"She looked a little like Coraline's mother. Only…
Only her skin was white as paper.
Only she was taller and thinner.
Only her fingernails were too long, and they never stopped moving, and her dark red fingernails were curved and sharp.
"Coraline?" the woman said. "Is that you?"
And then she turned around. Her eyes were big black buttons."
—Neil Gaiman, Coraline
When Eren finds the door, it's truly an accident. Usually it's not, and he only says that as an excuse, but he really, honestly means it this time. Well, finding the door is an accident, and he definitely doesn't mean what happens afterwards, but going through the door, again and again and again, that wasn't an accident. It's something he'll regret for the rest of his life.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. If you really want to know the whole story, we need to go back, way back, to before there were accidents and doors and regrets.
It starts on the old, dead lawn of an old, dead house.
It's called the Hunter's House, and it's the ugliest thing Eren Jaeger has ever seen. The exterior is the very paragon of dreary, all fading, peeling green paint and lifeless grey-brown grass. The porch stairs creak as the movers stomp up and down them, lugging Levi's favorite armchair and Jean's big desk and Eren's prized bookshelf into the apartment.
Well, he says apartment.
The house used to be very large. It was owned by some rich man who raised his family out here, until an accident forced him to move closer to town. The house was split into three apartments: one in the attic, one in the cellar, and one—the one where Eren now lives, actually—in the main portion of the house. The man's son still owns the house, but never sets foot in it lest he be reminded of the tragedy that took place in his youth.
Or so the story goes. It's all very romantic. It would make a good book.
Too bad Eren has writer's block.
The house is set in exactly the location that he normally wishes he could go to. Sparse, scraggly forests surround the area, thickening as they crawl up the side of the lone mountain in the distance. The air is chilly, colder than he's used to, though not cold enough for anything heavier than a light coat and maybe a pair of gloves. Not that he owns gloves.
Jean owns gloves. They're made of black leather and lined with soft white cotton, and he's not doing anything except stand there with his arms crossed, fingers tapping against his bicep, but Eren feels as though he's being mocked.
Jean catches him staring and takes out one of his earbuds.
"Where's Levi?" he asks. Eren shrugs.
"Probably supervising the movers," he says. "Do you want to go explore?"
"Explore what?" Jean asks.
"There has to be something out there," Eren says. "In a house this old, there are bound to be secrets."
"You're crazy," Jean says, but he follows Eren into the woods anyway.
They find a path around the back of the house, set with uneven cobblestones and barely worn down at all. The stones are difficult to walk on, so the two forge their own path through the underbrush. Dead leaves and grass and plants crackle and rustle and hiss under their feet as they're stepped on, a rather novel sound that neither is used to. Back in California, there were rarely dead leaves, even in the winter.
They walk so far and for so long that Jean takes off his gloves and unbuttons his coat, and Eren pulls his jacket off and ties it around his waist. Eventually, they reach a clearing. Eren hops up onto a tree stump and looks back from where they came. The Hunter's House looks small from all the way over here. He didn't realize they had walked so far.
Jean takes his other earbud out and shoves it into his pocket with his phone. He looks around, and pokes at a strange circle of mushrooms he finds in the center of the clearing.
"Eren," he says. "I think there's something here."
"I told you we'd find something," Eren says, joining him. He finds a large branch and pokes at the mud in the center of the circle. It gives slightly, and a muffled sound bounces back at them, like the echo when you knock on a hollow pumpkin.
"What is it?" Jean asks. On the other side of the clearing, something crashes through the trees and falls onto its face. Jean and Eren exchange looks and go to investigate.
The something turns out to be a boy, maybe fourteen or fifteen years old, with chin-length blond hair and wide blue eyes. He lets out an embarrassed laugh when they help him to his feet.
"Thanks," he says, brushing dirt off of his palms. "I always get stuck in the same thicket of bushes when I come out here."
"Why don't you stop coming out here, then?" Jean asks. Eren elbows him lightly in the side, because while he and Levi are immune to Jean's blunt curiosity, most other people aren't. Luckily, the boy appears to be one of the few who is.
"There's always something interesting growing back there," he says. "I like studying plants." Then he shakes his head. "Sorry, I'm being rude. I'm Armin. Armin Arlert."
"Jean Kirschtein, and this idiot is Eren Jaeger," Jean says.
"Hang on," Eren interrupts. "Why does your name sound so familiar?"
"Well, if you live at the Hunter's House you've probably heard it before. My grandfather owns the house," he says. Eren blinks at him.
"You're the grandson? But how old are you?" he asks. Jean elbows him in the side with obvious vindictive pleasure.
"I'm twenty-one," Armin says. "I know I look younger, though."
Jean looks startled. "You're older than me? Dude, I thought you were twelve!"
Armin laughs a bit, though his cheeks flush with embarrassment. "Yeah, I know. At least I probably won't go bald when I get old."
He reaches up to tie his hair back into a messy ponytail. He eyes the branch in Eren's hand.
"You know that's poison oak, right?"
Eren throws the branch at Jean.
"Am I going to die?" Eren squeaks. Jean laughs at him, the bastard. Even Armin cracks a smile.
"I doubt it," he says. "Just put some aloe on it or something. It should clear up before too long."
"Nice," Eren says disgustedly. He glares at his own palm and imagines that he can already see his skin blistering up and turning red. Jean pauses mid-chuckle and pulls out his phone.
"Levi's looking for us," he says, tapping at the screen. "Says the movers are gone and to get our asses down there so we can help him haul boxes and shit."
"Is that a direct quote?" Eren asks.
"Do you have to ask?" Jean replies. Armin looks between then curiously.
"Who's Levi?" he asks. Eren stiffens, and exchanges a wide-eyed look with Jean.
"Hah," Eren says. "That's a good question."
"Well, he lives with us," Jean hedges.
"He has for a while," Eren adds. "We're pretty close."
"So," Armin says, "is he your boyfriend?"
Jean lifts an eyebrow. "Usually people aren't so cool about that," he says.
"Not only are we queer," Eren gasps dramatically, "we're queer and polyamorous."
"Truly the work of the devil," Armin deadpans. Jean squints at him.
"You're not straight either, are you?" he asks, and Eren elbows him hard in the gut, even though he's curious as well. Armin fiddles with the hem of his shirt and gives another awkward laugh, even as Jean gasps for breath.
