Eren was a professional at disrupting Armin's peace. Not that he necessarily disliked it, since the brunet usually had something exciting to tell him or some adventure to take him on, but it came with some side effects. One of which was triggering a massive jumpscare that sent the blond flying and causing him to nearly fall on his face. So when Armin's constantly exuberant roommate burst through the door one uneventful Saturday afternoon, he almost jumped out of his skin. "Eren!" he cried, dropping the book he had been reading. The boy giggled. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."
"Well, you could've knocked before bursting in and screaming at me like it was fucking Armageddon." he said and Eren just laughed. It was then he noticed the plastic bag clutched in his hand. "What's that?" Armin asked, gesturing to it. Eren glanced down before returning his gaze back to his best friend, emerald eyes sparkling with sudden excitement. "Oh, yeah. So, you've heard of the chapstick challenge, right?"
Armin nodded his head hesitantly. He didn't really know much about the game, but he had heard a few people talk about it. "Well, I was going through my bathroom cabinet —"
"Why?"
"Mikasa says it's a fucking mess in there — not sure how she knows that. Anyways, I found a bunch of chapsticks," he exclaimed, pulling them from the bag and holding them out for Armin to see. "And I was thinking we could try it out."
Armin gave Eren a chary look but the brunet just smiled. "Come on, it'll be fun. And besides, what else are we gonna do?"
After a moment of thinking it over, the blond decided to give in. He couldn't resist when Eren had that expression on his face. "You have a point."
The brunet cheered in victory and Armin giggled at his friend's enthusiasm before he plopped down beside him on his bunk. "Okay, do you wanna go first?" Eren asked. "Hold up, I need a quick briefing."
Eren smiled almost sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's basically — the challenge is one person is blindfolded, or just has their eyes closed — either is fine, and the other puts some chapstick on their lips. And then . . . the other person has to guess . . . what flavor it is."
Armin suddenly remembered what this game was. He had heard stories of couples who gave it a shot just for the hell of it, and of people who finally got to make out with their crushes. His face was suddenly on fire. He could've said something — something that would point out to Eren that this didn't seem to him like something normal roommates would be doing over the weekend. But he didn't. He just gave a quick nod, his chest tightening and stomach somersaulting. "I don't have a blindfold." was the sentence that pulled Armin from his inner crisis, and he almost laughed. "Well, you said we could just close our eyes, right?"
"Yeah, but it's not as cool that way."
"Eren, to be honest, a blindfold seems a little kinky."
Armin felt his heart flutter at the brunet's laugh. "You're probably right."
"I'm always right."
"Of course you are."
The way emerald caught sapphire set the blond's cheeks on fire, palpitations painful in his chest. "Alright, do you wanna go first or should I?"
"Uh, I dunno, you I guess."
Eren reached into the bag and pulled out some chapsticks. "Close your eyes."
Armin complied and bit his lip in anticipation. It seemed as if all of his other senses were on edge — like he could hear a sound at the far end of the room and be able to pinpoint exactly where it came from. He could almost feel Eren's presence, his energy, radiating around him, encompassing him in a feeling of being sucked into a tidal wave. His entire world was spinning and nothing had even happened yet. But then he felt his best friend inch closer, warm hands settling on the sides of his face. "Alright, Arlert, pucker up." he joked and Armin was too taken aback to respond. This was actually happening.
A soft pair of lips collided with his own and he almost let out a squeak of surprise despite knowing it was going to happen. Eren's lips moved softly against his and his mind went suddenly blank. He began to kiss back gently, feeling a bit light-headed at the contact. But then reality slapped him in the face. This was a game. Eren was kissing him for a reason. And he was supposed to be focusing on guessing the flavor.
The brunet pulled away and Armin licked his lips, trying to gather any trace of the chapstick he could find. "I'm gonna say . . . mint? Peppermint?"
"You are correct, sir." Eren said, putting the used chapstick aside from the others. "That was a warm-up. I won't go easy on you from now on."
He searched through various different flavors before finally seeming to decide on one. "Oh, this is great. Okay, close your eyes."
His eyes were already closed and he puckered his lips slightly despite himself. He could almost feel Eren's mouth and he felt himself shiver. There was a moment of silence and Armin assumed Eren was applying the lip balm before a hand cupped his cheek and he was being kissed again. The second one was somehow better than the first. He was a bit more confident this time, moving his lips against Eren's with a bit more force. He couldn't tell what chapstick it was, so he kissed harder, hoping maybe he could get more of a taste. Thankfully, Eren recognized his dilemma and tentatively licked at his bottom lip, causing him to gasp. He parted his lips and ran his tongue along the seam of Eren's mouth and realized this was a much better way to figure it out. He pulled away and smiled triumphantly. "It was mango, wasn't it?"
"Two for two, nice. How are you so good at this game?"
