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SEVERAL DAYS AFTER EREN'S birthday and returning home from the beach, you had been staying over at his place, since sasha and isabel were with their families on vacation. the break was about to end soon and even though you didn't do much, you were spending your days with eren and that was enjoyable enough.
you were in the kitchen, kneeled down while caressing the cats that were devouring their food from the cat bowl. you had no idea where eren went or what he was doing, but you heard some commotion coming from the second floor of the house and you assumed eren was in his bedroom.
standing back up on your two feet, you began to make your way up the stairs and towards eren's room, with the cats following since they were done eating. his door was wide open and so you peeked your head through the door way, detecting eren sitting on the floor with his legs crossed over one another's.
there were large photo albums on the floor in front of him, along with pictures he had recently taken and weeks before after he had gotten his camera. eren looked up from his spot, smiling once he saw you approaching him while observing the pictures.
"what are you doing?" you questioned, smiling back at him as you seated yourself across from him.
"putting photos in these albums," eren responds, watching as you grabbed one of the albums and placed it on your lap. you flipped the cover open, eyes scanning the pictures of eren when he was much younger. there were many family photos included and you felt your lips curving into a frown.
"i also made you something," eren suddenly added, earning your attention once more. you watched as he stood up from his spot and walked over to his desk near the one corner of his room. he pulled out one of the drawers and reached for something inside before returning to you.
eyes following him, eren sat down beside of you, his flustered expression now in view of his countenance. he extended his hand out with an item positioned on his palm, "it's not much.. but i hope you like it. i tried my best to make it look like me- but.. yeah, it doesn't."
you looked down at his hand, seeing an origami that was just like him- not literally, but you could tell from the brown hair he had shaped and green papered eyes that were glued onto the face. your lips formed into a wide smile as you gently took the origami into your own hands, observing it more closely.
"it's so cute! when did you make this?" you questioned, beginning to inspect each parts of the origami.
eren chuckled, bringing an arm to the back of his head to gently stroke his neck. "i started on it during the beginning of spring break and i finished it last night- or this morning," he answers, smiling at the reaction you gave.
"you stayed up all night finishing this, didn't you?" you say, raising a brow as your eyes trail to him. you were with him mostly the entire break, unless he was at work but he couldn't possibly have done that there and you would've seen him making this.
"well.. yeah.. i wanted to surprise you with it," eren confesses, his lips pursed as his eyes drifted away from yours. "but don't worry about me! i still got enough sleep!" he reassures, scooting towards you. "do you like it though?"
"i love it," you giggle, bringing a hand to the other side of his face and you gently pulled his face towards you and gave him a kiss on his cheek.
after several moments, you returned your attention to the photo album on your lap as eren began to do his own things with the new photos he wanted to put in for another album. you rolled over each page, examining each image that came into your sight.
there were pictures of eren as a baby, when he was in his toddler years and up until he was about 10 years old. mikasa and his parents were in some of them, and you smiled at each one as your eyes ran through them. his parents really were gorgeous, prepossessing to the max and displayed kind expressions.
you didn't notice, but eren was also looking at the photos. his face was close beside of yours and he glanced at you, finding you focused entirely on the photos. his eyes went back to the album and he realized that you were looking at a certain photo of him and his mother.
"she's pretty isn't she?" eren asks quietly, which rang in your ear. you turned to him, slightly astounded that he was there beside of you before returning to the album.
you nodded your head, "she really is. you got the looks from her. and your dad of course."
"also.. why didn't you visit them this break?" the question suddenness slipped out from your mouth and in the back of your mind, you wondered what in the world you were asking. you remembered that eren still didn't know that you knew his parents were dead and you just wondered why he didn't visit them as their deaths were on the same date as his birthday.
eren became silent, thinking of a proper answer to your question. he took this as his chance to finally tell you the truth. he was perturbed mostly but he knew it would be alright. this was going to the moment you found out that his parents had already passed away— though, he didn't know that you already knew about this.
eren didn't know why he kept this a secret from you for so long, he also figured that armin might've told you, but he didn't either.
of course, eren didn't mind if armin told you. his parents being dead is a true fact. he had no particular reason why he kept it from you but he hoped that you wouldn't get upset from him doing so.
