And Eren LOVED Women

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/29035692.

Rating: Mature
Archive Warning: Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category: F/F, F/M, M/M
Fandom: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Relationship: Armin Arlert/Eren Yeager
Character: Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Hange Zoë, Moblit Berner, Mike Zacharias,
Nanaba (Shingeki no Kyojin), Keith Shadis, Erwin Smith, Eren Yeager,
Mikasa Ackerman, Armin Arlert, Carla Yeager, Grisha Yeager, Jean
Kirstein, Sasha Blouse, Connie Springer, 104th Training Corps, Ymir
(Shingeki no Kyojin), Krista Lenz | Historia Reiss, Reiner Braun, Bertolt
Hoover
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - High School,
Top Eren Yeager, Eventual Smut, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Bottom
Armin Arlert, Alive Marco Bott, Sassy Armin Arlert, Badass Armin Arlert,
levi is a senior, Nonbinary Hange Zoë, Hange Zoë & Levi Are Best
Friends, Minor Levi/Erwin Smith, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice
Things, The Author Regrets Nothing, Erwin Smith Has a Big Dick,
Modern Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, No Manga Spoilers,
Baseball Player Eren Yeager, Internalized Homophobia, Mikasa
Ackerman & Eren Yeager Are Siblings, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff
and Crack, Homophobic Language, Kinky Armin Arlert
Stats: Published: 2021-01-28 Completed: 2021-03-07 Chapters: 19/19 Words:
61632

And Eren LOVED Women

by coffeedependent

Summary

Eren Jaeger loved a lot of things. Those lots of things included his family, friends,
teammates, but most of all: WOMEN. And Eren made sure everyone, including himself,
knew this on a daily basis. He even made this a point to his best friend, Armin Arlert, who
he ended up loving a little bit more when Armin agreed to be partners with him for their
final chemistry project.
 Eren Doesn't Like To Do Things That Make Him Sad

Eren was quite literally on his hands and knees for Armin.

“Ar, I’m begging you! I can’t afford to go to summer school when the team might go to nationals!
I’m literally like 6% off from having Mr. Shadis round my grade up to a C!”

Armin glared down at the brunette from where he still sat at his desk chair. Other students from
their shared chemistry class gave them odd stares as they filed out of the room, escaping the daily
hell they were forced to attend. Not that Eren cared, though, because he was too busy begging the
top student in their class (who was also his lifelong best friend and evil genius) to partner up with
him for their upcoming project that would replace their final.

“Eren, I already told you that I was going to text Marco about it. You literally never do your work
unless I tell you and even if you do do it, it usually isn’t even able to be classified as half-assed.
The work is quarter-assed if I can catch you on a good day,” the blond huffed, swiftly packing
away his notebook. He considered himself lucky that Mr. Shadis temporarily left the room to make
copies so he wouldn’t have the teacher overlooking the shameful sight. At this moment, the ache in
Eren’s knees from being on the tiled floor made him realize what this might’ve looked like from
the outside perspective.

No homo, I have socks on, the eldest Jaeger thought to himself before hoisting himself up and
brushing off his clothes.

“Armin, I promise I will do all the work this time! I will do all the work and you can just edit it, I
just absolutely need this grade!” He cried, brushing off the knees of his jeans. Another sigh was
heard, and a groan, and then the smack of a hand lightly hitting a forehead. Eren glanced up from
his brushing and Armin had moved from facepalming to rubbing his temples. “You practically live
at my house anyway! You can supervise me!” Eren egged on. He desperately needed Armin to
agree to being his partner- no, he was pretty convinced he would die and suffer a horrible death if
Armin partnered up with Marco instead of him.

Not that Eren was jealous of Marco or anything just because Armin had taken a liking to him, of
course not! Eren loved women. Who didn’t, he argued with himself at night about these matters.
Tossing and turning around in his bed, thinking about how totally great and artful masterpieces
women were. Even if you liked guys (which Eren did not, he liked girls), Eren deducted that you
have to love women because women are women and women are great.

But just to clear things up, Eren did NOT want to steal Armin away from Marco because he knew
Armin liked Marco and he was jealous. Eren needed Armin to be his partner because this final was
worth 10% of their grade and the previous night, Eren googled that he would need to get at least a
121.5% in order to bump his 64.3% up to a 70% percent, a passing grade.

“Eren, you know if you turned in all your missing assignments then you could probably have a
solid 68 right now, right?” Armin began to walk out of the classroom and Eren quickly followed as
they began their regular walk out of the school campus and towards Eren’s house.

“Armin, you know that homework makes me sad and-”

“-you don’t like doing things that make you sad,” Armin finished the sentence for him, rolling his
eyes.
“Exactly! See, I’m glad we’re on the same page,” Eren flashed his signature smile before changing
the subject. He didn’t need Armin to confirm that they were going to be partners because Eren
already knew. You see, Eren Jaeger was very well-known at school. Not only because he was a
catcher on the varsity baseball team at his school or because he was a simple-minded idiot who
still managed to hold onto all-honors courses with an AP class mixed in, but also because he was
always someone who managed to get his way one way or another and it usually started with his
signature smile. A set of perfect pearly-whites and if he were an anime character (even though
Eren’s convinced his anime character would be a huge badass who never smiled, gave great one-
liners, and saved the world from all evil while still being the only hero), his teeth would do that
cool little thing where they would sparkle.

They both arrived at the picture-perfect Jaeger household, Eren heading straight to his room while
Armin stopped swiftly in the kitchen to greet Mrs. Jaeger (who always seemed to be baking to
Armin’s sweet-toothed luck). The two boys sat against Eren’s headboard while Eren booted up his
TV, immediately going to Netflix and shrugging under the covers while Armin pulled out his
laptop. Grabbing the remote, the TV was quickly shut off as soon as the terrifying ‘dun-dun’ of the
Netflix opening echoed in the bedroom. Eren whined in protest, rolling over onto Armin with
grabby hands who held the remote high out of his reach.

“Ar! This is my only day without practice for the rest of the week, that’s not fair!” Eren whined,
kicking off the covers. Armin turned his head, a disapproving look mellowing out slightly as he
looked into Eren’s eyes.

“Eren, it’s been two seconds. Are you legitimately crying over this? Are you serious?”

The brunette sniffled. “You’re making me sad.”

Armin huffed in frustration, throwing the remote across the room and it lightly banged against
some odd wall, “I literally don’t care. Like at all. We have a project to work on, partner,” the
typing sounds of Armin’s laptop were the only sound to fill the room.

Project? Eren thought.

“That’s not due for another 2 weeks! Why the hell would we start it now? You know what, for
being so smart, you’re straight up being dumb right now. Why can’t we relax?”

“It’s called time management. I know you’ve never heard of it, but it’ll make our project better in
the end. It gives us time to look back, review, and revise,” he explained, pulling up Google Slides.
The project, to Armin, wasn’t even hard. All they had to do was pick a chemical reaction,
document it at home, and present it. This final was a piece of cake compared to everything else Mr.
Shadis made them endure during their 2nd semester (which included a pop quiz every week during
the month his wife left him and a class spent rambling about how he wasn’t ‘special’).

“Go get your computer and we’re going to start this, or else I’m calling Marco,” that was the
statement that sent Eren scrambling for his laptop.

An hour later, Eren deducted that he needed to “ take the most colossal piss on Earth, I’m pretty
sure the bathroom will flood after this one, Ar, ”, and Armin took it upon himself to replace his
laptop in his lap with Eren’s.

Okay, now to put reminders into his Google calendar so he can’t forget when to work on the
project when I’m not here, Armin chuckled to himself at his genius since he knew Eren didn’t
know anything about using apps related to school, most importantly how to work his calendar.
Chester Cheetah once said it wasn’t easy being cheesy and Armin was absolutely compelled to
agree because it really was not when you were as intelligent as him. Armin mentally thanked
Eren’s bladder for giving him this opportunity before spotting that Eren had two separate google
tabs open that were separated, leaving one hidden behind the tab that they currently worked on for
the project. The blonde shook his head at no one in particular and ran a hand through his short
bangs, convinced that he probably had grey hairs tucked in there somewhere due to his best friend.

I thought I told him no cheating. Why does he have to cheat? All my notes are right here for us,
there’s no reason for it , he mulled, clicking on the tab to see what source Eren was using and if he
had been plagiarizing.

Muscular teen pounds blonde femboy

Armin let out a squeak, closing the browser and slamming the screen shut. He put the laptop back
in Eren’s spot a folded his hands in his lap.

Unfolded the hands in his lap.

Brushed off his knees.

Refolded his hands.

Turned off his laptop.

Sighed.

Cracked his knuckles.

Was his heart still beating? Oh yeah, because he could hear his pulse in his ears and feel the said-
pumped blood rushing to his pale cheeks.

He wiped down his face with shaky hands, getting up to relocate the remote he had thrown earlier
which consequently sat on the opposing side of the room near the door as he previously intended.
He leaned down to pick it up, figuring they could both watch something as a small break before
getting back to it and give time for Armin to reset. He went to straighten up when the door swung
open, making him fall back on his ass as he looked up at Eren’s stunned figure. Eren reached out a
hand, laughing at Armin’s mishap but also apologizing half-heartedly. Armin’s eyes followed up
the veins on Eren’s forearm.

‘Muscled teen ’

“Armin, dude, get up,” The blonde became suddenly aware of his position on the floor. On his ass,
sitting on the floor with his legs spread slightly. Eren's large build towering over him, casting a
light shadow from whatever light was being produced from the hallway and into Eren's bedroom.

‘Blonde twink’

‘I AM NOT A TWINK!’ Armin’s eyebrows furrowed angrily at the label. The awkward silence
between the two boys stretched for a few seconds longer than both would've liked to: one boy
coming across a realization he should've never seen and the other confused if his best friend was
put off by the fact that he had to piss so bad. So eventually, Eren let down his hand and shrugged,
brushing past Armin and hopping on the bed, cocooning himself in a mound of blankets.

“Get up and come relax. Are you monologuing or something? Only TV show characters
monologue. You’re creeping me out, Ar,”
 Don't Out Anyone, It's Just Plain Rude
Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Okay, so what, Eren watched gay porn for educational purposes only.

Okay, so what, Eren also got a boner whenever he watched it but never has he once jacked off to
gay porn because right before he would finish he would switch the tab to straight porn. Therefore
he only ever came to straight porn and that counted because Eren was NOT gay. He was the star
catcher on the baseball team, he couldn’t be gay! That’s not how stereotypes worked.

Therefore, Eren was disappointed to find that his latest ‘studying material’ tab had been closed out.
He would’ve been easily able to relocate it if he hadn’t purposely saved it on a private tab but
either way the young boy didn’t know if he was disappointed or relieved. On one hand, the video
was really great. It went fully in-depth in what Eren considered “things The Gays do.”

Eren only studied gay sex obviously because his best friend was gay and if Armin ever needed
advice then Eren would be open for him to come to.

On the other hand, Eren was genuinely concerned about the effect the video had on him. Every
time he would have to switch the tab in order to take care of the problem that grew in his pajama
pants every time. And not just a tiny problem, oh no. A problem that ached hard until Eren got his
hands on it but would eventually soften as the girl’s fake moans filled his ears on a low volume.
He supposed this video had such an effect on him because he was into blondes and the guy in the
video (said blonde twink) kinda looked like a girl. He had weird bangs that almost covered his
eyebrows and nearly chin-length blonde hair styled in a bob. The more Eren pondered it, the
pornstar kinda looked like someone he knew…

Historia Reiss!

Eren sighed as he leaned back against his headboard, closing his eyes and thinking about the girl
who he’d known ever since elementary school. She had well-kept blonde hair, big blue eyes you
could just swim in, and a small dainty body with a sunshine personality. Sucks that she was taken,
though. Historia was in the same grade as Eren and Armin, a sophomore, but she was dating a
junior named Ymir Bott. All Eren knew was that Ymir was apart of the school’s photography club
and that her younger brother, Marco, was kinda-best friends with his arch-nemesis/third-closest-
friend Jean. Also that Marco was a flaming homosexual who couldn’t stop making bedroom eyes
at Armin throughout their chemistry period. Marco was the second top student in their graduating
class but he was always trying to help Armin. With what, Eren didn’t know. Armin was on a set
path to be valedictorian of their graduating year so it didn’t make sense that Marco wanted to help
Armin so badly and why Armin took the help when he could just talk to Eren if he ever needed
help and not stupid Marco—

and this is precisely why Eren watched gay porn. Even though Eren didn’t like the idea of good-
boy-nice-freckles-Marco getting all cozy with his Armin, he still needed to be there to help Armin
in case Marco decided to make moves.

Eren took note of how caught up in his thoughts he was and shrugged out of his bed, going to the
kitchen for some late-night snacking on some of the cookies his mom made earlier. Tomorrow
would be a long day but Eren couldn’t think about that as he munched down on chocolate chip
cookies.
—

Armin was braver than any U.S. marine.

This was not an opinion either but proven a fact because he was able to look Eren in the eyes when
the two first saw each other during their break.

The small, petite boy walked up to Eren and his older sister, Mikasa, and if there’s anything to
know about her: Mikasa Jaeger was NOT a force to be reckoned with.

Armin knew that when Eren had fallen off of his bike and scraped his knee back when they were
both ten. Armin was honest-to-God convinced that he and Eren were the only two who were
supposed to go to the store to grab Mrs. Jaeger more flour for her muffins but whoosh, the second a
cry came from Eren’s mouth, Mikasa was breathing down the back of Armin’s neck quite literally
and asking what happened. Whenever Armin cared to pray (usually on nights before tests or when
Eren really tested his patience), he made sure to throw in a little ‘by the way, I gave a dollar to
someone on the side of the road today and that is good karma. I will exchange it for your
protection from Mikasa Jaeger’ .

“Hey Ar,” Mikasa greeted lightly, nibbling on some chips. He greeted her back with a wave a kind
smile as he climbed into their usual cafeteria table. Unfortunately placed at the center of the huge
room but over the past two years, their small little friend-family had come to see it as a safe haven.
Armin would like to say that the others trickled into their designated seats as Eren talked vividly
about the practice he was to have for baseball after school, but just as Eren started to really get into
it, Connie and Sasha came bounding to the table with their arms interlocked.

“Guys! Guess who finally got her license!” Connie announced proudly, wrapping his other arm
around Sasha in order to snuggle into her side like a proud mom. Sasha rewrapped her arm around
Connie’s shoulders and shoved the other into her back pocket to fish out a driver’s license.

“You have ramen stains,” Mikasa added dully and Sasha gasped, whipping back said-license and
examining it to find that Mikasa was right. The white t-shirt Sasha had worn that day had ramen
stains around the collar. Not too visible, but a dull yellow.

“Oh, you told them the news?” Reiner pulled Sasha’s ponytail lightly from behind. She chuckled
and hit him lightly in the chest before giving a lively wave to Reiner’s counterpart Bertholdt. At 16
years old, Bertholdt was easily the most intimidating of the group. Not even Eren, who had the
temper of a toddler, could compare to the vicious 6’6” Bert stood at his young age. Ironically, Bert
couldn’t hurt a fly, and Reiner, unnaturally buff for their age, was the same way as well.

“Either way, Sash, I’m proud of you even though you’re going to crash in approximately two
days,” Connie used Sasha’s chest as a resting point for his chin as he looked up at her, still clinging
to her waist.

“Wow Connie, good use of approximately. Such big words for a small boy,” Jean was the last of
the group to arrive, snickering as Connie pushed that he was, in fact, a man, not a boy despite his
height.

The next 10 minutes went by swiftly until the bell signaled and the group groaned, giving sad
goodbyes and ‘ see you at lunch! ’ as they all trudged and went their separate ways to their third
period of the day.

During class, Armin didn’t think about Eren. Armin wasn’t an idiot so he knew he should just
forget about it. Yes it would invade his mind at random times of the day but all in all, Armin
wasn’t one for dramatics just like how Eren didn’t like being sad, and therefore Armin concluded
that when Eren wanted to come out then he could come out. It wasn’t Armin’s place to force him
out of the closet and it never would be, even though Armin knew the burden and weight being in
the closet carried.

Many kids came out easily and Armin’s story couldn’t be any more different. The response he got
to coming out was so supportive. His grandpa, the most important person in his life, was so happy
for him and joked that he “just knew”. His mom and dad hugged him and told him they were so
proud for pursuing what made him happy openly because ‘that’s what God would want for all his
children’. That’s what Armin hoped, too.

The Jaegers, being family-friends, accepted him with open arms. Except Eren grabbed Armin
roughly by the shoulders and looked him deeply in the eyes before saying, “You can have boy talk
with me!” and Mikasa gave Armin a sweet pat on the head before they group-hugged.

For the rest of their friends, Armin came out over their Snapchat groupchat (named The Scouts
after Connie and Sasha went through a ‘I want to be a detective because I watched Deathnote
once’ phase) and was met with these exact responses:

Jean Kirstein: epic

Connie Springer: proud for u

Sasha Braus: ^

Reiner Braun: ^^ same

Bertholdt Hoover: ^^^ :c same but bi

Sasha Braus: mikasa do you have dok for algebra 2 honors?

Mikasa Jaeger: yeah why

Sasha Braus: can i copy

 Mikasa Jaeger: no

Sasha Braus: wtf mika u brother-fucking bitch

So you could say it went well for Armin. And yes, he changed all his friends’ stupid usernames to
their actual names. Do you understand how hard texting is? Think of the author, too, because no
one likes a texting fic where you can’t tell who is who.

What writer? What texting fic? Armin always thought of the silliest things. Well, he also liked to
act like he was the main character in an anime sometimes but he feels like he would be the smart
sidekick. At least to Armin’s mom, he was main-character-worthy.

Back to the main topic- Armin’s coming out went swimmingly but Armin knew the process of
coming to terms was worse. The blonde boy chose to block out memories of twisting and turning in
bed before deciding to get up after hours of restlessness. He would kneel at the foot of his bed and
quite literally try to Pray the Gay Away. Looking back on it, it’s funny, but in the moment praying
was like a lifeline to Armin. He wasn’t as religious as he was back then, but he could still feel the
ache in his heart when he would whisper through tears, “ Please make me normal. I don’t know
what else to do. I became the top student in my class and I promised to you it would stay that way
until I’ve completely finished college. I’m a nice person who takes care of others. I put everyone
before me. I’ve done everything right, God, so why have you betrayed me like this? Why have you
made this mistake? ”

No one really cared enough to bully Armin, but there were always snide comments made to him
like, “Hey Armin! That sweater is super cute. It’s kinda girly though? No judgment or anything but
like it’s a little girly huh? You like girly things right?” No, Armin liked the sweater because it was
warm. It still didn’t help his confidence in humanity when he did decide to come out. So he didn’t
want to push Eren because although Armin had a good, safe environment to come out to, there’s
still a process that included accepting yourself first and Armin didn’t want to rush Eren through
that.

So kiddos, if there’s anything you learn from this story, then learn this: don’t out anyone. It’s just
plain rude.

Other than that, Armin didn’t give Eren another thought until lunch when their group eventually
sat together again to complain about their classes.

Chapter End Notes

hi guys! thanks for the love on the previous chapter :) <3 mwah mwah
 Being An Evil Genius Comes Along With Being a Huge Dick
Chapter Notes

TW// HOMOPHOBIC SLURS!!!

hi friends!!! this chapter would’ve been out sooner but my computer coincidentally
broke the same day i posted chapter 2 oopsies :v but anyways let me know what you
guys think! i’m not really happy with this chapter but it unfortunately had to be done
im sorry :( also thank you guys!! i love reading all your comments it always makes my
day :c okay, on to the chapter!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Ever hear the sound of a bat hitting a ball?

Neither did Eren, because he was at his last batting practice before his team’s final qualification
game and he was whiffing every single pitch.

“C’mon Jaeger, you got this kid, dig in right here!” his fellow teammates called out from the field.
Eren got his stance ready, loading up before taking a hack at the pitch coming right down the
middle. He swung out of his shoes and was only met with the disappointing sound of the ball
hitting the catcher’s glove.

“Wow Jaeger, I can hear the air whiff all the way out here!” Jean sneered from the mound, getting
ready to throw his next pitch. The catcher standing in Eren’s place chuckled at the comment and
Eren glared at him as he reset himself. He raised his hands, looking Jean dead in the eye as he
anticipated the next pitch. His gloved hands felt shaky and unsteady so Eren took a few deep
breaths as Jean did his wind up but to no avail. “Jaeger, come talk with me!” Coach Weilsman
called out, switching out Eren for another batter.

Eren’s shoulders hung lowly as he trudged into the empty dugout with Coach Weilsman.

“Listen kid, even for someone who’s only a sophomore, you’re a real leader on this team. I can tell
you’ve been off this whole practice, so I’m gonna give you some time to cool down, okay?” the
baseball coach huffed, looking down at the solemn kid on the bench who kept his gaze trained on
the ground. In the past two years Eren had been on varsity, Coach Weilsman had never seen the
kid look so distraught. Jaeger had come in like a big, angry tornado and although the Coach had to
keep the kid after practice during his freshman year to work on managing his anger, Eren was
always the first person to cheer someone on or pick them up if they were struggling. Obviously no
one is perfect and Eren had his fair share of bad days, but Weilsman saw the bags under Eren’s
eyes and the lost skip in his step during warmups. In fact, the entire team seemed to be silent while
they ran fielding drills because they didn’t hear Eren’s usual “ Here we go Thomas! Yeah, atta kid
good footwork!” or a sly “ Run like the wind, Bullseye! ” when Jean ran the bases during
conditioning.

Eren nodded his head, slipping a pack of gum out of his back pocket and chewing on the stick to
relieve some tension he was feeling (a nice trick he held onto from his anger counseling with
Coach Weilsman). The coach gave his catcher a final pat on the shoulder before exiting the dugout,
leaving the kid to his own devices. “Kirstein, Schultz, switch out! Kirstein, in the dugout, fix your
catcher!” From where he was sitting, Eren heard the clacking of metal cleats coming towards him
against the cement floor of the dugout. A weight sat down next to him leaving no room for
personal boundaries and Eren wobbled when Jean shoved his shoulder lightly.

“You look like shit,” Jean deadpanned and his catcher just chuckled softly, still keeping his eyes
trained on the ground,“but seriously, E, what’s up man?”

It was the last week of legitimate school before finals and had only been a mere week since he and
Armin partnered up for their chemistry project. It wasn’t easy to just ignore the alarms that Armin
had sneakily set into Eren’s calendar but Eren still didn’t do the work. He always found some
excuse to put it off until it ended up being 9pm and he hadn’t gotten anything done. So, Eren told
Jean it was no wonder that yesterday, Armin uncharacteristically came to school in a hoodie and
sweats with his hair tied back into a bun and how he acted so coldly to him for a reason. It was no
wonder that Armin disregarded every attempt that Eren made to talk to him on the way home, and
it certainly wasn’t surprising that Armin had planned to chew Eren out accordingly because Carla
made it no secret that her and Mikasa were going out for a designated girls’ day and everyone in
the Jaeger household knew that Mr. Grisha Jaeger usually didn’t come home until 6pm.

“Eren! You might not care about your grades but I care about mine and I will not allow myself to
be dragged down by you any longer! You are my best friend, so it’s personally my job to call you
out on your pompous, self-centered bullshit!

You act like you’re grateful for me dropping Marco as a partner for you, but then I don’t get
jackshit in return? ‘Oh Armin, I’ll do all of it and you just revise it’ ‘Oh Armin, please I need you!’
I’m fucking done, Eren. We have until Friday to finish this project, but now, it’s Tuesday afternoon
a week and a half later and if I were to look at our progress, it would probably be as good as one
of us dying tomorrow. And incase you couldn’t get that through your thick-fucking-skull-” Armin
paused, eyes crazed with rage as he roughly gestured his finger into his forehead with every
syllable, “ that’s not fucking good! If you just did as the reminders told you, you would’ve been
done with this project by yesterday! But whoopty-fucking-doo, you go off and do your own thing at
your own will because you don’t care how it’ll affect others around you.

I’m not getting an unnecessary B in this class because of your stupidity, and if you don’t get the
entire project done by tomorrow night for me to review, then I will personally email Shadis to fail
you because you don’t know how to fucking take care of your shit! Go take fucking summer school,
but I’m not getting caught up in the crossfire of you being lazy when everything else in your life is
handed to you on a goddamn silver platter!”

Armin usually only went as far as ‘ass’ and ‘hell’ so the second that Armin started dropping
multiple f-bombs per sentence is when Eren officially knew he had fucked it up.

He could vividly remember the baby hairs from Armin’s manbun sticking straight up as he pulled
at them in frustration. He took in Armin’s appearance, realizing that Armin wasn’t underdressed
today because he was frustrated with Eren- Armin was just so tired. He could see Armin’s eyes
slowly becoming bloodshot as they stared each other down, along with the undeadly paleness that
haunted his usually-pink cheeks. His cheekbones sunk in and Eren finally connected the dots that
Armin was probably stressed out all week from their upcoming finals.

The end of the year meant a huge rush for everything going on and for Eren that only meant
baseball. For Armin, ‘everything’ meant being the vice-president of the Key Club, volunteering at
the local animal shelter (where his boss Mina promised he’d score a job the second he got his
worker’s permit from school), maintaining his grandfather’s house while simultaneously taking
care of himself and his grandpa, tutoring algebra at their old middle school, all while studying for
his classes (of which included all honors courses excluding the 2 AP classes he took). Along with
all of this, Armin had personally made it his goal to be the top student in their graduating year and
Eren knew this because of a breakdown Armin had one night during their freshman year,
elaborating how he probably wouldn’t be able to afford college without the financial aid of a
scholarship because the business trips his parents took to advertise products internationally were
beginning to pay less and less.

So essentially, Eren was the biggest and most selfish douchebag on Earth and he knew that. He
also knew that everything Armin said was true and that he was overwhelmingly upset with himself,
but he did the only thing he knew to do at that moment.

An hour later, Armin ended up leaving Eren’s house with a stone cold expression while Eren
furiously wiped away tears in the main living room. His throat was raw from yelling and his head
hurt from bringing up every flaw in him and Armin’s friendship just for the sake of being right
because Eren hated to be wrong like the selfish, immature child that he was.

“And so the reason you’re down in the dumps is because you’re mad at yourself, not Armin, but
you don’t want to admit that he’s right so you’re just ignoring each other now?” Jean questioned
after Eren’s lengthy rant. They had moved to the bleachers once batting practice had ended and the
team began to pile into the dugout to clean up.

Jean sighed when Eren nodded to confirm his thoughts.

“Wow, Jaeger, you really fucked it up this time, huh?” Another nod.

“Grow a pair and apologize, dude,” Jean pat him on the back, standing up, “and practice is over.
Clear your head a bit and I’ll ask Weilsman to let us use the field so I can get you some legitimate
batting practice,” Jean’s two-toned hair disappeared into the dugout, leaving Eren on the benches.
He stood up and followed suit, making his way into the dugout. This time through, he didn’t whiff
any pitches that Jean threw. And then, Weilsman made them run bases as a conditioning
punishment for ditching the last 30 minutes of practice.

--

“Eren, what is it? I cancelled on Mina for this,” Armin impatiently tapped his foot against the
hardwood in Eren’s bedroom. Eren sat on his bed, hoping this conversation wouldn’t escalate to
yelling so his mom wouldn’t be alerted downstairs.

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t accept.”

“What.”

Armin pinched the bridge of his nose between his pointer finger and thumb, “I don’t accept, Eren.
The project still isn’t done. I still need to revise it all by Friday; that’s only two more days. And
that’s already on top of everything I have to do.”

He sighed before continuing, “Eren, I’m not mainly mad at you for not doing the project. Yes,
that’s a huge factor, but you’re always like this; whether it be your homework, this project, life in
general, you have been consistently unreliable for the past year or so. I’m fed up with it because in
case you haven’t noticed, I have other stuff to cram in this week and get done and I have a life
outside of being your sidekick. Get it done tonight and I’ll review it, but I’ll still be upset with you.
If I let you off the hook now, then you won’t learn. Now I’m going to go because I promised
Marco a study date at his place and my grandpa wants me home by 7, so bye. Text me when
you’re done,” with that, he made a 180 turn on his heel and began to walk out.

Against his better judgement, the steaming brunette called after him, “What the fuck is up with
Marco all the sudden?”

Armin froze a few steps short of the doorway, slowly turning around as if he was the villain in a
horror movie being revealed. He tilted his chin upwards and his eyes glinted as he glared down at
Eren from across the move.

“You go on dates with people you like, Eren,” he frowned, malice laced in his words. “Didn’t
know it was your business,”

“Excuse me?”

“Excused,” and before he could reach the doorknob, in a flash Eren had hopped over and grabbed
his wrist.

“You’re hurting me,” each tug was useless and Eren’s grip tightened with each attempt.

“Don’t care. Why Marco of all people?”

“Got a crush or something, Eren?” Armin sassed, pulling out his final trump card that would help
him get out of Eren’s bedroom. He knew he was being a dick and if he kept nagging Eren, it would
probably result in their first ever full fight but Armin was too mad to care because he longed to get
on Eren’s nerves right now. If played correctly, this could play out two ways: Eren leaves Armin
alone and Armin can go on his date (favorable outcome). On the other hand, Eren would tell
Armin and possibly explain things enough so Armin could understand what he had found on Eren’s
computer the week prior (unfavorable, unlikely, but possible).

The air in the room seemed cooler on his wrist when Eren let go in surprise. The brunette stumbled
back and Armin could see Eren’s face going red with either anger or embarrassment, he couldn’t
tell which. Although Armin loved Eren and knew his little secret, there was a fine line between
internalized homophobia and genuine homophobia and damn, did Eren walk it hard. So, being the
bad friend Armin definitely wasn’t but his anger levels were kinda through the roof so it made him
irrational, he came up with a plan.

“I-I…” Eren trailed off in an attempt to gather his thoughts, “I was just curious because he’s all
you seem to talk about now,” he spat. “You know I’m not like you.”

Armin had cornered Eren, naturally and as anticipated. This little argument would finally get Eren
off of Armin’s back for the next few days, so Armin egged him on tauntingly while gripping his
backpack straps with white knuckles. Chuckling darkly, he continued to further split him and Eren
apart.

“Oh really, Eren? ‘Like me’? Am I a disease or something?” Armin snarled. He was going to be
late if Eren kept him longer, so he had to end this quickly.

“I’m..I’m not.. You know I like...You’re different…”

“Different?! Yeah, I can see where this is going, Eren. But maybe we aren’t so different, hm? I
didn’t know me and Marco bothered you so badly,” Armin was close to winning this (in his terms
of what winning was). He sauntered towards Eren intimidatingly, towering over him and loomed
over Eren on his bed. He leaned down and Eren’s only option was to lean back with him, until he
sat back on his elbows and looked up at Armin in terror.
 His green eyes met Armin’s blue ones, which were narrowed and his pupils were small. Eren
breathed heavily, and here was the evil-genius side of Armin he hated to see. Armin knew what he
was doing, Eren knew what he was doing and the outcome Armin wanted to achieve, and most of
all: Eren knew he could stop it, but Armin’s little mind games had his mind going numb in the end
to where he just froze on the bed. Armin’s hair gracefully framed his face as it fell out of his bun
and he furrowed his eyebrows, smirking with content before he started his little tirade back up
again. He leaned down and Eren was still glued to the bed, eyes wide in fear.

“Does it bother you that I’m gay, Eren? Or…” Armin leaned in, swerving Eren’s face at the last
moment and putting his mouth merely centimeters from Eren’s ear.

“Do you wish that I liked you, instead? Do you want to take Marco’s place, Eren?” his voice
dropped down to a whisper, his syllables delicately bouncing off the shell of Eren’s ear in small
breaths of air. The shiver that ran through Eren’s body woke him from his frozen state as he tucked
his legs in and swung out, effectively pushing Armin off him and sending the blonde stumbling
across the room. He was shaking in a combination of fear and anger when he realized Armin had
gotten his way. And this was confirmed when Eren yelled, “I AM NOT A FUCKING FAG!”

Armin eyed Eren up and down with wide-eyes and disbelief before smirking. His plan went
accordingly, even better than expected, and he knew Eren knew that when Armin saw Eren
roughly rub his eyes at a poor attempt to wipe away incoming tears. Now, Armin was sure that 1)
Eren would leave him alone and 2) Eren would have to actually and genuinely apologize to him
because Armin sure as shit knew Eren was only apologizing at first because he felt bad, he didn’t
actually care about what he had done wrong.

A knock sounded at the door before Carla poked her head in, “Everything okay, boys? I heard
yelling.”

“Everything is fine, Mom. Armin was actually just leaving,” Eren seethed through gritted teeth.

“Project. Tonight.” were the last words Armin said to him before giving a small smile to Carla and
walking out of the house. Eren, stubborn little shit he is, didn’t realize that besides the project they
were due to present in a few days, it was the last time Eren would genuinely talk to Armin until the
start of their junior year.

Chapter End Notes

big oof. armin being an irrational asshole and classic eren being the most homophobic
homosexual. also idk if anyone was gonna get mad at me abt it but yes i am apart of
the lgbt community :// anyways more characters are being introduced next chapt and
more comedy rather than armin being an asshole whoop whoop. as you can tell i
wanted a more realistic take on a teenager with canon character armin’s smarts and wit
as opposed to him letting eren walk all over him?? idk lemme know what you guys
think :c <3
 Grisha Owed Carla $20 And A New Toy
Chapter Notes

hi everyone!! thank you all for the feedback on last chapter. your comments make my
little heart soar <3 i don't really know how to work ao3 to be honest and i'm scared to
press too many buttons in case i mess something up so if you have ever commented
then this is for you *hug*

anyways, this chapter is ridiculously long wtf??? dk how that happened. the first half
is kinda filler? and then the second half is like "ayo, plot time" so yeah sorry about
that oopsies. i hope i'm spacing out armin and eren's relationship nicely :vvv i love
slowburn but unfortunately i'm really bad at that HAHAHA anyways love you all and
enjoy the chapter <33

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Their project ended up getting an A. Eren did finish it that very night and Armin had to make
minimal changes to it along with redesigning every slide because Eren had a tendency to not only
use background colors that made the text hard to read, but also had a weird obsession with putting a
transition on every single thing. In total, Armin had to delete 105 transitions from slide to slide,
text, pictures, double transitions. But they presented it, got an A, the next week was finals, and
their sophomore year was finally done. The semi finals were that Saturday as well which they lost
due to Floch severely overthrowing the ball from the outfield when the tying run was coming
home. The ball soared a good six feet over Eren’s head, hitting the backstop and sending him
scrambling, allowing the winning run to score as well. Frankly, Eren hoped Floch felt like shit after
that. Everyone hates Floch.

Armin aced all his exams with ease and when grades came out on Friday night, he got the best
sleep he had within the whole month. Straight-A's as anticipated. Not only that, but him and Marco
ended up going on another date (this time, instead of Marco’s house they went to a bookstore).
Marco, fresh with a new license, picked Armin up and he was swooning over Marco’s knowledge
about the stars. He learned that similar to him and Eren, Marco and Jean were childhood best
friends and when they were younger they would go outside and watch the stars a lot. Sheepishly,
Marco admit that sometimes Jean would still stargaze with him some nights if Marco was stressed
about something. Instead of feeling jealous, Armin’s heart swirled and exploded in his chest.

That was so cute . The freaking stars! Marco and his stars. Armin’s pre-sleep daydream scenarios
consisted of him and Marco under the stars from that point on.

Eren, on the other hand, was a mess. He got all B’s on his exams, hooray, but his life was a mess.
He lost the semi finals because of a stupid freshman and he hadn’t seen Armin the entire month of
June after their fight. Unfortunately, Eren was a stubborn bastard and didn’t want to apologize and
admit he was wrong. He was so so so mad at himself but continued his act out of spite because he
didn’t want to just submit to Armin like that. He wanted Armin to want him to come back.

Yeah, that plan was a good one while it lasted... not .

Carla could tell that Eren was distraught and that it was because of Armin, simply because Armin
and Eren usually had sleepovers every week during summer until Armin’s parents came back in
July and August. She tried to take him outside but to no avail. Mikasa hung out with Eren in his
room and when their parents bought Mikasa her own car for her 18th birthday, she made him do
her Peloton workouts with her at the local park so he didn’t lose his figure for baseball. Along with
the muscle mass gain, he grew taller too. So if there was one good thing to take away from this
summer, it’s that he finally hit puberty and he no longer had to walk to and from school.

One day, Mikasa tried to offer to maybe go to the county summer fair, Eren turned her down
because it “wasn’t right. I can’t ride the ferris wheel without Armin.” To which, Mikasa hit him,
saying it was the last summer fair she would have before her senior year and she got seniority. So,
instead of going with Armin, all of the Jaeger family collectively went to the fair as a “Mikasa’s in
her last year of high school!” celebration as opposed to a friendly tradition. But still, Eren felt off
the entire time but then him and his dad had a competition at one of the shooting game booths
(Grisha smoked Eren by a landslide which left both Jaeger siblings wondering where their dad
learned to shoot a gun like that, and left them especially confused when their mother laughed and
said, “Just like old times!”). Unfortunately, the fair only lasted for that day, so Eren had the most
boring summer known to mankind.

Armin, on the contrary, having the time of his life this summer. On July 4th, him and Marco
shared their first kiss (both with each other and in general) under the fireworks after Marco
officially asked Armin to be his boyfriend. The whole “Eren’s computer” situation only ever
crossed his mind on his occasionally sleepless nights every week when he stared at his phone,
wondering if he should text his best friend. He knew that they were both in the wrong: Armin
being a manipulative asshole, but Eren did the entire 9 yards. Not doing his work, refusing to
apologize, calling Armin slurs (which Armin chuckled to himself that he kinda spurred Eren on but
regardless, Eren had a multitude of other things to call Armin and he chose that word so that’s on
Eren), and then not apologizing for that.

As always, summer went as quickly as it came, and Eren found himself getting dressed for junior
year. His hair had become quite long, just below his ears, so he waltzed into Mikasa’s room and sat
down on her bed. He waited for her to come back from downstairs and he slid to the ground as she
stepped behind him, putting up his hair into a loose bun.

“Casual or dressy?” Mikasa made small talk.

“I’ll do dressy if you do dressy,”

“Deal.”

So after she was done, Eren went back to his room to get “dressy”.

“Eren, that is not dressy. You look ready to ask a freshman where her hug is at. Ugh, whatever,”
Mika ran a hand through her short hair, recently cut into something resembling a pixie cut. She
tugged on her worn leather jacket and adjusted her red scarf before checking the clock. “You know
what, we’re going to be late, but I won’t forget this betrayal, little brother.”

Eren considered a white t-shirt without stains and black jeans dressy, okay? And plus, behind his
varsity jacket, his muscles did look really good, so he looked fine as hell (fact) and that equals
dressy.

“We’re picking up Armin, by the way. Marco had to be at a 0 period, so get a move on,” was the
final thing she said to him before going outside to her car. Eren froze and mentally cursed at
Mikasa because she knew him and Armin hadn’t been on good terms for the past 3 months and she
completely disregarded that. Forgetting the fact that Mikasa is nice to Armin because all three of
them were a childhood-best-friend-trio, he instead took this as payback from her for not being
“dressy” enough.

