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I've known Eren Jaeger since middle school.
And now that it's been years that we have been knowing each other and I know Jaeger enough to get in mannerisms and habits down cold. I know what every facial expression, every thought process, every sign from him that he was ready to fight.
And Eren accidentally hitting someone in the face while he talks is certainly not one of them.
It's really funny how this all happened. It started freshman year, and Eren was talking animatedly with his adoptive sister and close friend. I lingered nearby, watching Eren occasionally when me and Marco would drift into silence while we ate. Eren had a bad habit of using his hands wildly in stupid gestures while he spoke and never noticed it much and dismissed that it wasn't much of a problem.
Until he hit a short blonde girl square in the face when he threw his hand back. I don't think I ever saw something escalate so quickly to fight in my entire life; one instance Eren hit the girl in the face and was about to apologize and in the next there was a ring of people around the girl and Eren and they were chanting loudly. I could barely see shit from where I was and after the middle school fights I've been a by-stander to I now enough than to try and strain myself to see what was going on.
After that day, Eren got into more and more fucking fights. He'd accidentally hit some poor passerby, and then they'd automatically want to fight and Eren being the fucking dumb shit he was, he'd get this intense glare and not even back out of the fight, even when his ass was kicked. This asshole was a goddamn mess and I can't believe I have a crush on him.
Only a select few knew the truth of how Eren Jaeger became the highschool rebel; and it was so far into our highschool lives that if we came out about it now, literally no one would believe us. So we all rolled with the literal punches and just let Eren's reputation be known all over the school.
After around the 10th fight Eren got into because of this dumbass reason I started to not really care. Eren was starting to win fights more often than lose and it wasn't really fun hearing about how Eren didn't get his ass kicked. Though I had to admit it was impressive how Eren started out as a pisspoor fist fighter and now was pretty good at throwing punches.
Once Eren actually began to get better at fist fighting, the likely hood of people in engaging Eren into fights was dimmed down considerably, so much so that I rarely heard about it from my friends. Maybe now Eren can go back to having more bark than bite.
Of course, things had to fucking change when Eren got into yet another fight and I ended up not just a bystander.
It started out the usual way. Eren accidentally hitting someone, the other getting offended and then a flurry of fists, grunts and a crowd of onlookers growing. I was much closer to the fight this time; I was walking with Eren and Armin from lunch to our next class and had the unfortunate luck of being in the ring of onlookers. Armin was sighing beside me. The people beside us were ruthless and way too rowdy for another fight that totally didn't happen 20 times prior to this one, just with different people at varying locations.
I couldn't escape this fucking ring even if I tried so I sadly stayed. Luckily Armin wasn't enjoying this much and I felt kinda bad that he literally had to experience this more often than the poor guy should.
I sucked it up for the time being. Couldn’t do anything about it and being a bitch baby right now would be kinda useless since no one could heard my whining.
It was fine and absolutely fucking dandy until I got punched in the face.
According to Armin, the other guy in the fight threw a heavy punch and Eren easily dodged it, but didn't stop the guy from throwing his punch so it landed right on my fucking face. And jesus christ I don't think I'll ever have my glorious nose looking the same ever again.
I would've thrown some punches at the asshole who decimated my nose but it seems like Eren was quicker. He pounced like some sort of fucking wild cat and tackled the guy to the ground and started to pound his face in until he screamed for mercy as the onlookers chanted and whooped in excitement. I don't think I've ever seen Eren so pissed off before. He looked like he was ready to strangle the guy to death.
I didn't remember that I had been socked in the face earlier until Eren got off the guy, kicked him in the side for good measure and went to me, dragging me off to the nurse's. He was spewing out random fucking nonsense as he did so, fuming more than he usually was after a fight. I didn't struggle against his grip and refuse to go to the nurse's office; no point when my nose felt like it was shattered into a million pieces. God did that guy punch hard. I couldn’t believe I forgot about the pain until now. It was throbbing and it was aching and it was fucking hell.
Eren practically busted down the door to the nurse's office and had me sit down on one of the beds. His arm slipped from its tight, bruising grip on my arm and he sat down in a chair next to the bed. One look around the room and I could see that the nurse wasn't there.
"You're a fucking idiot, I hope you know." I piped up, and Eren's death glare at the floor shifted to me, and his eyes softened a fraction.
"You're the one who got punched in the face,"
"Because you ducked out the way." I retorted, and Eren's eyes narrowed. He turned his head away.
"You don't have to wait with me, asshole." I added, bringing a hand up to experimentally prod at my nose. My nose ached and throbbed more at the touch and I drew my hand back, wincing. This was going to be one horrible bruise at minimum.
"Aren't I the reason you're nose got cracked in two and blood is pouring from your nose?" Eren snapped back, arms folding across his chest as he sat back in his chair.
I rolled my eyes. What a fucking child.
"Help me clean up my face, then. I'm not sitting here waiting with dry blood all over my mouth," Eren gave no reply, instead pushing himself up off the chair and scavenging around the room for a towel. He found some paper towels by the sink and wet them before coming back to me, kneeling down in front of me and reaching up to tenderly wipe the blood from my nose.
He stopped once I winced a little.
" 's fine." I mumbled, and he went back to gingerly wiping the blood away. His other hand eventually went up and lightly rested on the side of my face, keeping me still as he did what felt like a piss poor job of mopping up the bloody mess on my face.
Eren moved back and I saw how bloody the towel was, surprised by how the crap brown color it was before was now stained red. Eren stood, got a dry paper towel and returned to dabbing and rubbing my face clean with a concentrated look on his face. I had to be honest. In actuality he looked like he was straining to shit.
He pulled back away from me for the last time. His free hand that rested on my cheek drew back slowly, his fingertips grazing along my cheekbones. I bit my lip.
"Am I ready to model a cover for Vogue?" I asked teasingly, giving a small smirk. Eren rolled his eyes and stood, throwing the paper towel wad into the closest waste basket and missing terribly.
"If bruises were suddenly fashionable. And having a horse face,"
"Oh fuck you, Eren."
"Speaking the truth, Jean."
A silence built up between us and I looked down at my lap and at my hands, curled into fists.
"You didn't have to help me," I spoke up after a few moments.
"I'm not that big of an asshole. Like you said, and keep forgetting, I'm the reason this happened."
"But I-"
"Shut up. I feel bad for trashing your pretty face and you're making it worse."
I lifted my head and looked at Eren, cocking an eyebrow and my smirk returned.
"You think I'm pretty?" I said teasingly, batting my eyelashes.