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Eren was late. Again.
Not surprising, considering Armin did not remember a singular instance he had seen Eren Jeager on time to anything in his life, but frustrating nonetheless. He had been waiting on the sofa in his living room since just about five minutes past six - Eren had said he would pick him up on the hour, and even after Armin had gotten ready late to try and compensate for his chronic lateness, it still had not worked - and it had been fifteen minutes since then. Armin knew this, because the constant ticking of his grandfather's old clock had long ago faded into background noise, and that never happened unless he was stuck in the living room for a long time.
He let out a rough sigh, glancing at the front door in a way that edged on irritability, then back down again at his phone. A man could only play so much Pac Man before he began to lose his mind. It didn't help that he had been underlyingly anxious all day each time he remembered that he was going on a date. With Eren Jeager of all people; his best friend of nearly fifteen years. At least, if he could get the waiting over with, he could focus on not actively fucking up the whole evening for them instead of slowly marinating in the dread and panic of what would happen if he did end up ruining everything.
He wouldn't. It was literally fine; both their standards of perfection were so pitifully low that Armin could probably throw up at Eren's feet and they would both still consider it a win. But the looming threat was still there.
'Get it together, Armin,' he chided himself. He was teetering dangerously on the edge of overreacting, and that was not something he wanted to deal with right then.
Luckily for him, he was saved by the bell. The doorbell, that was. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, when Armin rushed to yank open the front door, it was Eren standing there on his porch.
"Hey," Eren said, having at least the good grace to look a little bit embarrassed, "Sorry I'm late. Traffic was hell."
Traffic was always hell, apparently. The hellishness of the traffic was the most common obstacle between Eren and timely arrival. Armin had learned by now to take it in stride, but this time he was a little pissed. He had been the one to ask Armin on the date after all.
"You owe me dinner," Armin replied, reaching for a coat of his own off his granddad's wall rack, "I could have made myself ramen or something in the time it took you to get here, and I'm starving."
"Fair enough," Eren replied, a hint of an unapologetic smirk on his face, which…yeah, sounded about right.
Eren slung an arm around Armin's shoulders as they headed back down the driveway, and Armin felt a bit of that perpetual dread seep away. This was normal. Familiar. He could almost convince himself they were just out for a walk; two friends hanging out and nothing more.
They rounded the corner of the garage that blocked the driveway, and Armin stopped dead.
"You did not bring the bike."
Eren raised a brow at him, "Yeah? I was running late after practice, and it's faster."
Armin got the sudden, all consuming urge to throttle him. Make himself a murderer right here in his own driveway. This asshole. "You know I hate the bike," he gritted.
There was a moment where that seemed to fully sink in before Eren paled just a bit, confusion melting to what looked like real concern on his face.
"Shit," he said, "Shit, you're right, I'm sorry. I completely forgot."
'Clearly,' he wanted to say, but his friend did truly look apologetic that he hadn't taken that into account, and it did weird things to Armin's heart that made him far more willing to let it go than he might have.
"It's whatever," he ended up sighing, waving his hand dismissively, "I'll get over it. C'mon."
Eren handed him the spare helmet as they both got on the bike, giving Armin a moment of disgust as he did his best to not think about how many other people had worn this helmet before him. He put it on anyway, but he didn't like it.
Just before Eren slid his own over his head, he turned back around, an odd sort of expression on his face.
"By the way, Armin?" He said, and Armin didn't miss the way his gaze flitted up and down his body just once, "You look good."
Armin immediately felt his face heat and he tried to stamp it down, "Uh…Thanks."
Armin did survive the trip on the motorcycle, despite his brain's constantly assuring him that they would be hit by a car and killed, or skid out and fall and have all their skin grated off of them like cheese. This was mostly due to the fact that Eren drove uncharacteristically careful, and Armin thought that maybe he really did feel properly bad about forgetting how much Armin hated being in any vehicle with less than four walls around him. Not only that, but he was…nervous maybe? Tense in a way that Armin wasn't used to seeing. Eren was his cool, laid back, unfazed friend; he didn't get nervous. At least not about stuff like this.
