The week passed by rather quickly, it was filled with time consuming homework and having to go to classes. Mostly, you spent the spare time you had at the library with some of the others or doing homework or in your dorm. And just like that, another week passed by.
You were still ignoring Eren in the class you had together. Granted, him being seated right next to you made your life even more difficult. You had barely seen Jean since he was caught up in practice. So, you mostly had been hanging with Sasha, Connie, Armin, and Mikasa.
Finally, the weekend rolled around again. You were in your room watching a show on your laptop after a stress filled week when you got a text from Armin in the groupchat.
Armin
Who wants to go to the arcade
in Scouts Plaza today
to laser tag?
Mikasa
Me
Sasha
Me
Connie
Me
Historia
Me and Ymir can come :)
You
I can come
Jean
I can't, I've got to go home
this weekend. Mom
needs my help.
Eren
Aww Jean boy helping
out mommy :)
Oh yeah, to your and Historia's dismay, Eren was a part of the group chat. Actually, he was involved with just about everything. There was no escaping him.
Jean
Shut up
Bertholdt
Me, Reiner, Annie, and
Marco can too
Armin
Perfect, I'll take Connie,
Eren, Y/n and Sasha.
You groaned. Great, you had to be confined within four vehicular walls with Eren now. Whatever, at least you weren't alone. You stood up to get ready, clearly sweatpants weren't going to cut it. Well, you had to run and it was an arcade after all, casual attire would be fitting.
You threw on an oversized graphic white tee and baggy blue jeans. At least you'd be comfy.
You walked out into the kitchen, Pieck was in her room, probably studying or on the phone with Porco again. You went to knock on her door.
After hearing an inviting, "Come in," you stepped inside.
She was on her bed, scrolling through her laptop while she online shopped, "What's up?"
"I was about to head out with Sasha, Connie, and the others," you tossed your thumb back. "Just wanted to let you know before I left. Do you want anything, by the way?"
"No, I'm okay," she shook her head. "Where are you guys going?"
"Laser tagging," you said. "You want to come? The others won't mind."
"Oh, I'm not sure. I don't think the others like me," she blankly said.
"What?" you furrowed your brows. "You're friends with Reiner, Annie, and Bertholdt though, right? You should come with."
She softly smiled, "That's very nice of you, but I'm really tired after classes. I just want to stay in bed."
"Are you sure?" you pursed your lips.
"Yeah," she smiled. "Have fun and text me if anything happens."
You headed towards her door, "Alright. See you."
Right as you were closing the door, you heard the knock on the main door of the apartment. You grabbed your phone and strode towards the front. You twisted the knob, revealing Connie with his arms crossed.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Yup," you stepped out, locking the door behind you with your keys.
"Armin, Sasha, and Eren are already in the car," he said.
"Great," you walked side by side with him while descending the stairs. "Mikasa's bringing Historia, and Ymir. But her class isn't over until another half hour. They'll probably be late."
He let out an over-the-top yawn before answering, "We'll just play the arcade games before they get there. There's this really fun zombie one where we have to shoot them down. Eren loves playing that game with me."
You chuckled, "The one where you have to actually hold the gun?"
"Uh huh," he clicked his tongue right after.
"That seems very much like him," you sarcastically mumbled.
After exiting the building, you could see Armin talking to Sasha and Eren in the car. Sasha was in the passenger seat, animatedly speaking to Eren in the back right.
Connie opened the door and all you could hear was a wave of hi's from Armin and Sasha.
Connie gestured to you, "Girls sit in the middle."
You rolled your eyes, getting in and sliding into the middle. Right next to Eren. He smelled really nice, you were expecting him to reek of weed or something, but he didn't. He smelled like sage and mint. He was dressed really nice too, he always did.
You didn't say anything until Connie got into the car, practically smushing you against Eren's side, "Connie, ow."
"My bad," he apologized.
You tilted your head and you made eye contact with Eren on accident. His cold expression softened, "Nice fit."
You bowed your head, "Thanks."
"So, it's a bit far. The others will end up getting there around the same time as us." Armin began driving, "Connie did you take out the trash like I asked you to?"
