The car hurtled down the highway like a missile aimed at nowhere. Streetlights flickered past in blurred streaks, and Mikasa Jeager gripped the wheel with the exact expression of someone resisting the urge to snap it in half. She hadn’t blinked in twenty minutes.

It was 3:12 AM.

“I just need everyone to process what she’s playing right now,” Eren said, gesturing wildly at the phone plugged into the aux cord. “Ambient playlist. Title? ‘Impending Doom in Minor.’”

He slapped the dashboard. “WHY.”

From the backseat, Armin didn’t miss a beat. “You literally asked her to ‘set the mood.’”

“Yeah! A vibe! Like—late-night serenity! Not ‘we’re about to be hunted in a forest by something with no face.’”

“You apologized to a Twix bar at the gas station,” Armin said, scrolling through his phone casually.

Eren whipped around. “Because it was trapped behind Raisinets! I was standing up for justice! It deserved a better life!”

“You made eye contact with it for like… ten full seconds.”

“I felt its pain. Just like I feel yours—trapped back there. With no aux power. No control.”

“No peace,” Armin added dramatically, eyes wide.

“Exactly!”

Mikasa didn’t even glance at them. “If you two finish your monologue, I’ll consider not crashing this car.”

Eren leaned back in his seat, looking satisfied. “She’s just bitter ‘cause we’re the charismatic ones.”

“She’s bitter,” Armin corrected, “because you said ‘roadtrip vibes’ and then proceeded to act like it was a podcast called The Decline of Eren Jeager.”

“THAT WOULD GO VIRAL,” Eren barked. “Don’t tempt me.”

The car lurched slightly as Mikasa swerved around a curve too fast. Neither of the boys flinched anymore. Eren turned toward Armin with a lopsided grin, eyes glinting in the passing light.

“You laughed earlier, by the way. At my Raisinet joke. I saw it.”

“It wasn’t a laugh. It was a pained exhale.”

“Same difference. I’m taking it as a win.”

“Of course you are. You take everything as a win. I could say you’re annoying and you’d be like, ‘he sees me.’”

Eren gasped, mock-offended. “Because that’s growth! Armin, baby, that’s character development!”

Mikasa’s grip on the wheel tightened just slightly. “I’m giving you three seconds to stop calling him ‘baby’ before I drive us into a lake.”

Eren pointed toward the front. “She’s bluffing. There’s no lake.”