Staring at his computer screen, waiting for the video chat to pop up, Eren absent-mindedly twisted the black band on his left ring finger. Most would call this a nervous habit, but Eren found the action calming, grounding him, reminding him of what was important and what he'd been working for all these years: the chance to be with the person wearing the matching ring. Noticing that the call should have started over thirty minutes ago, Eren decided he should finish packing while he waited.
Reluctantly, he rose from his bed and started throwing the last of his clothes from his closet into a moving box at his side. As he did this, he chose one outfit to wear tomorrow: a black button-up shirt, dark jeans, and his favorite red tie. After all, tomorrow would be one of the best days of Eren's entire life; he'd finally be reunited with everyone he'd been missing since he left Shiganshina over four years ago.
As he was putting the last of the knick-knacks from his bedside table into the moving box, Eren heard his phone buzz on his bed. Turning on the screen, he saw he had a new message from Mikasa Ackermann, one of the two people he was supposed to be chatting with now.
Mikasa: I don't think Armin will be joining us tonight. You still wanna chat? Sounded like you had an announcement or something.
Eren frowned upon reading the message. It was the last thing he wanted to hear. Sitting down on his bed, he quickly typed up a response.
Eren: It won't take long. I haven't seen him for almost a week now. Do you know what's up? =(
Eren was getting a little worried. Maybe school, work, and college applications were just getting to be too much for his childhood friend right now, but Eren really wanted to see him that night. He needed to know that he'd made the right decision, one that he hadn't told anyone yet, except the administrators at his old school, new school, and new apartment complex. He hadn't even told his parents, and he'd chosen to make the move while they were away on a weekend trip. Surely they'd be angry that their only son had essentially chosen to run away from home, but he was eighteen years old. He could make his own decision now. Officially. Eren had always been one to make his intentions clear to everyone around him, but now there was nothing holding him back from the thing he'd been dreaming of doing for the last four years, two months, and seven days. He'd be returning to his real home in Shiganshina, to all his friends that were more like family than his own biological parents, and most importantly, to the person that his entire world revolved around.
Eren contemplated just leaving his friends alone that night. After all, he'd see them tomorrow in person for the first time since he'd left, but something was telling him that he should see them now. Though he felt selfish asking Armin to get online when he clearly didn't want to just for the opportunity to see him smile, Eren couldn't help it this time. Before Mikasa could reply, he had typed up a message to Armin Arlelt.
Eren: Hey, Armin. I'm really sorry to bother you, but I really need to see you right now… Could you possibly get on, just for a few minutes? =)
After pressing Send, Eren put his phone aside and picked up the last thing remaining on his bedside table. He stared at the velvety blue box's exterior before slowly opening it to look at the beautiful engagement ring inside. For the millionth time, Eren questioned whether it was worthy of the person it was meant for, but he decided, as always, that this was the best he could manage. It was very simple yet elegant, nothing but a slim, silver band with a single diamond on it. It wasn't a massive diamond, but it also wasn't the smallest option either. Eren hoped the fact that the lone diamond was shaped like a heart was sufficient to make it special enough for his lover, and he prayed that it would be good enough to warrant a "yes" in a few weeks.
Eren was pulled out of his worrying when he heard his laptop notifying him that he had an incoming video call. Though he had a preference of who was calling, Eren was willing to talk to anyone right now in order to stop overthinking his decisions. He'd been planning to move back to Shiganshina ever since the day he left, and he'd been working hard to save up enough money to do so. The first thing Eren had done when he moved to Stohess with his family just at the start of eighth grade was find a job. Unlike most kids his age, Eren would go to school, rush home to change, and then head to the local grocery store where he worked as a bag boy. It was the only job he could get as a fourteen-year-old. Meanwhile, many of the kids at his school had tried to befriend him, but Eren was simply too determined to return to where he truly belonged to pay any attention to their attempts at friendship. For the past four years, all Eren did was study, work, and, most importantly, keep in touch with his old friends.
At first, he'd been able to keep up with all of them: Jean, Marco, Conny, Sasha, Ymir, Krista, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Daz, Mina, Thomas, Samuel, Franz, Hannah, everyone, but after a while, he mainly found himself talking to just Mikasa and Armin, which was fine with him. He planned on rekindling lost relationships soon enough. Maybe he'd even get the hardest one out of the way first: Jean. Or maybe he'd just pretend they'd never accidentally bonded all those years ago. Eren wasn't sure exactly how his sudden return would be taken by his former classmates, but he was sure they'd eventually welcome him back with open arms. For a moment, he considered that he was thinking maybe a little too optimistically about this whole thing, but nothing was going to change his mind now. He didn't care if he had his parents' or anyone else's blessings at this point. He didn't need it. He was going to be gaining something worth much, much more. Though there were still a lot of unknowns about his move, he'd determined one thing. Eren had officially decided that he'd keep the move a surprise for his friends. This decision was made even easier when he realized he might only have a few minutes to chat this evening. Right now, he just wanted happy thoughts to suppress his growing anxiety.
