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Armin is four years old and playing with his twin sister. They're playing princesses and Armin is about to be coronated as Queen. Historia has just placed the plastic crown on his head when they notice their father standing in the doorway. They smile and wave at him before Armin has the idea to gracefully curtsy. He does so, holding his dress daintily as he does. Historia follows him without a second thought. Their father smiles and asks if they're having fun. They say that yes, of course they are, and he informs them that lunch is almost ready.
Flash forward, Armin is seven and he's hiding in his sister's room. Annie happens to have some nice dresses in the closet he's in. Armin reaches up to where the dresses are hanging. He rubs the silky fabric of a purple dress between his fingers.
Maybe he kind of wants to wear it. It is soft and comfortable and Reiner is taking forever finding him. They should never have made him the seeker.
Armin takes a quick, deep breath and stands up. He slips into the dress as fast as he can and pokes his head out of the closet. Thankfully, the door to Annie's room is still shut and he has time to lock it. He rushes to it and turns the thumb lock before whirling around to look at himself in the mirror.
Admittedly, it isn't his favorite color. He would like the dress much more if it were sea-green. Still, he thinks he likes the way it looks on him. Annie is about the same size as he is, so it fits pretty well.
There's a knock at the door and Armin just about jumps three feet in the air. He scrambles with all his energy to take the dress off quickly and quietly. The person outside jiggles the door handle in an attempt to open it and Armin hears their voice.
"Armin? Are you in there, honey? We've been looking for you for a while. Reiner found Annie and Historia already."
It's Erwin. Armin relaxes a little at the realization that his father is waiting outside the door for him. His nervousness returns in full, however, when he realizes that the zipper on the dress is stuck.
"Armin? Why is the door locked?"
"Um..." Armin trails off, unable to think of anything to say.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah! I just, um..."
"Armin, that's your lying voice. What's the matter."
Bravely, Armin accepts his defeat from the dress and unlocks the door to let his father in, all the while blushing from head to toe.
"Well hey," Erwin says.
"Hi."
"What's going on?"
"I'm stuck," Armin mumbles.
"What was that?"
"I said I'm stuck. The zipper won't go back down." Armin stares at his feet in mortification as he says this.
"Turn around," Erwn says gently.
Armin obeys and is freed from the confines of the purple monster in seconds. He pulls on his own clothes again and turns around to smile sheepishly at his daddy.
"Thank you," he mumbles.
"You're welcome, Armin," Erwin replies warmly."
He leaves after that, beckoning for Armin to follow him to the living room. Nothing is said about the incident. Instead, the kids play another round of hide and seek, this time with Armin as the seeker.
Another four years go by and Armin is eleven years old. He stands in front of his mirror in his most recent purchase. Although nobody is home, he's locked the door to his bathroom anyway.
He admires the new pink corduroy skirt and turns this way and that to see all angles of it. Satisfied with it, he smooths down the pleats and fixes his loose white top. He decides to take a risk and unlock his bathroom and bedroom doors and just relax in his room reading.
He's read a good three chapters when he hears someone (who was apparently trying to be sneaky) run into that one corner that juts out just enough so that any passerby (except for Annie) always hits it. They let out a loud "JESUS CHRIST" and stumble until they smack into Armin's closed bedroom door. He sits bolt upright in bed, eyes wide open and book long forgotten.
"Ow..." comes from the floor outside of Armins room.
"Eren?" Armin questions the intruder, "Is that you?"
"Ugh, yeah. I was gonna come in and scare the crap out of you, but I kind of walked into the wall."
"Oh. Well don't co-"
Armin is cut off by the door being thrown open and he pulls his blanket up to his chin.
"Armin? You okay?"
"What? Yeah, of course!" Armin laughs. "Why wouldn't I be okay?"
"You're super nervous. Also a pretty terrible liar. What's up?"
Sighing, Armin lets the blanket fall back into his lap. "Okay, look," he says, though Eren certainly is looking, "I know you're going to think I'm a freak or weird or something or you're probably never gonna wanna be seen with me again, but I bought this thing today."
Eren nods. "Go on."
"Ugh. I'll just show you."
With that, Armin stands up and gets out of bed spinning in a lazy circle so Eren can take in the whole shebang. When Armin comes back to face Eren again, they just stand there quietly for a while.
"Cool," Eren finally says.
"Cool?" Armin repeats, tone incredulous.
"Yeah, cool. New clothes. Um, so anyways, did Reiner break the fun Sonic game or the lame one?"
Armin simply stands there, trying to process his friends completely underwhelming response. He couldn't believe it. Eren doesn't think he's a freak. Armin has never once seen another boy wearing girly clothes. At least, not one that isn't being made into a joke or doing it to make fun of girls. And Eren is totally fine with this?
"Hellooo? Earth to Armin?"
Eren's voice and waving hands separate Armin from his thoughts.
"S-sorry. It's just, you're okay with this? You don't think this is weird?"
Eren shrugs. "If you like it, wear it. It looks nice on y-" He promptly cuts himself off there, blush tinting his cheeks pink.
Armin smiles softly and clears his throat. "Thanks," he mumbles. "Um, yeah. Reiner broke the cool one, so we're either gonna have to play lame Sonic or Mario Kart."
"Mario Kart then."
A year later, Armin is twelve and he cannot believe he was ever scared to wear skirts and dresses and pretty clothes like this.
"Historia!" he shouts up the stairs, "Can I borrow your yellow floral skirt?"
"No!" she shouts back, "I was going to wear it to Jean's party! Do you want the white one?"
Groaning, Armin marches himself up the stairs and into Historia's room.
"What about the blue sundress?"
"Dirty."
"Purple pleated skirt?"
"Annie took it and lost it."
"Literally anything good?"
Historia gives him a disapproving look but goes into her closet to find something anyway. She pulls out her soft black skirt and tosses it to Armin.
"Here. That's all I got that's good."
Armin grins. He always did like this one. "Thanks Historia."
"Welcome."
Armin runs back down to the basement into his room to throw the skirt on and then runs into the living room to wait for everyone. His father walks in not a minute later and nods in greeting.
"Armin," he starts. "About the skirt."
"Yeah?"
"Historia's, right?"
"Uh huh."
"She keeps losing it. Give it back this time. I had to go into your room and sort through the mound of stuff on your floor to find it for her last week."
"Oh," Armin says, a nervous lilt to his tone. "Okay."
Finally, all his siblings are ready to go. Reiner ends up being the odd man out as he's the only one not in a skirt.