Armin's grandpa had given Armin books of his old and forgotten language before he died. It interested Armin to no end; the syntax of the language, the roots and endings, the fact that next to no one else knew of this language, and the culture behind it. The books had stated that twenty countries had spoken it in the Old World. Was he from one of them? Which one?
Armin had taken these question and the books and eagerly used them as motivation. He learned the language over the course of years, and could often be found writing notes in this foreign dialect or mumbling to himself in it while deep concentration. The other trainees had brushed it off. At least, until Armin began speaking to Jean using this exotic tongue.
The first incident occurred when Armin and Jean had cleaning duty together.
Armin had accidentally bumped his hip into Jean's while vigorously mopping the Commons. Armin apologized unperturbed and absentmindedly, "Sorry, Amor."(1) Jean's face contorted into confusion and tilted his head to the side in a way Armin adored, "Amor?" The word was awkward on Jean's tongue, but Armin didn't focus on that. It was adorable, anyways.
"I-I mean, u-u-um, Jean!" Armin brought his hands to his face in attempt to hide his reddening cheeks as Jean mumbled something akin to 'Get back to work'.
The second occurrence had happened after Armin had stumbled upon one of his old language books, and nostalgically flicked through it until a chapter Armin had never had to courage to confront: "How to Flirt in Spanish".
It took several days to finish the one chapter. Not that it was difficult on an intellectual level; in fact, the material was rather basic for Armin. The problem was that Armin had to continuously stop reading to gather his embarrassment as he read it. He couldn't help it, really! It wasn't his fault that he kept fantasizing of telling the romantic and overly cliche lines to Jean (to which Jean would always respond as if he knew the meaning, kiss Armin, then proclaim his love). This kept happening even after Armin finished the chapter of the book, and Armin gathered that maybe if he quenched one of these fantasies then they'd cease. After all, Jean doesn't know the forgotten language, so why would it matter?
Following this train of thought, Armin had approached Jean one day during lunch with a heart full of determination and a face red enough he was sure others thought he was an over grown, too ripe tomato. Armin nervously began, "U-um Jean?" Said man had brought his attention to the currently scarlet male and tilted his head downwards to make eye contact with Armin, silently allowing him to continue.
Armin's eye were clenched shut, and his palms growing sweatier by the second, "Eres como un capuchino; dulce, caliente, y me pones nervioso."(2)
The third time Armin had spoken to Jean in Spanish had been comforting.
In the commons during an average dinner, after everyone had gathered around the wooden tables, Jean brought a smirk to his face and told them of a girl he had gained the attention of. Armin knew of her; she had a sweet demeanor, long auburn hair and pleasant facial features. Honestly, Armin was conflicted. He couldn't compete with her on a moral level, let alone handle losing to her if he did.
Armin was visibly uncomfortable, and he knew that perhaps Mikasa and Eren's concerned looks would reassure him and successfully unfluster him if the connected gazes hadn't traveled with theirs.
Even more so uncomfortable than he was to begin with, Armin arose from his seat and turned with fluidity that he usually reserved for his Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear and paused, "I'm going to the library now. There's a book about the properties of plant fiber that I can't stop thinking about." Armin promptly exited the Commons with a slight aggressiveness in his walk.
Upon reaching the library, Armin headed towards the designated non-fiction area. He told his friends he was going to read a book about plant fiber, after all, and the thought of lying to them- not matter how small- made him unsettled. Armin raked through the titles and mumbled, "Stupid plant fiber! Once someone is interested in you, you decide to ditch them for someone else!"
Armin concluded that they didn't have a book about plant fibers here and grunted,"Who cares about cotton anyways!" as he sharply turned away from the bookshelf.
"Anyone who wants easily found and cheap clothing, I think."
Armin's eyes widened and he looked upwards to see the face of Jean adorned with confusion. "U-um! I couldn't find my book." Armin paused, "Why are you here, anyways?"
Jean looked to the left at a very interesting shelf of books and pulled a hand through his hair, "Well, I mean it seemed like something was up at dinner so I wanted to check if you were okay," Jean now found interest in the floor and mumbled, "Mikasa told me to, also."
Armin glared at Jean, "At least try to seem sincere!" Armin pushed past Jean in attempt to rid himself of the source of his current annoyance. Instead, Jean curtly grasped his wrist and pulled Armin back, "Hey, Armin, I don't know what's wrong, but, just-" Jean brought his free hand through his hair again and sighed. After a moment of hesitation from Jean, Armin found himself in a comforting embrace.
"It'll be okay eventually, alright?" Jean's face was brought down close to Armin's ear and Armin briefly wondered if Jean could hear his heart beating.
"Desde luego, tonto."(3)
The fourth event of Armin speaking to Jean in the Old Language brought warmth to their chests.
It was a week after the last incident, and Armin couldn't help but notice that Jean had been avoiding him. Before, they had at least seen each other in passing throughout daily chores. However, it seemed that Jean had gone through the trouble of skipping those as well.
Armin sighed as he finished mopping the Commons- both his and Jean's share- and spoke aloud, "Why am I picking up his slack?" After a moment of pondering Armin had come to a conclusion. He would do something he enjoyed.
With this in mind, Armin decided to take a walk around the property until he found a spot to read. It was nice outside. The murmurs of nature soothed him and the contrasting warmth of the sun and coolness of the wind felt nice on his skin. After a while of walking, Armin found a large, moss ridden tree not too far from the base he decided to read at. However, not too long after, Armin was interrupted with footsteps walking towards his direction and a sudden plop.
"Hey," Armin didn't need to look up from his book to know who spoke to him. He'd probably never forget Jean's voice.
"Hi." Armin briefly wondered why Jean was here, but decided he didn't care either way.
After a few moments of silence Jean spoke, "I'm sorry for, you know, um, leaving you with my duties."
At this Armin brought his face from his book snorted, "It's fine, dork." Jean quickly brought his head up and looked at Armin, "I am not a dork!"
"You're not," Armin admitted as Jean plastered a pleased look on his face, "You're a giant dork."
Just like that, Jean's face blushed. "Yeah! Well, you're a, um," Jean pondered for a moment and his eyes lingered on Armin's book, "You're a nerd!"
Armin laughed, "Maybe," Armin inched his face closer to Jean's as if he were going to tell him a secret, "Pero, eres un tonto." (4)
Word Count: 1,335
A/N: Here are the translations, hehehe
(1) Love
(2) You're like a cappuccino; sweet, hot, and you make me nervous
(3) Of course, stupid.
(4)But you're a silly /stupid (there's no way to say dork in spanish that I know of)
I've written this like 4 times but my computer kept dying or internet messed up or uuguugugggg
At first this was all angsty but i suck at angst so here's some fluff.
Anyways, I really hope you enjoyed it, and any constructive criticism is welcome!