"It's that obvious?" he asks.
"No," Eren reassures him. "Jean just has really good gaydar."
"Hmm," Armin says. "Well, I'm not exactly out yet, so."
"We won't out you," Eren reassures him. "Will we, Jean?"
"Of course not," Jean wheezes.
"Thank you," Armin sighs. He walks over to the circle of mushrooms and carefully toes at the mud. "By the way, I wouldn't stand too close to the well. It's pretty old, and when it rains the ground gets unstable."
"What well?" Jean asks. He goes to stand by Armin, giving Eren a wide berth. Eren grabs at him playfully as he passes and Jean jerks back, then sticks his tongue out.
Armin wedges the toe of his shoe underneath the mud at the edge of the circle and lifts, revealing a slab of half-rotted wood and a deep, deep well. Eren's eyes go wide.
"This well," Armin says. "It's as old as the house, and very deep. Supposedly, if you fall to the bottom and look up, you'll see a sky full of stars in the middle of the day."
Jean grasps at his chest and looks pained. "I almost died," he says.
"Don't be ridiculous," Eren says. "You probably don't even weigh enough to fall through the wood."
"Nice," Jean says, glaring half-heartedly. His phone vibrates again, this time with a call, and he grimaces down at the screen.
"Levi?" Eren asks. Jean nods.
"Pray for me," he says, accepting the call. He wanders a few feet away but Eren can still hear Levi's angry voice on the other end of the line. He turns to Armin.
"So we should probably go," he says. He thinks about offering his hand, but figures that Armin probably wouldn't appreciate being covered in poison oak. "It was nice meeting you, though."
Armin shoves his hands into his pockets and rocks backwards onto his heels.
"Levi, I cannot believe you'd use that kind of language," Jean says in the background, sounding scandalized.
"It was nice to meet you, too," Armin says. "I'll see you around, probably. If you see me wandering around the lawn with scissors and a bunch of bags and vials, don't be alarmed."
Eren laughs. "I'll keep that in mind," he says. He waves and watches Armin wander back into the woods. He thinks he sees a pair of eyes watching him from the underbrush, but they're gone when he blinks. He goes over to Jean and takes the phone away from him.
"We'll be there soon, Levi," he says, and hangs up.
"He's going to kill us," Jean declares as they start back down the path. "My head will go above the fireplace and he will look at it and laugh as he drinks tea by the fire every night."
"Jean, seriously, shut up," Eren says. "Let's just focus on getting back to the house quickly."
"See, you're scared, too," Jean says, but he follows Eren back down the mountain without saying anything else.
It takes them over five hours to get everything set up, during which Levi shouts orders at them and makes snide comments about how he had to do the first half of the house by himself. An exaggeration, of course, but his scolding suitably cowed Jean and Eren, so neither call him out on it.
It's dark by the time they put the last knick knack into place. Eren has to admit that the house, which at first seemed like some foreboding portent of doom, is much more comfortable when filled with familiar furniture. Those five hours were completely worth it.
That night, while Jean scrounges up some dinner with the meager groceries they have, Eren sits on the sofa and watches Levi tap away at his phone, a pair of rectangular wire-rimmed glasses perched delicately on the bridge of his nose.
"How," Eren says, "are you already working?"
"Because unlike you, I don't get to determine my own hours," Levi replies. There's no bitterness in his voice. It's a statement of fact, but even if he was jealous, Eren wouldn't have been able to tell. "I have to go to work early tomorrow to get everything set up."
"That's disgusting," Eren says with feeling.
"So is your face," Jean calls from the kitchen. A second later there is a bang and a yelp. Karma still works, then. Levi pauses in his typing and listens for a few seconds for the vehement swearing that indicates Jean is annoyed but not harmed. Then he turns his eyes downwards once more, and Eren groans and flops backwards over the armrest of the sofa.
"Levi, let's go on a walk," Eren says. "Don't you want to get out of the house?"
"Not particularly," Levi says. "We literally just finished moving in, Eren. Plus it's fucking freezing outside, and I have work to do."
Eren pouts. "After dinner, then? Jean and I found this really cool old well not too far from here that I want to show you."
"We didn't find anything," Jean says, coming into the kitchen with a spoon held above his cupped hand. "We nearly fell into it and died. They never would've found our bodies. Here, taste."
Eren sips at the spoon and makes an appreciative noise. Pleased, Jean goes back to the kitchen.
"Did you really almost fall down a well, Eren?" Levi asks. "We haven't even been here for twelve hours yet. How are you already getting into trouble?"
"It's a gift," Eren says. He picks at a loose thread on his shirt. "I'm bored."
"Why don't you work on your book?" Levi suggests. "Didn't you start one not too long ago?"
Eren sighs. "I have writer's block," he says. "Anything I try to write right now will be shit."
"Watch your language," Levi says, and smirks when Eren sputters in outrage. "Eren, go pester Jean. I really need to get this done tonight."
How offensive. Eren purses his lips angrily but gets up and goes into the kitchen anyway. Jean looks up from the pot of soup he's stirring on the stove and smiles at him.
"Levi kick you out?" he asks. Eren nods and goes to rest his head on Jean's shoulder.
"I'm bored," Eren says.
"We can do something after dinner," Jean offers. "Watch a movie or something. Maybe that'll help get your creative juices flowing."
Eren wrinkles his nose at the phrasing, which he's never been particularly fond of.
"That's gross," he says. "Creative juices."
Jean lifts the ladle and slowly pours the soup back into the pot with an exaggeratedly pleased hum, and Eren laughs and shoves at his arm.
"Why do I love you," he asks rhetorically.
"Because I make you food," Jean says. "Which is ready, by the way, so go get Levi."
Eren takes a deep breath and shouts, "Levi, food is ready!" as loudly as he can, grinning when Jean flinches and smacks his arm. Levi comes in a few moments later, his glasses missing but his phone still in his hand.
"For fuck's sake, Eren," he says. "Don't yell so loud."
"Your old ears can't handle all the noise?" Eren teases.
"My old ass can still beat you up," Levi deadpans.
"Girls," Jean says, "you're both pretty. Now stop fighting and eat."
