The Gift of Memory (Armin Arlert x Reader|Modern AU)

7•B-B-B-B...Boyfriend?!

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize you would get into so much trouble." Armin apologized. Y/N just sadly smiled and shook her head.

"No, it's not your fault. You didn't even know my parents had no idea where I was. Not until I mentioned it, anyway." She sighed. "Luckily my mother doesn't have much of a problem with it. She actually calmed down once she found out I, much to her surprise, was not sneaking out to do drugs, just to go to a carnival."

Armin slightly laughed for a second.

"And now my mother wants to meet you."

Armin's smile faded almost instantly. His eyes slightly widened, and Y/N tilted her head once she saw this. "What's wrong?"

"S-she doesn't want to meet me because she still thinks I got you into trouble, right?"

Y/N shook her head. "No, she wants me to bring you to this family dinner we're having in a couple of weeks. I think it's so I don't seem as useless."

"Useless?" The blonde furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yeah. Like I haven't been doing anything."

The blonde boy frowned. Why did her parents think she is useless? "You know you're not useless, right?"

She turned to look at him directly in the eyes once again and said with a completely straight expression on her face, "People only call others useless when they can't exploit them. The more people who call me useless, the less people who are using me."

The blonde boy gulped and looked away. He couldn't tell if that was a pessimistic thought or an optimistic thought. More than anything, it was a strange thought.

Y/N pushed her feet on the ground so that she would start barely swinging.

"That's actually a good way of putting it." He sighed and leaned back, still holding onto the chains. Gazing into the sky, he mumbled, "I'll do it."

"But I never asked you to." Y/N's reply was sounding like she didn't want to burden him. Don't get her wrong, she didn't. But she was also nervous about letting her parents meet him.

He turned to her and smiled determinedly. "I want to help you prove your parents that you're not useless."

'You're cute, but it would be nice if you could help me prove myself that first.' She thought to herself, but didn't dare to speak her thoughts. 'Aha, I'm being a pessimist again.'

She smiled. "You're so sweet. Okay. Let's play boyfriend, now."

This caused Armin's cheeks to become slightly pink.

'Boyfriend...'

-

When the night came two weeks later and Armin was getting ready, with Jean and Eren's help, he kept questioning it. Play her boyfriend, it was simple, wasn't it? It was going to be easy. They weren't really dating, he was doing her a favor, right?

Ah, why was he even questioning it? Of course it was all fake, they met two weeks ago.

Armin had to dress nicely, according to Y/N. The text she sent, the way she describes her home life in the very few times she has mentioned it, alongside her very nice brand clothes...

It made it easy for Armin to tell that she was definitely not of the lower class.

I mean, not that he was checking her out, or anything, but he totally was.

He was in a white button-up with a tie and black dress pants. It was probably the fanciest he's ever dressed in his fifteen years.

"Charming," Eren winked as both he and Jean gave a thumbs up. "MIKASA!"

"WHAT?" Mikasa screamed from a few rooms over. It was their house they were getting Armin ready in. The reason behind this was that they were, unauthorizedly, using Mikasa's 'hair things' to make him seem more neat.

"COME LOOK AT ARMIN!"

"Eren, is this really necessary?" Armin questioned. Jean only replied with a 'Shh' and Eren said that they needed a girl's opinion.

Soon, Mikasa was in Eren's room. "What do you think?"

"Of what?" She blankly asked.

"Armin's meeting Y/N's parents." Jean mentioned.

"Already?"

"Yeah. I'm pretending to be her boyfriend for a family dinner." Armin sheepishly answered.

"Huh. I'd say you look dashing. Can I go now?" Mikasa asked, lightly monotone.

"Mikasa, you're so heartless." Eren fake wailed.

Mikasa only stuck her thumb up as she turned around in the doorway to probably go back into her room.

-

"Holy shit, she lives here?!" Jean exclaimed as he drove Armin through the neighborhood.

"Apparently so..." Armin mumbled.

The neighborhood was nothing but those stereotypical rich white people's mansions. They stopped in front of one of the houses. It had a gate, and in front of the gate was standing a girl with H/L, H/C hair, and wearing a short F/C dress with a S/F/C sweater covering the top.

"Dude, good luck with her parents. Make a great impression." Jean winked as the smaller male opened the door of the car and got out.

Once he was on the side walk, Jean began to drive off.

His cheeks started turning the cute pink color again and he could feel him heartbeat in his throat. He knew she was of higher class but he figured she was just from the suburbs, or something, not living in a mini-mansion!

"H-hey," he waved with an awkward smile, approaching her. Y/N was wearing something he had never seen her in before. Maybe because they've only seen each other outdoors, in much more casual situations, so he never had the chance to see her formality.

As he got closer, he saw her face in the light. Was she wearing (different) makeup? Her face looked a bit differently shaded.

"You look nice..." He attempted to compliment.

"My mother dressed me up as if I were a doll." She explained why she was dressed more different than usual. "But thanks for the compliment. You don't look too horrible yourself."

She turned around and pulled out a key to open the gate.

Armin furrowed his eyebrows and awkwardly smiled as if he was Cady from Mean Girls. He spoke confusedly, "Oh, uh... Thank... you?"

"You're welcome," she opened the gate and they walked in. "Just to let you know, my family is very conservative. So they might act a little uptight with me bringing home a boy."

She paused for a second.

"Or with me bringing home a person."

Armin chuckled for a second. "Okay."

As they were about to reach the patio, Y/N stopped to look at him. She stuck out her hand in a position for him to hold. He gulped and grabbed it as she smiled to him with those same sad eyes.

"Now, let's go play boyfriend, dear."