I have many things planned for this story, so if people seem to like it then there will be lots more coming.

As always, I don't own Shingeki no kyojin or any of its characters.

"Armiiiiin! Armin hurry!"

"I'm coming! I'm coming!"

The blonde boy gave a small laugh as he cut the cake with his knife and placed a slice on each plate. He heard a light moan coming from the living room as he took the forks out of the kitchen cabinet.

"Just hold on a little longer!"

He placed one fork on each plate and took one plate in each hand, another balancing against his chest and on his left arm. He ran back to the living room.

"I'm coming! I'm coming! I'm coming! I'm here!"

Armin smiled as he handed Eren his plate. A look of pure joy and relief filled his features. He cut a small piece with his fork and popped it into his mouth. He looked at the blue eyed boy with awe and admiration.

"This is your best cake yet, Armin!" Eren exclaimed before eating some more. The blonde looked at him fondly.

"You say that every time!"

"And I mean it every time!"

Armin chuckled as he handed Mikasa her plate.

"Thank you." She smiled.

Armin took his place to the left of Eren while Mikasa sat to his right. Automatically the two of them snuggled up to the boy in the middle, the physical contact subconsciously calming him.

"What movie are we watching today?" Asked Eren.

"I don't mind but I think Mikasa should choose! She never does!"

"You're right! Mikasa! What do you want to watch?"

The girl in question was silent as she cut a piece of cake with her fork.

"Whatever you want to watch is fine with me."

Eren scowled.

"I choose all the time! Come on! What do you want?"

"I want what you want."

"Ugh!"

Eren growled as he stuck another piece of cake into his mouth. He mumbled under his breath and Armin chuckled.

"Fine, if that's what you want then I'll choose." He looked thoughtful for a moment, then a knowing smirk appeared on his face. "I choose she´s the man"

Eren tried to hold back a laugh as he saw Mikasa's face twitch.

"You know I don't like that movie…" She whispered. Mikasa had always had an unexplainable despise for that film. She respected the fact that it was based on Shakespeare's "twelfth night" but she found it gross and completely humorless. Neither Armin nor Eren had particularly strong opinions about it, but the brown haired boy enjoyed watching it to spite his adoptive sister.

"You had your chance to choose."

And so that is what they watched. They always went to Armin's house to watch a movie on Tuesdays after school. Just like they went to the park and bought ice cream on Mondays, Eren and Mikasa's house to study on Wednesdays, the central mall (and really, Armin's favorite bookstore) on Thursdays, and whatever special occurrence was in town that week on Fridays (movie theatre, the summer fair, a concert, etc). They had followed this schedule for years. They saw it more like tradition.

They were the kind of group that commented on movies, but the comments of each were very different. Armin would question the characters' motives behind their actions, he would make (quite accurate) predictions, and would always point out when something was scientifically impossible. Eren would always point out which characters he liked and disliked the most, he would also grown at any cheesy lines or very bad jokes. Mikasa stayed mostly quiet but did sometimes say what she thought would have made the situation better or why the main character was an idiot.

Another very important part of the movies-at-Armin's was the eating-at-Armin's. The blonde boy had found a passion for baking when he turned 10 and had excelled at it ever since. He would always bring pastries to homeroom, which was enough for all the students in their generation to hope to get that class with Armin. But he always saved the best one for Tuesdays, when his two best friends would come over. Eren was more than thrilled with his friend's hobby. When Armin told him he was going to try baking for the first time, Eren made him promise that he would taste at least a crumb of everything the blonde ever made.

Once the movie was over, Eren and Mikasa got ready to go home. Armin walked them to the door as they chatted amiably.

"Try to do those math problems on your own Eren, if you can't figure them out then I'll help you when we get together tomorrow. Mikasa; alone means you can't help him!"

The dark haired girl huffed in annoyance, but she knew that Armin was right.

"I'll give it my best shot! See you tomorrow!" They both waved goodbye before entering Eren's car (technically it was for both of them. Mikasa had a car but she never used it, she always went with Eren, so she convinced their parents to sell it.) and driving off.

Even once they were out of sight, Armin stayed outside. He leaned against the frame of the door in silence. The wind blew through his hair as he took a deep breath. His thoughts went to his oldest friend.

Eren Jeager.

Eren didn't have many friends when he was little. He was born with anger and bipolar disorder. He was very volatile and violent, which made all the kids afraid of him.

