Erwin sat at his desk, his eyes staring absentmindedly out the window of his classroom. His face was empty of any kind of emotion, and his eyes seemed to be in deep thought. The classroom didn't have a soul in it, his last class for the day had gotten out not even an hour ago. He had stayed after to grade some of the papers that were slowly piling up, but his mind just wasn't able to focus on it.
His thoughts were drifting back and forth, his eyes focused on nothing in particular. A knock on the door pulled his thoughts away from it, and his gaze towards his doorway. His heart sank slightly when he was met with the principal of the school. "Mr. Balto, sir.." Erwin greeted.
The heavier set man stepped in, an envelope under his arm. "Greetings, Erwin. You remember what we talked about last time, correct?"
"Of course." Erwin straightened his posture, watching his boss lean against one of the desks that were in front of him. He didn't even hesitate to go right into a conversation. It was like he literally picked up where the two had left off the last time they spoke.
"After that teacher got arrested, The school district's been in a bit of a mess. They've been calling me everyday about getting them a teacher down there, you know." The older man chuckled.
"I still don't think sending Levi down there is a good idea..." Erwin stated, cutting straight to the chase.
"I fail to see your point, Erwin, we've got about another week to get back to them, and I have to say, Levi is probably the best pick.. Unless you want to go and teach math?"
Erwin kept a straight face as he stared at Mr. Balto. "...I'm a history major." He stated. "Besides, Levi is one of our better Math teachers, he has the lowest percentage of failing students out of any of the other math teachers, and during finals, his students bring in the highest grades, and you want to fire that?" Erwin's eyes contorted into one of disbelief. "You even showed me yourself, without Levi, our math department wouldn't be as successful as it is."
"Levi's also the highest paid math teacher, he's just the first choice to go." The principal shrugged his shoulders and chuckled. "We can save more money by just hiring a new teacher instead of keeping him. And it's not like he's completely out of a job, he'll just be going to another school, and get a bit of a pay cut."
Erwin let out a sigh, feeling frustrated. "Won't we lose money in the long run if suddenly the math departments grades just plummet?"
"Erwin, you're not giving your co-workers enough credit. Levi's just easily replaceable, I'm sorry." Mr. Balto cleared his throat and then pulled the envelope out from under his arm. "Anyway, the decision has already been made, there's no reason for us to keep him, so here," He handed the manila envelope over to Erwin, who took it with a sour look on his face. "I figured a close friend should be the one to give him that, and I'll see him in my office in a week." With a nod, the chubby man turned on his heel and walked out.
Erwin's shoulders caved in, his mind heavy. He let out a sigh and dropped his head into his hands, running his fingers through what used to be neatly combed blond hair. The envelope laid on top of his stack of ungraded work, Erwin trying to push the thought into the back of his mind.
He knew now that he would have to win his bet with Levi before the week was up.
"I gotta say, I'm pretty surprised you're not off hanging out with your boyfriend. I can't believe you were actually free today."
"Shut it, Jean." Jean chuckled at his broader friend, shoving his hands into his hoodie pocket. He looked at the blond while the two made their way into his apartment, getting ready to kick back and play some games. "You know, shouldn't I be throwing that line at you? You're the one who actually has a boyfriend, man."
Jean shrugged. "I think I spend less time with Eren than you do with Bertholdt." Jean quirked an eyebrow at Reiner. "Now that I say that, it does sound kind of suspicious."
Reiner rolled his eyes as the two approached their door. He pulled out a pair of keys and played with them for a minute. After finding the appropriate key, he stuck it into the lock and pulled open the door. The two stepped inside, Jean immediately tossing his bag against the wall, and next to the door. "If being in a relationship was determined by how much time we hung out with people, I'm pretty sure you take the cake with Marco."
"Marco?" Jean laughed, raising an eyebrow. "Dude, I've known him since we were kids, he doesn't count."
"Yeah, whatever." Reiner tossed his keys onto the coffee table and then threw his body onto the couch, taking a controller with him. "Cock o' duty?" the blond joked.
"Eh, I'm kind of sick of Call of duty man. What else you got?" Jean made his way around towards the entertainment stand and browsed over the games that the blond had collected. "Boderlands?" Jean suggested.
Reiner shook his head. "The disc doesn't work."
"Halo?"
"Eh.."
"Yeah, I don't really want to play it either..." Jean went through another row of games before a smile cracked on his lips. "Oooh, hey, what about this game? I forgot all about it, it used to be my favorite man." He held up the case for Reiner to see.
"Left for dead?" Reiner shrugged. "Actually yeah, that sounds pretty fun, put it in."
Jean cracked the case open and then gently fingered the disc as he put it in the disc tray of Reiner's xbox. He then grabbed a second controller and joined his friend on the couch.
