Coffee Shop Soundtrack

track ten

A/N: lol sorry. follow me on tumblr at punk-rock-rebellion and my amazing beta at thatonesnkfan and nerdling-prince. enjoy. bring tissues.

——— EREN’S POV ———

It was around nine o’clock when Eren was sitting around on his laptop watching various YouTube videos. He had a bowl of chips next to him and his phone on the other side. Multiple texts that he had sent to Armin were on the screen, all unanswered.

The unanswered messages weren't very worrying to Eren. There had been a few days where his boyfriend was so busy studying that he forgot to check his phone for hours.

The only thing that worried Eren was when he saw that Jean was calling him. 

Jean had never called him before. Whenever he needed something, he would text Eren because he knew that Eren would be less annoyed by a text than by a phone call. That’s why Eren knew immediately that something was wrong.

He pressed the answer button and held the phone up to his ear. 

“Hello?” he asked, his heart rate picking up slightly.

“Eren, turn your TV to the news. NOW,” Jean yelled into the receiver frantically.

Eren scrambled for the remote. He had never heard his friend so worried in all of the years he had known him, so needless to say he took what he said quite seriously.

After Eren finally managed to stop fumbling with the remote, he changed the channel from some cooking show that Mikasa was watching earlier that afternoon to channel nine.

The headline was along the bottom of the screen, bolded. It read, “BREAKING NEWS: MAN AND GRANDSON HIT BY SEMI TRUCK.”

While that headline was running across the screen, there was video footage of the scene.

First it showed the car that the people were hit in. The whole driver’s side was crushed, the door pointed inwards towards the rest of the car. The passenger side of the car was up against a pole. There was a hole in the windshield on the passenger side.

Then it switched over to show the semi truck. It was hardly damaged at all. There was a dent in the front of the car, but that was it.

Next, the camera panned over to the side where there were ambulances and police cars. Someone was on a gurney, about to be wheeled into the ambulance. Before they disappeared from the camera’s view, it showed a head of thick blonde hair smeared with blood.

Eren could recognize that hair anywhere. In that moment, only one thought ran through his head.

Armin.

Eren dropped the phone that he had been holding up to his ear the whole time. He could faintly hear Jean yelling at him through the speaker, but he payed it no mind.

He slowly got up from his place on the couch. He walked over to the front door and stepped out.  The second his foot hit the sidewalk, he began sprinting. 

He knew exactly which they were going to take him to. The hospital where his father worked. 

He was running for around five minutes when he realized that someone behind him was calling his name. 

He turned around and saw Jean in the passenger seat of his mother’s car, with his mother behind the wheel. 

“Get in, Jaeger. We will take you to the hospital. I knew you would pull something like this once you found out, so I had my mother ready to go,” he stated.

Eren, numb, walked over to the car and got in the back.

Jean’s mother spoke up. “Hi honey. Jean-bo told me what happened. I’m so sorry, I know you two were together. Let’s get going so we can go see him, okay?” she said gently. Eren nodded and they were on their way.

They got to the hospital in ten excruciatingly long minutes. Once they went into it, they went to the emergency section and Jean’s mother asked about Armin while Eren sat in the corner of the waiting room with a blanket that Jean had in his car.

Eren was torn between wanting to die and wanting to hit something. He couldn’t believe that something like this happened to Armin and his grandfather, two of the nicest people he had ever met in his life. He was so angry. They didn't deserve this. 

At the same time, he was deeply depressed. His boyfriend and his boyfriend’s only remaining family member could be dead, sitting in a morgue somewhere in the back of the hospital.

He just sat there clutching the blanket like his life depended on it and praying to whatever deities that were out there that they would be okay. That they would both miraculously pull through. He sat there for what felt like days, but in reality it was only a few hours. Every once in a while, Mrs. Kirschtein would get up and ask about the small blond’s condition, but each time they would tell her the same thing. “He is in critical condition, ma’am. There’s no telling how he will be.” Of course, she didn't tell Eren that. He was in no condition to hear that.

Eventually, Eren’s father walked through the double doors leading to the rooms. 

“Eren,” he said with a pained face, walking quickly towards his son.

“Dad. Please tell me you know something about him. I need to know something,” Eren pleaded.

His father gave him a sympathetic look. “Armin… he is in a coma. And we don’t know how long it will be until he wakes up.”

It took a moment for that to process in Eren’s mind. But once it did process, Eren found himself in tears, no longer able to hold them back.

Grisha took him into his arms and soothed him until he calmed down.

Afterward, Eren hide himself back into the corner he was in previously. He just couldn't believe that Armin- his beautiful Armin- was set into this coma state. What had he done to deserve it?