They met when they were 7. Armin was new at the school. He had been walking while reading a wonderful book his grandfather had given him about the most beautiful places in the world. Not watching where he was going, he bumped into 3 older kids. They took one look at him and immediately started picking on him and even kicked the book out of his hands.

It got to the point where Armin was certain they weren't going to leave until he was laying on the ground crying and covered in bruises, when suddenly a brown haired boy started yelling. He seemed furious. He beat them up, and scared them off (more for his reputation than for anything else).

All Armin could do was look at him with awe and admiration. The boy had hesitantly offered his hand, and Armin took it. The blonde showed the boy, Eren, his grandfather's book. They sat under a tree in the playground and were filled with wonder by the images and descriptions of those faraway places as they basked in the sudden warmth of friendship and security.

From that point on, they were inseparable. Armin's calm and reasonable manners were the perfect balance for Eren's intensity and recklessness. They completed each other quite well. Armin learned of Eren's condition but that is what he did: he learned. He explored every aspect of Eren's personality, even the scary parts, and discovered ways to help him and make him feel well.

Armin learned that signs of physical affection would keep Eren calm and feeling secure. It became a custom for them to always be touching in some way; holding hands, leaning on each other, an arm around the shoulder, anything. He also discovered that Eren didn't remember most of his actions after he went through a frenzy, and that the most effective way to get him out of it was to soothingly speak into his ear.

He also learned that almost no one seemed to understand him.

When they heard the word "bipolar" all they would hear was either "spoiled" or "dangerous". Many parents and teachers had asked for Eren's expulsion from the school for his violent tendencies, but the director was a friend of his parents and was well aware of their situation.

One day Armin couldn't take it anymore and started crying out of frustration. When Eren saw him he immediately worried.

"What's wrong?! Did someone try to pick on you again!? Who was it!? I´ll rip th-"

"No no! I-its not that." Armin quickly assured him before he could get angry. The beginnings of rage turned into deep concern.

"What is it then?"

Armin tried to calm down, but when he looked into Eren's caring eyes he just seemed to explode. The older boy quickly pulled him into his arms and held him tight.

"It´s not fair!" Armin sobbed. "You're the best friend anyone could ever ask for but no one sees that! They-they all think you´re crazy! That all you feel is anger! They all judge you when they know absolutely nothing!"

Eren was rubbing Armin's back and that just made the boy cry harder. They seemed to have exchanged roles at the moment. Eren rested his chin on the top of Armin's head.

"I don´t care." He said simply. Armin was shocked but what came out was a laugh. He shook his head, rubbing his face against Eren's chest.

"How can you say that?"

"None of those kids matter to me. You are the only one that matters. If you like me then everything is ok."

Armin felt like his heart was going to explode, both with pain and with love towards his friend. His hands, which had been clinging on to Eren's shirt, now moved around the boy's back until he was hugging him tightly. He cried harder, drenching Eren's shirt, but he didn't seem to mind. He just kept rubbing Armin's back and whispering soothingly just like Armin had done countless times.

For almost 2 years Eren and Armin were the school's most recognized duo. The teachers actually ordered for them to have the same classes together, for the blonde seemed to keep the crazy one calm and more focused on his work. From a young age, Armin proved to have a great academic performance and ended with the highest average of the entire generation. Eren's grades had greatly improved and so had his behavior. At recess, the two of them would always be either playing or lying on the grass and talking about how they would travel the world together when they grew up.

The Mikasa came along, and Armin couldn't have been happier. There was finally someone else who saw Eren for who he was and not as a frightening and dangerous animal. She was immediately accepting of all of Eren's qualities and was very protective of the boy. The 3 of them seemed to fit together like a puzzle. Although Mikasa didn't share their interest for the "outside world", they still had many things to talk about. Also, Armin now had someone he could talk to and relate to when it came to Eren. They were both united by their love towards the brunette, but bonded by a special connection of their own.

Years later the 3 of them moved to the same middle school. There they could start fresh. Eren was now able to control himself more and not depend fully on his friends. They were still one of the vital columns that kept him up, but now he was capable of hiding his anger and thinking before acting on his emotions.

Everyone was relatively friendly. Although most people wouldn't think much of it, for the trio it felt like an incredible blessing after all the years of struggling against fear and hatred. Eren's parents had decided it was best to not let the school know about his condition. They would only judge him for it and predispose him to discrimination. Even so, Eren was considered a very intense guy with anger management issues. The brunette still didn't care much about what others thought of him, but not being feared was an enjoyable feeling.

