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It was a late afternoon after school and Eren found himself in Mikasa's bedroom. He was in his usual spot on her bed, resting against her headboard while she was sitting against the wall to his left. Her legs were draped over his to accommodate how tall he was on her too-small bed. She glanced over to make sure that her bedroom door was at least three inches open. If her parents noticed the door closed any further she would lose the little bit of privacy she had with Eren in this room.
Eren struggled to concentrate in the pure silence. He kept losing focus to stare at her newest band posters. He recalled the conversation they had over winter break about her top Spotify artists and how she was going to replace some outdated interests with new ones. He took particular interest in a cool piece with the Deftones on it.
Mikasa was trying her hardest to follow the line of her English homework but kept catching herself looking over at Eren and thinking about how good he looked with his hair growing out. He’d started growing it out over the summer—he said it was about time he stopped having his mother cut it for him. He was a grown boy after all.
She had no idea why that meant growing it long—she suspected it was because Carla liked it short. It barely brushed past his shoulders—not long enough for all of it to go in a hair tie so some of it fell out around his neck and face.
She noticed how much more his jawline defined the outline of his face. His eyes were sharper. Her fingers gripped the pages of her notebook tighter.
When the actual fuck did he start filling out the school uniform so well?
Eren—as if sensing her watching him-—looked at her and she quickly looked back at her homework. “Something catch your eye, Miks?”
“Just this poetic iambic pentameter.”
He grinned and sat up straighter from his leaning spot against her headboard, “I don’t understand a word you just said.”
She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, “It honestly doesn’t surprise me that you’ve been in this class for 8 weeks and still don’t know the foundations of basic poetry.”
“Who the fuck cares about poetry?” he said, “I’m never going to use any of this again.” He waved a hand dismissively.
Mikasa grabbed his red, class-assigned paper notebook specifically for their poetry assignment and turned it open to the first page. Eren quickly picked up on what she was about to do and tried to reach for it but it was too late. She blocked his attempt by turning her body away from him and started to read his work out loud.
“Stay with me as we cross the empty skies, come sail with me, we play in dreams, as we cross the space and time-“ Mikasa looked back at him with a scowl, “Eren, you can’t just quote a Deftones song and turn that in.”
Eren groaned and slumped back against the headboard, “I was hoping that our boring English teacher would be old enough to not notice.”
“She is only thirty Eren.”
“That’s practically ancient, Miks.”
She rolled her eyes at him and his dramatic aging of their English teacher, “You can’t submit this Eren. I thought that you knew by now that plagiarism would drop your grade two letters and lead to suspension. Especially after watching Connie get caught.”
“It’s his fault for trying to use Shakespeare in a Shakespeare and poetry class!”
Mikasa pressed her lips together in a line and nodded slowly. She was really trying to keep herself from laughing at him and making the situation worse. She knew that he really struggled in this class from the very start. Their first assignment had been something as simple as a brief warm-up for the class. They had to describe a fruit in a way that wouldn’t normally be used. He had described a pear as “Prickly, pineapple-y, that doesn’t taste better than an apple-y.” She had burst into giggles and promptly gotten them both harsh looks from the teacher. Mikasa always got along well with the English teachers - she was rightfully gloomy after that for a while.
“No, you have to come up with something original.” She said.
Eren huffed and crossed his arms, “If I can’t submit something that really speaks to me, then maybe I just shouldn’t do the assignment at all.”
She shook her head at him, “Cut that shit out—you have lots of strong emotions. This assignment should be easy for you.” Eren glared at her, Mikasa pretended not to notice, “Plus, failing the class means you don’t get to graduate with us in a few months.”
This seemed to reach him, his shoulders dropped and his arms relaxed. They had big plans for the future, him and Mikasa were heading to college together in the fall. Being held back meant she would go by herself. In his head, it meant that she would build a life without him in a different place and forget all about him and move on.
He already had a C-minus in the class which meant he had no room to fail.
Mikasa wanted to help him, Eren might be hopeless for this class but she didn't want to see him struggle through it again. She thought back to his earlier statement about writing about something that inspires him. Maybe if she got him to admit out loud what that might be, it would be a building block for using it to create his poem.
“Think of something that would help you come up with a strong emotion.” She said as a way to help him out. It was almost less than five seconds before he responded.
“You.”
Mikasa blushed at his suggestion and looked away. He moved back up toward her and she felt the room rise in temperature when his fingers brushed the hair away from her face. Her eyes looked back at him and her heart skipped a beat.
“Let’s focus on this poetry assignment-“
Eren’s face fell. She softened a little and remembered something that helped her brother get his math homework done when he kept complaining about not wanting to do it.
“How about this—I’ll set a timer for 45 minutes. You write whatever comes to mind and read it out loud when the timer ends. If you complete at least three stanzas I’ll give you a reward.”
