Warning: IF YOU DON'T LIKE YAOI (BOY/BOY) DO NOT READ! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Title: Stay With Me
Disclaimer: I do not own Attack on Titan or any of the characters.
Rated: T (Language) [Rating will change to M in the future]
Pairings: Jean/Armin, Erwin/Levi, Eren/Armin

Chapter 2

The wind had calmed down on top of the outer gate of East Wall Rose as the end of the day drew closer. The bright white clouds began to darken and the large snowflakes turned to small flurries that fell slowly from their home in the sky, sticking to the surface of the wall.

Armin maneuvered the large push broom across the top of the wall, pushing another thin layer of snow off the side and onto the abandoned village outside of the inner gate below. This wasn't the first time the Scout Regiment had been assigned pointless tasks from the Garrison whenever they had extra time, but the last thing he thought he'd be doing was making sure he kept the top of the wall from piling up with snow. At the same time, they were watching for any deviant Titans below so they could warn those at the lower guard post with flares.

This had to be the most trivial thing he'd been assigned to do since he'd joined the military. A few Titans could be seen wandering around below, but once the sun set, they'd most likely fall asleep or disappear.

Armin turned his attention to the loud shoveling that could be heard across the long stretch of wall to his left. During the trip to the Karanese District, the previous guards had stopped shoveling and cleaning the top of the wall. So, the snow had piled on, leaving Armin to clean the large amounts of snow that had accumulated.

Well… Jean had actually taken the shovel from Armin and handed him the push broom, instructing him to make sure no more snow piled up after he cleared it. Armin had felt bad, and even protested, telling the brunette that he could do it himself but Jean ignored him and started shoveling.

Armin had been pleasantly surprised that Jean had said he'd stay with him over the two weeks that everyone was gone. He'd expected him to say no. Of course, Jean never wanted to do anything he didn't have to do. It wasn't that he was lazy, he just didn't handle pointless bullshit very well. But he also didn't care to visit family, for whatever reason he had behind that, Armin wasn't really sure.

Instead of going off to enjoy peace and quiet away from work, Jean had chosen to stay there with the blonde and suffer the 18-20hr shift in the cold. He wanted to figure out what was going on with Armin, and possibly make a successful attempt to pull him closer like he'd been trying for months. But more than anything, he wanted to know what the hell had happened back in their room.

Jean was half way across the wall now, shoveling off another row off the side before pausing to take a break. He'd been hauling snow for hours now and the work had kept him busy, keeping his blood pumping so he didn't feel the cold. He could feel his fingers going numb and sighed heavily in irritation. He just wanted to finish clearing the wall so he could rest near the fire on the other end.

Two Garrison officers were huddled together, not bothering to help him clear the snow, infuriating the brunette even more. How the hell were they going to just sit there and watch him clear the whole wall while they stayed getting nice a warm!? Damn his low rank, or he would have said something. He was still contemplating it actually.

"J-Jean?" Grumbling in irritation, he turned to Armin who was standing beside him, shaking from the cold. "C-can we go s-s-sit next to the f-fire for a bit?" He rubbed Armin's cold upper arm with his free hand, turning back to the two men on the other side of the wall. After standing still for a few minutes, he realized he was starting to feel the chilling cold seep through the thick jackets and gloves they'd been given.

"Yeah, c'mon," Jean took the broom from Armin and tossed both tools onto the ground, squatting down so he was shorter than the boy. "Get on," He said, rubbing his gloves together to create friction. It had to be below zero.

"W-what? You can't be s-s-serious…"

"Well I am s-s-serious," Jean mocked him out of frustration, shaking his head as he immediately regretted it. Sheesh, he was pissed off of course, but he didn't want to be an ass to the kid. It was his own decision to be there, and he actually wanted to be there with him. "Get on with your stuttering ass, before I freeze to death waiting for you."

Armin frowned and climbed onto Jean's back, wrapping his arms around the brunette's neck as Jean grabbed to hold him under his thighs. At least the older man was still being his same douche-baggy self or this whole situation could have turned out a lot more awkward than it already was. Though he was grateful for the ride, because the snow was piled pretty high. At least five or six inches, coming a little over his ankle.

Armin held on tightly as Jean trudged through the packed snow. He wanted to say something, anything he could think of. They hadn't said anything about the incident back in their room and Armin knew it was bothering Jean. The older man wanted to know what it was about, or he wouldn't have stayed to freeze his ass off in this terrible weather with him.

"You're… upset with me… A-aren't you..?" He whispered, laying his head against the back of Jean's shoulder.

"Why would I be upset with you," Jean smirked turning his head slightly to glance down at the few vagrant Titans that wandered the area. "Cause you got all emotional and tried to kiss me, then asked me to stay in this frozen hell with you so we could suffer together?"

Armin didn't know why, but he found himself laughing at this, which earned him a small chuckle from Jean in return. It really wasn't funny. In fact it was quite miserable and a little sad on Armin's part. But Jean always knew how to lay the truth out there as obvious as it was when others would merely dance around awkward subjects.