"i have something to tell you, y/n," eren begins and you fully turn to him, blinking your eye lids a few times as you awaited for his next words. "i wanted to tell you before and i thought i would wait to tell you this after my birthday but i just didn't know when and how.. but my parents passed away on my birthday, when i turned 10."
"i also figured armin would tell you, but i guess he didn't, huh?" eren adds, raising a brow slightly and you shake your head, keeping your lips sealed as you didn't exactly know how to reply. "i'm sorry for not telling you sooner."
"it's okay eren. i'm sure you had a reason and even if you didn't, it's okay," you hearten as you moved the album away from your lap and leaned closer to him, bringing him into your warm embrace.
"do you wanna visit them with me today, then?" eren questions as he returns the hug, wrapping his arm around your body as his chin rested on your shoulder.
"sure," you answer as you slowly pulled away from him.
you both decided to take the bus to the location where his parents were buried, there were many graveyards and eren didn't specifically say where they were buried at. once you both stepped outside, you were met with the crisp weather— birds sang and cars in the distance honked distinctly. and you checked the time, realizing that it was nearing evening before you and eren began making your way to the bus stop.
getting on the bus and squeezing yourselves into one of the seats, you turned your eyes to peer out of the glazing window, scanning at the small buildings and skyscrapers that marked the grounds of the lavish city. since it was spring break, pedestrians sauntered along the streets with their friends or families, probably heading towards their designated locations.
after getting off at one stop, eren lead you into a store and you followed him around quietly as he picked out a magnificent bouquet of fresh flowers that had an appeasing scent and he bought along some warm sweet buns. you assumed that they were for eren's parents and eren even bought you a strawberry milk that was refrigerated without you noticing until he paid.
of course, you felt terrible that he bought something extra just for you but eren reassured that it was fine and told you to treat it like a gift. on the way to the cemetery, you held the bouquet of flowers along with the milk carton in one hand and shared it with eren like always.
and soon enough, the both of you arrived at the destination. you read the sign, paradis cemetery for a brief, swift moment before you and eren entered it's perimeter. it was a subtle, well oriented setting despite it's gloomy atmosphere and long feet's of grassland with grave stones.
"here we are," eren's soothing voice snapped you away from your observation and you turn your head forward, eyes instantly pinning on the gravestone that read his parent's names.
carla and grisha jaeger, it read as you skimmed it. eren knelt down first, placing the bag of sweet buns and you followed along, setting the flowers aside as it became quiet once again.
"my dad likes sweet buns, he would even bake some for me for breakfast back then. and these are my mom's favorite flowers," eren began to explain, gesturing towards the items. "she used to own a garden of them. and i try to do the same during the spring and summer, but- sometimes it doesn't end well so i stopped doing it."
"aw- hey, i would love to see you garden flowers, that's so cute," you giggle and eren looks at you, shrugging as his cheeks flushed. "what if we start on one together?"
"really?"
"yes, really! we can plant all of your mom's favorite flowers, along with many other types," you say merrily, a smile emerging on your lips as the image of flowers planted in rows vividly displays in your mind. "well, only if you want to do that."
"you kidding? of course i want to!" eren replies, reaching for your hand and holding it within his. "what if we get a house together?"
"yes, let's do it! but maybe after we both are graduated, alright?" you say and eren nods his head, laughing with a gentle tone.
after spending more minutes at the gravesite, you and eren both decided it was finally time to leave, since it was getting quite late and nearing nightfall. you learned slightly more about eren's parents and it made you wish they were still alive so that you could meet them. eren mentioned mikasa once, saying that they were separated because his parents died and that was all and you didn't question any further about her.
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spring break finally ended and everyone was back to their schedules of sleeping early, attending lectures and so on. eren felt nervous, since his first basketball game was going to be this week. the jerseys and everything came in as well, and currently, you and eren were heading to the gym to pick them up.
sasha and armin decided to come along too, since you four were going to head somewhere after school anyway. the brunette was clinging onto you all of the way while eren and armin walked behind, mostly focusing on the two ahead of them.
"we should go get more yakisoba bread when we leave~ ohh, i'm craving it so hard right now," sasha whines softly as she rubs her belly, a frown on her lips as she leans on you.