The two had played for a couple of hours, screaming at each other as they got pummeled to death by zombies time after time. Jean always tried to play it tough, but for the most part, Reiner ended up being the one to save Jean's ass during the missions. There was one time specifically towards the end of their session, that Jean thought it would be funny to try and fight the witch. When the sound of the witch's crying came up, Jean used his character to go running for it, leaving Reiner to shout at him not to do it. The smaller of the two ended up running right up to the damn thing and attacking it only to be killed instantly. Reiner shouted a slur of cuss words as he attempted to not die and heal his fallen comrade, while Jean ended up laughing so hard, he fell off the couch.
After the hysteria from Jean's idiotic decision died down, the two shut off the game system and sat in silence for a second. Jean had a hard time breathing from laughing so hard, so now that he gained a pair of abs, he was catching his breath. He let out a sigh, smiling. "This is nice..."
Reiner turned to him, cocking an eyebrow at him. "I'm glad you find that funny, I don't think I ever want to play with you again."
Jean almost found himself in a fit of laughter again, but he held it back. "No, no, just this. Hanging out, not having any drama to deal with, getting your friend murdered by a crazy bitch, it's great!"
Reiner shook his head, a chuckle escaping his lips. "Jesus Jean, you act like you've got more drama than a preteen."
"Man you don't even know the shit that I've had to deal with recently. I swear, if men had periods like how most women do, that's what Eren would be right now."
"...Cramping up really bad...?" Reiner questioned.
"No! Being really touchy about everything. And not fucking telling me what." Jean threw himself back into the couch, crossing his arms and slouching. "I just gave up on him for now. Hopefully he'll just come around and tell me what the hell I'm doing to piss him off so much."
"I'd get pissed off too if I had to look at your face all day." Reiner remarked.
Jean shot him a look. "Yeah? How's your sex life doing? Oh that's right, it's non existent."
"At least I'm not in a relationship and still not getting any."
Jean felt his anger rise up. There was a miniature war that had just started between the two of them. "At least it hasn't taken me years to get into my crush's pants."
"Dude, where do you even get that I have a crush on Bertholdt?"
There was a silence in the air before Reiner brought his hand to his face and slapped himself. Jean let out a loud laugh.
"I don't recall stating any name, Reiner."
"Shut it." Reiner's face went red for a moment, mentally hating himself.
"I'm curious though, what was going to be the list of reasons as to how you didn't have a crush on him?" Jean leaned in towards the blond. "Hanging out with him all the time? Texting all the time? Probably blowing each other by now, eh?"
"Fuck Jean, leave it alone, alright?" Reiner let out a sigh, standing up and heading towards the kitchen. "The guy's got his own thing going on, none of that stuff's happening."
"Wait." Jean suddenly grew a very serious tone. "Are him and Marco actually dating?"
"What?" Reiner asked, stopping in his tracks and looking back at his friend.
"I thought about it the other day, but I figured Marco would've told me." Jean shrugged his shoulders. "I guess I wouldn't blame him, Bertholdt's kind of..-"
"Kind of what?"
Jean jolted to Reiner's shift in tone. "A-ah, nothing,.. He's just..got his own thing going on.. Like you said."
"What do you mean?" Reiner asked, standing between the kitchen entrance and the couch Jean was sitting at.
"Just forget about it, they're probably not dating."
Reiner completely neglected what he had gotten up for and moved in towards Jean. "Kirschstein, you know something, I can read it on your damn face."
"It's not my business to say anything about it, back off." Jean snapped back.
Reiner held his gaze. "At least tell me if it's something I should be worried about."
"..." Jean was quiet, biting his tongue. "Why don't you take a good look at him next time you see him, and maybe you can figure it out."
Reiner stopped. The two were silent, Jean turning his gaze to focus on something else. The blond let out a sigh, and then returned to what he had originally gotten up for. "Did you want something to eat? There's some left over pizza..."
Jean looked up at the bigger man and sighed, the little bit of tension in the air completely disappearing now. "Sure.." Reiner walked out of sight, shuffling about in the kitchen. The smaller of the two looked at the game case that they had just finished playing and read over the details of the back. His eyes took in the art work, before landing on the amount of players allowed. "Hey Reiner..."
"What?" The taller man responded, the sound of a microwave humming along with it.
"Why don't we invite Bertholdt and Marco over to play?"
"GODDAMMIT MARCO PRESS X"
"I AM PRESSING X"
"NOT THE PLAYSTATION X- UGH CIRCLE, PRESS CIRCLE!"
"AHH!" Bertholdt yelped, holding his controller closer to him. "T-There's a smoker on me!"
"Oh my-" Reiner let out a huff, mashing the buttons on his controller. "We are literally RIGHT NEXT TO THE FINISH POINT." Reiner's character ran up to Bertholdt's rescuing it from the hold of the smoker's.
