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To be fair, this was all Sasha and Connie’s fault.
At the beginning of the year, they had come up with this game that Eren had dubbed “Let’s try to ruin Eren’s life in as many ways as possible.” Sometimes, it involved doing things like drinking a whole container of Tabasco sauce in the dining hall. Other times, it was slightly more life-threatening, like attempting to thumb-wrestle Jean while both of them hung outside the windows of moving cars (Mikasa still wants to kill them for that stint, but luckily no one was injured. Badly.). Eren could feel himself losing years off of his life every time he agreed to one of their strange ideas, but with Jean egging him on and an unwillingness to admit defeat, he found himself agreeing yet again to another one of their ideas.
“Okay, this one’s pretty simple,” Sasha explained one day in the dining hall. It was in the middle of the afternoon, one of the only times they found they could all meet up with their increasingly busy schedules as college juniors. Almost everyone was there. Connie sat next to Sasha, shoveling an entire plate of French fries into his mouth as quickly as humanly possible, while Jean was on Sasha’s other side, having just returned from the stir-fry station. Ymir and Krista were staring at Sasha expectedly, waiting to see what kind of shenanigans Eren would have to pull next.
Eren sighed, running a hand through his brown hair. “This best not get me expelled or something. Mikasa is still pissed about the last thing you guys had me do.”
Connie started laughing. “You gotta admit, that was genius though.”
“And you didn’t get caught!” Sasha reminded him. “We’re masters at this, Eren. Have a little faith in us.”
“Fine, fine. What am I doing this time?” Eren asked, looking between the two.
Sasha clapped her hands together, leaning towards him. Her eyes little up mischievously, and Eren was a bit scared by the smile that appeared on her face. “All you have to do,” she began, her voice low to add an air of mystery, “is flip a coin.”
Jean looked at her incredulously, setting down his chopsticks. “That’s it? That’s fuckin’ lame,” he said.
“Uh-uh, my Jeanie-boy. This is a great idea and I’ll tell you why,” Connie continued. “Our dear Eren will have to make all of his decisions by flipping a coin, and he must”—Connie looked over at Eren in emphasis—“do what the coin tells him to.”
“How will you know what he does? And if that’s even what he flips to do?” Ymir asked him.
“Well, we’re not going to just leave this up to him, are we?” Sasha said. “Whenever we see Eren, we each are going to give him two choices on something and make him flip. That person’s responsible for having him stick to whatever choice is made.”
“Basically you’re all going to ruin my life, aren’t you,” Eren groaned, covering his face with his hands. It was bad enough letting Sasha and Connie rope him into these things, but getting everyone else involved made him unsettled.
“Bingo, Bright Eyes,” Ymir said, cackling. Krista gave him a look of sympathy.
“You’ve just got to stick with it for a week. And even then, it’s only when you’re with one of us that you’d have to do something, anyway,” Connie said, pointing his last French fry at Eren. “You can do it, easy.”
“Fine,” Eren said, knowing he would be bullied into doing it anyway. As long as he made sure to stay away from Jean and Ymir for the majority of the week, he should be fine. Krista wouldn’t do anything bad to him, and Sasha and Connie would just have him do stupid shit like normal. He could survive, hopefully.
Given a coin by Connie (“This is the last money to my name. I’m entrusting it with you,” he had said dramatically), Eren left the dining hall shortly after meeting up with everyone. Sasha, Connie, and Ymir were already done with classes, but he, Jean, and Krista still had a couple of classes left in the day. He was headed to his Cultural Studies class when he felt an arm drape around his shoulder. Looking over, he saw it was Jean.
“What do you want, Horseface?” Eren said, shrugging his arm off of him. “Isn’t your class in the other direction?”
“Yeah, but class was canceled today,” Jean said with a smirk. “I thought I’d be the first to break in Sasha and Connie’s little challenge for you.”
“I have class in a half hour, Jean. Do it some other time.”
“That’s a perfect amount of time,” Jean said, grabbing Eren’s arm and bringing them to a halt. “If you stop protesting and just get this over with, you’d have plenty of time to go back to the dorms.”
Eren looked at him suspiciously, his eyes narrowing. He blew a strand of his hair out of his face, turning to Jean. “What do you mean?”
Jean clapped his hands, rocking back on his heels. He flashed Eren a cocky smile. “Option one,” he began, “is you go to Starbucks and order a drink before spilling it all over the counter, or,” he smirked, “option two is buying a drink and spilling it on yourself.”
“You’re an asshole, Jean,” Eren spat. “No fucking way, you know how much of a dick move that is? I’m not going to ruin someone else’s day because of a stupid coin flip,” he said, turning away from him.
“Then you best hope it ruins yours, huh,” Jean said, a cocky smile spreading on his face. “You’re not getting out of this Jaeger. The longer you wait, the less time you have to change before class.”
