Cruel Affections (Levi x Reader)

- Chapter 14 -

Notes: Without spoiling anything, this chapter is more focused on Armin and Y/N's friendship. You'll see why.

Summary: Now that you and Levi finally have an understanding, the two of you can finally get somewhere. But the start of one relationship weakens others.

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"...Are we okay?"

The sound of Armin's voice startled you for a mere second. It had been at least half an hour of silence since you'd started cleaning the dining hall, and the small "Hey, Armin." was all you managed to sputter out at the sight of him.

You weren't expecting to be paired with him after so much time without a partner, but even that aside, his presence seemed to bother you somehow. The longer you washed the dishes without another word, not even glancing his way, the more he couldn't ignore the conclusion he'd come to in the past week- that something must've been wrong.

It'd been a while since you'd started acting "off" (he didn't know how else to put it), and being the observant person he was, Armin tried to make sense of it. You were barely seen around these days, and small talk was the only conversation he'd get from you with how distracted you seemed.

He didn't want to assume anything but was getting worried, and although he didn't know why it was happening, it was apparent that your discomfort only worsened when he was around. That observation confused him because he was closest to you out of the friend group.

All he knew was that it didn't feel good, and if something was bothering you, he wanted to help.

"Hm?" You blinked when he moved closer, subtly pressing for a response, and that's when you realized you were doing it again, spacing out when you needed to focus and get a grip. Picking up another dish, you turned to him, slowing the scrubbing to give him your attention.

The sheepish smile on his face told you there was something he said, and you felt weary all over again, knowing that you weren't paying attention.

"Oh, I was asking if everything's okay. If uh— if we're okay?"

"Y-yeah, of course, we are?" A lie. You just didn't know when to stop.

Armin sulked against the countertop as he seemed to ponder the sincerity in your voice. Smiling, you tried to ignore the heat that crept onto your face. It was embarrassing, knowing full and well that you'd been hiding something, and he had every right to be upset.

But the truth was that you needed to.

Since the night you spent with Levi, you've become somewhat distant from your friends. Armin took the most of it as you subconsciously willed yourself to avoid spending a lot of time with him, considering his crush on you and all. It wasn't like he did anything wrong.

Instead, it was because of what you were doing, what you had been doing behind everyone's backs, and it was getting harder for you to even look at any of them without feeling bad about yourself, especially when you faced the bright blue eyes of the blonde next to you.

As much as you told yourself it didn't matter, that you didn't owe them any truth or explanation about your private life, the small bouts of confidence always came crashing down when you thought about it for too long. At night, when the reality of the situation settled in your mind, you felt most guilty, incapable of believing any of this to be as fair as you mocked it up to be.

After all, you were happy. At least you felt like you could start to be, so why did you feel so bad for it?

Here you were, indulging in this secret affair with your Captain, now having turned to what you thought could finally be labeled as a 'relationship.' It was relieving at first, knowing that there was an actual term to describe what the two of you were doing, but ironically enough, there were more doubts when he confirmed exactly what you'd been pinning on.