[Connie:] dude we're going out tonight you in?

[Sasha:] A new bar just opened up downtown. They're supposed to have amazing wings. We're going.

[Sasha:] Also we need to get Connie laid.

[Connie:] i need you there for moral support sasha's an awful wingman

[Jean:] Stop moping about birdman and come out tonight

Eren stared at his phone groggily and ran a hand through his hair, making his bedhead even worse. It had been Jean's text that finally woke him up. He stretched and yawned before responding to the messages.

[Eren to Sasha:] yeah i'm down. how much are wings?

[Eren to Connie:] just told sasha i'm in

[Eren to Jean:] shut up and yeah i'm going

He threw his phone on the bed and walked towards the kitchen to start a pot of coffee brewing. After setting it up he went to take a shower knowing that the coffee would be done at roughly the same time as he got out of the shower. As the hot water washed over his body, Eren began to turn over just how normal the past two weeks had been for him. The fact that Hanji only texted him once a day to check in but made no other efforts at contacting him had rankled at first but he realized that Jean was right; if he wanted to get over his crush on Levi it was best if he maintained distance from him and the rest of the Survey Corps. He snorted as he realized that he was now taking life advice from a guy who a little over two weeks ago, he could barely stand to be in the same room with. Jean was right though and Eren did have to defer to him given Jean's situation with Marco and (to a lesser extent) the fact that he had actually dated people before and had to deal with getting over them.

Eren had never felt like the odd one out given that Marco, Connie and Mikasa had never dated anyone either and the only two people dating in their group were Ymir and Krista – he still couldn't fathom how Connie hadn't realized it sooner. He had always been aware of it in the back of his mind and after an offhand comment by Krista that the driver's side of the car was the least comfortable place for car sex he decided to avoid getting a ride from her unless he was truly desperate. The closest that he had ever come to dating anyone was with a guy he had met at work after moving to Trost. They had been strictly friends with benefits and lost touch after a few months when Sam moved back home after graduating from Trost University. Since then it was just the occasional one night stand – almost never anyone who he would run into again – and that was enough for him. When he had to worry about being kidnapped and letting Mikasa know where he was going to be if he did go home with someone the hassle frequently made it not worth his while. The time he had received a blowjob in the bathroom of a bar would have been ideal if it weren't for the fact that the bathroom smelled a little too strongly of stale urine. He wasn't a clean freak, but he did have standards.

He never really shared anything about his sex life with anyone unless he was extremely drunk and Sasha was egging him on. But sober or drunk, Sasha could be depended on to share every detail of her sex life without shame and with total disregard for other people's discomfort. Marco and Mikasa were usually the ones who ended up trying to get Sasha to stop oversharing, even if they were rarely successful. She played each story for laughs and their group usually ended up with emotions ranging from mortification to amusement and uproarious laughter. Eren was thankful that the vast majority of stories that he could tell were also humorous; one of the awful ones involved him being almost-kidnapped by one of Dr. Gloom's minions. He had told the story at party when Mikasa was on-patrol since it included him joking that he probably would have had sex with the guy anyway even after getting kidnapped because he was just that attractive. He knew that everyone thought he was joking even though he wasn't.

He smiled as he turned the water off and realized how much he was looking forward to seeing Connie and Sasha. He assumed that Ymir and Krista would be on-patrol if Sasha was taking the night off and Mikasa still wasn't able to resume hero work. Eren wondered if Marco would accompany them. For Jean's sake he hoped not.

After toweling off and throwing on some sweatpants he returned to the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee, inhaling the scent as he waited for the caffeine to enter his system. He noticed a note on the table and walked over to pick it up.

/Eren, I'm going out for coffee with Ymir and Krista and then picking up a few things at the grocery store.

Should be back around one. Don't do anything stupid.

Mikasa/

Great. Thanks Mikasa, way to make me feel like a capable adult. I guess that leaves me completely free to watch bad horror movies for the next…He looked at the clock …four hours.

"I wonder if Jean's free to come over and marathon some bad movies."

"Eren. You should be working on your thesis." Eren groaned as Armin's disembodied voice filled the kitchen.

"I've been in the library constantly for the past two weeks, I need a break."

"You've also been staying up way too late hanging out with Jean every night and you're planning on going out tonight as well."

"Armin, I need a break. An actual during-the-day break."

"If you aren't going to do schoolwork then go outside. You spend enough time in front of a screen as it is. Go out for a walk in the park and get some fresh air and sunshine, it's good for you."

"But Armin…" Eren whined Armin's name pathetically. "I don't want to. It's bright out."

"If you won't go outside then you need to get something productive done before you go out tonight. I will lock the door if you try to leave and I will bother you until you start working."

"Seriously Armin? Are you trying to go all HAL on me?"

"Eren, you need to work on your thesis. You've had a couple quiet weeks but who knows how long that's going to last."

"Fuck. Yeah, that's true isn't it? I could get kidnapped by a freak in a mask at any moment. Though I guess it's more likely to be the Military Police since nobody from the Survey Corps has found any evidence of the Titans tracking me." Eren paused and furrowed his brow. "That's really freaky actually. Either the Titans don't actually give a shit about me or somehow they've been giving the Survey Corps the slip and fuck now I have goosebumps."

"Maybe you should get in touch with them? Just for your own peace of mind."

"Not exactly in the mood to deal with any of them right now. Apparently I'm completely unnecessary."

"Nobody ever said that, Eren."

"So then why the fuck haven't I gotten more than a daily text of 'how are things going today, Eren?' from Hanji?" Eren slumped into one of the kitchen chairs and hunched over his coffee. "Not that I want to have to deal with crazy people in masks, but I thought I was somehow important and not just a bargaining chip like usual."

"Have you ever thought that maybe they're trying to keep you safe while they follow some leads?" Armin's voice was gentle and Eren was seized (not for the first time) by a desire to have Armin be a real, physical person who could give him a hug.

"Is keeping me in the dark really going to keep me safe?" Eren took a sip of coffee and sighed heavily. "The morning at the diner, Levi said that it wasn't good to leave me completely in the dark but I guess that's okay now for whatever reason? He's such a fucking asshole, why do I even like him?"

"You have said that he's attractive."

"Yeah but… I kinda like him as in I want to be his friend too. He's attractive and he clearly needs to talk to someone about shit."

"And you want that person to be you."

"It would be nice, yeah. Having something like I had with Sam would be nice."

"Sam?"

"Just a guy I knew before college." Eren stared into his coffee mug and Armin let him be.

I want to be Levi's friend but I'd also really like to have him fuck me into a mattress. I mean, the two aren't exactly mutually exclusive. I just want him to not be a complete asshole to me and we can go grab some coffee and then go back to one of our places – ideally his – to have sex and that would be perfect. It's not like I'm looking for a fucking boyfriend or anything, just a friend with benefits.