The One With the New Roommate
Sasha barged through the coffee shop, hair disheveled, zipping her way to the soft, orange couch and into the banana muffin sitting prettily in the coffee table. Until Connie snatched it away from her.
"Woah, careful, this is their last muffin."
"Aw, come on, Connie, I haven't eaten since lunch!" Sasha huffs, plopping herself next to Armin who glances at her, tearing his eyes away from reading a journal on the latest archaeological discoveries. "Hey, Sash! Man, you look like you ran from the restaurant all the way here."
"Oh God, today was such a busy day, I even forgot to eat! Me! Forgetting to eat! The other chef, Mina, was on sick leave, Shadis was driving me mad, and patrons never stopped pouring in today!"
"You're a chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant, what do you really expect? You should have stayed a bit to eat, you know," Jean, who was sitting cross-legged on a chair flipping through a magazine, replied.
"I had to get out of there as soon as my shift ended, Shadis just might ask me to work overtime. I was exhausted to the bone I feel like dropping dead!" Sasha glances once more at the muffin and at Connie, who finally relented and gave her half. No, more like a quarter.
It was already dark outside when Eren entered the coffee shop, walking slowly as if in a daze. "Hi," Eren addressed his friends lounging in the sought-after area in the coffee shop, looking like he's about to cry.
Sasha turned her head to face him. "Oh, hey," she stood up and hugged him.
"You know, when I look at you, I get reminded of my problems again," Connie commented.
Sasha led Eren to sit in the couch between her and Armin. "Give him a break, he just finished moving out of Historia's place today."
"Shit man, sorry. We'll help you move into your new apartment," Jean tells Eren. "Although—" he said, holding back a laugh, "—you never really knew she was a lesbian?"
Eren's face quickly shifted from a teary-eyed puppy to a raging titan. "Shut up, horseface. I already told you, she never realized it until I introduced Ymir to her at our high school alumni party," Eren said, looking down at his hands. "Sometimes I want to strangle her but she makes Historia really happy."
"Well, at least you're not married yet. Imagine getting divorced at 27!" Connie said, laughing as he throws his head back, clearly an attempt to lighten the mood. They just glared at him. "You know what, yes, we'll just help you with your new apartment."
"You sure you don't want to stay with me in my apartment?" Sasha turned to Eren while rubbing his arm in a half-hug. It might not be a good idea to leave her cousin alone right now. She imagines it must be really hard for Eren ending his relationship with his first girlfriend ever.
"Yeah, Eren, I think it's better for you to stay with Sasha in the meantime," Armin looks at him with worried eyes.
"No, I'm fine, really. I am actually happy for them, you know, after everything that's happened. I think I kind of saw it coming months ago," Eren breathes deeply. "I just need a bit of time alone." Yes, what he said is all true. The past months since their break-up, Eren realized that Historia becoming distant to him coincided with her frequent visits to Ymir. No, Jean was wrong. He was just in denial.
"Good, because I already offered the room to someone else."
Everyone threw a look at Sasha. "What? Am I really that hard to live with that you guys thought I won't get a roommate?"
"No, not that. I thought you didn't want to live with someone else?" Armin asked.
Sasha sips her coffee. "Yeah, well, this is sort of an exception. Remember my best friend Mikasa from high school?" She eyes Armin and Eren.
The blond's eyes grew, now officially abandoning his journal. "Mikasa? As in our Mikasa Ackerman? Is she here in New York? Why didn't she tell me? Also, she was our best friend first before she was yours."
Sasha rolled her eyes. "Not yet, but she's coming back. She doesn't have a Facebook account, and she reached me through email. I mean, who uses email as her primary means of contacting old friends? And she was so formal, too! 'Hi Sasha, I hope this email finds you well.'" she said, all while demonstrating her best imitation of Mikasa's gentle but deep voice.
Eren couldn't believe what he was hearing. Mikasa? Back here? Wow, it's been nine years since he last saw her. He never thought she will see her again. Hell, he can't even remember the last time he talked to her. Everyone just kind of lost touch with her.