Eren clicked the Accept button before he even saw who was calling. To his slight disappointment, it was Mikasa. Despite this, Eren grinned widely and plopped down on his bed, adjusting his laptop so she could see him properly. She was already dressed for bed, like Eren, but she looked wide awake, alert, almost alarmingly so.
"Hey, Mikasa. Umm… Is everything okay? You seem on edge," Eren commented.
"I'm fine. Thank you for asking," she replied, trying to hide her problems, as always.
"I know you better than that. What's up?" Eren countered.
Mikasa sighed and shook her head slightly before answering, "I always feel vulnerable when I'm getting one of these repairs."
Though her words might have been cryptic to anyone else, Eren knew exactly what she was referring to. He glanced down, towards her neck, and noticed the thin, red choker that he and Armin had weaved for her in elementary school, the one that she wore 24/7, was missing. It made Eren smile to think that despite the fact that it was very faded and had been visibly repaired over and over, she still chose to wear it all the time. Her neck did look bare without it.
"Arm fixing it for you again?" Eren asked, though he already knew the answer. Armin was the only person that she would allow to make such a repair to something she considered so precious.
Eren watched as Mikasa nodded solemnly.
"See? You should make him get on so that he can show you that your necklace is okay," Eren commented, realizing that he still sounded painfully selfish, despite trying to hide his desperation to see his other friend.
His attempt at convincing her to bother Armin didn't work, he realized, as she shot him a glare.
"Fine. Fine. Sorry. Why do you even still wear that old thing?" he questioned instead.
Just as she was about to answer, Eren's screen illuminated with another message that he was getting another incoming call. He scrambled to answer it and add his other friend to the conversation.
"Armin!" Eren squealed, a little too enthusiastically. "I haven't seen you for, like, a whole week!"
"Exactly. It's only been a week, Eren," he heard Armin answer quietly.
"Umm… Actually… I still can't see you, uh, now… Can you turn on the lights or something?" Eren asked as politely as he could manage.
It was killing Eren that he could hardly see anything of his best friend due to the fact that the lights were out in his room. Even his computer screen's brightness was on the lowest setting, meaning its light wasn't even enough to illuminate his face. All Eren could see were his big, blue eyes.
"Sorry. I'm just really tired. Keeping it dark will help me fall asleep right after this," Armin answered calmly.
Eren noticed Mikasa bow her head slightly, trying to hide a slightly worried expression. Something was up.
"Please, Armin? Besides, Mikasa is freaking out about her necklace. Show her that you fixed it!" Eren suggested excitedly.
Mikasa looked up and shook her head, but Eren didn't care. He was looking right at Armin with a desperate look, one he could tell his friend didn't miss. He closed his eyes for a moment before getting up and moving away from his computer.
"Fine. But you have to promise me you won't freak out, okay? I, uh, got hurt at work today. That's why I didn't want to get on," Armin said, and Eren thought he sounded even farther away than ever since he wasn't near his microphone.
Eren waited patiently, well, he tried, for Armin to return, even after the lights flicked on in his room. However, when his friend returned to his desk, Eren couldn't contain his emotions.
"Armin! What happened?!" Eren nearly screamed, seeing the dark bruise around the boy's right eye.
"I told you… It happened at work…" he responded meekly, reaching up in an attempt to hide the mark.
"Did someone hurt you?! I swear to God, I'll storm right over there—"
"Eren, that's enough," Mikasa chided, giving him a pointed glare.
"No one hurt me," Armin whispered, looking at his lap.
Eren noticed Mikasa's eyes flick to Armin again. Clearly what he said wasn't the truth, and she knew it.
"Well something happened in order to—"
Eren's tirade was cut off by Armin's sweet laughter. It sounded a little forced, but it was still a sweet sound to hear. Eren looked back towards Armin's face to see him smiling sweetly, his head cocked slightly to the side, as he prepared to speak. Eren wondered where this habit of his had come from. He hadn't done it before Eren left, but he did it often now during these video chats, especially after laughing like that. It always made him look so sweet and innocent. Maybe that was Armin's reason for doing it.