Eren sticks his tongue out at Levi, which earns him a tiny smile and a flick on the nose, before he starts eating. Considering how little food they had, the soup is actually really good, and for a few minutes they don't speak.
"So," Eren says, "walk after dinner?"
"I can't," Levi says. "I still have emails to send and a bunch of files to look through before I can call it a night."
"And since he'll be busy," Jean says, nodding towards Levi, "I have to do the dishes and stuff. Plus, isn't it kind of cold to be running around the woods?"
"It's not that cold," Eren mumbles bitterly. He stirs his soup, disappointment chasing away his appetite.
"We could still watch a movie," Jean offers, setting his own spoon down.
"The TV isn't set up," Eren points out. Jean shoots a helpless look to Levi.
"Eren, we can go for a walk tomorrow," Levi says. "You know, when the sun is out and we're less likely to fall off a mountain in the dark."
Eren rubs his palm against his jeans and sighs. "Yeah, okay. I just really wanted to do something tonight. It's our first night in the new house, you know?"
"You didn't seem all that excited to move in the first place," Levi reminds him.
"Well, we're here now," Eren says sadly. "We might as well make the best of it. Besides, I've barely seen you guys lately. With the move and the new job and college and everything, we've all been really busy."
Jean sighs. "Hopefully things will calm down now that everything's done. We'll settle into a routine soon enough."
Eren makes a face and doesn't mention how routine is the last thing he wants.
Routine is what Eren gets, despite his best efforts. With his writer's block worsening every day, he has nothing better to do than to try and add spontaneity to their lives, but he finds his efforts to be in vain. Occasionally he's able to coax Jean into a play fight or Levi into abandoning work for an hour to try their hand at baking, but for the most part his boyfriends spend their time establishing patterns.
Levi wakes up first and leaves for work around seven, which is when Jean usually wakes up. Eren, because he creates his own hours, can sleep in as much as he wants, so by the time he gets up Jean is well into his online college courses. Eren spends the rest of the day trying not to die of boredom while Jean works. By five, Levi's home and Jean's done with school, and if none of them are too tired they'll do something together.
It's a simple routine, and it's pretty much the same one they had before they moved to the Hunter's House, and Eren hates it.
By the time Saturday comes around, he's so desperate for something to happen that he even agrees to go to the barbecue the neighbors are throwing to welcome them to the neighborhood.
It'll be Eren's first time meeting the neighbors. Apparently, Levi's met a few of them. He doesn't really know what to expect (no one sane moves out to such an old house in the middle of nowhere) so on Saturday morning he puts on his best pair of jeans and tries to tame his hair before he goes down to meet his boyfriends by the door.
Jean is holding a platter of brownies and Levi has all of their jackets in his hands, and they both give him annoyed look when he comes down the stairs.
"Took you long enough," Levi grumbles. Eren scowls and tries again, unsuccessfully, to tame his hair.
"I just woke up, cut me some slack," he says. "Come on, let's just go."
"Can you at least pretend to be excited?" Jean asks as they walk out of the house. "We're meeting our neighbors for the first time."
"If they live all the way out here, they can't be that great."
"What does does that say about us, then?"
They're coming up to the garden where everyone is already gathered, so Levi turns around and says, "Shut up, you two. Don't bicker in front of the fucking neighbors."
"Since when is that something you care about?" Eren asks. Levi doesn't have the chance to answer, because someone squeals and runs into him.
"Jesus," Jean says, eyes widening.
"Levi, you're here!" the person shouts excitedly. They're very androgynous, even with their short, messy brown ponytail and bespectacled brown doe eyes. Levi looks intensely uncomfortable in their grip, but he doesn't try to break out of the hug for at least a few seconds, which is a few seconds longer than he'd allow for someone he didn't like.
"Personal space, Hanji," he snaps. They let him go immediately, but the bright, beaming smile on their face doesn't dim in the slightest. Eren is instantly annoyed.
"Sorry," Hanji trills. "I'm just so glad you came! Oh! Is this Jean and Eren?"
Eren only has time to tense before he's being pulled into a bone-crushing hug. He wheezes for breath when he's released and wraps one arm around his ribs as Jean gets the same treatment. Levi makes a vaguely sympathetic face.
"I've heard so much about you!" Hanji says.
"Don't lie," Levi says absentmindedly. He's looking over his shoulder, watching some big, hunky blond approach. The man places a hand on Levi's shoulder, a strangely fatherly gesture considering he can't be much older than Levi is.
"Hello, Levi," he says warmly. His intense blue eyes rove over Jean and Eren, and Eren feels as though he's being judged harshly. "I didn't think you'd make it."
"Yeah, well." Levi looks uncomfortable. "Guys, this is Erwin, Hanji's roommate. Erwin, this is Eren and Jean."
"It's very nice to meet you both," Erwin says. It comes across incredibly insincere, and Eren smiles uncomfortably.
"Oh, you brought brownies!" Hanji exclaims, snatching the plate from an increasingly bewildered Jean. "I love brownies! We can't make them that often because chocolate isn't super good for mice, and even when we buy them Erwin always eats them before I can have more than one, but I still-"
"Breathe, Hanji," Erwin interrupts. Hanji sucks in a huge breath and releases it all in one rush of air, then shoves a brownie into their mouth and wanders off with the plate, mumbling something about putting them on a table.
Jean raises an eyebrow at Erwin. "Mice?"
"We're training a small army unit of mice," Erwin says, watching Hanji go with a fond smile on his face and completely missing the incredulous looks that steal across Jean and Eren's faces. "It's coming along quite well, actually. But if you'll excuse me, I should probably go make sure Hanji doesn't eat all of the brownies."
"We need to socially interact some more, so it's no skin off our backs," Levi says, and then, when Erwin walks away, he turns to Eren and Jean and lowers his voice. "Everyone in this house is kind of insane, but I don't think they're dangerous. Don't offend them, just to be safe."
"Levi, are you fucking kidding me?" Eren hisses. "They're raising a mouse army. A fucking mouse army."
"As long as they don't get into our house, I don't care what the hell they do in their free time," Levi says. "Just play nice, okay? Both of you." He grabs the fronts of their shirts and pulls them down to his level. "I know how you get. Eren, don't fight anyone. Jean, don't offend anyone."
Eren scowls and straightens up, tugging at his shirt to fix the wrinkles. "Relax, Levi," he says. "We're not actually incompetent."