"we can get it from the school's cafeteria once we leave," you reply, giggling as you four finally arrived at the gym.
you four all walked in, seeing the group of numerous basketball players gathered to get their shirts. you decided to go with eren while sasha and armin stayed back, and all eyes started pinning on the both of you as you two approached the coach, and well, professor erwin smith.
surprisingly, hange was there as well and they got all jumpy as they saw one of their two favorite students approaching. "it's the ackerman-jaeger couple!!" the brunette squealed, causing more attention to leer towards you and eren.
"the ackerman-jaeger couple? what kind of name is that?" you raise a brow, snickering lightly as your arms cross over your chest and tints of pink appear on eren's cheeks.
"i don't know, but it's cute isn't it?!" hange says, smiling theirselves and you shrug before erwin comes by to attend to eren and his jersey's. hange pulls you aside, whispering in your ear, "by the way, how are you and eren? are you two doing okay?"
"we're perfectly fine, why?" you breathe out a question next, peering towards them. suddenly hange's expression was full of concern as if they were extremely alarmed of something.
"i was just wondering, i've just been hearing things from students lately.. i don't know much about them myself but just be careful, okay?" hange responds, slowly leaning herself away from you. hearing her words, you grew more curious of what she meant.
hange cleared their throat, laughing away the atmosphere that was suddenly created before you could ask anything else, "i also apologize for the candies last time, i thought i removed all of the ones that didn't seem edible, but it seems like i didn't."
"it's fine! don't worry about it, it was an interesting flavor anyway," you respond, giving the brunette a grin before eren returns to you, with a smile on his face while carrying something in his hands.
"look y/n! i got my jersey!" eren cheered like a happy child receiving something and you giggle before he hands you one of the jerseys. "and now, you can wear this one."
"i'll leave you two alone~" hange cooed before slipping away back to bother erwin.
holding the jersey in your hands, you recall to what hange just said moments earlier and you decide to mention about it to eren. "eren," you began and eren lifts his gaze at you, still smiling while displaying an intrigued expression. "have you heard anyone say anything about us?"
"no," eren bobs his head to both sides, still feeling uncertain on why you were suddenly mentioning that. getting comments about your relationship was becoming totally normal for eren, but the remarks haven't been thrown out for a while so he began to worry if you were hearing them instead and feeling upset about it.
"hange told me that she's heard people talk about us or something and for us to be careful.. so, you be careful okay? i don't want you to be hurt or anything," you utter, stepping closer to him with a frown, which made him frown too.
"don't worry about me, okay? i'll protect you too," eren says, hoping to ease your burned tension before giving you a soft kiss on the forehead.
"grossss or whatever, get a room for real," ymir's sarcastic remark roared suddenly, making both you and eren jolt up from shock before turning to where the freckled brunette was coming from. historia was by her side, nudging ymir to stop with her little jokes.
"ymir don't act like you and historia didn't just make out in the girls bathroom as if you had seven minutes left on this earth," eren sarcastically snapped back, his eyes furrowing slightly as he rolled them. you giggle as you both faced the girls who were approaching.
"eh? you wanna fight me so bad huh, jaeger boy?!" ymir stiffens her body as she stomps towards eren.
"yeah sure, why not? another round of defeating you sounds fun," eren snickers, his eyes lowering down to meet ymir's that were flaring with rage that was directed in a more playfully way.
"bet. historia's dorm tonight, 7pm," ymir states, lips curving into a smirk.
historia sighs, her head shaking softly as you stand beside of her, feeling as if you were smiling like a complete idiot from watching those two bicker childishly. they've been doing random matches against each other, either arm wrestling or playing two player competition games, it was hilarious but a fun sight to see.
"what's with the commotion here?" reiner suddenly appears out of nowhere, along with bertholdt who followed behind like a curious one.
"jaeger boy and i are gonna have another match or whatever tonight at 7, wanna join?" ymir questions, putting an arm on eren's shoulder once they have turned to the two basketball players.
"oh! i wanna join! let's go see who's going to win this time, reiner!" bertholdt jolts happily, exchanging glances between the three.
"duh, of course! why would i miss this amazing competition between these two idiots?!" reiner snarls softly, earning two glares from eren and ymir because of the label they were given.
jean eyed everything from afar, feelings of exasperation engulfing his emotions as he dribbled the basketball harshly against the gym's glossy floors. connie strolled by, wondering what in the world messed up jean's mood and he turned to where jean was focusing at, observing the scene for a quick second.
