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Eren had the bad habit of lying about the nature of his relationship with Armin. At this point, he suspected that only Mikasa knew the truth and the rest of the Legion didn’t.
It started as something to protect Armin. Stupid Jean asked about him the first week being trainees and the lie rolled off his tongue so easily that it surprised him.
“So what’s his deal? Does he like someone?”
And Eren just stared at him, pondering if he should just punch him in the face. Armin wouldn’t want a coward, that’s a fact; he was too brave and stubborn for his own good and horse-face just wanted to join the Police Brigade after training, that’s coward behavior, meaning stupid horse-face wasn’t worthy of Armin. (Eren would know, he wasn’t worthy of Armin either).
His face must’ve been so beyond annoyed that Jean noticed.
“Oh. I’m sorry- Don’t tell me that you two...”
“Yes.” Eren responded without missing a beat.
He saw Jean’s cheeks blush in embarrassment before stuttering an apology and leaving. That was probably the only time that Jean and Eren had a conversation that didn’t ended up in a screaming match ( although if you asked Eren it should have ended that way).
**
The second time was because of Annie. Fucking Annie. All pretty and moody and mysterious... Armin was probably the only one of them that could at least change a few words with her at meal times and that pissed him off. Annie had a soft spot for Armin, but honestly who didn’t? The boy was kind to everyone, even with people who wasn’t kind to him. Annie had ignored Armin as much as she ignored the rest of them at first but eventually started to pay some kind of attention to the blond boy and in return Armin started to smile even more if she was around.
You have to understand, Eren had always been jealous by nature. He didn’t like sharing in general, but he specially didn’t like to share Armin. So, when the time came and he had to practice body combat with her he thought this was his only chance to kick her ass for trying to steal Armin from him, without getting himself expelled.
If only.
“Hey, Arlert! Wanna see your boyfriend cry like a baby?” She asked while holding Eren in a headlock.
Eren could see the blond blushing like crazy, opening his mouth to reply, nervous.
The brunette chose that moment to threw his weight backwards, making Annie fall and freeing himself from her lock.
“I’m done. Can we go?” He asked looking at Mikasa and Armin and both of them nodded.
He could see Armin hesitate for a second, looking at Annie on the floor, waiting for her to at least sit before following Eren.
**
He realized that absolutely everyone thought they were together when Levi asked for Eren to be taken away from the roof. And he was kicking and crying (he had always been an angry crier), begging to him Please, please, save him and it was implied that he was begging more because he couldn’t imagine his life without Armin rather than because he thought that the blond boy would want to live through this.
And he kept crying, Mikasa hugging him.
“He can’t just die. He can’t.”
Her eyes were filled with tears too while she kept rubbing circles on his back.
And then he saw how Jean and Connie were looking at him, with such fucking pity.
**
There were nights where the nightmares were even worst than the memories. Because, in those, Armin didn’t breath, he didn’t cough, he just laid there, lifeless, with his skin consumed from the heat and Eren could only watch as Levi gave the serum to Erwin.
The only good thing after a nightmare was waking up and walking towards Armin’s bedroom in the middle of the night.
He opened the door as quiet as he could and closed it behind him. The blond boy was sleeping peacefully, his bright hair spread over the pillow, shinning as it reflected the moon’s light that came in through the window.
He walked towards him, and knelt besides the bed before moving a couple of locks off his face.
“Armin...” He called him before tracing his nose and putting a finger under his nostrils to feel the air coming in and out of his nose and observing as his chest rose calmly, still asleep. “Armin, wake up-“
The blond boy stirred in his sleep and grabbed his hand.
“Hi.” He responded with that soft voice that made Eren’s heart melt. “Nightmare?”
The brunette couldn’t contain the smile that appeared on his face.
“Yeah.”
“Come on then,” Said Armin as he moved aside to make room for him in the bed.
Eren had to physically restrain himself from hugging Armin as they slept. The smell of Armin’s cologne on the pillow would have to suffice.
The next morning Connie opened the door covering his eyes with his hand and demanding for them to get dress and join them outside for training. Armin laughed in response with a soft blush coloring his cheeks and responded that they weren’t doing anything with such ease that made him feel like his heart was being squeezed in a rather painful manner.
**
“Eren?”
The green-eyed hummed as a response as he continued to play with the grass around him, pulling it and throwing it away.
“You’ve been quiet lately...”
“Well, I don’t have a lot to say.”
That was a lie, he actually had so many things to say that it paralyzed him.
