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“Hey ‘Arm,” Eren greeted, heading into the kitchen where the blonde was scrubbing the dishes. To his annoyance, Jean was also in there with him. However, the feeling disappeared when Armin smiled at him. Eren loved that smile. It was reserved for Eren, and only Eren. Not even Mikasa got to share that smile. It was so happy and vibrant and full of admiration.
“Hello Eren!”
Jean gave a grunt of acknowledgment but not much else.
“So, I found… something…” Eren glanced at Jean, wishing he wasn’t in the room so Eren couldn’t tell what that ‘something’ was. “I was wondering if you wanted to come after you’re finished the dishes?”
“Oh,” the smile fell off of Armin’s face, to be replaced with an apologetic look. “Sorry Eren, but Jean is going to help me with my balance on the 3DMG.”
Eren blinked, then frowned. Eren was the one who always helped Armin when it came to things like that, what the fuck was Jean doing butting in on that? “With horseface?” Eren scrunched his nose in distaste.
Armin sighed. “Eren…”
“Don’t be sour that he’d rather spend time with me then you,” Jean snarked, and Eren snapped. “That’s not true!” he stalked over, grabbing the blonde by the arm. “He’d rather spend time with me! You probably coerced him into it anyway!”
Jean snorted, “Coerced him into it?” He threw the plate he’d been cleaning back into the sink, both of them ignoring Armin’s soft protests. “He’s the one who asked me!”
“Oh right, like I’m going to believe that,” Eren snarled, tightening his grip on Armin. Jean gave him a flat look, “Well why don’t you ask him yourself?”
“Fine!” Eren seemed to realize for the first time that he was even holding Armin and he quickly let go of his arm. “Armin don’t tell me you asked this asshole for help.”
“I did,” Armin said, rubbing his arm with a wince. Eren felt a quick jab of guilt, but it was quickly overridden with anger. “What? Why? You always come to me for that!”
“You were busy talking to Mikasa…” Armin mumbled. “And besides, I’m allowed to hang out with whoever I want.”
“I – I never said that!” Eren quickly said. “But not if it’s him. He’s a bad influence on you Armin!”
Jean huffed. “Oh please, if anyone is a bad influence it’s you, Jaeger.”
“I’ve been best friends with Armin for my entire life practically, you met him like… a few months ago!”
“Why should that matter?” Jean snarled. “If none of your anger issues rubbed off on him, then I’m sure he’ll be ‘perfectly safe’ with me,” Jean rolled his eyes.
Eren was infuriated. “Nobody is perfectly safe with you! Especially not Armin!”
“Okay, enough!” Armin exclaimed, and the two looked at him in shock. Armin rarely spoke up like that, and barely in a firm voice either. But this time seemed to be different.
“I’m sick of you two arguing over every little thing, but I’m especially sick of you two arguing over me! Eren, if Jean so much as looks at me you immediately get defensive, and Jean you let Eren rile you up too easily! What is wrong with you two?!”
There was a silence following this, and Armin huffed. “I’m done. I’m asking Reiner for help instead.”
Without another word he stormed out of the kitchen, slamming the door shut behind him. There was an awkward tension in the room, before Eren scowled. “Reiner is better then you but I think that I should be the one helping Armin, Reiner is too intimidating for him.”
Jean rolled his eyes.
“ – So I’m telling Reiner off for putting his hands on Armin’s waist and Armin yells at me again!” Eren ranted to Mikasa the next day.
Mikasa had been mostly silent until now, but she tilted her head at his words. “He needed to strap Armin in, I doubt it was anything more than that, Eren.”
“Still! He has no right to touch him like that!” Eren fumed, and Mikasa sighed. “Eren... I’m saying this for your benefit, perhaps you should just leave Armin alone for now. He doesn’t need you protecting him anymore.”
“Like hell! He needs me – he needs us!”
“Eren I’m telling you to leave Armin alone,” Mikasa said firmly. Before she could say more she heard a twig snap from behind her. They both turned at the noise to see Armin’s figure racing away. Eren turned to glare at her. “Nice going Mikasa.”
Mikasa sighed, rubbing her head. “I’ll talk to him. Not you,” she said. “You’re going to screw things up.”
