Circles | Eren x Reader

Chapter 49- Snowing:

    When I finished my walk back home in the snow, I quickly threw Eren's blanket off of me and hid it behind a bush. I was not going to let anything get in the way of rekindling my relationship with Jean.

    "I'm back with the pastries!" I called, stepping inside. "How did the salad go?"

    "Fine," Jean replied from the kitchen. "I put it in the fridge. I tried to cut everything evenly to make it more aesthetically pleasing; it's the least I can do after ruining the main part of our meal."

    "You don't have to do that," I said, walking in to Jean washing the dishes. "You're technically my guest."

    He shrugged, but stopped scrubbing the plate. "I saw the snow outside," Jean paused, looking me up and down. Suddenly, he put his hand on my cheek and raised an eyebrow. "I don't know how you managed to stay warm in that weather—" Jean dropped his hand quickly. "I was, uh, going to run after you to give you another jacket, but," he bit the inside of his cheek and looked away, "I figured it wouldn't be a good idea to go looking through your room for stuff."

    Thank God, I thought. I would've been embarrassed enough if he had gone into my mess of a room, but if he saw me with Eren too... I avoided thinking about the outcome of that.

    "I bought some Madeleines, if you want to eat them. Consider it a reward, of sorts," I said.

    "A reward? For what? Burning a perfectly good piece of chicken?" He teased.

    For sticking with me, I answered in my mind. I shook my head and smiled. "Sure," I replied back, handing him a Madeleine. "Now stop talking and let's eat."

    It was a short night, since we had school the next day, and Jean left right after we had finished the Madeleines. When he walked out the door, he flicked my forehead. That tiny action, in itself, I counted as my biggest victory of the year.

    I closed the door behind him and bounced around, relishing in the amount of progress we had made in a single night.

    Jean, I haven't lost you yet.

    I skipped a few steps on the way up to my room and piled on a bunch of warm clothes and blankets. It was still snowing, and I wanted to enjoy the winter air while I could.

    As I looked out across my neighborhood, I froze: I had climbed onto the roof of my house only a few times to watch the sunset, but not once had I ever gone up and sat down to find another person staring at me from across the street. I shuffled under my pile of blankets to get a better view. The snow, though it was beginning to thin, blocked any view I had on the details of this person's face.

    "Is that... Armin?" I muttered to myself, confused. "I didn't know he lived here..."

    I started waving my arms frantically, despite having no idea who I was talking to. Sure, I'd worry about it being weird if it wasn't Armin, but, in all honesty, I've never really talked to Armin, so it'd be weird if I was waving at him too.

    To my surprise, I got a wave back. I wanted to yell across the street and ask for them to come over, but it was getting a bit late to be annoying... I hesitated for a moment.

    "Whatever. YOLO. Catch you later, unnecessarily extreme anxiety— HEY!" I screamed from across the street at the unknown person. I was thinking about adding more, perhaps an invitation, but they responded before I could get another word in.

    "Hiiii!!!" someone called faintly back. It was definitely a boy, but his voice seemed a little higher pitched. Either way, I still wanted to see who this person was, so I motioned for the boy to cross the street and come to me. He tilted his head to the side in confusion. I waved more frantically, and I saw his head snap into a nod as he realized what I was asking. I watched him climb back through the window of his house into the warm light beyond and then pop outside the front door a minute later. I came down too to meet him halfway.