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Armin once again was running to Mikasa for help because Eren got himself involved in a fight with Armin’s bullies. Once again Armin was spouting off about how one day the walls won’t be able to protect them anymore and how the future of humanity lies beyond the walls. Armin had a bruise on his cheek from one of the punches and his pants had some grass stains on them. Mikasa ran ahead of Armin leaving him alone with Mr. Hannes. He offered Armin some ice for his face, but Armin turned it away saying it would be better to wait for Eren and Mikasa to get back. After a few hours, Mikasa and Eren return with a member of the Military police following them. Eren has scrapes and bruises all over his body and Mikasa has a few scratches on her body. Hannes walks over to the military police member to convince him to let Eren off easily, which he did. Hannes just sighs and looks at the trio.
“What would my day without the three of you needing me to bust you out of the hands of the military police?” Hannes pats all of them on the head ruffling their hair. Mikasa softly smiles into her scarf, Armin laughs and smiles at Hannes while Eren huffs in annoyance and shoos away his hand. “Now the three of you get home safe and stay out of trouble for the rest of today.” Hannes smiles at the trio and walks away.
“Eren, please stop getting involved in Armin’s fights.” Mikasa says coldly to him.
“You got yourself involved too.” He taunts back.
“Because if I didn’t you would have gotten hurt worse than you already did. Now, come on we have to get Armin home to his grandpa.” Mikasa walks ahead to Armin’s house.
Armin follows and nods his head to Eren to follow him. Eren catches up and takes Armin’s hand. He always did that after a fight they got involved in to remind Armin that he will always be here. Every time that happened Armin still couldn’t help but feel flustered, his face would turn a light shade of pink and he would smile like an idiot. Armin always wondered if Mikasa ever felt this way with either of them because they were all friends. But then Armin would raise the question that, why just with Eren and not Mikasa? When they stopped at his house Armin’s face frowned because he wanted to still spend time with his friends.
“Do you guys have to leave?” Armin asks as Eren frowns too. “We could have a sleepover.” Armin suggests and Eren’s smile returns to his face.
“Ask! Go ask your grandpa if you could sleepover at our house!” Eren exclaims while pulling on Armin’s arm. Armin smiles and runs in to ask his grandpa, he surprisingly says yes, and the three run through the streets of Shinganshina to the Yeager household. Eren bursts through the door and Carla turns around to greet them.
“I guess I’ll have to make an extra serving of dinner. Great to see you again Armin.” Carla starts to make more food for dinner and Grisha walks into the house and waves hello to Armin while giving Mikasa and Eren hugs hello.
After dinner, the three go upstairs to Eren and Mikasa’s room to play. Eren throws a pillow at Mikasa, and she stares daggers at him and throws back the pillow with ten times more force, knocking Eren over. Armin gets his pillow and the three start to have a pillow fight. When they get tired from that they sit on the floor and play dolls, per Mikasa’s request and the two boys have no objections. Halfway through Mikasa’s well-thought-out storyline Eren takes his teddy bear and pretends it’s a titan and makes Mikasa’s story about titans and killing them. Mikasa shoves the teddy bear back at him making him stumble back.
“No titans in the story!” She protests. Armin laughs at his friends.
“Well, it was getting boring!” Eren defends himself. They both turn to Armin, silently asking for his opinion.
“We should take a break and do something else.” He replies to not make things worse.
“Do you have your book?” Eren asks excitedly getting a little too close to Armin’s face for his comfort.
“Uh, yeah I do.”
Armin stumbles finding the book and the trio lay across the floor and read through the book about the outside world for god knows how many times. It’s getting late and Carla calls lights out and comes to say goodnight to the friends, but the three of them instead of going to bed make a blanket fort and get a lantern to make a scary story tent. Mikasa’s stories are really scary, Armin’s aren’t scary one bit, but Eren pretends to be scared to humor Armin and of course, Eren’s stories all involve titans. Soon, Eren passes out and now Armin can finally ask Mikasa about what has been going on with his feelings to Eren.
“Mikasa, could I ask you something?”
“Yeah, I’m all ears, Armin.” Mikasa gives her full attention to Armin.
“When you’re with me and Eren do you get this fuzzy feeling in your heart and does your face heat up?” Armin asks.
“No, not really. Why, do you feel that way towards the both of us?”
“Just to Eren and I don’t know how to feel about it. I’m asking if you feel this because maybe it’s because we’re all such good friends we just all really like each other.” Armin explains.
“Armin, I think you like Eren more than just a friend. I get happy when I’m with you two, but my heart doesn’t get all fuzzy, I feel calm and content.”
“I get this fuzzy feeling in my heart when I’m with him, my face turns pink, and my heart won’t stop racing. What do I do?” Armin starts to panic.
“I think it’s clear you like him. And just because you like him doesn’t mean you have to tell him; trust me your secret is safe with me.” Mikasa hugs Armin and she smiles.
Here Armin is, years later staring wide-eyed at the ceiling in the bunks of the cadets laying next to Eren, his bunkmate. Mikasa has told Armin the things that Eren says about Armin but will never say it to his face throughout the years. It seems to Armin that Eren likes him in that way too, but Armin doesn’t want to mess up what the three of them have so he’s kept quiet about it. Armin will never know how to tell Eren about these feelings and he doesn’t know if he ever can. For now, Armin will have to deal with the feeling of being buried deep down and continue as Eren’s friend, which he didn’t mind because he always felt like they meant more to each other.