Chapter Eighteen

Annie was already at the lunch table when Armin got there on Monday…and she was sitting in Bertolt's usual spot. "Um, hi." He said as he sat in his own spot, setting his lunch bag on the table.

"Hi, Armin." She replied.

"You uh…feeling something different today?" He was perplexed. Why had she moved?

"You've got to be kidding me." Armin looked up to see a very irritated looking Bertolt standing there staring at Annie. He seemed to be deciding on something before letting out a huff and sitting next to Armin, where Historia normally sat. Mikasa joined them soon after, merely raising an eyebrow at the situation as she took her own seat.

"Oh, lunch table shuffle!" Ymir called out. "Where should I sit?"

"Wherever you want." Historia replied, sitting in Annie's regular seat.

"Let's mix things up and get hetero up in here!" Ymir plunked down next to Bertolt, making him look even more irritated.

"What is happening here?" Reiner asked as he walked up. "Ymir, move."

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to. I'm bonding with Bert today."

"What?"

"Eren, you can sit by me." Annie spoke up, patting the empty spot next to her. Armin and Mikasa looked at each other before looking at Eren. He seemed to be considering it. It would be a terrible decision. It would only stoke Bertolt's anger. Mikasa and Eren seemed to be having an argument via facial expressions, and clearly, Eren lost.

"Oh, um…" Eren broke out in a sweat. Armin had never thought the cafeteria could get so complicated.

"Or you could sit with me!" Historia chirped up.

"Yeah, and Reiner can sit with Annie." Ymir added.

"Don't tell me where to sit." Reiner looked offended.

"Just sit in the fucking seat!" Bertolt snapped, slamming his hands on the table. His outburst made Armin jump. Mikasa tensed up next to him, and placed a hand over his. Everyone looked shocked. Armin had known Bertolt for years. He'd never heard him speak like that before. Without a word, Eren walked around the table and sat down next to Historia. Reiner moved to sit next to Annie, but at the last second, she slid over so that she was still next to Eren, just not on the same bench. Reiner huffed before finally sitting down. They all began to eat silently. The tension was palpable and Armin hated it. He hated feeling like he was walking on eggshells. He felt a strong urge to run, just bolt out of there. Just when the silence began to feel unbearable, Ymir spoke up.

"So, guess where I'm going for Christmas!"

"The zoo, where you belong." Reiner muttered.

"No, but a gold star for the insult." Ymir grinned.

"The beach?" Armin asked, relief washing over him. Leave it to Ymir to diffuse the tension with something so mundane.

"Nope!"

"The cliff face where you hatched?" Eren pondered.

"Ouch. What did I do to you?" Ymir crossed her arms.

"I just assumed all chaos harpies hatched from eggs perched in precariously high places." Eren shrugged.

Ymir was silent for a moment. "That's fair." She finally replied. "But still not where I'm going."

"Is it somewhere fun?" Bertolt asked softly.

Ymir thought about it for a moment. "I guess it depends on your definition of fun."

"Is it your grandmother's house?" Annie asked. "The one that lives by the casino and smuggles you in?"

"BINGO!" Ymir slapped her hand on the table. "You know me so well, Anniepoo."

"Do not call me that."

"How does your grandmother smuggle you into a casino?" Eren asked.

"It's easy when you don't have a baby face…unlike some people."

Historia let out a huff. "She dresses her up like an old lady and says it's her sister from out of town. The employees are too embarrassed to card old women in babushkas, so they waltz right in. It's also stupid and illegal." She looked pointedly at Ymir.

"I think someone's jealous that she has a baby face." Annie replied. Historia scowled.

"There's nothing wrong with having a baby face." Armin cut in. "My grandfather says it will come in handy some day."

"For what?" Annie furrowed her brow.

"Obviously not criminal enterprises." Historia barked.

"Sneaking into a casino is hardly a criminal enterprise." Ymir rolled her eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes at me."

Armin glanced at Mikasa. Now Historia was getting snippy? What on earth was going on? Maybe they could all use a break. Just then, the bell rang and they all began to leave. "What a crazy day." Mikasa whispered to Armin.

"Tell me about it. Break cannot come soon enough."

"What are you talking about?" Eren jogged to catch up to them.

"How rude it is to barge into conversations." Mikasa said as she threw her trash out.

"Shut up. No you weren't." Eren also dumped his trash. "Everyone seems wound up. I wonder which mild mannered person will snap next." Eren ruffled Armin's hair. "Will it be you?"

Armin smacked his hand away. "Keep messing around and you'll find out." They came to the split in the hallway where Eren and Mikasa went one way while Armin went the other.

"See you later. Don't freak out without me there." Eren waved.

"Oh, shut up." Armin huffed.

"You shouldn't tell him to shut up." Annie appeared at his side.