Jean stares at his empty hands. "That Hanji person took my brownies."
Levi rolls. "I'm going to go find the alcohol. Go interact. There's two more neighbors from downstairs and that weird coconut-headed Arlert kid. Oh, and Mikasa should be here soon, too."
Eren perks up at that. "You invited Mikasa?"
"Well, yeah," Levi says as if it should be obvious. "She's my cousin. Why wouldn't I invite her to my own housewarming party? Even if I'm not the one who threw it. Just go. And remember what I said."
Eren shoves his hands into his pockets and watches Levi wander away. He tips his head back and looks up at the sky. There's no blue to be found anywhere, just a constant, solid layer of light grey clouds through which the light is filtering weakly. It's chilly today, like it is every day. He's never missed the beach as much as he does right now.
Jean nudges him and jerks his head to the little wooden bridge that spans the empty, dirt-bottomed concrete pond.
"I think those are the downstairs neighbors," he says, jerking his head to two people sitting on the railing. "Come on, let's go socialize."
"I really don't want to," Eren says. Jean sighs.
"Eren, don't be a jerk," he says. "Look, they threw this party for us, so the least we could do is go say hi."
"It's not much of a party," Eren grumbles. And it really isn't. He can count the number of people in the garden without even getting into double digits, and most of them are clumped around the food table. Armin's blond hair and short stature stick out like a sore thumb over by the cooler that houses the beers, and Eren makes a mental note to go over and say to hi to the one person he actually knows.
But for now, he goes with Jean to greet the downstairs neighbors.
They both look up their approach in a strangely synchronized movement that comes off as very creepy. Eren would wonder if they were twins except for the fact that they look nothing alike. One is a man with dark, close-cropped hair and wide hazel eyes, and the other is a girl, slightly taller than her companion and with a darker complexion and a long brown ponytail.
"Uh, hi," Jean says, giving an awkward little wave. Eren hides a smile behind his hand. "I'm Jean, and this is Eren. I don't think we've been introduced yet."
The woman rolls her eyes and doesn't come down from the railing she's sitting on, but she gives them a friendly smile. "Well, yeah," she says. "You guys just moved in. I'm Sasha. This idiot is Connie."
"Who are you calling an idiot?" Connie asks, scowling. He playfully shoves her arm. She widens her eyes when she loses her balance, and Jean and Eren gasp in horror when she falls right off the bridge.
"Whoops," Connie says.
Eren rushes to the railing just in time to watch Sasha flip in midair and land expertly on her feet in the dirt.
"Connie, you ass," she shouts.
"What," Jean says flatly.
"We grew up in the circus," Connie explains, rubbing at the back of his neck. He peers down at Sasha, who flips him off. "She's totally making me sleep on the couch for that," he mutters.
"Serves you right, dude," Jean says. "You pushed her off a bridge."
Eren hisses in warning. Levi told them specifically not to offend anyone, and most people would get defensive after a comment like that. Connie just laughs, though.
"She'll get me back for it," he says good-naturedly. "One time I made some comment about egotistical hunters and she set a bunch of snares in our apartment. I ended up hanging from the ceiling for, like, an hour before she let me down."
"Yeah, that was good times," Sasha says, coming up behind them. Eren doesn't even want to know how she got up here so fast.
A sudden breeze blows across the garden, rustling the dead plants and making Eren shiver in his coat and step closer to Jean. He looks in the direction the wind is coming from and sees a familiar head of black hair making its way over to where Levi's sipping at a beer and trying to fend off Hanji's attempts at conversation.
Mikasa looks up and locks eyes with him.
"Eren!" she calls, lifting a hand and beckoning him over.
"Who's that?" Sasha asks. "Your girlfriend?"
"God, no," Eren says, wrinkling his nose. "She's like my sister."
"Oh, good, 'cause she's really hot," Sasha says.
"Sasha!" Connie exclaims, scandalized. "I thought what we had was special!"
"Alas, you cannot compete with such a paragon of beauty," Sasha says. Connie clutches at his chest dramatically.
"Right," Eren says. "Well, we have to go. It was nice meeting you, though."
"Right back at you, dude," Connie says.
"Come on, Jean," Eren says, and then, when they're out of earshot: "Is everyone in this house crazy?"
"Seems like it," Jean responds.
Hanji and Erwin are scarce by the time Jean and Eren make their way over to the refreshments table, probably scared off by Mikasa. She and Levi are leaning against the table, both with a beer in one hand and a bored, deadpan look on their faces. It's extremely easy to see the resemblance between them right now.
Mikasa brightens minutely when she sees them.
"Eren," she says warmly, reaching out to clasp his hand briefly. She has Levi's aversion to touch, but unlike with Levi, that aversion doesn't go away with people she trusts. It's just one of the quirks that Eren's learned to deal with.
"Hey, Mikasa," he says. "It's good to see you."
"You, too." She looks at Jean, and something mischievous sparkles in her dark eyes. "Hello, Jean."
"Mikasa, the love of my life," Jean coos. "Do you have a Band-Aid? Because I've just fucked up my palms falling for you."
"How romantic," she deadpans, but she cracks a smile a second later. "I see you two are still putting up with my dick of a cousin."
"Fuck off," Levi mutters. Jean slings an arm around his shoulders.
"Yeah, don't bully Levi," he says. "I happen to like his dick."
Mikasa rolls her eyes. "Perv. Anyway, how's the house? Is it as dreary as it looks?"
Eren points at her and looks to Levi. "See? Mikasa agrees with me. This place looks dead."
"That's 'cause everything is dead, Eren," Levi says.
"No, Eren's right," Mikasa says. "There's something off about this house. And I don't trust the people who live here. Your door has locks, right?"
"Every door in the house locks, including closets," Jean says. "Although I don't think anyone going to try and break in. They'll be too busy setting snares."
"And training rats," Eren adds.
"And eating brownies," Levi concludes. "Point is, they're all kind of batshit, but they're genuinely good people."
"Hmm," Mikasa says, unconvinced. "What about that blond kid over there? He's looked nervous ever since I got here."
"Armin's just an awkward guy," Eren says. He catches Armin's eye and waves him over. "Plus, his family has history with the house. He's probably just nervous about being here."
