Chapter 8 (Extra)

You woke up to the sound of Armin whispering something, half-muffled by the pillow.

You blinked, then rolled over. He was sitting at the edge of the bed in sweats and a hoodie, phone in hand, head in one palm like he was negotiating a hostage situation with himself.

"Are you having a breakdown?" you said, voice scratchy with sleep.

He turned, startled. "No. Maybe. I texted Jean and Eren an apology essay"

You laughed dragging the blanket up around your shoulders as you sat up. "Did they reply?"

Armin winced. "Jean sent a voice memo of him dry-heaving. Eren texted back, quote, 'Rot in hell but also I'll see you at 8' "

You frowned. "Wait. Eight when?"

"Tonight." Armin looked at you with a mix of amusement and dread. "He's throwing a 'surprise but not really surprise' party at his cousin's place. Says we all need to 'vibe the trauma away.' His words. Direct quote."

You fell back against the bed, groaning into the pillow. "I can't be in a room with Jean until he stops imagining me naked."

"He says he'll wear sunglasses so there's plausible deniability."

You rolled over just enough to glare at Armin. "Did you ask him that or did he just offer?"

Armin looked down at you sheepishly. "...He offered."

You sighed. "We're going to this stupid party, aren't we."

His smile was soft, amused. "You don't have to. But I kinda want to. With you."

And you did, if only to prove you could exist in the same space as your friends again without bursting into flames.

                                      ***

The party wasn't exactly wild, not yet anyway, but it was loud. There was music thumping from a Bluetooth speaker someone had jammed into a flower pot, a snack table dangerously dominated by Sasha, and a mystery punch that no one trusted but everyone drank anyway.

Eren had greeted you and Armin like a game show host: "And there they are! The stars of yesterday's... thing!"

"Eren," Armin said weakly.

"I'm healed," Eren said, placing a hand over his chest. "But also, never forget."

Jean, true to his word, had showed up in dark aviators and refused to make eye contact with either of you. He kept pointing to them and muttering, "Sanity goggles."

Reiner was already deep in an animated retelling of some disaster hiking story, and Mikasa had found a spot on the couch next to Historia, who was trying to balance a full cup of punch on Ymir's head. Ymir allowed it, entirely unbothered because she loved Historia.

"You okay?" Armin asked, glancing down at you where you were perched on the arm of the chair he'd claimed.

You smiled up at him. "Better now."

He bumped his shoulder lightly against yours. "Still thinking about the blanket?"

"No... It's fine now I guess" 

Sasha, halfway through her second bowl of chips and what might've been her fifth cup of questionable drink, was holding court in the kitchen, dramatically retelling a story no one had asked for.

"So I told him, 'Sir, if you don't want cheese in your milkshake, don't dare me to do it.'"

Connie was howling. "You actually poured nacho cheese in a vanilla shake?!"

"I guess I did. I mean I did" Sasha said proudly. "Fuck yeah I did."

Ymir, from her perch on the counter, muttered, "You're all gonna die by thirty."

Historia leaned into her shoulder. "Bold of you to assume we'll make it that far."

In the living room, Reiner had taken over DJ duties, which meant the playlist had shifted abruptly from chill indie tracks to some chaotic mix of early 2000s emo and aggressively sensual songs. No one knew how to feel. Jean just stood with his cup, frozen, as "Pony" started playing.

"Nope," he said. "Nope, this is your fault," he told Armin, stabbing a finger in his direction. "You've ruined this song."

Armin raised both hands in surrender. "I didn't even pick the music!"

"Yeah," Jean said darkly. "But your vibe did." 

"Not really..." He said a bit awkward.

You were not on top last time, actually you were never on top so it didn't make any sense. Still, you planned on being the one in charge next time.

You were halfway through a laugh when Eren appeared beside you, grinning like he'd just had a terrible idea and wanted you to witness it in real time.

"You ever play Tipsy Twister?"

"No."

"Perfect," he said, grabbing your wrist.

"Wait-"

It turned out "Tipsy Twister" was just regular Twister, but the mat was uneven, the spinner was being operated by a blindfolded Reiner, and every round ended with a mandatory drink if you fell.

You lasted three rounds. Armin lasted five. Mikasa won the sixth without blinking, and didn't drink at all. You suspected she was just built different. Fucking Ackerman's.

"Someone write that down," Connie said. "Mikasa doesn't fall. Ever. Even to gravity."

By the time the group devolved into half-drunken karaoke, Sasha and Jean's duet of "Toxic" would haunt you forever, you had somehow ended up curled on the floor with Armin again, leaning against the couch as he absent traced patterns on the back of your hand.

"You okay?" he asked, voice low under the noise.

You nodded. "This is fun. In a chaotic, emotionally scarring way."

He smiled. "Yeah. Same."

And somehow, even with the lights too bright, the music too loud, and your friends being exactly who they were, it felt easy. Not quiet. But still right.

                                                                                     ***

It was well past midnight when someone broke a lamp.

Technically, it was Connie. Realistically, it was Eren's fault for shouting "TRUST FALL" mid-Backstreet Boys while launching himself off the couch. Historia snorted so hard she choked on her drink. Mikasa caught Eren by the back of his hoodie before he could take down half the coffee table with him. They weren't even on drugs and acted like that.

