Communication Error (Eremin)

Chapter Eight • Mischief

Keys jingled in Eren's hand as he pulled them from his pocket and inserted them in the lock on the front door. He pushed them in further and twisted them until the door unlocked. He pulled them out and, as he put them back in his pocket, opened the front door. Letting Mikasa go inside first, he leaned against the door to keep it open.
Following Mikasa, Armin walked inside. Stepping by Eren, he looked at him with a smile and signed a slow 'thank you', to which Eren smiled in appreciation.
When the three of them were inside, Eren shut the door and locked it.
"Mr. Jaeger is in the kitchen with Carla," Mikasa told Armin, "in case you want to go say 'hi'."
"Okay, thank you."
"Actually." Mikasa grabbed Armin's wrist. "Let's go say 'hi' now." She pulled him through the front hall back to the kitchen.
Armin looked at her anxiously. "Mikasa! I was going to go back there anyway," he stated as he followed her.
"Good" is all she said in response right before they strode into the kitchen. "Hi, Carla. We're back, and we brought a guest." She raised her hand up, holding Armin's up as proof that he was present.
Carla turned around and looked at the two of them. "Where'd you pick this one up at, hm?" she asked with a teasing twinkle in her brown eyes.
    "The library," Mikasa answered as she held their arms back down and let go of Armin's wrist.
"Well that's convenient." She smiled and looked at Mr. Jaeger, who was sitting at the kitchen table. He seemed to be caught up in something on his computer. "Hun, this is Armin."
Mr. Jaeger's attention rose from the computer over to his wife, and eventually to Armin. He smiled, and the light of his computer screen reflected against his glasses. "Nice to meet you, Armin. I'm Grisha, Eren's dad."
Armin smiled in return. "It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Grisha."
"So Armin likes card games," Mikasa announced to Grisha and Carla.
"Can you play BS?" Carla asked Armin.
"Um . . ." Armin thought for a moment. "I don't believe I know what BS is, actually."
Carla smiled. "We can teach you how to play, if you'd like. It's not difficult. And you'll be able to play our take on it."
"'Your take'?" Armin repeated in confusion.
Mikasa explained, "We have to sign instead of speak in 'our take' of the game, because Eren can't play otherwise."
"All you have to know how to sign is the letters B, S A, J, K, and Q, along with numbers," Carla put in.
"Oh, okay. But, I don't think you taught me number signs," Armin pointed out in concern.
"We'll go through them before we play, okay?"
"That works. Alright. I'd love to play." He smiled.
"You'll enjoy it, I'm sure," Grisha commented.

