Unity

Chapter Eight

The same old thing... day after day... Every day was exactly the same. Eren, Mikasa, and I walked to school, Eren and Jean got in a fight, I got beat up, Eren got in another fight with whoever was picking on me, we walked home, we complained about not having food, and I fell asleep in Eren's arms. The last was always the highlight of my day. Through everything school, starvation, and weariness brought me through, Eren was always there at the end of the day to soak up that pain.

Seven months had passed since the first day of school, and our last day would be in just two weeks. Eren and I had progressed a lot over that time span, but I still have yet to tell him about the fact that I'm transgender...

Not good thoughts.

I know that I've been very resistant into telling him, but I know I need to tell him myself, rather than someone like Levi telling him, or even worse, him finding out himself. That nightmare always lingered in my mind, making me more and more eager to let him know, but still shy and scared.

Mikasa on the other hand already knows. She's way more observant than Eren is, and I'm just grateful for that. It may also just be that Eren is male that he never really caught on to my habits, but Mikasa being female, did. I don't have an adam's apple nor a sharp collar-bone, and Mikasa caught that, but also, Eren has a tendency to lie around without a shirt during the hotter days. I can't exactly do that without drawing attention to myself...

"Armin," Mikasa's soft voice rang behind me as my eyes slowly opened. "I need to talk to you up by the bench. We have some time before Eren wakes up." I followed her path up to where she guided me to sit with her.

"What was it you needed to talk about?" Though Mikasa stared at me with one of her most intense looks, her words did not seem to match.

"When are you telling Eren that you're transgender?" The grip I had on the bench grew stronger and there was no possibility of me falling off.

"I-I don't know... I hope soon-"

"You better tell him soon. He's probably going to want to have sex with you soon-"

"What the fuck, Mikasa!" Though I thought she was trying to add humor, she was being dead serious.

"I'm not joking around. You don't want him to find out like that." She shifted her hands to where the grip of the bench was. "He's 15. I wouldn't be surprise if he acted out on it. How many times have you made-out?"

"M-Mikasa... you didn't need to add that in, but I should tell him fairly soon." Her head bobbed back and forth in a nodding motion.

"Even when you guys are just cuddling, what if he feels your binder?"

"He has before, and I just told him that I was wearing layers." Her eyes shut closed, but reopened like a long blink.

"It's also not good for your health to be wearing your binder 24/7. If you tell Eren you won't have to wear it all the time." I scoffed inside and out at the thought of me without my binder in front of other people.

"You know I would hate doing that!" I could barely stand the grim thought of going without my binder for even a day, that it nearly brought me to tears.

"Calm down. We'll figure things out." I bent over so I was hunch-backed and limp. My body felt heavy even though I had probably dropped 20 pounds since the first day of school due to the lack of food we have. The only thing my weight was made out of now was my own anxiety.

"Armin! Mikasa! What do you want to do today? Tomorrow's Sunday, so we have all day today and tomorrow to do anything!" Eren half-audibly yelled from the bottom of the hill.