Crack of Sunlight (Ereri/Riren)

*~Chapter Two~*

Upon waking the next morning - late, of course - the phantom feeling had all but vanished. Much to Eren's confusion, he'd dreamt about his raven-haired coworker, though he had no memory of the events of the dream.

He groaned and rolled out of bed, continually mentally slapping himself for thinking so much about it. He wanted nothing more than to rid himself of the strange sensation, the foreign path his thoughts seemed to take leading towards Levi.

Why was that even happening? He'd only just met the guy, barely knew a thing about him and had absolutely no reason to feel anything toward him the way he was. Maybe if he just ignored it and forced his mind to think of other things, it would go away.

"Good morning, Eren!" sang a very cheerful Christa as she skipped up to her brunet friend, Ymir in tow.

"Hey, Christa," Eren mumbled past a yawn. "Where's everyone else?"

"In the dining hall, where you should've been ten minutes ago," Ymir muttered as she slipped her hand into Christa's.

"Shit, it's the second Wednesday!" Eren exclaimed in sudden realization.

"Duh," Ymir said and then clicked her tongue in disapproval.

On the second Wednesday of every month, Eren and his friends made plans to have breakfast together in the dining hall before school and catch up - on homework, on gossip, on each other's lives, it didn't matter. They didn't always have time to spend together due to classes and homework and jobs, so they made this deal in order to stay close.

"So then where are you guys going?" Eren asked the couple, changing his direction toward the dining hall.

"That, my friend, is none of your business," said Ymir, winking down at Christa and causing a wild blush to break out across her face.

Eren rolled his eyes and with a muttered 'whatever', headed into the building. Sure enough, his group of friends were all gathered around their usual table chattering away. He moved to his usual spot between Armin and Jean, apologizing.

"Oversleep again?" asked Armin.

"Yeah," answered Eren. "Started work after school yesterday and I didn't have time to study until I got home. Ended up falling asleep at about midnight."

Armin shook his blond head in disapproval. "Studying is important, Eren, but not as important as sleep. You need to take care of yourself."

Eren brushed off his friend's concern. "Yeah, yeah. So Ymir and Christa snuck off to make out and whatnot, huh?"

Jean rolled his eyes. "Probably. Freaking lesbians..."

"Oh, Jean," Sasha said in that patronizing tone of hers. "Don't act like you're not just as homo as they are." She tilted her head in the direction of Marco who was busy filling his plate at the breakfast bar. No one missed the reddening of the tips of Jean's ears as Sasha winked.

"I don't even know what you're talking about," the silver-haired horse-face mumbled with downcast eyes.

"Just admit it, Kirstein. You have a thing for Freckled Jesus over there," teased Connie, equally as patronizing.

"Shut up, buzz cut! Only if you admit you have a thing for Potato Girl over here." Jean jabbed his thumb in Sasha's direction. Her eyes grew remarkably wide as she, too, became red in the cheeks.

"Jeez, I ask one question and half the table ends up blushing so hard they're gonna get nosebleeds," Eren said with a mildly amused snort.

"Yeah, but good luck getting Arlert over here to blush," interjected Connie once more.