I found this photo on Pinterest and searched everywhere for the artists link, please if anyone knows comment so I can properly give them credit above :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TW: Talks of Drug & Alcohol abuse, violence, physical abuse, medical illness
Please skip over or do not read if these topics trigger you. There will be a "⚠️" before any of these topics are discussed.
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Standing in front of you was Eren himself.
"Well that's one way to answer a text."
"Eren, what are you doing here?"
Space Song - Beach House
⇆ㅤ ||◁ㅤ❚❚ㅤ▷||ㅤ ↻
Your eyebrows furrow as you analyze his expression. He looks like he hasn't slept in four days... he's panting which makes you wonder if he ran here or something, and his eyes are glued to yours once again.
Your mind begins to trace back to everything Armin had told you earlier. You feel your heart sink, "what do I say or do to calm him down? He's just standing there..."
You open your mouth to invite him inside, but before you could make a sound, Eren grabs your arm and pulls you into his tight embrace.
"He's hugging me... wait what? He's hugging me?!"
You feel his body slightly shake, his arms wrapped around your lower back tightly but not in a harmful way, and his head resting by your neck.
You're frozen in place. Not expecting him to show up, not expecting him to hug you.
Then you hear Armin's voice, "His dads home."
Remembering what Armin had told you, now you could move.
Just as you did earlier when talking to Armin about Eren. Instead of words this time, you act without thinking.
You bring your arms up and comfortingly wrap them around Eren's back. You could feel his body tense slightly as you touch him, but he relaxes shortly after. His back was muscular, and you had to fight yourself from feeling around.
Instead, you rubbed your hands back and forth a little bit in order to calm him down.
"he smells so good" you inhale his scent. Just like Eren himself, his scent is hard to explain... it's comforting yet dark. Ambery & lavender is the only way you'd be able to describe it.
You could tell he was in his head right now, and this is the only thing you could do to help him. Regardless of how many questions you had, you restrained from asking. That's the last thing Eren wants or needs right now.
Finally, after what seems like minutes, Eren softly speaks, "thank you."
"Hmm? Oh! Yeah of course." You assure him.
As you begin to pull away from his hug, he pulls you back in, "sorry, can we stay like this just a second longer? I need to calm down first. I promise I'll explain after." He rambles.
His voice had only been soft like this once before with you, and that was a month ago in the practice room.
"Eren, you don't have to explain. It's okay, I know you're in your head. You don't have to tell me what it's about if you don't want to."
Again he says, "thank you." His arms squeezing your body a little more as he says it.
When he finally pulls away, you notice his hair is down, and his eyes look swollen as if he just finished crying.
"So that's what he meant by he needed to calm down... he was crying."
You watch him use his sleeve to wipe below his nose. When he moves the fabric away from his nose, you notice blood. You could tell his nose was red from the hallway light behind him, and the blood was almost dried so it wasn't a fresh nose bleed or anything.
"This had to have happened sometime earlier today."
You reach up to his face, "You're bleeding Eren..." your voice is gentle and cautious. You don't know if you're crossing a boundary.
You hesitate before your hand reaches up towards his face, and you both lock eyes again. You feel your heart flutter, and you drop the "fake face" you wear. It's evident now that you were nervous as your cheeks turned bright red, Eren notices and smiles.
Not a jerky or cocky smile, it was genuine. The same smile you had seen before in the practice room. A smile you could figure out his story in, a smile you could tell he was human in, a smile you could swim or fly in.
"Come in. It's kinda weird if you keep standing in my doorway." You change the subject.
"Right, sorry." He walks into yours and Mikasa's dorm.
"Here catch." You toss him a water bottle, then begin to pull out the same kit you used before to clean up Eren's cuts.
"Let me help clean you up please?" Looking down at him as he sits on the edge of your bed, he smiles and nods, "okay."
You wipe away any extra or fresh blood with a damp toilette, then softly dab a cotton square with some hydrogen peroxide on the cut.
Eren winces slightly and you apologize, "Sorry, I'm almost done."
"My dad's home. He's the reason I have the cut." Eren blurts out.
You stop what your doing and look at him. You could feel anger boil inside you, but you stay calm and listen waiting for him to speak again.
