Chapter Text
Eren never thought a photo on a wall could make him like that, let alone a photo of a stupid model. He never liked those ads of fashion brands; they were usually girls with too much photoshop on their images and guys who all looked the same. If had seen one photo of models, he had seen them all, that’s what he believed until he saw the image of that person on the shop window.
Mikasa, Eren’s sister, needed new sports bra and dragged Eren to go shopping with her. He couldn’t help it since he needed new running shoes and that’s how he ended up at one of the countless streets filled with clothing shops in New York. Eren hated how crowded that city was, but he couldn’t help it; his father, who was a doctor, worked on a big hospital at the city and they moved there as soon as he was employed two years prior. Before that, the Yeager family lived in a smaller city not to far from New York, but it was better. Eren could be in his room quiet and never needed to worry about life. That dull life seemed enough, but after he moved to New York, which was right after he finished High School, he started to feel the pressure of society.
Eren never knew what he wanted in life and that huge city made he feel like he had to have something he wanted for his profession. His father was never happy he simply stopped studying or that he wasn’t employed somewhere, even more when Mikasa was in college, so he told Eren he should at least have his own income until he decided what he wanted to do, so he cut Eren’s allowance and told him he should get a part-time job. He started working then and, after three jobs where he didn’t adjust well, he ended up at a Starbucks working at mornings. Eren felt like a leecher at home and didn’t want to depend on anyone, but never seemed to get out of that life of just working part-time and slacking off the rest of the day. He wanted something and felt anxious because of that, but he was lost. He couldn’t ask anything from his father and mother anymore, he was already twenty, including money that pair of shoes he needed, but he still went on that shopping trip, hoping he could find something cheap. Despite everything, Eren was an athletic guy and went running whenever he could. He was looking for those shoes when he saw the photo that would change his life.
It was hanging on the shopping wall of another stupid store neither him nor Mikasa would enter, but it had something different, the person on it was different. At first, he couldn’t figure it was a guy or a girl on the photo, but he got to the conclusion it was an androgynous guy. He was the most beautiful thing Eren had ever laid his eyes on. He was lean and had a sexy air about him, though he had a somewhat childish face. His cheeks were round and a button nose; his blonde hair helped on that young look and his body posed in a way that added mystery to all of that. He wore black clothes, they looked like a suit, but not quite, Eren could not tell what it was, and the photo was faded, almost black and white. Eren wondered for a while if someone like that could actually exist and if wasn’t just another photoshop trick, but it was true that the photo struck him. He kept looking at the photo for a few seconds, or minutes, he didn’t know, until Mikasa dragged him back on their way to a sports shop. Eren went with her, but tried memorizing the name of the store; he needed to know who that guy was.
When he got home, Eren threw the box with his new shoes on the bed (which took most of his income, though he wasn’t thinking about it) and went straight to his laptop. It took him a few searches until he could finally find who that guy was. His name was Armin Arlert and apparently he had been modeling for a few years then and was starting to become famous. He mainly worked for ads and was photographed, since he wasn’t tall enough for the runaway, but nonetheless, he was starting to make a name in the modeling world. His androgynous looks in front of the camera were incredible and unique and, according to the websites Eren visited, that was what was making him be famous. Eren thought he was different from the start and it seemed even the fashion world agreed with him. He looked for his photoshoots and it was already dinner time when he realized he had been looking at that man and searching everything he could about him for nearly four hours. Eren thought he was going crazy. The next day, he kept looking for Armin. He found interviews of him where he looked more natural, but even though the air around him wasn’t the same as in the photographs, since in the interviews he was more natural and less produced, Armin still had something about him, Eren didn’t know what it was, that made him hypnotized. His voice was sweet yet mainly and he had the most pretty expression when he seemed excited about something, showing a dazzling smile and his bright blue eyes would lighten up and Eren’s heart couldn’t take it.
That addiction went on. When Eren realized, he was already a fully pledge fan of the guy and, worst, almost in love with the guy, but how could it be possible? He knew it wasn’t rational, he knew it was stupid and that Armin was only his fantasy, but he couldn’t help it. It wasn’t anything dirty, he didn’t want to stalk him, but he felt like he could at least be friends with him if they met each other; he couldn’t stop thinking about the guy. If he ever met Armin, of course, he wouldn’t act like a creep; he wanted to talk to him, to know the real Armin, but how could he? Armin didn’t even lived near him, he lived in another state, Eren knew it from his countless researches on the guy, so he just settled for looking at Armin’s photos.
Another dull day, Eren was working at his part-time job again. The store got very crowded on mornings, full of people working on the business world and other jobs. They were living a life, Eren always thought. Maybe their lives were just as dull as his, but at least they were accomplishing something, while he was just standing there, one day like the other, nothing really happening. When he looked at Armin in his laptop’s screen he felt like he was freed from all the pressure, until he remembered that what he was doing was pathetic. He had to change his life, but how? He needed to live in a real world. He had his mind full while cleaning the tables; the store wasn’t crowded anymore since the rush hour had passed. He heard the bell chime and looked at the door, almost automatically and he couldn’t believe his eyes. It was no business man, it was no geek or hipster girl, nor a mother with a child, no one like that, it was someone he never thought he would see in front of him, in the flesh.
“Holy shit!” – Eren said under his breath, quietly.
It was no one other than Armin! That Armin Arlert, the one he had been dreaming of, the one he wanted to be friends with, the one whose work he was a big fan, the one that made his heart beat faster. Why was that happening? Was it real? Eren didn’t know what to do. He kept at the tables, too shocked to approach the guy. He watched Armin ordering a coffee, having his name called by the one who took his order and leaving the shop. When he came to himself, Armin had already left the shop. How can I be so stupid! He had lost his only opportunity in life to talk to Armin, or so he thought.