Eren glared at him, pulling out the coin. “Fine, you asshole. You’re buying the stupid drink,” he said.
“That’s what I thought,” Jean said. “Heads for the counter, tails for yourself,” he called out.
Eren took a deep breath before tossing the coin in the air. Although he didn’t want to have someone have to clean up the drink, he didn’t want to have to run all the way back to his room and change (especially because this was his favorite shirt and he didn’t want to get coffee all over it). As the caught the coin, a sense of dread washed over him and Jean started cackling.
“Fuck.”
The rest of the week turned out with the same pattern. Letting a coin toss ruin his life was one of the worst mistakes Eren had made, and he swore this was the last time he would succumb to one of Sasha and Connie’s idiotic ideas (for a while, at least). Despite his efforts to stay away from the group, he had too many awkward encounters due to Ymir and Jean, with some of the more dumb suggestions coming from Connie and Sasha (“no, I’m not going to hitch a ride on the back of my professor’s bike, guys” was something Eren hadn’t considered would be something he would say, but here he was. Luckily enough he flipped for the other option, and he could still go to Pixis’s class without being completely mortified).
It was the sixth day of Eren’s week from hell when it finally happened. He had been walking to the library when Sasha had run up next to him, linking their arms. Eren groaned in frustration, counting down the hours until this dumb coin flip thing would be over. “What is it now, Sasha?” he said, unsure if he really wanted to hear the answer.
Sasha laughed, letting go of his arm and skipping in front of him. “No hello? I see how it is,” she said, putting a hand on her hip. “Well, since you’ve asked, I have my last request.”
Eren looked at her. “Are you dying?” he asked.
“Not at all, you silly, but I’m not going to put you in any more predicaments after this.” She smiled widely at him. “Now, for my final request.”
Eren sighed, pulling out the coin from its permanent place in his skinny jeans. “What is it?” he asked.
“Heads,” she began dramatically, waving her arms around, “you make out with Jean--”
“—what the fuck, Sasha?” Eren yelled. “No fucking way I’m doing that!”
“—or tails,” she said, pretending like he hadn’t interjected—“you ask out the first person that walks out of the library.” She twirled one of her pigtails. “Those are your choices,” she said cheerily, as if she didn’t just potentially ruin Eren’s life. “Now, let’s see what you get.”
Eren wanted to eat the coin, not toss it in the air. Making out with Jean was something he had never entertained, and he hoped to God that wouldn’t happen. Throwing the coin, he prayed to whatever gods were out there that he wouldn’t have to be closely associated with Horseface’s mouth.
Luckily enough for him, his prayers were answered. Relief washed through his body once he saw tails, and he didn’t even care that he’d have to be asking some random stranger out. Hell, he’d ask Pixis out if he had to. Sasha let out a fake sigh. “And here I thought we would be able to get some quality footage of you and Jean sucking face,” she said wistfully. “I guess it wasn’t meant to be.” She grabbed Eren’s arm once again, bringing them to a bench outside of the library where they could watch people entering and leaving. “I hope whoever you’re about to ask out comes out soon, because I’m getting hungry and want to eat before class.”
“It’s your fault for cornering me, you know,” Eren said, keeping his eye trained on the library. There were two girls that he’d seen around his dorm walking into the library, holding coffees in one hand and gesturing with their others. The coffee made Eren think back to Jean’s dumb request of him pouring coffee on himself, and he was still attempting to get all of the stains out of his shirt. Luckily enough, he’d avoided Jean relatively well this past week, usually running in the opposite direction when he saw him coming and hiding out until he was too bored to find him. It had meant coming in late for a couple of his classes, and almost missing a meeting with his advisor, but Eren deemed it worth it in his books.
“I wanted to make sure I could get this one in before it ended,” she exclaimed, swinging her feet. “We know you’re still torn up about what happened with Levi,” Eren shot her a glance at his name, “and we just want to see you happy again.”
Eren was short with his reply, not looking over to see the concerned look on Sasha’s face. “Levi has nothing to do with this. He has nothing to do with me,” he said quietly. Sasha sighed, and he knew he was being a little harsh, but it was still a sore subject. Levi had been his boyfriend for two years, both of them having met in Eren’s Intro to French class. Eren had taken too many years of Spanish to be able to take the Intro to Spanish class, but his placement test went so poorly that he would have had to start in the class he was forbidden to take. Taking it as a sign he should just give up with Spanish, he had signed up for Intro to French with the hopes of fulfilling his requirement and passing with as little problems as he could.