There was, of course, the possibility that he too was as anxious about this whole date thing as Armin was, but that was equally unlikely. He had seen Eren go on dozens of first dates before in the two years of their college career thus far and never once had he been worried about any of those. Why start now?
They ended up grabbing takeout from the Mexican place down the road from Armin's grandad's house that they both liked, with the promise that the reason they weren't sitting in was because Eren was going to take him to the park to eat and then to the nearby planetarium afterward. Somehow that made the weird feeling in Armin's chest well up again. A sort of buzz that started in his stomach and bled up into his cheeks. Oh, hell. If he was blushing over this, Armin was going to go find a wall and bash his head in. It was just so damn considerate.
"Y'know," Armin started, nudging Eren's shoulder with his as they waited for their food to be ready, "This is, like, really sweet and well thought out of you."
Eren turned his head to look at him, "Yeah?" He asked, with the audacity to look a little surprised.
Armin shrugged, not moving away so that their arms were still pressed close against each other, "Yeah," he replied, then he smiled, glancing at Eren out of the corner of his eye, "How much help did you get from Mikasa?"
Eren lurched around to face Armin, the clear affront on his face forcing Armin to stamp down a laugh behind his teeth.
"I can figure out a date on my own, you know," Eren grumbled, "I've done it a few times after all."
"Right," Armin snickered.
Eren rolled his eyes, settling back beside him again, "More than you at least."
Armin gaped at him, a displeased huff escaping his lips, but he…well, he really didn't have anything to say to that, so he kept silent. He heard Eren laugh beside him, before an arm came around his shoulders with a light squeeze.
"You really like it?" Eren asked after a beat or two of silence. Just long enough for Armin to start to realise he really could get used to this newfound closeness that was happening between the two of them right now.
He meant the date, but Armin did not really feel like poking fun at him for not specifying, so he just nodded, "I mean, I'll decide once we actually do the stuff you said we were gonna do, but yeah. It's really nice so far."
"Cool," Eren replied, and Armin could hear the smile in his voice.
It was perfect timing, really, because their food was ready just a few moments later. Armin grabbed their two bags while Eren fished around in his pockets for his wallet. He was just thinking about how fan-fucking-tastic it was going to be to tear into the tacos he'd ordered when there was a long, shrill beep from the register.
'Card Declined,' the little screen read, and Eren scowled at the thing like it had personally offended him, which, in a way maybe it sort of had.
Armin set the food back on the counter and went for his own wallet attached to the chain around his belt, "I've got it-"
"No," Eren stopped him immediately. He pulled his card out of the reader and slid it back in again, "It's fine. Probably just a bad scan."
'Card Declined.'
Eren cursed under his breath. The poor young woman behind the counter was beginning to look increasingly worried as he tried once more, then pulled his phone from his pocket to check something Armin couldn't see.
Armin pulled a few bills from his wallet and reached to put a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Look, it's alright. Let me just-"
Eren shook his head, "No way. I've got it, it's just-"
Whatever he had been looking for on his phone was clearly nowhere to be found, because he trailed off in an even deeper frown and muttered something about stupid roommates that Armin didn't quite catch.
"Shit," he cursed, "one of the guys swapped out my card. This," Eren waved the square of plastic between them, "is my old one."
Somehow, Armin was not surprised. He was not friends with Eren Jeager for his diligence for detail, so not realising his housemates had played a prank on him right before a date? Yep, that was on brand.
What was surprising, however, was the way that there was not a single scrap of irritation in his body to be found in his body. Not one. In fact, Armin was deeply embarrassed to realised he was, in fact, closer to being endeared by it than anything. Well, fuck. This sort of shit usually pissed the hell out of him when it was anyone else, and, yeah, he was self aware. He knew he was into his friend and had been harbouring his own set of particular feelings for Eren for the better part of eight years, but he didn't think he was down this bad. Come on.
