Communication Error (Eremin)

Chapter Seventeen • Comfortable

The trio sat themselves around a table in a frozen yogurt shop, enjoying each others' company as well as their treat.
    The tempurature inside the building wasn't much better than the tempurature outside. In fact, the three of them agreed that it was even colder inside.
    "It's a frozen yogurt shop," Eren pointed out when the lighthearted complaints about the tempurature surfaced, to which Armin responded, with a sarcastic expression, "Yes, thank you for that observation."
    Eren frowned and lowered his head, dismissing Armin's remark with a spoonful of frozen yogurt.
    Mikasa was amused by the boys' comfort with each other. She, too, felt relaxed with them both.
    Watching them tend to their desserts, and occasionally digging in to her own, she began following a rabbit trail of thoughts, which led to thinking about how fortunate she and Eren were to have met Armin.
    He brought a balance to their little group, which she was appreciative of. Even more than that was she grateful that he liked Eren so much and dared to be near him.
    Eren hadn't noticed, at least, to Mikasa's knowledge, that his passion and enthusiasm seemed far more genuine nowadays. Before, it all seemed so forced. It was pitiful yet admirable.
    Fortunately, Armin caught sight of the admirable aspect of him and was so driven to seek it out for himself.
    How much Eren's grown happier since they met!
    Mikasa was proud of the both of them so, very much. She knew that, if Armin's feelings were destined to be shared with Eren and returned in kind, they'd both be the happiest they could be.
They'll come around, she decided. Eren's feelings aren't very well restrained.
    As for Armin's . . . She looked at him, then at her small plastic cup of melting yogurt.
    She blinked and took her plastic spoon out of her mouth, sticking it in her small cup.
    "How could this stuff melt in here?" Armin questioned.
    Mikasa smiled at him and stirred her almost completely melted yogurt around. "Did you enjoy yours?"
    Armin looked at her. "While it lasted, yes." He smiled. "I can't believe I've never had this before. It's almost as good as ice cream!"
    "You mean it's better than ice cream?" she suggested.
    "I meant what I said." He pointed at her with his spoon.
    "You don't know what you're talking about."
    Armin looked slightly betrayed when Mikasa told Eren that he likes ice cream more than frozen yogurt.
    The look of betrayal was shared when Eren looked at Armin. "How is that possible?! We can't be friends under these conditions, Armin. I'm sorry."
    For a moment, Armin looked genuinely scared.
    "It's a preference, that's all!" he exclaimed.
    Eren rested his head in his hand and appeared unconvinced in accepting Armin's 'preference', though he was smiling. "Your preference sucks."
    Armin made an exaggerated expression full of disapproval. "Thanks."
    He scooted his chair back and dropped his spoon in the empty plastic cup. Also grabbing his used napkins, he stepped over to the trash can and tossed the trash into it, turning around and sitting back down afterwards.
    "Thank you both for bringing me here," he signed genuinely. "This was fun. And I can see why you get defensive over frozen yogurt," he added to Eren.
    "I don't want the fun to end, but I'm pretty sure you've both got things to do." He looked at the both of them for approval.
    Neither of them agreed right away.
    "Actually," Mikasa began after looking at her phone, then Eren, thoughtfully, "Oh—I've got somewhere to be, but I don't think . . ." She paused, looking again at Eren.
    Eren shrugged at her and turned to Armin.
    "So Eren doesn't have anything to get to."
    "You do, though?" Armin asked.
    "Yeah," she admitted. "I'd love to hang out, but it's urgent. I'm sorry."
    "No, that's alright. See you later then?"
    She nodded and stood up, pushing her chair back. "Are you alright to hang out with Armin?" she asked, directing her attention at Eren.
    "Yes."
    "Okay. Don't go off on your own then," she instructed.
    Eren glared at her lightly. "I know."
    "Good.
"Alright. I'll see you two later." To Armin, she vocally asked to have Eren back home by eight that night, which he agreed to. She smiled with gratitude. "Goodbye you two."
    With a quick pause to dispose of her garbage, Mikasa left.

    The atmosphere surrounding the both of them as they walked down the street was not exactly awkward, but it wasn't entirely comfortable. Armin thought the silence made it worse, though he couldn't do much about it since he wasn't quick in starting conversation.
    One thing did come to his mind that caught him off guard.
    "I never really asked you what kinds of things you like," Armin informed as he walked beside Eren. "So . . . What do you like to do in your free time?"
    Eren looked at him with surprise. "Right. Uh . . ." He looked away for a moment. "Not much," he admitted. "I like reading."
    Armin's interest arose. "What kind of things do you read?"
    "Eh." Eren released a short, breathy chuckle after running his hand across the back of his head. "Mostly manga," he answered hesitantly.
    Armin was intrigued now more than before. "Manga? Me too!" He relaxed himself and blinked. "I can't find any worth reading now at the library though. All of it that's left is yaoi," he added with a wrinkled nose.
    "I get the feeling you don't like that?"
    "Not for the life of me." His eyes widened with slight anxiety that he might've said something wrong. "What about you?"
    Eren smiled. "I don't care for it either."
Alright . . . Good. Armin looked at Eren again. "Is there any you recommend?"
    He nodded. "Yeah. There's this one called Cast Out Twice. It's about a settlement that's been on bad terms with another settlement for years but they finally go to war."
    Seeing Armin's expression, he added, "It sounds kinda lame, but it's actually really amazing. I've been reading it online. If you want, I can get you a link to it."
    Armin raised his eyebrows. "It sounds interesting.
"I prefer having a physical copy of what I read, though, so I'll save up and buy the first volume."
    "Okay." Eren tugged on the bottom of his shirt for a moment. "Hey, I never asked what you like to do," he said after nudging Armin to get his attention.
    "I like to read, too. I also watch a lot of anime." He searched Eren's expression for at least a little bit approval.
    "Anime is cool. I only ever read manga, though."
    Armin nodded. "You and Mikasa should come over and watch anime with me some time," he suggested in a light manner.
    "I know Mikasa is busy, but why don't we do that?" Eren asked.
"Tonight?"
  "Yeah. We don't have anything to do anyway."
    Armin paused to think about this suggestion. "Maybe . . . I can't use my laptop or anything for now," he reminded Eren, "or the TV."
    "True." The brunet paused for just a second, then beamed, which told Armin that he had an idea he was confident in. "Why don't you come to my house instead? We can watch it there."
    Armin froze momentarily to contemplate. "I mean . . . I guess, sure. Let's go."
    Eren's beaming grew more intense now that excitement fueled it. "Great!"
    From there, the two of them calculated their route back to Eren's house and began the walk home, which was full of discussion on what they were to watch. Each threw their suggestions out at random until they slimmed the choices down to three different series.
    Eventually they decided to watch Your Name.