And then the other problem. Marco Marco Marco. Stupid Marco. Even though Eren didn’t see
Armin over the summer, he sure as hell saw every single social media post from the two of them
about each other. It was so annoying. Eren vividly remembers watching a story post of him and
Marco hugging. Marco came up from behind and wrapped his arms around Armin’s stomach while
Armin’s hand (the one not holding the phone) reached behind him and squished Marco’s face
against his. It was during a grocery run with Mika and while he was waiting in line, the guy behind
them happened to just look over Eren’s shoulder and saw the picture. He scoffed, muttering
something about impurities, and after that day Eren made sure to follow an abundance of female
models because he didn’t need anyone getting the idea that he was gay. Every guy loved women,
and so did Eren, and it was only natural that his algorithm set it up so he was seeing unnaturally-
orange ass & thong combos every other photo.

Shaking his head, Eren climbed in the car and set his backpack at his feet. The twist and turns of
the car felt familiar as they made the 2 minute drive into the adjacent neighborhood to pick up
Armin.

Mikasa shot Armin a text and nerves coiled up in Eren’s stomach as he awaited for Armin to come
out and get in the car, “Oh, and by the way, Armin told me he has a few cousins in town so we’re
taking them too.”

“What the fuck, Mikasa?! We’re taking two total strangers to school?!”

“Yes, because we’re good friends and won’t let them walk to school like mad men. Armin told me
their parents are on a trip for their anniversary and will probably move here when they get back, so
the cousins are staying with him. Now get over because they’re all gonna be here in- OH MY
GOD!”

His head shot up at Mikasa when she gasped and cheered, rolling down Eren’s window in order to
lean across him and shout, “Who’s that sexy thangggg?!”

He followed her cheery gaze to Armin and if there was a floor, his jaw would’ve dropped it. As
expected, everyone went with dressy on the first day of school, so that explained why Armin wore
what he did. But Eren had never seen Armin so up to date with trends, fashion, style, the whole
nine yards. Armin wore the school crewneck, a dark green with the words ‘SINA HIGH TITANS’
and ‘est. 1964’ splayed across the front classily in white. He had a white collared shirt poking out,
along with black ripped jeans and matching dark greens vans.

And not only was the outfit out of character, but his hair . So long were the days of Armin’s
trademark bob that Eren could spot in a crowd. Instead, it was replaced with a bowl cut and a sleek
undercut, no longer able to hide Armin’s sharp jaw and cheekbones.

Eren noticed all these details because Armin looked so fucking hot .

For a guy.

He looked nice for a guy, as nice as guys could look because they could never ever match up to a
woman’s beauty in Eren’s mind.

Behind him treaded two girls, one who looked Mikasa’s age and a very short one who looked
similar to the other so they were obviously sisters. The first one had her hair pulled back in a bun,
letting her bangs hand forward on her face and covering one eye. A black oversized band t-shirt,
black jeans, and white vans adorned her body along with a white hoodie poking out underneath.
The stoic look on her face reminded him faintly of Mikasa. The shorter one also had bangs and her
hair pulled back into a ponytail. She held the same deadpan as the girl who Eren assumed was her
older sister, except she dressed a lot more trendy.

“What in the Pinterest threw up on you?!” Mikasa gaped as she turned around in her seat, smiling
widely at Armin as he slid into the backseat with his cousins.

“You like it? My parents suggested the haircut when they came home,” Armin blushed sheepishly
and Eren let out a sigh of relief as he leant back in the passenger seat. Still the same old Armin.

“Okay yes that, like woah total shock factor with the hair, but the clothes too! Literally who taught
you how to dress,” Mika joked, pulling onto the main road and proceeding to school.

“That would be me!” The shorter girl piped up. “Oh yeah, my bad for not introducing you guys.
Eren, Mikasa, this is Annie and Zofia. Annie and Zofia, this is Mikasa and Eren. We’ve known
each other since we were all, like, 5,” Armin laughed and Annie gave a grunt in recognition.

“So what grade are you guys in?” Mikasa, coming back strong with the small talk.

“I’m a freshman,” the younger one, Zofia, said. “Ar, I think Sasha’s little sister and Bert’s little
brother are freshies, too. And Reiner said something about his cousin,” Mikasa said, looking in the
rearview mirror.

“Zofia, we have this huge friendgroup and we’ve all been together since middle school. They all
have little siblings who became friends by force so I’m sure they wouldn’t mind you sitting with
them! We can all introduce you,” At that, Zofia smiled.

“What about you, Annie?” It was the first thing Eren had said in the car ride at all.

“‘M a senior,” she muttered, still looking out the window, “thanks for the ride, by the way. It was
really nice of you to drive us, Mikasa.”

“Yeah of course, no problem...Annie,” Eren spared a glance to Mikasa and his eyes widened when
he saw a faint tint of pink in her cheeks.

Was Mikasa...gay?

He pondered it for a minute before shrugging his shoulders.

‘At least she understands how beautiful women are. Mmmm, boobs’

And then Eren thought of boobs as they turned into the school parking lot. No boner, though.
Maybe he was just an ass guy, because now that he thought of it, boobs were kinda weird. Just
some milk sacks. Ew, boobs.

‘NO! WE LOVE WOMEN AND THAT MEANS WE LOVE BOOBS! ’

Eren shook away the thoughts as the group clambered out of the car. Mikasa and Eren had already
accessed their schedules online so they went to their first period as Armin led Annie and Zofia to
the front office.

The next time they all saw each other was break.

As per usual, Mikasa and Eren were the first ones to their table. The second was Reiner and Bert,
along with two boys trailing behind them. “Hey Udo!” Mikasa greeted Bert’s little brother and
Eren followed suit before turning to Reiner.

“Hey guys! This is my little cousin Falco, cutie ain’t he?” Reiner pinched the cheeks of the little
kid, Falco.

“Hi Falco! I’m Eren and this is my older sister, Mikasa,” he grinned and Falco immediately
decided he liked Eren the most. He looked really cool.

Second to approach was Jean, Marco, and Armin with Marco’s arm around Armin shoulders. Eren
really did try to not roll his eyes but he did anyway before realizing that Zofia and Annie were here,
too. They gave their introductions and Annie sat down next to Armin and Marco while Zofia
reluctantly started talking to Udo and Falco.

Finally, bounding in like an unstoppable force, Sasha and Connie crashed into the table.

“Hey guys! You all remember Gabi, right?” Sasha shoved her little sister to the front, and Gabi
huffed in annoyance. The group greeted Gabi and Sasha cheered, pinching her cheeks in a similar
fashion to Reiner.

“Get off me, Sash! I swear sometimes I could kill you!” She seethed, pushing off her older sister
and making her way to Udo, who ended up introducing her to the other two new kids.

Eren looked around the table, realizing that they’d all done a lot of growing over the summer. They
all never really got to hang out because either Armin was there and Eren wasn’t going to be and
vice-versa. Bert and his family took a month trip to sightsee in Europe and plans just never really
worked out, so he was glad to be with his friends again.

Bert looked relatively the same, just more muscular and mature. Reiner had started to grow hints of
a beard along his jawline. Marco had opted to get an undercut, same as Armin, but his long hair on
the top was slicked back. Sasha’s hair got shorter and Connie’s signature silver hair got longer.
Then, his eyes fell upon Jean right when Jean coincidentally looked over at Eren. Uh oh.

“Wow, Jaeger, you almost don’t look like a sack of shit for once,” Jean smirked, eyeing Eren's
appearance. Jean's hair had grown out into some mullet-type thing with an undercut so you could
still see the embarrassing two-tones.

“Damn, right when I was about to ask what products you used to grow out that mane of yours,”
everyone simultaneously groaned. The kids looked around and Bert whispered into Udo’s ear, who
whispered to Falco, who whispered to Gabi, who whispered to Annie, who whispered to Zofia, and
then they all looked equally terrified.

“Are you ever gonna use more than one insult?”

“Oh, stop with the long face about it. I might have to send you back to the stables.”

“You dick!” Jean almost pounced across the table before he was held back by Marco and Eren felt
the familiar tug of Armin behind him for restraint.

Fuck that. It was all fun and games until Armin manipulative-bastard-pretending-everything-is-
okay got involved and was now touching Eren. That simply wasn’t going to do.

“Jesus fuck, Armin!” Eren roughly yanked his arms out of Armin’s light grip, making the blonde
stumble forward.

He grabbed him by the collar and yanked him down, and Armin’s eyes widened. He’d never seen
Eren so upset with him.

“Touch me again, and you’re dead . Drop that stupid fucking act of yours.”

Eren climbed out of the cafeteria table and the busy chatter of students going to their next class
wasn’t enough to drown out his thoughts. He stormed off and didn’t see anyone for the rest of the
day, opting the back of the library was a suitable place for lunch.

“Eren, what the fuck was that?”

Mikasa and Armin were both sitting in the living room by time Eren had walked home. Thankfully,
Weilsman didn’t like to have practice the first week of school to let the freshmen get used to
things.

“Why is he here?”

“Mika, you should leave,” Armin warned.

She looked between them multiple times and sighed.

“You’re lucky that Mom is out grocery shopping. She’ll be back in an hour,” and with that, Mika
went outside and they both heard her car pulling out of the driveway. To where, they didn’t know.

“So…”

“Fuck off, Armin. Literally get out of here if you don’t want to end up with a black eye,”

“A black eye over what, Eren? A stupid project you couldn’t commit yourself to? The fact that you
can’t handle being wrong? The way you called me a faggot?” Eren winced. He’d never heard
Armin say it for himself. “And isn’t it funny, Eren, how even though I know I did something bad, I
still was nice to you for the sake of our friends so when we both wanted to talk this out, we could
do it without concerning everyone? But now, everyone knows what happened, and now we need to
fix this. Just apologize, Eren.”

“What the fuck, Armin. You know that you egged me on. You know how I feel about…” Eren got
cut off.

“GOD-FUCKING-ALMIGHTY, EREN! ARE YOU SO GODDAMN INSECURE THAT YOU

CAN’T HANDLE A JOKE ABOUT YOUR FUCKING SEXUALITY?” Eren was stunned to silence.
Armin had tears pooling in his eyes.

“Fine Eren, I led you on! I WANTED you to say something bad, but I didn’t know you would’ve
said that! Especially to me,” Armin’s voice cracked and Eren did, in fact, feel like shit.

“You have no idea what it’s like, Eren! I only ever gave you a small glimpse. But in middle school,
I learned how to do makeup to cover up my bruises. Every night I prayed to God that he’d make
me normal. Hell- I considered my own life at one point! And then to hear my best friend, my best
fucking friend , say that to me in a bout of anger because he doesn’t want to admit something to
himself just because I was teasing him, and then he gets more mad at me because of HIS original
fuckup, you really think you have nothing to apologize for, Eren?!” And then Armin broke down.
He got down on his knees and sobbed. And Eren finally saw through the haircut and new clothes-
it was still Armin.

They had all grown up, but they still hadn’t changed. In Eren’s eyes, he realized that they were all
still just kids.

So Eren gently came forward and wrapped his arms around Armin’s shaking frame. He let his chin
rest on Armin’s head and it bounced lightly every now and then when a sob would rack through
Armin’s body. And he felt his fists pounding against Eren’s chest, and he let him. He deserved it.

Eventually Eren dropped his head down and Armin’s ear while his head was still buried in Eren’s
chest.

“Please stop crying Armin, I’m sorry.” “I’m so so sorry…” A gentle hand glided up and down
Armin’s back. “Shh..it’s okay. We’re okay. I’m right here. I’m sorry.”

When Armin’s tears stifled, he reluctantly hugged Eren back. It had been their first hug since
freshman year, and now they were juniors.

“Eren…” Armin pulled back slightly and tilted his chin up, balancing it on Eren’s chest in a similar
way to Connie and Sasha, “last semester, I found your porn stash. The gay one. What is going on?
What are you so afraid of?”

Eren froze. His limbs went weak, his eyes widened, and Armin knows he hit a nerve. It was Eren’s
turn to start crying and blubbering.

“I’m not… I just…”

“Okay, okay. You’re not. I believe you. It’s okay,” Armin left it at that. They made their way to
Eren’s room and laid down in his bed. It was here that Eren realized how much he truly missed
Armin’s friendship. Not just over the summer, but in general. Eren knew that something had
changed when he went into high school, and he knew what it was, but he was too scared to admit it.
But he missed everything him and Armin used to have before he had set his boundaries, and he
even missed cuddling, which they were doing right now.

When they were younger, Armin used to be deathly afraid of the dark. Until seventh grade, he held
a strong grip on this pink blanket everywhere he went and in a hurry to pack his bag, he forgot to
bring his blanket to Eren’s house for a sleepover. He cried and cried in Eren’s bed. It was dark and
he couldn’t slip under his protective shield to sleep, so Eren’s brilliant 7th-grade-mind just
wrapped his arms around him. So then, it became regular for Eren and Armin to cuddle before bed
and Armin no longer needed the blanket to help him sleep at night.

Eren stopped cuddling Armin about halfway into their freshman year. He said it was weird because
he didn’t like guys.

As Eren laid there, combing through Armin’s hair, he wondered: cuddling could be platonic. He
used to cuddle with his mom and he definitely didn’t want to fuck his mom (unlike Connie, who
once got a big smack to the back of his head by Sasha when he openly called Carla a ‘MILF’ one
day at lunch). So here, Eren decided, they could start cuddling again. Armin was right. If Eren
liked girls, it wasn’t that big of a deal, right?
 And that’s how they spent the time until dinner. Carla walked upstairs to let Eren know, shocked to
find Armin wrapped up in his arms as the two gently slept together.

“Grisha, you owe me $20 and a new toy,” Carla would say to her husband later that night.

Later that night, when the two both woke up hungry, Armin just opted to sleep over. So, they were
fairly shocked to see leftovers in the fridge with a note in Carla’s writing.

‘Leftovers from dinner! Glad to see that you both made up ;) love you boys!’

Armin and Eren shared a smile. They were glad, too.

Chapter End Notes

yay!! so everyone now looks like how they do in season 4 and Marco's look is
inspired by the official art (?) Isayama drew for timeskip Marco. Also, historia and
ymir will come soon!!! yay :D and i've wanted to see the kids in a fanfic for so long so
i'm excited!! see yall soon :DD
 Moblit the Guardian Angel
Chapter Notes

chapter dedicated to @skye_yeager and @quigglywuiggly :D i always see your guys'

comments and thank you for your input!!! and thanks to everyone who has left me
comments about what they've liked :v it makes it easier to write chapters when i know
you guys like how certain characters are written. okay, onto chapter 5!! <3

See the end of the chapter for more notes

The next day at school, Eren embarrassingly made an apology to the group. They didn’t pry as to
exactly how or why he and Armin got into a fight, but they let it go and were just happy that
everyone was chill again.

Over the next two weeks, everyone began to settle into their old routine. It was a cold Wednesday
afternoon and the cafeteria was serving something close to inedible for lunch. Eren sat between
Armin and Mikasa as per usual before Jean came up behind Eren, tasering his sides and putting his
chin against Eren’s shoulder and smushing their faces together, “Jaegerbomb and I have our first
home game tomorrow after school, you all up to watch?”

Everyone nodded, Connie and Sasha exclaiming how they’ll bring signs. Which they did end up
doing, and they embarrassingly whooped and catcalled Jean and Eren at every single at bat they
had and every time they came on the field to play defense. But, when Eren looked in the stands, he
couldn’t see Armin. In fact, Marco wasn’t there either.

‘Probably getting actio- no, Armin’s totally a virgin. He excels in anything that isn’t physical,’
Eren cringed the sound of the umpire calling a strike on Floch (it’s always Floch, isn’t it? Stupid
Floch) as it snapped him out of his thoughts.

The game ended and the Sina High Titans took victory over the Trost Scouts, but Eren didn’t pay
attention to that as his friends congratulated him and Jean. He was more preoccupied wondering
where Armin was, even as the water ran cold in the locker room showers. Jean peaked over the
wall separating the showers from the rest of the room, “Hey Jaeger, as much as I respect sex
workers and public nudity, I think you’re scaring away the freshmen by letting it hang out for so
long."

“They shouldn’t let big sizes intimidate them,” Eren smirked, wringing out his hair lightly and
shutting off the shower. He wrapped a towel around his waist, padding out lightly to change into
his clothes with Jean close on his tail. He took a seat across from Eren on a bench while Eren
changed, talking about the game.

“Hey, unrelated but did you see Armin and Marco? I thought they were coming,” he tried not to
make his frown apparent but it didn’t work. He finished buttoning his jeans and looked at Jean,
which made him feel better because Jean wore the exact same frown Eren did.

“I don’t know, man. Usually Marco has come to all our opening games for pre-season, I wish I
could tell you really. It’d give me a piece of mind,” Jean’s eyes flickered before he stood up and
lightly brushed himself off. Eren slipped on his shoes, grabbed his bag, and made his way out of
the locker room with Jean treading behind him.
As they came to the parking lot, Eren noticed their group huddled near Sasha’s minivan.

“Giddy up, Bullseye! That’s a good boy, following his master!” Eren whistled to Jean as they
approached, which led to Jean dropping his equipment and pouncing on Eren’s back, putting him
in a headlock.

“Okay guys, settle up. Pizza time, Sasha’s mom’s treat,” Reiner yelled which immediately grabbed
the attention of the starving baseball players.

Once Jean had dismounted Eren, Mikasa came up to give him a congratulatory hug and peck on the
cheek before helping him adjust his bag in the limited space of the Mikasa’s trunk while the rest
piled into Sasha’s minivan (Eren was fairly sure he saw them squishing Falco in between the space
of the two second row seats).

“Hey Mika, do you know where Armin is?”

“Yeah, he said he just had something important come up.”

Apparently, “important” was Armin’s new marine biology club.

Apparently, Eren wasn’t allowed to be at this club because Armin had said it “conducted their
activities differently”, even though Eren was smart enough to know this meant illegal (although he
wasn’t quite sure how they pulled it off, he trusted Armin to be able to talk himself out of
anything...especially that one time Armin talked himself out of therapy after his mom caught him
performing rituals on handmade voodoo dolls replicating his bullies in the 6th grade).

(...now all Eren could think about is how he really hoped Armin had let that phase go.)

So there he was, sitting outside the school building while Mikasa had probably already gotten
home about two hours ago. The team only had conditioning that day, so Eren had enough time to
text Armin, shower, get dressed, get the response that Armin had his marine biology club, and then
tell Mikasa that he’d wait to walk home with Armin.

And he was still sitting there waiting.

Time dragged on agonizingly for the next thirty minutes, which was a perfect opportunity to catch
up on homework for the night (which Eren graciously didn’t take and ended up scrolling through
social media until Armin came out).

Eventually, Armin had to come out of the building and he did with the biggest smile on his face.
He spotted Eren and ran up to him, thanking him for waiting so long, and then started talking.

“Hey so Eren did you know that-”

‘No, Eren doesn’t know. Wanna know what Eren knows? His ass hurts from that stupid bench.
That’s what Eren knows,’

“-and they don’t have teeth so they swallow their prey whole! Aren’t sea creatures just
fascinating?” Armin sighed happily, tilting his head back and letting his face being hit by the
setting sun ahead of them.

“So I’m guessing you like this new club?”

“Yeah! The president is super crazy, like I don’t really know why they’re allowed to interact with
the general populace, but the vice keeps them in check. Oh yeah! And there’s this weird senior
who’s only there to put it on their college apps but their friend comes with them because apparently
he’s ‘bad at interacting’ so he helps him!! Isn’t that so cute and nice?” There was a glow in
Armin’s eyes that Eren read as a ‘I made friends outside of my friend group since middle school’
type of joy.

“-and there’s also this guy with like...HUGE pecks. Like, the guy has honkers,” Eren chuckled at
Armin’s uncharacteristic use of slang, “and he has a nice girlfriend who is friends with the
president, so she comes sometimes, too!” His smile stretched so largely that Eren could see the
indents of his faint dimples and he was so busy looking at Armin that he ran into a mailbox.

He pulled away groaning, holding his stomach before looking at the mailbox and seeing four
different colored handprints surrounding a very lovely written “Jaeger”.

He turned to Armin, a pained smile making way onto his face as he offered a weak thumbs up,
“We’re home.”

And that’s how it continued for the next two weeks. Eren would go to practice, change, and wait
for Armin to walk home. After the first week, Mikasa was getting slightly irritated that her little
brother kept coming home at 6pm when he could be getting home at 3pm.

“Eren, Armin is a big boy. Please just get in the car,” Mikasa deadpanned.

“No, what if he gets set on fire and burnt to a crisp? Who’s gonna be there and yell at someone to
save him, Mika? Who will it be?”

“Fine. At least you know how utterly useless you would be if that situation were to ever happen,”
and Eren waved as she drove off.

Until one day, a figure burst out of the school doors. Their glasses, ‘or are those goggles?’ , glinted
as the sunset hit them. Said student glanced frantically around the school entrance before the two
finally made eye contact and the stranger started bounding towards them. Eren noticed their lab
coat (messy lab coat, messier than Eren’s room and damn that’s messy) waving in the wind at the
velocity of the speed they were running at.

‘Oh no, a crazy scientist has come to kill me-’ Eren made a cross motion before clasping his hands
together in terror, ‘Dear God, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done, on Earth, as it is in heav-’

“EREEEEEEEEEN!” a banshee-screech bellowed from the figure as it rapidly approached him and
Eren quickened his prayer before he died, trying to make amends with God really quickly before
he got banished from the two pearly gates.

He felt two arms wrap around him tightly before he realized he was knocked to the ground, all of
the air in his lungs being pushed out of him while the stranger laid on top of him, rocking them
side to side on the ground as they buried their hair in his chest. He could barely hear the words
they were saying as he tried to gasp for breath.

“Oh, Armin was right! You smell so good! So do your armpits! Is that natural, or do you just have
good deodorant? Oh man, your body temperature is so hot! Do you think you’ll let me take your
temper-”
“ HANJI! Get off of him!” is all he heard before the leech was ripped off of him forcefully. Eren
eagerly climbed on all fours weakly to his chestnut-haired-God, pawing at his feet and hugging his
calves.

“I thought I was a goner... Thank you God for sending me my guardian angel,” He cried towards
the sky, clutching tightly to the stranger and getting their pant leg embarrassingly wet with tears.

“Woah, calm down there gentle giant,” he heard another unfamiliar voice sneer as other footsteps
approached the scene rapidly.

“Oh god- Eren!” he heard Armin yelp and the familiar grasp of Armin’s hands underneath his arms
and yanking him away from his guardian angel. He whacked Armin off and snuggled closer to his
angel’s legs. “Stop Armin! God sent me my angel because I prayed and I can’t let you distract me
from His gift!” The desperate teen wailed, trying to stay attached to his God’s leg as Armin made
feeble attempts to pull him off.

“Come on Moblit, just let me touch him!” He pried his eyes open and looked across to the voice
and it was the lab-coated student talking to his fairy Godmother, whose name was apparently
Moblit. They were being held back by a giant blonde guy, who Eren recognized as Erwin Smith,
the student council/ASB president for their school. There was an extremely short boy next to him
and Eren thinks that the mad scientist would be dead if looks could kill, considering the intense
scowl he was aiming their way.

‘Wow, I can’t believe that kid is disrespecting his upperclassman like that-’

“Hey kid,” a soft voice broke Eren’s thoughts, “as much as I appreciate your gratitude, I’m gonna
need you to let go now,” he looked up towards the sweet smiling face of his new religion and
scrambled off him, getting to his feet.

“Eren, are you okay?” Armin forcefully flipped Eren to inspect him, dusting off his shoulders and
legs and-

“Sorry for Hanji, they just get excited about new people,” This was Erwin talking to him. After
Armin’s thorough brush-off-non-existent-dust parade, Eren turned to see him. Said scientist that he
was still holding back, Hanji, was drooling at the mouth. Or was that foam? Is it rabid?

“Tch. Stupid four-eyes,” the freshman rolled his eyes and Eren gasped, “Why do you keep
disrespecting your upperclassman like that?”

Everyone froze. Hanji slurped their drool-foam back into their mouth. A pin dropped somewhere,
Eren was sure.

The small freshman shook with anger as he stalked forward. He jumped so his foot and Eren’s face
were making eye contact, and then he delivered an intense roundhouse kick to the side of his face,
causing Eren to fall to the ground for the second time within the past 10 minutes. Armin gasped,
once again coming to Eren’s aid as Eren looked back up at the freshman, dazed.

“I. am. a. senior.” Everyone else could see the fiery flames of hell burning behind this guy too,
right? Oh shit, this dude is a senior and he’s still that short? And he hangs out with mad-scientist
Hanji? Yikes, pick a struggle.

Said-senior was now being pushed back by Godsent-Moblit, who was saying, “Calm down, Levi.
It’s not like the poor guy knew,”

‘Yeah Levi , the poor guy didn’t know. Aw, look at guardian angel saving me again.’
 -

So these were Armin’s new club members, Eren had come to find out after the whole fiasco.

Hanji, the club president and Moblit, the vice. Levi, the one who needs the club for his college
apps and Erwin, the nice one who helps Levi socialize. The guy with “huge pecks”, Miche, and his
girlfriend Nanaba weren’t able to be at the club meet today because it was their one year
anniversary, but everyone made sure to assure Eren that they were good people. All in all, they
were a nice group, Eren came to think as him and Armin walked home from the diner. They all
ended up taking Eren out as an apology for Hanji nearly killing him (Moblit paid for his meal in
his casual God manner) so now him and Armin were simply making their way home.

“You think I smell good?”

“What?” Armin squeaked. Classic Armin.

“Hanji said something about how you said I smell good," he chuckled, “what do I smell like?”

Armin chuckled nervously, “Uhm...well. You smell like…” he trailed off nervously, almost as if
he was trying to convey something without saying something else. Eren supposed it was pretty
weird to try and tell someone how good they smell.

“You smell like uh.. You know like… minty. You smell really minty and cinnamon-y or nutmeg-y.
But also like citrus, too,” the blonde shyly uttered. Eren wasn’t sure how the combination of all
those scents turned out into something good, but he would take it. And he felt kinda weird, since
the only way he could describe the way Armin smells is just like “Armin”. They fell into silence
once again.

“So does Marco know about the new club?” Eren piped up again. Maybe he should just shut up.

“No, we haven’t talked for a few days,” He looked over at Armin who kept his usual small smile
on his face.

“Why not? Don’t you text the people you date? Isn’t it weird to go that long without talking?” Not
that Eren knew anything about relationships, his only and longest relationship lasted for an entire
recess period in 1st grade.

“Well it’s kinda weird to text someone after you break up.”

“WHAT?”

Chapter End Notes

yay!! now the plot will finally start to thicken >:) sorry for taking so long to introduce
everyone, and thanks to those who have been keeping up with the story!!! love you all
and see you in the next chapter <3
 Let's Get Pregnant!
Chapter Notes

as you guys can tell, I don't really have an upload schedule, sorry :p but you know how
it be. i hope everyone's doing good/are having a good day!! okay, onto chapter 6 <3

See the end of the chapter for more notes

‘WHATTTT?’ the same scream emerged at the group’s school lunch table the next day, causing
everyone in the cafeteria to spare a glance their way and a supervisor asking them to quiet down
but they didn’t have time for that. Everyone looked incredulously at Armin and Marco.

“You guys were together for two seconds! Literally, if this was a book or something, it wouldn’t
even have lasted a chapter! That’s so weak. Not only that, but you guys didn’t even tell us!” Sasha
wailed through a mouth full of food but the rest of the table agreed. Apparently, Armin and Marco
had broken up at the beginning of the week after spending four short, delightful months together.

The two scholars were flushed red from head to toe in embarrassment. Marco opted to hide his face
in his hands while Armin just kept rolling his eyes.

“We didn’t want to start any drama in the group. Eventually you guys would find out, but we didn’t
want any tension between anyone,” that was for Eren and Jean. Everyone and their mother knew
that the last sentence was for Eren and Jean. It was true, though. If the two boys had talked about
their breakup that monday publicly, Eren and Jean would’ve been at each other’s throats in order to
defend their two best friends.

“Marco and I are just fine. We didn’t lose feelings or anything, we both just agreed that we’d rather
focus on junior year first because it’s more important than maintaining a relationship,”

“-and junior year grades are the most important. Once this year is over, we will be back together
officially,” Marco chimed in happily.

“So you guys aren’t even broken up, you’re just on a break because you are both down bad for
like, Moby Dick and shit?” Connie asked. Eren really wanted to laugh, but he knew this was a
serious question for Connie. Connie was really a great person and friend, honestly, but it was pretty
apparent that he wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box. What shocked Eren more though was when
Falco shared a glance with Connie and began nodding eagerly, wanting to also know the answer
with the same expression of seriousness splayed on his face. Reiner took note of this and
indiscreetly shuffled Falco away from where Connie was sat, wanting better for his cousin and his
academic career. Armin and Marco nodded regardless, though.

“You guys aren’t even broken up, then. Why did you make it sound so dramatic, Eren?” Annie
turned to Eren, looking across at him since Mikasa was sandwiched between them. He held his
hands up dramatically in defense, “I just said what I was told!”

“No, Eren, you said the first thing you heard and didn’t listen when I explained,” Armin was doing
the thing where he pinched the bridge of his nose again. “Anyway, there is no bad blood between
us and since we’re still technically together there wasn’t any reason to bring it up. See?” Armin
flung his arms out around Marco’s waist, snuggling into his side and then turning his face upwards
to give the freckled boy a quick kiss, “no bad blood, no drama. We just have our priorities set
straight and can’t give our relationship the time and effort it deserves, so let’s not talk about this
anymore.” The group just shrugged their shoulders, as if to just say ‘Yeah, that checks out’ and
started talking about their lives and whatnot again, no longer bringing Armin or Marco up as a
topic of discussion.

So they were still together. Eren didn’t know why he was disappointed or why he was the only one
still hung up on the dead conversation, but damn was he so happy that he ran with it when Armin
initially said they were broken up. He kept thinking of it, even as they went to class, even when he
saw Armin give a goodbye hug to Marco before they left the cafeteria, even as he got home (and
didn’t wait for Armin this time around). He kept thinking and thinking and Eren had probably
thought more about Armin and Marco’s relationship in that one night than he ever had in his entire
life.

The weekend came, and Armin and Marco were back in the stands for Eren and Jean’s game on
saturday along with all their friends. Marco had to go to his little sister’s birthday during their
opening game, excusing his absence and relieving Jean of his odd stress over the freckled-boys
non attendance. Afterwards, they all celebrated as per usual. Sasha ate 3 pizzas, hot wings, and
cheesy bread alone, the rest of them ate 3 pizzas and an extra order of bread combined. Mikasa did
her weekly ‘pray-for-Sasha’s-parents’-bank-account’ despite Sasha being the most well off in the
group and Annie even decided to join her. Eren pulled up a porn tab later that night and… and…

Armin was easy to realize the terrible edge in Eren’s mood. Every and all sentences aimed towards
him were blocked by either 1) a sarcastic comment, 2) an insult, 3) a bark. A literal fucking bark, or
3) a silent nod or shake of the head. Eren’s usually bright eyes had an uncharastic dull that didn’t
even sparkle with malice when Jean made an offhand comment towards him. This was a different
type of upset than Jean had seen at practice, as that had been a combination of anger towards Eren
himself and Armin. This anger looked like Eren wasn’t even mad at someone. Just something.
Even the kids noticed Eren’s attitude and stood away from him, convinced he would lash out if
given the chance.

As always, Floch messed things up later that day. Always Floch, huh? It even felt like a swear word
to Eren, even as he thought it he began to bleep it out.

“Hey Eren, everything alright, man?” Fl*ch approached Eren in the dugout, slapping a hand on his
shoulder like they were best buddies.

Oh no, Fl*ch, you guys certainly are not best buddies. Eren deducted right then and there that
Fl*ch wasn’t even in the vicinity of the acquaintance-zone. Fl*ch resided in the ‘I-forgot-you-exist-
but-now-you’re-talking-to-me-and-I-can’t-avoid-it’ zone in Eren’s mind.

“Woof woof,” Eren shrugged his hand off fiercely by the violent jerk of his shoulder, grabbed his
fielding glove and left the dugout.

Once practiced ended, Eren waited for Armin as per usual. Hanji and Levi walked out with Armin
this time, but Hanji still bounded over happily to Eren and hugged him tighter than a human should
hug another. They also buried their nose into his armpit and he felt their body shift as they inhaled
deeply before letting it out and jumping from foot to foot, still clinging onto Eren. He just let them,
though. I mean, who wouldn’t have an ego boost from naturally good smelling armpits?

Eventually, Levi pulled them off and Hanji began talking.

“So, Eren! We wanted to ask if you wanted to go to a get-together this friday! We invited Armin,
but we figured he would need a friend because WOW is he bad at socializing on his own! I’m
surprised he joined our club hahaha- OW !”

“Stop the rambling, four-eyes. It’s at Miche’s house, his parents are gone for the weekend. You
brats game?” Levi didn’t wait for an answer, “Okay cool. Shitty Glasses will send Armin the
details, just show up and be ready to stay over.”

“Do you guys not have parents? You really think they’ll let me stay over at a senior’s house?”
Eren questioned angrily.

“Calm down there, gentle giant. You forget I’m 18 and can do whatever I want. Yes, if you lie
enough. Be there at 9:00 sharp tomorrow, because we’re gonna fucking party, kiddos.”

So Levi just accepted the invitation for them, not cool. Eren stalked off, Armin chasing after him
and falling into step.

"So...how was school today?"

"Can it, Ar, I really don't want to talk right now."

"Eren, what could've possibly happened between yesterday evening and this morning that made
you so pissed off?"

Eren sighed. The silence stretched as he thought of how to phrase it. Armin kept his gaze trained
on Eren, occasionally looking ahead to see where they were walking. The blonde truly wished, at
times like these, he could read minds. It would be really convenient. A small, nearly inaudible
sentence came from Eren a second later.

"Huh, come again?"

"icouldntgetitup"

"Eren, I'm a human. Not a psychic. Speak up."

"I couldn't get it up!" Armin looked around frantically to make sure there was no one else around
him. Coincidentally, there was. A nice old lady across the street selling flowers at the corner. From
the furrowed brows, he had no doubt she heard Eren's outburst. Armin stopped, grumbling
something on how he'd 'heard some stupid shit before, Eren, but this is some stupid shit."

Eren looked at Armin, shock painted all over his face, "Stupid shit? This is not stupid shit! I felt so
horny, and I couldn't get it up to my favorite MILF! I couldn't get hard no matter what video I
watched!" Eren whispered harshly.

"Sometimes our bodies just work like that, Eren. It doesn't mean anything, oh my god, you
baboon," Eren took this as his answer. His mood immediately perked up and he started to talk
about Miche's party and convinced Armin to go, saying it will be fun with Eren there.

Eren decided to leave out the fact that he got hard when he went back to watching gay porn. Armin
was right, guys. Our bodies just work like that sometimes. And it counts because femboys look like
girls and Eren loved everything about girls. He reasoned with himself that girls moaned too fake,
too, making it difficult to get hard. See? Armin knows everything. Eren knew he wasn't gay
because human bodies were, to quote from Eren's thoughts, 'straight up wack' and therefore this
meant that getting off to straight porn wasn't gay. It's just the way the world worked, who was Eren
to defy it?
-

After texting Hanji to get every detail about the party to get its statistical safety, he deemed only a
17% chance of having something god awful and/or life-changing happen.

Then again, Armin also said that it was a small get-together with the exception of a few outside
friends.

Armin said a lot of things, Eren came to find.

So Eren didn’t really know why when they walked in at 9:30pm (after being promptly dropped off
by their cover story, Sasha and Connie) there were at least 50 to 60 more people than he
anticipated. The aroma of spilled beer and sweaty teens invaded his nostrils and he could feel
Armin pressing into his side in fear. Oh man, did Eren want to be brave for Armin. He really did.
But how could he be brave when some dude with big ass pecks came up to him and sniffed him a
few seconds after observing the party.

Eren stood still with fear. Standing now at 6 feet, this guy still managed to tower over Eren and
make him feel small. Big ass pecks then moved on to sniff Armin, who just let big pecks sniff him
and he smiled.

“Hey Miche! Nice house and thanks for the invite!” Armin yelled over the music, “We won’t stay
for long, I have to go back home and study!” Ah. Big-peck Miche, Eren recalled Armin's
description when he was talking about the club.

“Oh come on kid,” Miche slung a muscular arm around Armin’s tiny frame, nearly making him
disappear into his side, “have some fun! It’s the weekend now!”

Hanji came barreling up to them, doing their sniff-Eren’s-armpit-ritual before hugging Armin. No
longer covered in a lab coat (shocking), they wore a wrinkled yellow button up and jeans. The
signature goggles and craziness seemed unwavering, though.

“Hey guys! Glad you came, here, let’s go get drinks!” Before they were able to answer, Hanji
grabbed the two boys by their forearms and dragged them through the crowd and into the kitchen.
Levi was already there, sipping from a red solo cup, talking to Erwin. They both greeted them and
were given two identical red solo cups. Armin politely declined, opting to get a drink for himself
but Eren the walking dumbass took the drink with gratefulness. He didn’t exactly remember Coke
tasting so similar to hand sanitizer, though.

Eren had finished his half-filled solo cup by time Armin had made his way back to the kitchen with
a can of Sprite in hand.

“Eren, let’s leave after I finish my drink, okay? This isn’t really my scene,” Armin propped up on
his tiptoes to whisper into Eren’s ear, tugging on his jacket sleeve while his hot breath against the
shell of Eren’s ear added to the warmth that was spreading throughout the brunette's body. He
slung an arm around his best friend and chuckled, tilting down to say a quick ‘you should loosen
up,’ , and then requesting another drink from Levi before turning back to re-spark his previous
conversation with Erwin. Levi grabbed a Coke from the fridge and a bottle of rum, mixing the
drink, and Eren didn’t realize the first time about what he was putting into his body but now he did
and oh shit he was drinking alcohol oh god oh fuc-

The red solo cup was shoved into his hands a few seconds later. Levi re-entered the conversation.

“Eren Kruger Jaeger, if you dare take a sip from that, I will forcefully drag us out of the house.”
Armin’s threat was empty, Eren deduced in his foggy-minded state, and he told Armin that he
couldn’t even feel a thing. One more couldn’t hurt, he argued. Armin eventually gave in since he
couldn’t smell anything on Eren’s breath.

One more didn’t actually end up hurting.

What did hurt though, was seven more. And four straight shots of straight Balkan Vodka (kudos to
Miche’s parents) after Armin was forced to give into peer pressure from Hanji, who said that
Armin was too-uptight for their liking. And that’s how Eren, Armin, Hanji, Moblit, Nanaba, and
Miche ended up sitting in a circle in the living room at 1am with all other party-goers already gone.
The thoughts of studying were long away from the front of Armin's mind, actually Armin was
thinking about how cute baby goats were as he snuggled into Eren’s side. Eren wasn’t even sure he
was thinking. He was just staring at the wall, but the wall was making fun shapes so Eren wasn’t
bothered.

