DARK33_Netflix

Tensions were high after that disastrous brunch the previous day, but that wouldn’t stop him from putting his plan into to action. The plan? Why, ‘Make this Family See They Needed Someone Kickass Like Eren Yeager to Join Them.’ Granted, the name changed depending on who he was talking to.

For example, when he decided to tackle his grandmother first, the plan was called ‘Make this Family See How Beneficial it Will Be Having Eren Yeager Apart of their Clan.’ Although the reason for him waking obscenely early that morning was traumatizing, it gave him the necessary time to prepare. If his favorite celebrity was to arrive in just one more day, he needed to work fast.

While he’s sure Grandmother didn’t appreciate his imposing on her morning tea and meditation time, Shiro didn’t care and was just glad she humored him and his quickly put together presentation. Tackling the most important things first, he led with Eren’s impressive net worth, his accolades, as well as his large philanthropic contributions to various charities and organizations. His public image was a generally positive one despite a few sticky situations he may have had in his earlier days.

When he received no opposition on the image and money side of things, Shiro continued on with the few things he’d learned from Mikasa, his wealth of knowledge as a devoted fan, and the gaps provided for by the internet. Swiping to a picture of a family, Shiro points to each of the Yeagers noting that Eren’s father, grandfather, and brother were all surgeons, and that had he not gone forward with his music career, Eren, too, would have been surgeon. It would have been a lot less cool but still very brag-worthy.

His mother was an elementary school teacher before deciding to be a stay-at-home mom. She was also a breast cancer survivor, hence the largest of Mr. Yeager’s charitable donations going towards breast cancer awareness. Her parents owned a farm going back as far as six generations. While that might not seem particularly glamorous or lucrative, it was the largest farm in their state and an irreplaceable supplier to several industries across the country. That’s nothing to sneeze at.

The presentation was quick and to the point, not because of the little time he had to make something somewhat professional looking, but because it was vital to give the target the necessary information to get them hooked, keep them hooked, and allay any possible negativity they might be feeling towards the whole situation. It was a rather holistic approach if he did say so himself.

Although, if he were being honest, Shiro knew for a fact that his grandmother already had people looking into Eren as soon as that awful brunch concluded. They might’ve already given her all the information he had along with the guy’s social security number, credit score, and what age he was when he last wet the bed, but Kiyomi still listened to him, and he appreciated it as it was more than he could say for his next set of targets.

It would be preferable if they were merely skeptical of Eren rather than being outright against him. If Shiro had to guess, his father would be the easier of the two to sway. Mom was the one who had the real beef if what she’d said to Mikasa about being a side piece was anything to go by. In fact, he’d even wager that Dad was so adamant about not giving Eren a chance because Mom was. The easiest thing to do would be to play up the ‘being able to love who they want’ angle. Seeing as how they knew all about that, they should be able to sympathize but that wasn’t necessarily their concern.

What’s important to them was who this guy that Mimi claimed she’s in love with and said she’d marry in a heartbeat. The one she had a purely…sexual relationship for so many years. That would never not be disgusting information he wished he didn’t have, but there wasn’t time to wallow in regret!

At first, he thought of introducing them to their future son-in-law through the band’s music, but he held back, worried that it wasn’t the best approach to get them hooked and interested. The best Shiro could do was a fairly recent interview he found with Eren wearing Mikasa’s favorite scrunchie – the one their parents gifted to her with a matching leotard when she receiving her first leading role. It was a scrunchie he’d been wearing for months. Everyone, including himself, thought it was just a weird fashion statement, but it wasn’t! Shiro felt stupid for not realizing until he found out the truth of their relationship, but at the same time, how could he have known.

Either way, the expectation that they would feel something when Eren explicitly said it belonged to “his girl” and the dopey smile he gave the hair accessory as he said it was spot on. The ‘something’ that his parents felt, however, was not what he was hoping for. Dad was noncommittal at best, taking his cues from Mom. Mom looked at the screen of his tablet, unseeing. Considering his mom and sister’s heated argument earlier that day, Shiro was aware enough to say that his mom could have had a worse reaction to seeing the guy she apparently hated for…well, he wasn’t one hundred percent sure, exactly. After seeing that video, he felt better that Mr. Yeager was not just in it for the...sEx stuff. If he didn’t think about it, he wouldn’t have the urge to vomit. Better to focus on how nice it was seeing someone he looked up to was actually who they appeared to be.

Although, maybe he shouldn’t have said that last part out loud. Shiro felt like he’d shown his mother something he thought was funny only to receive a lecture instead of laughter. “How could you look up to someone who has led young women on and taken advantage of her – their feelings? What has he even done that’s worth looking up to? Did I raise you to have such low standards?! To appreciate or partake in such behaviors? That’s it, isn’t it? I’ve failed to parent my children well. I let Mikasa leave home too early.”