"Don't be silly, Eren. One of my coworkers just wasn't watching what she was doing and ran a tray full of drinks right into my head. You should have seen the mess! I was covered in all these fruity-smelling drinks! My hair even turned pink from the red wine that she spilt on me!" he laughed, punctuating the story with a grin.
Eren hesitated a moment before letting out a small giggle, seeing that Armin was okay with being laughed at. It was even what he wanted right then.
"You with pink hair? Now that I've gotta see," Eren replied with a grin. "I bet you looked like cotton candy or something."
"Yeah. Too bad I smelled like a rotting wine cellar. That stuff smells good in small amounts, but being dowsed in it was a little absurd," he added with a slight shrug.
Eren grinned as he tried to picture the scene, but he faltered when he saw Mikasa wasn't as amused by the story as he had been. Maybe it was because Armin had been hurt, after all, a fact that neither of them should overlook despite his attempts to push said fact aside.
"Really, though… I'm sorry you got hurt," Eren said solemnly. "I hope you're really okay…"
Armin seemed to catch the silent "And that you aren't just faking it." that went along with Eren's words. He tilted his head to the opposite side and blinked a few times, again making Eren forget his troubles.
"Of course, Eren. I'm great," he replied. "So, what were you and Mikasa chatting about? Was it your big announcement?"
"Not quite. Mikasa was just about to explain why she still wore that silly old necklace that we made for her, despite the fact that it clearly doesn't want to stay on her neck anymore," Eren replied, cheering up a bit.
Mikasa blushed slightly as she quietly admitted, "Because it reminds me that the two people I love most of all are still with me, even if they aren't near me physically."
Eren smiled at that, realizing that she felt the same way about that necklace as he felt about the ring on his finger. His eyes flicked to Armin, expecting to see him smiling and blushing, but he looked troubled, having dropped his gaze again to his lap. Mikasa noticed too, and her small smile disappeared.
"Armin, are you…" Eren began but trailed off when Armin rose from his chair and walked out of his camera's view.
Eren waited for an explanation, but he didn't receive one. He began to worry when Armin didn't return after a whole minute.
"Armin?! We didn't mean—"
"Didn't mean what?" the boy in question answered, returning to his chair as if it was just normal to get up in the middle of a sweet conversation and walk away.
"I, uh, I don't know… Nevermind…" Eren admitted.
Armin just laughed in the same way he did before and held up Mikasa's tattered choker.
"I figured I should fix this. Mikasa was looking rather ill without it," he explained with a grin.
Eren watched as Armin began to weave another repair into the necklace, using the supply of red thread that he kept on his desk for just this occasion. He noted that Mikasa did look very nervous while watching Armin fix it, and she tried making conversation with the two boys in an attempt to distract herself from the loss around her neck. The poor girl was normally very composed and rarely showed her emotions, even to the two most important people in her life. Maybe this was the reason for all of Mikasa's out-of-character reactions that night. Thankfully, it wasn't long before Armin held the necklace in front of his camera with a grin and announced that he was finished. To his and Eren's surprise, Mikasa didn't respond with a quiet "Thank you." or a sigh of relief. Instead, she jumped up from her desk chair and dashed away from her computer at top speed, not even bothering to turn off her laptop. Armin's face paled as he looked at the twisting thread in front of him, examining his fix.
"Did I… Do you think I messed it up…?" he asked quietly, turning the red, braided string over and over in his hands. "I've fixed it before… She… She never had a problem with it before…"
"I don't think you did anything wrong, Arm. You know her. She has a weird way of showing her emotions sometimes. Or, rather, not showing them, you know?" Eren countered, hoping to calm him down and bring the smile back to his face.
"She was so upset when I couldn't repair it in person for her earlier. I felt bad, but I had to go to work right after school today. She must still be mad at me," Armin added, dropping his head and effectively covering his eyes with his blond bangs.
"Now I might not know exactly what's going through her head right now, but I do know one thing. No matter what you do, Armin, Mikasa will never be mad at you. Same goes for me. Understand?" Eren offered with a smile.
Eren had expected his words to calm the poor kid, but they seemed to have the opposite effect. Armin looked up at Eren, a look of what can only be described as sheer terror on his face. Eren felt his heart break as he tried to figure out what he'd said to make his best friend look so scared. He'd only seen the other boy look this frightened a handful of times in his entire life, but it had always been pretty obvious why he was worried. However, just as he was about to open his mouth to spew apologies and try to discover what he did wrong, Eren saw a figure appear behind Armin.