“Are you mad at me?”
“Of course not, that’s a stupid question.”
The air that surrounded them started to feel more dense, suddenly Eren was very aware of how close Armin was and how the sound of his breathing melted with the sound of the breeze that played with the tree leaves.
“Can I ask you something then?”
His voice sounded soft, almost shy and Eren felt like he could barely breathe as he looked at his blue eyes. He barely could fight the blush as he nodded.
“Have you ever kissed someone?”
That was Eren’s cue cough as he choked with his own stupid saliva.
“W-why are you asking me this?”
“Sorry, I know we don’t talk about this things but it has been on my mind for a while now.”
The brunette felt like his blood started to run cold in his veins. He knew. Of course he knew. Armin was brilliant and Eren had been doing a lame ass job to hide how he felt towards him. He was honestly surprised that they lasted this long without talking about it.
He looked away, resumed his chore of destroying all the little pieces of grass around him.
“I would have told you if I had, Armin.”
The blond boy nodded in response.
“I haven’t either. And I’ve never given that much importance to those kind of things, it seemed like they would happen with time, you know? Now there’s limited time and I feel like-“ Armin’s rambling stopped and it was no coincidence that Eren felt the weight of his stare in that very same moment. “I’m sorry. See? Here I am complaining and you-“
“It’s okay. I don’t care about that stuff anyway.” He said, to which Armin frowned.
“Kissing?”
“Everything. Fucking sucks. There’s like 20% chances of me meeting someone that I can actually stand to be around, 15% of them wanting to be around me in general, 10% of me falling in love with said person and like 0,001% chances of them feeling the same way. And now to all of that I should add how many years I could spend with them? It’s like the biggest joke ever.”
Armin let out a soft chuckle.
“You’re always so dramatic.”
“I’m glad you find my pain amusing.”
For a while none of them talked but Eren could feel that Armin was pondering whether to tell him some precious secret or not. Eventually it was Eren who broke the silence.
“So you want to kiss someone...?” And he tried for it to come out in an aloof manner but he clearly failed because Armin was looking at him, biting his lower lip to restrain himself from bursting into laughter right there and then.
“Yeah. Asked Jean yesterday if he wanted to, maybe.”
Eren felt like his heart was trying to climb its way up his throat.
“You did?” The boy simply hummed.
“He was... confused about the request.”
“... Oh, really?” Again, Armin nodded.
“You can imagine my surprise when he said that he thought you and I were together.”
This was even worse than what he imagined. Truly, awfully worse.
Eren stood up, not even looking at the boy beside him and hurried himself towards the edge of Wall Rose again.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Armin yelled as he stoop up to follow him.
“Saving us from this unnecessary conversation.” He replied without even turning around to face him.
“Unnecessary? Apparently the entire Legion thinks we are dating, Eren! That we have been. For years. Were you planning to inform me about this? Since we’re boyfriends and all-“
He stopped dead in his track and turned around so fast that Armin almost collided with him.
“Okay, I get it! Stop already! It was a mistake, alright? I’m fully aware that it’s not true-“
“I just want to know why. Is it a joke or something?”
“A joke?” Eren asked blinking, confused.
“Yes, like it’s funny because ‘no one would even want to date scrawny Armin anyway’ kind of joke.”
Eren frowned and with every second that passed by he found himself feeling more and more annoyed.
“It’s that what you think of me? No, you know what? Forget that question; it’s that what you think of yourself?”
He saw Armin looking away, avoiding his eyes for a brief moment before even daring to open his mouth to reply and Eren found himself talking first.
“You’re fucking perfect, Armin. Beautiful, loyal, kindhearted and smart, brilliant really... So how come that the only logical explanation that you found to this situation was that I was pulling a stupid prank on you-”
But Eren’s words died in his mouth as Armin pulled his collar down to put his lips over his.
And it felt like smelling the sea for the first time, hugging someone you missed a lot, or even like they first time they talked about getting out of this Walls. It felt like freedom and home at the same time and Eren thought that he could spend the rest of his life kissing Armin Arlert.
“I wasn’t sure,” it’s the only thing that Armin had time to say as he caught his breath before Eren took his face in his hands and guided him for another kiss.
Eventually the Scouts found them lying on the grass, Eren almost on top of Armin, shamelessly making out.
This time at least it wasn’t a misunderstanding or a lie. This time Eren got to smile and grab Armin’s hand as the rest of them made those stupid comments.