"I'll get it, okay?" He said, already stepping up to the counter and handing over the money before Eren could argue.
"But-"
"It's fine, Eren," Armin assured him, "You got the next one, okay?"
"Okay," Eren nodded, still not looking entirely pleased, but resigned anyhow. He grabbed the two paper bags of their food just before an odd flicker of something crossed over his face, and he tilted his head toward Armin, "The next one?"
Oh. He had said that hadn't he? At this point, Armin had given up trying to stamp down the buzzing, thrumming in his veins and the way his face felt hot again. Could a guy really be blamed for having a bit of a crush?
"I-" He started, pushing open the restaurant door as they headed back to Eren's bike. He coughed awkwardly, "The next- I mean if you want."
Armin turned around, both to take the helmet from Eren and force himself to see what sort of reaction he was working with, and was surprised to find a mix of excitement and anticipation there on Eren's face. Fuck.
"I might take you up on that offer," he said, in a way that implied he absolutely would be taking Armin up on that offer.
"Cool. That's cool," replied Armin more than a bit breathlessly. It was embarrassing as shit. He was certain that being in love with someone had to have been on the list of top ten cruelest humiliation rituals of all time, because this was such bullshit.
Eren laughed, slotting his helmet over his head before stepping over his bike and kicking back the kickstand. He offered Armin a hand that he really did not need in order to get on behind him, but he took it anyway because he was, at the end of the day, a weak man, and would take any excuse he could get just to touch Eren.
Which is why Armin did not complain when the offered had turned into his arms wrapped securely around Eren's waist as they shot down the road. It was for safety, he reasoned, and he was on a date after all. This wasn't just another of their usual hangouts while Mikasa was busy with school or work. Anyway, a little self indulgence never hurt anyone.
Self indulgence was about the last of the universe's good graces that he got, however, seeing as the rest of the night they seemed to run into every micro-issue it was possible for a person to accumulate. Armin got sick on the ride between the restaurant and the park, which was not altogether surprising (his penchant for motion sickness was part of the reason he hated the bike), but did result in one valiant tree stump sacrificing its life to be the final resting place of what remained in his stomach of the chips and Dr. Pepper he'd eaten earlier. Eren had looked sufficiently cowed after that, and had insisted he would call Jean to bring the car for them and take the bike back, which was nice of him except for the fact that it made Armin feel horribly guilty that Jean had to get dragged into this too.
The rest were relatively trivial things. Eren sat in bird shit that had blended in to the dark paint of the park bench (this at least had been more amusing than anything), Armin had tripped in the dark and nearly stomped hard on his glasses when they fell of his face, resulting in bent frames that sat weird on his nose, and just a slowly rising pile of inconveniences that Armin was trying his level best to have a good spirit about.
It seemed like it was getting to Eren though. Armin saw they way his fists were clenched on the wheel, and sometimes he caught the deep furrow in his brow before he noticed Armin looking and purposefully schooled his features again.
He tried his best to cut the tension that was growing thicker and nastier by the second.
"Did you know there's a word for when things get too close to a black hole and it gets all stretched out and pressed and stuff?"
So, not his best work, but they were going to see the planetarium's black hole exhibit after all, so perhaps not entirely out of the blue?
It got a reaction out of Eren at least. He tilted his head just a fraction to the side to show he was listening, "Yeah? What is it?"
Armin eased back into the passenger seat, relieved to have something to occupy the silence.
"Spaghettification," he said around a smile, "How's that for an official, scientific term?"
Eren huffed a laugh, at last taking one hand off the wheel to rest it lazily against the windowsill, “Scientists are weird,” he said, “and no one ever talks about that.”
"They don't want anyone catching on to them," Armin replied, "it would ruin the whole vibe they have going. No one can know about Spaghettification and the Sonic Hedgehog protein."
“What?” Eren glanced towards him incredulously for a moment before seeming to remember he was driving and turning back to the road. “That’s not real.”
