Complexity- Armin x Reader

Chapter 15: 180 Degrees

Ms. Ral looked at the two hopefully as she clasped her hands together and raised her brows at them in anticipation, awaiting a positive response from the teens.

Y/n and Armin looked at each other, and after empathizing with Ms. Ral's clearly desperate request, they agreed.

"Oh, thank goodness! I would make the poster myself, but I've got boxes of brand new textbooks waiting in the office for me to pick up after school. It's gonna take me a while to haul them all over."

"What's the poster going to be about?" Armin asked curiously.

Ms. Ral sighed dejectedly as she leaned back against the empty desk behind her and crossed her arms.

"Unfortunately, because of certain children within my fourth period class, they're all just a smidge behind second period. Kids can be distracted by anything these days."

"Eren?" Armin and Y/n questioned in a deadpan voice.

"No comment."

The two teens exchanged a look before Ms. Ral straightened up. She smiled down at Y/n and Armin and heaved out a happy sigh.

"But, anyways, it'll just be a poster reviewing the rules for verb endings in the present case. They've got issues with conjugating verbs." The bell rang and Ms. Ral thanked them and went up to take attendance.

The class was loud and chattery as usual, with pencils falling to the floor and kids making lively conversation. A pink eraser was dropped and left unattended on the floor, and Armin and Y/n turned to look at each other with pursed lips.

"Ok, well, wanna hang out after the poster project?" Y/n asked.

And of course, Armin said yes.

~♢~

To say that Jean was nervous was an understatement.

Each passing moment that he spent standing with Mikasa outside of the front gates of school was like trying to take a breath in a room with no air.

"Yes, Jean?"

Mikasa focused her gray hues onto the boy standing in front of her. It was obvious to the girl that there was something going on with Jean, seeing as how the boy was sweating profusely and struggling to string along a single sentence.

Her normally cold eyes slightly clouded with concern as she took a moment to try to discern the cause of Jean's distress.

Just when Mikasa was about to ask Jean what was going on, the boy spoke up in a broad, unrehearsed voice.

"I just wanted to say Happy Valentine's Day."

He shifted on his feet every now and then, careening from one to another and coming across as a complete mess.

Mikasa blinked at the frazzled boy and narrowly parted her lips in surprise.

"Oh...but you said that to everyone during breakfast today, didn't you?" The girl was puzzled as she subtly tilted her head, looking at Jean dead in the eyes.

The boy averted his gaze from hers and cleared his dry throat.

"I-I know. But I wanted to give you something."

He brought one of his hands from behind his back to the front, where Mikasa was able to see a package of strawberry-flavored pocky.

She furrowed her brows slightly and pointed timidly at the gift that Jean held out.

"Is that for me?"

Her gray eyes were opened up a little more than usual, seeing as how she found the whole situation to be jarring by her standards.