Love Me Not - {riren au}

Love Me Not ~ 70

Eren sat up when he heard a knock on his bedroom door. "Yeah?"

Grisha opened the door. "Armin and your other friend are here. I'm sending them up."

"What great timing." Eren mumbled. "Does this mean Armin is finding this out today?"

"Well, if Jean and I know it would be weird to keep that from him. He'll think you did that on purpose." Mikasa murmured.

"Uh..well I was kind of avoiding telling him. We had all of that drama and I just... I was hoping I wouldn't hurt him." Eren sighed. He heard the two coming up the stairs so he dropped the topic.

"What's up?" Eren asked once Armin and Jean stepped in.

"Who the hell is that tall blonde man?" Jean asked.

"I don't think you're his type." Eren joked.

"That's not what I meant." Jean rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, uh.. who is that?" Armin asked.

"That's my brother. My brother that has randomly showed up. He is from my dad's previous relationship." Eren summarized.

"What?" Armin was surprised. "All these years?"

Eren nodded. "It's a lot."

"Your dad thanked me for having you over for the night." Jean said, chuckling. "I didn't know you were using me for cover now."

"Sorry. It was last second. Just play along. I'll buy you food if you do." Eren bribed the other.

"I already played it off like you stayed. I was surprised so I didn't even know what to say in response." Jean admitted. "To think, you used me as a cover? I'm honored."

"Don't get all excited. I didn't want to put Armin in the position of having to lie to cover for me again." Eren mumbled.

"Sooo, let me guess. You were with your boy toy?" Jean asked, but then paused before cursing.  "Fuck. I wasn't supposed to say that right?"

"It's fine. I know." Mikasa murmured.

Eren groaned and threw a pillow at Jean. "It wasn't your thing to share."

Armin was the only one that stood there in confusion. "Boy toy?" He asked, head tilted.

"Jean is an idiot. I was with Levi. We've been dating since Christmas Eve." Eren finally explained.

Armin tilted his head. "And you two knew?" He asked Jean and Mikasa.

The two nodded. Jean had caught Eren and Levi, while Mikasa had had her suspicions. Eren confirmed it to her.

Armin was hurt. Not by the fact that Eren was dating Levi, but that he was the last to find out. They were best friends, he thought his best friend would share something so important like that with him.

Eren could see the change in Armin's demeanor. He got a bit anxious over his friends reaction.

"I'm surprised you didn't know." Jean said to Armin, which caused Eren to cringe. It was as if he was rubbing salt in an open wound.

Armin felt so out of the loop. Was everyone just closer now? Was he not trustworthy? He knew about Eren's crush for years and never said a word to anyone. He was a loyal friend since the two were in diapers, and yet he told Jean the information before him. He didn't want to seem upset, but it was hard to hide. "Well, I'm happy you two were finally able to work out your differences and actually get together. It's been a long road."

"Yeah. I mean, this whole thing started as a one sided crush when I was twelve." Eren mumbled.

Jean laughed. "You're kidding right? You've been hung up on him since twelve?"

"Why is that funny?" Eren asked. He wanted to say something snarky back about Jean's past relationships, but bit his tongue.

Armin stayed quiet, which caused even Mikasa to worry. She could already tell he was upset, but wasn't sure if it was because he was the last to know or that he was upset they were dating.

Just as things went back to normal, they were thrown off track again. Something always got in the way. Would they ever have a time that was peaceful?

Grisha poked his head in the room. "Will you two be staying for dinner?"

Jean looked at Armin, who shook his head. "I should get back to my grandpa. Thank you though."

Grisha nodded. "I'll still make a bit extra in case you decide to stay." He turned and left the room.

"I'm actually going to head out right now." Armin looked at the time on his phone. "It's late."

"It's four o'clock..." Jean raised an eyebrow. "Want me to come with you?"

"No. I'll text you later." Armin went over to the door and looked back. "See you guys later."

Once Armin left, Jean turned to Mikasa and Eren. "That was so weird. He really just abandoned me here..."

"I really need to talk to him." Eren rolled over and buried his face in his blanket, groaning. "I didn't want this." It sounded muffled due to the obstruction from his blanket. "This is why I kept it a secret." He added once he finally lifted his head.

"Why didn't you want Armin to know?" Jean asked.

"It isn't that I didn't want him to know. I wanted to tell Mikasa and Armin at the same time. I wanted to tell them on my own terms and now it came to Mikasa outright asking me and Armin finding out through you."

"I didn't mean to it just slipped. I made jokes like that before anyways. I didn't even say his name." Jean defended himself.

"Yeah, I know. Armin still knew though. Levi is the only guy I've had any relations with. Of course he would know." Eren stood from his bed. "Well I guess I'm going to need to talk to him and clear this up."

"Don't do it now. This just happened. Give him some time." Mikasa added.

"But this needs to be cleared up." Eren argued.

"Not right in this moment. He's clearly not the happiest." Mikasa said back. "Trust me."

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