Chapter Text
October 23, 2025
Armin took in a deep breath, the chill of fall settling over his skin as he stepped out of the little store. Beside him, Annie carried a large bag of candy that looked like it could rival a box of bricks. Trailing after her was Reiner, another of their friend group, and then the pack of young high schoolers who followed him around religiously: Gabi, Falco, Udo, and Zofia.
Halloween had been fast approaching, and so Armin had asked his two friends if they wanted to go candy shopping with him. Of course the kids had tagged along — and he honestly couldn’t bring himself to be mad about it.
“Mr. Armin, are you sure we don’t need more?” Falco asked as they all headed for the car, parked somewhere in the middle of the lot.
Gabi playfully punched his arm. “Psh, it’ll be fine! Besides, who actually trick-or-treats anymore anyway?”
Almost in sync, Reiner and Zofia gave her a mock pout and said, “I do.”
The last stretch to the car was spent laughing hysterically, and then they all packed into the vehicle — Armin driving, Annie in the passenger seat, and Reiner in the back with Gabi and Falco. Zofia and Udo had pulled up the seats in the back and were giggling and whispering about something as they settled in.
Annie set the bag on the floor beside the passenger seat and went to connect her phone, calling dibs on the music before pausing.
“Armin,” she said, monotone as ever, “Eren texted you.”
Armin, who had been about to start up the car, grinned and picked up his phone, promising he would only be a moment before he could get them all back to the Ackerman residence (where the candy would be hidden and protected from Sasha until the party on the thirty-first).
Eren 💚
i think i have an idea for our
halloween movie this year 😈
Armin
Oh, do you now?
Eren 💚
hurry up and get home,
im so excited to tell u!!
Armin chuckled softly, completely unaware of the prying eyes over his shoulder until Gabi’s voice screeched in his ear. “You and Eren are so gross! How did you two even end up together anyway?”
A gasp rang out in the car from Armin, Reiner, and even Annie.
“You don’t know how Armin got Jaeger to fall head over heels for him?”
The driver in question flushed a bright red, and Annie shook her head before staring forward. “Might as well tell them. Traffic is gonna be bad anyway.”
“Well,” Armin began, starting up the car as his mind drifted back, “It all started with our twelfth grade AP English final, actually.”
April 2, 2024
Armin tapped his pencil against his sheet lazily, barely registering the notes he had taken on the final information Mr. Smith had laid out for them. He was peculiarly tired — which grated on his constantly-on-overdrive nerves — and was drifting off until a marker cap was removed.
“Alright,” Mr. Smith said, “I’ll be writing up partners on the board. Remember: only groups of two, and I assign the groups, so obviously no switching.”
Even as the fate of him and the other students were being decided for the rest of the year, Armin couldn’t bring himself to focus. That is, until his name was spoken.
“Armin Arlert will be paired with Eren Jaeger!”
Armin jolted awake like he was a character sleeping during a big event in a movie. Mr. Smith moved on to the next group like this was every Tuesday, and Armin felt his heart rate jump as his eyes locked with the deep turquoise gaze across the room. Eren lifted a hand and waved, casually scattering the shattered remains of Armin’s calm, collected world.
It certainly wasn’t that Eren was a bad boy with nothing but malicious intent. No, it was that he was everything good. He was feisty, but well-mannered when called for. He was tall, non-chalant, and not to mention hot as hell. This wasn’t going to be difficult because of Eren — it would be difficult because of Armin and his stupid crush.
The groups were dismissed to begin brainstorming for the last ten minutes of class, and Armin watched as his partner picked up his bag and sauntered over to his desk, pulling up a chair to sit across from the blonde.
“Hey,” Eren said with a small smile, dropping his bag on the floor and settling into the chair.
Armin swallowed thickly. Compose yourself! “H—hi,” he replied. Just work with him. It won’t be that hard — he doesn’t even like you back.
“So, for this paper, I was thinking we could do something about ancient heroes compared to the modern concept of a hero,” Eren began, opening up his laptop and typing in the code mindlessly.
