"And then the next chapter was even better! It has almost everything we know about the deepest part of the ocean. And everything we know is hardly anything! I mean, did you know…?"

Eren nodded, acting like he was listening to Armin drone on about how great his new book about the ocean was. His gaze was focused on eating his fries, which at that moment seemed so much more interesting than listening to his friend.

At first, Eren was just as intrigued as Armin was about the subject when the blond had brought it up, but as hours passed, Eren began to lose interest quickly. It was quite obvious that the sea was Armin's passion.

He'd tried to drift the conversation to something else, hence why they were having something to eat at the food court in the mall, but Armin just kept going on and on and on.

"I just think it's so incredible that there is still so much to discover," the blond continued. "There must be so much hiding in the depths that we have yet to see and… Eren, are you listening to me?"

Judging by Eren's dazed look and how concentrated he was on his fries, Armin guessed that he probably stopped paying attention quite a while ago.

"Eren!"

The teen jumped a little as he was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts. "Yeah, fish are cool!" He said quickly, trying to seem like he was following Armin's monologue intensely, but there was no fooling his friend.

Armin raised his eyebrows at Eren, who grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."

"It's fine," the blond shrugged. "I know I get a little boring when I talk too much about these things. But you're going to have to give me a few of your fries to compensate." He grinned.

Eren chuckled. "Okay, fine, take some." He pushed the plate towards Armin, but as he did so, he noticed something that he hadn't before.

On another table, not too far away from the pair, was a girl who looked around their age. She sat alone, with a notebook and a few pencils in front of her. There were a few scribbles on her notebook, but Eren couldn't make out what they were from where he sat. Was she writing something? There were no empty plates around her, so she must have come here just to…write? Study? What was she doing?

As odd as all of this was to Eren, it wasn't what had caught his attention. What had was the fact that she was staring right at him, rather intensely.

Was there something on his face?

He was about to ask Armin, but just as he was going to do so, she stopped, her gaze completely focused on her notebook now.

Weird.

"Are you spacing out again?" Armin asked.

"Huh?" Eren turned back towards his friend. "No, not this time. It's just…"

"Just what?"

"On the table behind you, there's a girl there that was staring at me before. It was kinda weird." Eren explained.

"Staring at you?" Armin asked as he turned to get a look himself. Just as he did so, the girl raised her gaze, stared for a couple of seconds, then returned her attention to writing in her notebook.

"See?" Eren gestured towards her. "She's staring at me! Isn't that freaking weird?"

Armin just grinned. "And you're complaining because…?"

"Because she's staring at me!"

"You're complaining because a cute girl is staring at you?"

Well, Eren couldn't disagree with that, but that was beside the point. Cute or not, he wanted to know why she was staring at him. He looked at her once more, only to meet her gaze. She was doing it again? Just as before, after a few seconds she'd stop and start writing again. It made Eren's blood boil. Was she acting like he hadn't caught her or was she writing stuff about him?

"You know…" Armin began, quite amused by Eren's reaction. "I think she's trying to get your attention."

"What? Like flirting?"

"Maybe."

Could that be it? But it didn't seem to be like that at all. There was no smiling, no giggling. All she did was watch him with that focused expression.

"I don't know what her problem is, but she's making me really uncomfortable."

"She's probably just shy; you should go talk to her," Armin said.

Eren doubted she was shy at all. He glanced at her once more, and, just as expected, he caught her again. Okay, he was officially sick of this.

"You know what? I'm going to do just that." Eren mumbled as he stood up.

"What?"

"I'll be right back."

And so, Eren set off towards the girl. As he approached her, she lifted her gaze once more, and her focused expression quickly turned to one of surprise, obviously not expecting him to come over.

As soon as Eren reached her, he slammed a fist on the table, causing her to jump and drop her pencil.

"What the hell is your problem?!" He yelled. "I have no idea why you're staring at me but you need to cut it out! It's driving me insane!"

The girl just stared at him, eyes wide and mouth half open, as if she was trying to say something, but was either too startled or too shy to voice it.

"So, what?!" Eren continued, her silence only making his anger grow. "You're not going to say anything?! Not even to tell me what-" Eren stopped his yelling when the girl picked up her notebook and shoved it towards him.

He eyed her suspiciously, not really sure what to expect or if he really wanted to know what she had been working on. As his gaze lowered to settle on the pages his eyes grew wide in surprise.

Apparently, the girl hadn't been writing at all, but drawing instead. And she hadn't been drawing just anything, she'd been drawing him. It was just a sketch, but Eren could tell that a lot of effort had gone into it. Thick, messy lines made up most of the drawing, while thinner, more carefully placed lines detailed his hair and the folds in his clothes.

Eren's anger was quickly replaced with embarrasment, cheeks turning a bright shade of red. "A-Ah, so that's why you were…yeah…" He laughed awkwardly as he returned her notebook. "Um…sorry?"

"It's okay." She answered, taking the notebook back and stuffing it back in her bag. She didn't seem so startled now that Eren had calmed down. Plus the fact that he had stopped yelling helped as well. "I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have been drawing a stranger and staring at you like that." She gave him a small smile. "I guess I wasn't as subtle as I thought I was."

A giggle escaped her as she joked, and, for some reason, it sounded magical to Eren. Now that he got a better look at her, he realized that she wasn't just cute. She was really really cute, which only made the teenager feel even more embarrassed about his behaviour. Why did he have to have such a bad temper?

"I-It's fine." Eren replied, not really knowing what else to say. He returned her smile, to at least let her know that he wasn't angry anymore. "I'm Eren. What's your name?"

The girl seemed to be pondering on whether to answer or not, and Eren began to worry that maybe he had ruined any chances of getting to know this girl by acting the way he had.

"Tell you what…" She began as she packed away her things. Eren braced himself for whatever she was about to say, convinced that it was not going to be anything good. "…why don't you come back here tomorrow, same time, and I might tell you." She grinned smugly before standing up and leaving, waving goodbye as she walked away.

Eren just stood there, dumbfounded by the whole experience. Had she just…? She had, hadn't she? Just to make sure, Eren glanced over towards Armin, who, judging by the smug look on his face, had heard the entire exchange between the two.

The brunet pointed in the direction that the girl had left, raising his eyebrows in a silent question. Armin simply nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

Well, Eren knew what he was going to do tomorrow.

Author's Note

Reupload from AO3. Enjoy!