~♢~
Armin had gotten his hair cut that first day of summer, right before junior year. He felt iffy about the new look, but his spirits were lifted once Y/n gushed over how well it suited him.
It was now a month into summer, and Armin sighed as he sat atop the lifeguard tower and thought back to the conversation he had with Y/n that day, when she came to visit him at his first ever shift with his brand new look.
"You look really cool! Like uhh...like that guy in every beach movie that all of the girls want!"
Armin snorted.
"Ok, now you're just exaggerating," he chuckled.
Y/n was quick to object.
"N-No! I'm sure Armin. This is the year."
Armin hummed and tilted his head. "The year when what?"
"When you finally get a girlfriend and leave me and Eren and Mikasa behind on your rise to popularity."
The blue-eyed boy blinked.
Though the girl next to him was joking, Armin could have sworn that Y/n looked misty-eyed for a second.
But the look was then gone, and in the next moment, the girl smiled at him and nudged him in the ribs.
"Just kidding! You're stuck with us. Forever and ever and ever and ever--"
"Alright, I get the gist of it. I'm stuck with you guys for an eternity, unfortunately."
He grinned playfully as he covered Y/n's mouth up with his hand to get her to stop talking.
A muffled laugh spilled out of Y/n, and she removed Armin's hand from her mouth, holding onto it and studying it.
Y/n went quiet in her observation, and she traced gently along the boy's palm. Her lips quirked up naturally into an awkward smile, and she kept her focus on nothing but the hand.
She turned red.
"You look handsome, Armin."
That had been the most recent conversation that Armin had with Y/n in person.
He wished Y/n were there to keep him company again, but she already had plans with Jean that day.
His blue eyes turned cold as unwelcome feelings began to pool inside his chest.
He envied Jean. He felt as if Y/n were replacing him.
And Armin hated to feel this way. He knew that he and Jean weren't the best of friends, but he didn't want to hate the boy simply because Y/n hung out with him often.
He felt childish, and his feelings of jealousy were probably due to an underlying cause that he couldn't figure out.
There was only so much positive thinking within his being. He had run out of good things to think about, and his mind brewed up a storm of unpleasant thoughts, ranging from Y/n no longer speaking to him, to Y/n and Jean holding hands like she did with the blonde.
Armin closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to ward off the intrusive thoughts that were plaguing him on his job, which he decided to focus on. He opened his blue eyes and picked up the binoculars, scanning the beach and hoping that the people were safe.
A kid had gone a bit too far into the water and began to panic as he called out to his parents. He was flailing against the eternal waves, and slowly being carried out into the sea. Swiftly, Armin dropped the lens, grabbed the bright-red rescue board and descended the tower, sprinting towards the water at full speed. He dove in and easily cut into riptide's currents.
Hitch Dreyse happened to be on that beach that very day, sporting sunglasses and a white, two-piece swimsuit. She was tanning peacefully when she heard all of the commotion. Curious, and slightly annoyed at all of the noise, she lowered her glasses and looked up towards a crowd that had gathered on the edge of the tides.
Her jaw dropped as soon as she saw a certain blonde carrying a little boy to safety.
Armin, with his damp hair and glistening skin, smiled and shook hands with what Hitch assumed to be the little boy's parents.
She was presented with a full view of Armin's toned muscles, and his pearly white teeth.
Sophomore year had been kind to the boy, and Hitch smirked, intrigued.
"Well hot damn," she said to herself as she took off her glasses and discarded them on her lounge chair.
Hitch got up, grabbed her phone, and made her way to Armin, swaying her hips a tad bit more than natural. She fluffed her hair up and held a lax grin on her face. Once she was behind the boy, she tapped his shoulder and Armin turned.
"Hey, that was pretty cool, what you did out there. It was brave," she said as she twirled her hair around her slender finger and put on the charm.
"Oh, thanks Hitch! Just doing my job."
Armin smiled, innocently oblivious to Hitch's flirting, and the girl blinked in surprise.
"Wait, you know me?"
Frowning ever so slightly, Armin responded.
"Yeah, from class."
Hitch furrowed her brows and tilted her head as she thought long and hard about where she could have possibly seen the boy.
Armin, upon seeing that she was confused, chuckled nervously
"Heh, you know...German class?"
It was then that Hitch's eyes lit up in recognition.
"Oh, Erwin! You cut your hair short!
Hitch giggled and Armin's lips pressed together into an awkward smile
"Ah, it's...actually Armin."
Hitch did a double take
"Oh my gosh, I had your name wrong this whole time?!" she exclaimed.
