Communication Error (Eremin)

Chapter Seven • Improving

"Show me the alphabet. You did extraordinary last week with it, so now you've got my hopes up." Carla smiled, then urged on, "Ready? A."
Armin sat up straight. "Yes ma'am. Uh . . ." He lifted his right hand from his lap and touched his fingers to his palm, with his thumb held up.
    "Good! Nice and quick," Carla encouraged. "B."
    Armin held his fingers out together, with his thumb touching his palm.
    Carla nodded. "C."
    He curled his fingertips in until he was instructed to move on to D, then E, F, and so forth. He went through the alphabet quite quickly. He'd obviously remembered it well, which shocked none, and his efforts proved themselves.
    When the two of them finished going through the alphabet, Carla congratulated him. "It's barely been a month yet and you're already picking up so quickly!"
    "I told you so," Mikasa called from another room.
    "It's only the alphabet!" Armin called back in an effort to show that he was nothing special.
    "Still, this is fantastic progress," Carla commented. "It took me and Mikasa closer to two months to remember it very well. And here you are, having barely hit a month into learning, and you zoom right through reviews."
    Armin's cheeks turned pink in embarrassment. "Ah . . ."
    "Well." Carla sat back and looked at the clock. "We have some time left until you need to be home, so we can go through basic phrases if you'd like."
    "Sure!" Armin sat up.
    "Alright." Carla adjusted her posture and held up her right hand. "Hold your hand out, like your signing the letter B." She held her fingers out with her thumb in her palm. When Armin did the same, she continued on: "Put your hand by your forehead, like a salute, and move your hand outwards. It's simple."
    She and Armin made a salute-like gesture together.
    "This is a sign that means 'hello'," she explained. "Let's do it again."
    "Okay." Armin watched Carla make the sign for B and place it almost against her forehead. He followed her directions and copied her actions.
    "Again."
    The two of them signed 'hello' a few more times between Carla instructing them to go again. Finally, she let him put his hand back down.
    "Now, I want you to watch this sign. This one is simple as well." She held all her fingers up. "Make sure all of them are up. Look." She curled her fingers in, leaving only her thumb up. "I'll do it again." She held her fingers out, then curled them back in, always leaving her thumb up, then repeated the actions again a few more times. "This means 'goodbye'. Try it with me."
    Armin followed Carla's motions, switching from holding his hand open go closing it again. They repeated the sign multiple times.
    "There, good! Show me 'hello'," she assigned.
    Armin did as told, almost making a salute.
    "'Goodbye'."
    He repeated the process of holding his hand open then curling his fingers in.
    "Fantastic! I want you only to greet me via sign, same goes for saying goodbyes, okay? Don't say 'hello' or 'goodbye' to me from hereon out."
    Armin nodded. "Yes ma'am!"
    Carla smiled. "Alright. Next is 'yes' and 'no'. These are also going to be extremely easy for you, I'm certain. Here, look. Do it with me." She made a loose fist, keeping her fingertips from touching her palm. She lowered and raised her hand briefly. "'Yes'." She made sure Armin was copying before moving on. Her thumb, index, and middle finger were held out, with the remaining fingers held down against her palm. Her index and middle finger were pressed together and pressed down against her thumb. She held them back out, then pressed them back down. "'No.'"
    After Carla paused and instructed Armin to demonstrate what she had done, he focused on copying her, and did such with accuracy, save for keeping his middle and index fingers together when signing 'no'. He was corrected only twice, and continued after to repeat the signs accurately.
    When the two had finished memorizing 'yes' and 'no', they reviewed 'hello' and 'goodbye' again. Armin was taught to sign 'please' and 'thank you' before they reviewed everything they went over and from there finally finished the day's lesson.
    "You've been doing well, as I've already told you, so I'm hoping you memorize the new signs in a jiffy," Carla told Armin.
    Armin nodded. "Of course! Thank you so much for teaching me, Ms. Carla." He scooted out of his chair and picked up his backpack.
    "Sure thing. I'm glad to be able to help you. You should thank Mikasa too when you get the chance," she added as she also got up and Mikasa coincidentally stepped down to the foot of the staircase.
    "Right." He smiled in gratitude and slung his backpack over his shoulder. He slid aside and looked at Mikasa, who had caught his eye and was walking into the living room.
"You're leaving?" she asked with wide eyes.
"Yeah," he answered as they engaged in a hug. "Thank you for bringing me over. I never would be learning to sign, had you not brought me here."
She smiled and briefly dipped her head. "Mm. I'm glad Eren gets to have another friend. Like, an actual friend this time. Anyways, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yes, yes. See you, Mikasa. Tell Eren, wherever he went, that I said 'goodbye'." He made his way to the door. On his way out, he caught Carla's attention and signed his goodbyes to her.