“Your turn, Eren! Truthsies or daresies!” Hanji giggled, throwing their hands up and falling
sideways into Moblit’s lap. He patted their head and scratched at their nape, taking another drink
from his cup.

“Uh.. truth-pees, haha. Pee…” Eren was still looking at the wall, so he didn’t notice Hanji getting
on all fours and crawling towards him. “Oh no, spider attackkk!” Armin yelled, throwing both
hands over his eyes. Hanji grabbed at Eren’s chin, squishing his cheeks and forcing them to be
face-to-face.

“Why don’t you join my club? Water is so nice, can I kiss you?”

“No! Water is for drinking, not fish. Go back to the pond if you want to be such a silly goose!”
Eren and Hanji laughed, but their hand was soon swatted down by Armin who took the liberty of
crawling into Eren’s lap and sticking his arms out in a defensive position. He opened his mouth to
say something, but was cut off by a loud bang upstairs and the faint yell of Levi.

“Fuck, yes! Erwin!”

The group began catcalling and they distantly heard a door unlock, a loud “Fuck off!” and then the
conversation continued.

“As I was saying,” Armin held up an indicated finger as his words slurred, “no kissing! You can’t
get Eren pregnant, I want to do the pregnant kiss!” He cried, shoving his face down against his
hands and his shoulders shook up and down. Nanaba, bless her sweet soul, crawled over in her
drunken state and wrapped herself around the Armin-shaped-ball.

“It’s okay, baby, you can give Eren the pregnancy kiss,” she cooed lightly as the two blondes
cuddled (still in Eren’s lap, by the way). Miche sniffed the air half-hazardly before turning back to
the group, “I smell sexual tension and false information,” and Moblit nodded, tapping their drinks
together, “Fuck yeah, man, cheers to that.”

“Can I give you the pregnancy kiss, please?” Armin turned around sharply, Nanaba’s arms still
wrapped tightly around him.

“Yeah Eren, let’s get pregnannttt!” Hanji whooped, making their way back into Moblit’s lap.

At this point, Levi and Erwin stumbled downstairs, both clad in all of their shirtless glory and
purple marks randomly scattered across both their chests with no shame of the activities that were
previously going on. Nanaba turned to Levi, “Levi, are you pregnant now? Armin wants to get
Eren pregnant! Tell us your experience, baby mama!”

Taking note of the feeling of cum spilling as out his ass as they spoke, Levi gave a tipsy response
of, “It feels fucking great, let's get knocked up,” before joining the circle with Erwin between
Moblit and Miche.

“See, Er-Bear!” Armin threw his arms around Eren’s neck, bringing the brunette back to reality,
“let’s have a baby! Mmmwahh” Armin puckered his lips and started leaning in, which lightly
sobered Eren up. In a reaction that was too fast for drunk people to commit, Eren slotted his own
hand between him and Armin’s mouths.

“Mmhm?” Armin’s mouth was muffled. Eren stood up, promptly knocking Armin to the ground,
and went to the front door. He walked in a circle. Checked the inside of his shoes, and then looked
at his feet. Eren sat back with the group and pulled Armin back into his lap so the blonde was
straddling him.

“Why-Why did you walk away?” Armin’s bottom lip quivered as new tears filled the brink of his
eyes.

“It’s not gay if you have socks on,” Eren rolled around his heavy head to the side and around
before bringing it back infront of Armin’s, knocking their foreheads together and tried blocking out
the chatter of the circle but to no avail.

‘Is he serious, Moby?’

‘God I hope not,’

‘Levi, why are you smiling? Since when can you do that?’

Armin clapped his hands together happily, in the fashion of a toddler, before pulling his head
backwards and victoriously throwing his hands up in the air. The circle of drunken, horny teens,
kept an intense stare on the two as Armin brought his hands down to Eren’s face swiftly, gripping
his jawline and crushing their faces together in a kiss. The circle of teens cheered them on,
especially when the kiss began getting heated. Their tongues moved sloppily and Eren moved his
hand to grip Armin’s ass, forcing it down to grind on his lap as his other hand was held behind him
for support. The loudest cheer came from Levi, who was drunkenly cackling as Eren brought his
knees up lightly and his feet flat, giving Eren enough leverage to start lightly thrusting his hips
upward and circling his hips before bringing his hips back down. Armin pulled back for air,
cheering loudly and standing up, leaving Eren to stare up at him with blown out eyes and swollen
lips.

“We’re pregnant! I’m having a baby!! Wooooooo!” He chanted and everyone congratulated him
and Eren.

‘It’s not gay if you have a baby. Only straight people have babies,’ Eren thought, deeming that it
checked out and the pornographic show he just put on was actually pretty straight of him.

Go Eren!

After waking up at Miche’s, Sasha picked them up at 11am the next day and let them both shower
and freshen up at her place as her parents were already out at work. Eren was pretty chippy,
gushing to Sasha about how awesome the party was and how the marine biology club was actually
full of some pretty cool people.
 Armin stayed quiet the entire time, playing with the edges of his sweater and toying with the holes
in his jeans as Sasha drove them both home. He couldn’t meet Eren’s eyes and Eren just chuckled
at Armin silently from the passenger seat of the minivan, thinking about how funny it was that it
was nearing 2pm and Armin was still hungover. Sasha chatted them up, but Eren could only think
about how next time, he would limit Armin’s intake because wow, did Armin seem on edge. He
probably felt bad, it was Armin’s first party and first time drinking, anyways. Eren understood the
jitters that he once faced back in freshman year when Connie and him snuck into Connie’s parents
stash during a sleepover.

Silly, silly Armin.

Chapter End Notes

silly silly armin

 Operation Gay-ger
Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

“Wow, what a fucking oaf. Who completely forgets? Seriously, I’ve had my fair share of times I
drank more than my weight, but it always comes back in the end. You’re telling me it’s been two
weeks and the guy still doesn’t have a clue?”

“Yes! If he knew, he wouldn’t keep trying to cuddle me!” Armin groaned his reply to Levi,
keeping his head buried in his arms.

“Oh c’mon Squirt, maybe that’s a good thing for the guy. He doesn’t remember, you can totally
forget and move on. It was a drunken mistake anyways,” the senior shrugged, taking a long sip of
tea from his travel mug as Armin continued his rant. He and Armin were the only two left behind
in the club room, seeing as everyone left about an hour prior and Armin made sure to tell Eren to
go home with Mikasa so he wasn’t kept waiting.

“You don’t understand! What if one day Eren just, y’know, remembers? That will end in a terrible
disaster!” His voice cracked and went up a few octaves, running nervous hands through his hair.

“Why?”

Armin’s eyes shot up. He gave an unhumorous laugh, and just cocked his head to the side. “You
remember the party, right?” Levi nodded, “Okay, good. So you remember when he spent 5 minutes
checking to make sure he had socks on, right?” Levi nodded again, a smirk ghosting upon his usual
frown.

“Yeah, that was real funny. Didn’t know that Jaeger kept the jokes coming even when he was
hammered. What? What’s with the face?” Levi saw Armin’s face turn into a strange concoction of
scared, sad, confused, baffled, every emotion under the sun and Armin’s face experienced it within
the 3 seconds it took for Levi to utter those few words. He took another sip from his mug, slower
this time to watch Armin as he responded.

“You didn’t come to think that he was serious?” Tea was now all over Armin’s face. Levi
apologized for his shocked-spit take and retrieved his mom’s old handkerchief from the front
pocket of his backpack, wiping Armin down and muttering more apologies.

“He wasn’t serious,” Levi factually stated, now cleaning his travel mug of all his spittel residue.
Armin’s suggestion really did shock him, after all.

It was now Armin’s turn to explain that Eren actually was serious. As serious as a funeral, mind
you. Levi listened intently as Armin spoke, explaining Eren’s boundaries, what he considered gay
and not gay, and eventually confided in Levi about the gay porn, the trouble with getting a boner
and all the “I’m straight” humbo jumbo. The poor man looked like his eyes were about to pop out
of his skull in shock, his travel mug long abandoned by time Armin had been done explaining
everything.

Levi swallowed heavily, processing the information. Instead of being a total jerk about it, he sighed
and looked Armin in the eyes.

“So, he’s in denial. Do you know why?”

“Well I have a theory on it,” Levi nodded to keep him going, “when we were younger, Eren had
some really bad anger issues. He got bullied for them and got into fights a lot until his parents took
him to a child psychiatrist. It was actually a hereditary thing on either of his parents’ sides, I’m not
too sure on specifics, but compared to Mikasa he probably thinks he’s caused a lot of trouble for
the family. I think he sees being gay as another problem for his family to deal with, but I could be
wrong,” Armin looked down thoughtfully, picking at the dirt underneath his nails.

“I really am at a loss, Lee. I don’t want to tell Marco, there’s no need. I don’t like Eren, it was
honestly a drunken mistake. But how do I tell Eren without losing my best friend again? I could
handle losing him over the summer, but that was over a petty project and was fixable. This is a
genuine thing that he has a problem with and I want to help, like all friends would want to, but I
can’t even rack up a thought on how to approach this. As much as I want to ‘just forget’, I can't risk
him remembering and then losing all his trust in me. If I tell him, we lose everything we’ve worked
towards in trying to get our old friendship back. There literally are no wins here.”

Levi hummed a response, getting up from the school desk and sliding his backpack on.

“Where are you going? Are you just gonna leave me high and dry?” Armin mumbled, leaning his
cheek on his hand in order to look up at Levi.

“Nope, we’re going to my house. I really wanna help you, Armin, but I need some more tea.”

Armin never really expected to become close friends with a senior, let alone Levi. Dare he say he
was in best friend territory with the guy after one night.

When they got to his small apartment, they began to talk about Levi and leave the Eren
conversation at bay until the nighttime, but not before Armin texted his grandpa to let him know he
would be spending the night at a friend’s house.

Levi Ackerman was a famous name at their school, and Armin was shocked that Eren didn’t know
him upon their first meeting but it’s not like Eren was really aware of the outside world anyways.
Levi has exceeded everyone’s expectations of him. Walking into class as a short, sarcastic, lewd
asshole didn’t give teachers much hope, but he built a title for himself. He finished at the top of his
class every year without fail, straight-A’s across the board. Him and Armin were extremely similar,
he’d come to find. Except Levi volunteered during the week and on weekends while Armin had to
drop volunteering at Mina’s and tutoring at his middle school in order to pick up and focus on 3
extra AP’s, resulting in 4 total. The blonde had already promised himself to pick them both back up
once the 2nd semester came back full swing, though.

Levi himself still had six classes per day even as a senior, seven if you included being section
leader of the trumpets in the school band. He took all APs, to which Armin called him crazy for
and Levi responded with a sly ‘maybe I am’ . On top of that, Levi volunteered every other day at
the local orphanage a few miles from the school.

‘I only go for a few hours,’ Levi mused, ‘but I honestly love to see the kids. I play with them, I
bring them food, I just want to make their lives a little better. I know the panic of not having
parents anymore, so I hope what I do is memorable for them. Also, at the last hour of the day,
they’re usually too tired to do anything else so they sit around me and watch me study. Isn’t that
convenient? I love those little brats, I hope I get to see them grow up one day or something.’

To his surprise, Armin was able to learn a lot about Levi. He actually lived with his Uncle Kenny,
but he didn’t always. The man actually grew up in France with his mom, who was rather poor at
the time. She passed in a hit and run when she was walking home from work, and since his dad
was out of the picture, Levi’s only known relative was his uncle who had immigrated to the United
States from France.

‘Sometimes I wonder, why me, y’know? But, it’s not so bad here with my Uncle Kenny. He works
downtown as the owner of this fancy-shmancy bar so we get by alright,’ Armin recalled the
conversation in the early hours in the morning as he stared at the ceiling of Levi’s bedroom,
recalling the events of the night, ‘I mean, not everyone’s uncle teaches them how to use a knife and
a gun or how to fight within the first few weeks of meeting them, but that old bastard made my life
pretty damn great. You know what he told me after my 8th grade graduation? Well, I graduated as
the valedictorian of the class, right? That old fuck came up to me, gave me the biggest hug I’ve
ever received in my life, and looked me dead in the eyes and told me that I was his damned pride
and joy,’ He remembers seeing Levi smiling with teeth for the first time after that recollection.

Due to Levi living in poverty and experiencing malnourishment at a constant for the first seven
years of his life, Armin put together the pieces as to why Levi was built the way he was and why
he acted the way he did. Levi even showed off his impeccable mother tongue to Armin, who was
thoroughly impressed since he could never detect an accent in Levi’s voice during the short two
months he knew the guy.

‘And that’s why you’re in the club for the college apps?’ Armin asked, hoping to not be invasive.
‘Yep. Hoping to get a full-ride to somewhere fancy. Then Kenny doesn’t have to worry about debt
and once I get rich off of being a doctor, I can finally get him out of this shithole apartment and
into a nice home,’ Levi chuckled, setting his mug in the sink before coming back to the couch. ‘I
only really joined because I’ve known Hanji for so long, but it turns out the shit is actually fun.
Even has some pretty cool kiddos in there, too,’ They bumped shoulders and laughed.

Another thing he learned about Levi: he was actually very intact with his emotions and was open
about them, along with his personal life, with the right people. In fact, after their little sleepover,
Armin would deem him as the most emotional person he’s ever met, but Levi is so intact with his
emotions that he knew how to hide them well.

Eventually, they got back onto the Eren situation. At this point, Levi and Armin had moved to
Levi’s bedroom. Levi was sitting against the headboard of his bed studying for his AP Psychology
class while Armin sat next to him and laid his head on the senior’s shoulder, elaborating the
situation while overlooking the textbook. He rambled mostly to himself, working out the problem
and giving Levi his time to study.

Which brings us back to the current time, which was 3am. Levi stopped studying and homework
around 2am and they both found the solution to the Eren problem at 1am, so they talked for about
an hour before they both heard the opening and closing of the front door, indicating that Kenny
was home. Kenny quickly walked down the short hallway and knocked on Levi’s door before
entering, finding the blonde and the dark-haired male laying down and facing each other as they
both laid on the pillows of Levi’s bed. Armin turned his head in shock, scared of what the sight
might look like from an outside perspective, but Kenny just gave a small wave and a smirk that
could be classified as sinister looking.

“Hello, Levi friend or possible boyfriend, I am Uncle Kenny. Breakfast at 6:00 every morning, no
exceptions,” he flicked his head upwards, now addressing Levi, “bed, Avorton ‘runt’, you wake up
with headache. Goodnight,” the tall, slender man with a heavy French accent, Uncle Kenny, flicked
the light off and Levi huffed a laugh as they heard the man walk back down the wall and into his
room.
“Why didn’t you tell me your uncle was cool?”

“I don’t tell lies. That old man is as cool as a broken AC,” the elder joked before flipping over to
face the wall, “get some sleep, Squirt. We still have school tomorrow,” and Armin complied
easily.

As promised, Armin was woken by Levi at 5:50 to prepare for breakfast at 6am sharp.

After brushing his teeth with a spare toothbrush and using Levi’s face wash, he made his way out
to the kitchen to eat. On the menu was Eggo waffles, kindly prepared by the tired-looking Kenny.

“ Merci beaucoup, Oncle, ”

‘Thank you very much, Uncle’ Levi spoke appreciatively in his mother tongue, in which Kenny
nodded in acknowledgement.

“Thank you for the breakfast, Mr. Ackerma-”

“No,” Kenny cut him off, making his way back to the kitchen to clean up.

“Huh?”

“How I introduce… I introduce myself as Uncle Kenny, no?” He jested, back still turned to Armin
who just nodded in realization.

“Thank you for the breakfast, Uncle Kenny. I appreciate the food and letting me stay the night,”
Armin corrected, digging into the meal. Kenny grunted in what Armin could identify as happily.

Eren was upset. Is anyone shocked? He’s been upset for like, the past three chapters. Eren being
upset was just formality at this point.

Not only did Armin not ride with him, Mika, Annie, and Zofia to school today, but he came
walking to school with Levi Ackerman. Not only did he come to school with Levi Ackerman, but
he also came to school wearing his clothes as well. Eren could see the pristine gray button down
and too-tight black jeans from where he stood near the school’s library (little did he know, when
Levi had given Armin the change of clothes that morning, Levi insisted Armin keep them because
they were way too big on him yet they ruthlessly chafed against Armin’s...you know).

Eventually, Erwin Smith arrived at school who delicately whisked Levi away from Armin with a
graceful arm around his shoulder. Levi tucked into his side lovingly, and Armin just smiled at the
two before waving and turning. Eren took this chance to walk up to Armin, who was shocked by
Eren’s sudden appearance.

“Hey, Eren! Where’s Mikas-”

“Why were you with him yesterday?” Eren looked directly down at Armin, making the boy feel
small under Eren’s penetrating gaze.

“I just slept over. We ended up having a lot in common and uh, I needed help on my APUSH
homework,” Armin felt his cheeks going red as he made an attempt to lie. It was good enough
though, since Eren let it go with a scoff. “Fine, so what, he's a good guy. You’re coming home with
me today,” Eren made a quick 180 turn to walk off to his first period. Albeit, he would be 15
minutes early, but Mrs. Ral deserved some company this fine morning and Eren wasn’t sticking
behind after his dramatic exit so Armin couldn’t say no.

As anticipated, by 6pm rolled around, Armin was at the Jaeger household. Eren had waited for
Armin after practice, they walked home in silence, and now Eren was dragging Armin upstairs.
Armin was at least grateful that he shot a quick text to Levi, who would graciously wash Armin’s
clothes from the previous day and bring them to school tomorrow, bless his soul. But for now,
Armin’s backpack was forcefully taken off by none other than straight-boy-Jaeger and he was
promptly tossed on the bed, feeling arms snake around his waist and a cold nose pressing into his
collarbone. He took the hint that Eren wanted to be the little spoon.

“Eren, I have homework and so do you, can’t we do this afterwards?”

“No. You’ve been acting weird ever since Miche’s party and this is only the 6th time you’ve let me
cuddle you over the past like, what, two weeks? I get the first time getting drunk and partying is
probably a bit overwhelming, but it's been a while and it’s time for you to stop moping, okay? I
miss you,” Eren sighed and Armin couldn’t help but untie Eren’s bun and begin to run his hands
through his hair, which was now reaching shoulder length. This didn’t stop Armin from glaring
daggers the ceiling though, as Eren huffed softly and opted to lay on top of Armin’s chest rather
than them both laying on their sides.

‘I can’t believe I genuinely have to do this. There is nothing about this that is remotely straight. No
one craves cuddles from their best friend. Ok, maybe they do, but this is still the gayest thing to
happen since gay came to gay town,’ the blonde silently argued in his mind, and he subconsciously
stopped stroking Eren’s hair during his inner monologue. A large, calloused hand pulled him out of
his thoughts. Eren grabbed Armin’s hand in his own and continued the stroking motions, a silent
ask to keep going. Armin did keep going because he knew it would probably be the last time as he
drew a deep breath and just said it.

“I’m acting weird after Miche’s party because we made out in front of everyone.”

“Did I have socks on?”

“Excuse me?”

“You know the rules, it’s not gay if I had socks on. Did I have socks on?”

“What if I said no?”

He felt Eren’s eyes shoot open against his chest and he slowly brought his head up. His bottom lip
quivered and he sniffed, “D-did I not…?”

In a hurry, Armin began to nervously word-vomit because things certainly weren't going as Levi
and him had planned, “What? I mean, yes you did, but that’s not the difference, Eren. I’m still a
guy. An article of clothing doesn’t immediately exclude the actions that happened.” Armin sat up,
curling his knees and wrapping his arms around them. Eren got up to face him, chuckling, “Yes it
does! If I know I’m straight, it’s not a big deal, right? You said so. Now stop acting weird and
fucking cuddle me. I had a tough 4th period and I really would like to just hug you right now.”

Obviously, the next day, all of this information got relayed to Levi at a nearby coffee shop once
Levi got off from volunteering. This came with the addition of Erwin and Hanji, too, who sat there
 looking just as shell-shocked as Levi two days prior.

“So now he’s just being gay and saying it’s not gay because he says so and he had socks on?”

Armin nearly broke down in tears. This was killing him for reasons unknown.

Hanji wrapped a consoling arm around Armin’s shoulders while Levi and Erwin took each of his
hands, rubbing them with comfort.

“Guys, I can’t do this anymore. He’s gay. Gay as fucking shit,” all three gasped since it was their
first time hearing Armin say such language, but they let him continue, “and it’s pretty clear he has a
crush on me. He’s my best friend, of course, and I love him so much. But, he keeps denying his
sexuality and thinks it excuses the possessive and clingy boyfriend nature of his actions lately. I
love Eren, truly, but I like Marco romantically and his unknowing advances are making me
uncomfortable," he drew a deep breath to collect himself, running a nervous hand through his
undercut.

"When we stopped fighting after the summer, sure we were touchy and stuff, but I just wanted our
old friendship back. The way he's starting to act now is exceeding those limits by a landslide. And
not only did I make a drunken mistake with my best friend, but I also kind of cheated on Marco
even though we’re technically on break. I don’t even know what to do,” he cried silently at the
table, hoping not to distract too many customers.

“Alright boys, I suppose it’s time to kick Eren’s ass in gay-gear and get him off your back, huh?”
Armin nodded.

“Okay, Operation Gay-ger is now in session!” Hanji clapped at their statement. Armin continued to
cry. Levi ordered more tea. Erwin was still shocked. Eren was still gay, but now he was going to
realize it now sooner than later.

Chapter End Notes

i love levi and armin being besties. idk just felt right :c
 Upperclassmen Know Best
Chapter Notes

ah i dont really like this chapter :( it's an extreme filler on the lowkey and i hate filler
chapterrsss butt i needed this chapter to provide some info & it ends awkwardly but it
HAD TO BE DONE so here it is and next chapter will be better i promise

“ERREENN!” Hanji’s familiar screech bellowed towards where the boy was sitting. He glanced
up confused, since it was about an hour too early for the marine biology club to be let out.

“WHATT?” he yelled back from the signature bench he waited on.

They waved for Eren to re-enter the building and he complied, promptly being led to the chemistry
classroom they used. Coincidentally, it was Mr. Shadis’. They were all crowded near a lab table,
and it looked like the club activities consisted of talking and finishing up homework for that day,
not that Eren was disappointed. He didn’t really want to see what the club actually got up to,
because he didn’t really want to get “participated in illegal/gang activity” put on his record in case
they got caught.

He slid into the free stool next to Armin, saying hi to the rest of the club’s members.

Hanji closed the classroom door and bounded back over to the table, standing next to Moblit and
slapping their hands against the table, making everyone except Levi jump.

“Eren, we’re glad you can be here, comrade! We are planning our first club activity!” The screech
they released was more than ear piercing, and poor Moblit was right next to all that action. Miche
politely covered Nanaba’s ears and Erwin, well, Erwin was just there. He had tuned out long ago,
probably thinking about huge, scary monkeys that throw rocks or something.

“We are going to,” they stopped and Moblit sighed, tapping a weak drumroll against the lab table,
“HELP PICK UP TRASH AT THE BEACH! And you, Eren Jaeger, are going to help!” Hanji
pointed an incredulous finger at Eren, which signalled Moblit to dig in his backpack boredly,
pulling out a crumpled up party horn and giving a weak blow, an unceremonious honk filling the
empty classroom.

“Hanj, as much as I want to help you guys out and save the turtles and I really do, poor little
bastards, why the hell would we do instead of like...visiting an aquarium? And I have practice until
3 everyday,” Eren sighed.

“Because uh...that’s our next club activity? And it’ll be in the evening, so it’ll count as club
activities and extra volunteer hours...?” Eren couldn’t tell if it was a question or an answer and it
was easy to catch on the way Hanji’s voice went up at the end of every sentence, but hey, it was a
response so he just shrugged his shoulders and laid his head against Armin’s shoulder.

“I still don’t understand why I have to come, though. Isn’t this your guys’ club?”

“I-”

“Yeah, but Squirt over here said he’d really love to have you there,” Levi cut off Hanji before they
got caught up in their own web of lies, slapping a rough hand down on Armin’s unoccupied
shoulder which caused the blonde’s eyes to go wide.

Eren’s head whipped up and he let his chin balance on Armin’s shoulder, looking up at Armin.
Armin, slowly turning his head with the same wide-eyed fear, gave Eren a forced smile and trying
to give more distance between their faces than two inches.

Eren, on the other hand, was half-lidded with a lazy, blissed out smile stretching across his face at
the notion that Armin wanted him to come along. Oh man, did he love hanging out with Armin
lately. He couldn’t help the way his heart beat rapidly at every recent mention of the boy, or how
he took the chance to touch him or cuddle him any chance he got. And oh, the way Eren loved to
run his hands through Armin’s hair and down his neck, feeling the bristles of his undercut.

He just loved his best friend so much! And sometimes, Eren thought to himself, ‘I wonder what
being actually in love with a girl will feel like. I’m obviously not gay and am obviously not in love
with Armin, so if platonic love feels this good, what will real romantic love feel like?’

Armin looked behind Eren, where he could see Miche and Nanaba sitting at the end of the lab
table. Nanaba was giving an apologetic smile, as everyone in the room could see the bedroom eyes
that Eren was currently making at Armin. Miche just gave him a look that read, ‘Stop smiling. You
look like Chucky.’

Not that Miche was wrong, though. Armin could feel his left eye starting to twitch.

“Okay, if Armin wants me to go, I will go,” Eren resumed his head’s previous position on Armin’s
shoulder, even choosing to close his eyes and rub his cheek against it a few times, humming quietly
with content.

“Eren, can you go wait for me outside while we pack up?” Armin nudged his shoulder a few times,
making Eren lift his head. He just nodded and left, closing the door but stopping right outside it and
waiting for the rest of the club members to come out.

Once Eren was out of the class, Armin slouched over and rubbed his temples. Everyone let out a
collective sigh, which got Erwin out of his daydreaming trance and back to reality. Oop, there goes
gravity. Mom’s spaghetti?

“So, it’s pretty damn obvious the kid has a touching kink,” Levi huffed, shoving his abandoned
textbook back into his backpack while Hanji and Moblit cleaned off the lab table.

“You mean his love language is probably physical touch?” Nanaba suggested, shrugging her
backpack on.

“Whatever it is- do you guys understand now?” the distressed sound came from Armin as he got up
and scoot his stool back under the lab table.

“Yeah, that’s really awkward for you, Squirt. Erwin? C’mon, time to go home, mon chéri ‘my
dear’, ” Erwin somehow was back in his daydreaming state and was once again snapped out by
Levi lightly tugging his hand. The taller, more mature blonde shook his head a little bit before
blinking, “Sorry, Armin, I’m just tired today. I am really worried about the whole Eren thing,
though,” he supplied meekly, getting up and holding Levi’s hand loosely.

“It’s okay, you guys have no idea how much it means for me for you guys to be helping. I don’t
even know what our friends would do about this, but thank you guys for being there for me even
though you’ve only known me for a short while.”
“That’s what your upperclassmen are for, Arry! Now, respect your elders! Drop and give me 20!”
Leave it to Hanji to always lighten the mood. They slapped a huge, slobbery kiss on Armin’s cheek
and gave them a crushing side hug before the group exited the classroom where Eren stood
waiting. Hanji quickly let their arm fall, catching Eren eyeing up the friendly touch with hostility.

“So boys, today’s Wednesday. How’s about Friday at 6? We all meet up, grab some pizza, and go
save some turtles?” Hanji beamed to clear up the silence. Both boys nodded and the rest of the
group agreed, Levi offering to drive both boys to the beach.

“How fun will that be, huh?” Eren smiled at Armin on their route home.

‘Oh how fun it will be,’ Armin mused to himself, knowing that his plan was just beginning to fall
into place.

As promised, Levi picked them up and was able to get himself, Erwin, Armin, and Eren to the
chosen pizza place at 6:00 sharp, but then again Armin had expected nothing less. Luckily, dinner
went by without a hitch (minus the one time Levi slapped Eren for talking with his mouth full).
With full stomachs, huge asses, and full hearts, they made their way to the coast line. Hanji took
out their cell phone, snapping pictures of the group working together as the sun began to set. Some
lone surfers were still out of the waves, trying to get in what they could before the moon made its
temporary residence in the nice sky.

Eren nearly dropped his trash picker when he felt a familiar nose press into his armpit and a laugh
mildly contagious.

“Ereeennnnn, I wonder what you smell like with no deodorant on~” Hanji singsonged, before
pulling away and helping Eren pick up trash around his area. Oddly comforted by the recurring
compliment (was it a compliment?), he just chuckled and thanked them for the help.

“I think surfing is pretty gosh darn amazing, huh Eren?” Hanji perked up randomly, tossing some
plastic into their garbage bag.

“I mean I guess. I don’t think I could ever do it, I’m too clumsy,” he chuckled and Hanji whole-
heartedly agreed, both of them falling into giggles as they added onto reasons why they could
never surf. Armin turned his head at the commotion, distracting him from his previous
conversation with Erwin. He turned his head back to the elder blonde, a hint of a mischievous grin
ghosting across his face, “It’s happening.”

After their small talk about surfing, Hanji carried most of the conversation, varying between the
ocean and the people currently at the beach.

“Yeah, if I knew you could get abs like those from surfing, I would’ve been doing it out of the
womb!” The mad-scientist chuckled, motioning a thumb to the group of men walking off the beach
with surfboards under their arms and washboard abs that no human could miss.

“-I mean I could just lick those things individually!”

He shot his head up, frowning.

“What? I mean, their abs are nice, but I don’t like men like that,” the brunette shook his head,
continuing to pick up trash.

Although Eren couldn’t see it, Hanji’s glasses glinted with something combined with the sunset and
pure evil and their smirk widened.

“...I never asked you if you thought he was cute, Eren. I just said he had nice abs,” they gave a
knowing chuckle when Eren froze, “Not that it would be a problem or anything, obviously. I mean,
look around,” Slowly turning his head up, he followed directions to the rhetorical statement. Erwin
playfully threw trash at Levi, who then dropped his trash picker and lunged at Erwin full force.
Armin doubled over in laughter while the 5’2” man managed to take down his boyfriend who
towered nearly a foot over him, and Moblit not-so-discreetly ogled at Hanji.

“Y’know, it’s not a bad thing,” the scientist kept supplying food for Eren’s thoughts as they
noticed his eyes glaze over. The gears in Eren’s head were noticeably turning for only a split
second before he went back to picking up trash.

“Obviously it’s not a bad thing, Hanji. I’m not stupid,” the cold, distant tone took the senior by
shock but fueled their motivation.

“Would it be bad if you were?”

“What are you, my therapist?” Finally, Eren’s smarts were beginning to show themselves through
witty comebacks.

“Perhaps eventually your psychologist once I get an acceptance letter back,” even through the
meant-to-be-serious conversation, Hanji continued their jests and pokes of fun, “but you never
answered my question.

‘Yes,’ “No,” the statement was firm, “if I was gay, there would be no use in hiding it. But I’m not,
so there. I don’t know what you’re trying to prove right now, but I’m going to go pick up more
trash. Moblit’s staring at your ass again, so you should go put your boyfriend in check,” the teen
grumbled before stalking off near the shoreline, distancing himself from the group. With a sad
smile gracing their face, they saw Eren’ noticeably tying and retying his bun a few times before
letting a shake run through his body and then the boy continued to pick up his trash. Letting it
finally drop, Hanji whipped around, new mood gracing their entire presence as they spotted Moblit
(who was definitely staring at their ass) and they not-so-gracefully bounded up to their partner,
throwing their hands around their neck and joining in with a conservation between Miche and
Erwin. The time would come soon, Hanji reasoned internally, but it was better to keep it at a push
than a shove.

“I could tell it got his wheels turning, but he’s still pretty adamant on it,” Hanji would reveal to the
group that following monday as they wrote down the schedule for the new month of October, “and
by the way, the little squid stunt I pulled a few weeks ago almost got our club terminated so instead
I’ve signed us up to teach an after-school marine biology class at Stohess Elementary, sorry guys,”
a collective groan sounded at the mention of having to teach snotty-nosed kids, but then again, it
was better than Hanji trying to reanimate a preserved squid corpse ‘in the name of science’.

“Well, that really doesn’t change the fact that Eren is still clueless and probably forever will be,”
Miche grunted while writing in some new dates for the club on the calendar.

“Well, Miche, if I knew my little pep talk would’ve ended as a streaming bowl of shit on fire, then I
wouldn’t have done it but hey look where we are now! DON’T YOU THINK I REALIZE THAT!”
The scientist pulled at their hair in frustration while Miche just chuckled in return.

“It’s fine, Hanj, but whatever you did must’ve worked because now Eren keeps getting mad at me
for little things,” Armin sighed, beginning to pack up his things.

“Like what?” sounded Erwin.

“Well, Eren gets mad easily, but this is different from how he’s been acting the past few weeks
obviously,” He began to explain. The previous day, he told them, he had gone to help Eren study
for his upcoming pre-calc test. Eren being Eren didn’t want to do homework immediately, but after
an hour Armin finally put his foot down to start studying. The two got into a quarrel, Eren wanting
to continue putting it off and getting unnecessarily mad before Armin began to pack his things and
threaten to leave him to study on his own. This triggered something in Eren, who shot across the
room and hugged Armin, profusely apologizing and begging him to stay.

“When I started to teach him, he looked like a little lost puppy, and then we were completely back
at square one,” slinging his backpack across his shoulders, he got up from the lab table stool and
began to help pack away the monthly-calendar decorating supplies.

“And you’re still gonna go home with him tonight?” questioned Nanaba.

“Yes, because I love my best friend-”

“-who’s romantically in love with you. Honestly, Squirt, this is getting dragged on for ridiculously
long, and frankly it’s getting boring and irritating to watch rather than fun now. I think you need to
just be straight with him and just tell him how it is. Tiptoeing around the fact isn’t going to help
much, because although not academically, the guy is a complete idiot,” Levi took a grumpy sip
from his tea. The rest of the seniors agreed, nearly wanting to make Armin crawl into a hole. That
completely defeated his amazingly well-thought out plan that he was planning to execute until they
graduated.

“Avoiding confrontation with some long ass plan is boring and time consuming, Arlert. It’s pretty
pathetic to not be able to be completely honest with your childhood best friend,” And now,
suddenly Levi can read minds and know exactly what to say. Great, just what Armin needed.

They all exited the school building and Eren shot them all a wave before getting up and walking
over.

“You need to do this soon, Arlert, or else it won’t happen. Don’t be a fucking pansy,” was the thing
Levi whispered in his ear before he walked off with Erwin’s hand held tightly in his.

“I hate to agree with Lev on this, but he’s right. Stop tiptoeing around it. If you want this dragged
out, elaborate plan, you probably just want Eren to keep pining over you. End his suffering if it
bothers you that much,” Hanji murmured immediately afterwards, and the four other group
members began walking in the opposite direction to their homes. Eventually, it was just him and
Eren, all alone and ready to walk home.

Ugh, Armin hated how many fights they were getting into lately. Nothing has really felt the same
since that damn chemistry project, and if this went down the way Armin anticipated, they never
will. But, you know what they say, upperclassmen know best.
 Willy the Halloween-Frenzy Employee and Eren, Who Liked People
Chapter Notes

hello everyone!! thank you for the love on the last chapter! i'm trying to reply to more
people now (i'm still trying to figure out ao3 as a creator and not a reader LMFAO) so
eee i love talking with all of you it really makes my day :) also did yall see the new aot
episode-- BYE im done armin i just <333333333 okay simp time over now onto the
next chapter :DD

See the end of the chapter for more notes

“Eren, can you sit down please? It’s nothing bad, I just really want to talk to you,” Eren stopped his
pacing. It was another Carla/Mikasa day out, and of course Grisha still came home late in the
evening. Great, because everyone and their mother knew how well this situation went the last time
it had the opportunity to present itself.

Reluctantly, Eren sat down at the foot of the bed, fancily putting “criss-cross-apple-sauce” on
display. Armin sat at the headboard on the opposite side and Eren couldn’t help but notice that
Armin had continued his trek in trendy clothing as he observed yet another sweater with a white
button up underneath. He always forgot to thank Zofia, but maybe if he got another chance to, he
would.

“Eren, I don’t know how to put this lightly honestly. I’m trying to be as nice as possible but you
really need to know this,” Armin started with a big breath, trying to inhale the courage he needed to
do this. Spoiler alert, it didn’t work. He could actively feel his fingertips tingling and going numb,
so he just opted to shut his eyes as hard as he could until he could see little stars in the darkness.
Curling in his fist tightly, he finally just said it:

“You’re gay.”

It was the longest 10 second silence that Armin had ever experienced in his life. If you told him
that time had even genuinely frozen, despite all his knowledge, he would most likely believe you
because holy hell was this awkward.

When Armin was 7, he owned a pet goldfish. Goldie was a beloved member of the Arlert
household, and periodically would check in to watch the fish just swim and do its thing. Therefore,
it made the boy pretty experienced enough to say with complete confidence that Eren looked
exactly like Goldie right now. Y’know when a goldfish opens its mouth mindlessly and the little air
bubble comes out, well that was Eren right now except you couldn’t hear the little ‘bloop’ noise
when he opened his mouth. Open, close, open, close, and no matter how many times Eren did it
there was no air bubble. Armin was disappointed.

“I mean, no, but alright?” The boy awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling at a poor
attempt to clear the air. If he could, Armin would’ve pulled up a powerpoint if he had one on hand.
It would’ve been filled beautifully with no transitions, a good color palette, easy-to-follow along
text, and multiple reasons pointing to why Eren is gayer than Frankie Grande.

“Listen Eren, I really do mean this in the nicest way possible, but yes you are,” Armin pushed on,
“a piece of fabric does not excuse the actions you do. You kissed me, Eren, and you liked it . We
made out and you liked it!” Eren’s face slowly contorted into anger and he balled up his fists next
to his side.

“Well, in case you haven’t noticed, Armin , it takes two to tango. Does that mean you liked it too,
huh? You’re the one who apparently wanted to kiss me first! Do you have some weird crush on
me?” He yelled, his hands fraying out and making obscure motions to act out the conversation.

“ What?! No! Of course not, it was just a drunken mistake!”

“Then why can’t I say that it was a drunken mistake?”

“ EREN WATCHING GAY PORN AND GETTING OFF TO IT ISN’T A DRUNKEN MISTAKE,
ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU’RE SOBER! ” Armin cried, voice going up a few octaves and even
cracking at one point, “You keep being touchy and possessive with me like you’re my boyfriend,
you don’t like it when anyone else is around me, all you want to do is cuddle me and keep me to
yourself! If that’s not gay, Eren, then it’s weird, because I like Marco, not you,” He tried to keep
his voice level but he should’ve known that it wouldn’t prevail against Eren’s temper.