Now that they were in high school, their lives seemed to be just like the ones of regular teenagers. They sat during lunch with other students, but everyone recognized the special bond between Eren, Armin, and Mikasa. Although Eren didn't need his friends to keep him in check at all times, his parents insisted that at least one of the 2 was in each of his classes (not that any of them were complaining).

Eren and Armin shared every class possible together. Possible meaning the classes that Armin was not taking in "advance placement". Those would be character education, social studies, and chemistry. They were also in homeroom together. Eren and Mikasa shared the other classes; calculus, English, Japanese, and their elective (physical education). The only class the 3 of them had together was chemistry. Mikasa had been very angry when she found out she wasn't with them in homeroom, social studies, or character education. She tried to speak to the counselor, but to no use ("What did you expect, Mikasa? You were practically death glaring the poor guy!" Eren chuckled.)

Things were well, but there were still those terrifying moments when a small word or a wrong look would set Eren off. He hadn't acted violently as of yet, but probably because either Armin or Mikasa had been there to hold him off. Now that he was older, there were more consequences to those kinds of actions. It was Armin's greatest fear that one day Eren would do something that would bring consequences that would affect the rest of his life. Things like not being able to go into the collage he wanted because of his discipline track, or never being able to maintain a relationship because other people didn't seem to be able to figure him out (or have the patience to). There were also all those nightmares of Eren getting into a fight that he wasn't strong enough to win. Armin remembered having many of those when he was little. To this day, he still had a few.

The blue eyed boy blinked rapidly, suddenly snapped out of his daze. How long had he been standing there? He rubbed his face with frustration.

"Macaroons… those will distract me for a while." He muttered as he closed the door and went to the kitchen.

Eren's leg kept bouncing up and down as he stared at his math homework in frustration.

"If it is in root form… and you need to turn it into vector form… you look for h and r?" The brunette looked up at his sister, who was sitting on the couch on the opposite end of the room. Before she could answer, Eren growled.

"Don't tell me! I need to figure it out!"

They were currently in the livingroom. Eren was doing homework on the dining table while Mikasa watched him, her hand hovering over her lips.

"And stop doing that!" Mikasa flinched lightly as she quickly moved her hand onto her lap. Although to others she always looked so unaffected by everything, Eren knew her better than anyone. For example, he knew that she acquired last year the bad habit of peeling her lips when she was stressed. It used to be only the very dry parts but it has gotten out of hand.

Unknown to her, the action of moving her hand so fast had accidentally peeled of the piece that she had been holding. It was quite big. She saw it on her lap and whispered "shit." Immediately she tasted blood in her mouth. Eren saw this and sighed with defeat. He stood up, went for the Kleenex box that was in a small table at the entrance of the house, and brought it to Mikasa.

"You really need to stop doing that."

Mikasa wiped her mouth.

"You really should be paying more attention in math."

Eren growled again and pulled at his hair.

"It just doesn't compute! And what's the use in calculus anyway!? None!"

Eren took a deep breath just like all his stupid therapies say he should. He suddenly felt tired. He let himself fall next to Mikasa on the sofa.

"I hope Armin can explain it to me tomorrow." He muttured. Eren was momentarily distracted from his agony when he caught sight of the piece of dried up lip on Mikasa's lap. He took it between his thumb and forefinger and looked at it.

Mikasa blushed at the thought that Eren was, in a way, touching her lips.

The brunet looked at his sister, more precisely, at her mouth and at the tissue that now had red blotches on it. He hated when she did that. He knew it was no use to tell her to stop (bad habits are not something one does consciously) but it hurt him to see her injured even if it was in such a small way.

Mikasa tried to force the blush to go away.

"If anyone can teach you, it's him. You'll understand it soon."

Eren finally looked away. He stretched lightly before standing up.

"I'm going to bed." Mikasa stood up.

"Yeah me too." She muttured.

They said their goodbyes and went to their respective rooms. Eren changed into his pajamas and threw himself on the bed. He lay face down for a while trying to keep his mind blank. Once he needed to breath, he turned onto his back. He sighed.

He couldn't stop thinking about that big piece of dried lip Mikasa had pulled off. He could still see her dabbing at her bloody lip with the tissue. It reminded him of when Armin fell down the stairs and bit his tongue. The sight of his mouth being all bloody had made Eren panic and start crying. In the end the cut didn't even need stitches, but it had scared Eren to no end. His 2 best friends were the people Eren cared about most in the world. He would be nothing without them.