"Mikasa?!" he yelled, causing Armin to whip around so fast that he nearly fell out of his chair, only saved from crashing to the ground by Mikasa catching him.
"Please don't hurt me!" Armin squeaked, bowing his head and curling up into a ball in his desk chair, quickly extending the hand that held the repaired choker towards Mikasa.
Eren grinned as he watched her silently take it, examine it with a small smile, and fasten it around her neck. When Armin didn't look up at her or uncurl from his fetal position, Mikasa grabbed his outstretched hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Hesitantly, Armin looked up towards the girl and was rewarded with a kiss on the forehead and a barely-audible "Thank you, Armin." When he still didn't respond, Mikasa knelt in front of him and gently guided his limbs to uncurl.
"And Eren's right," she added, cupping his slightly-swollen right cheek and guiding him to look up. "I could never be mad at you. About this. About anything."
Eren watched his two best friends and desperately wished he was there to hold them both in person. However, Eren became very confused and worried when he saw Armin start to shudder in Mikasa's arms and shed tears as he leaned forward to hide his face on her shoulder. For the first time in a long time, Eren felt like he had really, really missed something, but he wasn't sure how to ask without upsetting Armin more. He decided the best thing to do was steer the conversation in a different direction.
"How many times have you had to repair that ratty old thing now, Arm? Maybe me and you should just make Mikasa a new one, hmm?" he asked with a smile.
Armin seemed to notice Eren's real concerns and immediately straightened himself up, wiping away his tears and plastering a fake grin onto his face. Eren was really starting to hate that fake smile, and he was getting frustrated that he'd been seeing it more and more lately.
"That was the 23rd major repair that I've done on it," he noted with a slight shake of his head. He blinked a few times before adding in a much quieter voice, "I wish you and I could make her a new one. I… We miss you, Eren…"
Eren watched as Mikasa gave Armin another hug before heading to his right, presumably heading back to her own house down the street. He watched the other boy for a few moments, wondering if he should ruin the surprise, but he'd contained himself for months. He knew Armin could wait one more day.
"I miss you too, Sweetie," Eren answered instead, smiling sincerely at the boy on his computer screen.
Armin blushed and glanced around nervously.
"Not— Not in front of Mikasa, remember?" he whispered timidly, though Eren was sure Mikasa was long gone.
Armin had always told Eren not to get all lovey-dovey in front of her, but Eren still couldn't figure out why. She'd been there the day that he had confessed his love to Armin and hadn't seemed bothered. Maybe Armin was just trying to be considerate. Or maybe she didn't like PDA or something. Either way, Eren didn't want to or care to question Armin's reasons. As with every matter, he would trust his judgment.
"I'm sorry your day at work didn't go well, and I'm sorry for making you get on so late. I just felt like I needed to see you tonight," Eren stated, probably looking into Armin's big, blue eyes a bit too lovingly. Noticing that Mikasa had returned to her own room, he added, in an attempt to calm Armin, "I've missed seeing both of you. These chats can never replace being with you in person, but they sure do help."
Mikasa nodded, as did Armin, though he did it while yawning.
"Perhaps we should turn in for the night," Mikasa suggested, glancing from Eren to Armin and back again on her screen.
"Seems like it's past someone's bedtime," Eren grinned. "Just one last thing. I've got some really exciting news. You'll find out what it is tomorrow."
"Really? I can't wait to hear what it is. Goodnight, you two," Armin responded, and Eren was excited to see that his smile looked somewhat less forced now. The poor boy did look awfully tired though.
"I look forward to it. Goodnight, boys," Mikasa answered.
"Yeah. Me too. Goodnight, Mikasa. Sweet dreams, Armin," Eren said and noted Mikasa's cocked eyebrow a bit too smugly.
Armin blushed again as the call ended, and Eren's screen returned to the default menu. He shut his laptop, turned off the lights, and crawled into bed. As he laid there and realized that this would be the last night he spent in Stohess, he couldn't help but realize what else that meant.
Reaching towards his bedside table, Eren once again grabbed the blue box that contained the engagement ring that he'd been working so hard for. He flipped over and placed it in the empty space beside him on the bed. Closing his eyes, Eren optimistically hoped that this would be one of the last nights he'd have to sleep alone ever again. He prayed that in a few weeks, after dropping to one knee and hearing an enthusiastic "yes" accompanied with tears of joy, he'd open his eyes at night to find that he wasn't alone anymore. Instead, his golden-haired angel would be by his side, and Eren would finally be able to say that his life was perfect and complete.
