A/N; This short story takes place during Attack on Titan Junior High.

"Eren, slow down"

The teenager blinked when he heard a voice call his name. Having a piece of meat in his mouth, he looked at his mother.

"Mmm?"

"I said slow down" she repeated. "You might choke on your food".

Eren nodded, not thinking he was eating that fast. Meanwhile, he could feel Mikasa watching him closely. She must have heard what Carla said and started paying attention to what Eren was doing. Either that or she had been watching him carefully the whole time.

Eren continued eating, a bit slower this time. It was apparently not slow enough. He started coughing while desperately trying to get some air. Of course Mikasa, the person sitting next to him by the table, had been trained for these kind of things. She slammed her hand against Eren's back, making him cough up the piece of meat that had been stuck in his throat. Being able to breathe again, Eren took a few deep breaths. His parents, both having worried expressions, sighed in relief.

"The hell, Mikasa!? What was that for!?" Eren asked his sister.

"You were choking" Mikasa simply replied.

Eren then glared at her. "You don't hit someone in the back like that!"

Mikasa's method of helping Eren wasn't what they had been taught. Knowing this, Eren was certain that Mikasa had hit his back on purpose.

She looked away from him. "My bad".

Not even a bit sincere. It had definitely been on purpose.

"Don't argue, Eren" his father spoke up.

"I'm not arguing!"

After finishing eating dinner, Eren leaned back on the chair's backrest. "Hah…I'm full". He then smiled at Carla. "The food was great! Thanks mom!".

Carla smiled at him, but before she could answer, the room suddenly became dark.

"What…?"

The room was pitch black, thus making it impossible for the family to see anything. His father, Grisha, made his way to the window and peeked outside.

"Seems like the entire town is out of electricity" he said calmly.

So it was just a power outage.

'I bet it was a damn titan that cut the wires' Eren thought, feeling a bit annoyed.

The darkness wasn't bothering him. However, the lights would probably be out for a few days until the workers would fix it.

"Tch. I guess I'm off to my room then" Eren said as he stood up.

Might as well get ready for bed. There was nothing better to do anyway now when the power was out.

But before he could do that, he had to go to the bathroom. Otherwise his parents would be angry, even though the power was out. While brushing his teeth, a thought wouldn't leave his mind.

'I wonder how Armin's doing'. Armin was scared of many things, which Eren was completely aware of. One of his biggest fears was darkness. 'Is he ok?'

Eren shook his head, trying to get the rhought out of his mind. 'He's probably just fine. I'm just overthinking it'.

It hadn't been difficult to find the bathroom, but it was troublesome trying to find his room. Mikasa on the other hand didn't seem to have any problem with finding hers.

'That girl has some demonic powers, I swear to God' Eren thought as he opened the door to his room.

After walking inside, he closed the door behind him and started making his way towards his bed. He didn't even bother trying to change clothes. It would take forever for him to find his pajamas. It wasn't worth it. He only took off his jacket before dropping it, letting it fall to the floor.

Since the room was filled with darkness, Eren didn't notice when the bed was right in front of him. He fell forward, landing on his bed.

"Damn bed" Eren muttered before changing his position so he was laying down on the bed 'properly'. Feeling the pillow behind his head, he closed his eyes to get some rest.

A minutes passed. Five minutes. Ten minutes.

Eren rolled over onto his stomach as he tried to fall asleep. No use. His eyes weren't even tired. Letting out a small growl, he laid down on his back and opened his eyes.

"Damn it! I can't sleep!"

He looked up towards the ceiling. His eyes had gotten used to the darkness by now, so he could at least make out where the lamp was.

'Armin…'

The thought of his best friend refused to leave him. Because of this, Eren couldn't fall asleep. He could feel his heart ache as a weird feeling appeared around his stomach area - The typical feeling you get when you felt something was wrong.

'You're scared, aren't you?'

He had seen how Armin handled darkness before. Whenever it happened around others, he would grab the person standing closest to him, trembling in fear. Now it was almost night time and everyone was at their respective homes. Armin was all by himself. Okay, maybe his grandfather was there too, but he was probably asleep already. Armin wasn't. Eren knew he wasn't.

'It's probably nothing. Armin will snap out of it sooner or later. He's not a child anymore' Eren thought as he rolled over to his left side, once against closing his eyes and trying to fall asleep.

A scenario appeared in his mind. It wasn't a dream, but a flashback. Actually, it was more than just one. All of them were from the past year. He could see Armin's terrified face. He could hear how his best friend kept repeating 'I'll be fine', 'It's just darkness' and 'I hate the dark' to himself.

Not only were the flashbacks keeping him awake, but they were also making the bad feeling he had even stronger. As the image of Armin starting to cry appeared in his head, Eren immediately opened his eyes and jumped out of his bed before quickly making his way towards the window.