At this point, Armin was cowering back on the bed and Eren was pacing around the room, hands
behind his head. He whipped around, pointing an accusing finger at Armin, “You say you like
Marco, but you still kissed me! Cuddled me! Did everything! Why do you think it’s your place to
tell me what I am or what I am not?”

“Eren, I don’t want to force you out of the closet, but you’re so deep in denial that you can’t see
that what you’re doing is what I find inherently romantic and sexual and you won’t stop because
you are convincing yourself that it’s not either of those things! Why won’t you admit it? What is so
bad about being gay?” Armin’s eyes were sealed shut at this point and he just let his thoughts run
wild as he spewed them out from his mouth.

“There’s nothing bad about being gay!” Eren screamed, pulling at his hair and eventually making
the bun come loose and fall out. His hair graced his shoulders, astray from all of the ruthless,
stressed clutches.

“Then why is it bad when you’re gay? What is so bad about being who you are?” Armin knew that
this was the final straw, so he prepared himself for the worst. Eren creeped over to the bed, putting
his hands down and leaning in close as if he were making an attempt to intimidate Armin during an
interrogation. Eren cocked his head to the side, and from this close, Armin could see his angry,
flushed cheeks and tears that were making their way to his eyes.

“Why do you feel like it is your place to tell me who I am and who I am not?” The quiet volume of
Eren’s voice shocked his best friend, who was leaning in closer in order to hear him. The eye
contact they held made Armin want to look away but he couldn’t bring himself to. “Why can’t I
just be Eren? Why all the labels? Why can’t you just trust what I say?” He muttered.

“You need to at least admit to yourself that maybe you’re attracted to other genders besides girls,
Eren. I didn’t do this to upset you or force you to come out to the world, but your ignorance to your
sexuality has led to you excusing inappropriate behaviors between us that I can’t stand anymore.
You want a more touchy relationship? Fine by me, but I want you to start asking first because the
way you’ve been treating me lately, cuddling, wanting me all to yourself, getting jealous of other
people when I’m around them? It’s been crossing the line between friendship and romantic
interest,” Armin’s voice level matched Eren’s, and took a deep breath for confidence (it still didn’t
work), “Eren, I love you no matter how you come. Gay, questioning, straight, mentally ill, picture
perfect. You’re Eren in the end, and that’s what I care about. I just don’t understand why you’re so
adamant on hiding this from yourself? From admitting that your attraction goes beyond girls? I’m
sorry, but you watch gay porn and now you can’t even get off to straight porn. What else am I
supposed to deduce from that?” Armin was begging Eren for an answer at this point. He just
wanted this to be over and done with, for Eren to finally admit it so they can go back to being the
way they used to be, all the way back in eighth grade.

“You could never understand, Armin, how big of an inconvenience it is. Doing everything possible
to convince myself that what I was doing was relatively straight, every glance I spared towards
another guy made me anxious, not even strangers could know. I don’t care, but for me it’s
different. I’ve already caused enough trouble for my family when I was younger, and now I’m past
that. But next thing you know, not only was I the troublemaker kid with the anger issues, but now
I’m the gay one, too. Save for Mikasa, but she’s been the perfect child ever since she was born. I
could never be who she is, and I just...don’t want them to be mad with me,” Eren fell to his knees,
elbows still balanced on the bed as he cried into his hands. Stunned at the confession, Armin
propped himself up in order to lean over and carefully drag Eren back onto the bed by his forearms.
Still crying, the other boy obliged, sitting in front of Armin with his shoulders slumped but still
shaking as every individual sob shot through his body.

Carefully, as if the brunette was glass, Armin brought his hand around the back of Eren’s head and
pulled his head down against his shoulder. Wrapping his other arm around his torso, they stayed
like that and Armin would’ve laughed at the familiar situation they had been put in nearly two
months ago, but now the roles were reversed. As Eren cried, Armin made his final speech.

“Eren, I’m sorry. I should’ve never tried to put any labels on you, or force you to admit things you
didn’t want to. It was the only way I felt I could make you realize how I’m seeing things. Whoever
you’re attracted to doesn’t affect what your family will think about you; Carla will still bake
whatever comes to mind, Mikasa and you will bicker, and you and your dad will still compete in
games. You’re still Eren, and they know that. It’s who you always have been. Remember when I
came out to you guys and your parents?” He felt a nog against his shoulder, “They were so proud of
me. They still love me, and they will still love you. Eren, you don’t even have to tell them
anything. Like you said, just be Eren. But, I need you to stop doing things like you’re my
boyfriend. You didn’t even notice it because you thought it what was friends do, and we can still
cuddle, hang out, and I don’t really care how you feel towards me regardless. I still want to be your
best friend, but now that we’ve had this talk, I need you to be more aware of how you act, okay?”
Another nod, “Okay, good. So we’re good?”

Eren pulled away softly. His hair was in disarray but still managed to shape his becoming face,
outlining his jaw structure and punctuating his aqua eyes, which were red and puffy. Armin’s hand
slowly dropped from the back of his head and the blonde made a weak attempt to smile, which
made Eren’s frown slightly turn upwards.

“No one gets to know but us, okay? I'll tell Mikasa later, but just us for now, ok?” he said quietly,
holding out his pinky.

Without hesitation, Armin wrapped his own pinky around Eren’s and sealed the deal. Eren was just
Eren, and while the talk was important and necessary, it was Eren’s thing to do whenever or if he
decided to add labels to who he was.

“I honestly uh...don’t like you like that, but I was getting possessive because we didn’t spend time
together over the summer. I didn’t want to, like, forget about me,” The brunette hung his head in
shame.

“I forgive you, just lessen up a bit, ok? I could never forget you, ever. Don’t even think about it,
because you know what? We’re still best friends okay? It was just a project and I’m glad it spurred
you to do some growing up over the summer. It was necessary to take a small break,” Armin
chuckled lightly.

“Can I... can I cuddle you? Is that ok?”

“Yes, Eren, it’s ok.”

“Can I be the little spoon again?"

“...Fine.”

The shift in dynamic wasn’t unnoticed by their group of friends whenever break and lunch rolled
around. It was no secret how now, Armin wouldn’t freeze up if Eren put an arm around his
shoulder or made light jabs. Eren wouldn’t stare down Marco or Hanji if they hugged Armin in
front of him, and most of all, Eren felt more free than he had his entire life. Getting over it was
hard, and after Armin left that day, he did some hard researching about himself.

Internalized homophobia was a long, weird word that was now a huge part of Eren’s life. He found
many people just like him on ask-sites, telling other people about their experiences and for once,
he felt calm that he wasn’t the only one who felt like this. Some had to go to therapy, others just put
up two middle fingers to the mirror, and Eren? Well, Eren was still working on it. Sometimes, if he
accidentally looked at someone, he would quickly move away. If his teammates joked about sizes
in the locker room, Eren stayed out of it because he didn’t want to say anything that might expose
him. On bad days, he would go to sleep crying and wake up a few hours later from a nightmare in
which he got kicked out, and every irrational thought flooded his mind until he would pass out
from exhaustion. But, with all the bad comes good, and Eren still had his good days, too. On a
good day, maybe he complimented a guy in his english class (last time, it was a guy named
Thomas and Eren pointed out that he liked his Shakespeare analysis). Sometimes, he would even
let his gaze linger on a guy that he found cute when he went to the mall with Mikasa.

Right now, he was costume-shopping with Mikasa and Armin. It had been around 3 weeks since
his talk with Armin, and that Saturday was going to be Jean’s annual halloween party. Therefore,
that Monday, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin went as a trio to the mall in order to pick out their perfect
trio costumes that they always attended in.

“Oh come on, guys, we should obviously go for Woody, Buzz, and Jesse! It just makes sense and
is the perfect decision!” Eren grumbled, angrily munching down on a fry. The food court was
fairly full for a Monday after school, but it didn’t bother the three teens as they scarfed down their
fast food.

“Eren, that idea is so shit. Like, god awful. The costumes are so ugly,” Mikasa rolled her eyes.

Armin hummed in agreement, covering his mouth with one hand while the other reached for his
drink, “I agree wif Mikatha,” he started before swallowing and taking a sip of his soda, “I spent a
lot of time in the closet, so I know a thing or two about what looks good and what doesn’t-” Eren
threw up his hands dramatically in defeat, huffing out a quick ‘ whatever, I hate you both’ and
attracting the attention of a few tables near them before Armin continued, “anyways, I still think
we should go as the three kids from Nightmare Before Christmas, and I want to be the red one
because I’m gonna try a new blood ritual tonight!” The blonde gushed, looking between both of his
best friends with an encouraging smile but was met with two identical Jaeger frowns.

“Armin...that’s fucked up,” Eren stared.

“Yeah dude, didn’t Jean ban you from doing rituals at his house anyways?” Mikasa joined in,
finishing off her drink.

“Only the voodoo doll ones,” Armin muttered angrily under his breath, letting out a few small
curses under his breath before picking up the group’s trash and throwing it away. When he
returned, they all stood up and began making their way to the pop-up halloween shop that always
occupied an empty store around the fall-time of year.

“Doesn’t matter- not happening. We should be-” The argument from the food court continued as
they entered the store and while Mikasa was rambling on why they should all be Alvin and the
Chipmunks, Armin noticed Eren staring across the store. Following his eyes, he saw a crisp
looking guy around their age with shoulder-length blonde hair and a nice, inviting smile. The man,
an employee from seeing the working apron uniform he wore, was talking with people who seemed
to be customers and through Eren’s facial expressions, he could see that Eren wanted to really talk
to him.

Eren’s phone beeped in his pocket, whisking him away from his trance. He pulled it out
indiscreetly to check the new message:

From Armeen: Go talk to him, I can cover for you.

With a gentle smile, Eren texted back. Armin checked the message notification on his phone
indiscreetly.

From Eren Jaeger: I told Mika last week so only you two know, I think she would
understand.

With a breath of courage, Eren coughed abruptly, making Mikasa drop the conversation topic,
“What’s wrong?”

“I’m uh,” Eren started.

‘It’s ok. You’re ok. There’s nothing wrong with you thinking that a guy is attractive. Your friends
will still love you if you think a guy is cute,’ the light self-reassurance was all Eren need to finish
his sentence, “I’m gonna go talk to that guy!”

Mikasa looked over, trying to find said “guy” but to no avail, yet turned back to her brother with a
proud, warm smile, “Okay! We’ll be watching to make sure you don’t get kidnapped. Go get em’,
tiger!” She cheered on, clapping her hands together lightly. Eren smiled back and looked at Armin,
who gave him an encouraging thumbs-up, and he was on his way.

“I’m so proud of him,” Mikasa started as they both watched Eren walk boldly across the store and
to the employee, who’s customers just left, “I’m glad you lit the fire under his ass. He has some
tough days but I’ve never seen him so.. free . Like when we were all younger, you know?”

Armin turned to Mikasa, smiling, “I know exactly what you mean,” and they both joined arms,
going to continue to look around the store in search of the perfect costume.

“Hi, welcome to Halloween-Frenzy, my name is Willy, how can I help you?” The man, Willy, had
a sultry, deep voice that did something to Eren’s mind.

“Hi, I’m uh, Eren, and like- me and my friends are uh, looking for, uh, costumes?”

‘No, I’m looking for fucking Narnia. OF COURSE YOU’RE LOOKING FOR COSTUMES, IDIOT,
IT’S A HALLOWEEN STORE!’ Eren yelled in his head while nervously chuckling and rubbing a
hand behind his neck, “Uh, I mean, we want kind of a trio costume? So do you guys carry that in a
specific section...by any chance?”

“Sure thing, Eren!” Willy laughed and began to lead Eren to a corner in the store.

He just said Eren’s name, oh fuck. If Eren didn’t die by getting eaten alive or something, he might
die from that.

“So, here are our trio costume selections,” The male made a motion towards the wall in front of
them, “we have family selections, friends, any specific thing you were going for?"

Oh god, he was talking to Eren. Eren should probably reply.

“Um, it’s for me, my best friend, and my sister. So…”

“Oh, great! I personally would opt for Woody, Buzz, and Jesse, then! Really cool costumes and
they’re pretty cheap in comparison to the more popular costumes for this year, so you get a lot of
bang for your buck!” Willy smiled and Eren returned it, laughing.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking! I told them that, but they said the costumes are ugly.”

“What? Well, as a clearly professional halloween-er,” Willy gestured to his work uniform, “I’m
pretty qualified to say that it’s easily the best choice.” They both laughed again.

“Thank you for your help, uh, Willy,” Eren offered, looking over the wall of trio costumes to try
and maintain the blush that began to spread across his cheeks.

“No problem, anything else I can help you with today?”

“Um, one more thing, actually,” Eren turned back to him, looking at the ground before meeting
Willy’s eyes again.

‘Here it is, Eren. Full count, winning run on third base. Hit that ball right back up the middle and
take this home,’

“I did genuinely need help, but also I uh, saw you from across the store and I honestly thought you
were really,” It’s okay. People are like other people. You just like people who are your same
people. This is okay to do, “cute.” Eren finished, shoving his hands into the pockets of his gray zip
up jacket that was currently unzipped, exposing the fitted, dark green long-sleeve he wore
underneath. He actually quite liked this outfit and was glad that the other man, Willy, had caught
him on a good hair day as well as a good outfit day.

“I don’t know if you even uh, you know, like guys, but I figured maybe I could shoot my shot?”
When Eren looked back up, Willy was smiling gently and had red splotches gracing the pale skin
on his cheeks.

“Oh god, you are literally so cute. Like adorable, even. Honestly, I swing both ways, but
unfortunately I have been in a relationship for about 8 months now. If I wasn’t, you’d definitely
have a chance, though!” He offered, chuckling and wiping his face, now trying to get his own
blush to go away.

“Thank you, though. You’re pretty cute yourself,” he winked and even though he was being
rejected, a warm feeling still swelled in his chest.

“That’s fine! Thanks for the help and everything though, I’m gonna go convince my friends about
 the costume now,” Eren jabbed his thumb backwards in a gesture and Willy waved him off with a
delightful smile as Eren turned on his heel and made his way back to his friends, of which he found
in the accessory aisle and Armin was criticizing the Oujia board that was on sale.

“This is so poorly made, the only spirits you could probably contact is the type that’s alcohol.
Literally, not authentic at all and frankly, disappointing,” He heard Armin’s rants as he came up
behind them.

“I’m back!” He sang, and the two whipped around, still conjoined by the arms.

“How did it go?!”

“What did he say?!”

“First of all,” he put up a finger to indicate silence, “I asked him where the trio costumes were and
not only did he show me, but he also said that the Toy Story costumes were the best option
because they were on sale due to lack in popularity, so we are dressing as that because it’s cheap
and we will be original.” Identical groans sounded from both his older sister and his best friend,
who were rolling their eyes and grumbling but in the end, Eren flashed them his damn signature
smile that always indicated that Eren was going to get his way.

“Second off, he’s taken or something but still said I was cute so score,” he cheered, which caused
Armin and Mikasa to cheer, which caused the two families in their vicinity to turn away from the
Halloween products being sold and glare at them before returning to their shopping.

As the trio walked away from the store, bags of Toy Story costumes in hand, Eren felt victorious.
He actually tried to ask someone out. He asked out a guy. And the best part? He couldn’t care. His
head was held high even as they all piled into Mikasa’s car for the drive back to the Jaeger
household. He has asked out someone and even though he got rejected, he felt on top of the world.

Eren Jaeger asked out a guy, got rejected, and felt no guilt, remorse, sorrow. All he felt was free.

Chapter End Notes

bisexual willy tybur supremacy??? i think yes. also yay, eren is finally out of denial
but just wont use labels and yay for eren because he is growing up so fast :') halloween
party next chapter YAY we get to see more of the 104th cadet corp and YMIR AND
HISTORIA FINALLY OMFG IM SORRY FOR THE WAIT HAHAH see yall next
chapt!! <3
 What Happened At Jean's, Stays At Jean's
Chapter Notes

hey yall! the setting for this chapt is in Jean's house and i figured i could show yall the
setting inspo to help imagine or smth so here :)

the kitchen -
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/f3YishXkniabrpIcD0eaaRCmlknlT8_liPHAfcWi83CL5zxjyRc1-
Fci3ToRz8ukNCcfggBeJN1KoY6W4-0plp-b=s900-l85

the living room - https://jhalvorson.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/dsc_0146.jpg

okay!! onto the chapter 10 <3

See the end of the chapter for more notes

“I’m literally chafing so bad,” Mikasa whined, adjusting her cowgirl hat and chaps. Eren, on the
other hand, could care less because he was on a mission. Leaving behind an uncomfortable Mikasa
and a grumpy Armin who held all three of the trio’s nightbags, Eren darted into the Kirstein
household in search of his pitcher, preparing to make possibly the best joke of his life.

“Hey, Eren!” Falco called to him as soon as he entered through the door, sitting in the living room
area with the other three kids.

“Hey, Falco! Hey- do you know where Jean is by any chance?” Falco shook his head in response.

“Oh, yeah! Him and Marco went to the kitchen, I think!” piped up Gabi, and Eren threw up two
thumbs-up in appreciation before heading straight to the kitchen where the rest of his friends
resided. Ignoring everyone’s greetings to him, he stood across the kitchen near the wall, directly
aligned beside Jean, who was leaning into the fridge looking for a few drinks.

“Hey, Bullseye!” Eren whooped, finally catching the boy’s attention.

Jean slowly turned, his face contorted into a mixture of fear and anger as he took in Eren’s Woody
costume. Oh fuck yes, this was the perfect joke, Eren had deducted.

“What the fuck, Jaeger."

“Oh, so you did respond,” Eren chuckled, tipping his cowboy hat, “I’m glad my horse knows how
to reply to it’s rightful owner.”

“You motherfucker…” Jean realized the set up. It was his own fault for even daring to turn around,
and now he was caught up in some bad Toy Story reference.

“Reach for the sky, Kirstein, or do you wanna try to get the snake in my boot?” Eren suggestively
grabbed at his crotch, smirking at the dumbstruck Jean. Connie and Sasha, across the island, were
doubled over in laughter. Connie, slapping the countertop as tears spilled over the brims of his eyes
and Sasha, wheezing now that no sound could come out. Reiner made an attempt to stifle his laugh
by putting his red solo cup while Bertholdt completely spit his drink back into his, coughing up a
lung trying to catch his breath. Annie, who stood next to them, just watched the scene intently.
Marco, who was next to Jean, looked horrified and Eren didn’t even realize that Marco’s sister,
Ymir, and her girlfriend Historia were also here. Ymir was cackling and Historia just looked
confused, but a small smile played on her face. Armin and Mikasa had now just entered the
kitchen, but Jean had already sprung up from his crouch and lunged across the room at Eren. Both
fell to the tile, wrestling each other, and everyone began to cheer them on for a few minutes.

“Should we let them keep going?” Armin offered to Mikasa, who just watched with a smile on her
face. He turned to her, and Mikasa just looked at them with a glazed look of sisterly affection and a
small smile before replying, “I think it’s fine.”

Both boys were visibly running out of stamina, and everyone just overlooked their little brawl with
happiness, making no moves to interrupt the fight.

‘Why...why aren’t they stopping us?’ Both Jean and Eren thought, muscles aching as they
continued to weakly wrestle and throw aimless punches. That was until a short savior was kicking
them both in the stomach.

“Stop fighting, assholes, we have booze,” Eren looked up weakly to Levi, who was dressed as a
vampire and Miche, dressed as a firefighter, was standing behind him with a twelve-pack of cheap
beer in each hand. Hanji and Moblit, who held a karaoke machine by the looks of it, were dressed
as Dr. Frankenstein and the Monster. Erwin and Nanaba stood together, Erwin as a werewolf to
rival Levi and Nanaba as a cat. The other teens cheered and began to greet the upperclassmen,
introducing themselves immediately to the new friends.

“Oh, you guys are here! Okay guys, so this is…” Eren was glad that Jean let Armin invite the club
to their Halloween party and as Armin introduced everyone, they seemed to all get along well. Out
of the corner of his eye as he struggled to get up from the floor, he could see Miche catching a few
discreet sniffs of everyone and slowly nodding his head after each one. The rest of the
lowerclassmen were just happy that they now had beer and no worries, since Jean’s parents always
went away for Halloween weekend for Jean’s dad’s company party in the next town over.

‘You can have some friends over, Jean-boy, but be safe, ’ His mom always warned him before they
left, and they always were. Except, this was the first time that the teens were able to obtain beer, so
everyone was staying the night to avoid any casualties. After making his rounds with Erwin to help
be introduced to everyone, Levi made his way to Jean and asked about how to navigate the kitchen.
After the short tour, Levi took a spot at the head of the island and began to mix drinks like he did at
Miche’s party, cleverly using tricks that Kenny taught him when he sometimes had to help out at
the bar.

About two hours later, everyone was easily losing their sobriety. Hanji was enthusiastically doing
karaoke with Sasha to a song about food while Moblit passed out candy to trick-or-treaters that had
the misfortune of ringing Jean’s doorbell. Thankfully, Moblit had a good sober-face so the parents
who chaperoned said trick-or-treaters never called the cops (either that or they didn’t care).

“Lev… I need another,” Armin stumbled to the counter, casually still being a lightweight.

“Okay, but this is your last one, Squirt, so make it count,” Levi used the rest of the vodka he
brought and mixed Armin his vodka-cran, sliding over the glass to him, “Come see me after you’re
done for some water.”

Ignoring the glass in front of him, Armin bounded around the counter and threw his arms around
Levi, tucking the elder’s head into his chest due to the height difference and laying his own on top,
“Thank you, Levi-Wevi! I loovveeee youuuuu!” He dramatically kissed the top of Levi’s head and
the senior grunted, twisting his way out of Armin’s embrace.
“Yeah, love you too, Squirt. Go back to the party,” Levi rubbed the top of his head where Armin
had kissed him with a frown in his eyes but a smile on his face, “And go get Erwin, because I’m
done at the kitchen for tonight and I still wanna get hammered.” At this, Armin wolf-whistled
because even in his intoxicated state, he knew that Levi wanted to get hammered in more ways
than one.

“Still the most emotional drunk I’ve seen,” Levi muttered under his breath as Armin walked away,
only to smile once again when Erwin entered the kitchen. Oh fuck yeah, it was time

Tripping over his own feet as he made his way back to the living room, Armin sat down next to
Ymir and hugged her as the older girl watched Historia interact with Annie and Mikasa with the
same glossy eyes that were induced by alcohol.

“Ymir, your brother is like, so pretty,” He started, continuing to hug her. She looked over and
gasped, hugging him back, “OH MY GOD! Historia, there’s two of you,” she wailed, slapping a
huge kiss on Armin’s cheek, “Hey, after this, let’s run away and get married!”

“No! You don’t understand! Your brother is pretty!” Armin cried, trying to now escape the hug.

“BUT YOU’RE LESBIAN!” Ymir finally let go when Historia came back across the room,
plopping into Ymir’s lap, “Oh thank god, Historia #1, you’re back!” As Armin crawled away, the
two girls cuddled.

“Listen up!” Jean called, standing and trying to gain his balance.

“I am superrrrrrr drunk right now,” he started, “and guys, I’m so horny. Have I told you guys I’m
bisexual? I want dick like, so bad right now!” Hearing this, Armin in his drunken state were glad
that the kids had opted to get picked up by Bert’s mom to have a group sleepover together because
he knew that this was totally going in the same direction as chapter 6 Miche’s party.

Everyone whooped and hollered, Reiner yelling out a, ‘FUCKING SAME!’ and Armin caught
Erwin and Levi sneaking back upstairs. What is up with the deja vu lately?

“Ok, let’s sit in a circle! I’m greeaaattt at these games!” Hanji gushed, ushering everyone into a
circle and plopping down. Armin sat himself next to Jean and Marco, and he could see Eren eyeing
Marco up and down from across the circle but didn’t care. In fact, just to be a little shit and feeling
brave from the liquid courage running through his system, Armin leaned up and licked lightly at
Marco’s neck before placing a kiss at the freckled boy’s jaw, making Marco’s arm sneak around
Armin’s shoulders and him leaning down to kiss his forehead.

“Okay, what game, babes?” Nanaba inquired and everyone began to talk. Ymir and Historia were
zoned out, just cuddling each other from where they sat. Jean, Reiner, Moblit and Mikasa agreed
on Spin-the-Bottle, Annie stayed out of it, and Eren, Bertholdt, Miche, Sasha, and Connie fought
heavily for either 7 Minutes in Heaven or Truth or Dare.

“Okay, so since I own the house, I get to choose the game. By majority, 7 Minutes wins!” A cheer
erupted from those who voted for it, high fives going around but due to alcohol-induced hand-to-
eye coordination, they all missed and giggled, “And everyone is okay with being paired up with
any gender?” Jean questioned to make sure, to which everyone nodded except...

“YES! Oh my god, yes!” Eren nearly screamed, jumping up to his feet and pointing a finger to the
sky, “Guys, I don’t know if I told you this, but I’m Eren Jaeger. Eren Kruger Jaeger, and I like
people. I LOVE GIRLS A LOT BUT GUYS ARE SUPER SEXY!” He yelled at his newfound
discovery. Dumbstruck by the outting, but also expecting it one day or another, the group of friends
congratulated Eren and he sat back down, bumping his head repeatedly into Mikasa’s shoulder just
to be annoying.

The music seemed miles away and every word spoken processed slowly in Armin’s brain, but
apparently he was going to be first to spin. So he reached forward and tried grabbing the bottle to
spin it, but in his vision, there were at least 3 different bottles to choose from so he went with the
right bottle. He grabbed at the air, disappointed to find nothing in his hand.

“Oh, baby no, right here!” Marco moved his hand to the left bottle, and there was still nothing
there. Both lovers seemed confused and Armin wanted to cry. Which one was the real bottle?

“You drunk idiots, it’s right here!” Sasha, who was just as much of a drunk idiot as the other two,
reached forward and spun the bottle for Armin. Once, twice, three times it went around before it
slowed to a stop. It landed in between Eren and Bertholdt, who looked at each other with wide
eyes.

“Rock, paper, scissors for the twinky, boys!” Hanji cackled, falling into Moblit’s side. They did,
and Eren threw paper while Bertholdt threw rock.

“Okay, Eren wins! And remember, we need proof!” Moblit called after the two boys who began
making their way into Jean’s supply closet in the hallway. Armin blew a quick kiss to Marco for
reassurance, who looked like a kicked puppy knowing his ex-boyfriend-kinda-still-boyfriend
would be doing something with someone else. Jean shoved Eren into the closet and let Armin walk
in gracefully before shutting the door behind them and slurring, “You’re time starts...now!”

Silence.

In the darkness, Armin could hear Eren’s breathing and smell the tequila that infiltrated each
breath.

“Er-Bear?” Armin questioned, looking up at his friend. They were both chest to chest in the small
closet and Armin was held to a height disadvantage, but it didn’t matter much.

“Mm?”

“Doesn’t mean anything? The socks are on!” He giggled, running a hand through his bangs. He
removed his gloves from his Buzz Lightyear outfit and slowly reached up, grabbing Eren’s
cowboy hat and removing it.

“Ar-Armin… we don’t have to if…” Eren seemed to be beginning to sober up at the proximity,
feeling his heart contract oddly at the closeness of their faces like it always did. Oh, did Eren wish
he had the power to make it stop.

“What if I want to? We need to play by the rules…” Armin whispered cheekily, getting onto his
tip-toes to ghost his breath against Eren’s ear. Grabbing the cowboy vest of Eren’s costume, he
pulled Eren down to his eye level.

“Armin, I-” Eren could feel himself coming back, the alcohol no longer having the effect it did five
minutes ago.

“Eren, please? I want this. Remember what I said? Nothing has to mean anything if you don’t want
it to...we don’t have to label this. It’s just a game, it means nothing. Please…” Armin became
flushed, begging for Eren’s attention. The situation had Armin longing for someone’s touch, his
hormones at an all-time high after being affected by the four-too-many vodka crans he had. He
persisted, taking kitten licks at Eren’s neck in a similar fashion to how he did with Marco while
making attempts to convince Eren through every free breath. The tall brunette, having not had a lot
of physical affection lately for obvious reasons, let out small whimpers like a little virgin (albeit, he
was, so no shame in his game). No longer giving a shit about what this would mean in the
morning, Eren gave in.

“Fine, but what are we going to do for the proof?” He felt himself letting loose, falling back into
his intoxicated state. The closet warped around them in Eren’s eyes, but Armin stayed crystal clear
as he pulled away victoriously from his neck.

“I wanna..” Armin giggled, “touch the snake in your boot, Woody!”

Both boys fell into hysterics but then distantly heard Jean call for their 3-minute warning.

“No, no snakes in boots,” Eren offered, “Let me, uh, try something. Tilt your neck, Ar.”

To which, the blonde did. He removed the neck piece of his costume and tilted his neck, leaving
the clean, pale skin out in the open. Eren moved forward, ghosting over Armin’s pulse, and then
dove in with a final “Fuck it.”

He attached his lips to Armin’s neck, sucking at the skin harshly, causing Armin to cry out at the
sensitivity. The blonde’s hands detached from the cowboy vest and gripping tightly onto Eren’s
shoulders as the boy continued to violate Armin’s neck. The last time he had given a hickey was to
his 8th grade girlfriend of two weeks, Hitch. So, he made sure to pay extra attention to his actions
in order to not seem completely inexperienced (to which, he wasn’t). Finally realizing that his
hands were still at his sides, he brought them to Armin’s hips as the blonde’s small moans spurred
him on. In a flurry of no thoughts and pure sexual desire, he brought Armin’s hips forward to his,
lightly grinding them together.

“Oh god ,” He heard Armin cry at the friction but also heard the door begin to unlock. In a last
ditch attempt to claim what was his, in a unknowing, drunken rush to show off to and show up
Marco, Eren opened his mouth wide and sank his teeth down onto the conjunction where Armin’s
neck connected to his shoulders, pulling their hips flush together and as his teeth sank into the skin,
he let his tongue work over the hickeys he left that laid underneath his open mouth before pulling
away. Feeling the skin break, he heard Armin’s cry of shock but then a long, strung out moan of
pleasure and bliss as blood droplets surfaced and lightly trickled into Eren’s mouth.

‘Of course he liked that, damn satanic masochist,’ Eren thought proudly before pulling away,
licking the blood away from his teeth and then turning to a shocked group of friends who had
opened the door ten seconds prior. Eren’s hands were still pushing their lips together and Armin
was smiling in a daze, head still tilted to the side and exposing the multiple hickeys that graced his
neck along with the bite mark that circled around the purple cluster, a few of the teeth marks
dripping blood. Finally noticing the group looking at them, Armin just surveyed the group until he
met eyes with Marco, smirking at the boy.

“Can we try blood play?”

And that was the signal for everyone, including the two friends, to make their way back to the
circle. Somehow, even in the group’s fuzzy minds, everyone still knew that it was always an
unspoken rule that what happened at Jean’s house on Halloween, stayed in Jean’s house after
Halloween, That’s why no one ever talked about how Reiner and Bertholdt officially started going
out two years ago (Jean found them naked in his parents room), why Connie and Sasha vowed to
never go to Taco Bell anymore last Halloween (they had to stay behind to...clean the bathrooms),
and how Marco found out he was a bottom (that’s why Jean didn’t know about Connie and Sasha’s
accidents last year. He was just a little preoccupied, to say the least), and no matter what, someone
always fucked whether it meant something or not so everyone always just agreed to accept things
as they came and never bring it up again.

The rest of the night was spent drinking the rest of Miche’s booze while he was in the closet paired
up with Erwin (unfortunate for Levi, and the small man made sure to crawl into Erwin’s lap for the
rest of the game and didn’t allow the student council president to get up until everyone began to
retire to bed). Despite the pairings that came (Bertholdt and Sasha, Connie and Reiner, Jean and
Mikasa, Annie and Hanji, etc.) and the jokes that were made, everyone knew it wouldn’t last by
morning so they all went in, did whatever they wanted to do, were caught in a scandalous position,
and then everyone sat back down and the game repeated itself until everyone had gotten some fill
of action.

Everyone slowly started passing out, music still playing on a low volume and the lights were still
dim. Sobering up, Marco helped Mikasa get people to separate couches as everyone usually slept
in the living room except for the casual hookup (but Erwin and Levi had already made it back to
the party, so everyone was together regardless. They located each person’s nightbag and helped
them change into proper pajamas, throwing all the costumes into a pile near the front door. After
finally getting everyone into a comfortable sleeping place, both teens knuckle-bumped and Marco
retired in between Jean and Armin on the floor while Mikasa laid against Eren’s side, who was
curled in on the left side of the couch.

Mikasa woke up entangled in her little brother’s arms. She skillfully maneuvered out of them
without waking the boy, tiptoeing around the bodies of her friends on the floor in order to close all
of the blinds that granted sunlight access into the large room. She hissed as the sun hit her eyes, her
hangover beginning to set it’s way in her head. After closing off the room, she went to the kitchen
to close the curtains of the glass slider that led to the backyard, but found that both those curtains
and the window above the sink were already closed off. Armin was snuggled into the counter
corner near the sink, idly sipping on a cup of coffee. His head hung low, in shame or because he
was hung over, Mikasa couldn’t tell.

“Did you already take some pain meds?” She asked, making her way over to Jean’s fridge and
throwing it open to grab a bottle of water. She then crossed over to grab some of the Aspirin that
her and Marco had laid out prior to falling asleep. She threw her head back and downed the water
to help cure her dry throat, taking the two pills down with it. She heard Armin give an affirmative
hum as she twisted her bottle cap closed. Crouching in order to get her head below the two arms
that encased his coffee cup, Mikasa carefully raised herself and Armin outstretched his arms
realizing her attempt. Mikasa nuzzled against Armin comfortably, only being about an inch taller
than him now since he grew over the summer. They both stood their in the embrace before Armin
moved one hand to unwrap and take a sip of his coffee.

“What’s on your mind?”

Armin tilted his neck in response, exposing the multiple hickeys that laid on his neck, easily
exposed by the low collar of the t-shirt he changed into before crashing the night prior. Mikasa
observed it, seeing a cluster of approximately three different hickeys just above his collar bone,
completely encased by a large bite mark that had begun to bruise and leave a purple ring along
with some dried blood along some of the teeth marks.

“Well, on the bright side, we don’t have school so no one will see it. Plus, no one is probably
gonna bring it up ever again and it’s not like it meant anything. It’s Halloween, remember?” The
older girl chuckled before slipping out of Armin’s arms completely, moving to the fridge to grab
 food in order to prepare breakfast. Armin nodded a response, gulping down the rest of his coffee
and put the mug aside, helping Mikasa get the food ready. Slowly, everyone started to trickle into
the kitchen, groaning from their hangovers and back pains from sleeping on the floor. They all sat
or stood around the island, making light conversation to start the morning. Armin was even
shocked to see Hanji laying against Moblit’s shoulder silently, drinking their coffee while their
partner just combed through their ratty hair that had fallen out of its casual ponytail. But, Eren
seemed to be his casual self, Armin noted, and didn’t seem to be phased by his impromptu coming
out the night prior. Even when Marco came and wrapped his arms around Armin from behind
while he cooked, the freckled teen didn’t make any comments about the obvious markings that
littered his neck and claimed him.

Armin agreed with Mikasa, snuggling back into Marco’s chest. No one was going to bring it up
again. Not how him and Eren made out, how he licked Eren’s neck, how he clearly remembered
the way it felt when Eren’s teeth sank into his own neck. It wouldn’t be remembered how
everyone caught them grinding against each other like everything depended on it and the obvious
boner Armin sported. By next week, Armin would forget about the way Eren stared lustfully at
Armin from across the circle until they all went to bed, seeing the brunette lick his lips and his
teeth every time he saw the Jaeger boy’s eyes dip down to Armin’s neck and back to whoever was
talking.

But that’s because whatever happened at Jean’s on Halloween, stayed at Jean’s after Halloween. It
was just like Mikasa said, it’s not like it meant anything to Armin, right?

...Right?

Chapter End Notes

ARMIN DENIAL ARC ARMIN DENIAL ARC ARMIN DENIAL ARC

 Armin's Denial Arc is as Short as Levi
Chapter Notes

hey yall! i was out of town for the weekend so ee i would've had this chapt up soon but
then my friend told me to extend it a bit and frankly they were right :p shout out to
kayla mwah. also one of you actually did go to my tiktok HAHAH omg i felt loved
klsdfhalkfejhqf if that was you then mwah mwah <3 okay now onto chapter 11!!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

“AH FUCK!”

Armin banged his knee against the cafeteria table as he jumped, attracting the attention of the entire
cafeteria with his loud cursing. Eren retracted his hand from Armin’s shoulder and tried to play it
off as if he didn’t do anything while a teacher quickly made their way over and the table of
freshmen that was across from them began to gossip loudly.

“Oh my god, isn’t that Armin Arlert?”

“Yeah, I heard he’s like, the smartest kid here besides that short senior. I didn’t know people like
him swore!”

“Y’know, he’s kinda ho- oh fuck be quiet,” A quick glare from Mikasa shut them up.

“Mr. Arlert, this is the first time I’ve ever had a problem with you so I will excuse it, but if I hear
language like that again I will have to give a detention,” Luckily, Shadis was the one closest to
them that was on lunch duty today.

“Y-Yes Mr. Shadis- I’m so sorry, it’ll never happen again!” The blonde pathetically squeaked out,
voice cracking and all in fear of his perfect student record, and he rubbed his knee in a poor attempt
to take away the searing pain.

The chemistry teacher nodded before walking away and continuing to stalk around students as
lunch dragged out. As soon as he was gone, everyone burst out into a chorus of laughter which
made the school’s cafeteria continue to set their attention on the group.

“Oh god, Armin, I didn’t know you had it in you!” Ymir cackled, wiping tears away with the hand
that wasn’t around Historia while Historia scolded Ymir for laughing at the poor boy. The two had
decided to start sitting with the group that monday, joining in and making their little family just a
bit bigger and better.

“Yeah, dude, all Eren did was put his hand on your shoulder!” Reiner joined in, mimicking
Armin’s scream and made the whole group fall back into laughter. Armin even caught eye of Annie
and Zofia quietly cackling, as stoic as they were, and Jean was hacking up a lung because he
couldn’t breathe from how hard he was laughing.

Reiner was correct though, Armin realized as he recalled the scene.

‘Mhm, you’re a dirty little Caesar salad, aren’t you? Yeah, I’m gonna fuck you up,’ Armin
taunted his lunch mentally as he shook his box roughly, mixing in the dressing as his stomach
grumbled. He felt a hand on his shoulder and presence behind him, which didn’t so much as bother
him until he turned around to check who it was. He checked behind him quickly and saw Eren,
giving a small smile and returning to shaking his salad until he realized. He whipped his head
back around, making eye contact with those same emerald green eyes with fear, throwing his salad
and the table and jumping up as far as he could, yelling a profanity as his knee banged against the
table.

And now here they were, Armin fiddling with the scarf around his neck and Eren sitting next to
him, who just assumed he’d scared Armin. He surveyed the table once again and accidentally
made eye contact with Marco, who he had been ignoring since the party.

Oh, Eren scared Armin alright.