Though true, Armin was polite about it.
"It's ok."
Hitch apologized lengthily, with Armin standing in the sand and half hearing the girl. He was trying to focus on his job, but he didn't want to be rude and tell Hitch to leave.
"No, really, Hitch, it's fine." He waved off the girl's guilt.
Hitch was quick to recover and breezed past the situation, finding herself satisfied with the fact that Armin was someone she already knew.
He's kind of nerdy...but he's pretty hot.
She eyed Armin up and caught his attention.
"We should hang out sometime," she said casually.
Armin turned to her in surprise.
"You--You want to hang out with me?" he pointed to himself and went wide-eyed.
Hitch nodded.
"Mhm. I think we can be really good friends." She smiled at him slyly, hoping that Armin would pick up on the vague hints she was putting out.
The boy was stupefied. Out of all of the people that he could be friends with, Hitch Dreyse was the last person he expected. The girl was self-obsessed and popular, so he questioned why she had chosen to pursue a friendship with him. He was thinking that maybe there was something in it for her, something that she could benefit from. What it was, Armin had no clue. And he also had no clue that Hitch was simply doing this out of lust for the boy.
Armin saw no problem with the proposition so far, so he reverted back to his usual kind nature and accepted.
"O-Oh, um...well, ok!"
Armin smiled shyly, and Hitch grinned.
"Cool," she said as she unlocked her phone's home screen. "So, what's your number?"
~♢~
Y/n was listening intently to Armin's retelling about his shift the other day, when Hitch Dreyse showed up out of the blue to talk to him.
"I was going to climb back up the tower to keep watch, and then I felt a tap on my shoulder, and you'll never guess who it was."
Armin paused dramatically, waiting for Y/n to guess and knowing that she would never figure it out.
"Uhhh...the actor for Thor?" Y/n asked as she shifted to sit criss cross applesauce on Armin's bed.
"Wh-What? That's completely random!" He laughed as he moved to sit next to Y/n.
The girl threw her hands up in the air.
"Well, you made it sound like it was someone famous or something!"
"Well, popular at our school."
"Uhh...Reiner?"
"No, more popular."
Y/n hummed in thought, tilting her head up to stare at Armin's blue walls.
She sighed in defeat and pouted at Armin.
"Shoot, I can't think of anyone. Who was it?"
"Hitch Dreyse," he said plainly.
"Hitch Dreyse?" she questioned as her brows lifted in intrigue. "What did she say to you?"
"Well, she saw me help that kid from earlier--"
"And once again, I'm going to call you Aqua Man," Y/n interrupted with a grin and Armin rolled his eyes.
"Hush!" he said as he pressed his finger against his lip. "Anyways, before I was so rudely interrupted..."
Y/n stuck her tongue out at him and Armin smiled. He continued.
"She saw me help the kid and she called me--God, this feels weird to say-- brave," he said apprehensively, finding it to be strange since he was never one to boast about himself.
"Well, she ain't wrong. I'm proud of you, Min! And you should be proud of yourself, too!"
Armin turned red and scratched at his cheek. He smiled sheepishly.
"Would you quit saying that already?" His heart drummed against his chest, and he felt warm hearing Y/n's praise.
"Nope!" the girl said with a bright smile.
He sighed and changed the subject.
"But, there's more."
"Oh?"
"She told me that we should hang out."
Y/n stared at Armin blankly, not knowing what to make of the information she was given.
"She asked you to hang out with her?"
Armin nodded.
"Yeah, I guess so."
"What the heck! That's so..." Y/n brought her hand up to her forehead as she scrambled to properly voice her confusion. "So random!"
And Armin wholeheartedly agreed, nodding profusely.
"I know! That's exactly what I thought. I still don't know why or what happened or what I even did to make Hitch wanna hang out with me."
Y/n thought about it for a moment, wanting to delve deeper into the machinations of Hitch Dreyse's mindset. A proper line of questioning was called for.
"What did she sound like when she asked you?"
Armin frowned slightly.
"What do you mean?"
"Like, did she give off any signs of joking around or something?"
Armin dismissed the possibility.
"No. I don't think she'd go as far as getting my number if she were just joking around."
Y/n choked.
"She asked for your number?!"
"Y-Yeah? Why, what's wrong?"
That fact alone set off alarms in Y/n's mind.
"Oh my God, what was she doing when she was talking to you?"
"Umm...besides talking to me?"
"Yes, Armin! Like body language!"
"O-Oh...well, she was smiling at me the whole time, more than someone usually would, which was a bit weird...and she kept messing around with her hair. Twirling it around her finger and flipping it back—"
"Armin."
