Circles | Eren x Reader

Chapter 8- First Game Shivers:

The next morning we put on our uniforms to warm up before the game. Historia said that it was freezing outside— the grass had little flakes of ice on it— so, I went back upstairs to find my sweatshirt. I emptied my entire bag, hoping to find the navy sweatshirt somewhere, but to no avail. Then I realized: "Shit!" I slapped my forehead, "I left it at school!"

I had brought other jackets, but if I wanted to keep my head, I had to show up in front of Levi with a matching uniform.

Ah, well. It can't be that cold outside. I'm sure it'll be—

I followed everyone out and immediately started shivering once the cold air hit my face.

"(Y/N), where's your jacket? It's freezing out here!" Jean asked. "Even Reiner is wearing a sweatshirt, and that's practically unheard of! He wears shorts in the rain!"

"Well, uh, funny story actually— I accidentally left it at school," I smiled sheepishly.

"Oh, erm, well, if you want," Jean stuttered nervously, "You can borrow mine."

I took a second to think about it. "That's alright, Jean, it is way to cold out here to not have a jacket. It's my own fault for being unprepared. Besides, I can handle it." I said confidently. I heard Eren laughing behind my back.

"Sure you can, (Y/N)!" he mocked. "It's not like your arms are literally glued to your chest under your shirt!"

"Wha—" Oh. I had instinctively taken my arms out of the short sleeves and tucked them under my uniform. That's embarrassing.

"At least she can actually play today, Eren" Jean defended. "You're stuck on the bench for our first game because she kicked your ass."

It was true. Eren's lip was still pretty swollen, and if he were to take another hit anywhere near his face, he'd benched for a lot longer than a few days. Captain Levi decided it was our best move to play a man down today than to risk Eren getting re-injured, which would basically screw us for the rest of season. As much as I disliked the boy, Eren was a great goalie and we needed him.

After a few warmups led by Hanji, I was slowly starting to heat up, but my limbs were still frozen solid. I moved a lot slower and stood too stiffly. Long story short, I sucked. Levi benched me for a few minutes and gave me an old blanket to warm up. It definitely helped, but there was no way I could play an entire ninety minutes without dying of frostbite. Jean looked at me longingly— I could tell he felt bad.

Eren was on the bench not too far from me, chewing on the left string of his hoodie while comfortably watching everyone play. Ugh, I despised him.

I shivered as a gust of wind blew over the field.

Eren's POV:

I watched (Y/N) shake from the other side of the bench. It must have sucked to be her. Her first game ever with an entirely new team and she couldn't even run properly. Hilarious. It was what she deserved, though. After all, it was her fault that my lip was busted in the first place. This was the only proper punishment. I smirked. Karmas a bitch, (Y/N).

After about five minutes of watching her violently shiver, I started to feel a bit bad for her. I mean, if she had really wanted to play, she could have just taken Jean's sweatshirt when he offered. I didn't think (Y/N)'s pride was that fragile. Or perhaps, it was just her being considerate. She didn't strike me as a very selfish person.

Psh, what am I saying? That was probably Armin talking. Every time I chastised her he'd come to her defense. He always pushed that she wasn't as awful as I made her out to be.

He'd say things like "Oh, (Y/N) offered to study with me today! Isn't that so kind of her?" or "Jeez, Eren, I don't know why you criticize her so much, didn't she give you part of her lunch when you were in the infirmary?" or, worst of all, "Well, I think (Y/N)'s actually very pretty. She has nice eyes. It's an objective fact. I'm surprised you chose to dislike her just because of one little thing."
It was draining to talk about her to him. He kept putting her on a pedestal like she was some amazing friend. They've only had a few conversations together, though, so I wasn't sure how his word was better than mine. Nice? Sure, I could see that. But attractive? Unlikely. I remember how she showed up to school the first day: Her hair stuck out in every direction, her eyes had purple bags beneath them, and her uniform wasn't even tucked in. On her first day! Not to mention, when I was kind enough to stop her from hitting her head on the bus, I touched her neck, and it was wet! That's disgusting! I haven't seen one day where she's actually looked put together. Even now, she looked like shit.

I could still hear Armin in my ear: "Why are you so caught up in what she looks like? What does that matter? Are you saying you shouldn't help her because she's ugly?"

"No! I'm saying I shouldn't help her because she's annoying!"

(Y/N) jumped up and turned to me. Guess I said that out loud.

"Who are you talking to, Yeager?" she asked politely.

"None of your Goddamn business, (Y/N). Stay out of it," I retaliated.

Maybe I should just let her borrow mine... I'm sitting out today anyway, so I could just stay in the cabin until after the game... NO! I kept arguing with myself. That's stupid. She kicked a soccer ball in my face, why would I help her?

"You'd be helping the team in the process..." Armin commented inside my head.

Oh my God— FINE! This time I made sure to reply inside my head. I stood up and walked behind the bench as I pulled off my sweatshirt, my blood boiling. This is all her fault.

I walked behind her— she didn't seem to notice I left my seat at the bench— and shoved the sweatshirt over her head. I stalked off back to the cabin without bothering to explain.

You're welcome, Armin.

A few minutes later, I saw (Y/N) practicing with the others outside, wearing my sweatshirt. It practically consumed her figure. While she waited to shoot I saw her absentmindedly chewing on one of the hoodie strings—

"HEY!" I yelled at the window.

"Eren?" I turned around and saw Armin at the head of the stairs. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Too cold outside," I mumbled.

He stood beside me and gazed out the window. "Ah, you gave (Y/N) your sweatshirt. I heard she forgot hers." He looked closer, "Ha! She's chewing on the left string! You do that all the time!" Armin stared at me with his blue eyes. "She looks a lot better. That was very kind of you, Eren."

"I didn't have a choice," I mused. "You made me do it."

"Eh?"

"The voice in my head," I replied apathetically.

"Oh." We stood together in silence. "She's a very good runner you know. You guys have a lot in common actually. (Y/N) likes cheeseburgers too."

I sighed, "Armin, why do you keep advertising her to me?"

"Because I think if you gave her a chance, she'd be worth your while."

I scoffed. "I don't need her! I have you and Mikasa."

"I think you're lying to yourself, Eren. This intense 'hatred' you have of her didn't come from nothing."

"You're right, Armin. It came from her smacking her locker in my face before I even got to meet her."

"Hm. So be it." Armin left the cabin to go cheer on the team. A few minutes later Historia and Marco followed.

(A/N~ hi y'all!! Hope u enjoyed these chapters, lmk if u want me to post more— things are gonna start heating up in the next chapters, but I wanted to introduce everyone first. So yeah, just leave a comment if you'd like me to continue and I can update soon. Thank you all for reading, it means so much to me!!)