“Eren, I’m telling you to leave Armin alone.” Armin wasn’t sure why those words cut so deep. Maybe because it was Mikasa suggesting it, Mikasa who was always there for Eren, Mikasa who would do anything and everything for Eren, Mikasa who Armin was incredibly jealous of. She was always so close to Eren, she was able to protect Eren. And Armin? The most he could protect Eren from is spiders – which Eren is terrified of. Armin wished that he could be Mikasa if he was honest with himself. She was beautiful, skilled, deadly, intelligent and above all else she was closer to Eren then anything.
Armin heard someone calling his name. Mikasa. He mentally groaned, not wanting to face her, but did slow down and allowed her to walk next to him. He didn’t look at her, instead he looked at the ground. He’d just been walking past when he heard Mikasa and Eren talking. He hadn’t heard the entire conversation, but he had heard what Mikasa said. He’d hoped that they wouldn’t notice him running off but apparently they had.
There was a good three minutes in which Mikasa didn’t speak, and Armin didn’t prod her. Eventually he heard her sigh. “Armin, I don’t know what you overheard, but I don’t want you to take it the wrong way. I’ve just seen how protective Eren has been of you lately, and I don’t think that it’s fair to you.”
“Why are you telling him to avoid me then?” Armin asked, his voice a lot smaller then he would have liked. Mikasa was one of his closest friends, but he couldn’t help but to feel intimidated by her.
“I wasn’t,” Mikasa said in a soft voice. “I just wanted him to give you some space.”
“So you can have him to yourself?” The words slipped out of Armin’s mouth before he had time to stop them, and his eyes widened as he turned frantically to Mikasa. “I – I didn’t mean that! I –“
Mikasa held up a hand and Armin stopped speaking abruptly. “It’s true that I am… protective of Eren,” Mikasa said carefully. “But I wouldn’t deny him or you the chance to be happy together.”
Armin frowned, wondering what she meant by that.
Mikasa searched his face before sighing. “You two are so oblivious.”
“What?” Armin asked, a bit offended.
“Eren has been so protective of you because he’s jealous,” Mikasa explained.
“Jealous?” Armin almost laughed. “Of me?”
“No,” said Mikasa, “he’s jealous that people are getting close to you.”
“Why?”
“He loves you.”
“Yeah, I know that, and you love us,” said Armin, not really understanding what she meant.
“I mean… as in romantically, Armin,” said Mikasa, her voice as monotone as ever, but slight exasperation that the one of the only intelligent people was slow in catching on.
Armin paused, staring at her. “R-Romantically? Eren – Eren doesn’t… he…” Armin thought for a moment. It would make sense why Eren was so protective of him but… why hadn’t Eren mentioned anything to him?
“And you love him,” Mikasa continued.
“I… how… -?”
“You wouldn’t have been jealous of me if you didn’t,” Mikasa said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Armin averted his gaze, trying to sort through his emotions. Did he love Eren? Yes, that answer was obvious, of course. He just hadn’t been sure if it was romantic or not until this moment.
“Well… why hasn’t he said anything?” Armin demanded.
“The same reason you didn’t say anything,” Mikasa replied. “The sooner you two admit your feelings for each other, the sooner Eren will stop being so possessive.” Sort of.
“A… a part of me enjoys that he’s so protective but… most of the time it’s infuriating, and frustrating,” Armin admitted. “So… I… I should go talk to him, huh?”
Mikasa nodded. “Whenever you’re ready,” were her parting words, before she practically disappeared.
It took a few days of agitation from Eren yelling at Jean over Armin before Armin finally approached him. Eren had expected Armin to yell at him again, or at least take a swing at him, he looked angry enough to do so. So he was completely taken aback when instead of doing those things, Armin pressed his lips against his in a rather rough kiss. An angry kiss.
Armin pulled away when Eren didn’t respond to the kiss. He looked slightly humiliated, it was the same look he got when he answered a question wrong in front of someone. Eren wasn’t quite sure why he looked that way, but he didn’t like it, and… he had really enjoyed that kiss. Before Armin could say anything, or run away, Eren pulled him in for another kiss.
Warmth exploded in his stomach when Armin kissed him back, and at that moment Eren knew that he was in love with Armin Arlert.