Eren perked back up - visibly interested in this new mystery offer.
“What kinda reward?”
She thought for a second of something that would benefit them both. It didn’t take her long to come up with something she was certain was the perfect reward. She tilted her head slightly and grinned, “I will let you kiss me for the length of five songs on my playlist.”
In a beat he scrambled to pull his notebook back into his lap, “Hell yeah baby, you know me so well.”
She laughed at his sudden enthusiasm, warmth blooming in her chest. It always felt like bubbles popping against her skin when he used pet names for her. The first time he’d called her babe—after a movie night with their friends—she’d nearly melted on the spot. He’d leaned in close, voice low and teasing, “My girl likes pet names, huh?”
Her face had burned then just like it did now.
“Any chance we could modify it by using my playlist?” Eren asked.
“No.”
“But what if-“
“I’ll revoke a song if you keep talking.” She cut in before he finished. Eren shut right up and even did a little motion with his fingers zipping his mouth closed. She grabbed her phone and started a timer. Her focus went back to her own homework, but after 10 minutes she couldn’t help but notice how honed in Eren was on this poem.
His brows were furrowed and mouth drawn. He looked like he was trying to solve some deep theological questions of the universe. Mikasa heard his pencil scratch across the page and occasionally heard him crossing things out. Her curiosity was distracting her so much she read the same line of her poem three times before realizing she has no idea what the words meant.
Eventually the timer went off and Eren let out a deep breath.
“You okay over there Shakespeare?”
“Just you wait, it’s gonna change your life.”
She raised an eyebrow at her boyfriend's confident remark, “Consider me ready for change.”
He sat up straighter and his hand ran through the hair loosely tied up at the back of his head which caused a few more pieces of hair to fall out to frame his face. Mikasa closed her notebook and arranged herself on the bed so she faced him. Her gaze caught a slight red blush spread across his cheeks and the sound of a pencil tapping against his jeans fills the space.
She realized that maybe his confident quip might be a cover up for feeling nervous. Before she could say anything to him he started reading off his piece of paper.
“I hate being told what to do, when to sit and to move, and when I can leave. They say freedom is later, after I become someone acceptable. Sometimes I’d rather break everything than be good at it.”
Mikasa knew that this would be rough for Eren, but she was almost certain he was going to end up doing summer school.
“But there is one place where the noise stops and I don’t feel caged. You make me feel like you’ve already decided I’m worth dealing with.” His voice had dropped and he took a brief pause before continuing. He hadn’t looked up from his paper once so he didn’t notice how Mikasa almost lost her cool composure after that last line. She realized that he hadn’t put feelings into words like this before and she was the reason he was trying.
Her chest felt tight and the way his lips formed over the words made her want to reach out and pull his face towards hers.
“Your hands are warm and make me feel like I’m not disappearing, maybe freedom isn’t found in the world around me, but in the person that makes me feel free just being a part of theirs.” Eren finished and looked up at Mikasa, bracing for her reaction.
“Um, Miks? Are you ok?”
She nodded slowly, words were failing her right now.
“Okay, cause the way you are looking at me right now I’m not sure.”
Mikasa tossed her homework off the bed and grabbed his book out of his hands to throw it off to the ground. Eren was struggling to figure out what he said to trigger his girlfriend to act so strangely.
“Mikasa I-“
“Did you write those lines about me?”
Eren visibly flushed and his hand rubbed the back of his neck, “Um, yeah.”
Mikasa moved quickly to straddle his legs and sat herself in his lap. Her face was close to his, his eyes were wide.
“I’m so honored that you feel that way about me. You make my life feel so full of color. No one saw the real me until you did. And if no one else ever made you feel like you were enough at first glance—just know that there was a girl back then who did. From the very first one.”
Eren’s hand reached up and cupped the side of her face, “You’re talking like you aren’t going to stick around. You’re it for me baby.”
Mikasa leaned into his hand and brought her hand up to cover his, “Gotta make sure, I still have a ring finger that happens to be missing an important promise.”
Eren laughed, “As soon as we graduate I’m going to wife you up. I promise.”
Mikasa laughed with him and leaned her forehead against his. She never felt so safe with another person. It was always going to be the two of them.
“So about that reward.”
Mikasa sat back, “I did say five songs, and I’m not skipping a single one.”
Eren exhaled like he’d been holding his breath.
With a quick reach and press of a button her phone started playing music in the background, Eren leaned in first to close the distance. Their lips met and it felt like glitter sparkling in the sun. Nothing existed around her anymore—it was just him and how right it felt.
This time however—it felt like something shifted. Something deeper and more permanent clicked in the air around them.
Her hands found their way into his hair, tugging gently to bring him even closer. Eren made a sound at the back of his throat that made Mikasa feel like she was burning.
She had a feeling that they were going to need more than five songs.