As you all stepped into the light of the rest of the arcade, Sasha screeched, "Ah! My eyes are burning."
"Fix them," Eren told her. "Because we need to play Bloodwalker Warefare."
Her previously suffering eyes were now wide open as she grabbed you and Eren, "Connie, come on, the four of us need to play."
"I wanted to play skee ball," you tried to reason so you could get out of playing with Eren.
"Okay, right after we could do that but come on for now," Sasha insisted.
"I'll play skee ball with you later, Y/n, just call me over," Marco said.
"Yeah, of course," you smiled at him, waving as Sasha dragged you off.
The horrible colorful pattern of the carpet was making your mind spin as she tugged you all the way to a big black hut in the middle of the arcade. There were four openings each side, acting as doors and you followed the rest inside.
It was a small room, there were four screens on each wall and a respective gun.
Connie nudged you, "That gun is for that screen."
You stepped toward the wired rifled, picking it up to face your screen as Sasha was on your right side facing the screen on the west wall, Connie on your left facing east, and Eren behind you facing north while you faced south.
You almost felt like you were in an abnormally large photobooth, except it was an over-the-top set up for a zombie apocalypse game.
"A token per player," Connie said, pulling his pouch of coins out as you all did the same.
Slipping your tokens into the slots, the game began to explain the rules in the form of an apocalyptic solider, "Our world went south since the accident at Creekway Labs. Now all our beloved town of Creekway is infested with zombies—but the infestation is of the corpses that deserved to rest in peace. Help us get to the lab, develop a cure and return to the fighter jet to spread the antidote. You are humanity's last hope. Good luck soldier."
You loved games like this because of how fast it would get your blood pumping. It added extra adrenaline being back-to-back with the others.
The game started, and you all headed towards the lab like instructed, being crashed with your first wave of zombies. You squealed, bumping back into Connie, "I can see his brains, ewww."
"At least we know he has one, can't say the same for you," Connie jabbed to which Eren muffled a chuckle.
You kept playing, jumping every so often at the sight of the undead creatures. You were nearing the end of the game now.
"Yes!" you, Sasha, and Connie cheered after the Mission Successful sign popped on the screen.
You reached down to grab Pieck's cow, "Skee ball now? I want to play with Marco."
"Connie and I are gonna do Just Dance over there," Sasha said.
Eren cleared his throat, "Mikasa, Armin, and I are gonna go play basketball."
Not bothering to respond or even wait to hear more, you went in search of Marco. You strolled around, seeing families with their kids, and a bunch of teenagers with their friends. It was a Friday night after all.
You eventually found Marco with Annie. They were playing on vintage looking arcade game like Pac Man. You walked up beside them, "Hey, you guys up for skee ball."
"Sure," the blonde shrugged.
"Yeah, let's go," Marco said, not even bothering to finish his game.
You all headed over to the gallery with the skee ball machines, starting a game as you all played. So far, Annie was brutally crushing you two. You were the most behind as Marco was catching up to her. Perhaps your skill in games was limited to laser tag.
As you played though, you couldn't get Eren's words off your mind. Who even told him to apologize? Just who did he think he was? His intentions weren't even pure, he had ticked it off as a chore rather than a task with true emotional meaning behind it.
"How do you feel about being here in Trost?" Marco broke through the cracks of your mind.
"I feel great. But you guys have all known each other for a long time, I feel a bit overwhelmed at times," you chuckled.
"Well, all of us are different," Marco said, his fingers curling around a mustard yellow ball. "But we all have little things that we have in common with each other."
"Like what?" you asked, wincing as you only rolled ten points.
"Well, Annie and I like horror movies," he said. "Jean's my best friend but he can't ever sit through one."
You giggled, "Tell me about it, he kept hyperventilating when we watched one the other day."
Annie stopped playing, "I've got to go to the bathroom, I'll be right back."
Marco kept going, "Mikasa and the girls like going to the gym together. All the guys go too. Jean and Eren play a lot of the same video games. And they don't like being deep ever. They'll get up and walk away at the sign of any emotion filled situation."
"Don't rope Jean with Eren. Jean actually has a heart," you aimed your ball for the highest scoring hole.