"I'll tell him what I want. He was my friend long before he was your boyfriend."

That made Annie blush a deep red. "He's not my boyfriend." She muttered before rushing towards the girl's locker room.

"Yet!" Armin called after her.

Annie stopped at the door and spun around. "At least if I start dating Eren, I won't have to keep it a secret."

"I'm sure you won't. But what I do is none of your business."

"Yes, you've made that abundantly clear." She spun and walked into the girl's locker room.

"Armin, are you fighting with Annie?"

Armin jumped and whirled around. "Jesus Christ, Jean! Don't sneak up on people like that!"

Jean jumped back. "I'm sorry!"

"It's fine." They walked into the boy's locker room. "And I don't really know. Everyone seems to be fighting with everyone. Except Annie and Eren…who will probably be dating soon."

"That…is the strangest combination of people dating. What do they even see in each other?"

"I couldn't tell you. Especially since she was insulting Eren only a couple weeks ago." They changed quickly and headed to class, where they were met by Ymir.

"Is Annie genuinely making a move on Eren, or just trying to piss off Bertolt?" She asked.

"I have no idea." Armin shrugged.

"Well, you should tell him to stay away from our lunch period for a few days. Let everyone simmer down."

"Why do you care? I thought you liked drama." Jean narrowed his eyes.

"I care because the stress is making my girlfriend lash out, and an angry Historia is the last thing any of us need…especially me."

"I should have known it was purely out of self-interest."

"Listen, bonehead." Ymir snapped. Jean looked taken aback. Armin was used to people snapping today. "Just make sure when you guys leave your lunch, that he doesn't hang around the cafeteria, capiche?"

"Okay, okay." Jean held his hands up.

"I mean, the music and choir rooms are right next to each other. You could literally drag him." Armin said, trying to be helpful. Ymir wasn't wrong. Eren should stay away.

"That is a concerning level of aggression coming from you, Armin." Jean said softly.

"You have no idea how much pent-up aggression I have. I'm only five foot four after all." He replied cheerfully before walking off to join Annie and Historia.

"Why are men so irritating?" Annie asked pointedly as Armin walked up.

"Well, you see the problem is you're not dealing with men. You're dealing with little boys." Historia replied. "Hi, Armin!" she smiled at him.

"Some of them certainly are little." Annie put a hand on her hip and looked Armin up and down.

"You used to be into little men." Armin replied.

"I got over it."

"I see you got over tall men pretty quickly, too." Armin crossed his arms. "Or is it that you're just into brunettes? You go through men so fast, it's hard to keep track."

Historia's eyes grew wide as Annie scoffed. "I never thought you could be mean."

"Well, keep poking a dog and eventually it'll lash out." Annie just turned on her heel and walked away.

"Everyone is certainly in a bad mood today." Historia sighed.

"And it's only Monday." Armin replied.

That made Historia giggle. "Only one more week until break though."

"It cannot come fast enough." Gym class flew by and soon enough, Armin was walking into study hall. "Eren, I need to talk to you."

"About what?" Eren looked up from his doodling.

"You need to go to your music class for the rest of the week." He slid into the desk next to Eren.

"What? Why?"

Armin stared at him and blinked several times. "You mean besides the fact that you should be going to the classes you are scheduled for and being graded on rather than taking a double lunch?"

"Shut up." Eren huffed, slumping in his seat.

"Eren-"

"Stop coming to our lunch and stirring the shit pot." Mikasa sat down in front of Eren.

"But I'm not-"

"Shush!" The study hall proctor glared at him.

"Sorry!" Eren dropped his tone of voice. "But I'm not stirring the shit pot."

"Maybe not, but Annie is, and she's using you to do it."

"Yeah, she really seems to be trying to piss off Bertolt." Armin added. "And I don't want her to wind him up so much that he ends up punching you as a result."

"You really think he would punch me?"

"It's possible." Armin said with a shrug.

"We've never seen him this angry. We don't know what he's capable of." Mikasa stated.

Eren sighed. "Man, I really hate that music class."

"It's for four days." Mikasa clearly had no sympathy for Eren.

"Then, we're off for two weeks, and hopefully everything will have blown over by the time we get back." Armin reached over and patted Eren on the shoulder.

"No touching!" the proctor barked.

"Sorry!" Armin called, pulling his hand away. He looked around the room. "Hey, is Sasha absent today?"

Eren and Mikasa both looked around. "She was in trig this morning." Mikasa shrugged.

"And gym." Eren added.

"Then why isn't she here?" Armin asked.

"Maybe she went home early?" Eren shrugged.

"You guys didn't hear what happened?" Hannah asked from her seat in front of Mikasa.

"No." Armin said.

"Obviously not." Mikasa chimed in.

