Tumblr prompt: "So are you guys dating, or?"
One rainy day
If Ymir had taken the time to look at her rear view mirror instead of browsing Historia's new Instagram photo's; she would've seen the split-second kiss that happened between her brat of a cousin and the punk ice queen of Maria High school. She would've teased Eren relentlessly about it until he probably snapped, and then proceed to tease him even more.
But she hadn't. From her perspective, the kiss never happened. So when Eren trudged over to her busted Subaru, and yanked open the door to the passenger's seat—a sour look plastered on his face, and a frown tugging his lips—her first reaction, as the older, more mature cousin, was to ask him what was wrong.
"Yo," She jutted her chin at him. "What crawled up your ass and died?"
Eren's reply was an offish wave of his hand—an -I-don't-care-I-don't-want-to-talk-about-it—kind of gesture, though he still appeared bothered by something. It was evident in the way he nervously chewed on his bottom lip, and that jittery leg thing he did whenever he got anxious. Though Ymir wasn't the overbearing type—not when it came to Eren, at least. That was Mikasa's forte. So she started the car, and let the silence hang over them for a little longer.
Then mother nature decided to be that asshole, and send the ocean down on them—it started to pour so much that her windshield wipers became a blur with the speed they were going at. Ymir cursed, letting up on the gas some.
"Shit, looks like I gotta' go grandma speed." The heavy patter of rain on the rooftop of her car, and the rumble of thunder up ahead along with the thrum of the engine drowned out her hearing, she almost didn't catch Eren's low somber voice among it all.
"Sorry, what was that?" Ymir kept her eyes fixed on the wet, gleaming pavement ahead of them, but she inclined her head to indicate she was listening. "Couldn't hear ya'."
Eren turned away from her—or as much as he could in the narrow space between them. "Nothing. I didn't say anything."
"Yes you did." She huffed irritably, slapped her hand on the wheel for emphasis. "Stop being so emo, and just tell me what's bothering you."
Eren remained stubbornly quiet—just as she expected him to. But then he sighed, sinking back into his seat as if willing it to swallow him whole. "It's a girl." Was all he said, and then it just suddenly clicked to Ymir.
"Ah."
"Yeah…"
She drummed her fingers thoughtfully on the steering wheel, squinting at the rear view mirror as a white pick-up truck suddenly tailgated her, "So, what about this girl," Ymir eyed the pick-up truck with a grimace as it's driver recklessly sped passed her. "Asshole."
Eren shrugged. "She goes to my school, we have some of the same classes."
"She a friend?"
"Yeah…was," Another shrug, "Sort of."
Eren scratched at his arm, "We kind of had a falling out."
"Damn, what happened?"
He sighed heavily, an indication that he did not want to go over the details—but at the same time, he wanted to shout it into her face, regardless if she were going to listen or not. "She…had met someone else…"
The stoplight flashed yellow, Ymir slowed the Subaru, and at red, she finally turned to Eren who looked too sad, and withered for a sixteen-year-old boy. She felt a surge of sympathy for him—Ymir was not a motherly type, but she was still protective of anyone within her small circle.
"So were you guys dating, or…" She trailed off, Eren hung his head, shook it once to mean no.
"We weren't dating, but we had something." He said, licked his lips. "It wasn't a relationship, you know? It was just—" He waved a careless hand around, dropped it onto his lap, "We just messed around for a year, It was all fun, and bullshit."
Ymir pondered what he said for a moment. Gazing out the blurry windshield. Eren nabbed at the silence, not wanting to drop the topic just yet. "But I started to like her." Ymir glanced at him—though the light had turned green, and so her focus had to be solely on getting them home safely.
"I started to… really like her, and care about her, even…and I actually thought," He stopped, then scoffed like he heard a joke. "I thought she was starting to like me too."
Though the rain was loud, and heavy—like millions of pebbles being pelted on her car—she still heard that little sob from her left, that he quickly covered up with sharp humorless laugh. "Man, what a joke."
At the next red light, Ymir twisted in her seat, and pulled him into a quick hug—one arm around his shoulders. It was a little awkward, but she didn't know what else she could do. She pulled back, and Eren gave this offish expression.
"What?!" Ymir exclaimed, "I'm trying to comfort you!"
He rolled his eyes, shaking her off and settling back into his seat. "You don't understand."
"I understand that you guys thought being friends with benefits was a good idea," She quipped, Eren folded his arms, eyebrows drawn down in irritation. "But you had to go and catch feelings, and you know that never plays out right, don't you watch movies, kid?"
"I didn't catch feelings." He grumbled. Ymir had the gull to laugh at his petulant child appearance. "Oh, come on."
He huffed, "Girls are difficult."
"Nah, you just fail to comprehend us."
"It's bullshit."
Ymir laughed again. "Anyway, who's the mystery girl who broke your heart?"
Eren waited for just the right time—when the light turned green—to tell her. She nearly hit the brakes when she heard the name, causing the wheels to skid sideways, but she hastily regained control, for the sake of their both their lives.
Eren grappled the arms of his seat. "Jesus—Ymir! Watch the fucking road!"
"Holy hell, seriously?" She gawked, "Annie Leonhardt? The queen of Ice? The nose girl? The one with piercings, and tattoos? The one who always hung out with those two meatheads. Reiner and Bert? Dude— I remember even as a senior, I wanted to keep out of her way."
He rolled his eyes once more, scoffing, "Oh, Trust me. She's not who you see her as. I would know."
"Still, props to you for even striking anything with that girl, she's like walking dynamite. Or a witch, I heard she beat up five dudes in a McDonald's parking lot, once."
"…She is more like a puppet," Eren mumbled, "See, she likes to pretend to be something she's not, she follows other people around to easily, she gives in to easily, it's likeshe doesn't have any freewill of her own."
"Uh-huh...I'm gonna' take a wild guess that you went ahead and told her that?"
Eren looked away, hurtfully. A little red in the face. "I was just trying to look out for her…"
Ymir drummed her fingers on the wheel, pursed her lips I thought. "Alright, look, I'm gonna' let you in on a little secret. If there is one thing a girl does not like, it's being called out on their faults."
"Nobody likes that."
"Yeah, but girls especially don't like it." Ymir tutted her tongue, "Historia didn't like it. But she still forgave me."
"Chris—Historia is a different story, a different person. She's not afraid to face her fears, Annie on the other hand..." He quieted down, "I mean she's strong, physically…but mentally, she's…she's wasting away."
Cookie cutter red stone American houses were coming into view faster than Ymir thought, she could see their own shabby home another couple of blocks away—home sweet home—even through the water smeared windshield. The peaceful suburbia they lived in was drenched and smelt of wet lawn grass, she pulled into the driveway. Eren was the first to leave the car, reaching back into the seat to snatch his bag—Ymir caught his arm. "Hey," She cleared her throat. "I know you clearly cared for this girl. You're, uh, you're hurt and all. But, for the sake of your own mental health...you gotta' move on."
Eren stared at her, tired lines under his eyes more prominent than ever, covered by wet clumps of brown hair. But there was some recognition there, that he realized what she was saying. Regardless Eren was too goddamn stubborn to listen.
"I don't want to get over her," He spoke through clenched teeth, "I want to protect her." Then he grabbed his bag, turned his back to her, and stormed into the garage, slamming the screen door that lead to the living room shut. Ymir watched him, dropping her head back into the seat. Thinking, regrettably, of the pure teenage angst she was going to have to deal with.
