uneasy hearts weigh the most (Eremin)

Do I Wanna Know?

This chapter is brought to you by Do I Wanna Know? by Arctic Monkeys.  It's what Eren plays while everyone's hanging out in their dressing room.

---

"Wanna go in backstage with me?" Krista asks when My War concludes their performance and another band has replaced them.

"Are we even allowed to go in?" Armin tilts his head curiously.

"Yeah I texted Ymir and she's waiting for us by the entrance."

With that, he nods and follows her along, and just as Krista said, the tall bassist is chatting with the security guard. When she sees her girlfriend, she waves them over and Krista doesn't hesitate to run to her and jumps into the other woman's arms.

"Hey! How'd you like our show?" Ymir asks as she peppers kisses on the shorter woman's face.

"You guys were great back there!!" Krista vibrates with leftover adrenaline from watching the performance. Her girlfriend merely chuckles as she wraps an arm around her shoulder and leads her behind the curtain that separates the audience from the band members. Armin is supposed to follow them but the burly security guard blocks his way. As if sensing his predicament, Krista stops in her tracks to wait for her friend.

"He's with me," she says to the guard politely while her girlfriend looks mildly annoyed that her attention is elsewhere. Thankfully the guard listens to her and moves out of the way. Armin mutters a soft 'Thank you' as he quickly passes by him and joins the two women.

"This is Armin by the way, we met in high school and we've been best friends ever since. Oh! And he plays in the same orchestra I'm in!" Krista introduces him to Ymir who only gives him a once-over.

"It's very nice to meet you," he holds out a hand for her to shake as a polite gesture but she merely gives him a sneer and continues walking deeper down the hall as she resumes her conversation. Armin let out an indignant huff, stuffs his unshaken hand in his pockets and continues following them.

Finally, they reach their designated dressing room, and like the others, this one is just as rambunctious. There is bickering and laughter while faint guitar strings were plucked in the background. Glasses clinking as it hit surfaces, as evidence of celebration on a successful performance. Armin scans the room and sees that the person idly plucking notes on a guitar was no other than the unclean vocalist.

By God, he looked even more handsome up close.

"There's two of them?!" The girl Armin recognizes as the drummer points at both Armin and Krista, mouth full of chips that she is clutching with her other hand.

"Yo Krista, I didn't know you had a twin brother," The lead guitarist points with his chin at him with a smirk. When they lock eyes, he gives him a wink which makes Armin blush.

"We're not siblings, silly." Krista giggles as she plops down on Ymir's lap. "He's my friend! We went to high school together and now we're in the same uni!"

"Hey I recognize you, you're in Hange's bio class right?" The lead singer spoke out and Armin blinked slowly until his gears started turning again.

"Yeah! Mikasa, I believe?" A smile made its way past his lips, his chest feeling a bit lighter now that he sees a familiar face in the room other than Krista. Mikasa nods a subtle smile also on her lips before ducking under the red scarf wrapped around her neck. "Armin Arlert, good to see you out of class."

"Likewise," the girl said with a curt nod. "Here, have a seat. Eren, scoot over."

The man fiddling with the guitar looks at her incredulously. He looks like he was already comfy on the dingy couch he was lounging on, legs sprawled across and guitar resting comfortably on his lap. Mikasa gives him a stern look which he didn't have a choice but to obey and sat properly to give Armin some space to sit down.