His eyes opened and he sighed in frustration, finally sitting up in bed. It was probably an ungodly hour of the morning and Eren couldn't manage to get one wink of sleep. He tossed and turned but couldn't let himself relax and the restlessness only grew as the time passed. He looked around the room, his eyes accustomed to the dark, to see that everyone was already asleep. He quietly climbed out of bed to glance into the top bunk. Armin had insisted he sleep on the top bunk because he said Eren might roll himself off the edge. And, as usual, he was right. He had accidentally fallen to the ground in the lower bunk and had mentally thanked Armin for his quick thinking. But as he climbed the first few rungs of the ladder, the familiarity of blond hair wasn't where he thought it would be. There was just evidence that someone had recently slept in the bed. Or tried to at least. He looked around for his friend, a bit of panic setting in. "Armin?" he whispered. No response. He searched the barracks for something, anything that would tell him Armin was okay. He was just leaving to report the boy missing when he stumbled upon him sitting quietly on the front step, staring at the sky. Eren let out a silent sigh of relief and gently closed the door behind him so he didn't disturb the blond. He didn't want to startle him though, so he tried to make his footsteps noticeable but not ridiculously loud. Armin turned his head quickly, but his features softened when he knew who it was. "Eren, what are you doing out here?"
Remembering his ultimately embarrassing search where his worry got the best of him, Eren replied, "I could say the same for you."
The blond looked down at his fidgeting fingers as Eren took a seat beside him. "Couldn't sleep." he replied simply. "Me neither."
A warm silence settled over them in the cool September air. The blond raised his head to the sky, ocean eyes seeming to glow in the moonlight. "There's another world out there, Eren." he said suddenly. The boy followed Armin's gaze to the stars, eyes tracing the constellations. "Out there?"
He nodded, Eren catching the movement in his peripheral vision. "There's all sorts of different things among the stars. Some are bigger than the sun, but they're so far away, they look like tiny specks. And each object has it's own atmosphere, its own ecosystem. Maybe even it's own life."
Eren took this moment to turn away from the stars and towards the bright-eyed boy he called his best friend. He found his gaze locked on Armin, staring at him as if he had just seen him for the first time. And in a way he had. He had failed to notice how absolutely stunning the blond was. But now he discovered the sparkle of stars in his ocean eyes, the light freckles dusting his cheeks like the constellations, the gentle curve of his lips as he smiled. The blond glanced at him, his face full of wonder falling into concern. "Eren, are you okay?"
He didn't know what came over him, but Eren found himself leaning towards the blond boy and pressing their lips together. He pulled away after a moment, searching for some sign of disgust or rejection in Armin's eyes. But then the blond had grabbed his collar and pulled him into another kiss, this one a bit more certain. When they pulled away, Eren intertwined their fingers, leaning their foreheads together. "Tell me more," he said. "About the world out there."
The boys sat outside, talking about the stars before Armin had slumped against Eren and they had fallen asleep propped up against the barrack wall.
