Live For You [Jearmin]

Chapter Two: Now We're Even

Sunlight gently streamed down through many of the grimy windows (If Levi had decided to walk in that morning, all of the soldiers would have been ordered to give the windows a proper scrub down before they could go back to eating), illuminating the features of the blond. His eyelashes drooped down his unfocused eyes, tired from too many of his late-night reading exhibitions. And the corner of his lips twisted down, in a permanent frown that morning.

Suddenly, a loud clattering broke the tense silence in the almost empty cafeteria. Armin barely registered the fact that he had dropped his own spoon as a loud sigh escaped his lips, earning him dirty looks from the few other people that got up as early as him to eat breakfast.

His eyes glazed over to the book that sat by his bowl of lumpy oatmeal... Just thinking about the last few pages he had read made his stomach churn, threatening to reject the few spoonfuls he had managed to force down his throat.

"Well, someone looks a little glum today," a voice sneered right beside his ear. The blond's blue eyes immediately widened and his whole body visibly stiffened. "Care to share why?"

A disgusting finger toyed with a strand of his hair, playfully wrapping the blond lock around itself before pulling it tight, earning a small, surprised yelp from Armin. "It's rude to ignore me, y'know."

Armin vaguely registered another person now, this one chose to sat beside him. It was funny. Even after all the times this had happened, he still didn't know their names, couldn't distinguish their faces in a crowd of soldiers. His mind and body just shut down now whenever they toyed with him. It was better to not feel anything, to be emotionally dead and detached than to relive the ache in his chest that happened after the first time.

The man sitting beside him leaned closer, to where their shoulders were touching, and a hand coyly grasped his inner thigh. The blond continued to stare ahead, detached.

"It's your fault this happens to be honest..." The hand on his thigh tightened its grip, trying to bruise him.

"Yeah, your fault," the man behind him echoed, his lips speaking against the blond's neck.

Armin didn't respond, not that either of them had expected him to. The blond took all the insults, all the gestures. After all, it wasn't anything that he hadn't heard before. And in a way, wasn't this his fault like they said? Everyone always did tease him for how feminine he looked.

"Not in here," Armin stated, surprised at how his voice didn't even waver at the command. Even the other guys seemed to be surprised as their actions momentarily haunted.

"Who the fuck said you had any right to speak?" The sitting male hissed into his ear, making him flinch. "If I wanted you right here, I'd take you right here." This time, Armin didn't respond, and they both laughed at him. Finally, finally, the man sitting beside him stood up along with the other. However, his relief was short lived as he felt a hand roughly grab his shoulder.

"I thought you wanted to do this elsewhere?" One of them asked, their voice dipping into a falsely sweet tone. Armin's hands gripped the edge of the wooden table tightly before he released a shuddering shy. Ever so slowly, he stood up from his seat to join the other two.

"That's my boy," the taller one snickered, shoving Armin forwards towards the door.

People were starting to stare and whisper as they directed the blond towards the door, and he could feel his face heat up in shame. There were already so many rumors going around the camp about him, and he really didn't need one more about him being a whore getting started. Still, he was able to keep his head up somewhat and walk steadily towards the exit of the cafeteria until his eyes met the questioning gaze of light brown one's. Any remaining confidence or determination he had was sapped from him, and he hung his head as he was basically shoved through the doors of the cafeteria.

---

Jean cocked an eyebrow and watched as Armin and the other two soldiers left the building. The doors gently swung closed, leaving no trace of the trio. Despite the warnings in his head that maybe he shouldn't go snoop on them, curiosity and a sense of foreboding got the best of him. He set his own porridge aside for a second, and his eyes finally caught sight of where Armin had originally been sitting. The book was still there. He might not have known the blond that well, but he knew Armin would never willingly leave that book behind. He stood up from the table with a huff and grabbed Armin's book from the table before dashing out of the building.

---

A shove sent him stumbling forwards, almost making him lose his balance and face plant head first into the mud behind the stables. He slowly turned around, feeling his body shake in small tremors. The brave facade he was trying to put up was slowly chipping away.

"So, is this place better?" One of the voiced laughed. No. He wanted to scream. He wanted to explode. He wanted to let them know that taking advantage of him behind the stables was not a good place, that no where would be a good place for this. Instead, he just nodded.

"Good boy," one of them purred, putting a hand on his cheek. He flinched at just the small contact and crinkled his nose. How more degrading could this get? "Why don't you take your shirt off?"

"How about he keeps it on?" Now, that surprised all three of them. His two attackers stumbled to face the intruder almost comically. Armin, however, ducked his head down in shame and embarrassment when he realized it was Jean.

"Why don't you get lost, kid?" One of them angrily shouted.

"I mean, I could," the brunet contemplated, crossing his arms. "I could leave and go tell captain that two fine gentlemen were messing around with a fifteen year old, nonconsensual at that." The two seemed to get the memo and stalked away, shooting glares at Jean. After that, there was an awkward silence where Armin refused to meet eyes with Jean.

"Here," Armin finally looked up to see Jean holding his book out to him. After a moment of hesitation, he took it. "Now, we're even."

That was all he said before he left Armin alone again, and the blond was fine with that. If Jean hadn't acted like his normal self (aka being an asshole) after that ordeal, he didn't think he'd ever recover from the humiliation of it all.

A/N: .-.