Armin Arlert knew everybody that came into the small, family-owned gas station slash restaurant. The town he lived in was small, and during summer vacation he worked almost every day while the same twenty people came in.
So it would have been practically impossible for him not to know who someone was. He knew Bertholdt, Reiner, and Annie, who came in as a group every Thursday night, ate, and tipped well. Jean Kirschstein, who would complain loudly on the phone to his mom that, no, he wasn't spending ten dollars on energy drinks again as he threw down three cans and a bag of peanut butter M&Ms. He knew Sasha Braus and Connie Springer, also big energy drink fans, who would always clear out the snack section when they came in once a month or so.
But he didn't know these two.
They'd pulled up, filled up their old, slightly beat-up car – nothing out of the ordinary, really, most everyone's car was beat up – and then come inside. There were two of them – a boy and a girl, Armin had originally assumed that they were dating before he heard how they spoke to each other.
He put a bookmark in his book and smiled at the girl, who was standing by the counter to pay for gas and the boy skulked around for a bit, eventually grabbing a few sticks of beef jerky.
He scowled as he slapped down the food and looked at the girl. She looked back evenly.
"Um, excuse me," Armin said. "But is this on the same bill as the gas?"
"Yes," the boy said, just as the girl shook her head. Armin decided to wait it out. He kept an eye on the boy. There was something about him that Armin kind of liked, even though he did seem like a slight asshole and slightly over-the-top. He was just one of those people. One of those people that you see once and sort of fall in love with a little bit before they leave.
The girl was kind of scary, but she seemed OK. At least, Armin wasn't totally terrified of her.
Just a little bit.
"I haven't seen you guys around before?" Armin said as he scanned the beef sticks. "Are you passing through?"
"We moved here a few weeks ago," the girl said.
"Oh, cool," Armin said. "Are you going to be going to the high school?"
The girl nodded. Armin was feeling more awkward by the second.
"I'm Armin Arlert," he said. "I'll probably see you around."
"My name is Mikasa Ackerman," the girl said. "This is my brother, Eren."
They didn't look related, but Armin guessed that Mikasa was probably adopted? Either way, he still couldn't stop glancing at Eren every few seconds. He thought about the two after they left and found it practically impossible to concentrate on his book.
The next time he saw Eren was about a week later. He was alone this time. The gas station was mostly empty, apart from Marco Bodt and a few of his friends having lunch in the restaurant part and Jean Kirschstein flipping through his wallet near the drink cooler.
"Hello, Eren!" Armin said brightly. Eren glanced at him and nodded, and Armin felt his face heat up a little. As far as 'random crushes on random people' went, this one was starting to be a bit of a problem.
He came back with a few sticks of beef jerky, a Monster, and an eye for the job applications.
"Um, my boss is my grandpa, actually," Armin said. "But if you fill this out, I could give it to him and tell him that you'd be good?"
Eren grunted. Armin took this as a yes, so he pushed an application and a pen over the counter. Eren filled it out quickly, in slanted, slightly messy handwriting, while Armin rung up his beef jerky and Monster. "Thank you!" Armin said, sending him a smile.
Eren nodded and, face a little pinkish, left.
The rest of the day was boring, and so was the next – his grandpa had called Eren Jaeger to tell him that yes, he had gotten the job, but it had gone to an answering machine.
On Thursday night, while Armin was serving Bertholdt, Reiner, and Annie their meal, Eren came in. Armin tried to hurry – he thought that nobody noticed, but Reiner gave him a knowing look and winked.
Armin hurried back to the counter and plastered a smile on his slowly reddening face.
"Uh, hi!" he said. "Did you get the message?"
"Yeah," Eren said. "Don't like using the phone."
"Oh, yeah, it's fine this way, we just have those three," Armin said. "But you can have the job, I'll train you in…"
"Okay."
Armin Arlert quickly learned that having Eren Jaeger working with him did absolutely nothing for his crush. They didn't always work together, as the store was easy enough for one person to run on a normal day, but Saturdays and Sundays they were always there together, Armin usually handling customers and Eren restocking shelves. They accidentally bumped into each other, their hands brushed occasionally, and overall, Armin Arlert was falling hard for Eren Jaeger.
One Saturday night as they were cleaning up, Armin tripped over nothing and fell hard on his elbows. Eren was at his side at once.
"I'm fine," Armin said, sitting up. His elbows were bleeding, the right one just a little scraped but the left one full-on gushing. "Oh."
"Where's the first-aid kid?" Eren asked.
"Behind the counter, under the cash register," Armin said, staring at his left elbow. It really was gushing blood, dripping onto the floor and forming a rather substantial puddle for a scrape. He swallowed.
Eren was back two minutes later, opening up the first aid kid. "I've seen Mikasa due this a bunch of times," he muttered. "So it shouldn't be that hard."
He pulled out a band-aid, considered it, then tossed it aside and pulled out the big band-aid and a bottle of peroxide. Armin winced as he practically soaked the rag in peroxide and, to his credit, only squeaked a little when he put the rag on his elbow. He was gentler than Armin would have thought, eyebrows drawn together in concentration, wiping at the wound. When he was satisfied, he opened the big band-aid with his teeth and stuck it on there.
"How's the other one?" he asked.
"It's fine," Armin said. Eren put a little band-aid on it anyway. "Thank you."
Eren nodded. They sat there awkwardly for a little bit before Armin started cleaning up the first aid kit.
"You should be more careful," Eren blurted out, and Armin glanced up. Eren met his gaze evenly. "You don't want to actually get hurt."
"Y-yeah," Armin said, a little unnerved. Eren's gaze was, to put it lightly, very intense, and he didn't really know to deal with. "Thanks for helping me."
"Yeah."
"I'll buy you McDonald's for helping me out," Armin offered.
"Yeah," Eren said. It was awkward for a few seconds while Armin worked at getting blood off of the floor. "Is McDonald's open this late?"
"I think it's open all the time. Like Wal-Mart."
"Oh. Okay. Let's go to McDonald's, then."
Maybe this crush wasn't that bad, Armin decided as he locked up the gas station and went out to his car, Eren Jaeger a few steps behind him.
Maybe he could make it work.
This was requested by an anon on Tumblr, who wanted an eren x armin!