Just realized this but this story is REALLY SLOW. Like how did I not see this? Anyways, this has been a lot of "setting the stage" in terms of the various relationships in this story, but from here until the end (about 20 chapters) it's going to pick up.

Eren did two things after finals, and I was there for both of them.

The morning after our exams, he ran outside the dorm and stood in the middle of street full of people, who watched him with quiet interest. That quiet interest turned into full-out laughter and cheers when he screamed at the top of lungs,

"I'M FREE!"

That was fun, I had to admit. His second thing wasn't.

We were at a random cafe on the very edge of campus (Eren liked these out-of-the-way places, probably because they were cheap) and working on homework when he suddenly dropped a bomb on me to break the silence.

"Armin, Armin, I'm hosting a party tonight at my house. It's only, like, thirty minutes from here, so will you bring all your music geeks along?"

I choked on my coffee. "What?"

He shrugged. "Sorry, I guess I'm a music geek too."

"That's not it!" I wailed (this slightly alarmed Eren and seriously alarmed everybody else within ten feet of us). "I've literally never been to a party!"

Apart from ten-year-old birthday parties, of course, but I doubted that counted for someone so socially advanced as Eren. Sweet sixteens, celebrations, even random parties were all missing from my highschool experience. I'd never really wanted that kind of a life, but suddenly the opportunity seemed a lot more real now Eren and his undeniably cool presence had forced itself into my life.

"Oh, come on," Eren laughed. "I must have dragged you along last year for something-or-other."

"I faked sick every time," I groaned. "And you believed me."

"Right, you were sickly that year," he said with the confused air of somebody who hasn't put two and two together. "Wait - that was all fake?!"

"Sometimes I wonder how you're not flunking college," I deadpanned - or at least I tried, I may or may not have been grinning - and sipped my coffee.

"In any case, this year you actually have friends to bring along, so-"

"That's not true!" I protested, even though it probably was. All my friends were Eren's friends, who I'd met through Eren. Until, of course, the string quartet. We'd been playing together for almost two months now, and I supposed they were my friends...

With a start, I remembered what Annie had asked me to do before finals. "I've got to get three concerts by January!"

Eren gave me a strange look. "Well, that's on topic."

Like usual, the sarcasm took a few seconds to register. "I'm sorry, but she asked me to do this before finals and the term ends today!"

He shrugged. "Talk to Krista and Ymir tonight, they'll book you something. It'd give you a reason to go, anyway."

The thought of a party scared me more than it probably should have, but I was also strangely excited. Of course, there was no guarantee that Annie and company would be coming, but spending time with my "friends" outside of music was too great of a chance to resist. If anybody asked, I was going for the sole purpose of talking to Krista and Ymir.

"Sounds great," I said, trying to keep the nervousness from my voice.

Eren broke into a smile. "Look who's finally getting normal."

I was about to protest that I wasn't "normal" yet and had no intention of ever straying from my nerdiness when the door flew open with a bang to reveal Mikasa, flushed with anger and holding her phone like she wanted to murder it.

"Good morning," she spat as she seated herself stiffly into her chair. "How do you do."

"Excellent, thank you," Eren squeaked. "M-may I inquire as to what upsets you?"

Mikasa's face darkened until it resembled a thundercloud.

"Please, uh, My Lady?"

This certainly wasn't England in the 1800s, but I figured that this was just Eren's way of dealing with stress. Or Mikasa's way of dealing with anger. Either way, I wanted to extract myself from their awkward conversation before they fell into Shakespearean language, so I stayed out of it.

"Levi," she hissed out of the blue.

Eren went bright red. "Wh-what? Levi?"

"Yes, Levi." She shoved her phone in Eren's face and I tried my level best to keep my gaze away from it (don't get caught up, don't get caught up.) "Levi Ackerman."

I choked on my coffee again, but Eren didn't seem fazed either by my impending suffocation or the shocking news.

"Yeah, I always thought the last names were a coincidence, but you guys do look similar. Do you know him?"