    Armin sat in a leather chair in the library the following weekend. He had been volunteering that day, and had run out of things to do. He'd gotten comfortable in an empty library chair and pulled out his phone. He browsed through his friend's blog from his phone. A couple times the memory of the question his friend had asked, along with the response given, surfaced in Armin's mind. He'd push it away, but it would reappear eventually. At the moment it didn't bother him. He simply picked up on a lengthy post of his friend's that he had fallen asleep trying to finish the night prior. He felt relaxed, and had tuned out everyone else there.
In the midst of his own peace, someone began stalking up behind him slowly. Making sure he hadn't spotted them, they crept closer and remained silent as possible. In a split second, they lunged at Armin and wrapped their arms around him, covering his mouth.
Armin jumped and squealed in reflex, terrified out of his skin by the arms around him so suddenly. They didn't loosen around him, nor did they feel like they would.
That is, until Mikasa, who seemingly appeared out of nowhere, grabbed the pursuer's shoulder and yanked them around. She said nothing at all, which confused Armin.
After a moment passed and he had calmed down, Armin noticed it was Eren who had grabbed him.
Mikasa had pulled him aside and scolded him for it.
He was relieved that it wasn't some stranger that had taken hold of him, however the adrenaline of the incident was still pumping through him. He watched Mikasa face him and meet his eyes apologetically.
"Sorry about that, Armin. I told him not to scare you, especially in the library. He doesn't listen, in case you can't tell," she commented with a cross expression aimed at Eren.
Armin had calmed down a good bit at this point. He smiled at Mikasa, though there was still a nervous air about him. "It's fine, really. It was scarier not knowing who had grabbed me," he confessed.
"I can imagine." Her eyes widened.
Eren stood beside Mikasa and looked at Armin. He signed something that he knew was directed to him, as their eyes were both on each other's, however he couldn't understand what it was he was trying to communicate.
Mikasa apparently caught that Armin didn't catch on, because she spoke up, "He says he's sorry." She pushed his head forward. "He's ignorant that you don't know much yet. Stupid," she added in reference to Eren.
Unsure of what to do to accept Eren's apology directly, Armin simply looked at him and smiled in acknowledgement.
He seemed to have caught the gesture, for he smiled in return and stood up straight, returning to his familiar, vibrant self.
"I had forgotten that you volunteer at the library," Mikasa commented. "Though . . . I guess Eren never forgot. Anyways," she met Armin's eyes. "We were going to find you later anyways and ask you if you wanted to come over this afternoon. Which, I guess, is now. What time is it . . ." She turned around for a moment.
"It's 12:58," Armin informed.
"Oh! So it is the afternoon now."
"Yeah, uh . . . I'd love to come over. What for?" He tilted his head.
Mikasa stuffed her hands into her sweater pockets. "Mr. Jaeger, Eren's dad, hasn't met you yet, and he's interested in meeting 'Eren's friend'."
"'Eren's friend'?" Armin blinked in curiosity and soft embarrassment.
She nodded. "You've been dubbed 'Eren's friend'. Not sure why, since you're just as much my friend as you are his, but whatever. The name's stuck now."
"So I'll meet him over lunch or something?"
"Oh, no, we all had lunch already," she answered. "Do you like card games?" When Armin nodded, she continued. "Good, 'cause we do too, and challenging friends to card games is a surefire way to make a good impression."
"If that's the case, I'll go for sure. For how long? I'll have to ask my grandpa."
Mikasa shrugged. "You can spend the night for all it's worth. So long as you don't plan on living with us." She smiled.
Armin smiled a bit, and almost laughed at Mikasa's remark. "Well, I'll guarantee I don't plan to do that. I'll see how long I can stay."
"Okay. We were planning to go home from here, so we can just bring you with us. If that's okay with you and your grandfather, that is."
"Alright, that works. Let me call him real quick. Excuse me." Armin slid out of his chair and stepped into the back room. He was there for a few minutes, discussing the plans with his grandfather. When he was given permission and guidelines, he said his goodbyes and hung up.
"I can go. And, so long as I can walk to school with you two tomorrow, I can spend the night," he announced to Mikasa after leaving the back room.
She smiled. "Great. Let's go."