At least he was able to sneak away from…whatever that was unscathed. Dad could handle Mom and he could handle the disappointment in this failure. Perhaps he should have went with the ‘Make this Family See How Beneficial it Will Be Having Eren Yeager Apart of their Clan’ as he did with Grandmother and not the ‘Make this Family see how Great, Awesome, and Caring Eren Yeager was towards Mikasa’ plan so they could see him in a light on his own rather than in conjunction with Mimi. Or maybe he should have combined the two? The ‘Make this Family See How Beneficial Having Someone Who Was Great and Awesome and Who Loved and Cared for Mikasa Apart of the Clan would be?’ Those were his thoughts as he went to find cousin Levi since there was absolutely no time to waste.

Except Levi happened to walk by while he parents happened to be watching the segment. Which meant his cousin knew that he was coming, he knew why he was coming, and he knew to shut him down immediately because he didn’t give a rat’s ass about a scrunchie and felt no obligation to learn shit about that punk or his shitty band.

Suffice to say Shiro was rather put out by the vehement refusal, and all Hange could do was shrug apologetically from behind Levi, to which he told shitty glasses that they’d better not humor him either. When Hange replied that they’d do what they want, Levi turned around to glare at them before sighing and giving permission for observation once the punk showed up.

Shiro could only stare in horror because that had been so far from his intentions that he really didn’t understand how Levi came to such a decision. Was it because he didn’t remix the title of his plan to have a clear focus before arriving? It was made worse when Hange assured him they’d do more than just observe if they deemed it necessary. Yeah, this was looking like a total loss here. That’s okay because there were more people to see.

By the time he left Uncle Kenny, who already gave him the creeps, Shiro was kind of scared, but felt it wasn’t nearly as bad as his last two appointments? If the boy was bad news for Mikasa, she wouldn’t have a need to tell us about him was what his great uncle told him and what the hell did that even mean? Right. Okay. The scale was nowhere near balanced like he wanted it to be, despite not having to worry about Aunt Kuchel, and it almost seemed that he’d done more harm than good and Eren Yeager would not be his brother-in-law, was gonna curse all of them out, and he would not be getting a ‘No, you’re cool’ pass.

This fucking sucked.

To make matters worse, Shiro had been so wrapped up in accomplishing his goal with the people he knew to be an issue in his path (and Mimi’s, of course) that he didn’t think of those who could potentially be a blockade. When the rest of the clan arrived sometime between him picking his (and Mikasa’s) brain on how to proceed in winning his family over so they didn’t end up having several WWE matches against one man and dinner, Shiro wondered how much more stress he was meant to handle in his young life.

As he watched them come in the front door, luggage and gifts in hand, he couldn’t help but feel at a loss. Uncle Shohei who had hugs for everyone and Aunt XinJin who was beside herself making sure everything and everyone made it out of the cold weather would more than likely agree with whatever Grandmother decided. Even though their meeting went well that morning, and she hadn’t strictly stated she was against the relationship when it all came to light, who could really say which direction she would lean in the end?

But even the potential that she would deem Eren Yeager unworthy would be made worse by more people backing her. His older cousin, MeiLing would be of the same stance as her parents. She stood in line as the chaos around her calmed, waiting patiently to greet and be greeted. Where he knew Mimi could be questioning in her obedience at times and even reluctant in others, Mei was not like that at all. He had never seen her do anything but follow orders and suggestions to the letter, never questioning, always bending no matter if the task or situation left her uncomfortable or worse. Grandmother trusted MeiLing the most out of all her grandchildren.

On the complete opposite side of the spectrum was Kimiko. Sometimes he had a bit of a distaste for her growing up because she was always so annoying and aggressive towards his sister; but getting older was realizing that the animosity chalked up to Grandmother’s near constant comparisons between the two due to them only being months apart in age, so he left that alone. Plus, she’d gotten better as she grew up too and learned who really should be the target of her ire. Everyone, of course.

Spreading out the quips, sarcastic remarks, and opinions that irritated or embarrassed Grandmother to bits on an ‘anyone could get some’ basis was just equality. Did Shiro mention how he loved that equality after witnessing her give some to Juandissimo even though he was a guest when they were introduced? He also loved it because it could work in their favor. If he could get Kimi on their team, they’d at least have someone vocal in a way that he and Mimi weren’t stepping up to bat.

And if he hadn’t accidentally spilt a tall glass of coco on her later on that evening, perhaps she would have been more receptive to what he had to say. Really, it was Chaoxiang’s fault. His younger cousin’s eagerness to show him something or another ended up jostling him as he attempted to sit next to Kimiko for another movie night after a late present exchange. What better time to expound his plan to her than when everyone was distracted watching the show (not that they hadn’t already heard about and likely seen the drama that was occurring in the lodge)?

Yeah, it was clearly over with. So over with.