Connie's eyes were as wide as saucers, "Uh . . . totally. Definitely."
"Liar," you mumbled.
Connie put his hand over your mouth as if it would silence you but Eren's eyes glinted at the boy, "We all could already tell you're lying. You suck at it."
"No, I don't," Connie argued.
"Yeah, you do," Armin shot. "You remember that time Sam and Daz caught us lying to them about sneaking out their pie to eat with Annie? You made that same face you're making now."
"Not true!" Connie yelped.
Sasha snapped, "Yes, you suck at lying. You barely ever got away with cheating on tests too! You should've just had Armin tutor you like he does with me."
"Is that where you guys were today? He was tutoring you?" you folded your arms.
"Yeah, Armin's really good at it." Sasha said as-a-matter-of-factly. "You guys should try it."
"Wouldn't Armin already have his hands full with you?" Eren coldly quizzed.
Sasha just shrugged before she reclined her seat all the way back to hit Eren. He yelped in irritation as you faced away to laugh.
Armin panicked, "I'm driving, guys! You're being really distracting!"
Sasha repeated the actions with using her seat to jab Eren until she felt like it was enough. Settling back into place, she apologized to Armin.
"Idiot," Eren called Sasha.
You let out an amused exhale, seeing Eren look at you. There was a little waver in his eyes before he opted to look out the window and you peered straight ahead.
A few more minutes of driving passed, Armin was finally pulling into the lot of the great plaza they all mentioned. You tried to as hard as possible not to look at Eren again the entire car ride.
"We're here," Armin crooned in relief. The car ride must've felt like Armageddon to him.
"Yay," Sasha wasted no time in opening the door.
Connie got out on your left and already slammed the door, Eren rolled his eyes before he opened his door and hopped off the car.
"Come on," he motioned to you.
You looked at him as he offered you his hand, a bit skeptical. Sliding your palm in his, you got out of the car. "Thanks," you shakily mumbled.
Only nodding at you, he didn't bother adding much else. He dropped your hand once you were on your feet, and he shoved his hands in his pockets. The five of you walked towards the big arcade.
The plaza itself looked like an 80's themed entertainment center. There were red and blue neon lights among various other colors. You realized the entire thing was connected and basically one entire center.
You finally walked into the arcade. It was quite big, and the recurring 80's theme followed inside too. You look around at the diverse game selections ranging from dancing, warfare, and racing. There were probably many more, those were the ones you noticed right away.
"I'm going to go book us a game," Armin pointed at a help desk outside of the laser tag arena.
"I'll go get us tokens," Connie rummaged through his wallet. "Sasha, come with me so you can help carry them."
"Okay," she followed him to a machine to get tokens through.
That left you with Eren. Alone.
"Listen," he said to you.
Wearily, you looked at him, shocked he was even speaking to you.
"I know the party was a bad look, I was just having a shitty day," he had an apathetic look as he explained. "When I saw you in class on the first day, I meant to talk to you but you ran off."
"You did?" your brows knitted.
"Yeah," he rasped. "I was figuring out the right way to say it at the library after but then you were mad about the book."
You blinked at him, "Maybe because you stole it from my hand."
"Whatever," he rolled his eyes.
You closed your eyes for a second before looking right and left, "You are talking to me? Right?"
He looked at you like you were stupid, "Yes. But that guy you saw at Bellflower, that's the real me."
"I'll consider it," you said, eyes veering towards Armin who was coming back now.
"Consider what?" Eren grumbled, a little irked.
"Your apology," you said as if it were obvious.
The brunette's eyes narrowed, "Who said I was—"
"Okay," Armin rubbed his hands together. "Booked a game for all twelve of us in about twenty minutes. Everyone should be here by then. Then there's another one after."
You painted a smile as if you weren't speaking to Eren about anything of relevance just a moment prior, "Awesome."
The corner of Eren's lips turned down, his bottom lip poking out a bit more. If you didn't know his sullen personality, you would've believed he was pouting. Not a moment later, Sasha and Connie came back, holding a few cloth pouches courtesy of the arcade to carry the tokens they got.