He could remember clearly the day he met Armin. The 3 meanest kids in school were surrounding a little blonde boy. Eren could see the cruel expressions on their faces and could hear their ugly laughs. Burning rage filled him as he screamed and ran towards them. He punched and kicked them until they left. Although his rage was so large, as suddenly as it came it went away. He could hear the boy behind him gasp. Eren didn't want to turn around and look at him. He could already picture the fear in his eyes and his cries for Eren not to hurt him.

Reluctantly, he turned around, just to be met with the sight of two wide blue eyes opened in awe. Eren had been so shocked at his expression. No one had ever looked at him like that before. It took him a moment to be able to look away from those big and shiny eyes. Eren thought they were the prettiest thing he had ever seen. That was when he noticed that the boy was still on the ground. Hesitantly he offered the boy his hand. The brunet was ready for rejection, but the boy's eyes seemed to shine even more as he took it. They were best friends ever since.

When he was little, Eren never understood why the other kids didn't like him. It just became a fact for him. Something normal and expected. Armin was different. He was happy to be around Eren. He played and laughed with him. He showed him his grandfather's book and taught him about the "outside world" as he called it.

Eren hadn't cared that the other kids didn't like him. He had Armin and that was all he cared about. He had told the blonde boy as much one day when he found him crying. The sight had brought him great panic and heartbreak. Eren didn't ever want to see his friend in pain. Neither of them.

Eren thought back to the day he met Mikasa. A shudder went through him as he wished their meeting would have been on happier terms.

Mikasa's birth parents had been very rich. A group of bad people had wanted to kidnap their daughter to ask them for money, but the operation had gone all wrong. The guy sent to do it panicked and killed the two parents instead. They took Mikasa anyway, not knowing what to do with her.

Eren's father had been a friend of Mikasa's parents. They were going to visit them that day, that was how they found out what happened. Eren knew Mikasa was still out there and that she was in danger. Without his father knowing, he took one of the kitchen knifes and went on his own.

Eren knew exactly where the kidnappers were, for he had seen a strange car parked around the block on their way to Mikasa's house. He had thought it was weird and had even seen what looked like struggling inside, but he hadn't truly thought much of it. Now he was sure that was them.

He moved quickly and knocked on the window of the drivers seat. Eren hid the knife behind his back as he told the man that he was lost. The man offered to "give him a ride". He opened the copilot seat.

The rest was a bit of a blur. Eren made his way there, and the moment he was inside the car he attacked the man. Eren didn't even think of what he was doing. The anger inside him fuelled him with strength and he was able to kill him. Misaka had been in the back seat. There was a man sitting next to her. He saw what Eren did and was able to knock the knife out of his hands. It landed by Mikasa. As the man tried to choke Eren, the boy tried to talk to the dark haired girl. She was, naturally, afraid. She had just seen her family murdered before her, a kid murdering another man, and now a man trying to kill a kid. She was shaking and repeating, "I can't do it."

Eren had to make her understand. Fear couldn't be an excuse for not trying. She couldn't be afraid to loose. If she didn't try then she already lost.

"Fight!" he struggled to yell out. "If you don't fight you can't win!"

He prayed that she would understand what he meant. It took a moment for her to process it, but he saw the change in her. She suddenly held herself straighter. The fear in her eyes left, replaced by determination. She took the knife and killed the man.

To say that Eren's dad was horrified was an understatement. Eren didn't understand why he was so angry. All he wanted was to save Mikasa. When he told that to his dad, he looked defeated. It was after that that the girl spoke.

"Where am I to go now?" There was no fear in her question, only acceptance. "It's cold. I have nowhere to go." Mikasa wasn't even looking at them as she spoke. That's why she was so surprised when Eren put his scarf around her neck.

"There," he had said "It's warm, right?" And for a moment they could pretend that all her problems were solved by that small token of affection.

After that, Eren's parents adopted Mikasa. He loved his new sister and was very happy when she became such good friends with his best friend.

Presently, Eren sighed again and buried his face against a pillow. He needed to do something to stop Mikasa's bad habit. He also had to keep an eye on Armin. Eren was very protective of the boy, which was to be expected with the blonde's history of being bullied.

Eren tried to distract himself with better thoughts. He thought of Armin's book about the "outside world" and about their dream of someday traveling the world together.

The brunette fell asleep with the sound of the ocean and Armin's laughter in his mind.

There's chapter one! If you liked it please review!