"He left my mom and I when he found out she was sick. Ran off to Marley and started a whole new family. His new wife ended up dying and since then he's a pathetic drunk who comes home to blame it all on my mother and I with stuff like 'you should've been the wife to die not Dina' or 'you may have my blood but I'll never consider you a real son' shit like that. Guess that's why I was so mean towards you because you were from Marley. Stupid, I know. I'm sorry, but please-"
"I would never tell anyone." You read his mind, "how can I help?"
Eren sits there in silence until he answers, "stay by me for while? And smoke a blunt?"
You smile, "sure. I could use one."
You both head out of your dorm room, and to Eren's car. Also to your surprise, Eren drives a matte black Chevrolet Camaro z28.
"Damn nice car manbun." You compliment.
"Would ya stop calling me that marleyan." He mocks back, "I bet you don't even know what kind of car it is."
"Wanna bet?" You ask.
"Always." He replies, his voice husky and low as he inches towards you.
"If you lose, you have to teach me how to play the rest of Pluto projector." You state.
"Interesting, what do I win?" He asks you.
"You're supposed to pick dumbass." You tease.
"Fine." He makes a clicking noise with his tongue, "if I win, you have to kiss me."
"W-what?" You were caught off guard.
"No take backs, what's the model of the car y/n?" Eren leans down, now only centimeters away from your face.
You smile at him, regaining your confidence, "Chevrolet Camaro z28."
He backs away, "how on earth did you know that?"
"Why? Cause I'm a girl?" You taunt.
"We'll kind of. I don't even think Connie knows the brand of this car though." He explains.
"My dad. He loves car, and he's a mechanic. I grew up around his shop." You tell him.
"Well I'll let you drive it if you can guess the year it is." Eren says proudly.
"Don't underestimate me manbun, it's a 1969." You reply confidently.
Eren places a hand on his heart and lightly squeezes, "don't do that y/n, or I'll fall for you."
You roll your eyes at him.
"What did I say about rolling your eyes at me." He voice switches to a low husky tone yet again, and you can feel those same butterflies fluttering inside your chest.
"Yeah, yeah, can we smoke now?" You ask while walking over to the passenger side of the car.
"Someone's needy for the green." Eren teases as he lowers himself inside of the car.
"I told you, I needed it after today." You say.
"Yeah, well, me too." He agrees and the car goes silent.
"Damn it I sound insensitive. I know what he's going through.."
His car smelled really really good. Like mahogany and tweak wood with the slightest hint of weed.
Eren reaches into the small compartment that's located on your side of the dashboard. His arm stretches across so that his body is halfway over yours. You can smell him again, the same ambery lavender scent.
Eren pulls back, resting his back against his seat when he finds his stash of weed in the compartment.
"It's time." He sends you a devilish smirk which causes your heart to drop into your stomach.
"Head out of the gutter y/n."
"You want the first hit?" Eren holds up the blunt towards you.
"You first. Since you already lost twice to me, you really need it more." you purse your lips into a pout as you tease him.
He rolls his eyes, "Fine."
Pressed between his pointer finger and thumb, he lifts one end of the blunt so that it's resting between his lips. With his other hand, he lifts up a black lighter that has a small design of white birds flying away on it, then quickly slides his thumb over the top, sparking a flame. Letting the flame burn the other end of the blunt for a minute, Eren deeply begins to inhale.
The light from the lighter illuminates Eren's hands and face. His hands have veins that travel up towards his arms, and his arms are more muscular than you had originally noticed. You study the tattoos on his arms again, but this time the light exposes the scars under them, imprinted into his skin...
"Did his dad do that to him?"
your brows furrow and mind starts to race as you blatantly stare at Eren's Arms. He notices, and pulls you out of your trance.
"Your turn, y/n" He reminds you as smoke pours out from his mouth, and he tilts his head back against his headrest. He turns to watch you as you grab the blunt from him.
You maintain eye contact with him as you inhale the smoke. Slightly dropping your head to the side, you slowly blow out the remaining smoke in Eren's direction.
"Big hit marleyan. Experience?" He asks you.
"Told you not to underestimate me manbun." you tease, handing him the blunt back.
"You piss me off." He scoffs before taking another hit.
You smile at him, "You know you like it."
He rolls his eyes at you, "You wish marleyan."
You reach over towards him, grabbing the blunt he was already bringing up towards his mouth, and say, "Don't roll your eyes at me. You'll regret it." You take another hit.
"Don't steal my lines y/n. Or I'll start calling you unoriginal."
"I didn't steal, I quoted. Big difference Jeager." You hand him the blunt.
"I forgot you're an English major." Eren grunts.