It was the wednesday after the Halloween party. While the three hickeys left behind had faded to
yellow spots on his neck, the bite mark that encased them continued to bruise. Luckily, Mikasa had
lent Armin her red scarf to wear until it healed fully so no teacher, student, or his grandpa could see
his shame. Also, it was cold out due to the autumn season, so no one questioned the choice in
apparel. People only questioned Mikasa, who had almost never been seen without the garment,
who now replaced it with a simple gem necklace that's origins were currently unknown.

“Armin was cold, so I let him borrow it for the week,” She would tell outside friends who asked,
but the table (minus the kids) knew the true story about what lay beneath the layer of clothing. The
deep bite mark that should simply resemble a night of fun and flurry between a group of best
friends.

Wrong.

To Armin, it was a night of pure confusion. He knew the rules, yet he had a hard time abiding by
them. Every time he stripped himself of the scarf to shower, he caught himself rethinking the night
over and over again. The feeling of Eren’s hands clutching his hips, his sharp, white teeth scraped
against his skin. The way Armin’s dainty hands wrapped perfectly around Eren’s biceps as he held
on desperately. No matter how hammered the boy had been, there was no way he could forget the
ecstasy that Eren had made him experience, especially the stars he saw as the other boy’s teeth dug
into his skin. It would end with him looking in the bathroom mirror directly at the mark, shower
water running in the background to disguise his noises, and a hand shoved down his pants.

But you know what? It was the first time anything so... erotic had happened to him. Although
Marco and him had gotten up to some pretty risque things in their free time, no handjob could ever
compare to the simple 3-minute makeout session with his childhood best friend- and therefore
Armin blamed it all on that. He was a tiny little virgin, so why else would he spend all his freetime
daydreaming about a small fling? He definitely didn’t like Eren, he liked Marco in all of his
Marco-like glory. He liked Marco’s freckles, his nice personality, his emerald green eyes, his long
shaggy hair that he began to tie into a man bun every day- wait. Armin pinched his wrist
underneath the table as punishment for letting Eren infiltrate his thoughts again. Stupid, horny
brain, thinking about that sexy hunk of a man Eren.

No, no, Armin shook his head. He liked Marco. This little fervor he was in about Eren would go
away in a week.

“Oh so you’re down bad bad!” Hanji cackled, adding little cliparts of whales to their slides that
they readied to present to the elementary school.
“What- no! Are you guys serious?” Armin’s eyes bulged out of his head, “I am not ‘down bad’ for
Eren, it’s just annoying how I can’t stop thinking about him!”

“So, down bad,” Moblit supplied, then adding a quick ‘Hanji, no’ as he deleted their cliparts of
whales that definitely crowded the slide too much.

“Imagine Marco doing that to you,” Erwin shrugged, looking over Levi’s shoulder at the
presentation.

“Abbbsolutely not, Marco would never. He’s like the Jesus-reincarnate, it’s just not him.” Armin
shuddered at the thought.

“Try asking him about it,” Armin just huffed and nodded. Upperclassmen knew best, but he
pondered it as he came home later that day, passing up his cousins and immediately going to his
room. He knew he was smart, so he could figure this out. As long as he looked at it from an outside
perspective, he could figure out how he really felt.

Him and Eren hang out nearly everyday at the Jaeger household and Armin had been considered
family ever since he was five. Comparing all the times he hung out with Marco and his parents,
they loved him, and being an over-exaggeration teenager Armin made a pros and cons list about
both sets of parents as possible parents-in-law.

Obviously, the win went to the Jaegers. He just couldn’t see himself having quite as good of a
relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Bodt as he did with Grisha and Carla. I mean, he was on first-name
basis, it would be obvious who would be the better candidate as grandparents and parents-in-law in
general.

Armin then considered him and Marco’s relationship in general. Within the two months that Eren
and Armin had made up, Armin realized they had spent more time together than both him and
Marco combined including the summer. He was also more comfortable around Eren considering
they were best friends; Armin just couldn’t unleash hell and rip ass in front of Marco like he could
with Eren, and he realized that when it came down to it Armin always censored how he felt around
Marco. It felt like he was constantly walking on eggshells around the boy, which is natural because
they had only been together for about five months (three officially), but he wanted more. As a poor,
hopeless romantic, he wanted a soulmate, and he knew that Marco would never know Armin as
well as Eren knew him no matter how long they were together.

Shoving his head into the pillow with an obvious answer in mind to who he would prefer in bed, he
let out a muffled scream. A good yell of ‘FUCK, BITCH, SHIT, ASS, MOTHERFUCKING HELL’
into the poor lump, and then got up to take a shower before bed. He could make this work with
Marco and it was hard to accept the possibility that he might like Eren.

Maybe if he tried harder for Marco, he would realize that the whole Eren-situation was a silly
mistake.

Marco Bodt knew his worth.

He knew he was extremely nice, very helpful to those in need, the whole shebang, and that’s how
he liked it. But, it did make him prone to people walking all over him. Although hard to deal with
at first, his best friend Jean helped him and now he knows when people are trying to tiptoe around
him because he knew his worth and knew what he deserved.
And Marco knew he deserved better than Armin beginning to tiptoe around him.

“Hey, do you think you can skip marine biology today? I want to talk,” And Armin’s eyes struck
with fear. If he didn’t have something to hide, Marco knew he wouldn’t have done that. The Armin
he knew would just smile and say, “Ok!” before rushing off to class. But this Armin?

“Oh, okay…” The blonde trailed off, nervously glancing around before waving an awkward
goodbye and scurrying out of the cafeteria. Marco looked down at his shoes as he waited for Jean,
fiddling with some loose change in his pants pockets.

“C’mon, Marco, we’ll be late,” his head tilted up to meet Jean’s eyes and he smiled and nodded,
following the two-toned junior to their art class. He didn’t have to worry now, he was with Jean
and they were going to art. Armin could wait until after school to be on his mind.

And he did. Marco had a great time in art class, save for the multiple times that Jean kept trying to
take a hold of Marco’s hand to doodle on it and then Jean snapping at a freshman girl who nearly
snitched on Jean for not paying attention. Oh, poor girl that Marco sympathized with, because he
used to do the exact same thing but he had learned to mind his business as his time in high school
went on.

After school, Marco texted Armin to meet him at the school entrance, so it was no surprise to see
Armin standing awkwardly a few feet away from the door. As per usual, Marco offered a smile to
Armin to which the other boy returned weekly.

They didn’t know where they were walking. It would seem, from the streets they were taking, they
were going to the local park, but Marco just walked aimlessly in complete honesty. He just needed
to buy some time.

“Has something been wrong lately?”

“ UH- what?” Armin squeaked. Nice going, Arlert. He cleared his throat before speaking again, “I
mean- what?”

Marco just laughed, shaking his head at the ground and continuing to walk, “I know you, Armin,
and I’m not stupid. What’s up?”

“Uh…” A lot of things were wrong, and Armin knew it. It was at least a week after the party, and
he still sported Mikasa’s red scarf around his neck. Albeit, the weather was still perfect for it, so
there was no harm and no foul. But, after layering on Mikasa’s concealer earlier that morning, the
hickeys were long gone but the bite mark still stood out clear as day. Every time Armin recalled the
event, he idly fiddled with the scarf, specifically the material that covered up the bite.

Things wrong with the bite included:

1. It still existed
2. Armin liked it
3. Armin wanted to take the scarf off and show it to the world
4. If someone saw it, they knew that goody-two-shoes, valedictorian-to-be, built like a
sunflower Armin was, in fact, a ‘very kinky girl’ in the wise words of Rick James and that
was not something he wanted to be passed around the student body (especially with the
whole ‘everyone hearing him swear’ fiasco the week prior)
5. The memories of Halloween continued to occupy his mind every time the opportunity was
 presented

A small moment of happiness, pleasure, relief would course through Armin’s body and shake up
his cold, dead heart until the guilt flooded through him. He wanted Eren’s touch. He didn’t want
Marco to bite him or shove their hips together because that wasn’t really Marco’s thing and Armin
didn’t want it to be his thing, as it was what made Eren so unique. Marco couldn’t be rough like
Eren, or clueless like Eren. The freckled boy, nicer than Jesus himself, couldn’t embody the
devilish way that Eren attacked his neck in a furious rush to claim him. And as much as Armin
tried to implement their friends’ rules, he couldn’t forget Halloween night even if he wanted to.

But, it’s not like Armin could tell Marco all of that.

“It’s just… you aren’t bothered by this?” He fiddled with the scarf. It wasn’t the whole truth, but it
was better than nothing.

Realization dawned on Marco’s face regardless, though. Was Armin really that much of an open
book?

“Oh, god no! Jesus, Armin, you made me think something was actually wrong!” Marco laughed
whole-heartedly, flashing Armin a smile, “We were all drunk, it was a game, yada yada yada. I
know it meant nothing to you, so it doesn’t mean anything to me. Unless it does mean something
to you, then we should talk about it.” Armin was actually not that much of an open book, he
confirmed from Marco’s response.

Oh Marco, always so understanding. Armin chuckled at the thought, because that’s why he liked
Marco so, so much. All it was was a sexual fantasy, so Armin supposed it really didn’t matter, just
like Marco said. As they briefly brushed over the event, Armin could feel his knees go weak at the
memory of what Eren’s tongue felt like against his skin, but Marco was right. It didn’t mean
anything, they were just best friends.

“Um.. it just made me think about, us?” Armin’s face went red as he continued his confession.
‘Just take Levi’s advice, it will be fine,’ he lightly chanted mentally.

“Honestly, there isn’t anything between Eren and I, but I really did like how...rough he was,”
Marco stayed silent, so Armin kept going, “I know we aren’t really fully together, but I figured
since we kinda are, if we’re both free we could...try it?” Knowing from experience, Armin knew
that he couldn’t stay in denial to what he wanted.

“I, uh,” Marco stuttered lightly. Armin looked over, and their faces both matched to the same shade
of red.

“Can I think on it?” Marco asked.

“Of course, don’t feel pressured or anything,” and that’s where the conversation left off. At this
point, they were at the park, and they split up to walk home. Thankfully, his grandpa was asleep
when he got there and Annie and Zofia were still at school due to like, sports or something (Armin
forgot, in all honesty). Therefore, this presented him with the perfect opportunity to get off to the
thought of Marco treating him roughly in bed.

A few minutes in, Armin looked down frustratedly and glared at how soft he was.

Fine, he got off to Eren being rough with him again. No big deal.

-
The next days were the ones where Armin picked up on Marco’s behavior. The freckled boy kept
his distance, mostly sticking with Jean. They didn’t talk much, as exes-but-not-really’s do, but it
still bothered him. Marco always made it a point to sit next to him regardless, so it hurt a little bit
when Marco sat with Jean, and for the first time he and Eren shared a rage over the horsefaced
pitcher. Ugh, stupid Jean. He also stayed around Ymir and Historia. What the hell? How could
Marco hang out with his female-look alike but not him?

And then, like a beam of light from the sky, Marco approached him.

“Hey, let’s talk after school?”

Hanji was not too happy to have Armin skip out twice in the week, especially since it was Friday
and that was the club’s chill day, but let him go regardless.

Him and Marco walked in the same direction to the park, not speaking until they arrived there
fifteen minutes later. The taller boy guided them both to sit on a bench and watch the grass, letting
the summer breeze sift through their hair.

“I haven’t been completely honest with you,” Marco started and Armin felt his heart drop. Here
came the speech. Regardless, he looked over with a soft smile. The beginning of the official end.

Marco had his hands clasped in his lap, backpack abandoned near his feet. Armin took note of his
outfit, a button-down flannel poking out under his gray crewneck. He looked good, really good.
“I’ve gotten feelings for someone else,” Damn, that really sucked for how nice he looked. It really
sucked how Armin felt a weight lift of his shoulders, too, even though the whole situation still hurt.

But, Armin being Armin, he just smiled and nodded. It would be unfair of him to be angry over
something that Marco couldn’t control. Just like Armin couldn’t wish away his intrusive thoughts
of Eren, Marco couldn’t wish away his feelings towards this mystery person.

“And I tried to make it go away, I did,” so did Armin, “but you know it doesn’t work like that.” A
sniffle sounded and Marco finally looked up, tears in his eyes but a smile wide on his face.

“Armin, you are one of the most caring people I’ve ever met and I’m thankful for the time we were
together, but I didn’t want you thinking too far ahead in the future when I couldn’t see the same
things you did.”

Armin wiped away his own tears, nodding and a small amount of realization fluttered through his
chest. You readers didn’t think he was completely clueless, right? To think you all would’ve
considered the fact that Armin was nearly as dumb as Eren when it came to his feelings- shameful.

“I think I might like someone too,” Armin started in the silence. He heard Marco laugh.

“Eren, right?” Armin blushed, but nodded his head.

“It’s okay, mine is Jean,” and they both doubled over in sad, post-breakup laughter. As a final
goodbye, Armin pulled his knees up to his chest and leaned into Marco’s side, who wrapped an
arm around Armin’s shoulders.

“We really are pathetic, huh? What was it for you?” Armin asked, gazing at the sky. The sun was
still out, there was still time in the day. It wouldn’t hurt to bask in this.

“Just has always been like that. Never realized it was romantic until before the party, I caught him
singing along to some Madonna song while we prepped for everyone to come over. We’ve known
each other since forever, but something about it was different. I mean, we’ve fooled around a bit
 before, but it was all just curiosity. Now it’s...real, you know?”

Armin tucked his face into Marco’s side, nodding and breathing in his scent, “Yeah, I do.”

“What was it for you?” Marco’s thumb rubbed up and down on Armin’s shoulder.

“It wasn’t the first time we made out while drunk,” Armin confessed. “It was a drunken accident,
same situation, but Miche held a party during September. First time I got drunk so I didn’t know
my limit, Eren didn’t want to leave, so we both ended up getting hammered. For a while, only me
and the club members remembered. Eren was completely clueless, but when I told him? He asked
if he had socks on,” Armin groaned and he felt Marco’s chest bounce up and down as he laughed.

“And then it happened again, and even though we were both still drunk, he still remembered our
little agreement. I don’t really know if it’s fully romantic yet, but I honestly can’t stop thinking
about it-”

“-and that’s why you asked me?” Marco finished.

“Yeah, sorry,” another laugh from Marco.

“It’s okay. Hey, we’re both in this whole feelings-thing together at least. Hooray for unity!” He put
up a hand. Both of their tears were long gone by now and there was still no bad blood like the first
time, so Armin returned the high five and they both sat up, going their separate ways home once
again.

“Hey Armin!”

He turned around, taking a last glance at Marco.

“See you at school on Monday.”

Chapter End Notes

I GENUINELY TRIED TO MAKE ARMINS DENIAL LONGER BUT I

PHYSICALLY COULDNT SIGH :( also hooray for jeanmarco am i right
 "Poo" -Kenny Ackerman, 2021
Chapter Notes

hello everyone!! im unaware of how familiar everyone is with baseball, so im leaving

a reference photo of a baseball clubhouse below :D the clubhouse usually just has the
lockers with the uniforms and a tv, couch, kinda just a chill area.

Clubhouse reference photo -

https://www.jesuithighschool.org/sites/main/files/imagecache/lightbox/main-images/0-
joewatanabe2021-jwmedia-09470-900x600_0.jpg

that's mainly it! onto chapter 12 <3

“Well, it’s a good thing you realized it now. No one likes waiting ten chapters for the main
character to realize that they’re gay,” Levi spared a glare towards all of you, the readers, before
looking back at Armin.

Armin whipped around, surveying the empty classroom behind him, before turning back to Levi
with a confused look on his face, “Excuse me? Who are you talking to?”

Levi shrugged a response.

‘Whatever,’ Armin said, packing up the club supplies. Everyone else had long left the elementary
classroom, exhausted after teaching a small class of 5th graders about whales. The teacher was also
out making copies, leaving both boys to converse about whatever until the teacher returned. Now
that they had to teach these stupid classes after school, it made Mondays the #1 on Armin’s ‘things
to curse when you’re bored’ list.

“There was no realizing, Lev. Maybe I’m just super horny. Have you seen me? It’s not exactly like
I’m the most active person on the planet. Sure Marco and I did...things but it never went too far.
We never even really touched each other,” the blonde confessed.

“Damn, that really sucks. Couldn’t be me,”

“Okay you know what, sorry I’m not you Levi! Sorry I don’t have a huuuge macho boyfriend who
has a big enormous gargantuan juicy amazing mammoth-sized schlong to rip open your tight
asshole!” Armin exclaimed sarcastically, waving his hands around in a theatrical manner.

“Mr. Arlert, Mr. Ackerman, I think it would be best if you made your absence now,” Armin and
Levi’s gaze shot to the door, revealing the teacher returning with worksheet copies clutched in her
hands.

“Mrs. Berzenska!” Armin squeaked, voice cracking pathetically. Levi stuffed the rest of the papers
they used that day into his Jansport and stood up, taking his leave and opting to leave Armin in the
dust. With a pink coat dusting across his cheeks, Armin gave a weak smile and threw on his
backpack, running past the teacher with a quick, “Sorry, see you next week!” and caught up with
his senior buddy.

“Lev, what the hell! How could you leave me behind like that!” Armin gasped for breath
desperately as he caught up to Levi’s unimaginably fast pace.

“Sorry, trying to get to my boyfriend’s big dick, sorry.”

“Are you actually mad about that? Are you serious?” Levi stopped and turned to Armin, who was
grabbing his inhaler from the front pocket of his backpack and taking a huff.

“No, can’t be mad at the facts, Gicler ‘Squirt’ ” Levi chuckled lightly and shook his head before
continuing to walk once Armin caught his breath, “but seriously, you like Eren, right? Even if it is
just sexually, it was enough to get you guys to break it off and I’m pretty sure that’s good enough a
reason to pursue him.” The elder continued, turning the corner and guiding both boys to his
apartment. Armin shrugged his shoulders. Fair enough.

“I don’t know, I guess it’s just weird to think that I like...Eren of all people,” Armin shuddered. He
liked Eren. His best friend that he had grown up with and whose parents practically raised him.

“Things happen like that, Squirt, you just have to accept as it comes. Just try it out and if you guys
don’t like it? No harm, no foul, just go back to being Eren and Armin,” Levi was getting his tea
ready so his back was turned, but the words were still clear in Armin’s head. The younger boy just
hung his head, keeping it down even when Levi shoved a mug of tea directly underneath his face.
The steam felt nice against his skin, he deducted.

The door opened and the lanky Uncle Kenny walked in, tossing his coat across the chair in the
living room and hanging up his fedora on the hat rack next to the entrance. Both boys whipped
around, shocked at the invasion considering Kenny wasn’t supposed to be home until 2am at the
earliest.

“Oi,” Levi called, “ Pourquoi rentres-tu si tôt?”

‘Why are you home so early?’

Armin just stared between both men. It’s not like he knew what they were saying.

“Nous avons fait l’inventaire aujourd’hui et fermé le bar jusqu’à demain.”

‘We did inventory today and closed the bar until tomorrow.’

Levi just nodded his head and turned back to his tea, bobbing the bag up and down. Seeing Levi’s
content face, he figured no bad had happened to the bar. Armin mimicked the elder, dipping in his
tea bag repeatedly as Kenny walked into the kitchen to grab himself a beer.

“Uncle Kenny?” Armin called as Kenny was about to make his way to living room. The man froze
in his steps and turned back around, greeting Armin with that same sinister smile.

“ Oui?”

‘Yes?’
“What do you do when you like someone that you can’t have?”

The old man’s eyes went wide and darted directly to Levi, who caught sight of his bewilderment.
Once again, tea was everywhere as Levi sputtered and coughed from shock. He got up from the
table to clean it up as Armin began to laugh, “Oh god! I don’t like Levi!”

Kenny pinched the bridge of his nose, “You teenagers… very scary,” the French accent continued
to stay prominent in the pronunciation of each word.

“I like my best friend, Eren. But we grew up together, is that bad?”

“Mm, no. You like that friend, you begin to,” he flourished his hands. Armin figures he meant
date, “But if it no work out? Poo,” Kenny spat the last part, mimicking as if there was a bad taste in
his mouth.

“Do not know until you try, oui? ” And Armin smiled, nodding his head as acknowledgement and
in thanks. Kenny took this and raised his beer bottle, resuming to taking himself to the living room.

“It’s almost as if I told you the exact same thing,” Levi deadpanned across the table, trademark
frown gracing his face.

“Shut up.”

“Jaegerbomb! Jaegerbomb!”

Connie and Sasha were able to cheer loud enough for the entire student section and everyone in
their friend group knew it, but the rest still cheered with them in support as Eren made his way up
to bat. Now that pre-season was in full swing, it meant that there were now home games every
Tuesday at Sina High and the small family were always sure to be in attendance. Armin inbetween
Mikasa and Sasha watching intently. Usually, Armin would be chatting with Mikasa right now, but
his cousin seems to have taken that job for him. He spared another glance towards Mikasa and
Annie, catching the soft shade of pink that laid on Annie’s cheeks.

‘These bitches gay? Good for them.’ he nodded before turning his attention back to Eren, who had
just watched a ball go by.

“Here we go, Eren! You got this!” Armin knew that voice too well as it rang from the dugout.
Always the kid Eren complained about and Armin could see the small tuft of auburn hair peeking
over the fence. Floch, Armin thinks was his name, was always Eren’s loudest supporter. At first,
everyone thought it was cute because Eren had his own little freshman last year, but now it was
just creepy.

The umpire’s yell rang out, calling Eren’s first strike. Sina High boo’d, the opposing high school
cheered. Everyone saw Eren turn his head back to the opposing team’s catcher, his mouth moving
as if he was saying something. Through the overhead lights and past Eren’s helmet, Armin could
see the furrowed brows. Eren calls for time and steps out, the other catcher standing up. The crowd
goes silent to hear the escalated conversation.

“You got something to say to me, man?” Eren’s yelling at this point, getting all up in the catcher’s
face. Eren, he’s in full body gear. Just because you’re a head taller than him doesn’t mean this is a
good fight, Armin thinks as he watches, but things slowly just get worse. Mikasa is beginning to
stand up, along with Connie and Reiner. Armin stands up with them in a burst of courage and they
all begin to run towards the back of the dugout, entering down the stairs and back up onto the field.
By time they are out there though, under the bright lights, Eren is on top of the other catcher and
his helmet is ripped off along with the catcher’s mask.

Grisha, Carla, please don’t be here, Armin begs to whatever God is listening. Thankfully, there
was one. Grisha and Carla were both out on date night tonight, so they weren't able to witness the
brawl that their hot-headed son was engaging in.

All four friends sprint out to yank Eren off, the umpire giving up and trying to let the coaches
handle it when the catcher accidentally elbowed his mouth as the umpire tried to initially break it
up. Jean’s out there too, sprinting with his friends to home plate. Reiner and Connie yank Eren off
successfully, Jean standing in front of him in order to get him to regain his focus. Armin takes his
place, trying to calm Eren down as he thrashed helplessly against Reiner and Connie’s hold. The
crowd continues to stay silent, trying to hear what both boys were saying.

Mikasa, Jean, and Coach Weilsman stand in front of the catcher, blocking the opposing team’s
coach from seeing Eren. The umpire now decides to step in, good for him. It’s all happening too
fast for everyone to comprehend. Mikasa feels a hand on her shoulder and then she’s being ripped
away. A flash of long, brown hair once again pummels to the ground on top of the catcher, now
being relentless with his punches. A tooth scatters on the ground, no one is sure of who it came
from. Mikasa and Jean are now the ones restraining Eren, Weilsman in front of him and poking his
chest accusingly.

“What in the hell has gotten into you, boy?” He screams. Eren’s still struggling against his personal
restraints. He can see the catcher just behind Weilsman, front tooth knocked out and face bloodied.
Two people, Eren assumes his parents, are now on the field helping him. What a wimp.

“ Answer me, Jaeger!” Weilsman’s shout brings Eren back to real time again. Oh shit, did he just
do all of this? He can feel two pairs of hands on both arms now, Connie and Reiner he assumes.
Armin is trying to talk things out with the umpire, but he promptly turns around and runs up behind
Coach Weilsman, getting in between Eren and him.

“Listen, Coach, Eren really isn’t at fault here!” Armin yells, trying to make himself heard over the
adults behind them.

“How the hell is this not his fault, boy? He threw the damn punch- now get out of my way!”
Weilsman tries to push past him to interrogate Eren more but Armin doesn’t budge, pushing
Weilsman back.

“Listen to me!” Even the crowd shut up, which had began to quietly murmur as the fight continued
on the field. At this point, Armin took his position as Eren’s protector very seriously.

“Eren is not at fault! While he did throw the first punch, throughout the entire game he has been
antagonizing Eren throughout his at-bats and when the catcher himself was up to bat! He admit to
calling Eren homophobic slurs, even without knowing his sexuality, to me privately when his
parents were trying to smooth things over with the umpire! Eren is innocent!”

The blonde’s chest heaved up and down and he felt the multiple pairs of eyes on him. The student
body reeked for more out of the boy, considering they had gotten two surprising actions out of the
boy in two weeks. Eren, behind him, seemed to have loosened up, letting his head hang down. His
hair tie had falling out, allowing his long hair to curtain his face. Weilsman peeked around and
looked at Eren.
“This true, Jaeger? That boy over there callin’ you somethin?” Weilsman’s words were slurred
with anger. Eren nodded his head solemnly. This was so embarrassing, he should’ve just taken it.

“What did he say?”

Eren mumbled a response. At this point, the umpire had also come up next to Weilsman to hear the
reply. Behind them both, the catcher looked terrified that he’d been outed for his taunting.

“Louder, boy, I can’t hear you.”

“He called me a homo and a faggot. Said I ‘could only play well because I probably drank cum for
breakfast’, Coach.”

“Our boy would never do that!” The catcher’s mother cried, holding his poor, beaten face in her
hands. She roughly jerked the catcher’s face to meet hers, “Gelgar, is this true?!” She yelled.

How are you gonna be homophobic when your name is literally Gelgar, Armin mentally rolled his
eyes.

The poor, pompadoured boy who was beaten to an absolute pulp looked down, nodding his head in
shame. A gasp resounded from the mom, who began to publicly scold and embarrass him. The
boy’s dad made his way over to where Coach Weilsman and the umpire were.

“I am so, so sorry for my son’s behavior. We will not press any sort of charges and we suggest the
game goes on as planned, I apologize, please do not take your player out of the game,” the man
looked behind to Eren, “I’m sorry, and I will make sure this is handled accordingly. We will take
him off the field and deal with consequences once the game ends.”

Eren shrugged; he still felt bad for stopping the game.

The catcher limped off the field and Eren told the umpire to count his at-bat as an out as he slowly
walked back to the dugout. His friends guided him from behind in order to make sure Eren didn’t
make a last minute decision to whip around and reign hell one last time and Coach Weilsman let
Armin and Connie stay behind in the dugout as the game continued in order to cool Eren down.
His hair continued to hang pathetically in front of his face as he sat at the end of the dugout. The
two friends crouched in front of him and Jean sat next to him, unfortunately hearing a familiar pair
of cleats walking up to him.

“Hey Eren I just want to say-”

“Fl*ch, if you say one more word, you’re ending up like him,” Eren didn’t look up from the
ground and he didn’t need to in order for Fl*ch to hear him. Unbeknownst to Eren, the sophomore
walked back to the team with tears in his eyes.

“Wait- how the fuck did you just say that?” Connie questioned, looking back at Floch and then to
Eren.

“Hm? Fl*ch?”

“Wait yeah, what the fuck is that?” Eren shrugged in Jean’s direction to answer his question. It just
made sense, didn’t it?

“Well anyways Eren, there’s no reason to be so harsh on Floch-”

“Fl*ch,”
Armin rolled his eyes in annoyance. He was just trying to be a good friend right now.

“Fine, Fl*ch. You should apologize even if you think he’s annoying,”

Eren shrugged his shoulders again.

“Ar, can you grab me a hair tie?” The blonde promptly left the dugout to retrieve one from Mikasa.

“Hey man, for real, are you okay?” Connie asked, putting a hand on Eren’s knee. The brunette also
became vaguely aware Jean’s arm wrapped around his shoulder.

No, Eren wasn’t ok. How did that guy know? Was he too obvious? Was it because his hair had
gotten longer, like a girl? Did he look like a girl?

“Woah- Eren, no need to cry, dude. It was just an asshole being an asshole. Con, I’ll meet you in
there after the game,” Jean stood up and made his way to his glove, sprinting out to the mound
because the inning had ended, “Tell Armin to grab Reiner!” He called out as he exited the dugout.
Connie stood up and Eren followed, walking out of the dugout and down the fenceline to the
team’s clubhouse, where their lockers were. Once they got in, Eren fell back on the couch and
stared up at the ceiling and Connie sat next to him. The silence was nice and comfortable, and
although Connie wasn’t really too smart he could read social cues well enough.

The door opened and both boys could momentarily hear the crowd before it shut again. The couch
sunk down to Eren’s left. “Sorry Armin, I forgot to tell you, I’ll go grab Reiner,” Connie stood up.

“You can just go back out, Con, we’ll be fine until the end of the game.” Eren’s eyes remained
closed as he talked. He heard Connie exit and then he fell to his left and onto Armin.

“Is this too much?” He asked, lightly lifting himself after forgetting about what Armin told him
approximately a month ago.

“No, go ahead,” Armin faced Eren and the brunette collapsed into his chest. The position was
awkward but it allowed Armin to reach his hands around and re-tie Eren’s hair into it’s regular
bun. Then, he shifted so Eren was on top of him and slotted between his legs.

“Your heart is beating really fast,” Eren’s comment was muffled by Armin’s sweatshirt.

‘Yeah no shit, I just found out I might like you,’ “It’s been an exhilarating fifteen minutes, wouldn’t
you say?”

“How did he know?” Armin felt Eren balance his chin on his chest, but Armin continued to stare
up at the ceiling, playing with the baby hairs on the nape of his neck, “He didn’t, Eren.”

“Then why would he say that?” A sniffle echoed in the room. Thankfully, there was about a half an
hour left in the game so they had time to spare.

“Because people are idiots. They make dumb assumptions and he was just doing it to get a rise out
of you.” Eren got up and sat back on the couch in a regular position, staring forward with an empty
gaze. Armin followed him, sitting so his body was facing Eren.

“It’s my thing. I will tell the world when I’m ready. People shouldn’t say those things,” The
adrenaline from fighting coursed through his hands and made his fingertips tingle.

“I know, but that’s how the world works. People suck, and you move on.”
“This is what you went through? Why didn’t you tell anyone? Why didn’t you fight back?” At this,
Armin chuckled.

“If I don’t fight back, I’ve already won. Plus, to them it was an insult. To me, it is now a proud
fact.” The answer was good enough for Eren, who had began to take off his cleats. Armin watched
idly as the boy stood up and walked across the clubhouse, stuffing his cleats into his locker and
slipping on his white tennis shoes. His game was done for the night and he knew it. He grabbed a
water bottle from the coffee table set in the corner and plopped down next to Armin again,
unbuttoning the two top buttons of his jersey and sighing.

“I’m not obvious, am I?”

Daringly, Armin pulled his knees up to his chest and tucked himself into Eren’s side in a similar
fashion of how he did when him and Marco talked at the park. He buried himself under Eren’s
arm, leaning into Eren and his radiating body heat.

“No, you’re just Eren. Nothing has changed about you, you were born this way so you’ve always
acted this way, okay? You are okay.” Armin reassured, “Do you wanna go back out and watch the
rest of the game?”

Eren nodded and Armin removed himself from the boy’s side, standing up and offering and hand
which his best friend graciously took. Throwing a baseball cap over his hair, he followed behind
Armin and they both parted ways as Armin went back to the stands and Eren took his place in the
dugout. He was chanting, cheering, high fiving his teammates as if nothing had happened. He
didn’t apologize to Fl*ch though, that was where Eren drew the line at his kindness.

“You got magic in those words, Arlert?” Connie and Jean would ask him later that night over pizza.
To which, Armin would answer no. But if they had asked Eren, he would’ve said yes. Something
about the way Armin does everything, Eren would’ve said, and how it always seemed to stick out
more than anyone else in the best way possible. There had always just been something about
Armin that Eren could never place his finger on. Maybe one day he would figure it out.
 Gay Chicken is a Great Game for People in Denial
Chapter Notes

SLIGHT NSFW WARNING

yall can interpret that as you can smh. im trying to reply to as many comments as
possible! yall make me so happy :D <3 ive been in a weird place lately (save for the
epilogue SMH LMFAO) so yall saying stuff and complimenting me AHH IDK HOW
TO EVEN HANDLE IT OR RESPOND BUT THANK YOU GUYS SM JUST
KNOW IT GENUINELY MEANS A LOT TO ME okay im done with being a sap
lijafhlkjfh okay now onto chapter 13 <333

“Eren Kruger Jaeger!” The nice moment Eren had with Armin earlier that evening unfortunately
couldn’t save him from the wrath of Mrs. Carla Jaeger.

Eren gave a squeak in pain as he bent down helplessly to his mom’s height. She held a death drip
on his right ear, sparing a look at his left. He looked at his dad for help across the kitchen who
responded with a shrug of the shoulders. “You know the rules, son,” Eren could practically hear
him say it.

“Look me in the eye and tell me that there wasn’t another solution besides fighting,” Carla’s voice
dropped down a deadly level as she looked her son in the eyes. He gulped and gave a nod,
attempting to confirm her statement. Her eyes flickered to his untouched left ear and then she
began to yank harder on the right, making Eren’s 6’1” stature shrink shorter than her own 5’4”
height, “You know your earlobes go red when you lie, now tell me the truth, Eren!” He looked to
the ground and sighed, making Carla release her grip and cross her hands over he chest as she
began to pace. She turned viciously, threatening her loose side ponytail to fall off her shoulders.

Eventually, she stopped and sighed.

“Listen, I love you very much and I understand that you were just defending yourself. That boy had
no right to say any of those words toward you, not that we care who it is you love of course, but
still they were bad words that shouldn’t be said at all,” She started, making attempts to calm down
while Eren rubbed his poor right ear, “So I’m proud of you for standing up for yourself, but you
know how I feel about the violence, Eren. I know its hard to help but we’ve tried to work out ways
to go about things that make you mad without resulting in fighting, right?” Eren nodded.

“See? So next time please tell your coach or the umpire, you’re lucky those parents aren’t pressing
charges against us,” She sighed, coming up to her son and getting on her tiptoes in order to cradle
his head into her chest as if he were still ten years old. “My baby… I love you so so much,
y’hear?” Eren nodded again in response and she let go.

“Now go upstairs and do your homework, I’m done now,” She flashed a smile, attitude making a
complete 180 turn before she walked back over to Grisha. Eren did as told, running upstairs and
bellyflopping on his bed and pulling out his phone to text his friends.

The Scouts
Jean Kirstein: mayb he died lmfaoo

Marco Bodt: jean you know that’s not nice :(

Jean Kirstein: K

Sasha Braus: ereeeeeeeeeeeeeeen what happened

Sasha Braus: updates asap

Mikasa Jaeger: be quiet I am doing homework

Armin Arlert: You can turn off the notifs for the chat by putting it on silent, Mikasa! :D

Mikasa Jaeger: oh

Eren chuckled lightly at his friends’ texts before sending out his own.

Eren Jaeger: my mom almost tore my ear out omg

Connie Springer: oh so shes strong?

Eren Jaeger: ?? i mean ig

Connie Springer: are milfs allowed to peg

Armin Arlert: What? <3

Eren Jaeger: shut up

Mikasa Jaeger: what the hell connie

Sasha Braus: dnt hate him bc he’s right

Sasha Braus: condog always spittin str8 fax

Connie Springer: yuhhhh

Jean Kirstein: ^^ agree mommy milf carla

Eren Jaeger: fk off mommas boy go back to your ugly ass vomit looking omelets

Jean Kirstein: i will stretch your ass so wide i will wear you as a hat if you talk abt my moms
cooking again greasy fucking rat

With a huff, Eren exited the groupchat that continued to buzz with notifications of pointless chatter
and made his way to his messages between him and Armin, seeing a text was sent when he and his
mom were talking.

Armin Arlert: Everything going ok?

Eren Jaeger: ye jus was a lil mad @ me but yk how it be

Armin Arlert: I’m sure it’s all fine!

Eren Jaeger: ty for sticking up for me tn btw i appreciate it

Armin Arlert: Of course, you know I’ll always be there for you!

In front of both screens, less than a mile away from each other, both boy’s cheeks burned bright
red. The three little dots at the bottom of the screen made Armin’s heart race, similarly Eren’s
fingers trembled as his fingers raced across the keyboard, causing multiple typos that he had to go
back and fix. Retype, delete, is that good enough? Does that sound weird? Why should Eren care,
it’s just Armin. Eventually, Eren was able to settle on the perfect response after four agonizing
minutes:

Eren Jaeger: ye haha same to u lol

Eren was convinced that the ‘lol’ softened the text so it didn’t sound like Eren liked Armin or
something (which he didn’t, obviously). The poor brunette jumped when his phone began to ring
with Armin’s name and contact photo displayed brightly on the phone.

“Hello?” Eren called into the receiver. On the other end, Armin let out a breath of anxiety. He
shouldn’t have called, but he wanted to hear Eren’s voice so bad.

“Uh, hey!” Eren heard Armin call back after a few seconds of weird silence, “sorry for calling, but
I’m like, super duper bored right now and I just wanted to call for a bit.” At this, Eren laughed.

“Yeah, you must be because I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard you say ‘super duper’ before,”

“Well now you understand my struggle. Do you think I could walk over and stay for a bit?” Armin
mentally smacked himself, why was he inviting himself over? Ugh, it didn’t matter. It was like his
second home anyways.

Eren drew back his phone to check the time. The game ended at 5pm and now it was currently
7pm.

“Sure, but my mom and dad didn’t make dinner because they went out during my game.”

“I’ll be over in 10.”

Armin practically skipped out of his house, past Annie and Zofia, and nearly got out the door
before his grandpa called for him.

“Arry, you haven’t been home much lately, is everything okay?” Mr. Arlert called from the couch.

“Yes, Papa! I’m only going over to Eren’s!” He called back, pulling his converse on in a rapid
hurry. The only thought that raced through his mind was Eren and how badly he longed to be in
the Jaeger household, mostly Eren’s bedroom.

“Ok, are you staying over? It’s a school night!”

Armin pondered. He had two tests today, so no homework in those classes, and he got the rest done
in the stands at the beginning of Eren’s game. That meant no studying, which meant that he had a
free night. And, if he stayed over, that means he would have to wear Eren’s clothes the following
day.

“Uh- yes!” Was the last thing Armin called over his shoulder before he began the familiar walk to
Eren’s house.
When Eren heard the doorbell go off, he froze. He checked his reflection once again, making sure
his hair looked good. Surveying his room, it was tidy but looked effortless and Eren was also
wearing his favorite pair of grey sweatpants and a loose black t-shirt. If anything, he looked damn
good. His conscience was telling him to dress up and impress Armin, but as for why, it wasn’t too
clear. His footsteps banged loudly against the wood stairs as he bounded to the front door, opening
it to reveal his best friend. Armin’s hair had begun to grow out slightly as the back half of it was
half-hazardly tossed into a messy bun. The green sweatshirt that adorned him made him look
small, along with the black basketball shorts and wornout converse.

