Chapter Text
It was the start of February, there weren’t too many clouds but you could feel the light nip in the air when you stepped outside. Armin was in his room sitting at his desk, staring out the window with a far off look in his eyes, the knock on the door didn’t startle him because he was expecting it.
“Armin my boy, are you almost ready for school?” He heard his grandfather ask from behind the door.
“Yes grandpa, just let me grab my bag and we can head out!” Armin called back to the man. Only when he heard the footsteps start walking back down the stairs did he stretch and stand up. He retrieved his bag and took a fleeting glance at himself in the mirror hanging on his wall before he started making his way downstairs. By the front door stood his grandfather with a wide grin on his face that Armin was all too familiar with when it came to this time of year. They made their way to the car and settled in, once they started driving his grandfather spoke up,
“Special time of year is right around the corner, you know. Got someone special you want to bring for dinner?” He asked the blonde next to him, Armin expected this conversation as it was the same one they had every year since he started highschool. No matter how many times Armin has to deny the fact his grandfather still asks, Armin is aware as to why he asks and it breaks Armins heart whenever he has to answer ‘no.’
Armin's grandfather looked at the boy beside him out of the corner of his eye, and smiled wide, “slow answer today? So can I assume that there is someone then? Oh Armin my boy! I am so happy for you!” The older man said enthusiastically, oh god how is Armin gonna get out of this one? But looking at his grandfather Armin couldn’t remember the last time he saw the man this happy, so to spare the man beside him he simply smiled and said, “yeah, there is.”
The rest of the car ride was quiet outside of Armin’s grandfather singing embarrassing songs about how he knew Armin could do it and how excited he was to meet this person. All Armin could think during the ride was ‘how the hell am I gonna pull this one off…?’
#
Sitting at lunch with his rowdy group of friends Armin couldn’t get his mind off of what his grandfather had assumed during the ride to school. He was internally freaking out at the prospect of disappointing the older man and couldn’t stand the idea of the heartbreak he’d feel when he realised that not only did Armin not have someone but that he had also lied to him. Ymir’s loud cackle broke him out of his daze, “I can’t believe you Leonhart! You’re such a fucking idiot!” She had yelled, Annie, who was sitting on Armin’s left replied “oh shut up freckles, not like you could do any fuckin better.” Armin was very confused having been in his head for the entire first half of the day when he noticed that both Historia and Mikasa were not at the table anymore, then Ymir noticed his confused face.
“What’s up Armin? Did you not hear what Leonhart has planned for her first Valentine’s day with Mikasa? Shit’s too fuckin funny dude!” The woman said through her laughter, Annie just shot her a glare and turned to Armin.
“Alright dude, I could hear you overthinking all damn day, what’s going on in that head of yours?” The blue eyed female asked her friend, then Armin was reminded of his dilemma from this morning and groaned while thunking his head onto the table. Everyone turned their attention towards him at that and then he was bombarded with questions.
Armin felt himself getting slightly annoyed since he couldn’t answer twenty questions at once and said “everyone just shut up for a minute!” The table silenced at that and he sighed deeply to gather his thoughts, then continued. “I may or may not have told my grandfather that I had a Valentine this year to bring to dinner and I don’t know what I’m gonna do” he said, completely defeated. There were murmurs around the table, the rowdy bunch tamed for the moment trying to figure out how to help their friend clearly in distress. Then Annie cleared her throat and all eyes were on her, she shifted uncomfortable but continued nonetheless,
“Well, Armin, there is one person you could try to ask, and kill two birds with one stone if you got the balls.” She said and Armin immediately understood who she was talking about and felt his face heat up and hid his head in his hands, of course Annie would suggest that, ever since he told her about his stupid crush she’s been nagging him to just go all in and ask the guy out. But it just wasn’t that easy to ask the one and only Levi Ackerman, the most intimidating person in their grade, out on a date. Everyone else at the table looked confused and Historia and Mikasa returned at that exact moment.
“What’s going on here?” Tori excitedly asked her friends, “seems like or lil Armin is keeping something from us!” Sasha replied after finishing her third serving of ramen and Armin groaned once again.
“Well this is interesting, but first and foremost Armin, are you okay? You’ve seemed distressed all morning.” Mikasa said sitting across from her childhood best friend, her face was mostly neutral but you could see the concern in her eyes. Armin filled the two women in on what was going on and they started to help him out too.
