Chapter Text
“My name is Armin Arlert and I will be your commanding officer during this short one month training stint.”
Armin was seriously getting sick and tired of that introduction.
A few months back he took a break from the scouting legion, his intent had been to work in research for a while, but when one of the training officers had left on maternity Armin was practically begged to take the job. He’d accepted quite easily though as it had been one of the jobs he was considering as well anyway.
In retrospect, it hadn’t been so bad at first – he worked alongside Petra Ral, a perky and friendly girl who had made the work more enjoyable. Of course after being so used to field work the inevitable happened and teaching newbies quickly grew old. Petra didn’t seem to mind, always stressing to the class that there was no such thing as a stupid question but Armin could beg to differ. Honestly, some of the recruits that rolled in here had no business in this field – he may or may not have had a talk or two with the recruiting office about their standards.
Armin liked to think that he had incredible patience – one couldn’t be friends with a certain Eren Jaeger without any patience – but these recruits, they seriously had him doubting himself sometimes.
The good news though, was that after this batch of recruits Armin was scot-free and could and would be returning to the scouting legion or research – though he was seriously missing going on missions with Eren and Mikasa.
The first two weeks of training were in class book work and formations, the third week a series of practice drills and the final week a supervised low risk mission that would prepare them for the future jobs they would have to do provided of course they passed training.
At least during the study period he could direct questions to page numbers and diagrams. When it came to the trial case though, it was a week of cleaning up recruits' messes.
If Armin had a nickel for every time a rookie loudly asked him something during a stealth simulation or heaven forbid during the actual supervised mission he would be one rich man. Fortunately the mission really only involved gathering intel and had minimum danger but it was still frustrating nonetheless.
Well if there was one good thing that came out of this work, it would be that it kept him sufficiently busy – sure it wasn’t the most enjoyable work but it definitely kept his mind off of other things.
In the week before he started working as the new recruit trainer he often found himself thinking about everything he did wrong with that last mission. First and foremost he was too lax primarily because he had seriously underestimated how much feminine appeal he would have. He was the teeniest bit flattered that someone had found him so attractive but mostly just annoyed with himself that he hadn’t handled the situation a bit better.
To be honest, Armin wasn’t the most social. Sure he had no problems socializing with others and he got along well with strangers and didn’t mind speaking up but he’d never ever been approached by someone that was looking for anything more than friendship. It was there that he messed up.
The week after it all ended Armin kept convincing himself that the only reason why he felt bad about the whole thing was because he’d deluded himself into thinking he liked Jean – because Jean was kind to him in a way others hadn’t been before.
It didn’t mean anything though, they hadn’t even known each other that long and Armin could honestly say that at the end of the day Jean didn’t know him at all. He’d pondered it before, how different Jean would have treated him if he were just one of the guys.
Jean’s feelings probably weren’t even all that genuine he would tell himself, and if anything he would be angry that he’d been played with. Even though it wasn’t intentional Armin still felt guilty about it.
“So how has work been going?” Mikasa asked Armin during one of the trio’s weekly dinners – to be honest she didn’t look curious at all but Armin knew better than that.
“I’d like to say it’s been going good but we all know that’s a lie.”
Eren snickered around a mouthful pasta and Armin and Mikasa shot him simultaneous glares.
“What?” he asked, playing the picture of innocence after he’d swallowed his bite – Eren was at least mature enough not to talk with his mouth full of food, “I was just remembering what you told us last time. About that recruit--” whatever Eren was going to say next – Armin knew, they all knew – was cut off as the brunet dissolved into laughter, damn near wheezing as he recalled the incident.
“Stop laughing,” Armin responded, cheeks red – he knew he shouldn’t have told Eren about it. A quick glance at Mikasa whose lip was twitching in an effort not to smile proved that he shouldn’t have told her either.
“You two are jerks.”
Mikasa coughed into her hand, covering up what was sure to be a smile with her fist before speaking, “Never mind that. You’ll be moving back to the survey corps next month correct?”
“Yup. We just finished this batch of recruits and on Monday the final class I have to teach will be in and then I’ll be free to go back. These few months have been such a hassle.”
“Well you shouldn’t have even taken a break in the first place.” Eren griped, “I missed having you on the field.”
Armin smiled softly, “I missed you too. Both of you.”
“Agreed. We still meet up like this every week but I still feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.” Mikasa added, reaching for Armin’s arm so she could pat it, “Also it feels like you’ve lost a little muscle. You should work on that.”
Armin resisted the urge to slap her hand away and instead scooted out of arm's reach, “I have not. I’m as buff as I was before.”