If there was one thing that could get Armin’s mind off of his emotions, it was schoolwork and history.
Armin spun his pencil in his hand, nodding. “I like the sound of that — although we would need to narrow it down. Any specific era?”
“I was thinking Greek,” Eren said. “Those fuckers are probably some of the most controversial, so it would give us a wide scope even with a narrowed topic.”
Armin paused in his note-taking, glancing up at his classmate with a hesitant smile. “That’s really good thinking,” he complimented. “How about somebody like… Odysseus, maybe?”
Eren snapped his fingers in excitement. “I just read The Odyssey over the summer! That would definitely be a good one!” After a long pause, he finished with, “Oh, and I made a Google Doc and shared it with you.”
“Got it,” Armin said. “Okay — it’s good that we’ve already got our topic and primary historical evidence chosen, but we need to narrow down our research more. What exactly are we going to be studying about him?”
“Well,” Eren said, looking up at the ceiling in thought. “Nowadays, we consider heroes as people who save everyone. You know, swoop in and fight to the bitter end for the sake of everyone. But Odysseus — and plenty of others, honestly — was consistently willing to kill to return to the people he loved, and to protect them. You could argue he’s not an actual hero, but that would be without taking Ancient Greek ideals into the picture. So… something along those lines?”
Armin’s nerves had been forgotten — the idea was so splendidly awesome that he couldn’t help but hurriedly open his laptop and find the shared Doc, rambling as he wrote the idea down. “Yes! It would be incredible to focus on the ethical perspective of it all as well, considering it could also really depend who you are. I mean, the suitors certainly didn’t see Odysseus as any sort of hero. The gods saw him as an excellent warrior, but honestly— nothing more. Penelope and Telemachus saw him as a hero, and even contributed heavily in his actions when he returned to Ithaca. That could be applied to now, too! It really depends on where a person morally stands on the line between protection and insanity. Not to mention the idea of anti-heroes and morally grey saviors.”
He glanced up from the Google Doc, Eren watching him with a lazy half-smile. Then he sat back and stretched, joining in with the brainstorming on the laptop, keyboard clicking quietly. “Great thinking, Armin,” he complimented.
The blonde chuckled. “Thanks — ethical debates have always been some of my favorites.”
“Really?” Eren asked, though there was no judgement in his voice. “They usually make me feel like I can never win. Unless I have time to prep, like an essay like this, of course.”
“You can work more on the historical context, if you want,” Armin said, almost mindlessly. Then, he let out a little squeak and stiffened, looking apologetically at his partner. “I—I mean, I’m sure you would be amazing at the ethical portion as well, obviously. I just— I would just want to make sure you’re most comfortable and writing what you want to, so if you want to focus more on ethics you—“
Interrupting his rant, Eren broke down laughing, burying his face in his hands and muffling his rather noisy amusement. The other brainstorming groups in the class had glanced their way, and Armin’s cheeks flushed as the boy across from him merely cackled. Taking his sweet time in catching his breath after a full minute and a half, of course.
He even wiped a tear from his eye as he looked back up— a fucking tear.
“Dude,” Eren breathed, scrubbing a hand down his face before looking back up. “You’re fine. I’ll work on either or, but yeah, I would definitely love to do the historical piece.”
A long pause. An awkward cough from across the room and a scratch of a laptop on a desk.
“… You sure?”
“Positive.”
“Triple sure?”
“Mhm! I haven’t been this sure since I stayed up all night the day Arcane season two came out.”
Armin winced. “You pulled an all-nighter for that?”
Eren leaned his chair back, interlocking his hands behind his head. “Hell yeah. Completely worth it, too.”
“I don’t know,” Armin shrugged. “It was great, don’t get me wrong, but there could’ve been more of an explanation at the end.”
“Eh, yeah, I get— you watch Arcane?!”
Covering his small laugh with his hand, Armin nodded. “Duh. I love complex shows and books.”
