Welcome to the Little Titan Caf '!

Today's special: Armin

'Eren ' '

His hand darted furiously over his sketchpad. The further he hunched forward, the deeper the crease between his brows became.

'Eren. '

A strangled, agitated groan sounded in his throat as he tore off the paper, discarding it on to the table with the other sketches. He scratched his head with the butt of his pencil, furious, before bringing said pencil back to paper and starting over for the ' Armin counted the drafts that littered the table ' eleventh time.

'

Eren

. '

'What? ' he snapped, eyes still on paper, wild and angry because he couldn 't quite get it right no matter how many times he tried. The fingers were too long, too short, too thin, too

something

.

'Should you really be doing this here? ' Armin picked up one sketch after the other, sorting them into a neat pile. He didn 't quite understand why Eren was upset with them. Every one of them was a drawing of hands, none of which Armin could pinpoint any imperfection. They were rough and shaded, some angled as if ready to play a piano, one holding a pen, another with fingers weaved together, clasped, clutching a cup, a finger pointed; they were beautiful in every perspective, lovely in its rough delicacy. But then again, Armin wasn 't an artist and didn 't see things the same way as Eren. Every now and then something would possess Eren ' an idea, a subject, a scenery ' and, like now, he would obsess over it, draw it repeatedly until he got it

just

right and even then sometimes it wasn 't

good enough

.

'What? ' Eren asked again, clearly not processing the question.

Armin took a sip of his chocolate chai tea latte. There was no helping Eren when he was caught in this fervor. But couldn 't he have chosen a less public place to go into a mad drawing frenzy? He set his cup down and tried again with a different question, 'Do you really want to spend your night off at work? '

'Huh? ' He looked up, confused, catching his best friend 's inquisitive stare. Armin caught the way his eyes darted towards the bar, hopeful and anxious all at once, before retreating to his sketchpad. 'Here is fine. '

There was no one sitting at the bar. Sasha and Connie had the closing shift, so it was no surprise to see them goofing off behind the register. They had found Christmas decorations from the storage closet and rather than hanging them up like they were supposed to, they were decorating themselves and making a fashion show of it. 'You know there 's a party going on at Jean 's, right? '

Eren scoffed. 'I don 't think it 's a party if no one shows up. '

'Are you sick or something? You normally jump at the chance to go to parties, even if it 's at Jean 's. '

'Yeah, well, sometimes I just wanna chill. '

Right. Eren and chill didn 't belong in the same sentence. Armin didn 't want to pry, but ' 'Okay. Tell me about him. '

He knew he hit the bull 's eye because Eren 's cheeks lit up as quick and bright as the blinking red nose Connie wore. 'Wh-wh-what are you talking about? '

It was just as Armin feared. Eren was

stammering

. Mikasa was notgoing to be happy when she found out. 'Tell me about this guy you keep drawing over and over again. '

'I 'm drawing hands, Armin. '

'Very specific hands, with a very specific person in mind. '

'How the hell did you figure that from my sketches? How do you know I 'm not obsessing over hands? '

'That 's what I figured at first, but then you looked at the bar where no one was sitting and if you could have seen the look on your face ' '

'There was no look on my face! ' Eren denied a little too vehemently.

'And now you 're acting defensive. '

Eren pursed his lips, cursing Armin for his obnoxiously smart brain. This was Armin, after all. Armin who was majoring in Nuclear Engineering; who was currently partaking in an undergrad lab internship ' now, Eren didn 't know much about it but he understood how hard it was to get into the program, at least; who solved everything with logic, reasoning and deduction; who, to put it simply, was a smart little shit that Eren couldn 't get anything by.

'I know what you 're thinking, and trust me, it doesn 't take a genius to figure out what 's wrong. You 're too transparent. '

Eren scowled at the pointed look Armin gave him. 'Doesn 't change you being a smartass. '

Armin tucked a strand of blond hair behind an ear. Eren hadn 't realized it until then that Armin 's hair had gotten longer throughout the year ' he always wore it in a ponytail. Normally he kept it cut at a certain length, but Eren figured he was too preoccupied with school to care. 'Who 's this customer you 're obsessing over? '

'I 'm not obsessing over anyone, ' Eren grumbled, staring sulkily at his most recent sketch. He added arms this time, sleeves drawn above elbows, elbows that were bent at 110 degrees, forearms outstretched ' he really,

really

liked those forearms ' to the curve of wrists ' were they too angled? ' and hands ' lovely, lovely hands ' and the way fingers moved, the way they held his cup, the way they loosely grasped the pen, the way they were clean and rough and there was no ring on his finger but maybe he had a someone and Eren just didn 't know because he didn 't know a lot of things about him but he

wanted

to he just didn 't know how '

'

Eren!