"Ohhhh, you don't like Eren?" Marco said like it was office gossip. "How come?"
"He's rude," you frowned. "And inconsiderate."
"There are lot of reasons he is the way he is," Marco illustrated.
You furrowed your brows, but Annie came back, "Hey, wanna play that water gun game after?"
"Yeah," you answered, pretending like you weren't discussing anything at all. You kept playing until your time was up and you headed to play the game Annie was talking about to aim a water gun at a hole to gain points.
Whatever Marco had just said dwelled in your mind. The thought of what he intended to tell you grew stronger with each passing moment.
Your vision veered off toward Mikasa and Eren across the arcade, they were embracing and he pulled back, his arms still around her. There was some truth in what Historia told you then. Your eyes wavered before they met Marco's once more, wondering what exactly was being left out.
After, you played a racing game on the motor bike game stations with Mikasa and Armin. Then you played air hockey with Reiner, losing rather pathetically to him. You had even played Street Fighters against Bertholdt and Connie.
When you were in the middle of watching an intense game of air hockey between Reiner and Mikasa, you felt your phone buzz in your pocket.
You looked down, seeing your older brother's contact photo, leading you to pick up the call. Bracing yourself as you did so.
"Hello?" you began to step away from the others to a quieter and secluded area.
"Hello? Where are you? Who are the people in the back?" your brother's stern voice spilled through the speaker. A proper greeting from him had always been a farfetched thing to expect.
Keeping your head low, you muttered into the receiver, "I'm out with some friends right now."
"Out?" he bizarrely yelled. "It's past nine, why the fuck are you out of your dorm this late?"
"Relax, I—"
"Shut the fuck up," he spat. "The deal for you to go to that school was so you could study, not act like a fucking idiot and be out with your friends at night. Get your ass back home now."
"What? I can't even have fun? I'm with my friends, not strangers, we're literally at an arcade," you exasperatedly argued.
"Send me your location now," he said. "Send it now or I'm driving all the way from fucking Marley to drag your ass back to Stohess. Dad isn't going to be happy about this. We all know what happened last time you disobeyed."
"Fine, I'll leave, now just please stop yelling at me," your voice became frail.
"I'm going to call back in twenty minutes and your ass better be at home," he scolded, ending the call as you heard the harsh beeping of the line drop.
Your hand fell to your side as you pondered how badly he would've reacted if you hadn't picked up to begin with.
"Boyfriend?" Eren had a soda in his hand. He wrapped his lips around the straw as he took an elongated sip.
You frowned, the pads of your fingertips clasped against the sides of your phone, "No, my brother."
"Sounded kind of tense," he gloomily commented.
"Everything's fine," you remarked a bit sternly, feeling the grooves of the volume buttons on your palm from your device. "I'm just sleepy."
His eyes flickered at yours, "You're not a good liar."
You gritted your teeth, "I need to go home, I'm tired."
"You live on campus though," he said. "What does your brother want you to do?"
You rolled your eyes, "He's just a little protective. Nothing else."
"You're safe though," he was beginning to get on your nerves.
"Yeah, but my brother is crazy enough to show up here and drag me back home," you said. "I'd rather save myself the embarrassment and just go back to my dorm."
"You're here on a Friday night to have fun," he lowered his soda. "Why should you care about what he has to say?"
You brushed past him, "You don't know my brother. And you don't even know him like I do. Besides," you looked at him coldly over your shoulder, "what difference does it make to you?"
You walked back towards the group to take Pieck's cow and maybe just call her to come get you—which you ended up doing. Pieck texted you back, letting you know she was on the way.
As another round of air hockey commenced between Bertholdt and Marco this time, you checked your phone, scared to see your brother's impending rage.
Jean
Hey pretty girl, how's everything?
You having fun?
You
I am. Wish you were here tho.
I would've had an even
better time :(
Jean
I'm sorry. I wish I could.
I'll make it up to you,
I promise.
You
I'll hold you to it, Kirstein.
Jean
Deal L/N.
The late summer heat may have been making your cheeks rise in temperature as well, it spread over your body, all the way to your fingertips. A smile spread in a similar manner, pulling to the apples of your cheeks.
Pieck
I'm outside.
