A Second Chance || Attack on Titan

putting things into perspective

SUMMARY

People don't understand how Eren and Levi have decided they are each other's better half after a single meeting. Then, they do.

Armin doesn't understand it. Yes, he knows  Eren can be impulsive and hotheaded at times, but even he couldn't have  found a boyfriend in the hour and a half he left him alone.

Except  he did. Eren has a boyfriend now. A boyfriend fifteen years his senior,  who Armin has never heard of before, and who looks as far as Eren's  type as possible. All of Eren's other relationships were with people  taller than him, more on the lanky side, usually paired with preppy and  happy personalities. Armin doesn't get it.

(Eren would confess,  years later, that he didn't date anyone like Levi on purpose. It hurt to  much, everyone fell short to the man who has held his heart for a  lifetime already. It was easier to bury the memories if he stayed clear  of people who reminded him of what he had lost.

And Armin wouldn't  understand - how could he, he doesn't have the memories like Eren and  Levi do - but would still hug his best friend and comfort him as he  reminisced the horrors of a life they lived together but Armin can't  remember.)

Except Eren has that look when he talks about Levi. His  eyes shine, brighter than Armin has ever seen them, and there's this  happy edge to his voice that's impossible to ignore. He talks about Levi  like he's the world, with a familiarity that he should not have, given  that they've known each other for a grand total of two weeks. Still, it  doesn't feel strange, per se. Armin gets the feeling of deja vu,  like he has gone through this before, but that's impossible. Neither of  them have met Levi before in their lives, and this is the first time  Eren looks so happy since Armin has known him. They have known each  other since they were children, so that's a lot.

Eren thinks Armin  doesn't notice. He thinks none of their friends notice, but they do.  Eren always looks far away, like he's not entirely there. He's always  daydreaming, startled by mundane things, eyes filled with such deep  emotions that shouldn't be there. Armin sees the heartbreak in those  teal eyes, sees the sorrow and the pain.

He wants to ask why is it always there when Eren watches all their friends together, laughing and joking with each other.

He doesn't. Armin has a feeling if would break him.

But  Eren has always been different. Ever since they met all those years ago  in primary school, when Eren saved him from the bullies, he has always  looked older, wiser. Armin forgets, at times, because for all that  wisdom, he can be dumb as a brick sometimes. But Eren holds a sharpness  that he hasn't seen in anyone else, a drive and a sense of purpose no  child should have, and despite that, it feels so familiar it aches.

A  lot of things feel that way, like when they had gymnastics at school  and Eren gracefully moved around, or when he took out a gang of bullies  with practiced movements Armin never saw him learn. Like that time Sasha  stole a steamed potato from the cafeteria and was caught by one of the  teachers, or when they went play paint ball and his hold on the riffle  felt frighteningly comforting. Safe.

A lot of things feel familiar, but Armin has never figured out why.

Still,  despite the weirdness of it all, Armin is nonetheless excited to meet  the man that seems to mean so much to his best friend, if only to keep  Mikasa under control. She, unlike Armin, hadn't taken the news so well.  It's not that Mikasa doesn't like Eren to date anyone - though that  certainly is part of it, Mikasa is a little bit overprotective when it  comes to anything remotely related to Eren - but she, like Armin finds  it weird that her adoptive brother would be so smitten with a man he  only just met, and unlike Armin, she is more than ready to break some  bones if she doesn't like what she sees.