Suddenly, his brain conjured the face he probably would forever remember—her almond-shaped dark gray eyes, pointed nose, pink lips, her raven hair falling past her shoulders. After all these years, Eren still remembers how beautiful she was.
He also remembered that sinking feeling in his stomach when Mikasa told him one starry night in the park that she will be leaving for Japan permanently to live with her aunt, and will be finishing her last year in high school there.
"…so yes, she'll be living with me in the meantime," Sasha finishes.
Jean throws a crumpled piece of paper to Eren. "Hey, your mouth is open. I didn't think you'd look even more stupid," he cackled. Eren is pulled out of his reverie, and Armin was eyeing him warily. Of course he also remembers. He used to force Eren to confess his feelings to Mikasa, but Eren thought against it, deciding that it will just be for naught since they won't see each other again. Ever.
How wrong he was.
Suddenly, a short man smacked Connie in the back of his head. "Oi, hairless brat, I told you to dust off your shoes before entering the shop." Okay, they did not realize that Levi, the owner of the coffee shop, was hovering, listening to their conversation.
"Levi, your coffee shop will still be the most immaculate in all of Manhattan, even with my dusty shoes," Connie said before standing up and going outside to, yes, dust his shoes off as thoroughly as he can manage.
Before Levi can retort, Sasha butt in with pleading eyes. "Sorry, Levi! Please don't take away our couch privileges." As much as Levi hated to admit, he has grown fond of these young adults always hanging out in his coffee shop. It just made the place a bit livelier. He reserved the couch, side table and armchair every after office hours when he knows the kids will come. They have sort of become a permanent fixture there, too.
"Tch," was all he said before going back to the counter to serve other customers. Levi could get really grumpy and intimidating, glaring at customers when he's not in the mood—which appears to be every fucking day. Even Eren, Jean and Connie, who are taller than Levi, are scared of him, making sure that they enter the shop without leaving muddy footprints. Sometimes, they wonder how he still manages to get customers. "Maybe it's because it's so clean," Armin once theorized.
"Okay, I have to go now. I need to at least make the other room decent before Mikasa arrives," Sasha said, hugging Eren and Armin before leaving. Connie and Jean, who lived across the hall from Sasha, soon followed, leaving Armin and Eren behind. Eren was still speechless, still thinking about his first -cringe- love.
"Hey, you okay?" Armin asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Look, I already moved on from Mikasa."
Armin flashed his look-I-know-everything smile. "I was actually thinking about your break-up with Historia, but yeah, that, too. God knows how long you weren't able to move on from that."
This sneaky little shit. "I told you, I'm okay." To be really honest, he doesn't know how he feels, or what to feel, with the deluge of information today. He needs time to process them. Maybe a week will do.
"Okay then. I also need to go now. We have this big event at the museum tomorrow, lots of scientists will be visiting." Before standing up, Armin turned to Eren. "If you need someone to talk to, you know that we're here for you, okay?"
Eren nodded. Turns out, he won't get a week to process things.
A/N: First of all, this is my very first fic EVER! I never thought I'd be writing one, but here we are. Apologies for any errors, I will be editing/correcting them along the way. I'm still finding my style, and I hope I get to do that with this one.
Second, I LOVE Friends. It got me through some of the toughest times of my life. So when I decided that I'm going to write a fic, it had to be about the SNK gang, and in a Friends AU— a story about friendship, romance, and funny things in between. Totally no titans. The characters might be a bit OOC, but then I think they will be if they lived in another lifetime and AU. I hope you don't mind.
And given my newbie status, I opted to just adopt some of the storylines of Friends (I get shocked at how similar they sometimes are haha), since I admittedly need a sort of framework and for me not to struggle so much. On one hand, this fic takes a bit more serious tone, since I'm not witty unlike the Friends writers who are totally on another level, and effective jokes are 50% wit and 50% delivery.
Lastly, I will have to see whether I'll continue this in the long run, depending on your feedback and my time, with school and work and all.
So yeah, hope you can leave your thoughts here, and maybe you have an idea what to call Levi's coffee shop because I've been racking my brains to no avail :D