The same way that grin on your face appeared, it disappeared too. Your eyes sunk and you exhaled, "I've got to go home, I'll see you guys soon."
"What?" Sasha whined. "Already?"
"Yeah," you bleakly answered. "I'm really tired, I had classes all morning."
"Oh," Historia pouted. "Alright, get some rest. You deserve it."
She hugged you from your side as you waved to everyone, "Good night, guys."
"Goodnight," they all chanted back.
Historia let you go, and you began walking towards the grand entrance of the arcade. While you made your way to the door, you saw Eren talking to some girl. He had noticed you walking past, only offering you a thoughtless glance.
What was a fleeting glance felt a lot more like him seeing through your bullshit. Seeing through the fabrications of yourself that the others weren't aware of.
Your eyes weren't narrowed, but they were in a relaxed state. A state that the rest of your body and mind had craved for.
Those tired eyes of yours finally faced forward as your fingertips met the glass of the front door. You were hit by the soft summer breeze of mid-September as you stepped out. Pieck's gray Lexus was parked out front. Your fingers hooked around the handle of the passenger seat, pulling it open as you hopped in.
"How was your day?" she asked, a soft smile on her features.
You felt drained, it was apparent in your response, "It was fun."
"Doesn't really sound like it was," she picked up on your tone. "Someone hit you over the head or something?"
You smiled weakly at her, your eyes half lidded as you leaned your head back on the headrest of the seat, "No. This is for you."
You held up the small stuffed animal and a sharp gasp pinched her throat, "Oh my god, no way. That is the cutest thing ever."
"I saw it with a little yellow duck in the crane machine," you described. "They looked really cute together, they were roommates in there for a pretty long time so I figured, they wouldn't want to be apart."
"Where's the duck?" her eyes peeled from the road. "You're going to keep it right?"
"I only won the cow," you sighed. "I'll come back for the duck."
"What if the duck's gone," she asked sadly. "What'll happen to the cow."
"Well, hopefully nothing happens," you closed your eyes. "But if it does, the duck will be happy that the cow is in a better place now."
She chuckled, "I didn't expect you to be so deep about it."
"Oh, expect anything and everything from me," you yawned. Then something came to mind, "I didn't know you knew Eren."
"Oh," she smiled. "It's weird but him and I go way back. He came to my summer camp in Marley. We didn't get along at first but then we ended up being teammates a lot of the time and we became friends. How come?"
You looked at her and she poked your stomach, "You don't have a little crush now, do you?"
"Ew, no," you grimaced. "He's an ass."
She jabbed you again, "A really cute ass."
"Pieck! Stop!" you laughed.
"You think he's cute!" she pointed at your face. "I knew it."
Your eyes reeled to the side, "He's hot, sure, but he's a stone-cold douchebag. No thanks. Besides, I'm with Jean, Mikasa has a crush on Eren and Historia resents him. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. And that group would be the least of my problems."
It was true, but it was only the beginning of your problems. You and Jean were getting along pretty well so far, and you liked him. But that didn't evade the curiosity etching into your mind.
"Just how much do you know about him?" you asked, licking your lips before chewing on your bottom lip.
"Um, well, not much," Pieck shrugged, eyes still facing ahead. "We only knew each other from summer camp. Only thing I know about him is that he was good at tug of war and relay races."
You leaned your head against the window, "Right."
"Hey, you up for slushies?" she piped. "I'm kind of in the mood."
Your lip pushed to the side in thought, "Yeah, I could go for a slushie."
The two of you drove in the direction of the nearest gas station, heading inside as the two of you mixed and matched with the slushie flavors. You and Pieck picked up some snacks too, deciding that maybe the two of you could enjoy your Friday night with a movie.
When you trudged up to the third floor of the off-campus Maria complex, you and Pieck eyed each other suspiciously when both of you caught sight of a stuffed yellow duckling. The exact one that rested within the glass cage of the crane machine.
You tip toed toward it with caution, peering around to see if the one who left it on your doorstep was still there. You picked up the duck, seeing a small sticky note on its stomach.
I'm sorry.
Pieck and your eyes met once more, while she was still confused. It was starting to make sense as to who left it there.
Eren.