In the end everyone encouraged Armin to at least try to ask the mysterious person that Annie had suggested, the only other two people knowing just who that person was was Historia and Mikasa. They kept the name and gender quiet from the rest of the group however and Armin was thankful for that, not that he was afraid of them being judgemental towards his sexuality, they were all in some way shape or form raging Homosexuals anyways, but it was rather the identity of the person he was afraid of them knowing. The lunch bell rang and the group started heading out of the cafeteria, Connie and Sashsa engaging in some sort of walking wrestling match while Jean told them to cut it out, the others laughing at the trios shenanigans, and Armin was trying to figure out how the hell he was gonna talk to Levi, and on top of that, how he was gonna get him to agree. For once, Armin genuinely didn’t believe in himself to do this. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder, turning around he saw Annie and lagged behind the group so they could talk in some makeshift privacy.
“Look…” Annie started off, keeping a firm eye on both their group of friends and the rest of the people in the halls to make sure for a fact no one was listening to them, “being with an Ackerman myself, the best advice I can give you is to just be straightforward and blunt. I’ve had a few curt conversations with Levi before while hanging out with Mikasa, the man prefers to get straight to the point. Just be honest about it all with him, yeah?” She said looking at her companion’s face, she could see the mixture of emotions brewing behind the blonde boy's eyes and rested her hand on his shoulder in some form of reassurance. “Alright.” He replied with a tight smile and small nod.
#
After the final bell rang Armin almost dropped his pencil out of surprise, he was terrified of what was about to occur. During his final lesson of the day he couldn’t focus, trying to come up with a plan to ask Levi to be his fake valentine. Armin knew he had at least two weeks to figure something out but if he was gonna be rejected by his seemingly best option he wanted it to happen sooner rather than later. So with that thought in mind he exited his classroom and headed down the hallway where he figured Levi would be, climbing the stairs to the roof Armin could feel the anxiety twisting in his gut and his heart was beating from more than just the exercise to get there. Once at the top he took a deep breath before opening the door to the rooftop, and once he was outside he almost immediately found Levi sitting behind some machinery. The raven haired male looked up at the new arrival and looked back down at the ground.
‘Well I don’t know if that’s a good start or not, but go big or go home, right?’ Armin thought to himself before initiating a conversation with the man, then right as his mouth was about to open Annie’s words sounded through his head “ the man prefers to get straight to the point. Just be honest about it all with him.” Armin took one more breath then spoke, “Levi, I have something I need to ask of you, and it’s completely fine if you say no. Will you pretend to date me for a Valentine’s dinner with my grandfather? I kinda messed up and now he thinks I have someone to bring.” Armin said, he’s surprised at how easily the words came out, and then he saw Levi go completely still. The male looked up at Armin with an intent gaze and said, “well that’s out of the fuckin blue Arlert, why don’t you just ask one of your bratty friends to do it?”
Armin sighed, “because my grandfather is a smart guy, he’d know that it was a lie if one of them came along, all I am asking is you just play along, please.” He looked down at his feet as he spoke, unable to look the other male in the eyes. He heard a ‘tch’ sound come from Levi and saw the raven haired male stand up and brush himself off, then take a handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe his hands. He made eye contact with Armin one more time and sighed himself.
“I would normally tell you to fuck off, but since you’re one of Mikasa’s friends, you aren’t a bad guy, and I’m kind of in a similar predicament myself with my dumbass friends, I’ll help you.” Levi said to the blonde boy standing in front of him, the shock from Armin was almost immediate, but Levi can’t blame the kid, he knew he was blunt and hard to approach. But then Armin spoke up, “great! Okay, um, should we exchange numbers so we can figure the backstory and stuff out? My grandpa is gonna want to know details, he’s nosy like that” the blonde laughed at the end of his sentence. It was quiet and airy, something Levi was not expecting from the blue eyed boy, but it wasn’t unwelcome either. “Sure” Levi simply responded, being careful to keep his expression neutral as he and Armin swapped contacts, then they parted ways. Armin was glad that he didn’t have to disappoint his grandfather this year and walked back home with a little bounce in his step.
#
Two weeks later and Armin stood in his room freaking out, he and Levi went through the details of tonight thoroughly and he knew that it would go smoothly, but even if they were just fake dating to get people off their backs, Armin couldn’t help but feel nervous. For heaven’s sake it’s with Levi freaking Ackerman of all people! Armin looked at his appearance in the mirror again, he had his hair slicked back and a dark blue suit adorned his body, there was a white undershirt and a black tie, he wore black dress shoes with the entire outfit. Armin took a deep breath and re centred his thoughts. Just as he got back on track he got a message on his phone;
Levi: I’m here.
