Beloved (BxB)

Chapter 1

This can’t be right, Eren pleads, shaking the tiny alarm clock vigorously. Yesterday it had said forever, fifty years counting down perfectly but now it reads a deafening three months. Eren can’t hear anything, his world turning silent as his heart sinks to his stomach. This… this can’t be. His soulmate? The person he was supposed to spend forever with only had three months left to live? 

How did this happen? How could this have happened? 

The initials scratched beneath the clock face, A.A, winked at him evilly as he shakes the clock again – surely this is a mistake? 

With a defeated sigh, he places the clock back onto his bedside table and picks up his backpack, ready to venture to class – something he was just about to do before he noticed the change on his clock. He locks up after himself, throwing his keys into the air without much energy to catch them and watches as they rattle when they hit the stone floor of his apartment complex.  

The sound of the opposite apartment opening tears Eren’s attention away and he watches as Armin Arlert steps out, a harrowed look on his face. His eyes are rimmed a scarlet red and are puffed into an ironic eye-smile. He notices that Eren’s watching him and forces a smile before locking his own apartment up and leaving. 

Eren picks up his keys from the floor and chases after the blond. “Armin, you okay, bud?” 

Armin looks up at him briefly, mouth agape and Eren doesn’t blame him. They rarely speak outside of a pleasant greeting every morning before splitting off for classes. Eren with his undetermined major and Armin with biochemistry. “Oh, morning, Eren.” 

He evades the question completely and Eren jumps a few steps at a time before facing Armin head-on. “You’ve been crying.” 

Armin avoids Eren’s intense gaze and pouts. “It’s none of your business, Eren.” He then brushes past the brunet and storms out of the complex, turning left. Eren watches with a frown before following suit, except he turns right when he makes it out of the door. 

History is his favourite class of all the basics he has to take, but he just can’t concentrate today. There was something wrong with Armin; no one leaves their apartment looking like they spent the entire night crying without something being a serious issue.  

Wait… Why did he even care? He too has issues to deal with, like the fact that his soulmate only has three months left to live and all he has to go on is alliterative initials.  

“Eren.” Jean waves a hand in front of his face. Eren blinks and looks up, when had he gotten into The Point? He looks down and finds a sandwich sitting in front of him – had he ordered that? “You keep daydreaming, dude. Wake up.” 

Eren smiles airily and shakes his head. “Sorry, Jean… Um.” 

“Um?” Mikasa prompts from his left. 

“Um… nothing, Mikasa, nothing.” 

“Eren, you’ve been acting weird all day. Has something happened?” 

Eren bites his lip, he could tell his friends about the clock, about Armin, but he decides not to. Ultimately, this is his own problem, and he needs to solve all on his own. But, who on Earth is A.A? The question plagues him until the end of the day, and he’s sure he hasn’t actually taken any notes through any of the classes he just sat through.