Toco Brower does not own the rights to Attack on Titan or any of it's characters.
The story idea for Keit-Ai belongs to Hataki
"A boy falls in love with a girl.
Unable to confess, he is gifted by a deus ex machina with the girl's phone number. Never minding the strange area code, he immediately calls her, and is overjoyed to find out that she has a crush on him as well..."
_ _ _ _ _/-{[Keit-AiA-tieK]}-\_ _ _ _ _
*Beep Beep* *Beep Beep* *Beep Be-
A hand slid slowly off the alarm clock on the bedside table, hanging limply out from the bed sheets. It rested there for a moment, before it was drawn back under the covers, which rustled as the occupant of the bed turned over. Silence fell back over the room, only disturbed by the faint sounds of traffic outside and the gradually deepening breaths of the-
*Beeeeeep* *Beeeeeep*
"Motherfu-!"
*Beeeeeep* *Beeeeeep*
Tumbling out of bed, a boy winced in pain as his elbow sharply hit the floor. Cursing under his breath, he slowly untangled himself from the mess of bed sheets that had followed him on to the floor. Rubbing his arm, he stood up and stumbled across the room to the small desk that occupied the far wall.
*Beeeeeep* *Beeeeeep*
Desperately the boy began to sort through the clutter that was on his desk, trying to find and silence the piercing alarm. Eventually he uncovered it, hidden under a heap of t-shirts.
*BEEEEEEP* *BEEEEEEP*
The noise was even louder and more annoying when out in the open. Fighting the urge to cover his ears, he switched it off and threw it dismissively across the room. He didn't bother even hoping that it had broken from his careless treatment. He knew that clock well, and he was pretty sure it mas made from adamantium or some other ridiculously strong material. If he hit it with a brick, he was pretty sure that the brick would break first.
Breathing a sigh of relief, the boy absentmindedly ran his hand through his short buzzcut hair.
*Bzzzzzt* *Beep beep beep* *Beep beep beep*
Eye twitching, fists clenched and hands shaking, the boy slowly turned to the corner of the room where his jacket lay on a small chair. ?
Storming over to the chair, the boy snatched up the jacket, his hand diving into the pocket and retrieving his phone. He hurriedly tried to get to his alarm settings, but accidentally ended up in his phone contacts instead. His mouth streaming curses as he fumbled with the menus, he was about to back out of the list when his eyes came to rest on a familiar name.
Sasha Braus
He froze. What the hell? What was that doing there? Why was Sasha's name in his contacts? He hadn't even spoken to her, let alone gotten the chance to ask for her number. Did she put it in herself? But how could she if she hadn't even held his phone before? Did one of her friends do it? Did one of his friends do it? His eyes flicked down to the number beneath the name.
"W-what? But that doesn't..."
"CONNIE SPRINGER! YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL! AGAIN!"
The sound of his mother's scolding shout brought Connie back into reality. He realised that the alarm on his phone was still going off. Had he really been that distracted that he hadn't noticed his phone buzzing in his hand? He backed out of the contacts and got onto the right screen, switching off the alarm. He threw the jacket back on the chair, but he kept staring at the phone in his hand.
"CONNIE!"
"Coming mom!"
He set the phone down on the chair, dashing to get ready for school.
_ _ _ _ _/-{[Keit-AiA-tieK]}-\_ _ _ _ _
Connie Springer sat at the back of the bus, his eyes alternating between the few others on the bus and his phone. He had his contacts open again, looking over the mysterious number. It said that it belonged to Sasha, but the number wasn't even the right area code. It just didn't make any sense to him.
"Hey Conn-ster!"
His head snapped up, and he pocketed his phone, as a brunet boy made his way down the bus toward him, a blond boy not too far behind.
"Hey Eren, Armin. What's up?"
Eren Yeager fell into the seat next to Connie, giving him a friendly nudge with his shoulder as Armin Arlert settled in on his other side. Eren kicked up his feet, resting them on the row in front. "So Connie, you ready for Biology today?"
Connie groaned and put his head in his hands. "Man, I can't believe we're getting another test. I'm gonna fail it so bad!"
"WHAT?!" Eren almost fell out of his chair. "We have another test?" He scrambled around in his seat, rapidly looking between Connie and Armin as if to make sure that they weren't joking. Connie was slightly relieved to know that someone else in his class was as disorganised as he was. He himself had only remembered the test that previous night when his mom had reminded him at dinner, meaning that he had ended up with a long night of "intense study". That was why he'd had so many alarms in the morning.
Armin sighed, a look of well worn patience on his face. "Eren, we've been talking about this for the past two days, ever since we found out about it from Professor Hanji herself. Mikasa's been reminding you of it each time we study together." At that, Eren grumbled and folded his arms, sending a withering glare off in no particular direction at all. "I hate it when she does that, always trying to nag me like she's my mom or something."
Connie spared a quick look around the bus. "Where is she anyway. Don't you guys usually come on the bus together?"