Mikasa's gaze sharpens. "What kind of history?"
"I'm not sure, actually."
"I know," Levi says. "But I'll tell you later." Because Armin comes up at that moment, a beer in one hand and the other shoved deep into his pocket.
"Hi," he says. "How are you enjoying your housewarming so far? Meet all the neighbors yet?"
"Are they always like this?" Eren asks him. Armin shrugs half-heartedly.
"Pretty much," he says. "Connie and Sasha always try to prank me whenever I come around here."
"Have they been able to yet?" Jean asks curiously. Armin smiles and takes a sip of his beer.
"Armin, this is Levi's cousin Mikasa," Eren says. "Mikasa, this is Armin Arlert."
"Nice to meet you," Mikasa says, sticking out a hand for him to shake briefly.
"You, too," Armin says, smiling. He looks adorable, quite frankly, and even Mikasa can't resist his big blue eyes. Her sharp gaze softens the slightest bit as she retracts her hand. "You and Levi look very similar. But you guys probably get that a lot, don't you?"
"All the time," Mikasa says. "But it's not like you knew that."
Armin shrugs. "Yeah, but I should've. People tell me all the time that I look like my grandfather did when he was younger."
"Your grandfather is the landlord, right?" Mikasa asks, with a gleam in her eye that Eren's seen before. Suddenly fearing for Armin's safety, he quickly sticks his hand into Levi's pocket and fishes around for the key to the house.
"Yeah, he is, and hey, Mikasa, the house is really cool, do you want a tour?" Eren says quickly. He gives her a tiny push to get her moving, shooting an apologetic smile to Armin as they walk away. "I'll see you later, okay? Don't be a stranger, and I'll see you two in a bit, bye!"
Mikasa, thankfully, follows his lead and walks. As soon as they turn the corner, she stops dead in her tracks. Eren runs into her back and almost falls over.
"What was that for?" she asks, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Sorry," Eren says. "You just looked like you were about to try and eat him."
"Nonsense," Mikasa says airily. "I was only going to ask him about his grandfather and the house. Besides, I like him. He's cute."
Eren looks at her out of the corner of his eye as they walk up to the front door. "Wait, cute or cute-cute?"
"Does it matter?"
"Of course it does," Eren says. "You can't just go developing crushes on people you don't know."
"Uh, yes you can," she says. "You had a crush on Levi for, like, a month before you even learned his name, and that was only because I took pity and told you."
Eren flushes and jams the key into the lock. It's a big, unwieldy thing that's covered in so many dents and scratches and smudge marks that Eren's sure it's older than him. He tosses it carelessly onto the table next to he front door when he enters the house.
"Welcome to my humble abode," Eren says sarcastically. Then he smirks. "Mi casa es su casa."
She rolls her eyes. "For god's sake, Eren, you say that every time I come over. It's still not funny."
"It's kind of funny," Eren says, leading her further into the house. "Anyway, that's the living room, that's Jean's study, there's nothing upstairs except for bedrooms and bathrooms, and the kitchen is through there." He stops in the middle of the hallway. "And that's pretty much it."
"Oh, come on," Mikasa protests. "That was the worst house tour ever. There has to be something around here."
"Trust me, there isn't," Eren says, but he follows her when she wanders off. "I've spent the past week cooped up in here, looking for something interesting. The only things I found were a leaky window in the guest room and a bunch of cockroaches in my shower."
"That's disgusting," Mikasa says, poking her head into the study. Her gaze quickly roves over Jean's disorganized desk and the impeccable bookshelf before she withdraws and heads for the living room. Her eyes narrow as she steps into the room.
"What's the matter?" Eren asks. She points towards the far wall.
"There's a door or a window or something underneath the wallpaper," she says. Eren squints.
"How did you see that all the way from here?" he asks, but she ignores him.
"I don't like it," she declares.
"The door?" Eren says incredulously. "You haven't even seen it yet."
"Doesn't matter," Mikasa says. "It shouldn't be there and I don't trust it."
"You don't trust the neighbors, you don't trust the house," Eren mutters. "Is there anything you do trust?"
She looks up thoughtfully. "I trust my instincts," she says. "And you should, too."
"I write novels for a living, Mikasa," Eren says. "Fantasy novels, usually. My instincts are kind of shit."
"Then trust mine, and don't mess with that door," Mikasa says.
"Whatever. Come on, let's go back outside and get some food."
She casts one last glare at the door before following him out, but Eren quickly pushes the whole incident from his mind. In fact, he forgets about it completely. At least, he does until someone else finds the door.
And that's really where things begin to go downhill.
Eren is writing for the first time in weeks. He's not working on the draft of his novel, which has been sitting unfinished in his files for longer than he cares to admit. No, right now he's simply writing whatever comes to mind in an attempt to get past his writer's block, but it isn't working out so well.
The house is super old and creaky and lifeless, even with all three of us and our four crazy neighbors living here. Erwin and Hanji live upstairs in the attic apartment and are supposedly training an army of rats, for purposes which I'm unaware of. I've never met someone who goes by gender neutral pronouns before. Hanji is a cryptid, but not just because of that. They talk too much. The neighbors downstairs are Connie and Sasha, who used to be in the circus. I'm not sure if they're dating or what. They're okay, I guess, even if I think I'd get tired of their theatrics after too much exposure.
Jean really likes them, though, and Levi thinks Erwin and Hanji are interesting. It seems I'm the only one without weird neighbors to befriend, unless you count Armin, but he's less weird and more
And then he blanks while trying to come up with a way to describe Armin. He waits for a few moments, hoping something will come to him, but when nothing does he huffs in irritation and goes to find his boyfriends.
It's Sunday, the only day when Jean has no online classes and Levi is completely free from work. Sundays are usually the only days when all three of them are available, so he knows they have to be somewhere around the house.
He finds them in the living room, watching Netflix on Jean's laptop and sipping at mugs of what smells like hot chocolate.
"Hey," Jean says, tipping his head back over the back of the couch to look at Eren upside down. "There's some hot chocolate left in the kitchen if you want it. Come watch a movie with us."
"I've seen everything on Netflix already, but thanks," he says.
"Everything?" Levi says dubiously.
"Everything good," Eren amends. "I was thinking we could go to town today, since we're all off."
"What's in town?" Jean asks.