Each one was a different color, you saw black, blue, orange, green, and purple. Eren immediately went for the black one, and Armin chose blue. Your hand gravitated towards the purple one as Connie kept green for himself and Sasha grabbed the orange.
"Where to first?" Connie asked, tossing his green pouch a few inches in the air before he caught it.
"What's up!" a voice jeered, making Connie drop the pouch and fidget in place.
You all turned to see Reiner, Annie, Bertholdt, and Marco walking in with grins on their faces excluding Annie of course who was sporting her usual cold expression. Reiner had his arms open as he approached Armin and Connie, slinging his muscular arms around both of them.
"We already booked the game," Armin coughed out, being smushed against Reiner's side.
"Really?" Reiner finally let go. "When?"
"Like fifteen minutes," Armin regrouped.
Connie rubbed his arm, "Where are Mikasa, Historia, and Ymir?"
"Mikasa's bringing them," Marco said, looking at his phone. "When I talked to Ymir, she said they should be here soo—"
"Helloooo." Ah, speak of the devil. Ymir had a roguish grin as she came in with Historia and Mikasa on her side. "You were nice enough to get us tokens, little guy? Aww you're so sweet."
She tried snaking her hand to grab Connie's green pouch, but he defensively held it against himself, "Hell, no. Get your own."
Ymir sneered, "You know what, your mom—"
"No!" Historia immediately covered Ymir's mouth. "We are not going there!"
"Let her finish, Historia," Connie growled, eyes still on Ymir. "I want to hear what she has to say."
"You sure you won't piss yourself?" Ymir taunted jokingly.
Connie gritted his teeth, "I—"
Mikasa lightly smacked the back of his head, "That's enough. Let's go get tokens, Historia."
The blonde in question followed Mikasa to go get tokens. Armin looked at the clock, "Once they get back, we should start heading over to the arena."
Everyone nodded. You walked deeper into the arcade as everyone fell into deep conversation. Although the arcade was 80's inspired, the games and machines were very up to date. You stepped toward a claw machine, a fuzzy cow plushie inside caught your eye. Pieck would like that.
More than that, a little yellow duck stuffed animal demanded your attention as well. Needless to say, you wanted it.
Your fingers slipped into the pouch, collecting a token to slide into the coin slot of the machine. Right as you heard the little clink of the token slipping in, you heard a voice on your side.
"What are you doing?"
Not bothering to turn your head, you caught a glimpse of Eren right next to you. The game started and you moved the red joystick, "What does it look like? I'm trying to get a stuffed animal."
"Which one?" he brushed past your sarcasm.
"The cow and the duck," you muttered.
"What're you gonna do with two?" he quizzed, eyes following the claw that you yourself were watching like a hawk.
You clicked the green button to lower it, narrowly missing the cow, "The cow for my roommate Pieck and the duck for me."
You groaned as you missed again, he mumbled, "It can't be that hard."
You scowled, "This shit is rigged."
He chuckled, "Yeah, of course."
"It is," you insisted.
"Mhm," he sardonically agreed. "Isn't Pieck dating Porco? Or are you talking about another Pieck."
Your pupils flicked towards his face, "Yeah that's her. How do you know Pieck? You friends with her boyfriend or something?"
"Not really, if anything I only know about Galliard because of Pieck," he folded his arms as he continued to spectate. "You might wanna hurry up, the timer's almost at zero."
You grumbled, "I know." Then, by the call of a miracle, the claw managed to sustain its grip onto the cow. Picking it up and dropping it in the prize box.
"Yes!" you shook your fists in excitement, hopping once in place before kneeling to get the stuffed animal from the box. You held it up to show Eren, "Cute, right?"
Eren's eyes fell from yours to the black and white cow, "Yeah, cute. What about the duck you wanted?"
You looked at the yellow duckling sitting behind the glass, "I'll come back for it later."
Eren didn't reply, he simply watched as you were returning to the others. Mikasa and Historia came back and the rest of you were finally making your way to the arena.