He first saw you on one of his first few outings to town after he joined the Scouts. He couldn't keep his eyes off of you, following your movements with his gaze. You finally looked toward him after feeling stared at, but instead of the usual scowl people shoot him or trying to avoid him in any way, you smiled.
The brightest, most pure smile he had ever seen. He flushed and couldn't stop himself from shyly smiling back, then you turned and walked away. He so desperately wanted to call out to you right then, but he couldn't since "he wasn't there to sight-see", as Lieutenant Levi put it as he called him to him. He couldn't get you out of his mind after that.
Two weeks later, which was the next time he went to town, he saw you again in just about the same place, reading under the shade of a tree. He wondered if you regularly come to relax under that tree. Perhaps, he'll see you around here again whenever he comes by. You looked up from your resting place and locked eyes with him. Again you smiled, adding a wave this time. Eren found himself smiling, returning a small wave and you went back to your reading. Every encounter, he would stare, you would smile, sometimes wave and go back to whatever you were doing beforehand with the smallest hint of a blush. Eren always noticed it, wondering why you had started to do that recently. Then, he decided he had to try to speak to you.
Eren doesn't understand. He simply doesn't understand why you don't respond when he calls out to you. Somehow, he hasn't had enough time to get to you and by the time he does, you're either too busy with errands or you're already gone.
It frustrated him to no end.
"I can't get her attention anymore!" Eren explained to Armin in exasperation while over dinner. "I try calling out to her..." he sighed.
"What happens?"
"It's like she doesn't hear me!"
"Aw, is titan boy having girl problems?" Jean cooed at him with a shit-eating grin.
"Can it, Horseface, before I take my frustrations out on you."
"She ignores you, huh? No surprise there." Jean couldn't help himself. Eren's having girl problems, it's the perfect opportunity to mess with him!
Eren stood up abruptly, just about ready to punch his stupid face in.
"Eren." Mikasa called out to him, trying to get him to sit back down. She doesn't want the cleaning freak of a Lieutenant to come over to "solve" the problem. Eren sat back down when she pulled on his shirt sleeve.
"Yeager, stop whining and just go up to her and tell her." Jean said, resting his cheek against the palm of his hand.
"I don't need advice from the guy who almost lost his girlfriend!"
Armin visibly cringed at the mention of his sister being Jean's girlfriend.
"I got her and I'm telling you to stop being a wimp! You're a Scout for Goddesses' sake!"
Eren scowled at him as said girlfriend rubbed Jean's arm in an attempt to get him to calm down and leave one of her brothers alone. Eren's been trying! It's not like he's been going up to you then running away before he says anything! The next chance he gets, he's going to rush over to you before you have a chance to escape him again and just tell you! After dinner, he asked and got permission from Lieutenant Levi to go into town next week and he thought of exactly how he was going to get your attention and how he was going about telling you he liked you. He's going to succeed this time! He found you once again under the shade of a tree, reading peacefully like you usually like to do. Ok, he just needs to call out to you and—He realized that he didn't even know your name and he wanted to facepalm. He's just been calling out, "Hey!" or "Wait!" or something similar, of course you haven't been paying much attention.
"Excuse me." he called out as he neared you, but you didn't even flinch. Are you really ignoring him? He tried being a little louder. "Excuse me!"
When that still didn't work, he sighed and walked right up to you, finally catching your attention when you saw the tip of his shoes. You looked up at him with curiosity in your eyes, straight into his. Goddesses above, your eyes were much more beautiful up close. His brain blanked as he started getting lost in them, but he snapped out of it when he noticed your expression shift from curiosity to confusion. Embarrassed, everything he told himself flew out the window and he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.
"I-I like you!"
Did he say that too loud? He noticed the few people within earshot glance his way and his cheeks burned. Instead of verbally answering him, you reached into a light brown satchel at your side, pulling out a notebook and a pencil. Eren watched you curiously as you opened it, quickly scribbled something down and turned it over for him to see.
"I'm sorry, but I'm deaf. Can you please write down what you're trying to tell me?"
Deaf...
You're deaf!
Now it makes sense! No wonder you always seemed like you never heard him! Thinking about it, Eren feels a bit foolish about this now that he knows.
With a patient smile, he gently took the notebook and pencil you were holding out to him, wrote down exactly what he had tried to say and handed it back. He sat in front of you, studying your expression as you read and watching you pause as red blossomed on your cheeks.
Too cute.
You snapped your head up, gazing at him as if you couldn't believe what he said, your e/c eyes a shining open book. You truly feel this way about me?
The expression had him wanting to reach over and kiss you. Finally, you looked down and started to write, seemingly stumbling over what you wanted to convey on paper, occasionally crossing out a word or two. After a moment, you passed the notebook back to him, your fingers slightly shaking with nervousness. Or was it excitement?
"I've wanted to speak to you for a while now, but I've been too embarrassed."
Eren's smile widened, happy that he wasn't the only one wanting to talk and he also came to the conclusion that it meant that you had been thinking of him, too.
"My name is Y/n L/n."
"Eren Yeager." he wrote.
You paused. Crap, she recognized his name, didn't she?
"You're that boy who can turn into a titan!"
Looking at your expression almost made him laugh. Your eyes were wide and shining brightly in genuine interest. Thank the Goddesses his ability to transform didn't scare you away. You stopped when your gaze landed on his shirt and curiosity made him follow your eyes to the symbol on his uniform.
"You're in the Survey Corps, aren't you? You bare the crest of the Wings of Freedom."
He nodded and noticed your lips pull into a frown. Please don't tell him that you're one of the people against the idea of the Scouts...
"My father was in that regiment."
Was. Past tense.
Eren frowned as you continued to write.
"I remember he used to hug me like he would never get to again, every time he had to go outside of the walls."
Eren felt his chest tighten when he looked up and into your sad eyes. He skimmed over the page and saw the words "And then he" crossed out, before you pulled it back to write again.
"I don't want to have to go through that again."
The boy reached out and grabbed both of your hands, acting on instinct. He leaned in and spoke slowly, making sure you can read his lips.
"I will never leave you behind."
He gave your hands a squeeze as he looked into your eyes again, those emerald eyes expressing intense absolute; this was a genuine promise.
You didn't know if you could go through that pain again. If you became serious with him and he didn't return one day...The day of when you got the news about your father flashed in your mind, you couldn't stop the tears coming to your eyes. Eren's eyes changed their expression to worry and he so badly wanted to hug you, but thought it was too forward. He knows. He knows what went on in your mind to bring you tears, so he held your hands tighter in place of a hug.
You didn't want to go through that again. But...
You gently pulled one of your hands out of his and put up your thumb, index finger and pinkie, while keeping your ring and middle finger down. You held your hand out, palm facing away from you and you moved it back and forth slightly. He gave you a slight confused expression, so you mouthed,
"I like you."
Instantly, his face flushed and he beamed, smiling, his eyes sparkling like bright emeralds shining in the sunlight.
You want to give this a chance.