"I'm an orphan," she growled ferociously, and Eren made an odd squawking noise. "Do you think I would know my family?"

"Yes, ma'am. I mean, no, ma'am."

"That scum is my" -she cleared her throat, as if spitting out the next words might kill her - "father's brother's son's cousin's father's sister's son."

"Your - your what?"

"Father's brother's son's cousin's father's sister's son," she repeated, not any slower.

"C-can we just call him your cousin?"

"Absolutely not," she declared standing up. "I want to be as far separated from him as possible. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get something to eat."

"Okay," Eren managed, adding a "Ma'am" for good measure.

As soon as she was out of sight, he slumped over on the table, exhaling loudly.

"She is something when she's upset," I observed quietly, sipping my now-cold coffee. "So what's the deal?"

Eren raised his head to the ceiling, as if some invisible cafe god would save him from his sister's wrath. "I don't even know. She doesn't like Levi for some reason, and finding out she's related to him - I think she doesn't like being reminded of the fact that I'm not her real family. And she hates the fact that he is."

"It's not really about herself as much as it is about you," I said slowly. "Mikasa's worried about you. She doesn't like him just because, well, you-"

"He's my friend," he interrupted, as if he knew what I was going to say. "Just a friend."

I set down my cup. "Look, Eren, you're about as straight as I am a graceful masterpiece of a human being. You know that."

"Of course I do!" Eren said exasperatedly. "That doesn't mean that I fall in love with every guy I see!"

"I never said anything like that!" I cried. "But it's so painfully obvious, and I only saw you two together for that one hour at the music store."

"Not as obvious as you and Annie, for sure!" he shot back. "Look at yourself, staring at her with your big lovey-dovey eyes, following her around, spending every free second with her."

It was just a tactic to distract me, but it sure worked. "No! It's not - I mean - it's just that she plays violin well, that's all."

Eren looked at me, and I looked at him, and I think we realized just how badly we were lying to ourselves at the exact same second. Neither of us had to say anything; we just accepted it, together.

"The course of true love never did run smooth," I sighed.

Eren gave me a strange look. "What?"

"It's Shakespeare," I said. "Thought you should know, with the way you were talking to Mikasa."

"That was just me trying not not get skewered by her! Do you really think I'd know shit about Shakespeare? I'm a music major!"

"I'm a physics major, and I've read lots of his plays!" I retorted, and we continued arguing about the merits of reading Shakespeare until Mikasa came back with a pile of food.

"I didn't even think this tiny hole-in-the-wall had that much to eat," Eren chortled, although it quickly turned to eagerness. "Wait, they have cinnamon buns? And coffee cakes?"

"Yup," Mikasa said, smiling faintly. "You'd never know, but it's there." Her anger from before was replaced with a kind of softness that was a rare miracle from her - the last time I'd seen it was after the bagel excursion before I got into the string quartet, a couple of months ago. Watching her around Eren in her usual mother-hen fashion, I couldn't help but sympathize with her. Eren was easy to take advantage of, and her grumpy little father's brother's son's cousin's father's sister's son seemed like the obvious guy to do it. But what Eren needed right now was a sister, not a mother.

Well, it's not like I could change the fact that Mikasa hated Levi's guts. Unless I wanted to get killed, that is. So for now, I'd let Eren chase after Levi starry-eyed, and I would keep chasing after Annie.

My Shakespeare quote had been badly placed - first of all, this probably wasn't even true love, and it was running far too smooth than any romance author would have thought possible. Life would go on, we'd hang out and play violin. It would be normal.

Maybe.

Well, I'd find out in due time - that is, if I survived the party tonight.

"Armin, you look fine."

"Are you sure? Aren't you supposed to wear a suit to a party?"

"No, you idiot! This is a casual party!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm one thousand percent sure! I'm the host and you're wearing my clothes, what could go wrong?"

"Everything!"

The truth was, Eren looked a whole lot better than I did (well, they were his own clothes). It didn't matter that Eren had picked out a wardrobe for me like we were highschool girls, and just thrown on some random stuff himself. Some guys just had it lucky, I supposed.