"Basically, yeah," Armin said, the smile on his face coming out in his voice.

"Romantic," Jean smiled back. Dealing with awful situations with people you enjoyed being around always made things better. And laughing at their unfortunate situation was all they could do. Unless they wanted to be awkward and depressed the whole time, and that was one thing Jean didn't want to put the boy through. Armin was already stuck on missing his family again, now that most of the regiment had left to visit theirs, being embarrassed and awkward would just make everything that much worse.

The Garrison Officers looked up at the two once they finally made it to their side of the wall. The walk had actually been a lot further than Armin had expected, but Jean wasn't complaining. He came to a squat in front of the warm fire and Armin slid off, pulling his legs into his chest and curling up right where he was dropped off. He was just close enough that the fire warmed his frozen limbs almost immediately.

"Thanks…" He whispered, glancing at the officers that continued to stare at them.

"You boys look cold," one officer commented, snickering at Armin's shaking form across from them. The blonde rubbed his upper arms and looked up at Jean, who had still not sat down yet. His arms were crossed and he was glaring at the men, his mouth in a tight frown with his jaw clenched. What the hell were they laughing at? The fact that Armin was freezing or that they got to watch Jean bust his ass getting rid of all the snow while they sat there nice and happy, watching the show.

For the sake of getting reprimanded and to save Armin the embarrassment, Jean kept his mouth shut. Armin would always get flustered and never knew what to do or how to handle a situation when Jean would lose his cool, especially when he would fight with Eren.

So instead of putting the blonde through that, he moved closer to the fire and took his gloves off, putting his hands closer to warm them. Armin was smiling gratefully at him, pulling his jacket tighter around him while he mimicked Jean's actions to warm his hands, only keeping his gloves on instead. Jean was hot-tempered and while things were already miserable, he was glad Jean wasn't pushing for disrespect to an officer on top of that.

The two men stood and grabbed their large winter overcoats and turned to leave, "Keep the fire running for us boys. We'll be back."

Jean and Armin watched as they left, laughing and chatting about what they were going to eat for dinner the whole way. Armin reached out to gently tap the taller man's boot covered calf, making Jean glance down at him. "Don't be upset please. It's only going to piss you off the more you think about them."

Jean shrugged lightly, squatting down next to the blonde. He set his elbows on his knees and continued to hold up his hands against the heat of the fire, supporting himself comfortably in a squatting position. "I'm not. I'm too damn cold and tired to be fighting about a situation I'm never going to win."

Armin nodded and threw his head back, staring up at the sky and sticking his tongue out to catch the few snowflakes that slowly fell around them. The snow was falling less and less. By the time the sun went down, the snow would probably stop. There was no reason for them to worry that it would pile up like it had the night before. At least for now anyways.

The snowflakes landed on Armin's cheeks and nose, making him laugh and bring his head forward to face the fire again. He felt the heat rising to his cheeks as he realized Jean was watching him. "Oh... Uhm..."

Jean laughed and shook his head, "Don't be embarrassed with me." He took Armin's gloved hands in his and pulled off the thick winter gloves, rubbing the blonde's cold hands with his own and pulling them closer to the flames.

Armin watched as his gloves were removed and the warmth of Jean's hands brought a shy smile to his face. He'd never noticed until now, how the man would show him small affectionate acts before turning away as if it were normal. He would never show that to others though, only to Armin. Like a small pat on the back, a touch on his shoulder, or ruffling his hair playfully. No one seemed to notice, not even the blonde himself. But just that small gesture brought back memories of previous ones, and Armin suddenly put the pieces together.

Jean really did like him. More than a friend. And he had been trying to express his feelings through small acts while still throwing in his sarcastic comments in an attempt to hide how he truly felt for the blonde. But he had been reaching out and covering it up so quickly that Armin hadn't noticed in the past.

Armin rubbed his hands together, looking over at Jean who had turned to admire his work on the wall. "Actually looks pretty good. I got a lot done," he said, standing up and walking to the other side of the fire to grab the chairs the officers had left. He brought them over to their side, setting one on each side of Armin.

"Here, get comfy. I'll be right back," Jean grabbed his gloves and slid them on before running over to the other side of the wall where they had been working the past few hours.

Armin watched him with a confused look before climbing up into one of the chairs, taking off his thick jacket and laying it on his lap. The fire was extremely warm and comfortable, and his shivering had stopped, making him exhale a sigh of relief. He was glad they could finally rest, especially for Jean since he had been working nonstop since they got there.

Armin continued to watch the man run down to the other end of the wall. He could only imagine how difficult it must've been working to clear that amount of snow over the course of four or five hours.

Jean stepped onto the shoveled area he'd finished and bent over to pick up something, Armin couldn't see. He squinted a bit as Jean turned and started to jog back slowly, carrying the shovel and broom on his shoulder. It only took him a few minutes before he was back at the fire where the blonde sat.

