Superstore (Eremin AU)

the incident in the janitor's closet

"Oh." I gulped. So much for accidental spontaneity. After hearing more snickers, and not knowing what else to say, I stormed off in the direction of Connie and Sasha. I think Eren might've said something, but I ignored it.

"Sasha, Connie, you jerks! Come back here!" I went searching for them. I finally found them in a nearby clothes rack, laughing their butts off.

"No homo! That's priceless!" Sasha giggled.

"He was all like, 'I'm not gay'!" Connie responded.

I slid the clothes apart to reveal them both. "You guys suck!" I yelled. "How could you tell me a lie like that!?"

Sasha and Connie stopped laughing, but we're still smiling widely.

"It wasn't a lie! Eren and Levi aren't dating, but they do have a 'thing' going on," Sasha smirked.

"What?" I said, still very confused.

"Eren's gay," answered Connie. He grinned at Sasha. "Why we say this is because we saw Eren and Levi both come out of the janitors closet," Connie was talking through his laughter now, "they both looked really flustered and red, it was hilarious." Sasha started laughing too now.

"What?" But, Levi was still, like, at least 20.

Sasha and Connie both nodded.

"Go ask Ymir and Historia, I think they both saw what we saw." I didn't know who Ymir and Historia were, but decided it was my best bet.

"Thanks," I mumbled, and walked off.

But there were a lot of workers around, and I had no idea who those two were. I guess I'll have to use my smarts this time, I thought.

One thing I had learned from everyone (mostly Eren) my first day was that there were three groups in this job. The first group was the shelvers and boxers, and they included myself, Eren, Mikasa, Jean, Sasha, and Connie. They were the "newbies", the lowest on the food chain. Then there was Mike, Moblit, Petra, Aurou, Eld, and Gunther, the baggers. They were the best ones, the vets. And lastly there are the second group. They're in between. They do odd jobs around the store, and help everyone do their work. This group included everyone else, that I didn't recognize. I had heard that Reiner, who I knew from gym class, worked at Titan Mart, so he had to have been in that third group. I spotted him easily, and hoped the ones I was looking for were with him.

"Newbie!" A freckled girl shouted when she saw me.

Everyone else looked my way.

"Hey, guys. Can I talk to Ymir and Historia for a second?" The freckled one glanced toward the others who nodded at her.

"Sure." She grabbed a short blonde girl's arm and pulled us away from the others.

"What, newbie?" She asked harshly.

"Well... It's about Eren." I said, looking down at my feet.

Ymir chuckled. "Did you hear about him and Levi?" Historia's face got red. I could tell she was usually very helpful and nice, and could talk when you needed her, but with Ymir around she allowed her to do all the talking. Especially in this case.

"Yeah," I mumbled. "I was just wondering if you saw the same thing as Sasha and Connie."

Ymir snickered, "Well, did they see Erwin?"

My head shot up and my eyes met hers. "What?"

"Obviously not. Well, we saw Levi and Eren come out, but about five minutes later, so did Erwin."

"Hello," I heard behind me. I recognized the voice instantly, it was easy to remember because it sounded just like a big ball of angry.

"Jean!" I yelled. "Don't just sneak up behind people like that."

Jean frowned, ignoring me. "So what about Erwin?"

Ymir sighed. "Ask the newbie," she said, taking Historia back to the others.

Jean turned back to me. "So..?" He said, expecting me to tell him what we were talking about.

"Erwin, Eren, and Levi all came out of the closet," I began.

***

"Wow," Jean said as we walked to Erwin's office. I had told him what Ymir had said (after he repeatedly prompted me to do so) and he forced me to come with him and confront Mr. Smith about it.

"So... why are you so worried about it anyways?" I asked, suspicious. "You don't have... feelings for Eren, do you?" I added jokingly.

He looked at me like I was crazy. "What? No! Why would you think that?" He said, but his sudden flustered tone of voice and appearance was suspicious.

I smirked. "Suure."

"No, I--" we walked past the front doors, and they opened. At first I thought it was just a glitch or something, but then I saw a brunette kid with freckles standing before us.

He panted. "Sorry I'm late, I had to drop my sister off at soccer-- hi Jean." He gave a half smile and a small wave in Jean's direction.

Jean smiled back, but not in the same matter. The subtle differences in the way they acted around each other made me curious and suspicious as to what their relationship actually was.

"Oh, hi, you must be the new guy. Armin, right? I'm Marco." He greeted, shaking my hand and giving me a large smile.

"Hi, Marco. You wanna join me and Jean?" I asked.

"What were you doing?" He looked at Jean. Marco seemed like the kind of person who would talk to you, but would rather talk to his friends. He wasn't really comfortable talking to strangers, but he was good at hiding it.

"Jean wanted to talk to Erwin. I'm not sure you wanna know why," I laughed at Jean. Marco raised an eyebrow.

"Let's just go," Jean muttered.

***
When we got to Mr. Smith's office, Marco had finally got the information out of us.

Jean looked to his right at Marco, then at me to his left, a wary look on his face. He knocked on Erwin's door, and the boss opened it almost immediately.

"Look, Mr. Smith, I'm sorry but we need to know. You know we have a strict no-dating policy here. Plus, Eren is a minor--"

Erwin just laughed, stopping Jean's words in their tracks. "I knew you'd ask about it sooner or later. Levi threatened me about it, but I guess now that you know.... I can tell you."