"Well, let's go," Eren said, slipping on a sleek gray jacket and his guitar (what.) "I'm bringing the guitar home ahead of time, so it goes through safely," he added in response to my silent question.

"Show-off," I grumbled.

"What was that? I didn't quite catch it," he replied with fake confusion, cupping a hand over his ear. "Are you calling me a show-off, mister has-his-violin-awards-in-a-freaking -glass-case?"

I rolled my eyes. "Have you been looking through my phone again?"

"Again?" he protested (liar.) "No. It was only the photos."

"What did you need my photos for…?"

"Oh, look, the bus stop!" Eren exclaimed - with a little too much cheerfulness - and quickened his pace. Whatever. He probably hadn't been selfie-bombing my phone or anything.

Actually, knowing Eren, he probably was.

I spent most of the bus ride searching my phone for any trace of Eren, but either he'd been pretty stealthy or he actually hadn't been in it. Before I knew it, we were stepping off the bus into a light drizzle - we had to walk from here.

According to Eren, who talked nonstop as he walked along, most of the people attending the party were college people not lazy enough to make the half hour trip and his high school friends, who he miraculously still kept in touch with. I was just crossing my fingers in the hope that Annie would be there.

I'd talked to her about it after our last rehearsal for the term, and she'd seemed mildly interested. But you never knew with people like Annie - I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she didn't show up.

"Okay, we're here," Eren announced as we approached a large, spacious cream-colored house. "I know it's not much, but…"

I laughed nervously; my house was about one-third the size.

"Home sweet home," Eren breathed, turning the key and leading us inside. The house looked immaculate, but somehow lived-in. The stacks of recipes, reminders on the fridge, photos lining the mantelpiece - I could imagine the Jaeger family going about their business here, happily. Just like Eren always seemed to be.

"Hurry up and help me," Eren grunted as he hauled a giant box filled with assorted bags of junk food. "Everyone will be here soon."

We spent the next three hours dragging stuff around and arguing over music (try classical music, I said - bad idea) until the very first guests began to arrive. Unsurprisingly, Mikasa arrived promptly, but quite surprisingly, Annie was in tow. The former was dressed in a simple yet bold wine red dress and had straightened her hair so that it hung in a glossy black sheet around her shoulders. She looked like she was going to a club, not a house party, but then again Mikasa could pull off anything. She looked totally bored, like she was only here to keep an eye on Eren.

Annie, on the hand, looked, decidedly self-conscious in her baby blue tank top and skinny jeans - she kept wrapping her cardigan around herself as if the heater wasn't even on. I wanted to tell her she looked nice, but she just looked uncomfortable.

"I see I wasn't invited to your little set-up," Mikasa said, eyeing the room suspiciously. "You two been up to anything weird?"

Eren began to splutter (it was worst for him; he could probably imagine 'weird stuff' applying to guys) and I chipped in, "Who knows?"

Mikasa looked positively murderous at this, so I quickly assured her that it was a joke, but not before noticing that Annie's passive expression had changed slightly into the tiniest of frowns. She glanced back and forth between us, as if she was trying to deduce just what had been going on. Surely her sense of humor couldn't be so nonexistent that she didn't get that I was joking? (Then again, I'm not one to talk.)

"Er, Annie-"

"What?" she snapped, her face like stone. When she turned to meet my gaze, though, her glare melted slightly. "...Ah, I - sorry."

"What for?" Eren asked, forever oblivious to the situation.

"Eren, why don't you go with me to check if the rooms are set up properly," Mikasa said deliberately, dragging him out of the room. I snuck her a grateful glance, and she nodded stiffly before disappearing into the kitchen.

Annie stared after them, her eyebrows creased in perplexity.

"Are you two an item?"

I gaped at her.

"As in, together?"

"What?! NO!" I burst out, waving my hands wildly. "I was just joking - you know - you do know that I'm straight, right?"

"Right," she said vaguely.

