Just like that he left in the afternoon of the next day, he left at exactly one on the dot and made you time him right before he shut the door. An hour and thirty minutes is when he said he'd be back so you gave him that.
Except he didn't just leave you alone...no, Eren's too himself for that.
He had a security guard standing in front of each window and door in your apartment. You just sat on the couch and they were all staring at you, watching your every move and not saying a word so it really creeped you out but you turned on the tv to distract yourself.
You put on a movie and stared at the tv, you pulled the throw blanket over your legs and waited for Eren's return. Things were harder but it was a new day. The only thing keeping you from constantly crying is the security in knowing that the next day will always be different, it may be better or it may even be worse...regardless, it'll be different.
You glanced over at the time on your phone, it had been an hour and it was down to the last thirty minutes Eren had left before he promised he'd be back. Honestly, you didn't think he'd do it. He's made promises before and he's broken them, you learned to stop making such a fuss as long as he came back to you.
Eren swung the front door open thirty minutes early, you turned your head and noticed he was in a different outfit than he left in and he had bags of things in his hands.
"You're early..."
"Great. I was hoping I'd be, the traffic made me nervous," he said and entered, he looked at one of the men by the window and eyed him without saying a word, the man shook his head and Eren nodded back to him.
"Go." Eren ordered and sat everything down on the couch next to you, all the men exited right after each other and even the ones from upstairs left quickly and quietly too.
"What's in the bags?"
"Video games for us to play and I saw some new cartoon pants I had to buy them, they're my favorite cartoon. I got your fries too," he said and took the games out of the bag, he handed you your fries and lifted up the pajama pants he was talking about.
You started to eat them and listened when he rambled on about each cartoon character on the purple pajama pants, his excitement about something so child-like was refreshing but it made you wonder.
He did have a lot of childish tendencies and little things he just liked, not necessarily acting like a child but he had little habits and things he'd fall into that weren't really typical. You wondered if he did those things because he missed out on them when he was a kid himself, due to his family life you wouldn't be surprised if he missed out on a lot of things and wanted to relive that time of his life in a brighter light.
He went to go put one of the games into the console and he grabbed both the controllers.
"Eren."
"Yes?" He sat down on the couch and placed the controller on your lap.
"Can we talk about it...?"
"There's nothing to discuss, it changes nothing. My love for you does not come from us being able to have kids or not, I just want to experience life with you and that can be many things...we could always steal Mila too." He assured once again, he put his hand on your thigh, extending his comfort and smiling right at you...no longer giving you a look of such sadness.
You smiled back at him and put your head on his shoulder, except when you did you smelled something familiar. Not perfume, not cologne but rather a familiar candle to you but it wasn't just any candle. You couldn't put your finger on what it was but it was coming from Eren, like he was in the home of whoever's candle was burning this exact scent yet you couldn't remember.
You didn't say anything about it but started to play the game with him while trying to pinpoint where you recognized that smell.
Then it came to you.
"Armin..." you mumbled under your breath while resting your head on his shoulder and he slowly turned his head toward you.
"What?"
"Armin...you smell like that horrendous candle he's been obsessed with." You sniffed him again and he paused the game.
"What? No, I don't."
"Yes, you do, and don't lie to me." You said back to him and he sighed loudly and set the controller down.
"Nothing gets by you, huh?"
"Wait...did you...?"
"Did I what?" He asked and you gave him a frail concerned look.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked while you started to piece together what you thought you wanted to know.
"Nothing...nothing. Let's just keep playing," you shrugged it off, acting as if you were just asking and you focused back on the screen, you leaned on him and he leaned back on the couch, he put his arm around you and the two of you played a video game together.
"Can we go get ice cream?" You suggested after the two of you played for around an hour.
"Yeah sure. Let's go," he paused the game and you watched him check his pocket for his keys, the two of you left your apartment and got into his car.
"Have you thought about living in a house again?" He asked while driving and you realized that you still never found your wallet.
"My wallet! It's still gone...fuck, can you stop at the bank so I can cancel my card?"
"Which wallet was it?"
"The red one."
"That one didn't have your credit or debit card in it, you paid for the hotel with the card I gave you. I got the notification yesterday, your wallet is on top of the dresser," he answered and you felt immediate relief.
"Oh. Thanks...and no, I haven't really thought about it except for your house. I'm too picky, there's always a room in the houses here that I just don't like,"
"Hm," he hummed and pulled over to the side where the ice cream shop was.
You both walked inside, he got a sundae and you just got two scoops of ice cream on a cone. While sitting together inside, you licked your Cinnamon Toast Crunch flavored ice cream and he was licking the whipped cream off his.
"What a coincidence meeting you two here," An officer, the same one from last night walked over in front of the table you and Eren were sitting at.
