Who: Armin Arlert and Eren Jaeger What: Emergency Work Call Out When: waaaaaay back when people woke up the wrong age Where: their apartment Rating/Warnings: none Status: complete
There were worse things then waking up 8 years old again. There had to be. Armin just couldn’t think of any of them right now. It didn’t help matters any that he kept getting distracted from trying to figure out what had happened by the cartoons or the desire to go play and Eren had taken away his controller so he couldn’t play video games but that didn’t stop him wanting to play video games. Or wanting Pan to quit hissing at him every time he walked near him.
Once it became clear that he wasn’t going to turn back before his scheduled shift at the bookstore that night Eren had gone in the other room to call out for him, claiming that he was sick but that little kid part of Armin’s brain was itching again. And he turned around, watching the dark haired boy on the phone in their kitchen and he started bouncing on the couch. “Eren! Eren get off the phone! Come play with me!!!!” He shouted at him.
***
Life in Orange County was… really really fucking weird, Eren would give it that. There wasn’t much that could happen there that could surprise him anymore. But waking up to his fiance a little kid again? Yeah, that was one he was NOT expecting at all. And he knew right away it was Armin. He looked exactly the way he did in his dreams of their shared childhood in a city surrounded by tall walls they dreamed of escaping from. The only saving grace was Armin remembered him. He wasn't sure how he could explain to him who he was and where the other boy was otherwise.
The first order of business, after calming Armin down and finding his suddenly too big ring for him, was to play hookey. Their professors and bosses… there was no way to explain this to them. Skipping class was the easy part. He had to call out of work for both himself and Armin. And Armin didn't exactly sound like himself. “Yeah, I know he needs to call out himself, but… he has been throwing up all morning. I mean, do you really want to listen to that?” And that is when Armin started calling for him. “That? That’s my… little cousin.”
****
Armin still didn’t know how they were going to keep track of his ring until he was himself again, but the temporary fix of sticking it in his pocket was working for now because he didn’t want to put it in a drawer somewhere. It was his and he was keeping it on him. No matter what. He didn’t want to ever feel the way he had that morning when he woke up to find it not on his finger. Luckily they’d found it in the sheets and he really hadn’t thought about what they were going to do come bed that night if he wasn’t himself again. Or for clothes. Their neighbors had been really nice about loaning Eren an outfit for his ‘cousin’ who’d gotten dropped off early that morning by his parents and gotten sick but didn’t have anything to change into. It was hardly the weirdest thing their neighbors had ever heard from them.
“Eren….I’M BOREDDDD! And George wants out of the hutch since Flopsy’s out and I can’t lift her!” He called to him.
***
“My cousin was already here before Armin got sick. His family dropped him off to pick him back up later. Look, I can let you talk to someone who’s busy getting rid of bad shrimp, an eight year old who isn’t even your employee, or you can accept me calling out for someone too sick to come to the phone.” Eren said in exasperation. Armin’s boss clearly missed their calling in life as a detective. “THANK you.” Eren looked behind him to see Armin and mimed “one second”. At least the bunnies and Zelda were still acting like they new who Armin was, even if Pan was not. “That was my cousin again.” Thank god Armin at eight didn’t sound like him at almost twenty-one. His voice could project.
****
Armin wanted Eren to get off the phone and come play with him. He didn’t generally mind Eren being busy on the phone but for some reason today he did. He was chalking it up to the being eight again thing. It was making his attention span that much shorter. He pouted at that mimed sign, dropping down onto the couch and crossing his arms over his chest as he stared at the tv. He didn’t like that answer. He sighed loudly and looked over at Zelda sitting next to him. “He’s ignoring us. Being a grownup.” He grumbled to her.
***
“I’ll pass the message along. Okay. Thank you.” Eren rolled his eyes at the phone as he hung it up. “Apparently I’m supposed to tell you that they are making an exception, but next time you’re supposed to call them yourself. Good to know if you’re physically unable to use a phone, then you can’t have someone call out by proxy for you.” He put the phone back in his pocket as he walked back over to Armin. “So… What did you want to do? Want to play video games?” He wasn’t sure exactly how to deal with this. With his fiance suddenly a little kid again. He just knew he didn’t want Armin to feel he was ignoring him, so he just kind of had to… squash down his own worries, how badly he was freaking out inside.
***
“I wonder if they’d let me text a call out to the supervisor if I can’t make it next time.” Armin said, sulking a little bit, looking down at Zelda as she climbed in his lap, licking at his hand as if to comfort him. “And why’d you tell them I was your cousin anyway?” He asked looking up at Eren. “And don’t forget George wants out! She’s making that pouty face and thumping her feet!” He was deliberately avoiding that question because he just simply didn’t know what he wanted to do. He just knew he was BORED.
***
“I’m not really sure? I mean, at the bakery they don’t want anyone there that’s been puking. Food safety thing.” Pretty much as long as you said you’d been puking, there wasn’t really much they COULD say about how or why you called out. “Because they could hear you in the background and thought I was lying. They thought we were out somewhere and that’s why you were calling out. I promise I’ll get George out…. Want to play Splatoon?”
***
Armin pouted at Eren more when he said they’d heard him in the background. “I was too loud?” He said, glancing at Eren as he pet Zelda. He shook his head. “I want to go somewhere.”
***
Eren gave Armin a small smile at that pout. “It’s… okay. Next time we see Mikasa, she can tell you how loud I was at eight.” He went to the hutch to keep his promise to Armin to let George out. She was not too pleased to have to be in there so long this morning, glaring the best a bunny could glare as she thumped her feet at him. “I’m sorry Georgie, I’m sorry.” He whispered at her. “Had to take care of some things.”
He turned back to Armin. “As long as it’s not near your work or mine. Do you want to go to the park?”
***
“I don’t want to be eight.” Armin whispered, looking up at Eren from where he’d been loving on Zelda.
“Can we go to the beach?”
***
That comment tugged hard at Eren’s heart strings. “I don’t want you to be eight, either.” he whispered. “I hope that it doesn’t last that long. Or they find some way to reverse it or something.” It was too bad they both didn’t wake up too young. If they were both eight, it wouldn’t be as bad.
“Want to bring Zelda with us?”
***
“No. I want to build a sandcastle and she might wreck it.” Armin said ignoring the slump the pug gave at his no. “Can we take a picnic though?”
***
Eren’s heart broke a little when Zelda slumped at being told she couldn’t come and why. She obviously knew the strange kid in the house was still one of her dads. He must have smelled the same to her, then. “It’s okay, Pretty Girl, maybe you can come with us next time.” he murmured to her, bending down to pet and reassure her before turning back to Armin. “We can do that. Although if we’re going to the beach, we might want to make sure your ring doesn’t get lost there.” Armin was panicked enough that he woke up with his engagement ring lost in the bed. He couldn’t imagine what it would do to him to lose it in the sand.
***
Armin did feel a little bad about hurting Zelda’s feelings but it was true. He wanted to build a sandcastle and she might accidentally wreck it. He didn’t want to deal with that. He just wanted to build. He thought for a minute before noticing Eren’s necklace with the key on it. “I could put it on a necklace to wear. That way it would still be on me and not get lost...Keep it on there until this passes and I’m my right age again…”
***
“That’s a really good idea.” Eren agreed. He tried to think of anything either of them owned that would be useful for that until he noticed Armin looking down. The weird necklace on a key he had woken up to find from his dreams, that would work perfectly. “Let me see the ring?” he asked as he took the necklace off and unclasped it. He slid Armin’s engagement ring onto the leather strap before closing it back and putting it around Armin’s neck. “I think that should work, just until you’re your right age and size again.”