"hey jean, pass," connie says and jean passes the ball with great force, which caused the ball to go over connie's head. the male shrieks, jumping up to catch the ball that almost went over him. "okay dude! calm down!" connie yaps, giving jean a perplexed expression.
"sorry," jean apologizes quietly once he turns back to connie. his friend sighed, dribbling the ball before holding it in his grip.
"get over y/n will you? don't be obsessive over someone like her, she isn't worth your time," connie snarls, his attention returning to the group across from them for a quick moment. "why didn't you just talk to pieck like i advise you too? why did you have to go back and crush on a girl who's not even paying attention to you anymore?"
"shut up connie, you don't know anything," jean retorts, his head snapping towards connie who rolled his eyes. jean walks over to him, stealing the ball away from his hand. "eren's the one at fault here, he's the one who stole y/n away. he even stole sasha away, don't forget about that," the male whispers wrathfully and connie went silent, taking those words as something like a fact.
"now that blonde has her and he's eren's friend," jean mutters next, rotating his body around and gestures towards the two who were passing a basketball that they had found in one corner. connie glimpses that direction, seeing sasha and armin laughing.
"pfft, him? you think some nerd like him will steal sasha's heart!? i bet he can't even throw a basket—" connie begins to hostilely reply, but stopped when armin made a shot towards the hoop and the ball went in perfectly.
sasha began cheering for armin, running to him and throwing her arms around him like they were a couple. it made connie even more furious. he hated how her little giggles and bright smiles were caused from a boy who he barely even knew about. he hated how close they've became, how he felt the sudden urge of wanting to rip those two apart.
the basketball that was played by sasha and armin had rolled towards connie and jean. they didn't notice it at first until they saw it approach and soon enough, the brunette came to snatch it back but found herself facing connie.
the ball went to connie's feet and the two stared at each other for a brief minute until sasha cleared her throat, not really wanting to step closer to them as armin followed behind.
"can i have the ball?" sasha questioned quietly, but audible enough to make connie hear and scoff. she frowned, gesturing at least for him to lightly kick the ball back towards her.
connie picked up the basketball, slamming it to the ground towards sasha's way, making the female frightened. she didn't expect such sudden and seething action and she covered her face as the ball bounced over her head.
"tsk," connie spat, beginning to walk away.
"hey?! what the hell was that for?!" armin began to holler towards connie, who stopped in his tracks as the blonde approached him. armin was becoming even more and more enraged at these childish actions connie has displayed over the weeks and he's becoming exhausted seeing them.
"what's your problem blonde? she asked for the ball, so i gave it to her," connie replies, becoming face to face with armin.
"actually, what's your problem? you didn't have to slam the ball and make sasha startled like that! she asked you nicely for the ball and here you are, acting like an immature headass!" armin retorts as his expression turns into an infuriating scowl.
"what did you just call me?!" connie raises his voice, his hands formed into fists and he could feel his nails digging deep into the skin of his palm.
"immature headass. want me to spell it out for you? h-e-a-d—" armin began but was interjected whenever connie raised his arm and punched armin hard across the face.
by now, the room had become silent because of the sudden commotion and everyone's attention were now on the two who were throwing punches against one another.
"stop.. stop it!" sasha hollers as the only thing she could do was stand there and cry for them to stop. but they wouldn't and everyone else who was much stronger tried to pull away the two.
you and historia quickly went to sasha's side, questioning what had happened before she started bawling from the pressure of everything. once armin and connie had been pulled away from one another, eren immediately went to armin, detecting marks that would soon turn bruises and blood dripping down his nose.
everything felt like a blur to armin. his mind pounded hard as his body ached from the pain of the punches he received from connie. he wasn't really the type to physically fight, so his body easily became tired. armin could hear eren's indistinct voice calling out to him but he didn't respond and he closed his eyes, before passing out in his friend's arms.
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armin woke up several hours later, still feeling the same sharp pain in his body, especially his face as he rose up from the bed. he was laying in one of the beds of the university's infirmary, and he turned to the side where the window was and peered out. the sky had turned peach and the sun was slowly setting down on the horizon.
"armin!" eren's worried voice then appeared and armin turned to his other side, seeing eren walk in the infirmary with bandages. the brunette frowned, seeing his friend sitting there and staring at him without knowing how to respond.
eren quickly went to armin's side, sitting on the stool that was placed beside of the infirmary bed. "i brought some extra bandages incase you might need them, how are you feeling?" he questions, placing the item to the side.