"If you don't mind me asking, where were you earlier today?"
"I've been with her at her apartment since we woke up." Eren answered and you continued licking your ice cream.
"Is that true?" The cop looked at you and so did Eren.
"Yes-"
"Did he ever leave you? To go anywhere else during the period of one PM through two?" The cop questioned and you made sure not to look nervous, as long as you believe it was true so would he.
"No. He was with me the entire time watching a movie," You answered and Eren took a scoop of his sundae.
"Why?" Eren asked, very skeptical of why he was even asking but before the cop answered Eren out his hands right over your ears instantly.
"Because Armin Arlert was found dead this afternoon in his apartment. Thought you might have something to do with it Eren," The officer provoked slyly and Eren's face remained calm but in you felt your heart skip a beat.
"Not me, try your luck elsewhere."
"Hm. If it was you...Armin was a cop. You'd get life with no parole so I really hope for her sake, that it wasn't you." He provoked once more and started walking away.
You thought that was the end of it when Eren slid his hands off your ears so you could hear again but of course, Eren had to take it a step further.
"You have a son right? Freshman in high school, 5"8 and plays on basketball team, straight-A student." Eren called out a bit louder and the cop froze, his back facing Eren and completely still after Eren called him out.
Your eyes darted up at him, the cop walked off anyway and Eren looked back down at you.
"So you did do it." You whispered while eating and he didn't say anything for a few seconds.
"Let's go," he stood up and quickly led you back to his car, he held your hand and opened the car door for you, nudging you to get inside and you did.
"I'm not mad. I was just asking, I already said what you do isn't my business anyway," you cracked your window open a little and he remained silent for the entire car ride back home.
You got back inside and heard him set his keys down from behind you, you were done with your ice cream so you went and sat down on the couch together but he still wasn't saying anything to you.
"Say something already," You leaned over to kiss him on the cheek, hoping it would reassure him and get him to say something.
"I never admitted to that,"
"You didn't have to ," you grabbed the remote casually and you got the feeling he was more worried about how you thought of him rather than himself.
"I didn't."
"Eren. I'm not mad, you don't have to lie. Just admit it, why'd you even cover my ears anyway?" you asked once more and scooted over to him on the couch after pressing play on your movie.
"Because you will not be involved in anything I do. You were kidnapped because I slipped up once. That's all it takes and I won't let it happen again." He instructed, practically shooting down any further questions you had angrily.
"Fine." You rolled your eyes at how stubborn he was being and moved over out from his grasp, you just wanted to feel like all the chaos and drama was over with her he couldn't even give you that because he was too afraid of himself, more than you knew.
"Don't do that." He turned his head completely and eyed you, the two of you both looked annoyed so the demands he gave were even more intimidating.
"Do what? Get annoyed?"
"Don't move from me when you're annoyed. Talk to me." He moved over himself and sat closer to you.
"I just want things to go back to the way they were...before." You sighed loudly, finally admiring what you actually wanted out loud and Eren thought about that for a moment.
"I remember the moment I knew I liked you more than I thought...it was our senior year in high school and you were in the library. I was sitting at a table across from you and you were talking with your friend and eating chips with salsa or something, you dropped a piece of it on your shirt when your friend was looking but I saw you. You looked around to see if anyone caught you and we made eye contact, you put your finger over your lip to shush me and I smiled, your friend turned to look at who you were shushing, and yet I kept smiling at you, and the stain on your shirt that your friend was definitely going to notice. You thought it was embarrassing but I thought it was cute," he reminisced, still sitting next to you and you gazed at him lustfully.
You could've started crying right then and there but instead, you just turned your head in the opposite direction to hide your smile.
"Y/n-"
"Shutup. Shut. Up." You demanded, leaving him confused until he looked over and caught sight of your smile that you tried to hide from him.
"And because of that, I'd never give you the opportunity to look at me the same way other people do. I didn't kill Armin, even if I did you wouldn't be able to prove it because you can ask Levi and he'll tell you I was talking with Erwin." Eren said and you turned your head back around.
"You're sneaky...really sneaky," you muttered and he shakes his head with a little grin.
"I'm not sneaky at all."
"Lies...but you can make it up to me by making that French toast you made for me a couple of months ago...when I first moved in." You said softly and he agreed, he kissed you on the cheek at first but you turned his head so he was kissing you on the lips.
At first, it was just a quick kiss, then you kept your under his jaw so the kisses became repeated until his lips were locked onto yours.
Things were going well, all up until the point of a very familiar beeping happened. The long beep, sent a shiver right down your spine and the kiss to stop, the both of you turned your head at the only computer downstairs sitting on the desk by the window. The blocker Eren had set up all that time ago, was going off like crazy.
The beep that single-handedly got you two together in the first place, the noise that started it all.