Your eyes widen, "How'd you know that?"
Eren shrugs, "Don't underestimate me."
"Mhm. Pretty sure you're just stalking me." You say.
"Shut up." His voice low again.
You lower yours to match his level, "Make me."
The weed has definitely kicked in by now because there is no way you'd confidently say that to him.
He raises his eyebrow in an intimidating way, "Is that permission?"
You stay quiet, inching closer to his face.
Just before your lips meet, he grabs your face and stops you, "Y/n, I'm gonna need that permission. I won't touch you, until you ask me to."
Biting your lip, you notice Eren's eyes are low from the weed. However, they are somehow brighter in color than before.
"There is no way his eyes can get prettier."
Without noticing, you change the subject, "I like your eyes."
Eren smiles, "Okay, you're stoned."
"Nope." You say popping the 'P', "Just warming up."
"How about breakfast food, Milkshake, and round 2?" Eren suggests and of course you take him up on his offer.
"Denny's?" You ask.
"Sure." He responds.
When you and Eren arrive at Denny's, a man named Porco seats you in a booth and tells you that he would be your waiter tonight.
"Anything to drink?" He asks looking at you.
"Water please, and could I get a strawberry milkshake?" you ask.
"Of course Ma'am, and for you Sir?" He turns his attention over to Eren.
"Cheesecake milk shake and a water." Eren responds.
"Alright, I'll be back with those in a few minutes and take your order." Porch flashes you another smile, then walks away.
"He's nice." You smile.
"Bleh, if you hit on the waiter I'll leave your ass stranded here." Eren's tone turns serious.
"Someone's jealous." you laugh.
"You wish Marleyan." Eren scoffs.
Rolling your eyes, you flip back and forth between the pages on the menu, "What are you gonna get? I'm so indecisive."
"All American Slam, and an order of pancakes. It's the munchies y/n, you can order a lot." He reminds you.
"Okay... I'll get the loaded veggie omelette with an order of pancakes."
When the waiter comes back you both tell him your orders, and he hands you both your drinks.
After a few sips of the strawberry milkshake your high starts to fade.
"Oh, by the way we have a class together." You tell Eren in between sips of your shake.
"Really? What class?" He asks.
"Public speaking with Professor Shadis." You tell him.
"Great. A class I can't cheat off of you in." He sighs.
"I wouldn't let you cheat off of me anyway manbun."
"Whatever, but you can't laugh at me. I'm not good at public speaking."
Taken back, you assure him that you would never make fun of him for struggling at something. your eyes accidentally fall to his arms again, and you can see the scars underneath his tattoos.
"I'm sorry to bring it up, but your tattoos.."
"Something beautiful to camouflage the damage underneath. Like the act you put on to cover what's inside." His answer short and straight to the point.
"You're the only person to notice the facade I put on... You know that?" You embarrassingly admit to him.
"You're the only person to catch onto the scars under my tattoos." He responds.
Before you could continue with the conversation, the waiter brings your food. "Enjoy."
"Thank you." Both you and Eren thank him.
You both eat, scarfing down your food.
"Damn that was good." Eren leans back against his side of the booth and places a hand on his stomach.
"Yeah, totally worth it." You agree.
"Let's go, yeah?" Eren suggests now that you were both done.
You nod your head, "Yeah."
Both you and Eren scoot out of the booth, and head towards the front.
"I'll go first." Eren says.
Not thinking about it, you let him.
"Ready to pay?" Porch asks Eren as he approaches the electronic register.
"Yes, all on one check please." Eren responds.
Your eyes immediately widen, and you tug at Eren's arm, "What the hell, let me pay for mine." you whisper lowly.
"No." Is all he says.
Eren pays, then grabs you by the arm, pulling you back to his car.
"You should've let me pay for myself.." You lecture him.
"Nope, I offered to get you breakfast and a milkshake so I'm gonna pay for it. Plus it's my way of thanking you again."
"Thanking me for what?" You ask him, "You never told me why you've been thanking me so much."
Eren remains silent as he drives you back to your dorm. He insists on walking you back upstairs so he doesn't have any guilt if you were to be kidnapped or murdered.
When you get to the door of your dorm room, you say goodbye to Eren, and he thanks you again.
"Don't thank me if you won't give me a reason as to why you're thanking me. I'll just accuse you of being a 'thank you' slut." You joke.
Eren laughs and drops his head to the side in your direction, "For answering the door."