“It’s super real,” Armin nodded, “It has spikes on it that look like a hedgehog, so,” he spread out his hands in a ‘Whatcha gonna go?’ motion, “Sonic the Hedgehog.”
“Wow.”
“I mean there’s more to it obviously,” Armin went on, pulling one leg up onto the set to tuck under his knee, “But that’s the gist.”
Eren bobbed his head slowly, “Huh. Fucking wild.”
“Fucking wild,” Armin agreed.
A lull came over them after that, nothing but the hum of the car and the sound of cars around them on the road to fill the silence. Armin picked at his jeans, rolling the ball of the piercing on his tongue in his mouth as he tried to come up with another conversation topic, but Eren beat him to it.
“Hey,” he said, with that unassured, hesitant edge to his voice that Armin had heard more of in this one evening than he ever had before, “You’re having a good time, right?”
“Huh?”
The question was so strange and out of the blue, it took Armin a few seconds to answer. Was he having a good time? What sort of question was that?
“I mean, yeah,” he said, “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Eren’s eyes did not leave the road, but Armin saw the flicker of something like worry in his eyes, and chewed anxiously at his bottom lip. “Well, I mean, it’s been kind of a shitty evening so far, hasn’t it?” He asked.
He said it like it was true, as if it were an invariable fact, but Armin thought it couldn’t be further from it. Sure, vomiting outside a park entrance and losing his tortilla scraps to a crow were hardly the most glamorous activities to get up to on a Friday night, but what did he care? They had gotten up to far more embarrassing shit in the past. This was a bit of a standard trip for them, when you thought about it, and if anything, the familiarity of it made things better.
He tried to tell Eren that. It only seemed to work a little bit.
“I’m gonna make it up to you, okay?” Eren said as they pulled into the Planetarium parking lot.
He didn’t need to, and if Armin was braver, he might have said that. Instead he offered a smile and took Eren’s hand when he offered it after they parked and were heading inside.
He had to admit, it did take him a moment to fully realise the significance of the fact that he was here, in this public space, holding hands with his childhood friend who he had been in love with for literal years. His brain needed time to catch up, but when it did, he felt hyper aware of callused skin against his own, and the heat of Eren’s palm pressed against his. People could see it when they walked past, surely. Did they think they were dating? Were they dating? This was only one date, but you never knew with Eren Jaeger. But he couldn’t take the time to think about that or he might really explode, and he would prefer not to do that at least until after they had seen the black hole presentation.
“Armin?”
“Shit,” Armin started, jumping despite himself when Eren called his name, “Sorry. What?”
Eren frowned, “You good? You were zoned out there for a second.”
“Fine,” Armin rasped, then cleared his throat and tried again, “I’m fine, yeah. Just…distracted.”
“If you say so,” Eren neither looked nor sounded convinced, but that was simply not Armin’s problem. He allowed himself to be tugged forward.
“Come on,” Eren urged, “The presentation is this way and I don’t see anyone there yet. We can get good seats.”
It was a good plan. A great plan, really. Armin felt the beginnings of anticipation propel him forward, thrilled at the idea of getting front row seats and possibly even being one of the first to have a look through the massive telescopes sported by this Planetarium specifically. Along with it came the reminder that Eren had planned this all out for them. Eren, who hated this sort of “nerd shit” as he called it, and had to be dragged by Mikasa to the last science expo she and Armin had wanted to visit, had gone out of his way to take them to a planetarium simply because he knew Armin would like it.
It was infuriating the effect that realisation had on him. Like an electric shock down his spine, he felt his heart stumble and then pick up again at double the pace. He actually faltered in his step for a moment, staring at Eren like he was seeing him for the first time before very quickly composing himself so he didn’t do something humiliating like kiss him in front of everyone in this hallway.
The only problem was that it was becoming increasingly clear why there were so few people this close to the time of the exhibit presentation.
There was a paper sign on the door, one with big red lettering that made Armin’s stomach drop. He couldn’t make out what it was from afar, but as they drew closer, the words grew clearer and clearer.