“Uh...hey?” Eren breathed, bringing his eyes back up to Armin’s.

“Hey…” Armin was glad he didn’t get caught checking Eren out, either. “Is all of your homework
done?”

No, of course it wasn’t. “Yes.”

“Ok cool, wanna like, play some video games?” God this was weird. This was so weird.

“Yeah, sure.” At this point, Eren realized that he hadn’t let Armin in, so he moved and motioned
for Armin to follow him to his room. From the living room, all three Jaegers watched the terrible
interaction unfold. As soon as the two boys disappeared from earshot, Mikasa turned to both her
parents. “See, I told you? Ever since that stupid project they’ve been acting weird with each other.
Since when do they fight? Since when do they dress up for each other to come over?”

Carla laughed with Grisha, patting his leg. “Y’know, Kasa, me and your mom have had this
ongoing bet since they were both little!” Mikasa rolled her eyes. Her parents bet each other on
everything , “When Eren came home and told us he almost wanted to marry a boy? Oh god- and
then we saw them together!” Carla’s eyes were glazed over with something that seemed like
nostalgia. “It’s $20 bucks to me if Eren makes the first move and if it’s Armin then it goes to your
dad.” Mikasa gasped.

“You really think Armin would?” She asked her father incredulously.

Grisha sat up from the couch in a serious position, hunching over to rest his forearms on the tops of
his thighs as his hands laid gently collapsed together, “Both of you are fools to think that Eren
would ever have the nerve to confront his feelings to someone like Armin. Eren will always think
it’s a sort of platonic, friendship love and Armin is simply too intelligent to do that. I rest my case,”
he threw his hands up and fell back against the couch, re-wrapping his arm around Carla. Mikasa
nodded thoughtfully before piping up, “I want in. $20 to me from each of you if they end up
‘getting it on’ before anything happens.”

“Well that’s a deal I’m willing to make!” Her dad reached forward and shook her hand as the both
of them laughed. Carla gasped and lightly slapped her husband’s shoulder, “Grisha Jaeger! Our
boy is not having sex!”

“Exactly, that’s why Kasa is gonna lose,” he laughed heartily, turning his attention back to the TV
in front of them. Mikasa shook her head, just you wait.

“Ok, un-fucking-fair, my controller is broken,” Eren fell back against the headboard in
exasperation. This was the ninth time in a row that Armin was able to 360-no scope Eren, once
again winning their trickshot contest.
“Can’t help perfection,” Armin jested, digging his finger into Eren’s side before returning it to his
controller so his character could T-Bag Eren’s lifeless one. The brunette groaned and laughed,
slapping the controller out of Armin’s hand, “Come on! Don’t rub it in, that just makes it worse!”

Luckily the atmosphere had slowly begun to get comfy as the two boys continued to hang out in
each other’s presence, neither being aware of what brought about the awkwardness in the first
place.

“Can we play GTA now? I’m bored of winning,” Armin suggested, reaching forward to switch out
the discs without waiting for Eren’s reply. The loading screen of a woman in a revealing bikini
popped up and stayed there as two waited.

“She’s hot,” Eren said simply.

“As if you’d ever be able to rack her in,” Armin snickered to himself, but Eren was still able to
hear.

“Hello? I racked you in.” Eren shot back without thinking. Eren decided maybe he should think
more often before he spoke.

Armin’s head whipped around to look at his best friend, “We have never done anything!”

Eren threw his head back and laughed, shoulders shaking up and down as Armin glared at him with
a stare that could kill, “We’ve literally made out twice,” Eren said through huffs.

“That doesn’t count!” Armin squeaked back as he felt a blush approaching his cheeks. Why did
Eren have to bring this up? Why did he have to talk about such scandelous things while looking
that good in his stupid black shirt and grey sweatpants that Armin could definitely see his print
through and-

“Yes it does! You literally want me so bad, it’s embarrassing!” Eren joked, hitting his own
shoulder with Armin’s.

“As if. You wish you had this sexy piece of ass; you sure you weren’t jealous when I was dating
Marco?”

The blonde was pretty notorious for going extraneous lengths in order to win anything. If there’s
anything that Armin hated, it was losing. He loved being #1 in any challenge that faced him which
easily made fuel for his obnoxious study habits and such. So, Armin really did pull out this
comeback with the vile intent to shut Eren up, but then he was knocked on his back. A weight
hovered over his body and Eren’s cinnamon musk infiltrated Armin’s nostrils. The brunette’s
breath, still smelling like mint toothpaste as per usual, ghosted over Armin’s cheeks as the blonde
racked his brain to comprehend what just happened. Oh- Eren just pinned him down to his bed.
Great.

The brunette crossed Armin’s wrists over each other, holding them down with his left hand as his
right slowly moved down to gently caress at Armin’s hip bone. Eren straddled him, angling his
calves so they kept Armin’s legs flush against the comforter. For the first time in his life, Armin
was rendered speechless by the acts of his best friend. Eren had done dumb things, said dumb
things, but Armin always had an answer or comeback, but it felt refresihng to Eren when his deep
blue eyes searched Eren’s emerald ones for some sort of answer. The brunette, who had to reassure
himself half-hazardly that he was definitely only doing this to get a rise out of Armin, leaned down
into the crevice of the other boy’s neck, blowing a soft breath against the bite mark that was
currently caked in Mikasa’s concealer from the morning. Against his own will, Armin’s dick
controlled his body as he slightly tilted his head to the side, opening his neck so Eren had more
access. The cold air against his neck made shivers run up and down his body.

The next time Armin felt anything happen, Eren’s breath was hot against the shell of his ear.

“And if I was?” The breath disappeared as soon as it came, but Armin jolted when he felt a foreign
tongue tracing the outline of said-bitemark. A terrible, cracked moan lowly left Armin’s mouth as
he tried to conceal it.

“What you do about that, Armin ?” Eren dug his nose into the crevice in where he had previously
licked, nuzzling against the skin. Armin stuttered helplessly as his mind was running too fast to
comprehend anything. Oh god, they were in Eren’s bed and he just licked his neck. Their position
was so erotic. Eren was unpredictable- what was bound to happen? A chuckle pulled Armin away
from his thoughts, realizing the sound came because Armin was subconsciously lifting his hips in
an attempt to gain friction.

“You’re so desperate for me, are you sure I didn’t rack you in?” Eren muttered directly against
Armin’s neck. The hair falling out from his manbun tickled Armin’s neck as he saw this as an “it’s
okay if you try to dryhump me bro, it’s the vibes” but the blonde was too late. Eren was already
taking his other hand and fully clutching onto Armin’s hip and keeping it still as the brunette
slowly dragged their pelvises together. With nothing to cover his mouth, Armin tried his best to
conceal the quiet, “Oh god,” that escaped his mouth. The hips left quickly after, and so did all of
Eren’s weight. Regaining his senses from his horny-bliss, he could pick out Eren’s laughing.

“Oh jesus Armin, I didn’t actually known I gave you a boner!” Armin looked down, and there it
was, a huge tent in his black basketball shorts. In a rush, he threw the end of his sweatshirt over it
and moved to slap Eren’s shoulder to which the brunette winced.

“What the hell was that! You expect me to not get one?!”

“Have you never played gay chicken? I mean- I guess I lost, but you just scared me!” Eren’s
laughs continued to fill the room and the blush remained on Armin’s cheeks, steadily growing
heavier as Eren’s laughter ceased to stop.

“I was just trying to prove my point that I could totally rack you in- which I did!” He chanted
victoriously, resituating himself in a sitting position next to Armin so they could continue to play
Grand Theft Auto.

“You know where the bathroom is if you need to go take care of that?”

Armin groaned internally. His boner was already long gone, but the embarrassment remained.
What the hell. Armin knew that he wasn’t exactly making it to the pearly white gates above, but he
didn’t know what he did for God to curse him like that . If Armin knew that making voodoo dolls
with the hairs of your enemies led to getting it on with the person you just realized you like only
for them to be ‘joking about it’, he would have never created a six-step plan in the fourth grade on
how to cut off a sufficient amount of hair off of someone without them noticing because shit , the
agony coursing through his body was terrible.

“You got so into it- maybe you like me! Imagine- actually don’t. That would be so weird if we
dated, dude.”

“Yeah,” Armin laughed emptily, grabbing his controller and holding it loosely as he watched Eren
run pedestrians over on the screen. The brunette chased after a pregnant character who yelled at
his own about his terrible driving, resulting in her death by flamethrower. The poor blonde was so
distracted by his friend’s statement that he put his controller down again, completely forgetting that
GTA was a singleplayer game. “It would be totally weird if we dated..” He agreed with no truth
behind the statement, watching Eren crash cars he stole. The blonde was lucky enough to take all
his anger out on any pedestrian that came near his character a few minutes later, ramming planes
into streets and leaving hookers in cars on the train tracks. Even as his virtual reign of terror
continued, one single though echoed through his head.

It was just a joke and Eren was right, it would be weird if they dated- wouldn’t it?
 Connie is Great at Social Cues so he can Smell Sexual Tension
Chapter Notes

SLIGHT NSFW WARNING!!

here's a quick lil filler chapter/progression chapter to set up for the next one :D it's not
too shabby i hope yall like more genuine eremin content bc we all know that this is
relationship is being dragged out so goddamn slow LMFAAOOO anyways thank you
guys for 4000 reads and 300 kudos!!!! at the epilogue i will write a full thing on why i
wrote this fic but all yall need to know rn is that this was a complete whim that i didn't
expect to get this far omg. anyways thank you all so so much and here is chapter 14!
<3

“Armin? Armin…?” The blonde grumbled, feeling a hand on his waist, shaking his body back and
fourth. As he woke up, the blonde became aware of his body’s position, entangled with Eren’s as
they had both fell asleep cuddling (Eren’s idea).

“Eren? What’s wrong?” The blonde couldn’t make out much in the dark, but could feel a wetness
soak the front of his hoodie when Eren pushed his head into Armin’s chest. “E? What- why are
you crying?” The brunette, a big gentle giant, just continued to nuzzle his head into Armin’s chest.
He got the message and sighed, bringing his free hand around Eren’s head and putting it to the
back, stroking the soft brown locks with familiarity. The other boy’s arm came around Armin’s
waist, clinging onto the sweatshirt and small sobs were muffled by Armin’s chest. After a few
minutes, Armin removed his hand from Eren’s hair to reach behind him in search of his phone.
Eventually, he grabbed it and opened it, hissing at the sudden bright light that was emitted.

2:13am

The numbers read out angrily at the blonde, who just sighed and threw his phone back in its
previous position, not caring enough to put it on the charger. “Tell me what’s wrong, I can’t help
you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

Eren sobs became less and less until he eventually pulled his head away for Armin to hear him
clearly.

“They fo.. Someone told them..” The poor boy couldn’t finish before sniffling again.

Armin came forward and took place as the little spoon, wrapping his arm around Eren’s middle and
tucking himself under the boy’s arm. Eren welcomed Armin’s presence, clutching his arm around
the boy’s smaller frame protectively.

“Someone told them I...didn’t only like girls… and they kicked me out, Armin. They all hated me,
even you,” He whispered, rubbing his hand up and down Armin’s back. Despite how good it felt,
Armin couldn’t tell if Eren did that for himself or for Armin. Dare he say it, it was a little fucked
up. Armin felt bad for being more focused on being in Eren’s arms rather than why he was crying.
He willed his romantic thoughts away, turning to the present. He lifted his head and looked at
Eren, both faces within the same distance they were just hours prior. The atmosphere was soft like
fresh snow, a small safe haven for only them.
“Eren,” Armin whispered to him gently, a smile playing on his face. Through the dark, Eren could
see it, “I could never hate you. Especially if you like guys,” Eren winced at the vocalization, “I still
couldn’t hate you- that means I would have to hate myself too and it’s sin to hate God’s favorite.”

“You don’t even like God.”

“Besides the point,” Armin rolled his eyes, “It was just a dream. I love you, so do your parents,
Mikasa, our friends...that type of thing is unrealistic. Think rationally.” Pretty bold of Armin to
assume that Eren could think, period. Anywho, it did help Eren calm down, and Armin could feel
the taller boy push Armin’s head flush against his chest and he desperately hoped Eren couldn’t
feel the way his heart skipped a few beats. “Ok, you’re right, thank you. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” And that was how they woke up the next morning for school, Armin tucked against
Eren’s chest and Eren’s face buried in Armin’s hair. Their legs were entangled and Armin had a
hard clambering out of Eren’s embrace at the brisk hour of 6:14am. He climbed out of the bed and
went downstairs, not surprised to see Grisha at the dining table and Carla standing against the
kitchen counters with a coffee cup in hand.

“Morning, son,” Grisha nodded towards the blonde to which he replied with a meek smile and
wave as he made his way to the coffee pot, not quite ready to talk to anyone yet since he had rolled
out of bed less than five minutes ago.

“Ah! My other boy, good morning sunshine!” The blonde boy thought it was funny how, now after
summer, Carla had to lightly stand on her toes in order to pat Armin’s head and ruffle his hair.
Prior to the summer, he was nearly two inches shorter than her, oh how time flies. He hummed at
the contact, leaning into her hand before she removed it to hug him. “It feels like it’s been so long
since we’ve had morning coffee together! Go grab a chair next to Grisha and I’ll grab you a cup.”

Eren awoke to laughter coming from downstairs and an empty spot next to him. The pillow felt
cold and he reached behind him to his nightstand, seeing that it was around 6:40. After stretching,
he lazily padded downstairs with a foggy brain. He saw his family and Armin sitting at the dining
table, sipping their coffee and whatnot. Eren made his way to the fridge and grabbed a chocolate
protein shake before taking a seat next to Armin, putting his drink on the table, and slumping over
against his friend.

“Is this okay?” Eren mumbled quietly into his shoulder, only to be heard within Armin’s earshot.
He heard an affirmative ‘mhm’ before letting the full weight of his head lay against Armin.

“Good morning to you, too,” Carla chuckled, “When’s the last time you showered, Eren? You look
greasy,” Eren groaned. The last time he had washed his hair was a day and a half ago, it wasn’t his
fault it got oily quickly. “And brush it, too. It looks like a bird’s nest,” Another groan from Eren.

“Car, stop badgering the poor boy, he just woke up,” Grisha didn’t look up from his newspaper
while he said it, taking a leisure sip of coffee. Eren felt a tender hand come up to stroke the back of
his hair near his nape, making tingles run down his spine as Armin gently picked apart the tangles
that were created through the night. The next twenty minutes passed by with slow conversation
that went through Eren’s right ear and directly out the left, he was to preoccupied with enjoying the
feeling of having Armin’s long, thin fingers stroke through his long hair and staring at Mikasa’s
terrible new case of bedhead that came as a gift with her new haircut. Both boys quietly sipped
their drinks until they were finished and Armin lightly tapped Eren’s shoulder.

“It’s seven o’clock, are you going to shower first or me?” Eren always let Armin shower first, so
that’s exactly what happened. Eren picked out his day’s outfit (today, Eren went for a classic
black-hoodie-under-a-white-shirt combo, black jeans, and vans; if anything, Eren needed a mop
because he had so much drip on him) as he waited for Armin to finish. He heard the water shut off
and the door open, light footsteps creeping their way towards Eren’s door in a hurry until his
bedroom door quickly opened and closed with Armin leaning his back against it. His hair dripped
with fresh water and so did the rest of his body, which Eren came to find as he examined the site in
front of him. With only a towel to cover his decency, droplets adorned his milky skin and holy shit-

“When did you get abs?” Oh fuck, Eren said that outloud, but Armin laughed.

“Uh- Annie likes to go to this boxing club. I went sometimes- listen, I forgot my clothes in here so I
need to change in here, the bathroom is open.” He said quickly, shuffling over next to Eren and
throwing the corner of the duvet off where a pile of Eren’s smaller clothes lay. Despite being told
to go shower, the brunette couldn’t help and observe his friend and the way his shirtless body
flexed.

He obviously wasn’t attracted to Armin or anything but hot damn Eren couldn’t let those secret
muscles go unnoticed.

“Wanna take a picture or something?” He heard Armin mumble, making Eren quickly halt his eyes
from further wandering. The blonde turned to him with an unimpressed look. “Eren, I need to use
my towel to dry my hair before I put my clothes on, can you go shower now?” He stayed glued to
his spot on the bed, thinking about how only a single article of fabric separated Armin’s completely
nude body from his eyesight.

“I- uh, I mean,” Eren stuttered, but Armin took note that he was still frozen in place. An idea
slithered its way into Armin’s thought process, making the blonde smirk sinisterly as Eren
continued to stutter and look for words. Picking up where Eren left him the night prior, he lightly
gripped the towel so it stayed in place as it drooped slightly when he made his way to stand
between Eren’s legs. The elder boy’s eyes went wide as Armin leaned in closer, making Eren crane
his neck back as him and Armin became within range of feeling each other’s breath on both their
faces.

“Are you...flustered?” He leaned forward, curling in on himself and putting all of his weight
against Eren. In a blurry haze and in order to keep the blonde from slipping on the wood floor,
Eren wrapped both his arms around Armin’s wet body. Leaning up from where his head was
tucked into Eren’s chest, he tilted his head upwards which made him eye-to-eye with the middle of
Eren’s neck. The brunette simply stared down at Armin with the same wide eyes. Like he did at the
party, the blonde stuck his tongue out and gave kitten licks at the base of his friend’s neck, not
missing the way Eren’s body shuddered beneath his. After a minute of licking gently, slowly,
dragging his tongue lightly against the other’s neck just to tease, Armin let his head up.

“Did you want to see me without my towel, Eren?” The younger purred, standing on his tiptoes to
nip at the bottom of Eren’s ear.

“ Armin…” The brunette breathed out heavily, almost like a growl. Armin’s own legs quivered at
the possessive noise, but he kept his composure as he was determined to win. Taking the hand that
wasn’t holding his towel up, he took to fingers and lightly dragged the pads of his fingers along
Eren’s print in his sweatpants. Armin hoped what he was feeling was the cause of his own doing
and not morning wood. Finally, the blonde pulled away when he felt Eren’s fingers begin to toy
with the backside of his towel, trying to creep his fingers beneath the fabric. The blonde did a
quick spin-move out of his arms, grabbing his clothes and smiling.

“W-What?” Eren’s pupils were blown out in lust, his boner obvious.

“I hope you can hide that,” Armin pointed and giggled , “Gay chicken, remember? I lost, but I got
you back for that boner,” now the giggling had escalated into full blown laughter, Armin threw his
free hand over his stomach at a weak attempt to aid the small ache that accompanied the action.
Eren could hear the cackling as he quickly spedwalk down the hall, slamming the door with bright
red cheeks and a huge problem he had to take care of.

“Hey, anyone else notice the weird sexual tension at the table?” Connie piped up. Reiner shot his
hands around Falco’s ears, who just wriggled out of his grip and paid attention hastily.

“No, Hissy and I literally fucked last night,” Ymir played the yawn-and-throw-arm-over-shoulder
trick, which was batted away by poor Historia who was redder than a stop sign.

“No, Condog, I see where you’re getting at,” Sasha said through piles of food. Her eyes followed
Connie’s, who’s gaze laid upon Armin, who’s gaze laid upon Eren, who’s gaze also laid upon
Armin.

“Wait- actually yeah, are you guys trying to eyefuck eachother right now? What’s going on?” Jean
whispered, trying not to wake Marco who had fallen asleep on his shoulder five minutes into
lunch, the poor guy had pulled an all-nighter trying to salvage a group project. The statement was
too quiet to hear though, because Armin and Eren held their intense gaze. It wasn’t a staring
contest either, Zofia had whispered to Udo and Gabi, because she saw that both boys were actively
blinking.

“Hey, brotherfucker, what’s up with them?” Sasha nudged Mikasa, who was trying to have a
conversation with Annie. A hand shot up and slapped the sandwich out of Sasha’s hand, making
her cry out in pain as she attempted to save some of the food. “Call me that again and you’re dead
meat,” The senior glowered at Sasha, who pathetically scrambled across the floor looking for
scraps that hadn’t been tainted by the disgusting cafeteria floor. The interaction caused both boys
to jump out of their seemingly hypnotized state, looking at the two girls in confusion.

“Huh?”

“Is there something you both aren’t telling us?” Armin looked at Connie with a confused look.

“You and Eren have been uh...staring at each other all lunch,” Bertholdt said, not looking up from
the homework he was desperately trying to copy down during the last five minutes of their eating
period.

“Oh uh-” Eren stuttered helplessly.

“We were having a staring contest!” Armin said officially, only to be met with the three kids who
had already taken note that there definitely was no staring contest going on. Before Udo could say
how many times he counted Armin blink, the lunch bell rang signalling for their next class.

Saved by the bell, Armin thought as he shot a last look to Eren before taking off to his fifth period.
He definitely didn’t want to explain to his friends that he spent the entire lunch staring at Eren
because he was imagining all of the ways Eren and him could entertain themselves by indulging in
BDSM experimentation- and thankfully he didn’t have to. Armin slouched in his desk until the late
bell rang once he arrived in class, rubbing his face over with his hands before pulling out his
notebook and an assortment of fancy highlighters and trying not to rub his pants in at any sort of
angle that could increase the unnoticable semi he sported.

Even if ‘gay chicken’ was all Armin would ever get from the other boy, it seemed like a good plan
for now, because Armin recognized that he was becoming completely enamoured with the
beautiful brunette and would take him in any way he could get him.
 #supportivejaegerparents
Chapter Notes

NSFW WARNING!!

aw the time is finally here for our baby eren to mature into a man :') also can i just say
how i love to hc carla & grisha as the best parents in the world. like seriously, grisha
loved eren sm and yall cant tell me differently, just trust me. aNyways this chapt
somewhat marks the end of all the serious writing ive been doing, seriously i forget
this was supposed to be a crack fic sometimes LMFAOOO. alrighty yall, onto chapter
15!!

ALSO IMPORTANT!!! chapter dedication to @gracefalls, @razor_the_ninja,

@jiminschancla, @kaydensquareass, and @HOes_mad :DD i hope i got all of those
right. thank you guys for all your comments!! you're all always so nice <3

See the end of the chapter for more notes

That was how Armin and Eren’s days continued, unfortunately.

Of course Eren, the more daring of the two, started it originally. The next day at lunch, he
discreetly put his hand on the inside of Armin’s thigh as they listened to the kids ramble on about
how terrible reading Shakespeare was. Udo was arguing with Bertholdt about Romeo and Juliet
when his thumb began to move in small circles, making Armin draw in a huge breath.

“Hey, you good?” Reiner would ask the red-faced boy. He just nodded, unsure if a moan would
replace an actual response if he did open his mouth to say something.

“You lost,” Eren would whisper in his ear once Armin delicately removed Eren’s hand, attempting
to eat his salad in peace.

The next time it happened, Armin was determined to get him back. Carla was trying out a new
recipe for snickerdoodles, so Armin and Eren sat in the kitchen hungrily awaiting to taste-test the
batch. Something about teaching kids on a Monday riled up quite the appetite within Armin while
Eren had just conditioned his lunch away at baseball practice, so both boys pounced on the plate of
cookies. Carla left the room to use the restroom, telling both boys to give their opinion when she
came back. Eren’s mouth was wide and ghosting over the delicious treat to take a bite when he
heard a sultry, “ Mhmm, oh god.. ” from across the table, followed by chewing sounds. Eren
dropped his cookie on the table and looked at Armin, mouth still wide open from anticipating a
bite from the treat. The blonde, knowing his effect already, had his eyes closed in pure bliss and
looked nearly orgasmic as he slowly chewed. He peeked an eye open, glancing at Eren before
chuckling and continuing to finish his cookie.

Later that night, they would bring the leftover cookies to Eren’s room while playing Mario Kart.
Armin would sit and wiggle around in the brunette’s lap and eat the cookies in the same seductive
way from earlier, causing little Eren to become a Big Eren and result in Armin being literally
thrown off Eren’s lap. “You lose!” Armin would snicker as his character (Toad, obviously),
crossed the finish line first. Eren rolled his eyes.
And now back to current time, the Friday before school let out for Thanksgiving break and the
seventh time they were going to play an impromptu round of Gay Chicken. The author promises
this honestly wasn’t intended to be in the storyline but unfortunately, it just happened like that.

Armin was uncharacteristically wearing all black, a large hoodie lazily draped across his figure to
replace the usual done up outfits that Zofia picked for him. The hoodie, branded with the Thrasher
logo (Armin didn’t even skate, damn poser), reached midthigh which Eren realized perfectly
covered Armin’s front and backside successfully. So, that’s how Eren’s hand had made its way
back onto the inside of Armin’s thigh, but this time Eren’s thumb didn’t circle. It began to slowly
drag itself upwards.

Change wasn’t seen in Armin’s face as he talked with Sasha enthusiastically about the new seafood
place they both wanted to go downtown and try, but his attempts at conversation began to get hazy
as his hormones hit him like a wave. Still, he powered through the conversation until Sasha turned
away from him to talk to Jean and Marco about something, Armin didn’t really pay attention
because holy fuck Eren was palming him through his jeans and he was getting hard.

Feigning a yawn, he slumped against Eren’s shoulder and pulled his hood up, announcing his nap
until the end of lunch flawlessly. The rest of the group just nodded and continued conversation,
promising to wake up him once the bell rung in approximately fifteen minutes. Eren, frankly, was
extremely lost so he began to rub harder at Armin’s growing hard-on and then he felt it. A small
mouth biting into his shoulder lightly and the vibration of a small moan. Oh . Maybe if Eren had
more than two brain cells he would’ve noticed the nap cover story earlier. Seeing that Armin
wasn’t giving up and not wanting to lose two Chicken games in a row, Eren slipped his hand past
the jeans and on top of Armin’s dick in his underwear. A bead of nervous sweat began to form its
way along Eren’s hairline.

Oh Jesus, he had never gone this far with anyone before...let alone a guy .

But Eren hated to lose.

But oh God he was literally touching another guy’s dick right now. Oh God, oh fuck, what does
this mean. Eren was definitely not born to give out handjobs under a lunch table, what if someone
saw, what if they got caught? Armin noticed the subtle stop of the hand’s motion before it
continued again, gripping him roughly through the fabric because Eren decided that he was okay
with touching another guy and he refused to lose.

‘I have a dick, I can do this, right? What do I like?’ And those thoughts motivated Eren as he
started to slowly pump Armin and he felt Armin’s teeth clamp down harder on his shoulder, the
fabric of his shirt beginning to get wet from his saliva. Eren felt the vibrations of moans and
whimpers through his shirt, making his own dick begin to spring to life, but he focused on Armin.

Eren was determined to make Armin cum.

Wait- what? Scratch that, Eren shook his head physically and then stopped in case anyone from the
table saw him. He was not doing this because he wanted to make Armin cum, he was doing this
because he wanted to win , right? Yeah, totally, he wanted to win. So therefore, his motions got
rougher, rubbing his thumb over the head in a similar fashion of how he would do to himself.
Armin’s arms slithered around the one Eren had down his pants, snuggling into it as if he was
actually sleeping but no- he was actually trying to signal something. Eren felt a delicate finger
shakily tapping against his bicep but he paid no attention. If Armin wanted him to stop, he
would’ve already plucked Eren’s hand away- wait, did Armin not want to stop until he…?

Armin continued to tap against his arm, now more frantic as he felt his body nearing his edge. It
had been a while since he relieved himself and the last time he was with another person was with
Marco back in September, so it was fairly easy for Eren to bring him to his end. Armin continued
to tap the same pattern, again and again, but Eren kept up. In a rush, he tapped it out one last time
as he felt the knot in his stomach edging to unravel.

.. .----. -- / --. --- .. -. --. / - --- / -.-. ..- -- .-.-.-

‘Oh shit!’ Armin mentally screamed as his body silently shook, his fingers gripping Eren’s arm
hard enough to leave nail marks and his teeth sinking deeper into the fabric of his friend’s shirt,
‘Eren doesn’t know morse code!’

It was the last racing thought Armin had before his brain became mush, melting into Eren’s side
and trying to conceal his orgasm from the public eye. Eren felt a moistness pump out where
Armin’s tip lay under the fabric of his underwear. He slid his finger over it, causing some to build
up on the tip of his finger and eliciting a silent ‘meep!’ from Armin before he slid his hand out and
put it on the top of Armin’s thigh, taking a napkin and wiping his hand down. Well, that was
eventful.

When Armin came out of the marine biology club alone, Eren was greeted with a slap to the face.

“Aye yai yai!” Eren groaned, rubbing his face and looking down at Armin’s red face, “What was
that for?!”

“You-you!” Armin shook with anger and embarrassment, balling his fists at his sides, “You made
me-!”

“Ugh, this is what that’s about? Dude, tie game, I didn’t even touch your actual dick, it’s not that
deep,” Eren rolled his eyes, turning on his heel to start walking home. Armin gaped at his back
before running and standing in front of him, preventing the Jaeger from continuing his trek.

“What do you mean, Eren?! You-” Armin glanced around and leaned in to whisper, “you gave me
a handjob! Under the lunch table! In public!” Eren shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

“Ok, and? It’s just a game, it doesn’t mean anything.” Armin rolled his eyes and threw his hands
up, questioning why the higher powers had put him in such a situation. All the moving he was
doing was chafing, too, especially since he was still in his soiled boxers.

“I literally cannot believe you!” Armin accused, hands behind his head and looking exasperatedly
at Eren, “What do I need to say to get it through your thick skull that you don’t just jack off your
friend on the casual?”

“Nothing, because now we jerk each other off on the casual, I guess,” Armin’s eyes went wide.
Eren, you fucking dumbass, that is no where near where Armin wanted to get.

“No- no we don’t! Boyfriends do that, Eren!”

“Is this about that whole talk we had a while ago about boundaries? I just figured you wanted me
to keep going, you didn’t make any motion for me to stop like usual-”

“ Because I wanted you to touch me!” Armin whisper-yelled, now pacing. Jesus, good thing not a
lot of people were left at school because this would be an embarrassing thing to be caught with.

“Well, yeah duh I figured that’s why I kept going, why is there a problem? I mean, we can
probably do that stuff now since you and Marco are completely broken up-” Eren tried to hide a
smile but was distracted when Armin suddenly grabbed his face roughly, squishing his cheeks
together and forcing them to make eye contact. Eren’s head was uncomfortably dragged down to
Armin’s height and it made Eren’s sore muscles ache from post-practice.

“Eren.” Armin looked serious, furrowing his eyebrows and searching Eren’s eyes. “Do. You. Like.
Me.”

“What? Why are you aski-”

“Oh fuck it, whatever, Levi you son of a bitch,” Armin muttered and Eren’s head spun. Why was
Armin bringing up Levi? What did he have to do with thi- oh my god Armin was kissing him.

Both sober and completely in the right state of mind, they were kissing. In the school yard, where
anyone can walk past. Armin’s lips were soft against Eren’s chapped lips, literally Armin mentally
compared them to the Sahara Desert. Armin pulled away, brows still furrowed and hands still
gripping Eren’s face. Eren blinked.

Once.

Twice.

“What?”

Armin just groaned, shoving Eren’s face away and making the taller boy stumble back at the
sudden strength in Armin’s small body. “Whatever, this is useless, let’s go home.”

Eren reached forward, grabbing Armin’s hand and yanking him back, “No, Armin! What does that
mean?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore, let’s go,” He desperately tried to pull his hand away but to no avail.

“Ar, you once told me that you can’t help me if I didn’t talk to you and it goes both ways, what did
that mean? You can’t be mad at me for something I can’t understand.”

“I’m not mad at you, Eren!” The blonde exclaimed exasperatedly, finally ripping his hand away
from Eren’s grip, “I’m mad at myself.” He muttered, tightening the straps on his backpack.

“Why can’t you tell me?”

“Eren, just trust me on this,” Armin sighed, pinching his nose. Eren hated when he did that,
“Nevermind. I’m going to my house. I’ll see you after break.” He began walking away, leaving the
clueless brunette in the dust.

“Armin! You still have to come to Thanksgiving!” He called after him. Armin didn’t reply.

That was the first time Armin hadn’t come over to Eren’s house the Friday after Thanksgiving in
eleven years.

“You boys have been fighting recently, hm?” Carla would ask Eren that night, dipping down next
to him as he lied on his bed. He just nodded.

She sat against his headboard, pulling his head into her chest and stroking his hair like she used to
when he was little. Eren curled up in a fetal position and just listened.
“What happened, Er?”

Eren sighed. Was it time? Yes, it was.

“Mom, I don’t...only like girls,” He whispered faintly against her chest. He hoped his loud, racing
heartbeat would drown out his voice. Surprise, surprise, it didn’t.

Carla gave a small chuckle and continued petting his head, taking her other hand and beginning to
rub his back. ‘Always my little boy…’ She cooed affectionately to herself before speaking.

“So you like guys and girls?”

Eren stayed silent.

“You only like guys?” A soft nod against her chest.

“You’re gay?” She felt his body stiffen.

Gay. It still felt like a bad word to him. Granted, it was. Growing up, it was the hot insult among
his peers. Gay meant bad and that was that, and frankly Eren never wanted to be the bad thing that
all these kids were talking about. Albeit, as he grew up and became more educated, Eren realized it
was stupid to hate someone for loving someone else by time he was seven but his small,
impressionable childbrain couldn’t help but keep that word near the ‘things you can’t be in order to
protect yourself’ file. It still developed that way as he became a teenager, and obviously stayed that
way at his current age. He was always proud of himself for consistently getting better. He asked out
that Halloween Store employee Willy, he told his friends (drunkenly, but they approached him
afterwards that morning about it), and nothing too bad had happened except the baseball game.
But, throughout all this time, Eren still never classified himself as... that because he still feared it.
A simple three-letter word and he couldn’t get over it.

Seeing his mom’s gentle reaction though, and feeling her soft, delicate hands running through his
hair just like old times made something click in his brain. She hadn’t shoved him off. She hadn’t
yelled at him for being a faggot like his nightmares had previously anticipated. No, she was sitting
there and stroking his hair because he was her son and she promised on the day he was born that
she would love him unconditionally unless he committed an unforgivable crime. At this, he smiled.
He could feel her fingers, touch delicate despite age beginning to wear them down. They were soft
from lotion and she still smelled like vanilla extract. So, in a bout of courage, Eren swallowed and
faced his fear. He looked up from Carla’s chest and directly into her identical aquamarine eyes,
tears pooling and threatening to spill.

Carla gave a small smile. Her baby.

“Mom,” his voice cracked and the first tear fell, “I’m gay.” The rest came down. He sobbed and
sobbed, his body shaking and he coughed and sputtered when he tried to regain his breath. He
tucked his head back into her chest, but she leaned down into his hair and gave the top of his head
light kisses of reassurance. Always such a momma’s boy, she mused. He heard her kind words
through his tears and sniffles, ‘We all love you so much, Eren’ ‘I have loved you since the moment
I laid my eyes on you’ ‘You and your sister are the best thing to ever happen to me’ ‘I’m so proud
of you’.

Once he had calmed down, she sat up and got him a cool rag to drape over his red, puffy eyes, not
pushing for any information. She knew that Eren was worn out. He laid down, feeling like a kid
with a fever, and felt a gentle kiss on his forehead.
“I’m so proud of you, Eren, and I love you. You can tell Dad when you are ready, but he loves you
just as much as me. I need to start dinner, but you rest, baby boy.” She gave his head a quick pat
before exiting the room and starting dinner, a huge smile on her face. Eren opening up to her in
such a vulnerable way told her that she was doing something right with her parenting and she
swelled with pride at how fast he was growing up.

Later that night after dinner, Eren took his dad to the front porch. Carla and Mikasa waited in the
living room, watching TV and stomachs churning with anticipation. Carla leaned back on the
couch to look through the living room window, only to see her son standing up and falling into the
embrace of Grisha, who patted his son’s back and rubbed it. She saw his shoulders shake once
before his arms wrapped around his father, head dipping down onto his shoulder. They both pulled
away and Grisha gripped Eren’s shoulders, looking his son in the eye.

“Eren Jaeger, you are my son and you were born into this world for a reason,” Grisha Jaeger said
outside, gripping his son’s shoulders while looking into his teary eyes. Just like Carla, the father
thought.

“I love you with every kink and quirk you come with, and I am so proud to call you my son,
regardless of who you decide to love,” he pulled his son back into him, hugging the life out of the
teen. Grisha could feel his own tears welling up as he heard a soft voice croak, “I love you, Dad.”

“I love you too, Eren.”

Family movie night was spent with all three Jaegers surrounded Eren around the couch, making
him feel accepted and loved while they watched Mulan . Mikasa cuddled into Eren’s side with her
arms wrapped around his torso, his own arm around her shoulders, as his mom and dad sat on the
opposite side like they always did. The chains of social norm that Eren constantly felt around his
body had disappeared, and he said it to himself mentally during the movie randomly.

‘I am gay.’

Unfortunately, the sweet party of celebrating Eren’s sexuality was short lasting as school came
back around the corner, because it still didn’t solve the little feud he and Armin were having. That
Monday at school, Eren walked to his classes with a newfound swagger that deflated like a balloon
when he saw Armin in the cafeteria. He hadn’t seen him when he and Mikasa picked up Annie and
Zofia, saying that Hanji picked Armin up to grab breakfast with them and Moblit. Eren’s blood
boiled with jealousy but it wasn’t enough to dull his mood. Yet, seeing how quickly Armin looked
away once they made eye contact was enough to quickly ruin his day.

He still wasn’t really sure of what he did, but it still hurt. He knew Armin was mad at himself and
frankly there was nothing he could do to help it, but he still longed to support his friend in any
whatever trivial matter he was putting himself through.

“Hey!” yelled Reiner, silencing the group, “Bert’s birthday is on the 30th.” Everyone looked at
each other quizzically, they had all known that. I mean, they had all been like family for the past
five years, why wouldn’t they know that?

“But him and I are taking a road trip together up North to Hizuru,” Ah, so this is what they were
getting at, “so we wanted to throw a party before we left since we won’t be there for New Years!”
Reiner hugged Bertholdt from behind, who was sitting down and once again trying to copy
homework.
 “Get a room!” Falco gagged, making the group laugh. “Anyways,” Reiner continued once the
group’s laughter died down, “the party is the week after next at my house. Armeen-” Reiner finger
gunned to Armin, “you can pass the invitation onto the club because I don’t know where they sit;
booze is optional, we don’t want them there just for that, we like them and think they’re pretty
cool,” the rest of the group nodded in agreement while Armin just gave a meek smile and a thumbs
up. “Alright, that’s it. Party hardy!” And with that, everyone went into discussion of the party and
what to do, how to set up.

Although it was common for the small family to have parties every month, Eren just hung his head
and ate his snack. The Lord seemed to always have something up his sleeve when it came to
parties this year.

