The Note

Summary: It had been Armin's idea. He knew Eren was too self-conscious to tell Mikasa how he felt about her directly, so he had come up with the plan to write it down in a note and drop it in her locker. Now, if only Eren hadn't screwed up and dropped it in someone else's locker, this day could have gone by so much more quietly.

Pairing: Eren/Mikasa

Author's Note: I did some writing prompts on Tumblr and since I got such a massive amount of feedback on this one, I want to share it here as well. The prompt was: Your SnK OTP - High school, popular kid/nerd (AU) I did not have a SnK OTP yet until I wrote this little thing. All I can say now is... hello Eremika fandom~!

"This is the worst idea you've ever had, Armin!"

"Eren, it's not my fault that you're illiterate! I clearly said her locker was number 75, not 57!"

"No you didn't! Besides, you said her locker was on the left side!"

"I did say left, yes. You, however, went to the right!"

Eren groaned loudly in aggravation. He might not have been listening quite as earnestly to Armin's plan as he should have done, but damn it if he was going to admit that out loud. How could he have concentrated on his best friends guidelines though, when his heart had been beating so loudly in his chest?

He had always known that she was out of his league. She was the best at everything she did, yet she never bragged about it. She was smart and beautiful beyond words, yet she never cared much about how others perceived her. She was held in high regard by both her fellow students and the teachers, said to have a bright future ahead of her, yet she never acted conceited.

There were always those, however, who could not stand it when the spotlight was not on them, and they told anyone who listened that underneath her flawless exterior, there was only coldness.

To Eren, though, she was perfect.

He had known her since they had both been nine years old. And even though he had befriended her then, and even if she had seemingly enjoyed his company, everything had changed when they had started high school. She had quickly climbed the ladder of social status, to no one's surprise, really, but he had not been so lucky. His quick temper and often unilateral ideologies did not help him gain many friends. The only real friend he had was Armin Arlert, who he had known since forever. Most of his other classmates did not pay him any mind, and except for calling him a nerd behind his back, they did not openly go against him. All except for Jean Kirschtein, of course, but no one had been very surprised about that, seeing as they had both called each other 'asshole' on the first day of school. Not exactly a solid base for an everlasting friendship.

To put it bluntly, Mikasa Ackerman was the most popular girl at Titan High, and he, Eren Jaeger, did not even come close.

Despite the fact that he had a big mouth when it came to defending his ideas or his only friend, he could not even tell a girl he liked her without stuttering or blushing like crazy. Which was why he now found himself hiding behind a wall next to Armin, feeling like someone had dropped a stone on his head, hoping that whoever read the note that he had —apparently— dropped in the wrong locker would just throw it in the trash and never speak of it again.

He also knew very well that that was not likely going to happen.

Not when it was a note that contained all of Eren's feelings he had bottled up over the years concerning Mikasa and the hopeful question at the end asking her if she would want to go to prom with him.

It had been Armin's idea. He knew Eren was too self-conscious to ask her directly, so he had come up with the plan to put it in a note and drop it in her locker. Now, if only Eren hadn't screwed up and dropped it in someone else's locker, Armin could have finally had some peace and finish the book he had borrowed from the library weeks ago.

"Whose locker did I drop it in anyway?"

Armin sighed, "I don't know everyone's personal locker by heart, Eren. We'll just have to wait and s—"

His friend's sudden intake of breath had Eren turning his head around so fast he almost banged his head against the wall they were hiding behind. "What? What is it? What did you— Oh no..."

Eren could feel the cold sweat on his back and the fist clenching his stomach together when he saw who was approaching the locker he had just dropped his hand-written declaration of love in.

Jean Kirschtein and Marco Bodt.

Eren looked at Armin with wide eyes and he saw how his friend's lips were pressed together in a tight line, his expression apologetic when he stared back at him.