'

'What?! '

'You were spacing out. '

'Oh. ' Eren frowned, backtracking to figure out where he lost himself. He was looking at his sketch of arms and hands and fingers, a sketch that was

not

specific, nor was it of a specific person, it was just that he had an image in his head of a certain apathetic patron who liked to tease him and look at him with those eyes and ' damn it he was doing it again. Eren shut his sketchpad and tossed it onto the table. 'Maybe I could go to the party. I need a fucking drink. '

But of course, the heavens or gods or whatever deities there were chose that moment to piss on him because the door to the caf ' opened, followed by the chime of the bell and a cold gust of winter air. And suddenly the caf ' was too small and too big all at once because the object of Eren 's obsession stood at the entrance, head lowered as he punched something into his phone. Armin started to stand to leave, but Eren reached over, grabbed his wrist and tugged him back down, all the while trying to make himself invisible.

Shitshitshit

shit

.

Wait. Why was he panicking? Eren could be at his work place in order to enjoy a cup of coffee, couldn 't he? He was allowed to be there just as much as Levi. There wasn 't anything weird about it. Okay, that was a lie. It was

totally

weird because the only time Eren interacted with Levi was when he was working and it was easier in that situation. When he was working, it was okay for him to talk to Levi. It was his job to talk to customers, to ensure they had a good experience ' like he ever actually cared about that, but still. As Levi headed to his usual seat, Eren wondered if they could quietly sneak out of the shop without Levi noticing.

'Eren! Armin! '

Damn it damn it damn it. Maybe Levi wasn 't paying attention. Maybe he 'd think it was another Eren. May 'nope, Levi lifted his head up and saw Sasha and Connie who both wore reindeer antlers as they tried to catch Eren 's and Armin 's attention. Whether he was confused or not that Eren wasn 't standing behind the counter, Eren couldn 't tell.

'What do you think, Eren? ' Sasha asked, hands on hips in a pose.

He tried to sink further into his seat, he really did. Unfortunately he was frozen in place when Levi looked over his shoulder and spotted him.

'Shouldn 't you guys be working? ' Eren snapped.

'Shouldn 't

you

be working? ' Levi asked.

'Tonight 's my day off. '

'And you spend it at work? '

Eren relaxed with a roll of his eyes. By now Armin tried to be discreet, albeit failing, as he turned in his seat to look at the object of Eren 's obsession. 'I wanted coffee, and as the owner 's son I get a discount. '

'All employees get a discount, ' Connie pointed out.

While Levi took his seat at the bar and Connie and Sasha took his order, Armin leaned over the table and whispered, '

Him

? '

'What 's that supposed to mean? ' Eren asked, offended because he made Levi sound like some kind of walking disease and if he was a disease he was the most handsome disease on two legs.

'Isn 't he ' older? '

'He 's not

that

much older ' ' he trailed off uncertainly.

'You don 't even know how old he is? ' Armin sighed.

Eren knew where this was going, could see it on Armin 's face, but before he could go

there

Eren interrupted, 'Look. It 's just a crush, okay? Nothing 's going to come of it. '

Pity. That was the look Armin wore. Pity and worry for his friend who didn 't fall in love left and right, who suddenly developed an infatuation ' obsession, crush, what-have-you 'for an older man; his friend whose feelings often overflowed and overwhelmed because he felt a lot and didn 't know how to contain them. He could only hope it would remain just that: a crush, a fleeting obsession. 'Alright. Are we still going to the party? '

Eren sent a furtive glance at Levi 's back. 'I think I 'll stay. You can go. '

'Eren ' '

'Stop giving me that look. I want to finish this sketch. '

Armin had to bite his tongue to point out that Eren had been ready to go to the party prior to that man 's arrival, but stopped himself. If there was one thing he knew about being Eren 's childhood friend was how stubborn he could be. 'Fine. I 'll see you tomorrow. '

As soon as Armin was gone, Eren plopped his head on the table, gently banging against it. He should have just gone. When was the last time he attended a party, anyway? A month, two months ago? He 'd been working too much to bother with a social life, and here he was, passing it up on his night off. His priorities were

totally

straight. Technically speaking, his priorities went off the road and down several turns and forks and into men-loving-territory a long time ago. There was never a time in his life where his priorities were straight.

A pressing priority to find out why something was being dropped to his table had him looking up to see a very familiar messenger bag. The chair legs scraped faintly over wooden floors as it was pulled out and a very familiar person occupied Armin 's deserted seat. Eren blinked.

'I couldn 't stand to be near your coworkers, ' Levi explained. His expression was almost comical ' something torn between disbelief and horror ' not that Eren could blame him. Before he could respond, Levi 's gaze landed on the neat pile of sketches. 'You draw? '

'Oh, uh, ' Eren sat up and hastily snatched them up, stuffing them between pages in his sketchbook. Embarrassment stained his cheeks. 'No. I mean yeah. '

'Not bad, ' Levi said.

Normally when people complimented his drawings, they tended to gush at him with flowery words. Sometimes their compliments made him feel proud, made him feel happy, but they never made his heart take off into space like those two simple words. He shrugged in an effort to look cool and unaffected. ' 'Thanks. I guess. '

Eren was surprised when Levi didn 't pull out his laptop, but a book. It was written in French so Eren couldn 't understand the title. He didn 't pester Levi with questions about it because he found he wanted to draw again, his earlier frustrations gone, leaving room for clarity.

They spent the rest of the night like that, only aware of pages turning and pencil scraping paper.