Often // Attack On Titan

Chapter 1

'Nefelibata'

"Cloud walker"; one who lives in the clouds of their own imagination or dreams, or one who does not obey the conventions of society, literature or art.

Eren was late. The time was 8:25 am and he was racing down the pathway to the school gates. As the metal frame came into sight he cursed in his head. Shit. His hair danced across his forehead as he sprinted into the school. The bell sounded and he internally groaned. He wouldn't even have enough time to put his things in his locker before registration.

"Why so late Eren?" Eren rolled his eyes as Jean reminded him again. "So sorry," Eren retorted, "your mom took a bit longer than expected." Jean didn't say anything as he leaned back in his seat. Reiner sniggered from beside him and Eren glanced at him. "Good one Eren, wiped that dirty smirk off his face." Jean glared at him but still kept silent. The classroom door opened and the form tutor of the class walked in. "Register?" He called out, setting his bag down under the desk. Eren turned to look at the empty desk by the window. Not again, he thought. "Eren?" The tutor asked and his eyebrows dropped in irritation. "Hurry up!" He said, raising his voice. Eren jumped out of his seat and weaved his way through the desks to the door. "Sorry sir!" He shouted, slamming the door behind him and racing off to the office. How could he forget to get it again? Just because he wasn't here to do it for him didn't mean that Eren could be so careless...

First and second period dragged on for Eren, English Literature and German not being his favourite subjects. Connie greeted him after the lessons at break with a shove that almost toppled Eren over. "Hey Eren," he said, grinning unusually. "Hey?" Eren replied, unsure of his behaviour. "Everything okay?" Connie laughed and placed his hands on his hips. "Guess who's got a girlfriend?" He said with a smirk and pretended to flip his nonexistent hair. "Oh I don't know, Ymir?" Connie rolled his eyes but kept on smiling. "Sasha?" Eren asked, definitely not surprised. "Wow ten out of ten, gold medal!" Connie shouted, a bit too enthusiastically. "Congrats, but I'm not surprised. You were already, like, infatuated from meeting each other." Connie pretended to be hurt and Eren laughed. They continued to chat until the bell rang again for third period and they waved goodbye to go to their lockers.

As Eren was taking out his Maths and Latin books, Sasha squealed and Eren turned around to see her not only stuffing her face with potato chips, but with her face as red as a tomato. "How's Connie?" Eren smirked, slamming his locker shut behind him. "Oh, I wouldn't know as you were hogging him all break. You have your own boyfriend, don't steal mine!" Sasha pretended to be mad and wiggled a finger in Eren's face. "I get that a lot you know," Eren said, earning a kick to the shin from Sasha. "Sure you do!" She called, laughing and running off to get her own textbooks. "Ow..." Eren groaned, rubbing his leg. "He's not my boyfriend anyway," He mumbled, walking to his next lesson.

Halfway into maths, Marco passed him a note that read,
How is he?
For some reason, nobody ever mentioned his name anymore but it didn't really bother Eren. He quickly scrawled a reply.
He's fine, not looking any better though.
Marco read the reply and turned over to write on the back of the paper.
That sucks, hope he comes back soon :)
Eren smiled at Marco and put the paper in his pocket, pretending to turn his attention to the lesson. He could never concentrate and everything he saw reminded of him.

Everything.

"Hey blockhead, we're gonna play baseball. Care to join?" Eren groaned internally at the sound of Jean's voice. The pair of them always pretended to hate each other, but could be civil if needed. Eren accepted the offer anyway, despite feeling spaced out. Reiner, Sasha, Connie, Mikasa, Ymir and Christa were joining them, Christa only being able to watch due to her broken ankle.
"We're not together, how can you say such a thing!" Connie imitated Christa as he watched Ymir slip her arm around the shorter girl's waist. Eren snorted and raised an eyebrow at Connie.
"Hmm, doesn't that sound familiar?" Connie elbowed him and mumbled a 'hey' before tossing the ball to Eren. He threw it up in the air as they walked to the field.

Eren wasn't really paying attention during the game and Mikasa had to shout at him to get his attention multiple times. Eren's thoughts would continuously float off to him and it was starting to irritate everyone. Especially Jean.
"Oi, Jaeger!" Jean threw the ball to Ymir and stood with both hands on his hips.
"If you're gonna daydream while we're playing then you can go get lost! Go take your fantasies somewhere else." Eren glared at him, but stayed silent. Usually a statement like that from Jean would start a fight between them but Eren wasn't in the mood. 'Well sorry horseface' he thought, taking up the bat again. Ymir threw the ball a little to high and Eren ducked rather than hitting it with the bat.

Except instead of the bat, it hit him.

Or more precisely, his face.

[...]

"Eren? Eren!" When Eren opened his eyes, the whole group was staring at him in concern.
"You okay dude?" Connie asked, offering his hand. Eren nodded and took his hand.
And fell.
"Woah, are you sure?" Sasha said, peering at him like she was inspecting him. Ymir appeared in front of him and took his hand again, this time making sure he wouldn't fall by sliding his arm over her shoulder and her arm around his waist. Reiner did the same and they debated on whether to take him to the school nurse.
"No, no, I'll be fine you guys..." Eren slurred. Connie laughed and picked up the equipment. "Come on let's go," he said, handing Christa her crutches and following the group.

"Morning sleeping beauty."
Eren opened his eyes slowly and turned to look at who was there. Reiner grinned from the end of the 'bed'.
"Oh god, how long was I out?" Eren groaned, sitting up. He lifted his hand to his head and felt a plaster just above his right eyebrow. Great, he thought,- that was all he needed.
"About half an hour? I don't know but the nurse is gonna come in to do a few checks so, I better go." Reiner stood up and walked over to the door.
"Oh yeah, Ymir said she was sorry. Later." He said, walking out of the door just as the nurse walked in. Eren groaned internally (what, for the tenth time today?) and asked him how he was feeling. "Fine, just a bit tired." He answered, stretching his arms and yawning with perfect timing.
"I don't think you're too bad, but we'll call someone in to collect you. Who's at home?"
Eren thought for a minute. He did not want his mother to pick him up from school.
"Um, my mum but she's changed her phone number so I'll call her."
The nurse nodded and Eren gave a silent sigh of relief.

Pretending to go outside to call, Eren slipped behind the office and ran quickly to the bike shed. Swiftly undoing the padlock, he jumped on his bike and cycled out of the side gates unknown. He stopped outside the school and reached into his blazer pocket, pulling out his phone and earphones. He inserted the earphones and pressed play on his phone. Although he had his music, Eren's ride would be a quieter one.

•••

Hey guys! Sorry this is so short but I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and I'll try to update regularly, thanks for reading!