"MARCO YOU JUST FUCKING DIED." Jean yelled, throwing his head back for a moment. "ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS JUMP UP!"
"SHUT UP I THOUGHT 'A' WAS 'X'!" Marco turned to face Jean, nudging him in the arm with his elbow. "Can you at least heal me?"
Jean grumbled under his breath. "Are you gonna jump this time?" He healed up Marco's character and Marco ended up getting the control right and jumped up the obstacle and followed Jean.
The sound of the witch's cry echoed through the game. Reiner immediately turned to Jean. "Jean I swear to God! Don't you fucking dare!" Jean chuckled, running through zombies with Marco following close behind him. There was a loud roar that sounded soon after and Reiner and Jean tensed up.
"TANK!" The two yelled in unison. Bertholdt's face was full of confusion, and Marco found himself scared shitless over what the fuck a tank could've been. Not even a second later, a large mutated zombie came thrashing through and knocked Reiner's character flying, killing it instantly.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Jean mumbled to himself as he ran after Reiner's character. "I GOT YOU-" Before he could finish his sentence, his character got pummeled by the tank. "AH GOD DAMMIT!" He shouted, mashing a bunch of buttons in a last minute hope to somehow kill it. Marco was shooting at it now, which immediately grabbed the beast's attention.
"Ahhhh!" Marco whined, throwing a pipe bomb at it. He began shooting at it again, running away from it at the same time.
Bertholdt's character went running towards Reiner and Jean, trying to heal them while Marco distracted it.
"AHH I'M GONNA DIE!" Marco shouted, just barely missing an attack from the tank.
"COME ON BERT, HEAL ME." Reiner yelled as Bertholdt came up closer to him.
"AHHH! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING!" Bertholdt yelled as he attempted to not get killed. The sound of the witch's cry grew louder as Marco moved away from the tank. Marco stopped moving to shoot at it and it charged towards him in the same moment, blasting his character back, and into some object. The caption "You startled the witch!" Popped up on Marco's screen, along with the ear piercing scream.
"NO!" Marco yelled, his character immediately falling over. "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!? IT THREW ME INTO THE WITCH, IS THAT EVEN REAL?"
Jean started laughing at him, while the tank and witch moved onto their last target. Bertholdt let out a shaky breath as he began to heal Reiner's character. He groaned in a panic as the two creatures both charged at him, at the same time Reiner was finally healed. Just as Reiner's character got on his feet, him and Bertholdt were both killed instantly. The four of them groaned in unison, Jean tossing his controller to the side.
"WE WERE RIGHT THERE! RIGHT THERE!" Reiner exclaimed.
Bertholdt let out a breath, setting the controller next to him. "Sorry, I haven't played this before."
"Nah it's cool, we probably would've lived if Marco could've fucking pressed X."
"Jean, I swear to god, I will shove this controller so far up your ass, you're going to have to press the X button to fucking shit." Marco remarked.
The four of them all bickered about what they could've done differently, deciding to wait a little before starting up a new round. Reiner rested his head back into the couch, his eyes glancing over at the clock. "It's getting late, which one of us is gonna drop the dorks off?"
Jean shrugged. "I'm cool with it if you want to chill out here. I can just drop them off on my way back home."
Marco and Bertholdt exchanged a look. "Ah, we can just walk, you don't have to take us."
"Yeah, we walked here anyway." Bertholdt added.
"No offense, but with how late it is, you guys probably wouldn't make it back. The two of you are hardly intimidating at all." Jean stated. "I mean, I bet if someone did attack you two, you'd both apologize for inconveniencing them."
"In that case, yeah, drive us home then." Marco responded with, sounding a little offended. Jean chuckled to his tone and turned to Reiner and Bertholdt.
"Well, I've got some time before I gotta go, so whenever you're sick of us, just kick us out."
"I can't just send you out?" Reiner retorted, getting a laugh from everyone but Jean. The four of them continued to talk for a while longer, getting on subjects that were popular in the news, along with talking about moral values, and then to just stupid stuff about movies and people. It didn't seem like that much time had passed, but it was already pretty late before they knew it. Jean made a comment about the time and Reiner had finally suggested that they should probably leave. They all said their goodbye's to Reiner and the three then headed towards the door.
"This was a lot of fun, we should do this again sometime." Jean stated. Marco and Bertholdt both agreed and Reiner smiled.
"I'm almost always free, just text me when you guys are." They nodded and Jean gave a wave.
"Time to go back home and hope I don't have a million missed calls from the beast now." He looked at Reiner. "Oh, and text me later about what we talked about earlier." Reiner took a quick glance at Bertholdt, staring at his figure for a short second and then back to Jean. His heart skipped with the thought of what it might have been. He think he already knew the answer to it, and he didn't want to hear it from Jean either.