Ever since elementary school, Eren was best friends with Armin, some lonely know-it-all kid who was out sick a bit too often for comfort. Eren watched him get bullied by the the oldest kid in the grade, Jean, and had enough. He marched over, sketchers lighting up with rage, and told Jean that he looked like a "stupid horse" and was "a weenie." Jean started crying and running away to tell the teacher, hurt, as no one ever called him any name before. Armin, from that moment on, devoted himself to Eren, seeing him as a saviour. In fourth grade, a new girl moved in, named Mikasa, and she was infatuated with Eren. This infatuation lasted through middle school and high school. At the end of their senior year, Eren gave in and started going out with Mikasa. The trio of Armin, Mikasa and Eren all got into the same college, and Eren and Mikasa got a cheap flat where they could take a bus to campus. Armin moved in with some girl that previously went to a nearby school. All was well. Mikasa went off to get her degree in something along the lines of women's studies, Eren could never remember. Eren went on to get his degree in forensics and crime studies. His main forensics class was shared by Armin's girlfriend, but the two never interacted. If you asked Eren who was in his class, he would say "Well, the professor is Mr. Moblit, and they guy next to me is Marco." That would be the extent of his knowledge.
He and Mikasa's life at their flat was normal, but she seemed to always have to go somewhere, usually to meet with a friend for coffee, whatever that meant.
He never had a class when most people had their second class of the day, so he'd usually find somewhere to go for lunch, and that was usually just hanging around the culinary students. The pair he had made friends with were a couple named Sasha and Connie. He never actually asked if they were dating or not, and he figured it would be better to leave it that way. It was no surprise that Sasha was top of her class, she always found a way to get much better ingredients and flavours, despite all of the same resources and recipes as her classmates. Connie reportedly fell asleep often during class, causing more than one visit from the fire department. The instructor, who simply went as Nanaba, always said he had one more chance, but the first time was several chances ago.
One particular day, Sasha texted him saying,
"Connie set everything on fire. Second time this week, so we can't feed you today :( sorry" Minutes later, he got a text from Connie saying, "Sasha is trying to kill me bc I ruined all of the good meat. No food for either of us I guess"
Eren resorted to the perilous task of making instant ramen.
He filled the pot up to the brim and put it on the stove. It boiled, overflowing to the floor. He threw a towel at the floor to mop it up, and put the ramen square into the water. He came back three minutes later to a mess of starchy water coating the stove, and sighed. I surrender. He put the pot into the sink, and waited a minute for the stove to cool off. Wet towel in hand, he strode back over to the battlefield to get his victory. The majority of the mess was wiped up, but some of the tough stains stayed. Deciding to go outside for food, he threw on a sweatshirt and started heading towards the door.