"That's what I want to go find out," Eren replies. "Come on, Levi already works there and you're going to start going to the college for practical art classes and I'm going to be stuck at home all day like a housewife."
"Oh, please," Levi says. "First of all, if anyone's a housewife in this relationship, it's Jean."
"Hey!"
"And anyway, Eren, don't you want to just relax today? This past week has been so tiring."
"I've done nothing except eat, sleep, and cry about writer's block," Eren says. "I'm going to go for a walk, then."
"Have fun," Jean says. "Don't be back too late, and be careful."
"Yes, mom," Eren says, rolling his eyes.
"And bring a jacket!"
Eren sticks his tongue out at the back of Jean's head but does grab his coat before he leaves. It's been consistently overcast and cold these past few days, and Eren's not used to it yet. He doesn't know if he'll ever be used to it. He misses the ocean.
He's only made it halfway around the the house when he spots a familiar blond heading up the driveway towards the house. Eren pauses and waits for Armin to catch up.
"How close do you live that you can just walk over here?" Eren asks. "We're out in the middle of nowhere."
Armin shrugs. "My house isn't that far from here. I have work to do so I can't stay long. I just wanted to come and give you this." He hands Eren a heavy, strangely lumpy package that's been hastily wrapped in newspaper. Eren looks at him curiously and starts to unwrap it, but Armin stops him by putting a hand on top of Eren's. He looks a little nervous. "Don't open it out here."
"Why?" Eren asks, suspicious.
"Because who knows where Connie and Sasha are," Armin says. "Even Hanji would be fascinated by it."
"Okay, well, now I'm intrigued," Eren complains. "Do I really have to wait?"
"Yes," Armin says firmly. "Or at least wait until I'm gone so you can't punch me."
"Why would I punch you?" Eren asks. Armin gives him a helpless sort of look.
"I found it in my grandfather's attic," he says. "I swear to god, I was just as confused as you're going to be and I didn't, like, make it or anything."
"Armin, calm down." Eren shifts the thing to the crook of his arm so he can reach out and put a hand on Armin's shoulder. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about."
"You will soon enough," Armin says. "Please don't think I'm creepy."
"I don't," Eren says immediately.
"Yeah, okay," Armin says. He turns and walks away, waving over his shoulder. Eren watches him go until he disappears into the forest.
"I hope he doesn't get stuck in that thicket again," he mutters to himself. His curiosity is piqued, though, so he ducks down behind a gnarled, dead tree and rips the paper open.
It's a doll, a creepy one with a tiny, serene smile and two huge button eyes.
And it looks just like Eren.
Its rough, burlap skin is the same tan shade as his and even the eyes match, one a bright gold and the other deep teal. Even creepier than that, though, is the fact that it's wearing a tiny version of his favorite jacket, the green one with the black and white wings on the back.
The one that no one at the Hunter's House has seen yet because it's still sitting in a box in his closet.
Very disturbing.
"What the hell," Eren says. The doll doesn't respond. He drops the paper carelessly on the ground and holds the doll up by its arms in front of his face. It doesn't seem at all upset at the rough treatment and just smiles up at him. He cracks a smile back. "At least now I have someone to talk to when I get bored."
He needs to show this to Levi and Jean immediately. He hurries back to the house and practically kicks the door down in his haste to get inside. His boyfriends are exactly where he left them. They watch him with wide eyes as he runs in and slides to a stop in front of them.
"Jesus," Levi says. "What the hell's gotten into you?"
"Look at this," Eren demands, holding the doll out. Jean squints at it.
"That's the creepiest thing I've ever seen," he says. "I fucking hate button eyes. Did you make that?"
"Armin gave it to me. He said he found it in his grandfather's attic."
Levi and Jean exchange looks.
"Eren," Levi says. "He didn't find that. Why would his grandfather just have a doll lying around that looks exactly like you?"
"It even has your jacket," Jean says. "Wait a minute, how would he even know what that looks like? Isn't it still upstairs?"
"Guys, I'm positive he didn't make it himself," Eren says, bouncing on his toes from excitement. "It's probably just a coincidence, but how cool is it? It's a little me!"
Levi pauses the movie and takes the doll carefully, then makes a face and quickly hands it back.
"There's so much dust on that thing, holy shit," he says. "Why would you bring that into the house?"
Eren frowns. "I thought it was cool," he says defensively.
"It's creepy as hell is what it is," Jean says.
"That Arlert kid is weird enough as it is," Levi says. "Everything about this situation is suspicious. You know what happened to Armin's great-aunt that caused the whole family to move?"
"I don't see what any of this has to do with the doll," Eren says.
"She disappeared," Levi says, as if Eren hadn't spoken. "She just up and vanished one day and no one knew where the hell she went. The only clue they could find was a doll filled with sand that looked exactly like her, and it was traumatic enough that Papa Arlert moved his pregnant wife out and changed their last name. It used to be something normal, like Jones or Smith or something."
Eren holds the doll against his chest protectively. "Seriously, Levi? That's what you came up with? That whole story sounds fake as fuck."
"It does sound fake, Levi," Jean says.
"Well, it's the truth. And anyway, that wasn't even the point of the story, Eren, for fuck's sake." He pulls Eren down onto the couch next to him so that they're eye-to-eye. "Doesn't it strike you as even a little suspicious that Arlert just happened to find a doll that looks exactly like you?"
Biting his lip, Eren looks down at the doll. "Of course it's suspicious," he says. "But I trust Armin. Mikasa likes him."
"Mikasa likes anyone that she can mother hen," Levi says.
"Eren, look, we're not telling you to burn the stupid thing," Jean interjects. "We're just saying that the neighbors are fucking weird and we need to be careful. Next thing you know, you're going to walk outside and find an animal sacrifice on the roof of the car or something."
"You're being dramatic," Eren says. "Which means you're being unreasonable, so I don't have to listen to you."
"We're being unreasonable?" Levi asks incredulously.
"Little Eren and I are going to go finish unpacking," Eren says, standing and lifting his chin defiantly. "It's just a doll, guys. It's not a fucking demon. And considering it's the most interesting thing that's happened to me since we moved to this stupid house, I thought you'd be at least a little supportive."
He leaves before they can answer.