"Do I look gay to you?" I said, preparing to give my usual speech about how looks don't determine the person, especially not the sexuality, et cetera - my usual spiel when people commented that Eren didn't 'look' gay.

"Uh-"

I launched into The Speech, ignoring the look of surprise on her face. No matter if it was Annie or whoever, but there were some things that I was very passionate about, and those were things I was going to defend.

"Armin," Annie said forcefully, just as I got to the point where I outlined the main forms of appearance-based prejudice relating to sexuality. "Armin."

"What?" I snarled, and I could almost see her pupils dilate in fear,

"I-I was joking, Armin," she said weakly. "I didn't think it was a touchy subject."

Oh.

"I see," I said faintly, the anger hissing out of me like steam. "Well, don't joke about those things, because, well, Eren's-"

"I know he's gay," she interrupted. "I see that now, but I didn't realize until recently. Remember, I made a joke like this before?"

I could kind of recall it - I had been going shopping for Jean's Christmas present, and she had asked us if we were going out.

She cleared her throat. "Well, anyway, I'll stay away from that subject from now on."

"Yeah, you don't want another Speech from me, do you?"

She half-chuckled, but turned to me with a dead serious look on her face (fake or not, I couldn't tell). "Armin… you are straight, right?"

"ANNIE!"

After about an hour of fooling around and general chaos, Eren and Levi disappeared to go provide some "live music" and Mikasa slunk after them to make sure Levi stayed a good three feet away from her brother, leaving Annie and me alone together.

"So, Reiner and Bertholdt aren't here, but we're supposed to get some concerts for this winter." As always, Annie was on top of things, all business.

"Yeah, Eren told me to talk to Krista and Ymir, because they arrange everything for Eren's band-"

"Is that them?" Annie cut me off, pointing at a tall, dark-haired woman and the petite blonde her arm was slung around.

"How did you know?"

She shrugged. "I've seen them around. They're in charge of practically everything at school."

"Yeah, they're insanely efficient," I chuckled. "Come on, let's go."

We wound our way through the sizable crowd (amazing how Eren had managed to scrounge up so many friends) and waited until they turned away from their current conversation. Ymir spotted me at once and her face lit up with the sort of evil happiness she got from her so-called 'friendly teasing'.

"Hey, if it isn't our little music nerd!" Ymir exclaimed, clapping me on the shoulder. "How's it going, Armin?"

"It's going great, actually. And you?"

"Ah, you know, Krista has been spending an awful lot of time talking to Reiner, and I'm starting to worry if she's secretly straight."

Annie was staring at Ymir like she'd found an alien, and I couldn't blame her. See, it was an art learning how to talk to Ymir. Half of what she said was bull, and the other half was sarcasm.

"I'm not serious, blondie," she said to Annie (hard to tell, seeing as she was surrounded by three blondes). "Can't you take a joke?"

"Apparently not," she said, frowning.

Ymir had this way of making people feel so uncomfortable that they somehow found themselves at ease, but it wasn't working on Annie. She looked at the tall brunette like she was a stain on her sheet music and crossed her arms in a subtle gesture that meant bring it on, because I've already waged war.

Krista, who'd picked up on this immediately, made an attempt to mollify her with her angelic smile. "I don't think we've met. I'm Krista."

"Annie," she grunted, and uncrossed her arms to shake Krista's outstretched hand.

"I've heard you're quite the violinist," she continued - she really knew how to flatter a person. "You've been a first chair for how long now?"

"You play piccolo," Annie said abruptly, still frowning at her. "In Symphony Orchestra."

"I do," she said shyly. "Flute, piccolo, and a little guitar, piano, violin, clarinet, and ukulele."

"... Oh."

"And I sing," she added brightly, which was the final straw for poor Annie's self-esteem. See, it was an art to talk to Krista, too. She was so nice, but her ability to do practically everything, and do it better than you, is something that frequently popped up in her conversations.

Before this turned into a total train wreck and Annie punched something, I spoke up. "So, guys, we're in a string quartet and we're looking for casual performance opportunities."