What he hadn’t expected was walking into the class and falling in love with his Teaching Assistant. His TA was a short man, with pale white skin and an almost permanent frown seemingly painted on his face. He was from France, studying at the university as an exchange student for grad school. Eren was completely flustered whenever he was around the man, but it didn’t take long for him to accidentally reveal his feelings, to which Levi surprisingly responded. Things were going really well for the two, and Eren couldn’t have imagined himself happier. Levi was everything he had looked for in a partner, and despite his rough exterior, Eren knew Levi really cared for him and felt strongly about him as well.
The worst news came when Levi told him he would be returning to France during Eren’s junior year, finishing out his degree at a school near his hometown. His mother had fallen ill, and being the only family member she had left, he needed to return home to take care of her. It had come with such short notice that Eren was in shock and didn’t know what to do, baffled that the man he thought he could spend the rest of his life with would just be leaving in a couple of weeks’ time. Eren had given him everything, and while he understood that Levi was needed back home, he thought he would have been worth more to him. He had tried pleading with Levi to let him come with him, saying he would transfer schools and study at some place close by. He didn’t care if that meant leaving all of his friends behind, was willing to pay the exorbitant plane ticket price if it meant the two could be together. Levi had gotten mad at him, telling him to stop being so brash and just think for once, because even if that happened it wouldn’t work out. It’s not that simple, Eren, he had said, and with those words, Eren felt his heart break into pieces.
It is to me, he had said to Levi, knowing that this was the end of their relationship. If it’s not that simple to you, then I guess there’s no point in us, is there? He had tried not to cry when he took off the necklace Levi had given him for their two-year anniversary, just a couple of weeks before, shoving it in the older man’s hand as he walked away. He didn’t look back as Levi called to him, and he didn’t answer any of the calls and texts the man sent him for the next three weeks. He still had all the messages and voice mails saved on his phone, and whenever he was feeling lonely, he would pull them out. It wasn’t healthy, he knew, but Levi had been his hold world, and losing him just like that had seriously shaken him.
Sasha noticed Eren’s sudden change, and she looked at him worriedly. “It’s about time you moved on, Eren,” she said quietly, nudging him with her shoulder. “He missed out on having you, but you shouldn’t miss out because of him, yeah?”
Eren leaned into her touch, eyes still trained on the library doors. He knew if he looked at her now, there was a good chance he might start crying. “It’s just hard, Sash. I didn’t think I’d be missing out because I thought we’d be together forever, you know?”
“I know, Eren. I know,” she said sympathetically. They sat in silence for a few minutes, just watching the traffic flow into the library.
After what seemed like a year of them sitting there (for Sasha at least, whose immediate goal was to get food), someone finally left the library. Sasha jumped up at the sight of the man leaving it, a very cute man. He looked to be about their age, maybe a year or two older but definitely not younger, and Sasha thought he was very dashing and just about Eren’s type. He was tall, with short black hair that framed his dark skin nicely. There were a multitude of freckles splattered across his face, and he had gorgeous chestnut-colored eyes. In his right hand were some papers he had rolled up, probably something he had just printed. He stopped by the doors, bringing forward his brown messenger bag and taking out a folder to put the papers in. Sasha grabbed Eren by the hand, forcing him to follow her as she headed towards the oblivious target.
“Time to work your magic,” she said, pushing her friend into the other man, quite literally. Eren stumbled, falling into the guy who let out a noise in surprise. His papers fell to the ground, scattering around the two. Sasha quickly ran away, off to the cafeteria and not sticking around in case Eren got angry. He could kill her later, but right now he had to get cute Freckles’s number.
“What the hell, Sasha?” Eren called, turning to look around at his friend that was already making her escape. Turning back to the man he had just run into, Eren rushed to pick up the papers he had unintentionally scattered on the ground. “I’m so sorry,” he said, tucking a piece of hair behind his ear as he tried to help the poor boy his friend had made him accost. “I totally didn’t mean to run into you like that, but my stupid friend pushed me.” Eren looked up at the man, holding up his papers as a sort of apology. He had to admit, the guy was cute. He was still a bit in shock after having had Eren literally shoved in his arms, but once he looked down at the papers, he smiled and shook his head.
“No worries, it’s okay,” the man said, giving Eren a smile. Eren felt his heart stutter. The man was cute, that’s for sure. Internally, he groaned, knowing that the only reason he really was here was to ask him out on a date. He wouldn’t mind going on a date with this guy, but he hated that the real reason for him doing this was because of that stupid coin flip. If had just been some normal person, Eren could have potentially played it off. If things went well with the guy, though, he would have a lot of explaining to do. Eren realized that he didn’t have a lot of time to worry about it, however, because the man was already packing his bag and heading out.
“Wait,” Eren called, grabbing the man’s arm. The man turned around, giving him a quizzical look. Eren swallowed and took a deep breath, steadying himself. “I’m really sorry about this all, and I’d like to make it up to you.” The guy stared at him, shifting back so he could give Eren his full attention, and Eren continued. “Would you like to get coffee sometime? I don’t even know if you like coffee or tea or whatever, but there’s this new place that opened up downtown that I’ve heard is really good. I totally should pay you back after running into you like that,” Eren kept on, fully aware that he was rambling. The other man smiled again, and Eren stopped abruptly.
