Chapter Text
It was a slow night. Not that any night was particularly busy. Still, you could’ve sworn you’d been scrubbing the counter since your shift started, and no one had come up to ask for a drink. Perhaps that was an exaggeration, the few groups sitting at tables had to have gotten their drinks somehow. Yet, time seemed so terribly warped that you weren’t sure how long ago that was. You even looked up at the clock to check if you’d somehow missed the end of your shift. Nope, you still had an hour to go.
You leaned on the counter, rubbing at one particular spot for what seemed like the fiftieth time. There was nothing there to clean, but your mind was too fogged with boredom to notice. Only when the rag you were using fell from your careless fingers to the floor, becoming unusable, did you look up again.
All the customers were older. Usuals that had been coming to the bar for years and weren’t looking for change. The truth was, the bar was dying. It had been hanging on to its last threads of life for years, and you knew it could only hang on for a little longer. Unless something came along to revive the place.
That was why Pyxis, owner of the bar and your manager, had been searching for a band for the past month. He felt live music would breathe new life into the place. It was how The Black Dog first started out, back in the early nineties. That was long before you had started working here, but Pyxis liked to tell you stories.
Back then he hadn’t been the only owner. Back then they’d turned a colorful diner with bright lights and checkered floors into a thriving bar. They dimmed the lights, replaced the floors, and painted the walls a deep blue. There was a space on one side of the room where up-and-coming bands used to perform for crowds much larger than the bar would see in a week today.
Honestly, you weren’t sure how Pyxis had kept the bar alive for so long. There was a decline in the public’s interest in what the bar had to offer. Accompanying this was a decrease in bands willing to play. The other owners left, leaving Pyxis to deal with the aftermath.
Somehow he still managed. He was able to keep old customers and occasionally was able to lure new ones in. You had attempted to bring new people in too, but most of your friends were disinterested. People just preferred the new. New clubs, full of technicolor lights and edm music. New bands. New trends. Or new renditions on old bands and trends.
It was just how people worked. It was how you often worked too, but you loved this place. You loved the light in the bathroom that you had to flick multiple times to get it to work and the dent in the wall covered by a framed picture that Pyxis still wouldn’t tell you the origin of. You loved its old school feel. Sometimes it felt like more of a home than your own small apartment, just because it had been there for so long. Despite its grim fate, you sometimes hoped it would be there for a much longer time. You supposed that was why Pyxis held on, in hopes that he would see the place thrive once again.
That hope was slowly dwindling with the lack of bands eager to get a gig at some run down bar at the edge of town. The month was coming to an end, much faster than your shift was, and you knew what that meant. No band, no bar.
You looked around for something else to busy yourself with. Your coworker, Hitch, was busy cleaning the bathrooms. You had joined at the beginning of your freshman year, and Hitch had joined you the year after. While you and Hitch were opposites in everything else, from majors to clothes, you were sure that the two of you felt the same way about your seemingly never ending shifts. Hitch hated cleaning the bathrooms but had finally given in just for something to do. Though she might’ve been in there watching a show. You decided to go and check on her…or join her.
Before you could though, you heard the door open. You glanced that way, expecting another usual to be entering or leaving. Instead, four boys walked in. They looked around your age; one even had a Trost University sweatshirt on. That was the college close by - the one you went to.
Confused, you forgot all about your coworker and instead turned back towards the counter. You watched as they sat down at a table, mumbling to each other. They were probably commenting on how run down this place was, how unappealing. College students never visited, and it was a Friday too – shouldn’t they be at a frat party right now? Then again, they’d sat down. They didn’t walk out the moment they set their eyes on the bar’s dull interior. So maybe they were just a little odd…
In the low light, you could have sworn one of the boys looked familiar. Well, two actually. The blond had definitely been in your introductory chemistry class last year. You only remembered him out of all the people in that giant lecture hall because the two of you had sat a couple seats over from each other. He spoke up in class sometimes and helped you with a problem you were stuck on once.
Yet, it was the other boy that really caught your eye. He looked familiar, but you could have sworn you’d never seen him in your life. Maybe you had passed him a couple times on campus? Maybe he’d been in one of your classes too? You weren’t sure, but before you could try to decipher it, he was walking toward you. You quickly looked away, busying yourself with rearranging the liquor bottles.
Once he reached the counter, you forced yourself to look back up, meeting his deep green eyes. “Hi,” he said, voice deep but tone casual.
“What would you like?” you asked, though you were busy trying to figure out what was so familiar about that particular shade of green.
“Four beers,” he said, and you quickly got to work. As you did, he continued, “Slow night?”
You weren’t one for making small talk, but it came with the job. “Yeah, but it’s pretty much like this every night.”
“It’s a cool place though,” he continued. “I’ve never been here, but me and my friends wanted to try something new.” A small, amused smile tugged at your lips at him calling this place “something new.”
