If Only... (Eremin)

Mirrors and Coffee

Armin looked in the mirror.Long blonde hair framed his face, contrasting large blue eyes. His skin was flawless, his body curvy and his legs slim. His lashes were thick and his cheeks a rosy pink. He was a beautiful girl and he absolutely couldn't stand it. Tears dripped down his cheeks and he frowned at his reflection. "Why me?" He whispered. "Why was I born a girl?" His fists clenched and he grabbed the closest thing, which happened to be his hairbrush. "WHY ME?!" He shouted and flung the brush at the mirror, shattering it. The shards of glass exploded into the air, leaving small cuts all over his face and body. Armin's knees gave way and he lay on the floor sobbing. "Why me? What did I ever do? Why me?" There was a knock at the door and Armin's grandfather was heard on the other side of the door.

"Are you okay? I heard something crash." His grandfather said. Armin wiped his face and regained his composure.

"I'm fine, the mirror broke, that's all. I'm just cleaning it up." He lied.

"Okay. Be careful." Armin heard his grandfather's footsteps become faint and he stood up. Finding the Band-Aids he bandaged some of the deeper cuts. He unlocked the bathroom door and went to his room, throwing himself onto the bed and burying his face in a pillow. Armin screamed until his lungs burned.

After a while Armin forced himself to get out of bed. He pulled on a loose blue T-shirt and some shorts, he stuffed a binder (basically a compression shirt for transguys, it makes your chest appear flatter.) he bought off Amazon into a bag, which he slung around his shoulder. "I'm leaving!" He shouted.

"Okay! Don't be out too late!" Was his grandpa's reply. Armin stepped out into the blazing Summer heat. Without knowing or caring where he was going he somehow ended up in a barber shop. "How short do you want it?" The lady asked. Armin spoke without thinking, "A bit above the shoulders, just chop it off!" He looked at his long hair with hatred one last time before, snip! It was gone.

Armin walked out of the barber shop, very pleased with himself. He looked down at the bag around his shoulder.

Now for the final part. He thought to himself. He walked into the nearest store, a small café, and he walked into the bathroom. Lucky for him it was one of those individual bathrooms for any gender. He pulled the binder out of his bag and after fumbling in great difficulty for quite some time he managed to get it on. It fit comfortably enough, at least, more comfortable than tape or ace bandages. (For your safety, never use tape or ace bandages to bind, they can cause health problems over time and are extremely uncomfortable. For your safety buy a properly sized binder.)

He looked in the mirror and for the first time in a while, Armin felt good about how he looked. Armin walked out of the restroom and decided he deserved an iced coffee, after all, he stayed up all of last night and could use some caffeine. While Armin stood in line he noticed the waiter was pretty good looking. No, scratch that, he was freaking hot. His hair was brown and he had green eyes that looked almost gold in the light, dang, he was really really hot.

"What can I get for you today, sir?" The boy spoke up. Armin snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the word 'sir' He smiled at being called 'sir' and then gave the boy his order and the money. Armin glanced down at the boy's name tag, Eren was his name.

"Can I have your name?" Eren asked him.

"Armin." He replied, his voice sounding a little more girlish than he had wanted.

Eren smiled at him. "Your order will be ready soon."

Armin took a seat at the closest table, staring at Eren as he worked with the other customers. After a few minutes Eren walked to his table with his coffee.

"Here you go Armin." He set the coffee down in front of him. "Be sure to keep your cup." He added. Keep his cup? What was so special about it? Armin nodded anyways and started to drink his coffee.

Armin finished his coffee and kept the cup, like Eren said he should. Before leaving, Armin fished all the money he had left in his pocket and dropped it in the tips jar.

As he walked home Armin inspected the coffee cup. What was so special about it that he needed to keep it? It was an ordinary cup as far as he could tell. His name was written on it and...what was that? Right below where his name was, there was a number that had been messily written and next to the number read, "call me~ Eren."