I hadn't even finished my sentence by the time Krista whipped out her event planner, the polite smile replaced by knitted eyebrows and lips downturned in concentration. "There's not many classical opportunities for groups left… a lot of solo concerts and stuff. Oh, there's a solo-and-small-group event for classical musicians, but the only people I've heard are coming are some eighth-grade trombone players. Hm, do you play light music?"

"Like, not classical?" Annie spoke the words like they would poison her.

"No, not classical. You could always do Amazing Grace or something, but it's almost all bands and people like Eren, singing with a guitar. In fact" -she whipped through another booklet "-Eren and the band should be there."

I perked up; I rarely got to see the band anywhere but rehearsal. "That actually sounds cool, Krista."

"Really?" Annie half-growled. "I was thinking of some more classical music performances."

Krista turned her smile back on and tapped her planner. "There's also a string-quartet only event on January 28th, a supposed-to-be-solo concert that started allowing groups of up to four a few days after the new semester starts, and several other events."

"Those sound great," Annie said in the same half-growl. "Thank you."

"Oh, I think we'll come to the light music night, too," I said, nervousness raising my voice an octave. Alright, Annie, you can shoot me now.

But instead of shooting me or murdering me in some other violent way, she simply said, "Hm." and crossed her arms again.

"Cool," Krista said, snapping her various books shut and stuffing them all in her miniature purse. "I'll be at most of these events, so I'll see you there!"

"Bye, guys. Try not to miss us too much." And with that, Ymir draped her arm around Krista again and they disappeared into the crowd.

"It's a bit of an art talking to them," I told Annie apologetically as soon as they were out of earshot.

"I can see that," she mumbled. "Suddenly, I appreciate normal people like you a lot more."

"They're the ones considered normal, not me!" I protested, forgetting to stutter and splutter for once. "Whatever. We got our concerts- although I'm sorry about forcing the light music night on you."

She shrugged. "It won't kill me to play some non-classical."

We talked for hours after that, milling around, sitting in the living room while Eren sang to Levi's piano - pop songs that somehow seemed like an energetic band even though it was just some keys and a voice - watching the silly grin on his face, betting for how long it would take him to confess - these supposedly normal things that supposedly normal friends talked about. It was more than nice, it was awesome. Awesome like when a kid finds a cool new toy at the store, like when there's no other word but something so generic, so childishly fun.

But all of a sudden she glanced at her watch and almost jumped out of her seat, her face wrinkled into the telltale frustration of I stayed too long.

"I have to go and grab my stuff, my dad expects me home tonight."

"Oh," I said, the awesome evaporating from the air as quickly as it had settled in. "See you around."

"Uh-" she stopped and tucked her bangs behind her ear, gaze finding the floor. "You know- thanks, Armin. It was a good semester. I'll see you after break."

And my mouth was moving but I wasn't saying anything, because what can you say to someone who has turned your life inside out and slowly, slowly, like a worm in an apple but somehow in a good way, made themselves a special niche inside you?

So I told her to have a good break, all that good stuff, and somehow among these courteous words something completely unprecedented slipped out:

"Can I have your number?"

She looked at me and I looked at her, and before she could so much as open her mouth in response I blurted, "You know, so I can text you the details about the light music night."

"Yeah, she said calmly, like this wasn't an emotional rollercoaster like it was for me (I could see it, though, her hands shook as she typed her number in.)

"Thanks," I said, not able to stop myself from grinning from ear to ear, and after she left with her usual lazy wave I changed her contact to e, adding a space between every letter just because it looked fancy and poetic and hell, what about her bluntness and piercing glare and general dislike of normalcy wasn't?

Annie was poetry, Annie was Shakespeare - written beautifully and carefully, in a certain format with all the matching syllables and rhyming verse, and I would continue but I don't really know where this metaphor is going so let's suffice to say that I was going to miss her over break. Yes. That's about it.

See you in January.

Hella long chapter, for me at least. I feel like that was long and winding, probably because I wrote it over a whole month lol.