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Armin is unable to escape the nagging feeling in his chest when Jean doesn’t show up during lunch or after. It’s probably nothing, he tells himself, but he’d rather make sure. Petra tells him that Jean was supposed to go to the storage room with Sasha and Connie to clean the 3DMG, and Armin suspects Jean was placed with the latter two specifically in order to supervise them and their short attention spans.
He makes his way to the storage room, and squeaks in surprise when he opens the doors.
Jean is on the floor, completely tangled from head to toe in lines from the many 3DMG, squirming and fidgeting to get free. His entire face is red and sweaty, and an expression of relief graces his features when he spots Armin.
“What happened?” Armin asks aghast, as he runs over and tries to untangle Jean.
“Let’s just say Sasha and Connie refused to listen to me when I said the 3DMG is not something to play with inside,” Jean replies bitterly.
“And they just left you here?”
Jean frowns. “They weren’t able to untangle me so they said they would get help, but they never came back.”
Armin remembers how irate Levi looked during lunch when he ordered Sasha and Connie (who decided it would be a great idea for Connie to wear a soup bowl on his head while Sasha banged on it with a spoon) to follow him out somewhere. “Yeah, I don’t think we’ll be seeing them anytime soon.”
Jean raises his eyebrows.
“This may take some time,” Armin frowns, and runs his fingers over the lines. “You’re tangled up pretty bad.”
“I’m not gonna complain, at least someone found me.” Jean replies, sighing. “Thank god it was you and not Eren, he would never have let me live it down…” he pauses, eyeing Armin warily and then turns his face away. “Don’t tell Eren about this.”
Armin stifles a chuckle. “It’s our secret.”