"We'll stay on this side. So your wimpy ass won't freeze to death." Jean said with a smirk as he came up to the empty chair next to Armin. He set the broom down and looked over at the portion of the wall that was still covered in snow. He only had half of the wall left to do, and it would probably take him a couple hours or so to finish it, if he pushed himself harder. He decided he might as well get it over with instead of holding off to do it later and getting lazy. Jean was pretty proud of the work he'd already finished on the wall, giving him the motivation to do more.

"I'm gonna start on this side, I'm warmed up enough I think. Just stay here and keep warm." And the brunette set off to finish his work. Armin called to him and stood up, trying to convince him to rest but Jean just held his hand up and waved, setting up to ignore him again so he could focus on working.

Armin sighed heavily in frustration, picking up his jacket that had fallen. There was no negotiating with Jean's stubbornness. If he decided he wanted to do something, that was it, but Armin worried it was a little too cold to be acting stubborn and not resting.

Shaking his head, Armin grabbed the chair next to him and pulled it around so he could prop his feet up, undoing the 3DMD gear from his hips before slouching in his chair. The fire felt so amazing, and Armin figured if Jean wasn't going to rest, he'd rest for both of them. A nap seemed in order since the officers on duty had left and there was no one supervising them.

The clouds became darker and darker as Armin began to drift off to sleep. The wind had settled only for now and the treacherous blizzard that had claimed the eastern part of Wall Rose had skidded to a halt.

Jean stared at the cloudy sky. It was darker than most nights, quiet and peaceful. The calm before the storm. The wind and snow had stopped and the air had warmed slightly. Jean could feel it in his bones. The next time the weather started up again would be worse than the first storm that had blown through. Hopefully by then they'd already be back in their barracks and some other poor sap could deal with this bullshit guard duty.

It had been a little over an hour since he'd started shoveling again and he still had a lot to go. God this was annoying… He looked over where Armin had made himself a makeshift bed and found himself staring with an awkward smile.

The boy was resting so peacefully, he just wanted to go over there and pick him up and cuddle him like a cute sleeping puppy. Or pull the chair out from under him. He couldn't decide which. His flirting skills needed a little work. They were more like elementary tactics than how an adult should show affection to another. He laughed at how immature his thoughts were, continuing his shoveling.

Armin stirred awake as a gust of icy cold wind hit his face. The fire had burned lower and the warmth no longer reached to where he was, sending a hard chill through his body. He sat up and pulled his jacket on, looking around for Jean who was a distance away still shoveling.

He stood and stretched his arms and back, zipping up his jacket and sliding on his gloves. He clicked his 3DMD gear to his sides before grabbing the push broom and walking to the edge to start sweeping.

He looked over the side, staring down into the dark, abandoned town below. How long had he been asleep? A couple hours probably. The sun was gone, the fire was down and Jean looked like he was almost finished.

Armin scanned the area below, trying to make out the tall buildings and houses. A flicker of light caught his eye and he squinted to see what it was. It almost looked like there was a light coming from one of the windows. The town had been abandoned for over 5 years, so who could possibly be down there? Or who would want to be down there is what Armin wondered briefly.

Suddenly the light disappeared and Armin heard a loud shriek. The town was so far away, more than 165 feet at least, maybe he was imagining the sound. Armin spun around and called to Jean, who looked up at him curiously. Even with the wind as low as it was, and how quiet the area on top of the wall had been, even Jean couldn't make out what he was saying. Was he going crazy?

Armin waved Jean over before turning back to the edge. The cries below continued and he could make out someone saying "Help me, please, help me" over and over again. It sent shivers down his spine hearing someone begging for help, and to be so far away, Armin didn't know what to do, feeling helpless.

Armin looked over at Jean who had walked up beside him, glancing over the edge."What are you looking at?" He asked.

"Don't you hear that? Someone's screaming for help! Down there in that village."

Jean gave him a look like he had lost his mind. It was so quiet that they could hear a needle dropping where they stood. "Did your brain freeze while you were napping? Or are you just losing it—"

"Look!"

Armin pointed toward the road that led to the gate and they both stared in disbelief as they saw someone dash across the road before ducking into one of the abandoned houses. The screaming had stopped the minute she disappeared and the two looked at each other in shock. How the hell had someone gotten down there in the first place? The gates were locked up tight and there were no holes along the inside of the wall to sneak through. The Garrison Regiment did a thorough check of the walls daily.

"What do we do? We can't just leave her down there!" As if that wasn't shocking enough, they watched as a Titan, maybe 5 or 6 meters come out from behind one of the buildings following after the woman and bang on the house she'd run into.

Jean knew that before they could do anything they needed to let the guards know what was going on. But seeing the Titan chasing the poor girl was all the motivation Armin needed. And as Jean turned to run to where the flares were stashed, Armin jumped off the side of the building without a second thought.

=To Be Continued=

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