#lol pls take this short strange fic about two boys in a long-distance friendship

[erenfanclub]

strawberry

eremin | ~1400 words | no warnings | pining, fluff, attempt at humour

[ look!! these lovely fragaria ananassa fruits are on offer!! ]

Eren stared at the Snapchat, reading the caption twice, eyes lingering on the words in the middle. Scientific Latin. Armin was obviously in the mood to wind him up.

[ pls call them erdbeeren like everyone else you nerd ]

He sends his reply with a photo of his own unimpressed face, eyes squinted and bedhead very visible, but not caring about his rumpled appearance in the slightest. Armin loved his face. He totally wanted to smooch it everyday. Or, at least, Eren wished he did.

[ get on my level ]

Armin’s next Snapchat was a selfie too, with a low camera angle and his happily procured box of strawberries squeezed into the bottom corner. Despite having set the photo timer for only three seconds, Eren’s fast fingers had it screenshotted with plenty of time to spare. It would make a good reaction pic to tease the blond with in future.

Get in my country, and in my bed, Eren wanted to reply, but it was too early to be so bold. Although he was sure it would make Armin grin, there was an underlying seriousness to his words which he wasn’t prepared to have laughed at, even for a sassy joke from his best friend.

[ so cheeky before 9am, wow ]

Eren sent the message with a simple background of his bedroom ceiling, since he couldn’t quite make his expression right in such a short amount of time. He rolled over and groaned into his pillow, flopping his arms out to the sides and relaxing again. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his smartphone light up again, showing another notification with that familiar yellow icon.

[ here’s a selfie for you to check out while i’m at the self-checkout, sleepyhead ]

Eren snorted softly at the photo and caption. Someone was certainly in a good mood today. He wondered if something specific had happened, but knew Armin would have told him already if that were the case. The feeling was infectious, though.

[ you should've at least graced one of the tired morning cashiers with your sunny smile ]

Click. Send. Deep breath. Instead of waiting patiently for Armin’s response, Eren swung his legs over the side of his bed and stretched, deciding to get breakfast. He didn't quite know what to have, but the Snapchats still had him thinking about fruit. When he returned to his room, he used one hand to scoop up his phone again while the other covered a yawn. Eyes watering, Eren quickly tapped in his passcode and opened the latest Snapchat.

[ congrats on your new job as a tired morning cashier then eren!! ]

The photo was, in a word, beautiful. Armin had obviously moved outside, and the weather was much nicer than where Eren was, judging by the way the sun made his head of blond hair glow. The background was half green leaves and half blue sky, the perfect backdrop, and he’d put the caption at the very bottom, not covering anything. Eren was so busy taking it all in that he only managed to take a screenshot with less than a second left.

A moment later, he swore out loud.

Throughout all their Snapchat exchanges, Eren had purposely limited himself to only saving funny, unflattering pictures of Armin. There weren’t many sometimes, but it was safe, and Armin would scold him without looking deeper into it. But this time, it definitely had meaning, and Armin, being the observant genius he was, would question it straight away.

Eren had to do something. He had to do something quick.

First he replied with something sarcastic and misleading, a typical Eren response. Then, having bought himself some time, he got up again and started the rest of his morning routine. What he needed was a reason. A way of showing Armin that he wanted the nice photo for a hidden joke, a totally platonic and believable motive.

His mind was blank, blank, blank. And then in a flash of wild inspiration, the answer came to him, in the middle of brushing his teeth. Grinning and eager, Eren sat at his desk and booted up his computer, opening Photoshop as soon as it was ready.

When Eren next checked his phone, which was plugged in and charging next to him, he saw that he had a new Snapchat from eight minutes ago. Armin had spotted a German Shepherd on his journey and had sent it to him with no context other than two words.

[ it u ]

Eren huffed a short laugh but locked his phone again without sending a Snapchat of his own. His little project was almost finished.

Ten minutes later, Eren clicked save and switched to an online messenger that he and Armin also used frequently. Another minute and he’d sent his masterpiece for the other boy to admire.

>> thanks for giving me something fun to do this morning >> what do you think of my hard work??

It took a while, but Armin eventually replied. Eren burst out laughing when he did.

<< EREN WHAT EVEN IS THIS << WHAT << EVEN << ???

Shoulders still shaking, Eren typed back,

>> it u with a strawberry for a face obviously >> u are a lovely model >> ur welcome

This time, the replies came much quicker.

<< EREN I’M IN A LECTURE AND I’M GONNA GET KICKED OUT FOR LAUGHING << WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME << you are the true strawberry, erdbeEREN! << i hate you tbh

Silently, Eren gave himself a pat on the back for thinking of such a great distraction. Just as he was debating on the best way to respond, Armin started typing again.

<< wasn’t this a snapchat filter??

>> idk dude, i only remember an orange one a few weeks ago >> even so my editing is better than any of those filters >> just look at the jawline and how the outer seeds bring out ur eyes >> critique is berry much appreciated

<< you need better things to do with your time...

Eren was enjoying himself too much. Who knew such a mundane conversation about half-price fruit could end up like this. Invigorated, he clicked back into Photoshop, opening a new file.

>> ok how about this then?

Along with the short message, he sent a different selfie of Armin, one from about a month ago. In it he was pulling an overly cute pose, with a hand poised under his chin. The original caption had been cropped out, and Eren had made his cheeks extra rosy and changed his hair colour to what he thought was close to ‘strawberry blonde’.

<< mm totally my summer shade << t o t a l l y << quit distracting me

>> ginger armin is love, ginger armin is life

<< shut up :P << i need to take photoshop away from you

Eren suddenly felt like he was full of ideas. He could make Armin’s hair longer and draw little strawberry people around him. He could change some of his Facebook pictures to include strawberry hairclips. Try to flawlessly edit a bigger photo of Armin so that he was holding a giant strawberry like a baby. But despite his creativity, he unfortunately had things to do and had already wasted enough time.

Weeks later, Eren was getting ready to post a ‘good luck’ card to Armin before all his exams. The conversation from that one morning had been easily forgotten, until he was standing at the checkout in his local convenience store, staring at their ‘last minute’ items. On a whim, he doubled his total price by scooping up two or three overly large handfuls of strawberry bubblegum packs.

He knew the instant Armin had received his card and gift, which had to be sent in a suspiciously large, padded envelope. The Snapchat notification popped up like any other, but the reaction was priceless.

[ THEY’RE ALL OVER THE FLOOR EREN HOW MUCH DID YOU NEED TO BUY?!?! ]

Clutching his stomach, Eren had to make a real effort to fix all his typos and illegible words before hitting send on his reply.

[ chew through the exam/studying frustration and enjoy that sweet taste u love so much ]

Armin attempted an intimidating look in his next pic, but adorably missed the mark.

[ i’m coming for you eren jaeger ]

It was with a thrilling feeling of confidence that Eren responded,

[ pls do strawberry shortcake, u would be berry welcome ]

#eremin #nohate awareness week #lol pls take this short strange fic about two boys in a long-distance friendship #which they both secretly want to be more~~ #i've never written anything other than ereri but today is a special day!! #this is not edited and was a very random idea but whatevs *shrug emoji* #my writing