"i'm.. okay, how's sasha?" armin replies dryly, his blue hues slowly wandering around the room, as if he was searching for her, even though he knew she wasn't there.
"she's okay now, she's with y/n outside the room," eren answers, handing armin a water bottle from his backpack. armin nodded his head, thanking him quietly as he grabbed the bottle and chugged half of the liquid down his throat. "sasha told us what happened. i'm sorry, i should've been there quicker so then you wouldn't have to end up like this."
"it's okay eren, don't blame yourself, okay? i did what i needed to do, get things straight with connie because his mind is as small as a crocodile's, but he's dumber than them," armin remarks, making eren snicker softly.
"connie's wounds weren't as bad as yours, so he left already," eren informs, even though the details didn't even matter to armin. the blonde just shrugged, taking another sip from the water. "if you need to rest more then go ahead, i don't wanna continue seeing you like this, it reminds me.. of last time," eren adds and armin nods, knowing what eren meant.
"i wanna see sasha," armin states bluntly, turning to eren who blinks and nods his head before standing up from his seat.
eren then began making his way out of the infirmary, smiling like an idiot as he saw how much his friend adored sasha. he opened the door, stepping out and saw sasha sitting in between you and historia. you were patting her back and reassuring her that armin was fine while historia was giving her yakisoba bread.
you noticed eren approaching and you turned to look at him, along with sasha. "armin's awake and he wants to see you, sasha," eren announces and sasha stands up from her spot, snatching the yakisoba bread from historia and instantly rushing into the room.
"let's just leave them alone for a bit," you say, smiling and the rest agrees.
sasha stepped into the room, closing the door behind her as her hands tightened around the half eaten yakisoba bread. she gulped back her developed anxiety, telling herself that it was okay before slowly stepping her way towards armin who was patiently waiting for her.
the brunette stopped in her tracks once she made eye contact with armin, who smiled widely upon seeing her. "sasha!" he greeted happily, raising his arm to give her a wave.
sasha grinned, though her sadness began to overwhelm her. she made her way towards the stool beside of him and seated herself there, keeping her still silence. "you sure you should be moving lively like that?"
"what? of course, it's not like i got into an accident or something," armin says, chuckling softly.
sasha laughs softly along with him before closing her lips as her body tensed. "i'm sorry, armin.." she speaks quietly, lowering her gaze down onto her lap. she felt terrible, like she was the one to blame and caused the entire incident.
"why are you apologizing? it's not your fault," armin reassures, placing his hand on her shoulder which earned her attention once more. her brown eyes were glossy, tears welled in her eyes and they were stuck there as she refrained from crying again.
"you're always protecting me armin.. and doing something nice for me and i wish i could do the same," sasha blurts, brushing her tears away from her eyes before hiding her face with both of her hands.
"you do, sasha. i promise you do," armin responds softly, gently removing the girl's hands away from
her face. they meet eyes once again and armin picks up the yakisoba bread that had fallen on her lap. "you do many, many nice things for me and you protect me too, remember that one time you saved me from getting hit from a snowball? and when i almost fell during that ice skating day?"
"connie should really think about sincerely apologizing to you and he hasn't even done that yet from last time's incident-" armin continues, about to add in an insult about connie but stopped himself. the blonde cleared his throat, a smile reappearing on his lips as he began to eat the yakisoba bread.
"and if i have to fight him like i just did earlier, i will," armin finishes, raising the yakisoba bread to sasha's mouth and watched as she took a bite out of it.
"i'll.. protect you too," sasha responds, giving armin a shy smile as she chewed on the piece of bread.
"move your flat ass over, eren-" ymir's whispery voice says as she gently shoved eren. currently, you, eren, historia and ymir were stalking the conversation between the two— it just suddenly happened and you are were now peeking through the small crack from the door.
"oh shut up," eren fought back and you hushed them.
"quiet!" you glance at them with a slight scowl and the two close their lips.
"yes m'lady~" eren murmurs in your ear, before turning to ymir and sticking his tongue out.
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I APOLOGIZE FOR THE LATE
UPDATES !! i've been trying to
update all my ongoing books for
the past few days while on writers
block 😟
anyways i hope u guys enjoyed
this chap, ily all sm !!!!