Eren does not start wearing his green jacket just so he and the doll match. He doesn't. He just really likes the jacket. The fact that he ends up twinning with the doll most days is just a bonus perk.
The thing's name ends up being Little Me, because Little Eren doesn't have the same ring to it. Levi and Jean refuse to call it anything other than The Doll, with so much disdain and emphasis that Eren capitalize it in his mind.
All three of them realize, a day or two after Armin gives Little Me to Eren, that they're in the middle of a fight about said doll. None of them are sure about the specifics of the argument, but the general feelings are offense and defiance on Eren's part and determination on the part of Jean and Levi. Eren starts bringing Little Me with him everywhere just to see the flash of horror in his boyfriends' eyes when they see it.
Of course, all of that is forgotten when they discover—or rediscover, in Eren's case—the little door behind the wallpaper. It's Jean who finds it, while Levi's at work and Eren's busy trying not to die of boredom. Jean walks into the living room, takes a breath like he's about to say something, and then stops. Eren looks over and sees him frowning at something on the other side of the room.
"What?" he says.
"Has there always been a door there?" Jean asks. Eren sits up so fast that Little Me goes flying off of his chest.
"I can't believe I forgot about that," he says. He goes over to the wall and runs his fingertips over the protruding edges of the door's outline. Jean walks up behind him and leans over his shoulder to see better.
"Why is it here?" he asks.
Eren shrugs. "The house used to be connected, remember? It was probably a dumbwaiter or something."
"Why would a dumbwaiter be so close to the ground?" Jean says skeptically.
"How would I know?" Eren says, irritated. "I didn't even know this thing existed before last week."
"Hmm," Jean says. "I'm going to go look for a key to open it."
"It's probably a big one," Eren says, studying the imprint of the lock. "Big and old."
"Got it," Jean says. Eren hears him rummaging around in the kitchen drawers for a few moments, and he returns with a key held triumphantly in one hand.
"Find it?" Eren asks.
"I think so," Jean says, showing him the key. It's a big, ugly brass thing that looks like it hasn't been used at all since it was first made. Eren scoots over so that Jean can run the key along the edges of the door. The wallpaper tears with a satisfying ripping sound and Eren feels anticipation curling in his stomach. He taps his thigh impatiently while Jean unlocks the door. It takes a little wiggling to get it to open, but once it's out of the frame it swings open easily. Eren holds his breath as it opens, revealing…
… bricks.
"What?" Eren says.
"Well, that's disappointing," Jean says dryly. "They must have bricked it off when they divided up the house."
Eren reaches out to touch the bricks, as if they'll somehow disappear and reveal whatever was originally there.
"This door is so useless," he says. "Why the hell is it so tiny?"
"Dude, who cares?" Jean says. "I have an essay to finish writing. Can you look over it when I'm done?"
"Sure," Eren says, still frowning at the bricks. Jean doesn't move from where he's crouched next to Eren for a while, so Eren turns to look at him, only to find himself under his boyfriend's scrutiny. "What?"
"You look really disappointed about this useless door," Jean says.
"I am disappointed about this useless door," Eren says. "This was the most interesting thing to happen so far."
"That's pathetic," Jean says. He pulls himself up with a hand on the wall and drops the key into Eren's lap. "Here, you can have this to remind yourself of your failures as a human being. I'll make sure to put lots of typos and grammar mistakes into my essay so you'll have something to focus on later."
"That's just an excuse for your shitty writing, isn't it?" Eren asks, closing the door.
"Fuck off, Jaeger," Jean says. He picks up Little Me from the floor and tosses it carelessly onto the couch as he leaves, prompting Eren to go over to make sure it's okay. He flops down onto the couch with a sigh and pulls the doll onto his chest.
"At this point," he tells it, "I'd be willing to do paid labor just to escape the monotony of everyday life."
Little Me doesn't respond.
"You're right," he says. "It's totally Jean's fault that no one talks to me all day."
"Go suck a dick, Eren," Jean calls from his study. Eren laughs and turns onto his side.
"Well, I would suck yours if you weren't so busy all the time," he calls back. There's a pregnant pause.
"Goddammit, Eren, I'm trying to write an essay," Jean says. "Do you know how hard that is with a boner?"
"I'm guessing it's pretty hard, all right," Eren says. "Your essay is due at midnight, right? Couldn't you take a break for half an hour?"
"I don't know if I should listen to you," Jean says. "I have an awkward boner now and it's completely your fault."
"I could help you with that, if you want," Eren purrs. Another pause, and then the frantic sounds of Jean stumbling out of his chair. He appears in the doorway to the living room, eyes wide and dark, and Eren grins.
Score.
They take more than half an hour.
Levi calls to let them know that he'll be home late that night and not to wait up for him ("And the house better not be dirty when I get home or I swear you're both sleeping on the couch," Levi says, to which Eren responds by rolling his eyes at Little Me). Jean makes simple (yet delicious) sandwiches for dinner before retreating upstairs to the bedroom to finish his essay. Eren sits his own laptop on Jean's desk and opens up his novel. His word count is stuck somewhere around thirty thousand and remains unchanged no matter how hard Eren stares at it. He even sets Little Me down in his lap, as if their combined efforts might be enough to magically raise the word count.
He struggles for only an hour before giving up and shutting down his computer. The ceiling creaks slightly as Jean moves around in the bedroom, so Eren goes upstairs to see if he can persuade his boyfriend to help alleviate his boredom.
Jean doesn't look up when Eren comes in, but he does grunt in annoyance when Eren flops dramatically onto the bed.
"I'm bored," Eren announces.
"When are you not bored, these days?" Jean replies. "You know, they say only boring people get bored."
"That's not true," Eren says. "Because I'm bored, and I'm certainly not boring."
"Then go entertain yourself and let me write my essay," Jean says.
"Aren't you done yet?" Eren whines. Jean glares at him.
"No, I'm not, because someone decided that two in the afternoon was a good time to have sex."
"It's always a good time to have sex," Eren says. "And anyway, it should take you this long to write one essay. I can almost guarantee that I wrote longer things in shorter amounts of time when I was in college."
"If you're such a fast writer then why isn't your novel done yet?" Jean snaps, and immediately winces. "That was uncalled for."
"Yeah, it was," Eren says coldly.