"Okay," Jean groaned, rubbing his temples. "That's it. Party's over. Y'all are a threat to domestic stability."

"No one says 'domestic stability,' Jean," Ymir muttered, sipping straight from the bottle.

You stood slowly, a little dizzy from both laughter and sugar-laced drinks. Armin was already watching you, like he could tell you were one sensory overload away from spiraling. He didn't say anything, just reached out and brushed a strand of hair from your cheek with quiet precision.

"Wanna get some air?" he asked, low enough that only you could hear.

You nodded. "God, yes."

The balcony was empty. Finally. You stepped out into the cool night and breathed like you hadn't all evening. City sounds still rose up around you, a siren in the distance, the hum of traffic, a fucking dog barking, but up here, it was bearable. Still loud. Just... manageable.

Armin joined you at the railing, not touching at first. Just being there. Present in the way he always was when it mattered.

You spoke first. "That was... a lot."

He chuckled. "It really was."

You turned to look at him. "You're really okay with all of that?"

"All of what?"

"The chaos. The people. The... tipsy Twister and cheese shake confessions and all of that weird shit"

He looked over at you then, his gaze soft. "I don't care where we are. As long as I get this." His hand brushed your fingers again, like punctuation. "You. With me. That's the only part that matters."

For a second, you couldn't say anything.

So you kissed him.

Just once, deep and slow and a little sleepy, like you were both tired of pretending the world outside this moment existed.

And when you pulled back, forehead resting lightly against his, you whispered, "Okay. Then let's stay here a little longer."

He nodded. "Yeah. Just a little."

The rest of the party carried on inside, voices shouting over music, someone declaring a rematch, Sasha laughing like she was never going to stop, but you and Armin stayed on the balcony. Just breathing just being.

Because sometimes chaos was fine but quiet with him? That was everything.

The balcony was quieter than the rest of the apartment, the hum of the party muffled behind the sliding glass door. Music and laughter spilled faintly through the glass, but out here it felt like another world. Just the flickering overhead light, the occasional gust of cool night air, and Armin flushed, golden, so close you could feel the warmth of him even with space between.

You were pressed against the wall now, Armin's hands braced on either side of your waist, caging you in without making it feel like a trap. His mouth was on yours, slow and warm and insistent not rushed like earlier in the night, not tentative like it used to be. This was something else. Something that lived in the silence between words. Something old and new all at once.

You laughed into his kiss, messy and breathless, and slurred, "You're so warm."

He pulled back just barely, his lips brushing yours as he spoke. "You're drunk."

"Not that drunk," you mumbled, trying to kiss him again. He let you, let it drag on just long enough to feel real, and then pulled back again, his hands steadying your hips as you leaned forward more than you meant to.

"You're swaying," he said softly, voice like amusement wrapped in worry.

"I'm not-" you stopped yourself and blinked up at him. "Okay. Maybe a little."

You rested your head against his chest and felt him exhale against your hair. His hands settled at your back, thumbs brushing slow, comforting circles into your spine. It was grounding, even if the ground still felt a little tilted beneath you.

"We should sit," he said gently. "Or go lie down. You're not gonna win a battle with gravity tonight."

But you didn't move.

You just stood there, pressed against him, the party fading behind the glass. Your fingers curled into the back of his shirt, gripping it like it was the only thing keeping you tethered. And then soft, hesitant, but real, you said it. It was the right time, or so you thought. 

"I love you."

You weren't even sure he heard you at first. It was barely louder than a breath, tucked into the hollow of his neck like something fragile.

But he did. You felt the way his whole body stilled. The way his hands stopped moving. The way his breath caught like he didn't trust it.

"What?"

You pulled back just enough to look at him. Your eyes were glassy but steady, not spinning, not joking. Just wide and a little scared. You were actually terrified.

"I love you," you said again, clearer this time. "I think I've been trying not to say it for so long that it just... fell out."

His expression shifted, something slow and weird like you'd handed him the last missing piece of something he'd been building in secret.

"You didn't fall out," he said quietly.

You blinked. "What?"

"You didn't fall out," he repeated. "You landed"

The words sat between you like something sacred.

You watched his face, watched his mouth twitch into a soft smile, watched the way his eyes held you like you were something he never expected to have but wouldn't let go of now.

He cupped your cheek, thumb brushing over your skin, and leaned in.

The kiss he gave you then was nothing like the ones before. It was slower. Deeper. Like a promise. Like he meant it, his tongue stroking yours softly.

When he pulled away, he pressed his forehead against yours, still holding you close.

"You'll remember this in the morning?" he asked.

You nodded. "Yeah, I'll remember."

"Good," he said, voice a little unsteady now. "Because I love you too."

You felt yourself smile, felt the way your whole chest filled with something so warm it almost hurt. You waited years to hear that and it finally happened.

He kissed you again, once, then again softer. Then he tucked you into his arms, making you feel safe and loved and for a long moment, neither of you said anything. You just stood there on that half-lit balcony, wrapped up in each other like the night was made just for this.

HOLY SHIT I LOVE THIS CHAPTER SM OMGGG. IK ITS A BIT SHORTER BUT YEAH ILL CONTINUE WITH A FEW MORE IN THE NEXT DAYS, DONT FORGET TO VOTE AND COMMENT. LOVE YALL AND SEE U SOON <3333