'Not again.' Armin thought. 'This isn't helping.'
His blond hair was tousled, fingers running through the golden strands almost in time with the clock as it struck five past eleven. The lamp was turned on beside him on his desk that was scattered with papers, balled up and tossed aside, crumpled and covered in messy scribbled handwriting. The letters merged into each other, familiar words became a foreign language and sentences ran on until they made no sense.
Armin pushed his thin black framed glasses up his nose as they inched down, his tired blue eyes lazily moving across the page he had laid in front of him. The bright green ink was beginning to blend into the page as he read on, his writing blurring as the clock ticked in the background. He reached for his pen, only to groan and roll his shoulders. He had been slumping in his chair for a good five hours and that was without breaks, trying to finish the many assignments he had to hand in the following few days. His muscles ached, a burn across his shoulder blades and up his neck.
He huffed, leaning forward and snatching his pen up. He scrawled something below a paragraph he had crossed out, his usual fluid writing being replaced with something far less appealing. He heard the bedroom door open, resisting the urge to turn around, and pushed himself forward so he was leaning on his elbows, putting more pressure on the pen than was needed, ink bleeding and smudging. He arched his back, the ache falling downwards, rolling his shoulders once more. He should have taken more breaks.
He heard the door click shut, finally giving into his unnecessary curiosity and turning around to see who had come in. Armin heard his neck creak, a small twinge at the base, and he hissed through his teeth. Not to his surprise, his roommate Eren was midway through taking his boots off, having stopped when he heard the noise Armin made.
There was a silence between them, neither of them saying a word to each other, and the eye contact they held made Armin's stomach flutter. He blushed, reverting his eyes to the floor. He hesitated before turning back to his work, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Are you still doing your biology assignment?" Eren's voice was rough from the late shift he had worked. It made Armin's breath catch in his throat.
Armin shook his head, cringing at the gripping pain that struck him in his stomach. It was only a matter of time before those started. "Environmental science."
The pain subsided and he took a deep breath, soft as to make sure Eren didn't hear. He tried rewriting the paragraph he had crossed out, scratching out words he thought didn't fit or weren't impressive enough for his pretentious professor. Another pain hit him, this time leaving him trying to catch his breath, and he let his pen clatter onto the oak desk that his grandfather had gifted him when he moved out. He heard the bottom bunk of the bed squeak and footsteps behind him, then a cold hand on his shoulder.
"Are you okay, Armin?"
Armin nodded, turning to see Eren crouched next to him. "F-Fine. Just-" he glanced at the papers on his desk. "Fine. Tired, s'all."
Eren frowned. Many times they had both stayed up late watching crappy movies that they'd rented from the old video rental a few blocks away, and never had Armin had such a reaction to tiredness before. Eren followed Armin's gaze to the papers on the desk, untidy piles and creased edges, an open textbook abandoned under a sea of notes and rewritten essays. Post-Its that didn't belong stuck to pages, reminders of subjects and quotes, citations and references.
When Eren didn't move, Armin exhaled heavily, resting his forehead against the desk. "I have three more assignments to do and I still haven't finished this one." Just remembering the timeframe and amount of work he had to do sent his stomach tightening again. "My back hurts but I'll be okay."
Armin pushed his chair out, leaning back. He couldn't afford to slack on even one of those assignments; he wasn't like Eren, who could leave things to the last minute and get a reasonably good score despite it. Unlike Eren, he wasn't that lucky, and the last time he had accidentally slacked on an assignment his score suffered; not as much as he could have suffered, at least he did get a score, but enough for him to be admitted into A&E because Connie mistook his panic attack for an allergic reaction.
Eren cleared his throat. "Uh… do you… well I mean… I could give you a massage?" Armin heard a certain hesitation, one rare enough for Armin to have only heard it once before, when they were younger and Eren had suggested they travel the world together. That hesitation when Eren wasn't sure what answer he would get; a nervous hesitation. Armin hadn't realised he had started to blankly stare at him until he heard him speak again. "That's if you're comfortable with that."
Armin laughed, taking off his glasses. "You're my best friend, Eren. Why wouldn't I be?" He rose from his chair, his calves tensing from sitting and not moving them for so long. The hand that had been on his shoulder fell, Eren pushing himself up to stand.
Armin was a little breathless as he sat down on the bottom bunk, replaying the offer over and over again in his mind. His friend would do nice things for him when they were younger, opening bottles he couldn't and trying to scare off his bullies while they were in school, but ever since he turned fifteen things had been different. The offers made him smile, Eren would take his breath away with such nice gestures that had been the norm since they were tiny, and he was blushing at every compliment his friend was giving him. Jean, a student he shared one of his classes with, had called it a 'childish crush'. Armin disagreed; he wouldn't be crushing on his best friend.
Eren started by rubbing the middle of Armin's back, which earned him a contented sigh from the blond. His hands travelled upwards over the top of the light blue jumper, Armin leaning into the firm touches of his fingers, working on loosening the knots in the muscles on his back. The younger boy's head leaned to the side every other moment before he collected himself and sat up straight, the brunet feeling him tense. Eren reached his shoulder blades and used his palm to knead there, the other boy humming gently.
"You know, you're the only one I trust to do this."
Armin was tired, he had been up since six that morning wanting to get a headstart on his assignments before he went out to meet Annie for lunch (whom he had been trying to coax for a good half a year to do so), Eren doubted he was even realising what he was saying. Of course he trusted him, they were best friend, but he doubted he wouldn't trust anyone else to only massage his back for him. He pulled his hands away from Armin's back.
"Maybe you should… lay down." At that, Armin turned his head to give Eren a confused look. The brunet was quick to make himself clearer, a faint dusting of pink on his cheeks. "You've been slouching all day. It might be better if you laid down, to stop putting strain on your back?"
Armin nodded, turning with a blush on his cheeks too. He moved so he was laying on his stomach, resting the side of his head on Eren's pillow, the smell of his patchouli and sandalwood body wash faint on the navy blue and white checked fabric. He felt the brunet's hands return, on his calves instead of his back, and he squeaked in surprise. Armin relaxed after the initial shock, which Eren found okay to chuckle at, closing his eyes and focusing on how the aching was fading. His head was foggy, clouding over the worries he had, and now that his eyes were closed he didn't want to open them.
"Mmm, Eren," Armin said, his words slurring, making Eren pause. "Tell me about your shift."
That started Eren off rambling, not just about his job but the customers he encountered, and soon all Eren's words became noise to Armin. Despite all the changes between them that had occurred during their teenage years and the new feelings that developed, the brunet's soothing voice relaxing the blond was something that had always been the same. Armin fell asleep to Eren's voice, forgetting all about how he should have been worrying about his deadline, drifting off into an empty slumber.