Complexity- Armin x Reader

Chapter 7: Shaking the Devil's Hand

"You guys! You're dating now?!" She looked down happily at their linked hands, bringing out her phone and hurrying to open her camera.

Much to Sasha's disappointment, Armin and Y/n quickly let go of each other's hands before scrambling to negate her statement.

"No! We're not!"

"Don't be silly!"

Sasha blinked at them, feeling puzzled as to why they had been holding hands to begin with. She saw the wild blushes on their faces and believed them to be lying.

"Y'all are cappin'. I swear." She narrowed her eyes at them suspiciously before continuing to walk through the aisle in search of Connie. She needed to divulge this information to her partner in crime, who was currently on the hunt for soda and chips.

Before she left, she told them to hurry to the registers since Eren and Mikasa were just about finished with their shopping.

Y/n and Armin were still recovering from Sasha's question. They walked together in silence as they approached Eren and Mikasa who had been waiting near the front of the registers.

"Finished your errands date?" Eren flashed a toothy grin over at the two of them. Armin was starting to feel frustrated with the constant teasing and assumptions that had been made about his and Y/n's relationship. He held his tongue back from saying anything too harsh.

"Shut up, Eren." The blonde grimaced and looked away from the snickering brunette. Eren ceased fire on his teasing, noting how Armin had become aggravated.

"Ok, ok. My bad." He shot Y/n an apologetic look, seeing as how she had begun to look flustered. He moved his shopping cart into one of the long lines. "You guys get anything?"

Y/n answered Eren quietly. "I didn't really need anything. I was thinking maybe some jam for toast, but I'll just go shopping tomorr-"

"BREAD!" Eren's green eyes had gone wide in panic as he turned to Mikasa. "Mikasa! We forgot the bread! Let me go grab it real quick!" He scurried off to the far end of the market, almost crashing into nearby shoppers. Mikasa yelled after him to also get butter, but her demands fell on deaf ears.

"Crap. I'll be right back. Could you guys stay in line for me?" Armin nodded at her before she calmly walked off to retrieve the butter.

It was now Y/n and Armin left standing in line with Eren and Mikasa's shopping cart. Y/n began to fret as she noticed that they were coming up to the front of the line. She was about to ask Armin what they should do when the blonde's phone started to ring. He looked at the screen and saw that it was his grandpa.

"Hey, we got breakfast and came to the store after. We're going to be back at Eren's in about half an hour." He paused to listen before responding. "Sure thing, I'll see you soon." He ended the call before tucking his phone into his pocket and facing Y/n. "Hey, my grandpa wants me to grab some apples. I'll be right back." He turned on his heel and headed off, leaving behind a stammering Y/n. She gulped as she found herself alone with the cart, peering meekly behind her to see that people had gotten in the same line. She began to panic as she frantically looked around for any sight of Eren or Mikasa. It was already troublesome enough when her mom did this to her, but she never expected this to happen during an outing with her friends.

"Next in line." The cashier called out lazily. Y/n snapped her head towards the unmotivated checkout boy and froze, her heart dropping in her chest in the worst way. She usually just got out of the line if her mother didn't arrive in time, much to her mom's frequent disappointment, but this was different. She didn't want her friends to be upset with her. At the same time, she stood motionless behind the cart, her mind screeching to a halt as her fight or flight mechanism toggled between both options. Her mouth had jarred open slightly, giving her the resemblance of a deer that had been caught in the headlights.