Sometimes Two Homes Are Better Than One

Armin POV

In the end, there wasn't a more masculine version of a Tinker Belle costume, so Mom agreed to make one. Armin had to admit that he was actually excited about it. That hadn't happened since he was little. Halloween had become something rather stupid to care about, given his circumstances. They were sat at the lunch table on Monday afternoon, Sasha babbling away about modifications she was going to make to her costume when suddenly, Jean spoke up. It made Armin jump. Jean so rarely spoke that Armin sometimes forgot he was there, like today.

"Mikasa." Jean said.

"What?" Mikasa asked flatly, placing a hand over Armin's after noticing him jump.

"I'm having a Halloween party this year."

"Okay."

"I was wondering if you'd like to come?"

"Probably not."

"Oh." Jean's face fell slightly, but he recovered quickly. "Well, take an invitation anyway." He pulled a stack of small cards from his bag. "Here, there's some for all of you." He passed a few invitations to each of them. "Invite your friends. The more the merrier."

Armin stared at him. "You must be pretty desperate to invite me."

"Why would you say that?" Jean asked.

"Because I'm a nobody. No, I'm less than nobody."

"Armin-" Mikasa started.

"You're not nobody. You're my friend." Jean answered.

Armin raised an eyebrow. "We're friends?"

"Of course you're my friend. I wouldn't sit with you guys if I didn't consider you my friends."

The other three exchanged looks. Armin felt kind of bad. Here Jean was thinking they were friends and Armin hadn't even remembered he was sitting at the table with them. "I thought you sat here because-" Mikasa began but Armin cut her off, knowing that sentence wasn't going to end nicely.

"Well, I'm glad we're friends. I'll be at your party. And we'll invite Eren, right Mikasa? I'm sure he'll know lots of people to invite." Armin smiled at Jean. In a rare event, Jean smiled back.

"If you say so, Armin." Mikasa sighed.

"I'm not sure I have any friends to invite that aren't already here, but I'll definitely be there." Sasha flipped one of the cards over and gasped. "It's a COSTUME PARTY?" She looked up and locked eyes with Armin. Armin gasped slightly at the intensity in her eyes. "Armin! We can wear our costumes to a real party!"

"Yeah!" Armin smiled at her. But given Jean's reaction, Armin wasn't sure it was going to be a party like Sasha was thinking. Jean was sort of lower on the social food chain than Armin and Sasha at the moment. While people just didn't care about them, people actively disliked Jean, Eren included. He had an abrasive personality and was not very likeable. Armin didn't think a lot of people were going to be there.

"Oh, here!" Jean leaned over and handed some invitations to Hannah and Franz at the other end of the table. "You guys are invited too, of course. Invite some friends."

"Oh. Thanks, Jean." Hannah smiled. "We'll see if we're free."

The bell rang and they all stood up. "See you guys later." Jean waved.

"He's so chipper. I don't like it." Mikasa said as they cleaned up their trash and headed to English.

"You don't like when anyone is chipper." Armin replied.

"Eren isn't going to want to go to that stupid party."

"I'll convince him."

"If you say so." She shrugged.

"Stop saying that." Armin said as they reached their classroom. "Hey, Eren! I was wondering if I could come over after school today?"

"Of course, you can!" Eren raced to the front of the room. "Mom, can Eren come over after school?"

"If it's okay with his mother." She answered without looking up from her desk.

Eren looked back at Armin, who just shrugged. "I guess we'll see."

Mrs. Jaeger shook her head. "The pair of you, I swear." Eren just grinned at Armin.

After school, Armin raced to Mom's car, Eren in hot pursuit. "Mom! Can I go to Eren's? His mom will drive us there."

"Oh. How will you get home?"

Armin suppressed a sigh. His mother really had turned into a control freak when it came to him. "You could come pick me up?"

"But what about Sasha?"

Shit. She had him there. It would be rude to expect Sasha to just walk home. But Mikasa saved the entire enterprise. "Sasha's coming over to my house."

"She is?" Mom asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I am?" Sasha asked. Armin shot her a pleading look. "I mean, I am. I totally am."

Mom was suspicious, Armin could tell. She was also grasping at straws now. "Why can't Eren come over to our house?"

"Because we already asked Mrs. Jaeger and she's expecting us." Armin dropped his voice. "Mom, please?"

"Mrs. Arlert, you know I would never let anything happen to Armin." Eren slung an arm around Armin's shoulders and gave Mom his thousand-kilowatt smile. His charm worked again.

Mom sighed. "Alright, you can go for a little while. But I want you to text me when you leave the school and when you get to the house."

"Of course, Mom."

"Alright. I love you, sweetheart."

"I love you, too, Mom." He smiled at her.

Reluctantly, she put the car in drive. "Have a nice time."

"See you later, Mom." He waved as she drove out of the parking lot.

"She sure wants you to text a lot." Eren sighed.

"She wants to make sure I don't walk to your house." Armin said flatly, watching to make sure his mom made the turn towards home.

"Mom would kill me if I had you walk to the house." Eren answered.

"I can't believe she is actually letting me." Armin grinned, turning to look at Eren. "I'm sure she'll come get me as soon as I text that I'm at the house, but I can't believe she's actually letting me go."

"Let's make sure Mom has lots of work to do here, then." Eren laughed.

"Am I actually going to your house?" Sasha asked Mikasa.