"It was awful." Mina was sitting beside Hannah.

"What happened?" Eren asked.

"Sasha tried to ask out Connie." Hannah said.

"And ended up vomiting all over him instead." Mina finished. "They both went home early."

Armin and Eren both winced. Poor Sasha. "That's terrible."

"Poor Connie." Eren replied. "Well, it's certainly not an ideal situation. When did it happen?"

"After 5th period. Hannah saw the whole thing."

"I felt so bad for her. She just started crying and ran off." Hannah sounded sad.

"I'd have done the same thing." Mina sighed. "I would have been mortified."

"Do we know how Connie answered?" Eren asked.

"Eren." Mikasa scolded.

"I highly doubt he had time to give an answer." Armin said.

"After that whole depressing story, THAT'S what you want to know?" Mikasa crossed her arms.

"What? I just wanted to know if everyone was getting into relationships."

"Speaking of, we heard you're dating Annie." Mina cut in.

"No, I'm not."

"Yet." Armin added.

"Don't say that. I don't know if I'm going to date Annie. Depends on if she asks or not."

"You can't expect the girl to ask." Hannah sounded offended.

"Why not?" Mikasa shot back.

"Because it's not proper. I mean, look at what happened to Sasha."

"I highly doubt that's why she vomited." Mikasa rolled her eyes.

"But it's a sign."

"So, what? Because we're born female, we don't get to have a say in our own lives? We're just supposed to sit back and wait for some man to figure it out? That's stupid. If I like someone enough to want to date them, I'm going to tell them so. People aren't mind readers." It was Mikasa's turn to sound offended. "I feel bad for what happened to Sasha, but it wasn't some cosmic sign that she needed to get back in her womanly place. It was nerves and the fact that she most likely ate too much at lunch."

"Cat fight." Eren whispered.

"Shut up, Eren." Mikasa snapped at him before turning back to Hannah. "You really want to wait around for an idiot like this to get a clue?" She pointed her thumb back at Eren.

"Hey!"

"Shhhh!" the proctor scolded.

"But what if the guys says no?" Hannah asked. "It sounds humiliating."

"It's still better than pining for some clueless jackass. We've got to take some initiatives in our lives. We're modern women."

Hannah seemed to be mulling over what Mikasa had said. Finally, she turned to Mina. "I'm going to need you to help me with something."

"Anything." Mina answered.

"I'll tell you after school."

"What do you think they're going to do?" Eren whispered, having leaned in close to Armin.

Armin just stared at him. Sometimes, Eren could be so thick. "Sacrifice virgins to the moon goddess."

Eren's eyes grew wide. "Really?"

"Yeah, so you'd better be on guard." Armin said just as the bell rang.

"Hey, uncalled for! And if that's the case, then the same applies to you."

Armin couldn't resist the temptation to mess with Eren. He made himself such an easy target sometimes. He gave Eren a wry smirk. "Who said I'm still a virgin?" He had to fight the urge to laugh at Eren's face. Eren's jaw dropped open, his eyes were huge, his face growing red. Eren looked around the room, clearly looking for someone. Mikasa had already left the room.

"Did you fuck my sister, Arlert?"

"I don't think that's any of your business, Eren." Armin continued to smirk.

"No. No way! You would have told me." Eren shook his head in disbelief.

"I guess you'll have to live your life not knowing." Armin gathered up his things and stood up.

"Ugh. Yuck! That's not a mental image I want in my head." Eren actually gagged a little as they walked out the door.

"Then, stop thinking about it, you pervert."

"Why is Eren being a pervert now?" Mikasa asked from behind them.

Both boys jumped. "I'm not a pervert!" Eren exclaimed.

"Uh huh. Then why did Armin call you one?" She put a hand on her hip.

"Because he's a dickhead." Eren replied.

"Because he's thinking of Hannah and Mina doing virgin sacrifices." Armin said, trying to cover. Mikasa couldn't know that Armin knew that Eren knew. She'd kill both of them.

"Who are they sacrificing? Themselves?" Mikasa rolled her eyes as she started walking.

"Armin said me." Eren chased after her. "I said Armin should also be included in that but he's claiming he has dipped his wick."

"Eren!" Armin exclaimed, turning red.

"Did you know anything about that, Mikasa?" Eren smirked. Was Eren trying to get them smacked?

Mikasa slowly turned to look at Armin. "Did more happen with Annie than you've let on, Armin?"

"I hate both of you." Armin stalked off towards the door.

"No, you don't!" Mikasa called after him.

"Armin, wait up! I was just kidding!" Eren chased after him.

"What, Eren?"

"You will tell me, if it actually happens, won't you?"

"You mean, when?"

"No, I mean if. At least if it's with Mikasa." Eren grinned.

"Shut up." Armin huffed, stomping off towards home.