Eren rolled his eyes, huffing a little "We gave her the slip. She was sorting something out before school, so we just left."
Armin gave Eren a level look, and Connie wasn't sure he'd ever seen such an unnerving sight before. The blond boy raised an eyebrow at his best friend. "Well, you just left. I only came with you because Mikasa would probably be mad if I didn't keep an eye on you. She just wants to do what's best for you really, you know that Eren."
Eren flinched from the accusatory tone. "I know that! I just don't get why she treats me like I'm a baby all of the time."
Connie decided it would probably be best not to point out the obvious there. Even he knew better than to poke that hornet's nest. Armin seemed to be on the same wavelength, although the blond boy nodded to the front of the bus where an Asian girl was making her way up the bus with a very displeased look on her face.
"Well if you want to know, why not just ask her yourself?"
"Shit! Quick, Connie. Don't let her sit down, she's gonna lecture the crap out of me!" Eren panicked and pushed past Connie, turfing the smaller boy out of his seat in the back corner. Before Connie could even argue with the brunet, the sound of footsteps stopping next to him caught his attention. Slowly, he turned around and looked up into the dead stare of Mikasa Ackerman. She nodded at him. "Connie." She sent a grateful look towards the blond boy "Thank you Armin." And she reserved a look of reproach for Eren. "Remember the test today."
Contrary to Eren's belief, Mikasa did not stick around to lecture him. Instead she turned around without any further word, and walked back down the bus. Eren breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank god she decided to let it go this time."
Armin sent a worried look Eren's way. "I don't know. She seemed a little angry to me."
"Hah, whatever. She'll be fine by lunchtime anyway."
"Eren..."
Connie tuned out the other two, his eyes having followed Mikasa down the length of the bus until she had sat down next to a girl with familiar reddish-brown hair.
Sasha.
The two girls started up conversation, and Connie found himself lost in thought, watching morning sunlight shadowing and lighting up her laughing face and adorable excitable gestures as the bus drove towards the school. He felt himself flush as he registered what he had just thought, but he was used to that. Thoughts of a similar kind about Sasha had been plaguing his mind for quite a while. He often found himself watching her, whether she was working in class or if he happened by when the girls' soccer team were playing. He really didn't want to be a creep about it, but sometimes he couldn't help being stopped in his tracks by the sight of the girl.
"..Connie?"
He was startled from his thoughts by Eren's tapping on his shoulder. "W-wha?"
"I said, do you want to get some study in at lunch before the test?" Eren raised an eyebrow at him, but if he had noticed Connie staring at Sasha, he didn't seem to want to mention it. Connie scratched the back of his head and tried to laugh off the his embarrassment. "Uh, yeah, sure. I'll catch you at the library then?"
Eren nodded in agreement and left him alone, reaching out his phone and beginning to play around with it. Connie sighed and turned back to face the front, his eyes drifting back over to Sasha for a moment, before a cough from his left stole his attention away. Turning to Armin, Connie was surprised to see a knowing look in his eyes. Flustered, Connie turned abruptly to the front, trying his hardest to look at his hands and nowhere else, missing the knowing smile on the blond boy's face.
_ _ _ _ _/-{[Keit-AiA-tieK]}-\_ _ _ _ _
Throughout the rest of that day Connie had found himself distracted even more than usual. Every so often he would get out his phone and just look at the contacts list, almost checking to make sure that it was all real. He still wasn't sure how he had ended up with the number in his phone. In Homeroom and English class, which he shared with Sasha, he kept an eye out for any hint from her, any look, any gesture, to see if she was acting differently around him. Nothing was out of the ordinary in Homeroom, but in English she kept looking over around his direction. Every time she did though he quickly tried to look busy, either talking to Jean next to him or trying to look like he was actually working.
Speaking of Jean, Connie also kept an eye on him. Him and Jean often caught each other out with pranks and such, and Jean still had to get him back for the last time he managed to sneak that horse mask into his locker. He wouldn't have put it past Jean to sneak Sasha's number into his phone as a prank. But he didn't think that Jean knew about his feelings for Sasha anyway, so that ruled that option out.
Connie watched Jean as he began to doddle something on the corner of his paper. Even if Jean did know about his crush, he was usually really easy to read, even for a dense guy like Connie. A prank from Jean usually came with a load of obvious signals from the horse-face. He would probably have been asking Connie if anything was up with his phone or if he'd gotten any girls' numbers recently. No, it seemed like Jean was not the culprit.
By the time that it came to Biology, Connie was so distracted he could barely focus on the test that Professor Hanji had gleefully set them. All through the study session with Eren and Armin in the library he had been either checking his phone, or staring off into space. It had been even worse when Sasha and her friends had visited the library for their own study session. It had taken all of Connie's willpower not to just sit there and watch the way she flicked her ponytail, they way she laughed loudly when someone told a joke, the way she smirked so cutely when they were getting scolded by the librarian for being too noisy, the way she bit her lip when she was trying to concentrate on her work...