Received at 6:55 PM
Armin gave himself another once over just in case and walked downstairs, he saw his grandfather setting the table. After a ton of pestering from him Armin told his grandfather that the boy that was coming for dinner's name is Levi, he kept his last name out of it however so the older gentlemen wouldn’t figure out the relation to Mikasa. Armin wasn’t ready for whatever the older guy had to say about Armin “dating” his best friend's cousin whom he doesn’t know anything about.
Once at the front door Armin took one more calming breath and opened it, he was pleasantly surprised to see the stud before him. Levi was in a black suit with a deep red undershirt and black tie, Armin smiled and invited him inside. Once they rounded the wall to the kitchen Armin’s grandfather was finally able to catch sight of the two males and smiled widely at them. “Well well well! Look what we have here! I am so happy to have you join us for dinner Levi my boy, please sit down and let me get you something to drink!” The old man said enthusiastically.
Armin and Levi took seats at the table and watched as Armin’s grandfather took the tea kettle and poured it into some cups, “Armin tells me you’re a big fan of tea, I hope that the boy wasn’t lying to me about you liking black tea” he said with a light chuckle as he brought the cups over setting them down in front of the two boys.
“Black tea is preferable for me.” Is all Levi replied with as he took a drink from the cup and made a small noise of approval. “Well, I am glad that you enjoy it, so down to business. Armin has kept almost everything about your relationship a secret from me, and I respect privacy but I would like some basic facts!” The older man exasperated. “So I wanted to ask you a few questions.” Levi nodded and Armin held his breath for a second.
“Alright, firstly, how long have the two of you been together?” Armin was internally grateful that he and Levi had talked about this stuff beforehand and got everything sorted.
“3 months. We had known each other through mutual friends and ran into each other over summer break.” Levi responded without breaking eye contact with the male sitting across from him and Armin.
“That’s great to hear! Honestly I was getting worried about my grandson here, academics are important, yes, but as a teenager he should let loose from time to time, it’s the time to experiment and find yourself after all!” The man laughed and took in Armin’s red face, he knew what his grandfather was implying and Armin was glad that if Levi had picked up on his hints that he wasn’t reacting to them.
#
The rest of dinner went smoothly, more basic questions like where they went on dates and stuff were asked and everything was alright. Armin relaxed and started enjoying himself as well, from the looks of it Levi wasn’t uncomfortable and actually cracked a couple small smiles throughout the event. Then a question was asked that almost made Armin choke on his tea, “so, have you two done anything intimate with each other yet?” Armin immediately went red and yelled, “GRANDPA! YOU CAN’T JUST ASK QUESTIONS LIKE THAT SO CASUALLY!” The gentlemen started laughing and Armin was surprised to hear Levi speak up.
“We have been taking things slowly sir, we actually haven’t even properly kissed yet. I am pretty averse to physical touch and Armin is kind enough to be patient with me when it comes to that. It took me a month to get used to holding his hand.” Armin was relieved at the answer and from the looks of it his grandfather understood what he was talking about.
“Ahh, I’m sorry boys, I just got a little carried away, I am happy that you are getting more comfortable and I am proud of Armin for being understanding, he always puts others comfort above his own. I just wanted to make sure that if you had gone that far that you were being safe with everything.” He gave the boys a wide but apologetic smile and then they all started to laugh lightly.
Once dinner and small talk was done they were showing Levi back to the door, Armin couldn’t believe that it was over so soon, everything felt so natural that he forgot a couple of times that he and Levi weren’t really together. But everything ends at some point and with that Armin stepped out onto the front porch with Levi, his grandfather gave them some privacy to say goodbye and Armin was grateful for that.
“Hey Levi, thank you, for everything tonight, and uh, I’m sorry about the intimacy question, I didn’t think he’d go that far with it…” Armin said to the raven haired boy in front of him, unable to make direct eye contact as he scratched the back of his neck and felt his face on fire from the recall. When he didn’t get an answer Armin looked at Levi’s face in fear of some harsh comment but found the smallest smile on the others lips, then he spoke.
“Arlert, it’s alright, I’m just glad he took the bullshit I fed him honestly. I actually am averse to physical contact so I wasn’t completely lying to the guy at least.” Armin was relieved that Levi wasn’t completely done with him and let out a small laugh of relief.
“So I guess that this is goodbye then?” Armin asked nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Mhm. Till next time, Arlert.”
He looked at Levi then only to see the shorter male already walking away, and only when he was in bed late that night did Levi’s parting words actually set in.
‘Wait, what did he mean next time?’