Circles | Eren x Reader

Chapter 16- MP High:

(Y/N)'s POV:

I didn't see Jean or Eren for the rest of the night. When they arrived home, the team, (excluding Mikasa), sorted through the groceries and began preparing food for tomorrow night. Well, everyone else prepared it, and Sasha ate it before any of the frozen meals made it into the fridge. Everyone had agreed on soup. It was easy to reheat and would keep everyone warm during the frosty night. Annie, Marco, and Armin organized all the food— putting cans in the cupboards and popsicles in the fridge, while Reiner and Ymir chopped up vegetables. Historia was making the bread and every time she looked over at Reiner and Ymir, each would start chopping extremely quickly and aggressively, trying to outdo the other.

"Wow, you guys!" Historia beamed, "You're both so talented!"

"Marry me when I'm done with this, Historia," Ymir pleaded.

To pull Historia's attention away from Ymir, Reiner brought up tomorrow's game: "We're definitely gonna win," he said confidently. "And after we win, we're gonna DRINKKK!!" Sasha and Connie overheard him and cheered. Neither of them were doing anything to help with the cooking. The two of them decided they'd be the most useful loitering in the kitchen and "taste-testing" food.

"Levi!" Hanji shouted at him, despite being right beside him at the sink, filling up a pot with water, "Are you going to party with us too? Or are you just going to go sulk in your room?"

"Well," Levi said as he scrubbed away all of the vegetable juices that had been left on the ring of the sink, "That depends on the state of this kitchen after tonight."

Ymir snatched a sausage out of Sasha's mouth, "Dude. Just wait until tomorrow."

Hanji brought the pot of water to the stove and started instructing me on how much of each ingredient to drop in. Every time I went to question her methods she'd interrupt me saying: "Trust me (Y/N), I am a soup wizard— right, Levi?"

"Their creations are edible," he replied apathetically.

The high-energy environment tired everyone out quickly, especially after a long day visiting the town, so the boys and girls went to their rooms early. I heard the door downstairs slide open around midnight and two sets of footsteps enter the cabin, but other than that, the house was dead silent.

The next morning we awoke early to play our last game of the trip against MP High's best. Jean and Eren had reappeared, but their relationship seemed to be in a worse state than usual. So much so, that not a single word was uttered between them. Eren and Mikasa warmed up alone, while the rest of us stuck with Kirschtein. Jean refused to even look at me. He kept his distance and walked away before I got the chance to talk to him. I wasn't sure why. Historia, Marco, and Armin watched from the sidelines, coming down every so often to give Sasha some popcorn for the few minutes she was benched. I was cleared to play today despite my lack of balance— Levi confirmed that I rarely stayed on my feet for an entire game on a regular day, so it wouldn't make much of a difference.

Jean wasn't lying when he said MP High played dirty. I was shoved in every direction if I got anywhere near the ball. I was told to watch out for two players in particular: Hitch, a brunette girl with short hair, and Floch, who Jean explained has a "bird nest" on his head. MP talked a lot of shit on the field, but they seemed to be all bark and no bite. Unfortunately, I was proven wrong when Jean was pushed headfirst into the dirt by Floch. Despite the tension of this morning, I instinctively ran over to help him. As I did so, I felt a pair of teal-green eyes watching me closely.

"Floch, you dickhead!" I yelled as I pulled Jean off of the ground and flicked the dirt from his uniform. "There was absolutely no reason for you to do that!"

"Look, I don't even know who you are, so just stay out of it," he retorted.

I glowered. Jean stepped towards Floch.

"Just leave it, Jean," I said. "He's not worth your time."

Jean backed off and played well the rest of the game.

Similarly to what happened to Jean, I watched Hitch kick Yeager right in the face with her cleat while trying to score a goal.

"Ouch. That's gotta hurt," Connie winced.

I made no effort to help Eren out. I knew Mikasa would be there for him. Plus, I remembered that Jean mentioned that Eren would just continue this cycle of me "owing him one" forever, so I shouldn't waste my time. Covered in grass, with blood gushing out of his nose, Eren's gaze never faded away from me.

"Psh," I turned my back on him. "Yeager should stop being such a crybaby. I don't know what he expects me to do for him."

Jean appeared beside me. "You give a guy like him one chance (Y/N), and you'll be stuck under his thumb forever." He looked up at the sky and shrugged. "I'd say it's over for you already, but I'll try and be optimistic."

"Shut up, Horse-Face," I smiled. It seemed that the awkward air between us had blown away.

We ended up beating MP High by one point, and took first place for this year's Winter tournament. It was a good way to end the trip. When we arrived back at the cabin at sunset, the fresh snow sparkled golden from the evening light. The sky was painted in all shades of magenta and tangerine. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.

"I'd say it's a nice night tonight, but Jean's here so the view isn't ideal," Eren commented— but he looked at me when he said it.

"Who cares," Connie changed the subject, "Let's heat up the soup and drink."

At the sound of the word 'soup' Sasha bolted inside and started taking all of the food out of the fridge.