Chapter Text
Finally home after a long day! Armin closed the door behind him and sighed tiredly. He should have gone back to his apartment after his classes ended instead of studying at the lab. That would have given him more time to rest before going to work.
Work… Just thinking about what had happened in the afternoon at the coffee shop made Armin want to dug a hole and hide inside. He shook his head when he felt his earlier embarrassment come back. No need to think about that again. Dropping his bag and keys in the living room, Armin made his way to the bathroom. First shower then video-logging. As usual, the thought of going online soon made him feel a tad bit better already. Soon he was done and headed straight for his living room, straight for his laptop.
Half a year ago, if someone had told him he would enjoy recording himself on camera and posting those videos online, Armin would have laughed at their face. Being as self-conscious as he was, there was just no way he would ever want to talk about himself for the whole world – at least the online one- to see. Yet there he was, loving his video-blogging on YouTube and being quite well known online. With a little over 2000 subscribers, Armin thought he had gotten pretty popular which was incredible in his opinion. It was quite a lot of subscribers and Armin wasn’t sure why he had gained so many of them. Sure some of them had mentioned that he looked cute, others that he was hot- stuff that he himself didn’t believe. There were also those who called him a really cool guy simply because he played video games and would sometimes give tutorials when he was done. But beyond that Armin always wondered, what people saw in him exactly. He didn't think of himself as interesting had never thought people would take interest in him.
When he wasn’t talking about his science projects, his friends or his favorite games, all he talked about was Eren Jaeger and how he turned into a complete klutz anywhere near him. So make that a gay, clumsy and nerdy guy on YouTube. Did some of them feel more sympathetic towards him because of his talking about Eren? A clumsy guy talking about his awkwardness around his guy crush on internet, totally interesting apparently.
Armin shrugged. His fingers ran over his keyboard as he thought about Eren. Taller than him by 5 inches, Eren had short brown hair framing an expressive face and beautiful green eyes. He also had an incredible smile at least in Armin’s opinion. Oh and he also a great body too. Although he wasn’t as muscular as some of the guy friends he came to the shop with, Eren still had well defined muscles that showed on his arms. That had made Armin wonder more often than not how the rest of Eren body was under his clothes. Like would he have a six pack under the t-shirts? He had heard at the coffee shop that Eren was a football player for the big university in town, a Titan. It wasn’t like he would ever find out anyway. They had never talked except for the occasional “hello what would you like to order?” he threw in Eren’s way whenever he came to the shop with his friends. Even then, Armin clumsiness had made sure that Eren wouldn’t want to talk to him, ever.
There was that time when he had spilled Eren’s cappuccino fredo on his shirt. Thankfully it had been iced coffee so no burns for Eren. Just big stains on his clothes for the rest of the day.
Or that other time where he almost hit Eren’s sister with the food tray he was carrying.
There was also that time when he hit Eren with a broomstick while he was cleaning the restroom. Trying to apologize hadn't helped since in his panic, he had almost broken the neon light on the ceiling.
The worst was that those were only 3 times out of many more. Like just this afternoon, Armin had been so distracted when he saw Eren laughing with his friends, he had run tray first into the wall next to the kitchen door. It had been beyond embarrassing especially when everyone looked at him, sprawled on the floor with food all over him.
Feeling the warmth on his face, telltale sign that he was turning completely red, he hit his forehead with his hand. Armin hated how he turned into an awkward teenager every time Eren was around. The taller brunette only had to be somewhere in the vicinity for him to become a living disaster. Gone was the 21 year old Armin, leader of his promotion in the science department. Instead, there was a clumsy 12-year old boy fumbling around his crush. Talk about unattractive. It really wasn’t the best way to make the brunette notice him in a good way- Eren's horrified face after every incidents was pretty telling.
Stop thinking about this over and over again.
It was better to think about something happier. Nodding to himself, Armin logged into his YouTube and immediately went to check his inbox. The various messages from his subscribers had him smiling. Some were checking up on him, others were wondering if anything new had happened between him and Eren, then there were those sharing something that happened to them with him. It always warmed him to know that he had managed to connect with some strangers online to the point where some treated him as their friends. After answering to every private messages he received, he checked his last vlog feed for replies. As per usual most of the comments were positive with only a few of them being insulting toward him. He had learned to overlook the occasional troll or mean comments to focus on the positive. One comment in particular got his attention.
“You should have more confidence in yourself. You’re a great guy you know, even if you get really clumsy sometimes. You need to stop being so self-conscious. Also try to talk to that guy you like. He’s always looking at you at the shop when you’re not looking. He might feel the same. Just try not to hurt him.”
Armin froze and read the comment again. It had some likes under it as well as a few replies asking the author whether they knew Armin in real life or not. Heart pounding, Armin wondered the same. The person had referred to the “shop” he worked at, a detail he never gave online. He had only mentioned crushing on a guy at work, nothing more, not even Eren’s real name. It was just E. But whoever the person was, they knew that Eren frequented the shop he worked at. Armin frowned. He had always thought about the possibility of someone from school recognizing him or worse one of the shop customers getting hold of his videos. But he had promptly dismissed the idea. With so many things to do on the net, who was ever going to find his little YouTube account or be interested in it? No one or at least no one who would even look at him twice in real life. Or that’s what he had thought.
Armin read the comment over and over again. No matter how much he didn’t want it to be true, it truly did seem like the author not only knew him but Eren too. They might even be close to him seeing how they didn’t want him to “hurt” the brunette. Whoever they were, they seem to be playing matchmaker for him and Eren. Armin didn’t know whether this was a good or a bad thing.
x-x-x-x-x-x
“Hmm? What are you talking about?”