"So, the way you play is . . ." Mikasa began as she passed cards out to everyone around the table. "Everyone has their hand of cards, obviously." She held her hand up as she gathered the cards together. "Nobody can see your cards. What you're going to do is, you're going to take a two card, however many you have, and place them face down in the middle of the table." She took a single card from her deck and placed it face down. "Then, you'll sign however many cards you put down, and what card it's supposed to be. Like so." She signed a quick one, then a two followed. "See? Now Carla puts down a three." She paused to let Carla put down her cards.
Carla placed down three cards face down and signed a three three times.
"Okay, so she put down three threes. You place a four."
Armin looked through his hand. "What happens if I don't have a four?"
"Then you pick a different card to out down. But you pretend it's a four," Mikasa explained. "So you make everyone think it's a four. Are you following?"
Armin nodded. "So . . . You go in numerical order, starting from two, placing as many cards as you have, even if you don't have it?"
"Yes."
"Got it." He placed down two cards in the deck, then signed a two and a four.
"But!" Mikasa began, "if you don't think the person put down the right card, you can call BS on them. Like so." She signed the letters B and S, then proceeded to pick up Armin's cards, which turned out to be a seven and a two.
Armin blinked. "What happens then?"
"Well, if I call BS on you and you didn't put the right cards down, you take the entire deck in the middle." She pushed the cards over to him.
"But if she's wrong, and you did put down fours," Carla added, "she gets the entire stack."
"Yep," Mikasa verified.
"I see." Armin looked at his hand that had grown as he sorted the cards. "What order do the cards go in?"
"Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace," answered Mikasa matter-of-factly.
"Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace?"
"Then back around to two, yes. Let's play for real now. Can I have your cards please?"
Mikasa collected everyone's cards and shuffled the deck again, passing out cards to everyone after having shuffled thoroughly.
    "So, Armin," Grisha began as everyone gathered their new hands of cards, "Carla's been teaching you sign language, or so I've been told."
    Armin looked between Grisha and his hand of cards as he sorted them into their appropriate order. "Yessir, she's been teaching me."
    "What encouraged you to learn sign language?"
    "Ah . . ." He paused and eyed his cards a little in embarrassment. "Well, I wanted to be able to talk to Eren," he admitted quietly.
    Grisha sat back and tapped his cards against the table. He looked at Armin with interest. "But you couldn't talk to him," he added to Armin's story. "Thus you went the extra mile and started taking lessons. That's a lot to take on just to befriend one person." He smiled; pleasure glittered in his eyes. "I'm impressed."
     Armin's cheeks grew pink. "Thank you. It's not that much, but . . . Thank you."
    "Don't be so modest, Armin," Carla commented. "It's truly impressive, and you should be proud."
    "Four twos," Mikasa announced while signing to catch Carla, Armin, and Grisha's attention.
    The three of them looked down at their cards almost immediately, checking to see if Mikasa's play was legitimate. When no one called her out, Carla pulled out a card and placed it on the previously placed cards. Following that, she signed one and three.
    Armin's turn, he knew, was queued, so he searched his hand and pulled out two cards. He placed them and signed two and four.
    When Eren placed the two cards he played and claimed them to be fives, Grisha looked at him with disbelief. After scanning his own hand, he signed 'BS' to Eren and flipped over his cards.
    Eren had placed two tens.
    Grisha shoved the deck to his son and told him he had three fives.
    Eren gave him a dirty look, then grinned.
    Next, Grisha placed four sixes, then sat back, looking at Carla and daring her to call his play out.
    Carla dismissed her husband's look and watched Mikasa take her turn. "Don't bother calling him out," she told Armin. She had her own mischievous look about her. "He's a trickster."
    "But I have a six," Armin told her quietly.
    Carla's eyes widened. "Why didn't you call BS on him, then?" she asked.
    He shrugged a little. "Sorry. I didn't notice until Mikasa took her turn."
    Carla pursed her lips, but she didn't look disappointed. "You should've wiped that silly look off his smug face when you had the chance."
    "Sorry." He wiped his finger across the tops of his cards.
    "No need to be sorry," Mikasa stated, cutting in on the conversation. "Carla, it's your turn."
    Carla blinked and looked at Mikasa. "What did you play?"
    "A seven."
    "Oh, my bad." She sifted through and pulled out three cards, placing them on the deck. She signed three and eight.
    "BS!" Mikasa exclaimed as she signed, then flipped over Carla's cards. She placed them back down and shoved the stack to Carla.
    Carla flashed her an expression of slight irritation, though she wasn't truly bugged. "Call out Eren or Grisha for once!"
    "I do call them out," Mikasa informed, "when their cards conflict with my hand."
    Grisha was chuckling quietly, earning another irritated glare from Carla.

    "Mikasa wins—again," Carla announced thirty minutes later while dropping her hand on the table.
    Mikasa fist-pumped, then proceeded to tell Eren the game was over. . . And that she had won.
    Eren was less than thrilled at the news. He signed back with a mildly cross expression and disbelief in his eyes.
    "Eren hates losing," Mikasa told Armin with an ever-so-slightly prideful air. "You'd think he'd try harder to win." She turned back around to face Eren, to whom she stuck her tongue out at.
    Eren pressed his hands to his face with both middle fingers erected.
    Mikasa didn't appear to care. In fact, the reaction seemed to entertain her.
    Armin laughed a little. "I can tell you both adore each other."
    "Very much so." Mikasa smiled at Armin. "Anyways . . . You're staying for dinner, right?" She had begun to gather the abandoned cards and put them away into their box.
    "I think so," he answered. "I don't have a reason not to stay."
    "Except for boredom. It's as they say: 'familiarity breeds contempt.'"
    He looked at Mikasa with wide eyes. "As if I'd get bored!"
    Mikasa had paused for a moment, hesitating a reply. Then she smirked. "You're right." The familiar sparkle of mischief returned to her pretty gray eyes. "I'm sure you won't get bored while Eren's around."
    "Wh—wait—"
    "You'll enjoy playing Let's Third-Wheel Mikasa In Her Own House all evening. And well into the night." A low giggle rumbled in her throat.
    Armin's face heated up. "That's not what I meant! Look—"
    "Sure."
    "Look! Actually . . . I want to tell you something I had forgotten about." He avoided her eyes. "Until . . . You reminded me."