Communication Error (Eremin)

Chapter Eighteen • Rest

The walk to Eren's house tired Armin, if he was honest. It was nice having gone out with Eren and Mikasa, but the day was close to its end and he was feeling it.
    After Eren pushed the front door open and walked in, leaving Armin behind him, he quickly made his way upstairs.
    He stopped in the middle of the staircase, looked down at Armin curiously, and invited him to follow him up. Armin obliged and caught up with him.
    Armin was caught off guard when he noticed how tidy Eren's room was. For some reason, he had, in the back of his mind, imagined that his room would've been a mix between messy and orderly, but more on the messy side. No place, he recalled, ever looked how he imagined it, so why would Eren's room correlate?
    That aside, immediately he felt comfortable in his room surrounded by dark brown wood in various places, plus the soft color of the walls. The window on the wall showcasing the street and the almost absent sun tied it all together, creating an atmosphere completed with fiery colors that made Armin want to plop down, curl up in a blanket, and sleep. Needless to say, it was quite nice.
    "You can sit wherever," Eren told Armin after catching his attention.
    Armin took up to sitting on the floor again.
    Unlike with Mikasa, Eren didn't seem to be bothered by the guest sitting on the floor. Unexpectedly, when Armin had just situated himself, a large bean bag chair was chucked against his back, pushing him forward.
"Really?" Armin fussed, turning around and looking at Eren with an accusing frown on his face.
Eren, however, was not looking at him to catch his reaction. He was smiling a bit though, obviously messing with Armin and finding it amusing to stir him up a little.
Armin stood up, pulled the bean bag under him, and fixed it to his liking before taking a seat and crossing his legs.
It was quiet in the room for a time.
Armin, a bit uncomfortable in the silence, turned around again and tried to figure out what Eren was doing.
He was looking down at his laptop screen, eyes darting from side to side as he seemingly read something.
Curious as to what's kept him so occupied on the laptop, he leaned back and waved at him to catch his attention, which worked after a few seconds.
Eren looked at him as he signed, "What are you doing?"
"Finding Your Name," he replied without hesitation. "I can't find it in good quality."
"We can watch it in a low quality," Armin suggested, despite his inner desire to not watch it in poor quality.
Judging by Eren's quick reaction and sour expression, he, too, refused to stick to that regardless of whether or not that was the only option.
"Okay," Armin started. "Let's watch something else then."
"Like?"
He paused, shuffling through his mental list of series to watch. He smiled and looked at Eren again. "Let's watch something really stupid."
"Why?"
"Why not?"
"Wouldn't that be a waste of time?" Eren acted as though he was against Armin's suggestion, but the mischief in his eyes betrayed him.
"Of course! But that's the best thing," Armin pointed out.
After a few seconds of a pleading stare-down from Armin, Eren was persuaded. "Okay."
"Great. Have you ever seen Boku No Pico?"
Eren's eyes grew wide in terror. "I'm not watching that!" he asserted.
Armin's eyes glowed with laughter. "I'm kidding."
"You better be!"
"I am! I am." He puffed through his nose instead of chuckling. "For real, I'll think of something."
Eren looked at Armin in anticipation, breaking away with the occasional glance at his laptop.
Not even a minute later, Armin made another suggestion: "We could watch Rise of the Animals. It's not an anime, but it's great."
"I thought you wanted to watch something bad."
"It's absolutely terrible. And that's what makes it so great."
Eren looked uncertain. "Alright. What's it about?"
"I can't remember, it's been so long since I've seen it.
"But I remember it's supposed to be a horror movie. I think the animals try to kill the humans or something.
"Whatever it was about, the animals were made of puppets and crappy CGI. And the blood is just . . . It's ridiculous.
"Let's watch it."
Now Eren, who was smiling, was quite curious. "Alright. I'll find it. What's it called again?"
"Rise of the Animals."
"Thanks."
It took about ten minutes to find it online in good quality, and the only one they found with subtitles had them in Spanish, which neither of them spoke.
So they stuck to a version without subtitles. However, Armin felt bad that they had chosen to do that, so he insisted that it be muted.
Eren tried to make him change his mind, but Armin settled on the second excuse that it would be funnier muted, since he wouldn't quite know what was going on.
About thirty minutes in, the both of them were having tons of fun poking fun and insulting the lack of quality and sense in the movie.
They only paid attention to, in total, around half the movie, which was in the most 'dramatic' parts of it. Even then they weren't paying full attention.
The rest of the movie was ignored as they made small talk or tried to avoid falling asleep.
Armin, who had been tired already, was having a more difficult time staying awake than Eren.
Near the last part of the movie, Armin had finally dozed off in the large bean bag chair. He could hear Eren every now and then use his phone, or hear his family outside the room, but only for a few minutes. After that, relaxing atmosphere and coziness put him to sleep.

    Armin was being chased through some place he'd never seen before. It was huge, and full of various vendors occupied by strangers.
    Some of his classmates were there, talking to these strangers.
    It was strange.
    To add to the oddity, he was fearful. Of what? He couldn't tell.
    No, he couldn't. Not until, with a boiling rage in his face, Eren came racing toward him. He was furious and hungry.
    Armin didn't have to guess what he wanted. He knew.
    Eren wanted him terribly. He was driven mad with desire to get his hands on him, which he was going to do without fail.
    Fearful now than before, Armin took up running with everything in him through this unfamiliar place.
    He was met by Mikasa, who urged him to run and never stop, whatever happened.
    "I'm trying! Keep him away from me!" Armin cried to her desperately as he felt his body cease to move forward.
    Around him were others he knew. They could see the commotion and were baffled, but they didn't help him.
    He managed to run further, up a flight of stairs, before his ankle was snagged by Eren, who pulled him close.
    "Eren, stop!" he fussed, somehow having certainty that Eren could hear him.
    But Eren did not let him go. He pulled Armin closer and closer, until he was under him.
    His face was twisted. He looked beastly and far from human, yet he was recognizably himself.
    He had sharp nails and slender fingers that traced up Armin's body, spiking much anxiety into him and brining burning tears to his eyes.
    Armin shouted over and over for Eren to stop, but he never listened.
    Mikasa, who was standing in a haziness behind Eren, would not relieve Armin of this torture. She looked at Armin with an unreadable expression and grim air about her.
    Why would she so adamantly tell him to run, then stand by gravely when he was pursued? Didn't she care?
Please help me, Mikasa! Get him away from me!