Eren hardly glanced away from the TV as he asked his sister the question. His attention was solely focused on the task on hand, which was moving past his current level in his God of War III video game. Problem was his character was stuck trying to defeat Cronos, the giant god of time, with no success. Eren frowned when his character died for the 6th time that night and almost threw the controller away from him. Remembering that this was the 3rd controller he had bought in 2 months stopped him from doing so. No use breaking it again, not because of stupid Kratos anyway. How did people even pass the Cronos level in that game? Jean had told him this level would be easy …
“I said Armin Arlert is a vlogger on YouTube. He’s pretty popular too.”
Hearing Mikasa’s voice once again made him tear his eyes away from the TV. Feeling like it was no use to continue playing, he turned off his console and focused on her. She was sitting on his bed flipping through her magazine pages while she spoke. Eren sighed. Of course a moment ago she was trying to get him to pay attention to whatever she was saying yet the moment she finally had him where she wanted was the moment she chose to be interested in her magazine. Eren thought back to what she said and tried to put a face on the name. Nothing came to his mind.
“Armin Ar… Armin Aret… what was it again?”
“Armin Arlert.”
“Yeah Armin Arlert. Of course. Who’s that again?”
When Mikasa focused her attention on him, he immediately felt like he shouldn’t have asked the question. Despite her face being as inexpressive as always, Eren saw the way her eyes narrowed at him.
“What? I’m just asking who this Armin is?”
“The blond waiter from the coffee shop who’s always breaking stuff when he’s not trying to hurt you. You know the one you always look at.”
“Oh…”
The walking disaster, as Jean and Connie had come to call him. Eren laughed as he remembered what had happened in the afternoon: he had turned around just in time to see the blonde collide with the wall. It hadn’t been pretty…
Although Eren had been horrified at first by the string of accidents the blonde waiter seemed to have when they were at the Braun’s, he had become used to it to the point where he was now expecting some disaster to happen everytime they went there. Not that he was waiting to see the blonde injure himself, far from it. It was just… The way the blonde would either destroy or knock stuff over had become kind of … endearing for Eren. Well, endearing wouldn’t really be the right word though. More like he associated the blonde with the incidents in his head and it had become normal.
“You’re talking about the walking disaster.” Eren frowned as he registered what else Mikasa had said. “Wait, I’m not always looking at hi…”
“His name is Armin, Eren. Armin Arlert.”
“Okay, okay. Armin.” As he said the name, Eren thought that it kinda suited the blonde. “He’s on YouTube?”
“Yes. He does vlogging on YouTube and is pretty popular too.”
Eren couldn't hide his surprise upon hearing that.
“Really? Seeing how clumsy he gets at the restaurant, I wonder how he doesn’t get tied around with all those wir… Oww what was that for?”
Eren looked up at his sister, irritated. She didn’t have to hit him on the head just now. What had he said that was bad again? She always did that when he was being “an idiot” according to her.
“He isn’t stupid Eren and he isn’t always that awkward. Sasha is in the same department as he and she says he’s a great guy to talk to. He’s even one of the top students of their department. She's had him as a tutor from time to time and he's also helped her with her lab research assignments. She said that he was pretty normal, nothing like the clumsy guy we know.”
“Really? But at the coffee… I can’t remember a single time we were there and nothing happened. The only exception being when we’re over there and he’s not working.”
“That’s the thing though: he’s been clumsy every time we were there. She told me it was pretty weird because she’s been there and he’s a great barista. He never acts like that with the other customers and they all love him.”
Mikasa got up and went to Eren's work desk, grabbing his laptop on her way. Eren’s brows furrowed as he thought about the new information.
“So you mean, the walk… I mean Armin only acts like that around us? But … why?”
Mikasa turned to him again and this time Eren could swear if Mikasa ever had a “you’re disappointing” face, it would be that one.
“What?”
“Nothing.” Mikasa turned back to the laptop, keeping silent for a few moments. “Forever thick. But anyway, here is his YouTube channel.”
Thick? Eren opened his mouth to protest and ask her why but gave up instantly. Knowing Mikasa, she wouldn't bother answering anyway. Instead he grumbled under his breath and didn’t move. What was so interesting about the guy having a YouTube anyway?
“Why do you want me to check it so much? I mean he might be a nice guy and all but…”
“That video game you were playing? Sasha told me Armin was a real video game wizz and actually aced it. All 4 games in the series actually. He even has a tutorial of sorts in one of his video. ”
Eren immediately perked up at those words and joined his sister at the computer.
“Really? Wow that’s cool. I would have never taken him for the kind. That means he would know how to beat Cronos then.”
“I guess so. You’ll have to look through the videos though. Sasha told me that he talks about his blunders at the shop in his videos too. So I thought it might be fun to check it out. “
Eren smiled. The blond talked about all those incidents at the coffee shop? It could be fun to watch. Seeing how Armin was almost blabbering the few times he took their orders, Eren wondered how Armin fared online especially while talking about something that embarrassed him a lot. His red face after every incident had been more than telling. Eren then remembered what Mikasa had said about Armin not being that awkward usually, except when they were around. He frowned again. Could that mean that they made him nervous or something? Why would they?
Maybe those videos would help him understand. Eren nodded and watched as Mikasa clicked on the first video, never paying attention to the little smile on her face.