Chapter End Notes

has anyone else noticed how i am literally the queen of just posting chapters without
re-reading/editing bc i get too excited HAHAHA see yall in the next chapt!! <3
 Making Up and Making Out
Chapter Notes

MAJOR SMUT WARNING!!

literally, this chapter is pure smut. there's some plot if you squint hard enough, but it's
pure smut. sigh, i think this is going to end soon but i can't really tell LMFAOO
anyways yuh and also thanks for all of the feedback mwah mwah if i could i would
hug every single one of you TuT

also, yall in the comments be like "op, how do you keep updating so fast??"

guys, i watch attack on titan and write fanfic in my free time, pretty bold of yall to
assume i have a life ;-; jk, i actually do have a pretty busy schedule but ig i just type
fast of smth idk :p okay, onto chapt 16!! <33

See the end of the chapter for more notes

The week of the party, Annie and Zofia’s parents finally returned from their trip and moved into
their own house down the street from Armin and his grandpa, so it only made sense that Annie
used her mom’s car to drive herself, her younger sister, and Armin to the party. Eren was slightly
disappointed; he was hoping the ride situation would force him and Armin to talk because they
hadn’t since two weeks ago. Everytime Eren made an attempt, something would always
conveniently happen that would make him not talk to Armin. He still waited outside for Armin to
leave the club too, but then was told by Mr. Shadis that the club got out earlier and Hanji was now
driving Armin home.

Eren hoped that Armin would be decent enough to drop it for the sake of Bertholdt’s party.

Reiner’s house was your casual suburban home, an oddly serious office for his dad’s work and a
walk-in pantry that made you feel out of place. Reiner’s parents had actually allowed the party so
they were both out at some fancy hotel for the weekend and his dad said, “It’s not that we trust
you, but this is an early Christmas gift for your mom.” Whether it was joking or not, Reiner didn’t
care because now his house was free.

Eren arrived carrying his and Mikasa’s night bags on his shoulders while Mikasa managed their
gift (they got him a decorative neck pillow because he always had kinks in his neck from his odd
sleeping positions while the rest of the bag was filled with his favorite chips and sodas because the
Jaeger siblings were unfortunately uncreative). When he opened the door, the living room was
cleared of people but they both heard chatter coming from the dining room table.

They both entered with full hands and warm hearts, being greeted by everyone who crowded
around the table. Pizza had gotten there five minutes prior so the small family sat around each
other and enjoyed everyone’s presence, munching down on garlic knots and greasy pizza before
the doorbell sounded.

“I’ll get it!” piped up Udo, who scurried off to the front door. The marine biology club appeared
seconds later in the dining room entrance waving around beer and gifts. Hanji bounded over to
Bertholdt, giving him a big hug and shaking him back and fourth while shouting, “Happy early
Vagina-Exit!” which led to Levi giving them a quick smack on the back of their head. After Hanji
detached themselves, Nanaba gave a sweet hug and offered her and Miche’s gift, who sniffed
Bertholdt discreetly while giving the classic ‘bro-hug’, which looked effortless with their
corresponding heights. Erwin did the same with Moblit following, but Levi opted for an estranged
knuckle bump rather than a bro-hug since his own head barely met Bert’s shoulder.

“Optional beer?!” Hanji yelled, stuffing their face with cheesy bread, “since when is alcohol
optional?”

“We didn’t want you guys to think we were using you for your beer, you guys are honestly pretty
cool. You should start sitting at lunch with us,” Reiner invited, standing behind Bert’s chair and
wrapping his arms around his boyfriend from behind. The rest of the group agreed, even Connie
got up to give Moblit a few cheerful pats on the back. Historia made her way to convince Nanaba,
and Hanji was practically hanging off of Levi while begging.

“Ugh, fine whatever I don’t care,” the senior grumbled, hints of a smile dawning his face while the
entire crowd cheered.

“Okay, awesome! So we sit kinda in the center-” Eren heard Sasha begin to explain, moving her
fingers along the table to create an invisible outline. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Levi
opening up one of the six-packs and passing out the bottles, but Eren gracefully passed. He didn’t
want another... mistake to happen.

After a while of talking, Reiner was nowhere to be found until the lights suddenly went out and a
cake with 17 candles on it began making its way towards Bert amid the darkness.

“1, 2, 3~” Reiner started as everyone joined in singing the classic Happy Birthday, finishing with
Bertholdt blowing out his candles and the lights being flicked back on by Marco. Everyone looked
at Bertholdt in shock to find his eyes watery.

“Guys, I just want to say how grateful I am for all of you,” he sighed happily, wiping his eyes with
the sleeve of his favorite blue sweater, “I love every single one of you so much and thank you for
celebrating with me today.”

This sent the group into an emotional hysteria, Reiner leaning down to capture Bert’s lips in a
quick kiss before saying, “Happy birthday, my love. I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives
together,” which made the table awe. Eren observed them with happiness and envi. They were so
out and proud, and not in the clich é way either. He could tell that they were a forever kind of thing
by the way Reiner’s eyes glistened whenever Bert spoke, or how Bert’s ears would perk up if he
heard Reiner talking while he copied homework. He had always noticed the secret kisses during
lunch, or how Reiner could simply do something like rub his back and Bertholdt would turn to
complete mush. It swelled in Eren’s heart, thumping loudly and-

“Eren, everyone’s going to the living room, come on!” Mikasa called, taking his hands and
dragging the dazed boy out of his chair. He followed, occupying a spot on the couch and Mikasa
took the one next to him. Looking around, he couldn’t spot Armin, but then Eren shrugged. He was
probably just at the bathroom- Eren shouldn’t even care, it’s not like Armin had spoken to him
within the last two weeks about anything.

“Hey Eren, I think I left my phone in the guest room, can you please go grab it for meee?” Sasha
called from the ground where she laid on Connie’s lap.

“Why can’t you get it?”

“I’m drunk.”

Connie cackled, flicking her forehead, “Everyone has only had one beer, silly,” before his eyes
went wide and he quickly shut his mouth. “Actually yeah,” the silver-haired boy quickly stuttered
with a smile, “can you go get Sasha’s phone please, Eren?”

Eren threw his head back in exasperation before getting up and making his way to the guest
bedroom, “Ugh, fine!” Sasha clapped her hands and yelled her thanks. Eren peeked open the guest
room door only to see a familiar figure hunched over a bag, rustling through it.

“Armin?” The figure stiffened, turning to meet Eren’s eyes, “what’re you doing here?”

“Sasha asked me to grab her ph-” Armin was cut off by a loud slam of the door, along with a
locking noise and the removal of a key, along with snickers coming from the otherside. Eren
immediately turned around and began pounding on the door, begging to be let out.

“No-pe!” He heard Ymir call, only to be cut off by her brother.

“Your guys’ fighting has been throwing everyone off lately, get over it and when you can prove
you like each other again then you can come back out!” That damn Marco and his stupid voice.
Eren cursed him mentally before he heard another shout.

“By the way, lube and condoms are in Sasha’s bag!” Connie called and the group of footsteps
walked away, leaving him and Armin in the room.

“Those motherfuckers,” Eren grumbled and walked over to the bed, picking up a pillow and
throwing it against the door. It collided with a soft thud and landed on the floor, making the
brunette groan and throw himself on the bed, laying on his back.

He heard a shuffling noise but felt no dip of the bed, so out of curiosity he lifted his head. Armin
was sat against the door with his knees tucked into his chest. Eren scoffed.

“What, can’t even sit next to me now?” He spat maliciously. No response.

He fell back against the bed once more, closing his eyes and continuing to let his thoughts spill out
without a filter.

“Honestly, Ar, I don’t understand why you think it’s ok to take out whatever you’re dealing with
on me. You do realize that this affects me too, right?” He sighed before starting back up, “You’re
my best friend. Every second I spend away from you is fucking agony, we’ve never been seperated
since we were kids. Then that stupid chemistry project, what happened to us?” More silence. “I’m
hurting more than you think. I was hoping you would even ride with us today to the party. Did you
know I waited three extra hours for you to get out of your stupid club last Monday?” Nothing. Eren
gave up and tried to will himself to sleep. It was only about 9pm, but he would prefer to sleep until
morning rather than deal with the unresponsive Armin.

That was until he felt a dip on the bed and a soft crawl to his body. He stayed still, not wanting to
ruin anything with sudden movement. Eren laid completely on his back and Armin laid down
semi-on top of him, throwing an arm over the remainder of Eren’s torso and taking his other hand
to guide one of Eren’s out from behind his head and around Armin’s shoulders.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered so lightly that Eren could barely hear it. Eren’s mind flashed back to
Reiner and Bert before he began to experimentally rub his hand up and down Armin’s back, feeling
the shorter boy relax into his touch.
“What’s wrong, Armin?” He questioned gently.

“Can I tell you in a bit? I want this to...last,” ‘before I can’t do it anymore,’ Armin wanted to finish.
Eren just nodded, rubbing Armin’s back and appreciating the touch of having his childhood best
friend against him again. A gentle thirty minutes passed before Armin got to his knees and shuffled
to the other side of the bed, sitting criss-cross and looking at Eren. The brunette was quickly able
to take the hint, following Armin and copying his position.

“Eren, I was mad at myself over something I honestly can’t control,” Armin started shakily, but he
couldn’t even finish before Eren gave his input.

“Why would you be mad over something you can’t control?”

“I thought I could control it,”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Armin twiddled his thumbs idly.

“So...what was it?”

“I honestly can’t tell you-”

“What the hell?” Eren cut him off, staring down the blonde. “What do you mean you ‘can’t tell
me’, Armin? We used to tell each other everything!” Eren’s voice began to get louder and louder
with each syllable.

“Why can’t I keep this personal, Eren?” Armin’s voice also began to rise.

“Because! Since when do we keep things personal? Secrets? What is so bad that you have to hide it
from me!” The brunette yelled, getting up off the bed and beginning to mumble to himself in a
flurry, making weird hand motions as he talked.

“Eren! We’re growing up, some things just aren’t meant to be said,” Armin argued, whipping Eren
out of his trance. Both boys were beginning to go red in the cheeks from irritation.

“Even to me? I’ve always told you everything, Armin, so what the fuck is so different now?”

“BECAUSE EREN, ALL I’VE EVER WANTED FROM YOU WAS TO TOUCH ME!” The blonde
yelled incredulously, only from Eren to roll his eyes and groan.

“Great, we’re back to this stupid shit again. You aren’t getting it. Honestly Armin, it mean’t
nothing, you shouldn’t be getting so worked up over thi-”

“No, Eren! You don’t get it!” Armin pointed a rude finger at him, shuffling to the opposite side of
the bed and getting all up in Eren’s personal space. If there was actual space bubbles, Eren’s would
sure as hell be popped. “I want to hug you! Cuddle you! I want to comfort you on bad days and
touch your stupid greasy hair and share secrets and goddammit I just want to kiss you and for it to
mean something!”

“Then why don’t you?!”

“Fine!”

“Fine!”
Armin’s hands shot forward, roughly grabbing Eren’s face and smashing their lips together. Their
teeth banged together upon initial impact but both boys refused to back away, furiously kissing
with a new fire lit between them. The previous air that had been following them for two weeks,
heavy with unknown anger and sexual tension, dissipated around them.

Sober, Eren ran his hands up and down Armin’s waist in an attempt to map out and memorize the
blonde’s body but his mission was cut off with a loud moan as Armin tugged at the roots of his
hair. Eren rested his hands on Armin’s hips and gently began to push Armin backwards, who took
the hint and backed up without disconnecting their lips. Eren crawled his way back onto the bed
and put his hands underneath Armin’s legs, straightening them out and turning them so Armin laid
against the pillows.

Eren finally pulled away, observing his best friend. Armin’s nose and cheeks were tinted pink,
along with his slightly swollen lips that were a darker shade of pink. His ocean blue eyes, usually
ignited with a spark, were now dark with lust and want, making Eren feel something in his chest
that he couldn’t dare classify in the moment. The brunette ripped off his shirt and put an arm next
to Armin’s head, balancing him as he hovered over the blonde.

“Eren…” his friend sighed softly before bringing his slender fingers up and wrapping around
Eren’s back, pulling him down into another heated makeout session. Armin’s tongue shot out,
swiping along Eren’s bottom lip. He moaned lightly and opened his mouth, relishing in the feeling
of Armin’s tongue sliding lightly against his own everytime their mouths met. Eren lowered
himself down to his elbow, leaning and using his free hand to reach down and adjust Armin’s legs
so he was comfortably slotted in between them. Disconnecting their lips and leaving a trail of
saliva, Eren quickly rid Armin of the crewneck he was wearing, only to be met with a white
collared shirt underneath.

‘Stupid Zofia and her good fashion sense,’ Eren cursed mentally before taking his free hand and
slowly unbuttoning each button with slight difficulty, until Armin just pushed him off completely
and undid the shirt himself.

The heat of Eren’s bare skin was nothing short of completely intoxicating and Armin took the
liberty of spreading his legs slightly wider, lifting them and wrapping them around Eren’s waist,
forcing them on top of each other. His hands gripped Eren’s back and his nape, one hand holding
their chests flush together and the other running through Eren’s hair, tugging occasionally. Eren
began to slowly creep away from Armin’s mouth, moving to the corner of his lips and then his
cheek, lightly nipping at his earlobe until finally getting to his neck, sucking harshly and eliciting
low groans from Armin. Eren wasn’t counting how many dark purple marks were now along the
side of Armin’s neck, he just knew there was a fuck ton. He was honestly scared to open his eyes,
afraid that this might be a dream.

“Eren, I…” Armin gasped, cutting himself off with a moan, “please...bite my neck.”

Eren froze, now opening his eyes in shock and contradicting his earlier thoughts. He lightly backed
away, hovering over Armin’s face who had his eyes squeezed shut. He hesitantly popped one open
and squeaked in embarrassment, “or don’t! That’s totally fine if you aren’t into that, it’s not that
big of a deal-” Eren cut him off with a light kiss, a simple touch of the lips, before pulling back.

“You actually weren’t kidding when you asked Marco to try blood play?” Armin’s entire face was
now red with pure embarrassment, making Eren chuckle and return to the blonde’s neck, licking
over the marks he had made previously.

“Satanic little shit. Tell me to stop if I go too far,” was the last quiet mumble Armin heard before
he felt teeth sinking into the conjunction of his neck and shoulder, making him cry out initially in
pain but it slowly morphed into pleasure, making blood rush completely south. He held onto Eren
as the brunette kept his mouth clamped down, licking along the ring of his teeth before releasing
and pulling back. Armin’s eyes were glazed over and Eren replaced his hand next to Armin’s head,
grabbing the blonde’s hip and experimentally rolling his hips forward. Their identical hard-on’s
met, making both teens cry out as tension was relieved. Eren leaned back on his calves, lifting
Armin’s hips and continuing to push their hips together, making both boys begin to pant.
Eventually, Armin stuck out an arm, motioning Eren to come back to his face to which he
complied.

They continued to kiss but Eren felt Armin toying with his jeans, eventually popping the zipper and
pulling them down. Eren balanced himself but leaning his forehead on Armin’s shoulder, undoing
the blonde’s jeans in a fervor before quickly yanking them off, along with his own. The new found
friction was delicious as both their boners met, making the headboard hit the wall lightly as Eren
furiously ground down into Armin’s ass. Deciding things were going way too slow for his liking,
Armin lifted his hand while Eren was distracted and shoved it down Eren’s boxers, taking a grip
on Eren’s cock, giving it a light tug which made the brunette halt all his actions.

“Oh fuck, ” Eren groaned, lightly fucking himself into Armin’s hand as the blonde used his precum
to slick his shaft. The motions were slow but experienced as Armin twisted his hand up and down.
Eren reached down to lightly palm Armin in his boxers, scattering his brain to remember the lunch
period in which he did the exact same thing. He gently tugged the waistband down, making
Armin’s cock spring out and slap against the blonde’s stomach. In a flurry of confidence, Eren
lightly picked off Armin’s hand and motioned to lift his hips, ridding the blonde of his underwear
and then himself, leaving both boys completely nude.

They both made eye contact and to be frank, it was awkward. They’d seen each other naked before,
but as Eren’s gaze raced over Armin’s form and back up to his eyes, it felt so seductive . Eren’s
mouth practically began to water.

“Eren, don’t- don’t stare at me,” Armin whined, removing his hands completely from his best
friend to cover his face and his dick. Eren chuckled, moving the hand away from Armin’s face and
gracing his cheek with a soft kiss, licking a stripe up his cheek before leaning down to his ear.

“Do you want this, Armin? We don’t have to go any farther,” he whispered delicately, kissing
beneath the ear lobe. Armin pushed him back now, using both hands to cup Eren’s face. One of
them was distinctly wet, which would be gross in any other situation.

“Eren, what do you mean? Of course I want this, it’s you who I’m worried about, Mr. ‘I-Like-
Girls’,” to this Eren laughed, removing Armin’s dry hand and kissing along the slender fingers
lightly. Armin observed the action with care.

“Just...promise me you won’t regret this in the morning,” Armin pleaded, all sexual undertones lost
from his voice. Eren stopped his actions and dropped Armin’s hand down to the bed, interlacing
their fingers together.

“I promise,” he said. Armin’s face was graced with a smile that reached ear-to-ear before pulling
Eren back down again, reaching his hand below and fumbling with both of their cocks.

“Sasha’s bag for lube and condoms,” Armin moaned as things picked up pace again, the room
once again becoming hot with teenage lust. Eren nodded and removed himself from Armin,
standing up and rifling through Sasha’s bag and tossing her stuff everywhere before he found what
he desired. As he got up, he heard a small chuckle. His head turned to Armin, who was still
delicately sat up against the headboard.
“What the fuck could possibly be so funny right now?”

“I don’t know,” Armin mused, getting to his knees and crawling over to the end of the bed where
Eren was. “The fact that I’m about to have sex and lose my virginity with my best friend, your ass
being so flat, or how disgustingly hairy you are,” Armin’s eyes swept hungrily across Eren’s body
despite his statements.

“Well my apologies for not trimming the trees, I didn’t exactly expect to get any form of action
tonight,” Eren rolled his eyes, tossing the small bottle of lube and a condom down where the
pillows lay. Armin was still on all-fours in front of him and Eren reached his hand down, running it
through Armin’s hair.

“What do you mean? The author specifically made it so every party has significance between us,”
Eren halted his actions.

“Excuse me what?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Armin chuckled, nuzzling back into Eren’s hand, “it’s something Levi
taught me,” was the last thing Armin said before reaching forward and taking Eren’s painfully hard
cock into his hand. Still standing, Eren’s legs nearly buckled underneath him and he threw his head
back. “Ever get a blowjob before?” He shook his head.

A breath graced his muscled v-line before a kitten lick swiped across his tip, making him tightly
pull on Armin’s short hair. A moan came in response and so did more kitten licks before a small
mouth delicately wrapped itself around Eren’s head, giving light sucks. Eren let out a string of
profanities as Armin’s hand pumped the rest of Eren’s length before he continued to
experimentally sink further down on Eren’s impressively long and girthy length. Mentally, Armin
compared him to Marco, but unfortunately Eren easily took the cake.

“Fuck baby, you look so good right now,” Eren cringed after the sentence was said. He wasn’t sure
where it came from, but frankly it happened and ew he totally just called Armin baby and- oh,
Armin seemed to like that because Eren felt vibrations of a moan against his dick.

“You like it when I call you names?” Armin nodded and Eren smiled down at the blonde, who
peeked up through his eyelashes as he deepthroated Eren, nuzzling his nose against the brunette’s
skin and giving the most pornographic sight he’d ever seen. He continued to coo at Armin, calling
him different names experimentally and testing his reaction. The blonde pulled off, eyes watery
and pupils blown out as he looked up at Eren. If anything, the sight made Eren want to cum all
over his face on the spot, seeing Armin look up to him like that.

“This is definitely a lot smoother and kinkier than I imagined my first time being,” Eren laughed
which turned into a moan as Armin’s tongue poked out to lick his lips, who then giggled and stood
up on his calves to meet Eren’s face, pulling him into another kiss.

“Yeah, same,” the blonde huffed as they broke apart. Armin made his way back towards the bed,
motioning Eren to follow. Both boys crawled on the bed, once again becoming entangled with each
other, and Armin grabbed the lube.

“Honestly, I really am new to this whole gay sex thing, so I don’t really know how to um...do that,”
Eren admit sheepishly, making Armin laugh.

“I’ve done it before, want to watch?” Eren nodded eagerly and sat back, watching Armin spread
his legs in front of him, lather lube on his index finger, and easily sliding it past the shaved ring of
muscle. Small noises came out of Armin and Eren lightly pumped himself as he watched his hole
clench around his finger. He could see light movements of it wiggling around and slowly coming
in and out before he added a second one, beginning to scissor them and becoming slightly more
vocal. Eren was completely enticed by time the third finger was involved and after a few seconds,
Eren leaned forward and slid Armin’s hand out, grabbing the lube and slathering it over three of his
own fingers.

“Please,” Armin begged, spreading his legs even wider. Eren started with one, but it was shortly
followed by two as Armin was already stretched. Eren mimicked the movements he saw, allowing
Armin to adjust to his calloused fingers before adding a third, beginning to pump his fingers in and
out at a fast rate. Armin clawed at Eren’s neck, legs wide open and his eyes began to tear up when
Eren leaned forward and took Armin’s cock in his mouth, virginly sucking at the tip. What? He
saw it in porn once.

The overstimulation made Armin cry out, begging Eren for more.

“ Eren! Oh god, fucking please, I’m gonna cum, ah!” Armin’s sperm shot out once, twice, three
times into Eren’s mouth and his fingers slowed making a face as the taste infiltrated his taste buds.
Seeing this, Armin breathlessly grabbed Eren’s face and made it hover over his own.

“Spit,” the blonde ordered, making Eren’s dick twitch, before he complied. His saliva, mixed with
Armin’s cum, dripped into Armin’s mouth which the blonde swallowed easily. Eren moaned, using
his lube covered fingers to lightly pump Armin and get him hard again.

“That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” the brunette admitted, tucking his head into Armin’s
neck and sucking. Once Armin was rock hard again, Eren removed his hand and grabbed a
condom, rolling it on with ease and mentally thanking the example banana in his freshman year
Sex Ed. class for teaching him how to not make a fool of himself while being safe.

“God, please just put it in already, Er,” Armin moaned and Eren came forward, lathering his dick
in more lube before lining up at Armin’s entrance.

“Tell me if you want to stop, okay?” The burn was worse than Armin imagined, practically searing
as Eren’s large cock stretched his ass. It took a solid seven minutes for Eren to be fully submerged
into Armin, a relieved sigh coming out as their hips met. They stayed there, letting Armin adjust
and Eren wiped the light tears that pooled in his eyes.

“Are you okay?” Armin gave a whimper in confirmation before peeking out of his eyes and
reaching up to kiss Eren.

“You can move.”

There was a slow drag of Eren’s hips, shallowly going out before lightly pushing back in. The
pressure was better for Armin and he gave Eren whispers of confirmation before Eren fully pulled
out, only leaving his tip in, before roughly pushing back into Armin. A broken moan left the
brunette, making Eren lay down on top of Armin completely and wrapping his arms around
Armin’s small body, leaving no space between them. Armin did the same, tightly wrapping his
arms around Eren’s muscular back and linking his legs around Eren’s waist. Eren thrusted slowly
and shallowly, muttering sweet praises into Armin’s ear that the blonde absolutely drank up.

‘You feel so good,’ ‘You’re doing so well,’ ‘Fuck, you’re so tight,’ ‘You’re so good Armin, so good,
baby’

“Eren,” Armin moaned, lifting Eren’s face to hover nearly centimeters away from his face. Both
boys made eye contact, the world seeming to revolve around them, “ Please go harder,” the blonde
begged and Eren easily complied. Again, he drew his hips and back roughly slammed back in,
making the headboard bang against the wall. Eren began to lean upwards, glowering over Armin
who lifted his hands and crossed them in a similar fashion to when Eren pinned him down. Eren’s
rough pace was now steady, so he brought his hand down to pin Armin’s crossed wrists and began
to spit malice words.

‘You like this don’t you? Being fucked by my cock,’ To which Armin whimpered, nodding
helplessly. See? All that gay porn would help him one day, so fuck all of you. He continued to say
things to Armin, calling him dirty names and Armin’s vision was becoming hazy as his second
orgasm began to build. Helplessly, his head lolled to the side when it was roughly jerked back by
Eren’s other free hand.

“You gonna cum?” Eren asked huskily, moaning.

“Yes, oh fuck yes I’m gonna- fuck! Keep fucking me like that! ” Armin shouted as a sweet bundle
of nerves was hit somewhere deep inside him. Eren angled his hips and went faster, desperately
chasing his orgasm.

“You’re gonna look at me when you cum, okay? Because who made you cum on their cock?”

“You did! I’m gonna cum on your cock!” Armin cried in response to Eren’s growl, holding the
intense eye contact while Eren kept his head in place.

“Can I choke you?” Eren asked as his pace picked up. Armin nodded helplessly, a light ‘yes’
before Eren’s hand left his face and began to clutch around the blonde’s neck. The brunette
ruthlessly pounded into him, the headboard building a rhythm against the wall and both boys
moaned each other’s name in unison.

“Fuck, Armin, I’m close,” Eren growled.

“I-I’m gonna cum! Please, let me come, Eren, please let me- ah!” Eren didn’t know that Armin
was going to ask for permission, but the position of power Armin let hang over him ran through
Eren’s veins and straight to his dick.

Eren leaned down, moving his hand and licking along Armin’s neck.

“Come for me, baby boy,” he moaned helplessly and pulled back, seeing Armin’s eyes rolling to
the back of his head and then they came back, blissed out as Armin nearly screamed in pleasure.
The feeling of Armin’s cum coating both their stomachs was enough to push Eren over the edge,
making his hand roughly jerk Armin’s face to the side and giving access to Armin’s neck, once
again biting down on top of the first bite mark.

Eren pulled out after a few minutes, both groaning from the loss, before Eren tied up the condom
and threw it vaguely onto the nightstand to throw away in the morning. Armin laid on the bed as
Eren found his own shirt, wiping up their mess before crawling underneath the covers and taking
the blonde into his arms.

Armin willingly except his embrace, enjoying the way Eren’s hands ran through his hair. He felt
completely stretched and like Jell-O, the burn of broken skin beginning to set in. Eren noted this
and made his way out of the bed, making Armin whimper. The brunette lazily made his way to the
ensuite, taking the handrag and soaking it in warm water.

‘Huh, I definitely didn’t have to use my shirt to clean up cum then. That sucks,’ he mused, wringing
out the towel and folding it in a similar fashion to his mother before coming back to bed and
retaking his position, now laying the rag against the two overlapping bite marks. Armin hummed,
snuggling up and laying his bare body flush against Eren’s. He responded by wrapping his arms
around Armin, pulling him in tight.

“Talk in the morning?”

“Please.”

“Okay, goodnight,” Eren leaned down and captured Armin’s swollen lips with his softly, kissing
slowly for a minute before Armin pulled away and laid his head against Eren’s chest, listening to
his heartbeat like a lullaby. Eren felt the toothy smile against his skin.

“Goodnight.”

“Jesus- have you two made up yet? This shit is taking forever- OH MY FUCKING GOD!” Eren
awoke to sunlight infiltrating the room. He took in his surroundings, convinced the sudden noise
was from his dream that he couldn’t remember for some reason. He lightly peaked his eyes open to
find Armin’s back turned to him, but they were still cuddling and were still flush against each
other. He gave a soft smile and thumped his head back on the pillow, burying his head into
Armin’s hair and trying to fall back asleep.

“Guys, you gotta come see this!” Wait- that definitely didn’t sound like a dream. He felt Armin
squirm at the loud noise as well, making Eren shoot up and startling the blonde who followed suit.
He turned to Eren, putting a hand on his chest and asking what was wrong before they both looked
at the wide open door and then they remembered. They looked at each other with wide, scared eyes
before they heard a bumbling sound of way too many footsteps racing over to the room. Eren
quickly pulled up the covers over their naked lower halves to attempt to be decent but both
museums of hickies left on each other’s necks and chests were still on full display. Eren ran a hand
through his hair, which fell out of his bun in his sleep, and Armin did the same.

Connie hit the doorframe first, key in hand.

‘ Ah, so he’s the one that found us,’ Eren mused to himself before Ymir came bounding in,
followed by Marco, Jean, Reiner, and Mikasa. The group gaped at the two, observing the room that
was filled with thrown off clothes and eyes shooting between the used condom on the nightstand
and the two naked boys on the bed. Armin gave a weak wave and an embarrassed smile, “Hey
guys…”

"The lube and condoms was a joke, it was just a joke..." Connie mumbled mindlessly with wide-
eyed horror as the rest of the group continued to stare. Even Jean was rendered speechless, who
Eren thought would make a dick joke right now. Marco held a smug smile on his face and he
stared directly at Armin, who went even more red.

“Hey, why is everyone crowded around the door? Did they finally make- oh.” Levi pushed his way
to the front and observed the scene, sinister smirk gracing his face that looked creepily like
Kenny’s. “Way to go, Squirt, you finally grew a pair.”

“Guys, breakfast is ready and I’m not afraid to eat it al- HOLY FUCK!” Sasha weaved through the
crowd, stepping into the room and observing her bad that was thrown apart in a horny search for
lube and condoms. She glanced back up in horror, “You didn’t get your...fluids on anything, did
you?” Eren shook his head no, wide-eyed.
“Hey, what’s the commotion?”

“Don’t have a party without me! Mobi, come on- oh shit,”

“Gabi! Don’t run so early in the-” all four kids screamed, making everyone groan from light post-
hangover headaches. The freshmen observed the scene in horror and Eren smiled at Falco wearily,
“So...did you guys get to drink?” The freshmen nodded, jaw still hitting the floor.

Everyone decided to crowd around the door, staring at the two and the silence between the two
best friends and the rest of their family was thick until Reiner stepped forward, making his way to
Eren’s side of the bed and bro-hugging him.

“My man!” He whooped, giving a slap on his bare back which made Eren wince. He turned to the
group, victoriously throwing a fist up in the air, “My man, Jaegermeister!” Reiner cheered
humorously, breaking the awkward silence and the group began to laugh at the scene,
congratulating the two for making up and doing well.. the rest.

“I’m literally right here, celebrate me too,” Armin grumbled angrily, collapsing into Eren’s chest
with his arms crossed. Ymir gave a laugh and hollered, “You sure you didn’t curse him with some
weird voodoo shit?”

“Not this time,” he meekly responded, making the rest continue their laughter. After their
momentary embarrassment, everyone left them alone to get dressed. Mikasa came back with both
their night bags and eyed the two, mentally chanting her victory before deadpanning and saying,
“I’m telling Mom.” Eren just rolled his eyes and waved her out. Once she shut the door, both boys
respectively began to get dressed. Although, it came naturally to Eren to sneak in a kiss here and
there when he could, even wrapping his arms around Armin as the blonde brushed his teeth,
tenderly kissing his neck before beginning to brush his own. Before they made their way out of the
room, Armin grabbed Eren’s hand in a rush and stopping him.

Eren tentatively turned around, looking at his best friend.

“Eren, we still need to talk.”

He turned around and smiled, hugging Armin and tenderly kissing the top of his head.

“It’s ok, I know I was stupid, I should’ve realized earlier that you liked me, you were giving a lot
of obvious hints,” Eren chuckled, rubbing Armin’s back, “I honestly didn’t realize that you did
until you kissed me, that’s when I kinda connected the dots.”

Armin pulled away, hitting Eren’s chest emptily, “You are such a dumbass, but you’re right. I
shouldn’t have taken it out on you, it was my own problem. I was just scared to lose you, I didn’t
want to accidentally say anything and have it end with you leaving me forever,” Armin admit,
playing with Eren’s hands in his own, “I figured if I didn’t do anything, it wouldn’t give any room
for mistakes.”

Eren laughed, leaning down and kissing Armin’s cheek. The blonde’s mind flashed back to a few
months ago when Levi said Eren had a touching kink and Nanaba corrected him, saying his love
language was physical touch. He figured they were right.

“Well, don’t do that again,” Eren’s voice broke out of his thoughts, “It was agony.”

“So, what does this mean now?”

“Well, I actually came out to my parents. I’m uh...gay,” Eren said quietly, looking down at his feet.
 Sometimes it was still hard to admit. A hand on his cheek lifted his face to Armin’s, who leaned
forward and gave another kiss. Eren loved how many kisses he was getting this morning.

“Hey, guess what?”

“What?”

“So am I,” the blonde boy smiled cheekily before taking Eren’s hand in his and dragging him out
of the room and towards the smell of Sasha’s food coming from the kitchen. As they walked, Eren
looked down at their hands and felt the way Armin’s soft hands molded to his calloused ones,
Armin’s framed by years of books and page flipping while his own were molded by rough sports
and fights, yet they seemed to slot perfectly against each other.

Eren could get used to this.

Chapter End Notes

oopsies, too much smut? meh, who cares. see yall in the next one <333
 There's Like 3 Different Plots but the Main Point is That These Bitches Gay
Chapter Notes

IMPORTANT NOTE!!! and also SMALL SMUT WARNING FOR THE

BEGINNING OF THE CHAPT

holy freak, the last chapter D: i can't believe that i managed to write an entire fic in the
span of just over a month, absolutely crazy. maybe i should go outside and touch some
grass. author's note coming out after the epilogue!! and also, if you guys want to ask
questions, just comment them with a /Q before the question and I'll include them in the
authors note teehee. knowing how ungodly fast i write, which is kinda scary now that
all of yall have pointed it out to me, the epilogue will most likely be out by tomorrow
but im setting the date for the authors note to be on this upcoming aot sunday, march
7th. okay, that's it :D thank you all again and onto chapter 17 <3

See the end of the chapter for more notes

The day was spent at Reiner’s, consisting of cleaning up and allowing everyone else to recover
from their hangovers. The kids had it worse, and from what Eren heard, there was a portion of time
when Gabi was chanting on Jean’s shoulders, not that he would’ve known because he was too busy
screwing Armin silly.

By time the afternoon rolled around, Armin sat in Eren’s lap as they shared a piece of leftover cake
on the couch watching Bertholdt open his gifts. Both their necks now looked relatively normal
thanks to the pure makeup superpowers that were bestowed with Historia and Sasha.

Armin had gotten Bertholdt new cardigans since they both had a strange passion for the pieces of
clothing. Bertholdt also laughed at Eren and Mikasa’s gift, giving his thanks before moving on.
Everyone slowly started to pile out of the house afterwards, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin being the
second group to leave after Marco and Jean. They all gave their goodbye hugs before making their
way to the Jaeger household, crashing in the living room unceremoniously. Carla poked her head in
from the kitchen, raising her eyebrows at the small tuft of blonde hair that laid against her son’s
shoulder. She made her way back into the kitchen, where her husband stirred the sauce for her
pasta.

“Tonight will end in one of us getting $20,” she mused quietly, making Grisha stride over and also
poke his head in.

“You’re on, Mrs. Jaeger, but you will end tonight $20 short!” He chuckled quietly, watching his
wife cook, “I’m just glad those two made up. Hopefully it’s the last time,” Dr. Jaeger sighed.

“Me too,” she agreed before draining the pasta and calling the kids for dinner. As the three piled in
to make their plates, Carla gave Armin a kiss on the cheek and a hug, saying how much she missed
him after Thanksgiving. He apologized sheepishly, hugging her back and promising he would be
there for a pre-Christmas dinner. Grisha gave him a pat on the back before allowing him to make
his plate, all four Jaegers and one Arlert making their way to their designated dining room seats.
They all gathered around, prepping their meals, before Mikasa broke the silence.

“Eren and Armin had sex last night.”

Carla’s fork, halfway into her mouth, clattered down to her plate. Grisha went wide-eyed,
accidentally ripping his paper napkin in half since he was in the middle of laying it on his lap.
Armin went bug-eyed, a silent screech leaving his mouth and Eren shot his head to look at her. He
slammed his tableware down, “What the fuck, Mikasa?!”

“Language!” Grisha silently choked out, trying to process the information.

“What?” His older sister shrugged her shoulders and dug into her pasta, “It’s true.”

“That doesn’t give you the right to talk about our sex life in front of Mom and D-”

“Did one of you ask out the other before it happened?” Grisha had his hands clasped, staring at the
middle of the table. Eren gave a confused look.

“What, why does that matter?”

“Just answer the question, honey,” Carla said, eyes darting between her husband and her daughter.

Eren gave a weary sideglance to Armin, who looked confused and shellshocked, before answering,
“Uh, no? It just kinda...happened. We haven’t put a label on it…” Eren trailed off, fear making his
heart race at what his mom would say about him losing his virginity so young.

“So...who initiated it?” His mom asked, finally making eye contact with the two boys. Oh god, this
was awkward. Eren wanted to die right then and there.

“It was me, Carla,” Armin meeped. His head hung in shame but Eren could feel the embarrassed
heat rubbing off him, “I made the first move.”

“ Motherfucker!” His mom yelled, slamming the table and making the two boys jump.

“Armin, my boy!” Grisha trotted around the table and slung an arm over the blonde’s shoulders,
who was frozen in fear. “I knew you had it in you, son! Take that, Carla! In your face!”

Grisha whooped and laughed, making his way back to his seat while him and Mikasa highfived,
“You both owe me $20 by the way, because I called it.” Carla just shook her head at her lost,
mumbling a small ‘ Goddammit’ , before looking up.

“You made a bet on us getting together?” Eren asked, pointing an accusing finger at his mom and
moving it between her, his father, and Mikasa.

“It’s nothing new, it’s lasted for like- oh god, when did you guys meet? It’s been like 13 years, but
Mikasa recently joined in and said you guys would get it on before anything, I can’t believe she
was right!” Grisha laughed, eating his pasta happily. Eren rolled his eyes, rubbing his hands on his
face and giving a small ‘ whatever’ before digging into his food. Absolutely stunned, Armin
followed suit.

“Were you guys at least safe? I know you’re both boys but-”

“Yes, Mom, we were safe. Can we stop talking about this now, oh my god,” Eren cut his mom off,
embarrassed that this was even happening.

“Ok, I’m proud of both of you for making up and staying safe. Dig in!”

“That was so fucking embarrassing,” Eren groaned, closing his bedroom door. Armin chuckled,
guiding his best friend (?) to the bed to lay down. The brunette followed without question, taking
his bun out and falling on top of Armin, making the younger boy huff. Slowly, Eren crawled on top
of Armin, nuzzling the blonde’s sensitive neck.

“I wish we didn’t have to cover these up,” Eren murmured, nosing where both his bite marks lay.
Armin sighed underneath him, tilting his neck, “I know, right?”

Eren continued to lightly kiss along Armin’s jaw, continuing to make the blonde sigh in content
until Eren finally reached his lips. They kissed tenderly, appreciating the simple presence of each
other before he felt Eren’s hand begin to creep down. He quickly caught it, bringing it back up.

“Hm?” He heard Eren murmur into the side of his neck.

“Your parents are downstairs.”

“Okay, then be quiet.”

“Can I be on top?”