"I don't know. Do you want to?"

Sasha was quiet. "I don't know."

"You probably should. Mom's likely to go collect you after she collects me." Armin sighed.

"What? Is she Sasha's mother now?" Mikasa asked.

"Honestly, I don't even know at this point." Armin shook his head. "She always wanted a daughter." Eren laughed. Mikasa huffed.

"She was never like that with me."

"Oh, yes she was. It's just been a while." Eren said.

"I think she just feels bad because I don't have a mother." Sasha said simply.

They all looked at her. Sasha never talked about her mom. "What happened to your mom?" Eren asked.

"Eren!" Mikasa scolded, elbowing him in the ribs.

"Ow! What? Oh." Eren realized what he had done. "Sasha, I'm sorry. You don't have to talk about it."

"Oh no! It's fine! She's alive, as far as I know. She just…didn't want to be a mother. She met Papa at a bar and they had a weekend together. They never meant to see each other again." She shrugged. "She was going to give me up for adoption, but Papa wanted me. He always wanted a family."

Armin could tell she was upset, but he didn't think it had to do with her mother. "Well, your family is just right the way it is. How the universe thought it should be." Eren shot him a look, but it made Sasha smile.

"Thanks, Armin."

"Hey, if you see my mom, tell her I'm walking home and that I have a stray." Mikasa said before Armin could answer Sasha.

"Oh, I am coming home with you." Sasha said.

"If you can keep up." Mikasa had already started walking and Sasha rushed to catch up.

"Wait, don't you have soccer practice?" Eren called after her.

"Coach gave us the day off!"

"Really? That's weird." Eren shook his head before turning his attention to Armin. "Armin?"

"Yes, Eren?"

"What the hell was that? I thought you said that the universe-"

"Doesn't care about us and is comprised of a beautiful chaos. Yeah, but that wouldn't make Sasha feel better, would it?"

Eren raised an eyebrow and then smirked. "Are you sweet on her, Ar?"

"What? No! Shut up, we're not talking about this!" Armin felt his face flush, and he wasn't sure why.

Eren laughed. "You totally are!"

"I said, we're not talking about this." Armin turned and walked back towards the building. "I have something else I want to talk about."

"What is it?" Eren jogged to catch up.

"Well, I'm going to preface this by saying that it would be a huge favor to me."

Eren stopped walking, just inside the doors. "Oh no. You didn't have another fight with Mikasa, did you?"

"No. It involves Jean Kirschstein."

"What did he do? Do you need me to kill him?"

"NO! Why do you just think I have a problem with everyone?"

"I don't know." Eren shrugged. "Recent evidence?"

Armin just shook his head. "Anyway. What I want to ask you is to come to Jean's Halloween party." Armin pulled out the invitation and held it out to Eren.

"What? No way!"

"Actually, it's worse than that." Armin said, bracing himself for the inevitable explosion that was to come. "I want you to invite other people to come."

Eren just stared at him. "So, let me get this straight. You not only want me to go to the stupid Horseface's stupid party, but you also want me to promote his stupid party to my friends?"

"That sums it up, yes." Armin was still waiting for Eren to snap, and the fact that he sounded so calm made him even more anxious.

"Absolutely not!" Eren finally exploded, making Armin jump. "No fucking way!"

A nearby classroom door opened and Mr. Bozado poked his head out. "I should have known it was you, Jaeger. Quit the profanities and behave in a manner becoming of who your mother is." That made Eren scowl. "Restrain your friend, Arlet. People are trying to work."

"It's pronounced Arlert." Eren fired back as Mr. Bozado slammed his door.

"It's fine." Armin said.

"It's not. That man is not fit to be a teacher." Eren growled as he began to stride down the hallway. "Who does he think he is?"

"Eren-"

"And who do you think you are?" Eren spun around to glare at Armin, making him stop cold.

"Please-"

"Why would you even ask me that?"

Armin sucked in a breath and mustered his resolve. "Because it might be the only real party I ever get to go to, and I already told Jean I would go!" he realized what he had said and clamped his mouth shut.

Luckily, Eren took it a different way. "Armin, there will be other parties. I know no one has invited you yet, and that's my fault. No one wants to have a party at their teacher's house. But I'm sure someone else is having a Halloween party that we could go to."

"But I already told Jean I would go to his party. I can't go back on my word. Eren, please?" Armin lowered his voice to a pleading tone, the same one he had used on Mom earlier.

"Is it really that important to you?" Eren sighed.

"Yes, it is."

"Fine. I'll do it. But make sure Horseface knows I'm not doing it for him."

Armin grinned. "Eren, you're the best." He closed the distance between them and hugged Eren.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I try." Eren hugged him back.

"Oh! Here!" Armin went into his backpack and pulled out the stack of invitations that Jean had given him.

"Oh my god! He gave you invitations?"

"Technically, all he said was to invite my friends." Armin grinned.

"You are a wily one, Armin. The true troublemaker out of us three. Because no one suspects you." Eren shook his head. "So, how was Science Club today?"

"It was fun. You should have joined instead of going to German Club to oogle Miss. Ral."

"I thoroughly enjoy oogling Miss Ral." Eren crossed his arms.

"Does Mikasa know that?" Armin smirked.

"No! And you're not going to tell her!" Eren looked a little flustered.

Armin just laughed. "Come on, let's go find your mom."