“What the hell?” He heard Eren mutter.
He relinquished Armin’s hand to hurry forward, reading aloud the words on the sign.
“Closed?” He gaped, “What do you mean, ‘Technical Malfunction’? It’s the fucking sky!”
Armin reread the sign twice to really be sure. ‘Exhibit Closed Due To Technical Malfunction. We Apologize For The Inconvenience’. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed.
Eren, however, was fuming. Armin could practically see the smoke coming from his ears as he shoved off the door and paced a few feet away before coming back. He was pissed. Disproportionately pissed Armin thought, considering he couldn’t possibly have been that excited about the exhibit in the first place, but who was he to judge?
He put his hands up, shrugging and tried to seem as unbothered by the whole thing as possible through the lingering disappointment in his gut, “Hey,” he said, “it’s fine. We can always come back another time.”
Eren stared at him as if searching his face for something, “You’re just saying that.”
“I’m not!” And he really wasn’t. Yeah, it was a bummer, but they really could just come back when it was fixed. Maybe for a do-over, round two date.
Eren, apparently, wasn’t having that. “You’re disappointed,” he said matter-of-factly.
Armin blinked, “Well, yeah, but-”
Eren stalked away before Armin could finish, “Shit!” He exclaimed in a voice that was certainly too loud for a family friendly area. Before Armin could tell him this, he whirled around.
“I’m going outside.”
“I- What?”
“I said I’m going outside, Armin.” Eren snapped, bringing Armin to a dead stop where he was.
He didn’t wait for a reply, instead brushing back through the thin crowd before Armin could catch up. It took him a few moments to process what had just happened, and in that time, he thought back to every moment that had gone wrong over the course of the evening. Eren being late, the bike, the swapped card, the scattered incidents that had accumulated. They all came flashing back like the world’s most unpleasant slideshow, making him wince subconsciously to himself. Talk about a hell of a first date.
‘I’m gonna make it up to you, okay?’
Oh.
It hit Armin all at once why Eren had freaked out like he had. He had spent so much of the evening assuming that his friend was cool and unshakable, with nary a care in the world to worry about, when this whole time it had been the opposite. Eren had been stressing about this whole thing just as much as Armin had, and if he had to guess, it sort of all just came to a head here at the exhibit. The proverbial straw that broke the camel. He felt a pang of sympathy, as well as a bit of shame for not noticing sooner. It was a lame ass thing to not notice.
Which meant it was Armin’s turn to make it up to Eren.
He stopped at the little souvenir shop on his way out and grabbed an ice cream cone and a can of soda that was decorated in fancy space designs. Probably some sort of collector’s item, Armin didn’t know, but he brought them both with him as he scanned the sidewalk and then the parking lot for Eren.
He found him sitting on the hood of his car and looking just about as sullen as he could possibly be. Armin’s first thought was to tease him about it, but he thought he might really get smacked if he did. Instead, he stopped beside him and leaned on his hip against the car before wordlessly offering him the soda.
“I had fun,” he said, peeling off the paper wrapping of his ice cream.
Eren grimaced, "You don’t have to lie to save my ego.”
"I'm not," Armin replied earnestly, "I'd never. You know that."
He picked away at his overpriced ice cream in silence while Eren looked down at his soda can and perhaps thought of drinking some, but inevitably did not.
Instead, the next words out of his mouth were, "I'm sorry."
Armin turned to look at him in surprise. Eren apologizing for something was just about as rare as anything could be, especially when he sounded this sincere about it.
"It's…fine?" Armin replied, not exactly sure how to respond. It wasn't as if he were terribly upset about how the evening had gone. The sun had just finished setting, and he could at least say he had gotten a good meal and a look at some of the other displays at the Planetarium that they passed. And a five dollar drumstick ice cream cone, which was an…experience, if not an absolute positive.
Eren clearly did not see it that way. "I really was trying to make things go well," he admitted, "First date and all."
