Complexity- Armin x Reader

Chapter 20: In Retrograde

Eren then took on an air of seriousness, and in a more quiet tone, he voiced some of his concerns to Jean.

"I screwed up in taking part of this. I've done some things that might have hurt Armin."

The boy's green eyes clouded, and he felt a pain in his chest when he remembered how sad Armin became after Reiner got into his head.

Jean hummed curiously and furrowed his brow over at the brunette.

"Like what?"

Eren gave Jean a quick glance before averting his eyes away.

"Just...indirectly. Like Reiner telling him mean things to manipulate him into confessing. While I'm just standing there, watching."

"Jesus, Eren." Jean looked away from his friend and his face soured. He frowned as he saw Armin and Y/n now splashing around in the water.

Eren sighed. "I know, I know." He shook his head at himself and let the guilt that he had been feeling swallow him up. He needed to end this.

"I'll tell Reiner to call the bet off. The two of them shouldn't be pressured."

"Ok, good."

"Ya know one thing that's been weird, though?"

"What's that?"

"How come Y/n's been distant? I hear Armin rant about it a lot and I'm starting to get worried."

Jean tensed at the question and really wondered to himself if he should reveal Y/n's reasoning for this.

"She just, uhh...has some stuff going on with her mom. Same as usual."

Eren stayed quiet, thinking back to what he knew about Y/n. Though he knew that the girl and her mother had issues to work out, he wasn't quite sure if that was the whole case in this situation. He looked to the side and saw that Jean's lips were pressed together tightly.

The brunette spoke.

"That sounds reasonable," Eren started off with. Not hearing a response, he continued. "But why wouldn't she tell Armin about that?"

Jean exhaled and looked over at Eren.

"How do you know that Armin doesn't know about her mom issues?"

"Because Armin told me multiple times how it was driving him crazy not knowing what was going on with Y/n. Jean, do you know something?" Eren questioned, keeping a close eye on the boy's expressions.

Jean sucked in a breath and let it go.

"She's in the process of getting over Armin."

Jean saw Armin pick up Y/n and throw her into the water, with the girl retaliating and pulling the boy in with her, all with a brilliant smile on her face. He snorted.

"Not that she's getting over him any time soon," he added.

Eren looked at Jean in surprise.

"We can't let that happen!"

"Yeah, and we also can't get involved anymore."

"But-"

"No, Eren. Don't worry about it. I'm sure Y/n'll eventually realize that she and blondie over there are endgame."

Eren grew concerned. His green eyes gleamed as he worried for Armin, since he knew that his friend could only take so much heartbreak.

Jean patted Eren's back reassuringly, grinning.

"Don't worry about it, they're practically dating already. Look."

Eren followed where Jean pointed at and saw Y/n attempting to carry Armin bridal style within the crashing waves. The blonde was flushed and laughing, trying to get away from Y/n while the girl smiled, cherry-red. A wave then came over and sent the two tumbling down, with them hacking up water afterwards and laughing.