Complexity- Armin x Reader

Chapter 20: In Retrograde

"Yeah, Connie, would ya?"

Sasha, smiling goofily, waggled her brows at her friend and Connie grinned at her.

"I don't know, shawty."

"Understandable."

"Actually, I'm gonna go with no. Because I'd probably go broke every time we'd go out to eat."

Connie snickered and then shouted out in surprise as Sasha began to throw soft punches at him.

"But, if we're still single by the time we're thirty, I'm down to marry you," Connie relented.

Sasha's face brightened and she hugged Connie.

"Alright, let's see..."

Connie pretended to look around and deliberate his next victim. But he already knew who he was going to choose and what he was going to ask. He saw Y/n leaning against Armin and shying away from eyesight, and he grinned as he stared straight at the girl.

"Y/n, truth or dare?"

"Nah," the girl quickly said and the others laughed.

Connie frowned and beckoned Y/n to play along.

"Fine. I guess if I had to choose..."

Actions speak louder than words, so I guess truth wouldn't be so bad.

"It'd be truth." 

Y/n sighed, and she felt anxious at what Connie might throw at her. She drummed the tips of her fingers against her legs, and she took in a shallow breath.

Connie exchanged a sly glance with Reiner, and then he spoke.

"How come you and Jean are hanging out more?"

Oh. My. God.

Y/n was completely taken by surprise, and so was the rest of the group as they lulled into a slight shock. Y/n thought that Connie was going to ask something Armin-related, in which case she could have easily dismissed any claims or teasing. But this question was asked a certain way, with Connie's tone lilting on the side of accusatory. And Y/n didn't appreciate the implications.

The girl was cautious and approached the question with her own, briefly looking at Jean's own startled face before looking back at Connie.

"Why'd you ask it like that? Like it's a bad thing?"

Connie quickly backtracked.

"I didn't mean to make it sound like it's the worst thing in the world."

"Answer the question, Y/n." Ymir smirked at the cornered girl and put even more unnecessary pressure on her.

"Because we can. You guys are always exaggerating things." Jean butted in and glared at Ymir, who wasn't impressed with his answer.

"Last I checked, Y/n was Armin's bestie, but now all of a sudden she prefers to hang out with you more? You guys are hiding something."

Y/n felt her chest twist and ache. She felt a weird jumble of emotions culminating inside her heart, and she knew a bunch of them all too well from middle school. She shook slightly and felt her throat start to constrict. She hated confrontation.

"I'm allowed to have guy friends, Ymir," said Y/n quietly.

"Yeah right," Ymir scoffed, and Jean glared daggers at her. "More like fuck buddies."

One look at Ymir's sly smirk, and the anxious girl was thrown back into sixth grade. The memories of the leers, and the whispering, and the gossip. It was a time that she tried so hard to wipe out of her mind, but it suddenly came flooding back in eerie parallels to what was going on now.