In all honesty, it didn’t really matter to him.
“I don’t know, just somewhere with food,” was all Eren could offer in terms of an answer. But, that was fine by Armin.
“Wait, didn’t you just get your license over summer?” Armin asked, slowly coming back to his senses as he awoke more. “I know your parents don’t want you driving other people yet.”
“Well, uh, my mom wasn’t making anything, so I may have told them that I was just going out to grab some dinner. That’s why Mikasa isn’t here.”
Armin frowned at the car, contemplating his next move. Of course he wanted to get in, but should he?
“Trust me, it’s fine,” Eren said, smiling as he flipped on the ignition from the driver’s seat. “I’m starving.”
“What if you get pulled over, though? Do you know how much bigger the fine is for driving other people with a provisional license?” Armin said, voicing his concerns as his rule-abiding nature took over.
“Ok, I guess I’m kidnapping you then,” Eren said matter-of-factly. “You won’t get in trouble since you’re my victim.”
“What?”
“You heard me,” Eren said, smirking as he got out of the car and darted towards Armin. In a fraction of a second, he jammed his shoulder into the smaller boy’s waist, holding onto Armin's legs as he slung him over his shoulder.
“Eren, what are you doing? You can’t just…” Armin protested, but stopped once he realized the futility of the situation. He was at a total disadvantage in his current position, and not to mention, the two weren’t exactly on an equal playing field to begin with.
“It’s for your own good,” Eren assured, throwing a plethora of empty Gatorade bottles into the back before tossing Armin into the passenger’s seat. In truth, it wasn’t much in the way of persuasion, but Eren had a way of convincing Armin of his plans. For whatever reason, he seemed to be the only one able to break through Armin’s defenses, for better or worse.
Still, Armin only completely resigned himself once they had started driving down the street and out of their neighborhood. As a victim of a brutal kidnapping, there wasn’t much he could do anymore without endangering himself.
“Where to?” Eren asked, driving in the general direction of their school and the restaurants around it.
“I just need food,” Armin complained, exaggeratedly grabbing at his stomach.
“McDonald’s it is then!” Eren said triumphantly.
Armin couldn’t deny that at the moment, some greasy trash sounded amazing. And some ice cream. And a soda. And… this was why he tried to limit going out after water polo games.
Speaking of which, the mention of games brought Armin’s thoughts to the way Eren had been just hours ago. “Are you, you know, good now?” he asked tentatively, as he wasn’t sure how touchy of a subject it’d be.
“Hm? Oh, after the loss?” Eren said with a small laugh. “Yeah, I got over it. What you said actually helped.”
Armin allowed himself to feel just a sliver of pride in his accomplishment of taming the untamable: Eren Jaeger’s temper.
Just as they were about to turn into the drive through, someone shot out from the exit line, cutting directly in front of their car and earning a tirade of expletives, honks, and middle fingers from Eren.
On second thought, maybe he still had a ways to go.
Eren pulled into the drive through, and they ordered their food. “Want to eat at your place?” he asked, although he was already headed in that direction.
“Yeah, sure. Won’t your parents wonder why it’s taking so long, though?”
“I’ll just tell them I’m hanging out with you. They don’t have to know you came along.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Sitting back in his seat, Armin turned up the music playing over the blown-out speakers. Eren’s car was a beater for sure, but it was comfortable. As he sat clutching those warm, grease-stained bags, Armin allowed himself to relax entirely. He was too tired to strike up a full conversation, but that was perfectly fine with both of them, as the silence was comfortable in its own way. Eren was the only person Armin could think of whose very presence had such an effect on him.
After arriving at the house, the pair strode inside and tossed their food onto the dining table. They tore into it eagerly, adamant about consuming every last calorie they had purchased.
“Let’s have a sleepover!” Eren suggested through a mouthful of french fries.
“I’ll be going to bed pretty early, but you can stay if you want,” Armin said, although his response was a lot more casual than he actually felt about the prospect. There was just something so warm about Eren’s companionship, and in no world would he ever stop it from filling his empty house.
“Yeah, me too. Although it’s basically Friday, if you think about it.”
“How so?”
“Well, tomorrow is Friday, but Friday is pretty much the weekend already. So if ‘Friday’ means the day before the weekend, then it’s like a Friday today!”
“I don’t… I don’t think that’s how any of that works.”
“Yeah, well, it’s gonna have to be good enough reasoning for my parents, because I’m too tired to drive home.”
“You don’t have a choice, then. You’ve got to stay here for your safety!” Armin said, playing along, and the two erupted into laughter.
After their meal (and the Jaegers' reluctant acceptance of Eren staying the night), the two headed upstairs and sat on Armin’s bed together. Grabbing the remote to the small T.V. that sat across from his bed, Armin turned on some mindless YouTube videos, as he always did when Eren was around. By himself, he preferred to read before bed, but it was a small sacrifice.
In what could only have been a few minutes, the commentary and drowsy laughter from beside him stopped. “Eren?” Armin asked, but when he looked to the side, he realized that Eren was completely passed out against the wall. He cracked a small smile, which quickly turned to surprise as Eren slid down the wall and onto his lap. Armin laughed silently so as not to wake him, and laid a hand on his friend’s shoulder.
Being so close, it’d happened before—many times, actually. But for the first time, as Armin sat there with Eren sprawled across his lap, he felt something beyond the usual comfort Eren’s proximity provided. For the first time, there was a small voice asking for more, and he didn’t know if he wanted more to indulge in it or to suppress it to the most remote corner of his mind.
Armin sighed. He’d have a lot of thinking to do in the next few days.