They both quickly looked back to their two classmates and Eren hoped, prayed, that the locker was Marco's. He was a nice enough guy and he would not ask too many questions when Eren would come out of hiding and ask him to give the note back, that he had accidently put it in the wrong locker and there was some personal stuff on it that he would rather keep to himself and the person the note was meant for in the first place.

Yeah... Marco would not say anything about it, and years from now he and Armin would bring up memories from their teenage years and laugh at his stupidity.

But Eren should have known by now that Lady Luck liked to kick him in the balls from time to time.

It wasn't Marco who stood in front of the accused locker, it was Jean.

Mumbling, "Shit, shit, shit!" under his breath, Eren speed-walked to where Jean was now opening his locker, Armin right on his heels.

"Okay, when his locker is open, I'll distract him and you get the note," Eren whispered quickly to Armin, not waiting for a response as he pretended to walk right into Jean by accident.

"Ow! Watch were you're going, idiot!"

"If you wouldn't be blocking the entire hallway with your thick head I would not be walking into you in the first place, asshole!"

"What did you just say, you little punk?!"

"Oh, you're deaf as well now? Must be all the shit your teeny tiny brain is filled with."

"How dare you..."

"Guys, calm down!"

"Don't worry, Marco. I'm just going to teach Jaeger here a lesson in common courtesy."

"I don't think you're the best one to teach me that, horse-face. There is no such thing as 'courtesy' in the animal kingdom."

"That's it!"

Jean swung his fist at Eren, but just at that moment Armin had tried to crawl in between them to take a hold of the note and he ended up being the one on the receiving end of Jean's fist.

"OW!" the blonde boy yelled out in pain and he fell back onto his backside next to Eren.

The latter quickly forgot all about why he had been yelling at Jean when he saw his friend's cheek started to swell up to the size of an apple. "Armin!" he exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

The boy sniffled, tears forming in the corner of his eyes as he held onto his swollen cheek, but he bravely bit his teeth together and nodded. "Y— Yeah, I'm fine."

They had obviously caused quite the commotion, and were now the centre of attention to the other students who had come into the hallway to collect or drop off their books. Eren could see a lot of his classmates were amongst them. Sasha Braus and Connie Springer were gaping at them, their mouths hanging slightly open. Reiner Braun, Bertold Hoover and Annie Leonhardt looked like they were enjoying the show, and Krista Lenz and Mikasa had ceased their conversation to see what was still going to happen.

Wait... Mikasa?

"What the hell were you trying to steal from my locker?!" Jean accused, looking pointedly from Armin to Eren.

Marco seemed to realise this was going to get even more ugly, so he tried to calm his friend down. "Ah, I'm sure they didn't try to steal anything Jean. Come on, let's get going. We have French class from professor Rivaille in a few minutes, so—"

"—No, they tried to take something..."

And that's when Jean discovered the note lying neatly on top of his books inside his locker. Though Eren liked to call him an idiot, Jean was quick enough to read from Eren's expression that this note was important to him, and an evil smirk contorted his features at the realisation of what it could be.

"Look what we have here," he taunted, taking the note in his hand. "Now, what could this be?"

Jean unfolded the note and cleared his throat loudly so that he had everyone's attention. "Dear Mikasa... Oh, this looks like your handwriting, Jeager."

Knowing what was going to happen, Eren tried to snatch the note out of his hands but as he had all his attention focused on the little piece of paper, Jean effectively elbowed him in the stomach and with an "Oomph!" he fell to the tiled floor next to Armin.

"Dear Mikasa...," Jean recited once more and Eren felt as if though someone had ripped his heart out of his chest when he realised there was nothing he could do to stop Jean, or stop Mikasa —who stood barely three feet away— and the rest of the school from hearing his written confession, and all the feelings he had held for her from the very beginning.

