Chapter 1 – Armin

I was only ten when I met Eren.

Honestly it was the best thing that could have happened to me. Getting bullied was something I was used to in elementary. It's still something I'm used to. And I suppose that's a bad thing, it's a weakness, but it's the truth. It started when I first went to school and continued up until I graduated high school. If I fought back it only got worse. If I went to the teachers all they would say was "Boy's will be boys". As much as my grandfather tried to help with it, it didn't do any good. By the time I turned ten I realized that if I wanted life to be easier for me it was best to curl up and cower. Eventually they'd get bored and leave me alone and I could make my way to the nurse's office. It worked more often than it didn't. No one bothered to help me. No one even watched. The kids just turned a blind eye scared because in their eyes I probably deserved it. I never expected someone to actually stand up for me for that day.

And definitely not Eren.

Eren was the new kid, in a different class then me actually, so all I heard were the whispers that ran around the school about him. I knew he had a temper, he kicked a kid who was taunting him and got sent to the office his first day. Although by the time the story got to me it was nothing but a rumor. The story got bigger and bigger until eventually the tale was that he freaked out in a classroom, threw a desk, and kicked a boy breaking his leg. How anyone believed it I never understood. No one in our grade even had a broken leg. As for why he even kicked him in the first place I never found out, nor did I care too. It was best not to get too involved in other peoples dramatics. It would give them more reason to target me which was something I definitely did not need.

It was recess when I first met him, and I was cowering behind the bleachers trying to block out all the painful blows that were rained on me. There were three kids, all a grade older, seeming to find it hilarious that my parents were dead and that I refused to fight them back. I just curled up and took what they gave me hoping it would end soon. It hurt, a lot, but I didn't let them know that. I wasn't weak. I wasn't going to let them think they were hurting me. I couldn't fight back but I could still save what was left of my dignity.

And then Eren, screaming at the top of his lungs, charged in and took all three boys down in a matter of minutes. It was terrifying. Fists were flying and legs were flailing and the kids were screaming. I thought for sure he was going to turn on me when he was done and the boys went running. Instead he held out a hand and cocked his head. And I just stared at him. That was all I could manage to do. Why was he helping me? No one had ever stood up for me before.

"Why did you help me?"

He frowned then, and tapped at his ears, making coordinated gestures with his hands and shaking his head. At the time I had no idea he was deaf. And me, awestruck that someone actually stood up and defended me to question his motions, took his hand and let him help me up. He took me to the nurse, watched as she clucked her tongue and patched me up, and then went to the principal's office. He was suspended for a day because he broke one of the boys' nose. The three kids who attacked me were suspended for a week. I had a broken arm, my writing arm, and the principal decided that maybe this bullying was getting out of hand.

A few days later Eren transferred into my class, refusing to take no for an answer when he requested to be put with me, and was essentially my right hand until my arm was healed to where I could write again. He would help me do my assignments and in turn I would help him with his because he wasn't the brightest kid I'd ever met. But he made up for that with determination.

Eren became my best friend, and I was fluent in sign language by the time I turned eleven. It was around then that he told me why he stood up for me. He saw that they were talking about my parents and them being dead. He said he could read it on their lips. That and the fact that they were just mercilessly beating me up which was something he couldn't stand made him go charging in there. His mom had died too, crushed underneath their house during an fire. And I remember feeling so relieved that someone else knew what that kind of pain was like. I met his sister then. Mikasa was a sweet girl but she was broken. I only ever saw her smile around Eren. She transferred into the same school later that year after her doctors deemed her healthy enough to start and I became as close to her as I was with Eren. I found out she watched her parents murdered, and I wondered how all three of us could be so unlucky.

Now, ten years later, I found myself moving into a college dorm that I would be sharing with Eren. And he was getting frustrated.

His hands were moving erratically, and his sister was trying to calm him down. He kept making these noises that over the years I've grown accustomed to. There were certain sounds he made with certain emotions and I'm pretty sure that he himself doesn't even know he makes them. He can't hear himself. So how could he? Groans and grunts and words that were slurred because he could speak. He knew how to sound words out but he couldn't fix his pronunciation. He couldn't even tell that he was saying things off. And right now his sounds were a mixture of "fuck"s (which sounded a lot more like "Fawk") and frustrated groans because his dad had packed his things up weird and he couldn't find his stereo. It was something he turned on when he got frustrated and nervous, and he'd turn up whatever CD was in there at the time and put his hands on the casing to feel the vibrations. Often when he stayed at my house and didn't have his stereo he'd put his hand on my chest and make me sing to him.

I tapped his shoulder, smiling at him and holding the box with his stereo. His face relaxed with relief and he gratefully took it from my arms. It was the first thing he set up. He plugged it in and messed around with the cables and the frame before he decided its position in the desks shelf was good enough.

Our first year in college.

God I hope this turns out well.

"Eren you cheated! Hey! And you're not even looking at me," I huffed and put my controller down as I died… for the fifth time. Video games aren't my forte. But that doesn't change the fact that he cheated. Again.

Eren threw his hands up in the air in victory, almost sending his own controller flying, and looked at me with a grin. I just rolled my eyes and signed, "Good job, now stop cheating."

He responded with his own eye roll.

The TV and gaming system was the first thing we actually set up. Our luggage was still on our bare beds and our boxes stacked in the corner mostly unpacked. Mikasa had left a while ago to get back to her apartment. Unlike us she had taken the chance to graduate early with a degree so she could help support Eren in case he needed it. On more than one occasion he had talked about dropping out. It was actually me that convinced him to go to college with the promise it would be nothing like high school. I could have graduated early with my own college degree but I promised Mikasa I wouldn't leave Eren behind.

He looked at me then and pouted, signing, "I want coffee. Can we go to Star Bucks?"

I narrowed my eyes, "We're college students and we're broke. We can hardly afford Star Bucks."

His face fell and he widened his eyes a little, knowing I wouldn't be able to say no to him if he did that. He pushed his lower lip out a little in a pout and my willpower broke. I groaned and leaned my head back, signing to him and telling him to grab his wallet so we could get going. I reached into my pocket to make sure I had my money and keys before following his excited step out the door. And I just stared. Because of all the people I could have fallen for, all the guys and girls I've met that wanted nothing more than to be with me, I had to fall for him.