Complexity- Armin x Reader

Chapter 11: The Backdrop

The bald man looked at the running teens, a glare of approval resting on his face after successfully scaring the shit out of them. He let his squared-up shoulders and puffed chest fall lax, and he sighed as he twisted the whistle in his fingers.

"God, I love my job."

This was going to be a tiring mile for all of them.

~♢~

"And then he called them TEEN LESBIANS! AHAHA" Sasha was cackling on the metal bleachers along with Connie. Eren and Jean laughed at what had happened as both Y/n and Armin held their faces in their hands.

The six teens were currently sitting on the bleachers along with the rest of their classmates while they all waited to be dismissed to the locker rooms. Sasha was passing along her phone to Jean and Eren, showing off the pictures she had snapped of Armin and Y/n walking together. Eren and Jean cooed as loving mothers would as they viewed the picture of Y/n holding onto Armin's hand.

"Delete those immediately." Armin commanded.

"No can do." Said Sasha as she munched on a chewy bar that she had pulled out of the pocket of her PE shorts.

Y/n weakly reached out to grab Sasha's phone, but it was snatched by Connie so he could zoom in on it.

"Damn, Armin, loving the ponytail." Connie grinned at him.

"Effective immediately, the ponytail is dead." The blonde lifted a hand to the back of his head and loosened Y/n's green, polka-dotted scrunchie, slipping it off and handing it back to the girl. He saw the look on Y/n's face and cut in before he could hear any of her protests. "Shadis literally confused me with Historia. And she's not even in this period!"

"But it looked cute..." Y/n said quietly and out of Armin's hearing as she secured the scrunchie on her wrist.

They all turned to see Shadis stalking up to the bleachers with a face equal to that of an angry bull.

"Alright, maggots. Class dismissed. Now get out of here before I start shedding tears over your God-awful mile times."

The whole first period gym class seemingly trudged their sore legs towards the locker rooms. Eren slung his arm over Armin's shoulder and gave him a noogie, talking to him animatedly far from the others. He occasionally threw glances over at Jean, and Jean noticed, narrowing his eyes at the brunette. He wasn't too fond of the way Eren was looking at him.

Jean looked away from the pair and scanned the teen-littered blacktop area until his eyes landed on the one person he was looking for. He jogged up to Y/n and tapped her right shoulder before weaving himself to her left side.

Y/n turned at the tap of her shoulder and saw no one there. She frowned before turning back and startling at the sight of Jean now next to her.

"Jean, you asshole."

"What, I can't talk to you?" he questioned coolly, a tilted grin on full display for Y/n to see.

The girl rolled her eyes and smiled.

"What brings you here today, Mr. Kirschtein?" She put an emphasis on his last name, making sure to pronounce it in the most impressionable German accent she could muster.

"Just here to congratulate you on your boldness."

Tilting her head,  Y/n looked to Jean. "My...boldness?"

"Yeah, you're getting brave enough to hold Armin's hand now, so what's stopping you now?" He raised his brows at her and Y/n simply looked away with an awkward, closed frown. The flustered girl was now finding it hard to explain to Jean that yes, even though she felt comfortable enough to hold Armin's hand now, she still didn't feel confident enough to confess yet.