Eren sighed, lifting himself up and throwing himself to the side on to his back, sitting against the
headboard. Armin flipped over, taking his position facing Eren while sitting in his lap.

“What’s the thing you did when we made out the first time?” Armin asked, picking at Eren’s
fingers.

“What, this?” He lightly lifted Armin and set him in place with his right hand, balancing on his left
to gently meet their hips together, keeping it there and lightly circling. Armin’s head nodded before
it lolled back. Eren dryly kept thrusting up, circling his hips, and dropping, because Armin
completely plopped in his lap and began to kiss Eren, slowly feeling along his arms and his torso.
His hands made his way to Eren’s shirt, lifting slightly and sneaking under, running his fingertips
along his abs. He brought his hands back down, unbuttoning Eren’s jeans before unbuttoning his
own, bringing both their cocks out and feeling them against each other. Quiet groans came from the
both of them, their breaths mixing at the proximity of their faces.

Armin cupped one of his hands under Eren’s mouth and his other under his. “Spit,” he directed
again, and both of them spit into their respective hands. The blonde then brought both of his hands
down and began the slick up their dicks together with both his hands, cupping them together in one,
firm hold and jerking them off together.

Armin let his head fall forward onto Eren’s shoulder and Eren did the same, both of them panting
harshly at the feeling of both their members rubbing together furiously. Both amounts of pre-cum
added to the slickness, allowing Armin to pump faster. When Eren recognized his hands getting
tired, he removed Armin and spit into his own hand, copying Armin and taking control until they
both reached their end. Armin came with a quiet cry of Eren’s name, followed with a string of
curses. Eren came similarly, calling out for Armin in a whisper and saying praises. After a few
minutes, Armin lifted his shoulder to look at Eren.

He brought his wet hands to cup at the tanned boy’s face, who made a face knowing what the
moisture was from. Armin chuckled lazily, eyes half lidded. He brought them together for a tender
kiss before getting up and getting them both a change of clothes. Once they were situated, they laid
down in bed together.

“Eren, what are we?” Armin piped up within the silence. The hand in Armin’s hair continued to
twist and twirl.
“Can we just be Armin and Eren for now? But, like, I’m yours and you’re mine?”

Armin nodded contently, knowing that dating a man was new to Eren. It was good enough for him,
so he poked his head up and gave Eren a kiss.

“Mine,” he mumbled against his lips before pulling away.

“All yours,” Eren said back, nodding his head before laying back down, both boys being taken into
the dark abyss of slumber.

“Ymir, junior prom is a month away and Eren and I still haven’t established a label. It has been
four months, and he has yet to ask me out!” Armin whined, “not that I want to pressure him or
anything, obviously I don't want to move too fast, but the entire school has seen us makeout!” Back
in January, Eren came back from his math class absolutely elated, shoving his test that had a big
red ‘A+’ adorning it. He cheered, saying how it brought his grade up to a B+, and yelled, ‘ I’m so
happy I could kiss somebody!’, then turning to Armin, dipping him in front of the entire student
body and kissing him dramatically. Now it was March, it was pretty obvious to everyone they were
an item, and still no word of an official label or even an ask to prom.

“Ymir? Ymir!” Armin flicked her forehead, making her shoot awake and yell out ‘Ah Historia I
love you!’. Armin gave an apology to the librarian, who shushed them.

“Did you even hear what I said?”

“Honestly, no. You’re worrying for nothing. You both practically hang off each other constantly,
who else would he go with?” Armin’s lips tightened as he pondered, but Ymir was right. He closed
their textbooks and stood up from the study table, putting them back in their respective places and
leaving the library with the freckled girl. They both shared a class, AP Calculus, and Ymir asked
for help studying, which spiralled into a worried rant from Armin.

He got into his car, a gift from his parents when they came home to visit for Christmas, and drove
off. Everyone had been acting weird around him lately. Okay yes, he brought up the fact that Eren
wasn’t asking him out constantly, but he couldn’t help it! Eren was his and he was Eren’s, there
was already no denying that, but Armin was an unfortunate hopeless romantic who wanted to
bound around campus and yell, “ Eren Kruger Jaeger is my boyfriend!” at the top of his lungs. He
just wanted something more official, was that bad? He figures he was doing good though since he
hadn’t brought it up to Eren yet. He wanted him to take his time and come to accept reality as a
somewhat-out-gay-guy.

Armin got out of his car, rushing inside and greeting his grandpa before rushing upstairs to change
into something warmer and comfier. Hanji cancelled club today because qualifiers for Eren’s
baseball team came early this year for some god forbidden reason, so the entire crew along with
the entire student body was headed to the baseball field to cheer on the Sina High Titans.

Armin went through his closet, sighing loudly when he couldn’t find his green Sina crewneck. At
least his white button up and jeans were clean, but the crewneck was nowhere to be found. He
ripped through his closet, knocking down the display of skulls and candles from his top shelf. A
thick leather book crashed down against the back of his neck, making him groan as he took a
glance.

‘Stupid ritual book,’ he cursed, turning a few pages and reading the handwritten ancient Latin
before gently putting everything back. He then turned, making a face at his laundry basket which
hadn’t been touched all month. He dug through it, finding his crewneck at the very bottom and
smelling it. He gagged, holding the fabric away. Damn, for someone as prepubescent as him, his
BO was rank as hell.

He laid it out on his bed, spraying heaps of cologne against the armpits and collar before shaking it
out and repeating the process until he deemed it to smell decent. Throwing it on, he ran downstairs,
nearly tripping over his own shoelaces.

“Jesus and Mary, Armin, did you shower in perfume?” His grandpa called upon his entrance to the
living room.

“Does it smell good?”

“It smells strong.” Armin sighed, at least it didn’t smell bad, “I’m going to Eren’s game, see you
later, Papa!”

The blonde got into his car and raced back to school, meeting his friends in the parking lot. They
were able to get the entire first bleacher on Sina’s side, thanks to the Jaegers and the Kirsteins for
saving it. Everyone, including the marine biology club and the freshmen, sat shoulder to shoulder
while they waited for the game to start. Armin sat next to Mikasa, who was pointing things out to
Annie next to her, holding her hand in the other. They had announced their relationship the month
prior, which made Armin feel happy for them but also mentally roll his eyes because not only were
they girlfriends, but Mikasa was also getting ready to ask Annie to Prom by the end of the week
and they had only been together for a month. Eventually, warmups ended and now the bleachers
were filled with excited students and parents who were anticipating the rematch between the Sina
High Titans and the Marley High Warriors. Armin mentally prayed to Satan that Fl*ch wouldn’t
lose the game for them again.

When Eren and Jean sprinted out of the dugout, wolf whistles and calls came the loudest from the
first bleacher. Although you could consider Eren and Jean relatively popular, nothing beat Connie
and Sasha’s inhuman screaming of “Weird Beard” (new nickname for Jean since he’s growing out
his hair and stubble) and “Jaegerbomb”. First batter was a strike out looking which easily got the
crowd riled up, and the next two outs were a breeze. Sina High’s swagger, being led by famous
Junior Duo Jean Kirstein and Eren Jaeger, was immoveable to start out the game.

Well, it was immovable until Fl*ch fucked up again, goddammit. Jesus, someone get this kid a
spine. The auburn fuckup misread a popfly, which ended up going over his head and allowed two
runs to get on the board. This tied up the score to 2-2, and at the bottom half of the ninth inning,
the Sina High Titans nor the Marley Warriors hadn’t been able to score. Since they were the home
team, Sina was able to hit last at a ditch attempt to get more runs. Not only that, but Fl*ch just
struck out, landing the second out of the inning and widening the possibility of having to go
overtime for a tiebreaker. The game was tense, both sides shouting chants as Jean stepped up to the
plate. It was rather unusual for the starting pitcher to hit, especially as the first hitter in the lineup;
it was practically unheard of, but Jean’s impressive batting average kept him in the lineup as the
leadoff hitter despite what professionals thought. He got himself ready and the pitch came. FWAP!

All of the small family began clapping and yelling louder than the entire bleacher section as Jean
ran to first, successfully making it safely after the shortstop bobbled the ball.

“Atta boy, Horseface! That’s a nice prance you got going on!” Eren yelled loud and proud from the
dugout, making the student section burst into giggles and no one missed the indiscreet flip of the
bird Jean aimed towards the dugout. Next up was Ony, who took a wide hack and also landed a
single, putting runners on first and second. Onyankopon was someone Armin knew vaguely
through Hanji, saying they both used to be in the engineering club together, and they cheered
loudly for their friend when they got the hit. After Ony was a guy named Porco and honestly,
Armin didn’t know anything about him. Reiner and Bertholdt cheered loudly for him though, and
even Annie clapped.

“You guys know him?” He leaned across Mikasa to question his cousin.

“Yeah, him and his girlfriend Pieck take ceramics with me, Bert and Reiner,” she yelled over the
chaos and pointed near the end of the bleacher, where a beautiful girl with long, black hair sat in a
wheelchair, clapping wildly and cheering with an older boy with slick, brown hair.

“Go Pokko!” He heard her yell, falling into hysterics while the boy cupped his hands around his
mouth, shouting, “Here we go, Jaw!”

“That’s his older brother, Marcel. He’s in college now, but he went to Marley back in highschool.
Kinda awkward, huh?” His cousin chuckled lightly before turning her attention back to the game.
Armin agreed, that probably is really awkward. By time his attention was back on the game, Porco
was taking a walk to first base. Armin cheered, recognizing that the Marley pitcher was falling
apart. The opposing coach, Coach Magath as he had been introduced in the pregame, called time to
talk to his pitcher. The Sina High students were wild, and the second the timeout broke, Connie,
Sasha, Reiner, and the freshmen stood on top of their seats and began to chant as the 4th batter, the
cleanup hitter, approached the plate with bases loaded and two outs.

“Jaegerbomb! Jaegerbomb!” They started, which got the entire student body to begin to stand and
chant his nickname. Eren looked into the crowd before stepping into the box, sweeping his eyes
over the fans before he caught Armin’s, who still sat down with Mikasa and Annie among the
chaos. He took a gloved finger off his bat, pointing to Armin, bringing the same hand to clutch his
jersey over his heart, and then stepped in.

The first pitch was a ball, making the crowd go wild.

‘Let’s go Jaegerbomb! Bring it home, kid!’ called the crowd. He looked down a few spots to see
Carla and Grisha also on their feet.

The next pitch, a ball, and then a called strike. Both sides of the crowd continued to grow louder
and louder.

The next pitch, Eren took a big swing and the ball cracked off the bat, sending a linedrive into foul
territory. The count was now full, bases loaded, two outs, the entire game off the line. Armin
quickly stood up, using Mikasa for balance as Eren stepped out of the batter’s box to take a
practice swing. He cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled louder than he ever had in his life.

“EREN KRUGER JAEGER!” The entire crowd grew quieter and Eren picked out Armin’s voice
among the crowd, swiftly turning his head to where Armin stood. Armin panted, his cheeks turning
red as he yelled. All his friends gaped at him, even Mr. and Mrs. Jaeger. He drew in a deep breath
before exclaiming his final sentiment.

“NO HOMOOOOOO! I HAVE SOCKS ONNNN!”

Eren burst out laughing, calling time so he could gather himself. The rest of their friends fell into
chuckles and Armin heaved for breath from yelling so loudly. The rest of the student body laughed
along, unsure of what the joke was but still found it funny. Eren shot Armin a final smile before
stepping into the batter’s box. At this point, Mikasa and Annie had stood up too and everyone had
begun to once again chant.

“Jaegerbomb! Jaegerbomb!” Armin was yelling at the top of his lungs, clapping and watching the
pitcher get ready. The pitch was thrown, and Eren’s bat flew forward. A sickening crack came
from the wood and the ball travelled up centerfield.

“Oh my god, oh my god!” Gabi yelled from the top of Reiner’s shoulders. The ball kept getting
farther and farther, Eren did a bat flip as he began to job to first base, and the ball made it’s landing
behind the fence. A walkoff grand slam to end and win qualifiers. The Sina High Titans were going
to nationals in the summer. The crowd was silent before bursting into loud cheers, everyone piling
out and running around the dugout to get on the field, parents and students alike. By time Eren
crossed home plate, his team surrounded it and all the fans were gathered on the sidelines. Parents
had already begun to snap pictures as Eren was lifted by his teammates, forehead glistening with
sweat. Armin’s heart burst with pride as he watched his bestfriend? Boyfriend? Lover? Property?
be lifted into the air. All parents crowded around as the team dispersed into a semicircle with Eren
and Jean at the head of it, yelling for a speech.

Jean and Eren looked to a happy Coach Weilsman, who put his hands up, “Don’t look at me!”

Jean motioned to Eren before walking off and away to the dugout, claiming to grab something.

“Uh,” Eren started the impromptu speech, scratching the back of his head, “good game, right?”
Teammates, students, and parents burst into victorious cheers, making Eren smile.

“This win was a team effort, and I’m so proud of us guys. We did uh, really good and stuff.
Honestly, I’m just stalling because Jean is helping grab something from the clubhouse,” The crowd
laughed and then turned towards the sound of footsteps running towards the crowd. Reiner,
Connie, and Jean helped hold a huge, rolled up wad of paper and Eren began to talk again as
murmurs of curiosity began to rise from the crowd.

“Honestly, I wasn’t gonna do this here, but I wanted everyone to witness it because he deserves to
be shown off.” The entire crowd had gone silent with confusion as the three boys began to unroll
the paper, revealing a large, decorated sign. It had floral edges and baseballs, along with drawn on
whales and other marine animals. In the center, a large, ‘Prom? Full homo :)’ was written out. His
friends, who previously surrounded him, were now pushing the crowd to make a path to where
Eren stood in front of the pitcher’s mound. Mikasa slowly pushed him forward and Armin walked
towards Eren in astonishment as the brunette still talked.

“This boy has supported me through thick and thin and has been my best friend since we were six
years old, he even played catch with me when we were younger even if he didn’t know how to,”
the crowd laughed, keeping their eyes on the pair. Armin was sure his face was as red as a
baboon’s ass as he finally made his way to the front of the crowd.

“But now, as he stands in front of me,” Eren came forward and took his hands, dragging him
towards the sign, “I have had bad days, extremely stupid days, and he still puts up with me. He
continues to stick with me at my best and worst, and now today, I officially want to ask you, Armin
Arlert, to not only be my date to the junior prom, but also accompany me as my official boyfriend.”
The crowd awe’d in unison, the freshmen girls disappointed that baseball superstar Eren Jaeger
was gay but then beginning to pine over junior genius Armin Arlert as their Gay Best Friend™.
Everyone grew silent as Eren motioned for Armin to answer, nerves wracking his brain.

Armin chuckled and kissed Eren quickly, looking him in the eyes, “Is it still full homo if we have
socks on?” Eren threw his head back and laughed, “Maybe I can make the exception.”
 Armin laughed, allowing Eren to pull him into his chest before exclaiming an “Of course!” and the
crowd cheered for the two.

Coach Weilsman finally made his way to the head of the crowd, addressing them.

“Sorry parents, I know you guys looked forward to the postgame chat, but I really couldn’t help it.
Jaeger has been pining over this kid since he was a mere sophomore, I had to let him do this!” The
parents laughed and Coach turned to Armin, “Anything to say for yourself, Arlert?”

“Uh, go Titans?” And the crowd cheered once again, Eren and Armin making their way to their
friends to listen to Coach’s official speech as Jean, Connie, and Reiner wrapped up the sign, then
tuned into the post-game. Armin couldn’t help but be distracted by the way his sweaty, dirt-
covered boyfriend continued to hug him from behind throughout the entire talk, though.

Armin gripped onto Eren’s arms and Eren gripped him right back and they continued to be
unseperated on the drive to the group's designated pizza place, Eren holding his hand on top of the
center console as Armin drove.

“Hey, Armin?”

“Yeah?”

“I know we’ve only been officially dating for like, an hour, but I just wanted to tell you that I love
you.”

Armin slammed on the breaks as he almost missed the red light, making both boys lurch forward.
He looked over at Eren, who chuckled awkwardly and rubbed his thumb along Armin’s knuckles.

“I mean you don’t have to say it back or anything, I just realized that I’ve always loved you,
whether it was platonically and now, romantically, and you just make me really happy and I know
it took me a long time to realize everything about my identity and stuff but I’ve always-” Armin
shot across the console, shutting Eren’s word vomit up with a harsh kiss.

“Yeah, same,” he said as he pulled back, continuing to drive to the pizza place and keeping his
eyes trained on the road, a small smile stuck on his face. He couldn’t bring himself to say it just
yet, but Eren knew by Armin’s response that the feeling was mutual.

Chapter End Notes

alrighty, my loves, see you all in the epilogue :,) <3

 Epilogue: Eight Years Later
Chapter Notes

thank you to everyone who has read up to this point, it really does mean the absolute
world to me. this is my first ever fic on ao3 and all of the support ive gained in just the
short month i wrote this fic is honestly insane. thank you all from the bottom of my
heart.

reminder that im doing a final author's note that is being posted on sunday, march 7th
that will talk about this fic, its origins, and my next fic. if yall have any q's you want
me to answer, go ahead and comment it with a /Q in front of it and i'll answer it there :)
thank you guys again so much, and now, onto the epilogue <3

See the end of the chapter for more notes

“I do.”

A happy silence graced over the crowd, small sniffles heard from the two emotional mothers in the
front row. The cliff that the ceremony resided on overlooked the beautiful, glistening ocean and
Armin breathed deeply, sighing in content as the salty scent filled his nostrils. A gentle breeze
blew and ruffled Armin’s hair but he didn’t move to fix it, he didn’t want to miss a moment.

The sunshine burned down amongst the guests, not in an uncomfortable sensation, but in more of a
way that provided a comfortable and shared warmth among them. Whether it was in their hearts or
just the blinding rays, the crowd couldn’t distinguish.

“I now pronounce you, bride and bride!” Historia had always been one for gentle kisses and Armin
was fairly sure that was what she expected, but as soon as Reiner announced them, Ymir quickly
wiped away her tears and gave Historia a dramatic dip, kissing her and making it uncomfortably
audible. The crowd laughed as Historia got up, dazed and giving her newly-wed wife a peck.
Armin clapped, happy for his two lifelong friends, and felt a hand slip around his waist.

“Y’know,” Eren said, breath tickling Armin’s ear, “that’s gonna be us one day.” Armin just gave
him a beaming smile and a kiss before turning their attention back to the two brides who made
their way down the aisle. Nowadays, Historia usually wore her hair up in a braided bun so it was
uncharacteristic to see it long and flowing down her back. Ymir never quite strayed away from
short hair, but it was short enough now that she no longer had to be tied into a ponytail. Historia
ended up going to culinary school and opening her own bakery out in the bustling city of Trost, to
which Ymir had no problem following her. The opposite now worked as a psychiatrist, which
mildly shocked everyone when she announced her college major back in their senior year.

Fortunately, the ripe age of 26 was kind to them, especially when it came to their alcohol tolerance.
All friends partied the night away at a local nightclub that had been rented out for the reception,
and they all tipsily piled around Eren’s phone to contact those who couldn’t make it.

Levi’s angry scowl hadn’t changed as years went on, but it did soften when a tiny girl hopped on
his back and interrupted his and Erwin’s congratulations speech. The two had taken off to Hizuru,
which was quite the drive to make it down to Sina especially with two freshly adopted children.
“Daddy, who dat?” The red-haired girl questioned, removing her finger from her mouth to point at
the screen.

“Those are my friends Ymir and Historia,” he coo’d at the tiny Ackerman-Smith, patting her head,
“can you say Ymir and Historia?”

The tiny girl looked down, muttering a quick ‘Meer and Hissora’ before running away. The group
heard Erwin in the background, yelling for their daughter to get off Farlan, their older son. Levi
looked back at the camera, eyes wandering to Ymir and Historia before gumbling, “The married
life changes you,” to which everyone then laughed and said their goodbyes.

Bertholdt then whipped out his own phone, calling his little brother.

“Ymir! Historia! Congratulations!” Udo and Zofia had become roommates when they
coincidentally ended up going to the same college. Suffering through the first years of the
mandatory gendered dorms, they both gathered enough money to buy an apartment off campus,
where they currently were studying for final exams.

“Yeah, those are a bitch,” Falco nodded towards his friends, taking a swig of beer and keeping his
arm tight around Gabi. Sasha eye’d her younger sister wearily before turning her attention back to
the two on the screen. Armin quickly greeted his cousin, along with Annie who interrogated her
little sister until Ymir pushed her out of the way.

“Lesbian power!!” Ymir yelled, fistbumping the screen. Zofia leaned over and fistbumped back, to
which Udo just shook his head humorously. The call ended a few minutes later, a small booth in
the corner being packed to the brim.

Armin laid delicately on Eren’s shoulder, who had begun to wear his hair down the longer it grew.
It was a pretty rare sight for the rest, considering they usually only saw Eren on the big screen
now, along with Jean. Both had been picked up on different minor league teams fresh out of
college, and had worked their way up the chain easily. It was unheard of, two complete rookies
dominating the game. Armin remembered the fight that nearly broke out on the field the first time
they played each other as Eren kept neighing everytime Jean took a practice swing. Or the way he
said, “Giddy up!” as Jean approached the batter’s box. Whatever, old news. The bigger news was
that recently, Eren got signed to the Los Angeles Dodgers as a catcher. Jean was still working out
things, but he would either move out to Boston to play as a Red Sox or to New York to play as a
Yankee. Regardless, he was happy to be able to be home for his friends’ wedding.

The blonde’s eyes graced the table as he thought about how far they had all come, who would’ve
thought? He caught sight of the engagement band that peeked on Marco’s left hand, the one that
was currently holding Jean’s. At this moment, Marco had decided to look over at Armin and they
both shared smiles. Speaking of similarities and differences, Armin also noted the eyepatch that
currently graced Marco’s left eye. For a while, he had become a firefighter. Frankly, no one was
shocked because of the guy’s hero complex. One night gone bad on the job resulted in a burnt left
side and a year’s worth of depression. It was odd, Armin remembered, seeing Marco so sad for the
first time ever. Jean stuck by his side through and through though, which made Armin’s heart swell
for them.

Reiner and Bertholdt left the city immediately for college, staying strong through a long distance
relationship. They now lived in the next town over, Stohess, and Bertholdt coincidentally taught art
at the elementary school the marine biology club used to volunteer at. As for Reiner, he ran his
own gym program. The blonde thought back, vividly remembering when he saw the instagram post
promoting the new building. Reiner came clean about struggling with Bipolar Disorder, of which
he was diagnosed as a freshman in college. As an escape, he began to train hard at his local gym
and built trust in his mentor, Dot Pixis, who inspired him to open his own gym. It was pretty
dripped out too, if Armin could say anything. It was cheap for anyone to come and go, but due to
fundraisers and such, it was a lavish building that provided quality services to the general public.

Annie and Mikasa were cuddled up next to each other, sleeping soundly in the booth. Their
relationship continued to flourish, faster than anyone in the groups. In fact, they decided to get
married immediately after graduation. Much to Annie’s parents dismay, but Mikasa and Eren’s
parents did something similar and they were going on nearly 30 years strong, so they continued to
back both girls and treated Annie just like she was a Jaeger (which she now was, legally). Annie
followed the path to become a chemistry professor. Armin didn’t know why she would willingly
put herself through that kind of pain, but shrugged off that thought as soon as it came. Mikasa
worked as a child’s therapist, specifically for those dealing with PTSD and abduction victims. The
two stone cold girls always knew how to make each other melt, though, and Armin always figured
that was the coolest aspect of their relationship.

Then, Armin’s eyes trailed to Hanji and Onyankopon, who had begun living with Hanji two years
prior. His heart faltered a bit before he chippered up, attempting to think about the good old days.
Unfortunately, Hanji and Moblit got caught up in a bank robbery when they were going to take out
a loan to spend for their wedding. They had been going nearly six years strong and they both had
been planning the perfect wedding, including where Levi dressed in a maid costume and gave
Hanji a lap dance. That dream never saw reality, though, as Moblit was the second hostage who
was killed as a threat to the police outside. His lip quivered slightly before straightening up and
gripping Eren’s hand a little tighter.

Oh, did he miss Moblit, and Eren, too. Eren vividly remembered the day that he and Armin got the
call, notifying that their friend and Eren’s previous guardian angel had passed. Even to this day,
despite not being religious, Eren felt as if that statement was still true. As Armin looked at Hanji
joking around with the group, he noticed that that maniac-sparkle that always glistened in Hanji’s
eyes stayed dull, but Onyankopon was a great person who helped console Hanji. The two were not
in a relationship, but instead more of like a caretaker and best friend. Even if Armin didn’t know
the man too well back in highschool, he was happy to have him here now.

Connie and Sasha were still fucking around doing god-knows-what. They got drunkenly married in
Vegas on a whim, which made Sasha slightly disappointed since she wanted a wedding for an
excuse for a huge feast, but the two thought the story was fitting to the chaos of their relationship
and went along with it. Connie promised his wife that on their five-year anniversary, they would
have a large ceremony to renew their vows and he would gift her with the biggest buffet
imaginable. Connie got surprisingly tall as well, now growing out his previous shaved head. Still
short enough to look like a cueball, Armin noted though.

Nanaba and Miche were still just perfect, Armin deducted. Similar to how Reiner and Bertholdt
were Eren’s example relationship, Nanaba and Miche continued to be Armin’s. Unsurprisingly,
they took the suburban route and stayed in Sina. Miche currently worked as the chief-of-police
while Nanaba wrote for the Sina Daily paper, which was cool in itself, and she was a whopping six
months pregnant with a baby girl.

By time his tipsy reflections were all done and over with, Eren was patting his leg to go home.
They said their goodbyes, giving everyone hugs and cheek kisses before making their way to the
Uber that Eren called for them. As they walked in the door, Armin felt Eren come up behind him
and begin to take off his uncomfortable suit jacket for him.

“Did you have fun, baby?” Eren sighed, kissing along Armin’s neck who just nodded with content.
Eren knew that Armin loved his neck kisses.
“I’m glad, now let’s go to bed.” The brunette led their way to their shared bedroom and they both
stripped to their boxers, slipping under the sheets and into each other’s embrace.

“Eren?”

“Yeah?”

“Call me what you used to call me,” Armin was feeling quite nostalgic, he always got like this at
weddings. It was weird to see your childhood best friends growing up and starting a life together.

“What’s up, Ar?” The brunette questioned, snuggling into his boyfriend. Armin played with the
key that laid around Eren’s neck, a gift from Armin for their one-year anniversary back when they
were seniors.

‘It’s the key to my heart,’ Armin explained, clipping it around Eren’s neck. ‘As long as you have it
with you, I will always be yours.’

He never could recall a time Eren took it off, even in the shower.

“I love you.”

Eren chuckled, kissing along Armin’s face, “I love you, too, but don’t get all sappy on me, Arlert.”

“Don’t you mean Jaeger?” Eren laughed again.

“One day, and I’m glad we’re taking my last name,” the brunette yawned, rubbing circles on
Armin’s back.

As for Armin? He was the head investigator of the Sina Police Department, soon to be transferred
out to Los Angeles once the season for Eren started up. His manipulative, smart brain got him far
easily when it came to interrogations, not to mention how fast he could solve cases and pick up
clues in mere seconds of just thinking about it. He passed his training with flying colors, racing and
taking spot as the top dog the second the opportunity invented itself. He remembered how proud
his parents were of him and how his Papa shed a few tears when he had told them nearly seven
months ago that he was being promoted. He sighed constantly, reflecting at his own life before
reaching up and nudging at Eren.

“I’m horny.”

“Can’t you wait until the morning, Ar? I mean, not that I don’t want to, but literally my body feels
like unkneaded bread dough.”

“What if I topped?”

“Armin Arlert.”

“Armin Jaeger. ”

“Arlert-Jaeger?” Eren questioned randomly, making Armin nod.

“Oh yeah, that has a good ring,” the blonde replied, genuinely pondering it.

“I know, right? Fucking hell , tomorrow morning! Put that hand back where it belongs.”

The blonde sexual deviant huffed, putting his hand back against his chest and cuddling into Eren.
“You know, we aren’t going to have much time to do that when we have kids.”

“We don’t have kids right now, now shut the fuck up before I use to gag for non-bedroom
reasons.”

“Oh yeah, keep talking dirty to me, Er.”

“...I hate you.”

Many years later, Eren would discover that Armin was very right on the fact that they would no
longer have time to themselves. This was proven a fact as he hastily packed two lunches, hearing
footsteps come downstairs.

“Hey Dad,” Niccolo called, grabbing his lunch.

“Hey kiddo, good luck on that math test today! Wait, for your little brother- you still need to drive
him to school!” He called after his sixteen year old. He sighed, grumbling about teenagers and
hearing a smaller pair of footsteps bounding down the stairs. At least the kids weren’t biologically
his, because Eren knew that he simply wouldn’t be able to handle a kid that had the same capacity
of anger issues as him.

“Hey Zeke, don’t forget, baseball practice after school!” Eren called to his middle schooler, who
just nodded without taking his headphones out. Both teens were out of the house within minutes,
and Eren snuck upstairs to the master bedroom where his husband laid defeated on the bed.

He turned him over, attacking Armin with kisses. Eren was off from season temporarily due to a
concussion he got a few months prior. A runner from the Pedros decided it would be nice to sock
Eren in the face while sliding home, which led to Eren giving feeble attempts to fight to dick pack
before he fainted. Today, Armin took a vacation day just because work had been stressing him out.
He figured it would be okay, though. There was nothing too urgent happening at the station
anyways, so they could go a single day without him since his attendance record was previously
nearly squeaky clean.

“Our sons are little assholes, you know that?” Eren mumbled, sliding down Armin’s pajama pants.

“Yeah, guess who raised them for the past two years they've been with us,” Armin directed Eren’s
face towards the hallway that connected their ensuite, forcing him to look in the mirror that was
just barely visible.

“Sure it wasn’t you? That was a pretty dick move.”

“Extremely sure, I’ve never been more sure in my life,” Armin’s head threw back as Eren took him
in his mouth, moaning gingerly. God, they should not have adopted kids so young. Not that Eren
and Armin didn’t love their sons with their entire heart and more, but at 30, Armin and Eren had
still kept in good shape which boded well with the fact that they were still as hormonal as
pubescent teenagers. Having the kids around constantly didn’t exactly bode well for their
inconvenient sex drive and Eren distinctly remembered the tears that both men shed when they had
to box up their red room in order to make space for a second child. But, unfortunately, both men
couldn’t complain as they would both do it all over again in a heartbeat.

After approximately 7 rounds, both men made their way downstairs and lounged around, cleaning
up the house and sipping leisurely on coffee until the rest of their family came home from school
for the day. They had a big weekend ahead of them as they were driving out to Levi and Erwin’s
 house in the outskirts, a mansion, really. Levi became a doctor as expected, which not only allowed
him to buy a big, beautiful house for his Uncle Kenny but also a large mansion on the outskirts of
town where they and their highschool friends often met up since there was somehow enough room
to accomodate for all the families and their kids.

Eren and Armin cuddled, talking and planning out their upcoming weekend as the door burst open
with a scared looking Niccolo. Zeke walked to the kitchen but Niccolo immediately slammed the
door, taking a seat on the chair adjacent to the couch.

“Jesus Christ, Nicky. What the fuck crawled up your ass and died?” Eren groaned, earning a smack
to the back of the head by Armin who growled, ‘Do not talk to our son like you talk to Jean!’ .

“Uh, Dad, Dad, can you tell me about how you guys started dating?” Armin directed his gaze
nervously to Eren before starting.

“Uhm, your father and I were...childhood friends since we were about six. He protected me from
bullies and asked me to marry him because I was a girl.” The blonde giggled, recalling the
memory. At this point, Zeke had entered the living room and plopped down curiously to listen,
telling Eren that baseball practice got cancelled last minute due to problems with the field.

Niccolo nodded to keep going and Armin leaned back into his husband, both retelling the story of
Eren’s denial, Armin’s denial, then their pure stupidity in general. They had both of their sons
laughing, tears dripping from both their eyes when they told them the story about how they got
drunk as teenagers. Armin pointed to the fireplace below to TV at picture frames, describing the
one that was taken by Carla on prom night, then moving to the one that had their entire friend
group in one frame at graduation for Levi, Erwin, Hanji, Miche, Nanaba, and Moblit. They talked
and talked about their relationship, reliving old memories and softening at them.

“So you guys are like, really in love, huh?” Niccolo asked, enticed.

Eren scoffed, “Hell no! That’s fuckin’ gay,” another slap from Armin but lighter as they both
chuckled at the inside joke. “Wooo! Women to the max. I’m Eren Jaeger and I looove women!”
The blonde burst into hysterics, slapping at his husband’s chest. Understanding the joke now that
they both had learned about their parents’ past, their two teenage sons began laughing too until it
halted.

“Why do you ask, Nicky? Is everything okay at school?” Armin asked, sitting straight up and using
his ‘Dad Voice’.

“Well, I have this chemistry project and…”

Armin and Eren both looked at each other before rolling their eyes. Not this shit again.

Chapter End Notes

can we appreciate how i said i would most likely start & finish the epilogue tomorrow
but then i ended up posting it like,, seven hours after the last chapter LMFAOOO im fr
on xgames mode or smth i swear ldafjhalwfh
 Author's Ending Note

Hello everyone! This is AO3 user coffeedependent, and this is the final author’s note to conclude
‘And Eren LOVED Women’.

God, how do y’all take me seriously with a title like that? Seriously, what the fuck was I thinking.

ALSO QUICK IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ALERT!! I have made an instagram for

updates and stuff. If you guys like it I’ll post often about when updates are and whatever, it’s
kinda experimental for now but I’d love to interact with yall outside of AO3!

So follow me on ig @coffeedependentao3 :D

Anyways hi, my name is Syd, but I prefer to go by Rosie online. I started this fic after my finals
week in January. Attack on Titan became my comfort show after some pretty heavy family stuff
happened, and I looked towards alternate universes in fanfiction to cheer me up and motivate me
since school was easily going down hill and I was quickly losing motivation for life in general.
Unfortunately, all I could find was Levi x Eren fics and not many good Armin x Eren fics that
really had what I was looking for so tada! I just wrote it out. A frequently asked question of mine
was: “Op, how do you write so quick?”

Honestly, writing this fic and imaging the perfect alternate universe gave me so much motivation. I
didn’t expect this fic to even be finished, or even get past chapter 3 before I gave up on it. But then
many people began to give me feedback and told me that they loved my writing and they looked
forward to what I was bringing to the table. When I kept telling you guys that this honestly meant
the world to me, it did. I mean, these random strangers on the internet that were complimenting my
cringy gay fanfiction are now my reason to work hard in school. I get my homework done in record
time, keep my grades up, because that means more free time to write. I wrote during my classes, in
between passing periods, any opportunity I got because genuinely it was just so fun and I couldn’t
wait to see what you guys would think about it.

Some more answers regarding the “how did I write so fast”:

None of this fic was pre-written, I wrote every chapter on a whim

No, this fic didn’t have a pre-written plot. I wasn’t kidding when I said this fic literally wrote
itself, I would just start typing and the plot would develop itself, I rarely deleted things
(the only things I deleted were the drafts of my first chapt. & two smut scenes that I
deemed to early for a slowburn, so just know you guys almost got smut scenes and
eremin content in chapter 4 but then I decided to make you all suffer)
(I had to go check the fic for that and realized I got two new comments on chapter 17,
 yes I’m writing the first half of this before I even started the epilogue, so to user
@lettucesyrup and the anon user who commented on chapter 17 on March 2nd at 9:26
PST, you guys just made my heart burst. Thank you very much!! Although, I’ll
probably reply soon so you’ve already heard that before :3)

Yeah, so that’s that on that. I don’t really know what else to say. Oh! There is a new fic in the
works, most likely Eremin because it’s just what the world needs, you know? How would you guys
feel about mafia boss!Armin? Honestly, I just thought of that and typed it down as a joke but I’ve
now decided that the fic will be mafia boss!Armin x (something)Eren, not really sure for Eren yet
but damn does the world deserve mafia boss!Armin.

...do you guys see what I mean when I say that my fics just write themselves. Literally, the
paragraph above is all of my immediate thoughts written down and unchanged. Seriously, it just
works like that.

Anyways, I’m gonna draft this and pick it back up Saturday night to finish it LOLZ. I’m probably
gonna put a dedication because I had a surprising amount of dedicated readers to the point where I
have their users memorized. Seriously, y’all mean the world to me and many more who I will list
once future-me looks through the comments. Wanna know a funny story? I made an ao3 account
and directly started writing, but I’ve always been just anon and saved the tabs so I made a secret
account (that you will all never find) so I could experiment with replying to comments and shit
because I was scared to press the wrong buttons :c HOW EMBARRASSING. Whatever, okay
future Rosie, you can take over now because this is getting wayyy too long for an author’s note.

Hi it’s me. It’s currently 9:47pm lol. This is def wayyy too long for an author’s note but I don’t
really care I’m just EDGY LIKE THAT!!! Also, PSA, the fic about Armin being a mafia boss is
underway and I’ll upload the first 2 chapters I already have complete so check out Unfinished
Business by going to my page or whatever it’s called :p okay, onto the Q&A!

So, there weren’t many questions which means I did my job and there weren’t too many open ends
in my fic which was good because I literally didn’t edit/proofread any of them,,, oopsies <3

Question from @kaydensquareass: What was your least/favorite part to write in this book?

My least favorite part was definitely the first chapter. I kept second guessing myself and how I
wanted the story to start but it eventually got finished after a few hours of rewriting. My favorite
part was definitely any time I got to write any joke. Literally, I’d sit here laughing at my own
jokes. It’s embarrassing :p

Question from @pisugobbleru: are u planning to write more ships in the future??? or r u gonna
stick with eremin and try to experiment with the dynamics/ possible aus?? im really curious!!

For now I’ll probably stick with Eremin, they are both my comfort characters so I like to prioritize
making them happy because it makes me happy if that makes sense :p also, I have a lot of
headcanons that really bring their entire character together which I don’t really have for the other
characters. I’m gonna experiment with more AUs and try to up my writing before branching out
completely to another ship, BUT there will always be sideships because they just deserve that
kinda happiness. If I do branch out to another ship, it’ll probably be Eruri or JeanMarco :D

Okay that’s it for the Q&A, now onto the quick lil dedication. Honestly, y’all gave me so many
comments complimenting me and whatnot I read them back in my free time if I’m feeling down. It
makes me so happy to know my writing was a bright point in your day or whatnot, I loved making
you all smile! I had a lot of very active commenters, of which I still have to reply to, so here’s a
quick dedication to those people! Thank you so much for your kind words, they always made my
day <3

@Skye_Yeager

@quigglywiggly

@Razor_the_ninja

@jiminschancla

@plaggism

@butterfly_clips

@kaydensquareass

@actuallynamjoon

@rxdiant_roses

@hoeliwia

@GraceFalls

@HOes_mad

Thank you guys all for reading And Eren LOVED Women, I can’t wait to continue to write for all
of you. Until the next fic! <3
-Rosie

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