“We’ve been looking for a band to play. We think it’ll help bring in more customers, but bands willing to play here aren’t exactly in abundance…” you trailed off, wondering if maybe you shouldn’t have been talking so negatively about the bar to a potential new customer.
You turned back to him, sliding the beers his way. “We actually saw that,” he told you. “Which is great because we’ve been looking for a gig. I mean we mostly do covers but…” You’d barely been listening. The moment you turned back around, it hit you. You heard it in his voice, didn’t know how you hadn’t before. He stared at you, looking confused by your silence.
“Eren?” you said, voice soft and hesitant, unsure if you were correct. “Eren Yeager?”
“Yeah, that’s me,” he said, before his expression changed with recognition, “Y/n?”
“I- yeah,” you said in disbelief. Your voice was still soft, if not even softer than before. “What…” you were going to ask him what he was doing here but couldn’t get the words out.
Six years. It had been six years since you had last seen Eren. You’d come to believe you would never see him again, but now he was standing right in front of you. He was real. He hadn’t disappeared off the face of the Earth like you once thought he had.
“I go to Trost,” he said.
“Me too,” you said. “I’ve never seen you on campus.”
He shrugged, “It’s a big campus.” He was right. Trost University was a large state school. Maybe you could have gone all four years without running into him.
Yet here he was.
Your childhood best friend. The boy you used to do everything with, used to trust. The boy who had shattered you into a million pieces before disappearing from your life entirely. One of the first people to teach you that life was never fair.
There was a silence as you tried to think of what to say, and he seemed to do the same. You took this moment to take in his appearance. He looked so very different than he had at twelve. His dark brown hair was down to his shoulders, half of it tied back. You could see the piercings running up his left ear, as well as a few on his right. Compared to the bright blue and green shirts his mom used to dress him in, he now wore a plain black t-shirt. From where he leaned his arms on the counter you could see the many tattoos lining his skin. It was his face, you felt, that had changed the most though. He’d been worn down by time, and you could see it in the dark circles under his eyes. The only easily visible piece of the boy you once knew were his eyes. Those green eyes. Now, looking into them triggered a flood of memories from your childhood – things you hadn’t thought about in years. You had to look away again.
“I- uh,” he cleared his throat. “It’s nice to see you.”
You opened your mouth, about to say it was nice to see him too, but the memory of a heartbroken thirteen year old girl stopped you. “Yeah,” you said instead. It wasn’t nice to see him. It was a piercing shock that made your knees weak and mind hazy.
More silence.
“We should hang out sometime,” he added. “You know, to catch up.”
You looked him in the eyes, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” You had gotten a glimpse into your past after years of forcing it to the back of your mind simply by looking at Eren. You couldn’t imagine what would happen if you tried to spend time with him.
“Alright, well, it was nice seeing you again, Y/n,” he said. He looked down at the bottles he was holding, then glanced at you one last time before leaving.
While you were glad with his response, it also surprised you. You had never known Eren to be one who gave up on something he wanted so easily. You guessed things had really changed over the years. As you watched him walk away, towards the table with three other boys, curiosity poked at your mind, urging you to wonder what you had missed in the time he was gone.
“Hey,” Hitch said, and you turned to see her walking behind the bar to join you.
“Hey,” you said, trying to keep your voice casual. Your eyes flitted towards the guys table once more though, revealing yourself.
Hitch looked towards the table, face shifting with surprise, “We never get Trost U students here.”
“Yeah,” you said, messing with a string on your shirt. You worried that she would want to go over and talk to them.
“They’re kind of cute,” she continued, to your dislike, proping her elbows on the counter.
“I didn’t really notice,” you tugged at the string this time.
She looked at you, rolling her eyes, “Of course not. You’ve got Porco.”
Right, Porco. Your loving boyfriend. That snapped you out of your daze. Why worry about Eren and the past when you were happy with all that you had now? “Why don’t we watch that show you were talking about earlier,” you changed the topic.
__
By the time your shift was over, Eren and his friends were gone. You hadn’t even noticed them leave, and you took that as a personal achievement. It had taken you a long time to get over Eren. You were glad all that work hadn’t been destroyed after one night.
You grabbed your purse just as your friends walked in. They were here to pick you up for your usual Friday night outing.
You ran over to give Porco a hug, and he wrapped his arms around you. “Hey,” he said into your ear. The two of you had been dating for nearly three months now.
Breaking the hug, you met eyes with Pieck. “Where do you want to go?” she asked you.
Pieck had been your best friend since freshman year of high school and your roommate for two years now. She’d been with you through a lot, the good and the bad. You wouldn’t know what to do without her.
“Hmm,” you said. You usually traded off on who got to choose what you guys did on Friday nights. “How about Italian food?”
“Oh my gosh yes. I was craving that earlier,” Pieck said.
You followed your friends out the door. Porco wrapped his arm around your shoulder, and you leaned into his touch. Hitch waved goodbye to you before heading to her car.
You left the bar behind, the memories of who you’d seen fading into the dark.
At least for the night.