Eren and Mikasa shared a look – one that Armin knew too well.
“Armin. You were never buff.”
“Eren!”
“Tell me again, why I agreed to share an apartment with you two?” Jean asked as he walked into the living room where a bag of potato chips had clearly exploded. If Sasha was eating the chips instead of throwing them away like she was supposed to be doing Jean wouldn’t say anything.
“Because we roomed in college and you loved every minute of it?” Connie asked, not even putting in any effort to help Sasha clean up – probably because they were his chips first and it wasn’t his fault Sasha tried to fight him for them just because he ate her leftovers from lunch. How she even had leftovers in the first place they would never know.
“I hated every minute of rooming with you.” Jean quipped, avoiding Sasha who was on the floor and plopping on the couch next to Connie.
“Really? Because I recall you telling me I was the best roommate ever after you first got into it with Ere--” Connie was saying, only for his voice to fizzle out when he noticed how Jean stiffened at the name. The whole Christa not really being Christa thing and Eren being a secret agent thing was still a touchy subject for Jean.
Sasha, sensing the mood turned to Jean, holding a chip out to him, “Want it?”
“Sasha no that was on the floor.”
She only shrugged, “Five second rule man,” before eating it herself.
Just then the doorbell rang and Sasha gathered up the last of the chips and ran off to the front door with a chipper, “I’ll get it.”
She returned minutes later with Historia and Ymir in tow, all three holding bags of Chinese food earning a whoop from Connie.
The five of them didn’t really hang out too often but they all met up once or twice a month for Chinese food and a movie.
“Tell me again, why we always get Chinese?” Jean asked as he grabbed his box of lo mein off the coffee table.
“Because,” Ymir quipped, “its Historia’s favorite.”
The blonde just giggled, “And the guy who works the cashier is cute.”
Ymir gasped in mock shock, “Why Historia how could you?”
The four of them knew it was all in good fun though.
“You’re talking about the one with the undercut right? He is super cute.” Connie jokingly added, earning a snort from Sasha and a smack from Ymir.
“He really is though.” Sasha agreed around a mouthful of rice.
“If it’s undercuts you’re after,” Jean added in, running his hands through his hair, “You can look at me all day.” Eliciting laughter from the group. He was half serious though.
It was nice joking like this with everyone. If Jean was honest with himself the past few months weren’t always quite so fun. Especially this past week.
When Jean got the call that he had been accepted into the missions department of the scouting legion he had thought he would had been ecstatic but quite honestly he was a ball of nerves. He had to remind himself that he wasn’t only working there to find Armin and get closure but also because he really liked the sound of the job. Though he really hadn’t expected to be accepted but he had and now in just a couple of days he would go into job training.
He’d initially been really worried about running into Armin right off the bat but Historia had assured him that he likely wouldn’t see him until he had settled into the job, if Armin even still worked there anyway.
He still wasn’t sure if he wanted to play it cool and approach Armin casually or if he wanted to get straight to the point. He’d always been a blunt person and confronting Armin seemed like the way to go but he still worried.
What would he even say? Jean wasn’t even sure how he felt. Mostly confused? He wanted to be mad, and was mad at times, but he didn’t think he had the right to be mad either. Armin was just doing his job. Though that thought didn’t make him feel much better.
He mostly wanted to just get over all of this. He was pretty sure he didn’t even like guys anyway and even he could admit he was always fast to fall for most girls. Not that Armin was one. But he hadn’t known that dammit!
He supposed that deep down he wanted things to happen naturally though. That maybe one day once he’d settled into the job he would run into Armin in the halls and they could meet up for a beer and just talk it over like it wasn’t a big deal. Jean didn’t want it to be a big deal but it sure felt like one to him.
There was this disconnect he always felt whenever he thought about Armin. Because he felt like Armin knew every aspect of himself and yet Jean felt like he didn’t know him at all.
What if Armin was nothing like Historia? Jean would wonder. And then he’d slap himself because of course they were nothing alike – Armin had just been playing a role. For all he knew Armin could be the world’s biggest jerk and laughed himself to sleep every night thinking about how he played Jean.
Or maybe Armin was a stuck up smart ass who turned his nose up at everyone he thought to be beneath him.
Or maybe he was kind and compassionate and felt bad for accidentally seducing him.
Maybe he thought Jean was gullible.
Maybe Jean really was gullible.
Jean preferred the simple life and yet it felt like everything was so complicated these days. Whatever the case, he sought comfort in the fact that even though he was going to begin job training at the place Armin worked on Monday, he still had at least a months’ time before he ran into him. It gave him more time to figure out what the hell he wanted to do.