Armin tilted his head curiously, taking another bit of his ice cream, "You've been on plenty of those before."
Eren let out a breathy, 'Ha,', leaning forward onto his knees, "Yeah, I guess, but…" he trailed off, looking at Armin out of the corner of his eye, "It's stupid. But I was kind of trying to impress you."
Armin laughed. He tried not to but he couldn't help it. The concept of Eren wanting to go out of his way to impress him was just so funny for some inexplicable reason. He was, however, quick to curb his outburst and cover it up with a cough behind his hand that earned him nothing but a deeply unamused look from his friend.
"Are you done?" Eren asked flatly.
Armin cleared his throat and nodded, "Ah, yeah. Sorry. You didn't have to impress me though. We've known each other since we were kids; if I wasn't impressed by you, you would have known ages ago."
Eren seemed to consider this, "Yeah I guess you're right."
Armin hummed affirmingly and, after a moment's hesitation, let his shoulder rest against Eren's. He felt Eren lean back into it just a fraction, causing a knot of something warm to ball up in his chest.
"I really did have a good time," he said quietly.
"Armin."
"I did!" It was true. At the end of the day, Armin really just liked being around Eren, no matter how that looked. Even if it had been rocky as hell and things hadn't gone perfect, all things considered, it had been fun. "Okay, it was kind of shitty at a lot of parts," he relented when Eren raised an eyebrow at him, "But it was not as shitty as you're obviously thinking, I swear."
Eren sighed, hanging his head between his shoulders, "I'll take it."
"I might even be persuaded to go on another with you if you're nice."
That got his attention. "Yeah?" Eren asked.
Armin gave him a look, "Maybe. You'd have to be really persuasive though, just so you know."
He was begging Eren to pick up on what he was giving out, because Armin was not about to ask outright. He dared to lean into lean just a bit further into the other's side, and when he saw Eren's eyes darken an almost imperceptible amount, he only just stopped himself from cheering aloud.
"I'll leave the bike behind," he said, almost a whisper into the ever narrowing space between them.
"Good start."
"And," Eren continued as he brought a hand to just barely brush at the underside of Armin's jaw, making him shiver, "I'll leave fifteen minutes early so I pick you up on time."
"Ten is fine," Armin breathed, growing ever more distracted the closer Eren got.
"Ten then," Eren murmured, "And I'll double check my card before I leave." They were so close now, Armin could feel the brush of his breath on his lips and still he wished they were closer.
"Deal?" Eren asked.
He could have asked for anything - his kidney, his firstborn, his soul to sacrifice to a demon - and Armin would have been too high off the nearness of him and the way Eren's fingers felt at the nape of his neck to tell him no. He nodded absently, "Deal."
Then they were kissing, and if Armin wasn't gone already he would have been now.
It was gentle, the way Eren kissed him. Deep, and slower than he had expected, as if this unhurried press of lips were the only thing he wanted. That buzz in his chest that Armin had been fighting back all evening returned in full force as he reached up to wind one hand into Eren's hair and pull closer so that he was nearly on top of the car along with him. He could almost feel invisible strings tugging them together, even as Eren pulled back, breathing softly into the sliver of space left between their mouths.
He was going to say something, but Armin could not think of anything he would rather be doing less than talking just then, so he made quick work of drawing Eren back in, this time with more desperation than before. They were in public. People would see them. But, fuck, he had wanted this for so long. He wasn't about to stop now.
And Eren seemed to be content with going right along with that. Armin heard the muffled groan against his lips before Eren leaned in again and kissed him with an enthusiasm that had Armin melting against him.
They would talk about it eventually. They would sort of have to after all, with Armin's insistence on clear boundaries and communication, but that was low on his priority list right about then. He was content to let himself be kissed, and think about responsible things later. It had taken them no small amount of issue to get here, of course, but that was fine. No more motion sickness, no wayward bird droppings, no cards declining. As far as Armin was concerned, this, here and now, was pretty damn perfect.