"Sorry," Jean says, looking at Eren with genuine remorse. Eren huffs and nods, accepting the apology. "But anyway, why don't you grab your laptop and come sit with me while you work?"
"I literally just spent an hour trying to write," Eren says. "I have no inspiration."
"Incredible," Jean says. "Washed up at twenty-two."
"Fuck you," Eren says. "Pay attention to me, I'm bored."
"Eren, I really have to finish this essay."
"Cuddle with me?" Eren says.
"Eren, for god's sake." Jean pauses. "If you promise not to wiggle around too much, I'll cuddle with you."
Eren grins and, after setting Little Me onto the dresser, crawls up the bed to lie down next to Jean. He wiggles and shifts until he's comfortable, with his head resting on Jean's shoulder and his arm around Jean's waist.
"Does The Doll have to be staring right at us?" Jean complains.
"Yes," Eren says. "He likes to know what's going on."
"I'm actually scared for my life right now," Jean says. "I fucking hate its creepy button eyes."
Eren shrugs, and closes his eyes.
When he opens them again, his eyelids are heavy, and the air in the bedroom is still and silent. He looks groggily up at Jean, only to find that his boyfriend is fast asleep. The clock on the dresser reads just after three in the morning. Groaning, Eren pulls himself out of bed. He checks to make sure Jean turned his essay in, then closes the laptop, sets it on the bedside table, and pulls the blanket up around Jean's shoulders.
Levi isn't there, and Eren is a little worried. Surely he's not still working, right? His phone is downstairs and he doesn't know the password to Jean's, so he can't text his boyfriend to find out where he is.
The idea of wandering around the house so late at night is unappealing, to say the least, especially with how creaky and creepy it gets at night, but Eren really wants his phone. After a few moments of deliberation—does he go back to sleep, or does he go get his phone from downstairs so he can find out where his boyfriend is?—he gets out of bed and heads for the stairs.
There are a lot of small, uncovered windows in useless places, like at the top of the stairs or on walls where they don't even allow any sunlight in. Moonlight floods in through these windows, illuminating Eren's path as he carefully walks down the stairs, taking extra care to avoid the ones that creak lest he wake up Jean.
At the bottom of the stairs, Eren pauses to look around for a light switch. A shadow darts across a path of moonlight on the floor, and he freezes with his hand flat on the wall. His heart pounding, he waits a few seconds to see if the shadow will return. It doesn't, and he briefly wonders if he's simply seeing things.
He finds the light and switches it on, wincing at the sudden flare of pain in his eyes from the glare. As they adjust, he squints at the floor, and then looks up just in time to see another shadow flit down the hallway. This time he knows he's not seeing things. A large part of him wants to turn and run back upstairs, to where Jean is sleeping peacefully. Some tiny voice in the back of his mind, though, is urging him to investigate the shadows. They looked small, he rationalizes, so they're probably not dangerous.
He pads into the living room on quiet feet, following the shadows. Another one runs across his periphery, going slowly enough that Eren gets a good look at its small, round rodent body before it disappears behind the little door. Eren really doesn't know what he's going to do with a rat, but he doesn't want to just let it run wild around the house while he's sleeping, so he creeps up to the door on silent feet and crouches next to it. Taking a deep breath, he yanks the door open.
It's no longer bricks. Eren's mouth drops open in shock when he sees the—portal is the only way to describe it. It's a long tunnel that stretches farther and farther back even as Eren watches, like someone slowly stretching out a slinky into a long tube. The very walls of the tunnel seem to glow with purple light that falls lightly across his face.
Eren knows he should probably shut the door, go upstairs, wake up his boyfriend, and ask Jean to drive him to an asylum to be institutionalized. Instead, he gets down onto his hands and knees, and he crawls into the tunnel.
It's kind of a tight fit, since the door was clearly made for someone smaller than him, but once he's through the frame it's fine. The tunnel's floor and walls are made of some soft spongy material that absorbs Eren's weight easily as he crawls. He swears that the air even smells different in the tunnel, more stale but sweeter, somehow.
The tunnel lets off back into his living room, and Eren is confused. But this living room, though it has the same furniture and wallpaper and size and shape as his living room, is missing the few lone boxes that clutter up one corner of the room and drive Levi insane. And the painting that hangs above the fireplace, some dismal landscape shrouded in clouds, now shows a bright, sunny version of the same scene.
Frowning, Eren looks around for the rat that led him here in the first place. It's disappeared, but he does notice that there's light and sound coming from somewhere outside of the living room. He doesn't know what to expect of this place that's his house but clearly not, so he treads lightly and carefully as he follows the noise to the kitchen.
Jean is there, and Levi, and they both turn to greet him with matching smiles when he walks in.
Matching smiles, and matching button eyes.
The same shiny, soulless buttons that decorate Little Me's face now adorn his boyfriends'—no, these things can't be his boyfriends, can they?—except that Jean's are a light golden-brown and Levi's are deep grey. Eren is horrified. He takes a step back into the hallway.
"What," he gasps. "What's going on? Who are you?"
"Don't you recognize us?" the fake Levi asks, pouting in a decidedly un-Levi-ish expression. "It's us, your boyfriends."
"You're not my boyfriends," Eren insists.
"We're your Other Boyfriends," the fake Jean says. "Everyone has them."
"Everyone has fake boyfriends?" Eren asks skeptically.
"Not boyfriends, necessarily," Other Jean says. "Sometimes it's an Other Mother."
"Or an Other Father," Other Levi adds.
"Or an Other Sibling, or Cousin, or Neighbor. And they're not fake. We're like fairy godparents. We're just here to make sure everyone has a safe place they can go to when life gets a little tough." Other Jean turns back to the stove and pokes at something sizzling away in a pot. The enticing smell of bacon wafts through the kitchen, making his stomach rumble. Other Levi pulls out one of the chairs at the table and pats it in clear invitation for Eren to join him.
Eren knows this is a bad idea; he can feel it in his stomach like a black hole, sucking all the good feelings out of him, but he sits anyway, because the bacon smells good and because this is the most interesting thing to happen to him since he moved to the Hunter's House.
And that was really his first mistake.
This was my project for Nanowrimo 2017, and I have to say, I'm very proud of it. Leave me a comment letting me know what you think, and don't forget to check out my tumblr, gabrielthetricksterarchangel.