"... I know this must sound a little weird to you, since we have known each other for so long, but I just cannot bring myself to say the things I want to say if you stood directly in front of me. So, I'll just try my best to write it down. Lately, I've kept my distance from you. Not because I don't consider you my friend anymore, but because I felt really strange whenever you stood close to me. It has taken me a long time to realise that that strange feeling was actually me falling in love with you. Now, I know you might not feel the same way about me and that's okay, I just wanted you to know. I hope that my confession will not destroy our friendship. If all we can be in the future is friends, then I would still feel extremely fortunate to have you by my side. But before I lose all of my courage and throw this note in the bin, I still want to ask you this:

Do you want to go to Prom with me?

Sincerest,

Eren."

The last words still vibrated along the walls of the hallway when most of the students who had listened intently to Eren's note started snickering and giggling. The sound of laughter only grew when Eren could feel the blood rushing to his face and everyone could see how mortified he actually felt. Then the catcalls came and the pointing fingers, and Eren wished he could evaporate on the spot, or even better, turn into some colossal monster and punch everyone to a pulp, especially Jean.

Armin was back on his two feet and he hooked his hand under Eren's arm to get him to stand up as well, all the while looking at his friend in worry and at the bystanders in clear disgust, but it was like Eren was made of solid rock. He didn't move.

It was at that moment, when Eren thought he could never look at Mikasa again without having to relive this painful memory, that he saw her coming towards him with a stoic expression on her face and he feared that he had lost everything, her friendship included.

He did not dare to look up when she came to stand in front of him and he held his breath, together with the rest of the hallway, to hear what she had to say.

"I will."

Her words were soft, gentle even, but Eren was still too numb to actually understand what she had said. He thought the gasps of the people around him were not a good sign either.

"Eren," her voice was much closer to him now and when he finally found the courage to look up, he saw she was bent forward, her hand outstretched to him as if she wanted him to grasp it.

He looked from her face to her hand and back again, not knowing what to do.

"Eren," she spoke again and smiled. "It would make me very happy to go to prom with you."

Had he heard her correctly? Was his mind playing tricks on him? Did she really just agree to go to prom with him?

Though his mind was still in shambles, not exactly sure if he was dreaming or if Lady Luck had finally deemed him worthy enough to grace him with her presence, his limbs acted on pure instinct and he lifted his arm to take her outstretched hand in his own. He fleetingly noticed how soft her skin was before she pulled him to his feet with surprising ease. She was not only beautiful and smart, but strong as well.

"I— I..." he stuttered as his green eyes met her steely grey ones, at a complete loss for words.

A collective gasp went through the hallway when Mikasa took a hold of his collar and pulled him down to her lips. As they kissed, Eren felt as if his head was going to explode and his knees were going to buckle out of sheer bliss. Her lips were even softer than her skin and he loved the taste of her, wishing he would never have to go without it again.

When Mikasa pulled away, Eren felt very lightheaded and more happy than he had ever been in his entire life. It also sounded like the entire school had erupted into loud applause and cheers, and when Eren looked to his right he saw Armin with a huge grin on his face and two thumbs up. He also glanced at Jean who was crumpling the note in his fist, looking extremely pissed, and there was almost no better sight to Eren than that.

Almost.

When he looked at Mikasa's face, his arms wrapping around her waist so effortlessly, like they should have been sculpted like this from the very beginning, he knew there would never be a sight as perfect as this.

"I thought you had stopped talking to me because you didn't like me anymore," Mikasa told him close to his ear so only he could hear her. "I might not have shown it, but I was really distraught when it looked like you would never talk to me again."

He had never thought about how she had felt when he had excluded her from his small circle of friends, and it made him feel very guilty now. He promised himself that he would make it up to her, though. He would do his damndest to make her happy and he was determined to keep her where she was now. In his arms.

He pulled her a little closer still and whispered in her ear, "Trust me. I will never stop talking to you again." And feeling rather bold at the moment he still added, "And if you will let me, I will hold you like this forever."

Mikasa smiled, eyes shining playfully, and bumped their noses together. "Good."

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed that! If you want to read more from me, go ahead and follow me on Tumblr. There's a link on my main page. ;3