"5 minutes left!" The sadistically cheerful Hanji grinned at her suffering students from behind her desk.
Coming to, Connie realised that he'd spent far too long thinking about Sasha and far too little actually working on the test. Groaning at his own inability to focus, he began to try and catch up with the questions.
By the time the test was over, Connie was lamenting the fact that he had most likely failed that test, and he was no closer to figuring out the mysterious number situation either.
On the bus back home, he half considered just walking up to Sasha and asking her himself. His nerve failed him at the last minute though, and he could only watch and curse himself internally as Sasha leaped off the bus in the goofy-yet-cute way only she could manage and set off up the street to her house.
_ _ _ _ _/-{[Keit-AiA-tieK]}-\_ _ _ _ _
After finally getting home, Connie went straight up to his room. Falling backwards onto his bed he lay there, staring up at the ceiling.
There was no way he could deal with another day of that. He had to do something. Pulling out his phone again he switched over to the contacts screen and froze, looking at the fateful name.
He didn't know why it was in his phone. He didn't know how it was in his phone. He didn't know why the number was some strange area code. All he knew was that he had to do something. Even if it just turned out to be a joke number put in by his friends, and they had something to blackmail him with for years to come, he had to find out...
...
Twenty minutes later, he finally worked up the nerve to pick up his phone again. After pacing his room, messing around on his laptop and even playing some games on his 3DS to try and put off the confrontational moment. Eventually he decided to just suck it up. After all, what was the worst that could happen?
...he didn't want to think about the possibilities.
With a last moment of hesitation, Connie called the mysterious number. As the ringing began, he started to panic. What would he say? What do you say to your crush who's name mysteriously appears in your phone list? That was assuming that it was even going to be her on the other end.
-click-
"Hello?"
"Uh, I really like you!"
His eyes widened. What the hell did he just say? Who just says that?! Now Sasha, and he knew it was her by her voice alone, would think he was a total weirdo!
"Ah! Sorry! I'm just gonna..."
"Wait...C-Connie?"
He winced. Oh man, now she was going to rip into him for sure. Call him a creep or something. He totally just ruined everything for himself!
"Y-yeah?"
There was a moment of silence, and then the confused voice of Sasha Braus spoke again.
"How did you get... never mind. Is that really you?"
"...Yeah?"
"Did you just say you love me too?!"
"Well actually I just said I really liked yo-wait what? Love you too? Y-you mean...?"
"Uh, I just...I meant..."
Now Sasha sounded as embarrassed as he did. As she stuttered for a moment all he could think about was how cute she sounded when flustered.
"...Did Mikasa put you up to this?"
"Mikasa? No! I mean it. I just didn't think..."
"I felt the same way? I...I didn't think you did either."
Connie laughed, and he could hear Sasha laughing along with him. It felt so surreal, but he was starting to relax a little.
"So...I guess if we both like each other. Do you want to go out sometime?"
"Really? Oh my god this is really happening! Yes!"
He was slightly taken aback by her enthusiasm. He must have been missing some serious signals, he had no idea she actually liked him this much.
"Sweet! We could go to, uh...Where do you want to go?"
"No idea! Hey, I could talk with ya outside school after the bus and we can figure it out!"
"That would be awesome!" Something suddenly struck him. "Wait, you have a country accent?"
"Oh..uh, I guess that kinda slipped out in my excitement..."
"No! I think it's cute!"
"Really?" Again, she laughed the most adorable laugh that just melted his heart. "This is turning into the best day ever I guess"
He chuckled at that. "It's like the best day for me too. I seriously can't believe this."
"I know! So, you really think mah county accent is cute...?"
_ _ _ _ _/-{[Keit-AiA-tieK]}-\_ _ _ _ _
An hour later, Connie lay back on his bed. It was crazy how well that call had just gone. Strangely enough, he found it really easy to speak to Sasha. It was like they just...clicked. They had just talked for ages, laughing about things and each other. She had ribbed him for how he had started the whole conversation, and he joked around about her cute accent.
He still couldn't believe that she liked him too. He was so going to brag to the others about it. And then they were going to go on a date, after school! The week was looking up for Connie Springer.
*Bzzt*
Smiling, Connie looked at his phone, seeing a message from Sasha appear.
'C U 2morrow then baldy 3'
He smirked at the nickname she had established over their conversation. Quickly typing a response back.
'Look forward to it cowgirl ;)"
Still with a stupid grin plastered on his face, Connie sat up and looked out of his bedroom window, watching the world pass by.
Yup. Tomorrow was going to be a good day.
Author's Note:
Woo! Managed to get my second proper story on this site done! I got the idea for this one after reading about the Keit-Ai meme, and reading some of the other bits of work associated with it. I just had to turn it into a Springles fic!
Hopefully I can get some more chapters up for this soon.
See you then!
Toco Brower.