There was no time to waste. He had to see Armin now and make sure he was ok.

He opened the window and jumped out. As soon as he felt his feet against the ground, he dashed toward Armin's house, not even bothering that he wasn't wearing any shoes or his jacket. In the matter of fact, he didn't even notice it.

Being outside was the same as being in Eren's room. All lights were off. He had to run the way he had memorized to Armin's house. Everything was fine until Eren felt something against his right knee. Fortunately, Eren only stumbled forward. Whatever he bumped into, however, fell over with a loud crash.

'Shit!'

Eren first considered cleaning up the mess he caused, but ended up ignoring it.

'I don't have time for this now! I have to hurry!'

Once Eren reached Armin's house, he almost ran into the door since he was running so fast. As he was trying to catch his breath, he banged on the door. Only a few seconds passed before Eren felt the urge to break the door down, but tried to hold himself back. Tackling the door down would only cause trouble.

The door opened and an old man holding a candle appeared.

"Yes?"

Armin's grandfather took a closer look at Eren to see who it was.

"Oh, it's you. What brings you-"

Eren had lost his patience and dashed past Armin's grandfather.

"Sorry, old man, but I have to see Armin! It's important!"

Fortunately, Armin's grandfather had placed a few candles around the house, so finding Armin's room wasn't hard. Knocking on the door didn't even cross his mind. He immediately grabbed the door handle and swung the door open.

"Armin! Are you here!?"

He heard a voice squeal in fear from the door suddenly opening. Thanks to the light from the candles outside the room and the candle right next to Armin's bed, the room was barely visible. Not the best light, but good enough for Eren to locate a figure sitting on the bed. It was Armin with his futon over his head, attempting to hide.

"Armin…" Eren walked inside the warm room before closing the door behind him. He then made his way over to Armin bed. "It's just me" he said as he sat down next to his best friend.

"E-Eren…?"

The blonde slowly removed the futon from his head before looking at Eren with his tearful eyes. He sniffled as he carefully asked "Is that really you…?".

"It is. I came here as soon as-"

Eren wasn't able to finish his sentence before he felt arms being wrapped around his torso. Armin rested his head against Eren chest as he hugged the brunette tightly.

"I-I'm scared…It's dark everywhere…!"

Armin was even trembling in fear and his heart was beating faster than normal. Eren blinked a few times before moving his arms around the younger blonde.

"I know" he said as he hugged Armin a bit tighter. "But I'm here now. I'll protect you"

That probably wasn't really as assuring as Eren thought it would be. He could barely protect himself and kept losing his lunches to the titans.

"How about this; I stay here for the night so you won't have to be alone?"

Armin sniffled before nodding. They both lied down in Armin's bed with the futon covering them. The futon was warm. Together with the heat in Armin's bedroom, any normal person would definitely have a hard time to breathe in there. Eren tried to ignore the heat and focus on Armin.

"I'll stay awake until you've fallen asleep" Eren mumbled as he held his best friend closely.

Five seconds passed and nothing happened. Then ten. Then fifteen. After over twenty seconds of silence, Eren could feel Armin starting to lose up. A few more seconds passed before Armin had completely stopped trembling.

Eren tried his best to keep his eyes open, but his fight was to no avail and he eventually fell asleep.

Eren woke up from the brightness in Armin's room from the sunlight shining through the windows.

'Shit. Did I fall asleep?'

Once his eyes had adjusted to the light, he opened them only to see Armin's only an inch away from his. He noticed that he still had his arms wrapped around Armin while Armin was fast asleep.

The blonde was breathing quietly and looking cute while he slept peacefully.

Wait.

Cute?

Eren's felt how his face was starting to heat up as a light blush appeared on his cheeks.

'It's normal to think your best friend is cute, right? Nothing weird at all' Eren thought for himself.

But was it normal for your heart to start beating faster because of your best friend?

Armin's face being so close to his own was only making it worse. Eren's eyes moved down to Armin's lips.

'Would it be ok if I…?'

His face flushed red.

'What am I thinking!? That's not what a best friend would do! Besides, it would wake him up!'

But a kiss on the head was fine, wasn't it? A kiss symbolizing protection and care. A kiss a parent would give their child. That sort of kiss was harmless, which means it would be fine to give your best friend a kiss on the head.

Eren took a deep breath before leaning in, giving Armin a kiss on his forehead. He noticed that Armin started to smile in his sleep, which made him look even cuter.

'Cute…'

His fast beating heart came to a stop once he then felt a presence behind him.

"Huh…?"

Looking at whatever was behind him, he flinched when he saw a figure with a terriying dark aura surrounding it.

Oh, right.

Eren completely forgot to tell his sister he was heading over to Armin's house.

A/N; The end. Thank you for reading ^^