With a terrifying speed, Eren jumped up from his chair and looked over his laptop, eyes locked with Armin’s like his life depended on it. “Send me all the recommendations you have, please. If they’re anything like Arcane, I swear I will marry you.”
“Um,” Armin chuckled, though he couldn’t help but hide behind his laptop. “I don’t have your number, and I cannot list my favorites off my head right now.”
“Oh!” Eren snapped his fingers excitedly, pulling out a scrap sheet of paper from his backpack. “I’ll just write it down. I—“
The bell rang so loudly that Armin felt blood dripping out of his ears.
“… Did we spend the whole rest of the class talking about TV shows?”
Eren scoffed, hands scribbling down a number. “Hell yeah.” He folded the paper and passed it to Armin, jumping out of his seat and beginning to pack away his laptop. “There it is. Text me recs, things about the project or whatever, honestly. I’ll work some more on expanding the topic tonight so that we can formulate a real research question tomorrow.”
Armin flipped the paper over absent-mindly, nodding with a small hum like he wasn’t really listening either.
“Alright, see you tomorrow Armin!” Eren called as he walked out of the class. Armin jumped up, so lost in thought he didn’t even notice half of the next class coming in.
“Yeah!” He called back as he shut his laptop in its case. “You too!”
He sighed as he swung his bag over his shoulder, making his way out of the English classroom and to his next class.
What an… interesting partner, to say the least.
“Ugh! We have so much homework!”
Armin almost leaped a foot into the air at Historia’s voice, grip tightening on his backpack strap in absolute panic until he realized it was her. Then, he slouched over with a heavy sigh.
“Don’t scare me like that, Historia,” he mumbled, straightening out and stretching his arms above his head. “And… did you say we had a lot of homework?”
Historia nodded, falling in step beside her friend. “Yeah. It sucks.”
He blinked, worry setting in. “I didn’t think we had that much. Just math and English, right?”
“Well, I’m in a different English, so I have math and—“ she stopped, staring up at the sky as they walked before finally letting out a little hum. “Nope. Just math, then. Definitely too much.”
She groaned, dragging her feet as she walked. Armin just stared at her, before saying, “I literally have more homework than you.”
“Okay, well, you’re, like, physically attracted to homework,” she retorted, earning a loud gasp from her friend. “Everybody else who’s normal has a firm hatred for it.”
He mock-glared at her out of the corner of his eye. “What the hell, Historia?”
She giggled, eventually just sighing as they fell back in sync with each other. “I’m just teasing you. And yeah, you’re right. I should be thankful I don’t have homework for every class.”
A pause. Armin cleared his throat. “Alright, but math does suck.”
“Right?! Ymir and I hate it so much that we’re gonna start having little study sessions for, like, an hour before school every day to just work on math together. That’s too early to have to think about math, but it’s the only time we can fit it in.”
“Study sessions, huh?”
“Yes, of course! Why else would Ymir and I meet up?”
Armin lifted a brow, unimpressed. Suddenly, Historia’s face turned bright red, and she fell into a long rant about how rude and completely undignified it was that he had even joked about something like that. He merely laughed, the conversation carrying on like that for the last little stretch of the walk.
Historia and Armin lived next to each other, and became really close after suffering a similar type of social isolation in late middle school. Then, many students began to joke about them being something like twins as they spent more time together. Eventually, they began to walk home together and hang out almost every weekend. Now, they practically were as close as siblings.
He waved goodbye as he stood in front of his grandfather’s house, Historia waving back with a grin. He opened the door and clambered into the house, making his way upstairs to his room quickly and efficiently. He had a goal he needed to complete, especially after such a long day at school.
So after making it up the stairs, dropping his backpack beside his desk and removing his shoes, he could finally meet his goal.
With a grand sigh, he collapsed onto his bed, as dramatic as a Disney princess.
I don’t want to do homework, he whined mentally, lifting a hand and dragging it over his face.
Then, he remembered the little folded piece of paper in his pocket, and his face flushed with a new idea.
He sat up, pulling the sheet with Eren’s number out and unlocking his phone.
It still counts as homework if I text him solely for English purposes, right?