“I wouldn’t mind that,” the man said sweetly, and Eren felt himself sigh. “I’m free now if you’d like to go.”
Eren looked at him, surprised. “Are you sure? I thought you’d be heading to class or something.”
The man shook his head, his black locks moving back and forth before settling right back in place. In an offhand thought, Eren wondered if the man used any hair products, or if the shape of his hair was natural. If he could, he’d like to feel if his hair was soft to the touch. “I was just printing out a rough draft of my thesis, but I don’t have anywhere I have to be right now. I’m Marco, by the way,” he said, holding out his hand for Eren. Eren let go of Marco’s arm that he’d grab, going to shake the outstretched hand.
“Eren.”
Marco smiled at him again, and Eren found himself smiling back. “It’s nice to meet you.”
The two headed off to the coffee place Eren had mentioned, which was about a ten-minute walk from where they were. As they started to walk, Eren took the chance to observe the other boy. He was about three inches taller than him, and his skin was a shade darker than his own. His face was peppered with freckles, which trailed down his neck, and from his rolled-up sleeves of his button-up, they extended to his arms as well. He was dressed really nicely, Eren observed. “Are you dressed for a special occasion?” he asked Marco.
Marco shook his head. “No, this is how I normally dress,” he responded, a hand coming up to rub the back of his head. “I get that a lot, though.” Marco looked over at him. “So, what’s your major?” he asked, filling the rest of the walk with small talk.
Eren found out that Marco was a senior double-majoring in Philosophy and Astronomy, two things he had been really interested since he was younger. When Eren asked him why astronomy, he sheepishly told him about all the days he would go outside and just stare at the night sky, thinking if he stretched his arm enough, he’d be able to pluck them out of the sky. Eren, in turn, had revealed that he was majoring in Sociology with a minor in Cultural Studies, finding human interaction to be fascinating, and concerned with the things that kept some down while others benefited. He was very passionate about human rights, and he’d talked about going into non-profit work but was hesitant because he had loans to pay off and wanted to make sure he could support his younger sister.
The two learned a lot about each other, and Eren could honestly say that he hadn’t smiled that much and been that genuinely interested in someone since Levi had gone. Marco was a genuinely nice guy, and he begrudgingly admitted to himself that he was happy Sasha had pushed him into him. Still, there was a slight knot in his stomach when he thought about the original intentions of asking him out, and after spending a couple of hours with the boy in the coffee shop—going back for refills and to test out some pastries as they sat in two large recliners near the back—Eren thought he had to say something.
“Hey, Marco?” he began hesitantly. Marco looked up from his drink, a little bit of whipped cream on the corner of his lips. Eren found it super endearing, and he wished he could take a photo of it and cherish it forever.
“What’s up, Eren?” Marco said, noticing his nervousness.
Eren looked down, choosing to stare at Marco’s hands as they cupped his second white hot chocolate. “I have something I have to say.” Taking a breath, he continued, “Sasha and our friend have been making me do these dumb little dares this whole week by flipping a coin and then whatever it lands on, I have to do what my friends say. When I was outside the library, I was dared to ask out the next person to walk outside the library and it just happened to be you. I didn’t know that Sasha would push me into you and that you were going to be so cute and that I’d genuinely like you and I’m sorry if you’re offended but—”
“Eren,” Marco cut in, grabbing Eren’s hands. Eren looked up at Marco with an earnest expression. “I’m not mad at you, you know.”
“You’re not?” Eren whispered, relief rushing through his body.
Marco shook his head. “It’s a bit strange, I admit, but from what you’ve said about your friends, it seems to me that they’re just looking out for you.”
Eren squeezed Marco’s hands. “Sorry for dragging you into this. I’ve been going crazy this whole week because of them all.”
Marco laughed, squeezing back. “I understand. How about you take me out on a real date, though,” he said, and Eren broke into a smile.
Luckily enough, Eren was able to avoid all of his friends on the seventh day of the coin toss. Part of that could have been attributed to him spending all day with Marco, getting to know the boy, head resting on his shoulder while they were curled up on the couch in Marco’s apartment. As time went on and Eren introduced Marco to his friends, he found himself thinking less and less of Levi, and more and more about the boy who was there in front of him. Months had passed by quickly, andEren lifted his arm, tracing the freckles that trailed along Marco’s back. This might not have been where he had seen himself at the beginning of the year, completely torn by Levi’s sudden departure, but he wasn’t going to complain. Closing his eyes and snuggling closer to his boyfriend, a small smile worked its way onto his lips.
No, he wasn’t going to complain at all.