"Yes?"
"She's totally crushing on you!" Y/n exclaimed as she doubled over and laughed. "You're so oblivious!"
Armin went scarlet red and clammed up.
"W-What? N-No! That's not true!"
"Yes! She was flirting with you!" Y/n proclaimed proudly, feeling as if she had solved the world's biggest mystery. But then the weight of this revelation fell on the girl, and Y/n stopped smiling.
"She has a crush on you..." Y/n said, a bit more somberly.
"That's real funny. Thanks for the laugh, Y/n." Armin said this in a monotone voice, not really believing the girl. He got up from his bed and turned over to his desk to grab his Nintendo Switch so that they could game.
"Bitch, listen! It makes sense. What were you wearing when she saw you?"
Armin looked at his friend incredulously.
"Hmm...I dunno, Y/n, I'm a lifeguard. Take a guess?"
"Ugh, you're so annoying."
Armin chuckled and sat back down on the bed, playing around on the Switch.
"Ok, so you were— ah, shirtless?" Y/n blushed, knowing full well that she should have just assumed that.
"Ding, ding, ding, you got it." Armin replied offhandedly as he focused on choosing a game. He didn't notice the wild shade of red currently blossoming on his friend's face as the girl shook the image of his beach bod out of her head.
"Yup. Then she was definitely flirting with you."
Armin's brows furrowed. "Because I was shirtless?"
"Definitely because you were...shirtless." Y/n looked away to the side and closed her eyes. She felt a warmth radiating off her face and she needed to breathe in to calm down her fast heart.
"I can't say that I see the correlation here."
"Armin, you dummy!"
Y/n bonked the boy on the noggin firmly and the boy protested.
"She saw your abs, dude! No girl in Paradis wouldn't not look at them and--my God, I'm going to stop talking."
Y/n covered her face and laid down on the bed, curling in on herself. She groaned softly as she felt Armin's wide eyes on her.
"What was that?" He asked, laughing out of disbelief.
"Nothing, forget about it."
The blonde, flushed, put the switch down. And he leaned in closer to Y/n until he was a couple inches away from her shielded face.
"No, Y/n, repeat that last part. I didn't quite catch it."
"You asshole, you did hear it but you're being a jerk now. I'm not saying it again."
Armin chuckled and delicately removed Y/n's hands from her face. The girl looked anywhere but his eyes, and she refused to look at him.
"How come you're shy all of a sudden? You're always fine with giving me compliments. What's different now, hm?" Armin questioned in a feather soft voice that made the girl's heart leap out of her chest. He was still holding onto her hands, and Y/n couldn't escape. She laid there quietly, feeling awkward about answering.
"Because this is different. It's...um..."
Because I'm talking about how hot you look!
"What?"
Frustrated, Y/n groaned and retracted her hands from Armin.
"Bro, stop bullying me."
Armin laughed as Y/n sat up and rubbed the side of her arms.
"How was that bullying you?" He questioned and poked Y/n's red cheek. The girl glared affectionately at him.
"Just play your damn games."
Armin lifted his hands up in surrender, grinning widely before turning the switch back on.
It was peaceful between the two for a while, with the two taking turns at trying to defeat a boss in a game of Legend of Zelda.
Y/n would have called it smooth sailing from there had Armin not spoken up once again.
"So, my abs, huh?"
He lost once again to the boss and handed Y/n the control. Only the girl didn't move to grab it. She sighed and held her face in her hands.
"Armin..."
"You know, Y/n," Armin started, a bit hesitant as he wondered if he should really say what he was about to. He thought back to what Eren had told him a while ago.
"Armin, you're so up in the clouds that you don't even realize that Y/n is crushing on you," the brunette had said. He looked at Armin intently. "She's always flirting with you, subtly, but you're never gonna pick up on that if you're always so quick to write it off."
The blonde's heart hammered, and he challenged just how bold he could be.
"If you keep saying things like that, I'm gonna start to think that you're flirting with me."
The boy heard an audible gasp, and then Y/n stammered.
"Armin--!"
She flushed tenfold, and she was scared that Armin had figured her out.
She punched the boy on the shoulder, and Armin laughed it off.
"Aight, imma head out." Y/n said suddenly as she grabbed her bag and scurried out of Armin's room, throwing the boy a rushed peace sign. She needed to get out of there before she exposed herself.
Armin gaped for a moment and his eyes went wide. He clambered up from his bed and tossed his switch down onto it, following after Y/n.
"Wait! I was just kidding!"
Where are you going, shawty!